Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Quest for Epic Content- Part I | Creative Writing and SEO Services

June29

Writing an article is not rocket science anybody who knows how to write regardless of the language they speak and write can create an article. It is only a matter of arranging your thoughts and putting it down on paper or the computer screen in a way that will offer some value to the reader. If you are new to the world of content creation you might feel a little intimidated by the thought that your article could someday be read by hundreds if not thousands of readers and if you do not do it right they all will know. If you begin by pushing yourself to write epic content you are probably not taking the right path to your goal as this will lead to unnecessary pressure and unwanted stress.

There are several articles on the internet that deal with the subject of article writing or content creation. This article however will teach you how to get the basics right, it won?t give you the magic formula to create amazing content but it will surely put you on the right path. Once you are on the right path it is up to you to explore your creative writing side and create content which can truly have the potential to be epic. You will provide the magic required, the magic exists inside you and does not lie in a formula to instant epic content.

Here are a few things you need to keep in mind to make sure you prepare yourself to write epic content:

Relax and set your mind free

To begin writing good content you need to be in the right frame of mind. Do not begin by hoping to have an error free, perfect article ready in 30 to 45 minutes. It is possible to write an article in 30 to 45 minutes but for authors who settle for nothing less than the best, time is not a constraint. You are an author not an article production line. Sure we all have deadlines to meet however exceeding it a little won?t mean the end of the world, it will in fact save you extra time and effort in the future. When you invest time in writing good content it will be read and well received by your writers and your article will not be a waste of space in cyber world.

Make sure you are in a quite environment where there are no distractions. I know some authors who visit the park or the lake to relax their mind and then get down to work on their laptop or notepad. Your mind will perform at its optimum when your mind and body is relaxed devoid of any distractions. This does not mean you shoo your kids and family members away. You should wait for time when they are not as active or you could just go to your room and relax. Make sure you focus only on the task that lies at hand which is to write good content. Drain out all distractions; they can wait for after you finish your article. No stress, no anxiety, no deadlines the computer or your notepad is your canvas, prepare yourself to paint the best picture you can.

Let the ideas flow

Once you have settled down and are relaxed it is time to BRAINSTORM! That is right there is always silence before a storm. Brainstorm for ideas about the subject you wish to create content. Use the notepad on your laptop or an actual notepad to write down all the ideas. Do not pressurize your mind to give birth to ideas. Just let the ideas flow unrestricted like the river which flows swiftly after a thunderstorm and brings water to its banks.

Do not worry about editing your ideas just write them down in the same order that they spring in your mind. Be random, be free, be creative and make sure your hands function as a stenographer taking note of everything that comes to your mind.

Once done what you have is all the material you will need to build an amazing article. All you now have to do is use these ideas and key points to create an article by elaborating more on them. Once the list of ideas is ready you can just copy paste them in an order in which you wish to present to your reader. Once arranged double check to make sure you have all the important points which you wish to present to the reader.

Congratulations! After completing this stage you have almost completed a big chunk of work required to write a good article. Now all you have to do is use these points to create an article by always keeping your reader in mind. However the masterpiece is not yet complete, you need to move on to the next stage which is the advanced stage of article creation. It involves the actual act of drafting the final article and the points you need to remember when get down to it. It involves steps you should follow to breathe life in to your article and how you can ensure your article will be as good as a timeless story.

You do not want to miss the next second and final stage in your quest for epic content ? II .

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Source: http://www.creativewritingblock.com/the-quest-for-epic-content-part-i?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-quest-for-epic-content-part-i

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Average Joe: Borrowing, Spending, Retiring In Debt?

Do you have a dream? Someone?s probably there waiting to finance it, even if that dream is actually going to turn into a nightmare. In the last few years, we saw it happen in the housing market, and now we?re seeing it happen in higher education. As I wrote with respect to the housing market collapse, the proximate causes of that crisis were the stated policy goals of things like the American Dream Downpayment Assistance Act (which, for my Republican friends with short memories, was signed on December 16, 2003 by President George W. Bush). Subsidized loans, an ?everyone has to go to college? mentality, and a few years have given us a stark reality in which a lot of young people are saddled with enormous debts.

This isn?t necessarily a bad thing?if the social returns to higher education are private rather than external?and there are good arguments to suggest that they are?then there is no reason for people not to bear the cost of their own education. Some degrees are pretty good investments in that they will increase your lifetime earnings, sometimes substantially.

It obviously isn?t necessarily a good thing, either. You have probably heard stories about people who have taken on enormous amounts of student debt for degrees that are best thought of as consumption goods rather than investments (a three-year, $35,000 master?s degree in puppetry, for example). In his recent TED e-book Launching the Innovation Renaissance and this accompanying blog post, the economist Alex Tabarrok points out how ?Students are not Graduating with the Degrees that Pay. Shockingly, fewer students graduated with degrees in computer science and chemical engineering in 2009 than in 1985. Meanwhile, the number of people graduating with degrees in the visual and performing arts more than doubled. Tabarrok concludes:

College has been oversold. It has been oversold to students who end up graduating with degrees that don?t help them very much in the job market. It also has been oversold to the taxpayers, who foot the bill for these subsidies.

What does all this mean for Average Joe? Brian Wallace from NowSourcing was kind enough to share this graphic explanation of Average Joe?s financial life with me (full-size version here). I suspect anti-debt personal finance guru Dave Ramsey wouldn?t be completely on board, but it illustrates some of the ways in which living a life of debt can be stressful and unwise. It ends with a bit of advice that I have passed along to my students and a question. On one hand, it probably isn?t wise to borrow money to finance consumption.

It also asks whether Congress allowing subsidized Stafford Loan interest rates to double from 3.4% to 6.8% is such a hot idea given what it would add to borrowers? debt burdens. Think Progress quotes the Washington Post and notes that under the compromise that might emerge, students might be responsible for the interest on their federal loans while they are still in school. It?s obviously not going to be politically popular with borrowers and people with a commitment to government subsidies for higher education. At some point, however, wisdom suggests that we should allow people to bear the full costs of their choices, particularly when the benefits of those choices are private rather than external and particularly if ?25% of all federal student loans are past due.? The timing may not be perfect, but when would be? It won?t be pleasant for everyone, but eventually we?re going to have to face the music. Here?s Steven Horwitz with an explanation of how artificially low interest rates misdirect resources in the context of higher education. What do you think?

Graphic Credit: NowSourcing, Inc. Click here for full-size version of graphic.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2012/06/28/average-joe-borrowing-spending-retiring-in-debt/?feed=rss_home

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Nadal shocked as Wimbledon reels from upset

Rafael Nadal crashed to his worst Grand Slam defeat in seven years on Thursday when Czech journeyman Lukas Rosol, the world number 100, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Wimbledon history.

After a day when the sleepy All England Club had been rocked by allegations of cheating and sexism, it was the unknown Rosol who delivered the final, late night, earth-shattering blow.

Rosol, whose only other five visits to Wimbledon had ended in first round losses in qualifying, stunned the 2008 and 2010 champion, and 11-time Grand Slam title winner Nadal, 6-7 (9/11), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the second round.

It was a remarkable upset as Nadal slumped to his earliest exit at a major since the same stage of the 2005 Wimbledon championship when he was beaten by Luxembourg's Gilles Muller.

"It's painful to lose tonight, I'm not very happy but it was just the second round, I was a long way from the final," said Nadal.

"The last four months have been great for me. I lost a tennis match tonight, it's not a tragedy. There are more important things."

Rosol, 26, who has never gone beyond the third round of a Grand Slam, was stunned by his own performance which was capped by three aces, out of a total off 22, and a forehand winner in the decisive last game.

"It's like a miracle for me. He's a superstar. I played unbelievable. I guess Nadal is only human," said Rosol, after the match had been delayed by 45 minutes to allow the Centre Court roof to close and for the match to finish.

Rosol goes on to face Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in the next round.

Earlier Thursday, Wimbledon had been engulfed by scandal with Ivo Karlovic accusing officials of cheating him out of victory against home hope Andy Murray and Gilles Simon refusing to back down in the equal prize money row.

Croat giant Karlovic was called for 11 foot faults in his 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) loss and accused All England Club line judges of deliberately attempting to ease the British player's path through the tournament.

"I feel cheated. On a Grand Slam, Centre Court," said 33-year-old Karlovic.

"It was outrageous. It's Wimbledon and they do this. This is bullshit.

"The whole credibility of this tournament went down for me. I don't expect it here. Even though it is against an English guy who they always want to win."

Murray, the fourth seed, admitted he was surprised to see so many foot faults called against the big-serving Croat.

"If he wasn't foot faulting then he has a right to be upset, because there was a lot of them. But if he was, then you can't do it. It's not allowed," said the Scot, who has been a semi-finalist in the last three years.

Murray will tackle Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus for a place in the last 16.

Meanwhile, Simon defended his controversial views on equal prize money which he opposes, claiming the men's game is more attractive than the women's and is more popular with the fans.

And he believes that the men's locker room supports him but players are afraid to speak out.

"The 128 male players here think like me," said Simon, who was knocked out of the tournament by Xavier Malisse in the second round.

"Maybe they can't say it; maybe they won't; maybe they will lose $2 million on the contracts. In the conversation in the locker room, for sure they agree with me. Trust me."

Simon, who has never got beyond the quarter-finals of any Grand Slam, was lambasted by Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, two of the women's game's superstars, after they had secured their places in the last 32.

Top seed Sharapova, the 2004 champion, had to dig deep to clinch a gritty 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 6-0 victory over Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova, a semi-finalist in 2010 and quarter-finalist last year.

She will next face Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei as last year's runner-up tries to reach the Wimbledon final for the third time.

Four-time champion Williams reached the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 demolition of Hungarian qualifier Melinda Czink and next faces Chinese 25th seed Zheng Jie, who she beat in the 2008 semi-finals, for a place in the last 16.

But instead of discussing their tournament prospects, the two All England Club A-listers aimed their fire at Simon.

"No matter what anyone says, or the criticisms that we get, despite everything else, I'm sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his, so....," said Sharapova in an ice-cold put down.

Williams backed up her title rival.

"She's way hotter than he is, so more people will watch Maria," said the American.

Defending champion Petra Kvitova and second seed Victoria Azarenka also reached the third round.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nadal-suffers-shock-wimbledon-defeat-210611112--ten.html

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Friday, June 29, 2012

Oakland Athletics (37-39) at Texas Rangers (47-29), 8:05 p.m. (ET)

The Texas Rangers have the most wins in baseball. However, they haven't had much success within their own division. They hope to change that tonight when they begin a four-game set with the Oakland Athletics at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Texas won its league-leading 47th game on Wednesday, as David Murphy had two homers among his four hits and drove in five runs to lead the Rangers to a wild 13-9 win over the Detroit Tigers.

Texas was outhit 17-16 -- Roy Oswalt gave up a career-high 13 in six innings -- but captured its second in a row to win the three-game series.

Ian Kinsler added a two-run homer and Adrian Beltre had three hits for the Rangers, who moved to 10-2 in their last 12 games to remain 4 1/2 ahead of the Angels in the AL West.

Oswalt (2-0) still walked off with his second straight win for the Rangers despite the shaky outing. The 34-year-old righty, who made his season debut against the Rockies last Friday, allowed five runs while walking two and striking out six.

"It was a good team win. The guys gave me some runs to work with and kept adding on," said Oswalt.

Tonight, though, the Rangers face an Oakland team that has taken four of six from them. In fact Texas is just 10-12 against the American League West this season. However, since losing three of four to Oakland back in early June, the Rangers have reeled off wins in 14 of their last 18 and have won six consecutive series.

Their 47-29 mark is also the best record through 76 games in team history.

The A's come into tonight's opener after securing a series win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday. Yoenis Cespedes stroked the go-ahead solo home run in the top of the seventh inning and the Oakland Athletics edged the Seattle Mariners, 2-1, in the finale of a three-game series at Safeco Field.

Coco Crisp cracked a solo homer in the win for the A's, who have come out on top in three of their last four contests.

Jarrod Parker (4-3) allowed just one run on three hits and four walks with nine strikeouts. Grant Balfour allowed the tying run to reach third in the eighth, but escaped unscathed and Ryan Cook worked his way out of trouble in the ninth to record his sixth save of the season.

"He's got great stuff," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "When he's throwing the ball over the plate and mixing pitches, he's a tough guy to score on."

Oakland totaled an anemic five runs on 10 hits in that series, but the club's starters limited the Mariners to three runs in 15 innings.

The Athletics' rotation has a 1.73 ERA over the last 13 games.

Hoping to build on that tonight will be righty Tyson Ross, who has lost his last four decisions and is a mere 2-7 on the year with a 6.02 ERA. Ross lost to San Francisco on Saturday, as he allowed five runs (3 earned) and four hits in 5 1/3 frames. He also walked four in the loss.

This will be his first start against the Rangers, who will send Scott Feldman to the hill.

Feldman has bounced back and forth between rotation and bullpen this season, but hasn't pitched since June 19 when he won for the first time in seven decisions, defeating the San Diego Padres by surrendering two runs and seven hits in six innings. He is just 1-6 on the year with a 6.00 ERA.

He will be starting tonight in place of Colby Lewis, who was put on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a right forearm tendinitis.

"In a perfect world, which it is not, I'd like to know my role all the time," Feldman said. "But this is fine, I'm happy to get the baseball and do what I love doing. I'm sorry that Colby went down, but hopefully he'll be back quickly. I think I'm getting used to what my role is or whatever you want to call it."

Feldman was hammered in a loss to Oakland back on June 4, as he gave up eight runs in just 1 2/3 innings. He is 3-6 lifetime against them with a 6.58 ERA in 18 games (10 starts).

Texas is 8-2 in its last 10 home games versus the A's.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/28/2872311/oakland-athletics-37-39-at-texas.html

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Iowa State Football History: The 1910's

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Source: http://www.cyclones.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10700&ATCLID=205497419

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When the aliens call, who'll answer?

Gail Shumway / Getty Images

In a recently conducted poll, 19 percent of the respondents said they thought Washington, D.C., would be the most likely landing zone for a UFO. But if that ever happened, who's the best person to lead the welcoming party? About 65 percent said they'd rather have Barack Obama than Mitt Romney handle the situation.

By Alan Boyle

A new poll suggests that 77 percent of Americans think there's evidence that aliens have already visited Earth. The same poll suggests most Americans think President Barack Obama would do a better job than presumptive GOP challenger Mitt Romney if we had to fight off an alien invasion. And if we have to rely on a superhero to save us, they'd rather go with the Hulk than Batman.

That somewhat silly survey was conducted to tout a "Chasing UFOs" TV series on the National Geographic Channel, but the results raise a serious question: If an alien civilization does get in touch with us, who's in charge of figuring out what to do?

"Nobody's in charge," says Seth Shostak, who is senior astronomer at the California-based SETI Institute as well as the chairman of the International Academy of Astronautics' SETI Permanent Study Group.?Shostak and I talked about SETI?? the search for extraterrestrial intelligence?? as well as its serious and silly implications tonight on "Virtually Speaking Science."?The hourlong talk show is archived as a podcast?on the Web and on iTunes.


As the poll done for National Geographic suggests, a good number of people suspect the aliens have already arrived, presumably on UFOs or through interdimensional travel. Most scientists scoff at that idea. "Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?" British physicist Stephen Hawking asked earlier this month. But Shostak thinks it's only a matter of time before extraterrestrial civilizations actually do make themselves known, by sending signals across the light-years. Almost a decade ago, he predicted that we'd detect those signals by the year 2025, and today he told me he's sticking by that prediction.

During our pre-show interview, Shostak laid out his rationale for the 2025 date and discussed how an alien-contact scenario is likely to go down. Check out this edited transcript of the Q&A.

Cosmic Log: Do you still feel that 2025 is a good time frame for alien contact? And maybe more importantly, how do we know we're getting closer to the date?

SETI Institute

Seth Shostak is senior astronomer at the SETI Institute.

Shostak: People ask, 'Are you getting close?' And we no more know whether we're getting close than Chris Columbus knew he was getting close to the Americas?? we might some palm fronds a day or two out, but other than that, we don't know. In some sense, it'll come as a complete surprise if we get a signal. We know that from false alarms. They never occur when you expect them, because you never expect them.

But in terms of the prediction, that's based on the following: We're looking for needles in a haystack. If you ask, when are you going to find a needle, you need to know three things: How big is the haystack? How fast are you going through the hay? And how many needles are in there? We know two out of three. The haystack's the galaxy, and we know how fast we're going through it. We don't know the number of needles. So I took estimates of the number from the Drake Equation, and figured that it's two dozen years out. What's happened in the meantime is that the funding crisis has slowed things down a bit.

Q: Do you think you need to revise the 2025 date?

A: I think 2025, 2030 is about right, given that we can continue to do the experiment.

Q: Is it a steady process, or is there an increasing rate of hay examination?

A: This is all predicated on an increasing rate. That's the march of technology, which is mostly digital electronics. Computers keep getting faster and faster at any given price point, and that's good news for us. We can look at a larger chunk of the radio dial at once. We can go through the stars faster. Or we can look at bigger hunks of sky at once. It's mostly computing power that is responsible for the increasing speed of SETI. We're not sitting around with earphones the way Jodie Foster was.

Q: Could it be that the patterns of communication by extraterrestrial civilizations take a form completely different from what we assume?

A:?We kind of know what areas SETI is weak in. It's been slow, in the sense that you've got a couple of hundred billion star systems in the galaxy, and if you can look at only a couple a day, that's really slow going. That might take forever. Can we look at more stars in a given time, with adequate sensitivity?

The second thing is, it may be that you really have to look for a long time at any given star system. Of course, we don't do that. We look at any given star system, at any given frequency, for at most a few minutes. Some other search programs look for one and a half seconds at any given star system.?If the aliens are broadcasting in our direction once a week, or once a day, or once an hour, we're not going to see it. We know that's a problem.

Another issue is that the aliens may not know we're here because they haven't picked up 'I Love Lucy' yet. They don't know Homo sapiens is here, they just know that Earth is a planet with biology. They may not be motivated to target us relentlessly with reality television. They may broadcast now and then, with a little ping just to see if anybody's here. You really need an experiment that can pick up an intermittent, maybe one-off signal that's designed to ping the planet. Everybody knows that. That's a technology issue, but it's an issue that's getting better.

"Daily Show" writer Kevin Bleyer joins "The Last Word" on MSNBC to talk politics and aliens.

Q: Has anybody come up with a concept for an all-sky, all-the-time receiver?

A: Yeah, well, all-sky, all the time, all frequencies?? that's what you'd looove to have. On paper, you can design an instrument that can look at the entire sky. All frequencies, that's another problem, but you can certainly cover more frequencies than we do. It's all a question of whether you can afford to build such an instrument. The answer is, no, not now. It takes an enormous amount of computing power to do that. However, one thing you can say about the future is that there will be more computing power. This is not impossible. This is not like building rockets to go at 99 percent of the speed of light. That might work on paper, too, but in practice, that's a long way off. But this is something where you can say, with the computing power of a few decades hence, it becomes a practical thing.

Q: Assuming that alien signals are detected by 2025, is humanity ready for that?

A: Well, I don't know how much planning has been done. We've revised some protocols, but those are just the immediate steps you take if you pick up a signal. They deal with practical matters, like checking the signals out and alerting everybody. But I don't know that there's any large-scale effort to prepare humanity, any more than there was any preparation by the Indians in the Caribbean in case a Spanish ship showed up. I don't think that's a problem, to be honest. In poll after poll, the public has said they believe the aliens are out there. They see them on television every night, and at the movies every third weekend. A third of 'em think the aliens are already here, but they don't see a problem with that, either. Nobody's staying home. Everybody's still going to work.

I think that psychologically, everybody could handle it. It's just going to be a big news item. Whatever it would be, people would find it interesting. But they'd be savvy enough to realize there's no immediate threat. The aliens would be 500 light-years away, and we pick up their signal. ?There's no reason to think that people would go just completely non-linear.

The long-term consequences are less predictable. People would ask, should we broadcast back? Should we send a rocket in that direction? What should we do?

Q: Who would be in charge if there was an alien signal? Assuming that scientists confirm that there's an anomalous signal pattern, hinting at extraterrestrial intelligence, what's the procedure?

A: I don't think that there's anybody designated to be in charge. There was a flap a few years ago, involving an official at the U.N., but that was all a red herring. She quickly admitted that she's not in charge. Nobody's in charge.

Look, the real people who will be in charge will be the media, because they'll be reporting it. In some sense, whoever finds the signal is probably in charge. If it's us, then somebody at the SETI Institute will be called. Or suppose it's the Berkeley group. Well, they're in charge. Or maybe it's a group that comes across the signal by accident. There's no hierarchy. Anyway, you know how the media work?? they're not going to follow the rules.

MSNBC's Ed Schultz, host of "The Ed Show" puts a political spin on a poll from National Geographic that suggests Americans prefer President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney on the alien-invasion issue.

There's no danger in any of this, except for one thing: That's the idea that you're sitting around, and suddenly there's a signal, and you call a press conference. That's not the way it will happen. We get signals all the time, and someday one of those signals will pass all the tests, and it slowly emerges as a real signal. But it takes something on the order of five days before you're convinced. During all that time, the media knows about this, because there is no secrecy. But there's no press conference yet, because the scientists aren't yet sure themselves. This time lag means there will be all sorts of stories before the official word is out. It isn't because of leakage, it's because anytime anybody finds something interesting, they may mention it. They'll put it on their blog. Who knows what they'll do?

It'll be very, very messy. And the corollary to this is that you can probably expect a lot of false alarms. There'll be something interesting, and a lot of people will write about it, and three days later it turns out to be nothing.

Q: Some people worry that our own radio signals are advertising our presence in what could be a rough neighborhood, but I take it that's not a concern of yours.

A:?There are people who get their knickers in a knot about this deliberate broadcast stuff. National Geographic is supposed to be collecting tweets to broadcast as an answer to the "Wow Signal." I personally don't get heartburn about broadcasting. The fact is that NBC is broadcasting all the time, right? You can say, well, that's a weak signal. Sure it is. But if you're really worried about broadcasting into space, don't just shut down the publicity stunts. You better shut down the radars at the Seattle-Tacoma airport, too. They're broadcasting into space all the time.

Tune in "Virtually Speaking Science" on BlogTalkRadio or in Second Life?? and bring lots of questions. Seth Shostak and I were at the StellaNova Small Auditorium, courtesy of the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics, at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT/SLT) tonight. If you missed the live event, don't worry: It's archived by "Virtually Speaking" on BlogTalkRadio as well as iTunes.

More nuggets from the National Geographic UFO poll:?

  • The "Aliens Among Us" survey polled a random nationwide sample of 1,114 Americans between May 21 and May 29. The poll was conducted by Kelton Research, which used email invitations and online surveys. Quotas were set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population ages 18 and older. Margin of error is +/- 2.9 percent.
  • More than one-third of those surveyed (36 percent) believe UFOs exist. Eleven percent are confident they've spotted a UFO, and 20 percent know someone who claims to have seen one.
  • Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) said Obama would be better-suited than Romney to handle an alien invasion. Seventy-nine percent believe the government has kept information about UFOs a secret from the public. Nineteen percent think Washington, D.C., is the most likely landing zone for a UFO, while 28 percent think a UFO would touch down in Roswell, N.M.
  • Seventy-seven percent think there are signs that suggest aliens have visited Earth. Most of these people said that the evidence came in the form of photographs (60 percent) and videos (57 percent) of UFOs.
  • If aliens landed, 22 percent said they would try to befriend the visitors. Fifteen percent said they would run away, 13 percent said they would lock their doors, and 2 percent said they would try to inflict bodily harm.
  • Seventy-one percent think that aliens are more likely to exist than are superheroes, vampires and zombies. But if aliens attacked Earth, 21 percent said they would most likely call on the Hulk to deal with the havoc, compared with Batman (12 percent) or Spider-Man (8 percent). Fifty-five percent believe there really are officials like the "Men in Black" who claim to be agents and threaten those who come forward with UFO sightings.?

Previous episodes of "Virtually Speaking Science":


Seth Shostak has a talk show, too! Hear it at "Big Picture Science."

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/27/12444154-when-the-aliens-call-wholl-answer?lite

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SC's immigration law may be constitutional for now, but is it smart ...

Arizona?s immigration law was found generally constitutional this week by the U.S. Supreme Court, though we?re still waiting for a federal judge to rule whether South Carolina?s similar law racially profiles Hispanics.

But regardless of whether the Palmetto State?s draconian immigration policy is ruled legal, does that make it a good idea?

?In these economic times, we simply can?t afford to play around with hateful policies, and it?s better for all when we have welcoming communities rather than those that marginalize and exclude,? writes Maryanne Sinclair Slutsky for Newsday. ?The Supreme Court determined the constitutionality of the ?papers, please? provision of SB 1070, not its wisdom.?

A study released by the Center for American Progress last year showed that removing Arizona?s undocumented immigrant population by either deportation or fear of retribution by law enforcement would do a great deal of harm to the state?s economy, and we can use that as a baseline to show the effect a similar action would have on South Carolina?s economy as well.

About 445,000 undocumented immigrants were living in Arizona as of 2008, according to Pew Hispanic Center data. That year, Arizona?s undocumented workforce added more than $42 billion to the state?s economic output ? the total value of all goods and services produced in the economy. Much of that economic benefit came as tax revenue, with undocumented workers contributing an estimated $2.8 billion in total taxes to Arizona?s economy, including nearly $1.8 billion in sales tax revenue alone.

In fact, the output and spending of just undocumented workers generated 581,000 Arizona jobs in 2008 ? something legal residents can appreciate as well.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that only 55,000 undocumented immigrants were living in South Carolina as of 2010, or about 12 percent of the size of Arizona?s population. Still, adding 12 percent of $42 billion to South Carolina?s economy is no small amount (it?s $3.4 billion, to be exact) in a state that is still struggling more than others to recover from the ongoing recession.

By contrast, the Center for American Progress found that mass deportation of undocumented workers means mass income losses for the state. The Washington, DC-based think tank estimated that Arizona?s gross state product would be reduced by $48.8 billion if all undocumented workers driven from the state, nearly 20 percent of the state?s economy. Meanwhile, according to estimates, overall employment in Arizona would drop by nearly 17 percent.

?Operating for an extended time with a depleted workforce may mean the difference between keeping the doors to the business open or shutting them for good,? the study?s authors write.

Palmetto Public Record has previously examined how the immigration law is already starting to hurt South Carolin?s tourism and agricultural industries, which happen to be the two biggest economic drivers in the state.

?These people don?t cause any trouble, they just come here to work,? a Charleston County vegetable grower said after having to burn a quarter of his tomato crop because he had no labor to pick it.

The Center for American Progress study also found that legalizing Arizona?s undocumented workforce would add 261,000 jobs to the state?s economy and increase tax revenues by $1.7 billion. And while it?s understandable for many to be skeptical about blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants, one thing is clear. Kicking them all out of the state will do nothing to solve South Carolina?s economic difficulties, and may even make them much worse.

Related posts:

  1. Immigration law?s effects on SC tourism are only half the story
  2. Supreme Court?s immigration ruling could have ?chilling effect? on SC law enforcement, violent crime victims
  3. On SC?s immigration law, it looks like we told you so
  4. Poll: SC split on economic conditions, but (surprisingly) not global warming
  5. SC economic growth lags behind national average

Source: http://palmettopublicrecord.org/2012/06/27/scs-immigration-law-may-be-constitutional-for-now-but-is-it-smart/

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

UK drafts in fraud squad as Libor fine hits Barclays

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it had brought in the fraud squad to investigate possible crimes and would tighten laws over attempts to manipulate lending rates, a scandal which has engulfed Barclays and is expected to spread to other banks.

Shares in Barclays tumbled as much as 18 percent at one point by midday trade, wiping out 4.2 billion pounds from its share price - the biggest one-day fall since 2009, according to Reuters data. Shares were down 14.8 percent at 1113 EDT.

The bank agreed to pay a record $453 million fine to U.S. and British regulators for attempting to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate in 2005-08. It is the first bank to settle in a case that also includes most of the world's other largest financial institutions.

"This is a scandal, it's extremely serious. They've paid a very large fine and quite rightly but frankly the Barclays management team have some big questions to answer," Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC.

"Who was responsible? Who was going to take responsibility? How are they being held accountable?" he said.

He and finance minister George Osborne both said regulations would be reviewed and tightened if necessary.

Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond has acknowledged that the settlement would damage customer trust in the bank, and said he and other senior executives would forgo bonuses this year. Politicians, including some from Cameron's Liberal Democrat coalitions partners, say Diamond should resign.

The LIBOR rate, compiled from rates that banks pay each other for loans, is used throughout the financial system to set loan rates around the world.

The investigation - which disclosed e-mails in which bankers appeared to promised bottles of champagne to thank each other for help in setting the rates - has added to a storm of anger against the financial industry.

"Done ... for you big boy," read one message sent by a Barclays banker to one of the lender's traders, who had asked him to fix a key lending rate artificially low.

In another message, after Barclays submitted a rate that was lower than the previous day's, an external trader says: "Dude, I owe you big time! Come over one day after work and I'm opening a bottle of Bollinger."

British Finance Minister George Osborne said the e-mail exchanges "read like an epitaph to an age of irresponsibility".

Laws brought in when the opposition Labour party was in power did not give the Financial Services Authority regulator power to impose criminal penalties for manipulating Libor, but the government would look at changing them, he said.

"As part of our review into Libor and the strength of the financial regulatory architecture, we will examine if there are any gaps in the criminal regime inherited by this government and we will take the necessary steps to address that."

Police could still find ways to prosecute. A spokeswoman for the Serious Fraud Office confirmed the squad was in discussions with the Financial Services Authority regulator over the case.

The British Bankers Association, which establishes the parameters for how Libor is set each day, said it was "shocked" by the behavior that led to Wednesday's fine, and wanted the British government to look at imposing new rules.

The trade body announced a review of Libor in March after concerns spiraled during the credit crisis that banks were low-balling quotes for benchmarks used to price around $350 trillion in contracts ranging from corporate loans to home mortgages.

"The banks which contribute to the Libor rate must meet the necessary obligations to their regulators," the BBA said. "As part of this review we will now be asking the authorities to consider in what manner the Libor setting mechanism should be regulated in the future."

The BBA has coordinated Libor since the 1980s in a process which is not officially regulated. The rates are compiled and distributed for the trade body each day by news and information provider Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters.

The figures are designed to reflect rates at which top banks believe they could borrow money from each other in 10 major currencies and for 15 borrowing periods, from overnight loans to 12 months. By manipulating them, banks could make their own balance sheets look better.

HEAD ABOVE THE PARAPET

One industry source familiar with the situation said it could take months for the next culprit to be nailed by regulators in the global rate fixing scandal.

More than 20 other banks are being probed by regulators from London to Japan and Brussels to North America. The source said Barclays stood out for the way it cooperated with regulators.

"Barclays was extremely cooperative and the majority of these cases come down to not just the complexity but whether a firm is willing to cooperate and how much a firm is willing to cooperate above and beyond their legal requirements," the source said.

The spotlight is now swinging towards the likes of UBS, the Swiss bank which was among the first to suspend a clutch of traders and last July won partial immunity from some prosecutors in return for cooperation.

Others who have already fired, suspended or seen staff leave after internal investigations into attempted Libor manipulation include JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, RBS and inter-dealer broker ICAP.

"One of the reasons London is a major international financial center is because of the perceived emphasis on trust and integrity in the London market," said Simon Culhane, the chief executive of the CISI (Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment).

"This scandal can only serve to damage London's reputation."

Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband - whose party was in power when the attempted manipulation occurred - said criminal prosecutions should follow the investigation.

"People struggling to make ends meet will be outraged and disgusted by the way bankers have been walking off with millions of pounds for rigging the market," he said.

(Writing by Peter Graff and Guy Faulconbridge; Additional reporting by Steve Slater, Sarah White, Rosalba O'Brien, Maria Golovnina and Stephen Addison; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Stanford Football 1172009 Stanfo - Videos

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Friday, June 22, 2012

Courtney Robertson to Pen Tell-All Bachelor Book?!


The Bachelor and The Bachelorette spoilers seem to always leak, but the cast members are always on legal lockdown before, during and after the show.

This fact makes it hard to believe recent reports that this year's Bachelor winner, Courtney Robertson, is planning a tell-all book about the experience.

According to In Touch, Ben Flajnik's fiancee wants to "address misconceptions" about her name-calling, top-dropping, man-eating, "winning" ways.

Courtney Robertson, Ben Flajnik Photo

No other Bachelor or Bachelorette cast member has ever gone off the script by airing juicy behind-the-scenes details ... most likely because of iron-clad NDAs.

Just the same, “Courtney has a lot already written,” according to an unnamed source quoted by Wetpaint. “She started when she got home from filming the show."

"It was her way of coping with frustrations over how she was portrayed. Writing was her release ... We all think she should definitely turn it into a book. It will be SO juicy.”

One way to get around the legal obstacles? "Fictionalizing" it.

“She could do it as a memoir - or as a fictional story loosely based on her life. It’s still in the early stages,” says the source of a possible Courtney novel.

Hey, it worked for New York Times bestseller Lauren Conrad.

In related news ... check out these Courtney Robertson bikini photos! You can definitely see what Ben saw in her, if you know what we're talking about.

[Photo: Fame/Flynet]

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Standing By For SCOTUS (talking-points-memo)

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International Business Times (press release) - Casino and Gambling ...

Online Casino Games 360 Offers The Best of Online Gambling ? International Business Times (press release)

Online Casino Games 360 Offers The Best of Online Gambling
International Business Times (press release)
Online Casino Games 360, one of the leading online gaming, has announced a new and exclusive online suite casinos featuring over 80 free slot machines ?
Fun of a Casino OnlineWorthing Herald

all 5 news articles??

International Game, Bally Win Nevada Online Casino Licenses ? Bloomberg


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International Game, Bally Win Nevada Online Casino Licenses
Bloomberg
The Nevada Gaming Commission issued its first two licenses for online betting, bringing the U.S. state with the most casino revenue a step closer to real ?
Nevada Gaming Control Board grants first two licenses for regulated ?The Verge
Bally Technologies Receives First Online Gaming License in United ?MarketWatch (press release)
Regulators OK interactive gaming license for Bally TechnologiesLas Vegas Review ? Journal
PR Newswire (press release)
all 44 news articles??

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Posted by Casino News on Jun 22 2012. Filed under Online Casino Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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