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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Replacing Humans With Software in the Outsourcing Business ...

I.B.M., the leading supplier of information technology, is ?doing its own thing in the enterprise market,? Steve Lohr wrote on the Bits blog, and should no longer be considered a bellwether of the broader tech economy.

What the company is doing, exactly, should be of particular interest to Indian outsourcing companies. Mr. Lohr wrote of ?some intriguing details in the I.B.M. conference call and presentation last week.?

Higher profit margins were the main reason the company?s operating earnings per share rose 14 percent ? and all of the improvement came from I.B.M.?s services business, the company?s largest, with about $60 billion a year in revenue. (In I.B.M.?s presentation to analysts, see slides No. 6 and No. 13).
I.B.M. talks about the ?industrialization of services? as a key strategic goal. That industrialization process includes paring services jobs down to standardized, repeatable tasks; spreading the work around to world to where it can be done most efficiently and most inexpensively; and steadily automating simpler tasks with software.
The benefits of a globalized work force should diminish over time, as wages rise for skilled workers in India, for example. But if more and more services work can be done with software instead of people, I.B.M.?s profit margins could well keep improving ? and the company could separate itself further from other tech suppliers.
In response to an analyst?s question last week, Mark Loughridge, I.B.M.?s chief financial officer, said that much of the profit improvement came from projects that joined the company?s research scientists with services teams to automate tasks. That, Mr. Loughridge said, is a ?unique capability that I don?t think you?d see in our competitors.?

Read the full post.

Source: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/replacing-humans-with-software-in-the-outsourcing-business/

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Thursday, July 19, 2012

3 Basic Internet Marketing Tips For Online Business ... - Ex web blog

Change is rampant on the Internet today. Slip sliding away. Like Paul Simon wrote in a song one time, some Internet marketers feel like the nearer your destination the more you are slip sliding away. To make money online with an Internet business today takes a few basics and I will list 3 important ones.

1. Learn basic skills. Unless you pay people to do everything for you it is worth mastering a few basic online marketing skills.

Traffic generation is a good place to start. Because this changes so much I think it is worth mastering at least 2 ways to get traffic to your site.

Pay per click advertising is would be a big one. Learning how to set up PPC ad campaigns on Google Adwords and Yahoo Marketing is something that will pay you back many times over in terms of getting regular traffic to your website.

I like social marketing for a good long term free website traffic source. Discussion forums is a good one. Blogging is another. Social networking on Facebook would be even one more.

You decide what you like best and really get to understand how it works. Learn how you get traffic to your site from it.

2. Hire an employee. The term "outsourcing" became popular a couple of years ago. This has it's merits, but may or may not be for you.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant might even b e a better option if you could afford it and have the time to train them the way you want. Having a good full time employee who can do things everyday to move your business forward can really go a long ways toward allowing you to focus on making your Internet business profitable.

3. Join Venture. What are you good at? Find someone to work with who is good at things you are not.

Work together on a project and split the profits. It seems like when I get an email about a new business opportunity it is coming from 2 people who are doing a joint venture.

Go to the Warrior Forum and get to know people who you could work with. Just participating in discussions will help you identify people you could do a project with. This is a good way to make friends and make money.

These are 3 good tips that sound basic, but could help you get your online business moving again. Learn the basics, hire someone, and work with a partner are all good ideas for making money on the Internet today!

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Source: http://exweblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/3-basic-internet-marketing-tips-for.html

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Short sex-filled life of an Australian dumpling squid

Will Ferguson, reporter

(Image: Norbert Wu/Minden/Getty)

This promiscuous species of squid pays a dear price for an insatiable sex-drive.

After three hours of lovemaking, southern dumpling squid are so exhausted that their ability to avoid predators and forage for food is sorely reduced. An ability to blend into their surroundings helps them survive this post-coital lapse - but only to some extent.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne collected dumpling squid off the coast of southeastern Australia and evaluated the effects of their extensive mating ritual on swimming endurance before and after sex.

The ritual doesn't include much foreplay. The male grabs the female from underneath, and holds her in place throughout copulation. The researchers found that for thirty minutes afterwards, swimming ability in both sexes halved, rendering the squid vulnerable to predators and unable to forage for food.

The squid can partially compensate for this. Both male and female can change colour from sandy yellow to dark purple with green and orange highlights in order to blend into their surroundings. They also have the ability produce a cloud of ink as a decoy to help them escape from predators.

However, their methods aren't always effective. Most dumpling squid only manage to survive for less than a year, which the researchers believe might be a direct result of their risky, sex-filled lifestyle.

Zoologist Amanda Franklin led the study published in Biology Letters (DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0556).

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2179326b/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A70Cshort0Esex0Efilled0Elife0Eof0Ean0Eau0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Source: http://answers.apostoliccm.com/2012/07/bootcamps-what-are-the-physical-fitness-positive-aspects-to-joining-a-boot-camp/

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Arizona sheriff shocked by comedian's profanity

PHOENIX (AP) ? Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio says he's shocked by comedian George Lopez's profanity-laced tirade against him.

Lopez made the comments about the top cop of Maricopa County during the debut of his solo stand-up special, "George: It's Not Me, It's You," which aired Saturday on HBO.

Arpaio says he had been watching the show but changed the channel before Lopez directed curse words at him. The sheriff known for his tough stance on illegal immigration says he was shocked that the comments weren't part of a joke.

Ina Treciokas, a publicist for Lopez, says the comedian would have no further comment.

The sheriff is the target of several lawsuits, including one going to trial Thursday that accuses his department of racially profiling Latinos.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-07-17-Arizona%20Sheriff-George%20Lopez/id-13f6439530124788afcc3f240db19694

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OnlineLegalNews: Law Suit Filed: Kosmos Energy Ltd. KOS Securities Fraud http://t.co/AnW2p0cC

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://twitter.com/OnlineLegalNews/statuses/225638402333212673

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Plastics Chemical in Dental Fillings Might Affect Children's Behavior: Study

MONDAY, July 16 (HealthDay News) -- Children who receive dental fillings made from the controversial plastics chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) could undergo small but long-term changes in their behavior, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at 534 children who had fillings for at least two cavities and examined their social skills before and five years after getting fillings.

The fillings were made of either a silver blend called amalgam, which many dentists have moved away from because it contains mercury, or plastic composites, some of which are based on bisGMA, a material made from BPA.

The children who got the highest number of bisGMA-based fillings had more emotional problems five years later than the children who got fewer of these fillings. But no such change occurred with other types of fillings.

The study appeared online July 16 and will be published in the August print issue of Pediatrics.

"It was actually kind of a surprise that instead of seeing any possible adverse associations with amalgam, that the trends seem to go the other way and the children in the composite group seemed to have more problems," said study author Nancy Maserejian, an epidemiologist at New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Mass.

"On average, the difference in social behavior scores were very small and would probably not be noticed for each individual child," Maserejian said. "But imagine a huge group of children around the country; you'd probably notice a difference."

Although it remains controversial whether BPA affects human health, previous research has linked BPA exposure to hyperactivity and aggressive behavior in young children.

Composite fillings, including the kind made from BPA, became the mainstay for treating children's cavities in the mid-90s because they were thought to be safer than mercury-containing amalgam fillings and they looked more natural, said Dr. Burton Edelstein, a pediatric dentist and professor of dentistry at Columbia University, in New York City.

"This study raises enough concern about the alternative of amalgam to revisit the value of amalgam," Edelstein said. There is no reason at this point to be concerned about the health effects of amalgam, or the stainless steel crowns that are sometimes placed on top of a tooth with a cavity, he added.

The study included 543 children between the ages of 6 and 10 who received two or more fillings in their back teeth made of amalgam or a composite based on either bisGMA or urethane. The data were part of a New England-based study that was designed to look at the long-term effects of amalgam fillings on psychological scores and kidney function.

Children who had the most bisGMA-based fillings were more likely four or five years later to score poorly on tests that asked the children and their parents questions like whether they had trouble making friends or felt anxious or depressed.

Overall, the researchers found that 16 percent of the children in the top third for their number of bisGMA-based fillings were at risk for having a behavior problem, based on a combination of children's self-reports and parents' descriptions, compared with only 6 percent of children in the bottom two-thirds.

But no difference existed in emotional problems when looking at children who had more vs. fewer amalgam or urethane-based composite fillings.

"This study is a call for more research," said Dr. Mary Hayes, a pediatric dentist in Chicago and a spokeswoman for the American Dental Association.

Hayes chooses between composite fillings or amalgams depending on the tooth and where it is in the mouth and if parents want a white-colored composite filling for their children instead of a silver filling. "Most composites that I am aware of have BPA," she said.

Study author Maserejian said, "We are really not sure if BPA or another material released from the resin could be causing these effects." She and her colleagues are currently measuring BPA levels in children's systems.

Children could be exposed to materials in their fillings both when the dentist applies them and over time, because the fillings wear down and release chemicals that children swallow, Columbia's Edelstein said.

"If you've got to have a filling, you're better to go with one that does not have BPA, but that is not a panacea," Edelstein said. Parents can also reduce exposure by making sure their dentist takes standard steps, like vacuuming around the tooth after applying the filling, he added.

"The only real solution is to realize that no material is better than the material that Mother Nature gave us and to do a better job of [cavity] prevention," Edelstein said.

Parents can help prevent cavities by helping their children brush their teeth, giving them water instead of sugary drinks and visiting the dentist twice a year.

If your child does have a cavity, "talk to the dentist about where the cavity came from and how to prevent the next one," Edelstein said. "This study was clear that [higher] doses of fillings were associated with a health impact."

The study also made it explicitly clear that you should not have your amalgam fillings replaced with composites, which some dental practices will do, Edelstein said. "If you've got a sound filling, leave it in place."

While the study found an association between materials in fillings and behavior, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

You can learn more about preventing cavities in children by visiting the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plastics-chemical-dental-fillings-might-affect-childrens-behavior-160410455.html

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Infants' recognition of speech more sophisticated than previously known

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2012) ? The ability of infants to recognize speech is more sophisticated than previously known, researchers in New York University's Department of Psychology have found. Their study, which appears in the journal Developmental Psychology, showed that infants, as early as nine months old, could make distinctions between speech and non-speech sounds in both humans and animals.

"Our results show that infant speech perception is resilient and flexible," explained Athena Vouloumanos, an assistant professor at NYU and the study's lead author. "This means that our recognition of speech is more refined at an earlier age than we'd thought."

It is well-known that adults' speech perception is fine-tuned -- they can detect speech among a range of ambiguous sounds. But much less is known about the capability of infants to make similar assessments. Understanding when these abilities become instilled would shed new light on how early in life we develop the ability to recognize speech.

In order to gauge the aptitude to perceive speech at any early age, the researchers examined the responses of infants, approximately nine months in age, to recorded human and parrot speech and non-speech sounds. Human (an adult female voice) and parrot speech sounds included the words "truck," "treat," "dinner," and "two." The adult non-speech sounds were whistles and a clearing of the throat while the parrot non-speech sounds were squawks and chirps. The recorded parrot speech sounds were those of Alex, an African Gray parrot that had the ability to talk and reason and whose behaviors were studied by psychology researcher Irene Pepperberg.

Since infants cannot verbally communicate their recognition of speech, the researchers employed a commonly used method to measure this process: looking longer at what they find either interesting or unusual. Under this method, looking longer at a visual paired with a sound may be interpreted as a reflection of recognition. In this study, sounds were paired with a series of visuals: a checkerboard-like image, adult female faces, and a cup.

The results showed that infants listened longer to human speech compared to human non-speech sounds regardless of the visual stimulus, revealing the ability recognize human speech independent of the context.

Their findings on non-human speech were more nuanced. When paired with human-face visuals or human artifacts like cups, the infants listened to parrot speech longer than they did non-speech, such that their preference for parrot speech was similar to their preference for human speech sounds. However, this did not occur in the presence of other visual stimuli. In other words, infants were able to distinguish animal speech from non-speech, but only in some contexts.

"Parrot speech is unlike human speech, so the results show infants have the ability to detect different types of speech, even if they need visual cues to assist in this process," explained Vouloumanos.

The study's other co-author was Hanna Gelfand, an undergraduate at NYU's College of Arts and Science at the time of the study and currently a graduate student in the San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by New York University, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Athena Vouloumanos, Hanna M. Gelfand. Infant Perception of Atypical Speech Signals. Developmental Psychology, 2012; DOI: 10.1037/a0029055

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120717100050.htm

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Friday, July 13, 2012

Meet Bitplay BANG!, The Lamp You Can ?Shoot? From Across The Room

A solid chunk of my formative years was spent lurking under tables, peering around corners, and generally tiptoeing around whenever possible. I fancied myself a tiny James Bond (or Weng Weng, considering my heritage) and ? strange as it may sound ? there?s nothing I wouldn?t have given to have the bitplay BANG! remote controlled lamp help me live out my pre-adolescent fantasies.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PPIAXC8WNm0/

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Following the Ice: Is this Global Warming?

From the mess tent, we can hear huge boulders crashing through rapids half a kilometer away. The boulders sometimes sound like approaching footsteps, and as we re all just a tiny bit nervous about an unlikely polar bear visit, conversations trail off and we listen.

In the four years our camp has existed on this glacial river, more meltwater is spilling out from beneath Leverett Glacier than we ve ever seen. What s more, the river has spilled over its banks and is now eroding a glacial moraine near our camp that was likely pushed there in the 1700 s during the Little Ice Age. It s only June and the river is still rising.

Ben Linhoff sampling the stream formed by glacial melt early in the season.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is the most impressive thing I ve ever seen. Looking out over its seemingly endless expanse of white, grey, and black textures of crevasses and rolling hills of ice, one feels close to infinity. On my last trail run, I ran to the top of a small mountain surrounded on three sides by the ice sheet. I was wearing running shorts and a tee shirt; the sun was bright and a steady wind coming off the ice kept the mosquitoes away. I sat down on a slab of granitic gneiss and leaned against a warm boulder. The wind was surprisingly balmy and humid, despite having just crossed the Greenland Ice Sheet. I closed my eyes and soaked in the heat and sun. Later that day I reformatted my air temperature graphs from last year s season to fit the data collected this June. The y-axis had to be expanded by 10 degrees.

Can we say this year s warm weather is because of global warming? It?s not for certain, and it?s important not to ascribe one especially warm season or year to global warming. It s probably more important not to write off global warming as a hoax when it snows in Washington, D.C. This is particularly true in the high latitudes (the Arctic and Antarctic) where temperature variability between years is higher than anywhere else. In the tropics, there is very little variation between years (or even seasons) compared to the much larger variations nearer the poles. However, while average temperatures have climbed in both the tropics and the high latitudes, the arctic and Antarctic have warmed significantly more. In general, the closer to the poles, the greater the increase in average temperature but also the greater the variation between years. Last year we had snow in the middle of June and only a handful of days with bad mosquitoes. This year in early June, it was often unbearably hot in our tents by 5:00 a.m. while outside, millions of mosquitoes swarmed around our tent doors, waiting for us to give into the heat and step outside.

Global warming refers to increases in average temperature over the entire globe over a period of decades, not in one location or over one year. I don t think this point can be made often enough. While we cannot say one warm season is the result of global warming, I think the fact that our ice-melt-fed river is spilling out of its banks and eroding things that have clearly been there for centuries seems worth noting.

Finally, although scientists have been trying to beat the public over the head with this concept for at least two decades, it s probably worth pointing out again: There is widespread, broad consensus among scientists, not just about global warming, but also about what s causing it: burning fossil fuels.

I wouldn t be surprised if someone reading this decides to disagree in the comments. There is a very vocal and surprisingly incensed group of people who think the climate is not changing or that it s all just natural variation. All I can say is that the so-called climate change deniers have views completely at odds with what the mainstream scientific community agrees on. Rest assured, the global warming controversy exists outside of the scientific community.

When I m not collecting samples and keeping equipment running in camp, I m cramming for my qualifying exams for my chemical oceanography Ph.D. in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program. Much of our exam focuses on the carbon cycle and CO2. Because the ocean is the largest sink for CO2 produced from burning fossil fuels (on time scales that affect people), a large part of my exams are focused on tracking fluxes of CO2 in the ocean and then determining its fate (What happens to CO2 once in the ocean and how long will it stay there?). For many years the faculty at MIT and Woods Hole have written qualifying exams that focus on making sure we understand (in excruciating detail I might add) the central role the carbon cycle plays in marine chemistry and Earth?s climate. Because most of us who come out of the program will spend our careers as scientists, the exam is at least partly designed to ensure we are prepared to research and understand the profound way people are changing our planet by adding CO2.

Climate Change Feedback Loops

Doing some ?back of the envelope calculations,? we ve estimated that the river discharging from the glacier is carrying about 400,000 metric tons of sediment per day to the ocean (Ten grams of sediment/liter with a discharge rate of 470 cubic meters/second: feel free to stop reading and try the math!).

The high latitudes (including Greenland) are warming much faster than the rest of the planet.

That?s a lot, but what s really interesting about glacial meltwater is that this sediment load is composed of extremely fine-grained, freshly broken rock material that is primed to consume CO2 through chemical weathering reactions. Although rock weathering is thought to ultimately control Earth s CO2 budget on time scales of millions of years, photosynthesis something probably much more familiar to everyone is the most important sink for CO2 on year-to-year time scales.

Surprisingly, glaciers may also play an important role in driving photosynthesis in the world s oceans. Glacial meltwater, icebergs, and wind-blown dust from glaciated landscapes can all carry essential nutrients (especially iron) to nutrient-starved regions of the ocean (Raiswell et al., 2006). These glacial nutrient sources can fertilize the ocean, stimulate photosynthesis and ultimately cause the consumption of atmospheric CO2. If you are scratching your head thinking, So more glaciers can lead to more CO2 taken out of the atmosphere which would cool the planet, grow glaciers cause more icebergs, more CO2 consumed, more cooling, then you re on the right track and have identified something called a feedback loop.

Scientists are wondering if, during the ice ages, glacial-fed phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean (the ocean surrounding Antarctica) helped keep CO2 levels at a minimum, which helped keep the world in a freezer. Basically, the glaciers themselves may have stimulated photosynthesis and kept global CO2 levels low, which then grew more glaciers and so on, until some external force threw off the balance. This external force would ve been episodic changes in the amount of sunlight reaching Earth?s surface (called the Milankovitch Cycles). Once the timing and intensity of the sun s heat changes (or humans release too much heat trapping CO2), another feedback loop can take over.

Consider permafrost. Permafrost is a thick layer of subsurface soil in polar regions that remains frozen year-round. While you may have heard of permafrost you may not have realized that permafrost contains vast quantities of carbon that was frozen in place thousands of years ago. As the planet warms, and permafrost melts, this ancient carbon becomes food for microbes that transform that carbon into CO2 gas and methane (CH4), which warms the planet, melts more permafrost, producing more CO2 and CH4 (see Frey and Smith, 2005). Ice cores taken from the Antarctic Ice Sheet give us a datable record of the atmospheric CO2 concentrations through time. These records tell us that ice ages are often ended by sharp, fast upswings in CO2. This upswing could very well be the release of CO2 from melting permafrost.

For many scientists, the questions are more immediate. How are glaciers affecting climate today? Will the world s shrinking glaciers produce more or less icebergs, meltwater, and windblown dust and will this help or hinder photosynthesis in the ocean? One interesting hypothesis is that as Antarctica s ice sheet collapses, a temporary increase in icebergs in the Southern Ocean could help fertilize marine phytoplankton and slow global warming as the blooms consume CO2 through photosynthesis. Or not. For now, I think the jury is still out regarding the role the world s ice will play in the changing climate.

There are many of CO2 feedback loops, and glaciers and permafrost are just part of a few of them. Serious accounting skills are required to understand the delicate balance between all of the world s CO2 feedback loops, as well as all the sources and sinks for CO2. All we know for sure is that much like the natural variations in the sun s intensity, burning fossil fuels is heating the planet and could set off a CO2 feedback loop with unforeseen consequences.

For what it s worth, over the last four years in our camp in Greenland, all the nearby ponds have rapidly shrunk and we suspect melting permafrost beneath the water is causing them to drain (think of their bottoms falling out). Meanwhile, as noted in the above post, we may be on our way to a record-breaking melt year that may be part of a larger trend.

REFERENCES

Frey, K.E., Smith, L.C., 2005. Amplified carbon release from vast West Siberian peatlands by 2100. Geophys Res Lett 32.

Raiswell, R., Tranter, M., Benning, L.G., Siegert, M., De?ath, R., Huybrechts, P., Payne, T., 2006. Contributions from glacially derived sediment to the global iron (oxyhydr)oxide cycle: Implications for iron delivery to the oceans. Geochim Cosmochim Ac 70:2765-2780.

Photos by Chris Linder

~~~~

Previously in this series:

Following the Ice: Greenland
Following the Ice: In the Beginning
Following the Ice: Glacial Dam
Ice Day: Like a nice day, but not

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/following-ice-global-warming-175700993.html

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Negative Relationship Quiz | Loving Relationships

Welcome to Loving Relationships ~ Relationship Help & Quizzes on Love

Lost on the Road to True Love

So many conflicts and relationship issues stem from past life agreements that are over and done with. They can cause you to feel lost, alone, dissatisfied with your love partner or prevent you from finding true love in this lifetime.

To assist you and make your current life easier, you can use this relationship game to help you let go of any karmic agreement that is complete ? over and done with or that is causing you harm in any way.

Take this love quiz around anyone that you have a strong soul connection with ? your family, friends, co-workers, lovers, ex-lovers, etc. By doing so you can free up a lot of mind power that is still caught up in the past. After all, don?t you need all the presence you can muster to help you create the love relationship you really want?

How to Let Go of a Negative Relationship

Step One ? Identify if You Have a Soul Connection that?s Affecting You Negatively

Relax and gaze gently at this Soul Circle while you ask yourself this question:
?Is there someone in my life today that used to be my partner??

Tuning into the next Circle will help you identify who is involved.

Who is it? There may be more than one.

Step Two ? Find and Let Go of Harmful Soul Contracts

Use the following Soul Contract Circle to help you identify and release the agreements that are complete or that are causing you harm today. Simply gaze softly at the Circle while you use the affirmations. It can be helpful to imagine the agreements burning up into ashes to make sure you have completely let go of each contract. Go through them one at a time for best results.

?I let go of past agreements that are finished and done with.?
?I release any debts, vows or obligations that no longer serve my best, long terms interests.?
?I let go of any outdated idea that is causing me harm.?

Step Three ? Releasing Control Issues

Let?s take a look at a couple of other syndromes that might be making it hard for you to find and stay on the road to true love:

#1: The ?I love you forever? syndrome.?

Many people have difficulty moving on from a relationship because they?ve made an agreement that they can?t possibly keep. When couples decide to get together, at first it seems so ideal, so romantic to say, ?I?ll be with you forever,? or ?I?ll never be happy with anyone but you.?
The problem with vows like these is simple ? forever is a very long time!

We?ve known many people going through a past life regression who?ve come up against this obstacle and it often keeps them stuck in an abusive or unhappy relationship, until they consciously release their agreement.

Once you free up your mind from unrealistic vows from the past, it?s amazing how quickly and easily a stuck relationship can change. If any of this sounds familiar, consider letting go of the ?I will love you forever syndrome? with this Circle and these affirmations:

?I release any agreements that I must be with anyone ?forever.?
?I let go of the belief that I can only be happy with one person.?
?I release any agreement to take responsibility for others from my past.?

?My new agreement is that I am true to myself.?
?I take good care of myself. I am a priority.?
?I love myself and let go of people, places and things that are no longer good for me.?

#2: The ?I love you, now you?re my prisoner? syndrome.?

In many societies, there?s still a left over idea that our loved one is somehow our property and that they are obliged to do things or behave in a certain way. If you?re having a lot of control issues or problems in your relationship, you might want to consider releasing these agreements:

?I let go of the concept that people are property.??

?I let go of the belief that I am a piece of property.?

??I let go of any negative beliefs about this that are causing me harm.?

?I relax and let go of controlling others or allowing others to control me.?
?I am responsible for my own life.?

Congratulations!

It?s so helpful to release old agreements with soul connections that are over and done with, especially when you?re ready to move into or out of a relationship. Once you?ve let go of these agreements, pay attention to how your life changes.

There?s an old song that goes like this:
?Love is a rose, but you better not pick it,
Only grows when it?s on the vine.
Hand full of thorns and you know you?ve missed it,
Lose your love when you say the word ?mine.?

Rheanni Lightwater ? 2012

If you enjoyed our Relationship Quiz ~ Subscribe to our Abundant Living E-zine and get your free copy of Taming the Bear now>>

Source: http://relationshipsinlove.com/negative-relationship-quiz/

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Tunisia's ruling Islamists urge 'consensus'

The head of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party Ennahda called on Thursday for national consensus at the launch of its first congress at home in 24 years, held at a time of political and religious tensions.

"We want to convey a message from this congress, this congress of a union of the Tunisian people. We are a united people," Rached Ghannouchi told around 10,000 supporters.

"I want to assure the people that the country is in good hands," he said.

"This country needs a national consensus. We call for national reconciliation," said Ghannouchi, playing down the crises that have shaken Tunisia and its ruling coalition as "normal" for a post-revolutionary state.

"In Tunisia, all movements can cohabit," he said.

The three-day gathering is being held at a congress centre in Al Karm, a Tunis suburb that in the past hosted meetings of toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's now disbanded party.

Ennahda (Renaissance) now dominates the government along with centre-left parties the Congress for the Republic (CPR) and Ettakatol, which won 33 percent of the seats in the assembly.

"We must combat dictatorship, whether it be in the name of religion or of modernity," said Ettakatol chief Mustapha Ben Jafaar in his speech.

"Our future is in our hands to form a civil society and set up a civil republican regime for a modern state which guards the identity of the Arab-Muslim people," said the former opposition figure.

Some 25,000-30,000 people are to attend the congress, the party's first since it came to power following Ben Ali's ouster in protests that touched off the 2011 Arab Spring.

Among the guests is Khaled Meshaal, political chief of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

"We must build an Arab-Muslim strategy to liberate Palestine and turn the page on negotiations" with Israel, he said in a speech.

"The Palestinians aren't selfish, so take your time to get through this difficult transitory period -- it is your right," Meshaal said, adding: "The only way to liberate Palestine is the struggle."

Conference participants also showed their support for the uprising in Syria. "Bashar, get out!" they chanted, referring to President Bashar al-Assad.

About 1,100 delegates will have to determine Ennahda's position on political alliances, as the dominant partner in the government coalition.

The congress will also seek to reconcile different trends within the party, between moderates and more radical ideologues, with founding leader Ghannouchi expected to keep his post.

Established in June 1981 by Ghannouchi and a group of intellectuals inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Ennahda was banned by Ben Ali after a major electoral success in 1989, and its leaders jailed or forced into exile.

Ghannouchi returned in January 2011 after 20 years in London.

Ennahda won Tunisia's first post-uprising poll, in October, taking 41 percent of the seats in the National Constituent Assembly, the interim body tasked with drafting a new constitution and preparing fresh elections, due in March 2013.

Ennahda said in March that Islamic sharia would not be inscribed in Tunisian basic law, much to the relief of its coalition partners which feared the Islamist majority in parliament might open the door to a theocracy.

"Finally, after 40 years of prison and exile, we are reunited," Ennahda official Riadh Chaibi told the crowd in Al Karm, to roars of approval. "We pay tribute to the martyrs of the movement."

The government faces wide-ranging challenges.

Tunisia's latest political crisis came last month, when Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali ignored President Moncef Marzouki's opposition to the extradition of former Libyan premier Baghdadi al-Mahmudi.

The row between Jebali and CPR member Marzouki exposed the uneasy nature of the governing coalition.

Tunisia is also regularly shaken by social unrest.

The party aims to reduce unemployment, a driving factor behind the revolution, to 8.5 percent by 2016 from around 19 percent now, but the economy is still struggling.

Ennahda has also struggled to clarify its line on Salafists -- hardline Islamists who have grown more confident post-revolution -- with recent violence sparking criticism that it has done too little to stop them.

Salafists went on the rampage in mid-June after taking issue with art works at a Tunis exhibition they deemed offensive to Islam.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tunisias-ruling-islamists-urge-consensus-135438186.html

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

'Facebook depression' fears unfounded: US study

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-depression-fears-unfounded-us-study-091931038.html

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Wells Fargo to pay $125 million in race discrimination probe

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wells-fargo-pay-125-million-fair-lending-case-144747358--sector.html

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Researcher seeks solution to mystery of 20-year-old self-deleting poem

Floppy disk of William Gibson's 'Agrippa' intentionally turns to gibberish after being read only once

In 1992, renowned sci-fi author and futurist William Gibson (Neuromancer, Virtual Light) released Agrippa (A Book of the Dead), a self-playing poem contained on a floppy disk for old?Macintosh computers that, once its text had scrolled up the screen one time, would be rendered unreadable on purpose. Now, 20 years later, a PhD student at the University of Toronto is enlisting the aid of cryptographers in hopes of figuring out how the program works.

Quinn DuPont, a student of cryptography, has created what he's calling Cracking the Agrippa Code: The Challenge, which asks participants to explain how the intentional scrambling of the poem works in exchange for prizes. The first person who successfully cracks the code will win a copy of every William Gibson work ever published ? except for Agrippa ? along with DuPont's unending gratitude, we suppose.

Part of the challenge will entail decrypting the actual program, the uncompiled source code for which has been long lost. Then, cryptoanalysts will need to figure out how it encrypts the poem ? if that's actually what's happening. DuPont admits that the program could just be randomly scrambling the text, in which case there may not be a way to decode it.

If you're interested in reading an unscrambled version of Gibson's Agrippa, you can actually do so on the author's own website. To aid brave cryptography buffs in decoding the program, DuPont has made links available to a copy of the original, along with the Macintosh System 7 emulator required to run it and other tools, on a web page dedicated to the project.

[Image credit: Kevin Begos Jr.]
[via Ars Technica]

This article was written by Randy Nelson and originally appeared on Tecca

Rover landing on Mars will be ?Seven Minutes of Terror?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mars-rover-landing-seven-minutes-terror-194446094.html

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Home Day Care Business - sevaa.org

free daycare A sample format for a home day care center includes plenty of room for children to play, child-sized sinks, age-appropriate books, craft supplies and a changing area for the infants. Keep the entire area clean and sanitary with help from a home day care owner and operator in this free video on childcare.

Expert: Candice Dillard
Contact: www.myspace.com/sunflowerkids
Bio: Candice Dillard has been in the childcare field since 2000. She has an associate?s degree in early childhood education and an associate?s degree in general education.
Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC

Duration : 0:1:43

Technorati Tags: child care, childcare, children, day care, daycare, daycare centers, starting a daycare

Source: http://www.sevaa.org/free-daycare/home-day-care-business-sample-format-for-home-day-care

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2012 Connecticut Huskies NCAA Football Gambling Odds and Predictions

Connecticut has always been known as a basketball school. The Huskies had a brief successful run under Randy Edsall a few years ago, but the past couple years have been small steps backward for this football program.

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Big East Conference 2012-2013 College Football Previews: UConn Huskies
Head Coach: Paul Pasqualoni
2011 Record: 5-7
Connecticut Gambling Odds from 5Dimes to win BCS Championship: +120,000
Connecticut Gambling Odds from 5Dimes to win Big East Conference: +2,000
UConn Team Page ? Players Stats ? Roster ? 2012 Schedule ?>

The Big East landscape is about to change in a big way, and it will be interesting to see which team can rise to the top. This is an opportunity for the UConn football program. Can they take advantage?

Paul Pasqualoni certainly wasn?t happy with a 5-7 record in his first year at Connecticut. The losing record ended a string of four straight seasons with a bowl appearance for the Huskies. The team was close, but it just couldn?t finish the deal in 2011. The Huskies lost four games by a touchdown or less. They?ll need to execute better down the stretch this season.

Team Strengths:

Running back is definitely an area of strength for UConn. Lyle McCombs is only 5?8, but he averaged 95.92 yards per game on the ground in 2011, which was second best in the conference. McCombs did all of that in his freshman season, so expectations are high for him this year. There isn?t a lot of depth behind him, so the Huskies need McCombs to stay healthy.

The front seven on defense should be strong once again this year for the Huskies. Trevardo Williams is one of the best pass-rushers in the nation, and I expect him to wreak havoc on many opposing teams this year. All three linebackers return from last year, so the leadership will come from that unit. 2012 Connecticut Huskies NCAA Football Gambling Odds and Predictions

Team Weaknesses:

A few years ago the strength of this Huskies offense was their offensive line, but now it is their single biggest concern heading into 2012. Two of their top players graduated, and three more suffered injuries in the offseason. The line is going to be extremely short on experience, and that could be a major problem all season long.

The quarterback competition is on once again in Connecticut this year. Johnny McEntee was the man last year, but don?t be surprised if junior college transfer Chandler Whitmer ends up under center. No matter who is the starting quarterback for UConn, there are lots of question marks moving forward.

2012-2013 UConn Huskies Football Prediction: 5-7

This is a case where the Huskies will likely be a much better team than last year, but they might not end up having anything to show for it. They travel to Rutgers, USF, and Louisville inside the Big East. The offensive line will be a major problem this year, and the defensive line won?t be as dominate as it was in 2011. There will be some progress here, but it likely won?t show up in the standings just yet. I?ll take the Huskies to finish just below .500 once again.

2012 Schedule

8/30/12 7:30 PM ET MASS
9/8/12 12:00 PM ET NCST
9/15/12 12:30 PM ET @MD
9/22/12 2:00 PM ET @WMICH
9/29/12 12:00 PM ET BUFF
10/6/12 TBD @RUTG
10/13/12 TBD TEM
10/19/12 8:00 PM ET @SYR
11/3/12 TBD @SOFLA
11/9/12 8:00 PM ET PITT
11/24/12 TBD @LOU
12/1/12 TBD CIN

GRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! ??>

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/capperspicksblog/~3/eDHX2O1KOG8/

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After 1st-half tumult, All-Stars pull into KC

Washington Nationals' Bryce Harper is chased back to first base by Colorado Rockies second baseman Marco Scutaro (19) during the sixth inning of a baseball game Saturday, July 7, 2012 in Washington. The Nationals won 4-1. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Los Angeles Angels shortstop Erick Aybar, left, and center fielder Mike Trout celebrates their 6-0 win against the Baltimore Orioles in a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Sunday, July 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen, right, celebrates with teammate Casey McGhee after hitting a two-run home run off San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum during the first inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, July 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

New York Mets' R.A. Dickey delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Thursday, July 5, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Much has changed since the All-Stars last pulled into town in 1973. Then again, it seems like much of baseball has been turned upside down since the final out of the crazy World Series last October.

Five no-hitters, including two perfect games. A four-home run night by Josh Hamilton. Pittsburgh and Washington together in first place for the first time. Philadelphia in the cellar. Cliff Lee winless until his 14th start.

"Seeing what's going on here, it's fun to be a part of it," A.J. Burnett said after improving to 10-2 as the Pirates routed the San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum 13-2 Sunday.

If the season ended now, the first year of expanded playoffs would open with Baltimore at the Los Angeles Angels for the one-game AL wild card, with the winner hosting the Yankees in the division series opener. The Chicago White Sox would host two-time AL champ Texas in the other best-of-5 series ? which for one year only starts at the team with the lesser regular-season record.

In the NL, Cincinnati would host Atlanta for the wild card, with the winner hosting the Nationals ? a franchise whose only postseason appearance was as the Montreal Expos in 1981. The Pirates, out of the postseason since Francisco Cabrera's two-out, two-run hit for Atlanta in 1992, would host the post-Frank McCourt Los Angeles Dodgers.

"Everybody feels good, and they're looking for the break," Washington manager Davey Johnson said. "They've battled hard. We've had a lot of close games. It's a good time for a break."

The Angels' Mike Trout, one of a record five rookies making the trip to Kauffman Stadium for Tuesday night's game, leads the AL with a .341 average. After spending the start of the season in the minors, he's the first player with 10 homers and 20 steals at the break without having any in April, according to STATS LLC.

"A game-changer, offensively, defensively," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "The kid has got a lot of talent, a ton. Usually when you see a guy that fast, you don't anticipate him hitting the ball that hard. What he's doing at 20, it's really pretty amazing."

And at 20, Trout's not even the All-Star baby. That would be 19-year-old Bryce Harper, the youngest position player in All-Star history and the third-youngest ever behind Bob Feller in 1938 and Dwight Gooden in 1984.

Harper made his big league debut on April 28, the same night Trout played his first game this season. Combining with staff ace Stephen Strasburg for a capital dynamic duo, Harper is hitting .282 with eight homers and 25 RBIs in 63 games. No wonder the team put up a banner reading "NATITUDE PARK."

"I can hardly pronounce the dang word," Johnson said with a smile.

Alongside the newbies are plenty of familiar faces.

Hamilton, who hit four homers for Texas at Baltimore on May 8, and Toronto's Jose Bautista will both be there after hitting 27 homers apiece in the first half. Despite being slowed by back spasms and an intestinal virus, Hamilton leads the AL with 75 RBIs.

Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen leads with the NL with a .362 average, while Milwaukee's Ryan Braun is tops with 24 homers after successfully overturning a 50-game suspension for a positive drug test last October. In his first season with St. Louis, Carlos Beltran has a league-high 65 RBIs.

But for many, the mound has provided the biggest surprises. Phil Humber of the Chicago White Sox started it with a perfect game at Seattle on April 21, and the Angels' Jered Weaver pitched a no-hitter against Minnesota on May 2. Then Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in the Mets' 51-season history on June 1, accomplishing the feat against St. Louis in the franchise's 8,020th game. Seven days later in Seattle, a record-tying six pitchers combined for a no-hitter against the Dodgers, and on June 13 San Francisco's Matt Cain pitched a perfect game against Houston.

R.A. Dickey followed his offseason climb of Mount Kilimanjaro to rise to the top of NL pitchers, going 12-1 to move into position for an All-Star start. The 37-year-old could become only the second knuckleballer to earn the honor, the first since Dutch Leonard for the AL in 1943, according to STATS.

He even studies baseball's past. He had a biography of Stan Musial in his locker earlier this season.

"Nerdy? I would say more eccentric would be the right word," teammate David Wright said. "He's extremely intelligent. He's cultured probably well beyond any of us. I think it fits in great with the knuckleball. It goes hand and hand."

In the AL, Weaver is 10-1 with a major league-best 1.96 ERA. Tampa Bay's David Price and the Rangers' Matt Harrison are tied for wins at 11-4.

And while the Rangers' Ron Washington will be in the AL dugout for the second straight season, following a 5-1 loss last year in Phoenix, Tony La Russa will be running the NL. The retired manager of the World Series champion Cardinals will be the fourth inactive skipper in All-Star history, the first since the AL's Bob Lemon after he was fired by George Steinbrenner in 1979.

"I think it's one of the best experiences you can have," La Russa said. "As soon as I was asked, I said yes before the question was finished."

___

AP Sports Writers Greg Beacham, Howard Fendrich, Howie Rumberg and Dave Skretta contributed to this report.