Spectacular new images from a NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn have captured the most detailed views ever of an enormous hurricane churning around the ringed planet's north pole.?
The stunning new images and video of the Saturn hurricane, which?were taken by NASA's Cassini probe, show that the storm's eye is 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide ? about 20 times bigger than typical hurricane eyes on Earth. And the Saturn maelstrom is more powerful than its Earth counterparts, with winds at its outer edge whipping around at 330 mph (530 km/h).
"We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth," Cassini imaging team member Andrew Ingersoll, of Caltech in Pasadena, said in a statement. "But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale, and it is somehow getting by on the small amounts of water vapor in Saturn's hydrogen atmosphere." [Amazing Views of Saturn's Mysterious Hurricane (Photos)]
Saturn's hurricane swirls inside a mysterious, six-sided vortex. Unlike hurricanes on Earth, which tend to drift northward as our planet rotates, the Saturn storm and its hexagonal vortex have been camped out at the north pole for a while.
"The polar hurricane has nowhere else to go, and that's likely why it's stuck at the pole," Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., said in a statement.
While the Saturn hurricane is larger and more powerful than Earth hurricanes, storms on the two planets are alike in some ways. For example, both have central eyes containing very low clouds or no clouds at all, researchers said. Other shared traits are high clouds forming the eye wall, and a counterclockwise spin in the northern hemisphere.
So scientists plan to study how the Saturn storm feeds off atmospheric water vapor, in the hopes of gaining insight into hurricanes here on Earth (which gain their strength from warm ocean water).
Cassini's instruments detected the Saturn storm shortly after the probe arrived in orbit around the ringed planet in 2004. The hurricane was in darkness at the time, however, because it was the middle of the northern Saturn winter.
So Cassini had to wait for the onset of the northern spring in August 2009 to get a good look at the hurricane in visible light. The detailed new views required a shift in the spacecraft's orbit as well, achieved using flybys of Saturn's huge moon Titan, researchers said.
"Such a stunning and mesmerizing view of the hurricane-like storm at the north pole is only possible because Cassini is on a sportier course, with orbits tilted to loop the spacecraft above and below Saturn's equatorial plane," said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
"You cannot see the polar regions very well from an equatorial orbit," Edgington added. "Observing the planet from different vantage points reveals more about the cloud layers that cover the entirety of the planet."
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?and?Google+.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Apr. 29, 2013 ? In a process one researcher compares to squeezing an elephant through a pinhole, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have designed a way to engineer atoms capable of funneling light through ultra-small channels.
Their research is the latest in a series of recent findings related to how light and matter interact at the atomic scale, and it is the first to demonstrate that the material -- a specially designed "meta-atom" of gold and silicon oxide -- can transmit light through a wide bandwidth and at a speed approaching infinity. The meta-atoms' broadband capability could lead to advances in optical devices, which currently rely on a single frequency to transmit light, the researchers say.
"These meta-atoms can be integrated as building blocks for unconventional optical components with exotic electromagnetic properties over a wide frequency range," write Dr. Jie Gao and Dr. Xiaodong Yang, assistant professors of mechanical engineering at Missouri S&T, and Dr. Lei Sun, a visiting scholar at the university. The researchers describe their atomic-scale design in the latest issue of the journal Physical Review B.
The researchers created mathematical models of the meta-atom, a material 100 nanometers wide and 25 nanometers tall that combined gold and silicon oxide in stairstep fashion. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter and visible only with the aid of a high-power electron microscope.
In their simulations, the researchers stacked 10 of the meta-atoms, then shot light through them at various frequencies. They found that when light encountered the material in a range between 540 terahertz and 590 terahertz, it "stretched" into a nearly straight line and achieved an "effective permittivity" known as epsilon-near-zero.
Effective permittivity refers to the ratio of light's speed through air to its speed as it passes through a material. When light travels through glass, for instance, its effective permittivity is 2.25. Through air or the vacuum of outer space, the ratio is one. That ratio is what is typically referred to as the speed of light.
As light passes through the engineered meta-atoms described by Gao and Yang, however, its effective permittivity reaches a near-zero ratio. In other words, through the medium of these specially designed materials, light actually travels faster than the speed of light. It travels "infinitely fast" through this medium, Yang says.
The meta-atoms also stretch the light. Other materials, such as glass, typically compress optical waves, causing diffraction.
This stretching phenomenon means that "waves of light could tunnel through very small holes," Yang says. "It is like squeezing an elephant through an ultra-small channel."
The wavelength of light encountering a single meta-atom is 500 nanometers from peak to peak, or five times the length of Gao and Yang's specially designed meta-atoms, which are 100 nanometers in length. While the Missouri S&T team has yet to fabricate actual meta-atoms, they say their research shows that the materials could be built and used for optical communications, image processing, energy redirecting and other emerging fields, such as adaptive optics.
Last year, Albert Polman at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam and Nader Engheta, an electrical engineer at the University of Pennsylvania, developed a tiny waveguide device in which light waves of a single wavelength also achieved epsilon-near-zero. But the Missouri S&T researchers' work is the first to demonstrate epsilon-near-zero in a broadband of 50 terahertz.
"The design is practical and realistic, with the potential to fabricate actual meta-atoms," says Gao. Adds Yang: "With this research, we filled the gap from the theoretical to the practical."
Through a process known as electron-beam deposition, the researchers have built a thin-film wafer from 13 stacked meta-atoms. But those materials were uniform in composition rather than arranged in the stairstep fashion of their modeled meta-atoms.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Missouri University of Science and Technology. The original article was written by Andrew Careaga.
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Journal Reference:
Lei Sun, Jie Gao, Xiaodong Yang. Broadband epsilon-near-zero metamaterials with steplike metal-dielectric multilayer structures. Physical Review B, 2013; 87 (16) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.165134
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Posted by Sierra Vista Economic Development Foundation on April 29, 2013
Dear M & M:
What does the term ?Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? (GAAP) mean?
- Teresa
Dear Teresa:
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are rules to which accountants adhere when preparing financial statements. The Generally Accepted Accounting Principles exist to ensure that American accountants are using the same or almost the same standards so that comparison of financial statements between or within a company is easy and accurate. They also promote transparency in accounting. The GAAP are set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private, not-for-profit organization whose primary purpose is to develop generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public?s interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. It was created in 1973, replacing the Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP) and the Accounting Principles Board (APB) of the American Institute of certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The FASB?s mission is ?to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information.? To achieve this, FASB has five goals: *Improve the usefulness of financial reporting by focusing on the primary characteristics of relevance and reliability, and on the qualities of comparability and consistency. *Keep standards current to reflect changes in methods of doing business and in the economy. *Consider promptly any significant areas of deficiency in financial reporting that might be improved through standard setting. *Promote international convergence of accounting standards concurrent with improving the quality of financial reporting. *Improve common understanding of the nature and purposes of information in financial reports.-Wikipedia
-M&M
?
Dear M&M:
I finally have my business up and running and have heard I should use a software package to help me with my accounting.? How do I make the best choice?
- Mary
Dear Mary:
Congratulations on getting your business up and running!? Accounting software can help you to organize and manage your entire accounting process and even make tax time easier and faster to manage. Use small business accounting software prior to investing in a program to determine the best software for your business. Investigate: Before choosing a small business accounting program for your business, talk to other small business owners to see which programs they use for their businesses. Discuss the pros and cons of the software they use and how it has helped them. Learn about the specific ways in which the business owners use the software, such as for invoicing, processing credit card payments or to run tax reports for the business tax adviser to compile the business tax returns.
Features: Learn about the various features that the small business accounting software offers. You may want to schedule a training session with an expert in the software you have, or are thinking of purchasing. Once you know everything you can do with your small business accounting software, you can maximize the benefits of the software by using the options that pertain to your business. For example, you may determine that you can handle your payroll with the small business accounting software rather than outsourcing it to a payroll service. Integration: Many small business software programs are compatible with other software and programs you use for your business. Integrating your small business accounting software with the other aspects of your business can save you time and money. For example, many online businesses can integrate the online shopping cart with the small business accounting software to automatically issue invoices and reconcile the sales from the website with the accounting software. Update and Expand: New features often come out for your existing software or are developed in new small business accounting software. Keep your software up-to-date to ensure your business is fully benefiting from the software and its features. Small business accounting software updates and upgrades may offer expanded features that your business can use to save money, save time, boost sales and more.
-M&M
To ask your questions: Call the Small Business Development Center(SBDC) at Cochise College (520)-515-5478 or email schmittm@cochise.edu or contact the Sierra Vista Economic Development Foundation(EDF) at 520-458-6948 or email? hollism@svedf.org
?
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These days everyone wants you to hack your life in order to make your day-to-day existence more efficient. But there are times when the effort's not really worth it—and this chart should help you work out what to spend time on, and what to ignore. More »
Research: Common component strategy could improve profitsPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Ciciora pciciora@illinois.edu 217-333-2177 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. When designing product lines, one important decision marketing and manufacturing managers must consider is whether to use common or product-specific components. While the use of common components can reduce manufacturing costs, firms have traditionally shied away from that strategy over concerns of intensifying what scholars call "product cannibalization."
But according to research from two University of Illinois business professors, commonality can actually reduce product line cannibalization, a finding that could allow firms to redesign their product lines and improve profits.
When consumer preference is "nondominating," commonality and its associated cost savings can help firms design better product lines with common components and attributes, says research from Dilip Chhajed and Yunchuan "Frank" Liu, professors of business administration at Illinois.
"People in marketing are afraid of firms using common components for their products because that means that the products lose their uniqueness, what differentiates them from the competition," Chhajed said. "But it turns out that commonality can indeed relieve cannibalization in product lines, which means marketing managers should be encouraged to pursue it."
"It seems counterintuitive, but employing commonality can actually soften product line cannibalization," Liu said. "So managers should consider it, even though it runs counter to the conventional marketing wisdom, both in practice and in academia."
The research, co-written with Kilsun Kim, of Sogang University, in Seoul, South Korea, also debunks a crucial assumption long-held by scholars that one consumer segment's preference for a product's attributes dominates another's preference structure.
When consumer preference is "nondominating" that is, no single attribute of a product dominates across the spectrum of consumer preferences commonality and its associated cost savings can help firms design better product lines with common components and attributes, and thus improve profits.
"This suggests that firms are more likely to choose a common attribute that exhibits a large potential cost savings, and that the characteristics of the consumer market are relatively less important," said Chhajed, who also is the associate head and executive director of the master's programs in the department of business administration. "Our analysis of commonality for consumer segments with nondominating consumer preference structure shows that the commonality strategy exhibits much more diverse effects."
"Marketing managers think a lot about product cannibalization," Liu said. "If consumers have a choice about products, they'll switch, and those products will cannibalize each other. So marketing managers think, 'Let's differentiate the products so that there is a clear choice for consumers, so they don't cannibalize each other.' That's the traditional view. But that overlooks the possibility that consumers can be nondominating, or that consumers can have wildly different tastes."
For some goods, there is a dominating consumer preference. However, for other product categories, consumers can have very different tastes. But such "nondominating" preference structures are found for many products, the researchers say.
Take the iPod, for example.
"Some consumers like the style and don't worry as much about the storage capacity," Liu said. "Another segment worries about the capacity over the style."
Or food.
"Some consumers like taste, while others prefer certain health aspects," Liu said. "It's a nondominating consumer structure because consumers value different attributes."
Under a nondominating preference structure, there is no simple way to strictly rank-order the consumer preferences, because consumers will exhibit different preference ordering for different attributes, Chhajed said.
"We claim that a nondominating structure is quite common in practice since a dominating preference structure entails restrictive strict ordering of preference among segments for all attributes," he said.
But a careful examination of the consumer preference structure in a particular market is necessary before marketing managers adopt the commonality strategy. So marketing managers should examine how their preference structure may have changed, and how dynamic the change is, the researchers say.
"I think marketing managers need to look at differing consumer tastes," Liu said. "Consumer tastes can change. Consumer taste is very dynamic."
But if you don't do it correctly, the strategy could backfire, "because every object then looks the same," Chhajed said.
The research will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Marketing Science.
###
Editor's notes: To contact Dilip Chhajed, call 217-333-3778; email chhajed@illinois.edu.
To contact Yunchuan "Frank" Liu, call 217-244-2749; email liuf@illinois.edu.
The article, "Can Commonality Relieve Cannibalization in Product Line Design," is available online.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Research: Common component strategy could improve profitsPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Ciciora pciciora@illinois.edu 217-333-2177 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. When designing product lines, one important decision marketing and manufacturing managers must consider is whether to use common or product-specific components. While the use of common components can reduce manufacturing costs, firms have traditionally shied away from that strategy over concerns of intensifying what scholars call "product cannibalization."
But according to research from two University of Illinois business professors, commonality can actually reduce product line cannibalization, a finding that could allow firms to redesign their product lines and improve profits.
When consumer preference is "nondominating," commonality and its associated cost savings can help firms design better product lines with common components and attributes, says research from Dilip Chhajed and Yunchuan "Frank" Liu, professors of business administration at Illinois.
"People in marketing are afraid of firms using common components for their products because that means that the products lose their uniqueness, what differentiates them from the competition," Chhajed said. "But it turns out that commonality can indeed relieve cannibalization in product lines, which means marketing managers should be encouraged to pursue it."
"It seems counterintuitive, but employing commonality can actually soften product line cannibalization," Liu said. "So managers should consider it, even though it runs counter to the conventional marketing wisdom, both in practice and in academia."
The research, co-written with Kilsun Kim, of Sogang University, in Seoul, South Korea, also debunks a crucial assumption long-held by scholars that one consumer segment's preference for a product's attributes dominates another's preference structure.
When consumer preference is "nondominating" that is, no single attribute of a product dominates across the spectrum of consumer preferences commonality and its associated cost savings can help firms design better product lines with common components and attributes, and thus improve profits.
"This suggests that firms are more likely to choose a common attribute that exhibits a large potential cost savings, and that the characteristics of the consumer market are relatively less important," said Chhajed, who also is the associate head and executive director of the master's programs in the department of business administration. "Our analysis of commonality for consumer segments with nondominating consumer preference structure shows that the commonality strategy exhibits much more diverse effects."
"Marketing managers think a lot about product cannibalization," Liu said. "If consumers have a choice about products, they'll switch, and those products will cannibalize each other. So marketing managers think, 'Let's differentiate the products so that there is a clear choice for consumers, so they don't cannibalize each other.' That's the traditional view. But that overlooks the possibility that consumers can be nondominating, or that consumers can have wildly different tastes."
For some goods, there is a dominating consumer preference. However, for other product categories, consumers can have very different tastes. But such "nondominating" preference structures are found for many products, the researchers say.
Take the iPod, for example.
"Some consumers like the style and don't worry as much about the storage capacity," Liu said. "Another segment worries about the capacity over the style."
Or food.
"Some consumers like taste, while others prefer certain health aspects," Liu said. "It's a nondominating consumer structure because consumers value different attributes."
Under a nondominating preference structure, there is no simple way to strictly rank-order the consumer preferences, because consumers will exhibit different preference ordering for different attributes, Chhajed said.
"We claim that a nondominating structure is quite common in practice since a dominating preference structure entails restrictive strict ordering of preference among segments for all attributes," he said.
But a careful examination of the consumer preference structure in a particular market is necessary before marketing managers adopt the commonality strategy. So marketing managers should examine how their preference structure may have changed, and how dynamic the change is, the researchers say.
"I think marketing managers need to look at differing consumer tastes," Liu said. "Consumer tastes can change. Consumer taste is very dynamic."
But if you don't do it correctly, the strategy could backfire, "because every object then looks the same," Chhajed said.
The research will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Marketing Science.
###
Editor's notes: To contact Dilip Chhajed, call 217-333-3778; email chhajed@illinois.edu.
To contact Yunchuan "Frank" Liu, call 217-244-2749; email liuf@illinois.edu.
The article, "Can Commonality Relieve Cannibalization in Product Line Design," is available online.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LOUISVILLE, Neb. (AP) ? The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has scheduled women?s archery classes for May at Platte River State Park near Louisville (LOO?-is-vihl) in eastern Nebraska.
The classes are being presented by the Beyond Becoming an Outdoors-Woman program. They will be held each Wednesday in May.
Participants may attend any of the classes. They Introduction to Archery on May 8; on May 15 is Shopping for Women?s Bows; on May 22, Tuning Your Bow; and on May 29, Fun with Archery.
The classes cost $5 each and run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Roger G. Sykes Outdoor Heritage Education Complex. Loaner bows will be available.
To register visit http://www.outdoornebraska.ne.gov/Education/ or contact Christy Christiansen at 402-471-5547 or chisty.christiansen(at)nebraska.gov.
The park is west of Louisville on Nebraska Highway 66.
Tags: General news, Nebraska, North America, Sports, United States, Women's sports
This entry was posted on April 28, 2013, 7:02 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
There were more smart phones shipped last quarter than low-end, "dumb" phones shipped, according to a new study.
By Steph Solis / April 26, 2013
In this file photo, a passerby takes a picture of an Apple Store in Sydney, Australia with a Samsung Galaxy phone. Smart phones surpassed feature phones in shipping numbers for the first time, in Q1 of 2013.
Tim Wimborne/Reuters/File
Enlarge
For the first time, more smart phones were shipped around the world than low-end, feature phones, according to the International Data Corporation.
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The IDC?s first-quarter statistics show that out of the 216.2 million phones shipped, 51.6 percent were smart phones. These numbers mark an important milestone for the mobile-phone industry in an otherwise slow quarter.
?Phone users want computers in their pockets. The days where phones are used primarily to make phone calls and send text messages are quickly fading away," says Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC?s WorldWide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, in a statement. "As a result, the balance of smart phone power has shifted to phone makers that are most dependent on smart phones."
In the past year, the global mobile phone market grew by 4 percent, according to the IDC statment. The market expanded by 41.6 percent compared to the 152.7 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2012, but it was 5.1 percent lower than the 227.8 million units shipped at the end of the year.
Samsung stayed at the top with more units than Apple, LG, and Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE combined. Its success this quarter can be attributed in part to the new features and security innovations of the Galaxy S4.
The data also shows the emergence of Chinese companies among leading smart-phone vendors. While a year ago, Nokia, BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion), and HTC dominated the top five list, they face competition from Chinese vendors such as Huawei and ZTE, as well as Coolpad and Lenovo.
Zack Whittaker?of ZDNet describes the numbers as a tipping point in which smart phones are becoming the norm, in both developed and emerging nations. However, he notes that feature phones will not vanish so quickly.
?It?s not to say the feature phone market is dead or even dying,? he writes. ?A tipping point, maybe, but there?s still a huge economy in building the not-so-smart phones.?
Carl Howe, vice president of the Yankee Group, echoes that sentiment, saying it?s clear that smart phones are on the rise, just not on when exactly they will surpass feature phones on sales, shipment, and ownership.
?Nobody?s going to debate that [smart phones] will surpass future [low-end] phone sales,? Mr. Howe says in a phone interview.
The bigger trend, however, is the growing complexity of the devices consumers carry in their pockets. Howe says it?s a game changer that has cultural implications, and potential opportunities for mobile phone companies to earn extra revenue.
The cultural implications can differ between emerging and developed nations, but it is clear that each society will see a number of trade-offs for smart phones, he says.
?The most interesting thing is that people consider them so essential that people are giving up essential things for them,? he says. ?One executive I know from a large computer firm went to Peru, and he was surprised to see people sleeping on the beach. They had no housing, but they had an iPhone, the most expensive smart phone in the market.?
While that example may seem extreme, it illustrates the growing appeal and need for a smart phone for people throughout the world. Howe notes that it will be interesting to see what products or necessities some people will sacrifice to be connected to the world through a smart phone, as it will likely differ from one society to another.
?Smart phones are increasingly things that people want, and they?re willing to give up other things for them,? he says. ?This is going to change culture in pretty significant ways.?
A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
A passenger sits at right in the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)
The control tower stands in the background as a passenger lays on the pavement outside the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)
The control tower stands in the background as a passenger paces while on the phone outside the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Michael Huerta testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Transportation hearing on flight delays that are being caused by the FAA's decision to furlough air traffic controllers because of mandatory budget cuts. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says the congressional fix for widespread flight delays is an irresponsible way to govern, but he's prepared to sign the legislation that lawmakers fast-tracked.
He says the bipartisan bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers is a "Band-Aid" solution rather than a lasting answer to this year's $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester.
The cuts have affected all federal agencies, and flight delays last week left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious and Congress feeling pressured to respond.
"Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they've decided it was a bad idea all along," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, aired Saturday.
He singled out the GOP even though the bill passed with overwhelming Democratic support in both the House and Senate.
The president scolded lawmakers for helping the Federal Aviation Administration while doing nothing to replace other cuts that he said harm federal employees, unemployed workers and preschoolers in Head Start.
"Maybe because they fly home each weekend, the members of Congress who insisted these cuts take hold finally realized that they actually apply to them, too," Obama said.
Rushed through Congress with remarkable speed, the bill marked a shift for Democrats who had hoped the impact of the cuts would increase pressure on Republicans to reverse the broad cuts.
Republicans have rejected Obama's proposal to replace the spending reductions with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.
"There are some in the Obama administration who thought inflicting pain on the public would give the president more leverage to avoid making necessary spending cuts, and to impose more tax hikes on the American people," said Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania in the Republican address.
Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the FAA could have averted the flight delays on its own by cutting costs elsewhere and rejiggering work schedules, but chose not to do so.
The bill signed by Obama would let the FAA use up to $253 million from an airport improvement program and other accounts to halt the furloughs through the Sept. 30 end of the government's fiscal year.
Faced with the prospect that emboldened Republicans will push to selectively undo other painful effects of the cuts, the White House said Friday that a piecemeal approach would be impractical, but wouldn't definitely rule out signing other fixes.
___
Online:
Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov
GOP address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference
___
Follow Josh Lederman at https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
Unless you already know where to start, locating the right kind of commercial property for your new business can be hard. Take the time to read this article.
If you?re a buyer or if you?re a seller, it?s important that you negotiate. Be heard and fight to get a fair property price.
You will need to have all of your financial information if you want to procure a commercial real estate loan. Not having your own financial statements in order will make a poor impression on the bank, possibly making them turn down your loan application.
TIP! Be sure to negotiate on the fact of what you are, the seller or buyer. Be certain your needs are met, your concerns are heard, and you champion a fair, honest price for the real estate.
Select your financing before you do anything else. Loan products and commercial lenders are different from home loans. They can actually be better in some ways. Commercial properties require huge down payments, but regulations make it possible to avoid responsibility if things go bad. Additionally, banks aren?t as picky about how you come up with the down payment.
Compile a number of people to partner with financially. These can be professional lenders, friends and family. This will allow you to ascertain cash flow. Come up with a contract where you have to pay back the loans either with a fixed rate of interest, or via a certain percentage of the property income.
A commercial loan usually requires a higher down payment when compared to a residential loan. It is in your best interest to search for the most trustworthy lenders and locate the best possible investments.
TIP! When dealing with commercial properties location is everything. When investing in a property, consider what type of neighborhood it is located in.
Square Footage
Be clearheaded about what amount of square footage is really usable. In commercial real estate, square footage can be reported in usable square footage only, or the total square footage which would include walls and unusable space as well. In order to make the whole transaction much more clear, it is important to know both square footage totals.
In the earliest stages of negotiating your lease, it is in your best interest to ensure that only a few conditions are capable of constituting acceptable means of default. This will greatly lessen the likelihood that the tenant might default. This is a bad thing, so do what you can to minimize the chance of it happening.
TIP! Before you sign a lease, find out about pest control. This is especially important when an area is known to have pest and rodent problems.
Real Estate
You should consult with a reputable lawyer before closing on any commercial real estate property transaction. If a complication arises relating to your real estate transaction, you should be represented by the best person in order to set everything straight.
All of your property buying ventures should include feng shui in their decor. Two fundamentals of feng shui are the removal of clutter and having a lot of open space. Both of these will also be attractive to prospective buyers.
TIP! Check the company?s reputation for customer service before you deal with them. If you don?t do your research and end up in bed with wolves, you will be the one to suffer.
Know your business goals before starting the search for commercial property! Know exactly what kind of office space you will be using. If you?re interested in eventually expanding your business, buy more office space than you currently need. This saves money in the long run because prices may be higher by the time you?re ready for more office space.
As you comb through possible brokers, search for those who have extensive experience in commercial markets. For better results they should specialize in the specific area that you want to buy or sell in. Allow the broker to acknowledge your wish for an exclusive agreement between the two of you.
Get your commercial property inspected before you try to sell it. If they flag issues that need to be fixed, repair them before you list the property for sale.
TIP! Tour any properties you are considering for purchase. Think about having a contractor as a companion to help evaluate the property.
Advertising your property to parties locally and abroad is important to ensure you get the best price possible. Many people only think locals will buy their property, and that?s a mistake. Many investors will consider purchasing a property outside their own region if the price is right.
If you are new to commercial real estate investing, you should investigate any tax benefits that you could be eligible for. Investors receive interest deductions on top of depreciation benefits. There is also ?phantom income?, which is taxed by the government although not received by the investor as cash. You need to be aware of this type of income before investing.
With the information you just acquired from this article you should have learned good tips you can apply when it comes to selling or buying commercial property. Take what you?ve learned here to heart, and continue to learn as much as you can about the real estate market.
TIP! It is a far lengthier, and more complicated, process to purchase a commercial property than a residential one. Understand, however, that the intensity and duration of the process is necessary to achieve the higher return on your investment.
Anger on streets as Bangladesh building toll passes 300
DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh textile workers vented their anger on Friday, burning cars and clashing with police, as the death toll passed 300 following the collapse of a building housing factories that made low-cost garments for Western brands. Miraculously rescuers were still pulling people alive from the rubble - 72 since daybreak following 41 found in the same room overnight - two days after the eight-storey building collapsed on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka.
Obama: Chemical weapons use in Syria would be "game changer"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama warned President Bashar al-Assad on Friday that any use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war would be a "game changer" but cautioned that intelligence assessments that such weapons had been deployed were still preliminary. Speaking a day after the White House said for the first time that Assad's government had likely used chemical weapons on a small scale, Obama talked tough while appealing for patience as he sought to fend off pressure at home and abroad for a swift U.S. response.
Fire kills dozens in Russian psychiatric hospital
RAMENSKY, Russia (Reuters) - Thirty-eight people were killed, most of them in their beds, in a fire that raged through a psychiatric hospital near Moscow on Friday, raising questions about the care of mentally ill patients in Russia. The fire, which broke out at around 2 a.m. (6 p.m. ET on Thursday), swept through a single-storey building at the hospital, a collection of wood and brick huts with bars on some windows that was home to people sent there on grounds of mental illness by Russian courts.
Boston bomb suspect moved to prison from hospital
BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved to a prison medical center from the hospital where he had been held since his arrest a week ago while recovering from gunshot wounds, U.S. officials said on Friday. The 19-year-old ethnic Chechen, wounded in a late-night shootout with police on April 18 hours after authorities released pictures of him and his older brother as suspects, was charged on Monday and could face the death penalty if convicted. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout.
"Evidence" of Syria chemical weapons use not up to U.N. standard
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Assertions of chemical weapon use in Syria by Western and Israeli officials citing photos, sporadic shelling and traces of toxins do not meet the standard of proof needed for a U.N. team of experts waiting to gather their own field evidence. Weapons inspectors will only determine whether banned chemical agents were used in the two-year-old conflict if they are able to access sites and take soil, blood, urine or tissue samples and examine them in certified laboratories, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which works with the United Nations on inspections.
Islamist says Egypt should press on with judge reforms
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist-dominated parliament must move quickly to adopt judicial reforms that have sparked a revolt by judges, the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm argued on Friday. The proposed reforms, which would get rid of more than 3,000 judges by lowering the retirement age, have widened the rift between President Mohamed Mursi's government and a judiciary seen by its critics as a last bastion of the old regime that was toppled in the 2011 revolution.
Top British publicist charged with 11 sex assaults
LONDON (Reuters) - Celebrity publicist Max Clifford on Friday became the first high profile figure to be charged in a wide-ranging investigation into a sex scandal that has grabbed front page headlines in Britain in recent months. Clifford, 70, was charged with 11 counts of indecent assault, prosecutors said, including on two underage girls, after being arrested in December as part of an investigation into sex crime allegations against the late Jimmy Savile.
Bombs kill at least 20 across Iraqi capital
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least 20 more people on Friday at the end of a week of bloodshed that prompted a United Nations envoy to warn Iraq was "at a crossroads". More than 160 people have been killed since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces.
Russian court denies punk band convict Tolokonnikova parole
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court refused to release from prison one of two jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk band so that she can look after her young daughter. The court on Friday rejected Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's appeal for parole eight months after she was handed a two-year prison sentence for the band's performance of a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.
Bosnian regional president arrested in graft probe
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The president of Bosnia's autonomous Muslim-Croat federation and 19 others were arrested on Friday in an anti-corruption probe that also targeted the offices of the regional government, a spokesman for the state prosecutor said. The raid on Zivko Budimir's Sarajevo office and the regional government in the southern town of Mostar is the most high-profile anti-graft operation in Bosnia since independence more than two decades ago.
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seattle's interim police chief has apologized for appearing in a 1986 video that showed him and other officers mocking the homeless in what the city's police department this week called an "ugly piece" of its history.
Interim Chief Jim Pugel, who is implementing sweeping reforms in the wake of a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice report that found the city's police routinely used excessive force, appeared in the video when he was a 26-year-old officer.
In the roughly five-minute clip, which officials say was part of a training video and which they released this week, Pugel and a few colleagues are seen wearing fake beards, dancing with bottles of alcohol under a freeway overpass and singing parody lyrics to the 1964 song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
Some of the officers sport blacked-out teeth as they croon lyrics such as, "We'll be drinking Thunderbird (wine) all through the day, under the viaduct. Who could ask for anything more?"
"Even by 1980s standards, the Seattle Police Department considered the video to be insensitive and inappropriate," Pugel, who was appointed to his position earlier this month, said in a statement late on Thursday. "I regret my participation and have professionally apologized for my role in it. I do so now publicly. I am truly sorry."
He takes over a department that has at times experienced a troubled history with minority communities and is in the first year of a reform plan overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice to revise the use of force by officers.
The Seattle Times reported in a story posted on its website on Friday that the newspaper and other media outlets had received several tips about the video's existence before it was made public late on Thursday by police.
Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Pugel, who has not said whether he will seek to lead the department on a permanent basis, disclosed the existence of the video to other city officials and homeless groups when he was appointed interim chief.
"It's not a problem but an opportunity to showcase who Chief Pugel is," Whitcomb said. "For him it was a leadership moment."
Police say all existing copies of the video have been destroyed, except for a single copy retained for their records.
Pugel said in his statement that he had the video released because he felt it was "important to show where this department has been and where it is going" and that he discussed it with Mayor Mike McGinn and several Seattle-based homeless groups.
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Simao)
Lance Cheung/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images Now that tax season is over (except for those who filed for an extension), it's natural to wonder exactly where the hard-earned dollars you paid in tax over the past year actually went.
To answer that question, the White House put together a website that gives details on the government's expenditures. Dubbed the Federal Taxpayer Receipt, you can enter in your income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes and get a personalized look at where your tax dollars got spent. Understanding that Social Security and Medicare taxes go toward funding those respective programs, here are the 10 areas where the greatest percentage of income tax revenues gets spent.
What Is the Minimum Monthly Payment for an IRS Installment Plan?
Can't afford to pay your income taxes? You may be able to qualify for an installment plan with the Internal Revenue Service. The minimum monthly payment for your plan depends on how much you owe. Brought to you by TurboTax.com
Can't File by the Deadline? Top 3 Reasons to File a Tax Extension
The Internal Revenue Service allows taxpayers to file for a six-month extension if they need more time to prepare their tax return. You can obtain a tax extension for any reason; the IRS grants them automatically as long as you complete the proper form on time. Check your state tax laws; some states accept IRS extensions while others require you to file a separate state extension form. Brought to you by TurboTax.com
Tax Return Filing and Payment Extensions for the Military
The Internal Revenue Service recognizes the fact that members of the United States armed forces are often deployed outside of the U.S. at tax time and gives many military and support personnel an extension on their tax deadlines. Brought to you by TurboTax.com
What Are Deductible Investment Interest Expenses?
In general, you can deduct interest paid on money you borrow to invest, although there are restrictions on how much you can deduct and which investments actually qualify you for the deduction. Brought to you by TurboTax.com
States with the Highest and Lowest Taxes
Where you live can help or hinder your ability to make ends meet. A myriad of taxes -- property, license, state and local sales, property, inheritance, estate and excise taxes on gasoline -- eat away at your disposable income. Weighing the tax landscape against your financial picture lets you stretch your dollars. Brought to you by TurboTax.com
BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets wavered Friday despite better-than-expected U.S. employment data after Japan faced an unwelcome drop in consumer prices.
Wall Street closed higher Thursday after the U.S. government reported the number of Americans seeking jobless benefits dropped last week by 16,000, suggesting that companies are cutting fewer jobs and that the U.S. may be headed for an uptick in job growth. Analysts said that solid U.S. corporate earnings also helped to lift the market mood.
But the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo slipped from a five-year high after Japan's consumer price index fell 0.9 percent in March from a year earlier. The result flies in the face of efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office in December vowing to reverse a long bout of deflation, or falling prices, which has crippled economic growth.
The Nikkei, which in the morning hit its highest intraday level in five years at 13,983.87, fell into negative territory before edging up marginally to 13,934.69. Later in the day, attention will turn to a meeting by the Bank of Japan, which will issue an updated inflation outlook.
Also Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department will release economic growth figures for the first three months of 2013.
"A solid GDP figure out of the US should give markets a boost," said Daniel Martin of Capital Economics in Singapore. He said he expected the data to show that the world's No. 1 economy grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent. That would be a sharp improvement from the anemic 0.4 percent growth rate reported for the final quarter of the year.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1 percent to 22,613.83. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped marginally to 5,101.10. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.3 percent at 1,946.98. Benchmarks in Singapore and Taiwan rose while those in mainland China and India fell.
In Britain, meanwhile, growth figures released Thursday came as a surprise relief to analysts who predicted that the U.K. would sink into its third recession in five years. Instead, GDP for the first quarter of 2013 grew 0.3 percent compared with the previous quarter.
Wall Street posted modest gains Wednesday on the heels of a U.S. Labor Department report showing the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the second-fewest in more than five years. The drop suggests that layoffs have declined and that job growth may pick up from last month's sluggish pace.
Among companies reporting earnings, children's clothing maker Carter's, motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson and cruise line Royal Caribbean all reported higher profit and revenue, as did 3M, the maker of Scotch tape and construction equipment.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.2 percent to 14,700.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.4 percent to 1,585.16. The Nasdaq composite index gained 0.6 percent, to 3,289.99
Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 55 cents to $93.08 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.21 to close at $93.64 on the Nymex on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3038 from $1.3002 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 98.81 yen from 99.31 yen.
Drivers education for older drivers remains for 2 years, HF/E researcher findsPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lois Smith lois@hfes.org 310-394-1811 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
A new study finds driver retraining to be an effective strategy for improving the safe-driving habits of older drivers over the long term
In seeming contrast to the notion that the elderly often have memory problems, a new study from an HF/E researcher finds driver retraining to be an effective strategy for improving the safe-driving habits of older drivers over the long term.
In his Human Factors article, "The Long-Term Effects of Active Training Strategies on Improving Older Drivers' Scanning in Intersections: A Two Year Follow-up to Romoser and Fisher (2009)," Matthew R. E. Romoser conducted a follow up study to see if participants from a 2009 study who received training retained the safe driving behaviors. In 2009, the participants that received simulator training and video reviews of their driving performance increased their likelihood of scanning while negotiating an intersection by 100%.
Healthy older drivers, 70-89 years of age, from the trained and control groups of his previous study participated in a follow-up field drive in their own vehicles. Researchers recorded secondary looks, defined as looking away from the immediate path of the vehicle while entering intersections toward regions to the side from which other vehicles could appear. The participants' road-scanning behaviors were recorded using a head-mounted camera system.
Two years after their training, older drivers in the trained group still took secondary looks on average 73% of the time, more than one and a half times as often as pre-training levels. Control group drivers, who averaged secondary looks 41% of the time, saw no significant change in performance over the 2-year period.
"Training in the form of actively practicing target skills in a simulator provides drivers a means by which to reincorporate previously extinguished behaviors into their driving habits," says Remoser.
The study's results can guide the development of mature-driver retraining programs that might be incorporated into car insurance discount programs or future state licensing regulations.
###
To receive the complete article for media reporting purposes, contact HFES
Communications Director Lois Smith (310/394-1811).
Media inquiries may be directed to HFES Communications
Director Lois Smith (310/394-1811; lois@hfes.org).
Matthew R. E. Romoser is a research professor at the Arbella Human Performance Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Questions regarding this research can be directed to Dr. Matthew R. E. Romoser (413/545-4543; mromoser@ecs.umass.edu).
Human Factors is the flagship journal of the field and has been published for over 50 years. The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is the world's largest nonprofit
individual-member, multidisciplinary scientific association for human
factors/ergonomics professionals, with more than 4,600 members globally. HFES
members include psychologists and other scientists, designers, and engineers, all of
who have a common interest in designing systems and equipment to be safe and effective for the people who operate and maintain them. "Human Factors and Ergonomics: People-Friendly Design Through Science and Engineering"
2013 International Annual Meeting, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, San Diego, California, September 30-October 4, 2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Drivers education for older drivers remains for 2 years, HF/E researcher findsPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lois Smith lois@hfes.org 310-394-1811 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
A new study finds driver retraining to be an effective strategy for improving the safe-driving habits of older drivers over the long term
In seeming contrast to the notion that the elderly often have memory problems, a new study from an HF/E researcher finds driver retraining to be an effective strategy for improving the safe-driving habits of older drivers over the long term.
In his Human Factors article, "The Long-Term Effects of Active Training Strategies on Improving Older Drivers' Scanning in Intersections: A Two Year Follow-up to Romoser and Fisher (2009)," Matthew R. E. Romoser conducted a follow up study to see if participants from a 2009 study who received training retained the safe driving behaviors. In 2009, the participants that received simulator training and video reviews of their driving performance increased their likelihood of scanning while negotiating an intersection by 100%.
Healthy older drivers, 70-89 years of age, from the trained and control groups of his previous study participated in a follow-up field drive in their own vehicles. Researchers recorded secondary looks, defined as looking away from the immediate path of the vehicle while entering intersections toward regions to the side from which other vehicles could appear. The participants' road-scanning behaviors were recorded using a head-mounted camera system.
Two years after their training, older drivers in the trained group still took secondary looks on average 73% of the time, more than one and a half times as often as pre-training levels. Control group drivers, who averaged secondary looks 41% of the time, saw no significant change in performance over the 2-year period.
"Training in the form of actively practicing target skills in a simulator provides drivers a means by which to reincorporate previously extinguished behaviors into their driving habits," says Remoser.
The study's results can guide the development of mature-driver retraining programs that might be incorporated into car insurance discount programs or future state licensing regulations.
###
To receive the complete article for media reporting purposes, contact HFES
Communications Director Lois Smith (310/394-1811).
Media inquiries may be directed to HFES Communications
Director Lois Smith (310/394-1811; lois@hfes.org).
Matthew R. E. Romoser is a research professor at the Arbella Human Performance Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Questions regarding this research can be directed to Dr. Matthew R. E. Romoser (413/545-4543; mromoser@ecs.umass.edu).
Human Factors is the flagship journal of the field and has been published for over 50 years. The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is the world's largest nonprofit
individual-member, multidisciplinary scientific association for human
factors/ergonomics professionals, with more than 4,600 members globally. HFES
members include psychologists and other scientists, designers, and engineers, all of
who have a common interest in designing systems and equipment to be safe and effective for the people who operate and maintain them. "Human Factors and Ergonomics: People-Friendly Design Through Science and Engineering"
2013 International Annual Meeting, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, San Diego, California, September 30-October 4, 2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
We have a soft spot for Remember the Milk, not least because the cross-platform app is handy for divvying up to-do lists between different groups in remote locations. If you're on Android and in the market for a new productivity tool, a significant update to version 3.0 makes this a good time to try it. There's a video after the break showing how the new interface works with vertical columns, similar to those on the iOS version, so you see a selection of lists on the left, list contents in the middle and the precise details of a task when you swipe to the right. Sounds simple, perhaps, but it's more fluid -- especially on smaller screens. It's also good that the constant "reminders" about upgrading to a Pro account aren't as in-your-face as they were in the old version, which makes the whole thing feel a bit more chilled out. For more personal and less urgent stuff, however, you might find Springpad to be a bit friendlier.
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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