Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Feeling sick makes us less social online, too

Mar. 25, 2013 ? When it comes to posting on social media, there are few areas of our lives that are off limits.

We post about eating, working, playing, hunting, quilting -- you name it. Just about everything is up for public consumption ? except our health.

A new study from BYU finds that while most of us go online regularly for help in diagnosing health issues, very few of us actually post information, questions or experiences on health topics.

"Less than 15 percent of us are posting the health information that most of us are consuming," said Rosemary Thackeray, BYU professor of health science and lead author of the study appearing online in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

According to the study, more than 60 percent of Internet users go online for health help, looking for advice, digging up user experiences on social media and consulting online reviews in hunt of health providers and health care facilities.

Thackeray believes if people were more "social" about health information on social media, the better the information would become.

"If you only have a few people sharing their experience with using a painkiller, that's different than 10,000 people doing that," Thackeray said. "If we're really going to use this social media aspect, there needs to be a true collective wisdom of the crowds."

According to data Thackeray and BYU colleagues Ben Crookston and Josh West used from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, three-fourths of people begin their hunt for medical or health information online by using a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

By the end of their search, nearly a third have used social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter) for health- related activities while 41 percent have consulted online rankings or reviews of doctors and health care facilities.

However, only 10 percent of respondents actually posted reviews and 15 percent posted comments, questions or information when it came to health-related info.

"The inherent value of 'social' in social media is not being captured with online health information seeking," Thackeray said. "Social media is still a good source of health information, but I don't think it's ever going to replace providers or traditional health care sources."

But, the researchers say social media could be more valuable to all parties if more people joined in on the health discussion. Patients could become more empowered and doctors could be more aware of the public discourse around certain medical issues.

The challenge now is how to get more people to contribute health info on social media sites.

"We're just not there yet, but we'll probably get there in the future," Thackeray said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brigham Young University.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Rosemary Thackeray, Benjamin T Crookston, Joshua H West. Correlates of Health-Related Social Media Use Among Adults. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2013 DOI: 10.2196/jmir.2297

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/DYkj6cdhnz0/130325101524.htm

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Board Games: How The Collapse Of The Senate Has Crippled The ...

SMITHERS, W.Va. ? When he was a teenager, Barry Kidd went into the West Virginia coal mines, just like his father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather before him. Kidd started out as a general laborer on the midnight shift at the Cannelton mine near Smithers, W.Va., 30 miles southeast of Charleston, in 1977. Cannelton was something of a family mine back then, and Kidd?s own father was still running heavy equipment there when his son was hired and given the telltale red hat of a novice. Like his dad, Kidd brought home good money for hard and dirty work.

With a foot on one of the few blue-collar ladders into West Virginia?s middle class, Kidd had hoped to spend a full career at Cannelton before retiring with a pension and health coverage through his union, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). For a while there, it all went according to plan.

But in 2004, Cannelton?s operator declared bankruptcy, throwing out the contract with the union and selling the mine to Massey Energy. One of the largest coal companies in the country, Massey later became famous for its culpability in the Upper Big Branch mining disaster, in which 29 miners perished at a Massey-owned mine in Montcoal, W.Va., in 2010. When it purchased the Cannelton operation, Massey could boast a workforce that was 97 percent union-free, according to court documents.

The miners all understood the significance of the Massey purchase: Unionized rank-and-file workers would be purged from Cannelton. This seemed all but a certainty, even though the miners already knew the operation and their jobs inside out, and even though, in Kidd?s estimation, the Cannelton miners were ?the coal minin?-est bunch of sons of bitches you ever seen in your life.?

?We knew the mines, and we done everything by the book,? said Kidd, now 54. ?These guys, they might not be pretty to look at, but you talk about a bunch of coal miners. We did our jobs.?

Nine years after the Massey buyout, litigation continues to confirm what Kidd and his former colleagues have contended all along ? that Massey management discriminated against union members when they staffed their new mine. While many non-union supervisors didn?t see a break in their employment with the ownership change, most of the more than 200 union members were cut loose and not invited back.

Federal officials ruled last year, for the second time, that 85 miners are owed backpay as well as reinstatement on the job. (Technically speaking, Massey itself no longer exists. A year after the disaster at Upper Big Branch, Massey was sold for $7.1 billion to Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources, which took on the company?s assets as well as debts. A spokesperson for Alpha said the company would not comment for this story, citing ongoing litigation.)

But nearly a decade after the layoffs, the Cannelton miners are still waiting to go back to work. In the meantime, the miners? middle-class lives have been downgraded to something less.

?I don?t understand it, how we can keep on going, and the system can keep on beating us,? Kidd said. ?It?s just a shame how the people ? the working class ? can be done like this.?

Kidd had been earning about $60,000 a year working in the mine. He now makes roughly $24,000 doing maintenance for the local public school district. (Kidd did, however, earn enough union time for his pension and health coverage.) Along with more than half of his salary, Kidd has lost something less tangible. For four generations, the Kidd men had been coal miners. Barry Kidd will likely retire a janitor.

The travesty of Cannelton has as much to do with the dysfunction of the U.S. Senate as it does with the slow wheels of justice. The miners have the misfortune of having their case before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the 78-year-old, independent agency tasked with enforcing labor law on corporations and unions. Despite its reputation for professionalism, the NLRB has come under withering political attacks from the right during the Obama presidency. Republicans and business groups have accused the board of catering to unions and killing jobs through labor-friendly rulings. Several GOP lawmakers seem intent on rendering the board inoperable.

They may soon get their wish. In January, a panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Obama?s three recess appointments to the five-member labor board last January violated the Constitution. The complainant in the case, a Pepsi bottling company named Noel Canning, argued that a ruling against it by the board should be thrown out because Obama?s appointments were illegitimate and the board therefore didn?t have the necessary quorum. The company enjoyed the support, through legal filings, of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the GOP-allied Chamber of Commerce, the nation?s foremost business lobby. Three Republican-appointed judges decided the case.

The Noel Canning ruling has put a hold on the miners? victory last year before the labor board, along with more than 200 other cases. If the D.C. Circuit ruling is upheld, it would undo a year?s worth of work by the board, including the Cannelton case, and essentially shut the board down for the time being. An earlier win by the miners, in 2009, was invalidated by a Supreme Court decision that said the board didn?t have an appropriate quorum at the time.

The uncertainty has brought a degree of chaos to the board, with scores of companies, from Starbucks to Domino?s to Time Warner, now arguing in court that the board?s rules, decisions or cases last year are illegitimate. This dysfunction stems from the president?s inability to appoint members to the board through the normal Senate confirmation process without a filibuster-proof majority.

Respect for Congress ? whose approval rating is hovering around 15 percent nationally ? appears to have plumbed new depths near the Cannelton mine.

?If I go to work and I don?t do my job ? or if I go to work and I stand in the way of other people doing their work ? I?m not there very long. I?m fired,? said Charlie Treadway, another laid-off Cannelton miner. ?How are senators able to go up there and stand in the way, and not be held accountable for it??

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democrats have so far declined opportunities to meaningfully reform Senate rules, which currently allow the minority to freely and easily stand in the way of any legislation, nominees or appointments they find objectionable, even if it means crippling an agency. And as the Cannelton miners have witnessed, a paralyzed system has a way of abetting the deep-pocketed and powerful, leaving average citizens to fend for themselves, at least while they?re still alive. Three of the Cannelton miners have died while waiting for their reinstatements.

?INOPERABLE? AS ?PROGRESS?

Even before the president made his recess appointments, GOP lawmakers signalled that they would deny him a functioning labor board if they could. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was among those calling this relatively obscure federal body ?the most out-of-control agency in Washington,? panning its decisions in favor of unions.

?Given its recent actions, the NLRB as inoperable could be considered progress,? Graham declared in August 2011.

Such a statement from a sitting senator ? that it?s better a federal agency be shut down than do things that the senator disagrees with ? might surprise someone unfamiliar with the heated politics of the labor board.

The NLRB was created in the midst of the Great Depression by the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act, the 1935 statute that guaranteed American workers? right to join a union and bargain collectively. As part of Roosevelt?s ?Second New Deal,? the quasi-judicial labor board was established during a time of labor turmoil in the U.S. Roosevelt sold it to the titans of business as one of the buffers between them and full-fledged revolt.

By tradition, the ideological makeup of the board has vacillated in favor of either corporations or unions, depending on whether a Republican or a Democrat occupies the White House and controls board appointments. But for the most part, the board and its regional offices have quietly carried out the mundane and unglamorous mandate of settling labor disputes.

The notion that the board should be neutered, rather than issue rulings that lawmakers don?t approve of, is a relatively recent phenomenon and a symptom of Washington?s new obstructionism, according to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.

?It used to be that Republicans said it was fine as long as they controlled it,? said the soon-to-retire Harkin, who?s closely watched the board during his decades in Washington. ?Now they don?t want a board at all. They want to do away with [National Labor Relations Act], and that?s only enforceable by actions of the board.

?This is quite a disturbing development in our labor-management relations in this country,? he added.

Democrats, too, have played a role in holding up board appointments before. Late in the George W. Bush presidency, after a spate of rulings benefiting corporations, Democrats blocked Bush from filling labor board seats when two became vacant. The two-member board, which still handled cases and carried into the Obama presidency, was later deemed insufficient by the Supreme Court. According to the labor board?s own history of board membership, presidents on both sides of the aisle have increasingly come to rely on recess appointments simply to keep the board functioning.

As with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the new regulator created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, blocking nominees to a watchdog agency like the labor board effectively blocks the law itself from being enforced. Obama?s recess appointee to the CFPB, Richard Cordray, could also be undone by the appellate ruling against the labor board installments. A clean appointment to the bureau has eluded Cordray for two years, with Republicans explicitly demanding changes to the CFPB?s structure before they will consider confirming him or any nominee.

Despite the current calls to halt the NLRB?s operations, labor unions still exist, at least for the time being, and spats between unions and companies still need to be resolved.

?It used to be that if you didn?t like a law, you?d go to the legislative process and you?d change it, repeal it, modify it,? said Fred Feinstein, former general counsel for the NLRB during the Clinton years. ?But now, because of political gridlock, you can?t do that, apparently. So you attack the agency that?s supposed to be enforcing the law. That?s raising pretty important and significant questions about the fundamental constitutional principle of due process.?

In what ultimately became a GOP campaign issue, the acting general counsel for the labor board, Lafe Solomon, issued a complaint against the Boeing Company in 2011, accusing the aerospace giant of violating labor law when it tried to establish a production line for its 787 Dreamliner plane in South Carolina. According to the complaint, the Boeing move was an act of illegal retaliation against Boeing?s unionized workforce in the state of Washington, for having gone on strike in the past.

Republican members of Congress, particularly the South Carolina delegation that included Graham, were apoplectic. Such charges, however, usually get resolved well short of a full board hearing. And the general counsel, who acts as a kind of prosecutor, had evidence that appeared to support the charge. (Boeing CEO Jim McNerney had said publicly that the company was headed to South Carolina in part because of ?strikes happening every three to four years in Puget Sound.?)

In response to the Boeing complaint, Republicans threatened to defund the labor board and cease its operations, and also blasted the president as a job killer. Nonetheless, the charge against Boeing was ultimately settled, when Boeing and the machinists? union inked a new contract. In fact, the controversial charge against Boeing never even reached the board itself.

?Can you imagine if federal judges were subject to the same kind of intense attacks for making a decision to hear a case, or to accept an appeal?? asked Feinstein, the former general counsel. Of the Boeing fiasco, Feinstein said, ?It got resolved how most of the cases get resolved ? it was settled, through a process of negotiations, through the collective bargaining process. ? Politics could have derailed it.?

Republicans and business groups were just as infuriated by a rule proposed by the board to require businesses to hang posters spelling out workers? labor rights under the Wagner Act. The posters, which were 11 by 17 inches and could be printed off the NLRB?s website, were similar to the placards already hanging in American workplaces spelling out rights related to work safety, equal opportunity, family and medical leave and the minimum wage. It probably says a lot about the state of organized labor that board members felt workers might be unaware they have the right to discuss working conditions amongst themselves and join a union (or not).

Business lobbies sued to block the poster requirement, assailing it as a ?punitive? measure and a ?gift to organized labor,? while Republicans held it up as one more reason to neuter the agency. The rule is currently tied up in litigation.

Wilma Liebman, a labor attorney and longtime board member, presided as the NLRB?s chair from 2009 through 2011 as Graham and other Republicans assailed its leftward tilt, including the poster mandate. For Liebman, the board?s modern drama epitomizes, better than any other government body, the national discussion on income inequality and class warfare that the 2012 elections engendered.

The irony here is that organized labor has never been so diminished, with a historical low of 6.6 percent of private-sector workers now belonging to unions. In other words, the board?s decisions tend to affect an increasingly smaller portion of Americans, while the politics projected onto the board by Congress grow more and more heated, making it difficult, and, soon, perhaps even impossible, for the board to carry out its responsibilities.

?In an odd sense, if there were to be a government agency that would exemplify this divide, you can see that it?s the NLRB,? Liebman said. ?It?s the quintessential administrative state created by the New Deal. It literally represents the interests of labor and business ? and income inequality, and class issues, and everything that?s wrapped up in what the board does.

?If there were one agency you would pick, on some intellectual level, you can see why it?s this one,? she said. ?This is a statute that was created out of enormous conflict, much of it violent, and it?s always been controversial. It?s odd now, that organized labor is so reduced and labor law is so ossified, but it?s like the opposition won?t be happy until the nail is in the coffin.?

?IT?S RUINED ME?

As FDR and other New Deal architects saw it, the labor board?s very mission was to remedy cases like the one at the Cannelton mine as fairly and expeditiously as possible. And not just for the sake of workers unfairly punished for their association with a union. Just as critically, the labor board was to hold bad actors to account and level the playing field for employers who played by the rules.

As court documents and interviews show, Massey showed little interest in re-hiring Cannelton?s UMWA miners, even though the company was effectively handed a latchkey operation through bankruptcy and had a ready-and-willing workforce already based in the community. Through its new subsidiary, Mammoth Coal, which was created to operate the Cannelton mine, Massey quickly made job offers to Cannelton?s previous, non-union supervisors and managers, but interviews were hard, if not impossible, to come by for rank-and-file miners.

After the buyout, the union informed Massey managers that there were 250 former Cannelton miners hoping to go back to work. (A minority now wanted nothing to do with the mine, given Massey?s anti-union reputation.) But Massey officials didn?t even let the miners know how they could apply, according to board findings.

Meanwhile, Massey searched far and wide for non-UMWA workers. A freshly laid off Barry Kidd spotted a billboard on the highway inviting experienced miners to apply for jobs. Kidd called the number and it was Massey, he said. With no jobs and plenty of spare time, some former Cannelton workers were vacationing in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a favorite shore spot for West Virginia miners, when they saw a plane fly over the beach dragging a banner, the kind that usually promotes a tiki-bar happy hour or wet t-shirt contest. Instead, the advertisement was soliciting applicants for their old jobs at Cannelton.

Massey managers who were doing the hiring went so far as to create a spreadsheet to track the amount of applicants? ?union time? ? how many years they?d logged as UMWA members, which served as an approximation of union loyalty.

?Mammoth?s hiring criteria can be best understood as mechanisms to screen out miners with an established connection to the Union,? the board noted in its ruling last year. In a rarity for a union-busting case, investigators didn?t even have to rely on circumstantial evidence to ferret out discrimination. Managers were straightforward about it under questioning. ?Mammoth?s managers testified that their anti-union bias tainted their decisions not to hire certain discriminatees,? the board wrote. Under labor law, such discrimination is illegal.

In the end, out of 219 miners hired for Massey?s new operation, only 19 came from the union, and none of them were union officers or committee members, the labor board found. Many of the new workers seemed to come from outside the area, with no roots in nearby Smithers or other local communities. Several of them had no mining experience whatsoever.

?I put in applications, but it was fruitless,? said Dwight Siemiaczko, a miner who?d put in 20 years at Cannelton. ?We were more or less blackballed.?

For families whose breadwinners worked at Cannelton, Massey?s purge has been nothing short of life-altering. Like other pockets of West Virginia still clinging to remnants of the coal industry, the area surrounding the mine doesn?t provide much in the way of good-paying jobs. According to census data, median household income in Fayette County, where many of the miners live, is less than $33,000, and an even worse $20,500 in nearby Smithers, the closest city to the mine. A whopping third of Smithers families fall below the poverty line, as do 17 percent of the county?s families.

?You had 200 people making anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 a year, and that was all drawn out of the community,? Siemiaczko said. ?Families are living on 50 percent or less of what they were previously making. It?s like a shotgun blast to the chest.?

Siemiaczko had planned on building a new home and enjoying retirement with his wife. ?It?s ruined me, plain and simple,? he said. ?Everything I had planned for later in life has just been taken away.?

After the labor board ruled in their favor last year, the miners and their families were cautiously hopeful that they might soon see checks for backpay, and that the miners who were physically able might be heading back into the mine. But once the appellate ruling stayed the decision, Chuck Donnelly, a UMWA lawyer based in Charleston, explained how goings-on in Washington had delayed the case into its ninth year.

?They can?t beat us on the facts,? Donnelly said. Instead, he argued, they beat them on the politics. ?And I?m the schmuck who has to go to the local [union] hall and try to explain what Congress or the courts are doing.?

Among those who?ve died before the case could be resolved was Charles Hill, who passed away in 2010, at age 63. According to his widow, Heide Hill, Charles spent his remaining years bouncing between service jobs that paid at or near the minimum wage. Heide, now 65, started cleaning houses to help make ends meet. Charles, she said, was bitter to the end that he never won his reinstatement.

?We waited every day for that call,? she said.

?WE?VE GOT PEOPLE DYING OFF?

With the labor board now in limbo, more than 85 companies have challenged the cases against them, some preemptively. In many cases, the challenges are meant to scuttle union elections or undo penalties against the companies for unfair labor practices. As the Wall Street Journal reported, companies are even arguing that 10 of the agency?s regional directors are illegitimate, the rationale being that they took their posts under an invalid board.

Likely hoping for a quick resolution to the case, the labor board and the Justice Department have declined an option to appeal and by late April plan to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. Meanwhile, House Republicans have advanced legislation that would forbid the board from performing any actions that require a quorum until the Noel Canning case is resolved.

The board?s opponents seem to be creating a convenient catch-22: Until the board?s appointments are confirmed, every decision by the board can be challenged, and yet there?s little reason to believe board appointees would actually be confirmed.

?This has been a fairly well-run, well-administered agency over the years. Labor and management respected that,? said Feinstein, the former general counsel. ?These are serious people, good administrators, in a well-run organization. For what it?s worth they?ve gotten themselves right in the middle ? and in my view, there?s nothing they did or didn?t do that got them there ? in the middle of this contentious issue. They?ve become part of this very polarized environment. It?s now extremely difficult for them to know what to do.?

In labor disputes, and especially in unionization efforts, gridlock tends to benefit corporations over workers. For many of the 200-odd cases handled by the board last year, the Noel Canning ruling has put yet another hitch in what?s already been a grueling process. Take, for example, a group of Panera Bread bakers trying to unionize in Michigan. They?ve faced what labor board complaints have painted as an intense anti-union campaign, only to see Noel Canning put their favorable ruling from last year into abeyance.

?I can?t tell you how many cases took years, even a decade, to get settled, and by the time it?s settled the interest in the union is eroded,? said John Price, an international representative for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers? International Union, which is representing the bakers. ?Inasmuch as our members don?t like politics, this case is exactly why they need to pay attention and participate.?

Unions? dwindling numbers in the U.S. ? now in steady decline for decades ? are usually attributed to economic factors like globalization, the rise of America?s union-free service sector, and the shrinking footprint of the country?s once-mighty manufacturing base. But, as the case of Cannelton shows, it has quite a bit to do with public policy and labor law, too.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), widely considered a friend to unions, ties the NLRB drama to the political attacks on organized labor in places like Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan in recent years. ?They?re investing in chaos,? Miller said of lawmakers trying to shut down the board. ?There?s not a great deal of sophistication to this. The constant hammering of the NLRB is to render it ineffective. I think it?s part of a larger war to weaken the unions?. They would prefer people to be low-paid, with no rights, no benefits. That would be their ideal economy.?

The miners may have defeated Massey before the board last year, but in a strange way the former coal corporation has already won the larger battle. Even if reinstatement is eventually cleared for some 80 miners, the union has already been effectively stripped from the mine, thanks to the original layoffs and the repeated delays at the labor board. Time, almost as much as political obstructionism, has been Massey?s ally.

?As far as the workforce going back, you might have a third of them,? Michael Ryan, president of the UMWA local, said of the miners still involved in the case. ?All of us, we?re all in age now. Everybody?s crippled up. We?ve been battling this for eight years. ? We?ve got people dying off.?

For those who stand to win reinstatement, there remains the question of how badly they want to work in a mine that?s no longer union. Charlie Treadway and Dave Preast, two longtime Cannelton miners, were part of a small handful of laid-off workers who went back to work under an injunction after the Massey purchase. As the case was pending before the labor board, they worked under court order.

As former union members, Treadway and Preast felt they had bullseyes on their backs.

Treadway compared the job to ?working for a stalker.? Preast said he was ?always looking over [his] shoulder.?

The two men had decades of mining experience between them, but they were assigned the tasks of miners half their age, they said. They were both laid off again last year, ostensibly for economic reasons.

?I guess that?s what eats at me more than anything else ? the number of years it?s taken for this case to get to where it?s at now, and we?re still treading water,? Treadway said. ?There?s been several [guys] that have already passed away, and I feel certain there will be more. You?ll see less and less of us able to go back to work. In a way, I guess that?s a victory for the company, too. They accomplished what they set out to do, which is to get rid of us.?

Treadway?s unemployment benefits ran out a few months ago. He?s wondering what his next move will be. He used to own some farmland that he sold when money got tight after the Massey takeover, and he?s thinking about getting into agriculture somehow, maybe raising some animals. At 58, he feels he?s too old to start a new career, yet there?s no telling how old he?ll be when the Cannelton case gets resolved. Like a lot of the miners he once worked with, he can?t help but wonder if he?d even pass the physical.

Source: http://irasciblemusings.com/board-games-how-the-collapse-of-the-senate-has-crippled-the-nlrb-and-damaged-lives/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=board-games-how-the-collapse-of-the-senate-has-crippled-the-nlrb-and-damaged-lives

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

20th Annual Boat, Sport & RV Show - UpperMichigansSource.com

MARQUETTE -- Hundreds of people filled the Superior Dome for the Boat, Sport, and RV Show Saturday.

Outdoor enthusiasts got an up close look at ORVs, bikes, and much more. Even kids had fun fishing in the outdoor pond.

Many say it is nice to have everything in one place.

"You got all the people here to explain things to you, show you the newest things out on the market, and just all the people that are here. There are very knowledgeable people and it's a good place to see. You don't have to go drive from store to store. Everything's right here," said Tom Callahan.

The show continues Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Source: http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=875982

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Obama ending Mideast trip with tour of Petra

PETRA, Jordan (AP) ? Taking on the role of tourist, President Barack Obama walked through the winding, narrow pathways of Jordan's fabled ancient city of Petra on Saturday, gazed up at soaring cliffs of reddish rock and described the landscape with a single word: "Amazing."

"This is pretty spectacular," he said, craning his neck to gaze up at the rock faces as he emerged from a narrow pathway into a sun-splashed plaza in front of the grand Treasury. The soaring facade is considered the masterpiece of the ancient city carved into the rose-red stone by the Nabataeans more than 2,000 years ago.

The Bedouins named the building the Treasury because they believed an urn sculpted on top of it held great treasures, but they actually represented a memorial for Nabataean royalty. Bullet holes from people trying to retrieve the treasure are still visible in the urn at the top.

Dressed for the occasion in khaki pants, a black jacket, hiking boots and sunglasses, Obama began the walking tour at the entrance to the Siq, a narrow gorge winding between two, soaring cliffs into the heart of Petra. The pathway opens up onto the Treasury, then widens into a street where Nabataean burial chambers are carved into the mountains on both sides.

Marine One touched down near Petra on Saturday after an hour-long flight from Amman, Jordan's capital. Overcast skies in Amman had threatened to upend Obama's travel plans but the weather improved during the flight across Jordan's rugged countryside.

Petra was carved into the reddish rock by the Nabataeans, ancient Arabs who turned the city into a critical junction for the silk, spice and other trade routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome.

Petra is Jordan's most popular tourist attraction, drawing more than a half million visitors each year since 2007. It may be familiar to many people who saw the 1989 movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Some scenes were filmed in the ancient city.

Obama's 24-hour visit to Jordan ? he arrived in the country on Friday ? is his final stop on a four-day trip to the Middle East, the first foreign excursion of his second term. It also was his first visit as president to Israel and Jordan.

Obama spent the bulk of his time in Israel, where held several meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought through a speech and other public remarks to reassure an anxious public that he is committed to the country's security.

He also made a brief stop in the West Bank city of Ramallah for meetings with Palestinian leaders.

In Amman, Obama met with King Abdullah II.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-ending-mideast-trip-tour-petra-082154344--politics.html

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    • Build a memorable Phrase that Pays
    • Build engaging speech transitions
    • Uncover organic humor hidden inside your stories.
    • Use the ?one-box-at-a-time? technique to build a winning speech

?

Learn from Four World-Class Speakers

Most public speaking books teach you speaking techniques but don?t give you examples of how to apply those techniques. However, in this book, you will:

  • Study a speech by Craig Valentine, the 1999 Toastmasters International World Champion of Public Speaking. Discover twenty-nine specific techniques for creating compelling stories that keep your audience on the edge of their seats. Learn how to influence people through storytelling. [Chapter 2]
  • Analyze Darren LaCroix?s award-winning speech. Discover tools to add head, heart and humor to your presentations. Uncover the elements of a winning speech and learn how to give inspirational and motivational speeches that have your audience laughing while learning. [Chapter 4]
  • Learn how to package your expertise in a powerful ?how-to? informational speech using Lisa Panarello?s speech as a model. Equip yourself with the tools you need to deliver clear, information-packed business presentations. If you?re a trainer, workshop-leader or someone who has to deliver informational speeches, Lisa?s speech will show you how to deliver effective informational speeches. [Chapter 6]
  • Study Jock Elliott?s winning speech from the 2011 Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. Learn how to arouse your audience?s emotions using value-based language, how to use the stage masterfully and how to close your speech with impact. [Chapter 8]

Apart from containing model speeches and detailed analysis of each speech, each chapter contains Evaluation Exercises and Application Exercises to double your growth as a speaker in half the time.

The combination of?world-class speeches, practical exercises and advanced public speaking techniques?covered in this book make this a truly valuable resource.

There is no other book like this on the market!

Shorten your learning curve and learn the public speaking secrets most speakers never discover?

Click here to buy the Kindle version of the book on Amazon

Source: http://communicationskillstips.com/how-to-speak-like-a-winner/

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Chicago's proposed school closings called unfair to city's poorest students

Citing a budget deficit and declining enrollment, Chicago proposed Thursday that 61 public schools be closed. Teachers and parents warn that the poorest students will be affected the most.

By Mark Guarino,?Staff writer / March 21, 2013

Parents protest outside the home of Chicago's Board of Education President David Vitale?s house Thursday, March 21, in Chicago. Teachers say the city of Chicago has begun informing teachers, principals and local officials about which public schools it intends to close.

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

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In what would be the largest public school closing in US history, Chicago officials are proposing to shutter 61 schools, 9 percent of the 681 schools citywide.

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The proposed move is being blasted both by the teachers union and parent groups, who charge that the city is misleading the public regarding the decline in population in certain neighborhoods where it seeks consolidation. They say the decision will ultimately harm the poorest of the city?s children by forcing them to commute farther away from their homes and learn in overcrowded classrooms.

The district has never before closed more than 11 schools in a single year.

?No doubt this is going to be deeply disruptive,? says Steve Tozer, a professor of education and director of the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the decision?s reasoning is financial. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system, which is the third largest in the nation and operates under the control of City Hall, faces a $1 billion budget deficit in the new fiscal year and that each closed school will save the district between $500,000 and $800,000.

?Our students cannot wait for us to put off these difficult decisions any longer?. This problem is not unique to Chicago, and like school systems where enrollment has dropped, we must make tough choices,? he said in a statement released Wednesday.

However, advocacy groups, the union, and academics agree that the metric the city is using to establish a need for consolidation is not accurate, and that the decline in enrollment is not as harsh as it insists. Last fall, for example, CPS officials ranked 330 schools as underutilized because of enrollment declines. Between 2000-2013, the city says it lost 145,000 students.

However, the school district?s own data show that enrollment in traditional schools dropped by far less, just 75,680 students, even as charter school enrollment skyrocketed. Including the charters, the data show, total CPS enrollment over the last 14 years fell by 28,289 students, or 7 percent.

An analysis of US Census data suggests that, while the population of children aged 5-19 dropped by 18 percent, the proportion of Chicago school-aged children enrolled in CPS has actually increased between 2000-2010, from 69 percent to 80 percent.

Jeanne Marie Olson, a CPS parent who launched Schoolcuts.org, a website that mines data to compare different schools within the city, says that population drops are not as severe as the city suggests and its argument is a ?red herring? for its push for more charter schools, some of which are newly open in the same neighborhoods in which the city is expected to shutter traditional schools. Indeed, CPS officials announced last year plans to open at least 17 more new charter schools by next fall.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/LlcAy__sUk0/Chicago-s-proposed-school-closings-called-unfair-to-city-s-poorest-students

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Cypriot official says EU bailout deal could come in 'next few hours'

Protesters in Cyprus gather outside parliament as government officials try to strike a bailout deal with the European Union. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

By Michele Kambas and Lidia Kelly, Reuters

A solution to Cyprus' bailout crisis within the framework set down by the European Union may be possible within "the next few hours," the deputy leader of the island's ruling Democratic Rally party said on Friday.

"There is cautious optimism that in the next few hours we may be able to reach an agreed platform so parliament can approve these specific measures which will be consistent with the approach, the framework and the targets agreed at the last Eurogroup," Averof Neophytou told reporters.?

The lines at bank cash machines in Cyprus are growing longer and in some cases angrier. The European Central Bank has given the island's government until Monday to find its six billion euro share of the bailout or - it says - it'll pull the plug on the rest of the cash and banks will face collapse. The banks themselves remain closed. Faisal Islam of Channel Four Europe reports.

The news came hours after the Cypriot finance minister left Moscow empty-handed when Russia turned down appeals for aid, leaving the island to strike a bailout deal with the EU before Tuesday or face the collapse of its financial system.

The rebuff left Cyprus looking increasingly isolated, with the deadline looming to find billions of euros demanded by the EU in return for a 10 billion euro ($12.93 billion) bailout.

Without it, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday it would cut off emergency funds to the country's teetering banks, potentially pushing Cyprus out of Europe's single currency.

"The talks have ended as far as the Russian side is concerned," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters after two days of crisis talks with his Cypriot counterpart, Michael Sarris.

Having angrily rejected a proposed levy on tax deposits in exchange for the EU bailout, Nicosia had turned to the Kremlin to renegotiate a loan deal, win more financing and lure Russian investors to cut-price Cypriot banks and gas reserves.

Wealthy Russians have billions of euros at stake in Cyprus's outsized and now crippled banking sector.

Banks are closed on Cyprus but the ATM's are still dispensing cash as the government tries to avert a financial crisis. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

But Siluanov said Russian investors were not interested in Cypriot gas and that the talks had ended without result.

Sarris was due to fly home, where lawmakers were preparing to debate measures proposed by the government to raise at least some of the 5.8 billion euros ($7.48 billion) required to clinch the EU bailout.

They included a "solidarity fund" bundling state assets, including future gas revenues and nationalized pension funds, as the basis for an emergency bond issue and likened by JP Morgan to "a national fire sale".

They were also considering a bank restructuring bill that officials said would see the country's second largest lender, Cyprus Popular Bank, split into good and bad assets, and a government call for the power to impose capital controls to stem a flood of funds leaving the island when banks reopen on Tuesday after a week-long shutdown.

'Playing with fire'
There was no silver bullet, however, and Cyprus's partners in the 17-nation currency bloc were growing increasingly unimpressed.

To help pay for the $13 billion European bailout, the government plans to take up to 10 percent from all savings accounts, angering those who say they aren't responsible for the economic crisis. CNBC's Sue Herera reports.

"I still believe we will get a settlement, but Cyprus is playing with fire," Volker Kauder, a leading conservative ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told public television ARD.

There were long lines at ATMs on Thursday and angry scenes outside parliament, where hundreds of demonstrators gathered after rumors spread that Popular Bank would be closed down and its staff laid off.

"We have children studying abroad, and next month we need to send them money," protester Stalou Christodoulido said through tears. "We'll lose what money we had and saved for so many years if the bank goes down."

Cypriots have been stunned by the pace of the unfolding drama, having elected conservative President Nicos Anastasiades barely a month ago on a mandate to secure a bailout. News that the deal would involve a levy on bank deposits, even for smaller savers, outraged Cypriots, who raided cash machines last weekend.

Related:

EU to Cypriots: Let us raid your savings or no bailout

Cyprus bailout backlash poses little wider risk - for now

Full business coverage from NBC News

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Self Storage Real Estate Investment Trust Public Storage Buys ...

Public Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust, has purchased a facility from Vault Storage LLC in Surprise, Ariz., for $7.2 million. The deal for the 76,125-square-foot facility was brokered by Norman Herd of Empire Commercial Real Estate.

The storage property at 13360 W. Willow Ave. features 702 air-conditioned units on 2.83 acres. It also features a rooftop solar-power system that supplies all of the facility?s energy needs, and a reclaimed-water system for onsite irrigation. Since their installation, the two systems have reduced facility operating expenses by more than $20,000 per year, Herd said.

The acquisition also includes two adjacent, 1-acre out-parcels for future development.

Based in Glendale, Calif., Public Storage has interests in 2,068 self-storage facilities in 38 states with approximately 132 million net rentable square feet. Operating under the Shurgard brand name, the company also has 189 facilities in western Europe with approximately 10 million net rentable square feet.

Empire Commercial Real Estate focuses on single-use properties, including self-storage investments, mobile home parks, hotels and apartment real estate.

Source: http://www.insideselfstorage.com/news/2013/03/self-storage-real-estate-investment-trust-public-storage-buys-arizona-facility-for-7m.aspx

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High gas prices persist despite US oil boom

The U.S. is increasing its oil production faster than ever, and American drivers are guzzling less gas. But you'd never know it from the price at the pump.

The national average price of gasoline is $3.69 per gallon and forecast to creep higher, possibly approaching $4 by May.

"I just don't get it," says Steve Laffoon, a part-time mental health worker, who recently paid $3.59 per gallon to fill up in St. Louis.

U.S. oil output rose 14 percent to 6.5 million barrels per day last year ? a record increase. By 2020, the nation is forecast to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's largest crude oil producer. At the same time, U.S. gasoline demand has fallen to 8.7 million barrels a day, its lowest level since 2001, as people switch to more fuel-efficient cars.

So is the high price of gasoline a signal that markets aren't working properly?

Not at all, experts say. The laws of supply and demand are working, just not in the way U.S. drivers want them to.

U.S. drivers are competing with drivers worldwide for every gallon of gasoline. As the developing economies of Asia and Latin America expand, their energy consumption is rising, which puts pressure on fuel supplies and prices everywhere else.

The U.S. still consumes more oil than any other country, but demand is weak and imports are falling. That leaves China, which overtook the U.S. late last year as the world's largest oil importer, as the single biggest influence on global demand for fuels. China's consumption has risen 28 percent in five years, to 10.2 million barrels per day last year.

"There's an 800-pound gorilla in the picture now ? the Chinese economy," says Patrick DeHaan, chief petroleum analyst at the price-tracking service GasBuddy.com.

U.S. refiners are free to sell gasoline and diesel to the highest bidder around the world. In 2011, the U.S. became a net exporter of fuels for the first time in 60 years. Mexico and Canada are the two biggest destinations for U.S. fuels, followed by Brazil and the Netherlands.

Two other factors are making gasoline expensive:

? High oil prices. Brent crude, a benchmark used to set the price of oil for many U.S. refiners, is $108 per barrel. It hasn't been below $100 per barrel since July. On average, the price of crude is responsible for two-thirds of the price of gasoline, according to the Energy Department.

? Refinery shutdowns. Refineries temporarily close in the winter, when driving declines, to perform annual maintenance. That lowers gasoline inventories and sends prices higher nearly every year in the late winter and spring.

Rising gasoline prices act as a drag on the economy because they leave less money in drivers' wallets to spend on other things. But because average prices have remained in a consistent range ? between $3 and $4 per gallon since the end of 2010 ? economists say their effect on growth has been minimal.

Drivers in Connecticut, New York and Washington, D.C., are paying $3.92 or more per gallon on average, according to the Oil Price Information Service. Drivers in Rocky Mountain states, where refineries can tap low-priced crude from the U.S. and Canada, are paying far less. Gas costs $3.42 or less in Wyoming, Utah and Montana.

For the year, prices are forecast to average $3.55 per gallon, slightly lower than last year's record average of $3.63. The peak for 2013, likely to come this spring, is expected to fall slightly short of last year's peak of $3.94.

A major reason cited for high gasoline prices over the last two years ? fighting and political tensions in the Middle East and North Africa ? doesn't apply this year. Libyan production has returned after collapsing during the country's revolution two years ago. And higher production from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has made up for Iran's declining output in the face of Western sanctions.

David Haeussermann, a police dispatcher in Tampa who recently paid $3.56 per gallon to fill his Kia Rondo, hasn't had a raise in six years. He says higher prices for gasoline and food in recent years have prompted him to cut back on dinners out and to settle for less fancy food at home. He doesn't understand why gasoline costs so much, but by now he's used to it.

"Three-dollar gas seems to be a dream right now," he says.

The good news is that the national average price is 15 cents lower than last year at this time, because of slightly lower oil prices and less concern over the situation in the Middle East. But disruptions at refineries or pipelines, or threats to oil supplies around the world, could send gasoline prices sharply higher at any moment, analysts say.

Lafoon, the St. Louis man, consolidates trips and drives as little as possible to blunt the effect of high prices. And he never fills all the way up. It is an exercise in what he calls "magical thinking" ? that prices aren't really what they are.

Hey, it's worth a try.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/29d8a13a/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Chigh0Egas0Eprices0Epersist0Edespite0Eus0Eoil0Eboom0E1C90A0A70A42/story01.htm

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Friday, March 22, 2013

PFT:?UGA's Jones says he's?draft's best? |? Runs 4.9

UrlacherGetty Images

Former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher wants to keep playing. ?The problem is that he needs a team.

And his objective in looking for a new team is simple.

?I?m an old fart, so I want to go in there and win,? Urlacher told The Dan Patrick Show earlier in the hour.

But Urlacher is pragmatic. ??Maybe nobody wants me,? Urlacher said. ??But we?re gonna find out.?

He thinks that more teams hadn?t shown interest because no one really believed he?d leave Chicago. ?And Urlacher said that his agents have spoken to the Vikings, Cowboys, and Cardinals since Urlacher hit the open market.

Playing in a 4-3 defense isn?t a prerequisite. ??I think I could learn a 3-4,? Urlacher said, before addressing the possibility of trying to replace Ray Lewis in Baltimore with a ?no thanks.?

At this point, the only thing Urlacher or anyone else knows is that Urlacher won?t be a Bear. ??I really don?t think they wanted me back,? Urlacher said, adding that he believes the team?s one-year, $2 million effort is now ?gone.?

Though the money (or lack thereof) drove the decision, Urlacher believes that the move was rooted in the coaching change. ?Urlacher explained that, if Lovie Smith were still the head coach, Urlacher would still be a Bear.

At some point, the Bears presumably will welcome Urlacher back for a jersey retirement or some other ceremony to celebrate his career.

?What if i don?t go back?? Urlacher joked. ??What if i don?t want to go back??

Surely, he?ll want to go back at the appropriate time. ?The question for now is whether he?ll find an appropriate fit.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/21/jarvis-jones-calls-himself-the-best-player-in-the-nfl-draft/related/

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Senate panel votes to advance Interior Secretary nominee

By Steve Keating ORLANDO, Florida, March 20 (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy's decision to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational surprised the tournament host, who expressed his disappointment on Wednesday that the world number one was not at Bay Hill this week. The 83-year-old Palmer said he had jokingly suggested he might break McIlroy's arm if he did not show up but did not try to force the young Northern Irishman into making an appearance. "Frankly, I thought he was going to play, and I was as surprised as a lot of people when he decided he was not going to play," said Palmer. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-panel-votes-advance-interior-secretary-nominee-144053677.html

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

GarageBand for iOS gets Audiobus support, plays nicely with other apps

GarageBand for iOS enables Audiobus support, plays nicely with other music apps

Still haven't found the sound you're looking for in Apple's iOS GarageBand offering? The newly released version 1.4 broadens the music app's horizons, thanks to Audiobus compatibility, letting it work alongside titles like Animoog, ThumbJam, Samplr and pretty much all of Korg's iPhone offerings. Sounds created on those apps can now record directly into GarageBand -- assuming, of course you're using it on an iPhone 4S, 5th-gen iPod touch, iPad 2 or later. You can pick up the latest version of the app in the source link below.

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Comments

Source: iTunes

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/20/garageband-audiobus/

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Battle for control over Bolshoi escalates

The Bolshoi Theater general director Anatoly Iksanov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Iksanov has rejected criticism from an increasingly assertive principal dancer, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who is openly aspiring to take his job. The two men have been locked in an increasingly ugly public battle since the Jan. 17 acid attack on Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The Bolshoi Theater general director Anatoly Iksanov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Iksanov has rejected criticism from an increasingly assertive principal dancer, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who is openly aspiring to take his job. The two men have been locked in an increasingly ugly public battle since the Jan. 17 acid attack on Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

In this photo made Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, Bolshoi dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze leads a rehearsal in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia. The veteran principal dancer takes ballerina Anzhelina Vorontsova under his tutelage when she joins the Bolshoi and, according to the dancers cited by newspaper Izvestia, understands that Bolshoi Artistic Director Sergei Filin's criticism of the ballerina is directed at him as her teacher. Tsiskaridze has long been highly critical of theater management and has been seen as maneuvering to take over the theater himself. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 file photo Bolshoi ballet dancer Anzhelina Vorontsova talks with Nikolai Tsiskaridze, left, during a rehearsal in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia.. The newspaper Izvestia reports that Vorontsova, who is Dmitrichenko's girlfriend, asked the ballet chief Filin in December to cast her as the lead in "Swan Lake," but Filin turned her down, making disparaging comments about her weight and choice of teachers. Ballet critics concur on the extra pounds and note that Filin then gives the ballerina a major role in the showcase ballet "The Nutcracker." (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The Bolshoi Theater general director Anatoly Iksanov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Iksanov has rejected criticism from an increasingly assertive principal dancer, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who is openly aspiring to take his job. The two men have been locked in an increasingly ugly public battle since the Jan. 17 acid attack on Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The Bolshoi Theater general director Anatoly Iksanov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Iksanov has rejected criticism from an increasingly assertive principal dancer, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who is openly aspiring to take his job. The two men have been locked in an increasingly ugly public battle since the Jan. 17 acid attack on Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

(AP) ? The foes make a striking contrast ? a bald, stolid general director versus an extravagant dancer with an opulent mane of dark hair.

And the stakes could hardly be higher: control over the storied Bolshoi Theater in a battle that has gone into overdrive since the January acid attack on the artistic director that exposed rivalries reminiscent of the Hollywood movie "Black Swan."

In a surprising twist, principal dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze may be gaining the upper hand against General Director Anatoly Iksanov, who has been in the top job for 13 years.

Both are believed to have backing from senior government officials and Kremlin-connected business tycoons eager to extend their influence over a state theater that has been a symbol of national pride for centuries, and even features on the 100-ruble bill. The Bolshoi's annual budget also is not too shabby: $120 million, up from $12 million only 10 years ago.

Iksanov accuses Tsiskaridze of creating an atmosphere of intrigue that set the scene for the Jan. 17 acid attack on the Bolshoi's artistic director. Tsiskaridze rejects the claims and in turn points to the attack as evidence that the theater has descended into crime and violence under Iksanov's watch.

After weeks of increasingly venomous attacks from both sides, Tsiskaridze's star was seen as rising when he grabbed a high-profile platform for his case on state-run television. The exposure came even as Tsiskaridze has endorsed the grievances of the Bolshoi dancer accused of staging the attack on artistic director Sergei Filin, and defended the dancer in public. Tsiskaridze himself has not been accused of any involvement in the attack.

On Sunday, the 39-year-old dancer appeared on a live talk show on state-controlled NTV television, a channel that the Kremlin has used to attack its opponents or those who have fallen out of favor. Dressed all in black and with an air of sad rebuke, Tsiskaridze poured scorn on Iksanov, accusing him of botching the Bolshoi's reconstruction, ruining its repertoire and treating dancers like slaves.

Asked bluntly whether he was ready to take the general director's job, Tsiskaridze answered with a proud: "I am absolutely ready."

More than anything else, the NTV show signaled that Iksanov's job could be in jeopardy. The station has often been used to broadcast documentary-style films about Kremlin foes, which often served as precursors for criminal investigations. A biting attack on the general director would not have been possible without a blessing from the top ranks of the government.

Tsiskaridze was joined on the program by an equally sharp-tongued former Bolshoi prima ballerina, who alleged that Iksanov oversaw a practice of ballerinas being used essentially as high-class prostitutes for members of the Bolshoi board and other influential people.

Some Russian media have reported that Tsiskaridze's patrons include Sergei Chemezov, a former KGB officer close to President Vladimir Putin who now serves as the CEO of Russian Technologies, a state-controlled industrial conglomerate.

Iksanov looked tired and tense on Tuesday at a news conference called to promote a big ballet festival this spring. He said he would not comment on "the nonsense and dirt" aired on the television show and shrugged off Tsiskaridze's ambitions.

"It's up to him to think that he's capable of taking charge of the Bolshoi," said Iksanov, who has led the theater since 2000. "I don't think so, because beyond scandalousness and fame other qualities are needed."

Infighting has raged at the theater for years, but the two sides dropped all decorum after the Jan. 17 acid attack on Filin.

The barbs began to fly even faster after police arrested Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko on March 5. Facing a Moscow court, Dmitrichenko admitted that he had agreed to an offer from a thuggish acquaintance to rough up Filin, but he insisted that the man had used acid on his own initiative.

Despite Dmitrichenko's confession, many in the ballet company have stood by him, saying they do not believe him capable of staging such a crime. About 300 dancers and staff, led by Tsiskaridze, signed an open letter claiming that Dmitrichenko had slandered himself under police pressure. Encouraged by the outpouring of sympathy, Dmitrichenko then passed a note from prison to his ballerina girlfriend saying that he had not ordered the acid attack and had been "forced to accept many things."

Dmitrichenko has been popular with dancers for his eagerness to defy management in support of other dancers. Last week the Bolshoi's 250 dancers elected him the head of their union, even though he remains in jail.

At the time of his arrest, Russian state television suggested that Dmitrichenko had been driven by a desire to avenge his girlfriend, 21-year-old soloist Anzhelina Vorontsova, who felt that Filin had unfairly denied her the lead in "Swan Lake." Tsiskaridze, who coaches the ballerina, said that Filin had advised her to change teachers.

Iksanov has sought to ease tensions in the ranks, promising last week that Dmitrichenko would keep his job pending the outcome of the criminal case. The reclusive, moon-faced director has been on the defensive ever since.

In an interview with the online Snob magazine last month, Iksanov said that his foes include people in the top echelons of government and business, along with their jet-setting wives who want to turn the Bolshoi into their playground.

Iksanov's patron, former culture minister Mikhail Shvydkoi, who is now serving as the Kremlin envoy for international cultural relations, acknowledged in an interview published last month that some of the country's most influential people are behind Tsiskaridze, but insisted that Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were staying above the fray.

Ever since the Bolshoi reopened in 2011 after a six-year reconstruction that cost more than $1 billion, Tsiskaridze has aired accusations of mismanagement and corruption, alleging that the renovation destroyed historical interiors and replaced them with low-quality replicas. The NTV show featured photos of cheap and already crumbling interior decor to illustrate his claims.

Iksanov and his backers have dismissed the criticism, saying that the Bolshoi has been restored to all of its past glory.

Raising the heat on Iksanov, former Bolshoi prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova alleged on the NTV show that Iksanov oversaw a practice of ballerinas being used as escorts.

"An administrator would call them to say they are going to a party and a dinner ending in bed," she said. "When the girls asked the administrator what would happen if they refuse, the answer was: You will have problems in the Bolshoi then."

Volochkova acknowledged that she herself enjoyed the protection of a billionaire businessman and was fired in 2003 after they separated. She described the Bolshoi as a "tangle of snakes" and a "big brothel."

Tsiskaridze and Dmitrichenko have also criticized what they describe as Filin's unfair distribution of pay to the Bolshoi dancers.

Valeria Uralskaya, editor of Ballet magazine, said that the huge amount of money involved has made smoldering conflicts worse.

"When money gets involved in the arts, conflicts become more likely," she said. "A lot of commercial issues have come to be part of our lives ? and in the arts, too. Twenty years ago less money went around, there were fewer foreign tours then and people would spend more time training for their parts."

Permission for dancers to go on foreign tours has been a point of conflict and has served as an instrument of control over the troupe.

"I hear a lot about grudges about this," said Anna Gordeyeva, a ballet critic at the Moskovskie Novosti daily. "Many dancers tell me that they cannot understand why somebody gets a leave of absence and somebody else doesn't."

Rivalries over top parts also have continued to fuel conflicts. "There are a lot of questions about how Filin picked the dancers he wanted to promote," Gordeyeva said.

Filin's assistant, Dilyara Timergazina, joined Iksanov in pointing to Tsiskaridze as "a key source of the tensions." She said that Tsiskaridze's students "extort parts" and "are always unhappy with everything."

On the television show, Tsiskaridze expressed indignation over the criticism.

"For 21 years. I have honestly served not only the Bolshoi but the country's image," he said. "I have represented the country on the stages of all the world's leading theaters. I don't know why I should bear these insults."

___

AP writers Nataliya Vasilyeva and Lynn Berry contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-20-Russia-Bolshoi%20Battle/id-5bd2085e99fc432d8473e5ad125cc727

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Deal of the Day: Musubo RubberBand Case for Samsung Galaxy S3

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/g0sg4mzn7l0/story01.htm

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Why the Easter Bunny and White House tours have become the public face of sequestration (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Good Ways To Achieve Best Website Marketing Good results ...

There has almost certainly in no way been another area in the past introducing all the possibility to make since the online. Folks are creating big money right here every single day. And although it isn?t automatic that you may be the next one, you simply never know unless you try. Let?s look at some pointers you can use to market your organization to help you started.
Back your boasts. Consumers see a large number of ads every single day, in fact it is very improbable that they can believe that your advertising simply because you say to. virtual assistants Philippines?indisputable data that your products or services operates effectively and proficiently is the easiest method to attract new and coming back buyers whilst improving your credibility.

Ask others what they?re performing. At times your competitors isn?t immediate levels of competition. Ask anyone that is advertising and marketing online how industry is, what sorts of strategies are working for them and what isn?t working. Many times they will talk about info since they understand that some day they?ll have a query way too.

To obtain more visibility, you should report a youtube video of you displaying the product. You can even develop a user?s help guide assist those who own the item, and to present the number of choices to potential customers. Submit this video clip all by yourself web site and also on well-known online video web hosting service web sites at the same time. Make sure you tag your online video using the appropriate keywords.

Stay positive. Stuff should go completely wrong. The major search engines can change their algorithms, each of your joint business partners goes bankrupt or anyone of a long list of troubles. But you?ve got to continue to be positive and also a excellent mental perspective that feels you are able to handle whichever is coming towards you.

Any kind of advertisements you?re posting on the web site, have to seem to be incorporated into the website in a all-natural, nonintrusive way. If people see your adverts and assume that they?re a legitimate element of your small business, they are a lot more keen to select them. And this is exactly what you want to have come about.

Your business must have a Twitter and facebook page, to help you enhance your advertising presence on-line, but you shouldn?t include your individual internet pages. You can nonetheless be a true are living individual, but you want a facebook web page to your organization as well as a Twitter accounts since the operator from the company. You may have a similar personal identity, you only don?t want your customers in your friend?s collection, unless you truly are buddies.

Staying well informed of all of the most up-to-date social network sites styles is surely an significant part of online marketing, but will not let it interfere with your central organization. Time committed to researching emergent styles is time you are unable to commit improving your site and helping your prospects. Affect an efficient harmony that will not neglect your existing good results when you try to find new prospects.

Know that riches isn?t gonna be automated when you operate on the internet, and also know that subsequent these methods for internet marketing will place you in the right position to profit. You might not possibly get to be the up coming big world wide web mogul, however, you positive may earn a good dwelling while looking to be.

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Source: http://edwardhandson.gwchost.com/good-ways-to-achieve-best-website-marketing-good-results/

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