Arctic Sea Ice Melt Sets Record

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Every summer, some of the ice that covers the Arctic Ocean melts. Come mid-September, it begins to refreeze. Scientists began to monitor this cycle in the late 1970s, and this year, they saw less ice than ever before - a lot less ice. NPR science correspondent Richard Harris joins us here in Studio 3A. Richard, nice to have you on the program.

RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: Always a pleasure, Neal.

CONAN: And how big is this change?

HARRIS: It is big. The previous record was in 2007, where a very large percentage of this ice melted away. This year, it's already bigger than 2007 by an area the size of Texas. This is - this really shattered that record which in itself was a pretty dramatic departure from the average.

CONAN: And, well, if things melt, it's because things are warmer, right?

HARRIS: That is exactly right. And what happens also is the Arctic ice has been getting thinner over the years. And so it used to be that you can have some warm summers up there, and you wouldn't melt it all away because you'd have 10 feet or 20 feet thick of ice. And you'd melt some of it, but you wouldn't melt it all the way through. But because of this warming trend up there, it is where the planet is warming faster than anywhere else. The Arctic, what we've seen is the ice getting thinner up there. And so a fairly small pretubance will actually melt a lot of the ice because it's thin to begin with. You don't have to melt 20 feet of ice. You might melt three feet of ice.

CONAN: And you mentioned 2007 was the previous record. How were the intervening years between 2007 and this year?

HARRIS: Up and down, actually. It's not a steady trend where every year gets worse as it goes. In fact, it - we haven't been near as bad as 2007 until this year but - so - but 2007 was a big bump down and then sort of rattled around in that area. We've got it close a couple of years, but nothing this dramatic until this year.

CONAN: And scientists as they saw this, are they - how big a deal is it?

HARRIS: It's a big deal. I think for them they are - they used words like astounding and dramatic and so on, the words that are that really are, you know, make - draw the point that this is a really big change, and it's obvious. It's - there's just - this is not a small thing. This is huge.

CONAN: And why is it important?

HARRIS: It's important because it is, for one thing, the most visible sign of climate change. There's little question that this is as a result of global warming that this is happening. And so that's one thing. The next thing is, of course, the ecosystem at the Arctic depend upon a certain amount of floating ice. The walruses dive off of it. The polar bears rely on it - the seals and so on. It's an important part of that ecosystem up there. So it has some local effects. But what's also becoming more and more apparent is it's going to be affecting our weather down here because you're going - when you get an extra degree of warmth up in the far north, you're going to change the way weather patterns move through the rest of North America.

And we could - I talked to a scientist today who said we could be seeing things like those really slow-moving big, heavy snowstorms that come along. It's not that there would necessarily be faster storms or whatever. In fact, it's just the opposite. There would be slower storms as a result of this pattern, and as a result, instead of just moving on by not causing so much grief, you can get huge amounts of snow and ice dumped on us here, and not only here, also in Russia. We have, of course...

CONAN: Yeah.

HARRIS: ...this past summer was very mild here. But when it's mild here, you need to look around the rest of the world and say, was it mild everywhere? And the answer is usually no.

CONAN: Well, just along those lines, we read reports that temperatures in the contiguous 48 states have been above average in each of the last 15 months, which has never happened for as long as people have been keeping records, and that 2012 is on track to be the warmest year ever. As we read about this record Arctic ice melt, is this a coincidence?

HARRIS: Well, it's all part and parcel of the same thing, but I will say that January through August of this year has been the warmest period - January through August period since 1895 when they started taking temperature records. That's in the contiguous lower 48. Alaska has actually had a fairly average year, so everything doesn't march in lockstep. But again, the situation with the ice and the Arctic is this has been accumulating over decades of warming up there, and we're finally seeing the results of that.

So this one summer was not at all a key up there. In fact, what was interesting to one of the scientists I talked to, he said, basically, you know, what was astounding about this was that there was no astounding weather pattern up there that explained this dramatic difference. It was just kind of reaching this point of where the ice was just so thin that it was just ready to crumble.

CONAN: Ice is white. It reflects light. The sea is blue. It does not reflect light. It absorbs it, and thereby, the heat that comes with it.

HARRIS: That's right, and that makes the big difference. We're essentially taking a mirror off the top of our planet, and that means that the planet's absorbing more heat. That heat does go into the ocean, that warms the ocean. What's going to happen when the ice starts to freeze up again - which it will this fall - is all that heat, a lot of that heat has to come out of the ocean before the ocean temperature gets to the freezing point again and can freeze. And so we're going to have a huge outflux(ph), I guess, of heat out of the ocean back into the atmosphere. But - because it's been building up there. So not only did the warm water helped melt the ice, but now, it's going to come out. And that's - that feeds into the change in weather patterns I mentioned earlier.

CONAN: And also this open water in places that have always been frozen over before, that exposes these areas to economic activity that has never happened before. The Northwest Passage usually thought of as - well, if frozen, you really can't get through there without some nuclear-powered icebreaker or something. This is now an area of enormous economic exploitation.

HARRIS: It is. It's starting off. There was a cruise ship that watered into Barrow, Alaska, a year ago, which was surprising to everybody because you shouldn't have a cruise, you know, they weren't prepared for a cruise ship to land in this tiny Arctic outpost. But it's a funny thing because it's not consistent, even though this has been a really low ice year.

Just today, Shell oil announced that it had to pull out of its oil drilling, which just despite it started yesterday in the Arctic Ocean, you know, in the Chukchi Sea because they had discovered that there was a 30-mile long iceberg heading towards them. And they had to get out of the way. So even on - even in periods where there's a lot of ocean water that's just plain open, ice is still a hazard up there, and it will be for decades to come.

CONAN: And as this trend continues, you said, globally, is it true in Antarctic as well? There's a lot of ice in the ocean that's around the Antarctic continent?

HARRIS: Yeah. It's a little more complicated in Antarctica because what happens is, for one thing, the southern ocean around Antarctica is warming up. There's a - the temperature measurements have been - are clear on that. But what happens around as a result of that is you had to put more precipitation. So you actually have expanding sea ice around Antarctica, at least in the wintertime. In the summertime, it all melts away or almost all of it melts away. And it has for a long time because it's a very different situation from this closed bowl of an ocean in the Arctic where the ice can pile up and get thicker and thicker. In the Antarctic, that's never been the case. It always has melted away. So it's not a big change down there. A little bit - the extent of the wintertime ice is a little bit broader than it has been before.

But, again, getting back to your discussion of the mirror and ice being reflective, that's less important in the wintertime when that's at its maximum extent. And in the summertime, it melts away pretty much every year.

CONAN: In getting back to the northern region, the Arctic, is - scientists had long feared that if this trend continues, there will come a summer where there's no ice at all.

HARRIS: Yeah. I think people are starting to back away from that a little bit because there are enough little pockets where you could get some ice accumulating every summer and not melting out because, basically, you have the wind that pushes that together and piles it up. So you have always have a few places where it's piled up. But on the other hand, that will be a fairly small part of the Arctic, quite a small bit. So it's not - so for practical purposes, the ocean will look ice-free, and the North Pole may be sort of in a large area of no ice at all. Occasionally, right now, there are cracks and there are openings that drift around. And so, sometimes, the North Pole itself is in an ice-free area.

CONAN: Open water, yeah.

HARRIS: But it could be possible to be in a large area of open water in the coming decades. That's the expectation.

CONAN: The other enormous area of a white, reflective surface is the ice cap that covers the island of Greenland, the biggest island in the world. And that this summer also had a really powerful melt.

Yes, and that's a very different situation because the ice sitting on the ocean, when it melts, it doesn't change sea level. If you think of a glass of ice tea and you put your ice cubes in the ice tea, when the ice melts, your ice tea, obviously, doesn't overflow. The ice just - it...

There's quite a difference in volume, but not big enough.

HARRIS: Yeah. It basically doesn't - but the melting ice that's floating doesn't matter, but what - but a lot of the ice sitting on Greenland and on Antarctic, the continent of Antarctica, when that ice melts, that does, in fact, add water to the sea. And those are in the long term, likely to drive the sea level rise and could drive the sea level rise by a great deal in the coming decades and centuries.

CONAN: So is anomalous - I mean, is this - as you said, it's definitely part of a trend. There's no way to argue with it anymore, about the warming and that it's having real effects. How is it going faster than people feared?

HARRIS: Yes. I think if you talk to those scientists who've done the computer models and are projecting how quickly things will happen, a lot of those models will say that the ice could be largely gone by 2030, 2040, 2050. But they say, what we're actually seeing is outracing those computerized trends. So the computers in this case are giving an optimistic picture, compared to what we're seeing in real life here. So, yes, this is a real eye-opening event for people.

CONAN: And that suggests to people in this country, as they look around to the weather that we've been experiencing these past couple of summers, that they better get used to it.

HARRIS: That's right. I think - I mean, there are still obviously a lot of skepticism in this country about whether a global warming is real or not, or whether it's - at least whether it's caused by human activities. Scientists don't argue that point by and large anymore, but I think a lot of people in the public do. But I think it has come to the point where people can't say, well, it's - people at least have to acknowledge it's hotter now and getting hotter and has been hot for a long time. And this is, you know, this is a new normal for us. And whatever you believe about the politics of this, you have to acknowledge this is something we have to get used to at least and maybe think seriously about, you know, is there a way to put a brakes - the brakes on this?

CONAN: Richard Harris, thanks very much for your time today.

HARRIS: It's my pleasure.

CONAN: NPR science correspondent, Richard Harris, joined us here in Studio 3A. He'll be back later today with more on the record ice melt on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/11/160952352/arctic-sea-ice-melt-sets-record?ft=1&f=1007

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Prototype represents a step toward enhanced soft-tissue tomography

ScienceDaily (Sep. 10, 2012) ? A promising approach for producing medical images with enhanced soft tissue visibility -- grating-based x-ray phase contrast -- has now advanced from bench-top studies to implementation in an in vivo preclinical computed tomography scanner. A German, Swedish, and Belgian team led by scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) published the first experimental results demonstrating the practical potential of this technology, which can significantly improve the contrast in CT scans.

This work, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could mark a critical step in moving beyond proof-of-concept experiments to applications -- including in vivo preclinical imaging with small-animal models in the mid-term future and, in the long term, medical CT scanning.

Conventional x-ray imaging is based on recording the intensity of x-rays behind the imaged object or patient. This method has limitations in medical imaging, especially for examining tissues such as cancer and cartilage, which are hardly visible in conventional images. Novel x-ray technology does not rely solely on the attenuation of x-ray intensity, but also takes advantage of the slightly deflected propagation direction of x-rays. In order to make this effect visible in the so-called phase image, grating-based interferometry is employed, which requires highly precise alignment of x-ray optical components.

Franz Pfeiffer, TUM professor for biomedical physics and head of the research team explains: "For several years we have worked on novel x-ray technology for improved diagnosis in medical imaging. Up until now, we could only investigate excised tissue on bench-top setups in our labs. But now, we took the step of implementing this technology in an in vivo micro-CT scanner. With this step we bring the technology much closer to the hospital, and we hope to make it available for patients in the future."

In a close collaboration with an industrial partner (Bruker microCT / Skyscan), supplied with high-precision x-ray optical gratings from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and with financial support from the European Research Council, the researchers built two prototype scanners. One remains at the industrial partner's site in Belgium, and the other is set up in the Institute of Medical Engineering on TUM's Garching Research Center campus. "The main challenge in implementing the novel x-ray technology in a micro-CT scanner was mechanical stability and resulting disturbances in the x-ray phase images," says TUM doctoral candidate Arne Tapfer, the first author of the PNAS study. "We were able to correct these disturbances with a software algorithm and prove that the correction routine performs accurately." The scientists demonstrated this by quantitatively evaluating the scan of a "phantom" of chemical fluids. Biological tissue was used to assess the potential for biomedical imaging; the novel phase images showed improved visibility of the different tissue components.

"With this new technology we have opened the way for a new generation of preclinical CT scanners," asserts Alexander Sasov, head of the industry partner Bruker microCT -- which brought to the project long-standing experience engineering microCT scanners for a wide range of applications.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Technische Universitaet Muenchen, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Arne Tapfer, Martin Bech, Astrid Velroyen, Jan Meiser, J?rgen Mohr, Marco Walter, Joachim Schulz, Bart Pauwels, Peter Bruyndonckx, Xuan Liu, Alexander Sasov, and Franz Pfeiffer. Experimental results from a preclinical X-ray phase-contrast CT scanner. PNAS, September 10, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207503109

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/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/ZH70-Schamc/120910152017.htm

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Coolpad Quattro 4G (MetroPCS)

The first U.S. smartphone from prominent Chinese phone maker Coolpad shows that the company has a ways to go before it can compete with top manufacturers like LG and Samsung here in the states. The Coolpad Quattro 4G gives you a 4-inch, 800-by-480 screen for $99, and since it's on MetroPCS, you don't even need to sign a contract. Its performance is slow enough, though, that we can't recommend it.

Physical Features and Call Quality
A clunky phone at 5 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches, the Quattro 4G is relatively light at 3.3 ounces. A few years ago, this would have been considered a decent size, but now it's thick for a slab-style phone without a sliding keyboard. The front is dominated by the 4-inch, 800-by-480-pixel touch screen, which is a workaday LCD panel that looks washed out compared with the screens on the LG Motion 4G?and LG Connect 4G?. The silver plastic back has an interesting texture, and parts of the phone's back are patterned, while other parts are flat.

The Quattro connects to MetroPCS's 4G LTE network in 14 metro areas, to 2G CDMA outside those areas, and to Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz band where it's available. One of MetroPCS's coolest features is its Easy WiFi client, which automatically hooks up to public hotspots. Alas, you can't make phone calls over Wi-Fi the way you can with T-Mobile phones. Speeds on the MetroPCS LTE network were solid, showing 4-6Mbps down.

The carrier is currently running an excellent promotion with unlimited talk, text, and data for $55 per month with no contract. That doesn't include use of the Quattro 4G's Wi-Fi hotspot or tethered modem modes, though; if you want to use the Quattro to connect other devices, you need to sign up for a limited plan starting at $50 for 2.5GB.

Call quality is adequate, but not great. While reception and data speeds were just short of the excellent results we saw on the LG Motion 4G, calls were quieter and sounded a bit more muddled in the earpiece. Transmission through the mic, on the other hand, sounded great on the other end, even muting the sound of a jackhammer in the background without any effect on my voice. The speakerphone is of average volume and sounds a bit scratchy. While the Quattro connected to my Jawbone Era headset??without a problem, it couldn't trigger voice dialing over Bluetooth.

Battery life was disappointing at 4 hours, 43 minutes of talk time on the 1600mAh battery. There also may be a bug in the charging meter; the phone said it charged from zero to 42 percent in 20 minutes, which is pretty swift.

Android, Apps, and Performance
Coolpad isn't using a cheapo processor here; it's a TI OMAP3 clocked at 1GHz. That's the same processor, and the same speed, used in 2010's Motorola Droid 2. But performance here in actual use is just dog-awful, especially if you're multitasking anything. It's worse than the benchmarks imply, on par with the Huawei Activa 4G and ZTE Score M?, two other phones we don't recommend.

Major performance issues seem to come into play when the phone tries to multitask. I experienced way too many delays in the overwrought custom keyboard/handwriting recognition app, including dropping a lot of characters. I even saw delays on the unlock screen. When your competition is the sprightly LG Motion 4G, this kind of molasses-slowness just isn't acceptable.

The Quattro runs Android 2.3 (the Motion 4G has 4.0), and you shouldn't expect an upgrade. There's just too little RAM in this phone, only 512MB. Speaking of storage, it's a good thing there's a 2GB MicroSD card in here, as there's only 109MB of free on-board memory. I managed to get a 16GB MicroSD card to load up, but not larger cards.

Along with apps you can download from the Google Play app store, the Quattro is stuffed full of MetroPCS bloatware. The Rhapsody $10-a-month unlimited streaming music service is useful, but most of the bloat is less so: The hideous MetroXtras, which gives you pop-up ads on your phone, qualifies for worst.

Multimedia and Conclusions
The Quattro 4G is an adequate music player, but doesn't do well as a video player or camera. The limited internal memory is an issue. Beyond that, we saw strange video artifacts (skipped or blank lines) in one of our H.264-formatted MP4 files. The Quattro 4G plays all the usual music formats and MP4, H.264, and WMV videos at up to 720p resolution; it can't handle DivX. In my tests, audio through headphones was clear, at least.

Photos taken with the Quattro's 3.2-megapixel camera showed a red cast outdoors, and a bright background overwhelmed an image of leaves in front of the sky. Indoors, the white balance recovered but photos looked a bit smeared?not from focus problems, but from a soft lens. Video recording captures only 640-by-480 at 12 frames per second in low light, and 20 frames per second in good light. Shutter delay was acceptable but noticeable at 0.7 second, so you'll lose the occasional fast-moving subject. There's also a very basic VGA camera on the front. It's safe to say the LG Motion 4G outpaces the Quattro in every one of these areas.

When I spoke with the president of Coolpad Americas, he said the company wanted to make sure its radios were reliable when it entered the U.S. market. Mission accomplished. But when you're going up against an established leader like LG, you need an Android phone that emails, texts, and runs 400,000 apps well. So far in MetroPCS's lineup, Huawei, ZTE, and Coolpad have all missed the mark there.

MetroPCS has terrific no-contract plans and a steadily improving 4G LTE network. We enthusiastically recommend the LG Motion 4G if you're on a budget, and the Editors' Choice LG Connect 4G if you can spend a bit more. Coolpad may yet release a great phone (just as Huawei did with the excellent Mercury on Cricket), but the Quattro 4G isn't it. Give it a pass.

More Cell Phone Reviews:
??? Motorola Droid Razr M (Verizon Wireless)
??? Motorola Defy XT (U.S. Cellular)
??? Coolpad Quattro 4G (MetroPCS)
??? LG Motion 4G (MetroPCS)
??? Samsung Galaxy S II 4G (Boost Mobile)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/GJJiA-aOxgo/0,2817,2409200,00.asp

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Jury orders Joe Francis to pay another $20M

Nick Ut, Chris Pizzello / AP

A jury says Joe Francis, left, slandered Steve Wynn.

By Anthony McCartney, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES --?A jury doubled its verdict against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis on Tuesday, ordering him to pay an additional $20 million in punitive damages to Steve Wynn for claiming the casino mogul threatened to kill him.

The decision came one day after the same nine men and three women awarded Wynn $20 million after determining that Francis' allegations slandered the designer of upscale casinos. Francis plans to appeal the verdicts.

The panel followed the suggestion of Wynn's attorney, Barry Langberg, who asked jurors to double their initial verdict, which was intended to compensate Wynn for damage to his reputation and casino empire.

"It tells Mr. Francis and the world, you cannot do this," Langberg told the panel before it began deliberations on punitive damages.?

Francis' attorney Aaron Aftergood argued that Wynn's side hadn't shown any evidence about his client's finances and they shouldn't deliver another large judgment. Francis did not provide financial records to Wynn's attorney, so estimates of his wealth were not presented to jurors.

Francis claimed record producer Quincy Jones told him that Wynn threatened to hit him in the back of the head with a shovel and have him buried in the desert amid a dispute over a gambling debt, but the Grammy winner testified no such statements were made.

Wynn is the CEO of Wynn Resorts Ltd. and designed Las Vegas casinos such as The Mirage, Bellagio, Wynn and Encore.

Aftergood said he intends to file a motion for a new trial on the grounds that jurors were allowed to consider statements Francis made to a "Good Morning America" crew, but the panel was never shown the interview and heard little testimony about it. A judge allowed Wynn's attorneys to add the interview to the case after testimony had concluded and before jury deliberations began.?

Jurors awarded Wynn $22 million for the interview comments.

Wynn has said he intends to donate the damages he received from the trial to charities

Related content:

More in entertainment news:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/09/11/13811547-jury-adds-another-20-million-in-damages-against-girls-gone-wild-founder-joe-francis?lite

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How to Build a Website | Business 2 Community

?Tired of sifting through free websites, web design, web hosting, website templates and website builders to learn how to build a website??

See the best way to create a website by choosing the type of Web platform you want (i.e. blog, forum, eCommerce, custom) and learning more about the best Web solutions available for that type of website.

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The choices are bewildering.

Regardless of whether you want to start a blog, or set up a small business online, this guide to building a website will show you the fastest, easiest and cheapest route to get the website you want.

Before building a website

Before you start deciding on how to build a website it is important to understand what the requirements are. It is very easy to pay for a web solution far in excess of your requirements.

Conversely, it is also easy to make the mistake of not choosing something flexible and scalable that can grow with your needs, or the needs of your business.

In addition, you also need to think about how much you are prepared to pay to get the website you want.

Remember that paying for a quality website generally saves time, effort and money in the long run because you don?t waste time learning how to develop a site from scratch.

It?s important for both bloggers and small businesses to get a website operational quickly and efficiently. This allows you to focus on growing your business and making money. Remember that an online business should not be about building a website, but about making money online from a website.

Choose what type of website to create

How to build a blog

Blogs are super easy to create without needing any Web experience. Many top blog platforms offer hosted solutions which means that you don?t need to worry about finding a Web hosting service ? although you should always purchase a domain name to build up SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

For a straightforward blog (with domain purchasing and great SEO), your best option is WordPress. WordPress hosts tens of millions of blogs and many of the world?s top bloggers use WordPress.

Read How to start a blog with WordPress for a complete guide to designing a killer WordPress blog.

You might also consider the following blog platforms:

How to build a forum

Forum software is readily available but comes in a variety of flavors ? commercial, free, hosted, etc.

Assuming you want the easiest solution that will work to grow traffic and start generating money, you can use one of the following solutions:

You can learn more about hosted vs. self hosted Web software by reading What is the difference between Web hosting and hosted websites?

How to build a small business website

Building a small business website is something that has been done millions of times before. There are plenty of high quality website building tools and online web designers available.

Many website builders offer hosted solutions, which make life a bit easier because you don?t have to find a Web hosting service ? What is the difference between Web hosting and hosted websites?

Here is a list of the best Website builders rated according to their SEO (Search Engine Performance).

Rank Software YSlow Google PageSpeed Load Time 1 Yola84 94 0.92 2 GoDaddy!79 90 1.44 3 Wix 79 95 2.44 4 Weebly 80 89 2.00 5 Webs 75 28 0.82 6 Homestead79 57 2.76

Choosing a website builder saves you plenty of time and effort. This time can be spent growing your business or blog. There is no longer any real need to become a Web development expert as well as an online business owner.

The only thing you need to decide is which website builder offers the best package for your specific requirements.

Check out the section on How to build a niche website for more information about custom Web development for businesses and startups.

How to build an eCommerce site (shopping cart)

An eCommerce website is a complex bit of software. It requires secure payment and transaction facilities, logging, reporting, fulfillment, sales, checkout, shopping carts, stock, tax, and a whole host of other facilities.

Unless you have a serious development team, it is not really feasible to put this together by yourself. The best way to build an eCommerce store is to use one of the existing shopping cart software solutions.

Fortunately, there are a wide range of high quality shopping carts to choose from. Some offer a range of packages from hosted, to self-hosted, to embedded ? yes; it is possible to embed shopping cart solutions into existing websites.

The most important aspect of finding the right eCommerce Website solution, is understanding your own needs (i.e. how many products, what type of products, images, etc) and matching those to the packages offered by the eCommerce web platform providers listed here.

Rank Software YSlow Google PageSpeed Load Time 1 Shopify 84 84 0.89 2 BigCommerce76 95 1.52 3 Magento76 67 1.32 4 Pinnacle Cart 79 81 2.16 5 Volusion80 65 1.87

Remember that it is still possible to develop custom Websites with eCommerce features, as we?ll see in the following section on niche website development.

How to build a niche website

If you have special requirements that can?t be met by the various Web templates and online website builders available, then it is time to look at more powerful and flexible web development ? like the one used by SEO Entrepreneur.

It isn?t necessary to start building a great website from scratch. Most good Web designers and developers use a CMS (Content Management System).

Most CMS are open source and free. However, you should be aware that designing and developing a website using a CMS generally requires some knowledge of CSS, HTML, and/or PHP.

All CMS systems offer extensions or modules that can be used to enhanced their functionality. For example, the Ubercart project adds complete eCommerce facilities to Drupal.

If you have no Web experience then it is likely you need to speak to an experienced Web designer.

Here is a list of the most popular CMS Web platforms in the world today.

Rank Software YSlow Google PageSpeed Load Time 1 SE 96 98 1.18 2 WordPress 77 92 1.11 3 Drupal 83 67 1.14 4 Joomla78 72 1.11

Of these options, Drupal is the most powerful and flexible ? but it has a steeper learning curve and is more complex. Check out this article that compares WordPress and Drupal.

Is you?re going to opt for the control and power of a CMS then it is likely you?ll also want to choose a

Source: http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/how-to-build-a-website-0271491

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Elvis' personal Bible sells for $94,000 at auction

Jon Super / AP

Containing approximately 1,600 pages with the singer's notations, handwriting and underlining throughout and with Elvis Presley and Holy Bible, embossed in gold on a leather cover, the Bible was given to Elvis Presley by his uncle Vester and Aunt Clettes Presley as a Christmas gift in 1957.

By Reuters

LONDON -- A Bible which once belonged to Elvis Presley and contains his handwritten notes and thoughts has sold for $94,600 (59,000 pounds)?at an auction in England, the auction house said.

The Bible, given to the singer on his first Christmas at his home in Graceland in 1957, was bought by an American man based in Britain, Omega Auctions said on its website.

Video: Priscilla Presley says Elvis was 'caring father'

The religious book, used by Presley until his death on Aug. 16, 1977, was expected to fetch around 25,000 pounds but went for more than double its value.

But a pair of Presley's unwashed and soiled underpants, worn underneath his famous white jumpsuit during a 1977 concert, went unsold.

Video: Priscilla Presley says Graceland is a part of Elvis

Bids for the underwear reached 5,000 pounds, but failed to meet the 7,000 pounds reserve price.

Some of the singer's other personal items sold at the auction on Saturday included used cufflinks, a gold pendant chain/necklace and black Flagg Brothers shoes.

Video: Priscilla says Elvis may have become minister

The entire Elvis collection, owned by a single British collector, went for more than 100,000 pounds at Omega Auctions in Cheshire, north England.

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Toys R Us 7-inch Tabeo kids tablet coming in October for $150

Toys r us Tabeo

Toys R Us has posted a listing for a new 7-inch child's Android slate priced at $150 called the Tabeo, saying it will go on sale October 1st in stores only. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company will announce more details later today, but pictures on the site indicate it will be more conventional in design style and not as "kiddified" as the toy store's previous offering, the Nabi. Technical specs include a 1GHz processor, 4GB of built-in storage, upgradeable to 32GB, HDMI-out, 50 pre-loaded apps and -- brace for it -- it's own native app store offering around 6,000 more. That might mean it's aimed at older kids than the previous tab's six-year old and up target, but it better have some killer features for the younger set -- it's up against a spate of similar products that have already hit shelves.

Update: This looks very much like an Archos Child Pad with different colors and $20 added to the asking price. Thanks all who spotted the similarity.

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Real estate law

Real estate law: Not for you? Real estate is indeed one of the safest investments and a lot of men and women use true estate as an investment avenue. Real estate law is not the forte of real estate attorneys and true estate agents only. Every true estate investor really should realize at least the basics of real estate law. In fact, a brief course or a concise book on true estate law can often be of excellent support (and is generally sufficient for understanding the basics of actual estate law). What you need to understand is the genuine estate law with respect to the legal procedures that you want to adhere to for making certain a smooth transfer of title to the property you obtain/sell and other connected procedures. You want to understand the fee structure (e.g. stamp duty, etc) that you require to take care of as per real estate law. You can also recognize the classification of properties and how the basic true estate law applies to them. How the commercial and residential properties are treated differently by the genuine estate law. The tax laws with respect to genuine estate are a single of the factors that would be of most interest to you. So, your study on genuine estate law ought to also cover all the aspects associated to taxes. How mortgages are treated in the perspective of actual estate law is another factor that you ought to know about. Then again, the real estate law with respect to tenancy ought to also be well understood by folks who wish to rent out their property. real estate investing courses Nonetheless, you ought to not overdo that i.e. you really should not start off becoming hysterical about learning real estate law (lest you finish up wasting a lot of time in attempting to understand every thing about real estate law and be left with no time to evaluate your genuine estate investment). Leave the intricacies of genuine estate law with the real estate attorneys (and to some extent real estate brokers who too are taught genuine estate law as part of their course for getting broker license). Understanding the a variety of legal terms referred to in real estate laws can assist you in not only enhancing your understanding of real estate but also help in generating your conversations with real estate attorneys/agents truly fruitful. You must also note that though some of the basics stay the same, the true estate laws vary across a variety of states. Also, actual estate laws (especially the tax related genuine estate laws) can undergo a transform over a period of time, so you need to preserve a tab on such changes. Any huge changes will anyhow appear prominently in news and you will get to know of them anyhow. So understanding a little bit of real estate law can really be helpful (and is, in fact, vital).

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Mushroom-derived compound lengthens survival in dogs with cancer, Penn Vet study finds

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 10-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie
kbaillie@upenn.edu
215-898-9194
University of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA Dogs with hemangiosarcoma that were treated with a compound derived from the Coriolus versicolor mushroom had the longest survival times ever reported for dogs with the disease. These promising findings offer hope that the compound may one day offer cancer patients human and canine alike a viable alternative or complementary treatment to traditional chemotherapies.

The study was conducted by two University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine faculty. Dorothy Cimino Brown is professor and chair of the Department of Clinical Studies and director of the Veterinary Clinical Investigation Center. Jennifer Reetz is an attending radiologist in the Department of Clinical Studies. They published their findings in an open-access article in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The Coriolus versicolor mushroom, known commonly as the Yunzhi mushroom, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years. The compound in the mushroom that is believed to have immune-boosting properties is polysaccharopeptide, or PSP. In the last two decades, some studies have suggested that PSP also has a tumor-fighting effect.

"There have been a series of studies looking at groups of people with cancer," Cimino Brown said. "The issue with those studies is that they weren't necessarily measuring what most people would think is the most clinically important result, which is, do people taking PSP live longer?"

To address this critical question, Cimino Brown and Reetz pursued a study in dogs with naturally occurring hemangiosarcoma, an aggressive, invasive cancer that arises from the blood cells and typically affects the spleen. It commonly strikes golden retrievers and German shepherds.

Fifteen dogs that had been diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma participated in the trial. Divided into three groups of five, each group received a different dose 25, 50 or 100 mg/kg/day of I'm-Yunity, a formulation of PSP that has been tested for consistency and good manufacturing processes.

The owners were instructed to give their dog capsules of I'm-Yunity, compounded by Penn pharmacists, daily. Each month, the owners brought their dogs to Penn's Ryan Veterinary Hospital for follow-up visits. There, the researchers took blood samples and conducted ultrasounds to determine the extent that tumors developed or grew and spread in the dogs' bodies.

Based on the ultimate endpoints how quickly the tumors progressed and how long the dogs actually lived the results of the researchers' trial suggest that the I'm-Yunity was effectively fighting the tumors.

"We were shocked," Cimino Brown said. "Prior to this, the longest reported median survival time of dogs with hemangiosarcoma of the spleen that underwent no further treatment was 86 days. We had dogs that lived beyond a year with nothing other than this mushroom as treatment."

There were not statistically significant differences in survival between the three dosage groups, though the median survival time was highest in the 100 mg group, at 199 days, eclipsing the previously reported median survival time.

The results were so surprising, in fact, that the researchers asked Penn Vet pathologists to recheck the dogs' tissue biopsies to make sure that the dogs really had the disease.

"They reread the samples and said, yes, it's really hemangiosarcoma," Cimino Brown said.

Chemotherapy is available for treating hemangiosarcoma, but many owners opt not to pursue that treatment once their dog is diagnosed.

"It doesn't hugely increase survival, it's expensive and it means a lot of back and forth to the vet for the dog," Cimino Brown said. "So you have to figure in quality of life."

While I'm-Yunity is not inexpensive, if proven effective, it would offer owners a way of extending their pet's life without regular trips to the vet. As an added benefit, Cimino Brown and Reetz have found no evidence of adverse effects from the PSP treatment.

The researchers are now getting ready to pursue further trials of I'm-Yunity in dogs with hemangiosarcoma to confirm and refine their results. One trial will compare I'm-Yunity to a placebo for those owners who opt not to pursue chemotherapy in their pet and another will compare the compound to standard-of-care chemotherapy.

Depending on those results, veterinarians could eventually prescribe the compound for treating hemangiosarcoma, and perhaps other cancers, in dogs. The company that manufacturers I'm-Yunity may also pursue large-scale clinical trials in humans.

"Although hemangiosarcoma is a very sad and devastating disease," Cimino Brown said, "in the long term, if we prove that this works, this treatment can be a really nice alternative for owners to have increased quality time with their pet at the end of its life."

###

The study was funded by a grant from Chinese Medicine Holdings LTD.


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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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 10-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie
kbaillie@upenn.edu
215-898-9194
University of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA Dogs with hemangiosarcoma that were treated with a compound derived from the Coriolus versicolor mushroom had the longest survival times ever reported for dogs with the disease. These promising findings offer hope that the compound may one day offer cancer patients human and canine alike a viable alternative or complementary treatment to traditional chemotherapies.

The study was conducted by two University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine faculty. Dorothy Cimino Brown is professor and chair of the Department of Clinical Studies and director of the Veterinary Clinical Investigation Center. Jennifer Reetz is an attending radiologist in the Department of Clinical Studies. They published their findings in an open-access article in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The Coriolus versicolor mushroom, known commonly as the Yunzhi mushroom, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years. The compound in the mushroom that is believed to have immune-boosting properties is polysaccharopeptide, or PSP. In the last two decades, some studies have suggested that PSP also has a tumor-fighting effect.

"There have been a series of studies looking at groups of people with cancer," Cimino Brown said. "The issue with those studies is that they weren't necessarily measuring what most people would think is the most clinically important result, which is, do people taking PSP live longer?"

To address this critical question, Cimino Brown and Reetz pursued a study in dogs with naturally occurring hemangiosarcoma, an aggressive, invasive cancer that arises from the blood cells and typically affects the spleen. It commonly strikes golden retrievers and German shepherds.

Fifteen dogs that had been diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma participated in the trial. Divided into three groups of five, each group received a different dose 25, 50 or 100 mg/kg/day of I'm-Yunity, a formulation of PSP that has been tested for consistency and good manufacturing processes.

The owners were instructed to give their dog capsules of I'm-Yunity, compounded by Penn pharmacists, daily. Each month, the owners brought their dogs to Penn's Ryan Veterinary Hospital for follow-up visits. There, the researchers took blood samples and conducted ultrasounds to determine the extent that tumors developed or grew and spread in the dogs' bodies.

Based on the ultimate endpoints how quickly the tumors progressed and how long the dogs actually lived the results of the researchers' trial suggest that the I'm-Yunity was effectively fighting the tumors.

"We were shocked," Cimino Brown said. "Prior to this, the longest reported median survival time of dogs with hemangiosarcoma of the spleen that underwent no further treatment was 86 days. We had dogs that lived beyond a year with nothing other than this mushroom as treatment."

There were not statistically significant differences in survival between the three dosage groups, though the median survival time was highest in the 100 mg group, at 199 days, eclipsing the previously reported median survival time.

The results were so surprising, in fact, that the researchers asked Penn Vet pathologists to recheck the dogs' tissue biopsies to make sure that the dogs really had the disease.

"They reread the samples and said, yes, it's really hemangiosarcoma," Cimino Brown said.

Chemotherapy is available for treating hemangiosarcoma, but many owners opt not to pursue that treatment once their dog is diagnosed.

"It doesn't hugely increase survival, it's expensive and it means a lot of back and forth to the vet for the dog," Cimino Brown said. "So you have to figure in quality of life."

While I'm-Yunity is not inexpensive, if proven effective, it would offer owners a way of extending their pet's life without regular trips to the vet. As an added benefit, Cimino Brown and Reetz have found no evidence of adverse effects from the PSP treatment.

The researchers are now getting ready to pursue further trials of I'm-Yunity in dogs with hemangiosarcoma to confirm and refine their results. One trial will compare I'm-Yunity to a placebo for those owners who opt not to pursue chemotherapy in their pet and another will compare the compound to standard-of-care chemotherapy.

Depending on those results, veterinarians could eventually prescribe the compound for treating hemangiosarcoma, and perhaps other cancers, in dogs. The company that manufacturers I'm-Yunity may also pursue large-scale clinical trials in humans.

"Although hemangiosarcoma is a very sad and devastating disease," Cimino Brown said, "in the long term, if we prove that this works, this treatment can be a really nice alternative for owners to have increased quality time with their pet at the end of its life."

###

The study was funded by a grant from Chinese Medicine Holdings LTD.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/uop-mcl091012.php

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Lighting Build Greater Electrical Energy Bills? | Home Improvement ...

Lighting Build Greater Electrical Energy Bills?

Lighting Build Greater Electrical Energy Bills?

Lighting is most the vital necessity in our homes. With out satisfactory lighting it will not be attainable for children to leer, so that you can learn, to prepare dinner, nicely-stored, appreciate household dinners. Due to this fact, the side of lighting can?t be ignored.

Nevertheless, lighting and electrical expenditure go hand in hand. Relying on the variety of lighting customary by you, you?ll give you the option to inquire of whole change in the electrical expenditure. Somehow, as electricity turned a properly-liked function, we failed to comprehend that the extra electricity became principal the higher went its costs.

It?s most principal to have apt lighting within home. Each member needs to stare properly and every gadget needs to work perfectly. However, since we determined to personalize spend of light, we additionally ended up utilizing extra electricity.

If you want to do electricity by means of lighting, you must try and rep out lighting systems that do not unprejudiced illuminate a itsy-bitsy fragment of your room, as a substitute obtain those lights that can illuminate complete room, with gross electricity. This can be method simply, it?s finest to engage lights that are brighter and with increased capacity.

Set up of Mild!

That is one other very appreciable characteristic on saving light. Whether or not you may be using the capacity of your mild supply to the fullest is dependent upon the plot where gentle has been installed. A suspended light source will all the time give away much more mild than the one which has been set aside up on the wall. Nonetheless, we can not suspend all light sources, not everywhere, subsequently it is considerable that you just expend reflecting colours arrive the set the place you light supply has been installed. This may create your room brighter. Rooms with wall paper too, tend to change into much less lighted, as an alternative try to employ wall paints to your home. Lighter colours assist assume mild better.

In case you adore glass, you presumably can set up mirrors somewhere else, especially the place it is a bit troublesome for the light to method, mirrors in strategic locations can really provide you with twice the amount of light.

You also wants to take a glance at the Sun?s path earlier than you start developing your home. Natural gentle can construct you loads of electrical energy throughout day time. Additionally welcoming daylight into your personal home can improve your emotional and non secular effectively being.

Everyday at sunset, it is well-known that you simply light up all the rooms in your home for some time, it would help engage negativity and keep at bay corrupt. All mild can be stored on 15 minutes then gentle only in the room the place you?re clarify ought to be working.

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Source: http://www.tradimall.com/lighting-build-greater-electrical-energy-bills.html

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