Longtime GOP Senate moderate Arlen Specter dies

By Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arlen Specter, a gruff, independent-minded moderate who spent three decades in the U.S. Senate but was spurned by Pennsylvania voters after switching in 2009 from Republican to Democrat, died on Sunday of cancer, his family said. He was 82.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell talks to Msnbc's Alex Witt about former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Spector who died from complications of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Specter had announced in August a recurrence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system. His son Shanin Specter confirmed his death.

Resilient, smart and aggressive, the former prosecutor frequently riled conservatives and liberals on his way to becoming Pennsylvania's longest-serving U.S. senator. He was elected to five six-year terms starting in 1980. He left the Republican Party because he said it had become too conservative.

Former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter dies of cancer at his home in Philadelphia. He was 82. Msnbc's Alex Witt talks with The Daily Beast's Eleanor Clift and Politico's Rachel Smolkin.

Specter steered a moderate course during an era when the two major U.S. political parties became increasingly polarized, and often broke with his party. His sometimes testy demeanor and opportunistic maneuvering earned him monikers like "Snarlin' Arlen" and "Specter the Defector."

In 2009, Specter left the Republican Party after 44 years when he concluded he could not win his party's primary in Pennsylvania in 2010 against a conservative challenger. But his bid for re-election in 2010 ended in failure when he was beaten by a liberal challenger for the Democratic nomination.

Chris Maddaloni / CQ-Roll Call Photos

Former Sen. Arlen Specter prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Administrative Oversight and the Courts Subcommittee hearing on "Access to the Court: Televising the Supreme Court."

After President John Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Specter served on the Warren Commission that investigated the shooting, and he helped devise the disputed "single-bullet" theory" that supported the idea of a lone gunman.

During his lengthy Senate career, Specter was crucial in increasing U.S. spending on biomedical research.

Tom Williams / Roll Call

The Republican-turned-Democrat, who played a key role in many Supreme Court nominations, was 82.

He helped get one conservative, Clarence Thomas, confirmed as a Supreme Court justice in 1991, while torpedoing the Supreme Court nomination of another conservative, Robert Bork, in 1987. He infuriated liberals during the Thomas confirmation hearings with prosecutorial questioning of Anita Hill, a law professor who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment. At one point, Specter accused her of "flat-out perjury."

Specter annoyed fellow Republicans by voting "not proven" on impeachment charges against President Bill Clinton in 1999, helping prevent the Democrat from being ousted from office over his affair with a White House intern.

Specter unsuccessfully sought the 1996 Republican presidential nomination. He had several health scares, undergoing open-heart surgery and surgery for a brain tumor, as well as chemotherapy for two bouts of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

In February 2009, a month after Democratic President Barack Obama took office, he became one of three Republican senators to vote for Obama's economic stimulus bill that Specter said was needed to avert a depression like that of the 1930s.

Specter was reviled by some conservatives for giving Obama an important early political victory. In April 2009, Specter at age 79 abandoned the Republicans - saying his party had moved too far to the right - and was welcomed by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as a Democrat.

Incumbent senators rarely face stiff challenges for their party's nomination for re-election, but Specter barely survived conservative Pat Toomey's challenge in 2004. Pennsylvania Republican primary voters are more conservative than the state's overall electorate, and Specter calculated that he could not win the Republican primary in 2010.

"I am not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate - not prepared to have that record decided by that jury," Specter said in April 2009 in explaining his defection.

In the 2010 Democratic primary, Specter had the support of the Democratic establishment, including Obama, Pennsylvania's governor and labor unions. But liberal challenger Joe Sestak, a retired Navy admiral and two-term congressman, painted Specter as a political contortionist concerned only about himself.

A Sestak TV ad featured a clip of Specter telling a news interviewer: "My change in party will enable me to be re-elected." Sestak thumped Specter in a May 2010 primary.

"He has been a serious and consequential senator for three decades, yet mostly ungenerous words come to mind: driven, tenacious, arrogant, self-righteous, opportunistic," Congress expert Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution think tank told the New York Times after Specter's defeat.

Specter was born in Kansas in 1930 during the Great Depression. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant who owned a junkyard. Specter moved to Philadelphia at age 17 to attend the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1951, then served in the Air Force before attending Yale Law School.

He was a Democrat until age 35, when the Republicans offered their nomination for district attorney of Philadelphia. He served as the city's district attorney from 1966 to 1974.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/14/14432076-longtime-gop-senate-moderate-arlen-specter-dies?lite

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Digital nightmare: How hackers ruined my online life

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Cute! Heidi Klum & Her Boyfriend Go West for Silly Pic

Heidi Klum and Martin Kirsten pose in a Disney photobooth! Check out more pics of Hollywood's tightest twosomes

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Ryan: White House should label China a "currency manipulator" (cbsnews)

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Citi lowers probability of "Grexit" to 60 percent from 90 percent

ATHENS (Reuters) - Citigroup changed on Friday its view that Greece will almost certainly leave the euro, saying key euro zone players seem to have decided a Greek exit would do more harm than good.

The U.S. bank lowered its probability of a "Grexit" to 60 percent from 90 percent "mainly due to a change in the attitude of euro core members toward it", it said in a note to investors.

"Politicians probably fear its negative effects on upcoming elections (in Germany) and a diminished economic resilience in the rest of Europe," Citi added.

Greece is seen missing the debt and deficit targets set out under the 130 billion euro European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout it obtained earlier this year, fuelling talk the country might be forced to leave the euro zone.

But several of the bloc's leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have recently voiced support for Athens and its new coalition government under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, which is negotiating a new austerity package with the lenders.

The government's cooperative stance has increased the odds of Athens staying in the euro, Citi said.

But it said Greece is still more likely than not to leave the euro within the next 12-18 months, arguing that lenders are unlikely to waive part of the country's huge debt to make it sustainable.

"Unless a write-off of official debt is agreed upon - quite unlikely, in our view - we think a stalemate between Greece and its international creditors will eventually lead to a withdrawal of international support leaving Grexit as potentially the only available solution for Greece".

Greece would most likely leave the euro in the first half of 2014, Citi said.

The IMF said earlier this week it expected Greek debt to peak at 182 percent of GDP next year and fall to 153 percent of GDP in 2017 -- a much higher level than the 120-percent target the country is supposed to hit in 2020 under its bailout plan.

Economists at UBS said on Friday Greece would need further debt relief from creditors including official lenders, after a restructuring agreed with private creditors helped cut the country's debt by about 100 billion euros earlier this year.

"Greece is an insolvent country and it needs another debt relief (plan)," said Martin Lueck, European economist at UBS. "The next restructuring will involve the public sector."

Because governments and other public institutions would need to be involved it was more likely the next restructuring would come in the form of an extension of maturities rather than by writing down the value of debt, Lueck added.

The IMF wants official lenders such as Germany to take a "haircut" like that already swallowed by private bondholders, according to sources.

But European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi last week dismissed the prospect of the ECB extending the maturities on Greek sovereign bonds it holds, saying it would constitute monetary financing, which is against the ECB's rules.

(Reporting by Harry Papachristou; Additional reporting by Eve Kuehnen in Frankfurt; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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Source: http://finance.blogrange.com/finance-news/citi-lowers-probability-of-grexit-to-60-percent-from-90-percent/

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Surprising solution to fly eye mystery

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2012) ? Fly eyes have the fastest visual responses in the animal kingdom, but how they achieve this has long been an enigma. A new study shows that their rapid vision may be a result of their photoreceptors -- specialised cells found in the retina -- physically contracting in response to light. The mechanical force then generates electrical responses that are sent to the brain much faster than, for example, in our own eyes, where responses are generated using traditional chemical messengers.

The study was published October 11, in the journal Science.

It had been thought that the ion channels responsible for generating the photoreceptors' electrical response were activated by chemical messengers as is usually the case in cell signalling pathways. However, these results suggest that the light-sensitive ion channels responsible for the photoreceptor's electrical response may be physically activated by the contractions -- a surprising solution to the mystery of light perception in the fly's eye and a new concept in cellular signalling.

Professor Roger Hardie, lead author of the study from the University of Cambridge's Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, said: "The ion channel in question is the so-called 'transient receptor potential' (TRP) channel, which we originally identified as the light-sensitive channel in the fly in the 1990's. It is now recognised as the founding member of one of the largest ion channel families in the genome, with closely related channels playing vital roles throughout our own bodies. As such, TRP channels are increasingly regarded as potential therapeutic targets for numerous pathological conditions, including pain, hypertension, cardiac and pulmonary disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and cerebral ischaemia. We are therefore hopeful that these new results may have significance well beyond the humble eye of the fly."

A fly's vision is so fast that it is capable of tracking movements up to five times faster than our own eyes. This performance is achieved using microvillar photoreceptor cells, in which the photo-receptive membrane is made up of tiny tubular membranous protrusions known as microvilli. In each photoreceptor cell, tens of thousands of these are packed together to form a long rod-like structure, which acts as a light-guide to absorb the incident light. Each microvillus also houses the biochemical machinery, which converts the energy of the absorbed light into the electrical responses that are sent to the brain -- a process known as phototransduction.

As in all photoreceptors, phototransduction starts with absorption of light by a visual pigment molecule (rhodopsin). In microvillar photoreceptors this leads to activation of a specific enzyme known as phospholipase C (PLC). PLC is a ubiquitous and very well-studied enzyme, which cleaves a large piece from a specific lipid component of the cell membrane ("PIP₂"), leaving a smaller membrane lipid (DAG) in its place.

Somehow this enzymatic reaction leads to the opening of "ion channels" in the microvillus membrane; once opened, these allow positively charged ions such as Ca²⁺ and Na⁺ to flow into the cell thus generating the electrical response. This basic sequence of events has been established for over 20 years; but exactly how PLC's enzymatic activity causes the opening of the channels has long remained a mystery and one of the major outstanding questions in sensory biology.

Professor Hardie added: "The conventional wisdom would be that one of the products of this enzyme's activity is a chemical 'second messenger' that binds to and activates the channel. However, years of research had previously failed to find compelling evidence for such a straightforward mechanism."

The new study, which was funded by the BBSRC and the Medical Research Council, using the fruitfly, Drosophila, now suggests a remarkable and unexpected resolution to this mystery. The key finding was that the photoreceptors physically contract in response to light flashes. The contractions were so small and fast that an "atomic force microscope" was needed to measure them. This revealed that the contractions were even faster than the cell's electrical response and appeared to be caused directly by PLC activity.

The researchers believe that the splitting of the membrane lipid PIP₂ by the enzyme PLC reduces the membrane area, thereby increasing tension in the membrane and causing each tiny microvillus to contract in response to light. The synchronised contraction of thousands of microvilli together then accounts for the contractions measured from the whole cell.

Dr Kristian Franze, co-author of the paper from the University of Cambridge, said: "We propose that within each microvillus the increase in membrane tension acts directly on the light-sensitive channels. In other words, rather than using a traditional chemical 2^nd messenger, the channels were being activated mechanically."

This concept was supported by experiments in which the native light-sensitive channels were eliminated by mutation and replaced with mechano-sensitive channels, which are known to open in response to membrane tension. Remarkably, these photoreceptors still generated electrical signals in response to light, but were now mediated by activation of the ectopic mechano-sensitive channels. To test whether the native light-sensitive channels could be affected by mechanical forces in the membrane, the microvillar membrane was stretched or compressed by changing the osmotic pressure. This simple experimental manipulation rapidly enhanced or suppressed channel openings in response to light as predicted.

These results suggest that PLC mediates its effects in the photoreceptors by changing the mechanical state of the membrane. The researchers suggest that it is the increase in the membrane tension (along with a pH change also resulting from PLC activity) that triggers the opening of the light-sensitive channels. Mechano-sensitive ion channels are actually well known, but normally involved in transducing mechanical stimuli -- such as sound in the ears or pressure on the skin. One of their characteristics is that they can be activated extremely rapidly -- perhaps an explanation for why fly photoreceptors have evolved this solution to phototransduction.

Professor Hardie said: "That a mechanical signal could be an intermediate signal -or 'second messenger'- in an otherwise purely biochemical cascade is a novel concept that extends our understanding of cellular signalling mechanisms to a new level."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cambridge. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

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Journal Reference:

1. Roger C. Hardie, Kristian Franze. Photomechanical Responses in Drosophila Photoreceptors. Science, 12 October 2012; Vol. 338 no. 6104 pp. 260-263 DOI: 10.1126/science.1222376

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/0PG7bhSfwZ4/121011141441.htm

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Legal recriminations begin over major meningitis outbreak

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - One of the nearly 14,000 patients given potentially tainted injections of pain medicine sued the maker of the treatment in what may be the first of a wave of lawsuits over a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak that shows no signs of abating.

The lawsuit was filed in a Minnesota federal court on Thursday by a woman who said she was given a steroid injection for back pain and has experienced symptoms consistent with meningitis. She is awaiting the results of tests.

Federal and state health authorities have confirmed 14 meningitis deaths nationwide since people who received the injections began coming to emergency rooms last month in Tennessee, the state with the most cases.

The number of people who contracted meningitis has risen rapidly in a week, and reached 169 on Thursday, an increase of 32 from the previous day.

The outbreak has turned into a major national health scandal with multiple investigations launched and a leading lawmaker, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, calling for a criminal probe of the company at the center of the storm, New England Compounding Center of Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts health regulator accused the company on Thursday of flouting state laws for pharmacies. The compounding company has recalled the suspect product, surrendered its operating license and has said it is cooperating with the investigations.

Federal and state regulators also have come under scrutiny for allowing an obscure pharmaceuticals sector known as compounding to grow rapidly without much federal oversight. Compounders take drug ingredients and make specialized treatments for patients. The industry has grown so large that some of the companies operate more like drug manufacturers than pharmacies, critics say.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it was working furiously to contain the meningitis outbreak from medications shipped to 23 states. Eleven of those states have reported cases of meningitis and there have been deaths in six states.

Of the 14,000 people at risk of infection, medical practitioners were still trying to reach about 2,000 patients to warn them to be tested immediately.

"We are not out of the woods yet," said Dr. Todd Weber, manager of the CDC response to the meningitis outbreak, during a briefing on Thursday.

While most of the patients at risk received epidural injections to alleviate back pain, the CDC spoke of a new concern on Thursday about patients who received injections in joints such as a knee or ankle.

They disclosed that a Michigan patient who had received an injection in an ankle, developed an infection. Tests have not yet been completed to determine if it is a fungal infection.

The CDC said all people who might have received the injections in joints from the suspect product also should seek medical attention.

Meningitis is an infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include headache, fever and nausea and it must be treated quickly to improve chances of survival. Fungal meningitis is a rare form and is not contagious.

Most people infected so far have displayed symptoms within two weeks of receiving the medication and as long as 42 days afterward. They cautioned that patients should be vigilant for several months if they received one of the injections.

Health authorities said more than 50 vials of the steroid, out of more than 17,000, had so far been confirmed as contaminated with more tests underway.

The lawsuit is Barbe Puro v. New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, No. 12-2605.

(Reporting David Morgan, David Bailey, Toni Clarke, Ros Krasny and Tim Ghianni; Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/meningitis-outbreak-widens-amid-demands-criminal-probe-001306318.html

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2 dead, 1 still missing in Fla. garage collapse

A five-story parking garage is shown after it collapsed at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 in Miami, killing one worker and trapping two others in the rubble, officials said. Several other workers were hurt, including one rescued from the debris. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

A five-story parking garage is shown after it collapsed at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 in Miami, killing one worker and trapping two others in the rubble, officials said. Several other workers were hurt, including one rescued from the debris. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Fire Rescue officials work to remove a victim from the collapsed parking garage at the Miami Dade College West campus in Doral, Fla. Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2012 . A section of a parking garage under construction at a community college collapsed killing one worker and trapping two others in the rubble, officials said. At least 10 other workers were hurt when the roof of the five-story concrete garage fell, creating a pancake-style collapse on the campus of Miami-Dade College, officials said. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

MIAMI (AP) ? After one man's dramatic rescue, rescue crews planned to continue searching Thursday for a construction worker still missing in the rubble of a five-story parking garage that collapsed a day earlier at a South Florida college, killing two and injuring several others.

Officials said they expect to find another body in the rubble.

Early Thursday, workers pulled a man from the rubble some 13 hours after the garage fell. The survivor, whose name and age were not released, was taken by helicopter to a trauma center in Miami, said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Capt. Louie Fernandez. An update on his condition was not available Thursday morning.

The worker was located by rescuers who heard his cries from amid the rubble not long after the roof of the five-story garage fell, creating a pancake-style collapse.

Officials said three people were initially trapped in the rubble, including one of the two workers who died, said Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Griselle Marino. A third man was pulled out alive and brought to a hospital shortly after the collapse Wednesday. A video shot by Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue and provided to The Associated Press showed four firefighters pulling him out from under a steel beam. His face and hands were bloody and he was put on a stretcher and carried away.

Seven workers were brought to the hospital with unidentified injuries while an eighth was treated on the scene and sent home.

There were no students in the area because the garage was under construction. The campus was evacuated and closed for the rest of the week. Investigators planned to pick through the rubble to see what caused the garage to crumble.

"We just know that the roof collapsed," Marino said.

One worker was still unaccounted for, and authorities expected to find at least one more body in the rubble, said Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue Assistant Chief David Downey. Late Wednesday, a man at the scene who declined to identify himself said he believed his brother, who was working at the garage at the time of the collapse, was still inside somewhere.

Downey said it was highly unlikely anyone left in the rubble would still be alive, and that authorities would now focus on recovery rather than rescue.

Victoria Buczynski of Miami said she saw the collapse while she was working at Gurkha Cigars across the street from the construction site at the Miami-Dade College.

"It fell to the ground like a house of cards," Buczynski said. "The construction workers started running out, screaming. It was loud. Our entire building shook."

William P. Byrne, president and chief executive officer of the garage contractor, Ajax Building Corp., said an internal review was being launched to determine the cause. Byrne said the company would embrace "any additional protocols, policies and procedures that will enhance and ensure the continued priority of safety."

Ground was broken on the $22.5 million project in February, and the 1,855-space garage was to be finished in December, according to Ajax's website. The first floor was to have classroom and office space. The structure is next to the college's main office building and nestled among other campus buildings.

The college serves about 8,000 students and is one of several campuses in the Miami-Dade College system. The campus opened in 2006.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-11-College%20Garage-Collapse/id-88c90e953a2d4fa59fec3040bf37a8ce

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German researchers develop wireless data bridge to combat 'last ...

October 10, 2012 - A team of researchers in Germany say they have created a new way to overcome many of the issues associated with bringing high-speed digital communications across challenging terrain and into remote areas, commonly referred to as the ?last mile? problem.

These researchers have developed a record-speed wireless data bridge that transmits digital information much faster than today?s state-of-the-art systems, they explain.

"Unprecedented speeds", up to 20 billion bits of data per second, were achieved by using higher frequencies than those typically used in mobile communications?the wireless bridge operates at 200 gigahertz (GHz) (two orders of magnitude greater than cell phone frequencies).

?An inexpensive, flexible, and easy-to-implement solution to the ?last mile? problem is the use of wireless technology,? explained Swen Koenig, a researcher at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology?s (KIT) Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics. ?Instead of investing in the cost of digging trenches in the ground and deploying ducts for the fibers, data is transmitted via the air?over a high-speed wireless link.?

In this type of setup, the optical fiber infrastructure is used up to its ending point and then connected to a wireless gateway. This gateway converts the optical data to electrical millimeter-wave signals that feed an antenna. The transmitting antenna ?illuminates? a corresponding receiving antenna. At the receiving point, the electrical signal is directed toward its final destination, either using another wireless channel in a relay technique via copper wire or a coaxial (TV) cable or with an optical fiber. Wireless links also serve as a bridging element in fiber optic networks, if obstacles and difficult-to-access terrain such as lakes, valleys, or construction sites are in its pathway.

?The challenge in integrating a wireless link into a fiber optic environment is to ensure that the wireless link supports data rates comparable to those of the optical link?ideally about 100 gigabits per second (Gbit/s)?and that it?s transparent to the data,? said Igmar Kallfass, a researcher and the project?s leader at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF, as well as a professor at KIT. ?Besides optoelectronic conversion, no further processing must be involved before the signals reach the antenna. This also holds for the receiving part in a reversed sequence.?

Multi-gigabit wireless transmission demands multi-GHz bandwidths, which are only available at much larger frequencies than mobile communications normally use. Millimeter-wave frequencies?radio frequencies in the range of 30-300 GHz?fulfill this need, explained the researchers.

?For our experiment, we use state-of-the-art electronic up- and down-converter modules developed at the Fraunhofer IAF. Previously, wireless data transmission at frequencies greater than 200 GHz with electronic up- and down-converters was virtually unexplored,? said Kallfass.

?In our first indoor experiment, the wireless transmission distance was limited to 50 centimeters, which we?ve now increased to 20 meters,? Kallfass continued. ?The second wireless gateway performs the inverse operation of the first gateway by an electronic down-converter module. Eventually, the electrical signal is again encoded onto laser light and transmitted over the second fiber span.?

This experiment was carried out within the framework of the MILLILINK project led by the Fraunhofer IAF and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education. Other partners include: KIT, Siemens Corporate Research and Technologies, Kathrein, and Radiometer Physics. The consortium is supported by Deutsche Telekom and Telent.

Source: http://www.ebmag.com/Industry-News/german-researchers-develop-wireless-data-bridge-to-overcome-last-mile-problem.html

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Private Rentals Mackay and Its Special ... - For Sale for Lease

For many Australians, buying and owning a house or property is a lifetime goal. However owning a property has corresponding responsibilities and there are various complications that can occur when deciding to own a house or a property. This is why an increasing number of individuals and families are opting to rent, rather than buy, a house. If you live in Brisbane, private rentals Mackay can be a much more comfortable option than buying a new home. Private renting is not a great option if you are trying to enhance your personal wealth through the property market. However if you are looking for houses or apartments for purely residential purposes, renting a property can be much easier and less complicated than buying.

Putting a property that you own up for lease can be a difficult process.? If you are interested in private rentals Mackay, then your first step should be looking for a suitable property to buy in Mackay. Or alternatively, if you already own a property, thinking about the best way to market it.

If you want to make your property available for private rentals Mackay, you will need to have an idea of the property values in the local area. This will provide you a good insight on what you can expect tenants to be willing to pay for a certain property. If you don?t know the relative real estate prices and the state of the market, you won?t be well equipped to negotiate a reasonable price.

You also need to make sure that you keep your budget in mind. It may be that you negotiate a slightly cheaper rent with a tenant because they are willing to stay long-term. This can be a good idea but you need to remember that you may also need spare funds for maintenance costs and other property related expenses. Before you get involved in private rentals Mackay you need to make sure that your finances are secure.

If you want to consider all the aspects of private rentals in Mackay, is advisable to obtain insurance for your property in order to secure your investment.

Source: http://forsaleforlease.com.au/private-rentals-mackay-and-its-special-considerations/

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last post - Talk About Marriage

General Relationship Discussion Although anyone can post anywhere on Talk About Marriage, this section is for people interested in general relationship and marriage advice.

Today, 02:11 PM	? #1 (permalink)
Member ? Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 234	When I 1st started dating my GF 8 month ago, I felt so confident about myself, it seemed like no other men existed, at least in her eyes. Over time my insecurities and jealousy has gotten out of control and I dont know how to stop these feelings and its really affecting our relationship. She always tells me how much she loves me and is attracted to me, writes me love notes all the time and even buys me flowers sometimes. we are always grabbing eachother and making out, and we have great sex whenever possible. she says she wants to have kids with me and marry me someday. Im usually a very discipled person about most things in my life, and Ive always been very independent, and I dont scare easily either, but I love this woman and her daughter so much the thought of her being with or wanting another man is terrifying to me. Its gotten to the point I cant be happy cause even a guy liking a harmless picture on her FB drives me into a jealous frenzy, WTF is wrong with me? I think what has me so wound up is some of the interactions she has had with her daughters father who she was on/off with for 5 years up until summer before last, nothing too awful just ambiguous flirting and txting pictures of their daughter and stuff. she also told him we broke up after a fight we had back in june, shes said she thought we did and was just confiding in him. I told her Im not comfortable with her having that kind of relationship with but she swears shes not interested in him but I still always feel like Im competing with him. I cant even go with her to pick her daughter up from his house, cause I cant stand the sight of him near her. I also found out recently she friended and inboxed an old BF she said treated her very badly, again nothing bad just "hey whats up" kinda stuff and it was just one conversation back in july right before we moved in together but it really hurts that she would do that, she apologized but I just cant get past it and I feel like I cant trust her or really take her seriously about how much she says she loves me. Whever I try to talk to her about my fears it turns into a huge fight. This is taking over my life, affecting my work and hobbies, but most of all its killing this otherwise beautiful relationship. I wish I could be more secure because I feel like my jealousy an insecurity will eventually drive her away or worse, into the arms of another man, but I just dont know how to control it. Any help is much appreciated.
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Today, 02:30 PM	? #2 (permalink)
Member ? Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 4,561	Jealousy is an exceptionally valid emotion to have. As long as you?re having it for the right reasons. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jealousy: Jealousy is an emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values, particularly in reference to a human connection. Jealousy often consists of a combination of presenting emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness and disgust. There are some that really believe others have no effect on how they feel. That another person cannot ?make? them feel happy, sad, joyful, angry, disappointed etc. Well guess what, they can. It is your girlfriend?s activities that are literally making you feel jealous and experience the emotions above. Because in spite of what she tells you, what she actually does, her actions tell you something quite the opposite. Does she deliberately make you jealous? The only way you?ll find out what?s really going on is by spying on her. Jealousy can be seen as a "warning emotion". It's warning you something is very wrong somewhere, you'd be best to heed its warning.
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Today, 04:25 PM	? #8 (permalink)
Member ? Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 234	Quote: Hello, I can understand that you are having some jealousy , but I don't understand how it is touching her daughter's relationship with her dad... You are in love with her and jealousy is often part of the deal, but tell me why it is affecting your daughter in law as well... Well I take care of this little girl everyday, I get her ready for school and put her to bed every night, I treat as if she was my own. he doesnt care much about her IMO and he doesnt pay much CS because she says if she takes him back to court hell get more visitation, she has to chase him down for the little he pays but he drives a brand new BMW. When hes with his daughter, he doesnt do much with her and smokes pot and plays video games in front of her , yet she thinks hes great. I cant stand him! when I 1st met her I asked her specifically what his roll in her life was, and she told me he wasnt too involved with her daughter, just had visitation 2 days a month and she really didnt see or talk to him much. That seemed to be the case in the beginning and I though I could live with it, then over time he seemed to pop up more and more. Ive been round and round with her about it and she insists she doesnt care about him and loves me, so I guess I have to learn to live with it if I wanna be with her, cause its starting to upset her alot. I just wanna know how to control my jealousy, its taking over my life.
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Find a Therapist:

Source: http://talkaboutmarriage.com/general-relationship-discussion/57823-i-have-major-problem-jealousy-help.html

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Five Years After Peak, Are Investors Paranoid or Pragmatic About ...

It is arguably one of the best known songs and lyrical lines linked with R&B legend Aretha Franklin, and she only wanted a little bit of it. I'm talking about "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me" --a riff not only befitting the Queen of Soul, but also an important current theme for investors who are easing into the fourth quarter in a market that's up 15% year-to-date.

"We think there are plenty of risk factors that the market, and investors in general, may not be appropriately respecting," says John Lewis, founder and chief investment officer at New Albany Capital Partners. "It's not bad time to take a little cash off the table," he adds in the attached video clip, in citing a number of risk factors that are troubling at best, and ominous at worst.

One such area of concern that Lewis is watching is a series of divergences --a pattern of split opinions that is much wider than normal, and therefore, prone to not only make for some big winners and losers, but to also boost volatility along the way.

For example, on the very day when the IMF lowered its global growth forecast for the second time in five months and flagged an "alarmingly high risk" of a sharper economic downturn, Lewis points out that the outlooks from Wall Street and the Fed are dangerously divergent too, in as much as they both can't be right.

''Of the many things that are on the risk radar, the divergence between the street and the Fed is certainly something we need to keep an eye on," he says. And whether it's GDP, inflation targets or earnings expectations he's tracking, the dueling forecasts are miles apart.

Case in point; Lewis is politely puzzled by the Fed's rosy view of inflation and growth compared to that of the Wall Street pundits, and he also questions the potential fallout that could come from an unusually wide 30% range in year-end price targets for the S&P 500, from as a low as 1167 to as high as 1525.

"The scary part with that is that earnings estimates aren't that far off. There's only about a 6% variance between the highest earnings expectation and the lowest," he says, meaning somebody is likely to get smoked while the other side will be in for a little respect, if you will.

But the fight doesn't end there. In fact, with the election and fiscal cliff overhanging the markets, as well as the unpredictability of the upcoming earnings forecast season, Lewis again sees this as a chance to raise cash, despite the old "don't fight the Fed" adage.

"Not to sound conspiratorial, but it's an awful convenient forecast that we will have benign inflation until the next presidential election and GDP in the mid-3's, after we just came off of a 1.3% print last quarter and everybody in the world is ratcheting down forecasts," he says. "It's a very, very convenient forecast they (the Fed) have at this time."

While much will be made of the anniversary of the all-time highs set by the S&P 500 and the Dow 5 years ago, Lewis downplays that fact as being little more than a ''mental benchmark'' that was attained under conditions that were entirely different - or divergent - than what we have now.

"Where we were five years ago doesn't factor into our analysis at all," he says dryly, adding that the real work - and money - will be made in determining earnings growth rates and valuations for 2013 and 2014, and having some cash built up to take advantage of opportunities that crop up.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/five-years-peak-investors-paranoid-pragmatic-stocks-162154484.html

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Shawn loses 'DWTS' points for 'best dance ever'

Adam Taylor / ABC

Shawn Johnson and "Dancing" pro partner Derek Hough.

By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor

It was a night of dance-floor d?j? vu on Monday's "Dancing With the Stars," as all-star acts took on routines from seasons past and even acted as creative directors for the numbers. But the do-over dances weren't the only thing that seemed familiar.

Last week, Bristol Palin rode roughshod over the ballroom rules in a quickstep that broke hold mid-dance and had the judges shaking their heads. And this week? It happened again.

Sort of.

This time it wasn't Bristol, but rather "Dancing" queen Shawn Johnson who broke the rules -- something she warned us she just might do. And this time, the dance wasn't made worse by doing the so-called wrong thing. In fact, unlike Bristol's flub-filled quickstep, Shawn put on a fast-paced reinterpretation of Helio Castroneves' season-five fan-favorite routine, and in addition to breaking hold (for even more impressive maneuvers), the gold-medal-winning gymnast worked in a couple gravity-defying moves (also rule-breaking), lifts and a stair-falling finish.

The judges all agreed on one point: It was their favorite dance. And not just their favorite dance of the night -- their favorite in all 15 seasons of "Dancing With the Stars"

"You broke the rules, but my god, I'm never going to forget this," Bruno Tonioli boasted.

"That was, by far, the best dance we have ever seen," Carrie Ann Inaba added. "I do have to slam you for the breakage of the rulage, but you kind of blewage my mindage."

And while head judge agreed Len Goodman agreed, he warned the pair, just as Bristol lost a point for violating the rules last week, Shawn and Derek would too.

Yes, the dance dubbed the best ever on the show actually lost points. So rather than a perfect 30, Shawn quickstepped away with a score of 26.5.

In fact, the routine didn't even top the leaderboard for night. That honor was shared by two others. Soap star Kelly Monaco, who continues to outdance her season-one self with every performance, delivered an impressive and powerful paso doble alongside Val Chmerkovskiy. In a major reworking of a dance first done by Laila Ali (and Val's big bro, Maksim Chmerkovskiy) in season four, the couple proved they were worthy of 27 points (and then some). And Val proved that when he said, "There's a new matador in town." Those may have been (bull-) fighting words, but he out-Maks'ed Maks.

The top spot was also occupied by Melissa Rycroft, who took on the samba J.R. Martinez made famous in season 13. But unlike J.R.'s effort, Melissa's samba just didn't have the high-energy hip shaking or the precision. Not that the judges seemed to notice when they handed out those 27 points and plenty of praise.

As for Bristol, she made a memorable impression on Monday night, but it had little to do with her routine. Rehearsal footage revealed a rift in her partnership with pro hoofer Mark Ballas. The duo evidently felt down after their last routine was deemed lacking, and rather than putting it behind them, Bristol played a bit of the blame game with Mark, faulting him for preferring past partners and not making it to every rehearsal. She even accused him of wanting to go home -- right before she walked out the door.

But before show time, they put their problems behind them and offered up their version of Joanna Krupa's season-nine paso. The dance was a marked improvement over last week, but it wasn't enough to pull the pair out of the last-place spot with only 22.5 points.

The rest of the acts gathered together in the middle of the lot. Four stars took a score of 25.5 for the night, including Gilles Marini, who failed to dominate this week with his high-flying, Erin Andrews-inspired tango. Former Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan matched that number when she attempted to take on one of the ballroom's most memorable routines -- the paso made famous by Mel B. ?Helio also nabbed that score for a quickstep (previously performed by fellow all-star Apolo Anton Ohno) that saw him get his feet caught up in his partner's dress. And Apolo rounded out the 25.5 gang with his Gilles-channeling foxtrot.

Former frontrunner Emmitt Smith trailed that group after his classic take on Mario Lopez's season-three paso doble failed to deliver some of the dance's expected snap-to moves and general intensity. Still, some of the 25 points he earned had to be chalked up to his excellent cape work at the beginning of the bullish routine.

Just behind Emmitt was the underscored Kirstie Alley. Her fun, pivot-packed sendup of Carson Kresley's Jaggerish cha-cha-cha certainly deserved more than a 24 (though if she had anything to do with that awful wig partner Maks wore, then she deserved a demerit or two). And Drew Lachey tied her for the night with his energetic but not completely polished treatment of Joey McIntyre's season one cha-cha.

After an evening like that, figuring out who goes home next could be tricky -- especially since Tuesday night will mean curtains for more than one pair. Sure, it would be easy to say that one of the two acts to get the boot would be Bristol and Mark at the back of the pack, but it would have been easy to say that for the last two weeks. Easy and wrong.

Will Bristol's devoted fan base keep her dancing (and bickering with Mark) for another week? We'll find out soon enough, but if she is still in it to win it next week, she and her fellow stars will have a lot to look forward to. Host Tom Bergeron announced two "bombshells" for the week ahead. Firstly, they'll all have an extra judge to impress with guest panelist Paula Abdul around. Secondly, they'll all have an interesting decision to make, as the celebs will pick out the routines their fellow competitors will groove to -- including some dances that have never been done on the show before.

Who do you think put on the very best performance Monday night? Take our poll below and then share your thoughts about the show on our Facebook page.

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2012/10/08/14302057-dancing-with-the-stars-celeb-shawn-johnson-loses-points-for-best-dance-ever?lite

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Shabdabrahman: The Divine Vibration (A Documentary On Ancient ...

Get a free copy of my e-book from my website: www.alchemymeditations.com A Documentary On Ancient Vedic Science For A New Age In this documentary, which was over 3 months in the making, we explore deep themes of ancient Vedic esoteric science.. Ranging from consciousness, Kundalini, Chakras, to God, to sound and creation of the elements.. Cites numerous Tantras and Upanishads in support of it?s theories, establishes the truth of Vedanta and esoteric knowledge.. Enjoy! Has to do with course in miracles, catholic, prayer, god, jesus, christ, christian, spiritual, bible, pray, faith, apostle, saint, thoughts, self-awareness, accountability, human understanding, apocalypse, behaviour, nothingness, biology, higher awareness, intuition, psychic skills, insights, personal growth, creativity, creation, quotes, myself, oneself, video, visit, self improvement, inspirational, sitting, self knowledge symposium, spiritual system, spirituality websites, definition of spirituality, definition of enlightenment, definition of freedom, meaning of spirituality, elements of spirituality, spirituality in the marketplace, self realization fellowship, enlightenment period, meditation techniques, daily meditation, age of enlightenment, learn meditation, simple meditation, essays on freedom, definition of being, time and being, art of seeing, being philosophy, real eye zation, all seeing eye, manifestation, well being, free essays on freedom, online spirituality, know more about spirituality ?
Video Rating: 4 / 5

The Illuminati bankers have stolen ELEVEN MILLION TRILLION DOLLARS OF GOLD Related veiwing ? TOPICS: David Wilcock?s Death Threat, Benjamin?s Missing Mistake, 85% of World Power, WWII Gold Confiscation, World Global Financial System, Derivatives Scam, Money Stolen from Countries, 2012, Kerry Cassidy Joins Show to Clarify David Wilcock?s Death Threat www.youtube.com David Wilcock: ?I have also now been contacted by the Dragon Family representatives associated with the lawsuit, and as a result of this threat, I have been told to relay the following:? IF ANYTHING FURTHER HAPPENS TO DAVID WILCOCK, OR ANYONE ELSE ON THIS CASE, WE WILL OPEN THE BOOK OF CODES AND THE BOOK OF MAKLUMAT TO THE PUBLIC AND YOUR ASSES (Illuminati, Elite) WILL BE HAULED OFF TO JAIL. STAND DOWN IMMEDIATELY. divinecosmos.com www.youtube.com divinecosmos.com
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Source: http://www.newdistinctsounds.com/shabdabrahman-the-divine-vibration-a-documentary-on-ancient-vedic-science-for-a-new-age/

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REAL Customer Service VS FAKE Customer Service

In business, there are two types of organizations:

Customer-Centered
This first business organization provides REAL customer service -- they genuinely care about their customer and prioritize them as their #1 stakeholder. Calls are answered. Problems are solved. India call centers do not exist. When you visit their website, their support infrastructure is clearly identified with a telephone number.

Customer-Centered businesses rely on PULL SALES: Word-of-Mouth from happy clients...

Their business REVOLVES around the customer because they understand that happy customers generate sales and additional customers via word-of-mouth.

Profit-Centered
The second business organization provides FAKE customer service -- they don't care about their customer to the extent that their customer strategy centers around managing dissatisfaction.

Calls are routed to multiple voice mails. Problems are not solved and usually "forwarded" to another responsible entity often classified as "That's not our policy." When you visit their website, it takes pages-and-pages to find a telephone number. Emails are answered in days, perhaps weeks, if at all.

Profit-Centered businesses rely on PUSH SALES: Paid advertising, marketing, and over-hyped product launches that oversell an overpriced product.

Their business REVOLVES around PROFITS - cutting costs and improvement of margins, usually to affect the owner's wallet, shareholder value, or investor appeasement.

So why do I bring this up? Well, I just had a real life experience today that showcases the two divergent organizational types.

-----------------------

This week, my publishing website went into the crapper for an unknown "Shopping Cart" issue.

My cart software is hosted through LiquidWeb.com and uses the Interspire ECommerce engine. (Now Big Commerce.)

I've used Interspire for several years and twice have had to submit support tickets for software issues.

Do you think my issue was solved? And promptly?

No. And No.

They aren't interested in supporting customers other than trying to look like they support customers.

This is FAKE customer service -- a PROFIT-CENTERED business. Their customer service is a Wizard-Of-Oz orchestration erected to fool new customers into thinking that when you need service, you will be well served. All of this is nothing but smoke and mirrors -- it's FAKE. Yes, directing customers to a FAQ page does not constitute "service."

So...

Back to my problem with my cart software...

When my cart failed this week, I had TWO options:

1) Contact Interspire support.

or

2) Submit a ticket into my hosting service. (Liquid Web)

Based on my prior experience with Interspire, I concluded this wasn't an option. Why submit a ticket to them when I knew it wouldn't be answered in days, if at all? I'm not about to go w/o my shopping cart for weeks.

Instead, I submitted a ticket into Liquid Web and described the problem to them.

Within an hour, my "cart" problem was solved by LiquidWeb because they are 100% customer-centered. They isolated a script that was causing the problem and resolved it.

If this company was profit-centered, they would have simply responded with "Sorry, we don't support 3rd party software" which in reality, is true.

But instead of relying on "that's not our policy" or "we don't support that" -- they actively and willingly solved my problem, and fast. This problem was truly not within the realm of their service!!

So here is where the TWO opposing business philosophies shine:

Years later, I still continue to recommend LiquidWeb and surely, they have made $1000's from my recommendation. On the eCommerce side, I hate Interspire and I'm actively seeking another software platform. One company generates sales via satisfaction while the other loses sales from dissatisfaction.

The point here is this: Which type of organization are you trying to build?

One that will grow virally, and exponentially based on satisfied customers creating a self-perpetuating expansion loop?

Or one that will grow slowly, if at all, and 100% reliant on paid marketing, advertising and customer service holograms?

~ MJ

Source: http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/customer-service/43004-real-customer-service-vs-fake-customer-service.html

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News Summary: Gas prices in California inch higher

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News Brief: UMSL Month of Giving highlights campus philanthropy ...

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By Sharon Pruitt, Managing Editor for The Current

Throughout October, University of Missouri-St. Louis will be holding a campus fundraising drive to benefit the United Way Fund and Community Health Charities.

The campaign will hold an informational session on Monday, October 9, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Nosh in the lower level of the Millennium Student Center.

Employees can contribute through pledge forms that will be sent through campus mail in early October. Students should check the UMSL calendar periodically to learn about upcoming fundraising events hosted by student organizations.

At the present time, the University has raised $18,000 of its $75,000 goal. Last year, the campus raised more than $87,000 as part of its annual campaign.

The campaign will run through all of October. On Oct. 9, ?Oct. 17 and Oct. 25, representatives from United Way and the Community Health Charities will be present in the Nosh during lunchtime to share information on their efforts.

Those who donate $25 or more to the UMSL campaign for United Way or Community Health Charities will be entered into a drawing to win one of the many prizes that have been provided by Maritz, the UMSL Office of Student Life, the UMSL Bookstore, the Missouri Institute of Mental Heath, the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center, the UMSL Office of Research Administration and more. The prizes include gift cards, an iPad, an Xbox 360 4G Kinect Bundle, a Kindle Fire and a 26? LCD TV. The first of the drawings will be held and prizes awarded in the Nosh on Oct. 25 at 12:30 p.m. The second will be held on Nov. 5. All winners will be notified by e-mail.

As part of the project, the university would like to highlight the philanthropic efforts that take place all around campus during the month of October. For more information or to share how your student organization is giving back to the community, visit www.umsl.edu/monthofgiving/ or contact this year?s campaign Chairperson, Patricia Zahn, at 314-516-5267 or zahnp@umsl.edu.

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Source: http://thecurrent-online.com/news/news-umsl-month-giving-highlights-campus-philanthropy/

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