Thursday, November 8, 2012

Mourning in America

There will be plenty of time to?think?about the choice Americans made yesterday, plenty of time to analyze and dissect and project and plan. ?This morning, though, I want to rest a moment with what I feel. ?It?s tempting to conceal what I feel, knowing that it will give occasion for crowing and schadenfreude on the Left, but that?s the price of honesty.

What I feel today is sadness. ?Not because my party lost. ?I?m not nearly as partisan as some of my readers believe. ?I have my convictions, and believe right now that the Republican party best represents them, but I have no particular loyalty to the party. ?I don?t like political parties as a general rule because they become institutions that serve their own interests rather than vehicles through which people of common convictions serve their country. ?Political parties are not intended to be self-preservative institutions. ?They are strategic, pragmatic, temporary allegiances of co-belligerents. ?They are people who, in the light of shared convictions, find it advantageous to work together toward shared goals.

No, I feel sadness today for my country. ?I had hoped for a new morning in America. ?Instead I?m mourning in America because I?m mourning for America.

Patriotism is more often feigned than felt. ?We go through the motions on Memorial Day or July 4th. ?Our politicians wear flags on their lapels for appearances? sake. ?But there are some times when you?re reminded how much you love your country, and today is one of those days for me. ?For all its faults, I do love this country. It has provided me with extraordinary freedoms and opportunities. ?Before I had children, I might have thought this was merely a line, but with two daughters I feel it earnestly: I want those same freedoms and opportunities for my children and for my children?s children. ?I do not want my daughters to grow up and begin their careers in a country that?s in decline. ?It is the way of history that nations rise and fall, and I fear this election leads us downward rather than upward.

There are some potential positives, and I?ll come to those in a later post. ?But?I?m afraid the reelection of Barack Obama will mean continued economic stagnation, continued high unemployment, a continuing weakening of the dollar, and a continued wrong-headed refusal to responsibly extract our natural energy resources. ?And don?t kid yourself: when the economy suffers, the poor and the vulnerable suffer the worst of it. ?I?m afraid his reelection will mean four more years of a weak and adrift foreign policy, inviting the continued re/growth of anti-American terrorism in places like Afghanistan and Libya, Syria and Iran. ?I?m afraid it means less protections for religious conscience and less support for the fundamental family structure, ?I?m certain that it means a strengthening of the abortion regime, including the appointment of liberal justices to the Supreme Court and liberal judges to other federal positions. ?I?m certain that it means that all the worst, most economy-killing aspects of Obamacare, which were shrewdly scheduled for after the election, will be enacted and ensconced in our system of government, and that the health care most Americans receive will grow worse. ?And I?m certain it means an even greater national debt burden ? meaning that I and my children will work to fill the coffers of the Chinese communist party.

So I mourn for our country?s future, but I also mourn because I believe she has lost her way. ?I?ve never felt as close to a candidate as I have to Mitt Romney. ?He was my Governor in Massachusetts. ?I?ve met him. ?Some of my friends are his friends. ?I have friends in his campaign. ?While I?m not nearly as close to him as many of my friends, I?know?that Mitt Romney is a man of great virtue and extraordinary capabilities. ?I know that he is not what the Obama campaign made him out to be. ?I believe firmly that he would have been an excellent President, and that his character, experience and expertise were precisely what the country needed at this moment in its history. ?His vision for American renewal would have been good for the country.

Yet the country ? or slightly more than half, at least, of the those who voted ? chose Barack Obama instead. ?It?s disillusioning. ?It?s disillusioning to see an incumbent prevail by continuing to blame his predecessor and by mocking and mischaracterizing his opponent. ?And while some of Obama?s supporters are completely thoughtful and capable of justifying their decision, it?s disillusioning to see an electorate that?s still enamored by the myth of Obama deciding to ?give him more time? rather than holding him accountable for a failed first term. ?Of course they don?t see it this way, but it is, finally, disillusioning to see my liberal friends work so hard to defeat someone who could genuinely help the country and defend someone who cannot.

There is a romantic conservative tradition of lauding the collective wisdom of the American people. ?I hope that I?m wrong, but I think a little less of the wisdom of the American people today. ?I fear that wisdom is growing distorted by a rising entitlement mentality, by the deterioration of classic American virtues such as independence, industry and integrity, and by an increasing ignorance or even rejection of the fundamental vision that inspired this nation in the first place and nurtured it over the centuries.

I come back to my prayer from yesterday. ?We should look to accomplish all the good we can still accomplish in the next four years, and remember that the church and not the state is by far God?s greatest instrument in the world. ?But I cannot help but mourn, today, for what seems to me a very poor decision. ?I can only hope that the next four years will either prove me wrong about this decision, or prove to the American people that the decision was wrong, and thus lay the groundwork for a better future.

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/philosophicalfragments/2012/11/07/mourning-in-america/

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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

New Website Customizes Dieting and Weight Loss Plans Just for You

Dieting and weight loss can be hard during any time of the year, but it can seem almost impossible during the holiday season. However, with so many weight loss programs available, you don?t have to wait until the New Year to tailor yourself a smart diet and exercise plan. One program specifically designed to help create personal weight loss programs is Sparkpeople.com.

Sparkpeople is a completely online program that outlines specific tools and resources to help you reach your weight loss goals. It?s easy to use and, perhaps most importantly, it?s free to all members who create a personal account. Once you create an online profile, complete with username and password, you are requested to fill in your height, weight and weight loss goals in the following page. Based on that preliminary information, the website will offer you suggestions on measures you can take to you reach your weight loss goals. Even if you desire to simply maintain your current weight, you can still use this website as it contains recipes and tips to develop any goal leading to a healthier lifestyle. In order to take full advantage of the benefits and services offered on the site, there is a four-minute video that walks new users through how to access areas of interest for their customized diet and exercise plan.

If you have ailments that require special considerations when devising a diet and exercise plan (such as diabetes), there is a health history page that allows you to enter in that information. Everything from allergies to cancer support is listed; permitting you to tailor a weight loss program closely to your unique needs. Even with those precautions in place, don?t forget to consult your doctor before beginning any weight loss plan; especially if you have special dietary or health needs.

As mentioned above, a great benefit of using the site is that it is free. Also, it is as close as you will get to a step-by-step, personally designed weight loss program without paying hundreds of dollars a month. Individual workout plans; recipes customized to fit your diet plans, health needs and restrictions; and health articles are only one facet of the site. Perhaps the most beneficial part of the site is the online community and forums members can join for encouragement. Some members actually design their own workouts, print them out and meet up with other members in their area to form their very own workout club.

You don?t have to wait until New Year?s to take charge of your health and fitness goals.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle, PC Lifestyle

Source: http://www.popularcritic.com/2012/11/06/new-website-customizes-dieting-and-weight-loss-plans-just-for-you/

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Ads: Saddam Hussein And Hitler Hit By Cars - Business Insider

Good morning ad execs. Here's what you need to know:
  • A Romanian "road victims" organization released a series of shock tactic ads that show bloodied dictators ? including Saddam Hussein, Hitler, and Stalin ? smashed into windshields. The copy reads, "Well, it's not like that.?Usually, the victim is an innocent."?Publicis Bucharest?did the creative.
  • The New York Times?and?Wall Street Journal?might have eliminated their paywalls last week during Hurricane Sandy, but that didn't stop them from doing it again for the 2012 election. The paywall disappeared after 6 p.m. November 6, and stays gone through this evening.
  • Big Spaceship?is integrating crowdsourced Instagram pictures of Hurricane Sandy (#Sandy) as a part of a humanitarian campaign to help with the recovery. Check out RecoverFeed here to see the pics and connect with Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross, New York Cares, and the Salvation Army.
  • Pharmavite, the dietary supplement manufacturer that makes Nature Made vitamins, chose Mile 9 as its agency of record.?
  • JWT NY?appointed Lisa Setten as its head of production. Setten was previously the head of broadcast production at BBH NY.

Previously on Business Insider Advertising:

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'; } else if (google_ads[0].type == "image") { s += ''; } else if (google_ads[0].type == "html") { s += google_ads[0].snippet; } else { if (google_ads.length == 1) { /* * Partners should adjust text sizes * so ads occupy the majority of ad space. */ s += ' ' + google_ads[0].line1 + '
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'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { /* * For text ads, append each ad to the string. */ for(i = 0; i

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/ads-saddam-hussein-and-hitler-hit-by-cars-2012-11

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Early treatment sparks striking brain changes in autism

Early treatment sparks striking brain changes in autism [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Karen N. Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University

When given early treatment, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) made significant improvements in behavior, communication, and most strikingly, brain function, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study.

The study was published in the current issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders by Yale Child Study Center researchers Fred Volkmar, M.D., Kevin A. Pelphrey, and their colleagues.

The results suggest that brain systems supporting social perception respond well to an early intervention behavioral program called pivotal response treatment. This treatment includes parent training, and employs play in its methods.

ASDs are complex neurobiological disorders that inhibit a person's ability to communicate and develop social relationships, and are often accompanied by behavioral challenges. Until recently, autism diagnosis typically did not occur until a child was about three- to five-years-old, and treatment programs were geared for this older age group. Today, Volkmar and his team are diagnosing children as young as age one. Pivotal response treatment, developed at the University of California-Santa Barbara, combines developmental aspects of learning and development, and is easy to implement in children younger than age two.

In the current study, the team used functional magnetic resonance imaging for the first time to measure changes in brain activity after two five-year-olds with ASD received pivotal response treatment. Study co-author Pamela Ventola used this treatment method to identify distinct behavioral goals for each child in the study, and then reinforced these targeted skills with treatment involving motivational play activities.

The team found that children who received this treatment showed improvements in behavior, and being able to talk to other people. In addition, the MRI and electroencephalogram revealed increased brain activity in the regions supporting social perception.

Their results are from two children, but the researchers are currently conducting a full-scale study of 60 children. Pelphrey said that while both children in the current study received the same type of treatment for ASD, the results were not homogenous because ASD is a multi-faceted disorder that has a unique effect on each child. Some children with ASD function on a higher level than others, for example.

"ASD is a heterogeneous disorder, and research aimed at understanding treatment must address this heterogeneity," said Pelphrey. "Both the children in our current study made progress, but their degree of progress and level of skills at the end of treatment were distinct."

Volkmar sees these results as a first step in a novel approach to treatment planning. "Autism research has come a long way," he said. "These findings are exciting because they show that early intervention works in autism."

###

Other authors on the study included first author Avery C. Voos, Jonathan Tirrell, Danielle Bolling, Brent Vander Wyk, Martha D. Kaiser, and James C. McPartland.

Funding for the study came from the Harris Professorship at Yale Child Study Center given to Kevin A. Pelphrey; Allied World; and National Institute of Mental Health grant K23MH86785. This research was also made possible by CTSA Grant Number UL1 RR024139 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH roadmap for Medical Research.

Citation: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1683-9



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

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Early treatment sparks striking brain changes in autism [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Karen N. Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University

When given early treatment, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) made significant improvements in behavior, communication, and most strikingly, brain function, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study.

The study was published in the current issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders by Yale Child Study Center researchers Fred Volkmar, M.D., Kevin A. Pelphrey, and their colleagues.

The results suggest that brain systems supporting social perception respond well to an early intervention behavioral program called pivotal response treatment. This treatment includes parent training, and employs play in its methods.

ASDs are complex neurobiological disorders that inhibit a person's ability to communicate and develop social relationships, and are often accompanied by behavioral challenges. Until recently, autism diagnosis typically did not occur until a child was about three- to five-years-old, and treatment programs were geared for this older age group. Today, Volkmar and his team are diagnosing children as young as age one. Pivotal response treatment, developed at the University of California-Santa Barbara, combines developmental aspects of learning and development, and is easy to implement in children younger than age two.

In the current study, the team used functional magnetic resonance imaging for the first time to measure changes in brain activity after two five-year-olds with ASD received pivotal response treatment. Study co-author Pamela Ventola used this treatment method to identify distinct behavioral goals for each child in the study, and then reinforced these targeted skills with treatment involving motivational play activities.

The team found that children who received this treatment showed improvements in behavior, and being able to talk to other people. In addition, the MRI and electroencephalogram revealed increased brain activity in the regions supporting social perception.

Their results are from two children, but the researchers are currently conducting a full-scale study of 60 children. Pelphrey said that while both children in the current study received the same type of treatment for ASD, the results were not homogenous because ASD is a multi-faceted disorder that has a unique effect on each child. Some children with ASD function on a higher level than others, for example.

"ASD is a heterogeneous disorder, and research aimed at understanding treatment must address this heterogeneity," said Pelphrey. "Both the children in our current study made progress, but their degree of progress and level of skills at the end of treatment were distinct."

Volkmar sees these results as a first step in a novel approach to treatment planning. "Autism research has come a long way," he said. "These findings are exciting because they show that early intervention works in autism."

###

Other authors on the study included first author Avery C. Voos, Jonathan Tirrell, Danielle Bolling, Brent Vander Wyk, Martha D. Kaiser, and James C. McPartland.

Funding for the study came from the Harris Professorship at Yale Child Study Center given to Kevin A. Pelphrey; Allied World; and National Institute of Mental Health grant K23MH86785. This research was also made possible by CTSA Grant Number UL1 RR024139 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH roadmap for Medical Research.

Citation: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1683-9



[ 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/2012-11/yu-ets110612.php

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Security through obscurity: How to cover your tracks online | CIO ...

Thinking about the bits of data you leave behind is a one-way ticket to paranoia. Your browser? Full of cookies. Your cellphone? A beacon broadcasting your location at every moment. Search engines track your every curiosity. Email services archive way too much. Those are just the obvious places we're aware of. Who knows what's going on inside those routers?

The truth is, worrying about the trail of digital footprints and digital dustballs filled with our digital DNA is not just for raving paranoids. Sure, some leaks like the subtle variations in power consumed by our computers are only exploitable by teams of geniuses with big budgets, but many of the simpler ones are already being abused by identity thieves, blackmail artists, spammers, or worse.

Sad news stories are changing how we work on the Web. Only a fool logs into their bank's website from a coffee shop wi-fi hub without using the best possible encryption. Anyone selling a computer on eBay will scrub the hard disk to remove all personal information. There are dozens of sound, preventative practices that we're slowly learning, and many aren't just smart precautions for individuals, but for anyone hoping to run a shipshape business. Sensitive data, corporate trade secrets, confidential business communications -- if you don't worry about these bits escaping, you may lose your job.

Learning how best to cover tracks online is fast becoming a business imperative. It's more than recognising that intelligent traffic encryption means not having to worry as much about securing routers, or that meaningful client-based encryption can build a translucent database that simplifies database management and security. Good privacy techniques for individuals create more secure environments, as a single weak link can be fatal. Learning how to cover the tracks we leave online is a prudent tool for defending us all.

Each of the following techniques for protecting personal information can help reduce the risk of at least some of the bytes flowing over the internet. They aren't perfect. Unanticipated cracks, even when all of these techniques are used together, always arise. Still, they're like deadbolt locks, car alarms, and other security measures: tools that provide enough protection to encourage the bad guys to go elsewhere.

Online privacy technique No. 1: Cookie management
The search engines and advertising companies that track our moves online argue they have our best interests at heart. While not boring us with the wrong ads may be a noble goal, that doesn't mean the relentless tracking of our online activities won't be used for the wrong reasons by insiders or websites with less esteemed ideals.

The standard mechanism for online tracking is to store cookies in your browser. Every time you return to a website, your browser silently sends the cookies back to the server, which then links you with your previous visits. These little bits of personalised information stick around for a long time unless you program your browser to delete them.

Most browsers have adequate tools for paging through cookies, reading their values, and deleting specific cookies. Cleaning these out from time to time can be helpful, although the ad companies have grown quite good at putting out new cookies and linking the new results with the old.?Close 'n Forget, a Firefox extension, deletes all cookies when you close the tab associated with a site.

Standard cookies are just the beginning. Some ad companies have worked hard on burrowing deeper into the operating system. The Firefox extension?BetterPrivacy, for example, will nab the "supercookies" stored by the Flash plug-in. The standard browser interface doesn't know that these supercookies are there, and you can delete them only with an extension like this or by working directly with the Flash plug-in.

There are still other tricks for sticking information in a local computer.?Ghostery, another Firefox extension, watches the data coming from a website, flags some of the most common techniques (like installing single-pixel images), and lets you reverse the effects.

Online privacy technique No. 2: Tor
One of the simplest ways to track your machine is through your IP address, the number the Internet uses like a phone number so that your requests for data can find their way back to your machine. IP addresses can change on some systems, but they're often fairly static, allowing malware to track your usage.

One well-known tool for avoiding this type of tracking is called Tor, an acronym for "The Onion Router." The project, developed by the Office of Naval Research, creates a self-healing, encrypted supernetwork on top of the Internet. When your machine starts up a connection, the Tor network plots a path through N different intermediate nodes in the Tor subnet. Your requests for web pages follow this path through the N nodes. The requests are encrypted N times, and each node along the path strips off a layer of encryption like an onion with each hop through the network.

The last machine in the path then submits your request as if it were its own. When the answer comes back, the last machine acting as a proxy encrypts the Web page N times and sends it back through the same path to you. Each machine in the chain only knows the node before it and the node after it. Everything else is an encrypted mystery. This mystery protects you and the machine at the other end. You don't know the machine and the machine doesn't know you, but everyone along the chain just trusts the Tor network.

While the machine acting as your proxy at the other end of the path may not know you, it could still track the actions of the user. It may not know who you are, but it will know what data you're sending out onto the web. Your requests for web pages are completely decrypted by the time they get to the other end of the path because the final machine in the chain must be able to act as your proxy. Each of the N layers was stripped away until they're all gone. Your requests and the answers they bring are easy to read as they come by. For this reason, you might consider adding more encryption if you're using Tor to access personal information like email.

There are a number of ways to use Tor that range in complexity from compiling the code yourself to downloading a tool. One popular option is downloading?the Torbutton Bundle, a modified version of Firefox with a plug-in that makes it possible to turn Tor on or off while using the browser; with it, using Tor is as simple as browsing the web. If you need to access the internet independently from Firefox, you may be able to get the proxy to work on its own.

Online privacy technique No. 3: SSL
One of the easiest mechanisms for protecting your content is the encrypted SSL connection. If you're interacting with a website with the prefix "https," the information you're exchanging is probably being encrypted with sophisticated algorithms. Many of the better email providers like Gmail will now encourage you to use an HTTPS connection for your privacy by switching your browser over to the more secure level if at all possible.

An SSL connection, if set up correctly, scrambles the data you post to a website and the data you get back. If you're reading or sending email, the SSL connection will hide your bits from prying eyes hiding in any of the computers or routers between you and the website. If you're going through a public wi-fi site, it makes sense to use SSL to stop the site or anyone using it from reading the bits you're sending back and forth.

SSL only protects the information as it travels between your computer and the distant website, but it doesn't control what the website does with it. If you're reading your email with your web browser, the SSL encryption will block any router between your computer and the email website, but it won't stop anyone with access to the mail at the destination from reading it after it arrives. That's how your free web email service can read your email to tailor the ads you'll see while protecting it from anyone else. The web email service sees your email in the clear.

There are a number of complicated techniques for subverting SSL connections, such as poisoning the certificate authentication process, but most of them are beyond the average eavesdropper. If you're using a local coffee shop's wi-fi, SSL will probably stop the guy in the back room from reading what you're doing, but it may not block the most determined attacker.

Online privacy technique No. 4: Encrypted messages
While Tor will hide your IP address and SSL will protect your bits from the prying eyes of network bots, only encrypted mail can protect your message until it arrives. The encryption algorithm scrambles the message, and it's bundled as a string of what looks like random characters. This package travels directly to the recipient, who should be the only one who has the password for decrypting it.

Encryption software is more complicated to use and far less straightforward than SSL. Both sides must be running compatible software, and both must be ready to create the right keys and share them. The technology is not too complicated, but it requires much more active work.

There's also a wide range in quality of encryption packages. Some are simpler to use, which often makes for more weaknesses, and only the best can resist a more determined adversary. Unfortunately, cryptography is a rapidly evolving discipline that requires a deep knowledge of mathematics. Understanding the domain and making a decision about security can require a doctorate and years of experience. Despite the problems and limitations, even the worst programs are often strong enough to resist the average eavesdropper - like someone abusing the system admin's power to read email.

Online privacy technique No. 5: Translucent databases
The typical website or database is a one-stop target for information thieves because all the information is stored in the clear. The traditional solution is to use strong passwords to create a wall or fortress around this data, but once anyone gets past the wall, the data is easy to access.

Another technique is to only store encrypted data and ensure all the encryption is done at the client before it is shipped across the Internet. Sites like these can often provide most of the same services as traditional websites or databases while offering much better guarantees against information leakage.

A number of techniques for applying this solution are described in my book "Translucent Databases." Many databases offer other encryption tools that can provide some or all of the benefits, and it's easy to add other encryption to the Web clients.

In the best examples, the encryption is used to obscure only the sensitive data, leaving the rest in the clear. This makes it possible to use the nonpersonal information for statistical analysis and data-mining algorithms.

Online privacy technique No. 6: Steganography?
One of the most elusive and beguiling techniques is steganography, a term generally applied to the process of hiding a message so that it can't be found. Traditional encryption locks the data in a safe; steganography makes the safe disappear. To be more accurate, it disguises the safe to look like something innocuous, such as a houseplant or a cat.

The most common solutions involve changing some small part of the file in a way it won't be noticed. A single bit of a message, for instance, can be hidden in a single pixel by arranging the parity of the red and green components. If they're both even or both odd, then the pixel carries the message of 0. If one is even and one is odd, then it's a 1. To be more concrete, imagine a pixel with red, green and blue values of 128, 129, and 255. The red value is even, but the green value is odd, meaning the pixel is carrying the message of 1.

A short, one-bit message can be hidden by taking a file, agreeing upon a pixel, and making a small change in either the red or green value so that the pixel carries the right message. A one-bit change will be tiny and almost certainly not visible to the human, but a computer algorithm looking in the right place will be able to find it.

If this technique is repeated long enough, any amount of data can be hidden. An image with 12 megapixels can store a message with 12Mb, or 1.5MB, without changing any pixel by more than one unit of red or green. Judicious use of compression can improve this dramatically. A large message like this article can be snuck into the corners of an average photo floating around the internet.

Tweaking pixels is just one of the ways that messages can be inserted in different locations. There are dozens of methods to apply this approach - for example, replacing words with synonyms or artfully inserting slight typographical mistakes into an article. Is that a misspelling or a secret message? All rely on inserting small, unnoticeable changes.

Steganography is not perfect or guaranteed to avoid detection. While the subtle changes to values like the red and green component may not be visible to the naked eye, clever algorithms can sometimes find the message. A number of statistical approaches can flag files with hidden messages by looking for patterns left behind by sloppy changes. The glare off of glass or chrome in a picture is usually stuffed with pixels filled with the maximum amount of red, green, and blue. If a significant number of these are just one unit less than the maximum, there's a good chance that a steganographic algorithm made changes.

These detection algorithms also have limits, and there are a number of sophisticated approaches for making the hidden messages harder to find. The scientists working on detection are playing a cat-and-mouse game with the scientists looking for better ways to hide the data.

Source: http://cio.co.nz/cio.nsf/tech/security-through-obscurity-how-to-cover-your-tracks-online

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The Gaia Project

The Gaia Project

The Gaia Project, a project undertaken long ago by the people of all three worlds simultaneously, as if influenced by some unknown force, some unknown being, linking the three. The three worlds being: Our modern world, a Sci-Fi world, and a Fantasy World.

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Gaia Project?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
"The Gaia Project"

So just in case it isn't clear... This be the OOC thread for Gaia. Not quite sure how to use any of this yet, but like, bear with me, people. Or is it bare with me..? I'll figure this out.

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Earnings roundup: True Religion, Genesee & Wyoming

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Monday, November 5, 2012

MorphoSys and Xencor Report Clinical Data for MOR208 - Drugs.com

Phase 1/2a Trial in CLL/SLL Patients Met Primary and Secondary Objectives

MARTINSRIED, Germany and MUNICH and MONROVIA, Calif., Nov. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) and US-based Xencor, Inc. today announced the online publication of first clinical data on the anti-CD19 antibody MOR208 (MOR00208/XmAb5574) in the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting Abstracts issue of the peer-reviewed medical journal Blood . MOR208 showed encouraging signs of preliminary anti-tumor activity and an acceptable safety and tolerability profile in patients with high-risk, heavily pretreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). The data support further development of the compound. Based on these results, MorphoSys plans to commence phase 2 studies of MOR208 in B-cell malignancies in the near future.

"We are very pleased with the data which justify advancing into phase 2 development in B-cell malignancies," commented Dr. Arndt Schottelius, Chief Development Officer of MorphoSys AG. "Given that the participants in the trial had received a median of four prior therapies, the overall response rate that we observed is very encouraging. In addition, the favorable toxicity profile will potentially allow combinations with other active agents. The results of the phase 1/2a study show us that we are on the right track with our most advanced proprietary compound in cancer."

The phase 1/2a trial was designed to assess the drug's safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetic profile and preliminary anti-tumor activity. MOR208 was administered as an intravenous infusion on days 1, 4, 8, 15, and 22 of cycle 1, and on days 1, 8, 15, and 22 of cycle 2. Dose levels tested ranged from 0.3 to 12 mg/kg. Among the 27 evaluable patients, three partial responses were observed at the 6, 9, and 12 mg/kg dose levels. In addition, 22 patients experienced stable disease and only two patients progressed at the 8 week evaluation point. Clinical responses were assessed according to International Working Group on CLL (IWCLL) 2008 and 1996 Guidelines. Overall response rate by IWCLL 2008 criteria was 11% which utilizes more rigorous CT scan reduction of internal lymph nodes not previously required in older historic studies. Using IWCLL 1996 response criteria resulted in a response rate of 42%. The most common adverse events were mild to moderate infusion reactions usually with the first dose. Treatment-related adverse events classified as grade 3 or higher occurred in 5 out of 27 patients. Only one dose-limiting toxicity was observed in 16 patients treated at the 12 mg/kg dose level and the trial protocol was amended to include a period of extended dosing with a total of 8 patients at this dose.?

"MOR208 was safe and well-tolerated in this first-in-human study, and shows promise as an novel immunotherapy for B-cell malignancies", commented the principal investigator of the study John C. Byrd, MD, Professor and D Warren Brown Chair of Leukemia Research at The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.? "We are really looking forward to incorporating this together with other active immune and targeted therapies used for CLL in the near future".

Final phase 1/2a data will be presented at the 2012 American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting from December 8-11, 2012 in Atlanta.

"MOR208 is now well positioned to advance in development into additional B-cell malignancies," said Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Xencor. "The combination of tolerability and anti-tumor activity add to the growing body of clinical data on our XmAb? technology for enhancing antibody cytotoxic potency."

In June 2010, MorphoSys AG and Xencor signed a worldwide exclusive license and collaboration agreement. The agreement provided MorphoSys with an exclusive worldwide license to MOR208 for the treatment of cancer and other indications. Using Xencor's XmAb? Fc enhancement technology, MOR208 has been engineered to possess significantly enhanced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), thus improving a key mechanism for tumor cell killing and offering potential for enhanced efficacy compared to traditional antibodies for the treatment of cancer. MorphoSys will be solely responsible for further clinical development after successful completion of the phase 1/2a clinical trial. MorphoSys plans to initiate additional clinical trials for MOR208 in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by year-end.

The full abstract is available on https://ash.confex.com/ash/2012/webprogram/start.html.?

About MorphoSys:

MorphoSys developed HuCAL, the most successful antibody library technology in the pharmaceutical industry. By successfully applying this and other patented technologies, MorphoSys has become a leader in the field of therapeutic antibodies, one of the fastest-growing drug classes in human healthcare. The company's AbD Serotec unit uses HuCAL and other antibody technologies to generate superior monoclonal antibodies for research and diagnostic applications.

Together with its pharmaceutical partners, MorphoSys has built a therapeutic pipeline of more than 70 human antibody drug candidates for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease, to name just a few. With its ongoing commitment to new antibody technology and drug development, MorphoSys is focused on making the healthcare products of tomorrow. MorphoSys is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol MOR. For regular updates about MorphoSys, visit http://www.morphosys.com

About Xencor, Inc.

Xencor, Inc. engineers superior biotherapeutics using its proprietary Protein Design Automation? technology platform, and is a leader in the field of antibody engineering to significantly improve antibody half-life, immune-regulatory function and potency. The company is advancing multiple XmAb? antibody drug candidates in the clinic, including XmAb?5871 targeting CD32b and CD19 for autoimmune diseases, and an anti-CD30 candidate XmAb?2513 for the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma. Xencor is also advancing a portfolio of biosuperior versions of blockbuster antibody drugs engineered for superior half-life and dosing schedule. Xencor has entered into multiple partnerships with industry leaders such as Amgen, Pfizer, Centocor, MorphoSys, Boehringer Ingelheim, CSL Ltd. and Human Genome Sciences. In these partnerships Xencor is applying its suite of proprietary antibody Fc domains to improve antibody drug candidates for traits such as sustained half-life and/or potency. More information is available at www.xencor.com

HuCAL?, HuCAL GOLD?, HuCAL PLATINUM?, CysDisplay?, RapMAT?, arYla ? and Ylanthia? and 100 billion high potentials? are registered trademarks of MorphoSys AG.

Slonomics? is a registered trademark of Sloning BioTechnology GmbH, a subsidiary of MorphoSys AG.

XmAb? is a registered trademark of Xencor, Inc.

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the MorphoSys group of companies. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties. Should actual conditions differ from the Company's assumptions, actual results and actions may differ from those anticipated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements as far as the wording of the relevant press release is concerned.

?


?

SOURCE Xencor; MorphoSys

?
CONTACT: Dr. Claudia Gutjahr-Loser, Head of Corporate Communications & IR, +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-122, or Mario Brkulj, Senior Manager Corporate Communications & IR, +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-454, or Alexandra Goller, Specialist Corporate Communications & IR, +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-332, investors@morphosys.com, all of MorphoSys AG; or Heidi Chokeir, Ph.D., Canale Communications for Xencor, +1-619-849-5377, heidi@canalecomm.com

Web Site: http://www.morphosys.com

?

Posted: November 2012

Source: http://www.drugs.com/clinical_trials/morphosys-xencor-report-clinical-data-mor208-xmab5574-14618.html

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Surgery Seems Best For Heart Disease In Diabetes Patients

LOS ANGELES -- New research shows that people with diabetes and several clogged heart arteries fare better with bypass surgery instead of having stents placed to prop open their blood vessels.

Doctors compared the treatments in a study of 1,900 diabetics and looked five years later to see how many had suffered a heart attack, stroke or death. Only 19 percent of the bypass group had, versus 27 percent of those given stents.

People like this represent about one-fourth of all heart disease patients.

Results were discussed Sunday at an American Heart Association conference and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/05/surgery-heart-disease-diabetes_n_2076672.html

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The Significance of Personal Fitness | Healthy Lifestyle Plus

Webmaster | November 5, 2012 (7 hours ago) | no comments



The Significance of Personal FitnessPersonal fitness pertains to the human body precisely what perfect tuning is to an engine.

This permits all of us to execute as much as our own prospective stamina and vigor.

The fact is that personal fitness could possibly be the capacity to carry out?everyday?responsibilities strongly as well as alertly, together with vigor staying in relation to taking satisfaction in leisure time along with meeting emergency needs.

It really is also the possibility to resist, on keeping up, to endure anxiety, to continue inside of instances precisely in which an unhealthy individual couldn?t proceed, and it is also a considerable basis for fine health insurance and well-being.

Subsequently it?s in addition regarding your existing mental durability.

In order to cut down weight and develop into a fit and healthy body isn?t just regarding the bodily feature men and women, it?s a lot about your body and thoughts as well. What?s needed by you would be to take care of all the segments of your health and fitness, along with achievement is heading to become yours for the taking.

Personal fitness is undoubtedly an individual high quality which varies from one person to another. Basically it really is counting on older age, genetics, intercourse personal patterns, physical exercise along with eating habit and practices. Personal fitness actually needs the features with the heart, lungs along with muscle tissues from the whole body.

And in addition, fitness actually impacts to some extent characteristics including mental performance and psychological stability. As a result, it?s extremely crucial for everybody to remain healthful and be in fantastic bodily condition to be ready to make use of personal fitness:

One issue to consider together with each exercise procedure, especially if you?re a dyed-in-the-wool inactive, would be to speak about your circumstances with each other with your well being care distributor.

For all those who?ve issues that make performing workouts along with physical fitness a problem, your well being care supplier may suggest you to a exercise physiologist who?re in a position to pattern an physical exercise program for the specific wants.

Numerous difficulties associated with specific illnesses will also suggest what kind of physical exercise you?re in a position to consider about.

Pursuits like?body weight?weightlifting, sprinting, and even high-impact aerobic fitness workout may possibly probably comprise a chance for those who?ve diabetic particular person retinopathy since of the threat for more blood vessel injuries as well as possible retinal detachment.

Medical doctors also claim that sufferers with significant peripheral neuropathy or PN require to stop exercises that are hefty around the toes and even include hefty lifting weights like long-distance strolling, operating, and even stage aerobics and instead choosing those with regards to low-impact routines including heading to get a swim, biking, along with rowing.

For all those who?ve a heart problem illness, your doctor might wish to request you to execute a tension verify to find out a healthy diploma of exercise for you personally.

If you are presently executing sports actions or get some physical exercise often, it is going to ultimately nonetheless be good for you to talk about your own typical program together along with your medical treatment supplier.The finish result is that personal fitness and working away shouldn?t have to be a firm exercise and actually need to not seem also difficult.

Your physical physical exercise program is frequently as simple as a clear nightly stroll inside the neighborhood, taking the puppy for a stroll, or perhaps essentially using the actions rather than the elevator. The basic aspect is that you proceed transferring. Each and every tiny bit truly can assist a entire lot.

In the end, you are going to notice that you?ll find lots of positive aspects that might carry you tend to become incredibly crucial as personal fitness might be for you personally.

?

Article by Richard McWhilly

About the Author :?Require further specifics concerning this write-up , try the site Personal Fitness | Fitness Trainer

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Tags: Fitness, Health, Healthy Lifestyle Plus, Personal, Personal trainer, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Physical fitness, Significance, Tim Guba, www.healthylifestyleplus.com

Category: Healthy Body

Source: http://www.healthylifestyleplus.com/body/the-significance-of-personal-fitness/

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Sunday, November 4, 2012

THEY TOLD GLENN REYNOLDS THAT IF HE VOTED REPUBLICAN, HE?D SEE A PRESIDENT RELEASE AN AD ?CITING?

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Mark Kirk Climbs Willis Tower Months After Major Stroke

Mark Kirk Climbs Willis Tower

Ill. Senator Mark Kirk climbed all 103 floors of the Willis Tower Sunday, month after a suffering major stroke. (Credit: Flickr user Daveynin)

CHICAGO -- U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk was met with hugs and cheers as he reached the finish line of a popular stair climbing event at the Willis Tower.

Kirk, taking part in a charity fundraiser called "Skyrise Chicago" was making his first public appearance since suffering a major stroke in January.

He did not the climb all 103 floors Sunday, but started on the building's 66th floor and climbed to the 103rd floor.

Wearing a brace on his left leg, Kirk held onto the railing during his ascent. His progress was monitored by a physical therapist, who said Kirk did not need any assistance.

The 53-year-old has been releasing videos on his progress, including footage of his working with therapists and climbing stairs. He continues to undergo rehabilitation.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/04/mark-kirk-climbs-willis-t_n_2072864.html

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Hour by hour: What to watch on Election Night

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Stock up on munchies and make sure the batteries in your TV remote are fresh. With this year's presidential election razor-close to the finish, Tuesday could be a long night.

Even if the presidency isn't decided until after midnight EST, there will be plenty of clues early in the evening on how things are going for President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Obama has more options for piecing together the 270 electoral votes needed for victory, so any early setbacks for Romney could be important portents of how the night will end.

Here's a timetable for armchair election watchers on how the night will unfold, based on what time the last polls close in each state. All times are EST.

?7 p.m.: Polls close in six states but all eyes will be on Virginia, the first of the battleground states to begin reporting results. If either candidate is comfortably ahead in Virginia, with 13 electoral votes, that could be a leading indicator of which way the night is going.

Virginia typically has been fairly fast at counting ballots. But there's a new voter ID law in the state that could complicate things this year. Voters who don't bring identification to the polls still can have their ballots counted if they produce ID by Friday. If the race in Virginia is super tight, it could come down to those provisional ballots. On Election Night, no one will even know how many of them are out there.

Virginia is especially important for Romney. In 2008, Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Virginia since 1964. Keep an eye on turnout in northern Virginia's Democratic strongholds for an early idea of which way the state will go.

?7:30 p.m.: Polls close in three states, including all-important Ohio (18 electoral votes) and competitive North Carolina (15).

If Ohio is particularly close, and polls suggest it might be, there's a chance the outcome there won't be known until after Election Day, and the presidency could hinge on it. In the last several elections, between 2 percent and 3 percent of the state's votes came from provisional ballots, which aren't counted until later. In 2004, after a long, tense night counting votes, the presidential race wasn't decided until 11 a.m. the next day, when Democrat John Kerry called President George Bush to concede Ohio and the presidency.

Romney desperately needs Ohio; no Republican has won the presidency without it. Without Ohio, Romney would need victories in nearly all the remaining up-for-grabs states and he'd have to pick off key states now leaning Obama's way, such as Wisconsin and Iowa. Obama has more work-arounds than Romney if he can't claim Ohio.

In North Carolina, the most conservative of the hotly contested states, Romney appeared to have the late edge in polling. Obama, who narrowly won the state in 2008, has paid less attention to it recently. An Obama victory there could point to broader troubles for Romney.

?8 p.m.: More pieces of the puzzle will start falling into place as polls close in the District of Columbia and 16 states, including battlegrounds Florida (29) and New Hampshire (four).

Democratic-leaning parts of Florida tend to be the last places to report, so be careful about jumping to a conclusion if Romney looks strong early on. Most of the polls in Florida close at 7 p.m. Eastern, so by 8 p.m. Eastern, when the last polls close, results will start to roll out quickly. But fully 4.5 percent of votes in Florida weren't counted on election night in 2008, so if things are tight, no one's going to be hasty about declaring a victor in the state. Especially after the 2000 fiasco in which the winner in Florida, and thus the presidency, wasn't determined for more than a month. If you want to get really granular, Hillsborough County, home to Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, is widely considered a bellwether for the state.

Tiny New Hampshire is another competitive state to watch closely.

Also keep watch on Pennsylvania for any signs of a Romney surprise. The state has long been considered safe for Obama, but Republicans started running ads there in the final week of the campaign and the GOP ticket was campaigning there Sunday. No Republican presidential candidate has carried the state in nearly a quarter century.

?8:30 p.m.: Polls close in Arkansas (six), where Romney is comfortably ahead in surveys.

?9 p.m.: Polls close in 14 states, including battlegrounds Colorado (nine) and Wisconsin (10). Democrats have carried Wisconsin for six straight presidential elections and Obama had the edge in polling going in, so a flip here would be especially noteworthy.

Colorado, where almost 80 percent of voters cast early ballots, could be a straggler because it's so close. Historically, as much as 10 percent of the state's vote doesn't get counted on election night, and those ballots could be decisive in a close race.

Information from exit polls could help flesh out the Colorado picture: Young professionals and Hispanic voters were central to Obama's victory there in 2008, but the sluggish economy has hurt his standing.

Two more to watch: Minnesota and Michigan. The states long have been considered safe for Obama, but the Republicans made late moves there.

? 10 p.m.: Polls close in four states, including the last of the battlegrounds, Iowa (six) and Nevada (six).

Iowa's been leaning toward Obama, but watch how the vote breaks down geographically. Can Romney's advantage in GOP-heavy western Iowa overcome Obama's edge in eastern swing territory?

If Obama wins Ohio and Wisconsin, Romney would have to have help from the West, in places like Nevada and Colorado. Nevada, where two-thirds of the electorate votes early, has been moving Obama's direction in recent weeks, powered by strength in huge labor and Hispanic voting blocs. A Romney incursion there would really mean something

?11 p.m.: Polls close in five western states, but most are foregone conclusions for Obama. He gets 78 electoral votes from California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington; Romney gets four from Idaho.

? 1 a.m. Wednesday: The last of the polls close, in Alaska. Romney gets three electoral votes. Will many people still be up?

Political junkies could well be waiting to see how things play out in one or more battleground states.

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hour-hour-watch-election-night-120621158--election.html

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Saturday, November 3, 2012

Business to Business Marketing on Search Engines - Stadium Saint

I'm in the business of search engine marketing, so it's sometimes easy to forget that a majority of people don't really know that the industry exists, how useful it is in business to business marketing, and what a valuable marketing tool SEO can be in general. However, the fact is that a disturbing number of business executives could not tell the difference between SEO Outsourcing and REO Speedwagon (although most would probably agree that neither sounds particularly good*). In fact, when I explain that I work at a search engine optimization company that focuses in part on business to business marketing, most people instantly assume that I have a search engine of my own and that I am somehow trying to compete with Google. I'm flattered until I see the pity in their eyes.

Even those familiar with search engine optimization have common misconceptions about the value of SEO in business to business marketing. Frequently, I encounter prospects who understand that achieving a high ranking on a search engine is a valuable marketing tool that can make an impact on the bottom line of a business, but mistakenly believe that this is true only if that business actually sells something online. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While e-commerce companies can and do benefit tremendously from SEO as a marketing tool, there are many factors in search engine optimization that actually favor B2B companies in terms of overall benefit from the channel.

The Technology

Large e-commerce sites have thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of individual product pages. While performing SEO on such sites does not involve (thank goodness) manipulation of each of the individual pages, each of the page elements that will be used for SEO benefit (titles, headers, text, and meta tags) have to be painstakingly entered into a database. It is very rare to find that the existing database a company has for each of its products contains all the elements necessary to use SEO as a successful marketing tool.

Once all of these elements have been added to the database, it is then necessary to make certain that the server is performing as it should. Then, you must ensure that each of the pages can be crawled by the search engine spider, so the linking structure often must be manipulated.

Using SEO as a marketing tool in business to business marketing is typically much easier, as a standard B2B site is usually built using simpler technology, and the individual pages physically exist on the server. In this case, each page is optimized for a few terms relevant to the business. While a good SEO firm will spend more time on the marketing aspects of a B2B campaign (the overall goals of the initiative and the keyphrases that will bring the right kind of visitors to the site), the actual implementation of the elements necessary for SEO success is usually much simpler.

Average Dollar Sale

There is a practical price limit, which varies from industry to industry, beyond which people become uncomfortable buying online. B2B companies typically have a higher average dollar sale than e-commerce websites, which makes it much easier to justify the cost of any effective business to business marketing tool. While a visitor to an e-commerce site might garner $12 in revenue from the purchase of a coffee mug, a visitor to a high-end B2B website is potentially worth millions. It does not take Alan Greenspan to crunch the numbers--the higher the average dollar sale, the fewer visitors you need to actually justify the cost of SEO as a business to business marketing tool (provided that a certain number of visitors actually lead to a sale).

Value of Relationship

The people that run e-commerce sites such as Amazon are incredibly smart, and they know that almost all of the products that they sell online are highly commoditized. This is why they devote so much effort toward enhancing the visitor experience on their websites with tools like personalization and one-click shopping. They are trying to develop lifetime buyers. B2B companies don&t have this problem. By utilizing a successful business to business marketing campaign, the visitor you attract to your site with this marketing tool could be more valuable over a lifetime than thousands of e-commerce buyers. Offline sales require offline relationships, and personal relationships are easier to maintain, no matter how many bells and whistles an e-commerce company might add to its site.

Differentiators

There is another reason that SEO is often even more effective for business to business marketing than for e-commerce sites--no matter how beautiful the website, how secure the checkout process, and how big the company name, price will always be the primary differentiator when items are purchased online. How else to explain the popularity of online shopping comparison sites such as Yahoo! Shopping, NexTag, and Shopping.com (to name but a few)? When it comes to business to business, marketing is crucial. In a world where prices are rarely listed online, a B2B company almost always has the opportunity to differentiate itself on its own terms after the initial contact is made. With the right marketing tool, such as SEO, a B2B company can easily stand out from the crowd.

Using SEO as a Key Marketing Tool

E-commerce companies are more readily embracing SEO as a business to business marketing tool because they are technologically savvy and because their businesses already depend on the Internet to survive. However, e-commerce companies only make up a small fraction of the number of companies that are actually out there. There are many B2B industries where there is currently little or no competition on the search engines, and the ones to move first and use SEO as a key marketing tool will reap the highest rewards.

Source: http://stadiumsaint.blogspot.com/2012/11/business-to-business-marketing-on.html

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'Market With An Ebook: Why It'll Work - Internet Marketing News Watch

?Market With An Ebook: Why It?ll Work (And How)? ? Aweber Blog

The latest ?Aweber? blog post is titled ?Market With An Ebook: Why It?ll Work (And How)?.

Amanda Gagnon?says, ?This post was written with assistance from Tim Brennan of Tactics Time. Since content marketing is all about providing helpful content to attract new business, it makes sense that you can get some pretty significant results (read: more subscribers and sales) with a significantly sized piece of content (read: larger than an email). We?ve talked?.

Market With An Ebook: Why It?ll Work (And How)

Aweber Blog

Source: http://www.imnewswatch.com/2012/11/01/market-with-an-ebook-why-itll-work-and-how-aweber-blog/

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Rubio on Florida: 'It's going to be close'

Spinners and Winners

Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has been Mitt Romney's most high-profile supporter in his critically important battleground state of Florida. Rubio was with Romney as he campaigned in the Sunshine State Thursday, and ABC's Jonathan Karl asked the junior senator whether it is possible for Romney to win the election without winning Florida.

"I think it's very important to win and obviously difficult to come up with a formula for victory - I am sure there is one but let's not even try. Let's win Florida. We feel great about the way things are going but it's going to be competitive, it's going to be close," Rubio said.

But Rubio warns, that with just days to go, the state is not a sure thing for the Republican nominee.

"I think at this stage in the campaign you don't take anything for granted," Rubio said. "And so we like what we've done here in Florida but we got to make sure people go out and vote."

Rubio empathizes with his fellow Republican Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has put politics aside to concentrate on recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.

In Florida, Rubio is no stranger to hurricanes and disaster relief, but he did not join in Christie's praise for President Obama's handling of the storm aftermath.

"I don't know the job the president has done," Rubio said. "You see that's what Gov Christie is involved on a daily basis and you know, I'll just take him at his word."

But he stopped short of criticizing the President or Christie's crossing of traditional political lines.?"He's got a job to do which takes precedence over elections and I understand his position. He's got a job to do. I think the election is important and I think the storm is important."

"And for the people who have suffered in the path of that storm they've got a long road ahead of them and my heart goes out to them," Rubio added. "But we're also going to have this election and that's important for our country's future. We have two important things to keep in mind."

ABC News' Gregory Simmons-Lemos contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/rubio-still-stormy-florida-174915899.html

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