Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295976541?client_source=feed&format=rss
there will be blood nigel barker 420 secret service fenway park philadelphia flyers 4/20
Monday, April 1, 2013
Professional Business Marketing ? NSW business confidence up
The NSW government says a 13 per cent rise in business confidence since the last quarter means more job opportunities for people in NSW.
The latest Sensis Business Index shows NSW small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are feeling more bullish about 2013.
In the last quarter, NSW SMEs confidence for the year ahead improved by 13 per cent, with an overall net 33 per cent result for the last 12 months, which is above the national average.
Treasurer Mike Baird says it?s another positive result for NSW.
?Apart from Victoria, NSW businesses recorded the highest confidence of all the states. This result is particularly positive considering the tough economic environment businesses faced in 2012,? he said in a statement on Monday.
?This optimistic outlook is good news for the NSW economy and means more job opportunities for the people of this state.?
NSW Minister for Small Business Katrina Hodgkinson said NSW recorded the highest performance in sales and profitability of any state or territory in the last quarter and the highest proportion of exporting SMEs in Australia.
Source: http://lowbrowse.org/nsw-business-confidence-up.html
Jake Dalton London 2012 field hockey Missy Franklin Hunter Pence NBCOlympics Danell Leyva Ye Shiwen
Sunday, March 31, 2013
(Home Improvement) Reducing the noise from opening, closing, and ...
30-03-2013, 01:46 PM
Master Member
?Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 4,627
?
wwe extreme rules 2012 vontaze burfict jimmy kimmel amzn white house correspondents dinner phoenix coyotes bruce irvin
What a Sci-Fi Porno Set Looks Like
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/6kgs8b0s5sA/what-a-sci+fi-porno-set-looks-like
Corvette Stingray Claire Danes Amy Poehler Australian Open Girls Hbo Golden Globes homeland
Millennials poised to redefine the auto market
For most automakers, baby boomers are the proverbial 800-pound gorilla that still drives the industry, the biggest buying group in terms of raw vehicle sales and, in particular, the generation spending the most for each of the cars they buy.
But manufacturers are preparing for the arrival of a new group that could soon not only outnumber the boomers but also demand some big changes in the type and size of vehicles the industry produces. Generation Y, also known as the millennials, offer both tantalizing opportunities and major challenges, according to executives at this year?s New York International Auto Show.
Slideshow: The 2013 New York Auto Show
Millennials are becoming ?the new face? of American auto buyers, asserted Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.?s global sales and marketing chief, during his keynote speech at the auto show. ?And we?ll be surprised,? he added, ?by what they choose.?
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, there are more than 80 million American consumers approaching age 30, which means that each year millions more are moving into the new vehicle buying demographic. Indeed, according to the recent ?Gen Y in the Driver?s Seat? study by consulting firm Deloitte, they already represent about 40 percent of the nation?s potential car buying population ? though they are still well outnumbered by boomers when it comes to the number of new vehicles sold each year.
Chevy Rolls Out New 2014 Camaro
In fact, that ?potential? doesn?t necessarily translate into the same mindset toward buying and owning cars that was seen when boomers came of age. Nearly a third of American 19-year-olds haven?t bothered to get a driver?s license, according to a new study, continuing a downward trend that finds fewer and fewer millennials plugging into the American car culture.
?Virtual contact reduces the need for actual contact,? suggested Michael Sivak, co-author of the study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. ?We found that the percentage of young drivers was inversely related to the availability of the Internet.?
In 1983, well before the advent of texting, e-mail and online gaming, 83 percent of American 19-year-olds were licensed. By 2010, found UMTRI, that was down to around 70 percent.
Another study, jointly carried out by General Motors and Viacom?s MTV Scratch unit, found just 32 percent of 3,000 American millennials surveyed saying they were interested in cars ? though it also showed 69 percnet viewing the purchase of a car a ?milestone? in becoming an adult.
Which brand millennials turn to is also up in the air. Auto data-tracking service Edmunds.com finds that Japanese makers have steadily lost ground with millennials at the expense of Detroit and Korean makers ? a sharp reversal of the trend when baby boomers were first entering the new car market.
?Don?t think we have the millennials figured out," Ford senior marketing executive Amy Marentec recently said, but she added that domestic automakers are beginning to show signs of ?cracking the code.?
The market data suggest that younger buyers are generally more interested in green technology than their parents? generation, something that could drive demand for hybrids, plug-ins and battery vehicles. On the other hand, the higher cost for such technologies is so far restricting sales.
Millennials are downsizing, several executives said. That?s one of the reasons why Audi has such big hopes for the next-generation A3 sedan it showed reporters during a sneak peek in New York. It will become ?the third leg? for the brand, said Audi of America chief Scott Keogh, and should drive other makers to rethink the future of their bigger products.
Booming Sales Put Volkswagen of America Back in the Black
Keogh also emphasized that the new generation of buyers ?isn?t willing to compromise,? even though they?re on a tighter budget than boomers. They expect that even entry-level products have a much higher level of refinement ? and advanced features like infotainment systems capable of accessing social media services.
The new generation has ?an incredible taste for luxury,? echoed Ford?s Farley, adding that millennials now expect to get more for less, no longer expecting that they have to pay a substantial premium for high-line brands. ?And as the price of luxury cars drops,? he said, ?don?t be surprised if they make luxury cars their first (new vehicle) purchase.?
For the industry, delivering on those expectations could be challenging. It could strain resources in the short-term, but those brands which can meet the demand could come to dominate the new generation much as marques like Toyota, Nissan and Honda were the favorites of the boomers.
santa Capital STEEZ George Bush After Christmas Sales 2012 Charles Durning Webster Ny Mcdonalds
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Evidence Shows Hormone Therapy May Increase Breast Cancer Risk
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) ? Women who take hormone therapy that includes estrogen and progestin are at increased risk of developing breast cancer and dying from it, especially if they start taking the therapy just as menopause begins, a new analysis confirms.
Researchers followed nearly 42,000 women, all of whom were past menopause, for an average of more than 11 years. Of those, more than 25,000 did not use hormone therapy and more than 16,000 took estrogen and progestin, also called combined hormone therapy. For this analysis, the researchers did not include estrogen-only therapy, used by women who have had a hysterectomy.
At the end of the follow-up period, more than 2,200 of the women were found to have breast cancer. Compared to non-users, those who took combined therapy were more likely to have breast cancer, said Dr. Rowan Chlebowski, a medical oncologist at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Chlebowski led the study, which was published in the March 29 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The link has been found in other studies, but Chlebowski also found the risk was greatest among those who took the hormones closest to menopause. ?Women starting within months of menopause had about a threefold greater risk than women starting 10 years after menopause,? Chlebowski said.
For the new analysis, Chlebowksi looked at results from the Women?s Health Initiative observational study. He compared the findings with those from the Women?s Health Initiative randomized clinical trial, in which women were assigned to different treatments.
The Women?s Health Initiative included four clinical trials and an observational study. Women were all past menopause and were aged 50 to 79.
Chlebowski said he did the new analysis to resolve what he saw as unanswered questions. In the trial, only about one-third, or 5,000, of the women were in their 50s when they started the study. As that is the typical age for menopause to start, about two-thirds of the women in the trial were in their 60s or beyond, so began to take hormones several years after menopause.
Chlebowski set out to see if the link between breast cancer risk and combined hormone therapy use was influenced by earlier use of hormones.
?We had a substantial number closer to menopause than the clinical trial of [the Women's Health Initiative],? he said.
He found, however, that not only was the risk of breast cancer still increased, but it also increased even more if the women were closer to menopause when they began to take the hormones.
He speculated that women who start the hormone therapy close to menopause still have circulating levels of estrogen high enough to make them exceed some threshold, beyond which it may become hazardous.
Progestin is thought to play a role, too, he added.
Although others have thought that the breast cancers linked with combined hormone therapy are often ones with a somewhat better outlook ? another question Chlebowski thought needed more study ? he did not find that in his new analysis.
The new analysis reinforces the finding that combination hormone therapy is linked with higher breast cancer risk, said Dr. Joanne Mortimer, director of Women?s Cancer Programs at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.
Although previous research has found some good effects of hormone therapy on the heart, she and Chlebowski said that has to be weighed against the breast cancer risk found in much other research.
The new analysis also suggests that ?the time of starting hormone therapy really matters,? Mortimer said. Although the analysis found an association between the two, it did not prove a cause-and-effect link.
Mortimer and Chlebowski agreed that women need to discuss the pros and cons of hormone therapy during menopause with their doctors.
Women should seriously consider whether their symptoms, such as hot flashes and night sweats, are limiting enough to warrant taking hormones, Chlebowski said. Although some women are severely bothered by symptoms, he said, others may be less bothered and can avoid hormone therapy.
More information
To learn more about hormone therapy after menopause, visit the American Cancer Society.
carlos condit diaz vs condit super bowl 2012 kickoff time football score ron paul nevada buffalo chicken dip super bowl 2012
Analysis: NKorea threat may be more bark than bite
University students punch the air as they march through Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. Placards read: ?Let?s crush the puppet traitor group? and ?Let?s rip the puppet traitors to death!? (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
University students punch the air as they march through Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. Placards read: ?Let?s crush the puppet traitor group? and ?Let?s rip the puppet traitors to death!? (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Koreans punch the air during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. The placard reads: "U.S. forces, get out!" (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
North Koreans gather during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 28, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Across North Korea, soldiers are gearing up for battle and shrouding their jeeps and vans with camouflage netting. Newly painted signboards and posters call for "death to the U.S. imperialists" and urge the people to fight with "arms, not words."
But even as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is issuing midnight battle cries to his generals to ready their rockets, he and his million-man army know full well that a successful missile strike on U.S. targets would be suicide for the outnumbered, out-powered North Korean regime.
Despite the hastening drumbeat of warfare, none of the key players in the region wants or expects another Korean War ? not even the North Koreans.
But by seemingly bringing the region to the very brink of conflict with threats and provocations, Pyongyang is aiming to draw attention to the tenuousness of the armistice designed to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula, a truce North Korea recently announced it would no longer honor as it warned that war could break out at any time.
It's all part of a plan to force Washington to the negotiating table, pressure the new president in Seoul to change policy on North Korea, and build unity at home ? without triggering a full-blown war if all goes well.
In July, it will be 60 years since North Korea and China signed an armistice with the U.S. and the United Nations to bring an end to three years of fighting that cost millions of lives. The designated Demilitarized Zone has evolved into the most heavily guarded border in the world.
It was never intended to be a permanent border. But six decades later, North and South remain divided, with Pyongyang feeling abandoned by the South Koreans in the quest for reunification and threatened by the Americans.
In that time, South Korea has blossomed from a poor, agrarian nation of peasants into the world's 15th largest economy while North Korea is struggling to find a way out of a Cold War chasm that has left it with a per capita income on par with sub-Saharan Africa.
The Chinese troops who fought alongside the North Koreans have long since left. But 28,500 American troops are still stationed in South Korea and 50,000 more are in nearby Japan. For weeks, the U.S. and South Korea have been showing off their military might with a series of joint exercises that Pyongyang sees a rehearsal for invasion.
On Thursday, the U.S. military confirmed that those drills included two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers that can unload the U.S. Air Force's largest conventional bomb ? a 30,000-pound super bunker buster ? powerful enough to destroy North Korea's web of underground military tunnels.
It was a flexing of military muscle by Washington, perhaps aimed not only at Pyongyang but at Beijing as well.
In Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un reacted swiftly, calling an emergency meeting of army generals and ordering them to be prepared to strike if the U.S. actions continue. A photo distributed by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency showed Kim in a military operations room with maps detailing a "strike plan" behind him in a very public show of supposedly sensitive military strategy.
North Korea cites the U.S. military threat as a key reason behind its need to build nuclear weapons, and has poured a huge chunk of its small national budget into defense, science and technology. In December, scientists launched a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket using technology that could easily be converted for missiles; in February, they tested an underground nuclear device as part of a mission to build a bomb they can load on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.
However, what North Korea really wants is legitimacy in the eyes of the U.S. ? and a peace treaty. Pyongyang wants U.S. troops off Korean soil, and the bombs and rockets are more of an expensive, dangerous safety blanket than real firepower. They are the only real playing card North Korea has left, and the bait they hope will bring the Americans to the negotiating table.
Narushige Michishita, director of the Security and International Studies Program at Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, isn't convinced North Korea is capable of attacking Guam, Hawaii or the U.S. mainland. He says Pyongyang hasn't successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
But its medium-range Rodong missiles, with a range of about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), are "operational and credible" and could reach U.S. bases in Japan, he says.
More likely than such a strike, however, is a smaller-scale incident, perhaps off the Koreas' western coast, that would not provoke the Americans to unleash their considerable firepower. For years, the waters off the west coast have been a battleground for naval skirmishes between the two Koreas because the North has never recognized the maritime border drawn unilaterally by the U.N.
As threatening as Kim's call to arms may sound, its main target audience may be the masses at home in North Korea.
For months, the masterminds of North Korean propaganda have pinpointed this year's milestone Korean War anniversary as a prime time to play up Kim's military credibility as well as to push for a peace treaty. By creating the impression that a U.S. attack is imminent, the regime can foster a sense of national unity and encourage the people to rally around their new leader.
Inside Pyongyang, much of the military rhetoric feels like theatrics. It's not unusual to see people toting rifles in North Korea, where soldiers and checkpoints are a fixture in the heavily militarized society. But more often than not in downtown Pyongyang, the rifle stashed in a rucksack is a prop and the "soldier" is a dancer, one of the many performers rehearsing for a Korean War-themed extravaganza set to debut later this year.
More than 100,000 soldiers, students and ordinary workers were summoned Friday to Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang to pump their fists in support of North Korea's commander in chief. But elsewhere, it was business as usual at restaurants and shops, and farms and factories, where the workers have heard it all before.
"Tensions rise almost every year around the time the U.S.-South Korean drills take place, but as soon as those drills end, things go back to normal and people put those tensions behind them quite quickly," said Sung Hyun-sang, the South Korean president of a clothing maker operating in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. "I think and hope that this time won't be different."
And in a telling sign that even the North Koreans don't expect war, the national airline, Air Koryo, is adding flights to its spring lineup and preparing to host the scores of tourists they expect to flock to Pyongyang despite the threats issuing forth from the Supreme Command.
War or no war, it seems Pyongyang remains open for business.
___
Lee is chief of AP's bureaus in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Seoul, South Korea. She can be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean. Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Associated Pressleon panetta luck sag awards 2012 nominees pro bowl 2012 roster yamaguchi road house occupy oakland
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)