Treasury says expects to hit debt limit before 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Treasury said on Wednesday it was still on track to hit the debt limit near the end of the year though emergency tools would allow the department to continue borrowing funds to keep the government operating through early 2013.

As of Monday, the Treasury was $235 billion below the $16.4 trillion legal amount the government is allowed to borrow. The Treasury did not provide details on when the emergency tools would run their course, but analysts have forecast this to happen in the latter half of February.

This gives the Obama administration some breathing room to broker a deal with Congress to find a solution to the so-called fiscal cliff or the $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that are due to kick in at the end of the year.

The committee of Wall Street firms that advises the Treasury on borrowing needs said the outlook for fiscal policy is dominating near-term economic prospects.

"A timely and orderly resolution of this uncertainty would contribute meaningfully to an improvement in the economic outlook," the committee said in its report to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

After next Tuesday's presidential and congressional elections, the administration and lawmakers will have less than two months to find a way to avoid the cliff.

The Treasury also announced a $72 billion quarterly funding of its 3-year, 10-year and 30-year debt securities, which will raise $8.9 billion in new cash. It also said it expects to keep its debt sales stable in coming months.

Earlier this week, the Treasury cut its borrowing estimates for the final quarter of the year due to higher revenues and less government spending.

The Treasury said it still had not made a decision on whether to allow investors to bid on securities that offer negative interest rates but said the department still planned on issuing floating-rate notes late next year.

(Reporting By Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/treasury-says-expects-hit-debt-limit-2013-133305657--business.html

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NYC mayor: Power out at NYU hospital, patients being evacuated

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Hurricane Sandy: With 8.1 million in the dark, utility crews get busy

Hurricane Sandy inflicted most of its damage in heavily populated states including New York and New Jersey. The storm also caused three nuclear power plants to shut down.

By Mark Clayton,?Staff writer / October 30, 2012

A National Grid crew restores electric power to a neighborhood on October 29, in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Hurricane Sandy knocked out power along the east coast in eight states: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and West Virginia ? some 7.4 million customers.

Alfredo Sosa/The Christian Science Monitor

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More than 8.1 million customers in 17 states were left in the dark in the wake of hurricane Sandy, which smashed ashore Monday night in New Jersey and immediately began dismantling chunks of the eastern power grid.

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In terms of its outage impact, hurricane Sandy was roughly on a par with hurricane Irene, which in August 2011 knocked out power to more than 9.3 million customers along the East Coast and in Puerto Rico ? about 6 million in 13 East Coast states.

But Sandy's impact was more concentrated than Irene's, doing the bulk of its damage in fewer but more heavily populated states. Most of the outages were in eight states: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and West Virginia ? some 7.4 million customers.

"The magnitude of this event is really huge," says Mark Merritt, president of Witt Associates, a public-safety and crisis-management consulting firm in Washington. "From North Carolina to Maine, utilities are dealing with coastal power issues from flooding to snow impacts in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. A lot of these companies, public and private, are competing for limited resources, scrambling, so it's a challenge for everyone."

With crews coming from all over, even the West Coast, hurricane Sandy has become an "an all-hands-on-deck-type event," Mr. Merritt says. Still, there were signs that power restoration could be slow in some of the hardest-hit areas.

Restoration of power in New York, for one, is going to be exceedingly complex, with blown transformers, flooded underground utilities, and waterlogged subways. Repairs may go more slowly than many had hoped, despite the high level of preparation by utility companies.

Excessive flooding from the storm surge knocked out a number of substations in New Jersey?s Essex, Hudson, and Middlesex counties, according to the utility Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G). Those stations, which serve about 462,000 customers, will be out of service until the water recedes and equipment can be cleaned and dried, the utility reported.

Consolidated Edison, a big New York utility, said first reports indicated more than 200 wires down on Staten Island. The company cut service overnight to two sections of lower Manhattan and a chunk of Brooklyn to protect underground delivery systems from floodwaters. The electrical equipment there would then have to have all components cleaned of seawater, dried, and tested.

Meanwhile, three nuclear power plants in the northeastern United States had to shut down, and two units cut back their power output as a result of effects from hurricane Sandy, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported.

PSEG Nuclear manually shut down its Salem Unit 1 in southern New Jersey at 1:09 a.m. Monday when four of the station?s six circulating water pumps became unavailable due to weather impacts. Circulating water pumps use Delaware Bay water to condense steam on the nonnuclear side of the plant.

Entergy Nuclear also shut down its Indian Point Unit 3 reactor, 38 miles north of New York City, at 10:45 p.m. on Monday "due to external electrical grid issues," the company reported. About two hours earlier, at 9 p.m., Constellation Energy reported that its Nine Mile Unit 1 near Oswego, N.Y., experienced an automatic reactor shutdown whose cause was being investigated.

Two of six refineries were shut down as of Tuesday morning, with the four others operating at reduced capacity, the Energy Department reported.

At a news conference, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) spoke of homes knocked off foundations and amusement-park rides rammed into the sea. ?The level of devastation on the Jersey Shore is unthinkable,? he said.

Governor Christie, who has indicated a distinct disinterest in the presidential election, nevertheless praised President Obama on his response to, and preparation for, the storm.

"The president has been all over this, he deserves great credit.... He gave me his number at the White House, told me to call if I needed anything, and he absolutely means it,? he said. ?It's been very good working with the president, and his administration has been coordinating with us great."

According to some early estimates from economists, hurricane Sandy, with its massive flooding, is more akin to hurricane Katrina than hurricane Irene. Katrina was the nation?s most expensive natural disaster costing about $41 billion in property damage, according to one insurance company report.

Now the race begins to see how fast electricity can be restored to limit the overall economic damage. Utilities have been under pressure since major power outages from storms last year to do a better job this time. To that end, they have been prepositioned thousands of line crews from out of state. Now politicians and customers will be waiting ? and waiting ? to see how long it takes.

?We expected an unprecedented storm,? New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a press conference Tuesday morning. ?That?s what we got.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/U0rCOmjYftA/Hurricane-Sandy-With-8.1-million-in-the-dark-utility-crews-get-busy

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Cops: Mom falsely claimed 3 kids were abducted

A woman claimed that a suspect jumped into her vehicle and drove away with three children inside while she was pumping gas at an Exxon station in Seat Pleasant, Md.

By NBCWashington.com

Updated at 5:59 a.m. ET: Three children were falsely reported abducted during a car theft near Washington, D.C., on Sunday night, police said. ?

The woman's claim - on a night when emergency personnel were gearing up for the impact of Hurricane Sandy - led state police to issue an Amber Alert and search for a black Nissan Altima.

Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

Detectives believe the woman claimed her children - ages 1, 3 and 5 - were in the car to get faster response.

The mother claimed she was pumping gas at an Exxon station in Seat Pleasant, Md.,?when a suspect jumped into her vehicle and drove away with the three children inside.??She will be charged with making a false police report, police said in a press release.

More stories from NBCWashington.com

Police later found the car in southeast D.C. The children were not inside. They were found safe later in the night.

NBC News staff contributed to this report.

?

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/29/14772263-cops-mom-falsely-claimed-kids-were-abducted-from-gas-station?lite

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Neurotransmitters linked to mating behavior are shared by mammals and worms

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? When it comes to sex, animals of all shapes and sizes tend behave in predictable ways. There may be a chemical reason for that. New research from Rockefeller University has shown that chemicals in the brain -- neuropeptides known as vasopressin and oxytocin -- play a role in coordinating mating and reproductive behavior in animals ranging from humans to fish to invertebrates.

"Our research shows that molecules similar to vasopressin and oxytocin have an ancient and evolutionarily conserved role in controlling a critical social behavior, mating," says Cori Bargmann, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior. "This work suggests that these molecules encode the same kind of information in the brains of very different animals."

Bargmann, whose laboratory studies the relationship between genes, neural circuits and behavior in the C. elegans roundworm, says vasopressin and oxytocin have been implicated in a variety of reproductive and social behaviors in humans and other mammals, including pair bonding, maternal bonding and aggressive and affiliative behaviors. Mice that lack oxytocin may develop social amnesia, and humans who sniff oxytocin through an inhaler change their cooperative behavior in computer games, behaving as though they "trust" other players more.

Bargmann's team, led by postdoc Jennifer Garrison, identified a peptide and two receptors in C. elegans worms that were similar to the mammalian oxytocin/vasopressin signaling system. Male worms that were engineered to lack this peptide, dubbed nematocin, were clumsy sexual partners.

"Although they could perform the motor aspects of mating, their sequences were inefficient, disorganized and repetitious," says Garrison. "Only a fraction of males lacking the peptide were able to complete mating by transferring sperm within five minutes of first contacting a partner, a time in which normal worms are usually successful."

Males lacking nemotocin or its receptors also spent less time looking for mates, as though they were less motivated to find partners.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rockefeller University.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. J. L. Garrison, E. Z. Macosko, S. Bernstein, N. Pokala, D. R. Albrecht, C. I. Bargmann. Oxytocin/Vasopressin-Related Peptides Have an Ancient Role in Reproductive Behavior. Science, 2012; 338 (6106): 540 DOI: 10.1126/science.1226201

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/ahYezHOdMe0/121029100630.htm

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Hurricane Sandy: Wall Street trading cancelled for second day ...

Hurricane Sandy's economic impact is already massive

The so-called ?Frankenstorm? could cause up to $1 billion in physical damages ? but that figure doesn?t even take into account the impact on consumer spending, cancelled flights or closed businesses. Read more

U.S. stock market executives, regulators and brokers have agreed to close the U.S. stock markets for the second day on Tuesday because of Hurricane Sandy.

Every effort is being made to reopen markets on Wednesday, but a final decision has not been made yet, one of the people said.

NYSE Euronext said in a statement Monday that it intended to reopen Wednesday ?conditions permitting.? Updates will be provided Tuesday.

Pfizer Inc : rescheduled third quarter results and conference call to Nov. 1, before the bell, from Oct. 30.
Thomson Reuters Corp : rescheduled earnings announcement to Nov. 2 from Oct. 30.
Acorda Therapeutics Inc: rescheduled thirdquarter financial results and conference call to Oct. 31 from Oct. 30.
Systemax Inc: rescheduled third quarter earnings announcement to Nov. 1, after the market. The Company will host an earnings teleconference at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on that day.
MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc: rescheduled its fiscal fourthquarter results to Oct. 31 from Oct. 30.
Kaman Corp : Rescheduled third quarter results to Oct. 31, after the bell. A webcast and conference call will be held at 8:30 am Eastern Time on Nov. 1.
Entergy Corp : rescheduled third quarter earnings conference call to Nov. 5 from Oct. 30.
NRG Energy Inc : rescheduled third quarter earnings conference call to Nov. 2 from Oct. 31.

The decision involved senior leadership of the exchanges, executives from brokerage firms and officials from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The U.S. stock market?s closure on Monday was its first weather-related shutdown in 27 years.

Bond markets, which closed at noon EDT on Monday, will not reopen on Tuesday, a trade group said.

?It doesn?t make sense to put people in harm?s way or to only have half a market,? said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group in New York. ?If just the electronic market was open, that wouldn?t provide enough interest, with everything else still closed.?

Equities trading executives said they were spending the day Monday pressing NYSE Euronext and the Nasdaq OMX to clearly communicate their plan to avoid a repeat of Sunday night.

Market participants and regulators decided late on Sunday to shut the stock and options markets, reversing an earlier plan to keep electronic trading going on Monday, leaving some people complaining about the confusion it caused.

The biggest problem with the New York Stock Exchange?s initial plan to trade exclusively over its ARCA electronic system was that the contingency plan that it had created in March had not been vetted by many brokerage firms, the sources said.

The decision on whether to keep markets closed on Tuesday comes as Hurricane Sandy began battering the U.S. East Coast on Monday with fierce winds and driving rain. The monster storm shut down transportation, shuttered businesses and sent thousands scrambling for higher ground hours before the worst was due to strike.

In New York, the mass transit system was shut down on Sunday evening, and many Wall Street employees were working from home, although major financial services firms were open for business at least with skeletal staff. Flooding is already hitting parts of Lower Manhattan and parts of New Jersey even before the storm makes landfall.

LIKE HERDING CATS

The decision to close the stock and options market came on Sunday night after SIFMA, the Wall Street trade group, held a conference call around 11 p.m. to debate whether to close, said a brokerage executive, who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media.

?It was like trying to corral cats,? the executive said.

Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey, said the bigger financial institutions were willing to have staffing to stay open.

?The closer it got to midnight, the less sense it made to do it, because people were willing to do less and less,? he said. ?Then we got a message that our building in Jersey City, the front doors are going to be sandbagged, so that effectively ended that.?

T.R. Lazo, a lawyer at the trade group Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, who is leading coordination of how to resume trading, did not return a call for comment.

BONDS AND IPO PRICINGS

The securities industry would have preferred that bond markets had remained closed all day Monday, but the U.S. Treasury department had a bill auction scheduled that had to proceed, two people familiar with the situation said.

Most of the trading activity on Monday in bond markets was in money markets, according to a source at a large Wall Street bank.

Clients have been trying to quickly roll over debt that was coming due Monday and Tuesday in the small window they had this morning before markets close. There was very little to no activity in other markets, the source said.

The stock market?s closure means that companies that were looking to go public may have to wait longer. Six initial public offerings currently scheduled to price later this week will likely have to be pushed back, equity capital markets sources said. They added that decisions were being made now between underwriters and the issuers.

?We can?t market some of these deals while no one is on the other side of the phone,? said one equity capital markets banker at a large Wall Street bank. Some deals may be pushed back to next week after the election, the source said.

A spokesperson for Restoration Hardware, the highest profile of the public offerings set to launch this week, could not be reached for a comment.

Radius Health, which was set to price its $61.8 million IPO later this week, is in a ?wait-and-see mode,? said Chief Financial Officer Nick Harvey. ?We haven?t made any decisions yet,? he added.

Equity futures continued to trade through Monday morning, closing at 9:15 a.m. EDT. CME Group Inc said it was closing its interest-rate futures trading as of noon EDT.

? Thomson Reuters 2012

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/29/u-s-markets-will-be-shuttered-again-tuesday-as-hurricane-sandy-paralyzes-wall-street/

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Birding ? It's as close as your backyard | Life And Leisure NJ

Unlike most hobbies, backyard birding doesn?t cost a lot, doesn?t take tons of equipment, and doesn?t require that you decipher complicated instructions just to get started. All you need is a backyard or a balcony.

It?s no wonder so many Americans ? more than 60 million ? are interested in birding. Learning about birds is great exercise for your brain too. Imagine: there are more than 60 kinds of warblers, and that?s just in North America. Whether you live on the West Coast or the East Coast, there are dozens of species you can observe ? if you have the right drawing cards.

But be prepared: the birds in your neighborhood, from Western bluebirds to Red-Eyed Vireos, can capture your interest and turn you into a binocular-wielding birder in no time.

Many birds are accustomed to living near people, so you?ve no doubt glimpsed several species right near your home. And that?s without making any effort. But every bird loves an invitation, even those that are just flying by. Entice more of them into your yard with just a few changes.

Make some new feathered friends

First, try putting up a bird feeder. Most bird feeders attract a variety of birds, and you?ll love seeing them flit past your windows. To get started, watch this video on birding basics. Next, choose the kind of birdseed that will attract a lot of birds. Black oil sunflower seeds, which you can pick up just about anywhere, work well. Depending on where you live, you?ll have cardinals, chickadees and maybe even some showy goldfinches stopping by for a quick snack.

Get a bird guidebook or a smartphone app. You?ll be amazed at how easy it is to identify dozens of visitors to your yard in just a few weeks. There are more than 1,000 species of birds in the United States, but bird guides can steer you toward those you?re most likely to see in your region.

Offer amenities ? edible berries, bird baths and waterers

Think about growing some plants and flowers that attract birds. Trees and shrubs can provide shelter from predators and great places for nests. Likewise, Juneberries and dogwoods offer edible treats for many species and attract insects that birds like to eat. To attract a particular species, learn what they like: bee balm and trumpet creeper vines, for instance, are great draws for hummingbirds.

Bird baths offer clean drinking water and a chance to have a good overall rinse. By bathing, birds keep their feathers clean and flexible. Just be sure to clean your bird bath regularly; knowing that they will find a healthy drinking source they can also bathe in will keep your feathered buddies coming back again and again. Or, offer them a waterer. Birds can access clean drinking water the same way they access birdseed, with the new line of Perky-Pet bird waterers.

Look into putting up a birdhouse. Most birdhouses are designed for a specific type of bird, so do a little research and then put out the ?vacancy? sign. Chances are, it will be quickly filled.

Finally, get out your camera ? preferably with a zoom lens. Or just enjoy the view through binoculars. Seeing these birds up close can be a real thrill, especially once you begin to recognize details, like a tuft on the head or a split tail. To bring birds even closer, consider a window feeder from Perky-Pet. Bird watching is safe and fun even up close.

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Short URL: http://www.lifeandleisurenj.com/?p=4249

Source: http://www.lifeandleisurenj.com/home-improvement/birding-its-as-close-as-your-backyard.html

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Municipal votes test for Chile's national parties

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2012 photo, protesters march to demand education reform in Santiago, Chile. After more than a year of mass protests over education and environmental policies that mobilized millions of people but left many activists feeling frustrated and ignored by the political establishment, municipal elections on Oct. 28, 2012 provides a chance for 5.3 million new voters, more than half of whom are under 30, to be heard. Sunday?s election is the first since Chile expanded its electorate from 8.1 million to 13.4 million people. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2012 photo, protesters march to demand education reform in Santiago, Chile. After more than a year of mass protests over education and environmental policies that mobilized millions of people but left many activists feeling frustrated and ignored by the political establishment, municipal elections on Oct. 28, 2012 provides a chance for 5.3 million new voters, more than half of whom are under 30, to be heard. Sunday?s election is the first since Chile expanded its electorate from 8.1 million to 13.4 million people. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2008 file photo, candidate for mayor of Santiago, Pablo Zalaquett, casts his ballot in a polling station in Santiago. Zalaquett, who is running for reelection on Oct. 28, 2012, of the right-wing UDI party, faces Carolina Toha. (AP Photo/Hector Retamal, La Tercera, File)

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) ? Millions of Chileans are voting Sunday for the first time in their lives in nationwide municipal elections that could set the stage for next year's presidential race.

The timing is key. The vote tests where the heart of the electorate lies just weeks before the campaign for Chile's presidency formally begins. Any would-be candidates have to give up their political posts a year ahead of the Nov. 17, 2013 vote.

The nation has been roiled by more than a year of mass protests over education and environmental policies that brought millions of young demonstrators into the streets, and only about a third of voters approve of the job that conservative President Sebastian Pinera has done since taking office in 2010.

But polls say there's even less support for remnants of the center-left Concertation coalition that governed Chile for 20 years after democracy was restored in 1990, ending the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Many new voters are part of a younger generation whose huge street protests fed hopes that expanding the electorate would lead to profound changes in Chile's political establishment. But that appears less likely now, pollsters said ahead of the vote. After many tumultuous months when activists took over streets, schools and public buildings, choking on tear gas but failing to get Congress to adopt their demands, their faith in the democratic process has waned.

Polls by the Center for Public Studies suggest more than 40 percent of voters would stay home Sunday, compared to 32 percent in the last municipal elections.

That lack of enthusiasm for Chile's main political forces fed uncertainty ahead of the elections for 354 mayors offices and 3,224 local council seats, which are currently divided evenly between left and right.

There is also uncertainty because of changes in voting rules that have swelled the number of registered voters to 13.4 million from 8.1 million while ending penalties for not voting.

Under the old rules, registering to vote was optional, but once enrolled people faced fines of up to $150 for not voting. That discouraged many from signing up, giving a disproportionate say to an ever-smaller group of aging voters. Increasingly, even they were staying home.

Now, voting is optional but every adult member of the population of 17 million is registered automatically at age 18.

Sunday's most closely watched race was in Chile's capital, Santiago. Mayor Pablo Zalaquett of the right-wing Independent Democratic Union party, who personally authorized police crackdowns when protests turned violent, faced Carolina Toha, who courted students after serving as spokeswoman for the previous president, socialist Michelle Bachelet.

Chile's electorate had become increasingly conservative by the 2009 election, after two decades of favoring the center-left coalition that was in power since the end of the Pinochet's dictatorship. The general seized power in 1973 in a bloody coup against Marxist President Salvador Allende, who killed himself rather than surrender.

A generation gap has grown between older Chileans and new voters, who have the potential to shake things up ? if they go to the polls.

Julieta Aguilar dragged her 18-year-old daughter, Carla Rojas, to an information booth this week to learn where the teenager should vote Sunday.

"Young people are disaffected, nothing attracts them. I, on the other hand, vote in Conchali (a working-class Santiago neighborhood), and I'll keep voting. I'm a Pinochetista and I'll keep being one because they didn't prove anything against him," Aguilar declared.

"I'm going to vote for Allende," her daughter retorted, prompting her mother to sigh and say, "I don't understand this girl."

There are candidates with Allende connections in Sunday's races: Maria Fernandez Allende, the granddaughter of the late president, ran for mayor in the Santiago-area municipality of Nunoa. Carolina Toha's father, Jose Toja, was Allende's vice president, and died from torture after being arrested defending the palace.

But Rojas doesn't live in either of these candidates' districts, and said she wasn't sure she would bother to vote.

That feeling was seconded by another woman in line at the information booth, Viviana Cordova. She's 28, and said she was not motivated to vote: "Because everything stays the same. The poor stay the same and nothing changes."

High school student protest leader Eloisa Gonzalez encouraged this malaise Friday, urging a boycott of the elections because the government hasn't accepted demonstrators' key demands such as an end to Pinochet-era rules that left most public schools underfunded and neglected. The students want the national government to guarantee free and equal education, and tax the rich far more to keep schools well-funded.

The lack of enthusiasm on the left is a major reason why Marta Lagos, who directs the Latinobarometro survey, predicts Pinera's government won't be punished Sunday. Her surveys suggest the most committed new voters are from the more conservative middle and upper classes.

"We're in a period in which politics has been largely discredited. There's a tremendous lack of interest in the electorate. You can see it in the campaigns; the people are not motivated," Lagos said.

The great national issues have been absent from most of the municipal campaigns, which have focused instead on the popularity and effectiveness of individual politicians.

But Mauricio Morales, a political scientist at the Universidad Diego Portales, said that in key cities, "the government could come out of this election weakened."

As for the left, Morales predicted that more centrist parties would emerge stronger, "isolating a bit those who want to push leftward the agenda of Bachelet."

The popular Bachelet, who couldn't compete in the 2010 presidential election because Chilean law bars consecutive terms for that office, is widely expected to run again for the presidency in next year's vote.

___

Associated Press writer Federico Quilodran reported this story in Santiago and Michael Warren reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-28-Chile-Elections/id-b6f79b3f93b94c2cbb7513f6be1d875f

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Exercise boosts satisfaction with life, researchers find

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Had a bad day? Extending your normal exercise routine by a few minutes may be the solution, according to Penn State researchers, who found that people's satisfaction with life was higher on days when they exercised more than usual.

"We found that people's satisfaction with life was directly impacted by their daily physical activity," said Jaclyn Maher, graduate student in kinesiology. "The findings reinforce the idea that physical activity is a health behavior with important consequences for daily well-being and should be considered when developing national policies to enhance satisfaction with life."

The team examined the influence of physical activity on satisfaction with life among emerging adults ages 18 to 25 years because this population's sense of well-being appears to worsen more quickly than at any other time during adulthood.

"Emerging adults are going through a lot of changes; they are leaving home for the first time and attending college or starting jobs," said Maher. "As a result, their satisfaction with life can plummet. We decided to focus on emerging adults because they stand to benefit the most from strategies to enhance satisfaction with life."

The researchers recruited two groups of college students at Penn State. The first group, consisting of 190 individuals, entered information into a diary every day for eight days. The second group, consisting of 63 individuals, entered information into a secure website every day for 14 days. Both groups answered questions aimed at determining participants' satisfaction with life, physical activity and self-esteem. The personalities of all participants in the first group were assessed at the outset of the study using the Big Five Inventory short form.

For the second group (the 63 individuals who filled out questionnaires online for 14 days), the researchers wanted to further investigate whether physical activity was indeed, the cause of participants' increased satisfaction with life rather than some other factor such as mental health, fatigue, or Body Mass Index.

"Shifts in depression, anxiety and stress would be expected to influence a person's satisfaction with life at any given point in time," said David Conroy, professor of kinesiology. "In addition, fatigue can be a barrier to engaging in physical activity, and a high Body Mass Index associated with being overweight may cause a person to be less satisfied in a variety of ways."

By controlling for these variables, the researchers were able to determine that the amount of physical activity a person undertakes in a particular day directly influences his or her satisfaction with life. Specifically, the team found that by exercising just a little more than usual a person can significantly improve his or her satisfaction with life.

The results appeared online this week in the journal Health Psychology.

"Based on these findings, we recommend that people exercise a little longer or a little harder than usual as a way to boost satisfaction with life," said Conroy.

###

Penn State: http://live.psu.edu

Thanks to Penn State for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124868/Exercise_boosts_satisfaction_with_life__researchers_find

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BOOKS:REGINALD MASSEY'S BOOK PAGE - Confluence Magazine

REGINALD MASSEY?S BOOK PAGE

Normally I do not notice books written in languages other than English. However, as a special case, I have to mention the poems in Urdu by Chaman Lal Chaman, the veteran broadcaster and media man. Hailing from a Punjabi Hindu family who had migrated to Kenya, then a British colony, Chaman has worked in Britain for many years.

He is a lovely man who, very simply, is in love with humanity. His name says it all. Chaman means a perfumed garden, in the Persian sense. He is conversant with his native Punjabi as well as Hindi and Urdu. In fact, whenever he phones me we only converse in our native Ma-boli (Mother tongue) Punjabi.

His book of ghazals and geets is titled Phool Khil? Chaman Chaman (In every Garden?the Flowers Bloom). Indeed they do on every page of Chaman?s collection. Word play and puns are distinctive to Urdu poetry. Though in English poetry it has fallen into disuse, Shakespeare?s dramas are replete with puns and word play. Since not many young Asians in Britain can read the Urdu (Persian) script I must ask Chaman to get the poems translated into English by a competent person. I have for the same reason asked the Hindi poet Divya Mathur to get her marvellous Hindi poems in the Devanagri script translated into English. Else they could publish their poems in the Roman script.

Whether we like it or not, we have to accept the fact that English is the mode of international communication. The first human who strode on the face of the moon spoke to us Earthlings in English. Not in French, or Spanish, or Russian or Arabic or Hindi or Chinese. The Confucian Chinese, a pragmatic people, got the message loud and clear. They are now spending vast amounts of money to teach their intellectuals, scientists, technologists and administrators the English language. We South Asians are fortunate. The British taught us English and did not charge us a single paisa. Vive Britannia ! ?How right was the South Indian Brahmin philosopher Radhakrishnan who became President of the Indian Republic. He said that we Indians were indebted to Britain for bequeathing to us three boons: Shakespeare, the Authorized Version of the Bible and the limited liability company. And now South Asians are collecting literary prizes all over the English speaking world. Hats off to the Brits.

I am elated that fact based books are gaining popularity. After all, fact is stranger than fiction. But when a creative writer?s expertise is applied to unpalatable and disturbing facts the result is ?faction?, a potent genre of literature. A recent example was Kishwar Desai?s Origins of Love, a novel already noticed in this magazine. In the same vein is the moving Radhika?s Story: Surviving Human Trafficking by Sharon Hendry (New Holland Publishers, London. ISBN 978-1-84773-725-0. ?8.99). Hendry is a senior feature writer for The Sun, the mass circulation daily that published the LA pictures of Naughty Harry. Sharon Hendry has exposed international adoption rackets, paedophiles in Cambodia and the plot to kill Boris Berezovsky, the Russian dissident, in London. Hence Ms Hendry knows her onions.

The book tells the tragic and heartbreaking story of Radhika Phuyal, the daughter of a Brahmin family of Nepal who is tricked by a smooth-tongued conman who lures her into prostitution. Radhika is pretty, with a soft olive skin and utterly innocent. And her family is desperately poor. In South Asia poverty is a curse for all castes; but for Brahmins it is particularly painful and vindictive. The higher a girl?s caste the more she is in demand.

Low caste men yearn to ravish a Brahmin whore.

Hendry?s graphic account of conditions in north Kolkata?s notorious Sonagachi red light district is worthy of a documentary award. It was here that Radhika had to service the lust of a minimum of thirty men every single day for a set fee of 200 rupees each. If the girls in the brothel failed to meet their client target they were beaten and humiliated. On her body Radhika bears the scars of cigarette burns inflicted on her by the Madam of the brothel. The trafficking of women is a well known fact of Indian life and yet India-loving foreigners and Indians who sell the ?greatness of India? choose to ignore this obnoxious and uncomfortable fact. Didi Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and Sardar Manmohan Singh in green and clean New Delhi (thanks to the British architect Lutyens) turn a blind eye. Their eyes are fixed on the next general elections.

Radhika, still alive and miraculously free of VD and AIDS, told her story to Sharon Hendry who has, like any good reporter worth her / his salt, set down the essentials. But the matter does not end with prostitution. Radhika?s exploitation goes on to the lucrative trade in body parts. The organs taken from ?donors? are bought for about ?660 (US $1,000) and sold on to foreigners and rich Indians for ?20,000 (US $30,000).

Under false pretences Radhika was taken to a Chennai hospital (after she was drugged). There an operation was performed and one of her kidneys was removed. It was immediately transplanted on to her employer?s wife who was in the operation theatre next door.

But happily there is a ray of light at the end of the long dark tunnel. The social worker and women?s activist Anuradha Koirala has established a refuge for women such as Radhika. She and her son Rohan, at last happily reunited, are now under the care of Anuradha and her devoted volunteers.

The celebrated actor-activist Joanna Lumley writes in her Foreword: ?I felt that this story, just one of the many ? too many ? which are waiting untold in dumb silence, must be heard; and if her story prevents even one more child being sold into this appalling slavery, brave Radhika will not have suffered in vain.?

Namita Gokhale is a prolific writer and publisher and co-director with William Dalrymple of the Jaipur Literature Festival. Habit of Love (Penguin India, 2012.

ISBN 978-0-143-41772-9) is a collection of thirteen vibrant short stories written over a number of years. She confesses that they have been imagined in airports, scribbled during flights, corrected in traffic jams and deciphered from the backs of envelopes. I am glad that she has published them. Written as a very personal intimate narrative in the first person, they range from the Mahabharata to current day 21st century India which experiences all the problems and urban angsts of the western world. Khushwant Singh, the guru of Indian creative writing in the English language, recommends these stories because, he says, they grippingly describe ?death, love and lust?. I venture to suggest that Gokhale goes further. She describes, probes, exposes and teases out the very condition of humanity. Her prose is often poetic.

Her vivid descriptions of New Delhi and the British hill station of Nainital take me back over the decades. I could write a whole book about her stories in this slim volume but there are three that are particular winners. Life on Mars is about a middle aged Indian woman diagnosed with cancer. Gokhale herself had cancer and has courageously ?conquered the ?Big C?. She however insists that this story is not autobiographical. It is a tear-jerking and poignant account of the main protagonist?s warm relationship with a young man, a confirmed crank, who is obsessed with the possibility of life on Mars. And then there is the story of the young Vinita who is in Nainital with her parents when the radio announces that Nehru has died. Her parents are an ill-suited husband and wife, the result of a miserable arranged marriage. And Vinita, an aspiring writer, is caught in the crossfire.

The story about Vatshala Vidyarthi, a ?literary lady? who is based in New Delhi is absolutely brilliant. She works for an advertising agency, is unmarried but has had a couple of unpleasant affairs with incompatible Indian men. Her story is reminiscent of

J. Alfred Prufrock?s desolate existence in Eliot?s smog-laden London. And then she is sent to Rishikesh, by the banks of the Holy Ganges, on an assignment to write copy about the new Ganges Herbal range of incense-coated mosquito repellents. There she has a tempestuous and wholly satisfying one-night stand of pleasure with a Slavic sadhu who is in India in search of nirvana. Next morning she discovers herself in the disarranged bed, naked and alone. The sexual athlete has vanished and so have her keys, handbag, cash and credit cards. The story ends with a classic statement: ?? a punchline is not always essential to a good denouement?. Which itself is a punchline par excellence.

Reginald Massey?s forthcoming book is To the Gallows with Smiles: forgotten fighters for Indian Independence, to be published later this year by Hansib, London.

Source: http://www.confluence.org.uk/2012/10/27/booksreginald-massey%E2%80%99s-book-page/

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Source: http://www.healthuse.com/questions-to-ask-your-internet-hosting-service-supplier.html

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Is Your Business Online? Learn The Tips To Successful Internet ...

It may seem relatively easy to jump in with Internet marketing without researching, but it?s vital that you understand the way to do it right. You can acquire some useful information by reading through this article.

Use ?guaranteed? in your text to enhance your readers? trust in your product or service offerings, and increase your marketing success. Even though your guarantee offer is only as solid as your company, you will help customers feel they are shielded from any risk by purchasing your product. People are squeezed due to the bad economy, so they don?t take purchase decisions lightly. A guarantee can give them some measure of assurance.

The things that ensure Internet success is not always a set formula and creativity is an important component. Before you begin Internet marketing, try to both aspects. Be analytical of relevant data while expressing your creative side through the aesthetics and theme of your site.

Look into testing the emails that you send out to see what your customers think and how they respond. One method to try is called A/B testing. Create an email, and then change up one thing in it. You could alternate different email subjects, try different calls to action, or vary the introduction paragraphs. Each unique version of the email should be distributed to a random, comparably sized portion of your mailing list. Next, measure the success of each version. Whichever one works best is the one that you should use for the rest of your emailing campaign.

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Source: http://seocompanyworld.com/is-your-business-online-learn-the-tips-to-successful-internet-marketing-10/

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Source: http://heavy-equipment-tools-home.blogspot.com/2012/10/miller-flatback-plastic-bucket-blue-8.html

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Military Rule in Pakistan Must Be Scaled Back

Jeff M. Smith is the Kraemer strategy fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C.

The outrage seen on Pakistan's streets over the recent shooting of 14 year-old Malala Yousefzai is a welcome contrast to the silence that greets so many acts of violence there. The liberal lawmaker Salman Taseer, assassinated by his bodyguard in 2010 for daring to speak out against Pakistan's arcane blasphemy laws, received no such outpouring of sympathy. There was no public outcry earlier this year when a Pakistani cabinet minister personally offered a $100,000 reward to any man who killed the filmmaker behind an incendiary anti-Islam video.

Some hope this time will be different. Ahmed Rashid, an astute observer of Pakistani affairs, writes, "For years, critics like me have been voices in the wilderness trying to point out that the military needs to change its narrative and stop backing extremists in the name of countering India if it is to allow Pakistan to develop as a modern state. Now could be that moment."

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Middle East.]

It's indeed encouraging to see the military and some hard-line clerics vocally condemn the Malala attack. But other religious parties quickly reverted to form: The head of the JUI-F political party blamed the whole episode on a nefarious "international agenda." A headline in Pakistan's largest English-language paper, Dawn, asked: "Did a drone attack Malala?" And Pakistani officials have already dismissed the idea of a retaliatory attack on militant strongholds in Waziristan.

We've been here before. Back in 2009, a video of the Taliban publicly flogging a schoolgirl in the Swat Valley prompted a long-awaited Pakistani military offensive against extremists. The army temporarily purged the valley of militants (and displaced several hundred thousand civilians), but the Malala attack?which occurred in the same Swat Valley?proves how fleeting that victory truly was.

Pakistan's problems are chronic. They stem from a corrupted strategic culture built on the fabricated fear of a perpetual and imminent threat from India. This much has been obvious for some time, but Washington has been reluctant to acknowledge the cause: the Pakistani military. The principal architects of that destructive worldview, the generals in Rawalpindi have a monopoly on strategic messaging in Pakistan, manipulating reality to paint India as relentlessly trying to encircle, undermine, and dissolve Pakistan.

[See a collection of political cartoons on defense spending.]

Under this siege mentality, Pakistan's public is more prone to conspiracy and more willing to permit the military to field religious extremists as geopolitical assets. Nor are the generals alone in this endeavor: A massive and profitable industry of pundits, mullahs, and media personalities has shrouded Pakistan's public space in a cloak of denial and mistruths. But as Pakistan's most powerful and respected institution, the military bears ultimate responsibility.

Those hoping this cycle can be broken by a new generation of Pakistani leaders must recognize that fresh political faces matter little so long as the civilian government remains powerless to cross the armed forces. Remember, in 2008 one of President Asif Zardari's first acts in office was to announce Pakistan's notorious spy agency, the ISI, would be brought under civilian control in the interior ministry. "The decision was revoked within hours," noted the BBC, "apparently following intervention from the army."

More than new leaders, what is needed in Pakistan is a genuine transition to civilian governance. It is not a novel idea, but Washington has long believed the Pakistani military to be the only effective institution in the country, and that?unlike Pakistan's corrupt and petty civilian politicians?it could produce results.

[Take the U.S. News Poll: Who Won the Foreign Policy Debate Between Obama and Romney?]

The last decade has proven that to be a grievous error in judgment, and one not easily corrected. The military is so entrenched in the political and economic fabric of Pakistan that it's almost impossible to imagine that it will be coerced into ceding authority by any outside power.?

But there are precedents for sending ruling generals back to their barracks. It's happening now in Egypt and Burma. Over the past decade, it has taken place in Turkey, where that country's military was as deeply entrenched in the political system as Pakistan's generals are today. Wresting the organs of power from the military's control proved a long and grueling process, but it's possible to do?and do peacefully.

[See a collection of political cartoons on Afghanistan.]

Those countries all shared one thing in common: The public grew tired of military rule and demanded an assertion of civilian authority. In Pakistan, too, for change to be legitimate and lasting it must come from the street and not from Washington.

On that score, the opportunity may finally be ripe. After the Malala attack, Ahmed Rashid observes that the military's "core constituencies of right-wing politicians and mullahs have been weakened," while Pakistan's radical clerics "are becoming marginalized for the first time in more than a decade." Perhaps they are. But for Malala's tragedy to serve as a catalyst for change, the Pakistani public must demand more than justice for her attackers; it must demand an end to de facto military rule.

Source: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/world-report/2012/10/23/military-rule-in-pakistan-must-be-scaled-back?s_cid=rss:world-report:military-rule-in-pakistan-must-be-scaled-back

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Guiomatic says its white-label travel guides are supersizing OTA ...

Offering B2B solutions, Spanish startup?Guiomatic?sells a widget that any B2C travel company can add to a website to enable users to create customised, up-to-date travel guides.

The company pulls information from feeds from sources like Wikitravel, Yelp, Eventful,?plus static sources of data to?produce guides that cover more than 10,000 travel destinations, such as?Prague?and Shanghai,?in up to six languages.

Guiomatic white-labels the technology and the guidebooks and sells them to online travel companies, which can use the guide-generating widgets to either increase brand loyalty, raise brand awareness, or boost ancillary revenue.

Some clients offer the guidebook as an extra in online shopping carts, and, to date, an average of 20% of customers have bought the guides, says Guiomatic.

Some companies insert the guide-generating platform as a?widget (which consumers use to insert their names, dates of travel, and destination), connecting via an API and using their own format.

Other companies don?t use the widget and instead send the guide as a PDF or ePub attachment, without having the customer fill anything out.

Some use it to raise brand awareness on Facebook.

High conversion rates

So far, Guiomatic has created travel-guide-generating platforms for several travel companies.

Exhibit A:?Despegar,?Latin America?s top online travel agency (OTA).

In September 2011, Despegar began sending the guidebooks to customers who booked their newest vacation package to Canc?n.

Despegar sends each customer who books a flight, hotel, or package access to the travel guide generating platform. To date, nearly one out of three customers have downloaded a guidebook.

Enjoy Car Hire?has a?conversion ratio of 28%, with guides at a?typical selling cost of ?3.

A Facebook page branding tool, too

Online travel agency?eDreams?added a white-label Guiomatic Facebook tool its Facebook fan page?for creating edreams-themed guidebooks, which users can download for free in exchange for ?a like? of the page.

Of all the users who downloaded guides, 40% were already fans,?which means 60% were not fans and decided to become eDreams fans in order to gain access into the travel guide generating app.

After users download the guide, they are asked if they would like to search flights for the destination and dates they entered in the widget. If the user clicks, they are redirected to the eDreams website. About?15% of users end up clicking and get redirected

With the Guiomatic Facebook app, once a user likes your brand, the company get your username, email address,?where the user is interested in going, and on what dates of travel -?so they can later send the qualified leads targeted promotions.

So far, Guiomatic?s biggest account landed so was?car hire company?Dollar/Thrifty UK, which this summer?began to use its brand loyalty solution. But?now that Hertz has acquired Dollar/Thrifty, the contract is on hold.

Guiomatic Travel Technologies?is privately funded. Key support comes from two important Spanish seed investors, Andres Torrubia, founder of Trymedia and FixR, and Eduardo Manchon, founder of Panoramio (which was acquired by Google years ago).

The five-person start-up in Alicante?thinks of its customer base today as top travel agents, brokers and airlines.

You can demo its technology?here.

Q&A with CEO Jos? Luis Perez Gonzalez:

How is the way you are solving this problem more special or effective than previous attempts you or the market has seen before and how different do you have to be to succeed??

Guiomatic is the only digital travel-guide publisher whose sole focus is the B2B market. It?s also the only company that has been able to offer travel companies the opportunity to have their very own exclusive real-time, 100% white label travel guides at a low cost.

Most traditional guidebook publishers have B2C models, and selling their content to businesses for a low-cost would be cannibalise the core revenue streams for these companies.

Guiomatic also has a unique revenue model. It charges companies on?a cost-per-unique-user model. Companies only pay one fixed fee per customer, regardless of how many travel guides the customer may download.

Why should people or companies use your startup?

It?s a no-brainer. ?We are the only company that makes real-time white-label travel guides as a value added product specifically designed for travel companies.

We integrate and design travel guides with content and aesthetics exclusively tailored to their brands for free of charge.

We allow companies to add and eliminate any content they wish. ?They can later sell the guides in their shopping cart for extra revenue or give them away for free to increase brand loyalty or step-up brand awareness on social media.

Better yet, as a technology company we are able to gather business intelligence on each user that enters the travel guide generating platform and this intelligence can be used later for more targeted promotion and up-sell of travel company?s products.

What is your main competitor?

Traditional guidebook incumbents Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Frommers, and Fodor?s are now offering travel guides for download. However their main focus is a B2C model, meaning they?re focused on reaching consumers directly.

These brands do offer B2B white-label solutions, yet their B2B content is not real-time, is expensive, and is not well tailored to the needs of travel agencies and airlines.

Arrivalguides is a competitor that?offers low-cost travel guides to businesses.?

But Arrivalguides? product is not like a traditional travel guide (fewer than 10 pages of short summaries of destinations), and its guides are not real-time (meaning not edited to provide information based on specific dates of travel), don?t offer event listings, and are not 100% white-label (meaning Guiomatic can?add any info the company wants? custom chapters, advertising, etc.)

Arrivalguides? product is weak and it does not offer much customisation for the brands it works with or personalisation for consumer end users. It also works on a flat fee and not per-use basis, which can hinder acceptance by travel companies.

Another flaw with Arrivalguides: A travel company could never sell their guides as exclusive, high-margin ancillary products as their guides are not of much quality and Arrivalguides gives the content away for free on its B2C site.

One more difference: Unlike Guiomatic, Arrivalguides;s content cannot be seen on every electronic device as they are not in the ePub format.

Other than going viral and receiving mountains of positive PR, what is the strategy for raising awareness and getting customers/users?

We are targeting travel companies via connections we had already established during our previous careers in the travel industry. ?We also have a presence at travel trade shows like WTM, ITB Berlin and FITUR Madrid. ?We make a lot of contacts by word of mouth and by using LinkedIn.

What other options have you considered for the business and the team if the original vision fails??

So far, our vision seems to be working well. We already work with big names like Decolar, Edreams, Enjoy Car Hire,?and?Dollar Thrifty.

In the near future we plan to launch Guiomatic Express, a plug and play option which will offer less customized and more express options for smaller companies who would like to use our services.

We are also starting to negotiate with e-book readers to offer the travel-guide generating platform which could be included free with purchase of their electronic device.

What mistakes have you made in the past in business and how have you learned from them?

Our founders were a couple of engineers working in a residential apartment, and they started working on the technology in 2009, showcasing the core technology at the?BBVA Open Talent Contest.

Our first thought was a direct-to-consumer offering. We spent a year with the travel guide generating platform available to the public for free on?our site.

We did not know how to make a business out of it, we just thought it would be cool for travellers to get all they needed to know in one trusty real-time guidebook.

In early 2011, we settled upon a B2B business model, In June 2011 our company became legal and began booking revenue with its first customer, Enjoy Car Hire

Once we identified the B2B model, we started the business, and we quickly closed the free guides on our consumer-direct site.

What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that requires another startup to help it out?

Helping travellers prepare their travellers trip after booking has been left up to the internet and to traditional guidebooks.

Taking an interest in helping customers prepare their trip has now proven to be a unique strategy to either capture new customers, keep current customers or increase ancillary revenue

Tnooz view:

Guiomatic?s focus on going where the money is through a B2B model seems astute.

It enables OTAs to differentiate themselves by offering something competitors don?t (travel guides).

OTAs can use the guidebook-generating platform to collect valuable business intelligence (to relpace irrelevant emailed newsletters with targeted offers for qualified leads for specific destinations and dates), and to increase brand awareness (such as by using the guides as a giveaway in exchange for a ?Facebook like.?

At this point, marketing and sales seem to be the weakest points. If all of their criticisms of rival company?Arrivalguides are true, then it is surprising how many big players have?incorporated Arrivalguides? products?into their websites and Facebook fan pages.

Sometimes, the best product doesn?t win, while the best-marketed one does. We haven?t compared the quality of Arrivalguides? product with Guiomatic?s, but in terms of strategy, the competitor is doing a better job at sales. [As Tnooz has reported, it recently signed?online content agreements with?British Airways?and?Ryanair].

Perhaps Guiomatic needs to make a key sales and marketing hire.

Snap poll:

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NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.

Related posts:

1. Off Exploring rolls up mobile, SEO and social media benefits into white label travel app
2. White-label travel provider Switchfly attracts $15M in new funding
3. Reed Exhibitions to white-label iM@ mobile destination guide in Orlando

Source: http://www.tnooz.com/2012/10/23/tlabs/guiomatic-says-that-its-white-label-travel-guides-are-supersizing-ota-conversion-rates/

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Play Panasonic Lumix Panasonic HDC Panasonic SDR video on mac

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Source: http://www.articlesbd.com/articles/261971/1/Play-Panasonic-Lumix-Panasonic-HDC-Panasonic-SDR-video-on-mac/Page1.html

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