Sunday, March 31, 2013

Georgia women rally to beat Stanford 61-59

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) ? Andy Landers looked down at the stat sheet on the table in front of him. The numbers were almost exactly what the longtime Georgia coach anticipated.

Yes, even the final score: Georgia 61, Stanford 59.

Jasmine Hassell scored six of her 13 points in the final 3 minutes and fourth-seeded Georgia beat top-seeded Stanford 61-59 on Saturday night to reach the NCAA women's regional finals for the first time since 2004.

Georgia overcame three major scoring droughts, including falling behind 9-0, to oust the No. 1 seed from the Spokane Regional and end Stanford's hopes of reaching the Final Four for the sixth straight year.

Jasmine James led Georgia (28-6) with 16 points, including a pair of free throws with 23.5 seconds left that gave the Lady Bulldogs a 60-56 lead. It's the 11th trip to the regional finals in Landers long tenure at Georgia.

"As we came down the stretch, our players, I think figured out that they could make some plays and really did a nice job," Landers said. "I think the thing that's so good about the comeback and going ahead is that each one of those five players did something that was really significant as we did that. And they did something really significant on each end of the floor."

Chiney Ogwumike led Stanford (33-3) with 26 points, but was held to eight points in the second half. She also had 12 rebounds.

Tiaria Griffin scored 13 points, and Shacobia Barbee added nine as the Lady Bulldogs turned in another superb defensive effort to stymie Stanford and ruin any hopes of a Pac-12 showdown with No. 2 seed California in the regional final.

Georgia will play for a trip to the Final Four on Monday night against either the Golden Bears or No. 6 seed LSU. Georgia has not made the Final Four since 1999. Georgia reached the round of 16 in 2005-07 and 2010-11, only to get ousted at that stage each time, including a 73-36 loss to Stanford in 2010.

Saturday night wasn't so much about getting even with the Cardinal, as it was about getting Georgia back to where it believes they belong.

"To finally make the next step and go to the Elite 8 and now to be going into another game to try to compete to go to the Final Four is definitely back to where Georgia basketball needs to be, trying to compete for a national championship," James said.

Whether it was the scoring droughts or the trouble slowing down Ogwumike in the first half, there was plenty of evidence that made Georgia's late rally hard to fathom. Georgia overcame a 5-minute scoreless drought to start the game, another 5 minutes with just two free throws late in the first half and another 7-minute lapse in the second half with just one basket that allowed Stanford to build a 42-34 lead with 11:50 remaining.

Still, the Lady Bulldogs were hanging around because Stanford made just 3 of 20 shots to start the second half. After Ogwumike scored 18 in the first half, Georgia made an adjustment to force more help on the Stanford star. It worked because Ogwumike's supporting cast struggled.

Amber Orrange added 17 points for Stanford, but was only 7 of 24 from the field. The Cardinal shot 29 percent in the second half and struggled to find open looks for Ogwumike. Second-leading scorer Joslyn Tinkle struggled with foul trouble in the first half and went more than 35 minutes of game time without scoring. She finished with five points.

"I think the reason that I'm not going ballistic right now is like we're 33-3," Ogwumike said. "That was a huge achievement for our program."

Then it was time for Hassell to show up in the final 8 minutes. Her basket pulled the Lady Bulldogs even at 42, and the lead went back and forth with neither team leading by more than four points. Orrange dropped in a 16-footer for a 50-46 Stanford lead with 4:22 remaining, before Georgia's closing surge.

Barbee converted a three-point play and after Ogwumike followed Orrange's miss with a basket, Anne Marie Armstrong knocked down a 3-pointer for a 52-all tie. Orrange hit a 3, but Hassell hit consecutive shots and Georgia was back in front 56-55 with 1:45 left.

Mikaela Ruef missed in close twice and was fouled on the third attempt with 1:21 left. Ruef, a 53 percent free throw shooter on the season, split the pair for the fifth tie of the game, but Hassell answered right away for Georgia for a 58-56 lead with 1:02 left. Tinkle then lost control of a pass underneath. Georgia ran the clock before Griffin missed a 3. Barbee got the offensive rebound and James was fouled with 23.5 seconds left. She hit the pair for a four-point lead.

Stanford struggled to get a good look, but Tinkle finally hit a 3 with 5.1 seconds left. Georgia threw long to James on the inbound pass and the Lady Bulldogs were able to run off all but the final 0.8 seconds before Barbee was fouled. She split her free throws for the final margin and Georgia ran off the floor celebrating the upset.

"The great thing about it is, we're really good defensively and we rarely have droughts. So if we can just hang in there until somebody hits a shot, we're going to be OK," Landers said. "That's what I think happened tonight."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/georgia-women-rally-beat-stanford-61-59-030819604--spt.html

New Year Outback Bowl Carly Rae Jepsen dallas cowboys Rose Bowl 2013 kim kardashian anderson cooper

'Game Of Thrones' Season 3 Preview: The Challenges Ahead

Kit Harington, Sophie Turner and more weigh in on their arcs ahead of Sunday's premiere.
By Amy Wilkinson


Kit Harington
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704639/game-of-thrones-season-3-preview.jhtml

taylor allderdice mixtape andrew bogut monta ellis wiz khalifa taylor allderdice mixtape reggie wayne taylor allderdice vincent jackson

IMF team to arrive in Egypt on Wednesday for loan talks

CAIRO (Reuters) - An International Monetary Fund delegation will arrive in Egypt on Wednesday for talks with the government on a $4.8 billion loan, Egypt's government spokesman Alaa El Hadidi said on Sunday.

More than two years of political upheaval have battered the Egyptian economy, leaving it in dire need of IMF funding to relieve a currency and budget crisis. The country's reserves of foreign currency have fallen to critically low levels, threatening its ability to import essential supplies of fuel and wheat.

President Mohamed Mursi's government initialed a deal with the IMF last November but postponed final ratification in December in the face of unrest triggered by a political row over the extent of his powers.

Hadidi, talking to reporters, gave no details on the new round of talks with the IMF. The IMF said last week a technical delegation would visit Cairo in the "first days of April".

Masood Ahmed, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department, visited Cairo on March 17, saying the Fund would continue talks aimed at agreeing possible financial aid.

(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/imf-team-arrive-egypt-wednesday-loan-talks-103424340--business.html

illuminati illuminati joe flacco Go Daddy Superbowl Commercial 2013 michael oher superbowl score ray lewis

Deal Reached on Key Immigration Hurdle (WSJ)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295707019?client_source=feed&format=rss

bronx zoo crash april 30 wwe extreme rules 2012 vontaze burfict jimmy kimmel amzn white house correspondents dinner

Scientists propose revolutionary laser system to produce the next LHC

Friday, March 29, 2013

An international team of physicists has proposed a revolutionary laser system, inspired by the telecommunications technology, to produce the next generation of particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN) sets out a new laser system composed of massive arrays of thousands of fibre lasers, for both fundamental research at laboratories such as CERN and more applied tasks such as proton therapy and nuclear transmutation.

The results of this study are published today in Nature Photonics.

Lasers can provide, in a very short time measured in femtoseconds, bursts of energy of great power counted in petawatts or a thousand times the power of all the power plants in the world.

Compact accelerators are also of great societal importance for applied tasks in medicine, such as a unique way to democratise proton therapy for cancer treatment, or the environment where it offers the prospect to reduce the lifetime of dangerous nuclear waste by, in some cases, from 100 thousand years to tens of years or even less.

However, there are two major hurdles that prevent the high-intensity laser from becoming a viable and widely used technology in the future. First, a high-intensity laser often only operates at a rate of one laser pulse per second, when for practical applications it would need to operate tens of thousands of times per second. The second is ultra-intense lasers are notorious for being very inefficient, producing output powers that are a fraction of a percent of the input power. As practical applications would require output powers in the range of tens of kilowatts to megawatts, it is economically not feasible to produce this power with such a poor efficiency.

To bridge this technology divide, the ICAN consortium, an EU-funded project initiated and coordinated by the ?cole polytechnique and composed of the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre, Jena and CERN, as well as 12 other prestigious laboratories around the world, aims to harness the efficiency, controllability, and high average power capability of fibre lasers to produce high energy, high repetition rate pulse sources.

The aim is to replace the conventional single monolithic rod amplifier that typically equips lasers with a network of fibre amplifiers and telecommunication components.

G?rard Mourou of ?cole polytechnique who leads the consortium says: "One important application demonstrated today has been the possibility to accelerate particles to high energy over very short distances measured in centimetres rather than kilometres as it is the case today with conventional technology. This feature is of paramount importance when we know that today high energy physics is limited by the prohibitive size of accelerators, of the size of tens of kilometres, and cost billions of euros. Reducing the size and cost by a large amount is of critical importance for the future of high energy physics."

Dr Bill Brocklesby from the ORC adds: "A typical CAN laser for high-energy physics may use thousands of fibres, each carrying a small amount of laser energy. It offers the advantage of relying on well tested telecommunication elements, such as fibre lasers and other components. The fibre laser offers an excellent efficiency due to laser diode pumping. It also provides a much larger surface cooling area and therefore makes possible high repetition rate operation.

"The most stringent difficulty is to phase the lasers within a fraction of a wavelength. This difficulty seemed insurmountable but a major roadblock has in fact been solved: preliminary proof of concept suggests that thousands of fibres can be controlled to provide a laser output powerful enough to accelerate electrons to energies of several GeV at 10 kHz repetition rate - an improvement of at least ten thousand times over today's state of the art lasers."

Such a combined fibre-laser system should provide the necessary power and efficiency that could make economical the production of a large flux of relativistic protons over millimetre lengths as opposed to a few hundred metres.

One important societal application of such a source is to transmute the waste products of nuclear reactors, which at present have half-lives of hundreds of thousands of years, into materials with much shorter lives, on the scale of tens of years, thus transforming dramatically the problem of nuclear waste management.

CAN technology could also find important applications in areas of medicine, such as proton therapy, where reliability and robustness of fibre technology could be decisive features.

###

University of Southampton: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/

Thanks to University of Southampton for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 79 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127518/Scientists_propose_revolutionary_laser_system_to_produce_the_next_LHC

boardwalk empire iOS 6 Release Date Canelo Alvarez Chavez vs Martinez Yunel Escobar Irish Daily Star Black Mesa

Former Nev. lawmaker arrested after freeway chase (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295574283?client_source=feed&format=rss

marquette city creek center hilary duff michigan state michigan state andrew luck pro day josh johnson

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Why Give Corporations a Tax Break? by Laura Tyson - Project ...

BERKELEY ? US President Barack Obama has called for additional revenue as part of a balanced plan to reduce future budget deficits. But he is also proposing a significant cut in the corporate tax rate. To many, this approach seems inconsistent: Shouldn?t the corporate tax rate be raised, not lowered, so that corporations contribute their ?fair share? to deficit reduction? The answer is no.

After its 1986 tax overhaul, the United States had one of the lowest corporate tax rates among OECD countries. Since then, these countries have been slashing their rates in order to attract foreign direct investment and discourage their own companies from shifting operations and profits to low-tax foreign locations. In the most recent and audacious move, the British government has embarked on a three-year plan to reduce its corporate tax rate from 28% to 20% ? one of the lowest in the OECD ? by 2015.

The US now has the highest corporate tax rate of these countries. Even after incorporating various deductions, credits, and other tax-reducing provisions, the effective average and marginal corporate tax rates in the US ? what corporations actually pay ? are higher than the OECD average.

Cutting the rate to a more competitive level would encourage more domestic investment by US corporations, and would also make the US more attractive to foreign investors. Capital has become increasingly mobile, and differences in national corporate tax rates have a growing influence on where multinational companies locate their operations and report their income.

Higher investment in the US by both domestic and foreign companies would boost economic growth, while the resulting increase in capital ??new businesses, factories, equipment, and research ?would improve productivity. That should, in turn, boost real wages over time (although the link between productivity growth and wage growth has weakened during the last two decades).

The pro-growth rationale for reducing the US corporate tax rate is compelling, and explains why Obama has proposed cutting it from 35% to 28% (roughly the weighted average rate of the other developed countries).

But a rate cut would be costly in terms of foregone revenues: each percentage point would reduce corporate-tax revenues by about $100 billion over the next decade. Moreover, recent studies indicate that a significant share of the corporate-tax burden falls on capital, so a reduction in corporate taxes would weaken the progressivity of the tax system at a time when income inequality is at an all-time high.

For these reasons, Obama is championing a ?revenue-neutral? reform that would leave corporate-tax revenues unchanged, with the proposed rate cut financed by limiting deductions, credits, and loopholes, which would broaden the tax base.

These features add complexity to the tax code, raise the cost of tax compliance, and reduce corporate-tax revenues. They also affect business decisions about what to invest in, how to finance investments, which form of business organization to adopt, and where to produce ? reflecting sizeable differences in the effective tax rates behind these choices.

As a result, broadening the corporate tax base will not be easy. Within the corporate sector, the three largest domestic tax preferences are the manufacturing production deduction, the credit for research and development, and accelerated depreciation of capital. Manufacturing companies are the major beneficiaries of these preferences, and Obama has proposed strengthening the first two.

Instead, he suggests reforming the third by tightening allowances for accelerated depreciation (as several other developed countries have done) in order to offset some of the revenue losses. But reducing the overall corporate rate would increase after-tax returns on past investments, while limiting accelerated depreciation would lower after-tax returns on new investments. And even eliminating accelerated depreciation would not broaden the tax base enough to finance a rate cut to 28%.

Likewise, while limiting the deductibility of net interest for corporations, as many other developed countries have done, would broaden the tax base and discourage excessive reliance on debt financing, it would increase the tax burden on major investments in physical capital, which are often debt-financed.

Reducing the tax preferences for non-corporate business entities (such as partnerships) that pass their income through to their owners? individual returns would also broaden the tax base subject to the corporate-income tax. Pass-through companies now account for more than 80% of net business income (by far the highest share in the developed countries). Several of these entities are very large and profitable, and enjoy the same legal benefits as corporations. Economic logic suggests that businesses of similar size and engaged in similar activities should not pay different tax rates based solely on their organizational form.

The fact that a large share of business income is currently taxed as personal income makes it difficult to separate corporate tax reform from personal tax reform, as Obama and members of Congress would prefer to do. Moreover, keeping the two areas of reform separate rules out the approach adopted by several other developed countries, which have offset some of the revenue losses from cutting corporate tax rates by increasing taxes on corporate equity income at the personal shareholder level.

This approach also addresses concerns about the regressive effects of a cut in the corporate rate. It is both more progressive and more effective: with highly mobile capital, it is far easier to collect taxes from individual citizens and resident shareholders than from multinational companies.

According to a recent study, restoring tax rates on dividends and capital gains to their pre-1997 levels of 28% could finance a reduction in the US federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 26%. This change would both reduce the incentive for corporations to shift investments abroad and increase the progressivity of the US tax system.

Similarly, a modest carbon tax or value-added tax, with credits or subsidies to offset the regressive effects on low-income households, could generate enough revenue both to pay for a significant reduction in the corporate tax rate and to make a meaningful contribution to deficit reduction.

There is no inconsistency between a progressive, balanced deficit-reduction plan and lowering the corporate tax rate. Of all taxes, corporate taxes are the most harmful to economic growth ? without which meaningful deficit reduction is far more difficult to achieve.

Reprinting material from this Web site without written consent from Project Syndicate is a violation of international copyright law. To secure permission, please contact us.

Source: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/cutting-us-corporate-taxes-to-stimulate-growth-by-laura-tyson

collateral dick cheney heart umf elite eight stephon marbury the lion king suzanne collins

Philadelphian jumps on tracks to help fallen man

In this still image taken from security video provided by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), Christopher Knafelc jumps off a subway platform in north Philadelphia to help a man who fell onto the tracks Thursday afternoon, March 28, 2013. Knafelc, 32, jumped down to help the man, knowing that a train would be arriving in a few minutes. Train traffic was halted and the man was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition. (AP Photo/SEPTA)

In this still image taken from security video provided by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), Christopher Knafelc jumps off a subway platform in north Philadelphia to help a man who fell onto the tracks Thursday afternoon, March 28, 2013. Knafelc, 32, jumped down to help the man, knowing that a train would be arriving in a few minutes. Train traffic was halted and the man was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition. (AP Photo/SEPTA)

(AP) ? Transit police in Philadelphia are calling a local man a hero for jumping onto subway tracks to help a man who fell off a platform.

Christopher Knafelc, 32, was waiting for a train in north Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon when he saw a man walk off the platform and fall on the tracks. He jumped down to help the man, knowing that a train would be arriving in a few minutes.

"I had a plan if a train came I was going to roll him underneath," Knafelc told WPVI-TV, "or if I couldn't, I was going to ask someone to jump down and help me roll him."

He held the man's head and neck stable until firefighters arrived. Train traffic was halted.

"I was like 99.9 percent positive that I wouldn't get electrocuted," Knafelc told the Philadelphia Daily News. "I can't see (the tracks) being able to electrocute you, because too many people would get hurt."

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel III called Knafelc a hero.

"This is what Philadelphia is all about," Nestel said.

Investigators don't know what caused the man to fall on the tracks. He was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition.

"He didn't thank me, but I know he was thankful," Knafelc told the Daily News. "You know what I mean? In my heart I believe he was."

Knaflec said he has battled substance abuse since he was in middle school in Baden, a small town outside Pittsburgh, where he said he was first introduced to OxyContin and moved on to heroin by high school.

He said he studied neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh but dropped out as his addiction worsened, then spent a decade in and out of rehab.

He came to Philadelphia, where his mother and a cousin live, two years ago to get his life back on track, he said. A telephone message left at what was believed to be his mother's home was not immediately returned Friday.

"With addiction, you really struggle to be you," he told the newspaper. "I reacted, and that was me. It helps reinforce that I am good. That I am a good person."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-29-Philly%20Subway%20Hero/id-3ce262aa5bb84a4187bc52c6dcdd089e

girl scouts printable bracket game change own stacy francis tournament brackets 2012 ncaa basketball tournament

Tottenham beats Swansea 2-1 in Premier League

Associated Press Sports

updated 2:02 p.m. ET March 30, 2013

SWANSEA, Wales (AP) -Gareth Bale scored another stunning goal Saturday to give Tottenham a 2-1 win over Swansea that lifted it above Chelsea into third place in the Premier League.

Bale set up Jan Vertonghen for the first goal in the seventh minute and then curled home a brilliant effort in the 21st to double the lead.

Michu pulled Swansea back into the game with his 20th goal of the season in the 71st, but Tottenham held out over a frantic final 20 minutes to bounce back from consecutive losses against Liverpool and Fulham.

With Chelsea losing 2-1 to Southampton, Tottenham is now two points ahead of the London club in third place, but with a game more played.

Newcastle is still uncomfortably close to the relegation zone, sitting just three points out.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


advertisement

More newsGetty Images
Must-win matches? Maybe

PST: It may be a little early for "must-win" matches. But four MLS clubs could really use wins this weekend, starting with the Red Bulls (3:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN).

Beckham relishing chance to play against Barcelona

??PARIS (AP) - David Beckham says he feels fit enough to start the biggest game in Paris Saint-Germain's recent history when the club takes on Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45834167/ns/sports-soccer/

d t p zynga Tropical Storm Sandy W S

Marijuana tax touted as budgetary benefit to US and states. Really?

Marijuana tax could be a new source of revenue for strapped states, and the federal government, too, say two congressmen who have proposed such legislation. But the scale of any tax benefit is hotly disputed.

By Allison Terry,?Correspondent / March 29, 2013

A grow house in Denver shows a marijuana plant ready to be harvested, in January. Rep. Jared Polis (D) of Colorado, who introduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act last month, told Politico Thursday that his state could see as much as $100 million a year from a federal marijuana tax.

Ed Andrieski/AP

Enlarge

A federal marijuana tax could potentially pump millions of dollars into struggling state economies, say two US congressmen who have introduced legislation that would create such a tax and also protect state regulation policies.

Skip to next paragraph Allison Terry

Allison Terry works on national news desk for the Christian Science Monitor. She previously worked on the cover page desk and contributes to the culture section of the Monitor.

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Rep. Jared Polis (D) of Colorado, who introduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act last month, told Politico Thursday that his state could see as much as $100 million a year from a federal marijuana tax, which could make a ?substantial dent in needed school improvements, particularly in poorer districts.?

Representative Polis joins fellow Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who has introduced the Marijuana Tax Equity Act, which would create a $50 excise tax on each ounce of marijuana sold.?

The two bills would help balance the federal and state budgets, the congressmen say, by reducing how much the Drug Enforcement Agency spends on fighting the war on drugs and also adding revenue that would help reduce the budget deficit.

?It is billions of dollars we spend to arrest [660,000] people a year for something that half of Americans think should be legal,? Representative Blumenauer told Fox News last month. He said the legislation would result in about $100 billion in savings and new revenue over the next decade.

But there's disagreement among policymakers and economists about just how much revenue a federal marijuana tax would raise.

If marijuana were taxed in the same way as alcohol and tobacco, estimates for new tax revenue would be closer to $6.4 billion ? $4.3 billion for federal coffers and $2.1 billion for the states ? not the hundreds of millions others have estimated, Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron, a scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, told Politico Thursday.?

?This is not a cash cow that can solve anyone?s fiscal problems,? Mr. Miron said. ?There is a lot of exaggeration about how big the revenue can be.?

Another factor is that nationwide legalization would reduce the cost of marijuana, noted?Rosalie Liccardo Pacula of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, according to the Politico report. She expects prices in Colorado and Washington, where voters last fall opted to legalize possession, to drop by 70 to 85 percent ? and thus the value of any taxes levied on marijuana consumption would also drop.

Claims that legalizing marijuana would benefit states and the US economy are not new.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/PFzM1E0TsAs/Marijuana-tax-touted-as-budgetary-benefit-to-US-and-states.-Really

friday night lights nick santino bruce arians the misfits hook troy miracle

An Inside Look At NYU Florence's Art Program Controversy ? NYU ...

Over the past decade, NYU Florence has offered studio art courses as part of the centerpiece of the heavily arts-centered academic program at Villa la Pietra. What took root as a rumor several weeks ago has now grown into a certainty; that these studio courses are been eliminated and the faculty fired, in what seems a shift to a more political science-focused curriculum.

Beginning next semester, Fall 2013, students at NYU Florence wishing to take studio arts courses?the engaged study of the methods and techniques of the visual arts?can only do so at an institution external to NYU called Studio Art Centers International (SACI), a study abroad center accredited by Bowling Green State University in Ohio.?

These ?outsourced? courses will take the place of those studio courses that have been taught at NYU Florence?s Villa La Pietra by three esteemed faculty members, each of whom have taught at Florence for over 10 years: Alan Pascuzzi, Robert Caracciolo and Patrice Lombardi.

Professor Pascuzzi posted on the student-run?Save NYU Florence Art?Facebook page that NYU Florence Director Ellyn Toscano has been gradually scaling back course offerings for the studio arts courses as well as courses in art history, film, music, and creative writing?the effect of which being that professors now finding they no longer have jobs after this May.

?The reason for closing the art component was based on President Sexton and Ellyn Toscano?s idea to change NYU Florence into a political science-based program,? wrote Pascuzzi.??Political science is now the emphasis.?

The supreme irony of eliminating studio art courses taught on site at Villa La Pietra, the 57-acre estate that was the gift of arts benefactor Sir Harold Acton, is not lost on any of the professors or students affected by the change. Questions have been directed to and subsequently deflected by?Toscano.

Below is the email Toscano sent in response to the numerous emails from students protesting the sudden change and demanding explanations. Professor Caracciolo noted that the faculty affected were not forwarded the email until students took it upon themselves to send it over.

Dear NYU Florence students,

I understand that there are rumors about the future of art history at NYU Florence. I would like to stop these rumors cold, so let me be clear that there is no plan to eliminate the arts at NYU Florence. It would be unthinkable to do so. We will continue to offer students both art history and studio arts; additions to NYU Florence?s curriculum in politics or other social sciences are not in place of art history or studio art.

The art history courses will continue to be offered at NYU Florence as before. They range from Renaissance Art to Florentine Villas, from the Etruscans to Modern Movements in Italian Art. The studio arts courses are a slightly different matter. As we have reflected on these offerings, we are keen to expand them through better facilities, a more complete roster of courses and an opportunity for students to experience the art scene in Florence beyond La Pietra. We plan to move forward with an agreement to offer studio arts through a respected studio art and artist training center. Our expectation is, thanks to this kind of partnership currently under discussion, that we will offer studio arts without interruption. So, as you can see, art history and other humanities courses will continue to be a prominent piece of NYU Florence?s offerings.

Lastly, I have seen some claims that Sir Harold Acton?s bequest to NYU required certain prescribed curriculum in the arts. The Acton gift requires us to maintain his family?s art collection and to use his estate for educational purposes, both of which we do. The inclusion of art history and studio arts in the curriculum is a decision NYU made; it is a natural decision in Florence, and you need not worry ? it is one we intend to stand by.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours,

Ellyn Toscano

One would assume that the decisions to keep, cut or expand courses in New York and abroad would fall under the jurisdiction of the?departments?that?offer the given courses. Yet, surprising is the degree of autonomy that Toscano and other administrators apparently wield on the curriculum and the employment of faculty.

A professor in the Art History department at Washington Square noted that the information they have been receiving from the?administration on the matter has been very opaque; the exact?hierarchy?of and relationship between the directors and administrators at NYU Florence, the Office of Global Affairs, and the?departments?here in New York is unclear. Also unclear is whether the change comes only at the hands of Toscano or if it was a joint decision made with the Office of Global Affairs.

?Collateral damage? ? i.e. the loss of jobs at NYU ? is the Art History department?s primary concern.

The scaling back of the program was accompanied?by unusual and absurd changes to space priorities given to the studio art classes and to the contracts of the arts professors. According to Pascuzzi, the studio courses were moved to rooms too?small?and too inadequate to?accommodate?the volume and needs of students wishing to take the courses.

In an email to NYU Local, Patrice Lombardi, who taught a painting course, said:

?The problem with the whole issue is the lack of communication and transparency on the part of the NYU Florence administration, specifically Ellyn Toscano and her representative for the humanities, Prof. Bruce Edelstein.?The faculty members that have spoken out have said that they showed up to work at the beginning of the Fall semester 2012 to find themselves presented with new contracts they were pressured into signing.?

In the summer of 2012,?changes to Italian labor law?made firing individual workers in private sector jobs easier in a pointed attempt to revive up a sub-par Italian economy and workforce?and?reverse precedent that were??harming productivity growth and discouraging business investment.??According to Lombardi, all faculty salaries were cut by 20% this year.

Lombardi noted that ?the Italian state does not?recognize?programs [like NYU Florence] as universities as they do not confer a final degree. The bizarre upshot of this is that we have contracts that are for teachers in middle schools ? not for university professors.?

Roberto Caracciolo was the third professor to be vocal on the issue. He said in an email to NYU Local:

?I have been teaching two drawing courses at NYU Florence since 1999. This year, because of [that] new Italian labor law I was forced (that or my courses would have been cancelled) to sign a time limited contract that expires in mid-May. In this new contract, which was not shown to me until the day of the beginning of the fall semester [2012], I had to accept a substantial reduction of salary and clauses that are totally unacceptable, such as the university having rights on all that I do even outside of teaching (I am a painter and so are all my new works that I do in my studio in Rome theirs?).

At the beginning of the spring semester I went to talk with the Director of VLP and asked about future plans for the art studio as there were rumors of them being shut down and got generic answers about how the new Italian time-limited contracts cannot be renewed (which is false) and on how all decisions were being taken in New York by the various departments.?

When Caracciolo contacted the?department?that credits students for his studio courses, The Department of Art and Art Professions at Steinhardt, department chair David Darts replied that the decision to offer or not offer art studio courses did not rest with him or the department. When Caracciolo asked Toscano for an?explanation?as to who in directly responsible for determining the curriculum at Florence, he received no reply. ?She simply ignores me and my colleagues,? Caracciolo said, ?to try to get to end of the semester with the least amount of questioning and problems.?

An ?NYU?press release?from June 1st, 2004 announcing Toscano?s appointment as Director of NYU Florence, detailed some of her experience up to that date:

?She is well-versed in government policies with regard to public diplomacy, educational exchanges, and cultural diplomacy; moreover, she has had significant expertise in fundraising and program planning??Since 1990, Ms. Toscano ? who speaks Italian ? has served as chief of staff and counsel to Congressman Jos? Serrano, an association that has spanned some 20 years overall. From 1988 to 1991, she had a private law practice, specializing in arts, entertainment, and publishing. Prior to that, she had served as counsel to the New York State Assembly Committee on Education for nine years, during which time she also worked with Mr. Serrano.?

Her expertise suggests a great deal of administrative ongoings, which may in turn come at a cost to some sensitivities that guide the decisions of those with a?training more deeply rooted in academia.

An additional concern of students and faculty is the calibre of the teaching staff at SACI compared to NYU. Courses at SACI are also far cheaper, a fact which may give an indication of the quality of the education; a 15-credit semester costs a student $11,900 in tuition and fees while NYU Florence will continue to charge just over $21,600. To whom or to what resources that extra $10k per semester per student will be devoted is unclear. We can only speculate as to the motivations for outsourcing the flagship art courses to a off-site?institution.

The Art History department at Washington Square is to issue a statement to students and faculty within the next few days. We await their official response addressing the issue.

[Image via]

Source: http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2013/03/28/an-inside-look-at-the-nyu-florences-art-program-controversy/

earthquake california douglas adams brandon knight brandon knight daylight savings time The Bachelor 2013 Time

Young, hot and blue

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Universe is an old neighbourhood -- roughly 13.8 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also ancient -- some of its stars are more than 13 billion years old (eso0425). Nevertheless, there is still a lot of action: new objects form and others are destroyed. In this image, you can see some of the newcomers, the young stars forming the cluster NGC 2547.

But, how young are these cosmic youngsters really? Although their exact ages remain uncertain, astronomers estimate that NGC 2547's stars range from 20 to 35 million years old. That doesn't sound all that young, after all. However, our Sun is 4600 million years old and has not yet reached middle age. That means that if you imagine that the Sun as a 40 year-old person, the bright stars in the picture are three-month-old babies.

Most stars do not form in isolation, but in rich clusters with sizes ranging from several tens to several thousands of stars. While NGC 2547 contains many hot stars that glow bright blue, a telltale sign of their youth, you can also find one or two yellow or red stars which have already evolved to become red giants. Open star clusters like this usually only have comparatively short lives, of the order of several hundred million years, before they disintegrate as their component stars drift apart.

Clusters are key objects for astronomers studying how stars evolve through their lives. The members of a cluster were all born from the same material at about the same time, making it easier to determine the effects of other stellar properties.

The star cluster NGC 2547 lies in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail), about 1500 light-years from Earth, and is bright enough to be easily seen using binoculars. It was discovered in 1751 by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille during an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, using a tiny telescope of less than two centimetres aperture.

Between the bright stars in this picture you can see plenty of other objects, especially when zooming in. Many are fainter or more distant stars in the Milky Way, but some, appearing as fuzzy extended objects, are galaxies, located millions of light-years beyond the stars in the field of view.

###

ESO: http://www.eso.org

Thanks to ESO for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 41 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127497/Young__hot_and_blue

x games pro bowl 2012 rick santorum daughter gainesville 2012 royal rumble the grey machine gun kelly

Friday Trivia: Saying Goodbye to Google Reader - SEO-e

Welcome to SEO Advantage?s Friday Trivia feature, where we discuss, dissect and comment on the internet and marketing, and how the two intertwine.

We recently learned that Google Reader will be going dark on July 1st, but do you know what year it was created?

  1. 2001
  2. 2003
  3. 2005

Answer: C

Although Google Reader has gained prominence in the RSS world, it?s actually among the newer feed readers. The service was first launched in 2005, and will have been in operation for not quite eight years when it goes away this July. In those years it became one of the top RSS readers in existence, offering a clean, easy-to-organize method for viewing news and blogs.

Google Reader and the Online Marketing Connection

Arguably, even as a relative late-comer, Google Reader can be given at least some of the credit for the popularity of RSS, and hence the popularity of blogs, which have become a mainstay of online marketing. Gmail is one of the top free e-mail services on the web, and many Gmail users became Google Reader users by default because of the connected service. For a fair portion of users, Google Reader offered their first experience with an RSS aggregator.

As more people began to use RSS as part of their daily lives, blogs became even more popular. They shifted from a method primarily used for personal expression to a near-requirement for businesses looking to grow customer engagement. Some blogs themselves became businesses, garnering deals for books and television shows.

While personal blogging still exists, the blog has now become a powerful business platform. With the loss of Google Reader, however, some users are moving away from RSS altogether, and instead continuing a trend that had already begun to gain traction. As online marketers, we need to be aware of this shift and account for it. That means realizing that consumers who are leaving traditional RSS readers behind aren?t leaving blogs behind. They still want the kind of engaging content and conversation that springs from blogging platforms, and businesses need to provide an easy way to track that content.

Social Media: the New RSS?

The reason so many are finding it easy to move away from RSS is that forward-thinking businesses are already providing an alternative method of tracking updates to favorite blogs: social media.

At SEOA, for example, every blog post we publish is immediately shared on our Facebook page. Chances are that?s how you ended up here reading this. This practice gives you a way to track us without an RSS reader, not to mention an easy method for sharing posts you might find interesting, and multiple options for joining the conversation.

This type of change is part and parcel for the online marketing experience. The dynamic landscape of the internet is what attracted so many of us to the field in the first place. From the perspective of an internet user the loss of Google Reader may be a disappointment, but from the perspective of an online marketer, it?s an opportunity to move forward, adapt, and develop new approaches.

Source: http://www.seo-e.com/online-marketing/friday-trivia-saying-goodbye-to-google-reader.htm

second degree murders bobby petrino brian dunn vin scully petrino fired george zimmerman charged big sean

Robotic ants successfully mimic real colony behavior

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Scientists have successfully replicated the behaviour of a colony of ants on the move with the use of miniature robots, as reported in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. The researchers, based at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, USA) and at the Research Centre on Animal Cognition (Toulouse, France), aimed to discover how individual ants, when part of a moving colony, orient themselves in the labyrinthine pathways that stretch from their nest to various food sources.

The study focused mainly on how Argentine ants behave and coordinate themselves in both symmetrical and asymmetrical pathways. In nature, ants do this by leaving chemical pheromone trails. This was reproduced by a swarm of sugar cube size robots, called "Alices," leaving light trails that they can detect with two light sensors mimicking the role of the ants' antennae.

In the beginning of the experiment, where branches of the maze had no light trail, the robots adopted an "exploratory behaviour" modelled on the regular insect movement pattern of moving randomly but in the same general direction. This led the robots to choose the path that deviated least from their trajectory at each bifurcation of the network. If the robots detected a light trail, they would turn to follow that path.

One outcome of the robotic model was the discovery that the robots did not need to be programmed to identify and compute the geometry of the network bifurcations. They managed to navigate the maze using only the pheromone light trail and the programmed directional random walk, which directed them to the more direct route between their starting area and a target area on the periphery of the maze. Individual Argentine ants have poor eyesight and move too quickly to make a calculated decision about their direction. Therefore the fact that the robots managed to orient themselves in the maze in a similar fashion than the one observed in real ants suggests that a complex cognitive process is not necessary for colonies of ants to navigate efficiently in their complex network of foraging trails.

"This research suggests that efficient navigation and foraging can be achieved with minimal cognitive abilities in ants," says lead author Simon Garnier. "It also shows that the geometry of transport networks plays a critical role in the flow of information and material in ant as well as in human societies."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Simon Garnier, Maud Combe, Christian Jost, Guy Theraulaz. Do Ants Need to Estimate the Geometrical Properties of Trail Bifurcations to Find an Efficient Route? A Swarm Robotics Test Bed. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013; 9 (3): e1002903 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002903

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/tNBJskzfrCY/130329090614.htm

chrysler super bowl commercial madonna half time show fiat 500 abarth madonna halftime m i a mia super bowl tom coughlin

South Africa's Mandela spends second night in hospital

By Jon Herskovitz

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela spent a second night in hospital being treated for a lung infection while the South African government sought to reassure the nation about the health of its first black president and hero of the anti-apartheid struggle.

The 94-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate received well wishes from global figures including U.S. President Barak Obama after he was admitted to hospital before midnight on Wednesday, his third stint in hospital in four months.

The government said on Thursday he was responding well to treatment but had no new statement on his condition as of Friday morning.

Current President Jacob Zuma urged the nation to remain calm and has asked people across South Africa and the world to pray for him.

"Of course I have been saying to people, you should bear in mind Madiba is no longer that young and if he goes for check-ups every now and again, I don't think people must be alarmed about it," Zuma told the BBC on Thursday.

"I would like to really say the country must not panic."

Madiba is the clan name by which many South Africans refer to Mandela.

Mandela has been mostly absent from the political scene for the past decade but remains an enduring and beloved symbol of the struggle against racism.

He is revered at home and abroad leading the struggle against white minority rule - including spending 27 years in prison on Robben Island - and then promoting the cause of racial reconciliation.

He became South Africa's first black president after winning the country's first all-race election in 1994.

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

U.S. President Obama sent Mandela his best wishes.

"When you think of a single individual that embodies the kind of leadership qualities that I think we all aspire to, the first name that comes up is Nelson Mandela. And so we wish him all the very best," he said.

Mandela was in hospital briefly earlier this month for a check-up and spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones.

That was his longest stay in hospital since his release from prison in 1990 after serving almost three decades for conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government.

Mandela has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner.

As he has receded from public life, critics say his ruling African National Congress (ANC) has lost the moral compass he bequeathed it when he stepped down as president in 1999.

Under such leaders as Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, the ANC gained wide international respect as it battled white rule.

Once the yoke of apartheid was thrown off, it began governing South Africa in a blaze of goodwill from world leaders who viewed it as a beacon for a troubled continent and world.

Almost two decades later however, this image has dimmed as ANC leaders have been accused of indulging in the spoils of office, squandering mineral resources and engaging in power struggles.

Mandela spent much of last year in Qunu, his ancestral village in the poor Eastern Cape province. But since his release from hospital in December he has been at his home in an affluent Johannesburg suburb, closer to sophisticated medical facilities.

(The story corrects Obama to Mandela in 11th para.)

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-mandela-spends-second-night-hospital-092102547.html

torrey smith oakland raiders Jessica Lange NFL scores week 3 kat dennings Steve Sabol Yom Kippur 2012

travel & leisure: Are Travellers-Autobarn Vehicles Worth The Awards ...

Travellers-Autobarn rents campervans, cars and motorhomes in Australia.

The cars are station wagons and small sedans, the campervans are 2 and 3 berth vans and the motorhomes are sub-hired from a 3rd party.

Their range of campervans is broad enough to cater for a couple of different price ranges within the budget model, but in general, they are aimed at people looking for a cheap vehicle rather than luxury. The "Chubby", going out for approx $40 per day, is at the cheaper end of the scale, through to their "Deluxe" going out for around $60. And whilst they rent motorhomes, they really only sub-hire them from another company. It is definitely worth checking prices with Travellers-Autobarn for motorhomes, but you will also want to get prices from other suppliers.

The "Chubby" budget van, is based on the Mitsubishi express, as are most budget models in the Australian market. Each Chubby is individually painted for a sense of creativity and uniqueness. The age range is of the vehicles is 3-4 years and the fittings are pretty much industry standard: sleeps 2, esky (ice cooler) for cold storage, kitchenette sink, food storage at the back and cooking with the rear door up. There are a handful of companies that are adding awnings/tents to the back door to protect you from the elements whilst cooking, the Chubby is one of these. The "easy to assemble" awning comes standard with the hire and can save you getting wet if you have to cook whilst it is raining. Overall, the awning is the main thing setting this vehicle apart from its closest competitors as there is very little difference between them otherwise. One final thing to note though is that they have a headphone jack in the CD player to plug in your iPod. These are excruciatingly rare so keep that in mind if the music you listen to in your travels is high on importance agenda.

Pros:

Comes with the rear door awning

iPod jack and CD player

Under 21 rentals

Cheap

Cons:

No pop-top or hi top option

Mitsubishi is not as reliable as Toyota

The Hi Top is the next price level up at around $50pd. This model is for those that want a little more room and a little more luxury. Seating and sleeping 3, the Hi Top allows for sleeping "upstairs" and "downstairs" - 1 up and 2 down. Great if you have a child or friend coming along. Cooking facilities allow for entirely inside cooking and it comes with a fridge and a microwave. The microwave will only run when connected to mains power like when camped a caravan park or similar. The fridge is dual power so will run on the house battery and the mains. Like nearly all budget campervans for hire, it is a manual gear vehicle (stick shift), so if you can't drive one of those, you will have to move up a price range or 2. The beauty of the Hi-Top is that you can stand upright in the vehicle. On longer trips, or for taller people, this is a fantastic option. It also allows for extra storage in the area above the drivers head. Never fear though, this vehicle already has plenty of cupboard space inside. The downside of the Hi-Top is that the extra height causes extra drag on the vehicle and the fuel economy is reduced. If doing a super long journey, this will have some impact on fuel bills. Also, you have to try and remember that you have a very high roof and not smash it in to things like undercover park park roofs and low signs.

Pros:

Extra people capacity

Stand up inside

Cook inside

Cons:

Fuel efficiency not great

Can't park in undercover car parks

The top of the line campervan from Travellers-Autobarn is the Hi-Top deluxe at around $60pd. The difference between the normal and deluxe Hi-Top is the newness. The deluxe vehicles are newer and hence have overall less wear and tear. The fittings and upholstery are nicer and any recent design improvements are going to be found in these vehicles. One new design element is the slide out bench that pops out through the side door, but that is hardly a deal maker. Generally, there are more lights, prettier laminate on the cupboards, thicker cushions and even carpet on the ceiling but overall design of the vehicle is the same as the normal Hi-Top. So if you like a little more "pamper" on your journeys, this is the one for you. Stupidly, if you want to be able to play your iPod, you will have to rent the Chubby, because you can't plug in to the hi-tech AM/FM radio.

What you are best off doing is buying one of those little local transmitters that plugs in to the cigarette lighter socket and broadcasts your iPod to the FM radio.

Pros:

Newer and nicer than any other in the range

3 people

Cook inside

Cons:

Most expensive

Not the best fuel economy

As mentioned earlier, the 4 berth and 6 berth motorhome are sub rented from a 3rd party. They don't really mention that in their literature, but a keen eye will tell you from the photos that they are getting them from Around Australia Motorhomes, so if you are getting a quote, do yourself a favour and check directly with AAM for a price as well.

Remember, if hiring a campervan in Australia, to drive on the left and that you are most likely to hit a rogue kangaroo on the roads at dawn and dusk - so slow down in those times.

Source: http://bidding-travel.blogspot.com/2013/03/are-travellers-autobarn-vehicles-worth.html

micron susan g komen kenyon martin kenyon martin big miracle slab city super bowl snacks

Friday, March 29, 2013

Marijuana Tax Under Consideration by Cash-Starved States

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/marijuana-tax-under-consideration-by-cash-starved-states/

Chris Lighty JJ Watt johnny depp jerry sandusky raul ibanez completely wrong hayden panettiere

EBay targets $110 billion of marketplace volume in 2015

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc aims to handle $110 billion of sales volume on its marketplace in 2015 by expanding globally, getting more local inventory online and using mobile technology to engage more with shoppers, executives said on Thursday.

The new forecast, made by Devin Wenig, president of eBay's Marketplaces business in North America, compares with Gross Merchandise Volume, or GMV, of $75 billion in 2012.

GMV is a closely watched measure of eBay's performance. Doug Anmuth, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, was expecting 2015 GMV of $101 billion.

After bleeding market share to Amazon.com Inc for years, Chief Executive John Donahoe began a turnaround effort in 2009 that set the Internet commerce company back on track by borrowing from its larger rival's playbook.

He took what was then a muddled auctions website and made it easier for shoppers to buy new items at fixed prices and get more free shipping and returns - essentially mimicking the Amazon experience. He also embraced mobile technology, creating shopping apps for smartphones and tablets that brought in new customers.

But eBay's online marketplace is still growing less than Amazon's and some analysts are concerned its growth may struggle to keep up with the overall expansion of the online retail sector.

On Thursday, Wenig told analysts and investors that the Marketplaces business will deliver "at least" market rates of growth.

"They are saying they have fixed the core marketplace, and they are now positioned to drive incremental growth from local, mobile and global initiatives," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.

CEO Donahoe said that the company would enable $300 billion of commerce in 2015, up 71 percent from $175 billion in 2012.

That forecast includes sales on eBay's online marketplace, payments processed by PayPal and other transactions touched by the company's various businesses, such as GSI Commerce.

"That's one of the ways we will measure our success," Donahoe said during eBay's investor day at its headquarters in Silicon Valley.

To get this done, eBay is focusing on three main sources of potential growth - global expansion, local commerce and mobile applications that it hopes will encourage consumers to shop more on its marketplace and use PayPal more to pay for those purchases.

EBay is aiming to increase sales in emerging markets and BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China, by four times current levels in three years, Wendy Jones, an executive overseeing the global push, said.

By the end of 2015, as much as 25 percent of eBay active users and over 12 percent of global sales will come from BRIC countries and emerging markets, she added.

EBay's top executives will give other, new three-year financial forecasts later on Thursday.

Expectations run high on Wall Street. Anmuth of J.P. Morgan, is expecting revenue of $21.16 billion in 2015 and earnings of $3.98 per share that year, versus $14 billion and $2.36 a share in 2012.

The analyst is also calling for 2015 PayPal transaction volume of $246.9 billion that year.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Tim Dobbyn, and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ebay-ceo-says-company-enable-300-billion-commerce-154139664--sector.html

dale george will obama birth certificate nick cannon lindsay lohan saturday night live snl lindsay lohan valley fever

Baby Shower by Wiley Valentine | Style Me Pretty

I?ve known Emily and Rachelle of Wiley Valentine for as long as I can remember. We?ve sort of grown up together and have watched each other?s businesses take flight and babies grow, sort of in tandem. So when I saw this shower that Rachelle threw for Emily ? along with some of the most beloved in the business like Jesi Haack, Pitbulls and Posies?and Found Vintage Rentals?- I sort of felt like I was right there beside them. Rubbing bellies and making toasts to another little creative addition to our family. Click here to see the whole adorable spread.

From Rachelle of Wiley Valentine? This was such a special shower to plan. Emily is not only my business partner of 10+ years and the other half of Wiley Valentine, but also one my dearest friends. When I found out Emily was pregnant, and then found out it was a girl, I was so over the moon excited. And then began the shower planning, almost immediately!Emily?s style is understated, classic with a mix of vintage, muted color palettes and she absolutely adores animals. We took this vibe, and created an animal adorned, vintage haven in her mother?s back yard. There were different stations including the food with the gorgeous backdrop by Jesi Haack & laser cut animals by Pitbulls & Posies.

There was a mobile station which was so special. There were laser cut wooden animals ready to sign with a special note for the baby. Then we hung the animals for an instant, personalized mobile!?The most popular station was the tea bar. Each guest chose an animal topped jar (made by Emily?s mother and sister) to mix their own custom loose leaf tea ?blend. There were 8 different types of teas to choose from, and each jar was adorned with a tea strainer. The fragrance from the tea bar just made the backyard smell heavenly!

There were many artistic guests that attended the shower and so, the gifts were just so amazing. Lots of handmade gifts which are always so special.
It was such a special day and I was so honored to be able to give this beautiful shower to Emily.

Photography:?Andrea Patricia Photography | Shower Invitations, Design & Concept: Rachelle of Wiley Valentine?| Florals: Michelle Shaw of Four Petals | Backdrop design & mobile station:?Jesi Haack | Lasercut animals, laser cut stir sticks & ?We are Wildly Excited? sign: Amber of Pitbulls and Posies | Vintage Sofa vignette: Found Vintage Rentals | Handmade ?The Owen Family? book: Sarah McDonald | Watercolor pages, handbound: Sarah ?| Chinese Take out box noodles & Kale Salad:?Nili Stevens Inspired Living | Handmade Giraffe Fabric art:?Molly Jay

Wiley Valentine and Found Vintage Rentals are members of our Little Black Book, Love what you see? Take a look at their portfolios. For more information on how Little Black Book Members are chosen click here. favorite (0) share (0) pin (0)

Source: http://www.stylemepretty.com/living/2013/03/27/baby-shower-by-wiley-valentine/

blake griffin pau gasol marlins park marbury v. madison 2013 lincoln mkz burger king mary j blige google project glass