TIP! If you plan on filing for bankruptcy, never transfer your assets to another person within one year of filing. Why shouldn?t you transfer assets? It?s because this looks as if you?re attempting to hide your money so that you can wiggle out of debt.
You shouldn?t decide to file for bankruptcy on a whim; the choice can be life changing. Go over the advice in the following paragraphs to get an idea of what you?re in for, and to learn what you should know before you decide whether or not to file. Try to learn everything you can before making any decisions.
TIP! A good personal bankruptcy tip is to always be prepared in case your filing for bankruptcy will be denied. If you?re prepared beforehand, you can easily anticipate what may happen if you are denied, like having a car get repossessed or a home being foreclosed.
Take advantage of free consultations with lawyers and the ability to sift through and find the right one. Always ensure that the person you meet with is a real lawyer, not a legal assistant or paralegal. These people can?t give legal advice. Considering several different lawyers can help find someone to trust.
TIP! Before you file for bankruptcy, find out which of your assets will be exempt from seizure. Bankruptcy exemptions are properties may not be seized during bankruptcy.
When you consult a bankruptcy lawyer, bring a written list of questions with you to the consultation. It can be expensive to see a lawyer. To save yourself trouble and money, make a list of your questions and concerns before consulting your lawyer. If you do not understand any part of the process, ask your attorney to explain in more detail.
TIP! Be certain you understand all you can about bankruptcy by researching reputable sites that offer good information. The United States Check out the Bankruptcy Institute site and do some research about consumer?s rights.
Gain a clear understanding of the circumstances that put you in a position to file for personal bankruptcy. Getting waylaid by an unexpected loss of income or a huge expense like emergency medical treatment is unavoidable, but impulsive spending is a problem that has to be addressed. If your a bankruptcy was caused by the latter, it would be a good idea for you to seek assistance in areas of financial management and perhaps addiction control.
TIP! One way to avoid bankruptcy is to stay married. The economic stress of a divorce can be the final blow leading to bankruptcy and this situation may be avoided.
If negativity begins to overwhelm you, seek out others who have been in your shoes. Bankruptcy can cause a lot of stress and make you feel isolated from your friends. However, online you can find others who can relate to what you?re going through. They make excellent resources for sharing hardships and coping strategies.
TIP! If you are going to get hit hard on your taxes, do not assume that bankruptcy is an out for you. Some people use a credit card to pay their taxes prior to filing for bankruptcy.
Keep an eye on any progress made by your attorney. It is your right to know what?s happening, and you should feel comfortable calling to consult your lawyer as needed. Busy law offices have been known to make errors from time to time. Just like everyone else, lawyers are human and make mistakes too.
TIP! Look at bankruptcy as a chance to mature and take responsibility for your personal finances. Going through the filing process often brings out the worst in people, causing them to feel a variety of negative emotions.
File when the time is right. When it comes to filing for bankruptcy, your timing is important. Sometimes, it is good to file immediately, but sometimes it is smarter to wait until you have passed through the worst of things. A lawyer is in the best position to evaluate your case and figure out when you should file for bankruptcy.
TIP! If you need to file for bankruptcy, do not put it off. Once you have decided that you need to file bankruptcy, it is best to get on with it.
Once your initial filing is complete, it is time to take some time to relax a little. The filing process is extremely stressful for a lot of the people who go through it. The stress of dealing with bankruptcy could cause you to fall into a depression, unless you take steps to take care of yourself. Life is going to get better once you get through this.
TIP! If you are considering filing for bankruptcy you definitely need to hire an attorney. Personal bankruptcies are detailed and complex processes, and you may miss something that costs you money.
You should know by now that bankruptcy does not just pop up out of nowhere. Several steps must be completed, and completed accurately. By following the suggestions above, you can make sure that you have addressed all of the important items that you need to take care of during your bankruptcy
The following is a guest post from Derek and Mandy, husband and wife financial bloggers.? Derek blogs at www.freeat33.com and shares his personal and financial story to inspire others to surge past the status quo.? Mandy blogs at www.moneymastermom.com and is on a mission to help individuals to spend their cash, time and energy in line with their values.
How much do you need for retirement?
Looking at our family photo you might think I?m getting a little ahead of myself.? As the father of a young family, life is pretty busy.? Not to mention little emergencies are a common event in our home.? But the truth is that every adult should be thinking about retirement saving.? Retirement savings is like planting an Oak tree.? The best time to plant an oak tree was 50 years ago, the next best time is today.
The Norm of Retirement Savings
Retirement savings are a pretty popular topic.? Before the contributions deadline each winter we?re bombarded with professionals, peers, and sometimes family members preaching retirement savings strategies.? Despite this barrage of advice most individuals save nothing in their 20?s, a little in their 30?s, they start to save regularly in their 40s, and get serious about saving in their 50?s.
The Recommendations
Calculation #1 ? Good
MSN money chimed in this week offering benchmarks of appropriate savings.? When you?re 35 you should have 1 year of your salary saved, by 45 you should have 3X your salary saved.? At age 55 MSN money recommends you have 5X your annual salary in retirement savings, and at 67 you need 8X your salary.? At 67, with 8X your salary saved, ?MSN money says you can call it quits.? However if you want to ?ensure retirement happiness? you need 11X your salary.
We?ll disregard the suggestion that your level of retirement savings will dictate your level of happiness and focus on the theory presented.? The writer of this article makes a big assumption.? They assume your retirement spending directly correlates to how much you earned while working and that isn?t always the case.
In our home we have a high income and low expenditures.? I made $130,000 last year, but we keep our family expenditures to $31,200 or $600/week.? Alternatively there are families that are spending more than they make and surviving off credit.? For these families an appropriate retirement savings as a multiple of their income is not accurate for the opposite reason.?As a Young Cheap Living reader, you deserve better.
Calculation #2 ? Better
An alternate approach is to base this number on your spending. Recognizing that retirement savings should be set based on your expenditures, financial experts recommend the 4% rule.
What?s the 4% rule??The 4% rule means you can withdraw 4% of your nest egg every year and not run out of money for 25-30 years.? For instance if we used this rule and wanted to withdrawal $31,200 annually for our expenses we would require a nest egg of $31,200 / 0.04? = $780,000.? The 4% rule also accounts for 2% inflation.? So year 1 we would withdrawal $31200, and year 2 we could withdrawal $31,200*1.02 = $31824.?Some people find the 4% rule difficult and a new simpler rule is making its way to the forefront ? The new rule of $20.
What is the Rule of 20??For every $1 in retirement income, you need $20 saved.? If we want $31,200 in income, we need $624,000 saved.? For the mathematically astute readers out there at first glance it might look like they?ve eased the 4% rule up to a 5% rule, but Irshaad Russell of Investment Canada defends the rule of 20 because a lot of retirees have 2 phases of their retirement.? The first phase has some new hobbies and some new toys that require a similar income to when you were working.? In Phase 2, as retirees get older their spending slows down.? Most of us have that 80 year old grandparent that spends very little money, and there is pretty good odds that one day I?ll be there too.
What about Social Security?? (Admit it, you were just thinking this.)
Todd Tresidder at the Financial Mentor addresses this issue in his latest book, ?How much money do I need to retire???? Social security is an unfunded program.? That means that working individuals pay into the program, and the money is directly transferred to retirees.? There are fewer and fewer workers to support a growing number of retirees.? Less and less going in, and more and more coming out.? Given this reality Todd recommends treating social security as a potential bonus, but not a sure thing.? On a side note isn?t Bernie Madoff in jail because he took new investors cash and distributed it to old investors as returns.? Well? The courts said this was a Ponzi scheme and put him in jail.? Apparently you can?t do that unless you?re the government.?So how much should you save?
Calculation #3 ? The Freeat33 approach ( Because you?re worth it )
If you want a simpler approach some professionals recommend saving 10% of your gross income if you start saving in your 20?s, and 15-20% if you?re in your 30?s.? ?If like me, you are interested in Super Charging that retirement goal, try saving 50%+ and see how fast you can get it done.? Last year, my wife and I saved 78% of our net income.? At that rate the math says we could retire in 7-10 years.
The Proof is in the Numbers
If a household earns $80,000 after tax and lives on $30,000 they would be saving the remaining $50,000, which is 63% of their net pay.? If they invested the $50,000 every year for 13 years, and earned 4% after inflation, they would have $631,341 in their Freeat33 nest egg.? If they retired and began living off the next 4% they earned WITHOUT touching principal they would receive $33,253 that year.? More than they were previously living on.
If the numbers are not proof enough, then know that Mr. Money Mustache and Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme retired in their early thirties using this method.? Also at age 35, Todd Tresidder and Derek Foster retired doing the same.?The method is so simple it will put financial planners out of work.
It?s okay if you think inflation is what happened to your waste after marriage.? You don?t have to be an investment wiz.? Everyone knows how to save, even if you have refused to.? We all thank you for keeping the economy going, but it is time to start looking out for you.?Besides,?isn?t?this better than dreaming of winning the lottery?? At least you can work to improving the odds of seeing this happen.
Which calculation are you going to use when determining your retirement number?? How much are you currently saving of your net income?? Do you think you can improve it?
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland takes a big step on its path towards an independence referendum on Monday when its leader meets Britain's prime minister to finalize arrangements for a vote which could lead to the demise of Scotland's three-centuries-old union with England.
Scotland's drive for sovereignty, led by its nationalist leader Alex Salmond, echoes separatist moves by other European regions such as Catalonia and Flanders at a time when a crisis-hit European Union undergoes deep changes to its identity.
Expected to be signed in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, the deal will allow Scotland to decide in a 2014 referendum whether it should become an independent country or stay within the United Kingdom.
Nationalists have timed the vote to coincide with the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn when Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeated English invaders.
Prime Minister David Cameron opposes Scotland's push, arguing that Britain is stronger together. But London agrees it is up to Scotland to decide its future for itself in a vote.
"There are many things I want this (government) to achieve but what could matter more than saving our United Kingdom?" Cameron said in a speech last week. "Let's say it : We're better together and we'll rise together."
Following months of negotiations, both sides have made major concessions to pave the way for the final accord to be signed on Monday by Cameron and Salmond at Edinburgh's St Andrew's House - the seat of the Scottish government.
"The agreement will see Scotland take an important step toward independence, and the means to create a fairer and more prosperous Scotland," Salmond said ahead of the meeting. "I look forward to working positively for a yes vote in 2014."
Scotland already has many of the trappings of an independent nation such as its own flag, legal system, sports teams, as well as a distinctive national identity following centuries of rivalry with its southern neighbor.
London argues an independent Scotland - home to about five million people - would struggle to make ends meet as the bulk of its current funding comes from a 30 billion pound ($48 billion) grant from the UK government.
But one of the most contentious issues at stake is the ownership of an estimated 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas reserves beneath the UK part of the North Sea.
Britain is also worried about the future of its nuclear submarine fleet based in Scotland which says there would be no place for atomic arms on its soil following independence. Moving the fleet elsewhere would be costly and time-consuming.
Many Scots themselves are unconvinced. Opinion polls show only between 30 and 40 percent of them support independence - a range that has changed little as negotiations intensified.
"Independence is about Scotland leaving the UK, becoming a separate state, taking on all the burdens and risks that go with that and losing the benefits and opportunities that we have as part of the UK," UK Scottish Secretary Michael Moore told the BBC on the eve of the meeting in Edinburgh.
"When we look at the economy, at defense, at our place in the world, on all these big issues, people across Scotland will continue to support Scotland being in the United Kingdom."
Scotland and England have shared a monarch since 1603 and have been ruled by one single parliament in London since 1707. In 1999, for the first time since then, a devolved Scottish parliament was opened following a referendum.
INTRIGUE OVER WORDING
Both sides have been tight-lipped on the contents of the final agreement, with much intrigue and speculation surrounding sensitive issues such as how to phrase the referendum question.
Salmond is expected to have accepted London's demand that there should be only one straight-forward "in or out" question on whether voters want to be part of the United Kingdom.
He had earlier campaigned for a second question on whether Scotland should be given more powers in the so-called "devo max" form of enhanced devolution that stops short of independence.
For its part, London is likely to agree to allow Salmond to lower the voting age to 16 from Britain's countrywide 18 - a coup for Salmond who believes that young people are more likely to vote overwhelmingly in favor of independence.
"(The) agreement will ensure that the decision taken by the people of Scotland is one that will be fully respected by both governments," Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said ahead of the meeting. She would not elaborate.
"The referendum is the biggest opportunity the people of Scotland have had for 300 years to determine the kind of nation we all wish to live in."
But for Salmond, convincing his people to support independence remains an uphill task given tough economic times.
There are concerns as to what would happen to Scotland's debt or whether it would automatically become an EU member.
A former oil economist, Salmond says Scotland would be prosperous, entitled to the lion's share of North Sea oil revenues and that it should be able to borrow at rates no worse than London, should people vote "yes".
(Additional reporting by Isla Binnie in London, Writing by Maria Golovnina, Editing by Rosalind Russell)
Morocco is seeing an alarming rise in the number of babies abandoned by single mothers, activists said on Saturday, blaming social prejudice and outdated legislation for the problem.
?According to the information we have gathered, from people who take care of abandoned children born outside marriage, the numbers are getting much worse,? said Omar Kindi, organiser of a conference on violence and discrimination against single mothers and children.
The existing statistics were bad enough.
According to a study carried out by Insaf, an NGO that supports women and children in distress, of which Kindi is the president, 27,200 young women gave birth outside marriage in 2009, with a total of 8,760 babies abandoned.
That equates to 24 babies per day on average.
Morocco has witnessed a population boom and rapid urbanisation in recent decades, leading to ever-growing levels of interaction between single men and women in the relatively conservative Muslim country.
Kindi and others argue that attitudes and legislation have failed to keep pace with social change, as starkly illustrated by Article 490 of the penal code according to which extra-marital sex is punishable by up to a year in jail.
?One of the major problems? is the total disengagement of the state,? Kindi told AFP.
Aicha Echanne, another speaker at the Casablanca conference, said the ?mentality of society? and the lack of support for single mothers, who are often aggressively treated by officials, were driving factors behind new-born children being abandoned.
?We need to shake Moroccan society, and to put pressure on the state, on parliament, to bring about change,? said Echanne, who heads the Association of Women?s Solidarity.
?From 1990 to 2009, 23,000 babies were buried in cemeteries in Casablanca (Morocco?s largest city). That gives you an idea that our children are being thrown away. They get eaten by dogs or are buried.?
?It is not normal, from a humanitarian point of view, to accept this type of thing,? she added.
As well as changing the law, activists emphasise the need for sexual education in Morocco to avoid unwanted pregnancy, with more than 60 percent of single mothers under 26 years old, according to Isaf, and many of them illiterate.
But with an Islamist-led government in power since January, some are doubtful about the prospects of any such initiatives.
Kindi says Isaf, which is based in Casablanca and employs 34 people, used to receive 10 percent of its budget from state funds, but that the new government has stopped supporting it completely.
?We have asked to talk to the minister of social affairs (Bassima Hakkawi). But we still haven?t received a response from her,? he added.
Hakkawi could not immediately be reached for comment.
We were already excited about "The Last Stand" on the principle of a new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, but when it gets a poster like this, we begin to think we're in for a real treat. Also, Christopher Lloyd appreciates your "Back to the Future" obsession and Batman gets lost in today's Dailies! » Christopher Lloyd [...]
Texas running back Johnathan Gray makes his way down the field during the second quarter against West Virginia in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Elisabeth Dillon)
Texas running back Johnathan Gray makes his way down the field during the second quarter against West Virginia in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Elisabeth Dillon)
Texas coach Mack Brown talks to officials during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game against West Virginia, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Texas' Jaxon Shipley (8) runs around West Virginia defender Josh Francis (4) during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops gestures as he answers a question during an NCAA college football news conference in Norman, Okla., Monday, Oct. 8, 2012. Having avenged last season's loss to Texas Tech and moved on from the first loss of this season, No. 13 Oklahoma faces a pivotal Red River Rivalry showdown Saturday against No. 15 Texas as both teams try for the conference title. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Oklahoma's Damien Williams finds the open field ahead of Texas Tech's D.J. Johnson during an NCAA college football game in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Scott MacWatters) LOCAL TV OUT
DALLAS (AP) ? Consider it a sign of how much Bob Stoops and Mack Brown have raised the bar in the Red River Rivalry when Oklahoma and Texas are playing each other without any real national title implications.
For the first time since 1999, when Stoops was in his first season coaching the Sooners and Brown was in Year 2 at Texas, neither team will be ranked in the top 10 for Saturday's clash at the Cotton Bowl. It's just the second time in 15 years that both teams will arrive already with a conference loss ? both at home, no less.
Yet there's still plenty on the line when the No. 13 Sooners (3-1, 1-1 Big 12) and No. 15 Longhorns (4-1, 1-1) square off for the 107th time in one of college football's most colorful rivalries.
First of all, it's a struggle for Big 12 survival with No. 5 West Virginia (which beat Texas) and No. 6 Kansas State (which beat Oklahoma) already leading the pack. And maybe, just maybe, the winner keeps the glimmer of hope alive that enough teams lose to make a national championship a possibility.
Even if all players had to look forward to was the incomparable feeling of putting the Golden Hat trophy on their heads, that would be enough.
"All the games are fun for me, but this one hits me deep," Texas safety Kenny Vaccaro said. "This is a good rivalry. It's rich. I think just the tradition throughout the many years, the battles back and forth."
Since Stoops and Brown have been around, the rivalry has reached a new level ? such that a game pitting two top-15 teams is a tiny bit of a letdown. But before 2000, it had been 16 years since both teams came in ranked in the top 15. Since then, eight out of 11 games have featured at least one team in the top 5, with both teams ranked that high four times.
"It's one of the biggest games of the season. We all look forward to this game," Sooners defensive end David King said. "The atmosphere, there's nothing like it."
Let King tell you a little about it.
For participants, the experience starts with a bus ride to the stadium, inside the State Fair of Texas. Fans from both teams will surround the buses, hardly holding back their opinions.
"You get so many middle fingers it's ridiculous," King said.
The atmosphere inside the Cotton Bowl is as colorful as outside of it, with the fair's traditional corny dogs and funnel cakes. The stands are split along the 50-yard line with all of Texas' burnt orange on one side and Oklahoma's crimson on the other.
Just walking down the tunnel to the field is a lifelong memory for most who play. It's a chance to stare down your bitter rival while the most boisterous of fans rain down a mixture of insults and praise.
"You come out, you're on the OU side and you run down the field and you go take your knee, say your prayer and you're right in a sea of orange," King said. "You know they're just saying some of the most inappropriate things. But I'm sure our fans are saying inappropriate things to the Texas players when they're walking out."
And that's all before the game even gets started.
The Sooners have won the last two meetings. The Longhorns had claimed four of the previous five showdowns.
Brown's Longhorns were also off to a promising start a year ago when Oklahoma delivered a reality check by scoring three defensive touchdowns in a 55-17 blowout. Texas scuffled to another mediocre season, by its standards, but emerged from the Holiday Bowl with David Ash appearing as though he has finally stabilized the quarterback position.
So far this season, he's been far from the biggest problem for the Longhorns. He's third in the nation in passing efficiency and has thrown for 11 touchdowns with only one interception. It's been a talented defense that hasn't lived up to expectations, and the placekicking has been a question mark, too.
"It should be a great matchup, where last year we laid an egg in the OU game because they played much better than we did," Brown said. "There were a lot of turnovers, and we were out of the game before we even got in it."
For Oklahoma, quarterback Landry Jones is on the brink of setting the school record for wins. He's 32-8 in his career and his next victory will push him past Steve Davis, who went 32-1-1 and won two national championship in the 1970s. Jones can also become the fourth Sooners QB to go 3-0 as a starter against Texas. He also relieved an injured Sam Bradford in the 2009 loss.
Whether Jones performs like the school's winningest quarterback or is turnover-prone, as he was in the loss to Kansas State, could go a long way toward determining the outcome.
"They're going to get their shots, we're going to take our hits and it's just going to be who keeps swinging is going to win this game," Sooners defensive end R.J. Washington said. "Who wants to fight more than anyone else?"
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Everyone has his views in the matter of unsecured personal loans. Some think it is just adding to financial pressure but the reality is opposite to this. These loans are good to overcome the financial.
Should instructors care whether or not students find their exchanges satisfying? They should, because as this research (and previous studies) document, those levels of satisfaction correlate positively and significantly with something these researchers call ?affective learning.? Affective learning involves student feelings and emotions toward the subject matter and the teacher.
When those feelings are positive, they impact levels of motivation and cognitive learning in direct and measurable ways. What?s being explored here empirically makes a lot of intuitive sense as well. Most of us have experienced first-hand the ?good vibes? generated when students in a class are reacting positively.
How are positive feelings about a course and instructor generated? Communication plays a central role. It matters what the instructor says in front of the whole class and in individual interactions?such was when students request information, ask about course content, exchange greetings, or ask a personal question.
As in other research reports, the instrument developed and used in these studies is included in the article referenced below. It contains 24 items in its long version and eight in a shorter version.
Here are some sample items from the instrument:
I usually feel positive about my conversations with my teacher.
My teacher makes an effort to satisfy questions I have.
I feel comfortable talking with my teacher.
I wish my teacher was better at communicating with me.
My teacher genuinely listens to me when I talk.
My teacher makes time for me when I want to talk to him/her.
It is interesting to speculate what students might have to say about their communication with you, but with this instrument, and others like it, you can anticipate student responses by completing the form at the same time students do. Comparing a self-assessment with student feedback is a great way to learn more about the impact of teaching efforts on students?in this case the impact of communication exchanges.
Because the instrument is specific and detailed, it enables identification of areas of strength and weakness. As important is whether or not you can trust your assessments. If what you believe about your communication with students is verified by their feedback, that knowledge enables teaching with greater confidence. If not, the feedback offers insights that can lead to more accurate assessments of student responses. This applies not just to student-teacher interactions but to whatever aspect of teaching or student learning you and your students are assessing.
Instruments like this one can be used by practitioners to gain individual feedback. Obviously they cannot be used to collect research data without permission of the researchers.
Reference: Goodboy, A. K., Martin, M. M., and Bolkan, S. (2009). The development and validation of the student communication satisfaction scale. Communication Education, 58 (3), 372-396.
Excerpted from ?Communication Satisfaction Scale,? The Teaching Professor, 24.10 (2010): 6, 7.
Tags: communication skills, interpersonal communication
Eco-friendly optics: Spider silk's talents harnessed for use in biosensors, lasers, microchipsPublic release date: 11-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Angela Stark astark@osa.org 202-416-1443 Optical Society of America
Researchers at Frontiers in Optics 2012 describe ways to use natural silk for implantable optics, compostable lasers, and microfibers integrated into photonic chips
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11Spiders use their silk to catch lunch. Now physicists are using it to catch light. New research shows that natural silk could be an eco-friendly alternative to more traditional ways of manipulating light, such as through glass or plastic fiber optic cables. Two teams independently exploring possible applications for the material's photonic talents will present their latest breakthroughs at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2012, to be held next week in Rochester, N.Y.
Biomedical engineer Fiorenzo Omenetto of Tufts University in Boston will discuss his group's work fabricating concoctions of proteins that make use of silk's optical properties for implantable sensors and other biology-technology interfaces.
Physicist Nolwenn Huby at the CNRS Institut de Physiques de Rennes in France will talk about her team's use of pristine, natural spider silk to guide light through photonic chipstechnology that could give birth to silk-based biosensors and medical imaging devices for use inside the body.
Both groups hope their work will lead to medical advancements that take advantage of the optical properties of silk. One of the strongest fibers in nature (the dragline used by spiders to form the structure of their webs is stronger, pound for pound, than steel), silk is biocompatible, biodegradable, and extremely hardy. Produced naturally by spiders and silkworms, it is a renewable resource. Added to these benefits is the more recent discovery that silk is a gifted manipulator of light, which can travel through silk almost as easily as it flows through glass fibers.
Though it may not be the best material in every one of these categories, the combination of talents is what makes silk such an attractive material to study, Omenetto explains. "There are materials that can do one of each, or a few of each," he says, "but seldom all of each."
Silk-based 'plastics' for implantable devices
In their efforts to exploit silk's optical merits, Omenetto's team is developing silk-based materials that look like plastic, but retain the optical properties of pristine silk. One of the advantages of these materials is that they can degrade and be reabsorbed by the body. A sensor or tag made of silk protein could be implantedat the site of a fractured bone, for example, to monitor healingand merely left to dissolve. Once its purpose had been served, the silk tag would harmlessly fade away.
Omenetto is currently investigating a range of questions, from fundamental to commercial, and they go beyond implantable optics. His team recently won an INSPIRE grant from the National Science Foundation to create electronic components that are compostable. He has developed and tested a blue laser made from silk fiber-doped materials that is not only biodegradable but also uses less power to induce lasing than the acrylic materials that are commonly used. He is also exploring the possibilities of using silk to integrate a technological component with living tissue. "We're thinking of how to scale up [production], how to interface with current technology," Omenetto says. He hopes some of the more "gadget-like" fruits of his labor will be commercially available within the next five to 10 years.
Guiding light with real silk
Silk-doped composites are the subject of Omenetto's talk at FiO, but the optical merits of pristine silk will be the subject of Huby's. Her team is experimenting with pure spider silk as a relatively inexpensive and ecologically friendly way to manipulate light within photonic chips.
As a light guide, silk works in a way comparable to the more commonly used glass microfibers that carry light within a chip; but silk comes out of the spider ready to use, whereas glass microfibers have to be heated to high levels and carefully sculpted at great expense. Huby's silk is collected by a group of molecular spectroscopy experts led by Michel Pzolet of Universit Laval in Quebec, then integrated into circuits at her team's lab at Rennes. To her knowledge, this is the first time the optical properties of pristine silk have been exploited.
By integrating real spider silk into a microchip, the researchers found that silk could not only propagate light but could also direct light, or "couple" it, to selected parts of the chip. Huby hopes this work can be used to create biosensors that could detect the presence of a molecule or the activity of a protein: as light waves passed through a blood sample, for example, the molecules would change the properties of the light wave in an observable way.
The next step for Huby's team, she says, is to see what biologists and medical professionals need and then create devices they can use. Besides making biosensors, spider silk could also provide a light source for taking pictures inside of the body. Natural silk is only five microns in diameter, less than a tenth the width of a human hair. A pristine fiber of spider silk, which is so thin and strong, could carry light into the body through a very small opening, providing less invasive ways to do internal imaging or even chemical diagnoses using spectroscopy, which is the analysis of matter based on its interaction with light.
As a spokesman for silk's status as the material of the futurehe gave a TED talk on the subject last yearOmenetto believes these recent successes will help more people become excited about the potential of this remarkable material.
"I like to think we threw a big stone in the pond," Omenetto says. "And hopefully the waves will continue."
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Both presentations take place Monday, Oct. 15 at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center in Rochester, N.Y. Presentation FM3E.3. "Silk-based Optics and Photonics" by Fiorenzo Omenetto is at 2:30 p.m. followed by presentation FM3E.4 "Optical Propagation and Integration of Pristine Major Ampullate Spider Silk Fibers" by Huby et al. at 3 p.m.
EDITOR'S NOTE: High-resolution images are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Angela Stark, astark@osa.org.
PRESS REGISTRATION: A press room for credentialed press and analysts will be located in the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, Sunday through Thursday, Oct. 14-18. Those interested in obtaining a press badge for FiO should contact OSA's Angela Stark at 202.416.1443 or astark@osa.org. A full list of meeting highlights for press is available on the FiO website. http://www.frontiersinoptics.com/home/media-center/conference-news/optics-and-photonics-technology-leaders,-researche/
About the Meeting
Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2012 is the Optical Society's (OSA) 96th Annual Meeting and is being held together with Laser Science XXVIII, the annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Laser Science (DLS). The two meetings unite the OSA and APS communities for five days of quality, cutting-edge presentations, fascinating invited speakers and a variety of special events spanning a broad range of topics in optics and photonicsthe science of lightacross the disciplines of physics, biology and chemistry. FiO 2012 will also offer a number of Short Courses designed to increase participants' knowledge of a specific subject in the optical sciences while offering the experience of insightful teachers. An exhibit floor featuring leading optics companies will further enhance the meeting. More information at http://www.FrontiersinOptics.org.
About OSA
Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit http://www.osa.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Eco-friendly optics: Spider silk's talents harnessed for use in biosensors, lasers, microchipsPublic release date: 11-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Angela Stark astark@osa.org 202-416-1443 Optical Society of America
Researchers at Frontiers in Optics 2012 describe ways to use natural silk for implantable optics, compostable lasers, and microfibers integrated into photonic chips
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11Spiders use their silk to catch lunch. Now physicists are using it to catch light. New research shows that natural silk could be an eco-friendly alternative to more traditional ways of manipulating light, such as through glass or plastic fiber optic cables. Two teams independently exploring possible applications for the material's photonic talents will present their latest breakthroughs at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2012, to be held next week in Rochester, N.Y.
Biomedical engineer Fiorenzo Omenetto of Tufts University in Boston will discuss his group's work fabricating concoctions of proteins that make use of silk's optical properties for implantable sensors and other biology-technology interfaces.
Physicist Nolwenn Huby at the CNRS Institut de Physiques de Rennes in France will talk about her team's use of pristine, natural spider silk to guide light through photonic chipstechnology that could give birth to silk-based biosensors and medical imaging devices for use inside the body.
Both groups hope their work will lead to medical advancements that take advantage of the optical properties of silk. One of the strongest fibers in nature (the dragline used by spiders to form the structure of their webs is stronger, pound for pound, than steel), silk is biocompatible, biodegradable, and extremely hardy. Produced naturally by spiders and silkworms, it is a renewable resource. Added to these benefits is the more recent discovery that silk is a gifted manipulator of light, which can travel through silk almost as easily as it flows through glass fibers.
Though it may not be the best material in every one of these categories, the combination of talents is what makes silk such an attractive material to study, Omenetto explains. "There are materials that can do one of each, or a few of each," he says, "but seldom all of each."
Silk-based 'plastics' for implantable devices
In their efforts to exploit silk's optical merits, Omenetto's team is developing silk-based materials that look like plastic, but retain the optical properties of pristine silk. One of the advantages of these materials is that they can degrade and be reabsorbed by the body. A sensor or tag made of silk protein could be implantedat the site of a fractured bone, for example, to monitor healingand merely left to dissolve. Once its purpose had been served, the silk tag would harmlessly fade away.
Omenetto is currently investigating a range of questions, from fundamental to commercial, and they go beyond implantable optics. His team recently won an INSPIRE grant from the National Science Foundation to create electronic components that are compostable. He has developed and tested a blue laser made from silk fiber-doped materials that is not only biodegradable but also uses less power to induce lasing than the acrylic materials that are commonly used. He is also exploring the possibilities of using silk to integrate a technological component with living tissue. "We're thinking of how to scale up [production], how to interface with current technology," Omenetto says. He hopes some of the more "gadget-like" fruits of his labor will be commercially available within the next five to 10 years.
Guiding light with real silk
Silk-doped composites are the subject of Omenetto's talk at FiO, but the optical merits of pristine silk will be the subject of Huby's. Her team is experimenting with pure spider silk as a relatively inexpensive and ecologically friendly way to manipulate light within photonic chips.
As a light guide, silk works in a way comparable to the more commonly used glass microfibers that carry light within a chip; but silk comes out of the spider ready to use, whereas glass microfibers have to be heated to high levels and carefully sculpted at great expense. Huby's silk is collected by a group of molecular spectroscopy experts led by Michel Pzolet of Universit Laval in Quebec, then integrated into circuits at her team's lab at Rennes. To her knowledge, this is the first time the optical properties of pristine silk have been exploited.
By integrating real spider silk into a microchip, the researchers found that silk could not only propagate light but could also direct light, or "couple" it, to selected parts of the chip. Huby hopes this work can be used to create biosensors that could detect the presence of a molecule or the activity of a protein: as light waves passed through a blood sample, for example, the molecules would change the properties of the light wave in an observable way.
The next step for Huby's team, she says, is to see what biologists and medical professionals need and then create devices they can use. Besides making biosensors, spider silk could also provide a light source for taking pictures inside of the body. Natural silk is only five microns in diameter, less than a tenth the width of a human hair. A pristine fiber of spider silk, which is so thin and strong, could carry light into the body through a very small opening, providing less invasive ways to do internal imaging or even chemical diagnoses using spectroscopy, which is the analysis of matter based on its interaction with light.
As a spokesman for silk's status as the material of the futurehe gave a TED talk on the subject last yearOmenetto believes these recent successes will help more people become excited about the potential of this remarkable material.
"I like to think we threw a big stone in the pond," Omenetto says. "And hopefully the waves will continue."
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Both presentations take place Monday, Oct. 15 at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center in Rochester, N.Y. Presentation FM3E.3. "Silk-based Optics and Photonics" by Fiorenzo Omenetto is at 2:30 p.m. followed by presentation FM3E.4 "Optical Propagation and Integration of Pristine Major Ampullate Spider Silk Fibers" by Huby et al. at 3 p.m.
EDITOR'S NOTE: High-resolution images are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Angela Stark, astark@osa.org.
PRESS REGISTRATION: A press room for credentialed press and analysts will be located in the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, Sunday through Thursday, Oct. 14-18. Those interested in obtaining a press badge for FiO should contact OSA's Angela Stark at 202.416.1443 or astark@osa.org. A full list of meeting highlights for press is available on the FiO website. http://www.frontiersinoptics.com/home/media-center/conference-news/optics-and-photonics-technology-leaders,-researche/
About the Meeting
Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2012 is the Optical Society's (OSA) 96th Annual Meeting and is being held together with Laser Science XXVIII, the annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Laser Science (DLS). The two meetings unite the OSA and APS communities for five days of quality, cutting-edge presentations, fascinating invited speakers and a variety of special events spanning a broad range of topics in optics and photonicsthe science of lightacross the disciplines of physics, biology and chemistry. FiO 2012 will also offer a number of Short Courses designed to increase participants' knowledge of a specific subject in the optical sciences while offering the experience of insightful teachers. An exhibit floor featuring leading optics companies will further enhance the meeting. More information at http://www.FrontiersinOptics.org.
About OSA
Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit http://www.osa.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Pre-approved automobile loans have a number of benefits. Initial, you discover out what you qualify to borrow before you get stuck?
Employed vehicles are not as effortless to finance as new cars. Lenders are far more hesitant of financing cars with unknown pasts. Even so, you can find reasonable rates on auto loans by lining up your financing ahead of you go auto shopping. A down payment of 10% or more, plus purchasing with an auto dealer can also enhance your rates.
Get Financing 1st, Then Car Shop
Pre-authorized automobile loans have a number of benefits. 1st, you locate out what you qualify to borrow just before you get stuck in a contract. You can also play around with loan terms to find an affordable month-to-month payment. And sellers are eager to close a deal with a buyer that has secure financing.
Utilized vehicles loans typically need a slightly larger rate, usually .6 or far more, than new vehicle loans. Nevertheless, rates differ broadly in between lending firms, so it pays to shop about. Processing your loan prior to your automobile buy relieves you from the pressure of signing with the first lender you locate. It also saves you money in lower rates.
Strategy On 10% Down
ten% is most frequently needed for an utilised vehicle loan. It signals to the lender that you are investing in this obtain and are willing to make payments. A more substantial down payment can boost rates and offset low credit scores.
Another way to conserve money is to decide on a brief term loan. Because an employed car almost certainly wont last as lengthy as a new vehicle, 5 and three year loans make the most monetary sense. You save on interest costs and can begin saving for your next automobile.
Purchasing With A Dealer
Some lenders also offer you greater rates when you acquire via an automobile dealership, even with employed cars. You must weigh all your choices when applying for this variety of auto loan.
Dealerships normally give a partial warranty for their used vehicles they also charge much more. You may be capable to uncover an excellent deal in the classifieds, but there is a level of threat with that acquire. However, the difference in interest rates among these varieties of loans is much more than 1%.
To know more about it, please go to: commercial used cars for sale in las vegas
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? South Africa's Film and Publication Board Wednesday declassified a painting showing the genitals of President Jacob Zuma.
The board's spokesman, Prince Mlimandlela Ndamase, said that artist Brett Murray's "The Spear" ? which outraged supporters of President Zuma when it was displayed early this year at Johannesburg's Goodman Gallery ? is no longer deemed offensive to public taste.
The review board "has set aside the classification decision" after meeting about two weeks ago to review the painting, which was first displayed in May, said Ndamase.
The painting was condemned by the ruling ANC and Zuma himself said in court documents that the artwork undermined his constitutional right to dignity. But the gallery and the artist countered that freedom of expression was at stake, too.
The painting was later taken down after two men defaced it with paint, claiming they were acting independently of each other in defense of Zuma. It was not immediately possible to get a comment from the Goodman Gallery or Murray after the declassification decision.
The painting was widely seen by supporters of Zuma as a racist attack on his polygamous ways. But Murray, responding to a High Court case brought by Zuma, who sought to censor the artwork, said in an affidavit that it was part of a show criticizing the ANC for alleged greed and corruption. He also said that details of Zuma's sex life had become part of the public debate in South Africa.
"I am not a racist," Murray said in an affidavit. "I do not produce art with an intention to hurt, humiliate or insult."
Zuma, who is 70, has been married six times and currently has four wives, a practice that his Zulu culture allows. He has 21 children, and acknowledged in 2010 that he fathered a child that year with a woman who is not his wife.
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Buying real estate property within this industry can continue to get you to money. With prices well beneath the cost to exchange the property it has moved to a get And keep technique rather than speedy flipping of past many years. But there are many great deals now available from their maximum price ranges of 2006.
Should you be unable to safe standard credit as a way to purchase a house, you could think about seeking property that has proprietor loans. Operator credit will allow the seller to promote you the residence by themselves conditions and collect a transaction of your stuff each month. They get not just the buying value, although the attention too.
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Never become a victim of the ?other provide? series when looking to buy real-estate. Substances like to make you on the fringe of your chair till the very last minute, and they inevitably possess a higher offer you around the house. But lo and behold, you can get your house when you simply make a greater offer! Amazing. Don?t fall for it contact their bluff.
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Good color is easy to find in a computer monitor, but the 27-inch Samsung Series 9 monitor aims for great color. Just how great is it?
[More from Mashable: Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Keyboard Re-Invents Backspace [REVIEW]]
First impression: This is a gorgeous monitor that is so well designed, it looks like it could be a sculpture on display in an art museum. Its matte-finished chrome base holds up a shiny stalk that supports the display itself, which from the front looks like an shiny black slab. So this is what $1,200 spent on a monitor gets you -- it's obviously a premium product, despite its plastic back.
Placing it down in a sunny room for an afternoon of testing, I was disappointed at how its glossy screen was more effective as a mirror than as a monitor. If you're working in an area with windows or any bright lights behind you, you might have to look elsewhere for a matte-screened monitor. Or, get yourself some opaque curtains and sit down to feast your eyes on some spectacular color with this one.
[More from Mashable: Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 Is a Great Tablet and a Great Value [REVIEW]]
The monitor has a height adjustment -- and it tilts backward and forward -- but I was disappointed to see there was no way to rotate it, for those times when you want to show something on your screen to someone else. That seems like it would've been easy to include; perhaps that feature is not in great demand by the professionals who will most likely be using this monitor.
Yes, Samsung is obviously aiming this Series 9 monitor at photographers, artists, video editors and publishers who must have accurate color reproduction for their work. The monitor is ideal for those who are comfortable with the whole process of calibration. There's even software included that lets you plug in an optional sensor for calibrating the screen to your liking. For those of us who aren't so inclined, Samsung helpfully calibrates the monitor at the factory, and includes a datasheet that shows precisely how accurate it is.
SEE MORE: Everything You Need to Know About Apple v. Samsung in 97 Seconds
Looking at it with my own eyes, I quickly realized I was gazing at a superb monitor with excellent 10-bit color, 2560x1440 resolution and an extraordinary viewing angle where objects on the screen looked sharp and bright, even when standing to the side. Color saturation was just right, and out-of-the-box the blacks and white levels were adjusted perfectly.
When you want to adjust this monitor, its backlit touch controls are right there at the bottom of the stand, and they work quite well with just the right amount of sensitivity. I was also delighted to see the inputs for the monitor are at the back of the stand, rather than on the bottom of the display. This makes it a lot easier to connect cables to its variety of inputs, including DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, and even MHL that lets you plug in smartphones that are compatible with that format.
This display is an excellent choice for those who might also be considering Apple's $1000 Thunderbolt monitor. They both have 27-inch screens, but the Apple monitor lacks all this professional calibration capability. But I was thinking, for these prices, would it have been impossible to include a Thunderbolt hub for those of us who are of the Mac persuasion? Perhaps relations between Samsung and Apple are so bad that no such technology will find its way onto Samsung products anytime soon. In addition, I was disappointed when connecting USB to the monitor, discovering it only acts as a USB 2.0 hub, and not the latest USB 3.0.
Enough of what it doesn't have -- the monitor surprised me with a pair of speakers that are invisibly installed on the bottom of the display itself, and for those who don't really need to do close listening to music, they will do fine if you don't mind plugging in the monitor via its HDMI or DisplayPort connections. However, if you want to do some serious music listening, these speakers won't cut it. Their bass is weak, and they barely sound better than an old clock radio from the '70s.
But we didn't come here for the sound -- we came here for the superb color reproduction, and this Series 9 display did not disappoint. If you have a serious need for color accuracy and tack-sharp resolution -- or if you're a dandy with $1,200 to blow who's looking for one of the prettiest monitors on the market today -- this monitor should certainly be at the top of your list.
Samsung Series 9 Display: Superb Color
It's hard to show you exactly how accurate the colors are on this monitor, but it looks extraordinary, the best we've seen.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? German chancellor Angela Merkel said Greece has covered "much of the ground" required for recovery, during her landmark visit to the financially stricken country.
Merkel, who stopped in Athens on Tuesday for five hours, said she hoped Greece would remain in the 17-country group that uses the nation eurozone and stressed the government in Athens still had to push through more key cost-cutting reforms.
"Much of the ground has been covered ... There is daily progress," Merkel said after talks with conservative Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. "This is an effort that should be seen through because otherwise it would make the circumstances even more dramatic later on."
Paying her first visit to Greece in five years, Merkel's arrival triggered protests attended by some 50,000 demonstrators in Athens. The rallies were mostly peaceful, but police briefly clashed with several dozen demonstrators and detained more than 50 people throughout the day.
Although Merkel damped expectations in Athens of a strong public pledge to keep Greece in the eurozone, Samaras said Merkel's visit had ended "the country's international isolation."
A new Y Combinator-incubated startup is entering the fintech scene today, aiming to disrupt payday loans and consumer finance. LendUp, is leveraging technology to redefine the payday lending experience, bringing a new level of innovation and transparency to an industry that desperately needs disruption. And the San Francisco-based startup is launching today with funding from an impressive group of VC firms and angels including Y Combinator, Kleiner Perkins, Yuri Milner?s Startfund, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Kapor Capital, Bronze Investments, Founders CoOp, Data Collective, Garry Tan, Harj Taggar, Alexis Ohanian and others.
At a basic level, LendUp is direct lender and has created a way to use small-dollar loans as an opportunity for consumers to build credit and move up the financial ladder. Consumers who have poor or no credit can apply for and receive small-dollar, short-term loans (up to $250 for up to 30 days). But it doesn?t stop there. The company?s mission is to use small-dollar loans as a way to help customers build credit and move up the financial ladder.
As the startup explained to be, last year alone over 15 million Americans took out payday loans, borrowing a total of $45 billion dollars. Many of these Americans are unbanked, meaning they don?t have any credit and can?t use the traditional financial outlets for loans and cash. But most of these payday transactions are a simple fix, and the cycle of poor or no credit continues. Many end up trapped in long-term debt caused by hidden fees, costly rollovers and opaque terms and conditions. Credit agencies don?t acknowledge the payday loan, so even if consumers pay them on time, they don?t receive the positive marks on their credit report.
LendUp prides itself on no hidden fees, no rollovers, lower interest rates, exceptional customer service, instant loan decisions, and an open platform. The company has a selective lending process that uses risk analysis and only approves 15% of applicants, but partners with non-profits to more optimal solutions for the 85% of applicants the startup can?t help. LendUp says that it uses data analytics, a new type of risk model that utilizes non-traditional data sources like social media to make decisions.
For those who do qualify, LendUp starts with a fee of 15 percent of the loan amount. But that fee can be lowered and discounted for repaying the loan early, and by taking educational courses on the platform on good credit, financial planning and more.
LendUp takes it one step further. The company has developed a predictive model to see if these users will be able to be better financial candidates, and if they show good payments behavior, take the online credit courses, LendUp will graduate them up to a type of loan that a bank or credit agency would consider as a real product. And the consumer can start actually developing a credit history. Already customers who are testing LendUp are improving their credit.
For background, the company?s founders are two stepbrothers from Oakland, CA. Sasha Orloff worked at the Grameen Bank (whose founder won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize), The World Bank, and Citigroup. Jacob Rosenberg was the 80th employee at Yahoo and CTO of Platform at Zynga.
As the Orloff brothers explained to me, the company seeks to differentiate itself from companies like Zestcash by creating an actual ladder for the unbanked to gain credit and use traditional financial resources and instruments.
A Change is Coming to Financial Services in October 2012.
Here's a fantastic customer service story from a reader who writes in to Laura Northrup at the Consumerist.
The customer stopped by a Little Caesars while waiting a bus stop, but there was another customer there who had just ordered a ton of pizzas for an event.?The employees told him that there would be a pizza ready in four minutes, and his bus was leaving in 10.
Alas, they still didn't manage to get him a pizza in time, so he abandoned his pizza acquisition attempt and walked back over to the bus stop.
We'll let him explain the rest. From the Consumerist:
"Just when I could see the bus coming down the street, I heard ?delivery? from behind me, and I turned around to see the guy from Caesars with a pizza. I tried to pay, but he said he didn?t have change, and not to worry about the cost for the pizza. I?m still kind of floored by the initiative on the part of that person.
So, in summary, I got a free pizza for the inconvenience of waiting for no pizza, and Caesar?s got a customer who is more likely to stop by after work, and a fat tip on the next time I stop in."
Such a simple and relatively inexpensive (a pizza at Caesars costs five bucks) gesture to right a wrong earned that Little Caesars location a customer who's going to keep coming back.
Have a really good (or really bad) retail or restaurant customer service story? Shoot an email to kbhasin@businessinsider.com.
NOW SEE: 15 Crazy Starbucks Customers Who Will Make You Never Want To Be A Barista >
Excellent seo is important for each and every an online success organization. However, it is often challenging to know which Search engine optimisation strategies are the most effective at getting your business?s site rated extremely on SERPs for your personal particular search phrases. Subsequent are a few easy Search engine optimization ideas which will help you to select the very best Search engine optimisation methods to use:
Your website address, your folders plus your webpage titles should include keywords. You are able to repeat a single important keywords and phrases in all of the three of which, but be sure keywords become more distinct while you approach the web page title. For example, your domain address will be your manufacturer, your folder a kind of merchandise along with the webpage name could be the name of the merchandise offered in this article.
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Spend the cash over a pay out-for each-click (PPC) marketing campaign. It?s typically said you should spend cash to generate money, and Pay per click is among the required spends. Bid on keywords which can be related to your sector. This procedure might help situation your web site in the search engines, particularly for conditions where by you may possibly not currently retain the best organic and natural rating.
Do not use Display online that you want to look motor optimize. Flash can take too much time to stress and can not presently be read by google search spiders, consequently any text message integrated in a Flash file will never be indexed. To search generator optimize an internet site, your site content has to be obvious and crawlable by search engines.
Visit your Search engines web master Core account and be sure that you have enabled ?enhanced image research? this will assist the major search engines optimization because the vast majority of them employs pictures as a big part from the new combined search results? choice. Permitting Search engines to get your images will assist maximize your website?s attempts and articles all round.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a marketing approach that is supposed to drive targeted traffic to your web site and obtain search engine ratings. The theory is to get the greatest position you can to create the top stop when folks are looking for whatever you have.
Don?t forget to use your key word term in product descriptions or captions under the artwork you make use of on your page. Ensure that the image you utilize really concerns the caption, although, and that the search phrases are composed differently than you?ve used them within your name, first paragraph, and also other headings.
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