iOS: If you're the type to take on a lot of different side projects, it's easy to forget about their details. Was It Worth It is an app that tracks your projects, their cost, how much fun you had with them, and any knowledge you might have gained.
Was It Worth It is aimed more toward freelancers who take on a lot of different projects, but it's useful for anyone who DIYs their way through a lot of jobs. The goal is to keep track of what projects are worth it to you. It does this by letting you enter in how much money you made (or lost), the amount of fun you had working on it, and the knowledge you gained. From there, Was It Worth It breaks your projects down into a nice graph so you can quickly see if that work is worth doing again. It's simple, easy to use, and if you're the type who has a lot of projects on the table at once, Was It Worth It is helpful to keep track of it all.
Was It Worth It (free) | iTunes App Store via Swiss Miss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina will seek on Wednesday to persuade a U.S. appeals court to reverse an order that it pay $1.3 billion to a group of dissident bondholders stemming from the country's 2001 default, a showdown that could have wide impact on global debt markets.
The arguments at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York are being closely watched amid fears of a new Argentina debt crisis if the country must pay the so-called "holdout" investors.
For years, the holdouts have demanded full payment after spurning two debt exchanges. Led by Elliott Management affiliate NML Capital Ltd and Aurelius Capital Management, they say they are simply attempting to hold Argentina to its obligations and that the country has plenty of reserves to pay them.
Argentina, though, calls these investors vultures and has vowed not to pay them. A victory by the holdouts, Argentina argues, would harm investors who agreed to the debt restructurings as well as banks that handle its payments. The country also says such a ruling could make future debt crises "unresolvable" and spur further investor litigation.
A decision against Argentina would deal a major blow to President Cristina Fernandez. As a sign of the importance of the court hearing, Argentina's Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino is planning to attend the hearing, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.
A three-judge panel is set to hear arguments from lawyers for Argentina and for the holdouts, as well as several other parties.
Argentina defaulted 12 years ago on about $100 billion in sovereign debt. About 92 percent of its bonds were restructured in 2005 and 2010, giving holders 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.
If ordered to pay the small group of holdout creditors, there are fears that Argentina could default again on $24 billion in previously restructured debt.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in New York ruled in February 2011 that Argentina violated a key provision of its bond contracts. That provision required the country to treat all of its creditors equally by paying the holdouts if it also paid investors who had agreed to the two debt swap deals, the judge found.
In October, the 2nd Circuit largely upheld that ruling. It is now reviewing Griesa's plan for how the payments would work. Griesa has said the next time Argentina made an interest payment to the exchange bondholders, it would have to pay $1.33 billion owed to the holdouts into a court escrow account.
The appeals court is also examining treatment of Bank of New York Mellon , which acts as trustee to the exchange bondholders, and the impact from the ruling's injunction on other third parties.
In their appeal, Argentina's lawyers have contended U.S. courts do not have the authority to order a sovereign government to turn over assets to bondholders.
But Henry Weisburg, a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling who has followed the case, said Argentina made similar arguments during its last hearing before the appeals court. And he also noted the appeal will be heard by the same panel that issued the October ruling backing Griesa.
"You have to wonder what traction they'll have the second time around," he said of Argentina.
In court papers, lawyers for Argentina have said the country would be willing to reopen its restructuring offer. Such a move, though, would require legislative permission and likely be rejected by the holdouts.
Argentina is separately awaiting a decision on whether the court will grant a rehearing of the October decision that required equal treatment of the holdout investors.
The U.S. government has backed that appeal, saying if the ruling is upheld, it could undermine the ability of other governments to negotiate future debt restructurings.
The appeals court's ultimate decision after Wednesday's hearing could be the final word on the matter. Although the court could end up rehearing the case or the Supreme Court could ultimately take up the case, such reviews are rare.
The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Additional reporting by Hilary Burke in Buenos Aires; Editing by Martha Graybow and Jackie Frank)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Wonder bread could start appearing in school lunchboxes again soon.
A person familiar with the situation says a bid by Flowers Foods to buy Wonder and several other bread brands from bankrupt Hostess was met with no competing offers. The individual requested anonymity because the auction process is private.
Hostess hasn't been making any of its cakes and breads since late November, when the company announced it was going out of business and shuttered its plants after years of financial struggles.
The $360 million bid by Flowers also includes Nature's Pride, Butternut, Home Pride and Merita breads. An auction will still be held Thursday for a separate $30 million bid by Flowers for Beefsteak. The source said a competing offer for that brand was submitted by Mexico's Grupo Bimbo, which makes Thomas' English muffins and Entenmann's cakes.
Any sales would be subject to approval by a bankruptcy court on March 19.
Hostess has also picked opening bidders, known as a "stalking horse," for its snack cakes. A joint offer from two investment firms ? Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC ? was picked as the lead bid for Twinkies and other snack cakes. Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn has said he expects that auction to be "wild and wooly."
McKee Foods, which makes Little Debbie snack cakes, was picked as the lead bidder for Drake's cakes, which include Devil Dogs, Funny Bones and Yodels. The deadline to submit competing offers for the snack cakes isn't until mid-March.
Flowers Foods, based in Thomasville, Ga., makes Tastykakes and breads including Nature's Own. Representatives for Flowers Food and Grupo Bimbo did not immediately return calls for comment.
Taken together, Hostess has said its six bread brands generated just under $1 billion in sales last year, with Wonder bread accounting for about half of that. Flower Foods, which generates about $3 billion in annual sales, said it expects the deals to add to its earning this year. The company plans to finance the deal through a mix of cash and debt.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee This track-and-field star, four-time Olympian, and three-time gold medalist was diagnosed with asthma as a freshman at UCLA.
Paula Radcliffe Running a marathon is difficult, winning one is?very?difficult, and winning one with asthma is near impossible. ?But that?s what British long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe has done?seven times. The current world record holder in the marathon, Radcliffe was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma as a teenager.
What do I have in common with both of these athletes?
Last weekend my husband and I were talking about knowing how to breathe, while running, in a way that helps prevent asthma symptoms. That quickly lead to a conversation about what professional athletes have accomplished despite being diagnosed with asthma. At the time, neither of us could name any but we were sure they existed.
After an asthma attack during a run (about 6 months ago) I experienced a fear of it happening again. That fear [temporarily] changed my running. I waited for perfect weather conditions to run outside, I hesitated to increase my pace and I wouldn?t run by myself. With time that fear subsided and was followed by a [temporary] frustration of feeling limited. Then, there was determination. For about 6 weeks I?ve been determined to figure out how I can run with asthma. If Olympic medalists can do it so can I. I?m learning my limits and how to work around them. If I have to slow down to keep running I slow down. Slowing down is always better than having to stop. I still have a lot to learn but I?m determined to not let asthma keep me from running.
What Has Worked For Me || Tips for Running With Asthma
Be honest with yourself about your limits and work around them. I know I can?t run outside when it?s 16 degrees or colder particularly if it?s windy. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology,?people with exercise-induced asthma have airways that are overly sensitive to sudden changes in temperature and humidity, especially when breathing colder, drier air.
Warm up before you work out. Warm up for about 10 minutes with a gradual increase in intensity.
If it?s cold and you?re running outside, cover your mouth and nose to warm the air before it enters the lungs.
Use an inhaler and know the timing that works for you. I use my inhaler 30 minutes before EVERY workout.
Know your body.?If you?re running and you notice that you?re breathing is becoming labored and shallow, slow down your pace dramatically and walk. Concentrate on taking long, calm, and deep breaths.
Did you know either of these athletes had asthma? Is there anything that you have learned how to work around and keep running?
?
Tagged: asthma, inspiration, running, Top 5, training
Contact: Catherine Kolf ckolf@jhmi.edu 443-287-2251 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Researchers identify 25 human proteins that may be crucial for HIV-1 infection and survival
Studying HIV-1, the most common and infectious HIV subtype, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified 25 human proteins "stolen" by the virus that may be critical to its ability to infect new cells. HIV-1 viruses capture many human proteins from the cells they infect but the researchers believe these 25 proteins may be particularly important because they are found in HIV-1 viruses coming from two very different types of infected cells. A report on the discovery, published online in the Journal of Proteome Research on Feb. 22, could help in building diagnostic tools and novel treatment strategies to fight HIV infection.
When a new HIV particle emerges from an infected human cell, it wraps itself in membrane and proteins from the host cell, effectively disguising itself from the immune system's sentinels. Scientists believe that some of these proteins are specifically "chosen" by the virus in order to enhance its ability to survive, while other proteins may be just randomly caught up in the viral packaging.
"Human proteins incorporated into viruses could potentially be used to find, and selectively kill, cells harboring HIV, but the problem is that HIV can steal hundreds of different proteins unique to each cell type that it infects, leaving too many targets for researchers and drug companies to chase after," according to David Graham, Ph.D., the senior author of the study report and assistant professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The new research, he says, narrows the target pool to a small number of proteins that may be most important for HIV infection and survival.
HIV infects several types of cells throughout the body, most notably CD4+ T-cells and macrophages, both major parts of the immune system. Graham and his team suspected that a comparison of human proteins incorporated into HIV particles from different cell types could lead them to the human proteins important to the virus' disease activity.
After isolating HIV-1 particles from lab-grown human CD4+ T-cells, Graham and his team used powerful protein sequencing and bioinformatics tools to identify all of the associated human proteins. They then used the same bioinformatics tools to re-analyze protein content information from HIV-1 particles isolated from lab-grown human macrophages, data previously published by another group of researchers.
With the help of sophisticated computing, the team identified 279 proteins taken up by HIV-1 particles from one or the other cell type. Of these, only 25 were shared by viruses from both cell types.
One protein the research team identified that could be particularly important to diagnosis and treatment is CD44, because it appears to be the only one of the 25 capable of binding to other cells. It helps the viruses attach themselves to sites of inflammation. Graham suggests that "this makes a lot of sense for a virus that likes to infect T-cells and macrophages because both types of cells migrate to sites of inflammation to help out. Little do they know that HIV viruses are lying in wait."
###
Other authors of the report include Michael Linde, David Colquhoun, Ceereena Mohien, Thomas Kole, Veronica Aquino and the late Robert Cotter of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Nathan Edwards of Georgetown University; and James Hildreth from the University of California, Davis.
This work was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (contract NHLBI-HV-10-05_(2)), the National Institute of Mental Health (P01 MH070306) and the Johns Hopkins University Dean's Office.
On the Web:
Link to article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/pr300918r
Graham Lab: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/mcp/faculty/Graham.html
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Media Relations and Public Affairs
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.
Contact: Catherine Kolf ckolf@jhmi.edu 443-287-2251 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Researchers identify 25 human proteins that may be crucial for HIV-1 infection and survival
Studying HIV-1, the most common and infectious HIV subtype, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified 25 human proteins "stolen" by the virus that may be critical to its ability to infect new cells. HIV-1 viruses capture many human proteins from the cells they infect but the researchers believe these 25 proteins may be particularly important because they are found in HIV-1 viruses coming from two very different types of infected cells. A report on the discovery, published online in the Journal of Proteome Research on Feb. 22, could help in building diagnostic tools and novel treatment strategies to fight HIV infection.
When a new HIV particle emerges from an infected human cell, it wraps itself in membrane and proteins from the host cell, effectively disguising itself from the immune system's sentinels. Scientists believe that some of these proteins are specifically "chosen" by the virus in order to enhance its ability to survive, while other proteins may be just randomly caught up in the viral packaging.
"Human proteins incorporated into viruses could potentially be used to find, and selectively kill, cells harboring HIV, but the problem is that HIV can steal hundreds of different proteins unique to each cell type that it infects, leaving too many targets for researchers and drug companies to chase after," according to David Graham, Ph.D., the senior author of the study report and assistant professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The new research, he says, narrows the target pool to a small number of proteins that may be most important for HIV infection and survival.
HIV infects several types of cells throughout the body, most notably CD4+ T-cells and macrophages, both major parts of the immune system. Graham and his team suspected that a comparison of human proteins incorporated into HIV particles from different cell types could lead them to the human proteins important to the virus' disease activity.
After isolating HIV-1 particles from lab-grown human CD4+ T-cells, Graham and his team used powerful protein sequencing and bioinformatics tools to identify all of the associated human proteins. They then used the same bioinformatics tools to re-analyze protein content information from HIV-1 particles isolated from lab-grown human macrophages, data previously published by another group of researchers.
With the help of sophisticated computing, the team identified 279 proteins taken up by HIV-1 particles from one or the other cell type. Of these, only 25 were shared by viruses from both cell types.
One protein the research team identified that could be particularly important to diagnosis and treatment is CD44, because it appears to be the only one of the 25 capable of binding to other cells. It helps the viruses attach themselves to sites of inflammation. Graham suggests that "this makes a lot of sense for a virus that likes to infect T-cells and macrophages because both types of cells migrate to sites of inflammation to help out. Little do they know that HIV viruses are lying in wait."
###
Other authors of the report include Michael Linde, David Colquhoun, Ceereena Mohien, Thomas Kole, Veronica Aquino and the late Robert Cotter of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Nathan Edwards of Georgetown University; and James Hildreth from the University of California, Davis.
This work was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (contract NHLBI-HV-10-05_(2)), the National Institute of Mental Health (P01 MH070306) and the Johns Hopkins University Dean's Office.
On the Web:
Link to article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/pr300918r
Graham Lab: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/mcp/faculty/Graham.html
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Media Relations and Public Affairs
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.
The title of today's post - don't miss motherhood - was inspired by a phrase that I wrote last week in the article the imperfectly beautiful motherhood. It was "you can miss motherhood looking for perfect." ?As I thought about those words that resonated with not only me, but many of you, I began to ponder the idea of missing motherhood and a memory from years past came back. Joy in motherhood is possible. One just needs to be willing to embrace life right where life currently is. Be blessed. ~rachel
It feels like yesterday when I sat in my grandmother's living room with my newborn daughter, Hannah. This is my sweet grandmother who would love to braid my hair and hold my hands, who baked Christmas cookies for weeks, and who sat next to me and taught me how to play Pathetique Sonata by Beethoven. She's my grandmother who was content in watching birds from her window and loved to simply have her family over so they could be around each other. ?Now, we were together, in her home, on a warm and muggy day in the middle of early July. I was there with my first baby feeling proud and overwhelmed and very much like a rookie. As I sat in that humid room, I watched my grandma look at Hannah with wonder and eyes rimmed with tears.
I don't feel as old as I am, Rachel.
I looked at her, my grandmother with hands that have lived, and I saw her holding my newborn's hands in her hands. She rubbed those little hands, those hands of my Hannah with an entire life yet to live, and got lost in a bit of memory. My grandmother, who less than two years later would die from Alzheimers and not even remember those words about life, and moments, and finding joy that she blessed me with, impacted my life. My motherhood perspective.?
It will go by fast, so so fast.
A sigh and a look of nostalgia.
Don't race through it.
Don't race through it. As the years tick by, and the calendars get flipped for a new one and a new one and a new one, I've watched my years of being a mother expand from just those months to now almost seventeen years. It feels like it was yesterday that I sat in that room on her floor and listened to her talk about time and motherhood and joy.?
It would be easy to miss a motherhood.
It wouldn't be intentional, but it could be easy. It could be easy to live thinking that when this gets fixed, or our home gets updated, or when we move, or when our finances are better that then I can be happy and can enjoy this moment in time with my kids. Don't make motherhood based on the context of things, events, or the idea of perfection ?- you'll miss out on today. And I know that today might not look anything like you want it to look like. Today might even hurt, be tricky, be painful, and actually be hard to look at. But for those kids? They need to see you. They need you - not all the things that you think you need to give them right now, but you. ?Don't put off till tomorrow what you could be doing today.
I don't feel as old as I am.
What true words. Words that have embedded themselves in the very impressionable parts of my heart and have defined my outlook on today. Live today like you don't know about tomorrow. Oh, yes, sweet mom, plan ahead for tomorrow, but don't miss today, and all of the beauty of motherhood, by racing so fast just to get to tomorrow.
For you see, tomorrow, tomorrow means another page turned, another moment passed. And today, right now, this very second is a gift in your motherhood journey. You don't know when the lasts will happen - the last time you carry them up the stairs, or they ask for the covers to be pulled up just so, Or they need you to make their pbj sandwich cut into triangles, or when they want you to hold their hand through the parking lot, or when they will want their favorite story read aloud, or when they will go out your front door not to return except to visit. Those days will come. They will.?
Live today as a celebration. Today, right now, like you are being given an amazing gift.?
Years ago, when I was a lanky eighth grader with frizzy and untamed reddish blond hair and a face smattered with freckles, my same grandmother wrote these words to me,
...that you may live life and find joy...
It wasn't until about two years ago, and after my site was already named, ?that I found those words again. ?She is right - live life and find joy. Motherhood is the same. Live your life, live out these motherhood years, right now in the midst, and find joy. The beauty of this embracing life is that you can start right now, today. It's not dependent upon yesterday, but your choice today, and then next, and the next.
My grandmother lived a beautiful life, not a perfect life, but a beautiful life.
Don't miss motherhood.
Live life. Find joy.
**** Tomorrow, in a follow up to this post, I'm sharing 7 Ways to Embrace Motherhood - they're practical steps and words about truly learning to live a life that not only looks for joy but loves the little things.
to subscribe by email - click?HERE.
Images and original content are sole property of Rachel Martin and may not be used, copied or transmitted without prior written consent.
Feb. 26, 2013 ? The popular half-gloves that leave fingers uncovered for texting may be good for communicating electronically but they may also lead to permanent loss of fingers due to exposure to the cold.
"Fingers are one of the first body parts to feel the effects of the cold and damp and along with toes, ears and the nose are frequently subjected to frostbite and even amputation," says Arthur Sanford, MD, Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Burns, Loyola University Health System. "Better to fat finger a text due to wearing winter gloves than to lose a finger due to the cold."
Frostbite is most likely to happen in body parts farthest from the heart and those with large exposed areas. "Blood vessels start to constrict at or below 32 degrees Celsius to preserve body temperature," says Sanford. "The lack of blood in areas of the body can lead to freezing and the death of skin tissue."
Sanford says he treats frostbite in people of all ages. "The old lady who goes out in the snow to get her mail, falls, breaks a hip and lays in the cold and wet for hours until being discovered is a typical victim of frostbite," he says. "But the younger person who goes on a drinking bender and walks home in the snow and damp is also a familiar sight at Loyola trauma."
When suffering from prolonged exposure to cold, use room temperature or slightly warm water to gently revitalize the body. "Do not use hot water, do not rub with handfuls of snow and do not vigorously massage the frozen area," warns Sanford. Overstimulation can actually worsen the situation.
Winter wellness tips from Sanford and Loyola include the following:
? Dress in layers. "If a sweater, pair of socks or other article of clothing gets wet, you can quickly remove it and still be protected from the cold and wet," says Sanford.
? Wear a hat, gloves or mittens and proper footwear including socks and boots. "Texting gloves may look cool and be handy for communicating but it is better to wear full gloves or mittens and save your fingers," says Sanford.
? When outerwear becomes wet, go inside and change to dry clothing. "Wet socks especially are dangerous and can lead to a condition called trench foot which results in poor blood circulation, decay of tissue, infections and even amputation," says Sanford.
? If affected area becomes numb, turns red or blue, swells or feels hot, go to the emergency department. "An emergency physician will assess the tissue and take the proper steps to save the body part," says Sanford.
Hypothermia, when the body temperature is below 95 degrees F(35 degrees C), was the cause of death for 700 Americans between 1979 -- 1998. "Frostbite in January, operate in July is a common mantra here at Loyola," says Sanford. "Bundling up for winter may take you out of media circulation temporarily but better that than to permanently lose the ability to text due to frostbite."
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Now that EA has gotten Origin for both Windows and Mac under its belt, it's clued GamesBeat into its plans for a cross-platform account system that's taken 1,500 engineers 18 months to build. With the "single identity" solution, gamers can play games tied to their accounts, find friends currently online and join up for multiplayer, message fellow users and access save states across platforms ranging from consoles and smartphones to tablets and social networks. Of course, the business side comes into play too: by keeping tabs on users, Electronic Arts could make better game recommendations and boost its marketing's effectiveness. As of now, there's no word on when the system will find its way into your gaming.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
China is now the world’s largest smartphone marketplace, with Flurry estimating that there will be 246 million smart devices in China by the end of this month. It’s a potentially lucrative market for app developers, but almost impossible to crack without the necessary language or cultural understanding to reach Chinese users. Educational app makers, however, have SmarTots to help. Founded in December 2010 by Jesper Lodahl, a former Nokia developer, SmarTots localizes apps and markets them on China’s iTunes. While the company’s current focus is iOS, Lodahl says SmarTots will also tackle a “very aggressive Android expansion” this year and already has a shortlist of carriers, hardware providers, and developers it plans to work with. SmarTots announced earlier this month that it has received an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from?SoftBank Ventures Korea that will allow it to bring more children’s educational apps from U.S. developers to China. The company previously raised about $1 million in its seed round and its investors include?SoftBank’s?Pan-Asia Fund,?Xu Xiaoping,?co-founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, AngelVest, ChinaRock Capital Management and SOSVentures. Since its launch, the SmarTots library has grown to 30 apps and the company says it hit one million downloads in January. SmarTots currently works with a roster of 13 developers from around the world, localizing images, graphics, text and audio for Chinese kids and writing descriptions for China’s iTunes store. Most apps are for children aged three to five, though SmarTots’ target age range is as wide as two to seven. Before founding SmarTots with chief product officer Victor Wong, Lodahl spent seven years working for Nokia, where he developed four phones (Lodahl holds two patents for technology that have been implemented in more than 1 billion mobile handsets) before taking a position with Nokia China for two years. This is Lodahl’s second startup in China–his first was a Chinese social network called Club Beautiful. Lodahl decided to found SmarTots with Wong two years ago after noticing how much children loved playing with the then-recently launched iPad. Instead of having the technology isolate individual family members absorbed in their own devices, Lodahl envisioned SmarTots as a way for families to learn together. “The whole idea came to us after we saw the disconnect, kids geting sucked into the iPad while parents were on their BlackBerries checking emails all day with no one really connecting,” says Lodahl. With that goal in
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Monday said looming automatic spending cuts are already affecting the economy, while a top administration official warned that the nation's borders would be less secure if billions of dollars are yanked from the budget Friday.
"The uncertainty is already having an effect," Obama said. "Companies are preparing layoff notices. Families are preparing to cut back on expenses. The longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become."
Despite the urgent rhetoric, there was no indication the White House and congressional Republicans were actively negotiating a deal to avoid the so-called sequester ahead of the end of the week deadline. The last known conversation between Obama and GOP leaders was last week and there have been no in-person meetings between the parties this year.
With Congress back from a weeklong recess, House Speaker John Boehner showed little willingness to move off his long-held position that the sequester be offset through targeted spending cuts, not the package of cuts and tax increases Obama supports.
"Mr. President, you got your tax increase," Boehner said, referring to the tax rate increases that took effect on Jan. 1. "It's time to cut spending here in Washington."
The $85 billion budget-cutting mechanism could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections. Domestic and defense spending alike would be trimmed, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of government workers and contractors.
The White House continued laying out in stark terms what the cuts would mean for government services, dispatching Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to warn of the implications for critical security functions.
"I don't think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester as without sequester," said Napolitano, adding that the impact would be "'like a rolling ball. It will keep growing."
Napolitano focused in particular on the impact to the border, saying her agency would be forced to furlough 5,000 patrol agents. She tamped down the notion that budget cuts would make the nation more vulnerable to terrorism, but said the sequester would make it "awfully, awfully tough" to minimize that risk.
Also Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said visiting hours would be cut at all 398 national parks, just as they prepare for an influx of spring and summer visitors.
Elsewhere in the government, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said travelers could see delayed flights. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 70,000 fewer children from low-income families would have access to Head Start programs. And furloughed meat inspectors could leave plants idled.
Obama will seek to build public support for his sequester offset plan Tuesday when he travels to Newport News, Va., a community that would be impacted by the defense cuts.
The sequester was designed as an unpalatable fallback, meant to take effect only if a congressional super-committee failed to come up with at least $1 trillion in savings from benefit programs.
Many of the nation's governors, who are gathered in Washington for their annual meeting, voiced frustration over the impending cuts, saying Washington's inability to strike a deal had created widespread uncertainty in the economy and hampered economic recovery in their states.
"The president needs to show leadership," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican considered a potential 2016 presidential contender, following a meeting with Obama. "The reality is it can be done. This administration has an insatiable appetite for new revenue."
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a favorite of her party's conservative wing, pointed her anger at both Democrats and Republicans.
"No one should be playing golf. No one should be taking vacations," Haley said, taking a shot at Obama's recent golf outing and Congress' latest recess. "What they need to do is do what these governors do every day. We stay until we get it done."
Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut concurred.
"They need to get out of that box that sits under the dome and understand that this has real implications in people's lives," he said. "Work with the president, find a way to get it done ? or if you want, just turn it over to us governors, and we'll negotiate."
The governors, emerging from a closed-door meeting with Obama Monday, said the president had assured them the administration is pursuing solutions, but offered no assurances that officials would find a way ahead out ahead of the deadline.
___
Associated Press writers Ken Thomas, Steve Peoples and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
Winter is still here, I'm still buried in snow, but March is at last on the horizon. Unlike the last few years, however, I'm not sure exactly what that means, though I have some ideas. Here's what we have to look forward to -- or not, as the case may be -- for Apple, Mobile Nations, the iMore app, and iMore in general this spring.
March un-madness
January has come and gone without a 2011-style Verizon iPhone event, or a 2012-style education event and -- so far -- OS X preview. Now March approaches. For the last 3 years, Apple's held iPad events in March. This year the iPad and iPad mini were both updated not 4 months ago, and the logical next steps -- a thinner and lighter casing for the iPad, and a Retina display for the iPad mini -- both look like they might take a little more time. If the iPad has been even semi-permamently switched to the lucrative holiday quarter for release, what does that mean for Apple's spring event? For a while, Apple was doing iOS SDK events in April, but they were also doing new iPhone debuts at WWDC in June. We have iWatch, iTV, and Apple TV SDK rumors -- we've been over most of them more than once -- but very little when it comes to imminent product release plans. Forget "winter is coming", I want to know what spring is bringing...
Podcast makeover
If you subscribe to our Mobile Nations podcasts -- and you really should -- you may have noticed the big makeover they got yesterday. So far reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, so thanks again to Marc Edwards for the template, and all of you for digging it. Earlier today we started pushing out the new look across our Twitter accounts as well. Nothing like some spring cleaning!
Wallpapers with those designs, for the many of you who've asked, are now available for Retina iPad in 2048x2048 in our iMore Wallpaper Forum. I'll add iPhone optimized versions later this week.
We're also trying to solidify the podcast schedule, so here's where it stands right now:
iMore show: Live Sunday night, posts Monday morning.
[MacBreak Weekly: Live Tuesday afternoon, posts Tuesday evening.] (Not a Mobile Nations show, but you can find me on it every week so we need to schedule around it as well.)
Debug/Iterate: Posts Wednesday mornings (alternate weeks, not recorded live).
Windows Phone Central: Live Wednesday afternoon, posts Thursday morning (every second week).
ZEN & TECH: Live Wednesday night, posts Thursday morning (every second week).
Android Central: Live Thursday night, posts Friday morning.
CrackBerry: We're going to get Kevin and crew on a schedule. They've been warned.
Adhoc: As the name implies, posts whenever we do it (not recorded live).
Mobile Nations: Live whenever we're all around and not traveling, posts later that day.
If we move anything around, I'll be sure to let you know!
iMore app 2.0
We're in late stage beta on iMore app 2.0. We couldn't get everything we wanted into it, but we've gotten a lot. Here's a teaser. We'll be submitting it soon, and then it'll be out as soon as it gets approved. Fingers crossed.
iMore next
If the above didn't quite get the point across -- Mobile Nations is going through some fairly explosive growth at the moment, and iMore along with it. And running a site like iMore takes an enormous amount of time and energy, including as much if not more behind the scenes. Kevin has Adam helping him out full time on CrackBerry, Phil has Jerry and Alex full time on Android Central, and Chris and Simon, our full-time cross-site editors, help out a ton on both those sites as well (and iMore as well, when time allows).
But we need more. So I'm looking for someone to help out in a similar capacity full time on iMore. I'm not in a rush by any means, and I'll take as much time as I need to to find the right person, but to take iMore to the next level is going to take a lot of work, and more effort than even our current team of amazing part-timers and free-lancers can muster what with their real lives and all.
More on that, and on everything else, in the coming weeks...
BERLIN (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry offered a defense of freedom of speech, religion and thought in the United States on Tuesday telling German students that in America "you have a right to be stupid if you want to be."
"As a country, as a society, we live and breathe the idea of religious freedom and religious tolerance, whatever the religion, and political freedom and political tolerance, whatever the point of view," Kerry told the students in Berlin, the second stop on his inaugural trip as secretary of state.
"People have sometimes wondered about why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade even though it's the most provocative thing in the world and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another," he added.
"The reason is, that's freedom, freedom of speech. In America you have a right to be stupid - if you want to be," he said, prompting laughter. "And you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be.
"And we tolerate it. We somehow make it through that. Now, I think that's a virtue. I think that's something worth fighting for," he added. "The important thing is to have the tolerance to say, you know, you can have a different point of view."
Kerry made the comments on his first foreign trip since becoming secretary of state on February 1. After one-night stops in London and Berlin, he visits Paris, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha before returning to Washington on March 6.
While speaking to the students and earlier to U.S. diplomats, Kerry reminisced about the time he spent in Berlin in the 1950s as the intrepid son of an American diplomat and retold a story of sneaking across to East Berlin with his bike.
"I used to have great adventures. My bicycle and I were best friends. And I biked all around this city. I remember biking down Kurfuerstendamm and seeing nothing but rubble. This was in 1954 ... the war was very much still on people's minds," he told the diplomats, referring to West Berlin's main shopping avenue.
"One day, using my diplomatic passport, I biked through the checkpoint right into the east sector and noticed very quickly how dark and unpopulated (it was) and sort of unhappy people looked," he added, saying it left an impression "that hit this 12-year-old kid."
"I kind of felt a foreboding about it and I didn't spend much time. I kind of skedaddled and got back out of there and went home and proudly announced to my parents what I had done and was promptly grounded and had my passport pulled," he added.
"As a 12-year-old, I saw the difference between East and West," he later told the students. "I never made another trip like that. But I have never forgotten it. And now, it's vanished, vanished."
(This story is refiled to correct typo in paragraph 4)
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Jon Hemming)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Americans' confidence in the economy rebounded in February, reversing three straight months of declines as shoppers began adjusting to a payroll tax hike last month.
The New York-based Conference Board says Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index stands at 69.6, up from a revised 58.4 in January. Economists had expected 60.5, according to research firm FactSet.
It was the highest reading since November's 71.5. Confidence has fallen since then as shoppers were worried about growing economic uncertainty.
The consumer confidence indicator is watched closely because consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. The figure is still well below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy.
Playing off his?pre-Oscars prediction?that everyone would hate him at the Oscars, Seth MacFarlane spent the first 19 minutes of the Academy Awards on Sunday making sure everyone would, in fact, hate him.?After some real stinkers, the main conceit was William Shatner descending on a screen as Captain Kirk, from the future, to tell MacFarlane to do a better job of hosting, in a kind of alternate-reality bit that turned pretty sordid?and pretty fast. ...
A bill to create an athletic commission in South Dakota is going nowhere fast, largely thanks to the ignorance of Gov. Dennis Daugaard and state house Rep. Steve Hickey.
The lack of knowledge and the lack of research both Daugaard and Hickey showed about MMA has to be frightening for persons who live in South Dakota. If they can't be bothered to do the minimal research required to learn that MMA is far safer than other "mainstream" sports, including football, it's scary to think about the laws they'll pass in the state regarding education, health care and budgets.
The UFC is the largest MMA promoter in the world. No fighter has ever suffered traumatic brain injury, let alone died, in the UFC's 20-year history. A 2006 study done by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and which appeared in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found MMA has far less traumatic brain injury than other sports.
Mixed Martial Arts competitions have changed dramatically since the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993. The overall injury rate in MMA competitions is now similar to other combat sports, including boxing. Knockout rates are lower in MMA competitions than in boxing. This suggests a reduced risk of TBI [traumatic brain injury] in MMA competitions when compared to other events involving striking.
MMA events must continue to be properly supervised by trained referees and ringside physicians, and the rules implemented by state sanctioning?including weight classes, limited rounds per match, proper safety gear, and banning of the most devastating attacks? must be strictly enforced. Further research is necessary to continue to improve safety in this developing new sport.
Injury rates in regulated professional MMA competition are similar to other combat sports; the overall risk of critical sports-related injury appears low. Additional study is warranted to achieve a better understanding of injury trends and ways to further lower injury risk in MMA.
The simple fact is that a random NFL player is at far greater risk of a serious brain injury than is a random MMA fighter. Sadly, neither Gov. Daugaard nor Rep. Hickey bothered to do much investigation or educate themselves before speaking out.
A state athletic commission's job is, at the core, to protect the fighters. It makes sure the proposed matches are fair and that promoters have doctors and an ambulance at all events. The commissions also require qualified referees, who stop fights when one fighter is in danger. It also requires fighters to undergo extensive medical examinations before fighting to make certain they are fit to compete. States such as Nevada, California and New York, with strong commissions, have discovered injuries fighters didn't know they had and prevented them from competing. That wouldn't be the case in South Dakota, with no commission to require those tests.
A fear of many states with strong commissions is that promoters will travel across state lines to put on shows in states such as South Dakota, where there is no regulation and where, as a result, costs are less. But the result is that it is far less safe for the competitors.
Sadly, neither Daugaard nor Hickey recognize that. Hickey told the Argus Leader he was angered by the thought of his state sanctioning MMA.
I'm offended that the state would legitimize cage-fighting and the bloody violence that those kinds of spectacles create. I think it's interesting that we declare that it is a crime for one human being to strike another, and yet the state now proceeds to legitimize, and label a sport, cage-fighting.
With all due respect, Gov. Daugaard, a few points:
? It is a crime for one human to strike another outside of the bounds of athletic competition. But it is no crime to strike another in the context of sport and when doctors and referees are available to protect the athletes and where the athletes have signed a contract to compete against each other.
? MMA fights sometimes get bloody. But no fighter to my knowledge has ever suffered anything worse than scarring as a result of being cut. It is important to note that a lot of the cuts are on the forehead above the eyes, where they mix with sweat and make them seem far worse than they are.
? States that have athletic commissions ban fighters who have sustained head injuries from competing again for several months. And before even being allowed to practice in a gym, the fighter needs to be cleared by a doctor.
? MMA is a combination of sports, many of which are already legal in South Dakota, including boxing, wrestling, karate, jiu-jitsu and judo.
Before choosing the house painting company that?s best for you, you need to make sure that the painters you hire are reliable. Before making any decisions regarding the best painter that is right for you, you must make sure that the painting company is reliable and reputable.Make sure you screen multiple painters before hiring and check all of their professional references to find the best contractor. It is always a good sign when a house painting company hires their own employees rather than subbing out their work to other contractors.
Always be sure to see if your contractor is licensed and make sure the painters working on your home have experience and are skilled workers. It is a good idea to check and see if there are any outstanding complaints online about the contractor you are considering hiring. If you follow these steps and use your common sense you will be closer to getting a trustworthy house painting company to work on your home, said some painters Christchurch.
A variety of different factors will contribute to the time it takes to complete your house painting project.The time it takes to paint an interior is different than the amount of time it takes to paint the exterior. Setbacks in the schedule can occur based on the weather during your particular project so it is important to also consider things like humidity, heat and rain that can affect your project. The time it takes to finish the project can also be affected by the square footage and height of the building which may require crews to take extra safety precautions and extra ladder movements which can add to the time. To insure that your needs and deadlines are met by the house painting company you want, make sure you schedule your project weeks or even months in advance.
Every house we paint is totally different than the last as each homeowner has different preferences making no two jobs the same. The cost of painting your home depends on a variety of factors when calculating the exact price. Some of the factors that influence pricing are the experience of the Phoenix painters on the job, the square footage of the house, the quality of the paint being used and whether or not you are getting the interior or exterior of the house painted. These are just a few of the many considerations that we use when calculating a price to paint your house.
Be very cautious of any contractor looking to do your painting for very cheap. It?s common that these low priced painting contractors will leave you with a disappointing paint job and they will use illegal workers and low quality paint.Spend the extra money to get your paint job done right the first time and you will be glad you did. Eclipse Painting is dedicated to giving you the highest quality standards in craftsmanship, service and product. One can also refer to http://www.mrcarpetcleaner.co.nz/ for the related services.
Posts related to Some Common House Painting Questions
Internet marketing is about promoting your business on the web. It can be difficult to know where to start, but it needn't be daunting. Keep reading for some great advice. Take Advantage Of Internet Marketing With These Tips
Helpful Internet Marketing Tips For Easy Success Consider rewriting your content from time to time to give your site a different look. After you've found a tone that is particularly effective for your products and your customers, start employing it regularly and make all of your content consistent. Remember to pay attention to what your customers are saying.
Craft your banner ads so that they stand out from the other million banner ads on the web. Try to create an interesting and unique banner ad to entice potential visitors.
Advertise your company on popular websites online. This can really help get your name out there and is worth the initial investment in the long run. Make the effort to find out which websites have high traffic, because you need your advertisement to be seen by more customers, rather than fewer.
Grow Your Brand With These Top Internet Marketing Tips An excellent strategy for operating a profitable online business is to look at your competition. Peruse your competitors' websites, noting what they could be doing better. When you spot services that are lacking on other websites, emphasize these services on your website so you can stand out among your competition.
One terrific tool for internet marketing is putting a spot on your website where visitors can post reviews. Seeing feedback from genuine customers can be very persuasive to those trying to decide whether or not to buy. The extra content is also great for increasing your site's visibility!
Incorporate an automatic electronic signature into your emails as it portrays a more professional image. A signature acts as a business card, so use this tool wisely by maximizing exposure. When you send emails, the person receiving them can see your position and the business you work for and can actually be a great way to market your business.
To help convince your audience that they should purchase your product, link them to a page that offers relevant information in an engaging way; perhaps through a video. If people can imagine themselves using a product, they are far more likely to buy it. Willingly giving out in-depth information about your products shows that you want your customers to make an informed decision.
Before even thinking about getting your site ranked, you'll need to build a terrific website. Building a great website should be your very first step in starting a web business. The better your site looks and operates, the less work you will have to do going forward.
While Internet marketing can seem similar in some ways to traditional marketing, it also has major differences. As an example, search engines sometimes change their algorithms, and one day they might decide to not weigh title tags in their rankings. If this happens, you may need to put more work into other venues, like viral video marketing.
There is so much to learn when it comes to improving your Internet marketing skills. You do not have to extensively research every aspect of Internet marketing. These tips are just a great starting point. The more you learn about Internet marketing, the more options you ultimately have when you're working to bring in traffic to your website. So, keep a lookout on all new Internet marketing topics and keep looking to improve every day.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will make a fresh push on Tuesday to force congressional Republicans to make concessions that will head off budget cuts that appear increasingly likely to kick in starting on March 1.
Obama, just back from a three-day golf getaway in Florida, will appear at the White House at 10:45 a.m. EST (1545 GMT) with emergency responders who would lose their jobs if the cuts go into effect.
A White House official said he would urge Congress to approve a $110 billion tax increase and spending cut plan that would postpone more severe spending cuts set to begin March 1.
If Congress fails to act, about $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts begin on March 1 and continue through September 30 as part of a decade-long $1.2 trillion budget savings plan.
Half the cuts would be shouldered by the Pentagon and the other half scattered among many other government agencies.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that, if fully implemented, these cuts would hold back U.S. growth and prevent the creation of about 750,000 jobs this year.
But with Democrats and Republicans far apart on how to avoid the automatic cuts, they are widely expected to go into effect on March 1. In subsequent weeks a replacement measure could be negotiated at the same time Congress works on a deal to fund government agencies that run out of money on March 27.
Obama has been adamant that any budget agreement to replace the cuts reflect a "balanced approach" and include both budget cuts and tax increases.
He wants to raise revenue by eliminating tax loopholes enjoyed mostly by the wealthy.
But Republicans feel they have raised taxes enough after reluctantly agreeing to increase them on the wealthy as part of a deal that avoided the "fiscal cliff" of higher taxes and spending cuts that would have kicked in at the end of 2012.
Republicans want deeper spending cuts to reduce America's $1 trillion annual deficits and $16 trillion national debt.
The White House effort to force Republicans to act is focused on dramatizing just who would lose jobs if the cuts go into effect.
The emergency workers he will appear with on Tuesday are "the kinds of working Americans whose jobs are on the line if congressional Republicans fail to compromise on a balanced solution," said a White House official.
"With less than two weeks before these cuts hit, the president will challenge Republicans to make a very simple choice: do they protect investments in education, health care and national defense or do they continue to prioritize and protect tax loopholes that benefit the very few at the expense of middle and working class Americans?", the official said.
To give Congress time to act on a long-term solution, Obama will urge congressional Republicans to accept the smaller $110 billion package that Democrats proposed last week.
"The president will urge congressional Republicans to compromise and accept this solution so these devastating cuts that will hurt our economy and middle class families won't hit," the official said.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Todd Eastham)
CHUCK Grimes, a former 15-year director of the Elementary Basketball League, knew that some people weren?t so happy that a league aimed at developing skills culminated in a pressure-filled tournament that leads to the ?Super Saturday? final four.
?There were folks who didn?t like the league because of its competitive nature,? Grimes said. ?But those people were quiet on Wednesdays (during the regular season) when the gyms were packed.?
Once again, the league is conducting a tournament that will attract a large number of basketball fans in the community to Columbus North High School.
They will watch fifth- and sixth-graders, both boys and girls, vie for a title Saturday. The boys championship game begins at 6?p.m., and the girls title contest follows at 7:30.
?I think it is a great thing for the kids,? said Parkside coach Bob Moats, whose boys team lost 40-38 in overtime last year to Southside in the title game. ?This is a goal and an opportunity for the kids. It?s a healthy thing for the kids and the community.?
This story appears in the print edition of The Republic. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Efforts to cull a sprawling population of wild boar in Belgium's northern forests met with limited results this week after a party of 200 hunters managed to kill only one animal.
The hunt was organized on Monday by local wildlife officials in a northern forest near the town of Postel, where several road accidents have been linked to wild boar.
Hunters spotted groups of about 60 animals but apart from the one animal killed, all the others slipped away with some possibly fleeing across the Dutch border, a spokesman said.
"One group also contained too many young animals and we decided not to shoot on that group," said Dirk Bogaert, spokesman for the Flemish Agency of Nature and Forestry.
The animal shot would be divided among the hunters, the agency said in a statement.
(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, editing by Paul Casciato)
iOS: If you're the type to take on a lot of different side projects, it's easy to forget about their details. Was It Worth It is an app that tracks your projects, their cost, how much fun you had with them, and any knowledge you might have gained. 
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Paula Radcliffe
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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China is now the world’s largest smartphone marketplace, with Flurry estimating that there will be 246 million smart devices in China by the end of this month. It’s a potentially lucrative market for app developers, but almost impossible to crack without the necessary language or cultural understanding to reach Chinese users. Educational app makers, however, have SmarTots to help. Founded in December 2010 by Jesper Lodahl, a former Nokia developer, SmarTots localizes apps and markets them on China’s iTunes. While the company’s current focus is iOS, Lodahl says SmarTots will also tackle a “very aggressive Android expansion” this year and already has a shortlist of carriers, hardware providers, and developers it plans to work with. SmarTots announced earlier this month that it has received an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from?SoftBank Ventures Korea that will allow it to bring more children’s educational apps from U.S. developers to China. The company previously raised about $1 million in its seed round and its investors include?SoftBank’s?Pan-Asia Fund,?Xu Xiaoping,?co-founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, AngelVest, ChinaRock Capital Management and SOSVentures. Since its launch, the SmarTots library has grown to 30 apps and the company says it hit one million downloads in January. SmarTots currently works with a roster of 13 developers from around the world, localizing images, graphics, text and audio for Chinese kids and writing descriptions for China’s iTunes store. Most apps are for children aged three to five, though SmarTots’ target age range is as wide as two to seven. Before founding SmarTots with chief product officer Victor Wong, Lodahl spent seven years working for Nokia, where he developed four phones (Lodahl holds two patents for technology that have been implemented in more than 1 billion mobile handsets) before taking a position with Nokia China for two years. This is Lodahl’s second startup in China–his first was a Chinese social network called Club Beautiful. Lodahl decided to found SmarTots with Wong two years ago after noticing how much children loved playing with the then-recently launched iPad. Instead of having the technology isolate individual family members absorbed in their own devices, Lodahl envisioned SmarTots as a way for families to learn together. “The whole idea came to us after we saw the disconnect, kids geting sucked into the iPad while parents were on their BlackBerries checking emails all day with no one really connecting,” says Lodahl. With that goal in
A bill to create an athletic commission in South Dakota is going nowhere fast, largely thanks to the ignorance of Gov. Dennis Daugaard and state house Rep. Steve Hickey.
The simple fact is that a random NFL player is at far greater risk of a serious brain injury than is a random MMA fighter. Sadly, neither Gov. Daugaard nor Rep. Hickey bothered to do much investigation or educate themselves before speaking out.
A fear of many states with strong commissions is that promoters will travel across state lines to put on shows in states such as South Dakota, where there is no regulation and where, as a result, costs are less. But the result is that it is far less safe for the competitors.
