Can you speak fluent French and English? The job will be working in Belfast, one of Europe?s most developing and exciting cities and recently hosted the MTV Music Awards... need we say anymore!
You will be working on behalf of one of the world?s leading computer games companies... so if you enjoy playing computer games this could be job you really will enjoy!
The role
You will be working in a team focused environment, in very modern and spacious offices to Support the customers with billing enquiries, reporting foul play or behaviour in social online gaming and technical issues.
The person
You have to be fluent in French and English and have an interest in computer gaming..such as Xbox, playstation or PC Games.
What is it like to live in Belfast?
Belfast itself is a vibrant, multi-cultural and exciting place to live. As the capital city of Northern Ireland, it is home to More than 270,000 people and boasts a wide range of exciting attractions, entertainment and shops.
Relocation assistance provided
Moving to a new city can be an overwhelming experience, but Belfast is among the most welcoming cities in the world and they as a company, do their best to make sure the transition is as easy and enjoyable as possible!
Finding accommodation is simple with the support of the relocation team and it is extremely cheap to live in Belfast - accommodation, transportation and the general cost of living are all very reasonable.
They will
Reimburse initial travel costs to Belfast
Provide temporary accommodation upon arrival in Belfast
Onsite re location advisors within the company to provide ongoing help and assistance throughout the relocation process. They will provide support in finding accommodation, getting a National Insurance Number, opening bank accounts and so much more
Benefits and Salary
There are a huge range of benefits including career progression, the salary is ?7.45 an hr on a full-time basis, 40 hrs per week. There will be opportunities for overtime.
The cost of living is much lower than many cities and not much tax to pay compared to many European countries.
Please apply by sending a copy of your CV through the website
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I once heard a great explanation of how to understand the ebbs and flows of life. It referred to our experiences as being like readout on a heart-rate monitor, where the rhythmic highs and lows represent progress in life. Most people expect to live a balanced life and have things go as planned on a daily basis. Yet for some reason, when they reach this level, they feel as if they?ve reached a plateau or, in the case of the heart monitor, that they?ve flatlined.
Even though we commonly hear about the idea of leading a balanced life, we have to realize that balance does not exist. JB Glossinger provides a great example of life balance, referring to it as like being in a musical band. Sometimes, the lead singer is up, and other times, the guitarist is taking a solo. Similar to a band, life fluctuates, and you have to devote more time to certain tasks in order to actually make progress within each respective area.
You may fall behind in certain areas while focusing on a specific endeavor, yet it?s essential not to get caught up in the guilt of backsliding. We all have backslid at some point in our lives. Remember that it?s a part of the ebb and flow of life. Today is about understanding that when backsliding occurs, there are ways we can get back on track. Here are a few ideas:
Organize
Understand where you are, and get clear about your goals. Find a system like?Morning Coach.com to get the ideas going, and understand that even if you backslide, you can make the commitment again.
Find the Reason
Make sure you understand why you?re going after things. Write your goals down and then peel back the onion and question why you want to attain those goals.? You can do this with your partner or coach. Find the whys so you can motivate yourself.? When your reasons are big enough, you will do whatever it takes. Figure out the whys in your life, and make sure you have solid reasons.
Personal Inventory
Take inventory of your progress and the steps that are required to get back on track toward achieving your goals. Make sure you write these steps down and get them out of your head. Once you do, you will relieve yourself of the guilt and worry of having all of these things roaming your mind. By writing down your steps, you create a visible map toward getting back on track.
Remember not to get down on yourself when you backslide. Just realize that it?s part of the ebb and flow of life. It?s never too late to get back on track toward living your dreams and achieving your goals. Make it a great one!
This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2012 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
'... But names could really hurt me'Public release date: 30-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Emigh emighs@mcmaster.ca 905-525-9140 x22555 McMaster University
Psychological abuse puts children at risk, says McMaster researcher
HAMILTON, ON (July 30, 2012) Child abuse experts say psychological abuse can be as damaging to a young child's physical, mental and emotional health as a slap, punch or kick.
While difficult to pinpoint, it may be the most challenging and prevalent form of child abuse and neglect, experts say in an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) position statement on psychological maltreatment in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Psychological abuse includes acts such as belittling, denigrating, terrorizing, exploiting, emotional unresponsiveness, or corrupting a child to the point a child's well-being is at risk, said Dr. Harriet MacMillan, a professor in the departments of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences and pediatrics of McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and the Offord Centre for Child Studies. One of three authors of the position statement, she holds the David R. (Dan) Offord Chair in Child Studies at McMaster.
"We are talking about extremes and the likelihood of harm, or risk of harm, resulting from the kinds of behavior that make a child feel worthless, unloved or unwanted," she said, giving the example of a mother leaving her infant alone in a crib all day or a father involving his teenager in his drug habit.
A parent raising their voice to a strident pitch after asking a child for the eighth time to put on their running shoes is not psychological abuse, MacMillan said. "But, yelling at a child every day and giving the message that the child is a terrible person, and that the parent regrets bringing the child into this world, is an example of a potentially very harmful form of interaction."
Psychological abuse was described in the scientific literature more than 25 years ago, but it has been under-recognized and under-reported, MacMillan said, adding that its effects "can be as harmful as other types of maltreatment."
The report says that because psychological maltreatment interferes with a child's development path, the abuse has been linked with disorders of attachment, developmental and educational problems, socialization problems and disruptive behaviour.
"The effects of psychological maltreatment during the first three years of life can be particularly profound."
This form of mistreatment can occur in many types of families, but is more common in homes with multiple stresses, including family conflict, mental health issues, physical violence, depression or substance abuse.
Although there are few studies reporting the prevalence of psychological abuse, the position statement says large population-based, self-report studies in Britain and the United States found approximately eight-to-nine per cent of women and four per cent of men reported exposure to severe psychological abuse during childhood.
The statement says pediatricians need to be alert to the possibility of psychological abuse even though there is little evidence on potential strategies that might help. It suggests collaboration among pediatric, psychiatric and child protective service professionals is essential for helping the child at risk.
Funders for the paper's development included the Family Violence Prevention Unit of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Along with MacMillan, the statement was prepared by Indiana pediatrician Dr. Roberta Hibbard, an expert on child abuse and neglect; Jane Barlow, professor of Public Health in the Early Years at the University of Warwick; as well as the Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Maltreatment and Violence Committee.
###
For more information or interviews, please contact:
Susan Emigh
Director, Public Relations
Faculty of Health Sciences
McMaster University
T: 905-525-9140, ext. 22555
E: emighs@mcmaster.ca
M: 905-518-3642
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
'... But names could really hurt me'Public release date: 30-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Emigh emighs@mcmaster.ca 905-525-9140 x22555 McMaster University
Psychological abuse puts children at risk, says McMaster researcher
HAMILTON, ON (July 30, 2012) Child abuse experts say psychological abuse can be as damaging to a young child's physical, mental and emotional health as a slap, punch or kick.
While difficult to pinpoint, it may be the most challenging and prevalent form of child abuse and neglect, experts say in an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) position statement on psychological maltreatment in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Psychological abuse includes acts such as belittling, denigrating, terrorizing, exploiting, emotional unresponsiveness, or corrupting a child to the point a child's well-being is at risk, said Dr. Harriet MacMillan, a professor in the departments of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences and pediatrics of McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and the Offord Centre for Child Studies. One of three authors of the position statement, she holds the David R. (Dan) Offord Chair in Child Studies at McMaster.
"We are talking about extremes and the likelihood of harm, or risk of harm, resulting from the kinds of behavior that make a child feel worthless, unloved or unwanted," she said, giving the example of a mother leaving her infant alone in a crib all day or a father involving his teenager in his drug habit.
A parent raising their voice to a strident pitch after asking a child for the eighth time to put on their running shoes is not psychological abuse, MacMillan said. "But, yelling at a child every day and giving the message that the child is a terrible person, and that the parent regrets bringing the child into this world, is an example of a potentially very harmful form of interaction."
Psychological abuse was described in the scientific literature more than 25 years ago, but it has been under-recognized and under-reported, MacMillan said, adding that its effects "can be as harmful as other types of maltreatment."
The report says that because psychological maltreatment interferes with a child's development path, the abuse has been linked with disorders of attachment, developmental and educational problems, socialization problems and disruptive behaviour.
"The effects of psychological maltreatment during the first three years of life can be particularly profound."
This form of mistreatment can occur in many types of families, but is more common in homes with multiple stresses, including family conflict, mental health issues, physical violence, depression or substance abuse.
Although there are few studies reporting the prevalence of psychological abuse, the position statement says large population-based, self-report studies in Britain and the United States found approximately eight-to-nine per cent of women and four per cent of men reported exposure to severe psychological abuse during childhood.
The statement says pediatricians need to be alert to the possibility of psychological abuse even though there is little evidence on potential strategies that might help. It suggests collaboration among pediatric, psychiatric and child protective service professionals is essential for helping the child at risk.
Funders for the paper's development included the Family Violence Prevention Unit of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Along with MacMillan, the statement was prepared by Indiana pediatrician Dr. Roberta Hibbard, an expert on child abuse and neglect; Jane Barlow, professor of Public Health in the Early Years at the University of Warwick; as well as the Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Maltreatment and Violence Committee.
###
For more information or interviews, please contact:
Susan Emigh
Director, Public Relations
Faculty of Health Sciences
McMaster University
T: 905-525-9140, ext. 22555
E: emighs@mcmaster.ca
M: 905-518-3642
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
I?m writing this from Terminal D of Houston?s Intercontinental airport so I?ll be brief. Brevity notwithstanding, the concept I want to talk about today will deeply affect your success with real estate investing.
Most aspiring real estate investors think that success in this business looks like a series of home runs. You know, you buy a house, flip it, double your money ? then rinse and repeat till you get to your desired number of millions. Or the other popular choice: Buy five dozen homes, leveraged to the neck, rent them and walk to your mailbox to collect your wheelbarrows of money.
What I want to share with you today is this: Real estate is where you come to put your capital to work not where you create your capital. You see, you already possess the most important wealth building tool. It?s your income. Think about that for a second. When put to work properly, your income provides the savings that become the capital you invest. In addition your income provides the support that allows you to leverage that capital and acquire a higher asset value than you would paying cash. And most importantly, your income helps you pay off your properties faster so you can retire sooner.
Knowing that your income is your most important wealth building tool is one thing. But realizing that how you choose to spend that income can make a difference between retiring a millionaire and working till you?re 90 is the very heart of my point. When you increase your overhead by taking on debt payments ? credit cards, cars, furniture etc ? you are impairing your ability to build wealth.
Look, I have a ?live and let live? kind of mentality. I won?t sit here and tell you how to live your life and how to spend your money. However, it?s important to understand that there?s a huge opportunity cost to debt payments. When you take on that $800 car payment, you aren?t just agreeing to pay that amount every month for 5 years. You are also forfeiting the wealth that that chunk of your income could build for you.
Success in real estate investing isn?t a series of home runs. It?s a well planned long series of hits. And the ?bat? you need to get those hits you already possess. It?s up to you how you use it.
Tummy or Abdominal Massage:Full Body Massage Therapy Techniques 9 Full body medical massage techniques video clip to relax the thighs and soothe tired legs, feet and improve circulation Athena is an alternative health practitioner doing Cranio-Sacral Therapy, a Licensed Massage Therapist and Lymphatic Drainage Therapists. Visit Athena?s Website at; www.acranio.com This video was produced by Psychetruth www.youtube.com Music By Jimmy Gelhaar www.jimmyg.us ? Copyright 2010 Target Public Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. Tummy Abdominal Medical Massage video fitness alternative medicine Cranio-Sacral Therapy Spa Health sports home neck unwinding back lymphatic drainage technique Video Rating: 4 / 5
Pastorius Park, W Hartwell Ln & Roanoke St, Philadelphia, PA | Get?Directions?? $10.00
http://henrycmartin.com/classes/art.html
Landscape Painting in Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy
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Have you ever wanted to paint, but become frustrated with your results?? Practice painting and drawing with an experienced, acclaimed landscape painter.? Learn how to fill a canvass with color and light, and make a painting come alive.? I teach painting in a step-by-step manner that allows students to build confidence as they go.? Learn oil painting techniques, enjoy the outdoors, enhance your creativity in a supportive, encouraging environment.? Have fun painting!
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Classes are small and ongoing, and as I?m a private teacher, I work around students? schedules.
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Weekly on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 4:00 pm?7:00 pm
Posted July 23, 2012 by lsanagorski in Business, Severe Weather. Leave a Comment
UF / IFAS Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension received the attached SBA Economic Injury notice relative to the 2012 drought. ? Under this declaration, the SBA?s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is available to eligible farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that suffered financial losses as a direct result of the drought. With the exception of aquacultural enterprises, agricultural producers, farmers and ranchers are not eligible to apply to SBA.? Nurseries are eligible to apply for economic injury disaster loans for losses caused by drought conditions.
Federal economic injury disaster loans are available to qualified small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private non-profit organizations of all sizes located in Florida as a result of the drought that began on January 1, 2012. ?Businesses who wish to pursue this opportunity are advised to apply in accordance with the instructions contained in the release.
An acclaimed writer and filmmaker, Pierson was nominated twice for Best Adapted Screenplay; he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Al Pacino movie Dog Day Afternoon.
Harvard-educated Pierson also won Emmy Awards for directing Truman and Conspiracy on TV, and he directed The Looking Glass War in 1969 and the 1976 version of A Star is Born, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. He also served as a consultant producer on TV drama Mad Men.
He was honoured with the Writers Guild of America's top three accolades, the Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement, Valentine Davies Award and Edmund H. North Award.
He served as head of AMPAS from 2001 to 2005 and he also held the post of president at the WGA from 1981 to 1983 and again from 1993 to 1995.
A statement from the Pierson family reads: "Oscar-winning screenwriter Frank Pierson died today in Los Angeles of natural causes following a short illness."
A private funeral will be held later this week (ends27Jul12).
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
'I'm not going to say who said the most, because I don't want anybody's mommy to hear,' Mackenzie Foy tells MTV News at Comic-Con. By Terri Schwartz, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
With regard to organizations, social networking is not really an important part of their all round marketing plan ( space ) this is the historical past against which every business vie. The reality that above 81% companies are in possession of some sort of web 2 . 0 reputation can grant united states some idea of your significance about web 2 . 0 for almost all corporations.
The idea of company social networking could mean either a corporation?s make an effort to talk with it is shoppers on-line or specialised company cpa affiliate networks that enable firms so that you can circle to enterprises, engage and also unions as well as study from more capable promoters on the internet. These days there are a number of internet websites that offer you the opportunity to hook up in addition to present to people a similar industry. Most of these cpa affiliate networks can help you acquire useful contact lenses intended for escalating your business. They are able to also provide valuable insight for generating plus using crucial work at home opportunities.
Until eventually incredibly not long ago, really the only locations presented network prospects for corporations ended up courses, trade events along with equivalent events. No matter whether a business desired to have a product or service or a company of which made it simpler for other firms accomplish greater out there or simply desired to hook up and build interactions with other organizations, of having for them were to sign up for one of them gatherings so you can build relationships with people using their company organizations. This can be a long way away out of a home-based business social networking that enables the crooks to just simply enroll in a website, develop a profile after which start off evaluating this list of businesses they can connect with. Instead of two-day workshops, they might at this point remain active in nokia?s people talk with over summer and winter. Additionally, the web 2 . options are usually not tied to a specific geographical vicinity : they can relate with anybody they desire throughout the world.
Social networks which allow corporations to communicate right because of their customers are equally important for firms for the reason that enterprise social networks that allow the theifs to interact with additional firms. Fans along with readers in web sites are certainly essential not simply given it makes it possible to stay in touch with its fan-base and also get in touch with them with no need to call for almost every other advertising funnel or perhaps ?facilitator? but in addition if they are able to raise the level of engagement in their buyers, they might generally get their particular assist in acquiring new business programs. Moreover, these types of followers normally begin providing assist with social networking sites independently, responding to problems and also serving by using virtually any issues that the newest users may be struggling with, providing fresh possibilities to nokia?s or brands to generate cost for the shoppers as well as organization.
This article was prepared for you by kenmarcsalv, one of our 'Authors'. Visit this authors profile page and learn more about them & the articles they write.
You don?t know everything about Internet marketing. Internet marketing is constantly evolving, and there will always be much to learn. The advice in this article will help your internet marketing business to improve.
Email marketing is an important, beneficial tool. Be sure that they are protected. Stay away from any free webmail service that deletes old messages; access to your old emails can be absolutely essential. You may handle arrangements for archiving messages yourself.
For driving traffic to your website and increasing SEO, it is of critical importance for your website to have unique and original content. Any idea you have for a business is probably not original. You?re selling the same stuff as someone else. So, separating yourself from the pack with originality becomes incredibly important for the life of your business. Writing quality product descriptions and inserting keywords, you will wipe out the competition.
Help your Internet marketing be successful by adding a video with viral potential that is marked with powerful tags. Make sure the video description includes a link to your site. You can significantly increase your website traffic by using this strategy.
Make use of the websites that list freebies and giveaways by listing what you are offering on these sites. Several directories, for example, have free e-zines. You can also find free articles, e-books and site directories as well.
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!
Offer a freebie that is personalized with your brand and your website name. For example if you are giving away an e-book, contact free e-book sites. There are a ton of websites that have things for free, articles for free, e-books for free, etc., these are places you want to submit to!
Try placing banners where they don?t look like banners. Design them as click-able links, so they blend in with your page. Many people won?t click banners if they look like banners, so this can entice them.
Luckily, there is a lot of information that can help you with Internet marketing. You don?t have to become an expert overnight or even know everything. These little hints are just the beginning. There are easy-to-understand ideas to improve your Internet marketing success available online. Tips like these are free to learn and to implement, and in fact you will end up gaining experience which you can then pass on as your business flourishes.
In today's busy world, work, household chores and social activities all put a strain on your time with your child. But as you well know, it's imperative that you spend quality time together. It helps strengthen the bond between parent and child, and lets your child know you can be trusted and counted on. Children who spend quality time with their parents often do better in school, and excel in extracurricular activities, hobbies or sports. And though it can be 'scheduled' to a degree, it's something that happens when you least expect it.? Therefore it's important that you do spend as much time as possible with your child in a relaxed atmosphere and do things together that you both enjoy.?
But you're asking yourself, "Where am I going to find the time? My schedule's crazy enough as it is!" Well, for something as important as your child, you need to start digging around in that crazy schedule and find the time.? Prioritizing is the key.?
Here's some helpful suggestions on how to make the most of your time and find quality time where you least expect it.
Look at your household chore list and decide which ones can be left undone or be done imperfectly in order to make more family time.? You might also want to consider leaving certain things until after your child has gone to bed to make the most of your time together.
Turn some of your everyday routines together count.? Sing some favorite silly songs on the way to daycare, or make that drive to and from school a great opportunity to discuss what's happening in your child's life.
If you have more than one child, realize that each of them needs your individual attention. You may really have to juggle things around to make this happen, but try to be flexible and creative when spending time with each of your kids.? And no matter what, don't skip those individual times with each child.? By doing so you show them they're lower down on the priority list than the dry cleaning or the grocery shopping.
Children thrive on stability and routines, so plan your quality times so that they can take place regularly. Maybe you can walk the dog together on weekend morning, take a shopping excursion together, have a scheduled night each week for a sit-down dinner together, or make a trip to the park.
Aliph has made top-quality mono Bluetooth headsets for years, but the company has generally stayed away from the murky world of Bluetooth stereo. That changes with the Jawbone Jambox speaker set ($199.99 direct), the company's first foray into stereo. It's a small, battery-powered speaker that can play music from a wired or Bluetooth connection from your cell phone and also function as a speakerphone. It packs a surprising amount of punch for such a tiny device, and while it doesn't sound perfect, it's surprisingly good.
Editor's Note: This review has been amended to include the features added with a firmware update (version 2.2), which was released in July 2012. The rating has not changed.
Design The Jambox looks like a cross between an Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, 4 stars) headset and a brick. It's perfectly rectangular, with stark, straight lines. The top and bottom of the speaker are capped with hard rubber, and the metal grill between them wraps all the way around the body. The grill has a diamond pattern, evoking the look of Aliph's headsets. At 6 by 2.2 by 1.6 inches (HWD), the Jambox is a compact, if blocky, device. It's also surprisingly heavy, weighing 12 ounces.
Both connectivity and controls are extremely simple. Besides Bluetooth, all the Jambox offers is a 3.5-mm stereo audio port for wired devices and a mini-USB port for charging its built-in battery. The only physical controls on the speaker are a tiny on-off toggle switch on the side and three rubber buttons on top for adjusting volume and receiving calls or getting a spoken battery status update.
The Jambox comes in four different colors: black, red, blue, and gray. The black version of the Jambox, which we reviewed, is completely black, with only a hint of color coming from the lighted power switch when it's charging or in use.
The Jambox includes 12- and 60-inch USB-to-micro-USB cables, a 36-inch stereo cable, a USB-to-AC wall adapter, and a carrying case. The carrying case is a strange, folded sleeve made of stiff panels. Flaps on either end keep the case closed with magnets.
Like the Jawbone Icon headset, the Jambox supports Jawbone's MyTalk personalized features and apps. By syncing the speaker with your computer over USB, you can add apps for voice dialing and access services like Jott, Voice on the Go, and Dial2Do, and change the voice that notifies you of incoming calls and battery life.
Last year, Jawbone added its LiveAudio feature to the Jambox. The company claims it enhances the spacial imaging of the speaker, and makes music sound more full. According to Jawbone, LiveAudio creates the "sensation that the audio is live in the same room." It actually just changes the sound slightly through audio processing, seemingly boosting the treble to make imaging more apparant (treble is easier to locate directionally than bass notes). It doesn't significantly improve the Jambox's sound quality, and its effect on imaging can vary depending on the type of music you want to play and the dimensions of the room where you'll listen to it on the Jambox. Either way, it's an option you can turn on or off by holding both Volume buttons for a few seconds.?
Jawbone recently released updated firmware (version 2.2) for the Jambox, which adds several small-but-useful features. You can now mute the Jambox's sound prompts (the startup tone and synthesized voice prompts) by holding the Talk and Volume Down buttons while powering the Jambox up. (You can unmute those prompts by holding the Talk and Volume Up buttons the next time you turn it on. The update also adds support for the Jawbone Companion for Android devices, which lets you access several Jambox features through a smartphone app. These are minor changes, but they help improve the Jambox experience, especially if you're an Android user.?The free update is available for all Jambox users on Aliph's Jawbone website.
Performance Aliph's strength has been voice headsets with advanced noise-cancellation technology. Those are a far different kind of beast than speakers designed to fill an area with sound, but for a first outing the Jambox is a valiant effort. The sound isn't incredible, but it's clear and satisfying enough for most uses. A device its size can only go so far, though, and you won't use the Jambox to really blast your tunes out to a crowd.
I tested the Jambox with some Rolling Stones and Rush, piped over Bluetooth from my Motorola Droid X. Geddy Lee's signature soprano in "The Spirit of Radio" and Keith Richards' classic opening guitar licks in "Gimme Shelter" both came through clearly, despite a very slight flattening out at the high end. I cranked up the volume on both the Jambox and the Droid X, and both songs blasted out with solid force, suffering surprisingly little distortion. The audio quality doesn't quite reach the volume and fidelity levels of similarly-priced iPod docks, but considering the device's size it still puts out impressive sound.
Speakerphone call quality is good, but not great. In my test calls, both the Jambox user and handset user could hear each other clearly, with only slight muffling from the Jambox's speakers. It wasn't perfect, but for a speakerphone it sounded more than adequate.
Battery life on the Jambox is very good. The built-in, rechargeable battery lasted over a weekend in standby mode and still registered a full charge when I got back to the device. According to Jawbone, the Jambox can last up to 8.5 hours playing music or serving as a speakerphone. That's more talk time than most cell phones and many Bluetooth headsets.
The Aliph Jawbone Jambox Bluetooth speaker offers some great features, long battery life, and solid sound. However, its $199 price tag simply isn't justified, compared to similarly priced iPod docks and less-expensive Bluetooth headsets. If you really need a wireless speakerphone/music speaker in one product, it's a good choice, but there are better dedicated alternatives for each purpose.
More Speaker Reviews: ??? Jawbone Jambox ??? Vizio VHT215 Home Theater Soundbar ??? Nexus Q Made in America? Not Quite, Teardown Finds ??? Philips Fidelio SoundRing ??? Monster Clarity HD Model One ?? more
The Drug War in Mexico: Corruption Is Better Than Slaughter July 9, 2012 Ivan Eland
Will Enrique Pe?a Nieto, the new president of Mexico from the corrupt and authoritarian Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), go easy on drug traffickers? Let?s hope so.
During his campaign, Mr. Pe?a Nieto vowed to battle murder, extortion, kidnapping, and other violent crimes but said little about going after drug traffickers. During its unrivaled 70-year reign that ended in 2000, the PRI was accused of cutting deals with crime syndicates to keep the peace. Although such agreements were corrupt, perhaps corruption is better than the militarized U.S.-backed anti-drug war of Felipe Calder?n, the current Mexican president. Fatigue with that costly war, which has killed more than 50,000 Mexican civilians in recent years, played a significant role in Mexicans bringing back a venal and autocratic PRI that they had thrown out of office 12 years before.
But any president of Mexico must pay heed to the wishes of the colossus of the north, and Washington is already suspicious that Pe?a Nieto will ease the pressure on drug traffickers and stop taking down cartel chieftains.
Of course, most Mexicans would be happy if Pe?a Nieto did exactly that. At the behest of the United States, Calder?n?s use of the Mexican military and its harsh tactics against the drug lords has merely led to the slaughter of Mexican civilians without putting much of a dent in the long-term flow of drugs into the United States.
This militarized bloodbath is causing some in the United States?even a few government officials?to privately reassess the failed U.S. war on drugs. As during alcohol prohibition from 1919 to 1933 in the United States, organized crime has been given a big boost; continued demand for the illegal product exists and so do huge profits to be made off excessively high prices that could be charged for the dangers of smuggling it to customers past government authorities.
Mexicans correctly believe that the root of the problem lies in the continued demand for illegal drugs in the United States. If the U.S. government did away with a victimless crime and allowed adults the right to put into their bodies what they wanted, demand for drugs would go up somewhat but the violence would plummet. No one would pay elevated prices to gangsters?Mexican, Colombian, American, or otherwise?to traffic legal substances. Society could then treat drug addiction as a medical problem instead of a crime, with education campaigns and treatment programs reducing the long-term demand for drugs. Finally, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, but that?s because many of the people in prison are being held unnecessarily for drug-related crimes?that is, jailed for consuming or trafficking substances that shouldn?t be illegal in the first place. Legalizing drugs would eventually lower the U.S. prison population by getting rid of those faux crimes and also by reducing the robberies and violence associated with stealing money to pay inflated prices for what is now illegal contraband.
So until the United States adopts the enlightened policy of drug legalization?don?t hold your breath?the Mexican government is faced with the unpalatable options of knuckling under to U.S. pressure to continue the rising slaughter and instability of a militarized drug war or cutting a deal with cartel leaders to ensure peace. As bad as it seems, the latter alternative is better for Mexico and the United States. More drugs may get through into the United States, but the killing and instability just south of the U.S. border, which is coming north, would be reduced.
In short, corruption is better than slaughter. The U.S. government took this route in Iraq by paying off its enemies, the Sunni Awakening guerrillas, to stop attacking American forces and turn on their even more violent al-Qaeda brethren. Violence was reduced, and the U.S. military was able to extricate itself with honor from a bloody quagmire. Similarly, Pe?a Nieto may adopt the traditional way the PRI has dealt with drug lords in Mexico, reaching agreements with them to ensure the peace and extracting the Mexican military from an equally bloody and fruitless fight. If Pe?a Nieto pursues this course, the U.S. government will likely unfairly and hypocritically criticize him for doing so.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Facing sagging jobs numbers, President Barack Obama sought to recast the November election as a fight over tax fairness on Monday, urging tax cut extensions for all families earning less than $250,000 but denying them to households making more than that.
The president's pitch was aimed at painting Republican rival Mitt Romney as a protector of the rich at a time of economic unease, as Democrats intensify efforts to raise questions about the Romney's own wealth and offshore bank accounts.
Romney supports extending the federal tax cuts, first signed by George W. Bush, for all income earners.
Obama said if Congress passes a one-year extension for those making less than $250,000, voters can use the November election to decide the fate of the cuts for higher income earners.
"My opponent will fight to keep them in place. I will fight to end them," said Obama, flanked by a dozen people the White House said would benefit from the tax cut extension.
The president has long supported ending the Bush-era tax cuts for those making more than $250,000. The White House and the president's re-election team are reviving his arguments now as a way to suggest that the push by Romney and congressional Republicans for an across-the-board extension of the tax cuts could put America's middle class at risk.
"Let's not hold the vast majority of Americans and our economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy," Obama said at the White House.
The president's sudden focus on the tax fairness debate was also an attempt to change the election subject after yet another lackluster jobs report. New numbers released Friday showed the nation's unemployment rate stuck at 8.2 percent, giving Romney fresh grounds to attack Obama as unfit to steer the U.S. economy.
Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the president was responding to the bad economic news by calling for a "massive tax increase."
"It just proves again that the president doesn't have a clue how to get America working again and help the middle class," Saul said.
Obama said his proposal was aimed at staving off an end-of-the year stalemate with Congress. But it appeared to have the opposite effect.
Congressional Republicans immediately balked, saying it would be a mistake to raise taxes on anyone while the economy was still struggling to recover. The House GOP plans to make its own push this summer for a full extension of the tax cuts.
Obama said later Monday that he would veto such a bill if it landed on his desk.
Ahead of Obama's remarks on Monday, White House officials consulted with congressional Democrats to shore up support within the party. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of his party's Senate leadership, had both previously advocated extending the cuts to those who make up to $1 million annually, but on Monday they stood in solidarity with the president.
Obama angered many fellow Democrats in 2010 when he signed off on a full extension of the Bush tax cuts, in part to win concessions from Republicans on other legislation.
Extending the tax cuts only for households making below $250,000 would save the government about $800 billion over 10 years compared with extending them for everyone. The full cuts cost the government about $4.5 trillion over a decade.
Economists worry that across-the-board tax increases, along with automatic spending cuts also scheduled to take hold at year's end, could be a blow to the shaky U.S. economy.
About 2.5 million U.S. households had incomes of $250,000 annually or more, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The median household income in 2010 was $49,445.
Romney, whose personal wealth could exceed $250 million, would be among the nation's richest presidents if elected, and the Obama campaign has sought to portray him as disconnected from middle class voters.
Democrats ramped up their calls over the weekend for Romney to release more of his tax returns, which would outline the investments he has lived off of for more than a decade.
"I think what's important if you're running for president is that the American people know who you are, what you've done and that you're an open book," Obama said Monday in an interview with New Hampshire television station WMUR. "And that's been true of every presidential candidate dating back to Mr. Romney's father."
Romney has so far refused to release more than two years of tax returns, breaking from a precedent set by his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, who released 12 years of returns when he sought the presidency a generation ago. An Associated Press report recently raised questions about a previously undisclosed Bermuda-based company included in Romney's portfolio until the day before he became Massachusetts governor.
Romney's campaign dismisses the Obama campaign's tactics as an attack on success. And Romney hasn't shown any indications of trying to deny his wealth. He spent Sunday in the Hamptons, the wealthy enclave on Long Island, holding three fundraisers at wealthy donors' homes as protesters stood outside. At the day's third event, at the Southampton estate of billionaire industrialist David Koch, donors were asked to give $50,000 per person or $75,000 per couple.
On Monday, Romney raised money in Aspen, Colo., the resort town where Michelle Obama has vacationed. And he spent the previous week jet skiing and boating on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, where he has a lakeside estate worth millions.
While hardly in Romney's league, Obama also is well-off and acknowledges it. At one point Monday, he said that "it's time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, folks like myself, to expire.
The president, too, was mingling with the wealthy on Monday. Hours after calling for increased taxes on higher income earners, he attended two campaign fundraisers in Washington that cost donors $40,000 per person.
The Romney campaign announced Monday that, in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, it raised $106 million in June. The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $71 million.
____
Kasie Hunt reported from Aspen, Colo. Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed from Washington.
____
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Kasie Hunt at http://twitter.com/kasie .
Texas Democrats join Ron Paul in support marijuana decriminalization
Texas Democrats join Ron Paul in support marijuana decriminalization (via):
Thousands of Americans get arrested every year for legal violations involving the possession of marijuana, which outnumbers the amount of people arrested for violent crimes in America, according to the Texas Democratic platform.
Democrats in Texas believe that money spent on the war on drugs?$12 billion annually?could have more of an impact used elsewhere.
Texas Democrats are encouraging President Obama, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress to support the decriminalization of marijuana possession and to regulate its production, use and sale in the same way as tobacco and alcohol.
The drug is not any more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, according to the Texas Democratic platform, which states that the theory of marijuana as a ?gateway? to the use of other, harder drugs is not backed by evidence.
They say that the majority of people who get caught using marijuana are under 30 years old, and that a criminal conviction will stay with those young people forever. Smoking marijuana, they say, is not a serious enough offense to be worth that sort of permanent mark.
Nice to see some very rational opinion on the matter. I've long said that California's freedom on drugs and Texas' freedom on guns need to be combined. Maybe someday soon Texas will have more freedom.
Unfortunately, this is Texas and those are Democrats, so they might not be able to effect as much progress. Who are the "Texas Democrats" the Chronicle keeps referring to anyway? This is part of the official Texas Democratic party platform now? Since when? Crappy reporting from the Chronicle.
FILE- In this Oct. 22, 2007 file photo, workers at New York's Webster Hall take a break under the marquee. The New York City music venue shut its doors for the night after two people were injured on Friday, July 6, 2012, in what authorities say was a biting and slashing attack. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE- In this Oct. 22, 2007 file photo, workers at New York's Webster Hall take a break under the marquee. The New York City music venue shut its doors for the night after two people were injured on Friday, July 6, 2012, in what authorities say was a biting and slashing attack. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Authorities say a two people were stabbed and one was also bitten before a show at the New York City music venue Webster Hall.
Harley Flanagan, a founder of the hard-core punk band the Cro-Mags, was arrested on assault charges. Published reports say the victims were current members of the group.
No information on an attorney for Flanagan was immediately available.
The violence happened Friday night during the CBGB Festival. CBGB representatives say in a statement that the disturbance shouldn't overshadow the events, which included free concerts in Times Square and Central Park.
CBGB was once a famed Manhattan rock venue where bands like The Talking Heads performed in the early 1980s. The venue closed in 2006. The festival is an attempt to revive the CBGB brand.
The Warner Bros. panel at San Diego Comic-Con is set to feature some of this year's and next year's most anticipated films. Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim" and Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" are just two of the films included in the presentation, but the movies will actually share more than the stage in common. You [...]
Beginning with an opening plenary, the day includes 4 concurrent tracks for you to choose from, taught by public defenders from throughout the country. Additionally, the Lunch with the Defenders offers you an opportunity to sit in small groups and discuss with talented and committed advocates how their offices hire, what types of candidates they seek and other information to help you plan your careers.
As of this writing they have confirmed public defenders from the Philadelphia, New Hampshire, Colorado, Miami, Bronx, Harlem, Las Vegas and Alexandria offices. This conference ? which is free ? is not to be missed!
If you are interested in attending PATH, please register on the PDS website at www.pdsdc.org
Astronomers report a baffling discovery never seen before: An extraordinary amount of dust around a nearby star has mysteriously disappeared.
"It's like the classic magician's trick ? now you see it, now you don't," said Carl Melis, a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego and lead author of the research. "Only in this case, we're talking about enough dust to fill an inner solar system, and it really is gone!"
"It's as if the rings around Saturn had disappeared," said co-author Benjamin Zuckerman, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy. "This is even more shocking because the dusty disc of rocky debris was bigger and much more massive than Saturn's rings. The disc around this star, if it were in our solar system, would have extended from the sun halfway out to Earth, near the orbit of Mercury."
The research on this cosmic vanishing act, which occurred around a star some 450 light years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Centaurus, appears July 5 in the journalNature.
"A perplexing thing about this discovery is that we don't have a satisfactory explanation to address what happened around this star," said Melis, a former UCLA astronomy graduate student. "The disappearing act appears to be independent of the star itself, as there is no evidence to suggest that the star zapped the dust with some sort of mega-flare or any other violent event."
Melis describes the star, designated TYC 8241 2652, as a "young analog of our sun" that only a few years ago displayed all of the characteristics of "hosting a solar system in the making," before transforming completely. Now, very little of the warm, dusty material thought to originate from collisions of rocky planets is apparent.
"Nothing like this has ever been seen in the many hundreds of stars that astronomers have studied for dust rings," Zuckerman said. "This disappearance is remarkably fast, even on a human time scale, much less an astronomical scale. The dust disappearance at TYC 8241 2652 was so bizarre and so quick, initially I figured that our observations must simply be wrong in some strange way."
Norm Murray, director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, who was not part of the research group, said, "The history of astronomy has shown that events that are not predicted and hard to explain can be game-changers."
The dust had been present around the star since at least 1983 (no one had observed the star in the infrared before then), and it continued to glow brightly in the infrared for 25 years. In 2009, it started to dim. By 2010, the dust emission was gone; the astronomers observed the star twice that year from the Gemini Observatory in Chile, six months apart. An infrared image obtained by the Gemini telescope as recently as May 1 of this year confirmed that the warm dust has now been gone for two-and-a-half years.
Like Earth, warm dust absorbs the energy of sunlight and re-radiates that heat energy as infrared radiation.
Because so much dust had been orbiting around the star, planets very likely are forming there, said Zuckerman, whose research is funded by NASA.
The lack of an existing model for what is going on around this star is forcing astronomers to rethink what happens within young solar systems in the making. The dust likely resulted from a violent collision ? but that would not explain where it went. Was it somehow swallowed by the star?
"Although we've identified a couple of mechanisms that are potentially viable, none are really compelling," Melis said. "In one case, gas produced in the impact that released the dust helps to quickly drag the dust particles into the star and thus to their doom. In another possibility, collisions of large rocks left over from an original major impact provide a fresh infusion of dust particles into the disc, which then instigate a runaway process where small grains chip into oblivion both themselves and also larger grains."
Major dusty regions are known to exist in our own solar system and include the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and another located beyond the orbit of Neptune. Nearly 30 years ago, NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) first discovered many similar regions orbiting other stars ? but no disappearing act like the one at TYC 8241 2652 has ever been seen during these three decades.
The research is based on multiple sets of observations of TYC 8241 2652 obtained with the Thermal-Region Camera Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile, the IRAS, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, NASA's Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the Herschel Space Telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA), and AKARI (a Japanese/ESA infrared satellite).
"We were lucky to catch this disappearing act," Zuckerman said. "Such events could be relatively common, without our knowing it."
###
University of California - Los Angeles: http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu
Thanks to University of California - Los Angeles for this article.
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The Bodega Volunteer Fire Department is hosting an amazing?BBQ, complete with a parade?and live music.?Enjoy food,?local beer and wine, crafts and more. All proceeds go to the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department.
Address: 17184 Bodega Highway
City: Bodega Bay
State: California
Zip: 94922
Phone number: 707-876-9438
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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I once heard a great explanation of how to understand the ebbs and flows of life. It referred to our experiences as being like readout on a heart-rate monitor, where the rhythmic highs and lows represent progress in life. Most people expect to live a balanced life and have things go as planned on a daily basis. Yet for some reason, when they reach this level, they feel as if they?ve reached a plateau or, in the case of the heart monitor, that they?ve flatlined.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 30-Jul-2012
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