Health and Fitness: Stay Beautiful All The Time With These Beauty ...

Many modern women place a great deal of importance on physical appearance. Beautiful women are treated much better than average looking women. However, not many women know the secrets to being beautiful. Continue reading to learn more about maximizing your appearance.

Sunglasses can be an accessory that can hurt or help ones beauty. Whether or not someone should wear sunglasses is a decision that is up to the individual in question. Think to yourself "What is the point to these?" " should all be asked.

Improving your appearance begins with your thinking. Most of the differences between people who present themselves positively and those who do not simply comes down to having the right information. Once you know how to take care of yourself it becomes a little less challenging.

Vitamin E is like the Swiss army knife of skin care. It has many different uses. It keeps the skin fresh and smooth looking. Rub a small amount of Vitamin E on your fingernails to alleviate dry, rough cuticles.

Consider using the following beauty tip! Lengthening mascara that is waterproof will make your lashes appear longer and won't run. Many mascaras claim that they can curl your lases and give them more volume. Unfortunately for the consumer, these products are often heavy on the lashes. A heavy mascara could damage your lashes. Only use a formula that is lengthening and waterproof. Your lashes will look thicker and have an upward curl to them.

Beauty tends to focus on skin care quite a bit, but don't neglect your teeth. Being able to deploy a confident, winning smile will serve you well in all your relationships, romantic, friendly, and professional. You will be more successful in what you want to do.

When putting on makeup for work, be minimal. Simply freshen up with foundation and concealer to hide blemishes and maintain a clean look. Use simple, neutral tones for your eye shadow. You can add mascara and eyeliner if you wish. Take care to groom your eyebrows, and don't let them get too out of control. Rather than using a lipstick that dramatically changes your lip color, a more natural look will be achieved with lightly-tinted lip gloss or a lipstick just slightly deeper in shade than your natural tone. Using this technique allows you to look professional and refined throughout the day.

To help keep your skin in good condition, try to use luke-warm water while bathing and showering. Hot water will cause skin pores to expand, and you will lose natural oils your skin needs. These oils are essential to keep your skin moisturized. Use warm or tepid water, as this is more gentle on your skin, keeping it soft and healthy looking. This can also help save money on your water heating costs.

Rubbing a towel on your hair too roughly will damage your hair and make it frizzy. It is better to wrap your hair inside the towel, then pat softly for dryness. Drying your hair this way is slower, but it's much better for it.

Proper sunscreen use is vital to keeping your skin healthy and youthful-looking. Sunscreen isn't only important in the summer; apply sunscreen in winter, as well, to keep wrinkles away. Make sure you apply sunscreen on your faces and hands in the wintertime.

Your follicles will be open and this can cause problems. This can also cause severe irritation to your skin. In the hours after waxing or sugaring, you should stay away from skin care products that contain fragrances. Fragrance can irritate your skin and cause extreme discomfort.

Dab a bit of petroleum jelly on your brows before hitting the hay. Your eyebrows will have a shiny and improved appearance. Don't get the Vaseline anywhere else, though, as it could cause breakouts.

Take a kitchen sponge in your bath and use it to scrub your skin. These work just like a sponge and can be bought in bulk for more savings.

You should never get in the habit of comparing yourself or personal beauty to other people, especially famous people. Since beauty is subjective, what one person finds beautiful the next may not. Try to be happy with you, just the way you are right now.

Avoid rubbing your facial skin. Do this when you are cleaning your face or moisturizing. In addition, don't rub your face during the day, either; when it itches or you are feeling tired. Your skin will look older if you rub it a lot. The best way handle your skin is to lightly pat it, rather than rubbing it.

Use a bit of waterproof mascara if your eyes are feeling tired. This product can open up your eyes and enhance their appearance. Keep extra mascara wands handy so you are able to break clumps up and get rid of flakes around your eyes.

Using a rose or coral colored blush can help to soften your look, especially if you have a sharper square shaped face. Use your fingers to apply the cream to your cheeks. Next, use a gentle, pulling motion to blend the color up towards your temples.

If you are going to blow dry your hair, be sure to use a heat protection spray beforehand in order to prevent damage. You can find this in generic stores like Walmart or Target. It's used to prevent split ends and help your hair dry quicker. It smells great and helps your hair retain moisture!

If you want to have soft feet, use petroleum jelly. Coconut oil is a reasonably priced, all natural oil that soaks in clean and softens skin deeply. Rubbing it on your feet every other day will keep them soft and smooth.

Try putting Vaseline on your heels and feet while you sleep. Your feet will be soft and smooth like they are after a pedicure. Using this technique routinely every single night will ensure you don't forget to do it. After applying the vaseline, take out a pair of socks and cover your feet before going to sleep.

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Father of 30, by 11 women, seeks state aid

By msnbc.com staff

Desmond Hatchett of Knoxville, Tenn., doesn't deny fathering 30 children, by 11 mothers no less -- instead, he's pleading with the state to help him out with child support.

Hatchett, just 33, appeared in court this week to make his case, WREG-TV reported.

Holding a minimum wage job, Hatchett already gives half his pay to the children's mothers but because he has a minimum wage job some moms get just $1.49 a month in support.

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The children range in age from toddlers to 14.

"I had four kids in the same year. Twice," he said in explaining how he set the paternity record for Knox County.

WREG noted that Hatchett had not broken any laws fathering so many children, and that the state had no means to require him to stop.

Melissa Gibson, an assistant supervisor with the Knox County child support clerk's office, told the Los Angeles Times that she wished something could be done.

"If there's something out there like that, I'm unaware of it," Gibson said, then added: "It definitely needs to be."

It was not clear what the next steps in Hatchett's appeal to the state would be.

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Facebook stock debut fails to sizzle

NEW YORK (AP) ? It was barely a "like" and definitely not a "love" from Facebook investors as the online social network's stock failed to live up to the hype in its trading debut Friday.

One of the most highly anticipated IPOs in Wall Street history ended on a bland note, with Facebook's stock closing at $38.23, up 23 cents from Thursday night's pricing.

That meant the company founded in 2004 in a Harvard dorm room is worth about $105 billion, more than Amazon.com, McDonald's and Silicon Valley icons Hewlett-Packard and Cisco.

It also gave 28-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg a stake worth $19,252,698,725.50.

"Going public is an important milestone in our history," Zuckerberg said before he symbolically rang Nasdaq's opening bell from company headquarters at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park, Calif. "But here's the thing: Our mission isn't to be a public company. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected."

But for many seeking a big first-day pop in Facebook's share price, the single-digit increase was somewhat of a letdown.

"This is like kissing your sister," said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPO Scoop, a research firm. "With all the drumbeats and hype, I don't think there'll be barroom bragging tonight."

Added Nick Einhorn, an analyst with IPO advisory firm Renaissance Capital:

"It wasn't quite as exciting as it could have been," he said. "But I don't think we should view it as a failure."

Indeed, the small jump in price could be seen as an indication that Facebook and the investment banks that arranged the IPO priced the stock in an appropriate range.

And it was good for ordinary investors, who are often shut out from IPOs or buy the stock at a high price on day one.

Facebook offered 15 percent of its available stock in the IPO, so there was enough to meet demand. In comparison, Google offered just 7.2 percent of its stock when it went public in 2004 ? and rose 18 percent on day one.

Here was Facebook's "timeline" Friday, trading under the symbol "FB" on the Nasdaq Stock Market:

The stock opened at 11:30 a.m. at $42.05, but soon dipped to $38.01. It briefly traded at one point as high as $45 and by noon was at $40.40. It fluttered throughout the afternoon and hugged the $38 mark for much of the final hour, before closing at $38.23.

By the end of the day, about 570 million shares had changed hands, a huge trading volume for any company.

TD Ameritrade reported that in the first 45 minutes of trading, Facebook accounted for a record 24 percent of trades executed by its customers.

By comparison, on its first day back on the stock market, in November 2010, General Motors represented 7 percent of overall trades on the online brokerage.

Steve Quirk, who oversees trading strategy at TD Ameritrade, said that about 60,000 orders were lined up before Facebook opened.

Other social-media companies, most of whom have gone public in the last year, saw their shares plummet when it became clear what kind of reception Facebook was getting in the public market. Shares of game-maker Zynga Inc. and reviews site Yelp Inc. both hit all-time lows.

The stock market will now begin assigning a dollar value to Facebook that will rise and fall with investor whims. It will be subject to broad economic forces and held accountable for profit it earns ?or loses? from one quarter to the next.

Facebook is one of those rare companies whose IPO transcends Wall Street's money lust. Since its start as a scrappy network for college students, Facebook has come to define social networking by getting its 900 million users around the world to share everything from photos of their pets to their deepest thoughts.

Most tech companies going public want a big rise in their debut to show they're "strong, dynamic companies standing out in the crowd," said Francis Gaskins, president of researcher IPOdesktop, but Facebook already has that image, and so may not care.

What's more, he said, most of the money raised in the IPO ? $9 billion of $16 billion ? went to early investors who want the highest price possible IPO price, and so they're likely happy with the modest firs-day rise.

Facebook is one of the few profitable Internet companies to go public recently. It had net income of $205 million in the first three months of 2012, on revenue of $1.06 billion. In all of 2011, it earned $1 billion, up from $606 million a year earlier. That's a far cry from 2007, when it posted a net loss of $138 million and revenue of $153 million. The company makes most of its money from advertising. It also takes a cut from the money people spend on virtual items in Facebook games such as "FarmVille."

Facebook's public debut marked a new milestone in the history of the Internet. In 1995, Netscape Communications' IPO gave people their first chance to invest in a company whose graphical Web browser made the Internet more engaging and easier to navigate. Its hotly anticipated IPO lit the fuse that ignited the dot-com boom. That explosion of entrepreneurial activity and investment culminated five years later in a devastating bust that obliterated the notion that the Internet had hatched a "new economy."

It took Google Inc.'s IPO in 2004 to prove that an Internet company with a disruptive idea could be profitable. In the process, the Internet search leader is forcing other industries to adapt to a new order where people have come to expect to be able to find just about anything they want by entering a few words into a box on any device with an Internet connection.

Facebook's IPO almost certainly will enrich other up-and-coming entrepreneurs as Zuckerberg uses the company's cash and stock to buy other startups in an effort to being in other talented engineers and promising technology. That's what has been doing for years. Since it went public in 2004, Google has spent $10.2 billion buying nearly 200 other companies. Those figures don't include Google's still-pending $12.5 billion acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., which is still awaiting regulatory approval in China.

Zuckerberg's biggest deal so far came when he agreed to buy Instagram, a maker of a popular mobile app for photos, for $1 billion. Because most of the deal is being paid for in stock, Instagram is already getting richer. Based on Facebook's current share price, Instagram is in line to receive about $1.2 billion.

Friday's debut, though, resulted in deals worth much less.

Alper Aydinoglu, a DePaul University student who got 50 shares via Etrade at $38, said he was "disappointed with the first day of trading."

His gain on paper: $11.50, but that was before Etrade's standard commission of $9.99.

Aydinoglu still called it an excellent learning opportunity.

"On top of everything, I now have the bragging rights that I participated in one of the most popular IPOs of all time."

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AP Technology Writers Michael Liedtke in San Francisco and Peter Svensson in New York, and AP Business Writers Bernard Condon, Pallavi Gogoi and Joseph Pisani in New York contributed to this story.

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Santander UK branch downgraded after Cameron warning

Fears over Spain's economy impacted Britain on Thursday as Santander UK's credit rating was downgraded just hours after David Cameron warned fellow European leaders that the eurozone must take "decisive action" to ensure stability.

Moody's credit ratings agency downgraded the bank to an A2 rating - one notch higher than its parent institution in Spain.

The agency said the rating was appropriate given the bank's "general funding independence" from Banco Santander, the fact that it was "a systemically important bank in the UK" and that it had "no direct exposure to the Spanish government (or regional governments)".

"Moody's believes there is a low likelihood that the FSA would allow Santander UK to substantially weaken itself in order to support the parent," it concluded.

The downgrade came just hours after Cameron issued his starkest warning yet of the dangers posed by the debt crisis in Greece during a speech in Manchester on Thursday.

Cameron urged core countries in the 17-member eurozone, of which Britain is not a member, and the European Central Bank to support demand and cut deficits.

He admitted that his message would be unpopular in Europe where he angered many leaders by delaying a fiscal treaty last year, but said his priority was to protect Britain.

"The eurozone is at a crossroads," Cameron said in the speech to business leaders.

"It either has to make up or it is looking at a potential break-up," he said.

"Either Europe has a committed, stable, successful eurozone with an effective firewall, well capitalised and regulated banks, a system of fiscal burden sharing, and supportive monetary policy across the eurozone -- or we are in uncharted territory which carries huge risks for everybody."

The Prime Minister said he would do "whatever it takes to keep Britain safe from the storm", but made clear that the UK would not be immune to the consequences of a euro collapse.

Cameron also took part in a 45-minute conference call with German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Francois Hollande and Italian prime minister Mario Monti to discuss the eurozone crisis on Thursday.

It was arranged by president of the European Council Herman van Rompuy ahead of the G8 meeting in the US which starts tomorrow and which all of the leaders will attend.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said it was a "constructive discussion" about the priorities for the talks among some of the world's wealthiest nations in Camp David.

"He discussed with the others their priorities for G8: the eurozone - including Greece, growth and the importance of expanding trade relations between the US and the EU.

"The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of Greece and the Eurozone taking decisive action to ensure financial stability and prevent contagion," she said.

"He repeated what he had said in his speech earlier today: that there is a need for monetary action to stimulate growth, for structural reform to increase competitiveness in the EU, that the right governance arrangements had to be in place and that countries throughout the Eurozone should take the necessary action to tackle unsustainable deficits.". Chancellor George Osborne told MPs that the Treasury was "making the necessary contingency plans" to protect the UK as far as possible from the shockwaves of any Greek euro exit.

"But above all we will go on with the progress we have made in the last two years in reducing our structural deficit, keeping our credibility in the bond markets and our interest rates low," he said as he defended Mr Cameron's decision to talk publicly about a potential collapse.

Earlier this week, Mr Osborne warned that "open speculation" about the future of some eurozone members was damaging the European economy, but today he accepted the "genie is out of the bottle".

He said: "When eurozone central bank governors and finance ministers openly speculate on the possibility of Greek exit, then the genie is out of the bottle.

"That, and the Greek elections, make this a perilous time."

Speaking ahead of the talks, Labour leader Ed Miliband said Mr Cameron was part of the problem, not part of the solution, and accused him of failing to show leadership.

"The Prime Minister should be showing leadership, not looking like a man who is a bystander to events, shouting from the rooftops," he told the BBC.

"He is one of Europe's leaders, he should have been getting in there in the first place and getting these problems sorted out, and crucially he should have been saying to Europe's leaders 'We have failed over the last two years to sort out this problem. Unless we get a growth plan, unless we see Europe growing, it is not going to work'."

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Top Five Ways to Become a Writer that Gets Read | Globe University ...

5.Write, Write, and Then, Write Some More

Just like ice skating, sturgeon spearing, and ?walking the dog? with a yoyo, the only way you will become better at it is to practice.? My students do a lot of free-writing.? This is where you don?t think; you just write.? Much like trying to hold your breath under water, you don?t stop until you run out of air,?while free-writing, you don?t stop until you run out of words.? Free-writing exercises are great warmups.? Every athlete needs to stretch before a big game, well, so do writers.

4.Read What You Like and What You Don?t Like

At a very young age, we decide what we like to eat and what we don?t.? Chocolate?Yes!? Mushrooms?Yes! Liver?No!? Mayonnaise?No! What we enjoy to read is no different.? When I assign my students reading assignments, during the next class period, I ask them, ?Did you love it or hate it?? But, I always follow that question with another: ?Why??? Great writers are active readers: They don?t just push the plate, or in this case the book or essay, away and say, ?Gross, no.? They look further and question why their taste buds did not agree with the writing.? Writers need to read what other writers are doing, so they can see what they do and don?t want to do in their own writing. Writers need to do a lot of taste-testing.

3.Edit, then Abandon

A question I was asked constantly throughout school and a question I pose to my own students is ?When is your writing done??? The usual response, ?When I hand it in to you.? But, this couldn?t be further from the truth.?Writing is never truly done; it is abandoned.? Writers, like painters can always find another spot to swipe a bit of green, turquoise, or orange.? But, we all work around time.? We have deadlines. Editing and revising is important, but when time is up, you just have to hand it over to someone else (in most cases the teacher) and abandon it. ?When Lee Gutkind, the ?godfather of creative nonfiction? came to speak at Wichita State University when I was there, he said after you think you are done, ?Pretend you?re reading it over the shoulder of the reader. . . . After you think it is a finished product, pray and play with it? (Gutkind, 2009).

2.Don?t Rely On Grammar/Spell Check

?If the reader can?t read it, it doesn?t matter what is on the page.?? This quote comes directly from the rubric for my creative writing students? creative nonfiction/fiction assignment.? There are a lot of rules, I know.? But, writers have to follow them so readers can follow their writing. If you leave out a period, it can be the equivalent to leaving out a major step in a process.? Step #7: Don?t forget to stand back after you throw the match into the grill. Leaving this out may cause your reader to also leave behind their eyebrows. Permanently scarring your reader will not bring them back for more and neither will miss-spellings, wrong words, fragments, run-ons, or comma splices.

1.Be Vulnerable

In graduate school every time Dr. Brooks assigned us an essay, he never assigned a topic.? His only criteria??Make your reader stop and say, ?I never thought about it like that before.??? Great writers put themselves out there.? Vladimir Nabokov?s book, Lolita was at first banned because of its strong and indecent sexual content where a middle-aged man falls in love with 12-year-old girl. Nabokov took a chance and created one of the most memorable antagonists of the time.?I remind my students constantly to ?take a chance.? Great writers are the brave ones that put on the page what others would have never even said aloud.

References

Gutkind, L. (2009). Creative Nonfiction Lecture, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS.

Photo Retrieved from freeessaycollection.com

Jodie Liedke, a true Wisconsinite, having spent four summers working in a mozzarella factory, received her BA from Lakeland College and her Masters in Fine Arts from Wichita State University in Kansas. Liedke is the General Education Coordinator, a Creative Quill and Writing Across the Curriculum lead, and the advisor/instructor for GLUWW (Globe La Crosse Writers Write) and the ?Campus Chatter.? When not thinking fiction and working on her memoir, Liedke enjoys watching films, exploring the outdoors, and biking.

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How To Develop A New Internet Business - PR Companion

May 18 2012

by Joseph ? Business, Communication, Internet, Marketing, Popularity, Small Business

If you want to develop a new business on the Internet or expanding your current business onto the global information superhighway, then it?s important to develop a business plan as part of your preparations. Like a regular business plan, your Internet business plan must give details of the proposed venture, along with expected needs and results.

If you want to achieve a rapid massive success in your web start-up, then you need to discover someone who will show you the light till the end of the tunnel. Below we can see few techniques & ideas required.

Internet Business Issues:

First, most many people don?t know exactly what is Internet or what businesses, it can offer. Electronic commerce on the Internet is relatively new and poses many unique challenges. This is a hurdle that you must know to, overcome in your business plan.

Secondly, resources that are taken for granted in the real world often do not exist in online; the same process differs in formative stages in the on-line world. For example, payment systems, ad page pricing, &market demographic tracking are all in various stages of development in on-line, & based on the brand or product they differ.

Thirdly, the pace on the Internet is dizzying. Keeping track of the rapidly changing trends, technology, and competitors is crucial to the success of your business.

Make a Decision:

Make a steady decision with the following questions, to start a right internet business,

*What interests you?

*What have you accomplished in your past?

*What others have told about you, that comes naturally for you?

*What have you learned in your career or through your job history that others will pay to know?

*What annoys you?? If there is something that annoys, then find a solution for it.

Make a list of every possible idea for creating a business. Don?t judge your ideas at the first place itself. Write them all down, think, & make the right decision.

Choose & Follow the Right Consultancy?s advice:

Choose the right internet business consultancy for your business. You can do this by looking at how well are some other businesses are performing that have taken or have been taking the services from a particular consultancy to formulate marketing strategies. After selecting the right consultancy, all you need to do is follow what they say.

Your internet marketing consultants have the key to success of your online venture. If they are enjoying the same success that you want for your business, it?s better to let your consulting firm doing the same trick on you.

Keep on Tracking:

Once you start following the plan your internet business strategy developer provided you. Then you need to involve yourself into tracking whether it?s getting successful or not.

If not, then that?s your time to come into the picture. You need to instantly communicate with the consultancy group and ask them to check out what?s going wrong.

Design the Product:

When you design a product, it should probably be something you?re interested in. If you choose something that is closer to your heart, then it will be easier for you to put the hours into it that it requires.

Below are few ideas of, what kind of products should you do?

*Developing ecommerce sites for aspiring entrepreneurs.

*Providing search engine optimization services.

*Providing Facebook services, such as designing Facebook fan pages, etc?

*Providing simple WordPress websites to small businesses.

*Specializing in websites for a highly targeted audience, you could even build sites for welders, carpenters etc?

*Managing adwords campaigns.

So, try to develop a product rather than a service.

Fix the Cost:

When you design your product, you must probably have some idea of the price that you can charge for your product. List down your work identify all the costs you have spend & fix a price.

Usually fix at least 50% of the asking price, but this again goes with the provider who is willing to work for a low price, compared to how much you think your potential customers are willing to pay for the product/service.

Conclusion:

Now you may have a better idea of what is involved in developing & winning a Internet business plan. Remember, the most important points are:

*Addressing the uniqueness of the Internet,

*Explaining its business advantages and potential, keeping your audience in mind.

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Measuring transient X-rays with lobster eyes

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2012) ? A technology that mimics the structure of a lobster's eyes is now being applied to a new instrument that could help revolutionize X-ray astronomy and keep astronauts safe on the International Space Station.

Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are developing the "Lobster Transient X-ray Detector," which they hope to deploy on the space station in three to four years. From its perch on the orbiting outpost, the cross-cutting instrument now being developed by Jordan Camp, Scott Barthelmy, and Gerry Skinner would detect with unprecedented accuracy transient X-rays -- those fleeting, hard-to-capture high-energy photons produced during black-hole and neutron-star mergers, supernovae, and gamma-ray bursts created much farther away in the early universe.

But the lobster-eye technology also could carry out another much-needed job.

It could check for ammonia leaks on the International Space Station -- a problem that engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, have identified as needing a solution. Anhydrous ammonia, a toxic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, is used as a coolant that helps regulate the station's onboard temperatures. Currently, leaks are at acceptable levels, but a sudden increase could pose serious risks to astronauts, Camp said.

New Application for Established Technology

Lobster technology isn't new. First conceived as an X-ray all-sky monitor by University of Arizona scientist Roger Angel in the 1970s, it mimics the structure of the crustacean's eyes, which are made up of long, narrow cells that each captures a tiny amount of light, but from many different angles. Only then is the light focused into a single image.

The lobster X-ray instrument's optics would work the same way. Its eyes are a microchannel plate, a thin, curved slab of material dotted with tiny tubes across the surface. X-ray light enters these tubes from multiple angles and is focused through grazing-incident reflection, giving the technology a wide field of view necessary for finding and then imaging transient events that cannot be predicted in advance. The lobster detector is unique in that it is highly sensitive and provides a wide field of view and high-angular resolution, Camp said.

Since Angel first conceived the concept, astronomers at the University of Leicester in Leicester, England, have matured the technology and have built an instrument to fly on BepiColombo, a mission to Mercury developed jointly by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. ESA plans to launch the spacecraft in 2014.

What's new is "what we want to do with it," Camp said. "The innovation is using the lobster technology for a cross-cutting application. We want to use the technology in a new way to promote both astrophysics and human spaceflight."

To advance the dual-use concept, the team is using Goddard Internal Research and Development and NASA Office of the Chief Technologist's Center Innovation Fund support to assemble and test a prototype equipped with a commercially available microchannel plate, a charged-coupled device detector, and associated electronics.

Wide Field Collection of Transient X-rays

With its increased sensitivity and wide field of view, Camp said the instrument would be able to detect transient X-ray emissions from a large portion of the sky, giving scientists an unprecedented view of black-hole mergers, supernovae, and even gamma-ray bursts in the very distant universe. Transient X-rays are now difficult to detect because these sources brighten without warning and then vanish just as quickly.

He also believes the instrument could work in conjunction with and even extend the sensitivity of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a National Science Foundation-funded experiment that has searched for gravitational waves since 2002. Gravitational waves, first postulated by Albert Einstein, are faint ripples in space-time that theoretically happen during massively powerful events, such as black-hole or neutron-star binary mergers.

Gravitational-wave detectors don't localize well. Used in conjunction with the focusing Lobster detector, however, scientists would be able to zero in on the location of the source, Camp said.

Detection of Ammonia Leaks on Space Station

Just as exciting, Camp said, is how he could use the technology to detect ammonia leaks. Anhydrous ammonia runs through tubing connected to huge radiator panels located outside the space station. As the ammonia circulates through the tubing, it releases heat as infrared radiation. In short, it helps to regulate onboard temperatures. Possibly because of micrometeorite impacts or thermal-mechanical stresses, these lines currently leak.

The lobster technology could help, Camp said. With this application, however, the instrument would require the addition of a specialized device called an electron gun, which would bombard surfaces with electron beams at specific energy levels. Elements that come into contact with these electron beams are excited, producing X-rays at specific energy levels.

In this case, the instrument, once attached to the space station's robotic arm, would sweep over the coolant lines and radiator panels in search of nitrogen, and more specifically the X-rays generated by the element. If nitrogen X-rays are detected, their presence could indicate leaks since ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen.

Skinner has taken the lead in assembling and testing a leak-checking detector prototype and has recently succeeded in producing an X-ray image of a small nitrogen leak in a laboratory vacuum system. Barthelmy, meanwhile, is studying the system issues involved in deploying a dual-use lobster system on the space station.

"Many people are excited about the possibilities of this quintessentially cross-cutting instrument," Camp said. "With help from our IRAD program, we plan to advance the technology-readiness levels of our proposed instrument. We'll see where it goes. We believe it has great potential."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

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

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

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Colossal Superflares Erupt from Sun-Like Stars

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Customer Service Tips for Your Business | AnswerNow!

Having dealt with a variety of clients, vendors and business owners, AnswerNow understands firsthand how important quality customer service is. You may have heard the common statistic that it costs five times as much to bring in a new customer, as to keep an existing one. If customers leave, it is many times due to small oversights and lack of attention to your customer service. When customers call your business, you are given a fantastic opportunity to strengthen and develop the relationship. It makes good sense to take the extra time and effort to make these calls as significant and service focused as possible. Attention to customer service will greatly assist you in satisfying your customers and keeping them loyal!

Here are some of the best customer service tips our Team has compiled for your business to reference:

• Realize that, try as you might, you may not be able to please everyone. Some customers will never be satisfied no matter how many times you say I?m sorry or how many ways you offer to fix the problem. Don?t let these people affect the way you do business with the rest of your customers. Do your best to solve the problem, but let go of what you can?t change, and greet the rest of your customers with a friendly smile.
• The correct answer is never ?I don?t know? unless you add to it, ?but I can find out for you.?
• Do you know who your customers are? All of us like to feel important! Calling someone by name is a simple way to do it, and lets them know you value them as a customer.
• Remember there is no way that the quality of customer service can exceed the quality of the people who provide it.
• Accept returns without question, or at least with the smallest amount of questions as possible. In the long run, accepting a return is much less expensive than finding a new customer.
• Follow up with previous customers. Make sure your products and services work well for them. If they don?t, show concern and fix things cheerfully.
• Address complaints like a first responder. Learn the art of small business triage. Negative comments and complaints need your immediate attention, so treat them like the emergencies they are.
• Integrate ?Service With a Smile? into your business. Customers appreciate interacting with someone who comes across as friendly and happy to be assisting them.
• Avoid having one tone when speaking with a customer. Make sure to sound interested and enthusiastic about potential business or finding a solution for your customer.
• Respond to clients as soon as possible. Speed is everything, especially when a client is requesting something that is time-sensitive. Even if you can?t work on the task right away, at least let them know you got their request and give them a timeline when it will be completed.
• Go the extra mile to show you appreciate your customers. Include a thank you note in a customer?s package, send a birthday card, clip the article when you see their name or photo in print, or write a congratulatory note when they get a promotion.

As always, AnswerNow is here to help! If you feel your customer service is suffering due to an overload of tasks, consider handing off some of them to us! Contact us today <link> to see how we can effectively assist you!

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Workforce Central Florida expands list of jobs eligible for federal money

By Jim Stratton, Orlando Sentinel

7:34 p.m. EST, May 15, 2012

With Central Florida's unemployment rate at 8.6 percent, the region's jobs board has eased restrictions on how almost $7 million in federal training money can be spent, opening up a long list of occupations to laid-off workers.

Beginning in July, Workforce Central Florida clients will be able to use federal training money to learn jobs that, for the past few years, have been off limits.

Agency board members expanded the list of eligible occupations for adults seeking training under the federal Workforce Investment Act. They also lifted restrictions on what jobs teenagers can get under the agency's summer-jobs program.

The training program's budget is about $3.1 million, and the summer-jobs' program is $3.8 million.

Workforce Chairman Kevin Shaughnessy said new board members ? appointed last fall after the previous board was forced out ? wanted to place a greater emphasis on "getting people back to work now."

"The goal is immediate job placement," said Shaughnessy, a local attorney with ties to Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. "We can focus on long-term training later."

When distributing job-training and summer jobs money, the previous board had concentrated on high-paying, high-demand jobs identified by the state. Shaughnessy said those tended to cluster in the so-called STEM industries ? science, technology, engineering and math.

But while those are high-quality jobs, Workforce officials have found there aren't enough to go around.

Placing special emphasis on those positions may have made sense, Shaughnessy said, when unemployment was 4 percent or 5 percent, but in today's labor market, officials can't be so picky.

The previous board "never really adapted when we were hit by the recession and high employment," Shaughnessy said. "It's more important to get people back to work now than focus on specific occupations."

Some of the jobs for which training money will be available include food-service managers, bus and truck mechanics, and correctional officers.

Participants in the training program take aptitude tests and receive vouchers to pay for training from a group of approved training providers. Each year, the state produces a list of approved occupations based on forecasts of Florida's labor market.

Regional Workforce boards ? there are 24 across the state ? are allowed to add to that list or trim it, according to Kevin Neal, interim director of Workforce Central Florida.

The previous board approved the distribution of training money for just 20 occupations. Under the summer youth program, it required teens to be applying for jobs in one of 42 targeted industries.

The new board has made 121 jobs eligible for training money and lifted all restrictions on the summer-jobs program for young workers.

The former board's goal may have been worthwhile, but it had unintended consequences, according to a recent agency memo.

"Although on the surface this would seem to allow our youth opportunities in growing careers, many of the job options do not match the skills of the age group," the memo said.

"For example, the role of 'head chef' and 'police officer' are on the approved list. Youth age 16-21 cannot be trained on the job for these roles, and most will not have the training required for the job when entering the program."

The summer-jobs program will now pay for positions in every industry, Neal said, because, for teens and young adults just entering the work force, virtually all job experience is valuable.

Neal said his time working in a fast-food restaurant as a teen helped him develop a work ethic and taught him what employers expect. It taught him something else, too.

"It made me realize I didn't want to do that for a living," he said. "So I went on and got my law degree."

jstratton@tribune.com or 407-420-5379

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White births in US no longer a majority

White births in the US have been surpassed by racial and ethnic minorities, according to newest Census data.

By The Associated Press / May 17, 2012

White births account for half of babies born in U.S., according to the newest Census numbers, making it official: white births are no longer the majority in America. Maria Castellanos, 35, of Inglewood, Calif., looks at her two-day-old baby girl, Esmeralda Ruby Castellanos, her sixth child in 2003 at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. It is the Mexican immigrant's first child born in the United States.

Damian Dovarganes/AP

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For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the?US, capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing.

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New 2011 census estimates highlight sweeping changes in the nation's racial makeup and the prolonged impact of a weak economy, which is now resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the US.

"This is an important landmark," said Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau who is now a sociologist at Howard University. "This generation is growing up much more accustomed to diversity than its elders."

The report comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legality of Arizona's strict immigration law, with many states weighing similar get-tough measures.

"We remain in a dangerous period where those appealing to anti-immigration elements are fueling a divisiveness and hostility that might take decades to overcome," Mr. Harrison said.

As a whole, the nation's minority population continues to rise, following a higher-than-expected Hispanic count in the 2010 census. Minorities increased 1.9 percent to 114.1 million, or 36.6 percent of the total US population, lifted by prior waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years.

But a recent slowdown in the growth of the Hispanic and Asian populations is shifting notions on when the tipping point in?U.S. diversity will come ? the time when non-Hispanic whites become a minority. After 2010 census results suggested a crossover as early as 2040, demographers now believe the pivotal moment may be pushed back several years when new projections are released in December.

The annual growth rates for Hispanics and Asians fell sharply last year to just over 2 percent, roughly half the rates in 2000 and the lowest in more than a decade. The black growth rate stayed flat at 1 percent.

The immigrants staying put in the?US for now include Narcisa Marcelino, 34, a single mother who lives with her two daughters, ages 10 and 5, in Martinsburg, W.Va. After crossing into the US from Mexico in 2000, she followed her brother to the eastern part of the state just outside the Baltimore-Washington region. The Martinsburg area is known for hiring hundreds of migrants annually to work in fruit orchards. Its Hispanic growth climbed from 14 percent to 18 percent between 2000 and 2005 before shrinking last year to 3.3 percent, still above the national average.

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Howard Co. Student Wins The Nation&#39;s Highest Undergraduate ...

CLARKSVILLE, Md. (WJZ)? A huge honor for a student from Howard County. Kathryn Manion is the winner of the largest undergraduate literary prize in the nation.

Mary Bubala?has more on the high achiever.

Manion, a native of Clarksville, won just over $58,000. Her literary portfolio was chosen from 35 others at Washington College.

?To all the finalists up here, we have all had a creative writing class with each and every one of them and I can speak for the tremendous amount of talent I am a part of,? Manion said.

The literary prize was established by a gift from Sophie Kerr? a writer who died in 1965? leaving the bulk of her estate to Washington College.

Manion took the prize based on four short stories and an excerpt of her thesis.

She thanked her family for their support.

?To my family and friends, mom for always believing in me, and Casey, dad for always encouraging me to continue writing and to win the Sophie,? Mamion said.

Manion will receive the actual award during Washington College?s graduation this Sunday.

Manion is a graduate of Notre Dame Prep in Towson.

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Wilted swiss chard with pine nuts and oranges

A salad to satisfy spring cravings.

By France Morissette and Joshua Sprague,?Beyond The Peel / May 16, 2012

Earthy wilted chard greens paired with sweet and citrusy orange segments, a light vinaigrette and topped off with goat cheese and toasted pine nuts.

Beyond The Peel

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There?s something about the arrival of spring where I can always hear myself saying, ?This is my favorite time of the year,? even though summer and fall evoke the same statement. I think after a cold winter, I?m ready to embrace the tulips and cherry blossoms, but most of all, the variety of spring produce that is available.

Skip to next paragraph France Morissette and Joshua Sprague

Beyond The Peel

Cookbook author, France Morissette, and her husband Joshua Sprague believe that healthy food should be uncompromising when it comes to flavor. They creatively explore the world of natural, whole foods, leaving no stone unturned in their quest to create mouth watering, flavor packed, whole food meals. Through stories, photos, recipes and their online show Beyond The Peel TV, they're on a mission to help you eat healthy and enjoy every last bite in the process.

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After a winter filled with apples, squash and root vegetables, I?m ready with open arms for peas, asparagus, Swiss chard, spring beets, kale, garlic scapes, nettle, rhubarb and radishes. It?s like my body starts to crave all the bright and dark green leafy greens that flourish so beautifully this time of the year.

It?s not to say I won?t be as excited for all the summer bounty, but for now there?s more than enough to be creative with and I know we?ll have so many yummy dishes to keep us busy.

This wilted salad is one of my spring time cravings. With the earthy wilted chard greens, I paired sweet and citrusy orange segments, a light vinaigrette and topped it with goat cheese and toasted pine nuts. The chickpeas add substance and protein so the meat is not necessary. You can eat this as a main or serve it as a side. And, of course, I figured out all of these perfect flavor pairings with my Flavor Bible. How did I live without this book for so long?

I hope you?ll decide to give this a try. It?s a relatively simple recipe that comes together quickly if the chickpeas are made ahead of time. I can?t see why white beans or navy beans wouldn?t sub in beautifully here if that?s what you have on hand.

If you follow traditional food preparation, I?ve included the Nourishing Traditions soaking method for the chickpeas in the notes.

Hello spring in a bowl!

Wilted Swiss Chard with Pine Nuts and Oranges

8 chard stalks
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 oranges, 1 peeled and cut into segments, the other juiced
2 tabelspoons of rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup cooked chickpeas (see cooking notes below)
1/4 crumbled goat cheese

Wash and cut the Swiss chard into 1-2 inch segments. In a large frying pan, add olive oil and Swiss Chard. Cook the chard until just wilted, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and cut 1 orange into bite size pieces and set aside. Juice the remaining orange. Mix the orange juice (apprx 1/4 cup), the vinegar and the mustard to make a vinaigrette. Whisk until well combined. Mix the vinaigrette into the wilted greens. Add the pine nuts, chickpeas and goat cheese. Serve warm.

Traditionally Prepared Chickpeas: Soak 1 cup of chickpeas with 3 cups of water and 3 tablespoons of whey, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice (or acid of choice) overnight but for a minimum of 8 hours. Drain and rinse the beans. In a medium sized pot, add 6 cups of water and the drained chickpeas. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40-60 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on length of soaking time and how old the beans are. Taste the beans after 40 minutes and adjust time accordingly from there.

Related post on Beyond The Peel:?Zucchini Basil Salad with Pine Nuts and Pecorino Cheese?

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The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of food bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by The Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own and they are responsible for the content of their blogs and their recipes. All readers are free to make ingredient substitutions to satisfy their dietary preferences, including not using wine (or substituting cooking wine) when a recipe calls for it. To contact us about a blogger, click here.

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