At its Android and Chrome event in San Francisco today, Google announced that it is bringing textbooks to the Google Play store so students will be able to purchase and rent their textbooks for their Android devices and for reading on the web. The company has partnered with five major textbook publishers to launch this service. These partners are Pearson, Wiley, Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. Google says it will have a “comprehensive selection” of textbooks from these publishers in the store that will cover subjects like law, math and accounting, but it did not announce any exact numbers. The service will launch in August. While Google focused on the fact that students can rent their textbooks on Google Play, though, it did not announce any prices yet. The only thing Google would say is that it expect books to rent and sell for an 80 percent discount compared to regular retail prices (which tend to be very high). One thing that’s also not clear is how publishers will author books for this service and how much interactivity there will be. What we do know is that the Android app for Play Textbooks will feature a night-reading mode and will allow you to create and sync bookmarks and highlighted passages between devices.
If you haven?t heard of remote computer services, you may be surprised and delighted to know that thanks to the continued developments and advances in computers and their technologies, you can now take advantage of computer repairs that work from remote locations.
I can confirm that reseating your video card and your RAM (removing it completely and then placing it back in, with an eye out for cleaning up dust, etc. before you do so) solves the majority of ?beeping and failing to boot? problems I have run accross as a computer service specialist. Most often in these cases, the problem can be attributed to the computer being physically moved from one location to another. Video cards in particular are easy to ?unseat? when removing or connecting the video cable.
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[Flickr:Image:Large]
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They?re calling it the London Anniversary Games. This week?s Diamond League meet bears extra significance, the first world-class track and field competition held at London?s Olympic Stadium since the flame was extinguished last summer.
Several track and field stars are either injured or pretty much done for the season after failing to qualify for the world championships (Aug. 10-18, Moscow). Most of those still standing will compete in London on Friday or Saturday, including?Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix,?Mo Farah?and?Jessica Ennis.
Here?s a chronological rundown of key events to watch (coverage begins on Universal Sports on Friday, 3 p.m. ET):
Women?s 1,500 meters (Friday, 3:36 p.m. ET)
Mary Cain?is the headliner here. Cain, 17, the sensation of the indoor season, makes her senior European debut in the event in which she qualified for worlds.
Cain made the U.S. team by finishing second in a tactical final at nationals in Des Moines, Iowa, in June to training partner?Treniere Moser, who is running the 3,000 on Friday.
She has a great chance of winning this race given the highest-ranked woman (according to IAAF) in the field this year is No. 16?Mary Kuria?of Kenya (4:03.56). Cain is No. 24 at 4:04.62.
Also in the field is American?Morgan Uceny, who was the world No. 1 in 2011 but finished eighth at nationals.
Men?s 100 meters (Friday, 4:48 p.m. ET)
A lot has changed since Bolt last ran a 100, winning the Jamaican nationals on June 21 to qualify for worlds.
Now out of the picture are Olympic silver medalist?Yohan Blake?(injury), American record holder?Tyson Gay?(drug test) and former world record holder?Asafa Powell (drug test).
The consensus is only one man is left to challenge Bolt in Moscow, if anybody, and that?s 2004 Olympic champion?Justin Gatlin, who is not in this field in London.
However, there are two men in Friday?s 100 who have run faster than Bolt this year ? countryman?Nesta Carter and British upstart?James Dasaolu.
Carter, a longtime partner on Jamaica?s 4?100 relay squad, is suddenly the active 2013 world leader with a 9.87, but he didn?t make the Jamaican team for the 100 at worlds. Dasaolu became the second fastest Brit ever (behind 1992 Olympic champion?Linford Christie) when he ran a 9.91 at British nationals earlier this month.
Still, it would be surprising to see Bolt lose here, two weeks before the world championships. He may even have his eyes on Gay?s fastest time this year of 9.75, a time we may see expunged pending his drug-testing case.
American fans must get up bright and early to catch a glimpse of the biggest female track and field star of the 2012 Olympics ? heptathlon champion?Jessica Ennis.
Ennis has been battling an Achilles injury since the spring, putting major doubt into her status for not only this meet but also the world championships.
She appears ready to go after setting a personal best in the javelin at a low-key meet earlier this week. Ennis is also in the long jump field Saturday.
Another Olympic champion on the way back from injury is the London gold medalist in this event, Australian?Sally Pearson. Pearson, like Ennis, has been set back since the spring. Her ailment has been a hamstring.
Dominant in 2011 and 2012, Pearson has been slow in a handful of meets over the last two months. Her season?s best ? 12.67 ? is well off her personal best (12.28) set at 2011 worlds and even farther behind the world leader for 2013, U.S. champion?Brianna Rollins?(12.26). Rollins pulled out of Monaco last week because she her managers didn?t want her to face Pearson before worlds, according to Australian reports.
Rollins is not in the field Saturday, but the third- and fourth-place finishers from U.S. nationals are ? Nia Ali?and?Kellie Wells. They, along with Brit?Tiffany Porter, will give Pearson more than enough competition.
Men?s 110-meter hurdles (Saturday, 11:07 a.m. ET)
This event has been one of the most exciting and star-studded of all of track and field for the last few years. We?ve seen?the balance of power shift from China to Cuba to three different American men.
Saturday?s showdown will be overwhelmingly red, white and blue. In the field are 2013 U.S. champion?Ryan Wilson, former American record holder?David Oliver, 2011 world champion?Jason Richardson?and 2012 Olympic champion?Aries Merritt.?
All four men are going to worlds, so this should be a nice Moscow preview.?2008 Olympic champion?Dayron Robles?was originally in this event, but as of Thursday afternoon was no longer on the entry list.
The top non-American here is another Cuban,?Orlando Ortega, who ran a 13.08 in Eugene, Ore., in June. Only Oliver has run faster this year.
Women?s 100 meters (Saturday, 11:20 a.m. ET)
This sprint isn?t getting the pre-meet talk because it doesn?t include Bolt or a British star, but it just may be the best field of the competition. All the major players going into worlds are here.
From the U.S., there?s national and NCAA champion?English Gardner?and 2011 world champion?Carmelita Jeter. They could both use impressive times here, given Gardner ran an 11.32 in her European pro debut earlier this month (after winning nationals in 10.85). Jeter hasn?t gone sub-11 since her quadriceps injury in Shanghai in May, which caused her to skip nationals in June.
The favorites lead with two-time reigning Olympic champion?Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce?of Jamaica, who won in Paris on July 6 in 10.92 (into a slight headwind). There?s also world leader?Kelly-Ann?Baptiste?of Trinidad and Tobago. Baptiste has run a 10.83 this year but no other times sub-11. If Fraser-Pryce beats Baptiste here, there?s no doubt who the favorite is going into Moscow.
Notables:?Felix takes on a field including Americans?Shalonda Solomon, LaShauntea Moore?and?DeeDee Trotter?in the women?s 200 (Saturday, 10:27 a.m. ET). ? Farah, fresh off breaking the British 1,500 record last week, could very well break the nation?s 31-year-old record in the 3,000 meters (Saturday, 11:32 a.m. ET).
Contact: Lee Tune ltune@umd.edu 301-439-1438 University of Maryland
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Unlike humans, galaxies don't have an obesity problem. In fact there are far fewer galaxies at the most massive end of the galactic scale than expected and scientists have long sought to explain why. A new, UMD-led study published in the journal Nature suggests that one answer lies in a kind of feast and fast sequence through which large galaxies can keep their mass down.
Galaxies become more massive by 'consuming' vast clouds of gas and turning them into new stars. The new study shows in unprecedented detail how a burst of star formation in a galaxy can blow most of the remaining star-building gas out to the edge of the galaxy, resulting in a long period of starvation during which few new stars are produced.
"For the first time, we can clearly see massive concentrations of cold molecular gas being jettisoned by expanding shells of intense pressure created by young stars," says lead author Alberto Bolatto of the University of Maryland. "The amount of gas we measure gives us very convincing evidence that some growing galaxies blow out more gas than they take in, slowing star formation down to a crawl."
The team of astronomers used the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a giant radio telescope in the high desert of northern Chile, to discover billowing columns of cold, dense gas being pushed out of starburst galaxy NGC 253, also known as the Silver Dollar or Sculptor Galaxy. In starburst galaxies, stars form about 100 times faster than in more normal galaxies like our Milky Way.
NGC 253 with its slightly askew orientation offers astronomers an excellent view of the star formation clusters near the galaxy's center, clusters that turn out to be the point of departure for material being pushed from the galaxy.
"ALMA is opening a new window for observations of galactic winds," says Sylvain Veilleux, also at the University of Maryland and a coauthor on the paper. "Winds have the potential to be incredibly disruptive and carry away a significant fraction of the star-forming material of a galaxy."
The team says their results may help explain the universe's surprising paucity of high-mass galaxies. Computer models indicate that old red galaxies, which are far more massive than the Milky Way, should be considerably more common than they are. In their youth, these galaxies likely ejected a large fraction of their gas that would have otherwise formed stars.
Gas can be removed from a galaxy in two ways. One is through the action of a central, supermassive black hole, called an active galactic nucleus. Material is pulled into the black hole, becomes superheated and produces powerful jets or wide-angle winds that can propel material far from the galactic disk. However, evidence suggests that the black hole at the center of NGC 253 is not currently active.
The other way to potentially blow gas out of a galaxy is through galactic winds generated by star formation, but previously this had not been observed with enough resolution or sensitivity to measure the outflow of gas or its reductive impact on subsequent star formation.
As new stars form they exert powerful destructive influences on their environment. Initially, their light and winds of particles push on the surrounding gas. Later, if they are massive enough, stars explode as supernovas, a process that further drives the surrounding material away from the stellar birthplace. The current study indicates that in NGC 253, the concentration of hundreds or thousands of such destructive stars in one region is responsible for launching powerful flows of gas out of the galaxy.
Previous X-ray spectrum observations of NGC 253 have shown gas made of hot ionized hydrogen atoms streaming away from its star-forming regions. However, alone this insubstantial gas would have little if any impact on the fate of the galaxy and its ability to form future generations of stars. The new ALMA data show the far-more-dense molecular gas getting its initial "kick" from the formation of new stars and then being swept along with the thin, hot gas on its way to the galactic halo.
Using only a portion of its eventual full complement of 66 antennas, ALMA measured the mass and motion of carbon monoxide (CO) in the gas ejected from the central regions of this galaxy. The researchers determined that vast quantities of molecular gas likely 9 times the mass of our Sun and possibly much more were being ejected from the galaxy each year. At this rate, the galaxy could run out of gas and star formation slow to a crawl as in as few as 60 million years.
The researchers also determined that the gas is traveling somewhere between 25 to 155 miles (40 to 250 kilometers) per second, streaming approximately 1,500 light-years above and below the disk. This may not be fast enough for the gas to reach escape velocity from the galaxy. If not, the gas will likely get suspended in the galactic halo for many millions of years.
"More studies with the full ALMA array will help us figure out the ultimate fate of the gas carried away by the wind," said Adam Leroy with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "This will help us understand whether these starburst-driven winds recycle or truly remove star forming material."
Bolatto agrees, but says: "Probably in a galaxy like this, the gas is pulled back into the heart of the galaxy, perhaps after several hundred million years. Star formation then takes off again and the whole process repeats itself."
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided core funding for this research through multiple grants to the university-based U.S. scientists as well as through NSF support of NRAO and ALMA construction and operations.
"Understanding how galaxies can evolve so radically and so dramatically is one of the hottest topics in astronomy today," said Dan Evans, NSF program officer. "This work will have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the evolution of the cosmos. The result also is a true testament to the partnerships forged over many years between the University of Maryland research team, NSF and its international partners in the ALMA Project.
###
Media Contacts:
Lee Tune
Associate Director, University Communications
University of Maryland
301-405-4679 office, 240-328-4914 cell
ltune@umd.edu
Charles Blue
Public Information Officer
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
434-296-0314 office, 434.242.9559 or 202-236-6324 cell phones
cblue@nrao.edu
Alberto D. Bolatto
Associate Professor of Astronomy
Lab for Millimeter-wave Astronomy
University of Maryland
(currently in Heildelberg, Germany)
49-6221-528493 office in Germany, 301-405-1521 UMD office
bolatto@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~bolatto
[ | 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.
Contact: Lee Tune ltune@umd.edu 301-439-1438 University of Maryland
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Unlike humans, galaxies don't have an obesity problem. In fact there are far fewer galaxies at the most massive end of the galactic scale than expected and scientists have long sought to explain why. A new, UMD-led study published in the journal Nature suggests that one answer lies in a kind of feast and fast sequence through which large galaxies can keep their mass down.
Galaxies become more massive by 'consuming' vast clouds of gas and turning them into new stars. The new study shows in unprecedented detail how a burst of star formation in a galaxy can blow most of the remaining star-building gas out to the edge of the galaxy, resulting in a long period of starvation during which few new stars are produced.
"For the first time, we can clearly see massive concentrations of cold molecular gas being jettisoned by expanding shells of intense pressure created by young stars," says lead author Alberto Bolatto of the University of Maryland. "The amount of gas we measure gives us very convincing evidence that some growing galaxies blow out more gas than they take in, slowing star formation down to a crawl."
The team of astronomers used the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a giant radio telescope in the high desert of northern Chile, to discover billowing columns of cold, dense gas being pushed out of starburst galaxy NGC 253, also known as the Silver Dollar or Sculptor Galaxy. In starburst galaxies, stars form about 100 times faster than in more normal galaxies like our Milky Way.
NGC 253 with its slightly askew orientation offers astronomers an excellent view of the star formation clusters near the galaxy's center, clusters that turn out to be the point of departure for material being pushed from the galaxy.
"ALMA is opening a new window for observations of galactic winds," says Sylvain Veilleux, also at the University of Maryland and a coauthor on the paper. "Winds have the potential to be incredibly disruptive and carry away a significant fraction of the star-forming material of a galaxy."
The team says their results may help explain the universe's surprising paucity of high-mass galaxies. Computer models indicate that old red galaxies, which are far more massive than the Milky Way, should be considerably more common than they are. In their youth, these galaxies likely ejected a large fraction of their gas that would have otherwise formed stars.
Gas can be removed from a galaxy in two ways. One is through the action of a central, supermassive black hole, called an active galactic nucleus. Material is pulled into the black hole, becomes superheated and produces powerful jets or wide-angle winds that can propel material far from the galactic disk. However, evidence suggests that the black hole at the center of NGC 253 is not currently active.
The other way to potentially blow gas out of a galaxy is through galactic winds generated by star formation, but previously this had not been observed with enough resolution or sensitivity to measure the outflow of gas or its reductive impact on subsequent star formation.
As new stars form they exert powerful destructive influences on their environment. Initially, their light and winds of particles push on the surrounding gas. Later, if they are massive enough, stars explode as supernovas, a process that further drives the surrounding material away from the stellar birthplace. The current study indicates that in NGC 253, the concentration of hundreds or thousands of such destructive stars in one region is responsible for launching powerful flows of gas out of the galaxy.
Previous X-ray spectrum observations of NGC 253 have shown gas made of hot ionized hydrogen atoms streaming away from its star-forming regions. However, alone this insubstantial gas would have little if any impact on the fate of the galaxy and its ability to form future generations of stars. The new ALMA data show the far-more-dense molecular gas getting its initial "kick" from the formation of new stars and then being swept along with the thin, hot gas on its way to the galactic halo.
Using only a portion of its eventual full complement of 66 antennas, ALMA measured the mass and motion of carbon monoxide (CO) in the gas ejected from the central regions of this galaxy. The researchers determined that vast quantities of molecular gas likely 9 times the mass of our Sun and possibly much more were being ejected from the galaxy each year. At this rate, the galaxy could run out of gas and star formation slow to a crawl as in as few as 60 million years.
The researchers also determined that the gas is traveling somewhere between 25 to 155 miles (40 to 250 kilometers) per second, streaming approximately 1,500 light-years above and below the disk. This may not be fast enough for the gas to reach escape velocity from the galaxy. If not, the gas will likely get suspended in the galactic halo for many millions of years.
"More studies with the full ALMA array will help us figure out the ultimate fate of the gas carried away by the wind," said Adam Leroy with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "This will help us understand whether these starburst-driven winds recycle or truly remove star forming material."
Bolatto agrees, but says: "Probably in a galaxy like this, the gas is pulled back into the heart of the galaxy, perhaps after several hundred million years. Star formation then takes off again and the whole process repeats itself."
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided core funding for this research through multiple grants to the university-based U.S. scientists as well as through NSF support of NRAO and ALMA construction and operations.
"Understanding how galaxies can evolve so radically and so dramatically is one of the hottest topics in astronomy today," said Dan Evans, NSF program officer. "This work will have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the evolution of the cosmos. The result also is a true testament to the partnerships forged over many years between the University of Maryland research team, NSF and its international partners in the ALMA Project.
###
Media Contacts:
Lee Tune
Associate Director, University Communications
University of Maryland
301-405-4679 office, 240-328-4914 cell
ltune@umd.edu
Charles Blue
Public Information Officer
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
434-296-0314 office, 434.242.9559 or 202-236-6324 cell phones
cblue@nrao.edu
Alberto D. Bolatto
Associate Professor of Astronomy
Lab for Millimeter-wave Astronomy
University of Maryland
(currently in Heildelberg, Germany)
49-6221-528493 office in Germany, 301-405-1521 UMD office
bolatto@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~bolatto
[ | 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.
Every week, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz.
Pity Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The poor man can't even go to Iowa for a little praying, a little fundraising and a little defending of traditional marriage without stirring up an overheated pot of speculation about whether he plans to run for president in 2016.
Like there aren't just tons of good reasons for anyone to travel to Iowa in July. All the fashionable folk go there. It's like the St. Tropez of the Midwest, only with more corn and pigs and fewer Frenchmen, which any right-thinking American should see as a plus.
So there's Ted, up in paradise, probably just to sample the fine cuisine (mmm -- loose-meat sandwiches). He stops by to get a laying on of hands from a bunch of ministers -- common activity for Iowa visitors, as everyone knows -- and to say a prayer for marriage, which is in all the tourism brochures. "There's no issue where we need to be more on our knees," he says, which viewed in a certain light (dimmed) is actually a pretty good way to preserve marriages.
Anyhow, it's all innocent, good-time Iowa fun, and BAM! The liberal media again start questioning whether he is even eligible to run for president because he was born in Canada, the same question they raised last spring.
Damn media. Listen, his American-born mother and Cuban-immigrant father happened to be working in Calgary when Cruz was born, but his mother's citizenship makes him as American as apple pie, or its Canadian equivalent. (Apple poutine?) Besides, we're talking about Canada here, which isn't a real foreign country like Kenya or Hawaii or something. Hell, if someone farts on a street corner in Calgary on a winter day, you can smell it in Amarillo two days later if a blue norther's howling in. Of course, the air's pretty ripe most days in Amarillo, but you get the point: Even if Cruz were Canadian, which he's not, Canadians should be counted as honorary Americans. Except Celine Dion, who should be hauled out of Vegas in leg irons, sent home and put on a terrorism watch list for "My Heart Will Go On."
Listen: The important thing is, Ted is American enough to run for president. And just because his father reportedly got his U.S. citizenship long after Ted was born, let's not have any vicious "anchor baby" talk. At least not yet.
Can we just have some civility back in our political discourse? That's all Buzz is asking, and if anyone is a shining example of the need for more civility, it's Ted Cruz. We -- we're talking to you, liberal media -- don't want to start pounding on Cruz before he's even really running. It's like coaxing a squirrel to eat from your hand. Any sudden movements now might scare him off, and that could cost us many, many months of entertainment.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Three years after campaigning on a vow to "repeal and replace" President Barack Obama's health care law, House Republicans have yet to advance an alternative for the system they have voted more than three dozen times to abolish in whole or in part.
Officially, the effort is "in progress" ? and has been since Jan. 19, 2011, according to GOP.gov, a leadership-run website.
But internal divisions, disagreement about political tactics and Obama's 2012 re-election add up to uncertainty over whether Republicans will vote on a plan of their own before the 2014 elections, or if not by then, perhaps before the president leaves office, more than six years after the original promise.
Sixteen months before those elections, some Republicans cite no need to offer an alternative. "I don't think it's a matter of what we put on the floor right now," said Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, who heads the party's campaign committee. He added that what is important is "trying to delay Obamacare."
Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who leads a committee with jurisdiction over health care, said, "If we are successful in ultimately repealing this legislation, then yes, we will have a replacement bill ready to come back with."
Divisions were evident earlier this year, when legislation to make it easier for high-risk individuals to purchase coverage died without a vote. It was sidetracked after conservatives, many of them elected with tea party support, objected to any attempt to improve the current law rather than scuttle it.
With the rank and file growing more conservative, some Republicans acknowledge that without changes, they likely couldn't pass the alternative measure they backed when Democrats won approval for Obama's bill in 2010. Among other provisions, it encouraged employers to sign up their workers for health insurance automatically, so that employees would have to "opt out" of coverage if they didn't want it, and provided federal money for state-run high-risk pools for individuals and for reinsurance in the small group market.
The current state of intentions contrasts sharply with the Pledge to America, the manifesto that Republicans campaigned on in 2010 when they took power away from the Democrats. That included a plan to "repeal and replace" what it termed a government takeover of health care.
It promised "common-sense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs," including steps to overhaul medical malpractice laws and permit the sale of insurance across state lines. Republicans said they would "empower small businesses with greater purchasing power and create new incentives to save for future health care needs." They promised to "protect the doctor-patient relationship, and ensure that those with pre-existing conditions gain access to the coverage they need."
But Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., said, "We never did see a repeal and replace bill last time," referring to the 2011-2012 two-year term that followed the Republican landslide. "I hope we can this time, and I'll keep fighting for it."
Broun, running for the Senate from Georgia in 2014 as a conservatives' conservative, has drafted legislation of his own that relies on a series of tax breaks and regulatory changes such as permitting insurance companies to sell coverage across state lines to expand access to health care.
Other Republicans are at work on different bills, in the House Energy and Commerce Committee headed by Upton, and elsewhere.
Rep. Steven Scalise of Louisiana, who leads the conservative Republican Study Conference, said the organization is working on legislation to reduce health care costs "without the mandates and the taxes" in the current law.
Like others involved with the issue, he provided no timetable and few specifics.
At the same time, the other half of the 2010 pledge to "repeal and replace" is getting a workout.
The House voted last week to delay two requirements, the 38th and 39th time they have gone on record in favor of repealing, reducing or otherwise neutering the system that bears Obama's name.
In the case of one of the rules, a requirement for businesses to provide insurance to their workers, the administration announced a one-year delay earlier this month.
Democrats and even some Republicans say the intense focus on repealing the health law is wide of the mark.
"Every voter knows what Republicans are against. They don't know what they're for" on health care, said Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who heads House Democrats' campaign committee. He said the strategy would haunt Republicans next year among moderate and independent voters who want changes, not outright repeal.
The fate of legislation to put more funds into high-risk pools demonstrated a belief among some Republicans that they should advance alternatives. Polling presentations make the same point but are not uniformly persuasive among the rank and file, according to officials, and lawmakers' speeches sometimes make it sound as if the health law is disintegrating on its own.
Yet one prominent conservative, Ramesh Ponnuru, warned recently that it was a "perverse complacency" to do nothing while assuming the health law will implode.
"We can be sure that the Left would respond to any such collapse by making the case for a 'single payer' program in which the federal government directly provides everyone insurance," he wrote on May 30 in National Review Online.
Ponnuru added that in some Republican circles, "the idea that an alternative is necessary is seen as a mark of wimpiness, a weakness for big-government programs that are just slightly" weaker than what Democrats possess.
The Pentax K-50 ($699.95 direct, body only) is a solid midrange D-SLR camera, which happens to be available in any of 120 color combinations. Despite the fact that it can be had in a lilac and pink color scheme, it's a serious photographic tool. Cosmetics aside, it's the same body as last year's K-30, offering weather sealing, a 16-megapixel APS-C image sensor, a pentaprism viewfinder, and fast 5.9fps burst shooting. It's not quite as well-rounded a camera as our Editors' Choice Nikon D5200, which is a better SLR for recording video thanks to superior autofocus and a hinged rear LCD. But if video isn't a concern, the Pentax K-50 is good alternative for shutterbugs who enjoy taking photos in inclement weather and for discerning shooters who are underwhelmed by the D5200's pentamirror viewfinder.
Design and Features The K-50 is fairly compact, measuring just 3.8 by 5.1 by 2.8 inches (HWD) and weighing in at 1.4 pounds. It's a smidge smaller than the Canon EOS Rebel T5i (3.9 by 5.2 by 3.1 inches), but the T5i is lighter at just 1.1 pounds. One of the reasons that the K-50 is heavy is that its viewfinder is a solid glass pentaprism. It covers 100 percent of the frame, so your exact frame in the finder, and it's a bit larger and brighter than the pentamirror finders found in the T5i, D5200, and most other sub-$1,000 cameras. Another factor is the weather sealing; each button and dial is protected by a gasket, so you can shoot in very rough weather. You can't submerge the camera in water, since it's not rated for that, but feel free to go out and shoot photos in a blizzard or hurricane with the K-50 when it's paired with a sealed lens.
Also setting the camera apart from others in this class is a dual dial control system with programmable functionality. Advanced shooters will love the ability to assign EV compensation, ISO control, and other common shooting settings to a dial that would normally go unused when shooting in aperture or shutter priority modes. If you're not as knowledgeable about the ins and outs of photography, you can set the K-50 to operate in auto or program mode and fire away as it takes control of settings. There are also a number of Scene modes available. These aren't quite as user-friendly as the Guide Mode found on the Nikon D3200, but do give some explanation as to when they are applicable.
There are enough physical controls packed into the K-50's compact body to keep advanced shooters happy, though not as many as the Pentax K-5 II?a more advanced camera that features a PC flash sync connector and a dedicated control to select the active AF point, both of which are absent from the K-50. You'll find buttons that adjust the ISO, activate exposure lock, control the flash, set the self-timer and drive mode, and control white balance on the rear, as well as a reprogrammable Raw button and a switch to toggle between autofocus modes on its left side.
The rear LCD is 3 inches in size and has a 921k-dot resolution. It's fixed, unlike the tilting display found on the Sony Alpha 65, which makes it a bit harder to use the camera if you need to shoot from an odd angle. The display is extremely sharp, though, and when you activate live view mode you have the option of using focus peaking as a focusing aid. This feature highlights in-focus areas of your frame to improve accuracy when focusing manually. Peaking works for stills only?the camera's processor isn't quite up to the task of keeping it active during video recording?but is a boon to anyone with a library of older, manual focus Pentax lenses. Like the company's other D-SLRs, you can use any K-mount lens without the need for adapters?that's close to 40 years worth of glass at your disposal. Like other Pentax SLRs, the shake reduction is built into the body, not into the lens, so any glass that you attach will benefit from stabilization.
The K-50 can be had as a body only, but only in a few of the 120 color combinations. In order to customize it completely you'll need to order it with the DA-L 18-55mm WR kit lens, which increases the price to $779.95. The WR designation means that the lens is sealed against weather as well, and this particular version of the lens (which features a plastic mount rather than a metal one) is only available when purchased along with a body. There's also a two-lens kit, which adds the telephoto zoom DA-L 50-200mm WR lens; that sells for $879.95. If shooting in bad weather isn't a concern, but you still like the K-50, you can save some money by opting for the K-500. It's the same camera, minus the sealing and minus a rechargeable battery; it is powered by standard AA cells. It's compatible with the same rechargeable battery that ships with the K-50; you'll just have to spend a bit and buy it and a charger separately if AA batteries aren't for you. The K-500 can be had for $599.95 with an 18-55mm lens, or for $699.95 with an 18-55mm and 50-200mm two-lens kit.
The total link site for the news and information junkie: Libertarianism. Property Rights. Government Corruption. Chicago Mob. Struggle Against Socialism. Union Corruption. Pension Meltdown. Blacked Out History. New York Mob. Higher Education rip-offs. Housing Crash. Rent-seeking. Obama-Chicago Democratic Machine. Gun Control Monopolists. The Ron Paul Revolution. Organized Crime...Other Politically Incorrect matters of interest.
Phil Mickelson of the United States holds up the Claret Jug trophy after winning the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Sunday July 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Phil Mickelson of the United States holds up the Claret Jug trophy after winning the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Sunday July 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Phil Mickelson of the United States gestures as he holds up the Claret Jug trophy after winning the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Sunday July 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Phil Mickelson of the United States celebrates after his final putt on the 18th green during the final round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Sunday July 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Phil Mickelson of the United States celebrates after his final putt on the 18th green with his caddie Jim Mackay during the final round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Sunday July 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Phil Mickelson of the United States gestures as he holds the Claret Jug trophy after winning the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Sunday July 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
GULLANE, Scotland (AP) ? Phil Mickelson is mystified no more by links golf. He has his name etched in a silver claret jug to prove it.
Mickelson delivered his best closing round ever in a major Sunday ? at the British Open, of all places ? when he ran off four birdies over the last six holes for a 5-under 66 at Muirfield to win the third leg of the career Grand Slam.
"This is such an accomplishment for me because I just never knew if I'd be able to develop the game to play links golf effectively," Mickelson said. "To play the best round arguably of my career, to putt better than I've ever putted, to shoot the round of my life ... it feels amazing to win the claret jug."
At the end of a rough-and-tumble week along the Firth of Forth, Mickelson was the only player under par. He wound up with a three-shot win over Henrik Stenson, one of four players atop the leaderboard during a final round that was up for grabs until Mickelson seized control in the final hour.
Lee Westwood, who started Sunday with a two-shot lead, fell behind for the first time all day with a bogey on the 13th and never recovered. He closed with a 75. Masters champion Adam Scott took the lead with a 4-foot birdie on the 11th, and closed as sloppily as he did last year. He made four bogeys starting at the 13th, and a final bogey on the 18th gave him a 72. At least he has a green jacket from the Masters to console him this year.
Tiger Woods, in his best position to win a major since the crisis in his personal life, stumbled badly on his way to a 74 and was never a serious challenger.
Westwood said he didn't play all that badly. Instead, he paid tribute to what will be remembered as one of the great closing rounds in major championship history.
"When you birdie four of the last six of a round any day, that's good going," Westwood said. "With a decent breeze blowing and some tough flags out there, it's obviously a pretty good experience. When you do it in a major championship, it's an even better experience."
But this major championship? Phil Mickelson?
He had only contended twice in two decades at golf's oldest championship. One week after he won the Scottish Open in a playoff on the links-styled course of Castle Stuart, Mickelson was simply magical on the back nine of a brown, brittle Muirfield course that hasn't played this tough since 1966.
Tied for the lead, Mickelson smashed a 3-wood onto the green at the par-5 17th to about 25 feet for a two-putt birdie, and finished in style with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th to match the lowest score of this championship.
Mickelson figured a par on the 18th would be tough for anyone to catch him. When the ball dropped in the center of the cup, he raised both arms in the air to celebrate his fifth career major, tying him with the likes of Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson.
"Best round I've ever seen him play," said his caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay. Mickelson shared a long hug with his caddie and whispered in his ear, "I did it."
His final surge was right about the time Westwood and Scott began to fold.
Scott, trying to join an exclusive list of players who have won a green jacket and a claret jug in the same year, made a remarkable recovery from the dunes right of the par-3 13th hole, only to miss the 7-foot par putt. He took three putts for bogeys on the next two holes ? from long range on the 14th, and from 20 feet on the 15th ? and found a bunker on the next.
Westwood started to lose his grip on the jug with bogeys on the seventh and eighth, and failing to birdie the downwind, par-5 ninth. Presented with birdie chances early on the back nine, his putting stroke began to look tentative. He hit into the dunes on the right side of the 13th to make bogey and never caught up.
Westwood and Scott tied for third with Ian Poulter, who played a four-hole stretch in 5-under around the turn and closed with a 67. At 1-over 285, he canceled a flight home in case of a playoff. Moments later, with Mickelson pulling away, the outcome was clear.
Making this even sweeter for Mickelson is that just one month ago he lost out on yet another chance to win the U.S. Open, the missing link of a career Grand Slam. Mickelson twice made bogey with wedge in his hand on the back nine at Merion and had his record sixth runner-up finish.
Mickelson joins an elite list of winners at Muirfield, which is considered the fairest of the links on the British Open rotation. All but two of the Open champions at Muirfield are in the World Hall of Fame. Mickelson is the only winner who already has been inducted.
It was the 43rd win of his PGA Tour career. The guy who once couldn't win the big one now has five majors in the last nine years. This one returns him to No. 2 in the world ranking for the first time in nearly three years.
Woods, meanwhile, now has gone 17 majors without winning, and that pursuit of Jack Nicklaus and his benchmark of 18 majors ? Woods is stuck on 14 ? doesn't look any closer. He three-putted twice in four holes and looked like just another contender on this Sunday.
He attributed his round to not getting the right pace on the greens, which he said were progressively slower.
"I felt like I was really playing well today, actually the whole week, " said Woods, who has not broken 70 in the final round of his last seven majors. "I really hit so many good shots and really had control of my ball this week. As I said, it was just trying to get the speed, and I just didn't get it."
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israeli and Palestinian officials voiced skepticism Sunday that they can move toward a peace deal, as the sides inched toward what may be the first round of significant negotiations in five years.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced late last week that an agreement has been reached that establishes the basis for resuming peace talks. He cautioned that such an agreement still needs to be formalized, suggesting that gaps remain.
In his first on-camera comment Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to lower expectations by saying the talks will be tough and any agreement would have to be ratified by Israelis in a national referendum.
Netanyahu pledged to insist on Israel's security needs above all ? saying his main guiding principles will be to maintain a Jewish majority in Israel and avoid a future Palestinian state in the West Bank becoming an Iranian-backed "terror state."
A lifelong hawk, Netanyahu has been a reluctant latecomer to the idea of Palestinian statehood, and his critics say he uses the pretext of security to avoid engaging in good-faith negotiations.
"I am committed to two objectives that must guide the result ? if there will be a result. And if there will be a result, it will be put to a national referendum," he said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting. "It won't be easy. But we are entering the talks with integrity, honesty, and hope that this process is handled responsibly, seriously and to the point."
Hardliners have floated referendum proposals before, usually as an attempt to add an additional obstacle to any efforts to cede war-won territories as part of a future peace agreement.
Palestinian officials were silent Sunday.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not spoken about the possible resumption of negotiations since Kerry's announcement Friday. In an attempt to restrict official Palestinian comment, Abbas' office said only two top aides, Nabil Abu Rdeneh and Yasser Abed Rabbo would be allowed to speak to reporters. Neither was available Sunday.
Abbas had previously refused to negotiate with Israel so long as settlement construction continued in part of his hoped-for state. Netanyahu countered by saying he would only enter talks without preconditions.
The two sides are now set to hold more talks in Washington in coming days or weeks on the framework of negotiations, meaning a resumption of talks is not yet assured.
Gaps remain on three issues Palestinians say need to be settled before talks can begin ? the baseline for border talks, the extent of a possible Israeli settlement slowdown and a timetable for releasing veteran Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War. Abbas seeks a commitment from Netanyahu that Israel's pre-1967 border will serve as a baseline for negotiations, but the Israeli leader has refused to do so. Previous rounds of negotiations were conducted on those lines.
Two Palestinian officials said Saturday that Abbas agreed to resume talks only after Kerry gave him a letter guaranteeing that the pre-1967 borders would serve as a baseline. The officials, privy to internal discussions, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
A Western official denied the 1967 borders would be the starting point for negotiators.
Israel has said it will release some Palestinian prisoners as a good will gesture, but there are few other official details to emerge about the framework of the talks.
The actual talks are to produce a deal on the borders between Israel and a future Palestine, a partition of Jerusalem, the fate of refugees and security arrangements.
While a majority of Israelis support a two-state solution with the Palestinians, polls suggest there is less support for a partition of Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as their future capital. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the territory has since been taken over by the Islamic militant Hamas group that does not accept Abbas' authority.
Israel and the Palestinians have engaged in several rounds of negotiations since Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized each other in 1993.
At least twice, in 2001 and in 2008, the two sides reportedly made significant progress. Since then, many on both sides have become skeptical about a possible deal.
Palestinians suspect Netanyahu is interested in the process of negotiations, as a diplomatic cover, but not in an actual deal. Israelis fear territory they hand over to a weak Abbas could quickly turn into a staging ground for attacks on them by Palestinian militants, as happened in Gaza.
"The chances for a permanent solution are not high," Interior Minister Gideon Saar told Israel Radio. "The Palestinians are not ready to make the historic decision to end the conflict between them and us."
The Palestinians, too, were hardly optimistic.
"We are skeptical about these talks because the Israelis are not going to stop building in the settlements and because they didn't accept the '67 borders," said Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of Abbas' Fatah Party. "What we got in return for going back to negotiations is an American pledge that the talks will be on the '67 borders, and historically the Americans always gave us such pledges but they never abided by these pledges."
Let me tell you about my experience at Vivadent so far.
I?had?my upper braces fitted on the 22nd of june wich is just a month ago, and to be sincere and truthfull not one week has gone by without a complication occurring.
First occurrence:
On the day of fitting the braces the archwire was left cut too long causing the wire to cut? and scraping into the?right?cheek, as i only started to feel the pain pass the closing hour going back to have it cut?was not an option, the following day was Sunday wich is not part of there opening days. Went their on the next Monday to have?it?cut off, and found out i could have used wax which I had no knowledge of, no one at the surgery made the effort to explain it might happen after just having braces fitted nor supply me with the wax until the day I came for the archwire cutting.
Had to endure over two days of discomfort which led to very little eating done or talking, I can actually say my mouth had to be closed for that period of time for me not to be in pain.?
Within the same week on the 29th of june upper left 2nd mollar?brace?broke completely??????????????????????? off thooth while eating (nothing of a hard structure).
Sunday 6th of?July upper right lateral brace?completely detached from tooth?only being held by the archwire.
Tuesday 16th of July upper right cupsid?brace?completely detached only being held by the archwire
just few days after having the upper right cupsid reffited got detached once again on the Friday 19th of July.
Vivadent is currently leaving me?in a possition were I have a?completely detached brace only hagging through the archwire and no other?option then waitting until the 27th of July to have it reffited as the Orthodantist is on holiday and would not be back until then.
At every single occasion Vivadent had made me feel it has been of my own doing for the reason of the braces coming off, and just as a reminder this is just one month exactly into treatment.
So far the work of Vivadent has been very Patchy, Poor?and Unprofessinal, for what I paid it is not the quality of service I expected I would not recommend Vivadent to anyone.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged the city of Miami and its former budget director with civil securities fraud for engaging in questionable budget transfers that misled bond investors.
The SEC?s enforcement action also charged the city with violating an existing cease-and-desist order entered in 2003 based on ?similar misconduct.?? The agency said it?s the first time the SEC has alleged further wrongdoing by a municipality already under an existing cease-and-desist order.
The charges, filed in federal court in Miami, allege that the city and former Budget Director Michael Boudreaux ?made materially false and misleading statements and omissions? about internal fund transfers leading up to three 2009 bond offerings totaling $153.5 million. They also are accused of including ?false and misleading? information in the city?s 2007 and 2008 financial statements distributed to bond investors.
The investigation, which began in 2009 after a Miami Herald report, revealed that Boudreaux transferred $37.5 million from the capital budget that pays for big-ticket construction items into the general fund to reduce gaping holes in the operating budget as the local economy soured. At the time, he justified the transfers by saying the projects were no longer necessary.
But the SEC found that the projects still needed those funds during that fiscal year, or that the money had already been spent. The transfers enabled Miami to meet its own requirements for general fund reserves. As a result, the city?s bond offerings were rated favorably by credit rating agencies, which view general fund balances as key indicators of financial health.
?Miami cannot continue play shell games with its finances,? Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC?s Miami regional office, said in a statement. ?Investors and the markets deserve complete transparency in assessing the city?s municipal bond offerings.?
The SEC?s complaint seeks to prohibit the city from violating securities laws and to impose financial penalties on Miami and Boudreaux. It also seeks a court order directing the city to comply with the agency?s 2003 cease-and-desist mandate.
?Today, we?re paying for the sins of the past,? Miami Mayor Tom?s Regalado said. ?Now the city is very careful in segregating accounts.?
Boudreaux?s attorney, Michael Pizzi, said his client is a ?scapegoat? for making a budget recommendation supported at the time by the city manager, mayor and commissioners.
?He was an employee who did his job and did absolutely nothing wrong,? Pizzi said. ?There?s not a scintilla of evidence of bad intent or fraud on his part.?
The charges are likely to play a part in Regalado?s reelection this fall. His main challenger, Commissioner Francis Suarez, said earlier Friday that the SEC?s action would not come as a surprise to commissioners who have repeatedly criticized the city?s budget procedures.
?It?s a practice that hasn?t really improved, in my opinion, throughout Regalado?s tenure,? Suarez said. ?One of the most unstable departments in the city has been the finance department.?
A few weeks ago, we received an email from a reader who had some questions about his health savings account. The email raised two interesting questions: Are these tax-favored insurance products becoming retirement accounts, and, to quote the email, ?does anybody regulate these clowns??
On the first count, the answer is pretty clearly yes. The personal finance subsection of the web is overflowing with advice on how to, and whether you should, use an HSA as a retirement account.
Why HSAs?
Theoretically, HSAs are meant to be a way for you to use before-tax money to pay for your healthcare costs when you have a high-deductible plan (meaning your deductible is at least $1,200 a year for an individual or $2,400 for a family before your insurance benefits kick in). But they have morphed into something more than that, thanks to their triple tax advantage:
Your account contributions are pre-tax or tax-deductible.
All earnings, interest, and, yes, investment returns are tax-free.
Any withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free. Plus, once you reach age 65, all nonmedical withdrawals are taxed at your current tax rate, just like a traditional IRA. (If you withdraw money for nonmedical expenses before you?re 65, then there?s a 20% penalty.)
Investment returns? Indeed. It turns out that HSAs aren?t limited to cash. You certainly can put your money (restricted to $3,250 for an individual or $6,450 per family per year, plus an extra $1,000 a year if you are over 55) into an FDIC-insured savings account. State Farm offers such a product through State Farm Bank. But many companies offer a richly varied menu to suit any risk appetite: a company called Health Savings Administrators, for instance, gives you a list of of no fewer than 22 Vanguard funds to choose from, including funds devoted to small-cap stocks and ?strategic equity?.
Wells Fargo offers both types of accounts. When you open an HSA at Wells Fargo, you put your money in an FDIC-insured deposit account that pays a tiny bit of interest annually. Once you have $2,000 in that deposit account, you then have the option to start putting money in a separate, non-insured HSA investment account, with various mutual fund options.
For anybody with high-deductible insurance, then, this is an attractive tax-free way to invest money in the stock market. It?s especially attractive to the young and healthy, since those people have a lower risk of having to tap their HSA to pay medical expenses before their money has had a chance to grow.
HSAs aren?t owned by your employer, or even connected to your insurance, so you can open one and keep it until you retire ? they are even listed in the code of federal regulations as retirement accounts. And so, while they were perhaps not originally intended to be a retirement account, that?s what they have morphed into.
Is having an HSA catching on?
As of January, there were 15.5 million people in the US with insurance plans that qualified them to open an HSA, up from 3.2 million in 2006. That said, it?s hard to find data on how many people actually have an HSA. There has certainly been a rapid rise in the number of employers who offer what the industry refers to as ?account-based health plans?.
High deductibles pass much of the cost of medical expenses to the individual, and also avoid the 40% excise tax that the Affordable Care Act will introduce to high-value insurance plans. As the latest Towers Watson report on ?Reshaping Health Care? puts it:
Account-based health plans (ABHPs) can be an important strategy for reining in costs in advance of the 2018 excise tax and facilitating the shift toward greater accountability from employees and more consumer-like behavior in their purchase of health care.
For people who need to make use of their health insurance often, ABHPs shift expense away from the employer and insurance company, and onto the individual. However, if you are healthy, ABHPs are great: their premiums are lower than other health plans, and if you don?t need to spend a lot on healthcare, your money has a chance to grow in your investment HSA account. Furthermore, HSA proponents argue, making consumers pay for more of their medical expenses will drive prices down as people put more effort into shopping for the lowest price for medical care.
Regulation
But back to our reader?s second question on HSAs: Who are the regulators? The answer depends on what kind of account you have, and who is providing it. If your HSA is in a bank, in cash, then it likely to be FDIC-insured (State Farm, for instance). If you have HSA money in mutual funds, however, those investments are not insured (except in the case of a total bank failure, in which case the SIPC is there for you, probably). Mutual funds are regulated by the SEC.
Non-banks can also be HSA providers, and if your money isn?t in a bank, it won?t be FDIC insured. Take SelectAccount, for example. It?s a subsidiary of the insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, which is technically regulated by the Minnesota Department of Commerce. The IRS continues to check that it meets the requirements to be an HSA provider, according to spokesperson Marlo Peterson. It does have deposit accounts ? and they are not FDIC insured. It also has investment HSA accounts, where the management of your investment and your mutual fund choices is outsourced to Charles Schwab. In turn, Schwab is regulated by the SEC. Got that?
The Bottom Line
Should you use an HSA as a retirement account? The simple answer is yes: if you already have a high-deductible health plan, then you should, if you have the money, put the maximum amount into an HSA every year.
The second question is what you should do when medical expenses come along. Should you pay them out-of-pocket, using after-tax money, or should you use the funds in your HSA? That?s more of a judgment call, and depends in large part on whether you will miss the money if you spend it out of your pocket, rather than out of the HSA. But given that substantial medical costs in retirement are almost certain for all of us, it makes sense to start saving up for them today in as tax-efficient a manner as possible.
And if you?re now thinking of your HSA as a place to save up for retirement medical costs, rather than for current medical costs, then it?s logical to invest that money in long-term investments, like mutual funds, rather than just keeping it in cash.
Just make sure that you have enough cash lying around to cover any unexpected medical costs you have for the time being. The last thing you want is to be forced to use your HSA to cover near-term medical costs, just when your investments have gone south.
Finally, is your money safe, in an HSA, and do you need to worry about the HSA provider going bust? That one?s harder, and really the only way we?ll find out is if and when it happens. But insofar as you?re keeping your HSA funds in cash, you should certainly make sure that cash is FDIC insured.
I am on a roll with free monthly teleseminars! ?This month?s topic got an overwhelming response on Facebook when I ask if you would be interested. ?I had SO many likes that I knew I had to get this information out to you ASAP. ?On July 24th at 4pm PST (7pm EST), I am going to share with you how to get ahead in your career this year. I know we are over halfway through 2013 and that is why it is more important than ever for you to hear what I have to say to really make your career goals happen this year.
Click here to sign up for the teleseminar.
In this teleseminar, you will learn:
How to Create More Opportunities For Yourself In Your Current Job
What You Must Know About Relationships and Networking to Get Ahead
How to Get Paid More For What You Do
Mindsets You Need In Order To Move Your Career Ahead
What to Do If You Feel Stuck In Your Current Career
How to Communicate When You Want to Move Forward
And much more!
You don?t want to miss this kick in the butt teleseminar so you can start making big things happen. I know you are going to love it and I think everyone should attend because the information I am going to share can really make a difference in your life and happiness.
Click here to sign up for the teleseminar.
P.S. The teleseminar will be recorded so make sure you still sign up if you can?t make it because I will send you the recording to listen to on your own time.
Yesterday, Google's Matt Cutts posted a video answer to the question "If I have 20 domains, should I link them all together?"
The short answer is, most likely no - you should not link them all together.
As I explained at Search Engine Land with my article titles Google's Matt Cutts: Linking 20 Domains Together Likely A "Cross Linking Scheme" - it may be considered by Google as a cross linking scheme - at least those are the words used by Matt Cutts.
Here is the video:
As you can see, the overall theme and feeling you get from Matt is that it is typically a bad idea.
So the next question I will hear is what about linking 18 sites, or 15 sites, or what about 10 or 5 sites together. I love those questions. Those asking those questions are linking the sites for one purpose, ranking.
So what about it? :)
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Image credit to BigStockPhoto for circle of chains
At its Android and Chrome event in San Francisco today, Google announced that it is bringing textbooks to the Google Play store so students will be able to purchase and rent their textbooks for their Android devices and for reading on the web. The company has partnered with five major textbook publishers to launch this service. These partners are Pearson, Wiley, Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. Google says it will have a “comprehensive selection” of textbooks from these publishers in the store that will cover subjects like law, math and accounting, but it did not announce any exact numbers. The service will launch in August. While Google focused on the fact that students can rent their textbooks on Google Play, though, it did not announce any prices yet. The only thing Google would say is that it expect books to rent and sell for an 80 percent discount compared to regular retail prices (which tend to be very high). One thing that’s also not clear is how publishers will author books for this service and how much interactivity there will be. What we do know is that the Android app for Play Textbooks will feature a night-reading mode and will allow you to create and sync bookmarks and highlighted passages between devices.
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Public release date: 24-Jul-2013
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Yesterday, Google's Matt Cutts posted a video answer to the question "If I have 20 domains, should I link them all together?"