Many home improvement projects can be affordable, though most people believe that they are all very pricey. By focusing on smaller projects, your home-improvement endeavors can actually end up looking very nice. Using your imagination, and the tips in this article, you may be able to achieve several low-cost home-improvement projects on your own. basics of home improvement is one of those things where the overall influence it has primarily rests on other considerations.
First of all, you might want to try this particular strategy which can make your home look cleaner and can help you make money. Very often, getting rid of unnecessary things makes a bigger difference than anything you could add. A cluttered home will make you feel constricted and uncomfortable by virtue of it being in the room. Get rid of oversized furniture, anything that?s broken and not worth repairing, and whatever you don?t need. Items that are not broken can be sold on eBay; you could also have a yard sale on the weekend. Local charities and churches often except merchandise that is in good condition so this is also an option too. Definitely make a run to the dump with useless items you do not need. This will allow you to not only straighten out your home, but also organize items you may have forgotten that you owned.
Every single door in your house can also be a small home improvement project. You should replace these doors if you can, especially if they are unsightly or old. Doors can serve many purposes, and by replacing them, you can improve the way that your house is insulated. It is important to replace the doors that are rotting which will make your house look that much better. Your front door is most important of all, both because it?s what everyone sees and for keeping out the elements. Doors leading into the attic, as well as any going to a basement area, are also candidates for being replaced if they have problems. New doors mean that you will have a more energy efficient house and it will also, as a byproduct, look great too. There is considerably more to cost of home remodeling than meets the eye, even though you have simply learned a large amount more.
Many people that do home-improvement projects will replace their old water heater with a more energy efficient one. The reason is that it can help lower your energy bill as the years go by. If you have an old hot water heater, this may be creating up to a third of your actual electric bill, which is why you should change to something that is more energy efficient. A very good choice is to get an on-demand water heater ? these only use electricity when you want hot water. The best type of water heater to install is a solar water heater; these water heaters can actually give you tax benefits as well. While you start wondering about less expensive ways to make your home look nicer, you will realize that the potential is practically innumerable. You needn?t be frightened of changing things a bit, as every once in a while reorganizing things is all that you need to do. Another thing to keep in mind is that repairs, however minor, should be taken care of as soon as possible or the problem tends to get worse.
WASHINGTON/CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 27 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp is expected to announce on Monday that it will start to build the southern leg of its controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States, three political news organizations reported. TransCanada will begin building the portion of the line that runs from Cushing, Oklahoma south to Texas refineries, reported The Hill, National Journal and Politico. A company spokesman could not be reached immediately for comment. After President Barack Obama rejected Keystone XL in January, saying it needed further environmental reviews, TransCanada Chief Executive Russ Girling raised the possibility of building the controversial project in segments, starting with the southern portion. The Gulf Coast portion, which would help alleviate a glut of oil supply at the Cushing Oklahoma storage hub that has pressured prices, has been valued at $2 billion.
In his annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, while noting the per share book value of their Class A and Class B stock gained 4.6 percent in 2011, says he jumped the gun on the housing recovery. As Business Insider tells MHProNews.com, ?We have five businesses whose results are significantly influenced by housing activity. The connection is direct at Clayton Homes, which is the largest producer of (manufactured) homes in the country, accounting for about 7% of those constructed during 2011,? says Buffett. He says a market adviser would tell him to dump the stocks relating to the construction industry but that is not his style. Problem companies just require more managerial time than winners. He says, ??.If the business will likely be a cash drain over the longer term, or if labor strife is endemic ? we will take prompt and decisive action. Such a situation has happened only a couple of times in our 47-year history, and none of the businesses we now own is in straits requiring us to consider disposing of it.? Berkshire Hathaway owns Acme Brick, Shaw Carpets, Johns Manville (insulation), and MiTek (roofing connector plates). Buffett says in 2011 the five housing-related companies generated pre-tax profits of $513 million, similar to the previous year, but well below the $1.8 billion in 2006.
(Photo credit: trackrecord)
Categories: Business, Company News, Economy, Factory-Built Homes, Manufactured Homes, News Item, PeopleTags: adviser, Berkshire Hathaway, brick, cash drain, Clayton Homes, connector plates, construction industry, decisive action, johns manville insulation, labor strife, letter to shareholders, manufactured homes, oracle, oracle of omaha, previous year, related companies, roofing, shaw carpets, tax profits, Warren Buffett
How many times d? ??? see people apologise f?r using mathematics ?n ? television programme, book, discussion group etc? th?? apologise f?r using equations ?r mathematical terms ?? though th?? were talking Martian. Everyone these days h?? attended countless maths lessons ?t school ?nd many h??? studied th? subject t? ? higher level, s? there really ?? no reason t? avoid these terms ?nd concepts.
Even Professor Hawking ?f Cambridge University, ?n his book '? Brief History ?f Time' said he h?d been told t? keep th? number ?f equations t? ? minimum ?? every equation he included halved his potential readership.
wh?t ? crazy world we live ?n. ??? never hear ? reviewer ?f ? drama ?r fictional book apologising f?r using big words t? describe th? characters ?r th? genre ?f th? piece. Why d? we d? this ?n mathematics ?nd why d? we mathematicians put up with ?t?
Children love t? learn ?nd use new, often difficult, words. Watch them trying t? g?t th??r tongues around words such ?? 'Tyrannosaurus Rex', 'Diplodocus' ?r th? name ?f some Italian ?r Lithuanian football player. th?? love ?t!
s?, listen out f?r mathematical language ?nd make sure ??? ?r? introducing ?t into ???r conversations with ???r youngsters whenever appropriate, just ?? ??? would ?n? ?th?r term.
??? ??n begin when th?? ?r? very young ?nd I should like t? use th? concept ?f multiplication ?? an example.
How many ways ??n we describe ? simple sum such ?? '12 x 6'?
All ?f th? following statements involve this problem:
wh?t ?? 12 times 6? wh?t ?? 12 multiplied b? 6? Find th? product ?f 12 ?nd 6? wh?t ?? 12 times more than 6? wh?t ?? 12 lots ?f 6? wh?t number ?? 12 times greater than 6? wh?t ?? 12 groups ?f 6? wh?t ?? th? 12th multiple ?f 6? Commutative Law (th? law th?t says th?t 12 x 6 ?? th? same ?? 6 x 12)
There ?r? similar words ?nd phrases f?r th? ?th?r three processes:
Addition - total, sum, all together, plus, how many ?n all...
Filed: Mathematics tags: multiplication, times tables, subtraction, division, addition Older: Best Ways to Learn an American Accent Newer: Calyx Information
Hi. I confess. I ate all your gingerbread people.. their house too. I can see why Godzilla thought it was fun. I can relate to a huge gingerbread-eating chicken. Oh, that's not Godzilla? Hmm.
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Please visit my blog? www.legit365.blogspot.com
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Actress Viola Davis arrives at the Women In Film 2012 Academy Award Party in West Hollywood, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Actress Viola Davis arrives at the Women In Film 2012 Academy Award Party in West Hollywood, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Actress Jessica Chastain arrives at the Women In Film 2012 Academy Award Party in West Hollywood, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Actress Octavia Spencer arrives at the Women In Film 2012 Academy Award Party in West Hollywood, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Actress Janet McTeer arrives at the Women In Film 2012 Academy Award Party in West Hollywood, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
Actress Shailene Woodley arrives at the Women In Film 2012 Academy Award Party in West Hollywood, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) ? Gwyneth Paltrow, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Allison Janney celebrated their Oscar-nominated sisters at Women in Film's fifth annual pre-Oscar party.
Of the year's nearly 200 Academy Awards nominees, 45 are women, said Cathy Shulman, president of Women in Film, Los Angeles.
"You're the best of the best," she said Friday. "But you're only a quarter of the nominees."
Women have consistently comprised less than 25 percent of annual Oscar nominees, Shulman said, "and it's important we work together to increase that statistic."
Paltrow co-hosted the party at Cecconi's restaurant, where Oscar nominees and other female filmmakers gathered to talk shop, sip Champagne and celebrate their achievements.
"We're smarter than men and better than men," Paltrow said. "I raise an imaginary glass to all the nominees."
Paltrow's mother, Blythe Danner, was also among the night's guests.
Shulman highlighted longtime Martin Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker and flame-haired costume designer Sandy Powell as "part of the over-10-times club." Both are nominated this year for their work on "Hugo," and each has three Oscars already.
The event's only agenda was to mingle and celebrate. Selena Gomez chatted with supporting actress nominee Octavia Spencer and "The Help" producer Brunson Green, while nominated co-star Jessica Chastain nibbled appetizers with friends.
Nominees Viola Davis and Janet McTeer also joined in the festivities, along with female producers, composers, animators and documentarians. Also celebrating were actresses Shailene Woodley, Gabourey Sidibe, Jennifer Morrison, Jennifer Beals, Jena Malone and Ziyi Zhang.
The 84th annual Academy Awards will be presented Sunday at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles and broadcast live on ABC.
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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .
A lot of ink was spilled (if bandwidth counts as ink) over Ryan McGee?s post ?Did The Sopranos Do More Harm Than Good??, where he raises the question of whether heavily-serialized, ?novelistic? TV has become such an all-pervasive standard that it can lead to weak individual episodes and half-baked serial stories that don?t go anywhere. (Or, as I sometimes put it: after the writers of Nash Bridges went off and did Lost, even the shows that would be better off being Nash Bridges tried to be Lost.)
Like others who have responded, I don?t think The Sopranos is the show to blame for this, if ?blame? is the right word, and it probably isn?t. The Sopranos arrived on TV in a time when broadcast network drama had already become very serialized ? as John Wells explained in a 1995 article that may have introduced the term ?showrunner? to the public, the modern showrunner role in drama came about because TV dramas were too complex to be written by freelancers. And both The Sopranos and Six Feet Under were more reliant on standalone episode stories than almost any subsequent HBO drama.
I?ve worried about the decline of the standalone episode in TV drama. (Not to mention the fact that shows often seem to announce in advance that they?re only doing standalone episodes because they think that?ll pull in some newbie viewers; you don?t get good episodes that way, you get them because you like them and the writers pitched some great stories, like they did on The X-Files.) But I would not blame one particular show or group of shows, and again, ?blame? is the wrong word. And it?s probably not online culture, either, because this is part of a process that started before most writers knew about the internet.
In some ways it may come down to the fact that U.S. TV drama has gone from a freelancer culture to a staff writing culture. (So has comedy, but for various reasons, TV comedy storytelling hasn?t changed as much over the years.) Everything about the way TV drama is written tends to drive it towards more serialization; even if the show starts out with a standalone episode structure, the existence of broader storylines ? and the fact that almost everyone on the show knows what those basic storylines are ? winds up driving the selection of individual episodic plots, which in turn can cause the individual episode plots to fall away entirely. Shows where freelancers come in and pitch story ideas for that one week are going to be less serialized, for better or for worse.
Overall, for better, I suspect. Which is an awkward way of segueing to one of the many responses to McGee?s piece, this post by Richard Lawson was criticized by a lot of people for seeming to imply that taking TV seriously makes TV less fun. I think that can actually be a problem on a personal level. The necessity to talk about what everyone else is talking about, or keep up with the shows that are cool, can make TV viewing seem like work, and if entertainment feels like work, there?s a problem. But it?s unfair to say that, as a general matter, it?s ?just TV? or that it?s making TV less enjoyable: there?s nothing wrong with taking TV seriously, any more than movies or comics or other media that became more ambitious as they aged, and of course there?s no doubt that most people talk seriously about TV, or argue about what?s going to happen on a show, because it?s fun.
But I do understand the impulse to miss ?fun? TV drama as TV drama becomes more serious and less cheesy with every passing year. It reminds me a bit of Pauline Kael?s ?Trash, Art and the Movies, her 1969 manifesto from Harper?s magazine where she wrote about the trashy pleasures of movies, which to her were closer to what movies were all about than some acclaimed recent movies that she considered pretentious and boring, ?using ?artistic techniques? to give trash the look of art.? (The movies she picked to hate on in this essay were Petulia and 2001: A Space Odyssey, so to enjoy the essay you?ll probably have to accept that you may not agree with her on that part of it.) Being also opposed to the French idea that trashy American movies could be re-interpreted as great works of art, she argued that true art in movies is just an extension of the basic pleasure of moviegoing ? finding moments of beauty, truth or individuality in a flawed work. When a movie is a work of art, it carries us along that way for most of the picture; ?It?s the subversive gesture carried further, the moments of excitement sustained longer and extended into new meanings.? The moviemakers Kael would champion in the ?70s ? like Coppola, Spielberg, Altman and especially her friend Brian DePalma ? were often the ones whose movies were messy, scattershot and unafraid of American movie trashiness, but who carried the trashiness farther into those new meanings.
This way of looking at movies was heavily influenced by the era Kael grew up in, when watching an American movie could abound in almost private pleasures: finding moments of greatness or transcendence in a lot of movies that were basically just assembly-line studio product. Kael, who gravitated to brash Hollywood entertainments rather than self-important Oscar bait, didn?t believe that the brash Hollywood entertainments were serious art (and, as I said, reacted scornfully to the critics who later went around finding serious artistic purpose in many of those films). But she believed that there were moments that rose to the level of art, especially from the actors, who could sometimes achieve glorious things in the middle of an otherwise mediocre movie. She lists a few of them throughout the essay.
And the way she watched movies reminds me very much of the way American TV drama fans would watch TV from the ?60s right up through the ?90s. Remember John Gregory Dunne taking to The New Republic to say he?d found a great piece of storytelling, and it was a Gunsmoke episode? He didn?t say Gunsmoke was a great series or that it would enlighten us every week. He felt he had found a diamond in the rough. That was the way people felt when they found a great performance by a special guest villain on a TV show, or an unusual camera angle, or a particularly quirky script (like any of Stephen J. Cannell?s script contributions to his own shows). American dramatic television was formulaic factory work, but there were diamonds in the rough, private pleasures and beauties, if you were a fan. Even the best dramas were not very consistent from week to week, but sudden great moments were unforgettable.
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American TV post-Sopranos has been very much where movies were in the ?60s and ?70s. I think the ?60s may be the best parallel. You have an art form with tremendous artistic potential, but one that has always been held back in some ways by commerce, and also by incredibly heavy censorship (which is an outgrowth of commerce: movies were censored so they could play in every theatre in the country and the world; TV was censored so no advertiser would object to buying time). You have the profits shrinking for the increasingly-out-of-touch studio/network system, with occasional big hits but lots of huge flops, and a general sense that they don?t know what the public wants. And you have many more choices ? foreign and independent films then, cable now ? available to the public. These new choices are rarely blockbuster hits, but they make money by appealing to segments of a fragmented audience, and often are more zeitgeist-y than the big bland hits. In the ?60s, it?s doubtful a that more Americans went to see a Fellini movie than That Touch of Mink, but a lot more people were arguing about the Fellini picture, just as a lot more people are really engaged with Mad Men despite the relatively small number of people who watch it.
Movies even have a parallel with the early ?Golden Age of Television? in the silent era, which was often considered a lost paradise, a time when directors had more freedom and large corporations hadn?t yet turned movies into a factory. (James Agee was one of many critics who felt that American sound movies had never really lived up to the silent classics.) In U.S. television, similarly, the ?50s was considered a lost opportunity, a period when TV promised to do challenging art, only to be rolled over by the Hollywood machine and its formulaic Westerns and cop shows. The Sopranos era has been about American TV drama slowly living up to the artistic potential that people saw in the Playhouse 90 era, just as the ?60s and ?70s were about shedding the extreme studio control and extreme censorship that had made sound movies something less than ?grown-up.?
But there?s a lot of love for old movies, and indeed, the arrival of the New Hollywood in the ?70s coincided with a huge wave of nostalgia for heavily-censored, unrealistic movies of the ?30s and ?40s. Sometimes movies with seriousness of purpose, movies that advertised and celebrated how adult they were, could seem like work. We?ve all seen movies like that and it doesn?t matter which ones they are (to Kael, 2001 was that kind of soulless movie; for many people, including a lot of the people who made it a box-office hit, it obviously was not). The experience of seeing something that aspires to leave trash behind and be grown-up art can be wonderful ? if it works for us. If it doesn?t work for us, it can leave us with a longing for the genuine pleasures and insights to be found in cheesy entertainment at its best. It?s about season 1 Buffy or a particularly good crime procedural or Western episode or a good Lost Girl or a big Jack Webb monologue or Jack Ging turning up in an unexpected place or whatever happened to stand out for us while watching ?casual? TV. We all have our favourites, and they?re like finding a great dance routine in an old B-musical movie: a flash of art in a cheesy setting, which can sometimes feel like a form of artistry.
Is it artistry? Of course. It?s just artistry within very narrow limits, similar to the limits in which Silver Age comic books worked. And just like Silver Age comic fans can discover greatness in a particularly smart variation on the formula or a particularly superb artist working within the house style (like Curt Swan on Superman), Dark Age TV fans see the variations on the formula, the memorable episodes, the great performances, even the serious issues addressed. None of this adds up to The Wire, but it?s hard for me to understand people who say that after The Wire, they can?t watch a formula cop show. (I hear this all the time, by the way. Saying ?after X, I can?t go back to Y? ? another one is ?after Arrested Development, I can?t watch a show with a laugh track? ? is the new version of ?I don?t own a TV.?) It?s like saying you can?t enjoy a great Batman story like ?Joker?s Millions? after reading ?The Killing Joke?: sure, the latter is closer to a serious work of art, but the former has interesting things to say as long as you don?t expect to be surprised by who wins and who loses. That was never the point.
So of course TV drama has been enriched and improved by The Sopranos and Lost and the rest of it. And these shows do tend to have more of what we think of as serious artistic purpose: real ongoing development that doesn?t snap everybody back to square one, episodes that can?t be shown out of order, a refusal to spell everything out for viewers who might not get it, a lack of unrealistically squeaky-clean good guys. Some of these issues are unique to certain media (like how episodic or serial a show should be) but we usually instinctively know ambition when we see it ? and respect it, because without genuine ambition, a medium will stagnate and shrivel. But I do think that you can?t make a binary division between trashy TV with nothing to say and ambitious TV that enlightens us. If a show feels like work to get through, the problem might be that you?re watching it wrong, but then again it might be the show. And depending on the situation, you might learn more from those little flashes of greatness in a formula show. And of course, many of the greatest shows of recent years live right on the edge between art and trash, novel and soap opera, much as Kael?s favourite filmmakers tended to have one foot in art film and another in exploitation film.
I don?t think taking TV seriously has made TV less fun, and I assume that anyone who watches a show all the way through is enjoying it. (If someone watches a show for a while and doesn?t enjoy it, he or she should probably stop. Writing about TV, paid or unpaid, is work; watching it shouldn?t be.) I do think that just as there was a nostalgia for ?fun? movies, which eventually led to throwback films like Star Wars and a return to Old Hollywood escapism, there is some consciousness of the (not entirely lost, but not as prevalent as they were) pleasures of ?fun? TV, and of picking out the great moments in a formula setting. Just as real life doesn?t always have clear-cut good and bad guys, television doesn?t always concentrate the greatness in the shows that aspire to greatness. And sniffing out the greatness, finding the diamonds in the rough, is a pleasure that will never go away from any medium, particularly one that balances as many different demands ? and therefore is so far away from ever achieving artistic perfection ? as TV.
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AP - The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it was holding a meeting with Syria's main opposition group in Geneva, a day after the humanitarian agency called for temporary pauses in the fighting so that it can bring in emergency aid and evacuate the wounded and sick from affected areas.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - PSA Peugeot Citroen is in talks over a possible alliance with Detroit-based General Motors, a deal that could dwarf France's leading car maker's existing partnerships with BMW, Mitsubishi Motors and Toyota.
AP - The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 13,000 on Tuesday for the first time since May 2008, when the Lehman Brothers investment bank was solvent, unemployment a healthy 5.4 percent and the worst of the Great Recession months ahead.
How do you calculate pricing for your small business? We?ve put together this roundup of awesome posts we hope will help. Pricing is a hugely important part of your small business strategy. Don?t make haphazard decisions about what you are charging today.
Operations
Using price discrimination to drive sales. Sometimes pricing shouldn?t be the same for every customer. Making decisions on how to segment your customer base?can start with price discrimination. Here are some examples of the principle at work. Small Business Marketing Strategies
How to price for profit. Small business pricing strategy is a key aspect of driving profit. After all, if your pricing strategy doesn?t bring in sufficient profit for your products or services,?the quality of?those products or services and the effectiveness of your marketing and customer service won?t matter.?CMV Live
Insights
The truth about small business pricing. This cranky letter to the editor from a small business owner bemoans the challenges faced by small business owners when competing against big boxes AND the reason paying less is not always a good thing. The lesson? Don?t complain. Seek your own pricing advantage. HJNews.com
Why low prices aren?t everything. If you think competing on price is the only way to gain the upper hand in your niche, take a lesson from the new J.C. Penny strategy. You may not need to cut your prices to win. But deciding on a?basis for your pricing and the value you feel you deliver are critical.?Bloomberg Businessweek
Tips
Taking a page from the Apple playbook. You know how important it is to keep coming out with new products and services for your small business, but how can continuing to offer older products at discount also help keep your competitors at bay? IT World
A survival guide for small retailers. Pricing?is at the heart of the competition between small?retailers, bigger stores and online retailers. But to?win, small retail business must learn to?first think beyond competing on price alone and then reach out to vendors who have a stake in their survival.?USA Today
Strategies
How pricing strategies can backfire. Whatever your strategy for pricing products and services, be sure customers can see the value of what you do. This experience from an Israeli company shows what can happen when a pricing strategy goes wrong. Haarets.com
Help your pricing strategy by giving your business a story. Take a lesson?from the?New York Knicks and the boost in ticket?prices?the team has experienced as a result of ?Linsanity.? Every business needs a story and the better yours is the more value customers?place in what you offer.?Huffington Post
Trends
Have you raised your prices with higher confidence? We?ve reported before that small business confidence continues to rise presumably due to a better economic outlook. Along with this?higher confidence, some small businesses have finally?begun raising their prices. How about you??Reuters
What farmers markets can teach small business owners. Farmers markets can be a?great boon for small businesses that offer agricultural products, but, as with every other small business, one of the most important considerations is pricing. How does pricing affect your business? Fox Small Business Center
Greeces' Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Greek Parliament in Athens on Saturday, Feb. 18 2012. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
Greeces' Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Greek Parliament in Athens on Saturday, Feb. 18 2012. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
BRUSSELS (AP) ? Eurozone governments will likely approve on Monday a long-elusive rescue package for Greece, saving it from a potentially calamitous bankruptcy next month, senior officials said.
But finance ministers meeting in Brussels will have a few last issues to wrangle over, such as tighter controls over Greece's spending and further cuts to the country's debt load.
Greece needs to secure the euro130 billion ($170 billion) bailout quickly so it can move ahead with a related euro100 billion ($130 billion) debt relief deal with private investors, which needs to be in place quickly if Athens is to avoid defaulting on a bond repayment on March 20.
An uncontrolled bankruptcy would likely force Greece to leave the 17-country currency union and return to its old currency, the drachma, further shaking its already beaten economy and creating uncertainty across Europe.
French Finance Ministers Francois Baroin told Europe-1 radio that while details will have to be worked out, "the political commitments have been made" for the bailout package, Greece's second in two years.
"We now have all the elements of a deal ? elements of a participation that remains voluntary for banks and private lenders, and for public lenders states, central banks," Baroin said.
He is traveling to Brussels to meet his counterparts from the 16 other euro countries, as well as representatives for the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and private holders of Greek debt.
Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who arrived in Brussels Sunday night, said he was also optimistic that the new aid program could be agreed.
"Greece comes into today's Eurogroup meeting having fulfilled all the requirements for the approval of the new program," he said. "For Greeks, this is a matter of national dignity and a national strategic choice and no other integrated and responsible choice can be opposed to it."
The Greek parliament has faced down violent protests in Athens and nationwide strikes to approve the austerity and reform measures demanded by the eurozone. Its main political leaders have committed in writing to uphold the bailout terms even after general elections in April.
Despite Athens' efforts, however, several important elements of the deal remained unsolved.
To convince the rest of the eurozone that the new aid money won't be squandered, Greece will have to set up a separately managed account that would ensure that it services its debt. The idea behind such an escrow account is that it would maintain pressure on Greece to stick to promised austerity and reform measures, without the eurozone risking the destabilizing effects of a default.
The escrow account would give legal priority to debt and interest payments over paying for government services.
Eurozone finance ministry officials Sunday night concluded that only funds from the bailout would be funneled through the account and that Greece won't be required to pay in taxpayer money, German Finance Ministry spokeswoman Marianne Kothe said in Berlin, citing the current state of the negotiations.
The escrow account nevertheless would be an unprecedented intrusion into a sovereign state's fiscal affairs and could ultimately see Greece force to pay interest on its debt rather than its teachers, doctors or other government employees.
A Greek official indicated Monday that "many problematic and unenforceable" elements were taken off the table, but declined to elaborate. The official was also speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were ongoing.
The second big outstanding issue is how to make sure that the current efforts to save Greece can actually bring the country's debts down to a manageable level in the longer term. In October, eurozone leaders and the IMF said that Greece's debt should be reduced to around 120 percent of annual economic output by 2020, from above 160 percent currently.
But a new report prepared by the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF concluded that the new bailout, Athens' spending cuts and a planned euro100 billion debt relief from private investors would still leave Greece's debt at almost 129 percent of economic output by the end of the decade.
The eurozone is still discussing several ways to close this financing gap.
The Greek official said there appeared to be agreement on further reducing the interest rate on Greece's first, euro110 billion bailout as well as having national central banks in the eurozone, which also hold some Greek bonds, participate in the debt relief.
But the official said that there was still no final decision from the ECB on whether it would be willing to transfer profits from its Greek bond holdings back to Athens. In contrast to the national central banks, who purchased Greek bonds as part of their overall investment strategies, the ECB bought its Greek holdings in an effort to ease market pressure on Athens.
A forth option for closing the gap would be to demand further losses from Greece's private bondholders like banks and other investment funds. A current plan foresees private creditors to swap their old Greek bonds for new ones with half the face value, lower interest rates and much longer repayment periods.
But now there is a push for bondholders to also give up on an accrued interest payment of around euro5.5 billion on their old bonds.
Another issue due to be discussed Monday is how much the IMF will contribute to the new rescue. The Washington-based fund has provided one-third of the bailouts for Ireland and Portugal and chipped in euro30 billion for Greece's first euro110 billion ($145 billion) rescue. But this time around, it looks as if the IMF will put up much less than one-third.
"The indication is that the figure will be rather low," said the EU official, adding however that a final decision from the fund's board is still outstanding. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde will also be at the Brussels meeting Monday.
The U.S. has expressed support for the IMF to take part in an aid program for Greece.
"This is a very strong and very difficult package of reforms, deserving of support of the international community and the IMF," U.S. treasury chief Timothy Geithner said in a statement Sunday. "The United States will encourage the IMF to support this agreement."
The Greek government is expected to introduce in Parliament on Monday another two pieces of emergency legislation, including wage and pension cuts. There were scattered protests over the cuts in Athens on Sunday.
___
Keaten reported from Paris. Juergen Baetz in Berlin and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, contributed to this story.
NEW WINDSOR ? The Orange County Business Accelerator recently introduced Cyber Security Auditors and Administrators as its newest associate client. Founded by a team of risk management experts, CSA? provides information risk management ...
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The iPad 2?will likely last a whole day on a single charge, even with rigorous use. However, for those looking to eke out a few extra hours, a battery case could prove valuable. The MiLi Power iBox ($129.99 list) adds battery life and some protection in a Smart-Cover-compatible plastic shell, but problems with fit and construction hold this case back.
Form Factor and Design Choices The Power iBox features a one-piece, glossy, all-plastic construction. It feels a bit cheap and flimsy, but still provides some light protection against bumps and scratches for the back of your iPad 2. The Power iBox is compatible with the Apple Smart Cover, which is good since this case is flush with the screen, providing little protection for the glass display. The case itself measures 10.07 by 7.70 by 0.59 inches (HWD) and weighs 12.48 ounces. The case is more than half the weight of the iPad 2, and when combined with the smart cover, makes the whole package pretty heavy.
A thicker hump takes up two-thirds of the back, while the last third is thinner to accommodate the smart cover's folding stand capability. However, the case still alters the viewing angle when propped up by the smart cover, making for a more awkward, nearly perpendicular viewing angle.
There are cutouts for the camera, lock switch, and headphone jack, with chintzy-feeling plastic pieces for the power button and volume rocker. The cutouts make the lock switch and headphone jack easy to access, though the fit is fairly snug on the latter, which could cause problems for headphones with chunkier plugs. The plastic buttons work okay, but feel poorly constructed and are dependent on the fickle fit of the case around the iPad.
Fit, Other Features, and Conclusions This brings me to my biggest gripe with the Power iBox: The fit was not very precise and made it difficult to get the iPad fully secured inside. The case is one piece, which you slide the iPad into, and then snap down the top corners. It takes a good deal of force to get the iPad in and out of this case. Though it never popped off of the iPad unexpectedly, it was difficult to tell when the case was securely in place.
The Power iBox case extends past the bottom of the iPad 2, where a black band hides four blue LED battery indicator lights, plus a Power button to toggle the flow of juice. The bottom panel houses a micro USB port, which connects the Power iBox to your computer for charging. Once I connected the system to my computer, I was able to charge the case and sync my iPad, but couldn't charge the battery on the iPad itself.
MiLi packed its Power iBox with an 8000mAh battery, which they claim can double the life of your iPad 2. In our tests, however, the Power iBox came up short of that claim, adding only 4 hours, 30 minutes of life. This is still a good amount of juice, but when you consider the added bulk, the poor fit, and cheap construction, the Power iBox just doesn't seem worth the $130 price tag.
More Cases & Carrying Gear: ??? Kensington KeyLite Ultra Slim Keyboard Folio ??? MiLi Power iBox ??? ClamCase for iPad 2 ??? Mophie Juice Pack Plus (for iPhone 4 and 4S) ??? Kensington BungeeAir Power ?? more
HANOI, Vietnam?? A mom with a screaming child wanted a quick getaway from a plane on the tarmac in Vietnam and asked for help. The man next to her obliged by opening the emergency exit and triggering the escape slide.
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But that's as far as they got.
A state media report on Tuesday's incident at Ho Chi Minh City airport says nobody used the slide. It wasn't clear if they got second thoughts or if the cabin crew intervened.
The man, identified as 29-year-old Le Van Thuan, told authorities the child's mother asked him to open the door so she and the child could exit faster.
An airport official says the man will be fined up to $950, and it will cost $10,000 to refit the slide.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Summer School ?International Journalism and Society ? The Role of the Media in the Modern?World?.
Posted by danjackson on February 16, 2012 ? Leave a Comment?
Applications are now invited for The London School of Economics?
Summer School ?International Journalism and Society ? The Role of the Media in the Modern World?.
This three week course aimed at students and media practitioners from undergraduate level upwards is in its 6th year, run by the LSE?s media think-tank Polis and taught by LSE Media and Communications Department lecturers with daily guest speakers. It covers every aspect of global news media from core journalism ideas such as objectivity to the role of new media in protest and revolution. Details can be found here <http://www2.lse.ac.uk/study/summerSchools/summerSchool/courses/internationalRelationsGovernmentAndSociety/IR245.aspx>http://www2.lse.ac.uk/study/summerSchools/summerSchool/courses/internationalRelationsGovernmentAndSociety/IR245.aspx or email?polis@lse.ac.uk
It's episode three of The Voice's blind auditions, with Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton back in their red-spinning seats to evaluate talent.
Actually, they've never left those seats. They're still in the same clothes. Busted! Seriously, this was one marathon audition day if it was chopped up into three episodes.
Anyway, who stood out last night and joined Teams Adam, Cee Lo, Blake and Xtina? Let's break down the performances of some of Monday's top Voice auditions ...
Katrina Parker (below)
The 34-year-old insurance worker performed "What If God Was One Of Us" by Joan Osbourne. Adam was the only one to show interest. That's enough.
The 19-year-old, baby faced Pip (that's his real name), takes pride in his fashion choices ... and his rendition of The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun."
The four coaches court Pip. Christina, quoting her own songs, actually tells Pip, "I am a fighter. And I will fight for your ass!" But alas, Levine wins out.
Team: Adam
James Massone (below)
A 23-year-old Bostonian with the accent to prove it who works in his family's auto shop. His song of choice? Drake's "Find Your Love." See that coming?
Christina and Blake long to hit their buttons, with Cee Lo not too far behind. Adam is the only one not to get on board, and is called out by James for it!
New Health And Fitness.Org - Health Information You Can Use
New York City requires a lot of walking and should be done with the right shoes. There are different reasons for having foot surgery NYC. Some people have a malformed bone that requires a surgical procedure to repair it. Corns or bunions can also put pressure on the feet and cause problems. If the condition is serious, then the operation is done at the hospital. Minor procedures can be done as out-patient at the doctor?s office. It is important to know what how to prepare and what to expect when having the operation.
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This procedure has an easy recovery, but it is important to not rush the healing. There is also the possibility of hurting the tender areas of the feet when doing too much walking in the early stages.
Medical procedures can fix problems like bunions, bone spurs, ingrown toenails, corns and callouses. The conditions can make wearing certain shoes very painful. Hammer toes are a disfigurement that can make the toes look like a hammer or bent. It is fixed through a medical procedure.
There is not a specific procedure that can fix every problem involving the feet, but depends on the condition. Bone spur operations are good for straightening out the bones. A corrective bunion procedure can straighten and realign toes that have swollen joints due to heavy pressure on the feet.
Patients must be healthy before going through a surgical procedure, because of not wanting to cause the healing to be slow. Recovery time varies depending on the condition, which can be from seven days to 60 days. Foot surgery NYC is successful when following recovery instructions. foot surgery nyc
In his annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, while noting the per share book value of their Class A and Class B stock gained 4.6 percent in 2011, says he jumped the gun on the housing recovery. As Business Insider tells MHProNews.com, ?We have five businesses whose results are significantly influenced by housing activity. The connection is direct at Clayton Homes, which is the largest producer of (manufactured) homes in the country, accounting for about 7% of those constructed during 2011,? says Buffett. He says a market adviser would tell him to dump the stocks relating to the construction industry but that is not his style. Problem companies just require more managerial time than winners. He says, ??.If the business will likely be a cash drain over the longer term, or if labor strife is endemic ? we will take prompt and decisive action. Such a situation has happened only a couple of times in our 47-year history, and none of the businesses we now own is in straits requiring us to consider disposing of it.? Berkshire Hathaway owns Acme Brick, Shaw Carpets, Johns Manville (insulation), and MiTek (roofing connector plates). Buffett says in 2011 the five housing-related companies generated pre-tax profits of $513 million, similar to the previous year, but well below the $1.8 billion in 2006.
A lot of ink was spilled (if bandwidth counts as ink) over Ryan McGee?s post ?Did The Sopranos Do More Harm Than Good??, where he raises the question of whether heavily-serialized, ?novelistic? TV has become such an all-pervasive standard that it can lead to weak individual episodes and half-baked serial stories that don?t go anywhere. (Or, as I sometimes put it: after the writers of Nash Bridges went off and did Lost, even the shows that would be better off being Nash Bridges tried to be Lost.)
