Will Carter, 15, surveys the damage to his house upon arriving home from school following a tornado, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, in Adairsville, Ga. Read the full story
David Goldman / AP
Workers look for personal belongings following a tornado at the Daiki plant in Adairsville, Ga on Wednesday.
John Amis / EPA
Danny Odum of Marion, Illinois, reaches to untangle a pair of shoes wrapped around the mirror of his tractor trailer that was overturned by a tornado that touched down in Adairsville, Ga.
Tami Chappell / Reuters
Downed trees and debris lies in the ruins of destroyed homes after a tornado touched down in Adairsville, Georgia on Wednesday.
Providing both satisfying and challenging work along with a highly professional and friendly work atmosphere, Sedgwick has a strong commitment to its colleagues and its clients. If you are seeking place where you can do great things for those whose lives you touch while maximizing your own career possibilities, Sedgwick is the place for you. As the largest and most innovative Third Party Administrator in the claims industry and the first and only TPA to receive both recognition as the Best TPA in America and the coveted Employer of Choice designation, we invite you to come be a part of our team and, ?Claim Your Future.?
PRIMARY PURPOSE : To analyze reported lower-level workers compensation claims to determine benefits due; and to ensure ongoing adjudication of claims within company standards and industry best practices.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS and RESPONSIBILITIES
Adjusts medical-only claims and minor lost-time workers compensation claims under close supervision.
Supports other claims representatives, examiners and leads with larger or more complex claims as necessary.
Processes workers compensation claims determining compensability and benefits due; monitors reserve accuracy and files necessary documentation with state agency.
Processes assigned claims and determines benefits due pursuant to the client contract; makes timely claims payments and adjustments.
Communicates claim action/processing with claimant, client and appropriate medical contact.
Ensures claim files are properly documented and claims coding is correct.
May process routine payments and prescriptions and status reports for lifetime medical claims and/or defined period medical claims.
Maintains professional client relationships.
ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS and RESPONSIBILITIES
Performs other duties as assigned.
Supports the organization's quality program(s).
Travels as required.
QUALIFICATION
Education & Licensing High school diploma or GED required.
Experience One (1) year of general office experience required. Claims industry experience preferred. Licenses as required. Any college degree may be substituted for the required experience.
Skills & Knowledge
Knowledge of Social Security and Medicare application procedure as applicable to line of business
Excellent oral and written communication skills
PC literate, including Microsoft Office products
Analytical and interpretive skills
Strong organizational skills
Good interpersonal skills
Ability to work in a team environment
Ability to meet or exceed Performance Competencies
WORK ENVIRONMENT When applicable and appropriate, consideration will be given to reasonable accommodations.
Mental: Clear and conceptual thinking ability; excellent judgment, troubleshooting, problem solving, analysis, and discretion; ability to handle work-related stress; ability to handle multiple priorities simultaneously; and ability to meet deadlines
Physical: Computer keyboarding, travel as required
Auditory/Visual: Hearing, vision and talking
NOTE : Credit security clearance, confirmed via a background credit check, is required for this position.
The statements contained in this document are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by a colleague assigned to this description. They are not intended to constitute a comprehensive list of functions, duties, or local variances. Management retains the discretion to add or to change the duties of the position at any time.
Anderson Cooper had a special surprise for the New Jersey teen whose impassioned coming out speech at a high school ceremony made him a viral video superstar.
Eighteen-year-old Jacob Rudolph, who identified himself as LGBT while accepting an award for class actor in front of his graduating class, told Cooper that "Star Trek" actor George Takei was his idol.
Fortunately for Rudolph, Takei was waiting backstage. Watch the clip to see what happened!
I have involved in online business for about 5 years or so. It's not too long ago since I plunge myself into the online business world, but since I do it full-time let's just say that I learn quite a lot.
I've tried many things, failed and succeed many times and let's just say that I quite understand the ins and outs business website ownership and make money online.
I've done link brokerage (buying and selling website links)... I've done affiliate marketing (and still doing so on a lesser extent)... I am doing domain name investing... I've done website flipping (not full-time, though - I've bought and sold dozens of sites)... I do paid blogging... I do article marketing... I design templates... I build any kind of sites, as long as it's PHP/MYSQL based... and so on.
I'm not an expert Internet Marketer, though - if you are looking for advice on Internet Marketing, sorry mate, but I can't help you there. But when it comes to what kind of sites to start and why, I know a thing or two more than most webmasters.
Throughout my journey, I've seen some types of business websites have a potential to be a profitable business. Sure, Twitter and Digg are pretty cool, but as they are not typically profit-based business, I should stay away from them for one reason: I don't have venture capitalists backing up my projects; so I need to focus on profit-making so my sites can support themselves.
Here are 3 business website types I recommend - analyzed - to help you decide with kind of business websites is the right one for you.
1. Blogs
My favourite business website type, for one reason: It's content based, and both people and search engines love content. So, traffic and engagement-wise, blogs, for me, are numero uno. Blogs are also superior in the choice of income stream: You can choose whatever you like - monetize via CPC like AdSense? Selling affiliate products? Selling services? Selling your own ebooks? Plenty of choices here...
If you love blogging, running a blog and make money from it is only logical. Moreover, provided you create outstanding content on regular basis and promote it on social media, blogs are great in attracting visitors - and convert them into buyers.
Pros:
Search engine loves fresh content, and blogs are made of fresh content (you need to blog regularly - with quality, of course!)
Blogs are versatile; they can make money on themselves or you can use them as a great Inbound Marketing tool to generate leads and sales for your "main" business.
People go to blogs for opinions and endorsement - if you are ethical and authoritative, you can generate significant income from your own/affiliate products, display ads, and so on.
Cons:
Blogs are known to be rather difficult to monetize - unless you are visited by thousands of readers a day, you won't make significantly from your ads.
You need to publish quality blog posts on regular basis. Without a posting schedule, your blog is losing out its growth momentum.
Blogs often portray the bloggers' personality - selling them in the future, it might be difficult for the new owner to earn trust of the readers, making blogs a challenging web property to own.
Income potential:
Well, depending on your niche, but you can realistically earn 4-figure monthly income. It's certainly not easy but it's possible. Please bear in mind, I'd say that 80-90% of monetized blogs earn less than $100/month. So you know blogs are certainly not easy to monetize... but once you get there, you don't even need to write yourself anymore - expert writers will come to you (TechCrunch, anyone?)
You can shoot for 5 figures/month, but unless you are of Darren Rowse, John Chow or Yaro Starak caliber, I don't think you have the chance to make such amount of money, realistically.
2. Micro-job sites
I bet you have heard of Fiverr. If you haven't, it is a micro-job site allowing members to offer what they can do for $5. The micro-job site owner generates income via "commission" they take for each successful work (for Fiverr, it's $1.) It's in trend right now, and many Fiverr clones are popping up .
Pros:
It's a passive income business: All you need to do is to promote your site and making sure members play by the rule.
Your site will be visited by gazillions of visitors, as members will promote their service to their friends and family - free promotion for your business website!
It's easy to run: All you need is buying a Fiverr clone script, install it and there you go... jobs will be posted by YOUR members, and communications are done by YOUR members.
Cons:
New micro-job sites are established regularly, making competition stiffer than ever. You need to find your niche and unique selling proposition to differentiate yours from the rest.
Finding "real" members are difficult (looking for signups is one thing, but having your members get active publishing jobs and ordering ones is really challenging.)
You need to ensure that transactions are well supervised. Scams, disputes, and such are common things happening to a site with plenty of transactions.
Income potential:
It's very good, really. People are constantly looking for side income, and micro-job sites actually helping them finding clients. If you, as the site owner, take $1 commission (or a percentage of orders' dollar amount, if you like,) 100 transactions a day means $3,000/month. Your cost: Just hosting and site upkeep if you hire a tech guy. If you can serve an under-served niche, this is a goldmine for you.
3. Lead-based sites
Lead-based sites make income sending leads to companies you are partnering with. You are making a certain amount of money per lead you send, and if you can establish authority in that niche, you can get plenty from the leads.
I've tried travel, dating, and financial service websites, and although they are was my side business (I no longer running those as I focus on blogs) they can get you steady income, hands-free.
To give you an idea, here's the latest site I owned - it's a hotel-niche site selling leads to a hotel affiliate program. All you need to do is to add a script on your site and your site visitors can then fill out their traveling needs (where to go, how many nights you will stay for how many people...) I make money for every lead I send to the partner hotels.
Pros:
It's a passive income business: All you need to do is to add a form (some partnership requires you to take prospects' phone calls,) and from there, everything is taken care of by your partner company.
It's lucrative: Especially on finance lead-based program, your income per lead can be very high (a debt lead program I know pays $25/verified lead!)
Your site visitors don't have to buy anything, which is a strong appeal in itself; they just need to fill in their details and they are good to go. They even don't have to buy products/use services from your partner company (it's their responsibility, anyway - your job is strictly lead-generation.)
Cons:
Personal info is sensitive - filling in forms might be a more difficult decision to make than you might think. You need to gain your site visitors' trust, and winning trust is really challenging.
You need to drive laser-targeted traffic - this is complex, done via blogs, search engines and social media via carefully crafted Inbound Marketing campaign funneling.
Just like e-commerce, if you are dealing with US prospects, you need to provide US phone numbers and address to gain trust. If you are not US-based, it's a more difficult business to run.
Income potential:
In lead generation business, the sky is the limit - literally. It's a huge business for those who are able to drive a large amount of laser-targeted traffic.
Someone I know runs a debt consolidation/management lead generation business - he makes $200,000 a year before taxes. And no, he is not a well known Internet Marketer. Just a guy next door doing online business like I do - just in a different niche.
Takeaway
Please bear in mind, the 3 lucrative ideas I present is not guaranteed a success. Just like in any kind of business you can think of, you need to work hard to make your business up and running - there's no shortcut.
It's not about talent, really... there are more talented people than you and I. What will make your business websites successful is your willingness to pay the price; to do numerous trial-and-errors and embracing failures as a great learning tool.
So, what do you think? Is any of the three above interest you? Why? Please share your opinions by leaving a comment on this post.
Jan. 28, 2013 ? Research has suggested that compounds that give colorful fruits their rich hues, especially berries, promote health and might even prevent cancer. But for the first time, scientists have exposed extracts from numerous berries high in those pigments to human saliva to see just what kinds of health-promoting substances are likely to survive and be produced in the mouth.
It's too early to name the best berry for health promotion based on this initial work. But the researchers have discovered that two families of pigments that provide berries with their colors, called anthocyanins, are more susceptible to degradation in the mouth than are the other four classes of these pigments.
The Ohio State University study also showed that bacteria living in the mouth are responsible for most of the breakdown of these compounds that occurs in saliva. Researchers are investigating whether it's the berry pigments themselves, or instead the products of their degradation, that actually promote health.
Scientists say that these early findings will contribute to the further development of confectionaries, gums and other delivery devices for the prevention and possibly the treatment of conditions such as periodontal disease and oral cancers.
The researchers exposed extracts of anthocyanin pigments from blueberries, chokeberries, black raspberries, red grapes and strawberries to the saliva collected from 14 people. Black raspberries, in particular, have been shown in numerous previous studies to have chemopreventive effects on tumors in the mouth, esophagus and colon, mostly in animal studies. Their high anthocyanin content has been linked to those benefits.
"All fruits are unique because their chemical composition, or fingerprint, varies," said Mark Failla, professor of human nutrition at Ohio State and interim chair of the Department of Human Sciences. "There are many different edible berries. Some might be better for providing health-promoting effects within the oral cavity, whereas others may be more beneficial for colonic health. We simply do not know at this time.
"Increased intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with decreased risk of some chronic diseases. An understanding of the metabolism of these compounds, and the relative activities of the compounds in the consumed fruit and their metabolic products, is needed to make scientifically sound dietary recommendations and to develop effective delivery vehicles for the mouth," Failla said.
The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Food Chemistry.
Failla and colleagues asked 14 healthy individuals between the ages of 21 and 55 years to collect saliva in the morning before they had eaten breakfast or brushed their teeth. Research participants later collected additional saliva samples before and after they had rinsed their mouths with an antibacterial liquid.
The five fruits selected for study allowed the scientists to test the six distinct families of the anthocyanin pigments. Researchers purified the anthocyanins from each berry type and added the extracts to saliva.
The extent of the pigment degradation in saliva was primarily a function of the chemical structure of a given anthocyanin, said Failla, also an investigator in Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center and Food Innovation Center.
Two families of anthocyanins consistently degraded when exposed to saliva: delphinidin and petunidin. Four other families were more stable: cyanidin, pelargonidin, peonidin and malvidin.
"Our observations suggest that the bacteria within one's oral cavity are a primary mediator of pigment metabolism. The bacteria are converting compounds that are present in the foods into metabolites," Failla said. "One area of great interest is whether the health-promoting benefits associated with eating anthocyanin-rich fruits like berries are provided by the pigment itself, the natural combinations of the pigments in the fruit, or the metabolites produced by bacteria in the mouth and other regions of the gastrointestinal tract."
There is context for this study that further complicates the understanding of anthocyanins' benefits. Multiple studies have led to the conclusion that anthocyanins themselves are very poorly absorbed by the body.
"If anthocyanins are the actual health-promoting compound, you would want to design food products, confectionaries and gels containing mixtures of anthocyanins that are stable in the mouth. If, on the other hand, the metabolites produced by the metabolism of anthocyanins are the actual health-promoting compounds, there will be greater interest in fruits that contain anthocyanins that are less stable in the oral cavity," Failla said. "We lack such insights at this time."
The extent to which the anthocyanins were degraded varied among the 14 people whose saliva was used in the study. However, two families of anthocyanins consistently degraded the most in all volunteers. Failla said the observed variation among individuals is likely related to differences in the microbial community that resides in each person's mouth.
This research group is continuing the work, examining which bacteria are most involved in the metabolism of anthocyanins and testing the stability of the pigments in berry juices in the mouths of human volunteers rather than in test tubes containing their saliva.
This work was supported in part by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
Co-authors include Kom Kamonpatana of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Nutrition; Monica Giusti and Ken Riedl of the Department of Food Science and Technology; Chureeporn Chitchumroonchokchai of the Department of Human Nutrition; and Maria MorenoCruz and Purnima Kumar of the Department of Periodontology, all at Ohio State. All but MorenoCruz are also investigators in the Food Innovation Center.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Emily Caldwell.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Kom Kamonpatana, M. M?nica Giusti, Chureeporn Chitchumroonchokchai, Maria MorenoCruz, Ken M. Riedl, Purnima Kumar, Mark L. Failla. Susceptibility of anthocyanins to ex vivo degradation in human saliva. Food Chemistry, 2012; 135 (2): 738 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.04.110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Moms-to-be should get a booster tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine during each pregnancy to help protect their infants from whooping cough, according to a new vaccine schedule released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Babies don't get their first pertussis vaccine until two months of age - and even then, they aren't fully protected until after their third shot, at six months. In the interim, they are at especially high risk of getting very sick from the bacterial disease.
During a 2010 whooping cough outbreak in California, for example, more than 9,000 cases were reported and 10 infants died.
Vaccinating pregnant women serves the dual purpose of keeping moms from contracting whooping cough and passing it to their infants as well as allowing some immune cells to pass to babies through the placenta.
"It turns out that immunity wanes pretty quickly," said Dr. H. Cody Meissner, a pediatrician from the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston who is on the CDC's immunization committee.
"Without boosting with each pregnancy, a mother's immunity will wane and she will have much less immunity to pass on to the baby," Meissner told Reuters Health.
COCOONING
Although not part of the new immunization schedule, experts recommend immunizing a new baby's father, siblings and other caretakers. That strategy is known as cocooning.
"It's a good time to make sure that everyone who will be caring for the child is also up to date on their vaccines," said Dr. Daniel McGee, a pediatrician with Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who wasn't involved in the new guidelines.
"You need to make sure if grandma and grandpa are coming to visit, they're protected as well," he told Reuters Health.
Along with the new guidelines for pregnant women, updates to the CDC's vaccination schedule include a routine Tdap shot for adults age 65 and older and a pneumococcal vaccine approved for adults with immune compromising conditions like kidney failure.
Some children who are ill, such as with sickle cell disease, should get meningococcal vaccines starting at two months of age, according to the schedule. Other kids don't have to start those shots until middle school.
The influenza vaccine is still recommended annually, but will now protect against four strains of flu rather than three, said Erin Kennedy, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.
Parents should educate themselves as best they can on recommended vaccines, researchers said.
"It's quite complicated, and it does change all the time. But it's imperative for people to stay up to date and informed about which vaccines are available," Meissner said.
"There are 16 vaccine preventable diseases that children receive immunizations against in the first 18 years of life," he added. "If vaccination rates fall, we're going to see increases in some of these diseases."
Because the immunization program has focused on children, Kennedy said some adults don't know the schedule also calls for them to get a range of vaccinations based on their age, health or where they travel.
"Adults need to be aware of the fact that there are vaccines that are recommended throughout the lifespan," she told Reuters Health. "Right now coverage is low for all of these vaccines."
Updates to the CDC's vaccination schedule were published concurrently on Monday in Pediatrics and the Annals of Internal Medicine.
SOURCES: http://bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics and http://bit.ly/MnBiCA Annals of Internal Medicine, online January 28, 2013.
TIP! Believe it or not, one of the best improvements for your house, hands down, is to simply paint the walls! Nothing effects your home?s curb appeal quite like paint does, and paint also serves as a barrier that will keep your house protected. In order for this to work, you must pick the right colors.
With tools and knowledge, you can make many dream projects around your home become reality. The following article is filled with great advice to assist you in working on home improvement projects. Read these tips to find out how to unlock the potential of your home and make it into a reality.
TIP! Chandeliers might also be a nice touch. For less than $500, you can buy a splendid chandelier to enhance the decor of your home.
Always read any contracts before you sign them. It may seem daunting, but you?ll need to make sure that everything within the paperwork is something you approve of. Failing to do so could leave you susceptible to dishonest contractors. Even if they seem trustworthy, you should still give the contract a careful look.
TIP! Before starting any home improvement projects that provide a noisy environment for the neighborhood, make sure to meet with the neighbors and let them know the project schedule. Being next to a place that is under construction can be frustrating.
Make sure any contractor you deal with is licensed by your state. This can be cone on your state?s government website or over the phone. Stay away from contractors without a license. They may have done something to lose it, or worse, may be a con artist just out to get your money.
TIP! It is shocking what a change to the look of your room some crown molding will make. If you have plain walls, the molding will add a bit of style to them.
If you are planning to make bathroom renovations, try to make them handicap-accessible. Even if you can?t do a full conversion, there are ways to make your bathroom more accessible. This is important especially if you intend to retire and grow older in your home. Most improvements will add value when it comes time to sell your home.
TIP! Does your bedroom need a new dresser? You don?t have to live with old furniture the way it is. Sanding and refinishing will give them a fresh new look.
The most important step in making home improvements is to make sure your home will look the way you want it to. Including your own personal touch can make any project special.
TIP! To save some energy yet still light up your yard, switch out your standard porch lights for lights that operate on a motion sensor. You can still turn it on manually if need be, and you can also adjust sensitivity on some models.
If you are in a dwelling with limited space, and don?t have the space for both a washer and dryer, think about buying a unit that combines the two together. Combo units are great for tight-fitting spaces. It is possible to wash and dry clothes in a combo unit.
TIP! Ceiling fans make wonderful additions. It?s easy and relatively inexpensive to do this, so it?s a good first home improvement project.
Since you now have all the information needed to finish home projects, assemble the tools required to start. If you have problems in the middle of the project, look at this article to find a solution.
The Republic Wireless Defy XT should be getting a software update this evening, and it will address the two biggest issues with the phone. I've been giving the service a run to see how it compares, and the two big drawbacks seem to be sound quality, and not being able to send a text while on Wifi. Both these issues are said to be fixed with this update, as well as Wifi enhancements and bug fixes.
The OTA is slated to begin rolling out at 6PM ET, and Republic says you'll need to be on Wifi with 50-percent or higher battery power still available to get it.
While Republic is more about disrupting the current telecommunications mess the US is in with low priced service than they are fancy cutting edge devices, it's nice to see them not let the little Defy languish away with bugs. If you're using the service, be sure to check for updates if you don't get a push notification.
We've?talked before?about using a longer passcode on your iPhone instead of a 4-digit pin, but as the tech blog Digital Inspiration points out, adding in accented characters adds yet another level of security.
The idea is that most people aren't going to bother dealing with accented characters (if you hold down on a letter, the available accented characters show up) when they're trying to guess your password. To use these, you first have to turn on the alphanumeric passcode. Just head into Settings > General > Passcode Lock, and turn off Simple Passcode. You'll be asked to enter in a new password, so throw in a few accented characters. It might make it a bit of a pain to enter in your passcode, but at least it's more secure.
All Critics (138) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (127) | Rotten (11)
As remarkable as Haneke's films are, not a one has been as transcendently generous as Amour, which is nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best foreign-language film.
"Amour" isn't just a great movie, it's a movie that may actually do you some good.
Shot in long, static takes, Amour stares directly into the indignities of old age and the curse of a slow death.
Each actor draws on a lifetime's worth of experience, performing with grace and rare, uncompromising realism.
There's nowhere to hide: The film cuts no corners and stings with the authenticity of life's fragility.
Amour may not inspire the kind of emotional epiphany that similar illness-driven dramas tend to, the results are still riveting.
Death is part of love's bargain, and Haneke lays this fact bare.
It is hard to recommend Amour. Austrian director Michael Haneke's film cannot justly be described as entertaining, and it will likely leave you sad and weary. But it is a film you must see.
"Amour" isn't easy to watch, but its rewards are many.
"Amour" isn't a fun time out at the movies, and I kind of doubt I'll ever see it again. But it's an amazingly act, absolutely heartbreaking film.
A viewer may want to watch Amour, because it is a work of art.
Relativamente doce para os padr?es de um cineasta acostumado a torturar seu p?blico e a encarar a humanidade com imenso ceticismo, representa uma experi?ncia dif?cil por nos lembrar o tempo inteiro de que todos dividiremos o mesmo desfecho.
A bitter, pitiless piece of work. We can admire its components, but we're repulsed by its vision.
Haneke's self-indulgent approach is getting old to me. His devoted fans will like it, but others will most likely be scratching their heads trying to figure out how this got a Best Picture nomination.
It's upsetting material lined with lead by Haneke, who searches for the meaning of love but can't help but dwell on the details of decay.
Amour is as heartbreaking and real as it gets.
Tough and beautiful, it secures Haneke's reputation as one of the world's best.
Two of the world's best actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, play Amour's octogenarian couple, so it's surprising that the characters aren't very interesting.
Participants walk inside the Congress Center during the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott)
Participants walk inside the Congress Center during the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott)
Professor of Economy at the New York University, Noureil Roubini, gestures as he speaks during a session on Pundits, Professors and their Predictions, of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Forget the endless debates about the euro or government debts. What does the future hold?
The World Economic Forum at Davos is always a showcase for new research, trends and ideas. And those at the annual gathering of the world's elite don't shy away from making predictions, even if they missed foreseeing seminal events like the Great Recession or the Arab Spring revolts.
Here are some predictions from this year's participants:
WEATHER AND WATER
Climate change will lead to more and more extreme weather, which will cause tremendous economic upheaval, predicts New York University economist Nouriel Roubini.
"It's not just that New York is going to be underwater 30 years from now," he said, referring to the devastation caused last fall by Hurricane Sandy.
Oxford University physicist Tim Palmer ? who said as a scientist he preferred probabilities to prediction ? noted there is a 10- to 15-percent chance that the Earth will warm by 6 degrees Celsius within a century, leading to "catastrophic consequences for humanity" ranging from extreme weather to rising seas.
Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said many countries will start running out of water in the coming years.
"Water is the new oil," he said.
A TECHNOLOGICAL SURGE
Laura Tyson, a business professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said one of the great concerns should be "the employment effects of technology," with so many jobs being rendered obsolete by scientific or technological advances.
Discussions of such advances were everywhere at Davos.
Sebastian Thrun, a computer science professor at Stanford University and leader of Google's Self-Driving Car Project, said he thinks Google co-founder Sergey Brin's prediction that within five years driverless cars will be on the streets used by regular people is going to happen.
"It'll be a while before they're going to be mainstream, and there'll be all kinds of interesting questions coming about security, privacy, safety of the system as a whole," Thrun said. "But if they are available within five years for general consumers, I think within 15 years you ought to be able to buy one of those."
MENTAL ILLNESS UNDERSTOOD
Edward Boyden, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who directs a neural engineering research group, says new technologies for analyzing the brain will produce significant advances in fighting mental illness.
"Right now we know that certain cell types in the brain are impaired in schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder or autism," he said.
If scientists can develop new technologies to image the brain and control the brain's cells, he said "over the next half-century or so we should be able to really understand how these networks" generate emotion.
Then, in the case of mental illness, "we can insert information into the cells in order to re-sculpt their dynamics and fix what's broken," Boyden said.
Technology entrepreneur Eric Anderson said biotechnology and medicine "are eventually going to be information sciences, with your genes... will determine treatment."
THE LIGHTEST STUFF
Julia Greer, an assistant professor of materials science and mechanics at the California Institute of Technology, says the world is craving a useful, ultra-superlight material to work with.
Her research group collaborated with Hughes Research Lab (HRL) and the University of California, Irvine, to recently develop the world's lightest solid material. She predicted that in 10 to 15 years it will be used as fuel cell catalysts, as acoustic damping devices on submarines, as anti-reflective layers in solar cells, and as components of vehicles sent into space.
The new material, called a micro-lattice, is made up of tiny hollow tubes of nickel-phosphorous that are angled to connect ? and contains 99 percent air, Greer said. It can also be used for high-temperature thermal batteries, heart stents and blood clot catchers, she said.
On a related topic, Roy Johnson, the chief technology officer for Lockheed Martin, predicted huge advances in 3-D printing.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
One of the most famous predictions is Moore's Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, which says that computing power doubles every two years or so. It has proven stunningly correct so far, putting new technological devices in everyone's pockets.
But how long will this law hold? Paul Jacobs, the CEO of Qualcomm, said it's not so certain anymore.
The implications of effectively infinite computing power are staggering ? no more waiting for a power-up or a download; every song, movie and TV episode instantly available; and even the possibility of what scientists call artificial intelligence.
But Jacobs told The Associated Press that the law might be valid only "a couple of more generations."
"I'm worried. In the next couple of nodes we're going to stop getting those numbers unless somebody figures out something," he said.
YOUTH OF THE WORLD UNITE
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, now the U.N. special envoy for global education, said huge advances in the Internet and technology are enabling young people to connect with each other and "this is opening up the world in a way that has never happened before."
"Young people are beginning to see that the gap between the opportunities and rights they have been promised and the opportunities and rights that are delivered to them is wholly unacceptable," he said at a session on the forum's sidelines. "And the sense that they are being deprived of these opportunities and rights is, I think, going to be the big motivating force over the next few years."
Sales of new homes fell 7.3% in December to a seasonally adjusted rate of 369,000, the Commerce Department reported Friday. But the government agency did revise November sales up 22,000 to a pace of 398,000 sales, which was the highest level of sales since April 2010. And, the $3,000-plus rise in the median prices of new homes sales was also a positive sign for the improving housing market.
Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors reported the annual price for existing homes jumped to the highest level since 2005. The median price for all existing housing types was $180,800 in December. That's 11.5% more than the same period in 2011.
Related: Existing Home Sales Slip in December, But Housing Remains Strong
?I think we?re off the bottom in a number of states, particularly the sand states like Arizona and California,? Chris Whalen tells The Daily Ticker. Whalen is executive vice president of Carrington Investment Services, a Connecticut-based firm that works in residential mortgage special servicing and origination. ?And you?re seeing a lot of investors in the market, which is helping prices go up.?
While investors may be driving these types of price moves, they may not be the key to keep prices moving up.
?The key issue is the extent to which we can get homeowners to get financing and go out and buy homes, because that is what will make these price increases sustainable and real,? says Whalen.
Whalen argues jobs are the driver of housing, and unemployment may not be low enough and wage growth may not be high enough to drive this kind of homeowner demand. The U.S. unemployment rate stands at 7.8%. Meanwhile, economic growth is bumpy with U.S. GDP posting low single digit growth.
Another roadblock to prospective homebuyers are the new consumers protections. Whalen says new mortgage rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may require fully documented loans, which is a good thing. But he notes certain consumers may not be able to qualify for a mortgage with a government guarantee.
The new regulations could also impact the big banks which had a blockbuster last quarter due to a boost from housing. The Washington Post reports mortgage activity accounted for 15% of the profits at Wells Fargo (WFC). Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) saw a 33% jump in mortgage originations, and Bank of America (BAC) posted a 41% increase in loan originations.
Tell Us What You Think
Got a topic you?d like covered? Have a guest you?d like to see interviewed? Send us an email: thedailyticker@yahoo.com. You can also look us up on Twitter and Facebook.
More from The Daily Ticker
Apple's Cheap iPhone Is A Great Move For The Company
How Investors Can Join the 3-D Printing Revolution
Microsoft Has No Business Selling Tablets: Josh Brown
Female Hedge Fund Managers Ruled the Markets in 2012
Laura Safe, texting her boyfriend, just before she made her big splash.
Generally speaking, those who report the news try to avoid being ... well, the news. But sometimes accidents happen?? like in the case of?a radio newscaster who walked directly into a canal while texting her boyfriend.
"Oh dear. I should really be called Laura UNsafe after the day I've had!" tweeted Laura Safe, a newscaster for UK-based music radio station Capital FM, about a week ago.?It didn't take long for the world to discover why Safe was feeling dangerous, because her colleagues were more than happy to make the details of her morning part of a segment.
"Poor Laura Safe. All she wants to do is read the news. And this morning, all we wanted to do is take the mickey," a note on the Capital FM website explained on the day of the incident. "The canal was icy, she was texting ... it was the weather's fault really."
Holding nothing back, whoever wrote that note even finished it with a flourish: "Ahahahahahahahahahaha!"
"I thought there was pavement ahead of me, I could see it out of the corner of my eye," Safe said during a segment on Capital FM's Capital Breakfast show. After viewing?CCTV footage acquired by the Telegraph, we find this to be an almost reasonable explanation. The canal running through?the Mailbox ??the Birmingham shopping center in which Safe had her stumble?? is at the bottom of a set of stairs, with no guardrail of any sort preventing someone, such as a distracted newscaster, from walking directly into it. We wouldn't be surprised if it did indeed look as if it was merely a walking area, if it happened to be frozen over and one wasn't really looking ahead.
Excuses and theories aside, Safe was quite lucky.?Neil Edginton ??managing director at property development group EDG Property, who coincidentally?was part of the team?behind the creation of the Mailbox and its odd layout?? happened to witness her accident.
"Slightly wet, as just had to pull someone out of canal! Walking towards me on their phone, straight into the water! #splash," Edginton tweeted shortly after pulling Safe out of the water. He'd tried to warn her right as she was taking the final step into icy doom: He shouted "Nooooooooooooo!"
As much fun as Safe's colleagues and other reporters appear to be having while covering her accident, distracted walking isn't really a joking matter. In 2008, the American College of Emergency Physicians warned of rising reports involving oblivious texters, with injuries involving text-messaging pedestrians, bicyclists, and even horseback riders.?
More recently, we've seen plenty of individuals endanger themselves by using their cellphones while walking. In January 2011?a woman fell into a water fountain while walking through a mall and text messaging. Video footage of the accident?was posted to YouTube and quickly made its rounds on the Internet.?In April 2012, a Califonia-based man nearly walked directly into a bear because he was distracted by his cellphone.?In August 2012, footage of an earlier incident in which a man stumbled right off a plain platform while focused on his phone circulated on the Internet.
In April 2012, October 2012, and January 2013, this reporter managed to bruise her knee on a desk corner because of a distracting text message. She is considering changing desks.
Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.
How to predict the future of technology?Public release date: 25-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Amy Blumenthal amyblume@marshall.usc.edu 213-740-5552 USC Marshall School of Business
Forget Moore's Law -- Step and Wait
The bread and butter of investing for Silicon Valley tech companies is stale. Instead, a new method of predicting the evolution of technology could save tech giants millions in research and development or developments of new productsand help analysts and venture capitalists determine which companies are on the right track.
The high-tech industry has long used Moore's Law as a method to predict the growth of PC memory. Moore's Law states that the number of chips on a transistor doubles every 18 months (initially every year). A paper by Gareth James and Gerard Tellis, professors at the USC Marshall School of Business and their co-authors Ashish Sood, at Emory and Ji Zhu at the University of Michigan, concludes that Moore's Law does not apply for most industries, including the PC industry. The paper titled, "Predicting the Path of Technological Innovation: SAW vs. Moore, Bass, Gompertz, and Kryder," is in the current issue of Marketing Science.
High-tech companies traditionally use Moore's Law and other similar heuristics to predict the path of evolution of competing technologies and to decide where to funnel millions into research and development or new product development. The paper's researchers claim that these models are outdated and inaccurate.
The paper offers a new model, Step and Wait (SAW), which more accurately tracks the path of technological evolution in six markets that the authors tested. According to the researchers, Moore's Law and other models such as Kryder's Law and Gompertz Law predict a smooth increasing exponential curve for the improvement in performance of various technologies. In contrast, the authors found that the performance of most technologies proceeds in steps (or jumps) of big improvements interspersed with waits (or periods of no growth in performance).
The sweet spot is in knowing which technology to back based on predicting when a new technology is going to have a jump in performance.
"We looked at the forest rather than the trees and see 'steps' and 'waits' across a variety of technologies," Tellis said. While no one law applies to every market, Tellis and his co-authors looked at 26 technologies in six markets from lighting to automobile batteries, and found that the SAW model worked in all six, in contrast to several other competing models.
What Tellis and his colleagues did come up with, are average performance improvements for the industry in terms of "steps" and wait times (see table to the right). The challenge for strategists is to invest in various technologies to beat these averages.
Tellis said that tablet and mobile phone manufacturers can leverage this data. "Any manager has first to break down his or her products into components, find components for each technology, and then predict the future path of those technologies. For example, the mobile phone consists of three important technological components: memory, display, or CPU, the first two of which the authors analyzed. Similarly, tablets, manufacturers could rely on the figures for display and memory technologies."
An example of how the SAW model could have saved a company from decline is Sony's investment in TVs. Sony kept investing in cathode ray tube technology (CRT) even after liquid crystal display technology (LCD) first crossed CRT in performance in 1996. Instead of considering LCD, Sony introduced the FD Trinitron/WEGA series, a flat version of the CRT. CRT out-performed LCD for a few years, but ultimately lost decisively to LCD in 2001. In contrast, by backing LCD, Samsung grew to be the world's largest manufacturer of the better performing LCD. The former market leader, Sony, had to seek a joint venture with Samsung in 2006 to manufacture LCDs.
Having the SAW model at the ready might have changed their course. "Prediction of the next step size and wait time using SAW could have helped Sony's managers make a timely investment in LCD technology," according to the study.
###
About the Authors
Gerard Tellis is the Neely Chair in American Enterprise at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. His new book is titled, Unrelenting Innovation: How to Create A culture for Market Dominance,(Jossey-Bass.).
Ashish Sood is assistant professor of marketing at the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University. Gareth James is professor of statistics, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. Ji Zhu is associate professor of statistics, Department of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
[ | 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.
How to predict the future of technology?Public release date: 25-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Amy Blumenthal amyblume@marshall.usc.edu 213-740-5552 USC Marshall School of Business
Forget Moore's Law -- Step and Wait
The bread and butter of investing for Silicon Valley tech companies is stale. Instead, a new method of predicting the evolution of technology could save tech giants millions in research and development or developments of new productsand help analysts and venture capitalists determine which companies are on the right track.
The high-tech industry has long used Moore's Law as a method to predict the growth of PC memory. Moore's Law states that the number of chips on a transistor doubles every 18 months (initially every year). A paper by Gareth James and Gerard Tellis, professors at the USC Marshall School of Business and their co-authors Ashish Sood, at Emory and Ji Zhu at the University of Michigan, concludes that Moore's Law does not apply for most industries, including the PC industry. The paper titled, "Predicting the Path of Technological Innovation: SAW vs. Moore, Bass, Gompertz, and Kryder," is in the current issue of Marketing Science.
High-tech companies traditionally use Moore's Law and other similar heuristics to predict the path of evolution of competing technologies and to decide where to funnel millions into research and development or new product development. The paper's researchers claim that these models are outdated and inaccurate.
The paper offers a new model, Step and Wait (SAW), which more accurately tracks the path of technological evolution in six markets that the authors tested. According to the researchers, Moore's Law and other models such as Kryder's Law and Gompertz Law predict a smooth increasing exponential curve for the improvement in performance of various technologies. In contrast, the authors found that the performance of most technologies proceeds in steps (or jumps) of big improvements interspersed with waits (or periods of no growth in performance).
The sweet spot is in knowing which technology to back based on predicting when a new technology is going to have a jump in performance.
"We looked at the forest rather than the trees and see 'steps' and 'waits' across a variety of technologies," Tellis said. While no one law applies to every market, Tellis and his co-authors looked at 26 technologies in six markets from lighting to automobile batteries, and found that the SAW model worked in all six, in contrast to several other competing models.
What Tellis and his colleagues did come up with, are average performance improvements for the industry in terms of "steps" and wait times (see table to the right). The challenge for strategists is to invest in various technologies to beat these averages.
Tellis said that tablet and mobile phone manufacturers can leverage this data. "Any manager has first to break down his or her products into components, find components for each technology, and then predict the future path of those technologies. For example, the mobile phone consists of three important technological components: memory, display, or CPU, the first two of which the authors analyzed. Similarly, tablets, manufacturers could rely on the figures for display and memory technologies."
An example of how the SAW model could have saved a company from decline is Sony's investment in TVs. Sony kept investing in cathode ray tube technology (CRT) even after liquid crystal display technology (LCD) first crossed CRT in performance in 1996. Instead of considering LCD, Sony introduced the FD Trinitron/WEGA series, a flat version of the CRT. CRT out-performed LCD for a few years, but ultimately lost decisively to LCD in 2001. In contrast, by backing LCD, Samsung grew to be the world's largest manufacturer of the better performing LCD. The former market leader, Sony, had to seek a joint venture with Samsung in 2006 to manufacture LCDs.
Having the SAW model at the ready might have changed their course. "Prediction of the next step size and wait time using SAW could have helped Sony's managers make a timely investment in LCD technology," according to the study.
###
About the Authors
Gerard Tellis is the Neely Chair in American Enterprise at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. His new book is titled, Unrelenting Innovation: How to Create A culture for Market Dominance,(Jossey-Bass.).
Ashish Sood is assistant professor of marketing at the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University. Gareth James is professor of statistics, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. Ji Zhu is associate professor of statistics, Department of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
[ | 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.
Jan. 24, 2013 ? Though controversial, medical cannabis has been gaining ground as a valid therapy, offering relief to suffers of diseases such as cancer, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, ALS and more. The substance is known to soothe severe pain, increase the appetite, and ease insomnia where other common medications fail.
In 2009, Zach Klein, a graduate of Tel Aviv University's Department of Film and Television Studies, directed the documentary Prescribed Grass. Through the process, he developed an interest in the scientific research behind medical marijuana, and now, as a specialist in policy-making surrounding medical cannabis and an MA student at TAU's Porter School of Environmental Studies, he is conducting his own research into the benefits of medical cannabis.
Using marijuana from a farm called Tikkun Olam -- a reference to the Jewish concept of healing the world -- Klein and his fellow researchers tested the impact of the treatment on 19 residents of the Hadarim nursing home in Israel. The results, Klein says, have been outstanding. Not only did participants experience dramatic physical results, including healthy weight gain and the reduction of pain and tremors, but Hadarim staff saw an immediate improvement in the participants' moods and communication skills. The use of chronic medications was also significantly reduced, he reports.
Klein's research team includes Dr. Dror Avisar of TAU's Hydrochemistry Laboratory at the Department of Geography and Human Environment; Prof. Naama Friedmann and Rakefet Keider of TAU's Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education; Dr. Yehuda Baruch of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and director of the Abarbanel Mental Health Center; and Dr. Moshe Geitzen and Inbal Sikorin of Hadarim.
Cutting down on chronic medications
Israel is a world leader in medical cannabis research, Klein says. The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, was first discovered there by Profs. Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel Gaoni. Prof. Mechoulam is also credited for having defined the endocannabinoid system, which mimics the effects of cannabis and plays a role in appetite, pain sensation, mood and memory.
In the Hadarim nursing home, 19 patients between the ages of 69 and 101 were treated with medical cannabis in the form of powder, oil, vapor, or smoke three times daily over the course of a year for conditions such as pain, lack of appetite, and muscle spasms and tremors. Researchers and nursing home staff monitored participants for signs of improvement, as well as improvement in overall life quality, such as mood and ease in completing daily living activities.
During the study, 17 patients achieved a healthy weight, gaining or losing pounds as needed. Muscle spasms, stiffness, tremors and pain reduced significantly. Almost all patients reported an increase in sleeping hours and a decrease in nightmares and PTSD-related flashbacks.
There was a notable decline in the amount of prescribed medications taken by patients, such as antipsychotics, Parkinson's treatment, mood stabilizers, and pain relievers, Klein found, noting that these drugs have severe side effects. By the end of the study, 72 percent of participants were able to reduce their drug intake by an average of 1.7 medications a day.
Connecting cannabis and swallowing
This year, Klein is beginning a new study at Israel's Reuth Medical Center with Drs. Jean-Jacques Vatine and Aviah Gvion, in which he hopes to establish a connection between medical cannabis and improved swallowing. One of the biggest concerns with chronically ill patients is food intake, says Klein. Dysphagia, or difficulty in swallowing, can lead to a decline in nutrition and even death. He believes that cannabis, which has been found to stimulate regions of the brain associated with swallowing reflexes, will have a positive impact.
Overall, Klein believes that the healing powers of cannabis are close to miraculous, and has long supported an overhaul in governmental policy surrounding the drug. Since his film was released in 2009, the number of permits for medical cannabis in Israel has increased from 400 to 11,000. His research is about improving the quality of life, he concludes, especially for those who have no other hope.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The Kobo Vox?was a thoroughly forgettable Android tablet. It aped the Kindle Fire in price and form factor, but was otherwise a subpar performer in nearly every respect. Kobo rightfully went back to the drawing board, bringing us its second effort a year later?the Kobo Arc ($199.99 list). Though still clearly aimed at Amazon's newest Fire HD, the Arc is a far more refined piece of equipment that has a fighting chance against the strong crop of small-screen tablet options available today. It's easily worth considering for its strong performance and access to the Google Play market, but it still comes up a bit short against our Editors' Choice, the Google Nexus 7.
Design and Features The Arc shares many design cues with the Vox, with its unassuming matte black plastic body and the signature quilted diamond pattern around back. Instead of a flat glass front, like the Vox and the Kindle Fire HD, the Arc has a pronounced plastic bezel. Some will prefer this design for the added grip and smaller area for fingerprints and smudges, but it does take away from the sleekness factor you'll find with tablets like the Fire HD and Nexus 7. At 7.4 by 4.7 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and 12.8 ounces, the Arc is a hair thicker than the 0.4-inch Nexus 7 and Fire HD, but it's also a full ounce lighter and 0.7-inch narrower than the latter. The Arc feels sturdily built and Kobo claims it can withstand falls from about five feet. ?
There are Power and Volume buttons along the Arc's edges, with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera embedded in the top bezel and two front-facing speaker grilles embedded in the bottom bezel. The camera supports 720p video chats, but shouldn't be counted on for anything else. The speaker placement is nice, as the sound is actually directed towards you. The Arc gets loud as far as tablets go, but don't expect anything beyond the tinny and distortion-prone audio found in most tablets?for better audio you'll want to use the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Centered on the bottom edge is a micro USB port, but there's no HDMI-out or microSD card slot like on the Acer Iconia Tab A110. The $199.99 Arc comes with 16GB; versions with 32GB and 64GB are available for $50 and $100 more, respectively. The Arc is available in white or black, with interchangeable SnapBacks for customizing the color further.?
The 1,280-by-800-pixel, 7-inch IPS display is pretty much standard fare at this point. It matches the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD in crispness, but the latter is the brightest of the bunch. Still, viewing angles are terrific and the high-gloss finish makes colors really pop. Unfortunately, that glossy finish is a fingerprint magnet and is too reflective in bright light, especially outdoors.
This is a Wi-Fi-only tablet that connects to 802.11b/g/n networks, but only on the 2.4GHz frequency. The Kindle Fire HD is able to connect to faster 5GHz networks. There's no Bluetooth or GPS.
(Next page: Performance, Android, and Conclusions)
If you've been eyeing a new MacBook Air then run, don't walk, over to Best Buy and grab one for $200 off. It's part of a sale that's lasting only today and tomorrow, and includes some accessories and some incentives. Limited quantities, no rain checks.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Jan-2013
Share ] 
