How you can Correctly Market Your Local Automotive Restore ...

Home business Presense

Starting up an automotive repair service organization is likely certainly one of the easiest and most lucrative establishments to begin, especially if you may be a mechanic. Automobiles and trucks are continuously heading to will need company and repairs; building the automotive repair service organization an exceptionally rewarding and clever organization investment choice. Still, there?s a very little way more to it than easily opening up a small-scale garage and hanging a indicator out front. Like all organization it will take setting up, investment, and a powerful merchandising campaign in the past an automotive organization will bear fruition and profit.
The next describes the very important organization and merchandising components to get your automotive organization on its way.

Home business Elements:

Not a thing are often way more significant than to be organized and geared up for your initiate of your respective new automotive repair service organization. Getting the next components in destination shows professionalism plus the capacity to correctly market place your new automotive store by having a memorable existence.Create a organization approach

In case your bearing in mind the thought of buying home on your automotive organization web site, be sure you work out homework in exploring the home in the past you buy it. Check out neighborhood zoning and ordinances to check out if it truly is permissible to run an automotive repair service store for the spot.
Check out the demographics. You do not like to open up a store in a geographical area exactly where there?s quite a lot of other automotive stores or a location that is certainly tricky for customers to access on the way for you to get the job done or on the way property when get the job done.
At last, the organization approach might involve financing provisions and designs to fork out the money again, if in actual fact, site you do borrow money to buy the home or get the organization commenced.
Apply for mandatory neighborhood licenses

Licenses may perhaps differ according to what state, county and town your automotive repair service organization is in. One in all the right strategies to learn this specifics would be to name the neighborhood much better organization bureau or the taxing and licensing authorities in your town for your record of licenses you can expect to will need. Many of the prevalent licenses associated with establishments involve an occupational license, sales tax license and any licenses for your disposal of hazardous waste associated along with your automotive repair service store.Register the organization when using the state

Consider which entity you?d like the organization registered less than, for example an LLC, Corporation, Partnership, or Sole Proprietor. It?s possible you?ll wish to talk to with an lawyer or your accountant to select the option that suits your online business best. One time you make that final choice, apply for and receive an employer identification selection (EIN). Apply for and receive organization insurance policies

For the intent of defending your automotive repair service & company organization it truly is best to receive a garage keeper?s insurance policies policy. A garage keeper?s policy is an insurance policies policy that covers the organization might an employee or customer get injured on the job. It also protects the store in the event a repair service causes damage to a person or his vehicle.
Inventory and logistics

Make convinced you have all the needed paperwork, including get the job done orders and invoices. Stock any and all product inventory which you can expect to keep on hand, for example oil, store rags, fluids, and parts. Be geared up for your lot of customers plus the will need for supplies. Getting extra inventory is continuously much better than running out.
Mechanics

Any mechanics you hire and employ might be A. S. E. Certified. Certification not only makes your company reputable, but ensures that the mechanics are properly skilled and educated for most automotive company and repair service tasks.

Advertising and marketing Your enterprise

When I began my recent endeavor to build a website and market place an automotive company & repair service organization located in Wales, Wisconsin, there were certain things that were already in destination; building my campaign an easy 1. But not every merchandising campaign is easy, and automotive establishments are often a rather challenging process to achieve good results in because there is so much competition. Still, focusing on a couple of basics usually achieve desired results.
Advertising

Advertising and marketing your automotive repair service organization entails the application of proper advertising techniques and some basic merchandising principles.
In case your organization is brand new, holding a grand opening advertisement which offers specials is 1 powerful way of getting the organization recognized. It is very important to market a grand opening event for at least 1 month in the past the actual opening day.
Home business website

One typical mistake that many start-up establishments make would be to spend thousands of dollars on build-outs, improvements, and equipment, but they fail to make an investment on promoting their organization via the internet. Some organization owners have the illusion that if they open-up and hang a indicator on a busy lien street their organization will prosper. This is far from the truth! Excuses like, , ?I never market because I have way more organization than I can handle-, or I never will need to market because -It?s to expensive, or it?s doesn?t get the job done,? is not uncommon. Ultimately they sit there and wait for customers to show up with their automotive needs and most often it never happens because potential customers do not even know of their existence.
You must market your online business, otherwise your online business will either die, or if you?re lucky profits may perhaps be just enough to fork out the bills?Website merchandising

Most small-scale and medium size establishments never understand the importance of getting their name out there in front of customers. The internet is likely the most popular and powerful means of free advertising that is certainly available in today?s world. Recent studies show that 82% of all Americans turn to the internet to search for things for example products and neighborhood establishments to company their particular needs. As these, attaining a organization website might be certainly one of the primary goals in your automotive organization merchandising campaign.
Which has a seasoned internet merchandising company, your website can attain free neighborhood advertising, inclusion in the major search engine maps, as well as a organization page in popular social media venues for example Twitter and Facebook. The most powerful of these three is through the utilization of this major search engine maps. Google, Yahoo and Bing all have neighborhood organization listing options which involve your establishments spot on the map.
By having your online business listing in 1 or all of this search engine maps you may be able to geographically target your online business area. An example would be like that in link the instant case in which the target area is Wales, Wisconsin. As these, the primary target group would be or even Waukesha Automotive because Wales is actually located in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. But generalizing your geographical area is not recommended. It is way more powerful to specifically target the exact community that your online business is located in order to have powerful results on your organization. Again, still, this entails some investment and application of a sound internet merchandising approach.

Many large corporations devote entire departments to promoting their organization. They spend a large percentage of their profits, usually 10-15% promoting their organization either through agencies or in-house advertisement and/or internet merchandising departments. They understand the importance of advertising and promoting their product or company. That is how they were able to become large companies.

As a small-scale or medium size organization you might adopt the same philosophy.

No tags for this post.

Source: http://theoctosquid.com/how-you-can-correctly-market-your-local-automotive-restore-firm/

lord howe island lord howe island conficker conficker rock and roll hall of fame zach braff kevin federline

The Sweet Smell of Chocolate: Sweat, Cabbage and Beef

What do you smell?: The distinctive and alluring aroma of chocolate sets off some surprising sensory signals, according to new "sensomics" research. Image: iStockphoto/AndrisTkachenko

Chocolate may be the most sought-after treat among trick-or-treaters on Halloween, with little hands grasping for all of the milk- and dark-chocolate morsels they can collect, but the details of its taste and aroma profiles have long eluded scientists.

And new science is revealing why cocoa's potent sensual properties have been so difficult to pin down. A recent analysis found that the individual aroma molecules in roasted cacao beans (the primary ingredient of chocolate) can smell of everything from cooked cabbage to human sweat to raw beef fat. Together, more than 600 of these flavor compounds melt together in just the right combination to yield the taste and scent of what we all call chocolate, according to Peter Schieberle, a food chemist at Munich Technical University and director of the German Research Center for Food Chemistry, who presented the data at this year's meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver.

Most of the molecules that comprise a food's aroma are volatile, which means they transform into gases easily at room temperature. These volatile compounds are inhaled along with the air we breathe, bringing them into contact with the 900-plus odorant receptors in the upper half of the nostril. In the early 1990s scientists Linda Buck and Richard Axel began the work that would show each odorant receptor recognized one particular compound and was linked to a specific olfactory neuron in the nostril. As a volatile aroma compound latches onto an odorant receptor, it triggers the firing of the olfactory neuron (Buck and Axel won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery). Complex aromas form when multiple volatile compounds trigger their respective olfactory neurons at the same time. The brain identifies flavor by measuring how frequently the different neurons fire.

"By the time you put four chemicals together, your brain can no longer separate them into components. It forms a new, unified perception that you can't recognize as any of those individual aromas," says Gary Reineccius, a food scientist at the University of Minnesota.

Processed foods such as chocolate, beer and tea contain thousands of aroma compounds. This multiplicity of molecules creates a mosaic of odor in the brain as each individual molecule contributes a hint of scent to the final flavor. Just as our brains can often assemble a whole picture from seeing just a sketch of an image, Schieberle and colleagues found that humans can recognize chocolate aroma using only 25 of its 600-plus volatile compounds. Of these, many are also found in much less appetizing items, including cooked cabbage, raw beef fat and human sweat, which are in turn also composed of many different volatile compounds.

Even so, not one of these 25 key compounds can be pegged as a "chocolate" aroma. "The mixture smells completely different from the individual constituents," Schieberle says. "At the moment, there is no way to predict how the final mixture will smell."

Schieberle calls the study of individual aroma and flavor molecules "sensomics," which sifts through the countless potential aroma compounds for those molecules of particular importance to human taste and smell. Schieberle's work has identified which aroma compounds from roasted cacao beans could bind to odor receptors in humans. None of them, it turned out, smell anything at all like the sweet, rich scent we identify as chocolate.

To figure out exactly which molecules contributed to chocolate aroma, Schieberle and colleagues had to pick apart chocolate aroma one molecule at a time. First, the researchers identified those volatile compounds that would react with human odor receptors and were present at high enough levels to register in the brain, which yielded 25 different molecules. These molecules included 2- and 3-methylbutanoic acids (both produce a sweaty, rancid odor), dimethyl trisulfide (cooked cabbage) and 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine (potato chips). Then, they blended these rather un-chocolatey aroma molecules in different combinations and asked human study subjects to smell them. The blend that contained all of the 25 volatile aroma molecules could reliably fool the nose and brain into thinking it had smelled chocolate.

These 25 compounds are what Schieberle refers to as chocolate's chemical signature?those volatile compounds in chocolate that trigger human olfactory nerves in just the right combination "causing a signal in the brain to say 'this is chocolate,'" Schieberle says.

What we think of as "chocolate" smell is due in large part to the way in which the food is made?a process that includes both fermentation and roasting. Foods that are processed by fermentation, roasting or grilling such as wine, coffee and steak, respectively, generally contain the most aroma molecules. It is this process's conversion of otherwise odorless compounds into volatile aroma-bearing ones that helps explain this type of food's popularity. Natural, raw foods like fruits and vegetables also have an appealing aroma and taste, although their flavor profile is much simpler and usually dominated by one or two major molecules.

"That chemical really creates that flavor, and everything else kind of smoothes it and makes it pleasant," Reineccius says of these less complex foods. The combination of volatile aroma compounds as well as the sugars and salts that we taste during chewing combine to create flavor. "Some of our simpler flavors are strawberry and raspberry because they're just what nature happened to provide to keep itself living." The replication of these flavors by food chemists has previously been a process of trial and error.

The goal of his work, Schieberle says, is not to develop artificial chocolate flavorings. Rather, his goal is to find ways to tweak the cacao bean fermentation and roasting process to develop even better tasting chocolates. A recent discovery in his lab, made earlier this year, has taken a small step in this direction. Cacao beans processed in the so-called Dutch style, which adds alkali salt during roasting, have a milder, more pleasant flavor. After deconstructing the molecular makeup of this form of chocolate, the researchers knew that it contained molecules that had a pleasant "mouthfeel." And by adding a tiny bit of glucose to the cacao beans during the Dutch roasting process, Schieberle and colleagues, did not increase the sweetness of the final product, but instead created a more velvety mouthfeel in the final chocolate.

Better understanding chocolate's alluring aroma can also help with tasting technique. Let the chocolate dissolve on your tongue, Schieberle says, so that you can taste the full array of flavor compounds. As the chocolate melts in your mouth and you exhale, some of the volatile molecules will once again pass over your odor receptors, letting you get another whiff before the chocolate melts away.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c9df1ebbc9b93e9b359f8540a0c7b0b5

sister wives st louis weather kryptos student loan forgiveness amy winehouse cause of death amy winehouse cause of death white witch

Rescue efforts suspended at Kansas grain elevator (AP)

ATCHISON, Kan. ? Crews temporarily suspended their search Sunday for three people missing since an explosion at a Kansas grain elevator that killed three workers and left two critically injured with severe burns.

Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking said officials with Bartlett Grain Co. decided it was unsafe for anyone to be inside the facility until later Sunday, when some heavy equipment was expected to arrive to assist them.

The explosion blew off a chunk of a grain distribution building that sits directly above the elevator, and Cocking said officials were fearful the building could fall on top of rescue crews amid the search. The efforts were already called off overnight because of darkness.

"It's a fairly dangerous situation. We don't feel comfortable putting fire crews in," Cocking said.

Although crews were considering the effort a recovery mission, Cocking said they hadn't given up hope that the one elevator company worker and two state grain inspectors might be found alive.

Family members of one of the missing, Travis Keil, 34, of Topeka, headed Sunday to Atchison to await news about his whereabouts. Gary and Ramona Keil, who made the drive from Salina with Travis Keil's three children, ages 8, 12 and 15, said their son was a war veteran who had been working as a site inspector for 16 years.

"We have all our prayers working for him," Gary Keil said.

Two other victims who were admitted to the burn unit of University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., were listed in critical condition there Sunday morning, hospital spokesman Dennis McCulloch said.

Cocking said four other people associated with the explosion escaped without injuries. No names were being released pending notification of families.

With smoke still billowing from the facility Sunday, train traffic past the elevator was being rerouted. A few emergency crews, including Union Pacific Railroad, drove to the scene as daylight broke.

The explosion could be seen and felt across Atchison, shaking homes and businesses up to four miles away. The cause was not immediately known, though grain elevator accidents can occur after grain dust becomes suspended in the air and turns explosive in the right conditions.

Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday. The company planned to issue an updated statement Sunday.

Explosions are a leading hazard at grain elevators. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, there have been more than 600 explosions over the last four decades, killing more than 250 and injuring more than 1,000. Grain dust is the main source of elevator blasts, as the dust can become airborne and explosive ? needing only a slight ignition source, such as electrical sparks, to cause a blast.

OSHA says suffocations are the leading killer at grain bins when workers become trapped in cascading grain. A study by Purdue University and cited by OSHA found 26 suffocation deaths at grain bins in 2010, the highest number on record at the time.

An explosion at a grain elevator in Bartley, Neb., in April 2010, caused no injuries but sent workers scrambling out of the way, while another in Gothenburg, Neb., in December 2010, scattered debris over nearby railroad tracks and a highway, also without injuries, authorities reported at the time.

Elsewhere, explosions or fires were reported at two grain elevators in Illinois in 2010 while a fire burning at a grain elevator in the Toledo, Ohio, area in September 2010 forced people to evacuate from a nearby mobile home park and businesses as a precaution. There also have been explosions or fires at elevators in South Dakota and Louisiana that year, none of them fatal.

Authorities said two workers were killed in June 2010 when they were buried under a load of wheat at an elevator in the central Kansas town of Russell though no explosion occurred there.

Paul Moccia, 57, lives in Atchison about a half mile from the grain elevator. He said the explosion shook his house and that lights flickered across his neighborhood for about 30 seconds.

"It was extremely loud. It was kind of like to me a double whomp, ? a bomp bomp. It reverberated, and kind of echoed down through the valley. ... kind of like a shock wave," he said. "Everybody came outside. Neighbors were trying to figure out what was going on. It was quite a thump."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_re_us/us_grain_elevator_explosion

sylvia plath def leppard tim wakefield tim wakefield jacqueline kennedy jacqueline kennedy jackie o

Insight: China premier-in-waiting schooled in era of dissent (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? Li Keqiang, China's likely next premier, once huddled beside Yang Baikui in a Beijing university dorm, translating a book by an English judge, little separating the future Communist Party leader from his classmate who would be jailed as a subversive.

Over three decades ago, Vice Premier Li and Yang entered prestigious Peking University, both members of the storied "class of '77" who passed the first higher education entrance exams held after Mao Zedong's convulsive Cultural Revolution.

More than any other Chinese party leader until now, Li was immersed in the intellectual and political ferment of the following decade of reform under Deng Xiaoping, which ended in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that were crushed by troops.

As a law student at Peking University, Li befriended ardent pro-democracy advocates, some of whom later became outright challengers to party control. His friends included activists who went into exile after the June 1989 crackdown.

Now Li, 56, is preparing to take the reins of government, and Yang and other sometime friends wonder how those heady times will shape his role running a one-party state that has increasingly bristled at calls for political relaxation.

"When we were working on translating the book and exchanging ideas, I thought his views were very liberal," Yang recalled of Li, who as an English speaker is a rarity among senior Chinese leaders.

"His leanings were clearly pro-Western ideas. He certainly wasn't conservative," said Yang, now a bald 61-year-old translator in Beijing, in a recent interview. "When he opened his mouth, it wasn't Mao slogans."

"I personally think his past certainly left an impact, but he's also been an official for over two decades, and so that's also a factor," said Yang, who was jailed for nearly a year on "counter-revolutionary" charges after helping write petitions and offer advice in the 1989 demonstrations.

Li has visited North and South Korea this week in Beijing's latest effort to lift his profile. The secretive Communist Party will wait until a congress in late 2012 to confirm who will succeed President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, and the new premier will then be formally anointed by parliament in early 2013.

The Chinese translation that Li, Yang and a fellow student, Liu Yongan, labored over -- "The Due Process Law" by Lord Alfred Denning -- was recently reissued, a perhaps inadvertent reminder of the past of the man likely to succeed Premier Wen.

Li himself has been nearly silent about his university years. But his experiences could mark him out as more politically pragmatic than present leaders, including his patron, President Hu, said classmates and acquaintances of Li.

"Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao were members of a red generation that had no opportunity to learn English or immerse themselves in new ideas or Western thought," said Chen Ziming, back then a student-activist at another school who campaigned with Li's classmates and got to know him.

"But the generation of Li Keqiang is different, and because of his law specialty and the length of his education, he was much more exposed to the new influences than, say, Xi Jinping," said Chen, referring to President Hu's likely successor.

"We don't know for sure what this difference means, but it's there, waiting to manifest itself in the future, if the opportunity arises," said Chen, who was jailed after the 1989 crackdown and lives in Beijing, writing on politics.

Xi spent years in countryside during the Cultural Revolution, but got into university earlier than Li. Despite that, Xi too has attracted talk that he could be more pragmatic.

ENGLISH

The man nearly certain to be China's next premier once spent hours every day muttering the unfamiliar English words that promised to unlock a world of previously forbidden knowledge.

Li was among the 273,000 examinees to win university and college places in the intensely competitive entrance test of 1977, when reformers began to revive conventional schooling upended by Mao's upheavals.

Li arrived at Peking University in early 1978 from Anhui province in eastern China, dirt-poor farming country where his father was an official. He chose law, a discipline silenced for years as a reactionary pursuit and in the late 1970s still steeped in Soviet-inspired doctrines.

"Keqiang was tireless in studying English to the point that young people nowadays would find hard to imagine," He Qinhua, one of Li's 82 law classmates in the same year wrote in a memoir. "He recited it while walking, while queued up at the canteen, while on the bus and waiting for the bus."

Li's thirst for foreign ideas brought him close to Gong Xiangrui, one of the few Chinese law professors schooled in the West to survive Mao's purges. Gong studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the 1930s, and was a living bridge to long-dormant liberal ideas that spread through student circles in the early 1980s.

The old professor took a shining to the skinny, earnest Li, who become one of several disciples who helped prepare a textbook and translate books, including Lord Denning's, according to mentions in Gong's recently published posthumous memoirs and in his 1985 textbook on Western constitutional law.

In a brief memoir of his time at Peking University, Li paid tribute to Gong and recalled the heady atmosphere of the time.

"I was a student at Peking University for close to a decade, while a so-called 'knowledge explosion' was rapidly expanding," Li wrote in an essay published in a 2008 book.

"I was searching for not just knowledge, but also to mold a temperament, to cultivate a scholarly outlook."

At the time, Deng Xiaoping was shepherding China toward market reforms, but many students and a few officials hankered for bolder political changes that alarmed party conservatives.

The ideas about rights, rule of law and popular representation that Li's cohort encountered in books, lectures and study groups percolated into those broader debates.

"Gong Xiangrui advocated a separation of powers and a multi-party system, and some of his ideas remain taboo even today," said Jiang Ming'an, a classmate of Li's, in a report published by China's Southern Weekend newspaper in 2007.

"Constitutional government is the road to rule of law, and rule of law is the first step toward democracy," Gong said in a lecture in San Francisco in 1996, shortly before his death.

"The Chinese people should fully achieve constitutional democracy in the coming century," he said.

Some of Li's classmates remember that he too was also carried along by that idealism of the time.

"The Li Keqiang that I knew in the past was quite bold. He was high-minded, bold and idealistic," said Wang Juntao, who has been in exile since 1994 and is now co-chairman of the China Democratic Party, which campaigns for change in his homeland.

Wang was a physics student at Peking University who ran a study group with Li. He was jailed as a "black hand" for his prominence in supporting the 1989 student protests.

"Among all the younger leaders, Li Keqiang is the only one who's lived and debated alongside these liberals," Wang said by telephone from New Jersey.

"He understands us, he's argued with us."

ELECTION TIME

In late 1980, those debates spilled out of crowded classrooms and dormitory rooms, when officials allowed students at Peking University and other schools to compete in competitive elections for places on local assemblies.

Months earlier Deng Xiaoping had signaled he might tolerate experiments in political reform. Peking University drew national attention as it tested how far those experiments might go.

More than two dozen students put themselves forward, including Wang Juntao, Yang Baikui and other friends of Li, promoting bold calls for democratic reform at meetings attracting hundreds of students, witnesses have said in memoirs.

Back then, the distinction between political "insiders" and "outsiders" -- those who acted under party patronage and those who acted on their own accord -- was more fluid and blurred.

Wang Juntao nominated Li to seek election as head of a student committee to oversee the larger student council, a position he won, Wang recalled.

But Li was away studying off-campus during the 1980 elections or kept aloof from them, according to varied memories of his friends. Yang Baikui -- the fellow translator -- and the student-activist Chen Ziming both said Li backed a more moderate candidate, Zhang Wei, who said economic reform was the priority.

"Their view wasn't against political reform, but it was that economic reform was more urgent," said Chen. "Li Keqiang was a bit more conservative in that way, but he also wanted reform."

Alarmed by the passions of the student elections, Deng drew back from political relaxation. As the 1980s progressed, Deng curbed demands for dramatic political reform, bringing the more ardent members of Li's cohort into growing conflict with party conservatives, a confrontation that culminated in 1989.

But while classmates headed off to policy research, independent activism and even outright dissent, Li struck a more cautious course, abandoning ideas of study abroad and climbing the ladder of the Communist Party's Youth League, then a reformist-tinged ladder to higher office.

He rose in the Youth League while completing a master's degree in law at Peking University and then an economics doctorate there under Professor Li Yining, a well-known advocate of market reforms.

In 1998, he was sent to Henan province, a poor and restless belt of rural central China, rising to become Party secretary for two years. In late 2004, he was made party chief of Liaoning, a rustbelt province striving to attract investment and reinvent itself as a modern industrial heartland.

Rumors have occasionally spread that Li's past contacts with now-exiled dissidents, including Wang Juntao, derailed his prospects for becoming China's president and party chief, a more powerful post than premier, said Wang.

But Li's prospects of becoming next premier appear increasingly assured, a point bolstered by recent high-profile trips abroad and major policy speeches. His diplomatic forays also show he has kept his English.

"The fact that Li Keqiang has been able to constantly rise in the official ranks, and to win the liking of key people, shows that he's undergone big changes," said Wang.

Li's patron, President Hu, began his tenure as leader with promises of respecting the law and constitution. But latterly his government has overseen a crackdown on dissent that resorted to widespread extra-judicial detentions.

Yang, the former classmate, said he had not had any contact with Li since the 1980s, and could only speculate at how deep a mark Li's university years had left.

"I think it could make him more open and inclusive, more democratic, if the conditions allow. His ideas of rule of law might go deeper," said Yang. "But he couldn't show any of that now. That would be too dangerous."

(Editing by Brian Rhoads and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/wl_nm/us_china_politcs_li

tyler bray rashard mendenhall san antonio weather austin box austin box nebraska football nebraska football

South Pole evacuee recovering well after stroke

BALTIMORE, Md.?? The engineer evacuated from a South Pole research station after a stroke may not be skydiving again anytime soon, but her doctor says she is recovering well.

Dr. Paul Nyquist said Friday that Renee-Nicole Douceur, who traveled to Johns Hopkins Hospital this week for treatment, is regaining her lost vision, and her speech is improving. Douceur expects to be discharged Saturday.

Douceur was evacuated two months after she began experiencing vision, language and memory problems while working as station manager at the National Science Foundation's South Pole research station.

Her case sparked controversy because the officials in charge of the South Pole operation rejected her initial requests for evacuation in August. They said that her condition was not life-threatening and that Antarctica's winter weather made an airlift at that time too risky. The officials waited until the weather improved in mid-October.

The 58-year-old nuclear engineer from Seabrook, N.H., said she would like to go back to the South Pole, but she may need to return to the nuclear industry instead.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45077317/ns/technology_and_science-science/

vanderbilt seth macfarlane costumes bobby flay clemson football the new girl miami hurricanes football

Conn. lobstermen seek other work as stocks dwindle (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/155112066?client_source=feed&format=rss

big east j.r. martinez peru earthquake peru earthquake big 12 last minute halloween costumes rum diary

Europe stocks rise over Europe deal on Greece debt (AP)

PARIS ? European stock markets shot higher Thursday as investors waded into riskier assets, emboldened by EU leaders' pre-dawn agreement to slash Greece's massive debts.

Oil prices rose above $92 per barrel while the euro gained strongly following the European summit dedicated to fixing a debt mess in Greece before it provokes a bigger debt crisis across the continent.

European trading was buoyant from the outset. Britain's FTSE climbed 2.1 percent to 5,670.12. Germany's DAX jumped 3.7 percent to 6,243 and France's CAC-40 gained 3.9 percent to 3,297. Wall Street also headed toward gains, with Dow Jones industrial futures rising 1.6 percent and S&P 500 futures gaining 1.8 percent.

The Greek market rallied on hopes the early morning deal would finally lift the specter of government bankruptcy.

Shortly after opening Thursday, shares on the Athens Stock Exchange were up 3.46 percent at 800.55, with banking stocks up more than 10 percent ? after suffering heavy losses earlier this week.

The hard-fought European deal requires banks to take on 50 percent losses on Greeks bonds. Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund will also provide an additional euro100 billion ($140 billion) in rescue loans as a second bailout package for Greece.

EU leaders "stopped the hemorrhaging," said Marc Touati, chief economist at Assya Compagnie Financiere in Paris. "(They) have saved the Eurozone and that's the good news and that's why the markets are reacting positively."

European leaders agreed early Thursday on a plan to provide Greece with more rescue loans to help relieve its crushing debt obligations. It will involve private investors taking bigger losses on the value of their Greek bonds, which would make Greece the first nation that uses the euro currency to be rated in default on its debt.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the deal will reduce Greece's debt to 120 percent of its gross domestic product in 2020. Under current conditions, it would have grown to 180 percent.

In addition, the euro440 billion European Financial Stability Facility will be used to insure part of the losses on the debt of wobbly countries like Italy and Spain, rendering its firepower equivalent to around euro1 trillion ($1.4 trillion).

Loose ends still need to be worked out, and the fundamental problem of low economic growth in the euro zone has not been resolved by the crisis summit, some economists warned.

"(They) have only saved it temporarily," Touati said. "Unfortunately the fundamental problem concerning the absence of growth has not been resolved."

Shares in Asia posted solid gains earlier in the day. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 2 percent to close at an eight-week high of 8,926.54. South Korea's Kospi added 1.5 percent to 1,922.04. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 3.3 percent to 19,688.70.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 2.5 percent to 4,348.20 after trading resumed following a 4-hour technical glitch.

Meanwhile, strong economic reports helped send Wall Street higher on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.4 percent to 11,869.04. The S&P 500 index rose 1.1 percent to 1,242. The Nasdaq composite added 0.5 percent to 2,650.67.

Reports in the U.S. showed businesses ordered more heavy machinery and other long-lasting manufactured goods last month. That indicates businesses are still spending on equipment despite worries about a weak economy and Europe's debt problems. Sales of new homes rose in September after falling for four straight months.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up $1.98 at $92.15 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.97, or 3.2 percent, to end the day at $90.20 in New York on Wednesday.

Brent crude was up $1.87 at $110.78 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

In currencies, the euro climbed to $1.4003 from $1.3908 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar weakened to 75.83 yen from 76.20 yen.

___

AP Business Writer Pamela Sampson in Bangkok and Associated Press video journalist Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

the lion king 3d the lion king 3d missoni maker faire the hub the hub penn state

Graciela Tiscare?o-Sato: Discretionary Income Causing a Values Clash? (Huffington post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/154262191?client_source=feed&format=rss

weather san antonio weather san antonio dream act roger williams roger williams tyler bray tyler bray

RIM's Buy Two Get One Free! PlayBook Deal Is World's Most Depressing Sale [Tablets]

Hey guys! I've got a great idea. Nobody wants to buy our tablets. But I have a solution—instead of fixing what sucks about the PlayBook, let's throw in an extra one! OK, now who's got a cold Molson? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cgbYnJanY28/rims-buy-two-get-one-free-playbook-deal-is-worlds-most-depressing-sale

texas tech football michigan state michigan state bridge school miami dolphins chicago bears charlie and the chocolate factory

Gaddafi son seeks flight to Hague war crimes court (Reuters)

DUBAI (Reuters) ? Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, has tried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out of his desert refuge and into the custody of the Hague war crimes court, a Libyan official said on Thursday.

Details were sketchy and confirmation not available but a picture has built up since his father's grisly killing while in the hands of vengeful rebel fighters a week ago that suggests Muammar Gaddafi's 39-year-old heir-apparent has taken refuge among Sahara nomads and is seeking a safe haven abroad.

Even if he can still draw on some of the vast fortune the Gaddafi clan built up abroad during 42 years in control of North Africa's main oilfields, his indictment by the International Criminal Court at The Hague over his efforts to crush the revolt limits the options open to Saif al-Islam.

That may explain an apparent willingness, in communications monitored by intelligence services and shared with Libya's interim rulers, to discuss a surrender to the ICC, whereas his mother and surviving siblings simply fled to Algeria and Niger.

The Court, which relies on signatory states to hand over suspects, said it was trying to confirm the whereabouts and intentions of Saif al-Islam and ex-intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the third man indicted along with the elder Gaddafi.

A source with Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), which drove the Gaddafis from power in Tripoli in August, told Reuters the two surviving indictees were together, protected by Tuareg nomads, in the rugged wilderness of the "Triangle", close to the borders of Algeria and Niger.

"Saif is concerned about his safety," the source said. "He believes handing himself over is the best option for him."

The younger Gaddafi, once seen as a potential liberal reformer but who adopted a belligerent, win-or-die persona at his father's side this year, was looking for help from abroad, possibly Algeria or Tunisia, to fly out and take his chances at The Hague, where there is no death penalty:

"He wants to be sent an aircraft," the NTC source said by telephone from Libya. "He wants assurances."

COURT SEEKS CONFIRMATION

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said the court was trying to confirm the NTC comments and work out how to move the suspects:

"It depends where the suspect is and how we can get into contact with him and what would be necessary to bring him to The Hague. There are different scenarios," El Abdallah said.

Some observers question the accuracy of NTC information, given frequent lapses in intelligence recently. Some suggest surrendering to the ICC may be only one option for Saif al-Islam, who may hope for a welcome in one of the African states on which his father lavished gifts.

The African Union, and powerful members like South Africa, grumble about the nine-year-old ICC's focus so far on Africans and some of them may prove sympathetic. Even if arrested on charges relating to his role in attacks on protesters in February and March, Saif al-Islam could make defense arguments that might limit any sentence, lawyers said.

NTC forces, which overran Gaddafi's last bastions of Bani Walid and Sirte this month, lack the resources to hunt and capture fugitives deep in the desert, the source said.

NATO, whose air power turned the civil war in the rebels' favor, could help, he added.

But NATO, whose U.N. mandate is ending now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead, stresses its mission is to protect civilians, not target individuals - though it was a NATO air strike that halted Muammar Gaddafi's flight last week. Even NATO resources would be stretched in the trackless waste of southern Libya.

A captured pro-Gaddafi fighter at Bani Walid told Reuters that the London-educated Saif al-Islam had been in that town, south of Tripoli until it fell earlier this month.

The man, one of his bodyguards, said the younger Gaddafi was "confused" and in fear for his life when he escaped Bani Walid. If he has seen the gruesome video footage of his father's capture, he knows how he may be treated if he remains in Libya.

NTC WANTS TRIAL

Asked what the NTC was doing to cooperate with the ICC, the vice chairman of the Council, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, noted that the Libyans still hoped to try the suspects themselves:

"There aren't any special arrangements by the NTC," he said. "If Abdullah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam are arrested inside Libya they will be tried and judged based on Libyan law.

"If they fled and went to countries such as Niger, for example, they will have to be surrendered to the ICC," he adding, noting reports that Senussi had already reached Niger.

Earlier this week, an NTC official said Saif al-Islam had acquired a passport in a false name and was lying low south of Ghat, a border crossing with Algeria through which his mother, sister and two of his surviving brothers fled in August.

Algeria is not a signatory to the Rome treaty which set up the ICC, but might face strong diplomatic pressure to hand over indicted suspects. The NTC has also been pressing Algiers to hand over the other Gaddafi relatives.

Niger, an impoverished former French colony, has said it would honor its commitments to the ICC. The mayor of the northern Niger town of Agadez, a transit point for other fleeing Gaddafi allies, told Reuters Saif al-Islam would be extradited to The Hague if he showed up.

Tunisia, to where other Gaddafi loyalists have fled, is also a signatory to the ICC's conventions.

A member of the Malian parliament who has been in charge of relations with Libya's NTC discounted reports that Gaddafi and Senussi had crossed Algeria or Niger into Mali.

The mystery over their flight has spawned many rumors.

In South Africa, one newspaper said a plane was on standby there to fly north and rescue Saif al-Islam along with a group of South Africans working for him. NTC officials say South Africans may have been among those killed in Sirte last week when Gaddafi was caught and killed.

Defense OPTIONS

Should he end up, like former Yugoslav leaders and others, in a Dutch jail, Saif al-Islam would have no shortage of defenders, though a defense of simply following his father's orders would carry little weight with ICC judges.

An Iraqi lawyer who defended allies of Saddam Hussein in the U.S.-supervised trials in Baghdad said the younger Gaddafi would be entitled to argue that his actions were legitimate acts of defense during an aggressive war by foreign powers.

Though some of the ICC indictment relates to the use of force against unarmed demonstrators before NATO intervened, Badie Arif, who defended former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, told Reuters: "It was a foreign aggression made by colonialist countries and by NATO ... It is illegitimate and illegal by all international standards."

Geert-Jan Knoops, a Dutch-based international criminal law attorney, said Saif al-Islam could challenge the ICC case on two main fronts -- that it was a political show trial aimed at justifying Western-backed regime change, or by proving there was no evidence of a "political plan" to kill protesters.

A public platform could allow Saif al-Islam to embarrass some of the Western leaders with whom he led a rapprochement in recent years.

His role in promoting reforms, thwarted by domestic opponents, might also be used in his defense, though his angry outbursts against the revolt would enable prosecutors to bolster a case in which they accuse him of recruiting mercenaries to kill protesters as part of a "predetermined plan" with his father and Senussi.

(Additional reporting by Giles Elgood, Peter Apps and Alastair Macdonald in London, Aaron Gray-Block in Amsterdam, Mark John in Dakar, Nicholas Vinocur in Paris, Waleed Ibrahim and Jim Loney in Baghdad, Brian Rohan in Benghazi, Barry Malone and Maria Golovnina in Tripoli and Ibrahim Diallo in Agadez, Niger; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/wl_nm/us_libya

ncaa football 12 ncaa football 12 direct tv lion king photon plane crash plane crash

Lab-made skin cells will aid transplantation, cancer, drug discovery research

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The pigmented cells called melanocytes aren't just for making freckles and tans. Melanocytes absorb ultraviolet light, protecting the skin from the harmful effects of the sun. They also are the cells that go haywire in melanoma, as well as in more common conditions as vitiligo and albinism.

Naturally, researchers would love to study melanocytes in the laboratory. There's just one problem -- melanocytes from adult skin don't grow very well in the lab. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to create melanocytes from mouse tail cells using embryonic stem cell-like intermediates called inducible pluripotent (iPS) cells.

Xiaowei Xu, MD, PhD, associate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, is senior author the study, which appears online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology ahead of the December print issue. Xu and his team converted mouse tail-tip fibroblasts into iPS cells using four genes, which were first described by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, producing pluripotent cells similar to embryonic stem cells, but without the concomitant ethical issues.

According to Xu, these lab-made melanocytes promise benefits in areas from tissue transplantation to drug discovery. "This method really has lots of clinical implications," says Xu. "We are not quite there yet, but this is an early step."

For example, by collecting a tissue sample from patients with, say, vitiligo, and converting it to iPS cells, researchers can study what goes wrong as those cells differentiate into melanocytes. Or, they can study the development and possible treatment of melanoma.

Xu's new study is the first to report creating melanocytes from iPS cells in mice, and builds on his previous work. Xu's lab was involved in the first study to work out the conditions for differentiating human embryonic stem cells to melanocytes in 2006. Earlier this year, a Japanese team became the first to differentiate human iPS cells to melanocytes.

Transformation of Cells

Initially, the researchers from Xu's lab introduced the four Yamanaka genes into mouse cells by infecting the cells with transgenic viruses. Between 0.5% to 0.8% of fibroblasts treated in this way converted to iPS cells in Xu's lab ? a rate that is consistent with other researchers' findings, he says. But his team also could achieve the same result (albeit at lower efficiency, 0.01%) using a non-viral "transposon" called piggyBac. Finally, the researchers showed they could differentiate both iPS cell populations into melanocytes in about two weeks by feeding the cells a defined cocktail of growth factors.

According to Xu, the growth factor cocktail used in the present study differs somewhat from the formulation his lab worked out several years ago for human embryonic stem cells. Among other things, it works in the absence of the growth factor Wnt3a and the carcinogen TPA, both of which are required for human melanocyte differentiation. TPA, especially, could be problematic for possible cell-based therapies, in that it is tumorigenic. It remains to be seen, however, whether human iPS cells can also be differentiated in the absence of this compound, Xu notes.

His study's implementation of piggyBac in creating the iPS cells (a technique first published by Canadian researchers in 2009) could possibly extend the technique's clinical value, he adds. Unlike viruses, which insert their genetic cargo into the host genome, thereby raising concerns of genetic alterations in the infected cells, piggyBac delivers genes without permanently altering the host genome.

###

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 57 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114649/Lab_made_skin_cells_will_aid_transplantation__cancer__drug_discovery_research

lisa lampanelli bobby fischer the lion king john cabot john cabot safety razor safety razor

Elton John lauds NY governor for gay marriage law (AP)

NEW YORK ? Elton John says politics have divided the United States, but at his foundation's annual benefit, he singled out one politician as an example for others to follow.

The legendary British singer hailed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at Wednesday night's 10th-annual Enduring Vision gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

John thanked Cuomo for "taking a stand in New York and making the dream of marriage equality a reality in the state." The governor was seated in the audience.

In July, New York became the sixth state to recognize same-sex nuptials.

The benefit raised $2 million for John's foundation.

Alec Baldwin, Jon Bon Jovi and Sarah Ferguson were among the celebrities in attendance. Smokey Robinson provided the evening's entertainment. Anderson Cooper served as the master of ceremonies.

___

Online:

http:// www.ejaf.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_en_ot/us_people_elton_john

chris morris mike stoops mike stoops end of the world end of the world jerome harrison ryan leaf

US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/152978448?client_source=feed&format=rss

harry shum jr workaholics workaholics the rum diary new iphone 5 release mary j blige cole hamels

Companies sued for calling bottles biodegradable (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/153741546?client_source=feed&format=rss

maps directions josephine baker pumpkin patch troy polamalu grimm boo at the zoo when is daylight savings time 2011

Eddie Murphy Admits "SNL" grudge (Reuters)

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) ? Eddie Murphy explains in a new Rolling Stone interview that he's kept his distance from "Saturday Night Live" for years because of jokes his former show made about him.

"They were shitty to me on 'Saturday Night Live' a couple of times after I'd left the show," he said. "They said some shitty things."

Those things included an early 1990s "Weekend Update" jest in which David Spade showed Murphy's face and said, "Look, children, a falling star."

"I made a stink about it, it became part of the folklore," Murphy, star of the new "Tower Heist," told the magazine. "What really irritated me about it at the time was that it was a career shot ... I felt shitty about it for years, but now, I don't have none of that."

Though Murphy is one of the biggest names to come out of the show, he's separated from the casts that have made jokes about him in one way: He joined during the show's Jean Doumanian era, when she replaced Lorne Michaels as executive producer for ten months from 1980-81, before being replaced by Dick Ebersol. Michaels returned in 1985.

Discovering Murphy -- known for such classic "SNL" roles as Gumby, Mr. Robinson, and Buckwheat -- is widely considered Doumanian's greatest contribution to the show.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/people_nm/us_eddiemurphy

bill gates michael lewis palin occupy wall street second time around bill gates steve jobs bill gates steve jobs

Coroner: Amy Winehouse died from too much alcohol

Amy Winehouse's father Mitch, center and his partner Jane, right, arrive at St Pancras Coroner's Court for a hearing into the singer's death in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. A British coroner will hear about the final hours of Amy Winehouse's life at the inquest into the soul diva's death. The singer, who had fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead in bed at her London home on July 23 at age 27. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Amy Winehouse's father Mitch, center and his partner Jane, right, arrive at St Pancras Coroner's Court for a hearing into the singer's death in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. A British coroner will hear about the final hours of Amy Winehouse's life at the inquest into the soul diva's death. The singer, who had fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead in bed at her London home on July 23 at age 27. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Amy Winehouse's mother Janis, left, arrives at St Pancras Coroner's Court for a hearing into the singer's death in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. A British coroner will hear about the final hours of Amy Winehouse's life at the inquest into the soul diva's death. The singer, who had fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead in bed at her London home on July 23 at age 27. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Amy Winehouse's mum Janis, left, arrives at St. Pancras Coroner's Court for a hearing into the singer's death in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. A British coroner will hear about the final hours of Amy Winehouse's life at the inquest into the soul diva's death. The singer, who had fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead in bed at her London home on July 23 at age 27. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Amy Winehouse's mum Janis, left, arrives at St. Pancras Coroner's Court for a hearing into the singer's death in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. A British coroner will hear about the final hours of Amy Winehouse's life at the inquest into the soul diva's death. The singer, who had fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead in bed at her London home on July 23 at age 27. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Amy Winehouse's father Mitch, left, and his partner Jane, second left, arrive at St Pancras Coroner's Court for a hearing into the singer's death in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. A British coroner will hear about the final hours of Amy Winehouse's life at the inquest into the soul diva's death. The singer, who had fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead in bed at her London home on July 23 at age 27. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

LONDON (AP) ? Amy Winehouse drank herself to death. That was the ruling of a coroner's inquest into the death of the Grammy-winning soul singer, who died with empty vodka bottles in her room and lethal amounts of alcohol in her blood ? more than five times the British drunk driving limit.

Coroner Suzanne Greenaway gave a verdict of "death by misadventure," saying Wednesday the singer suffered accidental alcohol poisoning when she resumed drinking after weeks of abstinence.

"The unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels (of alcohol) was her sudden and unexpected death," Greenaway said.

The 27-year-old Winehouse had fought a very public battle with drug and alcohol abuse for years, and there had been much speculation that she died from a drug overdose. But a pathologist said the small amount of a drug prescribed to help her cope with the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal had nothing to do with her death.

Instead, a resumption of heavy drinking killed the singer, best-known for her tall beehive hairdos and Grammy-winning album "Back to Black." A security guard found Winehouse dead in bed at her London home on July 23.

"She's made tremendous efforts over the years," said Dr. Christina Romete, who had treated Winehouse. But "she had her own way and was very determined to do everything her way."

Winehouse gave up illicit drugs in 2008, but had swerved between heavy alcohol use and abstinence for a long time, Romete said. The singer had resumed drinking in the days before her death after staying away from alcohol for most of July, she said.

Romete said she warned Winehouse of the dangers of alcoholism. "The advice I had given to Amy over a long period of time was verbal and in written form about all the effects alcohol can have on the system, including respiratory depression and death, heart problems, fertility problems and liver problems," she said.

Winehouse joins a long list of celebrities who died after fighting alcohol problems, including jazz great Billie Holiday, AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, film legend Richard Burton, writers Dylan Thomas and Jack Kerouac, and country music pioneer Hank Williams.

Witnesses testifying Wednesday said the singer showed no signs she wanted to kill herself and had spoken of her weekend plans as well as her upcoming birthday just hours before she was found dead.

"She was looking forward to the future," Romete said, describing Winehouse as "tipsy" but calm when they met the night before her death. That night, her live-in security guard said he heard her laughing, watching television and listening to music at home.

The guard, Andrew Morris, said he knew she had resumed drinking, but did not notice anything unusual until he found that she had stopped breathing in bed the next afternoon.

Police Detective Inspector Les Newman said three empty vodka bottles ? two large and one small ? were found in her bedroom.

Pathologist Suhail Baithun said blood and urine samples indicated Winehouse had consumed a "very large quantity of alcohol" prior to her death. The level of alcohol in her blood was 416 milligrams per 100 milliliters, he said ? a blood alcohol level of 0.4 percent. The British and U.S. legal drunk-driving limit is 0.08 percent.

The singer's parents attended the hearing, but did not speak to reporters. In a statement, Winehouse family spokesman Chris Goodman said it was a relief to the family "to finally find out what happened to Amy."

"The court heard that Amy was battling hard to conquer her problems with alcohol and it is a source of great pain to us that she could not win in time," he said.

Doctors say acute alcohol poisoning is usually the result of binge drinking ? the human body can only process about one unit of alcohol, or about half a glass of wine, an hour. Having too much alcohol in the body can cause severe dehydration, hypothermia, seizures, breathing problems and a heart attack, among other difficulties.

There is no minimum dose for acute alcohol poisoning and the condition varies depending on a person's age, sex, weight, how fast the alcohol is drunk and other factors such as drug use.

In recent years, the 5-foot-3-inch Winehouse had appeared extremely thin and fragile.

Dr. Joseph Feldman, chief of emergency services at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey said Winehouse likely developed a tolerance for large quantities of alcohol after drinking heavily for years. He also said the sedative Winehouse was on, Librium, wouldn't have stopped someone from having seizures if they were in alcohol withdrawal.

"It's easier to withdraw from heroin than it is from alcohol ... Withdrawal (from alcohol) can cause anxiety, tremors, hallucinations, the sensation of things crawling all over you," he said.

He said those symptoms sometimes push people back to alcohol.

"It's possible she could have been saved if she had been found (or treated) earlier," he said. "A lot of treatment is supportive care, like IV fluids and making sure they don't inhale their own vomit."

Winehouse's breakthrough "Back to Black" album, released in 2006, was recently certified as the best-selling disc in Britain so far during the 21st century. The updated take on old-time soul also earned five Grammy Awards.

Although the singer was adored by fans worldwide for her unique voice and style, praise for her singing was often eclipsed by lurid headlines about her destructive relationships and erratic behavior. Winehouse herself turned to her tumultuous life and personal demons for music material, resulting in such songs as "Rehab."

In June, Winehouse abruptly canceled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognizable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. She was booed and jeered off stage and had to return to Britain to recover.

Her last public appearance came three days before her death, when she briefly joined her goddaughter, singer Dionne Bromfield, on stage at The Roundhouse in Camden, near her home.

___

Associated Press Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-26-EU-Britain-Amy-Winehouse/id-3b1fd880c39f46c99fb9874edb9cb102

nascar footloose best iphone 4 case best iphone 4 case sonic youth sonic youth make your mark

Olympus chairman stepping down amid scrutiny (AP)

TOKYO ? Olympus Corp. said Wednesday that Chairman and President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa is stepping down amid widening scrutiny into acquisitions after the company's British ex-CEO alleged financial wrongdoing.

The Japanese camera and medical device maker said the move was to take responsibility for the troubles caused to customers, business partners and investors over recent media reports that have sent Olympus stock plunging.

Olympus shares, which have lost half their value in the last two weeks, fell 7.6 percent Wednesday.

The drop followed Kikukawa's firing of Chief Executive Michael Woodford after he questioned a $687 million payment to financial advisers as part of Olympus' purchase of the U.K.'s Gyrus Group Plc. as too high.

The payment represented more than a third of the $2 billion purchase. Fees for advisers are normally 1 to 2 percent of the deal value.

Shuichi Takayama, who was tapped president, apologized for the latest woes, including the sliding stock price, and promised to do his utmost to investigate what had happened.

"We will work day by day with sincerity and with all our hearts to resolve the problem, regain social trust and allay the worries of our customers, business partners and investors as soon as possible," he said in a statement.

Last week, the company said it would establish an independent task force to review past acquisitions, seeking to ease mounting shareholder pressure.

Kikukawa was a no-show at a hastily called news conference at a Tokyo hotel, baffling reporters who had expected him to address Woodford's allegations. Typically, when a corporate leadership change takes place in Japan, the outgoing executive meets the press to introduce his successor.

Instead, the company released a seven-sentence statement from Kikukawa that was read out loud.

"The past acquisitions that have been reported in the media were made after proper assessment and procedures," Kikukawa said. "There was absolutely no wrongdoing, but we are setting up an independent committee and are preparing once again for an impartial investigation."

Takayama then appeared alone and evaded the bulk of intense questioning from journalists. He confirmed the independent task force would be established "as soon as possible" but did not give a specific time frame. He defended the advisory payments as "proper," but declined to go into any details, deferring to the task force.

He expressed confidence that Olympus shares would bounce back.

"It's not as if the value of our business has been damaged," he said. "Our operations have been progressing smoothly."

He said Woodford had been dismissed because of his unilateral decision-making and intimidating managerial style. The Briton also spent much of his time outside of Japan, Takayama said.

The clash between Kikukawa and Woodford, a Briton and one of a handful of foreigners to ever head a major Japanese company, was widely viewed here as raising questions about whether old-style Japanese management was up-to-date on global standards.

Woodford had also questioned the lofty prices Olympus paid for three other money-losing Japanese companies that appear to have little strategic value.

He commissioned Pricewaterhouse Coopers to analyze the deals and distributed the results to the board of directors.

The findings compelled Woodford to call for Olympus executives to resign.

"In putting the company first, the honourable way forward would be for you and Mori-san to face the consequences of what has taken place, which is a shameful saga by any stretch of the imagination," he said in an Oct. 11 letter to Kikukawa, referring to Hisashi Mori, a group president at Olympus.

"It is clear that the current situation is now untenable and to move forward positively the necessary course of action is for you both to tender your resignations from the Board."

___

Associated Press writers Bob Barr in London, Malcolm Foster and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_olympus

ohio john beck john beck mariska hargitay gmcr ohio news caracal