Monday, December 31, 2012

Senators trade proposals into night to avoid ?fiscal cliff? (Washington Post)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273837626?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Neighborhood briefs: Paul Quinn College in Dallas selects fundraising director

Halima N. Leak will be the inaugural executive director for Paul Quinn College?s Center for Fundraising and Philanthropy, scheduled to open in January.

Leak will be formally introduced to the public at Paul Quinn?s Media and Community Appreciation Day on Feb. 25.

Leak has nearly 15 years of experience as both a fundraiser and an educator. She?ll direct a center that will house an innovative academic program.

?When we began our national search, Halima?s name immediately grabbed our attention. To land her out of the gate is a true blessing,? said Michael J. Sorrell, Paul Quinn president.

The center?s programming will be aimed at encouraging the development of a deeper understanding of fundraising and philanthropy through teaching, training and research via professional development opportunities and by facilitating the exchange of resources and ideas related to fundraising and philanthropy.

Staff report

DUNCANVILLE

New uses for city?s field house proposed

In an effort to explore new opportunities for the revitalization of the Duncanville Fieldhouse, the Duncanville City Council has partnered with Northwood University in Cedar Hill for students to develop potential plans to generate profit from the city?s athletic facility on Main Street.

The students presented recommendations to the council about the facility that could attract new business. Some ideas included transforming it into a dance hall, small business incubator facility, apartments and condos or a convention center.

The council plans to share the students? recommendations with the Fieldhouse Task Force, a group of volunteers recently formed to research and present findings and recommendations.

Staff report

OAK CLIFF

Nonprofit group wins awards for film

Caring for the World Films, an Oak Cliff-based nonprofit, has won several awards for its film Hearts in the Himalayas, directed by Oak Cliff resident Debi Lang.

The film won the Award of Merit in the Women Filmmaker category from the Best Shorts Competition. The award was given for Lang?s humanitarian documentary that profiles the work of Himalayan HealthCare, an organization that provides medical care, education and income-generation opportunities to the people of rural Nepal.

The film integrates footage shot during a Mount Everest-size expedition fraught with challenges.

?It is a win not only for me and my team, but also the HHC volunteers and the people of Nepal,? Lang said.

In addition, Media Global News, the media arm of the United Nations, has made the movie its featured documentary on its website, media global.org.

Hearts in the Himalayas also won four Omni Awards for the 2012 season.

Staff report

Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20121229-neighborhood-briefs-paul-quinn-college-in-dallas-selects-fundraising-director.ece

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Celebrity New Year?s Resolutions Revealed!

Celebrity New Year’s resolutions are always a hot item for readers. What could the people who spend so much time covered in glitz and glamor be concerned with at the end of each year? Could they possibly believe they aren’t perfect? Well, yes. Many sites run lists of what celebrities plan to focus on in the new year, but I’ve decided to break down only a few of the most notable. As we wind down 2012, it’s obvious that it was a crazy one. There have been huge tragedies, huge triumphs, and above all, huge surprises. I’m guessing for celebrities it’s hard to relate to the regular problems that many of us face, but you might be surprised. Some of these will cause eye rolling, some are a little inspiring, but none of them are totally ground breaking. These are just kind of safe. Which one is your favorite? Here are some of the best (via Huffpo): Ashton Kutcher plans to more kind and sympathetic. Lea Michele plans to take on more challenges. James Van Der Beek wants to be less judgemental. Christina Hendricks wants to give to others. Blake Shelton wants to help His ‘The Voice’ Mentees Succeed. Kim [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/ohcg-1hPK1I/

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S3 Mini "out" in Apple patent suit against Samsung

Name: Lawrence B. Ebert

I'm a patent lawyer located in central New Jersey. I have a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, where I studied graphite intercalation compounds at the Center for Materials Research. I worked at Exxon Corporate Research in areas ranging from engine deposits through coal and petroleum to fullerenes. An article that I wrote in The Trademark Reporter, 1994, 84, 379-407 on color trademarks was cited by Supreme Court in Qualitex v. Jacobson, 514 US 159 (1995) and the methodology was adopted in the Capri case in N.D. Ill. An article that I wrote on DNA profiling was cited by the Colorado Supreme Court (Shreck case) and a Florida appellate court (Brim case). I was interviewed by NHK-TV about the Jan-Hendrik Schon affair. I am developing ipABC, an entity that combines rigorous IP analytics with study of business models, to optimize utilization of intellectual property. I can be reached at C8AsF5 at yahoo.com.

Source: http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2012/12/s3-mini-out-in-apple-patent-suit.html

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Blood spattered on the bricks where Syria bomb falls

AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) - Standing in the wreckage of his home, destroyed in an air strike two hours before, Abu Badri surveyed the damage as relatives scoured the rubble for any valuables they could retrieve.

"We'll have to find a tent to stay in near the border with Turkey. What else can we do?" said the 38-year-old man, walking on a pile of broken concrete under a collapsed roof.

Abu Badri's was one of a cluster of at least six houses destroyed by two bombs dropped on Saturday on Azaz, a rebel-controlled town in northern Syria just beginning to recover from an earlier bombardment by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Eleven people were killed in the bombings, according to local activist Abu Zaid, who said he had seen their fresh graves dug in the cemetery nearby - another 11 names to add to the 45,000 reported killed in the 21-month uprising against Assad.

"The number of casualties is unclear - they took some wounded people to Turkey," said a local medic who declined to be named. "We removed four dead children."

Blood was spattered on the bricks that littered the area around the bomb site. A child's teddy bear lay in the wreckage and nearby cars were marked by shrapnel and bullet holes.

A bulldozer cleared the heavy rubble while young boys dug through the debris with their hands, hoping to find people still alive amid the broken bed frames and crushed furniture.

"The bomb fell on top of us," said Abu Badri, wearing a black bomber jacket zipped up against the winter cold. The front door of his home had disappeared and relatives were carrying out a closet door, drinking glasses, a fridge and an oven. He said four children and an elderly man were among the dead.

Neighbors pulled mattresses, carpets and clothes from their homes and packed household items on trucks to take them from their destroyed homes to the next place of refuge.

"This is a residential area," said Ahmed, 30, whose uncle's house was hit in the strike.

"There are civilians - no Free Syria Army," he said, referring to rebel fighters Assad whom has vowed to crush but who now hold large swathes of rural territory across northern Syria, their control curbed only by the president's air power.

"We were sitting inside then suddenly everyone flew all over the place," said a man whose sister's house was hit. "God destroy (Assad) and his home." (Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blood-spattered-bricks-where-syria-bomb-falls-183858868.html

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NEED POWERFUL over counter sinus med - Health, Fitness, and ...

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Post new topic???Reply to topic ???Wrong Planet Autism Forum Index -> Health, Fitness, and Sports ????
nick007
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Location: was Louisiana but moved in with my girlfreind in Vermont


PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 2:21 am?? ?Post subject: NEED POWERFUL over counter sinus med Reply with quote

I've had sinus & allergy problems all my life; my doc 1ce told me sinus problems are common in this part of Louisiana. I've moved to Vermont a couple months ago & my sinus problems got a lot better there. I came back down to spend the holidays with my family & my sinus problems are coming back with a vengeance; I think I must of built up some kind of tolerance & I lost that by being gone for a while. My sinuses have gradually been getting worse sense I've been back. My nose is running aLOT, I'm sneezing some, my eyes are getting watery & itchy at times, I had a sinus headache for a bit yesterday with sinus pressure, I also started occasionally coughing, spitting up a little stuff & feeling a little itchy. I started taking Allegra. It helps some but the improvement only last for like 8 hours instead of lasting for 24 like it's supposed to & the amount of improvement for those 8 hours isn't huge. My doc gave me some samples of Zyrtec a few months ago when I was seeing him for something else & Zyrtec didn't help me a lot either. I've been on various other over the counter & also prescription sinus & allergy meds in the past. I don't remember getting a lot of improvement from any 2nd generation antihistamines; I don't think they are powerful enough for me. Benadryl makes me a little hyper & I don't think I get a great improvement with that either. The only meds I know that have helped me a lot were oral prescription steroid things. I'll be heading back to Vermont in another week so I think I should try another med to hold me over till then. Could anyone suggest something that isn't a 2nd generation antihistamine; perhaps a 1st gen one or an oral steroid(if there's anything like that available without a prescription) or something else Question
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:01 am?? ?Post subject: Reply with quote

If you don't mind putting down your driver's license, you can get straight pseudoephedrine (or combined with loratadine/alegra) from the pharmacist, w/o a prescription; that will dry out your sinuses, but not help with the itchiness.

If you don't mind seeing a doc, try to get a referral to a rheumatologist; they might be able to get you something stronger/more focused on what your body is doing.

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Texas 31, Oregon State 27

Oregon State has completed one of the country's biggest turnarounds, while Texas is trying to salvage a season considered a disappointment by its lofty standards.

Both the 15th-ranked Beavers and the Longhorns have dealt with uncertain quarterback situations leading up to Saturday's Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.

Oregon State (9-3) won six more games than it did last season, tying the largest improvement in the FBS. As a result, the Beavers are heading to their first bowl game since 2009, when they lost to BYU in the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas.

Their three victories in 2011 were the fewest under coach Mike Riley since they won three in 1997 - the first season of Riley's initial tenure at the school.

"It was really just a combination of two very simple things, but not easy to accomplish obviously," said Riley, who owns a 5-1 record in bowl games. "The fact that we had some good, young, talented players, and they had a very good offseason. They stayed together, worked out together, had great intentions. So just development and hard work put together I think were the key elements in getting better."

The Beavers' quarterback situation was in flux all season due to injuries. Sean Mannion led the team to a 4-0 start before the sophomore suffered a knee injury that required surgery, paving the way for junior Cody Vaz to take over before he succumbed to a high ankle sprain.

Mannion regained the starting job - and struggled with four interceptions in a 48-24 loss to Oregon - but still started in the team's finale, a 77-3 blowout of Nicholls State.

Mannion went 20 of 23 for 231 yards and two touchdowns, but Vaz, who completed 14 of 17 passes for 190 yards and three TDs, also saw extensive action.

The duo helped the Beavers rank 15th nationally with 316.5 passing yards per game, and Riley named Vaz as his starter on Dec. 22 just prior to the team traveling to San Antonio.

Texas has gone 8-4 - a success for most - but a third consecutive season without a BCS bowl appearance had some questioning coach Mack Brown's job security. University president Bill Powers wrote in his blog Dec. 6 that Brown has his "full support," and will remain as coach.

The Longhorns are 9-4 in bowl games under Brown, but are 21-16 overall since losing the 2010 BCS championship game to Alabama.

"I'm fortunate to be at a place where the standards are very high and we're going to fight to make sure we get back to those standards," Brown said.

"If you ask me if I'm happy with three years of non-BCS games, I would say no. That's for me, much less everybody else."

David Ash started Texas' first 11 games under center but was benched in favor of Case McCoy during the team's Thanksgiving loss to TCU.

McCoy won't see the field Saturday, however, after he and injured linebacker Jordan Hicks were sent home for violating team rules. The players broke curfew and KENS-TV reports that police were investigating two unidentified Texas players in an alleged sexual assault at a San Antonio hotel.

Even before the suspensions were announced, Brown had decided to will go back to Ash, who has completed 67.7 percent of his passes with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

"You look at some of the things David did this year and I think he's still in the top 10 in passing efficiency," Brown said. "When he started poorly, he had more trouble than when he started right but he had some great games and we need to build on those."

The sophomore faces a difficult challenge.

Oregon State intercepted 19 passes this year, tied for sixth-most in the country, and the Beavers' 30 forced turnovers are tied for 12th. Seven of the Longhorns' 15 turnovers this season came in their last two games, including five interceptions.

Texas' defense struggled through the first seven games, allowing 35.0 points per game and 472.1 yards, but improved late, trimming those numbers to 21.6 and 328.4 in the final five contests.

The Longhorns' secondary will be tasked with slowing down Markus Wheaton, who ranks 11th nationally with 100.6 receiving yards per game.

Wheaton caught 12 passes against Nicholls State, bringing his career total to 224 and surpassing James Rodgers' school record of 222, set last year.

"I looked up to James when I got here - he was amazing," Wheaton said. "I knew he was as good as they get - his work ethic, his dedication, and I really wanted to be just like him as far as what he did on the field. And breaking the record I feel like I have worked, all of the hard work paid off."

This will be the third meeting in this series, with Texas winning the previous two. The most recent was Texas' 61-16 rout in Austin in 1987.

To stay perfect against Oregon State, the Longhorns will have to win without one of their co-offensive coordinators. Bryan Harsin has been named coach at Arkansas State, leaving Major Applewhite to handle the play calling.

Texas also announced that wide receivers coach Darrell Wyatt will be promoted to co-offensive coordinator.

The Longhorns won their only previous appearance in the Alamo Bowl, defeating Iowa 26-24 in 2006.

? 2012 STATS LLC STATS, Inc

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/gameflash/2012/12/29/52380/?xid=si_topstories

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Sunday, December 30, 2012

2 Texas players suspended after sex assault report

SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? Texas suspended two players Friday and sent them home on the eve of the Alamo Bowl, hours after police said they were investigating a report of a sexual assault at a San Antonio hotel.

Coach Mack Brown did not identify the players, but he referred to a KENS-TV report (http://tinyurl.com/cw8dcj3) that police were investigating two unidentified Texas players in the alleged assault.

"This has been reported: We had a couple young men that broke team rules last night. They have been suspended from the team and they will be sent home," Brown said at a previously scheduled news conference. "They will not be available for the game and I will not address any more questions in that matter."

Sgt. Javier Salazar, a San Antonio police spokesman, said only that detectives are in the early stages of investigating a case of alleged sexual assault in the downtown area. Investigators are interviewing witnesses and collecting forensic evidence, he said.

"It's a very meticulous process," Salazar said. "As far as these investigations go, it's very early."

A heavily-redacted police report says a 21-year-old woman told police she believed she was assaulted around 2 a.m. Friday after inviting two men to her hotel room. The report shows only that the men are students and that one is 21 and the other is 20. The woman told police that she had had several drinks when she invited the men to her hotel.

Police said they observed bruises on the woman's right knee and left bicep.

After talking to police, the woman was taken to a San Antonio hospital, where she was seen by a sexual assault nurse examiner, according to the report. The two suspects also were taken to the hospital and examined by the nurse, the report says.

Ben Turner, acting general manager at the Holiday Inn on San Antonio's Riverwalk, said police were summoned to the hotel between 2 and 3 a.m. Friday to investigate an alleged sexual assault. He said hotel staff was cooperating with police.

Athletic department spokesman John Bianco said he could not say more than Brown's comment at the news conference.

Texas (8-4) plays Oregon State (9-3) in Saturday's game at the Alamodome. The Longhorns' walk-through at the stadium Friday afternoon was closed to the media.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-texas-players-suspended-sex-assault-report-212931308--spt.html

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Nevada gun policy blamed for guns moving to California

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Source: http://www.rgj.com/article/20121229/NEWS/312290046

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11 Types of Marketing Emails You Could Be Sending [+ Free ...

11 Types of Marketing Emails You Could Be Sending [+ Free Templates!]

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The internet is swarming with tips, tricks, and suggestions about how to design beautiful emails. We see great examples in our inboxes, or even showcased in blog posts. And while a lot of marketers seem to understand the basics -- personalize the copy, make the call-to-action pop, segment your list, etc. -- many still overlook an important component of effective email marketing: emails also need to have visual appeal, or they risk getting ignored by recipients altogether.

Oftentimes, marketers do give a lot of thought to email design when it comes time to launch a campaign. It makes perfect sense: You have an awesome new announcement or event, and you want to kick off the campaign right with a darn good looking email.

But what about the follow-up email? Or any email that may be included in an automated email workflow? It's time to stop focusing on the design of just your biggest sends, and spend some time spiffing up all those other emails you're sending, which you probably don't give a second thought to.

If this sounds like a great deal of work to you, don't panic. We've already built seven sets of five different email templates for you to download for free, so you can get designing in no time! Once you download your free templates, you'll be able to create many of the following 11 different types of marketing emails with the greatest of ease -- and design proficiency! So grab your templates, and check out the following types of emails you could be designing and sending to spice up your email marketing program!

1) Emails About Your New Marketing Offers

This is one you probably already know and love. You know, the one where you announce your next sale, ebook, webinar, coupon, free trial ... and the list goes on. This email is used to describe and promote a particular marketing offer -- one single offer -- with a call-to-action that links to a targeted landing page made for that specific offer. For this email, that targeted landing page is key. After all, emailing someone about a 25% off coupon and sending them to your homepage where they have to hunt down their coupon will only result in huge bounce rates -- not to mention significantly reduced conversion rates.

When it comes to designing an email for a specific offer, the main component? to keep in mind is the offer itself. You want the copy to be brief but descriptive enough to convey the offer's value. Consider making use of formatting techniques such as bulleted lists, which can help you clearly describe the offer while avoiding long sentences that can turn off the reader. In addition, make sure your email's call-to-action (CTA) link is large, clear, and uses actionable language. You can also include a large CTA image/button underneath to make the action you want email readers to take crystal clear. Our free templates each come equipped with a designed email template for marketing offers (as shown below), so feel free to make use of those as well!

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marketing offer

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2) Form Submission Kickback (Thank-You) Emails

Whenever a prospect, lead, or customer fills out a form on one of your landing pages, a kickback email should automatically get triggered after their submission. Depending on the form, these kickback emails are often referred to as thank-you emails. These emails are mainly for the sake of fulfilling your promise to the user, and storing the information you promised them safely in their inbox. How frustrating would it be if you downloaded an ebook, and then forgot where you stored the link to the PDF? Kickback emails solve that problem.

These automatic emails should make the CTA big and clear. Keep in mind that the CTA should link to the direct offer -- NOT to the form! In these emails, simply thank the reader for their form submission, and give them what you promised, whether it be a link to the PDF of an ebook, instructions on how to activate their free trial, or the coupon they requested. Furthermore, don't overcomplicate the appearance of these emails. The reader isn't looking for additional information, but rather the offer or content they already know they redeemed.

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form submission email

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3) Product Information Emails

Product emails are tricky. People generally don't want to receive these often, and they're often not as fun or engaging to as, say, an offer email. In fact, product emails may be the most important emails in which you should focus on simplifying and not over designing. Many companies choose to send weekly or monthly product digests to keep their customers or fan base up-to-date with the latest features and functionalities. And no matter how much a customer loves your business, it's still work for them to learn how to use new features or learn why a new product is worth their investment.

Rather than inundating your contacts with a slew of emails about each individual product update, consider sending a sort of roundup of new updates or products periodically. For each product update you list, include a large, clear headline (sort of like how this blog post is set up) with brief descriptions underneath. Use an image that showcases the product or feature. It's also worth linking to a custom web page for each feature, so if a particular product or feature piques a reader's interest, he/she can click through to learn more about it.

4) Digital Magazines or Newsletters

Do you maintain a business blog for your company (hint: you should!)? Are you a magazine or media outlet? No matter which of these categories you fall into, many companies choose to send a roundup of stories or articles published weekly or monthly. And if you truly want people to read these email roundups, it's critical that you share them in a visually appealing way.

As showcased in the cropped screenshot below, within these roundup emails, it's a good idea to use an image paired with a headline, a brief summary or introduction, and a CTA for recipients to read more. This simple format will allow you to use visuals to attract the reader to each article while still giving you the ability to feature multiple articles -- without sending a super lengthy email. The screenshot below is a digital magazine/newsletter template available in our free email templates download.

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newsletter email

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5) Co-marketing Emails

Co-marketing is when two or more complementary companies partner together for some mutually beneficial task, event, or other promotion. The main draw of co-marketing is to leverage the audience of another company to increase your reach. Sometimes the relationship results in a strategic announcement; other times it's as simple as a joint webinar. Let's use the latter for an example of how co-marketing emails work, and why they're so beneficial. Let's say you and another company decide to do a webinar together on a particular subject. As a result, that webinar will likely (pending your arrangements) be promoted to the email lists of both of your companies. This exposure to a list that is not your own is one of the key benefits of co-marketing partnerships!

When it comes to the email your business sends, make it clear that this offer or event is the result of a partnership with company X -- especially if your co-marketing partner is particularly popular or impressive. To do this, you can adjust the company logo in your email to also include the other business' logo. Furthermore, make sure your copy mentions both businesses, and create a custom graphic or image to visualize the offer or event. By drafting and designing an email you'd love to send to your list, you can then share your design with your co-marketing partner, inspiring their own email copy and design! This will give you the assurance that both businesses are sending a visually appealing, effective email that will help boost both your conversion rate and brand awareness.

6) Internal Updates

Don't neglect a very important audience for your company: your employees! Many companies, especially if they're on the larger side, choose to send internal updates or newsletters to their employees to keep them in the know about the latest company information, whether it be new product updates, marketing offers, or events. Here at HubSpot, for example, I personally send a weekly email with all the new marketing offers for the upcoming week so the entire business is on the same page about what Marketing is promoting at any given moment. With these emails, it's less about the beauty, and more about the clarity. And like all marketing content, make sure you know your audience. For instance, with my weekly marketing updates, I know that HubSpotters will want to know which of our buyer personas each offer is relevant for, how they can share it socially, and what each offer's key talking points are so our sales reps are able to talk about each offer with their prospects, without having to read it cover-to-cover.

The most important formatting tip for these types of emails is to arrange the information in a simple and helpful way. The images you include within this email shouldn't aim to attract employees to read, but rather to help our sales reps and consultants identify each offer. Once you've nailed your formatting, it's simply a matter of highlighting the most critical information associated with each offer so its messaging is crystal clear to everyone.

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internal email update

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7) Lead Nurturing Emails

Lead nurturing emails consist of a tightly connected series of emails containing useful, targeted content. As their name suggests, these emails are used to nurture leads through the marketing funnel into a position of sales readiness. For example, let's say you sent your list a marketing offer email. You might then set up a lead nurturing workflow that triggers another email about a complementary offer or piece of content to everyone who converted on that initial offer. The logic is simple: By identifying a particular group of your contacts that you already know are interested in a specific topic, you and can follow up with more relevant and targeted content that makes them more likely to continue their relationship with you.

In your lead nurturing emails, it's important to call out why recipients are receiving the email. For example, you could say something like, "We noticed you're into [topic x] since you downloaded our [Topic X] ebook, and we thought you might want to learn more about [topic x] ..." Once you've addressed why recipients are getting email from you, you can format your lead nurturing emails similar to the way you'd set up your general marketing offer emails. Other very important considerations to make when crafting your lead nurturing campaigns are the planning, setup, segmentation, and timing of your nurturing emails, which you can read more about in this ebook. In addition, make sure your lead nurturing emails are as equally appealing to contacts as the initial marketing offer email that converted them, and carefully select the offers and content you feature within them. Your lead nurturing emails should maintain the same quality and credibility its recipients were used to from the beginning of their relationship with you.

8) Dedicated Sends

Every now and then, you may want to send a dedicated email to a certain group of people. For example, if you're hosting a conference or event, you might want to send a dedicated email just to event registrants to alert them of any new event updates they should be aware of. Or if your business is community based, it might be a good idea to send a monthly welcome email to all your new members.

We do something similar at HubSpot. When people choose to opt in to our blog's email subscriber list through one of our landing page forms, we want to welcome these new subscribers to our email list and let them know exactly what they've signed up for before sending blog post notifications to their inbox. In this case, our blog manager sends a dedicated email to everyone who has opted in during the past month to welcome them to our blog. These emails also offer a great opportunity to include CTAs for an additional marketing offer (in the below example, a free inbound marketing assessment from one of our specialists) that can help nurture these new prospects further down your marketing funnel.

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dedicated send

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9) Email Confirmations

How frustrating is it to book a flight or register for an event and not receive an automatic confirmation email? I know that personally, every time I make an online transaction, I wait impatiently to see that my transaction was complete. After all, nobody wants to worry that they're first payment wasn't processed, only to click the payment button again and get charged twice.

What bothers me most about so many businesses' confirmation emails are two things: when the subject lines are vague, and when the information I actually want to confirm isn't immediately evident when I open the email. Confirmation emails should be just that -- confirmation emails. I shouldn't have to scroll through forever or get bombarded a ton of other bells and whistles.?This is one email in which recipients really don't care much about appearance. They simply want to know that the action they took was completed so they can save the information, have peace of mind, and move on. Keep these emails short and simple, with just a brief summary of the information your recipients would want you to confirm.

10) Event Invitations

Email can be a great promotional vehicle for promoting an upcoming event you're hosting. But if you want to invite your contacts to an event and motivate them to register, it's extremely important to clearly showcase why that event is worth their attendance. A great way to do so is through visuals. A lot of events cost money to attend, and most cost a pretty penny. So if you want to attract registrants, cut down on the copy and show potential registrants why the event will be awesome.

For example, when we were promoting our INBOUND 2012 conference, HubSpot sent a very visual follow-up email with images focused solely on the conference's draw of its 'INBOUND ROCKS' concert featuring Cyndi Lauper. As you can see below, the email was image heavy and slim on text. The pictures did all the talking.

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email invite inbound cyndi lauper

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11) Social Media Sends

Wait ... what does social media have to do with email? Well, if you're making good use of LinkedIn Groups or Google+ Events, email has everything to do with social media! As the administrator of LinkedIn Group, when you send a LinkedIn Announcement, you're directly reaching a LinkedIn user's inbox. And when you create a Google+ event, sending the invite directly sends you into users' email boxes as well. Without ever creating lists or collecting email addresses, you automatically have access to users' email, but be sure to tap into these resources with care.

When it comes to these social media emails, you don't have the option of using an email software that allows you to customize the layout or add images. You're at the mercy of copy alone. This is where leveraging white space is very important. Keep your paragraphs short, your sentences brief, and your thoughts clear. Keep in mind that you have to relay the same amount of information an email with a visual can convey -- without the visual! Optimize these emails for the scanning reader, and use bullets or numbers to deliver your main points. And for heaven's sake, be sure to change your LinkedIn Announcement's subject line to avoid the generic "Announcement from Inbound Marketers - For Marketing Professionals," or whatever your group is named.

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Linkedin groups email

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At the end of the day, your emails should not only be visually appealing, but they should also be valuable. Focus on sharing the key information in the most appropriate format depending on the type of email you're sending -- and the audience you're sending it to. After all, what's the use of a crazy-beautiful email if it doesn't provide any true value to the reader? Match your email format with the desired result, and good luck emailing!

Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33987/11-Types-of-Marketing-Emails-You-Could-Be-Sending-Free-Templates.aspx

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Instructions

2-part (for those without a large print bed like me)

1) Print - 2 shells 25% infill worked great for me in ABS.
2) Put a drop of acetone in a hole and Insert peg in one half - it should fit only one way - keyed
3) Put a drop of acetone in the other hold and on the faces where the parts joint.
4) Snap together and apply pressure until Acetone has done its job
5) remove headrest and install between the seat and the headrest

1-part
1) Print - 2 shells 25% infill should work - but untested since I don't have a large bed)
2) Remove headrest and install between the seat and the headrest

If you don't have a printer and would like one please feel free to contact me via Thingiverse and we can work something out.

Source: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing%3A39495

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Product Launch that Gives Results | The official AdsBehind blog!

There are a number of various ways for growing eczematreatmentsite.org with good results in a web business. Here is a great example of what we mean, you undoubtedly need to have solid information on your niche audience. Demographic research will provide you with in-depth information that can potentially produce excellent returns if used properly. Naturally you want your campaigns to work the best they can, and that is perhaps the primary benefit. As you know, the people for whom you write, your audience, have to be able to identify with them. So that is why you must do the work in terms of discovering what your market is all about. New products are launched on the Internet every single day. Some of these bomb while some make a huge impact. The initial product day launch is very special because it is one of the greatest day for This is the day when your product can gain massive leverage in the market and do thousands of dollars in online sales. In addition, the launch day is the day that you can make tons of money, if you know how to do it. Does that make you realize how important it is to have the right launch for your product? Below are some of the things that you should not forget when launching your product. Hype up the Launch: When you?re doing a product launch, the aim should be on selling the event to the people, instead of selling the product. In order to succeed with your product launch, you should focus on the actual date and make it stand out in people?s minds. If you have the capability of making your customers anxious about your product launch, then you will definitely create a huge buzz about this event. Selling the event will eventually help you sell more products because you have gotten so much attention. The product will have no problem selling itself when you make your focused market want it so much. It is that easy. We all get excited about events. So, why not utilize this to your advantage? Before the product is launched, your focus should be to make the customers want the product so much that they cannot wait to make a purchase. Understand Your Product?s USP: When looking to launch a product, you need to know how important it is to make it different from everything else on the market. Having a unique selling proposition is something that no Internet marketer can ignore; it doesn?t matter what niche your product is being launched in, as long as you understand the value of having a USP you?re good to go. Be sure to do your homework before hitting the launch button, and research and review to make sure you get it right. Failing to get your USP right can keep you from making a huge impact with your launch. We are confident many would like to take advantage of the full power of click here in their internet business; but you have to be careful and avoid proceeding with limited knowledge in your campaigns. Obviously there is tremendous variation among small web business owners when it comes to knowledge base about marketing techniques. One answer to this perpetual problem has been marketing forums because you can get acquainted with people who are doing the same things as you. We make every effort to cover as much as we can when we produce our articles, but just remember you will be receiving an incomplete set of guidelines. So much of what happens in online business is the result of someone deciding to test something out and it leads to something new. Update Your Joint Venture Partners: The most important thing about launching a successful online product is how well you stay in touch with your joint venture partners before your launch the product. If you want your joint venture partners to give you their approval, then you have to tell them what is going on with the product. Always keep them advised. Being trustworthy when it comes to your joint venture partners will make a large difference for when you launch your product. In addition, you should attempt to score more joint venture partners before launching the product. This is because the larger number of joint venture partners that you have, the more of an impact it will have. All products launched online can potentially be huge, especially if the pre-launch is planned out. You can get hundreds of sales from your product launch if you use the tips discussed above to build a strong foundation.

This entry was posted in Banner Advertising, Industry News, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engines, Viral Marketing and tagged blogging, business, internet marketing, online business by Ildefonso63. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.adsbehind.com/blog/industry-news/product-launch-that-gives-results/

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The WWE Universe is invited for a New Year's toast on Monday's Raw

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2012-12-31/aj-lee-and-dolph-ziggler-invite-the-wwe-universe-for-a-new-years-toast

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

How social media can benefit small businesses - Ecademy

The Guardian Small Business Hub's article How social media can benefit small businesses has four simple small business case studies about using social media for business.

They are simple case sudies because they are just broad outlines and because they don't really explain inputs or results (it is only a news article). However it has a neat summary which is a great starting point:

These are four businesses from different sectors, employing different strategies, however there are some basic rules that all businesses should follow if they want results...

? Be selective and focus on the platforms where potential customers are likely to be.

? Be social; don't just announce, engage.

? Be responsive. Establishing a presence on social media is an invitation for people to communicate with you. Ignore them and your efforts will be wasted.

? Be adaptable. Social media is evolving rapidly and businesses must constantly monitor and measure activity and responses and adapt their strategies accordingly.

"Business is all about relationships; be generous, be interested in other people, invest the time and effort, and it will pay off," "


Robert Craven -- UK's #1 Business Speaker (SpeakerMix)
The Directors' Centre - Ecademy Profile
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Read the new book, Grow Your Service Firm - download the sample chapters...

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Source: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=182845

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What happens to you if we go over the fiscal cliff

18 hrs.

Some lawmakers are back in Washington hoping to hammer out a last-minute deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, but so far it seems that there?s more name-calling than deal-making going on.

If no deal is ever reached, it will be more than just a political headache. Americans also could feel considerable pocketbook pain as taxes rise, unemployment benefits are cut off and an array of smaller changes take effect.

The cumulative effect on Americans? wallets could be enough to dent?significantly the already weak economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the combination of tax increases and spending cuts could be enough to send the nation back into recession.

That?s the worst-case scenario, and despite the considerable gridlock, most experts expect that Congress and the president will eventually come to some sort of deal. Experts also say that even if no deal is reached by Jan. 1, retroactive fixes and other dealmaking could prevent the most harmful effects from ever hitting most Americans.

Related: Consumers, businesses brace for fiscal cliff impact

Still, the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, says that nearly 90 percent of households?would be affected if we go over the fiscal cliff completely and no deal is reached.

A stalemate would have very specific effects on certain groups of taxpayers, such as students, parents and married couples who have benefited over the past decade?from certain tax law changes passed under the Bush and Obama administrations.

But the Tax Policy Center says that on average, taxes would go up for every income group, from the poorest taxpayers to the most wealthy:

  • Americans in the lowest 20 percent of the income scale could pay an average of about $400 more in taxes.
  • Middle-income households could pay about $2,000 more in taxes, on average.
  • The top 20 percent of taxpayers could pay about $14,000 more a year in taxes, on average.
  • The 1 percenters could pay an average of $120,000 more in taxes.

Here?s a look at some of the biggest issues likely to affect the largest groups of taxpayers if Congress cannot make a deal.

Tax rates will go up: If no deal is made, taxpayers can expect their tax rate to rise no matter what income group they fall in, said?Roberton Williams, senior fellow with the Tax Policy Institute. That?s because previously passed rate cuts would expire.

?Everyone who has taxable income will see a tax increase because of the rates,? Williams said.

Payroll taxes: For the past two years, the employee?s share of taxes paid for Social Security has been set at 4.2 percent instead of the previous level of 6.2 percent. That temporary tax cut would expire without a new deal, meaning almost everyone?s taxes would rise by 2 percentage points.

Translation: Your paycheck would be a little bit smaller.

?That?s the thing that people will see first,? Williams said.

Alternative Minimum Tax:? The Alternative Minimum Tax? was originally designed so that wealthy taxpayers would be forced to pay a minimum level of taxes no matter what. But because it was not created to account for inflation, over the years it has threatened to affect an ever-bigger group of people.

Congress has previously passed temporary ?patches? to keep lower-income households from having to pay more taxes. If no deal is reached this year, the latest patch would expire and the Internal Revenue Service says around 30 million additional taxpayers would become subject to the AMT.

Of course, every taxpayer?s individual circumstances are different. To see how your family?s tax rates could be affected, you can check out the Tax Policy Center?s individualized tax?calculator.

Taxes aren?t the only pocketbook problem Americans could face if a deal isn?t reached, because so much government spending is tied up in reaching a deal. But the most widespread effect would probably be on people who have been unemployed for a long time.

Unemployment benefits: About 2.1 million unemployed Americans are scheduled to lose federally funded unemployment compensation if Congress can?t reach a deal to extend the benefits plan by the end of the year. President Obama has said he?d like to see those benefits extended as part of a fiscal cliff deal.

The federally funded unemployment benefit extensions were introduced in 2008 while the country was in the depths of the recession. The extended benefits kick in after an unemployed person has exhausted his or her 26 weeks of state benefits. The exact amount of additional compensation depends on the unemployment rate in the person?s home state.

The unemployment rate has fallen sharply in recent months, but long-term unemployment remains a major?problem. About 4.8 million people, or 40 percent of the total number of people who were unemployed in November, had been jobless for 27 weeks or more.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/heres-what-happens-you-if-we-go-over-fiscal-cliff-1C7753059

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North Korea's caste system faces power of wealth

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? For more than a half-century, a mysterious caste system has shadowed the life of every North Korean. It can decide whether they will live in the gated compounds of the minuscule elite, or in mountain villages where farmers hack at rocky soil with handmade tools. It can help determine what hospital will take them if they fall sick, whether they go to college and, very often, whom they will marry.

It is called songbun. And officially, it does not exist at all.

The power of caste remains potent, exiles and scholars say, generations after it was permanently branded onto every family based on their supposed ideological purity. But today it is also quietly fraying, weakened by the growing importance of something that barely existed until recently in socialist North Korea: wealth.

Like almost all change in North Korea's deeply opaque society, where so much is hidden to outsiders, the shift is happening slowly and often silently. But in the contest for power within the closed world that Pyongyang has created, defectors, analysts and activists say money is now competing with the domination of political caste.

"There's one place where songbun doesn't matter, and that's in business," said a North Korean soldier-turned-businessman who fled to South Korea after a prison stint, and who now lives in a working-class apartment building on the fringes of Seoul. "Songbun means nothing to people who want to make money."

Songbun, a word that translates as "ingredient" but effectively means "background," first took shape in the 1950s and '60s. It was a time when North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, was forging one of the world's most repressive states and seeking ways to reward supporters and isolate potential enemies.

Historians say songbun was partially modeled on Soviet class divisions, and echoes a similar system that China abandoned in the 1980s amid the growth of the market economy there. In Korea, songbun turned a fiercely hierarchical society upside down, pushing peasants to the top of the caste ladder; aristocrats and landlords toward the bottom. The very top was reserved for those closest to Kim: his relatives and guerrillas who had fought with him against Korea's Japanese occupiers.

Very quickly, though, songbun became a professional hierarchy. The low caste became farmers and miners. The high caste filled the powerful bureaucracies. And children grew up and stepped into their parents' roles.

"If you were a peasant and you owned nothing, then all of a sudden you were at the top of the society," said Bob Collins, who wove together smuggled documents, interviews with former North Korean security officials and discussions with an array of ordinary North Koreans to write an exhaustive songbun study released this year by the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. While the songbun system theoretically allows for movement within the hierarchy, Collins said most families' standing today remains a reflection of their ancestors' position in the 1950s and '60s.

Generations after the system began, many of North Korea's most powerful people are officially identified as "peasants."

But starting in the mid-1990s and accelerating in recent years, songbun ? long the arbiter of North Korean life ? became one part of something far more complicated.

"Songbun cannot collapse. Because that would mean the collapse of the entire system," said Kim Hee Tae, head of the Seoul-based group Human Rights, which maintains a network of contacts in the North. "But people increasingly believe that money is more important than your background."

Despite its power, songbun is an almost-silent presence. Few people ever see their own songbun paperwork. Few low-caste families speak of it at all, exiles say, left mute by incomprehension and fear. It's only when young people stumble into glass ceilings, normally when applying to universities or for jobs, that they begin to understand the years of slights.

Eventually, most grow to understand and accept its power, but they rarely have more than a general idea of where they fit into the pecking order, experts said. In a country where secrecy is reflexive, the state simply denies it exists.

"This is all nonsense!" a North Korean government minder said, interrupting a visiting American journalist when he tried to ask a woman about her family's songbun. "People make up lies about my country!"

Certainly, few ordinary North Koreans understand the staggering and sometimes shifting complexities of songbun, which at its core divided the entire population into three main categories ? "core," ''wavering" and "hostile" classes ? and subdivided those into some four dozen subcategories.

North Koreans with songbun good enough for the top jobs will still likely get minimal salaries, but perks for the elite could include a good apartment in Pyongyang, regular electricity, access to quality medical clinics and easier admission to top schools for their children. In a culture where parents have immense influence over the choice of their children's spouses, high-songbun partners are prized.

But to be caught at the bottom, defectors say, is to be lost in a nightmare of bloodline and bureaucracy.

"My family was in the lowest of the lowest level," said a former North Korean coal miner who fled to South Korea in 2006, hoping to give his young sons opportunities outside the mines. "Someone from the state was always watching what we were saying, watching what we were doing ... The state treated us as if they were doing us a favor simply by allowing us to live."

The man, like other North Korean refugees interviewed for this story, spoke on condition he not be named, fearing that relatives still in the North would be punished.

When he was a boy he had hoped to be a doctor, or perhaps a government official. He was a top student, he says. But when colleges kept rejecting him, his father finally told him the truth: His father, it turned out, had been born in South Korea, served in its army and been taken prisoner during the Korean War. Like thousands of other southern POWs, he disappeared into the North's prison gulag, and then was forced into the coal mines.

With songbun like that, his choices were few. He would never become a government official. Getting into college, and perhaps eventually landing nonpolitical work, would have required impossibly large bribes. North Korea's growing network of small informal markets, a path out of desperate poverty for some, had yet to arrive in his village, deep in the countryside.

"I couldn't live my dreams because of my father," said the thin, ropy man, with the biceps of someone who spent 17 years swinging a pick deep underground.

But while North Korea is often portrayed as a Soviet throwback stranded in the 1950s, a reputation it earned with decades of isolation and single-family rule, strains of change do ripple beneath its Stalinist exterior. That has created a complex and uneasy relationship between songbun and wealth.

Most North Koreans have never met a foreigner, seen the Internet, or earned more than a couple hundred dollars a month ? but those in a growing economic elite now fly to Beijing and Singapore to shop. It's a country where human rights groups say well over 100,000 political prisoners are held in a series of isolated prison camps, but where an exclusive European firm, Kempinski, hopes to be running a hotel soon.

The market economy first took hold during the rule of Kim Jong Il, the son of the nation's founder, who ran the country from the 1990s until his death in late 2011, when his son then took control. In the mid-1990s, poor harvests and the end of Soviet assistance lead to widespread famine.

Official controls relaxed as hunger tore at the country.

Reluctantly, the government allowed the establishment of informal markets, with ordinary people setting up stalls to sell food, clothes or cheap consumer goods. Since then, the government has alternately allowed the markets to flourish and cracked down on them, leaving many people working in legally gray areas. At the same time, state-sanctioned trade has also blossomed, much of it mineral exports to China.

While many defectors and analysts say songbun remains a commanding presence in everyday life, a handful feel the growth of markets has reduced the caste system to little more than a bureaucratic shell. But to some extent, in a murky economy where nearly any major business deal requires under-the-table payments, most analysts believe it is the same songbun elite that profits in the business world. They are part of an informal club that gives them access to powerful contacts. If they need help finalizing a black market business deal, they have people to call.

"Who gets the bribes?" asked Collins, who believes the caste system remains deeply entrenched. "It's the guys at the upper levels of songbun."

This is also a time when songbun often has a price, even if no one bothers quoting it in North Korea's unstable currency, the won.

"It costs five to ten pheasants to get into a good university," said Kang Cheol Hwan, a prominent North Korean defector, using North Korean slang for 10,000-yen Japanese bills, which show two of the birds and are worth about $125 apiece. "The price goes up as the background goes down."

While amounts like that remain unimaginable for most in North Korea, where the per capita GDP is estimated at $1,800 per year, the small consumer class is growing ? and looking for ways to get ahead, no matter their songbun. While high-level government jobs remain restricted to those with excellent songbun, the low-caste also now have ways to get ahead. If they can afford it.

"Increasingly, there are ways to buy your way into jobs," said the former soldier and businessman, a short man with thick shoulders, huge hands and an expression frozen in a scowl.

Today, it's possible to make serious money in North Korea. There are Mercedes for the tiny population of truly rich, and Chinese-made sedans for the aspiring-to-be-rich. North Korean arrivistes can buy toddler-sized battery-powered cars for their children.

The ex-soldier lives in a tiny two-room apartment on the fifth floor of yet another Seoul high-rise, set amid a cluster of near-identical buildings, a concrete forest of middle-class anonymity. He doesn't want to talk about his songbun ? though it becomes clear it was closer to the bottom than the top ? but he says he eventually got a government job importing raw materials from China, then reselling them in North Korea.

"You can't get the jobs at the very top, but you can buy your way into the lower end of the top jobs," he said.

Before he was arrested and sent to prison for helping smuggle someone into China, he says he could make up to $5,000 a month ? a fortune for a man raised in a mining village in the rugged, poverty-savaged northeast.

But is this changing system, with the ever-increasing power of money, any fairer than one based purely on songbun? Certainly it is no gentler.

Getting rich in North Korea isn't easy, with the bribes, the thugs and the risk of getting handed over to the authorities.

The people who succeed are often like the former soldier, with his air of menace and his run-ins with the law. What he describes as the ideological brutality of his youth has given way to something else, a hard-to-define tangle where it's often impossible to separate songbun from corruption and the Darwinian brutality of the market economy.

More than five years after he moved to Seoul, in some ways he still lives with that brutality.

You can see it in the three locks he has on his front door. And you can hear it when you leave, and all three quickly click shut behind you.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-koreas-caste-system-faces-power-wealth-132110225.html

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Couple loses adoptive daughter after Russia signs ban

After a roller coaster week, Kendra Skaggs sat down to vent on her blog. She had used that space to document her 13 month journey of adopting a young girl named Polina from Russia. But now, with that dream just weeks away from fulfillment, she described her frustration, fear and anger as she watched it being snatched away.

"I have no control. I'm on the other side of the world and I can't hold and comfort my daughter as I wait to hear if we will forever be separated," she wrote in a passionate entry

Her writing seemed to speak for hundreds of American parents whose hopes of adopting a Russian orphan were dashed today when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a controversial ban on adoptions to the United States. The move is part of Russia's retaliation for a set of human rights sanctions passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama earlier this month. Critics, including the U.S. State Department, say the adoption ban is playing politics with the lives of children.

Russia is the third most popular country for Americans to adopt from, but in recent years the issue has become a political football in Russia. Americans have adopted over 60,000 Russian children since the fall of the Soviet Union, but Russian officials have seized on the cases of 19 children who died after being adopted by Americans.

In 2010, a 7-year-old adopted boy named Artyom was put on a plane back to Russia alone by his adoptive mother from Tennessee with little more than a note saying she did not want him anymore. The case touched off a wave of fury in Russia and adoptions to the United States were nearly halted.

The Many Adventures of Vladimir Putin

Just a week ago Kendra and her husband visited Polina at her orphanage outside Moscow. The bubbly 5-year-old suffers from spina bifida, a condition that has left her numb from the waist down and unable to walk. They showed Polina photos of her new bedroom and told her about her new family. They played together, hugged each other, and promised to see each other soon when they returned in January to bring her home to Arkansas.

The adoption ban legislation, meanwhile, had just been introduced by Russian lawmakers. Kendra had hoped their case, which was nearly completed, would sneak in under the wire. She held out hope again after a Moscow court approved her adoption on Monday. All that was needed was a 30 day waiting period before they could bring Polina home.

It appears even that was too late. The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, but Russian officials have said even cases of 52 children who are within weeks of traveling to the United States are now frozen. Authorities have pledged to find new homes for them in Russia.

For the Skaggs family, it is agonizing to be so close to bringing her home, yet so far. Kendra fears Polina will think she was abandoned again.

"It's the fear of what she is going to think, that we forgot her," she said in an interview with ABC News.

"She's out there and I can't take care of her," she said, crying softly. "I can't help her. I can't tell her I love her. So it's really hard."

She also worries what will happen to Polina in Russia, a country with scarce accommodations for the handicapped.

"Russia really isn't set up for people with disabilities. You can't get into the metro even to get around because it's just levels and levels of stairs that you have to go up and down and there's no handicapped access to the buildings," Kendra said.

Putin's Adoption Ban Breaks Kendra Skaggs' Heart

Hundreds of thousands of children languish in what are often described as Russia's under-resourced orphanages. Many of them, like Polina, have special needs, which is one of the reasons they may have been given up at birth. Often those children face an uncertain future once they leave the orphanage system when they turn 18.

Kendra described Polina as a fiercely independent, intelligent, and determined young girl.

"She's very loving, very kind. She loves to sing and dance to music and listen to the music," she said.

In a home video that Kendra and her husband took with their cell phones, a beaming Polina proudly counts to 10 in English. In another she waves hello to her new grandparents. An overjoyed look envelops her face as she realizes that she will soon have grandparents. In another she tells Kendra she loves her.

With no way of contacting Polina, Kendra said she wishes she could send her a simple message.

"I would tell her we love her and to be strong and that were going to do everything we can to come back and get her. Everything that's in our power. We want to bring her home with us and have her to be our daughter," she said.

"I'd give anything to go see her and just wrap her in my arms and tell her I love her and to bring her home," she said.

At the end of their last visit, Kendra, mindful of the pending legislation, broke down in tears as she said goodbye. This time it was Polina who comforted her.

"Don't cry mommy, be strong,'" she said.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mom-loses-russian-girl-weeks-adoption-150709061--abc-news-topstories.html

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Greece uncovers tourism scam, looks for unaccounted millions

ATHENS (Reuters) - Three Greeks were arrested on suspicion of trying to defraud the national tourism board, police said on Saturday, and the finance ministry is investigating a suspected 12-million-euro hole in the state agency's books.

Tourism is one of cash-strapped Greece's few remaining money-spinners and the EOT tourism board is in charge of funding several promotion campaigns and subsidy programs for the industry.

A police statement said a former EOT adviser colluded with at least two accomplices to cash in a forged cheque of 147,000 euros ($194,400) made out to a hotel on the Aegean island of Syros. The three, arrested earlier this week, were put in pre-trial detention after appearing before a prosecutor on Friday.

"They are charged with forming and participating in a criminal organization," the statement said.

The tourism ministry said it was investigating why an EOT chequebook was handled by the 39-year old adviser, who was not a career EOT official but rather an aide to the board's outgoing secretary general, who resigned last week.

Separately, the finance ministry appointed on Thursday a team to investigate what the EOT's new secretary general has called "accounting irregularities" of 12 million euros in the EOT's books.

Cronyism, political meddling and lack of accountability are central causes for the endemic corruption that has bedeviled Greece, leading to fiscal profligacy, financial crisis and an international bailout in 2010.

Greece ranked last among the 27 European Union countries in a global corruption index compiled by anti-graft group Transparency International earlier this year.

The country's governing coalition, which took power in June, has pledged to crack down on corruption, which infuriates citizens who have seen their wages cut and taxes increased as part of its 240-billion euro bailout.

(Reporting by Harry Papachristou; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/greece-uncovers-tourism-scam-looks-unaccounted-millions-092001270.html

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