When Going To An Eye Doctor | health and fitness article updates ...

Your eyes are very important for you need the sense of sight to be able to do most of your activities. That is why it is important for one to visit an eye doctor in San Antonio even though he has no problems with his vision. When visiting an ophthalmologist, patients should also prepare themselves.

One thing that you need to do when you want to seek an ophthalmologist in San Antonio is to look for a doctor that will examine you. This can be an easy task if you already have someone that you always go to. However, if this is not the case for you, you should do your homework before going to anyone's clinic.

Even if you will only go to the visit to for a San Antonio eye check up, preparation is still something that is necessary. This is because it can help make the examination or check up easier on your part. Doctors would appreciate it if their patients are prepared for this helps make the session faster and more productive.

Part of the preparation is to get all the necessary things ready before you will go to the clinic. To know what you should bring or do, contact the clinic and ask for the necessary instructions. If you are wearing an eyeglass or contact, you will be asked to bring this. It is also better if you can list your allergies and health history.

If you have health insurance, find out first if this will be accepted in the clinic where you will go to. It would be too inconvenient to go there only to find out that you are not covered. You will also need to bring with you your insurance information for this will be needed by the clinic or any other health facility.

You should take note of the tests the might be done to you. If you know what kind test will be done, you can prepare yourself properly. There are some tests that need some preparation. Doctors will usually tell their patients what to do in advance. If the test is going to impair your vision temporarily, make sure to bring someone with you.

Once you are finished with your visit, you need to be sure that you have taken the necessary things with you especially your prescription. Do not leave is you still have many questions. It is better if you will talk with your doctor while he is still around.

An eye doctor in San Antonio can help you take care of your vision. It is advisable for adults to go to him to have themselves checked. This helps avoid vision problems and deal with issues right away.

Source: http://healthandfitnessupdates.blogspot.com/2012/12/when-going-to-eye-doctor.html

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Source: http://gaitebuke.posterous.com/when-going-to-an-eye-doctor-health-and-fitnes

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At the Desk with Megan Morton - Arts & Entertainment - Broadsheet ...

A

conversation with Megan Morton ? the blunt fringed, charmingly quirky, in-demand interior stylist ? is quite unlike any other. She?s the jack of innumerable trades (writer, teacher, self-proclaimed ?house whisperer?) and her styling clients span from corporate types and celebrities to the pages of Vogue Living and Inside Out magazine.

Morton runs prop business The Property, weekly creative classes at The School and a photographic studio out of an enormous space in Rosebery (shared with Kitchen by Mike and furniture store Koskela). She describes it all as ?a magical unicorn arrangement of different white rooms?bright and pure and simple, but actually really complex because of all the work that goes on?. In a word, Morton is intoxicating.

We decided to take a peek at Morton?s workspace, to sift through the items she keeps close at hand. What does the desk of a full-time stylist look like?

One floor up from her studios, the space has a hotchpotch vibe, objects creeping in from every periphery. Crocheted pineapples hang from the roof in a cluster; a large poster quotes Proust; and trophies hold stacks of sunglasses. The walls are littered with Morton?s latest treasures: letters from ?beautiful people? who have taken one of her master classes, an African mask from a New York street dealer. There are handmade totem poles in a corner, purchased from Bunnings and gaffer-taped blue. They look like giant sticks of candy. Morton tells me that she gaffer-taped stripes around her entire house for her birthday party last year. She?s not joking. ?Bright blue, Klein blue,? she recalls. ?It was the best thing ever! It was like we were in a striped circus top!?

The desks in this room (and there are several of them, for Megan shares her office) are all white. She bought them from Freedom Furniture after a tireless search for something clean and unisex. ?I like trophy chairs, not trophy desks. We worked on a Freedom campaign; I did the office space for them and literally bought the shoot. It was just really beautiful.? Her chair is sleek and stackable ? the iconic Series 7 Arne Jacobsen.

Morton?s desk is an ocular feast, a strange contrast of eccentric knickknacks and sensible work tools. There?s a gold hole-punch, purchased on a recent trip to Melbourne with The School. A large, plain water jug, big enough ?to fit a Pellegrino exactly? sits close by. An electric pencil sharpener is a permanent office feature ? Morton loves to walk around styling classes midway through and sharpen every pencil. There is the classic telephone (unplugged), shaped like a pair of red lips; a mound of fresh flowers, picked mischievously from her child?s suburban kindergarten; a stack of soft pink ballet shoes, sourced for a recent job. All of this in trays picked up at a roadside stall in the south of France.

Beside Morton?s desk is a gargantuan doctor?s bag ? a beaten-up Hermes number that has become her right hand man. ?When I go to meetings, I can fit an iPad, a magazine, a whole computer and fabric inside? Imagine the doctor calling [with this]!? she laughs. ??Come inside, doctor, and help me with my bronchitis?.?

Indeed, Morton?s office is a little like the aesthete herself ? bright and intense and giddily joyful, but never too much. As we walk through it, running fingers over bookshelves, examining a button machine (?we accidentally broke that, it was too much fun?), Morton talks constantly and excitedly, her words circling back and doubling over, letting every story seep into another. We discuss her fascination with the horseshoe (as a stylist?s prop, a doorstop and a lucky talisman). This leads to the story of her family Christmas tree from a couple of years back, a majestic number strung only with gold jingle bells and horseshoes. ?The wind would come through and they would all flutter and go ?shhhhh?,? says Morton. ?It was like you were following a Moroccan horse.? Without pausing, she moves to the next story: the time she made a bid for Phar Lap?s horseshoes, which sold, predictably, for as much as a house. ?I was going to buy them for my dad, who loves horses. He is married to a horse whisperer. A real one.?

While Morton?s desk is distinctly indistinct (there is too much going on for anything else), I wonder what she would advise someone who erred towards the unusual. ?I would go to all the auction houses first and see if there was anything that gave character. It?s similar to a dining table. If budget and time were no option, you?d either get the beautiful, sexy modern one and the crunchy older chairs?or the other way round.? She sticks with her personal championing of the plain desk however. ?You don?t want the desk to be better than you. You want it to carry you.?

meganmmorton.com

theschool.com.au

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Study shows resistance to cocaine addiction may be passed down from father to son

Study shows resistance to cocaine addiction may be passed down from father to son

Monday, December 17, 2012

Research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reveals that sons of male rats exposed to cocaine are resistant to the rewarding effects of the drug, suggesting that cocaine-induced changes in physiology are passed down from father to son. The findings are published in the latest edition of Nature Neuroscience.

"We know that genetic factors contribute significantly to the risk of cocaine abuse, but the potential role of epigenetic influences ? how the expression of certain genes related to addiction is controlled ? is still relatively unknown," said senior author R. Christopher Pierce, PhD, associate professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry at Penn. "This study is the first to show that the chemical effects of cocaine use can be passed down to future generations to cause a resistance to addictive behavior, indicating that paternal exposure to toxins such as cocaine can have profound effects on gene expression and behavior in their offspring."

In the current study, the team used an animal model to study inherited effects of cocaine abuse. Male rats self-administered cocaine for 60 days, while controls were administered saline. The male rats were mated with females that had never been exposed to the drug. To eliminate any influence that the males' behavior would have on the pregnant females, they were separated directly after they mated.

The rats' offspring were monitored to see whether they would begin to self-administer cocaine when it was offered to them. The researchers discovered that male offspring of rats exposed to the drug, but not the female offspring, acquired cocaine self-administration more slowly and had decreased levels of cocaine intake relative to controls. Moreover, control animals were willing to work significantly harder for a single cocaine dose than the offspring of cocaine-addicted rats, suggesting that the rewarding effect of cocaine was decreased.

In collaboration with Ghazaleh Sadri-Vakili, MS, PhD, from MGH, the researchers subsequently examined the animals' brains and found that male offspring of the cocaine-addicted rats had increased levels of a protein in the prefrontal cortex called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is known to blunt the behavioral effects of cocaine.

"We were quite surprised that the male offspring of sires that used cocaine didn't like cocaine as much," said Pierce. "While we identified one change in the brain that appears to underlie this cocaine resistance effect, there are undoubtedly other physiological changes as well and we are currently performing more broad experiments to identify them. We also are eager to perform similar studies with more widely used drugs of abuse such as nicotine and alcohol."

The findings suggest that cocaine use causes epigenetic changes in sperm, thereby reprogramming the information transmitted between generations. The researchers don't know exactly why only the male offspring received the cocaine-resistant trait from their fathers, but speculate that sex hormones such as testosterone, estrogen and/or progesterone may play a role.

###

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.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125964/Study_shows_resistance_to_cocaine_addiction_may_be_passed_down_from_father_to_son

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Mental health toll emerges among Sandy survivors

NEW YORK (AP) ? The image of his brother trapped in a car with water rising to his neck, his eyes silently pleading for help, is part of a recurring nightmare that wakes Anthony Gatti up, screaming, at night.

Gatti hauled his brother out of the car just in time, saving his life at the height of Superstorm Sandy. The two men rode out the hurricane in their childhood Staten Island home and survived. But weeks afterward, Gatti still hasn't moved on.

Now he's living in a tent in the backyard, burning pieces of furniture as firewood, refusing to leave until the place is demolished. Day and night, he is haunted by memories of the storm.

"My mind don't let me get past the fact that I can't get him out of the car. And I know I did," Gatti said, squeezing his eyes tightly shut at the memory. "But my mind don't let me think that. My mind tells me I couldn't save him, he dies."

As communities battered by Sandy clear away the physical wreckage, a new crisis is emerging: the mental and emotional trauma that storm victims, including children, have endured. The extent of the problem is difficult to measure, as many people are too anxious to even leave their homes, wracked by fears of wind and water and parting from their loved ones. Others are too busy dealing with losses of property and livelihood to deal with their grief.

To tackle the problem, government officials are dispatching more than 1,000 crisis counselors to the worst-hit areas in New York and New Jersey, helping victims begin the long work of repairing Sandy's emotional damage.

Counselors are assuring people that anxiety and insomnia are natural after a disaster. But when the trauma starts to interfere with daily life, it's probably time to seek help. And in a pattern that played out in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, symptoms may only get worse as victims transition from the initial shock to the disillusionment phase of the recovery.

"Folks are starting to realize that they may be in this for the long haul," said Eric Hierholzer, a commander in the U.S. Public Health Service. "And things aren't necessarily going to get better tomorrow or next week."

At St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, the psychiatry department has recorded a 20 percent increase in walk-in patients since the storm hit, with residents reporting the whole gamut of stress-related symptoms. Anxiety. Insomnia. Panic attacks.

Local schools have referred 25 percent more children than usual to the hospital's outpatient mental health programs.

"The children are very, very traumatized," said Fern Zagor, who runs the Staten Island Mental Health Society. "They have a hard time making sense of this sudden change in their world. It's frightening to them."

A 5-year-old girl who was pulled from floodwaters clinging to her father hasn't been able to attend kindergarten since the storm, Zagor said, because she's too traumatized to be parted from him now. An 11-year-old boy is working with counselors after floating in water up to his neck on the second floor of his home for several hours before being rescued.

"This child has said he worries about rain," Zagor said. "He worries about whether he'll ever want to swim in a swimming pool again."

The society is among many mental health providers who are working with Project Hope, a New York crisis counseling program funded by an $8.2 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that has just begun sending counselors to local communities. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office estimates the program will help more than 200,000 people.

Project Hope Counselor Yomira Natera has been seeking out storm victims who don't speak English as their first language.

"We've seen an increase in substance with folks who may have language barriers," she said. "Who may be frustrated with the system, who find it difficult to communicate."

At least 20,000 people have so far made contact with counselors from the New Jersey Hope and Healing Program, which has dispatched hundreds of state-trained disaster crisis response counselors into the storm zone. The state also launched a hotline for people to call and talk to a counselor.

In Union Beach, N.J., a working-class enclave on Raritan Bay, Kathy Parsells helped coordinate deliveries volunteered at a FEMA recovery center on a recent afternoon, helping to coordinate deliveries. Her daughter and grandchildren had to be rescued during the storm.

"I'm OK," she said, stifling tears. "My grandsons have nightmares. My grandson, the first night, was screaming: 'It's coming up the stairs.'"

Jeannette Van Houten, who lost her home in Union Beach, said in a telephone interview that she feels like she's going through the same stages of grief that she endured when her niece was murdered in 2008.

"I have days that I can't put a thought together. Like you start talking and you forget what you're saying," said Van Houten, who sleeps just two or three hours on a good night nowadays. "And the numbness, like you look at things that are happening around you, but you're not part of it."

The Rev. Matthew Dowling, a pastor at the Monmouth Church of Christ in Tinton Falls, N.J., volunteered as a crisis counselor in the days after the storm and heard a lot of survivor's remorse from people who were more fortunate than their neighbors. But there was also a great deal of frustration.

"When FEMA arrives, they think everything is going to be fixed," Dowling said. "The reality is it's going to take months and months to get back to normal. Just like the steps of grief there's anger at the new normal."

Distress calls to LifeNet, New York City's local crisis hotline, doubled during the first few weeks after the storm hit, averaging more than 2,000 calls per week from people who were angry and worried that basic needs ? food, clothing, shelter ? had not been met.

Officials are now preparing for a new wave of calls from people struggling with depression and other mental health issues, said Christian Burgess, director of the Disaster Distress Helpline, a national crisis hotline run by the federal government that provides a network of trained counselors in the aftermath of a major disaster.

Coming to grips with the loss of everything she owned has been difficult for Carol Stenquist, who stood outside borough hall in Union Beach, nervously dragging on a cigarette and crying.

"I have anxiety over it. Even when I lay down at night I feel my heart palpitating with the loss of everything," said Stenquist, whose home was destroyed. "I was there for 20 years."

She thinks she needs to talk to a professional counselor, but hasn't sought one out yet.

"I'm kind of afraid that the emotional stuff I feel now is just part of what I'm going to feel when it's over," she said. "I've had my breakdowns, cries, feelings of depression. I've had all of that."

On Staten Island, volunteers have been quietly stopping by Anthony Gatti's tent to check in on him during his long vigil, dropping off boxes of cereal and cans of coffee. A volunteer therapist tried to talk him into leaving, but to no avail. He spends his days patrolling the property for looters and gazing at photos of the storm's destruction on his laptop.

"I keep trying to make him understand. It's a lot of wood and metal and pipes, that's all it is," said his mother, Marge Gatti. "You've got to get numb. You gotta get tough. If I'm not numb, I can't function."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mental-health-toll-emerges-among-sandy-survivors-145437336.html

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Tips for doing weights at the gym - National Nursing Review

As you know, doing exercise is important to maintain health and prevent physical and mental illness, as well as being essential for maintaining physical fitness. One way to get fit is to go to the gym, which offers a wide variety of activities.

In general, exercising in a fitness center is recommended for people who need discipline and motivation, allowing work at their own pace and with the help of a trainer who can advise on the proper maintenance program. Of course it is important to consider the potential benefits and risks of each activity, as well as the frequency and training is advised. Today we stop at one of the most popular sports in the gym: training with weights.

Little by little

As you can imagine, it is essential to start with weights light, working every major muscle group, legs, arms, anterior chest, back, buttocks and abdomen, with two sets of fifteen to twenty repetitions, then going to a weight that is heavy enough to tire the muscle exercised within a maximum of ten repetitions, and practicing as two series. Nor should we forget the years of cooling and relaxation after exercise, stretching the muscles slowly and gradually. From here, you should increase the kilos of weights.

Useful tips

The weights are recommended from 18 years at a rate two to three times a week, with the possibility of training days in a row if you train the upper one day and lower the next day. It must also be borne in mind that weight lifting does not offer all the benefits of the sport, so it is advisable to coordinate with other exercise.

Machines

Of course, it is essential that the exercise machines are adjusted individually to avoid possible injuries production and heating exercises every muscle group exercises along with gentle stretching at the beginning of each session.

Source: http://nationalnursingreview.com/2012/12/tips-for-doing-weights-at-the-gym/

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Should colleges worry over plan to cap deductions?

The scenic campus of Colgate University in upstate New York is enjoying more than a fresh coat of paint these days.

New buildings include the Robert H.N. Ho Science Center and the Trudy Fitness Center. The Case Library was refurbished and renamed, and includes the new Geyer Center for Information Technology. There's also $142 million in the coffers for financial aid ? all the fruits of a recent $480 million fundraising campaign.

Colgate cast a wide net. But like most big fundraising campaigns, particularly in higher education, the lion's share came from wealthy benefactors rewarded in return with a combination of altruistic satisfaction, naming rights ? and a big tax deduction.

Now that tax deduction may be in jeopardy, and some in higher education are worried.

Democrats want more tax revenue and Republicans are fighting increased in tax rates. That means capping deductions for such things as mortgage interest and possibly charitable contributions will likely be part of any compromise.

Such an outcome would shed light on a question economists have longed debated: How big a factor is that tax deduction in the decision to give to charity generally, and in the globally unrivalled fundraising success of American colleges, which collected $30 billion in donations last year?

Colleges have particular reason for concern. Compared to charities such as religious or social service organizations, education gets a hugely disproportionate share of contributions from the well-off. It's wealthier taxpayers who itemize and benefit most from deductions ? the higher your marginal tax rate, the bigger the "discount" you get on your taxes for giving to charity. So incentives for the wealthy to donate less could particularly affect education.

"We're deeply concerned they'll do something very quickly before the end of the year that they don't really understand the consequences for giving," said Steven Bloom, director of federal relations at the American Council on Education, which has written to the White House and Congressional leaders on behalf of 16 higher education groups opposing caps. If colleges raise less from private donations, they might have to raise more from tuition, he said.

But others are less worried about possible long-term effects ? among them, Colgate's chief fundraiser, Murray Decock.

"Our alumni and our parents don't give solely for tax reasons," said Decock, the vice president for institutional advancement. "It's probably the third or fourth reason. They're primarily giving to make an impact."

In fact, it's not yet clear yet that a fiscal cliff deal would hurt charities. If the charitable deduction stays, or is capped at a high amount, but marginal tax rates, inheritance taxes and capital gains taxes rise, charitable contributions could become more economically appealing to the wealthy, not less.

Colleges generally don't advertise how top-heavy their contributions are, so as not to discourage modest donations from a broader base. They do appreciate those smaller annual checks, but they solicit them mainly to increase the likelihood an alum who strikes it rich is already in the habit of giving. Make no mistake: Higher education philanthropy is about marlin, not minnows.

In Colgate's recent campaign, nearly 35,000 people contributed something. But the campaign blew past its $400 million target on the backs of a much smaller group: about 1,000 donations of $25,000 or more, 91 of at least $1 million, and two of more than $25 million. Decock called it a "90-10 campaign" ? 90 percent of the funds coming from 10 percent of donors, which is common for schools like Colgate.

But in fund drives at larger institutions, he said, the ratio is usually more like 97-3. Overall, at the largest universities, the three largest gifts alone account for about a quarter of all giving on average, and at smaller colleges they're about half, according to the Council for Aid to Education.

Wealthy families are more interested in supporting education, relative to other charities and income groups. More than 90 percent of household donations to education come from those earning $200,000 or more, according to Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy's most recent survey data, from 2005. For religious causes, less than one-third of household support came from those high earners. Eighty-three percent of millionaire households made donations averaging nearly $80,000 to education, compared to 11 percent of households earning under $100,000 who contributed on average $243 to education (the lower earners' contributions to religion, however, averaged $1,423).

The charitable deduction, which dates to 1917, would cost the government about $250 billion over the next five years, and proposals for reform vary. President Barack Obama has suggested limiting all deductions to a rate of 28 percent, which the Tax Policy Center has estimated would reduce overall giving about 2 percent, or $9 billion.

Others want a hard cap on all deductions ? say $25,000 or $50,000, but possibly excluding charitable contributions. The Bowles-Simpson deficit commission has proposed almost the opposite approach: a floor, where the tax benefits kick in only after a certain amount of giving. That could do less to discourage philanthropy from the well-off.

In the Indiana survey of wealthy families, half said they would maintain their giving even if the deduction disappeared, while about 40 percent said it would decline and 10 percent said it would decline substantially. Economic models, meanwhile, have made varying predictions for how the different proposals might affect giving.

Duke University economist Charles Clotfelter is among those whose research leads him to conclude curtailing the deduction would have a substantial effect, and says colleges are right to be worried. Tax breaks aren't the main reason people donate, but he said seemingly small changes on the margins could have a big effect.

"The people that are giving the big gifts to universities are very sophisticated," he said. "They're having talks with their accountants and tax lawyers. They know what the effect is going to be."

Others, however, prefer to emphasize evidence that tax breaks are well down the list of philanthropic motives. One study found people already donate about twice as much as they can deduct (many wealthy families already hit deduction caps through the Alternative Minimum Tax). There are also countless billions given in charity ? remittances abroad, gifts in kind, cash contributions ? that aren't even eligible for deduction. That suggests taxes are a relatively small part of the equation.

There's also history. Tax law changes, like the 1986 reforms, clearly affected giving temporarily. But the generally upward trend has usually returned. Paul Schervish, director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy Boston College, notes top marginal tax rates have mostly fallen over recent decades, from 90 percent to the current 35 percent. That would seem to predict decreased giving, as the wealthy were allowed to keep more of their money without having to choose between Uncle Sam and alma mater. But philanthropy has grown, and when it was interrupted, the cause was the recession, not tax incentives.

"The best thing for charity is economic growth," Schervish said.

"There will be giving without this deduction," he added. "It will be less. But when there's a sufficient need communicated, people will give."

___

Follow Justin Pope at http://www.twitter.com/JustinPopeAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colleges-worry-over-plan-cap-deductions-185657046.html

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Releasing Relationship Pain - Black Love and Marriage

By Jason E. Johns

Often times when a relationship ends there are things left unsaid and questions left unanswered. Through the use of this technique you can resolve these issues and allow yourself to move on and let go of the past. This technique can also be used with those that are now deceased.

Sit yourself in a quiet space where you will not be disturbed. Ideally have an empty chair or seat opposite you. Close your eyes for a moment, and take a few deep breaths and allow yourself to relax and let go.

When you open your eyes imagine that you can see the person with whom things are left unsaid sitting opposite you. All you need to do is to pretend they are there, so if you think you are having problems visualising just pretend.

Say to the person whatever is on your mind, whatever you want to release. If there is a situation that you want to resolve, for example the break down of a relationship then talk about that.

When you have finished you may want a response from them. If so then go and sit in the other chair and pretend you are them answering back. Keep your mind focused on what was said when you do and allow the answer to flow. Remember that if you consciously say what you want to hear rather than what you really hear you are only cheating yourself, no one else.

When they have finished speaking, sit back in your original chair.

Keep up the conversation, moving from chair to chair assuming the other person?s persona when in their chair until the conversation comes to an end. Then return to your original chair and thank them for their time before going about your business.

This technique is incredibly valuable for letting go of pain, guilt and hurt from any sort of relationship, not just romantic relationships. Often when performing this technique you will be surprised by the answers that you receive from the other person.

Through a technique such as this you are able to finally let go of pain from the past so that you can move on. The pain that you have been holding on to from these past relationships may well have been preventing you from having the fulfilling relationship you?ve always dreamed of.

Enjoy using this technique, and remember, it can be used for many more things than just releasing relationship pain.

Jason E. Johns is a personal success coach specializing in helping you achieve your dreams & resolve your personal challenges through an innovative & compassionate approach. Visit him at StateofHypnosis.com

Tagged as: Love & Marriage

Source: http://www.blackloveandmarriage.com/2012/11/releasing-relationship-pain-dont-let-your-past-stand-in-your-way/

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Video: Lindsay Lohan charged in two separate incidents

>>> one of lindsay lohan 's attorneys is denying the actress did anything wrong in the wake of her latest arrest. lohan was taken into custody in new york city early thursday on a charge of assault. and it's not her only trouble this morning. e's jason kennedy has more. jason, good morning.

>> reporter: good morning. lohan was facing third-degree assault charges at avenue nightclub early thursday morning with a woman, and then that was just the beginning because later that day she was formally charged with misdemeanor charges stemming from an auto incomment california earlier this year. lindsay lohan , a coat over her head, was released from police custody in new york thursday morning.

>> smile, lindsay.

>> reporter: lohan was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault after an alleged altercation with a 27-year-old woman inside a lounge called avenue. a spokesperson for the nypd confirmed to nbc news that officers responded to a dispute inside avenue at 4:00 a.m . thursday. lohan was arrested and charged with assault. video obtained by tmz shows lindsay lohan with police near a black suv shortly after the alleged incident. tmz reports lohan , after telling a woman to give her some space or words to that effect, allegedly punched the woman, according to wnbc in new york, the other woman involved was not arrested or injured. a statement issued by lohan 's attorney reads once again lindsay lohan is a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame . from my initial investigation, i am completely confident that this case will be concluded favorably and that lindsay will be totally exonerated. legal experts say as a celebrity lohan may be held to a higher standard.

>> she's aware of what her fame can and can't do, and that's something she needs to be responsible for, and any judge is going to hold you more liable than another person for being in an altercation because you should know better because you should know that you're a target.

>> what's your comment, lindsday. talk to us, please

>> reporter: incident is the latest are a string of run-ins with the law and she faces an automatic very muchcation of her probation from removing a necklace from a jewelry store last year because of new charges against her. on thursday lohan was charged with lying to police about whether she was behind the wheel in a california traffic accident involving her porsche back on june 8.

>> this adds to her legal woes, her money problems. the girl takes two steps forward and three steps back.

>> the judge will look at the reckless driving and the lying to police but given the fact that the judge had warned her before all of this happened and said stay out of the clubs and focus on her career and didn't, i think it will be a very serious matter for this judge.

>> reporter: this after a rough week in lohan 's acting career.

>> is that what you thought?

>> reporter: she was widely panned for her role as elizabeth taylor in lifetime's "liz and dick" which premiered monday.

>> this was a make or break point. lifetime to be gambling on her, insured her, got horrible reviews this. will absolutely impact future roles for her.

>> reporter: now lohan is set to face formal charges here in knowledge on january 2nd , but her attorney maintains he'll be able to prove her innocence before that. willie?

>> jason kennedy , thanks.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50024260/

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Customer Dissatisfaction: Why Containment Is Not An Option ...

This often leads to younger companies adopting reactive customer service strategies that do not prioritize finding ways to systematically reduce customer dissatisfaction and, rather, just try to contain customer service issues. This approach almost always results in an endemic problem with high customer loss rates down the road and substantially higher long-term customer service costs. Both of these problems usually spell disaster for a startup or expansion-stage company.

So why is customer dissatisfaction such a powerful force that needs to be addressed in a company?s customer service strategy? Below are four customer dissatisfaction characteristics that highlight why adopting a proactive customer service strategy is the logical choice:

1. Dissatisfied customers are much more emotional than satisfied customers, and consequently much more likely to share their experiences with others. Just think of the customer experiences you have had over the last year. Most people will find the majority of the ones they remember and shared with others were negative experiences. Additionally, negative customer experiences lead to much more substantial reactions than positive customer experiences.
2. Customers rarely complain to service providers directly. In fact, most of the time customers opt to complain to others or take their complaints to the internet. With social media listening techniques much of this can be captured. However, once complaints have reached the social media waves they are public and no longer a private issue.
3. The growing popularity of social media has amplified the reach of customer opinions. This effect has had a disproportionately large effect on customer dissatisfaction because negative sentiment is more likely to go viral. Just think about all the negative customer stories you can remember going viral on the internet over the last few years. One that remains clear in my mind is EJ?s AirBnB.com nightmare story that single handedly threw the company into disaster recovery mode. I bet you can?t think of a positive customer story garnering that kind of attention.
4. Customer expectations continue to grow at an astounding rate. What was considered an adequate response time or handling of a service issue yesterday is today considered below expectations. Just a few years ago a 24 hour response time to a customer complaint was considered top in class performance in most markets. Now many customers expect immediate responses to their social media communications. These constantly changing market dynamics have made it difficult and costly for companies to maintain top performance levels. To make these new demands more manageable companies have to focus more effort towards eliminating systematic issues and not being more effective at resolving them.

For these reasons, startups and expansion-stage companies need to prioritize customer service and adequately invest in developing a proactive customer service strategy.

Proactive customer service strategies are the product of including a mixture of proactive and reactive customer service key performance indicators that the company tracks in its service division. By incorporating proactive metrics, you will encourage the service team to develop systematic approaches to deal with customer dissatisfaction, not just finding better ways to resolve customer issues and contain them. However, it is also important to develop a service-oriented culture across the company, as this will lead to a long-term focused customer service strategy.

If you would like to read more on managing customer satisfaction, I recommend reading my post from last year on 6 Net Promoter Score Mistakes that Derail Customer Management Process. Similarly, if you would like to read more on customer communication, I also recommend reading my previous post on customer communication strategy development.

Sign-up for our Free Weekly Newsletter to get the best new ideas for building technology companies.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/customer-dissatisfaction-why-containment-is-not-an-option-0340060

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Emirates cancels Damascus flights, Internet goes dark

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline suspended flights to the Syrian capital.

Residents also reported Internet connections in the capital were down and mobile and land telephone lines working only sporadically in what appeared to be the worst disruption to communications in Syria since an uprising began 20 months ago.

The past two weeks have seen rebels overrunning army bases across Syria, exposing Assad's loss of control in northern and eastern regions despite the devastating air power that he has used to bombard opposition strongholds.

Rebels and activists said the fighting along the road to Damascus airport, southeast of the capital, was heavier in that area than at any other time in the conflict.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a opposition monitoring group, said clashes were particularly intense in Babbila, a suburb bordering the insurgent stronghold of Tadamon.

Nabeel al-Ameer, a spokesman for the rebel Military Council in Damascus, said that a large number of army reinforcements had arrived along the road after three days of scattered clashes ending with rebels seizing side streets to the north of it.

"There are no clashes directly around the airport; the fighting is about 3 or 4 kilometers away," he said via Skype, adding that rebels had taken control of many secondary roads and were expected to advance towards the airport.

He said that he hoped the proximity of the rebels to the airport would dissuade authorities from using it to import military equipment, but the priority now was to block the road.

A Syrian security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the army had started a "cleansing operation" in the capital to confront rebel advances.

Residents said the Internet in Damascus crashed in the early afternoon and mobile and land telephone lines were functioning only intermittently.

A blog post on Renesys, a U.S. company which tracks Internet traffic worldwide, said that at 12:26 p.m. in Damascus, Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down completely.

Emirates said it was suspending daily flights to Damascus "until further notice", but other airlines continued operations.

Airport sources in Cairo said an Egypt Air flight that left at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) had landed in Damascus as scheduled.

"The Egypt Air plane has arrived ... and passengers are all safe but the pilot was instructed to take off back to Cairo without passengers if he felt that the situation there is not good to stay for longer," an official at Cairo airport said.

Elsewhere in Damascus, warplanes bombed Kafr Souseh and Daraya, two neighborhoods that fringe the center of the city where rebels have managed to hide out and ambush army units, according to opposition activists.

"NOT LAST DAYS YET"

A senior European Union official said that Assad appeared to be preparing for a military showdown around Damascus, possibly by isolating the city with a network of checkpoints.

"The rebels are gaining ground but it is still rather slow. We are not witnessing the last days yet," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"On the outskirts of Damascus, there are mortars and more attacks. The regime is thinking of protecting itself ... with checkpoints in the next few days ... (It) seems the regime is preparing for major battle on Damascus."

In the north of the country, rebel units launched an offensive to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway that would allow them to block troop movements and cut Assad's main supply route to Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

The Observatory said that rebel units from around Idlib province massed early on Thursday morning to attack Wadi al-Deif, a base east of the rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan.

Wadi al-Deif has been a thorn in the side of rebel units who first besieged the station in October but met fierce resistance from government forces, backed up by air strikes.

Assad is fighting an insurgency that grew out of peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform but escalated, after a military crackdown on protesters, into a civil war in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Most foreign powers have condemned Assad but stopped short of arming rebel fighters as they fear heavy weapons could make their way into the hands of radical Islamist units, who have grown increasingly prominent in the insurgency.

Rebels decry their supporters for not providing them with surface-to-air missiles that they say they need to counter the air force. But recent looting of anti-aircraft missiles from army bases has allowed them to shoot down helicopters and jets.

"So far, there is no evidence that any of the surface-to-air missiles used to date have come from outside Syria," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

"The limited number of surface-to-air missiles that have shown up all appear to have come from Syrian military stock captured by the armed opposition."

He said the number of these missiles in rebel hands was probably over 20 but that will rise significantly as rebels are capturing military bases on an almost-daily basis.

The relatively small number of anti-aircraft missiles looted so far means that many rebel-controlled areas of the country remain vulnerable to air strikes. The Observatory said 15 citizens, including children and women, were killed during a bombing in Aleppo's Ansari district on Thursday.

Activist video footage showed the bodies of at least four children, wrapped in red blankets and apparently wearing pyjamas. Another video showed the immediate aftermath of the attack, with the bodies of children in the street and covered in cement dust. Half of one young boy's head was missing.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Praveen Menon in Dubai and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/damascus-clashes-cut-off-airport-emirates-suspends-flights-141313857.html

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China vows to strengthen cooperation with Europe

Shanghai News.Net Wednesday 28th November, 2012

Chinese Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang told a Hamburg summit that the relationship between China and Europe has become one of the most important in the world, Xinhua reported.

"The economic and trade cooperation between the two sides has brought substantive benefits to both parties," said Wan, who is also vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

Wan told the meeting that the international financial crisis and European debt crisis have deepened the interdependence of Chinese and European economies, adding that the the cooperation has played a positive role in uplifting the gloomy world economy.

Wan said the recently closed 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has charted a course for the future development of China and set an ambitious goal of building a welloff society in all aspects in China by 2020, Wan said.

He stressed that China and Europe should deepen the cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology, which is mutually beneficial.

Founded in 2004, the bienniallyheld Hamburg summit has become an important dialogue platform for the economic cooperation between China and Europe.

Source: http://www.shanghainews.net/index.php/sid/211029794/scat/9366300fc9319e9b

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Entertainment Ink Artist - Vector Draw, Paint, Sketch ... - iPhone apps

? Company App Rating 7.33 / 33 App Update 2012.11.28 12:51 App Price $1.99 Apps download 0 / 0 / 0 App Requirements iPad. iOS 4.0 or later. App support languages English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish App Size English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, ? This application is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Dear %UserName%, if you like apps.su please, use Share & AddThis & iLike !) We need more links:)) thanks!
Current Version Info about jailbreak?/? Entertainment?/? Ink Artist - Vector Draw, Paint, Sketch, Doodle with Natural Brushes 1 Bug fixed: Crashes when trying to put a picture on the background 2 Export arts to pdf file and share it over email. Ink Artist, a vector-based drawing tool, designed to create beautiful line work and enlarge painting without blurring. Ink Artist that built with the powerful vector drawing engine allows you to experiment with your own brushes with not-quite-natural painting. Use a stylus or your finger to draw strokes that appear smooth at any zoom level without jaggies or big pixels. It is capable both of mimicking ?real? media all the way to producing very ?digital? style artwork. High resolution images could be exported directly from your iPad and to be shared easily everywhere with other art enthusiasts. It aims to be simple and fast at what it does. You will enjoy the freedom to work away from your desktop and still achieve pen-and-ink inspired look using Ink Artist. Ink Artist features highlights: ?Zoom functionality. Fluidly zoom in while drawing to create fine details, and zoom out to see a complete view and add larger elements. ?Transparency, Stroke size, Pressure-sensitive could be adjusted. ?Share your arts to facebook, twitter, email etc. ?Undo / Redo function (Unlimited steps !). ?Huge virtual canvas. You will not feel cramped by the size of your screen any more. ?Background style templates (50 kinds). ?Various types of high-quality natural brushes: brush, pencil, pen, airbrush, watercolor brush, chalk, charcoal, neon pens, special effect pens to simulate the effect of Brush painting, Watercolor painting, Oil painting, Chinese painting, Drawing, Chinese Calligraphy and so on. ?Import images or photos from your device and draw over your photos. ?Brush size adjustment slider. ?Eraser tool to correct possible mistakes. ?Export to image files. ?Export page to pdf file and share it over email. Feedback: Any suggestion will be appreciated, support email: market@effectmatrix.com jailbreak created by , have iphone apps rating 7.33 / 33. This App is available at the iphone apps Entertainment.
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Source: http://apps.su/program/53639/ink-artist-vector-draw-paint-sketch-doodle-with-natural-brushes.html

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Tea Wares from Occupied Japan

During the post-World War II years, the USA spent a great deal of money and manpower to help our former enemies rebuild their economies. One of these projects in Japan was the re-establishment of ceramics production.

An Occupied Japan cup and saucer that I found in a local antiques shop several years ago. (Photo source: article author)

While Japan had a centuries-old tradition of ceramics (stoneware, china, porcelain) ranging from functional to decorative before the war, many of the factories were damaged during the fighting and skilled workers were in short supply. At war?s end, former factory workers and artisans found their way home and began to take up their jobs in the ceramics industry.

At first Americans back home were reluctant to buy products from Japan. The main outlet for them was the PX, or post exchange: the store on the base where military personnel and their families shopped. Obviously our GIs felt that helping the Japanese rebuild their economies included being their customers. By about 1948 American ill will against the Japanese people had subsided enough that goods from Japan were once again welcomed in USA markets.

Ceramics produced in Japan between 1945 and 1952 were identified as being made in occupied Japan. Most of the pieces bear markings of this period: Made in Occupied Japan, or just Occupied Japan. Because this period lasted less than seven years, many of the pieces created during the occupation have become rare and quite valuable.

Briefly, ceramics require two firings (baking in a super-hot oven called a kiln): the first, or bisque, firing that produces a solid, semi-porous object; followed by the glaze firing, in which a combination of minerals applied to the object and then heated become vitreous, thus rendering the object impervious to liquids.

The ceramics created in Occupied Japan were generally made of a white clay, or kaolin, which is used to produce porcelain. Most of the objects, however, were produced as china, which is fired at a lower temperature than porcelain.

While the majority of Occupied Japan china comprised figurines or other figural items (mugs, salt and pepper shakers, vases, and the like), a great number of tea wares were also produced. Many of these took the form of miniature tea sets and children?s tea sets. You can also find a few teapots and full-size tea sets. The majority of tea wares produced in Occupied Japan, however, were teacups ? and some very beautiful ones at that.

When shopping for Occupied Japan china, look for the identifying marks stamped on the bottom. Although there have been some forgeries, most objects carrying the Occupied Japan stamp tend to be genuine. On the other hand, some Occupied Japan china is, unfortunately, not marked as such, and requires a ceramics expert to correctly identify it. There are also some specific factory names you can look for: Ucagco is one of these. Other pieces are signed by the individual artisan.

Occupied Japan china can be found at antiques and collectibles shops, yard sales, and via online sellers, and vary widely in price. Once you find a piece that you love, it?s up to you to decide whether the asking price is worth it.

? Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article?s author and/or the blog?s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Source: http://englishtea.us/2012/11/28/tea-wares-from-occupied-japan/

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Obese flier turned away by airlines dies overseas

1 day

A. Pawlowski , NBC News contributor

An ailing, 425-pound woman who was turned away by three airlines as she tried to return to the U.S. from Europe has died overseas, prompting legal action from her family.

Vilma Soltesz and her husband traveled to Hungary in September to spend a month in their former homeland ? a trek the Bronx residents made every year to visit family.

They flew from New York to Budapest on KLM without any problems, with Soltesz purchasing two seats for herself because of her size, said Holly Ostrov Ronai, the family?s attorney.

But when the couple tried to return to New York in October, the problems began.

?They were sent from airline to airline, they were sent driving around, they were just treated completely inhumanely,? Ronai told NBC News. ?(The airlines) had a duty to get her home to her doctors.?

Soltesz, 56, and her husband came on board their scheduled KLM flight to New York on Oct. 15 with the help of a Skylift elevator, but the captain told them to disembark because of an issue with the seatback and because the airline didn?t have a seatbelt extender, Ronai said.

KLM countered that it was not physically possible for Soltesz to board the aircraft, despite every effort made by the airline.

?A seat or belt extender did not offer a solution either,? said KLM spokeswoman Ellen van Ginkel, in a statement to NBC News.

?Subsequently, KLM and its partners Delta and Air France did its utmost to find an alternative in the two days that followed. The passenger also took the initiative herself to approach her ticket agent to look for alternatives with other airlines.?

The couple spent five hours at the airport and then drove through the night to Prague, where they were told a bigger Delta Air Lines plane could take them home the next day. But that attempt was also unsuccessful because Delta only had a plastic wheelchair that was not able to hold Soltesz's weight, Ronai said.

Delta did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesman for the airline told The New York Post that ?despite a determined good-faith effort by Delta in Prague, we were also physically unable to board her on our aircraft.?

Finally, the couple tried to return to New York on a Lufthansa flight on Oct. 22. They boarded the plane, but the captain asked them to disembark because he thought Soltesz could not fasten herself in properly, Ronai said.

Lufthansa said the decision was unavoidable.

?Lufthansa, together with its local partners, fire brigade and technical experts at Budapest Airport tried its utmost to accommodate Mrs. Vilma Soltesz on board our flight from Budapest,? said spokeswoman Christina Semmel.

?After several, time consuming attempts it was decided that for the safety of this passenger and the over 140 fellow passengers, Lufthansa had to deny transportation of the passenger.?

Hungarian television footage of the couple after the incident showed Soltesz???an amputee who suffered from kidney disease and diabetes???with a severely distended belly. She died two days later.

Ronai, who plans to sue the three airlines involved for $6 million in federal court next week, said they violated the Air Carrier Access Act by not providing Soltesz with proper assistance or making the proper accommodations for her to be able to fly home and seek medical care from her doctors. This ultimately caused her death, Ronai said.

Under the Air Carrier Access Act, airlines may not refuse to fly people because of their disability, but they may exclude anyone from a flight ?if carrying the person would be inimical to the safety of the flight.??

?Airlines are responsible for determining whether or not they can carry passengers safely, and that includes those with disabilities. They may decline boarding if they believe they?re not able to do so,? said DOT spokesman Bill Mosley.

A carrier that excludes a person with a disability on safety grounds must provide a written explanation, but the Soltesz family never received any such document, Ronai said.

Meanwhile, the European Union, which includes Hungary, mandates that air travelers with ?reduced mobility? can't be denied boarding, unless the aircraft is physically too small or there are security concerns.

Obesity in itself is not considered a disability and it?s up to each airline to decide how to deal with large passengers, Mosley said.

There is also no specific rule that requires airlines to carry seatbelt extenders, said Les Dorr, an FAA spokesman. Planes must be equipped with an approved safety belt for each passenger, but the only way to meet the "approved" requirement for large fliers is for the airline to furnish the extenders, Dorr said.

With more than one-third of U.S. adults now obese, airlines continue to grapple with how to accommodate those fliers. Most now have policies addressing ?customers of size? ? usually asking them to buy two seats if they can?t lower their armrests or overflow into a neighbor?s seat.

Airfarewatchdog.com recently put together a guide listing each carrier?s approach and was surprised by the lack of uniformity.

Meanwhile, Soltesz?s family is grieving their loss.

?This should not have happened at all and it should never happen to anyone else, ever,? Ronai said.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/obese-flier-turned-away-airlines-dies-overseas-1C7277987

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Tablets 2012: As competition abounds, the iPad hangs onto its crown

14 hrs.

Wilson Rothman , NBC News

Non-iPads from Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others are flooding the market, bringing more diverse experiences, often at better prices than the iPad and its little sibling, the iPad Mini.

Doesn?t matter. Odds are, you?ll still ask Santa for an Apple tablet. And new research suggests Apple iPads large and small will dominate this rapidly growing business, at least through 2013.

OK OK, you're thinking, "Thanks for the newsflash, fanboy." But seriously, in a universe where shoppers operate on cold logic and ever-tightening budgets, the iPad should fall under the wheels of Android any minute now, the same thing that happened with smartphones. So how does Apple maintain its grip?

It's not design or ease of use. Although they surely contribute to customer loyalty, they're not enormous differentiators any more. (Don?t believe me? Ask Apple?s patent lawyers.)

So what?s the answer? Tablets aren?t smartphones and they?re not PCs. While the Android camp waited for a bounce?from the successful phone business, and Microsoft and the computer vendors groped for a bridge between PCs and tablets, Apple made this middle ground the iPad's kingdom.

Heated competition
In the fall of 2011, when Amazon and Barnes & Noble axed their tablet prices down to under $200, Apple held its $499 starting point.

Logic suggested that the iPad would lose its lead, or at least, its majority. The non-Apple upstarts did see spikes in shipments over the 2011 holiday quarter, according to NPD DisplaySearch, a top global research firm. But by mid-2012, Apple was once again shipping over two thirds of the world?s tablets.

This fall, the non-iPads redoubled their attack. Asus and Samsung teamed up with Google to create Nexus-branded 7-inch and 10-inch tablets (respectively). Amazon multiplied its Kindle Fire by three, and dropped the entry-level 7-inch tablet's price down to $159. Barnes & Noble launched a video service and put out a 9-inch tablet at the unheard-of price of $269.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, the sleeping giant, finally addressed the bite iPad is taking out of PC sales by launching its own tablet. Or is it a PC? Whatever it is ? and believe me, the debate still rages ? the $499 Surface RT with its clever keyboard add-on and its full version of Microsoft Office was built to challenge the notion that an iPad can satisfy most computerly needs.

Apple's response to the increased competition made sense ... sort of. It jacked up the specs on its flagship 9.7-inch tablet, and addressed the growing interest in 7-inch tablets by popping out the iPad Mini, a 7.9-inch model. But Apple priced the Mini at $329 ? well above devices from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Google. And the screen on the Mini doesn't measure up, resolution-wise, to those same cheaper competitors.

Again, doesn?t matter.

Apple ? or at least, the 9.7-inch and 7.9-inch displays unique to Apple ? will account for two thirds of tablets shipped through 2013, according to a forecast from NPD DisplaySearch, which uses research from over 140 display component manufacturers around the globe.

A recent study from Nielsen tells a similar story, at least for kids writing letters to Santa. Nearly half of surveyed U.S. kids between the ages of 6 and 12 want an iPad, and 36 percent want an iPad Mini. Even respondents age 13 and up said the iPad was No. 1. (While a ?Tablet computer other than iPad? also rated relatively highly, the only specific non-iPad to reach double-digit demand in either survey was the Kindle Fire.)

What tablets aren?t
Unlike smartphones, there is no inherent reason to buy a tablet. (Don?t kid yourself.) People must rationalize their $499 iPad purchase, and here's how they do it: "We just need something to use in the family room and kitchen," or "We just need something to take on trips," or "We just need an extra computer for the kids."

Most if not all tablet households already have a PC, so people don't need to use an iPad to set up their routers, archive their photos or whatever else a full-blown PC might be especially good for. What an iPad does is fulfill the needs of a secondary computer, without the hassle.

While tablets can replace PCs, they aren't PCs, and thank God for that.

Even in the business world, this PC replacement is gaining momentum. This past week, Barclays Bank made news by buying 8,500 iPads for use in branches, what is being called the biggest purchase of the tablets by a financial services firm.

"On the business side ??and on the consumer side ? it's about the apps,? says Paul Semenza, senior vice president of?analyst services for NPD?DisplaySearch, whose firm has identified that tablets are eating into PC sales. Enterprise-focused apps by the likes of Salesforce, Cisco and Oracle mean that an iPad can provide a convenient way to do highly specialized work quickly on a touchscreen, "rather than having to crack open the notebook."

In confirming the iPad as ?winner and still champ,? Consumer Reports? Jeffrey Fox also cites apps: "With dozens of Android-based models nipping at its heels, the iPad managed to not only hold its own, but up the ante for performance. When you add to that the breadth and quality of its apps, the iPad is still the tablet to beat."

Apple?s commanding lead in tablet-friendly apps ? over 275,000 built specifically for the iPad?s larger screens, versus the underwhelming handful?of tablet-specific apps?available in the?Google Play store ? helps keep it on top. A key reason for the App Store?s initial success is that Apple has its customers trained to spend money, something Google has never really been able to do. When developers release iPad apps, they expect to get paid by the download; to spend time and money bringing the same app to another platform, they must first calculate the risks and rewards.

This can be a vicious circle: If nobody's paying for Android tablet?apps, new ones won't be quick to show up, and then nobody will buy the tablets ... because of a lack of apps. Google has revamped its Google Play store, combining apps with movies and music, in?the hope that at least some customers would?start paying for some content.

Engage!
But there's more to it than just numbers: There?s increasing evidence that iOS users are far more engaged than Android users. NetMarketShare data reported in Fortune last June say that the share of mobile Internet usage for iOS had reached 62 percent, while the far greater population of Android devices hadn?t quite reached 20 percent.

A fresh study by IBM takes it further: Nearly 10 percent of all online shopping over Black Friday was done on iPads, beating "any other tablet or smartphone," says the tech firm. iPhones made up 8.7 percent, while Android was down at 5.5 percent. The so-called ?iPad Factor? is even more pronounced when compared to other tablets: It represented 88.3 percent of tablet online shopping, followed by the Barnes & Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent, says IBM's press release.

And that's why makers of Android tablets should be afraid, because when it comes to tablets, the desire for engagement must precede the tablet purchase.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble have had more luck than other non-Apple tablets in grabbing market share, at least in short bursts, because their tablets come with a built-in sales argument: Buy this to enjoy books and videos to your heart's content.

Amazon has the added advantage of customers who spend so frequently that they keep their credit cards on file, and enough revenues that it can sell tablets at cost, hoping to see profits through media sales.

But while the $70-per-year Amazon Prime video service is nice, its library is not as nice as the omnipresent Netflix's, and the service itself has a large base of customers who signed up for shipping perks, not streaming TV shows.

Most importantly, Amazon makes most of its digital products available on competing iPads, too. The customer's dilemma becomes: "Do I go cheap and get an Amazon-focused experience? Or do I spend more for a broader platform that includes Amazon's services and a lot more?" Apple may push its own services pretty hard, but the flowering of the App Store means that the iPad has become a crossroads of Internet experiences.

All of these factors mean that the iPad,?this expensive-ish not-quite-a-PC that was laughed at when it launched in 2010,?will hold onto its crown for the foreseeable future, as alternatives continue to scramble for relevance. In the smartphone world, someone shopping for an iPhone may well settle for a cheaper Android phone. Yet when it comes to tablets, someone who decides not to buy an iPad may simply choose nothing at all.

Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science?editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/tablets-2012-competition-abounds-ipad-hangs-its-crown-1C7275559

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The New Internet Teaching Stars - Technology Review

Gold star: Calvin Hollywood created a business teaching Photoshop tricks online.

Who is Calvin Hollywood? In the world of Photoshop instruction in Germany, Hollywood?s name towers above the rest.

A self-styled maverick of online Photoshop tutorials, Hollywood sticks to his strengths: retouching photographs, teaching others to do the same, and marketing himself. It?s an expansive and lucrative enterprise.

His business includes DVDs, live online webinars, and $30 downloadable courses that people can complete on their own time and schedules. To help generate Internet sales, Hollywood does appearances at shows like ?Horror Nights,? a dance party frequented by people dressed as vampires and zombies. Hollywood says online teaching earns him as much as $16,000 a month.

The Web is starting to change education (see ?The Most Important Educational Technology in 200 Years?) and perhaps nowhere are its transforming effects so apparent as among teachers. Teaching is among the worst paid professions in the U.S. (starting salaries are $30,377 a year). But the Web is rewriting the rules of supply and demand. For popular instructors like Hollywood, who reach beyond physical classrooms, teaching has never offered a greater chance to become rich and famous.

This effect of technology was dubbed the ?Superstar Phenomenon? in a now canonical 1981 paper by the labor economist Sherwin Rosen. In his study, The Economics of Superstars, Rose described mathematically how new media, like radio and TV, concentrated earnings among fewer performers or bestsellers. It did so by increasing the audience of stars, and because consumers flocked to the product they considered the best.

The Web, with its ability to broadcast video, live exercises, and interactive documents, is extending the superstar rule to teachers of everything from computer programming to probability analysis. One expected result, say economists, is that a small number of popular teachers could end up winning the vast share of teaching income. The Wall Street Journal, which discovered a guitar teacher streaming paid classes for 1,500 people from his basement computer, concluded that although we will always need teachers, we may need ?fewer of them.?

Because teaching is a performance art, online education is favoring those like Hollywood, who has a flamboyant style, or others able to connect with their audience. Salman Khan, the stock-picker-turned-tutor whose YouTube math lessons have been viewed over 200 million times (see ?Q&A: Salman Khan?), was recently judged by Yuri Milner, the Russian Internet investor, as the world?s ?first superstar teacher.?

Now more teachers are looking for online outlets, including on commercial websites such like Lynda.com and Udemy, which act as digital adult-education catalogs. Udemy broadcasts classes; any teacher can join in exchange for a 30 percent cut of their revenue. The company?s most popular classes include courses like ?Become a Web Developer from Scratch,? taught by Victor Bastos, a 32-year-old Spanish programmer living in Lisbon, Portugal.

Hollywood, who is 36, says he did not know how to use Photoshop until 2005. At the time, he was a boot camp instructor in Germany?s Air Force. But after seeing a friend stitch together two images using the program, Hollywood says, it was Liebe auf den ersten Blick, or ?love at first sight.? He bought a DSLR camera, a Nikon D70, just so he could have pictures to retouch.

He began teaching Photoshop to Air Force colleagues, eventually branching out into DVDs and seminars, and taking on his stage name, Calvin Hollywood (he declined to reveal his real name). The first time he put a seminar online, he says, 100 spots sold out in 10 minutes. These days, he does most of his Web teaching during the winter. ?September to March, where the weather is not good here in Germany,? says Hollywood. ?People don?t like to travel.?

The Web?s new celebrity teachers don?t necessarily need any academic credentials. Hollywood says he never got further than middle school. What counts is personal style and knowledge to impart. In Hollywood?s case, what he teaches is an unusually heavy style of digital photo enhancement he calls ?Calvinization.? He recalls how other Photoshop teachers scolded him: ?You can?t do that. You don?t do that. Calvin Hollywood, ?Oh my god you can?t do that!??

Katrin Eismann, chair of the digital photography department at New York?s School of Visual Arts, hosted Hollywood on his first trip to the United States in 2008. She says he is part of a new generation of Photoshop teachers who are turning retouching into a form of illustration. That?s different than how Adobe?s image-editing program was used in the past, which was more about correction than creation, and not very glamorous.

Internet instruction has changed that, at least for Hollywood. ?He has good energy, he?s fun, and he ? doesn?t take himself too seriously,? says Eismann. ?He even says that his way is not [necessarily] the right way. As an educator, I admire that.?

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506381/the-new-internet-teaching-stars/

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