Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Create a No-Waste Soap Dish

Create a No-Waste Soap DishCreate a No-Waste Soap Dish Soap gunk can clog drains when you wash the buildup from its container, but soap dishes designed to prevent buildup still end up wasting the soap you use. YouTube DIYer OneFreeBrain created a no-waste soap dish that prevents both problems.

As demonstrated in the video above, he discovered that a silk printing screen will hold soap without anything getting through. As a result, he created a soap dish using a silk screen to avoid wasted material and build up. Watch the video for a full walkthrough on how to make your own.

Make your own no-waste soap dish | YouTube via Devin

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/WJ3PrLzmBi4/create-a-no+waste-soap-dish

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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

TEXT-S&P summary: PT Astra International Tbk.

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Oct 22 -

===============================================================================

Summary analysis -- PT Astra International Tbk. ------------------- 22-Oct-2012

===============================================================================

CREDIT RATING: BBB-/Stable/-- Country: Indonesia

===============================================================================

Credit Rating History:

Local currency Foreign currency

11-May-2011 BBB-/-- BBB-/--

===============================================================================

Rationale

The rating on PT Astra International Tbk. reflects the company's 'bb+'

stand-alone credit profile (SACP) and a one-notch uplift because of expected

support from its parent, Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd. (Jardine Group:

A-/Stable/--; cnAA/--). The rating also reflects our view that the company has

a "fair" business risk profile and "modest" financial risk profile.

Astra's SACP is similar to the long-term foreign currency rating on Indonesia

(BB+/Positive/B; axBBB+/axA-2). We expect Astra to have low leverage over the

next six to 18 months, excluding its captive financial services entities. Over

the same period, the company should also generate adequate foreign currency

cash flows from the commodities businesses to service its borrowings. In

addition, Astra has good capital market standing and excellent financial

flexibility, in our view. This is because many of the company's operating

companies are listed and have strong market positions and good profitability.

The SACP also factors in Astra's exposure to cyclical and economically

sensitive sectors (such as palm oil and mining contracting), increasing

competition in the automobile business, and the company's potential large

investments and high execution risk in capital-intensive segments.

The one-notch of uplift due to support from Jardine Group reflects our

assessment that Astra is strategically important to its parent, even though

the parent does not guarantee the company's financial obligations. Jardine

Group has a record of owning and closely managing its core businesses over a

long period.

In our base-case scenario, we expect Astra's borrowings (excluding financial

services) to increase in 2012-2013 to about Indonesian rupiah (IDR) 9

trillion-IDR11 trillion. As of June 30, 2012, Astra's leverage is low, with a

debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 0.5x and a ratio of funds from operations (FFO) to

debt of more than 100%, reflecting a "modest" financial risk profile,

according to our criteria. The company has increased debt to fund its capital

expenditure, but we believe its credit protection measures are more than

adequate for its SACP. We anticipate that the ratio of total debt to EBITDA

will remain below 1.5x and the FFO-to-debt ratio will exceed 60% in the next

six to 18 months. We calculated these ratios after adjusting for debt and cash

flows, based on our captive finance methodology.

Most of Astra's businesses have minimal debt, except for the heavy equipment

and mining segments that PT United Tractors Tbk. (UT: unrated) runs. UT

accounted for almost 46% of Astra's total debt as of June 30, 2012.

Astra's automotive distribution and palm oil businesses contributed almost 50%

to its pretax profit in the first six months of 2012. These businesses have

minimal debt and are cash generative, with limited capital expenditure needs.

Financial services entities contribute about 17% to operating income.

In our view, Astra's profitability and cash flows are particularly sensitive

to credit market conditions because its financing business depends on

wholesale funding to underwrite automotive sales. Nevertheless, we note that

Astra has increasingly diversified its funding sources. A simultaneous

disruption in the credit market and a slowdown in the economy could increase

credit costs and weaken the loan quality of Astra's financing business.

Nevertheless, we believe the company's management of its financial services

entities is conservative. Our view is based on Astra's practice of prudent

provisioning, its strong capital structure, and locked-in interest margins

with back-to-back matching of receivables and loan tenor. The financial

services entities' ratio of debt-to-equity is about 4.5x-5.5x, which is within

the regulator's maximum debt-to-equity ratio of 10x.

Liquidity

In our opinion, Astra's liquidity is "strong." As of June 30, 2012, the

company has a cash balance of IDR9.4 trillion (US$986 million) and undrawn

committed financing facilities of US$1.85 billion. We estimate the company's

liquidity sources will exceed uses by more than 50% in 2012, based on the

following major assumptions:

-- Astra will generate EBITDA of IDR23 trillion to IDR24 trillion (US$2.4

billion to US$2.5 billion) in 2012.

-- Astra's expenditure for 2012 will include working capital needs of

IDR5.5 trillion (US$570 million), capital expenditure of IDR16 trillion

(US$1.7 billion), and dividend distribution of IDR9.5 trillion (US$986

million).

In assessing liquidity, we have assumed that Astra will be able to renew its

short-term bank debts of IDR4.4 trillion (US$460 million) based on its record

and good relationships with banks. Cash, undrawn committed facilities, EBITDA,

capital expenditure, and short-term debts do not include those of its

financial services companies.

Outlook

The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Astra will maintain strong

cash flows and liquidity. The prospects for profitability appear reasonably

good. In our opinion, Astra will invest in expanding its business portfolio,

but will still manage the expansion within its conservative investment

framework.

We could lower the rating if Astra undertakes aggressive expansion and

acquisitions, leading to a significant change in its business and financial

risk profiles, or we assess the support from Jardine Group has weakened.

We could upgrade Astra if we raise our transfer and convertibility risk

assessment of Indonesia to 'BBB' from 'BBB-'. This would be accompanied by an

improvement in the company's business risk profile, particularly through

greater diversification and reduced concentration of profits from a particular

business segment. At the same time, Astra would maintain its "modest"

financial risk profile and its ability to weather sovereign financial stress.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/text-p-summary-pt-astra-international-tbk-090623675--sector.html

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Thursday, October 11, 2012

How Amazon is crowdsourcing movies and TV shows

7 hrs.

Amazon.com is producing its own movies and TV programming using the consumer tracking and data crunching skills it developed while becoming the world's largest Internet retailer.

Essentially, Amazon is crowdsourcing the creation of original content???movies such as "Zombies versus Gladiators" and the children's TV series "Magic Monkey Billionaire."

The retailer hopes the approach will result in more hits and fewer flops than the traditional Hollywood practice of filtering creative ideas through three-martini lunches with studio bosses and movie stars.

Like rival movie provider Netflix, Amazon is developing its own content to supplement movies and TV shows from Hollywood's back catalog. Amazon pays an estimated $1 billion a year to stream programming from others over its Prime Instant Video service.

Since late 2010, the company's Hollywood studio, Amazon Studios, has let aspiring screenwriters and film makers upload thousands of scripts to its website.

It has an exclusive, 45-day option to buy movie scripts for $200,000 and TV series for $55,000. It can also pay $10,000 to extend options for 18 months.

Instead of green-lighting a feature-length film or TV pilot, Amazon first helps develop the scripts it options into trial videos. It posts these online to solicit reviews and feedback from its millions of customers. Writers use the feedback to adjust scripts, hoping to boost the chances of creating a hit when Amazon spends millions of dollars turning projects into full movies or TV shows.

"Hopefully we can avoid big bombs," said Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios. "Our notion for what the world needs may be a roller-skating movie or a battleship film, but that could be wrong. We can do tests and find out that, actually, no one cares about this project or that one. If you do that before you spend $200 million on it, that would be good. Good for customers and good for the business."

For instance, Amazon took its nine best test movies from 2011 and posted them on Amazon Instant Video, the company's streaming video service. Customers viewed the projects hundreds of thousands of times, according to the company. It is using reviews and feedback to re-write scripts.

Amazon also collected data on how long customers watched the test videos and how many watched all the way through.

"That form of implicit feedback is as useful, or more useful sometimes, than the explicit feedback," Price said. "This told us something about the marketability of these ideas."

Amazon Studios recently turned "Blackburn Burrow," a movie script by screenwriter Jay Levy, into a digital comic to get more consumer input.

The comic, recently the most-downloaded free comic on Amazon's Kindle store, comes with a survey for feedback on what people thought about the story, according to Levy.

"If you look at the amount of data Amazon collects every day, it's incredible," Levy said. "This way, they begin to get actual feedback about the story and will create something that people really get invested in."

Bringing market research to the creative process is nothing new, of course. Hollywood tests movies with focus groups all the time. But it is not done on such an open, large scale as Amazon's approach.

"You often don't get audience feedback until you almost release a movie," said Edward Saxon, Oscar-winning producer of "The Silence of the Lambs."

"Film-making is an iterative process???a draft and then another draft. Amazon is very smart to find more places along the way to get feedback."

Saxon is one of a handful of big-name producers who have signed on to Amazon Studio projects. He is helping develop "Children Of Others," about a woman who takes her last chance at a fertility clinic, only to find that her unborn child may be the first wave of an alien invasion.

Amazon Studios currently has 21 movie projects and nine TV projects in development.

The movies will be made for theatrical release - Amazon has a deal that gives Warner Bros. Pictures the first crack at bringing them to the big screen, known in industry parlance as a "first-look" deal. Any TV series will be distributed on Amazon's video streaming platform as exclusive shows, according to Price.

Amazon has been clear about what it wants to spend and it knows movie-making costs money, Saxon said.

"I am betting my professional energy that we are going to see a good number of Amazon movies, and I hope mine is one of them," he added. "The movie we're making is going to compete with the big boys."

(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Peter Lauria and David Gregorio)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at:?http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/how-amazon-crowdsourcing-movies-tv-shows-1C6370916

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Monday, October 8, 2012

Ark. GOP calls candidates' statements 'offensive'

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) ? Arkansas Republicans tried to distance themselves Saturday from a Republican state representative's assertion that slavery was a "blessing in disguise" and a Republican state House candidate who advocates deporting all Muslims.

The claims were made in books written, respectively, by Rep. Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro and House candidate Charlie Fuqua of Batesville. Those books received attention on Internet news sites Friday.

On Saturday, state GOP Chairman Doyle Webb called the books "highly offensive." And U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican who represents northeast Arkansas, called the writings "divisive and racially inflammatory."

Hubbard wrote in his 2009 self-published book, "Letters To The Editor: Confessions Of A Frustrated Conservative," that "the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise." He also wrote that African-Americans were better off than they would have been had they not been captured and shipped to the United States.

Fuqua, who served in the Arkansas House from 1996 to 1998, wrote there is "no solution to the Muslim problem short of expelling all followers of the religion from the United States," in his 2012 book, titled "God's Law."

Fuqua said Saturday that he hadn't realized he'd become a target within his own party, which he said surprised him.

"I think my views are fairly well-accepted by most people," Fuqua said before hanging up, saying he was busy knocking on voters' doors. The attorney is running against incumbent Democratic Rep. James McLean in House District 63.

Hubbard, a marketing representative, didn't return voicemail messages seeking comment Saturday. He is running against Democrat Harold Copenhaver in House District 58.

The November elections could be a crucial turning point in Arkansas politics. Democrats hold narrow majorities in both chambers, but the GOP has been working hard to swing the Legislature its way for the first time since the end of the Civil War, buoyed by picking up three congressional seats in 2010. Their efforts have also been backed by an influx of money from national conservative groups.

Rep. Crawford said Saturday he was "disappointed and disturbed."

"The statements that have been reported portray attitudes and beliefs that would return our state and country to a harmful and regrettable past," Crawford said.

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., kicked off the GOP's response Saturday by issuing a release, saying the "statements of Hubbard and Fuqua are ridiculous, outrageous and have no place in the civil discourse of either party."

"Had I known of these statements, I would not have contributed to their campaigns. I am requesting that they give my contributions to charity," said Griffin, who donated $100 to each candidate.

The Arkansas Republican House Caucus followed, saying the views of Hubbard and Fuqua "are in no way reflective of, or endorsed by, the Republican caucus. The constituencies they are seeking to represent will ultimately judge these statements at the ballot box."

Then Webb, who has spearheaded the party's attempt to control the Legislature, said the writings "were highly offensive to many Americans and do not reflect the viewpoints of the Republican Party of Arkansas. While we respect their right to freedom of expression and thought, we strongly disagree with those ideas."

Webb, though, accused state Democrats of using the issue as a distraction.

Democrats themselves have been largely silent, aside from the state party's tweet and Facebook post calling attention to the writings. A Democratic Party spokesman didn't immediately return a call for comment Saturday.

The two candidates share other political and religious views on their campaign websites.

Hubbard, who sponsored a failed bill in 2011 that would have severely restricted immigration, wrote on his website that the issue is still among his priorities, as is doing "whatever I can to defend, protect and preserve our Christian heritage."

Fuqua blogs on his website. One post is titled, "Christianity in Retreat," and says "there is a strange alliance between the liberal left and the Muslim religion."

"Both are antichrist in that they both deny that Jesus is God in the flesh of man, and the savior of mankind. They both also hold that their cause should take over the entire world through violent, bloody, revolution," the post says.

In a separate passage, Fuqua wrote "we now have a president that has a well documented history with both the Muslim religion and Communism."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ark-gop-calls-candidates-statements-offensive-212508499.html

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

A Crash Course in Landing Page Conversion | Small Business ...

Posted on 27. Sep, 2012 by Guest Post in Blog, Landing Pages, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

Yesterday you learned what makes a good landing page and the 9 concepts below can be used as a checklist to keep you on track the next time you run a marketing campaign.

1. Where landing pages sit in the funnel

To understand the role of a landing page it helps to show visually how they fit into your marketing flow, from the traffic source, through your different test variants, and finally, the confirmation page.

(Click the image for to explore in more detail)

2. Message match: Ad to Headline

This should be your first concern. Read your ad phrasing and then read the headline on your landing page to see how closely they correlate. One of the biggest reasons for a high bounce rate (and a poor PPC quality score for PPC) is that people lose the information scent when they arrive at your page, thinking they are in the wrong place.

Next stop? The back button. Then your competition.

3. A single CTA

Having a single call to action gives people only one thing to do and stops them wandering down the wrong path. Drill this into your head: only give them one thing to do and they will be more likely to do it.

4. Social sharing

There are 2 ways to add social sharing to your page. You can add them to your main page to show social proof or add them to your confirmation page (covered in part 9).

Don?t forget that a low count shows ?negative social proof? so if you want to use them, try using paywithatweet.com to get your ebook instead of a form. This boosts tweet counts in the background. Then show the widgets when the count is high enough and switch back to a form.

5. Use video to increase conversions

Studies have shown that using videos improve conversions. But why?

  • Higher engagement: Videos increase the time on page, giving your brand message longer to sink in
  • Feature yourself or company employees: Raise the trust factor by showing you?re real
  • People are lazy: Many prefer to watch rather than read

6. Trust factors

Some things that can help instill a sense of trust in your visitors are:

  • Number of participants: My personal favorite is for webinars or events. If you show a running count of how many people are attending it can really sell people on the value of the event.
  • Testimonials: They can be video, but written ones also work well, especially when associated with a brand that your visitors know
  • Client logos/endorsements: If you have recognizable clients include their logo.
  • Media mentions: Show the logos of big sites where you?ve been featured. Often achieved via a PR push around a product launch.

7. Visual design

Professional page design is also important for establishing trust ? but bad designs convert too (usually for cheesy pages selling miracle weight loss pills). So what can you do to improve your conversions using design?

There are a variety of techniques including directional cues like arrows, or people looking at your CTA, contrast, whitespace and color etc.. Read Designing for Conversion ? 8 Visual Design Techniques to Focus Attention on Your Landing Pages for a detailed exploration of this.

8. A/B Testing & Optimization

Your page is awesome, right? How do you know? You just made an assumption because you spent a boatload of time designing it and you are feeling proud of your masterpiece. The thing is, EVERY page can be better, and this is where testing and optimization come in.

How do you optimize your pages? Most people just throw out some ideas (often untrained people) and try a quick test based on a headline or button color change? but most tests fail.

A good process goes something like this:

  1. Gather user feedback on your page using tools like Olark (live chat) and Qualaroo (simple surveys). You?ll be surprised to learn where people are hitting barriers in your conversion funnel.
  1. Brainstorm ideas with a diverse collection of team members: Include customer support, designers, copywriters and information architects.
  1. Develop a hypothesis: Now that you have feedback and some ideas for a test page you need to create a hypothesis for why you think it will succeed and build your page with this in mind. Try writing it like this:

?Our Test Hypothesis: Will allowing visitors to download our PDF by providing their email address perform better than receiving it in exchange for a tweet? Considering that not everyone has a Twitter account, or is willing to share such information with their followers.?

It?ll you build a test page with a strong sense of purpose.

  1. Run the test: Finally, you need to set up a test with your new page against the original (control) page. Make sure you leave it running for at least a week to cover daily variations in behaviour and don?t stop the test until it?s had enough traffic to achieve statistical significance.
  1. Choose a winner: This is easy. Whichever performs best should be promoted to be your new champion page and the loser discarded.
  1. Try, try again: Remember that test will often not give you the results you were hoping for, but don?t give up if your first few attempts don?t pan out. Learn from them and keep trying.

To see how good you are at spotting what converts the best, try ConversionSkills.com. The value in trying to pick the winner is to remember that your decisions should be driven by data, not assumptions.

9. Post-conversion strategies

We?re at the end of the funnel, and the most under utilized conversion opportunity space you have at your disposal. Your confirmation pages are prime real estate to engage with your new lead/customer, after all they have just signalled positive intent by converting.

Things you can add to your confirmation page:

  • Webinar follow up: Remind people that they will receive full videos and slides of the webinar even if they weren?t able to attend.
  • Social sharing: Ask people to share your page with their colleagues.
  • Follow you: on the social networks they hang out on the most
  • Freebies: If you were doing lead gen to give away an ebook or whitepaper, give them an extra one free as a thank you.
  • Ask them to subscribe to your newsletter: This is a great way to keep people in your sphere of influence for further re-marketing in the future.
  • The Amazon model: Use ?People who liked this also liked? ? to drive extra sales.

For an even deeper dive, read post-conversion strategies for lead gen landing pages.


Now you?re a real landing page pro, so visit the landing page we put together just for Duct Tape readers and take the next step.

? Oli Gardner

Oli Gardner is Co-Founder & Creative Director at Unbounce ? The DIY Landing Page Platform. He is an opinionated writer, primarily on the subjects of landing pages and conversion rate optimization. You should follow him on Twitter @OliGardner.

?

?

A Crash Course in Landing Page Conversion is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Make sure you pick up your copy of our FREE Business Acceleration Report! Simply enter your info on the form to the right and I'll send it right out! -->> Thanks for visiting!

Tags: Oli Gardner, Small Business Internet Marketing, web marketing

Source: http://www.frontlinemarketingsystems.com/blog/small-business-marketing/a-crash-course-in-landing-page-conversion/

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It might be the girl. ? Lorena's Epiphany

September 26, 2012 at 11:14 pm

When it comes to making a commitment in relationships ? sorry to say it ladies ? it?s sometimes you not the guy that?s not ready. In the past few weeks, I?ve seen women (friends of mine) leave long-term relationships with men that were essentially ready to commit and start building a future with these ladies. They were ready for marriage and family if I may put it so bluntly. Now isn?t that what every woman would want?

Nope! At least not as much as we?d previously thought and there are certainly reasons for this. Trust me, if they were the man in the relationship (not referencing the whole ?who wears the pants? kind of metaphor here), they?d be getting a bad rep for being a player, not being serious enough (or perhaps even loving enough)?and for wasting the girl?s time.

The roles are reversing ? even here in Lebanon. Ok, we?re still behind most Western cultures where both sexes have almost equal independence but there?s no denying women are becoming more empowered here (slowly but surely). Lebanese women are more educated and ambitious than ever before, many pursuing Masters? degrees and studying/working abroad. We?re getting exposed to that whole wide world out there and quite frankly, we?re loving it (who can blame us?) especially if we come from more conservative families.

So naturally while we?re out-and-about traveling, working, studying and basically pursuing our careers, our priorities change. For some relationships remain one, for others, it takes second place to other goals we want to achieve before getting tied down. Commitment, as such, becomes an anchor or something that might hold us back from that. I?m not saying that?s the case for most women who freak out when it comes to commitment, but it could be an explanation.

A more scientific explanation is revealed through an interesting study on dating habits:

?Men in just about every cohort are just as eager to marry or more eager to marry as women are. It?s not true that they don?t want to commit. Particularly young men, age 21 to 34, are more eager to marry than women are. Throughout every single cohort, men are more eager to have children than women are.. As women make more money, they are valuing their independence more, according to the survey. Long gone are the days when marriage was the only option.?says cultural anthropologist?Dr. Helen Fisher [Source]

Food for thought. I?d recommend reading the study for yourself as it reveals an interesting shift in stereotypes regarding which of the sexes is more ready to commit these days.

It might be the guy, but lately, it might be the girl.

-

What do you think about all this? Are you noticing a change in pattern too?

Like this:

Be the first to like this.

Entry filed under: From the Heart. Tags: Commitment, Dating Shift, Dr. Helen Fisher, Lebanon, Men Ready to Commit, relationships, Singles.

Source: http://lorenasepiphany.com/2012/09/26/it-might-be-the-girl/

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Captains expect friendly but intense Ryder Cup

USA's captain Davis Love III, right, and European team captain Jose Maria Olazabal answer questions during a news conference at the Ryder Cup PGA golf tournament Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

USA's captain Davis Love III, right, and European team captain Jose Maria Olazabal answer questions during a news conference at the Ryder Cup PGA golf tournament Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

USA's captain Davis Love III, right, and European team captain Jose Maria Olazabal answer questions during a news conference at the Ryder Cup PGA golf tournament Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

European captain Jose Maria Olazabal answers a question during a news conference at the Ryder Cup PGA golf tournament Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

USA's captain Davis Love III answers a question during a news conference at the Ryder Cup PGA golf tournament Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

USA captain Davis Love III, left, and European captain Jose Maria Olazabal pose with the trophy at the Ryder Cup PGA golf tournament Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

(AP) ? The admiration Davis Love III and Jose Maria Olazabal have for each other started long before they were appointed Ryder Cup captains.

Olazabal was locked in a duel with Greg Norman on the back nine of the 1999 Masters when he pulled away, only to discover that Love was making a late charge with a bogey-free back nine that featured a chip-in from 25 feet behind the green on the par-3 16th. Olazabal pulled away, however, and won by two shots.

The next year after the Champions Dinner at Augusta National, Olazabal noticed there were a few extra bottles of wine.

He had them sent to Love.

"He felt like he had beaten me from the year before, and I should have gotten something out of it," Love said.

Love made his Ryder Cup debut in 1993 at The Belfry, teaming with Tom Kite against Seve Ballesteros and Olazabal, the most successful partnership in the history of the matches. The Americans handed the "Spanish Armada" one of only two defeats in their Ryder Cup career. Just his luck, Love had to face them twice more, both losses.

"Kite and Seve were bashing away, and we were on the side trying to be friendly," Love said. "We always had that respect for each other. There's a lot of connections. I was very pleased when I found out he was going to be the captain."

Of all the details that go on behind the scenes in what Love refers to as a "very structured" event, he said there has never been "one problem, one controversy."

"It speaks to what kind of guy he is," Love said.

One of the discussions was about clothing. The Americans wear a collection of red, white and blue, though it doesn't have full ownership of those colors. All indications are that the U.S. team will have red shirts for Sunday, presumably so that it won't clash with European blue.

Olazabal is said to want blue for Sunday as a tribute to what Ballesteros typically wore in the final round. Ballesteros died in May 2011, making this the first Ryder Cup without the great Spaniard who was so responsible in reviving the matches.

"He was very understanding of it, and I'll say no more at the moment," Olazabal said of the team colors and conversations with Love.

Make no mistake, though. Both teams are desperate to hold that 17-inch gold trophy that Olazabal brought over on the plane from London. Europe has won six of the past eight times in the Ryder Cup, including a 14?-13? win in Wales two years ago.

Tiger Woods said last week that captains take on the personality they showed as players, and Love would be quick to agree with that, especially when it comes to Olazabal, a two-time Masters champion who fought through injuries.

"You know he's competitive, and it's going to be competitive," Love said. "But it's organized, friendly, cordial, respectful. That's how it should be."

Indeed, this is a different Ryder Cup from when both captains first played.

That much was clear by the manner in which the European team arrived. Olazabal stepped off the plane at an airport in Rockford, about 45 minutes from Medinah, with the Ryder Cup trophy in his possession. He was followed off the plane by only three of his 12 players ? Francesco Molinari, Paul Lawrie and Nicolas Colsaerts.

Everyone else was already here.

Five of the Europeans ? Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Peter Hanson, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia ? have homes at Lake Nona in Orlando, Fla.

Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, among four players who were in Atlanta on Sunday for the Tour Championship, are moving to south Florida. Luke Donald lives about 45 minutes away on the north side of Chicago.

It wasn't that long ago that Team Europe came over together because that's where so many lived and played ? Howard Clark and David Gilford, Sam Torrance and Mark James, Ian Woosnam and Colin Montgomerie.

Olazabal didn't see that as a problem.

"Obviously, when you look at some of the European players, they have their home base here," he said. "They play the tour over here. They are very familiar with the golf courses around here, with their opponents, and in that regard, I think they feel really more comfortable with the whole situation of coming here to the States to play The Ryder Cup. It has changed in that respect, and also that they have realized through the years that they have been able to compete against the players here.

"And that somehow boosts your confidence, and that is a very important part when you are playing match play."

Still, there was a certain charm about having the team arrive as one.

Love remembers his first Ryder Cup in 1993, when U.S. captain Tom Watson assembled his group in New York and spoke of a grand adventure to Europe with the sole purpose of bringing back the cup.

Golf is different now.

"I miss that a little bit," Love said. "We all gather and fly over. They fly over here. That was a really cool thing. But I think what we have got now is a much bigger event."

Noting that so many of the world's best players are at Medinah Country Club, Love said that golf has become "incredibly better."

"What we have in our team rooms now and the camaraderie between the two teams is just incredible, and it's amazing how much it's changed over the years," Love said. "And we're playing against our friends, but it's still as intense ? maybe even more ? because we are more familiar with them.

"That doesn't make it any less competitive," he said. "It just makes it that we know each other a lot better. Makes the team room party on Sunday night a lot more fun."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-09-25-Ryder%20Cup/id-8a8554d5e7c4447f85bbce2a6dc86784

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Internet Business Marketer and Why It's the Best SEO Software ...

There are various kinds of SEO computer software tools available in the market today and all have the major intent behind guaranteeing most useful ranks of your site on search engines. They automate SEO duties which were usually done manually. A few of the noticably SEO application contain as a minimum, SEO Elite, Link Assistant, Web CEO, Trendmix, website master toolkit, and TrafficTravis. But, even with all these SEO instruments in situation, there?s still one which beats them all hands down. With the usage of Internet Business Promoter abbreviated as IBP you can be assured that all your SEO tasks would be moved without much hassle or need for your intervention.The introduction of Internet Business Promoter into the marketplace has come as more of an eye opener to many online business entrepreneurs. It?s got an inbuilt ability to streamline your entire SEO procedures and then it offers you guarantee that your site might get the greatest ratings on leading se?s. Again, with the use of IBP, it is much more comfortable and easy way to optimize your site because it comes with already built-in and examined SEO practices which are most suited to enhancing the ranks of your site on significant searches.Like most of the different SEO computer software tools available in the market, Web Business Promoter includes an abundance of features. The fact that it?s undergone thorough assessments and debugging offers that peace to you of mind in performing your SEO tasks. If you have to utilize various functions into your organization site, you can do that easily with the usage of this software.Keyword density analyzer, keyword turbine, HTML validator, keyword editor, PPC strategy director, url improver, manual list checker and customizable seo reviews are a number of the most remarkable characteristics inbuilt into Internet Business Promoter. With IBP, it?s like you?ve a whole house of functions meant to raise your presence on the internet.If you buy this sort of application, you will get yourself a 100% money back guarantee. Fundamentally, IBP offers you the confidence that you?ll have the excellent top search engine rank. This software is examined and confirmed to impact SEO jobs and so it will be most ideal for your kind of business. Its principal function is always to automate search period distribution and the search engine poster is yet another feature integrated into this application and reactions developed. There are numerous causes why you need to consider the usage of Internet Business Promoter especially if you perform every one of these features to an online business.With in mind, there?s undoubtedly that IBP is the greatest SEO application in the market. Its essence might not be really appreciated by you but once you use it, you?ll know that it is the resource you?ve been lacking in your business all of this time.

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Source: http://articlepdq.com/health-fitness/internet-business-marketer-and-why-its-the-best-seo-software/

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Monday, September 24, 2012

Obama should call China currency manipulator October 15 - Romney aide

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Yahoo employees to get taste of new CEO's 'radical transparency'

By Martha C. White

Despite an impressive track record during her 13-year tenure at Google, Marissa Mayer is still an unknown quantity in her leadership role at Yahoo. On Tuesday, investors should get a better sense of how the rookie CEO plans to turn around the Internet giant.

Mayer plans a pair of all-company meetings (two in order to accommodate employees in time zones across the globe) tomorrow to share the strategies she laid out last week for Yahoo?s board of directors ?in an act of radical transparency,? according to an internal memo obtained by the tech blog AllThingsD. Mayer will give ?guidance as to where the company is going.?

This is insight the investor community wants just as badly, especially because Yahoo didn?t offer third quarter guidance in its last earnings report to give Mayer time to assimilate into her new role. Yahoo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about whether or not any details of the meeting would be shared with investors, although Mayer's "radical transparency" will almost certainly lead to more leaks.

?The key here is a focus on getting Yahoo back to execution,? said Ron Josey, an analyst at ThinkEquity.

Although Mayer's most recent focus at Google was on location-related products, analysts expect her to concentrate now on Yahoo's core businesses of search and display advertising.?"Looking at her background, I think she will kind of elaborate on her product strategy," said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co., LLC. "It?s probably the right approach. They have two customers, the consumer and the advertiser, but without the consumer, there?s no advertiser, so she has to make sure the consumer stays," he said.

Brian Wieser, a senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group, said the investment community would be listening for Mayer to lay out some strategies for a couple of key projects. "I think the ones that are most interesting to me really include things like finding ways to consolidate the display business and finding ways to deepen ties with AOL and MSN," he said.

Mayer's long history in the search business almost certainly will make her a better negotiator when it comes to working with Microsoft on the two companies' search partnership, and investments in behavioral analytics technology could help it in the display-ad space.?"Display advertising is extremely competitive but it?s growing a lot faster than it was two years back, and Yahoo?s the market leader," Sinha said.?

Analysts also want to hear Mayer lay out a framework for a mobile strategy. Making money from users coming to an online destination from their phones is an ongoing challenge for companies like Facebook, but Sinha said Mayer will do better by focusing on the expereince the user has on his or her desktop first.?

"If your core website is good, then people will try to find you on their mobile devices also," he said.

There's also the question of what Mayer plans to do with the cash left over after returning $3 billion of the proceeds from selling part of its stake in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group to shareholders.??I definitely hope to hear more about her strategy about acquisition,? Sinha said.

Any framework of a cohesive strategy going forward will be welcome news for shareholders.??Investors will be interested in seeing what Ms. Mayer can do compared with the successive string of CEOs that have recently come and gone,? Ralph Schackart, an analyst at William Blair & Co. LLC, wrote in a research note shortly after Mayer?s hiring in July.

"For us on Wall Street to get super-excited, I think we need to see better execution and this? would be her first debut," Josey said "It?s something we've been waiting to hear from her since she joined."

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Source: http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/24/14073024-yahoo-employees-to-get-taste-of-new-ceos-radical-transparency?lite

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Death and recovery after open-heart surgery - Health - Macleans.ca

Here at Maclean's, we appreciate the written word. And we appreciate you, the reader. We are always looking for ways to create a better user experience for you and wanted to try out a new functionality that provides you with a reading experience in which the words and fonts take centre stage. We believe you'll appreciate the clean, white layout as you read our feature articles. But we don't want to force it on you and it's completely optional. Click "View in Clean Reading Mode" on any article if you want to try it out. Once there, you can click "Go back to regular view" at the top or bottom of the article to return to the regular layout.

A ticking time bomb

Photograph by Cole Garside

?Look, lady, the last time I was in this hospital, I died.?

That was the God?s truth?at least the dying part was. Actually, I?d been back to Toronto General?s emergency unit three times since my heart stopped, the day after I had open-heart surgery in May 2011.

But on this particular morning, three months later, I was lying on a gurney waiting to go into an operating room for yet another heart procedure when the anaesthetist said: ?Mr. Ramsay, we?re going to give you something to relax you.? She unwrapped the needle before inserting it into a vein in my wrist. But she missed the vein, and since I was on blood thinners, my wrist began to bleed all over the sheets. The doctor quickly stepped back and asked a nurse to get my ?line? going. By now, the sedative was having its effect and I began to feel light-headed. But I was ever watchful. That?s when I told her about dying the last time I was here. It was an inauspicious start.

Cardioverting is a little like being tasered. Big wire patches are taped onto your chest and back. Then you?re zapped with 100 joules of electricity in the hope that your heart will be converted back into a normal thub-thub, thub-thub rhythm. Mine was beating all over the place, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes skipping a beat. This is called atrial fibrillation. You can have it and not feel it, and it can usually be controlled by drugs. But in my case, A-fib made it impossible for me to work, to sleep, to function at all without huge fear that it would send me, as it had many times following my surgery, into what felt like having a heart attack and a stroke at the same time. So by this time I would have done anything to stop the chaos that had taken over my life.

My open-heart surgery three months earlier had lasted for five hours, so I asked my cardiologist, Dr. John Ross, how long this procedure would take.

?A few milliseconds.?

?Will I feel anything??

?I hope not, for your sake.?

He smiled.

Five years before, I?d finished running my 10th marathon and was in the best shape of my life. Indeed, my wife, Jean Marmoreo, and I had founded the women?s marathon group Jean?s Marines that had taken hundreds of women off the couch and trained them to do the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington. Years later, Jean had gone on to be the fastest woman in her age group in the Boston Marathon. We?d trekked to Mount Everest, hiked 1,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail, mushed huskies in the Arctic. I wore my street cred in the world of adventure like a medal.

Then one day in 2005 I asked my family doctor if I could have a stress echocardiogram. I did it more out of cockiness than caution. Sure, it made sense that a 57-year-old man whose mother had died of arteriosclerosis at 59 would have his heart tested to see if anything was amiss. In truth, I just wanted to have proof of how fit my heart was. But as I was to find out, fit doesn?t mean healthy. That test and the events that followed would teach me some painful lessons about what we can and can?t control in our lives.

The cardio imaging revealed that I had a heart murmur caused by my faulty aortic valve. It seems that one in 100 Canadians is born with it and, like fully half the cases, I?d need to come back in 10 to 15 years and get a new aortic valve. My only concern was if I?d be able to run after I got that new valve. ?Of course you can run,? my cardiologist assured me. That was in 2006.

By January 2011, I was barely able to walk up stairs without stopping for breath. I?d ?nap? for an hour in the morning at work, and for another hour in the afternoon. One day I went to a gym to do some spinning on a bike and had to quit after a minute.

My wife, who?s a physician, grew alarmed.

More tests came in fast order. It seemed my aortic valve was wearing out much sooner than expected. Dr. Ross said I needed valve replacement surgery. So on May 3, 2011, my rib cage was cut open and a team of surgeons at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at Toronto General Hospital replaced my aging aortic valve with a shiny new titanium one.

All went well. Right after surgery, I was taken to the intensive care unit for 24 hours. I was expected to remain in hospital for another four or five days. Then I?d be sent home, and for the next six weeks or so I?d recuperate and try to walk a little further each day. I could look forward to being back at work in a couple of months. When I was feeling up to it, I could ride my bike or even run.

That day in intensive care I drifted in and out of consciousness. The nurses asked me endlessly if I knew what day it was and could I spell the word ?world? backwards. Jean was by my side. Once when I woke up, she looked teary. I asked her what was wrong. She said: ?I?ll tell you when they take you to your room.?

They did that the next day.

?I think it?s time we told you what happened yesterday,? said Jean.

?Sure, what happened??

?Well, honey, you didn?t have a near-death experience.?

What was she talking about?

?You had a death experience.?

?What do you mean??

She was looking steadily into my eyes. ?Your heart stopped.?

?What??

I first thought it was a bad joke. My next thought was: ?Wow, I?m invincible!? Then, after a few seconds, as I absorbed the impact of what Jean had said, I burst into tears.

Jean told me I?d had sudden ?heart block? (not to be confused with heart blockage). She explained what had happened.

?How long was I dead??

?A little over two minutes.?

?How did they restart my heart??

?Just like on TV.?

So the next day a pacemaker was inserted below my collarbone to kick-start my heart should it ever ?block? again.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that in the real dark night of the soul, it is always 3 o?clock in the morning. For me, it was 5 o?clock. At that hour, when everything in the hospital is dark and quiet, I would wake from my drugged sleep and cry.

I know people die on the operating table. For every 100 Canadians who undergo aortic replacement surgery, 2.7 will not make it (although at the Munk Cardiac Centre, the rate is 0.9 per cent). Our parents can die in surgery, maybe. Not us. And certainly not me. Besides, I?d survived the open-heart surgery with flying colours. Mind you, I couldn?t remember a single thing about dying or coming back from the dead. No flashing lights or smiling loved ones. Nothing. In fact, I had to take it entirely on faith that any of this had happened. I told myself that my job right now was to get better physically.

Over the next six weeks, I tried to do precisely that. At home, I read a lot of books, watched a ton of TV and walked further each day.

A couple of times in the months before surgery, I?d felt dizzy and had to sit down, and when my wife would take my pulse, she?d declare I was in A-fib. In other words, I had that occasional irregular heartbeat, with resulting palpitations and shortness of breath.

The doctors had said they couldn?t fix my A-fib until they replaced my valve. It turns out my heart remained in A-fib after surgery. But not to worry, there were drugs that could regulate it. One of them was a beta blocker called Metoprolol. Unfortunately, it also made me tired and lethargic, pretty much how I had felt before surgery.

Two months after surgery, I had a post-operative meeting with my cardiac surgeon who pronounced the valve replacement a total success. So there was a bounce in my step as I headed out of his office and down University Avenue to a client meeting. I had been back at work as a communications consultant for a month. I ducked into the Hilton Hotel to go to the men?s room on the lower floor. Suddenly, my legs buckled. I grabbed ahold of the railing. What the hell was that?

I felt light-headed. My hands and jaw started to tingle. My lips grew numb. I turned around and pulled myself up the stairs to the main floor. I was damned if I was going to die alone in the men?s room in the basement of a hotel.

I walked unsteadily into the lobby and sat down. By this time, I was feeling dizzy, but I had to get out of there. So I got up and walked, one foot slowly in front of the other, outside. The doorman looked at me oddly. I was walking like a drunken sailor. When I walked smack into a building, hitting my arm on the marble wall, I knew I was in trouble. I was having a stroke. I had to get to the hospital. It had to be Toronto General. They had all my records. It was six blocks away.

Somehow, I managed to walk out onto the street and into oncoming traffic. I raised my hand and a taxi stopped right away. I got into the back and said: ?Toronto General Emerg.?

The driver looked at me in his mirror: ?Are you okay, mister??

?I?m not sure.?

Five minutes later, we were at the front door of one of the largest emergency units in Canada. I struggled out of the cab and walked up to the reception. I blurted out: ?I?m having a stroke.? I was pouring sweat and barely able to stand. Within a minute, two triage nurses got me into an examining room. There, they asked me if I could talk, if I was in pain, if I felt numb and where (?My hands, my jaw!?) and even the old standby, if I could spell ?world? backwards. By now the waves of dizziness forced me to prop my head on the top of my chair as I tried to answer their questions. The nurses moved me into an acute-care cardio bed in the ER. They called Jean, who rushed over. Over the next three hours, doctors, nurses and technicians poked, probed and questioned me. I felt better lying down, but the waves of dizziness and rapid heartbeat kept coming every 15 minutes. I was terrified.

After an hour, I was struck by the fact that no one was using the word ?stroke? anymore, so I assumed I wasn?t having one. It seems I had had a particularly virulent A-fib attack that had broken through the Metoprolol and sent my heartbeat racing?irregularly?to 140 beats per minute. All the doctors could do for now was give me more Metoprolol.

Six hours later, feeling exhausted and relieved, I left the ER with Jean. We took a cab home and I crawled into bed. I was well and truly gorked on Metoprolol.

The next morning, Jean told me the new prescription for Metoprolol would double the dose of what I?d been taking. Although it would make me feel even more lethargic, I should stay on the high dosage until they figured out what to do. Clearly, my A-fib was no longer a benign condition. I learned that a third of all strokes are caused by it.

While I?d hoped to be back to work full-time, it became obvious that it would take me longer to recover. Just writing a brief email took enormous energy. My concentration was shot, and my memory, well, it leaked everywhere. Jean said a lot of this was because of the drugs. Talking was tiring; a 10-minute conversation would leave me drained. And though I gradually got my strength and focus back over those weeks, if someone had asked me to write a 30-minute speech, as I?d routinely done before, I no longer had it in me.

After awhile, I knew that I really couldn?t work, so I had to lay off my two staff. This left me alone in the office, where I puttered with paperwork. But frankly, my big daytime activity last June and July was snoozing. I?d bought an air mattress and a blanket and would doze off for an hour each morning and two hours each afternoon.

A week after my first A-fib attack, it struck again. This time, I had a foreboding. Walking along Bay Street in midtown Toronto, I suddenly felt very light-headed. I knew right away I?d have to lie down, so I walked as fast as I could back to my office. I unlocked the door and bolted to the air mattress. My heart raced, my head spun. This time, lying down didn?t help. I was alone on the floor thinking: ?What if this isn?t A-fib, but that stroke I?m at risk of having?? I stood up unsteadily and called Jean, who was at work a block away. I told her I had to come over to her clinic. She told me to go to emerg. I made it downstairs and out onto Bay Street where a friend saw me clinging to a lamppost as I yelled for a cab. I didn?t want to call 911 because the ambulance might take too long. Besides, what if I was taken to the wrong hospital?

At Toronto General, the routine was much like my first visit, and I was discharged that night. Two weeks later, it happened again. Over the course of the month between my first A-fib attack and my third, I went into a profound physical and psychological free fall. When I wasn?t in A-fib, I was in terror of it. I stopped taking the subway for fear I?d be trapped underground during an attack. Each morning, I would map out which streets I would walk on. They couldn?t be side streets. They had to have lots of people, day and night, and most of all, lots of cabs.

By this time, I was avoiding even the few client meetings I needed to attend. Not just because I didn?t want my clients to call 911, but because there were two occasions when I was in the middle of a meeting and I simply burst into tears. So I stopped meeting clients in person as much as I could. But even the phone couldn?t shield me. I took calls from friends, and again I couldn?t stop weeping, and I?d hang up.

The fact is, I rarely went to the office anymore. I?d still do my daily walks. But why do anything that would get my heart rate higher and risk flipping into A-fib? So I stayed at home, slept and ate a lot. I gained 20 lb., filling the holes left by my anxiety.

I gave up reading books because I couldn?t remember what I?d read even as I was reading it. I stuck to magazines and newspapers (I remember getting through the entire front section of the Globe and Mail one day before I realized it was yesterday?s edition). I would lie in bed and watch half a dozen hour-long episodes of MI-5 in a row.

Three or four days would go by and there would be no attacks. I would think, ?Phew, they?re over.? But now, even a mild one brought the same terror as a major attack. Jean thought I should see my cardiologist.

Dr. Ross expressed some surprise that I was on such large doses of Metoprolol. I told him I was always tired. What I didn?t tell him was that I thought the Metoprolol was starting to make me crazy. He suggested I switch to a different kind of beta blocker, one called Sotolol. We talked about what could be done to stop the attacks. It was clear they were not just running my life, they were ruining it.

He said there were three ways out when it came to stopping A-fib. The first was drugs. Well, that clearly wasn?t working. The second was cardioversion, where your heart is shocked back into normal rhythm. But cardioversion only works on a third of patients. The same with drugs and the third option: ablation. They?d open up my heart again and ablate, or destroy, the areas of abnormal heart tissue that were causing the heart?s electrical system to short-circuit. The last thing I wanted was another round of open-heart surgery. Besides, you often had to wait three to six months after ablation for your heart to move back into normal rhythm.

I left Dr. Ross?s office feeling angry and helpless. When I talked to Jean, she admitted that whenever one medical problem had three solutions, generally none of them was really good. I told her that if each of these procedures only worked a third of the time, then the odds were against me ever beating A-fib. She suggested I was getting ahead of myself.

The next morning, a Friday in early August, I went to the drugstore to have my prescription filled for that new beta blocker. The pharmacist explained how often I had to take the pills and suggested I read the product description he had printed off.

I did. It said: ?Sotolol should only be taken in a hospital environment under the direct supervision of a cardiologist.?

What was this? ?Side effects include heart attack, stroke and sudden death.?

What the hell? I read it over and over.

By the time I got home, there was only one conclusion I could logically draw: my doctors were trying to kill me. This wasn?t just some angry fantasy. I truly believed I could no longer trust my cardiologist, my family doctor, or even my wife. So I called a friend who?s a doctor, Elaine Chin, and told her that my new beta blocker would surely kill me.

She suggested I go to the drugstore and buy a bottle of Tylenol and read the product description. ?It will say pretty much the same thing. They all do because they have to mention every conceivable bad outcome. So Bob: take the Sotolol!?

I did, half convinced I was going to drop dead right there.

That same evening, in another desperate effort to exert some control over my life, I told Jean that I was going to check into a hotel, which was just a block from the Toronto General ER. Jean carefully asked me why. I told her?or rather snapped?that I never wanted to be more than 100 yards from the hospital. My barking was one part anger at anyone who was listening, because they couldn?t solve my problem, and one part anger at myself that I was unable to help myself.

Over the last few weeks, my A-fib attacks had occurred more often, with greater force, and lasted longer. My memory had become even worse. I painstakingly entered every appointment in my Outlook calendar, checking to make sure I had the right time and date and place?and three times in a week I turned up for meetings 24 hours ahead of time, or at the wrong place. I tried to cling to my work, but I was way too jumpy to write anything more than a page at most.

Finally, on Aug. 3, I found myself lying on a gurney waiting to be cardioverted. I awoke an hour later to find my heart?thub-thub, thub-thub?beating normally. Days later, it was still fine. Those terrible days of A-fib were in the past. I could pick up where I?d left off in recovering from my valve replacement. I did that; I started to walk to the office. I was even willing to walk down side streets. I took the subway. I noticed that I could walk up more stairs without getting out of breath. I actually started to ride my bike.

But I felt highly anxious. I couldn?t understand why my psyche hadn?t returned to normal when my heart had. A friend called me one night from Chicago. She asked how I was. I burst into tears. I hung up and sent her a text message saying I was fine, really.

Then one evening after dinner, Jean and I went for a walk. Jean idly mentioned that most of the 12 doctors in her office had had a meeting that afternoon. ?Oh, what was that about?? I asked.

?It was about you.?

?Really??

?Yes. It took us 10 seconds to determine you?re depressed and 15 minutes to figure out which antidepressant you should go on.?

I was enraged. I turned to her, practically yelling: ?I?m not depressed. I?m just sad!?

?Right, darling . . . So the antidepressant is safe with all your meds and is called Remeron. Here?s the prescription. You can get it filled in the morning.?

After my flash of anger, I suddenly felt relieved. Someone cared! The cavalry was coming! But could I really be depressed? I?d forgotten the warning before my operation that one in three patients who has open-heart surgery will suffer from depression.

It takes a few weeks for any antidepressant to kick in, and weeks longer to fiddle with the right dosage. But I have to tell you, the next morning, after I picked up my prescription, taking care not to read the product description, I took my first dose of Remeron and felt better within 30 seconds. As Jean said, so great was my need to feel in control that the placebo effect likely sped me on my way.

Today, 16 months after I got a new valve and died, almost a year after my A-fib attacks fell away and a year after I was diagnosed with depression, I marvel at a number of things I?d taken for granted before. I?m amazed that the doctors at the Munk Cardiac Centre were right: I could run after I got my new valve. It?s three times a week at a plodding pace. But I?ll go further tomorrow than I did yesterday, and that counts for something, too.

I marvel at my heart and the new life it has given me. I?m back at work. I rarely cry. My clients have returned and Jean and I have just come home from trekking in the mountains of Bhutan. I marvel that our hearts sit quietly in our chests, beating 100,000 times a day in the seven billion of us who walk the Earth, with only a few of us giving it a second?s thought. Maybe that?s why heart disease doesn?t get the fear and loathing that cancer does, even though it will kill almost as many of us.

But the greatest marvel for me is that I finally realized that for three months last year I?d been living my life as if each day was my last. So now I?m happiest when I?m doing incredibly ordinary things, like having dinner with Jean, or reading a book, or even just going for a walk, one foot consciously in front of the other.

Source: http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/09/24/a-ticking-time-bomb/

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Sunday, September 23, 2012

More Home Improvement Outlet auctions | Wally's Workshop

More Home Improvement Outlet auctions | Wally's Workshop by ArtsN on Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 | No Comments

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Matt_Ginella: In a popular Brooklyn sports bar (let that sit for a second). There are 10 flatscreens...sadly, no golf. #playoffs?

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Saturday, September 22, 2012

XBOX 360 Holiday Bundle The Top Bargain In Gaming Consoles -

Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 5:47 pm ?

Together with the major and greatest collection of video games and plays to pick out from, there?s intended for all ? commence type the regular titles for the leading and top rated most blockbuster on the web online games. XBOX 360 Holiday Bundle tricky drives will certainly occupy the place you might demand of, that will retailer up displays, arcade game titles, demos might also even though the occupied Xbox 360 on the web games. It comes also having an incorporated Wi-Fi, it could be easy to join and bond to your Xbox 360 Live to get a massive and exciting enjoyment and you?ll have it from Hd reveals and films, Tv displays also to real-like sports.
The XBOX 360 250 GB Holiday Bundle S Consoles totally runs with simply a whisper peaceful work. This Xbox 360 S console helps you to participate in amusement; game titles may possibly too view videos with no nosiness and intrusion. The XBOX 360 Holiday Bundle readily connect for the Xbox Dwell, you are able to absolutely seasoned and possess entertaining on this planet of entertainment could too perform video games collectively with close friends in almost any portion of the entire world.
The Fable 3 is subsequently the blockbuster episode that is drastically well-known within the Fable franchise. This sort of enjoy direct to the mutiny to own the ability on controlling the Albion, may well at the same time combating on the facet from the people today, with each other also in comprehension the truly feel of affection and failure although planning to seem following in the empire in opposition to your enemy. Like a leading character, your possibilities will probably be to stick to in consequence to experience across the complete land.
This XBOX 360 Holiday Bundle is Rated ?M? to people that are Mature plenty of. The Halo Reach will allow you to unite on the Noble Staff to important procedure all through the extremely hard and darkest hour to be sure the continuity of your personal pursuit. Spartan?s bravery and sacrifice, it truly is approximately those that will make sure that human race?s idea will get noticed instead of the very last. The complete XBOX 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle video game could possibly be downloaded easily.

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