Thursday, May 31, 2012

Smoking during pregnancy linked to severe asthma in teen years

ScienceDaily (May 31, 2012) ? African-American and Latino children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from acute asthma symptoms in their teens than asthma sufferers whose mothers did not smoke, according to a new study led by a research team at UCSF.

In an analysis of nearly 2,500 Latino and African-American children with asthma, the researchers found that children between age 8 and 17 with acute asthma symptoms were far more likely to have had mothers who smoked during pregnancy, even when the team controlled for elements such as education, socioeconomic level and childhood exposure to tobacco smoke.

"If women smoked while pregnant, their children had about a 50 percent increase in uncontrolled asthma, even when we controlled for current tobacco exposure," said Sam S. Oh, PhD, MPH, a postdoctoral scholar in epidemiology at the UCSF Center for Tobacco Research and Education, who is first author on the paper. "Kids who are 17 years old still show the effects of something they were exposed to during the first nine months of life."

The findings are significant in light of the greater proportion of women from ethnic minorities who smoke throughout their pregnancies, the researchers said, as well as the higher rates of asthma within both of those communities than in the overall U.S. population.

The results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Acute asthma significantly affects the quality of life of patients and their families, costing an estimated $56 billion per year in the United States in medical expenses, premature deaths and missed days of work and school, according to the National Institutes of Health.

While extensive research has shown the effect of smoking on asthma risk in young children, the relative contribution of smoking during pregnancy has not been well established, with even less research focused on the populations that are more likely to use tobacco during pregnancy, according to the paper.

The study found that the exact timing of tobacco exposure during pregnancy -- whether it was the first trimester or third -- was less important than whether they smoked at all, although children with acute symptoms were more likely to have had mothers who smoked for all nine months.

"Most mothers tend to quit smoking as pregnancy progresses, with the majority quitting by the end of the first trimester," Oh said. "But in African-American and Puerto Rican mothers, not only did they smoke more frequently, but they also smoked for a longer time during pregnancy."

An estimated 13.8 percent of American women smoke during pregnancy, according to the U.S. Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. Among African-American women, 18.8 percent smoke during pregnancy, as do 6 percent of Puerto Rican mothers and 3.8 percent of Mexican mothers. Findings such as these give a strong incentive to reduce that to zero, the researchers said.

Smoking cessation during pregnancy was uncommon among the Puerto Rican and African-American study participants, with only 35 percent and 29 percent, respectively, quitting smoking before their third trimester. In contrast, 72 percent of the Mexican mothers stopped smoking by the end of the second trimester.

"This could be part of the reason African Americans have higher mortality rates associated with asthma," said Esteban Gonzalez Burchard, MD, MPH, a professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy whose research focuses on disparities in asthma prevalence, severity and drug responsiveness among diverse racial/ethnic populations. "We know African Americans metabolize nicotine differently than Caucasians. This shows that in utero exposure leads to changes in DNA, but we don't know how that affects asthma later on."

The researchers said the findings highlight one of two possible causes: either the infant's lungs are damaged during development in the womb or in utero exposure to tobacco smoke causes a genetic change that carries over to the next generation.

Asthma is known to be caused by multiple factors, including genetics. The study, which only assessed African-American and Latino children with asthma, found that about 5 percent of those children whose symptoms were controllable through medical treatment had mothers who smoked during pregnancy. By contrast, roughly 12 percent of the children with uncontrolled, or acute, asthma had mothers who smoked.

The study comprised researchers from 17 institutions in the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico and tapped into two previous, large-scale research projects that Burchard led: the Gene-Environments and Admixture in Latino Asthmatics (GALA II) study, and the Study of African Americans, Asthma, Genes, & Environments (SAGE II).

Funding for the study came from the National Institutes of Health, the American Asthma Foundation, Ernest S. Bazley Trust, the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute, the Fund for Henry Ford Hospital, RWJF Amos Medical Faculty Award, and the Sandler Foundation.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), via Newswise. The original article was written by Kristen Bole.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Sam S. Oh, Haig Tcheurekdjian, Lindsey A. Roth, Elizabeth A. Nguyen, Saunak Sen, Joshua M. Galanter, Adam Davis, Harold J. Farber, Frank D. Gilliland, Rajesh Kumar, Pedro C. Avila, Emerita Brigino-Buenaventura, Rocio Chapela, Jean G. Ford, Michael A. LeNoir, Fred Lurmann, Kelley Meade, Denise Serebrisky, Shannon Thyne, William Rodriguez-Cintron, Jose R. Rodriguez-Santana, L. Keoki Williams, Luisa N. Borrell, Esteban G. Burchard. Effect of secondhand smoke on asthma control among black and Latino children. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2012; 129 (6): 1478 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2012.03.017

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Tesla shows us how a Model S is made, tailors EVs to your exact liking online (video)

Image

Tesla is just three weeks away from delivering the Model S, but that hasn't stopped it from getting more in-depth with the construction of its first four-door EV. The automaker's first peek behind the scenes shows us just how quickly it can make the aluminum body parts that make the electric sedan: a single part can be stamped out in just six seconds. If you'd rather get to ordering a Model S than watching it built, though, Tesla is about to kick off Design Studio, a new way to customize the company's EVs for orders. Build-and-price sites aren't anything new, although Tesla will be rare in eventually letting you pull the trigger online instead of having to plead with a dealer to place an order. Design Studio goes up this week, with full sales in a few months; new details of the Model S production process will go live every Tuesday if you need a steady intravenous drip of Tesla news.

Continue reading Tesla shows us how a Model S is made, tailors EVs to your exact liking online (video)

Tesla shows us how a Model S is made, tailors EVs to your exact liking online (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 May 2012 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apartment Careers: Installation jobs, Maintenance jobs, Repair jobs ...



Maintenance Technician (Make Ready) - Arlington POSTED: May 30
Hourly Rate: 12.00 Location: Arlington, Texas
Employer: LumaCorp Inc. Type: Full Time - Experienced
Categories: Installation, Maintenance, Repair, Real Estate/Property Management, Site Personnel - Maintenance Preferred Education: High School

About LumaCorp Inc.

LumaCorp Inc. is a licensed Real Estate Broker and a member of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), The Apartment Association of Greater Dallas, The Apartment Association of Tarrant County, The Houston Apartment Association and a number of other local affiliates of the Texas Apartment Association. LumaCorp Inc. has been designated an Accredited Management Organization (AMO) by the Institute of Real Estate Management. LumaCorp Inc.'s three officers bring over 75 years of Texas real ....more info

View all our jobs


The Maintenance Technician assists the Service Manager in maintaining the appearance of the property; to assist with the preventive maintenance program, and to follow safe work habits. Maintenance Technician has authority and responsibility to perform the function and tasks set forth below. ? Make ready of vacant units, may include painting and carpet cleaning ? Assist Service Manager or Service Technician whenever needed ? Assist Grounds keeper in maintaining grounds and pool ? Available for rotating call ? Assist in preventive maintenance/filter changes

NOTES:
Additional Salary Information: Excellent benefits package and 40% rent discount if candidate chooses to live on site (it is not required)

Preferred Qualifications ? Reliable transportation or live on site ? Tools to complete job tasks ? Maintenance experience for at least 1 year ? Able to read, write, and speak English ? Training in at least 4 of the following areas: Carpentry, plumbing, electrical, painting, HVAC, carpet repairs, refurbish and cleaning Physical Requirements: ? Must be able to kneel and stoop, dig for minor trenching, sweep for 1-2 hours, reach 2-3 feet overhead with 30 lbs., work outside in hot or cold extremes, navigate an appliance dolly with up to 120 lbs. up and down stairs, pull out appliances from the wall, work with small tools, handle heights up to 30-40 feet, test pool chemicals, able to lift 50 lbs., body mobility to include laying down and bending, and not color blind. Work with small tools, able to climb a ladder to access windows and dexterity to clean boiler parts Will need to clean gutters, and perform roof repairs.



LumaCorp Inc.

Arlington TX

www.lumacorp.com "); febox .html('') .addClass('featured-employer-box') .appendTo($('body')) .css({ "height":fWin.height() - 50, "width":980 }) .overlay({ top: 20, closeOnClick:true, load: false }); feframe = $('#featured-employer-frame'); }); $('body').delegate('.fe-popup','click',function(e) { var el = $(this); feframe.contents().find('body').html(""); feframe.attr('src',el.data('url')); febox.overlay().load(); }); })(jQuery);

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Kicksend Releases An Android App For Sharing All Your Photos, Videos, and More

kicksend-large-blueLast December, file-sharing startup Kicksend went mobile, with an iPhone app designed to enable easy sharing of photos and videos that are captured from your mobile device. Now, six months later, the startup is taking that same functionality and making it available to Android users as well. Kicksend, which was incubated as part of the Y Combinator Summer 2011 class, aims to make file-sharing easy, with a way to share and access photos, videos, and other large files across multiple platforms. The startup has a web application at kicksend.com that lets users connect to all their files online. It also has access through a desktop app for Mac users, and an app for iPhone users as well. And now it'll be available on Android as well.

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What Caused 6-Year-Old's Stroke?

Six-year-old Erica Wilcox woke up one fall morning in 2011 and told her parents her right hand felt "fizzy."

The first-grader was healthy and active, even running cross-country at her elementary school, so her parents, Dan and Leann Wilcox, of Toledo, Ohio, didn't think much of it.

"Honestly, we kind of wrote it off as her just sleeping on her arm wrong," Dan Wilcox said.

They had no idea their 6-year-old daughter had had a stroke.

"If you would have told me when I was watching her run on the track that a few days later I'd be taking her to the hospital for a stroke, I'd have never believed it," Wilcox said. "But there were warning signs there."

Many people hear "stroke" and think only older adults, perhaps with heart disease or other underlying conditions, are stricken. But children can also suffer from strokes, although they are rare. Doctors estimate that about 6 out of 100,000 children have a stroke each year. Stroke is one of the top 10 causes of death for children in the U.S.

The cause of Erica's stroke made it even more unusual. Erica has Moyamoya, a rare condition in which the vessels feeding blood to the brain become narrowed over time as the walls of the arteries get thicker. Sensing the lower flow of blood, the body will try to compensate by sprouting new webs of smaller blood vessels to bypass the blockage, creating what the Japanese call Moyamoya, meaning "puff of smoke," on brain imaging scans.

Moyamoya primarily affects children and teens, who are usually unaware that their arteries are silently narrowing, choking off blood to their brains. Dr. Mark Bain, a neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, said often the condition is diagnosed only when a child comes to the hospital after having a stroke.

"A lot of times, the signs will be very subtle, like numbness or tingling in the limbs," Bain said. "It's such a rare thing to have a stroke in children that a lot of the time, people don't diagnose it right away."

Weeks after Erica awoke with "fizziness" in her hand, Leann Wilcox was helping Erica with her homework, and noticed that she was using her left hand to write, even though she was right-handed. When Wilcox asked her to hold her pencil in her right hand, Erica said she couldn't. Hours later, Erica told her parents that she couldn't put her clothes on after taking a shower. By the time the Wilcoxes got to the hospital 10 minutes from their home, Erica couldn't move her lower arm at all.

"It was unbelievably scary," Dan Wilcox said.

Wilcox said Erica's doctors were initially perplexed and, spotting the "puff of smoke" blood vessels on her brain scans, thought that she had a brain tumor. But more tests revealed Erica's stroke and Moyamoya.

Doctors understand very little about the causes of Moyamoya, although a genetic basis for the disease is suspected. Bain said blood-thinning drugs like aspirin can be a short-term solution, but ultimately the best solution is surgery to try to restore the brain's blood flow.

Doctors help the brain get the blood it needs with the help of pieces of muscle, a surgical procedure called EDAMS. Surgeons take part of the chewing muscle on the side of the head and place it across the brain, securing it with a small piece of bone from the jaw. Bain said just how the procedure works is still something of a mystery.

"We think what happens is the muscle prompts the brain to have some kind of chemical-mediated response so that the brain gives off a factor that allows blood vessels to grow," Bain said.

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Torres looks to impress in Spain friendly

Associated Press Sports

updated 9:37 a.m. ET May 29, 2012

PAUL LOGOTHETIS

AP Sports Writer

MADRID (AP) -Fernando Torres is trying to put a season of struggles behind him to focus on Spain's campaign to defend its European Championship title.

The Chelsea striker will look to impress on Wednesday when Spain plays a friendly against South Korea in Switzerland.

Four years ago, Torres scored the winning goal at the Euro 2008 final. This year, he was not assured a spot in Spain's squad until a late season turnaround coupled with all-time leading scorer David Villa's absence to injury.

Torres, who has 88 caps for the World Cup champions, played sparingly for the Blues on their way to win the Champions League and FA Cup this season. Following talks with the Chelsea brass, Torres is optimistic about his future at the club and certain his form will pick up at the start of the European tournament in Poland and Ukraine next month.

"Physically I feel very good and fresh because I haven't had the drain of so many games as my teammates. I'm hopeful of showing my best to the team," Torres said from Spain's training camp in Austria. "It's true I would have liked to have played more with Chelsea to be in better playing shape."

Torres will compete with Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Negredo for the starting striker's spot in the warm up matches against South Korea on Wednesday and China on Sunday. A good performance in the two friendlies will secure him a place in Spain's opening match against Italy June 10.

"You can't stop the debates," Torres ahead of the match Wednesday - his first since November. "I think we are all here on our own merits. I played with the FA Cup and Champions League winners, so I don't think the end of the seasons was so bad."

Torres missed Spain's 2-0 win over Serbia on Sunday. Juan Mata was out too, but both Chelsea players are in Wednesday's lineup.

Missing from the match will be nine internationals from Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao. They will only join the team when they return to Spain after the South Korea match.

Spain eased past Serbia with its usual brand of possession and passing, which will serve them well to beat opponents in the two remaining warm-up matches for the Euro 2012.

Defender Sergio Ramos did not train on Monday during the team's final public practice in Austria which was marked by the pitch invasion by fans.

Spain travels will travel to its tournament base in the Polish city of Gdansk on June 5.

After Italy, they will face Ireland and Croatia in Group C.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Monti wants Italian football halted for 2-3 years

ROME (AP) -Premier Mario Monti suggested Tuesday that Italian football should be suspended for two to three years after the latest match-fixing scandal rocked the national team and tarnished the image of the domestic game yet again just a week before the start of the European Championship.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Pictures of cystic acne - Health and Fitness

pictures of cystic acneCoping With The After Effects Of Acne Scarring It may not be instantaneous, but the good news is that you can choose from a number of different methods for getting rid of the scars. Now, apply it on the acne with the cotton ball, let it sit for a few minutes, before washing it off. Acne leaves no spot unharmed and can really take a toll on your self esteem as well as your mental health if it gets to be too big a problem. The final risk factor is based on genetics. Stress elevates testosterone levels, and thus can trigger breakouts or worsen existing acne. Get More Out Of Exposed Acne Using treatment These Three Techniques Exposed Acne treatment is usually a of better choice for acne remedy out in the market today, nevertheless you can pictures of cystic acne obtain more advantages from it by trying other ways. An acne cream can be effective and valuable for moderate to severe cases of pimples and normally, these acne treatments are either put together with another acne skin care product or- the one at present use is high- strength. The amount of information out there for those of us with acne prone skin is overwhelming. These practitioners believe that diets high in beta- carotene help to reduce the factors that contribute to severe acne. The steam also removes blackheads and whiteheads cosmedicine as well as relaxes facial muscles. This is SLE or systemic lupus erythematosus, a rare condition that can be brought about by certain prescription drugs in some cases: Beta blockers hydralazine, isoniazid, lithium, methyldopa, phenytoin and penicillamine. By the adolescence, androgen hormone level begins to rise which in turn increases skin oil production. The medication is normally used along with birth speedy control pills, and in some cases the pills are recommended a week or a month before prescribing spironolactone. And ultimately, research exhibit that silicone patches are the most powerful way of scar elimination. Research have exposed that stress not only worsens acne cystic flare- up, it also worsens the overall reviews skin condition. Simply squeeze some fresh lemon juice into a glass. To get rid of acne scars fast, use vitamin E and a crushed baby aspirin. Be careful not to miss vitamin B12! Essential oil of tea- tree ( manuka) dabbed on with a cotton bud works a treat, but a cheaper and easier method is to rub a slice of raw garlic over the pimple. Who wants to get picked on because of all these red bumps all over the face? 4. They can of course make recommendations as well pictures of cystic acne if they think a patients skin will respond better to cosmedicine speedy recovery acne treatment reviews a particular treatment. Whenever you don? t maintain your routine to help keep your skin healthful, you? d most likely get the acne breakouts that you? re afraid to get. Drink 8- 10 glasses of water everyday. It is recommended to use medical professional grade silicone sheets due to the fact these are designed of higher good quality silicone. Avoid popping it ? This will only give you temporary satisfaction, but the scar will last longer than expected. Here are some of them:

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Azarenka survives in 1st round of French Open

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus returns in her first round match against Alberta Brianti of Italy at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday May 28, 2012. (AP Photo/David Vincent)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus returns in her first round match against Alberta Brianti of Italy at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday May 28, 2012. (AP Photo/David Vincent)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus returns in her first round match against Alberta Brianti of Italy at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday May 28, 2012. (AP Photo/David Vincent)

Switzerland's Roger Federer returns the ball to Germany's Tobias Kanke during their first round match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday, May, 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Li Na of China waits for the service of Sorana Cirstea of Romania in their first round match at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday May 28, 2012. (AP Photo/David Vincent)

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns in his first round match against Potito Starace of Italy at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday May 28, 2012. (AP Photo/David Vincent)

(AP) ? Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka turned it on when she had to Monday, winning 12 of the final 14 games to reach the second round at the French Open.

The Australian Open champion, who took over the No. 1 ranking by winning in Melbourne, struggled for long stretches but came back to beat Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2.

"Sometimes I felt it was not my day. Sometimes I thought, 'Yeah, maybe I still fight, I still have a chance,'" Azarenka said. "Sometimes it was like, you know what? Forget it. I don't want to do it."

Brianti, a 32-year-old veteran with one career WTA title, won the first set and then led 4-0 in the second before losing six straight games.

Azarenka had 60 unforced errors.

"I think it says it all. Bad days happen," Azarenka said. "Unfortunately today I had way more mistakes than I usually do, but, you know, it happens sometimes."

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer managed less stressful victories.

Federer beat Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. The 16-time major champion equaled Jimmy Connors' record of 233 Grand Slam match wins in the Open era. Federer is 233-35 at tennis' top four tournaments. Connors was 233-49.

"That's a big one, because that was longevity," Federer said. "Jimmy is obviously one of the greats of all time and was around for 20 years."

The top-ranked Djokovic, who is trying to win his fourth straight Grand Slam title, never faced a break point in beating Potito Starace of Italy 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-1.

"It's just the first match here," Djokovic said in French on court after the match. "It's still a very long way to go before we talk about the final."

Defending women's champion Li Na also won easily, beating Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-2, 6-1. Last year, Li became the first Chinese player to capture a Grand Slam singles title when she won at Roland Garros.

No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, No. 8 Marion Bartoli of France, No. 15 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and No. 19 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia also advanced to the second round. The 15th-seeded player on the men's side, Feliciano Lopez, retired from his match with a side muscle injury after losing the first five games of the first set to Florent Serra.

Former top-ranked player Lleyton Hewitt also lost, falling to Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3. No. 7 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, No. 10 John Isner of the United States and No. 11 Gilles Simon of France made it through.

The strangest finish of the day occurred when Alex Bogomolov Jr. retired from his match when he was one point from losing.

The Russian was trailing Arnaud Clement of France 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 5-4 when he quit the match while serving because of leg cramps.

"My whole leg was straight. I couldn't bend it. I couldn't walk," Bogomolov said. "I didn't want to risk a potential ligament damage or something."

Azarenka was first up in the main stadium, and she didn't look good at the start. In the opening set, she had 28 unforced errors. The top-ranked Belarussian started the 2012 season with a 26-match winning streak. Her first loss came in the quarterfinals at Miami.

No top-seeded woman has ever lost in the first round at the French Open since the tournament began to allow foreign entrants in 1925. In the other Grand Slam tournaments, it has happened four times, most recently when Martina Hingis lost in the first round at Wimbledon in 2001.

Associated Press

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Monday, May 28, 2012

Evans finishes 6th in 800 at Olympic tuneup meet

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) ? Janet Evans finished sixth in the 800-meter freestyle Sunday at the Speedo Grand Challenge in the former Olympic champion's final tuneup meet before the Olympic trials next month when she'll try to make the U.S. team at 40.

Haley Anderson, who also competes in open water swimming, won the race in 8 minutes, 33.65 seconds. The 20-year-old swimmer who swims at Southern California will try to make the London Olympics in an open-water qualifier June 9 in Portugal.

Anderson raced former Olympian Kate Ziegler to the wall, with Ziegler touching second in 8:33.97.

"She really pushed it so that made me get in an extra gear," Anderson said.

Ziegler won the 200 and 400 freestyles earlier in the three-day meet, and will try to qualify for her second straight Olympic team at the trials in Omaha.

"I wanted to be a little faster than that," she said.

Megan Rankin, an 18-year-old who trains with Evans, was third.

Evans finished in 8:49.36. She stayed close to the top three in the early stages of the 16-lap race before fading in the second half of the eight-woman race. She was the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the 800 in 1988 and '92.

"It was a little disappointing, but I think she's tired from training," said Mark Schubert, Evans' longtime coach.

During her comeback, Schubert has tinkered slightly with Evans' famed windmill stroke in which her head and shoulders come up out of the water more than most swimmers.

"We tried to get her head down and get her to swim in and out of her turns a little better, which she's doing," Schubert said. "You don't make huge changes. It's just trying to figure out the right things to do the last four or five weeks before trials."

Three-time Olympian Jason Lezak won the 100 free in 49.96, the only man under 50 seconds in the final. He carried 2-year-old son Ryan on the awards podium.

"I had a real solid first 50 and coming off the wall, I did what I wanted to do," he said. "The last 15 was a little painful, but with rest I'll be able to take it out faster, easier and come back stronger. I was 50.4 at the previous meet and I really wanted to be under 50, so that was good."

British Olympian Ellen Gandy won the 200 butterfly in 2:09.83 to go with her victory in the 100 fly on Saturday. She clutched a check for $600 covering her earnings in her first U.S. meet. She also earned gift cards to a coffee shop and a bookstore.

"I really wanted to get an iPhone, so this will go nicely toward that," she said, adding that she plans to buy the phone before she returns to Australia, where she lives with her family and trains.

Nick D'Arcy, considered a strong medal contender for Australia's Olympic team, easily won the 200 fly in 1:57.16, a meet record. He was the only swimmer to go under 2 minutes in the race.

"For the kind of pressure we're under at the moment training-wise, it's a pretty good swim," he said. "It's about where I expected to be at."

D'Arcy missed the 100 fly final Saturday night because he was in the restroom with an upset stomach when the finalists were called to the starting blocks. He was disqualified in that event, but wasn't prevented from swimming Sunday because the races were running ahead of the estimated timeline.

"It was pretty unfortunate," he said. "We're over here to get in some good racing, but I did a time trial instead and went a 53.7 which is a good time for me, so I was still pretty happy about that."

Earlier this month, Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates defended D'Arcy's selection amid accusations of a secret deal to put him on the team. He missed the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2009 world championships after being convicted of assaulting former swimmer Simon Cowley in a Sydney bar in March 2008.

D'Arcy was ordered to pay $370,000 in damages and costs, but declared bankruptcy. He earned $300 for his win at this meet.

Cowley, whose face had to be surgically rebuilt after the assault, said in a report in several Australian newspapers that Swimming Australia was involved in a secret deal to allow D'Arcy back into the team despite ethical concerns.

As he was asked about Cowley's comments, D'Arcy told a reporter, "Careful." He then brushed past, saying, "Yeah, thanks for your time."

Vlad Morozov, a former Russian national team member, won the 100 backstroke in a meet record 54.67 over former Australian Olympian Ashley Delaney. He touched in 54.74.

Four swimmers instead of the usual eight made the finals except in the distance events at this meet as a way to get athletes to swim faster in the preliminaries. The swimmer with the fastest time going into the final spins a wheel to determine the prize money that goes to the winner. Second and third-place finishers receive nominal amounts and all four finalists receive a gift card of their choice.

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Guidelines In Making A Living Will

You should be able to find several indispensable facts about Living Will in the following paragraphs. If there?s at least one fact you didn?t know before, imagine the difference it might make.

How you would like to be cared for in the event of permanent unconsciousness or end-of life situations is not the most comfortable topic to discuss. However, it is necessary. In case it does happen, how would your doctor know whether you want to be resuscitated? Or be on life support? Or be artificially fed? There is no other way of knowing than reading your living will. But making a living will is a critical process; after all, it expresses what kind of medical care you want or don?t want to receive in case your are unable to communicate it.

States have differing laws and standards to follow in making a living will, so it pays to know what are instituted in your state. Yet, there are general guidelines that can help you. They are the following:

Think about your medical wishes
In specific terms, outline what types of treatment and procedure you would like to undergo, under what circumstances, and for how long. For example, you can detail that you want to be on mechanical ventilation if there are chances of survival. But if beyond recovery, you refuse to be on any type of support that artificially prolongs your life. Be specific as you can. Your living will is perhaps one document you wish to never use, but even then, you need to make your living will as clear as possible; otherwise, your loved ones will be left guessing, and misinterpretations will not be impossible.

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you?re fully informed about Living Will, keep reading.

Talk to your doctor
Explain your medical wishes to your doctor and make sure he understands them. This will avoid the possibility of misinterpretations and conflicts that may arise when you use your living will. Also, this will allow your doctor to give input and explain the implications of your medical wishes.

Involve your family
Your family needs to be informed of your preferences, so they will know exactly what to do in case you become incapacitated. Many family tensions result from making medical decisions, and you don?t want that to happen among your family members. As early as now, let them understand how you want to be taken care of. It?s possible that your medical wishes would face opposition, but listen to your family?s opinions and consider their inclusion in your living will.

Have a living will form
You can get if from your state?s health department, hospital, aging agency, or certain websites. Complete the form. Add other details in case the form doesn?t cover certain medical wishes you have. You can also work with a lawyer to guide you through the process and discuss with you the legal implications of your living will. In some states, however, the assistance of a lawyer is sometimes unnecessary. Based on your state law, have it notarized or witnessed. Then, distribute copies to your family and close friends, doctor, and lawyer.

Keep your living will properly
After making a living will, make sure to properly keep it in your files or somewhere it would be quickly found if needed. Some people like to keep it in a safe-deposit box, which is not advisable, as doing so would make it hard to retrieve.

This article?s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.

About the Author
By Dennis Pehrson, feel free to visit his top ranked site: Riches with Rentals

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Typical CEO made $9.6M last year, AP study finds

FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2010 file photo, David Simon, CEO of Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group speaks at the Economic Club of Indiana's speaker series luncheon at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Simon is the highest paid CEO at a publicly held company in America in 2011, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. (AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Charlie Nye, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2010 file photo, David Simon, CEO of Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group speaks at the Economic Club of Indiana's speaker series luncheon at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Simon is the highest paid CEO at a publicly held company in America in 2011, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. (AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Charlie Nye, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, July 7, 2011 file photo, Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation, greets a member of the media at the Sun Valley Inn for the 2011 Allen and Co. Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Moonves is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

FILE - This undated file photo provided by Discovery Communications Inc., shows president and CEO David Zaslav. Zaslav is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. (AP Photo/Discovery Communications, Inc.)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011 file photo, Sanjay Jha, Chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, is interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after his company's stock began trading. Jha is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - In this April 14, 2012 file photo, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman arrives to the TV Land Awards 10th Anniversary in New York. Dauman is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year.(AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)

(AP) ? Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs.

The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm.

That was up more than 6 percent from the previous year, and is the second year in a row of increases. The figure is also the highest since the AP began tracking executive compensation in 2006.

Companies trimmed cash bonuses but handed out more in stock awards. For shareholder activists who have long decried CEO pay as exorbitant, that was a victory of sorts.

That's because the stock awards are being tied more often to company performance. In those instances, CEOs can't cash in the shares right away: They have to meet goals first, like boosting profit to a certain level.

The idea is to motivate CEOs to make sure a company does well and to tie their fortunes to the company's for the long term. For too long, activists say, CEOs have been richly rewarded no matter how a company has fared ? "pay for pulse," as some critics call it.

To be sure, the companies' motives are pragmatic. The corporate world is under a brighter, more uncomfortable spotlight than it was a few years ago, before the financial crisis struck in the fall of 2008.

Last year, a law gave shareholders the right to vote on whether they approve of the CEO's pay. The vote is nonbinding, but companies are keen to avoid an embarrassing "no."

"I think the boards were more easily shamed than we thought they were," says Stephen Davis, a shareholder expert at Yale University, referring to boards of directors, which set executive pay.

In the past year, he says, "Shareholders found their voice."

The typical CEO got stock awards worth $3.6 million in 2011, up 11 percent from the year before. Cash bonuses fell about 7 percent, to $2 million.

The value of stock options, as determined by the company, climbed 6 percent to a median $1.7 million. Options usually give the CEO the right to buy shares in the future at the price they're trading at when the options are granted, so they're worth something only if the shares go up.

Profit at companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index rose 16 percent last year, remarkable in an economy that grew more slowly than expected.

CEOs managed to sell more, and squeeze more profit from each sale, despite problems ranging from a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating to an economic slowdown in China and Europe's neverending debt crisis.

Still, there wasn't much immediate benefit for the shareholders. The S&P 500 ended the year unchanged from where it started. Including dividends, the index returned a slender 2 percent.

Shareholder activists, while glad that companies are moving a bigger portion of CEO pay into stock awards, caution that the rearranging isn't a cure-all.

For one thing, companies don't have to tie stock awards to performance. Instead, they can make the awards automatically payable on a certain date ? meaning all the CEO has to do is stick around.

Other companies do tie stock awards to performance but set easy goals. Sometimes, "they set the bar so low, it would be difficult for an executive not to trip over it," says Patrick McGurn, special counsel at Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises pension funds and other big investors on how to vote.

And for many shareholders, their main concern ? that pay is just too much, no matter what the form ? has yet to be addressed.

"It's just that total (compensation) is going up, and that's where the problem lies," says Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

The typical American worker would have to labor for 244 years to make what the typical boss of a big public company makes in one. The median pay for U.S. workers was about $39,300 last year. That was up 1 percent from the year before, not enough to keep pace with inflation.

Tita Freeman, a senior vice president at the Business Roundtable, a group of chief executives of large U.S. companies, says that CEO compensation is driven by market forces.

"I can't tell you precisely what a specific CEO should make, any more than I can tell you what a top-performing Major League Baseball shortstop should make," Freeman said in an emailed statement.

Since the AP began tracking CEO pay five years ago, the numbers have seesawed. Pay climbed in 2007, fell during the recession in 2008 and 2009 and then jumped again in 2010.

To determine 2011 pay packages, the AP used Equilar data to look at the 322 companies in the S&P 500 that had filed statements with federal regulators through April 30. To make comparisons fair, the sample includes only CEOs in place for at least two years.

Among the AP's other findings:

? David Simon, CEO of Simon Property, which operates malls around the country, is on track to be the highest-paid in the AP survey, at $137 million. That was almost entirely in stock awards that could eventually be worth $132 million, some of which won't be redeemable until 2019. The company said it wanted to make sure Simon wasn't lured to another company. He has been CEO since 1995; his father and uncle are Simon Property's co-founders.

This month, Simon Property's shareholders rejected Simon's pay package by a large margin: 73 percent of the votes cast for or against were against.

But the company doesn't appear likely to change the 2011 package. After the shareholder vote, it released a statement saying that "we value our stockholders' input" and would "take their views into consideration as (the board) reviews compensation plans for our management team." But it also said that Simon's performance had been stellar and it needed to pay him enough to keep him in the job.

Simon's paycheck looks paltry compared with that of Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose pay package was valued at $378 million when he became CEO in August. That was almost entirely in stock awards, some of which won't be redeemable until 2021, so the value could change dramatically. Cook wasn't included in the AP study because he is new to the job.

? Of the five highest-paid CEOs, three were also in the top five the year before. All three are in the TV business: Leslie Moonves of CBS ($68 million); David Zaslav of Discovery Communications, parent of Animal Planet, TLC and other channels ($52 million); and Philippe Dauman of Viacom, which owns MTV and other channels ($43 million).

? About two in three CEOs got raises. For 16 CEOs in the sample, pay more than doubled from a year earlier, including Bank of America's Brian Moynihan (from $1.3 million to $7.5 million), Marathon Oil's Clarence Cazalot Jr. (from $8.8 million to $29.9 million) and Motorola Mobility's Sanjay Jha (from $13 million to $47.2 million).

? CEOs running health-care companies made the most ($10.8 million). Those running utilities made the least ($7 million).

? Perks and other personal benefits, such as hired drivers or personal use of company airplanes, rose only slightly, and some companies cut back, saying they wanted to align their pay structure with "best practices."

Military contractor General Dynamics stopped paying for country club memberships for top executives, though it gave them payments equivalent to three years of club fees to ease "transition issues" caused by the change.

The typical pay of $9.6 million that Equilar calculated is the median value, or the midpoint, of the companies used in the AP analysis. In other words, half the CEOs made more and half less.

To value stock awards and stock options, the AP used numbers supplied by the companies. Those figures are based on formulas the companies use to estimate what the stock and options will eventually be worth when a CEO receives the stock or cashes in the options.

Stock awards are generally valued based on the stock's current price. Stock options are valued using company estimates that take into account the stock's current price, how long until the CEO can cash the options in, how the stock price is expected to move before then, and expected dividends. Estimates don't generally take inflation into account.

The shift to stock awards is at least partly rooted in what is known as the Dodd-Frank law, passed in the wake of the financial crisis, which overhauled how banks and other public companies are regulated.

Beginning last year, Dodd-Frank required public companies to let shareholders vote on whether they approve of the top executives' pay packages. The votes are advisory, so companies don't have to take back even a penny if shareholders give them the thumbs-down. But shame has proved a powerful motivator.

It got Hewlett-Packard to change its ways. After an embarrassing "no" vote last year on the 2010 pay packages, including nearly $24 million for ousted CEO Mark Hurd, the company huddled with more than 200 investment firms and major shareholders, then threw out its old pay formula. New CEO Meg Whitman is getting $1 a year in salary and no guaranteed bonus for 2011. Nearly all her pay is in stock options that could be worth $16 million, but only if the share price goes up.

Other companies took notice, too. Last year, shareholders rejected the CEO pay packages at Janus Capital, homebuilder Beazer Homes and construction company Jacobs Engineering Group. All won approval this year after the companies made the packages more palatable to shareholders.

To be sure, shareholders aren't voting en masse against executive pay. Instead, they seem to be saving "no" votes for the executives they deem most egregious.

Of more than 3,000 U.S. companies that held votes in 2011, only 43 got rejections, according to ISS. But the mere presence of the "say on pay" vote is triggering change, shareholder activists say.

"Companies that have gone through that trial by fire don't want to go through it again," says McGurn, the ISS special counsel.

Even Chesapeake Energy, a company perennially in the cross-hairs of corporate-governance activists, is bowing to pressure. The company has drawn fire for showering CEO Aubrey McClendon with assorted goodies. In addition to handing him big pay packages ? $17.9 million for 2011 ? Chesapeake in recent years has spent millions sponsoring the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, which he partially owns, paying him for his collection of antique maps and letting him buy stakes in company wells.

Last year, shareholders of the natural gas producer passed the proposed 2010 pay package but by a low margin, 58 percent. This year, with shareholder pressure mounting, the board has ended some of McClendon's perks and stripped him of his title as chairman. A lawsuit settlement is forcing him to buy back his $12 million worth of maps.

After losing the chairman job, McClendon issued a statement saying the demotion "reflects our determination to uphold strong corporate governance standards." Chesapeake will seek shareholder approval for McClendon's 2011 pay at its annual meeting in June.

So far, Citigroup is the highest-profile company to have its pay package rejected this year. The bank planned to pay CEO Vikram Pandit about $15 million for his work last year, noting that he had returned the company to profitability in 2010 and worked for $1 that year. Shareholders, who watched the stock price plunge 44 percent in 2011 (after adjusting for a reverse stock split) weren't so forgiving.

It's usually around January that boards decide how much to pay a CEO for the previous year. Then they inform shareholders and ask for their vote in the spring ? usually after the cash portion has already been handed out. For Pandit, that meant he had already received $7 million in salary and cash bonus by the time shareholders voted against his pay.

In a statement, Citi said it took the vote seriously and planned to "carefully consider" the input of major shareholders. It hasn't given more specifics. Richard Parsons, who retired as Citi's chairman after the April annual meeting, as previously planned, said after the vote that the board should have done a better job explaining to shareholders how it determined CEO pay.

Another big change is that more companies are giving themselves the right to take back a top executive's pay from previous years if they determine that the executive acted inappropriately to inflate the company's financial results.

The Dodd-Frank overhaul will eventually require public companies to include such broad "claw back" provisions, which will expand on narrowly written rules from a decade ago. But companies aren't waiting. In a separate study, Equilar found that 84 percent of Fortune 100 companies now include claw backs in their executive pay packages, up from 18 percent in 2006.

Last year, the former CEO of Beazer Homes agreed with regulators, who cited the older claw back rules, to turn over $6.5 million he had earned when profits were inflated. In February, UBS took back half of the previous year's bonuses awarded to many investment bankers because of subsequent losses in the unit.

Picking the right mix of incentives is partly just guesswork, and sometimes the results are simply a force of serendipity. Stocks can get swept up in rising or falling markets, so the fortunes of CEOs with well-designed pay packages can reflect luck ? good or bad ? not just managerial skills.

In February 2009, James Rohr, the head of PNC Financial Services, was granted options that allowed him to buy shares in the future at the then-current price, which had fallen 62 percent in five months on its way to a 17-year low the next month.

The stock has since doubled, and the options, mostly based on hitting certain profit and cost-cutting goals, are worth more than $20 million in paper profit, according to research by GMI Rating, a corporate governance watchdog. If investors had bought PNC stock just before the financial crisis in 2008, they would still be down more than a fifth.

Luck, of course, can cut both ways. Rohr is still waiting to cash in options granted in 2007, valued then at $2.5 million, when the stock was 18 percent higher than it is today.

Some shareholder groups doubt that ever-higher CEO pay, ingrained as it is in the corporate psyche, will ever be refashioned dramatically enough to satisfy shareholders and consumer groups who see the paychecks as too big, too disconnected from performance, and set by wealthy directors who are oblivious to the way that most of their shareholders live.

"I hope we have seen the last of this," says Rosanna Weaver of the CtW Investment Group, which works on shareholder issues with union-sponsored pension funds and has lobbied against CEO pay packages at a number of companies. "But I would be very surprised, just given what I know of human nature, let alone what I know of the financial markets."

Still, she's encouraged by the change that has already been stirred.

"It's a very big task," Weaver says. "I still believe it is worth trying."

Associated Press

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BREAKING: Army opens formal investigation into university student's alleged suicide

About three weeks after the death of a university student, army officials have opened a formal investigation into her mother's allegations that she was a victim of marriage fraud.

Katherine Morris, a senior family sciences major, was found dead in her car near Arundel Mills Mall May 6 in what police reported as a suicide. Col. Mark Murray at Fort Bragg, N.C. opened a commander?s inquiry Tuesday to investigate the nature of allegations against Morris?s husband, Spc. Isaac Goodwin, that he scammed her into a false marriage to obtain military benefits. Goodwin could not be reached for comment.

"She was a loving, trusting person," her mother, Marguerite Morris, said. ?The emotional abuse that she endured robbed her of so much of life ... she discovered it was just a sham to get money.?

Capt. Christopher Foreman, deputy public affairs officer for the 82nd Airborne Division, said Murray assigned an officer to the case after Marguerite Morris spoke with several military officials. The inquiry is a higher level than an internal investigation by a commanding officer, he said, and can last weeks or months.

?The investigation and allegations are being taken seriously by the military and the 82nd. Obviously our condolences go out to the family and this soldier," Foreman said, adding, "There?s a lot of unanswered questions.?

Foreman said he did not have specific information about the case but confirmed that if Goodwin brought his marriage license to Fort Bragg, he could have filed paperwork to receive additional pay meant for his spouse and the right to live off-base.

According to a WRAL.com report from Fort Bragg, Goodwin was stationed in Afghanistan but was granted emergency leave after Morris?s death.

Last August, Katherine Morris married Goodwin in a courthouse in Fairfax, Va., according to her mother. Sam Cojolo, Katherine?s friend, said Morris did not tell him about the marriage until he heard about it second-hand and confronted her in church later that week.

?I think she just wanted to wait to tell everybody that she was married,? said Cojolo, who said he previously dated Morris. ?I?m not even sure if she told anybody else afterwards.?

Marguerite Morris met Goodwin once in August but did not know about her daughter?s marriage until late December. When she didn?t hear from her daughter for several days, Marguerite Morris sent her an email demanding a response, she said.

When Katherine answered her mother around Dec. 22, she also admitted that she was thinking about suicide, Marguerite Morris said.

?That scared me to death but showed me her mental state. It was one of the worst days of my life,? Marguerite Morris said. ?I couldn?t drive there, I was an hour and a half away, so I dialed 911.?

At the hospital later that day, Katherine Morris told her mother she was married to Goodwin, who she said arrived through the Red Cross a few days later.

But Morris said her daughter seemed to be ?coming out of it? and had been planning for the future by gathering letters of recommendation for her application to the Air Force Officer Training School.

?There were so many tomorrows but yet there was this other piece that was so painful, I can't describe to you the pain she was feeling,? Marguerite Morris said.

lurye@umdbk.com

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Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 Keyboard and Mouse Combo $12.01 after Cash Back at Harvey Norman

Original price is $48.0. Harvey Norman online price is $27.0 before cash back. After Cash back is $12.01. The price on the shore ticket is still $48.0. I went to shop straight away and could not get the deal. Have to order online and pick up in the store.

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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Folktales from Japan - Episode 9 - Shippei-Tarou / The Son Who Went Up To Heaven / Who's The Laziest?

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Warum Google Mobilfunkbetreiber an den Einnahmen ?ber Android beteiligt

Follow the money: Wenn wir einbeziehen, dass Google Hardwarehersteller und Mobilfunkbetreiber am Umsatz der mobilen Suchen auf Android, also an Googles eigenem Android-Umsatz beteiligt, zeichnet sich ein sehr viel klareres Bild vom mobilen OS-Markt und Android im Speziellen.?

Wie attraktiv Android f?r Telefonhersteller und Mobilnetzbetreiber noch vor zwei, drei Jahren gewirkt haben muss:

Hier ist die Antwort auf das iPhone. Sie kommt von Google, einem gro?en Unternehmen, ihr bekommt also Planungssicherheit. Wir machen das OS Open Source. Ihr k?nnt es also anpassen und m?sst keine Lizenzen zahlen. Noch besser! Wenn Ihr die offizielle Google-Version von Android benutzt, m?sst Ihr lediglich die Googledienste in Android beibehalten und Ihr erhaltet den Zugang zum Appstore und einen prozentualen Anteil an den Ums?tzen, die wir mit der werbefinanzierten Suche ?ber Android machen.

Das erkl?rt auch, warum es WebOS ?unter anderem so schwer hatte: Obwohl es zwischenzeitig das mobile OS mit der besten User Experience war, fehlte dem OS neben den Apps auch der Hebel bei den Netzbetreibern. Die bewerben lieber ein Betriebssystem, bei dem sie noch zus?tzlich mitverdienen k?nnen und, icing on the cake, das OS mit eigener Bloatware anpassen lassen k?nnen.

Apples Vorteil mit dem iPhone liegt im Nachfragesog bei den Endkunden. Der fehlte webOS und der fehlt noch Windows Phone.

Eine der vielen Fragen lautet nun, wie Microsoft auf diese Herausforderung antwortet.?

Google hat hier sehr clever die Geldfl?sse auf einem mehrseitigen Markt entsprechend der Preissensitivit?ten und der Machtgef?lle positioniert. Mit open vs. closed hat das nur sehr am Rande etwas zu tun.

Google hat ein bemerkenswertes, komplexes Gesch?ftsmodell aufgebaut, das bisher vor allem an meines Erachtens zwei Umst?nden scheitert:

1. Die Einnahmen ?ber bei mobilen Suchabfragen geschaltete Werbung ist bisher zu gering, um signifkante Werte zu schaffen.

2. Der Wettbewerb auf Hardwarseite ist in der Plattform zu gro?, um dort bisher signifikante Profite zu erm?glichen.

Ersteres legt sich vielleicht ?ber einen l?ngeren Zeitraum. Letzteres ist direkt an die Architektur der Plattform gebunden.

Noch einmal: Google hat Motorola Mobility ?bernommen und k?nnte nun versuchen ?ber den vertikal integrierten Weg, a la Apple, mehr Wert f?r sich aus der immensen Verbreitung der Plattform zu schlagen. Das lohnt sich f?r Google nicht nur aufgrund der h?heren Margen, wenn sie eine attraktive Version anbieten, die anderen nicht bereitst?nde, sondern auch weil hier die Traffic Acquisition Costs wegfallen.?

F?r den Rest der Unternehmen im ?kosystem ist Android auch ohne dieses Szenario bereits?nicht so attraktiv, wie es einst erscheinte.

Horace Dediu ?ber die Zahlen:

Comparing revenue ?run rates?, on a yearly basis Android is 2.5% of iPhone or 1.6% of iOS.

As various members of the Android ecosystem are rewarded from the 40% revenue share of Android, it would be important to consider the scales involved in these illustrations when considering the influence Google exerts. It could be argued that Google?s spreading of wealth from search creates strong incentives for participation in its ecosystem.

However, there is little wealth created. 40% of a little is a lot less.

Ein Windows Phone mag vielleicht trotz Lizenzzahlungen attraktiver erscheinen, weil die Plattform weniger interne Hardwarekonkurrenz besitzt, muss es aber nicht.

Was w?re aber mit anderen potentiellen Einsteigern in den Markt der Telefonbetriebssysteme wie Facebook oder Amazon?

Sie brauchen Anreize, um selbst den wen auch geringen Aussch?ttungen von Google etwas entgegen zu setzen. Ihre Chance k?nnte gerade darin liegen, dass Googles Gesch?ftsmodellplay bisher nicht so aufgegangen ist wie geplant. Es ist aber alles andere als sicher.

Sicher ist dagegen, dass bei dem Androidschach die Endnutzer nicht die wichtigste Rolle spielen.

-

Zus?tzlich zu den Artikeln auf asymco ist zu dem Thema besonders die aktuelle Ausgabe des Podcasts ?The Critical Path? mit Horace Dediu sehr empfehlenswert.

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    Science, Religion and Society: The Problem of Evolution in America ...

    How the Web is killing faith

    Hemant Mehta - Washington Post

    "The Internet is blind faith?s worst nightmare."

    A Year After the Non-Apocalypse: Where...

    Tom Bartlett - Religion Dispatches

    A reporter tracks down the remnants of Harold Camping?s apocalyptic movement and finds out you don?t have to be crazy to believe something nuts.

    Moral Clarity and Richard Dawkins

    Carson - Reasons for God

    What kind of meta-ethical foundation has Dawkins provided for his ?moral home??

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    What Is The Current Time For Any Country - Home Informations ...

    current timeWould you like to know the actual what is the current time for just about any country or even city on the planet and you do not understand how to go about this. Then this particular post is going to be useful for you personally. Do you have to discover quickly what the nearby time is within another the main world when compared with your present location? Then ?Every Period Zone? may be the perfect site to go to! Just compare where you are (proven in eco-friendly) towards the one you are searching for (proven in azure) to check the current time or make use of the grey places for non-current occasions.

    If somebody asks all of us that what ought to be the time right now, many people will surely consider the wrist view or anywhere where we might find the actual current time however imagine that you are in Birmingham and somebody ask a person that what ought to be the time frame in New York, where will you look for that time?

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