If you want to keep your drains in good working order and avoid costly plumbing bills, here are some helpful DIY home improvement tips to follow.
Disposing of kitchen grease and oil Many of the tastiest foods that we love to prepare and eat are high in fats or oils. Just think of a few like meat, cooking oil, frying oil, butter, mayo, salad dressings and dips. As we rinse and wash our pots, pans and dishes, we?re sending that greasy, oily mess down the drain pipes and any plumber will tell you that that could potentially cause clogged drains and backups.
Instead of sending grease and oil down the drain, try this: ? If you have really greasy pots and pans, wipe them down with paper towel before rinsing them. Less grease down the pipes and easier washing up, too. ? If you have thin oil that needs to be disposed of, mix it with something that will thicken it enough so you can throw it in the garbage. You can add it to coffee grinds, used paper towel, stale bread, or anything else you have around; just use your imagination. ? If you have too much oil to mix with another substance, pour it into a can or jar, put the lid on and throw it in the garbage or take it to a local recycling/composting depot.
Around the house Outside of the kitchen, the drains in our bathrooms and utility sink see plenty of unwanted substances that can cause clogs and other damage as well. Soap scum, hair, and grit from the mop bucket are just a few of the offenders.
? First things first, be careful about what goes into the drains. Drain screens are inexpensive and available in many different sizes. They work well, as long as you clean them out regularly. ? If you don?t have a drain screen and are dumping the mop bucket water into the utility sink or shower, cover the drain with paper towel so that it catches the grit. ? Never dump chemicals down the drain, even the tempting ones like paint or paint thinner. ? As part of your weekly cleaning routine, pour extremely hot water down your drains.
A little preventative maintenance goes a long way to keeping your drains and pipes running clearly. However, in an emergency, don?t hesitate to call in your local professional plumbers who can assess the situation and solve your plumbing problems quickly.
Is Windows 8 off to a slow start? Depends which manufacturer you ask. Dell CEO Michael Dell has said that demand for Windows 8 from both consumers and enterprise buyers is, "quite high," whereas Fujitsu president Masami Yamamoto has said the exact opposite ? Windows 8 demand is "weak" and the company will miss its internal targets for PC shipments as a direct result of Windows 8's lackluster appeal thus far.
Take a look at Acer, however, and you're going to get two sides of the same story. Acer's North American president, Emmanuel Fromont, was quoted in The New York Times last week saying that Windows 8 demand remains low ? partially the result of customers being hesitant at adopting the new touch-themed user interface.
"There was not a huge spark in the market," said Fromont, in his interview with the Times. "It's a slow start, there's no question."
Ask Acer's top dog, however, and you'll get a bit more optimism than Fromont's quote seems to suggest. According to Acer president Jim Wong, in an interview with Digitimes, critics are jumping the gun a bit in suggesting that Windows 8 might be a flop.
"In the past, market observers would accuse Windows of lacking innovations. And Windows 8 with brand new features have still been greeted with pessimism. Some observers believe the new interface and touchscreen control will dramatically delay adoption by consumers. But companies must take risks when introducing innovations, and therefore it is still too early to say whether Windows 8 is a success or not."
Wong hasn't been all that thrilled about Microsoft jumping into the hardware space with its Surface tablets ? effectively competing against the very OEMs that it's simultaneously trying to woo with the Windows 8 platform in total. While Acer will release Windows RT-based devices going forward, Wong said that the company plans to focus mainly on x86 architecture, "since the major demand from Windows users is still related to data management."
Windows 8's focus on the "touch" experience for laptops will ultimately allow touchscreen-based laptops to win out over standard laptops, Wong suggests. According to Acer's own research, users only need to spend 20 minutes or so poking at their laptop's screens before they're "hooked" into wanting to touch the screens of other devices they interact with.
In other words, touchscreens are compelling. However, it might take around two to three years for shipments of touch-friendly laptops to ultimately surpass those of their non-pokeable competitors.
?
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28 December 2012Last updated at 19:00 ETBy Paul RinconScience editor, BBC News website
Physicist Peter Higgs, after whom the Higgs boson particle is named, has been recognised in the New Year Honours.
In the 1960s, Prof Higgs and other physicists proposed a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass.
The mechanism predicts the existence of a Higgs particle, the discovery of which was claimed this year at the Large Hadron Collider.
Prof Higgs has been made a Companion of Honour.
The recognition confers no title but is restricted to a select group of 65 for achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry, or religion.
His discovery announced in July this year of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson immediately led to calls for the 83-year-old to be knighted.
He is now also considered to be a candidate for a Nobel prize, perhaps in conjunction with other physicists who reached similar conclusions at the same time.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Higgs was inspired at school by the work of physicist Paul Dirac, who helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter.
After obtaining his PhD from King's College London, he held academic positions at the University of Edinburgh and then London before returning to the Edinburgh to lecture at the Tait Institute of Mathematical Physics.
According to one popular version of the story, Prof Higgs came up with the concept during a walk in the Cairngorms. But in an interview earlier this year, he told BBC News that there was no "eureka moment".
Best explanation of Higgs boson? Continue reading the main story
The Higgs mechanism explains why the building blocks known as elementary particles have mass. According to the idea, these particles acquire mass through their interaction with a field that permeates space.
The theory predicts the existence of a new particle, which also carries Prof Higgs' name. But six physicists - including Higgs - are now generally credited with the formulation of the concept.
The idea initiated a decades-long effort to detect the particle in experiments. However, it remained elusive until this year, when scientists at the $10bn LHC particle smasher announced that they had found a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.
The probable discovery added a final missing piece to the framework known as the Standard Model, which stands as the most widely accepted theory to explain how particles of matter interact.
At the time of the announcement, Prof Higgs told reporters: "It's very nice to be right sometimes."
He added: "At the beginning I had no idea whether a discovery would be made in my lifetime because we knew so little at the beginning about where this particle might be in mass, and therefore how high an energy machine would have to go before it could be discovered.
"It's been a long wait but it might have been even longer, I might not have been still around."
Shortly after the boson news this year, Edinburgh University, where Higgs is an emeritus professor, announced a new centre that would carry his name. The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics will be housed at the university's James Clerk Maxwell Building.
The boson earned a nickname - the "God particle" - supposedly because of its importance to the Standard Model. But Prof Higgs stated that he disliked the term because it "might offend people who are religious".
This week, in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Prof Higgs criticised fellow academic - and staunch atheist - Richard Dawkins for his stance towards religious believers.
Prof Higgs said: "What Dawkins does too often is to concentrate his attack on fundamentalists. But there are many believers who are not fundamentalists. Fundamentalism is another problem. I mean, Dawkins in a way is almost a fundamentalist."
He said he was not religious, but added that "maybe that's just more a matter of my family background than that there's any fundamental difficulty about reconciling the two".
Also honoured are Sue Gibson, professor of chemistry at Imperial College London, who becomes an OBE; Prof Richard Holdaway, director of RAL Space, which helps co-ordinate civil space activities, who becomes a CBE; physicist Keith Burnett, vice-chancellor of Sheffield University, who is knighted; and Carol Vivien Robinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford, who is made a Dame.
Editor's note: This excerpt of a chapter from Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning by Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic Books, 2012)? relates that our brain?s capacity to both perceive a pig and then imagine what the animal is like, even one that flies, points to an essential cognitive skill that makes humans different from all other species.
Excerpted fromLouder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning?by Benjamin K. Bergen. Available from Basic Books, a member of The Perseus Books Group.? Copyright ? 2012.
Starting as early as the 1970s, some cognitive psychologists, philosophers, and linguists began to wonder whether meaning wasn?t something totally different from a language of thought [Call it Mentalese, whichtranslates words into actual concepts: a polar bear or speed limit, for instance]. They suggested that?instead of abstract symbols?meaning might really be something much more closely intertwined with our real experiences in the world, with the bodies that we have. As a self-conscious movement started to take form, it took on a name, embodiment, which started to stand for the idea that meaning might be something that isn?t distilled away from our bodily experiences but is instead tightly bound by them. For you, the word dog might have a deep and rich meaning that involves the ways you physically interact with dogs?how they look and smell and feel. But the meaning of polar bear will be totally different, because you likely don?t have those same experiences of direct interaction.
??? If meaning is based on our experiences in our particular bodies in the particular situations we?ve dragged them through, then meaning could be quite personal. This in turn would make it variable across people and across cultures. As embodiment developed into a truly interdisciplinary enterprise, it found footholds by the end of the twentieth century in linguistics, especially in the work of U.C. Berkeley linguist George Lakoff and others; in philosophy, especially in work by University of Oregon philosopher Mark Johnson, among others; and in cognitive psychology, where U.C. Berkeley psychologist Eleanor Rosch?s early work led the way.
???? The embodiment idea was appealing. But at the same time, it was missing something. Specifically, a mechanism. Mentalese is a specific claim about the machinery people might use for meaning. Embodiment was more of an idea, a principle. It might have been right in a general sense, but it was hard to tell because it didn?t necessarily translate into specific claims about exactly how meaning works in real people in real time. So it idled, and it didn?t supplant the language of thought hypothesis [Mentalese] as the leading idea in the cognitive science of meaning.
???? And then someone had an idea. ???? It?s not clear who had it first, but in the mid-1990s at least three groups converged upon the same thought. One was a cognitive psychologist, Larry Barsalou, and his students at Emory University, in Georgia. The second was a group of neuroscientists in Parma, Italy. And the third was a group of cognitive scientists at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, where I happened to be working as a graduate student. ?There was clearly something in the water, a zeitgeist. The idea was the embodied simulation hypothesis, a proposal that would make the idea of embodiment concrete enough to compete with Mentalese. Put simply:
Maybe we understand language by simulating in our minds what it would be like to experience the things that the language describes.
???? Let?s unpack this idea a little bit?what it means to simulate something in your mind. We actually simulate all the time. You do it when you imagine your parents? faces, or fixate in your mind?s eye on that misplayed poker hand. You?re simulating when you imagine sounds in your head without any sound waves hitting your ears, whether it?s the bass line of the White Stripes? Seven Nation Army or the sound of screeching tires. And you can probably conjure up simulations of what strawberries taste like when covered with whipped cream or what fresh lavender smells like. You can also simulate actions. Think about the direction you turn the doorknob of your front door. You probably visually simulate what your hand would look like, but if you?re like most people, you do more than this. You are able to virtually feel what it?s like to move your hand in the appropriate way?to grasp the handle (with enough force to cause the friction required for it to move with your hand) and rotate your hand (clockwise, perhaps?) at the wrist. Or if you?re a skier, you can imagine not only what it looks like to go down a run, but also what it feels like to shift your weight back and forth as you link turns.
???? Now, in all these examples, you?re consciously and intentionally conjuring up simulations. That?s called mental imagery. The idea of simulation is something that goes much deeper. Simulation is an iceberg. By consciously reflecting, as you just have been doing, you can see the tip?the intentional, conscious imagery. But many of the same brain processes are engaged, invisibly and unbeknownst to you, beneath the surface during much of your waking and sleeping life.? Simulation is the creation of mental experiences of perception and action in the absence of their external manifestation. That is, it?s having the experience of seeing without the sights actually being there or having the experience of performing an action without actually moving.
???? When we?re consciously aware of them, these simulation experiences feel qualitatively like actual perception; colors appear as they appear when directly perceived, and actions feel like they feel when we perform them. The theory proposes that embodied simulation makes use of the same parts of the brain that are dedicated to directly interacting with the world. When we simulate seeing, we use the parts of the brain that allow us to see the world; when we simulate performing actions, the parts of the brain that direct physical action light up. The idea is that simulation creates echoes in our brains of previous experiences, attenuated resonances of brain patterns that were active during previous perceptual and motor experiences. We use our brains to simulate percepts and actions without actually perceiving or acting.
??? Outside of the study of language, people use simulation when they perform lots of different tasks, from remembering facts to listing properties of objects to choreographing a dance. These behaviors make use of embodied simulation for good reason. It?s easier to remember where we left our keys when we imagine the last place we saw them. It?s easier to determine what side of the car the gas tank is on by imagining filling it up. It?s easier to create a new series of movements by first imagining performing them ourselves. Using embodied simulation for rehearsal even helps people improve at repetitive tasks, like shooting free throws and bowling strikes. People are simulating constantly.
??? In this context, the embodied simulation hypothesis doesn?t seem like too much of a leap. It hypothesizes that language is like these other cognitive functions in that it, too, depends on embodied simulation. While we listen to or read sentences, we simulate seeing the scenes and performing the actions that are described. We do so using our motor and perceptual systems, and possibly other brain systems, like those dedicated to emotion. For example, consider what you might have simulated when you read the following sentence... :
When hunting on land, the polar bear will often stalk its prey almost like a cat would, scooting along its belly to get right up close, and then pounce, claws first, jaws agape.
???To understand what this means, according to the embodied simulation hypothesis, you actually activate the vision system in your brain to create a virtual visual experience of what a hunting polar bear would look like. You could use your auditory system to virtually hear what it would be like for a polar bear to slide along ice and snow. And you might even use your brain?s motor system, which controls action, to simulate what it would feel like to scoot, pounce, extend your arms, and drop your jaw. The idea is that you make meaning by creating experiences for yourself that?if you?re successful?reflect the experiences that the speaker, or in this case the writer, intended to describe. Meaning, according to the embodied simulation hypothesis, isn?t just abstract mental symbols; it?s a creative process, in which people construct virtual experiences?embodied simulations?in their mind?s eye.
{break]
??? If this is right, then meaning is something totally different from [a given] definitional model ... If meaning is based on experience with the world?the specific actions and percepts an individual has had?then it may vary from individual to individual and from culture to culture. And meaning will also be deeply personal?what polar bear or dog means to me might be totally different from what it means to you. Moreover, if we use our brain systems for perception and action to understand, then the processes of meaning are dynamic and constructive. It?s not about activating the right symbol; it?s about dynamically constructing the right mental experience of the scene.
??? Furthermore, if we indeed make meaning through simulating sights, sounds, and actions, that would mean that our capacity for meaning is built upon other systems, ones evolved more directly for perception and action. And that in turn would mean that our species-specific ability for language is built up from systems that we actually share in large part with other species.
??? Of course, we use these perception and action systems in new ways. We know this because other animals don?t share our facility with simulation?The capacity for open-ended simulation is something much more human than ursine, not just in language, but pervasively throughout what we do with our minds. You can simulate what you would look like if you covered your nose with your hand, just as easily as you can simulate what you?d look like if you had two heads or if you had a pogo stick in place of your right leg. If simulation is what makes our capacity for language special, then figuring out how we use it will tell us a lot about what makes us unique as humans, about what kind of animal we are, and how we came to be this way.
??? One of the important innovations of the embodied simulation hypothesis?and one way in which it differs from the language of thought hypothesis [Mentalese]?is that it claims that meaning is something that you construct in your mind, based on your own experiences. If meaning is really generated in your mind, then you should be able to make sense of language about not only things that exist in the real world, like polar bears, but also things that don?t actually exist, like, say, flying pigs. So how we understand language about nonexistent things can actually tell us a lot about how meaning works.
??? Let?s consider the case of the words flying pigs. I?d wager that flying pigs actually means a lot to you, even without thinking too hard about it. Over the years, I?ve asked a lot of people what flying pigs means to them, informally. (One of the luxuries of being a university professor is that people tend to be totally unsurprised when you ask questions like How many wings does a flying pig have?) According to my totally unscientific survey, conducted primarily with the population of individuals with time on their hands and a beverage in their glass, when most people hear or read the words flying pigs, they think of an animal that looks for all intents and purposes like a pig but has wings. The writer John Steinbeck imagined such a winged pig and named it Pigasus. He even used it as his personal stamp. What do you know about your own personal Pigasus? It probably has two wings (not three or seven or twelve) that are shaped very much like bird wings. Without having to reflect on it, you also know where they appear on Pigasus? body?they?re attached symmetrically to the shoulder blades. And although it has wings like a bird, most people think that Pigasus also displays a number of pig features; it has a snout, not a beak, and it has hooves, rather than talons.
??? There are a couple things to draw from this example. First, flying pigs seems to mean something to everyone. And that?s important because there?s no such thing as an actual flying pig in the world. In fact, part of the meaning of flying pigs is precisely that flying pigs don?t exist. What all of this means, not to be too cute about it, is that the Mentalese theory that meaning is about the relation of definitions to real things in the world will only work when pigs fly.
??? Second, if you?re like most people, what you did when you understood flying pigs probably felt a lot like mental imagery. You might ask yourself, did you experience visual images of a flying pig in your mind? Were they vivid? Were they replete with detail? Of course, consciously experiencing visual imagery is just one way to use simulation?you can also simulate without having conscious access to images. But where there?s imagined smoke, there may be simulated fire. If you?re like most people, when you simulate a flying pig, you probably see the snout and the wings in your mind?s eye. You may see details like color or texture; you might even see the pig in motion through the air. The words flying pigs are not unique in evoking consciously accessible visual detail. The same is true for lots of language, whether the things it describes are impossible like flying pigs or totally mundane like buying figs or somewhere in between, like the polar bear?s nose.
??? Third, and I don?t expect that this occurred to you because it only became clear to me through my extensive research?flying pigs doesn?t actually evoke something of the genus Pigasus for everyone. For some people, flying pigs don?t use wings to propel themselves, but instead conscript superpowers. If your flying pig is of this variety?let?s call it Superswine?then it probably wears a cape. Maybe a brightly colored spandex unitard, too, with some symbol on the chest, like a stylized curly pig tail or, better yet, a slice of fried bacon. And what?s more, when it flies, Superswine?s posture and motion are different from those of winged flying pigs. Whereas winged flying pigs hold their legs beneath their body, tucked up to their bellies or hanging below them, Superswine tend to stretch their front legs out in front of themselves, ? la Superman.
??? I?ll be the first to admit that the respective features of Pigasus and Superswine are not of great scientific value or vital public interest in and of themselves. But they do tell us something about how people understand the meanings of words. People simulate in response to language, but their simulations appear to vary substantially. You might be the type of person to automatically envision Superswine, or you might have a strong preference for the more common Pigasus. We observe individual variation like this not only for flying pigs, but equally for any bits of language. Your first image of a barking dog might be a big, ferocious Doberman, or it might be a tiny, yappy Chihuahua. When you read torture devices, you might think of the Iron Maiden or you might think of a new Stairmaster at your gym. Variation in the things people think words refer to is important because it means that people use their idiosyncratic mental resources to construct meaning. We all have different experiences, expectations, and interests, so we paint the meanings we create for the language we hear in our own idiosyncratic color.
Question: I hope you can help me. I?m getting four to five automated notification calls a day from a credit card company.
They?re looking for someone who used to have my phone number. I finally got fed up with the robocalls and pressed zero multiple times to be connected to someone.
A representative wanted all my personal information, including my name and mailing address. I refused to provide that, since I have no desire for a business relationship with the company.
I was on the phone for more than half an hour and spoke with four people, including two supervisors. I?m not sure this will fix the issue.
Even though I filled out a ?non-solicitation? form, I?m not sure if it worked. Is there anything else I can do?
? Donald M., Washington
Answer: No one should call your number five times a day ? not even someone trying to collect a debt.
Under federal law, debt collectors are not allowed to phone you repeatedly. They?re restricted from phoning you before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. and they?re not allowed to call you at work if you ask them to stop.
(You can read more about what a debt collector can and can?t do on this helpful Federal Trade Commission page.)
Bottom line: a business can?t harass you by phone, and clearly that?s what this credit card company is doing.
How could something like this happen? Easy. The previous owner of your phone number might have given his credit card his phone number and authorized it to update him.
I had a similar case a few months ago with a woman whose dead mother was getting calls every day from her bank. Technically, that?s legal, but practically speaking it was the worst kind of torture a company could inflict on a survivor.
There?s an easy way to end this, and it doesn?t involve giving the company any of your personal information. You can ask your phone company for a new number. It?s an extreme solution ? but it?s the only way to be sure.
I was faced with a similar problem a few years ago when I got a new phone installed. The calls came in every day, always asking for the same person, always from the same company, and there was no way to get rid of them.
I was naive; I thought that if I surrendered all the information they wanted, they?d go away.
They did ? almost a year later. I should have just switched numbers.
By the way, this kind of activity (and particularly the robocalls) should be illegal. But it?s a gray area when it comes to the Federal Do Not Call Registry, because it?s not immediately clear who authorized the calls.
I would presume it?s the person who owned the line before, which means they are allowable. There has to be a better way to opt out of nuisance calls.
And if this harassment continues, please let me know. I?ll do my best to help.
Do you have a question for MintLife columnist and consumer advocate, Christopher Elliott? Head over to the Mint.com Facebook page and ask away!
Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate who blogs about getting better customer service at?On Your Side. Connect with him on?Twitter?and?Facebook?or send him your questions?by email.
A Whitefish Bay woman is leading an initiative between Alverno College and the Milwaukee School of Engineering to provide computers to students in Cameroon. Tracy Stockwell, Associate Professor of Professional Communication and Chair of the Communication & Technology Department at Alverno College, leads the initiative with colleague, professor Jill Moore, and MSOE students. Members of MSOE?S Community Computers work with Alverno as well as non-profit organizations to provide computers to families, and organizations in need. Community Computers has also worked across several continents and within the Milwaukee area to provide computers to schools. The joint venture works on taking computers, refurbishing them, installing open-source (free) software, and donating them to schools in Cameroon that would otherwise not be able to afford them.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2012 at 12:27 am and is filed under Educational Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Achieving success at a home-based business is not everyone?s fortune, but you should not let that stop you from trying it out. This is especially true today, when at an insignificant cost you can set up any of a variety of home-based businesses with a computer. It just takes a low cost, high-speed Internet access, and the enthusiasm to spend a bit of time doing the research. As opposed to a local brick-and-mortar business, which is expensive to set up, and is restricted to local customers, your computer business can be global. Everyone in the world having access to the Internet is a possible client.
Visit http://homebasedincome4you.com/what-can-i-sell-online/ to learn more.
There are many opportunities you might be keen on trying, if you are serious about giving a web based business a shot. It is very helpful if you know your way around a computer, but you definitely do not have to be a computer fundi for you to get started. It is usually being knowledgeable about a subject or activity, like a hobby, which is important for online success, and not so much your technical expertise. An individual who is a proficient writer could, for example, have an online business that does copywritng. Writing could also be done freelance, doing jobs for folks who either don?t like writing or aren?t any good at it. All you should do is find people who have a need, such as content, and supply it for them. Create some samples of your work and then do a bit of promoting, and you are going to be in business.
There are online auction web sites that are making a lot of money for many. You can buy items at wholesale value and sell them at retail price, or you may already have products suitable for selling on the web. Online auction web sites, such as eBay, do the hard work of bringing the buyers to your offers. What?s expected from you is to fix the price for your item, add it to the sales listings and wait for shoppers to purchase it. As soon as your item is sold, you get sent the cash and then you have the product shipped to the purchaser.
Life is becoming much easier in many ways through the advancements in technology. The computer has given ordinary people the ability to own their own business. Not only does the internet have lots of products to sell, but there is enough information on the internet to show you how to sell them. If you can identify a business model that you like and apply it to your own start-up business, that would be ideal.
You may only want to make some extra cash, rather than have a full time business, and the Internet is excellent for that. Hook your computer up to the Internet and you will be able to find huge amounts of information about starting a business on the internet. Get going on your research and you could soon begin making some money.
Has 4GB of memory. Compact form factor. Backwards-compatible with game cartridges from previous LeapPad and Leapster Explorer devices. Adds a front-facing camera. Leaplet store has a large catalogue of games, videos, and apps.
Cons
Metallic finish may scuff more easily.
Bottom Line
The LeapFrog LeapPad2 Explorer is a toy tablet with its own app platform and plenty of features to keep your young ones entertained and learning.
By Laarni Almendrala Ragaza
My four-year-old wants an iPad bad. It ain't gonna happen, at least for the foreseeable future. But I'm not happy crushing the dreams of my youngest. So, in an effort to compromise without having to dip into his college fund, I thought of getting him a toy tablet. That's where the LeapFrog LeapPad2 Explorer comes in. This toy tablet comes with its own app platform, as well as a rugged design that can take a beating from the kiddie crowd. The newest iteration of the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer jazzes up the color scheme, adds a faster processor, and doubles the memory of the original, all while staying at the same price point. Add to that a front-facing camera and a vast catalogue of downloadable games, videos, and apps, and you've got yourself another Editors' Choice winner for toy tablets.
Design and Features
At first glance, there's not a lot to distinguish the LeapPad 2 from the original LeapPad. The LeapPad2 measures approximately 5.2 by 7 by 1 inches (HWD), which is slightly wider and thicker than the LeapPad, and weighs about 1.7 pounds. Like its predecessor, it comes in both green and pink, though the latest iteration changes up the color schemes with a metallic finish that unfortunately showed a bit more wear (read: scuffing). The LeapPad2 still features the same 480-by-720-pixel, 5-inch TFT display. Even the locations of the controls around the screen remain the same. The tiny power button lies on the left side of the screen. There's also a standard 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the device, to the left of the game cartridge slot, and a mini USB port next to the cartridge slot (a USB cable is bundled with the system). There is a small home button at the bottom right of the screen, which gets you back to the main menu, and volume controls located to the right of the screen. Centered underneath the screen is a toggle button.
But all is not identical. The first big change is the addition of a front-facing photo/video camera to augment the existing rear-facing camera. In comparison, the VTech InnoTab 2 (stay tuned for the review) has a single photo/video camera at the top of the device, when held in portrait mode, which pivots from back to front. There are now two thin bars on the side of the device (one near the top, one near the bottom) to tie the string attached to the stylus, depending on whether the user is left- or right-handed. The stylus can be still be stowed magnetically in a slot in the top right side of the LeapPad, but trust me when I say, use the string.
There are even more changes on the inside. At 4GB, the LeapPad2 has double the built-in storage of the LeapPad and the InnoTab2, though the InnoTab2 has an SD slot that can take up to a 32GB SD card for additional storage. The processor has been beefed up, running at 550MHz, compared with the 393MHz CPU of the LeapPad.
Parents considering an upgrade from the original LeapPad or even the LeapFrog Explorer will be happy to know that the LeapPad2 uses the same cartridges. Matthew, my four-year-old tester, was able to use the NFLRush Zone and Ben 10 gaming cartridges that we had bought with the LeapFrog Leapster Explorer. That is a good thing, because each gaming cartridge costs on average about $24.99 (list). LeapFrog also sells other accessories, like the LeapFrog LeapPad2 Recharger Pack ($39.99 list).
By Laarni Almendrala RagazaManaging Editor, HW
Laarni Almendrala Ragaza is the Managing Editor for the Hardware team. She is in charge of reviewing and testing desktops, laptops, netbooks, monitors, external hard drives, components (such as CPUs and graphics card), and peripheral...
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Investors alarmed by gun violence can have an impact.
Freedom Group, the manufacturer of the rifle used in last Friday's horrific shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, is being sold, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm, will be selling the gun-maker as a result of the events last week.
Not coincidentally, one of Cerberus' biggest investors has a connection to schools. The California State Teachers' Retirement System, or CalSTRS, has $750 million invested with the firm.
CalSTRS executives and other public officials applauded Cerberus? action, the Times reported. According to the story: "Thomas P. DiNapoli, the New York state comptroller, said he supported Cerberus? decision to sell the Freedom Group and ordered a review of the state pension fund?s investments in firearms manufacturers. The $150 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund has $50 million invested with Cerberus."
The sale of Freedom Group demonstrates how investors can use their clout. "CalSTRS, the second-largest pension plan in the U.S., was ?beginning to ask questions and then yesterday we heard that the private equity firm (Cerberus) had made the decision to sell," says Steven J. Schueth, president and chief marketing officer of First Affirmative Financial Network, which describes itself as a socially responsible investment management firm.
Other financial institutions are defending their holdings in gun manufacturers. Reuters reported on Tuesday that index fund giant Vanguard Group Inc. explained that its shares in firearms makers? Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger & Co. are in index funds that must exactly mirror market indices. Vanguard said its funds cannot meet what it called the "social concerns" of all shareholders, the Reuters story reported.
The situation highlights how difficult it may be for small investors to put their money solely into companies that reflect their values. Investors in index funds have a hard time if they want to avoid companies that sell weapons, alcohol and tobacco or, on the other side, if they want to invest only in environmentally-aware businesses.
In many cases, people probably don't even know all the companies they own through mutual funds.
"Individual investors must ask questions and must know what they own. They should ask questions of their financial planners and advisers, money managers, broker-dealers, pension funds and others on what types of companies are included in their portfolio and in their retirement plans," says Alya Kayal, director of policy and programs at US SIF, a trade group for? investment professionals, firms, institutions and organizations focused on what its members describe as sustainable and responsible investing.
Individuals who invest primarily through workplace retirement plans are particularly limited.? Only 14 percent of defined contribution plans offer one or more sustainable and responsible investment, or SRI, option, according to a 2011 survey of plan sponsors by US SIF and the human resources consulting group Mercer.
"If you're an employee of a company with a retirement plan that doesn?t have responsible investment options, start asking for them. That is the only way it happens. The only way they will move off the dime is if they experience demand from inside the firm," says Schueth, of First Affirmative Financial Network.
If you're stuck owning a piece of a company you disagree with, you can try to change the company. Publicly-traded businesses hold votes every year on a host of issues. Votes are done via proxies, ballots that are mailed in if you can't attend the annual shareholders meeting.
"I'd also say to the small investor that if you own a company through a mutual fund, the fund company will vote shares on your behalf," says Schueth. Investors can typically find out on a fund company's website how their fund votes proxies. Most mutual funds tend to vote with management.
"There are a group of funds out there that not only look at environmental, social or governance issues in the investment process but also vote shares on behalf of clients in a responsible manner. If you own stock directly you can vote -- even if you own a little bit," Schueth says.
If shareholders don't vote their proxies, "you're giving up an opportunity to make a difference," he says.
Are there any companies you'd rather not hold in your current portfolio?
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Contact: Peter West pwest@nsf.gov 703-292-7530 National Science Foundation
Drilling-related breakthroughs funded by NSF expected to advance 'frontier science' in a variety of disciplines
A trio of very large-scale, National Science Foundation-funded Antarctic science projects--investigating scientifically significant subjects as varied as life in extreme ecosystems, the fate of one of the world's largest ice sheets and the nature of abrupt global climate-change events--have recently each reached important technological milestones that will advance cutting-edge research.
In the past week, researchers with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS) project, the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project and the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) project each announced they had achieved these various milestones. In each case, the successes were based on innovative drilling technologies and promise to open new scientific vistas for Antarctic research.
All three projects are supported by the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP). Through the USAP, NSF coordinates all U.S. scientific research and related logistical support on the southernmost continent and in the surrounding Southern Ocean.
"Although additional challenges doubtless lie ahead for these projects in the harsh Antarctic environment, these successes are a testament to both scientific and engineering ingenuity and the logistical support needed to mount such ambitious and scientifically promising programs," said Scott Borg, who heads Antarctic Sciences in NSF's Division of Polar Programs.
Pine Island Glacier
On December 17, researchers with the PIG project announced that they had successfully drilled through the remote Pine Island Glacier ice shelf.
The successful drilling will help to reach the project's ultimate objective: to study the physical processes that are causing a rapid melting of the 60-kilometer-long (37 miles) ice shelf that extends into Pine Island Bay. One cause is suspected to be the circulation of relatively warmer ocean waters under the floating ice shelf that are undercutting the shelf.
Results from PIG will be used to improve the physics of numerical models that are used to predict future melt rates of the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Increased melting of the ice sheet could contribute significantly to global sea-level rise, with wide-ranging consequences for the Earth's temperate regions.
The stability of the polar ice sheets and their reaction to rising global temperatures remain one of the variables in the models used to predict climate trends. Analysis of satellite imagery and altimetry has shown that this part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has the highest thinning rates in Antarctica.
PIG is also funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and includes collaborating scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). High-resolution imagery analyzed by NASA Emeritus and project lead scientist Bob Bindschadler was used to locate a suitable site for the PIG camp on the ice.
The international PIG project is comprised of scientists and engineers with specialized expertise in analyzing satellite imagery deploying the hot-water drill; seismic and radar surveys of the ice shelf; and sea-bed structure and development and deployment of custom-built ocean instrumentation that will be left in the ocean cavity below the ice shelf to measure circulation and ocean-ice interactions over the coming years.
The PIG team faces the challenges of working not only in one of the most remote areas of the continent but also on a heavily crevassed region of the ice shelf where ice-sheet and weather conditions make it extremely difficult to deploy the personnel needed to conduct science, particularly for a large-scale project such as PIG. The project was initially launched as an initiative of the international Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2009 but has had to overcome numerous natural obstacles to deploy this season.
One of the primary tasks for the team has been to use a hot-water drill run by Martin Truffer, of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to make two 500-meter-deep (1,600 feet), 20-centimeter-diameter (approximately 8 inches) "skinny holes" through the ice shelf at each measurement site.
Researcher Tim Stanton's group, at the Naval Postgraduate School, developed specialized long-term instrument systems to fit down the 20-centimeter holes. A surface-powered instrument package lowered through the first bore hole to hang two meters (6.5 feet) below the ice measures the boundary layer currents and rate of mixing of ocean water right below the ice, allowing the local ice-melt to be calculated.
Sridhar Anandakrishnan and Leo Peters, geophysicists with Penn State University, meanwhile, are creating tiny "earthquakes" to study the shape of the ocean cavity and the properties of the bedrock under the PIG ice shelf. Leo and Penn State student Kiya Wilson have been doing seismic measurements around the first and second drill camp sites, then, with helicopter support, they will sample about 40 locations across the ice shelf to determine the larger-scale sea-bed shape and ice-shelf structure.
WISSARD
In the same week, meanwhile, researchers with WISSARD successfully tested a new hot-water drill that they will use to access a subglacial lake for clean microbiological sampling and glaciological measurements. This interdisciplinary project is set to explore a portion of a vast hydrological system that exists under the Antarctic ice.
The WISSARD team includes nearly 20 researchers and is divided into three scientific components: microbiology, led by John Priscu, of Montana State University; geology, led by Ross Powell, of Northern Illinois University; and glaciology, led by Slawek Tulaczyk, of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The team announced earlier this week that a test hole was drilled through the Ross Ice Shelf, a geographical feature the size of the state of Texas, into the seawater cavity below, which is over 900 meters (3000 feet) deep.
Once testing of the hot-water drill and the integrated filtration systems is completed on the ice shelf, all of the drilling equipment--including the drill, specialized filters and electrical generating equipment--will be moved, by means of an over-ice traverse, to the actual research drill site overlying Subglacial Lake Whillans.
Over the last several decades, ground-penetrating radar and other remote-sensing have revealed a vast system of rivers and lakes beneath the miles-thick Antarctic ice sheets. Geothermal heat from below, coupled with the pressure of the ice from above and the insulation provided by the ice sheet, cause some areas at the base of the ice sheet to remain above the freezing point, even in the extreme cold of Antarctica.
In order to explore one of these hydrological systems at the edge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet on the southeastern edge of the Ross Sea, WISSARD proposes to use a variety of tools and techniques to explore this unique subglacial environment.
WISSARD will lower a variety of sampling tools and sensors into the Subglacial Lake Whillans. These tools will cleanly sample subglacial lake water and sediments, provide video of lake bottom, and characterize chemical and physical properties of the lake and its environs.
The custom-built WISSARD hot-water drill, developed at University of Nebraska - Lincoln under the leadership of Frank Rack, is designed to melt a 30-centimeter (11-inch) hole through 800 meters (2,600 feet) of ice at the actual research site, providing clean access to Subglacial Lake Whillans.
A variety of sophisticated tools will be sent down the borehole to collect data and samples, supported by equipment and laboratories on the surface. All are designed not to contaminate this previously unexplored environment and to maintain the pristine nature of this part of Antarctica.
WAIS
Researchers with the WAIS Divide project, meanwhile, have announced that an innovative technique, called Replicate Coring, will allow them to retrieve additional ice cores from specific depths in an existing borehole, a development that researcher Charles Bentley, at the NSF-funded Ice Drilling Design and Operations (IDDO) group at the University of Wisconsin said opens "a new door for the future of ice-core drilling."
The replicate drilling technique is a key advance, because it allows scientists to take samples from specific levels of a main borehole without impeding the hole itself, leaving the main borehole open for future logging of information. Previously, it would have been necessary to physically block off the main borehole to sample along the sides.
NSF supports innovations in ice-core drilling through a cooperative partnership between the Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) led by Dartmouth College, in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire and IDDO.
The Replicate Coring technique, which was developed and tested by the IDDO engineers as part of the DISC drill, was put into service at WAIS Divide during the 2007-2008 Antarctic field season. The design of the DISC Drill was started by the Wisconsin group in 2002 in response to the desire of the U.S. researchers for a deep-coring drill that would incorporate the ability to retrieve additional cores from the sides of the main borehole. The DISC drill completed the main WAIS borehole during the 2011-2012 season, reaching a depth of 3,405 meters (more than 11,000 feet). Testing of the replicate coring system at WAIS began at the end of the 2011-2012 season.
Unlike the drilling at PIG and WISSARD, the drilling at WAIS is designed to obtain cores of ice. These cores, or cylinders of ice, contain, frozen within them, samples of gases from the atmosphere as it was, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Previously, ice cores have yielded unexpected scientific discoveries, including, for example, evidence that climate can change abruptly in less than ten years, far less time than previously suspected. Analysis of ice cores also indicates that the level of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere is presently higher than in the past 800,000 years.
At the WAIS Divide site--an extremely cold area of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where the abundant snowfall rarely melts--the ice contains many tens of thousands of years of annual information about past climate. The cores obtained by replicate drilling will allow researchers to obtain samples from specific depths in the ice sheet, including from times of past abrupt climate change, allowing them to better understand how and why abrupt changes occur.
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Contact: Peter West pwest@nsf.gov 703-292-7530 National Science Foundation
Drilling-related breakthroughs funded by NSF expected to advance 'frontier science' in a variety of disciplines
A trio of very large-scale, National Science Foundation-funded Antarctic science projects--investigating scientifically significant subjects as varied as life in extreme ecosystems, the fate of one of the world's largest ice sheets and the nature of abrupt global climate-change events--have recently each reached important technological milestones that will advance cutting-edge research.
In the past week, researchers with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS) project, the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project and the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) project each announced they had achieved these various milestones. In each case, the successes were based on innovative drilling technologies and promise to open new scientific vistas for Antarctic research.
All three projects are supported by the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP). Through the USAP, NSF coordinates all U.S. scientific research and related logistical support on the southernmost continent and in the surrounding Southern Ocean.
"Although additional challenges doubtless lie ahead for these projects in the harsh Antarctic environment, these successes are a testament to both scientific and engineering ingenuity and the logistical support needed to mount such ambitious and scientifically promising programs," said Scott Borg, who heads Antarctic Sciences in NSF's Division of Polar Programs.
Pine Island Glacier
On December 17, researchers with the PIG project announced that they had successfully drilled through the remote Pine Island Glacier ice shelf.
The successful drilling will help to reach the project's ultimate objective: to study the physical processes that are causing a rapid melting of the 60-kilometer-long (37 miles) ice shelf that extends into Pine Island Bay. One cause is suspected to be the circulation of relatively warmer ocean waters under the floating ice shelf that are undercutting the shelf.
Results from PIG will be used to improve the physics of numerical models that are used to predict future melt rates of the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Increased melting of the ice sheet could contribute significantly to global sea-level rise, with wide-ranging consequences for the Earth's temperate regions.
The stability of the polar ice sheets and their reaction to rising global temperatures remain one of the variables in the models used to predict climate trends. Analysis of satellite imagery and altimetry has shown that this part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has the highest thinning rates in Antarctica.
PIG is also funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and includes collaborating scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). High-resolution imagery analyzed by NASA Emeritus and project lead scientist Bob Bindschadler was used to locate a suitable site for the PIG camp on the ice.
The international PIG project is comprised of scientists and engineers with specialized expertise in analyzing satellite imagery deploying the hot-water drill; seismic and radar surveys of the ice shelf; and sea-bed structure and development and deployment of custom-built ocean instrumentation that will be left in the ocean cavity below the ice shelf to measure circulation and ocean-ice interactions over the coming years.
The PIG team faces the challenges of working not only in one of the most remote areas of the continent but also on a heavily crevassed region of the ice shelf where ice-sheet and weather conditions make it extremely difficult to deploy the personnel needed to conduct science, particularly for a large-scale project such as PIG. The project was initially launched as an initiative of the international Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2009 but has had to overcome numerous natural obstacles to deploy this season.
One of the primary tasks for the team has been to use a hot-water drill run by Martin Truffer, of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to make two 500-meter-deep (1,600 feet), 20-centimeter-diameter (approximately 8 inches) "skinny holes" through the ice shelf at each measurement site.
Researcher Tim Stanton's group, at the Naval Postgraduate School, developed specialized long-term instrument systems to fit down the 20-centimeter holes. A surface-powered instrument package lowered through the first bore hole to hang two meters (6.5 feet) below the ice measures the boundary layer currents and rate of mixing of ocean water right below the ice, allowing the local ice-melt to be calculated.
Sridhar Anandakrishnan and Leo Peters, geophysicists with Penn State University, meanwhile, are creating tiny "earthquakes" to study the shape of the ocean cavity and the properties of the bedrock under the PIG ice shelf. Leo and Penn State student Kiya Wilson have been doing seismic measurements around the first and second drill camp sites, then, with helicopter support, they will sample about 40 locations across the ice shelf to determine the larger-scale sea-bed shape and ice-shelf structure.
WISSARD
In the same week, meanwhile, researchers with WISSARD successfully tested a new hot-water drill that they will use to access a subglacial lake for clean microbiological sampling and glaciological measurements. This interdisciplinary project is set to explore a portion of a vast hydrological system that exists under the Antarctic ice.
The WISSARD team includes nearly 20 researchers and is divided into three scientific components: microbiology, led by John Priscu, of Montana State University; geology, led by Ross Powell, of Northern Illinois University; and glaciology, led by Slawek Tulaczyk, of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The team announced earlier this week that a test hole was drilled through the Ross Ice Shelf, a geographical feature the size of the state of Texas, into the seawater cavity below, which is over 900 meters (3000 feet) deep.
Once testing of the hot-water drill and the integrated filtration systems is completed on the ice shelf, all of the drilling equipment--including the drill, specialized filters and electrical generating equipment--will be moved, by means of an over-ice traverse, to the actual research drill site overlying Subglacial Lake Whillans.
Over the last several decades, ground-penetrating radar and other remote-sensing have revealed a vast system of rivers and lakes beneath the miles-thick Antarctic ice sheets. Geothermal heat from below, coupled with the pressure of the ice from above and the insulation provided by the ice sheet, cause some areas at the base of the ice sheet to remain above the freezing point, even in the extreme cold of Antarctica.
In order to explore one of these hydrological systems at the edge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet on the southeastern edge of the Ross Sea, WISSARD proposes to use a variety of tools and techniques to explore this unique subglacial environment.
WISSARD will lower a variety of sampling tools and sensors into the Subglacial Lake Whillans. These tools will cleanly sample subglacial lake water and sediments, provide video of lake bottom, and characterize chemical and physical properties of the lake and its environs.
The custom-built WISSARD hot-water drill, developed at University of Nebraska - Lincoln under the leadership of Frank Rack, is designed to melt a 30-centimeter (11-inch) hole through 800 meters (2,600 feet) of ice at the actual research site, providing clean access to Subglacial Lake Whillans.
A variety of sophisticated tools will be sent down the borehole to collect data and samples, supported by equipment and laboratories on the surface. All are designed not to contaminate this previously unexplored environment and to maintain the pristine nature of this part of Antarctica.
WAIS
Researchers with the WAIS Divide project, meanwhile, have announced that an innovative technique, called Replicate Coring, will allow them to retrieve additional ice cores from specific depths in an existing borehole, a development that researcher Charles Bentley, at the NSF-funded Ice Drilling Design and Operations (IDDO) group at the University of Wisconsin said opens "a new door for the future of ice-core drilling."
The replicate drilling technique is a key advance, because it allows scientists to take samples from specific levels of a main borehole without impeding the hole itself, leaving the main borehole open for future logging of information. Previously, it would have been necessary to physically block off the main borehole to sample along the sides.
NSF supports innovations in ice-core drilling through a cooperative partnership between the Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) led by Dartmouth College, in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire and IDDO.
The Replicate Coring technique, which was developed and tested by the IDDO engineers as part of the DISC drill, was put into service at WAIS Divide during the 2007-2008 Antarctic field season. The design of the DISC Drill was started by the Wisconsin group in 2002 in response to the desire of the U.S. researchers for a deep-coring drill that would incorporate the ability to retrieve additional cores from the sides of the main borehole. The DISC drill completed the main WAIS borehole during the 2011-2012 season, reaching a depth of 3,405 meters (more than 11,000 feet). Testing of the replicate coring system at WAIS began at the end of the 2011-2012 season.
Unlike the drilling at PIG and WISSARD, the drilling at WAIS is designed to obtain cores of ice. These cores, or cylinders of ice, contain, frozen within them, samples of gases from the atmosphere as it was, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Previously, ice cores have yielded unexpected scientific discoveries, including, for example, evidence that climate can change abruptly in less than ten years, far less time than previously suspected. Analysis of ice cores also indicates that the level of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere is presently higher than in the past 800,000 years.
At the WAIS Divide site--an extremely cold area of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where the abundant snowfall rarely melts--the ice contains many tens of thousands of years of annual information about past climate. The cores obtained by replicate drilling will allow researchers to obtain samples from specific depths in the ice sheet, including from times of past abrupt climate change, allowing them to better understand how and why abrupt changes occur.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Sweden's central bank has cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1 percent as inflationary pressures remain benign and problems in Europe weigh on the Scandinavian country's economy.
Tuesday's decision was widely expected.
The Riksbank also says that its main interest rate will likely "remain at this low level for the coming year" due to the economic slowdown, rising unemployment and subdued inflation.
By the end of 2013, it expects inflation to start edging up as the global economic recovery gathers steam, partly on the back of recent measures taken by the 17 EU countries that use the euro to get a grip on their 3-year debt crisis.
The Riksbank says the weaker European economy has so far had "a clear effect" on Sweden.
Our legal team would like to offer a friendly reminder that the following should not be construed as legal advice.
Spoiler alert: We at RingCentral are getting ready to introduce some very cool new products and features. These offerings are so awesome, in fact, that we have to trademark their names. It was with this in mind that our external counsel, Lisa Greenwald-Swire of Fish & Richardson, spoke to us recently about the trademark process. Here are four of the lessons we learned at Lisa?s presentation:
1) Know the different categories of brand mark.
Lisa Greenwald-Swire
There are five brand mark types. Fanciful brand names, like Google, are the easiest kind to protect legally ? a??coined? name (e.g., Verizon) is best from an ease-of-trademarking standpoint. Next-easiest are arbitrary trademarks, like Apple. Arbitrary marks use real words, but they do so in an unconventional way. Suggestive brand marks fall in the middle of the pack. Suggestive names, like Coppertone, hint at what the product in question provides but don?t state it outright. Descriptive marks, on the other hand, are less vague (and therefore tougher to trademark). Think Chap Stick. Finally, there are generic marks, which are impossible to trademark. (Try bringing ?aspirin? to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for proof.)
2) Think about real-world use.
Ease of pronunciation is a key consideration when picking a brand name, particularly if you?re taking the ?fanciful? route. It may also be good to employ stems from Greek or Latin, which can confer upon your brand a certain familiarity. And make Google Translate (or a real-life translator) your friend: you don?t want a mark that could be transliterated into something ridiculous.
3) Start the trademark-search process early.
Lisa counsels (pun unfortunately intended) that businesses begin searching for trademarks long before starting to use them commercially. Why? Quite simply, it?s good to cover your bases. Be proactive about making sure your target trademark isn?t in use already (and hasn?t been claimed on social channels like Facebook and Twitter). In addition, filing an intent-of-use application with the U.S.P.T.O. will position you well to defend your mark, should the need arise. When the mark registers, you will get presumptive nationwide trademark rights dating back to the day on which you filed.
4) Put yourself in consumers? shoes.
The single most important question to ask when trademarking relates to consumer perception. With a trademark, is there a likelihood of consumers confusing your brand with another (existing) one? This question forms the basis of all trademark law, Lisa noted. So think about your desired trademark from the perspective of a disinterested consumer. If bewilderment is a distinct possibility, you should probably pursue a different mark.
Featured image courtesy of: Steve Snodgrass via photopin cc.
Buying a car is not an investment because it entails a lot of expenses such as gas, toll fee, auto maintenance and even car insurance. Some people do not give importance to car insurance because for them, it is something that you can avoid if you just drive carefully. But accidents happen anytime and anywhere, even good driver experienced accidents.
Car insurance is part of our monthly expense, whether I like it or not we have to pay for it just to be sure that we are covered when unexpected things happen. We used to pay P1000+ a month for our auto insurance but now we are paying P2000 every month because we replaced the old car already. That amount can already pay part of my son?s tuition. But I must admit auto insurance is really important to all car owners so if you still do not have auto insurance, do not think twice anymore. Get car insurance as soon as possible. There are several agencies that offer car insurances and the cost will depends on the coverage you want. If you want higher coverage, expect for higher rate too. If you have no idea about the cost, the best way to check is through internet. There are several websites that offer auto insurance quote and that is free so take advantage of it. Some website only asks for your zip code and they will send you the quotation. For more information click here to check if they are offering auto insurance in your state.?
Civil society groups call for solidarity with migrant Chinese SMRT Bus Drivers on International Migrants? Day
Published by The Online Citizen on December 19, 2012
PRESS RELEASE
Civil society groups call for solidarity with migrant Chinese SMRT Bus Drivers on International Migrants? Day
Ten civil society groups and more than 300 individuals have endorsed a petition urging the Singapore government to ensure that the migrant Chinese SMRT drivers who have been charged for participating in an illegal ?strike? be given a fair trial. It has also urged the State to redress the imbalance of power between corporations and workers, protect all workers against inequality, exploitation and discrimination in the workplace, and ensure that that all the parties that are responsible for the situation giving rise to the ?strike? are held accountable.
The statement was issued by Workfair Singapore, a group of civil society activists concerned about the implications of the strike on the rights of workers, migrant and local. According to the statement, the SMRT labour dispute raises several questions:
?
a) Was it fair for the bus drivers to be charged or deported before the extent of SMRT?s failures had been fully determined?
b) If ?zero tolerance? is the prescribed policy for workers engaged in ?illegal strikes?, why is there no accountability for employers who fail to adequately address their concerns?
c) What are the limitations in our laws, policies and procedures which contributed to the workers? grievances and the lack of resolution of these grievances?
d) Foreign workers doing low paid work are most in need of the protection of a trade union. Why were none of the workers members of the union?
It also highlights two issues:
a) The huge imbalance of power between corporations and their workers ? an issue of urgent relevance to Singaporeans and people working in Singapore;
b) The State?s complicity in promoting this imbalance by focussing disproportionately on the ?illegality? of the workers? actions. The State, by punishing an act of civil disobedience carried out in opposition to an unfair and exploitative situation, effectively reinforces the systemic flaw.
The ten groups that have endorsed this statement are:
1) Maruah
2) Public House
3) Slutwalk, Singapore
4) Project X
5) Transitioning
6) Function 8
7) Sayoni
8) Think Centre
9) People Like Us
10) Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign
Media contact: Mr Samydorai Sinapan, workfairsg@gmail.com
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If you want to keep your drains in good working order and avoid costly plumbing bills, here are some helpful DIY home improvement tips to follow.
By Laarni Almendrala Ragaza 
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Public release date: 20-Dec-2012
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Civil society groups call for solidarity with migrant Chinese SMRT Bus Drivers on International Migrants? Day