Visitors help Boston shops bounce back after Marathon attacks

By Ross Kerber

BOSTON (Reuters) - One tourist wanted to eat at a restaurant as close to the Boston Marathon finish line as possible. Other well-wishers made a point of buying shoes at the running store just a few steps away from a bomb blast site.

With their dining and shopping dollars, throngs of visitors to Boston's Boylston Street are helping small businesses recover quickly from millions of dollars in losses after the Boston Marathon bombing attacks on April 15.

"The support has been incredible," said Colin Peddie, owner of Marathon Sports, of the customers who have flooded his running goods store close to the racecourse finish - and the site of the first of two blasts that killed three people and injured 264.

Unlike the September 11, 2001 attacks, the last comparable event on U.S. soil, the low-tech bombing of the Boston Marathon left relatively little property damage.

Still, a number of businesses in the area were forced to temporarily close to repair minor damage or wait for police to complete their investigation of crime scene.

Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the 500-member local Back Bay Association trade group, said about half of them lost at least some money due to the bombings and their aftermath. She estimated losses total tens of millions of dollars.

Many retailers and restaurants now hope to make up their losses through increased foot traffic from visitors, runners and locals coming to the site of the attacks, she said.

At Marathon Sports, where the blasts blew apart the shopfront, Peddie credited his local insurer with helping him reopen quickly and said the store is on track to recoup the losses as visitors return to the area.

"It's for all the wrong reasons, but for now when someone comes to Boston they're going to take that walk down Boylston Street," Peddie said.

Mark Shapiro, a doctor who had just arrived from San Diego on Friday and was taking pictures outside a packed Marathon Sports, said he and his wife made it one of their first stops.

"We both agreed we wanted to pay our respects, but it was nothing like I expected. I had no idea it would be so crowded," Shapiro said.

Representatives for several investment fund companies and other professional businesses in the area said most employees were able to work remotely during the days much of the area was closed off as a crime scene - including during a citywide shutdown on April 19 as police searched for one of the bombing suspects.

These included International Data Group, the technology research firm whose headquarters are in an office building just next to the site of the first blast.

SEEKING RESTAURANT NEAR FINISH LINE

Some retailers and businesses were less fortunate.

At The Tannery, a fashionable footwear and clothing store at the corner of Boylston and Exeter streets, general manager Gerardo Defabritiis estimated lost sales of more than $100,000 for his store, which has 15 employees.

"We're talking about six figures," he said. Still, only one window was slightly damaged in the attacks and nobody was injured, he said. "We're OK, thank God," he said.

Those likely to wind up hit hardest are doctors, hair salons and other service providers who charge by the visit and cannot easily make up sales such as by staying open later, said Mainzer-Cohen of the Back Bay Association.

"There are only so many hours in the day," she said.

The U.S. Small Business Administration said on Monday it would make available low-interest disaster loans of up to $2 million to help those impacted by the attack. Not all business-interruption insurance covers losses tied to terror attacks.

Mike Ross, a Boston city councilman whose district includes the area, said he has gotten a flood of contacts from out-of-town visitors looking to stop in after the attacks. One man from New York, Ross said, e-mailed for help finding a restaurant as close to the Boston Marathon's finish line as possible.

"We're really pumped," Ross said of visitors' new enthusiasm for the area.

(Reporting By Ross Kerber; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/visitors-help-boston-shops-bounce-back-marathon-attacks-212025839.html

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White House Correspondents Dinner 2013: Obama, Conan Bring the House Down

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Win of the day: Weather Channel pummels interns with 'tornado'

Tornado Week kicked off today for the Weather Channel ? both on screen and in the network's office.?

The channel has announced a Twitter campaign to promote its upcoming mega-block of tornado-centric programming. Weather Channel interns will be buffeted by a "Twitter-powered tornado" throughout the day, which can be seen on a live feed streaming to the web. The more tweets referencing the campaign's #TornadoWeek hashtag, the harder the artificial wind blows. Should the campaign notch one million mentions, the winds will hit?EF-5 levels. On the Enhanced Fujita Scale, EF-5 is the fiercest type of tornado, with winds topping 200 miles per hour.

By midafternoon, the campaign had racked up thousands of tweets ? many of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, snarky ? as curious Twitter users sought to make things more interesting for themselves, and for those wind-battered interns.

You can watch the live stream above. If you get bored, you know what to do.

Source: http://theweek.com/article/index/243432/win-of-the-day-weather-channel-pummels-interns-with-tornado

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These Award-Winning Vines Are Everything a Six Second Film Should Be

Vines aren't exactly a new from of high art or anything. But while poorly edited Vine's of your friends' cats doing nothing are probably what you see most often, there are some pretty good ones, with a bit more meat to 'em. These Tribeca Vine Competition winners are a pretty good sample. They're so good you might even go "huh!" More »

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Court may limit use of race in college admission decisions

By Joan Biskupic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court set the terms for boosting college admissions of African Americans and other minorities, the court may be about to issue a ruling that could restrict universities' use of race in deciding who is awarded places.

The case before the justices was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white suburban Houston student who asserted she was wrongly rejected by the University of Texas at Austin while minority students with similar grades and test scores were admitted.

The ruling is the only one the court has yet to issue following oral arguments in cases heard in October and November, the opening months of the court's annual term which lasts until the early summer. A decision might come as early as Monday, before the start of a two-week recess.

As hard as it is to predict when a ruling will be announced, it is more difficult to say how it might change the law. Still, even a small move in the Texas case could mark the beginning of a new chapter limiting college administrators' discretion in using race in deciding on admissions.

For decades, dating back at least to the John F. Kennedy administration of the 1960s, U.S. leaders have struggled with what "affirmative action" should be taken to help blacks and other minorities. In the early years, it was seen as a way to remedy racial prejudice and discrimination; in the more modern era, as a way to bring diversity to campuses and workplaces.

Since 1978, the Supreme Court has been at the center of disputes over when universities may consider applicants' race. In that year's groundbreaking Bakke decision from a University of California medical school, the justices forbade quotas but said schools could weigh race with other factors.

In another seminal university case, the court in 2003 reaffirmed the use of race in admissions to create diversity in colleges. But with the current bench more conservative than the one in 2003, there is a strong chance a majority of the justices will undercut that decade-old ruling on a University of Michigan case.

Writing for the majority in that case, Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor declared that "the path to leadership" should be "visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity." That meant public universities must be able to take special steps to enroll minorities, O'Connor wrote.

O'Connor retired in January 2006 and her successor as the regular swing vote on racial dilemmas has been Justice Anthony Kennedy, who dissented in the 2003 case and may well author the ruling to come in the latest case. The student in the case, Abigail Fisher, graduated from Louisiana State University last year.

"HURT," "INJURY"

Notably, during oral argument in the University of Texas case on October 10, Kennedy referred to the "hurt" and "injury" caused by screening applicants by race. However, Kennedy's comments during arguments suggested that he was not ready to vote to forbid all racial criteria in admissions.

In his dissenting opinion in the 2003 Michigan case, he wrote that the court has long accepted universities' stance that racial diversity enhances the educational experience for all students, while insisting such policies be narrowly drawn.

Kennedy's view of when exactly race can be considered and of the discretion of college administrators in the matter are likely to be crucial.

Marvin Krislov, now president of Oberlin College in Ohio and a past vice-president and general counsel of the University of Michigan, said on Friday that university administrators were concerned about how broadly it might sweep and whether it will ultimately reduce the number of minority students on campus.

"Colleges and universities care deeply about student body diversity," he said, adding of his colleagues in higher education: "We're all watching and waiting."

Once oral arguments are held, the court's deliberations on a case are shrouded in secrecy. The timing of a particular decision is not known in advance. And racial dilemmas have never been easy for the court, a point underscored by the current delay.

When the justices ruled in the 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, they issued six separate opinions. None drew a majority. Four justices would have upheld a program that set aside a certain number of slots for minority applicants; four justices would have struck it down. Justice Lewis Powell provided the essential fifth vote, allowing universities to consider race and ethnic origin but forbidding quotas or a reserved number of places. Powell planted the seed of the diversity justification that blossomed in O'Connor's opinion in 2003.

The Michigan case divided the bench 5-4, with O'Connor joining with the more liberal members of the bench to allow race as a consideration in admissions. In a 2007 dispute testing the use of race in student placements to ensure diversity in school districts, the court tipped the opposite way. Conservatives, including O'Connor's successor Samuel Alito, curtailed such public school integration plans.

Only eight of the nine justices will be deciding the Texas case. Justice Elena Kagan, a former U.S. solicitor general, has taken herself out of the dispute because of her prior involvement in the case. The government is siding with the University of Texas.

The challenged program supplements a Texas state policy guaranteeing admission to the university for high school graduates scoring in the top 10 percent at their individual schools. University of Texas administrators argue that the "Top 10" program does not make the university sufficiently diverse.

The Texas approach, with the dual programs, is distinct. The larger issue is how a decision would affect other universities.

"The court seems to have been leaning away from allowing affirmative action for some time," said University of Virginia law professor John Jeffries, a former law clerk and biographer of Justice Lewis Powell. "If they close the door that, potentially, is a very big deal."

(Editing by Howard Goller, Martin Howell; desking by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-may-limit-race-college-admission-decisions-133238785.html

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Earnings beating forecasts but jury's out on rest of season

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Ben Berkowitz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies have easily beaten expectations for first-quarter earnings so far in the reporting season, but nearly half of the members of the S&P 500 are yet to announce results and they are unlikely to be as robust.

With results in from 271 of the S&P 500 companies, year-over-year earnings growth is projected at 3.9 percent, compared with a forecast for 1.5 percent growth at the start of the earnings season, Thomson Reuters data shows. That figure includes those that have reported and analyst estimates for those who have not.

The companies yet to report are expected to post an aggregate earnings decline of 0.4 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data - whereas the companies that have already reported have posted growth of 6.1 percent.

Among the biggest companies yet to report are Dow components Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Home Depot .

Some 69 percent of the S&P 500 have beaten forecasts, once again conforming to the pattern of lowering expectations enough to "surprise" by beating them. The 69 percent figure exceeds the long-term average of 63 percent. This has been the pattern for the last 15 quarters, with growth estimates at the beginning of earnings ultimately being beaten by at least a full percentage point.

From April 1 to April 24, S&P 500 earnings growth expectations fell 170 basis points for the second quarter, 130 basis points for the third quarter and 70 basis points for the fourth quarter.

"If this recent pattern holds, you're going to find that those beats will continue and therefore lead earnings season to be one of continued positive surprise," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

So far, this has been good enough for investors. Since earnings season began with Alcoa's report on April 8, the S&P 500 has gained 1.2 percent, and it closed Friday less than 1 percent from its all-time high of 1,593.37 reached on April 11. So far this year, it has climbed nearly 11 percent.

GOING FORWARD, WITH CAUTION

Even though profits have been better than expectations, revenue forecasts have declined, a sign, once again, that companies are exceeding results on the bottom line because of reduced expenses, and not because of stellar sales. So far, just 42 percent of companies are beating revenue expectations, below the long-term average.

First-quarter revenue now is expected to fall 0.3 percent, which is worse than the forecast for 1 percent growth when the season started.

That means companies - yet again - have been able to squeeze out higher profits through cost-cutting and other measures. But that does not bode well for hiring and stands as a potential headwind to the economy in coming quarters.

"It does concern me. It's not sustainable over the medium or the long term. There's only so much companies can do to sustain growth without increasing sales," said Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management, in New York.

There are plenty of examples of major companies that were deeply reserved about the second quarter or the remainder of the year.

Among those were Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc . Apple, until recently the world's biggest company by market value, saw its first quarterly profit decline in a decade and issued a soft outlook for the second quarter that fell short of investor hopes. The stock has lost about 40 percent of its value since September.

"The market was telling you the numbers were too high," BGC analyst Colin Gillis said of Apple's outlook, adding that it was "pretty much even worse than even I was expecting."

(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/earnings-beating-forecasts-jurys-rest-season-211325703.html

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GDP growth slows: why Washington must repeal the sequester

GDP?grew only 2.5 percent in the first quarter. It's evidence that?the economy is slowing, the recovery is stalling, and Washington must repeal the sequester, Reich writes.

By Robert Reich,?Guest blogger / April 26, 2013

Jobseekers stand in line around the block to attend the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. career fair held by the New York State department of Labor in New York. No economy can maintain momentum just on the spending of the richest 10 percent, Reich writes.

Lucas Jackson/Reuters/File

Enlarge

Economic forecasters exist to make astrologers look good. Most had forecast growth of at least 3 percent (on an annualized basis) in the first quarter. But we?learned this morning?(in the Commerce Department?s report) it grew only 2.5 percent.

Skip to next paragraph Robert Reich

Robert is chancellor?s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Clinton. Time Magazine?named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written 13 books, including ?The Work of Nations,? his latest best-seller ?Aftershock: The Next Economy and America?s Future," and a new?e-book, ?Beyond Outrage.??He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

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That?s better than the 2 percent growth last year and the slowdown at the end of the year. But it?s still cause for serious concern.?

First, consumers won?t keep up the spending. Their savings rate fell sharply ? from 4.7% in the last quarter of 2012 to 2.6% from January through March.

Add in?March?s dismal employment report, the lowest percentage of working-age adults in jobs since 1979, and January?s hike in payroll taxes, and consumer spending will almost certainly drop.?

Artificial sense of touch gets smarter, lets robots really feel

The verdict's still out on whether or not androids dream of electric sheep. But their ability to feel? Well, that's about to approach levels of human sensitivity. We're of course talking about the sense of touch, not emotions. And thanks to work out of Georgia Tech, tactile sensitivity for robotics, more secure e-signatures and general human-machine interaction is about to get a great 'ol boost. Through the use of thousands of piezotronic transistors (i.e., grouped vertical zinc oxide nanowires) known as "taxels," a three-person team led by Prof. Zhong Lin Wang has devised a way to translate motion into electronic signals. In other words, you're looking at a future in which robotic hands interpret the nuances of a surface or gripped object akin to a human fingertip and artificial skin senses touch similar to the way tiny hairs on an arm do.

What's more, the tech has use outside of robotics and can even be levereged for more secure e-signature verification based on speed and pressure of a user's handwriting. And the best part? These sensors can be manufactured on transparent and flexible substrates like the one pictured above, which allows for various real-world applications -- just use your imagination. Pretty soon, even robots will have the pleasure of enjoying the touch... the feel of cotton and maybe even hum that jingle to themselves, too.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/artificial-sense-of-touch-gets-smarter-lets-robots-really-feel/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Honda recalls nearly 46,000 Fit Sports

DETROIT (AP) ? Honda is recalling nearly 46,000 Fit Sport small cars in the U.S. and Canada to fix a problem with the electronic stability control system.

The recall affects cars from the 2012 and 2013 model years. Honda says the stability control system can let the car tilt too far before it applies the brakes to prevent a crash.

The defect was discovered in government testing of models with a particular type of tires. Honda says it doesn't know of any crashes or injuries from the problem.

Honda dealers will update the system's software free of charge. Owners will be notified starting in mid-May.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/honda-recalls-nearly-46-000-fit-sports-014434400.html

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The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!

With Tim quite literally up in the air this week, Brian and Peter will be joined by Dana this time out to discuss all of the week's happenings. You can join along, too, after the break.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/sFb7JHK3CGQ/

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Fotopedia Reporter for iPad lets photographers publish their own photo stories

Fotopedia Reporter is a gorgeous app that lets you create your own photo stories and publish them to the popular social magazine. Whether it's a gallery from your last vacation, a tour of your garden, a review of your favorite restaurant, there's a place for your editorial creativity on Fotopedia.

Creating a photo story is easy: start with a cover photo, choose a title and description, add a location, pull text from Wikipedia or add your own, and share for all to see!

In addition to sharing your own stories, you can also browse stories posted by other people. Fotopedia has a featured page of great content as well as the most popular and new stories organized by category.

Fotopedia is very social at lets you rate stories up to 5 stars as well as leave comments. You can also follow users and see all their work viewed as a list or thumbnails.

The good

• Stunning design
• Easy to create a photo story
• Find amazing work by other users
• Organize by featured or category (new or popular)
• Leaving ratings and comments
• Follow users and view profiles
• Share to Facebook and Twitter

The bad

• No complaints

The bottom line

Fotopedia Reporter is incredibly well designed and is a great way for photographers to showcase their work. I am in awe by some of the photos I've come across and it makes me want to pick a theme and take a stab at photojournalism.

• Free - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/CoGB8ldagU4/story01.htm

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Quote of the Day (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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93% The Sapphires

All Critics (120) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (112) | Rotten (8)

The harmonies they strike in this reality-inspired charmer are sweetly sublime.

You could drive an Abrams tank through the film's plot holes, but you'll likely be too busy enjoying yourself to bother.

"The Sapphires" feels like a movie you've already seen, but it's nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable, like a pop song that's no less infectious when you know every word.

"The Sapphires" sparkles with sass and Motown soul.

Sapphires is hardly a cinematic diamond mine. But this Commitments-style mashup of music and melodrama manages to entertain without demanding too much of its audience.

A surefire crowdpleaser with all the ingredients for the type of little-movie-that-could sleeper success that Harvey Weinstein has nurtured in years and award seasons past.

You've seen this story before, but never pulled off with so much joie de vivre.

They can put a song across just like the Dreamgirls. What's not to like?

Exuberant but fairly formulaic.

Doesn't always mix its anti-prejudice message and its feel-good nostalgia with complete smoothness. But despite some ragged edges it provides a reasonably good time.

Director Wayne Blair -- another veteran of the stage show -- finds his footing during the film's many musical numbers.

Despite the prosaic plot and reserved approach taken by Blair, Briggs, and Thompson, it's tough to get cynical about such a warmhearted picture that strives to tell so uplifting a story.

A movie with enough melody and camaraderie to cover up its lack of originality.

Draining most of the blood, sweat and tears from a true story, this music-minded movie capably covers a song we've heard a hundred times before.

"Sapphires," which was inspired by a true story, is propelled by a strong sense of music's power to connect people and change lives.

Fires on all cylinders when it drops all pretense and allows its talented cast to simply belt out a series of pure, unfiltered slices of ear candy.

A rousing soundtrack helps to compensate for some of the historical embellishments in this Australian crowd-pleaser.

No quotes approved yet for The Sapphires. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_sapphires_2012/

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Archos to Release Three 'Pure Android' Prepaid Smartphones

Despite being ubiquitous, "Android" can be awfully hard to find. Many smartphones and tablets that use Google's open-source Android operating system, such as the Kindle Fire and Samsung's latest phones, barely mention this fact in a footnote.

Android phones often work very differently from each other, such as with the Windows Phone-style home screen on the HTC One. And most come with preinstalled "crapware," put there by the manufacturer or the wireless carrier, which can't be removed and might do things you don't want it to do.

Archos, formerly best known for its Android media player tablets, is making a series of smartphones which goes against that trend.

Carbon and platinum

According to the press release and device comparisons on Android Police, Archos' new smartphones include the 35 Carbon ("May be good for a child's first smartphone"), the 50 Platinum ("actually pretty usable"), and the 53 Platinum ("the largest of the three"). The names indicate how high-quality they are, as well as their screen size; the 35 Carbon has a 3.5-inch screen, the same as the original iPhone, while the 53 Platinum has a 5.3-inch screen, larger than the Galaxy S 4's.

Not just prepaid, but SIM-free

Archos' Android smartphones will not be tied to any one wireless carrier, the way even the prepaid phones that you buy up front are. (In this respect, they'll be similar to unlocked phones like Google's Nexus 4.) They will also have two SIM card slots, so that you can switch between carriers without needing to pop the case open.

"Pure un-skinned Android OS"

The press release does mention that Archos' phones will include "ARCHOS Media Centre apps," but this is to be expected from a company that used to make media players. Since the "pure" Android experience is a selling point, though, any extra apps shouldn't be as invasive as the ones on (for instance) a Samsung device sold by Verizon.

What about the specs?

The 35 Carbon has entry-level hardware, with a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. It only has 4 GB of storage, but has a microSD slot for a memory card. Surprisingly -- for a $99 smartphone -- it has a front-facing camera. But its rear-facing one has the same VGA resolution, which will make for fuzzy, low-res photos. It has a 320x480 screen, and runs Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich").

And the Platinum smartphones?

The $200 50 Platinum has (as the name suggests) a 5-inch screen, plus a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM. The $250, 53 Platinum has the same internals, but a 5.3-inch "phablet"-sized screen.

Both have the same 4 GB of storage (plus microSD) that the 35 Carbon has, but have significantly better cameras. They also run Android 4.1.2 ("Jelly Bean"), a newer version with more features.

When will they be available?

The press release says they "will be available starting in Europe at the end of May." Since there's an American English web page up for each smartphone, a stateside release ought to follow.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/archos-release-three-pure-android-prepaid-smartphones-155800797.html

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Small Business Accounting in the Clouds: You've Got Options ...

Cloud computing, it?s a term you?ve likely heard before. It?s the widely-used term for services of all kinds that operate entirely on the internet ? as opposed to desktop software you install on your computer?s harddrive.

It?s also referred to as SaaS (Software as a Service) although that?s more of an industry-insider term and not one you would hear at a family BBQ.

With cloud-based services, everything is done online. You can access your information and do your work anywhere there is a computer with internet access. It?s where a lot of the innovative time-saving applications are happening today.

For business owners, this is glad news because there are better ways to do important but odious administrative tasks.

Bookkeeping is a shining example. With Shoeboxed, the days of collecting crumpled receipts in a dusty box and unloading them on an accountant are thankfully coming to an end. Shoeboxed automates receipt management and enables paperless record collection and expense reporting.

The online alternatives for accounting and invoicing services has also ballooned. Standouts include Beancruncher, Wave Accounting and Freshbooks.

These solutions in the sky are more ?hands off? and easier to use than traditional bookkeeping software. Many of these online accounting services are also reasonably priced, and some like Wave Accounting are free.

However, this abundance of options makes it difficult for small business owners to zero in on the service that fits the bill and has all the necessary features.

?

Determining What Your Needs are in a SaaS

When looking for cloud-based small business accounting software, figure out what you need first. Even if you scribble it down on a scrap piece of paper. From there you have specific keywords that could save you hours in online searches.

Another way to do it is by making a checklist that answers the following questions:

What is your monthly bookkeeping budget? Online accounting software subscriptions vary wildly from site to site, so if you don?t see a price that jibes with your budget there?s probably something else out there that will.

How many billable customers your business have? This affects the number of invoices you?ll need to send out each month. Most cloud-based accounting price plans base their price on the number of invoices per month.

Also, when you?ve decided on your monthly budget and invoicing needs, jott down a list of must-have features in a cloud-computing service. Do you need time tracking options for billing your clients? Multi-currency invoicing options? Which payment methods do you need your accounting solution to accept ? bank cards, PayPal, cheques or direct deposit?

If you don?t need all these options, you?ll probably find most online invoicing and accounting solutions will cut it.

One last thing to consider are customizations and add-ons. Google Docs integration, invoicing templates customization, customer relationship management, multi-user support and so on can really affect your workflow when using the app.

Luckily, most services offer a free trial period to ?kick the tires? and see if it?s a good fit.

?

Go Forth and Prosper

As you can see, finding the perfect online accounting software takes some forethought, but the savings are significant in both time and money. It?ll be something to brag about at the next family BBQ.

?

CB Power and Industrial Equipment supplies new and used industrial machinery. For expert advice or a quote, call 1-888-317-8959 today.

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Cautious relief in Peoria as water levels fall

Mike Branchik returns to dry land using a make shift walkway from his home as the Illinois River floods homes Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Peoria Heights, Ill. Floodwaters are rising to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Mike Branchik returns to dry land using a make shift walkway from his home as the Illinois River floods homes Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Peoria Heights, Ill. Floodwaters are rising to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

A water pump house is surrounded by water as the Illinois River rises out of it's banks Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Peoria Heights, Ill. Floodwaters are rising to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois. Communities in Illinois and Missouri are hoping to hold back surging rivers swollen by days of drenching rain. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

The Illinois Valley Yacht and Canoe Club is surrounded by water as the Illinois River rises out of it's banks flooding businesses and homes Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Peoria Heights, Ill. Floodwaters are rising to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Heavy machinery moves sandbags as other sit staged, ready for possible use in the fight against floodwaters Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Dutchtown, Mo. The tiny community of Dutchtown is doing what it can to prepare ahead of any possible flood. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Water covers the intersection of Illinois State Route 100 and Route 3 in Grafton, Ill. on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. More rain on Tuesday was the last thing flood fighters across the Midwest wanted to see, adding more water to swollen rivers that are now expected to remain high into next month. (AP Photo/Belleville News-Democrat, Derik Holtmann)

PEORIA HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) ? Floodwaters began a slow, inch-by-inch retreat Wednesday in inundated Peoria, Ill., offering hope to residents who watched helplessly as the Illinois River reached a 70-year high and swamped their homes and businesses.

In downtown Peoria, tens of thousands of white and yellow sandbags stacked 3 feet high lined blocks of the scenic riverfront, holding back waters that already had surrounded the visitors' center and restaurants in the 114-year-old former train depot. Across the street, smaller sandbag walls blocked riverside pedestrian access to the headquarters of heavy equipment maker Caterpillar and the city's arts and culture museum.

The flood will take its toll economically on Peoria, but authorities watching the receding waters expressed relief that, so far, no lives have been lost.

Elsewhere, there were no reports of other significant Midwestern population centers in peril, but officials were urging caution because of predictions that waterways will remain high through early May and sustain pressure on earthen levees.

Concerns persist along the Mississippi River in southeast Missouri, where smaller levees had been overtopped or breached, especially in Lincoln and Pike counties. But sandbag levees in the unprotected towns of Clarksville, Mo., and Dutchtown, Mo., were holding ahead of expected crests later in the week.

Officials in Peoria said the Illinois River finally crested Tuesday at 29.35 feet, eclipsing a 70-year record.

Because the water made numerous roads around the city impassable, firefighters had been especially concerned about being able to battle blazes since the water made numerous roads around the area impassable.

Their closest call came late Tuesday when an above-ground gasoline storage tank at a former boat repair business broke loose, raising concerns of potential disaster if it got swept south into downtown Peoria.

Peoria Heights Fire Chief Greg Walters and others managed to lasso it and wrangle it to shore.

"That's the only real issue we've had at this point," Walters said. "We're fortunate in that respect. I'm feeling blessed. Fingers crossed."

Blair Pumphrey also hoped for good luck, but he wasn't so fortunate. On Wednesday, he was moving out of his small, brick rental home ? its basement flooded to the rafters and the garage swamped. His backyard resembled a lake, with an occasional goose swimming by.

A small wall of sandbags he put up with friends days earlier held off the river for a time, but it proved futile.

"Once the basement started leaking, there was no stopping it," said Pumphrey, 29, an electrician and member of the Illinois Air National Guard. "Then when the river came around the front, there was nothing I could do."

Among those still in their homes was Mark Reatherford. The 52-year-old unemployed baker has lived for decades in his split-level, which has a view of a small park and the Illinois River. By Tuesday afternoon, as a chilly rain fell, the river had rolled over the park and reached Reatherford's home, creating a 3-foot-deep mess in the basement.

He cleared out the basement furniture and was hoping the main floor would stay dry. But he hadn't dismissed the idea of abandoning his home in Peoria Heights, about 150 miles southwest of Chicago.

"You can't get a better view than what we've got here," he said, acknowledging "I'm getting too old to deal with this."

Nearby, retired Caterpillar crane operator Roland Gudat spent much of Tuesday afternoon on his porch swing, marveling at the river, which had swamped houses down the street but largely spared his home of 46 years. The 73-year-old said he had pumped from his basement hundreds of gallons of water that had seeped up from the saturated ground.

Gudat remarked that he'd never seen the river so high, but nonetheless could not tolerate the gawkers that were using neighborhood driveways to turn around.

"I told them this isn't a damn cul-de-sac," he said. Gudat and his neighbors placed saw horses in their driveways, forcing sightseers to reverse back down the road.

"If they knock those saw horses over, I'm gonna turn their keys off and call the cops. Don't come here and bug people in misery," he said.

In southwestern Indiana, floodgates have been installed to keep the Wabash River from overrunning Vincennes, which was founded in 1732. Some strategic spots in the state's oldest town have been reinforced with sandbags. The weather service projected a crest on Saturday about 12 feet above flood stage, the highest in nearly 70 years.

The Grand River at Grand Rapids, Mich., which reached record levels recently has receded about 2 feet. Weather officials said it was expected to fall below flood stage Thursday, but it was unclear when the hundreds of people evacuated could return to their homes.

___

Salter reported from St. Louis. Associated Press writer Don Babwin in Chicago contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-24-Spring%20Flooding/id-9a02e475e58a4adf9e94e985ca6d25cf

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Time Out at TCC 2013: How Social Media Saved the Day ...

By Stefanie Panke
Editor, Social Software in Education

Last week 1000 attendees enjoyed three days packed with information and discussion at the 18th Annual TCC Worldwide Online Conference, held from April 16-18, 2013. The acronym TCC stands for Technology, Colleges and Community. Organized by the University of Hawaii, TCC is the oldest running worldwide online conference designed for university and college practitioners. Addressees include faculty, academic support staff, counselors, student services personnel, students, and administrators.

As usual, my review is by no means an authoritative summary but comprises an eclectic collection of talks and topics I found particularly interesting as well as general observations of the conference?s atmosphere and features.

TCC 2013 started with the GAU* for an online event: The conference site was down. Surprisingly, the impact was not as devastating as one would think. The social media team quickly rose to the occasion and posted the link to an alternative entry page on Facebook and Twitter. Social Media saved the day!

The first session I attended dealt with the question of how to approach the challenge of training faculty in using instructional technologies. Sher Downing, Executive Director for Online Academic Services (OAS) in the School of Business at Arizona State University, presented her strategies in the well-received talk ?Ways to Train Faculty.? To facilitate online learning, the OAS team developed a comprehensive faculty training package that comprises innovative formats such as ?hit the road? one-on-one training in faculty offices, online and interactive training and certification, faculty blogs, faculty roundtables and informal chats ?on the dean?s patio.? Especially the latter seem to be an ideal space for discussing ideas, visions and problems among faculty and instructional designers.

Over the past six month, her instructional support team has seen an increase in faculty participation, a better understanding of course development and meeting student expectations online. Downing stressed the importance of identifying faculty needs through surveys, meetings and informal feedback. My favorite slide was her word cloud visualization of how instructional designers think and how their thought process in return can be overwhelming for faculty. Informal meetings allow for translating between the trend-driven world of educational technology and the realm of the traditional classroom most instructors are familiar with.

One thing I really enjoy about TCC is the integration of student presentation into the conference program. Often, these presentations are catalysts for discussions that engage new members of the educational technology community as well as seasoned instructors and researchers. A great example is the presentation by Kasey Fernandez on rubrics. In order to help distance educators use rubrics in their courses, Kasey designed an online module to teach the basics of rubrics for distance education as her master thesis project. She evaluated the module with a test group of educational technology graduate students.

In the discussion forum, Kasey motivates other teachers to use rubrics: ?I have used rubrics as a teacher in the face to face setting and as a student in distance education classes. In both settings, I believe that rubrics give students the opportunity to use self assessment to optimize their assignments. As a student, I really appreciate it when my instructors use rubrics.? As participants? comments in the discussion forum show, rubric based assessment is definitely a powerful instructional design tool that we should pay close attention to in research and practice.

Screenshots: Excerpts from forum discussion on rubrics

In ?Dim the Lights: The ds106 Show,? Alan Levine presented his open course on digital storytelling. The course comprises an open assignment bank that participants populate, a daily creative challenge, and even features an internet-based radio station. To get an idea of the class atmosphere take a look at the TCC preparation session, available in Google Hangout.

A recording of Alan?s presentation is available via Adobe Connect. His ?rant? about MOOCs and the current dystopian visions for online education is worth watching. Alan criticized the stagnant, non-imaginative nature of MOOCs that are offered by MITx or Coursera: ?Typical format: One and a half hour of video lecture, then I get sent to a discussion forum to ?engage? with thousands of people. Everybody is doing the same thing, at the same time.? In contrast, ds106 is driven by the ?Syndication Bus.? Alan explained: ?Participants? experiences are rooted in their own digital space.? The learning products of ds106 are tied together through data feed aggregation, similar to the connectivist course model originally envisioned by Downes, Siemens and others.

?

An interesting opener to the second day was the keynote by Prof. Albert Sangr? from the eLearn research center at Open University of Catalonia (Spain). His talk on ?Learning Ecologies for Lifelong Learning: A Roadmap for Research? outlined challenges of personal learning networks in the traditional academic environment. Again, the recording is freely accessible via Adobe Connect. Prof. Sangr??s talk raised some interesting questions: ?The potential is clear, but how much do we actually learn informally? Which success factors or strategies need to be identified?? He described a mixed-method research project that maps the learning ecologies of primary school teachers in Catalonia. At this stage, the research team has completed in-depth interviews with six teachers. Sangr??s research roadmap envisioned studies on informal learning in different professional sectors, the need to identify best practices and strategies for individuals and institutions, the instructional design of resources and learning paths, assessment, open educational resources and teacher training.

Danilo Baylen, Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of West Georgia, discussed the use of concept maps to support student learning in online courses. He presented and compared three different online services for concept mapping: Prezi, Bubble.Us and SpicyNotes. Using data collected from mapping assignments in a university class, Danilo discussed the challenges of integrating concept mapping tools and assignments into the curriculum of an online course ? it was clear that he was a big fan of mapping. ?I truly believe that concept mapping is a useful tool for students to grasp the big ideas of a unit.?

Joseph Dudley is the campus librarian at Bryant & Stratton College. His talk focused on library websites, but I found it very insightful for digital resource management in general. Academic library websites have become major service points for patrons, providing access to catalogs and databases, e-journals and e-book collections, interlibrary loan services, virtual reference resources and even real time assistance from librarians via chat. Joseph stated that ?As a mode of communication, academic library websites are both product and process.?? I asked him to elaborate and he explained his idea as follows: ?The user sees the library portal as a stable product. On the librarian side, however, the site is a process that requires regular maintenance, regardless whether the content is updated or not. On a day-to-day basis, if no new content is publicized, the users will not be aware of the process side.?

My colleague, Rob Moore, presented the webinars and e-learning modules the instructional design team at UNC School of Government develops with Adobe Connect. He ended his presentation with an open discussion. The participants raised interesting aspects for organizing online learning, for example: ?It?s amazing what we can do with software such as this, but some of us do not have staff to help with developing courses.? I guess the major impediment to me is simply the time it takes to produce content?? and juggling that with other responsibilities? (Ed Birdyshaw).

My last day at TCC was all about MOOCs. Terry Anderson, researcher in the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Centre at Athabasca University, focused his talk on the challenges of social interactions and peer-to-peer learning in massive open online courses, open educational resources, and open scholarship. In his presentation, Anderson started out by explaining classical learning theories, i.e., behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism and used this foil to discuss different types of open learning. I particularly found his visualization of ?social constructivist freedoms? enlightening to understand choices in open course design. The talk is available online.

What have we learned about MOOCs and their potential to support learning? Veronica Diaz, associate director at EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, tried to answer this question by reviewing evaluation data and examples of how MOOCs are being utilized. I was impressed by the evaluation data Diaz pulled from the 2012 Stanford MOOC. It shows the diversity of backgrounds in MOOC participants.

Refreshingly, Diaz?s talk was not a one-way lecture but comprised interactive polls. In the beginning, for instance, she asked participants if they are in the process of creating or adopting MOOCs at their institution. As an idea for future TCCs, it would be great to carry on these conversations in the discussion forum. ?A collection of resources used in the presentation can be accessed via Google Docs. Also, the recording of Diaz? talk is available.

In our reviews of TCC 2012**, Jessica Knott and I had both praise and critical comments for the idea of badges as an incentive to foster conference activity.

This year, I am sold ? not necessarily to the concept of badges but to the idea of letting conference attendees explore new tools and technologies. Here is why: Several postings by Paula Iaeger convinced me that including this innovative feature had impact beyond the conference itself. Paula said: ?The next week I return to Texas to begin my work on a co-op of highly skilled educators to build a series of badges for our classes and for the general public. To say the TCC Conference was important to me is an understatement.?

Despite technical difficulties on the first day of the conference, TCC 2013 was a great event that brought together students, researchers and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds. Due to the time difference, I was only able to attend a few online sessions live, which made me appreciate the lively well-designed online forum even more. TCC offers opportunities to meet and learn, in synchronous and asynchronous forms.

__________
* Gr??ter Anzunehmender Unfall (worst possible accident, German)

** See Stefanie?s Mahalo TCC 2012: I Have a New Badge?Backpack! and Jess?s The Quest for Badging: My Experiences at TCC?2012.

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Source: http://etcjournal.com/2013/04/23/time-out-at-tcc-2013-how-social-media-saved-the-day/

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Global Center for Childhood Obesity Funds Projects to Improve ...

April 24, 2013

The Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity has awarded funding to two intervention projects aimed at preventing childhood obesity. The research is part of the third round of funding focused on ?rapid response projects.?

The Global Center on Childhood Obesity reviewed research proposals from around the world and selected the following:

Using Point of Sale (POS) Systems to Measure Changes in Purchases Before and After Environmental Interventions in Corner Stores

Principal Investigator: Allison Karpyn, PhD, The Food Trust, Philadelphia, Pa.
The Food Trust, through a partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health?s ?Get Healthy Philly program, has been at the forefront of a growing national movement to increase healthy food access in corner stores in low-income urban areas as an environmental strategy to reduce obesity. In 2012, The Food Trust worked with owners at five corner stores to install point of sale (POS) systems to measure product sales. The overall goal for this pilot study is to evaluate the efficacy of environmental interventions on corner store purchases, using the POS system.

This spring, The Food Trust and the Department of Public Health will implement a new Healthy Corner Store Certification policy, along with physical renovations to the store environment that will employ marketing and pricing strategies to increase healthier food and beverage sales. The Food Trust will utilize POS data from corner stores to examine customers? purchases, before and after implementation of policy and environmental interventions. These analyses will add to an understanding of the impact of corner stores on shopping patterns, dietary intake, and on overweight and obesity, leading to more informed decisions for implementing policies for childhood obesity prevention in underserved areas.

Examining the Outcomes of Collaborative Networks to Improve School Nutrition Environments

Principal Investigator: Donna Johnson, PhD, Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
Across the United States, school districts are working to improve failing wellness policies. In King County Washington, the county health department is funding a School Learning Network (SLN) that supports district nutrition directors in developing new school system food policies. This project will apply social network analysis to determine: the extent to which the SLN fosters the development of ties between directors and the characteristics of those ties; the extent to which the position of the directors in the network and the strength of their ties is related to the quality of district wellness policy revisions; and how best practices are diffused through the network. Data will be collected in the spring/summer of 2013 and one year later in 2014.

The Johns Hopkins Global Center for Childhood Obesity was established with a $16 million U54 cooperative agreement from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Global Center for Childhood Obesity emphasizes the integration of geospatial analysis with a systems science and transdisciplinary approach to childhood obesity, bringing together basic science, epidemiology, nutrition, medicine, engineering, and environmental and social policy research, among other fields, in an unprecedented, innovative way.

The Center will fund approximately 4 to 5 new research projects each year over the next several years.

For more information about the Johns Hopkins Global Center for Childhood Obesity, visit http://www.jhgcco.org

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media contact: Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.

Source: http://www.jhsph.edu/news/stories/2013/obesity-grants.html

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How to Take Pictures?From the International Space Station

During his time aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Chris Hadfield has taken and shared some of the most amazing photos of our planet on his Twitter account. And in this video clip, he explains how he snaps those beautiful photos of Earth, and the wonderful camera equipment at his disposal. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/H1R1CvUNfaI/how-to-take-picturesfrom-the-international-space-station

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