Professional Business Marketing ? 'NOT business as usual in North ...

Barbie Mendez, Waterford at Aventura Apartment Homes; Mari Garcia, Cornerstone Group; North
Miami Beach Mayor George Vallejo; Don Sanders, Cornerstone Group

The Aventura Marketing Council?s February breakfast meeting showcased Waterford at Aventura Apartment Homes, the Cornerstone Group?s newest community that will be a perfect place to call home ? and exciting new business opportunities in the city of North Miami Beach, where progressive revitalization initiatives are being spearheaded by Mayor George Vallejo and members of the NMB City Council.

AMC Chair Cliff Schulman of Weiss, Serota, Helfman welcomed hundreds of business and community leaders gathered at Florida International University?s Kovens Conference Center along with Don Sanders, Cornerstone Group?s Vice President of Marketing and Training.

Sanders noted that Waterford is conveniently located near Aventura Mall on West Dixie Highway. He explained that it features both midrise and townhome living options, combining affordability and superior amenities with an awesome location. One, two and three bedroom apartment homes with spacious floor plans featuring; open loft-like kitchens, granite countertops, high-efficiency appliances and impressive amenities including a clubhouse, business center, resort-style swimming pool and monthly community social events

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AMC Chair Cliff Schulman, Weiss Serota Helfman

While Cornerstone Group is dedicated to developing and managing over 14,000+ exceptional apartment communities throughout Florida, Mayor Vallejo and members of the City Council are committed to re-igniting business opportunities in North Miami Beach.

?For at least a decade, we were living too much in the past with a political culture presenting challenges, but the voters spoke and said they wanted the city to progress and move forward. I?m happy to report we?re doing whatever it takes to foster economic prosperity. Our team is on a winning streak!?

Vallejo emphasized NMB is rolling out the red carpet for businesses by cutting red tape to streamline licensing, permitting and inspection processes; keeping an open door policy at City Hall, where meetings are always welcome; ensuring the city is wellmaintained; reducing financial burdens; and eliminating wasteful spending. ?We trimmed $7 million out of a $45 million budget and pension reforms will save us $3 million per year. We?ve also reduced our Building Department variance fees by over 90 percent.?

It was a full house for Aventura Marketing Council members

Vallejo went on to speak about new projects that will bring hundreds of millions in tax revenues into the city including a hotel and office project onWest Dixie Highway; and the launch of Marina Palms Yacht Club Residences, expected to ?light the fire? of redevelopment along Biscayne Boulevard, 163rd Street, and West Dixie Highway corridors. He also encouraged AMC members to learn more about the city?s Community Reinvestment Agency, focusing on developing critical areas in partnership with businesses and developers benefitting from tax breaks and other incentives.

?City government has an obligation to make the economic ground fertile so you can go out and do what you do best, which is dream, invent, create, invest and improve your business to improve the lives of your customers. We?re doing our part to create a thriving community, we?ve made great progress in North Miami Beach and now, we?re ?open for business!?

For more information about Waterford at Aventura, visit the leasing center at 19580 West Dixie Highway, phone: 877-816-0109 or visit Waterford@theapartmentcorner.com.

Short URL: http://www.communitynewspapers.com/?p=57066

About Bari Auerbach

Source: http://lowbrowse.org/not-business-as-usual-in-north-miami-beach-hosted-by-cornerstone-groups-waterford-at-aventura.html

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Earning Extra Money Online From Home | Content for Reprint

Author: Mike Zupp | Total views: 175 Comments: 0
Word Count: 952 Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 4:50 AM

Are you on a quest to unravel the mystery of how to earn instant online profits? There are all sorts of ways to do this, however the most sure-fire way is most likely by getting involved in Affiliate Marketing.

A normal person can get into Affiliate Marketing using his or her own advertising efforts as an Affiliate to bring people to the Affiliate Vendor's internet site. The Affiliate gets paid a commission when that visitor purchases the Vendor's item. Often, commissions are earned just by the Affiliate entering their name and email address into a Vendors online form!

As soon as you select which item to advertise, you acquire what's called an "affiliate link". This stringy link contains your Affiliate ID so that, when clicked on during the purchase process, the Affiliate Vendor knows to pay you your commission. The most widely known Affiliate Marketing sites are Amazon, Clickbank, Ebay Partner Network and Commission Junction, to name a few. These business have a multitude of products in several niches for your choosing.

Nonetheless, in order to figure out how to earn instant online profits with Affiliate Marketing, you need to know where to take the initial step.

The first move is to choose a niche that you would like to sell in. Ideally, select a specific niche that you are passionate about; a subject that you might be able to discuss all day, since it's easier to advertise things that interest you. Some good examples of prevailing niches are Relationships, E-Business & Marketing and Health & Fitness, to name but a few.

You'll need to google the "Google Keyword Tool" and "Google Trends" to research your niche and product in a strategic, insightful manner. Google Trends will tell you if your niche is still in the mainstream and you can use the Google Keyword Tool to see if your chosen niche keywords are getting a decent amount of search traffic every month.

Next comes your affiliate product selection. Only pick high-grade products whose Vendors can demonstrate their successful sales record. You need that special something that's going to rid your buyer of their pain and solve a huge problem they've been faced with that has kept them up at night worrying!

So now that your niche and product selection process is done, it's time to discover how to earn instant online profits by putting the following handy tips into action:

You can start off by building a product review site. Basically, you summarize the pros and cons of the product in a short article that needs to appear unbiased. Thus, it would be a good idea to actually purchase the item so you can put forward your opinion in a thorough, honest manner. However, in these tough economic times you may have to opt instead for looking around forums and other testimonial sites of your particular product to gather enough information for your review. Always remember to sprinkle your affiliate link throughout your review post, of course!

You can also jump on the social media band wagon by setting up either a Facebook fan page or a tab on your current business page. This should distinctively display your sales item in a monetized fashion or at least bring your fans right to your affiliate sales form.

You've probably heard mention of "squeeze" or "landing" pages before, right? Well, their purpose is to "squeeze" information, like names and email addresses, out of prospects and they can be built right inside Facebook or take the form of a one page website. You then take that assembled information and put it all into an autoresponder system. "AWeber" is an excellent place to open one of these types of accounts. What happens next is that your prospective clients get a series of email messages in their inbox automatically over the course of a week or two. The first emails should be "warm and friendly" since you'll need to build a relationship with your readers to get them to know and like you. After a while, you'll hopefully build up enough trust that your audience will click on your cleverly inserted links in the later emails and end up as paying customers!
Of course, the option is always there to put your affiliate product in the limelight by posting a quick review on your personal blog that contains your affiliate link, of course.

You can also harness the power of YouTube by creating personal video reviews of your affiliate product and uploading them to your YouTube channel. Better still, you can embed the videos into your product review site! This could also increase your search engine ranking, as Google owns YouTube and loves it when videos are featured in blogs.

Another effective approach would be to join online forums that are relevant to your chosen niche. Don't just go in there and start selling your product right away: Instead, participate in conversations and answer questions to help people out, at first. Then, after some time, you can start mentioning your product, showing the forum members how it can solve their problems or meet their needs.

The above pointers are simply a few ideas to illustrate how to earn instant online profits. You can mix and match these different approaches to suit your particular product-and throw in any other new techniques you come across as well, of course!
I hope you obtained some useful insight into the Realm of Affiliate Marketing by reading this. There's nothing to stop you from immediately launching your affiliate product promotion now!

For more information about making money online check out the Instant Online Profits Review. I'm sure you'll be quite impressed with it!

Related to: Instant Online Profits - nbspInstant Online Profits Review

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1: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

by: Mike Christie on: Sat, 29 Sep 2012

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

by: Michel Maling on: Sat, 29 Sep 2012

3: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

by: Steve Shaw on: Sat, 23 Apr 2011

4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

by: WJaegel on: Tue, 18 Dec 2007

5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda

If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.

by: K Damian Qualter on: Mon, 26 Mar 2012

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/earning-extra-money-online-from-home.htm

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Ryan Gosling Reveals Director's 'Place Beyond The Pines' Challenge

Director Derek Cianfrance felt inspired by police show 'COPS' and challenged himself to its one-shot takes, the actor tells MTV News.
By Driadonna Roland, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Ryan Gosling
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704651/ryan-gosling-place-beyond-the-pines.jhtml

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Iran, Syria, N. Korea block first global treaty to control $70 billion arms trade

Maysun / EPA, file

Syrian Army fighters preparing themselves to shoot against Syrian Army positions in Aleppo, Syria, March 11.

By Louis Charbonneau, Reuters

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, complaining that it was flawed and failed to ban weapons sales to rebel groups.

To get around the blockade, British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant sent the draft treaty to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him on behalf of Mexico, Australia and a number of others to put it to a swift vote in the General Assembly.

U.N. diplomats said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote as early as Tuesday.

The head of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman, told a group of reporters, "We look forward to this treaty being adopted very soon by the United Nations General Assembly."

He declined to predict the result of a vote but said it would be a "substantial majority" in favor.

"A good, strong treaty has been blocked," said Britain's chief delegate, Joanne Adamson. "Most people in the world want regulation and those are the voices that need to be heard."

"This is success deferred," she added.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons.

It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

NRA: Treaty threatens gun rights
Arms control activists and human rights groups say a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

"The world has been held hostage by three states," said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam. "We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and today we see it is actually dysfunctional."

"Countries such as Iran, Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated," she added.?

The National Rifle Association opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.

Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images

Demonstrators from Amnesty International call for a global arms treaty in a protest outside the White House, March 22.

The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had told Iran's Press TV that Tehran supported the arms trade treaty. But Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told the conference that he could not accept the treaty in its current form.

"It is a matter of deep regret that genuine efforts of many countries for a robust, balanced and non-discriminatory treaty were ignored.,? he said.

One of those flaws was its failure to ban sales of weapons to groups that commit "acts of aggression," ostensibly referring to rebel groups, he said. The current draft does not ban transfers to armed groups but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari echoed the Iranian concerns. "Unfortunately our national concerns were not taken into consideration," he said.

North Korea's delegate voiced similar complaints, suggesting it was a discriminatory treaty.

Russia and China made clear they would not have blocked it but voiced serious reservations about the text and its failure to get consensus.

A Russian delegate told the conference that Moscow would have to think hard about signing it if it were approved.

If adopted by the General Assembly, the pact will need to be signed and ratified by at least 50 states to enter into force.

Related:

'Not good enough': Rights groups blast draft of arms trade treaty

North Korea is no 'paper tiger', warns US official as regime puts rockets on standby

Israel to grill Obama over possible military strike on Iran

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a21b421/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C290C175153850Eiran0Esyria0En0Ekorea0Eblock0Efirst0Eglobal0Etreaty0Eto0Econtrol0E70A0Ebillion0Earms0Etrade0Dlite/story01.htm

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Sicily revokes permission for military satellite station

PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - The Sicilian regional government in Italy has revoked permission for the United States to build a military satellite station on the island, its governor said on Friday, after protests by residents who said it could pose a health risk.

The planned ground station is part of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), an ultra high-frequency satellite network aimed at significantly boosting communications capacity for the U.S. military and its allies.

Concerns about the effect the station's electromagnetic waves could have on the health of residents around the town of Niscemi, including fears that the waves could cause cancer, have provoked protests on the island.

A U.S. military official said the United States hoped to allay any health concerns and would try to reach an agreement with the Italian government to get permission to build the facility.

The regional government of the semi-autonomous island last month delayed construction and called for an independent study into its health and environmental impact.

The Italian government said this month the demonstrations risked compromising operations at Sigonella, a U.S. naval base in Sicily.

"Through the relevant department, permission for the construction of MUOS has been definitively withdrawn," Sicilian Governor Rosario Crocetta told reporters in the island's capital of Palermo on Friday.

He did not say whether the decision to revoke permission for the site was related to the study or to health concerns.

Crocetta's remarks came a day before a planned protest expected to draw several thousand in Niscemi, which local groups of the governor's own Democratic Party were due to attend.

Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Department, said the U.S. military was confident that studies of the satellite system would show it was safe.

"We are committed to working with Italian health authorities to address health concerns raised by the local population," she said in emailed comments to Reuters.

The satellite network also has stations in the United States and Australia.

In a visit to Italy in January, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he understood the concerns of residents but that U.S. studies had concluded there would be no health risk.

(Reporting by Vladimiro Pantaleone and Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sicily-revokes-permission-military-satellite-station-195712896--finance.html

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Google Play Movies now available in Mexico

Google Play Movies llega a México

Google has pushed the button and made Google Play Movies live in Mexico. Users south of the border can now rent or purchase select movies, and view them on their Android devices or on the web. Last week we saw the launch of Google Play Books in Mexico, and we're glad to see Google able to provide their content services to more and more countries. 

We've no word on when further Google content will be made available in Mexico, or any other regions where it's currently unavailable. We assume there are teams at work all over the globe figuring out the licensing and regulations in order to deliver all of Google Play's content to anyone who wants it.

If the Movies & TV application is not installed on your Android device, you can grab it at the Google Play link above. 

Thanks, Spook!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/QHNWZNpCZXs/story01.htm

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Did Obama miss his moment on guns? (CNN)

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

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Food & Drink: HOW TO Cook A New York Strip Steak Medium : How ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://how-to-cooking-video.com/cooking-video/food-drink-how-to-cook-a-new-york-strip-steak-medium/

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Amazon intros X-Ray for TV, helps you remember those 'Game of Thrones' actors

Amazon's continuing the steady X-Ray takeover of media today by extending the feature to its TV selection. The latest implementation of the concept, which has already made its way to the company's e-book offerings, offers up similar functionality to its movie counterpart, harnessing IMDB data to offer up contextual information on actors. The feature's available as of today for "most popular TV shows" on the company's Instant Video offering (some of which are also a part of its Prime video selection). And it's a solid list, too, including: Justified, Downton Abbey, The West Wing, Sons of Anarchy, Falling Skies, American Horror Story, Grey's Anatomy, Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, Lost, Glee, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. More info on the feature can be found below.

Filed under: Amazon

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/amazon-x-ray-tv/

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Historical contingency and the futility of reductionism: Why chemistry (and biology) is not physics

Even an omniscient being like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen could not have predicted the result of life's accidents (Image: Christian Fearing Godman)

The reductionist zeitgeist of physics cannot ?explain? chemistry any more than ?entropy? explains the inexorable march of life from birth to death. It?s important to understand what we mean when we say that physics cannot explain chemistry. Physics of course accounts for chemistry in the trite sense that molecules are composed of atoms. But then physics also ?accounts for? human behavior since the brain is ultimately composed of atoms too. Yet we have no clue how to get from atoms to things like jealousy and musical creativity. When we say that A explains B, it usually means there is an unbroken and logical thread of continuity connecting A to B by way of which the properties of A are manifestly demonstrated in B. This physics cannot do even in the highly reductionist realm of chemistry, let alone in ?higher? realms like neuroscience and sociology. These days emergence has become a fashionable word that?s often thrown around to describe any kind of complexity, but the emergence of chemical and biological properties that cannot be deduced from their underlying physics is in fact quite real.

There are several reasons why the reductionist approach in science doesn?t always work, but one of the most important ones was alluded to by the physicist and writer Jeremy Bernstein in a Wall Street Journal review of a biography of George Gamow and Max Delbruck:

Some sciences are more unruly than others. Here?s a parable to illustrate what I mean. Imagine that when the first life form appeared there was a super intelligent freak. If this freak had had a complete knowledge of the laws of physics, what could it have predicted? Quite a lot. All atomic nuclei consist of neutrons and protons, and the number of protons determines each element?s chemical nature. Knowing this, the freak could have predicted all the elements that could possibly exist, along with their respective characteristics. Suppose that it also knew all the laws of biology, including the ?central dogma,? which explains how genes are expressed as proteins. Even so, it could not have predicted the existence of giraffes, nor even the fact that my brother and I share only half our genes. Both of these are evolutionary accidents. If it had not been for random mutation there would be no giraffes, and my brother and I might have shared all our genes, as male bumblebees do. Biology is not like physics.

This paragraph succinctly drills down to one of the fundamental limitations of physics-based reductionism and it?s a point that applies to chemistry as well. It?s a very important one. The problem is that reductionism cannot account for the role of historical contingency and accident. Even if an all-powerful being could account for all biological scenarios emerging from an initial state of the universe, it could never tell us why one particular scenario is preferred over others. As Bernstein says, evolutionary accidents by definition cannot be predicted from starting conditions because they depend on chance and opportunity.

In addition function can never be uniquely derived from reductionism even if structure is. For instance in his book ?Reinventing the Sacred?, the complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman makes a powerful argument that even if one could derive the structure of the human heart from string theory in principle, string theory would never tell us that its most important function is to pump blood. The function of biological organs arose as an adaptive consequence of the countless unpredictable constraints that molded them during evolution. In addition the evolution of both structure and function was a mix-and-match process that depended as much on chance encounters as on strict adaptation. All this can never be captured in a reductionist worldview.

The same principle applies to chemistry. Evolution has fashioned many unique molecules that underpin life?s machinery. The question facing many chemists and especially chemists working on the origins of life is, why this particular molecule and not that one? Here are some more specific conundrums: Why are there only twenty amino acids, why are there alpha amino acids instead of beta or gamma amino acids (which have extra carbon atoms), why is amino acid stereochemistry (molecular ?handedness?) L while sugar stereochemistry is D, why does DNA consist of a very specific set of four nucleotides and no other, why did nature choose phosphates in the construction of so many important biomolecules (the chemist Frank Westheimer comes close to answering this question), why does a given protein fold into only one unique functional structure, why is water is the only solvent known to sustain life, and in general why are the myriad small and large molecules of life what they are. In retrospect of course one could provide several arguments for the existence of these molecules based on stability, function and structure but there is no way to predict these parameters prospectively.

The fact is that an all-powerful, super-reductionist freak would have been useless in accounting for the unique existence of life?s chemical precursors. This is because there is nothing in the nature of these molecules which dictates that their presence should have been uniquely determined. For instance we now know from chemical studies that beta and gamma amino acids can also fold into the kind of helix and sheets motifs that are ubiquitous for alpha amino acids. They also have other favorable properties like chemical diversity which might have made them better building blocks compared to alpha amino acids. Yet for some reason they were discarded during evolution. Why? We could come up with several arguments. For instance because of their floppiness, maybe the higher order versions had to pay an unacceptable entropic penalty that could not compensate for their folding propensity. Or maybe a reaction called the Strecker reaction that is thought to produce alpha amino acids could never be superseded by beta amino acid-forming chemical reactions. Or perhaps alpha amino acids shield hydrophobic or water-hating side chains much better than their longer chain counterparts. These are all cogent reasons, and yet I am sure we could find an equal number of arguments against alpha amino acids if we searched hard enough. The truth is that the ultimate failure to find an explanation for the existence of alpha amino acids is a powerful reminder of the importance that chance and circumstance played in the evolution of both biomolecules as well as living organisms. Reductionism does not help us in tracing a path through this random, probabilistic landscape of evolution. The identities of life?s fundamental building blocks were shaped by chance followed by Darwinian natural selection.

This role of contingency and accident is one of the most important reasons why the reduction of chemistry and biology to physics will not work. Even if reductionism could provide us a list of all possible scenarios in chemical and biological evolution, it could never tell us which one would be preferred and for what reason. This is yet another reason why chemistry and biology are not physics.

This is a revised and updated version of a post on The Curious Wavefunction blog.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c54a3f03a4dca74b0960df8c4169ac62

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Honda Odyssey rolls out with a built-in vacuum, almost makes a minivan sound appealing

It's not quite a minivan fit for a technophile, despite the standard lineup of 2014 in-vehicle gadgets, such as HondaLink with a smartphone interface, HD Radio and an updated center stack. But Honda's 2014 Odyssey does ship with one very practical addition: a built-in HondaVAC, designed with assistance from the good folks at Shop-Vac. The integrated vacuum cleaner lets you tidy up around the van and outside as well, and with integrated power, it doesn't need to be plugged in for use. It can suck indefinitely when the engine's running, or for up to eight minutes with the car turned off. It's integrated within the rear cargo area, and includes a replaceable filter and a canister bag, for easy rubbish disposal. The Odyssey just made its debut at the New York Auto Show, and pricing and availability have yet to be announced. You can check it out for yourself this week in NYC, however, or take a closer look in the promo video embedded just past the break.

Filed under: Household, Transportation

Comments

Via: Autoblog

Source: Honda (YouTube)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/KsydTVd0yvA/

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Society fills Easter bus gap | Otago Daily Times Online News : Otago ...

The Otago Heritage Bus Society will run public transport services in Dunedin at Easter.

On Good Friday and Easter Sunday the St Clair to Normanby, St Kilda, Brockville and Halfway Bush routes will be serviced.

During Easter holidays, the Otago Regional Council's integrated public bus network does not operate.

Proceeds from the society's services will go towards restoration, including the revival of two Dunedin-built early-model Leyland Leopards.

More information about the Easter bus services: www.otagoheritagebus.co.nz.

Source: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/251090/society-fills-easter-bus-gap

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Scalia On Gay Marriage: 'When Did It Become ... - Business Insider

During oral arguments today at the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia and attorney Ted Olson had a pointed exchange over whether same-sex marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.?

Scalia's argument, which was advanced by Chief Justice John Roberts before him, was that when the institution of marriage developed historically, it was not done with the explicit intent of excluding gay and lesbian couples.

"We don't prescribe law for the future," Scalia said. "We decide what the law is. I'm curious,?when did it become unconstitutional to?exclude homosexual couples from marriage? 1791? 1868? When the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted?"

Olson countered that with a question of his own, bringing up two past high-profile cases involving discrimination.?

"When?did?it?become?unconstitutional to prohibit interracial marriages??When?did it?become unconstitutional to?assign?children to separate schools?" Olson asked.

The two went back and forth, with Scalia repeatedly questioning when, specifically, it became unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marrying. Olson argued back, but ended up conceding that there was no specific date.

"Well,?how?am?I?supposed?to how?to?decide?a?case,?then,?if you can't give me a?date when the Constitution changes?" Scalia said.

"Because in the case that's before?you today, the citizens of?California decide ? after the California Supreme Court?decided that individuals had a right to get married?irrespective of their sexual orientation in California ??then the Californians decided in Proposition 8, wait a?minute, we don't want those people to be able to get?married."

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/scalia-gay-marriage-prop-8-case-supreme-court-2013-3

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Porsha Williams Thanks Fans for Support, Turns to God

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/porsha-williams-thanks-fans-for-support-turns-to-god/

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Wall Street soars on upbeat economic news

JeeYeon Park , CNBC ? ? ? 55 min.

Stocks closed near their best levels Tuesday, with the Dow posting a new closing high and S&P 500 finishing less than 2 points from its closing high, lifted by a handful of encouraging economic reports that pointed to an improving economy and as investors seemed to temporarily overlook worries in the euro zone.

(Read More: American Dream Is Back, So Are Stocks: CNBC Survey)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared more than 100 points, led by Boeing and American Express, wiping out all of the previous session's losses.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also finished near session highs. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slumped below 13.

(Read More:Sell in May? Why it May Not Happen)

All key S&P sectors were ended in positive territory, led by health care and energy.

"From a fundamental perspective, while the dominant domestic theme has heretofore been better-than-expected economic data boosting investor confidence in the earnings outlook, despite sluggish first-quarter guidance and fears of fiscal drag, many are now beginning to lock in gains realizing that the flipside of stronger growth is that QE tapering is potentially drawing closer, Chairman Bernanke's assurances to the contrary notwithstanding," wrote Alec Young, global equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ. "After all, markets are forward looking."

In Europe, Fitch put Cyprus on rating watch negative, saying the shock from the country's banking system could damage the domestic economy and thus public finances. But Wall Street was unfazed by the announcement.

Banks in Cyprus will be closed until Thursday, and will then be subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits. Cyprus's Finance Minister Michael Sarris told BBC radio big depositors in Cypriot banks could lose about 40 percent of their deposits but an exact figure had yet to be decided. Banks are due to reopen on Thursday and will be subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits.

(Read More: Why It's Important to Keep Cypriot Banks Shut)

Still, investors seemed less fazed over Cyprus. European shares ended higher, snapping their thee-day losing streak.

"We're more optimistic about Cyprus than we were a couple days ago, but it's going to continue to be unpredictable and if nothing else, even if it does get resolved, it's a reminder of just how fragile the situation in Europe is," said Matthew Kaufler, portfolio manager of the Federated Clover Fund of the day's economic data.

Goldman Sachs rose after the financial giant and Berkshire Hathaway amended the warrants Berkshire holds as part of the lifeline it gave Goldman during the financial crisis.

Meanwhile the Federal Reserve ordered Citigroup to improve its anti-money laundering controls, after several units of the bank were subject to similar orders in 2012.

Netflix rallied to lead the S&P 500 gainers after Pacific Crest raised its price target on the movie-streaming company to $225 from $160.

Apple fluctuated after Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster called consensus estimates for the tech giant's March and June quarters too high, but said new product launches mean investors will look to the second half of the year for opportunity. In addition, Munster said he believes Apple will increase its dividend to around $14 a share from the current $10.60.

Boeing said the first round test of its new battery system for its 787 Dreamliner went according to plan, putting the jet one step closer to returning to service.

Children's Place slumped after the kids' apparel retailer issued a downbeat earnings outlook for the current quarter and fiscal year.

On the economic front, the S&P/Case Shiller home price 20-city index soared 8.1 percent compared to a year ago, kicking off the year with the biggest year-over-year increase since 2006. But new home sales declined 4.6 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000 units, according to the Commerce Department, missing estimates. Homebuilders were in the red, led by Beazer and DR Horton.

Consumer confidence index dropped in March, according to the Conference Board as Americans turned more pessimistic about economic prospects in the short term.

But durable goods orders climbed in February as demand for transportation equipment rebounded, according to the Commerce Department, topping expectations.

"It's been a mixed bag and a continuation of what we've seen all along," said Kaufler. "The key takeaway is that the economy is on the mend, but in a very slow way?it's a slow grind."

Treasurys eased their gains after the government auctioned $35 billion in 2-year notes at a high yield of 0.255 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 3.27.

?By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

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On-Demand Car Service Uber Finally Embraces Microsoft With A New Windows Phone App

I'm a little embarrassed to admit how reliant I've become on Uber when I'm traveling -- most regular cab drivers seem to find me terribly repellant -- but now the service is now is working to expand its reach even further. The folks behind the on-demand car service announced earlier today that Windows Phone users now have a native app of their own, albeit one that doesn't look quite as pretty as what iOS and Android users are privy to.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OWPcHTBioS0/

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US to hand prison over to Afghans

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) ? The U.S. military is handing over to the Afghan government the only detention facility in the country that was under American control. The transfer comes a year after the two sides initially agreed on the handover.

A transfer ceremony was scheduled for Monday at the Parwan Detention Facility, which is next to the U.S.-run Bagram military base north of Kabul.

The U.S. was supposed to fully hand over the facility last September after signing an agreement to do so a year ago.

But the transfer was held up pending a final deal between the U.S. and the Afghans over the release of dangerous prisoners.

That deal was struck late last week and under it, prisoners considered dangerous would not be released from the detention center.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-hand-prison-over-afghans-063202689.html

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Wild And Crazy Tax Deductions 2013 Edition | Bankrate.com

Did you hear the one about the $100,000 smokestack? The undercover pie spy? The debatable therapeutic benefits of prostitution?

That's right, it's time once again for Bankrate's annual top 10 crazy-but-true tax tales, downloaded via QuickBooks for the Soul software from the seasonally overcooked psyches of actual certified public accountants, some of whom, quite understandably, requested anonymity.

Our previous excursions into the foggy forest of dubious tax deductions uncovered everything from tricked-out Amish buggies, generous sperm donations and $35,000 in dance lessons to more exotic schemes, including the disc jockey who deducted his dog as a dependent, the shopkeeper who tried to write off an arsonist and the man who accidentally took Manhattan as a deduction.

We present this year's cautionary tales with the usual warning: Do not try to slide suspicious deductions by the Internal Revenue Service. Serious consequences may result if you fail to file, falsely file or otherwise fudge the numbers on your annual return.

When tempted, remember: The road to taxpayer perdition is paved with disallowed deductions. Submitted for your amusement: Bankrate's 10 craziest tax deductions, 2013 edition.

Source: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/crazy-tax-deductions-2013-1.aspx

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Watch: Oscar-Winning Actress Sleeps at a Museum

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Oscar winning actress Tilda Swinton -- is thinking. Inside the box well actually she's sleeping inside the box it's a performance art piece of the museum of modern art called the may be. Museum goers can watch the actress snooze -- said the transparent box series no set schedule for the performance. But she will definitely show up in various locations inside the museum. For half dozen more shares.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/oscar-winning-actress-sleeps-in-museum-18807777

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To Grow Or Die In The Cloud

Editor's note:?Byron Deeter is the lead cloud specialist at Bessemer Venture Partners. A few years ago, most people couldn?t tell you what the cloud was, let alone anticipate a market in which the sexy, highly anticipated consumer Internet IPOs?were flops while the seemingly nerdy sectors of?cloud?and?enterprise?computing ended up driving the technology market returns.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UFwZTvpiXP4/

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Apple CEO required to testify in NY e-books case

NEW YORK (AP) ? Apple CEO Tim Cook has been ordered to testify in a New York court case the Justice Department brought against the company over the pricing of e-books for consumers.

Federal Judge Denise Cote on Wednesday granted a government request to depose Apple Inc.'s chief executive.

The government sued Apple last spring, saying the technology giant conspired with five major book publishers to raise e-book prices on consumers and eliminate competition. The publishers have all settled.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department had claimed that Apple and the publishers conspired to drive the cost of e-books from $9.99 to $15 or more for the most popular books.

An Apple spokesman declined comment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-13-Justice-E-Books-Apple/id-b7761330427b4d9ca13bfa691c233e2d

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O'Malley, the 'cappuccino priest,' a hit in Rome

In this image made from video provided by Vatican CTV television, US Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, right, takes an oath of secrecy inside the Sistine Chapel, at the Vatican, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, before the start of the conclave to elect the 266th Roman Catholic Church pope. Behind O'Malley are Cardinals Stanislaw Dziwisz, of Poland, Carlo Caffara, of Italy, Sean Baptist Brady, of Ireland, and Lluis Martinez Sistach, of Spain. (AP Photo/CTV via APTV)

In this image made from video provided by Vatican CTV television, US Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, right, takes an oath of secrecy inside the Sistine Chapel, at the Vatican, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, before the start of the conclave to elect the 266th Roman Catholic Church pope. Behind O'Malley are Cardinals Stanislaw Dziwisz, of Poland, Carlo Caffara, of Italy, Sean Baptist Brady, of Ireland, and Lluis Martinez Sistach, of Spain. (AP Photo/CTV via APTV)

Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, of the US, attends a Mass for the election of a new pope celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Tuesday, March 12, 2013. Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday to elect the next pope amid more upheaval and uncertainty than the Catholic Church has seen in decades: There's no front-runner, no indication how long voting will last and no sense that a single man has what it takes to fix the many problems. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The archbishop of Boston, dressed more often in the humble brown robe of his religious order than a cardinal's regalia, has emerged as an unlikely star amid the drama unfolding in Rome.

Vatican analysts for the leading Italian newspapers have repeatedly listed Cardinal Sean O'Malley as one of the favorite contenders in the conclave starting Tuesday.

As recently as two weeks ago, O'Malley hadn't appeared on the lists of papabili, or cardinals with papal potential, that church watchers pore over each morning like sports scores, even though only the cardinal-electors know how they will vote. Vatican observers said no American cardinal could win: A superpower pope risked mixing church and U.S. interests. O'Malley is also a Capuchin Franciscan, and few members of religious orders have led the church.

But O'Malley arrived to a country in an anti-establishment mood.

A comedian, Beppe Grillo, had grabbed a quarter of the parliamentary vote, leaving the political leadership of Italy in limbo.

The Vatican central administration, or Curia, had been weathering a string of scandals. Benedict XVI's own butler had leaked the former pontiff's private papers, revealing feuding, corruption and cronyism at the highest levels of the bureaucracy. The secretive Vatican bank had recently ousted a president for incompetence and is under pressure for greater financial transparency.

In the cardinal, Italians saw a white knight. The 68-year-old O'Malley has spent his career as a bishop cleaning up dioceses shattered by child sex abuse. From O'Malley's lengthy track record, one story seems to have captured the most attention: after he arrived in Boston in 2003, then the epicenter of the church scandal, O'Malley decided to sell the Italian Renaissance mansion that had been home to the previous four Boston archbishops. The millions of dollars from the sale would help pay settlements to victims.

The bearded, soft-spoken cardinal has even earned a nickname ? the cappuccino priest ? a play on the Italian name for his order, the same word for the coffee drink.

"Give me the cappuccino priest, not the Italians," said Giuliana Piaella, 57, a waitress serving lunch at a Rome restaurant. "He's a clean-looking guy, perfect age, and has a serious face. He has a calm face, full of self-confidence. He wears open sandals, which show his humility. Catholics don't do that anymore. We need someone who's close to the people."

It took O'Malley just six weeks from the time he was installed in Boston to settle hundreds of sex abuse claims that had kept the archdiocese in crisis. His predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law, had resigned as archbishop in December 2002, after a Massachusetts judge unsealed the files of one predator priest kept in parish assignments by church officials without warning parents or police. The revelations sparked a crisis that spread through every American diocese and beyond.

The day after he took over in Boston, he revamped the legal team representing the archdiocese, hiring an attorney who had helped him settle abuse claims when he led the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., a decade ago. O'Malley was personally involved in the Boston negotiations, spending hours with victims' attorneys to reach the $85 million deal for 552 plaintiffs. Attorneys for victims credited him with showing compassion that other church officials had not.

In the Diocese of Fall River, a southern New England city of fishermen and shuttered textile mills, O'Malley had inherited the damage from one of the most notorious pedophiles in the American clergy crisis. Former priest James Porter was accused of raping children in five states in the 1960s and 1970s. He pleaded guilty in 1993 to 41 counts of molestation.

It was a time when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was only starting to confront the national scope of the abuse crisis. O'Malley is credited with instituting a policy that almost no other diocese at the time had. Abuse allegations would be referred to a social worker outside the church. A board of mental health and legal professionals reviewed how each case was handled and church workers were required to alert civil authorities about any allegation that a child had been abused.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II sent O'Malley to Palm Beach, Fla., where two previous bishops had resigned after admitting they had molested young people. Then he sent him to Boston.

O'Malley has his critics in Boston and elsewhere.

A series of church closings he announced in the archdiocese brought angry protests by parishioners and around-the-clock sit-ins. Some parishioners hired canon lawyers and brought their complaints to the Vatican. And in 2002, a Massachusetts prosecutor, Paul Walsh of Bristol County, publicly released the names of about 20 Fall River priests accused of molesting children in the 1960s and 1970s, who had never been criminally charged.

Walsh said he did so out of frustration with recalcitrant church officials. O'Malley said in a statement at the time that when he arrived in Fall River, he had been focused on the Porter case and had no indication that prosecutors were interested in investigating old allegations.

Marco Politi, a papal biographer, said O'Malley is benefiting from the Italian love for Franciscans and from the desire for a pope from another country, who Italians believe will not get involved in Italian politics. At least one profile of O'Malley in Italian media noted that in 2010, he criticized Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who had dismissed victims' criticism of the church as "petty gossip" just as the crisis was erupting in Europe.

"O'Malley comes across as a humble man in robes who communicates well," Politi said. "They admire him for selling off the expensive archbishop's palace to pay debts, and that he lives in a simple home."

O'Malley, a native of Lakewood, Ohio, studied at a Franciscan seminary, then joined the religious order and was ordained at 26. A graduate student at the Catholic University of America, he earned a master's degree in religious education and a doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese literature.

O'Malley now speaks eight languages, including Italian, Portuguese and Haitian Creole, according to his spokesman Terrence Donilon. He asks parishioners to address him informally as "Cardinal Sean."

Despite all the attention, Donilon said Tuesday the cardinal "expects to be going home."

Speaking last week at the North American College, the prominent seminary for American priests in Rome, O'Malley played down his prospects, pointing to his brown robe.

"I've worn this uniform for over 40 years and I presume I will wear it until I die," he said. "Because I don't expect to be elected pope, so I don't expect to have a change of wardrobe."

____

Associated Press writer Victor Simpson contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-12-Vatican-American-in-Rome/id-0217823de2334bc7b937bd40cfd9563a

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