Bomb suspect Instagram account was deleted recently ? unlike Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's other social media accounts. The bomb suspect also 'liked' an Instagram photo linked to Chechen terrorism.? ?
By Mark Sappenfield,?Staff writer / April 28, 2013
This photo added on April 18, 2013, to the VK page of Dias Kadyrbayev shows (from l.) Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, from Kazakhstan, with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Times Square in New York. Tsarnaev used VK to stay connected to the global Chechen community.
VK/AP
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So far the social media trail left behind by Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has offered only the barest hints that could connect him to a terrible act of terror. Indeed, his Twitter account ? which he continued using after the bombings ? is mostly notable for how ordinary it is.
Skip to next paragraph Mark Sappenfield
Staff writer
Mark is deputy national news editor for the Monitor.
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But authorities have now located an Instagram account connected to Mr. Tsarnaev that was deleted only recently, according to a CNN report.
Under the user name "jmaster1," Tsarnaev "liked" a photo of Shamil Basayev, a warlord in Chechnya who claimed to be the mastermind behind the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, in which 40 terrorists and 130 civilians were killed when Russian special forces pumped an unknown chemical agent into the building.
He also "liked" another pro-Chechnya image that included a string of hashtags: #FreeChechenia #Jihad #Jannah #ALLAH #Jesus and #God.
"If I were an investigator right now, obviously the platform he deleted matters the most," said Juliette Kayyem, a CNN terrorism analyst.
On one hand, such online activity is hardly damning. "Likes" don't make a terrorist.
Yet the deleted Instagram account adds to the impression that Tsarnaev used certain corners of the Internet to carve out a more Chechen persona for himself online than he did in daily life.
His Twitter account, @J_tsar, appeared to mirror his outward life most closely, with Tsarnaev engaging in the stream of random banter that drives the microblogging site. Though he did quote from an Islamic cleric and obliquely reference the Boston bombing on his Twitter feed, most tweets talk about homework, hip-hop music, or his favorite TV shows.?
It is on the Russian social networking site VKontakte that a slightly different Tsarnaev begins to emerge. For the most part, the portrait is still benign, with Tsarnaev spending the most time discussing his favorite soccer club, Chechnya's FC Terek Grozny. He even wrote some posts in the Chechen language and included a joke: ? 'A car goes by with a Chechen, a Dagestani and an Ingush inside. Question: who is driving?' Answer: 'The police.' ?
But through VK, Tsarnaev might have gained a somewhat warped view of Chechnya ? a place he had never been, writes Slate's Mike Walker.
"Whatever Chechnya Dzhokhar came to know through VK was not wholly representative of the region. The majority of ethnic Chechen youth of Dzhokhar?s generation will probably harbor anti-Russian views and have especially negative thoughts about United Russia, Vladimir Putin?s ruling party, which has taken a hard stance against Chechen independence.... However, Chechnya is a decently stable place today: Regular airline flights come and go, soccer matches are held, new construction is undertaken."
"Part of the anti-Russian views on the part of young Chechens are probably a combination of the legacy of war and simply being young and angry," he adds. "Those who grew up outside of the region, though, may be captivated by a romanticized extremism and maybe more inclined to actually carry something out."
Given what is already known about Tsarnaev's online habits, it seems unlikely that authorities will find a smoking gun on Instagram ? Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, who is also a suspect in the bombing case, posted much more radical content than did Dzhokhar.
Moreover, the Instagram website's terms of use suggest that it might not have much old content to share with authorities. "Given the volume of real-time content on Instagram, some information may only be stored for a short period of time."
But with Dzhokhar reportedly talking to authorities less now that he has been read his rights, and with Tamerlan dead, authorities will surely look everywhere for possible clues.
Mastering Business Negotiation is a handy resource for any leader or manager who needs practical strategies and ideas when conducting business negotiations. Grounded in solid research, the authors ? experts in the field of business negotiation ? reduce the huge volume of available information into an accessible handbook for busy executives who need to prepare for everyday negotiations as well as for more demanding and complex negotiation situations. Mastering Business Negotiation offers down-to-earth advice for learning to play the negotiation game and shows how to: Understand the game so you can better control what happens Predict the sequence of negotiation activities and move from disagreement toward agreement Identify the strategies and tactics of other players in the game. Apply the rules of the game ? the "do?s and don?ts" that will ultimately lead to success
FILE - In this May 22, 2007 file photo, the McGraw-Hill Cos. building is shown in New York. A spokesman for the McGraw-Hill Cos., which owns S&P, Moody's Corp. and Morgan Stanley confirmed that ratings agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's and investment bank Morgan Stanley have settled two lawsuits dating back to the financial crisis that accused them of hiding risky investments. The lawsuits from King County in Washington state and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank claimed that the ratings agencies and Morgan Stanley hid the risk of investing in a fund that purchased bonds backed by subprime mortgages. Judge Shira Scheindlin dismissed the lawsuits, in federal court in New York on Friday, April 26, 2013, with prejudice. This means they can't be filed again. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - In this May 22, 2007 file photo, the McGraw-Hill Cos. building is shown in New York. A spokesman for the McGraw-Hill Cos., which owns S&P, Moody's Corp. and Morgan Stanley confirmed that ratings agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's and investment bank Morgan Stanley have settled two lawsuits dating back to the financial crisis that accused them of hiding risky investments. The lawsuits from King County in Washington state and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank claimed that the ratings agencies and Morgan Stanley hid the risk of investing in a fund that purchased bonds backed by subprime mortgages. Judge Shira Scheindlin dismissed the lawsuits, in federal court in New York on Friday, April 26, 2013, with prejudice. This means they can't be filed again. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Ratings agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's and investment bank Morgan Stanley have settled two lawsuits dating back to the financial crisis that accused them of hiding risky investments.
The lawsuits from King County in Washington state and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank claimed that the ratings agencies and Morgan Stanley hid the risk of investing in a fund that purchased bonds backed by subprime mortgages.
Judge Shira Scheindlin dismissed the lawsuits on Friday, in federal court in New York, with prejudice, which means they can't be filed again.
Spokesmen for the McGraw-Hill Cos., which owns S&P, Moody's Corp. and Morgan Stanley confirmed the settlements but did not disclose terms.
"This settlement allows us to put the significant legal defense and related costs, as well as the distraction, of these very protracted litigations behind us," said Moody's spokesman Michael Adler in an emailed statement. "We are satisfied that it is in the best interests of our company and shareholders."
McGraw-Hill spokesman Jason Feuchtwanger said the cases were settled without any admission of liability or wrongdoing.
Ratings agencies came under intense scrutiny following the 2008 financial crisis for giving top-notch ratings to investments backed by subprime mortgages. As defaults and losses mounted in the housing market, especially among subprime loans, the value of bonds backed by the bad debt plummeted.
As the mortgage market collapsed, the ratings agencies sharply lowered their ratings on the investments.
With the value of such investments declining, funds that purchased the bonds filed for bankruptcy. King County and Abu Dhabi sued the ratings agencies and Morgan Stanley claiming the banks misled them about the safety of some investments that were part of a structured investment vehicle.
A structured investment vehicle is a fund that borrows money by issuing short-term securities at a low interest rate and then lends that money by purchasing long-term securities at higher interest. That process can make a profit for its investors from the difference.
The Maine "hermit" wants to get back to the land, but first he'll have to deal with up to a dozen new burglary charges.
When he was arrested for a break-in earlier this month, Christopher Knight, 47, amazed the public with his story of spending 27 years in the woods with no human contact, surviving on whatever he could steal from surrounding camps.
Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Friday that police are combing through burglary reports from the last six years ? the statute of limitations ? and matching them to Knight's confession of hundreds of thefts.
Kennebec County Sheriff's Office
Christopher Knight was arrested on April 4, 2013, while stealing food from a camp in Rome, Maine.
In the next two weeks, Knight will be hit with a new round of charges. Maloney, though, said no one is anxious to throw the book at the remorseful recluse, who wants to pay back his victims.
"Christopher Knight has a bank account and all money put into that bank account will go first to pay restitution and any more left over goes to him," Maloney said.
"He has said it is his dream to have enough to buy his own piece of land."
Knight, who told police he simply walked into the forest when he was 19 and never looked back, built a makeshift camp for himself in Rome that has since been dismantled.
There were rumors of a "North Pond Hermit" who was breaking into camps that ring the pond, but no one saw him until Knight tripped an alarm three weeks ago and was arrested.
He was charged with one burglary and then a second. His bail was raised to $250,000 then lowered to $25,000, with the restriction that it couldn't be posted by a third party, to stop someone from taking advantage of him.
While he's been held in the county jail, where he's awaiting a mental health evaluation, his only complaint has been "the television is too loud," Maloney said.
He mainly speaks to his lawyer, who declined to speak about him, and the investigating officer, Trooper Diane Perkins-Vance. The trooper has befriended Knight, visiting when she's off the clock.
"He told me it's not that he dislikes people, he just doesn?t want to be around people," Perkins-Vance told WCSH.
Knight's apparent restraint in stealing only what he needed and his apologies to the victims have made him a sympathetic figure. He even got a marriage proposal, and there's talk of a book deal.
Maloney said the suspect lucked out by getting Perkins-Vance as an investigator and herself as the prosecutor.
"[She] hasn?t viewed this case as 'I want to lock him up and throw away the key," the DA said, "And I ran on a platform of being smart on crime and differentiating between crimes where a person can be rehabilitated and ones where they cannot."
If you're an Android user with a pressing need to transfer files from your phone to your computer (and vice versa), there's a good chance you've heard of AirDroid. The remote access tool, which has been widely available on the Play Store for ages, has finally received an update that makes it even more useful. First, a primer: AirDroid gives you the ability to access all of the files on your phone -- APKs, music, photos, videos and plenty more -- directly in a web app on your browser, which offers an Android-like user interface. You can view or download videos, pull up your contact lists and even send and receive messages, just as if you were using the phone itself.
Version 2.0, which has been in the works for several months, adds even more useful functionality. The update now gives you the ability to access your phone with a cellular data connection, whereas WiFi was the only option previously. It also throws in a "Find my Phone" feature, a remote wipe and a camera option that will let you see your phone's front or rear camera views -- as well as snap pictures remotely and store them directly on your computer -- without activating the display (a very useful feature in case your prized possession gets stolen). It also supports incoming call notifications, as well as the opportunity to initiate outgoing ones. Not bad for a free (ad-supported) app, so head to the link below to check it out.
While most kids are happy with a hamster, a kitten or a puppy, animal-mad schoolboy Liam Andrews prefers something a little more exotic.
In fact, the 16-year-old shares his home with 300, er, unusual pets - including 12 tarantulas, eight snakes and five deadly scorpions.
He also owns an array of lizards, frogs and birds which all cram into his family's modest three-bedroom semi-detached home in Desborough, Northamptonshire.
Liam loves his pets so much he watches TV with his snakes ? including a 6ft-long python. He spends two hours a day feeding his pets and reckons he has been bitten or stung by them at least 200 times.
The college student is allowed to keep the incredible haul of animals by his long-suffering parents, despite his dad suffering from a phobia of snakes ? while his mum has a fear of spiders.
Liam said: "I much prefer animals to humans ? if someone is worried about the health and safety of a person holding a snake, I am much more worried about the snake's welfare.
"I have around 60 reptiles and other exotics that sleep in my bedroom with me ? luckily so far none of them have escaped.
"I don't think many girls would like the spiders in my bedroom so I don't bring many girls home."
Liam's obsession with animals began when he saved up enough pocket money to buy a hamster when he was just six years old.
Since then he and his parents have splashed out ?8,500 on his staggering hoard of pets which he buys online at rescue centres and exotic pet shops. He has a total of 306 animals ranging from the smallest baby golden knee tarantula measuring just 3mm to the largest exotic corn snake at 6ft 3ins long.
Liam ? who is studying animal management and welfare at Moulton College in Northampton ? added: "I spent four years trying to convince mum to get me a snake and, one year on, I had six snakes, ten spiders, and 200 other animals.
"I always watch TV with a snake around my neck, but I have given our local shopkeeper a real fright by turning up with my python.
"The next time I went into the shop, there were two signs on the shop door, one saying 'no dogs' and one saying 'no reptiles'."
His mum Jayne, 45, added: "Liam is totally obsessed with all his animals. I hate spiders and would never hold one, yet he wakes me up to bring me the shed skin of a tarantula at midnight.
"Last week, I found a cricket hopping about in the shower cubicle when I went to take a shower ? I'm dreading what I might find next."
Ferret
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Playful, busy and constantly on the move.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> You need more than one - they like company - and a very large hutch to keep them in.</p>
Guinea pig
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Gets ridiculously excited about lettuce (you can tell by the high-pitched squeaks).</p> <p> <strong>Minus: </strong></p> <p> Needs a large run, safe from predators - which has to be indoors in cold weather.</p>
Goldfish
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Calming, colourful and simple to look after.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> You have to keep an eye on small children who like throwing in too much food.</p>
Dog
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Loyal, loving and part of the family.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> Needs to be taken for a walk every day (and you have to pick up the poo).</p>
Stick insect
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Minimal maintenance - needs only leaves and water.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> Not overly affectionate. Can sometimes be confused with a twig.</p>
Cat
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Beautiful to watch, and scares away mice.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> Some are affectionate, some aren’t (and there’s nothing worse than being cold-shouldered by a cat).</p>
Rabbit
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Affectionate and good-natured (although has been known to nip).</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> Will probably need a hutch outside - which means clearing out dirty straw even when it’s cold and raining.</p>
Tortoise
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Looks incredibly wise and lives for a long time. Beware endangered species.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> Not really around much for four or five months of the year.</p>
Hamster
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Incredibly sweet and admirably fast.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> Brilliant escape artist - and very smelly if the cage isn’t cleaned often.</p>
Gerbil
<p> <strong>Plus:</strong></p> <p> Small, furry and sweet.</p> <p> <strong>Minus:</strong></p> <p> Loves digging tunnels, so you’ll need a very large cage with potting compost at the bottom.</p>
Tuesday evening?s Apple results were beyond dramatic. The company buried a massive 18% drop in profits under an even bigger pile of cash, announcing that it will take on debt and create value for investors by increasing its stock buyback and dividend programs to return $100 billion to investors between now and 2015. The stock immediately shot up by more than 4.5% in after-hours trading, but those gains were completely wiped away when CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple doesn?t have plans to launch any exciting new products until this coming fall. Quite the roller coaster ride, indeed.
[More from BGR: Samsung Galaxy S4 review]
As analysts? downgrades began to pour out on Wednesday morning, a piece penned Tuesday evening by Reuters?finance blogger Felix Salmon does a terrific job of explaining exactly what?s happening. We?re now looking at a completely different stock than we were this time last year, and the new Apple is going to take some time to get used to.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry Q10 review]
?Apple is officially no longer a high-growth tech stock, valued on its monster potential,? Salmon wrote. ?Instead, it has become a cash cow, valued on its ability to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into its shareholders? pockets.?
The transition we?re currently seeing at Apple happened so fast that investors are having trouble processing it, hence Tuesday night?s roller coaster ride that continued into Wednesday morning?s pre-market session as Apple shares continued downward and were trading below $400. Again.
On the flip side of the coin, Apple CEO Tim Cook is a numbers man first ? unlike late co-founder Steve Jobs, who was a geek first ? so the new Apple may play right into his wheelhouse.
What was once a high-yield stock that attracted a rush of investors is now becoming a safe low-yield investment that will attract a more conservative crowd. That fundamental shift will clearly take some time to adjust to, and volatility will likely continue for some time as a result.
?Apple is trading at an astonishingly low valuation, with a p/e ratio in single digits, because it has now become that animal investors like least: a slow-growing tech stock,? Salmon wrote. ?Either one is fine on its own, and both slow-growing stocks and fast-growing tech stocks can support much higher multiples than Apple is seeing right now. But conservative investors, who like slow-growing stocks with high dividends, are constitutionally uncomfortable with the volatility inherent in the tech world. And technology investors, who are happy taking that kind of risk, want to see substantial growth. Apple, notwithstanding the fact that it?s one of the most valuable companies in the world, is falling through the capital-markets cracks.?
NEW YORK (AP) ? "It's called a three-piece, right?" Yes, Luke Joeckel, and by the way, nice blue checks with that vested suit at the NFL draft.
The Texas A&M offensive tackle led top prospects with a little bitty accessory that screamed loudly from Radio City Music Hall: the pocket square.
Joeckel's was a neat horizontal in a matching check worn with a striped tie, stripes being the other style memo received by the big guys in Thursday night's first round.
Nobody took that memo to heart quite so, um, intensely as Eddie Lacy, the Alabama running back in a wide-stripe tie, striped bluish jacket and, yes, a pocket square.
There were puffy squares, subdued solids folded in triangles and more on the matchy-matchy side from Ezekial Ansah of Brigham Young, Eric Fisher of Central Michigan and just about everyone else who took the stage for the group shot.
Bowties represented at three. Thanks Deon Jordan, but even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell showed up in a striped tie as the red carpet wound down and he put the draft on the clock.
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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
A stock market and a nation already on edge was temporarily knocked off its axis on Tuesday by a single fake tweet.?
Following a hack attack, the Associated Press' verified Twitter account posted "an erroneous tweet" claiming that two explosions occurred in the White House and that President Barack Obama is injured. Moments later, the @AP Twitter account ? with nearly 2 million followers ? was suspended.
"That's a bogus tweet," an AP spokesperson initially told NBC News, a statement that was?repeated by the company's corporate communications account. Though the false tweet disappeared, the false message continued to exist on the service in over 4,000 retweets.
The chart of the Dow Jones industrial average just after 1 p.m. may as well have been a chart of America's heartbeat -- stopped for a moment, again, by seemingly horrific information. The Dow lost more than 140 points almost instantly, before recovering five minutes later.
It's incredible what a single 12-word lie can do.
The markets plummet, and then snap back after a fake AP terror tweet, with the "Power Lunch" crew.
"We're in an environment where we're sensitive to any news that sounds like terrorism," said Art Hogan of Lazard Capital Markets.? "That makes it that much more believable. That's the tricky part. When something like AP gets hacked, it becomes reality for a period of time, until it's not."
The market's reaction hints at the our collective fragility right now.? In the past, carefully crafted fake press releases or other Internet disinformation has been able to influence individual stocks both up or down.
But a single Tweet sinking the market?? It's just the latest sign that lies now spread on the Internet as fast as computer viruses, and can have just as much impact. Like the false rumors that spread like wildfire during the Boston bombing aftermath, or Hurricane Sandy before that, Twitter's surge to mainstream popularity ? it now boasts 140 million U.S. accounts???has made it an incredible source of on-the-spot information, but also the world's most powerful rumor-mongering tool.
"You wonder who did it and whether it was done on purpose. It certainly was an instant implosion," said Art Cashin, director of floor operations for UBS Financial Services, who watched the minutes of bedlam on the floor of the NYSE. Cashin said the reaction was especially dramatic because it said the president was injured.
If you define the term "hacking" loosely, you might consider that whoever wrote the fake tweet hacked not only AP's account, but the entire Wall Street trading system. The trades which sank the market Tuesday were almost certainly initiated by automated trading programs designed to profit by fast-twitch reacting to good or bad news.
The combination of a jittery public, automated trading, and a worldwide rumor tool was toxic for the markets.
"That goes to show you how algorithms read headlines and create these automatic orders ? you don't even have time to react as a human being," said Kenny Polcari of O'Neil Securities. "I'd imagine the (Security and Exchange Commission) is going to look into how this happened. It's not about banning computers, but it's about protection and securing our markets."
It's also about figuring out how to handle a world where the firewall between seemingly disconnected systems like Twitter and brokerage servers is really only 91 characters long, particularly a world where skepticism?s classic grains of salt seem to be in short supply.
CNBC's JeeYeon Park, Patti Domm and John Melloy contributed to this story.
Related:?AP Twitter account hacked, posts false White House scare
Tom Rizzardo, the Dallas-Fort Worth facility representative of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says the weather would not have made a difference in yesterday?s diverted flights from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport if there had been enough air traffic controllers working.
The Federal Aviation Administration attributed the diverted flights to ?a combination of weather and staffing shortages? as a result of automatic federal spending cuts. The agency on Sunday began furloughing employees.
Yes, Rizzardo said, the airport and airlines faced a combination of factors yesterday, but a staffing shortage in the D/FW Approach Control tower ?began the domino effect? of flight diversions. Some air traffic control shifts in the tower cabs have been operated with as few as four people instead of seven controllers.
?When the arrival rate [of airplanes] has to be cut to 75 percent or 50 percent of normal due to staffing restrictions that causes aircraft to be sequenced into lengthier streams and ? forces them into holding pattern,? Rizzardo wrote today in an email. ?In this case, we anticipated a 30-minute delay because we were unable to run triple approaches to the D/FW Airport due to the lack of staffing.?
However, when weather conditions forced a runway change, the planes could not withstand a longer delay and needed to divert, Rizzardo said. If full staffing had been in place, the planes either would have landed or their delay time would have been shorter, he added.
Rizzardo expects flight delays and other issues to get worse in the coming weeks ?as mandatory vacation time? puts more demands on staff.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Over the last five years, American hospitals have sent at least 600 immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally back to their home countries to avoid paying for long-term care after serious illness or injury.
The Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall University has documented "medical repatriation" cases in 15 states involving patients from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Lithuania, Mexico, the Philippines and South Korea.
Here's a look at some of the most dramatic examples from a report issued in December:
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Quelino Ojeda Jimenez was working atop a building at Chicago's Midway Airport in 2010 when he fell, suffering injuries that left him nearly quadriplegic and reliant on a ventilator.
Advocate Christ Medical Center cared for Jimenez for four months, absorbing more than $650,000 in costs, according to a 2011 Chicago Tribune story.
Three days before Christmas that year, the hospital put him aboard a medical flight and sent him to Mexico, even though his family protested. Crying and unable to speak, Jimenez could do nothing to prevent his removal.
The receiving hospital in Mexico lacked rehabilitation services and could not afford new filters for his ventilator. After suffering two heart attacks and a septic infection, Jimenez died on Jan. 2, 2012.
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Luis Alberto Jimenez was working as a landscaper in Florida when the car he was in was struck by a drunk driver in February 2000.
Jimenez, then 35, suffered brain damage and other injuries and was treated at Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, Fla., until June, when he was transferred to a nursing home.
The following January, he was readmitted to the hospital with an infection that doctors feared could be fatal. He stayed at the hospital for a year because no other long-term care provider would take him.
The hospital eventually filed a lawsuit in state court seeking permission to transport him to a hospital in his native Guatemala. A judge approved the flight in June 2003, and Jimenez was flown to Guatemala before the court could rule on an appeal filed by his legal guardian.
In mid-2004, the Florida District Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's order, declaring that state courts do not have the authority to permit deportations, which are regulated by federal immigration law. But by then Jimenez had been returned home, bedridden and suffering from seizures, to live with his elderly mother in a remote area of Guatemala.
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Barbara Latasiewicz was working as a housekeeper in the Chicago area in 2009 when she had a stroke while scrubbing a bathtub. The Polish woman was paralyzed on her left side and needed around-the-clock care.
Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital tried to find her long-term care, but 30 facilities refused to take her because she was undocumented. Latasiewicz had overstayed a temporary visa after arriving in the U.S. in 1990.
The hospital allowed her to stay without insurance or any other way to pay for 2? years at a cost of more than $1.4 million.
In early 2012, arrangements were made to transfer her to a stroke-specialty unit in Poland. She refused to consent to the transfer, which would permanently separate her from her son and grandchildren. The hospital obtained a judge's order allowing her transfer to Poland.
A March 1 story in the Chicago Tribune says the 60-year-old woman cried while sitting in the airport awaiting a flight out, knowing she would probably never return to the U.S., which had been her home for more than 20 years.
Fertilizer that fizzles in a homemade bomb could save lives around the worldPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy Salem mnsalem@sandia.gov 505-844-2739 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia researcher develops a non-detonable fertilizer
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. A Sandia engineer who trained U.S. soldiers to avoid improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has developed a fertilizer that helps plants grow but can't detonate a bomb. It's an alternative to ammonium nitrate, an agricultural staple that is also the raw ingredient in most of the IEDs in Afghanistan.
Sandia has decided not to patent or license the formula, but to make it freely available in hopes of saving lives.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is illegal in Afghanistan but legal in neighboring Pakistan, where a quarter of the gross domestic product and half the workforce depend on agriculture. When mixed with a fuel such as diesel, ammonium nitrate is highly explosive. It was used in about 65 percent of the 16,300 homemade bombs in Afghanistan in 2012, according to government reports. There were 9,300 IED events in the country in 2009.
IEDs have killed more American troops than any other weapon during the 11-year war in Afghanistan. About 1,900 troops were killed or wounded in IED attacks in 2012, 60 percent of American combat casualties.
Ammonium nitrate explosives are not limited to Afghanistan. More than 700 IED attacks take place outside Afghanistan each month, and more than 17,000 global IED events have occurred in 123 countries in the past two years. The United States witnessed how deadly ammonium nitrate can be in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
U.S. efforts to curb the flow of ammonium nitrate fertilizer into Afghanistan through seizures, export controls and diplomacy have had limited success. The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) was established by the Department of Defense in 2006 to reach out to the armed services, private sector and academia for counter-IED technologies. JIEDDO last year issued a call for ideas on how to neutralize ammonium nitrate as an IED explosive.
Sandia optical engineer Kevin Fleming took on the challenge and developed a fertilizer formula as good as, if not better, than ammonium nitrate, but not detonable.
An Achilles heel
"I looked at it differently," said Fleming, who retired from the labs in February. "I've been an organic gardener since I was eight. We had five acres in Las Cruces with the problems of calcareous soils that are very similar to those in the Middle East. I know something about commercial farming."
He also knew the chemistry of IEDs from years of training soldiers how to deal with them.
From a terrorist's perspective, ammonium nitrate has an Achilles heel. The ammonium ion is weakly attached to the nitrate ion. They hang onto each other, but the right chemical reaction can easily pull them apart. Fleming reasoned you could separate the ions by adding a compound they would rather cling to, called a metathesis reaction. "It would change into something else at the molecular level," he said.
Fleming tried several materials including iron sulfate, a readily available compound that steel foundries throw away by the tons. When mixed with ammonium nitrate, the iron ion "grabs" the nitrate and the ammonium ion takes the sulfate ion. Iron sulfate becomes iron nitrate and ammonium nitrate becomes ammonium sulfate. This reaction occurs if someone tries to alter the fertilizer to make it detonable when mixed with a fuel.
"The ions would rather be with different partners," Fleming said. "The iron looks at the ammonium nitrate and says, 'Can I have your nitrate rather than my sulfate?' and the ammonium nitrate says, 'I like sulfate, so I'll trade you.'"
Ammonium sulfate and iron nitrate are not detonable, even when mixed with a fuel, as is ammonium nitrate. "It's a different compound," said Fleming, who completed work on the formula in late 2012. "At the chemical level it's a great fertilizer but does not detonate."
Sandia chemical engineer Vicki Chavez ran a small-scale proof-of-concept of the reaction, and validated it. "We were able to prove that there was little to no ammonium nitrate left in the resulting process," she said. "It was very cool. We looked at pure ammonium nitrate and pure ammonium sulfate. The resulting sample looked more like ammonium sulfate."
Fleming said iron sulfate in fertilizer adds iron and acidifies soil. "It does good things for soil health. It takes alkaline soil and makes it more neutral, closer to an ideal pH level," he said. "The closer you get a neutral pH, the more crops grow. Crop yield would improve significantly.
"And iron-containing fertilizer added to the soil would be taken up in crops and help fight anemia and other iron deficiencies in people who eat them."
The soil in Afghanistan is alkaline with a high pH, and could benefit from an ammonium nitrate/iron sulfate fertilizer, Fleming said. "What they use now, ammonium nitrate with calcium carbonate which makes soil more alkaline doesn't make sense," he said.
Danger to soldiers
Sandia could have patented the formula but opted to waive ownership rights for humanitarian reasons.
"One of Sandia's priorities is deploying the technologies that result from our research for the public good," said Pete Atherton, senior manager of industry partnerships at Sandia. "We think that making the fertilizer formula as accessible as possible is the best way to accomplish this mission."
Replacing ammonium nitrate with a non-detonable fertilizer in Afghanistan and other parts of the world will not happen overnight, Fleming said. Ammonium nitrate is produced in huge plants in many locations. "It's easy to get in large quantities," he said. "The sheer volume of ammonium nitrate is gigantic."
But he said there are some ideas about how to get the non-detonable formula, which would not cost more to produce, into the marketplace. "We could give the formula to a neutral party and let them work with the Afghans, Pakistanis and others," he said. "They could set up side-by-side demonstrations to see which fertilizer works better. Prove it to them gradually."
Fleming has informed JIEDDO of his results. He said his sense of urgency in tackling the issue came from looking into the eyes of hundreds of soldiers he trained in anti-IED tactics. "Explosive Ordnance Disposal techs see a lot of IEDs, and about one third of them will die, be maimed or injured by IEDs before getting through their tours, and most from ammonium nitrate-based explosives," he said.
At a meeting last year in Crystal City, Va., Fleming sat next to an ex-Marine who had lost both legs trying to find IEDs. "He had a metal detector, but some bombs are chemically initiated with no metal parts. He stepped on a non-metal trigger and set off a blast that took off both legs. He became a double amputee in milliseconds. So when I sit next to him and see the aftermath of an IED, I have to think of any way possible to keep this from happening."
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Nancy Salem, mnsalem@sandia.gov, (505) 844-2739
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Fertilizer that fizzles in a homemade bomb could save lives around the worldPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy Salem mnsalem@sandia.gov 505-844-2739 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia researcher develops a non-detonable fertilizer
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. A Sandia engineer who trained U.S. soldiers to avoid improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has developed a fertilizer that helps plants grow but can't detonate a bomb. It's an alternative to ammonium nitrate, an agricultural staple that is also the raw ingredient in most of the IEDs in Afghanistan.
Sandia has decided not to patent or license the formula, but to make it freely available in hopes of saving lives.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is illegal in Afghanistan but legal in neighboring Pakistan, where a quarter of the gross domestic product and half the workforce depend on agriculture. When mixed with a fuel such as diesel, ammonium nitrate is highly explosive. It was used in about 65 percent of the 16,300 homemade bombs in Afghanistan in 2012, according to government reports. There were 9,300 IED events in the country in 2009.
IEDs have killed more American troops than any other weapon during the 11-year war in Afghanistan. About 1,900 troops were killed or wounded in IED attacks in 2012, 60 percent of American combat casualties.
Ammonium nitrate explosives are not limited to Afghanistan. More than 700 IED attacks take place outside Afghanistan each month, and more than 17,000 global IED events have occurred in 123 countries in the past two years. The United States witnessed how deadly ammonium nitrate can be in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
U.S. efforts to curb the flow of ammonium nitrate fertilizer into Afghanistan through seizures, export controls and diplomacy have had limited success. The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) was established by the Department of Defense in 2006 to reach out to the armed services, private sector and academia for counter-IED technologies. JIEDDO last year issued a call for ideas on how to neutralize ammonium nitrate as an IED explosive.
Sandia optical engineer Kevin Fleming took on the challenge and developed a fertilizer formula as good as, if not better, than ammonium nitrate, but not detonable.
An Achilles heel
"I looked at it differently," said Fleming, who retired from the labs in February. "I've been an organic gardener since I was eight. We had five acres in Las Cruces with the problems of calcareous soils that are very similar to those in the Middle East. I know something about commercial farming."
He also knew the chemistry of IEDs from years of training soldiers how to deal with them.
From a terrorist's perspective, ammonium nitrate has an Achilles heel. The ammonium ion is weakly attached to the nitrate ion. They hang onto each other, but the right chemical reaction can easily pull them apart. Fleming reasoned you could separate the ions by adding a compound they would rather cling to, called a metathesis reaction. "It would change into something else at the molecular level," he said.
Fleming tried several materials including iron sulfate, a readily available compound that steel foundries throw away by the tons. When mixed with ammonium nitrate, the iron ion "grabs" the nitrate and the ammonium ion takes the sulfate ion. Iron sulfate becomes iron nitrate and ammonium nitrate becomes ammonium sulfate. This reaction occurs if someone tries to alter the fertilizer to make it detonable when mixed with a fuel.
"The ions would rather be with different partners," Fleming said. "The iron looks at the ammonium nitrate and says, 'Can I have your nitrate rather than my sulfate?' and the ammonium nitrate says, 'I like sulfate, so I'll trade you.'"
Ammonium sulfate and iron nitrate are not detonable, even when mixed with a fuel, as is ammonium nitrate. "It's a different compound," said Fleming, who completed work on the formula in late 2012. "At the chemical level it's a great fertilizer but does not detonate."
Sandia chemical engineer Vicki Chavez ran a small-scale proof-of-concept of the reaction, and validated it. "We were able to prove that there was little to no ammonium nitrate left in the resulting process," she said. "It was very cool. We looked at pure ammonium nitrate and pure ammonium sulfate. The resulting sample looked more like ammonium sulfate."
Fleming said iron sulfate in fertilizer adds iron and acidifies soil. "It does good things for soil health. It takes alkaline soil and makes it more neutral, closer to an ideal pH level," he said. "The closer you get a neutral pH, the more crops grow. Crop yield would improve significantly.
"And iron-containing fertilizer added to the soil would be taken up in crops and help fight anemia and other iron deficiencies in people who eat them."
The soil in Afghanistan is alkaline with a high pH, and could benefit from an ammonium nitrate/iron sulfate fertilizer, Fleming said. "What they use now, ammonium nitrate with calcium carbonate which makes soil more alkaline doesn't make sense," he said.
Danger to soldiers
Sandia could have patented the formula but opted to waive ownership rights for humanitarian reasons.
"One of Sandia's priorities is deploying the technologies that result from our research for the public good," said Pete Atherton, senior manager of industry partnerships at Sandia. "We think that making the fertilizer formula as accessible as possible is the best way to accomplish this mission."
Replacing ammonium nitrate with a non-detonable fertilizer in Afghanistan and other parts of the world will not happen overnight, Fleming said. Ammonium nitrate is produced in huge plants in many locations. "It's easy to get in large quantities," he said. "The sheer volume of ammonium nitrate is gigantic."
But he said there are some ideas about how to get the non-detonable formula, which would not cost more to produce, into the marketplace. "We could give the formula to a neutral party and let them work with the Afghans, Pakistanis and others," he said. "They could set up side-by-side demonstrations to see which fertilizer works better. Prove it to them gradually."
Fleming has informed JIEDDO of his results. He said his sense of urgency in tackling the issue came from looking into the eyes of hundreds of soldiers he trained in anti-IED tactics. "Explosive Ordnance Disposal techs see a lot of IEDs, and about one third of them will die, be maimed or injured by IEDs before getting through their tours, and most from ammonium nitrate-based explosives," he said.
At a meeting last year in Crystal City, Va., Fleming sat next to an ex-Marine who had lost both legs trying to find IEDs. "He had a metal detector, but some bombs are chemically initiated with no metal parts. He stepped on a non-metal trigger and set off a blast that took off both legs. He became a double amputee in milliseconds. So when I sit next to him and see the aftermath of an IED, I have to think of any way possible to keep this from happening."
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Nancy Salem, mnsalem@sandia.gov, (505) 844-2739
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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1.?? Avianca LifeMiles 100% Purchase Bonus
Via View from the Wing, Avianca is selling LifeMiles at a 100% bonus up to April 30, 2013.? This works out to ~1.5 cents per mile.? Avianca is a Colombian airline, but is a Star Alliance member, so you can use Avianca miles to fly on other Star Alliance airlines such as United, Lufthansa etc.
100% Bonus on Purchases of Avianca LifeMiles
The most miles that can be purchased in one transaction is 75,000 and their Terms & Conditions explicitly state that you must have been a LifeMiles member by April 8, 2013.? So sign-up now for a LifeMiles account so that you can take part in the next promotion (likely in a few months).
This may be a good choice if you want a Star Alliance award because you can book (some) flights on-line and are not blocked from Lufthansa First Class like you would be with US Airways (the other airline which frequently sells miles).
And as One Mile at a Time reports, if you have 40% of the miles required for an award, you can essentially use a cash and miles option, with the miles being purchased at a rate of 1.37cents each.
But the Avianca frequent flyer program has its shortcomings.
The biggest drawback to me is that Avianca does not allow mixed cabin awards.? So, if you find award availability in Business Class on one segment, it cannot be combined with Economy on other segments (even though you don?t mind flying in economy).? So you?d have to book another flight back home!
This means that if your home airport is served by a regional jet with only economy seats, you won?t be able to book a seat on it if you?ve used Avianca miles to book a business class award!
In addition, they do not allow a connection of more than 12 hours (most airlines allow you up to 24 hours for connections), and have less-than-ideal customer service when it comes to making reservation changes.
2.?? Earn Double Points on Hertz Rentals for $13.49/Day!
Deals We Like reports that Hertz is offering a double take - rates from $13.49 per day and Double Hertz Rewards points.? To be eligible, first register here, then follow her tips for getting a great deal on a Hertz rental.
Through this offer, you will receive double points on rentals through June 22, 2013, starting with your second rental booking.
Double Points on $13.49 Hertz Rentals
3.? Save 50% on Flying Blue Award Redemptions
The Points Guy writes that Flying Blue (the Frequent Flier program for Air France, KLM, and Air Europa) has new Promo Awards.? These feature up to 50% discount for award travel on select routes.
Flying Blue Promo Awards
Eligible North American departure cities include:
Air France ? Detroit, New York (JFK) and Toronto through April 30, 2013.? And Montreal through June 30, 2013.
KLM ? Washington DC through April 30, 2013. Also Chicago, Dallas, and New York (JFK) through June 30, 2013.
Air Europa ? New York (JFK) through June 15, 2013.
Economy Class, Premium Economy, and Business Class availability may vary.? See the Flying Blue Promo Awards page for more details.
Remember that fuel surcharges and ticketing fees on Flying Blue award redemptions can easily add up to $400 to $500.? Still, half price award tickets in business class could be a good value.? Paying half the regular mileage price and taxes and fees is usually not a good value, but do the math for your specific situation.
You can transfer AMEX Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue instantly in a 1:1 ratio.
4.?? Air Canada Offering Bonus for Converting Points to? Aeroplan Miles
Loyalty Lobby reports that now through May 13, 2013, Air Canada is offering bonus miles for converting other loyalty program points into Air Canada?s Aeroplan miles.
Convert Points to Aeroplan Miles
Eligible loyalty programs for this bonus are listed below.
Eligible Aeroplan Transfer Partners
The bonus through this offer is between 20% and ~27%, dependent on the number of points transferred, as follows:
Converting 5,000 Points -??? 1,000 Miles (20% Bonus)
Converting 10,000 Points -?? 2,000 Miles (20% Bonus)
Converting 20,000 Points -? 4,000 Miles (20% Bonus)
Converting 50,000 Points -? 10,000 Miles (20% Bonus)
Converting 100,000 Points ? 25,000 Miles (25% Bonus)
Converting 150,000 Points ? 40,000 Miles (26.7% Bonus)
Aeroplan Transfer Bonus
You get a higher bonus from transferring over 100,000 points.
Aeroplan charges fuel surcharges for many routes, so I wouldn?t transfer points unless you needed to top off for an award.
* If you liked this post, why don?t you join the?10,000+ readers?who have signed-up to receive?free blog posts?via?email?(only 1 email per day!) or in a?RSS reader??because then you?ll?never miss?another update!
(Reuters) - Five backcountry snowboarders were killed and one survived an avalanche on Saturday at Colorado's Loveland Pass, a sheriff's department said.
Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger told Reuters that the snowboarders apparently triggered the avalanche at the 11,990-foot (3,651-meter) pass about 75 miles west of Denver.
The avalanche occurred at about 1 p.m. just above the Loveland Ski Area, he said. The bodies are being recovered.
The deaths bring to 10 the number of slide-related fatalities in Colorado during the current ski season.
A snowboarder was killed by a human-triggered avalanche on Thursday at Vail, about 100 miles west of Denver, in an area known as "Avalanche Bowl."
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center this week listed the slide danger as "considerable" in the Vail area due to recent heavy snowfalls and shifting winds.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson and Keith Coffman; Editing by Paul Simao)
April 18, 2013 | Story by: Lindsey Chester | Categories: Community, Education, Environment, Events, Featured
Story by Lindsey Chester. Photo by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Cary, NC-? Earth Day is officially celebrated each year on April 22, but this year that?s a weekday. In Cary, our official town-wide celebrations will be observed as part of Spring Daze on Saturday April 28. But what is Earth Day all about?
Origins Of Earth Day
The original idea for Earth Day was conceived by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, in 1969 after an awful oil spill in California. At the time the anti-War movement was strong- and he thought if he could harness some of that protest energy towards protecting the environment.? His belief was that if he could? get the public increasingly aware of air and water pollution, it would force these issues into National politics.
Senator Nelson partnered with Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman and then made his announcement? for a ?national teach-in on the environment? to the national media. Along with Denis Hayes, (who became the? national coordinator of the event),? they created a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land.
On the 22nd of April, 1970 the first Earth Day took place. Overall 20 million Americans demonstrated in nationwide rallies for a healthy, sustainable environment. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against (various environmental issues)suddenly realized they shared common values.
The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. ?It was a gamble,? Gaylord recalled, ?but it worked.?
Earth Day In Cary
Here in Cary take part in Spring Daze on Saturday April 27 in Bond Park.?The theme this year is ?Lead.Inspire.? and exhibits and activities will provide information about ways the Town of Cary is preserving our natural resources and the role you can play in protecting the environment.
Visit booths to learn about water conservation, recycling, stormwater, urban trees, greenways and parks, C-Tran, cooking oil recycling, and environmental volunteerism with Spruce. Don?t miss the new all electric vehicle that will be on display next to the Sustainability tent. Guests that visit each booth will receive a FREE bag made from 100% recycled materials (while supplies last).
Another great program continued from last year?s Lazy Daze festival is solid food waste composting located in special bins located near the food stalls. The Town found the program so successful in diverting tons of waste from the landfill that the program was expanded to include Spring Daze.
Get Fit Too
Check out Cary?s Passport to Fitness , Health & Fitness Trail (Yours truly will be volunteering over there- stop and say howdy!) The passport, available at any Fitness Stop throughout the festival, highlights the activities located at each stop. Each Fitness Stop includes activities that are suitable for all ages and are designed to help you balance your health, environmental, physical and cultural well-being. After successfully visiting each stop, you will receive an ink stamp indicating its completion. Finish your passport, return it to any Fitness Stop for a cool prize.
Steps We All Can Take
Recycle More and Buy Less- Think before you buy. Think before you toss. You can recycle chip board boxes, paper, envelopes, cards, plastic bottles, packing materials and more. See if your recycle bin gets full before your regular green Town of Cary bin does!
Drive Smarter- Consolidate your trips,? carpool? to activities and work (with other people not just your own kid!). Every 30 minutes of idling costs you between 2/10 to 7/10? of a gallon of gas (depending on what you drive). Keep in mind that every gallon of gas you use, you also produce about 19 pounds of carbon dioxide. Idling in a school carpool line costs your wallet and the environment.
Use Mass Transit- That big yellow bus that stops at the end of your street can take your kids to school and its going there anyway. Its your children?s first encounter with mass transit, so why drive them? Try C- Tran for trips around town and leave the driving to someone else!
Use Less Water- If you are in the market for new appliances, look for Energy Star labelled dishwashers and washing machines. If you must water your lawn, do it when only necessary. Don?t plant trees and shrubs in the late spring or summer when they will require more water. Try planting more native and drought tolerant plantings at your house.
Turn Things Off ? When not in use, turn off the lights when you leave the room, turn off the TV, and try to unplug any power sources that remain in stand-by mode at all times. They slowly sip power all day.
Think About Solar-For years cost was the main reason folks steered clear of solar energy, but did you know: ?Solar has never been more affordable or accessible. ? according to Stew Miller of Yes! Solar in Cary. ? It is exciting to see not just solar farms for investors, but so many homeowners and small businesses benefiting from clean renewable energy and independence from the utility companies and rising electricity rates.? Check out these facts about solar energy:
solar now has? a much shorter payback, often 5 years or less for a homeowner, even shorter for a business
the cost of solar panels has dropped about 60% in the last 2 years
most utilities now approve net metering, which means you can actually use the electricity you produce and sell the excess to the? utility
tax credits in NC total 65% (30 % federal and 35% state)
a homeowner can reduce their energy cost 80% (up 100% if they are really efficient)
7000 kilowatt hours equates to almost 6,000 lbs. of coal not burned, 11 trees planted every year, 9368 car miles not driven
In short, there?s lots of ways you and your family can help live more sustainable, earth-friendly lives, ensuring we leave a legacy of a healthy planet for generations to come.
Happy Earth Day Cary! For more info check out the Earth Day Movement website.
?????????????????????????
Environmental coverage on CaryCitizen is sponsored in Part by Yes! Solar Solutions in Cary.
It?s amazing to run a business, have a profit that appears unlimited, create a schedule for yourself and be your own boss. Website marketing will help with these things so that you can attain the success you need.
Always make sure your webpages are informative and contain relevant information. A minimalist one page website which only provides your business address and hours isn?t going to draw traffic and will be easily passed by. Include articles, reviews and any other content that helps potential customers know that your business is of high-quality.
Creating internal links which include keywords is another good SEO practice. Once you get a visitor to your site, keeping them there becomes vital. If you use links to direct them to previous posts or other relevant information elsewhere on the site, you can keep them around much longer. Internal links can not only keep your visitors? attention, but also make it easier for search engines to index your site.
The key to successful website marketing on starting your own business, is persistence. When you feel discouraged, remind yourself that success may be just around the corner. Make sure that you have covered all of your bases before opening your sales website. Sometimes this takes intensive work. The effort you put in will pay off over time.
The majority of cellular providers permit multiple numbers to be routed to a single phone. Don?t neglect this tip, as it could mean the difference between growing your customer base and missing out on opportunities!
A CRM (customer relationship management) database is helpful in Internet marketing. This database will help you pinpoint purchases of customers both past and present. Use this information to customize communication with them, and try to sell them products that are complementary to previous purchases.
Conducting business online can often seem very impersonal. This is an especially effective tool for small and independently owned businesses who rely on personal selling and relationship marketing to create customers for life.
If you plan to use banner ads, your best bet is to create ads that stand out from the norm. You will see a lot more responses if you think outside the box when you design banner ads.
?Guarantee? is a power word in web marketing. This reassures customers and makes them more likely to make a purchase. There are a number of different guarantees you can make on everything from quality to durability to satisfaction. There is a lifetime guarantee or one that lasts 90 days. The guarantee you select should fit the product that is for sale.
To achieve success in setting up a small business, try using words like ?guaranteed? in your advertisements and related content. People want to be reassured that there is no risk in purchasing a product from you. People work very hard for their money and you need to make sure they feel good about spending their money with you.
You can market your website as a place of social gathering rather than a business. Visitors are more likely to return to your site to keep in touch with other customers, thereby increasing the traffic to your website. You will be on the minds of your customers as well. You can also offer free graphics that people can use to advertise their membership which equates to free advertising.
Remember every detail when it comes to each page on your site. Your site?s title and description should be on every page. This can help people stay informed when they visit your site and know what you and your business is all about.
Do you want to break into the world of Affiliate marketing? Get email addresses. This isn?t always easy, but if you give your guest a reason to give it to you, you can begin growing a nice subscription list. Try offering freebies or maybe having a contest that they need to use their e-mail to participate in. Many customers are interested in sharing their email address when they feel they will receive something good as a result.
Understand that Web marketing is not going to be an overnight success, and you should never rely strictly on one method. This is important for this type of business because regular income is slow at first and may never be steady until you are well established. Keep your primary job until you are absolutely certain it is safe for you to give it up.
Employ a lot of descriptions on the site. Adjectives, used intelligently, will improve the item descriptions featured on your site. Get clever and use jargon that surprise all of your readers. Make them want to revisit your site just to read what you have to say.
Have some promotions or events and see people flock to your site. Offer certain e-books or products for steep discounts for one or two days. When people enter your site to purchase the e-book, they?ll probably look around at what else you offer. Oftentimes, these sorts of customers will leave your site with more than just that one dollar item.
Your business may start small, but it?s up to you to continue to build on the foundation you create until you reach the success goals that you?ve set for yourself. Building a strong Internet marketing company takes time, patience and persistence. Make sure you research the newest methods for effective Website marketing. All the luck to you when dealing with your website marketing business.
Tagged as: good business to start, setting up a small business, small online business ideas, start an online business from home, starting a blog for money, starting your own business
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Public release date: 23-Apr-2013
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