The Total Prepper Plan | Survival 5?5 ? Five Dimensions of Survival ...

This post is focus mainly toward beginning preppers.? But experienced prepper must use this information as a validation of their plans and practices.

My survival philosophy boils down to what I call the five P?s:

1. Purpose
2. Planning
3. Preparation
4. Practice
5. Perfecting

1. Purpose

Why are you preparing?? What are your family situations and conditions?? For me, I have my wife and children to think about.? I have distant siblings.? And an aging mother.? My in-laws? are just a couple of hours away.? And an elderly mother in-law.?? Your family situations will very greatly with divorces, step-children, and varying ages of your family members.?? Every family likely has a family member with a chronic illness ? cancer, diabetes, sleep apnea, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and many more.? As I have said in previous posts, a man?s primary duty in life is to provide his family with food, shelter, security, and love.?? Your religious values will play part?into ?why?.?? For me, I want to survival comfortably into my old age.? And I want my children to grow and thrive.? But only you can define this for yourself.

What are you preparing for??? Do you live in a flood zone or on the coast, and worried about hurricanes?? Do you live in an?earthquake zone?? Does your region receive blizzards or ice storms??? Do you live in tornado alley??? Do you live in a high-crime neighborhood or dense urban area??? Are you worried about an EMP attack or solar storm?? Are you worried about an economic collapse??? Do you live near a nuclear plan or a factory that handles toxic materials??? Is your town on the transit path for freight trains?? Freight trains move millions of tons of toxic materials every year.? Or simply, you can be preparing for the possibility of job loss or sudden illness.?? There hundreds of different scenarios to think about.? But to be practical, you need to?identify?your own high risk concerns? My major personal concerns are potential job loss, ice storms, economic collapse, and terrorist using weapons of mass destruction.? Your top concerns will likely be different.? The best approach for any prepper is to be prepared for nearly anything.? Strive for the best ? Plan for the worst.? And be ready for any disaster situation.

2.? Planning

Before you start to send a lot of money on buying survival supplies, the way to optimize your purchases is to make a plan.? And not just to make one plan, but make several different plans.?? Your situation will drive what plans you might need to make.? For example, if you live in California areas where brush fires are a possibility, you will need a plan for that.?? The following is a generic list of lists for most preppers:

• Planning Effort?1:? Bug Out Plans ? You should have a distinct plan for a scenario where you must leave your homestead.? Your plan should have at least three alternative destinations.?? Your first options are with other family members or close friends.? Or you might have a cabin in the woods.? Or you might have a camp ground you are very familiar with.?? The last resort is a tent in a national forest.???? For each destination, you should have several different routes.? Your travel plan for each bug-out destinations should have the following different route plans:
  1. Fastest Driving Route ? Usually over Interstate Highways
  2. Alternative Fast Route ? A secondary route also over Interstate Highways, in case the primary route is blocked or overwhelmed with travel.
  3. Side Roads Slower Route ? If you only could take side and secondary roads, and no highways, how would you drive there?
  4. Walking Route ? If you had to walk to a bug-out location, what routes would you take??? Route planning for walking is much more complicated.? You might be following railroad lines, walking off paved roads, and through rough and wild areas.
  • All your bug-out travel routes should be printed onto hard paper copies.? Obtain commercial maps that capture the major and secondary roads to all your bug-out locations.
  • Your bug-out plan should contain the criteria by which you are willing to bug-out.?? Survival in place, or stay at your homestead, is usually preferrable.?? Leaving is a hard decision.? So think about that decision process well ahead of time.
  • If the routes are more than a 5 day walk, then consider pre-positioning some supplies along the travel path.? If your primary retreat location is 500 miles away, then at mile post 150 and 300, you might want to create a mini-store of the supplies that will help you arrive at the final destination.? Some good items to store in? supply cache include:
    1. Gasoline or diesel fuel ? Whatever your vehicle requires.? And preserve it with Sta-bil.
    2. Oil, pre-mixed coolant, brake fluid, transmission fluid, or whatever fluids your vehicle may require.
    3. Another spare tire for your vehicle ? When buying new tires, do not return the old tires to the tire dealer.? Rather, put the old tires into your bug-out cache.? A partial bald tire is better than no tire.
    4. Spare tool kit ? Tools are too heavy to carry.? Focus on what tools you might need to make repairs to your vehicle or equipment.
    5. Food, such as MRE?s and dehydrated food packages ? MRE?s are great as escape food, but they are bulking.? Dehydrated instant meals are desirable, when you must carry a week?s worth of food on your back.
    6. Water ? Water is heavy to carry.?? Buy a couple of cases of gallon jugs for each bug-out cache.? Refresh once per year.
    7. Ammo ? Also heavy to carry in bulk ? Have an extra supply for all your key firearms.? Also stash some cheap .22 LR ammo for barter and hunting.
    8. Wool blankets ? to supplement your bed roll and overcoats
    9. Extra pair of boots or hiking shoes with extra socks for each family member ? expect someone?s shoes to have a blow-out
    10. Medical supplies, depending on your family?s needs
    11. Batteries for your communication devices and weapons ? Have some charged and rechargeable batteries for each of your key devices.
    12. Some silver coins and cash?- Perhaps $20 face value in silver coins and $100 in cash might be a nice amount.? Needs to be just enough to help you get to the next step, but not enough to grieve over if stolen.
    13. Extra, inexpensive firearms ? in case your firearms are damaged or confiscated by authorities, have a backup plan.? Some good options are World War 2 military surplus rifles, such as Mosin-Nagant, a 22LR rifle, 12 gauge shotgun, bolt-action rifle in your preferred caliber.?? If your primary rifle caliber is .223 or .308, then have a bolt-action rifle of the same caliper at your bug-out caches.? The goal is here is cheap, but reliable.? Plan on buying and storing the weapons for a long time.? You will need to take proper steps to store your weapons for long-term, so that rust does not accumulate.
    • Store all your the items in your survival cache in water proof containers.
  • Here are some ideas about were to place your survival caches:
    1. Storages Rental Units ? This is risky, since in the event of a WROL situation, expect most storage units to quickly be robbed.? Look for a unit that looks off the beaten path, have decent security, and can be accessed with there is no electrical power.? Do not go cheap on the lock.? Put two high quality locks on the door.? Put the goods into boxes with large labels.? The labels should make the goods appear undesirable, such as ?Tax Records?, ?Text Books?, ?Old Clothing?, ?Used Toys?.?? From an outward appearance, make your storage unit appear to be low value.? High value items boxed and out of sight in the back.? Put low value junk upfront, blocking access to high value stuff.? The goal is to make a thief want to bypass your storage unit.
    2. Buried cache in public forest land, in spot not frequented by hikers or campers.
    3. Store items with friends and family members
    4. Some apartment buildings will rent out lockers
• Planning Effort?2: Bug-in / Survival in Place
  1. Whenever possible, always best to stay at home in a disaster or survival situation.? Roads become quickly filled with people leaving.?? You are leaving all your stored supplies.? The road is filled with risk and uncertainty.? My last resort will be to leave my home.? So I do whatever preparations possible that will allow me to stay at my homestead.??? The first thing to consider is, do not live in a high-risk location.?? I?ll never live on the coast with the potential of a hurricane.?? I?ll never live in the Los Angles basin with the risk of earthquakes.? Living in a highly dense urban setting is?inviting trouble?unto itself.? You only need to look at New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.? Many people were too poor financially or in poor health to leave the city, and were unable or unwilling to retreat.?? Not living in a city that is below sea-level is a wise thing.? Ideally, you should be a?three hour?drive from any city with a population of 100,000 or more.?? Since that is not possible for most people, at least live an hour outside of?major cities?in the direction towards rural areas.? For example, if you must work in New York City, I would not live on Long Island, which has no escape routes.? Rather, I?d live upstate in Westchester, where I can run to the Catskills.
• Planning Effort?3: Skills,?Knowledge, and Capabilities
  • Create a plan for all the skills that you wish to acquire.? The primary survival resources for any prepper is their ability to think, adapt and overcome difficult situations.? This capability is grown.? Just as true survival planning is a lifestyle, learning is a life long endeavor.? Your skills plan should be prioritized along your weaknesses and vulnerabilities.?? The following are some ideas to put on your skills acquisition plan:
    1. ?Shooting skills
    2. Group defense tactics
    3. Gardening skills
    4. Gathering local wild foods
    5. Raising small animals for food, such as chickens, rabbits, goats, ducks, etc.
    6. Home-based business skills and trade
    7. Communication skills, such as ham radio
    8. Repair skills for tools and vehicles
    9. Clothing production and repair ? knitting, wool spinning, general sewing skills
    10. Many more?
• Planning Effort 4: Long-term Food Storage and Production
  1. As the world turns with good seasons and bad, do not let a bad period in your life get worse for lack of food.?? There are professional people in Argentina, Spain, and Greece who are eating out of garbage.? They did not have a plan.?? There so many in expensive ways to build your long-term food pantry.? Having your own garden is always a good thing to do.? But some people living in suburbs or in the city cannot have a garden plot.? But you can buy your food at farmers markets.? Even in big cities, there are often farmers markets.?? Excellent skills to have are home canning and dehydrating foods.
  2. For long-term food storage, there are several vendors who do a great job.?? I am a big fan of Augason Farm, Honeyville, and MRE Depot.? These vendors have given me good service in the past.? I look for periodic coupons and specials, then load up.?? This is a big topic, so I?ll not dive into this deeply now.?? Look for a future post about building your long-term food storage plan.? Long-term food storage should be carefully planned.? You need to plan for how much calories to acquire, what is the right mix of foods, and what will your family actually eat.
  3. ? My recommendation is a single person should have at least 3 months of stored food at home.? For a family, I recommend three years of stored food.? Yikes!? That is a lot of food.? Here is my rational for 3 years.?? You need one year of food to survival a loss of job, major illnesses, or a full-on economic collapse.? You need another year of food to survival through a growing season, until you can?grow, produce, raise, and?preserve your own food.?? The third year is insurance.? When distant family members arrive at your door, will you turn them alway?? Also allows you to give food to needy neighbors and poor families.?? It take a long time to accumulate this amount of stored food.? You need discipline to rotate.
  4. Every survival prepper should have a plan to produce food in a long-term situation, where the food production supply chain is interrupted.? Stored food will only last so long.? Family members and good friends will be knocking on your door looking for a meal.? Expect some stored food to go bad.?? Some of your long-term food production plan may include storing garden seeds, hunting and trapping?if you live in rural areas, fishing, domesticating animals, or bartering with local farmers.
• Planning Effort 5: Alternative Sources of Income
  • If you lost your primary source of income tomorrow, what would you do??? Do you have a fall back or alternative career?? For a long-term survival situation, having a home-based business makes a lot of sense.? Think in terms a trade skills, such as electricians, plumber, auto repair, well drilling, ammo reloading, security consulting, teaching, selling honey from bee hives, and 100?s of other possibilities.? Your plan will need to included gain the skills, tools, and practical experience.? Need to gain these items well ahead of time.? After SHFT or TEOTWAWKI, that is no time to be acquiring the tools you need for a home-based business.
• Planning Effort 6: Security and Defense
  1. You need a plan to confront security situations.? You will need to be ready to handle home invasions, rioting and looters in your neighborhood, organized gangs threatening your neighborhood, etc.?? er SHFT or TEOTWAWKI, every interaction with another person become a security vulnerability.? Starving people lose their moral base.? You can not save the world. but you can save your family and your neighborhood.
  2. Start a neighborhood watch committee.? This is a good thing to do, regardless of your survival plans.
  3. Get to know and be friendly with your neighbors.? You will need to rely on your neighbors to come to your rescue, as they will need to rely on you.
  4. For those neighbors who you can truly trust, consider coordinating the acquisition of common firearms.? In order to share common ammunition, magazines, cleaning supplies, and repair parts, it is best if you and your neighbors standardize on the same type of firearm.? My recommendation is AR-15 or AK-47 as standard defense rifles.
  5. Consider how to improve the defensive position of your home.? If your home have vinyl or wood exteriors, these do not stop bullets.? Your roof is a very vulnerable spot for fires, man-made or naturally occurring.? Can you upgrade your roof to a non-flammable material?? How secure are your doors?? The doors of most homes can be simply kicked open.? How easily would it be to break through the windows or sliding glass doors of your home?? A home?alarm system is great to have, but in a grid-down, no electrical power situation,?alarms cease to work.? Perhaps you might acquire a sturdy watch dog, such as a German Sheppard (my favorite family dog).
  6. Having body armor and night scopes for rifles are high-value, but expensive items.? Once you have all the basics covered, and you can afford it, body armor will improve your survivability in a WROL situation.
• Planning Effort 7: Sanitation
  1. How will your remove and dispose of human wastes?? Or of the wastes of your pets and food animals?
  2. How will you acquire and purify water?
  3. How will you wash clothing?
  4. How will you bath?
  5. How will you keep your homestead clean?
  6. How will you keep a sick person from getting the rest of your family ill?
  7. If a distant relative shows up at your door during a pandemic, what will you do?
• Planning Effort 8: Medical Situations
  1. This is a bigger effort than having a first aid kit.???You need both?supplies and skills.?? Take first aid classes, learn CPR, learn how to suture a wound.? Becoming a volunteer EMR technician will provide invaluable learning.
  2. Do you have any chronic medical issues in your family?
  3. What if you lost access to prescription medicines?
  4. What if your wife or daughter becomes pregnant after TEOTWAWKI?
  5. Can you suture a wound or treat a gun shot?
  6. Have antibiotics in your survival preps?? What if your child gets an ear infection?
  7. Can your neighborhood provision its own medical clinic?
  8. If someone becomes critically ill, are you prepared for the sanitation issues that may result?
  9. How would you provide for family, and defend them, if you became ill?
  10. Are there any addictions in your family needs to be dealt with?? If there is a smoker in your family, they need to quit ? simple as that.?? Alcohol, prescription medicines, and illegal drugs can all be sources of addiction.? During SHTF, addicts die quickly, when sources of addition are no longer available.?? Detoxing from alcoholism requires close medical attention.? Deal with it now, or die sooner.
  11. How will you deal with an infected tooth??Are you capable of pulling a bad tooth in the proper way?
  12. Do you have any legacy medical problems that you keep pushing off to another day. Perhaps you have a hernia or slipped spinal disk.? Or you need a knee or hip replacement.? It is alway best to deal with it now.? During TEOTWIAKI, delayed medical issues become life threatening.
  13. How would you handle a dead body, after TEOTWKAKI?
  14. What if your family acquired a water-born illness or food poisoning?
• Planning Effort? 9: Heat and Energy Sources
  • After bad water, the next major cause of death after TEOTWAWKI will be exposure to cold weather.? How will you plan to heat your home, if there is no electrical power for months or years?? Most modern furnace need electrical power to run its computer and power the fans.?? A power generator is likely to run out of fuel in a few days or weeks.?? You will need a fireplace and/or wood burning stoves, if you live in any part of the country that receives cold winter weather.?? You should have outdoor quality rated sleeping bags for all your family members.? And have lots of extra wool blankets.
  • Without electrical power, expect to back into the 1800?s or early 1900?s style of living.? Tools will revert to hand power.? If you find hand tools at garage sale for cheap, these will be like gold after TEOTWAWKI.
  • A power generator is a good tool.? But it is only good for temporary emergencies.? If you have a power generator, hire a licensed electrician to set up the home transfer switch.? Learn how to properly use a power generator in a safe manner.
  • Consider how you might store large amounts of diesel or propane fuel at your homestead, which store for longer periods than gasoline.? Gasoline has a storage life of about two years, then it turns to gunk and clogs up your motors.
  • Batteries are the key element of living a modern life or not, after TEOTWAWKI.? Having a good supply of rechargeable batteries with solar power rechargers will allow you to listen to the radio, power your ham radio, and continue to use walkie-talkie for local coordination among your survival group.? You will want to consider how to charge batteries, especially for your communicate devices.?? Having batteries will be the difference between living in the 1800?s or 2000?s.
  • Distilling alcohol is a great home-based capability to produce fuel for lighting and vehicles.
  • Make sure your home is well insulated, regardless of geographic location.?? The better insulated your home, the less energy you need for heating and cooling.
  • Do you have well water on your property?? You need alterative mechanism to pump water, when the grid goes down.?? Solar panels with batteries will help.? Setting up solar panels requires skill, so do your research and get expert advice.?? Is your well shallow enough that you could rely on a backup hand pump??? If so, acquire the hand pump now.
• Planning Effort? 10: Communication
  • During a disaster situation, how will you contact your family, when perhaps the phone lines will be down?? Does your family know ahead of time how to react to a disaster situation?
  • Have multiple radios that run on batteries.? I have several crank radios, which charge without new batteries.
  • Consider having a CB radio in every vehicle as backup communication.
  • Carry extra batteries for your mobile phone.? Replace mobile phone batteries on an annual basis.
  • Consider acquiring a ham radio license and equipment.
  • You definitely should have walkie-talkies for each family member.? Do not go cheap here.?? The cheap ones can be expected to fail at any moment.
  • Set up some code words with your family, in case they have been abducted or under duress.?? The phase ?I am just fine honey? can be established to mean, ?There are bad people in the home now?.
  • Talk to your neighbors about what they use to communicate during hunting or hiking.

3.? Preparation?

This is the execution portion of your survival prepping activities.? Once you have all your plans create, which are customized your specific need, now you need to get all the stuff you need for survival.?? You cannot and will not buy everything you need at once.? Do not feel overwhelmed.? It takes years to obtain all the supplies and skills.? You will need to prioritize against your greatest needs and greatest vulnerabilities.

True survival prepping is a lifestyle.? You build your preparation activities into your daily/weekly activities.?? While many items you will acquire are one-time purchases, most survival related supplies need to be refreshed, rotated, maintained, and occasionally upgraded.

Go through all your lists and find your greatest vulnerabilities.? When I talk to my neighbors and friends, I always first recommend that they have a gravity feed water filter, such as the Big Berkey.?? This is the first and most important survival purchases.? Tainted water will be the biggest killer after TEOTWAWKI.

During this phase is when you will start your survival inventory.? Keep a detailed tracking list of everything you acquire for survival prepping.? Track the date, quantity, storage location, purchase price, expiration date, and planned usage for each survival item.? Especially keep track of your long-term stored food, which must be rotated several times each year.??I personnally use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my survival supplies.

Regarding building your food storage plan, start with the basics of what you eat every day.? Everytime you go to the grocery stores, buy extra canned and dried goods of your everyday, regular eating foods.?? Do not focus on frozen foods.? When the power goes out, you have 48 to 72 hours to eat too much frozen food.?? Once you build up 3 to 6 months of regularly used foods in cans, jars, and dried items, then have start a?rotation plan.? Eat the oldest food first.?? Only once you have your 6 months of regular foods build up, then start to look at long-term stored foods.?? With long term stored foods, this can be quite tricky.?? Look for more blog postings, other survival websites, and Youtube for advice on aquiring and storing long term food.

?4. Practice

With your plans and during your journey to prepare, you must practice to acquire, retain, and improve your skills.?? It takes many years to become a good gardener.? So start now while you have time to make mistakes.? It takes a lot of ammo and good mentoring to become proficient with firearms.?? Home canning is a skill?that requires practice.? Acquiring secondary skills to start a home business can take years.?? Gaining first aid and other medical skills takes time and proper education.?? The key item to take away from this section of survival preparation, it is not all about acquiring stuff.?? Having guns and ammo without skills is a recipe for pain, suffering, and death.? What good is having long-term stored food, if you have no cooking skills??? All skills need to be refreshed and practiced.? Knowledge diminishes with time and age.?? I don?t remember how to do calculus formulas, but if you gave me two intense month of practice, I could relearn from my college days.?? Same goes true with survival skills.? Here are some suggestions for gaining practices and retaining skills:

1. Joining a shooting club at your local firing range.? Or take your wife on a date night to the firing range (yes, I know, not very romantic).
2. Take your family on camping and hiking trips.?? If your family can rough it in the woods for a week, they will be ready.
3. Preparing meals from your long-term storage.? Cook all your meals from long-term stored foods for 2 days straight.
4. Going lights out, no electricity, for an entire weekend.?? Do not use the power generate.? Go back to fireplace for heating and cooking, manually hauling water, and using chamber pots.
5. Practice the 30 minute, 60 minute, and 2 hour notice for bug-out.? If you had only 30 minutes to leave, what would you take and would you be ready?
6. Family fire drills are best practiced a couple times per year.
7. Meet monthly with your survival group to discuss your plans and share experiences.
8. Read other survival related blogs grow your knowledge.? My links point to many high-quality survival blogs.

5. Perfecting

Perfecting is first accepting that you are never 100% ready.? Perfecting is about continous improvement.? Prefecting is about contigency planning.?? What if your spouse, God forbid, suddenly died, what would you do?? How would you care for your children??? Perfecting is about repeating the entire cycle of survival preparation.? Re-evaluate your reasons for survival preparations.? Once each year, update your plans and priorities.?? Your life will change as you age and your family evolves.? Your job moves you to a new city.?? Your son leaves for college.? ?Your first grandchild just arrive.?? Your parents enter a retirement home.?? All these good and bad family events require that you update your plans.

Update or create new survival plans, based on what is different and special about you.?? Perhaps you have a business that needs a disaster recovery plan.? Or your jobs requires you to be available to provide critical community services.?? Perhaps you travel often for work, and need a long distance ?return home? kit.?? If you drive long distances, you need to beef up your vehicle?s survival supplies.?? Live in a cold weather regions of the country, you may?need to emphasize home heating and vehicle preparations.?? Live in hot weather regions of the country, you might need to emphasize water storage and air conditioning.? Everyone has different needs and has different risks.

There is a #6 P that I left off the list.? This item is optional, depending your specific religious beliefs.?? The 6th P is Prayer.? I did not make this part of the primary list, because I believe in freedom of religion.? And I believe in freedom from religion.?? If you believe in prayer, incorporate it into your survival preparations.? Prayer provide clarity and focus, during times of stress and uncertainty.?? Prayer is medicine for the soul.? Regardless of your religious beliefs, you must have faith.? You need faith in yourself, that you can accomplish great things.? You need to have faith in your ability to provide for your family during times of disaster and crisis.? You need to have faith in the future, otherwise why would you prepare??? In my opinion, a true survival prepper is an optimist, because that person believes in preparing for the future.?? A true survival prepper does not welcome disaster, but plans to live through a disaster, comfortably.?? Being an optimist is its own reward.?? You can easily become depressed by all the bad economic news, recent disasters, and political?problems in the world.?? The world has always had problems and always will.?? Because you are a survival prepper, you are more likely to have a better future.? That is what survival prepping means to me ? having a better future.??Many of us carry life insurance, car insurance, homeowners insurance, and medical insurance.? Survival prepping is a life assurance insurance policy.? ? I and my entire family has life assurance through my survival planning efforts.?? As I lay my down to sleep tonight, I sleep better knowing that I have worked hard today to provide for my family?s future.? That is my ?why?.?? Now, go forth and be fruitful!

Conclusion

Any expert who says they have the perfect plan is wrong.?? The best survival advice should be about give you the tools to formulate your own plans.?? My plans are far from perfect.? Lord knows, I am far, far from perfect.

Source: http://survival5x5.com/?p=525

Bumbo recall USA Basketball taio cruz taio cruz Winter Olympics 2014 powerball numbers freddie mercury

GM targets $500 million fixed-cost savings, job cuts in Europe

{ttle}

{cptn}","template_name":"ss_thmb_play_ttle","i18n":{"end_of_gallery_header":"End of Gallery","end_of_gallery_next":"View Again"},"metadata":{"pagination":"{firstVisible} - {lastVisible} of {numItems}","ult":{"spaceid":"7663536","sec":""}}},{"id": "hcm-carousel-439002913", "dataManager": C.dmgr, "mediator": C.mdtr, "group_name":"hcm-carousel-439002913", "track_item_selected":1,"tracking":{ "spaceid" : "7663536", "events" : { "click" : { "any" : { "yui-carousel-prev" : { "node" : "a", "data" : {"sec":"HCMOL on article right rail","slk":"prev","itc":"1" }, "bubbles" : true, "test": function(params){ var carousel = params.obj.getCarousel(); var pages = carousel._pages; // if same page, don't beacon if(("_ult_current_page" in carousel) && carousel._ult_current_page==pages.cur) return false; // keep track of current position within this closure carousel._ult_current_page = pages.cur; return true; } }, "yui-carousel-next" : { "node" : "a", "data" : {"sec":"HCMOL on article right rail","slk":"next","itc":"1" }, "bubbles" : true, "test": function(params){ var carousel = params.obj.getCarousel(); var pages = carousel._pages; // no more pages, don't beacon again // if same page, don't beacon if(("_ult_current_page" in carousel) && carousel._ult_current_page==pages.cur) return false; // keep track of current position within this closure carousel._ult_current_page = pages.cur; return true; } } } } } } })); }); Y.later(10, this, function() {(function() { try{ if (Math.floor(Math.random()*10) == 1) { var loc = window.location, decoded = decodeURI(loc.pathname), encoded = encodeURI(decoded), uri = loc.protocol + "//" + loc.host + encoded + ((loc.search.length > 0) ? loc.search + '&' : '?') + "_cacheable=1", xmlhttp; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); else xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); xmlhttp.open("GET",uri,true); xmlhttp.send(); } }catch(e){} })(); }); Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.namespace("Media").ywaSettings = '"projectId": "10001256862979", "documentName": "", "documentGroup": "", "ywaColo" : "vscale3", "spaceId" : "7663536" ,"customFields" : { "12" : "classic", "13" : "story" }'; Y.Media.YWA.init(Y.namespace("Media").ywaSettings); }); Y.later(10, this, function() {if(document.onclick===YAHOO.Media.PreventDefaultHandler.newClick){document.onclick=YAHOO.Media.PreventDefaultHandler.oldClick;} }); }); });

Barcelona Chocolate Tours | Cross Pollinate

by Amy Knauff

This is probably going to sound crazy (or obnoxious), but I?m currently living in a Central American country with a tropical climate and? I miss autumn! I can just picture readers out there glaring mental daggers at me, or getting ready to submit this post to whitewhine.com. Don?t get me wrong, having beach weather almost year-round is pretty awesome. But autumn has been my favorite season my whole life, so when I see friends posting pictures on Facebook of gorgeous red-gold-orange-yellow trees, sidewalks filled with satisfyingly crunchy leaves, and trips with their kids to pumpkin patches or apple orchards, I can?t help getting a little nostalgic for my old East Coast autumns.

And the food! Don?t get me started on the food I?m missing? those hearty comfort foods that can only be truly enjoyed and appreciated when it?s chilly outside. The ham stews and pumpkin pies of my childhood. And from my years living in Italy, roasted chestnuts, pasta with funghi porcini, truffles. And one of my favorite cool-weather, warm-you-up treats? Hot chocolate!

Actually, I find chocolate in general much more satisfying when in cool weather. As I sit here in the tropics sweating and being bitten by mosquitos, I don?t really crave melty, messy, super-sweet chocolate (try a refreshing fresh-squeezed lemonade instead). But oh, when it?s gray and bitter outside, nothing gets those endorphins moving like a gorgeous dark chocolate truffle.

My European friends tell me that the cool weather has finally hit there. It?s nearly November, summer is well and done by now, and it?s time to really embrace the fall and everything that comes with it. If you?re visiting Barcelona around this time, I cannot emphasize enough that you should not miss all the delicious chocolatey treats you?ll find around the city.

I always knew that chocolate con churros was famous in Barcelona ? and on my first visit I made sure to try the thick, gooey hot chocolate accompanied by fried churros sprinkled in sugar. It was the perfect rainy December afternoon merinda. (It?s also a favorite post-discoteca snack in the wee hours of the morning among young Spaniards, much like a trip to a 24-hour diner in the US, or a cappuccino and freshly baked cornetto in Italy.)

But it wasn?t until I took Context Travel?s ?City of Chocolate? tour last time I was there (oh god! a whole tour about CHOCOLATE!) that I realized the importance of chocolate to Barcelona. When thinking about chocolate in Europe, Switzerland or Belgium probably pops into your mind: but it turns out that Spain was actually the first place that chocolate arrived in the Old World, when Columbus brought back unprocessed cacao beans with him into the port of Barcelona. In fact, after taking the chocolate tour, I suddenly started seeing chocolate shops and granjas (caf?s that specialize in chocolate and sweets) all over the place when I hadn?t even noticed them before.

The ?City of Chocolate? tour is led by Esther, a native Catalana with perfect English, who met us near the port and led us around the city for about 3 hours, ending in the Eixample neighborhood just north of the Old City. Context keeps their tours small (my group only had 5 people), which means you can get to know each other and the guide during the tour, easily ask questions, and the guide can personalize the tour a bit based on what the group seems to be interested in.

During the 3 hours Esther mixed a good amount of chocolate history and culture in Barcelona with interesting tidbits about the city, commenting on things as we walked, both chocolate-related and non-. I learned odds and ends that I wouldn?t have from a guidebook, like:

-the Columbus statue in the port is meant to be pointing to the New World, but it?s actually pointing in the wrong direction

-the bronze plaques you see on the ground in front of some stores signify that it?s an historic food shop

-thick, bitter hot chocolate drinks were used to keep sailors energetic, full, and warm during long trips (without weighing the ships down with too much food)

-the street performers on Las Ramblas actually have to audition and get permits to perform there

But of course the most fun part of the tour is the tasting. Esther brought us to Granja Dulcinea, one of the oldest granjas in the city, where we sat down and tried hot chocolate with melindros (a ladyfinger-like cookie) as well as a bottled cold chocolate drink called Cacaolat (which kind of looks like a Yoo-Hoo? remember those?).

We stopped in three chocolate shops later on in the tour ? first at one of the oldest ones of the city (with one of those historic plaques in front), Fargas, where we saw a piece of old-fashioned chocolate-processing machinery and lots of different kinds of classic chocolate bonbons. Esther picked out several different flavors for each of us to taste-test as we walked along to our next tour stop. The second tasting stop was at a sweets store/caf? on Las Ramblas, filled with interesting, trendier chocolate designs and combinations, where we tried chocolate-covered mint leaves and bright red chocolate lips. Our final stop at the end of the tour was a modern, elegant shop filled with gorgeous, perfectly arranged chocolate bonbons of all different types, both classic flavors and unusual ones (ginger, Caribbean lime, strawberry-champagne, etc). Everybody on my tour was so chocolated-out by then that we all opted to take our chocolates away to have later, once we?d come down from the sugar high.

The ?City of Chocolate? tour is a must-do for chocolate lovers like me. (By the way, there?s also a chocolate museum in Barcelona ? not included on the tour ? that looks like it?d be worth a visit: www.museuxocolata.cat) If you?re not a chocolate fanatic, Context Travel offers plenty of other tours you can choose from ? on food, art, architecture, history, and even tours geared towards kids ? in Barcelona and in 15 other European cities, 4 US cities, and 2 Asian cities. Visit their website www.contexttravel.com for details.

Source: http://www.cross-pollinate.com/blog/1541/barcelona-chocolate-tours/

old school nick swisher jaco san jose sharks humber perfect game ufc 145 fight card ufc145

Nokia Lumia 920 ships first to Rogers, makes Canadians the world's vanguards for $100 (update: still very exclusive)

What, did you think Americans or Europeans would get the first crack at the Lumia 920? Continuing a recent pattern of Canadians getting devices first, Rogers has confirmed that some of its stores will have Nokia's flagship Windows Phone 8 hardware in stock on October 30th -- that's almost immediately, folks. If you call and find you're near one of the choice few shops carrying the 920, it will cost you either $100 Canadian on a lengthy 3-year contract or $550 outright to walk away with Microsoft's poster child. Nearly the only drawbacks to being a pioneer are the black-only color choice (sorry, still no patriotic red) and Rogers' current lock on the initial launch, although Microsoft's own mention of the Lumia coming to Rogers "and others" gives us hope that Bell and Telus will follow soon. It's a small price to pay for making even the Finns slightly jealous.

Update: Surprise -- Rogers caught the Microsoft page for itself and says the hint of non-exclusivity was a mistake that's being corrected. We don't know if the carrier has a permanent exclusive, but we'd tentatively go shopping for a Samsung ATIV S on Telus if you're looking for a high-end Windows Phone on another Canadian network.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia

Nokia Lumia 920 ships first to Rogers, makes Canadians the world's vanguards for $100 (update: still very exclusive) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  MobileSyrup, Rogers RedBoard  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/WKm7ptdpb1k/

dexter dexter lindsay lohan peanut butter recall jason aldean patriots Brigitte Nielsen

Fantasy/Modern Monsters Rp

RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, and support from people like you. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

? RolePlayGateway, LLC | with the support of LocalSense

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/FCh6yQvPtkM/viewtopic.php

Lena Dunham peyton manning sf giants gold rush gold rush windows 8 Emanuel Steward

At 6 months, development of children with autism like those without

Public release date: 30-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Mancoll
smancoll@srcd.org
202-289-7905
Society for Research in Child Development

The development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is much like that of children without ASD at 6 months of age, but differs afterwards. That's the main finding of the largest prospective, longitudinal study to date comparing children with early and later diagnosis of ASD with children without ASD. The study appears in the journal Child Development and has implications for clinical work, public health, and policy.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Aging Brain Center at the Institute for Aging Research and Hebrew SeniorLife at Harvard Medical School.

The study sought to learn more about the patterns of development during the first three years of life in children with and without ASD to better understand how ASD can be detected as early as possible. It is the first prospective study to examine early-onset ASD (by 14 months) and later-onset ASD (after 14 months) over the first three years, pinpointing where development looks the same and where it diverges.

ASD comprises a group of disorders of brain development that affects about 1 in 88 American children.

Researchers looked at 235 primarily White children with and without an older sibling with autism, testing them at regular intervals from ages 6 to 36 months. Using standardized and play-based assessments, they tested children's fine motor skills, understanding of spoken language, and spoken language production skills. They also measured how often the children shared their emotions and initiated communication with others.

The study looked at early development across three groups: children without ASD, children with ASD who were identified by 14 months, and children with ASD identified after 14 months. At 6 months, development within the early- and later-identified ASD groups was comparable to each other and to the non-ASD group. At 14 and 18 months, the early-identified ASD group performed below the later-identified ASD group in many aspects of development. By 24 to 36 months, the two groups showed similar levels of development.

"Results show that ASD has a preclinical phase when detecting it may be difficult," explains Rebecca Landa, director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders and the study's lead author. "In some children with ASD, early signs of developmental disruption may not be ASD-specific.

"Routinely administering general developmental screeners, such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, should begin in infancy, complemented by ASD-specific screeners by 14 months," suggests Landa. "Screening should be repeated through early childhood. If concerning signs of delay associated with ASD are observed in a child who scores normally on standardized tests, further assessment is warranted."

###

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 30-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Mancoll
smancoll@srcd.org
202-289-7905
Society for Research in Child Development

The development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is much like that of children without ASD at 6 months of age, but differs afterwards. That's the main finding of the largest prospective, longitudinal study to date comparing children with early and later diagnosis of ASD with children without ASD. The study appears in the journal Child Development and has implications for clinical work, public health, and policy.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Aging Brain Center at the Institute for Aging Research and Hebrew SeniorLife at Harvard Medical School.

The study sought to learn more about the patterns of development during the first three years of life in children with and without ASD to better understand how ASD can be detected as early as possible. It is the first prospective study to examine early-onset ASD (by 14 months) and later-onset ASD (after 14 months) over the first three years, pinpointing where development looks the same and where it diverges.

ASD comprises a group of disorders of brain development that affects about 1 in 88 American children.

Researchers looked at 235 primarily White children with and without an older sibling with autism, testing them at regular intervals from ages 6 to 36 months. Using standardized and play-based assessments, they tested children's fine motor skills, understanding of spoken language, and spoken language production skills. They also measured how often the children shared their emotions and initiated communication with others.

The study looked at early development across three groups: children without ASD, children with ASD who were identified by 14 months, and children with ASD identified after 14 months. At 6 months, development within the early- and later-identified ASD groups was comparable to each other and to the non-ASD group. At 14 and 18 months, the early-identified ASD group performed below the later-identified ASD group in many aspects of development. By 24 to 36 months, the two groups showed similar levels of development.

"Results show that ASD has a preclinical phase when detecting it may be difficult," explains Rebecca Landa, director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders and the study's lead author. "In some children with ASD, early signs of developmental disruption may not be ASD-specific.

"Routinely administering general developmental screeners, such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, should begin in infancy, complemented by ASD-specific screeners by 14 months," suggests Landa. "Screening should be repeated through early childhood. If concerning signs of delay associated with ASD are observed in a child who scores normally on standardized tests, further assessment is warranted."

###

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/sfri-a6m102312.php

carlos beltran air jordan 11 concord unemployment extension the thin man republic wireless space ball drops on namibia matt barkley

Sandy complicates final stretch of tense U.S. presidential race (reuters)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/259228005?client_source=feed&format=rss

pierre garcon brown recluse spider wiz khalifa taylor allderdice eddie royal iditarod nfl free agents 2012 encyclopedia brittanica

Mechanism found for destruction of key allergy-inducing complexes, researchers say

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2012) ? Researchers have learned how a human-made molecule destroys complexes that induce allergic responses -- a discovery that could lead to the development of highly potent, rapidly acting interventions for a host of acute allergic reactions.

The study, published online Oct. 28 in Nature, was led by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Bern, Switzerland.

The new inhibitor disarms IgE antibodies, pivotal players in acute allergies, by detaching the antibody from its partner in crime, a molecule called FcR. (Other mechanisms lead to slower-developing allergic reactions.)

"It would be an incredible intervention if you could rapidly disconnect IgE antibodies in the midst of an acute allergic response," said Ted Jardetzky, PhD, professor of structural biology and senior investigator for the study. It turns out the inhibitor used by the team does just that.

A myriad of allergens, ranging from ragweed pollen to bee venom to peanuts, can set off IgE antibodies, resulting in allergic reactions within seconds. The new inhibitor destroys the complex that tethers IgE to the cells responsible for the reaction, called mast cells. Severing this connection would be the holy grail of IgE-targeted allergy treatment.

The first time a potential allergen enters the body, some people respond by making allergen-specific IgE antibodies. These antibodies stick around long after the initial allergen is cleared from the body. Most of the antibodies get snagged by IgE-specific receptors called FcRs, which are exposed on the surface of mast cells. The mast cells are then primed to react the next time a person encounters the allergen.

Dissociation of this IgE-FcR interaction is a sought-after goal of allergy treatment for a good reason: IgE-coated mast cells are grenades of histamine, and re-encountering the allergen is equivalent to pulling out the clip. When an allergen makes a return visit, it binds to the pre-loaded IgE on the mast cell surface, triggering the release of inflammatory mediators -- including histamine -- that promote the allergic response. As allergy sufferers are well aware, these nasty reactions can occur within a matter of seconds. In a severe allergic response, sudden anaphylactic shock and death can be the result.

The key to actively disabling the allergic response lies in the separation of IgE from the FcRs on the surface of mast cells. But separating these dangerous couples is a tall order because their interaction is extremely stable -- sensitizing the mast cells for weeks. Currently available treatment using omalizumab (an anti-IgE antibody sold under the trade name Xolair) can block new interactions between IgE and FcR, but it is not designed to pry the molecules apart once they've formed a bond on the surface of a mast cell. So Xolair can dampen the allergic response, but as stated on the product's website: "Xolair is not a rescue medicine and should not be used to treat sudden asthma attacks."

While simply blocking IgE binding is helpful for some allergy sufferers, when it comes to the rapid quenching of an acute allergic response, "what you'd really like to do is get rid of it," said Jardetzky. Along with scientists at the University of Bern, his team discovered that an engineered protein inhibitor called DARPin E2-79 stripped IgE from the mast cell receptor. Using this inhibitor, "an interaction that normally lasts for hours or days in terms of its stability is stripped off in a matter of seconds," said Jardetzky.

DARPin E2-79 is one of a family of engineered inhibitors containing protein-binding regions called ankryin repeats. While Jardetzky's group was using structural biology and biophysical approaches to probe the weak spots in the IgE-FcR interaction, scientists at the University of Bern were tinkering with DARPins that dampened IgE's disastrous effects. The collaboration of the two groups resulted in the characterization of DARPin E2-79, an inhibitor that goes beyond mere blockade to actively disassemble the IgE-FcR power couple.

Jardetzky's group solved E2-79'S structure and used this information to model its interaction with the IgE-FcR pair. Then, using sensitive biochemical techniques that detect step-by-step binding interactions between molecules, the teams were able to tease out the mechanism that the inhibitor uses to break the IgE-FcR bond.

The researchers found that E2-79 hastens the separation of the two molecules by taking advantage of a moment of weakness in the relationship between IgE and FcR. IgE maintains its interaction with FcR using two contact points, and occasionally one of these points releases while the other one keeps the pair together. Normally this brief looseness isn't enough to separate the couple, but E2-79 can swoop into the small space between them, effectively driving the couple apart.

While E2-79 is the first molecule to display these IgE stripping characteristics, Jardetzky hopes that this work will stimulate the discovery of smaller compounds capable of working even more efficiently. Drug developers generally expect large macromolecules like E2-79 to be less potent than small molecule inhibitors and unlikely to be able to disrupt complexes, so the fact that E2-79 worked so well was a surprise. Small molecules are more amenable to oral administration, and are easier and cheaper to manufacture than large macromolecules. "Now we're in the hunt for a small molecule that could have this kind of activity. That would be the real hit," said Jardetzky.

The discovery of E2-79's mechanism of IgE inhibition could lead to rapid discoveries from other labs as well. Now that scientists know what mechanism to look for, they may be inspired to dig back through freezers full of IgE inhibitors that were identified years ago, said Jardetzky. In the light of techniques described in this study, perhaps once-neglected inhibitors will show new promise in the treatment of allergic disease.

The study's primary authorship was shared between Beomkyu Kim, PhD, a Stanford graduate student, and Alexander Eggel, PhD, at the University of Bern. The other Stanford co-author is research assistant Svetlana Tarchevskaya.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Asthma Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. The original article was written by Jessica Shugart.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Beomkyu Kim, Alexander Eggel, Svetlana S. Tarchevskaya, Monique Vogel, Heino Prinz, Theodore S. Jardetzky. Accelerated disassembly of IgE?receptor complexes by a disruptive macromolecular inhibitor. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature11546

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/SyVXKhtXvlw/121028142316.htm

Prince Harry naked Prince Harry Vegas powerball Melky Cabrera Mayim Bialik Rich Kids of Instagram felix hernandez

Madonna booed after touting Obama in La. Concert

FILE - In this Aug. 9, 2012 photo, Madonna performs during her concert in St. Petersburg, Russia. Madonna angered some New Orleans fans when she turned her concert there into an opportunity to push a political agenda. The Material Girl asked midway through Saturday night's performance: ?Who's registered to vote?? She added: ?I don't care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.? Drawing boos in touting Obama over Republican Mitt Romney, Madonna followed: ?Seriously, I don't care who you vote for ... Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote.? Madonna is often outspoken. Some Colorado fans, mindful of a mass shooting there, complained she used a fake gun to shoot a masked gunman in a recent concert act in Denver. A Madonna concert in Paris in July drew ire for a video showing a swastika on a politician's forehead. (AP Photo/ Alexander Demianchuk, Pool)

FILE - In this Aug. 9, 2012 photo, Madonna performs during her concert in St. Petersburg, Russia. Madonna angered some New Orleans fans when she turned her concert there into an opportunity to push a political agenda. The Material Girl asked midway through Saturday night's performance: ?Who's registered to vote?? She added: ?I don't care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.? Drawing boos in touting Obama over Republican Mitt Romney, Madonna followed: ?Seriously, I don't care who you vote for ... Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote.? Madonna is often outspoken. Some Colorado fans, mindful of a mass shooting there, complained she used a fake gun to shoot a masked gunman in a recent concert act in Denver. A Madonna concert in Paris in July drew ire for a video showing a swastika on a politician's forehead. (AP Photo/ Alexander Demianchuk, Pool)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Madonna drew boos and triggered a walkout by several concertgoers after she touted President Barack Obama on her "MDNA Tour" in New Orleans.

The Material Girl asked during Saturday night's performance: "Who's registered to vote?" She added: "I don't care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama." Drawing boos in touting Obama over Republican Mitt Romney, Madonna followed: "Seriously, I don't care who you vote for ... Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote."

Madonna is often outspoken. Some Colorado fans, mindful of a mass shooting there, complained she used a fake gun to shoot a masked gunman in a recent concert act in Denver. A Madonna concert in Paris in July drew ire when a video showed a swastika on a politician's forehead.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-10-28-People-Madonna/id-b58d220615e74c19a661f67177876e0c

country music awards 2012 wrestlemania 28 results earl scruggs game of thrones game of thrones season 2 wrestlemania 28 dierks bentley

Real Estate Buyer Agents Network | Accredited Buyers Agents - One ...

Accredited Buyers Agency Niche Site with Free FSBO Classifieds Announced

October 27, 2012 in 1 - The roar of all of us!, Featured, Websites

Announcing our latest UpLog.org National Niche ?Clone?

OCT

2012

by Israel Rothman 805-827-2450

Their post show up two places, on their?townstreethome.com/town name SEO blog?and in the activity feed.? By combining our content and blogging together we become our own lead generator ? one exclusive buyers agent per town!? Because?Oregon Coast Group?is already on page one for Buyer?s Agent (2 words), and oregonchoicegroup.com is there, and you will rank on page one for?(your town name) buyers agent?on Google!

YouTube videos are easily embedded:

Mary Anne

I am available by appointment 7 days a week including holidays and evenings to make the most of your home search visits. Call today to get started. 541-435-0000.

Become a buyers agent with a desk right here in the sky at /youtrtownname ? put your bullet on our map of buyers agents!
$975 per year is all the advertising you will ever need!

Mary Anne ? Principal Broker

Miss Mary Anne

I am available by appointment 7 days a week including holidays and evenings to make the most of your home search visits. Call today to get started. 541-435-0000.

Become a buyers agent with a desk right here in the sky at /youtrtownname ? put your bullet on our map of buyers agents! $975 per year is all the advertising you will ever need!

?

Source: http://uplog.org/2012/10/27/accredited-buyers-agency-niche-site-with-free-fsbo-classifieds-announced/

Savages Home Run Derby 2012 San Diego fireworks steve nash july 4th higgs boson Malware Monday

How To Proceed For Initially Time Shoppers - Home Improvement ...

Decorating your home without paying a great deal of funds does not should be daunting. In truth, you?ll find now loads of methods for you to alter the aesthetics of one?s house without the necessity to invest excessive and between the factors that you can perform, setting up new blinds for your home windows or doors is usually a superior solution. However, in advance of you even look at putting in them, ensure that you are aware of the place to find the ideal promotions of this unique property advancement treatment method.

On the subject of looking for great wooden blinds, you do not ought to strike the closest residence enhancement store in your area just nonetheless. The problem with acquiring from home improvement stores is you can not discover the right wooden blinds that will complement your home windows. And if they are doing, they might not have sufficient inventories for all of your current home windows.

Having reported this, it truly is significant which you buy wood blinds from on the net manufacturers. Lately, there are various on the internet suppliers of wood blinds where you could get this distinct kind of window procedure and also the wonderful thing about acquiring them is the fact you should have loads of choices to choose from. Thus reported, you can expect to have the ability to seek out the ideal blinds which will totally suit your home windows or doors.

Even so, in advance of you purchase your wood blinds, it can be essential that you only transact with a reputable provider. However, there are plenty of bogus suppliers that conduct their firms on-line over a fly-by-night operation. To be able to find out no matter whether a selected supplier is legitimate or not, you could go through earlier consumer critiques and you is going to be capable of finding out whether a specific supplier can supply or not.

After you stop by sites of wooden blinds suppliers, it really is critical that you just move forward right to their gallery? so that you could see if they sell a particular blind that you just want on your property. Once you check out web sites, additionally it is important to have a look at the look of the website. In most cases, a very good web site is usually equated to being a respectable small business or else why would they supplierinvest in a fantastic web page if not to attract continuous shoppers.?

Searching for on the web merchants also have to have you to check their client help. It really is essential that a certain supplier has a 24/7 consumer support so that you could elevate your whole issues regarding their products.? This will likely assist you to invest in just the finest blinds which you can use to your windows as well as doorways.

?

When on the lookout for roller blinds Sydney you?ll find a variety of outdoor awnings Sydney.

Source: http://www.niutranslations.com/buying-picket-blinds-on-line-how-to-proceed-for-initially-time-shoppers.html

acc tournament big ten tournament big east tournament 2012 solar storm solar flares spanx aurora borealis

Why don't these voters decide? Some like to mull

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Who are these people who still can't make up their minds? They're undecided voters like Kelly Cox, who spends his days repairing the big rigs that haul central California's walnuts, grapes, milk and more across America.

He doesn't put much faith in either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. But he figures he's got plenty of time ? a little more than a week ? to settle on one of them before Nov. 6. And he definitely does plan to vote.

"I'll do some online research," said Cox, co-owner of a Delhi, Calif., truck repair shop. "I don't have time to watch presidential debates because it's a lot of garbage anyway. They're not asking the questions that the people want to hear."

About 5 percent of Americans with solid plans to vote have yet to pick their presidential candidate, according to a new AP-GfK poll. When you add in those who lean only tentatively toward their choice or won't declare a favorite, about 16 percent of likely voters look ripe for persuasion. That's about the same as a month ago.

In a super-tight race, undecided voters have taken on almost mythic stature. Their questions at the town hall-style debate are parsed. Campaign techies wade through data to find them. The president dialed up 9,000 of them for an Air Force One conference call as he flew to Los Angeles this week.

But the undecided also endure Twitter sniping and late-night TV ribbing. They're derided as uninformed nincompoops who don't merit the power they wield. As David Letterman put it: "You're idiots! Make up your mind!"

Do these wafflers, ruminators and procrastinators deserve coddling ? or scorn? Are they just misunderstood?

A look at who they are and what they're waiting for:

___

THEY'RE NOT BLANK SLATES

Two-thirds of persuadable voters have an established party preference, the AP-GfK poll shows. They're roughly divided between those who call themselves Democrats or lean that way and those who are Republicans or lean to that side.

So why not just plan to vote with their party?

"They are really a little bit torn," said Lynn Vavreck, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. "They may have some issue positions that are counter to their party, or they're not sure how they stand on some things."

Nancy Hoang, a University of Minnesota freshman studying mathematics, considers herself a fiscal conservative and leans Republican. Yet she vacillated because she agrees with the Democrats' support for gay marriage and opposition to voter ID laws.

"I could have gone either way," said Hoang, 18. Not until after the final debate Monday did she decide: Her first-ever presidential vote will go to Romney.

Most of these undecided voters will come home to their favored party by Election Day, predicts Vavreck, who studies an ongoing survey of registered voters as well as trends from past elections.

___

STILL, A GOOD CHUNK ARE INDEPENDENTS

About 30 percent of persuadable voters say they're political independents. That's three times the presence of independents ? just 8 percent ? among likely voters who have decided who they'll vote for, according to the AP-GfK poll.

In an increasingly polarized America, they stand out. Robert Dohrenburg, a small business owner in McAllen, Texas, voted for Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, but not for Bush's son, George W. He backed Obama in 2008, then had second thoughts this year.

Dohrenburg, 56, watched all three presidential debates before making up his mind to stick with Obama, in part because Romney "says one thing today and another thing tomorrow."

He wishes Ron Paul had won the Republican nomination.

"I'm a very strong independent," he said. "I choose the best candidate."

___

ARE THEY EVEN PAYING ATTENTION?

Professors have a euphemism: low-information voters. The bulk of registered voters who are still undecided fall into that group, researchers say.

"They're basically not that interested in politics," Vavreck said. "They pay less attention to news in general."

Her image of the typical undecided American, based on her research: "the single mom with a couple of kids who just doesn't have time to be attuned to politics but feels like it's her civic duty to vote, and may or may not show up at the polls."

Yet the still-deciding who are committed to voting don't see themselves as out of touch.

In the AP-GfK poll, 85 percent of the persuadables said they have a "great deal" or "quite a bit" of interest in following the campaign, almost as high as among other likely voters.

Rita Kirk, a communications professor at Southern Methodist University, seeks out these involved-but-undecided voters in swing counties of states with close presidential contests. She gathered the groups that recorded their live reactions on CNN during the debates. They are following the race, she insists.

"They know that they're in a county that's going to make a difference," Kirk said. "They're wanting to make a good choice, and they kind of feel the weight and gravitas of that."

___

SO WHAT DO THEY THINK?

They're of two minds.

Persuadable voters are more likely to trust Romney to do a better job handling the economy and the federal budget deficit, the AP-GfK poll shows. And they're about as comfortable with Romney as they are with Obama on foreign policy.

They are more likely to say Obama has a clear vision for the future, however. They tend to say he understands the problems of people like them better than Romney does. They also give Obama a broad advantage on making the right decision on women's issues.

They're worried about the future.

Only 3 in 10 persuadable voters think the economy will improve in the coming year, compared with 6 in 10 decided voters.

"I'm not sure that either candidate is going to be able to correct the issues," said Cox, 43, who watched California's Central Valley suffer through recession and drought. "I'd like to get the jobs back in the United States. I'd like to quit owing China everything. Put the farmers back to work."

___

WHAT'S TAKING THEM SO LONG?

Some see virtue in refusing to rush.

Victoria Cook, a 27-year-old psychology student at Arapahoe Community College near Denver, leans toward Obama. But she stood in line to see Romney and Ryan at a rally with rocker Kid Rock this week.

"I don't want it to get to the point where you just write off the other guys right away," Cook said as she waited. "So I'll listen to what they have to say."

Professor Kirk said many undecided voters are so annoyed by months of TV commercials and punditry and news coverage that they just tune it all out until Election Day nears.

"They want to pay attention at the time they're ready to make a choice," she said. "It's like someone buying a car. That's when they start looking at the consumer magazines and all the attributes and how many airbags do the different models have. Not months in advance."

___

WILL THEY DECIDE THIS ELECTION?

It's possible.

"That small group of people can make a difference if the vast majority of them swing in one direction," said Rutgers University political science Professor Richard Lau, who studies how voters decide.

But that would be unusual. Late deciders tend to be divided, not vote as a block ? unless they are swept up in a bigger wave, Lau said. In 1980, for example, October polls showed President Jimmy Carter in a tight race with Ronald Reagan.

"It was very close up until the last few days and somehow everybody just decided, 'Enough. We're going to change courses here,'" Lau said. "Usually what happens is that the independent voters change in the direction that somehow the nature of the times is already going."

Still, an advantage among procrastinators could swing the race in a hotly contested state.

In the last two presidential elections, about 1 in 10 voters surveyed as they left polling places said they'd settled on their candidate within the previous week. About 5 percent decided on Election Day.

No word on how many made up their minds while standing in the voting booth.

___

Associated Press News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius in Washington and Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Denver contributed to this report.

___

Follow Connie Cass on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/ConnieCass

Follow Jennifer Agiesta on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/JennAgiesta

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-dont-voters-decide-mull-185416672--election.html

zimmerman charged bonobos charles manson al sharpton actuary elon musk fox mole

Telus plans LG Optimus G launch on November 13th, other carriers remain shy

LG committed to launching its mostly superb Optimus G to the three major carriers in Canada sometime in November. Just which day the phone would arrive was left a mystery, though, even when Rogers started taking pre-orders. It's taking another provider to sort things out: Telus has gone on the record with plans to carry the quad-core smartphone starting November 13th, right at the height of what could be a busy month. That's all that the future-is-friendly network can say for now, although Rogers may have provided the remaining piece of the puzzle when it gave out $130 contract and $600 outright prices. We have a hunch Telus wouldn't want to be the exception to the rule.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG

Telus plans LG Optimus G launch on November 13th, other carriers remain shy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 05:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Android Central  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/NnaFhZ-P7uY/

Lane Goodwin Romnesia eminem eminem Samantha Steele cnn yankees