Bankruptcy Not a Panacea for CA Pension Problems ? California ...

Municipal bonds have long been among the safest investments, but a coming wave of municipal bankruptcies in California ? and the disturbing way one of those cities is stiffing its bondholders ? could change perceptions about the wisdom of lending money to cities.

The struggling port city of Stockton has declared bankruptcy after a spending spree where officials granted city workers an absurdly generous lifetime medical care benefit, dramatically increased pensions and floated debt to finance dubious downtown redevelopment projects.

When the city couldn?t make its pension payments in 2007, it borrowed $125 million ? by selling bonds ? to cover the mess it created by its pension increases. Now the city government is as upside-down as many Stockton homeowners, and officials are blaming the foreclosure crisis, conveniently neglecting that the current reduction in property tax revenue followed years of dramatic revenue increases.

Now, Stockton officials?want to stiff Assured Guaranty, a Bermuda-based bond insurance company, for about $103 million. The company ? noting that Stockton is going under in part because it can?t make its pension payments to the California Public Employees Retirement System ? argued in a statement, ?If Stockton is disappointed with CalPERS? investment performance, it should be taking that up with CalPERS rather than reneging on the city?s obligation to holders of the pension bonds.?

Stockton City Manager Bob Deis accused Assured Guaranty of ?bad faith? and ?whining? even as he whined that Assured Guaranty doesn?t care about anarchy in Stockton?s streets, as the city?s crime rate soars following policing cutbacks.

But it?s not the fault of lenders that city officials were so unconcerned about their residents that public safety concerns were placed behind the demands of wealthy city pensioners. Like many cities in this state, Stockton?s infrastructure is crumbling as government becomes more a benefit provider to current and retired city employees.

Deis sounds like a wastrel who spent 10 years running up debt on luxurious living, then gets mad at his bank for wanting to get paid back: ?Hey, you don?t care that I can?t feed my kids!?

CalPERS arrogance

Of course, it?s hard to top the arrogance of?CalPERS, which has responded to Assured Guaranty?s complaints by insisting that ?obligations owed to the public workers of the city have priority? over creditors such as Assured Guaranty. CalPERS also insists the media is ?hyping? the idea that pension promises have anything to do with cities going belly-up. CalPERS, which in 1999 advocated retroactive pension increases based on assumed rates of investment returns that essentially required the Dow Jones industrial average to reach 25,000 by 2009, is backed by taxpayers whether its projections are right or wrong.

As cities run out of money, and pension obligations grow, we can expect to see more local officials faced with the choice of protecting city workers or taxpayers. It?s not hard to understand why the politically powerful CalPERS is so confident that the demands of public employees always come first.

As the Stockton Record reported recently, CalPERS ?dwarfs all other creditors with a $245 million liability in the city over the next decade. Yet National Public Finance Guarantee Corp., an insurer of several Stockton bonds, contends in court papers that CalPERS is conspicuously missing from the list of those Stockton engaged in pre-bankruptcy negotiations.?

That insurer argues persuasively that Stockton never had any intention to seek reduced payments from CalPERS. Typically in bankruptcies, the debtor can?t pay everyone what?s owed, so then the creditors fight it out. Here, it seems like city officials cherry-picked which creditors to stiff, which certainly backs the insurer?s contention that Stockton officials have showed bias, a distortion of the bankruptcy process.

While the municipal bond markets aren?t yet spooked, they do have reason for concern, given that pension debts are growing, and there are few other places to trim if public employee retirement plans are off the table.

SEC warning

Even the feds are sounding some warning bells. As Bloomberg reported last month, ?The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it plans to seek power to force better disclosures from states and cities participating in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market.? The SEC should add this disclosure: Your retirement investments will always lose out to public employee pension demands.

Those of us who have viewed Chapter 9 bankruptcy as a useful option to help troubled cities get their books in order have miscalculated.

Public employee unions and their allies in the courts and the retirement systems are so powerful that even during dire financial circumstances, their selfish demands trump everything else. Although bankruptcy can be a valuable tool, as Orange County?s 1994 bankruptcy made clear, the process is no panacea for incorrigibly wasteful, union-controlled local governments.

The crisis is not going away, despite CalPERS? insistence otherwise.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, for instance, said this week that the state?s largest city faces ?disaster? if officials there don?t fix L.A.?s underfunded pension system.

We should closely watch the unfolding proceedings in Bankruptcy court, as Stockton goes through this process. But a more significant battle is being fought in San Jose, as courts determine whether voters? support for a June ballot measure that cuts pensions for existing city workers is legal. The key is pensions for current workers, given that simply cutting retirement benefits only for new hires will not defuse the pension-debt time bomb.

If the courts side with reformers, there may be hope for rolling back pension costs and saving city services. If not, Californians better get ready for even higher taxes and fewer municipal services, given that there are precious few options left. And without a reform path that touches pensions for existing workers, investors might want to rethink the long-term safety of their municipal bond holdings, which will become an even bigger target.

(Steven Greenhut is vice president of journalism at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.?Originally posted on CalWatchdog.)

Source: http://www.capoliticalreview.com/top-stories/bankruptcy-not-a-panacea-for-ca-pension-problems/

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Doctors edge closer to identifying heart risks | FOX6Now.com - WITI

(CNN) ? More than 1 million people in the United States will have a heart attack this year. Most will occur in people with no symptoms.

With better prediction methods for cardiovascular disease, many of those could be prevented.

Two new studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association explore methods for helping doctors identify patients who are at greatest risk for heart problems. They are not definitive, and still point to unanswered questions, but represent a continued fight against the most common killer in the United States.

One new study found that coronary artery calcium was about six times better at predicting cardiovascular risk than a family history of coronary heart disease.

The heart?s arteries can develop a substance called plaque in their walls. Cholesterol and other cells compose the plaque. Too much plaque buildup can trigger a heart attack.

A coronary calcium scan assesses whether there are any specks of calcium in the walls of the arteries. These calcifications are an early sign of plaque buildup.

There are about 28 million Americans in the ?intermediate risk? group for cardiac events, which means that doctors aren?t sure how to treat them or how to tell which of them is most likely to have a heart attack, said Dr. Joseph Yeboah, lead study author and cardiologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

About 7,000 participants, 1,330 of whom had intermediate risk, were included in the study. Researchers compared six different markers of risk, and found that the calcium was superior to the rest.

The cost for the calcium test varies, but is usually about $200, Yeboah said.

?The cost issue should always be weighed against how much is society prepared to spend for a heart attack,? he said.

The cost of treating a person with a heart attack could be more than a thousand times higher than the cost of the calcium test, he said. Additionally, many people die from their first heart attack.

?The current study in JAMA on coronary CT imaging should convince physicians and the public alike that if you are middle-aged, have some risk factors for heart disease, and want to greatly improve your knowledge of what your risk truly is, you should get a calcium score,? said Dr. Arthur Agatston, a Miami cardiologist and author of the best-selling South Beach diet books, in an e-mail.

Agatston created the calcium score, first published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 1991. He did not invent the scan to detect it, however, and does not profit from it.

Agatston, who was not involved in this study, praised the test in the 2011 CNN documentary ?The Last Heart Attack.?

?It is the single best predictor of who is headed for a heart attack and who is not, and is thus the best way to know who needs aggressive lifestyle and pharmacological intervention and who doesn?t,? he said this week.

Besides costs, one potential issue is the radiation involved in the test, which is about 1 millisievert. That?s about one-third the amount of radiation Americans are exposed to from the environment in one year, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A CT scan to the head is 2 mSv.

Still, it?s unclear what effect the radiation from the calcium test would have over time, especially since there has not been a set standard for the radiation involved in the test, Yeboah said. The FDA has not weighed in about this test.

Although many insurance companies do not cover the calcium test, some people pay out of pocket for it anyway, Yeboah said. It is unclear whether the test has helped those people specifically.

Former President Bill Clinton told CNN?s Dr. Sanjay Gupta in ?The Last Heart Attack? that he?d had one of these scans just months after leaving office, but doctors weren?t sure what to do with the results since the technology was so new.

Clinton said he had ?some calcium buildup around my heart that put me basically in the top third of risk,? but did so well on the stress test that doctors said there wasn?t any evidence of blockage.

In 2004, Clinton experienced tightness in his chest, which turned out to be a serious symptom. He underwent quadruple bypass surgery to restore blood flow to his heart. And in 2010, he needed another procedure: two stents to open a vein from his bypass surgery.

More research should be done to further evaluate the costs and benefits of this calcium test, Yeboah said.

A second new study evaluated the benefits of a different kind of screening test: carotid intimal medial thickness. This involves an ultrasound measurement of the thickness of the carotid artery.

The carotid artery is a blood vessel leading to the brain, delivering blood to the brain and face. The thickness of the walls is thought to be a risk factor for cardiac events such as heart attack.

Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 14 different studies worldwide, encompassing about 46,000 participants. Study authors wrote that their results suggest that the added value of conducting a carotid intimal medial thickness test was small and ?unlikely to be of clinical importance.?

Their results pertain to a 10-year risk outlook, meaning the study measured the likelihood of a cardiac event within 10 years of the test. But the authors wrote that additional research could find this test may be useful for 20- or 30-year outlooks.

This analysis has limitations, however ? there may be inconsistencies in how cardiac events were determined across the different studies, and there was variation in the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins across the different groups.

A risk assessment based on factors such as age, gender and blood pressure is about as good at predicting cardiovascular disease likelihood as carotid intimal medial thickness, said study co-author Dr. Michiel Bots, of the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.

While the arterial wall thickness measurement may predict the occurrence of disease, it does not help doctors decide whether a patient should be treated with lipid-lowering or blood-pressure-lowering drugs, Bots said.

But the carotid ultrasound test is inexpensive, and can be easily and safely performed in a doctor?s office, Agatston said.

The test can also image atherosclerotic plaques, although this particular study did not separately analyze the presence of plaques. Plaque in the carotid artery is a warning sign for risk of heart attack and stroke.

For prediction and management of cardiac risk in some patients, Agatston believes there is a place for this test.

Source: http://fox6now.com/2012/08/23/doctors-edge-closer-to-identifying-heart-risks/

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Researchers probe invisible vacancies in fuel cell materials

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2012) ? Knowing the position of missing oxygen atoms could be the key to cheaper solid oxide fuel cells with longer lifetimes. New microscopy research from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is enabling scientists to map these vacancies at an atomic scale.

Although fuel cells hold promise as an efficient energy conversion technology, they have yet to reach mainstream markets because of their high price tag and limited lifespans. Overcoming these barriers requires a fundamental understanding of fuel cells, which produce electricity through a chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel. As conducting oxygen ions move through the fuel cell, they travel through vacancies where oxygen atoms used to be. The distribution, arrangement and geometry of such oxygen vacancies in fuel cell materials are thought to affect the efficiency of the overall device.

"A big part of making a better fuel cell is to understand what the oxygen vacancies do inside the material: how fast they move, how they order, how they interact with interfaces and defects," said ORNL's Albina Borisevich. "The question is how to study them. It's one thing to see an atom of one type on the background of atoms of a different type. But in this case, you want to see if there are a few atoms missing. Seeing a void is much more difficult."

In research published in Nature Materials, ORNL scientists used scanning transmission electron microscopy to determine the distribution of oxygen vacancies in a fuel cell cathode material below the level of a single unit cell. The team verified its findings with theoretical calculations and neutron experiments at the lab's Spallation Neutron Source.

"Even though the vacancy doesn't generate any signal in the electron micrograph, it's still a big disturbance in the structure," Borisevich said. "You can see that the lattice expands where vacancies are present. So we tracked the lattice expansion around vacancies and compared it with theoretical models, and we were able to develop a calibration for this type of material."

By providing a means to study vacancies at an atomic scale, the ORNL technique will help inform the development of improved fuel cell technologies in a systematic and deliberate fashion, in contrast to trial and error approaches.

Beyond its relevance to applications in fuel cells and information storage and logic devices, ORNL coauthor Sergei Kalinin explains that the team's research is also building a bridge between two scientific communities that traditionally have had little in common.

"From my perspective, it is physics marrying electrochemistry," Kalinin said. "The idea is that vacancies are important for energy, and vacancies are important for physics. The materials that physicists like to study are exactly the same as the materials used for fuel cells, and unless we understand how vacancies behave at interfaces, ferroic domain walls, and in thin films, we will not be able to fully appreciate the physics of these systems."

The team's research is also reinforced by a parallel study published in Physical Review Letters, with Borisevich and Kalinin as coauthors, that explains how to obtain parameters that describe vacancy-ordered systems from electron microscopy data.

Coauthors on the Nature Materials paper are ORNL's Young-Min Kim, Jun He, Michael Biegalski, Hailemariam Ambaye, Valerie Lauter, Hans Christen, and Stephen Pennycook; and Vanderbilt University's Sokrates Pantelides. The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science. Portions of this research were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the Spallation Neutron Source, which are both also sponsored at ORNL by DOE's Office of Science.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Young-Min Kim, Jun He, Michael D. Biegalski, Hailemariam Ambaye, Valeria Lauter, Hans M. Christen, Sokrates T. Pantelides, Stephen J. Pennycook, Sergei V. Kalinin, Albina Y. Borisevich. Probing oxygen vacancy concentration and homogeneity in solid-oxide fuel-cell cathode materials on the subunit-cell level. Nature Materials, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3393

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electricity/~3/hJF6QD7HOq0/120822154618.htm

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Geek the Guide: Innovative Ways to Use Research Guides - LILRC ...

LILRC is pleased to announce that Kristina De Voe will be returning to Long Island this September for another training session on research guides.? Space is limited, so reserve your seat today!

Geek the Guide: Innovative Ways to Use Research Guides

Date: Friday, September 7, 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Location: Brentwood Public Library

Research guides are a common feature of many library websites. Also known as subject guides, pathfinders, or course guides, research guides are great ways to recommend specialized resources, deliver instructional content, and even promote upcoming events. In this lively program, we?ll discuss the perks and pitfalls of open-source and commercial platforms, including LibGuides, for implementing research guides. We?ll also cover current trends and best practices for creating discoverable, engaging content within guides. Interactive break-out discussions on key issues surrounding designing, marketing, and assessing the effectiveness of research guides will follow, allowing participants to exchange ideas. Walk away with ideas on how your library might use research guides to highlight and, more importantly, deliver the collections, programs, and services you provide to your users.

Presenter: Kristina M. De Voe, English & Communications Librarian, Temple University Libraries

Click here for a registration form that you can print out and mail/fax to us.

Source: http://blog.lilrc.org/ce/2012/08/22/geek-the-guide-innovative-ways-to-use-research-guides/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=geek-the-guide-innovative-ways-to-use-research-guides

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Tips For Personal Development And Conscious Living - Health Web ...

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 at 1:57 pm ?

If you feel like you want to grow as a person, but you do not know how, you are in luck. When you have solid advice to guide you, your attitude will be positive and your chances will be greater for personal development success. Choose the advice that works for you from the tips below.

Instead of bragging about how many things you?ve earned in your life, try to ask other people about what they?ve earned in their life and what they?re proud of. This helps you discover what other people have accomplished to help you respect them which in turn betters your character.

Think of the gap between your current situation and your wishes as something you have to conquer. You need to understand and embrace this before you can move forward. Unless you are honest about your starting point, your goals will not be a true reflection of where you need to go for maximum personal growth.

Nobody is perfect, and most of us make the occasional dietary error. Unchecked stress can be very damaging to both your mind and your body. Make an honest effort to live life to the fullest without sweating the small stuff.

Whatever it is that you need to have in your life, make sure you have one thing. That one thing is you must choose to be an active person and live your life, not be a spectator. Standing back idly will serve you no purpose, so get involved in your own destiny today!

Know what your strengths are, and be confident when promoting yourself. Everybody has different skills, which makes the diverse and wonderful planet we live on. Don?t waste time on what you are not good at, but rather keep your focus on the skills you have and use them wisely.

Keep your limitations in mind and do not push too hard to reach your goals, especially when it comes to physical self-improvement. Take your best shot, but know when you have reached your limit. Taking good care of yourself should not be sacrificed for any aspiration, no matter how coveted. Short-changing your body in order to meet personal development goals is a terribly counter-productive form of self-improvement.

Now that you have the right information, working towards your own personal development will be much easier. The key to future growth is knowledge. Regularly look for information that can help you to develop as a person, and apply it to your daily existence.

Tagged with: personal development

Filed under: News

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Source: http://health-web-guide.com/2012/08/tips-for-personal-development-and-conscious-living/

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Here and There ? 8/23/12 | Edgefield Advertiser

Farmers? and Artists? Market: Johnston Farmers? and Artists? Market is held from 4-6 p.m. each Thursday. If interested in being a vendor call 275-4097.

Adult Education Registration Schedule: Schedule an appointment by calling 803-275-1788, ext. 24 or 25. Orientation and Assessments are required. Assessment dates Aug. ?23 1-2:30 p.m.; Aug. ?28 from 9-10:30 a.m. and 1-2:30 p.m. Evening appointments are also available.?www.edgefield.k12.sc.us/District/AdultED/AdEd.htm

Homecoming and Revival: Berea Baptist Church, Hwy. 25, Edgefield, will have Homecoming and Revival services at 11 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 26 with dinner to follow and Revival services Mon. ? Wed., Aug. 27-29 at 7 p.m. Guest minister will be Rev. John Noblin from Plum Branch Baptist Church.

Ouzts Reunion: The 83rd Ouzts Family Reunion at Hickory Knob State Park, Long Cane Center, the Red Barn on August 25.? Registration at 10:00 A.M., Business Meeting at 11:30 A.M. and Lunch at 12:30 P.M.? Bring a well filled food basket and tea.? Ice, cups, plates and utilities will be provided.? Hope to see you there.

Brown Reunion: The family reunion for the descendants of Perry and Ruth Ella Brown will be Sunday, August 26, at 1 p.m. at the Corps of Engineers Recreation Area, Shelter One, in Parksville. Bring a covered dish and tea or other drink of your choice. Cups, napkins, plates, silverware, ice will be provided. Contact Joyce McDaniel Koss at 803-279-1416.

Rawl Reunion: The Phillip I. and Martha Adrian Harman Rawl Reunion will be held Sunday, Aug. 26, at S. John?s Lutheran Church parish building, 213 St. John?s Rd.(7 miles west of Lexington, off Hwy. 378).Bring a picnic lunch and sweet tea.

Merriwether Community Coalition: Merriwether Community Coalition meeting will be held Tues., Aug. 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the Merriwether Elementary School cafeteria. There will be a panel discussion. For more info call 803-279-4138 or e-mail johnnyfanderson@bellsouth.net

Republican Party Meeting: The Edgefield County GOP will be conducting a quarterly meeting on August 28, at 7pm at the Edgefield County Council Chambers in Edgefield. ?We invite all to attend and hear about the latest for the GOP in Edgefield County. ?For more info please visit:?www.edgefieldgop.com

Public Meeting: GLEAMNS Human Resources Commission will hold a public county meeting, Tues., August 28 at 5:30 p.m. at the Edgefield Head Start Center, 141 S.E.Diggs Road, Trenton, S.C. to elect a representative to serve on GLEAMNS Board of Commissioners. For more info call 864-223-8434 ext. 8801.

Free Workshops: Free workshops at the SC Works/Edgefield Center, Rm. 306, 400 Church St., Edgefield, Tuesday, August 28, 10:00 AM, Networkers Group Meeting ? topic ? ?Roundtable Discussion? Join us and share information?on job interviewing and job searches; 1:30 PM ?Job Search 2012? Examine the?differences between today?s and yesterday?s job search techniques; 3:00 PM ?Resume Clinic/WIN Lab? Bring a copy of your resume for analysis or bring the information to create a resume.? For further?information telephone (803) 637-4029.

Brotherhood Program:The Brotherhood of the Pleasant Lane Missionary Baptist will have it?s 2nd annual Brotherhood program Saturday, September 8, at 4:00 in the afternoon. The public is invited.

Church Anniversary: Mount Canaan Baptist Church(2451 Edgefield Road, Trenton) will commemorate its one hundred forty fourth year of existence through special praise and worship service on Sunday morning, September 9,? at 10 a.m. Rev. Daniel L. Johnston will be the guest speaker. The pastor, Rev. George L. Brightharp, and congregants invite you to be a part of this service. Please come!

?

Source: http://www.edgefieldadvertiser.com/2012/08/here-and-there-82312/

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Non-Profit Executive Candidate Resume Sample | Resume My Career

The sample below is for a Non-Profit Executive Candidate Resume. This resume was written by a ResumeMyCareer professional resume writer, and demonstrates how a resume for a Non-Profit Executive Candidate should be properly created. Our Certified Professional Resume Writers can assist you in creating a professional document for the job or industry of your choice.

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NON-PROFIT EXECUTIVE CANDIDATE

Accomplished and dynamic professional with upwards of 13 years of relevant experience and related graduate-level education. Proactively pursuing career transition to the non-profit industry. Consistently recognized for successfully managing programs and projects while demonstrating the ability to lead diverse teams of professionals to new levels of success in a variety of highly competitive industries, cutting-edge markets, and fast-paced environments. Strong technical and business qualifications with an impressive track record of hands-on experience in, strategic planning, business unit development, new systems and programs development, problem resolution and operations management. Proven ability to successfully analyze an organization?s critical business requirements, identify deficiencies and potential opportunities, and develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for enhancing competitiveness, increasing revenues, and improving customer service offerings, with ability to work effectively in busy environments with positive results. Proactive with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, experienced in working with different personalities including clients and vendors as well as working on own initiative.

Core Competencies

Client/Account Management ? Strategic Planning ? Organizational Leadership and Collaboration ? Business Development ? Productivity Enhancement ? Client Relations ? Sales & Marketing ? Staff Development & Training

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

The Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce, Milwaukee ? WI 2007 ? Present
President
Handled communications of all programs and budget proposal to Board of Trustees for approval including development and retention of membership, volunteer participation, development for committees and ambassador groups and implementation of a five-year strategic plan and yearly plan of work. Developed and coordinated annual budget as well as monthly and annual fiscal analysis with chamber staff and Board Treasurer. Provided regular membership data for analysis and applied best practices to retain and increase membership base. Created and implemented networking and educational opportunities. Acted as liaison to public and private sector, economic and business related organizations. Spearheaded the development and implementation of policies and procedures, which market the community to its members and visitors. Coordinated with the Director of Economic Development. Communicated with local, state and federal regulations and legislative initiatives to chamber members and the community. Acquired grants and/or federal monies for business partnerships with community development and education.
KeyHighlights:
? Successfully coordinated with University of Wisconsin ? Platteville to complete a grant to provide students an International Internship in Africa through the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce.
? Spearheaded campaign of small business owner membership, which increased membership by 40 %.
? Successfully created Business Development Workshops series sponsored by radio Station V-100 for Black Business Month .
? Developed and executed capacity building needs assessment and strategic plan in preparation of $34.6 Million Milwaukee City project, identifying needs as it pertains to Chamber members and minority owned businesses.
? Revamped Chamber marketing material, brochures and website.
? Successfully established monthly statewide tours working in conjunction with Wisconsin Department of Administration Minority Business Enterprise Program promoting Chamber affiliation as a resource.
? Created and hosted an on-going training series focused on contractor certification and responding to request for proposals.

Benefits Inc., Brookfield ? WI 2008 ? Present
Sales Manager Small Group Insurance
Handled navigation of insurance, retirement planning, payroll processing, and executive recruitment landscape for different premier companies in Wisconsin. Conducted research, created and implemented different opportunities to improve workflow and increase profit. Provided service to different businesses, public entities, organizations, and private clients. Promoted and marketed small group employee benefits inclusive of payroll services and property and casualty. Established new businesses through various marketing campaigns including telemarketing, direct mail, seminars and partnerships with different Chamber organizations. Provided financial and professional hiring services to companies moving from internal to outsourced solutions.
KeyHighlight:
? Recommended new territory management approach, which netted 10 new clients and a 30% sales increase.

Providers First PPO, Park Ridge ? IL 2005 ? 2008
Executive Director
Managed and developed regional network for Midwest PPO markets. Negotiated, reviewed and implemented hospital and physician provider contracts regionally. Conducted training for performance improvement and evaluation to all regional network staff. Established and maintained relationships with regional provider contacts and regional Insurance carriers to expand PPO. Developed insurance products associated with PPO network and streamlined implementation procedure based on clients benefit plan.
KeyHighlights:
? Successfully secured contract with large Wisconsin based health System obtaining an estimated 30 hospitals 24ancillaries and 2300 physicians.
? Negotiated contracts with two major insurance carriers for insurance product in New Mexico and Wisconsin.
? Increased Independent Physician Association contracts by 25% regionally.

Ebix Inc., Greendale ? WI 2003 ? 2005
Business Development Manager
Handled sales and marketing for Ebix products and services to independent and group physician practices. Established referral relationships with Attorneys and Collection agencies to secure potential business opportunity. Developed forecasting strategy in order to decrease company dependency on referrals for new business. Maintained and implemented prospective client database. Established relationships with Emergency Medical Services in addition to existing partnership with Fire Departments and Ambulance Companies. Created and implemented a new prospective client database and marketing strategy. Organized and facilitated meetings with managers to implement newly developed marketing campaign.
KeyHighlights:
? Expanded business opportunities regionally in different states namely Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
? Increased current client base by 15%.

HFN Inc., Oak Brook ? IL 1999 ? 2003
Manager, Client Management Department
Managed a Regional Preferred Provider Organization covering 850,000 lives in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Handled 200 clients of Midwest Preferred Provider Organization. Managed and conducted training for two Client Management Coordinators within department. Oversaw implementation of goals and objectives inclusive for new and existing accounts. Maintained client communications through Information Systems, Customer Service and Claims Departments, ensuring resolution to any issues brought up by client regarding services while generating additional revenue through current client relationships. Developed and implemented policy and procedure guidelines for newly formed Client Management Dept. Coordinated with information systems, customer service and claims dept. regarding status and updates on existing clients. Conducted research on demographic data provided by clients to ensure maximum PPO network penetration. Conducted customer service calls tracking systems training to staff. Coordinated joint service calls with Sales Department.

K2 Health Alliance 1999 ? 2001
Manager, National Sales
Served as administrator for HFN regional PPO network -K2 Health Alliance. Handled network development and sales of K2 Health Alliance in the states of IL, IN, WI, IA, NE and MN. Managed account and provided resolution to issues for potential and existing clients accessing network. Negotiated and retained contracted relationships with other regional preferred provider organizations. Established relationship with different partners and provided marketing plans and resolutions to issues faced by existing clients/partners. Organized and facilitated meeting with different clients/partners. Designed and maintained updated marketing materials for K2 Health Alliance group health products.
KeyHighlights:
? Successfully marketed K2 Health Alliance network to national insurance carriers increasing client base by 15%.
? Successfully resolved service issues of a major client resulting in retention of key contracts.
? Successfully conducted bi-monthly meetings with K2 Health Alliance strategic partners.

EDUCATION AND CREDENTIALS

Masters of Science in Non Profit Management and Leadership, Expected graduation fall 2012
University of Wisconsin ? Milwaukee

Bachelor of Science ? Health Administration, 1988
St. Joseph?s College ? Brooklyn, NY

Associates Computer Science, 1984
Queensboro Community College ? Bayside, NY

CERTIFICATIONS
Leadership and Human Resources Development
St Joseph?s College ? Brooklyn, NY

Source: http://www.resumemycareer.com/non-profit-executive-candidate-resume-sample/

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Taylor Swift's Ex Joe Jonas Swears 'Never Ever' Is Not About Him

Jonas says her latest break-up tune is not about him because they never 'tried another time.'
By Gil Kaufman

Taylor Swift and Joe Jonas in 2008
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1691864/joe-jonas-taylor-swift-never-ever-song.jhtml

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Building May Help Slowing Economy | Bost Real Estate Blog - Real ...

June saw a nationwide increase of groundbreaking for new homes at a pace we haven?t seen for over 3 years, which helped to somewhat boost a gradually slowing economy.

According the Commerce Department, housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 760,000 units per year?an increase of 6.9%?which is the highest rate we?ve seen since October of 2008. This is above a recent Reuters poll which forecast a rate of 745,000 units annually. Since its collapse 6 years ago, the housing market has finally begun to have a positive influence on the economy, though it?s still far from perfect.

The number of applicants for mortgages has recently jumped as a result of refinancing demand, directly associated to the record-low fall of 30-year mortgage rates, according to Mortgage Bankers Association. Different organizations seem to disagree somewhat on whether the housing market is noticeably improving or not, though the majority consensus seems to be that home purchases and home prices are both increasing.

According to the Commerce Department?s numbers, groundbreaking occurred at a rate of 711,000 units per year in May 2012. In June, the Commerce Department?s report showed an increase of 4.7% on groundbreaking for single-family homes and an increase of 12.8% on multi-family properties. However, new permits for building houses dropped to a rate of 755,000 units annually or a decrease of 3.7%.

Do you think Boston real estate building will begin to slow by summer?s end or do you think it will continue to increase over time?

Source: http://www.firstbostonrealty.com/blog/building-may-help-slowing-economy/

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Brother P-touch PT-D200

By Tony Hoffman

The Brother P-touch PT-D200 is a standalone label printer that needs no PC to operate. It's highly portable, can be held in the palm of a hand, and is battery powered; an optional AC adapter is available.?It's similar in many ways to the Epson LabelWorks LW-300 but with a simpler interface in which most functions are controlled through a menu system. It's also a lot faster than the Epson LW-300 or the Epson LabelWorks LW-400 , though it lacks the latter printer's ability to print wider labels, or specialty labels like barcodes.

The PT-D200 measures 2.7 by 6.5 by 6.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.1 pounds, excluding batteries and tape cassette. It's slightly larger than the LW300, and is nearly square, with rounded corners. The PT-D200's back is raised, however, so that the keyboard and screen tilt slightly forward.

The LCD?large for a standalone label printer?displays one line of 15 characters, though you can enter a maximum of 80 characters as well as break the text into two lines for printing by hitting the Enter key. ?Although only one line of text is visible at a time, above the text appear icons that indicate type size or style, and below it is displayed the length in inches of the label that you've typed.

To the left of the keyboard is a menu key; below the keyboard are keys to navigate through the menus: left and right arrows; escape (which takes you back one screen); and OK (which lets you select a menu item). By and large, the menu system?combined with other keys like font, frame, symbol, and the suitably artsy Deco mode?is intuitive. I found it easier to work with than Epson's controls, which feature a number of function keys?identified with icons rather than labeled?some of whose purpose is obscure.

The PT-D200's keyboard is a simplified QWERTY model that retains control keys such as tab, caps, shift, enter, and backspace. Flanking the space bar are a file key and an accent key. The file key lets you save up to 30 label designs you create and then print them. Pressing the accent key after you type a letter lets you add an accent?common or obscure?to it (provided, of course, that there are accents for the letter).
As has been true with other standalone label printers that I've tested, the keyboard is too small for touch typing but responds well to thumb typing, either when set on a surface or cradled between one's hands. The keys require a somewhat heavy impression, which didn't impede my typing but all but prevented me from pressing the wrong key accidentally.

The PT-D200 is powered by six AAA batteries (not included). Should you forget to turn it off, it will shut itself off after five minutes. The bottom can be easily opened to replace batteries or the tape cartridge. An optional AC adapter is available for $27.99 (list).

Brother offers 30 label cartridges, up to a half-inch wide, for this printer. Label types include standard laminated labels, fabric iron-on labels, super-narrow non-laminated labels, and labels with extra-strength adhesive. Epson offers 25 different label cartridges of various types up to a half inch wide for its LW-300, and 41 label types up to ? inches wide for the LW-400, including barcodes and other specialty labels.

Printing speed for a label printer isn't as critical as for a business printer (unless you're printing large numbers of the same label), but nonetheless, faster is better?and the PT-D200's speed is impressive. It averaged 5.2 seconds in printing out a 3.8-inch label that reads This is a test. and 7.9 seconds to print a 5.9-inch label that reads PCMag:Printer Speed Test. The P-touch employs a manual label cutter to clip the label after printing.

The Epson LW-300 took more than twice as long in printing, averaging 11.6 seconds to print a 2.8-inch This is a test. label and 19 seconds for a 4.9-inch PCMag:Printer Speed Test label. The Epson LW-400's times were nearly the same as the LW-300's.

The Brother P-touch PT-D200 has an easy-to-use interface, and is faster than either the Epson LabelWorks LW-300 or LW-400. If you need to print barcodes or other specialty labels, or labels wider than half an inch, you'll want to pick the Epson LW-400. But the PT-D200's overall user experience and its speed are better?good enough to earn it an Editors' Choice as a standalone, PC-free label printer.

More printer reviews:

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/U4uB9UrpGcE/0,2817,2408315,00.asp

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Robert Pattinson Joins Herzog's Queen of the Desert

"The teachers would have been standing by now, fixated and immobile, like theatre-goers trapped in the circle as chaos consumes the stalls. They would have seen him fire for a third time and they would have seen the third child fall. [...] When he had then looked to them and taken his first step towards the stage, they might finally...
More ?

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1925727/news/1925727/

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Uptick in kitchen area transforming boosts ... - home improvement

Uptick in kitchen area transforming boosts profits at Household Depot

Below is an article titled uptick in kitchen area transforming boosts profits at household depot that we collected from various sources. All credit goes to its original author. just enjoy this....thanks

Strong product sales of paint, toilet equipment and kitchen installations have boosted Property Depot?s bottom line as property owners start off sprucing up their homes once again. The retailer reviews that transactions of $900 and over are up three. 4 percent as need grows for appliances, flooring, kitchen remodeling products, and heating and air conditioning tools. That is very good information and we were prepared for it with new assessments of all the main items essential for a kitchen or bathtub remodeling project.

Lowe?s and Sears haven?t documented their earnings still but the Los Angeles Instances claims that enhanced purchaser assistance at Lowe?s, Household Depot and other property enhancement stores has compensated off in income, income and shopper pleasure. Which is one particular profit of the terrible economic climate. When the housing current market was booming, it was tough for the lowly do-it-yourselfers to get awareness at the major box retailers. ?Then we get into the economical downturn and individuals quit investing. Design goes from even larger tasks to scaled-down renovations, and buyers change from contractors to these seeking to do it themselves,? a current market analyst told the Instances.

Whether you happen to be a handyman or arranging to employ a contractor to start out a household reworking undertaking, check our ratings of the very best appliances and wherever to purchase them. We also have ratings of the best flooring, countertops and sink products. And do not miss our two new guides to updating your kitchen area and your rest room.

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Decision-making brain activity in patients with hoarding disorder

ScienceDaily (Aug. 6, 2012) ? Patients with hoarding disorder exhibited abnormal activity in regions of the brain that was stimulus dependent when deciding what to do with objects that did or did not belong to them, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication.

Hoarding disorder (HD) is defined as the excessive collection of objects and an inability to discard them. It is characterized by marked avoidance of decisions about possessions, according to the study background.

David F. Tolin, Ph.D., of the Institute of Living, Hartford, Conn., and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural activity when decisions had to be made about whether to keep or discard possessions.

Their study of 107 adults at a private, not-for-profit hospital compared neural activity among patients with HD (43), patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (31, OCD) and a group of healthy individuals (33). The objects used in the study were paper items, such as junk mail and newspapers, that either did or did not belong to the participants.

Compared with patients who had OCD and the healthy individuals, researchers found that patients with HD exhibited abnormal activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and insula. When deciding about items that did not belong to them, patients with HD showed relatively lower activity in those brain regions. However, when deciding about items that did belong to them, these regions showed "excessive functional magnetic resonance imaging signals" compared with the other two groups, according to study results.

"The present findings of ACC and insula abnormality comport with emerging models of HD that emphasize problems in decision-making processes that contribute to patients' difficulty discarding items," the authors comment.

The group of patients with HD chose to discard significantly fewer participant's possessions (PPs) than did the other two groups, the results indicate.

"The apparent biphasic pattern (i.e., hypofunction to EPs [experimenter's possessions] but hyperfunction to PPs [participant's possessions]) of ACC and insula activity in patients with HD merits further study," the authors conclude.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. David F. Tolin et al. Neural Mechanisms of Decision Making in Hoarding Disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2012;69(8):832-841 DOI: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.1980

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/most_popular/~3/hA8emIGRxZE/120806161822.htm

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20 places every American should see

Radkol / Dreamstime.com via Budget Travel

A mule ride along Bright Angel trail, shown here, emphasizes the timelessness of the Grand Canyon, a geological wonder millions of years in the making.

By Sean O'Neill, Budget Travel

What makes a place essentially American? Besides being between our borders, of course? When the?Budget Travel?editors set out to compile a list of 20 can't-miss destinations in the United States, we knew there was no one right answer.

A place couldn't be just historic, or only very beautiful or merely iconic. But in the best cases, it might be all three. For days (and weeks), ideas were floated, debates were had, some favorites were voted down and others prevailed. The list we arrived at is no American-history textbook quiz ? although historic sites are there, along with a sampling of cultural, nostalgic and guilty-pleasure spots that, we think, evoke the kaleidoscopic American experience. While our list is unranked, incomplete and inherently subjective, we think it is also diverse, surprising, and informative ? and well worth keeping in mind as you plan your next vacation itinerary. So why not map out a detour to one of these spots the next time you hit the road? Who knows ? you might never think of this country in quite the same way again.

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Highway 1, Calif.
Considering that the United States has more miles of paved roads (more than 2.7 million) than any other country on Earth, is it any wonder that road trips are practically a rite of passage here? One of the most meditative ? and celebrated ? drives you can take in the States is the 145-mile stretch of California's Pacific Highway 1 between San Luis Obispo and Monterey. Expect view after astonishing view of land meeting sea, as the road snakes and swerves high above the Pacific, past bright-green grasslands and redwood-forested canyons (byways.org).

Photo op:?About two hours north of Monterey, Highway 1 crosses?San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a 75-year old marvel of engineering and aesthetics. If the bridge is obscured by fog, you can fake your Kodak moment in front of the giant photomontage at the bridge pavilion's new visitor's center.

Insider tip:?Take a detour near San Simeon to see the mansion of William Randolph Hearst, the eccentric newspaper magnate made famous by "Citizen Kane"?(750 Hearst Castle Rd.,?hearstcastle.org, tours from $25).

French Quarter, New Orleans
No other American neighborhood provides as much eye candy as the cobblestone streets of New Orleans' French Quarter ? known as "the Quarters" to locals ? and we're not referring to the annual Mardi Gras parades, with their thousands of taffeta-draped harlequins strutting to funk, R&B and Dixie. No, it's the architecture that's intriguing. Stroll this district, which is bounded by the Mississippi River, Rampart Street and Canal and Esplanade, and you'll glimpse nightclubs lit up in neon, French colonial townhouses draped in ivy, Creole cottages built on stilts, and antebellum mansions whose balconies are laced with intricate ironwork. The neighborhood's premiere event is the annual?French Quarter Festival?in April, which draws hundreds of thousands of listeners for a series of jazz performances, focusing more on up-and-coming artists than the better-known cross-town rival New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (neworleansonline.com).

Photo op:?Jackson Square, a patch of moss-bearded oaks in the core of the French Quarter, is home to a striking statue of Andrew Jackson, the Renaissance- and Spanish Colonial-style St. Louis Cathedral, and Cafe Du Monde, which serves the city's signature?beignets?(fried dough treats).

Insider's tip:?The visitor's center at New Orleans Jazz Historical Park offers free self-guided audio tours of famous music institutions, such as a favorite venue of the late trumpeter Louis Armstrong, Preservation Hall, which re-opened last year after a six-year closure post-Katrina (nps.gov/jazz).

National Mall, Washington, D.C.
There's no place in America where you get more historical bang for your buck than the National Mall ? fitting, since two of its most famous memorials (to Lincoln and Jefferson) are stamped on our smallest coinage. This less-than-two-mile stretch of our capital city packs in those memorials, plus the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, among others, and it's lined with Smithsonian Institution museums ? none of which cost a dime to enter. Even if politics leaves you cold, there's sure to be something at one of the Smithsonian branches to get you going, whether it's the astronaut ice cream sold in the gift shop at the National Air and Space Museum, the inaugural gowns of First Ladies on display in the National Museum of American History, or the 45-carat Hope Diamond gleaming in the Natural History Museum (nps.gov/nacc?and?si.edu).

Photo op:?The P.O.V. rooftop bar at the W Hotel has the best view of the Mall in the city (515 15th St, NW;?whotels.com).

Insider tip:?The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian has the most interesting food on the Mall. Try the pulled buffalo sandwich with chayote squash slaw and the cinnamon-and-honey fry bread (mitsitamcafe.com, sandwich $11.25, fry bread $3.35).

Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas
Glass pyramids. Faux Venetian canals. The 1,148-foot tall Stratosphere Tower. A couple of $100 million daredevil circuses called Cirque du Soleil. They're all part of this neon-lit desert outpost 300 miles from Los Angeles ? with a magnetic pull like no other. Every American ends up on the Strip sooner or later, whether for a bachelor party, a girlfriend getaway, a trade show or simply lured by a shockingly cheap hotel-and-airfare deal. It's the place Americans go to let their hair down (and, OK, gamble). Aside from its new $2.4 billion airport terminal, Vegas's latest attraction is the Mob Museum (aka, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement), a tribute to the Mafia in real life and in pop culture that opened in February 2012. Interactive exhibits are plentiful: Be ready to pose for a police line-up shot (themobmuseum.org).

Photo op:?For a sure bet on a clear view of the cityscape, head to the Ghostbar on top of the Palms Hotel and Spa (palms.com).

Insider tip:?For a retro vibe, veer off the Strip to the hole-in-the-wall Champagnes Cafe, an old-school bar complete with blood-red wallpaper, bowls of mixed nuts and a jukebox that plays Frank, Sammy, Dean and Bing (3557 Maryland Parkway South;?702/737-1699).

Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.
Wide-open space is an inheritance for every American, and Yellowstone is the most dramatic example of what "wide-open space" really means. In 1872, 2-million-acre Yellowstone debuted as America's first national park, and visitors began flocking to soak in its hot springs, see elk and bison roam its grasslands, gawk at its geyser known as Old Faithful, and hear gray wolves sound chill-inducing howls at dawn. Amazingly, visitors can get the same thrills today for nearly no cost. For the fullest experience, stay the night. The lack of light pollution in northwest Wyoming's Big Sky country reveals an astonishing canopy of stars that is virtually unchanged from the time of native tribes, fur trappers, and pioneer explorers.?(nps.gov/yell).

Photo op:?Take the Lake Area Elephant Back Loop Trail for a vista encompassing Yellowstone Lake, the Absaroka Range and the Pelican Valley.

Insider tip:?Enter via the less-traveled Silver or East gates for more solitude on the park's roughly 1,200 miles of trail.

Times Square, New York City
Sure, the crowds can be pushy, but Times Square ? the stretch of Broadway between Manhattan's 42nd and 47th streets ? delivers the most intense straight-up celebration of round-the-clock visual stimulation in the free world. Three hundred sixty-five days a year, it's all lights, cameras and action. And in summer, when the city sets out a slew of lawn chairs in its pedestrian-only core, you can take a seat and gaze southward, imagining the scene every New Year's Eve when a million revelers watch the ball drop ? an all-American tradition for 105 years.

Photo op:?Climb the translucent, ruby-red stairs that seem to lean atop the TKTS booth, which sells same-day discounted Broadway tickets at 47th Street and Broadway; it's a great place to snap a photo without hundreds of strangers' heads crowding the shot.

Insider tip:?If you see a guy playing guitar in nothing but his underwear and a 10-gallon hat, don't be alarmed ? it's just the Naked Cowboy, who makes the rounds here often.

Nashville, Tenn.
Soaking up country music in its native habitat is an American music experience like no other. Leafy, laid-back Nashville, Tenn., deserves its nickname Music City U.S.A.: It's dotted with twang-accented institutions, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman Auditorium (with its famous acoustics) and the Grand Ole Opry, a weekly live-audience radio show that has been continuously broadcast since 1925. Go boot-scootin' at one of the countless honky-tonks lining Broadway, where the line dancing is first-rate (visitmusiccity.com).

Photo op:?Head to midtown to pose in front of a life-size replica of the ancient Greek Parthenon, which stands in Centennial Park (2600 West End Ave.).

Insider tip:?The Bluebird Cafe is a nightly venue that spotlights the best up-and-coming talents in country. Exhibit A: Garth Brooks once performed at this nondescript club before anybody knew his name (4104 Hillsboro Pike,?bluebirdcafe.com).

Grand Canyon, Ariz.
Many American landmarks inspire people to think big, but none can match the leviathan scale of the Grand Canyon (nps.gov/grca). As with anything worthwhile, a mind-melting view of the fire-hued, half-mile-long rock faces at the Grand Canyon must be earned. Take a half-day or overnight mule trip, which involves a guided ride along the canyon rim and down to the Colorado River. Space is limited, so book ahead via Xanterra Parks & Resorts (xanterra.com,?888/297-2757), the operator that has the parks concession, or at the transportation desk in the lobby of Grand Canyon's Bright Angel Lodge, on the South Rim (half-day rides $123, overnight trips $507 including cabin accommodation, breakfast, lunch and a steak dinner). Your souvenir ? aside from a newfound appreciation for more comfortable forms of transportation ? will be the vivid sense of timelessness that you can only get from observing a geological wonder millions of years in the making.

Photo op:?Rent a true four-wheel-drive vehicle, such as a Jeep Liberty or a Ford Expedition, from a major chain at the airport before you drive to the park, so you can tackle the 60 or so miles of dirt road to the Toroweap overlook for its 3,000-foot, sheer-drop view ($125 per day from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport,?budget.com).

Insider tip:?When it's open in the summer, skip the South Rim for the lesser-visited North Rim, where a quieter experience awaits.

Hollywood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles
In 2013, Helen Mirren, James Franco, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Ron Howard and another 19 actors and musicians will be added to the more than 2,400 celebrities who've left their handprints and bronze-engraved names in the pavement along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street since 1958. (We imagine tourists have been posing with their hands in their favorite stars' prints for about that long, too.) Mercifully, reality TV stars are banned from the sidewalk showcase ? only those who've read from a script can be included (walkoffame.com).

Photo op:?For a primo view of the famous Hollywood sign, walk west from Vine toward Highland Ave., and then up to the fourth level of the bridge in the Hollywood & Highland Center (6801 Hollywood Blvd.,?hollywoodandhighland.com).

Insider tip:?Famous animals have left their paw prints on the pavement, too. Look for Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and even Godzilla.

Disney's Magic Kingdom, Orlando, Fla.
Admire Cinderella's Castle, watch Princess Jasmine hug small children, and listen to the animated model of Abe Lincoln talk in the Hall of Presidents. Those are typical items on the agenda at Disney World, the rare American tourist trap that's worth the trip. Founder Walt Disney pioneered the use of technology to create enchanted moments that surpass the mere roll-into-town carnival. His handiwork is probably our nation's most beloved contribution to global culture. After all, has anyone in the world never heard of Pirates of the Caribbean? We didn't think so (disneyworld.disney.go.com).

Photo op:?Get into the picture at Casey's Corner on Main Street, U.S.A., when the parade floats roll past at 3 p.m. daily.

Insider tip:?Go clockwise around the original park, starting with Adventureland ? to your left, as you enter. Most visitors head the other way, so you'll encounter fewer crowds.

Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pa.
The Founding Fathers didn't need iPads, PowerPoint or big-screen projectors to debate the Constitution of the United States, let alone to discuss the Declaration of Independence. So it's apt that the National Park Service keeps its tour of Independence Hall, where those famous discussions were held, free of technological gimmicks. After you pick up your timed ticket from the visitor's center, you queue outdoors and then step into a room as spare as a Quaker meeting house (appropriate for a city whose founders mostly belonged to the unpretentious religious sect). A park ranger talks briefly about how revolutionary the ideas of equality and democracy were when they were discussed more than 230 years ago in this building, which served as the Pennsylvania state house. Then you see the rooms where the treasured documents were signed. No holograms or other tricks are needed to feel a chill. When you're done, go across the street to the simple glass pavilion that houses the Liberty Bell, a two-ton bell that rang when the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud (despite a crack that formed during testing) and later became a symbol of the movement to abolish slavery.

Photo op:?In Independence Hall, focus your zoom lens on the back of the assembly speaker's chair, which is emblazoned with the image of a sun hanging halfway over a horizon. Benjamin Franklin famously interpreted this sun as a symbol of the nation's rise.

Insider tip:?Not officially part of the park, a slavery memorial called The President's House stands quietly beside the Liberty Bell pavilion at S. 6th St. and Market Street. The city-run site protects the ruins of the foundation of the house in which George Washington kept his slaves while working in the city.

Taos Pueblo, N.M.
At the northern edge of the artist colony of Taos and a couple hours' drive north of Santa Fe, Taos Pueblo is a set of adobe dwellings, ranging from two to five stories tall, whose walls gleam in the sun of the high desert. Some of the 2,000 Tiwa-speaking people who live on an adjacent reservation continue to use this six-century-old settlement for ceremonial rites, such as for the Deer and Matachines Dances, which are usually performed to the sound of heavy drum beats. The Taos Pueblo contains the largest collection of multi-story pueblo dwellings in the country ? well worth its UNESCO World Heritage status ? and provides an uncommon insight into the culture of the first Americans (taospueblo.com,?admission $10).

Photo op:?The main north pueblo, Hlauuma, is especially photogenic when the light reflects off its face and the Taos Mountain looms in the background.

Insider tip:?It's worth the $6 camera fee to capture the sun-baked facade on film. Just leave your fancy SLR at home ? they jack up the fees for folks bringing in pro-level gear.

Fenway Park, Boston
No sport is more central to America's identity than baseball, and the best place to pay homage to it is at Fenway Park in central Boston. In operation for 100 years, Fenway is the nation's oldest stadium that's still home to a Major League Baseball team (it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July 2012). This field of dreams for the Boston Red Sox is a field of nightmares to the players of visiting teams, thanks to its 37-foot-tall "Green Monster," a colossally high left-field wall that gives Sox left-fielders an edge over their counterparts because of the oddly-angled rebounds it causes. The park is steeped in lore, such as for its Pesky Pole, a right-field foul rod so nicknamed because Sox player Johnny Pesky hit a two-run homer around the pole on Opening Day in 1946?(mlb.com).

Photo op:?Get prime views of the park from the top of the Budweiser Right Field Roof Deck.

Insider tip:?The first five visitors to arrive at the Fan Services booth on the official ballpark tour may request to have their names put up on the original, manually-operated scoreboard (tours from $12).

South Beach, Miami
Even in typically overstated Miami terms, no place in the country captures Latin-tropical chic like South Beach, with its 23 pastel-hued blocks of hotels, shops, restaurants and cocktail bars south of Dade Boulevard. Glamorously restored art deco and art moderne hotels dominate Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, which run parallel to the Atlantic. Check out the high-rise Raleigh, with its curvaceous swimming pool; the Delano, a glossy white Philippe Starck confection; and the Mondrian, with its super-sized chess pieces standing guard near an ebony staircase. Given an average year-round temperature of 75 degrees, SoBe always draws a pretty crowd for people-watching along its ocean promenade (miamibeachguest.com).

Photo op:?Sunrise casts the best light on South Beach's Creamsicle-colored hotels. Find peak times for this and other locations at?golden-hour.com.

Insider tip:?South Beach is home to the most authentic Cuban-comfort-food restaurants outside of Havana. Try Puerto Sagua, where waiters have served?ropa vieja(shredded beef) and other staples since 1962 (700 Collins Ave.;?305/673-1115).

Civil Rights District, Atlanta
Atlanta's Sweet Auburn neighborhood draws thousands of visitors each year to pay respects to Martin Luther King Jr., the renowned African-American preacher and civil rights leader who was born here and whose messages on dignified protest still resonate worldwide. Popular locations include King's gravesite, the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King was baptized and ordained and where his funeral was held, and the King Birth Home, a Queen Anne-style house where he lived for the first dozen years of his life. A visitor's center at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site displays many artifacts, such as the photographs from the bus boycott that King organized to fight segregation (nps.gov/malu).

Photo op:?The visitors' center displays the mule wagon that carried King's body during his funeral procession.

Insider tip:?If you want to tour inside King's birthplace home, arrive early at the National Park Service visitor center, as tours book up fast.

Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pa.
Compelling battlefield tours are difficult to pull off, as there's often little to see. But Gettysburg, the most visited of Civil War battlefields, manages the trick. At the four-year-old, $135 million visitor's center, a 20-minute film narrated by Morgan Freeman explains how the three-day fight unfolded, while an 1884 Cyclorama depicts an infantry assault in a 359-foot-long-by-27-foot-high wraparound oil painting. Once you're oriented, drive the park's paved roads (a rented audio guide enhances the experience). The landscape you'll see is close to what the blue and grey saw, as the park service is slowly restoring tracts of land and forest to how they would have looked during the battle. Be sure to stop at Little Round Top, where 1,600 soldiers died in just a few hours of fierce fighting ? a small portion of the overall grim death toll (1195 Baltimore Pike,?nps.gov/gett).

Photo op:?An especially photogenic ? and pang-inducing ? memorial stands at nearby Soldiers' National Cemetery, where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Insider tip:?To find out whether a relative is buried here, check the Veteran's Administration website,?va.gov, which has a free?searchable database?of burials in national cemeteries throughout the United States.

Architecture in Chicago
Daring architecture is a hallmark of the U.S.A., and Chicago has long been the epicenter of our nation's "edifice complex." No other American city has tried to erect as many highrises spanning as many styles as the Windy City. The birthplace of the skyscraper, Chicago's downtown is currently bookended by two stunning buildings, the 110-story Willis Tower, which held the title of the world's tallest structure until 1998, and the John Hancock Center, whose austere crisscross trusses leave giant X marks rising 100 stories into the clouds. More whimsical works include Tribune Tower, a Gothic fantasy of an office complex; Skybridge, a 39-story, glass-plate wonder that resembles a razor-sharp grater; and Aqua Tower, a two-year-old surrealistic structure that looks like a topographic wave or a stack of potato chips ? pick your metaphor (architecture.org).

Photo op:?Head downtown to the Frank Gehry-designed BP Pedestrian Bridge, which connects Millennium Park with Grant Park and Daley Bicentennial Plaza. It rises above the tree line to provide astonishing views of the city's buildings (millenniumpark.org).

Insider tip:?The most fascinating architecture tour is actually in the suburb of Oak Park, Ill. Take a guided survey of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, typically departing from the late architect's Home and Studio (951 Chicago Ave.,?gowright.org, guided tour $25).

Ellis Island, N.J.
Four out of 10 Americans have at least one ancestor who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954 ? a whopping 12 million immigrants in that 62-year period. At the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, you'll visit re-creations of the port's key spaces, such the hearing rooms where people's cases were judged, while an audio tour narrated by Tom Brokaw delivers the back story. (For another perspective, listen to recordings of oral accounts from 1,500 immigrants and island workers at 20 listening stations.) You can also peruse more than 25 million newly digitized arrival records at 11 computer stations throughout the museum (ellisisland.org,?from $8).

Photo op:?Ellis Island offers the best land-based view of the Statue of Liberty, from one mile away (the statue itself is closed to visitors through the end of 2012 for a $27.25 million renovation); you'll also get great photos of the Manhattan skyline from the island.

Insider tip:?Ferries run daily from Manhattan's Battery Park and stop first at the Statue of Liberty (nps.gov/stli), so take an early-morning cruise to travel with smaller crowds.

Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the USS Arizona Memorial (nps.gov/usar), which honors the men who died on the famous battleship sunk in 1941's Pearl Harbor air raid. A scale model of the ship inside the monument's museum gives a sense of what it must have been like to be on the vessel while it was under attack, and public tours include a 22-minute movie presentation, followed by a visit to the Memorial itself. Nearby, a nonprofit group maintains the Battleship Missouri Memorial, which was the site of the formal Japanese surrender, while a preserved World War II submarine can be explored at the adjacent USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, run by another independent group.

Photo op:?The Kilo Pier looks directly at the Memorial from approximately half a mile away.

Insider tip:?Visitors may add the stories, photos or letters passed down by their family members in the archives of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Project, which aims to make all of the stories available in audio format for generations to come (pearlharborstories.org).

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
If a national temple to the visual arts exists in America, it might just be the Met, a 13-acre venue set, appropriately, within the city's most famous living work of art, Central Park. It draws more than 6 million visitors each year, and has a permanent collection of nearly 2 million works that span 5,000 years of creativity. The museum is currently undergoing renovation and renewal. Its American Wing (which stars Emanuel Leutze's portrayal of General George Washington crossing a near-frozen Delaware River during the Revolutionary War) reopened in January 2012 after extensive refurbishment. In 2007, the Greek and Roman galleries opened in a stunning, 60,000-square-foot-hall after a $220 million renovation, and a suite of 15 wholly revamped galleries for the museum's Islamic art collection debuted in late 2011 to serious acclaim. (1000 Fifth Ave.,??metmuseum.org, adult suggested donation $25).

Photo op:?The rooftop of the Met is open to visitors and provides one of the city's clearest views of the skyline to the east and south, including Central Park and the Empire State Building. Go at sunset.

Insider tip:?While a donation of $25 is strongly suggested, entering the museum is technically free, as a way to avoid discriminating against the poor.?

AP

Nearly 400 national parks can be found all across America, and feature breathtaking vistas, rock formations millions of years old, and more.

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Source: http://todaytravel.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/31/13052977-20-places-every-american-should-see?lite

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Read Leapfrogging and Generate Surprising Business Results

Surprise!? Surprises are only fun if they are the good kind; winning the lottery, walking out on Christmas day to a beautiful Lexus with a big red bow or just coming home from a long hard day to clean and folded laundry.? But there is something more to the idea of surprises; they are a critical component of innovation and success if only we could learn to harness them.

This is the message of my latest summer read, a new book called Leapfrogging: Harness the Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs by Soren Kaplan (@sorenkaplan).

What?s Leapfrogging?

The quickest way to get to the core of Leapfrogging is to give you the definition that sits on Soren Kaplan?s Twitter profile and the first page of the introduction:

?Leapfrogging is about changing the game?creating or doing something radically new or different that produces a significant leap forward.?

Hmmm, sounds a little like innovation to me ? maybe it?s innovation for the new world of work.

Early in the book, Kaplan gives us his philosophy on Leapfrogging, surprises and their connection to breakthroughs ? here are a couple of them:

Business breakthroughs deliver surprise: Our brains are wired to appreciate positive surprise. ?Great ideas surprise us with a strong dose of remarkable newness in ways that add value to our lives and challenge our assumptions about what we thought possible.

Surprises are strategic tools that drive breakthroughs.? By proactively seeking out and using surprises as ?guideposts? when they occur, we can gain new insights, generate ideas and discover new directions.

This is the core message of the book and it?s supported by Kaplan?s ?LEAP? process which stands for:

Listen ? Start with yourself and not the market.? All the market research in the world can actually hinder innovation.

Explore ? Go outside to stretch the inside.? Our blind spots ? or the areas that we don?t know, that we don?t know , are holding us back from breakthroughs.? Once we uncover these blind spots, our minds are opened up to see things differently.

Act ? Take small simple steps again and again and again.? Don?t assume that your breakthrough will come from one big brilliant idea.? Take small steps toward your goal.

Persist ? Take the surprise out of failure. You can?t succeed without failing.? In fact, failure is mandatory, especially if you are creating something new and different.? The world isn?t structured for this new thing you are creating.? So stop being surprised that you failed.? YAY for failure!

Seize ? Make the journey part of the surprising destination. Focus on your bigger purpose and practice humility.? That way you?ll see the road signs that will take you where the breakthrough is.

Soren Kaplan is a Living Leapfrogger

Soren Kaplan is the Founder and Managing Principal of InnovationPoint.? He leads strategic initiatives and provides leadership development for organizations that include Colgate-Palmolive, Disney, Pepsi, Visa and many more familiar brands.? He is also and Adjunct Professor within Imagineering Academy and NHTC Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

We meet our author in the beginning of the book as he?s headed into a Paris caf? to write this book.? At the time it was still an idea about how business owners and companies create business breakthroughs.? That?s when he has a leapfrogging moment ? right there in the caf?!? That?s when I realize that he?s not just researching and writing about a topic, but actually living it and allowing his insights to impact how he lives in the world.

Over the course of his research with major organizations and his experience in the field, he?s outlined a process and a way of behaving in the world that makes transforms surprises into breakthroughs and breakthroughs into innovations.

Why Read This Book?

Aside from the fact that it is interesting and entertaining, you?ll want to read this book because it will have you reflecting on all the different ways that you are disrupting the breakthrough process for yourself.? The start of each chapter has the top ideas frontloaded so that you can reflect on the key points as you read through the case studies.

You?ll also find reflective ?questions to consider? at the end of chapters and sections that you can answer for yourself, in a journal or along with your team.

I?d recommend this book to any small business team or corporate team.? It?s a book worth reading as a group and talking about.? I think that teams will uncover a handful of practices and strategies that they can use inside their organizations that, when put into practice, will create breakthroughs and innovations that will take their business forward in any economy.

About Ivana Taylor

Ivana Taylor is the publisher of DIYMarketers , where she shares daily do-it-yourself marketing tips, and is the President of Third Force, Inc., a marketing firm that specializes in getting your ideal customer to choose you. Ivana is the book editor for Small Business Trends and co-author of the book "Excel for Marketing Managers."

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Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/08/leapfrogging-book-review.html

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