Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/214912756?client_source=feed&format=rss
diverticulitis jello shots bowl games abc store nate diaz vs donald cerrone ufc 141 lesnar vs overeem
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Business Innovation In Practice: Do You Know Richard Bransons ...
on March 21, 2012 by Nikos Chatzis in Business, News, Comments (1)
By Richard Branson
- I am often asked if I have found a secret ? or at least a consistent answer ? to successfully building businesses over my career.
- So I?ve spent some time thinking about what characterizes so many of Virgin?s successful ventures and, importantly, what went wrong when we did not get it right. Reflecting across 40 years I have come up with five ?secrets.? / Richard Branson /
Richard Branson: No. 1: Enjoy What You Are Doing?
- Because starting a business is a huge amount of hard work, requiring a great deal of time, you had better enjoy it. When I started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, I did not set out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed that would pay the bills.
- There was no great plan or strategy. The name itself was thought up on the hoof. One night some friends and I were chatting over a few drinks and decided to call our group Virgin, as we were all new to business. The name stuck and had a certain ring to it.
- For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that?s going to make a real difference to other people?s lives.
- A businesswoman or a businessman is not unlike an artist. What you have when you start a company is a blank canvas; you have to fill it. Just as a good artist has to get every single detail right on that canvas, a businessman or businesswoman has to get every single little thing right when first setting up in business in order to succeed. However, unlike a work of art, the business is never finished. It constantly evolves.
- If a businessperson sets out to make a real difference to other people?s lives, and achieves that, he or she will be able to pay the bills and have a successful business to boot. / Richard Branson /
Richard Branson: No. 2: Create Something That Stands Out?
- Whether you have a product, a service or a brand, it is not easy to start a company and to survive and thrive in the modern world. In fact, you?ve got to do something radically different to make a mark today.
- Look at the most successful businesses of the past 20 years. Microsoft, Google or Apple, for example, shook up a sector by doing something that hadn?t ever been done and by continually innovating. They are now among the dominant forces. / Richard Branson /
- Businesses generally consist of a group of people, and they are your biggest assets. / Richard Branson /
Richard Branson: No. 4: Be a Good Leader?
- As a leader you have to be a really good listener. You need to know your own mind but there is no point in imposing your views on others without some debate. No one has a monopoly on good ideas or good advice.
- Get out there, listen to people, draw people out and learn from them. As a leader you?ve also got to be extremely good at praising people. Never openly criticize people; never lose your temper, and always lavish praise on your colleagues for a job well done.
- People flourish if they?re praised. Usually they don?t need to be told when they?ve done wrong because most of the time they know it. If somebody is not working out, don?t automatically throw him or her out of the company. A company should genuinely be a family. So see if there?s another job within the company that suits them better. On most occasions you?ll find something for every single kind of personality. / Richard Branson /
Richard Branson: No. 5: Be Visible?
- A good leader does not get stuck behind a desk. I?ve never worked in an office ? I?ve always worked from home ? but I get out and about, meeting people. It seems I am traveling all the time but I always have a notebook in my back pocket to jot down questions, concerns or good ideas.
- If I?m on a Virgin Atlantic plane, I make certain to get out and meet all the staff and many of the passengers. If you meet a group of Virgin Atlantic crew members, you are going to have at least 10 suggestions or ideas. If I don?t write them down, I may remember only one the next day. By writing them down, I remember all 10. Get out and shake hands with all the passengers on the plane, and again, there are going to be people who had a problem or have a suggestion. Write it down, make sure that you get their names, get their e-mail addresses, and make sure the next day that you respond to them.
- Of course, I try to make sure that we appoint managing directors who have the same philosophy. That way we can run a large group of companies in the same way a small business owner runs a family business ? keeping it responsive and friendly.
- When you?re building a business from scratch, the key word for many years is ?survival.? It?s tough to survive. In the beginning you haven?t got the time or energy to worry about saving the world. You?ve just got to fight to make sure you can look after your bank manager and be able to pay the bills. Literally, your full concentration has to be on surviving.
- ?Obviously, if you don?t survive, just remember that most businesses fail and the best lessons are usually learned from failure. You must not get too dispirited. Just get back up and try again. / Richard Branson /
- globalnewspointer.net: Richard Branson?s advice is a real call to constant innovation and applied business leadership.
- It is clear that for achieving to be a successful entrepreneur you have to know yourself first.
- Finally, it is realistic to accept that you need other people to listen to you and listen to them, to support you and support them and to brainstorming with them? / Richard Branson /
Tags: Business Innovation, Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic
Source: http://www.globalnewspointer.net/?p=11446
norovirus ann coulter beyonce and jay z baby droid 4 tom brady sister dad shoots daughters laptop brandon jennings
sticks and stones sticks and stones top chef powerball winner powerball winner narwhals narwhals
'Immigration Order' Comforts Latino Community
POSTED: 5:54 pm EDT March 22, 2012
UPDATED: 7:15 am EDT March 23, 2012
? 2012 by WBALTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Contact Us
Source: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/30741854/detail.html
kris jenner livestand power ball kelly slater kelly slater palindrome palindrome
Electric car revolution faces increasing headwinds
DETROIT |
DETROIT (Reuters) - Scott Kluth has a love-hate relationship with his new Fisker Karma luxury electric sedan.
The 34-year-old car lover bought the plug-in hybrid electric Karma in December for $107,850, but five days later the car's battery died as he was driving in downtown Chicago. While the car he affectionately calls a "head turner" was fixed in a recall, Kluth remains uncertain how much he will drive it.
"I just want a car that works," Kluth said. "It's a fun car to drive. It's just that I've lost confidence in it."
The Karma's problems -- one vehicle died during testing by Consumer Reports this month -- follow bad publicity arising from a probe of General Motors Co's Chevrolet Volt and weak sales of the car, and the closure or bankruptcy of several electric vehicle-related start-ups.
The unrelenting bad news has led to questions about the readiness of electric cars and raises fresh doubts about a technology that has been around since the late 1890s but is still struggling to win over the public.
Whether electric vehicles can find an audience beyond policymakers in Washington and Hollywood celebrities depends on lowering vehicle prices without selling cars at a loss, analysts and industry executives say, while extending driving range to make the cars competitive with their gasoline-powered peers.
"It's going to be a slow slog," said John O'Dell, senior green car editor at industry research firm Edmunds.com. "Maybe there's too much expectation of more and quicker success than might realistically be expected of a brand new technology."
He also questioned whether priorities will simply change for whomever is U.S. president after the November election. Electric vehicles could lose tax breaks -- currently worth $7,500 a vehicle for buyers -- particularly if a Republican ends up in the White House.
Edmunds expects pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids to make up only 1.5 percent of the U.S. market in 2017, compared with 0.1 percent last year, and O'Dell said that may be optimistic. Consumers charge all-electric cars by plugging into an outlet, while hybrid versions include a gasoline engine.
President Barack Obama's administration has been a strong proponent of electric vehicles like the Volt and set a goal of getting 1 million battery-powered vehicles on the road by 2015. Lux Research estimates that number will actually be fewer than 200,000. Both the Volt and Karma's development were supported by low-interest federal loans.
That has not dissuaded automakers, many of which plan to launch electric vehicles to join the Volt and Nissan's all-electric Leaf in a bid to meet rising fuel efficiency standards. Toyota has begun selling a plug-in Prius, and EVs from Ford, Honda, BMW and Fiat will join the fray this year, along with cars from start-ups Tesla and Coda Automotive.
HENRY FORD'S WIFE
Electric cars aren't a new concept. Henry Ford bought his wife, Clara, at least two electric cars in the early 1900s offering at best 50 miles driving range and top speeds of about 35 miles per hour, according to the Henry Ford Museum.
But analysts said automakers have not done a good enough job getting the costs down and explaining the technology to win over anyone beyond early adopters like actor Leonardo DiCaprio, pop idol Justin Bieber, comedian Jay Leno and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"You can do all the advertising and promotion you want, but if people don't buy into the message the needle's not going to move," said George Cook, a marketing professor at the University of Rochester's business school and a former Ford executive.
The Volt, at almost $40,000 before federal subsidies, is seen as too expensive by many critics. Fiat-Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, a long-time EV skeptic, has said Chrysler will lose more than $10,000 on every battery-powered Fiat 500 it sells.
And even with rising gasoline prices -- topping $4 a gallon in parts of the country -- EVs are just not competitive, according to the Lundberg Survey. Gasoline prices would have to rise to $8.53 a gallon to make the Leaf competitive and hit $12.50 for a Volt to be worth it, based on the cost of gasoline versus electricity, fuel efficiency and depreciation, the survey said.
Obama's vision, which he laid out at a Daimler truck plant in North Carolina this month, includes a car battery that costs half the price of today's versions and can go up to 300 miles on a single charge. The industry is far from achieving that.
Since last fall, there has been a run of bad news for EVs, starting with the late November news that U.S. safety regulators were investigating the Volt for possible battery fires.
While the federal investigation was closed with the conclusion there was no defect and the car did not pose a greater risk of fire than gas-powered vehicles, weak demand led GM to halt production for five weeks and temporarily lay off 1,300 workers at the plant that builds the car. GM, which strengthened the structural protection of the Volt battery, has repeatedly said the car is safe, and some said the safety probe should have never occurred.
The Karma that died during testing by Consumer Reports magazine was another blow following a recall of more than 200 of the cars last year and the halting of sales in January for a software issue. Fisker, which builds the Karma in Finland, also suspended work last month at its U.S. plant scheduled to make another car, the Nina sedan, while it works to renegotiate a $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher said problems can arise with new technologies and a new company but added Fisker had gone "beyond the call of duty" in instituting a system to respond to customer issues and had plenty of satisfied owners. CEO Tom LaSorda in a letter to Karma owners last week said Fisker was committed to giving customers "complete peace of mind" and he had created a "SWAT team" of 50 engineers and consultants to identify issues with the car.
'FIRST LAW OF DISNEY'
"The expectations have always been too high for electric cars," said Bill Reinert, Toyota's U.S. manager for advanced technology. "The realities have always been clouded by the dreams. I like to say it's the first law of thermodynamics versus the first law of Disney. Disney is wishing it will be so. It doesn't work." Toyota has always been skeptical EVs would quickly boost its share of the auto market.
Meanwhile, several companies have struggled due to lack of funding or customer troubles.
A123 Systems posted a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss this month after Fisker, one of its largest customers, cut battery orders. Bright Automotive, an Indiana electric commercial truck start-up, closed its doors in February after failing to get a federal loan.
Ener1 Inc, which received a $118.5 million federal grant to make lithium-ion batteries for EVs, filed for bankruptcy in January, and Aptera Motors, a California-based EV start-up, went out of business last December after it couldn't raise $80 million in private funding.
"There will be more companies that fail, but it's no different than Internet companies," said Kristen Helsel, vice president of EV solutions for AeroVironment, which makes EV charging stations for BMW, Mitsubishi and Nissan. "People with the right business model are going to do fine."
A number of top national retail chains, including Kohl's and Walgreen, have begun installing charging stations at their stores, but critics say the U.S. push for electric cars has come before such infrastructure is in place, weakening the case for consumers to be attracted to the technology.
But since the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar panel maker that received $535 million in U.S. loan guarantees, federal support for advanced vehicle technology programs has ground to a halt. Industry officials and analysts point to tightened U.S. Department of Energy requirements in the face of withering criticism from Republicans about the Obama administration's generosity for anything related to green technology.
"There was certainly a different energy level one year ago, even two years ago," said Oliver Hazimeh, sustainable transportation practice leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers. "This year, it just had a different drumbeat." Hazimeh sees long-term demand for EVs rising to up to 9 percent of the global market by 2022, but he predicts there will be some setbacks along the way.
Obama wants to increase the tax subsidies for buyers of electric vehicles to $10,000 per vehicle from the current $7,500. But critics say the small EV sales totals tell the real story.
Complicating matters, automakers continue to squeeze increased fuel efficiency out of the internal combustion engine. That makes it tougher to make EV sticker prices attractive enough to put a dent in the traditional gasoline-powered vehicles' domination of the market.
The EV's industry's struggles have vindicated the more deliberate approach taken by Toyota, Ford and Chrysler's Marchionne, who killed plans for a Chrysler electric car, analysts said.
Still, proponents say electric-car sales will grow just like Toyota's hybrid Prius rose from about 5,500 in its U.S. debut in 2000 to a peak of more than 180,000 in 2007.
Doug Parks, GM's chief Volt engineer, said the proof is in the large amounts of money automakers are spending on EV technology development.
"Follow the money. People are investing huge in this stuff," he said. "This is a 10- or 20-year discussion and we've been selling the Volt for a year."
GM, which recently launched a new advertising campaign centered on testimonials by adoring Volt owners, has made the car the centerpiece of efforts to seize from Toyota the mantle as the world's greenest automaker. Meanwhile, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has estimated pure electric vehicles like the Leaf will make up 10 percent of industry global sales by 2020.
Time will tell if that's wishful thinking.
"It's been the Kool-Aid that the entire political system has been drinking for a decade," said Bob Martin, a senior consultant with auto product development firm The CarLab. "Electric cars are not ready for prime time. They're really interesting toys for very, very rich people."
(Additional reporting by Braden Reddall in Benecia, California and Bernie Woodall in Geneva; Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Edward Tobin, Martin Howell and Steve Orlofsky)
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/Ar2S8x4nOF8/us-electriccars-idUSBRE82K06T20120321
rally squirrel rally squirrel scumbag steve scumbag steve day of the dead rocksmith blackbeard
Automotive Radiator Cooling Systems General Repair | Technology ...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Let your voice explain to this Xmas story to youngsters for lots of years to come. If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may well want to.
Source: http://www.rca46la45rq.info/4621/automotive-radiator-cooling-systems-general-repair/
oklahoma state santonio holmes raheem morris winter classic mt rainier caucus stanford vs oklahoma state
Qatari Diar appoints thirteen international law firms to legal panels ...
13 international firms appointed over six panels;
46 international firms invited to tender.
Doha, Qatar: Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment CompanyQatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company
(Qatari DiarQatari Diar), an international leader in sustainable development and investment, has confirmed its appointment of thirteen international law firms to Qatari DiarQatari Diar's six legal panels.The six legal panels cover the following practice areas: hotels, construction, finance, corporate, UK projects and international.
Commenting on the panel appointments, Qatari DiarQatari Diar Group CEO Eng. Mohammed bin Ali Al Hedfa said, "I am delighted that we have appointed these thirteen international firms to support Qatari DiarQatari Diar's global presence across our six panels. Qatari DiarQatari Diar was impressed by the high quality of the proposals received from the firms which participated. ""Having prior knowledge and experience of Qatar and the GCC as well as the sectors and other regions we work in were essential in the selection of firms and is crucial to Qatari DiarQatari Diar
46 firms were long-listed and invited to tender - the largest ever tender by the company - and firms were requested to submit their proposals in January 2012, with short-listed firms invited to present in London and Doha in late February. No one firm has been appointed to more than 3 panels with appointments starting 1st April 2012 for three years.
Qatari DiarQatari Diar
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
zachary quinto brewers harbaugh the walking dead season 2 milwaukee brewers will power will power
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Why spring is blooming marvelous (and climate change makes it earlier)
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uwSEUQ9QdMu7yqugcggStJYiULcTS0u_C3J31in87gGCU32UmKzHUrPN1xKoh1cLiut9WIvUvsvUfMcutiwj266FUWMGu20jDuI0OOw9Q=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 21-Mar-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Zoe Dunford
zoe.dunford@nbi.ac.uk
44-160-325-5111
Norwich BioScience Institutes
With buds bursting early, only for a mild winter to turn Arctic and wipe them out, we are witnessing how warm weather can trigger flowering, even out of season, and how important it is for plants to blossom at the right time of year.
BBSRC-funded scientists have unpicked why temperature has such a powerful affect on how plants flower. In research to be published in the journal Nature, scientists from the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park have identified the switch that accelerates flowering time in response to temperature.
With warm air, a control gene, called PIF4, activates the flowering pathway, but at lower temperatures the gene is unable to act.
"What is striking is that temperature alone is able to exert such specific and precise control on the activity of PIF4," said Dr Phil Wigge, the lead scientist in the study.
Previously, it has been shown that PIF4 is vital for controlling other aspects of plant responses to warmth, for example growth, but this is the first time that the gene has been shown to be necessary for the activation of flowering by temperature.
Flowering is activated by a special molecule, called Florigen. Florigen is activated by many signals, including the longer days of spring. Some plants rely more on temperature, others more on daylength to control key stages in their life cycle such as leaf emergence and flowering. This is reflected in the old saying "Ash before Oak, you're in for a soak; Oak before Ash, you're in for a splash."
While the pathway that activates florigen in response to daylength has been known for many years, how temperature activates Florigen has been a mystery until now.
At lower temperatures, plants do still flower eventually but via other pathways. Any acceleration triggered by PIF4 is lost as it does not bind to and switch on the Florigen gene. As temperatures increase, PIF4 is able to bind the Florigen gene and trigger flowering.
"Our findings explain at the molecular level what we observe in our gardens as the warmer temperatures of spring arrive," said Wigge.
"It also explains why plants are flowering earlier as a result of climate change."
Wigge and colleagues hope their research will eventually allow temperature-resilient crops to be developed. Crops plants often respond very strongly to warmer temperatures, reducing yields. By understanding at the molecular levels how plants sense temperature, the team hopes to breed crops which are more resilient to climate change.
"Knowing the key players in the temperature response pathways will be a valuable tool for safeguarding food security in an era of climate change," said Wigge.
With all seven of the warmest years on record in the UK having occurred in the past decade, the race is on to help crops cope with the effects of higher temperatures caused by climate change.
###
The John Innes Centre is strategically funded by the BBSRC.
Reference:
Transcription factor PIF4 controls the thermosensory activation of flowering, Nature doi:10.1038/nature10928
[ | 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: 21-Mar-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Zoe Dunford
zoe.dunford@nbi.ac.uk
44-160-325-5111
Norwich BioScience Institutes
With buds bursting early, only for a mild winter to turn Arctic and wipe them out, we are witnessing how warm weather can trigger flowering, even out of season, and how important it is for plants to blossom at the right time of year.
BBSRC-funded scientists have unpicked why temperature has such a powerful affect on how plants flower. In research to be published in the journal Nature, scientists from the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park have identified the switch that accelerates flowering time in response to temperature.
With warm air, a control gene, called PIF4, activates the flowering pathway, but at lower temperatures the gene is unable to act.
"What is striking is that temperature alone is able to exert such specific and precise control on the activity of PIF4," said Dr Phil Wigge, the lead scientist in the study.
Previously, it has been shown that PIF4 is vital for controlling other aspects of plant responses to warmth, for example growth, but this is the first time that the gene has been shown to be necessary for the activation of flowering by temperature.
Flowering is activated by a special molecule, called Florigen. Florigen is activated by many signals, including the longer days of spring. Some plants rely more on temperature, others more on daylength to control key stages in their life cycle such as leaf emergence and flowering. This is reflected in the old saying "Ash before Oak, you're in for a soak; Oak before Ash, you're in for a splash."
While the pathway that activates florigen in response to daylength has been known for many years, how temperature activates Florigen has been a mystery until now.
At lower temperatures, plants do still flower eventually but via other pathways. Any acceleration triggered by PIF4 is lost as it does not bind to and switch on the Florigen gene. As temperatures increase, PIF4 is able to bind the Florigen gene and trigger flowering.
"Our findings explain at the molecular level what we observe in our gardens as the warmer temperatures of spring arrive," said Wigge.
"It also explains why plants are flowering earlier as a result of climate change."
Wigge and colleagues hope their research will eventually allow temperature-resilient crops to be developed. Crops plants often respond very strongly to warmer temperatures, reducing yields. By understanding at the molecular levels how plants sense temperature, the team hopes to breed crops which are more resilient to climate change.
"Knowing the key players in the temperature response pathways will be a valuable tool for safeguarding food security in an era of climate change," said Wigge.
With all seven of the warmest years on record in the UK having occurred in the past decade, the race is on to help crops cope with the effects of higher temperatures caused by climate change.
###
The John Innes Centre is strategically funded by the BBSRC.
Reference:
Transcription factor PIF4 controls the thermosensory activation of flowering, Nature doi:10.1038/nature10928
[ | 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/2012-03/nbi-wsi032012.php
frank gore nfl schedule nfl games jesus montero hiroki kuroda kuroda nfl scores
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)