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Monday, May 26, 2014

How to use Google+ Communities to Grow your Business


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Google+
 communities are groups on Google’s social network that focus on a specific set of subjects covering anything from baking to fashion to science fiction. A business, an individual or a group of individuals can run a Google+ community around any topic of their choosing to engage others interested in conversation on that subject. Members of a community can interact with the content shared by others in a community or choose to share their own content to start a new discussion.Brian Honigman is a marketing consultant, 
A community allows individuals and organizations to find other like-minded Google+ users, bringing greater visibility to their discussions and content. These communities can act as a direct connection with your audience, helping your business continue to alter the conversations they are having on Google+ based on user feedback.

Create your own Google+ community

Starting your own Google+ community is an effective way for your organization to be the facilitator of engaging conversations that affect your industry and matter to your customer base.
Start by coming up with an idea for the focus of your Google+ community that relates to the interest of your customer and is related to your business offerings.
Ford Photo Community 730x283 How to use Google+ communities to grow your business
For example, Upack.com created a community called Moving Tips and Advice, Microsoft created a community about Microsoft-related news and Ford created the Ford Photo Community.
Each of these communities are directly related to the interests of each company’s customer bases, which is why they are successful at engaging their users on Google+ within these communities.
Once you’ve chosen a topic, decide on a headline that will accurately express what your community is about in a few words to ensure this title is concise.
Click on “Create community” on the Google+ Communities page and from here, you’ll enter the title of the community and whether you wish the group to be private or public.To gain the full benefits and exposure the group can provide for your company, make the community public.
You can also decide to individually approve each member or allow people to instantly join your community. Manually adding members to your community may be time consuming, but it’s helpful in that you can review potential member profiles to ensure they actively use Google+ before allowing them to join.
Next, in an attempt to diminish duplicate communities covering the same subject, Google+ will ask you if you’d like to join a similar community instead of creating your own.
Google plus Communites profile setup How to use Google+ communities to grow your business
Once you’ve created your community, you’ll be prompted to add a descriptive tagline, add a profile photo, complete the about section with guidelines and any relevant links and lastly, create discussion categories to point conversations in the right direction.
The tagline should help encourage Google+ users to join your community by describing the subject focus. The profile photo should be a high-quality image that visually depicts your community for viewers.
Google plus community guidelines How to use Google+ communities to grow your business
Extensively fill out an about section that includes guidelines of the type of content you’d like to see shared in the community and what content is not allowed in the community. This is your opportunity to clearly define the type of discussions your moderators will allow in the community.
Community subcategories How to use Google+ communities to grow your business
Then create categories that define the different areas of discussion your community will have, which will then require that users categorize their content any time they decide to post in the community.

Optimize and build your own Google+ community

Share with your following on your Google+ brand page and other social networks, email and blog that you’ve created this community and invite them to participate.
Begin sharing relevant content in the group that’s exclusive and related to their interests. This will start to drive community conversations and encourage other users to begin contributing their own content.
Google plus post unpack How to use Google+ communities to grow your business
The ideal situation is to have the members of your group driving a majority of the conversations around the content they’re posting. A steady amount of user-generated content in your Google+ community is a sign that your community is thriving. Your business needs only to participate and contribute to these interactions regularly, trying mainly to facilitate and not dominate.
When posting content, make sure to share your original content and the content of other industry experts and your user base as well. When your brand shares the content of the members of your community, you’ll encourage more contributions from your community.
Lastly, consistent moderation is necessary to ensure your Google+ communities are continually generating quality conversations and that content being shared is not off-topic, self-promotional or spammy.
According to Mark Traphagen, the number one reason people decide not to join a Google+ community is because they see spam in its stream. Therefore, it’s important to add moderators to your community to ensure all submissions are consistently reviewed for quality and relevance to prevent losing any potential members or ruining the experience for existing members.

Engage in established Google+ communities

Whether your business has its own Google+ community or not, it is important to join in on the conversations of other communities on the social network.
Search for communities that relate to your industry and your business offerings, but most importantly, where your customer base is active on Google+.
Join these communities and become an active participant, providing useful insights by commenting and sharing the content of others, while also posting your own content when relevant.
Google plus post How to use Google+ communities to grow your business
Occasionally, alert your audience and your owned communities, if you have one, that you’re active in other communities and would recommend they become a member as well.
Some communities on Google+ are extremely active in their specific industry and are known as a feeder community. Since the participants and moderators are particularly active in these communities, content that is originally shared with them typically will start to trend across a large segment of Google+.
This is attributable to how active the participants of these communities are, as well as the influential networks some Google+ users in these communities have, which at times is thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people who have them in their circles.
Extensively search Google+ to join communities that match the goals of your business, but also have an extremely active user base. These communities on Google+ start some of the most engaged conversations and help drive the most traction to content on the social network.
What Google+ communities have driven the best conversations for your business on Google+? Does your business run their own community, participate in other communities or both? What tips helped your company achieve its goals with Google+ communities?
source: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/05/25/use-google-communities-grow-business/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=profeed

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

health-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS):Basics Fact Sheet


Coronaviruses 004 lores
SARS Coronavirus. "Corona" is Latin for "crown" or "halo". You can see the halo-like structures in this electron-microscope image.                                                                                        photo: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
Severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS) is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus, called SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003. The illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before the SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained.


http://www.cdc.gov/sars/index.html

NOTICE
Since 2004, there have not been any known cases of SARS reported anywhere in the world. The content in this Web site was developed for the 2003 SARS epidemic. But, some guidelines are still being used. Any new SARS updates will be posted on this Web site.

What Are Coronaviruses?

Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. They are common viruses that most people get in their lifetime. These viruses usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses.
source: http://www.cdc.gov/about/history/sars/index.htm

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - Overview

What is SARS?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a respiratory illness that first infected people in parts of Asia, North America, and Europe in late 2002 and early 2003. SARS is caused by a type of coronavirus, which can cause mild to moderate upper respiratory camera.gif illness, such as the common cold. This virus is known as SARS-CoV.
Experts believe SARS may have first developed in animals because the virus has been found in civets—a catlike wild animal that is eaten as a delicacy in China—and other animals.1 In the first outbreak 8,096 people became sick with SARS and 774 died.2

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms are a fever, a dry cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing. A person with SARS also may experience a headache, muscle aches, asore throatfatigue, and diarrhea. Older people may feel generally unwell (malaise) and lose their appetite but not have a fever.1 For some people the symptoms get worse quickly, making a hospital stay necessary.
The incubation period—the time from when a person is first exposed to SARS until symptoms appear—is usually 3 to 7 days but may be as long as 10 days. Experts believe a person can spread the illness to others only while he or she has symptoms. As a precaution, though, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people who have SARS stay home, except for doctor visits, until 10 days after their symptoms have gone away.
source: http://www.webmd.com/lung/tc/severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-sars-overview

How is SARS diagnosed?

SARS-CoV is detected using enzyme-linked immunoassays (EIA) or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are available through the CDC. These tests are performed on a sample respiratory secretions or blood.
These tests are performed only when the patient's history makes the SARS diagnosis likely and usually in consultation with infectious-disease subspecialists, state and local public-health authorities, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If a test is positive, it will be confirmed by the CDC. Other tests may be abnormal, but they are not specific for SARS. The chest X-ray shows pneumonia, which may look patchy at first. Typically, infiltrates have the appearance of "ground glass" on computed tomography scans but may progress to frank consolidation or "white out." Lymphocyte counts in the blood are usually decreased, and platelet counts may also be low. Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) levels may be increased.
SARS should be considered in people with the appropriate symptoms who work with SARS-CoV in a laboratory or who have recent exposure to infected people or mammals in Southern China. No human cases of SARS have been reported since 2004 in the United States, so it is extremely unlikely that a patient in the U.S. will have SARS without a history of such exposure. It is possible, however, that a new outbreak might occur. Therefore, SARS (along with other similar viruses) should also be considered when there is a cluster of unusually severe viral-like pneumonia that has no other explanation.

What is the treatment for SARS?

Patients with SARS often require oxygen, and severe cases require mechanical ventilation. Severely ill patients should be admitted to the intensive-care unit. No medication has been proven to treat SARS effectively, and treatment is largely supportive and directed by the patient's clinical condition. In the 2002-2003 outbreak, it initially appeared corticosteroids or interferon-alpha may have been useful, but this was not confirmed and remains controversial. In the test tube, some drugs from a group known as protease inhibitors appear effective against SARS-CoV, but these medications have not been studied in people with SARS. Management is aided by infectious-disease, pulmonary, and critical-care subspecialists. Medical caregivers need to follow strict policies on gloves, masks, gowns, and other protocols to avoid becoming infected.
http://www.medicinenet.com/severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome_sars/page5.htm#what_is_the_treatment_for_sars

SARS?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus, called SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003. Over the next few months, the illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before the SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained. This fact sheet gives basic information about the illness and what CDC has done to control SARS in the United States.
Find out more about SARS:

The SARS outbreak of 2003

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 8,098 people worldwide became sick with SARS during the 2003 outbreak. Of these, 774 died. In the United States, only eight people had laboratory evidence of SARS-CoV infection. All of these people had traveled to other parts of the world with SARS. SARS did not spread more widely in the community in the United States. See an update on SARS cases in the United States and worldwide as of December 2003.

Symptoms of SARS

In general, SARS begins with a high fever (temperature greater than 100.4°F [>38.0°C]). Other symptoms may include headache, an overall feeling of discomfort, and body aches. Some people also have mild respiratory symptoms at the outset. About 10 percent to 20 percent of patients have diarrhea. After 2 to 7 days, SARS patients may develop a dry cough. Most patients develop pneumonia.

How SARS spreads

The main way that SARS seems to spread is by close person-to-person contact. The virus that causes SARS is thought to be transmitted most readily by respiratory droplets (droplet spread) produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Droplet spread can happen when droplets from the cough or sneeze of an infected person are propelled a short distance (generally up to 3 feet) through the air and deposited on the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, or eyes of persons who are nearby. The virus also can spread when a person touches a surface or object contaminated with infectious droplets and then touches his or her mouth, nose, or eye(s). In addition, it is possible that the SARS virus might spread more broadly through the air (airborne spread) or by other ways that are not now known.

What does “close contact” mean?

In the context of SARS, close contact means having cared for or lived with someone with SARS or having direct contact with respiratory secretions or body fluids of a patient with SARS. Examples of close contact include kissing or hugging, sharing eating or drinking utensils, talking to someone within 3 feet, and touching someone directly. Close contact does not include activities like walking by a person or briefly sitting across a waiting room or office.

CDC’s response to SARS during the 2003 outbreak

CDC worked closely with WHO and other partners in a global effort to address the SARS outbreak of 2003. For its part, CDC took the following actions:
  • Activated its Emergency Operations Center to provide round-the-clock coordination and response.
  • Committed more than 800 medical experts and support staff to work on the SARS response.
  • Deployed medical officers, epidemiologists, and other specialists to assist with on-site investigations around the world.
  • Provided assistance to state and local health departments in investigating possible cases of SARS in the United States.
  • Conducted extensive laboratory testing of clinical specimens from SARS patients to identify the cause of the disease.
  • Initiated a system for distributing health alert notices to travelers who may have been exposed to cases of SARS.

What CDC is doing now

CDC continues to work with other federal agencies, state and local health departments, and healthcare organizations to plan for rapid recognition and response if person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV recurs. CDC has developed recommendations and guidelines to help public health and healthcare officials plan for and respond quickly to the reappearance of SARS in a healthcare facility or community. These are available in the document Public Health Guidance for Community-Level Preparedness and Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). CDC provides the latest information on SARS on the SARS website.
spurce: http://www.cdc.gov/sars/about/fs-SARS.html

Remembering SARS – 10 Years Later

In the 2003 global disease outbreak, what became known as SARS-CoV started as a mystery illness—without name, origin, or cure. Public health scientists across the globe scrambled to understand and contain this health threat.
CDC began working with the World Health Organization (WHO) in late February to investigate and confirm outbreaks of an unusual pneumonia in Southeast Asia. As WHO led a global effort to understand the illness and how to prevent its spread, questions outnumbered answers. At the time, all that was known about the new disease was that people quickly become severely ill and that it could be fatal.
source: http://www.cdc.gov/about/history/sars/index.htm

Monday, May 19, 2014

Face products: Order of Application

product-order-face
photo: wakeupfor makeup.com
1.) Cleanser: to remove any oils, bacteria, dead skin cells
2.) Serum/Treatments: your skin will absorb these more readily after cleansing and faster than a moisturizer
3.) Moisturizer: to seal in your serums or treatments, hydrate skin cells, plump up any fine lines and wrinkles makeup could settle in
4.) Primer: to create a smooth, even surface for foundation to glide over, filling in pores, fine lines, wrinkles and giving foundation an anchor
5.) Foundation: to even skin tone and conceal imperfections. Liquid foundation will glide over well-moisturized, primed skin.
6.) Concealer: we can now see the level of coverage our foundation provided and simply build upon that as needed. Applying foundation over concealer can move it around too much or dull a brightened under eye area.
7.) Powder: to set the liquid/cream portion of our application and ensure our powder products won’t grab onto sticky spots and appear blotchy.
8.) Bronzer: to bring color back into the face and add dimension. I prefer to work dark-to-light when it comes to cheek products and apply bronzer under cheekbones, at temples and around hairline.
9.) Blush: to add a pop of color to the cheeks, placing it just above the bronzer and sweeping back towards hairline.
10.) Highlighter: to bring the top of the cheekbones out and other areas of the face we want to bring forward. I create a small c-shape around my eye socket, from my cheekbones to my brow’s end.
My note: These are suggestions order of face product applications. There are some steps that you think that you do not use/need or it will take a lot of time when preparing dressing up and putting on makeup it is alright to miss some steps such as cleanser anyways you have washed your face,serum/treatment evenhighlighter but from Steps 3 to 9 they are basic. Before I used Mosturizer,foundation,concelaer,and then the blush. When I got to know the correct steps I added the primer and powder using the brush instead of small ppowder puff/ sponge the powder provides. it gave my make up application looks better than before as if i put on much flour rather than makeup.
source: http://wakeupformakeup.com/?p=3312

Thursday, May 15, 2014

10 Common Pancake-Making Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them


For many Americans, pancakes evoke a certain kind of nostalgia: dad flipping stacks of steaming, golden-brown disks for Sunday breakfast; gluttonous brunches at the local IHOP; mom’s breakfast-for-dinner night. People make pancakes because they’re delicious, crowd-pleasing, and easy. Well, sort of easy. There are a few crucial mistakes that home chefs commonly make when cooking this classic morning dish. We chatted with assistant food editor Claire Saffitz and test kitchen contributor Alfia Muzio about pancakes woes, and how to avoid them.
1. The Sum Is Greater Than the Parts
For something as subtle as pancakes, the quality of your ingredients is extremely important—
even the baking soda, which is responsible for making pancakes fluffy. Your baking soda 
should be less than 6 months old—or else it won’t do its job, which is to increase the volume 
of the pancake when it hits the hot pan. For wet ingredients, we love buttermilk. Its acids 
react with the baking soda, giving your pancakes even more lift and imparting a subtle tang. 
If you only have milk at your disposal, add a squeeze of lemon to it before mixing into your 
dry ingredients—the acidity is important in balancing your pancakes’ flavors.
2. Stir Until Every Last Lump Disappears
Lumps are actually okay! Stir your batter until the dry and wet ingredients are just 
incorporated. That means mixing until the flour streaks have disappeared, but leaving the
 pesky lumps. If you over-mix, the gluten will develop from the flour in your batter, 
making your pancakes chewy instead of fluffy.
3. I Can Make the Batter Ahead of Time, Right?
No! You can’t make your batter the night before, or even an hour before you make your 
pancakes. It all goes back to those leavening agents: They start doing their job as soon as 
they come into contact with the wet ingredients, and will get less and less effective the longe
 you wait to ladle the batter into the pan. Griddling your pancakes right away will yield much 
lighter, fluffier pancakes.
4. Use Your Trusty Sauté Pan
In pancake making, the sloped sides of a pan are not your friends. If you have a griddle,
 definitely use it. Otherwise, use a wide heavy-bottomed pan—if your pan is too thin, your 
pancakes will burn. The width is pretty important, too. You want there to be enough room 
to flip your pancakes without any messy business. (More on flipping later!)
5. Butter Is Always Better
Here’s the thing about butter: It’s really easy to burn. Especially when your pan is on medium 
heat for an extended period of time. The milk solids are what causes butter to burn, so when 
you’re cooking your pancakes, use clarified butter (in which the milk solids have already been 
separated). Otherwise, use vegetable oil (really!) or regular butter, and wipe your pan off after
 every two batches or so.
6. Berries, Chocolate Chips, Bananas—Mix ‘em Right In!
This is all based on personal preference, but here’s our take: Chocolate and berries will burn
 against the heat of the pan in the time it takes to cook your pancakes.If you absolutely MUST
 add mix-ins, first pour your batter into the pan, then add berries or chocolate chips. Bananas,
 however, will caramelize as the pancakes cook—so adding them is definitely a “do.”
7. Flip As Soon As You See Bubbles
This common mistake is a tip that almost every home pancake-maker knows—but it’s not true.
 You should not flip when you see bubbles, but you should flip when those bubbles pop and 
form holes that stay open on the surface of the pancake. If a bubble comes to the surface, 
pops, but is filled in by more pancake batter, hold off on flipping. Make sure your pancakes
 are hole-y!
8. Freestyle Flipping—It’s All in the Arm
Chances are, you’ve probably smeared pancake batter because of a sloppy flip. That’s
 because you were probably using your whole arm for what should be a quick, subtle motion.
 Here’s how to do it: Slide a thin spatula (we like to use fish spatulas) under your pancake,
 lift about three inches, and then briskly turn your wrist.Your pancake will land right where you
 picked it up, no smear in sight.
9. Every Batch Counts
Treat your first few pancakes as a test batch. Use them to gauge the heat, practice your 
flipping method, and become aware of any hot or cold spots on the pan. If there are hot 
spots, don’t be afraid to rotate the pan while you cook your ‘cakes to get them all a gorgeous
 golden brown.
10. Pour on the High-Fructose Corn Syrup!
Okay, you’ve put a lot of thought into making these perfectly fluffy pancakes. Please, respect 
the cakes by drizzling 100% maple syrup over them, not that translucent brown-colored
 “pancake syrup” that comes in a plastic bottle. We’re begging you. Oh, and a pat of butter
 to melt on top is not a bad idea, either. Just remember to invite us over to test it out.
SOURCE: http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/pancakes-common-mistakes

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Germany Sets New Record, Generating 74 Percent Of Energy Needs From Renewable Energy

credit/BY KILEY KROH
Wind turbines and transmission lines in Nauen near Berlin, Germany.
Wind turbines and transmission lines in Nauen near Berlin, Germany.
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/FERDINAND OSTROP
On Sunday, Germany’s impressive streak of renewable energy milestones continued, with renewable energy generation surging to a record portion — nearly 75 percent — of the country’s overall energy demand by midday. With wind and solar in particular filling such a huge portion of the country’s power demand, electricity prices actually dipped into the negative for much of the afternoon, according to Renewables International.
In the first quarter of 2014, renewable energy sources met a record 27 percent of the country’s electricity demand, thanks to additional installations and favorable weather. “Renewable generators produced 40.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, up from 35.7 billion kilowatt-hours in the same period last year,” Bloombergreported. Much of the country’s renewable energy growth has occurred in the past decade and, as a point of comparison, Germany’s 27 percent is double the approximately 13 percent of U.S. electricity supply powered by renewables as of November 2013.

Observers say the records will keep coming as Germany continues its Energiewende, or energy transformation, which aims to power the country almost entirely on renewable sources by 2050.
“Once again, it was demonstrated that a modern electricity system such as the German one can already accept large penetration rates of variable but predictable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar PV power,” said Bernard Chabot, a renewable energy consultant based in France, via email. “In fact there are no technical and economic obstacles to go first to 20 percent of annual electricity demand penetration rate from a combination of those two technologies, then 50 percent and beyond by combining them with other renewables and energy efficiency measures and some progressive storage solutions at a modest level.”
Germany renewables
CREDIT: BERNARD CHABOT
To reach the lofty goal of 80 percent renewables by 2050, Germany had to move quickly. Despite being known for gray skies, the country has installed an astonishing amount of solar photovoltaic (PV) power — setting multiple solar power generation records along the way. At the end of 2012, Germany had installed considerably more solar power capacity per capita than any other country. The rapid growth has slowed, however, with 3.3 GW of PV installed in 2013, compared to 7.6 in 2012. And as countries like the U.S., Japan and China catch up, installations have continued to drop in 2014.
Regardless, a recent analysis by the consulting firm Eclareon found that solar power has reached grid parity in Germany, meaning once all of the costs are accounted for, the price of commercial solar power is now equal to retail electricity rates.
And wind power reached record output levels last year — producing a massive 25.2 GW and accounting for 39 percent of the electricity supply on a single day in December.
The unprecedented growth of solar PV in particular has been fueled in large part by policies that incentivize clean energy. Germany’s simple feed-in tariff (FIT) policy, which pays renewable energy producers a set amount for the electricity they produce under long-term contracts, has driven the solar power boom. But as installations continued to outpace government targets, Germany announced last year that it would begin scaling back its feed-in tariff.
The FIT is financed by a surcharge paid by utility customers, but a major part of the problem stems from the fact that industry is largely exempt from the renewables surcharge — meaning the burden falls on households. Rather than adjust the industry exemption, the government instead proposed a “PV self-consumption charge” on new photovoltaic systems, something Germany’s Solar Industry Association recently announced it plans to challenge in court.
The equity of the renewables surcharge isn’t the only criticism of Germany’s power transformation. Along with cutting out fossil fuel-generated energy to a large extent, the transition to renewables includes completely phasing out nuclear power. These goals are only achievable in combination with greatly reduced energy demand. Instead, coal imports are increasing in order to meet the country’s baseload power demands. And retail electricity rates are high and rising, putting pressure on lower income individuals in particular.
But many of the criticisms are largely overblown, according to Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute. The modest uptick in coal-fired generation was substituting for pricier natural gas, not representative of a return to coal as it’s often mischaracterized. In fact, last December, as renewable energy production continued to grow and energy demand shrank, Germany’s largest utility chose not to renew two long-term contracts for coal-fired power.
And while much is made of rising industrial electricity prices, Lovins points out that in fact, “giant German firms enjoy Germany’s low and falling wholesale electricity prices, getting the benefit of renewables’ near-zero operating cost but exempted from paying for them.”
And as for the impact on the consumer, “the FIT surcharge raised households’ retail price of electricity seven percent but renewables lowered big industries’ wholesale price 18 percent. As long-term contracts expire, the past few years’ sharply lower wholesale prices could finally reach retail customers and start sending households’ total electricity prices back down.”
What’s more, “in Germany you have the option of earning back your payments, and far more, by investing as little as $600 in renewable energy yourself,” Lovins writes. “Citizens, cooperatives, and communities own more than half of German renewable capacity, vs. two percent in the U.S.”
Challenges aside, Energiewende — rooted in the acknowledgement that a fossil fuel-based energy system is not sustainable — is remarkable for its scope and its widespread support, particularly in a heavily industrialized country like Germany. “Don’t forget what Germany is doing right now. It’s changing its power supply,” Paul Hockenos, a Berlin-based energy expert and journalist, told Voice of America earlier this year. “The last time when an energy supply was changed was the industrial revolution; this is something that has never been done before.”
source:http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/13/3436923/germany-energy-records/

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Google debuts Classroom, a free Apps for Education tool to help teachers create and collect assignments

Google today launched a new free tool called Classroom as part of its Google Apps for Education suite. In short, Classroom helps teachers create and organize assignments, provide feedback to their students, and communicate with their classes.


Google says Classroom, which is still in preview, is based on the principle that “educational tools should be simple and easy to use” and is designed “to give teachers more time to teach and students more time to learn.” Here is what the company is promising the tool will offer:
  • Create and collect assignments: Classroom weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly. They can quickly see who has or hasn’t completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback to individual students.
  • Improve class communications: Teachers can make announcements, ask questions and comment with students in real time—improving communication inside and outside of class.
  • Stay organized: Classroom automatically creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student. Students can easily see what’s due on their Assignments page.

Teachers and professors can apply for a preview of Classroom over atclassroom.google.com/signup. Google says that based on the requests it receives, the company will invite a limited number of educators to try Classroom “in about a month.”
source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/05/06/google-debuts-classroom-free-apps-education-tool-help-teachers-create-collect-assignments/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=profeed
 Also read : http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/06/google-debuts-classroom-an-education-platform-for-teacher-student-communication/?ncid=rss

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Google Now gets a parking detector to remind you where you left your car

credit/by: 

Ever forgotten where you parked your car? If you use Google Now then that could become a thing of the past, as the service now includes a parking detector.
“When the card shows up in Google Now, you’ll see an indicator showing the approximate location of your car. To see other locations where you’ve recently parked, touch Previous locations. Your location data for parking location cards isn’t shared with anyone else,” Google explains.google now parking Google Now gets a parking detector to remind you where you left your carThe company says Google Now uses sensors in your phone to work out when you leaving a moving vehicle. That means that you might see the card if you get out of a bus or another person’s car — cards can be dismissed on erroneous occasions, while they can also be disabled entirely.
Other changes to Google Now, as noted by Android Police, include a new reminders interface, a centralized list for nicknames and the option to open some settings using voice. Sadly the update doesn’t include the ability to find your keys or retrieve your parking ticket.
source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/05/01/google-now-gets-parking-detector-remind-left-car/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=profeed
http://thenextweb.com/

Friday, May 2, 2014

How to Stop Your iPhone from Remembering Everywhere You Go, All the Time

credit/by: 
You probably know that a lot of iPhone apps log your locations so they can offer directions or geographic-based recommendations. But did you know the iPhone keeps a separate, locally stored history of everywhere you’ve been?
Now you do! It’s called Frequent Locations, and as BuzzFeed recently found out, this cache of location info “contains a perfect record of where you’ve been in the last month or so. That includes the exact time you arrived at and left anywhere: your office, a bar, that person’s house.”
Yes, if you were somewhere you shouldn’t have been, it’s probably not helpful to keep a record of that. This feature has existed on iOS 7 since it was launched in September of 2013 last year. It doesn’t store everything, but if your iPhone were to fall into the hands of someone who knows about this feature, it could be disastrous. 
Here’s how to view that history. And, more importantly, how to shut it off:
1. Go to Settings.
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2. Select Privacy.
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3. Select Location Services.
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4. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen, and select System Services.
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5. Select Frequent Locations.
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6. To see where you’ve been, tap the bar under History at the bottom of the screen. This could be helpful for remembering where that wonderful café you stumbled upon is located. Or reminding you which street your new doctor’s office is on,
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7. Your History takes into account your Home and Work locations (filtered in from Apple or Google Maps), and logs the number of times you visited, and the duration you stayed there. Tap a location to see all the specific times you’ve visited. I’m sharing mine below because I have nothing to hide.
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8. These entries are not always entirely accurate. For instance, I have my settings adjusted so that location services kicks in only when I’m hooked up to WiFi (to save battery life). So, for me, the duration of a recorded visit depends on if and when I remembered to enable WiFi. (I swear I don’t show up to work at 3:30 p.m.)
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8. Once you’re done looking at all that noise, go back to the Frequent Locations page. If you want to delete any trace of your whereabouts, tapClear History at the bottom of the page. 
9. Then turn Frequent Locations off.
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Now you can travel around your town without worrying that your phone is recording your every move




source: . https://www.yahoo.com/tech/how-to-stop-your-iphone-from-remembering-everywhere-you-84338305484.html