Advertising Small Businesses With A Limited Budget

Small businesses may have a limited marketing budget so good value advertising is important. A marketing plan should be developed and integrated so that it is a central part of the business. Using targeted advertising channels that fit within the budget and business aims are crucial for success.

Being smart about advertising

Small businesses need to develop a thorough and intelligent approach to marketing. Advertising can be expensive and costly mistakes are easily made. By producing a detailed marketing plan, small business can avoid untargeted publicity. A marketing plan can include information about your target audience, business aims, marketing messages, marketing budget and tactics. A plan may also include competitor analysis such as competitor pricing and advertising.

Once a marketing budget is established, businesses can explore communications channels to reach customers. For small business advertising it is important to stick to the marketing plan and not be swayed by pushy sales people or offers. Sales callers may be trying to sell advertising in print publications or on websites or trying to recruit your company for search engine optimization. It is prudent to refer to the marketing plan and stick to the smart objectives and marketing tactics to avoid any costly errors.

Small Business

Advertising channels for small businesses

Small business advertising plans should explore all free publicity. Free marketing can include listings on local websites or listings in free print directories. A press release may also be free and can generate publicity. Whilst you can write a press release yourself and send it to print and online media to publish, it may be wise to employ a public relations consultant for their writing skills and media contacts.

Small companies should use social media as a free channel for publicity. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are all free and can bring huge benefits for small businesses. It?s a great way of communicating with customers and other businesses. LinkedIn and Twitter are particularly good for business to business marketing. It is important to use the different social media channels appropriately for the particular media and fittingly for the type of business. Facebook offers different ways of setting up pages and groups and posting messages so that communications are effective. Staff resourcing for social media is also a consideration.

If paid for advertising is essential, then it is important to research the options fully. Check what competitors are doing, analyses the demographic of your target audience, investigate the reach of the different media and establish the costs involved. Becoming familiar with marketing language is also essential or a marketing consultant could be hired to provide advice on the different options available. Paid for advertising channels for small business include print publications, direct mail, email marketing, online advertising, radio advertising, Facebook advertising, outdoor advertising and Google Adwords. Television advertising is hugely expensive so not usually suitable for small businesses.

Measuring advertising outcomes

All advertising should be monitored, measured and evaluated. Evaluation will give a small business an indication of how and where their customers are finding them. It can also be a good indicator for what marketing channels to use in the future and which channels to drop.

AUTHOR BIO

Anna Mathews writes regularly on business for a range of business and marketing websites. She has owned her own small business and has become educated on small business advertising and marketing through her own experience and practice, as well as completing the Professional Diploma in Marketing through the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

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Source: http://toptenpk.com/advertising-small-businesses-with-a-limited-budget/

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Free Radio Broadcasting Service Across the Globe | EYES IN EYES IN

Online radio is gaining popularity in the present digital era, as an increasing number of Internet surfers are taking to Internet radio in place of on-air radio. Great news for those looking for cost effective internet radio services - Internet Live Radio BlogSpot has announced to provide free of cost radio broadcasting service from different live online radio stations all across the globe. The live radio stations would be broadcasted straight to the audience's computer.

As per the recent statistics, weekly Internet radio audience has reached up to 57 million listeners. "We do understand the massive demand of Internet radio in the modern digital space and hence we have come up as an extensive platform with a free of cost radio broadcasting service through a wide range of live online radio stations all across the globe", commented the spokesperson of the online live radio site.

While approached further, the Internet Live Radio BlogSpot informed to offer a great variety of radio programs from the different worldwide online radio stations. The different radio programs streamed from the site include radio talk shows, hot news, free of cost Internet music, entertainment and popular programs.

"With us you can listen to your favorite FM AM free of cost Web music stations from all around the world. The streaming FM AM radio would be broadcasted right to the computer", added the spokesperson of the site.

The Internet Live Radio manager revealed that they are streaming radio programs from Africa, Arabic, Iranian, Indonesian,Germany, English, French, Vietnamese,Singapore, Thai, Tamil, Hindi, Japanese and Russian radio stations.

"Whether you are interested in hot news from Arab or infotainment from Vietnam we are ready with everything for you. You can also choose to listen on different genre of music like rock songs or jazz music or dance-techno electronics beats", he said.

The site also offers online radio-audio streaming software for those having difficulty in proper broadcasting of the radio stations through their computer.

For more information about Internet Live Radio BlogSpot, please visit their Website.

Images Courtesy: Internet Live Radio

Source: http://www.eyesin.com/music/2012/internet-live-radio/

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Review: Killing Them Softly | Film Reviews | Gambit New Orleans ...

Australian filmmaker Andrew Dominik's mob movie Killing Them Softly reveals its true nature in an odd but memorable opening sequence. Debris blows around an empty and burned-out urban landscape. The year is 2008, and both the presidential campaign and the financial crisis hang heavy in the air. A speech by Barack Obama provides the only accompaniment to the stark images, but it's all cut in an intentionally jarring and disorienting style that repeatedly interrupts the eloquent candidate in mid-sentence ? sometimes mid-word. Clearly this is not going to be a conventional crime thriller. And like the rest of Dominik's movie ? which takes great pains to conflate gun-wielding gangsters with the kind found on Wall Street ? it seems a bit heavy-handed. But dull or predictable it's not.

??Writer/director Dominik, who previously was known primarily for the brooding Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, based Killing Them Softly on George V. Higgins' 1974 crime novel Cogan's Trade, which was set on the mean streets of Boston. The movie was shot last year in New Orleans ? sometimes recognizably so ? but specific towns mentioned in the script suggest New Jersey. Dominik wants us to understand that the exact location of events doesn't matter. This is America, and as clear-headed but ruthless hit man Jackie Cogan (brilliantly portrayed by Brad Pitt) eventually tells us, "it's not a country, it's a business." This climactic scene (which includes a cameo by New Orleans' own John "Spud" McConnell) also steals a key line directly from the Coen Brothers' classic Blood Simple, revealing a primary source of the film's withering worldview.

??Killing Them Softly makes the most of all its pop-culture references. The story involves the grisly consequences of a poor decision made by small-time crooks to rob a high-stakes, mob-connected poker game. But the important thing here is character. Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) and James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) appear in key roles as a tragically loose-lipped hood and a sociopathic killer, respectively. Their presence instantly recalls the best mob stories of the last couple of decades and provides a foundation on which the movie can build its own identity. As cultural references go, the film's use of a wordless two-chord vamp from The Velvet Underground's "Heroin" to underscore an addict's reveries may not constitute subtlety, but it's highly effective nonetheless.

??Much has been made of the film's extreme violence, but that element is concentrated mostly in two scenes crucial to the film's larger aims. One involves a brutal beating that's vivid and realistic enough to make you avert your eyes. The other transforms an assassination into a beautiful slow-motion ballet of bullets and broken glass that would have made director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) proud. There's nothing gratuitous or cartoonish about these scenes. Movies like Killing Them Softly and the recent Killer Joe use violence to reveal something true about our culture, and they shine a harsh light on lesser movies that sensationalize brutality. It's never easy to watch, but that is precisely the point. ? KEN KORMAN

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Why Knowledge Is Power In IT Outsourcing | Business Computing ...

Over the past five years doing business in this cyclical, topsy-turvy and fragile economy has brought a number of challenges. Not least, the search for an answer to the question: ?am I getting the most out of my IT outsourcing contract??

An increasing number of organisations have turned to outsourcing as a means of cutting costs, increasing efficiency or tapping into additional skills. However, many of these organisations have failed to access the full benefits from their outsourcing contracts within some, or all, of their operations.

In order to address this, it?s worth considering that most organisations with failing outsourcing engagements typically have one common factor. This is the lack of effective knowledge transfer from the in-house team to outsourcing organisation?s team. Most if not all outsourcing providers undertake ?knowledge transfer? when taking over a new project, or imbedding a new client. However, with so many unsuccessful engagements, it is clear that this ?knowledge transfer? is not happening as effectively as it should.

The reason that the majority of ?knowledge transfer? is ineffective is because organisations forget the basics of communication. While we all use words to communicate, the words we use to convey images and associations can often get lost in translation or have an alternative meaning to the particular context in which they are being used. For example, the mention of a specific ?payroll system? could bring winces or nodding heads from the internal team, but will mean nothing to the outsourcing team if not explained clearly.

This is an example of a shared, unspoken ?collective consciousness? that accumulates over time within any close group or organisation. The reason for this is that most organisations develop not only a ?collective consciousness? but also a collective shorthand that describes it.

With this in mind, it?s important to remember that the majority of organisations have grown organically over a number of years. During this time processes, systems and the like have not developed completely in line with a long-term strategic plan. Instead they have grown on an ad-hoc basis in response to internal and external pressures.

This could be for new products to satisfy regulatory and audit requirements, as new technologies become available, and so on. The result of all this ad-hoc growth is that it is very rare to find an organisation that has up-to-date documentation regarding its IT architecture, data flows and processes. It is more usual to find the vast majority of information in the heads of a small number of subject matter experts (SMEs).

In most cases the domain specific knowledge of individual systems, data flows, networks and how ?everything hangs together? resides with this group of SMEs. This group use their own shorthand to communicate between themselves and other members of the organisation.

Any person who is outside the SME group, and outside the shared consciousness, is not conversant with the necessary details to fully understand the shorthand. As a result, participation in discussions requires a ?translation table?. This is similar to any other professional setting including accountancy or tax specialists, where the expertise and experience of these professionals requires translation into language that non-specialists can understand.

Unfortunately, in the rush to gain the short-term cost gains from outsourcing, the majority of organisations forget about this essential ?collective consciousness?. They seem to overlook the need to have a ?translation table? in place. This makes is difficult for the outsourcing company?s personnel to quickly and effectively acquire the necessary knowledge to enable them to deliver business value shortly after the arrangements have been finalised.

Similarly, the outsourcing providers, eager for the revenue and associated profit streams, play up their experience and/or expertise with technologies they have worked on with other clients. As a result, they do not explicitly bring the requirement for acquiring the experience and expertise that exists in the ?collective consciousness? of the new organisation.

Perhaps it is because they do not wish to openly ask for extended training or knowledge transfer periods, or perhaps they believe that all technology instances are generic in some way and that the specific customer domain expertise is not relevant. This reticence aligns with the perspective of prospective clients, who are probably not consciously aware of the need for a ?translation table?. Typically, they are also rarely keen to pay for ?training? of the outsourcing organisation?s personnel.

Knowledge transfer in outsourcing engagements usually take a maximum of two weeks of on-the-job learning. However, on occasion the ?knowledge transfer? to an outsource testing service or application development provider has consisted of no more than copying what the existing personnel already do. Or, by documenting what the host firm?s existing processes and procedures are, usually in relation to current projects.

This is fairly obviously an ineffective method for transferring the ?domain specific knowledge? from the client organisation to the outsourcer. It is also the main source for the failure of outsourcing arrangements to fully deliver the long-term business value that outsourcing can provide.

Organisations should not underestimate the importance of being able to utilise and communicate the intellectual capital that is retained within the heads of a relatively small number of SMEs to stakeholders. In doing so, they will ensure that actions are taken to collect, collate and document this ?domain specific knowledge?. As a result they will ensure that the organisation?s valuable IP is available in a readily usable form for effective knowledge transfer for outsourcing and/or other uses. This will make their outsourcing engagement stand a much greater chance of success.

The best of BCWPLUS EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

John Cox

John Cox is a Principle Consultant at Xceed Group. With more than 25 years' experience as a Test Consultant, John has worked for the likes of Price Waterhouse Cooper, The National Programme for IT in the Health Service and Cognizant. He is well versed in advising on testing strategy for critical business testing - a role he has performed with distinction for some of the biggest names in industry and some of the biggest programmes, such as the LTSB/HBOS Integration. An accomplished operator, John is an excellent communicator and is one of those people who not only 'gets it' but can translate so that everyone else 'gets it'.

John Cox is a Principle Consultant at Xceed Group. With more than 25 years' experience as a Test Consultant, John has worked for the likes of Price Waterhouse Cooper, The National Programme for IT in the Health Service and Cognizant. He is well versed in advising on testing strategy for critical business testing - a role he has performed with distinction for some of the biggest names in industry and some of the biggest programmes, such as the LTSB/HBOS Integration. An accomplished operator, John is an excellent communicator and is one of those people who not only 'gets it' but can translate so that everyone else 'gets it'. ...less info

Source: http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/why-knowledge-is-power-in-it-outsourcing/

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Oil and water: An icy interaction when oil chains are short, but steamy when chains are long

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 3-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Elizabeth K. Gardner
ekgardner@purdue.edu
765-494-2081
Purdue University

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Water transforms into a previously unknown structure in between a liquid and a vapor when in contact with alcohol molecules containing long oily chains, according to Purdue University researchers. However, around short oily chains water is more icelike.

Water plays a huge role in biological processes, from protein folding to membrane formation, and it could be that this transformation is useful in a way not yet understood, said Dor Ben-Amotz, the professor of chemistry who led the research.

Ben-Amotz's research team found that as they examined alcohols with increasingly long carbon chains, the transformation occurred at lower and lower temperatures.

When in contact with a chain seven carbon atoms long, the water molecules became much looser and more vaporlike at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about halfway between the melting and boiling points.

"For oils with chains longer than four carbons, or about one nanometer in length, we saw the water transform into a completely new structure as the temperature rose," Ben-Amotz said. "If the trend we saw holds true, then this transformation could be happening at body temperature around important physiological molecules like proteins and phospholipids.Water responds very sensitively in its structure to small changes, he said.

"Water's versatility is what makes it so special," he said. "For instance, the surfaces of proteins have both oily and charged regions; and water changes itself to accommodate these very different components and everything in between. We are learning more about exactly how it does this."

The researchers found that water molecules interacting with the oil always formed a more ordered, icelike structure at lower temperatures, while the bulk of the water remained liquid. This ice-like structure would melt away as the temperatures increased and in longer molecules a new structure would appear, he said.

A paper detailing the National Science Foundation-funded work is published in the current issue of Nature and is also highlighted in a news and views article in the same issue. In addition to Ben-Amotz, co-authors include Purdue graduate student Joel Davis and postdoctoral fellows Kamil Gierszal and Ping Wang.

The team's observations add to a more than 70-year debate over the interaction of oil and water, with some studies suggesting that water forms little icebergs around the oil molecules, while others point to a more disordered, vaporlike water structure.

"This question was really up for grabs until we introduced an experimental method that could see these subtle changes in water structure," Ben-Amotz said. "Surprisingly, we found that both sides are right, and it depends on the size of the oil."

The challenge of the experiment was that the team needed to see the very small number of water molecules that are in contact with the oil chains in the presence of a very large number of other water molecules.

The team combined Raman scattering and multivariate curve resolution to create an analysis method capable of managing an unprecedented signal-to-noise ratio of 10,000-to-1.

"Most people never take a spectrum with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 100-to-1, but if we performed this experiment that way we wouldn't see anything," Ben-Amotz said. "We needed to have a higher signal-to-noise ratio because we were looking for a needle in a mountain-sized haystack."

Raman scattering involves shooting a beam of light containing photons into a sample. As the photons hit molecules within the sample, they lose or gain energy. Such measurements create a spectrum of peaks that reveal the vibrational motions of the molecules present in the sample. Shifts in the peaks' shapes can show changes in the strength of bonds between water molecules and whether the molecules are becoming more or less ordered.

"With Raman scattering the bulk of the water creates a mountainous peak in the spectrum that buries everything else," Ben-Amotz said. "Multivariate curve resolution lets us see small changes in water structure under that mountain. As is often the case in science, the key was combining two already established techniques in a new way."

Davis said the team next plans to explore the effects of changes in pH and ionic charges on this transformation with the goal of making the experiments more relevant to proteins and biological systems.

"We are trying to better understand the driving f orces of the behavior of proteins and cell membranes that are critical to our health," he said. "The role of water is an important piece of the puzzle."

###

Writer: Elizabeth K. Gardner, 765-494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu

Sources: Dor Ben-Amotz, 765-494-5256, bendor@purdue.edu

Joel Davis, jgdavis@purdue.edu

Related website: Be-Amotz research group


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[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 3-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Elizabeth K. Gardner
ekgardner@purdue.edu
765-494-2081
Purdue University

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Water transforms into a previously unknown structure in between a liquid and a vapor when in contact with alcohol molecules containing long oily chains, according to Purdue University researchers. However, around short oily chains water is more icelike.

Water plays a huge role in biological processes, from protein folding to membrane formation, and it could be that this transformation is useful in a way not yet understood, said Dor Ben-Amotz, the professor of chemistry who led the research.

Ben-Amotz's research team found that as they examined alcohols with increasingly long carbon chains, the transformation occurred at lower and lower temperatures.

When in contact with a chain seven carbon atoms long, the water molecules became much looser and more vaporlike at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about halfway between the melting and boiling points.

"For oils with chains longer than four carbons, or about one nanometer in length, we saw the water transform into a completely new structure as the temperature rose," Ben-Amotz said. "If the trend we saw holds true, then this transformation could be happening at body temperature around important physiological molecules like proteins and phospholipids.Water responds very sensitively in its structure to small changes, he said.

"Water's versatility is what makes it so special," he said. "For instance, the surfaces of proteins have both oily and charged regions; and water changes itself to accommodate these very different components and everything in between. We are learning more about exactly how it does this."

The researchers found that water molecules interacting with the oil always formed a more ordered, icelike structure at lower temperatures, while the bulk of the water remained liquid. This ice-like structure would melt away as the temperatures increased and in longer molecules a new structure would appear, he said.

A paper detailing the National Science Foundation-funded work is published in the current issue of Nature and is also highlighted in a news and views article in the same issue. In addition to Ben-Amotz, co-authors include Purdue graduate student Joel Davis and postdoctoral fellows Kamil Gierszal and Ping Wang.

The team's observations add to a more than 70-year debate over the interaction of oil and water, with some studies suggesting that water forms little icebergs around the oil molecules, while others point to a more disordered, vaporlike water structure.

"This question was really up for grabs until we introduced an experimental method that could see these subtle changes in water structure," Ben-Amotz said. "Surprisingly, we found that both sides are right, and it depends on the size of the oil."

The challenge of the experiment was that the team needed to see the very small number of water molecules that are in contact with the oil chains in the presence of a very large number of other water molecules.

The team combined Raman scattering and multivariate curve resolution to create an analysis method capable of managing an unprecedented signal-to-noise ratio of 10,000-to-1.

"Most people never take a spectrum with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 100-to-1, but if we performed this experiment that way we wouldn't see anything," Ben-Amotz said. "We needed to have a higher signal-to-noise ratio because we were looking for a needle in a mountain-sized haystack."

Raman scattering involves shooting a beam of light containing photons into a sample. As the photons hit molecules within the sample, they lose or gain energy. Such measurements create a spectrum of peaks that reveal the vibrational motions of the molecules present in the sample. Shifts in the peaks' shapes can show changes in the strength of bonds between water molecules and whether the molecules are becoming more or less ordered.

"With Raman scattering the bulk of the water creates a mountainous peak in the spectrum that buries everything else," Ben-Amotz said. "Multivariate curve resolution lets us see small changes in water structure under that mountain. As is often the case in science, the key was combining two already established techniques in a new way."

Davis said the team next plans to explore the effects of changes in pH and ionic charges on this transformation with the goal of making the experiments more relevant to proteins and biological systems.

"We are trying to better understand the driving f orces of the behavior of proteins and cell membranes that are critical to our health," he said. "The role of water is an important piece of the puzzle."

###

Writer: Elizabeth K. Gardner, 765-494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu

Sources: Dor Ben-Amotz, 765-494-5256, bendor@purdue.edu

Joel Davis, jgdavis@purdue.edu

Related website: Be-Amotz research group


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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/pu-oaw120312.php

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Cold, mold loom as hazards in Sandy disaster zones

NEW YORK (AP) ? A month after Sandy's floodwaters swept up his block, punched a hole in his foundation and drowned his furnace, John Frawley still has no electricity or heat in his dilapidated home on the Rockaway seashore.

The 57-year-old, who also lost his car and all his winter clothes in the flood, now spends his nights shivering in a pair of donated snow pants, worrying whether the cold might make his chronic heart condition worse.

"I've been coughing like crazy," said Frawley, a former commercial fisherman disabled by a spine injury. He said his family doesn't have the money to pay for even basic repairs. So far, he has avoided going to a shelter, saying he'd rather sleep in his own home.

"But I'm telling you, I can't stay here much longer," he said.

City officials estimate at least 12,000 New Yorkers are trying to survive in unheated, flood-damaged homes, despite warnings that dropping temperatures could pose a health risk.

The chill is only one of the potential environmental hazards that experts say might endanger people trying to resume their lives in the vast New York and New Jersey disaster zone.

Uncounted numbers of families have returned to coastal homes that are contaminated with mold, which can aggravate allergies and leave people perpetually wheezing. Others have been sleeping in houses filled with construction dust, as workers have ripped out walls and flooring. That dust can sometimes trigger asthma.

But it is the approaching winter that has some public health officials worried most. Nighttime temperatures have been around freezing and stand to drop in the coming weeks.

New York City's health department said the number of people visiting hospital emergency rooms for cold-related problems has already doubled this November, compared with previous years. Those statistics are likely only the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

Mortality rates for the elderly and chronically ill rise when people live for extended periods in unheated apartments, even when the temperature is still above freezing, said the city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley.

"As the temperatures get colder, the risk increases," he said. "It is especially risky for the elderly. I really want to encourage people, if they don't have heat in their apartment, to look elsewhere."

Since the storm, the health department has been sending National Guard troops door to door, trying to persuade people to leave cold homes until their heating systems are fixed. The city is also carrying out a plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars helping residents make emergency repairs needed to restore their heat and hot water.

Convincing people that they could be endangering themselves by staying until that work is complete, though, isn't always easy.

For weeks, Eddie Saman, 57, slept on sheets of plywood in the frigid, ruined shell of his flooded Staten Island bungalow. He stayed even as the house filled up with a disgusting mold that agitated his asthma so much that it sent him to the emergency room.

Volunteers eventually helped clean the place up somewhat and got Saman a mattress. But on Sunday the wood-burning stove he had been using for heat caught fire.

Melting materials in the ceiling burned his cheek. A neighbor who dashed into the house to look for Saman also suffered burns. The interior of the house ? what was left of it after the flood ? was destroyed.

Two days later, another fire broke out in a flood-damaged house across the street, also occupied by a resident trying to keep warm without a working furnace.

Asked why he hadn't sought lodging elsewhere, Saman said he didn't have family in the region and was rattled by the one night he spent in an emergency shelter. He said it seemed more populated by homeless drug addicts than displaced families.

"That place was not for me," he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency offered to pay for a hotel, but Saman said he stopped looking because every inn within 100 miles of the city seemed to be booked solid through December.

Saman's case may be extreme, but experts said it isn't unusual for people to hurry back to homes not ready for habitation.

After Hurricane Katrina, medical researchers in New Orleans documented a rise in respiratory ailments among people living in neighborhoods where buildings were being repaired.

The issue wasn't just mold, which can cause problems for years if it isn't mediated properly, said Felicia Rabito, an epidemiologist at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. There was simply so much work being done, families spent their days breathing the fine particles of sanded wood and drywall.

People complained of something that became known as the "Katrina cough," and while it subsided once the dust settled, researchers later found high lead levels in some neighborhoods due to work crews ignoring standards for lead paint removal.

A group of occupational health experts in New York City, including doctors who run programs for people sickened by World Trade Center dust after 9/11, warned last week that workers cleaning up Sandy's wreckage need to protect themselves by suppressing dust with water, wearing masks and being aware of potential asbestos exposure.

"There are clearly sites that you don't want children at ... and it is very challenging for homeowners to know whether it is safe to go home," said Dr. Maida Galvez, a pediatrician and environmental health expert at The Mount Sinai Hospital who is part of a team evaluating hazards in the disaster zone.

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler has urged FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a testing program that could give residents an indication of whether their homes were free of mold, sewage and other hazardous substances.

Farley, New York City's health commissioner, said people entering rooms contaminated by floodwater should wear rubber boots and gloves, and exercise care in cleanup. The hazard posed by spilled sewage is a short-term one and experts say the disease-causing bacteria found in it can be wiped out with a good cleaning. But they say anything absorbent that touched tainted water, like curtains or rugs, should be thrown out.

As for the bitter cold, there was no test needed to tell John Frawley that his home is no place to be spending frigid autumn nights.

"A couple of days ago, I was shivering so badly, I just couldn't stop," he said.

Yet with winter nearly here, he still had no plan for getting his heat working again or his ruined electrical system restored, although he also has passed up some of the programs designed to help people like him.

And he has no intention of heading to a shelter.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cold-mold-loom-hazards-sandy-disaster-zones-164536193.html

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Fed trio spars on low-rate policy ahead of December meeting

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Three top Federal Reserve officials on Saturday offered sharply different takes on the U.S. central bank's unprecedented efforts to push down long-term borrowing costs, highlighting what may be some key themes at the Fed's upcoming policy-setting meeting.

Charles Evans, the dovish president of the Chicago Fed, made no bones about his view that more policy accommodation is needed, repeating his call for keeping rates low until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent, as long as inflation does not threaten to rise above 2.5 percent.

"We are in a period where having low policy rates for a very long time would be helpful," he said at panel at the University of Chicago sponsored by the university's Becker Friedman Institute for Research

Also on the panel, which was held ahead of the Fed's December 11-12 closed-door policy meeting, were Charles Plosser, the hawkish president of the Philadelphia Fed, and Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota -- a former advocate of policy tightening who in September began calling for further easing.

Showing a series of slides to a mostly student audience, Evans argued that high joblessness now means that even with interest rates kept low for years, inflation is unlikely to rise above 2.3 percent.

But Plosser, seated between Evans and Kocherlakota on the panel, said he is worried that the continuing high unemployment rate may mean the Fed's policies are not working as expected.

With unemployment at historically high levels - it ticked up to 7.9 percent in October -- and inflation low, policymakers could "walk away from that evidence and say, either we haven't done enough, or we haven't got the right model of how the transmission mechanism is working," Plosser said.

He also expressed concern about reversing the Fed's longstanding low-rate policy. Although the Fed has the tools to raise rates, he said, "History suggests that it's always been easier for the Fed to lower rates than to raise them."

The Fed has kept short-term rates almost at zero percent since December 2008 and has bought some $2.5 trillion in bonds to drive down longer-term borrowing costs and boost the recovery from recession.

It has also said it expects to keep rates low until at least mid-2015, as it works to bring down too-high unemployment.

Since September the Fed has been buying a total of $85 billion in long-term securities each month to help push down borrowing costs. Part of that is the program known as Operation Twist, in which the Fed buys $45 billion in longer-term Treasuries and sells the same amount of shorter-term ones.

Twist expires at year end, and officials will need to decide at their December meeting whether to ramp up the quantitative easing program, dubbed QE3, to make up for the shortfall.

Under QE3, the Fed has said it would buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities per month until the outlook for the labor market improves substantially.

THE MERITS OF THRESHOLDS

The three policymakers on Saturday gave no hint as to their views on what the Fed should do, although Evans has previously advocated for keeping asset purchases at a monthly rate of $85 billion, while Plosser has said he does not view Twist's expiration necessarily as tightening.

Instead, the three debated the merits of adopting thresholds for inflation and unemployment as guideposts for policy. Fed officials have been discussing such plans for months, although few economists believe they will come to a decision in December.

"I'm terribly worried that we are asking too much of policy here," Plosser said, of the value of setting thresholds. "I'm worried that the strategies are going to sow more confusion than clarity."

Kocherlakota, like Evans, reiterated his support for a threshold-based policy. The Minneapolis Fed chief -- who, like Plosser, did his graduate training in economics at the University of Chicago -- repeated his call for the Fed to keep rates low until the jobless rate reaches 5.5 percent or even below, as long as inflation does not threaten to rise above 2.25 percent.

Such a promise is "credible," he said, because it shows investors the Fed will not sacrifice price stability in order to reduce unemployment. The Fed in January set an inflation target for the first time, aiming at 2 percent inflation.

"I think we are falling short on both metrics, more so on employment than inflation," he said, referring to the Fed's mandates to keep prices stable and to maximize employment.

Evans also emphasized his "inflation safeguard" of 2.5 percent, saying that if he is wrong and easier monetary policy is not the answer to unemployment, inflation will rise, and the Fed can then take its foot off the gas pedal.

Plosser said he was "dubious." The public could easily misinterpret an inflation "threshold" as a target that conflicts with the Fed's newly adopted 2 percent inflation goal, he said.

"I am worried that the commitment we have is not credible, or is not well understood, and we won't get the effects that these models tell us," Plosser said.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fed-trio-spars-low-rate-policy-ahead-december-005635069--business.html

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North Korea Rocket Launch: Pyongyang Vows To Test Long-Range Rocket Soon

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea announced Saturday that it would attempt to launch a long-range rocket in mid-December, a defiant move just eight months after a failed April bid was widely condemned as a violation of a U.N. ban against developing its nuclear and missile programs.

The launch, set for Dec. 10 to 22, is likely to heighten already strained tensions with Washington and Seoul as the United States prepares for Barack Obama's second term as U.S. president and South Korea holds its own presidential election on Dec. 19.

This would be North Korea's second launch attempt under leader Kim Jong Un, who took power following his father Kim Jong Il's death nearly a year ago. The announcement by North Korea's space agency followed speculation overseas about stepped-up activity at North Korea's west coast launch pad captured in satellite imagery.

A spokesman for North Korea's Korean Committee for Space Technology said scientists have "analyzed the mistakes" made in the failed April launch and improved the precision of its Unha rocket and Kwangmyongsong satellite, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

KCNA said the launch was a request of late leader Kim Jong Il, whose Dec. 17, 2011, death North Koreans are expected to mark with some fanfare. The space agency said the rocket would be mounted with a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite, and maintained its right to develop a peaceful space program.

Washington considers North Korea's rocket launches to be veiled covers for tests of technology for long-range missiles designed to strike the United States, and such tests are banned by the United Nations.

North Korea has capable short- and medium-range missiles, but long-range launches in 1998, 2006, 2009 and in April of this year ended in failure. North Korea is not known to have succeeded in mounting an atomic bomb on a missile but is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen bombs, according to U.S. experts, and in 2010 revealed a uranium enrichment program that could provide a second source of material for nuclear weapons.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

In Seoul, South Korean officials have accused North Korea of trying to influence its presidential election with what they consider provocations meant to put pressure on voters and on the United States as the North seeks concessions. Conservative Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, is facing liberal Moon Jae-in in the South Korean presidential vote. Polls show the candidates in a close race.

Some analysts, however, question whether North Korean scientists have corrected whatever caused the misfire of its last rocket.

"Preparing for a launch less than a year after a failure calls into question whether the North could have analyzed and fixed whatever went wrong," David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote on the organization's website this week.

The United States has criticized North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to Asian and world security. In 2009, North Korea conducted rocket and nuclear tests within months of Obama taking office.

"A North Korean `satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington, D.C. "Any North Korean launch using ballistic missile technology is in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions."

North Korea under its young leader has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what the North calls a "hostile" policy. North Korea maintains that it is building bombs to defend itself against what it sees as a U.S. nuclear threat in the region.

This year is the centennial of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong Un. According to North Korean propaganda, 2012 is meant to put the North on a path toward a "strong, prosperous and great nation."

"North Korea appears to be under pressure to redeem its April launch failure before the year of the `strong, prosperous and great nation' ends," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul.

He added that a successful rocket launch would raise North Korea's bargaining power with South Korea and the United States "because it means the country is closer to developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads."

Before its last two rocket launches, North Korea notified the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization about its intentions to launch. IMO spokeswoman Natasha Brown said that as of Friday the organization had not been notified by North Korea.

The North's announcement comes two days after South Korea canceled what would have been the launch of its first satellite from its own territory. Scientists in Seoul cited technical difficulties. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the North's planned launch is "a grave provocation and a head-on challenge to the international community."

North Korea's missile and nuclear programs will be a challenge for Obama in his second term and for the incoming South Korean leader. Washington's most recent attempt to negotiate a freeze of the North's nuclear program and a test moratorium in exchange for food aid collapsed with the April launch.

In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he would coordinate with the U.S., South Korea, China and Russia in strongly urging the North to refrain from the rocket launch. Kyodo News agency said Japan also postponed high-level talks with North Korea scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Washington stations nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea as a buttress against any North Korean aggression. Tens of thousands more are in nearby Japan.

___

Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee and Sam Kim in Seoul, Jill Lawless in London, Thomas Strong in Washington, D.C., and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/nkorea-says-it-will-launc_0_n_2223847.html

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