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Sunday, January 10, 2010
Chinese officials have said that their country’s exports surged last December to edge out Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.
The official Xinhua news agency reported today that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7% in December from a year earlier. Over the whole of 2009 total Chinese exports reached US$1.2 trillion, above Germany’s forecast $1.17 trillion.
Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China’s export sector. He commented that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.
“We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” he said.
However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China’s total foreign trade — both exports and imports — fell 13.9% last year.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
China’s Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday that at least 53 people were killed in Shanghai during a deadly fire. The blaze, which occurred on Monday at 2:15 p.m. CST (0615 UTC), consumed a 28-story high-rise apartment building in the city’s Jing’an District.
The building was being renovated at the time of the fire, and was home to over 150 families. At least 100 victims have been admitted to area hospitals, although some later died. Most survivors were not seriously injured, but needed treatment for smoke inhalation. Firefighters were still looking for survivors and over 70 were still hospitalized on the morning after the fire.
The fire was the worst in recent Shanghai history and took over 100 fire engines more than four hours to contain. Strong winds blew heavy smoke into the air, hampering rescue efforts by helicopters. The smoke was seen by witnesses around 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) away from the high-rise. The fire was largely extinguished by 6:30 p.m. local time (1000 UTC), allowing fire and rescue officials to enter the building.
The apartment building, built in the late 1990s, was home to mainly retired teachers. Some residents climbed down the scaffolding to escape, while others called for help but were unable to flee the blaze. “I saw at least four or five people hanging onto the scaffolding which covers the building, screaming for help,” said Li Qubo, who was working near the high-rise.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but local residents said fire safety regulations were not strict, and workers often tossed used cigarettes into the building’s hallways. Qiu Jingshu, a 38-year-old worker who was outside the 18th floor when the fire struck, said he saw sparks from welding being done on an adjacent building fly over onto the high-rise. The sparks lit up foam on the scaffolding around the apartment, according to Qiu. “We had tried to put out the blaze, but the fire was so big and spread so quickly that we could barely escape ourselves,” he said. Crews were said to have been installing insulation at the time of the fire, and witnesses saw construction materials on fire before the building was overtaken by flames.
Two nearby buildings were evacuated, and their residents were temporarily sent to local hotels, and a school. Meng Jianzhu, China’s Minister of Public Security, said that an investigation would determine who was responsible for the fire, so they could be punished accordingly. Meng said that a team had been formed under China’s State Council to look into the disaster.
A similar incident occurred in Beijing early last year. In February 2009, the illegal use of fireworks caused a fire that gutted a 34-story building under construction at the time.
Shanghai has a population of about 20 million, housed mainly in high-rise apartments. Many buildings in the city are under construction or being renovated.
Dental Web Design: Are You Marketing Yourself Right?
by
Gretchen Stoecker
Marketing is as essential for a dental professional, as for any other business. However, owing an attractive website and getting traffic to your site does not necessarily mean business for you. Find out the difference between bad marketing and good marketing, and check whether you are making a good impression on your potential clients or driving them away.
Dental profession is a serious business and requires expertise and dedication to be a success in the long term. Now, quality work needs no publicity, it gets out on its own, or does it ? It might have been true years back but has little relevance today. In the present business scenario with cut-throat, it is hard to survive without marketing yourself. However, there’s a difference between bad marketing and good marketing. Lets see an example, you have a brilliantly designed website that is an immediate attention catcher. You know visitors are coming to the site. Why then does it not translate into business for you? You wonder what the problem is. Is there something lacking in the services you offer? Absolutely not, it is not your services but your website that is driving your clients away. How? It all comes down to one point.You are a dental professional, and not a store selling fashion accessories. Successful marketing means understanding the customer’s psyche, knowing what he expects from you and meeting those expectations. Your customer is looking for a trusted medical professional because it concerns his health. He arrives at your site, that is an immediate attention catcher. The site is colored in bright colors, full of several pictures of smiling people, flashy material and everything else needed to make it attractive. The site does attract the client, and its work is done there. There is nothing to make a customer to hold on to the site and consider your services. Bad marketing.What went wrong here is the over attractiveness of the site with little substance. The first impression a visitor gets from the site is that they are trying hard to sell. It may be a turn off for a potential client because he is looking for a reliable dental service, and not someone who is trying hard to market themselves. As a result, the person never visits your store. The important question is, how to turn the visitor into your client. Lets see what makes for good marketing. For a good website, focus on making it Impressive not Attractive. First comes the right introduction. Introduce yourself and your staff convincingly, mentioning their credentials. The website is an identity of your firm, and hence should be presented as you would like to present yourself to your client. It should be attractive, yet not too flashy. Secondly, making the site more informative gives a positive impression of the company. Preferably, provide some information like articles or blogs on dental problems and treatments, also provide detailed information on the services you offer. Important information like the treatments you offer, contact details, mode of payment, your opening hours, etc should be visible clearly, so that the customer does not face any difficulty in finding out these details. Next, important tools can make your services quite convenient as compared to others. Online appointment facility, for example can make it easy for clients to make an appointment, rather than calling which also frees you from picking calls too often. You can also follow up with your clients through the website, or send reminders for the next treatment. In addition to all these, it is essential for the website to be SEO friendly to get maximum visibility on major search engines. A website with the right dentist web design including features like these, will certainly give a good impression to customers and he would want to visit your clinic at least once. If the site is successful in getting clients from visiting the site to visit the clinic, then it is definitely good marketing.
This article has been written by an expert, working with Dentilo, an experienced website marketing firm, providing
internet dental marketing
solutions.
Article Source:
Dental Web Design: Are You Marketing Yourself Right?}
Friday, November 2, 2007
Researchers at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio have announced the creation of transgenic mice with substantially improved athletic endurance, which live and breed longer and are more aggressive than genetically unmodified siblings, and are leaner despite consuming 60% more food. The mice have been dubbed “mighty mice” or “supermice” by the popular press and have been compared to cyclist Lance Armstrong.
The changes were created by adding an extra copy of a single gene, PEPCK-C. This gene is already present in the mouse genome, but the modified gene is designed to be strongly active (transcribed) in skeletal muscle. (The natural copy of the gene, most active in the liver, continues to function normally). The gene mediates a crucial rate controlling step of gluconeogenesis and glyceroneogenesis, and its activity helps to allow energy production by the mitochondrial citric acid cycle. In the transgenics, more energy is available to muscle through the burning of fatty acids, with much less production of lactate (a chemical that leads to sore muscles when one exercises). This is not as major a change to the mouse genome as it might seem to the layperson. The PEPCK-C gene is already present in the mouse and a variety of natural mutations could likely cause similar results. The study appears today in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in a paper with lead author Parvin Hakimi from the laboratory of Richard W. Hanson.
The altered mice can run at 20 meters per minute (0.75 miles per hour or 1.2 kilometers per hour) for up to six kilometers (nearly four miles) without stopping. The average treadmill time for strenuous exercise on a 25-degree incline is 31.9 minutes, well in excess of the 19 minute average of unmodified mice. Females can breed at two and a half years of age, whereas most female mice cannot breed after the first year.
A colony of 500 mice has been bred, starting from six independent germline transformations (“founder” mice). The level of PEPCK-C in muscle is 9 units per gram of muscle as opposed to only 0.08 in normal mice. Levels of triglycerides and the number of mitochondria are also increased.
Hanson said that he did not expect that the results would be applicable to humans due to both practical and ethical considerations in addition to the fact that the genes might not function the same way in humans.
This is not the first time that the press has dubbed a genetically modified mouse a “mighty mouse”. Earlier scientists at John Hopkins University announced that they had made mice with massively increased muscle mass that were larger and stronger than their normal cousins. These alterations increased strength rather than endurance through the genetic modification of myostatin and follistatin, or by injection of a soluble form of ACVR2B to block myostatin activity in normal mice.
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Friday, May 13, 2022
The Parliament of Queensland, Australia rejected a motion on Wednesday by the Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) that argued allowing transgender women to play in women’s sports teams would “erode the integrity of female sport”.
The motion stated “anyone who supports biological men playing in female sport, irrespective of age group, level or code, is complicit in eroding the integrity of female sport and therefore women’s rights”, and that, due to “insurmountable physical advantages”, transgender women would “pose an unfair competitive advantage against, and/or safety risk” against other athletes if competing in women’s sport.
The motion failed 49 votes to 33, with support from the KAP, the Liberal National Party (LNP), and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, but opposition from the Labor government and the Greens.
KAP leader Robbie Katter first told Parliament he thought the bill was “important for parents”, stating: “I’m a parent of some young girls who will be hopefully participating in some sport one day […] Imagining them at 15 or 17 years old, post-puberty, competing against the odd person who might want to transfer to being female, that doesn’t sit well with me.” Katter maintained that whilst he did not want to deny anyone the opportunity to compete in sport, “there’s a distinct advantage when you cross over”. Katter also referred to the coming federal election, saying “in the context of the election, there are social issues on which we need to put a stake in the ground.”
Queensland Sporting Minister Stirling Hinchliffe opposed the motion, calling it a “blatant dog whistle”, and saying: “This is not a debate about sport or women’s rights. It is an attempt to cause fear and division and is unnecessarily dragging an extreme right-wing trope into this parliament.” Hinchliffe expressed that “making blanket decisions purely based on gender identity is not only draconian and bigoted, but unwarranted”.
Representatives from all parties but the LNP spoke in the debate, which lasted for approximately 30 minutes. Sparking interjections from other MPs, KAP Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto speculated that “we may see an opportunity for guys who now identify as women to put on a wig and jump into women’s sport because maybe they are washed up at the NRL”, and stated that transgender people having “full access” to female sports was neither fair nor safe. One Nation MP Stephen Andrew spoke in favour of the motion, asserting “if someone does not stand up for the rights of these people — either way — the outcome is that there will eventually be no women’s sport at all.”
The two Greens representatives spoke against the motion. Amy MacMahon, who represents South Brisbane, claimed “this motion today is not about women; it is about stoking up transmisogyny for cheap political tricks”, and said “if we are really serious about supporting women’s sports, let’s pay women’s sportspeople the same as men, show women’s sports on free-to-air TV and news coverage and start programs to encourage women and girls to take up sports.” Greens leader Michael Berkman called the motion “repugnant” and “unnecessary”, and stated: “I think it is telling that we are hearing not a single word from the opposition to speak against it.”
Submitted by: Aseya Me
In 1891, a Canadian physical education instructor named James Naismith faced a dilemma about continuing a sports program and having to do it indoors. At that time, most sports were held outdoors or in a wide, open field. It was the middle of winter and Naismith only had limited space to use to continue is P.E. classes.
To solve his problem, Naismith created a game for the students that focused on the use of skills and not merely the utilization of physical strength. He called this invention — basketball. Initially, players were made to dribble a soccer ball up and down a court and points were earned by shooting the ball into a basket. Naismith later developed the game by forming two teams of five active players each who tried to outscore each other by shooting the ball through a 10-feet high hoop or goal. The team with more points at the end of the game wins. Through time, basketball was developed into a sport with standardized and specialized skills.
Today, basketball is one of the most popular sports in the entire world. Its inclusion in the 1936 Olympics and the formation of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949 further boosted its popularity. The NBA, as the world’s premier basketball league, gave rise to many superstar athletes. Basketball fans were glued to their t.v. sets as they watched these athletes perform acrobatic and high-flying moves across the court.
Traditionally, basketball has been a male-dominated sport. It was only in 1976 that women’s basketball was recognized as an Olympic sport. By 1996, more opportunities for female ball players opened up with the formation of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a counterpart to the NBA. In 2006, the WNBA became the first team-oriented women’s professional sports league that existed for 10 consecutive seasons. Women like Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoops, and Rebecca Lobo are now enjoying the limelight that was once enjoyed by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Since its creation in 1891, the sport has already passed through several evolutions as a serious sports event. Aside from attaining its stature as a top-grossing sports and entertainment feature, it is also enjoyed by millions of amateurs and ordinary people who prefer a game that makes them sweat and have fun at the same time. As a sport, basketball provides a balance in terms of skills development, aerobic exercise, and competitiveness.
Participating in physical activities like basketball is beneficial to children, adolescents, and adults. Regular physical activity contributes to overall health and may aid in weight loss. Studies show that regular physical activity has the potential to promote enhanced self-esteem and reduce the symptoms of stress and anxiety in children, adolescents, and adults with emotional disorders. People who partake in physical activities excrete substances called endorphins. These endogenous morphins, or endorphins, are the body’s natural pain-killer. Endorphins are released when a person’s physical activity has reached a moderate and high. These substances gives a moments of relaxation, which some health experts call the runner’s high. Endorphins make people ‘high’ and happy. Research show that people who exercise regularly have more energy and better self-esteem compared to their inactive counterparts.
People can improve their health and quality of life by picking a physical activity like basketball as a part of their lives. Being physically active early in life may bring many physical, social, and emotional benefits and may lead to good health.
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Monday, September 7, 2015
The US economy added 173,000 jobs in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. The unemployment rate fell from 5.3 to 5.1 percent, the lowest since April 2008.
Although August job gains were lower than most economists forecast, job growth numbers for June and July were revised upwards by a combined 44,000. Average job gains over the past three months stand at 221,000, compared to March-May’s 189,000 monthly average. Over the past twelve months, job growth has averaged 247,000 per month.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent, or 8 cents, marking the largest increase in earnings in seven months. Hourly earnings had risen by 6 cents in July. Wages have risen by 2.2 percent over the past year.
Job growth in August was primarily concentrated in the health care and social assistance, financial activities, and professional and business services sectors. Those three areas of the economy added a combined 108,000 jobs. Food service and drinking places employment increased by 26,000 over the month, and other economic sectors saw employment hold steady. Manufacturing, on the other hand, saw employment decline by 17,000 in August. A stronger dollar and worldwide economic weakness make US exports less desirable, leading to a flattening in manufacturing employment so far this year after steadily rising in the early years of the US economic recovery.
The solid overall job gains led analysts to slightly raise expectations for a decision by the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this month. Investors raised the likelihood of a September rate increase from 26 percent before the jobs report to 30 percent, and stocks dropped by over one percent on Friday. “The payrolls data is certainly good enough to allow for a Fed rate hike in September,” said Deutsche Bank’s head of currency strategy, Alan Ruskin. “The big question is still whether financial market volatility will scupper the plans.”
“This is the first time the market has looked at a Fed meeting and really has no idea what the Fed is going to do,” said Mark Kepner, a New Jersey equity trader with Themis Trading. “Right now you’re looking at the overall uncertainty and that’s what’s hanging on the market. I don’t think this number in and of itself changes how somebody’s going to vote.”
Monday, March 30, 2009
First becoming famous in her native Ukraine in the 1990s, long-haired self-described “Amazon” Ruslana gained international recognition for winning the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Wild Dances,” inspired by the musical traditions of the Hutsul people of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains.
In the five years since, Ruslana has decided to use her name and public status to represent a number of worthy causes, including human trafficking, renewable energy, and even the basic concept of democratic process, becoming a public face of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and later serving in Parliament.
Currently, she is on an international publicity tour to promote her album Wild Energy, a project borne out of a science fiction novel that has come to symbolize her hopes for a newer, better, freer way of life for everyone in the world. She took time to respond to questions Wikinews’s Mike Halterman posed to her about her career in music and her other endeavors.
This is the fifth in a series of interviews with past Eurovision contestants, which will be published sporadically in the lead-up to mid-May’s next contest in Moscow.