Plus Size Lingerie through the Ages | Hubmesh.com

Plus size lingerie has been around in various formats from the earliest part of human history. The assumption is that during ancient times, intimate apparel was designed to protect and obscure female sexuality. That has definitely evolved throughout the years. There seems to be trends from practical and sexless to beautiful and voluptuous depending on society?s attitudes towards women and sexuality in general. At the beginning of civilization it seems that less emphasis was placed on functionality or fashion; underwear was mostly a practical matter. Egyptian women were depicted in frescoes and figurines wearing tunics with shoulder straps that extended all the way to their ankles, while the lower classes are shown wearing loincloths or nothing at all. To some extent underwear is no longer a matter of class, though budget definitely plays a role. Humans come in a variety of shapes and sizes ? they always have, and they always will. Certain lingerie fads attempted to disguise or suppress a woman?s natural shape, while others were primarily a means of support. Greek women have been portrayed wearing crossed bands on their breasts and linens wrapped around their waists and lower torso for support. Plus size lingerie was pretty easy back in the day ? though doubtfully all that supportive and not nearly as comfortable or beautiful as can be found now. Bodices originally made of bone and seen on Minoan women from the island of Crete displayed women?s breasts and emphasized their role as life-givers and mothers. That sort of political statement would have been at the least drafty and not remotely protective of tender body parts.

Medieval Europe was an era of sexual repression and appeared to actually take a step back for plus size lingerie or anything remotely resembling women?s fashion. The chemise was worn underneath the outer garment ? a shapeless tunic to provide warmth and protect the outer garment from bodily secretions and odors. There was no emphasis on a woman?s shape and nothing very flattering about their clothes. Being warm was very much a priority, and laundry was much more difficult back then. Bathing was considered a luxury. Hauling buckets of water and heating it over the fire to fill a tub has a zero-level of appeal. Progress is a wonderful thing, though today?s bras, corsets, bustiers, and garters still generally need to be washed by hand.

The corset appeared in the Middle Ages as clothing became more tailored and attempted to enhance the body?s appearance. There was a revived interest in female curves and the aspired-to hourglass shape. Corsets were constructed with whalebone or steel and were very difficult to get into; women required assistance to get dressed, and the ideal was a 15?-17? waist. Plus size lingerie wasn?t in the picture at all here. Women often fainted because they couldn?t breathe in the tight confines of their underwear. Many doctors blamed corsets for miscarriages and malformations, but the idea that women should suffer for fashion was ingrained in many, and corsets continued to be worn. Corsets were the centerpiece of intimate apparel in the late sixteenth century.

The nineteenth century was more progressive. Corsets became smaller and less rigid after the introduction of elastic. Plus size lingerie became a lot easier at that time. A front closure system allowed women to get dressed without help, and stockings started to be attached to the corset with a garter belt. Shorter drawers became part of women?s wardrobes, and color and silk were added to give a hint of sensuality to women?s underwear.

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries revolutionized underwear. Women became much more active; they work, play sports, and require more practical undergarments. Differences in the female figure are embraced. Plus size lingerie is specifically tailored for curvy women. Nowadays the corset is more of a suggestion; they are beautifully designed, comfortable, and supportive without being overly restrictive. Corsets feature prominently in costumes and bedroom fashions. Female sexuality is embraced, and there is now something for everyone.

If you are looking for the elegant, stylish and the most beautiful plus size lingerie, visit us today and choose from the different options. To know about sports bras, you may visit About.com.

Source: http://www.hubmesh.com/content/plus-size-lingerie-through-the-ages

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AP Analysis: Syria diplomacy stalls over safe zone

A Syrian man, who fled his home in Aleppo, due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, carries his son while going to collect water from a tanker, as they take refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Syrian man, who fled his home in Aleppo, due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, carries his son while going to collect water from a tanker, as they take refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Syrian child Hassan Kakaagi, 2, who fled his home with his family due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, suffers from malnutrition, as he and his family take refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Syrian girl, Aya Abdulhay, 5, who fled her home in Aleppo with her family due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, takes refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Syrian man cleans the rooftop of his house which was partly destroyed partly in a government airstrike, in the Syrian town of Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Syrian man pushes a door away from the rubble of houses destroyed in a government airstrike, in the Syrian town of Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Turkey's non-starter call for a humanitarian safe zone inside Syria offers the clearest sign yet that diplomacy to end the bloodshed in the most violent uprising of the Arab Spring is at a dead end.

Any new push by the international community to stop the killing is likely to remain on hold until the new U.N. chief envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, gets his feet on the ground and ? more importantly ? until the Nov. 6 U.S. presidential election.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other prominent Republicans have called for arming Syrian rebels, a step critics fear would only escalate the violence without necessarily bringing a quick end to a more than 17-month conflict that activists say has killed more than 20,000 people.

In the meantime, countries in the region ? Turkey, Israel, Jordan and Iraq ? will be scrambling to contain the violence and keep the conflict from spilling across their borders.

A desire to contain the conflict was in large measure behind Turkey's appeal Thursday to the U.N. Security Council to establish a safe zone for civilians in parts of northern Syria under nominal rebel control.

That would enable the Turks to cut off the flow of refugees across their border. About 80,000 Syrians have already fled into Turkey, and hostility to the presence of so many foreigners is rising among Turks living in Antakya and other border communities.

But the Turkish proposal sank like a stone. The council meeting ended without even a non-binding statement of support, much less a binding resolution.

A frustrated Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the council that he'd come to New York in hopes the members would take "long overdue steps" to alleviate the suffering and establish camps inside Syria for those forced to flee their homes.

"Apparently, I was wrong about my expectations," Davutoglu said.

Like so many other proposals to end the fighting, the Turkish appeal was all but dead on arrival, given the risks of creating such a zone and the hostility of veto-wielding Russia and China to any proposal that is not accepted by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Russians and the Chinese have already vetoed three Western-backed council resolutions that would threaten Assad's government with international sanctions. Assad rejected the idea of a safe zone in a television interview this week.

Russia and China have long made clear they will not go along with a repeat of last year's experience in Libya, when the U.S. and its European allies used a resolution to protect civilians to launch months of attacks that ended with the collapse of Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

Even if some legal way could be found to get around the Security Council obstacle, there is no sign the U.S. or its major European partners have the stomach to repeat the Libya operation at a time when cash-strapped governments are trying to extricate from Afghanistan and the U.S. is focused on an election in about two months.

Establishing a safe zone in Syria amounts to entering the territory of a sovereign country to offer protection to civilians, many who are sympathetic to the rebels.

Without a guarantee from Assad that he would not attack the zone, foreign governments would have to assume responsibility for protecting civilians there ? through troops on the ground and through preventing Syrian attack aircraft from flying over the territory.

Meanwhile, the West is running out of options besides trying to do more to care for the tens of thousands of refugees.

With Syrian diplomacy all but dead, the Obama administration is focusing on political transition and helping the rebels defeat the Syrian regime. Washington has increased its humanitarian aid to $74 million and its "nonlethal" communications assistance to $25 million.

The administration also has eased restrictions for rebel fundraising in the United States. Most of the weapons used by the rebels are believed to be purchased inside and outside Syria with money from supporters abroad, mostly in the Gulf states.

The U.S. has been working politically with Syrian exiles who drew up a transition plan for governing the country if the Assad regime collapses. The plan was unveiled this week in Berlin.

France has promised to recognize a Syrian provisional government if the opposition can set aside its internal differences ? which it has been unable to accomplish.

None of those proposals would have an immediate effect in curbing the bloodshed.

Faced with bleak prospects, the new U.N. envoy, Brahimi, says he plans to consult key players in New York after officially assuming his duties Saturday. His predecessor, Kofi Annan, quit in frustration this month after achieving little.

Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and veteran U.N. mediator, will likely explore possibilities of reviving a transitional plan drawn up by Annan and agreed to by both the United States and Russia after a conference in Geneva in June.

The document aimed at establishing an interim government of people chosen by both the Assad regime and the opposition. Each would be able to veto candidates.

The arrangement was rejected immediately by many in the Syrian opposition.

___

Robert H. Reid is Associated Press bureau chief in Berlin and has covered Middle East events since 1978.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-08-31-Syria-Nowhere%20Fast-Analysis/id-152f71b96d9b485ab6f81bdc39bf3fb5

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Animal activists tap Wall Street to change farm practices

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Humane Society of the United States has bought shares in four major financial services companies in a bid to use shareholder pressure to force two of the nation's largest pork producers to stop housing pregnant sows in gestation stalls.

The animal rights group said Thursday that its investment - a relatively small $3,000 or so worth of stock in each company, but large enough to introduce proposals during shareholder meetings - was targeted at investors in Tyson Foods Inc and Seaboard Foods, a unit of Seaboard Corp.

The group has successfully used such shareholder advocacy in the past to pressure food and agriculture companies to change corporate buying habits and production practices.

Now, the Humane Society is taking a new strategy: tell investors in the livestock industry it's a bad financial move for farmers to use this equipment.

The Humane Society said it plans to introduce shareholder proposals next year that, among other things, will point out that dozens of food retailers have vowed to eventually only buy pork from farmers and other sources that don't use gestation stalls. By not changing over to alternative animal housing, claims the group, Tyson and Seaboard are putting their lucrative contracts with these customers at risk.

McDonald's, the nation's top hamburger chain by sales, vowed in May that its U.S. business would only buy pork from farmers and other sources that do not use gestation stalls for housing their pregnant sows by 2022. Such stalls are used to confine sows during the breeding and post-birth process.

"We've tried talking with and they refuse to make any progress," said Humane Society food policy director Matthew Prescott.

So the Humane Society decided to put the pressure on in a less-direct route and press its case with Tyson investors: JP Morgan Chase, the biggest U.S. commercial and investment bank by assets; BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager; Jennison Associates, a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, the second-largest U.S. life insurer; and Ameriprise Financial, a financial services company.

BlackRock also is a leading investor in Seaboard, Prescott said.

Tyson Foods told Reuters in an email that it is committed to humane animal treatment at all stages of food production, and expects the same from those farmers who supply products to it.

"We buys hogs from thousands of family farms, many of whom use gestation stalls for mother pigs and some of whom have group or pen housing. Experts believe both housing systems are humane for mother pigs when managed properly," the company said in its statement.

"We are continuously monitoring the demands and preferences of our customers and their consumers regarding this topic and will work to respond to their needs as efficiently as possible," the company said.

Seaboard Foods, the nation's third-largest pork producer, could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for JP Morgan Chase declined to comment. None of the other financial services firms could be reached for comment.

The move marks the latest salvo in the war over how food is produced in the United States, with farmers and agribusiness on one side and food safety groups and animal-rights organizations on the other.

The Humane Society and other activists say their goal is to pull back the curtain on the nation's food supply, and are using undercover videos shot at farms, social media campaigns and shareholder activism to prompt the food and agricultural industries to change.

The campaign has been increasingly successful in recent years: Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture temporarily shut down a California slaughterhouse after undercover video showed cows being mistreated during the slaughtering process.

Gestation crates are typically metal enclosures, about 7 feet long and 2 feet wide, in which a breeding sow is housed for much of her adult life.

Pork producers say these enclosures are necessary to protect young piglets from being crushed by larger animals, and to keep sows from fighting as they often will when housed together in larger pens. Animal rights groups say such stalls are too small and constitute inhumane treatment of the animals.

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/animal-activists-tap-wall-street-change-farm-practices-211249358--sector.html

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Ravens poised to take next step in crowded AFC

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis reacts as he is introduced before an NFL preseason football game against the Detroit Lions in Baltimore, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis reacts as he is introduced before an NFL preseason football game against the Detroit Lions in Baltimore, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) throws during practice in Foxborough, Mass. Monday, Aug. 27, 2012 The Patriots are preparing for their final pre-season football game on Wednesday at the New York Giants. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the first quarter of an NFL preseason football game in Denver, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS, AUG. 25-26 - This Aug. 14, 2012 file photo shows Mark Sanchez, left, and Tim Tebow set to throw during drills at New York Jets training camp in Cortland, N.Y. Two-quarterback systems have rarely worked, but the Jets plan to test that theory with Sanchez and Tebow this season. (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli, File)

Two years, two close calls, and two long offseasons pondering "what if" for the Baltimore Ravens.

What if Billy Cundiff hadn't missed that chip-shot field goal against the Patriots in the AFC championship game eight months ago, the one that would have sent it to overtime? What if Baltimore's usually reliable defense held onto that seemingly comfortable 14-point halftime lead over the hated Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round the year before that?

In a league that rarely offers second chances ? let alone third ones ? the Ravens find themselves still searching for that Lombardi Trophy to bookend the one linebacker Ray Lewis led them to a dozen seasons ago.

Time is running out.

Lewis is 37 and noticeably slimmer but he's already logged 222 games at one of football's most demanding positions. Safety Ed Reed turns 34 next month and skipped minicamp while hinting at retirement. Quarterback Joe Flacco is entering his fifth year as a starter and running back Ray Rice is signed to a long-term deal and in his prime.

Anything less than ending the season in New Orleans will be a disappointment.

Coach John Harbaugh has preached "finish" during training camp, the one thing the Ravens haven't done on the cusp of the game's biggest stage. This may be their best ? and perhaps last ? shot at breaking through in a competitive conference in the midst of a transition.

The Steelers begin the season with eyes on a seventh championship, but are also dealing with the kind of roster turnover they've largely avoided during their latest revival.

The Patriots might be the only team in the league nursing a bigger postseason hangover than the Ravens after the New York Giants stunned them ? again ? in the Super Bowl.

Tom Brady's longtime rival Peyton Manning left Indianapolis for Denver, where the Broncos believe the four-time MVP's surgically repaired neck is strong enough to get them back to the Super Bowl for the first time since John Elway was doing his thing.

Houston finally broke the Colts' stranglehold on the AFC South when Manning sat out last season, and the Texans appear to easily be the class of that division as long as quarterback Matt Schaub, running back Arian Foster and wide receiver Andre Johnson stay healthy. The Texans won their first playoff game behind rookie T.J. Yates before falling to Baltimore in the divisional round.

"The key is that you stay focused on your goals and you stay focused on the work," coach Gary Kubiak said, "because you never know how something is going to happen."

___

AFC EAST

Perhaps no player took New England's late collapse against the Giants harder than Brady. Coming off another typically brilliant regular season, Brady was the last Patriots player in uniform in a dejected locker room after a fourth Super Bowl ring vanished. At 35, the window is starting to close on his Hall of Fame career. The offense remains dangerous as long as he's around, though the real issue will be if New England's defense can improve after finishing 31st in yards allowed and crumbling in the final moments against Eli Manning.

The New York Jets were among the NFL's most disappointing teams last fall, sliding to 8-8 as quarterback Mark Sanchez threw a season-killing 18 interceptions and opponents stopped fearing "Revis Island." New York traded for Tim Tebow in the offseason hoping the charismatic if erratic quarterback can make an impact both on the field and in the locker room. Sanchez remains the starter and appears to have kept his sense of humor. He joked the team was saving all its touchdowns for the regular season after the Jets went three straight exhibition games without reaching the end zone. The joke will be on Sanchez and coach Rex Ryan if New York takes another step back.

The Buffalo Bills got off to a hot start a year ago behind quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Then the team signed the QB to a contract extension and immediately started to get buyer's remorse. Buffalo went 2-8 after Fitzpatrick signed the six-year, $59 million deal. He'll need to start earning that paycheck this season, and the Bills have opened their wallets for their defense, signing end Mario Williams to give a toothless defense some bite.

The Miami Dolphins blew things up for the second time in five years, bringing in Joe Philbin as coach and giving the starting quarterback job to rookie Ryan Tannehill. To add a little appeal to a franchise that has ceded the local spotlight to LeBron James and the Miami Heat, the Dolphins signed wide receiver Chad Johnson and let HBO film its popular "Hard Knocks" training camp series with the team. The camera crew lasted longer than Johnson, perhaps a sign the Dolphins realize their problems are not a quick fix.

___

AFC NORTH

Lewis slimmed down during the spring hoping to keep his body fresh. Consider the weight Lewis shed now firmly on Flacco's shoulders. The 27-year-old who once proclaimed himself the best quarterback in football will need to play like it at times for Baltimore to excel. The aging defense will miss the presence of linebacker Terrell Suggs, out indefinitely after tearing his right Achilles tendon while playing pickup basketball.

Pittsburgh remains among the most stable franchises in the NFL, but even they aren't immune to change. In addition to the retirement of wide receiver Hines Ward and the release of linebacker James Farrior ? who have a combined four Super Bowl rings ? Pittsburgh let go offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and brought in former Kansas City coach Todd Haley. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger likened the transition to Haley's offense to learning a new language. He'll need to get fluent in a hurry behind an injury marred offensive line.

Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis has made a habit out of turning seemingly untenable situations into playoff berths, doing it a year ago with rookie quarterback Andy Dalton and receiver A.J. Green. Yet consistency has never been the team's trademark. The Bengals have made the postseason in consecutive years only once in franchise history.

The Browns borrowed a page from rival Cincinnati's book by going with 28-year-old rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden and third overall pick Trent Richardson at running back. The Bengals rode that kind of combination to the playoffs. The Browns would love to ride it to somewhere in the vicinity of .500. Yet Richardson spent part of the preseason dealing with a knee issue that could linger into September, and there are plenty of questions about who Weeden will throw to.

___

AFC SOUTH

The Texans could finally exhale after more than a decade of building ? and rebuilding ? landed them in the playoffs. They've got so much depth atop such a lackluster division they could stay there a while. Foster is among the league's best running backs and Schaub was in the midst of a career year before being brought down by injury.

Tennessee nearly tracked down the Texans in the final month of the season despite a lackluster performance from running back Chris Johnson as "CJ2K" became "CJBarely1K." The Titans hope to remain tight on Houston's heels behind second-year quarterback Jake Locker, whose mobility gives Tennessee's offense an added dynamic that could take pressure off Johnson.

The Indianapolis Colts felt so certain about Andrew Luck they hit the reset button on the entire franchise. Manning is gone. So is the coaching staff that took the team to the Super Bowl in 2010. The precocious Luck has looked like a wise investment during the preseason, showing the poise of a player far beyond his 22 years. Having the likes of Reggie Wayne around helps.

Jacksonville owner Shahid Khan is a master marketer who wants to pump some life into the beleaguered Jaguars and is so eager to do it he committed to playing four "home" games in London, one a year starting in 2013. At some point he hopes his team's play on the field ? and not it's travel schedule ? is headline worthy. It just won't be this season.

__

AFC WEST

Norv Turner continues to survive in San Diego despite seemingly diminishing returns. The Chargers woefully underachieved a year ago, as a series of injuries and a midseason slump allowed them to get Tebowed out of the postseason. Philip Rivers tried to largely do it himself, with woeful results. He tossed a career-high 20 interceptions; a healthy TE Antonio Gates should provide a return to normalcy. San Diego addressed its needs on defense by signing linebacker Jarret Johnson and using its first three draft picks on defensive players.

Kansas City made a stunning fall from a 2010 playoff run due to a series of injuries that gutted the roster. Running back Jamaal Charles, quarterback Matt Cassel, safety Eric Berry and tight end Tony Moeaki are all healthy. Having Romeo Crennel ? as placid as former coach Haley was fiery ? should keep the Chiefs on an even keel; so should a user-friendly schedule in the second half of the season.

The sight of Manning wearing orange and blue is going to take some getting used to. Manning felt confident enough in Denver's ability to compete for a title he spurned offers from other teams ? Arizona most notably. Going from Tebow to Manning is one of the most dramatic QB changes in recent memory. The Broncos will need to adapt quickly to be a threat in a tightly packed division.

The Oakland Raiders are so confident in Darren McFadden's health they didn't stop reliable backup Michael Bush from fleeing to Chicago. New coach Dennis Allen is trying to restore a sense of discipline to a franchise that largely ignores the trait. Quarterback Carson Palmer went 4-5 as the starter, but didn't have McFadden in his backfield. Allen's defense could help a defense that struggled in 2011. Still, Palmer will have to throw the ball eventually, and the Raiders haven't had a true No. 1 receiver since Randy Moss.

___

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH:

AFC EAST

1) New England

2) New York Jets

3) Miami

4) Buffalo

AFC NORTH

1) Baltimore

2) Pittsburgh

3) Cincinnati

4) Cleveland

AFC SOUTH

1) Houston

2) Tennessee

3) Indianapolis

4) Jacksonville

AFC WEST

1) San Diego

2) Denver

3) Kansas City

4) Oakland

___

Online: http://bigstory.ap.org/NFL-Pro32 and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-08-29-FBN-AFC-Preview/id-13416b5aaccd4741bbeae3b5acfadab4

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Philadelphia Real Estate Law | The basics - JG Real Estate

Whether you are buying, selling, renting or leasing a home, the government has placed certain protections in the laws that protect you from being scammed out of your hard earned money. Understanding these will help you stand up for your rights and avoid potential scams.

One of the biggest struggles homebuyers face is unethical lending practices from mortgage providers. In 2009, Pennsylvania passed a law to provide protections for homebuyers in the mortgage industry. Under these new laws, all salespeople working for mortgage companies must be state licensed. Also, mortgage providers must use a clear disclosure form to help buyers understand their mortgages, and they must go through the proper steps to ensure borrowers can afford the products they sell to them. These laws apply to both new purchase mortgages and refinance products.

The Pennsylvania Home Inspection Law also protects buyers. This law requires all homes to be inspected by a certified, licensed home inspector. This prevents buyers from purchasing a home with a serious, but hidden, flaw.

Philadelphia real estate law does not just protect buyers. It also has protections in place for sellers. For example, in a home sale, the seller?s agent and the buyer?s agent must disclose any conflicts of interest, such as buying and selling agents who work for the same firm. Sellers then have the right to decide to change agents if they wish.

Protections in the Rental Process in Philadelphia Real Estate Law

Investing in property in Philadelphia can be quite lucrative, but there are also risks involved. One of the dangers investors face is the risk of tenants who do not pay their rent or take care of the property. The security deposit helps protect against this. Under current state laws, landlords can ask for two months of rent upfront for the first year of a lease. In the second year, this drops to one month of rent. If the tenant remains in the property for a third year, investors must place the security deposit in an interest bearing account, with the interest paid to the renter at the end of the lease agreement. We suggest using a Philadelphia Management company?or at minimum Philadelphia rental agents to ensure that requirements are complied with.

If the renter damages the property or fails to pay the rent, then that security deposit becomes the property of the landlord, but only after a written list of complaints is presented. That list must be presented within 30 days of the violation. Otherwise, the money is returned to the renter at the end of the lease agreement, with interest if applicable.

In each of these situations, the law offers protection for consumers against unethical practices of others involved in the real estate process. If everyone understands and adheres to these laws, the real estate process, whether buying or leasing, will be much smoother.

Source: http://jg-realestate.com/blog/philadelphia-real-estate-law-the-basics/

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Iran summit stumbles on nuclear, Syria criticism

A showpiece summit hosted by Iran stumbled as soon as it opened on Thursday when the head of the UN pressed Tehran on its nuclear stand, and Egypt's new leader publicly sided with Syria's opposition.

The double challenge, before the leaders and delegates of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement, upset Iran's plans to portray the two-day gathering as a diplomatic triumph over Western efforts to isolate it.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the summit with a speech blasting the United States as a hegemonic meddler and Israel as a regime of "Zionist wolves."

He also said Iran "is never seeking nuclear weapons" and accused the UN Security Council, under US influence, of exerting an "overt dictatorship" over the world.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who looked irritated at Khamenei's remarks, shot back that Iran should boost global confidence in its nuclear activities by "fully complying with the relevant Security Council resolutions and thoroughly cooperating with the IAEA," the UN's nuclear watchdog.

Ban warned about bellicose rhetoric from Israel and Iran, saying "a war of words can quickly spiral into a war of violence."

President Mohamed Morsi -- making the first visit to Iran by an Egyptian head of state since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- in turn embarrassed his hosts by voicing support for the Syrian opposition, which is fighting the Damascus regime unwaveringly backed by Iran.

"The revolution in Egypt is the cornerstone for the Arab Spring, which started days after Tunisia and then it was followed by Libya and Yemen and now the revolution in Syria against its oppressive regime," Morsi said.

That contradicted the line put out by Damascus and Tehran, which assert that the Syrian uprising is a "terrorist" plot masterminded by the United States and regional countries.

Morsi's address sparked a walkout by the Damascus delegation and drew a sharp response from Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who accused him of inciting further bloodshed in Syria.

Iran's state media failed to mention the contentious parts of the speeches by Ban and Morsi in their coverage, but did later report Khamenei as rejecting "all foreign intervention in Syria."

Khamenei was reported at saying at a meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman that "the only way to solve the Syrian question is to stop sending weapons to irresponsible groups" in the country.

Tehran accuses certain Western states plus Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of supplying the Syrian rebels with arms.

Morsi reportedly had a short one-on-one with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before leaving Tehran, at which they discussed Syria and the possibility of reviving ties.

--- Iran nuclear activity under UN scrutiny ---

-----------------------------------------------

The summit to-and-fro over Iran's nuclear ambitions had its roots in an unusually frank meeting Ban held with Khamenei and Ahmadinejad after arriving on Wednesday.

He told them Iran needed to provide "concrete" steps to ease the international showdown which has raised the spectre of air strikes on nuclear facilities, threatened by both Israel and the United States.

Tensions have been raised by the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, unveiling a new Iran "task force" to scrutinise Tehran's nuclear programme and its compliance with UN resolutions.

The latest IAEA report on Iran circulated to IAEA members and seen by AFP but not yet published said Tehran has doubled its capacity at a tough-to-bomb Fordo nuclear facility to 2,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges from 1,000 in May.

It also said that its ability to inspect the Parchin military base, outside Tehran, where it suspects nuclear weapons research took place had been "significantly hampered" by a suspected clean-up.

The IAEA said it was still "unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

Washington warned Tehran its window for opening serious talks is limited.

"The window of opportunity to resolve this remains open... but it will not remain open indefinitely," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Ban, whose presence at the summit has been criticised by the United States and Israel, also took Iran's leaders to task for recent comments calling Israel a "cancerous tumour" that should be cut out of the Middle East.

He urged both Iran and Israel to cool the bellicose language.

"I strongly reject any threat by any (UN) member state to destroy another, or outrageous comments to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust," Ban said in his summit speech.

"I urge all the parties to stop provocative and inflammatory threats. A war of words can quickly spiral into war of violence. Bluster can so easily become bloodshed. Now is the time for all the leaders to use their voices to lower, not raise, tensions."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-leaders-squirm-iran-summit-turns-tense-111524490.html

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Gary the Gourami fish loves a kiss ? This Is Guernsey

Staff at a Sea Life centre are giving new meaning to the phrase ?trout pout? as they offer visitors a kiss from a fish.

The amorous fish, named Gary, has become popular with visitors to the Hunstanton Sea Life Sanctuary in Norfolk because of his constantly pouting lips.

Women working at the centre have developed the ritual of bending down to return a kiss through the glass each time they pass his tank.

Gary, a giant Gourami from Indonesia measuring nearly 28 inches long, never fails to return the gesture.

General manager Nigel Croasdale said: ?They don?t seem able to go past Gary?s tank without stopping for a quick smooch, and Gary seems to love it.?

Gary is one of several waifs and strays currently on display at the centre.

He was brought to the sanctuary by a member of the public who had kept him as a pet but became overwhelmed by his appetite ? he would guzzle a leftover Sunday dinner every weekend.

The freshwater species is a popular food fish in India but many people keep them as pets. Giant Gourami are one of the most common species requiring rehousing from home aquariums.

?They are often found in pet shops measuring just a few inches long, and people buy them without realising how big they grow, and how quickly,? said displays supervisor Kieran Copeland.

The sanctuary is supporting The Big Fish Campaign, launched by the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, in an attempt to deter shops from selling the so-called ?tank busters?.

Source: http://www.thisisguernsey.com/news/uk-news/2012/08/28/gary-the-gourami-fish-loves-a-kiss/

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Russia Helps Douse Bosnian Forest Fires :: Balkan Insight

Elvira M. Jukic

Instead of the rain that locals in Herzegovina were hoping for, fresh winds started blowing on Monday, helping forest fires spread and endangering isolated homes.

The toughest fires were blazing around the towns of Mostar, Jablanica, Konjic and Trebinje. The Bosnian Army sent two helicopters to help put out fires from the air around Konjic and Trebinje while soldiers were engaged helping locals fight the blaze from the ground.

Russia has sent a helicopter to help locals tackle blazes near Mostar, as Bosnian Army helicopters were being repaired while the fires engulfed nearby forests.

On Prenj mountain, two mountain cottages were torched by fire while the village of Glogosnica, near Jablanica in Herzegovina, was also in danger as flames approached within a few hundreds metres of local houses.

The fires around the towns of Bileca, Trebinje, Gacko and Ljubinje in Herzegovina also came close to some houses but were partly under control.

Elsewhere in Bosnia, Monday's rain extinguished many fires, though a few smaller ones were still burning in the eastern part of the country.

Source: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/russia-eufor-assist-bosnia-extinguish-forest-fires

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Tapping engineers, families for hospital safety

This undated handout photo provided by Nicole D. James shows James, of Elkridge, Md., who spent two extra weeks in the hospital when a doctor added an unneeded medication to her usual care for sickle care anemia without consulting her first. A project announced Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation aims to improve hospital safety by engineering safer treatment systems and getting more patients and families actively involved in care. (AP Photo)

This undated handout photo provided by Nicole D. James shows James, of Elkridge, Md., who spent two extra weeks in the hospital when a doctor added an unneeded medication to her usual care for sickle care anemia without consulting her first. A project announced Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation aims to improve hospital safety by engineering safer treatment systems and getting more patients and families actively involved in care. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Head of the hospital bed raised? Check. Patient's teeth brushed? Check.

Those simple but often overlooked steps can help protect some of the most critically ill patients ? those on ventilators ? from developing deadly pneumonia. And if they knew about them, family members could ensure the steps weren't forgotten.

Hospitals are rife with infections and opportunities for medical mistakes. Now, a nearly $9 million project at Johns Hopkins University aims to combine engineering with the power of patients and their families to prevent some of the most common threats.

The idea: Design patient safety to be more like a car's dashboard, which automatically signals drivers when the oil needs changing or if a passenger forgot to buckle up, or like the countdown systems that make sure no step is missed when a satellite is launched.

Today, safe, quality care largely depends on individual health workers remembering hundreds of steps without good ways to tell if they forget one, said Hopkins' patient safety expert Dr. Peter Pronovost. Getting it right takes what he calls "almost heroic efforts."

And too often, the people best able to spot early warning signs ? patients and their families ? are treated as passive bystanders rather than encouraged to participate in their care, he said.

"Who knows better than the family?" asked Dr. George Bo-Linn of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's new Patient Care Program.

The foundation, created by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, announced Tuesday that it is funding the Hopkins work as the first step in a planned 10-year, $500 million effort to improve patient safety and family engagement in hospitals around the country. Separately, the Institute of Medicine has signed on to help, partnering with the National Academy of Engineering, to bring together top experts on how to design safety systems.

Sometimes the failure to merely discuss treatment with patients or their families causes the harm. Consider Nicole D. James, a commercial property manager in Elkridge, Md., who undergoes frequent overnight hospital stays to treat the intense pain of sickle cell anemia. One such visit turned into a miserable two-week stay when the ER doctor added a powerful antibiotic to James' usual pain treatment without telling her first ? a drug that worsened her sickle cell crisis.

It turned out the doctor had spotted a shadow on James' lung X-ray that he thought was pneumonia but that she could have told him, and her regular physician confirmed, really was old scar tissue.

"I know what's normal for me," said James, 37, who now insists that relatives drive past closer hospitals for Hopkins, where her doctor practices, no matter how late at night or intense her pain. Because the doctors know her, "I am not just somebody lying on the table. I am part of the team."

Tens of thousands of preventable deaths occur in U.S. hospitals every year. Numerous programs are under way to improve patient safety. Among them is the government's Partnership for Patients, funded by $1 billion from the new health care law, that is helping hospitals adopt proven safety strategies.

Hopkins' Pronovost led the creation of one of the most well-known ? a simple checklist that ensures hospital workers follow steps that lower the risk of deadly bloodstream infections from common IV catheters. That checklist now is being used in ICUs nationwide, and the government reported last year that those infections have plummeted by 60 percent as a result.

But catheter infections are just one of a dozen serious hospital-caused harms that threaten ICU patients, Pronovost said. Rather than fighting them one at a time, his new project will target multiple ICU threats simultaneously ? from ventilator-associated pneumonia to deadly blood clots ? without relying on old-fashioned paper checklists and with more family involvement.

It will require linking medical devices that today don't talk to each other, he said. For instance, pumps that deliver narcotic painkillers aren't linked to other devices that monitor breathing. If connected, the painkillers could be stopped automatically at the first sign of respiratory problems, a known side effect.

Other protections are far less complex. Keeping the head of the bed elevated at least 30 degrees and good oral hygiene are among the steps that help fend off the pneumonia that kills 36,000 people a year while they're on ventilators. That's something family members can watch for ? or they even can be trained to brush a loved one's teeth around the breathing tube.

Already, Hopkins has introduced a "family involvement menu" of care items. "We believe that you know the person that we are caring for far better than we do," the menu reads.

Ultimately, Pronovost envisions an iPad-like device that allows both health workers and family members to see at a glance which of dozens of required daily care steps have been performed and which still need to be.

"The beauty of checklists is it gives you that constant visual reminder," and an electronic, automated version is the next logical evolution, said Ann Marie Pettis, director of infection prevention at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who called the project intriguing.

Engaging the patient and family in some ways is tougher. Hospitals have had a hard time encouraging people to ask doctors and nurses if they've washed their hands, said Gina Pugliese of the Premier Safety Institute, a hospital improvement alliance.

"So many patients and families are hesitant to ever question the doctor," she said. "It's so important they get involved."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-08-28-HealthBeat-Patient%20Safety/id-3519022519e643ad99d518def1bd95f2

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Police Investigate Overnight Attack at Retirement Home - Tarrytown ...

Police are looking for a man dressed in dark clothing who attacked a woman in her apartment at The Osborn in Rye.

In addition to police from Rye, the investigation team includes the bomb squad from Westchester County Police.

Police said a 72-year-old resident was reportedly attacked and injured at around 2:15 a.m., with the intruder leaving behind a suspicious object in a bag that prompted the call for the bomb squad.

Rye police said security staff at The Osborn alerted them to the incident this morning. Police said the intruder may have entered the complex at an entrance near a garage.

The incident prompted a temporary evacuation of residents in other nearby units at the complex; residents have been allowed to return home.

Police said the victim left her bedroom and found a man in a hallway of her apartment. The victim told police the man had a kitchen knife.

Police said the victim was assaulted and was taken to Greenwich (CT) Hospital this morning for treatment of facial injuries.

During the investigation, police said the found a cylindrical object in a bag that was apparently dropped by the intruder. Because of the nature of the object, which had a string attached to it, police said they called in the bomb squad to assist.

Nothing appears to have been stolen in the incident, police said.

Watch for updates on this story on Patch.

Source: http://tarrytown.patch.com/articles/police-investigate-overnight-attack-at-retirement-home

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Plunge in Child Mortality Leaves UN Unsatisfied

Child mortality has decreased rapidly over 20 years, though not fast enough to reach the United Nations goal of lessening deaths of children under age 5 by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, according to U.N. researchers.

Given current trends, the child mortality goal set out by U.N. officials won't be reached until 2038, and the mortality rate won't reach First World levels until 2100, the researchers said.

With the United Nations slated to release its latest 2011 estimates of global child mortality next month, international teams of researchers shone a spotlight today (Aug. 28) on some of the challenges of estimating how many children die annually around the world. For instance, many countries rely on incomplete surveys, and researchers have use computer projections for some areas completely lacking in data.

Every day, 21,000 children across the globe die, researchers estimate. The annual total declined from 12 million child deaths in 1990 to an estimated 7.6 million in 2010.

"The burden of child deaths is still unacceptably high," advisers to the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation write in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Holly Newby, senior adviser on child health at UNICEF, told LiveScience, "Feeling a sense of progress is tempered by the fact that we have millions of children dying needless, preventable deaths, and we need to do more." [Top 10 Leading Causes of Death]

Child mortality estimates

Each year demographers and researchers update the number of worldwide child deaths in an international effort that includes UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The estimates affect how the U.N. moves forward with its Millennium Development Goals program, a series of eight goals to assist the developing world adopted in 2000.

The child-mortality goal, or "MDG 4," "is an example of what was a very ambitious target," Newby said. "Even among some of those countries that have not met the target, there has really been incredible progress."

In the past 10 years, for instance, sub-Saharan nations facing the challenges of HIV doubled the rate of decline in mortality from the 1990s, Newby said. [Wishful Thinking: 6 'Magic Bullet' Cures That Don't Exist]

"Some of those counties might not meet the goal, but as a world community we need to stand up and say 'Bravo,' because progress has been made," Newby said.

Last month U.N. officials announced that the MDG program had reached significant targets in the efforts to reduce slums, decrease poverty and improve water resources for people around the globe.

Tricky task of counting deaths

The task of figuring out child mortality worldwide is enormous and researchers must tackle many region-specific trends, data gaps and conflicting statistics.

"Only 60 counties have fully functioning sources of mortality data; the rest of the countries rely on surveys," said Danzhen You, statistics and monitoring specialist at UNICEF and co-author of two of the PLoS Medicine papers on child mortality methods.

In the past 10 to 20 years, the data gap has shrunk as international surveys have become more prevalent, including 230 surveys in another 100 low-income countries.

"It's a very exciting story in terms of data availability and what we can start to say about these low-income countries," Newby said.

Typically surveys convey snapshots of child mortality for the prior five years, but researchers argued that in some cases, shortening the surveys to get data a year out may be beneficial.

In some cases, little or no data exist at all. "If there is no data, then we can only base estimates on modeling; now the uncertainty is narrowing," You said.

In areas such as sub-Sahara Africa with high HIV infection rates, child deaths may be underestimated because the mother herself has died from AIDS, researchers found.

Estimates for the probability of a child under 5 dying can vary by as much as 10 percent depending on the data and models used, one research group found.

"It's really like being a detective, seeking out all the available data and clues and trying to make sense of it," Newby said.

Challenges ahead

Several challenges remain to decrease child mortality in developing nations where, for example, 64 percent of child deaths in 2010 came from treatable pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria.

For those sitting in comfortable homes or offices, Newby said, ?it?s maybe a moment to reflect on those who don?t have such advantages. It?s not really about the MDG 4 target, it?s about improving lives.?

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plunge-child-mortality-leaves-un-unsatisfied-210423948.html

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Arcade Party Ideas For Kids and Teens - Moms & Munchkins

An arcade party doesn?t necessarily have to be held at an arcade. There are plenty of fun & inexpensive ways to set up your own arcade at home. Here you?ll find fun party ideas for invitations, decorations, food, treat bags and of course games! This is a great theme for teenagers who love video games!

Arcade Party ? Invitations:

A fun idea for an arcade invitation is a ticket style invitation inviting them to your newly created home arcade. It could include words like:

• Please join us for the Grand Opening of {Child?s Name}?s Arcade!
• Game On!
• Bring your best game playing skills for {Child?s Name}?s Arcade Championships!
• Let the games begin!
• Calling All Gammers!

Arcade Party ? Decorations:

One of the great things about an arcade party is that the games also go towards your party decor. I?ll talk more about games in the next section. To set the scene for an arcade at home, you?ll need plenty of fun arcade signs, neon lights and spotlights. If you can, dim the lights in the party area and use neon & flashing lights instead.

There are also plenty of arcade inspired stuffed animals like Pac Man and Donkey Kong that could be placed around the party area. Here are a few other ideas for signs, tokens on tables, wall decals and more!

Arcade Party ? Activities:

The key to a fun arcade party is plenty of arcade games! Most of us don?t have a home filled with arcade games so you?ll have to improvise a little bit.

To start with, you may want to use small white boards at each game station to record high scores during the party. The person with the highest score at each game could be given a prize at the end of the party. You could also hand out tickets to each player who participates in a game. The players could then use these tickets later to fill their favor bag at the end of the party. I?ll discuss this in a bit more detail later!

Most of the fun games shown below are under $30 and they all fit perfectly into an arcade party theme. You may also want a few timers for some of the games to record how many points players score within a specified time frame.

Some fun arcade game ideas are:

• Video games like racing games and dancing competitions
• Small handheld pinball games
• Over the door hanging basketball games
• Darts to pop balloons on a cork board
• Bowling games
• Whack A Mole (my favorite arcade game!)
• Water guns & shooting rubber ducks
• Claw game for trying to grab prizes out of a clear container (you could also use salad tongs for this and have guests close their eyes and grab a small prize out of a large box ? for even more difficulty, you can blindfold them and spin them around a couple of times)

Arcade Party ? Food:

A fun idea would be to set up a concession stand with food items to ?purchase? with tickets or tokens that the guests are given as they enter the party. Some food ideas are:

• Hot Dogs
• Donkey Kong burgers
• Mario?s Pasta Special
• Popcorn

Arcade Party ? Dessert:

Besides cake and cupcakes, an arcade party could include fun desserts like:

• Pac Man cookies using Pac Man cookie cutters
• Pinballs (regular cake pops iced in grey or silver icing to make them look like pinballs)
• Cotton Candy

Arcade Party ? Favors:

When guests arrive to the party, they can be given small plastic cups with tickets and tokens. The tokens can be used for food at the concession stand and the tickets can be traded in for fun prizes. Each guest can be given a personalized treat bag that they can fill with whatever prizes they choose from the prize area. You can label each prize with how many tickets each one is worth. Guests can then use the tickets they?ve been given or have won during the party to fill their favor bags to take home. Some fun ideas for an arcade party prize area include:

What?s your favorite arcade game?

?

**Disclosure: I am part of the Amazon, Birthday in a Box, Tiny Prints Inc., Beau-coup and Big Dot of Happiness affiliate programs. All opinions expressed here are 100% my own.

Related posts:

Source: http://www.momsandmunchkins.ca/2012/08/26/arcade-party/

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Stanford Researchers Discover the 'Anternet'

"Ants have discovered an algorithm that we know well, and they've been doing it for millions of years," Prabhakar said.

Does anybody else see the problem with this statement?

To be fair, the ants implemented the algorithm first, ergo: Nature discovered it first. Or, if you'd rather not personify the cosmos: Such protocols are naturally emergent.

Most of what we're now learning and formalizing was discovered by nature millions of years ago. Slime molds can solve traffic patterns too. Pine cones "know" the Fibonacci sequence (at an intimate level). Fast Fourier Transforms are how our brains filter signals for certain kinds of pattern recognition. Holograms are macro scale demonstrations of reality at the quantum level. Neural networks can think (well duh). Life, as we know it, is merely a fractal expansion of DNA.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/y6nHEkSArUI/stanford-researchers-discover-the-anternet

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New Home for Sale in Carolina Beach - Coastwalk Real Estate ...

Aug. 26, 2012

Here is a super new home for sale in Carolina Beach. Its about 5 blocks from the ocean. You can alw walk to the Lake, and downtown. 1511 Searay Lane offes everything you want in a modern beach home, including affordability.

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For more information contact Coastwalk Real Estate. We can help you find a home 910-458-9119 Here are more details on the specs and building materials used: Design and Luxury Features Exterior ? 26 G Galvalum Metal Roof ? Low maintenance vinyl siding ? Single Hung, double pane, Low E vinyl windows (impact glass used on 3rd floor) ? Fiberglass exterior doors with rot free jams (impact glass inserts used on 3rd floor) ? Painted rails and posts on all porches ? Sodded and irrigated front, rear and side yards ? Environmentally friendly driveway design ? Monolithic slab on ground floor ? Enclosed storage room on ground floor ? Each home also utilizes the Zip System for exterior wall sheathing ZIP WALL SYSTEM High energy prices, growing awareness of building performance and environmental sustainability, and changes in building codes have led to the development of new products and building practices. ZIP System? wall is designed specifically to address the growing need for home performance, comfort and energy efficiency, and is the optimal solution for structural sheathing, moisture management and superior air barrier performance, all in one. The ZIP System features a best-in-class 30-year system warranty and 30-year panel warranty* REDUCES AIR LEAKAGE Air leakage into or out of a home is a leading cause of poor energy efficiency because it disrupts the existing air temperature, which is typically conditioned by expensive heating or cooling equipment. Unlike traditional sealing methods involving housewrap, ZIP System wall sheathing offers a much better solution to this age-old building challenge. PROTECTS R-VALUE Air leakage also reduces the R-Value of a building's insulation. High R-Value means greater resistance to heat flowing through the wall cavity. Air leakage degrades the ability of insulation to resist heat flow. An efficient wall system creates a tight seal, allowing insulation to perform at its intended level. ZIP System wall sheathing seals the wall system and prevents air leakage from degrading R-value. ENERGY SAVINGS A tighter building envelope means less airflow into and out of the home. And since conditioned air is expensive air, homeowners can also take comfort in knowing that ZIP System sheathing will help save them money Interior ? Engineered wide plank hand scraped hardwood floors in living, dining, kitchen and halls ? Shaw Chalet style carpet with 6lb pad in all bedrooms ? 7 ?? tall mdf baseboards throughout ? 1x4 mdf craftsman style door casings ? Hollowcore Interior Doors with 3 styles to choose from ? Smooth painted ceilings and walls. ? Benjamin Moore paint ? Tile bathroom floors and walls. ? 4 recessed cans in the kitchen area ? Phone jack and cable outlet in each bedroom and in main living area ? Ceiling fans with light kits in all bedrooms and living room ? Ceiling fans with light kits on covered porches ? Smoke detectors installed in all bedrooms and living areas ? Front and rear flood lights ? Chrome finish plumbing fixtures in bathrooms ? Vented closet shelving Kitchen ? Granite Countertops ? Single Bowl Stainless Steel sink ? Frigidaire Stainless Steel appliances ? Tile backsplash ? Shaker style cabinetry (knobs not included) ? Energy Saving Features ? Goodman 13 Seer Heat pumps ? 50 Gallon Hot water heater ? R15 insulation in walls, R 30 in ceilings and R 19 in floors (between heated and non heated space) ? Water saver, elongated toilets ? Zip system wall sheathing (see above)

Posted in Carolina Beach Homes, Carolina Beach Real Estate, Kure Beach Homes, Kure Beach Real Estate, New Hanover County Real Estate, Pleasure Island Real Estate, Uncategorized, Wilmington NC Homes, Wilmington Real Estate, Wrightsville Beach Homes, Wrightsville Beach Real Estate

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Source: http://www.coastwalkrealestate.com/blog/new-homes-carolina-beach-nc/

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Source: http://ken8122.typepad.com/blog/2012/08/new-home-for-sale-in-carolina-beach-coastwalk-real-estate.html

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Online CNA Training Classes - Mom\'s Education Sites

You will not need to purchase the expensive books from the market when enrolled for the online CNA training classes; you can make use of their CBT (Computer Based Training System). You will be able to download the study guides for the cna training there. There study guides will be encrypted in Microsoft form or in pdf format. Most of the lecturers use PDF (Portable Document Format) to deliver their notes and study guides in online training classes. You need PDF reading software so as to open PDF documents. You can easily download these software on the internet without any cost.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2012 at 5:06 am and is filed under Reference and Education. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.suchasmartmom.com/reference-and-education/online-cna-training-classes-no-need-to-buy-books/

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Obama team will attempt to counter GOP message

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Democrats want to cause a stir ? or at least stay in the conversation ? while the spotlight is on Republicans next week at the GOP convention in Tampa.

President Barack Obama and his campaign are seeking to counter Mitt Romney's message and try head off any dramatic climb for the Republican challenger in post-convention polls, staging events around the nation next week.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will campaign in four battleground states and Obama's campaign will hold events around the country aimed at attracting women voters. The "Romney-Ryan: Wrong for Women" events will start with the Women Vote 2012 Summit in Las Vegas on Saturday with appearances by White House advisers Valerie Jarrett and Cecilia Munoz and actress Natalie Portman and include similar gatherings aimed at women voters in seven cities next week.

In the Rust Belt, Obama's campaign is planning an economic-themed bus tour through Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin with former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. And in Tampa, Democrats plan daily events with party officials and middle-class Americans to counter the Republican ticket.

"Our goal is to cut through the political chatter and speak directly to Americans about the clear choice they face in this election between moving the country forward, and going back to the same failed policies of the past," said Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter.

Both campaigns view their party conventions as important periods to lay out the themes of the fall campaign and tell the story of their candidate to a national audience. The party along the sidelines often tries to hold events in the host city to grab attention and counter their opponent's message.

Obama's team notes that presidential challengers typically receive a bump in support from their party convention and expect Romney to benefit from the weeklong exposure. But by holding their convention in Charlotte, N.C., beginning Sept. 4, right on the heels of the Republican convention, Democrats contend they can quickly rebut Romney's message.

Obama will travel to college towns in Iowa, Colorado and Virginia next week, courting young voters and college students while Biden is scheduled to head to Florida on Tuesday, making stops in St. Augustine and Orlando, including an appearance with actress Eva Longoria. The vice president had planned a speech in Tampa on Monday but the trip was postponed to ensure that all local law enforcement and emergency management resources could stay focused on Tropical Storm Isaac, which could affect Florida during the convention. The campaign said the Tuesday events were subject to change due to weather-related precautions.

First lady Michelle Obama will appear on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" on Wednesday during the heart of the GOP convention and make other appearances during the week.

"With just 75 days left, we're not going to cede four days of this campaign just because of a party convention," Cutter said.

In years past, the party's nominee would typically take time off during their opponent's nominating convention but given the competitive race, both campaigns are expected to court voters throughout the conventions. Romney's campaign said they expected the former Massachusetts governor to hold events during the Democratic party's convention.

Phil Singer, who helped coordinate Democrats' message during the 2004 Republican convention, said it's always difficult to "crash the other side's party" because the convention carries with it a captive media audience, primetime programming and tens of millions of dollars behind the high-profile speeches.

But Singer said "in a media environment that's on steroids as this one is, any time you're not feeding the shark, the shark is feeding on you."

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-team-seeks-counter-gop-message-190037912.html

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Not a spectacular?showdown

After a bailiff cries ?all rise? and Judge David S. Doty strolls, marches, and/or glides into his Minneapolis courtroom the morning after the Giants host the Cowboys in the first game of the regular season, the NFL and NFLPA will get their first glimpse into the predispositions of the jurist who?ll decide whether or not the union?s surprising claim of a ?secret salary cap? in 2010 may proceed.

It was a surprise because the claim came well after 2010 ended, and after the new CBA presumably wiped the slate clean between the league and the players, erasing all pending legal issues including any collusion claims that could have been made based on actual or perceived restraints on spending in a year that was supposed to have none.? (Technically, the labor deal imposed a handful of limits in 2010, such as restrictions on the free-agent signings by the teams finishing in the final eight from 2009.)

It was a surprise also because the NFLPA had signed off on cap penalties imposed on the Cowboys and Redskins, penalties which revealed that the two teams were being punished because they didn?t comply with the ?spirit? of a salary cap that didn?t exist.? The union agreed with the penalties because the union desperately needed the NFL likewise to agree to a number-fudging that would allow the NFLPA to avoid the kind of reduction in the salary cap from 2011 to 2012 that would have been awkward, to say the least, as executive director DeMaurice Smith?s re-election approached.

Now that the billable hours have hit the fan, Judge Doty will have to decide whether he?s more persuaded by technicality, or by equity.

As framed by the NFLPA in its final written submission, a copy of which PFT has obtained, the players claim that the NFL didn?t do enough to engineer a release and waiver of claims for past collusion when the new CBA was finalized and all pending litigation was concluded in 2011.? Apart from whether the documents drafted by the parties contained the right magic words to make the claims for collusion in 2010 disappear, the NFLPA has advanced an intriguing argument based on the nature of class actions.? (Try to stay awake on this, please.? If it helps, the link on ?magic words? goes to a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)

The union smartly argues that claims made on behalf of a class of litigants can be extinguished by court order only.? And so the union claims that, by not ensuring that Judge Doty would officially wipe out the collusion claims, the collusion claims weren?t wiped out.

If Judge Doty agrees, it will mean that the league?s lawyers screwed up.

Balanced against that technical application of the rules is fairness and common sense.? Regardless of the specific words or procedures used by the parties, the idea was to hit the reset button on all legal issues between the parties.? The league made concessions and the players made concessions and now the players are trying to avoid one of the concessions they made.? Some judges would decide, quickly, that such an outcome simply isn?t fair.

Compounding the potential for a finding that the NFLPA is pushing for a fundamentally unfair outcome is the fact that the players gladly signed off on cap penalties that necessarily exposed the existence of collusion in 2010 in order to get something the NFLPA needed ? a higher salary cap in 2012.? It?s unseemly, to say the least, for the NFLPA to now try to use that which it gave up to get a high cap number as the basis for seeking billions in collusion damages for allegedly depressed spending in 2010, especially since it should have been obvious to anyone paying attention that something fishy was going on.

Did the NFL engage in collusion in 2010?? Yes, in our opinion.? Should the NFLPA has done something about it in 2010?? Yes, in our opinion.? Is there something that doesn?t feel right about the NFLPA agreeing to the cap penalties that made the collusion crystal clear and then suing for collusion?? Absolutely.

But what we/I/anyone else thinks doesn?t matter.? Judge Doty will provide the first official word on the issue.? And if Doty agrees that the collusion case may proceed, look for the NFL try to appeal that decision immdiately, arguing that if the next level in the federal court system sees it the NFL?s way, there?s no reason to spend the time and money associated with developing the evidence that would prove collusion.

Even though that evidence should be fairly easy to find.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/25/luck-griffin-solid-but-not-spectacular-in-preseason-showdown/related/

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