Monday, May 6, 2013

Left 4 Dead 2 now available on Linux, reclaims beta moniker

Left 4 Dead 2 now available on Linux, reclaims beta moniker

Valve's bid to lure gamers away from Microsoft's platform just got a little sweeter: Left 4 Dead 2 is finally available on Linux. Despite early appearances in early leaks, the game has been absent from Steam's Linux compatible library. The wait might have been worth it -- early ports of the game apparently only ran at six frames per second, but it eventually surpassed its Windows counterpart. Now, Valve is looking towards is community to fine tune the port even further, offering a fully functional beta client to Steam users who already own the game. Although the focus here is Linux compatibility, the company is offering the beta to Windows and Mac users as well, and says that running the game on any system helps with testing. Ready to take down the horde? Fire up Ubuntu and get started. Otherwise, you can check out the company's official announcement at the source link below.

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Source: L4D Blog

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/05/left-4-dead-2-now-available-on-linux/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Fla. lawmakers OK plan for Everglades restoration

(AP) ? Florida lawmakers have approved a new plan to help pay for Everglades restoration.

The legislation was sent to Gov. Rick Scott on a 39-0 vote by the Senate on Thursday. It cleared the House earlier in the session.

The bill is backed by environmental groups and sugar farmers, and its sponsors have said it represents a truce in a decades-old dispute.

The measure would keep intact an existing tax on farmers in the northern Everglades until 2036. The money from the tax will be used to help pay for water quality restoration projects that are part of an $880 million plan that was negotiated between Scott and the federal government.

The legislation also calls for spending $32 million a year for the next 10 years.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-05-02-Everglades%20Restoration/id-f3d311ba9b1e48fdbdfb7fb3d3adcd74

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How To Be A Successful Internet Marketer - Maynas Eric

There is a wealth of knowledge surrounding Website marketing that is available. Some of the information you have probably read, but new strategies are popping up every day. No doubt, it will help you sharpen your marketing skills. This article is provided to help you do just that!

Flashy websites look neat, but avoid making your website too distracting. Since you only have about 5 seconds to grab your customers attention, you need to create a site that makes your visitors want to stay longer. If your site can?t quickly grab your visitor?s attention, they will click away to search elsewhere.

Your website?s tag provides a perfect opportunity to establish and shape your identity. This tag, found above the browser window, shows people what your site is about. Having mismatched titles and information is one of the quickest ways to drive people away from your site.

TIP! It?s important for your business that you?re receiving feedback on your brand and on your products. This can be crucial to your success because your perception of how your site looks or how your pricing is may not be the perception of others.

Even though you might not realize it yet, you possess all that is needed to be successful in internet promotion. Expensive tools of the trade that promise you can get rich quick are not what will prove important. Instead, rely on good, old-fashioned, hard work and imagination. Dedicate yourself to learning the ins and outs of the website marketing world, and you will be on your way to advertising success before you know it.

As you begin to market your products online, you will eventually create a website. Start your website small. Search engines also rank sites based on the number of indexed pages; therefore, it is essential to build your website with pertinent information and expanded it weekly with at least one blog entry.

Each email you send should include a signature. This is the calling card for your business on the web, and you should distribute it at every opportunity. Giving the recipient a glimpse of your business may result in a new customer and another sale.

TIP! To convince your audience before they buy the product, send them to a content page that presents content about the product such as a video. This will give them more information and they will be better able to decide if they should purchase the product.

If you make claims about any product you sell, provide proof. If you can prove the effectiveness of your product through videos or testimonials, your customers will be more apt to believe in your products and services. This is an excellent example of why selling products you have, in fact, used is always a good idea.

Avoid spending too much money on advertising. Shop around for the best deals, and don?t waste money on something that isn?t beneficial to your business. When you spend money, you want to get good deals and that?s why banner ads can be a good investment.

You should figure out whom you are trying to reach, and what content you need to produce to attract them to your site. After you know your target market, you can easily provide them with content that will attract them to your website repeatedly.

TIP! It is not necessary for Internet marketing to take place just on the Internet. Reaching out to bloggers and creating partnerships with mutual benefits is a great way to increase your presence.

You may even bundle the excess inventory with another similar product and sell the two for a discount. Make sure that the terms are stated clearly in all of your marketing literature.

Incorporating banners in a non-discrete fashion will help to improve your website. You should try your best to make them look like they are clickable links to reach more content. A lot of people are wary of ads, this will attract them.

Reward those people that buy things from you. Make sure that you keep your current customers, as they will provide a lot of value over time. This will get you a great reputation.

TIP! Put in some time to develop the web design basics. You can find online courses that will teach you HTML, CSS and many other programs that assist with web design.

If you send out regular emails to your customers, or to anyone who has signed up at your site, make sure you vary the emails up so it doesn?t always look the same. It is very easy for customers to begin ignoring emails if they look the same. Even a little bit of variety in your email links will keep the recipient?s attention from wandering.

If you use a mailing list to market via the Internet, be sure to personalize your messages to them. This helps to create a dialogue that is focused primarily on their interests. Aren?t you really tired of spam mail. Making something targeted and personalized, will set you apart from everyone else who is sending e-mails.

Many people respond to titles. Let others know that you hold a ranked position within your company. Use the term CEO or president for yourself.

TIP! Dumb luck plays little part in successful marketing, even on the internet. An investment of time and effort is what makes marketing pay off.

As important as it is to have numerous social networking sites, it is equally important that you update all of your profiles. Profiles that are stagnant are considered to be spam.

Implement the use of tech tools to see how well your marketing strategies are working; for instance, you could look to see how many people visit your site and then how many of those individuals buy something from you. The most successful sites use customizable applications that track site statistics like sales and traffic.

TIP! If you are offering certain claims about your product, they must be true. Be believable in your claims and try to demonstrate the benefits of what you are promoting with a video, so that customers can see for themselves.

One Affiliate marketing tip that everyone should implement is giving your customers the option of paying retail or wholesale prices depending on how many of each item they buy. Even the wholesale prices will leave you with some profit, but you will be selling much larger quantities than before.

If you give your customers an extra freebie if they refer friends, they may be more likely to sign up. This way you will be able to potentially gain many more customers by encouraging existing purchasers to bring their friends to the website to earn free prizes or rewards. People love free stuff and the more people you get onto your site, the greater your sales are.

To be successful at marketing online, you need to maximize your website?s potential. Experiment with designs until you find a pleasing layout and color scheme. Then add the features and elements that will allow you to effectively present your product and communicate with your customers. Always keep in mind that the appeal of your site can keep a visitor shopping or turn them completely off and away.

TIP! In any Internet marketing campaign, your emails are highly valuable resources. Take steps to protect your email correspondence.

Hopefully, you have a new idea or have remembered something you want to use in your affiliate marketing plan from this article. Apply what fits your circumstances. Continue to sharpen your marketing skills!

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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/how-to-be-a-successful-internet-marketer-5

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Forget Sanford and Colbert Busch, Glover rules SC's lowcountry

(Chris Moody/Yahoo News)

BEAUFORT, S.C. -- Campaign fever has swept the lower region of South Carolina's first congressional district, but the anticipation for next week's election has little to do with Mark Sanford or Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

The true contender is Beaufort-born Candice Glover, a 23-year-old top finalist on the hit television show "American Idol." Over the weekend, the window fronts of businesses along Main Street here were covered with campaign posters that read "Vote for Candice Y'all" and nearly everyone sported "I Voted Candice Glover For American Idol" stickers on their chests. On Saturday, the town even organized a parade for her, where thousands lined the street to see their hometown hero perform before her final competition in Los Angeles. Aside from just a handful of people on the outskirts of the parade waving campaign posters for Sanford and a Colbert Busch yard sign planted along the parade route, all the attention was on Glover. (Colbert Busch visited Beaufort on Friday and Sanford attended the parade Saturday.) Katie and Kayleigh Edgerly rally for Candice Glover. (Chris Moody/Yahoo News)

Lost in the hullabaloo in this storybook waterfront town is the other upcoming contest--an actual election-- to fill the state's open congressional seat. "No one is here to see Sanford," a man wearing a "Vote: Candice" t-shirt told me. "You're probably the only one."

But Sanford was present, making his way through the crowd, shaking hands and snapping photos with all who would stop and greet him.

One might be forgiven for not noticing him at first.

Standing in a pair of old, beaten up leather shoes, casual Izod khakis and a blue checkered oxford shirt, Sanford looked like any other dad at the parade. He meandered among the people without a flashy entourage or even a gaggle of reporters chasing him. Supporters found their old governor nonetheless--at times only after making a double-take--and stopped to pledge support for him in Tuesday's election.

Surrounded by people, Sanford appeared more exhilarated with every hand shaken and photo taken. "Happy Candice Day!" he would say before extending his hand.

Sanford could hardly walk three steps before another person would approached him. One group of men standing on a balcony overlooking the parade route spotted him in the crowd and shouted, "Mark!" before nodding their heads and giving a silent thumbs up.

Some felt the urge to tell him that they had forgiven him for his behavior as governor, when he secretly left the country to meet his Argentine mistress--now his fiance--a decision that many said at the time would end his political career.

"I'm glad you're making a comeback," a man told Sanford as he shook his hand.

"Thank God for second chances," the man's wife added.

"I agree with that," Sanford said.

Others, of course, offered less grace. Some who recognized him looked the other way, or shouted things like, "Go back to Argentina!" or "Elizabeth!" the first name of his opponent.

Still, Sanford appeared grateful. Between conversations and handshakes with parade watchers, he stopped for a moment to reflect.

"It's a blessing," Sanford said. "I've been to a place where people didn't want to get their picture taken with me."

Perhaps the true blessing, at least here, is that he's not running against Candice Glover.

Mark Sanford in Beaufort, South Carolina. (Chris Moody/Yahoo News)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/forget-sanford-colbert-busch-american-idol-candice-glover-170006428.html

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Unusual comparison nets new sleep loss marker

May 3, 2013 ? For years, Paul Shaw, PhD, a researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has used what he learns in fruit flies to look for markers of sleep loss in humans.

Shaw reverses the process in a new paper, taking what he finds in humans back to the flies and gaining new insight into humans as a result: identification of a human gene that is more active after sleep deprivation.

"I'm calling the approach cross-translational research," says Shaw, associate professor of neurobiology. "Normally we go from model to human, but there's no reason why we can't take our studies from human to model and back again."

Shaw and his colleagues plan to use the information they are gaining to create a panel of tests for sleep loss. The tests may one day help assess a person's risk of falling asleep at the wheel of a car or in other dangerous contexts.

PLOS One published the results on April 24.

Scientists have known for years that sleep disorders and disruption raise blood serum levels of interleukin 6, an inflammatory immune compound. Shaw showed that this change is also detectable in saliva samples from sleep-deprived rats and humans.

Based on this link, Shaw tested the activity of other immune proteins in humans to see if any changed after sleep loss. The scientists took saliva samples from research participants after they had a normal night's sleep and after they stayed awake for 30 hours. They found two immune genes whose activity levels rose during sleep deprivation.

"Normally we would do additional human experiments to verify these links," Shaw says. "But those studies can be quite expensive, so we thought we'd test the connections in flies first."

The researchers identified genes in the fruit fly that were equivalent to the human genes, but their activity didn't increase when flies lost sleep. When they screened other, similar fruit fly genes, though, the scientists found one that did.

"We've seen this kind of switch happen before as we compared families of fly genes and families of human genes," Shaw says. "Sometimes the gene performing a particular role will change, but the task will still be handled by a gene in the same family."

When the scientists looked for the human version of the newly identified fly marker for sleep deprivation, they found ITGA5 and realized it hadn't been among the human immune genes they screened at the start of the study. Testing ITGA5 activity in the saliva samples revealed that its activity levels increased during sleep deprivation.

"We will need more time to figure out how useful this particular marker will be for detecting sleep deprivation in humans," Shaw says. "In the meantime, we're going to continue jumping between our flies and humans to maximize our insights."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington University School of Medicine. The original article was written by Michael C. Purdy.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Matthew S. Thimgan, Laura Gottschalk, Cristina Toedebusch, Jennifer McLeland, Allan Rechtschaffen, Marcia Gilliland-Roberts, Stephen P. Duntley, Paul J. Shaw. Cross-Translational Studies in Human and Drosophila Identify Markers of Sleep Loss. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e61016 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061016

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/Myxdqnu4Xbw/130503230415.htm

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Researchers outline concerns about unproven stem cell therapies

May 3, 2013 ? An international group of leading stem cell researchers has issued a statement that specifies concerns about the development and use of unproven stem cell therapies. The commentary is published online today in The EMBO Journal ahead of a debate in the Italian parliament on whether to change a recent law that allows certain untested stem cell therapies to be used by the public health system. The authors of the commentary argue that rigorous clinical testing and regulation of stem cell therapies are essential to introduce safe and effective medical interventions for patients.

"Stem cells may offer unprecedented opportunities to develop treatments for many diseases with unmet medical needs. This will take time. However, only rigorous science and responsible regulation can ensure the safe and effective translation of science into effective therapies," remarked Paolo Bianco, Pathologist, Stem Cell Biologist, Professor of Pathology at the University of Roma "La Sapienza" and one of the 13 authors of the commentary who come from Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and the United States.

The concerns of the scientific community have been heightened by pending legislative action that may allow routine administration of unproven stem cell therapies to patients in Italy. Despite a lack of rigorous clinical trials to test safety or efficacy, a ban of the treatment by health authorities, and a lack of peer review by the scientific community, the privately funded Stamina Foundation has been using cultured mesenchymal stem cells that have been exposed to putative conditions that favour neuronal differentiation to treat different diseases in severely or terminally ill patients.

The Italian Chamber decides shortly whether they will proceed with controversial legislation passed in the Senate on 21 March that allows the unproven stem cell treatment developed by the Stamina Foundation to be used for severely or terminally ill new patients for 18 months. "The adoption of this law may set a dangerous precedent for patients looking to be treated with other unproven stem cell therapies in Europe and other countries," remarked Hans Clevers, Professor of Molecular Genetics and President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

"Irrational and unverified stem cell treatments based on methods that are not validated or scientifically documented should not reach patients. Preventing this from happening is a specific responsibility of health authorities and governments worldwide to make sure that the hope and trust of patients are not misused," remarked Elena Cattaneo, Director of the Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Milan, Italy, and one of the scientists who contributed to the commentary. "Patients can be harmed and killed by medicines that have not been proven to be safe and effective via rigorously controlled clinical trials. The use of medicines that have not been manufactured to the highest possible standards is irresponsible."

Preclinical and clinical tests have been used successfully in the past for the introduction of therapies for bone marrow transplantation and the regeneration of skin and cornea in patients. The authors of the commentary emphasize that cell therapies must be approved by international and national regulatory agencies and remain under the strict vigilance of health authorities. Regulations already in place in the European Union insist that stem cell therapies follow the same safety and efficacy rules as pharmaceuticals. They need to be prepared and manufactured in highly controlled environments with precise protocols, traceability and accountability.

"It is disconcerting that the Italian Senate has passed amendments that permit the use of unproven stem cell therapies without proper vigilance or proper experiment, reclassifying them as transplants," commented Bianco. "Infusions of mesenchymal stem cells are not transplants in any way. In Europe and the United States, all kinds of cell preparations that are administered to patients following ex vivo culturing are classified as medicines, and monitored by drug agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and, in Italy, the Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco or AIFA. A host of proper and improper commercial interests might benefit from these new rules that abrogate both safety and proper ways of experimentation. Patients may be harmed," concluded Bianco.

Sean Morrison, Professor and Director of the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the United States, who is not an author on the paper, added: "Patients are ultimately not helped by therapies that are not based on sound science and that are not tested in systematic clinical trials. Efforts to water down regulation in this area may create opportunities for some individuals to prey on the hopes of desperate patients."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by EMBO - excellence in life sciences.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Paolo Bianco, Roger Barker, Oliver Br?stle, Elena Cattaneo, Hans Clevers, George Q. Daley, Michele De Luca, Lawrence Goldstein, Olle Lindvall, Christine Mummery, Pamela Gehron Robey, Clara Sattler de Sousa e Brito, Austin Smith. Regulation of stem cell therapies under attack in Europe: For whom the bell tolls. The EMBO Journal, 2013 DOI: 10.1038/emboj.2013.114

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/qzsczmByKzg/130503114651.htm

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Saturday, May 4, 2013