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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Students find success at Future Business Leaders competition ...
West Lincoln Future Business Leaders of America students.
AMANDA SEBASTIANOStaff Writer
Improving their communication skills, learning how to present to an audience and getting an idea of what their lives will be like post-graduation, were just a few of the tools some of Lincoln County?s Future Business Leaders of America students studied recently ? skills they hope will help them stand out from their peers when looking for a job later.
?FBLA allows students to excel in all areas of business,? West Lincoln High School business teacher and FBLA coach Kelly Ann Somers told the Times-News. ?It builds confidence, team work, leadership skills and gives the students an edge over others applying for colleges and top-notch jobs.?
Lincolnton High and WLHS had students who competed at the State Leadership Conference in Greensboro March 22.
WLHS sent 11 of the 41-member FBLA team to the competition ? one of which won first place and was named North Carolina?s Future Business Leader, 16-year-old Megan Avery. Betsy Roland,17, and Matthew Schaffer,18, worked as a team and won second place with their business plan project, while others ranked in the top four and top 10. Avery, along with Roland and Shaffer, are moving onto the national competition in San Antonio in June; a costly trip that?s worth the experience, Somers said.
Somers and Jennifer Welch, who oversee West Lincoln?s team, are estimating the flight, hotel and registration fees to total about $3,000 for all three students to go on the trip. So far, the group has been trying to raise money through local fundraising events, like their Powder Puff football game.
Those in the club are learning techniques to use on their job search, such as interviewing tips, resume-building and job application skills.
Those a part of FBLA also participate in community service activities, such as the WLHS group who bought gifts for local, under-privileged children last Christmas and donated to the House of Hope, a counseling center for girls ages 12-17.
Down the road, LHS students reflect on their experiences at states and how the club will help them later in life. Their FBLA team was age and experience-diverse.
Senior and FBLA President Zachary Fitzgerald has participated in state conferences all four years of high school and is excited to use his new-found knowledge he gained through the group when he goes to college and eventually picks a career.
Freshman Andrew Cromer, however, is just getting warmed up. Cromer ranked in the top 10 for Word Processing at his first competition ? an amazing accomplishment, said Jennifer Luper, FBLA coach and career and technical department chair at Lincolnton High.
Senior Dylan Houser was the third member of the LHS club to travel to Greensboro, and took away some insight after his first time competing at the state level.
Luper and the her FBLA trio thought the session about learning to buy a car was one of the most practical sections of the trip and most enjoyable. Students were shown what type of questions to ask when deciding to get a loan for a car at the bank and what factors are important to consider.
?Even if you end up deciding not to pursue a career in business, you are still learning valuable leadership and life skills,? Houser said. ?We learned how to apply technology skills to every-day life.?
Three Lincolnton High School FBLA students also competed in Greensboro.
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Tips To Getting Approved For Your Car Loan | Auto Finance Blog ...
When your vehicle dies or you just want to upgrade, or maybe you are just now getting your first vehicle, you may not have all the money you need for it.? There are thousands of lending companies out there to choose from, and it can often seem challenging and often even overwhelming when it comes to making the decision of where to go for a car loan.? With myAutoloan.com, you can get a near instant loan decision, without any fees or obligation.? You can apply anytime and feel safe knowing you have the best chances of getting approved.
At myAutoloan.com, we approve more people than other auto loan companies, which in turn eliminates the difficulties, stress and inconvenience on you.? You spend less time having to look around trying to find the right loan company to go through and we offer you the support you need during this time. ?We stand out from the competition because we always put you first. ?No matter who you are, we are eager to hear from you and do what we can to get you the vehicle you need, at a price you can afford.
At myAutoloan.com, you have the best chances of getting approved for the car loan you apply for, and we always provide consumers with as many additional choices as possible in vehicle financing.? This gives you the opportunity to compare our rates and deals and see what a great rate we offer for our car loans.? We are not a bank and we do not make you wait to see whether or not you are approved.? We do not base your application solely on your credit history and not give you the chance to apply if you have less than perfect credit.
Not only do we offer the best rates on car loans, but we also bring together the best consumer automotive information and tools from more than two dozen trusted sources at one address on the Web.? No need to wade through thousands of Web addresses to find different types of automotive, light truck and SUV information.? We help narrow down the selection and make finding the right vehicle for you as quick and easy a process as possible. ?Getting approved for a car loan and getting a new vehicle can be challenging, but with myAutoloan.com there by your side, you know you can get the help you need and the best chances of approval for the money you need.
If you are interested in applying for a car loan, you can call us today or go through the application process over our website.? We are always there to help and are more than happy to give you answers to any questions you may have. ?We can help you get started with your application and give you the best chances of getting approved for the loan you need, now.? There is no long waiting time, no difficult application process to deal with, and our loan specialists are always ready to help each and every one of our clients.
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What Thawed the Last Ice Age?
News |
Energy & Sustainability
The relatively pleasant global climate of the last 10,000 years is largely thanks to higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide
?| April 4, 2012?|
Roughly 20,000 years ago the great ice sheets that buried much of Asia, Europe and North America stopped their creeping advance. Within a few hundred years sea levels in some places had risen by as much as 10 meters?more than if the ice sheet that still covers Greenland were to melt today. This freshwater flood filled the North Atlantic and also shut down the ocean currents that conveyed warmer water from equatorial regions northward. The equatorial heat warmed the precincts of Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere instead, shrinking the fringing sea ice and changing the circumpolar winds. As a result?and for reasons that remain unexplained?the waters of the Southern Ocean may have begun to release carbon dioxide, enough to raise concentrations in the atmosphere by more than 100 parts per million over millennia?roughly equivalent to the rise in the last 200 years. That CO2 then warmed the globe, melting back the continental ice sheets and ushering in the current climate that enabled humanity to thrive.
That, at least, is the story told by a new paper published in Nature on April 5 that reconstructs the end of the last ice age. Researchers examined sediment cores collected from deep beneath the sea and from lakes as well as the tiny bubbles of ancient air trapped inside ice cores taken from Antarctica, Greenland and elsewhere. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The research suggests that?contrary to some prior findings?CO2 led the prior round of global warming rather than vice versa, just as it continues to do today thanks to rising emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
"We find that global temperature lags a bit behind the CO2 [levels]," explains paleoclimatologist Jeremy Shakun, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fellow at Harvard and Columbia universities, who led the research charting ancient CO2 concentrations and global temperatures. "CO2 was the big driver of global warming at the end of the Ice Age."
Shakun and his colleagues started by creating the first global set of temperature proxies?a set of 80 different records from around the world that recorded temperatures from roughly 20,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. Ranging from the magnesium levels in microscopic seashells pulled from ocean sediment cores to pollen counts in layers of muck from lakebeds, the proxies delivered thousands of temperature readings over the period. "Ice cores only tell you about temperatures in Antarctica," Shakun notes of previous studies that relied exclusively on an ice core from Antarctica that records atmospheric conditions over the last 800,000 years. "You don't want to look at one spot on the map for global warming."
Comparing the global set of temperature records with the levels of CO2 in the ancient air bubbles trapped in ice cores reveals that global average temperatures started to rise at least a century after CO2 levels began to creep up. That's the reverse of what seems to have happened in Antarctica, where warming temperatures precede rising CO2 levels. But that local warming may be explained by this shutdown of ocean currents as a result of massive glacial melt in the Northern Hemisphere?a result further reinforced by computer modeling using the data gathered from the real-world record.
The reason for the retreat of the ice sheets remains elusive, however. Whereas there was a change in the relative strength of the sun roughly 20,000 years ago thanks to variations in the planet's orbit, it was smaller than changes that preceded it and failed to trigger a melt. In fact, ice cores from Greenland suggest there was an even larger warming event in the north roughly 60,000 years ago, notes climate scientist Eric Wolff of the British Antarctic Survey in a comment on the findings also published in Nature.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Ken Howard joins ABC pilot "Counter Culture"
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ken-howard-joins-abc-pilot-counter-culture-022509712.html
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How the developing world is using cellphone technology to change ...
How the developing world is using cellphone technology to change lives
Published On Sat Mar 24 2012
Many places are jumping straight from paper records to mobile information because they are getting cellphone towers before Internet connections or even traditional phone lines.
LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR
Tim Alamenciak
Staff Reporter
In Nigeria, a young girl can ask questions about sex discretely through SMS and get accurate information.
After the earthquake in Haiti, survivors in remote towns could receive money for food straight to their cellphone.
In Senegal, election monitors sent updates on polling stations through their mobile phones, revising an online map in real time with details about late openings or worse.
Projects like Learning about Living in Nigeria, MercyCorps in Haiti and Senevote2012 in Senegal are just a few examples of how the rapid spread of mobile technology has changed life in the global south.
Many places are jumping straight from paper records to mobile information because they are getting cellphone towers before Internet connections or even traditional phone lines. This means that for the first time it?s possible for a doctor in Guatemala City to monitor a newborn baby in a rural part of the country.
?People who never had access to information can get to a telecentre or a computer at their church or they have a mobile phone even if they share that mobile phone with their whole family and everyone just has their own SIM card,? said Revi Sterling, director of Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) graduate studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
?If that?s your data collection tool instead of papers that get blown away and eaten by goats, that?s valuable,? said Sterling.
Sterling founded the master?s program in 2010 to help produce students who could capitalize on the boom of connectivity in the developing world. It focuses on building connections between the world of technology and the world of development ? something many see as a lucrative opportunity.
In 2001, just eight out of 100 people in the developing world had a mobile phone subscription. Now, nearly 80 out of 100 do.
In India, more people have access to cellphones than toilets, according to a 2010 report from the United Nations University.
?I have lots of students who come from an engineering and science background who say, ?But you can?t eat (network) cable and you can?t drink YouTube,?? said Sterling. ?The idea that you could ride the development wave on an emerging trend like technology certainly makes the technology a really indispensable tool.?
AID
FrontlineSMS
This software allows anyone to set up their own communications hub to send mass messages, manage automated SMS systems and collect data from the field. FrontlineSMS allows users to connect their mobile phone to a computer, transforming communication into something more powerful and manageable.
?If you go to the developing world and you look at how cellphones are being used you can really see that people are already doing this kind of organizational management, communicating with stakeholders, communicating with people they?re working with and for,? said spokesperson Laura Hudson.
The system enables easier management of SMS messages and also allows users to set up mailing lists, collect data and code automated reply systems. Traditional procedures involved checking in over the phone with remotely dispersed members of, for example, an aid team.
?Instead of that they can send an SMS. It?s cheaper for them, it saves time and the data can go straight into their report,? said Hudson.
FrontlineSMS was used to coordinate aid response after the 2011 floods in Pakistan and to manage reconstruction in Haiti. It has also been used to remind HIV patients of best practices and nutritional information.
Ushahidi
This project came as a result of post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, when high mobile penetration met a need to know where trouble spots were located. The original idea was to produce a map of violent areas based on reports sent in by citizens via SMS or email. The system has evolved into an open-source platform to be deployed anywhere. Ushahidi has been used to map everything from earthquake damage in Haiti to blizzards in New York. A site called Crowdmap runs the Ushahidi software and allows anyone to sign up and create their own crowd-sourced map without the hassle of using their own server.
Refugees United
This project is designed to help refugees reunite with their friends and family. It replaces traditional forms of reconnection, allowing anyone to create a free profile with as much or as little information as they?re comfortable releasing. The profiles allow friends and family members to search under certain criteria, including given name, nickname, village or city of origin. The software works from both computers and internet-enabled phones.
NextDrop
One of the challenges with water delivery is predicting when the pipes are going to be opened. In many places this means lineups at the wells, often lasting hours or even days. Being tested in rural India, NextDrop alerts people via SMS 30-60 minutes before the water is turned on.
FINANCE
MercyCorps
In Haiti, where 85 per cent of the population has a cellphone but only half has a bank account, MercyCorps deployed a new way to stimulate the economy after the earthquake: mobile payments. MercyCorps has dispensed more than $1 million (U.S.) to 6,000 people in rural Haiti ? all using their cellphones.
?We pretty early on recognized that mobile was a great tool for (reaching more people) and also a direct channel into the communities where we work,? said Cameron Peake of MercyCorps.
Peake?s team is now working on a mobile savings system in the Philippines.
?The financial services area is really a promising and strong area to see financial sustainability,? said Peake.
M-Pesa
This system allows Kenyans to use their cellphones to send and receive money. It is designed for people who don?t have bank accounts, enabling them to receive money domestically or from abroad and to pay bills. At its most basic, M-Pesa allows one user to send money to another as simply as sending a text message. The service is wildly popular in Kenya ? it processes more transactions domestically than Western Union does globally, according to the International Monetary Fund. Founded by Safaricom and Vodafone, M-Pesa recently introduced M-KESHO, a savings account to complement the service.
Boom
This software does one thing ? allows for easy money transfer between countries using mobile phones. It costs less than typical wire transfer services. Once the link is established and software registered on both ends, someone in the United States could send money to someone in Mexico with a simple text message. Currently the service works in Mexico and the U.S., with Haiti planned for future rollout.
AGRICULTURE
iCow
Using SMS, the app tracks a cow?s gestation cycle and gives farmers notifications at key moments in a cow?s life. iCow allows farmers to optimize milk production and better monitor calving periods.
?It?s a little more unique in that there are lots of price apps but iCow gets down to the nitty-gritty, like the gestation period of a cow,? said Sterling.
Based out of Kenya, the app also helps farmers keep accurate and permanent records of milk production and breeding. It offers tips on farming dairy cows.
In a June 2011 pilot, farmers using the iCow app reported a 42 per cent increase in income on average.
The app also features a directory of veterinarians and a call centre that allows farmers to get advice. A recently released feature called iCow Soko allows farmers to trade livestock directly with one another.
CocoaLink
Cocoa farmers in Ghana can get a helping hand through CocoaLink, a mobile app that delivers advice and allows rural farmers to have their questions answered without leaving the field. It is a partnership between Hershey?s, the World Cocoa Foundation and Ghana?s Cocoa Board.In Ghana, two out of three cocoa farmers have access to a mobile phone. The program is in its pilot phase, but there are already plans to extend the service to the Ivory Coast.
mFarm
mFarm helps farmers in Kenya by relaying market prices through SMS. The software is designed for small-scale farmers who can?t make it to the major marketplace and risk being lied to by middlemen. The app retrieves prices from five major markets, allowing farmers to determine the best prices for their goods.
NAFIS
National Farmers Information Services is a service provided by the Kenyan government that gives farmers tips and advice on anything from ostrich farming to beekeeping. The service provides information in both English and Kiswahili through an automated telephone line. NAFIS also maintains a website containing this information as well as commodity price information.
GOVERNANCE
Senevote2012
The 2012 Senegal election saw a new kind of monitoring develop ? independent, observant and connected through mobile technology. A group of people in Senegal have been monitoring elections since 2000, but this year they were dispatched with a mandate to report their findings immediately.
?It?s a very slow process traditionally. What we did was we took their process, we didn?t change it at all and we just said what we can do here is put a very simple coding system in,? said Jeffrey Allen, program coordinator with Mobile4good.
Since the monitors all had cellphones, it was just a matter of training them to use the system and send updates to the data collection and mapping software.
The map highlights both successes and failures, indicating where polling stations opened early or late, and other violations. It has the benefit of providing immediate accountability, but the data is also more easily assessed than if it were recorded on hundreds of sheets of paper.
?On the one hand, (the observers are) an alert for immediate issues. On the other hand, they?re data collection for the bigger picture so that at the end of the day, the civil society team can look at the data in total, look at everything that happened in the election, and make a pronouncement whether everything was free and fair or not,? said Allen.
The group is planning on employing the same technology in the upcoming runoff elections March 25.
Samadhan
A system is being piloted in India that allows people to file complaints about their government using SMS. The complaints are logged and filed according to their location and type. Once the complaints are registered, the person receives a tracking number and the local government deals with the complaint. The system is currently being tested in the Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, outside of Bhopal, and Koraput district in Orissa.
uReport
uReport is a polling and citizen journalism organization that runs on SMS. Ugandans can respond to polls or text their stories to uReport. The group gathers this information and passes it along to radio and television stations, also publishing polls on its website. The poll results are available on a map. For example, a Jan. 31 poll asked uReport members if they knew female circumcision was illegal. About 76 per cent responded ?yes.?
HEALTH
Learning about Living
Youth in Nigeria face strong opposition when it comes to learning about their own sexual health. Mobile4good, the company behind Learning about Living, allows them to discretely seek advice through SMS messaging. The service launched in 2007 and has received more than 400,000 messages.
?We realized there?s a serious problem with HIV/AIDS and with adolescent pregnancies and abortions ? sort of clandestine abortions. A lot of this came from a lack of awareness among young people of how to protect themselves as they were reaching puberty and coming of age in that way,? said Mobile4good?s Allen.
Live operators trained in sexual health education answer the text messages.
?It?s not that they didn?t want to know how to protect themselves, it?s that they didn?t have any access to information,? said Allen.
The project has since been expanded to Senegal and the team is working on deploying it in Morocco.
TulaSalud
This project in Guatemala uses technology to help better equip nurses in remote areas in an effort to reduce the infant mortality rate. Its software products allow nurses to track patient data over long periods of time, replacing the need for stacks of charts and forms. The service also offers free phone numbers that practitioners and patients can call to get answers about their health. The project is supported by the Canadian Tula Foundation.
Childcount+
This software allows medical professionals to use their mobile phone to monitor the health of young children and babies. It allows each child to be registered and their data to be tracked electronically, providing valuable insight into their health. The system uses SMS messaging to track specific data about the children and monitor for malnutrition, malaria and other diseases. The software is used at Millennium Villages projects across sub-Saharan Africa.
Txtalert
This simple app can make a profound difference in someone?s life, providing reminders when treatment is needed. Anti-retroviral therapy was the original purpose, though the software can be customized to work with any regular treatment or to remind patients of scheduled appointments. The software is free and open source, allowing any medical clinic to use it.
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