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Friday, August 31, 2012
The Simple Reason You Should Learn About HR ? ArticleDevlist ...
The Fundamentals of HR Outsourcing
HR outsourcing is absolutely beneficial to the business owners because of the fact that you would not be spending so much salary with regards to your human resource group by the time that you will be operating and when there is less expense for this, you will be having more income. It is really true that HR outsourcing is very beneficial for the business, however, there are some basic points that you have to consider so you can maximize that use of HR Outsourcing for your business.
HR outsourcing can provide a business several advantages. HR outsourcing also has the capacity of increasing the versatility of your human resource. You have the power to control your number of employees through HR outsourcing for when it is not in the busy business cycle, then you will have lesser employees in your business, thus lesser to pay for. The adjustment for the number of employees that you have will be done very easily and it will be managed by the agency that you will be hiring in terms of HR outsourcing.
The decision in terms of the number of employees who will be working in the business for a certain business cycle will all be adjusted by the HR outsourcing group while at the same time thinking if it would best benefit the company or not. Well and fully trained employees are also being hired by the HR outsourcing and they will all be placed through the different job functions that are essential to the business.
In terms of doing the main operations of the job, you should simply trust this to the employees that are regular and specially trained for it. The employees that will be working for the main operations of the business should be hired carefully and skills should be highly noted and checked. They are the main core that will provide the business a difference in the market of competition. HR outsourcing serves best for functions that will entertain the needs of others, checking the stocks, and the maintenance of the business area..
You may also have HR outsourcing for some number of employees that are involved in the main operation for your business, this can also help you a lot in terms of the expenses but you have to make sure that the person that you hired from the agency will also go through some important trainings that your regular employees had. All the basic skills of the person should be taken and should not be included in the training, just think of the specialized skills that should have to be applied in certain operations of the business.
Learn About The Author: Larry is a freelance writer and accomplished blogger. He enjoys attending industry events, blogging about www.humanresourceoutsourcingcompanies.org, and watching old movies. You can find his contact information on the author?s profile.
Source: http://articledevlist.com/2012/08/31/the-simple-reason-you-should-learn-about-hr/
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LG 27-inch Personal Smart TV hands-on (updated: video)
Designed for more realistic living quarters, LG's unleashed its Personal Smart TV to the IFA crowds. With a 27-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display, you'll also find the typical stable of connectivity options, including two HDMI, three USB, component, LAN and SCART connections. The screen seemed well-lit with the IPS panel offering suitably reliable views from most angles. It's a pretty stylish-looking TV too, with a rough metallic finish to the bezel, which while not jaw-dropping, is still suitably narrow. The Smart TV functions were also navigable through LG's Smart Remote, offering a WiiMote-ish approach to media browsing. Our demo model was already packed with German media content -- in both 2D and 3D -- ready for when it launches here next month. It'll be appearing in shops across Europe around the same time, although there's no word on the set landing on US shores. Check out our quick hands-on video after the break.
Follow all of our IFA 2012 coverage by heading to our event hub!
Continue reading LG 27-inch Personal Smart TV hands-on (updated: video)
LG 27-inch Personal Smart TV hands-on (updated: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/30/lg-27-inch-personal-smart-tv-hands-on/
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PFT: Dolphins' plane clips another in Dallas
Getty ImagesThe one thing we can saying with certainty about the NFL and the locked-out officials is that they?re not saying anything to each other.? Until they do, they won?t be able to bridge the gap on financial and other issues.
So if they were to sit down and try, what would the gap be?
The driving factor is, as always, money.? The league contends that it has offered annual raises between five and 11 percent, pointing out that the average pay for NFL officials last season was $149,000.? (Not bad for a hobby.)? Under the NFL?s most recent (and perhaps final) proposal, the average official would earn $189,000 by 2018.
First-year officials earned, on average, $78,000 in 2011.? Under the NFL?s most recent (and perhaps final) proposal, the average first-year official from 2011 would be making $165,000 by 2018.
The officials, obviously, want more.? (Otherwise, they?d have a deal.)? The characterization of the gap depends on the perspective of the party characterizing it.? The NFLRA says it amounts to $100,000 per team per year.? Factoring in the preseason, that?s $5,000 per team per game.? The league sees the difference more broadly, as a canyon that amounts t $22.7 million over seven years.? (Of course, over those same seven years the league will likely have generated more than $70 billion in total revenues.)
With 119 total officials, it all works out to an average divide of $27,250 per official per year.
Another major dispute flows from retirement benefits.? Like many employers, the NFL wants to convert its defined benefit plan to a 401(k) defined contribution plan, shifting the risks of the market to the individual employees.? Given that, for most if not all officials, working games is a well-paying hobby, being treated in their hobbies like the vast majority of American workers shouldn?t be a big deal.
The NFL also wants to add 21 more officials (three total crews), in order to provide the league with a ?bench? that could be used during the season to replace officials who are struggling.? While the league apparently would be paying all officials out of the same pot, if the average increases cited by the league take into account the expanded roster of officials, it should be a non-issue.? (It?s likely an issue because the locked-out officials don?t want to have in-season accountability.)
The issue of full-time officials could be controversial not for what it means now but for what it could mean in the future.? If the NFL plans to eventually convert their officials to full-time employees (as the NFL should), the total package of compensation likely will be less than the total money earned by many officials in their ?real? jobs and at their hobbies.? The locked-out officials likely prefer to not go down that path at all.
Many would prefer that the league not go down the path of replacement officials, but if the locked-out officials aren?t willing to accept what some would regard as an objectively fair offer, what should the NFL do?? Not play the games?? Or cave in to the demands simply because the NFL can ?afford? to pay the locked-out officials what they want?
While it?s reasonable for the officials to look at the success of the game and say ?we want more,? the officials need to realize that no one goes to the games to see them, and that they are indeed replaceable.
The problem is that the process of replacing all of them at once with only a few months to prepare puts the league in a delicate spot.? And the locked-out officials know it.
We?re trying hard not to pick sides on this one.? We just want the regular officials to get back on the job, which will happen sooner rather than later only if the two sides start talking.
While it?s easy to insist that the NFL bridge the gap because the NFL has the money to do it, the locked-out officials aren?t exactly hurting, either.? And so, if the replacement officials end up screwing things up, we?ll ultimately blame not only the entity that locked out the regular officials but also the regular officials who forced the lockout by wanting more of a raise than most Americans are currently getting in their primary (and only) jobs.
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Flu is transmitted before symptoms appear
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Research at Imperial College London examining influenza transmission in ferrets suggests that the virus can be passed on before the appearance of symptoms. If the finding applies to humans, it means that people pass on flu to others before they know they're infected, making it very difficult to contain epidemics.
The research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.
Knowing if people are infectious before they have symptoms is important to help authorities plan for an epidemic, but is has been difficult to establish this from data collected during outbreaks. Previous research using mathematical models estimated that most flu transmission occurs after the onset of symptoms, but some happens earlier.
The new study, published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, is the first to investigate this question experimentally in an animal model. Ferrets are commonly used in flu research because they are susceptible to the same virus strains and show similar symptoms to humans.
Ferrets with flu were put in contact with uninfected ferrets for short periods at different stages after infection. Transmission occurred before the first symptom, fever, appeared, both when the ferrets were in the same cage and when they were in adjacent cages.
Professor Wendy Barclay, the study's lead author from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, said: "This result has important implications for pandemic planning strategies. It means that the spread of flu is very difficult to control, even with self-diagnosis and measures such as temperature screens at airports. It also means that doctors and nurses who don't get the flu jab are putting their patients at risk because they might pass on an infection when they don't know they're infected."
The flu strain used in the study was from the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which killed almost 300,000 people worldwide.
The researchers found that ferrets were able to pass on flu to others just 24 hours after becoming infected themselves. The animals did not suffer from fever until 45 hours after infection and began sneezing after 48 hours. The results are consistent with earlier studies which found that sneezing is not necessary to transmit flu ? droplets of virus are expelled into the air during normal breathing.
In the late stages of infection, after five or six days, flu was transmitted much less frequently, suggesting that people can return to work or school soon after symptoms subside with little risk of passing flu on to others.
The first author, Dr Kim Roberts, who is now based at Trinity College Dublin, said: "Ferrets are the best model available for studying flu transmission, but we have to be cautious about interpreting the results in humans. We only used a small number of animals in the study, so we can't say what proportion of transmission happens before symptoms occur. It probably varies depending on the flu strain."
###
Imperial College London: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/press
Thanks to Imperial College London for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/123094/Flu_is_transmitted_before_symptoms_appear
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WCTV: [UPDATE] Isaac Road Advisory Update: The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is providing an update on r... http://t.co/4LugVkfi
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Source: http://twitter.com/WCTV/statuses/241579411588120576
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Thursday, August 30, 2012
NHK developing hybrid renewable energy-powered video camera for use in disaster areas
You can always count on Japan's NHK to come up with new, exciting and innovative ways to bring us video coverage. The latest project? A wind- and solar-powered robot camera designed for situations such as natural disasters. Loaded with a 1,200 Ah battery, even if the elements don't bless it with sun and air, it can keep filming for two to three days. The combination of wind turbine and solar panels obviously allow it to generate more power than either method on its own, with the turbine reportedly generating 1 kW at 11 m/s wind speeds. A special power-saving mode prevent it draining too fast when full functionality -- such as the built-in wireless, cellular and satellite broadcasting systems aren't needed. Currently the prototype is installed on a rooftop while battery and power-generation are fully tested, but it's hoped that this could lead to further developments for disaster area broadcast equipment. Or -- here's hoping -- power-cut-proof sports coverage.
NHK developing hybrid renewable energy-powered video camera for use in disaster areas originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Research Shows Replacement Windows Are A Solid Investment ...
If you truly want a more energy efficient home, you need to get rid of your old, leaky windows.
Many homeowners put off new windows because they think they can increase their energy efficiency by caulking their old, drafty windows. Caulking will definitely help, but if you have old, inefficient windows you are going to need to replace them with new Energy Star ones. You will save so much money on your energy bills, your new windows will eventually pay for themselves. Aside from saving energy, replacement windows also add curb appeal to your home. Local realtors say, the shape of the windows can single handedly make or break the sale of a home.
?Remodeling? magazine examined the cost of replacement windows in an average-sized home, and then figured that house?s value if sold a year later. The average rate of the window replacement cost recouped was 91.6%, which means that even if you move, you will gain value from your choice to replace your windows. New windows provide one of the best returns on investment (ROI) of any home improvement project.
Alliance Windows of Asheville, NC will help you choose the right windows for you. Many of our customers are so happy with their windows, they say it was the best investment they?ve ever made!
Source: http://www.alliancewnc.com/research-shows-replacement-windows-are-a-solid-investment/
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Source: http://takylaov.posterous.com/research-shows-replacement-windows-are-a-soli
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Isaac aid: GOP exception to call for less spending
WASHINGTON (AP) ? One by one, Republican leaders have lined up at their national convention to push for less government and accuse President Barack Obama of profligate spending. About 500 miles away, under threat from a hurricane, they welcomed federal government aid. One GOP governor even accused Obama of being miserly with the help.
The chance occurrence of a political convention and a Gulf State emergency unfolding in split-screen real time is creating a clash between the rhetoric and reality of federal spending. The calls for fiscal discipline echoing the convention hall in Tampa, Fla., aren't reverberating in drenched and wind-whipped Louisiana or Mississippi, a contrast illustrating one the sharpest conundrums facing a nation of giant budget deficits.
Reducing the size of government sounds good until someone feels the pinch.
Obama issued disaster declarations this week for Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of the now downgraded Tropical Storm Isaac, guaranteeing federal emergency aid in designated counties. And the federal government has deployed manpower and equipment, such as Air Force Reserve "Hurricane Hunters" to conduct aerial reconnaissance on the storm and Federal Emergency Management Agency teams to help with logistics and provide other assistance.
Officials had no estimate of how much had already been spent on the effort. Altogether, the government's federal disaster fund has about $1.5 billion available.
In Tampa, the threat posed by Isaac was certainly not lost on conventioneers gathered to nominate Mitt Romney for president. The Republican Party delayed the meeting for a day because of the storm and from the dais speakers offered prayers for those in Isaac's path and wished them Godspeed. But the government's response to the storm and its expenditure of taxpayer dollars played out in sharp juxtaposition to the persistent calls for smaller government and criticism of Obama for presiding over an increase in the national debt.
"With $5 trillion in debt added over the last four years, we have no other option but to make the hard choices, cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of government," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said.
No Republican suggested that the federal government had no role in helping states in an emergency. Indeed, GOP budget hawks often single out national security and public safety as essential government functions. And as Obama declared emergencies in Louisiana and Mississippi and federal agencies mobilized in the face of Isaac's landfall, Gulf Coast states and their Republican officials welcomed government assistance. That's in addition to billions spent by the federal government upgrading the levee system in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
"It's important and it's money well spent, not just for us locally but for national assets like the ports and oil and gas production," Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana told the Los Angeles Times.
Such aid might have been harder to come by had Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, had his way. Ryan, the chairman of the House budget committee, earlier this year tried to eliminate $10 billion a year in disaster spending. Instead, Ryan proposed that when emergencies arise, Congress pay for the disaster costs by cutting from elsewhere in the budget. Ryan lost after his own party leaders balked. But he had support from many tea party backed Republicans.
"The rhetoric would make you believe that a major portion of the government is designed to take care of Democratic constituencies and Democratic priorities," said Scott Lilly, former Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. "The truth is that most of government is made up of programs that we all depend on and many of us depend very heavily on, and the Republicans turn out to be even more dependent in many instances than Democrats. The states that are targets for hurricanes are generally not blue states."
Vitter aide Luke Bolar said federal spending on natural disasters isn't an example of fiscal indiscipline. "People who object haven't lived through a hurricane and what the local and municipal governments have to go through," Bolar said. "It's not like a bridge to nowhere."
Louisiana's Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, wanted even more from the federal government.
After Obama signed an emergency declaration for the state, Jindal said it fell short of the help he was requesting. Jindal said he wanted more Louisiana parishes covered and urged Obama to have the federal government reimburse state and local government agencies for storm preparation efforts.
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said such requests would be addressed after the storm.
But Jindal stood by his demand.
"We learned from past experiences, you can't just wait," he said. "You've got to push the federal bureaucracy."
___
Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.
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Small Business VoIP Gateways by Linksys Now Available at uThetha
Small business owners in South Africa can now benefit from the low cost telecommunication solutions provided by uThetha. Companies that do not have PABX can now enable telecommunications through VoIP gateways and Analogue Terminal Adapters (ATA) launched by Linksys. Business owners can place orders for Linksys VoIP gateways and ATAs on the uThetha website.
Companies that have analogue phones and landlines can make use of Linksys analogue terminal adapters and VoIP gateways to make the most of the current hardware they have. It is very useful for companies that do not have enough resources to shift to the latest communications systems in their offices. Thus, they are able to adapt to the latest technology and connect with the world without having to pay through their noses.
VoIP gateways by Linksys work perfectly with FXO (Foreign eXchange Station) line ports and traditional phones. ATAs are required for successful communication through fax machines and analogue phones. Linksys is a leading solution provider in the telecommunications industry. Linksys products can be ordered online on the uThetha website.
For more information about low cost telecommunications products by Linksys, visit www.uthetha.co.za.
VoIP gateways and analogue terminal adapters are useful for small companies that cannot afford to revamp their telecommunications hardware overnight. Such companies can effectively utilize the latest communication technology compatible with old hardware. It is made possible by Linksys VoIP gateways and ATAs.
About uThetha:
Established in 2005, uThetha is one of the leading telecommunications systems integrators in South Africa. Small, medium and large companies that need telecommunications products and services can get in touch with uThetha. Communication solutions, consulting and call saving services are provided by the company. uThetha combines its knowledge of the IT sector and traditional PABX systems to offer efficient services to all its clients.
Contact Details:
89 Hugo Street
Goodwood, 7460
T+27 (0)21 597-2660
F+27 (0)21 597-2661
Source: http://www.briefingwire.com/pr/small-business-voip-gateways-by-linksys-now-available-at-uthetha
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Are Jennie Garth and Luke Perry Actually Dating?!?
Earlier this summer, Jennie Garth and Luke Perry reunited on the set of an Old Navy commercial (below).
But according to a new report in The National Enquirer, the former Beverly Hills 90210 costars REALLY united... if you know what the newspaper means!
“Since seeing Luke again, Jennie has fallen in love with him and Luke feels the same. There is an electricity between them that has been revived after all these years. It just happened.”
Garth and Perry are both recently divorced, and their fictional characters ended up together many years ago on the beloved Fox soap opera.
But despite their history and clear connection with each other, an insider tells Us Weekly that Garth and Perry are not, in fact, an item. This mole says Jennie has actually moved on from ex-husband Peter Facinelli and is now seeing photographer Noah Abrams.
Where does the truth lie? Your guess is as good as ours. But we'd have to imagine Jennie Garth chooses herself in the end.
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/08/are-jennie-garth-and-luke-perry-actually-dating/
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Thought-controlled quadcopter takes to the skies
Hal Hodson, technology reporter
Up, down, bank, take a photo! Researchers at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, have developed a quadcopter that can be controlled by thought alone. The idea is to give people with impaired motor abilities a new avenue for interaction.
Their system relies on the commercially available Emotiv electroencephalography (EEG) headset to interpret brain activity as commands for the quadcopter. Commands are relayed first by Bluetooth to a laptop, then by wireless to the hovering aircraft.
The quadcopter's range of motion is limited by the brain activity that the EEG can pick up. A user can move the flyer forward by thinking "right", fly up by thinking "push", and turn clockwise by thinking "left". Thinking "left hard" tells the quadcopter to take off from the ground. Clenched teeth and blinking both produce a brain signal that the EEG can read, commanding the flyer to descend or to take a picture using the on-board camera, respectively. By default, that camera sends a stream of video back to the laptop, and the user can capture a still of any scene they choose by blinking four times. The system is due to be presented next month at the Ubiquitous Computing Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Seeing and taking pictures from new vantage points are two applications that the researchers think will be useful for disabled users. They also suggest that the thought-controlled quadcopters could "fight" against physically controlled quadcopters, dodging, diving and pushing to force each other out of a ring.
"Maybe one day in the future, disabled people can use brain [control] to drive a plane in which they are seated, and go anywhere they want to go," the researchers imagine in the conclusion to their presentation.
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Beach Vacation Rentals | ArticleBro.com
Want to enjoy luxury and Oceanside beach vacations to spend your precious holidays time? Our vacation rentals provide you the most beautiful and amazing places and villas for you. We offer a wide selection of homes and cottages, best hotels, budget hotels, etc. We are on the top tourist destinations and beach vacation rentals and it?s no wonder we have been most popular for so long in beautiful beaches and accommodations.
Client?s service is our first priority. We give many hot deals on our vacation rentals with many great surprises. We provide best hotels, budget hotels and amenities at very affordable prices. We cover all the superb facilities of bed and breakfasts, flat and cabins. We provide all the adequate facilities with comfort and beautiful environment. We offered our clients the best selection of oceanfront view, excellent services, and deluxe accommodations.
We are well known of keeping our promises on the deals and we also offer extreme comfortable to our clients. We have all range of vacation rentals for big budget as well as for small budgets, but there is no lack of our services in any of our vacation rentals. Our deals also include discount offers in festivals, for specific occasion, summer vacations, etc. Our staff is always available to support you to make your beach vacation fantastic. For all our years, our mission remains the same to make your vacations enjoyable and happily. We have many regular clients who trust us and on our vacation packages, services, etc.
So what are you waiting for, go and hurry up, book your vacation rentals. For more information, please visit our website rentalo.com and get your beautiful destination and surprises too and know about our new packages, best offers and many more.
Source: http://articlebro.com/2012/travel-leisure/beach-vacation-rentals-2/
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Make Your Home Improvement Projects Easier With These Quick ...
Remodeling your kitchen is a time consuming process. Don?t create more work for yourself by hastily removing your old cabinets and damaging your walls. Carefully check to make sure you have removed all the screws and nails holding the cabinets to the walls, and use a putty knife to remove any caulk adhesive.
To keep the water pipes under your home from freezing in the winter months, use foam pipe insulation to keep the cold air from seizing your pipes with ice. This pre-slit black foam slips easily onto your copper or PVC pipes, and you can secure it with duct tape.
If you are going to do home improvements to an entire property and not just one room, make sure you have a concise idea from the outset of what you are wanting to achieve. Making major alterations to plans mid project will not only cost money, but could also lead to issues with any contractors working for you.
Cover all of your home?s surfaces to keep them safe from harm when do home improvements. When painting then use a tarp to cover the floor, if you?re demolishing walls or cabinets then cover any finished surface so that there is no scratching or other damage occurs. Also cover any walls that you aren?t going to repaint.
If you want to do contracting, you need to make sure that you have the proper insurance before you begin. There are a lot of people who choose to do home improvement jobs without being properly insured who then end up owing a lot of money when something goes wrong that they did not even consider.
If you are new at home imrovement projects, or are working on your skillset, you are going to make some mistakes. Do not let setbacks get to you. If you let errors get you down, or halt your working, you are letting the process of home improvement beat you. You can master many tasks, but it will not happen overnight. Learn from your mistakes (or better still, learn from the mistakes of others!)
When selecting a contractor for a home renovation, be sure to find someone you trust. Perform interviews as if you were hiring a personal assistant. You will have to let this contractor into your home and work with them on a daily basis. It?s better to select one you trust from the beginning than to face personality clashes later.
Do not overlook common household objects for solving organizational or storage problems in your home. You can make a coat rack from a board and some old cupboard knobs, for instance, and you can use baby food jars for storing small fasteners and pieces of hardware. Not only does this help you to get organized, but you are saving money and recycling, too.
If you love to barbecue and have the space outdoors, consider an outdoor kitchen for your next home improvement project. The space requirements for this can be fairly large, but it will add significant value to your home and make your backyard a much more enjoyable place to relax and entertain guests.
Hire a professional designer or architect if you are not one yourself. A lot of homeowners try to cut corners by using a ?friend? or drawing up plans themselves, but experts have already done the work and know environmental and zoning restrictions. Oops ? now that the putting green?s done, you didn?t realize it needed a permit? Improving your home is a big, sometimes costly endeavor. Don?t make the mistake of cutting corners.
Hopefully, with the information you acquired from this article, you?re feeling like you have a better idea of what it is you need to do to improve your home. Now that you have this knowledge, formulate strategies for success and apply them wherever you see fit. If you do that, you should be satisfied with the results.
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Study of tribe could help find East Asian skin color genes
ScienceDaily (Aug. 28, 2012) ? Genetic investigation of a Malaysian tribe may tell scientists why East Asians have light skin but lower skin cancer rates than Europeans, according to a team of international researchers. Understanding the differences could lead to a better way to protect people from skin cancer.
While the genetics of skin color is largely unknown, past research using zebrafish by Penn State College of Medicine's Keith Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., identified the gene in Europeans that differs from West Africans and contributes to a lighter skin color. Mutations in the genes SLC24A5 and SLC45A2 are largely responsible for European pigmentation, showing only single amino acid differences between Europeans and West Africans. Each version of a gene is called an allele.
While East Asians -- Chinese, Japanese and Korean -- also are light skinned, these European alleles are not present, suggesting that while both groups' lighter skin color evolved to allow for better creation of vitamin D in northern climates, they did so in a different way. This difference also affects skin cancer rates. Europeans have 10 to 20 times higher rates of melanoma than Africans. However, despite also having lighter skin, East Asians have the same melanoma rates as Africans. The reason for this difference can only be explained when the gene mutations for both groups are found.
"By finding the differences, we have the potential to find ways to make people with the European ancestry genes less susceptible to skin cancer," said Cheng, professor of pathology.
This is a challenge, because to find the unidentified mutations, researchers must study a population that includes a blend of original African ancestry and East Asian ancestry, with little European contribution.
The Senoi, one of three indigenous tribes from Peninsular Malaysia, meet this condition. The Senoi are believed to include ancestry of a dark-skinned tribe called the Negrito, and a regional Mongoloid population of Indo-China, such as the Proto-Malay. Since the skin color of the Senoi is darker than that of Northeast Asians, researchers will be able to focus on finding the primary genetic mutation of light skin color in Asians without seeing further skin lightening mutations.
Khai C. Ang, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in the Cheng lab, visited the Senoi, developed a positive relationship with them, and was able to collect 371 blood samples. Characterization of the Senoi's skin color was recently reported in PLoS ONE.
"As the world is becoming globalized, populations are becoming increasingly mixed," Ang said. "Time is running out and it will become increasingly difficult to establish how East Asian skin colors evolved."
The researchers will now map genes in the DNA using the collected samples to identify which might be responsible for the skin color of East Asians. In the Cheng lab, the candidate genes and mutations can then be tested in zebrafish for verification.
"Skin color has been tied to human welfare in modern history," Cheng said. "It is important for us as a species to realize that our skin color is determined by only a small number of minute changes in our DNA -- changes that have nothing to do with the value of human beings."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Khai C. Ang, Mee S. Ngu, Katherine P. Reid, Mei S. Teh, Zamzuraida S. Aida, Danny XR. Koh, Arthur Berg, Stephen Oppenheimer, Hood Salleh, Mahani M. Clyde, Badrul M. Md-Zain, Victor A. Canfield, Keith C. Cheng. Skin Color Variation in Orang Asli Tribes of Peninsular Malaysia. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (8): e42752 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042752
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/RB3sjREPUm0/120828135057.htm
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BEANIE SIGEL TALKS ABOUT THE REAL REASON ROC-A-FELLA ...
Posted on Aug 29, 2012 by Marc
Bean's sat down with GlobalGrind and talks about the real reason behind the Jay x Dame split. Everything he says sounds pretty believable but like they say, ask 3 people the same question and only believe it if 2 of them give you the same answer.
(Spotted @ NahRight)
Source: http://www.superxofficial.com/2012/08/beanie-sigel-talks-about-real-reason.html
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Twitter index: things to do before you die, movie quotes, Selena Gomez
Twitter users are talking about things to do before they die, the best movie quotes and Selena Gomez on Tuesday, August 28.?
Currently Twitter's most popular trending topic around the world is #10ThingsIMustDoBeforeIDie; microbloggers are taking advantage of the hashtag to share their varied, and not always serious, bucket lists.
Twitter user @tombtw tweets "#10ThingsIMustDoBeforeIDie Buy a parrot. Teach it to say, 'Help! I've been turned into a parrot.' Leave it in a public place and observe"; while @5AM_M3R50N tweets "#10ThingsIMustDoBeforeIDie - Wear a t-shirt that says 'Life,' then stand on street corner handing out lemons." Others however are taking it a little more seriously, @Kristinamuradov, for example, tweeted "get married and have kids," and @AlesanaRyan wrote "Make my parents proud."
Tuesday's other popular hashtag "#BestMovieQuotes" see's Twitter users sharing their favorite lines from films, while fans of Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift are showing their love of their idols by trending "Selena Is Awesome" and "Taylor Inspires Us" respectively.
Also trending on August 28 is the name of American activist Rachel Corrie, who in 2003 at the age of 23 was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to intervene in the destruction of a Palestinian home. Rachel's mother fought a long campaign to get justice for her daughter; however, on August 28, Israeli courts ruled that her daughter's death was accidental.
The top 10 most talked about topics on Twitter on August 28 at 12:30 PM GMT are:?
01.? #10ThingsIMustDoBeforeIDie
02.? #BestMovieQuotes
03.? #15ArtisYangPengenGwTemuin
04.? Selena Is Awesome
05.? Taylor Inspires Us
06.? Rachel Corrie
07.? SGP
08.? NCAE
09.? Cataluna
10.? FARC?
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/twitter-index-things-die-movie-quotes-selena-gomez-141408121.html
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Mars won't really look moon-size tonight
Every August, an email makes the rounds claiming that Mars will loom just as large in the night sky on Aug. 27 as the full moon. If you hoped to spot a big red orb in the heavens tonight, you'll be disappointed: The email is a hoax.
The yearly recirculation of the phony information has earned Aug. 27 the nickname " Mars Hoax Day." The hoax, which has fooled countless people since it first originated in 2003, may have begun in innocence.
That year, the email message (of unknown origin) correctly stated that Mars and Earth would converge for their closest encounter in around 60,000 years on Aug. 27. The distance between the planets contracted to 34.6 million miles (55.7 million kilometers) on that date, a mere fraction of their average separation of 140 million miles (225 million km) and, indeed, the closest to here Mars has come since 57,617 B.C.
-
Space news from NBCNews.com
-
Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies
First moonwalker Neil Armstrong's death at the age of 82 marks the passing of a "reluctant American hero," as well as the dimming of the Space Age's brightest moment.
- Armstrong family request: Wink at the moon
- Track the online tributes to first moonwalker
- President and VIPs hail Neil Armstrong
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Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies
The email then claimed that the Red Planet would look supersized. "It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide," the email correctly stated. (Magnitude refers to apparent magnitude, a measure of the brightness of a celestial object that decreases with increasing brightness; the sun has an apparent magnitude of -26.74, and the brightest star, Sirius, -1.4. Arcseconds are a measure of the width of a celestial object.)
But then, the email offered up this ambiguous sentence: "At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye." Close-up pictures of Mars and the full moon side-by-side accompanied the text.
The careful reader will notice that the email confusingly claimed Mars would resemble the full moon "to the naked eye" only when greatly magnified.
But even if the original email misled readers without being an outright hoax, it developed into a hoax in later years. The chain message resurfaced in 2005, possibly because Mars and Earth were set to make another close approach that fall (but not as close as the one in 2003). Again, it claimed Mars would rival the moon on the night of Aug. 27. Now an institution, the email makes the rounds almost every year, no matter Mars' location. [ The Greatest Mysteries of the Planets ]
As an aside, how close would Mars have to come to Earth to really appear moon-size? The moon sits an average of 238,000 miles (382,900 km) from Earth. At roughly twice the size of the moon, Mars would loom as large if it were about twice the moon's distance, or roughly 476,000 miles (766,000 km), from Earth.
That will never happen, and it's a good thing, too. According to NASA in a statement addressing the hoax in 2005, "If Mars did come close enough to rival the Moon, its gravity would alter Earth's orbit and raise terrible tides."
Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @ llmysteries. We're also on? Facebook ? and?? Google+.
? 2012 LifesLittleMysteries.com. All rights reserved. More from LifesLittleMysteries.com.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48806922/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Leave a comment - Stellar Blue Web Design LLC
Your company?s domain names can say a lot about the business and be a great marketing tool. (Stellar Blue Web Design is actually registered under 12 domain names as a marketing benefit!)
The first step, however, is finding domains with creativity and ingenuity.?There are millions of domain names already registered in the world.?Stellar Blue wants to help you ?pick your baby?s name(s)? and discover great available domain names for your business. Whether you?re a new company or just looking to add some spice in your online marketing strategies, these tips will help get your gears turning.
- Be Symbolic. Using words in your domain that have meaning to your company or industry can be a fun way to market. For instance, Stellar Blue client, Earth Sense Energy Systems is registered under many unique domains, and uses pellethead.com as its main name, for its pellet stoves.
- Try out puns.?Stellar Blue used ?APP-tunities are endless? as a slogan to promote mobile apps. Have fun with puns and use them in domains! Play around with the sounds and slang sayings. Puns are much less likely than other kinds of names to have been registered because their component parts are not actual words.
- Abbreviate or use different domain extensions. Think of how you can abbreviate your business name if it is long. Ex: Quality Custom Metal Fabrication Inc.?s main domain is qcmf.com. Also, do not forget about the domain extensions out there. If you?re abbreviated domain name is already registered under .com, try using .co or an extensions relative to your type of business (Find out about domain extensions by reading Stellar Blue?s previous blog post!
Once you have a couple names, make sure they are available with Stellar Blue?s domain checker HERE.
Interested in registered for a couple new domain names? Contact Stellar Blue today.?Stay connected with us through Twitter and Facebook!
Source: http://www.stellarbluewebdesign.com/php/blog/index.php/2012/08/finddomainnames/
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Engadget Giveaway: win a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro dev tablet!
The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro Mobile Development Platform (MDP) tablet is not your typical Android-based slate -- it's a developer's best friend. This particular MDP houses a quad-core Snapdragon S4 APQ8064 chip, Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB LPDDR2 RAM, and its primary purpose for even existing is to help devs test their games and apps on a true-blue device before OEM products begin hitting the market later this year. It's the most impressive quad-core tablet (in terms of performance) we've ever played with, but at $1,299 a pop, it isn't cheap. But that's where you, dear reader, come in: the slate you see above is going to be handed out to a lucky winner, and all you have to do is leave a comment in the usual place. Don't forget to read the rules below, and best of luck!
Continue reading Engadget Giveaway: win a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro dev tablet!
Filed under: Announcements
Engadget Giveaway: win a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro dev tablet! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/piJNwtdrUtM/
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Covering CASE Europe Annual Conference 28-31 August 2012
This week John Hill and I will be representing Pickle Jar Communications at the CASE Europe Annual Conference. But suffice to say, we can?t just go and do a couple of speaking slots and discussion sessions. Oh no. Instead, we?re taking over the reins of CASE Europe?s social media activity for the week to help give the conference a really good social push and reach out to those who can?t be there (but probably should be there next year!).
So, you?ll be able to catch John and I in the usual places through our own social profiles (@picklejar and @john_pj_hill). But, you?ll also be able to catch us and our work through the CASE Europe profiles too.
Here?s what we?re up to:
- Firstly, we?ve made Lanyrd the online social hub for the conference. We?re adding all sessions (bear with us, this takes time for a huge conference like this) and trying to hook up with as many speaker Twitter accounts as we can locate so that you can engage with speakers and see content around their individual sessions. We?ll be adding content to this throughout the conference and asking speakers to add their own if they can and will.
- We?ll be tweeting using #CEAC2012 from our own Twitter accounts, but also from the CASE Europe account (@CASE_Europe)
- We?ll be recording Audioboo interviews with speakers and delegates throughout the week
- We?ll be snapping photos and sharing on Instagram (@case_europe ? or see http://followgram.me/case_europe if you don?t use Instagram) and Flickr
- We?ll be posting occasional updates and content to the conference Facebook page and LinkedIn group
- We?ll be using Storify to pull together conversations and content from the conference.
And, of course, we?ll be pulling it all together in an easy-to-access way through Lanyrd.
In addition to this, I?ll also be speaking at the conference in the following sessions:
Look out for us and come to say hello! You can?t miss John ? he has the craziest curly hair you?ll ever see. See you in Birmingham or see you online if you can?t be there in person.
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The Tyee ? Finishing the Fight on Poverty
A record decline in single-parent poverty may be stalled. How to rescue the remaining poor?
'I thought "how can I stop this cycle?"': Minna and Martin Kim in Vancouver.
Minna Kim started life over at 27, when she took her infant son and fled Ontario for Vancouver, leaving behind her abusive partner.
But back in her hometown life got off to a rocky start. She was forced to move back into her parents' house and, with no childcare, meager and irregular child-support payments, and no job, she had to apply for income assistance.
"Obviously I didn't want to live on welfare. I don't want that for my son, and how horrible would it be if he [was on welfare] in the second generation?" says Kim, who spent six months on income assistance before returning to school on student loans.
"I thought, 'How can I stop this cycle?' I've always had in me the desire to help people, and I decided to go into social work because having lived that experience of being in an abusive relationship and having to go on welfare, I thought I want to help someone who's going through the same thing."
Even though she spent less than a year on social assistance, employment didn't provide enough money to keep her family out of poverty. It was through a combination of government childcare subsidies and student loans, a diploma in social work, a job, and subsidized housing from a non-profit, that Kim was finally able to push her family above the poverty line.
Now, almost 12 years after they left Ontario, she and her now 13-year-old son Martin enjoy a few of the finer things in life: "Actually having a bathtub instead of just a standup shower; ventilation in the kitchen; [and] a big enough bedroom to sleep in. My son is so good-natured: there were some places we stayed at that the bedroom for him was as small as a closet."
Living on just over $25,000 a year after taxes, the Kims aren't rich. But they are part of a promising trend: the percentage of single parent families living below Statistics Canada's Low-Income Cut-Off (LICO) after taxes has plummeted in the last 15 years, falling by more than half.
Canada's welfare rolls have dropped, too, from 3 million people in 1995 to just over 1.6 million in 2005, the last year the now-defunct National Council of Welfare provided a national estimate. One of the biggest drops was in the single parents who were able to work category.
It hasn't been a steady decline, but the numbers have moved from almost one in two single-parent households living in poverty, to fewer than one in five. Where 15 years ago almost half of all single parent families were destined to live below the country's poverty line, now 80 per cent live above it. No matter how you slice it, it's a significant victory for poverty reduction in Canada.
What's behind the shift?
Several ideas are raised to explain the success, and not all researchers agree on what's to thank. One I spoke to said it's a combination of "tough love" welfare-to-work policies that forced single parents off income assistance, matched with other, "soft-love" measures such as the introduction of a National Child Benefit Supplement in 1998.
But others credit demographics. Single mothers head up the great majority of single parent families. And whereas single mothers of the '80s and early '90s were usually young, undereducated, and underemployed, single moms of the late '90s and beyond tend to be older, more educated and better established in their careers, making it easier to stay out of poverty.
Whatever the reason, everyone we spoke to agrees the success so far has been the easy part. The remaining 20 per cent of single parents aren't getting out of poverty on their own.
No one is saying single parent poverty can't go any lower. But we do need to make changes or do more to bring these remaining families out of poverty. However there is no consensus on exactly how we do that.
John Richards, the Roger Phillips chair in Social Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute and a professor in the Public Policy Program at Simon Fraser University, thinks the status quo is insufficient. But he doesn't think a major shakeup of the tax benefit system is the way to go.
"In many ways I think getting [poverty rates] down even lower is not just a question of short-term back-to-work policy or more generous income assistance or childcare subsidy," says Richards.
"There are always tweaks. Like better education for early childhood for families at risk like low-income, single parent families. We're hoping that the next generation will have a better position in the labour force."
Others say it's going to take more than a few tweaks here and there to bring down lone parent poverty: "Poverty reduction measures are often not about income, they're about supports and things that let people continue to get back to work," says Armine Yalnizyan, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
For Yalnizyan that means more than just early childhood education: it's access to good schools, safe housing, neighbourhoods with green spaces and public assets like libraries and community centres, and public transit without having to skip meals or miss bill payments.
To push single-parent poverty to single digits or lower, we first need to understand why some parents have managed to climb out of poverty while others can't seem to keep their heads above water.
Tough love, soft love
In 1996, the fraction of single-parent families living under the LICO after tax was 49.3 per cent, the highest it had been in almost two decades. In comparison, poverty among two-parent families was barely a quarter as severe, at just 10.7 per cent. (See Sidebar.)
The country had just recovered from a late-1980s recession, followed by massive cuts in the government sector in an effort to reduce a national deficit that had reached $42 billion, nine per cent of Canada's GDP.
With the increase in poverty came an expansion of welfare rolls. In 1994 when the national welfare numbers peaked, there were 200,000 single parents on welfare, not counting their children who lived with them on social assistance. The following year in British Columbia, single parent families accounted for 151,000 out of 341,000 social assistance clients.
But by 2008, the number of single parent families on welfare in B.C. fell to 28,000.
Source: Statistics Canada CANSIM table 202-0804.
IN SEARCH OF THE 'POVERTY LINE'
Statistics Canada maintains its Low-Income Cut-Off (LICO) line isn't a poverty line but rather a measure of people deemed to be "low-income." The line represents what family would need to earn in order to spend no more than 20 percentage points of its income above what the the average family would spend on shelter, clothing, and food, based on family size and community. If you spend more than one-fifth of your income above what the average family in your demographic spends on the barest of these necessities, you may be below the LICO.
There are two LICO measures: before and after tax. Stats Can prefers the after-tax LICO, which accounts for public transfers redistributing income. Various benefits pull some families who fall below the LICO before tax, above it afterward.
Statistics Canada doesn't call the LICO a "poverty line," saying there is no consistent definition of what poverty is in Canada. Instead, it says the LICO "identifies those who are substantially worse off than the average." That could include students receiving loans, or families with substantial assets apart from their income.
Even so, many economists, social policy experts, politicians and, yes, journalists do use LICO to measure hardship in this country. It's the best we have.
"By my own conclusion, two things happened that worked together," says Richards. "One was more generous benefits to low-income families with children, and the other is that most provincial welfare systems became more strict in allowing low-income parents to have social assistance if there was no other presenting problems [preventing them from working]."
Keeping parents with no barriers to working off the provincial welfare roles is what Richards refers to as a "tough love" policy. The federal government toughened its "love" as well, making it harder for repeat applicants and seasonal workers to get what was then known as federal unemployment insurance.
But with those sticks also came carrots: "soft love" measures to help families off welfare rolls and keep them in the labour market, like the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS).
The NCBS is made up of two parts. Ottawa's contribution is an extra payment to low-income families added to their Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB), received monthly by all middle and low-income families with children under 18.
British Columbia's contribution was more selective. Low-income working parents were allowed to keep Ottawa's NCBS money. Parents on public assistance however, had the supplement clawed back from welfare or child benefits. Victoria promised to re-invest the money it took in, services to benefit children of low-income families.
The point was to create more incentive to get off welfare. Previously, parents often saw little change in income when they moved from welfare to working. Some even saw their situation worsen when they lost welfare benefits like dental and drug coverage for their children.
In his paper Richards credits the NCBS with enabling families to leave welfare on lower earned incomes than previously, because the federal supplement topping up working parents' income was enough to make a job more profitable than being on welfare.
Single moms work it out
But it wasn't just a change in government policies that brought single parents off the welfare rolls. Unlike the recession of the early 1980s, single mothers -- by far the majority of single parents in Canada -- were different this time around.
An increase in the divorce rate and a decrease in teen pregnancy meant single moms were typically older and more educated than a decade earlier. They had labour market experience already, so even if they lost their job it was easier to find another one.
It also didn't hurt that Canada experienced one of the biggest job booms in the post-'80s world.
"The mid-1990s, that's your high water mark of poverty," says Yalnizyan. "Then we create more jobs than any other nation in the [then] G-7 and we've got a fraction of the population, and you've got a sense of how poverty is likely to drop."
While most single mothers from the mid-to-late 1990s have raised all their kids by now, the cohort of single mothers from 2000s is having a similar experience.
"What we do see over the last decade is changes in the labour market experiences of lone mothers," says Sylvia Fuller, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia. "More lone mothers are engaged in paid employment and in paid employment at higher rates, [and] are more likely to work full-time than before."
Post-recession employment is unstable: Yalnizyan
All these experts agree however that the good news on single parents is over for now -- the decline in their numbers has leveled off. Fuller, who has done extensive research in B.C. and Ontario, believes the number of single parents in poverty has been stalled since about 2009 because many would need help beyond the NCBS to get off welfare.
'Poverty reduction measures are often not about income, they're about supports and things that let people continue to get back to work' says Armine Yalnizyan, CCPA senior economist.
"Almost half of lone mothers in this province on social assistance now are in some kind of medicalized category," says Fuller. ?So they're either classified as disabled or they're classified as someone with persistent multiple barriers to employment.
"For the most part, lone mothers who do not have massive barriers to employment because of health problems or addictions problems, they're off the [welfare] caseload. Or if they're on the caseload, they're on for a very short period of time and then they're moving back into the labour force."
Yalnizyan has a different theory about why single parents' poverty rates stalled. She's been tracking Canada's job growth since the 2008 recession and says that while employment has increased, it's not the secure, well-paid jobs with benefits that single parents need.
"Compared to May, 2008, four out of five of the jobs created [since then] are temporary," she said.
"The first people that go in a downturn are term and contract. The employer has the least loyalty to [them]. And we saw it: the biggest loss of jobs came before Oct. 2008, and they were temporary workers. That category of workers lost jobs before the full time ones, but [temporary and part-timers] were the first workers that got jobs back."
Temporary or part-time jobs offer none of the advantages of full-time employment: supplemental health and dental insurance, time off to take a kid to the doctor or attend their school play, chance of advancement or a raise.
Economist Yalnizyan believes it is federal policy to see lower wages, for less secure jobs, dominate the Canadian employment landscape. She cites Ottawa's inaction when U.S.-based Caterpillar closed its London, Ont. plant after workers refused to take a 50 per cent pay cut, its support for hiring more temporary foreign workers, and measures to make it more difficult for Canadians to receive Employment Insurance.
"If the only answer is work, and the amount of money you get for work is dropping, costs are rising and your security at work is falling, that's bad for any household with children, because it makes that person more focused on maintaining their job," said Yalnizyan.
"Which certainly makes it more challenging to be devoted to your family when you have that kind of pressure for anybody to have time to raise their kids."
Softer approach to easing poverty
Among households with children, those with single parents are still twice as likely to live in poverty as kids with two. And living with parents in poverty puts children at increased risk of growing up to continue to live in poverty.
So if the status quo won't bring the numbers any lower, what could we do to bring single-parent poverty at least to par with other families in Canada, if not even lower?
C.D. Howe/SFU policy expert Richards thinks more "soft love" -- policies like raising welfare rates and reducing benefit claw-backs -- would help families make and sustain the transition to the other side of the poverty line.
Currently families with one earner and two children who make between $20,000 and $40,000 see as much as 40 per cent of their benefits "clawed back." These claw-backs, combined with income taxes, are known as the "marginal tax rate."
"One way to help the 'near poor', [people] earning over 20k, is to lower the claw back rate, which results in a lower marginal effective tax rate over the [$20,000 to $40,000] range," Richards wrote in an email.
But he cautions that reducing claw backs risks giving money to some people who don't need it, too.
Sociologist Fuller believes we need to re-examine how we treat single parents on income assistance who have very young children. Back in the 1990s, single parents in B.C. with children under the age of seven were not expected to look for work. Welfare reforms under the current Liberal government lowered that age to three.
The change accommodated changing social norms: not all parents want to stay at home with their children for years. But a shortage of childcare spaces have meant that many single parents who would like to get a job can't, because they have no one to look after their children.
"I wouldn't go so far as to argue it's a bad thing to be suggesting that lone mothers be engaged in paid employment where possible, but we have to also make that possible," Fuller told The Tyee Solutions Society.
For Fuller that means government invest in an adequate number of low-cost, good quality childcare spaces in British Columbia.
It's where you live
Think-tank economist Yalnizyan has a more out-of-the-box idea -- almost literally. She believes that helping families raise their children in a good neighbourhood can break the cycle of poverty.
"If you don't have a lot of income to spare, it's extremely difficult to live in a neighbourhood which is supportive of childhood development, that has plenty of opportunities in the mix: green space, good schools, easy transportation, lots of recreational things to do," she said.
"The opportunities that a child has, it's not just [that] their parents have got low income, it's [that] the communities in which they live are not very supportive."
A lone parent salary could stretch much further if governments provided affordable housing, childcare, transportation in low-income neighbourhoods, as well as tuition for lone parent families. Although it would be quite an expensive cost for taxpayers to cover, Yalnizyan says it would be repaid at least partially by an increase in lone parents' purchasing power.
It was proper housing that finally brought the Kim family out of poverty. Even basement apartments in Coquitlam were expensive for a single mom and her son, so Kim considers it "a miracle" that her application to live in a new YWCA apartment building for single moms was accepted earlier this year.
"Having affordable and safe subsidized housing, it's like an actual godsend for a single mom. We used to balance everything to the penny," says Kim, who has been living in her new apartment since April and pays just $670 per month in rent.
That cost will be cut further, by more than half, if her son Martin later attends post-secondary school full-time and lives at home. This extra incentive to reach for the academic stars also increases Martin?s prospects of escaping poverty for good when he enters the working world.
"Housing is one of the biggest areas that can be a success for single parents to move forward and be able to do better for your child and yourself, by having that housing," says Kim. "Without that, it's just a cycle: poverty begetting poverty."
In a place where accommodation is as expensive as the Lower Mainland, families like the Kims work hard, but still can't make it without help from non-profits and government subsidies.
Society's payoff for that help may only come later, when the next generation achieves economic lift-off.
Effective public benefits have brought the number of single parents living in poverty in Canada down by half over 20 years. Winning the rest of the battle may take another generation -- and Canadians willing to invest in parents. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Katie Hyslop writes about education and youth well-being for The Tyee Solutions Society. This article was produced by Tyee Solutions Society in collaboration with Tides Canada Initiatives (TCI). TCI neither influences nor endorses the particular content of TSS' reporting. Other publications wishing to publish this story or other Tyee Solutions Society-produced articles, please see this website for contacts and information.
Source: http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/08/27/Fight-Against-Poverty/
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