Paul Daley's next shot in MMA has hit a roadbump. The British fighter, who was cut from the UFC after he threw a cheap shot after the bell at Josh Koscheck in 2010, is out of Bellator's welterweight tournament. He can't enter the United States because of issues getting a work visa.
ESPN reports Daley was involved in a bar brawl and was charged with assault, which is the problem with the visa. Daley denies the brawl, and says via his Facebook page it was just a problem with his visa.
It seems as though (sp) a mass press release has gone out to the MMA media stating I was involved (in a) bar brawl, arrested, and cannot obtain a P-1 visa to compete in the USA. I am currently awaiting a decision on my visa, which is not expected until late April. Which means I am unable to compete in the season 8 Bellator tournament, as it starts in January. I will be fighting in Europe in the coming months, so I am able to stay active while awaiting a decision on my visa status. I was not involved in a bar brawl. This is 100-percent a false statement.
Previously, Daley has fought in the United States for Bellator, Strikeforce and the UFC without any visa issues.
Perhaps one of the most startling and telling charts of the New Normal, one which few talk about, is the soaring difference between bank loans - traditionally the source of growth for banks, at least in their Old Normal business model which did not envision all of them becoming glorified, Too Big To Fail hedge funds, ala the Goldman Sachs "Bank Holding Company" model; and deposits - traditionally the source of capital banks use to fund said loans. Historically, and logically, the relationship between the two time series has been virtually one to one. However, ever since the advent of actively managed Central Planning by the Fed, as a result of which Ben Bernanke dumped nearly $2 trillion in excess deposits on banks to facilitate their risk taking even more, the traditional correlation between loans and deposits has broken down. It is time to once again start talking about this chart as for the first time ever the difference between deposits and loans has hit a record $2 trillion! But that's just the beginning - the rabbit hole goes so much deeper...
There are many reasons why the deposit hoard has continued to rise in the past 4 years, and according to the latest H.8 statement just hit a record $9.173 trillion as of December 12. This compares to $7.259 trillion in the week after the Lehman collapse: an increase of $1.9 trillion.
One contributing factor to this surge in deposits is the collapse in the Commercial Paper market (driven in big part due to the ongoing lack of counterparty faith as well as the ongoing Fed intervention in every possible market which has the paradoxical impact of eliminating confidence in the system and the desire by corporations to be able to fund themselves at a moment's notice come hell or high water) coupled with the unlimited insurance of various deposits courtesy of the government's Transaction Account Guarantee (TAG) program, which however will expire in 5 days, and which has made deposits the preferred pathway of preserving liquidity "dry powder" for both corporations and individuals.
But perhaps the biggest driver of the surge in deposits is the Fed's own ongoing liquidity tsunami, which using various traditional and shadow conduits has injected nearly the entire $2 trillion amount into the banking system (as Excess Reserves, Reverse Repos, Deposits with Federal Reserve Banks, and Other Fed Liabilities which combined conveniently amount to just about $1.8 trillion), which then via reflexive shadow pathways, most notably repo, has translated into an actual excess of cash to the bank's balance sheet: perfectly fungible cash which can then be used for any generic purpose: such as prop trading under the guise of "hedging" as JPM so vividly demonstrated a few months back. More on this in a second.
While the source of the cash for record deposits - i.e., the ever so incorrectly classified "cash on the sidelines" is debatable (but not much), one thing is certain: the total issuance of loans since the Lehman collapse in September of 2008 has barely budged and has increased by a whopping... -120.6 billion! That's a negative.
Indeed, in the past 4+ years, bank loan issuance has declined from $7.27 trillion to $7.15 trillion! To keep up with the increase in deposits, at least based on the historical relationship between deposits and loans, this number would have to be $2 trillion higher today, or some $9.2 trillion - money that would be going to individuals, households, and small, medium and large businesses to fund expansion and growth (instead the gross debt issuance frenzy we have seen over the past 3 years is only to refinance existing debt and lower rates: i.e., not only zero, but negative net issuance).
At least we can put to rest any debate whether banks are willing, able or even interested to lend out money in an unprofitable Net Interest Margin environment, such as that the Fed has created currently courtesy of ZIRP and courtesy of constant fronrunning of the Fed's purchases on the long-end.
If that was all, we could end this post here and tell readers to make up their own mind about what is truly happening behind the scenes. But there is much more to discuss about this record excess of deposits over loans. And the "more" is something that was only recently discovered, courtesy of a massive blunder by none other than JPM's Jamie Dimon. It is important to expose the "more" as it is in stark contrast with the conventional thinking adopted by much of the mainstream media (and even us until some time in May of 2012).
The conventional, or wrong way of thinking about the excess funding used by banks is best exemplified by this following headline from a August 20 Bloomberg article titled, "Banks Use $1.77 Trillion to Double Treasury Purchases."
In it the BBG authors note, correctly, that there was an excess $1.77 trillion in deposits over loans: a number which has since risen to $2.019 trillion as this post observes. Where the article is dead wrong is in its explanation of what the banks use said money for. Because while banks may or may not have used the excess cash for Treasury purchases (recall that we first highlighted that Primary Dealers held a record $140 billion in net Treasurys as of the latest week), the reality is that US Treasury paper is most certainly not what the final use of proceeds is.
Recall that as we have been describing for the past 3 years, a primary driver of "growth" in the US market, if not economy, has been the ability to transform asset and liability exposure off the books using various shadow conduits. The primary such conduit is and has always been repo funding (and various other forms of limited and/or unlimited rehypothecation made so popular after the collapse of MF Global). What repo does is it allows banks to exchange their holdings of Security X (in this case trasury) in exchange for nearly par cash courtesy of some custodian bank - and when it comes to the US non tri-party repo market there are only two: State Street and Bank of New York.
The biggest benefit of Repo financing is that the bank can still hold the original pledged security on its books for Fed "supervision" purposes, even as it obtains fungible cash equivalents via repo, cash which it can then use for whatever downstream purposes it desires such as purchasing stocks. This is where it gets confusing, and certainly confused our friends at Bloomberg who arrived at the wrong conclusion in their analysis.
A good summary of what really happens under the hood when account for repo comes from Citi's brilliant head of credit, Matt King, and his legendary note from September 5, 2008 "Are The Brokers Broken?" (which should be required reading for everyone), where he described the scheme as follows:
Paragraph 15 of the accounting rule FAS 140 stipulates that the amount referred to on the balance sheet statement need only be ?collateral pledged to counterparties which can be repledged to other counterparties?. A further portion of the financial instruments owned ? which is in many cases substantial ? is reported in the 10-Q footnotes of ?collateral pledged to counterparties which cannot be repledged?. An example might be tri-party repo, where until recently some custodians could not cope with the administrative complications of rerepoing received collateral. Although the assets themselves have always featured on the balance sheet, the fact that this non-repledgeable portion too is funded on repo is less widely appreciated. The combined volume ? once it is arrived at ? comes close to 50% of all financial instruments owned.
And this is where everyone loses the plotline, because the reality is that virtually half the balance sheet of US brokers can be repoed back to custodians, in the process leading to double, triple, and x-ple counting a single asset serving as deliverable collateral, and using and reusing (if need be), the cash proceeds, net of a token haircut (or no haircut in the case of English rehypotecation transactions), every single time purchasing riskier assets to generate a return on a return on a return of the original investment. In short: the magic of off-balance sheet accounting which allows brokers to abuse their already TBTF status and lever any underlying asset to the helt and beyond.
Think of Shadow Banking as your own in house synthetic structured product, allowing virtually unlimited leverage.
"Pure Hogwash!" One may say. "These are ridiculous allegations with no base in reality." One may add. We thought so too until the JPM "whale trade" fiasco happened, and all the dirt of the synthetic deposit-funding repo pathways was exposed for all to see.
Presenting Exhibit A, which comes directly from page 24 of JP Morgan's June 13 Financial Results appendix, in which the firm laid out, for all to see, just how it is that the Firm generated over $5 billion in prop trading losses in its Chief Investment Office unit - a department which had previously been tasked with "hedging" trades but as it turned out, was nothing but a glorified, and blessed from the very top, internal hedge fund, one with $323 billion in Assets Under Management! To wit:
The chart above shows the snapshot - from the horse's mouth -of how a major "legacy" bank, one engaged in both deposits and lending, decided to use the "deposit to loan gap" which had swelled to $423 billion at just JPM (blue box in middle), and led to $323 billion in CIO "Available For Sale securities."
What happened next is well-known to all: JPM's Bruno Iksil, together with Ina Drew and the rest of the CIO group (all of whom have since been dismisses), decided to put on a massive bet amounting to over $100 billion in notional across the credit spectrum (the one place where a position of this size could be established without becoming the entire market, although by the time it imploded Bruno Iksil was the market in IG9 and various other indices and tranches). The loss was just as staggering, and amounts to what is one of the largest prop bets gone horribly wrong in history.
Now the JPM spin is well-known: the CIO was merely there to "hedge" exposure, as a direct prop bet would be illegal as per the Volcker Rule, not to mention the avalanche of lawsuits and the regulatory nightmare that would ensue if it became clear that the firm was risking what amount to deposit capital to fund massive, highly risky prop trading bets. Which, when one cuts out the noise, is precisely what JPM did of course, especially since the "hedge" trade blew up just as the market tumbled in the spring of 2012, a time when it should have otherwise hedged the balance of the firm's otherwise bullish posture. That it did not do this refutes the logic that this was a hedge, and confirms that what JPM was doing was nothing short of using an internal, heavily shielded hedge fund, which had $323 billion in collateral as investible equity, to trade away, knowing very well no regulator would dare touch JPM. This is further compounded by the fact, that as one of only two Tri-Party repo dealers in the market (and by far the greater of the two, the second one being the innocuous Bank of New York Mellon), JPM could run circles around both the entire market, and the Fed, if it so chose, courtesy of its monopoly position in the repo market.
* * *
So where does that leave us?
Well, instead of JPM's "deposit to loan gap" discussion, whose massive loss (but, but, hedging...) was the dominant topic on the airwaves for a large part of the summer of 2012, we have the US financial system's "deposits to loan gap" - amounting to some $2 trillion - to contend with. But the punchline is that whereas JPM's decided to express its prop risk using fixed income instruments, and certainly not to buy simple boring Treasurys as the Bloomberg article speculated earlier, nothing prevented JPM from simply bidding up other risky assets "as a hedge" such as stocks, or crude, or slamming silver, or doing anything else it was perfectly entitled to do using the repledging mechanics of the repo system. And since Jamie Dimon has not yet given a full P&L breakdown listing CUSIP by CUSIP just what instruments JPM depositors were funding - either directly or indirectly - nobody actually knows just what securities the CIO was long or short.
The question then becomes: just how are the remaining hundreds of depositor US banks expressing their own iteration of the JPM CIO "deposits over loans" problem? Are they all trading CDS in the IG or HY space? Are they using repo proceeds from TSY purchases to generate fungible cash? Or are they simply using the cash directly and using it to big up risk assets?
All these questions will remain unanswered as it is in both the banks' and, therefore, regulators' best interests to keep the accounting behind repo, pledging and hypothecation transactions as is - nebulous, complicated and even contradictory (especially when it comes to FAS 140 whose paragraph 15 (d) makes borrowed versus pledged transactions off balance sheet, while paragraph 94 makes them on balance sheet), as overhauling the reporting requirements would expose just how much double-, triple-, quadruple- and more dipping America's major money centers are engaged in when it comes to propping up the market: dirt that would put the result of any "Audit the Fed" outcome to shame.
And after all, why should the Fed dirty its hands when it can simply provide the banks with the cash resources to do what they need without it having to engage in what is certainly illegal based on any of its charters. Because while the Liberty 33 Plunge Protection Team may, on occasion, engage the Citadel trading desk to buy ES at times when nobody else will step up, it certainly will not have to do so all the time if it were to flood banks with $2 trillion (soon to be $3, then $4 trillion as QE4EVA drags on and on and on...) in perfectly fungible capital, which can be metamorphozed from innocuous Excess Reserves to perfectly tradeable cash using two or three simple shadow banking transformations.
In that regard, we have to thank Jamie Dimon and his firm for being the biggest beacon of light in 2012, because without the generous contribution of the JPM CIO desk, and its explanation of how the "deposit to loan gap" we would all still be in the dark, and just like Bloomberg, assume naively that all a bank does with excess trillions in deposits, is to buy boring old treasurys.
Instead, we now know the truth, and for that Jamie - you have our sincerest gratitude.
* * *
Finally, the indirect implication of all this is for all those demanding that the "money on the sidelines" leaves the sidelines and is once again used by companies. The problem is that said money is already used by banks as prop trading capital: likely all $2 trillion of it (and if re-hypothecated, more) - in other words, if instead of being used by banks to prop up corporate stocks and risk in general, companies revert to the old mentality of actually reinvesting in themselves - i.e, CapEx spending, hiring new people, even M&A and generally growth - the fungible cash used by banks as investing capital will be redeemed and result in commensurate sales of stocks. Which means that should said "sideline capital" ever be pulled back by the same companies who are now granting, unbeknownst to them, direct asset management duties of said cash by the US banks, then watch out below, at least in the S&P. Which, as the Fed has made all too clear, is the only thing that matters in the New Normal.
Foreclosure Homes For Sale Pleasanton CA November 2012 Update Pleasanton CA Real Estate December 15, 2012 | Homes for Sale in San Ramon, Danville CA, Dublin CA, Pleasanton ?2012 Bay East. ?2012 CCAR. ?2012 EBRD. All rights reserved. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This information is provided from three separate sources: Bay East, CCAR and EBRD. The listings presented here may or may not be listed by the Broker/Agent operating this website. Information last updated on 12/16/12 12:41 AM PST.
Six-year-old Sanchez was abandoned at the front door of the shelter. He is a sweet when he wants to be cat and standoffish when he gets overstimulated. He should not live with children You can also see Sanchez' video at www.youtube.com/fotnhas .NO APPOINTMENTS NEEDED. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ADOPTING THIS PET PLEASE VISIT THE SHELTER MONDAY - SATURDAY 12:30 - 4:30 OR CALL THE SHELTER AT (203) 946-8110 All of our cats are FIV/LEK tested neg, vaccinated and in most cases altered prior to going to it's new home. In-State Fee $80 cash only Out-of State Fee (no voucher)$35 cash only Proof of homeownership required( mtg statement,tax bill) Landlord approval required for renters.
CHARACTERISTICS: Breed: Tiger Size: Large Petfinder ID: 23296259
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CONTACT: The Friends of the New Haven Animal Shelter | New Haven, CT
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Posted on: 4:09 pm, December 6, 2012, by Nick Dutton, updated on: 04:10pm, December 6, 2012
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, (RTV/CBS News) ??A charity in New Zealand is teaching three dogs to drive to highlight their intelligence and encourage more people to give rescued animals a home.
The campaign is part of a push by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to find more homes for abandoned pets in New Zealand.
The three animals chosen by trainer Mark Vette are Monty, an 18-month-old giant schnauzer, Ginny, a one year old whippet cross and Porter, a 10-month-old beardie cross.
Their training began in September with simple movements, such as putting a paw on a mock gear stick, sitting in a driving position and holding a steering wheel.
After five weeks their training progressed and movement was added by mounting training aids on a trolley.
Next step for the dogs was to get in a real car, with a trainer in the passenger seat to help with the steering.
But it hasn?t always been smooth driving.
?We had a couple of days ago the car was going too fast, the trainer nearly got run over, the car, the breaking, the dogs but no, we?ve got it all here now. There?s no excuses. We?ve got to get in there and show that dogs can drive cars. It?ll be ?dial-a-dog? the week after this,? said animal trainer Mark Vette.
Now the animals can start a car, accelerate and steer, they are scheduled to show off their skills on live TV next week.
For the final test the dogs will also have to brake as they are driving along a narrow lane.
It's a hobby. That's basically what we've been told about the Apple TV since day one. Cupertino saw the device as an accessory to its ecosystem, not necessarily a marquee product. Tim Cook is singing a slightly different tune these days, though. After reaffirming the Apple TV's hobby status back in January, he recently told NBC's Brian Williams that the screen in your living room is now "an area of intense interest." The CEO isn't necessarily talking about the Apple TV as we know it today, he could be referring to the long rumor Apple-branded television set, but we wouldn't hold our breath on that one. Of course, in following the tradition set forth by his predecessor Cook left plenty of mystery for the media to poke at. The TV is stuck 30 years in the past, but if you ask what Apple plans to do about it you'll just the line about "intense interest" and a quick, "I can't say more than that." He's slippery son of a gun.
NASA engineers are chipping away at how best to lower the cost of their satellites ? and one off-the-shelf answer is by using smartphone electronics.
Dialing in on the idea has resulted in the PhoneSat project, a technology demonstration mission using a trio of tiny CubeSat satellitesto be launched next year.
The PhoneSat nanosatellites ? each weighing in at just three pounds (1.4 kilograms) ? will be ejected into Earth orbit during the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket. The rocket will launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport , located at NASA?s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.
Out-of-the-box
Quite literally out-of-the-box smartphones are imbued with capabilities comparable to a spacecraft's, like fast processors, multipurpose operating systems, miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers, and several radios.
The three PhoneSats ? Alexander, Graham and Bell ? will be simultaneously deployed from a rocket-mounted dispenser. The latter two are PhoneSat 1.0s; they are battery-powered and make use of Nexus One smartphone technology from HTC Corp. and Google?s Android operating system.
A beta version of PhoneSat 2.0, Alexander is built around an updated Nexus S smartphone made by Samsung Electronics that runs Google?s Android operating system to provide a faster core processor, avionics and gyroscopes. It has solar cells for energy.
The attractive thing about PhoneSat is that it may make people more comfortable with the idea of using something almost directly off the shelf for a space mission, said Andrew Petro, program executive for the Small Spacecraft Technology Program within NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist. ?I?m excited about the potential here,? Petro told SPACE.com.
Nontraditional
PhoneSat is one of nine space technology programs in the Office of the Chief Technologist, according to Bruce Yost at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
Ames is home for a small tiger team of engineers that conceived of, constructed, and tested PhoneSat, working on the project since early 2011, Yost told SPACE.com. "We?re exploring the use of nontraditional hardware and systems providers," trolling for technology beyond the traditional aerospace industry, said Yost, who is manager of the Small Spacecraft Technology Program.
PhoneSat engineers kept the total cost of the components to $3,500 for each of the three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat project. They used only commercial, off-the-shelf hardware and established minimum design and mission objectives for the first flight.
The deployment mechanism is of a size tagged "3U" volume, said Jim Cockrell, PhoneSat 1.0 project manager, "so it holds three CubeSats ? all three stacked up into the dispenser." (Each PhoneSats is built to standard dimensions? of 10x10x11 centimeters, about 4 inches cubed, or 1U ? for unit, he said.)
Citizen exploration
Once in Earth orbit, the PhoneSat Project comes alive. Amateur ground stations will receive health and status information as well as images, uploading packets of data onto amateur-run websites.
An early leader in the PhoneSat concept was Jasper Wolfe, technical lead of attitude determination and control, launch vehicle, at NASA Ames. He underscores multiple benefits in the project ? for one, leveraging hardware and software from the non-aerospace industry.
"I see PhoneSat as inspiring a new area of people to get involved in space," Wolfe said. "The actual building of a satellite is something we?re trying to develop and demonstrate as a really cheap and easy thing to do."
The battery-powered PhoneSats will orbit for 10 days or two weeks before re-entering the Earth?s atmosphere, while the solar-paneled PhoneSat 2.0 will have a longer stay in space, said Alberto Guillen Salas, technical lead of communications and electrical design of the PhoneSat Project.
The mission will demonstrate use of small satellites for space commerce, educational activities and citizen exploration ? all well within the reach of ordinary Americans because of the lower-cost, commercially available components involved, said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA?s Space Technology Program at NASA headquarters in Washington.
Oriol Tintore Gazulla, technical lead of software and mechanical design for the PhoneSat Project at Ames, said next year?s mission is likely to be a forerunner of things to come. "This is a first step. Maybe in the future we could think of going farther ? going to the moon."
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.
Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Becoming an electrician starts with getting the right schooling. One can start quite early, even in High School. Many vocational programs in secondary schools have an electrical program. Following High School graduation, one can enter a program at a college to further their learning. Community colleges often have excellent trades program, including electrical. In addition to their typical general education courses like math and English, students will take practical courses where they learn both the science behind the trade and also get to apply and learn new skills in hands-on work. If one desires to learn more about the scientific end of things, they can attend a four year college that offers advanced programs like electrical engineering or similar majors. Community colleges are great because they offer students practical experience.
One can also do some extra work on their own to increase their skills and education. It is a great idea to find an experienced individual who works in the field and get close to them. An experienced worker can offer electrician training in the form of an apprenticeship or might be able to hire a student to work for them. They can also share the pros and cons of the industry, as well as stories from on the job. This will give the young student a better idea of what daily life is like as an electrical worker, and help them decide if this is really the field that they want to devote their life to. Working with a professional can help one meet others in the field and perhaps potential future customers. The pro may also have some suggestions for training programs or courses that the aspiring electrician can take advantage of. They can serve as a reference for the student's resume.
Before one can be successful in industry, they must have to proper education and training. Fortunately, budding electrical workers have many options to help them reach their goals and better themselves.
A special education teacher who was found guilty of having sex with two underage students and bombarding them with nude photos of herself will serve only six months in jail.
Andrea Ebert, 31, from Wisconsin, was sentenced yesterday to the jail time plus three years in probation after being found guilty in July of two felony counts of sexual assault.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Ebert is required to perform 500 hours of community service and will have to register as a sex offender for 15 years.
Ebert worked as a special education teacher at Rice Lake Middle School. The two teens she slept with were at the High School.
The divorcee had sex with the two 17-year-olds in her home and told them they would not get caught if they stayed quiet about the affair.
One teen, now aged 18, told police Ebert sent him up to 15 nude photos of herself during their relationship which lasted from November until last month.
Another teen, who was aged 17 when the affair began, told police he had sex with the middle school teacher at her home.
He said on one occasion the teacher sent him a text message from a bar where she was drinking asking him to collect her.
The teen said he gave her a lift home and then received about ten nude photos of Ebert on his cell phone.
In an interview with police, Ebert admitted texting the photos to the teen.
The Barron County Sheriff?s Department said it was tipped off by a concerned citizen and arrested Ebert at Rice Lake Middle School.
Rice Lake School District Administrator Bill Conzemius said the arrest on Friday was carried out in a low-key way.
'Our Director of Learning went to her room and asked her to come into the middle school office. She went down to the school office and she was transported by police to the police department,' Conzemius said.
Conzemius said none of the alleged contact happened at school, nor is there any suspicion any middle or elementary school students were involved.
He said Ebert has been placed on administrative leave without pay.
'This is always tragic, always an enormous of concern for the victims. Also, this school district is a close knit family.
What happens to one of us happens to all of us,' Conzemius said.
Counselors were made available for the alleged victims.
Ebert was charged with two counts of Sexual Assault of a Student by School Staff.
She was released from jail on a $5,000 signature bond with orders not to have contact with the victims, their families or minor children other than hers, and not to consume alcohol.
If you follow my posts here at The Budget Fashionista, then you?re probably aware of my monthly box subscription obsession. I love monthly beauty boxes because a) mail is fun and b) trying new products is fun. I was tickled pink (my husband calls me a ?grandma? for using that expression, by the way) to discover a new monthly box subscription that?s a little different from the rest: KLUTCHclub. Clarification: Different equals good.
While it does include some beauty items, KLUTCHclub?s ultimate focus is holistic health, fitness and wellness products. Self-admission: I don?t exactly adhere to my workout schedule every week, and I occasionally indulge in not-so-healthy food items. With that said, I do take pride in my otherwise-healthy lifestyle decisions. I decided to give KLUTCHclub a go. Here are the deets (and some pictures) from my first box:
What is KLUTCHclub? As mentioned above, KLUTCHclub is a monthly subscription box that?s filled with all kinds of health and wellness goodies. The products are delivered in a box straight to your door every month. The service?s ultimate focus is holistic health, so you?ll find organic skin care products, nutritional supplements/bars/drinks and items that?ll motivate you in the fitness department.
What?s the Cost? The monthly subscription is $18. You can also subscribe to a year?s worth of boxes and the price drops to $16, or at three months to $17. Each box contains at least $50 or more worth of products, so you do get your money?s worth.
What Kinds of Things Come in the Box?
You?ll find everything from fitness DVDs to all-natural energy bars to holistic teas and organic skincare products. KLUTCHclub fills their boxes with new products from niche brands, so you?ll definitely learn about new products and businesses. My first box (which arrived in October), included Yurbuds (sport earphones made for fitness lovers), DeVita Natural Eyeliner (chemical-free mineral eyeliner) and Hungershield (natural appetite-control drink mix), among others. You can find out what was in past boxes by clicking here.
How Big are the Products? Some of the products are full-sized, while others are sample sizes. There seems to be enough to get a true feel for the products, though.
Additional info: There are two separate boxes?one for women and another for men. There seems to be some overlap in products for both, but separating men and women allows for better product targeting.
If you want to check out KLUTCHclub for yourself, visit their Web site and mosey around.
WWE announcer Lilian Garcia has been hit by a car. The accident occurred on Friday and she is currently listed in stable condition. On Friday Garcia was struck by a car and has now been hospitalized. Thankfully it looks like the singer will be ok. According to GossipCop website she has sustained?contusions and lacerations on the left side of her body. She was kept in the hospital over night for simple observations but she is reportedly set to be released today. The details of exactly what happened have not been released other than she was simply hit by a car. At this time neither a rep for Lilian or a spokesperson for the WWE have released any kind of statement regarding the accident. All the information that we know is basically what I stated above. I am willing to be that it will only be a matter of time before some kind of comment is released by someone in her camp. No word yet either on if the injuries she sustained will keep her from her announcing duties. Lilian is best known for being an announcer on the famous WWE show “Smack Down”, she joined the show back in 1999. [...]
October 26, 2012 at 12:55 pm | Posted in Amy Shein, GCM | Leave a comment Tags: Tips, Falls, Aging, ramsey, bergen county, exercise, Therapy, Ridgewood, New Jersey, physical therapy, screenings, pain, osteoartrhitis, fitness, movement, posture, balance
National Physical Therapy Month is celebrated each October. The primary goal of this month long celebrations is to raise awareness of the vital role that physical therapists and physical therapy assistant?s play in helping people decrease their pain, improve or restore mobility and engage in healthy lifestyles.? Physical therapists apply education, research and proven techniques to help people get back in action.
Physical Therapist Education and Expertise:
All physical therapists are required to receive a graduate degree, either a master?s degree or a clinical doctorate from an accredited physical therapist program.? They need this degree before taking a national licensure examination that allows them to practice.? State licensure is required in each state in which a physical therapist may practice.? They are health care professionals with extensive clinical experience who can examine and prevent or treat conditions that limit the body?s ability to move and function. Best of all, your physical therapist will teach you how to manage a health condition and help motivate you during your treatment.
Physical therapists can help with: arthritis, back pain, fitness, knee pain, osteoporosis, shoulder pain, stroke, sprains, strains and fractures and so much more.?
Physical Therapist Assistants Education:
Physical therapist assistants are educated and licensed clinicians that work under the direction and supervision of a physical therapist.? They must complete an academic and clinical education associate degree program, pass a national licensure examination and be licensed or certified by the states in which they plan to work. Physical therapist assistants will work closely with the physical therapist, they may provide components of care such as therapeutic exercise, functional training, deep soft tissue massage, proper body mechanics and other injury prevention.
The History of National Physical Therapy Month:
In the beginning, National Physical Week was celebrated each June starting in 1981.? In 1992, the week was moved to October so as to not conflict with the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) national conference in June.? It was then declared that the entire month of October would be designated national Physical Therapy Month.? National Physical Therapy Month is a recognized observance on the National Health Observances Calendar.
National Physical Therapy Month Themes:
Each year, the APTA?selects a theme to be the main focus of National Physical Therapy Month.? While all aspects of physical therapy are celebrated each October, the main emphasis is placed on the theme for the month long celebration.
This year?s campaign is entitled ?Fit for Life?, encouraging physical therapists around the world to highlight the importance of physical activity throughout a person?s lifespan.
Past themes have focused on many physical therapy specialties including low back pain, posture, balance, fitness and obesity, and sports injury prevention.
What is the Best Way to Celebrate National Physical Therapy Month?
During National Physical Therapy Month, physical therapists are encouraged to engage their communities in activities to promote healthy lifestyles and to raise awareness of the importance of physical therapy.? Facilities may hold special events like posture screenings, balance assessments, or fun runs to get the community involved in fitness and exercise.
National Physical Therapy Month is a great opportunity for physical therapists to educate the general public about the role that physical therapist?s play with helping to manage pain, improves mobility and restore function. If you have been working with a physical therapist or planned to very soon, be sure to ask them all about this year?s planned events for National Physical Therapy Month.
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NINGBO, China (Reuters) - Police dispersed more than a thousand protesters in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo on Saturday who were demonstrating against plans to expand a petrochemical plant.
The protests, which had turned violent on Friday, illustrate a major challenge for the leadership as it readies for its once-in-a-decade power transition, and tries to maintain social stability but also show it is listening to the complaints of ordinary people.
Protesters had gathered early on Saturday in a central shopping street in Ningbo. By the afternoon they had mostly been dispersed by several hundred police.
Witnesses said there were a few scuffles and some arrests.
"I think the chemical and industrial project is not very good for the eco-system. I don't think they should exchange our living environment for development," said 31-year old protester Peng Shaoming.
The protesters wore masks and gave out pamphlets denouncing the expansion of the plant by a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation in the district of Zhenhai.
The protests, which have been going on for a week, come just two weeks before the Communist Party holds a congress which opens on November 8 and will unveil a new central leadership.
The city's public security bureau said protesters overturned cars and attacked police on Friday night while reports on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, reported that police fired tear gas at the protesters.
The past few years has seen a rise in protests over environmental issues. In July, Chinese officials canceled an industrial waste pipeline project after anti-pollution demonstrators occupied a government office in eastern China.
"I feel very upset and disappointed at the government and media in China," said Winni Xu, a Zhenhai native who recently completed her graduate studies in the United States.
"I'm angry at the government because they tried to hide a lot of critical information about this project from the residents," said New York-based Xu, her voice filled with emotion. "I spent 20 years in Zhenhai, from kindergarten all the way up...I have friends and family there".
Discussion of the protests was not blocked on Weibo but some users in Ningbo reported difficulty in uploading photographs.
(Reporting by Carlos Barria and Jiang Xihao; Writing by Melanie Lee, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) ? As much as 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 billion tons of carbon stored in arctic permafrost, or frozen ground, could be released into the environment as the region begins to thaw over the next century as a result of a warmer planet, according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. This nitrogen and carbon are likely to impact ecosystems, the atmosphere, and water resources including rivers and lakes. For context, this is roughly the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere today.
The release of carbon and nitrogen in permafrost could exacerbate the warming phenomenon and will impact water systems on land and offshore according to USGS scientists and their domestic and international collaborators. The previously unpublished nitrogen figure is useful for scientists who are making climate predictions with computer climate models, while the carbon estimate is consistent and gives more credence to other scientific studies with similar carbon estimates.
"This study quantifies the impact on Earth's two most important chemical cycles, carbon and nitrogen, from thawing of permafrost under future climate warming scenarios," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "While the permafrost of the polar latitudes may seem distant and disconnected from the daily activities of most of us, its potential to alter the planet's habitability when destabilized is very real."
To generate the estimates, scientists studied how permafrost-affected soils, known as Gelisols, thaw under various climate scenarios. They found that all Gelisols are not alike: some Gelisols have soil materials that are very peaty, with lots of decaying organic matter that burns easily -- these will impart newly thawed nitrogen into the ecosystem and atmosphere. Other Gelisols have materials that are very nutrient rich -- these will impart a lot of nitrogen into the ecosystem. All Gelisols will contribute carbon dioxide and likely some methane into the atmosphere as a result of decomposition once the permafrost thaws -- and these gases will contribute to warming. What was frozen for thousands of years will enter our ecosystems and atmosphere as a new contributor.
"The scientific community researching this phenomena has made these international data available for the upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As permafrost receives more attention, we are sharing our data and our insights to guide those models as they portray how the land, atmosphere, and ocean interact," said study lead Jennifer Harden, USGS Research Soil Scientist.
The article "Field information links permafrost carbon to physical vulnerabilities of thawing" was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by U.S. Geological Survey.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Jennifer W. Harden, Charles D. Koven, Chien-Lu Ping, Gustaf Hugelius, A. David McGuire, Phillip Camill, Torre Jorgenson, Peter Kuhry, Gary J. Michaelson, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Edward A. G. Schuur, Charles Tarnocai, Kristopher Johnson, Guido Grosse. Field information links permafrost carbon to physical vulnerabilities of thawing. Geophysical Research Letters, 2012; 39 (15) DOI: 10.1029/2012GL051958
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) ? As much as 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 billion tons of carbon stored in arctic permafrost, or frozen ground, could be released into the environment as the region begins to thaw over the next century as a result of a warmer planet, according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. This nitrogen and carbon are likely to impact ecosystems, the atmosphere, and water resources including rivers and lakes. For context, this is roughly the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere today.
The release of carbon and nitrogen in permafrost could exacerbate the warming phenomenon and will impact water systems on land and offshore according to USGS scientists and their domestic and international collaborators. The previously unpublished nitrogen figure is useful for scientists who are making climate predictions with computer climate models, while the carbon estimate is consistent and gives more credence to other scientific studies with similar carbon estimates.
"This study quantifies the impact on Earth's two most important chemical cycles, carbon and nitrogen, from thawing of permafrost under future climate warming scenarios," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "While the permafrost of the polar latitudes may seem distant and disconnected from the daily activities of most of us, its potential to alter the planet's habitability when destabilized is very real."
To generate the estimates, scientists studied how permafrost-affected soils, known as Gelisols, thaw under various climate scenarios. They found that all Gelisols are not alike: some Gelisols have soil materials that are very peaty, with lots of decaying organic matter that burns easily -- these will impart newly thawed nitrogen into the ecosystem and atmosphere. Other Gelisols have materials that are very nutrient rich -- these will impart a lot of nitrogen into the ecosystem. All Gelisols will contribute carbon dioxide and likely some methane into the atmosphere as a result of decomposition once the permafrost thaws -- and these gases will contribute to warming. What was frozen for thousands of years will enter our ecosystems and atmosphere as a new contributor.
"The scientific community researching this phenomena has made these international data available for the upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As permafrost receives more attention, we are sharing our data and our insights to guide those models as they portray how the land, atmosphere, and ocean interact," said study lead Jennifer Harden, USGS Research Soil Scientist.
The article "Field information links permafrost carbon to physical vulnerabilities of thawing" was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by U.S. Geological Survey.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Jennifer W. Harden, Charles D. Koven, Chien-Lu Ping, Gustaf Hugelius, A. David McGuire, Phillip Camill, Torre Jorgenson, Peter Kuhry, Gary J. Michaelson, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Edward A. G. Schuur, Charles Tarnocai, Kristopher Johnson, Guido Grosse. Field information links permafrost carbon to physical vulnerabilities of thawing. Geophysical Research Letters, 2012; 39 (15) DOI: 10.1029/2012GL051958
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
EL PASO, Texas (AP) ? More than 4,000 archaeological artifacts looted from Mexico and seized in the U.S. were returned to Mexican authorities on Thursday in what experts say is one of the largest repatriation ever made between the neighboring countries.
The items mostly date from before European explorers landed in North America and include items from hunter-gatherers in pre-Columbian northern Mexico, such as stones used to grind corn, statues, figurines and copper hatchets, said Pedro Sanchez, president of the National Archaeological Council of Mexico.
Seizures were made in El Paso, Phoenix, Chicago, Denver, San Diego and San Antonio by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, though most of the relics ? including items traced to a 2008 theft of a museum in Mexico ? turned up in Fort Stockton, a Texas town about 230 miles southeast of El Paso.
More than two dozen pieces of pottery were seized in Kalispell, Mont., where Homeland Security agents discovered that a consignor had paid Mexican Indians to loot items from burial sites deep in the Mexican Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico, authorities said.
Although most of the items turned over are arrowheads, several are of "incalculable archaeological value," Sanchez told The Associated Press. He said it was the biggest archaeological repatriation, in terms of the number of items, that the U.S has made to Mexico.
U.S. officials displayed the relics at the Mexican Consulate in El Paso before handing them over during a ceremony Thursday. The artifacts will eventually be taken to the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, where they will be studied, cataloged and distributed to museums across Mexico.
Most of the items resulted from a string of seizures in West Texas in 2009, following a tip about relics illegally entering the U.S. at a border crossing in Presidio, Texas.
Homeland Security special agent Dennis Ulrich said authorities executing a search warrant in Fort Stockton found the largest portion of the cache. And further investigation revealed that the two men who organized the artifacts' smuggling were involved in drug trafficking from Mexico to the U.S., he said.
Sanchez said some of the relics found in Fort Stockton were stolen from a private collection at the Cuatro Cienagas museum in the Mexican state of Coahuila.
The items also include arrows, hunting bows and even extremely well conserved textile items such as sandals and pieces of baskets.
Also known as ?gobs,? ?bobs? ?black-and-whites? and ?BFO?S? (Big Fat Oreos), the whoopie pie is the official ?state treat? of Maine. ?These cakey cookies exploding with buttercream have never had their origins fully explained, though most attribute it to Pennsylvania Dutch country.
My sister Jodi and I recently had an all-day marathon cookie making session that included carrot cake cookies (see them here), chocolate mint sandwich cookies (here), and these peanut butter whoopie pies. ?Working side by side, we quickly reverted to the traditional roles we held growing up within the structure of the Green family. ?She transformed into the bossy taskmaster who knows better than everyone else, while I became the whiney ?mistake child? who resorts to raising his voice and cutting other people off in an effort to have his opinion respected. ?If you don?t believe me, check out the VIDEO PROOF below. The combination of my sister?s and my family-fostered dysfunction and rampant insecurities appears to have worked wonders! ?By the end of the day we had something along the lines of 300 cookies cooling on dishes and parchment paper slices all over my home. ?And they all turned out pretty spectacular, plus we were still speaking to one another. There was a brief ?missing acrylic fingernail? panic, but what kitchen experience is complete without one of those?
Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies from Martha Stewart
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Buttercream (recipe below)
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
Peanut Butter Buttercream
2/3 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners? sugar
Fine salt (optional)
Cream peanut butter and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed. On low speed, mix in sugar until combined, then beat mixture on high speed until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Add salt to taste, if desired. Use immediately.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl; set aside.
Add butter, shortening, and sugars to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; cream on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add egg; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add half the flour mixture, then the milk and vanilla; beat until combined. Add the remaining flour mixture. Beat together, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
Drop 12 slightly rounded tablespoons of batter 2 inches apart on each baking sheet. Bake the cookies in the upper and lower thirds of oven, 10 minutes; switch the positions of the baking sheets, and rotate each one. Continue baking until the cookies spring back to the touch, 2 to 4 minutes more.
Remove from oven; let cookies cool on baking sheets, 10 minutes.Transfer with a metal spatula to a wire rack; let cool completely. Meanwhile, line a cooled baking sheet with a new piece of parchment; repeat process with remaining batter.
Spread 1 scant tablespoon buttercream on flat sides of half the cookies. Top each with one of the remaining cookies, flat side down, and gently press together. Transfer pies to a tray.
Cookies can be refrigerated in single layers (they?re sticky!) for up to three days. Bring to room temperature before serving.
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Tags: Buttercream recipes, Christmas cookies, cookies for kids, Martha Stewart cookies, Martha Stewart recipes, Peanut Butter Buttercream recipe, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter whoopie pies, thanksgiving cookies
Posted in Cookie Season and Desserts and Homemade 4 hours, 17 minutes ago at 9:28 am. 2 comments
The Windows 8 hybrid ultrabooks are here, transforming from laptop to tablet, and back again, with ease. The second of these shape-shifting laptops to come into PC Labs is the Dell XPS 12. As a convertible ultrabook, the Dell XPS 12 works as both a laptop and a tablet, utilizing the same flip-and-fold design last seen on the Dell Inspiron Duo (Black) . Dell has dropped the Duo name, which is actually now used by Sony for its own convertible ultrabook, the Sony VAIO Duo 11 (D11213CX) .
The name change is understandable, as the XPS 12 has little in common with the Dell Inspiron Duo, save for the screen which flips around within a securely framed lid. The external styling bears a strong resemblance to the Dell Inspiron 13z , with a soft-touch exterior and metal frame. Looking at the specifications, it's clear that the XPS 12 is in a different category than the Dell Inspiron Duo, with an ultrabook-class Intel Core i7-3517U processor instead of a netbook-class Atom, and a 256GB solid-state drive offering significant performance gains over the slower hard drives used in netbooks.
Design
Weighing 3.3 pounds and measuring 0.95 by 12.5 by 8.6 inches (HWD), the XPS 12 meets Intel's standard for convertible ultrabooks, and it's just a bit on the heavy size among ultrabooks (convertible or otherwise) we've seen, similar to the 3.2-pound Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 . It also has a design more in aligned with laptop sensibilities than tablet, with a slightly tapered chassis. This works well on a laptop, as seen on the laptop-only Inspiron 13z, but with a tablet the lack of uniform thickness is a little awkward. Unlike the Sony Duo 11, however, it is comfortable to hold, with rounded edges and soft touch panels across the underside. When using it as a tablet for watching movies or browsing the Web, it's comfortable enough, but you'll probably keep it in landscape mode, as the wedge profile puts the screen at a slant when in portrait mode.
The display also has more to offer than just a nifty backflip. The 12.5 inch display boasts 1920-by-1080 resolution, along with 400-nits of brightness and automatic ambient light sensing?and it's also a touch screen, tracking ten touch points at once. Covered with Gorilla Glass, it should resist scratching even when kept with the screen out. The audio?which gets some software enhancement with Waves Maxx Audio 4.0?is good, but not great, producing slightly muddied sound.
The physical keyboard is superb. The chiclet keys have the same soft-touch, matte-finish coating used on the rest of the palmrest. There's also more spring to them than are usually found on ultrabooks, and the result is an excellent typing feel. The onscreen keyboard is no better or worse than those on other tablets, but you'll definitely benefit from having the physical keyboard should you want to write anything longer than a tweet. The touchpad also features the soft-touch coating, making the touchpad fairly comfortable. It's a clickpad, with right and left buttons integrated into the surface of the pad.
Features
Despite the limitations imposed by the narrow confines of the convertible ultrabook form-factor, Dell has included a fair selection of ports and connectivity options into the XPS 12. On the right edge of the tablet are two USB 3.0 ports (one with Sleep and Charge), a power connector, and a button that lets you check the battery power level on an adjacent indicator. On the left, you'll find a headset jack, volume up and down buttons, a screen rotation lock button, and a sliding power switch.
Notably absent, however, is an Ethernet port, meaning that the 802.11n WLAN connection is your only option for getting online, and Bluetooth 3.0 adding wireless pairing for peripherals. You'll also be missing any ports for video output. Without any sort of VGA or HDMI output, the only ways to get your content onto a TV is through either a mini DisplayPort (which requires an adapter for HDMI) or via Wi-Di, which will require either a Wi-Di equipped TV or adapter, like the Netgear Push2TV. This model is aimed at consumers, but an enterprise-focused configuration will be available with Windows 8 Professional and will include BitLocker Encryption with Trusted-Platform Module (TPM).
The XPS 12 is also outfitted with a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD). As of now, 256GB is probably the highest capacity SSD you'll see offered in consumer systems, so it's hard to complain. Spinning hard drives offer larger capacity, but are prone to damage when dealing with vibration and movement, both of which are abundant when using a tablet. The XPS 12 has no optical drive, but in this form-factor, it won't be missed.
Along with the inclusion of Windows 8, and the accompanying default tiles found on the Start Screen, Dell has added a few of its own, such as a direct link to the Amazon Store, Amazon's Kindle app, a preview of Microsoft Office 2013, Microsoft Live Essentials 2012 (Photo Gallery & Movie Maker), and the new Windows 8 Skype app. Dell also includes some resources for users, like the "Getting Started with Windows 8" app, Dell Shop, My Dell Support Center, Dell Backup & Recovery. Anti-virus protection comes in two forms: the default, Microsoft's Security Essentials, as well as a 30-day trial of McAfee's Windows 8 security app. Dell covers the XPS 12 with a one-year warranty, which includes parts and labor, accidental damage service, and a year of premium telephone support.
Performance
Unlike the Inspiron Duo, which was an Atom-powered netbook, Dell has outfitted the XPS 12 just as it would any other ultrabook, equipping it with the same Intel Core i5-3517U (1.9GHz) processor found in the Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71, and pairing it with 8GB of RAM. It's an ultra-low voltage processor, designed for efficient power-usage, but it still offers more than enough capability for all of your web-surfing and media consumption needs. More importantly, for anyone wanting to get some work done and take advantage of the keyboard and touchpad option, productivity is also alive and well. In PCMark 7, our productivity benchmark, the XPS 12 score 4,638 points, similar to the Sony VAIO Duo 11 (4,648 points) and ahead of the Asus UX32VD-DB71 (2,523 points), largely due to the solid-state drive used in the XPS 12. In our processor speed test, Cinebench R11.5, the XPS 12 scored 2.19 points, a fraction of a point behind the Sony Duo 11 and Dell Inspiron 13z (2.40 and 2.39 points, respectively).
That processing capability also means you can do some multimedia work with the XPS 12, as seen in our Handbrake and Photoshop CS6 benchmark tests, which the XPS 12 completed in 1 minute 26 seconds and 6:31, respectively. It's a bit slow for bigger projects, but it means you can trim your YouTube videos and do some minor photo edits without having to leave the couch. Gaming, however, is a different matter. While the integrated Intel graphics processing provides all of the needed eye candy for video and graphics-heavy Web browsing, it falls short of 3D gaming support, returning unplayable scores in both Heaven and Aliens Vs. Predators. Casual games?including those offered through the Windows Store?will still work just fine, so enjoy your Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja without fear.
The Dell XPS 12 lasted 5 hours 9 minutes in our video battery rundown test, putting it a full two hours ahead of the Sony VAIO Duo 11 (3:09). For a device that's all about portability, that long battery life is essential?you lose a lot of the flexibility and convenience of a tablet when you're tethered to a wall outlet.
Where the Sony VAIO Duo 11 left us nervous about the future of the hybrid ultrabook, the Dell XPS 12 puts us back on solid ground. While the design is a better laptop than a tablet, the XPS 12 is a solid performer, thanks to ultrabook-grade specs, long battery life, and a design than prioritizes comfort and usability. It's a bit early to be picking favorites, but the Dell XPS 12 is a front runner in the nascent hybrid category.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE Compare the Dell XPS 12 with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews: ??? Microsoft Surface with Windows RT ??? Asus Vivo Tab RT ??? HP Envy Spectre XT (13-2050nr) ??? AVADirect Clevo W110ER ??? Sony VAIO Duo 11 (D11213CX) ?? more
Paul Daley's next shot in MMA has hit a roadbump. The British fighter, who was cut from the UFC after he threw a cheap shot after the bell at Josh Koscheck in 2010, is out of Bellator's welterweight tournament. He can't enter the United States because of issues getting a work visa.
?2012 Bay East. ?2012 CCAR. ?2012 EBRD. All rights reserved. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This information is provided from three separate sources: Bay East, CCAR and EBRD. The listings presented here may or may not be listed by the Broker/Agent operating this website. Information last updated on 12/16/12 12:41 AM PST.
"Personal Trainers are now expected to be salespeople, psychologists, nutritionists, post-rehabilitation specialists, and motivational speakers. You can have all the training expertise in the world, but you must also be able to inspire passion in your clients, and develop relationships with the people you serve." 
My sister Jodi and I recently had an all-day marathon cookie making session that included carrot cake cookies (see them here), chocolate mint sandwich cookies (here), and these peanut butter whoopie pies. ?Working side by side, we quickly reverted to the traditional roles we held growing up within the structure of the Green family. ?She transformed into the bossy taskmaster who knows better than everyone else, while I became the whiney ?mistake child? who resorts to raising his voice and cutting other people off in an effort to have his opinion respected. ?If you don?t believe me, check out the VIDEO PROOF below.
Unlike the Inspiron Duo, which was an Atom-powered netbook, Dell has outfitted the XPS 12 just as it would any other ultrabook, equipping it with the same Intel Core i5-3517U (1.9GHz) processor found in the Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71, and pairing it with 8GB of RAM. It's an ultra-low voltage processor, designed for efficient power-usage, but it still offers more than enough capability for all of your web-surfing and media consumption needs. More importantly, for anyone wanting to get some work done and take advantage of the keyboard and touchpad option, productivity is also alive and well. In PCMark 7, our productivity benchmark, the XPS 12 score 4,638 points, similar to the Sony VAIO Duo 11 (4,648 points) and ahead of the Asus UX32VD-DB71 (2,523 points), largely due to the solid-state drive used in the XPS 12. In our processor speed test, Cinebench R11.5, the XPS 12 scored 2.19 points, a fraction of a point behind the Sony Duo 11 and Dell Inspiron 13z (2.40 and 2.39 points, respectively).