Generating new leads by advertising MLM and recruiting people into your downline while increasing sales can all appear very straightforward, and it?s exactly just what you have to do if you desire to have an effective business. But if you don?t know the most cost-effective methods of marketing your business, you can quickly run out of money.
A portion of what is earned by any type of business has to be reserved for marketing purposes. And not simply any sort of old marketing, the key to success is recognizing where to use your advertising/marketing dollars for the best result. Exactly how much are you willing to invest to grow your business, and do you really understand where you can produce the best, most cost-effective leads?
The options of where you can spend your marketing dollars are countless, so it?s most likely a good time to locate the greatest ones for your particular business. Without a good understanding of marketing you could lose a lot of money!
You have 3 options when it comes to promoting your MLM business? online, offline or both and that?s essentially it, so let?s examine some choices:
On-line you?ll be able to lead along with your products or business opportunity and place classified advertisements, banner ads, paid social media ads ( Facebook and Youtube) and also run a paid-per-click marketing campaign. It is possible to also investigate a variety of pay-per-action models which means you spend out a commission when other individuals produce a sale or action for you.
No matter what the technique you use, there is going to be a price. Depending on the MLM medium used along with the level of competitors will establish the cost. Business Opportunity PPC campaign can expense upwards of $5 per click. How many clicks will it take to produce a sale and how much could be the typical sale? be worth?
Let?s crunch a couple of hypothetical numbers. For the sake of this instance, let?s assume you?ve got a lifetime client worth of $100. Which means a new customer, over a time period, is going to be place $100 inside your pocket. This might be a one-time buy or a number of purchases made over time. Either way, the worth of a client is $100 to you.
Let?s take your internet site as an example? it?s vitally important that you know exactly how many unique visitors you?re getting every day and how many of those visitors are converting into sales and where they?re originating from. If you spend $ 1 to drive a new consumer to your site and you get fifty new visitors from which you get one sale, then that sale has actually cost you $ 50, which leaves you with $ 50 profit for that one sale which is pretty good.
But what if your expense of sale is greater than $100? Then it wouldn?t make sense to continue advertising and promoting in that manner as you will wind up losing funds not making income. So the essential ingredient would be to test numerous advertising campaigns, keeping the winning advertisements and get rid of the losers. Uncover a winner an then scale the model to produce even far better results.
Advertising MLM for opportunities and sales is not for everybody. It works for some products, service and business opportunities but not for others. The only method to know if it is going to work for you personally is always to make a spending budget, test the waters, and go from there.
No matter what your MLM is, to learn the best way for advertising MLM for leads and sales, click here.
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We?ve said it before ? house rules are a powerful tool in the ADD/ADHD home (actually any home). They build consensus, provide structure, clarify expectations, and serve as a visual reminder of expected behavior. As a bonus, they provide an opportunity for the parent not to be the bad guy all the time. That?s what makes THIS a self-care tip! (See my blog on getting your kids to do what you want.)
Here?s how you do it: 1. Get organized. schedule a time. Make sure everyone is available practically and emotionally. It may not make sense to schedule in the evening when meds have worn off and the family is tired. Get a large sheet of paper or poster board and some colorful markers. Spend some time before the meeting getting clear on what you want to say and a few ideas for rules. Note: I?d also recommend you spend a few minutes ahead of time getting on the same page with anyone who is co-parenting with you.
2. Have a Family meeting. Explain what house rules are (a list of things that indicate how we will behave and work together as a family). Start by brainstorming the list ? everyone goes around and says one thing until the ideas are exhausted. Frame the statements in a positive tone rather than what we ?shouldn?t do?, e.g. ?We are kind to each other? rather than ?don?t be mean.? Note: an important rule of brainstorming is that all ideas are acknowledged and captured ? in the next step, you will narrow down the list.
3. Agree to the list. Discuss any areas of concern. Shorten the list to items that can be agreed to by everyone. Make sure everyone is clear on what each rule means. You may need to do some modeling here, or change the language of the rules to assure that everyone understands. For example, at our house we spent a lot of time talking about what it means to ?respect? each other. We needed to make sure everyone agreed on the definition.
4. Post the list. Put it somewhere visible. Have everyone sign and date it to demonstrate consensus.
5. Pick one thing to focus in on. This is important. Our list has over 25 house rules on it. Perhaps you choose the item that you think needs the most work, and has the most buy-in. Tackle it for a few weeks until you have it down cold. Trying to do too much at once can lead to the list quickly falling into the recycle bin, so set yourself up for success.
6. Make this fun for you, and for the family. If it feels like a chore, then it probably is. Wait until you have the energy and motivation to try it, and get your kids involved to support the process. It?s a great way to change behavior in your family, and take care of yourself!
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? An unmanned Dragon freighter left the International Space Station on Sunday with a stash of precious medical samples and aimed for a Pacific splashdown to end the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station used a giant robot arm to release the commercial cargo ship 255 miles up. The California-based SpaceX company will steer its capsule back to Earth via parachutes on Sunday afternoon, a couple hundred miles off the Baja California coast.
The supply ship is bringing back nearly 2,000 pounds of science experiments and old station equipment. Perhaps the most precious cargo is nearly 500 frozen samples of blood and urine collected by station astronauts over the past year.
The Dragon is the only delivery ship capable of returning items, now that NASA's shuttles are retired to museums. Atlantis made the last shuttle haul to and from the station in July 2011.
SpaceX ? more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ? launched the capsule three weeks ago from Cape Canaveral, full of groceries, clothes and other station supplies. Ice cream as well as fresh apples were especially appreciated by the station residents, now back up to a full crew of six.
It's the second Dragon to return from the orbiting lab; the first mission in May was a flight demo. This flight is the first of 12 deliveries under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.
"It was nice while she was on board," space station commander Sunita Williams said as the Dragon backed away. "We tamed her, took her home and, literally and figuratively, there's a piece of us on that spacecraft going home to Earth."
She added to the SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, Calif.: "Congratulations Hawthorne and thank you for her."
The Dragon will be retrieved from the Pacific and loaded onto a 100-foot boat that will haul it to Los Angeles. From there, it will be transported to McGregor, Texas.
The medical samples will be removed as quickly as possible, and turned over to NASA within 48 hours of splashdown, according to SpaceX. Everything else will wait for unloading in McGregor.
A Russian supply ship, meanwhile, is set to blast off this week. It burns up upon descent, however, at mission's end. So do the cargo vessels provided by Europe and Japan.
SpaceX is working to transform its Dragon cargo craft into vessels that American astronauts could fly in another four or five years. Until SpaceX or another U.S. company is able to provide rides, NASA astronauts must rely on Russian rockets to get to and from the space station.
Last year a working Nikon DSLR costume wowed us, but with the continued rise of smartphone photography, who wants to wear a clunky dedicated camera this Halloween? Not Eric Micotto, who totally one-ups last year's effort with a working Instagram camera getup. More »
Driving traffic to the website is one of the biggest challenges faced by businesses today. Tough competition, constant changes to search engine algorithms and lack of knowledge of traffic building techniques are some factors that contribute to this.
Discussed below are 55 effective ways you can use to drive traffic to your company?s website. ?You can benefit from these techniques whether you sell products online or use your website to promote your business. A majority of the methods focus on inbound marketing techniques to drive traffic.
Here are 55 effective ways to increase website traffic:
1. Add a Self-hosted WordPress blog to your website and post frequently.
2. Submit guest posts on other influential websites and blogs relevant to your niche. Make sure to include a link in your byline.
3. Use free Backlink analysys tools such as Opensite Explorer to analyse backlinks and explore new linking opportunities. This will improve search engine rank and also result in direct referral traffic.
4. Perform market research or conduct a study on a topic relevant to your niche. Publish the results on your website. Studies can attract tons of backlinks and referral traffic.
5. Make sure all website content is appropriately optimised with the right keywords so your content can be found easily on search engines. This is one the oldest SEO principles that still applies today. Use optimised Meta tags, headings, bold text, image descriptions and other optimisation techniques.
6.? Start a newsletter with the help of services such as FeedBurner, Mail Chimp or Aweber.
7.? Start an Email series on your website with the help of an auto-responder servise like Aweber.com.
8.? Create a free eBook on a topic relevant to your niche and promote it on several sources including your website. Make sure to add a link to your website.
9.? Share links to your website or blog content on your Facebook Page.
10. Tweet your website content regularly and make sure to include a link.
11. Use Tools to Post your content to multiple social networks at once.
12. Use Buffer to schedule your Social media postings at times that drive that most engagement
13. Use tools like HootSuite or Div.lr to autopost content from your website?s RSS feed to your social profiles
14. Record videos and publish on several sites including You Tube and Vimeo. Make sure to include a link to your website in video description or annotations.
15. Start a content series on your website e.g. Tip of the week or Best designs of the week. It is a great way to generate repeat traffic.
16. Start a Facebook page on your blog / business name. Update it daily.
17. Hold contests or give-aways to increase subscribers and website traffic.
18. Comment on blogs relevant to your niche and make sure to include your website link in the comment form. Repeat this process at least once every week.
19. Post on high ranking forums in your niche. Make sure to include a link to your website and blog in your forum signature.
20. Put effort into connecting with influential users on social media. Getting an influential user to share your content can generate tons of traffic to your website.
21. If your advertising budget permits, consider Pay per click advertising using Google Adwords
22. Look into Facebook Ads. It is more cost effective than other Pay per click methods including Google Adwords.
23.? Use sites like LiveJournal to write and publish niche content. Promote your business and website at the end and in your profile.
24.? Convert existing content into podcasts using free services such as Podomatic and promote on several podcast directories.
25. Share website content on popular social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com, Delicious and StumbleUpon.com.
26. Include your website and blog URL in your email signature.
27. Use free tools such as http://www.uptimerobot.com/ to monitor website?s uptime. Hosting downtime can lead to a reduction in traffic and negatively affects your search engine ranking.
28. Publish articles on leading article directories such as Ezine Articles.com and make sure to include your website link the author byline.
29. Use Google Keyword Tool to identify popular search terms and topics and write about them on your website. This will result in content that is in high demand and will attact a lot of traffic.
30. Make sure you have a mobile version of your website. A recent study has found that almost 2/3rd of small businesses have not got around to doing this. This can lead to significant loss in traffic.
31. Create pages on popular content sites such as Squidoo.com and HubPages.com. Include your website link and and syndicate your blog using the RSS module available on these sites.
32. Publish at least one press release every month on several free Press release websites.
33. Create a business listing on Google Places and add a link to your website.
34. Use popular user review sites like Yelp to generate interest in your website. Create a profile and encourage customers to leave reviews.
35. Add your website to several high ranking online business directories including DMOZ.org.
36.? Monitor Google Analytics regularly and refine your strategy continuously. Repeat this process regularly.
37. Take advantage of free classified ad websites like Gumtree and Craigslist to promote your website.
38. Leverage content curation sites like Paper.li or Scoop.it and share content from your website as well as from other sources.
39. Use multiple social networks. Don?t limit yourself to the top 4 networks i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. Studies show that sharing content on multiple sites drives 50% more engagement and traffic.
40. Leverage document sharing sites like Scribd and Docstoc.com. Make sure to include a link to your website in your documents.
41. Master the art of repurposing content. ?Reuse content as much as possible on as many sources as feasible. This will increase your reach and provide addition back-linking opportunities.
42. Post images on popular image sharing websites like Flickr. Make sure to? include a link to a relevant page on your website in image descriptions.
43. Start using Pinterest if you don?t already do so. Make sure to link your images to your website.
44. Create Infographics and publish on your website and on several inforgraphic galleries. Make sure to include a link to your website. Although it is time consuming, it is worth the effort
45. Focus on creating link bait resources on your website. This can attract tons of backlinks and referral traffic to your website for many years to come.
46. Take advantage of Question & Answers websites like Yahoo Answers or LinkedIn Answers. Respond to questions and leave a link to a relevant resource on your website where applicable. Only do this if a particular resource on your site is relevant, as these sites have strict editorial control.
47. Try Free Ad networks like bamifyads.com or miloads.com to promote your website and drive traffic.
48. Check your site regularly for broken links using services such as brokenlinkchecker.com or Xenu?s Link Sleuth Broken links can have a negatuve effect on your SEO and are easily avoidable.
49. Display your web site URL on all marketing material including printed ones such as letterheads and business cards.
50. Use coupons and deals to lure customers to your website. There are several coupon websites where you can promote your offers and attract customers.
51. Initiate QR code promotion to attract customers to your website e.g. by connecting it to a special offer.
QR codes are becoming an increasingly popular way for businesses to drive traffic to their website. Shoppers with smart phones can scan the code, which then instantly directs them to the company?s website. You can use free services such as QR.net to create your codes and get started.
52. Take steps to engage with users and build a community around your website. This will keep users coming back for more and encourage repeat visits to your website.
53. Consider launching your own Affiliate programme to help promote your products. This is a great way to boost sales and increase traffic to your website. You will have to pay a commission to affiliate but its only when a sale is made.
54. Take advantage of sponsored reviews or posts where other bloggers and publishers write a review promoting your business or your products on external websites. A small fee may apply but the results easily justify the investment.
55. ?Contact your customers and encourage them to link to your content from their website or share your link with their followers on social media. If your content adds value, it should be easy for them to participate in this initiative.
Conclusion:
Driving traffic to your website requires significant investment in time and resources. You can take advantage of the techniques above to increase traffic to your website. Most of these techniques are used successfully on this website.
What About You?
What methods do you use to drive traffic to your website? We would like to hear from you. Please add your response by leaving a comment below.
In this courtroom drawing Federal Defender Julie Gatto requests bail for her client, New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, right, at Manhattan Federal Court, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 in New York. Valle was charged with leading a ghoulish double life by using a law enforcement database and fetish chat rooms to dream up a plot to torture women and then cook and eat their body parts. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)
In this courtroom drawing Federal Defender Julie Gatto requests bail for her client, New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, right, at Manhattan Federal Court, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 in New York. Valle was charged with leading a ghoulish double life by using a law enforcement database and fetish chat rooms to dream up a plot to torture women and then cook and eat their body parts. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)
A police officer stands guard outside the 26th precinct where police officer Gilberto Valle worked out of, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 in New York. Valle was charged Thursday in a ghoulish plot to kidnap and torture women and then cook and eat their body parts. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
This photo shows a passage of a Federal complaint filed in New York, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, against New York City Police Department officer Gilberto Valle. Valle, 28, is charged in a ghoulish plot to kidnap, rape, torture and kill women, and then cook and eat their body parts. AP Photo/Richard Drew)
This photo shows a passage of a Federal complaint filed in New York, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, against New York City Police Department officer Gilberto Valle. Valle, 28, is charged in a ghoulish plot to kidnap, rape, torture and kill women, and then cook and eat their body parts. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? In Internet chats as breezy as they were bizarre, a police officer accused of plotting to kidnap and eat as many as 100 women was once cautioned not to be wasteful when cooking a victim because "there is nearly 75 pounds of food there."
But no one was ever actually harmed in Gilberto Valle's alleged plot, let alone eaten. And a defense attorney says the officer was merely engaging in harmless Internet fantasy.
Where exactly the line is drawn between bizarre talk and a true plot has emerged as the key question in a case that has shocked even the most jaded New Yorkers.
Indeed, experts say many people have a compulsion to create horrific scenarios about cannibalism, and that the Internet allows them to indulge in their dark side anonymously and ? usually ? safely.
"There is a big difference between discussing, and even fantasizing about this type of activity and actually carrying it out," said Jeffrey Parsons, a psychologist at Hunter College. "Not all the people who fantasize about it will go on to carry it out."
One website called "Devoured" ? devoted to a fetish called "vore"? is almost comical in its approach, saying it's "where everyone's on the menu."
The site defines "vore" as a sexual interest that "occurs from the idea of being eaten whole and alive, eating another alive, or watching this process."
A chat room named "Yum Chat" spells out strict rules for participation: "In-character taunting between predator and prey that's all in good fun as part a role play is just fine, but player to player attacks" aren't allowed.
The online banter attributed to Valle is not characteristic of a sexual disorder, but more indicative of some type of psychotic behavior or a personality disorder, Parsons said.
"Certainly, there are people who are going to sort of address a disorder or problem by letting it out, by venting," he said. "They think, 'If I can express, let it out in an email, or a chat, that's satisfying enough, I don't have to go out and engage in that behavior.'"
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment Friday on a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan that read like "Silence Of The Lambs" and earned Valle instant tabloid infamy.
The Daily News dubbed him "Finest Young Cannibal." The New York Post blared "Cook 'em Danno."
There also were reports of an odd disconnect between the horrendous allegations and Valle's softer side on social media.
In his profile on a dating site, he wrote that he considers himself "a true gentleman, and chivalry is huge with me. ... I'm on here simply because I haven't been able to find a girl who I want to spend some of my free time with."
Valle is a six-year NYPD veteran, a college grad and father of an infant child.
At a bail hearing on Thursday, defense attorney Julia Gatto argued that he never posed a threat. Charges of kidnapping with the intent to murder are overblown, she said.
Her client "at worst is someone who has sexual fantasies about people he knows and he talks about it on the Internet, but not act on it," she said. "Nothing has happened. We may be offended. ... But it's just talk, your honor."
But prosecutors won the argument to jail Valle by claiming his fantasies had morphed into a very real threat.
At the time of his arrest, Valle was on the verge of "kidnapping a woman, cooking her and actually eating her," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Hadassa Waxman.
The government cited evidence that Valle compiled a dossier on women he knew ? and hoped to turn into meals.
"How big is your oven?" an unidentified co-conspirator asked in a July chat about one alleged target.
"Big enough to fit one these girls if I folded their legs," Valle responded, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors accused Valle of running names of women on a police computers without permission to get more information on them, and of following two of them, once while on-duty. He also made a cellphone call from near the home of one woman, authorities said.
Some of Valle's alleged conduct raises red flags, Parsons said.
"This is somebody using a database to target potential victims," he said. "That means it's more serious."
__
Associated Press Writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.
Internet promotion is quickly becoming the preferred method of marketing for numerous businesses. Marketing through online means provides you with options from electronic newsletters to static web sites. Use the suggestions in this article about leveraging the many electronic communication channels for your marketing strategy.
Whenever it applies, feel free to use phrases such as ?limited quantity? or ?special edition? in your online marketing efforts. Exclusivity is very attractive to people in general, and customers may feel the need to buy your product sooner than they would otherwise.
Are you searching for an online marketing plan? Make sure your visitors are tempted to give you their email addresses to build your opt-in email list. Let your visitors register for freebies of contests, if they allow you to email them future promotions. Most people are likely to give out their email address if you offer them an incentive to do so.
TIP! Educate your customers about your products and how their lives will be improved by purchasing them. Ask the user to think about how their life would benefit from using the product you are offering.
One important suggestion for marketing on the Internet is to adjust the content, as well as content delivery, to have your customers be under the impression they have complete control. There is so much unsolicited information and spam advertising flying around the Internet that it?s all too easy to fade into the background by sending too much to your customers. Make certain they know participating is actually an option and it will help your credibility.
Be prepared to answer their questions. People who visit your site want to know about it, if you do not have good content and answers they will go elsewhere. So, provide all your sites visitors with lots of helpful information that keeps them coming back for more which can eventually lead to a sale.
No matter what you state in your advertisements, make sure you provide evidence to support it. If people believe you are trying to sell them something, they are likely to be distrustful. Testimonials, results of studies, along with great references and guarantees help to ensure a sense of credibility. Making claims that aren?t backed up by proof may cause potential customers to shy away from your products and business.
TIP! Here?s a great piece of advice for internet marketing. Make certain that the objective of your landing page is easily determined.
Give your customers a variety of specials to choose from at the check-out page. A customer can put a few different products in with the order to say thanks. This will make the customer feel appreciated and you can get rid of excess inventory at the same time.
Use social networking sites to help promote your business to your target audience. Make sure to only send information to people who have opted in to your mailing list, since some social networking sites have been closing accounts or even suing people who send unwanted email.
TIP! You will avoid a lot of disappointment if you think of your Internet marketing project as a hobby rather than a full-time occupation. If you find that you are very good at this, than you may want to consider making it a career, but at first it should be more for fun than profit.
Despite the fact that your company may not have the budget to hire an expensive marketing consultant, you can find many free resources on the web that can help in evaluating your marketing strategy. You can join online business communities, read marketing blogs, attend local business development seminars and conferences, and download and study e-books.
A successful online marketing strategy contains healthy doses of human interest, art and science. Prior to starting an Website marketing campaign, make sure you understand both parts. Use your creativity to build effective Affiliate marketing techniques for your particular type of business.
Make sure any tags on your web site are directly associated with its core content. This tag, found above the browser window, shows people what your site is about. Misinformation or confusing information will cause readers to leave your website.
TIP! Pay attention to the vocabulary people use when discussing your brand online, and use those words and phrases in your own marketing strategies. This can help you make deeper connections with your readers by speaking in the way they speak, in the language they use.
It may sound tempting to maintain a profile on every possible social networking site, but remember that each profile will need all of your attention to make it worthwhile. People don?t bother with inactive profiles.
Website marketing doesn?t have to be all the complicated of confusing. It?s an easy field to get into; you can make use of this article?s suggestions immediately to start getting the word out to potential customers online. Given that a significant number of consumers prefer to obtain information online, Web marketing can help grow your business.
It?s career coach Friday again and I?m launching a ?career skills workshop? series here at www.mariewetmore.com!
Let?s kick it off today with a talk about keeping a delta file ? a critical career skill to help you be more effective and improve your productivity in the workplace.
I have to thank my husband, ever the productive professional, for introducing me to the concept of a Delta file. It?s going to rock your world, just like it rocked mine ? helping you continually improve your performance and increase your productivity year after year.
So what is a Delta file?
It?s a central location where you keep all your notes about how you?d improve your performance in the future. As you move forward with your career, your delta file is always there as a reference, reminding you of the productivity strategies, career skills, and professional lessons you learn over the years.
Not sure what to write in your file? Here are some questions to trigger ideas:
Are there mistakes you want to avoid in the future?
Is there anything you did recently that you would do differently in the future?
Did you see someone make a professional blunder that you don?t want to make yourself?
Did you get feedback that you don?t want to forget about?
Have you read any articles about new tools or strategies that you want to try?
It all goes in your delta file!
How do you stay consistent with your delta file?
First, create a central location. It can be physical paper file, Word document, or text file. Then you can use these strategies?
If it?s a physical paper file, then you can simply use whatever note taking scheme you like, simply marking the pages that should go into the delta file as you take your regular notes throughout your workday. Then you can file it when you do your regular filing.
If you prefer typed notes, just create a regular routine for reflecting on your work performance and take notes. If you use Stephen Covey?s Getting Things Done (GTD) method for processing your papers, tasks, and ideas, then you can add notes to your delta file during your regular weekly review.
Whatever routine you choose, make sure it?s regular and that it?s??captured in your schedule. That way you won?t forget about it!
And just as a note, Jeff and I don?t just use our Delta files for our professional lives, we also use them for house projects, travel experiences, and even gardening. So ultimately, a delta file is not just a career coaching technique, but a life coaching strategy you can use anywhere you want to make improvements in your life!
What do you think? Do you keep track of your self-improvement ideas? Would you be more likely to take action on them if you did?
If you liked this article, check out: Multitasking Is Ruining Your Career ? 5 Ways To Stop Multitasking And Start Being Productive??
Set up a?complementary VIP discovery session with Marie! ?She coaches in her Boston area office or anywhere in the world (by phone or on Video Skype).
Bottom-dwelling fish continue to be found with high levels of radioactive elements, potentially coming from leaking radioactive water or contaminated sediments
By David Biello
RADIOACTIVE FISH: Some source of radioactive contamination is causing bottom-dwelling fish, like the greenling pictured here, to absorb high levels of radionuclides.Image: Flickr.com / Brian Gratwicke
The fish off Fukushima remain radioactive more than a year after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered three meltdowns at the Daiichi nuclear power plant. In fact, bottom-dwelling greenling fish caught in August 2012 bore the highest levels of radioactive particles seen to date?25,000 Becquerels per kilogram. (A becquerel is a unit of the rate of radioactive decay?or radiation emitted by a substance.) That is 250 times higher than current Japanese safety standards, a key reason fishing off Fukushima remains prohibited.
The findings suggest that contaminated water is still leaking from the stricken power plant, the sea bottom itself is now laced with radionuclides, or both. Concentrations in the ocean water itself remain below any human health concern but they do pass into fish that swim through those waters.
"When fish 'drink' they take [cesium] and other salts up from the water they are swimming in, that accumulates in the muscle tissue," explains marine chemist Ken Buessler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who compiled the analysis of publicly released Japanese fisheries data and published it in Science on October 26. But the fish also shed that cesium if they swim in uncontaminated waters, as has been seen in tuna that migrated from near Japan to near San Diego, suggesting that levels in fish should decrease over time. For this reason, most of the fish caught off Japan's northeastern coast are not radioactive. But roughly 40 percent of fish caught off the coast adjacent to Fukushima bear radionuclides above the Japanese food safety standard of 100 becquerels per kilogram; the concentration is highest among bottom dwellers, such as halibut.
According to a response to questions from Scientific American that was prepared by staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ingesting fish at that level "would only produce a dose that is a small fraction of the dose that people receive from natural levels." For example, as Buessler notes, fish caught off Japan in June 2011 boasted levels of potassium-40?a naturally occurring radionuclide?10 times higher than those of radioactive cesium from Fukushima.
Radioactive cesium decays by emitting what's known as a beta radiation, a negatively charged particle that is easily blocked by metal, plastic or wood?but not skin. In particular, ingesting beta-emitting radioactive elements is "a concern," according to the NRC. "Beta particles released directly to living tissue can cause damage at the molecular level, which can disrupt cell function." Plus, beta particles are small enough to travel far in the body, causing damage far and wide.
U.S. safety guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration permit foods to bear 1,200 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, but the FDA declined to comment for this article. "The more restrictive action taken by the Japanese seems reasonable for the population living close to Fukushima because they receive radiation doses from other sources, including non-fish food, drinking water and land surface contamination," the NRC staff writes. "Based on the FDA and [World Health Organization] recommendations, eating fish contaminated at 100 Bq/kg would result in a small and acceptable exposure to radioactive cesium."
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) ? Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical galaxy that may have been puffed up by the actions of one or more black holes in its core.
Spanning a little more than one million light-years, the galaxy is about 10 times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. The bloated galaxy is a member of an unusual class of galaxies with a diffuse core filled with a fog of starlight where there would normally be a concentrated peak of light around a central black hole. Viewing the core is like seeing a city with no downtown, just houses sprinkled across a vast landscape.
Astronomers used Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 to measure the amount of starlight across the galaxy, dubbed A2261-BCG. The Hubble observations revealed that the galaxy's puffy core, measuring about 10,000 light-years, is the largest yet seen.
A galaxy's core size typically is correlated to the dimensions of its host galaxy, but in this case, the central region is much larger than astronomers would expect for the galaxy's size. In fact, the bloated core is more than three times larger than the center of other very luminous galaxies. Located three billion light-years away, the galaxy is the most massive and brightest galaxy in the Abell 2261 cluster.
Astronomers have proposed two possibilities for the puffy core. One scenario is that a pair of merging black holes gravitationally stirred up and scattered the stars. Another idea is that the merging black holes were ejected from the core. Left without an anchor, the stars began spreading out even more, creating the puffy-looking core.
Previous Hubble observations have revealed that supermassive black holes, weighing millions or billions times more than the Sun, reside at the centers of nearly all galaxies and may play a role in shaping those central regions.
"Expecting to find a black hole in every galaxy is sort of like expecting to find a pit inside a peach," explained astronomer Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., a co-author of the Hubble study. "With this Hubble observation, we cut into the biggest peach and we can't find the pit. We don't know for sure that the black hole is not there, but Hubble shows that there's no concentration of stars in the core."
Team leader Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., said the galaxy stood out in the Hubble image. "When I first saw the image of this galaxy, I knew right away it was unusual," Postman explained. "The core was very diffuse and very large. The challenge was then to make sense of all the data, given what we knew from previous Hubble observations, and come up with a plausible explanation for the intriguing nature of this particular galaxy."
The paper describing the results appeared in the Sept. 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The astronomers expected to see a slight cusp of light in the galaxy's center, marking the location of the black hole and attendant stars. Instead, the starlight's intensity remained fairly even across the galaxy.
One possibility for the puffy core may be due to two central black holes orbiting each other. These black holes collectively could have been as massive as several billion suns. Though one of the black holes would be native to the galaxy, a second black hole could have been added from a smaller galaxy that was gobbled up by the massive elliptical.
In this scenario, stars circling in the giant galaxy's center came close to the twin black holes. The stars were then given a gravitational boot out of the core. Each gravitational slingshot robbed the black holes of momentum, moving the pair ever closer together, until finally they merged, forming one supermassive black hole that still resides in the galaxy's center.
Another related possibility is that the black-hole merger created gravity waves, which are ripples in the fabric of space. According to the theory of general relativity, a pair of merging black holes produce ripples of gravity that radiate away. If the black holes are of unequal mass, then some of the energy may radiate more strongly in one direction, producing the equivalent of a rocket thrust. The imbalance of forces would have ejected the merged black hole from the center at speeds of millions of miles an hour, resulting in the rarity of a galaxy without a central black hole. "The black hole is the anchor for the stars," Lauer explained. "If you take it out, all of a sudden you have a lot less mass. The stars don't get held down very well and they expand out, enlarging the core even more."
The team admits that the ejected black-hole scenario may sound far-fetched, "but that's what makes observing the universe so intriguing -- sometimes you find the unexpected," said Postman.
Added Lauer: "This is a system that's interesting enough that it pushes against a lot of questions. We have thought an awful lot about what black holes do. But we haven't been able to test our theories. This is an interesting place where a lot of the ideas we've had can come together and can be tested, fairly exotic ideas about how black holes may interact with each other dynamically and how they would affect the surrounding stellar population."
The team is now conducting follow-up observations with the Very Large Array radio telescope (VLA) in New Mexico. The astronomers expect material falling onto a black hole to emit radio waves, among other types of radiation. They will compare the VLA data with the Hubble images to more precisely pin down the location of the black hole, if it indeed exists.
The Abell 2261 cluster is part of a multi-wavelength survey, led by Postman, called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). The survey probes the distribution of dark matter in 25 massive galaxy clusters.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Opposition activists and Syrian state media traded blame on Wednesday for the killing of at least 25 people, including women and children, in the town of Douma near Damascus.
"There was a horrible massacre in Douma last night," the media office of the opposition network in Douma said in a statement. "More than 20 civilians have been slaughtered by (pro-government militia) shabiha who were at a checkpoint and then stormed into a residential building nearby."
Mahmoud Doumany, an activist living in Douma, said that he had the names of 20 of the dead but that 10 were too disfigured to be identified.
"People now are scared and very angry. Some of the martyrs were killed with knives, others were shot," he told Reuters.
Syrian state television said 25 people had been killed by "terrorist members of the so-called 'Liwa al-Islam.'" State media labels opposition members as "terrorists."
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Syrian army was not present in the area.
Opposition video showed images of corpses wrapped in blankets and of the bodies of women and children, one of whom had a hole in his head and another had part of his face missing.
"God is great," said a man off screen, his voice trembling as he walked around the house, filming bodies on several floors of a residential building.
It was not possible to verify what happened due to Syria's restrictions on media access.
More than 32,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, which began with peaceful pro-democracy protests in March 2011 and escalated into civil war as repression increased.
Global and regional powers have been unable to stop the violence, with the West condemning President Bashar al-Assad but shying away from arming the rebels, and Russia, China and Iran sticking by the embattled autocrat.
Syria, whose leadership comes from the Alawite sect linked to Shi'ite Islam, says it is fighting Islamist hardliners backed by Sunni Muslim states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes and Mariam Karouny; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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You may want to check out the updated Publix coupon policy, and print off a copy to take to the store with you. Prices in this week?s Publix ad are those for the south Ga./north Fla. area. If your Publix store takes Harveys or Food Lion coupons, then please check out these Harveys and Food Lion Internet Printables to stack with manufacturer coupons for greater savings!!
Also, remember to head over to your Publix store?s customer service counter before you begin shopping. They usually have a lot of coupon booklets and fliers that you can pick up to use while you are here in the store, or for a later shopping trip! Keep in mind that others will be looking for the too and, so don?t clean them out! Leave something for someone else. It?s such a bummer when you have your heart set on a particular savings booklet, only to learn someone has grabbed the all! So, let?s just live by the golden rule, ?Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You?, then everyone will have a chance to save money!
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Not on sale in all stores
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Happy Shopping Everyone!
Thank you passionate penny pincher for sharing your list with us!
It?s career coach Friday again and I?m launching a ?career skills workshop? series here at www.mariewetmore.com!
