FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2012 file photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Uncertainty over whether U.S. leaders can resolve a critical budget deadlock and figures showing the eurozone's unemployment rate at a record high capped any gains to be made in the markets Friday, Nov. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2012 file photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Uncertainty over whether U.S. leaders can resolve a critical budget deadlock and figures showing the eurozone's unemployment rate at a record high capped any gains to be made in the markets Friday, Nov. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks were inching lower on Wall Street Friday as lawmakers worked to thrash out a budget agreement. The government also reported that consumer spending fell in October.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 12 points to 13,009 as of 1:55 p.m. Eastern. The Dow fluctuated between small gains and losses for much of the morning, then creeped lower in the afternoon.
The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 1 points to 1,415. The Nasdaq composite was down six points to 3,006.
Stocks are also little changed for the week. The Dow is up 0.03 percent, the S&P 500 index is up 0.4 percent. The market has fluctuated between gains and losses in recent days as news and comments filtered out from the budget negotiations in Washington.
Investors have been closely following the talks between the White House and Congress over the "fiscal cliff," a series of sharp government spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to start Jan. 1 unless an agreement is reached to cut the budget deficit. Economists say that those measures, if implemented, could push the U.S. economy back into a recession.
"Right now the market is just going to be held hostage as to what happens in the next five hours, versus what's going to happen in the next five years," said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management, in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
President Barack Obama argued Friday that allowing taxes to rise for the middle class would amount to a "lump of coal" for Christmas, while Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared that negotiations to surmount a looming fiscal cliff are going "almost nowhere."
Speaking at a toy factory, the president said Republicans should extend existing Bush-era tax rates for households earning $250,000 or less, while allowing increases to kick in for the wealthy. On Capitol Hill, Boehner argued that Obama's latest offer ? to raise revenue by $1.6 trillion over the next decade ? would be a "crippling blow" to an economy that is still struggling to find its footing.
"My sense is that investors are going to be busy reading headlines every day for the next three weeks," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Group in Chicago.
Ablin says that he expects policy makers to reach a temporary agreement on the budget before year-end, before coming to a "Grand Bargain" next year. He believes improving consumer confidence and rising house prices will underpin the economy and support demand for stocks.
Stocks are higher for the year. The Dow is up 6.5 percent, the S&P 500 index 12 percent. The indexes are on track to end the month little changed.
Americans cut back on spending last month and saw no growth in their income, reflecting disruption from Superstorm Sandy that could hold back economic growth in the final months of the year.
The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in October. That's down from an increase of 0.8 percent in September and the weakest showing since May.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed at 1.62 percent.
Among stocks making big moves:
?Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, fell $7.16 to $67.30. The fast-food operator reported disappointing sales and earnings forecasts. An analyst recommended that investors sell the stock.
?Zynga, the maker of computer games including "Farmville" and "Cityville," fell 18 cents to $2.44 after the company said late Thursday that it was loosening its relationship with Facebook. While the deal frees Zynga from having to use Facebook as the exclusive social site for its games, the company relies on Facebook for most of the revenue it generates even as it works to establish its independence.
?VeriSign plunged $5.33 to $34.02 after the company announced the terms of its new contract to run the key directories that keep track of ".com" domain names. The company won't be allowed to raise prices on the registration of such names without government approval.
?Duke Energy rose $1.07 to $63.46 after the company said its CEO will step down as part of a settlement with the North Carolina utilities regulator that ends an investigation into the company's takeover of in-state rival Progress Energy.
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New design technique could enable personalized medicine, studies of brain wiring
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, MIT and Harvard Medical School (HMS) engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish.
The new technique yields tissue constructs that closely mimic the cellular composition of those in the living brain, allowing scientists to study how neurons form connections and to predict how cells from individual patients might respond to different drugs. The work also paves the way for developing bioengineered implants to replace damaged tissue for organ systems, according to the researchers.
"We think that by bringing this kind of control and manipulation into neurobiology, we can investigate many different directions," says Utkan Demirci, an assistant professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).
Demirci and Ed Boyden, associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT's Media Lab and McGovern Institute, are senior authors of a paper describing the new technique, which appears in the Nov. 27 online edition of the journal Advanced Materials. The paper's lead author is Umut Gurkan, a postdoc at HST, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
'Unique challenges'
Although researchers have had some success growing artificial tissues such as liver or kidney, "the brain presents some unique challenges," Boyden says. "One of the challenges is the incredible spatial heterogeneity. There are so many kinds of cells, and they have such intricate wiring."
Brain tissue includes many types of neurons, including inhibitory and excitatory neurons, as well as supportive cells such as glial cells. All of these cells occur at specific ratios and in specific locations.
To mimic this architectural complexity in their engineered tissues, the researchers embedded a mixture of brain cells taken from the primary cortex of rats into sheets of hydrogel. They also included components of the extracellular matrix, which provides structural support and helps regulate cell behavior.
Those sheets were then stacked in layers, which can be sealed together using light to crosslink hydrogels. By covering layers of gels with plastic photomasks of varying shapes, the researchers could control how much of the gel was exposed to light, thus controlling the 3-D shape of the multilayer tissue construct.
This type of photolithography is also used to build integrated circuits onto semiconductors a process that requires a photomask aligner machine, which costs tens of thousands of dollars. However, the team developed a much less expensive way to assemble tissues using masks made from sheets of plastic, similar to overhead transparencies, held in place with alignment pins.
The tissue cubes can be made with a precision of 10 microns, comparable to the size of a single cell body. At the other end of the spectrum, the researchers are aiming to create a cubic millimeter of brain tissue with 100,000 cells and 900 million connections.
Answering fundamental questions
Because the tissues include a diverse repertoire of brain cells, occurring in the same ratios as they do in natural brain tissue, they could be used to study how neurons form the connections that allow them to communicate with each other.
"In the short term, there's a lot of fundamental questions you can answer about how cells interact with each other and respond to environmental cues," Boyden says.
As a first step, the researchers used these tissue constructs to study how a neuron's environment might constrain its growth. To do this, they placed single neurons in gel cubes of different sizes, then measured the cells' neurites, long extensions that neurons use to communicate with other cells. It turns out that under these conditions, neurons get "claustrophobic," Demirci says. "In small gels, they don't necessarily send out as long neurites as they would in a five-times-larger gel."
In the long term, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how to design tissue implants that could be used to replace damaged tissue in patients. Much research has been done in this area, but it has been difficult to figure out whether the new tissues are correctly wiring up with existing tissue and exchanging the right kinds of information.
Another long-term goal is using the tissues for personalized medicine. One day, doctors may be able to take cells from a patient with a neurological disorder and transform them into induced pluripotent stem cells, then induce these constructs to grow into neurons in a lab dish. By exposing these tissues to many possible drugs, "you might be able to figure out if a drug would benefit that person without having to spend years giving them lots of different drugs," Boyden says.
###
Other authors of the paper are Yantao Fan, a visiting graduate student at HMS and HST; Feng Xu and Emel Sokullu Urkac, postdocs at HMS and HST; Gunes Parlakgul, a visiting medical student at HMS and HST; MIT graduate students Jacob Bernstein and Burcu Erkmen; and Wangli Xing, a professor at Tsinghua University.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Paul Allen Family Foundation, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Engineering and Technology A.F. Harvey Prize, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Written by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New design technique could enable personalized medicine, studies of brain wiring
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, MIT and Harvard Medical School (HMS) engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish.
The new technique yields tissue constructs that closely mimic the cellular composition of those in the living brain, allowing scientists to study how neurons form connections and to predict how cells from individual patients might respond to different drugs. The work also paves the way for developing bioengineered implants to replace damaged tissue for organ systems, according to the researchers.
"We think that by bringing this kind of control and manipulation into neurobiology, we can investigate many different directions," says Utkan Demirci, an assistant professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).
Demirci and Ed Boyden, associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT's Media Lab and McGovern Institute, are senior authors of a paper describing the new technique, which appears in the Nov. 27 online edition of the journal Advanced Materials. The paper's lead author is Umut Gurkan, a postdoc at HST, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
'Unique challenges'
Although researchers have had some success growing artificial tissues such as liver or kidney, "the brain presents some unique challenges," Boyden says. "One of the challenges is the incredible spatial heterogeneity. There are so many kinds of cells, and they have such intricate wiring."
Brain tissue includes many types of neurons, including inhibitory and excitatory neurons, as well as supportive cells such as glial cells. All of these cells occur at specific ratios and in specific locations.
To mimic this architectural complexity in their engineered tissues, the researchers embedded a mixture of brain cells taken from the primary cortex of rats into sheets of hydrogel. They also included components of the extracellular matrix, which provides structural support and helps regulate cell behavior.
Those sheets were then stacked in layers, which can be sealed together using light to crosslink hydrogels. By covering layers of gels with plastic photomasks of varying shapes, the researchers could control how much of the gel was exposed to light, thus controlling the 3-D shape of the multilayer tissue construct.
This type of photolithography is also used to build integrated circuits onto semiconductors a process that requires a photomask aligner machine, which costs tens of thousands of dollars. However, the team developed a much less expensive way to assemble tissues using masks made from sheets of plastic, similar to overhead transparencies, held in place with alignment pins.
The tissue cubes can be made with a precision of 10 microns, comparable to the size of a single cell body. At the other end of the spectrum, the researchers are aiming to create a cubic millimeter of brain tissue with 100,000 cells and 900 million connections.
Answering fundamental questions
Because the tissues include a diverse repertoire of brain cells, occurring in the same ratios as they do in natural brain tissue, they could be used to study how neurons form the connections that allow them to communicate with each other.
"In the short term, there's a lot of fundamental questions you can answer about how cells interact with each other and respond to environmental cues," Boyden says.
As a first step, the researchers used these tissue constructs to study how a neuron's environment might constrain its growth. To do this, they placed single neurons in gel cubes of different sizes, then measured the cells' neurites, long extensions that neurons use to communicate with other cells. It turns out that under these conditions, neurons get "claustrophobic," Demirci says. "In small gels, they don't necessarily send out as long neurites as they would in a five-times-larger gel."
In the long term, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how to design tissue implants that could be used to replace damaged tissue in patients. Much research has been done in this area, but it has been difficult to figure out whether the new tissues are correctly wiring up with existing tissue and exchanging the right kinds of information.
Another long-term goal is using the tissues for personalized medicine. One day, doctors may be able to take cells from a patient with a neurological disorder and transform them into induced pluripotent stem cells, then induce these constructs to grow into neurons in a lab dish. By exposing these tissues to many possible drugs, "you might be able to figure out if a drug would benefit that person without having to spend years giving them lots of different drugs," Boyden says.
###
Other authors of the paper are Yantao Fan, a visiting graduate student at HMS and HST; Feng Xu and Emel Sokullu Urkac, postdocs at HMS and HST; Gunes Parlakgul, a visiting medical student at HMS and HST; MIT graduate students Jacob Bernstein and Burcu Erkmen; and Wangli Xing, a professor at Tsinghua University.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Paul Allen Family Foundation, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Engineering and Technology A.F. Harvey Prize, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Written by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
We were unable to forward you to the advertisement you clicked on.
The likely cause for this is that your browser, feed reader, or email application is configured to not accept cookies, or your reader may launch an external browser to view links without sharing cookies.
If you're using Internet Explorer, make sure your privacy setting is at medium or below.
Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
Click the Privacy tab
Adjust your privacy setting if necessary ?
If you're using a reader that embeds Internet Explorer (examples: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Feed Demon), you'll also need to select Internet Explorer as your default web browser.
Open Internet Explorer
Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
Click the 'Programs' tab and check the box for Internet Explorer to check if it is the default browser and save your change
Close your browser, re-open it, and when prompted, select Internet Explorer as your default
You can then click on an ad in your newsletter and visit the site you wish to view
Marni Jameson takes a look at how Central Florida's hospitals rank in The Leap Frog Group's hospital grades.
Hospitals throughout the nation are receiving their report cards today as The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit that advocates for safer health-care delivery, releases its second state-by-state Hospital Safety Scores.
In Central Florida, Orlando Health officials celebrated their straight A's at four hospitals. Those same hospitals had received C's on Leapfrog's previous report card.
Florida Hospital, meanwhile, maintained B averages at seven of its Central Florida hospitals. Its Daytona Beach hospital received the region's fifth A rating.
The report card assigns an A, B, C, D or F letter grade to hospitals based on how well they prevent errors, infections, injuries and medication mix-ups.
Leapfrog issued its first report in June to help consumers decide which hospitals to go to and which to avoid. The June report relied primarily on 2010 data, while the new report was based primarily on 2011 data.
"The latest scores show that U.S. hospitals are making progress, but many still have a long way to go to reliably deliver safe health care," said Leah Binder, Leapfrog Group president and CEO.
Across the Sunshine State, hospitals raised their grades overall: 39 percent of the 156 hospitals graded received A's, earning the state a 10th-place ranking in the nation. In the earlier report, 32 percent of Florida hospitals earned A's.
Massachusetts had the highest percentage of A's, with 83 percent of its hospitals getting a top mark.
In Central Florida, Orlando Health's hospitals ? Orlando Regional Medical Center, Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, Orlando Regional South Seminole Hospital and Health Central, which the hospital system acquired in April ? all boosted their grade by two levels over their last marks.
"We expected we'd be a lot better," said Dr. Jamal Hakim, Orlando Health's chief of quality and transformation. "We were hoping for the grand slam, and we got it."
Because Leapfrog doesn't grade specialty or pediatric hospitals, Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies, and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, were not included in the survey.
Florida Hospital's main campus in Orlando as well as its hospitals in Altamonte, Apopka, Celebration, east Orlando, Kissimmee and Winter Park all held steady with B's.
"We performed well and know there are definitely still opportunities for us to improve," said Lee Johnson, Florida Hospital's vice president for performance improvement and safety. "We are working toward the Leapfrog standards. They are good indicators of where we should be heading, and we look at that every day."
Of the more than 2,600 hospitals Leapfrog rated nationally, 790 earned A's and 25 earned F's. No Florida hospital received an F, although eight earned D's.
Unnecessary deaths
Each year more than 180,000 Americans die as a result of preventable hospital errors, infections and injuries, Binder said. On average, one out of four hospital patients is harmed by a medical error.
Put another way, if medical mistakes were a disease, they would be the sixth-leading cause of death in America ? just behind accidents and ahead of Alzheimer's, she said.
The Hospital Safety Score uses national performance measures from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to produce a single score representing a hospital's overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm.
The report also pulled data from the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey. A nine-member panel of hospital-safety experts from top institutions such as Harvard, Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities helped compile final scores.
Health analysts based grades on 26 variables, including rates of infections, medication mix-ups, acquired injuries (including bedsores) and other preventable ? and often fatal ? conditions.
Cast member Martin Freeman, left, embraces director Peter Jackson at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast member Martin Freeman, left, embraces director Peter Jackson at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast member Andy Serkis, left, and his wife Loraine Ashbourne pose on the red carpet at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast members Barry Humphries, left, who plays Great Goblin, his wife Lizzie Spender, center, and Sylvester McCoy who plays Radagast, on the red carpet at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast members James Nesbitt who plays Bofur, left, and Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly pose on the red carpet at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Elijah Wood who plays Frodo poses on his arrival for the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at Embassy Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Wearing elf ears and wizard hats, sitting atop their dad's shoulders or peering from balconies, tens of thousands of New Zealanders watched their favorite "Hobbit" actors walk the red carpet at the film trilogy's hometown premiere.
An Air New Zealand plane freshly painted with "Hobbit" characters flew low over Wellington's Embassy Theatre, eliciting roars of approval from the crowd.
Sam Rashidmardani, 12, said he came to see Gollum actor Andy Serkis walk the red carpet ? and he wasn't disappointed.
"It was amazing," Rashidmardani said of the evening, adding his Gollum impression: "My precious."
British actor Martin Freeman, who brings comedic timing to the lead role of Bilbo Baggins, said he thought director Peter Jackson had done a fantastic job on "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."
"He's done it again," Freeman said in an interview on the red carpet Wednesday. "If it's possible, it's probably even better than 'The Lord of the Rings.' I think he's surpassed it."
While it is unusual for a city so far from Hollywood to host the premiere of a hoped-for blockbuster, Jackson's filming of his lauded 'LOTR' trilogy and now "The Hobbit" in New Zealand has helped create a film industry here. The film will open in theaters around the world next month.
One of the talking points of the film is the choice by Jackson to shoot it using 48 frames per second instead of the traditional 24 in hopes of improving the picture quality.
Some say the images come out too clear and look so realistic that they take away from the magic of the film medium. Jackson likens it to advancing from vinyl records to CDs.
"I really think 48 frames is pretty terrific and I'm looking forward to seeing the reaction," Jackson said on the red carpet. "It's been talked about for so long, but finally the film is being released and people can decide for themselves."
Jackson said it was strange working on the project so intimately for two years and then having it suddenly taken away as the world got to see the movie.
"It spins your head a little bit," he said.
Aidan Turner, who plays the dwarf Kili in the movie, said his character is reckless and thinks he's charming.
"I don't get to play real people it seems, I only get to play supernatural ones," he said. "So playing a dwarf didn't seem that weird, actually.
Perhaps the most well-known celebrities to walk the carpet were Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood, who reprise their roles in the LOTR in the "Hobbit."
"Mostly I came here to see everyone. I like them all," said fan Aysu Shahin, 16, adding that Wood was her favorite. She said she wanted to see the movie "as soon as possible. I'm excited for it."
At a news conference earlier in the day, Jackson said many younger people are happy to watch movies on their iPads.
"We just have to make the cinema-going experience more magical and more spectacular to get people coming back to the movies again," he said.
Jackson said only about 1,000 of the 25,000 theaters that will show the film worldwide are equipped to show 48 frames, so most people will see it in the more traditional format. The movie has also been shot in 3D.
A handful of animal rights protesters held signs at the premiere.
The protest by the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals comes after several animal wranglers said three horses and up to two dozen other animals had died during the making of the movies because they were housed at an unsafe farm.
Jackson's spokesman earlier acknowledged two horses had died preventable deaths at the farms but said the production company worked quickly to improve stables and other facilities and that claims of mistreatment were unfounded.
"No mistreatment, no abuse. Absolutely none," Jackson said at the news conference.
When parents name a child in a will or trust, or list the child as a joint owner on an asset (e.g. a bank account) or as a beneficiary of life insurance or an IRA/401K, the asset becomes the child?s property upon the parent?s death.
Today more than ever, parents are concerned about how children and grandchildren will handle their inheritances. Statistically, inherited money is spent at a significantly faster rate than a person?s earned or saved money. Whether because the children are young, in debt, struggling with an addiction, or simply not good with money, many parents fear that their life savings will quickly vanish in the children?s hands.
In addition to voluntary spending, children also stand to lose inherited assets involuntarily:
?With a skyrocketing divorce rate, many inheritances will be lost to children?s spouses in future divorce proceedings.
?Inheritances can be quickly lost to bankruptcies, foreclosures and other creditor problems.
?Children in high-risk professions may become the target of a lawsuit and lose their inheritance to a judgment creditor.
?Children who are disabled may lose certain benefits (such as SSI or Medicaid) if the inheritance raises their assets beyond program limits.
?A child with college-age children can suffer adverse college financial aid consequences from the receipt of an inheritance.
The good news is that some simple modifications to your estate plan can protect your children?s (or other beneficiaries?) inheritance from virtually all financial threats. With a straightforward trust arrangement, your children can benefit from their inheritance yet not have it considered their asset for creditors, divorces, public benefits or even their own unwise spending.
Your estate plan presents a unique opportunity to provide a level of asset protection for your children (or other beneficiaries) that they would not be able to achieve for themselves once the inheritance comes into their name. This is because the laws of most states (including Massachusetts) do not allow a person to establish a trust with their own assets and benefit from it while at the same time shielding it from their creditors. Yet,a person can establish a trust with their assets, for the benefit of someone else, and with the right language protect the trust assets from the third party-beneficiary?s creditors.
Bottom line: if you leave all or a portion of your children?s inheritance in trust for their benefit, you can protect it both from them and their outside financial exposures.
Linda T. Cammuso, a founding partner at Estate Preservation Law Offices and an estate planning professional, has extensive experience in estate planning, elder law and long-term care planning. She may be reached at www.estatepreservationlaw.com or by calling 508-751-5010. Archives of articles from previous issues may be read at www.fiftyplusadvocate.com.
Have you ever had that free-falling feeling, like someone has blindfolded you, pushed you out of an airplane door at 5,000 feet and all you can do is scream at the top of your lungs and wonder how long it will take before you hit the ground?
That?s what buying a foreclosure felt like.
I was counting on my real estate team, Bea Meriwether, my real estate agent, and Earnest S. Crowe, my mortgage guy, to guide me through the process. After all, they were the ones who had talked me into it. They said I would make eight percent or better and I would learn a lot. They were half right.
Bea had her eye on a sweet little bank-owned split-level not far from my home in Mirage Mills, a suburb widely known as the Chernobyl of American real estate because we live in the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. I had to close out my 401K to pay for it and by the time the check arrived, the house was gone. So Ernest had another idea.
?Let?s play poker with the big boys,? he winked at me. ?That?s where the real deals are.?
That didn?t sound like a very good idea to me. I?m a terrible poker player. When I try to bluff, my voice turns squeaky and gives me away.
Ernest?s ?real deals? would be at the next sheriff?s auction of foreclosures, a popular event in Mirage Mills. In most counties, sheriff?s auctions are just a few guys meeting outside a courthouse once a month. But in Mirage Mills, dozens of people show up to watch serious investors spend tens of thousands of dollars on foreclosures they had seen only from the street. Most of the crowd consists of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers and landscapers hoping to get hired to fix the messes that the new owners will soon discover.
Ernest got a list of the foreclosures to be in the next auction and the three of us toured the houses up for bid. To my way of thinking, if you?ve seen one house with a line of laundry out the back because the dryer is busted and a dirt yard packed hard by little bare feet and blistering sun, you?ve probably seen them all. Bea and Ernest, on the other hand, unanimously felt that 12765 Prosperity Way was the deal of the day, bound to make some smart guy a potful of money. The way they added it up on my kitchen table, I was going do a whole lot better than eight percent.
So when the big day came, I was standing at the courthouse steps with a cashier?s check for nearly all the money I had to my name. Both Bea and Ernest and other appointments that morning and were late. Felicity went to get coffee, leaving me alone with several other guys in the middle of the crowd, when a county bureaucrat appeared and started rattling off case numbers and addresses from a clipboard. When nobody bid on any of the homes, they all went ?back to the beneficiary,? whatever that meant. Things got boring. I really needed Felicia?s coffee.
Suddenly the bureaucrat said ?Prosperity Way.? My nerves kicked into overdrive. I knew my team would kill me if I missed this house.
She read the opening bid, which was the minimum amount the bank would take for the foreclosure and looked up.
?First bid?? she asked.
?Yes, please!? I squeaked as loudly as I could squeak.
At that very moment a police car sped past the courthouse with its siren blaring. She didn?t hear me even though I was less than ten feet away.
The siren was still sounding when she asked, ?Second bid??
A big man in sunglasses standing right next to her silently raised two fingers like he was Winston Churchill. Obviously, he was a regular who knew the secret code.
?Mr. Cameron bids two hundred thousand. Last bid. Anyone else?? she asked and quickly looked around. ?No??
Desperate to be heard, I pushed my way in front of her and squeaked into her face so loudly that she had to notice me. No sense playing around with a pro like Cameron, so I bid the limit we had agreed upon. ?Two fifty!?
Cameron took off his dark glasses, gave me a peeved look, laughed sarcastically and muttered ?You gotta be kidding me.? He shook his head at both me and the county bureaucrat to indicate he was done. She acknowledged me at last. She asked for my cashiers? check, took down my name and address, and gave me a receipt and some paperwork. I was the proud owner of a foreclosure that was going to change my life in ways I couldn?t imagine.
I stepped away from the circle of bidders and sighed. It felt good to best the big boys at their own game. Just then Felicity arrived with the coffee. As we sat on a bench and sipped, I told her the good news. Instead of being pleased she was concerned that I had spent so much, so I described my fierce bidding war with Cameron and how I crushed him into dust. ?He wanted it sooooo bad,? I gloated. ?That pretty much confirms that we got a great deal.?
?Oh, my God,? she shouted suddenly when she read the receipt. ?No, you didn?t!?
?Didn?t what??
?Homer, please dear God in heaven please tell me this is not the house you bought.?
?All sales are final. Why??
?You didn?t buy 12765 Prosperity Way. This is a receipt for 12675. Oh, Homer, that?s ten blocks away from the house we wanted!?
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? The stems of shrubs have given researchers a window into a glacier's past, potentially allowing them to more accurately assess how they're set to change in the future.
Their findings have been published 27 November in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, and show how a glacier's history of melting can be extended way past the instrumental record.
Much like the rings on a tree stump indicate how old it is, measuring the width of rings on the stem of a shrub can give a good indication of how well it has grown year on year. Under extreme environmental conditions, such as those close to a glacier, a shrub's growth relies heavily on summer temperatures, meaning the ring-width of a shrub can be used a proxy for glacial melting, which also relies heavily on summer temperatures.
Lead author of the study, Allan Buras, said: "In warm summers, shrubs grow more compared to cold summers. In contrast, a glacier's summer mass balance is more negative in warm summers, meaning there is more melting compared to cold summers.
"Big rings in shrubs therefore indicate comparably warm summers, and thus a strongly negative summer mass balance -- in other words, more melting."
The researchers, from the University of Greifswald, tested this theory on a local icecap in the Scandic Mountains of southern Norway. They took 24 samples of shrubs from a site close to the glacier and analysed their ring-widths.
Monthly precipitation and temperature data from a local climate station were retrieved from the Norwegian Meteorological Office, and the summer mass balance of the glacier, from 1963 to 2010, was retrieved from the existing literature.
Each of these data sets was then statistically tested to see if there was a correlation between them. The results showed a robust and reliable correlation between the ring-width of shrubs and the summer melting of the glacier.
"Our results show that it is possible to reconstruct glacier summer mass balance with shrub ring-width series and it is therefore theoretically possible to extent records of summer mass balance into the past," Buras continued.
The shrubs that were collected in the study were relatively young, only allowing for reliable reconstructions over the past 36 years, meaning they could not be used to extend the record of the glacier; however, the researchers are confident that this could have been achieved if longer-lived shrubs were selected.
Most of the available data on the mass balance of glaciers only spans several decades and there is some data missing, mainly because most glaciers are situated in hard-to-reach arctic and alpine areas.
With the possibility to extend the instrumental records of summer mass balance, researchers may gain a better understanding of how glaciers behave in the summer, which they can use to calibrate and verify their existing models.
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 Institute of Physics.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Allan Buras, Martin Hallinger, Martin Wilmking. Can shrubs help to reconstruct historical glacier retreats?Environmental Research Letters, 2012; 7 (4): 044031 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044031
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.
Posted by Mary on Nov 26, 2012 in Civil Law | Comments Off
Real Estate Property Crimes can take many forms. ?Most often these crimes involve grand theft and forgery. ???Common ?fraudulent real estate investment schemes have typically involved the sale of trust deeds, ?the use of forged escrow instructions to steal escrow deposits, purchasing homes with straw buyers for those with poor?credit and?forgery of grant deeds or other recorded documents. ?Other fraudulent schemes can involve trusts. ?This happens when vulnerable ?owners are told to deed their property to a trust. ?They are told the trust ?will make the mortgage payments until the owner recovers financially. These kind of ?scammers steal the equity and get loans with even larger payments so the original homeowner never stands a chance to get his or her property back.
Recently, Identify Theft ?has become more common in real estate fraud. ???Identity Theft is a newer criminal activity aided by computer hackers ?and is becoming more widespread and dangerous to all consumers. California Penal Code (CPC) section 530.5 defines Using Personal Information of Another:
CPC 530.5. ?(a) Every person who willfully obtains personal identifying information, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 530.55, of another person, and uses that information for any unlawful purpose, including to obtain, or attempt to obtain, credit, goods, services, real property, or medical information without the consent of that person, is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.
By assuming the identity of the true owner, or claiming to represent the true owner, the thief fraudulently obtains title to a property. This kind of scammer may ?then borrow against the property, or sell the property, stealing the equity. The typical target of such a scheme is a property with a large amount of equity, most likely an elderly owner. Protect your identity by?securing?your personal information as much as possible on and off line. ?Especially on the computer, make sure any information you give out is?guaranteed?to be secure.
The housing market continues to be in a very unstable market, and ?criminals are taking advantage of struggling homeowners by committing fraud. Many appear to be legitimate brokers or ?consultants, but their activities and?illegal? schemes are aimed at stealing your money or property. If you believe that you have ?been a victim of real estate fraud, call ?the Law?Office?of Peter S. Cameron ?at 877-603-8473 or submit your ?questions online with our?guaranteed?secure case review form. ?We are here to help you explore the legal solutions available to this kind of consumer fraud.
This?article?is for educational and?marketing?purposes only. ?It does not?create?an attorney-client relationship.
You are here: Home / General / The Ultimate Bowling Guide
The good news is, there are a few simple "tweaks" any bowler can use to instantly tack on 20, 30, even 50 or more points a game. And it doesn?t take that much effort.
There are five "dirty little secrets" among professional bowlers? secrets that no amateur ever learns on their own? and the pro?s like it that way.
These five "dirty little secrets" are extremely simple to master (once they are revealed to you)? and yet they INSTANTLY allow you (no matter how butt ugly you think your game is right now) to "lock into" your own personal "Perfect Shot". Which means on your very next game, you will:
How can this be? How can you not transform your game? and suddenly ? and I do mean SUDDENLY ? start playing like the top pro?s at their peak?
You see? you ALREADY have the goods when it comes to bowling the best game you?re capable of? just not WHEN IT COUNTS.
You heard right. You?re "blowing your wad" on your PRACTICE THROWS, if you?re like 99% of the amateur bowlers in the world. And you?re leaving your best game behind. And going out on the lanes with the WORST game you have.
If you?re like most bowlers, you like to warm up with a few frames before you start a game, right? At the very least, you get to the lanes every once in a while to "practice". Everyone who takes their game seriously does this. I know I do.
But the pro?s do something DIFFERENT than you do. Unlike you (and every other amateur in the world)?
The Pro Knows How To "Capture" His Best Shot During The Warm-Up? And Bring It With Him To The Game!
Amateurs, on the other hand, LEAVE their best shot behind. Let me explain: There you are on your lane, warming up and testing the lane conditions, launching a fairly-decent hook, getting a strike here and there, maybe missing an occasional spare, setting up again and correcting your lift, launching another pretty damn good shot?
"Locked" That Breathtaking Shot Into His Body, Where He Could Bring It Back At Will, In The Game Where It Would Count The Most!
You, however, blow right past the few perfect shots you throw practicing, not storing them at all, and thus you can?t find them when it counts. Those great shots you launch on the practice lane are lost forever. Even more depressing? there?s a 90% chance the shots you do throw in the game will be among your WORST! Because, you?ve done EVERYTHING WRONG at the warm-up.
And what?s really frustrating is you don?t even know you?re doing it? because these five little secrets are NEVER discovered by amateurs! They?re the secrets that separate the guys who can make a living off the game, and everyone else who can?t buy a break.
And? just like most things that are so simple they get completely overlooked? no one has really understood how these secrets?
Read more?
Posted by Dan on Thursday, November 22, 2012 at 10:41 am? Filed under General ? Tagged with
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shoppers went to stores earlier this Thanksgiving weekend and bought online more than in years past, giving retailers a strong start to the holiday shopping season, data showed on Sunday.
The more successful retailers, analysts said, were companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Macy's Inc, which did better at combining physical stores with their online and mobile channels into a seamless shopping experience.
"The more you can make a shopper shop multiple channels, they are at least twice as likely to be a loyal shopper and spend tons of money," Patty Edwards, chief investment officer at investment firm Trutina Financial, said.
But shoppers also tried to stay disciplined during the onslaught of deals over the so-called "Black Friday" weekend, named for the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally kicks off the November-December holiday shopping season.
A total of 52 percent of Black Friday shoppers that answered a Reuters/Ipsos poll said they stayed on budget and 34 percent said they spent less than planned. Only 14 percent said they went over budget.
Of the 404 in the poll that shopped on Black Friday, 33 percent said the deals they found were better than last year and 39 percent found them to be the same, while 15 percent said the deals were worse.
While holiday shopping appeared to be off to a good start, analysts cautioned against reading too much into one weekend's numbers. Retailers have to sustain the initial burst through the November-December holiday season, which can account for a third of annual sales and 40 to 50 percent of profits for the year.
The impact on the U.S. economy is also sizeable as consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of all economic activity. U.S. employment has undergone a slow but steady recovery, but concerns remain about the "fiscal cliff" that threatens to produce tax increases and automatic spending cuts in January.
MORE SHOPPING TO DO
According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted over the weekend, 59 percent of people who shopped on Friday said they had completed less than a quarter or none of their holiday-season shopping that day.
Total spending for the long weekend rose to $59.1 billion, up 12.8 percent from last year, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation. An estimated 139.4 million adults visited U.S. stores and websites from Thanksgiving through Sunday, up 6.4 percent from last year, the survey, conducted for the industry trade group by BIGinsight, said.
Staying open on Thanksgiving became more widespread this year as retailers such as Target, Sears Holdings Corp and Toys R Us Inc joined in, while others including Wal-Mart and Gap Inc either extended their operating hours or had more stores doing business.
Traditionally, stores had waited until Black Friday to make their big push.
In the latest sign of the growing importance of Internet-based retailing, comScore Inc said Black Friday online sales topped $1 billion for the first time, while IBM said online sales rose 16.9 percent year-over-year on Saturday.
Amazon.com was the most-visited retail website on Black Friday - the point when retailers in the past would turn a profit for the year - and it posted the highest year-over-year visitor growth rate among the top five retailers.
Wal-Mart's website was second, followed by sites run by Best Buy Co, Target Corp and Apple Inc, comScore said.
WAL-MART "MOST IMPROVED"
"Wal-Mart gets the most-improved prize. They invested and delivered in every channel - stores (opening early), website (very competitive deals, many delivery options), and mobile (bringing it all together for customers by making it easier)," said Fiona Dias, an executive at e-commerce company ShopRunner, which is part owned by eBay Inc.
Analysts said while some of the larger retailers such as Wal-Mart saw strong traffic through the weekend, traffic appeared to ebb at some smaller specialty retailers by Saturday.
One was Abercrombie & Fitch Co, where it looked like traffic "really slowed off on Friday afternoon and Saturday", Ken Perkins, president of data-monitoring firm Retail Metrics, said.
Several analysts criticized J.C. Penney Co Inc's decision not to open until Friday morning, losing shoppers to competitors like Target and Macy's that opened hours earlier.
"They blew it," Edwards said.
There are two extra days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and one more full weekend, so the opportunity for a lull between the holidays is greater.
"A big Black Friday, it's hard to read too much into that for the rest of the season," Scott Tuhy, vice president at Moody's Investors Service, said.
Retailers may have to discount more than they want sooner to help spur more shopping, which could cut into margins, Liz Ebert, retail lead at consulting firm KPMG LLP, said.
The National Retail Federation still expects sales in November and December to rise 4.1 percent this year, below last year's 5.6 percent increase.
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Brad Dorfman in Chicago; Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco and Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Dale Hudson)
(This story was refiled to correct the percentage growth figure in the 10th paragraph to 12.8 from 12.1)
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI has told his six new cardinals to resist the allure of power and instead be like Jesus and focus their work on spreading the Christian faith.
Benedict celebrated a Mass on Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica with the cardinals he formally elevated a day earlier. The six hail from Colombia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Philippines and the U.S. ? a broad geographic mix that helps even out the Europe-heavy College of Cardinals who will elect 85-year-old Benedict's successor.
In his homily, Benedict told his new collaborators that Jesus had no political ambitions. He said: "To be like Jesus, then, means not letting ourselves be allured by the worldly logic of power, but bringing into the world the light of truth and God's love."
EVERETT, Wash. ? A new mental health court has opened in Snohomish County to help find solutions for people living with mental illness who are caught in the criminal justice system.
The court is designed to solve issues that can't be easily addressed in a traditional court, The Daily Herald reported ( http://is.gd/ccRB5K).
So far, two people have opted into the program. A third person is in the early stages. The program could eventually manage 20 cases.
The pilot project is funded from a portion of a sales tax specifically collected to pay for services for those in the community living with a mental illness and those with substance abuse problems.
These cases would have been in the court system anyway, but are now being diverted to the mental health court in hopes of providing long-term solutions.
Participants likely will be someone "who has gone through the system over and over again," said Everett District Court Judge Tam Bui, who presides over the new court.
The goal is to help people get stable and healthy so they can get out of the cycle, proponents say.
"We're working out what we all need to do to make this a successful program," Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Hal Hupp said.
Hupp will decide whether defendants are legally eligible for the program, by looking at the current charge, as well as any past criminal history. The court generally isn't going to accept anyone charged with a felony and will avoid anyone with a past history of violence.
"We don't want the program to fail because we brought in the wrong person," Hupp said.
Participants who opt into the program must meet certain requirements, such as being engaged in treatment, meeting with court's mental health liaison and following the recommendations of health care providers. The program also requires regular court visits.
The judge, lawyers and a mental health liaison gather before the court hearings to talk about each participant's progress and if there are any additional issues that need to be addressed.
"These cases are expected to be dynamic because we're dealing with people's mental well-being," Bui said.
Participants get much more supervision than if their cases were left on the typical trial track, said Jennifer Bartlett, an attorney with the Snohomish County Public Defender Association.
"There will be more intervention earlier. There's just a lot more supervision and monitoring," she said.
The court will maintain jurisdiction over the cases for two years. If participants fail to meet the requirements, they face being convicted of the charge. If they successfully complete the program, the charge can be dismissed.
"Not only is it humane, but it's the most effective way to deal with this set of the population," Bui said.
How bad was Thursday night?s loss by the Jets?? Fireman Ed left at halftime and deleted his Twitter account.
Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia says the impact of the very big Vince Wilfork comes from ?little things? that don?t show up on the stats sheet.
Bills DE Shawne Merriman is becoming more confident.
The Dolphins are considering various upgrades to their 25-year-old stadium.
The 17 rookies on the Browns? roster are learning about the Pittsburgh rivalry.
Bengals TE Jermaine Gresham is fueling his team?s recent run.
Ravens RB Ray Rice has only two 100-yard games this season, and he has averaged only 55.6 yards over the last five games.
The Steelers? home field will get ripped up on Saturday, with?four high-school games being played there.
Colts interim coach Bruce Arians calls Sunday?s visit from the Bills a playoff game; ?We have to take that approach because Buffalo is taking that approach,? Arians said.? ?They?re do-or-die, we better be do-or-die. That?s been our mindset all week.?
Titans RB Chris Johnson was happy to have a week off, but he ?wouldn?t have minded to keep on going,? given his recent run of success.
Jaguars QB Chad Henne knows that a key to getting the starting job beyond 2012 is to get the team?s first home win of the season on Sunday.
Texans coach Gary Kubiak didn?t regard getting kicked in the nuts to be a sufficient excuse for QB Matt Schaub?s failure to make the throw; ?He didn?t like that,? Kubiak said of Schaub.
Raiders FB Marcel Reece is finally getting the stats, but he?d prefer to be getting the wins.
Chiefs WR Dexter McCluster delivered Thanksgiving dinner to an elderly fan, and in return she gave him the business.
Broncos LB Von Miller is conjuring comparisons to Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas.
With Chargers LT Jared Gaither on IR, it?s time for undrafted free agent Mike Harris to step up.
Giants QB Eli Manning has a history of performing well after the bye week.? (So did Andy Reid.)
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is in ?awe? of Robert Griffin III.? (No one currently is in awe of the Cowboys.)
Redskins WR Pierre Gar?on ?suffered no setbacks? after a five-catch, 93-yard performance against Dallas.
With Eagles RB LeSean McCoy likely out, seventh-round rookie Bryce Brown is expected to get the bulk of the carries on Monday night.
Lions defensive end Willie Young loves fishing.? (He?ll have time to do plenty of it in January.)
Lost in the poor performance of the Bears? offensive line on Monday night is the fact that the Bears? defensive line wasn?t every good, either.
The unexpectedly good recovery of Vikings RB Adrian Peterson has left RB Toby Gerhart unexpectedly out of the mix for touches.
When the Packers face Detroit on December 9, Cory Uttech of Sheboygan will be the first non-player to perform the Lambeau Leap during a game.? (And then Ndamukong Suh will kick him in the crotch.)
Buccaneers DT Gerald McCoy calls rookie S Mark Barron ?a silent killer.?? (Barron likely has used the phrase ?silent but deadly? in reference to McCoy at some point this season.)
Saints safeties Roman Harper and Malcolm Jenkins are trying to forget what Vernon Davis did to them the last time they faced San Francisco.
After being shredded by LaRod Stephen-Howling, the Falcons are hoping for better run support against the Muscle Hamster.
The Panthers get another chance to prove they?re ready for primetime.? (Or to prove they?re not.)
The 49ers? kick and punt coverage units have improved significantly in recent weeks.
Coach Jeff Fisher realizes something has to give when the Rams, who haven?t won in five straight games, face an Arizona team that has lost six straight.
Cardinals defensive coordinator Ray Horton said that the intended message of the reduced use of S Adrian Wilson was ?do your job and do your job well.?
The Seahawks emerge from the bye week healthy and rested and ready for the stretch run.
Actually it is not a hard task to find out a good writer. As there are many eminent writers around the world who entertain their readers widely. But presently, I am talking about such a writer who can very easily make understand a subject to his readers and touch their hearts just after a click on .com.
So, it is better to discuss about a writer/company who can provide us affordable article writing servicesand in this connection the first and foremost qualities of a writer are being discussed at the bottom.
The subject matter of the writer should be clear and logical.
Difficult and complex subject matter often proved uninteresting to the readers and it becomes problematic to constitute acceptable logics. On the other hand, vivid and simple logical writing often wins high acclaim.
The writings should contain simple vocabulary.
Silly grammatical mistakes divert the focus of the readers and doubt to the knowledge and ability of the writer. Regular following of a good grammar book might be the best remedy.
For more fluency, writers should keep his eyes open to know the recent facts, discoveries and inventions.
A good writer should have the habit of reading books, magazines and news papers. This regular habit may strengthen a writer?s stock of words.
The subject matter may be common but must be interesting.
It is often seen that though the subject matter or the theme of the writing is very interesting, yet the writer cannot gain honor only for his inefficiency and lack of skill.
Presentation should be good, well organized and concise.
A good and powerful writing also can stumble just for the lack of well organized presentation.? A common theme with attractive and lively presentation becomes popular as a new and attractive bottle with old wine becomes costlier.
Opening paragraph should unlock the subject matter of the writing. Otherwise, unknowingly elaborate description can kill the interest of readers.
Our honorable readers can afford themselves a little time for reading or browsing. If they cannot find the key sentence in the very first paragraph, they lose their interest to go through further.
A writer should also keep in his mind that simple, conversational style and plain English is highly accepted. Proverbs, idioms and rhetorical expression may trouble the readers. Meaningless repetition of a point in writing proves a writers inability to write well.
Lastly, personal problems should not be imposed on readers. A writer should be a clear mirror of his readers. Style of writer should be his own and is to be acquired through wide reading and learning.
Author bio:
Sk Mustak is a prolific writer who helps to draw the attention of the reader. I am also a voracious reader. I have interest in SEO related writing on blogging about any topics has brought satisfaction to me. For more information on SEO and writing click on www.royseoservice.com.
I am prolific writer who helps to draw the attention of the reader. I am also a voracious reader. I have interest in SEO related writing on blogging about any topics has brought satisfaction to me. For more information on SEO and writing click on www.royseoservice.com
Republish this article ONLY using the following HTML (Unchanged as per our T.O.S.):
Last weekend we were at my brother?s place for a pot luck, and as invariably happens a conversation turned to genealogy research. It warmed my heart to hear a young woman from another generation telling us about what she had been researching and who she was looking for. Now and then, when I can, I try to help? people with their family research, at least a little to get them started or fill in some blanks for them.
From our conversation I found out that this family member had a tree on Ancestry and so I asked her to send me an invitation to view her tree. Unfortunately, she wasn?t sure how to do that! So, I am writing this article and including Ancestry?s fine advice to help out everyone who might be wondering how to share your trees too. Here is what Ancestry advises?.
First of all, a subscription to Ancestry is not required for Family Tree sharing.
A new and easier way to share your tree
With our release last week, we?ve made it easier to invite people to your tree. You can now import your contact list from Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, and AOL accounts to quickly select people you want to send an invitation to. You can still type in individual email addresses if you?d like, but by importing your contact list you can save a little time and effort trying to remember your cousin?s email address.
How to invite friends and family to see your tree
From your tree, click on the ?Share your tree? link in the ?Tree pages? menu next to your tree name.
To find out more and see the visual guides please read the full article here.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
Share ] 
Today more than ever, parents are concerned about how children and grandchildren will handle their inheritances. Statistically, inherited money is spent at a significantly faster rate than a person?s earned or saved money. Whether because the children are young, in debt, struggling with an addiction, or simply not good with money, many parents fear that their life savings will quickly vanish in the children?s hands.
