Legendary quarterback Dan Marino admits to fathering a lovechild with a production assistant at CBS sports, keeping their lovechild a secret. The former Miami Dolphins football star cheated on his wife of 28 years, Claire, with a woman named Donna Savattere. Donna and Dan’s daughter Chloe was born in June 2005, and is being raised ...
The success of a business relies on many different factors, and the proper use of modern-day marketing strategies is one of them. Whether we are talking about Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing or the latest social media marketing applications business owners could be making full use of, the end results are pretty much the same: businesses grow better, prospects seem to be popping up at a faster pace, customers seem to be visiting shops, stores and websites more often. And it is all thanks to a conglomerate of forces and actions that a rather simplistic Search Engine Marketing process is able to create.
Search Engine Marketing is to be considered one critical investment that any well-reputed business needs to make full use of. The process is able to boost website rankings in popular search engines. This means that folks making full use of search engines to find the information they need are more likely to be coming across one?s business. Thousands or dozens of thousands of individuals could visit website pages of one?s business provided the right organic search listings are properly used.
The same goes for the use of the best paid search listings. One does not necessarily need a PPI Calculator in order to learn about all the costs of correctly implementing Search Engine Marketing strategies. Specialized SEO and SEM companies should be able to relieve any back pain that business owners might have to cope with upon learning just how big the SEM costs are. These companies should be able to provide these folks with the optimization they need, and help them implement some cheaper pay-per-click strategies.
Perfectly optimizing one website that sells coconut oil for skin for instance and make it rank truly high in several popular search engines on the Internet is something that can boost coconut oil sales significantly. The majority of today?s businesses are expected to have and usually do possess websites that promote their products or services. Hence, using SEM techniques seems to be a natural thing to do.
Smokers interested in reading some updated electronic cigarette reviews would normally go online and search for some websites offering the information they need. Online shops that are reviewing and selling electronic cigarettes should therefore do everything in their power to increase their ranking in search engines, so that visitors can drop by on their website first and maybe make a purchase there. SEM draws extra traffic to a website, and the costs of implementing such a marketing idea are much lower than the costs of other marketing procedures.
One can choose to use certain SEM techniques on his or her own, like organic search rankings, while pay-per-click ads are also an excellent money-making idea that could boost revenue.
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's shares opened 9 percent higher, just shy of a record high, after strong profit margins at the world's largest internet retailer surprised Wall Street.
At least 13 brokerages raised their price targets on Amazon's stock after the company reported fourth-quarter gross profit margins of 24 percent on Tuesday, higher than Wall Street expectations of about 22 percent.
Shares of the Kindle maker were trading at $275.66 in early trade on the Nasdaq after touching a high of $284.20. The stock hit a record high of $284.72 on January 25.
"We can't help but stop and wonder whether the Amazon bull case has now pivoted from one of revenue growth to one of margin expansion," Barclays Capital analysts said in a note.
The analysts raised their target price on the stock to $260 from $245.
"Amazon has outpaced the ecommerce market, retailers and even internet leaders like Google Inc meaningfully," said Benchmark Co analyst Daniel Kurnos, who raised his price target to $330 from $310.
J.P.Morgan Securities, which said Amazon's results suggested the retailer could continue to expand gross margins, raised its target price by $88 to $333.
Amazon's fourth-quarter revenue jumped 22 percent from a year earlier, but fell short of analysts' expectations. However, the company reported strong holiday sales and lower shipping costs that helped boost profitability.
BofA Merrill Lynch said Amazon's growth metrics may have disappointed, but investor sentiment would be supported by a shift to a third-party model, ongoing gross margin upside and solid U.S. margins.
BofA Merrill nudged its target on Amazon shares to $315 from $300, while Nomura Equity Research raised its price target to $325 from $285.
(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Neha Alawadhi in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)
Brandt Passalacqua is an author, speaker and founder of Peaceful Weight Loss? through Yoga. Brandt struggled for years with his weight, food, substance addiction and serious illness. Through yoga and meditation, he has discovered an appreciation for his body, regained his health and got his life back.
Brandt says we eat when we're stressed to avoid pain and fear, to distract ourselves from reality or to cope with difficult emotions. Through his process of developing a healthy relationship with food and himself, he discovered several small but useful changes you can make to move away from stress-eating habits. Find his tips and inspiring mantras in his GPS Guide below.
1. Get Outside
It?s easy to accidentally spend your day inside the house, the car and the office. Light, air and even chemicals from plants and trees help us calibrate our bodies and minds properly. If you feel stressed, take a walk -- even if it?s just in front of your office for three minutes. For many, it works just as well as a snack.
2. Eat Regularly
Stress-eating is often a combination of emotions and low blood sugar. Eating regularly (five or six times per day) is a good first step to making sure you are not sugar-crashing. The combination of low blood sugar and a stressful day will make anyone eat a box of cookies.
3. Breathe
Taking a few deep breaths into your abdomen tells your nervous system everything is OK. Pausing throughout your day (try every hour) to take a few breaths will keep you system in check. Stress builds up in the body during the day -- so regular breathing can help.
4. You Are Going To Eat -- So Eat Well
Us overeaters love to pretend today will be the day we won?t eat so much. The reality is most of us are used to stomach stretch (our belly being full). Stock your house with satisfying and healthy food -- because you will eat! Try warm, satisfying soups. Looking for a crunch? Choose air popped popcorn over chips. Need something sweet? Eat sorbet instead of ice cream. Dark chocolate is also an option. Don?t judge yourself harshly for eating -- just try to make healthier choices.
Brandt Passalacqua is an author, speaker and the founder of Peaceful Weight Loss? through Yoga, whose personal journey serves as an inspiration to countless others looking to make peace with food. After struggling with his weight, food, substance addiction, and serious illness, Brandt discovered yoga, and through his practice he developed an appreciation for his body and his health.
Now 100 pounds lighter and at peace in ways he never thought possible, Brandt works as a private yoga therapist helping people meet their own weight loss and wellness goals. In addition to giving lectures and seminars across the country, Brandt trains yoga teachers and health care practitioners in Peaceful Weight Loss? through Yoga. Brandt maintains an office in Western Massachusetts.
Visit www.peacefulweightloss.com to learn more about Brandt and to read his blogs. Brandt?s latest CD Being at Peace with Food is available from More Than Sound.
Happy new year all ye hallowed RPSers. It?s time to get hardware back on track. This week, the theme is consoles. We?re talking next-gen Playstation and Xbox. We?re talking Steam Boxes. We?re talking hope for beleaguered AMD. Just maybe.
Let?s kick off with what appears to be leakage of some very detailed information regarding the specifications of the next Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox efforts.
Until the official reveal, probably in March at GDC, we can?t be totally sure how those next-gen boxes will turn out. But the stories circulating on the web look highly plausible. And, though they must remain in the ?rumour? category for now, they go something like this.
The next Playstation is codenamed Orbis. The next Xbox is known as Durango. Both will pack pure AMD technology, but with a slightly different spin than expected.
A Playstation 3, yesterday
First up, CPUs. And they appear to be identical. Eight cores. 1.6GHz clocks. AMD?s Jaguar architecture. Hold that thought, we?ll come back to it.
On the graphics side, there?s more of a delta. Sony has ponied up for a Radeon HD chip with 18 GCN units and therefore a grand total of 1,152 shaders. Microsoft has allegedly cheaped out with 12 units and thus 768 shaders.
Memory-wise, it?s 4GB of nippy GDDR5 from Sony and 8GB of DDR3 supplemented by 32MB of dedicated EDRAM for the GPU from Microsoft. Controllers and various motion-detection paraphernalia aside, the hardware specs are rounded out by Blu-ray for both boxes.
What?s the meaning of this?
So, what does it all mean? First and foremost, it means both consoles will have properly feeble single-thread CPU performance. OK, Jaguar is somewhat of an unknown quality currently. But it?s the replacement for Bobcat, AMD?s low-power, poverty-spec architecture. And even AMD is only claiming an extra 15 per cent instructions per clock with the transistion from Bobcat to Jaguar.
If AMD?s full-fat FX CPUs offer minimal headroom to spare when it comes to single-thread performance in games, Jaguar will only be worse. And by worse I mean much. Factor in clocks and the result is likely to be well under half the per-core performance of AMD FX. Which in turn is well behind Intel?s nest. Nasty.
Of course, you could argue that?s no biggie. You?ve got eight cores. Simply spread the load. If it were that simple, an AMD FX eight-core chip would already have the legs on, say, a four-core Intel Core i5. But it isn?t. So it doesn?t.
What do we want? Core i5? When do we want it? Roughly November
Admittedly, these concerns don?t translate directly over to console land. With fixed hardware specs, games devs can make better use of the chips available. No doubt we?ll see better balancing of of CPU and GPU utilisation than is typical on the PC, for instance. And in general, operating system and general platform overheads are lesser on consoles.
But for me, those AMD Jaguar cores are still a worry. Getting the CPU bit of games engines to scale neaty across multiple cores has never been easy. It?s funny, really. You?d think Sony would have learned its lesson from the ridiculous (in gaming terms) Cell processor and its array of futile SPEs. I?d far rather see a plain old Intel quad-core chip ? or even something like a quad-core AMD Phenom ? than eight Jaguar cores.
Cheaper chips
The problem, of course, is cost. AMD Jaguar cores are teeny-tiny, so a chip containing eight of them will be cheaper than a traditional quad-core PC processor.
Tiny cores make for cheaper chips
But what about the graphics? AMD GCN refers to its graphics architecture, otherwise known as Graphics Core Next or the Radeon HD 7000 series. The good news is that it?s a very solid graphics architecture.
The rumoured specs puts Playstation Orbis roughly between a Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 in terms of raw rendering performance. Theoretically, Xbox Durango is off the pace and closer to the Radeon HD 7770.
In practice, there probably won?t be much in it. For starters, both consoles are targeting the 1080p resolution and even the Xbox GPU should be able to cope with that. And it could well turn out that it?s the CPU that most often bottlenecks performance. In which case the difference will be slim to none.
So, what does this all mean for PC gaming? Certainly, it ensures that even a mediocre PC will remain a more powerful gaming tool than either of the new consoles. That?s not a huge surprise. But it is a bit of a bummer given that console specs provide a baseline for the game dev community. A bigger step forward, especially on the CPU side, would have been welcome.
That said, the big step up in system memory from the measley 512MB of current consoles will be a blessed relief. Games with massive environments will be a lot easier to achieve and hopefully therefore more common.
AMD to avoid Armageddon?
It?s got to be good for AMD, too. Admittedly, the informed opinion suggests AMD won?t rake in enough money to save its skin from these deals. But there?s got to be an advantage to be had from every major game dev aiming its engines at the GCN graphics architecture. It might make up for all the money NVIDIA allegedly chucks at making games run faster on its graphics chips.
If that?s the big ticket consoles from Sony and MS covered, how might ye olde Steam Box fit into all this? At this point I confess my comfort zone has gone walkies. Because I?m not totally convinced I see the point of the Steam Box.
Valve?s Steam Box will run Linux. Really?
In fact, I?m not even sure exactly what it is. There are some funky claims involving games streaming down the line, but the immediate proposition is a small form factor PC. The version produced by Valve will be sold in three spec levels. And it will run Linux. It?s at this stage I come over flummoxed.
Is Linux gaming the future? I?ve never seen Steam running on Linux much less tried it. But certainly, I think Gabe Newell?s anti-Windows 8 rant, for those who recall it, was fairly hyperbolic. So, I can?t help wondering whether Linux Steam Boxes are actually axes for the Windows 8 grind.
More to the point, if I want a simple box for no-brainer gaming, I?ll have a console, thanks. What I like about the PC isn?t that it?s simple-to-specify toy. It?s that it?s infinitely configurable. It?s a machine for grown ups. And I?m not majorly fussed by the form factor.
Oh, and if anyone was wondering about the hardware compo of a few weeks ago, we?ll be outing the lucky winners soon. Until next time.
Progressive optics for side mirrors ends automobile blind spots without distorting viewPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brielle Day bday@osa.org 202-416-1435 Optical Society of America
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2013A new optical prescription for automobile side-view mirrors may eliminate the dreaded "blind spot" in traffic without distorting the perceived distance of cars approaching from behind. As described in a paper published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) journal Optics Letters, objects viewed in a mirror using the new design appear larger than in traditional side-view mirrors, so it's easier to judge their following distance and speed.
Today's motor vehicles in the United States use two different types of mirrors for the driver and passenger sides. The driver's side mirror is flat so that objects viewed in it are undistorted and not optically reduced in size, allowing the operator to accurately judge an approaching-from-behind vehicle's separation distance and speed. Unfortunately, the optics of a flat mirror also create a blind spot, an area of limited vision around a vehicle that often leads to collisions during merges, lane changes, or turns. The passenger side mirror, on the other hand, possesses a spherical convex shape. While the small radius of curvature widens the field of view, it also causes any object seen in it to look smaller in size and farther away than it actually is. Because of this issue, passenger side mirrors on cars and trucks in the United States must be engraved with the safety warning, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." In the European Union, both driver and passenger side mirrors are aspheric (One that bulges more to one side than the other, creating two zones on the same mirror).The inner zonethe section nearest the doorhas a nearly perfect spherical shape, while the outer zone the section farthest from the doorbecomes less and less curved toward the edges. The outer zone of this aspheric design also produces a similar distance and size distortion seen in spherical convex designs.
In an attempt to remedy this problem, some automotive manufacturers have installed a separate, small wide-angle mirror in the upper corner of side mirrors. This is a slightly domed square that provides a wide-angle view similar to a camera's fisheye lens. However, drivers often find this system to be a distracting as well as expensive addition.
A simpler design for a mirror that would be free of blind spots, have a wide field of view, and produce images that are accurately scaled to the true size of an approaching objectand work for both sides of a vehiclehas been proposed by researchers Hocheol Lee and Dohyun Kim at Hanbat National University in Korea and Sung Yi at Portland State University in Oregon. Their solution was to turn to a progressive additive optics technology commonly used in "no-line multifocal" eyeglasses that simultaneously corrects myopia (nearsightedness) and presbyopia (reduced focusing ability).
"Like multifocal glasses that give the wearer a range of focusing abilities from near to far and everything in between, our progressive mirror consists of three resolution zones: one for distance vision, one for close-up viewing and a middle zone making the transition between the two," says Lee. "However, unlike glasses where the range of focus is vertically stacked [from distance viewing on top to close-up viewing on bottom], our mirror surface is horizontally progressive."
Lee says that a driver's side mirror manufactured with his team's new design would feature a curvature where the inner zone is for distance viewing and the outer zone is for near-field viewing to compensate for what otherwise would be blind spots. "The image of a vehicle approaching from behind would only be reduced in the progressive zone in the center," Lee says, "while the image sizes in the inner and outer zones are not changed."
The horizontal progressive mirror, Lee says, does have some problems with binocular disparity (the slight difference between the viewpoints of a person's two eyes) and astigmatism (blurring of a viewed image due to the difference between the focusing power in the horizontal and vertical directions). These minor errors are a positive trade off, the researchers feel, to gain a mirror with a greatly expanded field of view, more reliable depth perception, and no blind spot.
To prove the merits of their design, the researchers used a conventional glass molding process to manufacture a prototype horizontal progressive mirror. They were able to produce a mirror with more than double the field of view of a traditional flat mirror.
Other wide-angle designs have also been proposed, but the new design described today in the Optics Letters paper offers a particularly easy-to-manufacture approach to the problem of blind spots by seamlessly integrating just three zones.
The researchers claim that the manufacturing cost of their proposed mirror design would be cheaper than the mirror design with the added small wide-angle viewing section. Since mirror designs are stipulated by national automobile regulations, the new design would need to be approved for use in the United States before appearing on cars here.
###
Paper: "Horizontally progressive mirror for blind spot detection in automobiles," H. Lee, D. Kim, S. Yi, Optics Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 3, pp. 317 319 (2013).
EDITOR'S NOTE: An image and video clip of the new mirror are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Brielle Day.
About Optics Letters
Published by the Optical Society (OSA), Optics Letters offers rapid dissemination of new results in all areas of optics with short, original, peer-reviewed communications. Optics Letters covers the latest research in optical science, including optical measurements, optical components and devices, atmospheric optics, biomedical optics, Fourier optics, integrated optics, optical processing, optoelectronics, lasers, nonlinear optics, optical storage and holography, optical coherence, polarization, quantum electronics, ultrafast optical phenomena, photonic crystals, and fiber optics. This journal, edited by Alan E. Willner of the University of Southern California and published twice each month, is where readers look for the latest discoveries in optics. Visit www.OpticsInfoBase.org/OL.
About OSA
Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.
[ | 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.
Progressive optics for side mirrors ends automobile blind spots without distorting viewPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brielle Day bday@osa.org 202-416-1435 Optical Society of America
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2013A new optical prescription for automobile side-view mirrors may eliminate the dreaded "blind spot" in traffic without distorting the perceived distance of cars approaching from behind. As described in a paper published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) journal Optics Letters, objects viewed in a mirror using the new design appear larger than in traditional side-view mirrors, so it's easier to judge their following distance and speed.
Today's motor vehicles in the United States use two different types of mirrors for the driver and passenger sides. The driver's side mirror is flat so that objects viewed in it are undistorted and not optically reduced in size, allowing the operator to accurately judge an approaching-from-behind vehicle's separation distance and speed. Unfortunately, the optics of a flat mirror also create a blind spot, an area of limited vision around a vehicle that often leads to collisions during merges, lane changes, or turns. The passenger side mirror, on the other hand, possesses a spherical convex shape. While the small radius of curvature widens the field of view, it also causes any object seen in it to look smaller in size and farther away than it actually is. Because of this issue, passenger side mirrors on cars and trucks in the United States must be engraved with the safety warning, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." In the European Union, both driver and passenger side mirrors are aspheric (One that bulges more to one side than the other, creating two zones on the same mirror).The inner zonethe section nearest the doorhas a nearly perfect spherical shape, while the outer zone the section farthest from the doorbecomes less and less curved toward the edges. The outer zone of this aspheric design also produces a similar distance and size distortion seen in spherical convex designs.
In an attempt to remedy this problem, some automotive manufacturers have installed a separate, small wide-angle mirror in the upper corner of side mirrors. This is a slightly domed square that provides a wide-angle view similar to a camera's fisheye lens. However, drivers often find this system to be a distracting as well as expensive addition.
A simpler design for a mirror that would be free of blind spots, have a wide field of view, and produce images that are accurately scaled to the true size of an approaching objectand work for both sides of a vehiclehas been proposed by researchers Hocheol Lee and Dohyun Kim at Hanbat National University in Korea and Sung Yi at Portland State University in Oregon. Their solution was to turn to a progressive additive optics technology commonly used in "no-line multifocal" eyeglasses that simultaneously corrects myopia (nearsightedness) and presbyopia (reduced focusing ability).
"Like multifocal glasses that give the wearer a range of focusing abilities from near to far and everything in between, our progressive mirror consists of three resolution zones: one for distance vision, one for close-up viewing and a middle zone making the transition between the two," says Lee. "However, unlike glasses where the range of focus is vertically stacked [from distance viewing on top to close-up viewing on bottom], our mirror surface is horizontally progressive."
Lee says that a driver's side mirror manufactured with his team's new design would feature a curvature where the inner zone is for distance viewing and the outer zone is for near-field viewing to compensate for what otherwise would be blind spots. "The image of a vehicle approaching from behind would only be reduced in the progressive zone in the center," Lee says, "while the image sizes in the inner and outer zones are not changed."
The horizontal progressive mirror, Lee says, does have some problems with binocular disparity (the slight difference between the viewpoints of a person's two eyes) and astigmatism (blurring of a viewed image due to the difference between the focusing power in the horizontal and vertical directions). These minor errors are a positive trade off, the researchers feel, to gain a mirror with a greatly expanded field of view, more reliable depth perception, and no blind spot.
To prove the merits of their design, the researchers used a conventional glass molding process to manufacture a prototype horizontal progressive mirror. They were able to produce a mirror with more than double the field of view of a traditional flat mirror.
Other wide-angle designs have also been proposed, but the new design described today in the Optics Letters paper offers a particularly easy-to-manufacture approach to the problem of blind spots by seamlessly integrating just three zones.
The researchers claim that the manufacturing cost of their proposed mirror design would be cheaper than the mirror design with the added small wide-angle viewing section. Since mirror designs are stipulated by national automobile regulations, the new design would need to be approved for use in the United States before appearing on cars here.
###
Paper: "Horizontally progressive mirror for blind spot detection in automobiles," H. Lee, D. Kim, S. Yi, Optics Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 3, pp. 317 319 (2013).
EDITOR'S NOTE: An image and video clip of the new mirror are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Brielle Day.
About Optics Letters
Published by the Optical Society (OSA), Optics Letters offers rapid dissemination of new results in all areas of optics with short, original, peer-reviewed communications. Optics Letters covers the latest research in optical science, including optical measurements, optical components and devices, atmospheric optics, biomedical optics, Fourier optics, integrated optics, optical processing, optoelectronics, lasers, nonlinear optics, optical storage and holography, optical coherence, polarization, quantum electronics, ultrafast optical phenomena, photonic crystals, and fiber optics. This journal, edited by Alan E. Willner of the University of Southern California and published twice each month, is where readers look for the latest discoveries in optics. Visit www.OpticsInfoBase.org/OL.
About OSA
Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.
[ | 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.
The different rules and regulations, the financing, the search, the home buying process can drive you up a wall. Take the time to learn more about real estate to make the best decision possible.
If you are trying to buy a building in which you plan to establish a business, choose a good neighborhood. You need to establish your company in a neighborhood that your customer base will be comfortable visiting. Talk to a professional to find the best locations.
Make a request, in your offer, for the seller assist with closing costs, inspection fees, and other expenses accrued in the process of the real purchase. Many buyers try to get the other party to ?buy down? their rate of interest for a short period of time. If adding financial incentives to an offer, the seller may not negotiate your selling price, though.
Even if your bank doesn?t require a home inspection, it just makes good sense to have one. If you really want to know what you are about to get involved in, then you need to employ a professional inspector to look over the home before you finalize your contract. Lots of things can go awry in a home that an untrained eye can?t hope to uncover, so having a home inspector thoroughly assess your home is protection for you and your family.
If you have a friend who knows about real estate, bring him or her with you when you visit the house. This could benefit you because that person may notice something you otherwise would have missed. Ask them to become involved in the process also by asking questions of the realtor.
When you interview your real estate agent, have a plan containing your questions. Ask all of the important questions, like how many houses they have helped to sell this last year, and what is the number of homes they sold that are in the area you are looking at? The real estate agent should be ready to answer any of your inquiries in a professional way.
All real estate agents need to be in touch with their previous customers on the anniversary of the date they purchased their home, and certainly during the holidays. If you call them again, they will know how much help you were when they were buying their home. When you sign a card or letter, or even on a phone call, remind them about how you work based on referrals, and would love it if they recommended your business to their friends.
When purchasing a home, try to limit the existence of fireplaces to one, to avoid having to maintain too many of them. It can be aggravating to clean a bunch of fireplaces, especially if they?re rarely used.
Never close a deal on a house before you have it inspected by an inspection professional. A home inspector will look over every part of the property to ensure that you are not buying a house with serious issues that are unseen. An inspector will give you a good idea of how much renovations will cost you and how long they will take.
If you are purchasing an expensive, large property, you should have a reliable partner to help you. It will facilitate the qualification process for the commercial property loan. Having a partner is a great way to ensure that you have the necessary down payment amount as well as the creditworthiness required by commercial lenders.
You should do research prior to purchasing a property. Too many people dive head first into real estate ventures and lose a lot of capital due to mistakes that could have been prevented. So, before buying any property, make sure that you find out about the surrounding area, the local crime rate, the age of the property, etc.
Before renting a property, know who is responsible for landscaping, upkeep on shared structures, pest control, and maintenance. Some rentals require the tenant to perform yard duties. Other places have this included in the monthly payments.
Do your homework before buying a property. When looking to purchase rental properties, there are very definite things to look for. Sustainability is the first one. How is the condition of the property and how much upkeep will it require in the future? Location is another key feature. Location is very important for most properties that will be used as rentals. Make sure your renters can get to the place they need to go and that it?s in a commercial area. Another thing to look for is what the average income is for the neighborhood. This will be different from the location; you should know that an area that has high rents is better than that with low ones. Location is not as much of a deal breaker for high rent areas.
When you select an agent to assist you in finding a new home, question them on the amount of time they?ve been in the area. If they haven?t been on the job or in the area for that long then they won?t be as up to speed on local restrictions, roads, and schools as someone else would. Try and find an agent that has lived within the area at least for 10 years.
Generally, properties that are in need of multiple upgrades or repairs carry a lower price tag. This allows you to save money up-front, and work on the house at your own rate over an extended period of time. You can not only redesign the home over time, but the modifications you are making build equity you can trade on later. Concentrate on placing emphasis on the home?s possibilities instead of its flaws. Your perfect new home could be hidden behind superficial drawbacks like bad paint or cracked paneling.
Use the information here as your initial vantage point in procuring the knowledge and resources you want in your search for a new home. Be sure to apply these insights to your home hunt so that you can navigate your trail without falling into the pits that a lot of other new home owners do. Good luck with your search and we hope you love your purchase!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Sunday condemned an Iranian court for sentencing an Iranian-American Christian pastor to eight years in prison.
The State Department said it had confirmed reports of Saeed Abedini's sentencing with the family's attorney and called for his release.
"We condemn Iran's continued violation of the universal right of freedom of religion and we call on the Iranian authorities to respect Mr. Abedini's human rights and release him," State Department spokesperson Darby Holladay said.
Hollaway said Abedini's attorney had only one day to present his defense and the department was deeply concerned about the fairness and transparency of his trial.
The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative lobbying group, said Abedini was convicted by Judge Pir-Abassi of Branch 26 of the Iranian Revolutionary Court for threatening Iran's national security through his leadership in Christian house churches.
It said Abedini, a 32-year-old father of two, became a U.S. citizen in 2010 through marriage to his American wife Naghmeh.
He was ordained a minister in 2008 through the American Evangelistic Association and had been traveling back and forth freely between the U.S. and Iran for three years until this past summer, when he was placed on house arrest. He was imprisoned in September.
The ACLJ, which is representing Abedini's U.S.-based wife and children, said the pastor had been beaten and tortured during his time in prison, raising questions about his medical condition.
It said Abedini and his attorney were only allowed to attend one day of his trial, which started on January 21.
"This is a real travesty - a mockery of justice," said ACLJ's Executive Director Jordan Sekulow. "From the very beginning, Iranian authorities have lied about all aspects of this case, even releasing rumors of his expected release. Iran has not only abused its own laws, it has trampled on the fundamentals of human rights."
In a statement, Naghmeh Abedini said she is "devastated" for her husband and her family - a six-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son.
"We must now pursue every effort, turn every rock, and not stop until Saeed is safely on American soil," she added.
(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
A look at how President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law would change federal and state Medicaid spending from 2013-2022. The figures, in millions of dollars, include the cost of expanding Medicaid to cover childless adults, as well as the cost of enrolling people eligible under current laws but not signed up. The table shows how spending would change if every state adopted the Medicaid expansion in the law. A few states would save.
With real estate, you typically buy a property and then make money through selling it eventually for a much higher value than its purchase price or becoming a landlord and letting the property.? One of the advantages of real estate investing is using the principle of leverage to buy an asset that you otherwise couldn?t afford.
Even already rich people have a problem obeying this principle and can sometimes end up broke as a result. So, only gratify your non-essential desires if you can do so without spending more than nine-tenths of your earnings. Wealth building requires discipline and self-control. You must continue to save one-tenth of what you bring in no matter what. This is the key to building some capital which you can then use to invest. Find something that you love to do and that solves the needs of a target market. Then sell that product or service through relentless marketing and sales. Create efficient systems to sell more, more often. And work towards growing the value of your business by making it less dependent on you so that you can eventually sell it to a new owner. Paying debts down fast and taking care of family and friends is also essential and will increase your ability to earn money.
Seek the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of money and be wary of following friends and relatives into so-called investment opportunities. Educate yourself and research your investments thoroughly before parting with your hard-earned money. Whatever investment options you pick, you should understand that each has its own time line from start to finish that needs to be followed to fruit-ration. There is no shortcut for this. Every option has a process that needs to be followed through. If you know more information about wealth building, we can have this topic through dedicated servers or buy domain name in domain shop.
Some gun dealers may be finding it more difficult to sell their wares online. ? A gun salesman near Nashville found out yesterday that Intuit Payment Solutions no longer wants to do business with online gun dealers.
"We go through all the hoops and all the steps and at the end of the day it's still a struggle to get the same services anybody else would," said Nick McMillan.
He owns Leiper's Fork Firearms. It is a small gun dealership McMillan runs out of his home.
"We're set up like a business, just like every other small business out there," he said.
McMillan is a has a federal firearms license and is heavily regulated by both the state and federal governments.
But McMillan received an email from Intuit Payment solutions informing him the company was no longer interested in processing his credit card sales.
"They either reviewed several accounts, or it was a company wide policy, because I wasn't the only federal firearms license dealer that got pushed out the other day," McMillan said.
According to the email McMillan and several other gun dealers got, Intuit is no longer willing to process payments for guns that aren't purchased face-to-face. ?McMillan thinks that Intuit simply doesn't want to deal with any bad publicity in the event of another tragedy.
Good for Intuit. ?Until we make it tougher for those who have no business having guns to get them, this more than makes sense. ?Hopefully other credit card processors will step up.
Originally posted to Shut Down the NRA on Sat Jan 26, 2013 at 03:31 PM PST.
Investing In Citizenship: For The Rich, A Road To The U.S.
The Barclays Center in New York, the new home of the Brooklyn Nets, was built partially with investment from overseas donors seeking U.S. citizenship. A little-known immigration program allows wealthy investors to get a green card in exchange for funding American businesses.
The traditional immigrant story is a familiar one.
Someone who longs for a better life makes the tough journey, leaves behind the hardships of his or her native land and comes to the United States to start again. That story, in a lot of ways, helped build this country.
These days, however, there's a very different kind of immigrant who wants to come to this country the rich and they have a different set of dreams.
Anthony Korda was a barrister, or lawyer, in England who vacationed frequently in the U.S. with his family.
"Each time we left the nice weather of Florida, we were more depressed about having to leave," Korda tells NPR's Robert Smith.
Korda says they did not look forward to slogging through the London rain, so he made a lifestyle choice: He was going to immigrate to the U.S. and live in a place where you could get a real tan.
Korda found pretty quickly, though, that the last thing the U.S. needed was more lawyers, so a standard or employment-based visa was unlikely. But then he saw a shortcut to becoming an American in a small, obscure federal program called EB-5, designed for people like him to get into the country if they had enough money.
"It looked too good to be true," he says.
All Korda had to do was cash out most of his savings about $500,000 and invest in an American business. If he could help create 10 jobs, then he would get a green card.
Korda's investment was a ski resort in Vermont that was looking to improve its infrastructure. So he put down his money and got to move to Florida and vacation in Vermont. He and his family got the American dream, but what did America get in return?
A Path For Rich Immigrants
The immigration program for the rich was designed to provide a boost to the U.S. economy, and it costs very little to give out the visas. The program allows 10,000 people a year to immigrate using the investment method. It's never reached that limit, but it is getting more popular every year. In 2012, about 7,600 made use of the program.
Some of those dollars are going to the Barclay's Center, the new home of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets.
Bloomberg News reports that more than $200 million of the loans to build the arena came from foreigners who were using the investment to get into the U.S. The business plan predicts that in the end, it will create more than 5,000 jobs.
That's how it's supposed to work, but often the projects funded by the EB-5 visas are not quite as glamorous.
David North, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, says the government's rules for these visas encourage investment in depressed areas, rural places and inner cities. These are places where private investment is scarce and often risky.
"The investments that are open to an EB-5 investor are really rock-bottom, marginal investments," North says. "These are essentially small, usually real estate investments of some kind [and] small construction investments."
North says one of the other problems with the rules is that the investors have very few responsibilities to make sure the project works.
"We're not bringing entrepreneurs to this country in this program," he says, "we're bringing passive investors."
Economic Or Immigration Program?
The federal government doesn't release numbers to show how many of the investments succeed or fail. Dune Lawrence, an investigative reporter with Bloomberg News, has tried to figure it out. She tells NPR's Smith that the program has several problems.
"The basic problem starts with the fact that it's an economic development program run by an immigration agency," Lawrence says. "The immigration agency is focused on immigration."
That focus by the agency, of handling the applications and paperwork concerned with the investor's immigration status, makes it unprepared to handle the economic side of the program, Lawrence says.
The only data released by the government is how many green cards were issued through the program, she says, which doesn't tell you how many investments actually succeeded in the long term.
"It's all based on the economic assumptions that were made at the beginning of the project," she says, "and if they can show that they're in the process of spending the money then that's that."
Despite all the questions, defenders of the program say that money is money. Maybe some rich foreigners could lose their stake and perhaps some won't create the right number of jobs, but it is a real if relatively tiny bump in investment in U.S. businesses.
Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Texas, says that overall he thinks the program is good for the economy.
"It is bringing in money ... and investment to the United States that otherwise might not have come here," he says.
Jones says just as you can find anecdotal evidence of failure, you can find a bunch of examples of successful projects funded with foreign investment. In Texas, he's looked at successful strip malls, horse-racing enterprises and real estate projects funded by immigrants that seem to be working.
Korda, the lawyer who wanted to live on the beach, says he has seen only a modest return on his investment in the ski resort, between 1.5 and 2 percent.
Though he could have done much better in the stock market or bonds, the tradeoff for Korda is he's now living in Florida instead of London. He now consults with other wealthy foreigners wanting to use the program to come to America.
Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Jan. 25, 2013 ? Scientists at the Center for Translational Medicine at the Temple University School of Medicine are inching closer to solving a long-standing mystery in sepsis, a complex and often life-threatening condition that affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S. every year. By blocking the activity of a protein, STIM1, in cells that line the insides of blood vessels in mice, they have halted a cascade of cellular events that culminates in the out-of-control inflammation that marks sepsis, and protected lungs from severe damage.
The findings, reported online January 25, 2013 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, provide new insights into molecular details underlying sepsis and its effects on the lungs. In identifying STIM1 as a potential drug target, the results may lead to new treatment strategies against sepsis.
"While antibiotics are improving, more than 25 percent of those who develop sepsis will die from it. This is partly because we don't fully understand the mechanisms behind the widespread inflammation it causes," said senior author Muniswamy Madesh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Temple University School of Medicine and a member of Temple's Center for Translational Medicine. "We've provided evidence indicating that without STIM1 driving calcium signaling, the exacerbation of inflammation can't occur. Our results could lead to a whole range of new therapeutic research directions."
STIM1 plays a variety of roles in the cells, including serving as a sensor for the amount of calcium inside a cell, and driving calcium signaling, which is important for cellular communication. In sepsis, a bacterial infection produces toxins that cause the body's normal reaction to infection to go haywire, prompting the immune system to attack the body's own organs and tissues.
According to Dr. Madesh, these toxins -- small molecules called lipopolysaccharides -- set off a chain of events. They initially bind to endothelial cell receptors, sending chemical signals that can result in "oxidative" damage to cells. STIM proteins can detect this cell damage, and drive the flow of calcium ions into the cell, increasing calcium signaling. The resulting fluctuations in calcium levels activate endothelial cells.
"When the endothelial cells are activated, they express various pro-inflammatory molecules, which facilitate white blood cells to adhere to endothelial cells and migrate from the blood to lung tissue," Dr. Madesh explained. "This cell migration further stimulates the immune system, increasing the release of other signaling molecules and factors. But how this occurs hasn't been completely understood."
Dr. Madesh and his colleagues wanted to better understand how STIM proteins were involved in lung inflammation and injury, which is commonly seen in sepsis. Such injury can lead to edema, or fluid, in the lungs, and possibly death. Their previous research had indicated that STIM1 played an important role in oxidative cell damage-altered calcium levels.
To find out, the researchers created mice lacking STIM1 in endothelial cells, and in a series of experiments, compared these mice to normal mice exposed to the sepsis toxin. They found that without STIM1 in the cells, the calcium fluctuations did not occur, and endothelial cells were protected against the toxin-induced lung injury.
The investigators also used a small molecule, BTP2, to see the effect on lung damage of physically blocking the STIM1 signaling pathway. "We found that the small molecule inhibitor blocked this calcium entry in the channel, as opposed to the other strategy in which the STIM1 gene was knocked out. Eliminating STIM1 or blocking the channel both reduced the permeability of the lungs' blood vessels and lessened lung edema. We can block this pathway using both genetic and pharmacological approaches, and both protected against endotoxin-induced lung inflammation," Dr. Madesh said.
"Although this STIM-mediated signaling pathway is essential for development and other functions, in the case of vascular inflammation, blocking the pathway protected that animal from the damage involved. While several other pathways have been established in the sepsis model, our finding is a new signaling pathway that could be targeted for therapeutic interventions."
Because BTP2 targets a specific calcium channel rather than the protein itself, Dr. Madesh said that one of his team's next goals is to "design new molecules that target the activation of the STIM protein." This same strategy could be used for other diseases or conditions, including stroke, that involve STIM-controlled calcium signaling, he noted.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Temple University Health System, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Rajesh Kumar Gandhirajan, Shu Meng, Harish C. Chandramoorthy, Karthik Mallilankaraman, Salvatore Mancarella, Hui Gao, Roshanak Razmpour, Xiao-Feng Yang, Steven R. Houser, Ju Chen, Walter J. Koch, Hong Wang, Jonathan Soboloff, Donald L. Gill, Muniswamy Madesh. Blockade of NOX2 and STIM1 signaling limits lipopolysaccharide-induced vascular inflammation. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2013; DOI: 10.1172/JCI65647
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
January 25, 2013This audio recording software can record any sound on the computer as MP3/ WAV/ OGG/ FLAC files. Also it provides Voice Activation System, File Length Limitation System and Schedule to help you to record online audio programs even while you?re not at your PC!
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CAIRO (AP) ? Egyptian security officials say 22 people have been killed in riots sparked by death sentences given to nearly two dozen soccer fans convicted of violence after a game in Port Said last year.
The security officials say most were killed in assaults on the governor's office, courthouse and prison after the sentence was handed down during a trial outside Cairo. They say two policemen also were shot to death outside the city's main prison when angry relatives tried to storm the facility.
The military has been deployed to try and restore security.
The judge sentenced 21 people to death in connection with the Feb. 1, 2012, soccer melee that killed 74 fans of the Cairo-based Al-Ahly team.
The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
SANCTIOND? HIT THE ROAD WITH ?GANGSTER SQUAD? CUSTOMIZED CAR Mister Cartoon?s Automotive Care Product Line Collaborates with Warner Brothers for Recently Released Film
LOS ANGELES, CA (January 2013) ? Mister Cartoon?s Sanctiond? premier car care brand announces collaboration with Warner Brothers on the customized Gangster Squad car?a 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe with hand-painted murals depicting images inspired from the movie?complemented by a limited edition product line featuring Spray Detailer and Tire Glaze with label art designed by Mister Cartoon. The Gangster Squad car was unveiled at the Los Angeles VIP film screening after-party and displayed at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. The vehicle traveled the country on an exclusive film screening tour where guests were invited to select theaters for advanced screenings of the movie. The car was on display on the red carpet for the film?s Hollywood premiere on January 7th, 2013.
?It?s a great experience to be able to attach my brand to another piece of art, such as the film Gangster Squad,? said LA artist and Sanctiond? founder Mister Cartoon. ?It?s artistic filmmaking and I?m honored to be involved. These are some of my favorite actors and I treat this as a collaboration with them?.
Sanctiond? CEO Atticus Firey says, ?This high-profile car and its priceless paint job deserves only the best care, which is why we sent the Sanctiond? Mobile Detail Unit with the customized Gangster Squad car to each stop, giving away free product and car detailing services to guests. Ten VIP kits were also gifted to winners from local radio station contests.?
The Gangster Squad bomb features Candy Cobalt Blue flacked fenders, Bentley Black paint for its exterior and white gold leafing with Candy Blue accents as well as Mister Cartoon?s movie-inspired murals. The car is slammed to the ground via custom airbags and rides on handmade 72-spoke Zenith 14-inch wire wheels. The custom interior features Aston Martin suede diamond pattern inserts, hand-woven floor mats, Japanese leather seats with a suede headliner. The audio system was provided by Rockford Fosgate and includes custom-molded TVs added in the dash.
Warner Bros. Pictures? and Village Roadshow Pictures? Gangster Squad hit theaters nationwide on January 11th, 2013.
For more information, please visit, www.Sanctiond.com and follow on Facebook/Sanctiond, Instagram/Sanctiond, Twitter/@SanctiondAuto
Robert Burns Woodward, widely considered to be the preeminent organic chemist of the century, was a craftsman practicing high art (Image: Wikipedia Commons)
The mathematician Hermann Weyl who made many diverse contributions to his discipline once made the startling assertion that whenever he had to choose between truth and beauty in his works, he usually chose beauty. Weyl was working at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton whose seal embodies both beauty and truth. Mathematicians and theoretical physicists are especially attuned to the notion of beauty. They certainly have history on their side; some of the greatest equations of physics and theories of mathematics sparkle with economy, elegance and surprising universality, qualities which make them beautiful. Like Weyl, Paul Dirac was famously known to extol beauty in his creations and once said that there is no place in the world for ugly mathematics; the equation named after him is a testament to his faith in the harmony of the universe.
How do you define and reconcile truth and beauty in chemistry? And is chemical truth chemical beauty? In chemistry the situation is trickier since chemistry much more than physics is an experimental science based on models rather than universal overarching theories. Chemists more than physicists revel in the details of their subject; in the physicist Freeman Dyson?s dictionary, chemists would be frogs rather than birds. Perhaps the succinct equations of thermodynamics come closest in chemistry to defining beauty, but physics can equally lay claim to these equations. Is there a quintessentially chemical notion of beauty and how does it relate to any definition of truth? Keats famously said, ?Beauty is truth, truth beauty?. Is this true in chemistry?
At this point it?s fruitful to compare any description of beauty in chemistry with that in science in general. Although scientific beauty can be notoriously subjective, many explanatory scientific frameworks deemed beautiful seem to share certain qualities. Foremost among these qualities are universality and economy; more specifically, the ability to explain the creation of complexity from simplicity. In physics for instance, the Dirac equation is considered a supreme example of beauty since in half a dozen symbols it essentially explains all the properties of the electron and also unifies it with the special theory of relativity. In mathematics, a proof ? Euclid?s proof of the infinitude of prime numbers for instance ? is thought to be beautiful if it combines the qualities of economy, generality and surprise. Beauty is inherent in biology too. Darwin?s theory of natural selection is considered to be especially elegant because just like equations in physics or theorems in mathematics, it explains an extraordinary diversity of phenomena using a principle which can be stated in a few simple words.
It is not easy to find similar notions of beauty in chemistry, but if we look around carefully we do find examples, even if they may not sound as profound or universal as those in chemistry?s sister disciplines. Perhaps the epitome of beauty in chemistry is the science and art of synthesis, an activity that is at the heart of chemical science and which is largely responsible for the making of the modern material world. Nobody embodies this art form better than the American organic chemist Robert Burns Woodward. During his lifetime Woodward honed chemical synthesis ? the painstaking, step-by-step construction of complex, three-dimensional molecules ? to the status of an activity very much akin to immortal architecture or painting. He made molecules ? strychnine, reserpine, chlorophyll, vitamin B12 ? whose synthesis defied belief; the Nobel Committee compared him to Nature herself when awarding him their prize. The atom-by-atom creation of these structures combined the breathtaking elegance of Chartes Cathedral with the practical economy of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Today synthesis has been so finely perfected that much of it has become a routine task for graduate students, but the wealth of molecular structures and the sheer variety of their atomic decorations is still overwhelming.
Part of Woodward's synthesis of vitamin B12 which gives the impression of an elegant tapestry being stitched together (Click to enlarge. Image: Wikipedia)
In addition synthesis ? both in the test tube and in nature ? presents to us the atomic equivalent of ballet, the elegant motion of electrons from one bond and atom to another that is the bane of many a college student during finals week. What makes this elegance particularly beguiling is that it?s largely fiction; in reality molecules are a collection of nuclei and electrons and no more, and any kind of bonding and electron transfer scheme that we may use to represent their behavior is an elaborate facade crafted on paper for the sake of significance. Nonetheless, the molecular ballet that chemists are familiar with plays out daily both in their flasks and in our bodies where enzymes orchestrate incredible feats of chemical transformations with near-perfect efficiency.
But if we are to truly compare chemistry to physics or mathematics we might focus on more conceptual advances. Many of these examples are most manifest in theories of chemical bonding, since these theories underlie all of chemistry in principle. I certainly saw elegance when I studied crystal field theory. Crystal field theory uses a few simple notions of the splitting of energies of molecular orbitals to explain the color, magnetic and electric properties of thousands of compounds; it will tell you why rubies are red and emeralds are green. Crystal Field Theory is not a quantitative framework and it?s not perfect, but it can be taught to a high school student and has ample qualitative explanatory power. Another minor chemical concept which impressed me with its sheer simplicity was VSEPR (Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion). VSEPR predicts the shape of simple molecules based on the number of their valence electrons. Working out the consequences for a molecule?s geometry using VSEPR is literally a back of the envelope exercise. It?s the kind of idea one may call ?cute?, but in its own limited way it?s certainly elegant. Yet another paradigm from the field of bonding is H?ckel theory. H?ckel theory seeks to predict the orbital energies and properties of unsaturated molecules like ethylene and benzene. It will tell you for instance why tomatoes are red and what happens when a photon of light strikes your retina. Again, the theory is not as rigorous as some of the advanced methods that followed it, but for its simplicity it is both elegant and remarkable useful.
As an aside, anyone who wants to get an idea of beauty in chemistry should read Linus Pauling?s landmark book ?The Nature of the Chemical Bond?. The volume still stands as the ultimate example of how an untold variety of phenomena and molecular structures can be understood through the application of a few simple, elegant rules. The rules are derived through a combination of empirical data and rigorous quantum mechanics calculations. This fact may immediately lead purist physicists to denounce any inkling of beauty in chemistry, but they would be wrong. Chemistry is not applied physics, and its unique mix of empiricism and theory constitutes its own set of explanatory fundamental principles, in every way as foundational as the Dirac equation or Einstein?s field equations are to physics.
This mention of the difference between empiricism and theory reminds me of a conversation I once had with a colleague that bears on our discussion of elegance and beauty in chemistry. We were arguing about the merits of using molecular mechanics and quantum mechanics for calculating the properties of molecules. Molecular mechanics is a simple method that can give accurate results when parameterized using empirical experimental information. Quantum mechanics is a complicated method that gives rigorous, first-principle results without needing any parameterization. The question was, is quantum mechanics or molecular mechanics more ?elegant?? Quantum mechanics does calculate everything from scratch and in principle is a perfect theory of chemistry, but for a truly rigorous and accurate calculation of a realistic molecular system, its equations can become complicated, unwieldy and can take up several pages. Molecular mechanics on the other hand can be represented using a few simple mathematical terms which can be scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin. Unlike quantum mechanics, molecular mechanics calculations on well-parameterized molecules take a few minutes and can give results comparable in accuracy to those of its more rigorous counterpart. The method needs to be extensively parameterized of course, but one could argue that its simple representation makes it more ?elegant? than quantum mechanics. In addition, on a practical basis one may not even need the accuracy of quantum mechanics for their research. Depending on the context and need, different degrees of accuracy may be sufficient for the chemical practitioner; for instance, calculation of relative energies may not be affected by a constant error in each of the calculations, but that of absolute energy will not tolerate such an error. The discussion makes it clear than, while definitions of elegance are beyond a point subjective and philosophical, in chemistry elegance can be defined as much by practical accessibility and convenience as by perfect theoretical frameworks and extreme rigor. In chemistry ?truth? can be tantamount to ?utility?. In this sense the chemist is akin to the carpenter who judges the ?truth? of his chair based on whether someone can comfortably sit on it.
While these expositions of beauty in theories of chemical bonding are abstract, there is a much starker and obvious manifestation of chemical pulchritude, in the marvelous little molecular machines that nature has exquisitely crafted through evolution. This is true of crystal structures in general but especially of protein structures. X-ray crystallographers who have cracked open the secrets of key proteins are all too aware of this beauty. Consider almost any structure of a protein deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) ? the world?s largest protein structure repository ? and one immediately becomes aware of the sheer variety and awe-inspiring spatial disposition of nature?s building blocks. As someone who looks at protein and ligand structures for a living, I could spend days staring at the regularity and precise architecture of these entities. The structure of a profoundly important biochemical object like the ribosome is certainly pleasing to the eye, but more importantly, it contains very few superfluous elements and is composed of exactly the right number of constituent parts necessary for it to carry out its function. It is like a Mozart opera, containing only that which is necessary. In addition these structures often display elements of symmetry, always an important criterion for considerations of beauty in any field. Thus an elegant molecular structure in general and protein structure in particular straddles both the mathematician?s and biologist?s conception of beauty; it is a resounding example of economy and it resembles the biologist?s idea of geometric harmony as found in creatures like crustaceans and diatoms.
A model of the ribosome exemplifies its complexity and beauty (Image: UCSC)
The ensuing discussion may make it sound like chemistry lacks the pervasive beauty of grand explanatory theories and must relegate itself to limited displays of elegance and beauty through specific models. But chemistry also has trappings of beauty which have no counterpart in physics, mathematics or biology. This is most manifest through the drawing of molecular structures which are an inseparable part of the chemist?s everyday trade. These displays of penmanship put chemistry in the same league as the visual arts and architecture and impart to it a unique element of art which almost no other science can claim. They constitute acts of creation and not just appreciation of existing phenomena. What other kind of scientist spends most of his working day observing and manipulating lines, circles, polygons and their intersections? A Robert Burns Woodward who could fill up a whole blackboard with stunningly beautiful colored handrawn structures and make this chemical canvas the primary focus of his three-hour talk can exist only in chemistry.
While contemplating these elegant structures, our original question arises again: is the beauty in these drawings the truth? What is worth reiterating in this case is that almost all the structures that chemists draw are purely convenient fictions! Consider the quintessential prototype aromatic hydrocarbon, benzene, drawn with its alternating double bonds. In reality there are no double bonds, not even dotted lines representing partial double bonds. The same goes for every other molecule that we draw on paper in which one-dimensional geometric representations completely fail to live up to the task of corresponding to real entities. Like almost everything else in chemistry, these are models. And yet, think about how stupendously useful these models are. They have made their way into the textbooks of every ambitious student of chemistry and constitute the principal tools whereby chemists around the world turn the chaff of raw materials like hydrocarbons from crude oil into the gold of immensely useful products like pharmaceuticals, plastics and catalysts. The great physicist Eugene Wigner once wrote an influential article titled ?The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences?. Wigner was expressing awe at the uncanny correspondence between artificial squiggles of mathematical symbols on paper and the real fundamental building blocks of the natural world like elementary particles. Chemists need to express similar awe at the correspondence between their arrow pushing, molecular chairs and boats and the manifestation of these manipulations as the real solids, liquids and gases in their beakers. One kind of arrow pushing leads to the creation of a cancer drug, another kind leads to a better catalyst for petroleum refining. In this instance, the beauty of molecular structures quite spectacularly corresponds to the truth.
Finally, are their cases where chemists have to sacrifice truth for beauty just like Weyl did? Unlike mathematics and physics where equations can be unusually powerful in explaining the world, such a sacrifice would probably be far more wasteful and risky in the messy world of chemistry. In his Cope Lecture, Woodward said it best when he acknowledged the special challenge of chemistry compared to mathematics:
?While in mathematics, presumably one?s imagination may run riot without limit, in chemistry, one?s ideas, however beautiful, logical, elegant, imaginative they may be in their own right, are simply without value unless they are actually applicable to the one physical environment we have- in short, they are only good if they work! I personally very much enjoy the very special challenge which this physical restraint on fantasy presents.?
The ?physical restraint on fantasy? that Woodward talked about keeps every chemist from being seduced by beauty at the expense of truth. Beauty still reigns and is a guiding force for the chemist whenever he or she plans a synthesis, solves an x-ray structure, computes a molecular property or mixes together two simple chemicals with the expectation that they will form a wondrous, intricate lattice. But unlike Keats, the chemist knows that truth can be beauty but beauty may not be truth. As Woodward quipped, ?In chemistry, ideas have to answer to reality?. And reality tends to define beauty in its own terms.
This is a modified version of a post first published on The Curious Wavefunction blog.
Legendary quarterback Dan Marino admits to fathering a lovechild with a production assistant at CBS sports, keeping their lovechild a secret. The former Miami Dolphins football star cheated on his wife of 28 years, Claire, with a woman named Donna Savattere. Donna and Dan’s daughter Chloe was born in June 2005, and is being raised ...
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