No. 10 USC blasts UCLA 50-0 in season finale (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? UCLA showed up at the Coliseum in unfamiliar all-white uniforms, flouting tradition and radiating confidence for their annual showdown with Southern California.

A few hours later, the Bruins probably wished they had packed more disguises.

Matt Barkley passed for 423 yards and six touchdowns in his possible Coliseum farewell, Robert Woods set the conference's single-season receptions record while catching 12 passes for 113 yards and two TDs, and No. 10 USC finished its resurgent season with a 50-0 demolition of Pac-12 title game-bound UCLA on Saturday night.

Kevin Prince passed for 261 yards for the Bruins (6-6, 5-4 Pac-12), who had won three of four heading into the city championship game. The Bruins changed up their look for a game usually played in both clubs' colored home uniforms, but the Trojans left them with nothing but grass stains on the backs of those slick new jerseys, posting the third-biggest blowout in rivalry history and shutting out UCLA for just the second time in 64 years.

USC won seven of its final eight games capped by this utter obliteration of the Bruins, who will represent the division at Oregon next week despite finishing two games behind the Trojans in the South standings.

"Life still goes on. We still have the opportunity to do something big in the Pac-12 championship," said UCLA tailback Derrick Coleman, who was stopped on fourth-and-goal at the USC 1 in the first quarter. "That was a shot to the gut for everybody. We can't take anything for granted. We've got to go out and take it."

After the game, the Trojans wore T-shirts proclaiming themselves to be the South division champions. UCLA had no room to argue after the postseason-banned Trojans still went out in style, jumping to a 29-point halftime lead before posting their largest victory in the city championship game since 1930, the rivalry's second year.

"Tonight they were clearly the superior team," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. "I don't think that's the case all the time. I believe we can close the gap, and we will. We weren't good enough to play a marquee team like USC."

Earlier this week, Neuheisel said he felt the Bruins had "closed the gap more" with the Trojans, who won 10 games for the eighth time in the past decade.

Mind the gap, UCLA.

"They took it very personally," USC coach Lane Kiffin said of his players. "That's a pretty strong statement to make. Did it motivate them? I don't know, but it was talked about a lot, and not much by me. I think they felt disrespected."

Despite the Bruins' Pac-12 title game berth, Neuheisel's job is thought to be in jeopardy after his fourth inconsistent season. Athletic director Dan Guerrero said Neuheisel will coach in Friday's title game, but the program will be evaluated after that.

Marqise Lee had 13 catches for 224 yards and two TDs during a showcase of offensive brilliance by the Trojans (10-2, 7-2).

"We've worked hard for this, and I think we deserve to celebrate this," said Barkley, who surpassed Matt Leinart's single-season conference record for touchdown passes. "We knew (about the postseason ban) coming into this year, and there's nothing we can do about it. We just tried to take advantage of every opportunity we did have."

With the Coliseum crowd repeatedly chanting "One more year!" Barkley was brilliant in what might have been the junior's final game at USC. He went 35 for 42 and set a Pac-12 record with his 39th touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, hitting Woods from 41 yards out to surpass Leinart's mark. Barkley also surpassed his own school record set earlier this year with 35 completions.

Barkley and left tackle Matt Kalil are near-certain first-round NFL draft picks, but they claim they haven't decided whether to return for their senior seasons and a shot at a national title with a team that's likely to be among the nation's most talented next year despite severe NCAA scholarship restrictions that start in 2012. Barkley again declined to speculate on his decision, saying he'll figure it out soon.

"Unless he wants to do it, just to be a special Trojan, he ain't coming back," Kiffin said. "He's every bit ready to go to the NFL. It's just going to be a decision, does he want to do something really unique? He might be the guy to do that."

Woods broke Keyshawn Johnson's 1995 record with his 103rd catch during the first half, while Lee joined Woods as a 1,000-yard receiver. Rhett Ellison and Randall Telfer also caught TD passes from Barkley, who had 29 scoring passes and just four interceptions in his last eight games.

Curtis McNeal added a 73-yard TD run as USC beat UCLA for the 12th time in the last 13 meetings.

Kiffin had no mercy on his rival while claiming the Victory Bell. USC went for a 2-point conversion after its third touchdown, and Barkley attempted 50-yard passes in his first two plays after halftime, hitting Lee for a 52-yard score with the second throw to take a 36-0 lead. Kiffin and Neuheisel still shared a warm postgame handshake.

The Bruins failed to score on three drives inside the USC 25 in the first half, with Prince throwing an end-zone interception to T.J. McDonald. USC's defense preserved its first shutout since Nov. 1, 2008, by stopping the Bruins on fourth down at the 7 with 2:48 to play.

USC hadn't shut out UCLA since 2001, the only other time since 1947.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_t25_ucla

cheryl hines john lackey john lackey ed lee ed lee garmin nuvi 1450 amzn

Aruba to free suspect in Md. woman's death

A judge in Aruba on Friday ordered the release of U.S. businessman Gary Giordano, who was detained in connection with the August death of his traveling companion.

The judge said Giordano, a 50-year-old employment agency owner from Gaithersburg, Maryland,? must be freed on Tuesday without any conditions.

He has been in jail since Aug. 5 while investigators sought more time to gather and evaluate evidence in the death of 35-year-old Robyn Gardner, of Frederick, Md.

Aruban Solicitor General Taco Stein said that an appeal was filed later Friday and that a hearing could take place Monday.

  1. Only on msnbc.com

    1. Updated 79 minutes ago 11/25/2011 11:47:27 PM +00:00 American filmmaker in Cairo tells of arrest ordeal
    2. Black Friday shoppers get bargains, less brouhaha
    3. UK town records song for war dead
    4. Laboratory pups get first taste of freedom in US
    5. Occupy movement targets Black Friday; 16 arrested
    6. Your stories: What you're thankful for
    7. How the Finns stole Thanksgiving
Video: Aruba judge orders release of suspect in Gardner case (on this page)

"If you file a charge then you have to write the suspicions you have, and that means you have to be clear about what exactly has happened," Stein told NBC Washington.

"As long as we don't have the body or we don't have trace evidence or we don't have the material to bring us to a conclusion on that, it's very difficult to make a charge, because the only thing at this point in time you can say is she went missing on the second of August and we presume she's dead but we don't have evidence to that effect," he added.

"We feel that a crime has been committed," Stein said. "We still see Mr. Giordano as the main suspect in that."

Stein added that Giordano could be extradited back to Aruba if prosecutors felt they had enough evidence to go to court.

Video: Surveillance video shows ?carefree? Robyn Gardner (on this page)

Giordano has said that Gardner was swept out to sea on Aug. 2 while snorkeling. Her body has not been found.

Investigators developed Giordano as a suspect because he tried to cash in on a travel insurance policy he took out on Gardner and there were inconsistencies in his story, authorities have said.

Giordano was initially detained Aug. 5 at the airport before he could leave the island and his detention has been extended several times since then.

"It's our intention and our determination to continue this investigation and to see to it to bring about the truth, not only for the island but especially for the relatives of Robyn, especially this time of year with the holidays coming up," Stein told NBC Washington. "It must be very hard on them that this situation still exists."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45436559/ns/world_news-americas/

noreaster steve miller band boston weather kara dioguardi thomas kinkade the shining stanford

In "The Artist," silence is golden (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Actor Jean Dujardin won this year's best actor award at the Cannes film festival for playing a man who hardly says a word, but not because his character couldn't speak. In fact, he says quite a lot.

Dujardin stars in "The Artist," a silent movie made more than 80 years after those films gave way to "talkies," and the movie has Hollywood buzzing with Oscar talk. Directed by Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius, it tells of a silent film star (Dujardin) whose career is cut short by the advent of sound.

"People think silent movies are intellectual," Hazanavicius told Reuters about his old-is-new-again creation. "It's just the opposite. It's really sensual. Instead, talking movies use dialogue in an intellectual way to tell stories."

In "The Artist," Dujardin plays George Valentin, a pompous leading man in 1920's Hollywood. French actress Berenice Bejo plays Peppy Miller, an ingenue looking for a big break.

The pair meet and fall in love, but the advent of talkies brings divergent fortunes. Valentin's career implodes, while the singing and dancing Miller rockets to stardom.

"The Artist" is, at its heart, a rather simple tale of personal redemption and love, but making a silent movie in these modern days of action, special effects and 3D was anything but easy.

"Everybody tells you that it's not do-able because nobody wants to see a silent movie," he said. "The first person I had to convince was myself."

Giving Hazanavicius and his investors confidence was his enthusiasm for the project and his success with a pair of spy spoofs, "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "OSS 117: Lost in Rio." Those movies mimicked early James Bond such as 1962's "Dr. No," and starred Dujardin in the lead role.

SILENT CHALLENGES

Bringing back the silent form for modern audiences was itself the obvious challenge, Hazanavicius said, noting that what appears to be a simpler storytelling form is deceptively complicated for both the filmmaker and audience.

"It's a paradox, in a way. The actors are very far from reality. You can't hear them. They are black-and-white," he explained. "But you fill the gap, as an audience, with your imagination. You create the voice, you create the sound design, you create your own dialogue."

And casting, he said, was also critical, because he needed actors who were experts at expressing ideas, thoughts and emotions with their body movements and facial expressions.

Dujardin recalled that when he first read the script, he was impressed by the director's ambition, but he admitted he was initially nervous about some of the more dramatic scenes.

"Up until then, we'd made comedies where we had a lot of fun with characters and situations," he explained. "'The Artist' was full of emotion. I was touched by all it said about cinema, its history and actors.

"I had no lines to hold on to ... But I discovered that silent film was almost an advantage. You just have to think of the feeling for it to show," Dujardin said.

The coming of sound permanently altered the language of cinema, transforming an image-focused medium into one often driven by words. But Hazanavicius feels something more was compromised.

"We lost a universal language and something which was really specific to the medium: to tell a story with moving images," he said.

It's no coincidence that many of Hollywood's greatest directors got their start in silent films: John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Raoul Walsh and Howard Hawks, to name a few.

Still, the director readily concedes that comedic filmmakers like Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges made witty and sophisticated dialogue their trademark.

"If you look at a great director like Ernst Lubitsch, his talking comedies are much better than his silent comedies."

And yet, Hazanavicius said he discovered that making a silent film gave him a better understanding of his craft.

"Watching a silent, I get the same feeling I had when I was a child looking at the movies in theaters," he confides. "I wanted to share that experience with an audience today."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Chris Michaud)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/en_nm/us_theartist

hugo hugo mars rover mars rover the muppets sugar bowl trent richardson

3 American students arrested in Cairo back in US (AP)

ST. LOUIS ? Three American college students detained for several harrowing days in Egypt before obtaining their release as deadly protests swept Cairo have flown home to freedom, one describing an ordeal so terrifying he wasn't sure he would survive it.

"I was not sure I was going to live," 19-year-old college student Derrik Sweeney told The Associated Press by telephone moments after his relieved parents, other relatives and dozens of supporters swamped him with hugs as he got off a flight in St. Louis.

Sweeney, the last of the three to arrive late Saturday, recounted how tear gas clouded Cairo's streets and he heard the rumbling of armored vehicles and what sounded like shots being fired just before his arrest a week earlier. Suddenly, the drama involving thousands of demonstrators in the streets had become intensely personal.

Egyptian authorities later announced that they had arrested Sweeney and two others studying abroad ? 19-year-old Gregory Porter and 21-year-old Luke Gates ? on the rooftop of a university building near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and a focal point of protests raging in that capital.

Officials had accused the young men of throwing firebombs at Egyptian security forces who were clashing with the protesters. Sweeney said Saturday that he and the other Americans "never did anything to hurt anyone," never were on the rooftop and never handled or threw explosives.

Sweeney said he and the others were told by a group the night of their arrest that they would be led "to a safe place" amid the chaos engulfing the nearby square. Next, he said, they found themselves being taken into custody, hit, and forced to lay for about six hours in a near fetal position in the darkness with their hands behind their backs.

The worst, he said, was when they were threatened with guns.

"They said if we moved at all, even an inch, they would shoot us. They were behind us with guns," Sweeney said in the brief interview.

That night in detention ? "probably the scariest night of my life ever" ? gave way to much better treatment in ensuing days, he said. Sweeney didn't elaborate on who he believed was holding him the opening night but he called the subsequent treatment humane.

"There was really marked treatment between the first night and the next three nights or however long it was. The first night, it was kind of rough. They were hitting us; they were saying they were going to shoot us and they were putting us in really uncomfortable positions. But after that first night, we were treated in a just manner ... we were given food when we needed and it was OK."

He also said he was then able to speak with a U.S. consular official, his mother and obtain legal counsel. He also said he denied the accusations during what he called proper questioning by Egyptian authorities. The three were studying at American University in Cairo.

A court ordered the students' release Thursday and they took separate connecting flights out of Cairo via Germany on Saturday, a day of fresh clashes between Egyptian security forces and protesters. The demonstrators are demanding Egypt's military step down ahead of parliamentary elections due to start Monday.

Porter and Gates were first to arrive back in their home states late Saturday, greeted by family members in emotional airport reunions.

Neither Gates nor Porter recounted any details of the past week in Egypt, where protests erupted Nov. 19 and have continued for days amid sporadic scenes of police firing tear gas and using armored vehicles to chase rock-throwing protesters. Authorities said more than 40 people have died in the unrest.

"I'm not going to take this as a negative experience. It's still a great country," said Gates, his parents wrapping their arms around him, shortly after getting off a flight in Indianapolis.

In another scene played out at Philadelphia International Airport, Porter was met by his parents and other relatives earlier Saturday evening after he landed.

Porter took no questions, saying he was thankful for the help he and the other American students received from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, administrators at the university they were attending, and attorneys in Egypt and the U.S.

"I'm just so thankful to be back, to be in Philadelphia right now," said Porter, who is from nearby Glenside, Pa., and attends Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Joy Sweeney said waiting for her son had been grueling.

"He still hasn't processed what a big deal this is," she told the AP before his arrival in St. Louis , about 130 miles east of their home in Jefferson City, Mo.

She said she was trying not to dwell on the events and was just ecstatic that her son, a student at Georgetown University in Washington, was coming home before the close of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

___

Matheson reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press photographer Michael Conroy contributed to this report from Indianapolis and AP writers Bill Cormier in Atlanta; Maggie Michael in Cairo; Andale Gross and Erin Gartner in Chicago; Sandy Kozel in Washington; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis; and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia also contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_re_us/us_egypt_american_students

kenyon martin kenyon martin lizard lick towing jenny mccarthy megatron richard simmons war of 1812

Lawyer: US students held in Egypt freed

A court in Egypt has ordered the release of three American students arrested during the unrest in Cairo, NBC News has confirmed.

Derrik Sweeney, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student, Luke Gates, a 21-year-old Indiana University student, and Gregory Porter, a 19-year-old Drexel University student, were arrested on Sunday on the roof of the American University near Tahrir Square where they were allegedly throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.

Their release, announced by their lawyer, came as protesters demanding the removal of Egypt's ruling military council observed a truce after five days of deadly street battles in which at least 40 people have died.

Egypt's military also issued a statement on Thursday apologizing for the loss of life and vowing to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of protesters in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and elsewhere in the country.

Army troops have used metal bars and barbed wire to build barricades to separate the protesters and the police on side streets leading from Tahrir to the nearby Interior Ministry. Most of the fighting has been taking place on those side streets.

The truce came into force around 6 a.m. and was still holding by late morning.

Joy Sweeney said the consul general confirmed around 6 a.m. Thursday that Derrik will be released.

"I was elated, I was absolutely elated," Sweeney told The Associated Press. "I can't wait to give him a huge hug and tell him how much I love him."

She said she hoped her son will head home to Jefferson City, Mo., on Friday.

Sweeney called home late on Wednesday and said he was being treated relatively well under the circumstances but denied doing anything wrong during a protest in Cairo, she said earlier.

She had a 90-second conversation with Derrik at about 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday while he was using the phone of the consul general. She said he told her he had been fed and wasn't being tortured, and that he insisted that he hadn't done anything wrong.

  1. Only on msnbc.com

    1. Updated 84 minutes ago 11/24/2011 4:24:40 PM +00:00 Your stories: What you're thankful for
    2. Inside the first family?s Thanksgiving feast
    3. Despite paralysis, Iraq vet is thankful to be a dad
    4. List inspires NBC reporter to write about Holocaust
    5. High finance comes bearing gifts to Occupy London
    6. Look out kids, here comes the 'Wolf Daddy'
    7. 'Grateful to be alive': Teen rescues woman from fire

"That was just a blessing to hear his voice," she said.

"I said, 'Did you throw anything off a roof?' And he said 'No, I didn't.' And then I said, 'Did you do anything else?' He said, 'No, none of us did.'"

The parents of Sweeney and Gates said that they have been in Cairo since August, studying Arabic at the American University.

Meanwhile an American film maker and journalist was arrested by Egyptian police while documenting clashes in Tahrir Square, she told a colleague by phone.

Video: Protesters throw stones, conflict grows in Cairo (on this page)

Karim Amer, the producer for Jehane Nojaim ? an award-winning film maker of Egyptian ancestry who is best-known for her al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room" ? said Nojaim was detained and her camera was confiscated.

Amer said he was separated from her after they both fled from tear gas.

Egyptian-American columnist and activist Mona Eltahawy, who regularly appears on news channels as a self-described "speaker on Arab and Muslim issues" was also reportedly arrested in Cairo.

"Beaten arrested in interior ministry," she posted on her Twitter account overnight.

She tweeted "I AM FREE" at about 5:30 a.m. ET, and then sent several messages saying she had been beaten and sexually assaulted, using strong language to condemn the Egyptian police.

She also said her right hand was "so swollen I can't close it." She posted a picture of her hand. She tweeted she was being taken to hospital.

The U.S. Department of State tweeted early Thursday that it was aware of the reports that Nojaim and Elthawy had been arrested and said the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was "engaging authorities."

First free election in decades
In the first significant pause in violence since Saturday, clashes stopped at midnight in Tahrir Square and elsewhere after protesters agreed with police to stay put.

But the thousands who thronged the square were undeterred in their determination to protest at the deaths of more than 30 people in the violence and reject the army's offer of a referendum on its rule.

"He goes, we won't," declared one banner in a reference to the head of the military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

In light of the violence, Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy presented a report to the military council proposing a postponement of the parliamentary election planned for November 28, al-Jazeera television said on Thursday, quoting unnamed sources. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.

Slideshow: Violent clashes in Egypt (on this page)

The election, due to begin on Monday, has been billed as Egypt's first free vote in decades.

The army and the Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to do well in the election, says it must go ahead but many protesters are unwilling to trust the army to oversee a clean vote and hand real control of the country to the winner.

The generals' popularity has waned in the nine months since they nudged President Hosni Mubarak from office and swore to steer the country toward civilian democracy, as suspicion grew that they were maneuvering to stay in power beyond elections.

Tantawi has pledged to bring forward a presidential vote and offered a new interim government but the demonstrators are unconvinced.

"The military council must leave and hand power to civilians. They don't want to leave so that their corruption isn't exposed," said 23-year-old student Ahmed Essam.

He said he joined the protests when he saw riot police raining blows on peaceful demonstrators on Saturday. "Everything is like in Mubarak's time," he said.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45426434/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

waldorf school new orleans saints world series game 4 world series game 4 indianapolis colts colts colts

Medvedev suggests prosecution for Russia space failure

MOSCOW | Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:19am EST

MOSCOW

(Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev raised the prospect of criminal prosecution for space mishaps on Saturday following a series of failed launches that have embarrassed Russia.

Earlier this month, a probe designed to bring back soil samples from the Mars moon Phobos got stuck in Earth's orbit, leaving Russia's first interplanetary mission in years with almost no chance of success.

The probe failure came less than three months after a cargo ship carrying food and fuel to the International Space Station burned up in the atmosphere shortly after launch.

"Recent failures are a strong blow to our competitiveness. It does not mean that something fatal has happened, it means that we need to carry out a detailed review and punish those guilty," Medvedev told reporters in televised comments.

"I am not suggesting putting them up against the wall like under Josef Vissarionovich (Stalin), but seriously punish either financially or, if the fault is obvious, it could be a disciplinary or even criminal punishment," he said.

Medvedev has recently made similar calls for strict punishment after disasters blamed on carelessness, corruption and problems with Russia's rusty infrastructure, such as a riverboat sinking in July that killed 122.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Steve Gutterman and Sophie Hares)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/_Gpz2kAfTUo/us-russia-space-idUSTRE7AP0FI20111126

all hallows eve all saints day all saints day bernard madoff dallas cowboys ct news hemlock

Serena Williams Loses To Venus Williams In Exhibition Tennis Match In Colombia

US tennis player Venus Williams returns a ball to her sister Serena Williams during an exhibition match at La Macarena bullring in Medellin on November 23, 2011. Venus won 6-4, 7-6 (7/4). AFP PHOTO/Raul ARBOLEDA (Photo credit should read RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images)

US tennis player Venus Williams returns a ball to her sister Serena Williams during an exhibition match at La Macarena bullring in Medellin on November 23, 2011. Venus won 6-4, 7-6 (7/4). AFP PHOTO/Raul ARBOLEDA (Photo credit should read RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images)

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/24/serena-williams-loses-to-venus-williams-tennis-colombia_n_1112104.html

snl boxing news boxing andy dalton miami marlins waterboarding corporal kelsey de santis

Why gratitude is good for business, year round - Fortune Management

By Vickie Elmer, contributor

FORTUNE -- When Kristina Bouweiri started hosting customer appreciation lunches in 2009, she thought she was just helping a friend boost her lagging business.

Little did she know that the lunches, which have been held in posh restaurants around Washington, D.C. like The Palm and Capital Grille, would introduce her to almost 900 of her clients, giving her own business a jolt.

Bouweiri's unexpected success is testament to the power of appreciation and gratitude in business.

"Instead of going after new business, we decided to go back to old clients and thank them, and develop relationships," she says. For almost 20 years, her company Reston Limousine had done little or nothing to thank its almost 20,000 clients. Now, says Bouweiri, "I consider it the most important initiative that I have."

As opposed to showing appreciation one day a year -- at Thanksgiving or New Year's or in an annual customer appreciation sale -- some businesses are building it into their daily and weekly plans and policies. And they are seeing the benefits to this approach: Workers are often more engaged when they feel appreciated and customers are more likely to come back and give referrals.

"Gratitude motivates positive reciprocal behavior," says Randy Raggio, a marketing professor at the University of Richmond. If a customer believes that a business has his best interests at heart, that customer is more inclined to develop a long-term relationship with the business.

Raggio first grew interested in gratitude in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when the state of Louisiana ran a thank-you-for donations campaign. Many people who saw the campaign were more likely to donate or volunteer in the future, according to his research, even those who had not previously participated in that particular campaign.

A business might show their appreciation by having private sales for their best customers, by offering a few chocolates with the bill, or simply by saying thanks for your business. It needs to be genuine and it's better if it's not open to all.

Customer appreciation, Raggio says, usually comes in the form referring a friend, writing a positive review online, or perhaps a willingness to pay more later on.

For years, Susan Whitcomb says she has made good use of gratitude at her Fresno, Calif.-based leadership coaching business, The Academies. This year, she decided she would write a list of "10 things I'm grateful about you" for each of her four staffers, which she says she'll give to them just before Thanksgiving. One of the notes acknowledges a colleague's "courage to stretch," learn to make sales calls, manage others, and her "commitment to make me look good."

While she admits that she cannot quantify how that has helped her businesses, Whitcomb says she knows it has helped during the recession's slowest months.

Gratitude is an effective tool largely because "it is a precursor to develop trust," says Betsy Bugg Holloway, a marketing professor at Samford University in Birmingham, Al. And trust itself is an extremely powerful driver for loyalty, no matter the type of relationship. Just the same, gratitude is only valuable when it comes across as genuine.

"It's not meant to be any magical formula for wealth," says John Kralik, author of A Simple Act of Gratitude. He started writing notes in 2008, as his life and law firm were both suffering. His firm was losing money and had lost its office lease. "I was very embarrassed that I couldn't provide the Christmas bonuses that I had always provided to my employees," he recalls.

So he wrote appreciation notes to his staff, and sent similar notes to clients who paid their bills on time. He wrote to his children, his friends, and to lawyers who sent a client his way. Kralik says one of the lawyers wrote back to him, saying that he had no idea Kralik would want a client like that. "If you like one, I have 10 more," the lawyer wrote.

He sees the link between the thank-you notes and his business thriving again. "As you take care of the paying clients, they pay even faster. They value you," he says. One client's timely check allowed his firm to relocate and pay the new rent. Others brought him more business. "When you're feeling especially crummy, it's a good time to sit down and write about 10 thank-you notes," Kralik says.

Heidi Kallett had been sending out thank-you notes, but she was looking for another way to keep her stationery and gifts stores, The Dandelion Patch, going. So she and her friend, the limousine company owner, came up with what they thought would be a one-time client appreciation lunch, and invited administrative assistants at the companies that used the limousine company.

The lunches work especially well because assistants are hardly invited to special meals but often watch their bosses head off to a fancy business lunch.

"We don't sell anything. It's very low key. We just stand up and introduce ourselves for two minutes," says Kallett. Then they give away door prizes and swag bags.

Bouweiri came up with a dozen other local business owners who also would be interested in meeting her clients; these partners and others now sponsor the event - and serve as "ambassadors" for the limo company in their circles.

The appreciation lunches have paid off: Last year, revenues at the company increased by 27%, mostly as a result, she says, of the client appreciation lunches, which are held about 10 times a year. Even when she raised rates 10% and added a fuel surcharge in September 2009, "customers were not batting an eyelash. We've created long-term lasting relationships," she says.

"I came up with this idea because I was trying to help Heidi -- and I ended up helping myself," said Bouweiri.

Source: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/23/why-gratitude-is-good-for-business-year-round/

florida state football fsu football fsu football do a barrelroll bérénice marlohe bérénice marlohe google offers

Researchers surprised to find fatty liver disease poses no excess risk for death

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common condition associated with obesity and heart disease long thought to undermine health and longevity. But a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests the condition does not affect survival.

A report on the study was published online last week in BMJ, the British medical journal.

"Physicians have considered fatty liver disease a really worrisome risk factor for cardiovascular disease," says study leader Mariana Lazo, M.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research. "Our data analysis shows this doesn't appear to be the case. We were surprised to say the least because we expected to learn by how much non-alcoholic fatty liver disease increased the risk of death and instead found the answer was not at all."

Using health information collected from 11,371 Americans between 1994 and 1998 and followed for up to 18 years as part of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), the researchers checked liver enzyme levels and ultrasound tests for evidence of NAFLD, and ultimately looked at death rates associated with NAFLD. The participants ranged in age from 20 to 74 during the data collection years. Because the ultrasounds were originally taken to assess gallbladder health, Lazo and colleagues from Johns Hopkins looked at each recording to determine the presence of fat in each person's liver. People whose livers are 5 percent fat or more are considered to have NAFLD.

The Johns Hopkins team found no increase in mortality among those with NAFLD, which was identified in approximately 20 percent of the NHANES participants. At the end of the follow-up period, mortality from all causes was 22 percent, or 1,836 individuals. Cardiovascular disease was the cause of death for 716 participants, cancer for 480 and liver disease for 44.

Although the researchers found no increase in deaths, Lazo says further study is needed to determine whether more advanced NAFLD has serious long-term consequences for the liver, a vital organ that turns what we eat and drink into nutrients and filters harmful substances from the blood.

NAFLD, which some researchers have called the nation's next epidemic, is characterized by the liver's inability to break down fats and fatty build up in the organ. Found in roughly one in three Americans, it is most prevalent in those who are obese, and those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The spectrum of disease ranges from simple fat build-up to inflammation to the scarring and poor liver function that characterize cirrhosis. Chronic liver disease has long been associated with long-term alcohol consumption, but as the name suggests, NAFLD is found in those who are not heavy drinkers.

"We don't yet know why mortality is not affected or whether there might be some actual protective effect of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease," she says, "but it looks like the liver's ability to accumulate fat may somehow shield the body from the detrimental effects of other health problems such as obesity and diabetes," she says.

There is no treatment for NAFLD, other than lifestyle changes, including weight loss, and only a liver biopsy can determine how serious NAFLD is. Lazo says she hopes new methods are developed that more easily identify more advanced stages of NAFLD, which may not be harmless.

Still, she says, her research suggests that with respect to long-term survival of people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, "it may not matter if you have the disease or not."

###

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org

Thanks to Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 76 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115458/Researchers_surprised_to_find_fatty_liver_disease_poses_no_excess_risk_for_death

bob knight lavar arrington yu darvish hope solo dancing with the stars hope solo dancing with the stars jack wagner matt jones