PSA: Box offering 25GB free space in football-themed promo

While Box likes to hand out large amounts of cloud storage like so much candy, it's only so useful when the capacity is often linked to new devices. At least for a short while, there's no strings attached: to coincide with a recent big football event, the company is reviving a promo strategy that gives away 25GB of space to new customers on free plans. As always, there's catches. The account has to be for personal use, and you'll still deal with the 250MB file size cap from the ordinary free tier. If those aren't obstacles, we'd hurry -- Box doesn't say when the deal ends, and there's no guarantee that it's as fond of sports as some of us.

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Via: Mobile Geeks (translated)

Source: Box

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/08/psa-box-offering-25gb-free-space-in-football-themed-promo/

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Chinese world worries that Year of Snake may bite

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) ? As Indiana Jones might say: Why did it have to be the Year of the Snake?

When the Chinese-speaking world ushers in its new year on Sunday, its 12-year zodiac will turn from the dragon to one of the world's most despised animals. As undeserved as the snake's reputation might be, its last two years did not go so well: 2001 was the year of the Sept. 11 attacks and 1989 was when Chinese forces crushed pro-democracy protests around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Some wonder if this one also could hold bad tidings. "In Chinese mythology, snakes were often associated with monsters, or with incarnations of monsters, so some political turbulence can be expected," said Taiwanese astrologer Tsai Shang-chi.

Chinese New Year remains the most important festival in the region, a weeklong round of family reunions, temple visits and gastronomic excess. It is Mardi Gras, Christmas and the Fourth of July rolled into one, marked by the clacking of mahjong tiles and explosions of firecrackers. With businesses and markets hermetically closed, it brings a rare calm to the otherwise frenetic pace of what is arguably the world's most dynamic economic region.

In China, some couples have apparently been trying to schedule their pregnancies to avoid having children born during the snake year, in contrast to the coveted Year of the Dragon.

In Beijing, a manager with the government office that arranges appointments with obstetricians said there was a noticeable drop in appointment requests compared to those received as the Year of the Dragon approached, though she offered no firm statistics. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the press.

For souvenir makers, snakes have been a tough sell.

"Last year, our business was a lot better, because everybody loves the dragon, whatever his or her animal sign," said Lin Peixiang, who owns the Beixiang Souvenir Factory in the city of Wenzhou. "This year, business is a lot worse, because only those born in the year of the snake love the animal. The snake sign is a symbol of fear. People get scared when they see or hear the snake."

But if many fear the snake, some astrologers and masters of feng shui, the Chinese art of arranging objects and choosing dates to improve luck, also see good signs for 2013.

Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo is trying to put a positive spin on the year. He points out that according to astrological tables, this year's variety is the relatively mild "morning dew" type of common water snake, less venomous than recent predecessors.

"It's more moderate, humble and patient," Lo said of the 2013 snake. He added that he is bullish on the year's prospects for the world as a whole, and sees good opportunities for economic growth.

Still, Lo said, people should probably take precautions against the snake's traditionally destructive power, perhaps by wearing monkey pendants around their necks. That goes double for anyone born in a year of the snake, he said, like incoming Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Xi's 1953 birth coincided with the final convulsions of the Korean War.

"The monkey is the only animal that really knows how to handle the snake," Lo said.

Tsai is also largely upbeat on the new Chinese year. He believes much-needed liquidity will be injected into struggling world economies, and that babies born over the next 12 months will be both self-motivated and agile.

On the down side, he warned, there could also be massive flooding and tsunamis.

The New Year's season is implacably festive, and people have been out in force in cities across the region in recent days, stocking up on provisions and traditional new year symbols.

In Taipei, revelers were particularly enamored of snake-shaped paper lanterns supplied by the municipal government, as well as coins imprinted with snake logos and snake-like toys thought to bring good luck.

At the Temple of White Snakes in suburban Taoyuan county, director Lo Chin-shih presided over a glass-encased display of dozens of slithering snakes, replete with flashing pink tongues and slowly molting skin, a symbol of change, renewal and hope for a better future.

Lo said this snake year will be a time of steady progress, in contrast to the more turbulent nature of the outgoing dragon year.

"Unlike dragons that make abrupt, attention-getting moves, snakes take slow and steady steps," he said, making it clear he considers the hiss of the Year of the Snake worse than its bite.

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Annie Ho and K.M. Chan in Hong Kong and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-world-worries-snake-may-bite-062719651.html

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Kerry says US weighing Syria options; mum on arms

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the United States is evaluating new options to halt Syria's civil war, but he refused to weigh into administration debates over whether to arm the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime.

In his first news conference as secretary, Kerry said the Obama administration was looking at the crisis anew and hoping to find a diplomatic solution. But he sidestepped specifically addressing a question over providing military assistance to the anti-Assad opposition.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress on Thursday that they had recommended offering military support to the rebels but were rebuffed by President Barack Obama.

"My sense right now is that everybody in the administration and people in other parts of the world are deeply distressed by the continued violence in Syria," Kerry told reporters alongside Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird. "There's too much killing. There's too much violence. And we obviously want to try to find a way forward."

"We are evaluating now," he said. "We're taking a look at what steps, if any, diplomatic particularly, might be able to be taken in an effort to try to reduce that violence and deal with that situation."

Kerry's suggestion of a possible new American approach comes after Panetta and Dempsey gave the Senate a glimpse of the internal disagreements over how forcefully the U.S. should respond to violence that has killed some 60,000 people in the last two years. Both military leaders said they supported providing weapons to the rebels, but that the president made the final decision against such action.

Washington has struggled throughout Syria's civil war to come up with a policy that would help end the bloodshed and hasten Assad's departure. Obama called on the Syrian leader to leave power in August 2011, but the United States has refused to entertain any notion of military intervention by patrolling Syria's skies to prevent government airstrikes or by handing out advanced weaponry to Syrian rebels.

U.S. officials have noted that, unlike in Libya, there is no U.N. mandate for any direct American military involvement such as a no-fly zone. And officials believe any plan to provide weapons would only further militarize a conflict that needs to be resolved with some sort of political transition. There is also fear that if the weapons end up in the hands of terrorists and extremist groups they can later turn on nearby Israel or other U.S. allies and interests in the region.

Kerry said he wasn't privy to all the details of the administration's internal deliberations.

"I don't know what the discussions were in the White House and who said what, and I'm not going to go backward," Kerry said at the end of his first full week in his new job. "This is a new administration now, the president's second term, I'm a new secretary of state and we're going forwards from this point."

But Kerry underscored the numerous challenges hindering the possibility of a more activist approach, citing the threat of the rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra ? the Obama administration has designated it a foreign terrorist organization ? and the influx of fighters from al-Qaida in Iraq. "It is a very complicated and very dangerous situation," he said. "And everybody understands it is a place that has chemical weapons, and we are deeply concerned about that."

In the past months, several officials in the State Department, Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency have said that giving weapons to carefully vetted rebels could help blunt the influence of extremists like al-Nusra among the rebel ranks. Such U.S. assistance, according to proponents, might also be remembered in a post-Assad Syria and provide the United States a new partner in a place that it has generally met hostility during the four decades of the Assad family dynasty.

The counterargument maintained that giving weapons posed too great a risk, according to other officials who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk publicly about internal matters. The White House, in particular, was wary in the weeks preceding Obama's re-election and hasn't changed its mind because the nonextremist opposition still lacks cohesiveness and because there is no compelling national security reason for direct US weapons supplies.

It's unclear whether Kerry has formed his own opinion. Asked during his confirmation hearing last month about new options for Syria, he said he needed to first see the administration's contingency plans.

"What I do know is that there are a lot of weapons there," he said. "There are people in the Gulf, and you know who they are, who are not hesitating to provide weapons. And that's one of the reasons, together with the fact that al-Nusra has been introduced to the equation that the movement on the ground is faster than the movement in the politics."

Looking ahead to nuclear talks later this month between Iran and senior officials from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, Kerry warned Iran to come prepared to talk seriously about concerns over its nuclear program.

If Iran does what it needs to do to prove its nuclear intentions are peaceful, Kerry said the international community is prepared to respond positively. If not, he said Iran will only face increased international isolation.

Kerry reminded the Iranian leadership that Obama has taken no options off the table, including military force, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"Iran has a choice," he said. "They have to prove to the world that it is peaceful and we are prepared to sit responsibly and negotiate how they can do that and how we can all be satisfied."

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-says-us-weighing-syria-options-mum-arms-201644546--politics.html

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China's trade picks up, inflation eases

BEIJING (AP) ? China's trade picked up and inflation eased in January as a shaky economic recovery gained traction.

Much of the change was due to the Lunar New Year holiday, which distorts China's economic data each year. But analysts said data reported Friday looked promising.

Export growth accelerated to 25 percent from the previous month's 14.1 percent as companies rushed to fill orders before shutting down for a holiday break of up to two weeks. Import growth accelerated to 28 percent, more than quadruple the previous month's 6 percent.

China's trade growth has rebounded in recent months in a sign of economic recovery but longer-term trade measures are likely to show lower growth than January's double-digit increase. Analysts say the recovery will be gradual and too weak to support a global rebound without improvement in the United States and Europe.

"Seeing the underlying trend is a little difficult. Nevertheless, the data were above expectations and seem generally positive," said Moody's Analytics economist Alaistair Chan in a report.

Last year's Lunar New Year shutdown began in January, leaving fewer work days and boosting this year's figures by comparison. This year's holiday falls entirely in February, which will make this month's trade look unusually weak.

Once holiday distortions are factored out, trade growth for the first three months of the year should be in high single digits, said Goldman Sachs economists in a report.

China's economic growth ticked up in the final quarter of last year from a three-year low. The World Bank and private sector forecasters expect economic growth of about 7.5 percent this year. That would be stronger than the West and Japan but China's weakest performance since the 1990s.

Inflation eased to 2 percent in January from the previous month's 2.5 percent despite a 37 percent jump in vegetable prices after the coldest winter in seven years damaged crops, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. Vegetable prices in some areas soared 74.6 percent.

The inflation decline was due in part to comparison with last January, when the Lunar New Year holiday began earlier and food prices spiked as families stocked up for banquets. This year, the food price spike will show up in February data.

Pressure for prices to rise has increased in recent months, possibly constraining Beijing's ability to support the recovery if needed with more spending or interest rate cuts. Inflation is politically dangerous in a society where the poorest families spend up to half their incomes on food.

Beijing is pinning its hopes for recovery on government-driven investment and domestic consumer spending. That is rising but not as fast as authorities want, forcing the government to fill the gap with spending on building subways and other public works.

Analysts warn China's recovery could be vulnerable if trade or government spending weaken. Societe Generale said last month there still is a chance of a "hard landing," with growth dropping below 6 percent, which would be dangerously low for China.

"A deceleration is likely by the end of the year if further stimulus measures are not forthcoming, which they probably won't because of latent inflation pressures," said Chan of Moody's. "Exports are expected to record moderate growth as the global economy recovers."

China's global trade surplus widened 6.5 percent from January 2012 to $29.2 billion. Exports were $187.4 billion while imports totaled $158.2 billion.

The politically volatile trade surplus with the United States, which has temporarily overtaken the struggling European Union as China's biggest export market, narrowed by 2.8 percent from a year earlier to a still-hefty $17.2 billion.

The trade surplus with the 27-nation EU contracted 10.9 percent to $12.3 billion. Exports to France fell 6.4 percent and shipments to Italy were off 2.8 percent.

___

General Administration of Customs of China (in Chinese): www.customs.gov.cn

National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): www.stats.gov.cn

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-trade-picks-inflation-eases-071533078--finance.html

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Planning: Homeschooling Grade Six | The Parenting Passageway

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It is hard to believe I will have a sixth grader in the fall!? I have started gathering some Waldorf resources to use for grade six.

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First of all, here are a few things that I know my local Waldorf School covers in Grade Six and a few notes with what I plan to do at home:

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Main Lesson Blocks:

• Roman empire, medieval society and history? (at home, I plan on covering Rome this year and will save medieval for seventh grade.? In Eighth Grade we will do the Renaissance and voyages of discovery, and then move into Asian and American history probably more in Ninth Grade.? I just feel this is a more realistic timetable for home, and since we plan to homeschool in high school, I feel I can stretch the middle school subjects a bit.)? Resources: Christopherus Roman History and Charles Kovacs? Ancient Rome, Dorothy Harrer?s book)?
• Compositions, book reports, research projects, speech work, oral presentations, discussion, debate (see Eric Fairman?s Path of Discovery Grade Six for some neat project ideas)? ? I am putting in our year a two week block of literature.? I have not yet decided what book look at in-depth during this time. I also intend to take our daughter to see some plays during this time.
• Percents and business math, metric system,?? (Probably will use a mix of Making Math Meaningful, and The Key To Series?.Also may pull from more standard sources for practice problems)
• Physics, geology, astronomy, botany? (For physics, we will use Eric Fairman?s very clear experiments, some things I learned in my Foundation Studies course, and the book ?Physics Is Fun? by Trostli.?? I also like the books ?Physics for Kids? (a series) by Robert W. Wood that I believe was recommended in the Christopherus Homeschool materials.?? For geology, I haven?t found any resources I deem terrific except to read? ?The Living Earth? by Walther Cloos and I sort of like ?All About Rocks and Minerals? by Ann Terry White as a vintage look into geology, along with an armchair guide to the minerals and geology of my state.? We will also use our local resources ? there is a marble quarry in my state, and lots of information about minerals found here in our local museums.? For astronomy, I am thinking again about local resources available through our museums and astronomy clubs, along with Norman Davidson?s ?Sky Phenomena:? A Guide to Naked-Eye Observation of the Stars? and HA Rey?s? ?Find the Constellations?.? For botany, I am going to use these ideas put together by The Nature Institute for middle school:? http://www.natureinstitute.org/txt/ch/envir_cur2011.pdf .? I also want to cover biographies of famous physicists as we go along, and do a short block on inventors.? Whew!)
• Our local school covers South American Geography; I will do that as an early block in seventh grade and cover Europe/Middle East/North Africa this year.

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Fine and Applied Arts

• Calligraphy
• Clay modeling? (Arthur Auer?s book ?Learning About The World Through Modeling?)
• Advanced Handwork ( we have a co-op and I am so grateful for our handwork teacher!)
• Woodwork (we have a co-op with a woodworking teacher that I am so grateful for!)
• Drama (we get this mainly through our place of worship?s spring musical)
• Geometric Drawing

I would add in here? other painting and drawing, even though it is not listed separately on our local school?s list.? Wet on dry painting? is tops on my list.??? There are good examples on Eugene Schwarz?s DVD of Sixth Grade in conjunction with mineralogy, and in the book ?Painting In Waldorf Education?.

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Music

• Soprano and alto recorder (I am a flautist but I have to say our use of Choroi flutes never really took off and I am planning on trying a simple pearwood or maple recorder this year with my sixth grader ? my second grader is still using a Choroi pentatonic flute.? Better late than never!? And there is recorder music for heading into medieval and renaissance time periods!)
• Choral music (we get this through our place of worship, which has a program through the Royal School of? Church Music to move through the levels of being a chorister. Very British indeed!)
• Wind ensemble or orchestra (my rising sixth grader plays guitar and is playing some in our place of worship in an ensemble)

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Movement

• Eurythmy (I plan to do copper rods with poetry. copper balls and other movement.? Copper rods are perfect for the gesture of the adolescent!)
• Sports (my oldest is in rhythmic gymnastics, which is a mix of dance, ballet and gymnastics and involves a lot of performing elements)

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Foreign Language

• Spanish? (continuing with mainstream resources at this point and using the book ?Senderos? as a reference
• German?? (continuing with mainstream resources; our children did attend a Saturday morning German School for a few years and now don?t and we also don?t have German tutoring anymore, so I need to think about how to continue German!)
• And it is not listed in our local school?s list, but we just started Latin through our homeschool co-op this Spring and will continue next year.

Would love to hear what you are planning for fall,

Carrie

This entry was posted in Uncategorized by Carrie. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://theparentingpassageway.com/2013/02/08/planning-homeschooling-grade-six/

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Keyword Domain - UK Business Forums

I have notice a keyword domain has come on the market, its actually in an auction, there is no website I'm simply looking at the domain and if it would help my seo.

So is it worth buying a domain which is an exact match to my chosen keywords or am I better off concentrating on seo on these keywords on my current website?

Thanks

Source: http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=287059

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Vonn to have surgery on torn ligaments, broken bone

SCHLADMING, Austria (AP) -- Lindsey Vonn will head home for surgery in Colorado next week after tearing two ligaments in her right knee and breaking a bone in her lower leg in a crash at the world championships.

Vonn said Wednesday that she plans to compete in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which start in 12 months. She was released from the hospital late Tuesday and returned to the team hotel.

''I am grateful to my fans for the outpouring of support, which has really helped me stay positive,'' Vonn said in a statement. ''I can assure you that I will work as hard as humanly possible to be ready to represent my country next year in Sochi.''

The Olympic downhill champion will have surgery next week in Vail, Colo. Because of intense media attention, neither she nor the U.S. Ski Team would say when she's leaving Austria.

''She'll be heading back to Vail (Colorado) and I will be doing surgery on her knee early next week,'' team physician William Sterett told The Associated Press on Wednesday. ''Lindsey is doing well. She's in good spirits.''

Sterett would not set a return date to skiing for Vonn until after the surgery, but other doctors believe she will be sidelined for up to eight months.

Vonn wants to be back for the World Cup speed races in Lake Louise, Alberta, in late November or early December, a course she has won 14 times on.

''She's got her mindset, she's going to come back stronger than she was,'' Alpine director Patrick Riml told the AP. ''She's got her goal - 'I'll be back in Lake Louise' - and Lindsey will do whatever it takes to be back.''

Vonn tore her anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in her right knee. The broken bone was described as a lateral tibial plateau fracture.

''The fracture is called an impaction fracture,'' Sterett said. ''It should not require any surgery. It just needs to be non-weight on crutches.''

The accident happened after Vonn landed a jump in the opening super-G race at the championships. As she hit the ground, her right leg gave way and she spun forward, throwing an arm out to protect herself. She ended up on her back as she smashed through a gate.

''The hospital staff did an excellent job with X-rays, MRI,'' Sterett said. ''She had very good care and they were very, very helpful.''

Sterett said Vonn was ''a little banged up, and sore everywhere.''

''She's intently focusing on the next step and the next step now is getting from point A to point B, with point B being next season,'' he said. ''She's determined and upbeat.''

U.S. speed coach Chip White also found Vonn motivated by her injury.

''Last night she was (angry) but she was also positive that she's coming back and she's going to come back strong,'' he said. ''We're looking forward to her return. She's a great competitor and always will be.

''She has that determination. If she wants to be (as strong as before) she will be.''

Sterett left open the possibility of Vonn requiring more than one surgery, saying that with these types of injuries ''that's always a possibility.''

However, the plan now was only one operation.

''I want to say thank you to the amazing medical staff that cared for me,'' Vonn said. ''I plan on returning to Vail as soon as I can to have the necessary surgeries.''

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/vonn-surgery-us-next-week-173157818--ski.html

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