Real Estate has been interesting. ?With all of the systems in place that we have been able to produce for our real estate clients, we know that with regard to buying or selling real estate ? there should be no guessing.
Guessing is for those that have money to burn and out of all of our real estate clients, there is no one I have worked with that is in the position to burn money.
To the question about having a better 2013 than a 2012. ?We know that 2012 was the turn around year for real estate. ?We watched as any excess inventory was scooped up by the investors and owner occupant buyers. ?We also noticed that since November 2011 ? we had been on a price increase ? slow and steady ? for most of the cities in the Santa Clarita Valley ? this was on a continual basis throughout the year.
Btw, concerning whether or not we forsee a better 2013 than a 2012 ? We are going to know in short order how real estate is going to fare when we see how the government is going to deal with two items. ?The debt forgiveness act and it?s renewal. ?The other item that is on the chopping block is the mortgage interest tax deduction. ?If both of those programs are scrapped ? 2012 will indeed have been better than 2013 can possibly be. ?Stay tuned!!! ?Subscribe to our updates in the left margin of this Santa Clarita Realtor Blog.
Some Cities climbed a bit faster than others ? as is expected. ?Stevenson Ranch and Valencia CA always seem to be the cities that climb faster when prices are trending upward. ?Followed by Saugus and Newhall ? then followed by Canyon Country and Castaic. ?However, everything is relative ? when you look at price per square foot pages within our Santa Clarita real estate website.?You will see that we have those numbers figured out and you will also see that those numbers have become inflated when it comes to most of the Santa Clarita Valley Cities. ?Compare the price per square foot with the over all listing prices and you will see that someone somewhere has been over promising and under delivering their Real Estate Sellers.
Another thing that most of the real estate interested want to do is to look at the current real estate prices as they correspond to median sales prices. ?We have a resource that we have built for that within our Santa Clarita real estate arsenal. ?That is MacBoX* friendly and able to be accessed by you typing into the MacBoX the word ?Prices?. ? After you do, you will be taken to a page for Santa Clarita real estate that display?s prices for all of the real estate via Single Family Residences ? all the way back to the height of the market. ?Enjoy that resource.
*MacBoX ? This tool has been developed by The Paris911 Team at REMAX. ?You can type in the words we have built within it to get further information about Santa Clarita real estate topics. ?Mentioned above ? you can type PPSF for price per square foot into it. ?You can also type PRICES ? for the prices of Santa Clarita homes that have sold most recently to establish a pricing trend. I better tell you how to find it ? at our Main Site of within the margin of this blog ? you will see a place to type in some keywords ? this is our MacBoX ? Try it on for size..
Connor and Paris MacIvor are Realtors in Santa Clarita CA with the REMAX of Valencia CA Brokerage.? They realized at the beginning of their real estate career the importance of being able to be there for their clients - 100% of the time. This blog is about Seller Representation and constant real estate market updates by Factual Numbers provided by the independent Research Firm we hired for our Real Estate sellers and buyers.? Enjoy the Data by The Paris911 Team at REMAX of Valencia CA.
Tagged as: 2012 compared with 2012, better data, connor macivor, investing, Real Estate, real estate santa clarita, santa clarita real estate
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) ? They carried signs expressing gratitude and love. They exchanged high-fives with players and ringed the field during the national anthem.
About 400 residents of Newtown, Conn., attended the New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles game Sunday. Among them were a few families who lost children in the massacre this month, the Giants said. One was the family of Jack Pinto, the 6-year-old boy buried in a No. 80 jersey of Giants receiver Victor Cruz.
"We certainly wanted to honor and respect them," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "We wanted to try to do our part to help them in the healing process. I hope they left with some inspiration today."
The families arrived in nine chartered buses. There were some 200 students from the school system to which Sandy Hook Elementary School belongs.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell greeted the Newtown group in a stadium tunnel. The residents formed a gantlet to welcome players from both teams before the game. Then they held hands during the anthem.
"It was awesome," Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora said after the Giants' 42-7 victory. "Imagine what they went through on that horrific day. For them to come out here and support us as they did, it was an unbelievable feeling. We had a great effort out there for them."
Coughlin and Eagles coach Andy Reid slowly walked the gantlet and said hello to as many people as they could.
The game was played just more than two weeks after the attack that shattered Newtown and reverberated across the country ? 20 children and six adults slain in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
The team did not allow access to the guests, saying they just wanted to attend the game and enjoy themselves.
The Newtown visitors held at least a dozen hand-made signs in the stadium. One green-and-white sign read, "Sandy Hook: We Choose Love."
Giants fullback Henry Hynoski said he could not have had a better 24th birthday than sharing it with the families from Newtown.
"It was emotional, running out and giving them high-fives and seeing the joy on their faces," Hynoski said. "We played for them. After all they've been through, they were out to see us. It gave us a lot of extra drive to get the win for them."
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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Book Review: Authors, Publishers, Entrepreneurs (APE)
Why I Read It
My reasons may be different from yours. Even if you have no interest in writing a book, this is one I would still recommend for your business book library. Skip ahead to "What I Learned" and ask yourself how you could apply the lesson to your business, or life to see why.
This was the first Guy Kawasaki and/or Shawn Welch book I've read. It was on my reading list when I first heard of it, but it was a nudge from a colleague that put it to the top of my list.
I read it because I want to write a book. I have wanted to since I was 11. Writing has always been therapy for me, it helps me to think and communicate better. The more I write, the happier I am. I also love to teach, and I get excited when I can impart something to someone else and it helps them. I have had many great teachers in my life, and anyone I have learned something from I try to pass on to others. It helped me, maybe it will help them too.
Wanting to do something and actually doing it are two different things. I've had the thought in my head for a while and talked to several people smarter than me about it. I heard a lot reasons to do it and not do it. I figured I just need to commit to it publicly and by telling others I would feel accountable and that would motivate me.
Since then, I've felt like a deer in the headlights. Rhonda's nudge was perfect timing.
What It's About
APE= Authors, Publishers, Entreprenuers: How to self publish a book. The subtitle is what I expected to get, and have several Kindle highlights and notes to myself (and if I can figure out how to share a link that lists them all, I will let you know. If anyone knows, please comment and help me out!?) The authors fulfilled their promise, and the majority of the book is the technical side of the actual things you need to do other than write- it's all there. (Thanks guys!)
steps in the writing process
format a manuscript
do your own marketing
find a designer
manage the technical side publishing for sites like Amazon
figure out your pricing
Had the book only done that, I probably would have put it on the Kindle shelf for reference later and it wouldn't have made an impact that compelled made me to want to share it with you (ahead of the dozen blog posts half-finished in my drafts.)
Lucky for you, and me- APE exceeded my expectations.
What I Learned
Just before his book "Agency Blueprint" came out, I talked briefly with Paul Roetzer somewhere in the Hubspot halls, and asked him why he decided to write the book. When he said that it wasn't to make money, but that he just felt that others could benefit from what he learned in starting his own inbound agency, I kinda laughed in his face. After I apologized, I explained: "Forgive me, but I've talked to a lot of authors about their 'why'- simply because I feel like I want to, but all the reasons why I have heard are about lead generation, or thought-leadership, or booking speaking engagements. That hasn't been reason enough to motivate me to actually seriously do it. You are the first one I have spoken to that I heard say that."
Last year, I paid a visit to Paul at his booth at Inbound 2012. The book had come out, the training classes commenced. I asked him, "Are you glad you did it? Would you do it again? What's next?" (His answer was yes by the way, check out the Marketing Agency Insider to see what he is doing next.)
Whenever you start an adventure, there are good reasons and bad reasons to do it. My favorite questions to ask others and myself center around 'why'. Despite committing publicly to writing a book, I still wasn't motivated. Paul had his reason why, I needed to figure out what mine were. It wasn't something anyone else could tell me. Here is where APE exceeded my expectations and helped me to figure out my why. If you are thinking about writing a book, for any reason, read APE. Find out what your good reason is, or don't bother. It's a chore you will not want to take on.
My Good Reasons to Write a Book
1. Enrich lives. I firmly believe that better businesses provides a better quality of life for people.? My hope is to find those businesses and help them grow- because they serve an important purpose that is bigger than what their bottom line is. The 98% demand and deserve it.
Impart knowledge- how can entrepreneurs build scalable businesses that build and manage successful customer relationships?
Understanding- help entrepreneurs understand their true value to their customers and in turn, understand and treat their customers better. (because I believe this is the key to developing those brand advocates that social media experts dream about. This is the missing factor for business growth.)
Laughter- One of my favorite lessons from one of my favorite teachers is "If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong." When people have fun, they want to do it more. I've been known as somewhat of a metaphor junkie, and the one metaphor everyone can understand is dating. I want to help people have more fun.
2. Intellectual Challenge. I live for a challenge, it's how this all started. Once I have mastered something to the best of my ability, I need to find the next thing or find a way to make something even better. Status quo is boring, I enjoy pushing the edge. It is also how I prove to myself that I know my stuff. Writing a book is something that I hope becomes a tool for others, but it is also a tool for me to master my craft.
3. Further a Cause. According to APE, there are 2 ways to further a cause. Either by changing a bad practice or evangelizing a good cause. For me, both apply.
End the bad practice of businesses that treat relationships and customers like numbers and that is the end of the story and motivation. I want to help change the perspective. "It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves."-Carl Jung
Evangelize the good cause of "All lasting business is built on friendship."-Alfred A. Montapert
What I am Doing About It
"Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. A majority of people revert back to how they were before and feel like failures. This year I challenge you to a new resolution. I challenge you to just be yourself." ~Aisha Elderwyn (Thanks Liz!)
Last year, my New Year's resolution post helped to light a fire for the Smarketing torch. It's a worthwhile cause. For myself, that flame is still burning, but is becoming part of a bigger fire (my own?).
I'm also reading more, I've learned that the more I read, the more (and better) I write. The next ones on the list are:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
If You Want To Write
How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit
The One Big Thing I Will be Writing About and Doing This Year: Ingagements
Last week, Pete Caputa wrote about "5 Big Things I'll Be Writing About (And Implementing) in the New Year". I mention it because it helped me start get this post started (and because I stole his title).
So the writing of the book happens this year. I'll be sharing my outline, telling the story, developing the pitch. This blog will be the journal of the process. I will be asking for your feedback, help, and contributions. I'll be developing my inner circle. I'll be looking for guest bloggers who want my message for their audience, and those who have a message for mine. I'll be following the steps that APE provided me.
Peter and the Starcatcher's Rick Elice just posted a heartfelt Huffington Post blog about his experience in the Berkshires this November 24th, when he witnessed the wedding of his friends, longtime partners producer Thomas Schumacher and director and actor Matthew White. An excerpt follows.
"Christmas in the Berkshires is like waking up in a Currier & Ives sampler accompanied by that Leroy Anderson song. Since the completion of Thomas Schumacher and Matthew White's place in the country, a gorgeous pile atop a hill in Hillsdale they've christened Otium, a small group of us have turned up each Christmas Eve and Day, washing away our city stress with mulled wine and one another. The environment is pretty grand, but we're not. Just a circle of friends who like to laugh and argue, with families too far away to visit in the short break that Broadway's holiday performance schedule allows...So we were desolate when Tom and Matt informed us that there would be no Christmas at Otium in 2012, as they were off to Venice to save yet another part of the sinking city. I know saving Venice is important, but more important than Christmas in the Berkshires? Seriously? Consternation became disappointment, which became resignation. And then the email arrived from Tom.
"'Dear ones -- Since Christmas has been cancelled, let's do Thanksgiving instead. Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, to be precise. You must come. Must, as in you're coming. 'No' is not an option. Fun and games and the whole gang. November 24th. Be there.'"
Read the full story here.
Broadway producer Thomas Schumacher is currently president of Disney Theatrical Group. His Broadway, West End, touring and international producing credits include Beauty and the Beast, King David, The Lion King, Der Glockner von Notre Dame, Aida, On the Record, High School Musical, Tarzan, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid. Matthew White has appeared on the West End in Merrily We Roll Along, Passion and Ragtime. His UK directing credits include Little Shop of Horrors, The Last Five Years, Sweet Charity and Top Hat.
Tony Award winner Rick Elice's theatre writing credits include Broadway's Peter and the Starcatcher, The Addams Family and Jersey Boys. He also worked as a choreographer on The Laundry Hour off-Broadway.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- David Ash threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes, the last a 36-yard strike to Marquise Goodwin with 2:24 left, to give Texas a 31-27 comeback victory over No. 15 Oregon State in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night.
Complete Beavers coverage
The Longhorns (9-4) never led before Goodwin scored his second touchdown on a deep post pattern, just a play after Texas converted a fourth-and-1 play to keep its chances alive.
Storm Woods ran for 118 yards and scored two touchdowns for Oregon State (9-4). The Beavers left stunned after looking as though they would wrap up their first 10-win season since 2006.
The victory was a dose of much-needed good news for Texas after coming into the game under a cloud of questions following the suspensions of two players.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate leaders groped for a last-minute compromise Saturday to avoid middle-class tax increases and possibly prevent deep spending cuts at the dawn of the new year as President Barack Obama warned that failure could mean a "self-inflicted wound to the economy."
Obama chastised lawmakers in his weekly radio and Internet address for waiting until the last minute to try and avoid a "fiscal cliff," yet said there was still time for an agreement. "We cannot let Washington politics get in the way of America's progress," he said as the hurry-up negotiations unfolded.
Senate Republicans said they were ready to compromise. "Divided government is a good time to solve hard problems_and in the next few days, leaders in Washington have an important responsibility to work together and do just that," said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, delivering his party's weekly address.
Even so, there was no guarantee of success.
In a blunt challenge to Republicans, Obama said that barring a bipartisan agreement, he expected both houses to vote on his own proposal to block tax increases on all but the wealthy and simultaneously preserve expiring unemployment benefits.
Political calculations mattered as much as deep-seated differences over the issues, as divided government struggled with its first big challenge since the November elections.
Speaker John Boehner remained at arms-length, juggling a desire to avoid the fiscal cliff with his goal of winning another new term as speaker when a new Congress convenes next Thursday. Any compromise legislation is certain to include higher tax rates on the wealthy, and the House GOP rank and file rejected the idea when Boehner presented it as part of a final attempt to strike a more sweeping agreement with Obama.
Yet lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar mattered. Democrats said they had been told House Republicans might reject a deal until after Jan. 1, to avoid a vote to raise taxes before they had technically gone up and then vote to cut taxes after they had risen.
Nor was any taxpayer likely to feel any adverse impact if legislation is signed and passed into law in the first two or three days of 2013 instead of the final hours of 2012.
Gone was the talk of a grand bargain of spending cuts and additional tax revenue in which the two parties would agree to slash deficits by trillions of dollars over a decade.
Now negotiators had a more cramped goal of preventing additional damage to the economy in the form of higher taxes across the board ? with some families facing increases measured in the thousands of dollars ? as well as cuts aimed at the Pentagon and hundreds of domestic programs.
Republicans said they were willing to bow to Obama's call for higher taxes on the wealthy as part of a deal to prevent them from rising on those less well-off.
Democrats said Obama was sticking to his campaign call for tax increases above $250,000 in annual income, even though he said in recent negotiations he said he could accept $400,000.
There were indications from Republicans that estate taxes might hold more significance for them than the possibility of higher rates on income.
One senior Republican, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, said late Friday he was "totally dead set" against Obama's estate tax proposal, and as if to reinforce the point, Blunt mentioned the issue before any other in his broadcast remarks. "Small businesses and farm families don't know how to deal with the unfair death tax_a tax that the president and congressional leaders have threatened to expand to include even more family farms and even more small businesses," he said.
Officials said any compromise was likely to ease the impact of the alternative minimum tax, originally designed to make sure that millionaires did not escape taxation. If left unchanged, it could hit an estimated 28 million households for the first time in 2013, with an average increase of more than $3,000.
Taxes on dividends and capital gains are also involved in the talks, as well as a series of breaks for businesses and others due to expire at the first of the year.
Obama and congressional Democrats are insisting on an extension of long-term unemployment benefits that are expiring for about 2 million jobless individuals.
Leaders in both parties also hope to prevent a 27 percent fee cut from taking effect on Jan. 1 for doctors who treat Medicare patients.
There was also discussion of a short-term extension of expiring farm programs, in part to prevent a spike in milk prices at the first of the year. It wasn't clear if that was a parallel effort to the cliff talks or had become wrapped into them.
Across-the-board spending cuts that comprise part of the cliff were a different matter.
Republicans say Boehner will insist that they will begin to take effect unless negotiators agreed to offset them with specified savings elsewhere.
That would set the stage for the next round of brinkmanship ? a struggle over Republican calls for savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal benefit programs.
The Treasury's ability to borrow is expected to expire in late winter or early spring, and without an increase in the $16.4 trillion limit, the government would face its first-ever default. Republicans have said they will use administration requests for an extension as leverage to win cuts in spending.
Ironically, it was just such a maneuver more than a year ago that set the stage for the current crisis talks over the fiscal cliff.
Contact: Matthew Johnson msj@kiku.dk 46-706-250-412 University of Copenhagen
Industries across Europe are threatened with shutdown as European Union emission rules for Volatile Organic Compounds are tightened. Now an air cleaning invention from the University of Copenhagen has proven its ability to remove these compounds. And in the process they have helped a business in Danish town Aarhus improve relations to angry neighbors.
Inventor, Copenhagen chemist Matthew Johnson, presented evidence for the air cleaning invention at the conference "First International Education Forum on Environment and Energy Science" held on Hawaii December 14 to 18.
In deepest secrecy the inventor Matthew Johnson from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen has been collaborating with an investor, INFUSER, in mounting and testing a revolutionary air cleaning device at the industrial plant, "Jysk Miljoerens" in Danish town Aarhus. The reason for keeping the testing secret was that they wanted to be absolutely sure that they could in fact remove the pollution before going public. Now their measurements are concluded and the results are in. And the device actually works.
Natural way to remove air pollution
At the department of Chemistry atmospheric chemist Matthew Johnson invented and patented the air cleaning method which is based on the natural ability of the Earth atmosphere to clean itself. In a process triggered by sunlight, polluting gasses rising into the sky start forming particles when they come across naturally occurring compounds such as ozone. The newly formed particles are washed out of the atmosphere by rain. Once the rain hits the ground, the atmosphere is clean again. In other words the whole process is nature's own purifications works, explains Professor Johnson.
"I have investigated the self-cleaning mechanism of the atmosphere for years. Suddenly I realized, that the mechanism is so simple, that we could wrap it in a box and use it to clean indoor air. This makes for a better indoor climate, and in this particular case it also removes smells from this industrial process allowing the company to stay in business and making the neighbours happy," says Matthew Johnson.
Frutifull collaboration between business and research
For the INFUSER CEO Lars Nannerup the new air cleaning method was a heavensent. For some time he had wanted to establish a cleantech business delivering green and sustainable solutions to industry.
-For INFUSER, collaborating with the University of Copenhagen has been extremely fruitful. We have been operating in an electrifying field between fundamental research and commercial development. This is an area where pure theory and good ideas are tested outside the very competent walls of the university. And we have been extraordinarily successful. We are excited to be able to bring to market this revolutionary technology. We are proud that it is a Danish invention, and we're proud that this invention helps making the world a better and a cleaner place," says Nannerup.
Low energy consumption allows climate friendly air treatment
In scientific terms, Matthew Johnsons patented process is known as an atmospheric photochemical accelerator. The whole process is housed in five aluminium boxes on the roof of the Aarhus business. Compared to traditional methods the new process outshines by removing pollution rather than diluting it, as is the case when we send smoke up a chimney. The method requires no filters, so maintenance is inexpensive. It consumes very little energy, so its climate impact is negligible. Finally it removes the need for a chimney which would have been costly to erect. For all these reason INFUSER and the photochemical air-purification was the right choice for Jysk Miljoerens.
Photochemistry solved pressing problem for environmental business
The company Jysk Miljoerens makes a living separating oil from bilge water in ships, so that the oil may be recycled. For manager Bent Naldal all the parameters were important, but above all he is just happy that the new method has managed to remove the smells from his wastewater treatment plant. Because the smells were threatening to put him out of business.
"It's no big secret, that we've faced challenges in getting rid of the smells originating in our treatment plant. For this reason we were very happy when INFUSER got in touch, saying that they had a solution to our problem. Unlike other solutions that we've investigated to combat smells and air pollution we can now see, that INFUSER delivered. They've solved a pressing problem for Jysk Miloerens, and for the city of Aarhus," says CEO Naldal.
Perfect example of collaboration between industry and academia
For the University of Copenhagen it has been an especial pleasure to follow the collaboration between inventor and investor. The university unit for technology transfer has helped Johnson in the patenting process, in getting financing to conduct experiments and in drawing up the licensing agreement with INFUSER. Unit leader Anna Haldrup feels that the air cleaning technology is a perfect example of how universities can help industrial partners.
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Contact: Matthew Johnson msj@kiku.dk 46-706-250-412 University of Copenhagen
Industries across Europe are threatened with shutdown as European Union emission rules for Volatile Organic Compounds are tightened. Now an air cleaning invention from the University of Copenhagen has proven its ability to remove these compounds. And in the process they have helped a business in Danish town Aarhus improve relations to angry neighbors.
Inventor, Copenhagen chemist Matthew Johnson, presented evidence for the air cleaning invention at the conference "First International Education Forum on Environment and Energy Science" held on Hawaii December 14 to 18.
In deepest secrecy the inventor Matthew Johnson from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen has been collaborating with an investor, INFUSER, in mounting and testing a revolutionary air cleaning device at the industrial plant, "Jysk Miljoerens" in Danish town Aarhus. The reason for keeping the testing secret was that they wanted to be absolutely sure that they could in fact remove the pollution before going public. Now their measurements are concluded and the results are in. And the device actually works.
Natural way to remove air pollution
At the department of Chemistry atmospheric chemist Matthew Johnson invented and patented the air cleaning method which is based on the natural ability of the Earth atmosphere to clean itself. In a process triggered by sunlight, polluting gasses rising into the sky start forming particles when they come across naturally occurring compounds such as ozone. The newly formed particles are washed out of the atmosphere by rain. Once the rain hits the ground, the atmosphere is clean again. In other words the whole process is nature's own purifications works, explains Professor Johnson.
"I have investigated the self-cleaning mechanism of the atmosphere for years. Suddenly I realized, that the mechanism is so simple, that we could wrap it in a box and use it to clean indoor air. This makes for a better indoor climate, and in this particular case it also removes smells from this industrial process allowing the company to stay in business and making the neighbours happy," says Matthew Johnson.
Frutifull collaboration between business and research
For the INFUSER CEO Lars Nannerup the new air cleaning method was a heavensent. For some time he had wanted to establish a cleantech business delivering green and sustainable solutions to industry.
-For INFUSER, collaborating with the University of Copenhagen has been extremely fruitful. We have been operating in an electrifying field between fundamental research and commercial development. This is an area where pure theory and good ideas are tested outside the very competent walls of the university. And we have been extraordinarily successful. We are excited to be able to bring to market this revolutionary technology. We are proud that it is a Danish invention, and we're proud that this invention helps making the world a better and a cleaner place," says Nannerup.
Low energy consumption allows climate friendly air treatment
In scientific terms, Matthew Johnsons patented process is known as an atmospheric photochemical accelerator. The whole process is housed in five aluminium boxes on the roof of the Aarhus business. Compared to traditional methods the new process outshines by removing pollution rather than diluting it, as is the case when we send smoke up a chimney. The method requires no filters, so maintenance is inexpensive. It consumes very little energy, so its climate impact is negligible. Finally it removes the need for a chimney which would have been costly to erect. For all these reason INFUSER and the photochemical air-purification was the right choice for Jysk Miljoerens.
Photochemistry solved pressing problem for environmental business
The company Jysk Miljoerens makes a living separating oil from bilge water in ships, so that the oil may be recycled. For manager Bent Naldal all the parameters were important, but above all he is just happy that the new method has managed to remove the smells from his wastewater treatment plant. Because the smells were threatening to put him out of business.
"It's no big secret, that we've faced challenges in getting rid of the smells originating in our treatment plant. For this reason we were very happy when INFUSER got in touch, saying that they had a solution to our problem. Unlike other solutions that we've investigated to combat smells and air pollution we can now see, that INFUSER delivered. They've solved a pressing problem for Jysk Miloerens, and for the city of Aarhus," says CEO Naldal.
Perfect example of collaboration between industry and academia
For the University of Copenhagen it has been an especial pleasure to follow the collaboration between inventor and investor. The university unit for technology transfer has helped Johnson in the patenting process, in getting financing to conduct experiments and in drawing up the licensing agreement with INFUSER. Unit leader Anna Haldrup feels that the air cleaning technology is a perfect example of how universities can help industrial partners.
###
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?
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.
Rescuers work at the site of careered off the runway plane at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Alexander Usoltsev)
Rescuers work at the site of careered off the runway plane at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Alexander Usoltsev)
Rescuers work at the site where a plane careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Rescuers work at the wreckage of a plane which careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Rescuers work at the site where a plane careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Alexander Usoltsev)
Wreckage of a plane which careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
MOSCOW (AP) ? A passenger airliner careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport and partly onto a highway while landing on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing at least four people.
Officials said there were eight people aboard the Tu-204 belonging to Russian airline Red Wings that was flying back from the Czech Republic without passengers to its home at Vnukovo Airport.
Emergency officials said in a televised news conference that four people were killed and another four severely injured when the plane rolled off the runway into a snowy field and partly onto an adjacent highway, then disintegrated. No collisions with vehicles on the major, multilane highway were reported.
The plane's cockpit area was sheared off from the fuselage and a large chunk gashed out near the tail.
The crash occurred amid light snow and winds gusting up to 15 meters a second (30 mph), but other details were not immediately known. A spokesman for Russia's top investigative agency, Vladimir Markin, said initial indications were that pilot error was the cause.
The state news agency RIA Novosti cited an unidentified official at the Russian Aviation Agency as saying another Red Wings Tu-204 had gone off the runway at the international airport in Novosibirsk in Siberia on Dec. 20. The agency said that incident, in which no one was injured, was due to the failure of the plane's engines to go into reverse upon landing and that its brake system malfunctioned.
On Friday, the Aviation Agency sent a directive to the Tupolev company's president calling for it to take urgent preventive measures.
Vnukovo airport spokeswoman Yelena Krylova said it had enough personnel and equipment to keep the runway fully functional Saturday. The airport resumed receiving planes after a break of several hours.
Prior to Saturday's crash, there had been no fatal accidents reported for Tu-204s, which entered commercial service in 1995. The plane is a twin-engine midrange jet with a capacity of about 210 passengers.
Vnukovo, on the southern outskirts of Moscow, is one of the Russian capital's three international airports.
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Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this story
This article can help you get started on the road to responsible personal finance. The following tips will help you maintain a stable financial life.
Do not stick with investments just because they have done well for you in the past. If you find that company in which you have invested is not succeeding, you want to get your money back and put it toward a more successful one.
You need to have a highly liquid savings account. It should also be a savings account that is high-yielding. Many of them are only on the internet, but the FDIC still insures them.
Houses require a large up-front investment, but they can save you a lot of money over time when compared to renting. While you will, of course, have to deal with monthly mortgage payments, they will eventually go away and leave you with a home that you own outright. When you rent, your money goes to your landlord, not towards your future financial stability.
If you can, have money deducted from your check that will go directly into savings. An emergency fund could save your home in the event of a job loss or a personal injury. Directly depositing helps to keep the money safe from frivolous expenditures.
Many spend over $20 weekly trying to win a lot of money from a local lottery drawing, when that amount could easily go into a savings account. This will guarantee that you will increase your income over time, instead of throwing your money away.
To ensure timely credit card payments set up an automatic monthly bill pay through your bank. If you pay on credit card bills every month by the due date, you build up a good credit rating even though you are not paying the balances off in full. When the payment is automatically taken out, you will never have a late fee. If you want to pay more each month, you can.
A great way for frequent travelers to be rewarded for their travels is through a frequent flier plan; most airlines offer these programs. Look for credit card companies that offer purchase incentives which you can redeem for discounted airfare. The miles accrued through the frequent flier program can be used for free or discounted hotel rooms.
Most products will come with a warranty, and if they break, they are likely going to break during this time. Usually, extended warranties are of no use to you.
Use a flexible spending account. Flexible spending accounts can help reduce your medical or childcare expenses. Use these accounts to put pretax money aside for medical or similar expenses. However, as there are tricks to using this type of account, it is best to seek clarification from an accountant before entering into one.
Learn how to live without relying on credit cards. Additionally, find ways to avoid paying interest altogether. Pay off or avoid taking out car loans, personal loans, and an unreasonable mortgage. Interest payments can really add up, so minimizing or eliminating them will make it easier to be frugal.
Plan for your taxes so you can get on a better track with personal finance. Think about any investments that you can make through your job that may be a pretax deduction. Set these pre-tax dollars aside for medical expenses. If your employer has a 401K match you should take advantage. You should always utilize your earned income wisely.
Be aggressive about re-working your insurance policies as a way to cut down your monthly payments. You can look into various tips like bundling policies, dropping excessive coverage, etc. These savings could really add up over time.
Avoid ATM fees by using the ATM of your bank. While your cards may work just fine in ATMs that belong to other institutions, they will not hesitate to add finance charges to every transaction you make. These can add up to a significant amount of wasted money.
An easy way to keep your finances on track is to have a written budget. The first of each month, compose a list which describes every expense. Make sure you don?t leave out anything. Add expenses for gas, electricity, food, phones, Internet and your morning Starbucks runs. Don?t forget any of your expenses. Track the amount you actually paid for each expense, and don?t spend money over the amount you committed to in your budget.
Your finances could become a source of pride and security rather than causing you stress. This article can help make the work on your finances a lot easier so that you can make your dreams a reality.
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Among overweight adults, participation in an intensive lifestyle intervention (that included counseling sessions and targets to reduce caloric intake and increase physical activity) was associated with a greater likelihood of partial remission of type 2 diabetes; however, the absolute remission rates were modest, according to a study in the December 19 issue of JAMA.
?Diabetes traditionally has been considered a progressive, incurable condition wherein the best case scenario after diagnosis is tight metabolic and risk factor management to forestall vascular and neuropathic complications,? according to background information in the article. Some bariatric surgery studies have suggested that many diabetes cases among obese patients can be resolved. ?Patients diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes frequently ask their physicians whether their condition is reversible, and some physicians may provide hopeful advice that lifestyle change can normalize glucose levels,? the authors write. ?However, the rate of remission of type 2 diabetes that may be achieved using non-surgical approaches has not been reported.?
Edward W. Gregg, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues conducted a study to examine the association of an intensive lifestyle intervention with frequency of partial and complete remission of type 2 diabetes. The study consisted of an ancillary observational analysis of a 4-year randomized controlled trial (baseline visit, August 2001-April 2004; last follow-up, April 2008) comparing an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) with a diabetes support and education control condition (DSE). The study included 4,503 U.S. adults with body mass index of 25 or higher and type 2 diabetes.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive the ILI, which included weekly group and individual counseling in the first 6 months followed by 3 sessions per month for the second 6 months and twice-monthly contact and regular refresher group series and campaigns in years 2 to 4 (n = 2,241); or the DSE, which was an offer of 3 group sessions per year on diet, physical activity, and social support (n = 2,262). The ILI aimed to reduce total caloric intake to 1,200 to 1,800 calories a day through reductions in total and saturated fat intake and by increasing physical activity levels to a goal of 175 minutes/week. Liquid meal replacements were provided to assist dietary goals.
Participants in the ILI group lost significantly more weight than DSE participants at year 1 (-8.6 percent vs. -0.7 percent) and at year 4 (-4.7 percent vs. -0.8 percent) and had greater increases in fitness at both year 1 (20.6 percent vs. 5.3 percent) and year 4 (4.9 percent vs. -1.5 percent).The researchers found that the prevalence of complete remission (i.e., glucose normalization without medication) was more common in the ILI group than in the DSE group across all years of the study. However, the absolute prevalence was low, ranging from 1.3 percent for ILI vs. 0.1 percent for DSE in year 1; to 0.7 percent for ILI vs. 0.2 percent for DSE in year 4.
Additional analyses indicated that ILI participants were significantly more likely to experience any remission (partial or complete), with a prevalence of 11.5 percent during the first year, decreasing to 7.3 percent during year 4, compared with 2.0 percent in the DSE group at both time points. Rates of any remission were notably higher (15 percent ? 21 percent) among persons with substantial weight loss or fitness change, shorter duration of extant diabetes, or a lower HbA1c level (a measure of blood glucose) at entry and those not using insulin.
?The ILI group was significantly more likely to have continuous, sustained remission, as 9.2 percent experienced at least a 2-year remission (vs. for DSE, 1.7 percent) at some point during follow-up, 6.4 percent had at least a 3-year remission (vs. DSE, 1.3 percent), and 3.5 percent had a continuous 4-year remission (vs. DSE, 0.5 percent). The results from the complete case analyses were similar,? the authors write.
?The increasing worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes, along with its wide-ranging complications, has led to hopes that the disease can be reversed or prevented. These analyses of more than 4,500 overweight adults with type 2 diabetes confirm that complete remission associated with an intensive life-style intervention, when defined by glucose normalization without need for drugs, is rare. However, partial remission, defined as a transition to pre-diabetic or normal glucose levels without drug treatment for a specific period, is an obtainable goal for some patients with type 2 diabetes.?
David E. Arterburn, M.D., M.P.H., of the Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, and Patrick J. O?Connor, M.D., M.A., M.P.H., of the HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research, Minneapolis, write in an accompanying editorial that ?evidence-based and cost-effective diabetes prevention strategies should be more broadly applied using the full range of available technologies and incentives.?
?But that is not enough. Research, education, and policy efforts need to be focused further upstream, toward primary prevention: reducing incident obesity in children, adolescents, and adults, especially among those with a family history of obesity or diabetes. Prevention of diabetes and obesity should be a rallying cry for all clinicians who care about the health of the nation.
China has a thing for pushing the limits of trains. As of today, that includes distance: the country claims to have the world's longest high-speed rail line. Paying ¥865 ($139) will take you 1,428 miles from Beijing in the north to as far as Guangzhou in the south. The 8-hour, 186MPH trip is technically slower than flying, but it's cheaper and potentially less stressful than the often protracted airport boarding process. It's certainly far more viable than the 20-hour rail trip it's replacing, which could lead to some locals choosing a ground route that wasn't even a realistic option until now.
While some Directioners may still be in denial, it's looking like Harry Styles and Taylor Swift's relationship is getting serious!
The couple most recently spent some time together in Utah for a ski resort getaway and prior to that, they got all cozy in Harry's hometown in England!
Not only was Swifty introduced to Harry's family, but it sounds like she really bonded with his sister, Gemma, after clearing her schedule for the trip!
Reportedly, Taylor was overheard telling Gemma that she thinks the 1D heartthrob is "amazing," while they were all out together at the pub!
However, though Haylor makes for a SUPER cute young Hollywood couple? could they be moving too quickly??
An insider revealed:
"This [relationship] has gone from zero to 60 in seconds. Harry is totally in love. I can see them getting married in a week, just going for it."
Holy shiz! Could there really be a Haylor wedding on the horizon?!
We hope they aren't rushing anything!
Take your time, you two ? no breakup songs just yet!
[Images via WENN.]
Tags: couple, harry styles, love, marriage, married, relationship, serious, taylor swift
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The State Department is closing its embassy in the Central African Republic and ordering its diplomatic team to leave as rebels there continue to advance and violence escalates.
U.S. officials said the U.S. ambassador and about 40 others, including a number of Americans, were flown out of Bangui (bahn-GEE') on a U.S. Air Force C-40 headed to Kenya. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss the evacuation publicly.
Rebels have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north of the impoverished country, and residents in the capital of 600,000 people fear insurgents could attack at any time.
On Sunday, the State Department issued a warning recommending against travel to the country and authorized non-emergency personnel in Bangui to leave.
Gaming prowess rarely comes cheap, but that doesn't mean it can't at least be affordable. The Asus G75VW-DH72 gaming laptop may offer pricing and performance well below what tricked out systems like the Eurocom Scorpius can offer, but when stacked against mid-range gaming systems like the Alienware M17x R4, it still holds its own, getting you on the gaming grid for under two grand.
Design and Features While previous incarnations of Asus' Republic of Gamers line have emulated stealth fighter jets and naval vessels, the G75VW's design is a little more conservative, especially for a gaming machine. It's not as slim as the Razer Blade (2012), by any means. The laptop is still large, measuring 2.0 by 16.3 by 12.6 inches (HWD), but has changed up the look a bit, adding metal accents around the keyboard and across the speaker grille, which break up the imposing all-matte-black look seen in designs past. The result is a gaming rig that looks almost professional. Now, don't misunderstand, at 8.7 pounds (10.9 with the power brick) you won't be lugging this laptop to and from work, but it wouldn't look completely out of place in an office environment.
Despite the conservative look, the gaming DNA is still there. The back end of the G75VW is dominated by large cooling vents, and Asus' designs are tweaked to keep the system cool but quiet, grouping the heat generating components toward the back of the system. The chiclet keyboard sits at a slight slope, but is otherwise competent, providing a shallow but firm key movement. The touchpad is the same high-quality touchpad found on the Asus G75VW-DS71, but with the shift to Windows 8, Asus has also added some gesture support for Windows 8-specific controls. A swipe from the right edge of the touchpad pulls up the Charms Bar, while a three-fingered swipe down cycles through open apps. Pinch and zoom and two-finger scrolling aren't new additions, but they take on new importance in the absence of a touchscreen.
You may not be touching the screen, but the 17.3-inch display is still bright and sharp, with 1920-by-1080 resolution providing 1080p whether you're playing Skyrim or watching The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. The sound is also pretty good (as tested with the new trailer for The Man of Steel), staying clear at high volumes and providing a fair amount of bass thanks to an integrated subwoofer.
In addition to a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive, the Asus G75VW is outfitted with four USB 3.0 ports (one with power for charging devices), Gigabit Ethernet, a 3-in-1 card reader (SDHC, MMC, MS), and jacks for headphone and microphone. You also get several options for video connectivity, with HDMI, VGA, and mini DisplayPort outputs. Wireless connections provide 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The G75VW-DH72 pairs a 750GB spinning hard drive with a separate 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), letting you shift bulk data storage to the hard drive while keeping programs on the SSD for optimum performance. Included on the drive are Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a 60-day trial of Trend Micro Antivirus, Adobe Reader X, and Asus' Application Suite, which includes 3GB of free cloud backup with Asus WebStorage. Asus covers the G75VW-DH72 with a two-year warranty, but also includes a full-year of additional accidental damage coverage, 24/7 tech support, and 30-day "Zero Bright Dot" warranty on the display panel.
Performance The Asus G75VW-DH72 is outfitted with a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-3630QM processor with 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M with 3GB of dedicated VRAM. The combination is potent?in Cinebench R11.5, the processor scored 6.44 points, outperforming both the Alienware M17x R4 (6.19 points) and the MSI GT70 0NE-276US (6.23 points), but falling behind both the Razer Blade (6.86) and the Eurocom Scorpius (7.29). The Asus G75VW-DH72 also made short work of our multimedia tests, completing our Handbrake video encoding test in 36 seconds, and Photoshop CS6 in 3 minutes 32 seconds.
Perhaps more important than general performance is how the G75VW-DH72 does with games. In Aliens vs. Predator, it racked up a respectable 55 frames per second (fps) at medium detail settings and 1,366-by-768 resolution, but dropped to a less than playable 18 fps when resolution was dialed up to 1,920-by-1,080. When tested with Heaven, however, it scored 70 fps at medium settings and a nearly playable 28 fps at 1080p. While you won't be able to go all out with the detail settings on high-end games, you will still see excellent performance on even the most demanding games, provided you back off on the eye-candy a bit.
The Asus G75VW-DH72 also did well in battery tests, lasting 3 hours and two minutes in our battery rundown test. While not even long enough to make it through a screening of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, it's still pretty decent performance for a gaming laptop. Few laptops pass the three hour mark, with one of the few exceptions being the portability minded Razer Blade, which still only lasted 3 hours 53 minutes when tested with MobileMark 2006, our previous battery test.
As a decently priced mid-range gaming laptop, the Asus G75VW-DH72 offers great performance at an affordable price, letting you enjoy top of the line games (albeit with middle of the road graphics performance) for far less than a tricked out high-end system. It's an affordable option to the Alienware M17X R4, and as such, replaces it for our Editors' Choice mid-range gaming laptop.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE Compare the Asus G75VW-DH72 with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews: ??? Asus G75VW-DH72 ??? Toshiba Satellite U845W-S430 ??? Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 ??? Lenovo ThinkPad Twist (3347-4HU) ??? Acer Iconia W700-6465 ?? more
Recently, the parliament gave a nod to foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail . As such, global retail giants such as Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco are eyeing a foothold in India's US$ 450 bn retail market. While they are highly optimistic about the India entry it seems that the ride is not going to be that easy as it appears.
Take the case of Indian domestic retailers for example. The top 3 Indian domestic chains namely Reliance Retail, Aditya Birla Retail and Bharti Retail had collectively put up losses to the tune of Rs 12 bn in 2010-11. In fact, these 3 domestic chains have hardly posted any profits since the last 10 years of being into this business. This shows that retailing is a highly competitive business with long gestation period. It is also capital intensive with strong focus on supply chain management. Thus, going by the performance of the domestic players, it seems that the journey of the foreign players is going to be challenging.
However, it may be noted that foreign players have deep pockets. They have the capability to invest heavily to expand their reach and undertake marketing initiatives to spread brand awareness. Thus, the performance of the domestic players might not prove be a deterrent for them. Despite that none of the foreign players have disclosed their India plans as yet. That's because of the flip flop in the decision making issues. Take the case of IKEA for example. The Swedish furniture maker's plans in India were caught in red tape before finally it got the approval to set up shop in India recently.
Thus, while the recent parliamentary approval is comforting, it will take a while before the foreign retail player's start setting up their bases in India. And even if they set up their bases soon to get early mover advantage, a lot will depend on how they are able to change the mindset of an Indian consumer who generally buys from his neighborhood mom and pop store. For example, the domestic players are mostly into losses as they were not able to gain an entry into fresh food and food retail spaces which is dominated by kirana stores. Hence, the biggest challenge for the foreign players will be to break ice here as 70% of the worldwide retail is into fresh food items.
Thus, while the government may have opened the road for foreign retailers in India their ride is not going to be smooth. They will have to understand the market dynamics and take calculative steps to start making profits from their India venture.
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Hawkish Shinzo?Abe?was voted back into office as prime minister Wednesday and immediately named a new Cabinet, ending three years of liberal party government.
By ERIC TALMADGE,?Associated Press / December 26, 2012
Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party leader and the next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, stands in front of a picture of Japan's national flag as he speaks to the media at the Parliament in Tokyo Tuesday, Dec. 18.
Toru Hanai/Reuters
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Old-guard veteran Shinzo?Abe?was voted back into office as prime minister Wednesday and immediately named a new Cabinet, ending three years of liberal administrations and restoring power to his conservative, pro-big-business party that has run Japan for most of the post-World War II era.
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Abe, whose nationalist positions have in the past angered Japan's neighbors, is the country's seventh prime minister in just over six years. He was also prime minister in 2006-2007 before resigning for health reasons that he says are no longer an issue.
The outspoken and often hawkish leader has promised to restore growth to an economy that has been struggling for 20 years. His new administration also faces souring relations with China and a complex debate over whether resource-poor Japan should wean itself off nuclear energy after last year's earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at an atomic power plant.
On top of that, he will have to win over a public that gave his party a lukewarm mandate in elections on Dec. 16, along with keeping at bay a still-powerful opposition in parliament. Though his party and its Buddhist-backed coalition partner is the biggest bloc in the more influential lower house,?Abe?actually came up short in the first round of voting in the upper house, then won in a runoff.
Capitalizing on voter discontent with the left-leaning Democratic Party of Japan,?Abe?has vowed to shore up the economy, deal with a swelling national debt and come up with a fresh recovery plan following last year's tsunami disaster, which set off the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
"Disaster reconstruction and economic recovery are our first and foremost tasks," new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in announcing what he called a "crisis breakthrough Cabinet."
In foreign policy,?Abe?has stressed his desire to make Japan a bigger player on the world stage, a stance that has resonated with many voters who are concerned that their nation is taking a back seat economically and diplomatically to China.
My reasons may be different from yours. Even if you have no interest in writing a book, this is one I would still recommend for your business book library. Skip ahead to "What I Learned" and ask yourself how you could apply the lesson to your business, or life to see why.
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Public release date: 28-Dec-2012
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Among overweight adults, participation in an intensive lifestyle intervention (that included counseling sessions and targets to reduce caloric intake and increase physical activity) was associated with a greater likelihood of partial remission of type 2 diabetes; however, the absolute remission rates were modest, according to a study in the December 19 issue of JAMA.
The Asus G75VW-DH72 is outfitted with a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-3630QM processor with 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M with 3GB of dedicated VRAM. The combination is potent?in Cinebench R11.5, the processor scored 6.44 points, outperforming both the Alienware M17x R4 (6.19 points) and the MSI GT70 0NE-276US (6.23 points), but falling behind both the Razer Blade (6.86) and the Eurocom Scorpius (7.29). The Asus G75VW-DH72 also made short work of our multimedia tests, completing our Handbrake video encoding test in 36 seconds, and Photoshop CS6 in 3 minutes 32 seconds.