Online fitness marketplace Wello launched earlier this summer to enable users to get private, one-on-one training sessions ? but to do so in the comfort of their own homes. Now the startup has raised a $1 million seed round of financing from investors in healthcare incubator Rock Health, such as Kleiner Perkins, Mohr Davidow, Aberdare Ventures, and Mayo Ventures. Others include Morado Ventures, S-Cubed Capital, PhilQuo Ventures, and other angels.
Wello provides a marketplace to connect trainers with clients, but does so with live video sessions over the Internet. The idea is to help people who don?t have time to go to the gym or don?t want to do so to get personalized training through live video sessions. That?s right ? no travel, no embarrassing workouts in front of the actual fit people at the gym. Just you, in your home, receiving personalized instruction by video.
Customers can choose from a variety of different training regimens, from yoga and Pilates to kickboxing and strength training. The startup has more than 150 different trainers and fitness professionals signed up to provide sessions from all across the U.S. All trainers are vetted to check out their certifications and references, and are run through trial sessions to see how well they do in a streaming video environment. When they do connect with a client, they can provide a more personalized workout than someone would get from a typical class environment.
So far, the model seems to be working with early users: More than two-third of those who try a workout come back for another, and repeat users have racked up an average of 5.5 sessions a month. Trainers, meanwhile, benefit by being able to set their own hours and getting paid a much larger fraction than they would make at the local gym. Users can choose between 25-, 40-, and 55-minute sessions, and Wello co-founder Leslie Silverglide says group sessions will be coming soon.
Silverglide told me the funding will be used to add a few engineers and new members to the marketing team to help scale and get the word out. The company has TK employees and is based in San Francisco.
Wello is a website that brings trainers and clients together for fun, personalized and convenient training sessions over live, two-way video. For clients, Wello enables them to workout anywhere they have their laptop and enjoy a personal trainer experience without being tied to the gym. For trainers, Wello increases revenue opportunities by filling open times of their day.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange hopes less stringent rules will help persuade several Russian companies to raise money on its markets next year, taking business from arch-rival London.
NYSE Euronext's head of international listings, Albert Ganyushin, said legislation that makes it easier for smaller firms to obtain a stock market quote and less onerous requirements for overseas issuers could make New York more appealing.
"I would not be surprised to see several ... potential IPOs (initial public offerings) in Moscow and New York taking place in the next 12 months," Ganyushin told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
He was speaking a day after telecoms firm MegaFon raised $1.7 billion (1.0 billion pounds) in London, the largest market debut by a Russian company since aluminium producer Rusal's 2010 Hong Kong float.
Russian companies have for years preferred London over New York as the venue for their overseas listings, attracted by its close geographical location and less stringent disclosure and audit rules.
London has more than 50 Russian companies on its main market compared with only a handful in New York.
Mobile phone operator Vimpelcom floated on the NYSE in 1996 followed by rival MTS in 2000. Steel and coal miner Mechel came to market in 2004. Epam Systems Inc , a US-based IT services provider with operations in Russia, listed earlier this year.
The NYSE has invited around 50 U.S. investors to an event with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Russian companies and funds at its Wall Street address next Monday.
U.S. investors have lost billions of dollars on U.S.-listed Chinese companies in numerous accounting scandals and drumming up interest in other emerging-market firms could be a tough task.
Russia's reputation as being a country rife with corruption and red tape is another hurdle to be overcome.
JOBS ACT
The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, introduced after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, sought to tighten auditing but resulted in scaring many companies away from a New York listing due to the increased burden of compliance.
The costs of preparing an IPO could reach $500,000 or more according to a survey by accountants PwC. Russian telecoms company Rostelecom in 2009 delisted from the NYSE, reportedly citing the high costs of meeting the rules.
But under the Jobs Act signed this year, it will be easier for emerging-growth companies with less than $1 billion in revenue to raise capital, because they will be exempt from an outside audit of internal controls for up to five years.
Ganyushin said the Jobs Act comes on top of other changes that help foreign private issuers.
"For the last three years it's much easier to list in the U.S. as a foreign company than a U.S. company - you can follow your home corporate governance practices, you don't have to have an independent board, you don't have to report in US GAAP," he said.
The NYSE is also an attractive venue due to higher valuations achieved for issuers and lower risks of executing IPOs, he argues.
Ganyushin sees the NYSE as a complementary venue to Moscow and is encouraging companies to list on both markets.
He hopes New York could attract some of the privatisations the Russian government is planning. Shipping firm Sovcomflot is one slated for 2013.
"The global shipping sector is based in New York," said Ganyushin, adding that the company would fit well there, while declining to comment specifically on Sovcomflot's plans.
(Reporting by Megan Davies; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Erica Billingham)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia seems to be positioning itself for the day Bashar al-Assad may lose power, but nothing in recent statements shows President Vladimir Putin is shifting to join Western rivals in backing the rebels in Syria's civil war.
As Syria's new opposition coalition consolidates, Russia has stepped up efforts to tell the world it is not on President Assad's side, despite its blocking Western and Arab efforts to provide U.N. support for the rebel forces trying to topple him.
Putin's special Middle East envoy met quietly with members of the opposition coalition last week, and diplomacy on Syria was the focus of two trips Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has made to the region in November - neither of them to Damascus.
Lavrov said on Wednesday "there can be no talk of Russia getting drawn into the armed conflict" in Syria - a pat message but also a reminder of the limits of Russian support for Assad, who has given Moscow its firmest foothold in the Middle East.
In Paris on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev repeated a statement Putin delivered as long ago as March - that Russia has no "special relationship" with Syria - and said Assad and his foes "bear equal responsibility for what is going on".
Moscow has often suggested the rebels bear more blame for 20 months of violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people since Assad's government began a crackdown on protests in March 2011. It has accused Western nations of encouraging them.
But analysts said any new emphasis heard in Medvedev's remarks, notably on Assad sharing equal blame, should be ascribed to a difference in style between him and Putin - it was not a sign of a substantive change in Moscow's stance.
Russia has been verbally distancing itself from Assad for months, part of an effort to cast itself as a neutral player with an interest in peace alone; a Western diplomat called Russian meetings with the opposition "contingency planning".
A Russian diplomatic source suggested the meeting by the Kremlin envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, with opposition members last week brought no deviation from Moscow's policy; Russia is telling all opposition groups there is no way to resolve the situation other than by dialogue with Assad's government, the source said. All meetings are in line with Russia's long-standing principle of talking to both sides.
"It would take a really major development, a real game-changer in Syria, to make Russia change - something like the fall of Assad or a clear signal that that is looming," another Western diplomatic source said.
The Kremlin is not convinced that is the case, said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.
PUTIN'S POSITION
"Russia's position stays the same; it is the situation that changes. Russia's position at times looks like a losing one and then suddenly it seems like supporting Assad further is not a mistake, because Assad is not a doomed president," Lukyanov said. "There are no grounds for Russia to change its approach now."
The reasons for that have as much to do with Putin's global manoeuvring as with Assad's prospects for political survival.
Russia has practical motives to hold onto the hope that Assad could stay in power.
One of Moscow's strongest footholds in the Middle East since the Soviet era, Syria has been a major client for Russian arms sales and hosts a naval maintenance and supply facility that is Russia's only military base outside the former Soviet Union.
Perhaps more important to Putin, who started a new six-year term in May after the biggest opposition protests since his first election in 2000, is the image of a strong leader standing up to the West and opposing U.S.-led intervention abroad.
"The position on Syria is very stable because it comes from (Putin's) perception of how things should be: that one must not interfere and support one of the sides," Lukyanov said. "The Libyan precedent must not be repeated."
Russia has adamantly warned the West it would not allow a repeat in Syria of last year's events in Libya, where NATO military intervention helped rebels to topple Muammar Gaddafi.
Moscow had let the NATO air operation go ahead by abstaining in the U.N. vote that authorized it. But it then accused the alliance of overstepping its mandate to protect civilians in an American-led drive for regime change - anathema to the Kremlin, which is aware of Western sympathies for the Russian opposition.
Putin's attention to his image at home also helps shape Russia's policy on Syria, reinforcing his need to look resolute and avoid appearing to change its position.
Putin was voted in to a third presidential term after a campaign in which he accused the United States of encouraging opposition protests and said Western states were seeking to influence Russia's elections.
"Russian foreign policy is in many ways is driven by domestic issues," a Western diplomatic source said.
"It may not be a dominating factor in this case, but with all this anti-Western rhetoric now flourishing at home, how can they suddenly change on such a theme and ally with the West out of the blue?"
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
While the US doc lineup is leaning hard-nose, the international competition is looking a lot more varied, with eight of the twelve slots being filled with world premieres. Running with this year?s international headlines and coming partially from the source itself, Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin?s Pussy Riot ? A Punk Prayer will make its debut running between art and politics. Profiling the life and challenges of individuals, The Stuart Hall Project by helmer John Akomfrah (who two years ago released The Nine Muses) and Andy Heathcote The Moo Man. Long a contributor to the non-fiction filler of Entertainment Tonight and Dr. Phil, Marc Silver?s directorial debut, Who is Dayani Cristal? delves into pure cinematic mystery. A trio of IDFA preemed titles in Tinatin Gurchiani?s The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear, Qi Zhao?s Fallen City, and Dylan Mohan Gray?s Fire in the Blood. Among the returnees to Park City we find Control Room?s Jehane Noujaim (with The Square) and Rough Aunties? Kim Longinotto (with Salma). All 12 in the running below:
Fallen City / China (Director: Qi Zhao) ? Fallen City spans four years to reveal how three families who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to embark on a journey searching for hope, purpose, identity, and to rebuild their lives in a new China torn between tradition and modernity. North American Premiere
Fire in the Blood / India (Director: Dylan Mohan Gray) ? In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Western governments and pharmaceutical companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS-stricken Africa, causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths. An improbable group of people decided to fight back. North American Premiere
Google and the World Brain / Spain, United Kingdom (Director: Ben Lewis) ? In the most ambitious project ever conceived on the Internet, Google has been scanning the world?s books for 10 years. They said the intention was to build a giant digital library, but that involved scanning millions of copyrighted works. World Premiere
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear / Georgia, Germany (Director: Tinatin Gurchiani) ? A film director casting a 15-23-year-old protagonist visits villages and cities to meet people who answer her call. She follows those who prove to be interesting enough through various dramatic and funny situations. North American Premiere
The Moo Man / United Kingdom (Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier) ? A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve?s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake. World Premiere
Pussy Riot ? A Punk Prayer / Russian Federation, United Kingdom (Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin) ? Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in? World Premiere
A River Changes Course / Cambodia, U.S.A. (Director: Kalyanee Mam) ? Three young Cambodians struggle to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt in this devastatingly beautiful story of a country reeling from the tragedies of war and rushing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding world. World Premiere
Salma / United Kingdom, India (Director: Kim Longinotto) ? When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world. World Premiere
The Square (El Midan) / Egypt, U.S.A. (Director: Jehane Noujaim) ? What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation? World Premiere
The Stuart Hall Project / United Kingdom (Director: John Akomfrah) ? Antinuclear campaigner, New Left activist and founding father of Cultural Studies, this documentary interweaves 70 years of Stuart Hall?s film, radio and television appearances, and material from his private archive to document a memorable life and construct a portrait of Britain?s foremost radical intellectual. World Premiere
The Summit / Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Nick Ryan) ? Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers? code, he might still be alive. International Premiere
Who is Dayani Cristal? / United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) ? An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. World Premiere.
About the author: Eric Lavallee View all posts by Eric Lavallee
Eric Lavall?e is the founder, editor-in-chief and film critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric splits his time between his home base in Montreal, NYC, and is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. Top Films From Contemporary Film Auteurs:
Almod?var (Talk to Her), Coen Bros. (Fargo), Dardennes (La Promesse), Haneke (Cach?), Hsiao-Hsien (Three Times), Kar-wai (In the Mood for Love), Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry), Lynch (Mulholland Dr.), Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho), von Trier (Breaking the Waves)
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Everplans is a site that can help you get through all the steps needed to deal with that universal topic?death?at any stage, whether you are comforting someone who's grieving, have to make funeral arrangements, or want to set up important documents for your family.
Long before you die and especially if you're approaching the end of your life, you probably want to make sure your family members aren't stressed or burdened more than they need to be. Everplans outlines step-by-step what you need to do for both of those stages (e.g., write a will, name a power of attorney, get life insurance) along with helpful related articles and tools. For example, there's a checklist for documents you should organize and share (a topic we think is pretty vital).
Everplans also has advice for if you're helping someone else with end-of-life issues or if you need to take care of funeral arrangements and similar logistics. A Funeral Update tool is in the works to let family and friends know about events like wakes or funeral details.
All in all, it's a great resource that can help reduce stress for everyone during a very emotional, difficult time. As Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman says, it's "for anyone who will die someday?or knows someone who will..."
Elk more concerned by human behavior than their natural predatorsPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Murphy brian.murphy@ualberta.ca 780-492-6041 University of Alberta
University of Alberta researchers discovered that elk are more frequently and more easily disturbed by human behaviour such as ATV drivers than by their natural predators like bears and wolves.
The U of A researchers, led by biologist Simone Ciuti, spent 12 months in southwestern Alberta. The study involved elk herds, made up of females and their off-spring. The researchers observed the animals' reactions to different rates of human disturbances in the form of vehicle traffic on nearby roads and off-road, all-terrain vehicles.
The elk in the study were found on a variety of land type:public, private and inside Waterton National Park.
The research data show that starting with a rate of just one vehicle passing by a elk herd every two hours, the animals became disturbed and more vigilant. In this state the elk consume less food which can affect their health and possibly their calving success.
The researchers found that the highest level of disturbance happened on public lands where the effect of hunting and ATV use was cumulative.
Contrary to what some people might expect, elk inside Waterton National Park during the busy summer tourist season displayed less disturbance reaction than elk in more remote, unpopulated public land settings where motorized recreational activities were permitted.
Ciuti says this shows the elks' reactions are not shaped by numbers of people but by the type of human activity they're exposed to.
The researchers observed the elk from long distances so as not to alter their behaviour. Detailed notes were taken documenting the frequency and amount of time the animals spent scanning the horizon for danger rather than foraging for food.
###
This research was supervised by U of A biology professor Mark Boyce. Follow up research comparing birth rates in North American ungulates with levels of human disturbance will be conducted by researchers from the Boyce lab at the U of A.
The research was published Nov. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Elk more concerned by human behavior than their natural predatorsPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Murphy brian.murphy@ualberta.ca 780-492-6041 University of Alberta
University of Alberta researchers discovered that elk are more frequently and more easily disturbed by human behaviour such as ATV drivers than by their natural predators like bears and wolves.
The U of A researchers, led by biologist Simone Ciuti, spent 12 months in southwestern Alberta. The study involved elk herds, made up of females and their off-spring. The researchers observed the animals' reactions to different rates of human disturbances in the form of vehicle traffic on nearby roads and off-road, all-terrain vehicles.
The elk in the study were found on a variety of land type:public, private and inside Waterton National Park.
The research data show that starting with a rate of just one vehicle passing by a elk herd every two hours, the animals became disturbed and more vigilant. In this state the elk consume less food which can affect their health and possibly their calving success.
The researchers found that the highest level of disturbance happened on public lands where the effect of hunting and ATV use was cumulative.
Contrary to what some people might expect, elk inside Waterton National Park during the busy summer tourist season displayed less disturbance reaction than elk in more remote, unpopulated public land settings where motorized recreational activities were permitted.
Ciuti says this shows the elks' reactions are not shaped by numbers of people but by the type of human activity they're exposed to.
The researchers observed the elk from long distances so as not to alter their behaviour. Detailed notes were taken documenting the frequency and amount of time the animals spent scanning the horizon for danger rather than foraging for food.
###
This research was supervised by U of A biology professor Mark Boyce. Follow up research comparing birth rates in North American ungulates with levels of human disturbance will be conducted by researchers from the Boyce lab at the U of A.
The research was published Nov. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The Chapman Economic Forecast for California, released Wednesday afternoon by the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University, sees clear signs of headwinds in 2013.
Higher taxes ? sales, income and payroll ? are the primary concern.
Nonetheless, the forecast reiterated the early prediction in June that 2013 will bring a housing recovery.
Chapman is also calling for housing starts to increase from 765,000 units in 2012 to 868,000 units in 2013, an increase of 13.4 percent.
Private investment in residential structures could to rise $70 billion or 18.5 percent. Though consumer sentiment has risen to 94.2 in the third quarter of 2012, and construction spending is in some state of a rebound ? with total value of housing permits rising since 2009 ? weak improvement in the job market for 2013 is likely to limit home price appreciation.
Chapman echoed the California Association of Realtors? predicted 6.7 percent rise in median price in the state for 2013. An 8.9 percent increase is in the cards for 2012.
Affordability has also improved, as rents rise, the forecast said, adding that this scenario is tilting the home purchase versus rent decision toward a move to purchase. ?This, in part, explains why home buying activity picked up steam in 2012,? the report said. ?The increase on sales is welcome news and is helping to reduce inventory of unsold homes.?
Written by: Debra Gruszecki on November 28, 2012.
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Bargaining is a big part of life. It is how prices are set, business deals get made, and political differences are hashed out. Sometimes you get the advantage, sometimes not -- and often it's the bargain itself that's memorable.
By John Yemma,?Editor / November 26, 2012
A rug merchant waits for customers at the Mecca market in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images/File
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A?hot wind blew off the Red Sea. Along with a dozen other reporters, I was camped out in an air-conditioned foyer at a royal palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, waiting for the Saudi foreign minister and the US secretary of State to emerge from crisis meetings in the weeks before the 1991 Gulf War. Hours ticked by. Reporters dozed. Somewhere near dawn, our Saudi handlers ushered in a rug merchant to distract us with his goods.
Skip to next paragraph John Yemma
Editor, The Christian Science Monitor
John Yemma has been a foreign correspondent, Washington reporter, political editor, and has covered economics, science, and culture in 38 years as a journalist. He has worked for The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Globe, UPI, The San Antonio Express-News -- and since 2008, he has been Editor of the Monitor. The Monitor?publishes international news and analysis at CSMonitor.com, in the Monitor Weekly newsmagazine, and in an email-delivered Daily News Briefing.?
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
I was a tough but seasoned bargainer, tossing out the word ?soumak? when he unrolled a flat-woven rug. Not to be taken for a rube, I began decisively, cutting the offering price of the tribal textile in half, all the while staying cordial with my new ?friend.? I knew when to act miffed, when to say I could go no higher, and when to give ground.
?Mabrouk,? the merchant said, pumping my hand as we finally closed the deal. ?Congratulations, sir. You bargain well and have excellent taste.?
I got my prize, plus a small brass coffeepot ? and something even better: a great story. Robin, my wife and artistic director, had taught me to look for that tribal rug design. I had watched her 10 years earlier drive a hard bargain in the Hamidiya souk of Damascus, so this would be an excellent ?Hi, honey, I?m home!? trophy. I could see my carefully acquired soumak spread out under the coffee table.
One day, I imagined, someone might ask the intrepid foreign correspondent if there was a story behind that rug. Well, yes, ?ha-ha, now that you ask: A hot wind blew off the Red Sea....
Some weeks later, I unpacked my bags, and Robin examined the rug. She seemed to admire the style. I told her about the negotiations, the back-and-forth drama, and the hearty ?Mabrouk? that sealed the deal.
?Nice to have you home, dear,? she said.
The rug was placed under the table. A few days later, somebody spilled a tumbler of water on it. The colors ran, burgundy flowing into beige, brown into ochre. The wool puckered, and forever afterward the not-so-valuable and certainly-not-old dust catcher was known as ?John?s famous mabrouk soumak.?
Our dogs enjoyed it. Goodwill eventually accepted it.
The larger point? Negotiations are tricky. Prices and values are not objective facts but markers of give and take, set by us when we engage with each other. When we negotiate, we know our starting position but cannot dictate the outcome.
Congress and the president of the United States are engaged in an epic negotiating session to try to figure out how much government should spend and tax and how to avoid plunging off the Jan. 1 ?fiscal cliff.? The Monitor?s David Grant has dug deeply into the issues and explained them clearly and calmly in a recent Monitor cover story.?
Psychologists say that when you are negotiating, the important thing is to clearly articulate what you want, remain open-minded and genial, and be ready to make a deal. You may not get what you thought you wanted, but you don?t get anything by refusing to bargain. I wanted an impressive trophy. I got something that has lasted much longer: a story.
John Yemma is editor of The Christian Science Monitor.
Robin Sharma calls it ?the 5 am club.?? I saw the Rock tweeted this morning, ?Nothin? more honest than sweat..?? What they?re talking about is the price you pay for success.
I?ve been up since 6, did my cardio, weights, and self-development reading, cleaned out my inbox, and am ready for an amazing day.
But amazing days don?t just happen?
They take work.? And that?s the part a lot of self-help literature and feel good inspiration leaves out.? If you want to do something epic, be prepared to work your ass off.? Because success in anything takes self-discipline.?? Sweat.? Work.? Determination.? Guts.
Yes, you want to work smart.? Yes, success is divine order.? But success doesn?t come without sacrifice or inconvenience.? Pay the price ? it?s worth it.
Always remember you are overcoming to become.
-RG
Posted in Prosperity, Success by Randy Gage.
Tags: abundance, manifesting prosperity, Prosperity, Robin Sharma, self discipline, Success, success training, The Rock
If you're planning a cocktail party, prep your home with must-have spirits, cocktail ingredients and garnishes to make sure you have everything you need to keep drinks flowing and guests entertained. When throwing a cocktail party, it's essential to prepare you home bar. Here's advice on how to make sure your bar is well stocked and ready to serve:
Shop for your Cocktail Party a few days before your event date.
Follow your taste buds to the produce section of your local grocery store or farmers' market, and experiment with new fruits and vegetables in your favorite classic cocktails
Find a signature drink to serve at your party and find out the history of that cocktail and share it with your friends. All bartenders are story tellers.
Make cocktails in batches. To serve a crowd, break the drink recipe into cups for a pitcher. A pitcher typically serves 20 drinks that are 4 ounces each. Multiply your ounces by two and turn into cups. Always make sure to taste as you batch for quality control.
Buy enough beer and wine. While special cocktails can be a hit, beer and wine are often what people reach for at a cocktail party. A few tips to keep in mind when shopping for wine and beer:
Each guest drinking beer with likely consume one 12oz bottle per hour for the duration of the party. Try buying a mix of domestic brews and local micro brews. Each guest drinking wine will consume one 5 oz glass of wine per hour for the duration of the party. There are approximately five glasses of wine per bottle.
Have fun with your home bar. Cocktails are meant for celebrations to create good memories with your friends and family.Know you guests and ensure your bar is stocked with what they like to drink. Make them special and taken care of.
Buy enough ice, Have you ever tried to drink a cocktail and it's only got two half melted ice floating on the top and is?barely?cold. It tends to ruin a great thing. You should have 2.5 pounds of ice for every person at your party. If you plan to have an ice bucket or nice stainless buckets filled for your white wines and beers to keep chilled buy enough extra ice to fill those as well. Remember your ice bucket and displays will sit out and melt don't forget to account for that.
Try this drink recipe for a signature cocktail for the night:
Orange - Cranberry Gin & Tonic
5oz ice
1oz Gin
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Gastric bypass surgery helps diabetes but doesn't cure itPublic release date: 26-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rebecca Hughes hughes.r@ghc.org 206-287-2055 Group Health Research Institute
People with earlier, less severe diabetes benefit more in HMO Research Network study
SEATTLEAfter gastric bypass surgery, diabetes goes away for some peopleoften even before they lose much weight. So does that mean gastric surgery "cures" diabetes? Not necessarily, according to the largest community-based study of long-term diabetes outcomes after bariatric surgery. For most people in the study, e-published in advance of print in Obesity Surgery, diabetes either never remitted after gastric surgery or relapsed within five years.
Among the two thirds of the study's patients whose diabetes at first went away, more than a third re-developed diabetes again within five years after gastric surgery. After adding in the one quarter of patients whose diabetes never remitted after surgery, most (56 percent) of the study's patients had no long-lasting remission of their diabetes following gastric surgery. However, when diabetes did go away, the research team extrapolated, it stayed away for a median of eight years.
Which kinds of obese people with type 2 diabetes are likely to get the most benefit from gastric surgery? "Our results suggest that, after gastric surgery, diabetes stays away for longer in those people whose diabetes was less severe and at an earlier stage at the time of surgery," said principal investigator David E. Arterburn, MD, MPH, a general internist and associate investigator at Group Health Research Institute. "Gastric surgery isn't for everyone," he said. "But this evidence suggests that, once you have diabetes and are severely obese, you should strongly consider it, even though it doesn't seem to be a cure for most patients."
The multi-site study tracked 4,434 adults at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, and HealthPartners for 14 years: from 1995 to 2008. The research arms of all three of these integrated health care delivery systemsand Group Health Research Institute, where the study's results were analyzedbelong to the HMO Research Network. The patients had type 2 diabetes that was either controlled with medication or else uncontrolled, and they were also obese enough to be candidates for gastric bypass surgery.
"Diabetes is an increasingly common disease that tends to keep getting worse relentlessly," Dr. Arterburn said. More than 25 million American adults have diabetesand as populations age and keep gaining weight, 50 million are predicted to have it by 2050. Already, diabetes accounts for 5 percent of all U.S. health care spending. And it raises the risk of blindness, kidney disease, heart attacks, strokes, and deaths.
"Prevention is by far the best medicine for diabetes," Dr. Arterburn said. "Once you have diabetes, it's really hard to get rid of. Attempts to treat it with intensive lifestyle changes and medical management have been disappointing." For instance, the National Institutes of Health recently halted the Look AHEAD study of intensive lifestyle changes for people with diabetes. Despite improvements in risk factors like body weight, fitness, and blood pressure, sugar, and lipids, that study showed lifestyle changes did not lower the outcomes that matter most: heart attacks, strokes, and deaths.
"No wonder so many were excited to learn that diabetes can remit after gastric surgeryeven, in some cases, before any significant weight lossand many were hoping that gastric surgery might be a 'cure' for diabetes," Dr. Arterburn said. "Our study is the first major evidence that diabetes often recurs after gastric bypass surgery." Still, he added, even after diabetes comes back, having had a long period of post-surgery remission is likely to have many positive effects, such as fewer complications of diabetes: less damage to eyes and kidneys, and fewer heart attacks, strokes, and deaths. The researchers are now funded by the National Institutes of Health to study that possibility in this same population. Dr. Arterburn is also leading a randomized controlled pilot trial of intensive behavioral treatment vs. gastric surgery at Group Health with colleagues from the University of Washington.
It's still not clear whether diabetes relapse happens because of gaining weight back or because of underlying the progression of diabetes. But patients' weightbefore and after surgerywas not strongly correlated with remission or relapse of diabetes in this population.
###
As part of the Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness (DEcIDE) program, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded this project under contract HHSA290-2005-0033-I-TO10-WA1, led by Dr. Arterburn.
Drs. Arterburn's co-authors were: Andy Bogart, MS, and Mary Kay Theis, MA, MS, of Group Health Research Institute; David McCulloch, MD, of Group Health Cooperative; Nancy E. Sherwood, PhD, and Patrick J. O'Connor, MD, MPH, of HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research; Stephen Sidney, MD, MPH, of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, in Oakland; Karen J. Coleman, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, in Pasadena; Guilherme M. Campos, MD, of the University of Wisconsin, in Madison; Sebastien Haneuse, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston; and Joe Selby, MD, MPH, of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), in Washington, DC. Dr. Arterburn is also an affiliate associate professor of medicine and Dr. McCulloch is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the health services research arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), complementing the biomedical research mission of its sister agency, the National Institutes of Health. AHRQ is a home to research centers that specialize in major areas of health care research such as quality improvement and patient safety, outcomes and effectiveness of care, clinical practice and technology assessment, and health care organization and delivery systems. It is also a major source of funding and technical assistance for health services research and research training at leading U.S. universities and other institutions, as well as a science partner, working with the public and private sectors to build the knowledge base for what worksand does not workin health and health care and to translate this knowledge into everyday practice and policymaking.
HMO Research Network
The HMO Research Network includes 19 research centers, each associated with a health care delivery system. Researchers at the centers collaborate on multi-site studies in real-world health care settings across the United States and in Israel. With access to information on more than 16 million ethnically and geographically diverse patients, these researchers are finding solutions for common and rare health problems. Since 1994, the Network has been answering pressing questions about keeping people healthy and delivering effective care.
About the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research
The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research conducts, publishes and disseminates epidemiologic and health services research to improve the health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and the society at large. It seeks to understand the determinants of illness and well-being and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Located in Oakland, Calif., the Division of Research employs over 600 staff working on more than 250 epidemiological and health services research projects. For more information, visit www.dor.kaiser.org.
About the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation
The Department of Research and Evaluation (R&E) conducts high quality, innovative research into disease etiology, prevention, treatment and care delivery. Investigators conduct epidemiology, health sciences, and behavioral research as well as clinical trials. Located in Pasadena, Calif., the department focuses on translating research to practice quickly to benefit the health and lives of Kaiser Permanente Southern California members and the general population. Visit www.kp.org/research.
HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research
HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research is dedicated to improving health through discovery, the translation of research, and health professional education. Our researchers are dedicated to conducting high-quality, public-domain health research, proposed and led by multidisciplinary teams of independent PhD- and MD-level investigators rigorously trained in statistics, economics, epidemiology, and other fields. The Institute is part of a larger organization consisting of HealthPartners, Regions Hospital, and clinics.
Group Health Research Institute
Group Health Research Institute is the research arm of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system. Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative coordinates health care and coverage. Group Health Research Institute changed its name from Group Health Center for Health Studies in 2009. Since 1983, the Institute has conducted nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems. Government and private research grants provide its main funding.
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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.
Gastric bypass surgery helps diabetes but doesn't cure itPublic release date: 26-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rebecca Hughes hughes.r@ghc.org 206-287-2055 Group Health Research Institute
People with earlier, less severe diabetes benefit more in HMO Research Network study
SEATTLEAfter gastric bypass surgery, diabetes goes away for some peopleoften even before they lose much weight. So does that mean gastric surgery "cures" diabetes? Not necessarily, according to the largest community-based study of long-term diabetes outcomes after bariatric surgery. For most people in the study, e-published in advance of print in Obesity Surgery, diabetes either never remitted after gastric surgery or relapsed within five years.
Among the two thirds of the study's patients whose diabetes at first went away, more than a third re-developed diabetes again within five years after gastric surgery. After adding in the one quarter of patients whose diabetes never remitted after surgery, most (56 percent) of the study's patients had no long-lasting remission of their diabetes following gastric surgery. However, when diabetes did go away, the research team extrapolated, it stayed away for a median of eight years.
Which kinds of obese people with type 2 diabetes are likely to get the most benefit from gastric surgery? "Our results suggest that, after gastric surgery, diabetes stays away for longer in those people whose diabetes was less severe and at an earlier stage at the time of surgery," said principal investigator David E. Arterburn, MD, MPH, a general internist and associate investigator at Group Health Research Institute. "Gastric surgery isn't for everyone," he said. "But this evidence suggests that, once you have diabetes and are severely obese, you should strongly consider it, even though it doesn't seem to be a cure for most patients."
The multi-site study tracked 4,434 adults at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, and HealthPartners for 14 years: from 1995 to 2008. The research arms of all three of these integrated health care delivery systemsand Group Health Research Institute, where the study's results were analyzedbelong to the HMO Research Network. The patients had type 2 diabetes that was either controlled with medication or else uncontrolled, and they were also obese enough to be candidates for gastric bypass surgery.
"Diabetes is an increasingly common disease that tends to keep getting worse relentlessly," Dr. Arterburn said. More than 25 million American adults have diabetesand as populations age and keep gaining weight, 50 million are predicted to have it by 2050. Already, diabetes accounts for 5 percent of all U.S. health care spending. And it raises the risk of blindness, kidney disease, heart attacks, strokes, and deaths.
"Prevention is by far the best medicine for diabetes," Dr. Arterburn said. "Once you have diabetes, it's really hard to get rid of. Attempts to treat it with intensive lifestyle changes and medical management have been disappointing." For instance, the National Institutes of Health recently halted the Look AHEAD study of intensive lifestyle changes for people with diabetes. Despite improvements in risk factors like body weight, fitness, and blood pressure, sugar, and lipids, that study showed lifestyle changes did not lower the outcomes that matter most: heart attacks, strokes, and deaths.
"No wonder so many were excited to learn that diabetes can remit after gastric surgeryeven, in some cases, before any significant weight lossand many were hoping that gastric surgery might be a 'cure' for diabetes," Dr. Arterburn said. "Our study is the first major evidence that diabetes often recurs after gastric bypass surgery." Still, he added, even after diabetes comes back, having had a long period of post-surgery remission is likely to have many positive effects, such as fewer complications of diabetes: less damage to eyes and kidneys, and fewer heart attacks, strokes, and deaths. The researchers are now funded by the National Institutes of Health to study that possibility in this same population. Dr. Arterburn is also leading a randomized controlled pilot trial of intensive behavioral treatment vs. gastric surgery at Group Health with colleagues from the University of Washington.
It's still not clear whether diabetes relapse happens because of gaining weight back or because of underlying the progression of diabetes. But patients' weightbefore and after surgerywas not strongly correlated with remission or relapse of diabetes in this population.
###
As part of the Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness (DEcIDE) program, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded this project under contract HHSA290-2005-0033-I-TO10-WA1, led by Dr. Arterburn.
Drs. Arterburn's co-authors were: Andy Bogart, MS, and Mary Kay Theis, MA, MS, of Group Health Research Institute; David McCulloch, MD, of Group Health Cooperative; Nancy E. Sherwood, PhD, and Patrick J. O'Connor, MD, MPH, of HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research; Stephen Sidney, MD, MPH, of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, in Oakland; Karen J. Coleman, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, in Pasadena; Guilherme M. Campos, MD, of the University of Wisconsin, in Madison; Sebastien Haneuse, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston; and Joe Selby, MD, MPH, of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), in Washington, DC. Dr. Arterburn is also an affiliate associate professor of medicine and Dr. McCulloch is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the health services research arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), complementing the biomedical research mission of its sister agency, the National Institutes of Health. AHRQ is a home to research centers that specialize in major areas of health care research such as quality improvement and patient safety, outcomes and effectiveness of care, clinical practice and technology assessment, and health care organization and delivery systems. It is also a major source of funding and technical assistance for health services research and research training at leading U.S. universities and other institutions, as well as a science partner, working with the public and private sectors to build the knowledge base for what worksand does not workin health and health care and to translate this knowledge into everyday practice and policymaking.
HMO Research Network
The HMO Research Network includes 19 research centers, each associated with a health care delivery system. Researchers at the centers collaborate on multi-site studies in real-world health care settings across the United States and in Israel. With access to information on more than 16 million ethnically and geographically diverse patients, these researchers are finding solutions for common and rare health problems. Since 1994, the Network has been answering pressing questions about keeping people healthy and delivering effective care.
About the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research
The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research conducts, publishes and disseminates epidemiologic and health services research to improve the health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and the society at large. It seeks to understand the determinants of illness and well-being and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Located in Oakland, Calif., the Division of Research employs over 600 staff working on more than 250 epidemiological and health services research projects. For more information, visit www.dor.kaiser.org.
About the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation
The Department of Research and Evaluation (R&E) conducts high quality, innovative research into disease etiology, prevention, treatment and care delivery. Investigators conduct epidemiology, health sciences, and behavioral research as well as clinical trials. Located in Pasadena, Calif., the department focuses on translating research to practice quickly to benefit the health and lives of Kaiser Permanente Southern California members and the general population. Visit www.kp.org/research.
HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research
HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research is dedicated to improving health through discovery, the translation of research, and health professional education. Our researchers are dedicated to conducting high-quality, public-domain health research, proposed and led by multidisciplinary teams of independent PhD- and MD-level investigators rigorously trained in statistics, economics, epidemiology, and other fields. The Institute is part of a larger organization consisting of HealthPartners, Regions Hospital, and clinics.
Group Health Research Institute
Group Health Research Institute is the research arm of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system. Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative coordinates health care and coverage. Group Health Research Institute changed its name from Group Health Center for Health Studies in 2009. Since 1983, the Institute has conducted nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems. Government and private research grants provide its main funding.
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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.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Republican senator said Sunday "it's fair to ask my party to put revenue on the table" as part of the solution to avoid the looming automatic tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff."
South Carolina's Lindsey Graham said he's "willing to generate revenue" by steps such as capping tax deductions, which he says would most affect upper-income Americans. But he says he won't agree to higher taxes ? a position shared by most Republicans in Congress.
President Barack Obama wants to let tax rates rise for wealthy families while sparing middle- and low-income taxpayers.
Graham told ABC's "This Week" that "for the good of the country," he's ready to violate an anti-tax pledge followed by most Republicans if Democrats agree to big changes in entitlement programs.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said a pledge signed years ago should not necessarily apply in economic conditions that have changed greatly.
"I think everything should be on the table," he said, adding "I'm just saying we should not be taking ironclad positions."
King said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we have to show the world we're adults. The election's over." Get Obama and the congressional leaders in a room, he said. "That's what representative government should be about. No one gets all their way."
The Kingdom has fallen after the royal family have been brutally murdered... The young prince is injured but is soon found...Become a part of his journey.
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Cats and dogs can live together peacefully.? The thing is, they don't always live together peacefully.? There's plenty of things that can go wrong in the cat/dog relationship.? For now, let's talk about what to do when the cat picks on the dog.
Cats like to skulk and pounce and swipe.? This mighty?predator?kitty show is quite charming.? That is, until all this taunting and zooming has left the poor dog unable to move around in his home without being ambushed.??
Take action before it comes to this.
The cat jumps on the dog because it's fun.? One thing you might try is playing with your cat, then perhaps he'll get his fill of?fun, leaving him?no need to torment the dog.?
Some say squirting the cat with water deters bad behavior.? From what cat owners trying to keep kitty off the kitchen counter or out of the house plants tell me, the squirt bottle system doesn't work very well.? At best, the cat refrains from the designated bad behavior only when you are present.? This will help the long suffering dog only if you keep dog and cat separated when you are not watching.
You can anticipate when the cat is about to attack the dog.? The cat will arch his back, lower his head, and may get a determined gleefully hostile look in his eye.? Yelling NO at this point won't do much good.? (It works with dogs.? Do dogs have a conscience and cats don't?? Are dogs more inclined to be respectful of authority?? Is it that cats think they are the authority?? Thorny questions to be explored another time...)
You can do something before kitty leaps unto the dog.? Distract him.? Step in before the cat takes flight.? Engage and entertain this energetic feline.? Offer a toy on the end of a stick, for instance.? The cat can deploy his killer instinct by swiping at a stuffed fish rather than Rover's tender hide.? Help the cat release some of that vigor with other toys, a new scratching post, or invest in one of those cat rigs with the tunnels and planks to run on.? Even if you live in a small place, you can find room for a cat's amusement park by placing it up high.? Cat's don't generally fear heights!? Just be on the look out that kitty doesn't use his new improved higher perch to banzai the dog.? That would make you a sort of an enabler. Just to be on the safe side, consider arranging for ways that the dog can avoid the cat when you are not there to referee.
One other suggestion.? Maybe the cat needs his chin rubbed or a chance to sit with you on the couch.? Is the dog the only one getting petted?? Could be the cat just wants more attention from you.
Everplans is a site that can help you get through all the steps needed to deal with that universal topic?death?at any stage, whether you are comforting someone who's grieving, have to make funeral arrangements, or want to set up important documents for your family. ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Nov-2012
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