In Colorado, same-sex marriage remains a hot issue

Posted on May 20, 2012 by lisounds

FILE – In this May 8, 2012 file photo, partners Anna Simon, left, and Fran Simon embrace at a rally in support of Civil Unions at the Capitol in Denver. President Barack Obama’s support for gay marriage has emboldened activists and politicians on both sides of the issue, setting off a flurry of political activity in a number of states and serving as a rallying point in others where votes on gay marriage laws are being held this fall. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)

FILE – In this May 8, 2012 file photo, openly gay Sen. Pat Steadman, right, D-Denver, embraces gay Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, at a rally in support of Civil Unions at the Capitol in Denver, as Senate President Brandon Shaffer is pictured in the background. President Barack Obama’s support for gay marriage has emboldened activists and politicians on both sides of the issue, setting off a flurry of political activity in a number of states and serving as a rallying point in others where votes on gay marriage laws are being held this fall. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)

FILE – In this May 8, 2012 file photo, openly gay state Sen. Pat Steadman, center, speaks at a rally in support of Civil Unions at the Capitol in Denver. President Barack Obama’s support for gay marriage has emboldened activists and politicians on both sides of the issue, setting off a flurry of political activity in a number of states and serving as a rallying point in others where votes on gay marriage laws are being held this fall. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)

DENVER (AP) ? Minutes after President Barack Obama announced he supported gay marriage, the Democratic governor of Colorado choked back tears in Denver as he ordered state lawmakers to reconsider a civil-unions measure that Republicans had defeated the day before.

In the week that followed, the debate over equal rights for same-sex couples consumed the state Capitol. And while Republicans ultimately succeeded in killing the measure, Republicans and Democrats alike acknowledge that the emotional standoff over the issue could help shape the White House campaign in this presidential battleground state this fall.

“Go back to your communities, go back to your neighborhoods, go back to your churches and let them know that the fight continues,” Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty implored gay-marriage opponents gathered outside the Capitol last Tuesday. He was looking to rally the state’s huge number of religious conservatives who long have been the foot-soldiers in efforts to both oppose civil unions and elect Republicans.

Democrats, in turn, predicted that their loyalists, as well as independents, will rally behind Obama in Colorado given his support of same-sex marriage. Obama planned to visit the state next Wednesday to deliver a commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, before attending fundraisers in Denver.

“That will have a positive impact on the chances of the president being re-elected and winning Colorado in November,” said Democratic Rep. Mark Ferrandino, a gay lawmaker who co-sponsored the civil unions legislation and said that its supporters would be “very active” in the fall on the issue.

Since 2008, equal rights for same-sex couples ? either through civil unions or gay marriage ? has flared red-hot in just a handful of the dozen or so battleground states where the White House race will be decided. Two of those states, Iowa and New Hampshire, now recognize gay marriage, while North Carolina recently took the opposite stance, voting to strengthen its ban against gay marriage.

But the fight in Colorado ? coming just as Obama disclosed his new position ? was especially bitter, and feelings on both sides are raw. So Republicans and Democrats are bracing for social issues like gay marriage and civil unions to factor into voters’ calculations about whether to back the Democratic incumbent or presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who opposes allowing gay people to get married.

The economy, to be sure, is certain to dominate the race in the state. Colorado’s unemployment rate is 7.9 percent, lower than in some swing states and marginally lower than the national average of 8.1 percent. But with joblessness falling, social issues like civil unions could well become more of an issue in voters’ minds.

Less than six months before the election, Colorado’s nine electoral votes are up for grabs and the race here is expected to be competitive. That’s largely because of the fickle nature of a state that’s evenly divided among registered Republicans, Democrats and independents.

Look no further than the state’s evolution on same-sex partnerships as evidence of its swing nature.

Just six years ago, Coloradans overwhelmingly voted to change the state constitution to ban gay marriage after a campaign largely funded by Focus on the Family, a conservative group based in Colorado that’s influential across the nation.

By this spring, though, there was enough bipartisan support in the state Legislature to approve civil unions. And yet GOP leaders twice used legislative maneuvers to stop same-sex recognition, most recently last Monday.

Republicans accused Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper of taking marching orders from the White House by pushing the civil union measure in hopes of diverting attention from the sluggish economic recovery.

“Make no mistake about it,” McNulty said. “It’s absolutely clear to me that Governor Hickenlooper is reading straight from President Obama’s campaign playbook.”

Democrats, in turn, argued that Colorado Republicans filibustered equality.

Some conservatives insist that Obama’s position on marriage will hurt him in Colorado.

“Six years is not a long time,” said Carrie Gordon Earll of CitizenLink, the public policy arm of Focus on the Family. She was referring to the state passage of its gay marriage ban. “I would think a majority of voters would say, ‘That does not align with my views.’”

Others counter that Colorado’s views may be changing as quickly as the nation’s. Consider that a handful of Republicans in the House said they’d support civil unions, meaning the measure would have passed if GOP leaders hadn’t maneuvered to prevent a vote. Senate Democrats have passed civil unions two years in a row, both times joined by Republican women in the Senate.

Some Republicans fear that the GOP’s civil unions stand in Colorado could harm the party with independent voters.

“The truth is we may have not only sacrificed our razor-thin House majority, but we also may have permanently impaired Republican prospects in Colorado at all levels, including for the presidential race,” said Alexander Hornaday, president of Colorado Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights organization.

Then there are those who doubt the issue’s potency come the fall. Among them is Kirk Fordham, the executive director of the Denver-based Gill Action Fund. The political organization is funded by Tim Gill, a nationally prominent gay rights activist credited with helping fund a Democratic takeover of Colorado’s legislature in 2005.

“By the time we get to November,” Fordham predicted, “the attention will largely have shifted back to economic issues.”

Associated Press

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Witnesses paint graphic picture of fight

Posted on May 20, 2012 by lisounds

A closer look at the witness statements and audio testimony taken in the immediate aftermath Trayvon Martin’s death provides the first insight into George Zimmerman’s behavior after he shot the unarmed teen.

A man listed as witness 13 was one of the first people to approach Zimmerman minutes after the shooting. He saw him bleeding from the back of the head and nose. Zimmerman asked the unidentified man to call his wife for him.

“Let her know what’s happening, been involved in a shooting and will be held for questioning,” the witness told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. “He was more like, talking like he was having a hard time, looked like he just got his butt whipped … not like he was in shock, not like, ‘I can’t believe I just shot someone,’ but like, ‘Just tell my wife I just shot someone,’ like it was nothing.”

A woman identified as witness 5 walked out of her home after hearing the altercation to find Zimmerman standing over Martin’s body. She said she asked him what was going on and he curtly said just, “Call the police.”

The woman told police that Zimmerman, 28, examined Martin’s body as he slowly paced back and forth when the police arrived. She watched as they checked the teen’s body and turned him over, eventually starting CPR. But he was already dead for five or 10 minutes, she said.

“I do honestly feel that he intended for this kid to die,” witness 5 told investigators. “If you’re in self defense, shoot him in the leg. He’s a 17-year-old, scrawny little kid. You get into a physical fight with him. … I think the kid was running for help.”

Zimmerman is charged with second degree murder for the Feb. 26 killing.

Martin was in Sanford, Fla., while serving a suspension from his Miami school for being caught with an empty marijuana bag. At the time of the shooting, he was staying at the home of his father’s girlfriend. An autopsy found THC, the intoxicating chemical in marijuana, was in his system.

At 7:11 that night, Zimmerman, a member of the area’s neighborhood watch, had called 911 to report a suspicious teenager. Minutes later, the police dispatcher told Zimmerman to stop follwing Martin. Moments later, Zimmerman got out of his car. That’s when the two met and Martin was killed.

Zimmerman has claimed that when he shot the 6-foot, 160-pound teenager he was on his back and Martin was astride him pounding away.

Trayvon Martin Shooting Video: New Evidence

The key problem facing investigators is an 80-second gap between the time Zimmerman hung up with police at 7:15 p.m. and when the first 911 calls from terrified neighbors began flooding in.

A man identified only as witness 6 told investigators that he heard a commotion coming from the walk behind his residence. He witnessed a black male wearing a dark-colored “hoodie” on top of a white or Hispanic male who was yelling for help.

Police said the witness elaborated by saying the black man was mounted on Zimmerman and throwing punches “MMA” style, meaning mixed martial arts style. The witness stated that the man on the ground yelled out for help.

Witness 6 said he was going to call for police when he heard the “pop” of Zimmerman’s gun.

“When I looked down, I saw the person that was on top was laying in my grass in a sprawled position,” witness said. “Saw another guy with his hands in the air, saying, ‘The gun’s on the ground, I shot this guy in self-defense.’”

Police said they believe Martin noticed he was being watched and “was in fact running generally in the direction of where he was staying as a guest of the neighborhood.”

Multiple witnesses and injuries sustained corroborate Zimmerman’s account that he was involved in a serious altercation with Martin, one that police say could have been avoided if he did not leave his car as directed by the 911dispatcher. The investigator said the tragedy was avoidable.

Witness 3 said the timing was terrible.

“I saw the police arrive. And they were literally like 5 seconds too late — like right after the gun went off. Like, they were literally that, that, that short a distance late,” the witness said.

EC opens a ?34.8 million call for eco-innovation projects ? Life …

Posted on May 20, 2012 by lisounds

The European Commission has opened a call for eco-innovation projects for businesses and entrepreneurs from across Europe to help bring novel environmental projects to the market. The ?34.8 million funding will support eco-innovative products, techniques, services and processes that aim to prevent or reduce environmental impacts, or which contribute to the optimal use of resources. The five main priority areas for this year include: materials recycling, water, sustainable building products, green business and the food and drink sector. Around 50 projects will be selected for funding and interested parties can apply until? 6 September 2012.

Janez Poto?nik, European Commissioner for the Environment, highlighted that this programme ?shows? how businesses can help our economies to grow in an environmentally sustainable way, once they have the right support.? There are already nearly 200 projects being set up or underway from past funding calls and include schemes such as converting old discarded TVs into tiles, new waste sorting mechanisms, innovative eco- packaging for milk, and a new technique for recycling textiles.

Link: EC press release

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Refloat of Italy’s Concordia wreck to be biggest ever

Posted on May 19, 2012 by lisounds

[ [ [['A picture is worth a thousand words', 5]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/why-facebook-bought-instagram-4-theories-160400376.html’, ‘[Related: Why Facebook bought Instagram: 4 theories]‘, ‘ ‘, ’630′, ‘ ‘, ‘ ‘, ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 9]], ‘http://contributor.yahoo.com/join/yahoonews_virginiabeach’, ‘[Did you witness the jet crash? Share your story with Yahoo! News]‘, ‘ ‘, ’630′, ‘ ‘, ‘ ‘, ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], ‘http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj’, ‘[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]‘, ‘ ‘, ’630′, ‘ ‘, ‘ ‘, ], [ [['Dick Clark', 11]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dick-clark-dies-at-82-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/c/21/c217c61aa2d5872244c08caa13c16ec5.jpeg’, ’500′, ‘ ‘, ‘Reuters’, ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg’, ’630′, ‘ ‘, ‘AP’, ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/’, ‘ ‘, ‘http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg’, ’550′, ‘ ‘, ‘ ‘, ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg’, ’630′, ‘ ‘, ‘AP’, ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg’, ’500′, ‘ ‘, ‘AP’, ] ]

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Video: Budget War in Washington

Posted on May 19, 2012 by lisounds

The U.S. will press the G-8 for a balance of growth and austerity policies, with CNBC’s John Harwood; Tony Katz, Tea Party supporter; Joy Reid, TheGrio.com; and Bob Tyrrell, The American Spectator.

Cash For Structured Settlement – Find ,Buy, Sell or Gain Funding …

Posted on May 19, 2012 by lisounds

As mentioned above, loans for structured settlement are very peculiar and are, at times, advanced to people by the lenders. These loans also have different qualifying conditions, and one does not have to worry about any sort of credit rating or credit score or credit history. In fact, the credit report does not come into the picture at all. In the following paragraphs, the concept and working of such loans has been elaborated. However, before we proceed, it is important to understand the meaning of structured settlement.

Structured Settlement

The payment of money, in legal language, is also known as consideration. The payment of consideration can be done with the help of two basic modes of payment, which are, structured settlements and lump sum payments. Most of the time, while making heavy payments, the payer often prefers to use the structured settlement method. In such a mode of payment, the payee receives a series of installments over the course of time. Genuine payment period, assured inward cash flow and accumulated interest, are the principal features of structured settlement. Lump sum payment on the other hand is made in one go, and is hence disadvantageous to both the payer and payee. There are several different situations where a person may avail a structured settlement. For example: structured settlement annuity, where the return payment of investment is made in installments. A lottery prize is another example of such a payment. Often, a structured settlement is also made as a compensation after a court case. The structured settlement factoring is a process by which the amount and time period of installments is decided.

Structured Settlement Loan

A person who is expected to receive structured settlements, might find himself in a situation where he needs urgent cash. In such a situation, lenders, such as bankers and finance institutes lend out a lump sum amount to the payee of the settlement. In exchange of the loan amount, the payee transfers the rights to receive installments to the lender. Thus, the loan amount is repaid with the help of the installments of the settlement. In some cases, the person (payee), who has taken the loan, will have to pay the additional rate of interest. This kind of loan does not have any kind of credit check, requirement and security. The total amount of the loan is basically decided, by just adding up all the installments which are due. In cases where the settlement installments are also accompanied by interest, the payee, who has become the borrower, does not have to pay any interest at all.

If the payee/receiver of the loan has already accepted some installments, and still wants to borrow the loan, then the amount of accepted installments, is deducted from the loan for structured settlement.

As a last signing off statement, let me suggest that it would be advantageous to consult a structured settlement broker, as you might get a much more profitable deal in comparison to a loan, by selling it.

Visit >>>http://findstructuredsettlements.blogspot.com/

Tag: structured settlement loan, settlement loan, payment

Source: Buzzle.com By Scholasticus K

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The Education of Neal-Sales Griffin | Northwestern Business Review

Posted on May 18, 2012 by lisounds

Lets call it the Winklevoss dilemma. You?ve got it, the next big Internet sensation. The only problem is, well, you need a technical co-founder. Former Northwestern ASG president Neal Sales-Griffin (SESP ?09) thinks he can help. As the CEO of Code Academy, an intensive three-month programming course that attracts applicants from all over the world to their classrooms in Chicago, Sales-Griffin wants to equip entrepreneurs with the skills to make their ideas an Internet reality.

Sales-Griffin was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. Although he lived only thirty minutes away from Evanston, he arrived his freshman year at Northwestern, sight unseen. That being said, he had little trouble acclimating to college life. After moving into Ayers CCI, a residential college centered on commerce and industry, Sales-Griffin found his way to some of the business organizations on campus.? As jobs in investment banking and consulting promised the economic freedom he had always dreamed of, Sales-Griffin naturally gravitated towards the groups that aligned themselves with these industries. In particular, he got involved with the ?Nugget Group,? a collection of finance-oriented students who ran an on-campus investment fund, and then later became a founding member of the Institute for Student Business Education (ISBE). Having established himself in the student business community, he also gained attention for his work ethic in the classroom.

?I had never taken a real class before,? Sales-Griffin said, explaining the C- he received in Introduction to Macroeconomics in his first quarter at Northwestern. Undeterred, Sales-Griffin said he ?worked three hours later than everyone in Micro and killed it.?

Two upperclassmen, Rishi Shah and Derek Moeller, took notice. Before Sales-Griffin knew it, Shah and Moeller had invited him to become a member of the venture backed start-up Context Media, a company that provides LCD monitors with patient-specific information to health care facilities. That summer, he worked in their office downtown in sales and marketing while taking night classes back at Northwestern. The success of the company ? Context Media now operates in all fifty states ? ultimately forced Sales-Griffin?s hand. By the end of the summer, Moeller had graduated and Shah had dropped out of school. Sales-Griffin was asked to do the same, but he opted to remain at Northwestern.

?It took a lot for me to go to college so I felt like I needed to finish,? he recalled over five years later.

He no longer worked for Context Media, but Sales-Griffin had been bit by the entrepreneurial bug. Back on campus as a sophomore, he ?bullied? his way into an entrepreneurship class for juniors and seniors taught by Troy Henikoff, who would later become CEO of Excelerate Labs and one of Sales-Griffin?s professional mentors.

He also decided he was going to fix the barbershop industry. As a college student, even with some income leftover from his Context Media days, he knew that going to the barbershop twice a month, for twenty dollars a visit, was not sustainable. He also realized that being an entrepreneur meant ?solving problems for people?, so he devised a business plan that would appease both profit-driven barbers and college students who wanted to look sharp without breaking the bank. He then began the process of peddling it to every barber he could find, eventually entering into a partnership with one of them. Helping manage barbershops on the South Side, however, soon became too demanding for a full-time Northwestern student, so as he did with Context Media, he gave up the venture in order to return his attention to his schoolwork and a more traditional career in finance.

After working the summer after his junior year at the Chicago venture capital firm OCA Ventures, Sales-Griffin spent his senior year serving as the ASG president and wrapping up his degree in Learning and Organizational Change. When graduation rolled around, the man who, for four years had to be among the busiest on campus, walked across the stage with no plans for employment. Instead, he spent that summer ?working out and playing video games,? and that following fall, served as ?the first alumni SafeRide driver in Northwestern history.? Nearly six months after graduating, the longtime videogame enthusiast had packed his bags for Seattle and was prepared to work at the intersection of education and gaming. A few weeks before he was to leave, however, he went out to lunch with Harper Reed, who at the time was the CTO of Threadless. The lunch soon turned into an ambush by a number of VPs from the Chicago innovation firm Sandbox Industries. They offered him a job in their incubator division and ultimately convinced him to stay in Chicago.

His experience with Sandbox taught him several things, but his biggest takeaway was the respect that coders commanded; they were the people putting ideas into action. Where the coders were coveted, he viewed an analyst like himself as more or less dispensable. Then it hit him. If he wanted to have the financially secure, independent, and impactful lifestyle he had always wanted, he needed to learn how to code. After this revelation, Sales-Griffin decided to leave Sandbox. He then called Northwestern?s 2010 ASG president, Mike McGee, a person who had a general background in graphic design, to share with him his plans. The two pledged to spend the next year teaching themselves as much as they could about web development with the hope of building a valuable product along the way.

?For over a year we struggled through anything we could get our hands on to learn these skills. After that we realized there had to be a better way,? recalls Sales-Griffin. And just like that, Code Academy was born. Well, almost. The two had to decline Harper Reed?s offer to join the Obama re-election campaign after he became the campaign?s CTO.

Code Academy operates at the co-working space 1871 in Merchandise Mart

Code Academy began taking applications, for both students and instructors, in March of last year. They determined that they needed fifteen students to cover their expenses for the first session; they ended up receiving applications from eighty-eight, and the classes have grown each application cycle since then. What?s more impressive is that sixty percent of Code Academy applicants are from prospective students outside Chicago, even though imitator programs have sprouted up in cities like San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.

They are also not just aspiring entrepreneurs. Code Academy students boast professional backgrounds in real estate, finance, consulting, and even computer science. Sales-Griffin serves as CEO and McGee operates under the title of Chief Creative Officer. Looking back on everything that has become of Code Academy, Sales-Griffin emphasized that although the company has been ?profitable from day one, we?ve also been impactful from day one.?

People who know Sales-Griffin aren?t surprised. Entrepreneurs solve problems, and Neal Sales-Griffin is an entrepreneur.

About Rob Galliani

Rob Galliani covers technology and entrepreneurship for NBR. When he is not reading Fast Company, he can be found playing basketball for Northwestern’s club team.

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Public debt management talks at conference – The latest news on …

Posted on May 18, 2012 by lisounds

An general discussion on open debt government took place in Hanoi on May 16.

Jointly hold by Vietnam ?s Ministry of Finance, World Bank (WB) and
International Monetary Fund (IMF), a discussion drew a courtesy of
leaders of ministries, sectors, people?s committees of cities, provinces
nationwide and internal financial departments, together with experts on
debt government from a general financial organisations of WB,
IMF and debt government offices of Thailand and India .

Addressing a event, Deputy Finance Minister Truong Chi Trung said
the discussion aims to share practice and lessons from a work of
controlling debt in any country, assisting participants have an overview
of a world?s open debt situation, as good as a significance of debt
management to inhabitant financial security.

According
to experts, a structure of unsure debt customarily formula in illogical
economic, mercantile and financial policies. A bad debt structure is also
one of a causes of mercantile crisis.

Many experts
said that open debt government is a required apparatus to grasp macro
financial goals in building countries. It is really critical to have
coordination between financial and mercantile policies.-VNA

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Futurity.org ? To kill cancer, don't let genes go silent

Posted on May 18, 2012 by lisounds

Researchers have discovered that silencing of the IRAK3 gene is directly responsible for the increased expression of survivin, a gene that prevents or delays a cell?s death. (Credit: “fluid in tubes” image via Shutterstock)

USC (US) ? Researchers have identified a small number of specific genes that need to be silenced for cancer cells to survive.

The discovery?detailed in the May 15 issue of Cancer Cell?means the genes may be good targets for new, more effective treatments.

?We tracked down these genes and it?s the first time that it?s been done,? says Peter Jones, professor of urology, biochemistry, and molecular biology at the University of Southern California (USC) and principal investigator of the study. ?If these genes are not silenced through DNA methylation, the cancer cell dies.?

While normal, healthy cells have a life cycle, cancer cells don?t?they grow and multiply uncontrollably. Scientists have observed structural differences between the two, but it has been difficult to determine which differences drive the cell to avoid normal death and which are consequences of being a cancer cell. Jones and colleagues found that when certain genes in the cancer cell are silenced by DNA methylation, the cancer cell avoids death.

DNA methylation, or the addition of methyl groups to a gene, can change gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. This epigenetic process is potentially reversible, making the areas where it happens good targets for new treatments to be developed.

?We are interested in the gene drivers,? says Jones, an epigenetics pioneer whose 1980 discovery of the drug 5-azacytidine is now standard treatment for a pre-leukemia bone-marrow disorder. ?In other words, we want to know what makes a cancer cell a cancer cell.?

Jones and colleagues examined the gene expression and DNA methylation profiles of colorectal cancer cells and normal healthy cells across the body. They found that the silencing of the IRAK3 gene was directly responsible for the increased expression of survivin, a gene that prevents or delays a cell?s death. They also found that cancer cells become dependent on the silencing of these genes through DNA methylation.

The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health supported the research.

More news from USC: http://uscnews.usc.edu/

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GM to drop Facebook ads due to low consumer impact

Posted on May 17, 2012 by lisounds

DETROIT/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – General Motors Co said on Tuesday it will stop advertising on Facebook, even as the social networking website prepares to go public, with a source familiar with the matter saying the automaker had decided Facebook‘s ads had little impact on consumers.

The decision by GM, the third-largest advertiser in the United States, marks the first highly visible crack in Facebook‘s strategy and underscores doubts about whether advertising on Facebook works better than traditional media.

“This does highlight what we are arguing is the riskiness of the overall Facebook business model,” said Brian Wieser, Internet and media analyst at Pivotal Research Group.

“It is not a sure thing. It sure looks likely that it will be one of the most important ad-supported media properties, but it’s not certain because there will be marketers who are challenged to prove the effectiveness of the marketing vehicle.”

For now, these worries do not appear to be impeding strong investor demand, with Facebook Inc increasing the size of its offering by 25 percent to raise about $15 billion, a separate source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Facebook, founded eight years ago by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room, is expected to start trading on the Nasdaq on Friday.

GM said it will still have Facebook pages, which cost nothing to create and for which it pays no fees, to market its vehicles and added that it is not unusual for it to move spending around various media outlets.

“In terms of Facebook specifically, while we currently do not plan to continue with advertising, we remain committed to an aggressive content strategy through all of our products and brands, as it continues to be a very effective tool for engaging with our customers,” GM said.

Facebook declined to comment on GM‘s move.

SOME IN FAVOUR

Concerns about advertising on Facebook are not confined to GM, with an executive at another large consumer products company saying it was hard to know if it is worth the money spent.

“Is it just a shiny new object, or is it a real value proposition?” said the executive, who asked not to be identified.

But Ford Motor Co said it was committed to advertising on Facebook and is boosting its spending, including ad buys.

“You just can’t buy your way into Facebook,” said Ford spokesman Scott Monty. “You need to have a credible presence and be doing innovative things.”

More than 20 percent of Ford’s marketing budget is spent on digital and social media, he said. The company launched its 2011 Explorer SUV on Facebook and other digital outlets for a fraction of the cost of a Super Bowl TV spot, which cost $3.5 million on average per 30 seconds this year.

Another fan of Facebook is Japanese automaker Subaru, which started using banner ads at the website in the past year in addition to its free content. “Advertising plus content equals more clicks to our website, which we like,” Subaru spokesman Michael McHale said.

GETTING GLITZY

Facebook has ramped up its outreach to Madison Avenue in recent years. Last year Facebook hired Carolyn Everson, an ad industry veteran who worked at Microsoft Corp, Viacom’s MTV Networks and Walt Disney Co, and the company hosted a splashy event in New York in March to showcase its newest ad offerings.

John Battelle, chairman of the Internet advertising network Federated Media, said Facebook may need to invest more heavily in building relationships with major advertisers.

It may also need to develop richer, more customized advertising offerings, even though such efforts would likely be less profitable than traditional display or pay-per-click advertising.

“GM is a warning shot across the bow,” said Battelle.

GM, which ranks behind Procter & Gamble Co and AT&T Inc in advertising spending, spent $1.1 billion on U.S. ads last year, according to ad-tracking firm Kantar Media.

It spent about $271 million on online display and search ads excluding Facebook advertising.

GM spends about $40 million on its Facebook presence, but only about $10 million of that is paid to Facebook for advertising, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported GM’s plans to drop Facebook ads. The remaining budget covers the creation of content and the advertising and media agencies involved, the newspaper said.

(Additional reporting by Deepa Seetharaman and Bernie Woodall in Detroit, Jim Finkle in Boston and Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz, Matthew Lewis, M.D. Golan and Edwina Gibbs)

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