Civil Authorities failed to help flood victims in Pakhtunkhawa

Updated on : Sunday, August 01, 2010

The recent heavy rains and floods have exposed badly the capabilities of local authorities in Pakhtunkhawa Province who have totally failed in providing relief to flood victims

Despite the advance warnings of heavy and unusual rains in monsoon season, local authorities did not make necessary arrangements to face that calamity. Flood level is higher than what was in 1929. Peoples are helpless and quite disappointed as they have almost lost their properties and lives and now seeking help from anywhere. Majority is still surrounded in floodwater and finding no way to go to safer places. No significant presence of civil administration has been noticed except loud claims and announcements in media.

Civil administration has failed in saving not only infrastructure in the province but also the lives of peoples. Poor arrangements and lack of any plan and coordination are severely criticized in media. The innocent peoples of this province are already victims of terrorism from Taliban militants. They are fighting bravely the war imposed onto them by terrorists and this catastrophe is another test of their courage. So far Pak Army is helping them but failure of civil administration is alarming and needs immediate attention of Federal government as floods are now heading to Punjab and Sindh provinces.

War on Terror – a failure is in the way!

Updated on : Tuesday, July 27, 2010

From inception, there have always been some elements of mistrust between Pakistan and USA on War on Terror. Pakistan usually complains that Pakistani Army and nation have made more sacrifices than any other nation but USA does not recognize it in its true sprit and always has a policy of suspicion on Pakistani actions against Taliban militants and Al-Qaeda. Moreover USA does not fulfill its obligations in the right way of aiding Pakistan against incurred loses in this war.
US administration although praises Pakistan Army’s successful operation and South Waziristan and Swat but simultaneously puts doubts on the role of ISI in Afghanistan. Pakistan also does not like the Pro-India policy, which USA demonstrates in the region. USA needs badly Pakistan to deal with Al-Qaeda and Taliban phenomena Both USA and India are well aware that they cannot be successful without the help of Pakistan but its is their common viewpoint and agenda that Pakistan should be given due importance despite its incredible role in the war for the stability in region and safety of whole World. From time to time, USA had the policy of pressurizing Pakistan for infamous demand of “do more” but did not bother to think deeply the necessities and requirements of this sort of war. Inside USA, there are sever differences in military command and white house on Afghan war policies. This has also resulted in termination of top US military brass in Afghanistan.
Pakistan also has reservations over USA policies in the region. Despite that Pakistan is US ally in war on terror but all USA blessings are for India. As a policy, USA does not give Pakistan whatever it needs and opposes to whatever Pakistan gets from its friend. Obviously with such sort of mindset with ally, USA cannot win war in Afghanistan. USA foreign policy should fly from Washington to Islamabad directly and not from the route of Delhi. This is the clear message of time, which should be heeded by USA if wants to win war on terror otherwise a failure is in the way.

Sex hormone explains higher liver cancer risk in men

Updated on : Friday, May 21, 2010

HONG KONG: Male sex hormones may explain why men who suffer from the hepatitis B liver disease are more likely to develop liver cancer than women, researchers in Taiwan have found.

In a paper published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers said hepatitis B viruses attach themselves to receptors of the male sex hormone androgen before going on to damage liver tissue and cause cancer.

"The findings indicate that using drugs to destroy ... androgen receptors could be a new way to battle liver cancer at an early stage," they wrote.

Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of global cancer death.

Hepatitis B virus infection, which is endemic in many Asian countries including China, is a leading cause of liver cancer and accounts for half of liver cancer cases worldwide.

Men are up to seven times more likely than women to develop liver cancer. Among hepatitis B virus carriers, men are up to three times more likely to develop liver cancer than women.

Led by Ming-Heng Wu at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, researchers found that hepatitis B viruses have a special DNA sequence which draws it to androgen receptors.

"The androgen receptors in liver cells bind to this sequence and trigger a cascade of damage to liver tissue," they explained.

In their experiment, the researchers created mice that were infected with the hepatitis B virus and could easily develop liver tumors upon exposure to cancer-causing agents.

Some of these were genetically modified to be lacking in androgen receptors in their livers.

By week 22 in the experiment, more than 90 percent of those mice with androgen receptors had developed liver tumors compared to 27 percent of the mice without androgen receptors.

Tinkering with the receptors did not change overall androgen levels or leave any obvious toxic effects in the mice.

"Targeting the androgen receptor rather an androgen could be a promising therapy for liver cancer," the researchers said.

Cave markings believed to be first writings: Study

Updated on : Monday, February 22, 2010

PARIS: The markings found in caves in France may have been ancient man’s first attempts to write, a new study has suggested.

Until now, it’s believed that our ancestors underwent a “creative explosion” around 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, when they suddenly began to think abstractly and create rock art.

Writing came much later, with the earliest records of a picot-graphic writing system just 5,000 years ago.

Now, a team at Victoria University has claimed that the lines, dots, zig-zags and semicircles indicate prehistoric men in France, as long ago as 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, may have been trying to communicate through symbols rather than pictures, the New Scientist reported.

For their research, the team, led by Genevieve von Petzinger, compiled a comprehensive database of all recorded cave signs from 146 sites in France, covering 25,000 years of prehistory from 35,000 to 10,000 years ago.

What emerged was startling: 26 signs, all drawn in the same style, appeared again and again at numerous sites. Some of the symbols are pretty basic, like straight lines, circles and triangles, but there were other, more complex symbols repeated as well.

“It was a way of communicating information in a concise way. For example, the mammoth tusks may have simply represented a mammoth, or a mammoth hunt, or something that has nothing to do with a literal interpretation of mammoths.

“Other common forms of synecdoche include two concentric circles or triangles (used as eyes in horse and bison paintings), ibex horns and the hump of a mammoth. The claviform figure — which looks somewhat like a numeral 1 — may even be a stylised form of the female figure,” said team member April Nowell.

At one site, Les Trois Freres in the French Pyrenees, there were four different pairings of signs. This sort of grouping is typically seen in pictographic languages and led the researchers to believe the prehistoric Europeans had adopted a similar system.

“The consistency of the pairings indicate that they could really have had a meaning. We are perhaps seeing the first glimpses of a rudimentary language system,” Mr. Nowell said.

Suspecting they were on the verge of a significant discovery, the pair moved on to track where and when the symbols emerged. The line was the most popular symbol — at 70 per cent of the sites and occurring across all time periods from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago.

The next most common were the open angle symbol and dots — both featuring at 42 per cent of sites. The majority of the rest were seen in around a fifth of the French caves.

Most signs seem to have appeared in the Rhone Valley and Lot regions in the south before spreading around the country. None ever emerged in northern France because through large tranches of this time, it was covered in ice.

Intriguingly, more than three-quarters of the symbols were at the very earliest sites which include those over 30,000 years ago.

“I was really surprised to discover this. This incredible diversity and continuity of use suggests that the symbolic revolution may have occurred before the arrival of the first modern humans in Europe,” Mr. Petzinger said.

Skin, hair hear just like ears do

Updated on : Saturday, November 28, 2009

TORONTO: You hear not just with your ears but also with your skin and hair follicles, according to a paper by University of British Columbia researchers published in Thursday's Nature journal.

Hold your hand in front of your mouth and say "ba." Now say "pa." You'll notice a puff of air when you say "pa."

People listening will hear "pa" not just with their ears, but also with their skin by feeling the puff of air, according to the paper by Bryan Gick, an associate professor at UBC, and Donald Derrick, a graduate student.

The pair conducted an experiment in which they applied tiny puffs of air to study participants' necks and skin when the subjects were listening to the syllables "ba," "pa," "da" and "ta."

People's skin and even hair follicles recognize a puff of air when a person says "pa" or "ta," their paper notes.

The puffs were applied to the neck and top of the hand because hair follicles help people perceive the puff of air.

When study participants felt a puff of air on their skin from an air compressor, they were more likely to perceive the syllable "pa" when in fact the syllable "ba" had been spoken, the researchers found.

Gick said people have traditionally believed that "we see with our eyes, and we hear with our ears, and we feel with our skin and so on, and that there are parts of the brain that only deal with seeing and only deal with hearing and so on.

Eventually the research might be used to enhance hearing aids by using puffs of air or to attach a pneumatic puffing device to airline pilots' headsets to enhance hearing in the noisy environment, Gick said.

"Recent research, including ours, has been leading in a different direction," he said.

"We are naturally multimodal, very versatile perceivers, and we can use any part of our body to pick up information about objects and events around us in our environment."

What are Goose Bumps?

Updated on : Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Written by S.E. Smith Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Conjecture Corporation

Goose bumps are small bumps in the skin which are caused by tightening
muscles which pull body hair into an erect position. In humans, goose bumps
are a vestigial reflex, left over from a time when humans had more hair; a
wide variety of animals demonstrate this interesting reflex in response to
certain stimuli. Many people have experienced goose bumps at some point in
their lives, and some may have...

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-goose-bumps.htm?m

What is Wimbledon?

Updated on : Monday, June 29, 2009

Written by S.E. Smith Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Conjecture Corporation

The Championships, Wimbledon is a prestigious tennis event which makes up one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. Since “the Championships, Wimbledon” is a bit of a mouthful, most people refer to this prestigious tennis competition simply as “Wimbledon.” This event attracts premier tennis players from all over the world, and it is attended with global media coverage. Tennis fans also travel from numerous locations across the globe to see Wimbledon in person, while fans at home keep track of events on the television and through radio broadcasts.

Wimbledon has been hosted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club since 1877, making it the oldest continuously running tennis tournament. The event is hosted on the All England Club's courts in Wimbledon, a district of Southern London, and it is the only Grand Slam event hosted on natural grass. Traditionally, the tournament takes 13 days, starting on the Monday in June which falls between the 20th and the 26th, with players taking the middle Sunday of the tournament off.

128 individuals compete in gentleman's and ladies' singles, with 64 pairs participating in gentleman's and ladies' doubles, and an additional 48 couples competing in mixed doubles. Winners of the gentleman's singles receive an ornate gilt cup, while women receive the Rosewater Dish, a massive silver platter. Winners in other events are given silver cups, with runners up entitled to silver plates. The singles tournaments are typically the most interesting for viewers and the media, featuring the current stars of the tennis world playing in a round robin tournament, in which each participant has a chance to go up against every other contestant. As you might imagine, the Wimbledon schedule is quite grueling for the athletes.

Spectators can purchase tickets for Wimbledon, and they also line up at the gates for a chance at the limited open seating. Attendees of Wimbledon are typically encouraged to wear reasonably formal attire out of respect for the event, while the athletes are expected to wear tennis whites, with no more than five percent of their garments in a contrasting color. Supporting staff such as ball boys and girls and referees also have a dress code.

In addition to Wimbledon, the United States Open, Australian Open, and French Open are also considered Grand Slam tournaments. Athletes who manage to take the titles in all four Grand Slam events are considered to be the finest in the world; the Grand Slam is like the Triple Crown of the tennis world.

Courtesy by wiseGEEK

What Should I Do if I Am Laid Off?

Updated on : Saturday, June 27, 2009
Written by S.E. Smith Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Conjecture Corporation

If you are laid off, you have a number of options, depending on the precise circumstances of your separation with your former employer. In some cases, you may be entitled to severance pay, unemployment, and other benefits which will help you while you look for another position. In other instances, you have no benefits or legal protections, and you will probably need to start checking the job market right away. In either case, you can help yourself out by planning ahead; try to set aside some money in savings every month so that you will have a safety cushion if you suddenly become unemployed.

It is important to distinguish between being laid off, being fired, and quitting. If you are laid off, your employer lets you go, often with others, because the employer no longer needs your services or can no longer afford to pay you. In this instance, you are usually entitled to preferential hiring, meaning that if your position opens up later, you can have it back. Your company may also be required to keep you on the benefits roll for a set period of time, and you may be offered severance pay for a few weeks or months, depending on your position. Most importantly, if you are laid off, you can file a claim for unemployment compensation with the government to get financial assistance.

If you are fired, your employer lets you go because you are not suitable for a position or because you have committed a gross act of negligence. In this case, you cannot collect unemployment from the government, and your company is not required to offer severance pay. However, if you are unlawfully fired and you can prove it, you may be able to regain your position or sue your employer for damages. When you choose to quit, you have no safety net at all, as a voluntary loss of a job is not grounds for compensation.

You should know your rights in terms of benefits and severance pay. Research your local laws and read your employee manual carefully so that you understand which benefits, if any, will be offered in the event that you are laid off. These benefits may also vary depending on what rank you have with the company; an executive, for example, usually receives more benefits than a janitor. Check with your union as well, if you are in a unionized workplace, as the union representative can inform you about your rights.

In any event, when you lose your job, you generally need another one. If you are fortunate enough to be able to collect compensation because you were laid off, don't be lazy; start looking for new jobs right away so that you have more flexibility and choice. Check job listings, especially for the industry you work in, and consider applying directly to companies you like. Make sure to set up a strong resume so that you will make an appealing candidate, and be clear with yourself about what you need from a your new job. Don't take a position that isn't ideal, as you will only find yourself looking for work again in a few months.
Courtesy by wise Geek

What is a Hill Figure?

Written by S.E. Smith Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Conjecture Corporation

Update on : Thursday, June 25, 2009

A hill figure is a work of art created by carving into the turf of a hill to expose the underlying soil or bedrock. Typically, hill figures are extremely large, designed to be seen from a great distance, and they are often positioned in such a way that people at the bottom of the hill can clearly see the figure as well. Great Britain has a huge number of such works of art, leading many people to associate hill figures with England in particular, although they can also be found in other regions of the world.

The reasons for creating hill figures are obscure, but people have certainly been making them for a very long time. Traces of hill figures which are thousands of years old have been discovered, and many are several hundred years old. Such figures may simply be artistic, or they may be intended as tributes to various mythological individuals. Horses and humans are common subjects of hill figures, sometimes even depicted together.

England's geology makes it especially well-suited to the creation of hill figures, since Britain has a great deal of chalky bedrock. When exposed, this white rock stands out against the surrounding turf and shrubs. A hill figure can also be filled in with various colored materials for contrast, and sometimes things like glass bottles will be used in a hill figure to create a desired texture.

If a hill figure is not maintained, it will eventually fade away. The surrounding turf will encroach, covering the hill figure again, and the exposed rock may be eroded with time, gouging out the details of the hill figure. In response to this issue, several hill figure preservation societies have arisen. These groups perform routine maintenance on hill figures in their area, keeping the turf back and occasionally re-laying the chalk or other material in the hill figure so that it will endure.

While many people associate hill figures with Celtic art and prehistoric Britain, most of the oldest surviving hill figures, like the Cerne Abbas Giant and the Long Man of Wilmington, are actually from the 18th century. The oldest extant hill figure appears to the the Uffington White Horse, which dates back to the Bronze Age, but uncounted others have undoubtedly been lost over the centuries.

Courtesy by wise Geek

Who is George Carlin?

Updated on : Tuesday, June 23 2009

Written by Michael Pollick - Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Conjecture Corporation

George Carlin (1937-2008) was a pioneer in the modern observational comedy genre, along with such contemporaries as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Mort Sahl. George Carlin began his comedy career as a disk jockey during the late 1950s, often teaming with fellow comedian Jack Burns. The Burns-Carlin comedy team dissolved during the early 1960s, but Carlin developed several of his most popular characters, including an oblivious disk jockey at "Wonderful WINO" and Al Sleet, the "hippy-dippy weatherman," during those formative years.

Stand-up comedians who hoped to appear regularly on television during the early to mid-1960s were generally expected to present a clean-cut image and limit the scope of their routines to conventional topics. At first, George Carlin conformed to these television standards, but eventually found performing generic, self-edited routines to mainstream America to be intellectually and artistically stifling. By the late 1960s, George Carlin changed his public persona to that of a counterculture hipster with long flowing hair and a full beard.

One of George Carlin's favorite sources for material was the English language, and this fascination with words led to the development of one of his most infamous and controversial routines. Carlin noted that the FCC specifically banned seven obscene words from public broadcasting, and in his routine wondered how a handful of words gained so much power over society. His "Seven Dirty Words You Can Never Say on Television" routine included all seven forbidden words, along with graphic commentary on whether or not those words should have even been included in the FCC's list.

Although the routine is more of an indictment against arbitrary censorship than an extended "dirty joke," Carlin was arrested for public indecency after performing the routine at a concert. A radio station which broadcast the routine was also fined for violating FCC decency rules, a case which reached the US Supreme Court.

George Carlin hosted the premiere of a late night sketch comedy show on NBC called Saturday Night Live, although his duties were limited to introducing musical acts and performing stand-up routines between sketches. Carlin's primary outlets for comedy were live concerts taped for the HBO cable network, along with a busy tour schedule prompted largely by financial troubles with the IRS.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Carlin wrote a popular series of books which supplemented his HBO concert appearances and occasional tours. He also appeared in his own self-titled television series on the FOX network and performed as the conductor on the American version of Thomas the Tank Engine. When the producers of Pixar's animated movie Cars needed a voice for the hippyesque Volkswagen microbus named Fillmore, they turned to George Carlin.

Carlin's later routines were often punctuated with darker observations of the human condition, along with highly controversial references to religion, politics and sex. Although raised as an Irish Catholic, Carlin was strongly against many of the trappings associated with organized religion, viewing believers in God as intellectually suspect. Politically liberal, Carlin also openly criticized the Vietnam and Gulf Wars and the conservative, militaristic mentality which allowed them to happen.

In 2008, George Carlin was selected to receive the Mark Twain lifetime achievement award for his pioneering work in American stand-up comedy. Several days after the announcement of this honor, however, Carlin entered a hospital complaining of chest pains, and passed away from cardiac arrest that same afternoon. Per his final wishes, his cremated ashes were scattered in an undisclosed location and no public funeral or memorial was held. George Carlin was 71 years old.

Courtesy by wise Geek

How Twitter is Teaching Business the Lost Art of Conversation By Kalena Jordan (c) 2009

Updated on : Monday, June 22, 2009
Written by Kalena Jordan

So it's happened. Twitter has gone mainstream. As Twitter users, we knew instantly when Mumbai came under terrorist attack. We laughed at the photo of Stephen Fry stuck in an elevator when he tweeted his predicament, we were there when Ashton Kutcher beat CNN to 1 million followers, we caught the first glimpse of passengers being evacuated from the ditched plane on the Hudson River and we all suffered the lag time when Oprah Winfrey sent her first ever tweet on live TV. Industry pundits and bitter journalists regularly diss Twitter as a time-wasting, "look at me" fad, destined for Forgottensville in 2 years. In fact New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd is quoted as saying to Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone: "I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account." So is Twitter really just an emergency beacon and "a toy for bored celebrities and high-school girls" as Dowd gleefully claims? Thankfully, no. The latest wave of Twitter users are business executives. They range from home business owners, SME's, middle and upper management, marketing executives, brand evangelists and CEOs. Take a look at ExecuTweets (http://www.exectweets.com/) and you'll see some well-known names with very active Twitter accounts: Richard Branson (http://twitter.com/richardbranson) of Virgin, Lisa Stone (http://twitter.com/LisaStone) Co-founder of BlogHer, Tony Hsieh (http://twitter.com/zappos) CEO of Zappos and Steve Case (http://twitter.com/stevecase) Co-founder of AOL, to name a few. It's not just individuals either. Some of the world's most recognized brands are Twittering. I found a number of super brands on Twitter and asked my followers which of these they were following:

Amazon 19%
BestBuy 2%
Dell 7%
DunkinDonuts 2%
Etsy 4%
Motorola 0%
Overstock 5%
Starbucks 12%
Threadless 16%
UrbanOutfitters 2%
WholeFoods14%
Zappos 18%

Other major brands with Twitter accounts include:

JetBlue
ComCast
Vodafone
TheHomeDepot
H&R Block
Qantas
Virgin
Forrester Research
Ford
Samsung
Kodak

Twitter as a Business Tool So why would companies be interested in Twitter? Because they know that conversation is a powerful, persuasive business tool and right now, Twitter is where the conversation is happening. Here are some recent stats about the micro-blogging site from Nielsen (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/ twitters-tweet-smell-of-success/): - Twitter is the fastest growing community site on web - Twitter experienced 1,382% growth in the 12 months to Feb 09 - The largest user group on Twitter is 35-49 year olds As the Internet morphs from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, conversation has quietly ousted content and taken the throne as King. The Web has always enabled businesses to reach new markets. But Twitter allows them to engage directly with customers and potential customers in real time in front of an impressionable public. The opportunity this provides is unparalleled. As an effective advertising tool, the dusty old Yellow Pages seems positively prehistoric in comparison. So just how are companies using Twitter as a business tool? To find out, I set up a poll and tweeted the question: "If you represent a business using Twitter, what is your/their *main* reason for doing so?" The results were quite interesting:

Branding 7%
Driving traffic 23%
Reputation management 7%
SEO 0%
Internal communications 0%
News / product announcements 11%
Service status updates 2%
Customer interaction 37%
Fun 5%
Other 9%

A couple of things stood out for me here. Firstly, the majority of companies who took this poll are using Twitter primarily to interact with their customers and drive traffic. That's understandable. But very few are using it for reputation management and none of them are yet using it for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) reasons. It was also interesting to see that a few businesses are using Twitter purely for fun. Asked why he thinks Twitter is a good fit for business, Overstock's Social Media Manager Josh Austin (http://www.twitter.com/intheblack) says: "Twitter allows for a personal, real-life brand presence, while fostering better communication, engagement and attention to our customers." Customer Interaction on Twitter So just how do customers interact with businesses on Twitter? I wanted to find out, so I launched another poll: POLL QUESTION: Have you ever communicated directly with a company using Twitter? What was your main reason for doing so?

Yes to resolve an issue 25%
Yes to give positive feedback 18%
Yes to give negative feedback 6%
Yes for another reason 16%
No 35%

It was encouraging to see that 65% of poll respondents have conversed with a company using Twitter. When you consider that nearly half of those people had an issue to resolve with the company they communicated with, the potential for customer loss and retention is lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree. Then there's the number of respondents giving companies direct feedback via tweets. That's enough to get any PR Department salivating! Meg Geddes (http://www.twitter.com/netmeg), a Search Marketing expert and power Twitter user related her recent positive experience with a business on the micro-blogging site: "At the end of December, there was a special one-day only promotion through Intuit and Staples (an office supply) for buying Quickbooks Pro where you'd get a full rebate. I ordered it and filled in my rebate paperwork but it was illegible and had to be refaxed. The date on the revised paperwork sent by Intuit didn't match my order date (and I didn't notice) so my rebate was denied. I was bitching about it on Twitter and within half an hour, someone from Intuit sent me a tweet asking if she could help. I laid it all out for her, and she got it approved; I got my rebate very shortly after that. I was very happy, as I had been expecting to have to sit on the phone for hours with Intuit and/or Staples." But they're not all positive experiences. Below is an exchange I witnessed on Twitter between a company representative (V) and an unhappy customer (J) who was Twittering while on hold with a Call Center.

J - What the hell is happening with our countries [industry removed]? Are they actually all run by turkeys?

V - Can I help?

J - I officially ban the Twitterati from this conversation.

V - You seem to be having a problem with a V product. As I've said, can I help? If not, why are you bringing it up?

J - This is Twitter. I can bring up whatever I want. If you don't like the rants and discussions, feel welcome to party elsewhere

V - Oooh, sensitive! Well, good luck with it. I'm sure it'll be just fine.

J - No you cannot help. I am already dealing with V muppets. J - [@somebody else] I'm polite to customers. I never harass them. But this discussion is about frustration with V - and all justified.

V - I really don't understand what it is you hope to achieve. you say you have a problem but refuse to accept any help.

J - Pull the cottonballs out of your ears. Please join another discussion.

V - then you say you wish more companies use Twitter while refusing to accept my help, through Twitter.

J - I'm not rejecting help. Only help from you. As mentioned 5 times now!! I'm already talking to V to resolve V

- J, if you want some help with your problem, if you ACTUALLY WANT TO SORT IT OUT, let me know J - Ok (non listener) for the 6th time today. I'm already resolving it with V. So I don't need YOUR help.

V - so you're resolving the problem. Good. So why are you whinging about it?

J - DO NOT try to tell me what I am and am not allowed to talk about. I can discuss whatever I want.

V - I saw you asking for help on Twitter, so I responded on Twitter. How is that a bad thing? Seriously, I'm keen to know. V - If Twitter can't be used for support then I guess I should stop trying to help anyone who wants help via Twitter.

J - As you have the right to hijack conversations, I have the right to vent. That's Twitter...

V - Sorry everyone, I just wanted to know... I guess I really can't help Clearly, this issue could have had a positive outcome, but mistakes were made on both sides. The customer shouldn't have been so quick to reject help when it was offered and the company representative should have let the issue go instead of pushing it and trying to publicly humiliate the customer into accepting help. But the exchange gives you an idea of the opportunities there are for customer communication and retention.

Open a Dialogue, Silly Kaila Colbin runs the Social Marketing agency Missing Link (http://www.missinglinknz.co.nz/) in Christchurch New Zealand. She says that businesses can be transformed by simply opening a dialogue with their customers using blogs, emails and Twitter. "For businesses looking to build a direct connection with their customers, Twitter can't be beat, but it only works if you've got the right mindset and are prepared to invest in relationships", she says. "Unlike traditional advertising, a Twitter presence requires constant two-way communication to be effective. It also requires a level of transparency and selflessness that most companies aren't used to employing in their marketing efforts. You can't pretend to be perfect, and you can't talk only about yourself." Colbin can generally convince companies to hire her by asking a single question: "Would you like to be the one having that conversation with your customers, or would you rather your competition do it?" The Pizza Meal Win It's not just super brands that can benefit from using Twitter. Small businesses can gain from it too. Take Silicon Valley pizza chain Tony & Alba. By using keyword tracking and the Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com/) tool, they monitored conversations on Twitter involving the keyword *pizza*. Seeing a tweet from local man Ryan Kuder to his buddy suggesting a rival pizza place as their venue for dinner that night, Tony & Alba tweeted Ryan directly suggesting their pizza restaurant instead. It was further away for Ryan and his family, but a quick offer by Tony & Alba to reserve a table and throw in free soft drinks clinched the deal. A positive meal experience and a single tweet won the respect (http://www.ryankuder.com/2009/04/ how-tony-alba-stole-75-from-jake-on-twitter/) and future business from 3 happy families. The Free Burrito Fail But if you're going to use Twitter to promote your products, make sure you're prepared for the potential rush of business. In February this year, Utah-based Mexican restaurant chain Costa Vida sent a one-day-only offer for a free sweet pork burrito to its 80 followers on Twitter. As part of the promotion, Costa Vida required customers to have an electronic coupon on their mobile phone. The Sweet Pork Burrito promotion (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ Costa+Vida's+Twitter+Promotion+Creates+Tsunami+of+Excitement.-a0194062385) was designed to test the effectiveness of leveraging social media Web sites like Twitter and Facebook in brand building and in driving restaurant traffic. However Costa Vida customers tweeted about the promotion and forwarded the offer to friends via mobile phone. Their followers told THEIR followers and so on, until more than 2,500 people inundated one of Costa Vida's stores looking for their free burrito. Costa Vida had to send multiple Twitter updates with instructions for how new Costa Vida Fans could redeem their coupon on a future date for the (now sold-out) burritos. Reputation Management Savvy companies already understand the power of Twitter. Companies with shareholders monitoring their every move can't afford to have their brand sullied at the virtual water cooler. These companies have employed staff whose only job is to send out short bursts of 140 characters every hour or so. Handbooks on Twettiquette are being distributed to their marketing teams. They've created TweetBeep (http://www.tweetbeep.com/) accounts to monitor how their brand is being talked about by Twitter users and they're actively engaging with those people. They're already at the water cooler and they're handing out the cups. Think your business can be a Twitter success story? Then here's one last piece of advice, courtesy of Michael Martine (http://www.twitter.com/remarkablogger): "If you're on twitter to market your business, the best thing you can do is shut up about your business and help people."

Article by Kalena Jordan who writes a daily Search Engine Advice Column (http://www.ask-kalena.com/), and is Co-Founder of Search Engine College (http://www.searchenginecollege.com/) - an online training institution offering online instructor-led and self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects. Follow Kalena on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/kalena).

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Drug Combo helps slow Lung Cancer: Study

Special Article : Updated : Sunday May 31 , 2009

FLORIDA: The combination of two anti-cancer treatments following standard chemotherapy can slow advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to a study unveiled Saturday. Patients treated with a combination of Tarceva, sold by the Swiss drugmaker Roche, and Avastin, a drug by Roche's Genentech unit, saw their cancer growth slow more than a control group treated with Avastin. More than 750 patients were randomized to receive Avastin and a placebo, or Avastin and Tarceva. Those in the Tarceva group survived an average of 4.8 months before the cancer started growing again, compared to 3.7 months for the control group, said Vincent Miller, the study's main author. The numbers translated to a 29 percent reduced risk of disease progression for patients who took a combination of Tarceva and Avastin. All of the patients in the double-blind, Phase 3 trial received four cycles of chemotherapy and Avastin as initial treatment. Miller, of the Memorial Sloan-Ketterin Cancer Center in New York, presented his findings at the 45th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Orlando, Florida this weekend, the biggest global cancer conference. Non-small cell lung cancer, often linked to smoking, is the most common lung cancer and the most prevalent cancer, accounting for 14 percent of all cases in the United States. It is also the deadliest, accounting for 23.3 percent of US cancer deaths, well ahead of colorectal (8.9 percent) and breast (7.2 percent) cancer. "This is the first study to show that adding erlotinib (Tarceva) to maintenance therapy with bevacizumab (Avastin) delays disease progression in patients who have already received bevacizumab as part of their initial chemotherapy," said Miller. "We've shown here we can delay progression with the addition of a targeted agent, erlotinib (Tarceva). Critical future work will try to determine which patients will get the greatest benefit from this combination, based in large part on the identification of genetic biomarkers."

Half of Israelis back immediate strike on Iran

Special Article Updated : Monday May 25 , 2009

HELD AL-QUDS: Just over half of Israelis back an immediate attack on the nuclear facilities of arch-foe Iran but the rest want to wait and see the results of US diplomacy, according to a poll released on Sunday.

Fifty-one percent support an immediate Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites, while 49 percent believe the Jewish state should await the outcome of efforts by the US administration to engage with the Islamic republic, said the survey published by Tel Aviv University.

But 74 percent of those questioned said they believe that new US President Barack Obama's efforts will not stop the Islamic republic from acquiring atomic weapons.

Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed state, considers Iran its arch-foe after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."

Israel and Washington accuse Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied.

Opinion is split among left- and right-wingers about whether to attack Iran's nuclear sites, with 63 percent of those leaning to the right favouring a strike, compared with 38 percent of those leaning to the left, the poll said.

It was carried out by Tel Aviv University's Centre for Iranian Studies among 509 Israeli adults and had a 4.5-percent margin of error.