3 Common Twitter Mistakes by Real Estate Agents - WPMU.org

TweetDeck Screenshot - Search Columns for Real Estate Phrases

1) Automating Tweets

I am very opposed to using services like City Blast which offer a syndication feed of property listings and real estate news. Everybody syndicates the same stuff and it often includes a link that takes the Follower off Twitter to another site. Ever think that maybe they don?t want to leave Twitter?

This is not a conversation it?s a broadcast which sounds like a broken record and people see through it. While having current news and listings is valuable, it has it?s time and place?. on a dedicated listings page really. Too many realtors think of social media as another advertising portal instead of a 2nd phone number to stay in touch with clients.

If you?re going to use a service like City Blast it should not represent more than 10% of your tweets or it will not look like it is coming from you. As a realtor I?m sure you can appreciate the power of ?word of mouth? and that?s really what social media is? the key difference is that everybody is watching. One needs to be careful of what they put out there because it may look like you don?t really care.

2) Not Searching Other Tweets

Now this is one of the rare exceptions where I encourage automation. I use a program called TweetDeck?(made by Twitter)?and there are many more like Hootsuite. It allows me to set automated search operations (search columns). I?ll create a search column for any Tweet that includes the words ?Bought First House? and ?Sold Our House?? you can come up with many more like ?Finally moved in? or ?My new condo?. If you load these all up you?ll start seeing a trend, you see emotions? you see real people celebrating or cursing the triumphs and woes of real estate.

If you look at my screenshot up top (TweetDeck Screenshot) ?you?ll see a number of tweets are worth re-tweeting ?RT? and when done with consistency can start inspiring people who follow you to make a move themselves. You should also follow all your clients and partners? comment on some of their tweets, ask them questions and RT their tweets. Imagine the vibe you could create on your profile if it was covered with RT from real people saying these things?

Make it your goal to involve someone who has their own Twitter account in all of your Tweets. Bet you can?t automate that now can you? Don?t fret, you can schedule your Tweets with TweetDeck so that you can do 5 or 6 of them quickly without actually blasting everyone with all of them in one shot. Remember to space them out if you?re going for inspirational quotes (RT phrases like the ones in my screenshot).

3) Not Taking Ownership

When I say ownership I mean pride, I mean confidence and comfort. Don?t be afraid to be yourself? show your Followers you are human, admit it you?ve had a long day? ask your followers to bring you up to speed on everything you?ve missed. Wondering if it?s raining across town? Tweet it? you?d be surprised at how fast you can get an answer.

Get a Twitter App on your mobile phone and enable email notifications within your Twitter Account settings so that you know when to login and respond to someone asap. Remember, 80% of social media is done on mobile phones sharing pictures and straight old fashioned talking. Ok old fashioned is dead, we now type with our telephones but you know what I mean.

Make Twitter your 2nd phone number, show interest in what others are talking about, voice your opinion and jump into the conversation? it?s one big party and everybody is welcome to it? that?s the beauty of social media. It?s now fast becoming the #1 way consumers complain about products and services.

You can take that as a blessing or a threat. If you ignore it? it?s most definitely a threat? but if you respond to it, you can turn it around in public view and that?s what people will never forget and keep talking about. Be a journalist, be a friend, be honest and above all be consistent. Happy Tweeting!

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Source: http://wpmu.org/3-common-twitter-mistakes-by-real-estate-agents/

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JOHN MAYER'S 'QUEEN OF CALIFORNIA' VIDEO WAS MADE ENTIRELY IN 'DRAW SOMETHING'

John Mayer's "Queen Of California" video is actually a game of "Draw Something"!

We gave it some thought, and the only thing wrong with John Mayer's otherwise perfect video for his song "Queen Of California" is that we can't see his Adonis-like face. Sure, the "Shadow Days" singer truly needs a haircut, but I'd still totally tap that if it were ever an option. (Too personal?) Other than that though, John's video is letter-perfect. Literally. Because it was made entirely by using "Draw Something."

Watch?John Mayer's "Queen Of California" video after the jump.

We're referring to it as John's video, but actually, he didn't commission it. The entire idea was spearheaded by the team at?Brainbowinc Design, using the?intensely popular and frustratingly addictive app "Draw Something" to create the clip. In case you've still got a Blackberry (seriously?), we'll remind you that "Draw Something" is a back-and-forth game of digital "Pictionary," where one player draws an image and another player guesses. Or in other words, a time waster you can feel good about because it's creative.

In the extremely cool video (We waste HOURS a week on this game! Why don't we think of stuff like this?), we see a vast variety of images that correspond with choice lyrics: a big white ghost, a drum kit, an American flag, and our personal favorite, a bomb-ass portrait of John Mayer rocking his (new) signature cowboy hat. Because John Mayer lives in Montana now and loves to wear cowboy hats. (He could still totally get it though, let's just be honest.)

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Source: http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/2012/06/29/john-mayer-queen-of-california-video-draw-something/

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Assad forces bombard northern towns, avoid Turkish border

ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) - Helicopter gunships bombarded a strategic town in northern Syria overnight and tanks moved close to the commercial hub of Aleppo, rebels said, but kept well clear of new Turkish air defenses installed to curb Syrian action near its frontiers.

Turkish commanders inspected the missile batteries deployed on the border region on Thursday following Syria's shooting down of a Turkish warplane a week ago, which has sharply raised tensions between the two nations.

The Turkish deployments, a graphic warning to President Bashar al-Assad, coincide with rising violence across Syria and increasingly urgent international efforts to forge a peace deal as the nation slips into full-blown war.

As the Turkish-Syrian dimension ratcheted up further pressure, peace envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday he was "optimistic" that crisis talks in Geneva on Saturday would produce an acceptable outcome, which has so far proved elusive.

Regional analysts said that while neither Turkey nor its NATO allies appeared to have any appetite to enforce a formal no-fly zone over Syrian territory, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had made it clear Assad would be risking what he called the 'wrath' of Turkey if its aircraft strayed close to its borders.

Recently, there were clashes close to the border between Syrian forces and rebels. Last weekend, Damascus said "terrorists" infiltrating from Turkey were killed and there have been reports of Syrian forces shooting into camps for refugees in Turkey.

The United States, Britain and France have said that Assad is responsible for the violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed at least 10,000 people, and is no longer fit to govern. Russia and China, however, reject what they describe as Western calls for "regime change".

Turkey, sheltering some 34,000 Syrian refugees and providing bases for the rebel Free Syria Army (FSA), is in the forefront of the efforts to bring down Assad.

SYRIAN TANKS MASS

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 190 people, including 125 civilians, were killed on Thursday.

General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, a grouping of senior officers who defected from Assad's forces, said around 170 Syrian tanks had assembled at an infantry school near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, just 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Turkish border.

"They're either preparing to move to the border to counter the Turkish deployment or attack the rebellious (Syrian) towns and villages in and around the border zone north of Aleppo," Sheikh told Reuters by telephone from the border.

Omar Abdallah, an activist in Idlib coordinating with the Free Syrian Army said: "After taking hits in rural Aleppo and Idlib, the army is re-grouping ... There is speculation that these forces intend to ring Aleppo starting July 1."

Rebel sources in Turkey's Hatay region said Assad's helicopters attacked Saraqeb, a strategic town deep in Idlib province, but kept away from the area directly along the Turkish border in the rural regions of Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

Neither Turkey, which fears a local clash escalating into a regional sectarian conflagration, nor Syria, has any interest in a confrontation on their shared border.

Ankara, which has the second biggest army in NATO, called an emergency NATO meeting after its warplane was shot down.

Turkey has in the past talked about creating a humanitarian corridor on Syrian territory if refugee flows became dangerously unmanageable or the scale of killing in Syria became intolerable. But it had always said this would require international endorsement.

"NATO just doesn't look like it's in the mood," David Hartwell, Middle East analyst, IHS Jane's, said. "What you might get is the Turks forcing a de facto no-fly zone."

SQUARING UP?

Erdogan announced earlier this week that he had issued new rules of engagement to his border troops and said any Syrian military elements approaching Turkish borders and deemed a threat would be treated as a target. But he failed, perhaps deliberately, to specify how close Syrian forces could come to the border before becoming vulnerable.

Rebels sources said they saw two Syrian attack helicopters on Friday flying about 4 km from the Turkish border in Idlib province and landing at an army base at Bab al-Hawa, close to Reyhanli, one of the places where Turkey has stationed anti-aircraft defenses.

It was the first time aircraft had been spotted close to the border and appeared to test Turkey's new rules of engagement.

"The Syrians might accept a very narrow zone along the border. Syria will remain very reluctant to get involved in any conflict with Turkey. They would be up against a very serious military foe," Malcolm Chalmers, research director at Britain's Royal United Services Institute, said.

The world has been accused by Syrian opposition activists of inertia over the bloodshed. Diplomacy has failed to produce agreement between Western powers, backing the opposition, and Russia, which has used its U.N. veto to block Western and Sunni Arab moves to drive Assad from power.

Ahead of Saturday's meeting, Russia proposed changes to Annan's plan for a national unity government in Syria, despite initially supporting it, but the United States, Britain and France rejected the amendments, Western diplomats said.

Russia and the other permanent U.N. Security Council members told Annan this week they supported a transitional cabinet that could include government and opposition members but would "exclude ... those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation," according to Annan's proposal.

Diplomats told Reuters that Annan's idea of excluding certain people was clearly referring to Assad.

Although Russia signaled to Annan this week that his plan was acceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reversed course on Thursday, diplomats said. Diplomats said the Russians demanded that Annan remove from his proposal the language about excluding people from a Syrian national unity government.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Lavrov were due to hold talks on Friday in St. Petersburg that could be decisive in breaking the impasse. The pair are scheduled to attend the Geneva talks on Saturday.

Annan had made preliminary acceptance of his guidelines for a political transition for Syria a condition for organizing Saturday's meeting in Geneva. The meeting is to include the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. Iran and Saudi Arabia were not invited.

"I think we are going to have a good meeting tomorrow(Saturday). I am optimistic," Annan told Reuters Television.

Assad on Thursday dismissed the notion of any outside solution to the 16-month-old uprising against his rule.

"We will not accept any non-Syrian, non-national model, whether it comes from big countries or friendly countries. No one knows how to solve Syria's problems as well as we do."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Erika Solomon and Mariam Karouny in Beirut, writing by Ralph Boulton and Peter Millership; editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blast-hits-damascus-turkey-sends-troops-border-083507427.html

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High Blood Pressure ? Symptoms and Remedies

The fast paced frenetic lives of today?s environmental conditions have helped in building a common and modern day disease of hypertension. As being defamed as the silent killer, high blood pressure requires us to keep an eye on the symptoms of the problem before the situation goes out of hand.

Before discussing the symptoms, let me tell you that this is no more a problem of age old people. So, better read it carefully so that when it happens with you or your dear ones, you can immediately track the cause. Well, first of all it starts with a dull pain in the head and neck when you wake up in the morning. With the further worsening of condition, it leads to nosebleeds, dizzy spells, difficulty in breathing, frequent urination, fatigue and nervous tension. If go untreated, these symptoms can become worse.

The general factors which lead to the symptoms are overweight, kidney problems, lack of exercise etc. which is triggered by smoking, alcohol, stress and excessive use of salt.

Now, as we have gone through symptoms, we should know what actually constitutes as ?high?. According to the National Heart, Lung And Blood Institute guidelines- blood pressure in the range of 120/80mmHg is in normal state. A range above this but lower than 139/89 is defined as pre-hypertensive. Following this comes the stage 1 with reading lying between 140/90-159/99 while stage 2 refers to a condition above 160/100. In the pre-hypertensive stage, there are few basic symptoms while further stages give you acute symptoms.

What are the high blood pressure remedies?

It is quite difficult to cure completely. However, one can put a hold on its increasing value. Some of the supplements in the food are said to have high remedial values to ease hypertension symptoms. Let take an example of garlic- a proportionate amount of it in your daily food renders thinness in your blood. Docohexaenoic acid, or DHA in fish oil is highly touted for high blood pressure treatment. However, physician consultation is always advised.

Sodium and potassium are two balancing salts in our body. Taking a low sodium diet along with high potassium diet work as one of the effective high blood pressure remedies. Folic acid works amazingly well.

Next, a tough thing to do. Reduce your weight and do exercise. I know it?s quite a daunting task but the results are very quick. Don?t worry, only moderate efforts are required as overdoing this may harm you.

Last but not the least natural or herbal remedies are also helpful in stabilizing blood pressure to normal conditions.

Don?t be careless even with a single symptom as you never know when it will justify its name as ? silent killer?.

Myhealthybloodpressure.com offers you natural healing products made up of herbs to reduce High Blood Pressure. High blood pressure is the common problem and the medicines produced here serves as the best High Blood Pressure Remedies. For more info call us at 1-888-275-3570

Source: http://toddsblogs.com/healthandfitness/2012/06/29/high-blood-pressure-symptoms-and-remedies/

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US-Israel war game rescheduled for autumn

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The top U.S. military officer says the U.S. and Israel will hold a major missile defense exercise in October.

The exercise Austere Challenge '12 was scheduled originally for April but was postponed amid growing talk of Israel preparing to attack Iran over its nuclear program. The odds of an Israeli attack in the near term appear to have lessened.

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that he is unfamiliar with exact details but that the postponed exercise is expected to take place in October.

The exercise is designed to test multiple Israeli and U.S. air defense systems against incoming missiles and rockets from places as far away as Iran.

?2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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First Look At Denzel Washington In 2 GUNS

Check out the cool as ever Denzel Washington rocking a couple of gold teeth as Trench -- a blond white guy in the comics apparently. Mark Wahlberg plays his partner and the other "Gun" of the title, Naval Intelligence Officer Steadman..

A pulp story about cops and thieves and the men that are something in between. Trench has targeted a local bank to rob, and asked Steadman in on the job. Trench figures it's a great way to score -- considering it's a cover for mob money. They'll be thieves ripping off thieves. But what Steadman doesn't know is that Trench is a DEA agent. And what Trench doesn't know is that Steadman's a Naval Intelligence officer. They're both cops! And neither one knows that they're not robbing the mob, they've been set up to steal $50 million from the CIA! A light-hearted crime romp in the vein of Ocean's Thirteen and The Italian Job from comics legend, Steven Grant!

2 Guns is directed by Baltasar Kormakur (Contraband) and in addition to Washington and Wahlberg stars Paula Patton, James Marsden, Bill Paxton, and Edward James Olmos. The movie is set to open sometime in 2013.

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Israel holds beauty pageant for Holocaust survivors

JERUSALEM, June 29 (Reuters) - A beauty contest for Holocaust survivors stirred deep emotions in Israel on Friday, with organisers hailing it an affirmation of life and detractors calling it a macabre spectacle.

Fourteen women who survived the Nazi genocide took the pageant stage before a packed hall in the city of Haifa. Each of the contestants shared a bit of their personal stories before the capacity crowd.

The event touched a raw nerve with some Israelis who saw it as cheapening the memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust during World War Two.

Others said it was a self-image boost for aging survivors, some of whom have fallen into poverty.

Shimon Sabag, director of Helping Hand, a private group that aids thousands of the estimated 200,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel, said the contest held on Thursday had been so successful he may hold a similar event next year.

"There were 1,000 survivors there who enjoyed the event," Sabag told Reuters. "People don't have to see Holocaust survivors mainly as a group of wheelchair-bound victims."

Former Israeli lawmaker Colette Avital, who heads a survivors' organisation, was quoted by local media as denouncing the competition as "macabre".

The contest winner, silver-haired Romanian-born Hava Hershkovitz, 79, regaled with a blue and white sash as a tiara was placed on her head. She said the victory was "her revenge, showing how despite the horrors her family went through, her beauty and personality have endured," according to Shabag.

"We should never forgive and forget what they went through, but I find this a very constructive way to show these people remain beautiful," he added.

Hershkovitz, one of hundreds of survivors in an assisted living facility sponsored by Sabag's group, won a family weekend at a resort and all 100 contestants were issued with electronic distress buttons.

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Jon Boyle)

? 2011 Reuters

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Apple hardware chief Bob Mansfield to retire

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My wife's laptop might well have remained a door stop had it not been for your valuable tips.
Thanks mate.

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Virtual lawyer software will help you build a case for a fraction of the cost

It turns out computers can defend humans better than we can defend ourselves Read more at http://www.tecca.co??

Going to court can be a major hassle, even for those whose job it is to defend or prosecute the individuals who find themselves entangled in a?legal web. Looking through hundreds, thousands, or even millions of pages of documentation about each case can be a tiresome and costly endeavor. But manually browsing these stacks of legalese may soon become the job of a computer, rather than that of a living, breathing lawyer.

New software technology called "predictive coding" can sift through millions of pieces of written data and intelligently decide what bits are relevant to a particular legal proceeding. By highlighting keywords or important phrases, the software can comb documents at a lightning-quick pace, and at a fraction of the cost of employing human reviewers to do the task.

The new approach has been met with some serious resistance from some legal experts, but by proving that it can do as good of a job at isolating important information as a human, it is slowly gaining acceptance. In fact, during the prosecution of Enron executives, predictive coding software caught important emails that human reviewers managed to miss.

The technology is still in its relative infancy, and still requires actual lawyers to make sense of all the details it is able to glean from scanned documents. However, it's not a stretch to think that one day the software could link bits of data, form facts, and help build a case without the help of an actual, hired lawyer.?Robotic attorneys could be right around the corner.

(Source)

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/virtual-lawyer-software-help-build-case-fraction-cost-020032527.html

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Channing Tatum and Jimmy Fallon Dress As Teenage Girls

Jimmy Fallon can get his late-night guests to do some pretty ridiculous things, but he took that to the extreme when he and Magic Mike star Channing Tatum, 32, donned drag and hosted a fake teenage girl talk show called Ew! on Thursday. And watching the actor done a brunette wig and yellow tights for was nothing short of, well, comedic magic. See the skit below:

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/channing-tatum-and-jimmy-fallon-dress-teenage-girls/1-a-469339?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Achanning-tatum-and-jimmy-fallon-dress-teenage-girls-469339

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Rush to report US health ruling trips up CNN, Fox

This television frame grab shows CNN broadcasting the Supreme Court's decision on President Barack Obama's health care law on Thursday, June 28, 2012. Both CNN and Fox News Channel incorrectly reported Thursday that the law's central provision, requiring virtually all Americans to have health insurance, had been struck down. Both networks backtracked when it became clear that the court upheld the provision. Broadcast networks broke into regular programming to deliver special reports and generally got it right. To get the news out quickly, competitive news organizations had to wade through pages of legal writing. (AP Photo)

This television frame grab shows CNN broadcasting the Supreme Court's decision on President Barack Obama's health care law on Thursday, June 28, 2012. Both CNN and Fox News Channel incorrectly reported Thursday that the law's central provision, requiring virtually all Americans to have health insurance, had been struck down. Both networks backtracked when it became clear that the court upheld the provision. Broadcast networks broke into regular programming to deliver special reports and generally got it right. To get the news out quickly, competitive news organizations had to wade through pages of legal writing. (AP Photo)

NEW YORK (AP) ? President Barack Obama worried and Republicans celebrated when they first heard the news. But not so fast: In the split-second rush to report the Supreme Court's health care decision Thursday, CNN and Fox News Channel got it wrong.

It was an excruciating test for reporters who were handed a 59-page decision choked with legalese and asked to report its meaning almost instantly.

Bloomberg News and The Associated Press were the first reporting the news ? correctly, at 10:07 a.m. EST ? that the court upheld most of Obama's health care overhaul and a mandate that nearly every American have health insurance. They were followed by Reuters and the SCOTUSblog.

The New York Times made a point of tweeting that reporters and editors were analyzing the decision and would write when they were comfortable that the nuances were correct. The paper didn't tweet the news until 10:20 a.m.

CNN apologized for its error, saying it "regrets that it didn't wait to report out the full and complete opinion" that upheld the mandate requiring virtually all Americans to have health insurance. Fox, however, insisted it was right. "Fox reported the facts, as they came in," said network executive Michael Clemente.

The inaccurate reports were the first ones seen by Obama, who was watching four television monitors outside the Oval Office. White House Counsel Katherine Ruemmler came in moments later with the true story.

It was particularly embarrassing for CNN, which has suffered through one of its worst ratings quarters in several years, primarily due to a paucity of big news. The network eagerly awaited the court's decision, scheduled for 10 a.m., running a "countdown clock" on its screen for hours.

Anchor Wolf Blitzer and reporter Kate Bolduan reported at 10:08 a.m. that the health care law had been struck down, based on a reading of Chief Justice John Roberts' decision that the mandate was not a valid exercise of congressional power under the commerce clause of the Constitution. The screen read: "Supreme Ct. Kills Individual Mandate." The news was tweeted and emailed to the network's followers.

"The court striking down that mandate is a dramatic blow to the president," said CNN reporter John King.

By 10:13 a.m., some doubt had seeped in, and the onscreen headline read: "Supreme Court Rules on Obama Law."

"Let's take a deep breath and see what the justices actually decided," Blitzer said. "It could be more complicated than we originally thought."

Two minutes later, CNN reported the correct decision ? the court had upheld the individual mandate, basing it not on the commerce clause but on Congress' power of taxation. CNN then reported that the entire law had been upheld, with King calling it "a huge, huge victory for President Obama."

On Fox, Bill Hemmer touted the "breaking news" that the individual mandate had been declared unconstitutional. A Twitter account run by Fox anchor Bret Baier's show tweeted the same news. Within two minutes, however, anchor Megyn Kelly was citing SCOTUSblog's report and ordered producers to change an onscreen headline that read: "Supreme Court Finds Health Care Individual Mandate Unconstitutional."

"We're trying to do the best we can," Hemmer said.

The initial report on Baier's Fox show Twitter feed was deleted, followed by the tweet: "Getting word that the individual mandate will survive as a tax ? we are trying to work this out for you ? more to come."

Clemente, Fox executive vice president of news and editorial, was unapologetic. "We gave our viewers the news as it happened," he said. He said Hemmer reported that the mandate was not constitutional under the commerce clause, although the network's reporting gave the impression that the mandate had been fully struck down.

Obama's first news about the decision came from television monitors outside the Oval Office, where the cable channels were reporting that the mandate had been struck down, according to administration officials. Within moments, Ruemmler hurried toward the White House and flashed the president two thumbs up. She explained her reading, and Obama hugged her as Chief of Staff Jack Lew looked on.

Several members of Congress also tweeted incorrect information about the ruling. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California called it a "big win for liberty and the Constitution." Florida Republican Rep. Tom Rooney tweeted that it was "great news for the American people, victory for constitution." The politicians later removed the tweets from their Twitter feeds.

The Huffington Post's politics Twitter feed first made the wrong call and corrected itself, saying "we jumped the gun" following the CNN and Fox News reports.

Caution was discussed ahead of time during several planning meetings at The New York Times, said Jim Roberts, assistant managing editor. The paper was willing to take a few extra minutes to make sure it had exactly the right interpretation, he said.

"It's almost stupidly obvious to say, 'We want to be right,' but we want to be right," he said.

The Associated Press ? which delivered the news as a flash, its highest-priority designation ? anticipated a complex decision, and its Washington staff prepared for weeks for the various rulings that might come down, said Kathleen Carroll, the news service's senior vice president and executive editor.

"Our goal, as always: Get the facts and get them out quickly," Carroll said in a memo to the staff. "Once again, the enduring lesson prevails: Expertise and preparation are what make us fast and accurate."

ABC, CBS and NBC all interrupted programming for special reports and all generally got it right. The scene was reminiscent of the Supreme Court's decision that decided the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, with reporters standing onscreen, frantically leafing through pages as they tried to read and interpret at the same time.

ABC's Terry Moran had less than a minute to look at the decision before he was talking on the air to anchor George Stephanopoulos and he briefly vamped for time, saying "I'm just taking a quick look at it."

Describing the difficulty of the process in an interview, he said, "you have to be confident enough to say, 'I don't know.'"

In this case, Moran quickly spotted that Roberts had decided the case in agreement with the court's liberal justices, a sign that it was highly unlikely the health care law had been overturned. ABC did bobble one fact initially, incorrectly saying the court's decision was by a 6-3 vote instead of 5-4.

Moran said Thursday's lesson to journalists should be "slow down."

"I actually think the audience is much more interested in understanding than in seeing who finishes first in this case," he said. "In this day and age, there are few true scoops. ... On an event like this, take a breath."

CBS' Jan Crawford made the right call while reading it on the air. NBC's Pete Williams said that "the bottom line here is the Supreme Court has upheld the health care law."

The news media's scrambling quickly became fodder for humor online.

Damon Lindelof, co-creator of the television show "Lost," tweeted that "I am not turning off CNN until they TELL ME GORE WON FLORIDA!"

The website Gawker posted a photoshopped picture of a smiling Obama holding a tablet with CNN's website headlined "Mandate struck down," in a pose reminiscent of the famous photo of President Harry Truman holding up a newspaper with the incorrect "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline.

___

AP writers Frazier Moore, Jake Coyle, Jim Kuhnhenn and Amy Westfeldt contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-06-28-Supreme%20Court-Health%20Care-Media/id-3e4f28fe2982434fa851940755a614fa

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Greek militant group claims Microsoft attack

ATHENS | Fri Jun 29, 2012 5:07pm EDT

ATHENS (Reuters) - A little-known leftist militant group claimed responsibility on Friday for an attack on Microsoft's Greek headquarters earlier this week.

Hooded attackers rammed a van packed with gas canisters into the Microsoft building in Athens on Wednesday and then set the vehicle on fire, causing damage but no injuries.

At least two people wielding pistols and a machinegun kept security guards away as they carried out the attack, police said.

In a statement published on the Internet, the International Revolutionary Front said it singled out Microsoft to strike a blow at capitalism.

"We chose this building because Microsoft is one of the most powerful companies of the computer sector ... which is now carrying capitalism on its shoulders," it said.

The group said it also carried out the attack as a sign of support to other militants currently detained by police in Greece and Italy.

The statement made mention of Ted Kaczynski, also known as the "Unabomber", who conducted a mail bomb campaign in the United States over almost 20 years.

Arson attacks against domestic and foreign banks and local politicians have become more frequent in Greece in recent years as the country battles soaring unemployment and struggles through a recession deepened by austerity policies imposed by foreign lenders.

The International Revolutionary Front made its first appearance last year, carrying out arson attacks on the private vehicles of policemen as well as on a branch of U.S. fast-food chain McDonald's.

"We are taking the claim seriously and are investigating its authenticity," a police official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

(Reporting by Harry Papachristou and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~3/0xzIVtbvUrU/us-greece-microsoft-idUSBRE85S1F320120629

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Two held over fear of attacks before Olympics

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-held-over-fear-attacks-olympics-052402705.html

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Europe summit surprises with bold moves

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti leaves an EU Summit in Brussels on Friday, June 29, 2012. European leaders have agreed to use the continent's permanent bailout fund to recapitalize struggling banks, and agreed to the idea of a tighter union in the long term. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti leaves an EU Summit in Brussels on Friday, June 29, 2012. European leaders have agreed to use the continent's permanent bailout fund to recapitalize struggling banks, and agreed to the idea of a tighter union in the long term. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

French President Francois Hollande speaks to the media during a press conference at an EU Summit in Brussels, Friday, June 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves an EU Summit in Brussels on Friday, June 29, 2012. European leaders have agreed to use the continent's permanent bailout fund to recapitalize struggling banks, and agreed to the idea of a tighter union in the long term. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? After 18 disappointing summits since the start of the debt crisis, Europe's leaders appeared Friday to have finally come up with quick fixes and long-term plans that show they are serious about restoring confidence in their currency union.

Global markets sighed with relief, debt-saddled Italy and Spain appeared victorious and Germany's Angela Merkel faced potential criticism at home for conceding to pressure for an immediate deal.

Leaders of 17 countries that use the euro agreed to:

?Allow two European bailout funds to pump money directly into troubled European banks, rather than make loans to governments to bail out the banks. The move rescues banks without putting strapped countries deeper in debt.

?Use bailout money "in a flexible and efficient manner to stabilize" European government bond markets.

?Let countries that have made economic reforms as require by EU authorities tap the European rescue funds without submitting to stringent bailout programs.

?Tie their budgets, currency and governments ever tighter in a vast new economic union down the line.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy called it a "breakthrough." Global stock markets and the euro rallied hard.

Concerns remain. Most of the measures approved in the Brussels summit will take months to come into force. The ?500 billion ($630 billion) firepower of the permanent bailout fund may not be enough. And given how shaky Spain's and Italy's finances are, and how jittery markets are, new roadblocks could send the continent back into crisis.

But some key points will kick in within 10 days: On July 9, eurozone countries will agree to give Spanish banks rescue loans and also allow the current, temporary European bailout fund to directly purchase Spanish government bonds.

The decision is a victory for Spain and Italy, whose borrowing costs have risen to near unsustainable levels despite their efforts to cut government spending and reform their labor markets.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to face a grilling from a skeptical German Parliament later. Heading into the summit, Merkel had stuck to her line that any financial help from Europe's bailout fund must come with tough conditions, so a separate decision allowing countries that have reformed their economies easier access to bailouts, without such stringent conditions, was widely seen as a defeat by the German press.

Merkel insisted the funds would still only be released when it was clear countries were undertaking serious reforms.

"We remain completely within our approach so far: help, trade-off, conditionality and control, and so I think we have done something important, but we have remained true to our philosophy of no help without a trade-off," Merkel told reporters in Brussels.

Van Rompuy dismissed talk that Merkel had lost in the negotiations.

"It was a tough negotiation," Van Rompuy said. "And you can't summarize this in winners and losers."

In addition, the leaders of the eurozone countries authorized the EU bailout funds to buy bonds of countries in order to reduce the interest rates the markets charge.

Leaders of the full 27-member European Union, which includes non-euro countries such as Britain and Poland, also agreed to a long-term framework toward tighter budgetary and political union, though those plans will require treaty changes and won't be realized for years.

The scale of the moves were unexpected and provided investors a reason for optimism, even as analysts cast doubt on the plans' feasibility and noted that some fundamental problems with the common currency remain.

"I think the elements we put together will reassure the markets," said Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, was similarly optimistic.

"I'm actually quite pleased with the outcome of the European Council," said Draghi. "It showed the long-term commitment to the euro by all member states of the euro area. But also it reached tangible results in the shorter term."

Stocks around the world surged Friday, with markets in countries on the front line of the crisis doing particularly well. Italy's FTSE MIB and Spain's IBEX indexes each rose 3 percent.

Perhaps more importantly, the yield on Spain's 10-year bond dropped by 0.32 percentage points to 6.58 percent. Italy's was down by 0.14 percentage points to 5.94 percent. Both countries have seen their rates edge toward the 7 percent level which is seen as unsustainable over the long term.

The importance of recapitalizing banks directly from the bailout fund became evident this month when Spain was offered ?100 billion ($125.6 billion) for its shaky banks. Previously the bailout loan would have to be made to the Spanish government, which would lend it on to the banks. The prospect of having that debt on the government's books spooked investors, who began demanding higher interest rates to reflect the risk of a Spanish default.

Lending the money directly to the banks avoids putting more debt on the government's books.

Also boosting market confidence was the agreement to waive the permanent bailout fund's preferred creditor status for aid given to Spanish banks. So far, any money the fund puts into a bank would get repaid before any other investors.

When Spain agreed to take rescue loans for its banks, the news failed to boost confidence in the banks because investors worried that, if one of those banks collapsed, they would be last to get repaid. Eurozone leaders agreed to waive the bailout fund's preferred creditor status only in Spain's case.

Some analysts, however, noted that the size of the bailout funds some ?500 billion would have to be increased to be a realistic backstop for public debt and banks across the continent. Italy alone has government debt of ?2.4 trillion.

"These steps are the obvious ones to take to try to restore some confidence in the market in the short term," said Gary Jenkins, managing director of Swordfish Research in London. "Alone, they do not solve the underlying problems but they might buy a bit of time, which is probably about the best they can do right now."

Though welcoming the measures that were taken, analysts think more will have to be done.

"If the aim is to ease tensions on the Italian and Spanish bond market on a more sustainable basis, we probably will need to have more assurance on the fire power," said analyst Carsten Brzeski of ING in a note.

Brzeski said more liquidity support from the ECB ? such as in the form of cheap loans to banks ? "looks inevitable" and may come as soon as Monday.

The EU leaders also agreed to devote ?120 billion in stimulus to encourage growth and create jobs, though half of it had already been earmarked and it includes only ?10 billion in actual new commitments. France had pushed for the growth package, arguing that austerity measures are stifling growth and making debt reduction more difficult.

They also agreed to give the ECB powers to oversee big European banks by the end of the year.

For the longer-term, the 27 leaders of the EU agreed on "four building blocks" of a tighter union ? but postponed specifics until a study due in October. The building blocks, which include sharing debt in the form of jointly issued eurobonds, were laid out in a sweeping document presented by Van Rompuy and colleagues before the summit.

However, France's President Francois Hollande said the general agreement on the tighter union did not for now include any commitment on eurobonds from Germany and other stronger economies that have firmly opposed sharing debt with more profligate countries such as Greece.

Hollande claimed to play the role of mediator instead of partnering with Germany as France traditionally does.

"No one can say I won or I lost," he said. "What was at stake was Europe. That's who won."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-06-29-EU-Europe-Big-Fix?/id-9eefc2a537214a2d9ef3fa97e2cf793d

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Video: Peter Madoff Expected to Plead Guilty

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/48013475/

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Gene mutations pinned for brain cancer | The Science Bulletin

Medulloblastoma is the most common paediatric malignant brain cancer.

Children diagnosed with the most common paediatric malignant brain cancer, medulloblastoma, will benefit from more targeted treatment following the identification of genetic mutations in the cancer.

The international research findings published in Nature may lead to the development of new drugs and better outcomes for patients, says Richard Cohn, Conjoint Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales.

A specialist at the Centre for Children?s Cancer and Blood Disorders, Associate Professor Cohn contributed to the research led by a team at St Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center in the United States.

?The discovery of tumour-specific gene alterations linked to subtypes of medulloblastoma provides important insights into the development of the cancer and highlights targets for new treatment approaches,? he said.

The findings were a direct result of collaboration between six children?s oncology centres internationally, which pooled patient specimens and information.

?Now that we know about these mutations, the hope is we?ll be able to develop new drugs, or utilise existing drugs not currently used to treat this disease, to specifically attack the molecular abnormality,? Associate Professor Cohn said.

?Ideally this will lead to better outcomes for patients and better cure rates and the ability to achieve that with fewer side effects.?

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Source: http://thesciencebulletin.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/gene-mutations-pinned-for-brain-cancer/

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