According to Reuters, the U.S. Stock Market will be closed on Monday due to interference that will be caused by the logistical nightmare that comes along with such a huge weather event like Hurricane Sandy. Parts of New York City have already been evacuated. As early as six hours ago, it was said that the NYSE would not be closing down, but that decision has apparently been reversed as the severity of the storm has picked up.
I?ve just finished the second major edit of my novel Exodus, #3 in the ARKANE series. I?m now going through again, editing it on the Kindle before releasing it to beta readers.
Some of my own editing
It?s true that writing the novel is only the start of the adventure, for it?s the editing stage that can make or break the success of your book. Guest blogger Nick Thacker has some tips.?
I just finished writing a book.
Part of me is elated; ?bouncing-off-the-walls?-excited.
The other part of me knows it?s a lie?I am, after all, a pretty ?na?ve? writer?
While I?ve ?finished? writing a book (a thriller novel, to be specific), I also know that I?m nowhere nearfinished with the actual process of ?book writing.?
To be clear, the words are all there. The cover?s even complete, and I?ve got some Lulu-printed hardcovers and paperbacks on the way, and the Kindle version is ready-to-go on Amazon.
And I didn?t have to ?sell my soul? to get it done.
But I?m writing this post for two reasons: to talk about the next step for myself (and you, if you?re in a similar boat), and to prolong the actual taking of the next step?
What?s the next step?
To put it bluntly, it?s the rewriting process: the editing, cutting, rehashing, rewording, etc?everything that we don?t think about when we begin the rewarding and awesome journey of book writing.
Sure, I have a pretty decent vocabulary, which I think I?m able to wield with relative ease. I also pride myself at my editing/proofreading abilities?I love to spot those incorrect there, they?re, or theirs in other peoples? work.
But when I finish an article, chapter, or larger work, when that last word is placed so perfectly on the page (or screen) in front of me?I?m done. I absolutely abhor the idea of starting again. I don?t want to revisit my characters?some have died horrible, nightmarish deaths?and scenes. I don?t want to find the typos, mistakes, and misnomers that I?ve somehow let slide the first time around?not to mention the strange wording here, the odd anachronism there. I just want to upload my Kindle file and start building my blog?s readership to sell more books.
Writing, I?ve come to find out, is maybe one part actual writing?putting words on the paper?and one part (or more!) redoing everything.
Umm, we know?
Maybe I?m just too new to this art form. Maybe I just wasn?t properly forewarned. Maybe I?m actually on to something no one?s ever thought of before.
Most likely, the importance and headache of editing down, improving, and finalizing a manuscript is something I?ve just ignored since?obviously?I need to have a manuscript written first before I?m able to really edit and rework it.
Either way, I?m now starting to realize a few key points that may be of use to others looking to push through their first novel. Here are a few items that I?ve found, after penning 110,000 words, that would have helped me enormously prior to and during my writing experience:
Planning
I can?t stress this enough. Some writers are able to ?flow? in a linear way, bouncing from chapter to chapter in a seemingly effortless way. I started writing as I began the research, and I wish I?d spent 2-3 months solely researching, planning, and studying?my characters, my settings, and my ideas.
Equipment
While I?m sure it?s not impossible to write long documents in Microsoft Word, who would want to? I used a piece of software called Storyist for a brief period, mainly for its full-screen mode, until I stumbled across Scrivener (which soon released a full-screen mode as well anyway!), which made my writing experience and compilation process not only easy, but also enjoyable. To round out my equipment set up, I used Evernote for the research and planning process and always have my MacBook Pro at my side (or on my lap).
Reading material
Usually the last thing on my mind during the writing process was reading more. I was constantly working on the manuscript, reading a few similar genre thrillers, and maintaining my non-fiction reading for work. But about three days after I hit ?Compile? and prepared my book for its first print-run, I came across Dwight Swain. If you haven?t heard of him, Google his work right now. I have a copy of Techniques for the Selling Writer in front of me now, highlighted and ready for a second read-through. Honestly, it?s not just one of the best ?how to write? books out there?it may very well be one of the most outstanding ?how-to? books on the market. His timeless advice is extremely practical, easy-to-digest, and specifically geared toward fiction writers interested in commercial viability.
I?m not going to stand on a soapbox and preach the ?one true way? for writing?as with most art forms, there?s never only one route to the destination. I?m just hoping to start a dialogue with both the seasoned writers out there and the younglings like myself who are eager and willing to learn.
The secret?
What I?ve found after writing one novel, starting a second, and completing numerous nonfiction manuscripts, is that this ?last step? should actually come first.
Obviously it?s impossible to rewrite what we haven?t written yet, but what I mean is this:
Plan ahead for the rewriting process:
Plan ahead by outlining and layout out your novel well the first time.
Plan ahead for the extra time it will take between going back and forth with an agent, editor, or publisher.
Plan ahead for the marketing steps you?ll immediately want to take after you write ?The End.?
Plan ahead for the balance between starting to promote and finishing up your WIP manuscript.
Most new writers know they?re ?supposed? to rewrite at least once or twice. I was one of these ?in-the-know? people, but yet I somehow thought that my writing was above this, and I didn?t need to rewrite.
Thankfully, I had absolutely no momentum built when I finished the first draft, so there was no eager tempting to send my masterpiece out into the world, uncut and unfinished. I threw it in a drawer and then started researching the marketing and promotional aspects of my upcoming book launch?eventually to realize that a couple rewrites were more than necessary!
What do you think?
My experience and takeaways might help someone structure, plan, and execute the writing of their own masterpiece, but for now I?m happy enough to post this, hear your thoughts, and join in the discussion!
Have you done a full rewrite, or is your planning process such that you don?t feel you need to rewrite at all? Let us know in the comments below.
About the Author
Nick Thacker is a writer from Texas, and he writes to help writers, bloggers, and pretty much anyone who wants to hack their life! Check him out on his website, where he talks about?how to write, and be sure to grab his new book, Welcome Home: The Author?s Guide to Building A Marketing Home Base. Also, be sure to grab the newsletter!
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Contact: Paul Preuss paul_preuss@lbl.gov 510-486-6249 DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Studies by Berkeley Lab scientists of electron beam quality in laser plasma accelerators include novel tests for slice-energy spread
Part Two: Slicing through the electron beam
Wim Leemans of Berkeley Lab's Accelerator and Fusion Research Division heads LOASIS, the Laser and Optical Accelerator Systems Integrated Studies, an oasis indeed for students pursuing graduate studies in laser plasma acceleration (LPA). Among the most promising applications of future table-top accelerators are new kinds of light sources, in which their electron beams power free electron lasers.
"If our LPA electron bunches had good enough quality for free electron lasers and were really only femtoseconds long we should see a particular kind of radiation called coherent optical transition radiation, or COTR," Leemans says. "So I assigned my doctoral student Chen Lin, a graduate of Peking University and now a postdoc there, to find it."
Jeroen van Tilborg of LOASIS worked with Lin on the experiment. "Free electron lasers and other applications require energy spreads even lower than the few-percent level that has been measured in LPAs, which doesn't sound promising," he says. "But in a free electron laser, it's the energy spread in a longitudinal slice that matters. Slice-energy spread is local, as distinct from variation among all electron energies anywhere in the pulse."
If the team could find coherent optical transition radiation in the beam, it would be a direct measure of slice-energy spread. This kind of optical radiation is emitted when a pulse of near-light-speed electrons crosses the boundary between states with different electrical properties in this case, the boundary between vacuum and an ultrathin Mylar foil.
However, Van Tilborg says, "COTR had only recently been observed in LPA beams and wasn't thought useful for diagnosis." Sure enough, says Leemans, "At first Chen said 'It doesn't work.' But she kept at it."
The team devised a three-step process. The first step was to manipulate the electron beams inside the accelerator to induce modulations in momentum. If the momentum modulations could be preserved, it would be an indication of a low slice-energy spread. Monitoring the beam structure would be a way of calculating the spread in the slice.
The first step turned out to be easier than anticipated, Leemans says. "We found that when the drive laser pulse overlaps the electron beam pulse that it's accelerating, the frequency of the drive laser itself induces correlated momentum modulations in the electron pulse. It's a well-known phenomenon that is widely used in conventional accelerators to aid with bunch compression."
Conventional free electron lasers routinely monitor microbunching by means of coherent optical transition radiation, but using the technique with LPAs had not been tried before because many people thought the density modulations would disappear as the beam spread and diverged. Part of the solution was counterintuitive moving the diagnostic foils much farther away from the accelerator.
"In the next step we allowed the beam to travel through a vacuum for several meters," says van Tilborg. "The differences in momentum caused the electrons to collect at different densities, creating microstructure in the pulse. The initial momentum modulations of the beam had now been converted to density modulations."
After traveling two meters, the beam encountered the first of two Mylar foils. Crossing the first vacuum/Mylar interface, it generated the expected optical-transition radiation and generated it again at the second foil, almost four meters distant. Photons from both COTR emissions were recorded by CCD cameras. Finally the electron pulse itself was recorded on a phosphor screen.
"From theoretical calculations, we know what the pattern of optical transition radiation should be," van Tilborg says, noting that the coherent regime can be identified by smaller structures on the CCD image and an enhancement in particle counts. "If the micromodulations survive the long trip due to a small slice energy spread then the second coherent contribution will also appear. So where there's microstructure in the pulse, there is strong enhancement."
Energy spread and beam divergence had not washed out the micromodulations, with the result that, van Tilborg says, "A slice-energy-spread diagnostic had now become available to us." In a series of experiments testing different conformations of the accelerator, the lowest energy spread resulted from high-energy electrons in high-density plasma.
"Pulse structure depended on the fine tuning of several factors," van Tilborg says, "including plasma density, bunch charge" the number of electrons in the pulse "and letting the electron pulse travel the right distance for self-bunching to occur."
Another factor was how well the drive-laser pulse overlapped with the accelerated electron pulse, but, van Tilborg says, "We don't really need the overlap to occur in the same plasma channel where the electron beam is produced and accelerated. We can use other ways of 'seeding' the microstructure of the pulse. From what we've learned, we can design much better diagnostics in the future."
The experiment showed that local energy spread in an LPA can be a lot smaller than a few percent. In some of the cases measured, it was less than half a percent.
"These experiments not only show that laser-plasma accelerators already produce very high-quality electron beams," say Geddes, "they also gives us the physics insight into how particles are trapped in the wake and then modulated within it, allowing us to move closer to using these new, compact machines for physics and other applications."
Leemans says, "Both the Plateau and Lin experiments use radiation emission from the LPA-produced electron beams -- some in the x-ray window, some in the visible light regime -- to tell the story of what the electrons in the beam look like one detected inside the accelerator, the other outside it."
###
For Part One of State-of-the-Art Beams From Table-Top Accelerators, visit http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/10/22/lpa-beams-part-1. /
"Long-range persistence of femtosecond modulations on laser-plasma-accelerated electron beams," by C. Lin, J. van Tilborg, K. Nakamura, A. J. Gonsalves, N. H. Matlis, T. Sokollik, S. Shiraishi, J. Osterhoff, C. Benedetti, C. B. Schroeder, Cs. Tth, E. Esarey, and W. P. Leemans, appears in Physical Review Letters and is available online at http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v108/i9/e094801.
For more about the future of laser-plasma accelerators, go to http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2009/12/22/accelerators-tomorrow-part2/.
BELLA's world-record laser is described at http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/07/27/bella-laser-record-power/.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website at science.energy.gov/.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Paul Preuss paul_preuss@lbl.gov 510-486-6249 DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Studies by Berkeley Lab scientists of electron beam quality in laser plasma accelerators include novel tests for slice-energy spread
Part Two: Slicing through the electron beam
Wim Leemans of Berkeley Lab's Accelerator and Fusion Research Division heads LOASIS, the Laser and Optical Accelerator Systems Integrated Studies, an oasis indeed for students pursuing graduate studies in laser plasma acceleration (LPA). Among the most promising applications of future table-top accelerators are new kinds of light sources, in which their electron beams power free electron lasers.
"If our LPA electron bunches had good enough quality for free electron lasers and were really only femtoseconds long we should see a particular kind of radiation called coherent optical transition radiation, or COTR," Leemans says. "So I assigned my doctoral student Chen Lin, a graduate of Peking University and now a postdoc there, to find it."
Jeroen van Tilborg of LOASIS worked with Lin on the experiment. "Free electron lasers and other applications require energy spreads even lower than the few-percent level that has been measured in LPAs, which doesn't sound promising," he says. "But in a free electron laser, it's the energy spread in a longitudinal slice that matters. Slice-energy spread is local, as distinct from variation among all electron energies anywhere in the pulse."
If the team could find coherent optical transition radiation in the beam, it would be a direct measure of slice-energy spread. This kind of optical radiation is emitted when a pulse of near-light-speed electrons crosses the boundary between states with different electrical properties in this case, the boundary between vacuum and an ultrathin Mylar foil.
However, Van Tilborg says, "COTR had only recently been observed in LPA beams and wasn't thought useful for diagnosis." Sure enough, says Leemans, "At first Chen said 'It doesn't work.' But she kept at it."
The team devised a three-step process. The first step was to manipulate the electron beams inside the accelerator to induce modulations in momentum. If the momentum modulations could be preserved, it would be an indication of a low slice-energy spread. Monitoring the beam structure would be a way of calculating the spread in the slice.
The first step turned out to be easier than anticipated, Leemans says. "We found that when the drive laser pulse overlaps the electron beam pulse that it's accelerating, the frequency of the drive laser itself induces correlated momentum modulations in the electron pulse. It's a well-known phenomenon that is widely used in conventional accelerators to aid with bunch compression."
Conventional free electron lasers routinely monitor microbunching by means of coherent optical transition radiation, but using the technique with LPAs had not been tried before because many people thought the density modulations would disappear as the beam spread and diverged. Part of the solution was counterintuitive moving the diagnostic foils much farther away from the accelerator.
"In the next step we allowed the beam to travel through a vacuum for several meters," says van Tilborg. "The differences in momentum caused the electrons to collect at different densities, creating microstructure in the pulse. The initial momentum modulations of the beam had now been converted to density modulations."
After traveling two meters, the beam encountered the first of two Mylar foils. Crossing the first vacuum/Mylar interface, it generated the expected optical-transition radiation and generated it again at the second foil, almost four meters distant. Photons from both COTR emissions were recorded by CCD cameras. Finally the electron pulse itself was recorded on a phosphor screen.
"From theoretical calculations, we know what the pattern of optical transition radiation should be," van Tilborg says, noting that the coherent regime can be identified by smaller structures on the CCD image and an enhancement in particle counts. "If the micromodulations survive the long trip due to a small slice energy spread then the second coherent contribution will also appear. So where there's microstructure in the pulse, there is strong enhancement."
Energy spread and beam divergence had not washed out the micromodulations, with the result that, van Tilborg says, "A slice-energy-spread diagnostic had now become available to us." In a series of experiments testing different conformations of the accelerator, the lowest energy spread resulted from high-energy electrons in high-density plasma.
"Pulse structure depended on the fine tuning of several factors," van Tilborg says, "including plasma density, bunch charge" the number of electrons in the pulse "and letting the electron pulse travel the right distance for self-bunching to occur."
Another factor was how well the drive-laser pulse overlapped with the accelerated electron pulse, but, van Tilborg says, "We don't really need the overlap to occur in the same plasma channel where the electron beam is produced and accelerated. We can use other ways of 'seeding' the microstructure of the pulse. From what we've learned, we can design much better diagnostics in the future."
The experiment showed that local energy spread in an LPA can be a lot smaller than a few percent. In some of the cases measured, it was less than half a percent.
"These experiments not only show that laser-plasma accelerators already produce very high-quality electron beams," say Geddes, "they also gives us the physics insight into how particles are trapped in the wake and then modulated within it, allowing us to move closer to using these new, compact machines for physics and other applications."
Leemans says, "Both the Plateau and Lin experiments use radiation emission from the LPA-produced electron beams -- some in the x-ray window, some in the visible light regime -- to tell the story of what the electrons in the beam look like one detected inside the accelerator, the other outside it."
###
For Part One of State-of-the-Art Beams From Table-Top Accelerators, visit http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/10/22/lpa-beams-part-1. /
"Long-range persistence of femtosecond modulations on laser-plasma-accelerated electron beams," by C. Lin, J. van Tilborg, K. Nakamura, A. J. Gonsalves, N. H. Matlis, T. Sokollik, S. Shiraishi, J. Osterhoff, C. Benedetti, C. B. Schroeder, Cs. Tth, E. Esarey, and W. P. Leemans, appears in Physical Review Letters and is available online at http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v108/i9/e094801.
For more about the future of laser-plasma accelerators, go to http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2009/12/22/accelerators-tomorrow-part2/.
BELLA's world-record laser is described at http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/07/27/bella-laser-record-power/.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website at science.energy.gov/.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An African plan for military intervention in Mali to help government troops reclaim territory from Islamist militants will be ready within weeks, the head of the African Union (AU) said on Wednesday.
Mali remains paralyzed by twin crises, with the leadership in Bamako still divided since a March coup that toppled the president and the occupation of the north of the country by Islamic militants.
Regional and international efforts to deal with the situation, which has created a safe haven for Islamists and international criminal gangs, have been hampered by divisions over how to help.
The AU asked the Security Council in June to back military intervention. The council asked for a detailed operation plan within a deadline of a little over six weeks from October 12.
"The Security Council has asked us to produce a plan within 45 days - that will be done within 45 days," Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairwoman of the AU Commission, told Reuters in an interview after ministers opened a meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Western diplomats had expressed concern that the AU's request for U.N. backing in June had lacked the necessary details, while others have voiced serious reservations about the ability of ECOWAS to tackle the northern Islamists anytime soon.
Some envoys predict that it could be months before any kind of plan is put in motion and troops are trained and in place.
"One plan is ready, and the other one will be ready because work has already started," Dlamini-Zuma said.
She was referring to a "strategic concept" expected to be endorsed by the PSC on Wednesday.
The strategy outlines measures including elections, establishing an inclusive political process and governance, and defense and security reform.
The draft plan calls for the AU and partners to devise a timeline for elections to be held next year.
"UNITY OF PURPOSE"
In July, the AU said it hoped military intervention in Mali would be a last resort. But on Wednesday Dlamini-Zuma spoke of an "early" military operation that could run alongside negotiations.
"We are working ... to finalize the joint planning for the early deployment of an African-led international military force to help Mali recover the occupied territories in the North," she told the opening of the PSC meeting:
"At the same time, we will leave the door of dialogue open to those Malian rebel groups willing to negotiate," she said.
There is also division among some West African states and western powers over how to tackle the Malian crisis.
While it has not ruled out military force, Algeria, the region's top military power that fought a long war against Islamists in the 1990s, has led calls for a dialogue-first approach.
Other neighbors such as Guinea argue no time can be wasted in mediation efforts.
The United States, which spent years working with Mali's army against al Qaeda's Sahara wing, has pushed for a more cautious approach. It earlier had called for elections to strengthen the political leadership in Bamako, with a military intervention later if needed.
While urging military intervention, France also has called for consensus and coordination.
Dlamini-Zuma, however, said the crisis should be tackled as soon as possible.
"I think around Mali, there's unity of purpose, there's unity of ideas. So I think so far, so good," she said.
"Once we have taken the documents to the U.N., the ball will be in the U.N.'s court."
Armed groups have been told to distance themselves from "terrorist" and criminal groups before they can participate in talks.
Dlamini-Zuma told the PSC the door for dialogue was still open for rebels, but warned "negotiations cannot be open-ended."
Apple unveiled its smallest notebook that uses its highly regarded Retina display, a 13-inch MacBook Pro weighing "just over 3.5 pounds, almost a pound lighter than the previous generation," said Phil Schiller at the company's San Jose event Tuesday.
The laptop, available immediately, starts at $1,699 with a 2.5 GHz, dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB RAM and 128 GB of flash storage; with?256GB of flash storage, it starts at $1,999.?
The regular 13-inch MacBook Pro, without a Retina display, starts at $1,199.?
Schiller said that Apple's best-selling notebook is the 13-inch MacBook Pro, "in fact it's our No. 1 selling Mac." The new model, with the Retina display is .75-inch thin, "a full one-fifth?thinner than the old model."
The display itself 2,560-by-1,600 pixels???"four times the number of pixels of the previous generation???that makes it the world's second-highest resolution notebook computer" he said, adding that "our 15-inch" MacBook Pro with Retina display "is the first."
The Retina display will bring a "29 percent higher contrast ratio, and a 75 percent reduction in reflection or glare," said Schiller,?Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing.
Apple calls its?Retina display by that name because it brings high resolution and pixel density of more than 300 pixels per inch, creating a display so realistic that the human eye can't distinguish individual pixels at a normal viewing distance.?
As NBC's Technology & Science editor Wilson Rothman wrote, "Consider that the average HDTV has a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. This means that the new MacBook Pro has almost double the pixels of an HDTV."
The laptop also has 7 hours of battery life, he said, and the new "Power Nap" feature lets the MacBook Pro with Retina display?do software updates when it's plugged in, as well as back up the computer using Time Machine.?
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on?Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
Join a vibrant campus community whose excellence is reflected in its diversity and student success.
West Chester University seeks a proactive, collegial eLearning and Outreach Librarian to work with classroom faculty and librarians to develop, integrate, and assess the best current technologies and practices in support of instruction and research in graduate and undergraduate hybrid and online classes, study abroad programs, and satellite locations.
Responsibilities:
Provides leadership to integrate library services into a growing program of off-site and distance education aligning these services with the Association of College & Research Libraries Standards for Distance Learning Library Services. Works collegially to implement and assess library learning goals and to communicate, publicize and embed library resources and services into the University?s expanding e-learning initiative. Explores new technologies related to online teaching and learning, and trains librarians and staff in these technologies. Provides general reference and instruction services. Serves as a liaison to assigned academic departments, including instruction and collection development. Coordinates the Libraries? social media presence.
This is a nine-month tenure-track position with faculty status and rank. Some evening and weekend hours are required. Travel is required to expand outreach to University sites. Additional compensation for support of classes outside the traditional academic year is available.
Required Qualifications:
Master?s degree from a program accredited by the American Library Association. Experience in the use of emerging information technologies in library instruction. Minimum of two years? experience in academic library providing reference and instruction. Proven ability to work independently without direct supervision and as a team member within a collegial environment. Excellent written and oral communication skills. Successful completion of an on-site interview and presentation.
Preferred Qualifications:
PhD or second Master?s degree. Master?s degree in Distance Education. Experience with distance education. Experience in delivery of online library instruction. Experience working with campus units outside the library to promote and develop new programs. Experience with assessment of student learning outcomes. Academic library collection development experience.
Salary and Rank:
Assistant Professor Rank
Minimum nine-month salary: $51,856.27. Includes generous faculty benefits package.
The filling of this position (to begin Spring semester 2013) is contingent upon available funding. All offers of employment are subject to and contingent upon satisfactory completion of all pre-employment criminal background and consumer checks.
West Chester University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. Women, minorities, and veterans are encouraged to apply. Review of applications begins immediately; position open until filled. Send letter, resume, and the names, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of three professional references to Mame Purce, Chair, eLearning and Outreach Librarian Search Committee, Francis Harvey Green Library, 25 West Rosedale Ave., West Chester University of Pennsylvania, West Chester, PA 19383, email: mpurce@wcupa.edu.
For more information please see: https://wcupa.peopleadmin.com/postings/298
Prepaid card company PEX Card, which offers a prepaid Visa expense card to small and medium-sized businesses, has picked up another round of funding, with a $3.2 million Series B. The round was led by existing investor iNovia Capital and new investor Bluff Point Associates. Also participating in the round were Augury Capital and other private investors. With the additional financing, PEX Card has raised nearly $5 million to date.
A swirl of thunderstorms in the Caribbean, which is a notorious breeding ground for October hurricanes, is expected to coalesce into Tropical Storm Sandy and possibly intensify to hurricane strength as it moves toward Jamaica, eastern Cuba, and the Bahamas by Wednesday and Thursday. But it's what could happen after that that has some weather forecasters pondering some rather bizarre scenarios ? think if a hurricane and nor'easter mated, possibly spawning a very rare and powerful hybrid storm, slamming into the Boston-to-Washington corridor early next week, with rain, snow, damaging winds, and potential storm surge flooding.
Several computer model runs have shown a slingshot scenario, in which Tropical Storm (or hurricane) Sandy initially moves out to sea east of North Carolina, but is captured by the jet stream and flung northwestward into the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast.
A key issue that weather forecasters are wrestling with is how Sandy will interact with a deep dip in the jet stream that will be transporting much colder air into the Midwest and East during the last few days of October. According to the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), deciphering the interaction between these weather systems at this point "is dicey at best." (That may even be an understatement.) On Sunday, the same center described the potential impacts from a major Northeast storm as "impressive."
October is known for its weird, powerful storms, such as "The Perfect Storm" in 1991, which also involved energy from a tropical weather system, and "Snowtober," which buried the Northeast under 2 feet or more of snow just last year.
Forecasters are cautiously making the public aware of the possibility of a major East Coast storm around October 29. Given the considerable uncertainties involved in long-range forecasting, especially concerning tropical storms that are still in the formative stages, it will take a few more days before meteorologists can be more confident in their predictions.
According to Eric Holthaus, a meteorologist for the Wall Street Journal, if the East Coast storm were to occur, it could be one for the record books.
"What could happen is quite complicated, and may have precedence only a handful of times across the more than 200 years of detailed historical local weather recordkeeping (Big storms in 1804, 1841, 1991, and 2007 come immediately to mind)," Holthaus wrote in a blog post on Monday.
"I?d give the chances of some level of impacts from this storm in Greater New York this weekend at about 1-in-5. That could quickly change (up or down) as the models gather new data from the Hurricane Hunters, whose first flight into the storm will be Monday afternoon. What seems clear is that the large-scale pattern is favorable for steering whatever forms northwestward once it reaches the Atlantic, and as you all know, there?s a lot of land and a lot of people in that direction."
Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher and tropical forecaster for the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog, also discussed the ultimate fate of the nascent tropical storm in a blog post on Monday. He pointed out that many computer model runs are not simulating the Northeast storm scenario, but that because of its potential impacts, it needs to be watched closely.
"The entire U.S. East Coast from Florida to Maine should at least be casually aware of this storm scenario, especially those who are immediately on the coastline. Always keep in mind that storm conditions may extend hundreds of miles away from the centerline of the track, and dangerous surf and coastal flooding/erosion are possible with the majority of these tracks," he said.
What forecasters know with much more confidence, though, is that Jamaica may be in store for a damaging storm during the next few days, with strong winds and flooding rains spreading to eastern Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas.
Shares of HCC Insurance Holdings (HCC - Snapshot Report) touched their 52-week high of $36.07 on October 18, after the specialty insurance underwriter got some rating affirmations and paid an increased dividend.
This Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) has reported 4 straight quarters of positive earnings surprises, and has a fair chance of continuing that streak when it reports third-quarter results next week.
Q3 Coming Up
HCC Insurance Holdings is scheduled to report its third quarter results on October 30. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 75 cents on expected revenues of $626 million.
On July 31, HCC Insurance Holdings delivered second quarter earnings of 95 cents per share, reflecting an increase of 55.7% from last year and surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by nearly 27%.
Total revenue increased 8.1% year over year to gross $632.3 million, thanks to higher premiums and investment income.
The retention rate increased 200 basis points to 87%. A lower level of catastrophe activities led to a 430 basis points improvement in the combined ratio over the prior-year quarter to 84.9%.
On August 23, the company?s board of directors authorized a 6.4% hike in its quarterly cash dividend to 16.5 cents. On August 27, the board approved a share buyback program. Per the approval, the company is authorized to repurchase shares worth $300 million. HCC Insurance Holdings spent $59.5 million to buyback 1.9 million shares in the second quarter.
On September 26, credit rating agency A.M. Best affirmed the ratings of HCC Insurance Holdings and its subsidiaries. Also, on October 1, Fitch Ratings affirmed the ratings of HCC Insurance Holdings and its subsidiaries.
Earnings Estimates Move North
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2012 increased 1.9% to $3.24 as five of 10 estimates rose over the last 30 days. This also represents a year-over-year increase of 24.7%.
For 2013, the Zacks Consensus Estimate rose 0.6% to $3.21 over the same time frame.
Valuation Looks Attractive
HCC Insurance Holdings currently trades at a forward P/E of 10.9x, a 12.1% discount to the peer group average of 12.4x. On a price-to-book basis, shares are trading at 1.08x, compared to the peer group average of 1.02x.
HCC Insurance Holdings has a trailing 12-month return on equity (ROE) of 9.8%, substantially higher than the peer group average of 6.9%.
Market Performance & Technicals
HCC Insurance Holdings has been trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages following the announcements of an increased dividend and the share repurchase authorization.
Shares have also gained 16.6% since reporting second quarter results.
Volume is fairly strong, averaging roughly 411,986 daily. The year-to-date return for the stock came in at 28.9%, way ahead of the S&P 500?s return of 13.9%.
Headquartered in Houston, Texas and founded in 1974, HCC Insurance Holdings underwrites non-correlated specialty insurance products, including property and casualty, accident and health, surety and credit product lines. With offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland, it has a market capitalization of $3.54 billion and competes with ACE Limited (ACE - Analyst Report), The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV - Analyst Report) and W.R. Berkley Corporation (WRB - Analyst Report), among others.
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VATICAN CITY ? Some 80,000 pilgrims in flowered lei, feathered headdresses and other traditional garb flooded St. Peter's Square on Sunday as Pope Benedict XVI added seven more saints onto the roster of Catholic role models in a bid to reinvigorate the faith in parts of the world where it's lagging.
American Indians wait for the start of a canonization ceremony celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican on Sunday. The pontiff canonized seven people, Kateri Tekakwitha, the first American Indian saint, Maria del Carmen, Pedro Calungsod, Jacques Berthieu, Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Mother Marianne Cope, and Anna Shaeffer.AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Two of the new saints were Americans: Kateri Tekakwitha, the first American Indian saint, and Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii.
It seemed as if a third saint, Pedro Calungsod, a 17th century Filipino teenage martyr, drew the biggest crowd of all, with Rome's sizeable Filipino expat community turning out in flag-waving droves to welcome the country's second saint.
In his homily, Benedict praised each of the seven as heroic and courageous examples for the entire church, calling Cope a "shining" model for Catholics and Kateri an inspiration to indigenous faithful across North America.
"May the witness of these new saints ... speak today to the whole church, and may their intercession strengthen and sustain her in her mission to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world," he said.
The celebrations began at dawn, with American Indians in beaded and feathered headdresses and leather-fringed tunics singing songs to Kateri to the beat of drums as the sun rose over St. Peter's Square.
Later, the crowds cheered as the pope read out the names of each of the new saints in Latin and declared that they were worthy of veneration by the entire church. Prayers were read out in Mohawk and Cebuano, the dialect of Calungsod's native Cebu province, and in English by a nun wearing a lei.
"It's so nice to see God showing all the flavors of the world," marveled Gene Caldwell, a Native American member of the Menominee reservation in Neopit, Wisconsin, who attended with his wife, Linda. "The Native Americans are enthralled" to have Kateri canonized, he said.
The canonization coincided with a Vatican meeting of the world's bishops on trying to revive Christianity in places where it's fallen by the wayside.
Several of the new saints were missionaries, making clear the pope hopes their example ? even though they lived hundreds of years ago ? will be relevant today as the Catholic Church tries to hold on to its faithful. It's a tough task as the Vatican faces competition from evangelical churches in Africa and Latin America, increasing secularization in the West and disenchantment due to the clerical sex abuse scandal in Europe and beyond.
The two American saints actually hail from roughly the same place ? what is today upstate New York ? although they lived two centuries apart.
Known as the "Lily of the Mohawks," Kateri was born in 1656 to a pagan Iroquois father and an Algonquin Christian mother. Her parents and only brother died when she was 4 during a smallpox epidemic that left her badly scarred and with impaired eyesight. She went to live with her uncle, a Mohawk, and was baptized Catholic by Jesuit missionaries. But she was ostracized and persecuted by other natives for her faith, and she died in what is now Canada when she was 24.
Speaking in English and French, in honor of Kateri's Canadian ties, Benedict noted how unusual it was in Kateri's indigenous culture for her to choose to devote herself to her Catholic faith.
"May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are," Benedict said. "Saint Kateri, protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint, we entrust you to the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America!"
Among the few people chosen to receive Communion from the pope himself was Jake Finkbonner, a 12-year-old boy of Native American descent from the western U.S. state of Washington, whose recovery from an infection of flesh-eating bacteria was deemed "miraculous" by the Vatican. The Vatican determined that Jake was cured through Kateri's intercession after his family and community invoked her in their prayers, paving the way for her canonization.
Cope is revered among many Catholics in Hawaii, where she arrived from New York in 1883 to care for leprosy patients on Kalaupapa, an isolated peninsula on Molokai Island where Hawaii governments forcibly exiled them for decades. At the time, there was widespread fear of the disfiguring disease, which can cause skin lesions, mangled fingers and toes and lead to blindness.
Cope, however, led a band of Franciscan nuns to the peninsula to care for the patients, just as Saint Damien, a Belgian priest, did in 1873. He died of the disease 16 years later and was canonized in 2009.
"At a time when little could be done for those suffering from this terrible disease, Marianne Cope showed the highest love, courage and enthusiasm," Benedict said in his homily. "She is a shining and energetic example of the best of the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved St. Francis."
Two-hundred fifty pilgrims from Hawaii traveled to Rome for Mother Marianne's canonization, including nine Kalaupapa patients, as well as faithful from the local diocese.
"Marianne Cope means a great deal to us," said pilgrim Aida Javier, who traveled from Honolulu with her husband Romy for the Mass. "My husband and I feel blessed and honored to be part of this canonization."
Another pilgrim was Sharon Smith, of Syracuse, New York, whose 2005 cure from complications from pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, was declared medically inexplicable by the Vatican ? the "miracle" needed for Mother Marianne to be named a saint. In an interview last week, Smith recounted how she had fainted one day in her home, an allergic reaction to medication she was taking for a kidney transplant, and awoke in the hospital to find that doctors weren't giving her much time to live.
Her disease was eating away at her insides, causing her stomach to detach from her intestines. Doctors said they couldn't repair it. At a certain point, a nun pinned a bag of ashes and dirt from Mother Marianne's grave on her and prayed.
"I had never heard of her, but we continued to pray," Smith said. "And I just, I started getting better."
"I believe in miracles, but I don't know whether it was all the prayers, or the pinning of the relic, but I know that something worked, and I'm here for some reason," Smith said.
The Vatican's complicated saint-making procedure requires that the Vatican certify a "miracle" was performed through the intercession of the candidate ? a medically inexplicable cure that can be directly linked to the prayers offered by the faithful. One miracle is needed for beatification, a second for canonization.
The Philippines' second saint, Calungsod, was a Filipino teenager who helped Jesuit priests convert natives in Guam in the 17th century but was killed by spear-wielding villagers opposed to the missionaries' efforts to baptize their children.
"We are especially proud because he is so young," said Marianna Dieza, a 39-year-old housekeeper working in Rome who was on hand for the Mass.
The other new saints are: Jacques Berthieu, a 19th century French Jesuit who was killed by rebels in Madagascar, where he had worked as a missionary; Giovanni Battista Piamarta, an Italian who founded a religious order in 1900 and established a Catholic printing and publishing house in his native Brescia; Carmen Salles y Barangueras, a Spanish nun who founded a religious order to educate children in 1892; and Anna Schaeffer, a 19th century German lay woman who became a model for the sick and suffering after she fell into a boiler and badly burned her legs. The wounds never healed, causing her constant pain.
ST. LOUIS ? The Green Bay Packers were on their way to the team hotel the day before the game when the cheesehead factor popped up again.
Coach Mike McCarthy joked it felt like walking down a street close to Lambeau Field. During warmups on Sunday, fans began roaring "Go, Pack, Go!" And Green Bay's traveling wall of sound never let up during a 30-20 victory over St. Louis that was the Rams' first home loss of the year.
"This is one of the shorter trips for some of our fans, which is still a jaunt," said Aaron Rodgers, who passed for three touchdowns in another record-setting performance. "I think it's probably eight hours if you're busting the speed limit a little bit.
"The chants are incredible and the boos that we had on one of those calls from our fans was incredible. It was louder than the cheers for the Rams."
The Rams definitely noticed. They've had this type of atmosphere several times the last several years with the franchise near the bottom of the NFL.
"I kind of expected that they'd be well-represented here," defensive end Chris Long said. "We just never got a chance to quiet them down."
Rodgers threw for 342 yards in Green Bay's second consecutive turnover-free game, and the Packers' depleted defense clamped down on Sam Bradford and the Rams. Rodgers was sacked three times in the first half, but got the ball out a lot quicker the rest of the way.
Rodgers has 150 career TD passes and 42 interceptions, breaking Dan Marino's NFL record for fewest interceptions at that milestone. Marino had 69 interceptions when he threw his 150th TD pass.
"I think their plan was to dink and dunk and catch us off guard," Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan said. "They made the plays when they needed to."
Randall Cobb caught two touchdown passes and Jordy Nelson had eight receptions for a season-best 122 yards and a TD for the Packers (4-3). Rookie Casey Hayward made his first start in place of injured Sam Shields and intercepted his fourth pass in three games.
Green Bay ended the Texans' unbeaten start at Houston last week, but had alternated losses and wins the first six weeks.
Rodgers was 30 for 37, setting a single-game franchise completion record of 81.1 percent with a minimum of 35 attempts. He has guided the Packers to touchdowns on 12 of 14 trips inside the 20 over the last four games.
After his fourth 300-yard game this season, Rodgers trotted off the field to a huge ovation. The Packers, a 15-1 team last season, are finally above .500 for the first time.
"Winning is fun," Nelson said. "That's why we play games. It's great to win back-to-back games, it sounds great to say that for the first time this year, but we've got to stack success."
Steven Jackson ran for his first touchdown of the year, and just the Rams' 10th overall, to trim the deficit to a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. But Rodgers made a terrific throw to Cobb for a 39-yard pass that put the Packers up by two scores with 3:06 remaining.
The Rams (3-4) will surrender home-field advantage next week when they travel to London to play the Patriots. The team flies out Monday night.
Chris Givens had a 56-yard reception for St. Louis on a screen pass in the fourth quarter, his fourth straight game with a 50-yard plus reception. Fellow rookie Greg Zuerlein kicked a 50-yard field goal.
Rodgers' numbers were almost as flashy as last week, when he tied the franchise record with six touchdowns and no interceptions. He was very efficient while leading an offense heavily tilted to the pass game that went 9 for 15 on third down.
The Rams were undefeated in the Edward Jones Dome. They opened the home schedule with victories over the Redskins, Seahawks and Cardinals, limiting opponents to 14.7 points per game.
Green Bay played without four defensive starters. Shields (shin, ankle), linebacker Nick Perry (knee) and tackle B.J. Raji (ankle) were inactive. Linebacker D.J. Smith was recently placed on injured reserve.
Bradford was 21 for 34 for 255 yards and an interception, and was sacked three times behind a patchwork line with just two starters left from the opener. Bradford threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Austin Pettis with 3 seconds to go.
After dominating in time of possession in the first half, holding the ball for more than 18 minutes, the Rams ran just seven plays in the third quarter and were held to minus-7 yards while the Packers had 129 yards and 11:39 in time of possession.
Nelson wrapped up his second straight 100-yard game early in the third quarter, often picking on rookie cornerback Janoris Jenkins. Cobb threw a nice fake on Jenkins in the end zone on a 5-yard catch that put the Packers up 17-6 midway through the third, capping a 12-play, 80-yard drive to open the half that lasted nearly seven minutes.
"We had one of our best drives of the season, for sure," Rodgers said. "It wasn't the prettiest drive, but we converted a lot of third downs.
"That was a very key drive for us and a good one to look back on as we watch the film tomorrow."
Rodgers completed his first nine passes for 115 yards, including a 52-yarder to Nelson that set up a 3-yarder for Nelson's fourth score in two games. The first incompletion came with just over six minutes left in the half when Rodgers slightly overthrew James Jones on a sideline pattern, with Jones able to get just his fingertips on the ball.
Nelson's long catch came on a free play, with Long whistled for an offsides penalty.
"It's an explosive gain and it really gets the energy heating up and going," Nelson said. "Whenever you get a free opportunity to take a shot you've got to make the most of it."
The Packers' Jamari Lattimore recovered an onside kick at the Rams 49 after St. Louis' Trumaine Johnson was flipped on his head when he was just about to haul in the ball, setting up a 47-yard field goal by Mason Crosby for a 10-3 lead late in the first.
Zuerlein ended a string of three misses, the last a 66-yarder that had the distance but was wide left at the end of last week's 17-14 loss at Miami, with a 50-yarder that gave the Rams the early lead. Zuerlein is 5 for 7 from 50-plus.
NOTES: Givens, a fourth-round pick who's been the Rams' best deep threat all year, averaged 24.3 yards on three receptions. ... Johnson left with a hip injury after the onside kick but returned for the third quarter. ... Packers backup DE Mike Neal and Rams backup DE Eugene Sims both left with knee injuries in the second quarter. Sims, who will undergo additional medical testing, was the only significant injury for the Rams. ... Packers DE Clay Matthews picked up his ninth sack in the third quarter when he chased down Bradford on a rollout.
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? Not only do many of us have the time and resources to travel more than we ever did before, but because we are active baby boomers, our purposes and destinations are different than they used to be. Which brings us to acclaimed professional nature photographer David Hemmings. He runs a company that makes it all possible. David says, it is today?s newest trend in adventure travel for baby boomers.
David Hemmings with a visitor.
In today?s world of travel and adventure, a lot of new trends have emerged that focus on more exciting, activity-based learning experiences ? as opposed to the typical beach or cottage vacation. These range from extreme activities like mountain climbing, kayaking some of the world?s ferocious rivers, and extreme cycling.
These are great for our younger generations but what about those of us who are over fifty and looking for something that is unique, active, and adventurous but not necessarily extreme, let alone dangerous?
Here?s one answer. Do you love to travel? Do you love to take pictures? Do you wish you could take better pictures and learn a myriad of new things about all kinds of photography inconnection with birds and nature? Do you wish you could combine all of thiswhile traveling to a dream destination with a small group of like-minded people?
There is a new way to do it these days and it is called the Photographic Learning & Travel Adventure. In the interest of space and time tapping my the keyboard, I will simply call this the ?PLTA.? It is a trend that is more and more popular these days in the world of travel. I have given it this name because I grew tired of the more typical ?workshop? titles and what that label implies. These are definitely not any kind of work!
PLTA trips are relaxed but productive and fun. They offer participants a way to travel to exciting andexotic destinations and provide a complete pre-planned itinerary of some of the world?s most beautiful places, to see and photograph all sorts of beautiful birds, animals, flowers, insects, reptiles, landscapes, and anything else that might strike your fancy.
What does this do for you as compared to just winging it and going on your own? Well, for starters, it means that as soon as you get to where you are going, you will be whisked away tostart your photographic adventure with an experienced tour leader and photographic instructor. You will go directly to the spots where you will be shown where and how to photograph any number of subjects, usually depending on the type of PLTA you have chosen. This takes all of the guesswork and trial-and-error out of trying to do it on your own.
A typical PLTA can be anywhere from just a few days to as long as two-to-three weeks in length. And there are other benefits from a PLTA. Things like not having to travel alone, being with a group of like-minded people with the same goals and interests, and making new friends. Another selling point is that a PTLA will afford you the time you need to properly photograph your subjects. Often on some organized tours, if they are not geared around photography, you find yourself rushed along from place to place and can only shake your head at all the photo opportunities you left behind.
Many of these trips include food and accommodations in the price, depending on the destination and the trip itself. There will always be time to sit around in the mid-afternoon or evening to relax and discuss the day?s events. I have been on and run many of these PTLAs and can tell you firsthand that the participants always have a great time and come home with newfound friends, treasured photographs, and knowledge that will last a lifetime.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Heading into the campaign's final weeks, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is upping his criticism of President Barack Obama's plans for a second term, accusing the Democrat of failing to tell Americans what he would do with four more years. The Obama campaign is aggressively disputing the notion, claiming it's Romney who hasn't provided specific details to voters.
At campaign events, in a new ad and fundraising appeal out Saturday, Romney is setting up the closing weeks as a choice between what he says is a "small" campaign that's offering little new policy and his own ambitious plan to fundamentally change America's tax code and entitlement programs.
The new Romney ad criticizes the president's policies on debt, health care, taxes, energy and Medicare, arguing that Obama is simply offering more of the same. The campaign did not say where the spot would air. The fundraising appeal hits Obama for raising taxes and increasing the debt by $5.5 trillion, repeating the lack-of-agenda criticism.
"Although President Obama won't lay out his plan for a second term, we already know what it will be ? a repeat of the last four years. We can't afford four more years of crushing debt and wasteful spending," Romney says in the letter, adding he has a clear plan to put America on a path to prosperity.
Both Obama and Romney retreated from the campaign trail Saturday to bone up on foreign policy, leaving the work of courting voters to their running mates.
Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan on Saturday continued the no-agenda theme against Obama at campaign stops near Pittsburgh and in Belmont, Ohio.
"He's not even telling you what he plans on doing," Ryan told a rain-soaked crowd of about 1,100 people at a campground in coal-rich eastern Ohio.
Obama's campaign disputes the notion that the president hasn't outlined a detailed second-term agenda, pointing to his calls for immigration reform, ending tax breaks for upper income earners, fully implementing his health care overhaul and ending the war in Afghanistan.
In a statement sent after Romney's Friday night event, Obama campaign spokesman Danny Kanner ticked through a series of policy items, calling them "just part of President Obama's agenda for a second term."
Obama, at the Democratic National Convention, called for creating 1 million manufacturing jobs over the next four years with a mix of corporate tax rate cuts and innovation and training programs. He has set a goal of cutting the growth of college tuition in half over the next 10 years. He also has called for Congress to pass proposals he made last year that include includes tax credits for companies that hire new workers and funding for local municipalities to hire more teachers, police officers and firefighters.
As for why Republicans would back the same proposals they have already voted against, Obama has told supporters he expects his re-election would "break the fever" on Capitol Hill that led to gridlock during his first term.
Vice President Joe Biden made a diagnosis of his own on Saturday, saying Ryan had caught "Romnesia," the word Obama used the day before to describe what he calls Romney's changing polices.
"That man is contagious," Biden said of Romney, to loud cheers at a campaign stop in St. Augustine, Fla. "Congressman Ryan caught it as well."
He said the Wisconsin Congressman is now giving a new explanation for cuts in the budget he oversaw and passed in the House.
The president's aides are particularly irked by the questions about Obama's second-term agenda, because they say it's Romney who has failed to provide voters with details. They point to his refusal to provide specifics about his tax plan or outline what he would replace the president's health care overhaul with if he makes good on his promise to repeal the federal law.
An independent group backing Obama, though, is trying to renew attention on Romney's tenure at the helm of the private equity firm Bain Capital. The group, Priorities USA Action, is re-airing an ad about an AMPAD plant in Marion, Ind. That spot features former employee Mike Earnest recalling being told to build a stage from which officials of the office supply company later announced mass layoffs.
He says, "It was like building my own coffin." That ad first aired in battleground states in the summer.
Romney aides have said AMPAD was a struggling business to begin with, and Bain overall created many more jobs than were lost.
That ad will air in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin. The new campaign will be in addition to a $30 million effort against Romney policy proposals, the group said.
Monday's debate in Boca Raton, Fla., with its focus on international affairs, is the third and final between the two rivals and comes just 15 days before the election.
Obama left Friday for Camp David, the presidential hideaway in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, where he is huddled with advisers preparing for the debate. Among those with him are White House senior adviser David Plouffe and senior campaign strategist David Axelrod. Aides say Obama was also being assisted by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and former Obama aide Karen Dunn.
Romney was also with aides preparing for the debate, spending the weekend in Florida.
Both campaigns are heavily targeting Florida and its 29 electoral votes ? the most of any tossup state. It was the second day of a two-day Florida swing for Biden, which overlapped a two-day swing by Ryan. Romney's wife, Ann, was also in Florida Saturday and First Lady Michelle Obama planned a visit Monday, ahead of the presidential debate that night in Boca Raton. The president is planning at least two days of campaigning in Florida after the debate.
Monday's 90-minute debate will be moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS News and the candidates will be seated at a table. Schieffer has listed five subject areas, with more time devoted to the Middle East and terrorism than any other topic.
While the economy has been the dominant theme of the election, foreign policy has attracted renewed media attention in the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Obama had ranked well with the public on his handling of international issues and in fighting terrorism, especially following the death of Osama bin Laden. But the administration's response to the Libya attack and questions over levels of security at the consulate have given Romney and his Republican allies an issue with which to raise doubts about Obama's foreign policy leadership.
Romney has spent large amounts of time off the campaign trail to prepare for the upcoming foreign policy debate. Aides say the additional time preparing is well-spent even if it comes at the expense of public events.
___
Kuhnhenn reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Ken Thomas in Washington and Ann Sanner in Belmont, Ohio, contributed to this report.
An Urban Fantasy RP set in Washington DC in the year 2013. This RP follows a group of Supernatural beings an Humans who protect the Country from evil.
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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup. I believe it might be obvious what I want to reserve. *Looks at username* >.>
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According to Reuters, the U.S. Stock Market will be closed on Monday due to interference that will be caused by the logistical nightmare that comes along with such a huge weather event like Hurricane Sandy. Parts of New York City have already been evacuated. As early as six hours ago, it was said that the NYSE would not be closing down, but that decision has apparently been reversed as the severity of the storm has picked up.
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Public release date: 24-Oct-2012
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Prepaid card company 
