What's missing from pro-gay marriage TV ads? Gays - KansasCity.com

MINNEAPOLIS -- In one TV ad, a husband and wife talk fondly of a lesbian couple who moved into their neighborhood. In another, a married couple speaks of wanting fair treatment for their lesbian daughter. A third features a pastor talking supportively about gay unions.

Each of these ads ran recently in states with gay marriage issues on the November ballot. What's missing? Gay people speaking for themselves.Four states are voting on gay marriage this fall, and gay rights groups are pouring tens of millions of dollars into key TV markets in hopes of breaking a 32-state losing streak on the issue. But even as gay people and same-sex relationships gain acceptance through pop culture staples such as "Modern Family" and "Glee," the idea is still seen as dicey by media strategists involved in the ballot campaigns, resulting in ads that usually involve only straight people talking about the issue.The decision to keep gays in the background has been widely noticed in the gay community and debated on gay-oriented blogs, with some activists complaining that the move contradicts the central message of the gay rights movement for a number of years."If we don't show ourselves, people aren't going to get comfortable with who we are," said Wayne Besen, director of Vermont-based gay rights group "Truth Wins Out," one of many that presses gays to live openly with pride in who they are.But others counsel deference for the complexities of public messaging, pointing out that the ads are designed to speak to the fears and values of the heterosexual majority, whose vote will decide the issue."The moderate tough guys we need to flip to win a couple of these races are still the ones who say that gays are gross," said Andy Szekeres, a Denver-based fundraising consultant who has worked on several state campaigns and had access to focus group data. "Pushing people to an uncomfortable place, it's something you can't do in a TV ad," said Szekeres, who is gay.The definition of marriage is on the ballot this fall in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. Beyond those, according to the Human Rights Campaign, 37 states prohibit gay marriage while six and the District of Columbia permit it. Gay activists and their allies are hoping that any wins in November would throw new momentum their way at a time when polls nationwide have shown growing acceptance for gay marriage.Six of the seven ads broadcast in the contested states this year have featured only straight people talking about the issue. One ad, which played only in Maine, included a firefighter who talked of being accepted by his colleagues. The ads, along with most that ran in the 2008 campaign in California and in other past statewide races, rely on heterosexual family members and friends of gays talking about how the inability to marry has deprived their loved ones of rights and opportunities they should have.Gay marriage opponents, who also have well-funded campaigns in the four states, plan to begin airing ads soon. In recent interviews, an organizer said the key message is aimed at parents, suggesting legal recognition could result in their kids being told in school and in society that it's OK to be gay.Gay activists who have worked on the marketing campaigns say that in this battle for public opinion, it's better for gays to stay in the background."The simple truth is that we are trying to win over the people that are not yet with us," said Matt McTighe, campaign manager of Mainers United for Marriage, which is pushing the ballot measure to legalize gay marriage in that state. "I'm a gay man, and the general rule of thumb for me is that an ad that meets my emotional needs is not necessarily the thing that's going to change a typical voter's mind about gay or lesbian people."A May 2011 poll by the Pew Research Center found growing acceptance of gay people on a number of fronts, but still plenty of doubts. Fifty-eight percent of poll respondents said gays should be accepted in society compared to 33 percent who said they shouldn't. More people thought gays raising children was bad for society rather than good, though the largest number of respondents were neutral on the question. The same poll found 45 percent support for gay marriage rights, up from 35 percent just two years earlier.The first ad broadcast by Minnesotans United for All Families, which is trying to defeat the state's proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage, is aimed at parents. It features Kim and John Canny - two straight Catholics, Republicans and parents of three daughters from a Minneapolis suburb who discuss coming around to support gay marriage after a lesbian couple with an adopted son moved into their neighborhood.The lesbian couple is briefly glimpsed in the ad, but not heard from.Alexander Zachary, a gay man from Minneapolis, complained that the ads he's seen reflect an "antiquated mindset.""This isn't San Francisco in 1973, where all the gay people live in one neighborhood and all the straight people live everywhere else," he said. "We're not this hidden culture anymore, so why act like it?"Richard Carlbom, manager of the Minnesota campaign, declined to say if future Minnesota United ads would feature gay people. Upcoming ads will "articulate why gay people want to get married," he said.Many straight people "are on a journey on this issue, and the most effective way to encourage them is to show them other people who have taken the same journey," and come to accept gay marriage, Carlbom said.Bil Browning, a Washington, D.C., gay activist and writer, recently called a straights-only ad that ran in Washington state "a heterosexual snoozefest" on his blog. He pointed out that gay activists seem to be using the strategy even though they've yet to win a campaign. In the 32 states where the issue has been on a statewide ballot, gay marriage advocates have lost every time."Maybe it's time to reevaluate these strategies and include our families, actual LGBT people," Browning said. "We're never going to win if we can't show our faces. It looks like we have something to hide, and we don't."

Associated Press reporter Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Wash., contributed to this report. Follow Patrick Condon on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pcondonap

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/26/3835081/whats-missing-from-pro-gay-marriage.html

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PFT: Tate insists he caught ball

AP

What a Monday night. What a controversial ending.

On the final play of a back-and-forth Monday Night Football game, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson chucked a Hail Mary into the end zone, where Seahawks receiver Golden Tate and Packers defensive back M.D. Jennings both leapt into the air and grabbed for it, then tumbled on the ground together, both with their hands on the ball. The officials ruled that it was simultaneous possession, which goes to the offense. Therefore, according to the officials, it was a Seahawks game-winning touchdown with no time left.

But should it have been a touchdown? Or should it have been an interception? Jennings appeared to have a firm grasp on the ball, while Tate just had an arm on the ball ? which would make it a Packers interception, and a Packers win. But the officials standing in the end zone said Tate had the ball, too, and the referee confirmed that call after a replay review. Touchdown, Seattle, on the final play of the game.

But was it the final play of the game? Or would the Seahawks have to try an extra point after that touchdown? Both teams and the officials left the field after the touchdown, and it appeared that the final score would be Seahawks 13, Packers 12. But after a long delay the officials finally told both teams that they had to come back on the field for the Seahawks to attempt an extra point. Seattle made it, and the final was 14-12.

Under the crazy circumstances of the final play it seemed like a lucky win for the Seahawks, but Wilson said after the game that there was nothing lucky about Tate?s catch.

?We practice that all the time and Golden Tate made a play,? Wilson said after the game.

The Seahawks had controlled the first half, sacking Aaron Rodgers eight times and forcing the Packers to punt on all five of their first-half possessions, but Green Bay took control in the second half. The Packers started the second half with a 13-play, 70-yard drive that resulted in a field goal, then had an 11-play, 66-yard drive that resulted in another field goal, then had a 16-play, 81-yard drive that resulted in the go-ahead touchdown. Rodgers was in complete control, and the offensive line was keeping him upright and opening holes for Cedric Benson.

But the Seahawks got the ball with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, trailing 12-7, and they still had a prayer. That?s all they needed. Wilson got Seattle close enough for that one final play, and he made the throw Seattle needed him to make on that one final play.

Even if you think the officials got the final play right (and Packers fans will insist that they didn?t, and Jennings intercepted the pass, not to mention the fact that Tate appeared to push off before jumping up for the ball), the replacement officials were every bit as bad as we?ve all come to expect. An absolutely horrible pass interference call on Packers cornerback Sam Shields late in the fourth quarter sticks out as the worst mistake in a game full of them. This was a crazy game ? a crazy amount of pressure on Rodgers in the first half, a crazy Green Bay comeback in the second half, a crazy Hail Mary on the last play, and crazy officiating. Let?s all go to bed and talk more about this one in the morning.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/25/golden-tate-i-know-i-had-the-ball/related

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BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: SEPT 25 - Business Insider

Mobile Insights?is the new daily newsletter from?BI Intelligence?that collects and delivers the top mobile strategy news. It is delivered first thing every morning exclusively to?BI Intelligence?subscribers.?Sign up here for a free trial of BI Intelligence today.

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Key Takeaways From GigaOm Mobilize 2012 (GigaOM)
Some of the more poignant thoughts from GigaOM's Mobilize conference exemplify a few key themes:

• Don?t count out HTML5 just yet
• The ?point of sale? is now everywhere
• Video is becoming a primary mobile activity
• Connected homes will only appeal if the solutions are simple and add value
• Developers need to consider the broadband for their software needs

The future is fast approaching as we?re watching improvements in mobile broadband networks, better software tools, smarter app discovery engines, and hardware cycles that are revving faster than ever.

How To Make Mobile And Social Work (BI Intelligence)
Skyrocketing social networking and mobile usage has led many to speculate on the key business model for mobile-social services. The most common answer is local commerce. But, checking in is not becoming a mainstream activity and local couponing experiments aren't working so well. Here's how it could work:

• What is social discovery?
• Contextual relevance
• Services and experiences, not goods
• Brand advertising
• Affiliate payouts

In a research report on Mobile and Social from BI Intelligence, we analyze how another potential solution, social discovery, could become the future for mobile social-apps. Access the full report here.

Getting Brilliant At The Mobile Marketing Basics (ClickZ)
Marketers are simply scared of the unknown. They think branching into mobile is going to come with a whole host of other complications that they don't need to deal with on desktop. That may be true, but there is also a whole host of opportunity as well. So start simple with the basics:

• A mobile-optimized website
• Mobile-optimized emails
• A mobile search presence
• A mobile ad "pilot" campaign

It's not a lot of additional effort to bring your mobile presence up to benchmark, and the pay-off for your brand could be huge.

Is The QR Code Market Worth It (eMarketer via Social Media Today)
QR codes are the major link between:

• Print Media
• Online Media, and
• Smartphones

eMarketer shows that the usage of QR Code is in a steady pace:

eMarketer

And nearly half of the respondents were strongly interested in discounts via scans:

eMarketer

That said, poorly aligned consumer-brand expectations for mobile barcode-linked content and inadequate user experiences are driving consumers away from mobile barcode use. So if you're using QR codes, you might be wasting your time.

Build A Mobile App That People Want (GigaOM)
It doesn't have to be so difficult. You don?t need to be some kind of infrastructure-loving genius to build a mobile app; and really, you shouldn?t have to be. That was the message from Kevin Lacker, the CTO and co-founder of Parse, who gave some tips on how to build engaging apps. First, to help drive adoption of your app, or at least distribution, he recommended integrating with Facebook. He also said that to keep users coming back, implementing some sort of push notification could make sense. If Parse or other platform plays like it are a success, then mobile development and supporting those apps could be as easy as setting up a Tumblr. Imagine what kind of world that would be.

You Know Who Gets Mobile? eBay Gets Mobile (All Things Digital)
While many other companies are fretting about how they will make money from mobile, roughly 16% of eBay?s revenue this year will be coming from mobile devices. The average transaction on eBay?s mobile apps runs between $30 and $45, in contrast to companies that sell 99-cent mobile games or virtual goods. On the high end, more than 9,000 cars are sold every week through the app, some of which are priced above $100,000. Most sales are coming from the iPhone out of all the smartphone apps, and a lot of transactions are also coming from the iPad and the mobile Web. Check out the infographic:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bii-mobile-insights-sept-252-2012-9

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A clock that will last forever: Proposal to build first space-time crystal

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) ? Imagine a clock that will keep perfect time forever, even after the heat-death of the universe. This is the "wow" factor behind a device known as a "space-time crystal," a four-dimensional crystal that has periodic structure in time as well as space. However, there are also practical and important scientific reasons for constructing a space-time crystal. With such a 4D crystal, scientists would have a new and more effective means by which to study how complex physical properties and behaviors emerge from the collective interactions of large numbers of individual particles, the so-called many-body problem of physics.

A space-time crystal could also be used to study phenomena in the quantum world, such as entanglement, in which an action on one particle impacts another particle even if the two particles are separated by vast distances.

A space-time crystal, however, has only existed as a concept in the minds of theoretical scientists with no serious idea as to how to actually build one -- until now. An international team of scientists led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has proposed the experimental design of a space-time crystal based on an electric-field ion trap and the Coulomb repulsion of particles that carry the same electrical charge.

"The electric field of the ion trap holds charged particles in place and Coulomb repulsion causes them to spontaneously form a spatial ring crystal," says Xiang Zhang, a faculty scientist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division who led this research. "Under the application of a weak static magnetic field, this ring-shaped ion crystal will begin a rotation that will never stop. The persistent rotation of trapped ions produces temporal order, leading to the formation of a space-time crystal at the lowest quantum energy state."

Because the space-time crystal is already at its lowest quantum energy state, its temporal order -- or timekeeping -- will theoretically persist even after the rest of our universe reaches entropy, thermodynamic equilibrium or "heat-death."

Zhang, who holds the Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, where he also directs the Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, is the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in Physical Review Letters (PRL). The paper is titled "Space-time crystals of trapped ions." Co-authoring this paper were Tongcang Li, Zhe-Xuan Gong, Zhang-Qi Yin, Haitao Quan, Xiaobo Yin, Peng Zhang and Luming Duan.

The concept of a crystal that has discrete order in time was proposed earlier this year by Frank Wilczek, the Nobel-prize winning physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While Wilczek mathematically proved that a time crystal can exist, how to physically realize such a time crystal was unclear. Zhang and his group, who have been working on issues with temporal order in a different system since September 2011, have come up with an experimental design to build a crystal that is discrete both in space and time -- a space-time crystal. Papers on both of these proposals appear in the same issue of PRL (September 24, 2012).

Traditional crystals are 3D solid structures made up of atoms or molecules bonded together in an orderly and repeating pattern. Common examples are ice, salt and snowflakes. Crystallization takes place when heat is removed from a molecular system until it reaches its lower energy state. At a certain point of lower energy, continuous spatial symmetry breaks down and the crystal assumes discrete symmetry, meaning that instead of the structure being the same in all directions, it is the same in only a few directions.

"Great progress has been made over the last few decades in exploring the exciting physics of low-dimensional crystalline materials such as two-dimensional graphene, one-dimensional nanotubes, and zero-dimensional buckyballs," says Tongcang Li, lead author of the PRL paper and a post-doc in Zhang's research group. "The idea of creating a crystal with dimensions higher than that of conventional 3D crystals is an important conceptual breakthrough in physics and it is very exciting for us to be the first to devise a way to realize a space-time crystal."

Just as a 3D crystal is configured at the lowest quantum energy state when continuous spatial symmetry is broken into discrete symmetry, so too is symmetry breaking expected to configure the temporal component of the space-time crystal. Under the scheme devised by Zhang and Li and their colleagues, a spatial ring of trapped ions in persistent rotation will periodically reproduce itself in time, forming a temporal analog of an ordinary spatial crystal. With a periodic structure in both space and time, the result is a space-time crystal.

"While a space-time crystal looks like a perpetual motion machine and may seem implausible at first glance," Li says, "keep in mind that a superconductor or even a normal metal ring can support persistent electron currents in its quantum ground state under the right conditions. Of course, electrons in a metal lack spatial order and therefore can't be used to make a space-time crystal."

Li is quick to point out that their proposed space-time crystal is not a perpetual motion machine because being at the lowest quantum energy state, there is no energy output. However, there are a great many scientific studies for which a space-time crystal would be invaluable.

"The space-time crystal would be a many-body system in and of itself," Li says. "As such, it could provide us with a new way to explore classic many-body questions physics question. For example, how does a space-time crystal emerge? How does time translation symmetry break? What are the quasi-particles in space-time crystals? What are the effects of defects on space-time crystals? Studying such questions will significantly advance our understanding of nature."

Peng Zhang, another co-author and member of Zhang's research group, notes that a space-time crystal might also be used to store and transfer quantum information across different rotational states in both space and time. Space-time crystals may also find analogues in other physical systems beyond trapped ions.

"These analogs could open doors to fundamentally new technologies and devices for variety of applications," he says.

Xiang Zhang believes that it might even be possible now to make a space-time crystal using their scheme and state of the art ion traps. He and his group are actively seeking collaborators with the proper ion-trapping facilities and expertise.

"The main challenge will be to cool an ion ring to its ground state," Xiang Zhang says. "This can be overcome in the near future with the development of ion trap technologies. As there has never been a space-time crystal before, most of its properties will be unknown and we will have to study them. Such studies should deepen our understandings of phase transitions and symmetry breaking."

This research was supported primarily by Miller Professorship and Ernest S. Kuh endowed Chair at UC Berkeley, and the National Science Foundations' Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Tongcang Li, Zhe-Xuan Gong, Zhang-Qi Yin, H. T. Quan, Xiaobo Yin, Peng Zhang, L.-M. Duan, and Xiang Zhang. Space-time crystals of trapped ions. Physical Review Letters, 2012 [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/Kb3Ps_R4bi4/120924144757.htm

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Getting Started with Twitter Ads for Small Business - Deondesigns.ca

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Are you among the one-third of small businesses in the U.S. using Twitter to promote your products and services? If so, you?re on the right track: Research from digital intelligence firm Compete shows Twitter followers are more than 60% more likely to visit your website and more than 50% more likely to make a purchase and recommend your company.

Many companies are content to allow Twitter accounts to grow organically, but some are looking to accelerate growth of their follower base and increase the reach of promotions. To that end, Twitter recently rolled out two new paid advertising options for small businesses, currently available via invitation: Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets.

According to Richard Alfonsi, VP of Global Online Sales at Twitter, ?Promoted Accounts are best for growing a loyal follower base, while Promoted Tweets are best for getting tweets in front of a larger audience to drive more clicks and engagement around a promotion, product launch or event.? Alfonsi notes that businesses of all types see success so far with these new products, from local businesses (such as bakeries, restaurants and photographers) to purely online businesses, such as online retailers and digital publications.

For both offerings, you can control how much you spend each day by setting a daily budget ? you bid how much you are willing to pay for a new follower or an engagement, and an auction determines the price you pay. There are no minimum monthly spend requirements and you can stop your advertising at any time. You also only pay for results, meaning you will only be charged when someone follows your Promoted Account or engages with your Promoted Tweets (an engagement with a Promoted Tweet can be a click, a retweet or a favorite).

When Should I Use Promoted Accounts?

If you?re primarily looking to build a relevant follower base, Promoted Accounts may be for you. Twitter will study your current followers to look for people with similar interests, and when they find a match, they?ll suggest your account in the user?s ?Who to Follow? section. Promoted Account campaigns can also be geo-targeted at the country and city level to reach users in specific locations.

Los Angeles-based photographer Drew Ressler used Promoted Tweets to accelerate his follower growth and find more people who would be interested in his photographs of electronic dance music DJs. He set a maximum budget of $7 per day and targeted Twitter users all over the world. Twitter automatically took care of the rest, identifying other Twitter users who were interested in the electronic music scene and who would be interested in Drew?s work. Drew gained over 1,300 new followers for @Rukes in just two months, at less than $0.30 per follower.

?I just set a budget, and I constantly get 17 to 20 new followers each day,? says Ressler.

When Should I Use Promoted Tweets?

Small businesses wanting to expand the reach of their message plus increase follower base should consider Promoted Tweets. Promoted Tweets are generated directly from your own tweets; Twitter will monitor your account for engagement and promote your best tweets to the top of a user?s feed.

?I?ve used Twitter ads for several months now, and they?ve helped me get to over 37,000 followers,? says nutrition blogger Tom Corson-Knowles. ?I tried both Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets, and I recommend promoting tweets hands down ? it?s had a much higher ROI for me. With Promoted Tweets, you can get targeted traffic to your website by paying per click, and then you get the added benefit of followers and tons of brand exposure on Twitter.?

Amelia Lerutte of luxury dog product company i Love Dogs, Inc. agrees.

?We started using Twitter ads earlier this year. Our initial strategy was to pay for both follows and retweets, but after a couple weeks, we only saw a slight increase in the growth rate for new followers. Since we?re a small business used to optimizing ads to suit our budget, we decided to stop using Promoted Accounts to pay for followers and instead focus on gaining retweets through Promoted Tweets,? says Lerutte.

According to Lerutte, the high volume of retweets the company has received has made the price point of Twitter ads well worth the investment.

?Through the use of Promoted Tweets, our company has a seen a positive increase in the number of natural followers and engagement with our brand on Twitter. We?ve even had our Promoted Tweets retweeted by celebrities. So even though we?re not paying for followers, Twitter ads have allowed us to become a big dog on Twitter, with more than 11,000 followers,? adds Lerutte.

How Should I Measure Results?

According to Alfonsi, the way clients measure results will vary by company and by each one?s business objective.

?Some businesses are trying to grow their community of advocates and measure success by the quality of engagement they?re seeing on Twitter, while others are trying to drive sales and store visits,? says Alfonsi.

Followers and clicks are beneficial, but you?ll see the most impact from your paid Twitter programs ?if you think about the ongoing conversation, not just the immediate payoff,? says Tom Burg, head of North American marketing at advertising technology company Criteo. Burg recommends small businesses think about Twitter ads as a way to create a ?funnel? for their business that eventually leads to a particular action, whether that?s a store visit, a coupon download or a purchase.

?Eventually it?s all about getting to a call to action,? adds Burg. ?With Twitter, you?re paying if someone clicks, but you should measure based on a cost-per-action model. Once they clicked, did they do the action you wanted them to, like download a whitepaper or a coupon??

To measure beyond followers and engagement, in addition to using Twitter?s results reporting, you can also use Google Analytics to see how much site traffic is coming from Twitter. You might also consider creating a special landing page where you can drive Twitter users, or develop Twitter-specific codes or coupons to track customers who find you through these funnels, writes Lisa Barone in Small Business Trends.

How Can I Get Started?

While these two offerings are currently available on an invitation-only basis, businesses can request access by filling out this form. Alfonsi says Twitter expects these products to eventually reach millions of small businesses, and the company will steadily increase the number of participants in the program in the coming months.

Just remember: Prior to kicking off your program, make sure your overall Twitter presence is robust.

?Before you spend money to promote your tweets or your Twitter account, you better be certain that there is something there worth following,? adds Barone. She recommends first creating a solid Twitter strategy and letting it run for a month or two to build up a history of quality tweets and engagement. This will not only help you to attract people but will also help Twitter match you with the right kind of users.

Also be prepared to make the most of each click: What offer or content awaits users on the other side? Make sure what you?re offering is compelling, so it?s worth paying to get people there.

Have you tried advertising on Twitter? Share your experience in the comments section.

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More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum

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Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/09/22/twitter-ads-small-business/

Source: http://www.deondesigns.ca/blog/getting-started-with-twitter-ads-for-small-business/

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Cats and Computers are Not a Good Mix! | Nerds On Site Blog ...

Flickr User dougwoods

Cat lovers will attest to the pleasure of having an affectionate kitty snuggling up to you while you answer an email, or post to face book. However, that cute little pussycat can be causing your computer all sorts of difficulties! Lost data or the loss of productivity due to computer problems makes cats and computers not a good mix.

A recent computer cleanup was urgently required largely due to pet hair. The householder had two different cats, as well as an elderly dog. The fan that cooled the computer was so blocked with cat hair it caused the fan to shut down and it resulted in a fried computer. A periodic cleaning behind the computer would have made a great deal of difference.

It is also not advisable to have the sweet bundle of fur walk across your keyboard. The hair that is shed, gets lodged in the keys, and can cause a variety of difficulties. If you use a mouse pad with a rolling ball, you may also find pet hair plugging it too. As well, cat urine is not a good lubricant for your computer, and it happens more often than you would like to think.

Having your LCD screen covered in scratches because your cat attacked the critters on the screen is frustrating. So try to keep your kitty away from the work area around your computer, for dust free, and cat hair free results.

There are software utilities that can be used to discourage cats from walking on your computer. When a cat-like typing pattern is detected, it emits a sound that is unpleasant to cats. One source quoted the number of cat owners that are backing up their data daily, as being at less than 10 percent; while the number of cat owners that should be backing up their data daily is 100 percent! Cats do have a way of ?pouncing? when we would rather they hadn?t. Set your computer to auto save frequently and don?t lose your data.

Another good practice is to not place a computer directly on a carpet. The fan will suck up the pet hair and lint which will require the cleaning of the fan area on a much more regular basis, or risk the overheating problem.
Keep the printer paper tray retracted as much as possible, to prevent accidental breakage.

You can keep your keyboard covered when you shut down, or you might store it by standing it upright. If you want to prevent a cat from chewing on cords, they can be sprayed with a commercial cat repellent, or a mixture of Tabasco and water, but be sure to unplug the cords before you apply the protective coating.

When you leave the room, remember to turn off the computer. This will allow it to cool down, and make it less appealing to your feline friends. Have a cover over the computer will keep stray hair and dust out too.

One last tip for when you clean the cat hair and dander off your monitor: do not spray a liquid directly onto your monitor. This can lead to liquid dripping down the screen and causing malfunctions. If you would like to use a damp cloth on your monitor, spray the liquid directly onto the cloth instead.

Many people are now deciding that cats and computers don?t mix, so despite your mutual enjoyment of sitting together, keeping the computer room door shut, might prove to be the best method for keeping your computer problem free.

This post is from Susan Brooks, a Nerd living in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. You can find her on twitter (@susanthenerd), or email her susan.brooks(at)nerdsonsite(dot)com.

Source: http://www.nerdsonsite.com/blog/2012/09/23/cats-and-computers-are-not-a-good-mix/

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Canada and Alaska Holidays and having a Family Adventure ...

Enjoy a guest post Jason?Deen of Canada and Alaska holidays.

For?those with families that are always on the go and love the outdoor lifestyle, an adventure holiday in either Canada or Alaska could be the ideal break for you. Adventure holidays offer excitement and fun. The whole family will enjoy being together.

The Mountain Exhaled, Victoria Glacier at Lake Louise Park, Alberta ? Photo by laszlo-photo (on Flickr)

Types of Adventure Holidays

There are many different?adventure holidays for families?available throughout?Canada and Alaska.?Alaska and?Canada holidays have a wide range of adventurous activities including white water rafting, bear spotting, visiting national parks, canoeing, horse riding, hiking and cycling. There are opportunities available to walk along glaciers in British Columbia or take a swim in the clear waters of a river or lake. With many rivers fed by the glacial waters, there is plenty of picturesque scenery with lakes, waterfalls and forests to be explored.

Adventure holidays can be designed to take into account the age of the children involved, so holidays aimed at younger children will have shorter hikes or biking routes than those aimed at teenagers. It is important when you are booking an adventure holiday to make sure you are with families with children of similar ages to yours so that the activities can be aimed at the ages of the children involved.

Places you will visit

Canada?and?Alaska holidays allow you to visit some of the many national parks spread throughout the countries. Whilst on a family adventure holiday the main parks and scenic places you will visit could include Wells Grey Provincial Park, Jasper National Park,?Icefields?Parkway, Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Paul Lake Provincial Park. These parks have stunning scenery, mountains, snow covered glaciers and ample opportunity to experience the outdoors. The national parks are home to many different species of animals and birds and can be a wildlife lover?s paradise. With a diverse and protected landscape the different national parks can make you feel like you are in a completely different country even when you are only an hour away from the last stop.

Fresh Snow, Log House, Anchorage, Alaska ? Photo by Wonderlane (on Flickr)

Where you will be staying

Whilst?on your adventure holiday you may stay in many different types of accommodation. You could be camping out under the stars or staying in an authentic Canadian log cabin. Whilst in your arrival city you will stay in a hotel before transferring to your adventure holiday location. If you wish to book a few extra days at the beginning or end of your holiday to stay in your arrival or departure city, this is a good way of getting used to the environment before setting off on your adventure or relaxing once you have finished your adventure.

Taking a family holiday where you face the challenges of adventurous pursuits can bring your family closer together. Whilst holidaying in the outdoors you can spend nights relaxing around the campfire discussing the adventures of the day. Challenging your children to take on the activities on offer will give them confidence to succeed when they return home from holiday.

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AUTHOR BIO ? Jason?Deen?writes regularly on?Canada and Alaska holidays?for a range of holiday websites and blogs. Having teenage children of his own, Jason has been on many different adventure holidays for families with his own family throughout their childhood.

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Source: http://www.thedepartureboard.com/canada-and-alaska-holidays-and-having-a-family-adventure

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