Children are becoming multi-talented these days and they are leaving no stone unturned to achieve and excel in whatever fields that is available to them. Do you see your kid drawing out indecipherable pictures of whatever it sees? Are you looking at shops or places where you can pick quality kids art supplies that will help mold the budding artist? You need to look for the right kind of easels and painting brushes that form a primary part of your child’s art supplies and you need to take special care to look at the height of the easels as this will be a contributing factor deciding the quality of the art form. There are a lot of places where these quality kids art supplies are found and these can purchased at good rates even over the internet. While parents purchase art supplies like easels, care has to be taken to ensure that they purchase the ones best suited to their children’s requirements. These art supplies should augment and enhance the skills of the little ones and prove to be handy for these budding artists to bring to limelight the talents that God has blessed them with and the same that their parents have passionately allowed them to pursue.
Archive for November, 2008
Molding the artist in your child
Thursday, November 27th, 2008Best Place to start IT Training Online
Thursday, November 27th, 2008K Alliance is amongst the top front-runners who have revolutionized the concept of elearning and new technology learning across globe. It has designed new modules and learning methodologies that have made the learning to happen in any type of environment. The streamlined K Alliance training modules have the best modalities to work and with smart integration of innovative Learning Management System (LMS) tools, it has provided the right impetus to fasten the entire process of elearning in corporate, elementary learning and higher education institutions.
K Alliance as the name suggests, ahs brought alliance of modern technology with the traditional learning systems. It is the result of easy to use and comprehensive K Alliance training methodologies, that variable learning formats were designed to multiply the effects of this new form of learning, almost instantaneously. Each of the course modules is ideally designed keeping in view the ultimate goal and the aim of the learner. This ensures that learning gets specific and effective and the learner yields maximum benefit from it.
K Alliance has offered flexibility in variety of elearning modules, and has made learning quite an easy task for everybody. What’s more, you don’t even need to carry your books with you. It is the paperless learning world out there, and everybody has the opportunity to learn in interesting ways, Isn’t it!
Learn the Easy Way Around
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Can you actually believe that you can now learn only through the computer training videos? Yes, that is right. These videos were equipped to bring to you the necessary details that you have to learn and you have to have in mind so you will know the things that will be necessary for you to learn. In doing so, the computer training will lead you to almost everything that you will be in need and it will supply you with whatever it is that you want to gain from it. In this manner, it also made it possible for every one of us to benefit from it since we are pretty much learning in the best possible way that we can and to put it a twist, in an easier way than that of going to a personal training class where you will end up spending much on the various expenditures. In this way, you will be able to save much and you will really have a practical decision if you will go through with this. You just have to be committed to it so you will not end up wasting the opportunity of learning it the easy way around.
TiVo reports profit in fiscal 3Q
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008TiVo Inc. recorded a profit for its latest quarter because of a $105 million settlement it received in a patent suit, but revenue declined, the maker of digital video recorders said Tuesday.
Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo earned $100.6 million, or 98 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter, which ended Oct. 31. That compares with a loss of $8.2 million, or 8 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a loss of 6 cents per share, but generally exclude items like payouts from lawsuits. TiVo received the $105 million in October from Dish Network Corp., which it had sued in 2004, alleging that Dish’s video recorders violated a patent.
TiVo’s revenue declined almost 15 percent to $64.5 million in the quarter. Subscription and technology revenue, excluding hardware sales, fell 11 percent to $51.7 million.
Analysts were expecting $50.7 million in service and technology revenue.
TiVo had 3.5 million total subscriptions as of the end of October, a decline from the 3.6 million it reported in the second quarter and the 4.1 million it had in the third quarter of last year.
In a phone interview, TiVo Chief Executive Tom Rogers said the drop in subscribers was “consistent with trends we’ve seen for a while.”
He said the decline is related to satellite television company DirecTV Group Inc., which has been pushing its customers toward its own digital video recorder box that is compatible with its high-definition cable signals.
However, TiVo said during the quarter that it would roll out a new high-definition video recorder through an extended deal with DirecTV. TiVo has other distribution deals with cable companies Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc.
TiVo said Tuesday that it is still working with retailers and consumer electronics makers to bundle digital video recorders with sales of high-definition TV sets.
Rogers also said that the company’s sales of stand-alone TiVo boxes were “holding up pretty decently” until the second half of the quarter.
“We’re not quite sure, nor is anybody, how this holiday season is going to play out,” he said.
Looking ahead, TiVo predicted fourth-quarter service and technology revenue of $47 million to $49 million and a loss of $10 million to $12 million.
Analysts had been looking for $55.5 million in service and technology revenue.
TiVo shares rose 12 cents in after-hours trading, after finishing regular trading down 22 cents, or 4.7 percent, at $4.43
Genes that raise heart risks amplified in diabetics
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Genes that increase the risk of heart disease in the general population carry an even greater risk of heart trouble in diabetics, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The findings may help better identify which diabetics are at risk for heart disease and could lead to new treatments, they said.
“Coronary artery disease is one of the leading causes of death in this country and diabetes is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease,” Dr. Alessandro Doria of Harvard Medical School in Boston, whose study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said in a statement.
“But not everybody with diabetes is at the same risk.”
In the general population, people who have a common genetic flaw in a gene on chromosome 9p21 are at higher risk of developing coronary artery disease, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Doria’s team studied whether this heart disease-causing gene might play a role in type 2 diabetes, a disease marked by high levels of glucose in the blood. In particular, they looked for a link in people with poor control of their blood sugar.
In one study, researchers looked at 734 people with type 2 diabetes between 2001 and 2006, 322 with coronary artery disease and 412 without. In another, they looked at 475 people with type 2 diabetes who were followed between 1993 and 2004.
Both groups were tested for the 9p21 gene variation and had their blood sugar control checked through a measurement known as hemoglobin A1c.
The researchers found that people who had two copies of this gene variation but normal blood sugar had twice the risk of developing coronary artery disease, compared with people who did not carry the genetic variation.
The finding was stronger for diabetics who struggled to keep their blood sugar at normal levels. People in this group who also had two copies of this gene variant had a four times higher risk of developing coronary artery disease.
“Further studies are necessary, but the two factors — poor glycemic control and genetic variant on chromosome 9 — appear to enhance each other,” Doria said.
He said while good glucose control is important for all diabetics, testing for this genetic predisposition may help doctors find patients who are at greatest risk for heart problems and in need of aggressive treatment.
Type 2 diabetes is the form closely linked to obesity and it is becoming increasingly common worldwide.
HP backs guidance but Wall Street wary
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Even in troubled times, Hewlett-Packard Co. has managed to stack up some impressive gains.
Laptop sales soared 21 percent to $6.3 billion in the latest quarter, despite warnings of a sharp slowdown in PC sales growth industrywide, slashed guidance from major suppliers like Intel Corp. and signs of momentum from competitor Dell Inc.
HP’s total revenue rose 19 percent to $33.6 billion, helped by the mega-acquisition of Electronic Data Systems Corp., which added $3.9 billion in sales. Services revenue grew 10 percent even without the boost from EDS.
The better-than-expected results show how a diversity of business lines helps Palo Alto-based HP absorb weakness in specific parts of its business. Wall Street, however, remains wary of the company’s prospects in a rocky economy. Some investors fear the damage to HP could be worse off than management expects in the coming year if the financial crisis worsens and HP’s customers clamp down harder on spending.
HP shares fell 35 cents to $35.35 in after-hours trading Monday after it reported its full results for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in October. The stock had closed up $1.06, or 3.1 percent, at $35.70 during the regular trading session.
HP showed signs of weakness in some of its biggest divisions.
Profit slipped 2 percent to $2.11 billion, or 84 cents per share, compared with $2.16 billion, or 81 cents per share, in the year-ago period. The per-share figure was higher in the latest period because there were fewer shares outstanding. HP bought back 45 million shares in the fourth quarter.
Revenue in two server categories declined and printer sales were off. Ink sales, a big reason the printer division contributes half of HP’s entire operating profit, were a bright spot. Supplies revenue, including ink, rose 9 percent.
HP’s Chief Executive Mark Hurd, who has won over Wall Street by aggressively slashing HP’s expenses, said the economy is getting “tougher and less predictable.” He vowed that HP would emerge stronger because of the company’s extensive and ongoing cost-cutting moves.
HP repeated its earlier forecast for the current fiscal year, which includes a warning that further strengthening of the dollar is expected to hurt sales. Deals done in other currencies translate into fewer greenbacks when those currencies fall in value compared to the dollar.
In the fiscal first quarter, HP expects profit of 93 cents per share to 95 cents per share, excluding one-time charges, on sales of $32 billion to $32.5 billion. For the full 2009 fiscal year, HP expects profit of $3.88 per share to $4.03 per share, excluding items. Sales are projected to be $127.5 billion to $130 billion.
Severe cost-cutting will help HP hit those targets.
HP is cutting 24,600 jobs, nearly 8 percent of its 320,000-employee work force, in a major restructuring designed to save more than $1 billion a year. Most of the cuts will come from EDS’ ranks.
Hurd told analysts on a conference call that the company believes it can absorb a serious hit from the economy and still meet its profit goals.
“Certainly we have some resiliency in our capability to hit those numbers, and we wouldn’t have given them out if we didn’t think we could hit them,” Hurd said on a conference call with analysts.
When the latest round of job cuts are finished, Hurd will have jettisoned nearly 40,000 jobs in two rounds of big layoffs since he took the job in 2005 after the troubled tenure of Carly Fiorina. Other moves have included consolidating HP’s 85 data centers into six large facilities and putting day-to-day expenses under a microscope.
Investors have been pleased with the changes. HP’s sales and stock price have soared under Hurd’s watch.
HP rang up $118.4 billion in sales in its 2008 fiscal year, a 13 percent increase over last year. Profit was $8.3 billion, 15 percent higher than a year ago.
The company’s market value topped $135 billion last December, more than double its value when Hurd took over. HP’s stock price, though, has fallen since then on worries about the company’s exposure to the financial crisis.
More than half of HP’s revenue comes from the sale of personal computers, servers and storage machines, all of which have been under pressure because of tightened spending. Its pot-of-gold ink business is also under pressure from cheaper ink offered by competitors.
HP had announced preliminary results last week to reassure investors. The full results were released Monday after the market closed.
Excluding one-time costs, HP’s profit in the latest period was $1.03 per share, 2 cents per share higher than the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Sales were $300 million higher than the average analyst estimate. Excluding the effects of a weak dollar, revenue rose 16 percent.
Webber undergoes surgery after cycling accident
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Surgery to pin the broken right leg of Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber has been a success, his spokesman said on Sunday.
Red Bull driver Webber, 32, was riding a mountain bike when he collided with a four-wheel drive while competing in his own multi-sport charity event in Tasmania on Saturday.
Red Bull driver Webber, 32, was riding a mountain bike when he collided with a four-wheel drive while competing in his own multi-sport charity event in Tasmania on Saturday.Geoff Donohue, spokesman for the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, said Hobart Private Hospital doctors had inserted rods to mend the breaks in his lower right tibia and fibula.
It was not known at this stage when Webber would be able to leave hospital, he added.
“He’s feeling sharp and spritely, all things considered,” Donohue said.
Police said no charges would be filed over the accident.
Donohue said Webber was expected to fully recover in time for the start of the Formula One season in Melbourne on March 29 but he is likely to miss the start of the testing in Europe.
“He may miss some early testing in the car — it’s a setback but it’s a minor setback,” Donohue said.
DiCaprio brands paparazzi ‘disrespectful and dangerous’
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio has vowed to stay away from the paparazzi and has branded them ” disrespectful and dangerous”.
The ‘Aviator’ actor admitted that he has been trying his level best to keep away from the paparazzi, since he became a major Hollywood phenomenon.
“Actually I’m not in the tabloids anymore. I am sometimes, but I’ve watched the culture change. I’m old hat. And I love it. You know what it is with me? This is something I’d like to clarify. I’ve heard people say, ‘Because you hide, it makes you seem ungrateful,” Contactmusic quoted DiCaprio, as saying.
The 34-year-old actor revealed that he is abhorrent of the fact that the paparazzi try to make a living by intruding into his private life.
“The mere fact that these - I’ll use the word piles - are earning money from exploiting my image is the only reason I hide myself or am not a photo-friendly person. I do not like the way they conduct themselves. I think they’re disrespectful and dangerous.
“The reason I don’t pose or smile or that I seem mad is that I don’t want them to make a living off my private life,” he added.
Spiders get their space legs
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008Spiders flying as an educational project aboard the International Space Station seem to have gotten the hang of weightlessness.
Their first orbital webs were messy, disorganized affairs. But a week into their flight, television images beamed back to Earth showed surprising progress.
“We noticed the spider made a symmetrical web,” space station commander Mike Fincke told ground controllers on Friday. “We’re really amazed that the spider could adapt to space so quickly.”
Flight directors replied that the spider video had become the favorite form of entertainment for engineers overseeing the station’s science experiments from Earth.
“We used to be your major form of entertainment,” Fincke replied. “We’ve been overtaken by spiders.”
The orb-weaving spiders were delivered by the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour, which lifted off from Florida last Friday on a 15-day mission.
The spiders will remain aboard the space station so schoolchildren — and flight directors — can watch their progress. Their chamber includes a supply of fruit flies and, of course, a video camera.
1 lakh turtles died along Orissa coast
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008Over one lakh turtles died along Orissa coast in last 10 years mainly due to illegal trawling, environmental watchdog Greenpeace claimed on Sunday and asked the state government to allocate Rs 11 crore to step up patrolling against unlawful fishing and help fishermen.
“Independent studies suggest turtle mortalities remain in the range of 10,000 to 15,000 every year across the Orissa coast. This amounts to over 100,000 dead olive ridley turtles washed ashore in last 10 years,” it said in an approach paper titled “turning seas of trouble into seas of plenty”.
Though government estimates showed drop in mortality from 13,575 in 1997-98 to 3,242 in 2006-07, Sanjiv Gopal of Greenpeace, releasing the approach paper here said casualty could be much higher as all carcasses would not wash ashore.
Seeking quick steps for effective management of Orissa’s marine resources, he said the current turtle season should bring a change for the fishing community and the olive ridley turtles if the government implements existing instruments to ensure sustainable management.
Sustainable fisheries management would safeguard the livelihood of over 4.5 lakh traditional fishermen, hit by falling fish catches in near shore waters, Greenpeace said.
It said the Forest department needs to progressively reduce turtle mortality over next five seasons.
Stating that it had submitted an estimate of Rs 2.02 crore to boost forest department’s turtle protection machinery and Rs nine crore for compensation and alternative income generation schemes for affected fishermen, the watchdog said so far this money has not been allocated by the state government.
The Greenpeace approach paper expressed the hope that through committed efforts the turtle mortality for the upcoming season would be reduced by 35 percent and the goal at the end of five years would see mortalities reduced from the current average of 12,500 to 2400.
Welcoming the recent deployment of two new patrol boats by the fisheries department, Gopal said improved patrolling and consistent presence of authorities at sea would curtail illegal trawling.
The approach paper also asked the state government to allocate adequate resources to tackle the fishery crisis, both by providing patrolling and enforcement resources as well as compensation and alternative means of livelihood for traditional fishermen affected by fishing restrictions.
Underlining the need for strict enforcement of existing laws, it said though Orissa Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1982 and directives of the Central empowered committee of the Supreme Court (2004) clearly spell out responsibilities of the state government authorities, implementation of the laws has been weak.