With technology like YouTube, cameras and online photo galleries improving all the time, it's no wonder that nobody is going to their local video store anymore for a "blue movies" or even buying porn magazines when today its most free6. That is because all the naughty imagery that they could ever want is closer to them then their own doorstep. Why are top porn stars' movies in demand? It is logical that top porn stars would not be popular without any reason. Usually, such stars have adult movies that are hugely followed and are being recommended by people to their friends. Credit should be given not just to the stars but also to the production and adult film outfits behind their success. In other words, the credibility of the porn producers and film outfits immensely make up for the success andoverallpopularity of top porn stars' movies in the industry.The most common type of porn that has viewed by a very large audience comprising of young and old, male and female all aro und the world is free6 Sexual Pornography. The main aim of sexualteen porn videois to sexually and physically arouse the viewer and draw their attention that is compulsive in nature. The biggest reason for the success of sexual pornography andfree6 adult videolibrary available online is because of the reality that is hidden in the videos. They have the ability to attract people in a very positive way and even teach better and innovative ways of uniting that are safe to practice and good to experience.Another Category offree pornavailable online is called violence pornography. Violencefree6 pornis for those people who look out for exotic pleasure clubbed with trauma, tears, aggression and hostility. The viewers of violentfree6 videolibrary are very few because not many people can take all the fighting and brutality. Violencefree pornis only for adult population where people seek explicit material to get pleasure.Unlike traditional porn that was only aimed at horny men, thefre e porn movies will appeal to almost anyone. With a wide variety of different members uploading their video contacts and sex photos, it's a guarantee that you will find something that you like. The type of members that upload photos are single, in a relationship, straight, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, milfs, big beautiful women and big handsome men, interracial swingers, transsexuals and transgender, she-males, cross-dressers, people with fetishes and adults who likes things like bondage and discipline. Is it worth it to buy top porn stars' movies? Of course, it is. Such adult films are proven to be good and satisfactory, hence their good sales figures. What distinct them from the rest is the fact that those top porn stars' movies have already been bought and viewed by a greater number of people. You can get the top porn stars moves from free6 porn 247 website. This is one of the best free porn website, provides online free porn videos, porn movies, porn tubes, full sex videos, P orn Pictures, XXX movies, Amateur Sex Movies, Hardcore Sex Pictures, Adult Sex Videos, Flash Porn Videos and many more to online users so try free6xxx.org

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A new study from the CMO Club and Digiday uncovered a gap between how people use social sites and how we?re marketing to them on those platforms. They started out looking for something completely different ? the gaps in the capabilities and perspectives amongst marketers, agencies and publishers, but found that another gap existed:

The real glaring gap is the massive divide between consumers? online activity and the current digital marketing practices used to reach and engage them.

Digitally empowered consumers are engaging with content and brands in real-time and on their own terms across channels and devices. Firms across the current digital landscape are struggling to evolve and execute cross-channel and real-time interactive digital marketing programs to become more relevant to these consumers, says this report..

Only a quarter of agencies, marketers and publishers are engaged in cross-channel digital marketing and a scant 15% on average do real-time interactive marketing.

Key Challenges in Digital Marketing

So what is preventing marketers from being in sync with user behavior online? ?Overwhelming complexity? and a ?lack of unified measurement? are identified as the key challenges preventing the industry from being properly aligned with the consumer.

• Consumers are moving freely across channels and devices, interacting with brands and content in real time
• They have ever-rising expectations of relevant, unified, customized and rewarding digital experiences
• Consumers are flowing to those companies that ?get it,? and leaving dry those unable to quickly and intelligently adapt
• The fragmented digital marketing landscape adds undue complexity and inertia to digital marketing capabilities
• The lack of unified measurement makes it difficult to gauge campaign success
• There is an urgent need to move from multi-channel to cross-channel marketing

About half of the agencies polled feel they are doing well in these areas, but marketers are reporting only about 10% satisfaction with their digital marketing efforts.

The complexity of the digital channels is affecting these areas of marketing:

1. Focusing on the customer: The consumer perspective is often lost in planning. There is a need to be more consumer-centric, to incorporate the consumer mind-set based on actionable insights and unified views. (Keep tabs on availability of my new book Social Media Intelligence due out in September)
2. Content strategy and generation: it?s vital to use the customer view to plan and deliver relevant content.
3. Creative: there is a real need to up the game and provide richer, more engaging experiences with digital creative.
4. Relationships with digital partners: innovation and rapid technology advancement elevates the need for specialist skills. Direct relationships with skilled digital partners are a necessity.

What do senior execs think is the answer? Real-time intelligence and customer insights that an be integrated into the planing and execution of their digital strategy

?Real-time intelligence and unified automation are two evolutionary forces that, in union, provide the basis to enhance digital marketing execution, and thus, help bridge the current digital divide. These two forces are reshaping the digital
landscape and, over time, will enable the industry to consolidate and evolve towards more real-time adaptive markets, with real-time efficiencies and fair value discovery.?

Pulsepoint Digital Divide Report. Download the full report here

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Former guerrilla leader and ex-army chief Taur Matan Ruak pledged to "respect the constitution" as he was sworn in as East Timor's new president.

Ruak, 55, also vowed to "engage for the well-being of the country" in a ceremony after midnight, hours before celebrations to mark 10 years of independence from Indonesia's brutal occupation.

Ruak takes over from Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel laureate whose international stature gave prominence to the largely ceremonial role.

The new president made his pledge as the national anthem played in the background at Tasi Tolu, a beachside area on the outskirts of the capital Dili where the country declared independence from Indonesia on May 20, 2002.

Ruak signed a register, then amid applause by thousands of ordinary Timorese and guests that included Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he smiled and clasped his predecessor in his arms.

In a country with scant public transportation, many ordinary Timorese arrived on foot to watch the ceremony.

This is a crucial year for the country of 1.1 million also known as Timor-Leste. It will choose a new prime minister and government in general elections on July 7, then at year's end will bid goodbye to UN forces stationed there since 1999.

Ruak won a run-off election last month that was widely lauded as peaceful and fair.

He takes over a country that is hobbled by extreme poverty, corruption and an over-reliance on energy revenues.

But the unstable nation has now enjoyed several years of peace.

The UN has said that peacekeepers will pull out as planned by year's end if the general elections are also peaceful.

The former Portuguese colony voted for independence in a UN-supervised referendum in 1999, after Indonesia's 24-year occupation had left up to 183,000 people dead from fighting, disease and starvation.

The Indonesian military and anti-independence militias went on a savage campaign of retribution after the vote, ravaging the new nation's infrastructure and killing more than 1,000 people.

"It's good that Yudhoyono is coming," Ina Varella Bradidge, a 35-year-old humanitarian worker in Dili, said before the ceremony. "It will make him remember who won the war."

Yudhoyono and the first lady on Saturday prayed together with about 100 Timorese families at Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery, where Indonesian troops fired on a memorial procession in November 1991, killing more than 250 people.

The UN administered East Timor until May 20, 2002, when sovereignty was formally handed to its first president.

Since then the nation has suffered bouts of violence -- a political crisis in 2006 killed 37 people and displaced tens of thousands, and Ramos-Horta was lucky to survive an assassination attempt in 2008.

There has been no major political unrest since then, and government spending has increased dramatically in line with East Timor's increased energy income.

Still, the grinding poverty is visible everywhere.

In Dili, away from the venues for the weekend celebrations, mud canals flood slum neighbourhoods after rains, barely clothed children play in the streets, and infrastructure is limited to a few paved roads, a single port and a tiny airport.

The International Monetary Fund calls East Timor the "most oil-dependent economy in the world" after the discovery of large fields of oil and natural gas at sea.

Petroleum products account for more than 90 percent of total government revenue. A special fund, geared for development spending now and to cushion the next generation, recently swelled to $10 billion.

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From Aixcoustic.com

Your Guide To Life Changing Home Improvement

Your home mirrors you and your personality. When the reflection is displeasing, you are unlikely to be happy in other areas of your life. Make the most out of your home, and utilize it as best you can. This article includes ideas on how you can turn your house into a home.

Always be comfortable in your own home. No home is perfect, but yours may have problems that are making you unhappy. Even a few small alterations can make a big difference to your happiness. Simply purchasing new furniture can help.

Consider putting an addition on your home. No matter how good your organizational skills are, your home can still seem too small. Expanding your current home, so you are more comfortable, can be a reasonable alternative to moving to a new house. You can stop clutter by adding just a little more space to your home.

One option to consider is to create a home area that is dedicated to recreation. Pools, hot tubs, and spas are all popular options. Conversely, there are cheaper alternatives which can also increase your home's value, like a home gym or in-ground basketball net.

Evaluate the way your room is lit. With a change in lighting, you can alter the overall look of a room, create brighter areas, and decrease eyestrain associated with poor lighting. Installing new lights or, even easier, switching out existing ones is a quick and easy home improvement project, too. By replacing light fixtures, you can drastically improve the look of your home.

Plant an organic garden. You won't mind staying home if you have a lovely green garden in your backyard. You can hire a professional to take care of your garden for you if you do not have the time or talent for it, and you can still reap the benefits of having a beautiful yard and garden. Air quality, attitudes, and aesthetics are just a few of the things your garden can improve. Carefully consider the type of plants that you wish to plant in your garden because the right selections can provide you with home-grown foods or flowers.

You can try to change the outside of your house by fixing the roof, adding new windows or repainting it. By making these improvements in your home, you will be thrilled with the changes that have been made. You will feel happier when you approach the house.

Your home should be an extension of your personality. To maximize your enjoyment of your home, engage in home improvement tasks that will add value to your home and allow you to enjoy it even more.

Delonghi Espresso Machine

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

Classroom training isn?t dead, but it also isn?t the answer for every training need. Social tools are changing the game when it comes to employee learning. Organizations can create collaborative workplaces where employees can learn from each other instead of only learning in a formal setting or from the proverbial ?company expert.?

For training programs to be effective, companies must use the right methods and medium for their training sessions and their audience. Given the popularity of social media, it only seems logical to explore how social media tools can have a positive impact on the learning experience.

---

What It Means

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Tony Bingham, president and CEO of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), defines social learning as ?learning that happens outside a formal structure or classroom and is really the way people have always learned from each other. Social learning centers on information sharing, collaboration and co-creation.?

While the practice of social learning has been around for ages, we need a better definition of it for today?s workplace. Most of us have a vision for what formal classroom training looks like, so here?s one way to view the basic difference between informal learning and social learning:

• Informal learning is a term used to describe anything not learned in a formal program or class. It can take place within groups or alone using activities such as reading or search.
• Social learning is learning with and from others. It happens at conferences, cafes or online ? with or without social media tools.

In the book Social Media at Work, written by Arthur L. Jue, Jackie Alcalde Marr and Mary Ellen Kassotakis, the authors share case studies of companies using social and informal learning for business success. For example, Oracle uses a key tool called Connect to give employees the information they need at the moment they need it. The tool is about more than just answering questions -? it?s teaching people how to make smart decisions about the business.

One thing is certain about social learning: It?s not a replacement for traditional classroom training. ?There will always be some kinds of training that must be done in a classroom setting because of the requirements of the training or skill mastery demands,? Bingham explains. ?Examples include certification, compliance, and deep learning -? this is happening in the classroom.?

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Social Learning Benefits

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Surveys of CEOs continue to report that recruiting and developing talent are their top concerns. In addition, ASTD Research notes that by 2020, nearly half (46%) of all U.S. workers will be Millennials.

Organizations have to gain an understanding of how a new generation of workers likes to learn, how they use technology and their preferred means of communication. This will be essential in creating training curriculum, development programs and succession plans.

Bingham says it?s possible to calculate the return on social learning, but it?s not the traditional return-on-investment (ROI) formula:??It requires alignment to what?s important to the organization, and often that includes retaining institutional knowledge, solving complex problems collaboratively and attracting people to your organization.?

Maria Ogneva, director of community at Yammer, says, ?If your goal is to increase customer satisfaction, perhaps the impact metric you are looking for is the increase of speed of a response to a customer, and how collaboration helps you do that. For any social effort to be successful, it has to tie to a business objective.?

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Barriers to Social Learning

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Business leaders need to realize that employees are already using social tools -? whether it?s approved or not. Instead of prohibiting the use of social media, savvy business leaders should harness its power to drive business results. Bingham notes, ?It?s important to make the distinction between a management problem and a technology problem. Most often, problems that occur with the use of social media are management problems.?

Bingham adds that he sees a concern that the use of social media tools may compromise proprietary informaion, or that issues related to intellectual property, company secrets or business strategy may be divulged by a workforce given social media tools.?His recommendation?

?Organizations should have an intellectual property policy in place that outlines clear expectations -? and consequences for inappropriate activity. This policy should consider the multitude of possibilities for the use of an organization?s intellectual property.?

Once guidelines are in place, clearly communicate those throughout the entire organization. The goal isn?t to create obstacles to learning but a respectful, effective means to using social tools.

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Implementing Social Learning within Your Organization

---

Before rolling-out a social learning strategy, take a good look at your company culture. Determine if the company is ready to incorporate social learning into its training and development strategy. Adding social just because it sounds cool isn?t productive for the workforce.

Any time a company is testing the new territory, it?s beneficial to start small. Find a program or an initiative that would be well-served by employing social technologies and let the people involved with it experiment and find what works. ?Social learning has an organic nature to it, it can?t be forced,? Bingham says.

After using a new technology, evaluate the success of the program. Get feedback on three levels:

• From the participants who used the social tool. How did it help or hinder the learning experience?
• From the administrators of the social tool. Was it easy or difficult to use, explain to others and get participant involvement?
• From the management team. What was their perception of the results gained from using a social tool within their work teams?

This feedback will help refine the best social learning methods to incorporate for future activities.

Social media platforms will continue to develop and evolve. More and more individuals will start using them for their personal brands and professional lives. Employees will demand simplicity and expect workplace training to incorporate the tools they use on a regular basis.

Would you like to see more social in your training programs? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum:

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- Should Small Businesses Follow Everyone Back on Twitter?
- Are You Falling into the Pricing Trap?
- How to Take Your PR Pitches to the Next Level

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By Administrator on May 18, 2012 in Self Improvement

The greatest benefit of becoming an excellent leader is that folk do things for you because they like to do things for you. Ex US President Dwight D. Eisenhower summed up this benefit sharply when he said: ?Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something that you desire done because he wants to do it.?

There is a commonly quoted misconception that leaders are born and can never be made. Whist it?s correct that many leaders are people who?ve exceptional personality, self confidence and directional sense, it is also right that all of these are learned skills. Such abilities, when they appear to be totally natural are the result of the environment in which the perpetrator of the abilities has been brought up and the way that the individual has reacted to that environment. The critical point here is that the individual learned the abilities, they?re not the results of genetic structure.

A good way to learn to be an exceptional leader is to model yourself on the behaviour, principles and thinking of an exceptional leader. But you can learn the same abilities by studying books and going on good leadership coaching courses. Whichever method of learning you use you will turn into a good leader due to the way that you learn and implement the abilities you?re taught. Click here to learn more about my Dynamic Leadership Workshop.

Being a good leader requires that you develop the self-discipline to behave in a consistent way both with yourself and with those around you. One point that causes potential leaders to lose credibility with co-workers and team members is a dearth of consistency in their behavior.

If you want to be an outstanding leader you have got to have a deep-seated want to be an excellent leader for good reasons. There need to be clear benefits for you in being a leader. Therefore before you concentrate on becoming a leader think about what being a leader will do for you.

Imagine a precision instrument that records the actions, words and feelings of the best performers. Then download that data to a powerful decoder that analyses and codes the behaviour. Transfer the code to your personal control panel so that you can reproduce excellence at will. This is how NLP Techniques work. NLP Practitioner David Ferrers will show you how to build your own control panel during Business Coaching, or at one of his NLP Training workshops or during his Sales Success with NLP Training in India.

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If you are taking a vacation to London, finding the best London hotel deals will be the best gift that you can give your family and to yourself.

The Christmas week is a weeklong celebration in London and is the biggest and the most extravagant celebration. The city is decked up in beautiful lights and it comes alive with joy and festivity. The streets are extremely busy, bustling with excited shoppers and tourists. Stores work for extra hours, as everybody is busy buying gifts and goodies for their loved ones. Restaurants are packed and serve special Seasonal Christmas delicacies. It is a time to be with family and friends and all the joints ooze of merry and Christmas cheer.

The Holiday celebration starts from the twenty fourth of December, which is the Christmas Eve. Ornate and bright Christmas trees and colourful twine city look like something different and grand altogether. The following day, which is the Christmas Day, is marked by jolly white-bearded Santa Clauses, or the Old Father Christmas, seen on the streets and malls, distributing candy and goodies. You can hear the beautiful carols sung by choir groups and many joints offering free food and drinks like wine and beer, to stretch out its hand of celebration to all.

The Trafalgar Square of London is the prime attraction during Christmas. It receives a tree every year as a gift from Norway. Getting the best London hotel deals for your trip will just add to your holiday spirit. Various travel-based sites provide attractive London hotel deals to make your holiday all the more special.

The hotels are in full celebratory mode and takes extra care to make the Christmas of its guests even more joyful. Located at the prime location of the Oxford Street, you may get fabulous London hotel deals at the plush five-star Marble Arch Hotel.

A number of special Christmas arrangements and packages are available during the festive season. This includes welcoming the guests with a mug of hot chocolate or mulled wine with fruit minced pies upon their arrival, a delectable English breakfast served by your bedside daily, a special afternoon tea and bed time treat just for the festive occasion. Other Christmas special treats include passes to operas, movies, Harrods gift vouchers and also check out in late hours.

The London hotel deals during the holiday season will also ensure that you can explore the city and visit all the prime attractions. The hotel will themselves make arrangements for your shopping and sightseeing.

Beside the holiday special, the luxurious hotel has all the world-class amenities. The rooms are comfortable and stylish with mini bars, beverage making appliances, Wi-Fi etc. Enjoy a warm bath in the marble designed washroom.

The restaurant serving gourmet cuisine has special menu during this time. You can enjoy all the English Christmas special dishes. Do not forget to delve into scrumptious fruitcakes and plum cakes for dessert. A number of special programmes including dance and music recitals and plays are performed for the guests. Christmas parties are organized that bring family and friends together.

?

If you are planning on spending your Christmas week in London, do check into a five star retreat as this to make it one of your best Christmases! Log on to themarblearchlondon.co.uk ?to get the best London hotel deals.

?

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May 18th, 2012 by Eric Dinnocenzo

Corporate interests sing a common refrain whenever the subject of safety testing and regulations in the workplace comes up: It costs too much and stifles business!

They also add that it kills jobs, which of course is not their concern, but which is effective Orwellian messaging to get the public on their side.

A recent study of the efficacy of OSHA testing challenges this position, concluding that it not only prevents worker injuries on the job but also entails little cost to business.

Researchers looked at 409 companies that had workplace safety inspections and 409 that did not (all of the companies were located in California). They concluded that inspections improved workplace safety and did not adversely affect company profits. In fact, inspections reduced injury claims by 9.4 percent and cut workers? compensation costs by 26 percent.

Business interests countered that the study focused on firms in high-risk industries, and was not accurate because it did not consider the costs of OSHA inspections to less dangerous industries.

In New York City, we have seen castastrophic construction accidents occur, such as crane collapses on the east side, that likely could have been prevented with adequate safety inspections. Hopefully, the misleading slogan that regulation is bad will lose its force and there can be more protection for workers to prevent injuries in the future.

Posted in Workplace Safety

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Public release date: 18-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Peter Reuell
preuell@fas.harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University

Using statistical tool, researchers are able to track where the melting that contributes to sea level rise happens

It was used to help Apollo astronauts navigate in space, and has since been applied to problems as diverse as economics and weather forecasting, but Harvard scientists are now using a powerful statistical tool to not only track sea level rise over time, but to determine where the water causing the rise is coming from.

As described in an April 23 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), graduate students Eric Morrow and Carling Hay demonstrate the use of a statistical tool called a Kalman smoother to identify "sea level fingerprints" tell-tale variations in sea level rise in a synthetic data set. Using those fingerprints, scientists can determine where glacial melting is occurring.

"The goal was to establish a rigorous and precise method for extracting those fingerprints from this very noisy signal," Professor of Geophysics Jerry Mitrovica, who oversaw the research, said. "What Carling and Eric have come up with is very elegant and it provides a powerful method for detecting the fingerprints. In my view everyone is soon going to be using this method."

At the heart of the new technique is the idea, first proposed by Mitrovica and others more than a decade ago, that variability in sea level changes amount to a "fingerprint" researchers can use to identify the source of water pouring into the oceans.

With the public unconvinced about the effects of climate change, Mitrovica proposed the fingerprint idea as a way to refute the argument that melting ice sheets would cause a uniform sea level rise, he said, "like what you see when you turn on the tap in the bathtub it all goes up uniformly." Rather than a uniform rise in sea level, skeptics pointed to records that showed levels rising in some areas and dropping in others as evidence that man-made climate change was a myth.

But that variability is exactly what researchers expect to see, Mitrovica said.

"As ice sheets around the world melt, there is an extremely variable effect on sea level," Mitrovica explained. "That variation is actually very beautiful it has information embedded in it. By looking at the differences in sea level changes around the globe, we should, in principle, be able to determine if the changes are the result of melting in Alaska, Greenland, Antarctica, or elsewhere."

That variation in sea level change is the result, in part, of the sheer size of the ice sheets, which are so massive they draw water to them, creating their own tides. Though a melting glacier can dump millions of gallons of water into the ocean, it also reduces the size of the ice sheet, relaxing that tidal effect. The "highly counterintuitive" result, Mitrovica said, is that while sea levels rise in some parts of the world, within 2,000 kilometers of the ice sheet, the melting would case sea levels to drop.

"There are other effects as well close to the ice sheet the sea floor rebounds a bit because it has less mass on top of it," Morrow added. "What's interesting is that the pattern of sea-level change will be different for each and every ice sheet and that is why these patterns have come to be known as sea-level fingerprints."

However, while scientists have been able to model the fingerprint associated with each ice sheet on the globe, the far trickier question is how much each contributes to the current picture of rising sea levels.

"What we're really doing is detective work," Mitrovica said. "We're trying to say how much of the Antarctic fingerprint, plus the Greenland fingerprint, plus the Alaska fingerprint, plus the others how much of each do you need in order to get precisely the variation we see today.

"The challenge in doing that is that the ocean is a noisy place," he continued. "We're talking about identifying very small signals and separating them from the waves, the changes in salt content, circulation changes, the temperatures effects and more. What Carling and Eric have developed is a way to detect these fingerprints in the sea-level variations that we observe with tide gauges and satellites, and their method takes into account the fact that those variations may change over time."

To test the new tool, Hay and Morrow created a data set of hundreds of sea level records, then added the type of noise seen in real-world data. Such tests against "synthetic" data are a typical first step, Mitrovica said, to ensure that statistical tools work.

As described in the PNAS paper, the tool they developed was able to consistently identify fingerprints in the synthetic data, and tease out how much each was contributing to the rise in sea levels worldwide.

The next step, Mitrovica said, will be to test the tool against real-world data. That work is still ongoing, and will be published in a forthcoming paper.

Though it is clearly a powerful way to highlight the continuing problem of glacial melting, Mitrovica said the ultimate power of the tool might lie in bringing to light the true costs and dangers of sea level rise.

"We need to get the person living on the Maryland coast to understand that the sea-level change they will observe in their area will depend on which ice sheets are melting and by how much," he said. "When I give public talks, one of the questions I'm invariably asked is 'Where should I buy property?' It's tongue in cheek, but it does belie a certain sense that this is going to hit home."

###

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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.

Public release date: 18-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Peter Reuell
preuell@fas.harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University

Using statistical tool, researchers are able to track where the melting that contributes to sea level rise happens

It was used to help Apollo astronauts navigate in space, and has since been applied to problems as diverse as economics and weather forecasting, but Harvard scientists are now using a powerful statistical tool to not only track sea level rise over time, but to determine where the water causing the rise is coming from.

As described in an April 23 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), graduate students Eric Morrow and Carling Hay demonstrate the use of a statistical tool called a Kalman smoother to identify "sea level fingerprints" tell-tale variations in sea level rise in a synthetic data set. Using those fingerprints, scientists can determine where glacial melting is occurring.

"The goal was to establish a rigorous and precise method for extracting those fingerprints from this very noisy signal," Professor of Geophysics Jerry Mitrovica, who oversaw the research, said. "What Carling and Eric have come up with is very elegant and it provides a powerful method for detecting the fingerprints. In my view everyone is soon going to be using this method."

At the heart of the new technique is the idea, first proposed by Mitrovica and others more than a decade ago, that variability in sea level changes amount to a "fingerprint" researchers can use to identify the source of water pouring into the oceans.

With the public unconvinced about the effects of climate change, Mitrovica proposed the fingerprint idea as a way to refute the argument that melting ice sheets would cause a uniform sea level rise, he said, "like what you see when you turn on the tap in the bathtub it all goes up uniformly." Rather than a uniform rise in sea level, skeptics pointed to records that showed levels rising in some areas and dropping in others as evidence that man-made climate change was a myth.

But that variability is exactly what researchers expect to see, Mitrovica said.

"As ice sheets around the world melt, there is an extremely variable effect on sea level," Mitrovica explained. "That variation is actually very beautiful it has information embedded in it. By looking at the differences in sea level changes around the globe, we should, in principle, be able to determine if the changes are the result of melting in Alaska, Greenland, Antarctica, or elsewhere."

That variation in sea level change is the result, in part, of the sheer size of the ice sheets, which are so massive they draw water to them, creating their own tides. Though a melting glacier can dump millions of gallons of water into the ocean, it also reduces the size of the ice sheet, relaxing that tidal effect. The "highly counterintuitive" result, Mitrovica said, is that while sea levels rise in some parts of the world, within 2,000 kilometers of the ice sheet, the melting would case sea levels to drop.

"There are other effects as well close to the ice sheet the sea floor rebounds a bit because it has less mass on top of it," Morrow added. "What's interesting is that the pattern of sea-level change will be different for each and every ice sheet and that is why these patterns have come to be known as sea-level fingerprints."

However, while scientists have been able to model the fingerprint associated with each ice sheet on the globe, the far trickier question is how much each contributes to the current picture of rising sea levels.

"What we're really doing is detective work," Mitrovica said. "We're trying to say how much of the Antarctic fingerprint, plus the Greenland fingerprint, plus the Alaska fingerprint, plus the others how much of each do you need in order to get precisely the variation we see today.

"The challenge in doing that is that the ocean is a noisy place," he continued. "We're talking about identifying very small signals and separating them from the waves, the changes in salt content, circulation changes, the temperatures effects and more. What Carling and Eric have developed is a way to detect these fingerprints in the sea-level variations that we observe with tide gauges and satellites, and their method takes into account the fact that those variations may change over time."

To test the new tool, Hay and Morrow created a data set of hundreds of sea level records, then added the type of noise seen in real-world data. Such tests against "synthetic" data are a typical first step, Mitrovica said, to ensure that statistical tools work.

As described in the PNAS paper, the tool they developed was able to consistently identify fingerprints in the synthetic data, and tease out how much each was contributing to the rise in sea levels worldwide.

The next step, Mitrovica said, will be to test the tool against real-world data. That work is still ongoing, and will be published in a forthcoming paper.

Though it is clearly a powerful way to highlight the continuing problem of glacial melting, Mitrovica said the ultimate power of the tool might lie in bringing to light the true costs and dangers of sea level rise.

"We need to get the person living on the Maryland coast to understand that the sea-level change they will observe in their area will depend on which ice sheets are melting and by how much," he said. "When I give public talks, one of the questions I'm invariably asked is 'Where should I buy property?' It's tongue in cheek, but it does belie a certain sense that this is going to hit home."

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NEW YORK (AP) ? A company started in a Harvard dorm room in 2004 has just raised $16 billion and is valued at $104 billion. All that from an initial public offering of stock.

But taking a company public isn't as simple as clicking on "like." Even for Facebook.

When the social media company's stock starts trading Friday under the symbol FB, buyer demand is expected to explode. At its initial offering price of $38 a share, the 8-year-old upstart is now worth more than established heavyweights Disney and Kraft.

The nearly $16 billion raised in the IPO will flow to the company and its early investors.

As with any initial offering, Facebook's IPO follows lots of negotiation ? over price, paperwork, selling and buying. Here are some questions and answers about its public debut:

Q: So why is Facebook going public?

A: The same reason many other fast-growing companies do: to raise money. Selling stock to the public gives companies money to run their businesses, expand and buy other companies. Sometimes companies go public even if they have no plans for the money. Facebook says it wants to establish a public market for its shares in case it needs to raise money from investors in the future.

Q: What happens in an IPO?

A: The company sells ownership stakes to the public for the first time. Facebook plans to sell up to 421 million shares. That represents a 15 percent stake in the company. The sale is expected to raise $16 billion.

Q: Who owns shares of Facebook now?

A: Well-connected investors, employees and top insiders like company directors. They are selling 241 million shares, or more than half the total being sold. The company has said it's selling shares at $38 each. At that price, those early owners will pocket $9 billion, or an average of $230 million each. The company will get $7 billion.

Q: Who will buy the shares?

A: In an IPO, there are two buyers. The first are the investment banks that helped the company file IPO documents with regulators and contacted pension funds, mutual funds and other big institutions to gauge a price for the shares. These investment banks are called underwriters. In Facebook's case, 33 banks are helping out; Morgan Stanley has the lead role. The underwriters guarantee to the company that they'll buy all of the shares at the IPO price.

Q: When do the underwriters buy the shares?

A: Before shares start trading publicly. Facebook's underwriters were expected to buy all the sellers' shares Thursday night. But first, the underwriters had to negotiate a price with a second group of buyers ? the institutions that will buy the shares from them. They did that Thursday night, settling on a price of $38. In a document filed with regulators this week, Facebook had estimated that the price would be between $34 and $38.

Q: Is this negotiated price the IPO price?

A: Yes. But that's not what the underwriters pay the company and insiders. After settling on an IPO price, the underwriters subtract a commission for their work. With big IPOs like Facebook's, that's typically 3 percent. At $38, that would mean Morgan Stanley and the other Facebook underwriters would get $1.14 off for each share. They'd pay $36.86 a share. Underwriters have five days to transfer the money to the company and other sellers.

Q: What do the underwriters do with their shares?

A: They sell them to big institutions, along with some favored individual investors, before public trading starts. They do this usually the night before. In Facebook's case, all of the underwriters' shares are expected to be sold by Friday morning before the stock exchanges open at 9:30 a.m. in New York.

Q: Is that when trading of Facebook begins?

A: No. The new owners who want to sell their Facebook shares must call their traders first. The traders will call "market makers" at the Nasdaq stock market, where Facebook's shares will be listed. Market makers are firms that agree to hold shares in a company so buyers and sellers can easily trade them. The market makers negotiate among themselves to find a price between what most buyers and sellers are demanding. That can take up to two hours, after which the first Facebook shares will exchange hands. The price will appear under the symbol FB.

Q: I read that Facebook will be worth more than $100 billion after the IPO. What does that mean?

This is the so-called market value of the company. It's what investors trading a portion of its shares think the whole company would be worth if all its shares were trading. At $38 per share, Facebook would be worth $104 billion.

Q: Who are the early investors who are selling?

A: One of the biggest is DST Global Ltd., a London firm founded by Russian investor Yuri Milner that first invested in Facebook in 2009. DST and its affiliates plan to sell 45.7 million shares. At $38, Milner's firm would get $1.74 billion. One of the earliest investors, Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn Corp. who put money into Facebook in 2004, is expected to sell stock worth up to $36 million. Other sellers include Goldman Sachs, which invested last year. It expects to get as much as $1.1 billion for its shares.

Q: What about Mark Zuckerberg?

The Facebook CEO plans to sell 30.2 million shares. He would pocket up to $1.15 billion. Part of Zuckerberg's holdings include special shares that give him voting rights on shareholder proposals. After the IPO, he will control 56 percent of votes.

Q: Where will the Facebook IPO rank among IPOs?

A: In terms of money raised, it will be the third-biggest U.S. IPO in history, edging out AT&T Wireless. That company's IPO in 2000 raised $10.6 billion according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO advisory firm. The biggest IPO was Visa Inc. in 2008. It raised $17.8 billion.

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