Billboard.com and Chevrolet announced today that six finalists in the "Cruze-ing to Vegas" competition have won a road trip to Las Vegas and the chance to compete for the gig of a lifetime: a live performance at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards, to be televised on ABC, 8 p.m. ET, on Sunday, May 20. The finalists were selected from a field of 18 up-and-coming young artists competing from six regions across the country. They are: Northwest: Savannah Outen, pop vocalist, Hillsboro, Oregon Southwest: Saints of Valory, rock, Austin, Texas Midwest: Take the ...

Spring rains in the eastern Horn of Africa are projected to begin late this year and be substantially lower than normal. From March - May, the rains are expected to total only 60 to 85 percentage of the average rainfall in this region. This is a significant deterioration compared to earlier forecasts. Lower rain amounts would have significant impacts on crop production, rangeland regeneration for livestock, and replenishment of water resources. This would put greater stress on the region, particularly Somalia which is still recovering from a famine declared last year, ...

URBANA – With the global recession and the food price spike of 2008, one would expect migrants to be particularly affected, but a recent University of Illinois study revealed migrants in at least one Central Illinois county to be surprisingly resilient in their ability to control their environment through work, particularly women. "Women appear to be more flexible and resourceful. When they lose their jobs, they start looking for other options," said Gale Summerfield, U of I community development and gender specialist. "They took jobs in child care, cleaning houses ...

Global Banking and Finance Review today announced it has named BMO Harris Private Banking the Best Private Bank in Canada 2012 for the second consecutive year. The awards honour companies that stand out in particular areas of expertise in the banking and finance industry. BMO Harris Private Banking ranked first in the Best Private Bank in Canada category by the judging panel of industry analysts. Criteria considered by the panel included detailed research on quality, performance and strong banking ability of management team and staff. "We are very pleased to ...

Worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait, according to a recent study by scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions. Jeremy Coplan, MD, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate, and colleagues found that high intelligence and worry both correlate with brain activity measured by the depletion of the nutrient choline in theGlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Sackler Institute of Columbia University, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Psychiatric Institute ...

Two new studies into the "plumbing systems" that lie under volcanoes could bring scientists closer to understanding plate ruptures and predicting eruptions—both of which are important steps for protecting the public from earthquake and volcanic hazards. International teams of researchers, including two scientists from the University of Rochester, have been studying the location and behaviour of magma chambers on the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system—a vast chain of volcanoes along which the Earth forms new crust. They worked in the tropical region of Afar, Ethiopia and ...

Durham, NC — Physically fit frogs have faster-changing genomes, says a new study of poison frogs from Central and South America. Stretches of DNA accumulate changes over time, but the rate at which those changes build up varies considerably between species, said author Juan C. Santos of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina. In the past, biologists trying to explain why some species have faster-changing genomes than others have focused on features such as body size, generation time, fecundity and lifespan. According to one theory, first ...

Eleven young men of color from Compton, Long Beach, and surrounding areas were invited to The White House in a once in a lifetime trip February 20th-23rd, 2012 and will be sharing their experience in a special event April 19 at The Long Beach Playhouse. First Lady, Michelle Obama, hosted "At the Crossroads: A History of the Blues in America," an educational workshop for middle and high school students from across the country, held in the State Dining Room. The local young men ranged in age from 15-22 years and are skilled in digital media or singers and musicians ...

"If you want to test a man's character, give him power," said Abraham Lincoln. It's a truism that power magnifies personality—but is it true? A new study says no. "Before, people thought that disposition is linked to will; it's mainly internally driven," says University College London psychologist Ana Guinote, who conducted the study with Mario Weick of the University of Kent and London doctoral student Alice Cai. "Our findings show that the environment crucially triggers dispositional or counter-dispositional behavior in powerful people." The findings appear in Psychological ...

On April 5, 2010, the sun spewed a two million-mile-per-hour stream of charged particles toward the invisible magnetic fields surrounding Earth, known as the magnetosphere. As the particles interacted with the magnetic fields, the incoming stream of energy caused stormy conditions near Earth. Some scientists believe that it was this solar storm that interfered with commands to a communications satellite, Galaxy-15, which subsequently foundered and drifted, taking almost a year to return to its station. To better understand how to protect satellites from intense bursts ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A recent discovery of "hypervirulent" Salmonella bacteria has given UC Santa Barbara researchers Michael Mahan and Douglas Heithoff a means to potentially prevent food poisoning outbreaks from these particularly powerful strains. Their findings, in a paper titled "Intraspecies Variation in the Emergence of Hyperinfectious Bacterial Strains in Nature," have been published in the journal PLoS Pathogens. Salmonella is the most common cause of infection, hospitalization, and death due to foodborne illness in the U.S. This burden may continue to ...

According to Internet World Stats, visitor growth on the Internet in North America was 152.6% between 2000 and 2011. There are now over 100,000,000 Americans that use the Internet every day and Google performs over 3,000,000,000 daily searches worldwide. These are more compelling reason for businesses to have a strong Web presence. Businesses need to treat their online presences just as importantly, if not more as having a physical store. Too many business owners treat their websites as an online brochure, which do little to attract customers. A successful business ...

William Gheen, notorious illegal immigration fighter and President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, is launching a new website this week called "The Gheen Report" found on the web at www.GheenReport.com. The new site will offer a daily collection of news articles, blogs, videos, opinion, and commentary about important issues such as politics, finance, race relations, mass media, illegal immigration, and everyone's favorite dictator, Barack Obama. Patterned after the very famous and valued conservative website DrudgeReport, the Gheen Report will offer ...

The UK's largest online parcel delivery specialist has warned individuals and businesses not to get caught out by the inevitable disruption set to be caused by the London 2012 Olympics this summer. The Olympic Games will take place at sports arenas across the United Kingdom between July 27 and August 12 this year, with the majority of events happening in London. Unsurprisingly, the anticipated influx of visitors to London will have a significant impact on the capital's transport network and may also lead to disruption at Olympic sites across Britain. Organisers of ...

Rene LACOSTE entered the legend of tennis when he and his team-mates "The Musketeers", stole the DAVIS CUP away from the Americans for the first time, in 1927 and again in 1928. Not forgetting his 3 French Open victories (1925, 1927 and at the ROLAND-GARROS stadium in 1929), his two victories in Great Britain (WIMBLEDON 1925 and 1928) and two U.S. OPEN titles at Forest Hills (1926 and 1927). Rene LACOSTE was born in France on July 2nd 1904 and died on October 12th 1996. The true story of the "Alligator" dates back to 1927. Rene LACOSTE liked to recount ...

April is a time of 'new life' and 'rebirth' and thus it is fitting that this is the month that we relaunched our home page with an eye-catching new design and a shift in focus to our writing services, which are our most in-demand services. We have mentioned, in earlier blog posts, the importance of an effective website as a marketing tool so it was time for Do as I do rather than Do as I say! If we have been successful, then clients should find that our new home page makes it immediately apparent what services we offer, is easy to navigate, offers solutions and has ...

Bruegger's, a national bagel leader with more than 300 locations across the nation, is once again offering IRS form-weary guests a way to ease the pain. Today through Tax Day (April 17) guests pay just $10.40 for the bagel leader's Big Bagel Bundle, a savings of up to $5, depending on location. The Big Bagel Bundle includes a baker's dozen of Bruegger's 15-plus bagel varieties, freshly baked in the New York-style, and two 6.5-ounce tubs of Bruegger's cold-packed cream cheese, available in more than 10 varieties. "We wanted Bruegger's guests to associate '1040' ...

In a letter addressed to presidentially-appointed members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a federal agency which oversees U.S. international broadcasts, Annette Lantos urges a reversal of their decision to silence Voice of America Tibetan radio broadcasts and to shut down the VOA Cantonese Service providing uncensored news to China. The wife of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, with whom she had worked for many years on numerous human rights campaigns around the world, also pleads with the BBG to restore Voice of America broadcasting to Russia, which had ...

MyBinding.com, one of the nation's leading Internet retailers of document finishing equipment and supplies, recently added Michael Tomlinson to their new Inside Sales team. Hailing from East Portland, Tomlinson started at MyBinding.com in the end of December working in customer service. However, when this new opportunity arose, he embraced the chance for a new challenge and switched to the Inside Sales Team. "I'm excited for the opportunity to be a part of something new," said Tomlinson, when asked what drew him to the position. "It's great to be a ...

Daniel Hoyos, The Student Film Block's Director has worked tirelessly to secure the cream of the crop. 16mm film, high production value, and a large quantity of female helmed films, these are the rarities that set this fest apart from so many others. The genres are far reaching and well represented, from MOTHER, a hard-edged family drama directed by Laurel Parmet, taunt thriller TANTAMOUNT TO TREASON directed by British Filmmaker Andrew Hall to castaway love story ALONE TOGETHER crafted by local filmmaker Ben Kadie, and dramedy GONE FOR THE DAY by MJ Slide of South Carolina. ...

In accordance to its latest move in targeting leads across Asia, ERP Software Leads had opened a facility in the Southeastern region of the continent. The 16,000 square feet site was designed to be well-suited to task group operations. With this, the company can serve multiple B2B clients with teams working in specialized office suites. The work stations are highly customized for easier coordination between times. There's more workspace provided and workers are in a more creative and comfortable environment compared to most call centers. With the construction of this ...

IRELAND MAY reached the inclined point when it comes to the capability to lift up additional revenues through VAT augmentation, said Grant Thornton, tax experts. In view of the exchequer figures, Peter Vale, tax partner in Grant Thornton expected to see a considerable increase in VAT receipts compared with the same period in 2011 as the top VAT rate which had augmented by 9.5 percent in real terms. The figures do not show that to be the case. While, the tax hold is up on last year, the VAT returns will probably point out a drop in the retail sales as it compared to ...

Writer Ross McDonagh recently published an article in The Metro newspaper about a surfing vacation he took through Surf Holidays (http://www.surfholidays.com/), which specializes in arranging surf vacation packages in Europe's best surf destinations. McDonagh reported on his experiences during his surf holiday spent at the beautiful sun-kissed Fuerteventura in Canary Islands. Fuerteventura is frequently referred to as the Hawaii of Europe, thanks to pleasant temperatures and consistent surf all year round. In his commentary about his holiday, McDonagh said, "Looking ...

Wine and Design Triad has announced their 2012 kids' summer camp schedule, which will feature hands-on activities, painting opportunities, and mixed-medium crafts. Art Buzz, the studio's kids' division, will offer four one-week classes for children ages 5 to 12 at their studio located at 121 East Main Street in Jamestown. Themes center on the sea and jungle. Wine and Design Triad is owned and operated by Jenny Ragsdale. The studio opened its doors to the Triad area in April 2011 and was the first franchise operation of the popular painting party company. Wine and Design ...

The Addictions Coach announced that they are offering a mobile rehab service in addition to their individual private sessions. The Addictions Coach Company is bringing the rehab to the client. They have mastered the art of handling addictions by pairing Yoga, nutrition and fitness, along with traditional talk therapy, to assist in the fight against addiction, all done on location of their clients. Sober coaches usually employ the more traditional of therapies, including talk therapy and prayer to assist clients in gaining insight into their addiction, but Cali Estes, owner ...