Consumer agency probes mortgage insurance Associated Press Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 08:30?a.m., Friday, August 3, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) ? The government?s consumer finance watchdog is investigating mortgage insurance deals between banks and big insurers like American International ?
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Every now and then at 5a.m. (probably posted by my clone) I will be bringing you a newsflash, update on what I?m doing, invited guest piece, or whatever takes my fancy, and today is about The New Writer magazine and their subscriber newsletter. They provide so much information in the newsletter that replicating their latest edition (which I had permission from the lovely Merric to do so) would have run to 12 Microsoft Word pages, hardly a ?flash?, so I?ve done a bit of a synopsis here?
The newsletter starts off with news and views around the internet and from useful sites to events around the UK.
It?s then packed with competition information (some of which I hadn?t got already so have added, accredited of course, to my blog?s competitions page), submission opportunities and much more.
The New Writer is an incredibly active magazine beyond the page and their own opportunities include?
TNW?S editor Suzanne Ruthven is also Commissioning Editor for Compass Books at John Hunt Publishing. Compass Books for new writers focuses on practical and informative ?how-to? books. Written by experienced authors who also have extensive experience of tutoring at the most popular creative writing workshops, the books offer an insight into the more specialised niches of the publishing game.? All submissions for Compass Books should come initially in the form of a biography, synopsis and full chapter breakdown to suzanneruthven333@gmail.com. Writers? guidelines can be found at http://www.compass-books.net/submissions.html&i=11. Compass Books is also on Facebook.
The New Writer Magazine Online Writing Course: Plotting & Coursing The Novel. This is an ideal course for those who have just started a novel, and for those who have got ?bogged down? with an existing one. Discover how to kick-start the narrative with Suzanne Ruthven, editor of The New Writer who has tutored this course at Horncastle College (Lincs) and the University of Wales? Writers? Summer School.? Participants should have completed at least the first 2-3 chapters, and be able to submit a full synopsis of the novel at the time of registration. The course includes: Lesson One Who?s going to read my novel?, Lesson Two: Plot and Theme, Lesson Three: Characterisation, Lesson Four: Pace and narrative style, Lesson Five: Bones and Padding, Lesson Six: Publishers and Agents. The fee is ?20 per lesson paid in advance via PayPal. This ensures that the writer pays only for the tuition received and can withdraw from the course at any time. For more information send an email to suzanneruthven333@gmail.com marked Subject: online writing course.
The New Writer?s website (http://www.thenewwriter.com) explains, ?It?s different and it?s aimed at all writers: the short story writer, the novelist, the poet, feature writer, anyone with a serious intent to develop their writing to meet the expectations of today?s editors. Launched in September 1996, in every issue you?ll find original short stories, a showcase for new poetry, articles, book reviews, market information, news and readers? views.?
Apart from being incredibly supportive of writers on the page, and via email, The New Writer can also be found on Facebook?(where you can ?like? them? and I?m sure they?d love it if you wrote something on their wall) and Twitter?(where you can follow them and again I?m sure interaction would be appreciated).
Subscriptions (see http://www.thenewwriter.com/subscribe.htm) are just ?27 for 18 months? worth of magazines or ?49 for three years. I?ve been a subscriber for at least double that and it feels like it has ?grown? as I have.
They welcome (from subscribers) articles, features, shorts (including a 300-word max micro fiction? regular readers of this blog will know how much I love my flash fiction and I keep meaning to submit!), news items, poetry and even a ?Writer?s Rant? ? see their guidelines page for more details.
Speaking of shorts? The New Writer recommends Catherine Smith?s The Biting Point from Speechbubble Books.
TNW Index: You can now check on the contents of the first 100+ issues of The New Writer.? The new improved index is now available as an attachment, simply email admin@thenewwriter.com and type Index in subject.? The TNW index will give you details of every feature, fiction and poem that has appeared in the magazine since the first issue in 1996 in alphabetical order by author.? In addition, TNW back issues are available (not many left of the first dozen or so ? but there are some) at ?1.50 each (to subscribers only) plus p+p (see the magazine).? So if you see something you fancy it couldn?t be easier to read it. If you live in the UK and request the Index and do decide to order some back issues, please send a cheque payable to The New Writer if it comes to ?5 or more, otherwise please send postage stamps to The New Writer, PO Box 60, Cranbrook, TN17 2ZR.? If you live overseas please email (admin@thenewwriter.com) for a quote.
They also have a Writer?s Library with a great selection of books.
Almost finally, classified ads printed in The New Writer magazine are charged at the following rates for all ads up to 50 words:? ?10 as a one-off;? ?15 in two consecutive issues;? ?20 in three consecutive issues.? Further placings, longer ads and small display ads by negotiation. Again an email will do the trick.
Oh and they even kindly mentioned me (which I hadn?t spotted until I started compiling this ?flash?)? ?Amazing list of 440+ interviews with writers, poets, agents, publishers etc by Morgen Bailey can be found here: http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/blog-interviews? which just goes to show how supportive they are of writers? ?new? or otherwise.
***
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don?t miss anything? and follow me on?Twitter?where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at?Smashwords,?Sony Reader Store,?Barnes & Noble,?iTunes Bookstore,?Kobo?and?Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new?forum, friend me on?Facebook, like me on?Facebook, connect with me on?LinkedIn, find me on?Tumblr, complete my website?s?Contact me?page?or plain and simple,?email me.??I also now have a new?blog creation service?especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can?t review books but I have a feature called ?Short Story Saturdays? where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you?d like critiqued and don?t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) ?on my ?Bailey?s Writing Tips??podcast,?then do?email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for?Flash Fiction Fridays?and poetry for?Post-weekend?Poetry.
?
Writing group lead (since March 2008) of critique and writing workshops, 'Bailey's Writing Tips' podcaster since August 2010 and WordPress blogger since late March 2011... oh and sometimes in between I write. :)
All Critics (63) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (4)
More than a social morality tale, this is a character study, with the title well chosen.
"The Queen of Versailles" ought to be required viewing for anyone who blames the rich for yanking the rug out from under America's economy.
What I left with was not hatred. I disapprove of the values they represent, but I also find them fascinating and just slightly lovable.
"The Queen of Versailles" turns out to be a portrait -- appalling, absorbing and improbably affecting -- of how, even within a system seemingly designed to ensure that the rich get richer, sometimes the rich get poorer.
Through a clear lens unclouded by politics or blame, it offers insight into the hazardous American practice of living beyond our means.
There's more going on here than classist derision, and the filmmaker uses her footage to try to sort out her feelings.
It would be easy to look at this with smug satisfaction, but director Lauren Greenfield is impassive.
Surely more topical (and essential) now than when it was conceived, The Queen of Versailles plays like a Christopher Guest parody of the financial crisis.
Watching "The Queen of Versailles" you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Whatever their crimes of bad taste, they had it, flaunted it, lost it, and lived to tell the tale.
The pride, gluttony and inexplicable romance in the tale are almost Shakespearean.
By the end, the movie has pulled off a small miracle: You become absorbed in the lives of these people for who they are and not what they own.
In director Lauren Greenfield's tremendous documentary packed with terrific details, greed is not good. It is a slow, self-inflicted wound whose pain hits hard and fast.
A well-told tale about having to atone for sins of the sub-prime era.
A tragicomic indulgence of schadenfreude with the sophistication of a Kardashian reality show.
The result is a rich portrait.
A dysfunctional family documentary which invites the audience to take pleasure in the misfortunes of some decidedly-decadent 1%ers.
There are improbably involving human stories here.
More Critic Reviews
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Fish with cancer discovered in Australia. Image: Newcastle University/Michael Sweet
Widespread skin cancer has been identified in coral trout species in the Great Barrier Reef.
Living in Australia, underneath the world?s largest hole in the ozone layer, we are all taught the rule ?slip, slop, slap? from a young age. Along with New Zealand, Australia has the highest incidence rate of melanoma in the world.
There is much research being conducted into human skin cancer, but studying the disease in wild animal populations has proven to be much more difficult and costly in the past.
A collaborative new study between experts from Newcastle University, UK, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science has revealed for the first time that there is a high prevalence of melanoma in at least three different species of the iconic coral trout (Plectropomus leopardus) in two locations (Heron Island and One Tree Island) on the southern Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The results of this study have been published in the journal, PLoS One.
?The strong links between our samples and those in laboratory UV induced melanomas [in fish], suggests UV-B to be the most likely cause of cancer in [wild populations] of fish,? says lead scientist Michael Sweet from Newcastle University. ?This coupled with the highest prevalence of cases reported being directly under the ozone hole in the southern hemisphere strengthens our hypothesis.? Although, Sweet explains, further work to confirm this is ongoing.
During the field research the scientists sampled 136 fish and found that 20 (15%) of them were covered in lesions on the surface of their skin indicative of melanoma.? These lesions ranged from just a few small cuts, to full skin coverage, which gave the usually vibrant coloured fish an entirely black appearance. In all the diseased fish, the cancer was restricted to the dermis and in its early stages.
The researchers tested whether other possible environmental factors could be causing the prevalent skin disease, such as microbial pathogens or marine pollution. But analysis showed the amount of microbes to be equal in the diseased and non-diseased fish. Therefore, according to the researchers, UV radiation appears to be the most likely culprit.
UNSW researcher Bart Adriaenssens, who was not involved with the study, explains that the research is very interesting and can count as a warning signal that increased UV may not only affects humans but also wild animal populations. Apart from this it also underscores the need for further research to better understand the occurrence of melanoma in nature.
?Even if ozone layer thinning is a very likely candidate, future research is needed to fully rule out alternative causes for the melanoma: do we notice it only now because research focuses more on skin cancer these days? If it is a recent syndrome, can it be caused by a recent shift in activity of coral trout that exposes them more to UV?, [for example]? coral trout may have shifted their activity towards UV-rich surface layers in response to changes in prey or predator abundance leading to similar increases in melanoma prevalence,? says?Adriaenssens. ?However, the study clearly confirms that melanoma exists in natural coral trout populations and these questions now become relevant.?
How far reaching and concerning the disease is also remains unclear and the researchers say there are many environmental and economic factors that need to be considered. ?As it?s [coral trout] a commercially valuable fish there are potential economic implications of the disease to this trade and also human health issues need to be further investigated,? says Sweet.
Your customers don?t always know what?s best for them (as Henry Ford said ?If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.?) but they do know how to leave your brand behind if they can?t find the smooth interaction they need when they are ready to do business.
Online self-service options for your customers are important because of the nature of today?s customers?their lifestyle, our global culture, and the competitive business environment. Self-service is driven by the empowered customer who wants service and assistance on their own terms.
Begin the exercise of seeing everything about your business through the lens of your customer, by pretending you are one. Much will reveal itself when you walk through your business from that perspective. You must see the flaws in order to improve them
The HeartWiseSM Risk Reduction Program Lecture Series aims to reduce people?s risk of heart disease through education and interaction. In addition to serving patients who currently suffer from heart disease, we also provide help to individuals who could be at risk for heart complications in the future including those who smoke, do not exercise or have high blood pressure.
Admission is free and everyone is welcome! Call 404-778-2850 to reserve your seat, or you can?sign up for a HeartWise lecture online.
Admission to HeartWise events is free and everyone is welcome! Call?404-778-2850?to reserve your seat, or you can?sign up for one of our August HeartWise lectures online!
Most with celiac disease unaware of it, others go gluten-free without diagnosisPublic release date: 31-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Kilen newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Roughly 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease, but around 1.4 million of them are unaware that they have it, a Mayo Clinic-led analysis of the condition's prevalence has found. Meanwhile, 1.6 million people in the United States are on a gluten-free diet even though they haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease, according to the study published Tuesday in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Researchers have estimated the rate of diagnosed and undiagnosed celiac disease at similar levels prior to this study, but this is the most definitive study on the issue. "This provides proof that this disease is common in the United States," says co-author Joseph Murray, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist. "If you detect one person for every five or six (who have it), we aren't doing a very good job detecting celiac disease."
Celiac disease is a digestive disorder brought on when genetically susceptible people eat wheat, rye and barley. A gluten-free diet, which excludes the protein gluten, is used to treat celiac disease. Roughly 80 percent of the people on a gluten-free diet do so without a diagnosis of celiac disease.
"There are a lot of people on a gluten-free diet, and it's not clear what the medical need for that is," Dr. Murray says. "It is important if someone thinks they might have celiac disease that they be tested first before they go on the diet."
To determine its prevalence, researchers combined blood tests confirming celiac disease with interviews from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) nationwide population sample survey called National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey, designed to assess the health and nutrition of U.S. adults and children, is unique in that it combines interviews and physical examinations.
Researchers found that celiac disease is much more common in Caucasians.
"In fact, virtually all the individuals we found were non-Hispanic Caucasians," says co-author Alberto Rubio-Tapia, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist. But previous research in Mexico has shown that celiac disease could be just as common as it is in the U.S.
"So that is something we don't fully understand," Dr. Rubio-Tapia says. The study found the rate of celiac disease in the U.S. is similar to that found in several European countries.
The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the CDC. Study authors include James Everhart, M.D., from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease; Jonas Ludvigsson, M.D., Ph.D., from Orebro University Hospital and the Karolinska Institutet; and Tricia Brantner from Mayo Clinic.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.com and www.mayoclinic.org/news.
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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.
Most with celiac disease unaware of it, others go gluten-free without diagnosisPublic release date: 31-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Kilen newsbureau@mayo.edu 507-284-5005 Mayo Clinic
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Roughly 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease, but around 1.4 million of them are unaware that they have it, a Mayo Clinic-led analysis of the condition's prevalence has found. Meanwhile, 1.6 million people in the United States are on a gluten-free diet even though they haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease, according to the study published Tuesday in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Researchers have estimated the rate of diagnosed and undiagnosed celiac disease at similar levels prior to this study, but this is the most definitive study on the issue. "This provides proof that this disease is common in the United States," says co-author Joseph Murray, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist. "If you detect one person for every five or six (who have it), we aren't doing a very good job detecting celiac disease."
Celiac disease is a digestive disorder brought on when genetically susceptible people eat wheat, rye and barley. A gluten-free diet, which excludes the protein gluten, is used to treat celiac disease. Roughly 80 percent of the people on a gluten-free diet do so without a diagnosis of celiac disease.
"There are a lot of people on a gluten-free diet, and it's not clear what the medical need for that is," Dr. Murray says. "It is important if someone thinks they might have celiac disease that they be tested first before they go on the diet."
To determine its prevalence, researchers combined blood tests confirming celiac disease with interviews from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) nationwide population sample survey called National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey, designed to assess the health and nutrition of U.S. adults and children, is unique in that it combines interviews and physical examinations.
Researchers found that celiac disease is much more common in Caucasians.
"In fact, virtually all the individuals we found were non-Hispanic Caucasians," says co-author Alberto Rubio-Tapia, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist. But previous research in Mexico has shown that celiac disease could be just as common as it is in the U.S.
"So that is something we don't fully understand," Dr. Rubio-Tapia says. The study found the rate of celiac disease in the U.S. is similar to that found in several European countries.
The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the CDC. Study authors include James Everhart, M.D., from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease; Jonas Ludvigsson, M.D., Ph.D., from Orebro University Hospital and the Karolinska Institutet; and Tricia Brantner from Mayo Clinic.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.com and www.mayoclinic.org/news.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Your customers don?t always know what?s best for them (as Henry Ford said ?If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.?) but they do know how to leave your brand behind if they can?t find the smooth interaction they need when they are ready to do business.
The HeartWiseSM Risk Reduction Program Lecture Series aims to reduce people?s risk of heart disease through education and interaction. In addition to serving patients who currently suffer from heart disease, we also provide help to individuals who could be at risk for heart complications in the future including those who smoke, do not exercise or have high blood pressure.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_srdeibJJlVZAs6Jt6pywwIkyaQYvpuSuTkBUxm3uIenw6X0Up-zmxHYvA_q0z_S46ujhVtj2O4zXr71zku6oV6NFf0rc_C2CmYDFluLQI=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 31-Jul-2012
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