The 10-year-old Japanese Chin wasnt house-trained and didnt know how to play with people. He hardly seemed like anyones idea of a pet.

But thanks to several months of rehabilitation, he is.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals set up a rehab center for Snarf and the other 117 dogs rescued in October from the puppy mill.

The ASPCA is the only national animal welfare organization with a behavior team dedicated solely to rehabilitating victims of cruelty and disasters. Last year, the anti-cruelty behavior team coordinated rehab for more than 1,200 cats and dogs.

Many pets that end up in rehab are victims of abusive owners who have been arrested for dogfighting, hoarding or puppy-mill violations. Other animals survive natural disasters.

Snarf had been crated, isolated and used for breeding all his life before his six months in rehab.

His medical conditions were treated, and he was taught how to socialize and play with humans and animals, how to walk on a leash and to urinate outside of his crate.

Hoarded or mill dogs have been trapped in small spaces and denied human contact, so they lack social skills and often are afraid of sights, sounds and experiences, said Pamela Reid, an animal behaviorist and vice president of the ASPCAs anti-cruelty behavior team.

Can rehab save every animal?

Saving depends on your definition. We certainly save them from cruel and inhumane situations, Ms. Reid said. There are medical cases where its more fair to the animal to euthanize than to attempt treatment or treatment is not possible.

Dogfighting and disasters can be more challenging. Fighting dogs might show aggression toward other animals but appear sweet and friendly with people. Disasters bring their own kind of fear.

Ms. Reids behavior team watches how each dog reacts to pleasant greetings and unpleasant greetings. The behaviorists watch as workers clip an animals nails, pull a burr from its fur, give it a toy and food and take those things away. They expose the dog to a toddler-size doll and a life-size dog mannequin, scold it and watch it interact with other dogs.

Behaviorists look for eye contact, posture, the dogs tail and ears and what it does when it sees a person it knows.

A dog has to do well with the doll before behaviorists will recommend it for a home with children, Ms. Reid said.

Story Continues rarr;

View Entire Story

Tue., Apr. 24, 2012 7:00 AM PDT
by Tierney Bricker

ASHBURN, Va., May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Brainware, Inc. announced today that World Trade Office Solutions, a New York-based provider of office equipment, document management, mailroom solutions and IT consulting services, has entered into an agreement with Brainware to distribute the Brainware Distiller application for intelligent data capture. The contract, which holds a total value of nearly one million dollars for Brainware, reflects World Trade’s commitment to developing document management system (DMS) solutions that offer scalable, highly functional data extraction capabilities to its customers.

“Increasingly, our prospects cite intelligent data capture as an ideal catalyst for efficiency and optimal performance in their document-driven operations,” said Joe Berg, President of World Trade Office Solutions. “In following a wealth of available products that address the needs and challenges of our customer base, we concluded that no other product offers the business value that Brainware’s Distiller does. This is a powerful technology for alleviating the pain points of high-volume data processing, and we see great potential in adding it to our portfolio.”

“By delivering a highly-automated mechanism for capturing data the moment it enters the office, reconciling transactional data from key documents such as invoices and remittances, and making vital intelligence accessible throughout the organization, Distiller offers a true mailroom-to-boardroom solution for world-class efficiency,” said Charles Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing at Brainware. “As a scalable platform for processing data, Distiller frees customers from the tedium of manual data entry, allowing them to devote their resources to operational improvements, strategic cash management and customer service. Brainware anticipates this contract will create considerable opportunities for World Trade Office Solutions, a company that carries a stellar reputation for offering innovative, comprehensive solutions to a broad range of satisfied clients.”

World Trade Office Solutions, formerly World Trade Copiers, was founded in 1985 as a service and repair shop for copiers, telex machines, typewriters, dot matrix printers and telecopiers, known today simply as fax machines. The company expanded its leasing in 1992. World Trade Office Solutions is now situated in Brooklyn, where the company’s showroom, offices, warehouse and service area are located. Today, the company specializes in office equipment, document management, and IT consulting and support. For more information, visit
www.worldtradecopiers.com .

About Brainware, Inc.

Brainware, Inc. is an innovative provider of intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions that help Global 2000 companies eliminate costly manual data entry, rapidly process large volumes of documents and retrieve data from across the enterprise. Its solutions were built from the ground up to manage unstructured data without templates, exact definitions, taxonomies or indexing. Headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, Brainware maintains global sales and support operations through its North American, U.K. and European offices. Brainware customers include Airbus, Alcon, Anadarko, BB&T, Baylor Health Care System, British American Tobacco, BSkyB, Clear Channel Communications, Cleveland Clinic, Continental Airlines, CORT, Frontier Communications, Gardner Denver, Halliburton, Her Majesty’s Prison Service, Johns Manville, KPMG, NEC, NHS/Steria, Newell Rubbermaid, Old Dominion Freight Line, Philip Morris International, Resurrection Health Care, Reynolds & Reynolds, Shell, Southern Company, Sun Chemical, The Bank of New York Mellon/SourceNet, TriZetto, and many others. For more information, please visit
www.brainware.com .

Contact: Robert Zoch
Public Relations Specialist
Brainware, Inc.
703-948-5831
Robert.Zoch@brainware.com

SOURCE Brainware, Inc.

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

AUSTIN, Texas, May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
With Mother’s Day around the corner, daughters and sons search for the perfect way to show they care. As spring turns into summer, colorful blooms are a great way to celebrate how moms selflessly give to those around them and brighten up their lives.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/mnr/46971-whole-foods-market-happy-mother-s-day-with-whole-trade-flowers

Whole Trade flowers from Whole Foods Market® have many of the same characteristics that Mom does – they’re not only beautiful, but they keep on giving. Whole Foods Market’s Whole Trade Guarantee ensures that growers get equitable wages and working conditions while also caring for the environment. Additionally, funds from Whole Trade Guarantee sale support community development projects in the countries products are sourced from, such as schools, education programs and health services. Send a sweet message to Mom this Mother’s Day or any day with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and not only make her day, make someone else’s too.

FACTS:

Whole Trade Guarantee means growers pay fair wages, provide safe working conditions, care for the environment and meet Whole Foods Market’s high quality standards.

Through the purchases by its shoppers, Whole Foods Market has provided millions of dollars in social premiums for Whole Trade flowers.

QUOTES:

“When shoppers purchase a bouquet of Whole Trade Guarantee flowers for their mom or a loved one, they’re not only getting beautiful, high-quality blooms, but their purchases help make a difference in the lives of the people who grow them.” – John Walker, senior global produce coordinator, Whole Foods Market

“Whole Foods Market has not only sought out the finest roses in south America for mother’s day but is paying a 10 percent premium to improve the lives of flower workers, most of whom are women and many of whom are mothers themselves. In fact, WFM was the first U.S. retailer to generate $1 million in Community Development Premiums which has funded hundreds of scholarships for children and adults, provided micro loans for small businesses, cancer screening for women and decent housing for the community.” – Paul Rice, president and CEO, Fair Trade USA

Contacts: Lindsay.Robison@wholefoods.com; 512.542.3483

SOURCE Whole Foods Market

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

Now the US is aggressively trying to advance, by the end of this summer no less, the mother of all FTAs to date: the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP would be an agreement among the US and the eight Pacific Rim nations of Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Every Pacific Rim nation — including, notably, Japan, China, Russia, Indonesia, Canada and Mexico — could eventually be included.

But if advanced, I believe that TPP could very likely dwarf the negative impacts from all prior FTAs combined, including the still notorious multilateral NAFTA (which went into effect in 1994) and the multilateral CAFTA (signed in 2003).

While every promise associated with FTAs is impossible to assess, looking back at NAFTA and CAFTA as primers for TPP, these are the facts:

o Neither Agreement has come close to meeting the fundamental promises made to the American people about the increase in US net exports and the creation of American jobs which it would produce.

o One size never fits all in multilateral trade agreements, especially when the differences in the states of development are extreme (NAFTA) or when the export mix among the countries is extreme (CAFTA, which includes OPEC member Nicaragua alongside largely agrarian Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras). For example, from 1993 when NAFTA was signed to five years later, the US trade deficit with Canada widened from $10.8 billion to $16.7 billion; during the same period, Americas trade balance with Mexico went from a surplus of $1.7 billion to a deficit of $15.9 billion. By 2011, the U.S trade deficit with Canada and with Mexico was $35.6 billion and $65.6 billion, respectively, or, in the aggregate, an almost unbelievable $92.1 billion more than when the Agreement was signed.

FTAs were a popular mainstay of the last three Republican Presidents, and regrettably even President Clinton, urged on by the consummate free-trader Bob Rubin, embraced them as well, especially in his case, NAFTA. Now the Obama administration, against the advice of economists from the left almost universally and from the right in increasing numbers, seems similarly anxious to drink the free traders Kool Aid, with the deeply flawed TPP as the straw in the drink.

In a compelling Council on Foreign Relations posting (US Trade Policy: Is America AWOL?, 7-18-11), Stewart M. Patrick praised the restraint showed by major trading nations in avoiding a descent into 1930s-style, beggar-thy-neighbor trade discrimination. And my criticism now of TPP is not born out of a desire for protectionism. Rather, like Mr. Patrick, I believe that the developed versus developing country dichotomy at the heart of the Doha Round [and now of TPP] obscures the surging global importance of the biggest emerging market economies (EMEs), especially China, India and Brazil.

What the Obama administration should be doing, rather than rushing pell-mell into TPP, with its own extreme mix of economic maturity and exports, is acknowledging the near impossibility of negotiating complex multilateral trade agreements that prove fair to American workers. Instead it should be spearheading more realistic efforts that reflect the growth of the emerging market economies and demand more burden-sharing by them. To this point, Chinas GDP already exceeds that of Japan and is second only to our own, just as India, now among the worlds largest economies, will soon overtake in the Pacific Basin each of Australia, Canada, Indonesia and Mexico and in the Greater Atlantic Basin the major countries of Europe.

Bilateral and thoughtfully constructed smallish regional agreements are always preferable to massive multilateral agreements among widely disparate trading partners. In fact, the only reasonable justification for such multilateral agreements is to address security and common defense concerns, but this particular justification, no matter how well intentioned, is insufficient to warrant such a dramatic mixing of trade and economic practices as is TPP.

Some fear that the demise of multilateral agreements will erode global support for the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO, but this concern would be better addressed by reforming and strengthening the WTO than by further capitulating to ill-conceived multilateral FTAs. The esteemed Jagdish Bhagwati of CFR and Columbia University worries that if multilateral agreements such as Doha and TPP collapse, then the world will be overtaken by regional trade agreements and other bilateral arrangements which will be discriminatory. I dispute his conclusion that such agreements will inevitably be discriminatory — they neednt be — and if effected without discrimination, they are, Mr. Bhagwati, far preferable to inherently and structurally flawed multinational agreements.

President Obama has said that TPP would be a template for a 21st-century [trade] agreement which would eventually be open to all the countries of the Pacific region. But the United States already has FTAs with four (Australia, Chile, Peru and Singapore) of the eight other countries included in the current talks, and these four nations plus the US already account for more than 85% of the total trade at stake in the TPP. Do we really need to start down such a slippery trading slope for codified trade relations with the four disparate countries of Brunei, Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam, which while significant in their combined GDP ($891 billion) are relatively insignificant in combined non-energy trading?

The reality is that too many of the eight non-US first-stage signatories see TPP as a way to ensure a long-term American security commitment to the greater Pacific Basin, against the growing military power of China (see here), while continuing to free ride on Americas more open markets and lock in their access to them.

While it is appropriate to consider non-trade related strategic and security factors associated with small FTAs, provided US values are not compromised, large-scale multilateral FTAs should stand on their own and not be afforded this backdoor justification for their promulgation, which is how in part NAFTA and CAFTA were advanced and TPP is now being characterized

In writing about why US trade policy to date has largely failed, Clyde Prestowitz (The Pacific Pivot, The American Prospect, 2 April 2012) says that all the trade deals to date — and now TPP — have served two clear purposes. The first is the geopolitical grand strategy objectives of the United States. By making the United States the market of last resort, the trade agreements have helped persuade allies to accept US hegemony. The second purpose served is that of US businesses that profit immensely from outsourcing and offshoring to Asia but that need the security provided by Uncle Sam to do so. These realities reveal the flaws in US trade efforts — misplaced priorities, a false doctrine, and false assumptions.

The Obama administration is absolutely right to be seeking a comprehensive 21st-century US trade policy. And it is just as right to be seeking comprehensive 21st-century security arrangements for the greater Pacific Basin. But neither objective should lead our nation into adopting TPP, which, unless materially changed from the draft now in circulation, appears to have the following major flaws:

1. It pays short shrift to the issues consumer safety and environmental practices and to the concerns of organized labor.

2. It breezes through intellectual property protection, regulatory coherence, and antitrust enforcement, especially of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

3. It allows for even more extreme financial industry deregulation while allowing for equally extreme foreign investor protections that in the past have helped American multinational corporations offshore American jobs. A proper trade agreement — multilateral or bilateral — should limit the massive investment incentives that many nations (although not the US, of course!) now use to draw jobs to their shores and thus have cost America millions of manufacturing jobs in just the last decade. These indirect export subsidies are nothing more than a highly effective way to circumvent WTOs prohibition of direct export subsidies.

4. It bans Buy American, which would give all companies operating in any signatory country equal access to US government procurement contracts (even though none of these other governments procurement comes even close to matching ours in amount).

5. It gives Americas Big Pharma companies patent extensions while at the same time limits our ability to cut costs through drug formularies, even though such formularies are now deeply embedded in our Medicare, Medicaid and VA programs. The only possible result is much higher drug prices for American consumers.

6. It allows TPPs signatory nations to export the products of their highly subsidized State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), contrary to the objections of every small and medium sized American manufacturer, all of our non-service labor unions, and every right-minded trade economist in America. Nor are there likely to be appropriate limits on major foreign SOEs investing directly in the United States.

Compounding the myriad problems and the unacceptable loopholes going in, TPPs terms, once enacted, will be very hard to change — and yet changes will inevitably have to be made. And with only the [majority?] consent of the initial signatory governments, any other nation in the Pacific Basin can readily join the pact. While this latter all-for-one premise is in keeping with the administrations stated objective of TPP being the first encompassing 21st century multilateral trade agreement, it only confirms the fallacy of the one size fits all approach to negotiating FTAs. Japan is not among the original proposed signatories, but neither is Fiji — how can any agreement be considered thoughtful when it can accept at once into membership such diverse Pacific nations?

Speaking of Japan, as I write this, Japanese Prime Minister Noda was expected to meet with President Obama on April 30 (yesterday), and it is thought that TPP was high on the list of topics, since the Prime Minister seemingly wants Japan in TPP, despite the strong objections of affected interest groups in Japan, especially agriculture. Why the Prime Minister wants Japan in TPP and why we would want to see Japan in are mysteries to me.

Of the nine nations now negotiating TPP, Singapore and Malaysia embrace strategic industrial policy and export-led growth, and Vietnam is dominated by state-owned enterprises. Should Japan – with its own commitment to export-led growth and to state-influenced (if not necessarily owned) enterprises – be allowed to enter the process, TPP will be even more problematic for American companies and workers. As Mr. Prestowitz has written, As a member of the WTO, Japan has long been pledged to follow free-trade rules yet [it] has managed to do so without opening its home market to imports; should it join TPP and still maintain its closed economy, Japan will make the accord even more dangerous to the American economy.

The United States has no better friend than Japan today, albeit with some serious trade issues around autos and agriculture to be resolved between the two countries. But TPP is simply not the place to seek resolution, and there is no better example of the peril of using a single agreement to establish a fair trading regimen for disparate economies than thinking that TPP could at once fairly address the needs of the United States, Japan and Brunei.

Leo Hindery Jr. is chair of the US Economy/Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation, co-chair (with USW President Leo Gerard) of The Task Force on Jobs Creation, founder of Jobs First 2012, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the former CEO of ATT Broadband and its predecessors, Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) and Liberty Media, and is currently an investor in media companies.

The study comes on the heels of a 2011 survey conducted on behalf of the Canned Food Alliance (CFA) that found US consumers underestimate the benefits of canned foods. In fact, nearly 40% of consumers surveyed said they think canned foods are less nutritious than frozen, and nearly 60% of those survey said they are not as nutritious as fresh foods.

For this study, researchers from Ketchum Global Health and Wellness conducted a market-basket study funded by CFA comparing the cost of obtaining key nutrients from canned, fresh, frozen and dried varieties of common foods. The market-basket study involved buying, preparing and analyzing canned, fresh, frozen and dried (where available) corn, green snap beans, mushrooms, peas, pumpkin, spinach, tomatoes, pears, peaches, pinto beans and tuna fish. The foods were cooked so that an accurate comparison could be made. All varieties purchased were with no added salt or sugar when available.

The foods were analyzed to determine the cost of several key nutrients, including protein, fiber, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C and folate. The nutrient content was obtained from the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory, Standard Release 24. The nutrients selected for comparison were included because they are either “nutrients of concern for children, adolescents and adults and/or are those commonly found in the foods.

Findings for pinto beans, tomatoes, corn and spinach were particularly interesting:

• Canned pinto beans cost $1 less per serving as a source of protein and fiber than dried beans because it takes about 6 minutes to prepare a can of pinto beans compared to 2½ hours (soaking and cooking) for dried beans to be meal-ready.
• It is nearly 60% more expensive to obtain dietary fiber from fresh tomatoes as from the same portion of canned tomatoes. Not only is the price of canned tomatoes lower than fresh for the same serving size, but fresh tomatoes take longer to prepare, adding to the real cost of fresh.
• When looking at purchase price alone, fresh corn is less expensive than canned or frozen. However, when the cost of waste (most notably the cob) is factored in, as well as time to prepare, canned corn offers the same amount of dietary fiber as fresh at a 25% savings.
• With a lower cost-per-serving than fresh or frozen, canned spinach provides vitamin C at an 85% savings when compared to fresh or frozen.

“With economic concerns at the forefront today, households are challenged to meet dietary recommendations within budgetary constraints, the researchers said. “This research should assure families they are getting needed nutrition regardless of whether they choose canned, fresh, frozen or dried varieties. They can be confident in buying those foods that best meet their budgets, schedules, cooking abilities and taste preferences and still obtain important nutrients.

Even babies as young as 11 months old are naturally drawn to animals, including those that may frighten many adults, such as spiders and snakes, investigators from the University of Virginia and Rutgers University found.

The researchers conducted experiments in which children had the opportunity to choose between animals or attractive toys. The children, the study revealed, spent more time with all types of animals than with the toys.

The animals also sparked more curiosity and interest than the toys did, the investigators noted. For example, when focusing their attention on the animals, the kids gestured more, talked about the animals more and asked more questions. As a result, the researchers suggested that animals help children learn.

?The fact that children find animals so appealing suggests that children may benefit from having an animal, like a pet, in their lives,? Vanessa LoBue, from Rutgers University, said in a news release from the British Psychological Society.

?Our research develops the idea that animals may be a good instrument for learning,? she said. ?This is borne out by the widespread use of animal characters in children?s books and TV programs.?

The study was published Friday in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

For consoles owned, the responses were pretty much par for the course. The Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii dominate the market with nearly 50 percent of responders owning one or the other (2070 viable reader responses). A Question on the most commonly used console brought in somewhat similar results, although the total number of users for smart phones, PCs, and other consoles was the dominant winner (1854 viable reader responses).

When asked what console they were looking to purchase, most people answered with the Nintendo 3DS, showing that Nintendo still reigns strong in the gaming market (954 viable reader responses). However, when the question about what console people are looking to purchase is broken down into the three major reasons for purchase, (a specific game, because a friend owns one, or because the content is appealing) an interesting trend appears. Across the board, most people make their console choices for specific games. But with Sony and Microsoft, the percentage of content specific people is universally greater than those who are influenced by their friends, whereas with Nintendo, the outside influence of friends appears to be stronger. Depending on how one looks at the data, this means that either Nintendo consoles are weaker on content, or they incorporate more social interactions and influences (or both).

Another notable result involved network usage. When asked about network use of their consoles, surprisingly, less than 40 percent of responders said they used the network capabilities of their consoles (1534 viable reader responses). Of these people, less than 10 percent use any pay content like DLC. (This means, for every 100 users, only 4 spend any money for downloadable content.) Obviously downloadable content and add-ons are a relatively young market and these figures arent very useful as indicators for its future, but they do paint a startling picture of its present.

?????? [??????]

Aaron Rakes says he saves hundreds of dollars per month by riding the bus, rather than driving each weekday from Chico to his job in Oroville.

It would cost me $300 a month for gas and upkeep if I drove a car, he said.

With the uptick in fuel prices, taking the B-Line Transit buses around Chico and other parts of Butte County is becoming an ever more popular way to travel. At he same time, this upsurge is helping the environment.

Riding the buses is economical and helps cut pollution by greatly reducing the number of cars on the road spewing carbon monoxide, said Jim Peplow, senior planner for the Butte County Association of Governments, which oversees the bus lines. Were on a pace to set the all-time record for the most bus riders ever this fiscal year.

Peplow said the previous record for ridership came during another spike in fuel costs back in 2008 and 2009.

However, he also attributed the increase in passengers to more efficient bus routes, times and schedules. In 2010, the B-Line began schedule changes that incorporated technology such as Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking. This permitted more exact stop times by identifying those that were running longer or shorter than their stated times.

This streamlining has helped the environment by cutting down the time buses spend idling at stops.

Another eco-friendly change came in 2011, with the purchase of 11 buses that run on clean diesel fuel. They replaced older, less fuel-efficient models. All B-Line buses now run on either eco-friendly clean diesel or compressed natural gas.

That same year, many stops shortened their intervals from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.

More than 500 B-Line bus stops are now made daily throughout Butte County. The record ridership seen in the first eight months of the current fiscal year has also been enhanced by 75 new bus shelters built in the last two years countywide. Each has colored, easy-to-read route schedules.

For anyone who hasnt ridden B-Line, there will be an opportunity to do so for free during the upcoming Spare the Air Day on Thursday, May 3. The special promotion is meant to encourage new riders as well as thank current ones, Peplow said.

Regular rates are $1.40, students ride for $1, and the fares cost 70 cents for seniors and the disabled. Regional fees to travel from Chico to Oroville or Gridley cost $1.80. Frequent riders can save by buying a 30-day pass for $35 (or $43 for the regional pass).

Its great for commuters, and you dont have to worry about driving, breaking down, crashing, or wear and tear on your car, Peplow said.

A much-anticipated future improvement will be the GPS updates on the B-Lines website (go to www.blinetransit.com to learn more). Expected as early as this summer, the service will allow the public to view minute-by-minute updates on the exact whereabouts and expected stop times of their buses. This information will be available on smart phones, tablets, laptops or home computers.

If you missed your bus stop time, you can check the GPS updates, and if its running late youll know you can still catch it, explained Peplow.

In the meantime, riders like Rakes continue to enjoy the buses not only for the economical benefit, but also for the friendly service.

The drivers are extremely polite. My young son loves them, Rakes said. When we take our regular bus, he says, Hes my favorite driver! because the driver gives him candy each time.