Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/15r6S0cS2hc/
academy awards independent spirit awards 2012 jan brewer independent spirit awards 2012 oscar predictions ufc results jim jones
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/15r6S0cS2hc/
academy awards independent spirit awards 2012 jan brewer independent spirit awards 2012 oscar predictions ufc results jim jones
By Sandra Diamond Fox/HealthyLife
Run, jump, swing, hit ? smile. If you ask Albany resident Rebecca Vaccariello to describe the workout she has engaged in once a week for the past three years, she would reply ?what workout?? To her, Cardio Tennis is play.
?This doesn?t feel like a workout. It feels like you?re just playing. That?s how much fun this is. I?m addicted,? Vaccariello says.
She?s not alone. Created in 2005 by the United States Tennis Association ? the national governing body for the sport of tennis ? Cardio Tennis is a high-energy fitness activity that offers a full-body, calorie-burning aerobic workout. Cardio Tennis classes are currently offered in eight countries around the world.
Here?s how it works. A certified instructor feeds students balls from all over the tennis court. ?Sometimes I am across the net and sometimes I am in front of the players. I have them moving in different patterns [so] as to keep each class fast-paced, challenging and, most importantly, fun,? says Mike Muscato, director of player development at Capital Region Tennis & Fitness in Albany, who has been teaching Cardio Tennis for five years. Muscato is certified with the USTA and the Professional Tennis Registry.
The typical Cardio Tennis program is 60 to 90 minutes, and includes a warm-up, cardio workout, and cool-down segment, as well as games at the end. Unlike regular tennis, keeping score is not part of the game plan.
?Cardio Tennis was created as a way to introduce a healthy alternative to just playing singles or doubles, as well as to bring new players into tennis,? says Muscato, who lives in Amsterdam. Muscato has also taught Cardio Tennis at Bethlehem Town Park and at Siena College in Colonie.
Cardio Tennis is unique in that experienced tennis players can play on the same court at the same time with those who have never played a game of tennis, according to Muscato. ?I can tailor each class not only to students? individual abilities, but follow the progress of each student in order to challenge them each time. If I have the same eight people two weeks in a row, I?ll make the drills harder and longer so students have to work harder to get better at them,? he says.
The goal of Cardio Tennis is to train in your heart rate zone ? the heart rate achieved during exercise that benefits your heart and lungs ? for 30-50 minutes of a 60-minute workout. Target heart rate zones are based on maximum heart rate, a number that varies slightly by age. To determine your target heart rate, first figure out your maximum heart rate, which is 220 minus your age. If you?re 35 years old, your maximum heart rate is 185 beats per minute, or BPM. If you?re 45 years old, your maximum heart rate is 175 BPM. Your target heart rate zone is between 50 percent and 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. So for a 35-year-old, theis zone is 93 to 157 BPM; for a 45-year-old, the zone is 88 to 149 BPM.
When you get on the court, be prepared to begin moving and not slow down for the entire class. ?In my class, there is no standing around,? Muscato says. ?You are moving your feet the entire time.?
Students rotate between hitting the ball and engaging in other kinds of activities that involve continuous movement, such as jumping rope and jumping over hurdles. ?In a typical class, students travel four miles. Everyone is sweating. Every part of your body is in motion. Think of this as tennis with a shot of caffeine!? Muscato says.
Beyond improving overall fitness, Muscato says playing Cardio Tennis can improve all aspects of your tennis game, especially footwork. ?Footwork is the number-one issue with tennis players,? he says. ?If they don?t have good footwork, they won?t have a very effective game.?
Hitting more effectively ? and the satisfaction that comes with that ? is another benefit to cardio tennis, says Jed Murray, general manager at Sportime at Schenectady. Like Muscato, Murray, who has taught Cardio Tennis for three years, is certified with the USTA and the Professional Tennis Registry. ?There is nothing quite like the feeling of hitting something. It?s an incredible outlet, a feeling of satisfaction,? says Murray, who lives in Clifton Park. ?In a single Cardio Tennis class, you get to hit the ball at least 100 times.?
For Vaccariello, Cardio Tennis was actually the impetus to try regular tennis, which she?s now played for two years. ?Cardio Tennis got me to focus on shuffling back and forth. In regular tennis, you need to be shuffling back and forth across the court,? she says. ?New tennis players tend to turn and run, but if they do this, they would then have to turn to the front again in order to hit the ball.?
Like other aerobic classes in gyms and fitness centers ? but certainly unlike the church-like quiet found during tennis matches ? music can help keep the game fast-paced. ?Music makes the class roll on and helps keep people moving and motivated,? Muscato says. ?I try to mix in as many new and cool ? and sometimes corny, holiday tunes ? to keep everyone happy. The music can be any that is around 135 beats per minute. I use a cross between dance and pop. Nothing gets the crowd going than a good remix of a song that they can sing along to.?
Mixing it up is part of what has kept Albany resident Kristin O?Connor playing Cardio Tennis once a week for two years. ?I have always loved to work out. I run on the treadmill, do the elliptical machine, and go on the stationary bike, but this is something different,? she says. ?It works different muscle groups. It changes all the time.?
What is Cardio Tennis most similar to?
Note: While elements of all these activities are incorporated into Cardio Tennis, the difference is that Cardio Tennis offers players the chance to improve their tennis game, since it involves hitting balls with a racket.
What should you wear?
Sneakers and comfortable clothing.
What should you bring?
A tennis racket is optional, since the facility provides them, as well as the tennis balls. A heart-rate monitor is not required, but is encouraged. A water bottle is also recommended.
Is it for everyone?
Adults of all ages can play. If you are pregnant, have a pre-existing medical condition, or are recovering from major surgery, consult your physician prior to playing. Depending upon your fitness level, you may experience temporary soreness after taking the class.
Where is it offered?
Private lessons are available upon request. For more information on Cardio Tennis, visit cardiotennis.com.
Photos by Carin Lane/HealthyLife
Interested? Check out our video on Cardio Tennis here.
Source: http://blog.timesunion.com/healthylifemagazine/fitness-welcome-to-the-world-of-cardio-tennis/386/
als disease brittany norwood lindsay lohan condoleezza rice frank mccourt ricin in god we trust
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924115/news/1924115/
bettie page harry caray northern lights maksim chmerkovskiy aurora borealis s.978 larry ellison
?
Williams was previously indicted along with co-defendant Garret Griffith Gililland III in connection with two properties in Chico, California. The superseding indictment adds Clymer and identifies additional properties that Williams and Clymer are accused of flipping for as much as $100,000 over the price the two men paid to acquire the properties earlier the same day. The two men are real estate agents licensed in the State of California. They operated as partners out of a Sacramento office between 2006 and 2008, and the properties involved were in Sacramento, Gold River, Yuba City, and Chico, California.
The third superseding indictment alleges that Williams and Clymer used Diamond Hill Financial Inc. and Bay Area Real Estate Holdings LLC to acquire properties, flip them the same day they were purchased, and provide substantial side payments to buyers that were not disclosed to lenders in escrow. Moreover, the two allegedly orchestrated the loan applications of the buyers, providing false documents and false verifications of income and employment to lenders to ensure that the loans funded.
United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced the indictment.
This case is the product of a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the Butte County District Attorney's Office. Assistant United States Attorney Russell L. Carlberg is prosecuting the case.
The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud is 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or an alternative maximum fine of double the gain to defendants or loss caused, and a three year term of supervised release. The actual sentence, if convicted, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
The charges are only allegations, and each defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: http://mortgagefraudblog.com/perp-walk/item/16973-real-estate-agents-charged-with-flipping-scheme
david wright sugar cookie recipe sugar cookie recipe robert deniro how the grinch stole christmas macaroni and cheese festivus
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/46516304#46516304
google buzz trace cyrus hilary duff pregnant hilary duff pregnant psat psat brenda song
alabama crimson tide barry larkin at the drive in jay z new song torrie wilson alabama lsu bcs national championship
Continue reading HTC One X announced at MWC 2012
HTC One X announced at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/26/htc-one-x-announced-at-mwc-2012/
daniel day lewis patti stanger pasadena pasadena famu famu martina mcbride
The Oscars may be just around the corner, but celebrity gossip doesn?t start and stop with award shows. As the E! Network knows, gossip is a 24/7/365 sort of industry. If you feel like you?ve fallen out of touch with your favorite fame-hounds, check out these celeb-friendly apps.
If you?re tired of trolling dozens of gossip websites and blogs just to figure out what your favorite celebrity looks like when they first wake up, Gossip Junkie has the medicine you need. The app aggregates numerous celeb-first sites like Celebuzz, But You?re Like Really Pretty, Perez Hilton, E! Online and more. Gossip Junkie even supports push notifications so you won?t even have to check the app to know something crazy just happened to the rich person with whom you?re obsessed.
Celebrity news is best digested when it?s being delivered by a camera hastily put into a famous person?s face, and that?s why we have the TMZ app. TMZ offers a mix of articles and videos to keep you up-to-date on the latest in famous people. Not only can you watch TMZ TV clips, but you can read recaps of all the relevant award shows, even the upcoming Oscars.
Wonderwall works like a smorgasbord of the best features of celebrity-focused apps. There is, of course, the requisite celebrity news and gossip in the app. You can also check out photo galleries of your favorite celebs doing their celebrity thing. But Wonderwall also works outside the box to provide celebrity love advice, features on celebrity fashion, and original interviews with famous folks. Whatever your focus, it?s likely contained in Wonderwall.
I probably utter, ?Wait, [that celebrity] is still alive? Are you sure?? at least once a week. If you?re like me you might also enjoy the Celebrity Dead or Alive app. It?s a simple quiz that lets you test whether you?re aware of the health of thousands of celebrities in five, 10, 15, or 20 question increments. If you demand more, you can try out the marathon mode where questions never stop. The app also contains a party mode where you can pass your iPhone around to see who knows the most about dead celebrities.
If you prefer to be quizzed on more than whether a celebrity is still alive or not, Celebrity Quiz is the app you?re looking for. Celebrity Quiz features questions like ?Who was the first actress to appear on the cover of Life magazine?? The app also keeps a high score list so you can
jack del rio heaven is for real chapter 11 bankruptcy chapter 11 bankruptcy big ten acc challenge 2011 john wayne gacy amr
"Good Girl" is the new rock single by Carrie Underwood, who now sounds more like a Hollywood rock chick than a country cutie.
The song is just now busting onto the charts, so an official music video is still being completed (and rumored to be very hot).?
For now, enjoy the following lyric video to "Good Girl" by Carrie Underwood, the new aspiring Queen of Rock.
Carrie Underwood Good Girl
Source: http://www.californiality.com/2012/02/carrie-underwood-goes-rock.html
florida gop debate freddie mac kristin cavallari solar flare jay cutler oscar nominations rough riders
As the world?s fastest growing commercial airline, Etihad Airways always offers significant opportunities for its people to pursue their professional and personal goals.?As such, we also offer great personal benefits and a great employment package. We pride ourselves on doing things differently at Etihad but always with the utmost emphasis on safety. It?s why we have developed a global network of 60 world-class destinations in just six years and were awarded the title of World?s Leading Airline at the end of 2009.?To make sure we stay at the top, we need the world?s leading talent. We currently have some Jobs in Nigeria.
Finance Assistant-Lagos
Country Nigeria
City Lagos
Department Financial Reporting
Closing date 28 February 2012
Ensure that all target dates are met with timely submission of reports to the Head office and transactions are verified and recorded in line with financial policies and procedures.
You will be responsible to:
Ensure Monthly closing of GL,AP, AR in oracle by 7th of each month.
Compliance QR Financial policies and IAPs.
Submit Debtor aging report by 25th of each month.Creditor aging report on 25th of every 3rd month.Cost centre reportsby 25th of each month.
Reconcile Fixed Asset confirmation.
Reconcile and submit (Both pax and cargo) KCL reports, stock reconciliations of revenue documents.
Prepare Cash flow statements and submit by 25th of each month ato HO for following month (in weeks)
Adhere and Maintain Local laws are complied and documents indexed.
Prepare Budget as per schedule
Requirements for Etihad Jobs in Nigeria
In addition to above; you are required to have the following:
Must have the right to live and work in Nigeria
How to apply for Etihad Jobs in Nigeria
Click on this link, On the search criteria country enter Nigeria, then Click on Search and Apply to show Etihad Jobs in Nigeria
February 21, 2012 ?Tags:?Etihad, Etihad Airways? Posted?in:?Aviation Jobs in Nigeria
Source: http://naijadotcom.com/etihad-jobs-in-nigeria-finance-assistant.html
elizabeth smart fun. hepatitis c symptoms david bradley jamie lee curtis david foster wallace pinterest
There are various questions concerning LED lights that have not been addressed and make the lights strange. Here we attempt to make all facts about the LED lights as clear as possible.
Do LED lights seriously preserve the ecosystem?
Yes, they actually do. The simple fact is that they do not spend energy like other bulbs and hence economize energy. They also do not emit any damaging substances in to the society which bring about global warming. The final advantage of applying LED lights is that they save utility.
What are the main dissimilarities between LED lights and incandescent lights?
The incandescent light holds a filament that ought to be heated up to give you luminosity. This is why the bulb is getting hot. This is also thrown away energy. In the LED lights there is absolutely no filament at all and hence the bulb would not get warmed up. The incandescent light emits radiation into the surroundings where as, as mentioned earlier LED lights are environmental friendly. The lifetime of the incandescent bulb is too much less but the LED lights can last for long period of time and still is bright as ever. LED lights save even more electricity when compared to incandescent lights.
What is the lifetime of LED light bulbs?
LED lamps can last anywhere from ten years all the way up to 15 years. The LED lights usually do not stop working and only lose some brightness. Many people do not even catch this change as the less brightness is only sparse and can be handled. On the other hand the battery life of the LED lights is said to last from 2 and half years up to 3 and half years.
How long does it take to get the batteries fully charged?
To guarantee that the battery is fully charged you should place it on charging for approximately 6 hours at a stretch.
What are carbon emissions and how are they linked to LED lights?
All lighting sources force out carbon when switched on. This is often called carbon emission. This is not fine especially folks that are sick or even disabled. With the delivery of LED lighting this can now be renewed as this light will never emit any carbon. Over a longer duration of time many of the people who were suffering because of the carbon emissions are more likely to see improvements and get better too.
Source: http://home-improvementblog.com/led-lights-the-varied-questions-all-around-it-are-answered/
49ers game ravens ray lewis baltimore ravens steven tyler national anthem penn state paterno
Apple logo wallpapers and stock photos
partners
categories
resolutions
search
login
statistics
users online
Wallpapers 10 From 10 . Overall: 92521 votes. 92521 count.
Source: http://wallpapers.net/apple_logo_23-wallpapers.html
jambalaya the bachelor basketball wives deron williams the voice taylor swift and zac efron bethenny frankel
An online, non-scientific survey from SodaHead found that 61 percent of 602 respondents feel they are addicted to the internet. That may not be so surprising, given the survey was conducted online. More women than men felt they were addicted with 64 percent versus 55 percent. Teenagers reported themselves the biggest addicts with 73 percent. Older respondents, those aged between 45 and 54, reported 40 hours of browsing per week, but said they were not addicted, while teens reported 22.3 hours online. How could American?s internet addiction impact productivity in the workplace? ?What can employers do keep workers focused on their responsibilities? ?
Advertisement
Be the first to like this post.
psa test psa test real steel real steel iphone 4 cases dean ornish dean ornish
Continue reading Gevey Ultra S SIM brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video)
Gevey Ultra S SIM brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/R4ikzPFZNqc/
bradley manning whoopi goldberg tebowing tebowing washington wizards rudy zynga
On average, self-improvement-saga.com is ranked #264,319 across major traffic ranking services such as Alexa. This metric shows the popularity of this site compared to other sites around the web. This domain registered on 2009-08-19. It reaches roughly 1,713 unique users each day. Visitors to the site view an average of 1.4 unique pages per day. Estimated daily time on site 01:44 seconds. There are an average of 239 links pointing back to self-improvement-saga.com from other websites.
Self-improvement-saga.com has the potential to earn $34 USD in advertisement revenue per day. If the site was up for sale, it would be worth approximately $12,334 USD. Out of the 30 unique keywords found on self-improvement-saga.com, "self improvement" was the most dense. Self-improvement-saga.com is hosted in Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33394, United States and links to network IP address 64.29.151.221. This site has Google PageRank? 3 of 10.
Self Improvement Ideas Blog | Welcome to Self Improvement Saga
Life changing self improvement ideas, self improvement techniques, Law of Attraction tips and success skills to create the life of your dreams. Also weekly inspirational articles to keep you motivated.
Blog, Ideas, Improvement, Information, Skills, Success, Techniques
Daily Visits: The amount of user?s traffic during 24 hours.We use widestat algorithm with our own data to calculate visits quantity. |
1,713 | Monthly Visits: The amount of user?s traffic during 1 month.We use widestat algorithm with our own data to calculate visits quantity. |
51,390 |
Daily Revenue: The estimated cost of daily income from contextual advertising allocation. |
$34.26 USD | Monthly Revenue: The estimated cost of monthly income from contextual advertising allocation. |
$1,027.80 USD |
Alexa Rank: Alexa Rank is combined rating, that takes into account both the quantity of users and the quantity of website?s page views.The lower Alexa Rank index is the better. The best website has maximum rank 1. Learn more - http://www.alexa.com/help/traffic-learn-more |
264,319 | Google PageRank: Google PageRank? - is an important rate for your website promotion in Google? search engine that is calculated for every page separately. The higher website PageRank the more significant it is for Google?, maximum PageRank value is 10. |
3 of 10 |
Compete Rank: Compete rank is the authorized analytic resource that estimates sites? traffic.The bigger site traffic the lower Compete rank will be. |
142,095 | Google Index: The quantity of Google? indexed pages.The more pages are indexed by Google? the better. |
- |
Quantcast Rank: Quantcast makes hybrid evaluations of website?s audience and gives it the rank.The smaller the Quantcast Rank the better, maximum 1. |
276,556 | Yahoo Index: The quantity of Yahoo indexed pages.The more pages are indexed by Yahoo the better. |
346 |
DMOZ Listed: DMOZ ? is the most significant multilingual catalogue of sites in the Internet which is supported by community of volunteer editors.Search engines pay a lot of attention to DMOZ catalogue, this catalogue will be extremely useful to promote your website. |
No | Bing Index: The quantity of Bing indexed pages.The more pages are indexed by Bing the better. |
21 |
Created:
Search engines are using website age while ranking search results. The older the website the better it is ranked in search engines. |
2009-08-19 |
Updated: | 2011-10-09 |
Expires: | 2012-08-19 |
Registrar:
Domain name registrar is the organization that has all the rights for creation and registration of new domain names and also the right for extending validity of already existing domain names in domain for which obligatory registration is established. |
HOSTOPIA.COM INC. D/B/A APLUS.NET |
Owner: | Leneah Jo |
Domain Nameservers: |
ns1.abac.com ns2.abac.com |
The data in Aplus.net's WHOIS database is provided to you by Aplus.net for information purposes only, that is, to assist you in obtaining information about or related to a domain name registration record. Aplus.net makes this information available "as is," and does not guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a WHOIS query, you agree that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data to: (1) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via direct mail, electronic mail, or by telephone; or (2) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that apply to Aplus.net (or its systems). The compilation, repackaging, dissemination or other use of this data is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Aplus.net. Aplus.net reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by these terms. Registration Service Provider: Hostopia.com Inc, d/b/a Aplus.net +1.8772758763 dns@cs.aplus.net Registrant: Leneah Jo Leneah Jo 9941 Canterwood Dr. Cordova, TN 38016 US Phone: +1.9017599920 Email: neajoy@attractionsaga.com Domain Name: self-improvement-saga.com Administrative Contact: Leneah Jo Leneah Jo 9941 Canterwood Dr. Cordova, TN 38016 US Phone: +1.9017599920 Email: neajoy@attractionsaga.com Technical Contact: Leneah Jo Leneah Jo 9941 Canterwood Dr. Cordova, TN 38016 US Phone: +1.9017599920 Email: neajoy@attractionsaga.com Registrar of Record: Hostopia.com Inc. d/b/a Aplus.net, www.aplus.net Record last updated on 2011-10-09 Record expires on 2012-08-19 Record created on 2009-08-19 Domain servers in listed order: ns1.abac.com ns2.abac.com Visit AboutUs.org for more information about self-improvement-saga.com AboutUs: self-improvement-saga.com Register your domain name at http://www.aplus.net
Source: http://widestat.com/self-improvement-saga.com
how to carve a turkey how to cook a turkey yorkshire pudding larry the cable guy miracle on 34th street santa tracker patrice oneal
In this photo taken Feb. 14, 2012, Shwetha, 5, sits on the lap of her mother Sunita, 22, as she holds a photograph of her debt-ridden father Hari Prasad, who consumed fertilizer chemical to kill himself on Aug. 1, 2010, in Kadiri village about 160 kilometers (99 miles) north of Bangalore, India. A wave of suicides among the impoverished residents of India's Andhra Pradesh state was blamed on the relentless tactics of agents from microfinance companies, which give small loans intended to lift up the very poor. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
In this photo taken Feb. 14, 2012, Shwetha, 5, sits on the lap of her mother Sunita, 22, as she holds a photograph of her debt-ridden father Hari Prasad, who consumed fertilizer chemical to kill himself on Aug. 1, 2010, in Kadiri village about 160 kilometers (99 miles) north of Bangalore, India. A wave of suicides among the impoverished residents of India's Andhra Pradesh state was blamed on the relentless tactics of agents from microfinance companies, which give small loans intended to lift up the very poor. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012, Petla Narasimhulu holds a portrait of his 18-year-old daughter Petla Lalitha at their home in Godhumaguda village of Vikarabad district, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Hyderabad, India. Lalitha, pressured until she handed over her last 150 rupees ($3), meant for a school examination fee, drank pesticide while leaving a suicide note reading: "Work hard and earn money. Do not take loans." A wave of suicides among the impoverished residents of India's Andhra Pradesh state was blamed on the relentless tactics of agents from microfinance companies, which give small loans intended to lift up the very poor. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
In this photo taken Feb. 14, 2012, Sunita, 22, right, and her daughter Shwetha, 5, are reflected in a mirror hanging on the wall of their house where Sunita's debt-ridden husband Hari Prasad consumed fertilizer chemical to kill himself on Aug. 1, 2010, in Kadiri village about 160 kilometers (99 miles) north of Bangalore, India. A wave of suicides among the impoverished residents of India's Andhra Pradesh state was blamed on the relentless tactics of agents from microfinance companies, which give small loans intended to lift up the very poor. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
In this photo taken Feb. 14, 2012, a portrait of debt-ridden Jayaramappa, who hanged himself in his home on Oct. 4, 2010, and his family stands on top of a television set inside their house in Madakasira village about 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of Bangalore, India. A wave of suicides among the impoverished residents of India's Andhra Pradesh state was blamed on the relentless tactics of agents from microfinance companies, which give small loans intended to lift up the very poor. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
In this photo taken Feb. 14, 2012, Ankita, 8, stands next to a photograph of herself with her mother and debt-ridden father Jayaramappa, who hanged himself on Oct. 4, 2010 in their home, in Madakasira village about 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of Bangalore, India. A wave of suicides among the impoverished residents of India's Andhra Pradesh state was blamed on the relentless tactics of agents from microfinance companies, which give small loans intended to lift up the very poor. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
MUMBAI, India (AP) ? First they were stripped of their utensils, furniture, mobile phones, televisions, ration cards and heirloom gold jewelry. Then, some of them drank pesticide. One woman threw herself in a pond. Another jumped into a well with her children.
Sometimes, the debt collectors watched nearby.
More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of Andhra Pradesh killed themselves in late 2010, according to media reports compiled by the government of the south Indian state. The state blamed microfinance companies ? which give small loans intended to lift up the very poor ? for fueling a frenzy of overindebtedness and then pressuring borrowers so relentlessly that some took their own lives.
The companies, including market leader SKS Microfinance, denied it.
However, internal documents obtained by The Associated Press, as well as interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, independent researchers and videotaped testimony from the families of the dead, show top SKS officials had information implicating company employees in some of the suicides.
An independent investigation commissioned by the company linked SKS employees to at least seven of the deaths. A second investigation commissioned by an industry umbrella group that probed the role of many microfinance companies did not draw conclusions but pointed to SKS involvement in two more cases that ended in suicide. Neither study has been made public.
Both reports said SKS employees had verbally harassed over-indebted borrowers, forced them to pawn valuable items, incited other borrowers to humiliate them and orchestrated sit-ins outside their homes to publicly shame them. In some cases, the SKS staff physically harassed defaulters, according to the report commissioned by the company. Only in death would the debts be forgiven.
The videos and reports tell stark stories:
One woman drank pesticide and died a day after an SKS loan agent told her to prostitute her daughters to pay off her debt. She had been given 150,000 rupees ($3,000) in loans but only made 600 rupees ($12) a week.
Another SKS debt collector told a delinquent borrower to drown herself in a pond if she wanted her loan waived. The next day, she did. She left behind four children.
One agent blocked a woman from bringing her young son, weak with diarrhea, to the hospital, demanding payment first. Other borrowers, who could not get any new loans until she paid, told her that if she wanted to die, they would bring her pesticide. An SKS staff member was there when she drank the poison. She survived.
An 18-year-old girl, pressured until she handed over 150 rupees ($3) ? meant for a school examination fee ? also drank pesticide. She left a suicide note: "Work hard and earn money. Do not take loans."
In all these cases, the report commissioned by SKS concluded that the company's staff was either directly or indirectly responsible.
Caught in the despair of poverty, tens of thousands of impoverished Indians kill themselves every year, often because of insurmountable debt. The supportive structure of the microfinance companies was supposed to change that.
But Davuluri Venkateswarlu, director of Glocal Research in Hyderabad, which conducted the industrywide investigation, said in an interview that he told SKS executives there was "clear involvement of SKS personnel" in some suicides.
SKS continues to deny all responsibility for the deaths and says it never commissioned an independent inquiry. SKS spokesman J.S. Sai, who flew to Mumbai from the company's Hyderabad headquarters to discuss the AP findings, said the company stands by its September 2011 affidavit before India's Supreme Court. In that affidavit, chief executive M.R. Rao says SKS "is neither the cause of nor responsible for any suicides in the state of Andhra Pradesh."
The deaths came after a period of hypergrowth leading up to the company's hugely successful August 2010 initial public offering.
Originally developed as a nonprofit effort to lift society's most downtrodden, microfinance has increasingly become a for-profit enterprise that serves investors as well as the poor. As India's market leader, SKS has pioneered a business model that many others hoped to emulate.
But the story of what went wrong at SKS has led current and former employees and even some major shareholders to question that strategy and raises fundamental questions for the multibillion-dollar global microfinance industry.
Meanwhile, whistleblowers at SKS say that they have been targeted for retaliation and that the company has failed to correct structural flaws that contributed to the suicides.
"At the end of it," said Alok Prasad, chief executive of the Microfinance Institutions Network, the industry group that commissioned the Glocal report, "you come down to a handful of cases where some things went wrong. Is that indicative of the model being bad or very rapid expansion leading to a loss of control?"
___
Microfinance was born in desperation. Amid the 1970s famine in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus began giving small loans to poor women with his own money. Despite the predictions of bankers, the women paid him back.
The core idea of Yunus' Grameen Bank was the borrower group. Five women from a village determine how large a loan each member gets and act as guarantors. If even one member is delinquent, no new loans are issued. Group members apply pressure ? and support ? that has kept repayment rates near 100 percent.
Yunus' innovation won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
In 1997, Yunus acolyte Vikram Akula founded his own microcredit organization, Swayam Krishi Sangam, Sanskrit for "self-help society." In 2005, SKS started operating as a for-profit company and Akula began chasing private investment to achieve the massive scale required to dent global poverty.
In August 2010, SKS Microfinance ? then India's largest microlender ? went public. Exuberant investors oversubscribed the $350 million offering nearly 14 times. The stock surged more than 10 percent its first day. The company handed out 21,000 watches to employees in celebration.
Then media reports began to surface that over-indebted borrowers were killing themselves.
In October 2010, a mob of 150 people surrounded SKS's Hyderabad headquarters, protesting the suicide of a borrower's husband. They threatened to drag the corpse inside and demanded $20,000.
It was one of dozens of deaths the government of Andhra Pradesh blamed on aggressive tactics by microfinance companies. Police jailed microfinance employees, including dozens from SKS. Among the charges was abetment to suicide, essentially driving people to kill themselves, a crime under Indian law. Authorities investigated 76 cases in which employees from SKS and other microfinance companies were blamed for driving borrowers to take their own lives. The state passed a law designed to clamp down on abuses with new restrictions on loan disbursement and collection and onerous registration requirements on the companies. Microlending in India's largest microcredit market was effectively shut down.
Microfinance officials fought the new law and denied the charges, accusing the state government of trying to gain traction with voters and punish companies for capturing valuable market share from state-run lending groups.
Established microlenders such as SKS said loan sharks operating under the guise of microfinance were behind the excesses. SKS and other companies asked a court to stop the arrest of their employees. The court issued a stay on new arrests. Today, no one is in jail.
In a November 2010 letter to India's finance minister, Akula defended his company and included supportive articles from The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
At the same time, the industry group Microfinance Institutions Network hired Glocal to investigate 44 deaths among debtors of microfinance companies, including SKS.
Venkateswarlu, the Glocal director, presented the findings to executives at three lenders. In January 2011, he delivered startling news to Akula and Rao: SKS employees had clear involvement in the suicides of four borrowers, meaning that their actions appeared strongly linked to the subsequent deaths, according to their investigation.
The AP obtained a four-page section of the Glocal report that deals with the SKS case studies. It related the financial history of borrowers, the loans obtained, the nature of pressure or harassment for repayment and the microfinance company involved. Venkateswarlu verified that it was the material he presented to Akula and Rao.
"They said they'd look into the issue and take some appropriate action," Venkateswarlu said.
SKS sent internal audit teams to the field. Their reports exonerated the company.
Unable to reconcile the two sets of findings, SKS hired Guardian's Human & Civil Rights Forum and Third Eye, a private investigative agency, to do a more thorough, independent inquiry, according to Ramesh Vautrey, head of administration at SKS, who oversaw the investigation, and Rajender Khanna, the president of Guardian's.
A Jan. 17, 2011, letter from SKS, signed and stamped by Vautrey, asked Khanna to "carry out a fact finding enquiry on the causes of suicide and complicity of our field staffs without any prejudice," according to a copy of the letter obtained by AP. The AP was shown invoice numbers for SKS payments to Third Eye and emails indicating the findings were sent to top management.
P.H. Ravikumar, who became interim chairman of the SKS board last November, said neither management nor the board authorized an independent inquiry into borrower deaths.
"Our enquiries from 2009 to 2011 have revealed that neither SKS nor its employees have been the cause for any of the suicides in the state of Andhra Pradesh," the company said in a statement. The company also said SKS employees have been acquitted in two borrower suicide cases in Andhra Pradesh and that only one criminal case remains outstanding.
Khanna sent teams to speak with families of the dead, village leaders, neighbors and loan agents, videotaping the interviews. Their report said SKS employees bore direct or indirect responsibility for at least seven suicides, including two that overlapped with the Glocal findings.
The interview videos were shown to the AP by Uma Maheshwari, who said she was present during one set of recordings and visited several of the families personally. She left SKS in July.
In one video, the daughter of borrower Dhake Lakshmi Rajyam cries, gasping as she talks to an investigator in Tadepalligudem, Andhra Pradesh.
Rajyam was unable to pay off $2,400 owed to eight different companies. Employees of microfinance companies, including SKS, urged other borrowers to seize the family's chairs, utensils and wardrobe and pawn them to make loan payments, her family told investigators. Unable to bear the insults and pressure of the crowd of borrowers who sat outside her home for hours to shame her, Rajyam drank pesticide on Sept. 16, 2010, and died, the family says.
"We have lost my mother," her daughter says. "Nobody will support us."
The investigator's conclusions lay the blame on SKS employees, saying they failed to comply with company policies "and even basic moral rights."
Vautrey said he sent the case studies to three top managers, including Rao. Emails obtained by AP indicate that summary reports were emailed to the managers.
Rao did not respond to multiple requests from AP seeking comment.
Vautrey went to Akula's office one night and told him what they were doing was bad karma.
"I don't want to be part of a team abetting suicides," Vautrey said in an interview. "It is systemic failure. We have no right to kill anybody for our own business. Let's close down our business if we can't do it right."
___
A profound shift in values and incentives at SKS began in 2008.
In October, Boston-based Sandstone Capital, now SKS' largest investor, made a major investment. It joined U.S. private equity firm Sequoia Capital, which funded Google and Apple and is SKS' largest shareholder, on the board of directors.
Akula, who had been chief executive in the company's early days, stepped down in December 2008 but stayed on as chairman. The company brought in new top executives from the worlds of finance and insurance.
SKS also began transferring more loans off its books, selling highly rated pools of loans to banks, which then assumed most of the associated risk of borrower default. That freed SKS to push out more and bigger loans.
In December 2009, SKS launched a massive sales drive. The "Incentives Galore" program ran through February 2010 ? just one month before the company filed its IPO prospectus.
Agents won prizes worth up to 10 times their average monthly salary for signing huge numbers of new borrowers. Vautrey said he coordinated the shipment of 8,800 televisions, refrigerators, gold coins, mixers, washing machines and DVDs as rewards for more than 3,000 districts nationwide.
One loan officer signed up 273 groups in a month. Under training protocols, the ideal number of groups formed per month is 12, the maximum is 36, according to field agents and reports written by Akula.
"The focus is only on targets," Ramulu Sirgapur, who spent a decade at SKS before he left in December, told AP. "Even if we've given feedback, there might be recovery or repayment issues. That's OK. Just concentrate on growth."
The result: Management had a great set of numbers to show investors as it shopped the IPO. In a month, SKS could add 400,000 borrowers and 100 branches, and train more than 1,000 new loan officers. SKS had 6.8 million borrowers and had disbursed $3.2 billion in loans. India was pimpled with SKS branches, which bloomed in nearly 100,000 villages.
SKS said it was the fastest growing microfinance company in the world.
But basic principles of lending were overlooked, according to interviews with current and former employees, as well as correspondence and internal PowerPoint presentations by Akula.
Six current and former SKS staffers with experience in the field told the AP they no longer had time to check a borrower's assets or follow up and make sure a loan was put to productive use. They said that they were pressured to push more debt onto people than they could handle and that the number of days devoted to borrower training was cut in half.
"You have a (borrower group), and a loan officer goes out and trains them, educates them, then they give the loan. That's the SKS I'd seen in 1999. That was the whole model on which microfinance is supposed to work. In the quest for growth, a lot of these things got neglected," said Ankur Sarin, director of the SKS trusts, which are the fourth largest shareholder in the company and tasked with looking out for borrower interests.
As the relationships between heavily indebted borrowers and loan agents broke down, it became harder to collect.
Frustrated agents began working together and going door to door to collect, rather than taking payments only in public ? a company rule designed to limit coercion. They began using other borrowers to pressure defaulters into repaying.
"The growth was very rapid. That growth led to some suboptimal outcomes," said Ashish Lakhanpal, managing director of Kismet Capital, one of SKS's largest shareholders, who was on the SKS board until October 2010. "Were there lapses? Absolutely."
While the board was concerned about fast credit growth, the company never believed it was harming borrowers, Lakhanpal said.
"Mistakes were made, but I find it difficult to believe there was anything people did at a managerial level to encourage field officers to do that," he said.
___
In spring 2011, Akula began circulating a plan to spend $10 million to train financial counselors who would make sure clients weren't getting into too much debt and used their loans productively, according to Sarin, Vautrey and others with firsthand knowledge of the proposal.
The plan was never adopted.
Publicly, Akula continued to deny that SKS bore any responsibility for suicides. "Whatever happened was due to external factors and was not reflective of any fundamental flaw in our model," he told India's Business Today.
Privately, Akula prepared a 55-page presentation for the board that detailed the seven suicides that SKS' outside investigation had blamed on the company. The presentation showed how the pre-IPO push for growth led to a systemic breakdown, and again urged core reforms to restore training and lending discipline.
Board members received copies of Akula's presentation at a July 26, 2011, meeting, said a former employee who helped prepare the material and spoke anonymously for fear of retribution.
The minutes of the meeting, however, make no mention of the report.
"As per my notes, this was not part of the board proceedings," company secretary Sudershan Pallap wrote in a Sept. 26 email to Akula, who had complained of the omission.
Ravikumar, who would become interim chairman when Akula resigned, said the board was never informed that SKS employees were implicated in any suicides, and denied Akula presented any such findings to the board.
"There was no presentation from Vikram Akula at that board meeting. This will be reflected in the minutes, as signed by Vikram Akula," he said.
Ravikumar said the board reviewed reports from the Microfinance Institutions Network, but none of them implicated SKS employees.
Akula continued to complain to the board that his presentation had been ignored. He summarized his concerns about the company's direction in emails, obtained by the AP, to seven board members, including Sequoia's Sumir Chadha, Sandstone's Paresh Patel and three independent directors: Ravikumar, Harvard's Tarun Khanna, and Pramod Bhasin, the former chief executive of Genpact.
Chadha, Patel and Khanna did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Ravikumar declined to comment on what he said was personal correspondence.
Bhasin said reports claiming SKS bore responsibility for borrower suicides were "unsubstantiated."
"Any issues raised to the Board at various times were fully investigated by external parties and found to be unsubstantiated or without evidence or actions were taken on them where appropriate," he wrote in an email.
Rancor within the company was intensifying. Board members felt Akula was suffering from a bad case of "founder's syndrome," that he couldn't stand to share power at a company that had become too big for him to run.
Finally, on Nov. 23, 2011, Akula resigned.
Vautrey said he was targeted, and SKS began termination proceedings against him on Feb. 6. Three members of his staff have been fired and have filed wrongful termination complaints with the state.
On Feb. 6, SKS also sold 2.43 billion rupees ($49 million) in securitized loans. The stock price surged 10 percent. Top executives have been on the road, hoping to raise 5 billion rupees ($100 million) from international investors.
Sai, the company spokesman, said SKS has hired an ombudsman, is spending $3 million to improve its customer grievance program and has revamped training to ensure that employees comply with current regulations and do not lend to over-indebted borrowers. He said the company would like to reorganize incentives to maintain rapid growth while ensuring loan quality. Those changes have yet to be implemented, he said.
___
Follow Erika Kinetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ekinetz
Associated Pressminnesota vikings packers vs vikings packers vs vikings randall cobb google x lisfranc injury lisfranc injury
The favourite skydiving training method is probably the combination jump. This can be perfect for rookies who want to go through the thrill connected with skydiving without the many stress and danger of more intensive training techniques. basketball spread You get with an coach who is professional to train you. He or she will have extra parachutes and equipment that can assist you both properly land after your freefall. A lot of droopiness will let you create a one time get if you like. nba lines and odds This specific only can take an hour or so, in fact it is that easiest way to skydive for freshies who want to try it out. You can also take a combination progression training course that will allow you to spend more time discovering and getting over the course of a few hours.
Did you know that 75 per cent of most body exercises and efforts originate, not necessarily from arm or shoulder area, but within the hips decrease?
In 1948, occasion cheerleader for Southern Methodist University named, Lawrence Herkimer, established the National Cheerleaders Organization. It was designed to hold cheerleading hospitals, and by the 1960s, college cheerleaders hosted training seminars across the nation showing the fundamentals connected with cheering that will teenage young ladies in Senior high school. In 1965, Sue Gastoff, invented the vinyl pom-pon which had been introduced within competitions hosted by the Worldwide Cheerleading Foundation. Nowadays it is known as the whole world Cheerleading Association. Prepared cheerleading competitions sprouted everywhere before 1978 anytime CBS transmit the first School Cheerleading Championships, carrying wider attention to the sport. While cheerleading rarely became much attention during the Sixties, and cheerleaders were not exactly reasons to watch baseball, what did begin to come out were sorted professional cheerleading coaches and teams.
In North american football, the NFL set up will be approaching the end of The spring in Ny city. This is a big event while in the sport as it is plenty of time that each team gets to pick new players with the team. It is quite exciting not only for the coaches and teams but for the supporters as well given that they get to watch. Normally you have to have a look at the IFAF Globe Cup within July. These types of Upcoming Next year Sports Events are looked forward to every year by supporters that are committed to the sports. They follow the games and the set up.
The first documented international cricket match was concerning America and Canada more than three days?Sept. Twenty four, 25 and 26, 184The video game was played at St. George?s Club Ground in New York. Canada picked up the match by Twenty three runs and was viewed by around 20,500 spectators. The primary international recreation between the United states of america and He uk took place for ncaa basketball betting Hoboken, N.M., on Oct. 3, 4 and 5, 185He uk scored 156 operates and bowled out your U.S. team designed for scores of 37 and Fifty four, winning the match simply by 64 runs.
Human beings have been taking part in sports for centuries. As opposed to many sports draw in a following because of the competition, the thrilling excitment and the joy they have, there are a number that lure crowds due to their eccentric and also out of the ordinary aspect. Sometimes, this sort of sports being occasional is not strategic but circumstantial because of the differences concerning cultures. In other words, a certain sport might appear peculiar to at least one person but is completely common in the lifestyle where it all originates from.
Source: http://1999sr.info/?p=2865
in god we trust damian mcginty tj houshmandzadeh tj houshmandzadeh the little couple bubba smith bubba smith