The Persistent Paranormal

Way back in 1992, when the grunge music scene made plaid shirts and Converse high tops a daily uniform, I saw a movie called Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  I remember my younger self being completely absorbed by the pull Gary Oldman had over Winona Ryder, the lure and mystery of the cursed Dracula on the innocent Mina, the role of blood, fate, good, and evil all tied up inside a sensual romance.  I liked it so much I read the book, published for the first time in 1897. It became one of my favorite books of all time.

Vampires, werewolves, fallen angels, ghosts, zombies: I’ve been a fan of the paranormal for over two decades. It’s no surprise that my obsession should turn into a career writing paranormal fiction. But how much is too much? With the advent of series such as Twilight, Shiver, The Mortal Instruments, and beyond, it would be easy to think that the paranormal fad had run it’s course. 

Am I doomed to a reading life without vampires? Are werewolves too cliche to cuddle up to? Have fallen angels fallen out of favor?

I say no. For over 200 years, paranormal fiction has offered an escape that leaves us questioning what it means to be human. These stories help us appreciate the beauty of life through the eyes of the characters who don't have it, the dead and undead, and experience the forbidden fruit of crossing the line between good and evil.  These themes will never go out of style, even if certain portrayals of the entities behind them do. 

Lucky for me and the rest of the reading public, talented authors keep coming up with new ways to make the genre fresh and the characters complex. Did someone say Trolls? Amanda Hocking’s Switched is a clever take. Mermaids? Check out Tangled Tides by Karen Amanda Hooper.  Mind reading and telekinesis? Try Susan Kaye Quinn’s Open Minds or Karly Kirkpatrick's Into the Shadows. And if J.R. Ward and Charmaine Harris have taught us anything, it is that vampires and shifters are here to stay, even more than ten books into a series.

What do you think? Paranormal, dead or undead? I’d love to hear your opinion.

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G.P Ching is the author of The Soulkeepers Series and a variety of short fiction. She specializes in cross-genre paranormal stories, loves old cemeteries, and enjoys a good ghost tour.  She lives in central Illinois with her husband, two children, and one very demanding guinea pig.

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Just Another Day at the Office

Today's chart is the Euro future: 3 tick Renko box. I really do prefer the Renko nowadays for my discretionary trading as the charts are so clean and the noise is filtered.

The second and the third are outside in trades and the last trade on the chart was is still open as I write this.

The extra cyan lines are regular Bollinger Bands. They are good to use for outside in trades.

Trading what is moving

I'm a trader and I trade what moves. I need volatility to make money, so I go where the action is. In the pit, we traded "our" market. We belonged to a "crowd" - guys who I stood next to every day and against whom I competed. If our pit had a quiet day, that was reflected in my earnings.

Moving upstairs, the world became my oyster again and I could trade what was moving.

I am an advocate of 1 chart and 1 market until a trader masters his craft. After that, be a trader. Trade. Trade what is moving.

Today I'm showing my Light Crude action. A good day, whether you traded the London or U.S. morning.

A Public Service Announcement

A Public Service Annoucement

Two definitions from Dictionary.com:

Arachne – noun Classical Mythology
A Lydian woman who challenged Athena to a weaving contest and was changed into a spider for her presumption.

Myth – noun
Fictitious story, often ancient.

Sometimes myth holds a glimmer of fact. In Arachne’s case, a woman was changed into a spider. Fact. Her name was Arachne. Fact. She was Lydian. This is where fact becomes muddled with myth, but that’s not important here.

What is important is that humans presume that if something cannot be proven, it’s a myth. Humans also believe that everything on this planet is here for their consumption, to use and dispose of as they please, no matter the consequence. What will happen to humans for their presumption?

Be warned. 

Arachne is not a myth and her descendants are tired of being stomped on. 

One more thing. Bug spray? Yeah, it won’t help you. Sometimes, however, the consequences of our presumptions may be the only thing that can save us.

Spider Wars 

By Angela Carlie

March, 2012 

Run, hide, and hoard food and guns. 

Death of the world as we know it by Spider is near.

 

 

 

How large a market for prenatal diagnosis by sequencing?

Prenatal diagnosis is one of the most interesting clinical applications of sequencing. The idea behind prenatal diagnosis is that potential disorders that a foetus may have are detected before birth, so that the parents can decide what to do about it. A widespread and ancient technology is ultrasound. An alternative method involves sampling of the amniotic fluid surrounding the foetus with a large needle (amniocentesis), which causes a miscarriage in 1% of cases. More recently genetic screening technologies, including sequencing, have entered the market.

The most prominent company offering prenatal diagnosis by screening is Sequenom. This week, Sequenom announced a public offering of shares valued in excess of $50m. The aim is to finance further expansion of its business, including sales of its MaterniT21 prenatal test.

The principle behind the MaterniT21 test is that some of the DNA in a pregnant woman's blood is of foetal origin. By sequencing that DNA, it is in principle possible to reconstruct most of the genotype of the foetus, and to detect most genetic disorders from the 10th week of pregnancy onwards- earlier than with equivalent tests.

Sequenom's MaterniT21 test currently only returns information on whether there is an third copy of chromosome 21, which causes Down syndrome. If the test returns a positive result, the parents can then decide which actions to take, which could include termination of the pregnancy.

Sequenom is reported to charge $2,700 per test to insurance companies, which is likely to be the cost to them many times over. Therefore there should be plenty of room for prices to come down once there is more competition. That there will be more competition is likely. In the United States, Verinata, which raised $47m in autumn 2011, and TrovaGene are also working on technology based on sequencing foetal DNA from the mother's blood. In Germany, LifeCodexx is developing a similar test, licencing technology from Sequenom.

Even at lower prices, which will probably be paid for by insurers anyway, the big question is how many couples are willing to purchase a test. Of 4.1 million births each year in the US, 750,000 (18%) are judged to be at a high risk of Down syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities, either because the mother is over 35 years old or because there is a history of such disorders in the family.

It is likely that in the future the tests of Sequenom and its competitors will include other disorders such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, anaemia, neuropsychiatric conditions like autism, and beta-thalassaemia. This could widen their appeal to parents that are not in the 18% currently judged as high risk. If prices come down sufficiently, I don't see a reason why sequencing-based tests for pregnant women could not be as prevalent as ultrasound is today.

At 4.1 million births in the US alone each year, and even if the price of tests decreases to a fraction of what they are now, it could well be a multi-billion dollar market.

Time to buy some of those new Sequenom shares?

Make a Good Coupon that Increases Profits

Huge companies spend millions of dollars on focus groups and marketing afficionados to create promotion campaigns and coupons that will bring buyers in the door. As small to medium business owners - we don't have that luxury...or do we? Small business owners need to start employing their observation skills and with a little homework - you'll come up with coupons and promotions that rock!

Definition of a Good Coupon (and a Bad one!)

Some people spend their whole marketing careers creating the definitive "Good Coupon" (ie: a coupon that brings the customer to you and yet doesn't cost too much in profit) and avoiding a bad coupon (usually a coupon that gets no response). Small business owners can see a dramatic improvement in their profits by offering a good coupon. To make a good coupon, you need to think like your customers. That bears repeating and emphasis - THINK LIKE YOUR CUSTOMER! What would make you clip that coupon and go use it? What kind of coupon calls you to check out a business if you've never used them before? What coupons do you skip?

Be Specific About What You Want
Its amazing how many small businesses don't think about what they want their coupons to do. If you don't know exactly the response your want your coupon to generate - I can guarantee...it doesn't either! You have to be specific with the goal of EACH coupon you offer. Do you want new customers? Do you want your regular customers to come in more? Do you want to move a specific product? Do you want people to refer you? Make sure you focus and build your coupon to answer one specific goal. If you are offering several coupons be sure to define each one with dotted/hashed lines or with colors so it's easy for the customer to identify which ones might interest him or her.

Discount Something that your Customer is Actually Interested InA coupon advertises a discount for a limited period of time on a product or service. You may have an low cost/high profit item that you WANT people to purchase however if that's not the item that is currently bringing customers in the door, your coupon (unless it is a very deep discount) is not going to be as effective. An example of this is a hair salon that only gives coupons on their products - not the hair services themselves! My Advice...Get me in the door with a coupon on a hair cut or color (probably the reason I'm coming in the first place) and when I see how fabulous I look - THEN I might actually buy the products. 

Be Careful When Limiting Who Can Use the Coupon
People dislike fine print. There's nothing I despise more than when I take a coupon and try to use it only to learn that my coupon does not apply to me because I am an existing customer. Why would you not want to reward your current customers for shopping with you? If you only offer an incentive for new clients - then why should they become a reoccuring one? If you are discounting a service that only a very limited number of people can use, make sure you are offering a variety of coupons at the same time that together will include everyone.  If you are requiring a minimum purchase amount for the discount to be viable - make sure it's just above or at the average price point people buy from you.

Create Urgency with An Expiration Date
Expiration dates create an sense of urgency that your customer will need to act quickly to use and benefit from the coupon. Experiment with expiration dates. A date that is too close can be disastrous if your marketing strategy doesn't get the coupon out in time. Plus it doesn't give people enough time to redeem it. A date too far away will be forgotten. Depending on your advertising, what your discount is and the nature of your business, 2 weeks to 1 month can be a good time frame for a coupon expiration date. Online deals can expire more quickly than ones that require in-store purchase.

Offer a Discount not just a 'Coupon'
Statistics show that people don't respond if a coupon's face value is too small. I recently saw a coupon for a medical office that offered $1.00 off an office visit. Their visit costs, on average, $35.00 so their coupon gave me less than 3% off. That doesn't make me want to respond to that coupon at all. In fact I was almost turned off to the business itself for offering such a bad coupon. This is where you need to put your customer hat back on. If you see 10% off, 15% off or 20% off coupons - which do you respond to? You may cringe at the idea of offering a 20% off coupon but think about successful chains like Macy's which focus millions of dollars on this marketing strategy that people come shop with them more if they believe they'll save with their coupon.

Create a Coupon Strategy and Go For It!
If you want to do a semi annual or annual deep discount coupon then plan it out and market accordingly. If you want people to consistently check your website or store for coupons then offer a variety and consistently market them. Look at what larger companies in your industry or ones like yours are doing. If it works for them - it might work for you! Whatever you decide - plan it out and execute it. That doesn't mean you can't modify your plan as you find coupons that work or fail. It means you are taking an active role in this side of your marketing strategy.

Broadcasting Schools Refine Natural Skills

Broadcasting schools have always offered training for television and radio news professions, but these schools now train students for online newscasting and journalism as well. Natural skills and attributes, such as a strong voice, good diction, writing skills, love of public speaking and communications, working well under pressure to meet deadlines, and ability to research facts and issues to create sound stories, are all good indicators for success in this field.

Degrees from traditional four-year colleges and universities prepare students for bringing mass communications of all kinds to the eyes and ears of the public. Broadcasting schools located in vocational and technical schools and community colleges also train for local news broadcasts, sports announcing, political press, music and entertainment broadcasting, and much more. Advanced programs in broadcasting often focus on "new" types of broadcast journalism, some of which are advocacy journalism, infotainment and celebrity journalism, science journalism, and investigative journalism.

A broadcasting education can also prepare students for careers behind the scenes, operating cameras and microphones, or managing recording equipment and other broadcasting devices. Students can get experience with editing, producing, and directing news broadcasts for radio, television, and media of all kinds.

Broadcasting schools in colleges and universities, as well as online these days, provide important services to magazine, newspaper, radio, television, and Internet journalism. They provide skills for exposing the public to vital communications about people and events; they help develop the skills tomorrow's journalists need to report and influence public opinion, public affairs, political action, and public response. Broadcasting schools affect the world by teaching effective ways of creating and reporting stories, filming the actions, shaping, hosting and editing news, and providing the public with education and entertainment.

Future broadcast journalists learn to take on duties of developing ideas for stories; conducting interviews, researching, preparing, and shooting video; preparing scripts and news copy for live and taped programs; preparing and publishing radio, television, and Web productions; and acting as radio DJs and television anchors.

There are many large and small broadcasting schools in traditional and online colleges and universities providing extensive studies that can lead to bachelor and master degrees in various areas of Journalism. If you truly enjoy reading, writing, journaling, and news, check out some broadcasting schools that focus on your special interests and begin the journey. This may be first step that sets you on the career path of your dreams!