UConn coach Jim Calhoun returns to practice

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun watches players during his first practice since having successful lower back surgery in Storrs, Conn., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun watches players during his first practice since having successful lower back surgery in Storrs, Conn., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun, right, and associate head coach George Blaney watch players during Calhoun's first practice since having successful lower back surgery in Storrs, Conn., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun, top right, watches players during his first practice back since having successful lower back surgery in Storrs, Conn., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun, second from left, and associate head coach George Blaney, left, watch players during Calhoun's first practice since having successful lower back surgery in Storrs, Conn., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun, top left, stands with player Andre Drummond, right, as they watch practice in Storrs, Conn., Friday, March 2, 2012. Calhoun has returned to practice four days after undergoing back surgery. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

STORRS, Conn. (AP) ? Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun returned to practice Friday four days after undergoing back surgery.

The Hall of Fame coach was back with a whistle around his neck, leading UConn (17-12, 7-10 Big East) through drills ahead of the season finale Saturday against Pittsburgh (16-14, 5-12). He said he's not sure when he will return to the bench, but just couldn't stay home any longer.

"I'm getting back to normal," he said. "I'm not quite as cranky as I should be, but hopefully I will get there."

Calhoun took an indefinite medical leave on Feb. 3 and has missed the Huskies' last eight games because he has spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spine, normally associated with aging and sometimes with arthritis.

The two-hour surgery Monday in New York involved removing a large disk fragment that had been pressing on a spinal nerve, the school said. The surgeons decompressed the area around the nerve.

The team is 3-5 since Calhoun took his medical leave. He said he is planning to return either on Saturday or at the Big East tournament on Tuesday in New York.

"I feel tired now," he said. "It's the first time I've practiced in almost four weeks. So it's kind of hard to anticipate where I will be. But hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow and feel better. If I don't, if I feel like I can't give the kids my all for a couple of hours, then I won't do it and I'll try it on Sunday in practice again."

Calhoun, who turns 70 in May, said he still has a desire to coach, and his back issue has not changed that. He is in his 40th years as a head coach and currently in sixth place on the career wins list with 870, six wins behind Adolph Rupp.

"I have not made plans to do anything else except come back," he said. "A few things along the way have gotten in my way."

George Blaney, who has been leading the team in Calhoun's absence, said he will prepare as if he is going to coach the team on Saturday. He said Calhoun arrived on campus at about 10 a.m. for the 1:30 p.m. practice and the two met for about 90 minutes to talk about what they wanted to accomplish. Blaney said he did more at practice than he normally would with Calhoun there, but said the coach was still very active and "very much in control."

Center Alex Oriakhi said Calhoun's return gave the entire team a lift, and impressed everyone.

"You couldn't even tell he had surgery," Oriakhi said. "It just says a lot about his toughness. That's a tough guy right there man."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-03-02-BKC-UConn-Calhoun/id-317438e738064219acc3cb27011a0865

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Report: Billions in federal small-business contracts go to large firms ...

Here are just a few of the companies that were considered a small business in the past year: Apple, Chevron, Verizon, Bank of America and Disney.?? At least, that?s what one advocacy group found when it perused the Federal Procurement Data Systems for government contracts for the past year.

Each year, the government attempts to award at least 23 percent of all federal contracts to small businesses. But new research from the American Small Business League (ASBL) shows that 72 large companies received $16.4 billion in federal small-business contracts, which the group attributes to a combination of policy loopholes, human error and mis-categorization.

?It?s really hard for a small company to compete with a company that has 5,000 employees,? said Brian Reeder, communications director for the ASBL. ?When bigger companies are actually receiving the contracts, there?s nothing left for small businesses.?

The Small Business Administration cautions that it has not yet released its official data on contracting for 2011 and therefore can?t speak to the accuracy of ASBL?s findings. SBA will publish its official 2011 Small Business Procurement Scorecard this summer

?Each federal agency is responsible for ensuring the quality of its own contracting data, but SBA conducts an additional analysis to help agencies identify any potential data anomalies,? said John Shoraka, the SBA?s Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development in an e-mail statement. ?As part of its ongoing data quality efforts, SBA is continuing to work with federal agency procurement staff to provide tools to facilitate review of data, implement improvements to procurement systems and conduct training to improve accuracy.?

Holes in the system

The ASBL report, released Thursday morning, found that of the top 100 companies receiving federal small business contracts, 72 were large companies that exceeded the SBA?s small-business size standards, which vary depending on the sector.

It?s difficult to identify just one reason why the contracts are awarded as they are, but experts say there are countless small leakages in the government procurement process that can cause large businesses, either purposefully or indirectly, to occasionally win out over small ones.

Ray Bjorklund, chief knowledge officer with the government-contractor software company Deltek, said it can be hard for the SBA to pick the ?right? size for a company to be considered a small business under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, the government?s business classification system.

?When SBA is looking at one class of establishment, such as a corn farmer, there are a lot of small-business corn growers, but also large corporate growers,? Bjorklund said. ?It?s not an easy thing to maintain size standards in a way that keeps up with growth in the economy and changing relationships between sectors.?

Beyond that, when agencies begin feeling the pressure to meet their 23 percent goal, Bjorklund said they sometimes choose NAICS codes that have larger-sized caps if they want a large company to fit into a small-business contract.

?If the agency is anxious to meet its socioeconomic goals, they say, ?I can make this a small-business set aside if I can justify it this way,?? he said. ?All of this is legal, but they should have been more judicious in their acquisition strategy.?

Not close enough for government work

Reeder said human error is another problem in how contracts are coded. For example, Apple was likely never registered as a small business, but Reeder speculates an agency simply needed something only Apple could provide ? iPads, for example ? and then neglected to change the code from ?small? to ?not small? before the transaction was completed. That contract would ultimately be counted toward an agency?s small-business goal.

?There are a lot of those examples, and they really add up,? he said.

The errors may stem from a larger problem in the contracting world ? the thin ranks of the acquisition workforce and the paucity of the available funds to train them.

?The acquisition workforce is not as big as it should be, and they?re not as qualified, because years ago, their funding was slashed,? Bjorklund said. ?These people have inboxes stacked very high, and they want to do the very best possible job, but sometimes mistakes get made.?

The SBA drew a similar conclusion in a report it issued on the same topic last October, saying, ?While some contractors may misrepresent or erroneously calculate their size, most of the incorrect reporting results from errors made by government contracting personnel.?

Small, then big, but still small

There is also a loophole that allows small businesses that are bought by large companies to continue to count as ?small? for the purposes of contracting for years after they?re purchased. For example, the report says that CapRock Government Solutions, which ASBL asserts received more than $200 million in small business contracts last year, is a subsidiary of Harris Corporation, a multi-billion dollar company.

?We?re not arguing the companies should lose those contracts, but it seems silly to count them as small when they?re not small,? Reeder said.

Many of these contracts were awarded to small businesses that are actually subsidiaries of large companies, Reeder said, and they, therefore, don?t face the same odds that independent small companies do.

Bjorklund said he believes there are not quite as many large companies receiving small-business contracts as the ASBL has found. Still, he said, ?the problem still exists, there?s no denying that.?

Last year, the ASBL found that there were 60 large companies included among the top 100 federal small business contractors, so they say the problem has ?at best, stayed the same, if not gotten worse.?

Reeder called for better enforcement of contracting standards by the SBA, but Bjorklund explained that the SBA is largely ?hands-off,? and that the ultimate responsibility falls on the agency issuing the contract.

In the October report, the SBA?s Office of the Inspector General said it had made ?mixed progress? on the issue of small-business contracts going to large businesses. The agency has developed a program to ensure that contracting personnel review contractor sizes, but it has made ?limited progress? in developing regulations to correct the misapplication of industry codes.

So how big of a problem is this for small contractors? Medium, according to Bjorklund. Contractors of every size are losing business as the Department of Defense and other agencies cut back. Small firms don?t have quite the same lobbying clout that larger ones do, he explained, so the impacts for them might be greater ? especially if they aren?t getting all the contracts they should be. Then again, at least the government is doing something for small firms.

?At least there are small-business goals that the government is trying to meet,? he said. ?That makes it a little better than it would be in the commercial marketplace ? where everyone is fending for themselves.?

?by Olga Khazan, The Washington Post, Published: February 22, 2012 and updated: Thursday, February 23, 8:00 AM at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/report-billions-in-federal-small-business-contracts-go-to-large-firms/2012/02/22/gIQA0EV4TR_story.html.

Source: http://gtpac.org/2012/03/report-billions-in-federal-small-business-contracts-go-to-large-firms/

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Sprint Rolling Out Google Wallet to 10 New Phones [Android]

Sprint revealed at the Mobile World Congress that it's rolling out Google Wallet to 10 new phones in 2012, to complement the Nexus S 4G that it currently carries. There's no word on which handsets will benefit, but it's a big step forward in making the mobile payment system a widespread reality. [Fierce Mobile Content] More »

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The True Secret to Earning Serious Cash selling eBooks ...

The electronic book market is hands-down one of the most successful market to enter. Think about it ? NO inventory, NO shipping, INSTANT deliveries and so many other benefits makes this industry one of the quickest growing markets available. So what's the problem? The issue is that many of the companies in the ebook market have ecommerce internet sites which sell a good range of these ebooks. Many of these ebooks are old and out of date and to provide compensation for that difficulty, the ebooks are sold at low prices. To successfully compete, new companies must sell these same ebooks at even lower prices and will therefore make little cash.

The best marketing tip is to start an ecommerce niche electronic book business. This will help to differentiate your business from the other ones in the market. What's a gap? A spot is a little, specialized area inside a market. The main thing to recollect when beginning your niche electronic book business is to aim towards a narrow customer base because this is your secret to success. The idea here is to find a niche and then you either buy or create ebooks related to that niche area.

As an example, you might be a stay-at-home mom intending to start a small business. A good niche idea will be to start a business selling ebooks about babies. You could write your own ebooks or buy best-selling ebooks about babies and sell them to new mummies on the internet. Narrowing the e-book market in this manner will make you appear more of an expert in your field. Once you have a list of possible niche ideas, you must do plenty of research. This is vital even if you do not intend to write your own ebook because you will need to understand your market in order to successfully popularize your business. Great places to assemble information are online forums and internet sites related to your niche idea and ask questions about your niche concept. Find articles and other ebooks related to your subject. Research, Research and Research all ideas.

The following step is to narrow the list down to the ones you have enough info on. You need to now decide whether there's basically a market for your chosem concepts i.e. Whether there is enough shopper demand. If you are beginning a profit generating business you want enough folk to buy your product so you can earn a profit. A great online resource to use is Nichebot (www.nichebot.com). This online keyword tool is superb for helping to discover what number of people are especially interested in a particular keyword or keyword. You enter your keyword or key word and you'll get an inventory of related terms folks searched for in the last month.

As a part of the results, you may also get the number of times folk searched for your term and the closely related terms. This is often taken as a measure of demand. You then have to define the level of supply in the market. You do this by going to a search site and entering any of your keywords which had heavy demand. The number of search results found ought to be taken as supply. You should try to focus on niches which have comparatively low supply. one vital point to remember here is that some competition is good. Competition implies that profit exists within that niche otherwise there would be no businesses operating there.

Similarly, competition means that there will be partners around for you to use in affiliate and joint venture programs. Also , you'll be able to run adverts on their sites and forums to find traffic to your website. So supply should be low but it shouldn't be non-existent. It should be low relative to purchaser demand. The niche idea which has comparatively high customer demand and relatively low supply should be your new niche. You are now able to start writing your e-book. Many of these steps to building a successful niche business like research and web building, if done doubtless, can take a while to do. These packages also include free templates that you might use to sell the ebooks.

Once you start selling and gaining some cash, you can then start writing and publishing your own ebooks. You can develop your niche business even further by joining affiliate programs and joint venture schemes to sell other peoples products. You can establish your business so that when anyone wants some info from your niche market they'd think about you first.

Looking for a great electronic book reader? Check out our e reader reviews to find a model that?s right for you.

Want to compare ereaders? Our Kindle Vs Nook ereader comparison will help. Or read our full Kindle review.

Source: http://brucewood.net/homebusiness/2012/03/01/the-true-secret-to-earning-serious-cash-selling-ebooks/

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Overnight Video: Jonathan Coulton, Nobody Loves You Like Me (Little green footballs)

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Reviews:Yo Gabba Gabba Large Backpack | Hot Shoes Blog

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