How to raise your prices by 300% (almost) overnight - ShoeMoney ...

One of the worst pieces of advice you can ever listen to is: raise your prices if you want to be more profitable. Why? Because it?s grossly incomplete.

In this blog post, I want to share specific actionable things you can do to raise your prices by 300% or more (also referred to as being a premium provider). Besides the obvious benefit of being more profitable, charging premium prices also enables you to grow faster and, counter intuitively, attract better clients. From a lifestyle perspective, you can also hit six figures or higher with only a handful of clients and with very little staff and infrastructure (goodbye complex sales funnels).

I have applied this approach for myself and my clients in multiple markets including markets that are notoriously price sensitive. It works best if you?re in a position to be able to set your own prices / fees.

Becoming a premium provider requires you to implement 2 key things:

1. Identifying one or more affluent markets that can pay you premium dollars (as the old saying goes: ?You call sell Mercedes to broke people but good luck.?)
2. Focusing on communicating accelerated results. What do I mean by this? Affluent buyers are not interested in education since they tend to be fairly educated already, and they are extremely busy. This means they don?t want to hear about many DVDs or manuals are in your home study course or how many years of experience you have. Since the #1 thing they value is their time, you have to be able to communicate how you can help them quickly get the results they want with your help.

Here are some real-world examples that will show these principles in action.

Marty is a fit 50-year old who was a spokesperson for a weight loss company (he lost 75 pounds under some very challenging circumstances). He was approached constantly after each public appearance on how he did it. Finding that he wanted a more active role, he decided to launch his own business. Because he had no track record, he felt he needed to start at the bottom and coach people for free. As you can imagine, his results was abysmal because these folks never committed to what he was coaching them on. After he became my client, I recommended that he narrowed his target market to male business owners and executives between 45 and 55.

Why this target market? Marty is a male business owner so there?s affinity and people in that age range tend to be more affluent vs. people in the 20s or 30s (a much, much more crowded market and much more commoditized).

To summarize: in less than 45 days of working together, Marty has sold his 1st client at $800 and his highest sale has been $4,000 so far (my goal is to get him up to $10,000 per client). He?s even landed a world-famous heart surgeon in Italy (!) as a client (Marty lives in Chicago). His big promise is he can help his clients quickly get in the best shape on their life mentally and physically, not how to get six-pack abs (that appeals more to a younger audience).

As a second example, Angela helps folks release destructive habits that lead to overstress (this refers to when you?re so stressed that your physical and mental facilities start breaking down). Until now, she has referred to herself as a stress management expert, which immediately caps her financial results. Instead, I have repositioned her as a peak performance specialist.

With that in mind, she is initially targeting female business owners and executives, and she?s also raised her fees by over 1,000% (with her target market, having stress is sometimes worn as a badge of honor hence the repositioning to a peak performance specialist).

Finally, she has connections to very high net worth families. In this case, she has to raise her fees just to be credible to this target market (as I advised her, if they?re paying you the same as their maids, it?s unlikely they will take you seriously).

Prior to working together, she was spending months trying to figure out how to sell a $47 product and implementing a maze to upsell the buyers into a $297 product. Instead, we have set all that aside and focus on attracting premium clients that can pay her thousands of dollars per sale (with the high net worth families, the goal is to charge 5 figures or more per sale).

So here?s the game plan for you to raise your prices / fees by 300% or more almost overnight:

1. Identify one or more affluent markets that can afford to pay premium dollars (in most cases, this is usually a subset of your existing list ? In other cases, you may have to go to an adjacent market).
2. Communicate your benefits in terms of accelerated results vs. how much ?stuff? is in your solution.

By applying these 2 simple principles, you can pass on marginal buyers and focus on premium buyers instead. You can also save weeks and months of your life from having to come up with a gigantic upsell maze that usually cost a fortune to implement.

About the author...

Alex Nghiem ? who has written 1 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Alex Nghiem is an in-demand business strategist that helps his worldwide clients attract premium buyers that pay top dollars. To get access to more hands-on training and detailed case studies, go to http://www.expertriches.com/shoemoney

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1. Perception is Everything (or ?Fake It ?Til You Make It?)
2. 2 Simple ways to reduce spam complaints
3. How I made 15,000.00 In 1 Month Just By Tweeting

Source: http://www.shoemoney.com/2013/02/27/how-to-raise-your-prices-by-300-almost-overnight

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Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Fingering Federal Prosecutors for Racial Bias

Supreme Court justices Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer virtually seethed with rage in their roundhouse denunciation of the High Court's denial of review to Bongani Charles Calhoun. The issue again was racial bias in the prosecution of Calhoun on drug charges in Texas. The U.S. Attorney that prosecuted Calhoun quipped during the trial that when you put African Americans and Hispanics in the same room with a bag of money, what else could they be doing but a drug deal or presumably some other criminal act.

The federal prosecutor couldn't let it go at that. When mildly challenged on his blatant racial stereotyping and even more blatant prejudicing of the jury, he piled on with the even dumber quip: "What does your common sense tell you that these people are doing in a hotel room with a bag full of money, cash? None of these people are Bill Gates or computer [magnates]? None of them are real estate investors."

Breyer and Sotomayor correctly called it what it was -- outrageous prosecutorial racial bias. Their colleagues didn't agree, and Calhoun's conviction stood. But Sotomayor and Breyer's rage at the bias simply pointed up what's long been noted in far too many federal cases, and in the action and behavior of far too many federal prosecutors. That's that some will routinely and very calculatingly pander to the overt or latent racial bigotry of some judges and jurors to get a conviction. They fully know that making overt pejorative racial statements, judgments and opinions about a black or Hispanic defendant are flatly forbidden. And in theory, anyway, are the basis for an appeal, and the possibility of having a conviction overturned. But that threat hasn't deterred some prosecutors from playing the race card to get a conviction, as Breyer and Sotomayor angrily noted.

Three years before the two judges' dissent in the Calhoun case, a panel of former federal prosecutors were disturbed enough at the antics of some of their former U.S. Attorney colleagues that they mapped out in tandem with the Brennan Justice Center a series of pointed guidelines to wring out racial bias, overt or sneaky, from the line of attack of prosecutors. Their recommendations included rigorous training and education in what can and can't be said in trials, tougher management and accountability, and better relations with minority communities. The former prosecutors were emphatic that because federal prosecutors have enormous power over what cases are brought, and when they are brought, and how they are prosecuted, they have a special duty and responsibility to be fair and unbiased. The problem with that is that many aren't and this has had devastating consequences in the criminal justice system. The main one being to pump wider the gaping racial disparity in convictions and sentencing, and ultimately who packs America's prisons.

A March 2009 report, "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System", by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, found that minorities, with the overwhelming majority of them being African Americans, represented 13 percent of the general population. But they made up nearly 40 percent of those incarcerated in federal prisons. The report made it clear that racial bias, either overt or subtle, by some prosecutors was a big reason for a significant number of those tried and convicted winding up behind bars for long stretches.

The Calhoun case also pointed to another glaring flaw in many federal prosecutions and that's the still prevalent racial disparity in drug prosecutions that have accounted for the explosion in the number of minorities behind federal bars during the last decade. This occurred despite the push by President Obama to purge the racial sentencing disparity from the drug laws.

The standard reasons given for criminalizing practically an entire generation of young blacks is that they are poor, crime-prone, which is pretty much what the prosecutor in the Calhoun case flatly said. Reports and studies by the Justice Department, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, as well as universities and foundations confirm that far more whites use and deal drugs including crack cocaine than blacks. Only a small percent of those sentenced to jail terms are major dealers.

The scapegoating of blacks for America's crime and drug problem actually began in the 1980s when much of the media quickly turned the drug problem into a black problem and played it up big in news stories and features. Many Americans scared stiff of the drug crisis readily gave their blessing to drug sweeps, random vehicle checks, marginally legal searches and seizures, evictions from housing projects and apartments. When it came to law enforcement practices in the ghettos and barrios, the denial of civil liberties protections, due process and privacy made a mockery of the criminal justice system to many blacks and Latinos.

The federal prosecutors that pander to race to get convictions don't help matters and reaffirm suspicions that prosecutorial bias is still alive and well in far too many prosecutions. Sotomayor and Breyer made that point, and a handful of former prosecutors have warned against its corrosive effects. But as the Calhoun case showed fingering prosecutors for racial bias alone won't make it go away.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network, and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.

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Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/federal-prosecutors-racial-bias_b_2768820.html

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Gates, Zuck and crew entice kids into programming through a short film

Kids in many parts of the world are growing up surrounded with technology, some from a very tender age. Many schools aren't teaching much if any programming, though, which has led Code.org to make a short film spurring young techies into action. We have a hunch that it might work -- the video has quite possibly the most star-studded collection of men and women explaining how they got into coding and why they like it, including Bill Gates, Gabe Newell and Mark Zuckerberg. There's even endorsements from unexpected sources, such as Miami Heat player Chris Bosh. It's true that most of them have a vested interest in creating future employees, but they collectively raise the real concern that there's a deficit of software and web developers. Catch the full feature after the break if you're looking to persuade a curious child.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft, Facebook

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Via: PCMag

Source: Code.org

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YQJpkQgYOqU/

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Ron Paul: International Society for Individual Liberty San Francisco ...

Ron Paul: International Society for Individual Liberty San Francisco 1990
Dr. Ron Paul has been a three-time candidate for President of the United States; as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008 and 2012. He served for many years as the US Representative for Texas's 14th congressional district, and is widely known for his libertarian views and his criticism of the federal government's foreign, domestic, and monetary policies. He is the author of several books including The Case for Gold (1982), A Foreign Policy of Freedom (2007), The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008), and Liberty Defined (2011). Ron Paul speaks in San Francisco in 1990 at an International Society for Individual Liberty conference. Having run for office under the Libertarian Party's banner two years prior, Dr. Paul shares his experience on how to promote libertarianism to make it palatable to all. Download the .mp3 version of this lecture here: bit.ly I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (www.youtube.com

By: wolfpjw

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Ron Paul: International Society for Individual Liberty San Francisco 1990 ? Video

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Source: http://www.designerchildren.com/ron-paul-international-society-for-individual-liberty-san-francisco-1990-video/

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CSN: Bochy pulls son after substandard outing

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. ? Bruce Bochy?s son might have a locker in the Giants? major league camp, but don?t accuse the manager of nepotism.?

It?s usually not considered a favor to bring a relief pitcher into a bases-loaded, one-out situation.

That?s what the Giants? manager did Monday, calling on his son, Brett, in the eighth inning. The 25-year-old right-hander made a couple of nervous location mistakes in his first Cactus League appearance this spring while giving up a double and a home run to a pair of White Sox minor leaguers.

The Giants once led 9-0 but Seth Loman?s three-run home run tied the score, and the game ended in a 9-9 tie.

?I put him in a tough spot, but he?s a tough kid,? the elder Bochy said. ?He?ll be fine. ? The first time out ? for these young kids, I don?t pay any attention to it.?

A visit from pitching coach Dave Righetti helped to calm down Brett Bochy, who was the closer at Double-A Richmond last year and uses movement and deception to miss bats. He got a strikeout and a ground ball to end the inning and preserve the tie.

?That?s a tough spot, but you?ve got to be ready for that when you pitch late in games,? Brett Bochy said. ?I?m nervous every time out and there?s definitely more the first time.?

Neither father nor son did anything out of the ordinary when the elder Bochy walked to the mound and handed over the baseball. The manager said the previous pitcher, Fabio Castillo, had reached his pitch limit and Brett was the next name on the list.

?Being the first time, I noticed him,? Brett said. ?But once I toed the rubber it?s like any other game.?

--

The pitching wasn?t very good after Sergio Romo threw his inning, as Chris Heston gave up two runs before Castillo began to melt down. All the positives came much earlier in the game on the offensive side.

Andres Torres, playing his first game in a Giants uniform since 2011, lined an RBI single to left field and alertly took second base on the throw home. Torres came out after two at-bats because he?s had a bit of oblique soreness and just began taking swings again from the left side in batting practice earlier Monday. He batted right-handed twice in the game before the White Sox switched to a right-handed pitcher.

Bruce Bochy said Torres should be fine with a bit more rest.

--

Hector Sanchez (sore shoulder) threw to bases with no issues Monday and is likely to begin catching in games in another two to three days, Bruce Bochy said.

--

Bruce Bochy still expects Matt Cain to make his next start on Thursday. Cain walked through the clubhouse with no apparent limp a day after he took an Alfonso Soriano line drive off the side of his right knee.?

--

The sight of Hunter Pence frenetically legging out a triple never gets old. Pablo Sandoval continues to look locked in, too. He smoked a double to center field. And Cole Gillespie doubled twice. It's only a couple games, as Bruce Bochy reminded us, but he does like what he's seen thus far from the non-roster outfielder.

--

The Giants had a chance to win in the bottom of the ninth, but Angel Villalona grounded into a double play with runners at first and second to end it.

--

No, Buster Posey is not perfect. He dropped a foul pop just a few feet behind home plate. Of course, that?s a bit easier to forgive when he?s standing on a logo that says, ?2012 WORLD CHAMPIONS.??

Source: http://www.csnbayarea.com/blog/andrew-baggarly/extra-baggs-bochys-son-has-rough-outing-etc

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Ask These Questions During The Job Interview To - Business Insider

It takes proper screening and careful analysis to hire talent who will?excel at their job and?fit into the company's culture.?

The tricky part is the right person isn't always the smartest or the one with the most experience, so it can be difficult to identify them during a short interview.

In his book "Extreme Productivity,"?Robert C. Pozen, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, says that there are a few lessons he considers essential to the recruitment process. Below are some questions Pozen says you need to ask during the interview:

1. Ask the candidate to talk about their personal history, which includes where they grew up and went to high school. "The answer will help you understand their character and motivation; we are all heavily influenced by our roots," Pozen writes.

2. Find out how they made the biggest contribution in their prior jobs and "working hard" should not be an acceptable answer. "You want to hear specifically how they came up with a different approach or solved a difficult problem."

3. Pozen advises that you should "engage candidates in intellectual debate about a subject of their choosing that they know well." Their answer can tell you a lot about how they think, how well they make their arguments and how they deal with counterpoints.

4. Ask them creative questions that have no absolute right or wrong answer, but will reveal the candidate's problem-solving abilities. For example, you can ask?"What are all the possible uses of a brick for our business?" and see how many different uses people can come up with.?

5. Ask questions that will reveal how driven that candidate is about their expertise and potential position. Pozen says that you should hire the candidate with the most potential and not the one with the most experience in the industry because "a?smart, hardworking individual will learn the intricacies of a new field."

Furthermore, when conducting a reference check, the former employer may not want to provide too much information,?so make it easy for them to "to subtly provide negative inputs" by asking specific questions, such as "Was this candidate the best you've worked with? Why not?," "Are there any potential downsides to hiring this candidate?" and "Would you hire him or her back?"

In short, if you hire the right people, your company will grow. On the?other hand, if you make the wrong choice, Pozen says you'll spend a lot of time closely supervising your team and resolving disputes.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-know-if-someone-is-the-right-hire-2013-2

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Alarm Clock Gun: Vent Your Anger at Being Awake

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Brightcove Introduces Native Video Players For iOS And Android, Will Discontinue HTML5-Based Hybrid Approach

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Ben Affleck Shaves Beard, Satisfies Wife

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/ben-affleck-shaves-beard-satisfies-wife/

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List of 85th annual Academy Award winners

Jennifer Lawrence speaks onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Jennifer Lawrence speaks onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Anne Hathaway accepts the award for best actress in a supporting role for "Les Miserables" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Actor Christoph Waltz accepts the award for best actor in a supporting role for "Django Unchained" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

List of the 85th annual Academy Award winners announced Sunday in Los Angeles:

1. Best Picture: "Argo."

2. Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln."

3. Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook."

4. Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained."

5. Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables."

6. Directing: Ang Lee, "Life of Pi."

7. Foreign Language Film: "Amour."

8. Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, "Argo."

9. Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, "Django Unchained."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Brave."

11. Production Design: "Lincoln."

12. Cinematography: "Life of Pi."

13. Sound Mixing: "Les Miserables."

14. Sound Editing (tie): "Skyfall," ''Zero Dark Thirty."

15. Original Score: "Life of Pi," Mychael Danna.

16. Original Song: "Skyfall" from "Skyfall," Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth.

17. Costume: "Anna Karenina."

18. Documentary Feature: "Searching for Sugar Man."

19. Documentary (short subject): "Inocente."

20. Film Editing: "Argo."

21. Makeup and Hairstyling: "Les Miserables."

22. Animated Short Film: "Paperman."

23. Live Action Short Film: "Curfew."

24. Visual Effects: "Life of Pi."

___

Oscar winners previously presented this season:

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Jeffrey Katzenberg

Honorary Award: Hal Needham

Honorary Award: D.A. Pennebaker

Honorary Award: George Stevens Jr.

Award of Merit: Cooke Optics

___

Online:

http://www.oscars.org

Associated Press

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Monarchs by the million flock to Mexico's drug country

ZITACUARO, Mexico (AP) ? He found the love of his life 2,000 miles from home in a chance encounter that gave him butterflies, and she moved west to be with him. So of course, Jason Skipton told me, there could be no better place to propose marriage than in a swirl of orange and black butterflies that had migrated thousands of miles to mate.

Never mind that that the stunning monarch butterfly sanctuary was in an area of central Mexico contested by drug cartels. When Samantha Goldberger set up her camera and darted to Skipton's side for a Valentine's Day picture, he dropped to one knee and asked for her hand.

"This place is like a miracle. And it is a miraculous thing that took place with us," Skipton said. "No one knows why the monarchs travel so far, or come here to find each other. It is inexplicable."

Indeed, every year, millions of monarchs migrate from the eastern United States and Canada to central Mexico, a journey of 2,000 miles and more into a wooded land under attack by loggers in a region bloodied by drug traffickers. The tiger-striped butterflies arrive in late October and early November to hibernate in fir trees, clinging together like great clusters of fall leaves. Come February, they start to awaken in the warm sun, turn glittering somersaults in search of their mates, and begin to couple.

I had long wanted to see this magical sight, and to hear the delicate music the butterflies make with the fluttering of their wings. As I boarded the bus from Mexico City to Michoacan with my husband and a friend, I wondered what tourists we might encounter in a place both beautiful and beastly. Who had the appetite for travel to central Mexico after the U.S. government warned against non-essential travel to most of the state of Michoacan, where we were headed?

There didn't appear to be other foreigners making the bus trip, a two-hour ride out the Toluca highway and along winding country roads as a subtitled version of the movie "Abduction" aired on TV screens overhead. Our hosts and hoteliers, Pablo and Lisette Span, had told us to buy a ticket at the taxi stand in the Zitacuaro bus station for the 10-minute ride to their Rancho San Cayetano. We did, arriving safe and sound.

Friends told us San Cayetano was one of the nicest and most charming places to stay in butterfly country. It's also one of the priciest, but the manicured grounds are lush and the rooms are cozy, each with a fireplace and woodpile ready to light at night. Although there are individual dining tables, guests naturally mingle and chat so that dinners and breakfasts become rather communal affairs. Pablo Span ate with us the first night and, in his gentlemanly way, tried to set us straight on the violence in Michoacan.

"Around the world, Mexico is synonymous with violence. But the violence is between the cartels fighting each other over territory, or between the cartels and the police and military. It's not against us. Not a single national or foreign tourist has died in the violence," he said.

The U.S. travel advisory makes a similar point that "attacks on Mexican government officials, law enforcement and military personnel ... have occurred throughout Michoacan."

Added Span: "The reality is ? touch wood ? we live exactly as we always have."

Touch wood? Really, that's our security policy?

But like Skipton and Goldberger, the guests we met were not only unfazed by the warnings, they were utterly captivated by the landscape. Another visiting couple, Michael Marez and Grace Buckley of Denver, Colorado, own a vacation house in Mazatlan, have been travelling throughout Mexico for years, and see no reason to stop now. They appeared to subscribe to the idea that violence is relative, noting that more than 1,700 people had been shot to death in the United States since the Newtown school massacre.

"People in the United States are desensitized to what happens in the United States and think what happens in Mexico is so much worse," said Marez. "We hope to avoid being collateral damage anywhere."

"You pay attention," added Buckley. "Sure Mexico has problems. They're sad and awful. But it's a wonderful country."

Rounding out the foreign crowd was a group of Intel employees and their families up from Mexico City. So it seemed the tourist pool, in this corner of Michoacan at least, was made up of expats, old Mexico hands, and hardy adventurers who consider witnessing the miracle of the monarch butterfly migration essential travel. (Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, also made the pilgrimage to see butterflies that weekend, but to the Piedra Herrada sanctuary near Valle de Bravo, in the state of Mexico.)

We opted to go to the reserve closest to San Cayetano called El Capulin, which is technically across the border from Michoacan in the state of Mexico. It is about half an hour's car ride from the hotel to the stables, where we rented some pretty scrawny horses and hired guides for the 1 ? hour trek uphill to the reserve at a place called Cerro Pelon. It was a rocky, dusty trip and there apparently are easier trails to the Sierra Chincua and the larger El Rosario sanctuaries in Michoacan, but it was well worth the saddle pain.

For here in the forest, I learned the great mystery of the monarchs, which is this: Most monarchs live only four or five weeks, but the generations that make the long migratory journey to Mexico live four or five months. They breed, the females lay their eggs on the road north, and die along with the males. Then, a year and five butterfly generations later, their descendants rely on some kind of instinctive GPS system to migrate south again, returning to exactly the same forest in central Mexico.

How cool is that?

Experts say the numbers of monarchs have been dwindling in recent years thanks to logging, insecticide use and other environmental pressures. We encountered a team of scientists from the World Wildlife Fund of Mexico and the Universities of Georgia and Wisconsin testing butterflies for parasites that attach themselves to the wings like excess baggage and drag the insects down. They found the ophryocystis elektroscirrha parasites on about 10 percent of the butterflies, which only weigh about a half-gram to begin with.

And yet, there are millions of them, flying, diving, sucking nectar from yellow and purple wildflowers, and seeking, like Skipton and Goldberger, the mates of their lives.

Recalling his romantic proposal, Goldberger said she remembers running to Skipton for the picture when "all of the sudden he was down on one knee." It took her a moment to realize what was happening. "It was incredible," she said.

And what did she respond?

"Yes."

___

If You Go...

BUTTERFLY MIGRATION IN MICHOACAN, MEXICO: http://www.visitmexico.com/en_us/VisitMexico30/Michocans_Billion_Monarch_Butterfly_Migration. Butterfly reserves are open mid-November through March. UNESCO World Heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1290. Reserves include El Capulin, over the border from the state of Michoacan to the state of Mexico. Entry fee at El Capulin, 35 pesos ($2.75). Horseback riding, 200 pesos ($16.50) and fee for guide, 200 pesos ($16.50) plus tip.

RANCHO SAN CAYETANO: Zitacuaro, Michoacan, http://ranchosancayetano.com/. Nightly rates, $130 plus 18 percent tax. Can be paid in dollars or pesos but quoted in dollars. Dinner at San Cayetano, 350 pesos ($27.45) plus 15 percent tip. Breakfast, 170 pesos ($13.30) plus 15 percent tip. They also will arrange box lunch tours to the sanctuaries.

GETTING THERE: Two-hour bus ride from Mexico City to Zitacuaro, Michoacan, on La Linea, 170 pesos ($13.30). Taxi from bus station to lodging, 35 pesos ($2.75).

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-butterfly-country-monarchs-million-150254523.html

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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis To Perform At 2013 mtvU Woodie Awards

Joey Bada$$ and English indie rockers Alt-J will also be on hand to perform at the Woodies Festival on March 14 in Austin, Texas.
By Rob Markman

Macklemore
Photo: Anthony Pidgeon/ Redferns

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702557/macklemore-ryan-lewis-mtvu-woodie-awards-2013.jhtml

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Prince to appear on Jimmy Fallon's show Friday

NEW YORK (AP) ? Prince is continuing to ramp up his public profile. This week, he'll make an appearance on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

A rep for the late-night talk show confirmed the pop legend will appear on the show Friday and will perform two songs. It's not clear whether he'll perform new material or some of his classics.

The reclusive star has been back in the spotlight recently. He presented record of the year trophy at the Grammys, released the song "Screwdriver" on his new website and is due to perform several dates in Europe this summer.

___

Online:

Prince: http://www.prince2013.com

"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon": http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prince-appear-jimmy-fallons-show-friday-185309952.html

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Oscars Fashion: Best & Worst Dressed

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Prevent Collapse Deck | Home Improvement Design

Deck is not developed or maintained properely safe and now is a great time to get out and inspect your deck for signs of failure that can lead to collapse. According to experts at the North American Deck and Railing Association (NADRA), the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) and Simpson Strong Tie, nearly 85 percent of U.S. homes have a deck, balcony or terrace. It is estimated that 20 million of the national deck in need of repair or reconstruction.

Checking your decks can help prevent injury or worse. In the past ten years, there are more than 800 reported injuries and 20 deaths from the deck collapsed. In many cases failed deck built one, are not properly maintained or more of their lifespan of about 10-15 years.

To evaluate the safety of the deck, experts say homeowners should look for warning signs five decks are not safe: no loose connections (for example, wobbly fence), the connection is lost (eg, the deck just crucified, rather than bolted or screwed, to the side of the house), corrosion, Rot and broken. The two critical areas that typically contribute to the collapse of the deck railing and deck connection at home.

To assist homeowners in evaluating the safety of their deck, Simpson Strong-Tie has developed its edition deck ?5 Steps to a Home Safe and Strong? and ?Deck Framing Connection Guide.? Five steps including checking for the warning signs of a deck is unsafe, knowing how weight and other forces that affect the safety of the deck, make sure the deck is built with a continuous load path, resistance to corrosion and know how to maintain a deck. This guide is designed to help people who are building a deck understand the critical areas of deck construction. For more information, or to download the Deck Guide and ?5 Steps to a safer and stronger Home,? visit the Web site Simpson Strong-Tie.

Reaching Tom: For more tips, sign up for free e-newsletter here Tom. If you have a home improvement question or comment about this topic, please post below. For answers to other questions on home improvement, please email Tom tomsmoneypit@aol.com to your question beused in future blog entries, or search Tom?s home improvement articles moneypit.com

Tags: deck, deck safety, wood deck, deck erosion, Tom kraeutler, money pit

Source: http://redevelopks.org/2013/02/prevent-collapse-deck.html

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Hands-on with the Sony Xperia Z

Apart from getting a decent amount of hands-on time with the new HTC One while I was in Sydney, I also took the time to get a quick look at Sony's new Android flagship, the Xperia Z. Like the HTC One, this device is set to launch very shortly across a range of carriers; we first heard of the device way back at CES 2013, however,?so the information has had a little bit of time to settle.

The last Sony device I had any decent time with was the Xperia S, their previous major phone that was launched early last year. It had some very decent features, including a beautiful Exmor R camera and solid media software, however the design left a lot to be desired and the phone's Snapdragon S3 processor was quickly surpassed by devices launched a few months later.

The thickness of the Xperia Z compared to the Nokia Lumia 920

The Xperia Z is quite a different device, because everything feels refined from what we've seen before. The solid camera makes a comeback, as does the media brilliance, but the specifications appear a lot more future proof (just look at the 5-inch, 1080p display) and the design is, simply put, the best smartphone hardware Sony has ever concocted.

Upon first handling the Xperia Z the size is noticeable, of course as it has to?accommodate?that 5-inch "Reality" display. Comparing it directly to the Lumia 920 (a large enough device as it is), it's roughly the same width but slightly taller, and a considerable amount thinner at just 7.9mm. While I wouldn't say the glass/plastic construction is as breathtaking as the HTC One, or as sturdy as the Lumia 920, it still feels fantastic in the hand because of its svelte, refined design.

It also looks fantastic as far as modern smartphone designs go: the Xperia Z is basically a thin, minimalist slate with little curvature in the construction, which fits well with the design language of the latest version of Android. As Sony has managed to keep the thickness down to 7.9mm, it doesn't really need to utilize any tapering to hide a thick middle, and I appreciate the end result.

I especially like the way the phone looks from the rear, and although the reflective plastic will likely cause a great deal of fingerprints, keep it clean and the sleek black panel will draw your eyes to it every time. Ideally, the certification logos on the back should be removed to have the cleanest design, but it's not a huge deal. Perhaps a bigger complaint will be the positioning of the power button on the right-hand side, which could be too low, but I'll reserve judgement for when I get a review unit.

The 1080p display was also a real highlight of my hands-on time, as it simply looks beautiful, especially when looking at photos enhanced by the Mobile Bravia Engine. It's so incredibly crisp, breaking the 300 pixel-per-inch golden number by a huge amount, so even when you're looking at the display as close as your eyes will focus, pixels are still invisible. At five inches there's also a lot of real estate to work with, and it seemed to deal with artificial light reflections quite well.

Another aspect that impressed me in my brief time with the phone was the 13-megapixel camera packing an improved Exmor RS sensor behind fast f/2.2 glass. By default the phone shoots 16:9 images at 9 megapixels, which look great and pack a decent amount of detail, however what impressed me most was the 10fps burst mode at 9 MP, which is quick and consistent enough to shoot over 1,000 photos in under 2 minutes. A sample shot from the camera can be seen below.

The Xperia Z packs a 1.5 GHz quad-core?APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset, and while it isn't one of the latest Snapdragon 600s or 800s, in my time using the phone it felt super snappy and enough to satisfy. Browsing the web (checking out Neowin, of course) and flicking between apps was without any slowdown, but we'll have to wait just a little bit longer for gaming performance. The phone also packs a microSD card slot (yay!) and its waterproof???something I unfortunately couldn't test at the time.

I wouldn't say I was as initially impressed by the Xperia Z as I was by the HTC One???Sony's new flagship was very much as I was expecting after seeing it first at CES???but that doesn't mean it'll be a bad device. I eagerly await some proper time with the phone for a review, which if everything goes to plan will be up sometime in March.

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/hands-on-with-the-sony-xperia-z

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Historical society plans Washington, Frederick trip, and other news ...

Bus trip to Washington and Frederick planned

The Hanover Area Historical Society is sponsoring a bus trip to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 20.

There will be stops at the Lincoln summer cottage, Basilica of the National Shrine in D.C. and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick , Md.

The bus will leave at 7 a.m. from 1150 Carlisle St., Hanover, and return at approximately 6 p.m.

The cost for the trip is $85 and the deadline for reservations is March 4 by calling 717-624-2959.

Littlestown Lions fund field trips

The Littlestown Lions Club has come to the rescue of the Rolling Acres Third Grade field trips for a living history experience at the restored Mud College one-room schoolhouse.

The Lions, at a recent meeting, agreed to provide $300 to cover the cost of transportation for the seven third grade sections to spend a day at the old schoolhouse on Route 97 just north of Littlestown. The field trips have been an annual experience of the third graders, but were defunded in the school district's 2012-13 budget.

The field trips, which will see the students relive the lives of the students at Mud College in the late 1800s, will be held in May. Each current-day student will wear period dress and experience a typical day as it would have been in a one-room schoolhouse in 1896, including use of an outhouse, well pump for water and bag lunches as those earlier students would have had. Each student

will be assigned the identity of one of those former students for the day.

Classroom activities during the trip will encourage thinking about the many differences between the current days students' lives and those of the children who attended the school more than 100 years ago.

Courses planned at senior center

The Windy Hill Senior Center and OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at Penn State York will hold a kick-off event to announce their winter/spring course selections at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Windy Hill Senior Center, Spring Grove.

Participating in the program will be Mary Ligon, department chair of behavioral sciences at York College. She will discuss the health benefits of life-long learning for older adults. Several course instructors including Rick Santel, on the Hollywood Sampler, Laura Davila-Reyes on Peruvian Tappas, and Jeff Shue on Understanding the Local Infrastructure and Government Interaction will provide a brief glimpse of their courses.

Created in 2007, OLLI is a nonprofit, all volunteer driven organization, which provides educational and social programs to enrich the lives of mature adults living in York County. Windy Hill Senior Center is a drop-in activity center for older adults living in the Spring Grove community.

Refreshments will also be provided.

Contact the Windy Hill Senior Center at 717-225-0733 or OLLI at 717-0771-4015 for more information.

Donation opportunity to support agricultural education efforts

The York County Agriculture Business Council is seeking donations for the 27th Annual York County Agricultural Recognition Banquet Thursday, March 21, at the York Expo Center Old Main Hall.

By spotlighting York County businesses and products through a silent auction, the council's goal is to raise funds to support programs focused on educating the community about the importance of agriculture to York County's economy and way of life. Businesses or individuals could donate items from surplus inventory, promotional items or gift cards.

Donors will be recognized in the printed program and slide presentation.

Reservations for the banquet must be received by March 1. To donate an item or attend the banquet, contact Michele Grove at 717-246-3578 or ycabc@comcast.net.

Source: http://www.eveningsun.com/news/ci_22654178/historical-society-plans-washington-frederick-trip-and-other

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Strong Cheap NFL Jerseys Advice On How To Appropriately Setup ...

Finding the perfect hosting services for your Cheap Jerseys internet site can be a challenging method, particularly if you are not that informed about the many providers offered. By being familiar with internet hosting, you could make this task less difficult yourself. The next report gives you some tips to acquire started off.

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If you are paying upfront for website hosting you could watch your cash moving down the sink. Website hosting is advisable paid for by using an as used foundation, like electricity or cable television. In the event that you take a prepaid solution, as well as your hosting company organization should go bankrupt or realizes themselves in warm water, you will be away from that pre-paid amount as well as a host.

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Source: http://www.mustreads.info/strong-cheap-nfl-jerseys-advice-on-how-to-appropriately-setup-an-online-web-hosting-service-website/

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A Juicy Hands-On With The Facebook Omni-Gift Card

"Uh Facebook Gift Card?", the Jamba Juice cashier said with a twang. "I don't even know what that is." But that didn't stop her from ringing up my purchase with Facebook's big move into brick-and-mortar commerce. Facebook announced the card last month, and today I was one of the first to try it out. Here's how it felt to swipe Facebook's hopeful disruptor of the $100 billion US gift card market.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OuiHfUM7_Rs/

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Mcallen, TX 2013 Ford Escape New SUV Mission, TX Corpus Christi, TX Payne Rio Grande City Ford for $27,350

• Color: Ruby Red Tinted Clearcoat
• Stock#: UC70106
• Engine: 1.6L 4 cyls
• VIN: 1FMCU0GX6DUC70106
• Transmission: Automatic 6-Speed
• Body Style: FWD SUV (4 Door)

?

• Convenience

• • Compass
  • Tachometer
  • Power mirrors
  • Trip computer
  • Cruise control
  • Power door locks
  • Air conditioning
  • Clock - In-radio display
  • wireless phone connectivity
  • External temperature display
  • Power windows with 1 one-touch
  • Video Monitor Location - Front
  • Audio controls on steering wheel
  • Speed-proportional power steering
  • Tilt and telescopic steering wheel
  • Overhead console - Mini with storage
  • Multi-function remote - Trunk/hatch/door

• Technical

• • 4 Doors
  • Front-wheel drive
  • Automatic Transmission
  • Compressor - Intercooled turbo
  • Tire pressure monitoring system
  • 1.6 liter inline 4 cylinder DOHC engine
  • Limited slip differential - Brake actuated
  • Fuel economy EPA highway (mpg): 33 and EPA city (mpg): 23

• Safety

• • Passenger Airbag
  • 4-wheel ABS brakes
  • Knee airbags - Driver
  • Dusk sensing headlights
  • Front fog/driving lights
  • Traction control - ABS and driveline
  • Head airbags - Curtain 1st and 2nd row
  • Stability control - With anti-roll control

• Interior

• • Reclining rear seats
  • Split-bench rear seats
  • Front seat type - Bucket

• Exterior

• • Rear wiper
  • Rear spoiler - Lip
  • Privacy/tinted glass
  • Intermittent window wipers

Payment

Vehicle Price $27,350 $0 $27,350 Cash or Trade $0.00 $0 $27,350 Interest Rate 1.9 % 0 % 12 % Months 72 12 72

?

Contact Us at (956) 487-2582

*The advertised price does not include sales tax, vehicle registration fees, finance charges, documentation charges, and any other fees required by law. We attempt to update this inventory on a regular basis. However, there can be lag time between the sale of a vehicle and the update of the inventory.

EPA mileage estimates are for newly manufactured vehicles only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.

Before purchasing this vehicle, it is your responsibility to address any and all differences between information on this website and the actual vehicle specifications and/or any warranties offered prior to the sale of this vehicle. Vehicle data on this website is compiled from publicly available sources believed by the publisher to be reliable. Vehicle data is subject to change without notice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for errors and/or omissions in this data the compilation of this data and makes no representations express or implied to any actual or prospective purchaser of the vehicle as to the condition of the vehicle, vehicle specifications, ownership, vehicle history, equipment/accessories, price or warranties. 2013 Ford Mission, TX 2013 Ford Weslaco, TX 2013 Ford McAllen, TX

Source: http://payneautogroup.com/2013-Ford-Escape-Mcallen-TX/vd/13675197

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2013 NFL Draft Profile: Gavin Escobar, Tight End, San Diego State University

Home ? 2013 NFL Draft ? 2013 NFL Draft Profile: Gavin Escobar, Tight End, San Diego State University

Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The Pewter Plank recently posted our review of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers contributions from the tight end position in 2012, and we pointed out that there was a?distinct?difference between the tight ends on the roster this past season. Luke Stocker and Nate Byham were both bruising blockers, contributing mostly by paving the way for the running of Doug Martin. Dallas Clark was the primary receiving tight end, failing to contribute to the blocking schemes, and instead adding a moderate amount of production as a pass receiver. With Clark aging and out of contract, it?s obvious that the Buccaneers will need a replacement for him, and it needs to be someone suited to his role in the offense. A tight end with reliable hands who can run good routes and provide a short to intermediate option for Josh Freeman.

That?s where Gavin Escobar is at his best.

The San Diego State prospect is a massive human being, measuring 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing 254 pounds. He?s got long arms, big hands, and a solidly built frame, but doesn?t look awkward or uncoordinated considering his size. He?s certainly not the fastest player, even at his position, clocking in at 4.84 seconds in the 40 yard dash at the NFL Draft Scouting Combine. What he lacks in straight line speed, he more than makes up for in agility and change-of-direction, posting solid times in the 3-cone drill and 20-yard-shuttle. This means that Escobar has the natural ability to make cuts while running patterns and beat defenders by breaking hard to the football on timing routes. ?He combines this agility with amazing hands, snatching the ball out of the air with ease with his big hands. He impressed while running ?The Gauntlet? drill at the combine, where he runs in a straight line and receives passes from all directions. He caught every pass in stride and used his hands to secure the ball away from his body and bring the ball in naturally. So Escobar proved at the combine what we already knew about him, he?s a big target that runs good routes and has incredible hands.

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Escobar was one of the best tight ends in the nation in 2012, hauling in 42 catches for 543 yards and 6 scores. He was a semifinalist for the Mackey Award (given to the nation?s best tight end), and first-team All-Conference in the Mountain West. He had an even more impressive 2011, including a two score game against Boise State. The decline in productivity is likely due to a drop in quarterback performance, as 2011 signal caller Ryan Lindley moved on to the NFL.

The knock on Escobar, aside from lacking in timed speed, is his inability to be a full-time blocker. Gavin was mainly used as a slot receiver at SDSU, providing a big target for his quarterback, and not often kept in to block for runners. He is somewhat capable of blocking, according to his CBSSports Draft Profile. This concern won?t be as big of an issue for the Buccaneers, who already have solid blocking tight ends. Escobar could play in passing situations more often than not, or line up as a slot receiver with Luke Stocker playing on the line. He could be called upon to block when needed, but he would not need to be a key part of the run blocking efforts for the Buccaneers. The other concern listed on his draft profile is his tendency to get pushed off his route at the line, but that this is something he?s been improving upon. Escobar will likely face tougher competition in the NFL when it comes to getting off the line and getting into his route, so this is something that teams must look at carefully when evaluating Gavin.

Overall, I believe that Escobar would fit perfectly in the offensive role left vacant by Dallas Clark. A taller receiver with soft hands would be a great target for Josh Freeman, who prefers to throw passes higher and allow his receivers to go up and get them. Escobar will be available on the second day of the draft, between rounds two and three, and I think the Buccaneers should definitely target him after?addressing?defensive back and defensive line needs at the 2013 NFL Draft.

Follow?@ThePewterPlank?for the latest Buccaneers news?and ?Like? us on our new Facebook?page.

Topics: NFL Draft, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Source: http://thepewterplank.com/2013/02/24/2013-nfl-draft-profile-gavin-escobar-tight-end-san-diego-state-university/

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Mandiant goes viral after China hacking report

Staff , Reuters ? ? ? 7 hrs.

(Reuters) - Cybersecurity company Mandiant Corp won plaudits from its peers and made front-page news around the world this week when it published a report that purportedly traced a series of cyberattacks on U.S. companies to a Shanghai-based unit of the Chinese army.

But some hackers have turned the tables on the cyber-expert by creating malicious versions of its 74-page report that were infected with computer viruses. They emailed the tainted reports to their victims this week in a bid to wreak havoc under Mandiant's name.

Though the episode was embarrassing, the company said its systems were not breached. "Mandiant has not been compromised," the company said on its corporate blog.

Mandiant was founded in 2004 by Kevin Mandia, a former U.S. Air Force cyber-forensics investigator who co-authored an influential textbook on the subject. The company made its name by automating processes used to investigate computer breaches.

Mandiant was largely unknown outside the computer security industry until Monday, when it fingered the People's Liberation Army's Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely driving force behind a Chinese hacking group known as APT1.

China's Defense Ministry issued a flat denial of the accusations and called them "unprofessional." But Mandiant won kudos for the unprecedented level of detail in its report, including the location of a building in Shanghai's Pudong financial hub from which Mandiant said the unit had stolen "hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as 2006."

Other security companies that have published reports on cyberattacks have shied away from so clearly identifying their perpetrators.

"It was a wonderful report," said Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA and National Security Agency, who is now with the Chertoff Group. "Everybody is saying 'it's about time.'"

The report did not identify the victims of APT1 or Mandiant's customers, though the company says it has worked for about 40 percent of the Fortune 500.

When asked why he had decided to go public with this report, Mandia, 42, told Reuters, "There is mounting frustration in the private sector. Tolerance is shrinking. We also have a bunch of employees here who are ex-military who sense that frustration and said, 'Let's push this out.'"

The report comes ahead of next week's annual RSA Conference on security in San Francisco, where Mandiant will showcase its products to help companies identify security breaches.

IPO in the cards?
Mandiant says it begins investigations by installing software it has developed that searches for infections by looking for evidence hackers leave behind. It refers to those digital signatures as Indicators of Compromise, or IOCs.

The proprietary database of those indicators makes up a critical part of the "special sauce" that automates the investigation process and, Mandiant says, enables investigators to root out attackers faster than rivals.

The company has thousands of IOCs in its database, which it is constantly expanding.

"We tend not to take the small jobs. We take the big ones - the ones you would love to read about in the paper, but we keep them out of the paper," said Mandiant's chief security officer, Richard Bejtlich.

Some investors have speculated that Mandiant is preparing for an initial public offering in the next year or so. On Friday, it named Mel Wesley to the post of chief financial officer. Wesley was CFO of publicly held OPNET, which was sold to Riverbed Technology in December for about $1 billion.

Mandia, who raised $70 million by selling stock to Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and One Equity Partners, the private investment arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co, said he is in no rush to go public. "I do not believe we need more capital," he said.

Ted Schlein, a partner with Kleiner Perkins, declined to say if an IPO was in the works, but told Reuters: "They are certainly of the size and they certainly have the operating metrics to be a public company."

Mandia said revenue soared 60 percent last year to about $100 million, and he expects it to climb at about the same clip this year on rising demand for Web-based services that help businesses identify when they have been attacked.

The New York Times and News Corp's Wall Street Journal recently disclosed that they hired Mandiant to investigate cyberattacks. The company has done similar work for Thomson Reuters Corp, parent of Reuters News, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. A spokesman for Thomson Reuters declined to confirm it.

Premium fees
Mandiant declined to discuss its fees, though analysts say they are among the highest in an industry where rivals include much bigger companies such as Accenture, AT&T Inc, Deloitte, PwC and Verizon Communications Inc, which offer cyber-forensics alongside other services.

Mandiant consultants often bill at rates of $450 or more an hour, said a person familiar with the company. Teams of consultants investigate breaches for weeks and sometimes several months, typically ringing up bills of between $250,000 and $1 million.

John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends for the SANS Institute, says Mandiant can charge a premium partly because it gets strong recommendations from the government and other customers.

There is often a waiting list for its services.

"It's supply and demand. You call Mandiant and Mandiant tells you when they can show up," said the person familiar with the company, who was not authorized to publicly discuss its finances.

Mandiant also competes against CrowdStrike and Cylance, which are run by the founders of a company known as Foundstone, a pioneer in cyber-forensics that had hired Mandia away from the military. He left Foundstone in 2004 to start Mandiant.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Deborah Charles in Washington; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Prudence Crowther)

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/mandiant-goes-viral-after-china-hacking-report-1C8513891

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