Gainesville, Florida, resident Art Adkins has been recognized as the top Detective-Suspense Novel of 2008 by Books&Authors.net for his exciting, environmentally-themed novel The Oasis Project. The book has also been featured on Southwest Florida Public Radio and reviewed by Midwest Book Review.

Art Adkins has been in law enforcement for the last twenty-seven years and has worked as a police officer on the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department and as a sergeant on the LAPD. He is currently a sergeant with the Gainesville Police Department. His knowledge of police procedure is vast, and he has woven these details into The Oasis Project.

Vebio, LLC (www.vebio.com) today announced the launch of its online invoicing service for contractors, freelance professionals, and small business owners. Vebio's service simplifies the invoicing process for the SOHO (small-office, home-office) professional by automating the creation, preparation, and delivery of periodic invoices. Following a successful 60-day beta period with several hundred trial users, Vebio is making its service widely available today.

"Vebio was founded to address the needs of the independent professional," said Anthony Wu, Vebio's founder and CEO, himself a former chief financial officer and independent consultant. "Today's accounting systems and software packages are too complex for individuals who need to send out invoices on a regular basis but don't have a full-time accounting staff to rely upon. These individuals end up calculating and preparing their invoices manually. The result is unprofessional formatting, irregular billing cycles, or worse--billing errors. Vebio was designed to address this need."

While many businesses are contemplating painful cutbacks in anticipation of slowing consumer demand, online deal sites have been prospering. David Sanders is President & CEO of Cashrunner.net, a leading online deal site. Sanders reports that traffic to his site has quadrupled over the past six months even as his company's advertising budget has remained fixed. He suggests "a lot of [the increased traffic is due to word of mouth."

The uptick in web traffic to Cashrunner.net has also been reflected in steadily increasing advertising revenues. Net operating income in the second quarter was up about 90% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, operating costs at the same time have remained as low as ever. At around 75%, the cost of labor makes up the lion share of expenses but is still relatively modest. Sanders explains that most deal sites have a full-time staff of less than 5 people. In addition, as he is quick to point out, Cashrunner.net does not have to worry "about many of the typical capital expenditures associated with running a brick-and-mortar business."

Lowcountry Children's Museum offers 'Hands-On' Fun for the Holidays and Beyond

Lowcountry Childrens Museum

The Children's Museum of the Lowcountry, located on 25 Ann Street in Historic Charleston, SC specializes in hands-on, interactive experiences for children. Enticing exhibits allow children to think creatively, dress-up, problem-solve and have tons of fun! The environments are designed for children ages 3 months to 12 years and their families.

January 2009 and beyond continues special programs like Toddler Time and Kinder Art each Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. There are sing-a-longs, stories, colors, animals and shapes.

DGWB Advertising and Communications announced today the acquisition of Argus Interactive Agency. Santa Ana-based Argus Interactive is a web services firm with a full-service approach that includes search engine marketing (SEM), web design and web development. Their SEM Services include paid search strategy and management, search engine optimization (SEO), as well as web analytics consulting. Founded in 2002, their clients include mid to large corporations in a variety of industries, including healthcare, education, technology, publishing, real estate, finance and more.

The leading innovator in advanced solutions for learning, performance improvement, and leadership development challenges -- Interaction Associates (IA) -- has announced a major repositioning of the company online with the release of the new web site, www.interactionassociates.com

"This is a major landmark in our 40-year history of developing raving fans," said Linda Dunkel, president and CEO of Interaction Associates. "Our new web site provides a platform for engaging clients and prospective clients with ideas, tools, models, and a dialog in the areas in which we have broad expertise and offer proven solutions. These include learning, leadership development, coaching, collaboration, managing change, pursuing successful CSR strategy -- numerous important issues in business," added Dunkel.

Steve M. Parker, Jr., has been named one of the "Top 100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences" by the editors of PharmaVOICE Magazine. Mr. Parker is one of two Co-Founders of New York City based Internet media agency Levelwing Media (http://www.levelwing.com).

Steve M. Parker, Jr. - Co-Founder

PharmaVOICE reviewed and selected the 100 honorees based on various submissions, nominations and their individual commitment to the life sciences. The PharmaVOICE 100 honorees represent a wide spectrum of backgrounds in the life sciences industry including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research and development, clinical trials, patient education and technology. All honorees have a deep commitment to the advancement of healthcare and have been able to inspire, motivate and mentor many in their individual pursuits.

Minority Alliance Capital (http://www.mac-leasing.com) today announced that they have implemented Tabitha Softwares technology to deliver unique value to financial and procurement executives in Fortune 1000 organizations through a web-based technology platform that optimizes the lease financing process, streamlines lease originations and effectively manages portfolios of financed assets.

Minority Alliance Capital (MAC") is a comprehensive provider of equipment lease financing and advisory services primarily serving Fortune 1000 companies and municipal entities. Tabitha Software is the leading provider of asset management solutions to the equipment leasing and commercial finance industries.

Health insurance brokers and consultants are now offering more healthcare choices to employer groups with a new Consumer-Directed Healthcare (CDH) migration path from ConnectYourCare, a CDH platform that provides state-of-the-art healthcare savings account administrative and information tools.

The ConnectYourCare FSA First (sm) solution allows brokers to transition employers to CDH at their own pace. By first offering the ConnectYourCare debit card funded through a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), employees can start planning healthcare expenses and experience the benefits of automated receipt substantiation process. The ConnectYourCare Wellness First (sm) communication program exposes employees to health assessments, optional incentive programs and access to commercial-free online medical encyclopedias, healthcare guides, and hospital and prescription comparison tools.

Vocus, Inc., (NASDAQ: VOCS) a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management, today announced that Vocus' Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, Bill Donnelly, will be presenting at the first-ever International Media Monitoring Summit on Thursday, October 25, 2007. Donnelly will offer insight on creating an effective, cooperative media monitoring strategy for today's global news environment.

Vocus logo

"With the increasing globalization of information, this conference is a great opportunity to discuss the emerging trends in media monitoring," said Donnelly. "As a global leader in the distribution and monitoring of news, Vocus is thrilled to participate in the conference as well as share our experience and expertise in the industry."

Danskin.com, the online branch of the innovate dancewear, active wear and comfort conscience clothing provider, uses Sitebrand's web personalization software to target visitors based on geo-location; realizes a 56 percent lift in conversions.

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Sitebrand's Retail Marketing Suite is a tool for retailers to dynamically change the contents of a page in real time based on user attributes. These attributes include geo-targeting (as Danskin.com used), language, connection speed, and behaviors such as number of visits, depth of visit, time on site and more.

In light of a stagnant economy and blundering investment market, the Palisades Federal Credit Union and the Cornell Cooperative Extension have come together to help teachers educate young people on enhancing their financial literacy.

Palisades Federal Credit Union, the Cornell Cooperative Extension and the New York Credit Union Foundation recently partnered to sponsor the National Endowment Foundation Education (NEFE) and Working in Support of Education (WISE) High School Financial Planning Programs. Many high school teachers, including four Rockland County educators, attended the July 14 event that employed NEFE's unique curriculum on personal economics held at Dominican College.

As an evangelist for software testing James is integral to the industry and his forward thinking, innovative and sometimes controversial approach encourages us as software testers to question what we do along with how and why we do it.

James and TCL have a long standing friendship and we wish him every success in his move to Google. Stewart Noakes, Chairman - TCL

About James: Dr James A. Whittaker, has spent his career in software testing. He was an early thought leader in model-based testing where his PhD dissertation from the University of Tennessee became a standard reference on the subject.

The growing consensus amongst the Worlds leading petroleum geologists and geophysicists is that the peak of global oil production will occur at some point within the next 10 years (see the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas at www.peakoil.net), after which there will be a permanent and ongoing decline in the global extraction of oil, accompanied by a similar peak and decline in natural gas production.

Most non-OPEC countries have already peaked. Thus the percentage of global oil production will be increasingly concentrated in the Middle East. Production in the Middle East will also peak soon. Global discovery of oil peaked in 1962 and has been declining ever since. Continuing this trend, most future discoveries of oil fields will be too small and/or much more challenging: hence, extraction costs will be extremely high.

www.BreakingNewsEnglish.com is an innovative and very welcome addition to the world of current affairs teaching materials. It is sure to be a huge hit with students in classrooms around the world and with instructors of ESL/EFL, as well as media studies, K12, and general studies teachers. The groundbreaking site offers current affairs lessons based on the same mornings headline news, uploaded daily. Lessons are graded at two levels: low and high; each contains a still-hot news article and an MP3 audio file. Ample supplementary material consists of twenty communicative activities including discussions, vocabulary exercises and interactive tasks. Student interaction is encouraged from the very beginning to the end of every lesson via pair- and group-work. Everything is free. Everything can be easily copy and pasted to suit different classrooms. Everything saves teachers time. Lesson plans student handouts are downloadable in Word.doc and .pdf formats.

S.MARK Graphics Florida Inc. has been awarded the graphic design account of American Meetings, Inc. (AMI) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The work includes the development of on-going services including logo identities, invitations, signage, web site development and maintenance as well as marketing campaigns and advertising.

AMI, founded in 1991, produces meetings and events for their clients that promote interaction between the client and their most important contacts, from employees to prospective customers. AMI’s marketing strategy includes high response direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing and grassroots campaigns to generate interest.

InventHelp announces that one of its clients, an inventor from North Charleston, S.C., has designed a concrete-finishing tool that would ease the work of making stress joints in semi-hard concrete. The inventor has created a prototype.

The R.P. JOINTER would minimize fatigue, stress and the risk of injury for concrete finishers. Designed for easy operation, the tool would save time and labor. Also, the R.P. JOINTER would be relatively compact and lightweight for convenient handling.

The inventor's professional background inspired him to make the R.P. JOINTER. "I have 30 years of experience in concrete work, and I wanted to invent a tool to address the inefficiency I've observed in present concrete-finishing techniques," he said.

It's about time for a total industry re-vamp! Trust Business Systems announces with excitement the initiation a total marketing concept for clients looking for ease and results. The total concept to completion project management style outsourcing firm will prove to be the best and first of its kind. Their vision of serving business and entertainment clients with enthusiasm, creativity, and results brings successful alternatives to the market.

Trust Business Systems started in 2006 to nurture new business owners by providing essential business services such as accounting, technology, and now --marketing. This allows companies and individuals time to focus on what they really wanted to do…their business. The talents in Graphic/Web Designer, John Warwick and Brand Developer, Jennifer Rachidi will head up the company's advertising and marketing inspirations. "I am excited to prioritize and produce new marketing ventures with businesses and individuals both locally and nationally", said Ms. Rachidi, VP of Brand Development. "There is no place I would rather be than with a trustworthy and innovative company such as this, and be able to offer remarkable services."

The deepening recession trend across the US market has created an environment of uncertainty. Owing to the economic turmoil, the US fencing products market is registering a sluggish growth rate. With demand for fences dropping down, fence manufacturers are seeking innovative ways to reduce costs of fence. Materials such as wheat straws and recycled plastics are emerging as prospective materials for fence making. Factors that are expected to drive growth in the US fence market include consumers craving for innovative and decorative home improvement products, and presence of considerable market for housing and remodeling. In addition, security of children, need for privacy, to prevent kids from entering into the hot tub or swimming pool area, to contain pets are also some of the popular reasons for the installation of fences.

EZRA Publications, Inc., creators of the popular Christian web community EZRAWEB.COM, have announced the availability of a free 'basic' subscription to the website.

Visitors to ezraweb.com may now register as a basic subscriber, receiving full site access, their own fully customizable profile and weblog, 24-hour Christian alternative radio and 5MB of on-line storage space at no cost. "Our primary focus is providing a wholesome, edifying alternative to on-line communities and blog spaces," says founder and CEO, Craig Schneider. "We are absolutely thrilled to be able to provide EZRAWEB.COM as a free service to families everywhere."