Factual arguments can be presented that reducing slot hold percentages and providing excellent customer service are two methods to increase patronage and ultimately returns for Vegas casino operators. Earth – shatteringly simple and non – novel, right? Certainly the gamblers (including this author) who enter Vegas casinos wouldn’t argue with those actions. Why does Vegas casino management never consider palpable slot hold reductions as a means to increase customer base and returns or, God forbid, actually implement a trial run at it? According to this article, the current average slot hold on the Vegas strip is just over 7% for all denominations, while the Boulder Strip is just under 5%. My research preparation for this entry indicates that 1 – 2 % increase in slot hold can cause a 30% reduction in time on device figures. There must be some long accepted mathematical formulae / casino management axiom that deters such action. Alternatively, perhaps contractual debtor demands to appease Wall Street / banking entities or plain old greed fuels their reluctance. Hasn’t recent history taught us that greed sucks? On the other hand, most gambling gurus and experts tell us to avoid the slots altogether due to exorbitant house advantage; most Vegas gambling patrons play the slots, however. Slots are the single largest revenue generator among Vegas casino games.

Earning a casino management certificate online can prepare you for a career in a variety of settings such as Las Vegas, but you can also work at island resorts, cruise ships or tribal casinos.  Once gaming revenues return to normal, jobs will most likely be steady in the years to come.

A table loaded with plump tomatoes, fragrant onions and crisp green beans attracted curious glances from passersby, with a few stopping to sample and purchase the produce grown at the MSU Towne’s Harvest Garden, a 2.5-acre farm run by the Friends of Local Foods, a student group formed in 2006 to tout the benefits of locally grown grub. Business picked up when classes let out, with students and teachers alike tucking turnips and cucumbers into their backpacks.

“This is such a great idea,” said Kat Smith, a sophomore studying photography. She stopped at the stand to pick up some dinner items. Originally from Stanley, Idaho, a town of about 100 people, Smith said there weren’t a lot of opportunities to eat fresh food at home.

“I’m all about fresh produce, local people,” she said. “I’d come every week.”

Tuesday’s stand was a test run for what Alison Harmon, assistant professor of foods and nutrition, hopes to be a weekly happening in September and during the summer. The group is still waiting for explicit permission for their operation from the university higher-ups, but Harmon said she hopes the administration recognizes the value of the stand.

Graduates who earn a nutrition degree online ultimately become nutritionists or dietitians.  Their work revolves around planning the preparation of nutritious meals, and plans for better health.  People in this field often work in hospitals, nursing homes, or even schools.

People in the wedding business are privy to the kinds of personal, fairy-tale moments that make romantic comedies a top seller every time.

“I had one guy who wanted to know where he could put the ring on the branches of the Christmas tree,” Tina Jansen, owner of The Wedding Shoppe, in Danville, recalled. “He wanted to propose while they were decorating.”

Jansen found a perfect, whimsical solution in wee little ring bearer’s ring bags, shaped like a miniature wedding gown and tuxedo, and the happy young man headed off with a fun, unique way to start the next phase of his life.

Sometimes, however, the worst mishaps lead to the most magical moments. Athena Berkheiser, professional bridal consultant at Tuxes-N-Tunes, in Mifflinburg and Watsontown, recalled a wedding where, just after the ceremony, rain began to fall — every bride’s fear.

But, “the neatest thing happened,” she said. “Not long after the bride and groom got to the reception, a rainbow came out.”

If the rainbow following rain can be seen as joy following sorrow, Jansen was blessed to see another, more poignant kind of rainbow. She recalled spending a lot of time helping one young bride prepare for her wedding while the bride’s mother battled a severe illness. Sadly, six weeks before the wedding, the beloved mother died. Years later, Jansen was helping a delightful older woman plan her wedding.

“I asked her who her groom was, and it turns out, it was that bride’s father,” Jansen said, beaming at the happy surprise of it.

Earning a bridal consultant degree online will teach you the basics of wedding etiquette, budgeting, planning and the marketing of your consultant business.  You will need to have patience and resolve to succeed in this often unpredictable line of work.

Large segments of the U.S. population are not considering careers in IT, shaping a shortage in qualified developers. Few students are enrolling in computer science courses, and a dwindling number of those are women and minorities, government experts say.

The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts high demand for programmers. Its Occupational Handbook for 2006-2016 lists computer application software engineers as the fourth most in-demand occupation due to “increased applications of emerging technologies” and the growing complexity of businesses. Software engineers for systems are listed at number 25.

Despite that demand, there has been a “huge drop off” in the number of computer scientists entering into the workforce since 2000, said Jan Cuny, the program officer at the National Science Foundation who oversees efforts to broaden participation in computing.

Seventy percent fewer students have majored in computer science since 2000; women declined by 80%, she said, citing Computing Research Association data. The Higher Education Research Institute has determined that only 1% of students are majoring in computer science, and 0.3% are women, she added.

This is a growth area that is demand.  Earning a computer science degree online is an excellent way to guarantee a good future.  Computer science majors will find that they have a variety of areas to focus their studies on.

A fire burning in Los Angeles County grew more than six-fold overnight, threatening more than 10,000 homes and the Mount Wilson observatory as firefighters battle wind gusts and continued high temperatures, officials said.

The Station fire, which has now consumed 35,200 acres (14,245 hectares) since it began four days ago in the Angeles National Forest, spread rapidly with flames as long as 80 feet (24 meters), the U.S. Forest Service said on its Web site. The fire had charred 5,500 acres as of yesterday morning.

The fire is now threatening the city of Acton, California, and local homes are being evacuated, said Jennifer Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the Angeles National Forest. Three injuries have been reported for the blaze, she said.

The fire is still only 5 percent contained, and may be finally under control on Sept. 8, the forest service said on its Web site. The blaze is also threatening 500 commercial properties and 2,000 other structures, the agency said.

Fire protection degree programs expose recruits to simulated disaster scenarios, such as burning high-rise buildings, hazardous material spills, and forest fires.  Fire protection specialists often earn median annual salaries of about $50,000.  Higher ups like chiefs and lieutenants can earn more than $80,000 annually.

Here’s the good news. Before the economy collapsed, the PR industry was already in the midst of a revolution. Digital communication began its exponential proliferation long before last year. In the process, PR gained more respect and leverage as a business driver. It clearly emerged as the discipline best equipped to drive and manage digital interaction.

So when the industry’s revolution met the ongoing recession, adaptability and creative thinking increased in terms of both staffing and client service.

“Downturns in the past seemed to affect specific levels. This was an equal-opportunity downturn,” says Lisa Rosenberg, partner and MD of Porter Novelli’s New York office. “It affected all levels within our industry, other industries, and sectors of society.

“Thinking has shifted away from advertising being the big behemoth,” she adds. “Ad planning and production cycles are at odds with real time in which information is needed and is relevant. We’ll continue to see a flattening in terms of hierarchy.

Even though Internet technology and advanced communications have made it easier for companies to promote their images, there are more and more businesses using the same media to promote theirs.  The competition is tough.  So earning a public relations degree online is even more important so you can have a solid educational base for a revolutionary career.

USD will now offer an online transitional doctorate of physical therapy degree (tDPT) through the School of Health Sciences.

This is the first online doctoral program in the South Dakota Regental System, according to USD’s Web site. There are 21 other online-only tDPT programs in the U.S., said Patrick Cross, USD tDPT program director and assistant professor.

There are 15 students, five from South Dakota, expected to enroll in classes this fall for the 25-credit hour program. Students from six states were accepted, and the program is designed to last for five semesters.

Beth Vilhauer, a physical therapist in Sioux Falls and mom, said the program allows her to continue practicing at her clinic while increasing education in her field.

“Best of all worlds, continue to do what I love to do, to be a mom, to be a clinician, to contribute to my profession and to my city and to grow professionally,” Vilhauer said.

The new online degree was built from curricular models by the American Physical Therapy Association and includes unique elements, such as a focus on rural health, Cross said.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that jobs for physical therapists should grow much faster than average over the next few years. Now is a great time to earn your physical therapy degree online and get started in a hot career.

If you are looking for an affordable method to file for divorce, using a paralegal may be the way to go.

Amy Wishart of DoItYourselfDocuments has worked as a paralegal in the state of Washington for several years. Wishart said she provides a service that saves people time and money.

“The main benefit is the savings as whole,” Wishart said. “If they have nothing to divide then it’s the easiest and most inexpensive way to get a divorce.”

According to Wishart, most paralegals charge anywhere from $150 to several hundred dollars to prepare divorce documents. The charge does not include the state’s filing fee, which depends on the state. For Washington, it costs $250 to file for divorce, she said.

While paralegals can help save a divorcing couple a lot of money, Wishart warns, the duo must be in agreement on all terms of the divorce. “In using a paralegal they either have to be in agreement, or they can’t find the other person so they know they will serve by publication and the other person won’t respond because the paralegal cannot give legal advice,” Wishart said.

Earning a paralegal certificate online is a quick way to get started in a career in this field.  To move up as a paralegal, you will need to earn your bachelors degree or higher and maybe even specialize in a particular area.

Art and Tillie Pease once had a thriving yacht brokerage business on Kent Island that once pulled in $3 million in sales.

Today, the couple live with their 28-year-old daughter out of necessity. They lost their jobs and their home after the boat business collapsed — the victim of high gas prices and a recession in which boating is a sacrificial luxury.

They’re taking a shot at a new life. But first they’re hitting the books. They have enrolled in Anne Arundel Community College’s nursing program, hoping to become two of the 10,000 nurses Maryland needs by 2016. Both in their 50s, they looked for a profession that would welcome them at any age. They knew corporate America wouldn’t be that place.

The Peases are among a growing number of the recession’s career changers. As Maryland’s unemployment rate creeps past 7 percent, the out-of-work are heading back to school to land jobs in areas that need more people. Health care, alternative energy, federal aviation and managing health information are some of the places they are turning. Money from the $787 billion federal stimulus is helping the trend by funneling money into training programs.

Earning a nursing degree online can almost guarantee that you will work when you graduate.  The demand for qualified nurses is just that high.

The report’s authors cite trends showing that, by 2025, there will be one million fewer college graduates than are needed in the work force. One way to narrow the gap would be to increase transfer rates from community colleges to four-year institutions so more students could graduate with a college education, they conclude.

Currently, the state’s decentralized, segmented higher-education structure favors a campus-to-campus rather than a systemwide course-transfer scheme. As a consequence, some students transfer with too many credits that don’t count toward the specific requirements for a bachelor’s degree, while others transfer without completing a transfer curriculum and have to enroll in additional low-level but high-cost courses at the four-year institution. Furthermore, some students transfer to a four-year institution without earning an associate degree, and those who do not graduate are left without any degree at all.

The report recommends creating associate degrees specifically for transfer students that would fulfill the basic requirements for all California colleges and universities, and guarantee transfer of all credits earned in certain courses.

Earning an associates degree online can take you as little as two years to complete, as do community college courses.  With online degrees however, you can bypass bureaucracy and just get move ahead with your education.