Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Major earthquake rocks Iran, Gulf and India

Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/strong-8-magnitude-quake-hits-iran-110158767.html

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Jada Pinkett Smith Writes Open Letter About Her Marriage

Jada Pinkett Smith still hasn't answered the question of whether she and Will Smith have an open marriage. Then again, maybe she has?

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/does-jada-pinketts-open-letter-confirm-her-open-marriage/1-a-533386?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Adoes-jada-pinketts-open-letter-confirm-her-open-marriage-533386

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Taylor Swift and cancer survivor Kevin McGuire finally

Kevin-McGuire.jpg

Image Credit: Mike Windle/Getty Images

One year after she pledged to bring teenage leukemia survivor Kevin McGuire to the ACM Awards, Taylor Swift has finally had a chance to make good on her promise. (Kevin couldn?t attend the 2012 ceremony due to a chemo-induced fever, though Swift did give him a heartfelt shout-out in her Entertainer of the Year acceptance speech.) McGuire and his family attended the show in Las Vegas yesterday, after enjoying a private pre-telecast meeting with Swift. No word on whether the singer and her ?date? planned their complementary outfits, though.

McGuire first got Swift?s attention last winter, when his older sister Tori launched a Facebook campaign asking Taylor to take her brother to prom. The page went viral almost instantly, prompting a response from Swift herself after just a few days. Kevin, naturally, was thrilled. ?She?s classy, sweet, and kind,? he told Philadelphia?s CBS affiliate ? what?s more, his sister says that her upbeat music helped him fight his cancer.

And now that Kevin?s finally had his long-awaited date, he can use it as a launchpad to move forward with his life: ?Going through what we?ve been through? it?s symbolic, in a way. It started my chapter with my cancer. Now it?s behind me; I can close the book on it,? he told CBS.

So to recap: Taylor Swift brings joy to an entire family, essentially cures cancer. Your move, Kate Upton!

Read more:
ACM Awards: Best and worst of the broadcast
ACM Awards: What They Wore
Miranda Lambert: Carrie Underwood deserved to win at the ACM Awards

Source: http://music-mix.ew.com/2013/04/08/taylor-swift-leukemia-survivor-kevin-mcguire-acm-date/

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Celebrate National Poetry Month With These Book Marketing Tips ...

Roses are red, violets are blue?I can finish this poem, I bet you can, too!???

April is National Poetry Month and a perfect time to market a poetry book or even write one of your own if you haven?t already.? Once you have published your volume of poetry, these 5 tips can help you effectively market it:

  1. Know your audience. Understand who your readers are and where they are. Find ways to connect with your target readers.?
  2. Create a website. Create your own professional website for your work. Include samples of your poetry ?and your biography. Creating a blog helps to move you up in the search engine rankings.
  3. Enter poetry contests. Submit your work to various contests locally, regionally and even nationally. Winning, or even simply entering, contests draws attention to you and to your work. If possible, include your biography and your website.
  4. Promote on social media outlets. The best way to spread the news about your poetry and you as a writer is through social media. Join poetry and writing groups through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  5. Engage in poetry forums. Join a poetry forum or poetry related website to share your work with other poets and writers. Be sure to engage others and invite them to participate in your poetry. Any time you post, be sure to include your website address.

Keep in mind that there are many ways to promote and market your book. These are only a few of the effective areas. Celebrate National Poetry Month in April and start writing!

Poetry is a great way to inspire images through spoken word in the minds of the readers.?Do you want to publish a beautiful, high-quality, professionally-formatted volume of poetry? Outskirts Press offers an exclusive Poetry Formatting Kit, which is the fastest, easiest way to literally ?cut?n'paste? your poetry into a pre-formatted document that is already formatted and ready for printing!

TOP 10 DIAMOND BOOKS FROM OUTSKIRTS PRESS AUTHORS
TOP 5 PUBLISHING HEADLINES

?I just received the Author copies of my book and I can?t stop looking at the cover and flipping through the pages. I have handled and read hundreds of books and I can?t see a better work than what I have in my hand. The cover is just excellent and the interior exceptional.?

Chuks Maduadi is the CEO of Mac-Adisons Ltd., a building/civil engineering company based in Nigeria. He is also the founder of Achievers Motivational Centre Ltd., a self-development resource dedicated to motivational writing, public speaking, life coaching, and publishing. Chuks holds a master?s degree in construction management, and is a corporate member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE). He encourages everyone to look beyond their circumstances and pursue excellence and self-actualization. His passion is inspiring people to become their best by hard work, determination, persistence, and perseverance.

His life story, as revealed in this powerful book, demonstrates that it is possible to rise from poverty and climb the ladder of success. He emphasizes that no matter the obstacles stacked against you, you can actualize your life?s dreams. Mastering Your Destiny prepares and equips you to maximize your life experiences and become the best you are destined to be. Regardless of who you are or where you have come from, you will be enlightened, encouraged, and inspired to go beyond your limitations to fulfill your God-ordained calling in life.

Chuks Maduadi, author of Mastering Your Destiny

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Source: http://selfpublishingnews.com/2013/04/08/celebrate-national-poetry-month-with-these-book-marketing-tips/

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Stocks weaken after manufacturing growth slows

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks were slipping on Wall Street Monday morning after an industry group reported that U.S. manufacturing growth cooled in March and was weaker than economists had forecast.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 23 points, or 0.2 percent, at 14,554 as of 10:41 a.m. EDT. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped seven points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,562. The Nasdaq composite fell 20 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,247.

U.S. manufacturing kept growing for a fourth straight month in March, but at a slower rate, according to the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM's manufacturing index dropped to 51.3 from 54.2 in February. Economists polled by the data provider FactSet had expected the index to come in at 54.

The S&P 500 ended the first quarter last week by closing at an all-time high of 1,569.19, surpassing its previous record close of 1,565.15 set on Oct. 9, 2007. The index has recaptured all of its losses from the financial crisis and the Great Recession. The index has gained 10 percent since the start of the year and the Dow is 11.2 percent higher.

Gains for stocks this year have been driven by optimism that the housing market is recovering and employers and starting to hire again. Strong company earnings and continuing stimulus from the Federal Reserve have also increased demand for stocks.

EBay rose $1.95 to $56.13. The company said late Friday that it expects revenue and profit to keep heading higher in the coming years as its e-commerce business and fast-growing PayPal payments service continue to expand.

Brewer Molson Coors, which counts Coors and Miller Lite among its beers, rose $1.87 to $50.80 after Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the stock to "Buy" from "Neutral," citing a better outlook for beer sales as the economy improves.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, fell to 1.84 percent from 1.85 percent.

Markets were closed in observance of Good Friday last week. European markets were closed Monday for Easter.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-weaken-manufacturing-growth-slows-144435583--finance.html

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Murdoch's The Sun tabloid to charge for online access

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/murdochs-sun-tabloid-charge-online-access-125810407--finance.html

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Supreme Court tackles federal Defense of Marriage Act

By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent

An 83-year-old former IBM programmer is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a law that cost her more than a quarter of a million dollars and deprived her, and thousands of other gay couples, of federal marriage benefits.

At issue is the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, passed by overwhelming margins in both houses of Congress in 1996 and signed by President Bill Clinton.?It bars federal agencies from recognizing the validity of same-sex marriages in the states where they are legal.

The arguments are being heard just one day after a challenge to California?s Proposition 8, which put an end to same-sex marriage in that state, was brought to the high court. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court hinted that it might be hesitant to issue any kind of sweeping ruling declaring that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. The justices seemed wary of issuing a broad decision that would apply to any state outside of California.

Supreme Court hears arguments for and against California's same-sex marriage ban. NBC News' Danielle Leigh reports.

As a result of DOMA, same-sex couples in states where same-sex marriages are legal are accorded state and local marriage benefits, but not more than 1,100 federal ones. These range from spousal health coverage to Social Security and veterans' benefits.

For more than 40 years, Edie Windsor lived with another woman, Thea Spyer, and the two were eventually married in Canada in 2007.?But when Spyer died two years later, leaving Windsor the estate, the IRS sent a tax bill for $363,053, because DOMA barred the federal agency from recognizing their marriage.?The surviving spouse of a traditional marriage is not required to pay federal estate taxes.

"I couldn't believe that they were making a stranger of this person I lived with and loved for 43-something years," she said.

So she sued the U.S. government, and two lower federal courts found that DOMA amounted to unconstitutional discrimination.?As the case wound its way through the legal process, the Justice Department, originally her adversary, became her ally.

Two years ago, Attorney General Eric Holder notified Congress of President Barack Obama's conclusion that "classifications based on sexual orientation" were inconsistent with the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under law. The Justice Department stopped defending DOMA in court.

House Republicans then hired a former solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, Paul Clement, to take up DOMA's defense. In his written briefs filed with the Supreme Court, he argues that Congress must be able to decide on a definition of marriage for itself.

"The federal government has the same latitude as the states to adopt its own definition of marriage for federal law purposes and has a unique interest in treating citizens across the nation the same," Clement says.

The House Republicans say Congress sought to tie federal benefits to the traditional understanding of marriage and its origins as a way to address "the tendency of opposite-sex relationships to produce unintended and unplanned offspring."?In passing DOMA, they say, Congress sought to "foster relationships in which children are raised by both their biological parents."

The Supreme Court's ruling on Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act will have immediate meaning for real-life LGBT couples and families across the nation. Jon Summers and Kyle Murdoch, who were married in D.C. last year, join Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss.

But the Justice Department and lawyers for Edie Windsor each urge the court to find that DOMA amounts to unconstitutional discrimination because it lacks a legally sufficient government purpose.

"Denying federal protections to married gay couples will not affect whether straight couples marry or have children who are biologically related to both parents," argues Roberta Kaplan, a New York lawyer representing Edie Windsor.

"No straight couple would call off their wedding if Ms. Windsor receives a tax refund," she says.

The Obama administration urges the court to find that two of the other justifications cited by Congress in passing DOMA -- defending traditional notions of morality and of marriage -- cannot carry the law over the constitutional hurdle.

"Moral opposition to homosexuality, though it may reflect deeply-held personal views, is not a legitimate policy objective that can justify unequal treatment of gay and lesbian people," the Justice Department says.

As for tradition, the government says DOMA does nothing to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, because the states decide for themselves whether to permit it. And no matter how long established, "tradition cannot by itself justify a discriminatory law under equal protection principles."

A decision striking down DOMA would not require states to allow same-sex marriages: they would remain free to decide for themselves. But the federal government would be required to recognize marriages in the states where they are legal.

Nine states now permit same-sex couples to get married -- Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington. So does Washington, D.C.

The political landscape has shifted dramatically since the law was enacted 17 years ago.? Former President Clinton said earlier this month that he no longer supports the law he signed in 1996 and urged the Supreme Court to strike it down.

"Many supporters of the bill known as DOMA believed that its passage 'would defuse a movement to enact a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which would have ended the debate for a generation or more.' It was under these circumstances that DOMA came to my desk," he wrote in a column published in the Washington Post.

"Even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law itself is discriminatory," he said.

In order to decide the issues at the heart of the case, however, the justices will have to consider whether procedural complications allow them to get there, due to the unusual way in which the case arrived on their doorstep.

The Justice Department, which asked the court to take the case, is in an odd posture, because it now sides with Edie Windsor, who won in the lower federal courts.? A party that prevails cannot normally appeal the decision.?

And while the defense of DOMA had been carried on by the House Republicans, there's a further question about whether they meet the legal rule requiring that a party to a case claim some specific injury.? It may not be enough for them to assert that they want to see DOMA enforced.

To help the court navigate these potential roadblocks, it appointed a Harvard Law School professor, Vicki Jackson, to argue the jurisdictional issues during Wednesday's courtroom session.

A ruling in the case will come sometime before the end of the court's term in late June.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a0a8368/l/0Lnbcpolitics0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C260C174758460Esupreme0Ecourt0Etackles0Efederal0Edefense0Eof0Emarriage0Eact0Dlite/story01.htm

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

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Source: http://pheedo.msnbc.msn.com/id/15290309/device/rss/

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Meeting broad, varied, competing priorities in conservation

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Solutions that meet the broad, varied, and often competing priorities of conservation are difficult to come by. Research published in the March 28 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes a hard look at why, in an effort to find ways to resolve the issue.

"People often think of conservation solutions that are effective, cost-efficient, and equitable -- the so-called triple bottom line solutions -- as the holy grail, the best possible outcome," said Ben Halpern, researcher at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), and the lead author of the paper titled, "Achieving the triple bottom line in the face of inherent trade-offs among social equity, economic return and conservation."

As stakeholders, conservationists, and governments work diligently to achieve cost-efficient and effective conservation solutions that are also fair, it becomes obvious that reaching one goal often comes at the expense of another.

"We developed and tested methods for discovering these ideal solutions and found a surprising result," said Halpern. "As you increase the equity of how conservation benefits are distributed to people, you compromise your ability to maximize conservation outcomes."

To examine the relationship of equity, which relates to how a person or group perceives the relative availability (or deprivation) of resources, to the other conservation goals in the triple bottom line, the researchers used three very different case studies dealing with marine conservation to test their ideas: the process to create marine protected areas (MPAs) off the central coast of California; the southeast Misool MPA in Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia; and the Coral Triangle in southeast Asia. In each case, as conservation scores and outcomes were increased (usually the result of limiting access to certain areas or the amount and/or species that can be taken from those areas), equity declined.

Meanwhile, the study also showed that both equity and conservation could be achieved, but by raising total budgets, sacrificing the goal of cost-efficiency.

Although triple bottom line outcomes are touted as ideal, said Halpern, the reality is that few people probably actually want such outcomes.

"Different people have more or less invested in managed systems and so don't necessarily expect to receive equal benefits," he said. "For example, if I've fished a place for 40 years and based my entire livelihood on that, whereas my neighbor just moved to town and fishes once a month recreationally, why should we be treated equally when it comes to making decisions about managing fisheries?"

Carissa Klein, a co-author from The University of Queensland, pointed out that "although equity can compromise conservation outcomes, it plays a significant role in conservation." Highly inequitable solutions, according to the study, decrease the likelihood of success because those disenfranchised have little motivation to adhere to conservation programs. But, while increased equity increases the likelihood of self-enforcement, it is also likely that ignoring a vocal and powerful minority will lower the chances of success.

So are there any decisions that can guarantee achieving the triple bottom line of effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and equitable conservation outcomes? Yes and no, said Klein. "It depends some on how one defines equity, and people have different types of equity that they care about. It may be easy to have equity in stakeholder engagement, i.e. all affected parties engaged in the process of making a decision, even if the outcome is inequitable. This may ultimately satisfy all the stakeholder groups."

"There's no single way to achieve triple bottom line outcomes," said Halpern. "Instead, we provide a tool for transparently and quantitatively understanding where, why, and how one can increase the chances of achieving these outcomes, and in which cases it is not likely possible," he said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Barbara.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Benjamin S. Halpern, Carissa J. Klein, Christopher J. Brown, Maria Beger, Hedley S. Grantham, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Mary Ruckelshaus, Vivitskaia J. Tulloch, Matt Watts, Crow White, and Hugh P. Possingham. Achieving the triple bottom line in the face of inherent trade-offs among social equity, economic return, and conservation. PNAS, March 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1217689110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/-OljYiPYlow/130325160630.htm

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Virtual Reality now: hands-on with the Oculus Rift final development kit

Virtual Reality now hands-on with the Oculus Rift final development kit

On a sunny Southern California afternoon, Oculus VR's founder, Palmer Luckey, its VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, its press agent, a film crew, photographers and a pair of Engadget's editors occupy a conference room in the company's Irvine headquarters. While it's the first time that most of the group has met in person, they're all here with a common interest. This assembly is gathered to take a look at what is said to be the final development hardware design of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Outside of this intrigued mash-up of press and corporate executives, Oculus' heads-up headset has managed to generate a lot of buzz in a reasonably short amount of time. The original concept was constructed from leftover parts in the garage of a tinkerer who was trying to create an affordable VR experience. Looking to further the Rift's development, the newborn firm took to crowdfunding and smashed its 30-day Kickstarter goal of $250,000 by raising a colossal $2,437,429 this past August.

During its early fundraising days we managed to go hands-on with a crude prototype of the equipment which left us yearning to get our hands on a final development model. A few short months later at CES, the company teased a larger, redesigned 7-inch development model, but only allowed us to try out an updated test unit that featured a 5.6-inch, 1,280 x 800 display wrapped in several layers of black gaffer tape. Fast-forward to today and here I am waiting to test-drive that elusive headset that got away from us back in Las Vegas. With all of the buzz surrounding the company's recent VR efforts, it's time for Oculus to put up or shut up.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/19/oculus-rift-development-kit-hands-on/

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Forums: BlackBerry 10, iOS 6.1.3, iOS 6 vs Jelly Bean, iMore for iPhone 2.0

Forums: iPhone 5S, Google Glass, Apple watch, Jailbreak apps

Interested in iPhone, iPad, or Apple and looking to have some great conversations? Got a burning question or frustrating problem you just want help fixing? Already an expert and eager to share your knowledge? Well, all that and more is just waiting for you in the?iMore forums.

Here are today's hot topics:

If you already have a Mobile Nations, FaceBook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft Account, simply log in and?start posting. Otherwise,??register now, and don't forget to download our free iMore Forums app for iPhone and iPad!



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/52ogik14b08/story01.htm

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Android Game Review ? Basketball Free Throws

Today we present to you ?Basketball Free Throws? by new developer Utkarsh Vaidya. The name speaks for itself, since the goal is to score as many free throws as possible. With a slingshot. The game is quite self-explanatory and allows a quick and easy access. You shoot the ball by adjusting power and angle of the shot via touch-control. Unlike in other basketball games there is no line indicating the trajectory, which I actually prefer, since the game becomes a bit more challenging. All in all it sounds like a a solid game, but

There are some flaws in Utkarsh Vaidya?s developing debut. First of all there are the sloppily designed objects, for instance the slingshot.? The sounds are relatively realistic, yet repetitive, but the lack of music spoils the atmosphere. The scope is not overwhelming either: There is only one level and one gameplay mode. But the most annoying thing was, that from time to time your perfectly shot basketballs just disappear mid-air and you lose one of your 15 tries per game.

Despite its teething problems, ?Basketball Free Throws? was quite entertaining and trying to beat the record kept me busy for a while. But we can?t ignore the flaws, so all in all this leads to solid 14 points.

Reviewed by Dennis Heizmann

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/playandroidmagazin/~3/RJwCAPV7Xv8/

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Cushman & Wakefield Advises on $40 Million Investment for ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Norwood, MA ? March 15, 2013 ? (RealEstateRama) ? As exclusive buy-side advisor to Berkshire Realty Ventures, LLC (?Berkshire?), Cushman & Wakefield's Senior Housing Capital Markets Group, a division within the ...

Source: http://www.realestaterama.com/2013/03/15/cushman-wakefield-advises-on-40-million-investment-for-berkshire-realty-ventures-ID019664.html

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UK's Cameron disagrees with pope over Falklands

LONDON (AP) ? The pope may be infallible to his followers, but not to British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Pope Francis ? the Argentine cardinal elected as the new pontiff ? has been quoted as describing the Falkland Islands as Argentine soil that was "usurped" by Britain.

The islands in the South Atlantic have been British territory since 1833, but are also claimed by Argentina, which calls them the Malvinas.

Islanders last week voted overwhelmingly "yes" in a referendum on remaining a British Overseas Territory. Of 1,517 votes cast, only three islanders said no.

Cameron on Friday urged the pope and other world leaders to respect that vote, saying: "The white smoke over the Falklands was pretty clear."

When asked about the pope's views on the Falklands at a Brussels news conference, Cameron said he doesn't agree with the pontiff, "respectfully, obviously."

"There was a pretty extraordinarily clear referendum in the Falkland Islands, and I think that is a message to everyone in the world that the people of these islands have chosen very clearly the future they want and that choice should be respected by everyone," Cameron said.

Argentina's ambassador to London has said the referendum was organized by and for the British, just to claim the islands for Britain.

The new pope's views on the Falklands made headlines in Britain as soon as Francis ? formerly Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio ? was elected.

The British press has fixated on comments he made last year during a Mass to commemorate 30 years since the 1982 war over the islands between Britain and Argentina.

"We're going to pray for those who have fallen, children of the fatherland who went out to defend their mother, the fatherland, to reclaim what is theirs for the fatherland and that was usurped from them," the then-cardinal said.

___

AP writer Vicente Panetta in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uks-cameron-disagrees-pope-over-falklands-151857276.html

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Obama says US must shift cars, trucks off of oil

President Barack Obama listens to Research Engineer Henning Lohse-Busch as he explains electric car technology during the president's tour of the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., Friday, March 15, 2013. Argonne is the first US science and engineering research national laboratory, and it remains on of the nation?s largest. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama listens to Research Engineer Henning Lohse-Busch as he explains electric car technology during the president's tour of the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., Friday, March 15, 2013. Argonne is the first US science and engineering research national laboratory, and it remains on of the nation?s largest. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., Friday, March 15, 2013. The president urged congress to authorize $200 million a year for research into clean energy technologies that can wean automobiles off oil. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

President Barack Obama and Joint Center for Energy Storage Research Director Dr. George Crabtree walk past a hybrid Chevy Volt vehicle used for testing during the president's tour of the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., Friday, March 15, 2013. Argonne is the first US science and engineering research national laboratory, and it remains on of the nation?s largest. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(AP) ? Envisioning cars that can go "coast to coast without using a drop of oil," President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to authorize spending $2 billion over the next decade to expand research into electric cars and biofuels to wean automobiles off gasoline.

Obama, expanding on an initiative he addressed in his State of the Union speech last month, said the United States must shift its cars and trucks entirely off oil to avoid perpetual fluctuations in gas prices. Citing policies that already require automakers to increase gas mileage, he said he expects that by the middle of the next decade, Americans will only have to fill up their cars half as often.

"We've set some achievable but ambitious goals," Obama said, speaking at Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago

"The only way to break this cycle of spiking gas prices ? the only way to break that cycle for good ? is to shift our cars entirely, our cars and trucks, off oil," the president said.

Friday's speech, with its focus on energy, was designed to draw attention to what the White House says is one of Obama's top agenda items for his second term. That focus, however, has been overshadowed as the administration and Congress work on an immigration overhaul, gun legislation and deficit-reduction measures.

Obama cast his proposal as not only a clean energy plan, but as one meant to create opportunities for economic growth.

"I want the next great job-creating breakthroughs, whether it's in energy or nanotechnology or bio-engineering , I want those breakthroughs to be right here in the United States of America, creating American jobs and maintaining our technological lead," he said.

Obama spoke from inside Argonne's Advanced Photon Source, a ring-shaped facility a mile and a half around. The facility acts as a giant extra-bright X-ray that allows scientists to look inside objects at the atomic level.

The initiative, proposing to spend $200 million a year on research, would be paid for with revenue from federal oil and gas leases on offshore drilling and would not add to the deficit.

The money would fund research on "breakthrough" technologies such as batteries for electric cars and biofuels made from switch grass or other materials. Researchers also would look to improve use of natural gas as a fuel for cars and trucks.

Obama's motorcade passed a couple dozen protesters standing in the rain at the Argonne entrance, protesting against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada's tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. The Obama administration is considering whether to clear the project. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force one that "there's no question" that the types of green energy initiatives the president was talking about at Argonne would have more impact on climate change than whether Keystone is built.

"Thousands of miles of pipelines have been built since President Obama took office inside the United States of America and it hasn't had a measurable impact on climate change" Earnest said. "But what has had an impact, measurable impact, on climate change has been, for example, the car rule that the president has put in place that has greatly increased fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions."

Inside the national lab, Obama got a firsthand look at some of the cutting-edge vehicle research, including a room that can go to extreme temperatures to test the impact on fuel efficiency. He talked to engineers working on electric car batteries and on an engine that runs on diesel and gasoline to reduce fuel costs.

"We want to keep on funding them," the president said as he looked at the engine, developed with public and private funding from Chrysler. "That's what I'm trying to tell Congress."

The proposal is modeled after a plan submitted by a group of business executives and former military leaders who are committed to reducing U.S. oil dependence. The group, called Securing America's Future Energy, or SAFE, is headed by FedEx Corp. Chairman and CEO Frederick W. Smith and retired Marine Corps Gen. P.X. Kelley.

Creation of the trust would require congressional approval at a time of partisan divide over energy issues. Republicans have pushed to expand oil and gas drilling on federal land and water, while Obama and many Democrats have worked to boost renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

There were signs agreement may be possible. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has called it "an idea I may agree with."

Murkowski, senior Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, did not fully endorse the plan, which is similar to one she has proposed to use revenue from drilling for oil and natural gas on public lands that previously were off-limits to energy production to pay for research on new energy technologies.

White House officials said the president's proposal would not require expansion of drilling to federal lands or water where it is now prohibited. Instead, they are counting on increased production from existing sites, along with efficiencies from an administration plan to streamline drilling permits. The government collects more than $6 billion a year in royalties from production on federal lands and waters.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said Obama needs to expand drilling to get his support.

"For this proposal to even be plausible, oil and gas leasing on federal land would need to increase dramatically," the spokesman, Brendan Buck, said. "Unfortunately, this administration has consistently slowed, delayed and blocked American energy production."

Obama's push for the energy trust came as the Environmental Protection Agency released a report Friday indicating that fuel economy standards rose last year by 1.4 miles per gallon, the largest annual increase since EPA started keeping track. The agency said the improvement was due to better availability of high-performing cars and more options for consumers.

A spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said the group supports efforts to make diverse fuels more available but said improved transportation infrastructure, such as additional charging stations for electric cars and greater availability of clean diesel fuel, also is needed.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nedrapickler and Matthew Daly at https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

___

Daly reported from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-15-Obama/id-34793a95c9e145a49ef6a675aade31e1

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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Papal election stirs Argentina's 'dirty war' past

FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2009 file photo, Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio gives a Mass outside the San Cayetano church where an Argentine flag hangs behind in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On Wednesday, March 13, 2013, Bergoglio was elected pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Pope Francis. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2009 file photo, Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio gives a Mass outside the San Cayetano church where an Argentine flag hangs behind in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On Wednesday, March 13, 2013, Bergoglio was elected pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Pope Francis. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

(AP) ? Pope Francis is rarely talked about without mention of his humility, his reluctance to talk about himself. The self-effacement, admirers say, is why he has hardly ever denied one of the harshest allegations against him: That he was among church leaders who actively supported Argentina's murderous dictatorship.

It's without dispute that Jose Mario Bergoglio, like most other Argentines, failed to openly confront the 1976-1983 military junta while it was kidnapping and killing thousands of people in a "dirty war" to eliminate leftist opponents.

But the new pope's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, argues that this was a failure of the Roman Catholic Church in general, and that it's unfair to label Bergoglio with the collective guilt that many Argentines of his generation still deal with.

"In some way many of us Argentines ended up being accomplices," at a time when anyone who spoke out could be targeted, Rubin recalled in an interview with The Associated Press just before the papal conclave.

Some human rights activists accuse Bergoglio, 76, of being more concerned about preserving the church's image than providing evidence for Argentina's many human rights trials.

"There's hypocrisy here when it comes to the church's conduct, and with Bergoglio in particular," said Estela de la Cuadra, whose mother co-founded the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo activist group during the dictatorship to search for missing family members. "There are trials of all kinds now, and Bergoglio systematically refuses to support them."

Bergoglio twice invoked his right under Argentine law to refuse to appear in open court in trials involving torture and murder inside the feared Navy Mechanics School and the theft of babies from detainees. When he eventually did testify in 2010, his answers were evasive, human rights attorney Myriam Bregman told the AP.

Bergoglio's own statements proved church officials knew from early on that the junta was torturing and killing its citizens even as the church publicly endorsed the dictators, she said. "The dictatorship could not have operated this way without this key support," she said.

Rubin, a religious affairs writer for the Argentine newspaper Clarin, said Bergoglio actually took major risks to save so-called "subversives" during the 1976-1983 dictatorship, but never spoke about it publicly before his 2010 biography, "The Jesuit."

In the book, Bergoglio explained that he didn't want to stoop to his critics' level ? and then shared some of his stories. Bergoglio said he once passed his Argentine identity papers to a wanted man with a similar appearance, enabling him to escape over the border to Brazil, and added that many times he sheltered people inside church properties before they were safely delivered into exile.

The most damning accusation against Bergoglio is that as the young leader of Argentina's Jesuit order, he withdrew his support for two slum priests whose activist colleagues in the liberation theology movement were disappearing. The priests were then kidnapped and tortured at the Navy Mechanics School, which the junta used as a clandestine prison.

Bergoglio said he had told the priests ? Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics ? to give up their slum work for their own safety, and they refused. But Yorio later accused Bergoglio of effectively delivering them to the death squads by declining to publicly endorse their work. Yorio is now dead, and Jalics has refused to discuss these events since moving into a German monastery.

Both priests were eventually dropped off blindfolded in a field after a harrowing helicopter ride, two of the few detainees to have survived that prison.

Rubin said Bergoglio only reluctantly told him the rest of the story: that he had gone to extraordinary, behind-the-scenes lengths to save them.

Then in his 30s, the Jesuit leader persuaded the family priest of feared dictator Jorge Videla to call in sick so that he could say Mass instead. Once inside the junta leader's home, Bergoglio privately appealed for mercy, Rubin wrote.

All this was done in secret, at a time when other church leaders were publicly endorsing the junta and calling on Catholics to restore their "love for country" despite the terror in the streets.

"It's a very sensitive subject," Rubin told the AP. "The Argentine church was one of the most conservative in Latin America. It showed a good disposition toward the military authorities, who, to make matters worse, considered themselves Christians and called themselves good Catholics."

Within the church hierarchy at the time, there were about 50 bishops, and most were conservatives. Some were very progressive, and ended up killed. Bergoglio was somewhere in the middle, Rubin suggested.

"There were some who were in it up to their necks," he said, citing Christian Federico von Wernich, who served as a police chaplain then and is now serving a life sentence for torture and kidnapping.

"There were those who risked it all to openly challenge the junta, and some of those ended up dead," Rubin added, among them Bishop Enrique Angelelli who was killed in a suspicious traffic accident in 1976 while carrying evidence about two murdered priests.

Rubin says activists closely allied with the government of President Cristina Fernandez have "have tried to insert Bergoglio into some human rights trials, even when he truly shouldn't be."

On the other hand, activists say the Argentine church waited far too long to apologize for its human rights failures, and has yet to identify those responsible for many human rights violations that the church was aware of at the time.

Bergoglio was named Buenos Aires cardinal in 2001. But it wasn't until 2006, after then-President Nestor Kirchner declared an official day of mourning for Angelelli on the 30th anniversary of his death, that Bergoglio called him a "martyr" in the church's first official recognition that the bishop was murdered.

Under Bergoglio's leadership, Argentina's bishops also issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church's failures to protect its flock during the dictatorship, but the statement blamed the era's violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.

"Bergoglio has been very critical of human rights violations during the dictatorship, but he has always also criticized the leftist guerrillas; he doesn't forget that side," Rubin said.

Bergoglio also was accused of turning his back on the De la Cuadra family, which lost five relatives to state terror, including Estela's sister Elena, who was five months' pregnant before she was kidnapped and killed in 1977.

The family appealed to the leader of the Jesuits in Rome, who urged Bergoglio to help them. Bergoglio then assigned a monsignor to talk with police, who gave them a heartbreaking statement: The woman was a communist, and therefore doomed, but she had given birth in captivity to a girl. That baby, in turn, was given to a family "too important" for the adoption to be reversed.

Despite this evidence in a case he was personally involved with, Bergoglio testified in 2010 that he didn't know about any stolen babies until well after the dictatorship was over.

"Bergoglio has a very cowardly attitude when it comes to something so terrible as the theft of babies," Estela de la Cuadra told the AP. "The question is how to save his name, save himself. But he can't keep these allegations from reaching the public. The people know how he is."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-14-Pope-Dirty%20War/id-79a0d67bd61848a78bb4a8320e46d3e9

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The New Pope: We Welcome Francis I With A Papal Playlist!

To celebrate the election of Pope Francis I, MTV News threw together a list of songs for the Papal iPod.
By James Montgomery


Pope Francis I
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1703607/pope-francis-i-election-playlist.jhtml

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California Health Insurance ? Understand The Various Options For ...

Health insurance can be a very difficult thing to think about. When you consider all the different policies available, you might not know how to determine which is the best one for you. However, it is critical to seek education on this topic because it can be a very important decision to make. Read on for some advice to help you begin your search for the best health insurance plan for you.

An option you have when getting a prescription from your doctor is to ask him to double the dose he prescribes. Usually, the bigger pill is more economical because it does not double in price, so can save you money in the long run. A pill splitter will pay for itself very quickly.

Most health insurance plans have loopholes, and yours is probably not an exception. You need to thoroughly read your policy, so that you understand what it says and are not caught off guard if they say they will not cover something. There will be things you have to pay for yourself, and knowing what these are ahead of time will save you the headaches.

Some insurance companies have been known to deny women coverage because they have undergone C-sections, which is an expensive procedure. In response to the higher cost and the risk of future C-sections, the provider will either charge more or deny coverage altogether.

Vision insurance makess sense for you and your family, especially if anyone already has issues with vision, or eye problems run in your family. This insurance will handle a certain percent of the cost of eye care related expenses, such as glasses and doctor visits. Vision insurance is voluntary coverage. There are people that save more money by not having vision insurance than having it.

You can get catastrophic insurance instead of comprehensive to save cash. While comprehensive covers doctor visits and prescriptions, catastrophic coverage covers hospital visits and emergency care.

If your information is not filled in properly, you might be refused claims or even be denied the ability to enroll in the plan to begin with. Read your enrollment form in its entirety to avoid these problems.

Buying individual coverage typically costs more than the group insurance employers provide, so have your expectations set accordingly. You might need to settle for higher deductibles or less coverage. Just look around for the best type of coverage you can get for yourself by shopping around.

Read the handbook your health care provider gives you when you sign up. You may need to know about certain benefits if you get sick in the future. The handbook informs you of every benefit your policy provides and everything you are responsible for paying for out of pocket. Read it thoroughly so that you become familiar with all your benefits, including the ones you don?t expect to have to use. Even though parts of the manual may not be exactly riveting, it?s still important for you to absorb all of the information within it.

Despite its complexity, you can learn and understand the basics about health insurance. All you need to do is a little bit of research. By using the advice from the above article, you can make smarter health insurance choices.

Tags: Health, Insurance, Options., Understand, Various

Posted in Health by admin on March 12th, 2013 at 1:12 pm.

Add a comment

Source: http://bizzi.california-biz.net/understand-the-various-options-for-health-insurance/

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US lifespans lags other high-income countries, tied to mortality rates under age 50

Mar. 13, 2013 ? Higher mortality rates among Americans younger than 50 are responsible for much of why life expectancy is lower in the United States than most of the world's most developed nations.

The research, by Jessica Ho, a University of Pennsylvania doctoral candidate in demography and sociology, found that excess mortality among Americans younger than 50 accounted for two-thirds of the gap in life expectancy at birth between American males and their counterparts and two-fifths between females and their counterparts in the comparison countries.

The study is published in the March issue of Health Affairs.

Ho used cross-national mortality data from 2006-2008 to identify the key age groups and causes of death responsible for the U.S. life-expectancy shortfall.

Most of the excess mortality of those younger than 50 was caused by noncommunicable diseases, including perinatal conditions, such as pregnancy complications and birth trauma, and homicide and unintentional injuries including drug overdose, a fact that she said constitutes a striking finding of the study.

"These deaths have flown under the radar until recently," Ho said. "This study shows that they are an important factor in our life expectancy shortfall relative to other countries."

She said that the majority of the drug overdose deaths stemmed from prescription drug use.

Ho said her study underscores the importance of focusing on policies to prevent the major causes of deaths below age 50 and to reduce the social inequalities that lead to them.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. J. Y. Ho. Mortality Under Age 50 Accounts For Much Of The Fact That US Life Expectancy Lags That Of Other High-Income Countries. Health Affairs, 2013; 32 (3): 459 DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.0574

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/tcmFbi3Ob0c/130313182259.htm

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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Is Borax Really as Green as it Seems? | Care2 Healthy Living

By Sayward Rebhal, Networx

The Internet is rife with homemade ?green? cleaning recipes that seek to minimize toxic chemical exposure while saving money and maximizing environmental stewardship. Which is awesome.

However, many of these recipes include the ingredient borax, which until recently has been touted as an all-natural and eco-friendly cleanser. Borax is most often used to fight grease (like in dishwasher detergent) and as a ?natural? laundry booster (which is how it?s marketed ? you?ll find it in the laundry aisle). I even have a very popular borax-containing laundry detergent recipe on my own blog.

But in the latest edition of their Guide To Healthy Cleaning, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) gave Borax a grade of F ? ?Highest Concern?. And over on Enviroblog, a leading scientist for EWG cautioned people not to use borax-containing cleansers or cosmetics. Obviously, this came as a surprise to many of us in the natural-living community, and there?s generally been a lot of confusion ever since.

Unfortunately, the truth is that there?s still a lot of missing research, and a lot we simply don?t know about how borax affects human beings. Here?s what we do know:

What is borax?

Borax is, in fact, a naturally occurring mineral. It is one of the salts of boric acid, a boron-containing compound, and can also be found under the name sodium tetraborate.

Boric acid and it?s salts are used as pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Sounds healthy, right?!

Well, it?s important to remember that the borax used to clean your home (and in some cosmetics) is not boric acid. They are similar, and similarly derived, but they are not chemically identical. Most of the studies referenced by the EWG and other agencies were performed using boric acid, not borax. Just something to keep in mind.

Is borax harmful?

The National Institute of Health calls boric acid ?a dangerous poison?. But that?s boric acid, not borax.

The FDA has banned borax as a food additive.

According to the EPA, boric acid/sodium borate salts are irritating to the skin and eyes and can cause acute toxicity when inhaled or eaten. The symptoms often include nausea, vomiting, skin rash, and respiratory distress.

The Borax Safety Data Sheet states that borax does not bioaccumulate in the body or biomagnify through the food chain. However, studies show that chronic exposure is associated with increased toxicity and more severe damage.

Most of the studies cited in the literature were performed on rats or other mammals, which makes it inappropriate to draw conclusions regarding human risk. It is believed that boric acid and its salts target the reproductive systems and can cause hormone disruption, especially in males. Human men working in boric acid-producing factories have increased risk of low sperm count and low libido.

Is borax eco-friendly?

Boron is an open-pit mined mineral. The process of open-pit mining involves drilling, excavation via explosives, heavy transport, and refining for purification.? It?s destructive, and fueled by petrochemicals. It?s not pretty.

However, it should be noted that 20 Mule Team Borax, the most widely available commercial product, is extracted in California at a mine that has been lauded for it?s environmental standards. It is considered to be one of the cleanest running mines in the world.

Still, remember that?s clean . . . for a pit mine.

America?s Environmental Protection Agency is still mostly neutral on it?s safety, but the European Union has flagged it as a ?Substance Of Very High Concern? and? Europe?s International Chemical Secretariat places borax on its SIN list of hazardous chemicals.

In conclusion

Upon reviewing all of this information, it seems that there is still some question as to the safety of borax itself (as opposed to boric acid) and it?s impact on human health. Therefore, the decision of whether or not to use borax in your homemade cleaning products will have to be a personal one.

As for me? I?m coming up with a new, borax-free recipe . . .

Photo of Borax boron open pit mine in Boron, CA by craigdeitrich/Flickr.

Cleaning Recipes without Borax:
5 Basics for Non Toxic Cleaning
3 Nontoxic Recipes for Once-a-Year Cleaning Spots
Secret DIY House Cleaning Products

Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/is-borax-really-as-green-as-it-seems.html

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Kathy Gyngell - Conservative Home

Kathy Gyngell is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies

Screen shot 2013-03-10 at 20.05.57Last week, Nick Clegg attacked what he defined as the outdated notion that men should go out to work while women stayed at home to look after the children.? He said the idea that the mother should be the primary carer ? even straight after the birth of her child - was frankly absurd.? ?It is the absurd Mr Clegg who is out of date and out of touch.

Next week, a group of highly intelligent and educated young mothers will be lobbying politicians to change such gender-equality driven childcare policies before it is, frankly, too late. They are concerned about the damage already done to children?s psychological welfare and to the institution of the family itself by state-prescribed care in cr?ches and daycare centres.

They abhor the bias against stay-at-home mothers that politicians like Nick Clegg advance and deeply resent their exclusion from the family policy debate ?and their marginalisation as unenlightened and old fashioned. They are neither. They are beleaguered. Understandably, they don?t want to upset working mothers. But they are right to insist that we can no longer ignore the evidence of large-scale studies in the United States and surveys from the UK and also Sweden, a country that has embraced daycare to such an extent that the mother?s right to stay at home has been virtually eliminated.? Sweden is on the brink of taking the family into state ownership.

In our feminist society, such mothers are treated as outcasts by the metropolitan progressive who dominate politics and the media.? As Dr Aric Sigman, an authority on the impact of daycare on young children, has said: ?If women?s rights have been hard won, so too has the ability to publish and discuss openly the inconvenient potential effects of daycare on children.?

The damage done to young minds and hearts has become the new taboo. It is still not discussed at the policy table, because it makes for such uncomfortable reading. If it is uncomfortable for the mothers corralled into work too soon (whether for financial or career reasons), it is even more so for feminists who drive universal childcare policy and for the politicians who?ve pushed childcare as an equal lifestyle alternative to mothercare. It is not. I found that out when I went back to work eleven weeks after the birth of my first baby. I struggled for a year against my maternal instinct before I had the sense and the strength to give into it and to look after my baby myself.?

At that time, back in the late 1980s, I had to resist the reassurances of such child care luminaries as Claire Raynor and Penelope Leach, who I was at the time producing on TV-am. They said I must not feel guilty about my return to work. Yet these were women who understood far better than most the infant?s need for maternal ?attachment?.? Such was the pressure of feminist thought even then.? They did though introduce me to a mass of child development literature, that gave me the confidence to make my mind up for myself and follow my heart.

Feminists said? that the post-war psychologist John Bowlby?s seminal works on attachment and maternal deprivation had been discredited.? I found them revelatory. I began to listen to my instincts, to understand that biological imperative for survival that my baby uniquely needed me.? Sacrificing children?s needs on the altar of feminism was short-sighted and not the route to fulfilment. So against the strongly feminist fashion of the time I opted to give up work become a stay-at-home mum. I was lucky to be able to afford to do so. Other mothers who later wrote to me at the time about their distress and anguish at having to go back to work were not so fortunate.

Since then the push for childcare has been relentless. Between 1990 and 2001, the number of? day nurseries, where children? as young as three months are parked for as many as nine hours a day,? leapt? from 87,500 to 285,100.? Today, thanks to Labour?s childcare subsidies (which now run into billions) and to the working and child tax credits they introduced (ones that discriminate against one-earner families) 57 per cent of 0-2s and 90 per cent of three to 3-4s? are now in some kind of formal childcare, ranging from childminders to day centres and nursery classes.

A disturbing 440,000 of 0-2s spend long hours in day centres ? 17 per cent of that age group. Now the Coalition government plans to have 40 per cent of all two-year-olds in day care by 2014 ? when they deem their ?education? should now start. Society must have an honest framework to review these policies ? policies which ought? be based on choice not dogma.? Mothers at Home Matter are pushing for this at an event at the House of Commons this week. It will be attended by the Swedish sociologist Jonas Himmelstrand.

He warns that Sweden, where 95 per cent of 2-5 year olds are put in day care, has witnessed a severe decline in child development and school performance.? Sweden?s universal childcare is not a model for other countries. Psychological disorders, including anxiety, have tripled since the 1980s, when daycare centres first began to feature heavily in Swedish child development. The childcare economic equation has not added up; as the state is unable to sustain its cost, quality has deteriorated dramatically. Early exposure to large groups of peers has detrimentally effected the psychological maturation of children and young people, learning and the transference of culture between generations. ?It is?, he says, ?at the root of bullying, teenage gangs, promiscuity and the flat-lining of culture.?

We can already see frightening similarities here where even teachers of nursery classes are finding discipline a challenge. Leading UK child psychologist Oliver James explains: ?Early care sets our emotional thermostat. Having a responsive mother who is there for the child in the early years is the best possible care?..Studies show that day care is less good for under three year-olds than child minders, who are less good than nannies, who are less good than close relatives, who are less good than parents.? He knows, as do other child psychologists and sociologists, that these findings are not unique to Sweden.

Professor Jay Belsky was involved for more than fifteen years with the most intensive investigation into the effects of childcare ever which followed some 1,000 American children growing up in 10 locations across the USA, from birth to age 15 (called the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development).? It revealed a clear and definitive association between early and extensive child care experience, especially center-care exposure, with what psychologists describe as ?externalizing behaviour? problems? including aggression, from two years old through to the child?s 11th year, regardless of family background or other factors.

He also reported the contagious effects of childcare later in the classroom: ?The more children there were in kindergarten classrooms that had extensive histories of child care, especially in centers, the more aggressive and disobedient were all the children in the class. ...even children with limited child care experience could end up behaving more like children with lots of child care experience than like other children with limited child care experience if they were in classrooms made up of lots of children with early and extensive child care histories.?

Nor can the effects of childcare on behavior be put down to American culture.? In the UK too, children who spent more time in group care, mainly nursery care are more likely to have behavioural problems, particularly hyperactivity, than home cared children; and? that under-twos who spent long hours in day care were more likely to exhibit anti-social behaviour when they start school. These were the findings of the authoritative Family Children and Childcare Study.

All these findings make it clear that we disregard the feelings and the experiences of our infants at our peril. Nor is it just the children we need to watch out for, but mothers too, who are constantly pressured to relinquish responsibility for their nurturing role.? Swedish mothers who, like here, largely find themselves in low paid jobs often( ironically, looking after other women?s children) take more sick leave than in any other country in Europe, despite the generous 12 month maternity leave they are initially given.?

When asked why they opt for the highly subsidised state childcare they cite the punitive tax system where, like here, a single-earner family pays more in tax than its dual-earner equivalent, taking the childcare subsidy into account. They want to spend more time with their infants and children.

Yet Nick Clegg says; ?It?s heartbreaking to watch women who feel forced to lower their ambitions for themselves. And it?s heartbreaking to see fathers missing out on being with their children.? What is heartbreaking is that he, like so many politicians today, is so blind to children?s real needs ? and that his childcare policies are so dogmatically cast through the prism of adult sexual politics and women?s rights.

Source: http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2013/03/kathy-gyngell-of-cpsthinktank-it-breaks-my-heart-that-nick-clegg-is-so-blind-to-what-mothers-really-.html

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Flash Sales Site For Mums Casabu Raises $1.4M To Take On Zulily In The UK

logo-1You'd be forgiven for thinking that the window has closed on the flash sales concept, but apparently not. Casabu, the UK startup that targets mums with time-limited sales of clothing, toys, nursery equipment and maternity wear, has raised a ?900k (~$1.4m) Series A round led by Ingenious Ventures, the private equity division of investment and advisory group Ingenious, with participation from existing investor Horatio Investments.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Fbk4SV_V2X0/

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'Oz' Proves To Be 'Great And Powerful' Box Office Draw

FROM MTV NEWS Disney and Sam Raimi took a big roll of the emerald die this past weekend on "Oz the Great and Powerful," and it is now safe to say that the gamble has paid off. The "Wizard of Oz" prequel opened to massive numbers with an $80.2 million total, the third best March [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/03/11/oz-great-and-powerful-box-office/

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Monday, March 11, 2013

Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock

Mar. 11, 2013 ? A new analysis of data from NASA's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) shows that molten rock may have been present on the Moon more recently and for longer periods than previously thought. Differentiation -- a settling out of rock layers as liquid rock cools -- would require thousands of years and a fluid rock sea at least six miles deep.

Early in the Moon's history an ocean of molten rock covered its entire surface. As that lunar magma ocean cooled over millions of years, it differentiated to form the Moon's crust and mantle. But according to a new analysis by planetary scientists from Brown University, this wasn't the last time the Moon's surface was melted on a massive scale.

The research, led by graduate student William Vaughan, shows that the impact event that formed the Orientale basin on the Moon's western edge and far side produced a sea of melted rock 220 miles across and at least six miles deep. Similar seas of impact melt were probably present at various times in at least 30 other large impact basins on the Moon.

The research is published in the April issue of the journal Icarus.

Vaughan and his colleagues show that as these melt seas cooled, they differentiated in a way that was similar to the lunar magma ocean. As a result, rocks formed in melt seas could be mistaken for "pristine" rocks formed very early in the Moon's history, the researchers say.

"This work adds the concept of impact melt magma seas to the lexicon of lunar rock-forming processes," said planetary geologist James W. Head III, the Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences and the senior researcher involved in the study. "It emphasizes that one must consider the detailed point of origin of the rocks in order to interpret them correctly."

That includes rocks brought back during the Apollo program and Russia's Luna missions. It's quite possible, the researchers say, that impact melt material is present in lunar samples thought to be representative of the early formation of the lunar crust. The amount of rock formed in melt seas is far from trivial. Vaughan and his colleagues estimate that impacts forming the Moon's 30 large basins produced 100 million cubic kilometers of melt, enough to make up 5 percent of the Moon's crust.

If lunar samples do include melt material, it would help to explain some puzzling findings from lunar samples. For example, in 2011 an analysis of a sample assumed to have originated in the early lunar crust suggested that the sample was 200 million years younger than the estimated time when the lunar magma ocean solidified. That led some researchers to conclude either that the Moon is younger than previously estimated or that the lunar magma ocean theory was flawed. But if that sample actually originated from a melt sea, its young age could be explained without rewriting the history of the Moon.

The melt sea at Orientale

The Orientale basin is only partly visible from Earth on the western edge of the Moon's near side. Because it's one of the few basins on the Moon that hasn't filled in with volcanic basalt, it provides a great place to investigate the geology of melt seas and to test whether they differentiate as they cool.

For the Orientale melt sea to have differentiated, it must have been liquid for a long time -- thousands of years. To be liquid that long, it must have been quite thick. That left the researchers with a question that wasn't easy to answer: How thick was the Orientale melt?

"In pictures, you're just seeing the top of an impact melt body, so we have to find a way to infer how thick it was," Vaughan said.

To do that, Vaughan and his colleagues took advantage of the fact that a liquid shrinks when it cools and solidifies. Data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) showed that the sheet had subsided by about two kilometers from the surrounding rock, giving the researchers an idea of how much the sea shrank. With that data, they could calculate its volume and infer its depth.

According to the calculations, the Orientale melt sea must have been at least 10 kilometers thick. Far shallower melt sheets from impacts on Earth are known to have differentiated, so it's a safe bet that Orientale was thick enough to differentiate.

The next question was what that differentiation might look like. Based on the compositions of the lunar crust and mantle material melted, Vaughan could determine the composition of the impact melt sea. From there, he could make a model of what rocks would have formed as the melt sea cooled. According to the model, thick layers of rocks like dunite and pyroxenite form at the base of the melt sea from dense, early crystallizing minerals that sink through the melt. Other minerals float up through the melt to form layers of rocks such as norite at the top of the melt sea -- very similar to differentiation processes in the lunar magma ocean.

Vaughan's model is supported by remote sensing data from the Maunder crater, the remnant of an impact that excavated material from the melt sheet after it cooled. The data confirm a noritic composition at least four kilometers deep in the melt sheet.

Taken together, the findings suggest that impact melt seas produce rock in a way that's very similar to the lunar magma ocean. And that could help to clear up some lingering questions about the magma ocean paradigm.

"This is a mechanism by which the Moon was later modified to add petrologic complexity," Vaughan said. "It helps make sense of mineralogical data that doesn't always fit in this lunar magma ocean idea."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

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Journal Reference:

  1. William M. Vaughan, James W. Head, Lionel Wilson, Paul C. Hess. Geology and petrology of enormous volumes of impact melt on the Moon: A case study of the Orientale basin impact melt sea. Icarus, 2013; 223 (2): 749 DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2013.01.017

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/3YZ_LnhkiMc/130311151257.htm

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