Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295522333?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Young baseball pitchers shouldn't overdo it
Mar. 29, 2013 ? Baseball season has arrived, but no matter how eager young players are to get on the diamond they have to keep from overdoing it -- especially if they're pitchers.
Overhand pitching creates great forces, stresses and strains at both the elbow and shoulder. In most children up to age 16, bones, muscles and connective tissues are not fully developed, so it should come as no surprise that the pitching motion can lead to injury if it is performed too frequently.
"Parents may find it difficult to put limits on any activity that a child is good at and enjoys performing," said Michael T. Freehill, M.D., assistant professor of orthopedics at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "But when it comes to pitching, the surest way to ruin a young athlete's chances of success is to allow him or her to overdo it."
Fortunately, overuse injuries are preventable. Following some basic guidelines can help young baseball pitchers stay healthy.
? Young pitchers should always warm up properly by stretching and running before throwing. Throwing should begin with easy tosses, with gradual increases in distance, then intensity.
? Youngsters should concentrate on age-appropriate pitching skills. The emphasis should be on control, accuracy and good mechanics, not curveballs and velocity.
? Tracking the number of pitches thrown is important. Staying within age-specific pitch-count limits, such as those established by Little League Baseball, is recommended.
? Proper rest periods between pitching sessions should be observed. Youngsters can still play during these rest periods, but only at positions other than pitcher and catcher.
? Children should not pitch for multiple teams with overlapping schedules or play baseball year-round.
? Children should never pitch when it hurts. They must understand that telling a parent or coach is the right thing to do if they experience discomfort while throwing.
"Following these guidelines may force a young pitcher to sit out a few innings or miss a few pitching opportunities during the season," said Freehill, who pitched in the minor leagues before attending medical school, reaching the AAA level with two different organizations and making it onto the 40-man roster of the Anaheim (now Los Angeles) Angels. "However, that's a small price to pay for keeping our kids healthy and giving them their best shot at success over the long run."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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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/top_news/~3/3ytTP7OKhU4/130329161137.htm
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Death toll in Tanzania building collapse rises to 19
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The death toll from the collapse of a building in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam has climbed to 19, a senior official said on Saturday.
The building of more than 12 storeys, which had been under construction, collapsed on Friday morning near a mosque in the Kariakoo district around the city centre. Several cars were crushed by falling masonry.
Tanzania's buoyant economy has fuelled a building boom, especially in Kariakoo and the city centre. But the speed of construction has raised concerns about standards.
"Nineteen people have been killed so far and 17 were rescued alive, so this accounts for 36 people who were trapped in the collapsed building," Dar es Salaam Regional Police Commander Suleiman Kova told reporters at the scene.
"There is very little hope of finding any more people alive from under the rubble, but we are determined to recover all bodies so that they can be given a proper burial."
Witnesses said they believed construction workers were inside the building when it collapsed. Rescue workers sifting through the rubble on Saturday said two boys were also still missing.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who visited the scene on Friday, ordered authorities to act against responsible parties.
Kova said police had arrested four suspects, including the building owner. Police had previously said the owner in custody was also the contractor, but later said they were still looking for the building contractor.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-tanzania-building-collapse-rises-17-082252564.html
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Hubble observes the hidden depths of Messier 77
Friday, March 29, 2013
Messier 77 is a galaxy in the constellation of Cetus, some 45 million light-years away from us. Also known as NGC 1068, it is one of the most famous and well-studied galaxies. It is a real star among galaxies, with more papers written about it than many other galaxies put together!
Despite its current fame and striking swirling appearance, the galaxy has been a victim of mistaken identity a couple of times; when it was initially discovered in 1780, the distinction between gas clouds and galaxies was not known, causing finder Pierre Mechain to miss its true nature and label it as a nebula. It was misclassified again when it was subsequently listed in the Messier Catalogue as a star cluster.
Now, however, it is firmly categorised as a barred spiral galaxy, with loosely wound arms and a relatively small central bulge. It is the closest and brightest example of a particular class of galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies -- galaxies that are full of hot, highly ionised gas that glows brightly, emitting intense radiation.
Strong radiation like this is known to come from the heart of Messier 77 -- caused by a very active black hole that is around 15 million times the mass of our Sun. Material is dragged towards this black hole and circles around it, heating up and glowing strongly. This region of a galaxy alone, although comparatively small, can be tens of thousands of times brighter than a typical galaxy.
Although no competition for the intense centre, Messier 77's spiral arms are also very bright regions. Dotted along each arm are knotty red clumps -- a signal that new stars are forming. These baby stars shine strongly, ionising nearby gas which then glows a deep red colour as seen in the image above. The dust lanes stretching across this image appear as a rusty, brown-red colour due to a phenomenon known as reddening; the dust absorbs more blue light than red light, enhancing its apparent redness.
###
ESA/Hubble Information Centre: http://www.spacetelescope.org
Thanks to ESA/Hubble Information Centre for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127517/Hubble_observes_the_hidden_depths_of_Messier___
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
What to Know In Obtaining the Best Lawyer Services In Las Vegas ...
Known to be the Sin City, Las Vegas proves that whilst it is viewed as as such it can still stand up against crimes. Las Vegas police is one particular of the most productive and productive police forces in the US. Its legal branch which involves the judicial method is amongst the elite in the nation. Not to mention the finest attorney services in Las Vegas that is expanded to numerous discipline of law.
These services and the greatest lawyers in the city is 1 element that tends to make up its complete government structure with concentrate on the welfare of the individuals. The span of the issues that the law sector of Las Vegas tackles largely extends to auto accidents, insurance coverage, divorce, corporate crimes and harassments, compensation, employment, taxation, bankruptcy, and other criminal situations.
Just as from other states and cities, lawyers in Vegas and the services they offer you is typically restricted to only one particular specialization. From the given circumstances above, there are particular lawyers who truly concentrate their practice. But there are also lawyers who practice in other fields but only as a secondary counsel or an equivalent service.
Right here are some of the popular legal services that are provided in Vegas:
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These famous issues and numerous other individuals ought to be the first factor that need to be understood prior to deciding to get a assist from a Vegas lawyer or their services. Lawyer services in Las Vegas are quite simple to access. Most of the legal companies that offer lawyer representation and consultations have their own internet sites exactly where 1 can use to transact. Other than this, they also have their strategic offices within the city.
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All these things when completed accordingly can aid you find finest attorney services in Las Vegas. The only thing that you required is a little of patience and modest quantity of resources to find the correct lawyer who can represent you very best.HUDSON LAW OFFICE
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Source: http://www.tradefinancebank.com/what-to-know-in-obtaining-the-best-lawyer-services-in-las-vegas/
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Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T.: Weekly Meditations for Healthy Sex ...
It's vital for mindful acts of emotional and spiritual intimacy to steadily develop as a daily practice for healthy sex. To that end, Center for Healthy Sex has created daily meditations to help you reach your sexual and relational potential. (You can subscribe for free here.)
Even momentarily concentrating on healthy solutions rewires psychological patterns to receive and share healthy sexual love in the present. Here are three meditations with the themes of eroticism, security, and health for you to ponder and practice this week.
Meditation 1: Eroticism
"We tend to think of the erotic as an easy, tantalizing sexual arousal. I speak of the erotic as the deepest life force, a force which moves us toward living in a fundamental way." -- Audre Lorde
Eroticism points to the deliberate seeking of pleasure in an exotic land that emerges through the synergy between you and your partner during love-making. Begin your journey into this territory with a conscious commitment to venture into the unknown with your loved one, trusting your heart and soul to be your guide. When trust is the foundation of sex, you and your partner will resonate as one, creating a mystical third. Stay open and fluid. Watch your erotic connection deepen and take different forms as you develop and grow your sexuality both individually and together.
A big part of aspiring to erotic sex means challenging your limiting beliefs and fears about certain sexual acts. Addressing your own inadequacies and the parts of your partner that turn you off requires a certain kind of mettle. Forge forward, warrior-like, as you take a trip to the erotic landscape of your lover's body to discover yourselves and your erogenous zones together. Your intent is to give up control and be in service of the other so as to make contact with the depth of your life force.
Daily healthy sex acts
- Familiarize yourself and your partner with your erogenous zones.
- Ignite your carnal desires during sex by using all five senses.
- Pick one of the senses to focus on next time you have sex, such as smell, then investigate your lover's smell or introduce a new scent into your sensual practices.
Meditation 2: Security
"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself." -- Maya Angelou
Relational security cannot be pointed to as a thing we possess. We're not sexually or romantically secure because we've built the perfect bodies, homes, or lives. And even material success is relative at best. Of course, the relative security of fit bodies, safe homes, and fulfilling lives are often the result of hard won inner work. But history (and gossip) presents an endless parade of people who "had it all" and either threw it away or lost everything. Any security deriving from outside of us cannot be expected to be permanent. The only lasting security results from self-trust, self-care, and choosing the people and actions that fit our values. Security is a spiritual quality we can share with others only after we've achieved it for ourselves. Likewise, we may only share love, honesty, integrity and all our ideals only if we've secured them first within.
The survival instinct is one of our strongest drives and the single greatest reason children can withstand terrible circumstances rather than risk abandonment. From youth to adulthood, we instinctively spend incredible time and effort plotting our security in every situation. Especially if we've ever felt genuinely unsafe, we will feel an urge to grab at any straw: People who have endured trauma, like drowning victims, may create a whirlpool of chaos trying to find a foothold in calm waters. If we don't heal our wounds from within, the survival instinct will goad us to seek external forms of security, however undependable these may be. Casting another in the role of rescuer devalues the authentic self of both parties and impedes intimacy. The trade off often requires turning a blind eye to character defects, which creates simmering internal conflict. Ask yourself just how secure it feels to relinquish personal power, and at what price.
Daily healthy sex acts
- Watch yourself for signs of wanting to be rescued in your relationships. Do others give you security? In what form? Does this devalue either of you?
- Release yourself from the bondage of using others to feel safe. Write an inventory of all the ways you seek out security, and how each has worked out for you.
- What gifts or superpowers have you uncovered in yourself? True inner security will see you through any storm. Today, face your fears and lovingly confront any relational conflict that blocks your light in order to increase your spiritual security in this world.
Meditation 3: Health
"The love that gushes for all is the real elixir of life -- the fountain of bodily longevity." -- Josiah Gilbert Holland
Most of us understand the value of physical health and have received helpful programming so we know to seek treatment for medical emergencies like broken bones or chronic pain. But although physical health includes sexual health, for many people it's embarrassing even to have sexuality, much less to care for it or share information about it. Perhaps some people have grown up to believe that concentrating on sexuality will exaggerate it or lead to preoccupation -- a superstition that would feel ridiculous if it were about any other health issue. An all too common response to this belief is not to think about sexual problems at all. The obvious absurdity of that response provides an important clue to this error, because normally we're able to think about a problem without fearing that doing so will automatically worsen it.
Traumatic or genetic issues might permanently affect sexual health. It might not be possible for everyone to reach an optimal state of sexual health, but we can each attain our personal potential for sexual health, given our circumstances. If a sexual act doesn't feel right, we can develop a process to discern the underlying issue and either set it right or get help. What would it look like if sexual dysfunction, addiction, or trauma manifested as an actual medical condition? Truthfully any sexual problems, whether physical or psychological, are health problems. People with chronic physical health issues deserve sexual expression and healthy solutions can be sought. As a society we have much work to do in order to restore the concept of sexual health to its own state of health.
Daily healthy sex acts
- We can express deep sexual energy with a partner without getting physical. If your partner has health issues or is ill, you can still radiate erotic energy toward their inner being. Affirm sexual health regardless of the external circumstances.
- Restoring your sexual health might include examining your sexual history, as you would review your medical history for a physician. Twelve-step programs often require a sexual inventory as part of the healing process. An online search will guide you to complete your own version of a sexual inventory.
- For medical problems, you find the right specialist. What sexual issues recur in your life today, and where would it be most sensible to go for help?
For more by Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T., click here.
For more on conscious relationships, click here.
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Follow Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sexaddexpert
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexandra-katehakis-mft/sex-meditation_b_2885533.html
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Why impact investing goes beyond venture capital | GreenBiz.com
I used to think that being an impact investor pretty much meant taking the skills and processes of venture capital and applying them for "good." Deal sourcing, due diligence, valuation -- all the basic steps seemed the same.
When I joined the University of Michigan's student-run impact investing fund Social Venture Fund, I expected to learn about investing while thinking about issues I care about. I think other people feel the same way. However, recent news coverage, like this Harvard Business Review article with tips on pitching to an impact investor, reflects a growing discussion about the differences between impact investing and traditional venture capital.
As a current MBA candidate, I've been thinking lately not about the "what," but the "how" -- the skills that will set an impact investor apart. Two years on the Social Venture Fund, including a year serving as its co-director, have taught me that impact investing does not require you to just do what a venture capitalist does; it requires you to do what a venture capitalist does, but better.? ?
A better salesman
All VCs have to go out on the road to raise money from investors. They sell their expertise, connections, industry knowledge, past success. Impact investors add on the challenge of selling the social value proposition, the fact that social results will really be achieved and the promise that financial and social returns can actually go hand in hand. Like most new impact funds, the three-year-old Social Venture Fund has exciting investments, including food company Jack and Jakes and education technology company LearnZillion, but it doesn't have an exit to its name. Impact investors must sell the business, plus more, all without the luxury of past results to point to.
Content with uncertainty
If a VC has to be comfortable taking risks by betting on yet unproven companies, an impact investor has to be even more so. On top of betting on often-unproven products and markets, impact investors operate in a fast-evolving and ambiguous field that has a broad range of goals. Everyone agrees on how to measure dollar-based ROI. Despite efforts on common metrics by the Global Impact Investing Network, the field is a long way from consensus on what "impact" is, let alone how to measure it.
Next page: A closer relationship with portfolio companies
Source: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/03/29/why-impact-investing-beyond-venture-capital
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Syracuse's D, Carter-Williams beat Indiana 61-50
WASHINGTON (AP) ? With its 2-3 zone defense disruptive from start to finish, and Michael Carter-Williams pouring in 24 points, fourth-seeded Syracuse upset No. 1 seed Indiana 61-50 Thursday night to reach the NCAA tournament's East Regional final.
Syracuse limited Indiana to its lowest point total of the season, forced 19 turnovers, compiled 10 blocks and held the normally efficient Hoosiers to 33 percent shooting.
After getting past preseason No. 1 Indiana, Syracuse (29-9) will face No. 3 seed Marquette on Saturday night in an all-Big East matchup for a berth in the Final Four. Coach Jim Boeheim and the Orange haven't been to the national semifinals since Carmelo Anthony led them to the 2003 title.
Marquette beat No. 2 seed Miami 71-61 in Thursday's first game in Washington.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syracuses-d-carter-williams-beat-indiana-61-50-041549194--spt.html
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'Harry Potter' actor Richard Griffiths dies at 65
LONDON (AP) ? Richard Griffiths was one of the great British stage actors of his generation, a heavy man with a light touch, whether in Shakespeare or Neil Simon. But for millions of movie fans, he will always be grumpy Uncle Vernon, the least magical of characters in the fantastical "Harry Potter" movies.
Griffiths died Thursday at University Hospital in Coventry, central England from complications following heart surgery, his agent, Simon Beresford, said. He was 65.
"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe paid tribute to the actor Friday, saying that "any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence."
"I am proud to say I knew him," Radcliffe said.
Griffiths won a Tony Award for "The History Boys" and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. But he will be most widely remembered as a pair of contrasting uncles ? Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon Dursley and Uncle Monty in cult film "Withnail and I."
Griffiths was among a huge roster of British acting talent to appear in the "Harry Potter" series of films released between 2001 and 2011.
His role, as the grudging, magic-fearing guardian of orphaned wizard Harry, was small but pivotal. Griffiths once said he liked playing Uncle Vernon "because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids."
But Radcliffe recalled Griffiths' kindness to the young star.
"Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career," said Radcliffe, who in 2007 starred with Griffiths in a London and Broadway production of "Equus."
"In August 2000, before official production had even begun on 'Potter,' we filmed a shot outside the Dursleys', which was my first ever shot as Harry. I was nervous and he made me feel at ease.
"Seven years later, we embarked on 'Equus' together. It was my first time doing a play but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humor made it a joy."
Earlier, Griffiths was the louche, lecherous Uncle Monty to Richard E. Grant's character Withnail in "Withnail and I," a low-budget British comedy about two out-of-work actors that has become a cult classic. Years after its 1987 release, Griffiths said people would regularly shout Monty's most famous lines at him in the street.
"My beloved 'Uncle Monty' Richard Griffiths died last night," Grant tweeted Friday. "Chin-Chin my dear friend."
A huge stage presence ? through charisma as well as obesity ? Griffiths created roles including the charismatic teacher Hector at the emotional heart of Alan Bennett's school drama "The History Boys." He won an Olivier Award for the part in London and a Tony for the Broadway run, and repeated his performance in the 2006 film adaptation.
National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner, who directed "The History Boys," called Griffiths' performance in that play "a masterpiece of wit, delicacy, mischief and desolation, often simultaneously."
Griffiths also played poet W.H. Auden in Bennett's "The Habit of Art," a hugely persuasive performance despite the lack of physical resemblance between the two men.
Griffiths was born in northeast England's Thormaby-on-Tees in 1947 to parents who were deaf and mute ? an experience he and his directors felt contributed to his exceptional ability to listen and to communicate physically.
"The first language he learned was sign. And therefore his ability to listen to people with his eyes as well as his ears is incredible," Thea Sharrock, who directed "Equus," told The Associated Press in 2008.
Griffiths left school at 15 but later studied drama and spent a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Company, making a specialty of comic parts such as the buffoonish knight Falstaff.
On television, he played a crime-solving chef in 1990s' British TV series "Pie in the Sky," and he had parts in movies ranging from historical dramas "Chariots of Fire" and "Gandhi" to slapstick farce "The Naked Gun 2 ?."
Known for his sense of humor, large store of rambling theatrical anecdotes and occasional bursts of temper, Griffiths was renowned for shaming audience members whose cell phones rang during plays by stopping the performance and ordering the offender to leave.
Griffiths' last major stage role was in a West End production of Neil Simon's comedy "The Sunshine Boys" last year opposite Danny DeVito. The pair had been due to reprise their roles in Los Angeles later this year.
Griffiths is survived by his wife, Heather Gibson.
___
Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/harry-potter-actor-richard-griffiths-dies-65-102210345.html
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Friday, March 29, 2013
The Best Video Game Consoles (of 1990) | Mental Floss
Image credit:?
YouTube / Computer Chronicles
So it's 1990 and you want to play video games -- but what console do you choose? Or do you stick with a PC or Mac for gaming? In this classic episode of Computer Chronicles, the team explores the latest industry trends -- including the Nintendo World Championships and the NES, the promise of CD-ROM gaming on desktop PCs, the Sega Genesis (including Michael Jackson's Moonwalker which "you can't do on an 8-bit system"), the NEC TurboGrafx-16, plus a visit to video arcade Aladdin's Castle to ask kids why they like playing video games. (The manager of the arcade says, "The child needs a place to vent frustration." He says this as a kid slams buttons on The Main Event.)
Note the demo of Defender of the Crown on CD-ROM (about ten minutes in), and how the commentators mention that the quality of the video is the best available on a PC. That's true for the day -- but, boy, that's rough.
Aside from the gaming content of this episode, there's an awesome news-and-review section at the end. The review of "Banner Mania" is 1990riffic.
You may have noticed by now that I'm doing a week of Computer Chronicles classics -- and stay tuned, because I've got more good ones coming up. If you want more of this excellent show, the series is available for free on Archive.org. Many episodes are on YouTube, and there's a YouTube channel dedicated to the show.
March 27, 2013 - 2:13pmSource: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49697/best-video-game-consoles-1990
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Mozilla partners with Epic Games to bring Unreal Engine 3 to the web
Building on its recent advancements in JavaScript optimization, Mozilla has announced a partnership with Epic Games that will bring the Unreal Engine 3 to Firefox. Unlike the ill-fated InstantAction, this gives developers the opportunity to port high-end titles to the web without the use of plugins. Hardly content with enhancing desktop browser-based games, Mozilla is aiming to bring this experience to mobile devices -- but it's stopping short of providing any details beyond that. The company notes that it's currently working with major developers such as EA, ZeptoLab and Disney to bring optimizations to their existing titles. Mum's the word on when 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand will get the chance to soak browsers everywhere, but you can catch a video preview of something slightly less spectacular just after the break.
Source: Mozilla
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/tWnXE0uPDeQ/
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How hard is it to 'de-anonymize' cellphone data?
Mar. 27, 2013 ? The proliferation of sensor-studded cellphones could lead to a wealth of data with socially useful applications -- in urban planning, epidemiology, operations research and emergency preparedness, among other things. Of course, before being released to researchers, the data would have to be stripped of identifying information. But how hard could it be to protect the identity of one unnamed cellphone user in a data set of hundreds of thousands or even millions?
According to a paper appearing this week in Scientific Reports, harder than you might think. Researchers at MIT and the Universit? Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, analyzed data on 1.5 million cellphone users in a small European country over a span of 15 months and found that just four points of reference, with fairly low spatial and temporal resolution, was enough to uniquely identify 95 percent of them.
In other words, to extract the complete location information for a single person from an "anonymized" data set of more than a million people, all you would need to do is place him or her within a couple of hundred yards of a cellphone transmitter, sometime over the course of an hour, four times in one year. A few Twitter posts would probably provide all the information you needed, if they contained specific information about the person's whereabouts.
The first author on the paper is Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, a graduate student in the research group of Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Science Sandy Pentland. He's joined by C?sar Hidalgo, an assistant professor of media arts and science; Vincent Blondel, a visiting professor at MIT and a professor of applied mathematics at Universit? Catholique; and Michel Verleysen, a professor of electrical engineering at Universit? Catholique.
Focusing the debate
Hidalgo's group specializes in applying the tools of statistical physics to a wide range of subjects, from communications networks to genetics to economics. In this case, he and de Montjoye were able to use those tools to uncover a simple mathematical relationship between the resolution of spatiotemporal data and the likelihood of identifying a member of a data set.
According to their formula, the probability of identifying someone goes down if the resolution of the measurements decreases, but less than you might think. Reporting the time of each measurement as imprecisely as sometime within a 15-hour span, or location as imprecisely as somewhere amid 15 adjacent cell towers, would still enable the unique identification of half the people in the sample data set.
But while its initial application may be discouraging, de Montjoye and Hidalgo hope that their formula will provide a way for researchers and policy analysts to reason more rigorously about the privacy safeguards that need to be put in place when they're working with aggregated location data.
"Both C?sar and I deeply believe that we all have a lot to gain from this data being used," de Montjoye says. "This formula is something that could be useful to help the debate and decide, OK, how do we balance things out, and how do we make it a fair deal for everyone to use this data?"
Everybody's different
In the data set that the researchers analyzed, the location of a cellphone was inferred solely from that of the cell tower it was connected to, and the time of the connection was given as falling within a one-hour interval. Each cellphone had a unique, randomly generated identifying number, so that its movement could be traced over time. But there was no information connecting that number to the phone's owner.
The researchers randomly selected a representative sampling from the set of 1.5 million cellphone traces and, for each trace, began choosing points at random. For 95 percent of the traces, just four randomly selected points was enough to distinguish them from all other traces in the database. In the worst (or, from another perspective, best) case, 11 measurements were necessary.
"There's a concern with this data, to what extent can we preserve anonymity," says Luis Bettencourt, a professor at the Santa Fe Institute who studies social systems. "What they are showing here, quite clearly, is that it's very hard to preserve anonymity."
But for Bettencourt, the uniqueness of people's trajectories through cities is itself precisely the type of information that analysis of cellphone data is meant to uncover. "This is interesting, from a scientific point of view, to understand how people use urban space," Bettencourt says. "It shows what kind of social systems cities are."
The researchers suspect that similar relationships might hold for other types of data. "I would not be surprised if a similar result -- maybe requiring more points -- would, for example, extend to web browsing," Hidalgo says. "The space of potential combinations is really large. When a person is, in some sense, being expressed in a space in which the total number of combinations is huge, the probability that two people would have the same exact trajectory -- whether it's walking or browsing -- is almost nil."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Larry Hardesty.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, C?sar A. Hidalgo, Michel Verleysen, Vincent D. Blondel. Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01376
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.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Did David Petraeus drop hint about future plans in speech?
With his speech at the University of Southern California Tuesday night, retired Gen. David Petraeus ? commander of America?s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming director of the Central Intelligence Agency ? effectively signaled his return to public life.
In apologizing for the extramarital affair that ruined his career and expressing a desire to move forward, Mr. Petraeus ? once thought of as a potential presidential candidate ? has sparked questions about what his second act might be.
The scheduled topic ? about veterans affairs ? might offer clues.
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Though the speech was planned before Mr. Petraeus resigned from the CIA, according to one of his longtime friends, it showed at least one way that the former general might contribute to the national security debate going forward.
?This is something he may look towards in the future, as far as veterans issues go,? says the friend, who spoke to the Monitor only on condition that he not be named.
Veterans support groups ?are well intended, but they?re not pulling in the same direction,? the friend adds. Given his stature, Petraeus could ?gather the groups together? and help them prioritize.
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Whether or not Petraeus has any broader designs in returning to the public eye, the issue of veterans affairs is one of some urgency for the Pentagon as it ends two wars.
While the Pentagon has a responsibility to prepare troops for their departure from the service, it?s a job at which the military hasn?t excelled in the past, says Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia, the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Commanders tend to focus on preparing troops for battle, rather than for becoming civilians again. But that approach needs to change, Major Battaglia says.
?If we?re not doing that, shame on us,? he says.
It is a topic Petraeus picked up in his speech. ?There is often a view that, because an individual was a great soldier, he or she will naturally do well in and transition effortlessly to the civilian world.?
?In reality, the transition from military service to civilian pursuits often is quite challenging,? he added.
The longtime friend imagines that Petraeus could help veterans' groups choose their top five issues. "He?d have the name recognition and abilities to perhaps get them together.?
In the meantime, speeches like the one Tuesday give him an opportunity to rehabilitate his image. Petraeus began his speech by acknowledging his wrongdoing.
?Needless to say, I join you keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago,? he said. ?I am also keenly aware that the reason for my recent journey was my own doing.? He reiterated ?how deeply I regret ? and apologize for ? the circumstances that led me to resign from the CIA and caused such pain for my family, friends, and supporters.?
That said, the public can be forgiving. ?He didn?t rob a bank, he?s not a mass murderer, he didn?t steal a bunch of old peoples? retirement funds,? the friend argues, adding that the apology is very much in keeping with Petraeus?s personal philosophy.
As a commander, ?He?s always been one to own up to what you did, then move forward,? the friend adds. ?Just don?t do it again.?
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/did-david-petraeus-drop-hint-future-plans-speech-200246438.html
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From Tap To Zap: Tapulous Co-Founder Shoots For The Moon With ...
Tapulous, one of the earliest, big mobile games makers for the iPhone, made its splash with Tap Tap Revenge, the first in a series of apps where users tapped on dropping balls in time with music ? a formula that proved wildly successful and eventually resulted in the company getting bought by Disney in 2010 for reportedly $50 million. Now, one of the co-founders of Tapulous, the Australian Andrew Lacy, has hotfooted it to Paris to tackle something new: the online travel market, with the launch of ZapTravel, a semantic travel search engine.
The idea of ZapTravel is to do away with the need for all the extra ?data entry? required by many travel sites today, from selecting calendar dates to entering destinations from pop-up menus and more. ZapTravel searches are based on what you type into a single window, with details ?human? as what you?d type to a friend. For example, ?I?d like to go to Stockholm.?
When you register, ZapTravel makes note of your location, so all searches are by default from there. You can also set other defaults around, say, how fancy/budget you?d like your accomodation to be. ZapTravel then creates discounted trips based on the information you have provided, offering flights and hotel options. It?s working with some 3,000 partners now to create those deals. With the longer-term emphasis on experiences as much as getting you from point A to B, it looks like the plan is to present more packages in the longer run (not just directing you to a cool city for food, but suggesting and booking a table at a top restaurant).
In that sense, ZapTravel is also trying to cater to users who are undecided about where they would like to go. Lacy says that since ZapTravel?s soft launch last week, one of the most popular search terms (go Internet go!) has been ?sex,? to which ZapTravel?s engine ?diligently returns dynamically constructed deals for nightlife destinations and places with lively atmosphere.? It also includes city guides, created by aggregating content from other sites like Frommers and locals enlisted by ZapTravel.
Lacy ? who is a lawyer and MBA by training but coded half the site ? describes ZapTravel as ?a learning system.? He says that there is an ongoing mix of algorithmic processing, along with some human shaping. The platform?s ?vocabulary? already has ?3,000?destinations, 10,000 different reasons to go, and 15,000 events? to trigger search results, says Lacy.
?The more people use it and the more content we feed it, the better it is able to put together packages to match specific interests,? he says. Others on ZapTravel?s team include engineer?Nicolas Martignole, who organizes the French Java conference?Devoxx France,?and used to build?complex financial systems for Reuters; user experience specialist?Olivier Desmoulins; and?Mathieu Seguin. There is also a separate office for development in Eastern Europe, says Lacy.
Where games end and travel begins
ZapTravel and Tapulous couldn?t be more different ? one mobile-first and created for pure entertainment, and the other launching first on desktop and focused on e-commerce and using new technology around semantic search to help complete travel transactions; one based in Palo Alto and the other anchored in Paris ?because Europe is a much bigger market for travel in general.? But there are some threads between the two. In addition to the entrepreneur himself, there is the fact that both are trying to create markets for products that have yet to be established.
In the case of Tapulous, it was making iPhone apps before Apple had even officially moved into the space itself. ZapTravel, meanwhile, is hoping to establish itself as a semantic travel platform at a time when the playing field is still wide open.
But that is changing.
For one, services like Siri on the iPhone and Google Now on Android offer users quicker, less labor intensive ways of discovering new information; and that is whetting people?s appetite to have easier user experience everywhere. In addition, the ever-growing number of online travel options ? why book an expensive, touristy hotel on Travelocity if you can stay in a cute loft with Airbnb? ? will mean that those sites that make it easier to give you the right information stand to win your business.
On top of that, there has been some significant M&A in the space as the bigger players in online travel look to expand their features more to compete against others, with huge deals like Priceline?s acquisition of Kayak?for $1.8 billion, Expedia?s majority stake in Trivago?for $632 million, and also smaller startup plays like Tripadvisor buying Tiny Post last week.
Would-be competitors include Expedia, which is beta-testing a semantic search called YourVisit; and?CheapAir, which is beta-testing ?Easy Search? for semantic searches of flights. Among startups, there is Desti, the ?personal travel assistant? spun out from Siri-creators Sri International. And?Hopper, staffed up by a team that left Expedia that has raised $22 million?for what also appears to be a semantic search app, but it is still in stealth mode.
ZapTravel will be trying to meet the market and exceed what others are already doing.
?The travel industry has a lot of poor quality experiences,? says Lacy. ?I learned how to make beautiful products at Tapulous and that?s what i?m trying to do here.?
He says that plans for the mobile app will include the ability to enter search requests by voice as well as text. One area I?ve seen that will need room for improvement is its ability to deal with people who make typos (like me). This too is being worked on, says Lacy.
ZapTravel is currently bootstrapped but is in the process of raising an Angel round that it expects to close in the next few months.
At Zaptravel, reinventing travel search through semantics, content and a commitment to beautiful products. I?m a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and advisor to startup companies. I am currently based in Europe but commute frequently to the Silicon Valley. I am presently working on Zaptravel, a disruptive personalization travel meta-search business. Zaptravel help people who don?t know when or where they want to go to great travel deals that match their interests and the experiences they want to have. My investment and...
? Learn moreTapulous is a developer of applications for the iPhone and Android platforms. Some of their apps include Tap Tap Revenge (the sequel to Tap Tap Revolution), Twinkle (a Twitter client) and Collage (a real-time collaborative photo sharing application) and the newly launched Riddim Ribbon.
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CA-BUSINESS Summary
TSX weaker; dip in golds offsets BlackBerry jump
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was lower on Thursday, led by declines in gold shares that followed the bullion price lower, but a jump in BlackBerry
Canada economy rebounds in January after weak spell
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's economy bounced back in January with 0.2 percent growth following the weakest two quarters since the 2008-09 recession thanks to solid manufacturing, mining and an end to a work stoppage in professional ice hockey, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected a 0.1 percent increase in monthly gross domestic product following a 0.2 percent decline in December.
BlackBerry posts surprise profit, but subscriber base down
TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry
Patient Cypriots line up as banks reopen
NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriots lined up calmly at banks as they reopened on Thursday under tight controls imposed on transactions to prevent a run on deposits after the government was forced to accept a stringent EU rescue package to avert bankruptcy. Banks were shut almost two weeks ago as the government negotiated a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) international bailout, the first in Europe's single currency zone to impose losses on bank depositors.
Boeing CEO confident that 787 battery fix will work
(Reuters) - Boeing Co
Total to book $1.65 billion first-quarter loss on Canada project exit
PARIS (Reuters) - Total
Bank of Canada searches far and wide for Carney's successor
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The search for a new Bank of Canada chief to replace Mark Carney has pitted internal front-runner Tiff Macklem against a range of external candidates as officials look outside the bank for people who may have more hands-on business experience. Most central bank watchers believe Macklem, currently second-in-command at the bank, has outstanding credentials and deserves to take over when his boss leaves.
Euro, shares recover as Cyprus banks reopen
LONDON (Reuters) - European shares rebounded and the euro edged off a four-month low on Thursday after banks in Cyprus reopened to relative calm following the island's hard-won bailout. There was no sign of the mass panic that Cypriots and investors had feared might be triggered when banks reopened after a forced closure of almost two weeks, albeit with tight controls to prevent depositors from cleaning out their accounts.
Exclusive: Wal-Mart may get customers to deliver packages to online buyers
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Analysis: Austerity threatens EU's competitive edge in infrastructure
BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's carefully maintained autobahns, high-speed TGV trains and vast network of modern airports have long been the envy of the world. But thanks to austerity budgets that are slashing infrastructure spending just as other parts of the world are ramping it up, that may not be true for much longer.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-business-summary-004845905--finance.html
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Wedding Stress: How Brides Relaxed On Their Big Days
After spending months planning your perfect wedding, it's only natural to be stressed when the Big Day finally arrives. Add to that the emotional gravity of marrying the man or woman of your dreams and it's no wonder you're feeling a little overwhelmed!
On Saturday we asked our Twitter followers to share their best chill-out strategies for banishing Big Day stress. From planning a pre-wedding brunch with friends to fantasizing about a Caribbean honeymoon, our readers sure know how to kick back and relax! Click through the slideshow below for 12 of the best responses.
Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Weddings on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
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Cypriot youth protest as banks stay shut
By Michele Kambas and Costas Pitas
NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriots vented anger in the streets on Tuesday and were desperate to learn what would happen to their savings, with the government yet to reveal details of controls it will impose to prevent a run when banks reopen after a painful bailout.
A special administrator was appointed to run the country's biggest bank, which will take over accounts from the second biggest bank as part of the restructuring package designed to bail out and rein in the oversized financial sector.
Cyprus's banks were ordered to remain closed until Thursday, and even then will operate under as-yet-undisclosed capital controls imposed to prevent depositors from emptying the vaults.
The Central Bank governor said the controls would be "loose" and would apply to all banks in the country. The restrictions would be "temporary" but he would not say what form they would take or how long they would last. Earlier, the finance minister said they could be in place for weeks.
Cyprus had faced bankruptcy and potential ejection from the European single currency without a rescue deal with international lending bodies. Now that the deal has been struck, it faces job losses and economic contraction.
Reuters journalists estimated up to 3,000 high school students protested outside parliament, the first major expression of popular anger after Cyprus agreed the 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout with the European Union.
"They've just gotten rid of all our dreams, everything we've worked for, everything we've achieved up until now, what our parents have achieved," said a student who gave his name as Thomas.
Outside the central bank, about 200 employees of the country's biggest commercial bank, the Bank of Cyprus, demanded the resignation of the central bank governor, Panicos Demetriades, chanting "Hands off Cyprus" and "Disgrace".
"We are scared. We were also so proud of the Bank of Cyprus. We worked with a lot of love, not just for the money," said a Bank of Cyprus worker who gave her name as Anthoulla.
RESIGNATION
Under the bailout, the second largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, is to be shut down and its accounts of under 100,000 euros combined with those of the Bank of Cyprus. Accounts of more than 100,000 euros at both banks will be frozen, with depositors, many of them rich foreigners, likely to lose much of their investments.
Dinos Christofides, an accountant and banker, told Reuters he had been named administrator to run the Bank of Cyprus: "It means that from now until further notice I will be running the bank. It could be short term ... or it could be longer."
Bank of Cyprus chairman Andreas Artemis offered to resign on Tuesday, a source at the bank said. His fate was not clear after the bank declined to accept his resignation.
After returning from last-ditch negotiations in Brussels, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said late on Monday that the rescue plan agreed was "painful" but essential.
European leaders said the deal averted a chaotic national bankruptcy that might have forced Cyprus from the euro.
A Cyprus exit from the euro would be "disastrous, politically and economically" and was not to be contemplated, Finance Minister Michael Sarris said.
By protecting state guaranteed deposits of up to 100,000 euros, the bailout reversed a previous deal that would have imposed a levy on small depositors as well as big ones, which had infuriated Cypriots and was vetoed by parliament. Sarris said big depositors could face loses of around 40 percent.
Many Cypriots say they do not feel reassured by the new deal, however, and are expected to besiege banks as soon as they reopen after a shutdown that began over a week ago.
Reversing a previous decision to start reopening at least some banks on Tuesday, the central bank said late on Monday that all banks would now stay shut for two more days to ensure the "smooth functioning of the whole banking system".
TEMPORARY MEASURE
Little is known about the restrictions on transactions that Anastasiades said the central bank would impose, but he told Cypriots: "I want to assure you that this will be a very temporary measure that will gradually be relaxed."
Such controls are at odds with the European Union's ideals of a common market but the government is anxious to prevent any panic that would cause even more disruption to the economy.
The central bank has imposed a 100-euro daily limit on withdrawals from cash machines at the two biggest banks.
Without an agreement by the end of Monday, Cyprus risked becoming the first country to be pushed out of the European single currency - a fate Germany and other northern creditors seemed willing to inflict.
BUSINESS LIFE
The closure of the banks for more than a week has hurt business. Andreas Hadjiadamou, president of the Cyprus Supermarkets Association, said: "It's had a huge effect on the market. Consumers' psychology has hit the floor."
"If they (the banks) don't open on Thursday we could see supply problems as well as delays in salary payments."
Maria Benaki, who runs a family silverware business on Nicosia's biggest shopping street, said she hasn't had a customer in days.
"The situation is dire. I don't understand why we bother coming into work at all to be honest," she said. "What will happen at the end of the month when I need to pay my bills?"
(Additional reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague, Catherine Bremer in Paris; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Peter Graff)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-banks-remain-closed-avert-run-deposits-062008464.html
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Research provides clues to alcohol addiction vulnerability
Mar. 25, 2013 ? A Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center team studying alcohol addiction has new research that might shed light on why some drinkers are more susceptible to addiction than others.
Jeff Weiner, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest Baptist, and colleagues used an animal model to look at the early stages of the addiction process and focused on how individual animals responded to alcohol. Their findings may lead not only to a better understanding of addiction, but to the development of better drugs to treat the disease as well, Weiner said.
"We know that some people are much more vulnerable to alcoholism than others, just like some people have a vulnerability to cancer or heart disease," Weiner said. "We don't have a good understanding of what causes this vulnerability, and that's a big question. But if we can figure it out, we may be able to better identify people at risk, as well as gain important clues to help develop better drugs to treat the disease."
The findings are published in the March 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Weiner, who directs the Translational Studies on Early-Life Stress and Vulnerability to Alcohol Addiction project at Wake Forest Baptist, said the study protocol was developed by the first author of the paper, Karina Abrahao, a graduate student visiting from the collaborative lab of Sougza-Formigoni, Ph.D, of the Department of Psychobiology at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Weiner said the study model focused on how individual animals responded to alcohol. Typically, when a drug like alcohol is given to a mouse every day, the way the animals respond increases -- they become more stimulated and run around more. "In high doses, alcohol is a depressant, but in low doses, it can have a mellowing effect that results in greater activity," he said. "Those low dose effects tend to increase over time and this increase in activity in response to repeated alcohol exposure is called locomotor sensitization."
Prior studies with other drugs, such as cocaine and amphetamine, have suggested that animals that show the greatest increases in locomotor sensitization are also the animals most likely to seek out or consume these drugs. However, the relationship between locomotor sensitization and vulnerability to high levels of alcohol drinking is not as well established, Weiner said.
Usually when researchers are studying a drug, they give it to one test group while the other group gets a control solution, and then they look for behavioral differences between the two, Weiner said. But in this study, the researchers focused on individual differences in how each animal responded to the alcohol. A control group received a saline injection while another was injected with the same amount of alcohol every day for three weeks. Weiner said they used mice bred to be genetically variable like humans to make the research more relevant.
"We found large variations in the development of locomotor sensitization to alcohol in these mice, with some showing robust sensitization and others showing no more of a change in locomotor activity than control mice given daily saline injections," Weiner said. "Surprisingly, when all of the alcohol-exposed mice were given an opportunity to voluntarily drink alcohol, those that had developed sensitization drank more than those that did not. In fact, the alcohol-treated mice that failed to develop sensitization drank no more alcohol than the saline-treated control group."
The authors also conducted a series of neurobiological studies and discovered that mice that showed robust locomotor sensitization had deficits in a form of brain neuroplasticity -- how experiences reorganize neural pathways in the brain -- that has been linked with cocaine addiction in other animal models.
"We found that this loss of the ability of brain cells to change the way that they communicate with each other only occurred in the animals that showed the behavioral response to alcohol," he said. "What this suggests for the first time in the alcohol addiction field is that this particular deficit may represent an important brain correlate of vulnerability to alcoholism. It's a testable hypothesis. That's why I think it's an important finding."
Funding support for the research came from the National Institutes of Health (AA 21099, AA 17531, AA 10422 and AA 14445), Coordenadoria de Aperfeic?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (CAPES; Grant 0321-10-9), Fundac?a?o de Amparo a` Pesquisa do Estado de Sa?o Paulo (FAPESP; Grant 2008/01819-5), and Associac?a?o Fundo de Incentivo a`Pesquisa (AFIP).
The Translational Studies on Early-Life Stress and Vulnerability to Alcohol Addiction project is an NIH-funded collaborative grant which supports rodent, non-human primate and human studies investigating neurobiological mechanisms associated with vulnerability and resilience to alcohol addiction.
Co-authors include: Olusegun Ariwodola, Tracy Butler, Andrew Rau, Mary Jane Skelly, Eugenia Carter, Nancy Alexander and Brian McCool, all of Wake Forest Baptist, and Maria Lucia Formigoni of the Universidade de Sao Paulo.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- K. P. Abrahao, O. J. Ariwodola, T. R. Butler, A. R. Rau, M. J. Skelly, E. Carter, N. P. Alexander, B. A. McCool, M. L. O. Souza-Formigoni, J. L. Weiner. Locomotor Sensitization to Ethanol Impairs NMDA Receptor-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity in the Nucleus Accumbens and Increases Ethanol Self-Administration. Journal of Neuroscience, 2013; 33 (11): 4834 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5839-11.2013
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/living_well/~3/_N2uCTtYlAI/130325183810.htm
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Iran condemns Arab League for handing seat to opposition
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/iran-condemns-arab-league-handing-seat-opposition-060805762.html
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The State of the Free Education System in Sri Lanka: Confessions of ...
Image courtesy The Nation
I am one of the 243,876 lucky students who sat for the Advanced Level Examinations in 2011. It has been almost one-and-a-half-years since then, and I received my university registration form only yesterday (6 ? 4 ? 2012). I was privileged enough to receive A/L results four times in the space of ten months. For this, I am eternally indebted to the Examinations Department. The possibilities for further delay, once I start university are endless: the FUTA might decide to call for another trade union action; minor-staff may decide their wages are insufficient; fellow students may decide to oppose private universities by boycotting classes; and so on. The thought of how old I will be when I graduate is not entertaining[1].
Grand Promises and Disconcerting Realities
All state school textbooks carry an excerpt from a speech made by President Rajapaksa in 2010:
?Beloved Sons and Daughters, Many countries that lagged behind us at the time we gained independence have now passed us and gone far ahead. But, we must not be prepared to copy those countries or work according to the development models of those nations. Similarly, there is no purpose in continuing to lament about our lost heritage. What we shall do instead is to surpass them and reach a stage of overall development they have not reached, and show new paths and possibilities to the world. Dear Sons and Daughters, we are now engaged in building your future!?[2]
Our country?s education standard has been very bad for long. One must, however, be conscious of the distinction between ?standard? and ?system?. Under this regime the education system, too, is fast decaying.
A cursory glance at the record of the organs of the education system ? relevant ministries, the University Grants Commission, the Examinations Department etc. ? over the past few years would suffice to understand how appalling the situation is. In 2008, GCE Ordinary Level students were made to redo Part II of the mathematics paper, because the first paper was declared unfair. The problems related to the 2011 Advanced Level Examinations are well known; students were so confused that over a hundred thousand students applied for re-scrutiny (this costs Rs 750). In September last year, Ceylon Teachers Services Union criticized the Examinations Department for proceeding to evaluate Grade 5 Scholarship examination papers, without conducting proper investigations into alleged wrongdoings.? Later last year, O/L science questions were leaked, and as a remedy all the students were freely awarded nineteen points (out of a hundred). Then there is also the controversy surrounding the Law College Entrance Examination. Add to these the numerous trade union actions led by teachers unions, shortage of teachers in schools and universities, occasional closure of universities, delays in releasing results and rampant corruption[3] we have an unprecedented mess in the system[4].
The worst part about the whole story is that relevant authorities are undisturbed by this colossal deterioration. In fact, they maintain that things are just fine.
The Minister of Education and the Minister of Higher Education are operating without any vision or long term strategy. This was evident when Bandula Gunawardena recently debunked the ex-Chief Justice?s verdict on the Z-score fiasco. When asked why he accepted the ruling at the time it was issued, the Minister replied, ?I did not want to end up in prison for contempt of court?. S B Dissanayake who spoke to the awaiting students, back in January, during the University Students? Leadership Training is said to have evaded the most important question of when university classes would commence. Instead, he chose to slam the JVP and the remaining fragments of the LTTE for allegedly disturbing academic activities.
None of our universities feature in any university ranking of repute. Fortunes of once great universities like the University of Peradeniya are on the wane. Little ?new? knowledge is being produced as a result of limited funding for research.
Poor quality uniform material has been distributed, the treasurer of the Ceylon Teachers? Union (CTU), Nishantha Deshapriya, charged on the 23rd of January. He claimed that children have been given sub-standard, transparent material to stitch uniforms with. Some students have found the length of the material short, and inadequate to tailor a complete uniform.
Each new day a new controversy surrounds the education system, and each new day we sink to new lows. Parents have expressed their discontent, and the growing distrust in the system is becoming increasingly more evident. The irresponsible conduct of the highest authorities is not helping. How ?we shall surpass those who have gone ahead of us and reach a stage of overall development they have not reached, and show new paths and possibilities to the world? remains to be seen.
The Larger Picture: A System Gone Wrong
The free education system no longer serves the purpose it was created for: making education the inheritance of the poor.[5]
The sad reality is that people are paying for education. I paid. Everyone pays. My parents would mock me that my typical school day starts with Jesus and ends with money[6]. Everyone pays to be granted entrance to a state school. This amount is generally known as ?the gift for school development.? Depending on the district, the school and the grade, this required gift may vary from five-thousand to a hundred-thousand and more. Securing admission in a leading school for Advanced Level is a ridiculously costly exercise. And there are a thousand other payments one makes to the school throughout a calendar year ? sports fee, school development fee, teachers? day celebration fee, till-collection, and you-name-it-they-have-it. There were many whose families sacrificed meals to meet such demands. Some poor students were repeatedly at the receiving end of belittling remarks of the school administration as a consequence of their inability to produce money at will.
Private tuition centres and the so-called personal tutors have seemingly become part of the (free) education system. Especially in the Advanced Level classes, it is impossible to survive without taking private tuition. In the Advanced Level classes, now, one does not simply get taught at school anymore: one is only given guidance to find the best personal tutor for each subject. I did not have a physics teacher for the greater part of my Advanced Level days; my mathematics teacher only covered a half of the syllabus at school ? the rest was taught during early morning classes for which we paid; my chemistry teacher was a genuine person with little experience.
The Grade 5 Scholarship Examination is conducted yearly to serve two purposes: a. to provide opportunities for promising students to join better schools, b. to provide good students, from poor backgrounds, financial assistance. While the first purpose is fulfilled to some extent, the second never is. To be eligible for the monthly allowance, one?s family must have an annual income of below Rs. 48, 000. Everyone cheats by bribing the Grama Niladhari, whose verification is the only external reference required. Poor students gain very little from the Grade 5 Examination, for the exam is highly competitive and requires additional training and preparation. Additional training, of course, costs a lot of money.
The district quota system that is in place for university selection is also flawed. First, a district quota system should only be a temporary measure: the permanent solution is a national merit system complemented by equal distribution of resources. Second, since there are privileged schools in every district, it is the elite of those districts who benefit from quotas than the most backward in those districts. Third, it helps rural elite at the expense of urban under-class.[7] Finally, the district quota system, like the Grade 5 Examinations, is subject to abuse and manipulation. Many schools are willing to keep the attendance register updated if one offers money and influence. Such students take classes in areas like Colombo and Kandy throughout their Advanced Level and rob the quota allocation of students from less privileged districts, who study with severe limitations. The district that I am from is notorious for this malpractice.
While I have presented examples from my personal experience, such trends are common to all parts of the country. Pointing out all the flaws in the country?s education system is beyond the capabilities of this author, and also the scope of this article. However, I hope the above mentioned examples prove two fundamental flaws: 1.the state education system is no longer a ?free system?, 2. it is not helping the neediest of students.
The FUTA Strike and the Future
The trade union action organised by the Federation of University Teachers? Association (FUTA) was significant for many reasons. Between July and October last year the FUTA campaigned for a pay hike, university autonomy and academic freedom, increased funding for education ? the 6% of GDP for education demand ? and policy reforms.? The major achievements of the FUTA struggle were building up a national movement, creating countrywide public discussion about education and raising awareness on the state of ?free? education in the country. Indeed, it was also a timely reminder for university teachers themselves as to the role they are expected to play in the country.
Yet, the FUTA struggle did not deliver on its promise. The manner in which the trade union action was called off was anticlimactic to say the least. Just as the struggle began gaining steam, it was stopped dead on its tracks. After obtaining a few, nominal, promises from the government, the FUTA ended its trade union action on the 12th of October.
?We may have ended our strike, but our campaign to enhance and protect the public funded education system in this country is far from over,? wrote Dr Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, the president of FUTA, the day after the strike came to an end.? For a long period of time FUTA remained silent, following the promise. Even the regime?s complete disregard of FUTA?s proposals in Budget 2013 did not provoke a strong public note from the trade union. Verit? Research, a private research firm and think-tank, on Budget 2013, notes, ?the total allocation for all education is 163,400 million in 2013 (1.88 as % of GDP). This is a nominal growth of 5.9% from 2012 and implies a decline of almost 2% in real terms as the GDP deflator for 2012 is expected to be about 7.8%?. The signature collection campaign launched by FUTA has only attained a little more than 1/5 of its initial target, and the numbers have been stagnant for long. Very recently, however, Dr. Dewasiri revealed that FUTA will re-start their public agitation campaign. Hopefully, learning from its last year?s efforts the union will be more effective this time around.
Some have criticized FUTA for failing to win the support of a large portion of the academic community, and have prescribed that FUTA should have ?convinced? this group before launching the strike. This group has been, wrongly, referred to as the ?middle ground? ? those who neither supported nor sided with the establishment. The middle ground among academics ? or, passive onlookers ? is, in fact, a snap shot of the new Lankan majority: a population characterized by apathy and selfishness. The academics who did not participate in the trade union action were perfectly aware of what FUTA was campaigning for: what they needed was not convincing, but the willingness to stand up for what is right.? If the government had heeded FUTA?s demands for pay hike, the middle ground would have certainly been happy.
FUTA?s demands, as we saw, resonate well with the masses and therefore have immense potential. For over a hundred days, FUTA succeeded in holding the attention of the public ? the ordinary people; something that the resistance against the impeachment of the Chief Justice did not manage. Academics, and university students, have a vital role to play in how the future shapes itself. Discussion and debate on state education must be sustained with greater civil participation. Strategic thinking must go into utilizing the positive outcomes of the trade union action ? an invigorated group of university teachers; a far more mindful public; the forming of an informal alliance among other trade unions and civil society groups ? so that (at least what is left of) the momentum is preserved. Sri Lanka needs an active FUTA.
Rethinking Education Reforms
The system badly requires a complete overhaul. However, badly planned reforms can do serious damage. Thus, the need for meticulous planning and implementation cannot be overstated.
Reforms must enhance the education to better fulfil the founding objectives. Principles of fairness and justice must form the basis for any attempt at mending the system.? The concept of reverse discrimination must also be given due thought, especially when changes are made to the district quota system. Democratising institutions of education is also an important task. Furthermore, there must be a concerted effort to protect education from political influence.
The public must realise its role as the primary stakeholder of the state education system. Academics should be given the responsibility of taking education forward. It is only them ? not politicians ? who can bring positive change.
More of Elijah Hoole?s work can be found at www.storiesofthewind.tumblr.com
[2]An extract from the speech delivered by President MR at the historic Water Filling Ceremony of the Magampura Port on 15.08.2010
[3] The highest number of complaints the Bribery and Corruption Commission has received is against the education sector. See: Transparency International Sri Lanka, Corruption Rampant in Education Sector,? http://www.tisrilanka.org/?p=10610
[4] There has, generally, been a breakdown in almost all state institutions. It is the education and health systems that have suffered most.
[6] In Tamil the words rhyme: Yesu (Jesus); kaasu (money). My school is a state-funded Catholic School.
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