Friday, May 31, 2013

Good kidney health begins before birth

May 30, 2013 ? Researchers have found that conditions in the womb can affect kidney development and have serious health implications for the child not only immediately after birth, but decades later.

In a paper published today in The Lancet an international team, including Monash University's Professor John Bertram and the University of Queensland's Professor Wendy Hoy, reviewed existing, peer-reviewed research on kidney health and developmental programming -- the effects of the in utero environment on adult health.

The accumulated evidence linked low birth weight and prematurity -- risk factors for high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease later in life -- with low numbers of the kidney's filtration units or nephrons.

In Australia, around 30 per cent of the adult population has high blood pressure and one in nine has at least one clinical symptom of chronic kidney disease. The incidence of both diseases is significantly higher in Indigenous populations.

Professor Bertram, Head of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, has been researching nephrons for two decades.

"The kidney is particularly sensitive to life before birth because we stop making nephrons at 36 weeks gestation. So, for a baby born at term, the process of nephron formation is finished and it cannot be restarted," Professor Bertram said.

Humans are born with an average of one million nephrons and lose up to 6000 each year. However, Professor Bertram's research has shown there is a huge variance in nephron number -- from just over 200,000 to around two million. Further, nephron number is positively related to birth weight -- a low birth weight equates to low nephron number and larger babies have a higher nephron number.

Given that low birth weight occurs in 15 per cent of live births worldwide, the study has implications for maternal health and clinical screening processes.

"In terms of maternal health during pregnancy, things like a high fat diet, alcohol consumption, various antibiotics and stress hormones have been shown to have a negative impact on fetal kidney development, although more research needs to be done," Professor Bertram said.

"Further, given the strong associations between birth weight, nephron number and disease later in life, and the fact that a baby's weight is routinely recorded in many countries, we suggest that birth weight should be a parameter that clinicians use to determine how often a patient is screened for kidney function or given a blood pressure test.

"Although a newborn may appear perfect, if their birth weight is low, there may be consequences 40 years down the line. We could be proactive about detecting these diseases in the early stages."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ar4V_oT61qs/130530192425.htm

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UN panel calls for end to extreme poverty by 2030

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? A high-level U.N. panel is recommending ambitious plan to tackle the world's major challenges from climate change to equality for women and good government, with a key goal of ending extreme poverty everywhere by 2030.

The 27-member panel, co-chaired by the leaders of Indonesia, Liberia and Britain, delivered the report to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday, calling it a "bold and practical" proposal with 12 goals.

"Our vision and our responsibility are to end extreme poverty in all its forms in the context of sustainable development and to have in place the building blocks of sustained prosperity for all," the panel said.

Ban appointed the panel to recommend a new development agenda after the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to combat poverty expire in 2015.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-panel-calls-end-extreme-poverty-2030-191700012.html

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Scientists Revived 400-Year-Old Plants That Could Help Us Live on Mars

Scientists Revived 400-Year-Old Plants That Could Help Us Live on Mars

A recently uncovered, perfectly preserved, 400-year-old plant specimen might be the answer to our increasingly important colonization of other planets?and the preservation of the human race as a whole.

You probably already know that human stem cells hold a vast, wildly exciting potential?both in terms of furthering our understanding of the human body and in saving countless lives. But did you know plants have their very own version of the industrious little cells, called bryophytes, that could prove just as important in saving humanity? That's exactly what scientists have found, and what's gotten them so excited.

Lead by Catherine La Farge, a team of researchers from the University of Alberta was exploring mosses around the Teardrop Glacier in the Canadian arctic archipelago when they discovered that portions of the (now rapidly receding) glacier were tinted an incongruous green. After taking the sample plant material back to her lab, the team ground up the specimens, placed them in potting soil, and watched with awe as they successfully regenerated from their 400-year-old parent material.

Scientists Revived 400-Year-Old Plants That Could Help Us Live on Mars

As the glacier recedes at an astonishing rate of 3 to 4 meters per year since 2004, scientists have gained access to an increasing amount of centuries-old plant life frozen in time. Every discovery up until now, though, has been flora of the vascular variety. But it's this non-vascular sort that, though often overlooked, holds the key to understanding our past and our future.

What's a Bryophyte?

Vascular plants are primarily defined by the existence of a xylem and a phloem, or in other words, the parts that suck up water and nutrients and send them shooting throughout the rest of the plant. Non-vascular plants, as all you keen observers may have already guessed, don't have this system?they're a far more simple breed. Made to freeze and dry out, they're able to survive in conditions that vascular plants, what with their fancy leaf and stem tissue needing "water" and "food" all the time, could only dream of.

Scientists Revived 400-Year-Old Plants That Could Help Us Live on Mars

Bryophytes, which fall into this latter category, have to reproduce asexually since they often don't have access to water, which is key to fertilization. And because of this, depending on its environment, a single bryophyte cell can essentially reprogram itself to grow as an entirely different plant. But that's not even the exciting part. As La Farge explained:

This has been known forever by biologists who deal with bryophytes. Because if a moose goes through a forest, it might pick up moss in its toes and carry that material somewhere else. So when the plant tissue drops, it will be able to reestablish itself in its new environment and thrive.

It's as if you could drop a lion in the ocean and have it grow gills.

So... What's the Big Deal?

As glaciers retreat and a greater variety of plant life surfaces, it's essentially like peeling a blanket back over a perfectly preserved portion of the past. Dormant, yes?but alive nonetheless. And that's what makes this discovery so incredible. The knowledge that it's even possible for plant life to survive in such extreme conditions opens the door to a deeper understanding of this robust group's cell biology. Which in turn, could very well pave the way towards us figuring out how the hell we're going to grow plants on other planets?oh, say Mars, for instance.

Because unquestionably, before we can even begin to fantasize about sending people into the red abyss, we're going to need to test whether or not plants can survive in those kinds of conditions?harsh light, dryness, freezing, etc. And now it seems like we may have found just the plant for the job. Eschews water? Check. Ability to reproduce simply and all by its lonesome? Check. Doesn't mind the cold? Double check. Not to mention the fact that it can morph into other plants.

Scientists Revived 400-Year-Old Plants That Could Help Us Live on Mars

Which is part of the reason why bryophytes represent the second largest lineage of land plants in terms of diversity?10,000 different species diverse, to be exact. And various, disparate strains will happily live side-by-side; they don't compete in the way vascular plants do. Rather, they bunch as close together as possible, which allows them to retain the moisture that facilitates their entire biological life cycle. So there's a reason you'll always see moss growing in tufts. And though they might be virtually microscopic as single organisms, there's still plenty about them to find fascinating?especially if you're a bryophyte enthusiast like La Farge. As she explained to us:

It's mind boggling, because normally you walk through a forest, and you see green moss on a rock. So you might think oh, that's a nice moss and move on. But you never stop to think about what that green actually represents. How diverse is it? How many species are we really considering here? I mean, when you're up in the high arctic, if you pick up just a small packet, say a letter envelope size, you can often get 15 different species of bryophytes in one letter-size collection. It's pretty amazing.

The Next Stage

There's still many other organisms that could be lying peacefully under the still-frozen glacier. Scientists knew that fungi, yeast, and bacteria were all able to survive in ice, and they also knew that both vascular plants and mosses could live on the top of a glacier. But this is the first time we've really considered the possibility that the stuff peeking out from underneath the glacier just might be alive. Frozen specimens, then, won't necessarily be considered dead on arrival, leaving researchers with plenty of work ahead of them.

La Farge is particularly interested in moving into the lower latitudes, where the even more rapidly shrinking icecaps are exposing even older glimpses of past life. And all of this will only enhance our newly illuminated understanding of basic life systems?something we're going to need when we start planting biodomes on other planets.

Of course, tests like that may still be quite a ways off. But at least now, we have plenty of reason to hope. [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States]

Images via Catherine La Farge

Source: http://gizmodo.com/scientists-revived-400-year-old-plants-that-could-help-510691491

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Erick Erickson: Liberals Who Reject That Men Should Dominate Women Are Anti-Science (Little green footballs)

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

The inside story behind the approval of the gene therapy drug Glybera

The inside story behind the approval of the gene therapy drug Glybera [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Vicki Cohn
vcohn@liebertpub.com
914-740-2100 x2156
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

Politics and intrigue led to major milestone

New Rochelle, NY, May 15, 2013The scientists who led the team that developed Glybera, the first gene therapy drug approved for use in the Western world, provide a fascinating first-person account of their pioneering work in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. In addition, an in-depth Review reveals the inside story of the European regulatory review and approval of Glybera, chock full of twists and turn, politics, and intrigue, reviews and critiques the groundbreaking drug's path to the marketplace appears in in Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development. Both articles are available on the Human Gene Therapy website.

John Kastelein, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Colin Ross and Michael Hayden, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada) describe the long path to the discovery of the genetic mutation responsible for lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a rare, inherited disease, and the subsequent work in Dr. Hayden's laboratory to develop a gene replacement therapy. In the article "From Mutation Identification to Therapy: Discovery and Origins of the First Approved Gene Therapy in the Western World," the authors recount the many failures and successes and the significant delays that finally ended on November 2, 2012, when the European Medicines Agency granted marketing approval for Glybera. The therapy will be submitted for review by the U.S. and Canadian regulatory authorities.

James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy, and Director of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and coauthors give a behind-the-scenes view of the protracted clinical development, review, and approval process for Glybera in the Commentary "Lessons Learned from the Clinical Development and Market Authorization of Glybera." Although Glybera's safety was not an issue, its efficacy in the relatively small number of patients who received the therapy was questionable. The authors chronicle a bumpy road to market approval, fraught with rejections, reanalysis of study data, and appeals that led to commercialization of the product with the caveat of an ongoing patient registry to allow for continued review of the effectiveness of the therapy as it is used in more patients.

###

About the Journals

Human Gene Therapy, the Official Journal of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, French Society of Cell and Gene Therapy, German Society of Gene Therapy, and five other gene therapy societies, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online. Human Gene Therapy presents reports on the transfer and expression of genes in mammals, including humans. Related topics include improvements in vector development, delivery systems, and animal models, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart disease, viral disease, genetic disease, and neurological disease, as well as ethical, legal, and regulatory issues related to the gene transfer in humans. Its sister journals, Human Gene Therapy Methods, published bimonthly, focuses on the application of gene therapy to product testing and development, and Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development, publishes data relevant to the regulatory review and commercial development of cell and gene therapy products. Tables of content for all three publications and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Human Gene Therapy website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, and Cellular Reprogramming. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215 http://www.liebertpub.com Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax: (914) 740-2101


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


The inside story behind the approval of the gene therapy drug Glybera [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Vicki Cohn
vcohn@liebertpub.com
914-740-2100 x2156
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

Politics and intrigue led to major milestone

New Rochelle, NY, May 15, 2013The scientists who led the team that developed Glybera, the first gene therapy drug approved for use in the Western world, provide a fascinating first-person account of their pioneering work in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. In addition, an in-depth Review reveals the inside story of the European regulatory review and approval of Glybera, chock full of twists and turn, politics, and intrigue, reviews and critiques the groundbreaking drug's path to the marketplace appears in in Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development. Both articles are available on the Human Gene Therapy website.

John Kastelein, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Colin Ross and Michael Hayden, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada) describe the long path to the discovery of the genetic mutation responsible for lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a rare, inherited disease, and the subsequent work in Dr. Hayden's laboratory to develop a gene replacement therapy. In the article "From Mutation Identification to Therapy: Discovery and Origins of the First Approved Gene Therapy in the Western World," the authors recount the many failures and successes and the significant delays that finally ended on November 2, 2012, when the European Medicines Agency granted marketing approval for Glybera. The therapy will be submitted for review by the U.S. and Canadian regulatory authorities.

James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy, and Director of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and coauthors give a behind-the-scenes view of the protracted clinical development, review, and approval process for Glybera in the Commentary "Lessons Learned from the Clinical Development and Market Authorization of Glybera." Although Glybera's safety was not an issue, its efficacy in the relatively small number of patients who received the therapy was questionable. The authors chronicle a bumpy road to market approval, fraught with rejections, reanalysis of study data, and appeals that led to commercialization of the product with the caveat of an ongoing patient registry to allow for continued review of the effectiveness of the therapy as it is used in more patients.

###

About the Journals

Human Gene Therapy, the Official Journal of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, French Society of Cell and Gene Therapy, German Society of Gene Therapy, and five other gene therapy societies, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online. Human Gene Therapy presents reports on the transfer and expression of genes in mammals, including humans. Related topics include improvements in vector development, delivery systems, and animal models, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart disease, viral disease, genetic disease, and neurological disease, as well as ethical, legal, and regulatory issues related to the gene transfer in humans. Its sister journals, Human Gene Therapy Methods, published bimonthly, focuses on the application of gene therapy to product testing and development, and Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development, publishes data relevant to the regulatory review and commercial development of cell and gene therapy products. Tables of content for all three publications and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Human Gene Therapy website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, and Cellular Reprogramming. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215 http://www.liebertpub.com Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax: (914) 740-2101


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/mali-tis053013.php

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Pirate3D Buccaneer Printer Will Cost Just $247 For First 350 Backers

Pirate3D Buccaneer 3D printerGet ready, get set, Kickstart. The Pirate3D Buccaneer printer is up on Kickstarter, and the first 350 backers will be able to get it for just $247?$100 off its regular price of $347. The 3D printer is targeted at home users and beginners, say its founders. One of our editors, John Biggs, had his doubts on how high-quality the printer’s output would be, noting some jagged edges to the prints. Still, for $347 (or $247, if you act quickly), you could do worse. It prints at a 100-micron resolution, similar to the Makerbot. But the Makerbot Replicator 2.0 costs $2,199. The Form One, which has just started to ship, set its Kickstarter pledges at $2,299, as a reference. Pirate3D co-founder Roger Chang, said that besides price, the team hopes the printer will appeal to beginners who are not familiar with CAD (computer-aided design) software. He said that the printer’s objects library, called Smart Objects, allows users to drag and customize objects and send it straight to print. You can download an Android app from Pirate3D’s site. Pirate3D is based in Singapore, and was co-founded by Chang, Brendan Goh, Tsang You Jun and Neo Kok Beng.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/b44jpNg26AU/

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Barbara weakens to tropical storm, kills 2 people

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) ? Hurricane Barbara drenched a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico's southern Pacific coast with rain Wednesday after making the second-earliest landfall since reliable record-keeping began in 1966. It quickly lost strength over land but not before killing at least two people, including a man identified by local officials as a U.S. surfer.

By evening, Barbara had weakened to a tropical storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The director of civil defense for Oaxaca state, Manuel Maza Sanchez, said a 61-year-old man from Colorado died while surfing at Playa Azul, a beach near the resort town of Puerto Escondido, when Barbara made landfall at midafternoon as a Category 1 hurricane about 120 miles (200 kilometers) to the east. He said the man was dragged out by waves kicked up by Barbara and then battered against the shore.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City was not immediately able to confirm the man's name, nationality or hometown.

Maza Sanchez also said a 26-year-old Mexican man drowned in the nearby city of Pinotepa Nacional while trying to cross a rain-swollen creek.

Farther to the east, near the landfall area, 14 fishermen who set out to sea Wednesday morning from the town of Tapanatepec had been reported missing, Maza said.

Barbara came ashore with winds of about 75 mph (120 kph) and lost power as it moved inland. By Wednesday night, maximum sustained winds had dropped to 50 mph (85 kph) as the storm slogged northward, but flooding was reported in some areas and remained a threat.

On May 23, the National Hurricane Center had said odds favor a below-normal hurricane season in the eastern Pacific for 2013. It said 11 to 16 named storms were likely, below the 15-storm annual average for 1981-2010.

But Barbara appeared to start the Pacific season unusually early, and it also made landfall farther east than any other Pacific hurricane since 1966. Such storms often form closer to the resort of Acapulco, to the west.

Officials in Oaxaca had rushed to prepare emergency shelters and suspended school for children in coastal communities as rain began lashing the coast when the storm formed close to shore.

The area first hit by the storm is a largely undeveloped stretch of coastal lagoons, punctuated by small fishing villages.

The major Gulf oil port of Coatzacoalcos is located on the other side of the narrow waist of Mexico known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. But the hurricane center predicted Barbara would dissipate into a rain system well before reaching Coatzacoalcos.

Maza Sanchez said classes would be suspended at schools along the coast for the rest of the week. Storm shelters were set up in 20 towns and hamlets, and such shelters are often installed at schools.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/barbara-weakens-tropical-storm-kills-2-people-005146305.html

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How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

Every quarter-aged hipster wants to be a DJ at one point or another. The only problem is that DJing is actually a really expensive hobby, if you do it right. (And by right, I mean legally.) It used to be that you needed turntables, a mixer, an audio interface, crates of records, a controller and at least one sweet-looking set of headphones. That was then. This is now.

Now, simple, free music apps like Spotify, iTunes and Google Play make it relatively easy to create smooth transitions with nothing but a laptop and, ideally, an iPad or two. While that hardware's not cheap, it's likely that you own at least one if not more already.

How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

And the deeper features and emerging culture of social music sites like these even help up-and-coming artists play tribute to the legends in increasingly silly and Internet-y ways. Imagine Spotify is one big band practice, where you have different collaborators throwing songs into the mix. So-and-so brings in the thump-heavy track to serve as a foundation for a mixtape, the kind a DJ from the olden days might've tried to sneak into a Hollywood studio. Another introduces a horns-heavy follow up track. Some lead singer character pulls out that sick hip hop track from last year, while his friend supplies a vocal track. These tracks can also be samples, since Spotify effortlessly finds the music on your hard drive.

Broadcasting with Spotify and crate-digging with iTunes (and vice versa) is also a ton of fun. I found out about these features having spent the last week laid up in bed with what's politely known as Montezuma's Revenge with nothing but a MacBook Pro equipped but Spotify and iTunes and a desire to spin. And guess what: it was awesome.

The premium version of Spotify is be far my favorite daily music app. And given the involvement of Sean Parker (a.k.a. Napster) in bringing it to the United States, it's not surprising that Spotify is a real music nerd's utopia, especially if you like bands on the major U.S. labels. Yes, lots of music is missing due to licensing issues. You might get a little frustrated to find that some songs aren't available in your home country, though there are things like VPNs to work around that issue if you really want to. On a daily basis, though, I find that most of the daft pop that I like to tap my foot to on the subway is there.

How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

If you want to be a fake bedroom DJ, your best friend should be the queue feature. Like the expensive DJ apps, this is where you can line up songs on the ones and twos, though Spotify actually makes it even better be enabling you to set up entire playlists on the fly that you can both share and stream as a radio station. This basically enables you to make playlists on the fly that can keep your set sounding pretty smoothless.

Know two other wannabe DJs? Set up a collaborative playlist, tell them to sign on and you can all add to the same queue, switch around the tracks, set up and stream their tracks. Similarly, if you're DJing a party, you can just keep an eye on the social stream to the right for requests. Friends can also send songs straight to you using the share feature. Also super cool: The ability to stream a playlist as a radio station so that you can send the link to your friends and let them customize it and send it back.

Things get really fun when you start integrating Spotify's mobile app into the mix. This sort of eliminates the need for a second turntable channel since you can just preview what's next from your pocket. Ever heard of silent dance parties? Spotify is amazing for silent dance parties.

An even more seamless way of doing this is to run iTunes and Spotify in tandem. This sounds pretty ramshackle, because it is. However, the iTunes has improved a ton since the last time you bothered opening it. It also has the queue feature, as well as a "Play Next" option that will basically make a song of your choosing buck the line. You can fiddle with the transitions in iTunes Preferences to make one song flow smoothly into the next. As always, the ability to rate songs from one to five stars is a great way to organize your collection, one that's a step up for Spotify's binary starring method. The iTunes Match service makes it possible to share a collection with a few people, but it's nowhere near as easy as Spotify's all-your-friends-all-the-time approach.

How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

Apple also makes you pay for your music. You do get a better selection and more goodies for the ten or so dollars an album. During my latest pretend DJ phase, I couldn't get the new Daft Punk album on Spotify, so I bought it. It was my first iTunes Music purchase (no kidding) and it came with a neat jacket design that's quite obviously inspired by Michael Jackson's original release of Thriller. I, feeling feverish, decided to start buying more tracks: old Thomas Bangalter james, more Daft Punk remixes and classic Moroder albums like the soundtrack of The Neverending Story. By switching back and forth between iTunes and Spotify, using nothing but the volume slides as a fader, I started to put together mix tapes. With my Sony Studio Monitor headphones, I lost myself to?well?dance. It was the only thing that made me feel better.

The streaming music space is becoming incredibly competitive. No doubt, record companies are letting folks like Spotify and Apple battle it out for some of the best stuff. For instance when I hit a wall trying to blend the Drive soundtrack into all of these Italo-French disco house, I did something I never thought I'd do: I bought the album on Google Play. This interface didn't make as much immediate sense to me as the others, a common conundrum when it comes to Google products, I find. Buying was a breeze, though. Then again, Google's always been good at taking people's money.

But the synergy between Spotify and iTunes is undeniable. Of course, this only get's slicker and sleeker when you integrate tablets into the mix, though Spotify's iPhone-only app isn't all that helpful for this kind of thing. You can still pay lots of money to download real DJ software, too?Traktor Pro has always been my favorite.

You don't necessarily need it any more, though. Spotify is free or $10 a month for the premium version. iTunes is free, but the music's not. But fooling your friends into thinking you're a mixmaster, the man with the treasure fingers on the turntables, pumping up a party? Priceless. (I'll see myself out.)

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-dj-a-dance-party-without-knowing-how-to-dj-510277435

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Oklahoma tornado was a monster, but it wasn't a record-breaker (+video)

The Oklahoma tornado Monday was an EF5 ? the severest rating. But a tornado that hit the same area in 1999 had faster winds, and a 2004 Nebraska twister was almost twice as wide.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / May 21, 2013

A tornado moves past homes in Moore, Okla., on Monday. A monstrous tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs, flattening entire neighborhoods with winds up to 200 m.p.h.

Alonzo Adams/AP

Enlarge

The National Weather Service has rated the tornado that struck Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon as an EF5, the highest rating with wind speeds estimated at more than 200 miles an hour.

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The event gives Moore the distinction of being the only city in the world to have taken a direct hit from an EF5 twister twice ? once in 1999 and again Monday. The new estimate, up from a preliminary estimate of EF4, brings to 59 the number of these chart-topping tornadoes to strike US since 1950, according to data gathered by the National Weather Services Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Okla.

The wind strengths are estimates based on the extent of damage inflicted on different types of structures. With the exception of the weakest tornadoes, twisters tend to destroy any wind sensors placed in their paths. Researchers have been able to measure wind speeds higher in the funnel on a few tornadoes through other means. They clocked wind speeds in the twister that hit Moore in 1999 at 302 miles an hour ? the fastest wind speeds ever recorded on Earth.

Monday's tornado widened and narrowed along its path, notes Rick Smith, warning coordination meteorologist at the local National Weather Service Forecast office, also in Norman. But it reached its maximum width as it spun across Moore, leaving behind a path of destruction some 1.3 miles wide, he says.

The current record for widest tornado remains an EF4 twister that hit Hallam, Neb., in May 2004. At its most intense, it spanned nearly 2.5 miles.

Oklahoma turns out to be ground zero for tornadoes rated EF4 or EF5, according to the SPC, while Oklahoma City has had some 100 twisters cross its boundaries since 1896, with another 49 counting as near misses.

The tornadoes that have popped up over the past few days belie the relatively benign conditions that have existed throughout much of the past year, researchers say.

While April was the 13th warmest on record globally, it was the 23rd coolest for the continental US and the coolest for the lower 48 since April 1997, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This contributed to a very slow start to the 2013 tornado season. For the 12 months ending April 30, the US experienced 197 tornadoes rated EF1 or higher, according to data compiled by Harold Brooks, a tornado researcher at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman. That's 50 fewer twisters than the previous record low, which was set from June 1991 to May 1992.

And while severe weather in January and February led to more reports of tornadoes for each month than the 1991-2010 averages would suggest, March and April's tornado reports were well below the 30-year average.

But by mid May, the atmosphere, and severe thunderstorms, began to fire up. For the month through May 21, preliminary data gathered by the SPC indicate some 127 tornado reports around the US, but focused largely on the Plains and Midwest. This compares with 83 reports in April, 18 in March, 46 in February, and 64 in January. The total year to date is running well below the 2005-2011 average total of 718 reports through May 20.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/Aqwq6ieRxj8/Oklahoma-tornado-was-a-monster-but-it-wasn-t-a-record-breaker-video

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Homemade Crafts And Creative Hobbies - SavvyHomemade.com

Learning some new homemade crafts and creative hobbies can be both satisfying and exciting. And if you're looking for a little inspiration we have some exciting and creative ideas to choose from.

Even if you don't consider yourself the naturally creative type, with our easy to follow crafts you'll soon be expressing yourself and clearing a space for your memorabilia, no matter what your age or ability!

Many of these will make wonderful gifts for friends and family, and they'll save you a bundle as well! So get in touch with your forgotten creativity, fan the flames of inspiration, and get to work!

Source: http://www.savvyhomemade.com/category/crafts-hobbies/

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Suntory unit Japan listing to be approved Wednesday in $5 billion IPO: source

By Taiga Uranaka

(Reuters) - Suntory Holdings Ltd is set to receive Tokyo Stock Exchange approval as soon as Wednesday to list its food and non-alcoholic beverage unit, a source with direct knowledge of the process told Reuters.

The clearance would set the stage for an initial public offering that a separate source with knowledge of the situation has said could raise as much as 500 billion yen ($5 billion), in what is expected to be Japan's largest IPO of the year.

The Osaka-based drinks maker wants to raise funds for acquisitions and growth in overseas markets.

Japanese beverage companies such as Suntory, Kirin Holdings Co Ltd and Asahi Group Holdings Ltd are aggressively pursuing overseas expansion to lessen their reliance on a shrinking home market.

Suntory, which makes C.C. Lemon brand soft drinks and Yamazaki single malt whisky, has set a goal of more than doubling sales at its food and beverage unit to 2 trillion yen by 2020.

Suntory has acquired soft drinks maker Orangina Schweppes and New Zealand's No. 2 beverage firm Funcor Group. In 2011, it entered into a joint venture with Indonesian food and beverage group GarudaFood.

(Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-suntory-unit-listing-approved-5-billion-ipo-001835658.html

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Every Hole's a Piece of Art In This Sculpture Garden Mini Golf Course

Every Hole's a Piece of Art In This Sculpture Garden Mini Golf Course

In their own way, a lot of miniature golf courses?with their twisting layouts, devious obstacles, and over-the-top designs?can be considered art. Even if their sole purpose is to encourage tourists to pay to knock a ball around. But this spring the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden decided to join forces to take the idea of minigolf as art even further by hiring artists, architects, engineers, and students to design the museum's annual artist-made minigolf course, Walker on the Green.

The results, which will be on display and totally playable until September 8, include everything from fun perspective-warping fun houses, to giant garden gnome foosball tables, to more abstract creations like a peaceful zen garden. It's a rare instance where crazy plaid golf pants aren't the boldest design statement on the course. [Walker Art Center via It's Nice That]

Every Hole's a Piece of Art In This Sculpture Garden Mini Golf Course

Every Hole's a Piece of Art In This Sculpture Garden Mini Golf Course

Every Hole's a Piece of Art In This Sculpture Garden Mini Golf Course

Every Hole's a Piece of Art In This Sculpture Garden Mini Golf Course

Every Hole's a Piece of Art In This Sculpture Garden Mini Golf Course

Source: http://gizmodo.com/every-holes-a-piece-of-art-in-this-sculpture-garden-mi-510307373

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When disaster strikes America, a more skilled response

On the afternoon of Monday, May 20, the destruction in Moore, Okla., seemed beyond comprehension. More than 13,000 homes were damaged by a tornado that, by meteorological standards, was a raging monster. Residents emerged from the shipwrecks of what had once been houses, not knowing who among their neighbors had fled, who might be hunkered down under the rubble, and who might be dead.

The search and rescue, it seemed, could take days. Instead, despite hard rains and darkness, the initial sweep was done overnight.

Oklahoma's preparation and its prompt response to one of the most destructive tornadoes in history are examples "other communities would be well to emulate," says David McEntire, an emergency planning professor at the University of North Texas in Denton.

RECOMMENDED: Six tornado survivor stories

In part, it was a product of Oklahoma itself ? a parable of how repeated exposure to weather's most ferocious extremes builds preparedness into the very DNA of "tornado alley." More broadly, it is also evidence that the United States, as a nation, is simply getting better at dealing with natural disasters.

Improved forecasts are helping to limit the loss of life, and the fallout from hurricane Katrina has dramatically reshaped disaster response. Federal, state, and private officials, who once had only a vague notion of what their counterparts were doing, now coordinate to the point that folks on the ground know who will be collecting lost pets and who will be flipping burgers for the droves of emergency workers.

To be sure, the Moore tornado was not of the scale of Katrina or superstorm Sandy. But the story of how ATV-riding urban search-and-rescue teams here were on their second and third rounds of searches less than 24 hours after the tornado touched down suggests how much has changed since New Orleans was lawless and underwater for days in late summer of 2005.

Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.

"The higher profile of these types of disasters, and the nature of their physical and social impact, brings this closer to home than ever before," says Liesel Ritchie, director of research at the National Hazards Research and Applications Information Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "It's not like we haven't experienced tornadoes before, but it's on the radar in ways that we haven't had prior."

For Oklahoma, experience has honed competence. "Sadly, this is not our first rodeo," says emergency volunteer Amand McCoy.

Oklahoma's two urban search-and-rescue units were lined up to respond to destroyed buildings and trapped citizens, and thanks to a mutual aid agreement between states, the unit from Texas was also sent. Dozens of smaller search units, too, descended quickly, helped by local firefighters called in by mutual aid. Oklahoma City sent crews and equipment, as well, arriving almost immediately on site. Even a tableful of young professionals, updating social media websites and triaging reporters' requests, was called in when Moore's public affairs officer tapped a local advertising firm.

It was essentially a small army mobilized at a moment's notice and almost seamlessly synchronized. At one staging area, the fire crew from Morgans Corner learned from an organizational chart that its job was to sling more than 1,000 burgers a day to hungry police officers and firefighters at the official barbecue pit. At the Home Depot, Debbie Cunningham oversees Official Support Function-11 ? which, put in simpler terms, is a lost and found for pets.

None of this comes without extensive coordination and training.

"There's a lot of planning that goes into preparedness and being ready to respond.... For Oklahoma, this is the No. 1 hazard and there are set functions that have to be performed.... You have to know who's going to do them, and you have to drill them. And the result is that the state is very much on top when something happens," says Professor McEntire. "They don't really need to go look at the plan to figure out what to do. It's a well-oiled machine."

Albert Ashwood, Oklahoma's emergency management director, puts it in folksier terms: "We have a saying in Oklahoma: 'You don't hand out business cards at disaster scenes' ? meaning that everybody not only knows each other but has worked with each other in the past. Everybody knows what role they play."

Those were not sentiments associated with federal disaster coordination in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an integral part of the Moore relief effort. Three of its search-and-rescue teams were on the ground the morning after, and the agency had sent a liaison to the state's emergency-response center the day before the tornadoes hit.

For Mike Ebert, vice president for communications with the Southern Baptist Convention in Atlanta, that speaks to fundamental changes within FEMA. In the past, he felt that federal officials had little interest in how to marshal his group's capabilities, which range from bringing in roof tarps to providing child care. But with the arrival of current FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate in 2009, that began to change.

"We noticed right away an increase in communication and a real desire on FEMA's side to say, 'Hey, we have all these resources here from Southern Baptist, let's take advantage of it and let them know we're really counting on them,'?" Mr. Ebert says.

One notable change is that FEMA has invited his organization and others to send a representative to Washington to participate in twice-a-day briefings about the logistics of what is needed and where.

"The federal government realizes that the private organizations that are actively seeking to serve those affected by disaster have a role, and it's important that we work together," says Ron Busroe, development secretary for the Salvation Army, which also has a seat at the FEMA briefings. "We have different roles ... but we work in collaboration. It's a good thing."

This refined ability to respond quickly to dis-aster ? positioning resources where they might be most needed ? has increasingly been shaped by the ability to forecast with certainty where extreme weather will strike.

Take the Columbus Day storm of 1962. It was the strongest nontropical cyclone to hit the US during the past 100 years, battering a stretch of Pacific coastline from northern California to British Columbia with winds gusting to 150 miles per hour.

"If you look at The Seattle Times the day before, they were talking about 'partly cloudy' or something," says Cliff Mass, professor of meteorology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Thanks to better computer modeling and weather satellites, meteorologists began to get nearly all the big storms right in the 1990s ? first, with forecasts a few days ahead of time, then, in the case of Sandy, four to six days ahead of time, notes Dr. Mass.

Part of the success with preparing for Sandy stemmed from forecasters' use of a powerful computer model in Europe. Now, National Weather Service computers are being upgraded with money from Sandy relief. Meteorologists hope to be able to make more accurate forecasts as far as 16 days in advance. Of special interest, Mass says, are forecasts in the seven- to 14-day range. That could help forecasters forewarn Western dam operators when currents of warm, moist air flow in from the Pacific, bringing heavy rains. With more time to lower water levels in their reservoirs, the dam operators could improve flood control, he says.

Improvements in longer-term forecasting mirror improvements in the minute-by-minute forecasts crucial to tornado warnings. In the mid-1960s, the average warning time for a tornado was three minutes after it touched down. On May 20, the National Weather Service issued a warning covering Moore 16 minutes before touchdown, and it took the tornado another 20 minutes to arrive, essentially giving residents 36 minutes' warning.

For Moore residents, that was an eternity. Most people in the tract-house neighborhood off Telephone Road, near the epicenter of destruction, simply left. Some drove out of the strike zone; others went to fast-food restaurants, whose walk-in coolers are nearly bombproof and bolted to the ground.

"Seventeen minutes is plenty of time to get a long way from the path of a tornado," says Thomas Grazulis, a tornado historian in St. Johnsbury, Vt.

"Yeah, people just leave. That's what I do," says Todd Smith, whose home was barely grazed by the May 20 tornado. "You watch the track, you listen to the warnings, and you make the call and go. That's why everybody buys tornado insurance, so you can go back, pick up the pieces, and rebuild."

How they rebuild, however, remains a weak point in America's disaster preparedness, some say. Many communities strengthen building codes after natural disasters, much like Florida did in 2002 after a series of hurricanes hit in the 1990s. That process is also now taking place in the area wrecked by Sandy last October.

But, at the same time, there is a desire to rebuild as quickly as possible. Some individuals either don't have the money to meet new standards or don't want to spend it. And some officials say safety is up to each individual, not something to be imposed.

Moore's mayor has said he will push to make storm shelters mandatory in home construction. But when Moore was hit by an even stronger tornado in 1999, that decision was left in the hands of homeowners.

There's an ad hoc quality to how various communities respond. After a giant tornado hit Parkersburg, Iowa, in 2008, many residents added storm shelters. But the town of about 1,900 people did not change its building code to require them. As a result, the high school, rebuilt after the storm, has a shelter with thick concrete walls and a reinforced concrete ceiling. But the elementary school, which was not damaged, does not have a similar shelter.

After Florida was hit by severe hurricanes, engineers designed better ways to keep roofs attached to buildings.

"Hopefully Moore and other cities will look at the best way to rebuild for property and building protection," says Nancy Kete, managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation, noting that it's equally as vital for communities to focus on protecting people.

? Staff writers Mark Guarino, Pete Spotts, and Ron Scherer contributed to this report.

RECOMMENDED: Six tornado survivor stories

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Read this story at csmonitor.com

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/disaster-strikes-america-more-skilled-response-132113115.html

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Smiles, man hugs and a teddy bear: Chris Christie?s reunion with Obama

President Obama holds up a stuffed bear in Point Pleasant, N.J., May 28, 2013. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

They smiled, they chuckled?and there was even a man hug or two.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama rekindled his unlikely bromance with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as the two went before the cameras to tout continuing recovery along the Jersey shore in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

It was a photo-op meant to help draw visitors to New Jersey?s beach towns, which desperately need tourism dollars as they continue to rebuild after Sandy destroyed boardwalks and shorelines when it came ashore last October. But even Obama couldn?t ignore the political optics of the trip, which comes as Christie, a Republican, ramps up his bid for a second term in one of the most heavily Democratic states in the country.

On Tuesday, the political odd couple made an unscheduled stop at the boardwalk along Point Pleasant Beach?one of the areas most devastated by Sandy. Together, they played Touch Down Fever, a game where participants try to win by throwing a football through a tire. According to a pool report, Obama took aim but missed his target several times. When it was his turn, Christie made the shot on his first and only try.

President Obama is greeted by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, May 28, 2013. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

?That?s because he?s running for office,? Obama declared, giving Christie a friendly high-five that ended with him clasping the GOP governor?s hand.

But Obama didn?t walk away empty-handed. The man running the game gave the president a stuffed bear wearing a tiny Chicago Bears jersey?immediately prompting Twitter jokes among Washington media types that Christie had won the bear for Obama, though it appeared he was simply given the bear as a consolation prize.

It was a moment that couldn?t have been more helpfully scripted for Christie?s re-election campaign, which has cast the governor as someone willing to buck his own party for the greater good of his state. That image has made Christie appear virtually unbeatable heading into the summer. He leads his closest opponent, Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono, by 32 points, according to a recent NBC News/Marist poll.

But Christie?s campaign isn?t taking any chances. Earlier this month, Christie began running ads touting his record and mentioning Buono by name. She, in turn, launched a $1 million ad campaign taking aim at Christie?s record.

But it?s hard not to imagine how a photo-op with a popular Democratic president doesn?t undermine Buono?s message?which is probably why Christie was smiling so much during his time with Obama Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/smiles-man-hugs-teddy-bear-chris-christie-reunion-175717315.html

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SAGE announces winner of early researcher bursary for EERA international conference

SAGE announces winner of early researcher bursary for EERA international conference [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Katie Baker
katie.baker@sagepub.co.uk
020-732-48719
SAGE Publications

Los Angeles, CA (28 May 2013). SAGE is delighted to announce the winner of the European Educational Research Association (EERA)/SAGE conference travel award, which sponsors an early career researcher to attend the Emerging Researchers Conference , taking place this year between 9 and 10 September and the annual ECER 2013 conference , taking place this year between 10 to 13 September). The conferences take place this year in Istanbul, Turkey.

Karen Phillips, Editorial Director SAGE, said of the sponsorship, "The EERA conference is a pivotal conference for helping to contribute to both education policy and practice.We are delighted to be supporting an early career researcher in attending this conference and aiding EERA in facilitating these conversations."

Professor Lejf Moors, President of EERA, further commented, "We are delighted that SAGE has once again offered their SAGE Conference bursary to an early career researcher. This bursary enables both us and SAGE to support promising young scholars in educational research, enabling them to attend our annual conference, to start networking with professional s within the sector, and to provide them with content to further stimulate their academic work and career".

The winner of this year's travel grant, Ana Ins Renta Davids, selected by EERA for her paper on "Transfer of learning: Effects of Motivation, Training Coherence and Workplace Features" said of the award win, "I am gratified to know that members of EERA and SAGE considered my work to be good enough for such recognition. The beginnings of any research career are difficult in terms of budgets and job stability, so this bursary is of great help in enabling me to continue to be an active part of the research community, supporting my early career development and exposure."

###

For more information about the conference please visit http://www.eera-ecer.de/ecer2013/

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com

EERA (European Educational Research Association) was founded in June 1994 as a result of discussions among many national educational research associations and several major research institutes throughout Europe which identified the need for a European association to foster the exchange of ideas amongst European researchers, promote collaboration in research, improve research quality and offer independent advice on educational research to European policy-makers, administrators and practitioners.

EERA was founded as a learned society specifically for the purposes of:

  • Encouraging collaboration amongst educational researchers in Europe
  • Promoting communication between educational researchers and international governmental organizations such as the EU, Council of Europe, OECD and UNESCO
  • Improving communication amongst educational research associations and institutes within Europe
  • Disseminating the findings of educational research and highlighting their contribution to policy and practice

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


SAGE announces winner of early researcher bursary for EERA international conference [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Katie Baker
katie.baker@sagepub.co.uk
020-732-48719
SAGE Publications

Los Angeles, CA (28 May 2013). SAGE is delighted to announce the winner of the European Educational Research Association (EERA)/SAGE conference travel award, which sponsors an early career researcher to attend the Emerging Researchers Conference , taking place this year between 9 and 10 September and the annual ECER 2013 conference , taking place this year between 10 to 13 September). The conferences take place this year in Istanbul, Turkey.

Karen Phillips, Editorial Director SAGE, said of the sponsorship, "The EERA conference is a pivotal conference for helping to contribute to both education policy and practice.We are delighted to be supporting an early career researcher in attending this conference and aiding EERA in facilitating these conversations."

Professor Lejf Moors, President of EERA, further commented, "We are delighted that SAGE has once again offered their SAGE Conference bursary to an early career researcher. This bursary enables both us and SAGE to support promising young scholars in educational research, enabling them to attend our annual conference, to start networking with professional s within the sector, and to provide them with content to further stimulate their academic work and career".

The winner of this year's travel grant, Ana Ins Renta Davids, selected by EERA for her paper on "Transfer of learning: Effects of Motivation, Training Coherence and Workplace Features" said of the award win, "I am gratified to know that members of EERA and SAGE considered my work to be good enough for such recognition. The beginnings of any research career are difficult in terms of budgets and job stability, so this bursary is of great help in enabling me to continue to be an active part of the research community, supporting my early career development and exposure."

###

For more information about the conference please visit http://www.eera-ecer.de/ecer2013/

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com

EERA (European Educational Research Association) was founded in June 1994 as a result of discussions among many national educational research associations and several major research institutes throughout Europe which identified the need for a European association to foster the exchange of ideas amongst European researchers, promote collaboration in research, improve research quality and offer independent advice on educational research to European policy-makers, administrators and practitioners.

EERA was founded as a learned society specifically for the purposes of:

  • Encouraging collaboration amongst educational researchers in Europe
  • Promoting communication between educational researchers and international governmental organizations such as the EU, Council of Europe, OECD and UNESCO
  • Improving communication amongst educational research associations and institutes within Europe
  • Disseminating the findings of educational research and highlighting their contribution to policy and practice

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/sp-saw052813.php

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Cannes to close with a nail-biter ending

CANNES, France (AP) ? Steven Spielberg will close out the 66th Cannes Film Festival with a nail-biter of a finale.

The festival's top award, the prestigious Palme d'Or, will be handed out to one of 20 films in competition Sunday night in Cannes. Unlike in recent years, there's no obvious frontrunner for the Palme. Spielberg is presiding over the nine-member jury that will choose the winner of one of cinema's highest honors.

Critical polls have ranked Abdellatif Kechiche's lesbian coming-of-age tale "Blue is the Warmest Color" the highest. Prognosticators have also predicted Asghar Farhadi's domestic drama "The Past" will take the Palme. And others believe it will go to the Coen brothers' 1960s folk tale, "Inside Llewyn Davis." (The Coens won the Palme in 1991 for "Barton Fink.")

Other films are in the mix, too, including Paolo Sorrentino's rollicking Roman party "The Great Beauty," James Gray's 1920s Ellis Island melodrama "The Immigrant," and Kore-eda Hirokazu's switched-at-birth drama "Like Father, Like Son."

But it will ultimately come down to what Spielberg and his jury ? which includes Nicole Kidman and Ang Lee ? think was the top film at Cannes.

Last year, Michael Haneke's "Amour" was the far-and-away favorite, and went on to win best foreign language film at the Oscars and earn the rare best picture nomination for a non-English film. In 2011, Terrence Malick's cosmic rumination "The Tree of Life" won the Palme d'Or.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-close-nail-biter-ending-133057201.html

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Senator: Fire commanders allowing sex assault

WASHINGTON (AP) ? From Congress to the White House, pressure is mounting to hold military commanders accountable for the rising number of sexual assaults in the armed services.

"This needs to end," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday. "When a victim comes forward, they should have an advocate to walk them through the military justice system, and commanders who allow this to continue to allow this to flourish quite frankly should be fired."

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the military's future includes both men and women in leadership, and cultural changes are needed "when it comes to the command structure" to make sexual assault and harassment "unacceptable, intolerable; and those who engage in it should pay a price."

But the U.S. military's top officer, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, is urging Congress to exercise caution as it crafts legislation to combat the growing epidemic of sexual assaults in the armed forces.

The extent of the assaults came to light when the Pentagon released a report earlier this month estimating that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year and that thousands of victims are unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and assistance programs. That figure is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011.

Retired Gen. John Allen, who left the Marines in February after 19 months commanding allied forces in Afghanistan, encouraged commanders to address the issue and tell subordinates exactly what was expected.

"Commanders can't be ambiguous about this. We can't not talk about that," Allen said Sunday. "Commanders (have) got to stand in front of their units and tell the people what they expect. Because silence isn't good enough. This is an opportunity to lead, and we should be seizing it."

Several recent arrests have added to the military's embarrassment. A soldier at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was charged with secretly photographing women, including in a bathroom. The Air Force officer who led the service's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit was arrested on charges of groping a woman. And the manager of the Army's sexual assault response program at Fort Campbell, Ky., was relieved of his post after his arrest in a domestic dispute with his ex-wife.

The comments from Durbin, Graham and Allen capped a week of attempts to address the Pentagon's findings. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel raised the issue separately in graduation speeches at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

"Those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime; they threaten the trust and discipline that makes our military strong," Obama said Friday. "That's why we have to be determined to stop these crimes, because they've got no place in the greatest military on Earth."

Hagel called on the graduating West Point cadets Saturday to use their leadership to address the epidemic.

"This scourge must be stamped out," Hagel said. "We are all accountable and responsible for ensuring that this happens. We cannot fail the Army or America. We cannot fail each other, and we cannot fail the men and women that we lead."

Members of a House panel on Wednesday approved legislation that would strip commanding officers of their longstanding authority to unilaterally change or dismiss court-martial convictions in rape and assault cases. The bill would also require that service members found guilty of sexual offenses be dismissed or dishonorably discharged. The legislation will be folded into a broader defense policy bill that the full House will consider in the coming weeks.

Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged the severity of the problem. He said recently that military leaders are losing the confidence of the women who serve that they can come up with solutions.

But Dempsey said in a May 20 letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee that any legislative remedies must maintain the commander's role in the military justice process. Cutting them out or limiting them too severely would undercut their authority to enforce discipline and execute their duties, he wrote.

"Good order and discipline is essential to military efficiency and effectiveness," Dempsey said in the letter to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "Removing commanders from the military justice process sends the message to everyone in the military that there is a lack of faith in the officer corps and the serving commanders. Conveyance of a message that commanders cannot be trusted will only serve to undermine good order and discipline."

Dempsey and the chiefs of the military services are scheduled to testify June 4 before the Senate Armed Services Committee on legislation to prevent sexual assaults.

Sharon Disher graduated from the Naval Academy in 1980 in the first class that included women. She said Friday she's disappointed the military is still grappling with sexual assault issues but applauded the president for raising the subject.

"The more we talk about it, the more we're going to do something about it, and that's the thing we never did," she said. "I guess we've just got to keep the conversation going until we fix the problem."

Durbin and Graham spoke on "Fox News Sunday." Allen appeared on ABC's "This Week."

___

Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.

___

Follow Michele Salcedo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/michelesalcedo

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senator-fire-commanders-allowing-sex-assault-151700317.html

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