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Sunday, March 31, 2013
The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Old Portents & Hand-Out Hijinx
Okla. HIV Scare: 'Who Can You Trust?'
Among the 7,000 patients who may have been exposed to HIV and Hepatitis in an Oklahoma dentist's office are children, as their nervous parents wait to get them tested and grapple with how to explain the public health nightmare.
Deann Zavala took her four children to Dr. Wayne Scott Harrington, an oral surgeon who practices in Tulsa and Owasso. She said her youngest daughter had a tooth extracted.
"How do you look at her and be like, 'You could have AIDS?'" she told ABC News Radio.
The state dental board is offering free testing to Harrington's patients after a 17-count complaint revealed his allegedly poor sterilization practices could have put them at risk for contracting HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B.
Patients received a letter from the Tulsa Health Department on Friday informing them of an inquiry into Harrington's practice and advising them to get screened.
Zavala, who said she trusted Harrington to care for her four children, was left shaken.
"If you can't trust a doctor and a dentist and ... the people that are supposed to do right by you ... who can you trust?" she said.
RELATED: Rogue Dentist May Have Exposed 7,000 Patients to HIV, Hepatitis
The dentist's alleged practices came to light after a patient who had no known risk factors other than receiving dental treatment in Harrington's office, tested positive for both HIV and hepatitis C.
"I could not believe it because I had just been there Feb. 28," Linda Grimm, a patient of Harrington's, told ABC News' Tulsa affiliate KTUL. "My worry now is my health issues that may develop."
ABC/KOCO,Oklahoma Board of Dentistry
Dentist Allegedly Exposed Patients to HIV, Hepatitis Watch Video Baby Born With HIV 'Functionally Cured,' Doctors Say Watch Video Thousands of Oklahoma Dental Patients Possibly Infected With HIV, Hepatitis Watch VideoAfter hearing about the infected patient on March 15, the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry conducted a surprise investigation of the dentist's practice on March 18, allegedly finding numerous sterilization and cross-contamination issues.
Investigators found two different sets of instruments -- one set for patients known to have infectious diseases, and another set for patients who were not believed to have infectious diseases.
Investigators also found that the autoclave, the machine designed to sterilize dental instruments meant to be tested each month, hadn't been checked in six years.
"We were just physically kind of sick," said Susan Rodgers, president of the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry. "The instruments that came out of the autoclave were horrible. I wouldn't let my nephews play with them out in the dirt." '
Harrington, who has been practicing for more than 30 years, may face criminal charges. The dentist voluntarily surrendered his state dental license and other permits, and a formal hearing before the dentistry board is scheduled for April 19.
RELATED: Oklahoma Dentist Could Face Criminal Charges
ABC News' Phoenix affiliate KNXV went to a home believed to be owned by Harrington in Carefree, Ariz. on Friday. A man believed to be Harrington declined to comment, and slammed the door.
Harrington and his staff told investigators that he treated a "high population of known infectious disease carrier patients," according to a 17-count complaint filed by the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry.
Drug cabinets were unlocked and unsupervised during the day, and Harrington did not keep an inventory log of drugs, some of which were controlled substances, according to the complaint. One drug vial expired in 1993.
"During the inspections, Dr. Harrington referred to his staff regarding all sterilization and drug procedures in his office," the complaint read. "He advised, 'They take care of that. I don't.'"
Harrington allegedly re-used needles, contaminating drugs with potentially harmful bacteria and trace amounts of other drugs, according to the complaint. Although patient-specific drug records indicated that they were using morphine in 2012, no morphine had been ordered since 2009.
Rodgers called the incident a "perfect storm."
ABC News' Sydney Lupkin and Katie Moisse contributed to this report.
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Three dozen indicted in Atlanta cheating scandal
ATLANTA (AP) ? Juwanna Guffie was sitting in her fifth-grade classroom taking a standardized test when, authorities say, the teacher came around offering information and asking the students to rewrite their answers. Juwanna rejected the help.
"I don't want your answers, I want to take my own test," Juwanna told her teacher, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.
On Friday, Juwanna ? now 14 ? watched as Fulton County prosecutors announced that a grand jury had indicted the Atlanta Public Schools' ex-superintendent and nearly three dozen other former administrators, teachers, principals and other educators of charges arising from a standardized test cheating scandal that rocked the system.
Former Superintendent Beverly Hall faces charges including conspiracy, making false statements and theft because prosecutors said some of the bonuses she received were tied to falsified scores. Hall retired just days before the findings of a state probe were released in mid-2011. A nationally known educator who was named Superintendent of the Year in 2009, Hall has long denied knowing about the cheating or ordering it.
During a news conference Friday, Howard highlighted the case of Juwanna and another student, saying they demonstrated "the plight of many children" in the Atlanta school system.
Their stories were among many that investigators heard in hundreds of interviews with school administrators, staff, parents and students during a 21-month-long investigation.
According to Howard, Juwanna said that when she declined her teacher's offer, the teacher responded that she was just trying to help her students. Her class ended up getting some of the highest scores in the school and won a trophy for their work. Juwanna felt guilty but didn't tell anyone about her class' cheating because she was afraid of retaliation and feared her teacher would lose her job.
She eventually told her sister and later told the district attorney's investigators. Still confident in her ability to take a test on her own, Juwanna got the highest reading score on a standardized test this year.
The other student cited by Howard was a third-grader who failed a benchmark exam and received the worst score in her reading class in 2006. The girl was held back, yet when she took a separate assessment test not long afterward, she passed with flying colors.
Howard said the girl's mother, Justina Collins, knew something was wrong, but was told by school officials that the child simply was a good test-taker. The girl is now in ninth grade, reading at a fifth-grade level.
"I have a 15-year-old now who is behind in achieving her goal of becoming what she wants to be when she graduates. It's been hard trying to help her catch up," Collins said at the news conference.
The allegations date back to 2005. In addition to Hall, 34 other former school system employees were indicted. Four were high-level administrators, six were principals, two were assistant principals, six were testing coordinators and 14 were teachers. A school improvement specialist and a school secretary were also indicted.
Howard didn't directly answer a question about whether prosecutors believe Hall led the conspiracy.
"What we're saying is, is that without her, this conspiracy could not have taken place, particularly in the degree that it took place. Because as we know, this took place in 58 of the Atlanta Public Schools. And it would not have taken place if her actions had not made that possible," the prosecutor said.
Richard Deane, an attorney for Hall, told The New York Times that Hall continues to deny the charges and expects to be vindicated. Deane said the defense was making arrangements for bond.
"We note that as far as has been disclosed, despite the thousands of interviews that were reportedly done by the governor's investigators and others, not a single person reported that Dr. Hall participated in or directed them to cheat on the C.R.C.T.," he said later in a statement provided to the Times.
The tests were the key measure the state used to determine whether it met the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools with good test scores get extra federal dollars to spend in the classroom or on teacher bonuses.
It wasn't immediately clear how much bonus money Hall received. Howard did not say and the amount wasn't mentioned in the indictment.
"Those results were caused by cheating. ... And the money that she received, we are alleging that money was ill-gotten," Howard said.
A 2011 state investigation found cheating by nearly 180 educators in 44 Atlanta schools. Educators gave answers to students or changed answers on tests after they were turned in, investigators said. Teachers who tried to report it faced retaliation, creating a culture of "fear and intimidation," the investigation found.
State schools Superintendent John Barge said last year he believed the state's new accountability system would remove the pressure to cheat on standardized tests because it won't be the sole way the state determines student growth. The pressure was part of what some educators in the system blamed for their cheating.
A former top official in the New York City school system who later headed the Newark, N.J. system for three years, Hall served as Atlanta's superintendent for more than a decade, which is rare for an urban schools chief. She was named Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators in 2009 and credited with raising student test scores and graduation rates, particularly among the district's poor and minority students. But the award quickly lost its luster as her district became mired in the scandal.
In a video message to schools staff before she retired in the summer of 2011, Hall warned that the state investigation launched by former Gov. Sonny Perdue would likely reveal "alarming" behavior.
"It's become increasingly clear that a segment of our staff chose to violate the trust that was placed in them," Hall said. "There is simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this district for unethical conduct. I am confident that aggressive, swift action will be taken against anyone who believed so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option."
The cheating came to light after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some scores were statistically improbable.
Most of the 178 educators named in the special investigators' report in 2011 resigned, retired, did not have their contracts renewed or appealed their dismissals and lost. Twenty-one educators have been reinstated and three await hearings to appeal their dismissals, said Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Stephen Alford.
APS Superintendent Erroll Davis said the district, which has about 50,000 students, is now focused on nurturing an ethical environment, providing quality education and supporting the employees who were not implicated.
"I know that our children will succeed when the adults around them work hard, work together, and do so with integrity," he said in a statement.
The Georgia Professional Standards Commission is responsible for licensing teachers and has been going through the complaints against teachers, said commission executive secretary Kelly Henson. Of the 159 cases the commission has reviewed, 44 resulted in license revocations, 100 got two-year suspensions and nine were suspended for less than two years, Henson said. No action was taken against six of the educators.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-dozen-indicted-atlanta-cheating-scandal-214241949.html
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Professional Business Marketing ? Grow Your Business By Getting ...
Even small business owners who don?t consider themselves innovative or creative can have great ideas and tremendous payoffs simply by being more observant ? willing to test and measure what works and what doesn?t.
In my experience, what really works when generating new ideas in business is sticking with basics, then combining or recombining existing ?assets? or resources into new products, services or niches.
Here are five suggestions to get you thinking, moving and looking in different directions for ideas you can apply to your own business:
1. Get inspired by other industries.
A great example of this is used-car retailer Carmax, a company that originally started as a retail initiative from executives at the electronics firm Circuit City. From lessons learned in researching the frustrations buyers faced when shopping for cars, the Carmax team developed a concept that reinvented the used-car industry.?Take note that the team didn?t go after the highly competitive new-car category, but instead focused on used cars, an industry infamous for poor service, shoddy salesmanship and questionable quality.
Your own takeaways from other industries needn?t be so grandiose. For example, guaranteeing your work in an industry that doesn?t or ?can?t? offer guarantees can be a game-changer. My own company adopted a guarantee a few years ago that allows us to offer a value proposition that is very competitive in our market.
Related:?What Your Business Can Learn From March Madness
2. Mine your customers? needs.
This seems obvious, but I?m always amazed how many companies fail to ask for ? or more importantly, listen to ? customer opinions on services, selection, or added value they?re looking for someone to deliver.
Complaints are also a good start. They can signal buyer frustrations that in most cases can be relieved with better service, delivery and communication.
Questions are also good prompts. ?Do you sell this?? or ?Can you do this for me?? may lead you to discover a way to offer new goods or services that cost very little to implement but generate revenues with significant margins and returns on investments.
3. Listen to your team.
Your team is another source for great ideas, especially when it comes to productivity and efficiency in process or operations. If you?re willing to ask the questions and listen, you?ll probably find two or three great ideas you can implement with little disruption to your current operations.
This, by the way, is applicable in any business. A great example of this is Subway?s game-changing ?$5 Footlong? promotion, originally developed and tested by a Florida franchisee in 2004.
Related:?3 Ingredients for Building Effective Teams
4. Hit the books.?
Many owners discount the value of seminars, books and workshops, but there?s no better way to get ideas than to learn from those who have ?been there? and ?done that? before you.?
We live in a rare age where more information is readily available than at any other time in history. Take advantage of our capital stock of accumulated knowledge and information. You?ll start to see connections between categories and industries you never realized before.
5. Find yourself a trusted advisor.
Getting an outside perspective can add value and dimension to you operation, especially if the person working with you is growth-oriented and has a proven track record of success.
A good advisor can typically look at your operations and give you a number of strategically sound suggestions you may not have thought of before, whether it?s re-purposing idle stock or capacity for new uses or markets, re-pricing your product or service lines, repositioning or updating your brand, or adopting new processes for going after new or existing customers.
The best ideas arrive when we?re willing to see and do new things. Start noticing what areas of your business you?d like to innovate or turn around. Not every fix may be a good fit for you, but the more you explore and test, the faster you will find innovations with a potential to be transformational for your company.
Related:?3 Ways to Stay Connected to Your Growing Business
Source: http://lowbrowse.org/grow-your-business-by-getting-back-to-basics.html
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The Android-Powered OUYA Game Console Gets a Release Date ...
Designed by Yves B?har and funded via Kickstarter, the Android-powered OUYA game console is on its way to retail. Initially seeking a mere $950,000 USD in order for production to get underway, OUYA ultimately garnered nearly $9 million USD in pledged support from heavyweight backers like Square Enix, OnLive, Namco Bandai, iHeartRadio, XBMC, VEVO, Indies, Robotoki, Plex and many more. Founder and CEO Julie Uhrman and OUYA announced an ?official? launch date of June 4, 2013 while kickstarter backers will themselves receive units as early as this month ? thus allowing for a beta test of sorts and subsequent tweaks to any potential issues prior to June?s widespread release. Clocking in at about the size of a Rubik?s Cube and boasting an nVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-Core CPU with 1080p HD output and 1GB of RAM ? not to mention a bevy of free, downloadable games ? OUYA can be pre-ordered now via Amazon for just $99 USD.
Source: http://hypebeast.com/2013/3/the-android-powered-ouya-game-console-gets-a-release-date
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Veterinarians try artificial insemination on Giant Panda at National Zoo
Mei Xiang, the Giant Panda at the National Zoo was artificially inseminated Saturday after she and the zoo's male giant panda failed to breed naturally.?
Giant panda Mei Xiang looks over a stone wall in her enclosure at the Smithsonian's National Zoo during a spring snow in Washington, D.C. March 25.
Connor Mallon/Smithsonian's National Zoo/Reuters
EnlargeVeterinarians at the?National Zoo?artificially inseminated the zoo's female giant panda?Mei Xiang?on Saturday after natural breeding failed to occur, zoo keepers said.
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Mei Xiang?was put under general anesthesia and inseminated with a combination of fresh semen and frozen semen collected from the zoo's male giant panda Tian Tian. The scientists said they planned a second insemination later on Saturday.
Veterinarians detected a rise in hormone levels on Tuesday, indicating?Mei Xiang?was ready to breed but said "no competent breeding" between the panda pair had occurred.
"We are hopeful that our breeding efforts will be successful this year, and we're encouraged by all the behaviors and hormonal data we've seen so far," said?Dave Wildt, head of the?Center for Species Survival?at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.
Scientists will continue to monitor?Mei Xiang's hormone levels in the coming months and conduct ultrasounds to determine whether she is pregnant. A pregnancy lasts between 95 and 160 days, they said.
Mei Xiang?has given birth to two cubs. One died a week after its birth last year. The other was born in 2005 and is now at the?China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda?in Wolong.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
UN approves 'targeted offensive operations' against Congo rebels
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Thursday approved the creation of a unique new combat force that is to carry out "targeted offensive operations" to neutralize armed groups in conflict-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 15-member Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution establishing the so-called intervention brigade - the first time the United Nations has created such a unit within a traditional peacekeeping force - as part of the existing 20,000-strong U.N. force in Congo, the U.N. Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO.
It says MONUSCO will "carry out targeted offensive operations through the Intervention Brigade ... either unilaterally or jointly with the (Congo army), in a robust highly mobile and versatile manner ... to prevent expansion of all armed groups, neutralize these groups, and to disarm them."
The resolution also states that the intervention brigade will be made up of three infantry battalions, one artillery and one special force and reconnaissance company headquartered in Goma under the direct command of the MONUSCO force commander.
Diplomats say South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi are the most likely candidates to supply the troops for the intervention unit. Mozambique had also been tipped to be part of the new unit but it will likely not be part of the new brigade.
Council diplomats say that the African Union has pushing for the establishment of a "peace enforcement" wing of MONUSCO, even though the U.N. peacekeeping department, a number of council members and human rights groups have expressed concerns about how the force will work in reality.
The resolution also says that a Congolese rapid reaction force should be created with the intention of taking over the work of the intervention brigade once it completes its job.
Until now MONUSCO had a traditional peacekeeping mandate to protect civilians and support operations by the Congolese army in Congo - a country the size of Western Europe.
The resolution makes clear that the intervention brigade will be established "on an exceptional basis, and without creating a precedent or any prejudice to the agreed principles of peacekeeping."
CONCERNS
After the vote, Guatemalan Ambassador Gert Rosenthal voiced concerns to the council about the creation of the intervention brigade, saying it should be entirely separate from MONUSCO.
The United States had also previously raised concerns that there was not a clear enough distinction between the job of the intervention brigade and the existing peacekeepers, council diplomats said.
The United Nations has avoided peace enforcement since its involvement in Somalia in the 1990s. That involvement withered after the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident in which militia fighters shot down two U.S. military helicopters over Mogadishu.
Separately, the United Nations has given Congo four more days to begin prosecuting soldiers accused of raping scores of women in an eastern town or it will halt support to two battalions.
The United Nations said 126 women were raped in Minova in November after Congolese troops fled to the town as so-called M23 rebels briefly captured the nearby provincial capital of Goma.
The U.N. special envoy to Congo, Roger Meece, informed Congolese authorities in a March 25 letter that they had seven days to take action.
"The letter informed the Congolese Government of the termination of all MONUSCO support to the two battalions involved in the Minova rapes, should no appropriate action be taken immediately, within 7 days," a spokesman for the U.N. department of peacekeeping said.
The United Nations had previously told Congo that it would end support to two battalions linked to the Minova rapes if it did not try the soldiers involved.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said in December that alleged human rights abuses were committed in and around Minova between November 20 and November 30, including the 126 rapes and the killing of two civilians. Nesirky said at the time that two soldiers were charged with rape, while seven more were charged with looting.
Peacekeepers have been stretched thin by the M23 rebellion in the resource-rich east of Congo. That is why the council created the special intervention force, which one senior council diplomat has said will be able to "search and destroy" the M23 rebels and other armed groups in the country.
M23 began taking parts of eastern Congo early last year, accusing the government of failing to honor a 2009 peace deal. That deal ended a previous rebellion and led to the rebels' integration into the army, but they have since deserted.
M23, which a U.N. expert panel said last year was backed by Rwanda, has struggled with infighting in recent weeks.
Rwanda, which is on the Security Council until the end of 2014, voted for the creation of the intervention force. Rwandan Ambassador Eugene Richard Gasana told the council Kigali was committed to peace in neighboring Congo.
African leaders signed a U.N.-mediated accord late last month aimed at ending two decades of conflict in eastern Congo and paving the way for the creation of the intervention force.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-approves-combat-force-neutralize-congo-rebels-082506535.html
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North Korea turns up volume by silencing final military hotline
What happens now?
South Korean army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday. North Korea said Wednesday that it had cut off a key military hotline with South Korea that allows cross border travel to a jointly run industrial complex in the North.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
EnlargeNorth Korea's edgy game of war talk continued?at ever higher volumes today with the announcement that it will cut off the last military hotline with South Korea.
Skip to next paragraph Robert MarquandStaff writer
Over the past three decades, Robert Marquand has reported on a wide variety of subjects for?The Christian Science Monitor, including American education reform,?the wars in the Balkans, the Supreme Court, South Asian politics, and the oft-cited "rise of China." In the past 15 years he has served as the Monitor's bureau chief in Paris, Beijing, and New Delhi.?
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?Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep North-South military communications,? said the regime, according to the Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.
The severed line of communication comes as the North, under young and new President Kim Jong-un, has said it is moving into its highest military alert status and has threatened to target Hawaii and Guam with rockets, after last month conducting its third nuclear test.?
The escalating rhetoric has brought a new agreement between US and South Korean officials that would dictate military action should the North cross the border, shell islands, or harm shipping in the kind of low-level actions Pyongyang has attempted in recent years.?
US military officials called the North Korean statement ?bellicose.??Many have expressed doubt that North Korea?s rockets have the range to reach US bases in Guam and Hawaii, but a few, including the?editor of Jane?s Defense Weekly, estimated they could reach US military bases in Japan, according to USA Today.?
Yesterday the small, poor state that is anchored by devotion to the Kim family dynasty, and is now nearly entirely dependent on China for basic sustenance but has also devoted considerable resources to its military, repeated a longstanding threat to turn Seoul into a ?sea of fire,? among other similarly colorful threats.
Earlier this year, the North said it would no longer answer?a hotline at the Demilitarized Zone. The hotline that the country is now threatening to shut down linked the two Koreas at the?Kaesong industrial park, created in the North during the warming winds of unification in the 2000s. The economic complex has long been a symbol of the potential for North-South cooperation.?
The New York Times today notes the North?s threat on the hotline follows comments from?Park Geun-hye,?the newly elected president of South Korea, that North Korea needed to end its nuclear threats in order to gain better traction with the South:
?If North Korea provokes or does things that harm peace, we must make sure that it gets nothing but will pay the price, while if it keeps its promises, the South should do the same,? she said during a briefing from her government?s top diplomats and North Korea policy-makers. ?Without rushing and in the same way we would lay one brick after another, we must develop South-North relations step by step, based on trust, and create sustainable peace.?
Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, a veteran Korea watcher once based in Seoul, tells The Christian Science Monitor that Pyongyang's main grievance appears to be recent UN sanctions targeted at the North.
Mr. Snyder argues that the meaning of the North?s sudden blustery behavior will only become clearer ?once the question of the consolidation of [Kim Jong-un?s] power becomes clearer.?
Agence France-Presse today said that a significant meeting among party elites and power brokers in the closed world of Pyongyang is about to take place.
"They will discuss how to handle the nuclear issue, inter-Korean relations and North Korea's long-standing demand for a peace treaty with the United States," Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told AFP.
Comparisons between the new Kim and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the patriarch of North Korea, are flowing freely, since there is a resemblance between the two. But Snyder notes that too little is yet known of the young Kim, who took over from his father Kim Jong-il last year, and that his youth is not necessarily a plus in such a high-stakes game.
?Right now the song is the same, but the volume is a lot louder. We don?t know his risk tolerance yet ? does he understand the game he is playing??
The US-South Korea military agreement follows a recent scrapping by the North of the historic legal armistice that effectively ended the Korean war in the 1950s. It came on the anniversary of the infamous sinking of the Choenan Navy vessel in 2010, which resulted in the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors, something that has had powerful emotional resonance in the South. (The Choenan was raised from the ocean floor, and forensics by the South claim the vessel was torpedoed by the North, something the North denies.)?
USA Today quotes an Asia watcher who feels the key to dealing with Pyongyang runs through Beijing:
US diplomats should talk to their Chinese counterparts and say, "Your ally North Korea is acting in a very belligerent and destabilizing way," said [Richard] Bush, who heads the Brookings Institution Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. "They're acting in ways that are contrary to the principles you [China] have laid out. The situation is somewhat dangerous. You need to restrain your ally."
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Syrian TV: Mortar shells hit Damascus University
FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 file photo, a Syrian rebel checks an anti-aircraft weapon, in Maaret Misreen, near Idlib, Syria. America's Arab allies have dramatically stepped up weapon supplies to Syrian rebels in preparation for a push on the capital Damascus, the main stronghold of President Bashar Assad, officials and Western military experts say, with one official saying airlifts to neighboring Jordan and Turkey have doubled the past month. The U.S. and other Western governments are involved to channel the flow toward more secular fighters, they say. The influx appears to be boosting a rebel drive to seize supply routes from the border with Jordan to Damascus. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 file photo, a Syrian rebel checks an anti-aircraft weapon, in Maaret Misreen, near Idlib, Syria. America's Arab allies have dramatically stepped up weapon supplies to Syrian rebels in preparation for a push on the capital Damascus, the main stronghold of President Bashar Assad, officials and Western military experts say, with one official saying airlifts to neighboring Jordan and Turkey have doubled the past month. The U.S. and other Western governments are involved to channel the flow toward more secular fighters, they say. The influx appears to be boosting a rebel drive to seize supply routes from the border with Jordan to Damascus. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday Feb. 26, 2013 file photo, Free Syrian Army fighters take their positions as they observe the Syrian army forces base of Wadi al-Deif, at the front line of Maaret al-Numan town, in Idlib province, Syria. America's Arab allies have dramatically stepped up weapon supplies to Syrian rebels in preparation for a push on the capital Damascus, the main stronghold of President Bashar Assad, officials and Western military experts say, with one official saying airlifts to neighboring Jordan and Turkey have doubled the past month. The U.S. and other Western governments are involved to channel the flow toward more secular fighters, they say. The influx appears to be boosting a rebel drive to seize supply routes from the border with Jordan to Damascus. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian state-run TV says several mortar shells have struck the Damascus University campus, causing multiple casualties among students.
The report says the mortar rounds hit the university's architecture department in the central Baramkeh district on Thursday.
Mortar shells have become a daily occurrence in Damascus as Syria's rebels are increasingly using mortars.
The latest attack on the capital comes two days after rebels barraged Damascus with mortar shells that killed at least three people and wounded dozens in one of the most intensive attacks on the seat of President Bashar Assad's power.
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Insect pests more plentiful in hotter parts of city than in cooler areas
Mar. 27, 2013 ? Higher temperatures in cities can be a key driver of insect pest outbreaks on trees in urban areas, according to research published March 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Emily Meineke from North Carolina State University and colleagues from other institutions.
The researchers found that a scale insect that exclusively feeds on oak trees was 13 times more abundant on willow oaks in the hottest parts of the city of Raleigh, North Carolina than in cooler areas of the same city, even when other factors, like natural enemies that would kill the insects, were similar in both areas. In a second experiment, they found scale insects collected from trees in hot areas had higher survival rates in hot greenhouses than in cool ones. However, insects originally from cooler urban areas remained low in number in both hot and cool greenhouses. The researchers found no differences in the rates of reproduction of insects in any of these groups. Thus, they suggest that the differences in abundance may be a result of differences in survival rather than a higher reproductive capacity.
Urbanization of an area changes the species that dwell in it. Previous studies have analyzed these effects in terms of loss of resources or changes to habitat, but this is the first research to focus on the effects of "heat islands" created in cities. Meineke explains that, "Urban warming can lead to higher insect pest abundance, a result of pest acclimation or adaptation to higher temperatures."
The study concludes that since current urban warming is similar in magnitude to the higher temperatures predicted by global warming in the next fifty years, their results may indicate potential changes in pest abundance as natural forests also grow warmer.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.
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Journal Reference:
- Emily K. Meineke, Robert R. Dunn, Joseph O. Sexton, Steven D. Frank. Urban Warming Drives Insect Pest Abundance on Street Trees. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e59687 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059687
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/-xa0IYLVu9Y/130327190544.htm
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Alchemist Accelerator's Second Class Highlights Enterprise Startups In Flight Data Tech, Learning Management And More
Here at the Citrix corporate headquarters for the presentations by the second class of the Alchemist Accelerator group. It's quite an eclectic class for the B2B accelerator.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/kxIPoTw2vak/
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Sandy Hook probe: What a search of Adam Lanza's home revealed
Court documents made public Thursday list items police found ? guns, ammunition, books on mental conditions ? at the home of Sandy Hook school shooter Adam Lanza. They reinforce an image of a troubled young man and a family struggling to help him.
The home of Nancy Lanza and her son Adam in Newtown, Conn., Thursday.
Michelle McLoughlin/Reuters
EnlargePolice search warrants for the home of Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman Adam Lanza, made public 3-1/2 months after the tragedy, reveal a family struggling with what to do about a troubled young man who clipped newspaper articles about school shootings and played hour upon hour of violent video games. The documents also show a family with a high degree of enthusiasm for guns and ammunition.
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State Police had requested the search warrants within hours of the shootings at the school in Newtown, Conn. The courts released them Thursday, with some parts blacked out. The documents also include a list of some items officials seized from the Lanza home after conducting the search.
Though the picture remains partly obscured, the documents give a more complete view of Lanza and his mother, Nancy Lanza, whom he apparently killed before going on the Dec. 14 shooting spree that resulted in the slaughter of 20 6- and 7-year-olds and six school employees.
One indication of how much guns appeared to mean to 20-year-old Adam: One item discovered at the Lanza home was a holiday card with a check from his mother to buy another weapon.
The state's investigation into the shooting is ongoing, particularly into Lanza's motive. Here's some of what police found at the home, as well as information gleaned from the search warrant.
? An arsenal of ammunition and guns at the residence. Some of the items were in a gun safe: a Planters can loaded with .22 caliber and .45 caliber bullets, eight boxes of Winchester Windcat .22 caliber bullets (50 rounds per box), a box of 30 Magtech rounds, shotgun shells, and boxes of rounds for rifles.
? Books that may indicate what the Lanza family was going through, including, ?Look Me in the Eye ? My Life with Asberger's? and "Born on a Blue Day ? Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant.?
? A New York Times newspaper clipping of an article about a shooting at a university in northern Illinois.
? A redacted portion of an FBI interview with someone almost immediately after the shooting. The individual, whose name is blacked out, tells the FBI that Adam ?rarely leaves his home,? is an avid gamer who plays "Call of Duty," among other games, and went to Sandy Hook Elementary School. "The school was his 'life,' ? the interviewee told the FBI.
The information was released the same day that President Obama, in a bid to breathe new life into his legislative proposals to tighten gun laws, held an emotional press event with parents who had lost children to gun violence.
?We have moms on this stage whose children were killed as recently as?35 days ago,? said Mr. Obama, at a White House event. ?I don't think any of us who are parents can hear their stories and not think about our own daughters and our own sons and our own grandchildren.?
Also on Thursday, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Mayor Thomas Menino, organized gun-control events at 120 different venues. The group also released a new television ad, which debuted in the Hartford, Conn., market and features families who lost their children at Sandy Hook.?The state legislature in Hartford is currently debating gun-control legislation.
Included in the list of items law enforcement officials found at the Lanza home is a "certificate" from the National Rifle Association. On Thursday, the NRA denied that either Adam Lanza or Nancy Lanza were members. ?Reporting to the contrary is reckless, false and defamatory,? said the NRA in a statement on its website. NRA certificates are issued, by the NRA or other gun-training outfits, to people who complete education and training courses on guns.
Experts contacted after the release of the search warrants say the documents point to a troubled young man who was collecting weapons, learning to shoot guns, and reading up on previous mass shootings. The information ?is consistent with a certain percentage of mass shooters. It becomes a bit of a competition: people trying to make their mark in the world somehow,? says Ronald Schouten, director of the Law & Psychiatry Service at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Who?s who in the Prop 8 gay marriage case
Prop. 8 Plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier speak at the Human Rights Campaign Los Angeles Gala Dinner. (Gabriel??
On Tuesday morning, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the first gay marriage case to ever reach the court, Hollingsworth v. Perry.
The legal battle over California's gay marriage ban began more than four years ago, when a majority of voters backed ballot Proposition 8, which rescinded the right to marry from same-sex couples.
Since then, Prop 8 has been struck down by both a district and federal appeals court as discriminatory, and along the way lost its main legal defender: the government of California. After the district court decision, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to appeal the case further, leaving a coalition of Prop 8 supporters led by a a former state senator to take up the cause.
The Supreme Court could use the case to issue a broad ruling guaranteeing the right to marriage to same-sex couples--or to shut down gay rights advocates' claims of wrongful exclusion from the institution of marriage altogether. The court also may issue a ruling in between these extremes.
As both sides prepare to argue their cause, we take a look at some of the major faces behind the high-profile case.
The plaintiffs:
Two unmarried same-sex couples in California were handpicked by the well-financed campaign against Prop 8 to challenge the gay marriage ban as discriminatory.
Kris Perry, whose last name is featured in the Hollingsworth v Perry case name, and Sandy Stier married in 2004 in San Francisco, but the state Supreme Court invalidated that marriage only six months later.
They have been together for 13 years, and raised four sons together from previous relationships. Perry, 48, told the Associated Press that ?we've lived our lives in this hurry-up-and-wait, pins-and-needles way,? since the case began four years ago.
Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo of Burbank, Calif., also were chosen as plaintiffs after gay rights advocates noticed a YouTube video Katami helped make to respond to gay marriage critics called, ?Weathering the Storm.? A lawyer involved in the case told The Washington Post that they approached ?several couples? about whether they would be interested in in being plaintiffs in the high profile challenge to Prop 8, warning them that their lives could face extra scrutiny if they accepted.
"We honestly think of ourselves as kind of regular, everyday guys," Katami told USA Today. "We're not asking for a special right."
Katami and Zarrillo have been together for 12 years, and hope to get married and have children if their case is successful.
Their attorneys:
The two same-sex couples are represented by Theodore Olson, the former Solicitor General under George W. Bush, and David Boies, a high profile Democratic lawyer. The pair faced off against each other in front of the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, but are now teaming up to try to convince the justices that Prop 8 and gay marriage bans in general are discriminatory. The attorneys have made the broader argument that the government has no reason to exclude people from marriage based on sexual orientation. Olson has 20 minutes to argue their case on Tuesday.
The Prop 8 defenders:
Dennis Hollingsworth, a former Republican state senator from the Temecula area, and other supporters of Proposition 8 took responsibility for defending the ban on gay marriage after the California attorney general declined to appeal the district court?s decision striking it down.
Hollingsworth is a leader of Protect Marriage, a group of supporters of Prop 8 who raise money for its legal defense now that the state has bowed out. The group says it is defending the millions of Californians who voted for Prop 8 from having their voices overruled by the courts.
Their attorney:
Charles Cooper, a former Justice Department official under President Ronald Reagan, has been the lead attorney for Proposition 8 since it was first challenged by gay marriage supporters. Hollingsworth reportedly chose Cooper because he thought his skills as an attorney were on par with Olson?s. Cooper has stressed in his briefs that the Supreme Court should not interfere with states? wishes on gay marriage and argues that the government has legitimate reasons to discourage same-sex couples from marrying. Cooper will have 30 minutes to make his arguments and answer the justices' questions on Tuesday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/prop-8-gay-marriage-case-085022722--election.html
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Unity to bring Qualcomm optimization to its game engine
Unity already supports development for (nearly) all mobile platforms and now the game engine maker's working on an optimized version for those with Qualcomm processors -- ie, quite a chunk of them. On the heels of freshly announced competition, it announced that it's collaborating with the chip-maker to release a new version of its multi-platform engine "in the coming months" to speed up Unity-authored games for Android and Windows Phone 8 devices powered by most flavors of that CPU. So far there are over 1.5 million registered developers building games for around 770 products that pack the necessary Snapdragon / Adreno combo, according to Unity -- meaning there's a decent chance you'll soon see some extra oomph in one or another of the games you play, whether you're in Redmond or Mountain View's camps. Hit the PR after the jump for more.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Mobile
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/xgmXw1tX-_U/
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Mother, aunt of Georgia baby murder suspect arrested, charged with lying
Glynn County Sheriff's Office
Katrina Latrelle Elkins, 33, and Karimah Aisha Elkins, 36, were arrested Tuesday morning.
By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News
The mother and aunt of a teenager charged in the death of a Georgia baby were arrested Tuesday for allegedly lying to investigators, police said.
The arrests came the morning after 17-year-old De'Marquise Elkins'?first court appearance?on murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago. Santiago was in a stroller on a walk with his mother, Sherry West, in the coastal town of Brunswick on Thursday when the shooting occurred. West was also shot.
Karima Aisha Elkins, 36, and Katrina Latrelle Elkins, 33, were booked on charges of making false statements to police and concealing facts or providing fraudulent documents in matters of government, Glynn County police said.
According to?FirstCoastNews.com in Georgia, Karima Elkins is De'Marquise's mother; Katrina Elkins is his aunt. The station said the pair was arrested at 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Karima Elkins posted bond of $1,104 at about 8 a.m., but Katrina Elkins was held in custody for a probation violation hold in neighboring Henry County.
De?Marquise Elkins and 15-year-old Dominique Lang, are both charged as adults in the fatal shooting, which West told police started when the two suspects demanded money. When West told them she didn't have any cash on her, she said the older teen, Elkins, pointed a handgun at her.
Glynn County Police Department
De'Marquise Elkins, age 17.
"He says, 'Well, I'm gonna kill your baby,'" West?said last week. "I put my arms over my baby and he shoves me. And then he shot my baby right in the head."
West, the only eyewitness to the shooting, also received a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg, police said.
Elkins' aunt told FirstCoastNews.com over the weekend that she was with her nephew on the morning of the shooting, which happened at about 9 a.m.
"Marquise was with me. At 8 o'clock that morning. At 8:15, De'Marquise, was at my residence," she told the station, adding that she was with him until about 11:30 a.m. "At 12 o'clock, Marquise was signed into adult education. He was not at that crime scene. How can he be two places at one time? ?That's not true. There ain't no way."
A few hours later, she said, she picked him up. "It was a normal day. He wasn't nervous or nothing."
West says she picked the gunman out of a photo lineup of 24 mugshots, and insists Elkins is the killer.
Before Elkins' first court appearance on Monday, public defender Kevin Gough, who represents him, told The Associated Press,?"My client is absolutely, 1,000-percent not guilty."
Elkins did not enter a plea.
Lang, the other suspect, was in eighth grade before his arrest, The Associated Press reported. His grandmother told?WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Fla., that Lang doesn't even know Elkins and could not have been a part of a killing of a child.
"My grandbaby ain't like that. He a baby, but he's not a baby killer," Verdell Hunter told WJXT-TV. "So they need to get that straight. He's not a baby killer."
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Winning ticket for $338M Powerball sold in NJ
Baiju Amin hands lottery tickets to a customer at Union Food Store in Totowa, N.J. on Sunday, March 24, 2013. The lone winning ticket for a $338.3 million Powerball drawing was sold in New Jersey. Details on where and when the winning ticket was purchased and other related information were not disclosed Sunday by New Jersey Lottery officials, who also would not say if anyone claiming to hold the ticket had contacted them as of Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/The Record (Bergen County NJ), Tyson Trish)
Baiju Amin hands lottery tickets to a customer at Union Food Store in Totowa, N.J. on Sunday, March 24, 2013. The lone winning ticket for a $338.3 million Powerball drawing was sold in New Jersey. Details on where and when the winning ticket was purchased and other related information were not disclosed Sunday by New Jersey Lottery officials, who also would not say if anyone claiming to hold the ticket had contacted them as of Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/The Record (Bergen County NJ), Tyson Trish)
FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 file photo, a Powerball form and purchased ticket are on the counter at the Jayhawk Food Mart in Lawrence, Kan. A single ticket sold in New Jersey matched all six numbers in the Saturday night, March 23, 2013 drawing for the $338.3 million Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? The lottery fantasies of mansions, luxury boats and unlimited travel are over for most people. But for the owner ? or owners ? of the lone winning ticket sold in New Jersey for Powerball's $338.3 million drawing they're just beginning.
New Jersey Lottery officials will release information on the ticket at a news conference Monday morning at the lottery's headquarters in Lawrenceville.
Details on where and when Saturday's winning ticket was purchased and other related information were not disclosed Sunday by officials, who also would not say if anyone claiming to hold the ticket had contacted them.
Lottery officials say it was the fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. The numbers drawn were 17, 29, 31, 52, 53 and Powerball 31. A lump sum payout would be $221 million.
Retailers in New Jersey said the growing jackpot had spurred a big boost in ticket sales in recent days, and many people were willing to stand in long lines to get their tickets.
"We are hoping that we sold it here because that would be a blessing for one of our customers in these tough times," said a worker at a Camden area convenience store.
When Teddy Jackson heard Sunday morning that the winning Powerball ticket was sold in New Jersey, the Toms River resident combed through his 40 tickets and hoped for the best.
About 20 minutes later, after checking each ticket at least a couple times, Jackson realized he would have to go work on Monday.
"There were a few where I had one or two numbers, but that was it," the 45-year-old electrician said Sunday.
"I hope whoever wins does good things with the money," Jackson said. "It's OK to buy yourself a few material things and take some trips, but $338 million can do a lot of good things. Help the people who lost their jobs, the ones who got destroyed by (Superstorm) Sandy, the folks dealing with serious medical problems ... don't become one of these stupid people who get a windfall and blow it all."
Lottery officials said 13 tickets worth $1 million apiece ? matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball ? were sold in Arizona, Florida (2), Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina and Virginia.
Powerball said on its website that the grand prize jackpot has now been reset to an estimated $40 million or a lump sum cash amount estimated at $25 million for Wednesday's next drawing.
No one had won the Powerball jackpot since early February, when Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket and elected a cash lump sum for his $217 million jackpot.
The largest Powerball jackpot ever came in at $587.5 million in November. The winning numbers were picked on two different tickets ? one by a couple in Missouri and the other by an Arizona man ? and the jackpot was split.
Nebraska still holds the record for the largest Powerball jackpot won on a single ticket ? $365 million. That jackpot was won by eight workers at a Lincoln meatpacking plant in February 2006.
Powerball is played in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The chance of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is about 1 in 175 million.
Powerball said on its website that the game is played every Wednesday and Saturday night when five white balls are drawn from a drum of 59 balls and one red ball is picked from a drum with 35 red balls. It added that winners of the Powerball jackpot can elect to be paid out over 29 years at a percentage set by the game's rules ? or in a lump sum cash payment.
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Facebook Says VoIP Calling Will Be Added To Its Messenger iOS App In The U.K. Today
Facebook is slowly beefing up the capabilities of its Messenger app as it moves to combat the rise of free VoIP apps like Whatsapp, Viber and Line. Today it's taking another baby step by expanding VoIP calling to U.K. users of its iOS app, following its initial test of the feature in Canada in January, which was soon followed by a U.S. rollout.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RYzrbTmGK5A/
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KC fights violent crime with carrot-stick program
In this Wednesday, March 6, 2013 photo, Capt. Joe McHale, left, and University of Missouri-Kansas City professor Andrew Fox look through charts in the Jackson County Prosecutors office in Kansas City, Mo. Kansas City leaders think a new law enforcement approach that offers incentives for convicted and would-be criminals to change their ways can help lower a local murder rate five times higher than the national average. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
In this Wednesday, March 6, 2013 photo, Capt. Joe McHale, left, and University of Missouri-Kansas City professor Andrew Fox look through charts in the Jackson County Prosecutors office in Kansas City, Mo. Kansas City leaders think a new law enforcement approach that offers incentives for convicted and would-be criminals to change their ways can help lower a local murder rate five times higher than the national average. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
In this Wednesday, March 6, 2013 photo, Capt. Joe McHale, left, and University of Missouri-Kansas City professor Andrew Fox look through charts in the Jackson County Prosecutors office in Kansas City, Mo. Kansas City leaders think a new law enforcement approach that offers incentives for convicted and would-be criminals to change their ways can help lower a local murder rate five times higher than the national average. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Despite decades of initiatives to stem violent crime, Kansas City residents continue killing each other at a rate five times higher than the national average, prompting officials in this Midwest city best known for barbecue and jazz to turn to an alternative law enforcement approach that offers incentives to convicted and would-be criminals to change their ways.
Zero-tolerance policies haven't worked, police say, and there's little evidence that public awareness rituals or anti-violence coalitions have had any impact on an annual murder count that has been below 100 only nine times in the last 44 years.
But local leaders think their newest assault on violent crime ? patterned after a "focused deterrence" model created in Boston in the mid-1990s and refined over the years by cities like Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Los Angeles ? might finally change things.
"It's the first time I've felt this kind of energy when doing something like this," said Darryl Forte, Kansas City's first black police chief and a lifelong resident of the city. "I'm confident this will have an impact."
Kansas City's effort, dubbed the "No Violence Alliance," or NoVA, was created more than a year ago, soon after Forte's promotion to chief. The U.S. attorney's office, county prosecutor and law enforcement authorities are on board, as are the University of Missouri-Kansas City and various social services agencies.
Focused deterrence is a carrot-and-stick approach in which members of a criminal network ? even those on the fringes who haven't yet committed serious crimes ? are identified and sought out by police who want them to know their actions can have unintended consequences for others in their cliques.
Sometime soon, about 80 criminals on probation or parole will be brought together in groups of 20 to meet with prosecutors and law enforcement agents who will explain the ramifications of the new program.
Those who want to pull away from criminal affiliations will be offered social services to help them do so. Prosecutors will be sending a strong message to the others that authorities know who they are, what they've done, and that they will be held accountable if anyone in their network commits a violent crime.
"For those on the bubble, a lot of them want to do what's right," Forte said.
The focused deterrence approach has been successful in other cities, according to a study released early last year. Researchers with the Campbell Collaboration, an international research network, reported that nine of 10 Ceasefire-like programs they studied experienced "strong and statistically significant crime reductions associated with the approach."
A U.S. Justice Department evaluation of Boston's Ceasefire program found a "63 percent reduction in the monthly count of youth homicides, a 25 percent reduction in the monthly count of citywide gun assault incidents, a 32 percent reduction in the monthly count of citywide shots-fired calls for service, and a 44 percent reduction in the monthly count of youth gun assaults in selected high-risk districts."
David Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York who helped develop Boston's program, said interest in focused deterrence has risen sharply in recent years in cities that have found typical arrest-and-detain approaches aren't working.
"It wasn't that long ago when you couldn't get anyone to take this stuff seriously at all," he said.
NoVA flexed its muscles in January when Kansas City police focused on a network of about 360 people, including homicide suspects, known drug dealers, prostitutes and juveniles, all linked to each other through a computer model created by assistant UMKC criminal justice professor Andrew Fox.
Using information officers obtained from people on the streets, during traffic stops, at crime scenes or during what police call "knock and talks" in which an officer makes a cold call to a person's home solely to make contact, Fox is connecting the dots between hard-core criminals, those who associate with them, and even those who associate with the associates.
Using that data, NoVA manager Capt. Joe McHale said officers knocked on about 100 doors over a day-and-a-half, with priority given to those with outstanding warrants. Many of the contacts were made simply to let suspected criminals know they're being watched, he said.
"The whole purpose of that demonstration was to show what our capabilities are," said McHale, a former Police Department SWAT team leader.
The effort resulted in the arrests of 17 people, including suspects in at least two homicides, and cleared 49 outstanding warrants.
Last year, 108 people were victims of homicide in Kansas City, six fewer than the 114 murdered in 2011 when the city's homicide rate of 23 per 100,000 residents was nearly five times higher than the national rate of 4.7 per 100,000.
As of March 20, there were 21 homicides in the city this year, three less than at this time a year ago.
Pat Clarke, an outreach liaison for the police department, said it's critical that NoVA's message is communicated by people who have suffered through the same problems plaguing other inner-city residents.
A frequent speaker at Kansas City schools, Clarke said his own experiences selling drugs and committing other crimes as a young man decades ago ? in addition to his stories about being raised by an abusively strict mother and a father who was rarely around ? give him credibility with young people who are going through the same things.
"When they finish school, there ain't no dinner," he said. "That's why a lot of kids are out selling drugs. They are trying to take care of the other four, other five kids. A lot of them are out there because they feel like they have to be. I know because I've been there."
He said many young offenders will benefit from the social services aspect of NoVA, while the program will have little impact on others.
"Some of these kids you're just not going to save," he said. "They've got it in their mind they're gonna commit murder, they're going to commit a crime, and that's that."
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Nature versus nurture: Better looking birds have healthier babies, finds study of great tits
Mar. 25, 2013 ? A female great tits' (Parus major) appearance is shown to signal healthy attributes in offspring in a paper in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology. The black stripe across her breast and white patches on her cheeks correlate to a chick's weight at two weeks and immune strength respectively -- though the former seems to signal a genetic benefit and the latter can affect an 'adopted' chick's health, suggesting nurture is involved.
Taking two mothers with different patterning, and swapping their chicks, researchers from Palacky University in the Czech Republic were able to investigate the growth and health of the infants and the 'ornamentation' of their mothers. They compared the offspring's weight, size and immune strength and found a correlation between the chick's weight at two weeks and the size of black breast stripe on the genetic mother.
The immaculateness of both genetic and foster mother's white cheek patch was related to the strength of chick's immune response suggesting that this was due to both nurture and genetics. In contrast the body size of a chick was related only to the body size of its genetic mother and not to ornamentation at all.
In these socially monogamous birds both the males and females are brightly coloured, however neither the cheek patch nor the stripe in males affected the health of the babies.
Talking about how the ornaments can have evolved to signal reproductive fitness, Vladim?r Reme? and Beata Matysiokov? who performed this study explained, "Bigger healthier babies are important to the reproductive success of individuals, because they are more likely to survive to adulthood -- so it is useful for birds to be able to work out which potential mates will produce the best babies. Maintaining bright colouration uses up resources which could otherwise be invested in reproduction or self-maintenance -- consequently the evolution and maintenance of ornamentation in female great tits is probably due to direct selection by males."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Vladim?r Reme? and Beata Matysiokov?. More ornamented females produce higher-quality offspring in a socially monogamous bird: an experimental study in the great tit (Parus major). Frontiers in Zoology, 2013; (in press) [link]
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/yQoEjLTFYTk/130324201814.htm
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