Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/267130445?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday 30 November 2012
Thursday 29 November 2012
Strange Objects in the Sky: Bullet-Shaped UFOs, Florida Clouds -- Secret Sydney Planes, or UFOs? [PHOTO, VIDEO]
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/408702/20121127/ufo-sighting-cloud-bullet-sydney-video-photo.htm
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Supersymmetry Fails Test, Forcing Physics to Seek New Ideas
With the Large Hadron Collider unable to find the particles that the theory says must exist, the field of particle physics is back to its "nightmare scenario"
LHC TUNNEL: No hints of ?new physics? beyond the predictions of the Standard Model have turned up in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile circular tunnel at CERN Laboratory in Switzerland that slams protons together at high energies. Image: CERN
From Simons Science News
?
As a young theorist in Moscow in 1982, Mikhail Shifman became enthralled with an elegant new theory called supersymmetry that attempted to incorporate the known elementary particles into a more complete inventory of the universe.
?My papers from that time really radiate enthusiasm,? said Shifman, now a 63-year-old professor at the University of Minnesota. Over the decades, he and thousands of other physicists developed the supersymmetry hypothesis, confident that experiments would confirm it. ?But nature apparently doesn?t want it,? he said. ?At least not in its original simple form.?
With the world?s largest supercollider unable to find any of the particles the theory says must exist, Shifman is joining a growing chorus of researchers urging their peers to change course.
In an essay posted last month on the physics website arXiv.org, Shifman called on his colleagues to abandon the path of ?developing contrived baroque-like aesthetically unappealing modifications? of supersymmetry to get around the fact that more straightforward versions of the theory have failed experimental tests. The time has come, he wrote, to ?start thinking and developing new ideas.?
But there is little to build on. So far, no hints of "new physics" beyond the Standard Model ? the accepted set of equations describing the known elementary particles ? have shown up in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, operated by the European research laboratory CERN outside Geneva, or anywhere else. (The recently discovered Higgs boson was predicted by the Standard Model.) The latest round of proton-smashing experiments, presented earlier this month at the Hadron Collider Physics conference in Kyoto, Japan, ruled out another broad class of supersymmetry models, as well as other theories of ?new physics,? by finding nothing unexpected in the rates of several particle decays.
?Of course, it is disappointing,? Shifman said. ?We?re not gods. We?re not prophets. In the absence of some guidance from experimental data, how do you guess something about nature??
Younger particle physicists now face a tough choice: follow the decades-long trail their mentors blazed, adopting evermore contrived versions of supersymmetry, or strike out on their own, without guidance from any intriguing new data.
"It's a difficult question that most of us are trying not to answer yet," said Adam Falkowski, a theoretical particle physicist from the University of Paris-South in Orsay, France, who is currently working at CERN. In a blog post about the recent experimental results, Falkowski joked that it was time to start applying for jobs in neuroscience.
?There?s no way you can really call it encouraging,? said Stephen Martin, a high-energy particle physicist at Northern Illinois University who works on supersymmetry, or SUSY for short. ?I?m certainly not someone who believes SUSY has to be right; I just can?t think of anything better.?
Supersymmetry has dominated the particle physics landscape for decades, to the exclusion of all but a few alternative theories of physics beyond the Standard Model.
?It's hard to overstate just how much particle physicists of the past 20 to 30 years have invested in SUSY as a hypothesis, so the failure of the idea is going to have major implications for the field,? said Peter Woit, a particle theorist and mathematician at Columbia University.
The theory is alluring for three primary reasons: It predicts the existence of particles that could constitute "dark matter," an invisible substance that permeates the outskirts of galaxies. It unifies three of the fundamental forces at high energies. And ? by far the biggest motivation for studying supersymmetry ? it solves a conundrum in physics known as the hierarchy problem.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=8221e36eaaf567e8bc7c48796f5d1002
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Internet Marketing Rules Blog: Direct Mail And Facebook For ...
If you?re looking to improve the amount of brand new customers that come into your business each and everyday, you will have to find new ways to promote yourself online, and do a wide variety of marketing strategies on a daily basis. If you want immediate sales, you have to be a traffic generation master.
Now getting traffic to your website doesn?t have to be hard. All you have to do is follow a few simple techniques that will allow you to have the most success as possible in your internet business. I?ve been doing this for a long time now, and I can honestly tell you that if you want to get more new sales, you have to drive more and more traffic to your website on a consistent basis.
In today?s lesson, I want to share with you some of the traffic methods that are working for me now, and how you can use these same techniques to work in your online business also. These strategies are very simple, and once you read them, you will see that it?s very easy to make money online simply and easily.
Here?s the first traffic method that you can use in your online business today:
1) Direct mail to existing customers
Once you develop a large group of customers, there will come a point in time where the traffic from your existing will bring you 80% of your total business profits. Because of this, you will want to do anything that you can to sell more and more of your products to these people - over and over again.
One of the best ways to increase your conversion results and traffic count is with direct mail. You see if you just rely on email marketing to contact your existing customers, you?re missing out on a great bunch of potential profits that you could be getting in your online business. Direct mail has been proven to increase sales of online business owners, and the same can be true of you if you decide to put it into use in your business.
Here?s another way to get traffic to your website:
2) Facebook
Facebook is the number 2 ranked website on the internet (in terms of website traffic), and they are right behind Google (Youtube is number 3 by the way). The more ?likes? and members that you can get to your Facebook page, and the more you interact with them, the more people will start to visit your site repeatedly to learn more free information or even to buy some of your products.
I think all businesses can benefit from Facebook. You can build alot of relationships with your Facebook members, and can create special deals, campaigns, and activities that will allow you to get more website traffic, and boost your sales? all for free. But the first step is getting those Facebook ?likes? and getting people to respond to you.
These 2 ways to get traffic to your website are both very good ways to make your business a success, and to start earning the money that you are looking for in your business. Hopefully you will put them into use.
Good luck with earning the money that you are looking for in your online business.
For more internet marketing secrets, simply visit the website below:
http://www.internetmarketing-rules.com/internetmarketing.html
Source: http://blog.internetmarketing-rules.com/2012/11/direct-mail-and-facebook-for-website.html
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Wednesday 28 November 2012
New behavioral strategies may help patients learn to better control chronic diseases
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? One of the most important health problems in the United States is the failure of patients with chronic diseases to take their medications and do all that is necessary to control their illnesses.
In a study published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, UCLA researchers and their colleagues suggest that physicians take a serious look at tools and strategies used in behavioral economics and social psychology to help motivate their patients to assert better control over chronic diseases. Breaking large goals into smaller, more manageable parts, for example, may help patients better manage diseases such as diabetes, the researchers say.
Diagnosing diseases and discovering effective treatments aren't the only challenges facing health care professionals in the United States, said Braden Mogler, the paper's lead author and a third-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
"One of the big challenges is simply finding ways to help the many patients with chronic diseases understand why treatment is important and how to follow it," Mogler said. "Many doctors often lack effective tools to encourage patients in these ways. There is a lot of research from the social sciences on human behavior and encouraging individual change, and this paper shows how that research can potentially be applied to doctor-patient interactions."
In the study, the researchers highlight the shortcomings of some approaches frequently used to try to get individuals to control their diseases, such as scaring patients, overwhelming them with technical information, and focusing on consequences that are far in the future.
They then identify several tools used by psychologists and behavioral economists that can change behavior but which have not been employed often in medical care, and suggest that research on such alternative approaches is an urgent need. These approaches include:
- Helping patients form very specific plans to achieve their health goals -- for example, identifying the time when they will take their medicines, having them determine what they will do if their prescriptions run out and they don't have a doctor's appointment, and giving them a place to record whether they took the medicines.
- Breaking big goals into smaller tasks that get patients to their ultimate goal step-by-step -- useful for goals like extreme weight loss, adhering to medication regimens and checking blood sugar every day, or exercising several times a week.
- Using cash payments to patients as a motivator to get them on track but supplementing that with strategies that will increase their desire to stay healthy and live longer.
If studies show these techniques make a difference, they might improve health and decrease health care costs, said co-author Dr. Martin Shapiro, chief of the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Helping patients get their chronic diseases under control sometimes requires changing medications but mostly comes down to helping patients understand why treatment is important and how they can follow it in their busy lives," Shapiro said. "There is a lot of exciting research on how we can help people change to achieve their goals in other fields, and we believe translating those ideas to health care is an important next step in medical research."
The study's authors found that some of these techniques are being used to a limited degree in health care settings -- helping patients quit smoking by settling on an exact quit date, for instance, has proven more effective than speaking in general terms about quitting soon. Still, many other potentially effective techniques have not been studied in medical settings, and the authors stress the need for clinical trials to evaluate their effectiveness.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/ZquQMOoOR3w/121127094317.htm
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Safe Online Shopping Tips | Odurinde Finance & Business Blog
Safe Online Shopping Tips
Online shopping has become a convenient way to shop. Everything at just a click away! And who would say no? But with convenience, comes the threat of safety. When safety is ensured, you can peacefully shop online. But how do you know you are completely safe inside the web? Here are a few tips that will ensure a safe shopping via internet.
The very first thing is to go for a verified or a certified seller on the internet. You need to know the merchant you are buying from. Often choosing a retailer online goes by the thumb rule of reputation. The e-retailers are rated based on their service, timing and delivery. Many websites and news sources will help you with choosing a proper seller.
The next important thing after having chosen a merchant, you need to check what kind of information the merchant site is collecting about you. Check for the privacy policy and other trusted seals & signs on the website. Once the verification of the certificate is done, you also make sure to make note of the physical address of the seller.
Always use a credit card as the risk of identity theft is lesser in case of a credit card than in the debit card and ensure the security is high like SSL when the payment gateway is entered whereby you can ensure the data of your credit card is transmitted through a secured path. One needs to directly pay through the seller?s website and not by entering through a coupon where in unauthorized people can gain access to your personal information.
Apart from the above one needs to be aware of the vital details about the product, the delivery, guarantees and warrantees that are covered, shipping charges and other policies with respect to the goods returns. Many of the sites come with cash on delivery option these days so that you are to pay when the delivery is actually happening. Apart from it, please do go through the reviews given by the users who have already used the same portal for their purchases.
Do follow the payment procedure carefully and never enter any details or give away any information on an unencrypted page. Last but not the least, if you are ordering something from a shared computer say from a Browsing Centre, lab pc or a work pc be sure to clear the cookies or the history of before you log out.
After having done with the shopping, do not forget to take a copy of the receipt or the bill that is generated online either in electronic mode or a hard copy.
Caveat emptor which is nothing but buyer be aware! Of course, being smartest of the lot is the need of the hour. Have a complete knowledge of the terms and conditions before shopping online. It is better to be safe than spammed or scammed. In case you fall a victim to such scams, immediately refer to the nearest cyber-crime cell or internet crime compliant cell for actions.
from your own site.
Source: http://www.odurinde.co.uk/safe-online-shopping-tips/
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Carbondale man says he aims to recall Basalt mayor
A Carbondale man has informed Basalt town officials that he will launch an attempt to recall Mayor Jacque Whitsitt for reasons he hasn't specified yet.
David Schoenberger contacted Basalt town clerk Pam Schilling via email Nov. 19 seeking advice on the legal requirements of a recall petition.
?As we discussed earlier (Nov. 19) my group is looking to initiate and follow through in obtaining the necessary valid signatures to recall our current Basalt Mayor,? Schoenberger wrote to Schilling. He wrote that his group wanted to present the recall petition to the Town Council at its Tuesday night meeting. That didn't happen.
Schoenberger's email to Schilling doesn't state reasons why he believes Whitsitt should be recalled from office. Schoenberger declined numerous requests for an interview by The Aspen Times. It couldn't be determined whether other people are working on the effort.
Whitsitt was elected mayor in April. State statute prohibits a recall effort against elected officials during their first six months in office.
Whitsitt said Tuesday that she was aware that Schoenberger had indicated to town officials that he was initiating the recall process.
?I thought it was weird mostly because I have not heard from anybody that was dissatisfied in my leadership, my platform and the governance of Basalt ? at least not to my face,? she said.
Whitsitt said Schoenberger has not contacted her with any complaints. ?I sure would like to know what his issues are,? she said.
The only substantial controversy involving the Basalt town government recently was the parting of ways with police chief Roderick O'Connor. He resigned voluntarily on Monday, according to a joint statement that O'Connor and the town government released. Scores of supporters have written letters to the editors of the Aspen newspapers in support of O'Connor. In addition, organizers of a petition expressing support for O'Connor said they gathered hundreds of signatures.
Schoenberger has no apparent connection to the petition drive showing support for O'Connor.
Schoenberger's email sought help from Schilling on ?certain important details? of the recall petition. He said his group will write the petition but wants Schilling or someone with authority to ?sign off on the document's validity so we all know that it will be valid when completed.?
The email is a public document obtained by The Aspen Times, as was Schilling's response. She told Schoenberger that nothing in the Basalt Town Code or Town Charter addresses recall elections, so state statutes apply.
?I cannot advise you on the development of a petition or any other aspect of a recall,? Schilling wrote. ?As the election official, I must remain impartial in the recall process. If you are uncomfortable with the process, it may be best to obtain the advice of an attorney.?
Schilling informed Schoenberger that he would need to gather 190 signatures to force a recall election. That is 25 percent of the votes cast in the mayoral election in April, when Whitsitt topped Glenn Rappaport 418 to 341.
Schoenberger is no stranger to politics in the upper and middle Roaring Fork Valley. He was in the thick of a battle with the Pitkin County commissioners to develop W/J Ranch in the late 1990s. Schoenberger was involved in an effort to try to recall Mick Ireland, then a county commissioner. That particular attempt failed because the recall petition wasn't properly prepared.
More recently, Schoenberger was at odds with the town of Basalt in 2010 over the license for a medical marijuana business. He was a partner in a business called Basalt Alternative Medicine. The town staff initially rejected the application for the business on various grounds. The Town Council approved a compromise that allowed Basalt Alternative Medicine temporary permission to operate in the space that previously housed a different dispensary. That dispute took place before Whitsitt's election as mayor.
Schoenberger is a former resident of Basalt, but he now lives in Carbondale. While it's not impossible for a resident of one town to get involved in the politics of another, it is unusual. Only residents of Basalt who are qualified to vote would be allowed to sign the recall petition, if one is circulated.
Whitsitt said it is too soon for her to be concerned about the recall petition process or an election. ?This whole thing is not very realistic to me at this point given that there's no petition that's known and no reasons that are known,? she said.
scondon@aspentimes.com
Source: http://www.postindependent.com/ARTICLE/20121128/VALLEYNEWS/121129882/1074/RSS
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Tuesday 27 November 2012
'Middle ground' of sea-level change: 'Intra-seasonal' variability impacts forecasting and ecosystems
ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? The effects of storm surge and sea-level rise have become topics of everyday conversation in the days and weeks following Hurricane Sandy's catastrophic landfall along the mid-Atlantic coast.
Ongoing research by professor John Brubaker of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is throwing light on another, less-familiar component of sea-level variability -- the "intra-seasonal" changes that occupy the middle ground between rapid, storm-related surges in sea level and the long-term increase in sea level due to global climate change.
"These are cases when the water is just 'running high,'" says Brubaker, "but not from an obvious direct cause of a storm. It isn't necessarily windy, it's just an elevated water level without a clear cause."
Intra-seasonal variability -- which Brubaker says takes place on time-scales of 10 to 90 days and can add or detract a foot or more from the predicted tide -- is likely due to shifts in oceanic currents and large-scale movements of water masses along the coast. It often goes unacknowledged in discussions of sea-level trends, but can play an important role in water-level forecasts, coastal activities, and ecosystem health.
"Intra-seasonal variability has significant impacts," says Brubaker. "For instance, being aware of these non-tidal, non-storm anomalies is very important for forecasting. If you're experiencing a relative high during the approach of a storm, with water levels already elevated by a foot or more above predicted tides, that could make a big difference in terms of storm surge and coastal flooding." Indeed, graduate student Carissa Wilkerson, whom Brubaker co-advises, is studying how intra-seasonal anomalies combine with storm surge as part of her Master's research at VIMS.
Brubaker, who teams with researchers John Boon and David Forrest on the Tidewatch Forecast system at VIMS, says the Tidewatch forecasts account for at least some part of intra-seasonal variability by using as their starting point a moving average of the most recent 30 days of sea-level measurements. Other forecasts use mean sea level, a tidal datum that NOAA defines as the average measured over the years 1983-2001.
Brubaker notes that intra-seasonal variability can also impact marine life, most notably underwater grasses. Dr. JJ Orth, head of the Seagrass Monitoring and Restoration Program at VIMS, raised concern during a period of unusually high water in May 2011, noting that "with water levels this high above predicted, it means less light for seagrasses, and with light declining exponentially with depth it could mean added stress to plants at the deeper edges of the grass beds."
Periods of unusually low water could also affect seagrasses and other marine life, says Brubaker, but the impacts are likely to be less significant because the long-term rise in sea level tempers their effects.
The Summer 2009 Event
Brubaker's interest in intra-seasonal variability was piqued during summer 2009 -- when a prolonged period of high water affected the U.S. East Coast -- and again during the shorter period of unusually high water during May 2011, which he experienced first-hand while teaching a course at VIMS' Eastern Shore Lab in the seaside village of Wachapreague.
"The 2009 event got a lot of attention -- eventually," says Brubaker. "It wasn't dramatic and it took quite a while to gain much attention, but at some point NOAA posted a notice about it in response to questions and concerns from the public, who had noticed week after week of abnormally high tides."
Three NOAA scientists, Bill Sweet, Chris Zervas, and Stephen Gill, subsequently issued a technical report to describe and explain the 2009 event. They note that water levels of 0.6 to 2.0 feet above predicted tides persisted for up to 6 weeks in areas from North Carolina to New Jersey, with slightly lower elevations experienced as far south as Florida and as far north as Maine.
If intra-seasonal changes in sea level aren't generated by regular tides, storm surge, seasonal heating or cooling, or long-term sea-level rise, what is their cause? Sweet, Zervas, and Gill attributed the 2009 event to the confluence of two factors -- persistent winds from the northeast measured far offshore, and a slow-down in the Gulf Stream.
Brubaker says the northeasterly winds contributed to high water along the coast due to "Ekman transport," a phenomenon in which surface waters begin to move to the right of the prevailing wind because of the Coriolis force. "The Ekman transport associated with these winds would push the water towards the shore," says Brubaker. Persistent offshore winds from the northeast were also measured during May 2011.
The slow-down in the Gulf Stream contributed to 2009's persistently high water levels through the re-positioning of what oceanographers call a "geostrophic slope." "The Gulf Stream creates a geostrophic slope that's related to the speed of the current," says Brubaker. "If the current speeds up, the slope gets steeper, and if the current slows down, the slope levels off. We on the East Coast are on the low side of the geostrophic slope, so as the Gulf Stream slowed down during the summer of 2009, the slope flattened out and water levels rose."
Preliminary Results
Brubaker's interest in intra-seasonal variability focuses on using tidal records from the last 15 years along the U.S. East Coast to better understand the frequency, magnitude, and duration of high-water events in the region. He's also interested in how these events propagate spatially through coastal water bodies like Chesapeake Bay.
"Our results are very preliminary at this point," says Brubaker, "but there are a few things that stand out. One is that July and August are typically relatively quiet in terms of intra-seasonal high-water events. Another is that there is a lot of year-to-year variability. There seem to be more active years in terms of these events and then multi-year periods of relative quiet."
He says the data also suggest an intriguing correlation between the high-water events and the occurrence of El Ni?o in the Pacific, as measured by the "Oceanic Ni?o Index," a commonly used measure of El Ni?o-La Ni?a activity.
"You can't help but notice," he says, "that the spikes in the duration of high-water events seem to correspond to the very strong El Ni?o event in 1997-98, and again in 2009-10, which is the next biggest El Ni?o peak. There's obviously not a direct correlation through the years, but El Ni?o is known for its teleconnections and effects that happen at great distances. So it's not unreasonable to think that there might be some connection there. It's something we continue to keep track of."
Intra-seasonal Variability in Chesapeake Bay
Brubaker's study of how high-water pulses propagate through Chesapeake Bay has also produced some interesting preliminary results. "The magnitude of the peaks in non-tidal water level are pretty consistent across the lower, middle, and upper parts of the Bay," says Brubaker. "But their impacts can be quite different because of the different tidal ranges in those areas."
Brubaker notes that tides in Chesapeake Bay are driven by the ebb and flow of water at its mouth. "The tidal range is higher at the mouth of the Bay, drops to lower levels in the mid-Bay, and then picks up again in the upper Bay," says Brubaker. "Because of that, a coherent peak in water level during an intra-seasonal event will have the greatest impacts in the mid-Bay, where the tidal range is lowest."
Explaining further, Brubaker introduces the term "highest astronomical tide," or HAT, which is the highest high tide predicted for any particular tidal station. "Near the Bay mouth, at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, the HAT is 2.5 feet above mean sea level," says Brubaker, "but at Solomons Island in the mid-Bay, it's only 1.1 feet -- so there's a big difference. In 2009, water levels were elevated at all the tidal stations in Chesapeake Bay for about 6 weeks from June into July, but at the Bridge Tunnel they only exceeded HAT for 24 hours, a cumulative total of 2 days. At Solomons, by contrast, the water level exceeded HAT during almost every high tide. In fact, there was a period when the whole tidal cycle, from high through low tide, remained above HAT. All told, water levels at Solomons exceeded the HAT for a total of 15 days from June into July.
"The bottom line," says Brubaker, "is that the same rise in water level will have different impacts at different locations in the Bay. Even though the water rises uniformly, the relative impact will differ by location and the level of the highest astronomic tide. HAT is an important datum for ecosystems, and it should be an important datum for people too. City planners, waterfront property owners, and land-use decision makers shouldn't build too close to the HAT where they live. When they do, they're likely to get in trouble."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The original article was written by David Malmquist.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/6uavXhgthWI/121127111346.htm
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High-Tech 'Granny Pods' Provide Alternative Housing to Nursing ...
As seniors age, it becomes increasingly difficult for family members to care for them. Many opt to place their loved ones in a nursing home, but a new, more high-tech option is now available.
Informally known as ?granny pods,? the MEDCottage is a ?mobile, modular medical home? that is temporarily placed on a caregiver?s property to provide rehabilitation and extended care for seniors in need, according to its official website.
Described as a ?state-of-the-art hospital room,? the MEDCottage is equipped with sensors that alert caregivers to problems and medication reminders via computers, the website said. Using ?smart robotic features,? it can also remotely monitor vital signs, filter the air for contaminants and communicate with the outside world.
The 288-square-foot unit includes electricity and water connected directly to the homeowner?s utilities, a kitchen with a small refrigerator, microwave and medication dispenser, a bedroom and extra accommodation for visitors, and a handicapped-accessible bathroom.
How does the MEDCottage compare to a nursing home? Discuss in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Big Dubya
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/11/27/granny-pods-medcottage/
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Arkansas Fisheries Society Promotes Various 'Fish Culture' Interests ...
The Bear State, the Land of Opportunity and the Wonder State have all been past nicknames of Arkansas. The Arkansas Fisheries Society takes pride in Arkansas? current nickname of the Natural State as it aims to utilize the state?s natural water resources and wildlife for environmental purposes.
There are over 100 American Fisheries Society chapters nationwide, with a total of over 9,000 members.
?The mission of the American Fisheries Society is to improve the conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems by advancing fisheries and aquatic science and promoting the development of fisheries professionals,? said Dustin Lynch, Ph.D. student and AFS president. ?We promote interest in this through activities such as involving education, recreation and environmental cleanup.?
The national organization was founded in 1870 as the American Fish Culturists? Association, according to the national website. The dues are $20 for a student member and $80 for a regular member.
?The Arkansas Fisheries society at the UA currently has around 15 members,? Lynch said. ?People can join by sending a message to the AFS Facebook page with email contact info, and we will include them on our mailing list with time and place for the meetings.?
The UA chapter of AFS is also involved with the state chapter, and in September of 2013, the national AFS meeting will be held in Little Rock, Ark.
?This past spring, several members of the club attended the Arkansas chapter of the American Fisheries Society meeting,? said Brad Austin, biological sciences Ph.D. student. ?At the meeting, members learned about research in the fields of stream ecology and fisheries, providing an experience that members would not normally get in the classroom.?
The Natural State has hundreds of lakes to fish in, according to Arkansas.com, but many people are still foreign to the sport. AFS is mainly comprised of experienced members who are avid about having new members engage in their hobby. AFS envisions a future where worldwide fishery? production is optimized and sustained while structural and functional conditions of marine, freshwater and estuarine ecosystems are maintained, according to the national website.
?Currently, our membership consists mainly of undergraduate and graduate students within the department of biological sciences,? said Brad Austin, biological sciences Ph.D. student. ?So, one of our goals is to increase our membership, bringing in members from across campus.?
AFS has a division specifically for ?fish culture,? which was formed in 1974, according to the national AFS website. The local chapter in Arkansas also participates in promoting and engaging in fish culture.
?Fish culture refers to advancing cultivation technology of aquatic organisms for food, commercial and recreational fisheries enhancement, ornamental purposes, and conservation, emphasizing things like nutrition, economics, breeding, et cetera,? Lynch said.
The AFS national website has a tab for job postings so that members have the opportunity to apply for graduate assistant, research and full-time jobs within the organization?s many fields.
?This RSO has provided the ability to invite speakers in to talk about their work in the field of fisheries management,? Austin said. ?I think this is good for myself and other members because it makes us aware of the potential jobs that we are preparing ourselves for in the fields of fisheries management and stream ecology.?
The Arkansas Fisheries Society is close in friendship among its members, but it is also involved with other RSOs on campus.
The club assisted in putting on a booth with Springfest 2011 with the biological graduate student association, Austin said. ?With our booth, BGSA members talk about the impacts of improper waste disposal and not recycling our trash on the environment, while the AFS club focuses on the diversity of organisms that can be found in local streams, and in the past our booth has included live fish and bugs that kids can touch and/or hold.?
The RSO began in the spring of 2011, and since then it has focused on creating clearer lakes. Members participate in cleaning up the area around Lake Fayetteville every semester. ASF allows those who enjoy the outdoors of Arkansas to be in an organization that brings a diverse group of fish culture interests together.
?The types of people who join this organization are varied and have a wide variety of interests and reasons for joining,? Lynch said. ?A lot of people are primarily into sport fishing for recreation, and game fish species. I actually am not a fisherman myself and have more of an interest in smaller non-game stream fish, their ecology and conservation. It?s an organization that encompasses a lot of different interests.?
Source: http://www.uatrav.com/2012/11/26/arkansas-fisheries-society-promotes-various-fish-culture-interests/
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Monday 26 November 2012
Automotive History: The Case Of The Very Rare ... - Curbside Classic
The Great American Diesel Epoch (1975 ? 1986) included an astonishing array of cars and trucks that are starting to disappear from the streets as well as our memories. One of the rarer ones was Dodge?s second (more on the first below) foray into diesels in their light trucks, a dozen years before the big Cummins 6BT finally found a long-term home in them. In 1978, Dodge?s partnership with Mitsubishi resulted in the 6DR5 diesel being available in the 1978 (and possibly 1979) D100, D200, and (technically) the B-series van. Good luck finding one of those vans.
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At the time, the idea of a diesel Dodge van was rather intriguing to me. I should have ordered one, because it might be the only one on the planet. Although some 2,835 diesel pickups were known to be built, I can?t find any record of anyone actually owning one of the vans. Even finding good info and pics of one of the diesel pickups is hard; these very nice ones are courtesy of Marc Lerner, posted at nissandiesel.dyndns.org.
Why didn?t it sell better? How about the fact that it made 105 hp (and 163 ft. lbs of torque, less than the slant six)? This was a naturally-aspirated unit, like so many in the first half of the Great Diesel Epoch. There is talk of folks retrofitting them with turbos, but who knows if any are still intact. Anyway, owners of them say they will trundle along at sixty or so, and get a solid 20 mpg doing it. Needless to say, acceleration is very leisurely. Transmission was a choice of a four-speed stick or A727 Loadflite.
I may have found some nice shots of the Dodgubishi, but I can?t find anything on the diesel van; no brochure, no forum threads, nothing. Except that it was announced, and allpar makes mention of it too.
Just to make the pre-Cummins Dodge diesel history lesson complete, here?s a shot of a Perkins six cylinder that was available as an option on the 1962 D-Series pickup. Perkins had been available on export-only Dodges for some years, including some sedans, but in 1962, it was listed as an option for US buyers too. Since only some 1,000 were sold, it quickly dropped off the radar again. It took three tries for Dodge to score with a diesel truck, but that one was a home run.
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How the animals lost their sensors
For free-living organisms, the ability to sense and respond to the outside environment is crucial for survival. Eukaryotes, such as animals and plants, often have highly complex network systems in place to monitor their surroundings and respond effectively, but bacteria have developed a remarkably simple system. It?s called the ?Two Component System? because it literally relies on just two components; a sensor and a responder. The sensor picks up the signal, communicates this to the responder, which then causes the effect.
The components of the two-component signalling system. Picture (c) me.
The picture above shows this process happening. The ?communication? of the message from the sensor to the responder, as shown by the coloured arrows, is carried out by transferring phosphate molecules. The signal interacting with the sensor causes the sensor to autophosphorylate (phosphorylate itself) and then pass the phosphate molecule onto the responder to trigger the response. The letters ?H? and ?D? are the actual amino-acids being phosphorylated; Histadine and Aspartate.
Although Two-Component Systems (TCS) are found in all three superkingdoms of life (archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes) they are suspiciously absent from the animal kingdom. Plants have them, as do fungi and several protazoa, but they just aren?t present in animals. For this reason they?ve been looked into as potential antibiotic targets as knocking out the Two-Component Systems of most bacteria is fatal.
Why don?t animals use TCS? To answer this you have to start looking at the evolution of the system itself, because despite being nominally present in eukaryotes such as plants and fungi, TCS are used very differently. Bacteria use TCS for sensing a wide variety of signals; stress, metabolism, nutrient regulation, chemotaxis, pathogen-host interactions etc. In eukaryotes on the other hand they are used sparingly; for ethylene responses and photosensitivity in plants and osmoregulation in fungi and slime moulds.
Bacteria (especially soil bacteria which have a lot of environment to sense) can contain up to 50 TCS although many internal parasite bacteria contain a lot fewer. The maximum number found in archaea is around 20 and they are even scarer in eukaryotes with only one in bakers yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae ? one sensor kinase and three response regulators). None have yet been found in any animal genomes, or in the protist genomes as far as I know (although it is possible recent protist research may have unearthed a few)
Comparing the TCS genes of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes leads to the interesting conclusion that the bacterial and eukaryotic systems are far more closely related than the archaeal, and in fact are thought to be monophyletic (all evolved from a single common ancestor). In contrast, the archaeal TCS appear to be polyphyletic (several ancestors) and some archaea lack TCS entirely. It?s therefore thought that TCS originated in bacteria and spread by horizontal gene transfer to both archaea and eukaryotes. As horizontal gene transfer relies on DNA moving from one species to another, no further transfer to eukaryotes could occur after they developed larger cells with a nuclear membrane. In eukaryotes very little further diversification took place, whereas the bacterial TCS diversified widely, and occasionally passed new systems back to the archaea. I?ve tried to show this in the diagram below:
The passage of genes for two-component-systems through the three superkingdoms of life
The diagram above attempts to show the movement of the TCS genes through the three superkingdoms of life. Red arrows show the horizontal transfer (straight arrows) and gene duplication (curved arrows) of TCS genes. No horizontal gene transfer can take place in eukaryotes after the nuclear membrane (well?.it can do but is very, very rare) although gene duplication may still have occurred.
The eukaryotic superkingdom appears not to have contained very many of these TCS genes to start with, and the animal kingdom may just have lost the very few it possessed. This makes sense from the point of view of cellular control because while TCS are very useful in bacteria with their small genome and independent lifestyles, it?s less clear how useful they are in eukaryotes as a whole. Introducing a membrane around the nucleus makes it harder for proteins to get in and bind to the DNA, and in a large complicated cell it?s harder for a simple two-component system to sense what?s going on. Added to which, cells inside a multicellular organism don?t really need to sense what?s going on, they get told what?s going on by the surrounding cells and circulating hormones.
Whatever the reason though it is clear that despite this system being vital for bacteria it isn?t used widely, or most likely at all, in animals. Research into this would be particularly useful against opportunistic pathogens which tend to have a large selection of two-component systems to allow them to adapt to different lifestyles depending on the conditions of their immediate environment.
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Kristin K. Koretke , Andrei N. Lupas , Patrick V. Warren , Martin Rosenberg , and James R. Brown (2000). Evolution of Two-Component Signal Transduction Mol Biol Evol, 17, 1956-1970
Wolanin PM, Thomason PA, & Stock JB (2002). Histidine protein kinases: key signal transducers outside the animal kingdom. Genome biology, 3 (10) PMID: 12372152
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c6a3df208247bfe7bac72f12bb0e3d41
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Ghana's Real Estate Agency Bill undergoes final review
You Are Here: Home ? General News ? Ghana?s Real Estate Agency Bill undergoes final review
Page last updated at Saturday, November 24, 2012 8:08 AM //
Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister for Water Resources, Work and Housing, has said the Real Estate Agency Bill is now ready and currently before the Attorney General?s Department for the final review.
Mr Mensah announced this on Friday during a sod cutting ceremony for the construction of 5,000 housing at Kpone near Tema by Sethi Realty.
He said the purpose of the Bill is to regulate real estate brokerage practice and practitioners in the country and to bring it to the level of universally accepted standards.
?It provides, among other things, for the training and licensing of estate brokers and requires estate brokers, to make available bonds, as guarantees to operators in the property market,? he stated.
The Minister said the recent painful Melcom disaster had thought us all a lesson of the need to do things right.
He bemoaned the issue of how some estates have been developed, with little regard to the provision of infrastructure and other social services.
Mr Mensah lamented that in some cases, estate developers have charged home owners for services which they never provided whilst sometimes, the quality of work leaves much to be desired.
?It is in the interest of any developer to build right ? that is, by using the right caliber of professionals of the built environment,? he noted.
He said the services of estates developers may seem expensive in the beginning, but as the Melcom disaster has shown, it is the best way to provide a sound structure.
?Building right is the also a pre-requisite for support from the finance and insurance companies. Most of all, building right is the supreme interest of the end user, for whom this is a life time investment.? He reiterated.
Mr Mensah made a strong appeal to Sethi Realty and the construction company, Shapoorji and Palonji to ensure that the do quality work for the good of the nation.
Under the leadership of Mr C.M. Sethi, the Sethi Group of companies, have revolutionized the Real Estate arena in Commercial and Residential Projects over the past 20 years and has developed and successfully completed various projects in India and other countries.
Source: GNA
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Source: http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/11/24/ghanas-real-estate-agency-bill-undergoes-final-review/
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Sunday 25 November 2012
Sen. Lindsey Graham Rejects Susan Rice's Self-Defense
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said today he does not believe that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice relied on the most accurate information from the intelligence community when she provided a public explanation for the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"I'm increasingly convinced that the best and current intelligence assessment on 16 September went against the video. The video was a political smokescreen," Graham said on "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." "The actual facts were this was a coordinated, pre-planned terrorist attack."
Speaking at the United Nations on Wednesday, Rice said that some of the attacks leveled against her by Republican lawmakers were "unfounded."
"When discussing the attacks against our facilities in Benghazi, I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. I made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers," Rice said.
READ: Rice Defends Self on Benghazi
Graham rejected that explanation again today.
"My belief is that there was a mountain of intel to dispute the video characterization," Graham said on today. "There was really no intel saying this was a spontaneous event."
Asked whether he would oppose Rice's potential nomination as Secretary of State, Graham would not repeat his past assertions that she should be disqualified for the post if President Obama chooses to nominate her.
"When she comes over, if she does, there will be a lot of questions asked of her about this event and others," Graham said. "But I do not believe the video is the cause ? I don't believe it was ever the reason for this. That was a political story, not an intel story, and we're going to hold people accountable."
Earlier this month, Graham had said that because of the explanation Rice gave for the Benghazi attack, he was "dead set" on making sure Rice isn't "promoted."
On Sunday he added that he would pursue an investigation into Benghazi "like we got to the bottom of Iran-Contra," referring to the 1980s scandal when the Reagan administration made a secret deal with Iran to sell them weapons in exchange for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon, and some of the money from the sale was diverted to support the Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
"We're not going to let up on this," he said.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin insisted that Republicans are unfairly focusing on Rice's statements after the attack.
"If this were an NFL game, the critics of Ambassador Rice would be penalized for piling on," Durbin said. "For goodness sake, she got the report from the intelligence community; she dutifully reported it to the public, just exactly what we expect her to do.
"They had decided not to include the al Qaeda references so we wouldn't compromise our sources in Benghazi and in Libya," he said.
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Reference-and-Education Try Outs for Elementary School Plays and Programs
02nd April 2008 So you want to have an elementary school play! but how do you choose who gets each part! Since elementary students are quite a bit different from middle and high school students here are some ideas that you might find helpful in choosing parts. First t, Read
Reference-and-Education Why Substitute Teach
02nd April 2008 Substitute teaching can be very rewarding! There are different reasons that people choose to substitute teach! Some look at it as just a job and they can make some what they view as! easy work, until they have done it for a day or two! then their opinions! Read
Business Credit Card Problems for First Time Site Owners
24th January 2008 Five hours. That is how long it took me to figure out what to do with an order that I felt came from a stolen credit card, Being new to the internet business I had had very few problems with credit cards! Besides, on the site where I was selling the most . Read
Reference-and-Education Elementary Substitute Teaching Tips
24th January 2008 Most teachers hate getting a substitute teacher for their class because it is so much work to get prepared for the substitute! Since many districts have gone to the automated sub finder system the teacher womens james harrison jersey is also never sure who will be their substitute an. Read
Reference-and-Education Interesting Bald Eagle Facts
24th January 2008 The American Bald Eagle is the United States National Symbol! It was chosen as our national symbol in 1782 and was chosen over the Golden Eagle because it lives on on the North American Continent while the Golden Eagle also lives in Europe. When born it i. Read
Reference-and-Education Simple Red Ribbon Week Ideas
24th January 2008 One year everyone at our school was tired of doing Red Ribbon week, They felt that they were being asked to do too many things so they sort of boycotted the whole idea! My class really wanted to do something and I did also! but I didn?t want to have to do. Read
Reference-and-Education Two Easy Substitute Games for Elementary Substitutes
24th January 2008 Four Corners is a simple game that students of all elementary school ages love to play, This is fun to play with the lights out if there is a window letting a little light into the room! Give each corner a number one to four. One person is it! They go t, Read
Reference-and-Education Celebrate Thanksgiving With a Program
20th September 2007 Many times Thanksgiving is over looked as a time to do a program because Christmas seems so much more exciting. That http://www.steelersnikejerseys.com/james-harrison-jersey-c-15.html is not so, a Thanksgiving program can be used to teach students the history of the beginning of this country and can encourage the student. Read
Reference-and-Education Red Ribbon Week Time to Celebrate Freedom
20th September 2007 So many times when we celebrate Red Ribbon Week we only think about not taking drugs. Students get tired of the no! don?t do that message, They want to hear something else, Well. if you think about it this should be a week to celebrate freedom! If we don?. Read
Reference-and-Education PE Performance Programs Using PE Activities
20th September 2007 Most of the time when you have a program for parents in the elementary school it is comprised of speaking some lines and then singing a song, Or it might be speaking some liens and say a poem. Or it just might even be speak a few lines and sing a song and! Read
Reference-and-Education Red Ribbon Week is Almost Here, Again
20th September 2007 Some people think that Red Ribbon Week is no longer important. but I disagree. I believe that the earlier we reach children the better, One of the best ways to reach school aged children with a message about saying no to drugs is through the use of plays ! Read
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20th September 2007 Sometimes Terry Bradshaw Throwback Jersey the best thing to do for Red Ribbon Week is to have the students make their own poetry, Using the old Roses are red, violets are blue poem is easy for the students to make up their own rhyme, Below are some examples,Roses are red! Violets are bl! Read
Reference-and-Education So You Want To Teach Elementary School
29th August 2007 So you want to teach! Let me give you a preview of what your life will be like if you succeed in becoming an elementary school teacher. If you become an elementary school teacher this is what you might expect! For nine months of the year your life will! Read
Reference-and-Education Fly Your Flag Proudly
29th August 2007 It is so reassuring to drive down the street and see our national flag flying proudly in the wind, The problem is most people only do it occasionally, So what are those days that are appropriate to fly the flag? January 1-start the year out right, even! Read
Reference-and-Education Teaching Patriotism is a Growing Concern
24th August 2007 Patriotism is a growing concern in our nation today. One of the ways to teach children patriotism is to have them be in an informative play or program! Many schools and teachers are looking for programs to fit this description that are easy to put on and . Read It is composed by lzhwsteeler 2012-11-22 steeler ct.
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Avelino Tajonera, Gulf Oil Platform Worker, Dies After Fire
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? The Philippine ambassador says one of the men critically burned in an offshore oil platform fire has died in Louisiana.
The ambassador, Jose L. Cuisia Jr., says in a news release that 49-year-old Avelino Tajonera died Friday, shortly after his wife and three children arrived from Manila.
Three other men remain hospitalized. The ambassador says their families are in Baton Rouge.
The explosion and fire Nov. 16 also killed 42-year-old Ellroy Corporal, whose body was found in the waters nearby. The search for another man, 28-year-old Jerome Malagapo, was called off.
The embassy quotes Consul General Herrera-Lim as saying three Filipino workers who survived the fire are back in Manila after giving statements to federal authorities investigating the fire.
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Russian punk rock band protester in single cell after tensions with inmates
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed Pussy Riot punk protester Maria Alyokhina has been moved to a single cell at her own request because of tensions with fellow prisoners, Russia's federal penitentiary service said on Friday.
Alyokhina, 24, is serving a two-year sentence for carrying out a raucous protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral. Activists said her trial, alongside two other band-mates, was part of a crackdown on dissent.
"Some tensions arose in relationships and, apparently, to prevent this situation from escalating, she decided to submit a request to the prison leadership and they moved her to a one-person cell," a prison service spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman dismissed Russian media reports that Alyokhina had been caught up in religious arguments with fellow prisoners. Pussy Riot's protest offended many members of Russia's Orthodox Church.
The spokeswoman said she could not comment on a report on the tabloid-style Life News website that Alyokhina had received violent threats from cell mates at the Ural Mountains prison about 1,150 km (715 miles) northeast of Moscow.
Alyokhina and her two band mates and were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their "punk prayer", which the dominant Russian Orthodox Church has cast as part of a concerted attack on the church and the faithful.
The women said the protest, in which they burst into Christ the Saviour Cathedral and called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin, was not motivated by hatred and was meant to mock the church leadership's support for the longtime leader.
Putin, a former KGB officer who has cultivated close ties with the church over 13 years in power, has rejected criticism from the United States and European leaders who called the two-year sentences disproportionate.
Alyokhina, who has a young son, argued with the judge and cross-examined witnesses during her trial.
Her band mate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, is serving her sentence in a different prison. Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was freed last month when a court suspended her sentence on appeal.
(Additional reporting By Ludmila Danilova; Writing by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-punk-rock-band-protester-single-cell-tensions-102751680.html
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Society Energy minister tells Malawians to get used to fuel shortage
MZUZU--Minister of Energy Cassim Chilumpha says Malawians should for now get used to fuel shortages until early next year when the situation is expected to improve.
Chilumpha attributed the situation to the season right now, arguing that the Malawi economy driven by agriculture is unable to generate enough foreign exchange to purchase the commodity.
"Our economy is agriculture dependent and that means we only get more forex during the harvesting season which in this case will be next January or February when we will be harvesting our agriculture products," Chilumpha said.
The fuel shortage has led increases in transport costs and food prices.
In the capital Lilongwe it?s now common to see people walking to work while in Mzuzu people are now riding bicycle taxis, popularly known as Sacramento.
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Saturday 24 November 2012
Give The Gift of a Custom Gaming PC with These Builds
Is there a gamer on your holiday shopping list? Maybe someone you just want to get your game on with, or someone who's been complaining their old system isn't up to the demands of the latest titles, like Dishonored, Hitman: Absolution, or Call of Duty: Black Ops 2? Hook them up with a custom-built gaming PC this holiday season and they'll love you forever.
We've featured some great all-around PC builds before, but we're going to focus in on gaming this time around. Whether you just want to give the gift of passable frame rates or you're giving away the fine whiskey and caviar of the gaming PC world, we're breaking down our suggested builds into three categories:
- A modest but powerful machine that can play anything you throw at it, but with a few compromises.
- A solid and powerful gaming system that'll let you turn up the effects and enjoy the most all of your favorite titles have to offer.
- The Crazypants Gaming Build: A high-end, ultra-powerful rig that won't blink at today's games?or anything else you do with it?and probably won't blink at tomorrow's GPU and CPU-testing tasks either.
We'll throw down some parts here that we think will work in most cases, but in case you have specific brand loyalties or prefer to make adjustments, we'll provide customization options so you can tweak each build as you wish. Keep in mind that prices are accurate at the time of writing, but can change at any time, especially around this time of year.
The Modest and Affordable Rig
This entry level system hovers around the $500 mark, and it'll still play anything you throw at it. Older titles will fly with all of the settings turned up and even newer titles will give you decent frame rates and smooth gameplay, although you may need to make some compromises in the graphics settings of the most intensive titles. Most notably, we give the nod to AMD's second generation APUs, which are quickly approaching Intel's processors in quality at a much lower cost:
Upgrade Options
If you want to take this build to the next level, here are some affordable upgrades you can swap out or add to the components above for a beefier, more powerful system.
That's all there is here. The beauty of AMD's APUs is that you don't need a graphics card and they come with AMD's graphics built-in and on-board. We didn't even have to go with the A8 here, we could have backed up to the A6 to save a few bucks. Plus, if you run into something that the APU isn't good enough for, you can always add a card later (like the 1GB/2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX560 Ti for $160/$180) without paying for one now that you'd have to toss out. This overclockable A8 APU is DirectX 11-capable and can be tweaked to offer even more graphics performance when you're not using the CPU so you're not bound in one area or the other. Plus, omitting a discrete graphics cards keeps the cost down. Way down.
Buy this build with PCPartPicker ($395.93)
The Powerhouse
Most PC gamers I know walk a very fine line when building their systems. They want machines that can play the titles they love now, but are also up to the challenge of some of the games they know are on the horizon and are coming soon. They're willing to spend more to futureproof as much as they can, but don't want to throw money away at the same time. If that sounds like you, this is the build for you:
Upgrade Options
There's no doubt about it, this machine will fly. When we asked you what computer parts you wanted for the holidays, you noted that OCZ, one of our favorite SSD manufacturers is in the middle of some financial trouble. We still love their drives, but if that makes you nervous, that Crucial in the upgrade options section makes a fine replacement, and if you don't need that much space, this Crucial 128GB m4 SSD ($100) will do the trick as well. We also stuck with 4GB of RAM, per our standard recommendation, but don't hesitate to add more if budget allows, especially if you run VMs or use apps that can leverage the additional RAM.
Buy this build with PCPartPicker ($871.40)
The Crazypants Gaming Rig
Finished parking your Bentley? Ride your Segway up to the PC parts store and pick up the components for this ultimate gaming rig. It's super-fast, water-cooled, and has many best in slot components we could find easily, no compromises made and money no object. It's not for everyone, but if little Timmy deserves only the best (yes, we know you're "Little Timmy") this holiday season, this is the system to build:
Upgrade Options
Buy this build with PCPartPicker ($2739.01)
It's hard to believe this behemoth could possibly be upgraded further, but...to be fair we held back a little bit so we had somewhere to go. Seriously, this machine won't blink at anything you throw at it, and anything you're likely to throw at it likely won't even come close to using most of the resources available in this build.
The motherboard in this build is so expensive because it's an overclocker's dream and comes with pretty much every possible port on the board than you could possibly ever want or need, and if you really wanted to, you could spend $4000 just on the video cards and run them in quad-SLI. We picked the Cooler Master HAF X as the case because you voted it as your favorite, but you could go crazier if you choose. It's ridiculous, and we love it.
Putting Them All Together
Once you've got the parts, consult our computer building guide to learn how to put them together and get everything up and running nicely so that special person can just plug it in, power it on, and spend hours this holiday season getting their game on. Don't forget to check out the Steam sales to grab some affordable titles to put your rig to the test, and happy holidays!
A special thanks goes out to everyone who provided suggestions last week! It made putting together these guides a lot easier, and a better fit for you.
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National Adoption Month ? Is Foster Parenting Right for You? | Kiwi ...
Three siblings aged nine, five and three. Confused. Nervous. Overwhelmed. Nothing to call their own except what?s in their suitcase. Reeling from the death of their mother in a car accident that left their father in a coma. Dropped into a home with four children. New house. New school. New rules. Now what?
That?s my family?s story. Although the specific circumstances change, the emotions don?t. For many children placed in foster care, their lives can feel like a snow globe. Everything inside the bubble just got turned upside down and shaken up.
Here in Canada, there are approximately 76,000 children in care for a variety of reasons. Sometimes Children?s Aid or the courts may have placed children for their protection; other times parents or caregivers may have surrendered the child. Sometimes there?s a situation in the home ? for example, spousal abuse ? that puts the child at risk. In our case, it was the death of one parent and inability of the other to care for them that brought us together.
My parents had adopted a child two years earlier, so they were able to contact their social worker who took the necessary steps to connect us. We were an ordinary family ? parents, sisters, a brother, a dog. We lived in a nice house my father and grandfather had built and my mom had made it a home. We were really nothing special.
That?s important. We weren?t extraordinary. People often comment how amazing my parents were to take in ?so many kids?. And although I?m sure we all made small sacrifices over the years, we?re just like you.
A foster home can be the first step in turning a child?s life around. A stable, nurturing environment goes a long way to repairing the damage caused by turmoil or neglect. Because of their history, foster children are at higher risk for emotional or?behavioral?problems. We had an amazing social worker who was kind, compassionate and worked tirelessly to ensure our family had access to support and any resources we needed.
If you?re considering foster parenting, there is a lot to think through. To begin with, you?ll need space, an open mind, and some realistic expectations. Some of the children in care have been taken from the only home they?ve known, others have bounced around and been in several. You?re a stranger. It will take time to build trust and a relationship. Some of the children will demonstrate?behaviors?built around what they?ve experienced ? aggression, lying, manipulating or even food hoarding.
But, with all that comes the opportunity to save a life. Every child deserves to know they are loved, they have value and they have potential. Wounds can eventually heal, and people can change.
You don?t have to be a modern day Mother Theresa to reach out and provide a home to a child in need.
Remember, not all super heroes wear capes.
Contact your local Children?s Aid Society or Family and Children?s Services to determine if foster parenting is a good option for you.
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Friday 23 November 2012
Theories of Self-Concept Maintenance ? Lynn Munoz
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Introduction
Self-esteem is defined in Essential Social Psychology as ?an individual?s personal evaluation of their own self-concept? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 390).? Self-esteem is characterized as high or low, stable, fragile, vulnerable or unstable.? In any characterization, individuals strive to maintain or enhance their self-esteem.? In this regard, researchers have posited several different theories to explain self-concept maintenance.? This paper discusses similarities and differences of three self-concept maintenance theories, two founded on comparison of the self with the self, specifically, Control Theory of Self-Regulation and Self-Discrepancy Theory, and one founded on comparison of the self to others, specifically, Social Comparison Theory as depicted by a fictional character in a video vignette ? Kathy (Laureate Education, Inc. [Laureate], 2011).
Kathy ? Positive Self-Esteem
The vignette centers on an employee review.? The boss reviews the employee?s performance scores on a scale of 1 to 5 in categories of organizational agility, communication, and planning and prioritizing, scoring 3, 3, and 5, respectively.? The boss gave Kathy an opportunity to discuss her performance in each category.? Kathy?s responses are indicative of an individual with healthy, positive self-esteem.
Kathy?s response to the first item indicates she takes responsibility for isolating herself during the recent project, and reassurance to the boss that she will begin ?branching out and looking for feedback and ideas? from other departments.? She evidences no feelings of defensiveness or dejection from the criticism.
Similarly, Kathy accepts responsibility for a shipping error in discussing the second category.? Further, she self-initiated a constructive solution to the problem and explained the new system to the boss as both a preventive measure against issues in the future for herself and as a potentially useful tool for others within the company.? Kathy?s willingness to share a helpful tool with others indirectly indicates she does not believe herself to be in competition with others for her to be valued within the company and/or as an impact on her self-esteem.? She is clearly confident in her abilities.
The boss gives Kathy an excellent rating in the final category of planning and prioritizing.? Kathy?s response is appreciative and respectful.? She does not elaborate on her abilities other than to claim she enjoys planning and prioritizing.
Lastly, when the boss gives Kathy her overall score of 3.5 out of 5, Kathy thanks him for his advice assuring him of future improvement.? Further, she verbally commits to a modest improvement over the next year, while aiming higher indicating Kathy is setting a realistic goal for herself that she can commit to, while at the same, giving herself a loftier ideal as well.
Control Theory of Self-Regulation
This is the first of two theories that focus on ?comparing the self with ?the self? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 11).? Specifically, this is a ?theory proposing that we use our self-awareness to assess whether or not we are meeting our goals and, if not, make efforts to improve the self in line with these goals? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 382).? Despite the simplified definition, the process as described in Crisp and Turner (2010) actually consists of a cognitive feedback loop in which a person compares their self to a standard (private or public, dependent upon their personal awareness factor).? This is the test phase.? If the individual does not meet the standard of comparison, theoretically, they take steps to meet the standard.? This is the operation phase.? Once the person has completed the steps involved, they compare themselves to the standard again.? Once again, a test phase.? If, at that point, the person has met the standard, they exit out of the feedback loop.? If, however, they have not met the standard, the person once again initiates the operation phase to take steps to meet their goals.? This continues until such time as the person meets the standard.
It is possible Kathy exercised this particular model in response to a shipping error that occurred during her job.? When the boss discussed it with Kathy she mentioned to him that the error was ?definitely on my shoulders, and I felt terrible about it.? As a solution though, I created a new grid to help me decide who to contact and how for every likely scenario, so I have an easy reference to ensure that kind of mistake doesn?t happen again? (Laureate, 2011, p. 1).? In response to an error made at work, Kathy?s perception of herself and her job performance was likely diminished.? To compensate, Kathy proactively set in motion steps to rectify the situation, preventing errors in the future and bringing her perception of her job performance back in line with her standard of comparison.
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Similar to the Control Theory of Self-Regulation, Self-Discrepancy Theory involves a comparison ?of the self with ?the self? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 11).? However, Higgins (1987) proposes Self-Discrepancy Theory ?focuses not only on the awareness of discrepancies between actual and ideal identity, but also on people?s emotional response to such discrepancies? (as cited in Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 13).? Further, rather than comparison to a single private or public standard self, Higgins postulates there are three distinct types of schema related to the self: actual, ideal and ought.? The actual self reflects current traits and characteristics.? The ideal self represents potential desired traits and characteristics.? The ought self reflects traits and characteristics we believe we should possess, ?based on a sense of duty, responsibility or obligation? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 13).? This theory seems akin to the id, ego, and superego of consciousness, wherein the id reflects the basest desires, the superego is the super strict schoolmarm constantly nagging the ego and id to behave in ways appropriate to convention, and the ego is the regulatory negotiator between the two.? Instead of guilt occurring from disagreement between the factions, other negative emotional outcomes are likely.? Specifically, this theory proposes that ?people are motivated to ensure that their actual self matches their ideal and ought self; the greater the discrepancy between the actual self and a self-guide ?the greater the psychological discomfort that will be experienced? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 13).? Specifically, a discrepancy between actual and ideal selves results in disappointment and sadness whereas a discrepancy between actual-ought selves produces emotions such as ?anger, fear, and nervousness? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 14).
Returning to the vignette, this theory is just as likely in response to the shipping error.? Kathy?s job performance was diminished.? Her actual self as an effective employee compared to her ideal self or ought self would evidence a discrepancy.? This discrepancy may have caused Kathy discomfort, emotionally, psychologically and/or physically.? In response to this discomfort and to minimize the discrepancies between her actual self and ideal/ought selves, Kathy put in place a solution to rectify the situation causing the shipping error.
Social Comparison Theory
Social Comparison Theory ?proposes that we form a definition of the self by comparing ourselves with those around us? (Crisp & Turner, 2010, p. 391).? Indeed, the theory ?argues that people evaluate their abilities as well as their opinions through reference to a social reality? (Hogg & Cooper, 2007, p. 10).? According to Fiske (2010), social comparison serves an understanding function and a self-enhancement function.? When individuals feel inadequate, they are likely to make downward comparisons with those who are less adequate or accomplished.? If an individual is seeking self-improvement, they are more likely to make an upward comparison to someone slightly better than himself or herself on that particular domain, hence inspiring them to improve.? An individual desiring a realistic assessment of their self makes both upward and downward comparisons in an attempt to form a valid assessment (Fiske, 2010, Fiske, Gilbert, & Lindzey, 2010).
There are no obvious indications of Kathy utilizing the Social Comparison Model directly in this vignette.? However, as a direct result of her employee review, she is likely to engage in this type of comparison in her reflections upon the review and its outcomes.? For instance, the boss made Kathy aware of his expectations of employees in general and her specifically as relates to the categories of communication and organization.? This newly acquired social awareness (public awareness) (Crisp & Turner, 2010) will allow Kathy to compare her self-concept, traits, and attributes to those of other employees within the company.? She can then take steps to improve skills in areas she feels are lacking.? It is important to note, however, Kathy appears to have relatively stable positive self-esteem.? She was capable of accepting responsibilities for her shortcomings, devise strategies for improvement, and accept praise without arrogance.? Further, at no time did she exhibit defensiveness or blame others for her deficiencies.? This is indicative that although her employment is important to her and part of her healthy self-esteem, she has a well-rounded sense of self comprised of a variety of domains unrelated to her effectiveness at her job.
Conclusion
This paper outlined and described three different types of self-concept maintenance theories, specifically Control Theory of Self-Regulation, Self-Discrepancy Theory, and Social Comparison Theory utilizing a video vignette of an employee?s job review for examples evidencing these theories.? The debate rages on between which theory is the best theory.? In this particular example, the Self-Discrepancy Theory seems most appropriate as evidenced by Kathy?s proactive steps taken to compensate for an error made on the job.? Further, of the three theories described, the Self-Discrepancy Theory allows for a more complex interaction between versions of the self and interactional components such as psychological and emotional discomfort.? On the other hand, these are just three of a variety of different theories available to the social psychologists.? Further, these theories are not mutually exclusive.? For instance, the Social Comparison Theory model can incorporate aspects of the Self-Discrepancy Model as versions of the actual, ideal and ought selves could involve social behaviors and expectations of the self.
References
Crisp, R. J., & Turner, R. N. (2010).? Essential social psychology (2nd Ed.).? Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Fiske, S. T. (2010).? Social beings: Core motives in social psychology (2nd Ed.).? Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Fiske, S. T., Gilbert, D. T., & Lindzey, G. (Eds.).? (2010). The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1, 5th ed.).? Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Hogg, M. A., & Cooper, J. (Eds.).? (2007). The Sage handbook of social psychology (concise student edition, ed.).? Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer).? (2011). Week 2: The virtual office [video/transcript].? Available from Walden University.
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