Musical comedy "The Sapphires" sparkles at Aussie Oscars

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Home-grown romantic musical comedy "The Sapphires" shone at Australia's film industry awards on Wednesday, picking up best film and lead acting trophies for Deborah Mailman and "Bridesmaids" star Chris O'Dowd.

Awards host Russell Crowe, an Oscar winner for "Gladiator," led a star-studded evening whose theme was pride in Australia's outsized success on the international film stage.

"The Australian academy may be small but over the years we have won more than 60 BAFTAs and Oscars," said Crowe at the second annual Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards, affectionately known as the "Aussie Oscars."

Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and Jeffrey Rush were all on hand for the event at Sydney's Star casino, leading guest presenter Jeremy Renner to joke: "You can't throw a bottle out the window in Hollywood without hitting an Australian."

The Sapphires, a possibility for next year's Oscars, tells the story of four women from a remote Aboriginal mission who are catapulted on to the world stage as Australia's answer to the Supremes when a kind-hearted manager, played by O'Dowd, hears their powerful voices and sends them to entertain troops in Vietnam.

"Films find their way because of a certain strength," Kidman told Reuters. "The Sapphires is such a unique story and it's great music and great talent."

Director Wayne Blair's debut film also won for direction, cinematography, editing, best production design, costume design and sound.

Best Young Actor went to Saskia Rosendahl for her role in the Australian-German film "Lore", about a teenage girl who leads her younger siblings across Germany at the end of World War Two. Rosendahl was just 17 when the film was made.

The awards weren't without controversy after the director of "Bait", the 3D shark-in-a-supermarket horror-comedy that was Australia's highest grossing film internationally last year, accused the academy of snubbing his movie.

While The Sapphires was Australia's top-grossing film domestically, with more than A$14 million ($14.63 million) in ticket sales, Bait snagged more than $41.8 million worldwide, more than half of that in China.

"It was never going to get best film or best director, but how can the cinematography, the visual effects, the editing, the sound design, the production design - we built a supermarket and put it underwater, for goodness' sake - be overlooked?" said Kimble Rendall to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Prior to last year, the awards were known as the Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards.

($1 = 0.9566 Australian dollars)

(Reporting By Jane Wardell, editing by Elaine Lies)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/musical-comedy-sapphires-sparkles-aussie-oscars-110557359.html

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Mixed decision in phony Scrolls email appeal

NEW YORK (AP) ? Evidence in a rare Internet impersonation case showed that a highly educated defendant broke the law by trying to "damage the careers and livelihoods" of scholars caught up in an academic debate about the Dead Sea Scrolls, a New York appeals court ruled in a mixed decision made public Wednesday.

The Appellate Division's First Department threw out a single identity theft charge against Raphael Golb, but preserved convictions on several other charges accusing him of using phony emails to harass his victims with claims a prominent researcher had copied work from his father.

Golb, 50, will continue to fight the convictions by asking the state's highest court to review the case, said defense attorney Ron Kuby. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined comment.

The case stemmed from the ongoing discourse over the scrolls that were found in caves in Israel beginning in the 1940s and contain the earliest known versions of portions of the Hebrew Bible.

Some scholars, including New York University Judaic studies chairman Lawrence Schiffman, say the texts were assembled by a sect known as the Essenes. Others ? including Norman Golb, a University of Chicago historian and Golb's father ? believe the writings were the work of a range of Jewish groups and communities.

Schiffman went to authorities after some of his students and colleagues received emails from an address that used his name. The fake emails had him admitting that he plagiarized Norman Golb's work and asking the recipients to keep quiet about it.

Raphael Golb, a literature scholar and real estate lawyer with a Harvard Ph.D. and an NYU law degree, acknowledged during his trial that he wrote the messages. But he said he never intended for anyone to believe Schiffman actually sent them, calling them "satire, irony, parody."

Prosecutors argued Golb's activities weren't commentary, but "thousands of hours of malicious harassment and impersonation." Golb also was convicted of opening up email accounts in the names of other scrolls scholars besides Schiffman.

Golb had asked the appeals court to overturn his conviction partly on the grounds that his emails were protected by free speech rights.

The court found that the First Amendment "protects the right to criticize another person, but it does not permit anyone to give an intentionally false impression that the source of the message is that other person."

It added that Golb also gave up his constitutional protections by intending "to cause harm ... including damage to the careers and livelihoods of the scholars he impersonated."

Internet impersonation claims have generated a number of lawsuits, but prosecutions are unusual unless phony identities are used to steal money, experts say.

In one notable case, Missouri mother Lori Drew was accused of helping her daughter and a friend pose as a teen boy on MySpace to send hurtful messages to a 13-year-old neighbor girl. The girl committed suicide.

A federal jury in California, where MySpace has its servers, convicted Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. A judge overturned the verdict and acquitted her.

Golb remains free on bail as he pursues his appeal.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-01-30-Dead%20Sea%20Scrolls/id-8a984e72eb4645139bb9db360308f85f

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New Bill Targets Bonds For Proposed MCC Wellness Center

A bill aimed squarely at a proposed $42 million McHenry County College health club and classroom expansion looked to be on a fast track Tuesday with a first reading only a day after it was introduced by the two Illinois House members who represent the community college district.

The bill, sponsored by strange bedfellows freshman Republican Dave McSweeney of Barrington Hills and veteran Democrat Jack Franks, Marengo, would clamp down on "double barrelled" alternate revenue bonds, so called because they can tap not only a specific conjectural revenue stream for payoff but also "all funds available" to a taxing district. The bonds are popular financing vehicles since they can be issued without, for practical purposes, any chance at a taxpayer vote.

McSweeney confirmed Tuesday the bill for which he's chief sponsor targets the McHenry County College Board's proposal for a public-private Wellness Center. That's now in the feasibility study stage, but McSweeney said it would be important elsewhere, too.? "This has been a problem all over the state," he said.? "I'm going to try pass this as soon as possible."??

McSweeney cited recent Chicago Tribune articles about disastrous alternate revenue bond projects including nearby Lakewood's Redtail golf course which only brought in half the money the village needed for the bond issue to buy it.? The McSweeney-Franks measure would require projected revenue to be at least one and a half times the bond payoff.? More important, McSweeney said, it drops the bar? on stopping a bond issue to only 500 signatures in 90 days to call a referendum.? Right now it's, in the case of MCC, about 13,500 within 30 days.? "There's got to be a 'back door' referendum," said McSweeney.

MCC's Wellness Center proposal includes features reminiscent of a failed plan five years ago when a sports promoter promised to study whether a $29 million minor-league baseball stadium paid for with MCC alternate revenue bonds would be a good idea. He reported it was and asked for a contract to develop it.? The MCC Board tore itself to shreds for a year before dumping the plan and then-College President Walt Packard, too.? Current Board President Mary Miller was an MCC Board member then but said Tuesday, nevertheless, the college's current contract with fitness center operator Power Wellness, Addison, doesn't bar the company from running the proposed new facility if it decides it's a viable proposition.

Co-sponsor Franks couldn't be reached Tuesday but in a press release said, "Municipalities have little oversight when it comes to borrowing millions of dollars which oftentimes end up being a back door tax hike on residents."

In the pic:? A 75,000 square-foot health and fitness center that Power Wellness, Addison,? runs for Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, MI, one of about 20 it operates.

Source: http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/2013/01/new-bill-targets-bonds-for-proposed-mcc.html

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13.01.30 11:00 Martin Luther King Jr. Exhibit - Wednesday January 30, 2013 from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm @ DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY

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Source: http://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars/popup.php?op=view&id=57212759&crd=wmdt

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Increasing severity of erectile dysfunction is a marker for increasing risk of cardiovascular disease and death

Jan. 29, 2013 ? A large study published in PLOS Medicine on January 29, 2013, shows that the risk of future cardiovascular disease and death increased with severity of erectile dysfunction in men both with and without a history of cardiovascular disease. While previous studies have shown an association between ED and CVD risk, this study finds that the severity of ED corresponds to the increased risk of CVD hospitalization and all-cause mortality.

The study authors, Emily Banks (from the Australian National University) and colleagues, analyzed data from the Australian prospective cohort 45 and Up Study. The authors examined the association between severity of self-reported ED and CVD hospitalization and mortality in 95,038 men aged 45 years and older, after adjusting for a number of potential confounding factors. The study included more than 65,000 men without known CVD at baseline and more than 29,000 men with known CVD. There were 7855 incident admissions for CVD during an average 2.2 years of follow-up ending in June 2010, and 2304 deaths during an average of 2.8 years of follow-up, ending in December 2010.

The authors found that, among men without known CVD, those with severe versus no ED had a relative 35% increase in risk of hospitalization for all CVDs, and a relative 93% increased risk of all-cause mortality. Among men with known CVD at baseline and severe ED, their increased risk of hospitalization for all CVDs combined was a relative 64% and for all-cause mortality, 137%.

The researchers say: "The findings of this study highlight the need to consider ED in relation to the risk of a wide range of CVDs." They also stress that it is unlikely that ED causes CVD; rather both are caused by similar underlying causes such as atherosclerosis. As a result, ED could serve as a useful marker to identify men who should undergo further testing to assess their risk for CVD.

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Journal Reference:

1. Emily Banks, Grace Joshy, Walter P. Abhayaratna, Leonard Kritharides, Peter S. Macdonald, Rosemary J. Korda, John P. Chalmers. Erectile Dysfunction Severity as a Risk Marker for Cardiovascular Disease Hospitalisation and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Medicine, 2013; 10 (1): e1001372 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001372

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/lfWEGp32NiM/130129130945.htm

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Antidepressant contribution to arrhythmia risk clarified

Jan. 29, 2013 ? A 2011 warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the popular antidepressant citalopram (Celexa) left many patients and physicians with more questions than answers. Now an analysis of the medical records of more than 38,000 patients by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators clarifies the contribution of citalopram and other antidepressants to lengthening of the QT interval, an aspect of the heart's electrical activity that -- when prolonged -- may increase the risk of dangerous arrhythmias. The study supported the FDA's warning that higher doses of citalopram were associated with a prolonged QT interval but also found that the effects of some other antidepressants were quite different.

"It was important to confirm the effects of citalopram -- one of the most widely prescribed antidepressants in the U.S. -- because the FDA warning really gave us minimal clinical guidance," says Roy Perlis, MD, of the MGH Department of Psychiatry, corresponding author of the report that will appear in the journal BMJ and is being released online. "The impetus for this study came directly from the phone calls we received from colleagues and from patients taking citalopram asking what they should do. We realized that to get a satisfying answer, we needed to get more data."

Many medications -- including some older antidepressants -- are known to increase the QT interval, which is the time from the beginning of electrical activation of the heart to the end of electrical relaxation. While the vast majority of individuals with QT prolongation have no heart rhythm abnormalities, it is a recognized risk factor for a rare but dangerous arrhythmia called torsades de pointes. To get a better idea of the real-world prevalence of QT prolongation associated with citalopram and other antidepressants, the MGH team embarked on an analysis of the medical records of thousands of patients treated at the MGH and other Partners HealthCare facilities.

"We are fortunate that our colleagues at MGH and Partners have developed incredibly useful tools to answer specific questions by rapidly and simultaneously looking across electronic health record data from tens of thousands of patients while protecting patient confidentiality," Perlis explains. "Working with them we developed a way to look at each EKG report and pull out QT interval information and other relevant results. Doing this by hand -- flipping through individual patient charts -- would have taken a year or more. Doing it with electronic health records took about an hour."

The study examined the health records of 38,397 patients who had an EKG reading taken at a Partners facility between 14 and 90 days after receiving a prescription for one of 11 different antidepressant drugs or for methadone, which is known to prolong QT interval. Their analysis confirmed the association of a slight but significant QT prolongation with higher doses of citalopram, along with the known associations with methadone and with the older antidepressant amitriptyline. The results also associated QT prolongation with the newer antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro); but many other drugs -- including fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil) and sertraline (Zoloft) -- had no effect on QT interval. The antidepressant bupropion (Wellbutrin/Zyban) was actually associated with shortening the QT interval.

Perlis cautions that the results of this study should not cause patients taking citalopram or escitalopram to stop taking their medication. "I worry more about people stopping their antidepressants unnecessarily than about the QT prolongation risks," he explains. "For patients starting a new antidepressant who have other risk factors for arrhythmias, a drug other than citalopram would probably be a wise choice. But for those already taking lower doses of either of these drugs, the QT prolongation effects seem to be modest. The real message to patients taking these drugs is to have a conversation with their doctors."

The speed with which the investigators were able to complete their study reflects the power of electronic health record analysis to answer important research questions, he adds. "Finding the QT-shortening effects of bupropion shows how this approach can help us find drugs with unexpected benefits and not just unexpected problems. As long as we're willing to accept the limitations -- particularly the fact that people aren't randomly assigned to different treatments -- this strategy allows us to study many more patients and get answers much faster. In terms of patient privacy, this is actually much safer than the older methods, which required a person to look through a pile of medical records one by one. This way we only extract the data we need and never see anything that would allow us to identify an individual patient." Perlis is an associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/YY8iRLpX9Bw/130129190237.htm

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As Android rises, Asia's trend-setters feel iPhone fatigue

17 hrs.

Reuters

SINGAPORE?? Apple's iconic iPhone is losing some of its luster among Asia's well-heeled consumers in Singapore and Hong Kong, a victim of changing mobile habits and its own runaway success.

Driven by a combination of iPhone fatigue, a desire to be different and a plethora of competing devices, users are turning to other brands, notably those from Samsung Electronics, eating into Apple's market share.

In Singapore, Apple's products were so dominant in 2010 that more devices here ran its iOS operating system per capita than anywhere else in the world.

But StatCounter, which measures traffic collected across a network of 3 million websites, calculates that Apple's share of mobile devices in Singapore ? iPad and iPhone ? declined sharply last year. From a peak of 72 percent in January 2012, its share fell to 50 percent this month, while Android devices now account for 43 percent of the market, up from 20 percent in the same month last year.

In Hong Kong, devices running Apple's iOS now account for about 30 percent of the total, down from about 45 percent a year ago. Android accounts for nearly two-thirds.

"Apple is still viewed as a prestigious brand, but there are just so many other cool smartphones out there now that the competition is just much stiffer," said Tom Clayton, chief executive of Singapore-based Bubble Motion, which develops a popular regional social media app called Bubbly.

Leading indicators
Where Hong Kong and Singapore lead, other key markets across fast-growing Asia usually follow.

"Singapore and Hong Kong tend to be, from an electronics perspective, leading indicators on what is going to be hot in Western Europe and North America, as well as what is going to take off in the region," said Jim Wagstaff, who runs a Singapore-based company called Jam Factory?that's developing mobile apps for enterprises.

Southeast Asia is adopting smartphones fast ? consumers spent 78 percent more on smartphones in the 12 months up to September 2012 than they did the year before, according to research company GfK.

Android rising
Anecdotal evidence of iPhone fatigue isn't hard to find: Where a year ago iPhones swamped other devices on the subways of Hong Kong and Singapore, they are now outnumbered by Samsung and HTC smartphones.

While this is partly explained by the proliferation of Android devices, from the cheap to the fancy, there are other signs that Apple has lost followers.

Singapore entrepreneur Aileen Sim recently launched an app for splitting bills called BillPin, settling on an iOS version because that was the dominant platform in the three countries she was targeting ? Singapore, India and the United States.

"But what surprised us was how strong the call for Android was when we launched our app," she said.

Indeed, 70 percent of their target users ? 20-something college students and fresh graduates ? said they were either already on Android or planned to switch over.

"Android is becoming really hard to ignore, around the region and in the U.S. for sure, but surprisingly even in Singapore," she said. "Even my younger early-20s cousins are mostly on Android now."

BillPin launched an Android version this month.

Standing out from the crowd
Napoleon Biggs, chief strategy officer at Gravitas Group, a Hong Kong-based mobile marketing company, said that while Apple and the iPhone remained premium brands there, Samsung's promotional efforts were playing to an increasingly receptive audience.

For some, it is a matter of wanting to stand out from the iPhone-carrying crowd. Others find the higher-powered, bigger-screened Android devices better suited to their changing habits ? watching video, writing Chinese characters ? while the cost of switching devices is lower than they expected, given that most popular social and gaming apps are available for both platforms.

"Hong Kong is a very fickle place," Biggs said.

Janet Chan, a 25-year-old Hong Kong advertising executive, has an iPhone 5, ?but its fast-draining battery and the appeal of a bigger screen for watching movies is prodding her to switch to a Samsung Galaxy Note II.

"After Steve Jobs died, it seems the element of surprise in product launches isn't that great anymore," she said.

Shifting trends
To be sure, there are still plenty of people buying Apple devices. Stores selling their products in places such as Indonesia were full over the Christmas holidays, and the company's new official store in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay has queues snaking out of the door most days.

But the iPhone's drop in popularity in trendy Hong Kong and Singapore is mirrored in the upmarket malls of the region.

"IPhones are like Louis Vuitton handbags," said marketing manager Narisara Konglua in Bangkok, who uses a Galaxy SIII. "It's become so commonplace to see people with iPads and iPhones so you lose your cool edge having one."

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, an assistant manager at Coca Cola's local venture, Gatot Hadipratomo, agrees. The iPhone "used to be a cool gadget, but now more and more people use it," Hadipratomo said.

There is another influence at play: hip Korea. Korean pop music, movies and TV are hugely popular around the region, and Samsung is riding that wave. And while the impact is more visible in Hong Kong and Singapore, it also translates directly to places like Thailand.

"Thais are not very brand-loyal," says Akkaradert Bumrungmuang, 24, a student at Mahidol University in Bangkok. "That's why whatever is hot or the in-thing to have is adopted quickly here. We follow Korea, so whatever is fashionable in Korea will be a big hit."

This report was written by Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore, with additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong, Khettiya Jittapong and Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok, and Andjarsari Paramaditha in Jakarta.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/android-rises-asias-trend-setters-show-signs-iphone-fatigue-1C8137474

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Middle East remains hotspot for global real estate investments ...

Strategic Marketing and Exhibitions the Organizers of the 9th edition of the International Property Show 2013, supported by the Dubai Land Department and Real Estate Regulatory Authority, say interest on Middle East property projects have remained strong, despite challenging issues in several markets.

"The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar markets are moving ahead with key planed projects, while sales and rentals for existing property have both gone up in value and prices in 2012," said Ghaleb Al Khawaga, project Manager, International Property Show.

Already, exhibitors and investors from Turkey, Malaysia, Cyprus, USA, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, India and China have confirmed their attendance at IPS 2013, which will be held on April 30 - May 2, 2013 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The event is being held in conjunction with the Annual Investment Meeting 2013, providing attendees bigger networking opportunities with investors from all over the world.

At the IPS, visitors will be apprised of the current real estate market in the Middle East as well as in key frontier and emerging markets, with country presentations providing the hotspots for investments and experts presenting insightful data on risk assessments.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/middle-east-remains-hotspot-global-real-327150

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PFT: Poll: 61 percent of players disapprove of Goodell

Getty Images

We agree wholeheartedly with the opinions expressed by Peter King in his latest Monday Morning Quarterback and elsewhere regarding the merit (or more accurately lack thereof) of former Raiders receiver Tim Brown?s non-allegation allegation that former Raiders coach Bill Callahan ?sabotaged? a 10-year-old Super Bowl.? But some questions remain as the latest Super Bowl week commences.

First, will 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh be asked about the situation at one of his many media availabilities this week?? Harbaugh, who was a first-year offensive assistant with the Raiders in 2002, wasn?t asked about it on Sunday night when the team arrived.? And given the extent to which the story has faded in recent days, he may not be asked about it at all.

Second, did the Raiders? game plan change two days before the game?? Brown?s ludicrous opinion of sabotage comes from his belief, as a factual matter, that Callahan changed the game plan.? So did he?? There has been no definitive answer provided to that question.

Third, did the Raiders fail to change audibles and line calls?? It has been presumed for nearly a decade that the Raiders didn?t account for the fact that former Oakland coach Jon Gruden knew the code words that would be used at the line of scrimmage on offense.? But Peter King?s dismantling of the sabotage theory in the latest Monday Morning Quarterback extends to the notion that the Bucs knew what the Raiders were planning to do.? The game broadcast, however, contained strong evidence to the contrary.

Tampa Bay safety John Lynch wore a microphone, and he plainly can be heard telling former Bucs defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin after the Raiders fell behind 20-3 late in the first half, ?Mike, every play they?ve run, we ran in practice.? It?s unreal.?

Said Tomlin, ?I know.?

Whatever the reason, the Buccaneers? dominance was enough, we?re told, to prompt Raiders receiver Jerry Rice to rip the microphone he was wearing during the game from his pads and flush it down a toilet at halftime.

Fourth, given that King believes Brown?s assertion is ?utterly preposterous? and that King is one of the voters for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, will this mess keep Brown out for another year?? The voters will swear that they don?t consider anything other than what happens on the field, in accordance with the Hall of Fame?s bylaws.? But as we explained in our one-time-and-one-time-only PFT season preview magazine (which apparently made a cameo appearance several months ago in an episode of Mike & Molly on CBS), the human beings who cast the votes are influenced by the things that tend to influence the decisions made by human beings.

If it?s a close call between Brown and someone else as a given voter makes the excruciating descent from 15 modern-era finalists to up to five modern-era enshrinees, Brown?s assertions could be viewed, consciously or otherwise, as reflecting the kind of disrespect for and misunderstanding of the game that could be the factor pushing that person one way or the other.

There would be no hard proof of it, and none of the voters will risk their vote by proclaiming publicly that they sabotaged Brown?s candidacy in part because of his claim of sabotage.? But it definitely could, in a close case, be a factor ? and we?d never know that it was.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/28/poll-61-percent-of-players-disapprove-of-goodells-performance/related/

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Exploring the Origins of the Common Core ? Diane Ravitch's blog

Jim Martinez decided to research the sources of the Common Core State Standards. Given their importance as a redesign of the nation?s highly decentralized education system, we can expect to see many more such efforts to understand the origins of this important document.

?Engaging the nonsense ? a brief investigation of the Common Core?

A teacher asked me where the Common Core came from, another suggested that I ?teach? the Common Core in my Master?s degree level courses.

So my curiosity got the best of me and I spent some time understanding something about Common Core from my perspective as a scholar and educator.

My first discovery is that the Common Core is a political document. That may seem fairly obvious, but what I mean is that there is an identifiable political ideology and history that has contributed greatly to the current document. I?ve attached a link to document that led me to this conclusion.
http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards ? English Language Arts Appendix A

This document contains references to supporting representative research for the Common Core. As I read the document something caught my eye, it was the following quote from Adams (2009)

??There may one day be modes and methods of information delivery that are as efficient and powerful as text, but for now there is no contest. To grow, our students must read lots, and more specifically they must read lots of ?complex? texts?texts that offer them new language, new knowledge, and new modes of thought??

This bothered me. I don?t agree with the statement and so I decided to read Adams (2009) I did a Google search and found this:

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/adams.htm ? The Challenge of Advanced Texts:The Interdependence of Reading and Learning.

From the text I figured out that Adams is a heavy weight in reading and literacy circles (pun intended) there?s just a style of writing and authoritative stance that gives you clues, I then looked her up in Wikipedia to confirm my suspicions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Jager_Adams

If you read the article you find that not only is she a heavy weight, she is politically connected as in, inside the room when policy decisions are made.

I Googled a little more and came to this document.

http://www.niu.edu/cedu_richgels/PDFs/Adams1991.pdf

It?s a critique on her work in the 1990s that refers to her government directed research on phonics instruction. The critique and her response are very informative. It took me a couple of hours to find these documents and read parts of them and I think I found some answers to some questions and was provoked to some other thoughts that I will share with you now.

Common Core includes in it?s history, No Child Left Behind and other national educational policy reports dating back to A Nation At Risk (1983). It?s important to remember that most research is government funded and so it is unfair to critique educational research for it?s funding source. However, it is absolutely fair to question who gets to decide what the research is about and how that research is presented and used.

I happened to pursue a line of inquiry that involved Adams (2009) but there were many other researchers cited (Beck and Mckeown, vocabulary development, are notable as well) in the Common Core. I disagreed with Adams and I wanted to explore the source of the disagreement, the critiques helped clarify my understanding of my disagreement. The critiques also provided valuable insights on the theoretical framework Adams uses in her research. I still disagree with her, but I am respectful of her efforts. Which brings me to my next point.

There are many researchers cited in the Common Core, with many research agendas, using many methodological approaches across many disciplines. There is no cohesive theoretical framework or agreement on what constitutes the best approaches from a scientific research perspective to teaching and learning being represented in the document. Critics of the representative research in the Common Core abound. Some of the representative research consists of laboratory trials with small numbers of students, some include longitudinal studies and some of the research includes significant limitations that should be considered carefully when considering the claims that are made in the research.

Given the ambition of a national educational policy it seems that the best policy makers could come up with are some ?best practices? that have achieved some success. It is very helpful to publicize that kind information, however, we have to ask: Is it useful to claim that a patchwork quilt of research underlying a set of standards is a framework for a solution to the educational challenges this country faces?

When teachers are asked to implement standards that they feel ?do not make sense? it is not that teachers are simply ignorant and require professional development, it is in my opinion, the initial reaction of a person engaged in a craft/practice that is highly dependent and responsive to local conditions.

The Common Core standards are derived, in part, from an abstraction (the patchwork quilt of research) and are being pushed on to practitioners. The research strands that I examined tended toward the notion that knowledge acquisition is the endgame of school-based learning. I would not be surprised if that were true of many of the other research strands as that sentiment is pervasive in education.

Knowledge acquisition learning is about remembering and being able to manipulate abstract knowledge. We determine that a student has acquired knowledge by testing or providing a task that can only be completed if the individual has the requisite skill or knowledge. The Common Core is intended to set the standard for this type of learning and so there must be tests. Let?s set aside for the moment that the standardized tests we already use are not calibrated to the Common Core. If we believe in an educational system that prioritizes knowledge acquisition in the service of a national security agenda (economic competitiveness, technology dominance, etc.) then testing is necessary.

We experience the consequences of this priority in classrooms every day. I don?t have to detail them here.

If we believe that education is about more than knowledge acquisition, and that national security can be achieved through other concepts such as healthy communities, sustainable resource uses, national unity, world peace, or the elimination of hunger and poverty. Then we need to take responsibility for our practices, assert our own understandings of those practices, expose those practices to peer-review and challenge ?what does not make sense? collectively.

I am finding that engaging the ?nonsense? has been a good learning experience.

Thoughts and comments are welcomed.

Source: http://dianeravitch.net/2013/01/27/13491/

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Remembering Apollo 1, NASA's First Major Disaster

46 years ago today, veteran astronaut Gus Grissom, first American spacewalker Ed White, and rookie Roger Chaffee were killed in a cabin fire during an Apollo 1 launch pad test. The first majorly fatal accident in NASA's history, the fire was caused in part by the cabin's pure oxygen atmosphere and a number of other dangerous design flaws that were correct over the 20 month delay that followed the incident. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/F-CNIWaqofk/remembering-apollo-1-nasas-first-major-disaster

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Will Take Your Unwanted Birds | Largo | eBay Classifieds (Kijiji ...

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Source: http://tampabay.ebayclassifieds.com/birds/largo/will-take-your-unwanted-birds/?ad=25863978

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Community Rallies to Help Boy Battling Cancer | KTLA 5

A two-year-old old Dana Point boy is in a fight for his life.

He?s battling an autoimmune disease that affects about one in 10-million people- and the treatment? very expense.

Many gathered tonight to try to raise money to help with his pricey medical costs.

This 2-year-old little blond haired, blue eyed cutie started out his young life as a happy normal baby? running, jumping, playing? but then last February? his life took a dramatic turn.

Valentino Ricciotti could no longer crawl, sit and began having seizures. It took several weeks of testing before doctors could determine the cause.

His mom tells us it?s triggered by a type of cancer called neuroblastoma.

Now he?s in a fight for his life.

She says he?s been a trooper through it all.

However it?s taken a toll on mom and dad.

They say big sister? 6 year old Cora gets the fact that her brother is sick? but doesn?t realize the full magnitude of what?s happening.

The disease has also hit this Dana Point family hard financially.

Last year Valentino?s out of pocket medical expenses cost 30-thousand dollars.

To help ease this financial stress- their community held a fundraiser at a Laguna Nigel church Friday night.

Many were people the Ricciotti family had never even met.

If you?d like to help visit: http://www.hopeforvalen.com/

or http://handbid.com/auctions/hope-for-valen-fundraiser.

Source: http://ktla.com/2013/01/25/community-rallies-to-help-boy-battling-cancer/

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Web founder Berners-Lee: Governments are suppressing online ...

By Agence France-Presse
Friday, January 25, 2013 14:44 EST

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The inventor of the World Wide Web warned Friday that government control is limiting the possibilities of the Internet, as dozens of countries and businesses signed a cybersecurity deal at the Davos forum.

The comments by Tim Berners-Lee at the World Economic Forum plugged into a wider debate among the delegates on the future of the Internet, particularly how to balance openness with privacy and security.

While Yahoo!?s chief Marissa Mayer told the forum there was a ?trade off? between privacy and the benefits of increasingly personalised services offered by Internet giants, the network?s founding father took up the ethical issues at stake.

?The dream is of a more open web,? Berners-Lee told the gathering in the Swiss ski resort, citing social media as a way of breaking down barriers.

But he said the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old US Internet activist who faced charges of illegally copying and distributing millions of academic articles, highlighted government efforts to police the Internet.

?He downloaded a lot and so the secret service in the US decided that he was a hacker. For them that isn?t the term of great praise that it is when I use it. For me a hacker is someone who is creative and does wonderful things,? he said.

Berners-Lee ? who launched the first web page on Christmas Day 1990 and is is credited with creating the World Wide Web ? called on international governments to release more data, saying that others could use it to find solutions to problems including economic and health issues.

?They can give you 101 reasons for not doing it but it comes down to control,? the Briton told the forum.

But Yahoo! CEO Mayer had a different take when it came to data about individual users held by companies such as hers and by other Internet giants such as Facebook and Google.

?I think that privacy will always be something that users should consider. But I also think that privacy is a trade off,? she said.

?Because where you give that personal information you get functionality in return.?

Mayer, 37, who took over in July at Yahoo! after 13 years at Google in a move aimed at reinvigorating the faded Internet firm, said the future lay in the increased ?personalisation? of the web.

She predicted the dominance in coming years of handheld Internet devices to take personalised content.

?It?s really important if you look at what?s happening in terms of the shift to mobile,? she said, saying that the number of tablets and smartphones had tripled in five years and that tablets would outsell laptops this year.

But she added: ?The real question is making money from it.?

For government leaders at Davos the topic was about how to harness the power of the Internet to boost the global economy ? while also maintaining security against fraud and terrorism.

More than 70 companies and government bodies officially signed up to the World Economic Forum?s new ?Cyber Resilience? principles on Friday aimed at tackling the issue.

Speaking at Davos on Friday, British cybersecurity minister Francis Maude said a ?safe and secure? Internet was necessary to help business thrive.

?Cyber security is a shared, global challenge ? our companies operate in a global marketplace. The cyber threat knows no geographical boundaries and it matters that those we connect to are secure as well,? Maude said.

Separately Neelie Kroes, the European Union?s telecommunications commissioner, was at Davos to appeal to companies and governments to improve the technological skills of young Europeans to compete with the rest of the world.

?The digital skills gap is growing, like our unemployment queues,? she said, adding that the information technology sector was out of recession and growing seven times faster than other sectors.

Berners-Lee agreed, saying that the world economy needed ?more people who can program? and that in the Internet age children should be taught how to use computers from an early age.

But he added: ?Computers are important, but young people should study history and art and music and things.?

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Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/25/web-founder-berners-lee-governments-are-suppressing-online-freedom/

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Jupiter Direct Astrology,Thor and his sexy hammer, Are you ready to ...

FAST RELIEF is 5 days away. Your best laid intentions gone nowhere? Your sex life bombed? Didn?t get the raise?

Been having a harder time sticking with your diet? ?Conquering an addiction or life just feels like ?my 14-year-old daughter says.

? IT SUCKS TO BE YOU.?

seem?s like you?re an upended turtle that ?nada is moving forward?

BLAME IT ON JUPITER?s RETROGRADE motion since Oct 5, 2012 that?s why. ?Just like Mercury Retrograde, ?Jupiter does that nasty too.

It?s hard to get ahead when Jupiter/ THOR ?is Retrograde.

THOR in Viking mythology is a personification of Jupiter, aka Zeus, throwing lightning bolts to the Greeks.?

THOR, the BIG ?hammer guy, is popping up as a cultural hero again. SUPER HERO for our age

Jupiter is MR. BIG, ruler of sign Sagittarius and Pisces traditionally. Jupiter rules OPTIMISM. Good humour, luck, abundance,honesty?

Ask yourself?

Have things been more serious while Jupiter is Retro in your life? ?Has your sex life bombed??

What do Retro Gods do? Hang out in God caves, lounge with their sport buddies, tell big jokes and smoke big cigars, bowl,carouse,

RETROGRADE JUPITER holds back all the actions Jupiter rules- such as

Jupiter rules the LIVER, the largest organ in the body, ?therefore de-toxing,

arteries, pelvis, thighs, a euphemism for sex,cholesterol, gout, weight problems,cataracts, intoxication.?sports, publishing, higher law, education, philosophy, travel, adventure, generosity, ?fertility, animals, ?gotta have it all, spirituality, religion, compassion, bliss,creativity, the arts.

Lawyers are Jupiter ruled, they are supposed to be honest; athletes, philanthropists, Santa Claus is a Jupiter type figure.?

Didn?t get that expected raise lately?

Did you have a lean Xmas?

All you hard to hold down Sagittarius and floaty Pisceans ?are frothing at ?the bit for THOR to get Thundering again.

Check out where the damage has been in your natal chart- where ?are Sagittarius and ?PISCES ?in your natal chart. Houses? aspects?

?You can go to ASTRODIENST ? http://www.astrodienst.com a very reliable free ?European site.

Jupiter in Gemini is weak as he is in the opposite sign of the one he ruled. THOR WEAK??

Jupiter turns DIRECT Jan 30 @ 3:37 am PST/ 6:37 am EST at 6 degrees 19 minutes of the TWINS

If you are ?SAGITTARIAN, a PISCES ?or a GEMINI you should feel THOR?s hammer start to rock with Thunder

and sparks of lightning beginning to fly!

It will take until April 25 for Jupiter to pass 16 degrees 25 minutes of Gemini where it left off last Oct.

So use the forward Jupiter action to work in the shadow period with full plans to BIRTH your new projects on that date and after in April.

Writers, artists, collective spiritual work, imagers, photographers, publishers,teachers the ?re-writing of laws are all in the agenda NOW.

Your usually optimistic bouncing ball, buoyant humored self ?will be back soon?

JUPITER WILL BE SWIMMING IN YOUR POOL SOON CANCER?s?

CANCER peeps it will be your BEST YEAR in 12, when Jupiter enters the MOST FEMININE motherly nurturing sign on JUNE 26.?

more bout that later.

Get YOUR professional astrology chart reading from ME now-?http://taratarot.com/id78.html

I am a Sagittarius + Moon + Mercury there at the Galactic Center. My North Node is in Pisces so Jupiter rules a lot of my stuff.

I am totally honest, and my role is to be a spiritual guide, teacher and traveller.?

I can?t wait to hammer the road ahead out.

JUPITER SONGLIST ? ?do you like it? Got anything to add?

1. HEY JUPITER by TORI AMOS ??https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK_qRHoEkJU

2. IF I HAD A HAMMER ? Peter PAul & MAry 1963?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBUPr8oDRL8

3. DROPS OF JUPITER by Train 1998?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xf-Lesrkuc

4. JUPITER by Starlighter?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsSd58CiGQs

5. JUPITER- by Earth Wind and Fire?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7J99LtTjds

6. JUPITER PLANETARIUM by Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly-?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-kiFfHkwkg

7. JUPITER by Jewel?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnRmSpbs-D8

8. JUPITER?S V28 HRS Solfeggio and and Binaural beats

9. JUPITER and BEYOND the INFINITE from 2001 a Space Odyssey?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imbxqv_5TJU

10. THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN by BOB DYLAN 2006 ? ALicia Keys?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RPkJeziNyI&playnext=1&list=PLAD872EBCFDCA4D52&feature=results_video

11. JUPITER LOVE by Trey Songz -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b0DMoPLIys

12. Oh I by JUPITER?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b0DMoPLIys

13. JUPITER by Katy McAllister Ft. Shannon McAllister ? Jupiter (Original Song)?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9lv4X35XUo

14. JUPITER by Free the ROBOTS?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7chp71sRo

43.667923 -79.321969

Source: http://infinitynow.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/jupiter-direct-astrologythor-and-his-sexy-hammer-are-you-ready-to-rock-on/

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Video: Anchors give microwaveable slippers a test run

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Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50597652/

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Al-Qaida's No. 2 in Yemen dead, report says

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Yemen's official news agency says al-Qaida's No. 2 in Yemen has died of wounds sustained in a drone attack last year in southern Yemen.

Saeed al-Shihri, a Saudi national who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, was wounded in a missile attack in the southern city of Saada on Nov. 28, according to SABA news agency.

The agency said that he was in a coma since then. It was not clear when he actually died.

A security official said that the missile has been fired by a U.S. -operated, unmanned drone aircraft. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Washington considers al-Qaida in The Arabian Peninsula the most dangerous the group's offshoots.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaidas-no-2-yemen-dead-report-says-202056030.html

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These Awesome Photos of a Fox Will Make You Go Aaaaawwwww

Fox are beautiful and cute, despite their chicken addiction (hey, I'm a fan of chicken too). And this photo is really sweet, especially when you look at the result. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/vCNs0eUkEyY/these-awesome-photos-of-a-fox-will-make-you-go-aaaaawwwww

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Kristof: ZIP codes shouldn't determine a child's future | The Salt Lake ...

Point to a group of toddlers in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in the U.S., and it?s a good bet that they will go to college, buy nice houses and enjoy white-collar careers.

Point to a group of toddlers in a low-income neighborhood, and ? especially if they?re boys ? they?re much more likely to end up dropping out of school, struggling in dead-end jobs and having trouble with the law.

Something is profoundly wrong when we can point to 2-year-olds in this country and make a plausible bet about their long-term outcomes ? not based on their brains and capabilities, but on their ZIP codes. President Barack Obama spoke movingly in his second Inaugural Address of making equality a practice as well as a principle. So, Mr. President, how about using your second term to tackle this most fundamental inequality?

For starters, this will require a fundamental rethinking of anti-poverty policy. American assistance programs, from housing support to food stamps, have had an impact, and poverty among the elderly has fallen in particular (they vote in high numbers, so government programs tend to cater to them). But, too often, such initiatives have addressed symptoms of poverty, not causes.

Since President Lyndon Johnson declared a "war on poverty," the United States has spent some $16 trillion or more on means-tested programs. Yet the proportion of Americans living beneath the poverty line, 15 percent, is higher than in the late 1960s in the Johnson administration.

What accounts for the cycles of poverty that leave so many people mired in the margins, and how can we break these cycles? Some depressing clues emerge from a new book, Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance, by Susan Neuman and Donna Celano.

Neuman and Celano focus on two neighborhoods in Philadelphia. In largely affluent Chestnut Hill, most children have access to personal computers and the shops have eight children?s books or magazines on sale for each child living there.

Take a 20-minute bus ride on Germantown Avenue and you?re in the Philadelphia Badlands, a low-income area inhabited mostly by working-class blacks and Hispanics. Here there are few children?s books, few private computers and only two public computers for every 100 children.

On top of that, there?s a difference in parenting strategies, the writers say. Upper-middle-class parents in the U.S. increasingly engage in competitive child-rearing. Parents send preschoolers to art classes and violin lessons and read "Harry Potter" books to bewildered children who don?t yet know what a wizard is.

Meanwhile, partly by necessity, working-class families often take a more hands-off attitude to child-raising. Neuman and Celano spent 40 hours monitoring parental reading in the public libraries in each neighborhood. That was easy in the Badlands ? on an average day "not one adult entered the preschool area in the Badlands."

story continues below

When I was a third-grader, a friend struggling in school once went with me to the library, and my mother helped him get a library card. His grandmother then made him return it immediately, for fear that he would run up library fines.

The upshot is that many low-income children never reach the starting line, and poverty becomes self-replicating.

Maybe that?s why some of the most cost-effective anti-poverty programs are aimed at the earliest years. For example, the Nurse-Family Partnership has a home-visitation program that encourages new parents of at-risk children to amp up the hugging, talking and reading. It ends at age 2, yet randomized trials show that those children are less likely to be arrested as teenagers and the families require much less government assistance.

Or take Head Start. Critics have noted that the advantage its preschoolers gain in test scores fades by third grade, but scholars also have found that Head Start has important impacts on graduates, including lessening the chance that they will be convicted of a crime years later.

James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, argues that the most crucial investments we as a country can make are in the first five years of life, and that they pay for themselves. Yet these kinds of initiatives are underfinanced and serve only a tiny fraction of children in need.

We don?t have any magic bullets. But randomized trials and long-term data give us a better sense of what works ? and, for the most part, it?s what we?re not doing, like improved education, starting with early childhood programs for low-income families. Job-training for at-risk teenagers also has an excellent record. Marriage can be a powerful force, too, but there?s not much robust evidence about which programs work.

So, Mr. President, to fulfill the vision for your second term, how about redeploying the resources we?ve spent on the war in Afghanistan to undertake nation-building at home ? starting with children so that they will no longer be limited by their ZIP codes.

Contact Nicholas Kristof at Facebook.com/Kristof, Twitter.com/NickKristof or by mail at The New York Times, 620 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10018.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/55692961-82/poverty-programs-child-class.html.csp

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Absent but omnipresent, Chavez a powerful symbol

A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez wears sunglasses decorated with the eyes of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. The cult of personality that Chavez long nurtured has been flourishing like never before as he confronts an increasingly difficult struggle against the mysterious cancer that afflicts him. The iconic eyes-only design sends a message that he is always watching and still with his adoring constituents. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez wears sunglasses decorated with the eyes of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. The cult of personality that Chavez long nurtured has been flourishing like never before as he confronts an increasingly difficult struggle against the mysterious cancer that afflicts him. The iconic eyes-only design sends a message that he is always watching and still with his adoring constituents. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

In this Jan. 22, 2013 photo, a street artist's painting of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez sits for sale in Caracas, Venezuela. While Venezuela's sick president recuperates from surgery in Cuba, in Venezuela he is alive and well, at least in spirit. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

In this Jan. 21, 2013 photo, a mural depicting Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez's eyes cover a wall in Caracas, Venezuela. Filling the void of Chavez's 6-week absence following a fourth surgery in Cuba, the government has been churning out a steady stream of emotional images, slogans and Chavez sound bites that appear poised to solidify Chavez's legacy as a messianic savior of the poor. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Portraits of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez sit for sale along a street on the sidelines of a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. Many credit Chavez with easing their poverty and expanding public services. To them, it does not matter that Venezuela suffers from 20 percent inflation, that the oil-producing nation is often short on cooking oil and sugar, that it has one of the world's highest murder rates, and that the president will not divulge the details of his cancer. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez wears a hat decorated with his picture at a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. The cult of personality that Chavez long nurtured has been flourishing like never before as his supporters' devotion has intensified into a fervor that borders on deification. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? While Venezuela's sick president recuperates from surgery behind closed doors in Cuba, at home he is more visible than ever.

An iconic block image of his eyes look out from murals lining the streets of Caracas, his portrait appears on T-shirts sported by followers, and on television he can be seen booming "I am a nation!"

Though still alive, Chavez is being inducted into a pantheon of deified legends such as Evita Peron and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

The cult of personality that Chavez long nurtured has been flourishing with even greater force in his absence as he confronts an increasingly difficult struggle against the mysterious cancer that afflicts him.

One woman at a pro-government demonstration on Wednesday held a portrait photo of Chavez next to an image of Jesus. New murals showing only the president's eyes have appeared on city walls along with a new slogan, "I am Chavez."

The iconic eyes-only design sends a message that he is always watching and still with his adoring constituents. Many credit him with easing their poverty and expanding public services. To them, it does not matter that Venezuela suffers from 20 percent inflation, that the oil-producing nation is often short on cooking oil and sugar, that it has one of the world's highest murder rates, that the president will not divulge the details of his cancer.

"I am Chavez!" his supporters yell at the rallies in his honor. "We're all Chavez!" the crowds shout in unison.

Filling the void of Chavez's 6-week absence following a fourth surgery in Cuba, the government has been churning out a steady stream of emotional images, slogans and Chavez sound bites that appear poised to solidify Chavez's legacy as a messianic savior of the poor.

In newspapers, the government has been running one ad showing a photo of the president superimposed on a mosaic of smiling faces of Venezuelans: Chavez men, Chavez women and Chavez children of all ages.

Juan Pablo Lupi, a Latin American literature scholar, sees parallels with the way Evita Peron became an enduring political symbol in Argentina, and the way "Che" became a revolutionary icon after his death. In the case of Chavez, he said, "this has been very well-staged, all this process of myth-making and appealing to the feelings and religious sentiment of the people. This is something that is quasi-religious."

Lupi, a Venezuelan associate professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, said he expects Chavismo to go on without Chavez. "The myth is already there, and all this has been very, very well-crafted."

The connections between Chavez and Jesus are surfacing more often, having begun with Chavez himself praying to God on television for more time, and repeatedly kissing a crucifix.

In one television spot, a beaming Chavez hugs children while a singer croons: "Chavez is pure and noble love." And for block after block in downtown Caracas, lampposts are festooned with new banners showing a smiling, healthy Chavez with the words "We love you!"

Daisy Castillo, who studies law at a free university established by Chavez, joined Wednesday's demonstration, and says she, like many other Chavistas, is praying for him.

"''There has never before been a president like our Comandante Chavez," she said.

Fidel Castro long tried to avoid the trappings of a cult of personality in Cuba, sharply limiting public presentations of his image. But there is plenty of precedent elsewhere for displays of presidential imagery, with leaders such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, the late Kim Jong Il in North Korea -- not to mention Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin.

In Venezuela, the relentless omnipresence of a missing leader is a way to reinforce his party, said Juan Carlos Bertorelli, creative director at a marketing company in Caracas that focuses on branding.

"Now that he's not here physically or in voice at this time, the people who are maintaining the structure of his party," he said, "are trying to maintain a presence that legitimizes them."

___

Associated Press photographer Fernando Llano contributed to this report.

___

Ian James on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ianjamesap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-24-LT-Venezuela-Chavez-Cult/id-d5101fb1f39b4dfeb121f6fed6d8b30c

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Where Summer Meets Perfect | BeCleanLiveGreen

Posted by Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips Articles from EzineArticles.com on January 24, 2013

Planning a perfect summer vacation with family or friends? Confused which way to go? Don't be! Give rest to your body and soul, keep calm and try out La Pedrera......

Click to read the complete article

Source: http://www.becleanlivegreen.com/?p=97288

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Manufacturers say demand up after cliff standoff

BOSTON (Reuters) - Top manufacturers sounded a confident note about their expectations for 2013 on Wednesday as fears of the year-end "fiscal cliff" faded into memory.

Textron Inc laid out an earnings forecast that would represent growth of about 12 percent, while larger peer United Technologies Corp reiterated a projection that its profit would rise about 13 percent.

Executives at each company said that, after seeing a year-end pause in ordering as customers worried about a budget standoff that could have triggered large spending cuts and higher taxes in the United States, demand is recovering.

"What we see in the economy in the U.S. is that the rebound in the housing market is really having a pull-through effect on the rest of the economy," said Greg Hayes, chief financial officer of United Tech, in an interview. "Commercial construction is coming back. We saw particular strength in North America and Asia, not as much of a story in Europe, as you can imagine.

The U.S. housing slump set the 2007-2009 recession in motion and a slow recovery in that market has been one important drag on a long, sluggish recovery. Recent government data have shown a pickup in demand, with a report last week showing housing starts surged to a four-year high in December.

Hartford, Connecticut-based United Tech is the world's largest maker of elevators and air conditioners and also produces Pratt & Whitney jet engines and Sikorsky helicopters. It also noted that airlines' orders for spare parts for jet engine had risen in the quarter, reflecting higher rates of travel.

"The path gets a little easier," said Daniel Holland, equity analyst at Morningstar, who covers United Tech. "If you look at all the pieces, a housing recovery here and in China, and an improving environment for Otis (elevators) in China, they have decent, positive momentum."

Meanwhile, Textron said it expects sales of its Cessna corporate jets to pick up this year, after a year-end drop that the Providence, Rhode Island-based company blamed on "fiscal cliff" worries.

"We probably have had more order activity than we're used to seeing at the beginning of January," reflecting orders that had been delayed during the "fiscal cliff" standoff, said Chief Executive Scott Donnelly, on a conference call with analysts. "We'll see a degree of uncertainty in the jet market as Washington works through its fiscal challenges, but we believe demand will solidify as those uncertainties are reduced."

While the White House and Congress averted the crisis that could have been triggered by allowing the U.S. economy to go over the "fiscal cliff", an event that economists said would have sent the nation back into recession, budget battles continue.

On Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers are expected to vote to extend by four months the government's ability to borrow money, effectively suspending rules that allow the nation to borrow no more than $16.4 trillion.

Both companies also have significant defense businesses, and face the risk that the U.S. will continue to scale back spending on weapons, such as United Tech's Black Hawk military helicopters and Textron's heavy armored vehicles.

GROWTH FORECASTS

United Tech stood by its forecast, first issued last month, that called for 2013 earnings to rise by about 13 percent to a range of $5.85 to $6.15 per share, with sales up about 12 percent to a range of $64 billion to $65 billion.

Textron issued a 2013 forecast that called for profit to rise by about 12 percent to a range of $2.10 to $2.30 per share, with revenue up about 6 percent to $12.9 billion.

The results came a few days after General Electric Co , the largest U.S. conglomerate, said that it ended 2012 with a record-high order backlog and sounded a confident note on 2013, sending its shares higher on Friday.

The manufacturing sector has been one of the better performers this quarter, with 80 percent of the industrial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> topping analysts' forecasts. That's better than the 68 percent of companies across the index that have beaten estimates.

United Tech and Textron shares, each of which had risen roughly 15 percent over the past six months, outpacing the broader U.S. market, were little changed in early trading.

United Tech rose 70 cents, less than 1 percent, to $88.17 and Textron gained 1.2 percent to $27.40. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Investors will get more news on the sector later this week, when 3M Co and Honeywell International Inc are due to report results.

(Reporting By Scott Malone; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/manufacturers-demand-cliff-standoff-141129696--business.html

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South Korea tries to recall a US adoption

The bitter legal struggle of an American couple to adopt a Korean baby is touching on nationalist and ethnic sensitivities in South Korea.

The couple, Christopher and Jinshil Duquet, wait at home in Evanston, Ill., to see if they can keep the baby they have nurtured almost from her birth seven months ago while lawyers, officials, and judges consider an landmark case that seems to revolve around national pride as well as Korean law.

The Korean birth mother, all sides agree, approves of the adoption, as she did when the baby was born. Nor does anyone doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Duquet, who already have an adopted Korean daughter, now 10, have the resources to provide a loving home.

Korean authorities charge, however, that the baby was adopted illegally. The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare says the case is a matter of basic principle that tests the power of the government to control adoptions. Attorneys for the Duquet family say the issue is a matter of letting national pride ? a deep-seated sense of shame in a newly wealthy nation over the adoption of hundreds of babies every year by foreigners ? affect the interests of children who might not otherwise find homes.

?We?re bringing criminal charges against the people related to this case,? says Lee Kyung-hee, director of child welfare at the ministry. ?The baby girl is a Korean citizen and must have the opportunity to be adopted in Korea first.?

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Controversy over adoptions from Korea comes at a time of similar sensitivities in other countries, notably Russia, which has banned virtually all adoptions of Russian children to the US. South Korea is not considering such a prohibition but is wary about private adoptions as opposed to adoptions through a recognized agency.

In the case of the Duquets, South Korea claims that the baby was ?a child in need of protection? and should have been offered for adoption by a Korean family. Because the baby was adopted ?privately,? not through an agency, and then entered the US without a visa, say officials here, she could only stay there temporarily and the adoption is a violation of the law.

The Duquets claim that a South Korean attorney assured them they were following the proper legal procedures as the couple arranged to pick up the baby days after its birth ? a choice that their US and Korean attorneys argue was proper and legal.

The case has been seen as such a crucial test of Korean law that Ms. Lee flew to Chicago in December to testify in US federal court on the need to return the baby to Korea. A judge last week referred the case to federal officials, leaving it to the Department of Homeland Security to decide whether the baby has to go back to Korea.

But why would Korean authorities fight so intently to bring the baby to the land of her birth when the adoptive family is financially well-to-do and believed they were abiding by proper procedures when they left Korea with the baby?

?In my opinion the Korean government is somewhat embarrassed that we are high among countries exporting adoptions,? says Kim Min-jo, an attorney familiar with the case. ?They want to keep the numbers down.?

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Sean Hayes, a longtime attorney here, taking on the case for the Duquets, agrees.

?The biggest issue is [that] Korea is not able to get most of the babies who are eligible for adoption into loving homes locally,? says Mr. Hayes. ?That makes Korea look bad.?

The statistics bear out the paradox of a culture in which families are traditionally tight knit ? eager to help relatives financially, professionally, and socially, but reluctant to adopt babies from outside their own families.

More than 900 Korean babies were adopted overseas in 2011, far below the figure of more than 2,200 just eight years ago, in part because of Korean government incentives to encourage domestic adoption and newly tightened adoption laws for foreigners. But Hayes says the number adopted by Korean families remains steady at about 1,400 a year. "The problem is local adoptions haven't gone up, while foreign adoptions are going down," says Hayes.

Tom Coyner, a business consultant who has written about the case, believes Koreans are increasingly embarrassed by the number of adoptions in view of the success of the Korean economy.

?There is the presumption that South Koreans can or should be able to accommodate their orphans without foreign assistance," he says. "In terms of collective wealth, South Korea might well assume complete fostering and placement of its orphans. Unfortunately, adoptive parents are often very picky in terms of any real or presumed 'defects' in a prospective adoption, including, in many cases, the education levels of the natural parents."

The result is that many Korean children are not adopted and remain in orphanges that care for them until they reach the age of 18. "Then the orphans are out on the streets to fare on their own," says Mr. Coyner. "These children with only high school educations and no other special skills are extremely disadvantaged."

CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE

The current case came to the attention of Korean authorities after the Duquets went to the US embassy here for notarization of a document approving the adoption. The embassy, according to lawyers for the Duquets, said the baby had never had the proper visa for adoption and notified the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Jonathan Minkus, another attorney for the Duquets, says the embassy?s action was ?cowardly? and that ?all these parties have been charged in an international political issue that?s not of their own doing.? Hayes, representing the Duquets in Korea, believes the embassy simply wanted to cooperate with Korean authorities while pursuing broader concerns, notably policy on North Korea.

Mr. Minkus says racism is a factor. ?I have been advised that the Republic of Korea is resentful of white Anglo-Saxon Americans adopting their babies,? he says. ?The Duquets are caught in the middle of the determination by the Korean government to severely cut back on adoptions by non-Koreans.?

Lee at the Ministry of Health and Welfare emphatically disagrees. ?That?s ridiculous, wholly beside the point,? she says.

Rather, she says, ?It is so important to us in terms of the child protection system and the safety of the child.? Contradicting the argument that Korean adoptive parents are hard to find, she says that in this case "a Korean couple wanted to adopt the baby? and will bring charges against the Duquets if they ever return to Korea.

A US embassy official says the embassy cannot comment ?for privacy reasons,? but notes that ?Korea is still one of the largest suppliers of babies to the US.?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-korea-tries-recall-us-adoption-132652475.html

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