Got Game? Video Gaming Skills See a 30% Increase in Hiring ...

Over the past 90 days, about 3,200 jobs were advertised online for video gaming talent, a 30% year-over-year increase in demand, according to WANTED Analytics?.

New York, NY ? January 30, 2013. During the past 90 days, more than 3,200 job ads were posted online for video gaming talent, according to?WANTED?Analytics? (www.wantedanalytics.com), the leading source of real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace. As gaming platforms grow among consumers and companies increase their use of ?gamification? strategies, professionals are needed to develop, market, and sell video games. ?Despite a slowing in the last quarter of 2012, the number of gaming job ads grew 30% compared to one year ago.

Source: WANTED Analytics

The largest percentage of these jobs were for computer and technical occupations, including Software Engineers, Web Developers, and Software Quality Assurance Testers. IT related jobs accounted for 46% of all hiring for video gaming talent. Other occupations with high demand for gaming professionals included Marketing Managers, Market Research Analysts, Merchandise Displayers, and Multi-Media Artists and Animators.

The five metropolitan areas with the highest volume of gaming job ads during the past 90 days were Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, and New York. Although employers posted the most job ads in the Seattle metro area, the highest year-over-year growth of these locations was in San Francisco. This part of the Silicon Valley experienced a 132% increase in demand compared to the same 90-day time period last year.

Nationwide, these positions are likely to be difficult-to-recruit. With more than 240 employers currently sourcing for video gaming professionals, there is heavy competition to attract qualified talent. According to the Hiring Scale, the locations currently experiencing some of the most difficult conditions for recruiting this talent are Huntsville (Alabama) and Nashville (Tennessee). In these areas, there is higher demand by employers in comparison to the available, local talent pool. This factor not only contributes to more difficult recruiting, but also increases the time-to-fill, with ads remaining online for an average of 8 weeks ? 2 weeks longer than the national average.

Source: WANTED Analytics

The Hiring Scale? also shows that the current locations with the least difficult conditions for sourcing gamers are Tucson (Arizona) and Madison (Wisconsin.) While the US average Hiring Scale score is 71 (out of a possible 99, with 99 denoting the hardest-to-fill,) these cities score a 24. Recruiters here are likely to have more potential candidates to choose among and spend a shorter time sourcing candidates than the rest of the United States. Online job ads in these areas are posted for an average of 6 weeks.

Source: WANTED Analytics

The?Hiring Scale measures conditions in local job markets by comparing hiring demand and labor supply. The?Hiring Scale is part of the WANTED?Analytics platform that offers business intelligence for the talent marketplace.

To see additional charts and detail, please visit?www.wantedanalytics.com/insight.

The?Hiring Scale is available at?www.hiringscale.com.

About WANTED?Analytics?

WANTED?Analytics? helps recruiting organizations make better decisions faster with real-time business intelligence on jobs, employers, and talent.?Analytics brings together, for the first time, years of hiring demand and talent supply data to create a true talent intelligence platform for hard-to-fill positions.

Clients in the staffing, HR, RPO, media, and government sectors use WANTED?Analytics? to find sales leads, analyze employment trends, gather competitive intelligence, forecast economic conditions, and source hard-to-fill positions.

About WANTED Technologies Corporation

WANTED Technologies (TSX-V:WAN) provides real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace. Founded in 1999, the company?s headquarters are in Quebec City, Canada, and it maintains a US-based subsidiary with primary offices in New York City. WANTED began collecting detailed Hiring Demand data in June 2005, and currently maintains a database of more than 600 million unique job listings. For more information or to sample WANTED?s services, visit?www.wantedanalytics.com.

WANTED is also the exclusive data provider for The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series?, the monthly economic indicator of Hiring Demand in the United States.

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Any statement that appears prospective shall not be interpreted as such.

###

Source: http://www.wantedanalytics.com/press/2013/01/30/got-game-video-gaming-skills-see-a-30-increase-in-hiring-demand/

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Academic gains, improved teacher relationships found among high risk kids in Head Start

Jan. 30, 2013 ? A new study by Oregon State University researchers finds that Head Start can make a positive impact in the lives of some of its highest risk children, both academically and behaviorally.

Published in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, the study sheds light on how Head Start has helped children living in non-parental care, or living with someone who is not a parent or step-parent by biology or adoption.

"These children tend to have unstable home lives, sometimes transitioning between different relatives, living with their grandma one month, and later with an aunt or other family member," said lead author Shannon Lipscomb, an assistant professor of human development and family sciences at OSU-Cascades.

"These are kids who face heightened risk factors even beyond those of other children living in poverty. They are more similar to what we find in kids in child welfare. They have a lot of challenges in their lives, and the stresses of that can cause behavioral and development issues."

The researchers obtained data from the Head Start Impact Study, a nationally representative sample of Head Start programs and families commissioned by the federal government. Head Start provides comprehensive early child development services to low-income children and their families. That original study, published in 2010, looked at the general population of children attending Head Start programs, but did not examine impacts for children living in non-parental care.

"Children in non-parental care showed more problems with academics, behavior, and a wide variety of risk factors at the beginning of the study," Lipscomb said. "In addition, Head Start is designed as a wrap-around program, which links child, teacher, and parent. So we wanted to know if this model even works for kids who don't have a traditional family, and may have different caregivers at any given time."

The researchers found that Head Start appears to be as beneficial for this group of children as it is for the general population of children living in poverty who attend the program. Analyzing the data on 253 children in non-parental care, they found the program had short-term positive impacts on school readiness, particularly in regards to early academic skills, positive teacher-child relationships, and a reduction in behavior problems.

"Our findings show Head Start is at least as effective for this very high risk group as prior studies have shown that it is for other children," Lipscomb said. "The impact we saw was modest, not huge, but statistically significant. We think the positive impact on child-teacher relationships is especially important."

Lipscomb said this was a new finding; prior analysis of Head Start's impacts on children who live with their parents haven't found this effect.

Lipscomb is an expert on early childhood development, with an emphasis on preschool and early child care experiences, and how those early social experiences help kids prepare for success in life. Her work focuses on children from at-risk backgrounds.

"Children in non-parental care tend to struggle with socio-emotional development, likely due to the risk factors they experience such as transitioning between homes, special needs, and behavioral problems," she said. "Perhaps as a result of Head Start's whole-child focus and standards for teacher qualifications, their teachers may be more effective than caregivers in other types of programs in establishing positive relationships with children who have high needs."

OSU doctoral students Megan Pratt and Sara Schmitt, as well as Katherine Pears and Hyoun Kim of the Oregon Social Learning Center, contributed to this study.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oregon State University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Shannon T. Lipscomb, Megan E. Pratt, Sara A. Schmitt, Katherine C. Pears, Hyoun K. Kim. School readiness in children living in non-parental care: Impacts of Head Start. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2013; 34 (1): 28 DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2012.09.001

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/most_popular/~3/i8MOfHgA7lM/130130121654.htm

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SEO content marketing roundup, week ending ... - SEO Copywriting

January 30, 2013 ? posted by Laura

Going mobile? In this week?s latest and greatest online marketing news, content marketers share success tips and discuss mobile challenges, SEO and search pro?s talk unique content and advanced topics, while the social media marketing community chirps up Twitter?s new Vine mobile app. Enjoy this week?s web gems!

Content Marketing

Mauro D?Andrea posts ?101 Experts Share Their Tips for Online Success,? segmented by marketing category, at Blog Growth.

Lee Odden lists 50 ?Top UK Online Marketing Influencers & Bloggers in 2013? at Top Rank.

Isla McKetta posts ?The Viral Video Manifesto: How to Make Content Shareable? at Portent.

Patricia Redsicker posts ?Findable Content Marketing: 3 Google Keyword Tool Tips? at Content Marketing Institute.

Bob Geller posts ?Social Media Moment of Zen: 4 Non-intuitive Ways to Boost Content Marketing Effectiveness and Results in 2013? at WindMill Networking.

Carolyn Goodman posts ?If Content Is King, Grammar Is Queen? at Target Marketing Magazine.

Bryan Eisenberg talks marketing ROI with ?Why You Won?t Crush It This Year!? at ClickZ.

Zach Bulygo posts ?How to Keep Email Marketing Manageable? at KISSmetrics.

Citing a study by ExactTarget, Matt Kapko posts ?Marketers, Consumers Favor Email Over Social Media [Report]? at Search Engine Watch.

Marketing Sherpa?s weekly research chart looks at the ?Top mobile marketing challenges.?

Citing Marketing Sherpa?s Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report, Shelly Kramer posts ?Mobile Marketing: 50 Percent of Marketers Have No Idea? at V3 Integrated Marketing.

Heidi Cohen posts ?How Social Media and Mobile Change Pricing Strategies.?

Heather Lloyd-Martin tackles content creation, client relations, and pricing strategy with ?Discount your copywriting rates? No way! Try this instead.? and via video with ?Promises, promises: the copywriting client carrot & stick(y) situation? at SEO Copywriting.

Continuing the client relations theme, Sian Killingsworth posts ?How to fire a writing client: it ain?t me, babe? at SEO Copywriting.

Events:

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SEO & Search

Neil Patel posts ?The Advanced Guide to SEO? at Quicksprout.

Alistair Dent posts ?How to Use Google Analytics Advanced Segments? at Search Engine Watch.

Eric Ward plays SEO psychiatrist with ?The Link Shrink Is In: 3 Crazy Linking Assumptions? at Search Engine Land.

In a ?mozinar? supplemental Q & A post, Justin Taylor answers questions about SEO and web design with ?Designing for SEO? at SEOmoz.

Nathan Safran discusses ?Competitive Analysis: How to Become an SEO Hero in 4 Steps? at Search Engine Watch.

SkilledUp interviews Heather Lloyd-Martin about the art of SEO copywriting and more with ?Direct from the Ultimate SEO Copywriter Herself (Part 1).?

Doc Sheldon discusses ?Building Authority in 2013? at Level 343.

Lyena Solomon posts ?How To Really Be Less Reliant On Google Search Traffic? at Search Engine People.

Like Solomon, Uri Bar-Joseph discusses diversification with ?Google, I Think I Love You ? So What Am I So Afraid Of?? at Search Engine Watch.

Rand Fishkin posts ?How Unique Does Content Need to Be to Perform Well in Search Engines?? via SEOmoz?s Whiteboard Friday.

Events:

• If you happen to be in Seattle, take advantage of this low-cost, high-value meet-up, ?Seattle Information Architecture & User Experience,? featuring Ian Lurie of Portent and Ruth Burr of SEOmoz. It?s on February 12^th at 7 p.m.
• SES London is on for next month, February 18^th thru the 21^st.
• SMX West?is scheduled for March 11th thru the 13^th?in San Jose, CA. Register by February 1^st for early bird savings!
• SMX Toronto is scheduled for March 20^th and 21^st.
  
• SES New York?will return to The Big Apple March 25^th thru the 28^th. Register by February 21^st for early bird rates!

?

Social Media Marketing

?Twitter Mobile Video? headlines Social Media Examiner?s weekly news.

More on Twitter?s Vine: Doug Antkowiak opines that ?Twitter?s Vine App Looks Awesome? at Portent, and Nick Cicero reports ?15 Brands already using Twitter?s New Vine App? at SocialFresh.

Andrew Lipsman reports ?Facebook Vaults Ahead of Google Maps to Finish 2012 as #1 U.S. Mobile App? at comScore.

Citing a new report from Vizu, Matt McGee posts ?64 Percent Of Digital Marketers Plan To Spend More On Social Ads In 2013? at Marketing Land.

Stephan Duggan looks at 2013 social media trends with ?What?s Next? Better Engagement and a Marketplace Without Boundaries? at Social Media Today.

Jason Del Rey reports ?YouTube Set to Introduce Paid Subscriptions This Spring? at AdAge | digital.

Jay Baer posts ?Social Media Strategy in 8 Steps? at Convince & Convert.

Miranda Miller discusses content targeting with ?Social Media Marketing Fatal Attraction: When Content Earns Your Brand the Wrong Type of Attention? at Top Rank.

Jordan Kasteler discusses ?Why You Need To Treat Your Social Media Strategy Like Your Content Strategy? at Search Engine Land.

Ashley Zeckman posts ?Make the Most of Your Social Media Interactions: 9 Tips? at Search Engine Watch.

Somini Sengupta discusses ?How Facebook Taught Its Search Tool to Understand People? at the New York Times (NYTimes.com).

Sianessa Killingsworth posts ?How To Be Found in Facebook?s Graph Search at her small business marketing blog.

Events:

• Social Media Marketing World is scheduled to take place in San Diego from April 7^th thru the 9^th.
• For an all-in-one listing and description of social media, content & inbound marketing events, check out Neal Schaffer?s ?The 12 Best Social Media Conferences to Attend in 2013? at Social Media Today.

?

photo thanks to Milica Sekulic

?

Learn how to grow a happy, healthy copywriting business from 12 of the world?s leading experts: register for the Copywriting Business Boot Camp before classes start on February 11^th!

Source: http://www.seocopywriting.com/content-marketing/seo-content-marketing-roundup-week-ending-january-30th/

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Facebook Is Down (Updated)

According to users and various reports, Facebook is currently down in the US of A. As in it's not working. As in it won't even load. In fact, Facebook hasn't been working for over an hour. How in the world is the world surviving? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KGDq1ovyTPk/facebook-is-down

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Davos Needs Parents of Both Sexes - NYTimes.com

Reporting from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Nicholas Kristof describes a ?sea of men.? In ?She?s (Rarely) the Boss,? he writes that female participation at the ?annual conclave of the presumed powerful? is 17 percent. No word on how many of those 17 percent are mothers of young children, or how many of the 83 percent of male attendees are fathers who made sure to arrange for suitable child care before they came.

Why so few women? Mr. Kristof offers Sheryl Sandberg?s ?provocative? general answer to the question of why women are underrepresented in positions of power from her forthcoming book, ?Lean In?:

?We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in. We internalize the negative messages we get throughout our lives, the messages that say it?s wrong to be outspoken, aggressive, more powerful than men. We lower our own expectations of what we can achieve. We continue to do the majority of the housework and child care. We compromise our career goals to make room for partners and children who may not even exist yet.?

There is something real and important in what she says, Mr. Kristof argues, citing his experiences of men asking questions more readily, along with a McKinsey survey (36 percent of male employees at major companies aspired to be top executives, compared with 18 percent of the women) and a study of Carnegie Mellon M.B.A. graduates in 2003 (57 percent of the men, but only 7 percent of the women, tried to negotiate a higher initial salary offer).

Neither Ms. Sandberg nor Mr. Kristof blames women for the numeric effect of their many failures and compromises, and both give significant weight to history, nature, social mores and the fact that, as Mr. Kristof puts it, ?the modern job was built for the distracted father.? But there is so much more to the story of why women are underrepresented in Davos, in boardrooms and in corporate executive roles.

In a complex, forthcoming study from the researchers Serena Chen at the University of California, Berkeley and Melissa Williams of Emory University, women who were asked to imagine a life in which they made most of the household decisions for a family consisting of a small child and a spouse showed less interest in achieving power in the workplace than women who imagined sharing those household decisions with a spouse, whereas men asked to imagine the same situations showed no change in their workplace ambitions.

A (male) writer, considering this data, produced a piece for The Huffington Post with the headline ?Working Moms Study: Household Managers Found to Have Less Ambition at Work? (The short line in the link? ?working-moms-less-likely-leaders?).

The researchers theorized that women were more likely to value household power, and therefore to feel less hypothetically in need of workplace power (unlike The Huffington Post writer, I find it hard to extrapolate from the imagined desires of research subjects to the real world), but the result was still yet another negative headline about women in the workplace.

This research seems to support Ms. Sandberg?s argument: even women imagining managing a household with a child ?lean back.? But we have to consider the extent to which that household (even the hypothetical household) pushes mothers back.

From birth to age 5 or 6, that single child will need someone present to care for her during every one of her waking and sleeping hours. That care has to be provided by a parent or paid for (and the parent who works at home caring for his or her child is ?paying? for child care in lost earnings elsewhere). Only when she?s old enough for public school does society support ? in the purely economic sense ? the idea that both of that child?s parents could work outside the home, and then one parent is expected (again, in the economic sense of a publicly provided alternative to the child being at home with the parent) to be present after 3 p.m.

Those are cold, hard economic facts (and please understand that they aren?t meant to reflect the very real emotional pleasures and even economic gains of having children). Men, who are accustomed to having women deal most fully with the consequences of that unavoidable requirement, may be more able to see it as less limiting. The fact that the men in the above hypothetical study weren?t daunted by the proposition of being wholly responsible for arranging that care may show an admirable level of ambition, but it may also show a poor grasp of reality.

The most salient line in Ms. Sandberg?s words was this one: ?We continue to do the majority of the housework and child care.? We ? as in, we women ? do, and that makes it difficult. But do we women continue to do the majority of the housework and child care because we want to? Because we have to? Because we?re expected to?

I?m not even sure we know the answer to that question. Regardless, until that greater household burden on women changes, the number of mothers in Davos won?t change. Two things could help: more fathers taking on real equal roles in child-rearing, and more structural support, not for women, but for families. Families who need paid sick leave. Families who need paternity and maternity leave. Families who need access to affordable, high-quality day care, and to birth control, and to preventative health care. (And unless you sprang from the brow of Zeus fully formed, those issues affect those without children as well.)

All of those are economic issues, and they certainly have an economic impact, in different ways, in different societies, worldwide. Lifting families from poverty requires all of those things. So they?ll probably be at least touched on in Davos. But will they be discussed in the same way as if 50 percent of the attendees were women, and if the other 50 percent were men who had always had, and expected to have, a gender-neutral equal role in family life?

No.

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Source: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/davos-needs-parents-of-both-sexes/

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'Fruitvale' Takes Top Honors At Sundance: Full List Of Winners

Considering 2012's Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner "Beasts of the Southern Wild" is now a Best Picture nominee at the Academy Awards, it's a good practice to keep tabs on which film wins top honors at the annual film festival. This year Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale" was awarded both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/01/28/fruitvale-sundance-winners-list/

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Republican spelunkers for comprehensive immigration reform - Le ...

Illegal is the new legal, but way cooler and more hip

They?re going to cave.

You know it, it?s just a matter of when.

Via Washington Free Beacon, McCain: Immigration Bill ?Not That Much Different? from 2007:

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said Sunday a group of bipartisan senators will propose a comprehensive immigration bill in the next week ?not much different? from the failed effort of 2007.

?What?s changed is, honestly, there is a new appreciation on both sides of the aisle? including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle?that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration bill,? McCain said in an interview with ?This Week

?

?

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Source: http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/01/republican-spelunkers-for-comprehensive-immigration-reform/

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Nexen, CNOOC extend closing date by 30 days

TORONTO (Reuters) - Nexen Inc and China's CNOOC Ltd said they have mutually agreed to extend the closing date of CNOOC's takeover of the Canadian oil and gas producer by 30 days to March 2, 2013.

Nexen said in a statement it would also postpone the release of its 2012 fourth quarter financial results. It did not give a date for the release of the results.

CNOOC Ltd said in late December that it expects its $15.1 billion takeover of Nexen to close in the first quarter of 2013 at the earliest, a move that could be related to giving U.S. regulators more time to approve a sensitive aspect of the deal.

The company is still awaiting U.S. approval over its purchase of Nexen assets in the Gulf of Mexico after Canadian officials approved the deal last year.

(Reporting By Russ Blinch; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nexen-cnooc-extend-closing-date-30-days-013147901--finance.html

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Syrian militias target civilians in Homs, opposition says

AMMAN (Reuters) - More than 20 people were killed in the Syrian city of Homs on Saturday, a doctor said, as fighting raged around a road junction on a supply line to government forces in the interior of the country.

The opposition accuses shabbiha militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of killing some 200 Sunni Muslim civilians in Homs in massacres over the last two weeks, but a Syrian ban on most independent media makes such reports difficult to verify.

In a video statement from a makeshift hospital in the city, Mohammad Mohammad, a doctor who has been treating the wounded underground for months, displayed the bodies of five people whose remains had been charred to unrecognizable bits.

"They are the Uzam family. The father, mother and three children - the shabbiha burnt them completely, as part of the annihilation the regime is bringing on the area of Jobar-Kfar Aaya," Mohammad said, referring to districts of Homs.

"We are here surrounded. We have more than 20 dead today. They have been documented by name." He said the victims had died in fighting, bombardment and summary executions.

At least 60,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war. Mostly Sunni Homs, a commercial and agricultural hub 140 km (90 miles) north of Damascus, has been at the heart of the 22-month uprising against Assad.

Syrian authorities have not commented on the latest fighting in the city. In the past, official media have described army operations as designed to ?cleanse' Homs from what they described as terrorists.

'ETHNIC CLEANSING'

Speaking from Istanbul after visiting Homs, Mohammad Mroueh, a member of the Higher Leadership Council of the Syrian Revolution, told Reuters: "The rebels are holding their ground but the shabbiha are getting to the civilians.

"It's hard to describe what's happening in terms other than ethnic cleansing of Sunni districts in the way of Alawite supply lines," said Mroueh, who was in Homs earlier this week.

The Alawites, who follow an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam and comprise about 10 percent of the population, have dominated Syria's power structure and its security apparatus since the 1960s. Assad and most of the ruling elite are Alawites.

A highway that passes near Homs has been used to supply Alawite forces deployed on hilltops in Damascus from bases in the coastal cities of Tartous and Latakia, which have a sizeable Alawite population, according to opposition sources.

Sunnis fear that the city could become part of an Alawite enclave stretching to the coast, where major military bases are located, if Assad was forced to leave Damascus.

"The massacres are increasing and Bashar al-Assad has began to draw borders of this mini-state and associate the Alawites more with blood so that they have no other option but to join him," wrote opposition campaigner Fawaz Tello in an article published on All4Syria news website.

Syria's conflict has grown more sectarian, deepening the Sunni-Shi'ite divide in the Middle East which burst into the open when Shi'ites gained political ascendancy in Iraq following the 2003 U.S. led invasion that deposed Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

A statement by an insurgent group, the Syrian Revolution against Bashar al-Assad, said neighborhoods of southern and western Homs were being hit with battlefield artillery and barrages from rocket launchers.

Activists in Homs said at least 120 civilians and 40 opposition fighters had been killed in the past week and that rebels from the nearby town of Qusair on the border with Lebanon were trying to relieve pressure on the western neighborhoods.

The armed opposition has been weakened in the city after a drop in ammunition supplies in recent weeks and after Assad's forces tightened a siege on western areas, according to opposition sources.

A counter-offensive by rebels two days ago in the western sector pushed back Assad's forces slightly, but they continued to pound the area with artillery and from the air, the sources said.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-militias-target-civilians-homs-opposition-says-172938129.html

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No. 1 Baylor women beat No. 20 Oklahoma 82-65

Baylor's Brittney Griner (42) blocks the shot of Oklahoma's Joanna McFarland (53) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Waco Texas. It was Griners' 665th career blocked shot, surpassing the NCAA women's record set by Louella Tomlinson for St. Mary's in California from 2007-11. Baylor won 82-65. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Baylor's Brittney Griner (42) blocks the shot of Oklahoma's Joanna McFarland (53) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Waco Texas. It was Griners' 665th career blocked shot, surpassing the NCAA women's record set by Louella Tomlinson for St. Mary's in California from 2007-11. Baylor won 82-65. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Baylor's Brittney Griner (42) shoots against Oklahoma's Nicole Griffin (4) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Waco Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Baylor's Brooklyn Pope (32) shoots against Oklahoma's Aaryn Ellenberg (3) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Waco Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Baylor's Brittney Griner (42) shoots against Oklahoma's Nicole Griffin (4) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Jan. 26, 2012, in Waco Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Baylor's Odyssey Sims (0) drives the lane against Oklahoma's Morgan Hook, left, during the first half of an NCAAcollege basketball game Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013,. in Waco Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

WACO, Texas (AP) ? Brittney Griner now has the record she has always wanted.

How about a block party for the two-time All-American from Baylor who already holds the NCAA women's record with 11 dunks and is a three-point play from becoming the Big 12's career scoring leader.

Griner set the NCAA career record for blocked shots, getting the record-tying and record-setting blocks by swatting away a pair of shots by Oklahoma's Aaryn Ellenberg, as the top-ranked Lady Bears won 82-65 Saturday for their 50th consecutive win at home.

"Definitely happy I got that. Now I'm going to try to set it higher," the 6-foot-8 Griner said. "Blocked shots keep the other team from scoring, that's just how I look at it. Blocked shots kind of remind me when I played volleyball, I used to love to spike. ... That's why I like (blocks) the most."

With eight in the game, Griner has 665 career blocks, two more than Louella Tomlinson had for St. Mary's in California (2007-11).

"As good as she is on the offensive end, where she really changes games is on the defensive end," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. "She obviously has the wingspan and the athleticism, but she also has that ornate sense that I think all great shot blockers have knowing when to go get it."

By fouling out for only the second time in her 131 career games, Griner missed a chance to also break the Big 12 scoring record before the Lady Bears (18-1, 8-0 Big 12) play their next two games on the road. Her 2,833 career points are two shy of matching Oklahoma State's Andrea Riley's (2007-10).

Griner finished with 15 points to lead six players in double figures for Baylor, which has won 36 consecutive Big 12 regular-season and tournament games since a loss to Oklahoma in the conference tournament three years ago.

Odyssey Sims had 12 points and 10 assists while Destiny Williams had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Ellenberg had 33 points for the Sooners (15-4, 5-2). Joanna McFarland had 12 points and 16 rebounds.

Griner got her 663rd career block with just under 13 minutes left. A similar play with 10:25 remaining was Griner's seventh of the game and broke Tomlinson's record.

With 5:14 to go, Griner was called for a foul on another shot by Ellenberg. It was the first time she fouled out since the second game of her freshman season.

"Disappointed I fouled out at the end of the game," Griner said.

That came less than a minute after Griner was called for a charge against McFarland for the second time in the game.

In a 30-second span of the first half, McFarland drew charges against Griner and Jordan Madden and hit a 3-pointer in between.

"It's not like a fear. You've just got to go in and bow up, like if she goes hard at me, I've got to go hard back," McFarland said. "It's a mutual thing."

McFarland's long-range shot pulled the Sooners within 26-21, but they never got closer.

The Sooners made 11 of 26 3-pointers, but were just 9 of 46 inside the arc.

"I'm really proud of our guys, I thought we competed and fought every step of the way, and did some really, really good things and attacked them, and went after them, and shot pretty well from 3," Coale said. "Obviously did not shoot well from 2, but there's a big reason for that. Her number's 42 (Griner)."

Oklahoma won the opening tip and Ellenberg immediately hit a 3-pointer. The Sooners were up 10-8 when Ellenberg hit another 3 from the top left of the key 4 minutes later.

Baylor then scored 14 points in a row over the next 5 minutes and took the lead for good. The spurt ended with consecutive baskets by Brooklyn Pope, who finished with 10 points like Kimetria Hayden and Jordan Madden.

Even after shooting 60 percent from the field (35 of 58) and having six players in double figures against the Big 12's second-place team, there were still things for Baylor coach Kim Mulkey to emphasize to her team.

"You have to evaluate yourself and say if you shot like that and had that many players in double figures, why did you only win by 17?," Mulkey said. "Well then it goes back to two things. One, missed free throws, they make free throws. We missed 14 free throws, that's unacceptable. Then they made a lot of 3's."

Not nearly enough though.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-26-T25-Oklahoma-Baylor/id-9e76f4357d304446ba61c24ef38d5e1a

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Tourists' scary tale: Bloodied by rocks, robbed in Peru

By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor

A family vacation in Peru turned into a vicious nightmare for three Americans who say they were brutally attacked by residents of a countryside village.?

The Jackson, Wyo., residents were abducted while looking for a place to camp for the night. Eventually, they were freed after their captors forced them at gunpoint to sign a document blaming their injuries on a drunk-driving accident.

?We begged for mercy. We thought we were going to die for 11 hours,? Jed Wolfrom recalled for NBC in a TODAY segment that aired Friday.?

Wolfrom and his wife, Meghan Doherty, had been celebrating the 30^th birthday of Wolfrom?s sister, Jennifer Wolfrom, on Dec. 29. The three had gone on a mountain hike and were settling for the evening in the village of Palca before heading to their next destination, Machu Picchu.

?We asked the first initial two people that came down, we asked, ?Do you think this would be okay if we camped here???And they said, ?Yes, it should be fine,?? Jennifer Wolfrom said.

But then, the men started blowing whistles and using their cell phones to call people. Within minutes, the Americans were surrounded by villagers demanding their passports. The trio refused and got back in their car.

They tried to drive off, but the villagers had blocked the road. Jed Wolfrom tried to steer around a blockade of rocks they had created, but the truck tipped and rolled into a ditch.

?And that's when the big rocks start coming in. And the windows are starting to smash,? he said.

His wife got hit in the back of the head with one of the rocks.

?At that point, we're yelling at each other, ?We have to run away. These people are trying to kill us,?? Meghan Dougherty said.

The group was stranded, surrounded by villagers who continued to stone them, as well as beat them with sticks.

?All of our clothing is covered in blood. It?s just dripping off of us,? Jennifer Wolfrom said.

The group was marched to the village center, where more residents appeared, shouting, beating and even whipping them.

?I was like, I?m going to see my sister and my wife probably get beaten to death with stones right in front of me right now,?? said Jed Wolfrom, who still bears a bruised left eye and busted teeth from the night of the attack.

Suddenly, some of the villagers began pointing guns at the tourists. Thinking they were about to die, the threesome turned to each other and "we just said we loved each other,? Jennifer Wolfrom said.

But one of their captors instead fired a shot over their head and made some demands.

?They basically said, ?We'll let you go if you sign this document that says that you were drinking and you crashed the car into the ditch and that's why your car is so damaged and that's why you have these injuries,?? Jennifer Wolfrom said.

The group signed the document and were taken back to their ransacked vehicle. They eventually met up with police who took them in for medical treatment. The trio received more than 100 stitches between them.

Elizabeth Power, the consul general for the U.S. embassy in Lima, Peru, expressed surprise over the attack.

?We have not seen anything like this in Peru before. This appears to be a very isolated incident,? she said.

The mayor who oversees the Peruvian village where the attack took place insisted to NBC that the events stem from a misunderstanding. He said the villagers thought the Americans were delinquents, but couldn?t explain why the residents responded so violently. He said the event is being investigated.

Meanwhile, Peruvian tourism officials have met with the Wolfroms to apologize.

?We really sorry and surprised because this is not common at all?here in Peru," said Andrea Martinez, the country?s tourism deputy director. ?We hope this won?t happen again.?

More:?Prince Harry: Killing Taliban was a 'job that needed to be done'?
Rossen: Webcam hackers can spy on you in secret?
Readers sue Lance Armstrong for drug-use denials in books?

Source: http://todaynews.today.com/_news/2013/01/25/16695902-tourists-scary-tale-bloodied-by-rocks-robbed-in-peru?lite

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Best Online Website Promotion ? Dedicated Servers

Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to e-zines to be read by the general public and possibly re-published on other web sites. Appended to the end of your article is a resource box containing a brief promotional message linking to your web site. Webmasters who wish to reprint your article on their sites are required to include your resource box along with any live links to your site. The benefit that you get from your article is two-fold. First, your article will be read by visitors to the e-zine site. If they find it helpful and interesting, they will likely visit your web site to see what else you had to offer. Second, webmasters who find your article useful to their visitors may re-publish it on their sites, giving your article additional exposure. Every time your article is re-published on a web site, you gain an additional one-way link to your site through the live link in your resource box. This adds to your link popularity and ultimately increases your search engine rankings.  As you can see, the true potential of your article lies in its ability to propagate virally in cyberspace. For your article to propagate virally, it should appeal to both readers and webmasters alike. Keep in mind that your goal is hold your readers attention long enough for them to get to the  resource box.  If your article is boring and uninformative, few people will read it beyond the first or second paragraph. Below are some pointers to consider when writing an article: 1. Give your article a catchy title. Your title is the first and often the only thing that visitors see when they skim through a list of articles on an e-zine page. Put some thought into coming up with a title that grabs the reader?s attention right away. Words like Secrets,Free, and Successful tend to attract more attention than others. 2. Your article should not read like an ad. Most people read articles to find information they can use, not to see a pitch about your products or services.  If they see your article as nothing more than a shameless act of self promotion, they?ll get turned off and hit the Back button right away.  Put yourself in the reader?s shoes. What benefits do you want to get out of reading an article?  Cater to your reader?s  interests rather than your own. 3. Offer lots of free, useful information. Following on the last tip, keep in mind that your readers are looking for specific how-to instructions to help them achieve a certain goal.  Offer lots of tangible information that is immediately useful to them. Do not lead them through hoops just to get to an order 4) Avoid gimmicks. While it may be true that a sucker is born every minute, most internet users are sophisticated enough to tell what?s legitimate and what?s not. Write with the intention of offering something substantial to the reader. Be honest and forthright. Your article should not cause the reader to think, What is this guy trying to sell me? 5) Be succinct. Get to the point quickly, preferably in the first or second paragraph. Avoid lengthy paragraphs. Use lots of white space to separate your paragraphs to make them easier to read. 6) Your article should not be too short. Certainly, it?s possible to write a good article packed with useful information using just a couple hundred words. If your article is too short, however, some webmasters may feel hesitant to reprint it on their sites. They may, instead, borrow your ideas and write their own articles, gaining authorship without having to give you credit for your ideas. How long should your article be?  I suggest at least 500 words, preferably longer.  Longer articles give webmasters the impression that you have put some time and effort into your work and, thus, are deserving of being reprinted on their sites. 7) Use live (clickable) links in your resource box. Many e-zines permit clickable links in  resource boxes. Yet, many authors forgo this privilege by simply spelling out their URLs. Whenever permitted, you should spell out your URL as well as make it clickable (e.g. http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch). The advantages of a clickable URL are, (1) readers can go to your site simply by clicking on it,  and more importantly, (2) search engines will be able to record the ezine page containing your article as a link your web site, adding to your link popularity and search engine rankings. Avoid hyping in your resource box. Your resource box, while promotional in nature, should be brief and tasteful. The purpose of your resource box is not to sell your readers something, but to lead them to your website which does the actual selling. Your resource box should contain your name, your company name, a brief description of your products or services, your web site?s URL, and a clickable link to your site. 9) Put some thought and effort into your writing. E-zines have varying standards for accepting articles, and some accept and publish all submissions without any human review at all. However, this does not mean you should write an article just for sake of having it published somewhere. If your article comes off as half-baked, readers may make a similar assumption about you and your business practices.

Best Online Website Promotion

Source: http://www.30amediagroup.com/dedicated-servers/best-online-website-promotion-4092

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Child asthma reduced by smoking bans - Mother Nature Network

Child asthma reduced by smoking bans

British study finds a significant drop in hospital admissions for childhood asthma attacks after a law is enacted banning smoking in enclosed spaces.

Mon, Jan 21 2013 at 2:09 PM

A new study in the United Kingdom has some good news for children who suffer from asthma. According to researchers at the Imperial College London, childhood asthma attacks have dropped significantly since a law was enacted in 2007 banning smoking in enclosed spaces.

?

The new study, which was published in a recent issue of Pediatrics, found that the hospital admissions for children suffering from asthma attacks dropped more than 12 percent in the first year after the law was introduced in July 2007. ?The admission rates continued to decline in subsequent years suggesting that the health benefits from the law have had a sustained effect on England's kids.

?

Before the ban was implemented, hospital admissions for childhood asthma attacks were rising at a rate of 2.2 percent per year, with admissions hitting a peak of 26,969 admissions in 2006-07. ?Researchers estimate that the rapid decline in admissions, which began immediately after the law came into effect, is equivalent to 6,800 fewer hospital admission within the first three years after the law came into effect. ?

?

The decline in hospital admissions was seen across the board in both boys and girls and for children living in poor neighborhoods or wealthier communities.?

Source: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/child-asthma-reduced-by-smoking-bans

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Legal Funds Now Also Offers Personal Injury Advance

Legal Funds Now is a recognized funding company that offers plaintiff cash advance against their pending lawsuits. The company is dedicated to providing pre settlement legal funding, litigation financing, and legal funding for several years. The firm can give an amount up to $500,000 as a cash advance to plaintiffs depending on the strength and the requirement of the case. The company lends the money through a very simple process of filling up an online application form in which the details like type of lawsuit and amount required are asked. After the application is submitted, the officials of the company contact plaintiffs and discuss about the lawsuit. For having a detailed information about lawsuit, the officials of the company get in contact with plaintiff's attorney. If the case is approved after this discussion, the plaintiff just has to sign the documents. The privacy of plaintiffs is kept in mind and the information gathered is kept confidential.

Legal Funds Now also offers FELA lawsuit advance at a low interest rate starting from 2.99%. This primarily depends on three factors which includes type of pending lawsuit, time to be taken by the lawsuit to be settled and amount of required. This FELA lawsuit advance is given to plaintiffs on a non-recourse basis which means that this lawsuit advance has to be paid back if plaintiffs win the case.

About Legal Funds Now

Legal Funds Now is one of the leading instant pre settlement legal funding companies that provide litigation loans to cover your immediate living expenses while pursuing a legal claim. This company provides instant legal funds up to $500,000 in order to meet your living expenses while pursuing your claim. You can use this fund as and how you need it including paying off your medical bills, credit card payments, mortgage payments, child support and alimony, and many more such obligations. To know more about this leading instant pre settlement lawsuit funding company, and its outstanding customer service, please browse through http://www.legalfundsnow.com

Source: http://www.briefingwire.com/pr/legal-funds-now-also-offers-personal-injury-advance

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How the Air Force is fighting sexual assault, post-Lackland scandal

The sexual assault scandal at Lackland Air Force Base, the subject of a House hearing Wednesday, is prompting the service to grapple with the need for change. Here's an inside look at how the Air Force is going about it.

By Anna Mulrine,?Staff writer / January 23, 2013

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh III (l.) and Air Force Gen. Edward Rice, Jr., testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on sexual misconduct by basic training instructors at Lackland Air Force Base.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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In the days before Congress held Wednesday's hearing on the now-infamous sexual assaults at Lackland Air Force Base, senior Air Force officials and advisers met at the Pentagon to hash out just how to tackle the problem within the ranks.

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Their discussion closely mirrored the questions that lawmakers raised during Wednesday's hearing, including, ?How could there have been such a systematic breakdown of leadership?? and ?Is the US military inadvertently creating an environment more conducive to sexual harassment??

On this point, the Air Force?s highest ranking officer, Gen. Mark Welsh III, was candid about what he sees as the keys to solving the problem.?

?Why, on what was undoubtedly the worst day of a victim?s life, did they not turn to us for help?? he asked.??We are missing something fundamental in human-to-human interaction that will allow them to feel safe enough to come to us and report and let us put our arms around them and help them through this horrible event in your life,? he added in his testimony Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee.??That?s at the heart of the problem.??

At Lackland, the Air Force identified 59 victims of sexual assault and misconduct. In a wide-ranging investigation that involved ?at least 7,700 interviews by 550 investigators, the Air Force has begun disciplinary proceedings against 32 instructors, roughly 4 percent of the instructors who have served in basic military training over the past three years.

Combing through the last year of sexual assault statistics, US military officials found a statistic that particularly troubled them: Nearly one-third of victims who agreed to participate in the prosecutions of their alleged offenders changed their minds before the trials, and decided not to cooperate with the prosecution.

On a recent winter day in a classified meeting room deep in the Pentagon, representatives from the Air Force?s education programs, from basic training to ROTC, are trying to pinpoint how to make sure the newest members of the Air Force get the message that leadership actually wants to know if they have been hurt ? and that those preying on their fellow troops will be found and prosecuted with new tools that the force has not used in the past.

?It?s not just ?Don?t sexually assault people.? This is a piece of respect ? how do you weave that in? It?s about how you lead people, how you treat people," says Brig. Gen. Eden Murrie, director of Air Force Services, the meeting leader. ?That?s what we?re doing today. We?re looking at everything. Does it need to be radically changed? Do we just tweak it around the edges??

On dry erase boards and PowerPoint slides around the room are names of programs that the Air Force is using to try to impart the unacceptability of assault and disrespect to its troops.?They run the spectrum from ?Frank: The Undetected Rapist? to ?Street Smarts: You Deserve to be Here? to ?Sex Offenders, Service Members, and You: Leadership Beyond the Obvious.??

Conversation turns to ?hunting season? at the Air Force Academy, the time when underclassmen have completed their first year of schooling and are then allowed to date upperclassmen.?

?That would offer a really good opportunity for conversation: ?What do you think of that term?? Let?s talk about maybe why we don?t want that in our culture anymore,? says Anne Munch, an attorney and sexual assault prevention consultant for the Pentagon.

?That?s a really good idea,? says Murrie.

?And how does this idea coincide with the idea of being a wingman?? adds another meeting attendee. The Air Force has been emphasizing the notion of bystander intervention, the idea that when a fellow airman is being harassed, someone should step in and stop it.

?Or being a leader? You can?t be a hunter on a base, either,? says Murrie. ?How do you recognize the hunters that key in on new people on a base??

A few days later, at the House Armed Services Committee, these same questions came from lawmakers, who recounted stories of new Air Force recruits being directed to meet their trainers in laundry rooms and broom closets, where they were sexually assaulted and raped.

Welsh told lawmakers he is combing through programs to try to figure out what works, and what doesn?t.

He testified that he has asked staff to ?bring in something new? every week. ?Something we haven?t tried, some idea they found somewhere else from a member of Congress, from an advocacy group, from a university or another service that tried something that seemed to work at a certain base or a certain demographic group,? he said.

On Friday, the Air Force announced that it had conducted a sweep of more than 100 installations for pornography and other offensive materials, from videos and calendars to coffee mugs and song lyrics.?

?While these things may or may not directly relate to sexual assault, they certainly do create an environment more conducive to sexual harassment and unprofessional relationships, and I personally believe that both of those are leading indicators for sexual assault,? Walsh said Wednesday.

?We have to do everything possible to prevent this. We can?t accept this,? he added. ?It?s horrible, and we all know that.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/BdbbOIoTFCQ/How-the-Air-Force-is-fighting-sexual-assault-post-Lackland-scandal

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Wall Street edges up in face of Apple decline

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 advanced on Thursday, with the benchmark S&P index on track for its first seven-day streak of gains in over six years as solid economic data managed to outweigh a steep decline in Apple shares.

Apple Inc dropped 10.4 percent to $460.69 after the technology giant missed Wall Street's revenue forecast for a third straight quarter as iPhone sales were poorer than expected, lending credence to recent concerns its days as the dominant player in consumer electronics may be on the wane.

The drop wiped out roughly $50 billion in Apple's market capitalization to $432 billion, leaving the company vulnerable to losing its status as the most valuable U.S. company to second place ExxonMobil Corp , at $417 billion.

A trio of economic reports helped buoy the market, with data showing a decline in weekly jobless claims and an increase in manufacturing, while a gauge of future economic activity climbed.

"The claims numbers are clearly a big surprise and were very good numbers - they imply we may have a good employment number for the month of January," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors LLC in Albany, New York.

"You have Apple and technology on the one side and the rest of the market on the other side."

The gains marked the first time the S&P 500 had risen above 1,500 since December 12, 2007 and put the index on pace for its seventh straight advance, its longest streak since October 2006.

The advance for the S&P, and muted declines in the Nasdaq in spite of the decline in Apple, were viewed as a positive sign, as investors take encouragement from an improving global economy and move into stocks more closely tied to economic fortunes, such as industrials.

General Electric rose 0.5 percent to $22.06 and United Parcel Service gained 2.4 percent to $82.30. Of the 10 major S&P sectors, only technology <.splrct>, off 1.5 percent, was lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 58.82 points, or 0.43 percent, to 13,838.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> added 1.78 points, or 0.12 percent, to 1,496.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dropped 14.25 points, or 0.45 percent, to 3,139.42.

The domestic data meshed with those overseas showing growth in Chinese manufacturing accelerated to a two-year high this month and a buoyant Germany took the euro zone economy a step closer to recovery.

Apple's disappointing results drew a round of price-target cuts from brokerages. At least 14 brokerages, including Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, cut their price target on the stock by $142 on average. Morgan Stanley removed the stock from its 'best ideas' list.

In contrast to Apple, Netflix Inc surprised Wall Street Wednesday with a quarterly profit after the video subscription service added nearly 4 million customers in the U.S. and abroad. Shares surged 37.6 percent to $142.10, its biggest percentage jump ever.

Diversified U.S. manufacturer 3M Co reported a 3.9 percent rise in profit, meeting expectations, on solid growth in sales of its wide array of products, which range from Post-It notes to films used in television screens. The shares slipped 0.2 percent to $99.28.

Corporate earnings have helped drive the recent stock market rally. Thomson Reuters data through early Thursday showed that of the 133 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings, 66.9 percent have exceeded expectations, above the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-signal-losses-eyes-apple-101831880--finance.html

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A Day After Attacking Clinton, Rand Paul Grills Kerry

Yesterday Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that if he were president, he would have fired her over her handling of the Benghazi crisis.

Today, in a confirmation hearing in which nearly every senator, Democrat and Republican, heaped glowing praise upon their colleague John Kerry (D., Mass.), who's been nominated for secretary of state, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) posed contentious questions to Kerry about the U.S.'s role on the world stage. It quickly became apparent that the two senators not only had different political opinions, but different world views. Rand seems to see the world in absolutes; Kerry maintains intervention in world affairs be judged on a case-by-case basis.

Paul, who was publicly critical of President Obama's authorizing U.S. action in Libya to help depose Mohamar Gadhafi, wanted to know Kerry's take on a president's authorizing military action without congressional approval. Kerry responded that, although he is a strong supporter of the War Powers Act, which requires the president to seek congressional authority to declare war, he also supports the right of a president to act in an emergency.

"I supported Ronald Reagan when he sent troops into Grenada. I supported George H.W. Bush when he sent troops into Panama. I supported President Clinton when, against the will of the Congress, he did what was needed to be done in Kosovo and Bosnia, so forth. And in this particular instance, I think the president behaved in that tradition," said Kerry.

Paul suggested Kerry is cherry-picking the Constitution. He pointedly asked Kerry to defend his anti-war stance in the 1970s against Richard Nixon's decision to bomb Cambodia, on the one hand, and President Obama's actions in Libya on the other. Kerry responded that the circumstances of the conflicts were different: Vietnam had been waging for years without Congressional approval, unlike the situation in Libya.

Paul was unmoved.

"Length of time, but similar circumstances: a bombing campaign unauthorized by Congress," he said. "See, the Constitution really doesn't give this kind of latitude to sometimes go to war and sometimes not go to war."

Kerry said he respected that position in theory, but in practice always requiring Congressional approval for every military action was not practical.

"You can be absolutist and apply it to every circumstance. The problem is, it just doesn't work in some instances," said Kerry. "When 10,000 people are about to be wiped out by a brutal dictator and you need to make a quick judgment about engagement, you certainly can't rely on a Congress that has proven itself unwilling to move after weeks and months."

The two men went on to spar over aid to Egypt, given Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi's comments from 2010 that have recently been made public calling Israelis "blood suckers" and "descendants of apes and pigs."

"Do you think it's wise to send them F-16s and Abrams tanks?" asked Paul.

Kerry called the comments "reprehensible" but again pointed to the fact that Egypt remains a critical lynchpin for a peaceful Middle East. The senator also pointed to the ways Morsi's administration has been helpful - supporting the peace agreement with Israel and working with the U.S. on security in the Sinai peninsula.

"This is always the complication in dealings in the international sector - not everything lends itself to a simple clarity, black/white, this/that every time," said Kerry.

Paul also pressed Kerry on whether he would support cutting Pakistan's aid if the country does not free Shakil Afridid, the Pakistani doctor serving 33 years in prison who was convicted of running a vaccine program in Abbottabad to help the U.S. obtain DNA from Osama bin Laden's relatives. Paul said Dr. Afridi's detention could act as a deterrent for future informants and that Pakistan, as an ally, should be cooperating.

Kerry again said that the relationship with Pakistan is complex, and pointed out the other ways the country has helped the U.S. in its war against terror.

"I intend to raise the issue of Dr. Afridi with them. I can promise you that," said Kerry. "But I am not going to recommend, nor do I think it is wise, for American policy to just cut our assistance. We need to build our relationship with the Pakistanis, not diminish it. "

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-rand-paul-foreign-policy-not-black-white-235018902--abc-news-politics.html

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Hands On: Vine is Twitter?s Bet on an Easy Video Sharing App

Twitter has just leapfrogged everyone in the mobile, social video space with Vine, an actually easy and usable video sharing app.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/IXB6O0ezSEU/

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Israel's tilt to center fails to impress Arab world

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel's electoral nudge to the center may limit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's freedom to set policy toward Iran and the Palestinians, but few in the Middle East expect a marked retreat from the premier's hawkish approach.

Tuesday's vote cost Netanyahu's bloc a quarter of its seats but still gave him and traditional allies on the right an edge over challengers to the left; defying expectations of a surge by religious hardliners, it handed second place to a new centrist party and prompted the premier to promise a broad coalition.

But despite demands from the center that he renew talks with the Palestinians and focus on curing domestic ills rather than threatening to attack Iran's nuclear program, few of Israel's neighbors saw much chance of Netanyahu changing his discourse.

"There isn't any center or center-right party which can change substantively the negotiating position with the Palestinians," said Rami Khouri at the American University of Beirut. "So I don't see any chance of breakthrough."

Michael Stephens at the Royal United Services Institute in Doha agreed: "It does not move the state of Israel closer to any sort of pragmatic government that Arab states can work with.

"There is too much baggage and little goodwill toward (Netanyahu) for the pendulum to swing towards a more favorable view of Israel anytime soon," he said.

Preliminary results gave the largest number of seats to Netanyahu's Likud-Israel Beitenu bloc, which has supported expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank. Jewish Home, whose charismatic leader Naftali Bennett has called for annexing West Bank land outright, gained seats at Likud's expense.

However, the surprise second place for centrist newcomer and former TV host Yair Lapid puts pressure on Netanyahu to bring him into a broader coalition and heed his calls for peace talks.

But in Ramallah, West Bank administrative base of the Palestinian Authority, the results failed to impress:

"Irrespective of the nature of the Israeli coalition or fabric of politics in Israel - who's in and who's out of office - the requirements for peace will not change," Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian peace negotiator, told Reuters.

"To revive peace talks, Israel must stop settlement activity, release prisoners and end the occupation, withdrawing behind the 1967 borders and living side by side with the state of Palestine."

Samer Rantissi, a local engineer, was equally pessimistic: "What do the Jews' election have to do with us? We have lost hope that changes will arise from these elections," he said.

"We hope for peace, but it still looks far away."

PEACE STILL DISTANT

That view - which is shared by many Israelis, though they tend to blame Palestinians for the impasse - appeared to echo around the Middle East.

"Netanyahu's victory will not help solve the problem between the Arabs and Israel," said Marad al-Hamadi, 22, who runs a grocery store in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

Laith Jassim, a mobile phone shop owner in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, agreed: "No matter who wins in Israeli elections, anyone who comes to power is against us".

Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since capturing them in the 1967 Middle East War. Successive left-wing and right-wing Israeli governments have allowed Jewish settlements to expand on the occupied territories ever since.

Their continued expansion was cited by Palestinians for the breakdown of direct peace talks with Israel in 2010. Israel says rockets from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, and the schism between Hamas and the PA in the West Bank, have undermined relations.

European officials have particularly condemned the planned expansion of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem following a successful Palestinian bid to have Palestine recognized as an "observer state" in the U.N. General Assembly on November 29.

IRAN

Netanyahu shrugged off his party's poor showing and immediately pledged to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

He sees Tehran's nuclear program as a threat to Israel's existence. Iran denies any ambition to develop or acquire atomic weapons, saying its nuclear industry is purely civilian and that Israel, assumed to have nuclear armaments, is a threat to peace.

Meir Javedanfar, lecturer in Iranian politics at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya in Israel, said Netanyahu will aim to ensure Western powers continue their pressure on Tehran, so his rhetoric is likely to remain hostile to Iran.

"It also serves as a distraction," said Javedanfar.

"Netanyahu believes that the more he says 'Iran', the less others say 'Palestine', which is exactly what he wants. A Palestinian state is not in Netanyahu's interest."

Abdelkhaleq Abdalla, a political scientist in the United Arab Emirates, did not see Netanyahu's stance against Iran as indicating a fully fledged plan to start bombing nuclear sites.

"He will play the game of exerting pressure on the Americans and international community to maintain the tight sanctions," Abdalla said. "But I don't see war coming in 2013."

Palestinian officials say Britain and other European states are looking into reviving peace talks in 2013 based on a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps, but that no concrete proposal has yet been offered.

Palestinian misgivings toward Netanyahu are so deep that many officials doubt any government he leads can embrace change.

"If Netanyahu wants to deal with the international community - which I doubt - he might enter into a coalition with the Labour party or Lapid," said Mohammed Shtayyeh, a senior ally of President Mahmoud Abbas. But he added: "We don't see that (Netanyahu) is a partner for the peace process."

(Additional reporting by bureaux across the Middle East; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israels-tilt-centre-fails-impress-arab-world-183126281.html

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Caloric restriction has a protective effect on chromosomes

Jan. 23, 2013 ? One of the indicators of a cell's health is the state of its DNA and containers -- the chromosomes -- so when these fuse together or suffer anomalies, they can become the source of illnesses like cancer and/or aging processes.

According to a study carried out by a team led by Mar?a Blasco, the director of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and head of the Telomeres and Telomerase Group, a sustained lowering of food intake over time results in an increase of telomere length -- the ends of chromosomes -- in adult mice, which has a protective effect on the DNA and genetic material.

These beneficial effects on the youth of the chromosomes translate to a lower incidence of cancer and other age-related illnesses. The journal PLOS ONE is to publish the details of this study in its online edition this week.

A lower incidence of cancer and better health

To carry out the study, researchers used young mice -- just three months old -- and reduced their caloric intake by 40% before observing them until the end of their life cycle.

"We see that mice that undergo caloric restriction show a lower telomere shortening rate than those fed with a normal diet," says Blasco. "These mice therefore have longer telomeres as adults, as well as lower rates of chromosome anomalies," she adds.

To study the effects of this phenomenon on the health of the mammals, researchers observed the incidence of age-related illnesses like cancer. The mice that had been fed a lower calorie intake showed a reduction in the incidence of cancer. Furthermore, these mice also showed a lower incidence of other age-related illnesses such as osteoporosis, greater glucose uptake or improvements in motor coordination.

When the researchers carried out these same experiments with a variety of mice that produce more telomerase -- a protein that lengthens telomeres and protects chromosomes -- they observed that these mice not only enjoyed better health but also lived up to 20% longer.

"We believe that such a significant increase in longevity is due to the protective effect against cancer produced by caloric restriction -- incidents fall by 40% if we compare them with the mice that produce more telomerase and have a normal diet -- and, added to the presence of longer telomeres, this makes the mice live longer and better," says Blasco.

Despite the effects of caloric restriction depending on the genetic characteristics of each organism, this study opens the way to studying the effect other factors and lifestyle habits, such as smoking or exercise, might have on aging.

Furthermore, it is calculated that there are currently more than 10,000 people in the world on some form of controlled caloric restriction, so the observation of these individuals will be decisive in discovering the effects of this type of diet on humans.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO), via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Elsa Vera, Bruno Bernardes de Jesus, Miguel Foronda, Juana M. Flores, Maria A. Blasco. Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Synergizes with Calorie Restriction to Increase Health Span and Extend Mouse Longevity. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e53760 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053760

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/health_medicine/genes/~3/gLCg7e0j0J0/130123133852.htm

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