Family celebration: Utah women travel to India to meet with ...

Both have sponsored children through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA), a Kansas City, Mo.-based charity that works in 25 countries to pair up needy children and elderly people with sponsors. In the case of Kaiser and Carr, they each donate $30 per month that is allocated for their sponsored child?s education, clothing, nutrition, and household items needed for basic comfort and good health.

Founded in 1981 by Bob Hentzen and his brothers Jim (d. 1993) and Bud, their sister Nadine Pearce, and friend Jerry Tolle (d. 1995), CFCA is dedicated to the principles of Catholic social teaching. From the beginning, the founders saw sponsorship as a perfect opportunity to both provide ongoing assistance to the poor and allow the poor to share their gifts with sponsors in the United States.

CFCA sponsors and the children and elderly people they support exchange letters and photographs, building a long-distance relationship.

For Carr and Kaiser, though, long distance wasn?t enough. Like many sponsors, they decided they would meet their children in person. They left Salt Lake City Oct. 10, and returned Oct. 23.

Family celebration

Kaiser has been a CFCA sponsor for three years, supporting Sumanth Bala (8). She and Carr set out for India together, but when they reached Hyderabad, their ways separated. Carr, a member of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, traveled further south through Bangalore to a village in the Kolar gold fields where the girl she has sponsored for five years, Jaya Rakani, 15, lives.

Sumanth lives in a village outside Hyderabad. Neither child lives in a home with electricity or running water. Their American visitors stayed in nearby retreat houses and convents.

Before going to Sumanth?s home to meet him, lunch was planned at the CFCA Hyderabad office, and to Kaiser?s surprise, Sumanth and his mother came to the lunch to greet her. Later, they would travel to Sumanth?s house in a rural village in Warangal Province.

?I was amazed to find out that my visit to Sumanth had become a family celebration,? said Kaiser. ?When I arrived in the rural village with Father Gade Prakesh, the door to their house opened and 24 family members came out. I was overwhelmed.?

She said it was very strange to walk into the house and find a picture of herself hanging on the wall.

Both Carr and Kaiser were surprised that some 8,000 people were in Hyderabad to greet the Americans, most of them mothers of children who were sponsored.

?So much is done for these children and for CFCA by the mothers? groups,? Carr said. ?They had arranged lunch for us and hours of entertainment. People did so many dances for us. How they must have practiced!?

Everywhere they went, Carr said, they were mobbed by children, some who have sponsors, many who need them.

?They live in tiny homes, so spare, but neat,? added Carr.

Accountability

Kaiser said she was impressed with the annual report supplied for every sponsor, and that CFCA Hyderabad has a folder for each sponsored child. In each folder is an exact accounting of every $30 donation.

Both women spent days near the villages where their sponsored children live. They were shown the CFCA printing shop and book binding enterprise.

Carr, who teaches pre-school special education at Provo?s Farrer School, was most interested in the Indian educational system. She also saw a community center where tailoring is taught.

?The Salesian fathers and brothers do so much for the abandoned street children in Bangalore,? Carr said. ?And the Kolar gold fields used to be very profitable, but with prices what they are now, the fields are closed and the slums are very close by.?

Jaya and her mother, Carr learned, live with Jaya?s uncle in a house that has a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes. Like Sumanth, Jaya is shy and has a beautiful smile.

After spending days with their sponsored children, the American sponsors met again in Delhi, where they saw the Taj Mahal. They shared their experiences ? Kaiser had visited a leper colony where whole families live together.

?There was so much to see when we were among the poor that I felt a little out of place at the Taj Mahal,? Kaiser said. ?It was an amazing trip, and I came home feeling closer to Sumanth. When I went there, I took him a little red fire truck that he carried everywhere he went.

?I felt a strong sense of community among the mothers,? she said.

Carr, who has spoken to groups about CFCA since she returned, is also sponsoring two more children, one in Mexico and one in Liberia.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2012 at 5:07 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Japan industrial output down on weak export demand

FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2012 file photo, a security guard controls the traffic at a container terminal in Tokyo. Weaker than expected factory production in Japan has underscored the fragility of its economic recovery as growth throughout Asia slows. Softening demand for exports led to the first decline in industrial production in the world's third-largest economy in three months, the government said Friday, March 30, though it reported modest improvements in employment and consumer confidence. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2012 file photo, a security guard controls the traffic at a container terminal in Tokyo. Weaker than expected factory production in Japan has underscored the fragility of its economic recovery as growth throughout Asia slows. Softening demand for exports led to the first decline in industrial production in the world's third-largest economy in three months, the government said Friday, March 30, though it reported modest improvements in employment and consumer confidence. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2012 file photo, a worker pedals a bicycle at a container terminal in Tokyo. Weaker than expected factory production in Japan has underscored the fragility of its economic recovery as growth throughout Asia slows. Softening demand for exports led to the first decline in industrial production in the world's third-largest economy in three months, the government said Friday, March 30, though it reported modest improvements in employment and consumer confidence. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa, File)

TOKYO (AP) ? Weaker than expected factory production in Japan has underscored the fragility of its economic recovery as growth throughout Asia slows.

Softening demand for exports led to the first decline in industrial production in the world's third-largest economy in three months, the government said Friday, though it reported modest improvements in employment and consumer confidence.

The news cast a pall over share markets in Asia, already jittery over the pending release Sunday of Chinese economic indicators. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo fell 0.3 percent to 10,083.56.

The 1.2 percent decline in industrial output in February was worse than expected and reflected lagging output in the transport equipment, electronics components and machinery industries. Production of cell phones, large passenger cars and liquid crystal devices also weakened, the government said.

"Whether this recent trend will be sustained will depend on the extent of the recovery in Asia," said Masayuki Kichikawa, an economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. "The uncertainty over Chinese data is a very important factor."

The devastating tsunami in March last year ? and a shift of manufacturing overseas to cut costs and reduce damage caused by the strong yen ? plunged Japan's trade account into the red in 2011 for the first time since 1980.

Slowing growth in powerhouse China, the debt crisis in Europe and continued frailty in the U.S. economy have further bit into demand for exports, which remains the strongest driver of growth for Japan.

Despite February's relatively weak number, output is forecast to rise 2.6 percent in March and 0.7 percent in April, as growth accelerates due to a pick up in rebuilding of northeastern regions devastated by last year's disasters.

Kichikawa said he expects the economy to "bottom out" in the second quarter of the year, boosted by strengthening demand for industrial materials such as steel, nonferrous metals and chemicals.

"We think production in Japan is on the uptrend, mainly due to reconstruction demand," he said.

Japan's economy shrank at an annual pace of 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter, also hit by slowing public investment due to political bickering that delayed parliamentary approval for a 12 trillion yen ($156 billion) extra budget for tsunami reconstruction.

The economy contracted last year by 0.9 percent from 2010, when GDP grew a robust 4.4 percent. In 2009, the economy shrank 5.5 percent.

In its latest economic assessment, however, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development forecast that Japan's growth would lead that of other major industrial economies in the first quarter, at 3.4 percent.

In other data for February, Japan's consumer price index showed a stronger than expected increase in February of 0.3 percent from the year before, to 99.8. It was up 0.2 percent from January.

Forecasts had been for virtually no change in the index.

Rising costs for fuel and food were the main factors pushing prices higher, the Statistics Bureau reported.

Although rising crude oil prices threaten to further push production prices higher, slight gains in inflation are viewed as a positive for an economy that has been wrestling for years with deflation, or falling prices, which can be a drag on economic growth.

Meanwhile, unemployment fell in February, to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent in January.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported that the ratio of job offers to job seekers rose to 0.75 in February, up from 0.73 in January. It was the highest figure since November 2008, the ministry said.

Consumer confidence also rose, reflected in a 3.5 percent uptick in retail sales, the largest year-on-year gain since August 2010, the trade ministry reported Thursday.

Demand was also boosted by government subsidies for car purchases, which rose 21.4 percent from a year earlier in February, after jumping 24 percent in January.

___

Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ekurtenbachsh

Associated Press

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Studies Show Why Insecticides Are Bad News For Bees

Enlarge iStockphoto.com

One class of insecticides makes an entire corn plant poisonous to many insects that feed on it, including bees.

iStockphoto.com

One class of insecticides makes an entire corn plant poisonous to many insects that feed on it, including bees.

The search for the killer of America's bees is a little bit like an Agatha Christie novel. Suspicion has turned toward one shady character and then another: declining habitat; parasites; diseases; pesticides.

Or did they all conspire in the recent mass murder of the country's bees?

Today, two new studies are turning the spotlight of suspicion toward a specific class of insecticides called neonicotinoids. It's becoming increasingly clear that these chemicals are present ? although at low levels ? across huge parts of American farmland. And they may be addling the brains of our bees.

These chemicals came on the market in the late 1990s, and about a decade ago became popular as insect-killing coatings on seeds. Today, most of the corn seed (also canola and sunflower seed) in the country is covered with these insecticides before those seeds are planted. The biggest manufacturer of the pesticides is Bayer CropScience, based in Germany.

The chemicals then are absorbed by the growing corn or canola plant and transported throughout its roots, leaves, and even its nectar and pollen. This makes the entire plant poisonous to lots of insects that feed on it, from root-gnawing worms to sap-sucking aphids.

Did you catch that? About nectar and pollen? That's what bees eat. And it takes only a small amount of these insecticides to kill a bee.

?

All this, in fact, was already known when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (and comparable government agencies in Europe) approved these insecticides. But government regulators, relying in part on studies carried out by Bayer CropScience, came to the conclusion that bees would be exposed to only tiny amounts of the pesticide, well below what's necessary to kill them. (An internal EPA critique of one of these studies was leaked and publicized by the activist group Pesticide Action Network in 2010.)

Three new studies, conducted in Indiana, the United Kingdom, and France, now are challenging this belief.

The first blow came in January, from researchers at Purdue University who reported in the journal PLoS ONE that when insecticide-coated corn seed goes into the ground, farmers' planting equipment releases a small cloud of dust containing neonicotinoid. The researchers were startled to discover that this "planter exhaust" contained a potent dose ? easily enough to kill a bee. The Purdue researchers also found that bees often gathered corn pollen ? contrary to a common assumption that corn's pollen is unappetizing to bees.

Today, there are two new studies, published in the prestigious journal Science. And both of them, although limited to laboratory observations, suggest that these insecticides pose a more serious threat to bees than government regulators realized.

In the first study, researchers at the University of Stirling, in the United Kingdom, exposed bumblebees to low, "field-realistic" levels of a neonicotinoid insecticide called imidacloprid. The bumblebees didn't die, but in a remarkable and unexpected development, they almost stopped making new queen bees.

In the second study, carried out in France, honeybees that were exposed to another nicotinoid seemed less able to navigate, and many never found their way back to their home hive. This study, however, exposed the bees to higher levels of pesticide, probably higher than most bees encounter in the real world.

Together, the studies show that when bees are exposed to levels of these insecticides that aren't enough to kill them, they're still harmed in ways that can endanger the survival of their colonies. The neonicotinoids appear to be "so toxic to bees, really the only safe number is zero," says Christian Krupke, one of the authors of the Purdue study.

In its response to to the new studies, released today, Bayer CropScience called the results "artificially generated." The company said that the bees were exposed to higher levels of the pesticide than would be typical in the field, and that previous studies had found no harm to bees.

Jeffery Pettis, who leads bee research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says the new research shows clearly that pesticides can harm bees without killing them. But he also says that mandating zero risk to bees also may not be a good idea. Instead, Pettis says, the government may need to come up with ways to "limit the damage" to bees, perhaps by limiting the number of crops on which the insecticide can be used.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/03/29/149614689/studies-show-why-insecticides-are-bad-news-for-bees?ft=1&f=1007

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Brenda Finucane training is on genetics | The Native Circle

The Brenda Finucane training is on genetics.? This training is presented on a very down to earth level. ? Fabulous presentation that makes the topic interesting as well as educational.? The venue can hold up to 600 so space is not too limited.

?Brenda Finucane Training 4 12 final (Flier)

Sponsored by: DSHS Division of Developmental Disabilities Region 2

From Single Syndromes to Shared Pathways:? Implications of Genetic Diagnoses for People with Intellectual Disabilities- Part 2

?Brenda Finucane, MS, CGC

?Tuesday April 24^th, 2012 ? 9:00 AM-4:00 PM

?Location:? Shoreline Conference Center Auditorium

18560 1^st Ave NE, Shoreline. WA? 98155 (Corner of 1^st NE and NE 185^th)

Parking:? Free at Shoreline Conference Center.? Enter near tennis courts with overflow parking on SW corner of the conference center.

?Genetic factors play a major role in causing intellectual disabilities. Advances in diagnostic testing have identified many distinct genetic syndromes associated with cognitive and behavioral symptoms. The study of shared biological pathways demonstrates how different genetic disorders can all result in similar behavioral outcomes, including autism. This training will build on last year?s presentation by Ms. Finucane, covering other genetic syndromes. She will review basic concepts in diagnosis and genetic testing. Current approaches to intellectual disabilities research will be described, including updates on targeted pharmaceutical treatments for some conditions. The practical implications of genetic diagnoses in school, work, and residential settings will be illustrated through descriptions of specific conditions, including: Cornelia de Lange, neurofibromatosis, untreated PKU, and several others.

?

Brenda Finucane, MS, CGC is a certified genetic counselor and the Executive Director of Elwyn Genetics.? She is widely published and has gained international recognition for her expertise in the behavioral and cognitive manifestations of genetic syndromes. Ms. Finucane serves on the scientific advisory committees of several genetics support organizations and is the 2012 president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. For over two decades at Elwyn, Ms. Finucane has worked to create practical services that address the educational, behavioral, and health needs of people with genetic conditions.

?

ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST REGISTER FOR THIS FREE CLASS

?

Contact Kristin Ihrig by e-mail ihrigkr@dshs.wa.gov or phone (425) 339-4828.? Give the title of the workshop, your name, agency, phone number, and number of people in your party.

?

************Please note: Lunch is on your own and there are several area restaurants************

If you need accommodations, please let us know at least 2 weeks prior to this event.

Source: http://thenativecircle.org/2012/03/brenda-finucane-training-is-on-genetics/

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Knowing When It Is Time To Change Your Rex Heating And Air ...

March 28, 2012

The quality inherent in the atmosphere you reside in is related to your residence and the way in which you are living. This is accurate of everyone. For this reason you need to make confident that your heating and air methods are held in the finest shape attainable.

When it happens to heating and air you require to know when the time has come to exchange the gear that you at the moment have. Or if replacing your models is not achievable for you because of cost then a expert contractor can teach you how you can go about enhancing the way in which your technique functions. If you are going through any difficulties at all then the time may be now to uncover a contractor and have him arrive into your house to just take a search at your gear.

If either your air conditioner or the warmth pump in your house is older than a ten years then it would be a very excellent thought for you to change it with a new a single that has the mark of Electricity STAR obviously shown on it. The Electricity STAR mark lets you know that your device is one of substantial performance. In truth high effectiveness models are in a position to save you as a lot as 20 percent on the fees you pay out for heating and cooling. When it comes to the heating and air conditioning needs in your house Power STAR is wherever it is at!

Your warmth pump and air conditioner are not your only resources of worry. If possibly the boiler or the furnace in your house is more mature than 15 years then it is about time that you imagined about getting a replacement system. It would be a very brilliant concept to exchange your current furnace with a furnace that carries the Electricity STAR mark. This form of furnace is as much as 15 percent a lot more electricity efficient than is a traditional furnace. You will recognize a modify in your expenses right absent.

If you have a boiler in your residence then contemplate doing the very same. Change to an Power STAR certified boiler due to the fact it is as much as 5 percent far more efficient than the common kinds of boilers. When you swap to Electricity STAR you will not want to go again to the standard heating and air strategies!

If your heating and cooling programs require consistent repairs then it is time to quit repairing them and start off changing them. The identical factor applies if you learn that your energy payments just keep climbing and you are exhausted of shelling out your hard attained income for energy. If you switch to more vitality successful forms of heating and cooling then your bills will start off to get lower.

If you locate that some of the rooms in your home are sweltering then the cause could be every small thing from a heater that has operational troubles to troubles with the ducts to difficulties with insulation. The exact same can be clarified if your residence is so cold that you really feel like you are living in the Arctic! Have a skilled see to the problem and then advise you accordingly.

The experienced company of Rex Heating provides estimates and every home heating service you require, from solving various heating troubles, motor outages, to installing ducts in your household for your convenience.

Source: http://www.jamescarrolldesign.com/knowing-when-it-is-time-to-change-your-rex-heating-and-air-systems/

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Shooter of Florida teen appears uninjured in video

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$9 million is Milchan's losing bid for '50 Shades of Grey'

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/9-million-milchans-losing-bid-50-shades-grey-144608346.html

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World stock markets jump on Bernanke remarks

BANGKOK (AP) ? World stock markets rose Tuesday after comments by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke suggested he thinks more needs to be done to help spur the U.S. economy.

Benchmark oil hung above $107 per barrel. The dollar dropped against the euro and the yen.

Stocks were higher in early European trade. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.5 percent to 5,932.07. Germany's DAX gained 0.9 percent to 7,141.12 and France's CAC-40 rose 0.8 percent to 3,529.64.

Asian stock markets posted solid gains throughout the day, led by Japan's Nikkei 225 index. The benchmark jumped 2.4 percent to close at 10,255.15, its highest finish since a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

South Korea's Kospi rose 1 percent to 2,039.76 with heavy industrial shares helping to push the benchmark higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.8 percent to 21,046.91 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9 percent to 4,301.30.

Bernanke told an audience at the National Association for Business Economics that the U.S. job market was still weak despite recent signs of improvement. That could mean he believes the Fed needs to continue to prop up the economy by keeping short-term interest rates near zero and perhaps by buying more bonds later.

The Fed has embarked on two previous rounds of bond-buying, most recently in late 2010, known as quantitative easing. The idea is to drive down long-term interest rates and encourage investors to buy stocks. The second round ignited a 28 percent Wall Street rally in eight months.

The mere thought that a third round of bond-buying, dubbed QE3 by industry insiders, might be possible was all it took for markets to respond.

"Bernanke said that the Fed has to maintain the regime of loose monetary policy, and the market interpreted this as a chance for QE3," said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong. "That's why the stock markets rallied," he said, referring to Wall Street. "And that carried over to Asia."

The dollar weakened against most major currencies since traders interpreted Bernanke's comments to mean that interest rates will remain near zero. Lower rates tend to weigh on a currency by reducing the returns investors get from holding it.

That helped support prices for commodities since they are traded in dollars and considered more of a bargain for investors who hold other currencies such as the euro.

Chinese industrial and precious metals shares rose. Hong Kong-listed Jiangxi Copper Co. jumped 3.8 percent. Aluminum Corp. of China soared 4.1 percent.

Hyundai Heavy Industries, South Korea's leading shipbuilder, jumped 3.1 percent and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction rose 1.9 percent.

Sentiment was also boosted by speculation that Germany would be willing to agree to an increase in Europe's bailout fund to ?700 billion ($930 billion). Germany has to date resisted calls to increase the lending capacity of the fund beyond the planned ?500 billion ? despite uncertainty over the ability of Rome and Madrid to repay their debts.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 12 cents to $107.15 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract up 16 cents to settle at $107.03 per barrel in New York on Monday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3347 from $1.3343 late Monday in New York. The dollar slipped to 82.79 yen from 82.84 yen.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-03-27-World%20Markets/id-282c6b669dde4c3aa69afcd7a527c1d5

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March 27, 1964: The Great Alaskan Earthquake

?One day earthquake and thunder decided to explore the world, but doing so they reached only a desolate and dry plateau. Earthquake noted that the land was located much too high in the sky for humans ?They will have no food, if there is no place for the creatures of the sea to live in!? Earthquake begun to shake, stronger and stronger, until the earth finally collapsed and the sea inundated the land. Earthquake was satisfied ?From here, they will obtain what they need to live, where prairie has become water?. This is what brings to the people life.? Thunder acknowledged what earthquake had done ?It is true. So they will survive!? and so they went further north and together they lowered the land and created the western coast.?
The creation of the world according to a legend of the Yurok people (Cascade Range)

In the late afternoon of March 27, 1964 Alaska was shaken for five minutes by one of the strongest earthquakes ever to be recorded in modern times, with a magnitude of 8.3 ? 9.2 after Richter (the earthquake was so strong that no seismometer in the affected area recorded it correctly).
The earthquake displaced almost the entire southern coast of Alaska along the Prince William Sound, some areas were raised by 9 meters (30 feet) above the sea level, other level dropped below sea level and became inundated later by the sea (maybe the Yurok myth is based on the observation of such a similar environmental change after an earthquake in prehistoric times along the western coast of the U.S.).

Video 1. Showing the ?Ghost Forest? of the 1964 ?quake. In the lowered regions the trees were killed by the salt water, later deposited marsh sediments again raised the surface and tundra vegetation recolonized the area.

The earthquake caused heavy damage on 75% of buildings and infrastructure in the affected area, most in the city of Anchorage, 131 people were killed.
Large fissures opened in the ground when the groundwater liquefied the soil and more than 2.000 landslides and avalanches occurred across south-central Alaska. Buildings in Seattle (Washington) begun to swing by the approaching seismic wave and the ground was measurable deformed even in Florida.

Fig.1. Rockslide ? avalanche on Sherman Glacier. The source was from the area marked by the fresh scar on Shattered Peak (top center image). Photo by A. Post / image in public domain from the U.S.G.S. Photographic Library.

In some lakes in Alaska the movement of the water catapulted chunks of ice onto the land, causing damage on the surrounding trees up to 9 meters (30 feet) above ground. Unusual water movements, attributed cautiously to the earthquake, were observed in South Dakota and apparently even in Puerto Rico and Australia.
Most remarkable was the generated tsunami, waves higher than usual were observed even along the Japanese coast. The seaport of Valdez was destroyed by a 30 meter high tsunami, 32 people died there. For hours after the earthquake the sea was tumultuous and in the evening with the high tide the reflected waves of the first tsunami inundated the surviving area of the city of Valdez.
Six hours after the earthquake the tsunami reached the island of Vancouver, one hour later the coast of Oregon and the wave caused damage even in Crescent City and Los Angeles (California).

Fig.2. Aerial photographs of destructive landslides and damage in Anchorage, Photo by A. Grantz / image in public domain from the U.S.G.S. Photographic Library.

Many of these phenomena were studied for the very first time by scientists ? only two hours after the earthquake the first geologists arrived to Anchorage.

Bibliography:

Committee on the Alaska Earthquake of the Division of Earth Sciences National Research Council (1968): The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964. National Academy of Sciences, Washington: 473
GATES, A.E. & RITCHIE, D. (2007): Encyclopedia of earthquakes and Volcanoes. Facts on file science library. 3th ed. New York: 346
WALKER, B. (1982): Earthquake. Planet Earth. Time Life Books: 154

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=20e7d9c00ac5f1cfb38b91468512d79a

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Tebow's main issue will be fans

DAYTIMEEVENTSITETALENTSaturday, Mar. 311 - 3 p.m.*Red Bull Signature Series: Super NaturalNelson, British Columbia, CanadaSal Masekela3 - 6 p.m.*PGA Tour: Shell Houston OpenHouston, TexasDan Hicks, Johnny Miller, Gary Koch, Roger Maltbie, Jimmy Roberts, Dottie Pepper, Peter Jacobsen, Mark RolfingSunday, April 112:30 - 3 p.m.*NHL on NBC: Philadelphia Flyers at Pittsburgh PenguinsPittsburghMike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire3 - 6 p.m.*PGA Tour: Shell Houston OpenHouston, TexasDan Hicks, Johnny Miller, Gary Koch, Roger Maltbie, Jimmy Roberts, Dottie Pepper, Peter Jacobsen, Mark Rolfing

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46860045/ns/sports/

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Best Fishing with all comforts

Hawaii Fishing is the best way to move with team sport. Experienced fisherman and best charter will make wonders in this place. There are many varieties of fishes available they are mahi-mahi, Oahu, Ahi. The biggest fishes like Blue marlin and the black marlin are available in this place with great in number. The world recorded fishes are available in this place. The captains and the crew are very friendly with all the passengers who are accommodated. The captains are very friendly and very supportive when you make move in the sea. They help you to get the best catch of fishes in a better way. The best fish?s can be caught by experienced fisherman.
?
The fisherman dream in this place is done by catching best fishes at all the times. In the online you can verify the best boats with closed cabin, air conditioner rooms, ice cubes are the best features in the charter.

The charter boats are of different types with different models. Any one can make use of the best charter of your choice. Commercial fishing is possible in this area with well stabilized boats. Boats can be selected in the online with your choice. Low rate and costly boats area available. If you love to prefer low rate boats then you can make use of it in a better way. Many fishing activities are held in this place with great enjoyment. Kids will love the game heavily. There are many kids tournament held all over the year.

The guides are available at this place. They will give you guides to perform the best of fishing. They will hire you the car and the rental hotels, room facilities and more. Check out for the best guide in the online and enjoy the trip happily. Deep sea fishing Kona Hawaii is the place where we can move with deep sea fishing.

The deeper they get inside the more fishes you will get a t a time. In the world no other place tops first in catching the fishes at a great level. The sea is very calm so the fishing is greatly possible. The best fishing spot with all comforts and the visitors will come frequently to visit the place happily. Enjoy with the family and friends in the Kona and get the ultimate happiness with all comforts. Seek the best advisor to make your holiday unforgettable.

Source: http://leisure.ezinemark.com/best-fishing-with-all-comforts-7d350fe5fc42.html

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Purloined Prose: Stolen ?tales of lust, incest ... - Maine Crime Writers

Jim Hayman:? A month or so ago I wrote a blog for this site about the growing problem of the wholesale theft and subsequent sale of intellectual property by Internet pirates. ?Just this weekend, I came across a related article by a writer named Adam Penenberg in the January 12^th issue of Fast Company Magazine?s online version that explores a fascinating and racy new twist to the nasty practice of stealing other writers? work for personal gain.

For those of you who aren?t familiar with Fast Company, it mostly publishes articles discussing the inventiveness and entrepreneurial spirit of people who start and run interesting and often unique small businesses.

Mr. Penenberg?s article certainly does that. ?Titled Amazon?s Plagiarism Problem,?Penenberg?s lead-in makes reading the rest of the piece practically irresistible. ??Amazon?s erotica section isn?t just rife with tales of lust, incest, violence, and straight-up kink. It?s also a hotbed of masked merchants profiting from copyright infringement. And even with anti-piracy legislation looming, Amazon doesn?t appear too eager to stop the forbidden author-on-author action.?

Apparently these ?masked merchants? copy and paste, word for word, stories by other writers they find on erotic websites, the chief one being a site called Literotica, and then self-publish them mostly as ebooks on Amazon and other online booksellers? sites.? According to Penenberg one of these ebooks can be put together and published in just a matter of hours.? The plagiarists use only slightly different titles from the original and what I suppose are invented pen names. ?The rest is word for word. ?To my surprise many of the stolen works seem to rank fairly high (or is it low?) in Amazon?s bestseller lists which means at least some ?of the thieves are making pretty good money

The literary merit of the two works I checked out on Literotica wasn?t high.? Henry Miller has absolutely nothing to worry about. Still, in my view, the folks who actually write this stuff ought to be protected from outright theft and Amazon isn?t doing that. At least not on its own. When the plagiarism is pointed out, Amazon pulls the titles.? But the company does nothing to check the originality of the works it accepts for publication.

One simple solution, according to Penenberg, is that? ?Amazon could also run content through one of the many plagiarism detectors that are available?such as turnitin?or iThenticate?before an ebook is put on sale. Perhaps,? he goes on to say, ?Amazon doesn?t care if it sells plagiarized works; it benefits from the sale whether it holds back an author?s royalties or not.?

You can read Amazon?s Plagiarism Problem for yourself at:?http://www.fastcompany.com/1807211/amazons-plagiarism-problem

Source: http://mainecrimewriters.com/jims-posts/purloined-prose-stolen-tales-of-lust-incest-violence-and-straight-up-kink

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Sunday Night Music: Kelly Valleau - Bella (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/208990735?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Wordpress Improvement: Most Popular Choice For Online Business ...

For just about any form of internet site including online small business sites the incredibly chosen system is WordPress, by far the most widely employed articles administration technique for any form of website. WordPress Progress is extremely reputable which is among the causes to why lots of webmasters prefer to have their online small business on WordPress. If we talk even more relatively than its dependability that ?s naturally 1 of your primary motive of your popularity of Term press then now we have lots of other causes for its popularity is as follows:-

Its an open source application & that ?s why its free of charge of cost. It is actually a make a difference of wonder that you simply can produce your website free of charge of cost. This really is free of charge of cost because it has been developed by a community of WordPress designers and developers, who make it as a hobby and because they love the open source spirit. With WordPress itself, most of its themes and plug-ins are also free of charge. You can produce your individual website and that is free of charge of cost. This motive is plenty of itself for making WordPress a widely employed & most favored CMS for world wide web creation and also for online small business.

It is actually incredibly simple to use. Just one with a little knowledge can easily access it. This also a big motive for its popularity in online small business.

So far as security is concerned then, WordPress tops the list of most secured application. WordPress is most effective suitable for online small business because when we talk about online small business then security is the primary concern in that. But WordPress gives you guarantee that this application can not be hacked at all. This security in WordPress also make it by far the most well-known in online small business.

This really is highly customizable application. It is actually incredibly obvious that in online small business you need that your website will need to look unique, with WordPress it is simple to achieve. You will find a huge number of themes you can pick out from and a huge number of plugins to add in purchase to get exactly what you need and When you are a webmaster then you can also use existing themes and plugins and modify them in keeping with your liking. When you compare this from other CMS then no 1 can provide this kind of selection of themes and plug-ins. Again it is best in this region also.

At last but not the least community of WordPress developers is among the primary motive for making it a significant online system. Due to this community most of your individuals are aware and have good knowledge of WordPress and if some 1 has some queries regarding it then he or she can visit those community sites. Some of your websites which you ?ve got been highly advised in this regard are african movies, agave and aiwa.Verify those out and feel free of charge to fill me in together with your thoughts.

? Home Sustainable Energy ? Different Sustainable Energy Resources | Home | Fascinating Examples of Digital Photo Manipulations in the Arts ?

Source: http://nmgpt.com/2012/03/25/wordpress-improvement-most-popular-choice-for-online-business-enterprise/

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Home alone -- depression highest for those living alone

Friday, March 23, 2012

The number of people living on their own has doubled, over the last three decades, to one in three in the UK and US. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Public Health shows that the risk of depression, measured by people taking antidepressants, is almost 80% higher for those living alone compared to people living in any kind of social or family group.

For women a third of this risk was attributable to sociodemographic factors, such as lack of education and low income. For men the biggest contributing factors included poor job climate, lack of support at the work place or in their private lives, and heavy drinking.

It is known that living alone can increase the risk of mental health problems for the elderly, and for single parents, but little is known about the effects of isolation on working-age people. Researchers in Finland followed 3500 working-aged men and women for seven years and compared their living arrangements with psychosocial, sociodemographic, and health risk factors, including smoking, heavy drinking and low physical activity, to antidepressant use. Information on antidepressant medication was taken from the National Prescription Register.

Dr Laura Pulkki-R?back, who conducted the research at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, explained, "Our study shows that people living alone have an increased risk of developing depression. Overall there was no difference in the increased risk of depression by living alone for either men or women. Poor housing conditions (especially for women) and a lack of social support (particularly for men) were the main contributory factors to this increased risk."

She continued, "This kind of study usually underestimates risk because the people who are at the most risk tend to be the people who are least likely to complete the follow up. We also were not able to judge how common untreated depression was."

While this study clearly identifies some of the factors which increase the risk of depression for people who live alone, over half the increase in risk is still unexplained. The researchers suggest that this may be due to feelings of alienation from society, lack of trust, or difficulties arising from critical life events. All these factors need to be addressed in order to begin understanding and reducing the incidence of depression amongst working age people.

###

BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com

Thanks to BioMed Central for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 24 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/118687/Home_alone____depression_highest_for_those_living_alone

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Paul Allen Adding $300 Million for Brain Research

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Mr. Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, announces a $300 million gift to the neuroscience institute he created.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0e1d03bd310b11f84859954794de6f54

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Portland is getting 6 new community gardens, perhaps a few more

From Portland Parks & Recreation:

Six new Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) gardens are scheduled to open before June 30:

• Clarendon Community Garden (North Portland)
• Kenton Community Garden (North Portland)
• Ed Benedict Community Garden (SE Portland)
• Errol Heights Community Garden (SE Portland)
• Frazer Community Garden (NE Portland)
• Grant High School Community Garden (NE Portland)

This means Portland Parks & Recreation will be able to provide space for 250 new gardeners to grow healthy, organic, low-cost food!

Planning and fundraising are underway for three additional gardens tentatively scheduled to open later this year ? at Thomas Cully Park (NE Portland), Helensview High School (NE Portland), and Mt Tabor Park (SE Portland).

PP&R?S SPRING CHECKLIST FOR YOUR HOME GARDEN!

• Cut back old plant growth and pull weeds.
• Suppress future weeds with burlap, straw (without seeds) or a top dressing of compost.
• Plan your season; make a reasonable timeline for yourself, choose crops, and figure out how much space each will use.
• Sharpen and clean your tools.
• Purchase seeds (local & organic when possible).
• Purchase or make a good complete organic fertilizer and foliar feed.
• Test for soil moisture.
• Turn the soil and break up clods ? best done when the soil has dried out.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Make a plan

• Vegetables have different starting dates ? some do well in cool temperatures, while others prefer warmer soil. These soil temperatures, along with the amount of space they need, and "days to maturity," will be written on the back of the seed packets.

Check your soil

• Portland's winter rains will compact garden soils and deplete it of important nutrients for your new plants. Before cultivating the soil in the spring, you'll want to test the soil for moisture. Working the soil when it's too wet can cause soil compaction and hinder seed germination and root development. Adding organic matter is necessary to help the soil's fertility as well as the texture.
• A simple method you can try - dig a hole 6"- 8" deep and form a ball of soil the size of a golf ball. Toss the ball about 1 foot in the air and catch it with a flat/open hand. If the soil crumbles when it lands, then your soil is ready for planting. If it stays in a ball then your soils still needs to dry out.

Add organic material and nutrients to your soil

• When your soil is dry enough to work, add 2 inches of compost and a complete organic fertilizer to help boost production. Turn it into the top six inches of soil with a digging fork. Always follow the application rate recommended on the fertilizer container. You can also do a soil fertility test to learn what kind of nutrients are lacking in your soil.

Plant your garden

• March and April are months to sow early spring crops in the garden like: radish, arugula, peas, spinach, swiss chard, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, beets. See Oregon Tilth's planting calendar for a detailed list of what you can plant.

Seed sowing tips

• Plant seeds to a depth of three or four times their thickness.
• Keep seeds constantly moist until true leaves appear.
• Vegetables that prefer to be planted from seed in your garden rather than transplanted are: Roots (beets, carrot, radish, etc.), Greens (lettuce, arugula, spinach, salad mix), Legumes (peas, beans, etc.), and Garlic.
• Remember to "thin" emerged seedlings to their proper spacing requirement (as listed on seed package). Thinning will allow nutrients to go directly to the selected seedling. ?
• Plant a combination of plant starts and seeds at the same time to provide a successive harvest.

Start a garden journal and keep records

• Keep a simple garden journal of what and when you plant and which amendments you add to your soil. Draw a simple map of your plot that you can take notes on throughout the year. This will provide you with valuable information to aid in future garden planning.

Source: http://northeastportland.katu.com/news/public-spaces/465139-portland-getting-6-new-community-gardens-perhaps-few-more

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Mali's "Soldier of Democracy" toppled by own army

(Reuters) - Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, whom renegade army officers said they toppled in an overnight coup, had gained the nickname of "Soldier of Democracy" in his West African state and was preparing to cede power after elections later this month.

But he is no stranger to coups or mutinies.

Toure, 63, a former paratrooper popularly known by his initials "ATT", had himself seized power through arms in 1991, overthrowing military ruler Moussa Traore after the latter's security forces killed more than 100 pro-democracy demonstrators.

But he quickly earned domestic and international acclaim by organizing polls the following year and a democratic handover to an elected civilian president in the Sahelian country, Africa's third largest gold miner and a major regional cotton grower.

Swapping his paratrooper's red beret and fatigues for flowing civilian robes and a Muslim bonnet, he returned to Mali's presidency through the ballot box in 2002 and was re-elected for his second and final five-year term in 2007.

Already hailed as a respected African statesman and peacemaker following his 1992 democratic handover, he was called upon in 1997 to broker a reconciliation between mutinous and loyalist troops in the Central African Republic.

But these conciliatory skills appear to have failed him with the young soldiers of his own army who announced in a televised statement early on Thursday that they were "putting an end to the incompetent regime of Amadou Toumani Toure".

Government and military sources said Toure had left the presidential palace before the mutineers entered it and a defense ministry source said he was in a safe place, but his whereabouts were unknown.

Disgruntled members of his army had for weeks complained to Toure's government that they did not have adequate weapons to fight a northern rebellion by Tuareg-led rebels whose ranks were swelled by well-armed, combat-hardened veterans who had fought for slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Toure last month faced demonstrators in the streets of Bamako protesting against what they said was the government's ineffective response to the advancing rebellion.

The president, true to his conciliatory spirit and nationalist vision, had appealed to Malians to avoid falling into ethnic strife, telling inhabitants of the south not to carry out reprisal attacks against Tuaregs living there.

He had also insisted that Mali would hold its presidential election as scheduled in April, despite the Tuareg rebellion in the north. "We are already used to holding elections during war, and during Tuareg rebellions," he said.

His government had firmly rejected the rebels' goal of outright independence for three northern regions.

BULWARK AGAINST RADICALS

Western governments long wanted Toure to act as a bulwark against the infiltration southwards of al Qaeda's North African franchise, but he failed to stop militants finding refuge in the desert wastes and hills of Mali's lawless remote north.

The Malian army has received counter-terrorism training from the U.S. armed forces. On Monday, West Africa's top regional decision-making body ECOWAS urged member states to back Mali with military equipment to fight the northern Tuareg-led rebels.

Unlike several other long-ruling African leaders over the last decade who have defied pro-democracy critics to secure amendments to their national constitutions to extend their terms in office, Toure repeatedly said he would not do this.

With his country held up as an example of democratic transition in an unruly West African region with a history of coups and military mutinies, Toure knew how to woo western governments and aid organizations.

"My ambition is to write a new page in our country's history ... to make our country a model of good governance in a peaceful climate, a Mali able to give as much as it receives," he said in a newspaper interview in 2002.

Apart from often acting as a mediator and peacekeeper on the troubled continent, he also worked on humanitarian projects with international figures like former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

His best known campaign was to wipe out Guinea worm, a tropical parasite that causes debilitating infections.

During his rule, he also declared housing, roads, and modernizing the country's agriculture as his priorities.

Although his dry, largely desert country remained heavily dependent on international aid, Toure said that aid was not enough and that Mali could not depend on donor cash for ever.

But he never forgot his military roots. He had received military training in the Soviet Union and France.

"Above all I am a soldier: I signed a contract to give my own life to the army, and therefore to Mali," he said in 2002.

And in turbulent West Africa, a soldier's fate can often mean being toppled by your own troops.

(Reporting By Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Mark John)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malis-soldier-democracy-toppled-own-army-152457200.html

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Dealing with open LDRs (long-distance relationships) ? LGBT Nation

Dealing with an LDR (Long Distance Relationship), especially an open LDR isn?t something for everyone nor is it a very easy thing. Just like any relationship it takes work and commitment, yes commitment. You may be in an open relationship but that does not mean you can violate the bonds of honesty and trust or your open LDR is going to fail. The reason I know this is my relationship began this way.

My relationship like countless others began in the military which meant regular and often long unexpected separations which are no dream scenario to deal with. We were both reasonable enough to understand that we were still going to have certain physical needs that were going to need to be met and as such came to the agreement we would try an open LDR in the case we were apart. As such I?ve gained more than often enough perspective on how this can work successfully as well as the good and potentially bad aspects of it all.

What was good is that when we gave each other permission to have an open relationship there was no need for secrets, there was no cheating, there was no taboo factor to make being with someone else more attractive. It was simply the ability to do what had to be done to keep each others needs in check. Granted the first couple of encounters were awkward in the sense that it did feel a little dirty, but luckily I spoke up and said what had transpired. While this wasn?t met with the same cheer as a ticker tape parade, it was taken in stride and met with a similar story. Once that was out in the open everything fell in place.

While we were together geographically we were only with each other, for the first several years at least, but while we were apart we were still together in a sense, in fact even closer than many people in a similar situation because we allowed an open relationship. There was no need to lie or sneak around or get involved in any form of deceit. It actually enhanced our trust because we knew if we could be honest about intimacy with others (While not going into great detail which wasn?t necessary) we could be open and honest about anything with each other regardless of what it was.

It wasn?t always easy, there were times when jealousy entered into the picture, or at least something that felt like jealousy. It was more a matter of missing each other, wanting to be together, and that just not being possible. We weren?t jealous of each other as we knew exactly what the other was involved in at all times and that when possible we would be together. Jealousy is the type of thing that can easily spiral out of control when initially entering into an open LDR, but through regular communication issues were kept in check and soon weren?t even an afterthought. We knew what we meant to each other and that no other person could ever take our place in each others life or heart.

Even with the best laid plans sometimes things arise that test what your relationship is made of. While we had an open relationship that didn?t mean we slept with everyone we met, if in fact we were intimate physically with anyone at all. Having permission to see other people doesn?t mean we always did. As such the person we chose to spend our time with during these separations generally became viewed as more than a friend, but not someone we considered as a long term partner for lack of a better phrase. As cold as that may seem to some that was our viewpoint on this. With that said it does not mean we didn?t become close with some of these people and want them to remain in our lives in some manner which is where things got tricky.

While we were always honest from the start as to what we were and weren?t looking for with the people we became involved with there were some that couldn?t accept that when it was time to end or seriously curtail our relationship as it functioned during these separations. The potential for someone to hurt is always there as in any form of relationship. Likewise it wasn?t always easy on us to end the relationships we had formed. We are after all humans and we feel. There were attachments made that we didn?t always want to break completely. Now this doesn?t mean we wanted them to remain the same, but that we wanted these people in our lives still in some way which wasn?t always possible or desired by everyone involved.

An open long distance relationship takes work, honesty, and trust. It is a matter of realizing you love the person you are separated from and that as human beings there are certain physical and emotional needs which can only be met by a person that is there physically. Accepting and understanding that concept is what leads to the ability to have a good open LDR. It isn?t about sacrificing anything, nor is there any cheating as it is an agreed upon situation. It is about giving a person you love the ability to satisfy basic human needs free from guilt. Some may argue that?s no gift, but if you?ve ever been in a situation which separated you from someone you love for long periods of time you understand how generous and loving that really is.

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Source: http://lgbtnation.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/dealing-with-open-ldrs-long-distance-relationships/

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