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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Classic Koss Headphones Finally Get an iPhone Remote [Audio]
Iraq's Sunni-backed bloc to end parliament boycott (Reuters)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Iraq's Sunni-backed Iraqiya political bloc said Sunday it would end a boycott of parliament, easing the worst political crisis in Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's power-sharing government in a year.
The decision by Iraqiya clears the way for talks among fractious Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni blocs, but deep disputes over power-sharing remain unresolved, keeping alive the risk that Iraq could fall back into widespread sectarian violence.
The crisis erupted days after the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December, when Maliki's government sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and moved to sideline one of his Sunni deputies who branded Maliki a dictator.
The political blocs are planning a national conference to try to ease the turmoil.
"As a goodwill gesture, Iraqiya announces its return to parliament meetings to create a healthy atmosphere to help the national conference, and to ... defuse the political crisis," Iraqiya spokeswoman Maysoon al-Damluji told a news conference.
Damluji's announcement followed a meeting of Iraqiya's top officials including bloc leader Iyad Allawi, Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, Finance Minister Rafie al-Esawi and Saleh al-Mutlaq, the deputy prime minister Maliki had tried to oust.
She said the leaders would meet again to decide whether Iraqiya ministers would return to cabinet meetings.
Iraqiya's return to parliament could shore up Maliki's position for now, but the Sunni-backed bloc is deeply divided over whether to stay in the fragile power-sharing arrangement.
Maliki says his initiative against Hashemi was judicial and not political, but his moves against two key Iraqiya figures have compounded fears among Iraqi Sunnis that he wants to consolidate Shi'ite control and his own power.
Hashemi remains in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region where his immediate arrest is unlikely.
BIDEN CALLS
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has spoken to Allawi and Nujaifi by phone over the past days to discuss "the importance of resolving outstanding issues through the political process," Biden's office said.
Saleem al-Jubouri, an Iraqiya leader, said the bloc had come under international pressure to end the boycott, which he said had forced other countries to recognize the crisis in Iraq.
"The problem still exists and it could blow up again at any minute," Jubouri said.
A senior Iraqiya Sunni leader who asked not to be named said ending the boycott was the only way to keep the bloc together.
"Many factions within Iraqiya would split off if the leaders
insisted on going into opposition or continuing the boycott," the official said.
Since the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, the Shi'ite majority has ascended, leaving Sunni Muslims feeling sidelined from power. Kurdish political blocs have more often reached political deals with Shi'ite parties.
The power-sharing agreement took almost a year to cobble together and has struggled to work when considering key laws such as a national hydrocarbons bill.
The political turmoil has been accompanied by a string of attacks on Shi'ite targets that have stirred worries Iraq could slide back in the kind of sectarian slaughter that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis a few years after the invasion.
(Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Jim Loney and Alessandra Rizzo)
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Norway convicts 2 over Muhammad cartoon bomb plot
OSLO, Norway?? Two men accused of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad were found guilty Monday of terror charges in Norway, the first convictions under the country's anti-terror laws.
The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years.
Judge Oddmund Svarteberg said the court found that Davud "planned the attack together with al-Qaida."
A third defendant, David Jakobsen, was cleared of terror charges but convicted of helping the others acquire explosives. Jakobsen, who assisted police in the investigation, was sentenced to four months.
Investigators say the plot was linked to the same al-Qaida planners behind thwarted attacks against the New York subway system and a British shopping mall in 2009.
The case was Norway's most high-profile terror investigation until last July, when a right-wing extremist killed 77 people in a bomb and shooting massacre.
The three men, who were arrested in July 2010, made some admissions but pleaded innocent to terror conspiracy charges and rejected any links to al-Qaida.
During the trial Davud denied he was taking orders from al-Qaida, saying he was planning a solo raid against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo. He said he wanted revenge for Beijing's oppression of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in western China.
Davud, a Norwegian citizen, also said his co-defendants helped him acquire bomb-making ingredients but didn't know he was planning an attack.
Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad
Prosecutors said the Norwegian cell first wanted to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, whose 12 cartoons of Muhammad sparked furious protests in Muslim countries in 2006, and then changed plans to seek to murder one of the cartoonists instead.
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Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd, said the paper and the cartoonist were indeed the targets, but described the plans as "just talk."
Prosecutors had to prove the defendants worked together in a conspiracy, because a single individual plotting an attack is not covered under Norway's anti-terror laws.
During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony obtained in the U.S. in April from three American al-Qaida recruits turned government witnesses.
Jakobsen, an Uzbek national who changed his name after moving to Norway, provided some of the chemicals for the bomb, but claims he did not know they were meant for explosives. Jakobsen contacted police and served as an informant, but still faced charges for his involvement before that.
The men had been under surveillance for more than a year when authorities moved to arrest them in July 2010. Norwegian investigators, who worked with their U.S. counterparts, said the defendants were building a bomb in a basement laboratory in Oslo.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46188310/ns/world_news-europe/
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Canada Honor Killing Trial Verdict: Shafia Family Found Guilty
KINGSTON, Ontario ? A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."
The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast.
After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.
Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.
The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.
Defense lawyers said the evidence suggested that the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride.
After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."
His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."
Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."
But Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."
"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."
The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.
The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.
The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court. In one phone conversation, the father says his daughters "betrayed us immensely."
The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.
But defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Camera-nabbing leopards caught on video
Snow leopards are one of the most elusive cats on Earth. Not only is the species endangered, but it is notoriously shy, and much about where snow leopards live in the wild remains mysterious.
So researchers got a big surprise when a set of 11 camera traps installed in a lonely corner of Tajikistan revealed at least five snow leopards were living in the region, including a mother with two young cubs.
The motion-sensing camera traps were set high in the remote Pamir Mountains.
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Library?putting the 3-D back into century-old photos
In a cool new undertaking, the ever-forward-thinking New York Public Library has pulled together a vast collection of roughly 100-year-old archival images for a very clever proto-3-D project.
- Deep-sea fish recordings reveal grunts and quacks
- Mesopotamian riddles of sex, beer and politics
- Camera-nabbing leopards caught on video
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Library?putting the 3-D back into century-old photos
Over the three-month study period, the cameras snapped pictures of a parade of creatures ? mountain ibex, Marco Polo sheep (the largest in the world), a rare mountain weasel, a variety of birds and the family of snow leopards. [See photos of the snow leopards and other animals here.]
"This is the first detailed biodiversity survey of the area, and it's very exciting to see so much diversity," lead scientist David Mallon said in a statement. "But the highlight was confirming the presence of what seems to be a healthy population of breeding snow leopards."
Yet when scientists returned to retrieve their camera traps, they found only 10. One had gone missing.
A close look through the piles of pictures revealed the culprits: the two snow leopard cubs.
A companion camera trap to the stolen rig caught the two young leopards red-pawed.
The IUCN, an independent international body that assesses the status of species around the globe, has listed snow leopards as endangered since at least 1986. The big cats, known for their cloudy gray fur and dark spots, are native to Central Asia's high mountains, and their numbers have been decreasing.
Hard numbers are difficult to establish, but it is estimated that between 4,000 and 6,500 snow leopards are left in the wild. ?
Despite the fact that researchers found only five cats, they were encouraged by the results of the survey, which was conducted by British-based Fauna & Flora International with the help of U.S.-based big-cat conservation organization, Panthera.
Snow leopards require large swaths of land, and researchers said the region offers a good place to concentrate conservation efforts.
"These survey results demonstrate that there is hope still for the endangered snow leopard," Panthera's Tom McCarthy said in a statement.
The fate of the stolen camera is unknown.
Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanetand on Facebook.
? 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46166950/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Jesse Jackson adds voice to Grammy protest (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Friday urged Grammy organizers to reinstate 31 ethnic and minority musical categories that have been cut from the music industry's top awards.
In a letter to Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, sent three weeks before the February 12 Grammy Awards show, Jackson said the elimination of awards for Native American and Hawaiian musicians, and cuts in Latin Jazz, R&B and other categories were ill-considered and unfair.
Jackson said some of the categories dropped by the Recording Academy in a major overhaul last year "constitute the very heart of the music that nourishes and inspires minority communities."
Writing on behalf of the Rainbow Push Coalition of U.S. civil rights groups, Jackson called for an urgent meeting with Portnow to try and resolve the conflict that has spurred months of protests and a lawsuit by leading musicians.
Portnow said on Friday he was "receptive to meeting with the Rev. Jackson to explain how our nomination process works and to show the resulting diverse group of nominees it produced" for this year's Grammy Awards.
Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Bobby Sanabria are among dozens of musicians who have protested the decision, announced last April, to slash the number of Grammy categories to 78 from 109 for the 2012 Grammy Awards.
Some categories, such as Hawaiian and Native American albums were dropped completely, while others including Latin music and R&B saw the number of award categories halved.
Portnow said at the time the changes were necessary to maintain "the prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music."
Sanabria and three other Latin Jazz musicians filed a lawsuit in New York in August saying the cuts would harm their careers financially. They have also called for a boycott of the CBS network, which broadcasts the annual Grammy Awards show in Los Angeles.
The 2012 Grammy Awards take place on February12. Rapper Kanye West leads the field of contenders with seven nominations followed by British singer Adele, Bruno Mars and alternative rock band Foo Fighters.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Corrects Jackson name in paragraph 1.
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TEEN FICTION: 'Talent In New York'
This is a regular column featuring original fiction by and for high school students, provided by Figment.com, an online community writing site for young people.
Lindsey Grant.
I barely recognized her, but she wasn't washed up; not quite, not completely. The scuffs on her shoes were telling, but she wasn't nearly as far gone as the rest of the girls that came to see Roger.
?Obsessive compulsive,? he said with a flourish. ?You can be obsessive compulsive. It's hot right now.?
She stared at him, fish eyed.
?Go. Wash your hands. Count the ceiling tiles. Blink twice every time I say the letter 't.'?
She looked as limp as her hair.
?Look, Roger, there's nothing wrong with me. I'm just--?
?Out of work and out of vogue. So we'll give you a panic attack?an OCD, a something. Something hot. Something people want right now.? Roger snapped his fingers like he was trying to cast a spell. Maybe he was. Word through the grape vine was that he had a magic touch. The magic touch, he would say, the only one in the industry.
Lindsey rolled her eyes.
?I didn't come to New York to get a psychological disorder.?
?Did you come to New York to be out of work? Did you honey, did you really??
She brushed imaginary lint off of sweater, watching it fall to the floor.
?Whatever you say. Ceiling tiles it is.?
?No, no?let's do something more...obvious. Marketable. Chap stick.?
?You're not making any sense.?
?Chap stick?it'll sell. We'll get someone lined up for you, some business, some new product?we'll get you back on the market, back in the books--?
Roger babbled like a brook.
?Walk with me, darling, walk with me. All it will take is a call here, a memo there--?
Which is my cue, because I did the calls and the memos and the dry cleaning pick up. He hadn't mentioned it yet, but I knew--
?And Chris can pick up my dry cleaning on the way--?
I knew it.
There was something romantic about the first time that someone told me to go to New York. I think it was Laurie.
?Go to New York,? she said, dewy eyed over a skinny latte. ?It's the new West, and everyone went West. Kerouac went West. Go West.?
The Beats were kind of her thing at the time.
?If that's what you really want to do,? she said, ?go to New York.?
After his OCD lecture, Roger had locked himself into his office.
?I need to think.? He had said. ?That idea really drained me.?
I stood with Lindsey in the hall. I couldn't tell if she looked mad or sad or simply broken. Finally, she spoke.
?Let's go pick up the dry cleaning.?
?No, it's fine, you stay. Roger told me to--?
?I need a coffee. I'll come with.?
?No, really, Roger--?
?Can kiss my ass. Or count ceiling tiles, you know, something hot. Something marketable.?
I couldn't help it. I gaped.
?Come on. Let's go.?
I wondered if Laurie would like this New York story. The one where I'm sitting with the ex-soap actress. It's like home but famous. Lindsey has a skinny latte and a look.
?What brought you here??
?Me? Here? Well--?
She sighed.
?You need a reason to come here. A good one.?
?This is what I wanted to do.?
?Pick up dry cleaning??
She gestured at the stack of shirts sitting on the chair next to us.
?You know that just one of those shirts costs more than you make a week??
I wasn't sure if she was being conversational or passive aggressive. I ignored her.
?I wanted to manage talent. I wanted--?
She barked, laughing.
?You wanted to wear one of these shirts? You wanted to open an office and buy Italian and--?
?No.?
She pushed her coffee away.
?How do you mean??
I was flustered, but she didn't go back to dead eyed or fish faced. She was alive now; wired.
?I don't know. I wanted....I wanted to see things before they happened.?
The pause was killing me. I kept talking. My words felt limp even before they left my mouth.
?Like, pieces. People. Things.?
Lindsey pulled her coffee back, biting her lower lip. The red lipstick came off on her teeth. It made her look shark like.
?I can respect that.?
?You can??
?Hell, I didn't come here for Louboutins or Lamborghinis or even lattes. I came here to act, dammit.?
?You're still acting,? I said.
?How so? I'm out of work, I'm out of press, I'm out of luck?I'm acting? Tell me.?
?Well, I don't believe you really have a psychiatric disorder.?
She smiled wanly, and wiped the lipstick off with her thumb.
?That's the sweetest thing anyone's said to me all day.?
Two months later and I had nearly forgot about her.
Nearly, but not quite. Still, when she showed up outside my apartment at three am, hammered and haunted, I had trouble recognizing the face.
?You know what? You know what they never tell you? Here isn't really even here anymore. Go to New York they say; go on the big screen, get into the big picture. Go to New York. I don't know what here was yesterday, but it isn't the same. It's all the same now. Go to New York. Fuck! Go to Minneapolis, one half the price with one third the rape. Go to Atlanta. Go to Miami. At least those places are warm. Go to LA. Go to Singapore. At least if they fuck you there you get paid for it.?
She was crying, drizzling tears and mascara. She looked older than I thought she was.
?Fuck Roger. Fuck talent and agents. Go home, kid. Go be Chris. Get out of New York. Go west.?
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/teen-fiction-talent-in-ne_n_1238556.html
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Siri guest stars on CBS?s Big Bang Theory
In the latest episode of CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" titled "Beta Test Initiation", Raj Koothrappali starts a relationship with a well-known woman - Siri.
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/d1ti2OQHvHw/story01.htm
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Changing people's behavior: From reducing bullying to training scientists
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lisa M.P. Munoz
spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com
703-951-3195
SAGE Publications
San Diego, January 26, 2012 - If you want to change how teenagers view bullying, go to the straight to the source of most school trends: the most connected crowd. According to new intervention research, targeting the most influential students in a school could be a key factor in reducing harassment and bullying.
These results are part of a group of studies that are being presented today at a social psychology conference in San Diego, CA, on new, sometimes small, ways to make meaningful impacts on people's lives. "This is an exciting time in the field of social psychology," says Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia who wrote Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change. "Increasingly, researchers are devising theory-based interventions that have dramatic effects in the areas of education, prejudice reduction, adolescent behavior problems, health, and many others."
The idea behind such intervention work is to change the behavior for a particular group of individuals. Reducing student bullying, increasing interest among teens in math and science, and improving perceptions of women in engineering are the focus of today's talks in San Diego.
Reducing student bullying
In the bullying intervention study, Elizabeth Levy Paluck and Hana Shepherd of Princeton University set out at a U.S. public high school to change students' perceptions that harassment of fellow students is a normal way to gain and maintain status.
"We were interested in the idea that harassment and bullying in schools is a social norm that is not necessarily related to students' personal feelings," says Levy Paluck. Her team used social network analysis to identify the students who might have the most influence in setting social norms. A random subset of these students participated in public denouncements of harassment and bullying. The researchers then tracked the social network over one year, also collecting data on disciplinary records and teacher assessments.
Levy Paluck and Shepard found that students who were socially tied to the intervention significantly decreased their perception that harassment and bullying is a desirable norm. At the same time, those students' decreased their harassment and bullying behavior as measured through disciplinary records, teacher assessments, and independent behavioral observations.
Increasing teens' interest in math and science
In a different intervention study aimed at changing teen behavior in math and science, researchers did not target the students themselves but rather their parents. The goal was to increase students' interest in taking courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). "We focus on the potential role of parents in motivating their teens to take more STEM courses, because we feel that they have been an untapped resource," says Judith Harackiewicz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The participants consisted of 188 U.S. high school students and their parents from the longitudinal Wisconsin Study of Families and Work. Harackiewicz and her colleague Janet Hyde found that a relatively simple intervention aimed at parents two brochures mailed to parents and a website that all highlight the usefulness of STEM courses led their children to take on average nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last two years of high school, compared with the control group. "Our indirect intervention," funded by the National Science Foundation, "changed the way that parents interacted with their teens, leading to a significant and important change in their teens' course-taking behavior," Harackiewicz says.
Improving perceptions of women engineers
"Many of these interventions work by changing the stories people tell themselves about who they are and why they do what they do, in ways that lead to self-sustaining changes in behavior," says Wilson of the University of Virginia. For example, new work being presented by Greg Walton of Stanford University tested the effects of two interventions on female engineering students, one aimed at making them feel like they belong in engineering and another at teaching them to reflect on core values to help them cope with stress.
Both interventions improved the first-year grades of women enrolled in male-dominated engineering majors compared to a control group, eliminating a gender gap. The two interventions worked in different ways, however: Women in the belonging group were able to build better relationships with male engineers, while women in the value-training group made more friends outside of engineering, according to the study funded by the Spencer Foundation. "The two interventions suggest the power of social-psychological approaches to help people cope with settings in which their group is underrepresented and negatively stereotyped," Walton says.
###
The symposium "Revealing the Power of Social Psychology through Theoretically-Based Intervention Research" takes place on Jan. 26, 2012, at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). More than 3,000 scientists are in attendance at the meeting in San Diego from Jan. 26-28 (www.spspmeeting.org).
SPSP promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. With more than 7,000 members, the Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world (www.spsp.org).
Contacts:
Lisa M.P. Munoz, SPSP Public Information Officer
spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com
703-951-3195
Timothy Wilson, University of Virginia
tdw@virginia.edu
434-924-0674
Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Princeton University
epaluck@princeton.edu
609-258-9730
Greg Walton, Stanford University
gwalton@stanford.edu
650-498-4284
Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin, Madison
jmharack@wisc.edu
608-262-5924
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 26-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lisa M.P. Munoz
spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com
703-951-3195
SAGE Publications
San Diego, January 26, 2012 - If you want to change how teenagers view bullying, go to the straight to the source of most school trends: the most connected crowd. According to new intervention research, targeting the most influential students in a school could be a key factor in reducing harassment and bullying.
These results are part of a group of studies that are being presented today at a social psychology conference in San Diego, CA, on new, sometimes small, ways to make meaningful impacts on people's lives. "This is an exciting time in the field of social psychology," says Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia who wrote Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change. "Increasingly, researchers are devising theory-based interventions that have dramatic effects in the areas of education, prejudice reduction, adolescent behavior problems, health, and many others."
The idea behind such intervention work is to change the behavior for a particular group of individuals. Reducing student bullying, increasing interest among teens in math and science, and improving perceptions of women in engineering are the focus of today's talks in San Diego.
Reducing student bullying
In the bullying intervention study, Elizabeth Levy Paluck and Hana Shepherd of Princeton University set out at a U.S. public high school to change students' perceptions that harassment of fellow students is a normal way to gain and maintain status.
"We were interested in the idea that harassment and bullying in schools is a social norm that is not necessarily related to students' personal feelings," says Levy Paluck. Her team used social network analysis to identify the students who might have the most influence in setting social norms. A random subset of these students participated in public denouncements of harassment and bullying. The researchers then tracked the social network over one year, also collecting data on disciplinary records and teacher assessments.
Levy Paluck and Shepard found that students who were socially tied to the intervention significantly decreased their perception that harassment and bullying is a desirable norm. At the same time, those students' decreased their harassment and bullying behavior as measured through disciplinary records, teacher assessments, and independent behavioral observations.
Increasing teens' interest in math and science
In a different intervention study aimed at changing teen behavior in math and science, researchers did not target the students themselves but rather their parents. The goal was to increase students' interest in taking courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). "We focus on the potential role of parents in motivating their teens to take more STEM courses, because we feel that they have been an untapped resource," says Judith Harackiewicz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The participants consisted of 188 U.S. high school students and their parents from the longitudinal Wisconsin Study of Families and Work. Harackiewicz and her colleague Janet Hyde found that a relatively simple intervention aimed at parents two brochures mailed to parents and a website that all highlight the usefulness of STEM courses led their children to take on average nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last two years of high school, compared with the control group. "Our indirect intervention," funded by the National Science Foundation, "changed the way that parents interacted with their teens, leading to a significant and important change in their teens' course-taking behavior," Harackiewicz says.
Improving perceptions of women engineers
"Many of these interventions work by changing the stories people tell themselves about who they are and why they do what they do, in ways that lead to self-sustaining changes in behavior," says Wilson of the University of Virginia. For example, new work being presented by Greg Walton of Stanford University tested the effects of two interventions on female engineering students, one aimed at making them feel like they belong in engineering and another at teaching them to reflect on core values to help them cope with stress.
Both interventions improved the first-year grades of women enrolled in male-dominated engineering majors compared to a control group, eliminating a gender gap. The two interventions worked in different ways, however: Women in the belonging group were able to build better relationships with male engineers, while women in the value-training group made more friends outside of engineering, according to the study funded by the Spencer Foundation. "The two interventions suggest the power of social-psychological approaches to help people cope with settings in which their group is underrepresented and negatively stereotyped," Walton says.
###
The symposium "Revealing the Power of Social Psychology through Theoretically-Based Intervention Research" takes place on Jan. 26, 2012, at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). More than 3,000 scientists are in attendance at the meeting in San Diego from Jan. 26-28 (www.spspmeeting.org).
SPSP promotes scientific research that explores how people think, behave, feel, and interact. With more than 7,000 members, the Society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world (www.spsp.org).
Contacts:
Lisa M.P. Munoz, SPSP Public Information Officer
spsp.publicaffairs@gmail.com
703-951-3195
Timothy Wilson, University of Virginia
tdw@virginia.edu
434-924-0674
Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Princeton University
epaluck@princeton.edu
609-258-9730
Greg Walton, Stanford University
gwalton@stanford.edu
650-498-4284
Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin, Madison
jmharack@wisc.edu
608-262-5924
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/sp-cpb012612.php
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Transport Secretary's son barred from leaving Egypt
Updated 10:50 a.m. ET: Senator John McCain (R-AZ), for whom Sam LaHood worked during the 2008 presidential campaign, on Thursday expressed "outrage" at the development.
In a statement, he said: "It is worrying enough that Sam and his fellow NGO workers have been singled out by name in Egyptian state-owned media; it is outrageous that these individuals would be held against their will by Egyptian authorities and prohibited from leaving the country. These individuals and the organizations that employ them have broken no laws, and indeed, have made every effort to comply with the statutes, regulations, and requests of the Egyptian government."
US working with Egypt to lift travel ban on NGO workers 'in merest days'Sen. McCain added: "I call on the Egyptian government and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to cease the harassment and unwarranted investigations of American NGOs operating in Egypt, to register these groups immediately, to return all of the property confiscated in the raids against these organizations, to end the intimidation of their employees by Egyptian officials, and to permit those members of these groups who wish to leave the country to do so. I deeply regret that this crisis has escalated to the point that it now endangers the lives of American citizens and could set back the long-standing partnership between the United States and Egypt."
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Published 6:20 a.m. ET: Egypt's authorities have imposed a travel ban on four members of a U.S.-funded pro-democracy organization ? including the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ? in a row over its activities, a source said Thursday.
A member of an NGO with knowledge of the case told Reuters Thursday that the four members of the International Republican Institute (IRI) include three U.S. citizens. One is Sam LaHood, who is the IRI's Egypt director.
"It is a de facto detention," the member of a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Cairo told Reuters, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
The Department of Transportation told NBC News it is not commenting on the Secretary's son not being allowed to fly out of Egypt.
The judges investigating the case have charged the four with managing an unregistered NGO and being paid employees of an unregistered organization, charges that could carry up to five years in jail, he said. The IRI had no immediate comment.
The group is in Egypt and has been forbidden to travel outside the country.
Pro-democracy groups raided
The New York Times reported Sam LaHood was prevented from boarding a flight last week, citing IRI officials.
The officials told the paper that other American staff were also told they were not allowed to travel outside Egypt.
The Times said that the move appeared to be an escalation of a criminal investigation by the Egyptian authorities into groups with foreign funding that have been promoting democracy.
Related: U.S. deeply concerned by Egypt raid on pro-democracy groups
The U.S. expressed deep concern in December after Egyptian police raided offices of U.S.-backed pro-democracy and human rights groups, including the IRI, saying the harassment should stop immediately and hinting that Washington could review its $1.3 billion in military aid if the raids continue.
Egyptian prosecutors police raided offices of 17 pro-democracy and human rights groups in what rights defenders described as a campaign against them by the military rulers.
Speaking after those raids, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described them as "inconsistent with the bilateral cooperation we have had over many years".
She said U.S. officials had been in touch both with Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri and with Egypt's ambassador in Washington to underscore Washington's concern
The IRI, which is loosely associated with the U.S. Republican political party and receives U.S. government funding, says it takes a neutral political stance, fostering democracy in Egypt by training members of nascent parties in democratic processes.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46144773/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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50 Cent Bet: Rapper Will Tweet Nude Pic if Giants Lose Super Bowl
50 Cent reportedly won a $500,000 bet (!) on the Giants in the NFC Championship game. But that's only money. For the Super Bowl, he's making things really interesting.
After Tweeting throughout Sunday's nerve-wracking win ("just watched a $500,000 football game get on my level Chumps") 50 is uber-confident heading into February 5.
So much so that the rapper quickly accepted when a follower named MyBestAssets made him an offer regarding his hometown Giants and the New England Patriots:
Fiddy is betting something a little different this time around.
It's unclear who MyBestAssets is, what those assets are, and what the extent of her relationship with Chelsea Handler's ex is. But she's apparently a Pats fan.
"Lets bet. If the Giants lose the Superbowl, u must post ur d*ck on the twitter. If they win, I'll post my boobs & face. Bet?" she wrote. 50 quickly went all in on that.
"Ok It's a bet. See your d*ck on twitter Feb 5. Lol" she wrote.
LOL indeed. This is definitely the most unusual wager we've heard of, which is saying something, as certain THG staff members have bet on the coin toss. The coin toss.
Anyway, let's go Giants. We really don't need to see that.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
US into semifinals with 13-0 rout of Guatemala
Associated Press Sports
updated 9:42 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2012
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Abby Wambach scored twice in the first half to move into third on the career goals list for women's international soccer, and the United States beat Guatemala 13-0 on Sunday to clinch a berth in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the London Olympics.
A left-foot tap in the 12th minute and a header in the 14th gave Wambach 129 goals for the U.S. team, moving her past Germany's Birgit Prinz (128). She trails Mia Hamm (158) and Kristine Lilly (130).
The 31-year-old striker's exploits added some meaning to another suspense-free rout for the Americans, who have outscored their opponents 27-0 so far in Olympic qualifying.
Sydney Leroux, earning just her second cap, tied a U.S. record with five goals as Wambach's substitute in the second half.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46095190/ns/sports/
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[OOC] Group 4 intro: Tasha and Rowan
Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
This group will be starting in Estes Park, Colorado -- Southwest of Fort Collins along 36.
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.This group will be starting in Estes Park, Colorado -- Southwest of Fort Collins along 36.
Places of Interest:
- Estes Park Medical Center
- Lake Estes
- Rocky Mountain Pharmacy
- Safeway
- Estes Park Pharmacy
- Rexall Drug
- Timberline Medical
- Family Medical Clinic
- Estes Park Specialty Clinic
- Country Market
- Buckwheat Organic Market
- Famous Eastside Food Store
- Numerous hunting and sporting outlets (Big Red of the Rockies, The Hiking Hut, Outdoor World)
Environment:
The population of Estes Park is approximately 5,858.
It is largely mountainous, with a few heavily populated "settlements".
The mountains grow steeper the further west you travel and grow less steep the further east you travel.
To the north and south, it is largely similar.
~*Do not frown, you never know who is falling in love with your smile*~
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Costa Concordia: As Hope Fades for More Survivors, Finger-Pointing Begins (Time.com)
As hope fades for the successful rescue of the 20 people still missing a week after the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, the focus of operations on the Italian island of Giglio is shifting towards the prevention of future catastrophe and the allocation of blame for that which has already occurred. With some 500,000 gallons of fuel oil still sloshing around in the hull of the ship, "We need to prevent an environmental disaster," says Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, who is coordinating the emergency response. He added that while the agency wasn't giving up rescue attempts, the risk of rupture of the ship's fuel tanks was becoming an increasingly important worry.
Rescuers have been investigating whether the ship can be chained to the rocks on which it capsized last week, to halt its slow slippage towards deep waters, which would dramatically complicate further salvage efforts. The consequences of an oil spill would be disastrous. The mayor of Giglio has called the ship an "ecological time bomb." The potential for pollution puts at risk not only the area around the tiny Mediterranean island, but also the entirety of the nearby coast of Tuscany, one of the engines of Italian tourism. On Saturday, light oil was discovered floating near the Concordia, but rescue workers speculated it may have been diesel from rescue boats or lubricant from some of the on board machinery, not the heavy engine oil that could spell environmental devastation. (Photos: The Sinking of the Costa Concordia)
The plan is to extract the fuel oil and replace it with water, to avoid destabilizing the ship. Experts estimate that draining even those tanks closest to the outside of the hull could take as much as month -- providing storms don't cause delays -- and that the inner tanks could prove harder to reach. Still, "there is a very good chance that the fuel oil can be removed," says Paul Wright, associate director of the Marine Institute at Britain's Plymouth University. Contamination from the kitchen oils, chemicals, sewage, and personal belongings of the crew and passengers are likely to be contained using booms. What could prove more challenging is the salvage operation of the $450 million ship itself. "I would be very surprised if she is righted and floated off," says Wright. "The most likely solution is that she will be cut up and dismantled in position." It's an operation that could take months.
Meanwhile, the legal process is gearing up as Italian authorities work to establish the criminal liability for what some experts predict will produce the most expensive insurance claims in maritime history. As of Saturday, the death toll for the accident stands at 12 and is likely to rise; the Costa Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest and facing charges of manslaughter. At the heart of the investigation will be determining what happened in the 70 minutes between the moment the ship tore itself open on the rocks and Schettino's first formal call for help. In the interval, the coast guard was misinformed by a member of the Concordia's crew about the condition of ship, even as it was taking on water. And passengers were told by an apparently confused or oblivious crew that the problem had been resolved and that they should return to their rooms. (History's Greatest Cruise Ship Disasters)
Lawyers for civil plaintiffs will be eager to show that responsibility for the tragedy extends beyond the incompetence of the captain. "You have an incentive to find the deep pockets," says Luca Melchionna, a professor at St. John's University School of Law. Was the Costa Concordia's dangerous approach to the island part of a pattern that the cruise company had previously sanctioned or tolerated? To what extent did company policy contribute to the disarray in the early minutes when lives could have been saved? How well prepared were the crew for the event of an emergency?
For now, the cruise company has joined the criminal case against the captain as a civil party, formally putting itself among the injured and (not coincidentally) forestalling civil action in Italy while the criminal trial plays out, something that could take months of years. "It's a strategic legal move that protects them, at least for a while," says Melchionna. But such maneuvers won't protect the company in other jurisdictions. While lawyers for potential plaintiffs have complained that the waivers their clients were asked to sign have ruthlessly limited the cruise line's liability, at least two law firms have announced they plan to file a class action lawsuit in the U.S. next week. Meanwhile, several passengers have already sought representation with the British law firm Irwin Mitchell. "With thousands of passengers and crew on board this huge vessel, their safety should have been the first and only priority," Clive Garner, the head of the firm's international law team, said in a statement. "Tragically, it seems that this was not the case and passengers and their families have paid a very heavy price."
Transcript: 'Go On Board!' Coast Guard Tells Cruise Ship Captain
WATCH: Crew Tells Passengers, 'Return to Your Cabin'
View this article on Time.com
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Video: Battle for Florida primary looms large
>> to the battle for florida as the gop presidential race heats up on the heels of newt gingrich 's big win in south carolina . nbc's peter alexander is in tampa this morning. peter, good morning to you.
>> reporter: matt, good morning to you. after being badly beaten in south carolina mitt romney hustled to florida to get a head start. having spent millions in this state already since the beginning of the month. romney 's senior advisers say you can expect him to ramp up the rhetoric against newt gingrich going forward, that we'll begin to see a more confrontational mitt romney and we are already beginning to see it on the campaign trail. looking to capitalize on his resounding south carolina win, newt gingrich arrives in florida today , focused on momentum and money.
>> in florida my case is simple. you have a clear establishment candidate in mitt romney . you have somebody whose entire career has been a reagan populist conservative going all the way back to the 1970s .
>> reporter: on twitter, gingrich boasted he raised more than $1 million in less than 24 hours and asked supporters to donate more to help him deliver a knockout punch.
>> this is a decision point.
>> reporter: mitt romney is looking to the sunshine state for a comeback.
>> what's he been doing for 15 years? he's been working as a lobbyist and selling influence around washington.
>> reporter: appearing on "meet the press" earlier, gingrich denied that.
>> i was not a lobbyist. i was never a lobbyist. don't mix these things up. the fact was i was an adviser stroo teenagecally.
>> reporter: during our interview romney ridiculed that.
>> if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck.
>> reporter: what makes him unfit to be president of the united states ?
>> he was speaker of the house for four years and then was investigated by an ethics panel. those who knew him rejected him, reprimanded him and he left in shame.
>> reporter: after weeks of being coy about whether he'll release tax returns .
>> maybe.
>> reporter: he said he'll release his 2010 returns and an estimate for 2011 .
>> there are no surprises. nothing in the financial disclosure forms. we said, get it out there soon.
>> reporter: romney 's son put out this photo of his father doing laundry. do you see images like that and say, maybe i'm trying too hard to look like an average guy.
>> everybody knows i'm not an average guy.
>> reporter: are you doing your laundry on primary day?
>> we'll be on the road 30 days . who else does our laundry?
>> reporter: this state doesn't vote until january 31 is. romney said something new yesterday, ann romney referring to statements about the family's personal wealth saying they measure wealth and riches in the strength of the family. also worth noting, nearly 200,000 people in the state have already voted either by absentee or early voting.
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46098250/
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Davos 2012: Financial fragility and igloo protests
A group of protesters is surrounded by riot police during a anti World Economic Forum, WEF, demonstration in Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2012. The WEF takes place from Jan. 25 to 28 in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Keystone, Peter Klaunzer)
A group of protesters is surrounded by riot police during a anti World Economic Forum, WEF, demonstration in Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2012. The WEF takes place from Jan. 25 to 28 in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Keystone, Peter Klaunzer)
A group of protesters is surrounded by riot police during a anti World Economic Forum, WEF, demonstration in Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2012. The WEF takes place from Jan. 25 to 28 in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Keystone, Peter Klaunzer)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? An igloo protest camp sprouting up amid $500-a-night hotels and security cordons at the Swiss resort of Davos seems to serve a warning to the world's rich and powerful gathering here: Beware, or you might be sleeping in the snow next year, too.
In many countries, prospects for prosperity are increasingly fragile. Trust in presidents and CEOs, and the systems they represent, is drying up. Uncertainty lurks for the eurozone, and for Afghanistan, Syria and North Korea as well.
And now the Occupy movement has come to the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of 2,600 decision-makers from nearly 100 countries and hundreds of companies that starts Wednesday.
VIPs in Davos are usually sheltered from critics so that they can solve financial problems in cosseted peace. This year, the global question-the-establishment wave has brought in a small band of protesters, with an igloo-and-yurt camp and anti-capitalist entreaties ready to greet the big bosses of business and world politics as they arrive.
Even the weather seemed to be working in the protesters' favor.
"In the last 42 years, I've never seen so much snow in Davos," forum founder Klaus Schwab tweeted Sunday. "Perfect snow to build igloos!" members of the Occupy Davos movement tweeted back.
With the list of global economic problems to solve so daunting this year, many Davos participants may prefer the more measurable and lucrative work of confidential corporate deals, a Davos hallmark. Politicians from the U.S. and other countries will be seeking investment in their districts, investors will be hunting out promising young entrepreneurs, and everyone will be looking for the year's next big gadget.
"The reality of Davos is that it can achieve things and it does achieve things every year. And that is business deals," said French political analyst Dominique Moisi.
Chief executives from China will garner attention, but Europe will be the damaged star of this year's forum. That's a painful irony for organizers who have worked for years to expand its reach beyond the Europeans and Americans who built its reputation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel formally launches the meeting with a keynote speech Wednesday that may chart her course for Europe's debt crisis in the coming months.
The list of Davos participants is heftier than ever in its four-decade history, with nearly 40 heads of state and 18 of the world's central bankers. They're joined by business leaders, scientists, thinkers, pioneers for human rights and others for the invitation-only week of brainstorming that aims to set the global agenda for the year to come.
"It's the perfect barometer of the temperature of the world," Moisi said.
Four years after the subprime mortgage crisis and ensuing financial meltdown, growth remains anemic in the rich world. Many in Europe and the U.S. ? especially those without work ? feel betrayed by solutions that they feel favored the very bankers and financial players blamed for the crisis. In rich and developing economies, income inequalities are on the rise.
The Occupy protesters are bringing a mix of grievances, inspired by protests that started around Wall Street last year and spread to cities around the world.
Their numbers may be limited here because of Davos' remote location, high in the Swiss Alps in a heavily guarded valley. Those who do make the journey face the painstaking work of carving blocks of snow and fitting them into an igloo, a job that takes four people about five hours to complete.
"We'll make small actions in the village, we're going to disturb things a little bit," said organizer David Roth, a Swiss leftist politician camped out for the week.
One of their banners reflected the disillusionment in developed democracies: "If voting could change anything it would be illegal."
Forum organizers warned earlier this month that financial troubles of the past few years are fueling resentment that could spark protectionism, nationalism and social unrest.
That's a particularly potent message for three world powers facing elections this year ? the U.S., Russia and France ? as well as for the Arab world after its string of uprisings.
Everyone will be looking for what organizers are calling "new models."
The overarching question for many government leaders will be how to restore growth despite rising debts and sinking market confidence.
Business leaders will hold private panels on how to employ more young people, restore faith in leadership, make cleaner energy more economically appealing, and profit from new technology.
Public figures expected include British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli President Shimon Peres, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby.
The forum runs through Sunday.
___
Angela Charlton reported from Paris.
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