Capt. Jeffrey James, commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, presents the 2012 Volunteer of the Year award to Meredith Gaston during an award luncheon held at the Hale Koa Hotel Waikiki Ballroom on Jan. 22.
Story and photo by MC2 Nardel Gervacio
Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs
HONOLULU, Hawaii ? The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS) Hawaii hosted the 17th Annual Volunteer of the Year luncheon at the Hale Koa Hotel, Waikiki Ballroom, on Jan. 22.
As a volunteer organization, the NMCRS relies on the dedication, efforts and commitment of its volunteers. The luncheon was held to honor the staff and volunteers of the NMCRS.
?This event is a great opportunity to recognize our volunteers from Pearl Harbor and Kaneohe offices for their outstanding work that they do as volunteers for this society,? said Paul H. Belanger, director of Pearl Harbor NMCRS. He praised the volunteers who attended the luncheon for all of the outstanding work they have done this past year.
The awards luncheon recognizes volunteers who exemplify Hawaii?s spirit of aloha and who embody the ideals of the NMCRS.
?Even though we are honoring four volunteers, they all represent the efforts of all our volunteers because it?s a team effort. No one can do it alone,? said Belanger. ?It?s these volunteers that work together to provide ? excellent service for our service members.?
Belanger introduced Rear Adm. Frank Ponds, commander of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, who spoke about NMCRS and its volunteers.
?Thanks a lot for all you do. It?s amazing when you walk into an organization and see all the smiling faces. It makes you feel the warmth and that you?re wanted,? said Ponds.
?This year is special. It?s special because you emphasize service and self-sacrifice, and I think the Navy and Marine Corps Society epitomizes that. When you give your time and hours in your day to help someone out, that?s priceless,? Ponds said.
Two awards were presented this year for the volunteers who went above and beyond, personally making a difference in the lives of many service members.
Meredith Gaston received the award as the 2012 Pearl Harbor NMCRS Volunteer of the Year, devoting 1,500 hours as a NMCRS volunteer and providing excellent service as a caseworker.
Rayna Glucksman, who was honored as the 2012 Kaneohe NMCRS Volunteer of the Year, gave more than 760 hours of service in assiszting approximately 150 Marines and Sailors since November 2010.
?The event was nicely done. This is my first time I?ve been to a volunteer award event for the relief society. It was also nice to get the two offices together. We work separately but we have the same mission,? said Gluckman of Stamford, Conn., assigned to NMCRS Kaneohe. ?Receiving the volunteer award was a surprise. I don?t think I do any more than the other volunteers because every volunteer does their job well and they go above and beyond,? she said. The Pearl Harbor Kokua Award was also given to two volunteers who presented a positive impact in helping service members in need. This year?s award was presented to Heidi Krukowski of Pearl Harbor NMCRS, who donated more than 1,300 hours to the society, and Cedric Fonville of Kaneohe NMCRS, who assisted in the operations of the NMCRS Thrift Shop at Pearl Harbor before joining the Kaneohe office in June 2012 and taking on the responsibilities as both client services assistance and a level II caseworker.
?We can never give back enough for our volunteers for they have chosen to invest themselves personally and professionally, not just in the society,? said Marine Maj. Gen. (ret.) Carl B. Jensen, executive vice president, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS).
?They invested themselves in our Marines and our Sailors and their families. How can we give them too much. We can?t thank them enough, and this event we had this afternoon is just a small way we can pay them back our respects,? Jensen said.
The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is a private, nonprofit, volunteer, service organization designed to provide financial, educational and other assistance to active duty and retired members of the naval services of the United States, eligible family members and survivors when in need.
Founded in 1904, the society established its first service center at the Washington Navy Yard with a staff of 19 volunteers helping widows and orphans. It is sponsored by the Department of the Navy. Today there are more than 250 service offices ashore and afloat. Volunteers are still the mainstay of the society?s workforce.
Published: Saturday, January 26, 2013, 12:01?a.m. Updated 9 hours ago
NEW YORK ? Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What?s more, these jobs aren?t just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren?t just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They?re being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived.
?The jobs that are going away aren?t coming back,? says Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of ?Race Against the Machine.? ??I have never seen a period where computers demonstrated as many skills and abilities as they have over the past seven years.?
The global economy is being reshaped by machines that generate and analyze vast amounts of data; by devices such as smartphones and tablet computers that let people work just about anywhere; by smarter, nimbler robots; and by services that let businesses rent computing power when they need it, instead of installing expensive equipment and hiring IT staffs to run it. Whole employment categories, from secretaries to travel agents, are starting to disappear.
?There?s no sector of the economy that?s going to get a pass,? says Martin Ford, who runs a software company and wrote ?The Lights in the Tunnel,? a book predicting widespread job losses. ?It?s everywhere.?
The numbers startle labor economists. In the United States, half the 7.5 million jobs lost during the Great Recession were in industries that pay middle-class wages, ranging from $38,000 to $68,000. But only 2 percent of the 3.5 million jobs gained since the recession ended in June 2009 are in midpay industries. Nearly 70 percent are in low-pay industries, 29 percent in industries that pay well.
In the 17 European countries that use the euro as their currency, the numbers are worse. Almost 4.3 million low-pay jobs have been gained since mid-2009, but the loss of midpay jobs has never stopped. A total of 7.6 million disappeared from January 2008 through last June.
Experts warn that this ?hollowing out? of the middle-class workforce is far from over. They predict the loss of millions more jobs as technology becomes even more sophisticated and reaches deeper into our lives. Maarten Goos, an economist at the University of Leuven in Belgium, says Europe could double its middle-class job losses.
Some occupations are beneficiaries of the march of technology, such as software engineers and app designers for smartphones and tablet computers. Overall, though, technology is eliminating far more jobs than it is creating.
To understand the impact technology is having on middle-class jobs in developed countries, the AP analyzed employment data from 20 countries; tracked changes in hiring by industry, pay and task; compared job losses and gains during recessions and expansions over the past four decades; and interviewed economists, technology experts, robot manufacturers, software developers, entrepreneurs and people in the labor force who ranged from CEOs to the unemployed.
The AP?s key findings:
? For more than three decades, technology has reduced the number of jobs in manufacturing. Robots and other machines controlled by computer programs work faster and make fewer mistakes than humans. Now, that same efficiency is being unleashed in the service economy, which employs more than two-thirds of the workforce in developed countries. Technology is eliminating jobs in office buildings, retail establishments and other businesses consumers deal with every day.
? Technology is being adopted by every kind of organization that employs people. It?s replacing workers in large corporations and small businesses, established companies and start-ups. It?s being used by schools, colleges and universities; hospitals and other medical facilities; nonprofit organizations and the military.
?The most vulnerable workers are doing repetitive tasks that programmers can write software for ? an accountant checking a list of numbers, an office manager filing forms, a paralegal reviewing documents for key words to help in a case. As software becomes even more sophisticated, victims are expected to include those who juggle tasks, such as supervisors and managers ? workers who thought they were protected by a college degree.
? Thanks to technology, companies in the Standard & Poor?s 500 stock index reported one-third more profit the past year than they earned the year before the Great Recession. They?ve also expanded their businesses, but total employment, at 21.1 million, has declined by a half-million.
? Start-ups account for much of the job growth in developed economies, but software is allowing entrepreneurs to launch businesses with a third fewer employees than in the 1990s. There is less need for administrative support and back-office jobs that handle accounting, payroll and benefits.
? It?s becoming a self-serve world. Instead of relying on someone else in the workplace or our personal lives, we use technology to do tasks ourselves. Some find this frustrating; others like the feeling of control. Either way, this trend will only grow as software permeates our lives.
? Technology is replacing workers in developed countries regardless of their politics, policies and laws. Union rules and labor laws may slow the dismissal of employees, but no country is attempting to prohibit organizations from using technology that allows them to operate more efficiently ? and with fewer employees.
Technological innovations have been throwing people out of jobs for centuries. But they eventually created more work, and greater wealth, than they destroyed. Ford, the author and software engineer, thinks there is reason to believe that this time will be different. He sees virtually no end to the inroads of computers into the workplace. Eventually, he says, software will threaten the livelihoods of doctors, lawyers and other highly skilled professionals.
Many economists are encouraged by history and think the gains eventually will outweigh the losses. But even they have doubts.
?What?s different this time is that digital technologies show up in every corner of the economy,? McAfee says.
Peter Lindert, an economist at the University of California, Davis, says the computer is more destructive than innovations in the Industrial Revolution because the pace at which it is upending industries makes it hard for people to adapt.
Occupations that provided middle-class lifestyles for generations can disappear in a few years. Utility meter readers are just one example. As power companies began installing so-called smart readers outside homes, the number of meter readers in the United States plunged from 56,000 in 2001 to 36,000 in 2010, according to the Labor Department.
In 10 years? That number is expected to be zero.
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JACKSONVILLE, FL:? Thomas S. Edwards, Jr., senior partner at Edwards & Ragatz, P.A. has been extended an invitation to become a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.?
Membership in the Academy is limited to 500 Trial Attorney fellows under the age of 70 in the United States. The organization is composed of the top trial attorneys in the nation ? both plaintiff (representing the injured) ?and the defense (representing corporations, governments and insurance carriers).? Each nominee is thoroughly vetted by colleagues and judges before whom they have appeared. Mr. Edwards plans to be inducted into the Academy at their Annual Meeting at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, California, starting April 3, 2013.
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The International Academy of Trial Lawyers was chartered in 1954 and is recognized as the most prestigious organization of trial lawyers in the world. Membership is by invitation only and is strictly limited to 500 active trial lawyers in the U.S., as well as over 100 Fellows from more than 30 countries throughout the world. The Academy?s purposes are to promote reforms in the law, facilitate the Administration of Justice, promote the Rule of Law internationally and elevate standards of integrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession.
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Thomas S. Edwards, Jr. has a long history of leadership and service to the legal profession and our community, including, past President of the Jacksonville Bar Association, past President of The Florida Justice Association, a current member of Best Lawyers in America & Super Lawyers, a Board member for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and a current member of the Florida Bar Trial Lawyer?s Executive Council and the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Management Council.
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Edwards & Ragatz, P.A., is a law firm located in Jacksonville, Florida, that represents the injured, victims and consumers in all courts. The firm?s attorneys are experienced in handling all types of personal injury and medical malpractice, as well as complex commercial litigation. The attorneys serve in prominent positions in local and state trial lawyers? associations and have testified before the legislature on issues of importance to the justice system.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? From gun control to gay rights, President Barack Obama's second-term agenda is shaping up as an unabashedly liberal wish list.
In less than a week, he's vowed to tackle climate change and protect government entitlements. His administration has lifted a ban on women in combat and expanded opportunities for disabled students. Proposals for stricter gun laws have already been unveiled, and plans for comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, are coming next week.
Obama's full embrace of such an agenda suggests a president both freed for action by his re-election win and seeking to capitalize on it.
"There is a deep recognition that he has a short period of time to get a lot done," said Jennifer Psaki, Obama's 2012 campaign spokeswoman. "The American people are seeing a man who is determined to finish what he started in his first term, pushing through his agenda without the burden of running for re-election."
But following through and winning approval for his proposals will require cooperation from a Congress that is nearly as divided now as it was before the November elections.
"If the president pursues that kind of agenda, obviously it's not designed to bring us together," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who calls the start of Obama's second term "a new era of liberalism."
And it's not just congressional Republicans who could stand in Obama's way as he seeks to make good on his pledges. Senate Democrats from conservative-leaning states ? who, unlike Obama, still face future elections ? may have reservations about backing a liberal agenda in the lead-up to the 2014 midterms.
Democratic resistance is already proving to be a problem for some of the toughest gun control measures that Obama proposed ahead of his inauguration in response to the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. An assault weapons ban, in particular, appears to be in jeopardy, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada among the Democrats yet to voice support.
Obama's tilt to the left follows a presidential campaign that left open questions about what policies he would pursue if he won a second term. His most specific campaign pledge was to let George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans, a step he was able to achieve during the "fiscal cliff" negotiations in late December.
That's why many of his strongest supporters were surprised ? some pleasantly ? by the issues he raised in his inaugural address, particularly his call for tackling the threat of climate change, a topic that garnered little attention during the campaign.
And after campaigning on a balanced approach to deficit reduction, including making tough choices on entitlement programs, Obama used his inauguration to extol the virtues of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He made just one reference to the huge federal deficit.
Obama has previously said he's willing to put government entitlements on the table as Washington seeks to reduce the deficit, and aides say his inaugural address doesn't change that.
Obama also became the first president to use the word "gay" in an inaugural address, asserting that the nation's journey is not complete until "our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."
Progressive groups welcomed the president's rhetoric, but made it clear that words alone would not be enough.
Adam Green, co-founder of the political action group Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said that if the president's inaugural address does become a template for his second-term governing strategy, "that will allow the president to win big victories and secure a legacy of bold progressive change that helped millions of Americans."
"We hope he goes that route, and we will proudly rally to his side if he does," Green said.
It remains to be seen how vigorously Obama pursues the agenda items he outlined in his inaugural address. White House officials have already struggled this week to back up his rhetoric with specific policy proposals
Still, people close to the president say he feels emboldened since winning re-election and wants to act quickly on progressive issues that eluded him during his first term. His supporters have also created a campaign spin-off organization to support his second-term agenda.
The outside group, Organizing for Action, will employ many of the same people who led Obama's two presidential bids and will have access to his campaign's voter and donor data. The new group is expected to focus on backing his positions in legislative battles, including gun control and immigration.
Some of what the president may pursue, particularly when it comes to climate change, may be through executive branch actions that don't need congressional approval.
The Pentagon this week acted on its own to lift a ban that kept female service members out of combat positions. And the Education Department unilaterally ordered schools to include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options.
White House officials are scouring rule books for other actions the West Wing and government agencies can take on their own.
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Associated Press writers Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Is Russia a haven of promise for the bruised global economy? Russian officials insist it is ? and are bringing out the vodka in snowy Davos to change the minds of critics who say "nyet."
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a bevy of top Russian officials and CEOs are trying to make the case at a forum for the world's business elite that Russia is THE place to invest in 2013.
Russia will leading the G-20 and is preparing to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year. Its debts and unemployment are low, its economy keeps growing, its CEOs are optimistic. It's blanketing the World Economic Forum at Davos with events, parties and press releases.
But business executives burned by state interference or pervasive corruption in Russia argue that things aren't as good as they look. And even Davos organizers warned in a report this week that Russia could grow more risky ? and not less ? in the years to come.
Medvedev sent a mixed message Wednesday, courting investors and insisting that his country is misunderstood ? all while criticizing European energy regulations and visa policies and reiterating promises on political freedoms in Russia that have long gone unfulfilled.
The European Union is pressuring Russia to apply EU rules to the European operations of gas giant Gazprom, just as Russia is struggling to maintain its dominance of Europe's gas market.
"We are seeing new barriers erected in the way of efficient work. And it is very sad because they are retroactively changing the rules of the game," Medvedev told a crowd that included CEOs with assets in Russia, the leaders of non-governmental organizations and a few critics of the Kremlin.
"I would like to use the occasion to criticize my European partners. Because they listen, but don't always hear us," he said, highlighting the pressing issue to Russians of visa-free travel to Europe.
Obtaining visas is a big hurdle for many Russians doing business in Europe.
Medvedev bristled at any criticism of Russia ? in particular the Davos report on the risks ahead for its economy, saying its scenarios for Russia's future are "not realistic" and insisting that the economy wouldn't collapse if oil and gas prices sink. High energy prices have been key to Russia's economic successes over the past decade and have given President Vladimir Putin extra weight in global affairs.
The Davos report warned that Russia needs "significant changes in its domestic institutional environment" to keep the economy growing.
Alexei Kudrin, a former longtime Russian finance minister, called the report "a serious lesson, a serious signal to the powers in Russia."
Others talking about Russia at Davos predicted that the country's leadership is unlikely to change on its own. More likely, they said, is bottom-up reform, stemming from street protests or from a growing middle class that wants more accountable politicians.
The son of jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky issued an appeal to Davos participants to press the Russian delegation to eradicate corruption.
"All Russians are proud that our country is playing a more significant role in world affairs, obtaining accession to the WTO and winning the right to host the 2014 Olympics," Pavel Khodorkovsky wrote.
"But as long as Putin's authoritarian regime doesn't stop suffocating independent political activity, limiting the work of NGOs, taking heartless measures like the ban on adoption of Russian children by U.S. parents ... Russia will never take the place it deserves as one of the leaders of the world."
Russia's role as Olympic host got another black eye after a top Russian crime lord was gunned down last week in Moscow in what police described as a war between two powerful mobs over lucrative construction projects, allegedly including ones for the 2014 Sochi games.
Medvedev, who often presents a friendlier face to the outside world than Putin, said Russia needs to improve its image. A World Bank report on the ease of doing business in 2013 ranked Russia as 112th of 185 countries.
"We have set forth very ambitious goals, for the year 2020, to be one of the top 20 countries in terms of ease of doing business," he insisted.
RSA, the Security Division of EMC Corporation introduced two new additions to its RSA Archer product suite. The new addition is designed to help customers meet ever changing and comprehensive business continuity, disaster recovery and crisis management demands.
RSA Archer Business Continuity Management and Operations is a tightly integrated solution designed to address business continuity, disaster recovery and crisis management. Engineered to align with BS25999, NIMS and ISO 22301, it offers a standards-based approach to business continuity planning. Integration with other GRC processes such as enterprise risk management, incident management and third-party management helps allow companies to align recovery efforts with organizational objectives and priorities for enhanced visibility, accountability and reporting.
Offering a flexible platform, continuity professionals can efficiently execute business continuity and disaster recovery process changes while limiting the need to invest in costly professional services.
Additionally, RSA has also introduced the availability of the RSA Archer BCM Mobile App. As a key component in a GRC mobile strategy, the app is designed to augment hard copy plans and enable rapid response during a crisis situation by offering visibility into business continuity or disaster recovery plans and associated strategies, tasks, calling trees and requirements from most locations. In the event that a data center is not available, the RSA Archer BCM Mobile App is engineered to provide high availability, allowing the end user offline access to resources from the time the app was last synced. Additional capabilities including a Mobile App Toolkit built to enable customers to create and design custom applications including questionnaires and assessments will also be supported in a future release.
?Today nearly every business process depends on a digital infrastructure, but aligning business continuity and disaster recovery planning to the needs and risk levels of the business has been very challenging for IT professionals. By offering a broad solution that covers the entire process from designing and testing to mobile access, we?re working to make it easier to align risk and criticality with business continuity plans,? said Martin Goulet, Director Product Marketing, RSA.
The company stated that the new addition will support EMC?s overall mission of building trust in next-generation IT solutions by automating the approach to business continuity, disaster recovery and effective crisis management.
I believe most people who don't want a cat, who don't like cats or say they don't like cats have simply never opened their homes to a cat....and ultimately their hearts. But generally, when people do open their minds to the idea, they?generally?do?ultimately?open their hearts.
The short movie won an award, called?"Catalogue." It was inspired by Rocky the cat,. who has s chameleon-like ability to blend into the sheets coupled with his love for napping made the?filmmakers?wonder what would happen if he'd been delivered with someone's new bed. Rocky's a screen veteran and has appeared in several other short films in his thirteen-year career, but has never matched the sheets better than he does in "Catalogue."
And a lesson from this movie: Two cats (or three maybe?) are better than one. And an adopted cat can become a movie star!
Feel free to vote HERE.
Filed under: animal shelters, cats, pets, Tree House Humane Society
Tags: adopt-a-cat, animal shelter, cat, cat adoption, cat shelter, Fresh Step cat litter, giving cats a chance, Rocky, Steve Dale archives, Tree House Humane Society
Apple has pulled two popular photography apps from the iOS app store, reportedly because the company found it too easy to find nude images ? though, notably, not pornographic ones. 500px, whose apps were removed, is resubmitting them with adjustments, but Apple is already being criticized for this seemingly arbitrary policy.
The apps were taken down Tuesday morning, following discussions between 500px and Apple relating to a new version of the app. With nearly a million downloads at the time of the takedown, 500px's main app was a popular way to share photos online ? and not not a new one, either. The version Apple removed was functionally much the same as the one approved back?in October of 2011.
500px cofounder Evgeny Tchebotarev told TechCrunch that an Apple reviewer rejected their proposed update on the grounds that it let users search for nude photos. In fact, the app defaults to a safe search mode that can only be disabled via the main website.
Furthermore, the nude photos that one might search for are of the art variety, not porn. "We don?t allow pornographic images. If something is purely pornographic, it?s against our terms and it?s deleted," Tchebotarev?said.
On Twitter and at various blogs and news websites, Apple came under fire almost immediately. Among others, the company's?own Safari Web browser app can be used to find explicit images extremely easily.
It's not the first time Apple has been attacked for what people view as its Puritanical restrictions on apps. Web browsers in the app store are age-restricted because they could be used to find adult material, and the company has also removed what it feels are adult titles from its bookstore, prompting widespread criticism.
Tchebotarev took to Twitter to say that his company is hoping to get its?iOS app back online soon, presumably after some Apple-suggested adjustments have been made.
UPDATE 5:21PM: An Apple representative tells GigaOM that there were complaints of child pornography, although the CEO denies this was mentioned to them:
"The app was removed from the App Store for featuring pornographic images and material, a clear violation of our guidelines. We also received customer complaints about possible child pornography."
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.
While bucking one of the administration's few proposals on firearms that Republicans might actually accept, the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre offered absolutely no new ideas ? indeed, old ideas ? during a speech that reveals the backwards thinking behind the gun lobby's future.
RELATED: Why This Time Was Different for Guns
In a speech late Tuesday at a Nevada hunting conference,?LaPierre attacked President Obama for a very subtle reference to gun control in his second inaugural address.?In fact, Obama's reference was so subtle that many gun-control advocates missed it ? "I was, personally, upset that Mr. Obama did not discuss gun control," The New York Times' Andrew Rosenthal wrote ??but LaPierre said that when Obama said, "We cannot mistake absolutism for principle," he was referring to gun advocates. Absolutism is okay when we're talking about the Second Amendment, LaPierre said. "Obama wants to turn the idea of absolutism into a dirty word," he said. The NRA executive vice president continued:
"I?ve got news for the president... Absolutes do exist. Words do have specific meaning in language and in law. It?s the basis of all civilization. Without those absolutes, without those protections, democracy decays into nothing more than two wolves and one lamb voting on, well, who to eat for lunch."
You know what that sounds a lot like? Barry Goldwater, who famously said in his 1964 presidential nomination acceptance speech, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"?Even though the NRA promised "meaningful contributions" after the Newtown shooting, all of its contributions are recycled slogans.
RELATED: Wayne LaPierre Only Said What Gun Nuts Have Been Posting on Facebook
The most quoted line from LaPierre's first press conference after the shooting ? "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" ? is so old that it had inspired Facebook memes long before the event. (Here's LaPierre saying it to USA Today in July 2010.?Here's a gun-rights advocate in South Dakota saying it in January 2008.?Here's LaPierre saying it in another article in USA Today?? this one from December 20, 2007?? after the Virginia Tech shooting.?"It has occurred to me that sitting next to a good guy with a gun is better than sitting next to abad guy with a gun," Don Galloway wrote in The New Hampshire Union Leader on July 30, 2004.)?Likewise, the NRA ad calling Obama a hypocrite for having Secret Service protection for his daughters but being "skeptical" of putting armed guards in elementary schools is another tired meme recycled on Facebook pages.
RELATED: The Executive Order the NRA Should Fear the Most
We should congratulate the NRA for recycling Barry Goldwater instead of its own talking points on Tuesday. Too bad the group doesn't really believe it. The NRA is in no way truly absolutist on the Bill of Rights; LaPierre called for a check on violence in video games?? which would put limits on the First Amendment. The NRA is on Team Wolf in that scenario.
RELATED: NRA Snubs Obama
LaPierre's speech served as an attack on the idea of universal background checks for gun purchases, one of the very few legislative ideas proposed by Obama that might have Republican support. Rep. Robert Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said on C-SPAN, "[I]n terms of background checks, in terms of keeping weapons out of the hands of criminals and people who have serious mental health difficulties, we want to do that, and we would take a close look at that." About 40 percent of guns are currently sold without background checks. Republican support for changing that might be why the NRA has moved beyond quoting Facebook memes and onto cribbing from conservative classics.
Wildlife conservationists are well aware of the potential conflicts that exist between the endangered species they seek to protect and the human populations which inhabit areas where the animals live. Carnivores, such as tigers, pose a risk to humans and their livestock and can be killed because of this potential risk. Previous research has found that killing of animals can be motivated as much by social and psychological factors, such as perception of danger, as by any actual real risk posed by a species.
A new study published in the Springer journalHuman Ecology has identified several key factors which may contribute to perceptions of risk from tigers in a conservation area in Bangladesh. The study, by Chloe Inskip and her colleagues from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology in Kent, UK, and WildTeam, Bangladesh, is the first to use participatory risk mapping (PRM) and in-depth interviews to explore the wider socio-economic context of human-tiger conflict.
The survey was carried out around the Sundarbans mangrove forests of south-western Bangladesh, home to one of the world's largest remaining tiger populations. Although there are no human inhabitants of the Sundarbans, eight sub-districts with a total population of around 1.7 million people lie directly adjacent to the forest boundary. Records indicate that approximately 30-50 people are killed annually by tigers in the area.
The researchers held 54 semi-structured interviews in six villages which border the Sundarbans forest, followed by 385 questionnaires in a further ten border villages. Of all the issues related to lives and livelihood, tigers were the most commonly reported problem. Other issues recorded were largely poverty-related including low incomes, dependence on natural resources, poor infrastructure and services and a lack of clean water together with soil erosion and weather. Inskip and her colleagues identified the fact that these issues had a direct impact on villagers' perceptions of risk from tigers. The respondents' perceived susceptibility to and their ability to mitigate human-tiger conflict was influenced largely by their poverty related-problems.
The authors suggest that any actions taken to improve these socio-economic issues will also reduce the perceived level of risk from tigers and help to reduce the rate at which tigers are killed. For conservationists, this would mean a shift from traditional models of conflict reduction to holistic models which also incorporate situation-specific actions to reduce risk perceptions. In many poor, rural communities in conservation areas such as the Sundarbans, risk perception reduction is likely to be tied strongly to poverty alleviation.
The authors believe that the abatement of killing endangered species will only be achieved if the human dimensions and social context of human-wildlife conflict situations are well understood and appropriately managed. They conclude that "participatory risk mapping (PRM) and qualitative research are valuable tools for enhancing understanding of and identifying actions to address the wildlife-related risk perceptions which can influence killing behavior." Addressing risk perceptions will require long-term commitment and funding.
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Inskip C et al. (2013) Human-tiger conflict in context: risks to lives and livelihoods in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Human Ecology; DOI 10.1007/s10745-012-9556-6
Springer: http://www.springer.com
Thanks to Springer for this article.
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Jan. 22, 2013 ? Following hospitalization for heart attacks, heart failure, or pneumonia, patients are at high risk of being readmitted for a broad spectrum of medical conditions in the month following hospital discharge, research at Yale School of Medicine shows. The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Hospital readmission has garnered significant interest from patient advocates, payers such as insurance companies, and policymakers, but neither the timing nor causes of readmissions have been well described.
The authors studied older patients with traditional Medicare health insurance who were readmitted within 30 days after hospitalization for heart attacks, heart failure, or pneumonia from 2007 through 2009.
Readmissions were frequent throughout the month after hospitalization and resulted from a wide spectrum of medical conditions regardless of a patient's age, sex, or race, or the time since the patient's hospital discharge. In the great majority of cases, readmission was for a medical condition that was different from the cause of initial hospitalization.
"To reduce readmissions, doctors and hospitals should design interventions that apply broadly across multiple potential medical conditions and time periods associated with rehospitalization," said lead author Dr. Kumar Dharmarajan, a visiting scholar at the Yale School of Medicine and cardiology fellow at Columbia University Medical Center. "Interventions that are specific to particular diseases or time periods may only address a fraction of patients at risk for rehospitalization. We need to be more holistic in our approach."
"We are just now recognizing that upon leaving the hospital patients may have entered a transient period of generalized risk," said senior author Dr. Harlan Krumholz, the Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine (cardiology) and professor of investigative medicine and of public health (health policy); director of the Clinical Scholars Program; and director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. "Patients need to know that they are at risk for rehospitalization from a wide variety of medical conditions."
Other authors on the study include Angela F. Hsieh, Zhenqiu Lin, H?ctor Bueno, Joseph S. Ross, Leora I. Horwitz, Jos? Augusto Barreto-Filho, Nancy Kim, Susannah M. Bernheim, Lisa G. Suter, and Elizabeth E. Drye.
This study was funded by grants 1U01HL105270-02 and T32HL007854 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Yale University. The original article was written by Karen N. Peart.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Kumar Dharmarajan et al. Diagnoses and Timing of 30-Day Readmissions After Hospitalization for Heart Failure, Acute Myocardial Infarction. JAMA, 2013;309(4):355-363 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2012.216476
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Find out about all the government or state-sponsored rebates you might be eligible for with Dsireusa.org bit.ly Make sure you take advantage of any company that offers competitor price-matching: our favorite is HomeClick.com bit.ly Check out our site and subscribe to our channel! TheFrugaliciousShow.com Facebook www.facebook.com Twitter: twitter.com For reviews of local contractors, make sure you check out Angie?s List bit.ly and ServiceMagic.com bit.ly The Frugalicious Show is a web tv show that helps you live the best possible life while spending the least amount of money. Bitsy and Erin share budget-friendly lifestyle tips on The Frugalicious Show, and Larissa shares hot deals every day on Deal of the Day. Learn how to live a Frugalicious life without sacrifice. Have a Frugalicious find you want to share? Leave a comment! TRANSCRIPT: [music] Erin: Today we?re talking about remodeling, and when taking on a big project the first step is to make a budget. Now you?re most likely going to use a contractor, and we recommend checking out AngiesList.com and ServiceMagic.com for reviews of your local contractors. Bitsy: and seriously, check references like you?re hiring a nanny, I mean your house is your baby, you don?t want to put that in anyone?s hands. Erin: This is true, and one of the ways you can potentially save is when you have a good contractor, to go through him or her for materials. Chances are that contractor has some networks and relationships that enable him to ?
Most people would agree that sex after marriage changes. It?s easy to see why. If you ate cr?me brulee once in a while you?d look forward to it, dream about it, desire it. But if you had it every night, well, it would be less exciting. You?d take it for granted.
After marriage, life settles into a routine. Couples become more comfortable, some let themselves go.
Hormones and bodies change, sex becomes less of a priority and new responsibilities abound. Everything comes before sex ? careers, children, housework, meals, laundry and bills. Energy is stretched, time becomes a precious commodity. When you can catch a breath, you wonder, how connected are we? Am I still attractive to him? Will I get rejected if I ask for sex and on and on.
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It?s vital for couples to recognize and understand the reasons that sex after marriage will inevitably change. So what is a couple to do?
? Most importantly, talk about it, take it on, address it, communicate ? Go on dates to focus on each other and reconnect ? Do connecting acts of love every day ? Carve out time for sex and schedule it if you have to ? Plan short trips to get away from the routine ? Remember studies show, ?the more you do it, the more you?ll do it.?
Sex in a committed relationship is a crucial part of the head, heart, hormone connection. With consciousness, communication and caring, loving intimacy in a committed relationship can last forever. And, by the way, it gets better after the kids launch, that is, if you have stayed connected. So hang in there.
Red Hot LoveNote? There is no such thing as a natural born lover. Learning how to make extraordinary love is something that takes practice. People who want their sex lives to be great are most likely happy to hear this. Learn more. Do more. Have more fun. Take your sexuality to new heights. There is always something new to learn about sex. That something new always feels good. Discover things together. Making love is a lot more fun that way. ~ Larry James, from the book, ?Red Hot LoveNotes for Lovers?
Copyright ? 2013 ? Lori & Bob Hollander. Lori Hollander, LCSW-C, BCD, and Bob Hollander, JD, LCSW-C, are licensed counselors and co-founders of Relationships Work, an innovative therapy practice and online resource center. Together, they encourage couples to consciously co-create their relationships in order to achieve a deeper, more intimate connection. You can visit Relationships Work online at: http://www.RelationshipsWork.com. Follow them on Facebook.
Larry James is a professional speaker, author, relationship coach and an award winning nondenominational Wedding Officiant. He performs the most ?Romantic? wedding ceremony you will find anywhere.Something NEW about relationships is posted every 4th day on this Relationships BLOG.
Subscribe to Larry?s FREE monthly ?LoveNotes for Lovers? eZINE. Contact: CelebrateLove.com, P.O. Box 12695, Scottsdale, AZ 85267-2695. ? CelebrateLove.com and CelebrateIntimateWeddings.com
NOTE: All articles and ?LoveNotes? listed in this BLOG ? written by Larry James ? are available for reprint in magazines, periodicals, newsletters, newspapers, eZINEs, on the Internet or on your own Website. Click here for details.
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(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, but took another big special charge for its recalled artificial hips and forecast 2013 earnings below Wall Street forecasts.
The diversified healthcare company said it earned $2.6 billion, or 91 cents per share. That compared with $218 million, or 8 cents per share, in the year-ago period when the company took charges of more than $3 billion, including $800 million for medical costs related to recalls of defective "metal-on-metal" hip replacement devices made by its DePuy Orthopedics unit.
J&J on Tuesday said it took special charges of $800 million in the most recent quarter, primarily related to new charges related to the defective artificial hips.
Excluding special items, J&J earned $1.19 per share. Analysts, on average, expected $1.17 per share.
Global revenue rose 8 percent to $17.56 billion, below Wall Street expectations of $17.7 billion.
Sales of prescription drugs jumped 7 percent in the quarter to $6.52 billion, helped by strong sales of its treatments for arthritis, psoriasis and HIV. Sales of medical devices rose almost 14 percent to $7.38 billion, in part due to the company's recent acquisition of trauma-device maker Synthes.
The company forecast full-year 2013 earnings, excluding special items, of $5.35 to $5.45 per share. Analysts, on average, expected $5.49 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
J&J's shares were down 1 percent in premarket trading.
(Reporting By Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)
In the junkyard, cars lay defunct as if it was a cemetary for cars. But some cars have souls and these show themselves to the right person.
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Aniihya
Member for 4 years
interesting... what kind of pictures should we use real or anime?
remy6archer
Member for 1 years
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'Quadruple helix' DNA discovered in human cellsPublic release date: 20-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Fred Lewsey fred.lewsey@admin.cam.ac.uk 44-078-857-98680 University of Cambridge
Discovery opens up possibilities for a new generation of targeted therapies for cancer
In 1953, Cambridge researchers Watson and Crick published a paper describing the interweaving 'double helix' DNA structure - the chemical code for all life.
Now, in the year of that scientific landmark's 60th Anniversary, Cambridge researchers have published a paper proving that four-stranded 'quadruple helix' DNA structures - known as G-quadruplexes - also exist within the human genome. They form in regions of DNA that are rich in the building block guanine, usually abbreviated to 'G'.
The findings mark the culmination of over 10 years investigation by scientists to show these complex structures in vivo - in living human cells - working from the hypothetical, through computational modelling to synthetic lab experiments and finally the identification in human cancer cells using fluorescent biomarkers.
The research, published today in Nature Chemistry and funded by Cancer Research UK, goes on to show clear links between concentrations of four-stranded quadruplexes and the process of DNA replication, which is pivotal to cell division and production.
By targeting quadruplexes with synthetic molecules that trap and contain these DNA structures - preventing cells from replicating their DNA and consequently blocking cell division - scientists believe it may be possible to halt the runaway cell proliferation at the root of cancer.
"We are seeing links between trapping the quadruplexes with molecules and the ability to stop cells dividing, which is hugely exciting," said Professor Shankar Balasubramanian from the University of Cambridge's Department of Chemistry and Cambridge Research Institute, whose group produced the research.
"The research indicates that quadruplexes are more likely to occur in genes of cells that are rapidly dividing, such as cancer cells. For us, it strongly supports a new paradigm to be investigated - using these four-stranded structures as targets for personalised treatments in the future."
Physical studies over the last couple of decades had shown that quadruplex DNA can form in vitro - in the 'test tube', but the structure was considered to be a curiosity rather than a feature found in nature. The researchers now know for the first time that they actually form in the DNA of human cells.
"This research further highlights the potential for exploiting these unusual DNA structures to beat cancer the next part of this pipeline is to figure out how to target them in tumour cells," said Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK.
"It's been sixty years since its structure was solved but work like this shows us that the story of DNA continues to twist and turn."
The study published today was led by Giulia Biffi, a researcher in Balasubramaninan's lab at the Cambridge Research Institute.
By building on previous research, Biffi was able to generate antibody proteins that detect and bind to areas in a human genome rich in quadruplex-structured DNA, proving their existence in living human cells.
Using fluorescence to mark the antibodies, the researchers could then identify 'hot spots' for the occurrence of four-stranded DNA - both where in the genome and, critically, at what stage of cell division.
While quadruplex DNA is found fairly consistently throughout the genome of human cells and their division cycles, a marked increase was shown when the fluorescent staining grew more intense during the 's-phase' - the point in a cell cycle where DNA replicates before the cell divides.
Cancers are usually driven by genes called oncogenes that have mutated to increase DNA replication - causing cell proliferation to spiral out of control, and leading to tumour growth.
The increased DNA replication rate in oncogenes leads to an intensity in the quadruplex structures. This means that potentially damaging cellular activity can be targeted with synthetic molecules or other forms of treatments.
"We have found that by trapping the quadruplex DNA with synthetic molecules we can sequester and stabilise them, providing important insights into how we might grind cell division to a halt," said Balasubramanian.
"There is a lot we don't know yet. One thought is that these quadruplex structures might be a bit of a nuisance during DNA replication - like knots or tangles that form.
"Did they evolve for a function? It's a philosophical question as to whether they are there by design or not - but they exist and nature has to deal with them. Maybe by targeting them we are contributing to the disruption they cause."
The study showed that if an inhibitor is used to block DNA replication, quadruplex levels go down - proving the idea that DNA is dynamic, with structures constantly being formed and unformed.
The researchers also previously found that an overactive gene with higher levels of Quadruplex DNA is more vulnerable to external interference.
"The data supports the idea that certain cancer genes can be usefully interfered with by small molecules designed to bind specific DNA sequences," said Balasubramanian.
"Many current cancer treatments attack DNA, but it's not clear what the rules are. We don't even know where in the genome some of them react - it can be a scattergun approach.
"The possibility that particular cancer cells harbouring genes with these motifs can now be targeted, and appear to be more vulnerable to interference than normal cells, is a thrilling prospect.
"The 'quadruple helix' DNA structure may well be the key to new ways of selectively inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells. The confirmation of its existence in human cells is a real landmark."
###
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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.
'Quadruple helix' DNA discovered in human cellsPublic release date: 20-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Fred Lewsey fred.lewsey@admin.cam.ac.uk 44-078-857-98680 University of Cambridge
Discovery opens up possibilities for a new generation of targeted therapies for cancer
In 1953, Cambridge researchers Watson and Crick published a paper describing the interweaving 'double helix' DNA structure - the chemical code for all life.
Now, in the year of that scientific landmark's 60th Anniversary, Cambridge researchers have published a paper proving that four-stranded 'quadruple helix' DNA structures - known as G-quadruplexes - also exist within the human genome. They form in regions of DNA that are rich in the building block guanine, usually abbreviated to 'G'.
The findings mark the culmination of over 10 years investigation by scientists to show these complex structures in vivo - in living human cells - working from the hypothetical, through computational modelling to synthetic lab experiments and finally the identification in human cancer cells using fluorescent biomarkers.
The research, published today in Nature Chemistry and funded by Cancer Research UK, goes on to show clear links between concentrations of four-stranded quadruplexes and the process of DNA replication, which is pivotal to cell division and production.
By targeting quadruplexes with synthetic molecules that trap and contain these DNA structures - preventing cells from replicating their DNA and consequently blocking cell division - scientists believe it may be possible to halt the runaway cell proliferation at the root of cancer.
"We are seeing links between trapping the quadruplexes with molecules and the ability to stop cells dividing, which is hugely exciting," said Professor Shankar Balasubramanian from the University of Cambridge's Department of Chemistry and Cambridge Research Institute, whose group produced the research.
"The research indicates that quadruplexes are more likely to occur in genes of cells that are rapidly dividing, such as cancer cells. For us, it strongly supports a new paradigm to be investigated - using these four-stranded structures as targets for personalised treatments in the future."
Physical studies over the last couple of decades had shown that quadruplex DNA can form in vitro - in the 'test tube', but the structure was considered to be a curiosity rather than a feature found in nature. The researchers now know for the first time that they actually form in the DNA of human cells.
"This research further highlights the potential for exploiting these unusual DNA structures to beat cancer the next part of this pipeline is to figure out how to target them in tumour cells," said Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK.
"It's been sixty years since its structure was solved but work like this shows us that the story of DNA continues to twist and turn."
The study published today was led by Giulia Biffi, a researcher in Balasubramaninan's lab at the Cambridge Research Institute.
By building on previous research, Biffi was able to generate antibody proteins that detect and bind to areas in a human genome rich in quadruplex-structured DNA, proving their existence in living human cells.
Using fluorescence to mark the antibodies, the researchers could then identify 'hot spots' for the occurrence of four-stranded DNA - both where in the genome and, critically, at what stage of cell division.
While quadruplex DNA is found fairly consistently throughout the genome of human cells and their division cycles, a marked increase was shown when the fluorescent staining grew more intense during the 's-phase' - the point in a cell cycle where DNA replicates before the cell divides.
Cancers are usually driven by genes called oncogenes that have mutated to increase DNA replication - causing cell proliferation to spiral out of control, and leading to tumour growth.
The increased DNA replication rate in oncogenes leads to an intensity in the quadruplex structures. This means that potentially damaging cellular activity can be targeted with synthetic molecules or other forms of treatments.
"We have found that by trapping the quadruplex DNA with synthetic molecules we can sequester and stabilise them, providing important insights into how we might grind cell division to a halt," said Balasubramanian.
"There is a lot we don't know yet. One thought is that these quadruplex structures might be a bit of a nuisance during DNA replication - like knots or tangles that form.
"Did they evolve for a function? It's a philosophical question as to whether they are there by design or not - but they exist and nature has to deal with them. Maybe by targeting them we are contributing to the disruption they cause."
The study showed that if an inhibitor is used to block DNA replication, quadruplex levels go down - proving the idea that DNA is dynamic, with structures constantly being formed and unformed.
The researchers also previously found that an overactive gene with higher levels of Quadruplex DNA is more vulnerable to external interference.
"The data supports the idea that certain cancer genes can be usefully interfered with by small molecules designed to bind specific DNA sequences," said Balasubramanian.
"Many current cancer treatments attack DNA, but it's not clear what the rules are. We don't even know where in the genome some of them react - it can be a scattergun approach.
"The possibility that particular cancer cells harbouring genes with these motifs can now be targeted, and appear to be more vulnerable to interference than normal cells, is a thrilling prospect.
"The 'quadruple helix' DNA structure may well be the key to new ways of selectively inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells. The confirmation of its existence in human cells is a real landmark."
###
[ | 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.
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Copyright ? 2013 ? Lori & Bob Hollander. Lori Hollander, LCSW-C, BCD, and Bob Hollander, JD, LCSW-C, are licensed counselors and co-founders of Relationships Work, an innovative therapy practice and online resource center. Together, they encourage couples to consciously co-create their relationships in order to achieve a deeper, more intimate connection. You can visit Relationships Work online at: http://www.RelationshipsWork.com. Follow them on Facebook.
Larry James is a professional speaker, author, relationship coach and an award winning nondenominational Wedding Officiant. He performs the most ?Romantic? wedding ceremony you will find anywhere. Something 
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Public release date: 20-Jan-2013
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