Gingrich raising cash, profile for Akin Senate bid

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) ? Shunned by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin turned Tuesday to former presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich to help draw money and attention to his quest to oust Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Gingrich appeared with Akin at a pair of Kansas City area fundraisers as part of what Akin's campaign hopes will be a $1 million advertising push in the final week of the campaign. So far, McCaskill has significantly outspent Akin on TV ads that have cast the suburban St. Louis congressman as extreme ? even "scary" ? because of his conservative views and a remark about "legitimate rape."

Gingrich acknowledged that "the gap between Todd Akin and Sen. McCaskill on issues ... is enormous." But he predicted that voters ultimately would side with Akin's limited-government philosophy and forgive him for his much-criticized remark that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in what Akin called "legitimate rape."

"Todd Akin has had a 12-year career of being a solid conservative. Claire McCaskill has had a six-year career of representing Barack Obama's liberalism," Gingrich, a former House speaker, said during a news conference with Akin. "This state deserves to have a senator from Missouri, not a senator from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.," he said in reference to the address of the White House.

McCaskill, whose mother died Monday, had no campaign events scheduled but has continued to wage an aggressive TV advertising battle against Akin.

"Claire's always been an independent, Missouri-style moderate who puts our state's interests first," said McCaskill spokeswoman Caitlin Legacki, adding that her "record obviously stands in stark contrast to Todd Akin's extreme, special-interest agenda."

Missouri's Senate seat had long been considered one of several toss-ups nationwide as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the chamber. But Romney and many deep-pocketed fundraising groups that aid Republicans abandoned Akin after his comments about pregnancy and rape aired Aug. 19 in a television interview.

Akin apologized and forged forward with a re-tooled campaign that relied more on an anti-establishment message and small-dollar donations. Gingrich was the first prominent Republican to headline a fundraiser for Akin after the rape remark, appearing at a St. Louis area event in September as it became clear that Akin would not drop out of the Senate race. Akin also has been aided by former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who has appeared in TV ads for Akin.

The Gingrich fundraisers Tuesday were not high-dollar affairs ? tickets went for $50 a person for a "power lunch" and $40 each for an evening "dessert social" at a suburban golf club. Akin campaign adviser Rick Tyler said the events were part of a push to raise $200,000 in the final week, which would help finance a planned $1 million advertising campaign.

McCaskill's campaign declined to say how much she was spending on ads in the final week. But Tyler said Akin's $1 million goal would come close to matching McCaskill's ad spending.

McCaskill had about $2.1 million in her campaign account at the start of October, compared with about $550,000 for Akin. Finance reports analyzed Tuesday by The Associated Press show McCaskill has drawn more four-figure donations than Akin in the final days of their campaign. In a six-day period starting Oct. 18, McCaskill received more than $115,000 in donations of at least $1,000 each while Akin received about $82,000.

Both candidates got a majority of that money from out-of-state donors. McCaskill's contributors included Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of moviemaker Dreamworks Animation SKG, who with his wife gave a total of $5,000. Akin's contributors included the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Conservative Strike Force and the Veterans Victory Fund, which gave $5,000 each.

Akin predicted Tuesday a swell of support from "a lot of people fired up" for his conservative cause would edge him to victory over McCaskill. In between fundraisers, Gingrich and Akin toured the underground facilities of Lee's Summit-based Bennett Packaging and posed in front of a massive banner of snow-capped mountains ? with a cutout of a snowboarder dangling from the ceiling. It was an unusual setting, but not as unusual as the response Gingrich said he received from about 200 people at Akin's luncheon fundraiser.

"It is the first fundraiser I've ever gone to that spontaneously became a rally," Gingrich said. "When he tells you he has intensity among his supporters, I can personally vouch for it. I have seen it ? it is astonishing how passionate and how dedicated they are."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gingrich-raising-cash-profile-akin-senate-bid-154224876--election.html

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What I Learned From Women Who Really Do Act And Think Like ...

istock

I?m sure that when you think of the idea of ?Thinking Like A Man,? you conjure up thoughts of a bald head black man cheesing on the cover of a book that tells you ways you can get the respect and commitment you deserve in a full-fledged relationship. But that?s actually the complete opposite of what I mean when I talk about women I know who ?think like men.? They?re not looking for commitment necessarily, they?re looking to collect men for leisure to see if they can?just like many men do.

When I moved to New York City, I assumed that meeting men was going to be just like it was meeting young men when I moved away for college. I was going to be in a place where everybody was open and ready to meet, mix and mingle, and in the end, get in a meaningful relationship. I had watched enough hours of She?s Gotta Have It to think that there would be a wealth of men available. But of course, I was incredibly naive. I met guys, but some were clearly not looking for what I was looking for (and would carry on conversations that included stupid inquiries like, ?Do you smoke weed and like to have fun??), or they were nothing like the type of folks I could see myself in a committed relationship with and having my type of fun with (Watching old ?Fresh Prince? reruns in the morning with crust in our eyes and our legs tangled under a blanket). They were instead, bossy, bland, creepy, lacked ambition, were corny, and could be indecisive at times. I was getting pretty frustrated.

By the coaxing of a bestie, I was told that I should hang out with a young woman who had been in the city about a year longer than I who could show me around and also show me a good time. I didn?t know her all that well, but after work, I did have time to spare (either hang with her, or I was going home to watch She?s Gotta Have It again). One evening, this young lady and I attended a mixer put on by a popular blog in Manhattan in order to multitask by grabbing drinks and grabbing men.

We separated in the hopes of meeting other people (guys) and while I calmly chatted with a guy at the bar who I started to imagine as the perfect partner for Sunday brunches in the future, she was hopping from guy to guy in the room, lightly slapping shoulders, seeming like the life of the party. Before I knew it, she was walking over to me and my new cute friend, turning on the charm. While we had started a conversation about our different cultural backgrounds, she found an in, and when she told him that her people were Haitian (his were from the Caribbean as well), I found my black a** to be the third wheel all of a sudden. They talked about Caribbean foods they liked and ki?ki?d it up. Before I knew it, she told him that they should try one of the places he talked about and dude was thirstier than someone stranded in the desert in his attempts to pull out his business card for her. When he said his goodbyes, she winked, threw the card in her purse, and kept it moving.

While I made conversation with other guys, including one I could see myself having my type of fun with (including those brunches again), I kept an eye out on her. By the end of the night, when it was time for me to head back to Brooklyn, she was turning on the charm for one of the event?s hosts, and safe to say, he was feeling her. The next morning when I told her about the guy I met, she would later let me know that she and the fine host hit it off big time and that he was all over her on the train home. Too bad she had no interest in anything serious with him, or any of the guys she met that night for that matter. Homegirl even lost the card of the guy she was scheduled to scarf down Haitian food with.? The guy I met, I ended up being disappointed by when I realized that my age was a problem for him. So while I was a little sad, she shared kind words, and kept on the prowl, collecting men with no cares. She had guys she called for entertainment, and a guy in another state that she wanted to be serious about in the future. But in the meantime, she wasn?t looking to be cuffed, or to be committed to, something I low-key realized I was thinking about in the back of my mind after meeting guys. Maybe that?s why she didn?t care when she would get it in with the fine dude in her apartment complex that knew all the dope events to go to, but wouldn?t make the time to go those events with him when he threw the idea around. She didn?t want dates. She was a mack.

Me, I?m not trying to be a mack, but I realized from her love of leisurely engaging with guys and how receptive they were to her, that I was going into the dating game all wrong, and so were some of my friends. I know people (and have been one) who get dressed to the nines and go to every outing (birthday bar hopping, dinner, movies, etc.) in the hopes of meeting Mr. Right. I realized that the nice guy I meet at the lounge who?s cute should be taken for face value in the hours I get to know him and not thought of as a long-term boo because he?s nice. By looking for a Mr. Right every time I went out, I was going home more disappointed than I needed to because they weren?t all enthralled with me like I had hoped. Though I wasn?t trying to mack, I could learn a lot from her.

Weeks later I attended a party and was having a good time dancing with one of my old girlfriends. I wasn?t on my old ?Mr. Right? mission and was just out this time to have a good time. When I decided to hydrate myself at the bar, I saw a guy looking good in a suit and thought I?d try my hand at turning on the charm like my new friend was so good at. While at the bar, I got my drink and before I walked back to my girlfriend, I tapped the guy and told him he looked nice in his suit. He smiled wide and said thanks, and as I smiled back, I could tell he was surprised when I told him to have a good night and walked away. In his mind, he thought I was going to jock him, but I wasn?t looking for Mr. Brunch Sundays anymore. As the night went on and my friend and I resurrected the wop, that same guy at the bar approached me later and tried to start a conversation. I quickly realized that he wasn?t my type, smiled at his compliments and let him know that I was going to get back to dancing with my friend. The ball was in my court, and he was just a squirrel trying to?well, you know. And while I wasn?t picking up stacks of cards and phone numbers for fun like my friend from the mixer, it was nice to see how much more men are into you when you play it cool and look to have a good time rather than going out looking for a knight in shining armor. But that?s not to say I?m done looking?

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' + google_ads[i].line1 + ' ' + google_ads[i].visible_url + ' ' + google_ads[i].line2 + '?' + google_ads[i].line3 + '
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Source: http://madamenoire.com/229488/how-to-collect-fellas-for-fun-what-i-learned-from-women-who-really-do-act-and-think-like-men/

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WCU receives $100K grant for clinic ? WCU News

Western Carolina University is the recipient of a $100,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission for a new balance and fall prevention clinic under development in the university?s recently opened Health and Human Sciences Building. The funding will enable the purchase of specialized equipment for the new clinic, where students and practicing medical professionals will receive training in how to properly assess and treat fall and balance problems among older adults.

?Injuries resulting from falls are a significant health problem for older adults, which is a fast-growing segment of the population in Western North Carolina,? said Marie Huff, interim dean of WCU?s College of Health and Human Sciences. ?This grant will help us train our students in the diagnosis of balance problems and other situations that can lead to falls, how to help older adults reduce the risk of falling, and how to treat them when falls do occur.?

The clinic will provide service to residents of Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties and on the Qualla Boundary.

Falls are the leading cause of fatal injuries for Americans 65 and older. More than 18,000 older Americans die every year because of a fall, and the rate has risen dramatically over the last 10 years, said Huff, who co-wrote the grant proposal with Linda Seestedt-Stanford, former dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences.

?Through the services provided by this clinic, we will help keep senior citizens living independently and in their homes, which will have a positive impact on the local economy,? Huff said. ?The clinic will provide support to caregivers and will enhance the education of students, faculty and practitioners within the health and human sciences fields. The university will graduate health care professionals who are better prepared to focus on the needs of older adults.?

The equipment made possible by the ARC funding will be used by students and faculty in several academic disciplines, including physical therapy, speech and hearing, and nursing, that are located in the Health and Human Sciences Building, which opened in August.

The balance and fall prevention clinic at WCU is among the current and upcoming features of the $46 million Health and Human Sciences Building, the first facility to be constructed on the university?s West Campus. The four-story, 160,000 square-foot flagship building brings under one roof more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff in health-related academic programs previously located in several different structures.

The building?s first floor features an interdisciplinary clinic, which hosts WCU?s nationally recognized Speech and Hearing Clinic, and includes space for specialized clinics related to physical therapy, nursing, social work, nutrition, athletic training and recreational therapy.

In addition to the balance and fall prevention clinic, specific offerings being developed to address community needs include a regional assessment center for older adults. In these clinics, specialized diagnostic and rehabilitation services will be provided to members of the community, with a primary emphasis on student education and training. Video capabilities enable patients, students and faculty to observe and review experiences in the clinics.

Equipment purchased through the ARC grant is expected to be acquired over the next few months, and the balance and fall prevention clinic is anticipated to begin offering services as early as February for individuals with balance, dizziness and mobility disorders.

For more information about WCU?s College of Health and Human Sciences, call 828-227-7271, or visit the website chhs.wcu.edu.

WCU is recipient of a $100,000 grant that will enable purchase of specialized equipment such as this for use in developing a new balance and fall prevention clinic.

?

Source: http://news-prod.wcu.edu/2012/10/wcu-receives-100k-grant-for-clinic/

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Shawn Johnson: Derek is smartest 'DWTS' pro

By Michael Maloney, TODAY contributor

Todd Wawrychuk / ABC

"Dancing" pro Derek Hough is the brightest in the ballroom when it comes to strategy, according to all-star Shawn Johnson.

Each week, Olympian and season eight "Dancing With the Stars" champ Shawn Johnson will be sharing her experiences on "All-Stars" with The Clicker! Look for Q&As, exclusive photos and more from the gold medalist throughout the season as she competes to win her second mirror ball trophy, this time alongside pro Derek Hough.

You can follow us on Twitter?@TODAY_Clicker to get all the latest updates on Shawn's quest for ballroom glory. Shawn is also on Twitter @ShawnJohnson.

The Clicker: How?s your injured knee?
Shawn: It?s okay. I?m doing therapy each day trying to make it a little better.

The Clicker: It looked so scary when we saw it all swollen. Has the swelling gone down?
Shawn: Yeah. I?ve dealt with injuries for the last two years on and off. I?ve been through it all. I think I was more emotionally distraught than physically. I felt better once I got the pass from the doctor that it was just a sprain and I needed therapy.

The Clicker: How does it feel to be in fourth place with 84.5 points? Do you feel safe going into tonight?
Shawn: I know that I was happy with the dance. I think that for a ?country cha cha? we did pretty well. Derek was struggling with his neck today. I was struggling with my knee. I was happy we got through.

The Clicker: Derek said he was going to do next week?s dance especially for judge Len Goodman instead of tailoring it to what the viewers might like to see, but that?s also the week there are no fan votes! The judges? feelings will be even more vital.
Shawn: Yes, but I think any couple would do that.

The Clicker: Oh, yes. It?s a very smart, strategic move.
Shawn: Yes, strategically, Derek?s the smartest one out there.

(Note: ABC has since announced that plans have changed for next week's show. The judges will not eliminate a contestant next week. There will be a double elimination the following week with viewer votes factored in.)

The Clicker: Len doesn?t care for all the extras, but when your song has the word ?tractor? in the title ? well, you bring a tractor! ?
Shawn: Yes, I thought bringing a tractor suited our dance (on Monday). It?s country week. The song is ?She Thinks My Tractor?s Sexy.? If we?d gone for just a traditional cha cha I don?t think that it would have gone over well. We had to spice it up and have fun?and we did!

The Clicker: The video segments featuring the dancers and the stars have been less about doing activities and more about just showing you guys talk. Which do you prefer?
Shawn: They packages capture the genuine moments we have during conversations where we just talk about things. It?s more real than if something is staged, but we are still going places. This week, we?re going to the CMAs. I?m presenting the award to best vocal group of the year. It?s a dream come true!

Catch more from Shawn on Tuesday night's "Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars" results show at 8 p.m. on ABC. And see her at the CMA Awards Thursday night at 8p.m. on the same network.

Join us on Tuesday at 3:30 ET to chat about who you think might be going home on "Dancing"!

Related content:

More in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2012/10/30/14803318-shawn-johnson-strategically-dereks-the-smartest-pro-on-dancing-with-the-stars?lite

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The science behind Hurricane Sandy: a confluence of trouble

WASHINGTON?

?Hurricane Sandy seems straight out of a Hollywood apocalyptic blockbuster. But a confluence of environmental and topographical characteristics helps explain its vast size, slow progress, storm surge and multiple methods of wreaking havoc on the coast and deep inland, scientists say.

Sandy began as a big storm when it formed in the Caribbean, said Katie Garrett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. It grew as it moved north into the mid-Atlantic, fed by unseasonably warm waters.

Sandy stretches about 940 miles ? greater than the distance from New York to Atlanta ? said Jeff Masters, co-founder of WeatherUnderground.com and a former flight meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's hurricane hunters. Sandy is the largest such storm to make landfall on the Eastern Seaboard since 1988, when the government acquired the satellite technology and aircraft to start measuring the size of storms.

PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy approaches

Sandy's course, from southeast to northwest, is not typical, said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Although its path is "not 100% unprecedented," it is unusual for a storm of such size and strength to move inland so late in the year, Knabb said during a telephone news conference Monday.

Even when Atlantic storms come ashore, they usually head back out to sea. Some powerful storms in recent years did not make landfall at all, kept away by weather patterns. But Sandy was pushed into the mid-Atlantic states and New England because a high-pressure system near Greenland blocked its progress eastward.

That shift toward the northwest put Sandy on course to mesh with a cold front that began in California last week and marched across the country, creating what Knabb and others say is an unprecedented weather threat. The force of the eastward-moving front slowed Sandy, Garrett said, changing the hurricane into a nor'easter.

Even before coming ashore, Sandy had begun to lose traits typical of tropical storms, such as thunderstorms at its middle, Garrett said. Instead, Sandy's merger with the cold front threatened to cause severe snow in places. In West Virginia, 3 to 4 feet were predicted in some areas, with less snow in southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina.

"It's not just a tropical storm, but a windstorm, a snowstorm," Garrett said.

Sandy also has produced dramatic storm surges. The swirling movement of its winds created a big bulge of water that typically moves to a storm's center. There, the low pressure in the atmosphere acts like a straw and pulls the water levels even higher, Masters said. If a storm is farther out to sea, that bulge eventually sinks. But because Sandy moved to shallower waters near the coast, that bulge had nowhere to go but toward shore, he said.

The slowness of the storm meant it could sit over the East Coast through several high tide cycles. Scientists were predicting 10- to 11-foot storm surges, including high tide conditions, in places like New York and New Jersey. Monday night's full moon threatened to add another foot to the surge, Knabb said. Finally, many inlets and bays in the mid-Atlantic are funnel-shaped, which means water can surge in easily, but getting out is a challenge.

Knabb said he didn't expect water levels to return to normal until Wednesday.

neela.banerjee@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/utFY8BSE2Do/la-na-sandy-science-20121030,0,3629798.story

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Why Exactly is Chris Christie Subverting Mitt Romney? (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Will We 'Fix' The Weather? Yes. Should We Fix The Weather? Hmmm

Because I'm at home, wind raging outside, trees bending, leaves flying, a hurricane descending, subways suspended, my day upended, I can't stop thinking: "What is Maureen Raymo thinking?"

She teaches at Columbia University, up the block from where I live. She's a paleoclimatologist. Her focus is climate change, and in a book I am reading, she says someday soon we won't be climate victims, we will be climate choosers. We will engineer the climate we want.

"My feeling," she tells author (and NPR commentator) Craig Childs, "is that there is never going to be another ice age as long as there are humans on the planet."

No more ice ages. The Earth will, of course, keep moving nearer and farther from the sun, our planet will keep wobbling on its axis, and there will be times when the Earth wants to be cold and icy and other times when it wants to be warm and green, but by the end of this century, she says, we will know how to keep glaciers where we like them, on mountain tops, at the poles, not down in the valleys, in the forests, where we live.

We won't need an Einstein or a Newton to do this. "To me it just seems like the inevitable outcome of the rise of higher beings [meaning humans with engineering degrees] that can control their destiny." And since next ice age isn't due for another thousand years or more, Raymo figures these same engineers will also take a shot at our global warming problem:

"Right now we are actively changing the climate in a very uncontrolled way, but I'm fairly certain that by the end of this century we'll have developed the technology to titrate the climate, to basically control the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere. We'd have a thermostat."

Well, that's good news, no? After all, who wants their home washed away by a swollen ocean or mowed down by a glacier? Not me. Not you. So of course we should try to protect ourselves, and an engineered solution seems targeted, efficient, sensible. If we can pull it off. Why not?

Well, here's something to think about. About five years ago, Jason Box, a glaciologist from Ohio State University flew 31 giant rolls of white plastic to a glacier in Greenland. That glacier was melting at an accelerating rate and he wondered if putting a plastic blanket on top would reduce the melt.

He and his team spread long rolls of white plastic across 10,000 feet of ice, then left for a while. His notion was that the white blanket would reflect back the rays of the sun, deflecting warmth, keeping the ice cool below. When he came back to check the results, here, in this video, you can see what he found...

It worked. Exposed ice had melted faster than covered ice. He had not only saved two feet of glacier in a short time, he'd shown it's possible to keep glaciers intact longer. Plus the fix was technological; no coal plants were shut down. Nobody was taxed, fired, or regulated. Ice was saved, no jobs lost. Just the sort of fix we're looking for.

"Thank you, but no thank you," says Konrad Steffen.

Konrad Steffen, one of the world's most prominent climate scientists, was not impressed. He told Craig that people think technology can save the planet, "but there are other things we need to deal with, like consumption. They burned $50,000 just for the helicopter" ? the one that brought the plastic to the glacier. This experiment, said another scientist, Jose Rial, gives people false hope that climate change can be fixed without changing human behavior. It can't. A better solution, he says, is to "increase the efficiency of automobiles." Geoengineers shouldn't be the ones who clean up human messes, and there's no guarantee geoengineers won't make mistakes too. Technology won't give us a free ride.

But in the long run, geoengineering ? tinkering with air, oceans, the skies ? will help us survive on a changing planet. Maureen Raymo is hardly alone in her prediction. More and more eminent scientists agree with her, that if the human race survives, the engineers will get smarter, the tools will get better, and one day we will control the climate. But what then?

"Just the mention of us controlling the climate, not blindly poking at it as we are now, but manually steering it, sent a small shiver down my back," Craig writes. "What does it mean to manufacture a planet to our liking, assuming we earned the skill to do so? Something sounded wrong about stopping ice ages by our own will," he says.

Me? I'm with Craig on this. I like it better when the Earth takes care of itself, and I'm just a passenger. I like thinking that I'm cargo on a self-regulating blue ball that knows how it ticks, and takes care of its own. I guess one day we will have to run the place, but for the moment, sitting at my desk, looking out at the trees bending wildly, the wind howling, beautiful chaos everywhere, I'm happy not to be in charge. When you write the script, you aren't innocent any more. You know too much.

For a little while longer, I like knowing less.

---

Craig Childs' new book is called Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide To The Everending Earth. In it, Craig goes to places that are melting, moving, submerging, freezing, falling apart, losing species, gaining more of us. It's quite a trip. For part of it, he brings his mom. She's amazing.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/10/30/163964979/will-we-fix-the-weather-yes-should-we-fix-the-weather-hmmm?ft=1&f=1007

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Obama cancels third campaigning day to oversee storm response (reuters)

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Communications Coordinator/Copy Writer - HigherEdJobs

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Communications Coordinator/Copy Writer reports to the Director of Communications, who leads the Communications Department and is a leader within the University Advancement team. This position is responsible for managing many aspects of daily institutional communications, including announcements, feature articles ... Postal Address: Human Resources Life University 1269 Barclay Circle Marietta, GA 30060. Fax: 770-426-2987. Email Address: hr@life.edu ...

Source: http://www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?JobCode=175686905

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Obama to release ad in Michigan touting support for auto industry (Star Tribune)

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Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office West Bank crime report, Oct. 28 ...

This information reflects initial calls for service reported by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office for the west bank of Jefferson Parish. Locations are approximate due to automated location methods and address inconsistencies, the Sheriff's Office says. Burglar alarm calls are excluded.

4th Street and Westwego Avenue - Oct. 28, 10:53 p.m., suspicious person.
5th Street and Gaudet Drive - Oct. 28, 7:47 p.m., suspicious person.
6100 block of 6th Avenue - Oct. 28, 10:05 a.m., vehicle wreck.
1500 block of Abbey Road - Oct. 28, 11:32 a.m., disturbing the peace.
3000 block of Alex Kornman Boulevard - Oct. 28, 7:30 a.m., auto theft.
Ames Boulevard and Caillou Drive - Oct. 28, 6:26 p.m., theft.
Ames Boulevard and Lapalco Boulevard - Oct. 28, 1:23 a.m., suspicious person.
Ames Boulevard and Lapalco Boulevard - Oct. 28, 4:27 p.m., vehicle wreck.
Aster Lane and Dandelion Drive - Oct. 28, 10:16 p.m., suspicious person.
Avenue D and Wichers Drive - Oct. 28, 1:42 p.m., suspicious person.
200 block of Azalea Drive - Oct. 28, 4:15 p.m., burglary.
400 block of Azalea Drive - Oct. 28, 9:59 p.m., suspicious person.
Bannerwood Drive and Lapalco Boulevard - Oct. 28, 12:49 a.m., suspicious person.
1800 block of Barataria Boulevard - Oct. 28, 4:26 p.m., vehicle wreck.
4000 block of Barataria Boulevard - Oct. 28, 8:45 a.m., suspicious person.
7100 block of Barataria Boulevard - Oct. 28, 1:21 a.m., suspicious person.
Barataria Boulevard and Westbank Exp - Oct. 28, 7:45 p.m., suspicious person.
800 block of Behrman Highway - Oct. 28, 10:05 p.m., robbery.
2500 block of Belle Chasse Highway - Oct. 28, 8:09 p.m., robbery.
2500 block of Belle Chasse Highway - Oct. 28, 8:17 p.m., battery.
600 block of Bellemeade Boulevard - Oct. 28, 7:27 p.m., suspicious person.
800 block of Bellemeade Boulevard - Oct. 28, 10:19 p.m., suspicious person.
1600 block of Betty Street - Oct. 28, 4:31 p.m., battery.
500 block of Blk Behrman Highway - Oct. 28, 11:30 p.m., suspicious person.
1500 block of Blk Manhattan Boulevard - Oct. 28, 12:24 a.m., suspicious person.
3500 block of Blk Peters Road - Oct. 28, 10:53 a.m., suspicious person.
1100 block of Blk Terry Parkway - Oct. 28, 9:53 a.m., suspicious person.
400 block of Blk Terry Parkway - Oct. 28, 10:59 a.m., suspicious person.
600 block of Blk Wall Boulevard - Oct. 28, 1:34 a.m., suspicious person.
700 block of Carrollwood Village Drive - Oct. 28, 1:04 a.m., disturbing the peace.
5800 block of Coubra Drive - Oct. 28, 7:07 p.m., disturbing the peace.
1200 block of Destrehan Avenue - Oct. 28, 11:40 a.m., suspicious person.
3000 block of Destrehan Avenue - Oct. 28, 8:09 a.m., suspicious person.
Destrehan Avenue and Max Drive - Oct. 28, 11:30 p.m., suspicious person.
1000 block of Di Marco Drive - Oct. 28, 7:48 p.m., battery.
Ehret Road and Barataria Boulevard - Oct. 28, 8:36 a.m., suspicious person.
1900 block of Farmington Place - Oct. 28, 8:18 p.m., suspicious person.
6000 block of Field Street - Oct. 28, 3:19 a.m., disturbing the peace.
500 block of Fielding Avenue - Oct. 28, 4:05 a.m., vehicle wreck.
George Street and River Road - Oct. 28, 10:34 p.m., suspicious person.
Grovewood Drive and Blythewood Drive - Oct. 28, 1:15 a.m., suspicious person.
Helis Drive and Dolores Street - Oct. 28, 9:35 p.m., suspicious person.
1300 block of Highway 90 - Oct. 28, 11:12 a.m., suspicious person.
700 block of Hooter Road - Oct. 28, 12:52 p.m., disturbing the peace.
2600 block of Kirkwood Drive - Oct. 28, 4:14 a.m., disturbing the peace.
3600 block of Lapalco Boulevard - Oct. 28, 9:59 p.m., suspicious person.
Lapalco Boulevard and Westwood Drive - Oct. 28, 12:10 p.m., illegal discharge of weapon.
Lapalco Boulevard and Westwood Drive - Oct. 28, 3:33 p.m., vehicle wreck.
Lapalco Boulevard and Westwood Drive - Oct. 28, 4:12 p.m., drug law violation.
Liska Street and Imogene Street - Oct. 28, 9:52 p.m., suspicious person.
Liska Street and Sarah Street - Oct. 28, 9:38 p.m., suspicious person.
10 Lucille Street - Oct. 28, 2:32 a.m., burglary.
Mac Arthur Avenue and 7th Street - Oct. 28, 7:35 p.m., suspicious person.
1000 block of Manhattan Boulevard - Oct. 28, 6:04 a.m., assault.
1000 block of Manhattan Boulevard - Oct. 28, 1:29 p.m., drug law violation.
1000 block of Manhattan Boulevard - Oct. 28, 7:31 p.m., residence burglary.
1200 block of Manhattan Boulevard - Oct. 28, 11:56 a.m., vehicle wreck.
2200 block of Manhattan Boulevard - Oct. 28, 11:45 p.m., suspicious person.
900 block of Manhattan Boulevard - Oct. 28, 3:52 a.m., disturbing the peace.
500 block of West Marlin Court - Oct. 28, 1:10 a.m., suspicious person.
1100 block of Medical Center Boulevard - Oct. 28, 12:16 p.m., battery.
900 block of East Monterey Court - Oct. 28, 12:37 p.m., disturbing the peace.
Mt Shasta Lane and Mt Kennedy Drive - Oct. 28, 3:00 p.m., vehicle wreck.
Old Compton Road and Ascot Road - Oct. 28, 11:37 p.m., suspicious person.
3800 block of Red Cedar Lane - Oct. 28, 7:53 p.m., disturbing the peace.
6900 block of River Road - Oct. 28, 8:55 p.m., suspicious person.
River Road and Rivet Boulevard - Oct. 28, 1:35 a.m., suspicious person.
1200 block of Robinson Avenue - Oct. 28, 11:34 a.m., suspicious person.
500 block of Robinson Avenue - Oct. 28, 2:04 a.m., disturbing the peace.
2600 block of Rue Jesann Street - Oct. 28, 3:44 p.m., theft.
5200 block of Sharpe Road - Oct. 28, 12:53 a.m., suspicious person.
Stanley Schofield Way and Butler Drive - Oct. 28, 8:37 p.m., suspicious person.
1000 block of Tallow Tree Lane - Oct. 28, 10:33 a.m., disturbing the peace.
1000 block of Tallow Tree Lane - Oct. 28, 11:00 a.m., suspicious person.
100 block of Terry Parkway - Oct. 28, 8:48 p.m., suspicious person.
600 block of Terry Parkway - Oct. 28, 3:46 a.m., disturbing the peace.
Terry Parkway and Coral Avenue - Oct. 28, 8:56 p.m., suspicious person.
U South 90 Highway and Avondale Garden Road - Oct. 28, 2:07 a.m., suspicious person.
3300 block of Wall Boulevard - Oct. 28, 2:38 p.m., suspicious person.
500 block of Wall Boulevard - Oct. 28, 10:52 p.m., suspicious person.
1700 block of Watling Drive - Oct. 28, 11:28 a.m., criminal damage.
100 block of Westbank Exp - Oct. 28, 4:54 p.m., theft.
Westbank Exp and Barataria Boulevard - Oct. 28, 12:00 a.m., suspicious person.
Westbank Exp and Cohen Avenue - Oct. 28, 7:26 p.m., vehicle wreck.
Westbank Exp and Cohen Avenue - Oct. 28, 7:51 p.m., vehicle wreck.
Westbank Exp and Robinson Avenue - Oct. 28, 3:02 a.m., disturbing the peace.
Westwego Avenue and Third Emanuel Street - Oct. 28, 10:41 p.m., suspicious person.
1500 block of Westwood Drive - Oct. 28, 9:36 p.m., disturbing the peace.
Westwood Drive and Lapalco Boulevard - Oct. 28, 7:33 p.m., suspicious person.
3900 block of Windmere Court - Oct. 28, 8:26 p.m., suspicious person.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/jefferson_parish_sheriffs_offi_1115.html

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MLS coach of year? We discuss

Three soccer brains are clearly better than one. So Richard Farley, Noah Davis and I huddled up virtually to sort out our ProSoccerTalk picks for Major League Soccer awards.

We started with Coach of the Year:

Steve Davis:?All right guys, the other day on a radio show I just kind of prattled something off the top of my head about D.C. United?s Ben Olsen being the obvious choice. But I find life without a backspace key brings out the stupid in me. Not that Olsen is a bad choice; first playoff berth for United since 2007? No Dwayne De Rosario at the end? And he?s the league?s youngest coach?

But I talked about it like there was no choice to be made. Which really is quite stupid. (It was too early; no more radio interviews without morning coffee for me!)

So, who wants to make the case for ? can I get a Frank Yallop? ?

Richard Farley: I?ll gladly do so, since I was the PST guy that fell in love with San Jose at the beginning of the season. If Frank?s still driving, I?m still riding.

For Coach of the Year, I look for what a guy did with the talent he had, but I want to be able to point to specific examples (just in case a Steve Davis of the world asked me to go on record). By this standard, Yallop?s got the best case.

At the beginning of the season, few were picking San Jose to make the playoffs. The West was tough, and their talent just didn?t look up to snuff. Early on, though, it was apparent that he had fused the parts together to create a greater sum. In a year in which they were supposed to be gone by November, San Jose cruised to the Supporters?

Shield, Yallop?s setup getting career years out of almost all of his regular starting XI. You could say all the stars aligned for him, but that?s a lot of stars and a very straight line. It?s far more plausible that Yallop?s done an incredible job.

If he needs more support, look at San Jose?s late match effectively.

Not only does that speak to the changes Yallop makes in-game (San Jose is regularly a completely different team come full time), but it also tells of the mentality he?s helped instill in the team.

Noah Davis: I?ll see your Yallop ? the Goonies can?t win?all?the post-season awards ? and raise you my midseason pick, Mr. Martin Rennie. Getting that Whitecaps team to the promised land of the playoffs, even if it is simply to lose to the Galaxy, ain?t no thang. That roster, being kind here, is not that good. Sure, Jay DeMerit is the best on-field leader in MLS but someone has to put the pieces on the field. While I didn?t love all the moves they made up in the Great White North, they made enough to eek into the post-season. Now it?s time for the real test.

Steve Davis: Hmmm. I think Noah has already run out of provisions in his NY bunker. Somebody rush the man over some Slim Jims and a mineral water. Stat!

Rennie helped erect that crane and wrecking ball they took to a team that was doing pretty well. They ?rebuilt? the roster to within an inch of its life.? I like the guy personally, but I just don?t think the final product in 2012 speaks well of him.

Richard Farley: Crane and wrecking ball? Is that an allusion to Merritt Paulson and John Spencer? Very clever, Mr. Davis.

Steve Davis: So, you are advocating John Spencer then? ?I kid, I kid! Anybody else we need to consider before moving on to Rookie of the Year?

Richard Farley: I?d be curious to hear your guys? thoughts on Chicago?s Frank Klopas [pictured].

Steve Davis: Meh.

Noah Davis: I?m with Steve. Too late to throw my lot in with Yallop?

Steve Davis: Got you down, Noah. So I?m out-voted. Democracy rules. Thomas freakin? Jefferson got nothing on us.

Our Pick: San Jose?s FRANK YALLOP

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/29/prosoccertalks-award-conversations-major-league-soccer-coach-of-the-year/related

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Oh, Snap! Case-Mate Blends An iPhone Case With A Snap Bracelet

CaseMate, along with every other case maker out there, is launching a new wave of products alongside the iPhone 5, for both the new phone and the iPhone 4/4S. In (what I can only assume is) an attempt to differentiate creatively, CaseMate has blended a normal rubber case with a snap bracelet. You know, the kind from when you were a kid that you won at some sort of school fair for not sinking your English teacher in the dunk tank. Oh, snap. At face value (as in, looking at it from the front), the Snap looks like your typical iPhone case. It seems to be made of silicone and slips on the iPhone. On the back, however, there’s a slab of extra rubber with a button on one side. When you press the button, the rubber snaps out into a multi-directional kickstand. Just check out the video: It’s a cute take on a kickstand case, if nothing more. The case comes in five different color flavors and is available for the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4/4S. Grab it at CaseMate for $35.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lfVY9U1q3dw/

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How to Save and Spend Your Money on Healthy Food Exercise ...

?Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food.

- Isaiah 55:2

Each one of us has some unique purpose in life, and God has given us three tools to use to fulfill that destiny ? a soul, a mind, and a body. Each one of these entities can only be as healthy as its nourishment. If you do not nourish your soul with meditation, your mind with education and your body with nutrition, you will not be able to continue progressing through this awesome journey of growth and development that we call Life. Avoid meditation and your soul will never be at peace. Avoid reading and learning and opportunities in school or at work will pass you by. Finally, avoid eating healthy foods and your body will become full of disease.

As the above verse is more figurative than literal, it does hold true for all investments in yourself. You must invest time into your soul and mind, and yes ? money into eating healthy, nourishing foods.

We must begin to take grocery shopping seriously and choose products that will be better for us in the long term over products that are impulsive purchases. And to be honest, grocery stores make these choices very easy! Conveniently, they put all of the healthy fruits and vegetables together, fish is in another section, while your meats are in another, and aisle 12 is concentrated with cookies, chips and soda. It?s like going to a car lot where all of the high-class new cars are in the showroom, and the used rusty cars are piled together in the back of the lot. We all deserve, and should choose to stay in the showroom.

The argument that I hear when I have made this suggestion to others is that ?healthy food is too expensive.? Well, let?s find the truth:

Contrary to popular belief, it can actually cost more to eat badly. In fact, a new government report finds that nutritious foods ? such as grains, vegetables, fruit and dairy ? typically cost less than items high in saturated fat and added sugars. ? USA Today

In addition, healthier foods cause you to feel full quicker, so you eat less food. And?you will save money in the long run because unlike the person who chooses unhealthy foods, you will not have to put money towards doctor?s visits and medications for high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and other chronic diseases. According to Consumer Reports, 46 percent of Americans take on average 4.1 prescription medications. As far as costs, this averages out to be $723 per year (US 2007 Census). Being sick can also cause you to miss work and lose money that way.

How to Change

Change begins in the grocery store. What you don?t have in your house, you simply won?t eat! Here are a few things you can do to save money on healthier foods:

• Buy frozen fruits and vegetables. Frozen fruits and vegetables are cheap and don?t spoil. This is the most simple and effective change you can make in your shopping habits.
• Buy your fresh fruits and fish before you buy any other foods. Make it a habit to allow your healthy food options take the first portion of your budget.
• Choose fresh foods that are in season ? they will be cheaper.
• Only buy whole wheat grains, including pastas, rice and breads. These foods fill you up quick, so you will eat less, which will also help you lose weight.
• Don?t buy soda? Ever.
• Look up recipes and plan your meals and shopping list ahead of time. Site like DrGourmet.com, CookingLight.com, and MayoClinic.com can help you plan.

Be willing to make some changes in your lifestyle. It may be challenging at first, but soon enough you will ask yourself ?how did I ever eat that!?

Source: http://exercisemenu.com/save-spend-money-healthy-food/

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Rise in prescription drug deaths highlights issue of chronic pain ...

In 2008, deaths from prescription drugs were more than double the number of accidental overdose deaths from heroin. Photo: Justin McManus

The recent National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre report raising alarm about increasing numbers of deaths from prescription opioids, reflects a much bigger issue: the millions of Australians whose lives are severely affected by chronic pain.

At least one in five Australians, including children, lives with chronic pain; among people aged over 65, it?s one in three. The report?s revelation there were more than 500 opioid-related deaths in a year ? the majority from prescription drugs such as oxycodone ? is indeed tragic. In 2008 deaths from prescription drugs were more than double the number of accidental overdose deaths from heroin. But the number of young people whose lives are ruined because of chronic pain is devastating on an even bigger scale.

Opioid drugs such as oxycodone play a valuable role in treating acute pain, especially after surgery or trauma. However, they may not be suitable for the treatment of long-term chronic pain from a disease or injury.

Among the vast majority of people with chronic pain, other measures such as cognitive behavioural therapy, exercise, physio or occupational therapy and meditation, can actually be more effective in managing, if not eliminating the pain.

However, such programs are not covered by Medicare or health insurance so are available to relatively few people who could benefit from them. Plus waiting times at pain clinics may range from six month to two years.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the federal government are pushing for a nationwide electronic system that would allow pharmacists, doctors and state health authorities to monitor the prescribing and dispensing of addictive drugs.

But it is not helpful to call for further restrictions on prescribing opioids. A more rational and strategic approach to managing pain in a holistic and enlightened manner, is by far the best way to tackle this problem.

We need to transform the way doctors, and their patients, think about pain. The experience of pain is subjective, and is influenced by physical, psychological and environmental factors. I have lived with chronic pain from osteoarthritis since my 30s, which forced me to retire from my work and sports I loved, such as tennis, golf and sailing. I have had two hip replacements and a shoulder replacement, but continue to live with pain from arthritis in my spine and other joints. I manage it with non-opioid medication, hydro and physiotherapy but now have difficulty walking and even swimming. I have used opioids including oxycodone for post-surgical pain but as a pharmacist I knew I could not continue this long term.

Pain is the most common symptom reported by people visiting a GP. Pain-relieving medications are the most frequently requested over-the-counter medication in pharmacies.

About 20 per cent of suicides are linked to physical problems, often associated with chronic pain. The most common reasons for people of working age to drop out of the workforce are back problems and arthritis ? both associated with severe, debilitating chronic pain.

The National Pain Strategy, developed by more than 150 healthcare professionals and consumers at a 2010 national summit, recommended chronic pain be recognised as a priority health issue and constitute a disease in its own right. Yet it remains one of the most neglected areas of healthcare.

While committing the resources needed for a strategic national campaign, similar to those for chronic heart disease and cancer, may be a bridge too far for government in the fiscal climate, one option could be a ?Better Outcomes in Pain Management? program. It could be treated nationally through Medicare as we do for mental health.

We would need to provide education and training for health professionals in multi-disciplinary pain management, and introduce strict guidelines on prescribing and managing opioids, including a timeframe for ceasing the drugs.

We should provide better access to integrated approaches to pain management including medical, psychological and physical therapies such as massage and acupuncture appropriately, paid for by Medicare (again, as we do for mental health.)

We need to develop community education and support networks for people living with pain, such as those run by not-for-profit bodies such as the Australian Pain Management Association, with its Pain Link helpline, and Chronic Pain Australia.

The Mackay Pain Support Group in north Queensland is an example where this community approach is working well.

Patients need to be referred seamlessly from primary care through to a specialist pain clinic followed up by ongoing support in the community. Telehealth could help ensure better access to pain management services in regional areas and indigenous communities, which are among the most vulnerable.

The alarm over opioid deaths needs to be considered as part of a much bigger problem requiring a strategic, humane approach to addressing chronic pain in our community.

Lesley Brydon is CEO of the non-profit Painaustralia.

Article source: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/rise-in-prescription-drug-deaths-highlights-issue-of-chronic-pain-20121029-28fkb.html

Source: http://www.mhhub.com/archives/24675

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Search Engine Marketing Makes Your Small Business a Success ...

By Guest Blogger on October 29, 2012

This is a guest post by Michelle from www.crazypayday.co.uk.

With the internet market increasing in size each day there are numerous new businesses appearing and posing potential threats to existing small firms. The Internet offers the largest platform for all business owners to promote their brands worldwide and search engine marketing (SEM) plays a significant role in it.? Therefore is very important for business owners to create an online presence by promoting their brand and attracting good traffic towards their website. Incorporating Search engine marketing in marketing strategies is the most efficient method to gain an online presence for your brand in the e-commerce world.

SEM is basically a marketing strategy that helps the online business owners to increase the usability and visibility of their website and attract a good amount of visitors towards their website. There are different techniques that are used in the search engine marketing process that include the following;-

keyword selection:

In this marketing strategy the business owners employ techniques to associate the website with relevant and specific keywords. This is considered the first step of the marketing strategy where different keywords that are used for the website are analysed and the one that is most relevant and unique is targeted to increase the traffic of the website.

Website saturation:

In this method the presence of the website on the search engine is determined. This is achieved by checking the

• site saturation- the number of website pages that are indexed by the crawlers

• site popularity- the number of backlinks associated to the website

key performance indicators (KPI):

Here you need to identify the most important KPIs for your site and frequently monitor them. These indicators usually include the number of site visits, number of visits made from organic keyword traffic, number of visits made from paid keyword traffic and many more.

PPC advertising:

Pay per click advertising has become one of the most important marketing strategies that help with improving the ranking of the site on the search engines. Successful and top companies provide advertising space on their website associated to relevant keywords. All the advertisers need to do is to pay them for the number of clicks that are made on the advertising. Through this method potential customers visit your site and most of them turn into return customers.

Paid inclusion in search engines:

Here a particular amount is paid to the search engine providers for the inclusion of your website advertising into their search results. This allows your advertisement to be displayed on the top of the search results which can help you in attracting good traffic for your site.

If you find any difficulty in the above mentioned process and need further guidance then you can contact the experts from digital media agency who can help you out.

About the Author:

---

www.crazypayday.co.uk offers easiest and fastest loans for bad debt for people who require fast cash for any purpose.? My name is Michelle.? I am a tech writer from UK.? I am into Finance.? Catch me @financeport.

---

About The Author

Guest Blogger

This post was written by a guest blogger. The author bio can be found in the post above. If you'd like to write a post for Communication and Business Thoughts for Creative Entrepreneurs, check out this page.
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Source: http://n0elle.com/2012/10/search-engine-marketing-makes-your-small-business-a-success/

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Early autism intervention improves brain responses to social cues

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? An autism intervention program that emphasizes social interactions and is designed for children as young as 12 months has been found to improve cognitive skills and brain responses to faces, considered a building block for social skills. The researchers say that the study, which was completed at the University of Washington, is the first to demonstrate that an intensive behavioral intervention can change brain function in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders.

"So much of a toddler's learning involves social interaction, and early intervention that promotes attention to people and social cues may pay dividends in promoting the normal development of the brain and behavior," said Geraldine Dawson, lead author and chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

"For the first time, parents and practitioners have evidence that early intervention can result in an improved course of both brain and behavioral development in young children," she said.

Dawson began the study while she was the director of the UW Autism Center. The study was published online Oct. 26 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Forty-eight children, aged 18 to 30 months and diagnosed with autism, either participated in routine community-based interventions or the Early Start Denver Model, which emphasizes interpersonal exchanges and shared participation in activities. The model was developed by Dawson and co-author Sally Rogers, a professor at the UC Davis MIND Institute.

Participants received one of the interventions for about 20 hours each week over a period of two years. For the children randomly assigned to the ESDM group, treatment took place two hours, twice a day, five days a week, by trained interventionists who came to the child's home. The children got an extra boost from their parents, who were trained to use ESDM strategies during routine exchanges with their child.

A previous study found that the ESDM intervention improved IQ, language, and adaptive skills and the researchers wanted to know if the approach also led to brain changes.

After two years of treatment, the brain function of the participants -- now about four to five years old -- was measured with electroencephalography while the youngsters viewed social stimuli, such as faces, and nonsocial stimuli, such as toys.

"Humans are experts at processing faces, but the brains of children with autism have delays in the ability respond to faces," said co-author Sara Webb, a UW research associate professor. If the brain can quickly identify a face, she said, then it can build on this to also quickly decide whether the face is of a man or a woman, happy or sad, and familiar or not.

Children in both intervention groups showed similar brain responses to faces as did children in a control group who did not have autism, suggesting that "the high level of intervention in both groups allowed the children with autism to catch up to the children in the control group," Webb said. "That's fantastic news."

Looking at a higher level of brain processing, the researchers studied whether the treatments changed brain measures of attention and cognitive engagement when seeing faces compared with a nonsocial stimulus. Eleven of 15 -- or 73 percent -- of children in the ESDM group showed greater attention to faces than to toys. In contrast, the EEGs of only five of the 14 recipients of the community intervention, or 36 percent, showed similar activation.

"The ESDM intervention resulted in greater attention and cognition brain activity to social stimuli, and these brain function patterns are more similar to the typical developing group of children," Webb said.

She stressed not only the importance of receiving intensive early intervention for autism, but that the intervention should focus on enhancing social attention, reciprocal interactions and engagement with a social partner.

Other study authors at UW are Emily Jones, Kaitlin Venema, Rachel Lowy, Susan Faja, Dana Kamara, Michale Murias, Jessica Greenson, Jamie Winter and Milani Smith, as well as Kristen Merkle of Vanderbilt University.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and an Autism Speaks postdoctoral fellowship awarded to Jones.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Molly McElroy.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Sally J. Rogers, Annette Estes, Catherine Lord, Laurie Vismara, Jamie Winter, Annette Fitzpatrick, Mengye Guo, Geraldine Dawson. Effects of a Brief Early Start Denver Model (ESDM)?Based Parent Intervention on Toddlers at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2012; 51 (10): 1052 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2012.08.003

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/fOXmi66uxVg/121029131823.htm

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In Vietnam, US relies on pirate site to network

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) ? It's a wildly popular website laden with unlicensed songs and Hollywood movies, a prime exhibit of the digital piracy that is strangling the music industry in Asia and eroding legitimate online sales around the world.

But a few clicks inside the free-to-download bonanza that has pushed Vietnam's Zing.vn into the globe's top 550 websites reveals a surprising presence: the American government, which maintains a bustling social media account on the site.

Washington is a vocal proponent of intellectual property rights in Vietnam as it is around the world, and a site like Zing would be shut down in the United States. But with space with for public diplomacy limited in Communist Vietnam, the embassy's uses its "Zingme" account to reach out to young people in Vietnam as it seeks to build closer ties with its former enemy.

The embassy presence shows just how mainstream pirate sites have become in Vietnam, where the government does nothing to stop them operating. But it also raises questions whether Washington is legitimizing a renowned pirate site that record labels, singers and industry groups say ignores requests that it take down infringing material.

Those have become pressing since Coca-Cola and Samsung pulled their advertising from the site earlier this month because of piracy concerns following questions by The Associated Press. The move challenged Zing's business model and was praised by recording industry groups. Samsung said last week it was also closing its Zingme account for the same reason.

The embassy said it recognized the concerns for U.S. copyright interests posed by Zing but that it believed that "contact with users of this website" could reduce traffic or infringing activity on it. The mission sometimes uses its Zingme page to post about copyright infringement.

Its statement noted that the site had removed, at its request, the link to infringing material that appears on other Zingme pages as a matter of course. It also noted to its lack of options in a country where the Communist government controls the media, saying "there were few spaces for public discourse and intermittent access to Facebook", referring to a block the government sometimes puts on the American social networking site.

But not everyone thinks engaging with Zing is the right thing to do.

"Here we are as an American company trying to set things right with one of the biggest pirates in Vietnam but the U.S. embassy is essentially showing its support by being on its site," said Mimi Nguyen, an American who has been trying fruitlessly to get Zing to take down some 10,000 songs owned by her family's business for a year.

"It is really sad to find out the embassy is using their platform."

The Recording Industry Association of America, which praised the decision by Samsung and Coke to withdrawn from Zing and has labeled Zing a "notorious" pirate site, said it was neither endorsing nor criticizing the embassy's decision to maintain the site.

Neil Turkewitz, a senior vice president at the association, said he imagined the embassy had tried to balance the ability to target a tech-savvy demographic with anti-piracy messages against the appearance of a connection between it and the site.

"My guess is that it wasn't an easy decision," he said.

The recording industry around the world is struggling to make money from online distribution models, and illegal downloading remains rampant. Artists and producers in much of Asia are feeling the pinch especially hard because governments have failed to pass or enforce anti-piracy laws. Licensed CDs, films and downloads can cost the equivalent of a day's salary, making it even harder to wean people off pirated products.

In Vietnam, inaction by a government that sees no political upside in cracking down on what many see as a victimless crimes has pushed the industry to the point of collapse. Zing is seen as the No.1 enemy by those who speak out against its effective stranglehold over the country's music industry.

"Zing is destroying the industry and they know it," said record producer Quoc Trung, who is leading a campaign against online piracy. "We need people to pay for music, not just click on it. It is now or never."

Zing, which declined repeated requests for comment on this article and a previous one, has used free download to become the sixth-most visited site in Vietnam, and the second most popular Vietnamese music download site. Around 15 percent of its visitors are from overseas. It is not the only infringing website in Vietnam by far, but it is the most visited.

Sites that offer pirated content alongside other internet services like Zing exist elsewhere around the world and are among the most reprehensible, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

"They want to appear as legitimate actors, and have functions unrelated to piracy, yet operate network services that include features that intentionally and effectively induce infringement," it said in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative in August asking the government to use all the tools at its disposal to ensure Zing and others are not permitted to undermine legitimate online markets.

"These services deliberately gain market share by providing access to infringing materials, launching music services without any form of licensing, and have demonstrated continued resolve to engage in conduct based upon misappropriation."

Zingme closely resembles Facebook, which recently overtook the Vietnamese site in subscriber numbers, according to one research group. Facebook is sometimes blocked by the government because of fears it could be used to mobilize dissent against its one-party rule. Zingme is never blocked, and is more popular with younger, less educated Vietnamese. Companies and institutions often have accounts on both. The embassy has more than 18,000 friends on Zingme, compared to 12,000 on Facebook.

Many in the industry have no choice but to work with Zing even as it distributes their music and films for free. Not having your music on the site means getting an audience for live concerts, or attracting commercial sponsorship, is almost impossible, industry executives said. But a few are pushing back, among them established singer Le Quyen, who is suing Zing and eight other infringing websites.

"I'm sure that Zing is aware that what they do is wrong, but they are afraid that other singers will put pressure on them if I win the case," she said before one of her near-weekly concerts at a venue owned by her husband here. "That's why they keep avoiding my demands. Their tactic is to drag the case on until their opponent gets tired and gives up."

Some in the industry predict Zing and other websites will embrace a more legitimate model, rather like Baidu in neighboring China, which after years of complaints from international and local record labels about pirated content signed a licensing deal with its former critics last year. Major Western record labels eager to sell music in the 13th most populous country in the world have been in early talks with Zing and other sites, but there is no deal on the horizon.

For now, the sites are not taking down their unlicensed content because doing so would mean that users would flock to that of a rival, and new ones are cropping all the time. Those offering unlimited downloads of Hollywood movies for a monthly subscription as low as $2 are amassing large audiences, and could be looking to leveraging their popularity to become legitimate providers.

"In Vietnam, you build an audience first, and then you negotiate," said Phung Tien Cong, a manager at MVCorp, which is trying to establish a pay-for-song business in collaboration with Zing, other websites and license holders.

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Brummitt can be reached at https://twitter.com/cjbrummitt.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-10-29-Vietnam-US-Digital%20Piracy/id-f996ef56e7564abcbf891036a5cf22c4

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