Forget your preconceived notions of life coaches for just a moment. Life coaches aren't for needy, neurotic celeb-types; they can help anyone and everyone with all areas of life.Author ...
WA beauties take on the big guns
West Australian - Thursday 15th November, 2012
Frustrated by mainstream cosmetics brands, home-grown cosmetics businesses are finding a foothold in the competitive mineral make-up market.Whether it's due to concerns about chemicals or ...
How the radical economics of pro sports powered a mega-trade
The Globe and Mail - Thursday 15th November, 2012
The Toronto Blue Jays' massive trade has shaken up the baseball world, left Jays' fans cheering and set the team's payroll above $100-million (U.S.) for the first time.The deal had a ...
Sports Classy Ibrahimovic sinks England
Standard Digital - Thursday 15th November, 2012
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored four goals - including an amazing overhead kick - as Sweden marked the opening of their new stadium with victory over England. The Paris Saint-Germain striker poked home ...
Tonights poll --- Which team or sport best defines Seattle
The Seattle Times - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
Here's tonight's Seattle Times poll, asking readers what team or sport best defines Seattle as a sports city. As you can see, the Huskies are among the ...
Sports on the air
The Seattle Times - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
6:30 p.m. Hawaii at Air Force Utah at Philadelphia 6:30 p.m. New York at Memphis Houston at Portland CSNNW 850 Men, 2K Sports Classic Men, 2K Sports Classic Final Men, BYU vs. Florida St. truTV Men, ...
Amateur sport gets $100-million boost COC announces
Leader-Post - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
VANCOUVER -- Citing the "unbelievable" support of the corporate sector, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced Wednesday it will inject nearly $100 million into high-performance sport ...
Fitness event also fundraiser
Tribune Review - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
Offering an event that is both fun and geared toward fitness, the Regional Family YMCA of the Laurel Highlands will be hosting its second annual Zumbamania Saturday, inviting all members and ...
In-line team sports 4-3 record
Tribune Review - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
Jordan Zandzimier, 16, fights for the puck in a game against Greensburg Central Catholic Nov. 11 at Hot Shots Sports Arena. Kelly Vernon | ...
Brilliant soccer would be accepted by United States sports fans
Tribune Review - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
I wanted to know what Europeans love about soccer and maybe discover why Americans tend to dislike the sport. After watching what many consider the world's best club team, I have had to ...
Whitney The jokes on...who
Entertainment Weekly - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
? or that Whitney?s guy Alex (Chris D?Elia) getting an erection when Whitney cried was provocative, then you probably agree with Cummings? assessment of her work here. But ...
Friends 5 fave Gunther moments
Entertainment Weekly - Wednesday 14th November, 2012
trivia. Or so he claims. Luckily, the actor?s trivia skills didn?t impede him during his task for EW, in which he singled out five of his favorite ';Gunther moments'; during ...
NEW YORK (AP) ? Houston's win over Chicago coupled with Atlanta's first loss of the season sends the Texans back on top of the AP Pro32 NFL power rankings.
Houston receives all 12 first-place votes and 384 points from The Associated Press' panel of media members who regularly cover the league. The Texans improved to 8-1 with their 13-6 win over the Bears on Sunday night.
The Falcons are the NFL's only other 8-1 team after their 31-27 loss to New Orleans, and are second with 362 points. Chicago remains third with 341 points, followed by San Francisco with 339 points, and Denver with 334 points.
The Texans were first in the power rankings for three weeks earlier in the season.
Jacksonville is No. 32 and last.
____
Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
TIP! Are you having a difficult time meeting someone that you want to share your life with? Give the Internet a try. Forty percent of people find their partner online nowadays.
Just thinking more positively could improve yourself and your life. This article includes some suggestions to help you begin a journey of personal development, have you thinking differently, and improve your quality of life.
TIP! You should feel comfortable in your own skin and being the person that you are. Everybody has different skills, which makes the diverse and wonderful planet we live on.
Exercise should be a part of everyone?s routine. There are many physical and mental benefits to a regular exercise program. Because physical activity stimulates production of feel-good chemicals in the body, a workout program may actually make you feel calmer and more positive.
TIP! Identify which things in life are the most important to you, then focus on obtaining and maintaining them. The key to attaining inner peace is knowing what really matters and finding the good in what you have.
Always work towards your personal best. Follow your passion to the greatest possible aspirations. Now, you cannot be the complete best at everything you do, but it does not hurt to try. Trying for greatness helps inspire others to adapt to the same mindset, giving them a boost of self-worth. Improve your net value in your field, and this will boost your confidence.
TIP! Never force yourself to work beyond your physical limitations as you pursue your goals. While you should always give it your all, understand when you have reached your limit.
It takes a lot of discipline to achieve self improvement. You need to be able to control your body?s urges. You can conquer many desires such as lust, drunkenness, or greed. You will not develop any life long addictions that will compromise your health in a physical or mental fashion.
TIP! It helps to see your good points in writing. Write down all of your positive traits on a postcard.
Use your core principles to guide you as you begin to take action. All people have beliefs that tell what they are about. When your core beliefs are well-founded, your self esteem improves. It also demonstrates to other people an admirable consistency. This is a trait that others will find attractive.
TIP! Improving your health is something that will take you far on your journey of personal development. Being in a good state of health makes anyone feel better.
Try to find a book or article that encourages or uplifts you. Religious books are very uplifting to some, while others may prefer inspirational quotes, autobiographies or poetry. These materials are a good source of support during stressful situations.
TIP! Many people often have goals that are too broad, when they are trying to grow through personal development. Find a goal you want to follow.
It is important to treat your body well and listen to its signals. If your body?s signals tell you that there is some problem, say, that you need to eat or drink something, then you need to address the issue immediately. You need a healthy body to serve you for years to come. However, if you don?t pay attention to your body?s needs, then it will not give you its best in the years ahead.
TIP! Take some risks to be truly happy! Many people get stuck in a zone that is comfortable so they do not risk failure or rejection, but the true risk is the loss of opportunities for personal growth. Taking chances shows courage, which is what?s needed to help guide you on a path of happiness.
In order to be properly motivated toward self improvement goals, it is important to admit how much you do not know. When you accept that you are but a tiny speck in the scope of our universe, you can begin to realize that there is much to learn if you hope to advance. Staying aware of this will broaden your perspective and increase your quest for knowledge, leading to a better you.
TIP! As hard as it may seem, you must eliminate worry from your life. When you worry, you are imagining a horrible situation for yourself that has not yet come to pass, and probably never will.
Make friends who are positive-minded and bring joy to your life. This will help you to have a better attitude and maintain it as well as keeping you away from bad people that aren?t behind your dreams and goals.
TIP! When you are handling depression stay focused on the things you eat and eat more complex carbohydrates. Adding complex carbohydrates can help keep your body?s serotonin level up.
Take a big step towards your self improvement by cultivating selfless behavior. You can cultivate a strong, positive character, by learning how to make sacrifices for the sake of helping others. When you can make sacrifices that lift others up without jeopardizing your own well being, you will grow into the kind of person you wish to be seen as.
TIP! If personal development is an important goal in your life, be sure to feed your faith with love. Faith cannot exist without love.
If you care for your body, you will get the most out of your self improvement. Achieving your self improvement goals is more likely if you keep your energy levels high by getting a sufficient amount of sleep, exercising on a regular basis, and maintaining a nutritious diet. This sounds like obvious advice, but it?s sometimes hard to put into practice.
TIP! There is a separation between where you?re at and where you want to go. This first step can start you on the way to reaching your goals.
The sound advice in the above article will give you some important concepts to consider as you work to improve your attitude, character and lifestyle for the better. Apply these tips and adapt them to your unique situation to live a happier life
LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC could be doomed unless it makes radical changes, the head of its governing trust said, after its director general quit to take the blame for the airing of false child sex abuse allegations against a former politician.
BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten said on Sunday that confidence had to be restored if the publicly funded corporation was to withstand pressure from rivals, especially Rupert Murdoch's media empire, which could try to take advantage of the turmoil.
"If you're saying, 'Does the BBC need a thorough structural radical overhaul?', then absolutely it does, and that is what we will have to do," Patten, a one-time senior figure in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party and the last British governor of Hong Kong, told BBC television.
"The basis for the BBC's position in this country is the trust that people have in it," Patten said. "If the BBC loses that, it's over."
George Entwistle resigned as director general on Saturday, just two months into the job, to take responsibility for the child sex allegation made on the flagship news programme Newsnight.
He will receive one year's salary, worth 450,000 pounds, as part of a pay-off deal, the BBC reported.
The witness in the Newsnight report, who said he suffered sexual abuse at a care home in the late 1970s, confessed on Friday he had misidentified the politician, Alistair McAlpine, and retracted his allegation. Newsnight admitted it had not shown the witness a picture of McAlpine, or approached McAlpine for comment before going to air.
Already under pressure after revelations that a long-time star presenter, the late Jimmy Savile, was a paedophile, Entwistle conceded on the BBC morning news that he had not known - or asked - who the alleged abuser was until the name appeared in social media.
The BBC, celebrating its 90th anniversary, is affectionately known in Britain as "Auntie", and is respected around much of the world.
But with 22,000 staff working at eight national TV channels, 50 radio stations and an extensive Internet operation, critics say it is hampered by a complex and overly bureaucratic and hierarchical management structure.
THOMPSON'S LEGACY
Journalists said this had become worse under Entwistle's predecessor Mark Thompson, who took over in the wake of the last major crisis to hit the corporation and is set to become chief executive of the New York Times Co on Monday.
In that instance, both the director general and the chairman were forced out after the BBC was castigated by a public inquiry over a report alleging government impropriety in the fevered build-up to the war in Iraq, leading to major organisational changes.
One of the BBC's most prominent figures, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, said that since the Iraq report furore, management had become bloated while cash had been cut from programme budgets.
"He (Entwistle) has been brought low by cowards and incompetents," Paxman said in a statement, echoing a widely held view that Entwistle was a good man who had been let down by his senior staff.
Cameron appeared ready to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt, believing that "one of the great institutions of this country" could reform and deal with its failings, according to sources in his office.
Patten, who must find a new director general to sort out the mess, agreed that management structures had proved inadequate.
"Apparently decisions about the programme went up through every damned layer of BBC management, bureaucracy, legal checks - and still emerged," he said.
"One of the jokes I made, and actually it wasn't all that funny, when I came to the BBC ... was that there were more senior leaders in the BBC than there were in the Chinese Communist Party."
Patten ruled out resigning himself but other senior jobs are expected to be on the line, while BBC supporters fear investigative journalism will be scaled back. Patten said he expected to name Entwistle's successor in weeks, not months.
Among the immediate challenges are threats of litigation.
McAlpine, a close ally of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has indicated he will sue for damages.
Claims for compensation are also likely from victims who say Savile, one of the most recognisable personalities on British television in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, sexually abused them as children, sometimes on BBC premises.
INQUIRIES
Two inquiries are already under way, looking at failures at Newsnight and allegations relating to Savile, both of which could make uncomfortable reading for senior figures.
Police have also launched a major inquiry into Savile's crimes and victims' allegations of a high-profile paedophile ring. Detectives said they had arrested their third suspect on Sunday, a man in his 70s from Cambridgeshire in central England.
Funded by an annual licence fee levied on all TV viewers, the BBC has long been resented by its commercial rivals, who argue it has an unfair advantage and distorts the market.
Murdoch's Sun tabloid gleefully reported Entwistle's departure with the headline "Bye Bye Chump" and Patten said News Corp and others would put the boot in, happy to deflect attention after a phone-hacking scandal put the newspaper industry under intense and painful scrutiny.
He said that "one or two newspapers, Mr. Murdoch's papers" would love to see the BBC lose its national status, "but I think the great British public doesn't want to see that happen".
Murdoch himself was watching from afar.
"BBC getting into deeper mess. After Savile scandal, now prominent news program falsely names senior pol as paedophile," he wrote on his Twitter website on Saturday.
It is not just the BBC and the likes of Entwistle and Patten who are in the spotlight.
Thompson, whom Entwistle succeeded in mid-September, has also faced questions from staff at the New York Times over whether he is still the right person to take one of the biggest jobs in American newspaper publishing.
The Murdoch-owned Sunday Times queried how Thompson could have been unaware of claims about Savile during his tenure at the BBC as he had told British lawmakers, saying his lawyers had written to the paper addressing the allegations in early September, while Thompson was still director general.
Call for global monitoring of infectious diseases in dogs and catsPublic release date: 12-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joanne Fryer joanne.fryer@bristol.ac.uk 44-011-733-17276 University of Bristol
Most emerging infectious diseases of humans come from animals. International health agencies monitor these diseases, but they do so only for humans and livestock, not for companion dogs and cats. A new study recommends a global system is needed to monitor infectious diseases of companion dogs and cats.
The study, led by Michael Day, Professor of Veterinary Pathology in the School of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol and published online in Emerging Infectious Diseases, lists key infectious diseases that may be transmitted between dogs and cats and man ('zoonotic diseases'). It is well recognised that most of the major new diseases of mankind will have an animal origin and dogs and cats are a potential source of such 'emerging diseases'.
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) One Health Committee, which promotes the closer integration of human and animal healthcare ('One Health') in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO), recommends in the paper a co-ordinated global disease monitoring system is established for veterinarians who work in small companion animal practice.
However, development of such a scheme would require significant political will, scientific application and financial support that could be achieved through a public-private partnership. The knowledge gained through surveillance would permit more effective global control of small companion animal zoonoses and so reduce the risks inherent within this most fundamental of human relationships.
Canine rabies virus infection, one of the diseases listed in the paper, is estimated to kill a minimum of 55,000 people in Africa and Asia each year.
Michael Day, Professor of Veterinary Pathology in the School of Veterinary Sciences, said: "The number of small companion animals is significant. For example there are an estimated eight to ten million dogs living in up to 31 per cent of UK homes and in the USA, 72 million dogs in 37 per cent of homes.
"In developed countries the relationship between man and dogs and cats has deepened, with these animals now closely sharing the human indoor environment. The benefits of pet ownership on human health, well-being and development are unquestionable, but as dogs and cats have moved from the barn, to the house, to the bedroom, the potential for disease spread to humans increases. Control of diseases among dogs and cats is a good way to prevent spread to humans."
Small companion animals, most typically dogs and cats, are kept by people for companionship or a range of utilitarian purposes. Dogs and cats have a close relationship with their human owners and play an important role in the cultures of both developed and developing communities. The social and societal benefits of pet ownership are significant, with dogs now participating in programmes in institutions such as schools, prisons and hospitals, in addition to their role in family life.
In human, livestock and wildlife heath there are programmes of active surveillance for infectious disease, which monitor the global distribution and movement of key infectious agents. For example, the WHO monitors human influenza virus infection through a network of 111 centres in 83 countries. In contrast, there is no such monitoring for the infections that may be transmitted between small companion animals and man.
###
Paper: Surveillance of zoonotic infectious diseases transmitted by small companion animals, Day M J, Breitschwerdt E, Cleaveland S, Karkare U, Khanna C, Kirpensteijn J, Kuiken T, Lappin MR, McQuiston J, Mumford E, Myers T, Palatnik-de-Sousa CB, Rubin C, Takashima G, Thiermann A. Emerging Infectious Diseases, volume 18, issue 12, December 2012.
[ | 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.
Call for global monitoring of infectious diseases in dogs and catsPublic release date: 12-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joanne Fryer joanne.fryer@bristol.ac.uk 44-011-733-17276 University of Bristol
Most emerging infectious diseases of humans come from animals. International health agencies monitor these diseases, but they do so only for humans and livestock, not for companion dogs and cats. A new study recommends a global system is needed to monitor infectious diseases of companion dogs and cats.
The study, led by Michael Day, Professor of Veterinary Pathology in the School of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol and published online in Emerging Infectious Diseases, lists key infectious diseases that may be transmitted between dogs and cats and man ('zoonotic diseases'). It is well recognised that most of the major new diseases of mankind will have an animal origin and dogs and cats are a potential source of such 'emerging diseases'.
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) One Health Committee, which promotes the closer integration of human and animal healthcare ('One Health') in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO), recommends in the paper a co-ordinated global disease monitoring system is established for veterinarians who work in small companion animal practice.
However, development of such a scheme would require significant political will, scientific application and financial support that could be achieved through a public-private partnership. The knowledge gained through surveillance would permit more effective global control of small companion animal zoonoses and so reduce the risks inherent within this most fundamental of human relationships.
Canine rabies virus infection, one of the diseases listed in the paper, is estimated to kill a minimum of 55,000 people in Africa and Asia each year.
Michael Day, Professor of Veterinary Pathology in the School of Veterinary Sciences, said: "The number of small companion animals is significant. For example there are an estimated eight to ten million dogs living in up to 31 per cent of UK homes and in the USA, 72 million dogs in 37 per cent of homes.
"In developed countries the relationship between man and dogs and cats has deepened, with these animals now closely sharing the human indoor environment. The benefits of pet ownership on human health, well-being and development are unquestionable, but as dogs and cats have moved from the barn, to the house, to the bedroom, the potential for disease spread to humans increases. Control of diseases among dogs and cats is a good way to prevent spread to humans."
Small companion animals, most typically dogs and cats, are kept by people for companionship or a range of utilitarian purposes. Dogs and cats have a close relationship with their human owners and play an important role in the cultures of both developed and developing communities. The social and societal benefits of pet ownership are significant, with dogs now participating in programmes in institutions such as schools, prisons and hospitals, in addition to their role in family life.
In human, livestock and wildlife heath there are programmes of active surveillance for infectious disease, which monitor the global distribution and movement of key infectious agents. For example, the WHO monitors human influenza virus infection through a network of 111 centres in 83 countries. In contrast, there is no such monitoring for the infections that may be transmitted between small companion animals and man.
###
Paper: Surveillance of zoonotic infectious diseases transmitted by small companion animals, Day M J, Breitschwerdt E, Cleaveland S, Karkare U, Khanna C, Kirpensteijn J, Kuiken T, Lappin MR, McQuiston J, Mumford E, Myers T, Palatnik-de-Sousa CB, Rubin C, Takashima G, Thiermann A. Emerging Infectious Diseases, volume 18, issue 12, December 2012.
[ | 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.
DTJ is a nexus of DTJ is a nexus of journalists, filmmakers, storytellers, artists and supporters and is the world?s leading source of engaging media content about children in-crisis, initiating a global response to change the future of our world.
Want to help build a world-class platform that will be central hub in a global movement to create culture around the care and protection of children around the world? DTJ is looking to contract a Drupal developer.
Our situation: We have Drupal set up at beta.dtj.org, we just need someone to skin it and improve the functionality. The design is ready, just needs to be sliced and applied to Drupal with a little CSS, PHP and HTML love.
Your situation: You have time, tons of passion for the project, a desire to make an impact with your skills, and you have the knowledge. You know Drupal extremely well and can help build a foundation there that will last for years to come and be able to withstand scale and increased functionality. Preferably you have mobile coding skills as well or have worked with mobile coders before to translate web content to iPhone/android applications. This website will serve as the central hub for all of DTJ's content so it needs to be robust, scalable and play well with future mobile apps we will release.
The budget is smaller that commercial gigs but the impact will be huge and you will have played a role in building the world's leading platform for stories on children in-crisis around the world. You will have a premier cause brand to put on your portfolio as well and if we like working with you, we will refer a lot of future business to you from other causes and for-profit social enterprises.
Application Deadline: NOV 15
Project Deadline: DEC 5
Need to know: HTML, Drupal, PHP, and CSS. HTML5 and Java a plus.
Please fill out the brief application and we will contact you with more details such as a project brief, visuals, etc
Several fall releases celebrate books and the writers who love them.
By Marjorie Kehe,?Staff / November 12, 2012
One for the Books
By Joe Queenan
Penguin Group
256 pp.
The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap
By Wendy Welch
St. Martin's Press
304 pp.
My Bookstore
Edited by Ronald Rice and Booksellers Across America
Black Dog and Leventhal
384 pp.
Enlarge
?There is no e-reader or Kindle in my future. My philosophy is simple: Certain things are perfect the way they are. The sky, the Pacific Ocean, procreation and the Goldberg Variations all fit this bill, and so do books.?
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
When humorist and critic Joe Queenan published these words ? adapted from his new memoir, One for the Books ? in The Wall Street Journal last month, he instantly gained a multitude of new cyberfriends. (?Love love love this!? exulted one Twitter user as she shared Queenan?s thoughts with a few thousand of her closest followers.)
Is there an e-book backlash at work here? Or have publishers been pushed into high gear by all those constant warnings about the death of the book? Whatever the driver, it?s hard to ignore one of this season?s more notable trends in reading: books about how much we love books.
Queenan?s memoir is a passionate tribute to paper-and-ink books as a mainstay of his existence. His reading style (he never consumes fewer than 15 books at a time) is somewhat idiosyncratic. And his tastes (he dismisses Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, and anything recommended to him by a friend) may strike some as offensive. But his enthusiasm is infectious, and his conviction that reading is the act that has given him life and breath will ring true to book lovers everywhere.
Oddly, among Queenan?s passionate dislikes are independent booksellers. (He calls them ?prigs? and complains that ?[t]he only writers they like are dead or exotic or Paul Auster.?)
Don?t tell that to Wendy Welch, author of The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap. When Welch and her husband, Jack, took the unlikely gamble of opening an independent bookstore in the first floor of a 1903 Edwardian mansion in a tiny, overlooked Appalachian coal town, most folks gave them a year.
Contrary to expectations, however, they have thrived, and Welch?s book is a celebration of their success. Although success, in this case, doesn?t mean high finance. ?The shop makes enough money for us to live with frugal grace,? Welch writes. More important to Wendy and Jack ? in addition to the chance to ?follow our bliss? ? is the role they play in the life of the community.
?People stop into our store daily, saying, ?A few minutes to kill so I thought I?d look around,? ? Welch writes. ?They?re not going to buy anything. They just want to pull some peaceful, book-scented air through their lungs.?
Charisma Spencer came by her first name in a very unusual way. She wasn?t named charisma because she was charismatic ? not if you define charismatic. How could anyone know if this newborn was charismatic? No, she was named Charisma because the attending nurse misspelled her name on the birth certificate, the day she was born.
She was supposed to be named Chariena after her great grandmother who had lived in a small English village, many years ago. Chariena was famous in England for having saved so many influenza victims with her herbs and potions. But, Charisma would never be called Chariena.
When Mrs. Spencer had gotten home from the hospital and discovered the error on the birth certificate she recalled a certain kind of connection she had felt when she first looked into her newborn daughter?s eyes. There was something magnetic about the child and the tiny gray eyes made you feel something cozy when she looked back at you.
Maybe the name Charisma would actually suit the child better. Deciding to sleep on the issue, Mrs. Spencer went to bed having no idea she would, ultimately, opt to keep the misspelled name for her baby. The next day she talked it over with her husband who was secretly delighted because he had felt mixed about the name Chariena from the beginning.
Years later when Charisma graduated from high school there was a long line of well-wishers begging her to keep in touch. Charisma was indeed charismatic. Anyone who knew charisma knew she could charm you off your feet without even trying. She had a big heart and her heart was opened to the world.
Charisma was a dazzling combination of fine qualities. She had integrity, she was compassionate, honesty was her policy, and she always thought of others first. Charisma graduated from The High School of Music and Art and had been accepted to Pratt Institute, one of the finest Visual Arts colleges in the world. Art was Charisma?s greatest love and her greatest talent.
On this day, out of the blue, Charisma began remembering a particular spring day, years ago, when she had lain in the hammock in her backyard. She had won an art award at the school that day and was basking in the praise.
In her musings, Charisma had wondered if it was safe to say there was a connection between the dictionary definition of charisma and the dictionary definition of visual art. Could there be a certain charisma to the creation of art? She had laughed because she was certainly a Charisma that had a definite connection with visual art.
Remembering that long ago day got her to thinking about it all over again. She knew there was such a thing as ?charismatic art.? She had heard the term before. And, there certainly were charismatic artists, throughout history. Around and around her thoughts went. She would think the subject to pieces if she allowed herself.
?? Hello! ? Wake up! ? Stop daydreaming,? she said to herself. Charisma crossed the street and headed for the art supply store in the middle of the block. She had run out of art supplies and was late for studio practice at the school. Snuggling into her warm, wooly scarf Charisma hunched her shoulders against the cold and hurried down the street.
Texas Instrument's TI-84 makes quick work of graphs and equations like nobody's business, but it's done so for years while clinging to an outdated black and white screen. Now, however, it looks like that'll change for at least one flavor of the souped-up digital abacus. Cemetech forum user 0rac343 posted a photo of a TI-84+ C Silver Edition, claiming that it was one of 24 provided by TI for in-classroom testing and that it's slated to launch next spring. Tech Powered Math reports that a contact who's worked with Texas Instruments has confirmed that the calculator is the real McCoy. In fact, the firm's website has a page where visitors can sign up for updates about the number cruncher in question. With the help of the refreshed TI-84, we might finally be able to tell if Blinky, Inky, Pinky or Clyde is the ghost chasing us down in the hardware's Pac-Man clone.
SACO, Maine ? State championship team members Garet Beal of Jonesport-Beals High School, Krystal Kingsbury of Presque Isle, Allie Clement of McAuley of Portland and McKenzie Worcester of Washburn are among the more than 175 basketball players who have confirmed they plan to participate in the third annual MBNation East vs. West Showcase on Sunday.
The daylong event at the Saco Recreation Center is conducted by MBNation Basketball and showcases the talents of the state?s top players.
?This has, literally, become a preseason all-star game,? said MBNation club director Mike Woodbury of the contests.
More than 200 players were invited to participate and the final tally of who attends will be close to 180, according to Woodbury.
?It gets bigger every year,? he said.
He also expects to have between 30 and 50 men?s and women?s coaches, plus a couple of organizations that evaluate the players? potential and rank them for recruiting purposes.
Some may have already committed to a school. Beal, for instance, verbally committed to the University of Maine on Tuesday. Most have not committed yet, such as Chris Braley, a Newport native now attending Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., who is also considered to be an NCAA Division I basketball prospect.
The day consists of seven games scheduled to be put on starting at 9 a.m., five boys games and two girls games, primarily for high school-age players.
The boys are split into four games based on high school graduation class (2013-16) plus a futures game for boys who are expected to graduate in either 2017 or 2018. Girls games may be split among two age groups, one game for the 2013 and 2014 graduating classes and the other for the 2015 and 2016 classes.
There is no breakdown into classes based on the size of the schools the players attend.
?We just tried to find the best players regardless of class,? Woodbury said. Players are coming from as far north as Caribou and as far south as York.
Some who have accepted their invitations may not be able to play, however, because of injury or other commitments.
?We don?t allow them to participate if they?re still in season for their high school sport [such as football],? said Woodbury.
The admission fee is $5 per person, but that covers all the games. The players? registration fee is $55.
Woodbury is excited because this year?s gathering is in the newly renovated Saco Recreation Center after two years at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland.
?They?ve put in a new gymnasium floor and it has more seating. And they?re bringing in extra seating,? Woodbury said of the Saco center, which will have a capacity of about 600. The center also has a concessions stand with hot food, an activity room for the players and a hospitality room for the college coaches.
The extra seating probably will be necessary, according to Woodbury.
?I expect that it will be standing-room-only for the games in the middle of the day,? he said. Those are boys games with this year?s juniors playing at 12:45 p.m. and the seniors at 2 p.m.
The futures game is first at 9 a.m. followed by the freshman boys (10:15 a.m.) and sophomore boys (11:30 a.m.).
The freshman and sophomore girls play at 3:15 p.m. followed by the junior and senior girls at 4:30 p.m. The girls games may be combined into one, however, based on the confirmation rate, Woodbury said. Fourteen girls from Western Maine and 17 from Eastern Maine have confirmed, and Woodbury prefers to have 12-player teams.
Other boys taking part include Sam Grindle of Deer Isle-Stonington, a standout guard who also won the state Class C boys individual golf title last month; Tyler Norris of EM Class A champion Hampden Academy; Thiwat Thiwat and Labson Abwoch of state Class A champ Deering of Portland; Brendan Newcomb of Brewer; Ben Walls of Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor; Nick Guiod and Kyle Bouchard of Houlton; Ben Hughes of Bangor; Mitch Worcester of Washburn; and Isaiah Stone-Patterson of Oceanside of Rockland/Thomaston.
Among the other girls who have accepted invitations are Sydney and Sarah Hancock of Lake Region of Naples, Kelsie and Kylie Richards of Nokomis of Newport, Kennadi Grover of Oceanside, Jillian Woodward of Orono and Lexi Nelligan of Belfast.
The list of committed players can be found at the MBNation website at: thenationbasketball.yuku.com/topic/2468/3rd-Annual-MBNation-East-v-West-Showcase-Info?Invite-List.
Woodbury is expecting that the games will be competitive.
?This is a chance for people who might not have the opportunity to [play against] each other during the rest of the year,? hesaid. ?Hopefully, they?ll all have a good time.?
The latest clinical trial of the world?s leading malaria vaccine candidate produced disappointing results on Friday. The infants it was given to had only about a third fewer infections than a control group.
But researchers said they wanted to press on, assuming they keep getting financial support, because the number of children who die of malaria is so great that even an inefficient vaccine can save thousands of lives.
Three shots of the vaccine, known as RTS, S or Mosquirix and produced by GlaxoSmithKline, gave babies fewer than 12 weeks old 31 percent protection against detectable malaria and 37 percent protection against severe malaria, according to an announcement by the company at a vaccines conference in Cape Town.
Last year, in a trial in children up to 17 months old, the same vaccine gave 55 percent protection against detectable malaria and 47 percent against severe malaria.
The new trial ?is less than we?d hoped for,? Moncef Slaoui, chairman of research and development at Glaxo, said in a telephone interview. ?But if a million babies were vaccinated, we would prevent 260,000 cases of malaria a year. This is a disease that kills 655,000 babies a year ? 31 percent of that is a very large number.?
The company, which has already spent more than $300 million on the vaccine, wants to keep forging ahead, Mr. Slaoui said, ?but it is not just our decision.?
It also depends on the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which has put more than $200 million of its Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation financing into the vaccine, and on the World Health Organization, which has helped talk seven African countries into allowing the vaccine to be tested on their children.
The Gates Foundation declined to say how much money it was ultimately prepared to spend on an imperfect vaccine; this set of trials is set to go into 2014.
?The efficacy came back lower than we had hoped, but developing a vaccine against a parasite is a very hard thing to do,? Bill Gates said in a prepared statement. ?The trial is continuing, and we look forward to getting more data to help determine whether and how to deploy this vaccine.?
All the families in the trial were given insecticide-treated mosquito nets and encouraged to use them; 86 percent did, so the vaccine?s results were achieved on top of other anti-malaria measures.
RTS, S contains a protein found on the parasite?s surface that provokes an immune reaction. It was first identified decades ago by two New York University scientists, Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig. The vaccine was developed by Glaxo in Belgium and initially tested on American volunteers by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
When the Gates Foundation began focusing on global health in the early part of this century, it was one of the first projects the foundation adopted. Different ways to make the vaccine more effective, including adding different boosters and giving more shots, are being experimented with. Other vaccines using different ways to provoke an immune reaction exist, but none are as far along in clinical trials.
Like an H.I.V. vaccine, one against malaria has proved an elusive goal. The parasite morphs several times, exhibiting different surface proteins as it goes from mosquito saliva into blood and then into and out of the liver. Also, even the best natural ?vaccine? ? catching the disease itself ? is not very effective. While one bout of measles immunizes a child for life, it usually takes several bouts of malaria to confer even partial immunity. Pregnancy can cause women to stop being immune, and immunity can fade out if someone moves away from a malarial area ? presumably because they no longer get ?boosters? from repeated mosquito bites.
YANGON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will become the first U.S. leader to visit Myanmar this month, the strongest international endorsement of the fragile democratic transition in the Southeast Asian country after half a century of military rule.
Obama will travel to Myanmar during a November 17-20 tour of Southeast Asia that will also take in Thailand and Cambodia, the White House said on Thursday, confirming his first international trip since he won a second term in Tuesday's election.
He is going ahead with the trip despite recent sectarian violence in western Myanmar that has drawn concern from the United States and European Union.
U.N. human rights investigators have criticized the quasi-civilian government's handling of the strife between Buddhists and minority Muslims, and some Myanmar exiles see Obama's trip as premature before political reforms have been consolidated.
The visit to Myanmar, the first by a sitting U.S. president, will give Obama a chance to meet President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to encourage the "ongoing democratic transition", White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Suu Kyi spent years in detention under the military as the figurehead of the movement for democracy. She was elected to parliament in April, when her National League for Democracy (NLD) ran in by-elections after boycotting a 2010 poll.
Obama will be in Myanmar on November 19, according to a senior government source in Yangon, where people expressed delight.
"I believe it is a clear sign of improved ties between the two countries and I am very glad that our NLD party played an important role in working for the emergence of this situation," said NLD executive committee member Han Tha Myint.
Myint Soe, vice-chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said the historic visit showed Myanmar had now been admitted into the international community.
"It's good for President Obama to see things with his own eyes," he said. "I would like to request him to keep encouraging the democratization process in our country by helping to promote the socioeconomic standards of the people."
Obama's presence in Myanmar, also known as Burma, will highlight what his administration sees as a first-term foreign policy achievement and a development that could help counter China's influence in a strategically important region.
Washington takes some credit for a carrot-and-stick approach that pushed Myanmar's long-ruling generals toward democratic change and led to Thein Sein taking office as a reformist president in 2011.
But Obama also risks criticism for rewarding the new government too soon, especially after security forces failed to prevent bloody ethnic violence in the west of the country.
At least 89 people were killed in the recent clashes between Buddhist Rakhines and minority Muslim Rohingyas. Many thousands more have been displaced by the violence.
The U.S. Campaign for Burma, an exile group, said Obama's trip could "undermine the democracy activists and ethnic minorities", but added that if the president was intent on going, he should broaden his agenda to include meetings with the still-powerful military and an address to parliament.
A senior administration official said Obama, who will also speak to civil society groups, was "acutely aware" of concerns about human rights, ethnic violence and political prisoners in Myanmar and would address those issues during his visit.
SANCTIONS EASED
The United States eased sanctions on Myanmar this year in recognition of the political and economic change under way, and many U.S. companies are looking at starting operations in the country located between China and India, with its abundant resources and low-cost labor.
In November 2011, Hillary Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Myanmar in more than 50 years.
Obama has sought to consolidate ties and reinforce U.S. influence across Asia in what has been dubbed a policy "pivot" toward the region as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.
Myanmar grew close to China during decades of isolation, reinforced by Western sanctions over its poor human rights record, but is now seeking to expand relations with the West.
Obama met Suu Kyi, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, on her visit to the United States in September. Thein Sein was also in the United States to attend the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York but the two leaders did not meet.
U.S. Democratic Representative Joe Crowley, who is active on Myanmar issues, said Obama's trip could be "the most significant step" in support of democracy there.
But he said: "There is still much more to be done. Too many political prisoners remain locked up, ethnic violence must be stopped, and not all necessary political reforms have been put in place."
Obama will be in Southeast Asia to attend meetings in Cambodia centered on an annual summit of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is usually extended to take in leaders of partner countries.
Preliminary details for this year show the event will run from November 15 to November 20. The Cambodian government has said Obama will be in the capital, Phnom Penh, on November 18. The White House has yet to release a detailed itinerary.
The heads of government of China, Japan, Russia and other countries are also expected in Cambodia for the meetings.
(Writing by Matt Spetalnick and Alan Raybould; Editing by Peter Cooney and Robert Birsel)
Where is the economy heading in 2013? This question was a much discussed topic during the presidential race, but it was always framed in electoral politics. Now that we finally have the election behind us we can consider the question on its own terms. There are long-term challenges for the economy, but of more pertinent concern is what does the coming year have in store. Here are the problems that I see going into 2013 in no particular order:
(1) Housing is Not in Recovery ? Foreclosures, short-sales, and unemployment problems look to continue limiting the number of homebuyers and housing will continue to struggle (though some local levels will see recovery, nationally this remains a problem).
(2) Unemployment Still Will be High ? Millions of workers remain unemployed for more than 6+ months and will not re-enter the labor force easily or quickly, labor force participation won?t increase overnight, productivity has increased since the recession even though total employment has fallen, and structural changes such as shifts in the sectors of large scale employment will be a problem for a while.
(3) Regulatory and Tax Uncertainty for Business Investment ?There are a host of Dodd-Frank regulations waiting to be implemented, and another four years of Obama means increased environment and labor regulations slowing down business.
(4) Private Debt Deleveraging ? Probably the biggest challenge is that mortgage debt has only slowly declined relative to housing prices, and while housing prices are at 2003 levels, mortgage debt is 67 percent higher today than in 2003. This means there is a lot more deleveraging to go through. As I wrote for RealClearMarkets this morning:
If you are a Keynesian, then consumers shedding their existing debt means a?reduction in aggregate spending, stalling the key engine of growth?. The story isn't much better if you prefer a more supply-side economic approach to jumpstarting growth, and want to reduce taxes and regulations on businesses so they can thrive. If businesses, particularly small businesses whose expenses are part of their household budgets, are more interested in deleveraging than expanding, then tax cuts and regulatory burdens will have only a small effect on economic growth in the short run. This does not mean these policies should be ignored, but rather that their true value will be to set the stage for a stronger long-term recovery as lower taxes and regulatory costs will allow these businesses to clear their balance sheets faster. The deleveraging cycle still needs to process.
(5) Fiscal Cliff? ? It is not clear yet how Congress will address the fiscal cliff, but if we go over entirely it will have a negative impact on the economy. Whether that is a problem depends on how bad the above four problems make the economy anyway and whether you believe short-term pain from reduced government spending is worth the long-term need to cut the deficit and national debt.
And none of this gets into the long-term challenges for the economy like the national debt, out of control entitlement spending, QEnfinity as monetary policy, declining education outcomes, and rising health care costs.
Still despite all of this, I?m a cautionary optimist because we are in a better place than 2008, and most of this is more likely to mean a stagnating economy (growing around or under 2 percent) rather than another recession. But you do the math and decide whether this is what recovery looks like or not.
Infrastructure,Logistics,News Analysis,Supply Chain | 14 mins ago |
Goodman Group (Goodman or Group) today announces that it has entered into a joint venture (Joint Venture or JV) with WTORRE, one of Brazil?s leaders in the development and construction of industrial warehouse and logistics facilities and commercial real estate. The Joint Venture will undertake the development of prime logistics and industrial properties on a 50/50 basis in key markets throughout Brazil.
Danny Peeters, CEO Continental Europe, Goodman, will be one of two Goodman members on the Board of the Joint Venture, and has also been appointed as an Executive Director to the Goodman Board, effective 1 January 2013. As a result Goodman has appointed Philippe Van der Beken as Managing Director Continental Europe. He is responsible for Goodman?s activities across Continental Europe and reports to Danny Peeters.
?Low vacancy rates and a lack of supply in core markets makes this an opportune time to enter Brazil. We believe that Goodman?s global customer network coupled with WTORRE?s local knowledge, will drive demand for our secured sites from logistics service providers, retailers and manufacturing companies, particularly in the fast moving consumer good and automotive sectors,? said Danny Peeters.
Summary
+ Launch of a new Brazilian logistics and industrial property Joint Venture, to be called WTGoodman, with Goodman and WTORRE investing on a 50/50 basis;
+ Deployment of a highly experienced team, combining WTORRE?s local market expertise and logistics capability with Goodman?s global customer base and funds management expertise;
+ Development led investment strategy focused on prime logistics and industrial properties with the objective of matching completed property with the investment demand from Goodman?s global capital partners; and
+ WTORRE will contribute four existing development land sites, two in Sao Paulo and two in Rio de Janeiro, comprising 850,000 sqm of Gross Lettable Area (GLA) and a total completion value of approximately US$1.1 billion (EUR858 million).
Strategic rationale Brazil is one of the world?s fastest growing economies with a population of 195 million and a growing middle class. Investors are attracted by the emerging market economic growth and stable geopolitical environment.
The Brazilian industrial real estate market remains highly fragmented with clear capital constraints. This provides an opportune time to enter key logistics locations and develop prime sites to deliver new investment product for global and local customers, together with with our global capital partners who have expressed strong interest to invest alongside Goodman in Brazil.
?Our entry into Brazil further improves our position as a leading global logistics property group. With A$20 billion (EUR16.3 billion) of assets under management throughout Asia Pacific and Europe and following our recent launch into North America, our entry into Brazil represents a further strategic expansion of our operating platform to service our global customers and capital partners in one of the world?s fastest growing economies.? said Mr Goodman.
WTORRE, founded by Chairman Walter Torre Junior in 1981, has built more than 5 million sqm covering 211 projects across the office, retail and industrial sectors. WTORRE is a key market player, providing innovative solutions in engineering, real estate and infrastructure. It has completed 71 logistics developments, most of which have been built to suit, and undertaken a number of landmark projects including Santander Brazil Headquarters in Sao Paulo, Rio Grande Shipyard, comprising the largest dry dock in the southern hemisphere and Petrobas? new headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, which at 100,000 sqm will be Brazil?s largest commercial building. WTORRE?s customers include Carrefour, Nestle, Walmart, Volkswagen and Unilever.
Joint Venture
The Joint Venture is to be known as WTGoodman. It combines Goodman?s global expertise as a leading specialist fund manager of industrial property and business space, extensive global customer and capital partner relationships, with the strength of WTORRE?s leading market position and proven logistics development capability in Brazil.
?Following extensive due diligence, Goodman is delighted to partner with WTORRE given their established platform, local relationships, reputation and expertise and their strong development capability. Critical to the success of Goodman?s continued global expansion is identifying a local partner with complimentary resources and expertise. Both WTORRE and Goodman employees will form the Joint Venture to ensure the optimal mix of local knowledge and global experience in operations and compliance?, said Mr Goodman.
The Board of the Joint Venture will decide unanimously on all major items and be comprised of four representatives, two from each of WTORRE and Goodman, with WTORRE represented by the Chairman, Walter Torre and CEO, Paul Remy and Goodman represented by Greg Goodman and Danny Peeters.
Cesar Nasser has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of WTGoodman. He has 16 years of experience in real estate and financial markets, including five years as Partner and Executive Director at RB Capital, one of the largest securitisation and real estate investment companies in Brazil. Mr Nasser brings the requisite skills and experience to ensure he is ideally suited to lead the WTGoodman Joint Venture.
?The establishment of WTGoodman is an exciting advancement for both companies and I am delighted by the enormous opportunities available to our two leading companies. Both WTORRE and Goodman bring a wealth of complementary resources to the joint venture and I look forward to working with the new team to realise the strength of their potential,? said WTORRE Chairman, Walter Torre.
Investment strategy and secured development sites Equity in the Joint Venture is to be owned, and returns are to be shared, 50/50 by WTORRE and Goodman. WTORRE will contribute existing industrial development sites and Goodman will fund the capital expenditure up to the value of R$341 million.(EUR130 million). The JV will seek to undertake development of prime logistics and industrial properties and look to contribute those developments to an industrial investment partnership sponsored by Goodman?s global capital partners.
The launch portfolio comprises four sites, Cajamar and Itupeva in Sao Paulo and International Business Park (IBP) and Nova India in Rio de Janeiro, comprising a total GLA of 850,000 sqm and a forecast completion value of US$1.1 billion (EUR858 million). All sites are located in established industrial areas with close proximity to key infrastructure and are targeting large single warehouses and/or multi-customer facilities. Construction of infrastructure at the Cajamar and IBP sites will commence shortly and construction at Itupeva and Nova India is scheduled to commence in early 2013.
?The key to learning, Negroponte?s fellow panelists agreed, is to engage children rather than simply talk at them. And one of the most effective ways of doing this is through play.?
Educating Players: Are Games the Future of Education? | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network
Currently, education in America is caught between two movements, the standardization craze (with national assessments) and the hope for cooperative and constructive learning where educators tap into the prior knowledge a student has mastered to help them learn. The standards movement aspires to measure student progress on a national level, while the cooperative learning model is more concerned with building bridges between concepts to enhance student learning (Bursuck & Friend, 2012). The first movement imagines the student as a product, with specific skills that can be assessed through testing. The second movement envisions the student as a participant in the construction of knowledge, and an adventurer in the journey to learn. However, games are continuing to construct a third model of the student ? the learner as player, creating meaning and knowledge through play. There has been hope for a long time that video games would provide a natural link between student motivation and learning content. After all, video games are adept at teaching skills through play, and forcing players to want to learn more and more in order to experience a new level or ability. However, while the link seems natural, the transition is far from easy.
Questions about Effectiveness One of the major challenges to video game use in the classroom includes skepticism regarding its effectiveness as an overall teaching tool. Some teachers have reported mixed reactions to entertainment media on the social and academic development of students according to Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project (2012). Evidence that this kind of education is more effective than more traditional methods has been scarce. At most the use of video games has been shown to increase student motivation about schoolwork, but not necessarily their ability to retain material. Financial Issues The same study also identified the monetary burden that teachers face when attempting to give their students games to play for learning. For example, the recent attempt to use MinecraftEDU as a mod to the traditional Minecraft game (a kind of virtual lego world) for students to explore concepts about resources, building, and a range of other topics in school, requires about $20 per person to set up. If the software is bundled for all students in a typical middle school grade level this would amount to $600 per class (given 30 students per class). A subsidy has been suggested by the creator of Minecraft to help with the financial burden, but the cost still remains too high for most teachers.
Teacher Training Because teachers most of the time have not learned from educational games themselves, they are often at a loss in how to use games or gaming concepts effectively to teach students following best practices. Using a book requires basic knowledge that all teachers are equipped with, while using a computer program often requires training in the use of the game itself, a greater time strain for educators. As video games continue to populate schools, hopefully more educational materials will be produced that allow teachers to follow evidence-based practice in creating games, and evaluating student work.
Although there are considerable challenges to using video games in the classroom, nevertheless the model of student as player is growing ground in a number of educational initiatives inside and outside of schools.
Minecraft EDU Minecraft EDU, (the mod mentioned above) has been enthusiastically adopted by some teachers for the use in educating students. Rather than simply taking the students on a field trip, Minecraft allows for the full customization of a working environment that all students can explore, manipulate (in some cases) and work at their own pace. Assignments become in-context assessments and reflections using the environment rather than something external to their lived experience. Because of how tangible the world is, students who have not yet developed abstract thinking to solve problems (something which occurs in the later years of high school, Bursuck & Friend, 2012) are able to directly experience important elements of these concepts through play.
For example, one assignment created using the Minecraft EDU mod throws students into a world in which there are very few natural resources left, and the students have to interact and figure out how to solve the problem of creating a rocket and repopulating a world with forests. Another assignment allows students to go on virtual tours of ancient civilizations and explore the Hanging gardens of Babylon, Ancient China, or other features of a world through this style of immersive play and exploration.
Minecraft EDU mod expert Joel explains how teachers can create worlds for students to explore
Kahn Academy and its derivatives Gaining prominence in 2009, the Kahn Academy practically revolutionized both the gaming world and online education by applying game-like rewards for gaining proficiency in a variety of traditional school topics. Students follow a game-like model by attaining badges for each level of education. Because of these virtual awards and the way it advances students progress like leveling up, Kahn Academy has been labeled as a ?gamification? resource for students. Although the practice model only includes math and science concepts, a similar ?gaming? system that rewards streaks, gives rewards performance, etc. provides motivation for students to do better as well as provide an immediate boost in self-esteem. Other sites like Codeacademy include the similar rewards, streaks, and badges as a motivator to help students master material. Codeacademy is particularly successful in creating a tutorial lesson in which students get to practice and develop advanced coding skills.
Cooperative learning suggests the student is a coauthor in the creation of knowledge, not simply a bucket that is periodically filled with facts and then forced to regurgitate them. The ?gamification? and gaming movements currently reverberating through the field of education suggest the learner is something also fundamentally different. He or she is an explorer in the world of knowledge-working. The learner as player manipulates existing knowledge and evaluates its efficacy in real time. Rather than simply creating, he also evaluates, tests, synthesizes and manipulates information in a transformational way. Games have this power, but not without some potential drawbacks and it has yet to be seen if games will truly transform the learner or entrap him in skinner box-like pursuit of gimmicks, badges, and meaningless ?level-ups.?
Works Cited: Bursuck, W. D. &?Friend, M.?(2012) Including Students With Special Needs. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill.
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Public release date: 12-Nov-2012
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Where is the economy heading in 2013? This question was a much discussed topic during the presidential race, but it was always framed in electoral politics. Now that we finally have the election behind us we can consider the question on its own terms. There are long-term challenges for the economy, but of more pertinent concern is what does the coming year have in store. Here are the problems that I see going into 2013 in no particular order: