Research holds revelations about an ancient society's water conservation, purification

Apr. 9, 2013 ? University of Cincinnati research at the ancient Maya site of Medicinal Trail in northwestern Belize is revealing how populations in more remote areas -- the hinterland societies -- built reservoirs to conserve water and turned to nature to purify their water supply. Jeffrey Brewer, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Geography, will present his findings on April 11, at the Association of American Geographers' annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Brewer's research, titled "Hinterland Hydrology: Mapping the Medicinal Trail Community, Northwest Belize," continues a UC exploration of the ancient Maya civilization that has spanned decades. The site for Brewer's research, which was primarily occupied during the Classic Period (AD 250-900), functioned as a rural architectural community on the periphery of the major ancient Maya site of La Milpa.

Brewer says this smaller, remote settlement lacks the monumental architecture and population density typically associated with the major Maya sites, but shows similar, smaller-scale slopes, artificial terraces and water reservoirs that would have been utilized for farming and water management.

Brewer 's discovery of artificial reservoirs -- topographical depressions that were lined with clay to make a water-tight basin -- addressed how the Maya conserved water from the heavy rainfall from December to spring, which got them through the region's extreme dry spells that stretched from summer to winter. "They also controlled the vegetation directly around these reservoirs at this hinterland settlement," says Brewer. "The types of lily pads and water-borne plants found within these basins helped naturally purify the water. They knew this, and they managed the vegetation by these water sources that were used for six months when there was virtually no rainfall."

Without that system, Brewer says the smaller, more remote settlement would have been more dependent on the larger Maya sites that ran a larger water conservation system.

Brewer has conducted research at the site since 2006, including spending two years of intensive surveying and mapping of the region. Future research on the project will involve the completion of computerized mapping of up to 2,000 points of topography -- distances and elevations of the region in relation to water sources, population and structures. Brewer says he also wants to continue exploring the construction and management of these hinterland water systems and, if possible, gain a better understanding of what knowledge about them might have passed back and forth between settlements.

Funding for the research project was supported by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences and UC International.

David M. Hyde, professor of anthropology at Western State Colorado University, was secondary researcher on the project.

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) is a nonprofit scientific and educational society that is dedicated to the advancement of geography. The annual meeting features more than 6,000 presentations, posters, workshops and field trips by leading scholars, experts and researchers in the fields of geography, environmental science and sustainability.

Brewer is presenting at a conference session that focuses on geospatial and geotechnical tools and methods that can be used to address questions of archaeological significance.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cincinnati. The original article was written by Dawn Fuller.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/mOiz00r2qa4/130409111605.htm

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China recovery dogged by doubt as data questioned

BEIJING (AP) ? China's trade expanded in March in a possible positive sign for its recovery but analysts said the data might be inflated and give a distorted picture of the economy's health.

Imports rose 14.1 percent after growing 5 percent rate for the combined January-February period, customs data showed Wednesday, suggesting Chinese manufacturers and consumers might be buying more.

Export growth slowed to 10 percent from the previous two-month period's 23.6 percent. That could add to challenges for newly installed Communist Party leaders as they try to sustain the rebound from China's deepest downturn since the 2008 global crisis and avoid job losses.

Analysts said, though, the data might be distorted by companies misreporting trade or government manipulation, clouding the picture of whether an economic recovery is gaining traction.

Exports probably are even lower than reported, based on what is known about shipments into Hong Kong, said Francis Lun, chief economist of GE Oriental Financial Group in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is Chinese territory and handles a big share of the mainland's trade but is treated as a separate customs region.

"The figures in Hong Kong to and from China do not add up," he said. "Instead of 10 percent growth, you have 2 or 3 percent."

China's economic growth rose to 7.9 percent in the three months ending in December, up from the previous quarter's 7.4 percent. Analysts say the recovery from the country's deepest downturn since the 2008 global crisis is being propped up by government spending and could be vulnerable if trade or state-driven investment weakens.

Commentators raised questions after China's strong trade data failed to match up with much lower figures reported by its trading partners.

Some suggested companies might be reporting phony exports to get tax rebates or to evade Beijing's strict capital controls and move money into China with fictitious billing of foreign customers. Others say Beijing might have exaggerated trade volume to make the economy look healthier during the transition to new Communist Party leaders in recent months.

"Today's trade data release has not instilled any more confidence in either the quality of data or the strength of the recovery," said IHS Global Insight analyst Alistair Thornton in a report.

Other indicators show economic activity recovering but at a slow pace. A survey of manufacturing by a Chinese industry group showed activity improved in March but by only a fraction of one point on a 100-point scale.

Also in March, inflation fell, suggesting consumer demand might be weaker than authorities hoped.

Referring to February's explosive reported export growth, Alaistair Chan of Moody's Analytics said in a report, "It now seems that it was probably due to some issue with the reporting of exports, or possibly over-invoicing as firms evaded capital controls to bring in more foreign capital."

Chinese customs officials defended their data Wednesday at a news conference.

"Every dollar that is listed in the customs trade data can be traced back to an actual declaration form," said Zheng Yuesheng, a spokesman for the bureau. "The exported or imported goods listed on the declaration form have to be something shipped across the border, either in or out."

Beijing's capital controls and tax breaks and other privileges for foreign investors give Chinese companies an incentive to covertly bring in money from abroad. Economists believe a large share of China's reported foreign investment is money sent abroad by Chinese companies and "round-tripped" back into the country.

China's trade is volatile in the first few months of each year as companies shut down for several weeks during the Lunar New Year and then buy raw materials to resume production.

March exports rose to $182.2 billion while imports were $183.1 billion, leaving a rare monthly deficit of $900 million, according to the General Administration of Customs.

The trade surplus with the United States narrowed by 34 percent from a year earlier to $11 billion. The surplus with the 27-nation European Union shrank 35 percent to $5.3 billion.

Exports to Germany, China's biggest European trading partner, fell 7 percent while shipments to France declined 6.7 percent.

___

AP Business Writer Pamela Sampson in Bangkok and researcher Flora Ji in Beijing contributed.

___

General Administration of Customs of China: www.customs.gov.cn

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-recovery-dogged-doubt-data-questioned-050555572--finance.html

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'Pharmaceutical' approach boosts oil production from algae

Apr. 8, 2013 ? Taking an approach similar to that used for discovering new therapeutic drugs, chemists at the University of California, Davis, have found several compounds that can boost oil production by green microscopic algae, a potential source of biodiesel and other "green" fuels.

The work appears online in the journal Chemical Biology.

Microalgae are single-celled organisms that, like green plants, use photosynthesis to capture carbon dioxide and turn it into complex compounds, including oils and lipids. Marine algae species can be raised in saltwater ponds and so do not compete with food crops for land or fresh water.

"They can live in saltwater, they take sunlight and carbon dioxide as a building block, and make these long chains of oil that can be converted to biodiesel," said Annaliese Franz, assistant professor of chemistry and an author of the paper.

Franz, graduate students Megan Danielewicz, Diana Wong and Lisa Anderson, and undergraduate student Jordan Boothe screened 83 compounds for their effects on growth and oil production in four strains of microalgae. They identified several that could boost oil production by up to 85 percent, without decreasing growth.

Among the promising compounds were common antioxidants such as epigallocatechin gallate, found in green tea, and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), a common food preservative.

The team has carried out growth experiments in culture volumes of up to half a liter. They calculate that some of the chemicals they analyzed would be cost-effective when scaled up to a 50,000 liter pond. After oils have been extracted from the algae, the remaining mass can be processed for animal feed or other uses.

Franz came to UC Davis in 2007 with a background in pharmaceutical chemistry. Given the campus's emphasis on biofuels, she started thinking about applying high-throughput techniques used to screen for new drugs to looking for compounds that could affect microalgae.

The idea, Franz said, is to look for small molecules that can affect a metabolic pathway in a cell. By setting up large numbers of cell cultures and measuring a simple readout in each, it's possible to screen for large numbers of different compounds in a short time and home in on the most promising.

"The basic concept comes from the pharmaceutical industry, and it's been used for human cells, plants, yeast, but not so far for algae," she said.

"There are many cases where small molecules are having an effect to treat a disease, so it makes sense that if you can affect a pathway in a human for a disease, you can affect a pathway in an algal cell," Franz said.

Patents on the work are pending. The research was funded by Chevron Technology Ventures through a cooperative agreement with UC Davis.

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Journal Reference:

1. Annaliese K. Franz, Megan A. Danielewicz, Diana M. Wong, Lisa A. Anderson, Jordan R. Boothe. Phenotypic Screening with Oleaginous Microalgae Reveals Modulators of Lipid Productivity. ACS Chemical Biology, 2013; : 130322131504001 DOI: 10.1021/cb300573r

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/J5Iv6vVkoLQ/130408152951.htm

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Maryland lawmakers pass medical marijuana bill

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ? The Maryland General Assembly on Monday approved a measure allowing medical marijuana programs at research centers that choose to participate.

The state Senate approved the measure, 42-4. Ten of the Senate's 12 Republicans joined 32 Democrats, while two Democrats and two Republicans voted against it. The action sends the bill to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who indicated he is likely to sign the bill.

"I'd like to read it first, but I probably would," O'Malley told reporters.

The Democratic governor noted his decision would hinge on whether the bill includes provisions enabling the governor to suspend the program if the federal government decides to prosecute state employees who administer it. The provisions were included in the bill earlier this session, after Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Joshua Sharfstein said he would support the bill with the amendments. That was a change from last year, when Sharfstein expressed concern about potential federal prosecution.

Sen. David Brinkley, a Frederick County Republican, said concerns about medical marijuana violating federal law have been around for years, as more than a dozen other states and the District of Columbia have moved forward.

"At the same time, I think more and more as states start pushing the envelope on this thing, the federal government has to recognize that some of these cancer patients ? some of these people that are very sick ? you know, they're not doing this because they want to," Brinkley said. "They do feel that it's perhaps an element of last resort, and the last thing we want to do is criminalize who there are, why they're sick, that they're sick or their caregivers."

Delegate Dan Morhaim is a Baltimore County Democrat and emergency room physician who has been pushing to get the bill through for years. He emphasized that the program would be carefully supervised by academic medical centers.

While state analysts have projected programs would not be up and running until 2016, Morhaim said now that academic medical research centers have had a chance to look over the details, they are taking a closer look. Morhaim said Sinai Hospital in Baltimore has expressed interest in writing, even if it has not yet committed to participating. He also said Johns Hopkins has indicated it would take a closer look.

"They needed to wait to see what the road map looked like, and now that they have, I think you're going to see much quicker movement than people may have anticipated," Morhaim said.

Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-Cecil, said he voted against the bill because he believes a comprehensive proposal on the legalization of marijuana for a variety of purposes should be put before voters, instead of piecemeal measures slowly moving through the Legislature.

"Let's let them vote on it," Pipkin said, referring to the state's voters.

While advocates said the measure was well-intentioned, they said it didn't go far enough.

"Maryland has taken a small step in the right direction, but more steps are necessary for patients to actually obtain the medicine they need to alleviate their suffering," said Amanda Reiman, a policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, in a statement.

The measure would create a commission within the state health department to oversee programs.

A participating medical center would be required to specify the medical conditions it would treat and the criteria by which patients would be allowed to participate. A medical center also would have to provide the state health department data on patients and caregivers on a daily basis. The department would also have to make the data available to law enforcement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/maryland-lawmakers-pass-medical-marijuana-bill-002615875.html

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?Alarming? level of child abuse, neglect prompt ... - Minivan News

Children?s neglect and abuse have increased to an ?alarming level?, compelling the the Maldives? Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights to submit an amendment that would transfer parental guardianship of children in cases of negligence.

The Ministry submitted the amendment to the president?s office Sunday (April 7), which would allow for strict legal action to be taken against neglectful parents, and guardianship to be transferred within the principles of Islamic Shari?a, according to local media.

Acting Gender Minister, Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor,?said 59 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to the Gender Ministry in March and 37 of the abused children were transferred into state care.

She urged politicians and journalists to give more attention to the problem since ?cases of neglect and abuse of children have increased to an alarming level?.

The number of babies abandoned after birth is also increasing, according to Minister of State for Gender and Family Dr Aminath Rameela. She noted ?with dismay? that this ?is being done by people with good jobs?.

Shakoor emphasised that ?strict legal action? will be taken against parents who neglect their children.

?This is a situation the whole [Maldivian] society needs to take care of. Things need to be done to rehabilitate these children back into society,? said Shakoor.

?Non-profit organisations and private individuals should assume the responsibility of taking care of children who are abandoned by their parents until the children can be taken under the care of the state,? Shakoor added.

She said that close to 80 children were currently in the Villingili island orphanage ?Kudakudhunge Hiya? and that parents visit with gifts, but their children are ?sad? the visits are brief.

The Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights, as well as the President?s Office were not responding to calls at time of press.

Problems with state care

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) Vice President Ahmed Tholal previously stressed to Minivan News that the number of incidents occurring at state institutions caring for children were greatly concerning.

?Incidents are occurring repeatedly. Children under the care of the state need a safe environment; it?s a concerning issue.

?The fact is there is no special shelter or place for girls in trouble with the law. HRCM has raised the issue several times ? both the need for education as well as psycho-social support and counselling,? Tholal added.

He said the Maldivian government has a responsibility to protect children from being ?systemically? victimised, and once the state has been notified, children should not be put back in a situation of neglect or abuse.

?Vulnerable children are often from difficult families or are abandoned and are victimised over and over again. Currently [government] support is haphazard, and we are not properly equipped. A safety net needs to be established,? stated Tholal.

In March 2013, the Maldives? Gender Ministry admitted transferring two children from the Villlingili island orphanage ?Kudakudhunge Hiya? to the Centre for People with Mental Disability on the island of Guraidhoo, without determining if they were in fact special needs children.

Earlier in March, police returned seven underage girls who escaped from the ?Kudakudhinge Hiya? orphanage on Villingili, otherwise known as Villi-Male?. Local newspaper ?Haveeru? reported another two girls who escaped from the orphanage were found on a ?bokkura? ? a small local vessel ? in the lagoon near Villingili with two boys.

In January 2013, an incident occurred where two underage females living in the Villingili orphanage were arrested and sent to Maafushi prison.

The parliamentary committee investigating their arrest learned that all concerning authorities had neglected their duties and responsibilities to protect the rights of children.

In 2011, police arrested a female staff member working at the Villingili children?s home, after she allegedly physically abused a boy living in the centre.

In October 2010, the Maldives Police Service and the Health Ministry commenced a joint investigation into ?serious issues? concerning the mistreatment of children at Kudakudhinge Hiya, the only orphanage in the Maldives

Children?s rights

Tholal explained that the only other institutions for children are for boys, the Maafushi island Education and Training Centre for Children (ETCC) and Feydhoo Finolhu, a Correctional Training Centre for Children run by the Juvenile Justice Unit (JJU) of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Maldives Police Service?s Child Protection Unit.

Acute staffing and budget shortfalls combined with the lack of children?s rights education and the exclusion of children?s feedback have ?deprived [residents] of their liberty?. Staff caring for the children are often excluded from important decisions impacting children?s quality of life at the facilities, a recent HRCM report stated.

The report, ?Child Participation in the Maldives: An assessment of knowledge?, highlights numerous participation and protection policy deficiencies putting Maldivian children at serious risk of harm.

Source: http://minivannews.com/politics/alarming-level-of-child-abuse-neglect-prompt-gender-ministry-to-push-for-guardianship-amendment-55913

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Senators work on deal expanding background checks

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Talks between two influential senators have emerged as the most promising route for a bipartisan breakthrough on expanding federal background checks for gun buyers, a pivotal part of President Barack Obama's plan for combating gun violence.

One possibility being discussed by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., would involve expanding background checks to gun show sales and firearms transactions online, Senate aides said. Sales between close relatives and temporary transfers between hunters may be excluded, but an agreement along those lines could give Obama's guns agenda a significant boost and would be a major expansion of the current system, which covers only sales handled by federally licensed gun dealers.

The agreement remains a work in progress and could change, said Senate aides who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private talks.

But because of their credentials, an accord between the two lawmakers could make it easier for gun control advocates to win crucial support from wavering moderate Democrats and from GOP senators, who have largely opposed much of Obama's push on guns.

Manchin is a moderate and Toomey is a conservative, and both senators have received A ratings from the National Rifle Association, which has opposed the major parts of Obama's plan, including his call for nearly universal background checks.

Senators return Monday from a two-week spring recess, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been hoping to begin debate on Democrats' gun legislation Tuesday. That could be delayed if Manchin and Toomey seem close to an agreement but need more time to complete one.

Obama planned to speak at the University of Hartford in Connecticut on Monday to continue trying to pressure Congress to move ahead on gun control legislation.

Also high on Congress' agenda is immigration, where a decisive moment is approaching.

Bipartisan groups in the House and Senate are expected to present legislation as early as this week aimed at securing the U.S. border, fixing legal immigration and granting legal status to millions who are in the United States without authorization. That will open months of debate on the politically combustible issue, with votes by the Senate Judiciary Committee expected later this month.

The House returns Tuesday and initially plans to consider a bill preventing the National Labor Relations Board from issuing rules until a dispute over administration appointees is resolved.

Lawmakers will also devote time to the 2014 budget that Obama plans to release Wednesday. It calls for new tax increases, which Republicans oppose, and smaller annual increases in Social Security and other government benefit programs, over the objections of many of the president's fellow Democrats.

Advocates' hopes were high for congressional action on gun restrictions following the December massacre of 20 first-graders and six staffers at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

But momentum seems to have dipped in recent weeks and it remains unclear whether the Democratic-run Senate will be able to approve any curbs considered major by gun control groups. An Obama-backed assault weapons ban seems all but dead, and a prohibition against ammunition magazines carrying over 10 rounds, also supported by the president, seems unlikely to survive.

Without support from some Republicans, a significant expansion of background checks won't be possible because there are only 53 Democrats in the Senate plus two Democratic-leaning independents. Conservative GOP senators have promised to use delaying tactics against gun legislation, which would take 60 votes to end.

Federal background checks are currently required only for transactions handled by the roughly 55,000 federally licensed firearms dealers; private sales such as gun-show or online purchases are exempt.

For weeks, Manchin has been part of an effort to craft a background check compromise, along with Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill. Schumer focused his efforts on conservative Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., but those talks sputtered over Schumer's insistence on ? and Coburn's opposition to ? requiring that records be kept of private gun sales.

"I'm still hopeful that what I call the sweet spot ? background checks ? can succeed," Schumer said Sunday. "We're working hard there."

Proponents say background checks and records ? which are currently retained by gun dealers, not the government ? are the best way to ensure that would-be gun buyers' histories are researched. Opponents say the system is a step toward government files on gun owners and say criminals routinely skirt the checks anyway.

Asked about the potential compromise, Manchin spokesman Jonathan Kott said, "My boss continues to talk to all of his colleagues." Toomey spokeswoman E.R. Anderson said she could provide no information.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., urged fellow Republicans to allow debate to go forward without a filibuster, even as he declined to express support for a background check bill.

"The purpose of the United States Senate is to debate and to vote and to let the people know where we stand," McCain said, appearing alongside Schumer on CBS' "Face the Nation."

With or without an agreement, the Senate gun legislation would toughen federal laws against illegal firearms sales, including against straw purchasers, those who buy firearms for criminals or others barred from owning them. The legislation also would provide $40 million a year, a modest increase from current levels of $30 million, for a federal program that helps schools take safety measures such as reinforcing classroom doors.

In addition, the gun bill contains language by Schumer expanding background checks to cover nearly all gun transactions, with narrow exceptions that include sales involving immediate relatives. Even without a bipartisan deal, Schumer is expected to expand the exemptions to more relatives, people with permits to carry concealed weapons and others, in hopes of winning more support.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senators-deal-expanding-background-checks-072623780--politics.html

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O2 customers get free pass on Virgin Media's tube WiFi, last 12 stations go online this week

Unless you're an EE or Vodafone customer, you've either been shelling out for subterranean internet, or bid the London Underground's WiFi network a solemn farewell when free access ended in January. If you're with O2, however, your free pass has now been reinstated, as the bubble-loving carrier has become the latest passenger riding on Virgin Media's tube hotspots. Better yet, all O2 clientele have been automatically registered, so jumping online should be pretty simple once your device has found the source. Also, the underground network will shortly be meeting its 120-station target, as Virgin will be flipping switches at the final 12 locations throughout this week (the station list is available at the source link). So, should you start seeing more people in more places frantically hammering their smartphones during those 30-second pauses on the platform, you'll know why.

Filed under: Wireless, Internet, Mobile

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Source: Virgin Media

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/o2-virgin-media-tube-wifi/

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Schoolboy finds 300 million year old fossil

Apr. 7, 2013 ? An Oxford schoolboy has discovered what appears to be an extremely rare fossil of footprints from more than 300 million years ago.

Ten-year-old Bruno Debattista, who attends Windmill Primary School in Oxford, brought a piece of shale rock containing what he thought might be a fossilised imprint to the after-school club at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History.

Oxford University Natural History Museum experts were astonished to find that it appeared to contain the trackways left by a horseshoe crab crawling up the muddy slopes of an ancient shore around 320 million years ago.

Chris Jarvis, education officer at the Museum and organiser of the Natural History After-School Club, said: 'Footprints of this age are incredibly rare and extremely hard to spot, so we were amazed when Bruno produced them at our After-School Club.

'Still more impressive is the fact that Bruno had a hunch they might be some kind of footprints, even though the specimen had some of our world expert geologists arguing about it over their microscopes!''

Bruno's fossil has been confirmed by the Museum as likely showing footprints of a pair of mating horseshoe crabs laid down during the Carboniferous period, some 308-327 million years ago. At this time, the sea was slowly being sealed off as Earth's landmasses crunched together to form Pangaea. Bruno and his family have decided to donate the fossil specimen to the Museum's collection.

The Natural History After-School Club is run by the Museum's education department and encourages Year 6 children to develop their interest in the natural world, in the hope that some might become the next generation of geologists and zoologists.

The club's weekly sessions look at rocks, fossils, insects and other animal life, and members are encouraged to make observations and collect specimens to be shared each week.

Bruno was specially selected for the Club by his teachers, after showing a particular interest in nature. He collected the fossil while on holiday in Cornwall last summer.

'Unfortunately, the excitement and motivation that many children instinctively feel for studying nature is often lost during their teenage years as it is seen as "uncool" or a bit "weird," and science can become text-book oriented and exam-driven during secondary school,' Chris Jarvis said.

'The club is our attempt to encourage children to value and extend their skills and knowledge and to follow their interests. I hope it is helping to create a group of kids that will continue to share their interests into their teenage years and beyond.'

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/C0Cd95-RIOw/130407145835.htm

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Knicks win 12th straight, 125-120 over Thunder

New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler (6) reaches for the ball after it was knocked away by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha, right, in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City Sunday April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler (6) reaches for the ball after it was knocked away by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha, right, in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City Sunday April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

New York Knicks guard Raymond Felton (2) shoots in front of Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins (5) in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, right,drives around Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) in the second quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) gestures in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 7, 2013. Kncks guard Jason Kidd, left, looks on. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) is fouled by New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler (6) while shooting in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Carmelo Anthony had 36 points and 12 rebounds, J.R. Smith hit a pair of shot-clock beaters in the final 2 minutes and the New York Knicks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 125-120 on Sunday for their 12th straight win.

Smith connected on a 23-foot jumper from the right wing as the 24-second clock expired to put New York up 117-113 with 1:30 to play, then swished a 3-pointer with 56.8 seconds left that all but sealed New York's 50th win of the season.

It's the first time the Knicks have reached the landmark in 13 years.

Russell Westbrook had 37 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for Oklahoma City, which fell a game behind San Antonio for first place in the West with five games left.

Kevin Durant scored 27, falling behind Anthony in the NBA scoring race.

Anthony came up with a season-high nine of his 12 rebounds on the offensive end as the Knicks amassed 23 points off of 19 offensive boards. Anthony's last three baskets came on tip-ins. He twice put back his own misses, then tipped in Smith's missed free throw in the final minutes to help close it out.

Smith had 22 points, Raymond Felton scored 16 with eight assists and Tyson Chandler chipped in 15 points as Oklahoma City allowed its most points of the season.

Anthony, playing at Oklahoma City for the first time since April 2010, added to one of the more colorful histories of any visiting player despite failing to extend his run of 40-point games to four. He tied Bernard King's Knicks record with three in a row, going for 50, 40 and 41 in his previous three games.

Anthony hit game-winners in the closing seconds of Denver's only two games at Oklahoma City in 2009, then was knocked unconscious in the third quarter before returning in the fourth as the Nuggets rallied to win the 2010 game.

He had missed his final chance with the Nuggets after his sister's death and then sat out last season's meeting because of wrist and ankle injuries.

After Oklahoma City had rallied from 12 down to take a 105-104 lead on Durant's jumper in the lane with 6:57 remaining, the Knicks didn't allow Durant to score again while Anthony's relentlessness on the boards paid off. He twice stretched one-point leads with tip-ins of his own misses before Smith finally provided a bigger cushion.

Anthony's scoring average improved a tenth of a point to 28.44, while Durant's stayed about the same at 28.35.

It was just the sixth home loss for the Thunder, who snapped a string of 21 straight games at Chesapeake Energy Arena that had been decided by double digits ? 18 wins, three losses.

The Knicks allowed a 16-5 spurt by the Thunder and then lost Anthony ? the third New York starter to pick up two fouls in the opening 8 minutes ? but still were able to rally back from a 21-14 hole behind three 3-pointers from Jason Kidd and take the lead late in a fast-paced first quarter.

New York's reserves opened the second quarter with a 9-3 spurt, and Anthony hit a left-wing jumper and a transition 3-pointer in a string of seven straight Knicks points that bumped the lead out to a dozen. Chandler's two-handed slam of Smith's alley-oop made it 65-53 in the final minute of the first half before Oklahoma City got the final three points of the half on free throws.

Westbrook had a pair of steals to spark a quick string of six straight Thunder points early in the third quarter, and Oklahoma City was able to whittle a 12-point New York lead down to one five different times before Anthony hit a 3-pointer and then put back his own miss to provide some cushion. Smith followed with a fallaway jumper to make it 91-83.

NOTES: The Knicks' Kenyon Martin missed his second straight game with a sore left knee. ... New York's 65 points matched the most given up by the Thunder in the first half this season. Denver had 65 in a 114-104 win at Oklahoma City on March 19. Houston's 122 points were the previous high allowed by the Thunder. ... Chandler was called for a technical foul in the fourth quarter when Nick Collison knocked the ball into his face in the process of fouling him and Chandler followed through to knock Collison to the floor.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-07-Knicks-Thunder/id-46807037d2624d6bb9423a82bad07c87

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Michelle Lam of True&Co. - Business Insider

True&Co.

True&Co CEO Michelle Lam

Michelle Lam is the CEO of True&Co., an online-only lingerie company. She believes that many women are wearing bras that are the wrong size and that they don't get the right sizes because they hate the embarrassing experience of shopping at a store. True&Co.'s solution to this is an online quiz, the results of which tell women their correct sizes.

Upon purchase, customers receive a box of five garments, and they can send any back they don't like. True&Co. carries niche brands like Blush, as well as household names like Calvin Klein.

She's also gotten venture funding from a very famous American actress who would look great in True&Co.'s product ? but she made us promise not to tell anyone who that is and, foolishly, we agreed.

Before starting True&Co. last year, Lam, 34, worked at Bain and Microsoft (in marketing strategy). She's a believer in big data, and has collected some off-putting stats about how often the average American woman actually washes her bras. Not very often to almost never is the answer, because they don't want to ruin them in the machine.

We talked to Lam after Business Insider's Social Commerce 2013 event, at which she spoke about how she uses social media to drive sales.

True&Co.

From the True&Co. site.

Business Insider: Why does there need to be another lingerie company? We've already got Victoria's Secret.

Michelle Lam: We sell bras online and our differentiator is after a two-minute, fun quiz we will fit you into a bra with no fittings or photos.? Every women in my generation has nothing but Victoria's Secret. They are great at what they do, but we have a great alternative. We are gross margin positive in a really nice way.

BI: It's online only?

ML: It's all online. And we ask you a series of questions with illustrations. We take the data about your body type in general and we suggest a personal shop just for you.

BI: How do you use social media for marketing?

ML: Mainly Facebook; we have 36,000 fans. We just launched last June, and weren't on Facebook till September. We are a startup. We have no retail stores.

BI: But don't people want to try things on to make sure they're the right size, in a store?

ML: It's a very complicated process where the numbers don't mean anything. Women used to go into a fitting room and spend two hours half naked in that fitting room. Trial and error. The entire process is controlled by the salesperson who brings you bra after bra and is invasive because she is in there with her. The customer told us she didn't want anybody to see her half naked in a fitting room. I'm a woman. I went through that process. When we started building the company, I had 500 bras in my living room and was always inviting women over to try these on and see their reactions. They didn't want to be seen. They don't want to do it in front of other people. They don't want to go to the store.

BI: But this store visit is only necessary for the first time, presumably? After that, women know what size they are. Problem solved.

ML: No, women's sizes change all the time. After you've had a child, after weight gain and loss, your time of the month, if you go to work and can't use your old bras. A woman should get fitted once a year and replace bras two to three times a year.

True&Co.

From the True&Co. site.

BI: What kind of bras are women wearing most of the time?

ML: Our customer is a true woman. No push up. Perfectly fitted. She wears it to work. In her closet is a little bit of fantasy and a lot of reality. Guys have more boxers than girls have bras. Women wait a long time to replace bras. When they bought it the fit was right. But spandex and cotton, when you're wearing it all the time, can get ruined in the wash. So American women don't wash them that much.

BI: Really? I assumed women washed bras the way men wash boxer shorts ? after every use.

ML: Most women may not wash them ever. Fibers break down. Sixty percent of women didn't replace their bras in last three years. I was probably one of them.

BI: That doesn't sound like the sexy fantasy men want to believe.

ML: We sell what women want to wear on special occasions. A woman's definition of 20-second wear may be different than a man's definition. We cater to women, not to the man. Others cater to male tastes if it's only on for 20 seconds. It doesn't have to be uncomfortable or impractical to wear for longer. I think you can find great merchandise that makes you feel attractive and is comfortable.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/michelle-lam-of-trueco-2013-4

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SKorea: NKorea may be preparing to test missile

People watch a TV program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 7, 2013. South Korea?s top military officer has put off a plan to visit Washington because of escalating tension with North Korea that have also led more than a dozen South Korean companies to halt operations at a joint factory complex in the North, officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

People watch a TV program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 7, 2013. South Korea?s top military officer has put off a plan to visit Washington because of escalating tension with North Korea that have also led more than a dozen South Korean companies to halt operations at a joint factory complex in the North, officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean Army soldier salutes as a military vehicle crosses the barricaded Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 7, 2013. South Korea said its top military officer has put off a plan to visit Washington due to current tension with North Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

An ambulance drives through barricades on the Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 7, 2013. South Korea said its top military officer has put off a plan to visit Washington due to current tension with North Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A South Korean Army soldier controls traffic at the barricaded Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 7, 2013. South Korea said its top military officer has put off a plan to visit Washington due to current tension with North Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

North Koreans, working at a field in North Korea's Kaepoong, are viewed from the unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 7, 2013. South Korea said its top military officer has put off a plan to visit Washington due to current tension with North Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? A top South Korean national security official said Sunday that North Korea may be setting the stage for a missile test or another provocative act with its warning that it soon will be unable to guarantee diplomats' safety in Pyongyang. But he added that the North's clearest objective is to extract concessions from Washington and Seoul.

North Korea's warning last week followed weeks of war threats and other efforts to punish South Korea and the U.S. for ongoing joint military drills, and for their support of U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. Many nations are deciding what to do about the notice, which said their diplomats' safety in Pyongyang cannot be guaranteed beginning this Wednesday.

Tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang led South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff to announce Sunday that its chairman had put off a visit to Washington. The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch.

His description suggests that the missile could be the Musudan missile, capable of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,490 miles).

Citing North Korea's suggestion that diplomats leave the country, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director said Pyongyang may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.

During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the U.S. to offer a dialogue. Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks ? which also include China, Russia and Japan ? that it abandoned in 2009.

The roughly two dozen countries with embassies in North Korea had not yet announced whether they would evacuate their staffs.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague suggested that North Korea's comments about foreign diplomats are "consistent" with a regime that is using the prospect of an external threat to justify its militarization to its people.

"I haven't seen any immediate need to respond to that by moving our diplomats out of there," he told the BBC on Saturday. "We will keep this under close review with our allies, but we shouldn't respond and play to that rhetoric and that presentation of an external threat every time they come out with it."

Germany said its embassy in Pyongyang would stay open for at least the time being.

"The situation there is tense but calm," a German Foreign Office official, who declined to be named in line with department policy, said in an email. "The security and danger of the situation is constantly being evaluated. The different international embassies there are in close touch with each other."

Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry said it was considering a plan to evacuate its diplomats. A statement released by the ministry on Saturday said that its embassy in Pyongyang has been preparing a contingency plan to anticipate the worst-case scenario, and that the Indonesian foreign minister is communicating with the staff there to monitor the situation.

India also said it was monitoring events. "We have been informed about it," said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry. "We are in constant touch with our embassy and are monitoring the situation. We will carefully consider all aspects and decide well in time."

Seoul and Washington, which lack diplomatic relations with the North, are taking the threats seriously, though they say they have seen no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a large-scale attack.

Kim Jang-soo said the North would face "severalfold damages" for any hostilities. Since 2010, when attacks Seoul blames on North Korea killed 50 people, South Korea has vowed to aggressively respond to any future attack.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Jung Seung-jo had planned to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Martin Dempsey, in Washington on April 16 for regular talks. But tensions on the Korean Peninsula are so high that Jung cannot take a long trip away from South Korea, so the meeting will be rescheduled, a South Korean Joint Chiefs officer said Sunday. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

The U.S. Defense Department has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that had been planned for this week because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis, a senior defense official told The Associated Press.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to delay the test at an Air Force base in California until sometime next month, the official said Saturday. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the test delay and requested anonymity.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has followed provocations from North Korea with shows of force connected to the joint exercises with South Korea. It has sent nuclear capable B-2 and B-52 bombers and stealth F-22 fighters to participate in the drills.

In addition, the U.S. said last week that two of the Navy's missile-defense ships were moved closer to the Korean Peninsula, and a land-based missile-defense system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam later this month. The Pentagon last month announced longer-term plans to strengthen its U.S.-based missile defenses.

The U.S. military also is considering deploying an intelligence drone at the Misawa Air Base in northern Japan to step up surveillance of North Korea, a Japanese Defense Ministry official said Sunday.

Three Global Hawk surveillance planes are deployed on Guam and one of them is being considered for deployment in Japan, the official said on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the issue.

North Korea successfully shot a satellite into space in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February. It has threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, though many analysts say the North hasn't achieved the technology to manufacture a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S.

North Korea also raised tensions Wednesday when it barred South Koreans and supply trucks from entering the Kaesong industrial complex, where South Korean companies have employed thousands of North Korean workers for the past decade.

North Korea is not forcing South Korean managers to leave the factory complex, and nearly 520 of them remained at Kaesong on Sunday. But the entry ban at the park, the last remaining inter-Korean rapprochement project, is posing a serious challenge to many of the more than 120 South Korean firms there because they are running out of raw materials and are short on replacement workers.

Nine more firms, including food and textile companies, have stopped operations at Kaesong, bringing to 13 the total number of companies that have done so, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

North Korea briefly restricted the heavily fortified border crossing at Kaesong in 2009 ? also during South Korea-U.S. drills ? but manufacturers fear the current border shutdown could last longer.

___

AP writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Louise Watt in Beijing, Cassandra Vinograd in London, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-07-Koreas-Tension/id-ab87763054164c4aabe727d3de31d285

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Best Buy stores to feature Samsung kiosks

NEW YORK (AP) ? Shares of Best Buy jumped on Thursday after it announced plans to create store-within-store kiosks for Samsung products ? a vote of confidence from a major consumer electronics retailer that the brick-and-mortar format is still an important way to sell products.

Best Buy shares rose more than 16 percent Thurday.

The Minneapolis-based company has battled the "showrooming" effect as more and more people browse in stores and then buy items cheaper online. This has led to fears that the big-box store format is growing obsolete.

But Best Buy has aggressively fought back under new CEO turnaround expert Hubert Joly ? introducing an online price matching policy, giving employees extra training and cutting costs and revamping stores.

The latest deal is a sign that consumer electronics retailers are sticking with the chain. The company will offer Samsung dedicated kiosks at 1,400 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores. Shops will offer the full range of Samsung's mobile products, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras and accessories.

The move shows "a very high-profile consumer electronics vendor still finds Best Buy a relevant distribution outlet," said Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy.

It's also a way for Samsung to carve out dedicated retail space without investing in overhead necessary to open its own stores, like its chief rival, Apple Inc., has done.

About 900 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores will be open by early May, with the rest open by early summer.

Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser said the deal is an example of Best Buy making merchandising progress. He said it may be a wake-up call that will convince other vendors, like Google, Microsoft and Sony, to invest more with Best Buy.

Best Buy shares rose $3.48 or 16.1 percent, to close at $25.13 Thursday, after briefly reaching a 52-week high of $25.30. The stock has more than doubled since the start of the year.

_____

Online:

www.bestbuy.com/samsungexperienceshop.

.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-04-US-Best-Buy-Samsung-Kiosks/id-0de8063fa4984ca29eb6eb74646643bf

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"We are broke," U.N. says as Syria refugee funds dry up

By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations gave its starkest warning yet on Friday that it would soon run out of cash to cope with the vast influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan and other neighboring countries.

"The needs are rising exponentially, and we are broke," Marixie Mercado, spokeswoman for the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF, told a U.N. news conference in Geneva.

The number of people fleeing in the world's worst refugee crisis has repeatedly outrun the U.N.'s expectations. The 1.25 million refugees, three-quarter of them women and children, is 10 percent higher than had been expected by June.

With more than 3.6 million people internally displaced within Syria and no end to the two-year conflict in sight, there is every chance that the exodus could keep growing.

"Since the beginning of the year, more than 2,000 refugees have streamed across the borders (into Jordan) every day. We expect these numbers to more than double by July and triple by December," Mercado said.

"By the end of 2013, we estimate there will be 1.2 million Syrian refugees in Jordan - equivalent to about one-fifth of Jordan's population."

The impact of funding drying up would include a halt in 3.5 million liters of daily water deliveries to Jordan's Za'atari camp, which houses more than 100,000 refugees, mostly children.

Almost 11,000 Syrians have arrived in Za'atari in the past week, the International Organization for Migration said.

U.N. officials said the funding shortage was affecting the whole region, not just Jordan, and all humanitarian agencies.

While the humanitarian agencies have so far managed to prevent major health problems among the refugees, policing the huge and growing population is becoming more difficult.

UNHCR has reported multiple demonstrations at Za'atari at the end of March due to a shortage of buses to take refugees back to Syria, people "frequently" trying to smuggle items out of the camp, and violence over the distribution of new caravans.

The other countries hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees are Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.

Most of the displaced people within Syria are in northern and central areas rather than the southern regions close to Jordan, according to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the main humanitarian agency on the ground. Fighting in Raqqa province recently drove 35,000 into Deir al-Zor on a single day, it said.

Figures from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR show the biggest country donors so far in 2013 are the United States, European Union and Japan. UNHCR has received $162 million, one-third of the $494 million it needs for the first half of this year.

China has donated $1 million, earmarked for refugees in Turkey. Russia does not appear on the list of donors to UNHCR.

"So far very little has come in," Mercado said. "We are doing a lot, we are doing an enormous amount. But the needs are just extraordinary. And they are growing every day."

(Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/broke-u-n-says-syria-refugee-funds-dry-115716627.html

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American Idol Results: Who Was Eliminated?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/american-idol-results-who-was-eliminated/

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US futures shave gains after jobless claims data

NEW YORK (AP) ? Early gains for U.S. stock market futures were shaved Thursday after the Labor Department reported an unexpected increase in weekly unemployment applications.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose to the highest level since late November last week, although the increase partly reflects seasonal distortions around the spring holidays.

Dow Jones industrial average futures added 2 points to 14,489. Nasdaq 100 futures gave up 1.5 points to 2,785.50. Standard & Poor's 500 futures added 1 point to 1,549.50.

Futures trading is not always an accurate indicator of action after the regular session opens, The major indexes fell sharply Wednesday following weak reports on hiring and service industries, with the S&P 500 dropping 1.1 percent.

The weekly unemployment application data is often volatile, and a Labor Department spokesman said it can be difficult to seasonally adjust the figures during the Easter holiday, because the timing of the holiday varies from year to year.

Still, the department has reported three straight weeks of increases, which suggests that companies may be cutting jobs.

The government will issue the March employment report Friday.

World markets were mixed following a series of economic moves.

Japan launched an aggressive monetary stimulus plan earlier Thursday. The Bank of Japan said its policy overhaul is intended to double the money supply and achieve a 2 percent inflation target in about two years. It joins the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks in flooding money into the economy in hopes of getting corporations and consumers to begin spending more, ultimately driving growth.

Japanese stocks rallied with the announcement. The Nikkei ended 2.2 percent higher.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.2 percent as bellicose rhetoric between North Korea and the U.S. rattled the local market.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank left its key interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.75 percent. However, it held off on further stimulus for the euro area's weak economy. The central bank for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro currency expects a gradual recovery in the eurozone's economy later this year.

Separately, the Bank of England also kept interest rates unchanged and refrained from injecting more stimulus into the economy. Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets were closed for a public holiday.

Stocks in Europe were also unable to hold onto earlier gains following the policy announcements. Germany's DAX dipped 0.18 percent to 7,8602, while the CAC-40 in France was 0.26 percent lower at 3,745. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.7 percent to 6,374.

In currency trading, the dollar jumped about 2.7 percent against the Japanese yen, after the Bank of Japan announced a massive monetary stimulus plan. The dollar also gained against a basket of world currencies.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-futures-shave-gains-jobless-claims-data-132409107--finance.html

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Syria warns Jordan over aiding rebels

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a man holding a scarf in the colors of the Syrian revolutionary flag after rebels seized a military base in Daraa, Syria, on Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Syrian rebels captured a military base in the country's south on Wednesday after days of heavy fighting, activists said, in the latest advance by opposition fighters near the strategic border area with Jordan. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a man holding a scarf in the colors of the Syrian revolutionary flag after rebels seized a military base in Daraa, Syria, on Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Syrian rebels captured a military base in the country's south on Wednesday after days of heavy fighting, activists said, in the latest advance by opposition fighters near the strategic border area with Jordan. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

FILE - In this Thursday March 28, 2013 file image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows fighters from the Syrian Free Army fire on a Syrian army position in Deal less than 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Jordanian border in Daraa province, Syria. Syrian rebels captured a military base in the south and may be poised to seize control a strategically important region along the border with Jordan, something that would give them a critical gateway to attempt an attack on the capital Damascus. With foreign aid and training of rebels in Jordan ramping up, the opposition fighters have recaptured momentum and may also soon control Syria's side of the Golan Heights along a sensitive border with Israel. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video, File)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? Syria's regime sternly warned neighboring Jordan on Thursday that it was "playing with fire" by allowing the U.S. and other countries to train and arm rebels on its territory.

Jordan, America's closest ally in the Arab world, has long been nervous that President Bashar Assad's hard-line regime could retaliate for supporting the rebels. The warning carried on state media may add to those jitters, though Jordanian government officials publicly downplayed it as "mere speculation by the Syrian media."

Syrian state television said leaks in U.S. media show Jordan "has a hand in training terrorists and then facilitating their entry into Syria." State radio accused Jordan of "playing with fire."

A front-page editorial in the government daily al-Thawra accused Amman of adopting a policy of "ambiguity" by training the rebels while at the same time publicly insisting on a "political solution" to the Syrian crisis.

"Jordan's attempt to put out the flame from the leaked information will not help as it continues with its mysterious policy, which brings it closer to the volcanic crater," the paper said.

Two Jordanian officials downplayed the diplomatic tiff with Syria. One said Jordan will not discuss the state of relations through the media.

"Such discussions are usually carried out through the appropriate diplomatic channels,' he said. Both officials insisted on anonymity out of concern that their comments may further irritate relations, which have been historically bumpy.

Jordan has long been concerned that the Assad regime could use chemical weapons against it, or that agents linked to the regime or its allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah could attack the kingdom.

The Syrian warnings appeared to reflect the regime's concerns about statements by U.S. and other Western and Arab officials saying Jordan has been facilitating arms shipments and hosting training camps for Syrian rebels since last October.

The training and the influx of foreign-funded weapons have coincided with rebel gains in southern Syria near the strategic border area with Jordan.

Those gains could be leading up to control of the region along the Jordanian border. That would be a major victory that could offer rebels a staging ground to try to attack the capital Damascus, the seat of Assad's power.

Rebels already control large swathes of territory in northern Syria along the Turkish border.

Activists reported more advances in the south on Thursday.

The rebels receiving training in Jordan are mainly secular Sunni Muslim tribesmen from central and southern Syria who once served in the army and police.

The force is expected to fill a security vacuum ? mainly to protect the border with Jordan, assist displaced Syrians and possibly set up a safe haven for refugees ? if Assad is toppled.

The Syrians training in Jordan are also envisioned as a counterbalance to the Islamic militant groups that have proven to be among the most effective of the myriad rebel factions fighting Assad's forces on the ground.

Chief among those rebel extremist groups is Jabhat al-Nusra or the Nusra Front, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist group and says is associated with al-Qaida.

The prominence of such extremist groups has fueled fears in Jordan that the chaos in Syria could lead to a failed state where Islamic militants have a free hand.

Israel and the United States also are concerned about militants potentially operating in the area near the Israeli frontier with Syria in the Golan Heights ? also in the south ? should Assad's regime collapse.

Though Jordan is supporting one segment of the disparate patchwork of rebel groups, it is nevertheless concerned about the recent rebel advances in the south along its border.

One fear is that the fall of the area into rebel hands could unleash lawlessness on the border and provide a haven for Islamic extremist groups such as Nusra Front on its doorstep.

The Islamist rebel groups, particularly Nusra, are complicating the battlefield by thwarting much-needed international aid from countries such as the U.S. that do not want to bolster extremist, jihadi groups.

In the latest fighting in the south, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighters seized most parts of Karak neighborhood in the province of Daraa after several days of fighting.

Daraa province borders Jordan and its provincial capital of the same name was the birthplace of the uprising against Assad two years ago.

There were also heavy clashes reported in the town of Sheik Maskeen, which is on the route from the Jordanian capital Amman to Damascus. Daraa is 115 kilometers (71 miles) south of Damascus.

The Observatory, an anti-regime activist group, also reported clashes at a checkpoint outside a camp for displaced Syrians on the outskirts of the city of Daraa. It said rockets fell inside the camp, but did not say who fired them, or how many people died.

On Wednesday, opposition fighters captured a military base outside the city of Daraa. That victory followed the rebel takeover of Dael, one of the province's bigger towns, and another air defense base in the area late last month.

Their aim is to secure a corridor from the Jordanian border to Damascus in preparation for an eventual assault on the capital. And they have made major progress along the way. Activists say several towns and villages along the Daraa-Damascus route are now in rebel hands.

It is widely believed that the rebels are close to seizing control of the two border posts with Jordan ? a significant gain that would bolster arms shipments to the rebels.

In comments distributed Thursday, Assad criticized the recent Arab League decision to give Syria's seat to the opposition, calling it "meaningless theatre."

"This League needs legitimacy itself. It cannot grant legitimacy to others nor withdraw it," he said in an interview with Turkey's TV channel Ulusal Kanal. Excerpts of which were published Wednesday and Thursday and the full interview will be aired Friday.

___

Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed to this report from Damascus, Syria.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-04-ML-Syria/id-069aa42051ec4bd787e65d684c286312

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Building Synthetic Tissues from Water Droplets?

Reporting in Science, Gabriel Villar and colleagues have turned tiny water droplets into cooperating networks that can pass electrical signals and do mechanical work. Villar says that in theory, water droplet networks could be used as artificial tissues.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/05/176339690/building-synthetic-tissues-from-water-droplets?ft=1&f=1007

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Incorporate Student Self-assessment in Higher Education Learning ...

in Heinz Voices ? April 4, 2013

?

By Huiwen Li

Huiwen Li: instructor of Chinese at Modern Languages Department, current MPM student at Heinz College, and current Ed.D student at Duquesne University

Assessment (Suskie, 2004) is the ongoing process of

• Establishing clear, measurable expected?outcomes?of student learning;
• Ensuring that students have sufficient?opportunities?to achieve those outcomes;
• Systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting?evidence?to determine how well student learning matches our expectations; and
• Using the resulting information to understand and?improve?student learning.

Current college learning is assessed by instructors (on behalf of the department, and/or college) using quizzes, regular assignments and projects, tests and all possible methods of classroom observation and interaction to elicit a students? most true score.? I would argue, however, this score is absolutely not true.

In the current student learning assessment system, students are completely excluded from the process and the assessment result is merely the educator?s impression and perception of the student?s achievement. What are the students? feelings about themselves? No one knows, and no one cares. And in this current systems, students must accept the incomplete judgment from the teachers.

Education, instead, should take an innovative approach and make assessment into a formative process which can be used for learning improvement. When students are excluded from the assessment of themselves, they are denied insight into their own improvement and knowledge building.? They are actually barred from the opportunity to generate intrinsic, positive attitudes, energies, and efforts to improve themselves when they do not know what their strengths and weaknesses are or how they can improve their learning accordingly.

Students are human beings, and self-concept is a unique gift human beings hold in comparison to other animals. This gift should be utilized to achieve a person?s best possible improvement. If educators ignore and fail to make full use of this gift, students are unable to realize the complete potential or utilization of this gift.

Human beings influence others? behavior through self-maintaining processes such as self-presentation, self-monitoring, and self-regulation (Fiske, 2004). No learning will be achieved until students themselves get actively involved in improving their insight and judgment of their efforts and intelligence. The exclusion of students from the learning assessment system deprives students the opportunity to actively participate in all aspects of learning. Higher education, therefore, must reconsider the current assessment system and work, without hesitation, to solve this systematic problem in order to maximize the assessment validity and student learning.

Student self-assessment should be designed and conducted for students to better understand their own expectations, their current situation, the learning gap, their potential, willingness to fill the gap and even their action plan. Tools for students to make self-assessments should include, but are not limited to, a weekly journal, a monthly report or a reflection summarization. Instructors should also involve peer students, teaching assistants and themselves in most of the student self-assessment activities to ensure effectiveness and validity. Teachers should synthesize their assessment results with those from the students and from the student self-improvement perspective, to make an objective and constructive analysis thereafter. Finally, teachers need to provide comments and suggestions for student immediately and store for future use. In this way, our key stakeholders (i.e., students) will be happy, and we educators will also be happy, since we are now an active part of making increased learning happen.

References:

Fiske, S. T. (2004). Social beings: A core motives approach to social psychology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

Suskie, L. (2004).?Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide. Bolton, MA: Anker.

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Source: http://journal.heinz.cmu.edu/2013/04/incorporate-student-self-assessment-in-higher-education-learning-assessment-system/

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