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Your dog (also as cats) have been determined to have a bearing on your each and every life. This doesn?t just consider the various other things you?ve got to undertake; feeding, bathing, strolling, and many others, day after day. Your dogs can certainly have a huge effect on your temper, your health, and generally your wellbeing. Surveys from pets and animals news and other sources have proven that dwelling with pet dogs diminishes angst, specifically for aging human beings. Bringing your pet to a special trip in the park can even gain you a date. And actively playing with them can help you boost your immunity, provided of course you are not sensitive to canines.
Hence it?s no secret then that most humans would almost always get dogs as pets, rather than fish or turtles. However, even while your hairy pet does seem impossibly sweet in the early stages, you can also feel some behavioral dilemmas months subsequently shortly after you obtain him home from the dog breeder or the town pet shelter. The puppy training Surrey facilities might help you understand and get by your new dog.
Dog training might possibly be implemented for many types of reasons. The puppy may very well be planned for official obligations in the authorities such as security or search and rescue, it can indeed be bred to function as a guide dog for patients with disabilities, and it might be properly trained as a future prize-winning show dog. Taking your puppy to a dog training school doesn?t have to mean preparing him for such dedicated chores. Puppy training can also be desired for a very simple intention for instance dog obedience.
Latest Dog Amazon products
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?
In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from TheNew Yorker over the same period. ?
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
When your puppy starts out showing damaging conduct such as unrestrained eating of your house furniture or boots, abnormal barking, separation anxiety, and most distressing of all, hostility next to other dogs and people, it might be in your best interest to search for the services of a competent professional trainer. These behavior difficulties have a fundamental major cause that a lot of you might not be able to manage; trying to do so may only endanger you and your family, and perhaps keep your dog?s unrestrainable approaches unsolved.
Primarily a competent professional could be confident to figure the particular make of your dog?s crazy need to munch on home furnishings or bark at each mobile thing he sees. A professional pet behaviorist, prepared with years of experience dealing with different breeds of dogs, will have the ability to build a course of training or treatment for your cherished pet, but yet destructive or unruly he?s been since you got him.
In a case where your pet pooch isn?t untamed, you may be worried about his lack of exercise as a result of your chaotic job schedule. Perhaps your dog hasn?t played in the backyard as much and signs of boredom have started to take hold of him. The dog agility classes Surrey schools provide significant opportunities for your hairy friend to be connected physically and mentally as he get over challenges or obstacles. Additionally, the time you invest together in the agility class will hugely perfect your bond.
The professional dog training Croydon ? and in another place in the United Kingdom ? offers can take care of any of your dog?s behavioral issues. Such centers might have veterinarians on staff to secure that your treasured pooch?s destructive way isn?t rooted in nearly any health issues. Therefore, the second your loved pet?s misbehaving, just a puppy training school is going to take him from ill-mannered to mild mannered.
Samsung has been quiet on the superzoom camera front, but it's leaping back into the fray with the WB100. The camera doesn't have the longest zoom we've seen, but with a 26x lens and a wide-angle 22.3mm minimum zoom, odds are that just about anything you come across during vacation will fit into the frame. A choice to use AA batteries instead of a lithium-ion pack also emphasizes that focus on travelers. We're otherwise looking at a very deliberately middle-of-the-road camera with a 16-megapixel sensor, ISO 80 to 1,600 sensitivity (3,200 if you like 3-megapixel photos) and 720p movie making. The company doesn't have pricing, nor word as to which countries get the WB100 treatment outside of the UK -- for now, you're most likely to see this camera slung around a suntanned British neck in Ibiza.
Frequently, both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and our good friend and Fearless Leader ?, Marc, are on the same side, fighting the good fight. Not at the moment.? They have filed a brief in support of a motion to dismiss a claim against an individual named Cary Tabora.? It is alleged that Cary?s roommate used Cary?s internet connection, with Cary?s knowledge, to download and then distribute a copyrighted video.? The copyright owner claims that Cary was negligent in permitting the roommate to violate the owner?s copyright.
Although our Fearless Leader ? is not noted on the docket, this is the second time the case was brought.? It is now in SDNY.? It was originally brought in SDCA by our Fearless Leader ?, but was dismissed for want of personal jurisdiction.? In arguing that a provider of internet services, whether a roommate or airport wifi, does not have a duty to prevent copyright infringement, EFF has referred to the copyright owner, and by extension our Fearless Leader ? as a ?Porn Troll?.
While there is nary a reference to ?Porn Troll? in the vernacular, one can only assume they mean ?Copyright Troll relative to Pornographic media?, but that is a mouthful.? I would beg to differ; Fearless Leader ? is not a Copyright Troll.? Typically, a Copyright Troll does not publish anything, like a Patent Troll; it merely seeks to extort rents.? See, Wikipedia Entry.? Here, the copyright owner does publish and distribute media.? This is not troll-like behavior.
It seems our Fearless Leader ? is alleging?an internet extension of prior law.? In Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984), the VCR maker was not vicariously liable for infringement because it could not exercise meaningful control.? Could Tabora?? The Copyright Act excuses libraries from liability for use of their photocopiers (17 U.S.C. ? 108(f)(1))? one can assume by the inclusio unius principle that other photocopier owners are not immune from liability; is Tabora?s internet connection like a photocopier?
I don?t know enough of the facts of the case to decide whether or not EFF or Fearless Leader ? is in the right on this.? Read the Complaint for yourself.?This might be a good case, though, for a bright line to be drawn.? EFF might be a bit overdoing it, with a ?the sky is falling? mentality.? This appears to be a case about (if Tabora is telling the truth) the liability of a person for knowingly letting another person use their resources to violate copyright.? Tabora could be liable if he knew of infringement (or the likelihood) and controlled the means of infringement; an airport or restaurant likely won?t know what its customers are doing.
In the meantime, I?m hoping to get as much currency out of the new nickname as possible.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 at 9:56 am and is filed under copyright, entertainment law, humor, internet law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Check out which companies are making headlines after the bell Wednesday:
Accenture [ ACN?55.835? -0.035 (-0.06%) ] - The IT consulting company was selected by California to implement a statewide health insurance exchange, in a contract valued around $359 million. The company is scheduled to post earnings after-the-bell Thursday. (Click here for extended-hours quote.)
Broadcom [ BRCM?32.48? -0.41 (-1.25%) ], Qualcomm [ QCOM?54.33? -0.58 (-1.06%) ] - Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of both tech companies with "buy" ratings and price targets of $40 and $66, respectively. (Click here for extended-hours quotes.)
RadioShack [ RSH?3.95? -0.12 (-2.95%) ] - The consumer-electronics company announced that Chief Merchandise Officer and Executive Vice President Scott Young resigned as of Tuesday. The stock has tumbled nearly 60 percent year to date. (Click here for extended-hours quotes.)
Red Hat [ RHT?52.83? -1.59 (-2.92%) ] - The software company will acquire open source integration and messaging firm FuseScore, but financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Click here for extended-hours quote.)
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How an ancestral fungus may have influenced coal formationPublic release date: 28-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Gilbert degilbert@lbl.gov 925-296-5643 DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Tracking the remnants of the carbon cycle
For want of a nail, the nursery rhyme goes, a kingdom was lost. A similar, seemingly innocuous changethe evolution of a lineage of mushroomsmay have had a massive impact on the carbon cycle, bringing an end to the 60-million year period during which coal deposits were formed.
Coal generated nearly half of the roughly four trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed in the United States in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This fuel is actually the fossilized remains of plants that lived from around 360 to 300 million years ago. An international team of scientists, including researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), has proposed a new factor that may have contributed to the end of the Carboniferous periodnamed after the large stores of what became coal deposits. The evidence, presented online in the June 29 edition of the journal Science, suggests that the evolution of fungi capable of breaking down the polymer lignin, which helps keep plant cell walls rigid, may have played a key role in ending the development of coal deposits. With the arrival of the new fungi, dead plant matter could be completely broken down into its basic chemical components. Instead of accumulating as peat, which eventually was transformed into coal, the great bulk of plant biomass decayed and was released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
"We're hoping this will get into the biology and geology textbooks," said Clark University biologist David Hibbett, senior author of the comprehensive study comparing the complete genomes of dozens of species of fungi, most of which were sequenced at the DOE JGI. "When you read about coal formation it's usually explained in terms of physical processes, and that the rate of coal deposition just crashed at the end of the Permo-Carboniferous. Why was that? There are various explanations. The evolution of white rot fungi could've been a factor perhaps a major factor. Once you have white rot you can break down lignin, the major precursor of coal. So the evolution of white rot is a very important event in the evolution of carbon cycle."
"The concept of the invention of an enzyme that can break down the 'unbreakable' is really great," said Kenneth Nealson, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies and Professor of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. "The idea that a stable (inedible) form of organic carbon can become edible (and thus more difficult to bury over time), changes our perspective not only on global energy storage in the past, but on what it means for present day carbon sequestration and storage, in that sense this idea will have a big impact on our thinking about the past and the present."
For their study, Hibbett and his colleagues focused on Basidiomycetes, which include mushroom species with the familiar cap-and-stem look that most people associate with fungi. Basidiomycetes also include brown rot fungi such as the dry rot that can destroy houses by breaking down the cellulose in the construction wood but leave the lignin untouched and white rot fungi of interest to the pulp and paper industries that can break down both types of polymers. Of the 31 brown rot and white rot fungal genomes that were compared for the study, 26 were sequenced at the DOE JGI, including a dozen that were done specifically for the study to flesh out representation of the fungal orders.
Igor Grigoriev, head of the DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program noted that the comparative fungal genomics study underscores the abiding interest in support to DOE mission, to harness fungal enzymes for converting biopolymers such as cellulose into simple sugars to optimize biofuels production. In this pursuit, Grigoriev and his colleagues continue to contribute to growing list of firsts. "The first fungus ever sequenced at the DOE JGI was also the first genome of a white rot fungus," he said. "A few years later, we sequenced the first brown rot fungus. Less than a decade after that first fungal genome, we're presenting the first large-scale comparison of wood-decaying fungi."
With multiple fungal genomes on hand, the team compared DNA sequences, searching for gene families that encoded enzymes involved in wood decay. They focused particularly on enzymes called class II fungal peroxidases that turned out to be present in the lineages of white rot fungi but not in brown rot fungi, suggesting they played a role in breaking down the lignin in plants.
The researchers then used molecular clock analyses to track the evolution of the enzymes back through the fungal lineages. The idea is that just as the hands of a clock move at a defined rate around the dial, genes accumulate mutations at a roughly constant rate. This rate of change allows researchers to work backwards, estimating when two lineages last shared a common ancestor based on the amount of divergence.
The comparative analyses suggested that around 290 million years ago, right at the end of the Carboniferous period, a white rot fungal ancestor with the capacity to break down lignin appeared. Prior to that ancestor, fungi did not have that ability and thus the lignin in plant matter was not degraded, allowing these lignin-rich residues to build up in soil over time. Because molecular clock analyses have substantial error, fungal "fossils" are needed for calibration. For this study, the molecular clock analyses were calibrated against three fungal fossils. Hibbett said that more fossils would help improve the age estimate. "Unfortunately," he added, "fungal fossils are rare and easily overlooked." He said that his group is interested in trying to reconstruct that ancestral white rot fungal genome. "We're motivated to understand when this metabolic pathway responsible for lignin degradation came into existence. That's why we needed to have that many fungal genomes in this study. Up until fairly recently, it was so much work to just get one genome at a time. Now we have comparative fungal genomics projects as we're transitioning to a cool time with hundreds of fungal genomes."
Joseph Spatafora, a professor at Oregon State University and co-author on the study, agrees with Hibbett's assessment that the group's findings could alter biology and geology texts. "When you look at this particular phenomenon of the decrease of coal deposition, by far the majority of explanations have been abiotic and that doesn't seem like that should be the entire story," he said.
Grigoriev said that this paper is the first product of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Fungi, the DOE JGI umbrella project that focuses fungal genome sequencing efforts on DOE-relevant missions in energy and the environment. "This paper is the first chapter in the Encyclopedia," he said, "The data generated has produced the most comprehensive catalog of lignocellulolytic enzymes yet, which is of interest to industry. We've now got the blueprint of all genes across very diverse phylogenies, and we'll get more. This is a huge step forward. The next milestone is the 1000 Fungal Genomes project to complete the entire diversity in Basidiomycetes."
As the head of the 1000 Fungal Genomes project, a part of the DOE JGI's Community Sequencing Program portfolio, Spatafora said that despite the goal of facilitating the sequencing of a thousand fungal genomes, two from each of 500 families, over five years, fungal genomics still has a long way to go. "There's an estimated 1.5 million species of fungi," he said. "We have names for about 100,000 species, and we're looking at 1,000 fungi in this project. This is still the tip of the iceberg in looking at fungal diversity and we're trying to learn even more to gain a better idea of fungal metabolism and the potential to harness fungi for a number of applications, including bioenergy. It's a really exciting time in fungal biology, and part of that is due to the technology today that allows us to address the really longstanding questions."
###
Video of Hibbett's "Evolutionary Perspectives on Diversity of Lignocellulose Decay Mechanisms in Basidiomycetes" presentation at the DOE Joint Genome Institute's 7th Annual Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting on March 21, 2012 can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/JGI7Hibbett
The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter.
DOE's Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
How an ancestral fungus may have influenced coal formationPublic release date: 28-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Gilbert degilbert@lbl.gov 925-296-5643 DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Tracking the remnants of the carbon cycle
For want of a nail, the nursery rhyme goes, a kingdom was lost. A similar, seemingly innocuous changethe evolution of a lineage of mushroomsmay have had a massive impact on the carbon cycle, bringing an end to the 60-million year period during which coal deposits were formed.
Coal generated nearly half of the roughly four trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed in the United States in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This fuel is actually the fossilized remains of plants that lived from around 360 to 300 million years ago. An international team of scientists, including researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), has proposed a new factor that may have contributed to the end of the Carboniferous periodnamed after the large stores of what became coal deposits. The evidence, presented online in the June 29 edition of the journal Science, suggests that the evolution of fungi capable of breaking down the polymer lignin, which helps keep plant cell walls rigid, may have played a key role in ending the development of coal deposits. With the arrival of the new fungi, dead plant matter could be completely broken down into its basic chemical components. Instead of accumulating as peat, which eventually was transformed into coal, the great bulk of plant biomass decayed and was released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
"We're hoping this will get into the biology and geology textbooks," said Clark University biologist David Hibbett, senior author of the comprehensive study comparing the complete genomes of dozens of species of fungi, most of which were sequenced at the DOE JGI. "When you read about coal formation it's usually explained in terms of physical processes, and that the rate of coal deposition just crashed at the end of the Permo-Carboniferous. Why was that? There are various explanations. The evolution of white rot fungi could've been a factor perhaps a major factor. Once you have white rot you can break down lignin, the major precursor of coal. So the evolution of white rot is a very important event in the evolution of carbon cycle."
"The concept of the invention of an enzyme that can break down the 'unbreakable' is really great," said Kenneth Nealson, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies and Professor of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. "The idea that a stable (inedible) form of organic carbon can become edible (and thus more difficult to bury over time), changes our perspective not only on global energy storage in the past, but on what it means for present day carbon sequestration and storage, in that sense this idea will have a big impact on our thinking about the past and the present."
For their study, Hibbett and his colleagues focused on Basidiomycetes, which include mushroom species with the familiar cap-and-stem look that most people associate with fungi. Basidiomycetes also include brown rot fungi such as the dry rot that can destroy houses by breaking down the cellulose in the construction wood but leave the lignin untouched and white rot fungi of interest to the pulp and paper industries that can break down both types of polymers. Of the 31 brown rot and white rot fungal genomes that were compared for the study, 26 were sequenced at the DOE JGI, including a dozen that were done specifically for the study to flesh out representation of the fungal orders.
Igor Grigoriev, head of the DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program noted that the comparative fungal genomics study underscores the abiding interest in support to DOE mission, to harness fungal enzymes for converting biopolymers such as cellulose into simple sugars to optimize biofuels production. In this pursuit, Grigoriev and his colleagues continue to contribute to growing list of firsts. "The first fungus ever sequenced at the DOE JGI was also the first genome of a white rot fungus," he said. "A few years later, we sequenced the first brown rot fungus. Less than a decade after that first fungal genome, we're presenting the first large-scale comparison of wood-decaying fungi."
With multiple fungal genomes on hand, the team compared DNA sequences, searching for gene families that encoded enzymes involved in wood decay. They focused particularly on enzymes called class II fungal peroxidases that turned out to be present in the lineages of white rot fungi but not in brown rot fungi, suggesting they played a role in breaking down the lignin in plants.
The researchers then used molecular clock analyses to track the evolution of the enzymes back through the fungal lineages. The idea is that just as the hands of a clock move at a defined rate around the dial, genes accumulate mutations at a roughly constant rate. This rate of change allows researchers to work backwards, estimating when two lineages last shared a common ancestor based on the amount of divergence.
The comparative analyses suggested that around 290 million years ago, right at the end of the Carboniferous period, a white rot fungal ancestor with the capacity to break down lignin appeared. Prior to that ancestor, fungi did not have that ability and thus the lignin in plant matter was not degraded, allowing these lignin-rich residues to build up in soil over time. Because molecular clock analyses have substantial error, fungal "fossils" are needed for calibration. For this study, the molecular clock analyses were calibrated against three fungal fossils. Hibbett said that more fossils would help improve the age estimate. "Unfortunately," he added, "fungal fossils are rare and easily overlooked." He said that his group is interested in trying to reconstruct that ancestral white rot fungal genome. "We're motivated to understand when this metabolic pathway responsible for lignin degradation came into existence. That's why we needed to have that many fungal genomes in this study. Up until fairly recently, it was so much work to just get one genome at a time. Now we have comparative fungal genomics projects as we're transitioning to a cool time with hundreds of fungal genomes."
Joseph Spatafora, a professor at Oregon State University and co-author on the study, agrees with Hibbett's assessment that the group's findings could alter biology and geology texts. "When you look at this particular phenomenon of the decrease of coal deposition, by far the majority of explanations have been abiotic and that doesn't seem like that should be the entire story," he said.
Grigoriev said that this paper is the first product of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Fungi, the DOE JGI umbrella project that focuses fungal genome sequencing efforts on DOE-relevant missions in energy and the environment. "This paper is the first chapter in the Encyclopedia," he said, "The data generated has produced the most comprehensive catalog of lignocellulolytic enzymes yet, which is of interest to industry. We've now got the blueprint of all genes across very diverse phylogenies, and we'll get more. This is a huge step forward. The next milestone is the 1000 Fungal Genomes project to complete the entire diversity in Basidiomycetes."
As the head of the 1000 Fungal Genomes project, a part of the DOE JGI's Community Sequencing Program portfolio, Spatafora said that despite the goal of facilitating the sequencing of a thousand fungal genomes, two from each of 500 families, over five years, fungal genomics still has a long way to go. "There's an estimated 1.5 million species of fungi," he said. "We have names for about 100,000 species, and we're looking at 1,000 fungi in this project. This is still the tip of the iceberg in looking at fungal diversity and we're trying to learn even more to gain a better idea of fungal metabolism and the potential to harness fungi for a number of applications, including bioenergy. It's a really exciting time in fungal biology, and part of that is due to the technology today that allows us to address the really longstanding questions."
###
Video of Hibbett's "Evolutionary Perspectives on Diversity of Lignocellulose Decay Mechanisms in Basidiomycetes" presentation at the DOE Joint Genome Institute's 7th Annual Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting on March 21, 2012 can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/JGI7Hibbett
The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter.
DOE's Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
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Jenelle Evans on season two of MTV's "Teen Mom 2."
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By Us Weekly
Updated at 11:33 a.m. PT: "Teen Mom 2's"?Jenelle Evans and her on-again, off-again fiance Gary Head were both arrested and thrown in jail early Sunday morning -- and Head has been formally charged with assaulting Evans.
"Gary was charged with assault on a female, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance," Evans' attorney Dustin R.T. Sullivan tells Us Weekly. "A restraining order was put in place by the judge ... Jenelle has already taken steps to try and protect herself from Gary."
Video from Us: 'Teen Mom 2's'most shocking moments?
The reality star, 20, was charged following her arrest as well for several misdemeanors, including "simple assault, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a controlled substance," Sullivan says.?
Evans, for her part, posted her $500 bond and was released Monday afternoon. Sullivan says Head's bond has been set at $1,500, although he wasn't sure if the Marine had been released.?
Video from Us: Jenelle Evans explains why she gave her mom custody of Jace?
Following Head's vicious assault, a source close to the mom to Jace, 2, tells Us it was just a matter of time before she saw Head's true colors.?
"Gary had been extremely violent leading up to the event," the insider reveals. "He had been doing lots of yelling, and physical abuse, including pushing and shoving. This has gone on from the beginning (of their relationship)."?
Photos from Us: Adorable?'Teen Mom' tots?
As for how Evans is holding up after the weekend? "She is very shook up," the source says. "She has bruises, scratches and red marks all over her body. She's very fearful of what he is capable of doing."?
Adds the source, "For Jenelle to get charged in this mess, I'm just amazed, because she is [the victim]."?
What do you think about this latest "Teen Mom" run-in with the law??Tell us on our Facebook page!
Posted by joyroseBLOG, Featured, Mom-preneur, Business, $, Marketing, Making IT, Music, Art, Comedy, Journaling, Poetry, Self-ExpressionTuesday, June 26th, 2012
One never knows where inspiration is going to come from and I have not been very inspired these last few weeks.
While making breakfast this morning, a line from a song on the radio popped out at me. ?Another day, another dollar,? the singer harmonized. The full lyrics of the song slipped away, but the gist was, that we all have a higher calling than just the dollars we bring home.
Money has been on my mind. Ever since June, the Museum Of Motherhood has been super slow. A number of neighborhood families that have been active M.O.M. participants since the museum?s opening are migrating to the suburbs, and others are on vacation. For those who know me, you might be surprised by a moment of glumness, but in fact, I am glum today.
I need help. Even more than me needing help, the museum needs help. So, I?m reaching out.
This week? the fund Max Sidorov, a Canadian man, set up for bullied grandmother Karen Klein topped $650,000.
Yesterday Anne-Marie Slaughter set off a firestorm when she wrote about why ?Women Can?t Have It All? ? specifically jobs out of the home and in the home as mothers and caregivers.
A couple of weeks ago, we were all over the Time Magazine cover featuring a nursing mother and her toddler.
It seems motherhood, mother wars, feminism, women and working mothers continue to raise eyebrows and be headline-worthy, while inane amounts of money crowd source to an unfortunate grandmother, but our priorities are still all over the place when it comes to funding forward motion with regard to viewing motherhood, mother studies and research on families in any kind of cohesive, positive, forward-moving way.
Is the media invested in simply perpetuating the conflicts women and mothers face? Is a catfight more meaningful that funding real, inclusive studies? Where was Carol Evans, President of Working Mother Magazine, yesterday during the CNN debates? WMM?s long-term studies of working mothers, family friendly corporations and groundbreaking online petition for paid parental leave are the things I?d like to hear more about.
And, even closer to my heart, where is the funding for the Museum Of Motherhood?
We opened the museum in September 2011, almost 11 months ago. Despite the compelling conversations that happen daily within our four walls, and the exhibits that appear to inspire and educate, most community members are just looking for a clean, quiet place to hang out with their babies and toddlers.
That?s great, but where?s the interest in picking up recently published academic articles on ?Spirituality and Motherhood? or ?WorkLife Balance?, (and the online course we pioneered with Minnesota State University) or published materials by the politically active group Moms Rising or taking time to pick up one of the many books in our library that focus on the history of women and mothers in the not too distant past.
Out of a recent college class of 25 freshman visiting the museum, only 1 knew what a Suffragette was. ?No one was aware of any of the information on our ?Birth Practices Through The Ages? panels and all of them appeared stunned by the economics of motherhood depicted on the salary comparisons of Alexia Nye Jackson?s exhibit ?Mother The Job?.
If we care about individuals, if we care about families, if we care about our future, if we?re curious about how human beings get to the planet, and where humanity is going, what better place to share our investigations, understandings, herstory and information than the Museum Of Motherhood.
Erin LaBelle Photography Exhibit, M.O.M.
I suggest the Museum Of Motherhood is an even better platform of discussion and investigation than CNN and Time Magazine, and that if you?re interested in actively shaping our future, Motherhood and family is something worth investigating by more than just a trial and error, public forum platform. If you?ve visited us, care about the concept or even remotely think this might be worthy of some of your time, and more specifically ? your money, please help us succeed by making a donation today.
There is a fundamental disconnect in our society about concepts of value regarding caregiving and motherhood. This is something I?m going to continue to blog about. Look for part 2 and 3 to this series: ?A Stipend For Mothers? and ?A Degree In Motherhood.?
It?s going to be a long hot summer and with your support, The Museum Of Motherhood would like to continue to develop into the fall season.
The Museum Of Motherhood is made possible through subsidized rent from New York GYMBOREE Franchise owners, Deb Whitefield and Barry Hanson. However, we face serious struggles without additional funding from individuals and corporations who believe a place like M.O.M. should and must continue its work in the area of family studies and more.
Please make a pledge, however small, today online. We currently have $600.00 in the bank. Tough to admit this, but we truly do need ?a little help from our friends?.
This is the kind of miracle we need: A church in North Carolina was about to close its doors until a guardian angel pulled up in a blue pickup truck, and offered to pay off the church?s debt of $345,000. The pastor said this stranger gave him the money with no strings attached. The pastor spent the next couple of days unpacking everything they had already put in storage. The donor wants to stay completely anonymous, but the pastor did say he was a businessman, who felt extremely blessed and wanted to share.
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Today?s blog is by Joy Rose, Founding Director of the Museum Of Motherhood, who has pledged one year of her time, salary-free to see to the inception and success of M.O.M. That year is running out and the museum needs your help today! In addition to the generous donation of space by Deb Whitefield and Barry Hanson, the museum has received donations from P & G and is the beneficiary of Working Mother Magazine?s Silent Auction and their annual WorkLife Congress. M.O.M. is grateful to its interns, community volunteers and individual donors like Lynn Kuechle, Suzanne Dawson (honored on M.O.M.?s?Founding Legacy Membership wall) and matriarch Joy Rose Sr. to name a few as well as the local moms and kids who keep the museum active daily.
Pollutant triggers inflammation and other changes that can heighten risk of heart attack and stroke
Web edition : 6:22 pm
Ozone pollution appears to cause potentially dangerous changes in the heart at levels that might be encountered in the world?s most polluted cities. Scientists have uncovered signs of inflammation and heart rhythm disturbances in 23 healthy young volunteers who briefly inhaled elevated levels of ozone, the primary irritant in urban smog.
The alterations, reported online June 25 in Circulation, go a long way toward explaining population data that have started linking ozone to an elevated risk of death from heart attacks and stroke (SN: 12/11/04, p. 372).
Many air pollution scientists, ?including me, have in the past thought associations with ozone [and disease outside the lung] were really associations with particles or some other pollutant,? says Douglas Dockery of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. But he says the new study now directly shows ozone is causing acute ? and even chronic ? risk for heart attacks.
For two hours on separate days, toxicologist Robert Devlin of the Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and his colleagues exposed men and women to clean air or to air containing 0.3 parts per million ozone. On the high-ozone day, volunteers inhaled the same cumulative dose that they would have received over eight hours in a place that exceeded the U.S. federal limit of 0.075 parts per million for that length of time.
Ozone reaches such levels in Los Angeles and Houston. And heavily polluted cities such as Beijing and Mexico City have experienced peak hourly ozone concentrations approaching the raw level used in the experiment.
A growing body of data indicates inflammation underlies the progression of cardiovascular disease. In the new study, blood levels of several inflammatory agents increased after ozone exposure ? sometimes more than doubling ?throughout a period that lasted more than a day. This ?caught us by surprise,? Devlin says, and ?we think it?s one of the more important and significant findings.?
The high ozone exposure also triggered subtle changes in heart rate variability. Although small, this points to an increased risk of arrhythmias, notes EPA cardiologist Wayne E. Cascio. Ozone also altered levels of several proteins involved in blood clotting.
Usually, various biochemical players in the body?s clotting network ?keep each other fairly mellow,? says cardiologist Tracy Stevens of St. Luke?s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. But in this study, she notes, ozone exposure induced changes to the clotting system that riled things up in ways ?that would make one more prone to clot.?
Most impressive, she says, ?were all those changes in markers of inflammation.? In healthy young adults, such changes shouldn?t cause harm, Stevens says. But in the elderly and persons with diabetes or heart disease, these immune system players could inflame the plaque that had been accumulating in arteries, provoking it to rupture.
When this happens, Stevens explains, the body turns on clotting in its attempt to heal what it reads as a wound. ?It?s these clots that obstruct blood flow and trigger a sudden crisis,? she says ? such as a heart attack.
Murphy's Law -- or some jaded users might just call it Yammer's law: One day after Yammer announced that it got bought by Microsoft for $1.2 billion, the enterprise social networking site has gone down. It's been down for at least an hour already and is covering several geographies, from what we can see. Update: it appears to be back up now. The crash will not do any favors to Microsoft, which plans to integrate the company into its Microsoft Office division to be part of a wider, integrated social and cloud push from the Redmond, Washington software giant.
Film becomes 13th consecutive Pixar film to debut at #1. By Ryan J. Downey
Merida in "Brave" Photo:
There's nothing unlucky about the number 13 for Disney/Pixar. Over the weekend, "Brave" became the 13th consecutive film from the animation unit behind "Toy Story" and "Wall-E" to debut at #1. The animated archery adventure hit a box-office bull's-eye to the tune of $66.7 million, according to estimates. And cartoons dominated the weekend box office as DreamWorks' "Madagascar 3" landed at #2.
Unfortunately for Fox, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" was not so lucky. The $69 million-budget historical/ fantasy mash-up opened at #3 with just $16.5 million.
"Brave" opened stronger than last year's "Cars 2," which bears the distinction of being the only Pixar film with a "rotten" critical average on Rotten Tomatoes. While reviews for "Brave" weren't as overwhelmingly enthusiastic as those for flicks like "Toy Story 3" and "Wall-E," the studio's latest still boasts a 74 percent score on the film-review-aggregator site.
The opening numbers for "Brave" were the fifth-highest for Pixar (ninth when adjusted for ticket price inflation). "Toy Story 3" ranks at #1 in both categories, with its astonishing $110 million opening (on slightly fewer screens than "Brave," to boot) two years ago. Audiences gave "Brave" a CinemaScore of "A."
"Brave" is the first Disney/Pixar to center on a female protagonist, telling the story of a Scottish princess who bucks tradition to shape her own destiny. It was nearly the first Pixar film to be directed by a woman too. Brenda Chapman, who conceived the story, was replaced mid-production by Mark Andrews.
Box-office prognosticators were right on the money late last week when it came to "Brave," but the numbers for "Lincoln" were even lower than most of them projected. IMDb's Keith Simanton told MTV News that the Tim Burton-produced book adaptation would need to match the $23 million collected by "Zombieland" on opening weekend to be considered a success. "I'm putting it at $19 million. But it may be closer to $17 million," he predicted.
"Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," which was #1 for two weekends in a row, took in $20.2 million in its third weekend in theaters for a domestic total of $157.6 million. "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" made a total of $180 million after it opened in 2008. The first "Madagascar" film cleared $193.5 million three years before. "Madagascar 3" is the best-reviewed of the series. "This is the rare animated property that has consistently improved on its ho-hum origins," Variety's Justin Chang wrote.
"Prometheus" grossed another $10 million for a $108.5 million total. Box-office bombs "Rock of Ages" and "That's My Boy" fell even further in their second weekends, grossing just $8 million (against a $75 million budget) and $7.9 million, respectively. "Rock of Ages" has made $28.8 million to date; "That's My Boy," $28.2 million.
In limited release, "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" collected $3.8 million in its debut. The Focus Features film starring Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley played in 1,625 locations, versus the 4,164 where "Brave" was available. The Los Angeles Times reported that the film was expected to open with at least $7 million.
Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" made $379,371 on just five screens. That's the second-best per-screen average this year, behind "Moonrise Kingdom," which averaged $130,749 across four theaters last month. Last year, "Midnight in Paris" became Allen's highest-grossing picture ever and was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. "Paris" boasted a 93 percent Tomatometer rating, however, whereas "Rome" sat at 55 percent at press time.
Next weekend's new releases include "Family Guy" creator Seth McFarlane's live-action directorial debut, "Ted," which stars Mark Wahlberg; male stripper tale "Magic Mike," with Channing Tatum; the Chris Pine/ Elizabeth Banks dramedy "People Like Us"; and Tyler Perry's "Madea's Witness Protection Program."
Economic policies in isolation won't lead to growth in EuropePublic release date: 25-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Peter Franklin p.franklin@soton.ac.uk 44-238-059-5457 University of Southampton
A study led by Dr Bryony Hoskins at the University of Southampton for the European Commission (EC) has warned of the dangers of concentrating solely on economic policies to create growth in European countries.
The report Participatory Citizenship in the European Union funded by a 274,996 grant from the EC examines how and to what extent, people in Europe actively take part in society, communities and politics, and identifies any barriers to this.
Lead researcher from Southampton, Dr Bryony Hoskins says, "In the current harsh economic climate across Europe there has been a loss of trust in political leaders and a move towards more extremist parties. It is important for people, especially the young and unemployed, to have their voices heard in the political decision making to mitigate this.
"The study maps the state of play on levels of citizen engagement, and identifies policies and practices to facilitate this across Europe to help find effective strategies to encourage people to get involved."
The research, carried out in collaboration with eight partner institutions in seven European countries1 was based on the analysis of data on current policies and practices from each of the 27 member states in the European Union (EU), interviews with key experts, and data from existing European and international studies.*
Results have shown that in relation to the economic crisis and creating growth participatory citizenship, economic competitiveness and social cohesion are interrelated and reinforce each other. The report recommends that strategies are needed to encourage people to get more involved in communities, politics and decision making, at both national level in EU countries, and more locally within individual countries.
The report makes these key recommendations:
To place an emphasis on learning citizenship, both in schools and outside of school. The study shows people who vote and take an interest in politics and decision-making are usually engaged in diverse forms of learning at different levels.
To target disadvantaged groups most at risk of unemployment and exclusion and achieve this through engagement in schools; vocational education or training; and youth work.
The EC should provide long-term strategic and sustainable funding for projects; non-governmental organisations; and programmes encouraging participatory citizenship (to counter those being cut due to the financial crisis).
Encourage collaboration and partnerships between different types of organisations, such as schools, local authorities, youth groups, charities and businesses.
Explore the use of new social media to enable wider participation in decision-making by providing more interactive forums for the exchange of information between citizens and politicians.
Barriers and key challenges to participatory citizenship were identified as:
A lack of trust in politicians.
The challenge of creating a dialogue between politicians and the public.
A decline in participatory citizenship generally as a policy priority.
The need to meet the challenges of the globalised economy; climate change; an ageing population; and an enlarged EU.
The findings of the study will be used to help shape European policy and funding programmes, in particular the:
The full report, Participatory Citizenship in the European Union, can be found on the European Union website at http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/news-events/news/29052012_en.htm
###
*this includes the recent International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) and the European Social Survey (ESS).
Notes for editors:
1. This study was commissioned by the European Commission, Europe for Citizens Programme. It was led by the Institute of Education, University of London, with Dr Bryony Hoskins as Project leader, now of the Southampton Education School, University of Southampton. The project was co-led by David Kerr, now of the Citizenship Foundation, London and formally of National Foundation for Educational Research.
The consortium partners:
Denmark: Hans Dorf, Aarhus University, Department of Education
France: Jean Gordon, Antoine Bevort, Alain Michel, European Institute for Education and Social Policy (EIESP)
Germany: Hermann J. Abs, Tilmann Kammler, Institute for School Pedagogy and Citizenship Education, University of Giessen
Italy: Bruno Losito, Paola Mirti, Roma Tre University
Slovenia: Janez Krek, Mateja Perak, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana
Netherlands: Wiel Veugelers, University of Humanistics Studies, Utrecht
UK: Germ J. Janmaat, Christine Han, Andy Green, Yvette Ankrah, Institute of Education, University of London. Juliet Sizmur, Jo Morrison, National Foundation for Educational Research, Slough. Rebecca Ridley, Southampton Education School, University of Southampton
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Economic policies in isolation won't lead to growth in EuropePublic release date: 25-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Peter Franklin p.franklin@soton.ac.uk 44-238-059-5457 University of Southampton
A study led by Dr Bryony Hoskins at the University of Southampton for the European Commission (EC) has warned of the dangers of concentrating solely on economic policies to create growth in European countries.
The report Participatory Citizenship in the European Union funded by a 274,996 grant from the EC examines how and to what extent, people in Europe actively take part in society, communities and politics, and identifies any barriers to this.
Lead researcher from Southampton, Dr Bryony Hoskins says, "In the current harsh economic climate across Europe there has been a loss of trust in political leaders and a move towards more extremist parties. It is important for people, especially the young and unemployed, to have their voices heard in the political decision making to mitigate this.
"The study maps the state of play on levels of citizen engagement, and identifies policies and practices to facilitate this across Europe to help find effective strategies to encourage people to get involved."
The research, carried out in collaboration with eight partner institutions in seven European countries1 was based on the analysis of data on current policies and practices from each of the 27 member states in the European Union (EU), interviews with key experts, and data from existing European and international studies.*
Results have shown that in relation to the economic crisis and creating growth participatory citizenship, economic competitiveness and social cohesion are interrelated and reinforce each other. The report recommends that strategies are needed to encourage people to get more involved in communities, politics and decision making, at both national level in EU countries, and more locally within individual countries.
The report makes these key recommendations:
To place an emphasis on learning citizenship, both in schools and outside of school. The study shows people who vote and take an interest in politics and decision-making are usually engaged in diverse forms of learning at different levels.
To target disadvantaged groups most at risk of unemployment and exclusion and achieve this through engagement in schools; vocational education or training; and youth work.
The EC should provide long-term strategic and sustainable funding for projects; non-governmental organisations; and programmes encouraging participatory citizenship (to counter those being cut due to the financial crisis).
Encourage collaboration and partnerships between different types of organisations, such as schools, local authorities, youth groups, charities and businesses.
Explore the use of new social media to enable wider participation in decision-making by providing more interactive forums for the exchange of information between citizens and politicians.
Barriers and key challenges to participatory citizenship were identified as:
A lack of trust in politicians.
The challenge of creating a dialogue between politicians and the public.
A decline in participatory citizenship generally as a policy priority.
The need to meet the challenges of the globalised economy; climate change; an ageing population; and an enlarged EU.
The findings of the study will be used to help shape European policy and funding programmes, in particular the:
The full report, Participatory Citizenship in the European Union, can be found on the European Union website at http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/news-events/news/29052012_en.htm
###
*this includes the recent International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) and the European Social Survey (ESS).
Notes for editors:
1. This study was commissioned by the European Commission, Europe for Citizens Programme. It was led by the Institute of Education, University of London, with Dr Bryony Hoskins as Project leader, now of the Southampton Education School, University of Southampton. The project was co-led by David Kerr, now of the Citizenship Foundation, London and formally of National Foundation for Educational Research.
The consortium partners:
Denmark: Hans Dorf, Aarhus University, Department of Education
France: Jean Gordon, Antoine Bevort, Alain Michel, European Institute for Education and Social Policy (EIESP)
Germany: Hermann J. Abs, Tilmann Kammler, Institute for School Pedagogy and Citizenship Education, University of Giessen
Italy: Bruno Losito, Paola Mirti, Roma Tre University
Slovenia: Janez Krek, Mateja Perak, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana
Netherlands: Wiel Veugelers, University of Humanistics Studies, Utrecht
UK: Germ J. Janmaat, Christine Han, Andy Green, Yvette Ankrah, Institute of Education, University of London. Juliet Sizmur, Jo Morrison, National Foundation for Educational Research, Slough. Rebecca Ridley, Southampton Education School, University of Southampton
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 28-Jun-2012
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Murphy's Law -- or some jaded users might just call it Yammer's law: One day after 
