Tuesday, April 30, 2013

AE Behind The Brand | Scrapbook Circle | Ali Edwards

April 30, 2013

Today as part of the Behind The Brand series I would like to introduce you to Lisa from Scrapbook Circle.

How did you get started with your business? How long have you been in business?

My friend Crystal and I started creating adoption themed scrapbook kits for an online retailer back in 2005. We both loved scrapbooking and wanted to be create kits that we would be able to use with our memory keeping. We were attending CHA for the adoption kits and decided to start a kit club so that we could feature all of our favorite products each month. Crystal moved several years ago and I now (sadly) run Scrapbook Circle without her. It has been an exciting evolution to learn and grow with this company. Scrapbook Circle will be seven years old this May!

What is your favorite thing about being an entrepreneur?

I love getting to set my hours, work from home and have flexibility to work around our family activities. I also love getting to work with so ?many kind and wonderful people who love memory keeping as much as I do.

Where are you located? What?s your favorite thing about the city you live in?

I live in Chandler, AZ and love the sunshine! I?ve pretty much lived here my entire life and love being surrounds by lots of family and friends.

What inspires you?

My husband, my kids, the beach, Target, Pinterest. I love to travel often and I am inspired when I get to step away from daily life and look at things from a new?perspective.

What goodies are on your wish list?

A new pair of Toms, a gold Fossil watch and my kids to get along with each other everyday.

Tell us something new that is happening with your business:

We have been offering a custom printable with each kit for several years now, but now we are also offering exclusive flair, stickers and tags in many of our monthly kits! Our current kit (pictured above) is called My Favorite.


Lisa loves capturing special life moments and recording the stories through scrapbooking. She is happiest when she is home?surrounded?by her family.

CONNECT WITH LISA | Intsagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Blog

Source: http://aliedwards.com/2013/04/ae-behind-the-brand-scrapbook-circle.html

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New robots crawl like sea turtles

Researchers have designed a new type of robot modeled on sea turtles known as FlipperBot. This is the first robot to use flippers against pliable surfaces and has moved the work toward amphibious robots forward.

By Charles Q. Choi,?TechNewsDaily / April 24, 2013

Georgia Tech associate professor Daniel Goldman and researcher Nicole Mazouchova watch FlipperBot move through a bed filled with poppy seeds.

Georgia Tech/ Gary Meek

Enlarge

Flippered robots inspired by sea-turtle hatchlings could shed light on how the ancestors of terrestrial animals first evolved to crawl on land, researchers say.

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Such research could also lead to amphibious robots that can tackle both land and sea, investigators added.

Scientists are designing robots that can go where humans cannot or should not go, and often rely on inspiration from nature to do so. For instance,?snakelike robots?could, in principle, slither into crevices to help find disaster victims.

Challenging environments for robots to cross include?sand, gravel, soil, mud and other unstable granular surfaces?that can deform around legs in complex ways. To learn new ways to navigate such ground, Daniel Goldman, a physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and his colleagues investigated sea-turtle hatchlings.

"These little turtles are remarkably effective at moving over solid ground, with limbs designed for moving in fluid," Goldman told TechNewsDaily.

The researchers analyzed 25 baby loggerhead sea turtles from nests on Jekyll Island, one of Georgia's coastal islands, at night. They investigated how the turtles crawled on tracks of beach sand housed in a truck parked near the beach, video-recording them as they moved in the darkness toward a light that simulated the moon. [See also:?10 Animal-Inspired Robots]

Goldman and his colleagues Nicole Mazouchova and Paul Umbanhowar were surprised to learn the hatchlings moved about as quickly on soft sand as they did on hard sand.

"The turtles insert their flippers just deep enough into soft sand so that the material does not yield behind the flipper as they move," Goldman said. "That means the sand doesn't flow around the flippers, and they don't slip ? so they can propel themselves."

The key to performing well, regardless of the conditions of the sand, seemed to lie in how the turtles controlled their wrists.

"On hard ground, their wrists locked in place, and they pivoted about a fixed arm," Goldman said. "On soft sand, they put their flippers into the sand, and the wrist would bend as they moved forward. We decided to investigate this using a robot model."

These findings led to the development of FlipperBot, the first robot to employ flippers against malleable surfaces. The small droid is about 7.5 inches (19 centimeters) long, weighs 2 lbs. (970 grams), and has two motor-driven flippers with flexible wrists similar to sea turtle wrists

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/4vJsgtTY6gE/New-robots-crawl-like-sea-turtles

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Six months after Sandy, thousands homeless in N.Y., N.J.

MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) ? The 9-year-old girl who got New Jersey's tough-guy governor to shed a tear as he comforted her after her home was destroyed is bummed because she now lives far from her best friend and has nowhere to hang her One Direction posters.

A New Jersey woman whose home was overtaken by mold still cries when she drives through the area. A New York City man whose home burned can't wait to build a new one.

Six months after Superstorm Sandy devastated the Jersey shore and New York City and pounded coastal areas of New England, the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating, yet often hopeful, recovery. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless. Housing, business, tourism and coastal protection all remain major issues with the summer vacation ? and hurricane ? seasons almost here again.

"Some families and some lives have come back together quickly and well, and some people are up and running almost as if nothing ever happened, and for them it's been fine," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference Thursday. "Some people are still very much in the midst of recovery. You still have people in hotel rooms, you still have people doubled up, you still have people fighting with insurance companies, and for them it's been terrible and horrendous."

Lynda Fricchione's flood-damaged home in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, N.J., is gutted; the roof was fixed just last week. The family is still largely living out of cardboard boxes in an apartment. But waiting for a final decision from federal and state authorities over new flood maps that govern the price of flood insurance is tormenting her and many others.

"The largest problem is, nobody really knows how high we're going to have to elevate the house," she said. "At town hall they told us 5 feet, but then they said it might go down to 3 feet in the summer. Most of us are waiting until the final maps come out. It's wait-and-see."

But more than anything, Fricchione is optimistic, buoyed by a recent trip to New Orleans with her daughter during which they met a resident of the Lower Ninth Ward who was one of the first to move back in after Hurricane Katrina inundated the neighborhood that has become a symbol of flood damage ? and resilience.

"Talking to that man was wonderful!" Fricchione said. "He said it takes time and you just have to have hope and know it will all work out eventually."

By many measures, the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which struck Oct. 29, has been slow. From Maryland to New Hampshire, the National Hurricane Center attributes 72 deaths directly to Sandy and 87 others indirectly from causes such as hypothermia due to power outages, carbon monoxide poisoning and accidents during cleanup efforts, for a total of 159.

The roller coaster that plunged off a pier in Seaside Heights, N.J., is still in the ocean, although demolition plans are finally moving forward. Scores of homes that were destroyed in nearby Mantoloking still look as they did the day after the storm ? piles of rubble and kindling, with the occasional bathroom fixture or personal possession visible among the detritus.

Throughout the region, many businesses are still shuttered, and an already-tight rental market has become even more so because of the destruction of thousands of units and the crush of displaced storm victims looking to rent the ones that survived.

Homeowners are tortured by uncertainty over ever-changing rules on how high they'll need to rebuild their homes to protect against the next storm; insurance companies have not paid out all that many homeowners expected; and municipalities are borrowing tens of millions of dollars to keep the lights on, the fire trucks running and the police stations staffed, waiting for reimbursement from the federal government for storm expenditures they had to fund out of pocket.

And yet, by other measures, remarkable progress has been made. Boardwalks, the tourism lifeblood of the region, are springing back to life. A handful of homes are going up, and the whine of power saws and the thwack of hammers is everywhere in hard-hit beach towns as contractors fix what can be saved and bulldozers knock down what can't.

Volunteers in Highlands, N.J., are rebuilding the home of Bromlyn Link, the single mother of a 17-year-old boy, both of whom are members of the town's first aid squad and who spent 12 to 14 hours a day helping friends and neighbors forced to live in shelters for weeks after the storm.

Mantoloking, which was cut in half by the storm and saw all 521 of its homes damaged or destroyed, is creeping back to life. The post office recently, reopened, and the first of 50 demolitions will start next week, which is also when Mayor George Nebel will join the 40 other residents who have been able to move back home.

Beaches that were washed away are coming back, due both to nature and bulldozers, and real estate agents say demand for this strangest of upcoming summers appears good, particularly in the large portions of the Jersey shore that were relatively unscathed by Sandy. Beach badges, required for access to most of New Jersey's shoreline, are selling at a near-record pace in Belmar, N.J.

And while towns fortify beaches and dunes and put up sea walls, rock barriers or even sand-filled fabric tubes to guard against future storms, state governments are readying hundreds of millions of dollars to buy out homeowners in flood-prone areas who want to leave.

"We've made a lot of progress in six months; I know we still have a long way to go," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at a recent town hall meeting. "By Memorial Day, every boardwalk that was destroyed at the Jersey shore will be rebuilt. Businesses are reopening. Rentals are picking up again, roads are back open."

Christie estimated 39,000 New Jersey families remain displaced, down from 161,000 the day after the storm. In New York, more than 250 families are still living in hotel rooms across New York paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, while others are still shacking up with relatives or living in temporary rentals.

Everyone simply wants to make their homes livable again, said Ray Marten, whose home in the Belle Harbor section of New York City's Queens borough burned down when a fire swept along his street during the storm, and whose family of six is renting a nearby house.

"If you go up my block now, all the houses have been demolished and removed," Marten said. "They're pretty much just holes in the ground. Sand pits."

Separation is the new reality for the Gatti family, a clan of several generations that shared the same three-story home near the ocean on Staten Island until Sandy destroyed it. The flood-soaked place was demolished months ago, and they're waiting for a government buyout. Now the family is scattered across New Jersey, New York and Texas.

"The whole family's separated," said Marge Gatti, the matriarch. "And it's terrible, you know?"

Her son, Anthony, recently drove a U-Haul packed with his meager belongings to Killeen, Texas, where he will start a new life as a car mechanic.

"Mentally, I'm not all that well in the head," said Anthony Gatti, who slept in a tent in front of the ruined home for weeks after the storm. "I know I've got to get some kind of help. I can't seem to shake it out of my life."

Ginjer Doherty was 9 years old when Sandy bubbled up through the floor of her Middletown, N.J., home and ripped the front wall off it. She and her parents went to a firehouse a few days later to see Christie talk about what was being done to recover.

The governor comforted Ginjer, telling her she would be all right, that the grown-ups were on top of things and would take care of her. Ginjer recently had an essay published in Time magazine recalling the encounter and describing her life after Sandy.

"My house was all messed up, and people told us we couldn't stay there anymore," she wrote. "The governor told me not to worry ? that my parents would take care of everything ? and he looked very serious and sad, and he cried.

"Things are going O.K. for my family," she wrote. "We want to go back home, but rebuilding is going to take a long time. But we have a place to live for now. I even rescued a cat that was homeless after Sandy; I wanted him to be safe and loved like I feel."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Ginjer, now 10, said she is sad that her home won't be ready until October; her mom says it has been gutted and needs to be elevated.

Of the delay, Ginjer said simply, "It stinks."

Sandy also damaged interior areas, particularly those along rivers in northern New Jersey. Cities including Hoboken and Jersey City were inundated, and officials continue try seek exemptions for skyscrapers and large apartments from federal rules requiring flood-prone buildings to be elevated. George Stauble, whose Little Ferry house took in four feet of water, said FEMA payouts caused some rifts between neighbors.

"Everybody's house had pretty much the same amount of damage, but people are getting different amounts of money, and that's caused some problems," he said, adding some homeowners received as little as $8,000, while others received as much as $29,000.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Meghan Barr and Deepti Hajela in New York and David Porter in Little Ferry, N.J.

___

Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/6-months-sandy-thousands-homeless-ny-nj-154507020.html

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Chris Brown?s Dad Doesn?t Approve Of Rihanna?

Chris Brown’s Dad Doesn’t Approve Of Rihanna?

Chris Brown and Rihanna to end badlyChris Brown’s father, Clinton Brown, doesn’t feel his son should have reunited with Rihanna. Clinton said he feels Rihanna and Chris are too similar, worrying that their toxic romance could end up tragically. Clinton spoke to the British paper The Sun, saying he thinks his son and Rihanna are not good together. He also hinted ...

Chris Brown’s Dad Doesn’t Approve Of Rihanna? Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/chris-browns-dad-doesnt-approve-of-rihanna/

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Phil Jackson Was Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer in 2011, Told the ...

phil-jackson-lakers

Phil Jackson was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March 2011, the former Lakers? coach reveals in his new book. According to the O.C. Register, Jackson revealed the bad news to his team during the playoffs as what sounds like an attempt to motivate. (The story is behind a paywall, but a?Lakers? forum?has the full story.)

Jackson was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March 2011. After doctors assured him the cancer could be controlled by drugs temporarily, Jackson waited until after the season to undergo surgery.

Jackson decided to divulge his situation to his players when he sensed the team was lacking something in the playoffs.

?Shocking,? Pau Gasol said Saturday, remembering Jackson?s disclosure to the team. ?But then you also could understand certain moments of his demeanor, energy and involvement because of what he was going through health-wise. It explained certain things. It was a shock. A difficult moment for the team.?

Gasol said Jackson talked with team captains Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher privately before telling the whole team in a video session ? but Jackson was left second-guessing the revelation in which he became teary-eyed as he spoke ? the Lakers strangely fading in that series vs. Dallas.

Whatever Jackson?s motivation for telling his team, it sounds like they were understandably shaken by the news. Whenever Jackson told them, the team was done. The Lakers were eliminated from the 2011 Playoffs by the eventual champion Dallas Mavericks in a 4-game sweep. The series ended with a 122-86 blowout in Dallas that featured?Andrew Bynum?s flagrant foul on J.J. Barea.

Gasol allowed that it was different for the team to see Jackson ? ?such a big figure, the physical and spiritual leader of the team? ? as vulnerable.

?As much as I love Phil and I appreciate everything about him,? Gasol said, ?it was difficult to know.?

The good news ? for Jackson at least ? is that he must be feeling pretty good again. People say he is interested in coaching again and there is a rumor about every team in the league making a run at him for various positions.

[OC Register, LakersGround, USA TODAY Sports Images, h/t Herbie]

Source: http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2013/04/28/phil-jackson-was-diagnosed-with-prostate-cancer-in-2011-told-the-lakers-during-their-sweep-by-the-mavericks/

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

New drug stimulates immune system to kill infected cells in animal model of hepatitis B infection

Apr. 26, 2013 ? A novel drug developed by Gilead Sciences and tested in an animal model at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio suppresses hepatitis B virus infection by stimulating the immune system and inducing loss of infected cells.

In a study conducted at Texas Biomed's Southwest National Primate Research Center, researchers found that the immune modulator GS-9620, which targets a receptor on immune cells, reduced both the virus levels and the number of infected liver cells in chimpanzees chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chimpanzees are the only species other than humans that can be infected by HBV. Therefore, the results from this study were critical in moving the drug forward to human clinical trials which are now in progress.

The new report, co-authored by scientists from Texas Biomed and Gilead Sciences, appears in the May issue of Gastroenterology. Gilead researchers had previously demonstrated that the same therapy could induce a cure of hepatitis infection in woodchucks that were chronically infected with a virus similar to human HBV.

"This is an important proof-of-concept study demonstrating that the therapy stimulates the immune system to suppress the virus and eliminate infected liver cells," said co-author Robert E. Lanford, Ph.D., of Texas Biomed. "One of the key observations was that the therapy continued to suppress virus levels for months after therapy was stopped.

The current therapy for HBV infection targets the virus and works very well at suppressing viral replication and delaying progression of liver disease, but it is a lifelong therapy that does not provide a cure.

"This GS-9620 therapy represents the first conceptually new treatment for HBV in more than a decade, and combining it with the existing antiviral therapy could be transformative in dealing with this disease," stated Lanford.

The Gilead drug binds a receptor called Toll-Like Receptor 7 that is present in immune cells. The receptor normally recognizes invading viruses and triggers the immune system to suppress viral replication by the innate immune response and kill infected cells by the adaptive immune response, thus orchestrating both arms of the immune system.

HBV damages the liver, leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer death. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up to 1.4 million Americans are chronically infected with HBV.

The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people have been infected with the hepatitis B virus, resulting in more than 240 million people with chronic infections and 620,000 deaths every year.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Texas Biomedical Research Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Robert E. Lanford, Bernadette Guerra, Deborah Chavez, Luis Giavedoni, Vida L. Hodara, Kathleen M. Brasky, Abigail Fosdick, Christian R. Frey, Jim Zheng, Grushenka Wolfgang, Randall L. Halcomb, Daniel B. Tumas. GS-9620, an Oral Agonist of Toll-Like Receptor-7, Induces Prolonged Suppression of Hepatitis B Virus in Chronically Infected Chimpanzees. Gastroenterology, 2013; DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2013.02.003

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ww9ov1VhtEA/130426152556.htm

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Source: http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/26/per-washington-post-health-insurance-provider-in-maryland-says-it-must-raise-individual-health-insurance-premiums-on-average-25/

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

The American Dream, Downsized

The Grain Exchange Room in Milwaukee?s old Chamber of Commerce building is a dazzling display of Gilded Age opulence. Its ornate faux-marble columns soar three stories high, and an intricately carved balcony overlooks what is believed to have been the world?s first commodities-exchange trading pit. This temple to business and success was a fitting location for Mitt Romney?s victory speech after the Wisconsin primary a year ago, on the night he eclipsed his last remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

Romney used the occasion to lay out his vision of an ?opportunity society led by free people and free enterprises.? Barack Obama, he charged, didn?t believe in opportunity: When the president went after the ?1 percent,? he wanted only to turn the United States into ?one of those societies that attack success.? Romney?s supporters cheered.

In Chicago, the Obama team cheered, too.

Led by Obama?s chief pollster, Joel Benenson, the campaign had spent 2011 examining Americans? views on economic security and the American Dream. They concluded that something fundamental had changed. It used to be political gospel that a candidate couldn?t risk talking about inequality because such a stance was so easily caricatured as an attack on the rich and because even working-class Americans believed they had an opportunity to be rich someday. But as Benenson explained in a recent interview, ?There has been a recalibration of the American mind-set when it comes to economic change.?

What his polling found is that middle-class Americans are much more concerned about holding onto what they?ve got than in pursuing more. The Pew Economic Mobility project, the Allstate/NationalJournal Heartland Monitor Poll, and other studies have arrived at similar conclusions. When Pew asked Americans in 2011 if they preferred financial stability or moving up the income ladder, 85 percent of respondents chose the safer, surer future.

If that seems like a defensive crouch, it is. The American middle class is broadly defined as households earning two-thirds to twice the median income, or about $35,000 to $100,000 a year. The beginning of the 21st century was a ?lost decade? for the middle class, Harvard economist Lawrence Katz said, but the decline has been under way for decades. In the early 1970s, middle-class households earned 62 percent of the national income; today, they bring in just 45 percent. These households are more vulnerable, economists say, than at any time since World War II.

The Great Recession exacerbated this decline. Sixty percent of the job losses in those years occurred in middle-income jobs. The recovery, instead of restoring those jobs, has replaced them with low-wage positions. And the middle class, which once drove American prosperity with its purchasing power and stability, is shrinking. Middle-class households make up barely half the population today, down from 61 percent in 1971. People aiming to reach the middle class, or to stay there, have ample reason to worry.

Middle-class Americans? anxieties and the shift in how they define the American Dream had consequences for the 2012 election. Romney spoke in the language of economic risk: ?The promise of America has always been that if you worked hard, had the right values, took some risks, that there was an opportunity to build a better life for your family and for your next generation.? Compare that with Obama describing the ?basic bargain in America,? a formulation he has used since his U.S. Senate campaign in 2004: ?If you?re willing to work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to find a good job, feel secure in your community, and support a family.? So, which guy won?

But if the American Dream, and the understanding of what it means to be middle class, is changing, the reverberations will go far beyond a single election. They speak to the very story Americans tell about themselves. We were once a nation of strivers, raised on Horatio Alger and Bill Gates, confident of the possibility of moving upward. If Americans now aim simply to avoid slipping backward, they will have decided that the American Dream is but a reverie.

WHEN THE DREAM WAS REAL

The United States was already mired in the economic disaster known as the Great Depression when historian James Truslow Adams, in his 1931 book, The Epic of America, first turned ?American Dream? into a commonly recognized phrase. The dream may have been put on hold for many Americans at the time, but Adams sought to remind his fellow citizens, ?It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable.?

The cars and high wages would come soon enough, during the economic boom that followed World War II. Agricultural workers moved into towns and cities for higher-paying jobs, and the GI Bill financed higher education for millions of veterans. Americans? entrepreneurial spirit, backed by capital and opportunity and pent-up consumer desires, sent the economy soaring. And unlike in earlier eras of rising prosperity, the gains weren?t limited to those at the top but were distributed relatively equally across economic classes. The result: an expanding, robust middle class.

Almost overnight, it became not just possible but expected that young marrieds would fare better than their parents had. A middle-class family bought a house, put a car (or two) in the driveway, and raised children who ran around a safe neighborhood and later went to college with their parents? support. Or the kids might skip college and enter the workforce with a secure, often union-protected, job that allowed them to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle and live in the same neighborhoods as bankers, teachers, and salesmen.

Erin Currier runs the Pew Economic Mobility Project, which has done two national polls about how Americans interpret the American Dream. ?When people talk about their parents,? she said, ?it?s in terms of what they were ?able? to do. They were able to buy their own home. They were able to attend college. They were able to send their kids away to summer camp. These were accomplishments, and they set the standard.?

SECURITY?A CASUALTY

Being middle class has always meant two separate things: affluence (having a solid income) and security (being able to maintain your quality of life from year to year). For the first several decades after World War II, those appeared to be one and the same. Social norms such as low divorce rates, workplace norms such as lifelong employment and generous benefits, and government-run social insurance helped to insulate people from life?s twists and turns. A high income guaranteed economic security?this was easy to assume.

That assumption began to change in the 1970s. U.S. manufacturing started to slow, then contract, battered by competition first from Germany and Japan, and later from China and East Asia. Successive oil crises wreaked havoc on energy costs. A period of inflation and sluggish growth produced a mashed-together word, ?stagflation.? And the increasing use of corporate revenues to benefit shareholders instead of workers undermined the social contract between labor and management.

These developments took a toll on workers? incomes. The hourly compensation of the average U.S. worker rose by nearly 94 percent, adjusted for inflation, between 1948 and 1973, but by only 10 percent from 1973 to 2011, according to the Economic Policy Institute. ?Even after recovery started, typical wages have continued to fall,? said Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University. ?And education and health care costs continue to go up?at somewhat slower rates than before, but they?re still nasty price surprises.? Families spend, on average, 75 percent more for health insurance (adjusted for inflation) than they did a generation ago.

This squeeze between income and expenses has rattled many Americans? assumptions of economic security. ?Some of the stuff that really matters is hard to quantify in terms of money,? said John Schmitt, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. ?It?s about economic security. It?s about how many hours you work, how much of a return you get for the education you have, how much security you have in terms of health insurance and retirement.? About half of all workers have a retirement plan at their job, approximately the same as in the 1970s, Schmitt explained, but most of these plans don?t guarantee a particular payout, thereby shifting market risk from the employer to the individual.

Nor can Americans count on a steady and rising income. Incomes have been volatile. Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker has developed an Economic Security Index to measure the increasing variability of Americans? economic lives. In 2009-10, as the effects of the Great Recession coursed through the economy, roughly a fifth of all Americans saw their household income drop by at last 25 percent, by Hacker?s estimate, creating greater economic insecurity than at any time since the Depression.

Not everyone is convinced that middle-class incomes have declined, however. Such fears are exaggerated, according to Scott Winship, a Brookings Institution sociologist. Citing Congressional Budget Office figures that count health benefits as well as income, he found that ?prior to the Great Recession, the 2000s looked as good as the ?90s and better than the ?80s in terms of household income. And we have to remember that Hispanic immigration was continuing to increase, and that exerted a steady downward pull on income.? The overall economic trends, Winship argues, continue to be robust.

One trend that can?t be questioned is the drop in American household wealth. In 2010, median family net worth sank to around $77,300, a decline of nearly $50,000 from the years just before the financial crisis and close to $30,000 less than it was in 2001, according to the Federal Reserve Board. A shriveled nest egg can turn a stint of unemployment from an inconvenience into a catastrophe.

A racial disparity in household wealth has left African-Americans even less secure. A recent Pew study found that white families experiencing a job loss in the past decade had amassed greater wealth than African-American families with unbroken employment.

Security is also a casualty of a restructuring in the U.S. job market. A stark example is the ?permatemp? employee. In nearly every industry?from engineering to law and accounting to journalism?the fastest-growing job category is contract workers. They are often the victims of downsizing who were given the ?opportunity? to perform their old job but without employment security or benefits and sometimes with a cut in pay. These ?labor flexibility practices? have been increasing over the past 30 to 40 years, said Susan Lambert, a University of Chicago expert on low-skilled jobs. ?Our current economic downturn has really heightened their use.?

If they make a decent income, are permatemps middle class? Not by the standards of the past. But by the diminished redefinition, maybe they are: earning a middle-class living?for the moment.

RECALIBRATING RISK

The easiest way to see how much people value stability is to look at what happens when they lose it. During the past decade, more and more Americans saw their incomes fluctuate and their savings dwindle. Even when hit with unexpected life events?a lost job, an illness?they didn?t scale back their expectations or lifestyles. Instead, they took on more debt to preserve what they could.

Outwardly, the middle class still looked vibrant. But, in reality, many of those homes, cars, and pricey college degrees weren?t emblems of affluence but rather symbols of an overextended, overleveraged economy. Political leaders were hardly bystanders in promoting a culture of debt. Washington?s response to rising income inequality was to provide easy credit to consumers and to encourage everyone to buy a home, or so Raghuram Rajan, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, argued in his 2010 book, Fault Lines.

When the Great Recession struck, millions of Americans found they could no longer keep up with the debt they had taken on, triggering a chain reaction of default and retrenchment. The suburban house was now underwater. The two cars the parents needed for work became two car loans to shoulder as gasoline prices shot up. The college education entailed loans that brought stifling debts.

?The measures of the American Dream that brought about a sense of comfort and control and pride,? Benenson said, ?became symbols of debt and risk. And that has people becoming a little more cautious, weighing risk more carefully in their lives. They have seen the consequences of taking an extra car loan or refinancing their homes. They thought the people who had tamed risk for them?banks, mortgage lenders?hadn?t done it.?

Benenson believes that many Americans have experienced a ?come to Jesus? moment regarding their personal finances and are trying to commit themselves to more prudent stewardship. After U.S. credit-card debt topped $843 billion in the first part of 2010, it has slowly but steadily fallen. Average debt loads dropped in all 50 states in 2010; last fall, Moody?s Analytics found that U.S. consumer debt had sunk to 2006 levels. Personal savings rates are finally starting to rise nationwide, after a long decline.

Signs show that hard times have also prompted Americans to reevaluate what they want out of life. Not, perhaps, at first glance. Participants in focus groups convened by the Pew Economic Mobility Project are asked to draw a picture of the American Dream. Nearly everyone?s sketch is the same?two adults, some kids, and a dog in front of a house with a fence. (Even cat owners end up drawing a dog.) It is the set of Leave It to Beaver, sans canine, unchanged since the 1950s.

And yet, ?when we delve deeper and ask people to explain what these symbols mean,? project manager Currier said, ?they are all about security. It?s being able to afford a house. Having a healthy family and kids. Living in a safe neighborhood. A pet means you can afford a little extra. You have what you need and no more. It became clear that for the individuals we spoke to, the American Dream was much more about feeling they could sleep well at night than about getting ahead.?

NO RULES

If these changes in American attitudes and behaviors merely dated to the Great Recession, they might not last. But the recession simply punctuated a set of underlying economic trends that were several decades in the making. That may be why, even as the economy has recovered, insecurity hasn?t subsided much. As in earlier business cycles, employers aren?t hiring many workers as their profits bounce back; many are looking to downsize further and scale back employee benefits.

Above all, the recession made clear that the old rules?work hard and you will be rewarded with a comfortable, stable life?are no longer in effect. ?This was a dramatic event that caused a lot of upheaval, not just financially and economically, but in terms of how they viewed the American economy overall,? Obama pollster Benenson said. ?One of the big sources of concern for the people we talked with was that they didn?t recognize any new rules in this environment. All of the rules they had learned about how you succeed, how you get ahead?those rules no longer apply, and they didn?t feel there was a set of new rules.?

No wonder Americans are skeptical that their children will be better off than they are?a core element in the American Dream. A startling 59 percent of respondents to a 2011 Pew survey said it would be harder for their children to move up the income ladder than it was for them. The path to rising higher isn?t as clear as it was.

The older, ambitious model of the American Dream has even drawn some critiques. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration said Washington should ?attempt to help all American households become homeowners.? After the housing market collapsed, the Treasury Department declared in 2011 that the Obama administration?s policy ?does not mean all Americans should become homeowners.?

A similar downsizing of dreams popped up in last year?s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, when former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania called Obama a ?snob? for thinking everyone should attend college. (Obama jumped to clarify that he meant community colleges and job training, too.) Economic research shows the advantage of a college diploma; a Georgetown University study last summer found that the unemployment rate for recent graduates of four-year colleges was 6.8 percent, compared with nearly 25 percent for recent high school grads. Even so, a majority of Americans tell pollsters (54 percent in last fall?s Heartland Monitor survey) they are skeptical that a college education is worth the burden of student loans.

Reducing one?s risk in pursuit of housing or education isn?t necessarily irrational. But a middle class that is increasingly characterized by risk aversion essentially rewrites our national narrative, the one that highlights ordinary people who take risks and create new opportunities and industries.

Scaling back may also mean accepting that people who haven?t yet made it into the middle class never will. ?A growing body of evidence suggests that the United States, far from being the land of opportunity celebrated in our history and our literature,? economist Isabel Sawhill has written, ?is instead a country where class matters after all, where upward mobility is constrained, especially among those born into the bottom ranks.? That isn?t a phrase likely to be inscribed on a national monument anytime soon, but for millions of Americans, it?s the new reality?and it hurts.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/american-dream-downsized-202010284--politics.html

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Autism risk spotted at birth in abnormal placentas

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have figured out how to measure an infant's risk of developing autism by looking for abnormalities in his/her placenta at birth, allowing for earlier diagnosis and treatment for the developmental disorder. The findings are reported in the April 25 online issue of Biological Psychiatry.

One out of 50 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the diagnosis is usually made when these children are 3 to 4 years of age or older. By then the best opportunities for intervention have been lost because the brain is most responsive to treatment in the first year of life.

Senior author Dr. Harvey Kliman, research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, and research collaborators at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, have found that abnormal placental folds and abnormal cell growths called trophoblast inclusions are key markers to identify newborns who are at risk for autism.

Kliman and his team examined 117 placentas from infants of at-risk families, those with one or more previous children with autism. These families were participating in a study called Markers of Autism Risk in Babies -- Learning Early Signs. Kliman compared these at-risk placentas to 100 control placentas collected by the UC Davis researchers from the same geographic area.

The at-risk placentas had as many as 15 trophoblast inclusions, while none of the control placentas had more than two trophoblast inclusions. Kliman said a placenta with four or more trophoblast inclusions conservatively predicts an infant with a 96.7% probability of being at risk for autism.

Currently, the best early marker of autism risk is family history. Couples with a child with autism are nine times more likely to have another child with autism. Kliman said that when these at-risk families have subsequent children they could employ early intervention strategies to improve outcomes. "Regrettably couples without known genetic susceptibility must rely on identification of early signs or indicators that may not overtly manifest until the child's second or third year of life," said Kliman.

"I hope that diagnosing the risk of developing autism by examining the placenta at birth will become routine, and that the children who are shown to have increased numbers of trophoblast inclusions will have early interventions and an improved quality of life as a result of this test," Kliman added.

Other authors on the study include Kaitlin Anderson, Kristin Milano, and Saier Ye of Yale University; and Cheryl Walker, Daniel Tancredi, Isaac Pessah, and Irva Hertz-Picciotto of UC Davis.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (1 P01 ES11269 and R01 ES 015359), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program (R829388 and R833292), the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, and the Yale University Reproductive and Placental Research Unit.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Yale University. The original article was written by Karen N. Peart.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Cheryl K. Walkera, Kaitlin W. Andersong, Kristin M. Milanoh, Saier Yei, Daniel J. Tancredie, Isaac N. Pessahc, Irva Hertz-Picciottob, Harvey J. Klimang. Trophoblast Inclusions Are Significantly Increased in the Placentas of Children in Families at Risk for Autism. Biological Psychiatry, 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.03.006

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/7OtN05U-7iQ/130425091604.htm

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Thousands honor slain MIT officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) ? Slain Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier was remembered Wednesday for his dedication to law enforcement and his love of people as thousands gathered at a campus memorial.

Vice President Joe Biden joined students, faculty and staff, and law enforcement officials from across the nation at Briggs Field for the service to honor an officer who was already well-respected by his colleagues and superiors, and popular with students after little more than a year on campus

Collier was fatally shot on April 18, three days after the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people. Authorities say he was shot by brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged Monday in his hospital room, where he is in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the throat suffered during his attempted getaway. His brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, died Friday after a gunbattle with police.

"My heart goes out to you," Biden told Collier's family. "I hope you find some solace in this time of extreme grief."

Biden called the bothers suspected in the bombings and Collier's killing "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knock-off jihadis"

He said he is constantly asked the question of why terrorists do what they do against the U.S.

"I've come to conclusion they do it to instill fear," Biden said. "To have us, in the name of our safety and security, jettison what we value most in the world, our open society, our system of justice that guarantees freedom. ... Our transparency; that's their target.

"It infuriates them that we refuse to bend, refuse to change, refuse to bend to fear."

Collier's casket was positioned in front of the thousands who gathered on a bright, sunny spring day. Music of bagpipes echoed through the field and a large American flag, suspended high about the crowd between two fire department ladder trucks, flapped slowly in the breeze.

Boston native James Taylor sang "The Water is Wide" and led a sing-along during "Shower the People."

Biden told the Colliers that no child should predecease their parents, and that better times are ahead.

"The moment will come ... when the memory of Sean is triggered and you know it's going to be OK," Biden said. "When the first instinct is to get a smile on your lips before a tear to your eye."

Andrew Collier said his 26-year-old brother would have loved everything about the day, including the bagpipes and the American flag.

"He was born to be a police officer and lived out his dream," Rogers said.

MIT President L. Rafael Reif told those gathered that Collier made countless friends on campus.

"Sean Collier didn't have a job at MIT, he had a life at MIT," Reif said. "In just 15 months, he built a life with us. He touched people across our community."

Campus Police Chief John DiFava acknowledged the risk that accompanied the position of police officer, but questioned whether the risk of a job in law enforcement needed to come with such devastation.

"Sean left a lot behind," DiFava said. "He left us a lesson: Do it right!

"If you want to cherish his memory, remember to do it right," he said.

State police said between 4,000 and 5,000 attended the service. The line of mourners stretched for about a half mile at MIT ahead of the service. They had to make their way through tight security, including metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs ahead of the service.

"He is the one of the nicest people that I've ever met," said Kelly Daumit, 35, of Seattle, an engineering student at MIT who had gone on hikes with Collier as part of the MIT Outing Club. "Everything people are saying about him is completely genuine; it's not because of what happened."

MIT employee Larry Clark said he had only talked to Collier a couple of times but wanted to pay his respects.

"It's very tough. It's still a shock," he said.

Bagpipers played "Amazing Grace" as Collier's casket was carried from the service, and there was a fly-by with three helicopters over the campus.

A funeral was held for the officer on Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/slain-mit-officer-memorialized-campus-163649349.html

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Tumblr for iOS gets new social sharing features, options to save to Instapaper and Pocket

Tumblr for iOS gets new social sharing features, options to save to Instapaper and Pocket

Ever since going native on iOS, the Tumblr app's been on the receiving end of many, many new features and improvements. Now, continuing its ongoing efforts to make the application as good as can be, the microblogging site has released a new version for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners. As of today, Tumblr for iOS will now allow posts to be shared via email and a few major social networks -- including, as you'd expect, Facebook and Twitter. In addition, v3.3.1 brings added integration with Pocket and Instapaper, giving users the ability to save content to either service for offline reading at a later time. Busy couple of days, eh, Tumblr?

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/bK3P7GnEbR0/

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Analysis: Truth and consequences - a dilemma for Twitter and its users

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Does Twitter have a credibility problem?

For many, a single fake tweet from the Associated Press account that briefly roiled financial markets on Tuesday, driving the Dow Jones industrial average down about 145 points, vividly reaffirmed the fearsome, near-instantaneous power of the 140-character message.

But the security lapse also revived doubts about Twitter's place in the media landscape - and its ultimate value - at a moment when its status as one of today's essential information networks had seemed all but cemented.

Just a week after social media networks took criticism for helping circulate misinformation about the alleged perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing, Twitter's security shortcomings fell under a harsh spotlight Tuesday after a hacker group commandeered the AP Twitter account and falsely reported that explosions in the White House had injured President Barack Obama.

The AP was only the latest hacking victim in recent days after Twitter accounts belonging to National Public Radio, CBS 60 Minutes and others were breached. Last year, Reuters News was the victim of hackers who briefly took over one of its Twitter accounts and posted false tweets.

The latest hack was by far the most significant: the single AP tweet stunned investors and effectively wiped out $136.5 billion of the S&P 500 index's value in a matter of minutes.

Although the news agency later disclosed that one of its employees may have inadvertently given away company passwords as the result of a "phishing" attack by the hackers, security experts quickly faulted Twitter for its longstanding failure to implement two-factor authentication, a double-layered password feature used by the likes of Google Inc and Microsoft Inc that might have prevented the spate of high-profile Twitter hijackings.

"It's one of those cases that we are seeing too often. It's getting unnerving," said Robert Quigley, a journalism lecturer specializing in social media at the University of Texas. "What media organizations need to do is pressure Twitter to have a more secure website."

Although Twitter has repeatedly declined to address its product roadmap, the company has signaled that it will soon unveil two-factor authentication, including a public job posting in February that suggested the company was hiring to tackle the problem.

Mark Risher, the founder of a security consultancy that counts social media companies Pinterest and Tumblr among its clients, said introducing more measures like two-factor authentication would make Twitter more cumbersome to use and potentially slow its user growth - a critical concern for a company that relies on advertising revenues. But he warned that a prolonged rash of high-profile hacks, and an eroding sense of user trust, would hurt Twitter more.

"There's always a tradeoff between convenience and safety," Risher said. "But a security issue damages Twitter's brand."

NEWSWIRE OR PLATFORM

For Twitter, the hacking has raised questions about its credibility just as it is beginning to assume a central role in a fast-changing media landscape, with the volume of tweets rising to more than 400 million a day. Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that U.S. companies may report material information such as quarterly results on Twitter, as long as investors are alerted in advance. Days later, Bloomberg L.P. said it would funnel Twitter directly into its terminals used by thousands of traders on Wall Street.

At the same time, the world's leading news organizations and Twitter, which has 200 million users around the world, have become increasingly intertwined in a symbiotic, if sometimes troublesome, relationship.

Dan Gillmor, a journalism professor at Arizona State University, said the hacks have especially hurt news outlets because their Twitter accounts are often the primary way that their news reaches consumers who may not subscribe to a newspaper or have access to a newswire.

Twitter has touted itself as a critical newswire of sorts, such as during the 2011 tsunami in Japan, when it helped emergency responders locate survivors, or when it became a vital lifeline for some New Yorkers as television sets fell dark during Hurricane Sandy last year.

But last week, in the wake of the Boston bombings, some of those who previously viewed Twitter as an indispensable news source began turning against the service upon discovering that the wisdom of crowds is, in fact, an adage not often applicable on the Internet.

Steve Brunetto, a senior executive at Edgewave, a network security company, said Tuesday's hacking undermined Twitter at a sensitive time.

"On the heels of the Boston Marathon bombing, everyone's trying to figure out, ?Okay, where does Twitter fit into that news cycle? Where does Twitter fit into disseminating information?'" Brunetto said. "They've got an opportunity to legitimize themselves as a real player in that information life cycle but they get knocked down a peg every time somebody says, ?Oh, you can't believe what you read on Twitter.'"

Jeff Jarvis, a prominent Internet pundit and a journalism professor at City University of New York, said that the confusion caused by social media in recent weeks was not an indictment of social media but rather a reminder that the onus falls on professional reporters to verify information.

"No, the Internet's not broken," Jarvis said.

The rise of social media means that "you now hear more bar-room debates and speculation than before," he added. "But that doesn't mean you should believe it more than you ever did."

Tom Schrader, managing director for U.S. equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore, said there were a lot of clues in the false AP tweet that should have kept traders from reacting, in particular the wording of the message.

"We saw it, we saw the initial reaction. Initially our reaction was, pull your bids (until we) see whether this is legit or not. We found no legitimacy to it and went back into the market as normal," he said.

Oli Freeling-Wilkinson is chief executive officer of Knowsis, a London company that picks out and amalgamates financially relevant tweets and other social media content for traders. "We do have spam controls in place, but it's an ongoing war," he said. "It's much more difficult to work out what's going on when people are hacking into official accounts, especially in the heat of the moment."

While Twitter has occasionally signaled that it believes it could become more than a passive distribution network - a shift marked by last year's purchase of Summify, a small startup that specialized in surfacing relevant news - it has also taken pains to distance itself from the content of tweets and maintain strict neutrality from a legal perspective.

Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo told an Online News Association gathering last autumn that Twitter's primary responsibility was to create a platform, rather than to play an editorial role in determining which tweets people should see.

"A company trying to build media is creating or curating content, and that's not the kind of company we're creating," Costolo said.

Gillmor, from Arizona State, said Twitter did not need to guarantee the quality or veracity of its content in order to grow into a media juggernaut.

"It's not whether Twitter is credible or not, it's what people do with it," he said. "Every news organization feels it has no alternative but to use Twitter. But everyone at the traditional news organizations has to be thinking really hard about what that means, from whether the security is sufficient on these third-party platforms to what it means to be turning part of your stuff over to new kinds of publishers."

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba, Ryan Vlastelica and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and Alina Selyukh in Washington; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-truth-consequences-dilemma-twitter-users-164545077--sector.html

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Pain Disorder & Mind/Body Approaches to Pain Management

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Source: http://mental-health.fitnessthroughfasting.com/alternative-psychology/pain-disorder-mindbody-approaches-to-pain-management.php

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Iron Man mouse fuels your hot-rod red obsession, is all about the next mission

Iron Man mouse fuels your hot-rod red obsession, is all about the next mission

Whether you're looking to instill fear in the hearts of enemies at LAN, or just want to edit spreadsheets in style, this Iron Man mouse will do everything a normal mouse can... just cooler. To capitalize on hype for the third installment of the superhero film franchise, Japanese company e-blue (aka E-3LUE) has released this gold and hot-rod red peripheral with Tony Stark's blessing (read: under official Marvel license). Two AAA batteries power the wireless mouse (some say an Arc reactor was too expensive, and fictional), which has a resolution of 1000 dpi and, most importantly, light-up eyes. For 699 Chinese yuan (roughly $113), you also get a "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart" presentation case to show it off in. We're not sure whether e-blue's mouse with make it over to the States, but instead of worrying about that, check out the Iron Man 3 trailer below to inject some excitement into Monday morning. Can we have a War Machine version now, please?

[Image Credit: PCPOP]

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Greenskies Reaches Energy Production Milestone - Business ...

The Middletown-based solar energy company has produced more than 5 million kilowatt hours of electricity.

Solar installations designed and built by Greenskies Renewable Energy, a Middletown-based solar energy company, have now produced more than 5 million kilowatt hours of electricity.

Greenskies, a company formed in Westbrook?in 2008, reached the energy production milestone on April 16, said Michael Silvestrini, the company?s president and founder.

Its current installed capacity generates enough energy to power about 1,200 average New England homes per year. By year?s end, the company?s installed capacity will be sufficient to power 3,700 average New England homes.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Greenskies solar installations have already offset approximately 7.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Energy Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, the average New England household uses 7,668 kWh per year.

Therefore, 5 million kWh would be enough energy to power about 652 New England homes. Greenskies currently has 30,000 solar panels installed and in operation across the northeastern U.S. It is on schedule to install an additional 58,000 by the end of 2013, which would bring its aggregate count to over 88,000 installed solar panels.

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Source: http://middletown-ct.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/greenskies-reaches-energy-production-milestone

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Are You In The Risk Pool For Migraines? | Natural Holistic Health Blog

Wouldn?t you like to know if you are in the risk pool for some horrible condition, so you could get out or at least know how to navigate the waters safely? What if that risk pool was for a condition that brought you pain, nausea and vomiting to the point that you found it difficult to function at work, school or at home?

That risk pool does exist for up to 17% of women and 6% of men suffering from migraines. Are you in the risk pool? Are your children going to be in the risk pool for migraines?

What are the risk factors for migraines?

If you talk to people who have already been diagnosed with migraines chances are they will admit to having other family members who have also been diagnosed or suffer from the same symptoms as they experience. Family history of migraines is one risk factor in the risk factor pool for migraine.

Other risk factors researchers and medical doctors have been studying are youth and sex. Migraines can start occurring in children and teens and women are three times as likely to experience migraines than male adults. In childhood boys and girls are relatively equal when it comes to the likelihood of getting migraines.

If you are female you may notice that you tend to get more migraines around the time of menstruation each month. Pregnant women also report that they experience more migraines during their first trimester as opposed to the rest of their pregnancy.

Those women who notice an increase in the occurrence of migraines during menstruation or during the first trimester of pregnancy, both times when hormones fluctuate greatly; are also more likely to experience an increase in migraines if they were to take birth control pills or a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) regimen.

If you notice that you are in the risk pool for migraines and experience the symptoms of migraines such as vomiting, nausea, sensitivity to light or sound, a pounding or throbbing headache that occurs on both sides of your head, one side, the forehead or the back of your neck you may do well to seek a medical diagnosis from your doctor or healthcare professional.

Taking the step to go from recognizing you are in the risk pool for migraine and receiving a diagnosis will bring you to the place where you can have a treatment plan. This plan will bring you relief and give you a measure of safety from that risk pool.

Sort of like a lifeguard at a large community pool. The swimmers feel safer knowing the lifeguard is there and in his/her place. Having a diagnosis and treatment plan is your lifeguard for your migraines.

Knowing the common risk factors and symptoms can also help to warn you of when you are loved ones are having symptoms that should be treated immediately such as a sudden and severe headache; a headache that is accompanied by fever or stiff neck, rash or confusion; a headache that is accompanied by a seizure event; chronic headaches that occur and become worse when the individual coughs, exerts themselves physically like when doing intensive exercising or strains or makes a sudden movement.

Individuals who are over age 50 and start to notice a new pattern of headaches should also be concerned enough to seek medical attention immediately.

Risk factor knowledge can warn you of the possibilities of migraine, they can help safeguard your health and keep your safe.

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About Dee Braun

Dee is an Adv. Certified Aromatherapist, Reiki Master, Adv. Color/Crystal Therapist, Herbalist, Dr. of Reflexology and single mom who is dedicated to helping others any way she can. One way she chooses to help is by offering information on the benefits and uses of natural health and healing methods for the well-being of both people and pets. Dee also teaches Aromatherapy, Reflexology and Color/Crystal Therapy at the Alternative Healing Academy

Source: http://www.natural-holistic-health.com/risk-pool-migraines/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=risk-pool-migraines

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Dempsey sparks Tottenham past Man City 3-1

LONDON (AP) ? American midfielder Clint Dempsey tied the game in the 75th minute with the first of three Tottenham goals in a seven-minute span, and Spurs rallied past Manchester City 3-1 Sunday to move the defending Premier League champions to the brink of elimination.

Manchester United (26-4-3) can clinch a record 20th English league title when it hosts Aston Villa on Monday night. City (20-5-8), which led after Samir Nasri's fifth-minute goal, trails by 13 points and has five games remaining.

Dempsey slid to poke in Gareth Bale's cross with his left leg from 2 yards, beating goalkeeper Joe Hart. In his first season with Spurs, Dempsey has six league goals and 11 overall. Jermain Defoe put Tottenham ahead in the 79th, and Bale scored in the 82nd.

Arsenal (18-7-9) is third with 63 points, one ahead of Chelsea (18-7-8), which allowed Luis Suarez's goal in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time in a 2-2 draw at Liverpool. Trying to finish among the top four and earn a berth in next season's Champions League, Tottenham (18-8-7) is fifth with 61.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dempsey-sparks-tottenham-past-man-city-3-1-171519934--sow.html

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CSN: Nats call up Rendon?with Zimmerman to DL

The Washington Nationals have announced the call-up of top prospect Anthony Rendon as third baseman Ryan Zimmerman heads to the 15-day disabled list with a sore left hamstring. Zimmerman had an MRI before the Nats' win over the Mets on Saturday afternoon.

Rendon will make his major league debut after playing just 57 minor league games over the last two seasons. He was selected by the Nationals with the sixth pick overall in the 2011 MLB Draft out of Rice University. The 22-year-old was hitting .292 with 2 HR and 7 RBI through 14 games with the Double-A Harrisburg Senators this season.

Zimmerman has missed the last two games after leaving late in the Nats' game against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. In 15 games this season Zimmerman is batting .226 with a home run and 11 RBI.?

Considered a versatile hitting prospect, Rendon stood out in spring training with four home runs and 11 RBI with a .375/.412/.875 slash in 13 games. He also played eight games with the team during spring training in 2012.

Rendon joins the Nationals who moved to 10-7 on Saturday after losing five of their previous seven games. The team's top prospect is expected to start at third and potentially provide a spark to a club battling inconsistency through three weeks this season.

Last April as the Nats were struggling to stay healthy, they called up top prospect Bryce Harper to replace Zimmerman who was dealing with shoulder inflammation. The team lost their first three games with Harper, but went on to a league-best 98 wins as the outfielder won the National League Rookie of the Year award.

Rendon will be the third player selected in the top ten of the 2011 MLB Draft to reach the majors following Baltimore's Dylan Bundy and Trevor Bauer who currently plays with the Indians.

Source: http://www.csnwashington.com/baseball-washington-nationals/talk/rendon-called-zim-heads-dl

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

TV Shows That Deserve Better Video Games - Features - www ...

It?s easy to write off a video game based on a TV show as a company?s way to cash in on the property. While not all of the games in the list below do that, most of them do. That?s a shame.

Multiple video games exist for the five shows below ? but we think they can do better. A lot better. ?

Battlestar Galactica (2004 series)

What we have: Not much. A simplistic shooter was released on Xbox Live Arcade and then later pulled from the platform. A free-to-play browser-based MMO also exists in addition to a mobile game, and all focus on space combat.

What we need: Mass Effect wouldn?t be a bad series to emulate. Running around a beautifully recreated Battlestar Galactica as Lieutenant Starbuck would be fun. Just hearing her yell ?frak? at people might be enough, but the game could also allow players to have meaningful interactions with the show?s complex world. Dogfights can take a cue from Star Fox and have little heads pop up when pilots relay messages, except it won?t be of Slippy Toad screaming for mercy as he proves his worthlessness as a pilot.?

Avatar: The Last Airbender

What we have: An assortment of terrible action games best left smoldering in the flames of one of the show?s fire benders. The games are so bad that people only remember the Xbox 360 version because it hands out 1,000 Gamerscore in less than five minutes for spamming the attack button.?

What we need: An open-world action-RPG centered on exploration with cel-shaded graphics akin to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. The world crafted in the show is easily one of the most interesting on television. There?d need to be a modest use of bending ? no wave after wave of cheap enemies unless utilized in the show?s bigger set pieces. And sky bison Appa. For the uninitiated, Appa is a flying bison from the TV show. He helps the main characters travel the world and fight the evil fire nation. So basically he is too awesome to not be included.

American Gladiators

What we have: Perhaps the best Amiga, Sega Genesis, Super NES and Nintendo Entertainment System games ever created. That last sentence is an outright lie; the NES version barely resembled the TV show, but the other versions did ? just not very well.?

What we need: This show screams Kinect game. As a downloadable title a new American Gladiators game could bring all the thrills of being a truly elite athlete right to your living room. Many of the show?s events like Joust or Hang Tough would make for a fun diversion on the Kinect. Sweaty, muscular gladiators are optional.?

[Next up: deadly fishing and aliens]

Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/04/19/tv-shows-that-deserve-better-video-games.aspx

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