Y Combinator-Backed SimplyInsured Wants To Help Small Businesses Take The Pain Out Of Health Insurance

For small businesses, buying and managing health insurance is a "pain in the buns," to quote my new favorite ad. Not only are its complicated terms, lack of transparency, slow quoting and on-boarding process and paper trail a pain in your buns, but health insurance can be a massive pain in your wallet, to boot. Hidden costs are everywhere. Y Combinator-backed SimplyInsured is launching today with a solution. Founders Vivek Shah and George Huo, who were also both early employees at YC startup Cardpool (which sold to Blackhawk Network in late 2011), have built a simple, online health insurance manager and quote engine for small businesses, which aims to explain in plain English what is or isn't working about your current plan and help you identify hidden costs and cost-savings.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vy6qkSwWyv4/

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Having Problems coping - Talk About Marriage

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Hello all. I am new to this forum and am hoping I can get some advice on my issue that I am having. I have been married for less than a year and don't know what to do anymore. Let me start from the beginning:

I met my now husband back in 2009. Everything seemed great and things couldn't have been going better. The summer of 2010 I discovered that my husband had once taken anti depressants but was not doing so anymore. I didn't think much of it at that point. The only thing I knew my husband struggled with from the beginning was anxiety which he was taking a medicine for. Later on in the relationship I found out that his mom's side of the family had some more major mental health issues going on (ie BiPolar, Major depression, etc). My husband told me he never had the same feelings that they were experiencing and at that point I let it go because for one, it wasn't any of my business what types of issues his family was going through, and he seemed normal. Once we got married in 2012 things began to slowly change. He became more distant and snapped at me easier. He decided to go back to school and left a full time job for a part time job and always stated that he was "bored". I always showed concern asking if there was anything I could do to make it better or tired to get him to open up to why he felt the way he did with being bored and distant but I would always get shut out. He didn't care that it bothered me and he became very disrespectful to me with his language and telling me to "f off", etc. He also was drinking every night, sometimes almost a 12 pack a night which really upset me because i don't like to be around that. In October I basically told him that we needed to do something about how things were going and that we needed to go and talk to someone or he needed to as he was the one that was having the anger issues and not me. I even offered to go and talk to someone as well about how I should cope with this. He eventually told me he felt like he "had a problem" and needed to go back on anti depressants. I talked to him about it and suggested that he should have a doctor decide if he needed to go down that path. He then blamed his issues on his side of the family saying that he got his problems from there. I went to the doctors (psych) with him, where he basically just told the doctor that he needed to go back on anti depressants and told him how he was feeling. Doctor also told him maybe he needed to go on Abilify for light Bi-Polar but he had to promise he was going to stop the drinking. Well, that was almost 6 months ago and he still drinks and is now taking meds for anxiety, depression and bi-polar disorder and still acts the same as how he was before going in. I don't know what to do and I feel stuck. I don't want to give up on my marriage but I don't see how I am going to be happy with my life 5 years from now if nothing changes. How he acts and treats me makes him sexually unattractive which has now started arguments about not showing enough physical attention to one another. I am now questioning if I even want to have children anymore because I don't want my children to grow up around this and have some of the same mental issues as him (I have no mental history on my side of the family). I know this is bad to say because I don't know what goes through his head but I feel he uses some of the medicine as an excuse or an escape. For example, I had a low point last spring with a job and because I wasn't as happy as I usually was he told me I just needed to go on anti-depressants and that would make everything better.....which is not right. Everyone has not so great times in their lives but that doesn't automatically mean one has to go on drugs to supposedly make things better. I just need some advice. I don't know what to do anymore I would go and talk to someone about this but my new insurance will not cover it and I can't afford it. I appreciate you taking the time to read this.

?

Source: http://talkaboutmarriage.com/anxiety-depression-relationships/68557-having-problems-coping-husband-anxiety-depression-bpd.html

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Drug Companies Start Buying Off Doctors In Med School : Easy ...

Carl Lowe | Feb 28, 2013 | Comments 0

Medical schools say they are trying to keep drug companies away from medical students. But a survey of medical students and residents shows that pharmaceutical sales reps are still sending medical students gifts, buying them meals and generally trying to bribe them with industry-sponsored educational materials.

?In medical school and residency, as trainees are learning the fundamentals of their profession, there is a need to ensure the education they receive is as unbiased as possible,? warns researcher Dr. Aaron Kesselheim of Brigham and Women?s Hospital in Boston. ?However, it is well known that promotional information and gifts from pharmaceutical companies can encourage non-evidence-based prescribing. Though many institutions have tried to insulate trainees from these effects, trainees? exposure to industry promotion is still quite high.?

The survey shows that one-third of first-year students and more than half of fourth-year students and residents report receiving industry-sponsored gifts.

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About the Author: has written about health, fitness and nutrition for a wide range of publications including Prevention Magazine, Self Magazine and Time-Life Books. The author of more than a dozen books, he has been gluten-free since 2007.

Source: http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/drug-companies-start-buying-off-doctors-in-med-school/

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Genetic tricks put a date on Homer's 'Iliad'

Biblioteca Ambrosiana via LGPN

This codex of Homer's "Iliad" was produced in the late fifth century or early sixth century.

By Joel N. Shurkin
Inside Science News Service

Scientists who decode the genetic history of humans by tracking how genes mutate have applied the same technique to one of the Western world's most ancient and celebrated texts to uncover the date it was first written.

The text is Homer's "Iliad," and Homer ? if there was such a person ? probably wrote it in 762 B.C., give or take 50 years, the researchers found. The "Iliad" tells the story of the Trojan War ? if there was such a war ? with Greeks battling Trojans.

The researchers accept the received orthodoxy that a war happened and someone named Homer wrote about it, said Mark Pagel, an evolutionary theorist at the University of Reading in England. His collaborators include Eric Altschuler, a geneticist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in Newark, and Andreea S. Calude, a linguist also at Reading and the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. They worked from the standard text of the epic poem.

The date they came up with fits the time most scholars think the "Iliad" was compiled, so the paper,?published in the journal Bioessays,?won't have classicists in a snit. The study mostly affirms what they have been saying, that it was written around the eighth century B.C.

That geneticists got into such a project should be no surprise, Pagel said.

"Languages behave just extraordinarily like genes," Pagel said. "It is directly analogous. We tried to document the regularities in linguistic evolution and study Homer's vocabulary as a way of seeing if language evolves the way we think it does. If so, then we should be able to find a date for Homer."

Who was Homer?
It is unlikely there ever was one individual man named Homer who wrote the "Iliad." Brian Rose, professor of classical studies and curator of the Mediterranean section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, said it is clear the "Iliad" is a compilation of oral tradition going back to the 13th century B.C.

"It's an amalgam of lots of stories that seemed focused on conflicts in one particular area of northwestern Turkey," Rose said.

The story of the "Iliad" is well-known, full of characters such as Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Agamemnon and a slew of gods and goddesses behaving badly. It recounts how a gigantic fleet of Greek ships sailed across the "wine dark sea" to besiege Troy and regain a stolen wife. Its sequel is Homer's "Odyssey."

Classicists and archaeologists are fairly certain Troy existed and generally know where it is. In the 19th century, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann and the Englishman Frank Calvert excavated what is known as the Citadel of Troy and found evidence of a military conflict in the 12th century B.C., including arrows and a thick layer of burned debris around a buried fortress. Rose said it's not known whether the conflict was a civil war or a struggle between Troy and a foreign foe.

The compilation we know as the "Iliad" was written centuries later, around the date Pagel is proposing.

Decoding the words
The scientists tracked the words in the "Iliad" the way they would track genes in a genome.

The researchers employed a linguistic tool called the Swadesh word list, put together in the 1940s and 1950s by American linguist Morris Swadesh. The list contains approximately 200 concepts that have words apparently in every language and every culture, Pagel said. These are usually words for body parts, colors, necessary relationships like "father" and "mother."

They looked for Swadesh words in the "Iliad" and found 173 of them. Then they measured how they changed.

They took the language of the Hittites, a people that existed during the time the war may have been fought, and modern Greek, and traced the changes in the words from Hittite to Homeric to modern. It is precisely how they measure the genetic history of humans, by going back and seeing how and when genes alter over time.

For example, they looked at cognates, words derived from ancestral words. There is "water" in English, "wasser" in German, "vatten" in Swedish, all cognates emanating from "wator" in proto-German. There are occasionally different types of linguistic mutations: For example, the Old English "hund" later became "hound," but eventually was replaced by "dog," which is not a cognate.

"I'm an evolutionary theorist," Pagel said. "I study language because it's such a remarkable culturally transmitted replicator. It replicates with a fidelity that's just astonishing."

By documenting the regularity of the linguistic mutations, Pagel and the others have given a timeline to the story of Helen and the men who died for her ? genetics meets the classics.

More Homeric history:

---

Joel Shurkin is a freelance writer based in Baltimore. He is the author of nine books on science and the history of science, and has taught science journalism at Stanford University, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

This report was published by Inside Science News Service as "Geneticists Estimate Publication Date of the 'Iliad' on Feb. 26. Copyright 2013 American Institute of Physics. Reprinted with permission.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17124075-genetic-techniques-used-on-ancient-texts-to-estimate-age-of-homers-iliad?lite

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National Eating Disorders Association Announces Results Of ...

Results Show Significant Unmet Needs for Resources on Campuses to Help Prevent & Treat Eating Disorders

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Feb. 24 ? March 2

As it launches its 26th annual National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAwareness Week) campaign, Feb. 24-March 2, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) released today the results of a recent survey conducted on college campuses.

The Collegiate Survey Project ? which was approved by Pace University?s Institutional Review Board ? finds that greater funding and resources are needed on college campuses to educate, screen and treat students struggling with eating disorders. The study was launched in response to the volume of requests NEDA receives for information about eating disorder-related services on campuses, as the rate of eating disorders among college students has risen to 10 to 20 percent of women and four to10 percent of men. Athletes were identified as a particularly underserved population on campus.

Commented Lynn Grefe, president and CEO of NEDA, ?Eating disorders are potentially life-threatening and the steady increase of prevalence on our campuses is alarming. Colleges providing the resources and support necessary for students affected by eating disorders should be applauded. However, we have also learned that more can and should be done on many campuses to serve this population.We hope that many more colleges will step up to the plate and learn from this study sooner rather than later. Taking action about eating disorders on college campuses for early intervention and support could be key to a healthy future for many students.?

In the study, respondents (campus service provider representatives) at 165 participating colleges and universities provided information on eating disorder-related programs and services, including: campus screening and awareness events; educational programs and workshops; counseling services; academic classes or programs; residence life and peer advisor programs; athlete services; and informational resources, such as articles, websites and pamphlets.

According to the survey, access to education, screenings, and mental health resources aids in prevention efforts as well as encourages affected individuals to seek proper treatment. Overall, 73 percent of the colleges surveyed offer NEDAwareness Week activities and 94.1 percent of all respondents stated it is somewhat (36.1 percent) or very/extremely (58 percent) important. While 100 percent of the respondents that offer education and screenings for athletes stated it is very/extremely important, only 2.5 percent of schools surveyed offer year-round prevention and education for athletes and only 22 percent offer screenings and referrals. Results indicate that additional funding and resources are necessary in order to meet the needs of students nationwide.

The increased pressure and stress of school and leaving home may lead to mental health problems among college students and a greater need for campus services. This is also a period of development in which disordered eating is likely to arise, resurface or worsen for many young men and women. Full-blown eating disorders typically begin between 18 and 21 years of age (Hudson, 2007). Although some students will experiment with dieting and escape unscathed, 35 percent of ?normal? dieters progress to pathological dieting. Of those, 20-25 percent progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders (Shisslak & Crago, 1995). Given that eating disorders are the mental illness with the highest mortality rate (Arcelus, 2011), early detection, intervention and treatment is extremely important and gives an individual the best chance of recovery. Help-seeking decreases significantly when people are not aware of the options available to them (Ben-Porath, 2002; Friedman, 2009; Nolen-Hoeksema, 2006; Gould, 2007).

To read the full study and to find out how NEDA is addressing the needs identified by survey respondents, visit the Collegiate Survey Project on NEDA?s website: www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/CollegiateSurveyProject

About National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

NEDAwareness Week, is an annual campaign to bring public attention to the critical needs of people with eating disorders and their families. This year?s efforts, themed Everybody Knows Somebody are already generating interest nationwide, with volunteers coordinating events throughout the country using their local media muscle to spread the word about eating disorders. During this week, hundreds of events will be held in communities coast to coast, offering an opportunity for people to gather information and learn how to support those with eating disorders. Opportunities are still available to distribute materials, purchase kits or to register to ?do just one thing? to support this national movement.

Among the events planned: Seminars and workshops, film festivals, health fairs and screenings, NEDA Walks, candlelight vigils, fundraisers, artistic performances and Great Jeans Giveaways ? to encourage people to get rid of jeans that don?t fit and to buy jeans that fit the real person.

For information on what?s happening in your community during NEDAwareness Week or how you can get involved: www.NEDAwareness.org

About the National Eating Disorders Association

The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), headquartered in New York City, is the leading U.S. non-profit organization supporting individuals and families affected by eating disorders. NEDA serves as a catalyst for prevention, cures and access to quality care. Each year, NEDA helps millions of people across the country find information and appropriate treatment resources through its toll-free, live helpline, its many outreach programs and website. NEDA advocates for advancements in the field and envisions a world without eating disorders. For more information, visit www.MyNEDA.org

- Submitted by Kelly Williams

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/national-eating-disorders-association-announces-results-of-college-survey/

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Diane Lane Divorce: Papers Already Filed, Separation Took Place Months Ago

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/diane-lane-divorce-papers-already-filed-separation-took-place-mo/

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Yankees OF Granderson breaks arm, out 10 weeks

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Curtis Granderson jogged to first base after being hit on his right forearm as if it was a minor annoyance. Back at the ballpark in a brace a couple of hours later, it was clear the New York Yankees had a pretty big power problem on their hands.

In his first at-bat of spring training, the slugger broke his arm when he hit by a pitch from Toronto's J.A. Happ in the bottom of the first inning Sunday, and is expected to be out until the first week of May.

"Grandy is not a bat you say is easy to replace, but we're going to have to find a way," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "No one is going to feel sorry for you."

The Yankees, who were beat 2-0 by a Blue Jays' split squad, first called it a bruise but X-rays revealed the break.

"Five pitches in we got a little setback," Granderson said. "Now we rest, recovery, get it back, and get ready to play whenever that day comes."

The team said Granderson could be out 10 weeks, which means he'll miss about a month of the regular season.

"Mentally, you understand this is part of it, but at the same time now there's not much I can do about it except do the best things I can to not make it worse," Granderson said. "Keep myself ready to go."

It's a major blow for the Yankees, who are already without Alex Rodriguez until at least the All-Star break. The Yankees also lost Nick Swisher to free agency.

Granderson led New York with 43 homers last season. The Yankees hit 245 homers last year and had five players with at least 20. This year they could open the season with just two players, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano, who topped 20.

Granderson was examined near first base before leaving the game.

"It didn't sound good," said Yankees third baseman Kevin Youkilis, who was in the on-deck circle when Granderson got hit.

The Yankees were planning to experiment during exhibition games to see if they would move Granderson from center to left, with Brett Gardner going from left to center. That potential alignment is on hold.

Girardi said that Gardner will likely start the season in center.

Matt Diaz and Juan Rivera, in the competition for the fourth outfielder spot, could see increased playing time.

"We'll be forced to take a look at a short-term option," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "Obviously, we'll being get Curtis back. It's very early. We're still evaluating what we actually have in camp. The first month there will be a vacancy that we need to fill. Is that internal, external, I couldn't even tell you."

Cashman said he is not in favor of giving infielder Eduardo Nunez a look in left field.

Happ, coming back from foot surgery, went two scoreless innings, giving up three hits.

"The first inning, I was rushing a little bit, and not quite getting the extension I needed," Happ said. "Going out for that second inning I felt much better. I was taking my body toward home instead of first there."

Happ reached out to Granderson before the ourfielder left the stadium for X-rays.

"Definitely not throwing on purpose, he's trying to work on coming inside," Granderson said. "It's a part of the game. Sometime you get hit. You just hope you get hit in a better spot."

Projected as the team's sixth starter, Happ had a 10-11 record with a 4.79 ERA in 24 starts and four relief appearances last season.

Yankees starter Adam Warren threw two hitless innings. The right-hander hit Brett Lawrie with a pitch in the second, which he said got away from him.

"Tried to go in with a fastball," Warren said.

NOTES: One-time two-sport standout Drew Henson, who played quarterback at the University of Michigan and eight games with the Yankees, will be the new hitting coach for New York's second team in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. It's his first pro coaching assignment. "I think he'll be real good at it," Yankees first base coach Mick Kelleher said. "Has a great mind. An analyzer." Kelleher was New York's roving minor league infield coach when Henson was in the minors. ... Blue Jays LHP Brett Cecil allowed three hits over two scoreless innings.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/yankees-granderson-breaks-arm-10-weeks-202949647--mlb.html

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In A Play For More HTML5 Muscle, Intel Buys appMobi?s HTML5 Developer Tools, Leaving appMobi To Focus On The Cloud

Intel will not be left out of the party when it comes to being central in the mobile app ecosystem. The company today acquired a set of HTML5 development tools, originally created by appMobi and used by some 150,000 developers, and has hired staff from appMobi that worked on the product to continue to maintain it. appMobi, meanwhile, is going to forge ahead as a standalone company, focused on the remaining part of its business as a provider of cloud services for mobile applications. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition was first made public by appMobi in a letter sent out to the 150,000+ developers that use its platform. A copy of that letter was sent to TechCrunch and is below. In it, appMobi spells out the basics of what Intel has now taken under its wing. In short, it’s a set of app creation and testing tools that cover mobile web, Windows 8 and Windows Phone, iOS, Android and more. The HTML5 development tools acquired by Intel include appMobi’s XDK IDE, PhoneGap XDK, GameDev XDK, jqMobi and jqUI mobile development frameworks, directCanvas HTML5 acceleration, appStarter and appSnap app creation tools, OpenBuild and chromeBuild hybrid app packagers, debugMobi and testAnywhere on-device debugging tools, Mobius enhanced web browser, Windows 8/ Windows Phone 8 app templates, appLab test containers for iOS and Android, and Facebook and Twitter authentication and connection libraries. appMobi, it appears, is getting at least part of its payment in the form of an ongoing strategic relationship with Intel. These development tools will remain tied to the cloud services that appMobi will continue to operate, which include cross-platform solutions for mobile app monetization on iOS, Android, Windows 8 and HTML5, covering both desktop and mobile. It’s not clear exactly why appMobi, which has raised $8.1 million in VC funding to date, decided to sell this part of their business to Intel, but it is likely that the cloud portion of appMobi’s business, tied in as it is with monetizing apps and other services, may have been yielding better returns for the company. On the other hand, Intel has long been courting mobile app developers and wanting to grow its influence in mobile (both externally though projects like AppUp and of course chips, but also internally) and this gives the company one more route to connecting with them and developing those relationships. In that regard, it’s

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5QXHXDKpsL4/

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Displaced who stay in Syria get little aid

In this Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 photo, Syrian refugee women, wash their laundry in front of a Turkish military base, seen in the background, at Atmeh refugee camp in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, Syria. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war. But the U.N. and other major aid agencies best equipped to handle such a large-scale relief agency cannot reach them because they are inside Syria. That leaves the job to smaller organizations who can only provide a fraction of the needs. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 photo, Syrian refugee women, wash their laundry in front of a Turkish military base, seen in the background, at Atmeh refugee camp in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, Syria. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war. But the U.N. and other major aid agencies best equipped to handle such a large-scale relief agency cannot reach them because they are inside Syria. That leaves the job to smaller organizations who can only provide a fraction of the needs. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 photo, Syrian refugee girls carry over their heads buckets of water as they walk at Atmeh refugee camp, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, Syria. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war. But the U.N. and other major aid agencies best equipped to handle such a large-scale relief agency cannot reach them because they are inside Syria. That leaves the job to smaller organizations who can only provide a fraction of the needs. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 photo, a Syrian refugee rides his motorcycle with his son at Atmeh refugee camp, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, Syria. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war. But the U.N. and other major aid agencies best equipped to handle such a large-scale relief agency cannot reach them because they are inside Syria. That leaves the job to smaller organizations who can only provide a fraction of the needs.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 photo, a Syrian refugee woman, left, pours water over her husband's head, right, who takes a shower at Atmeh refugee camp, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, Syria. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war. But the U.N. and other major aid agencies best equipped to handle such a large-scale relief agency cannot reach them because they are inside Syria. That leaves the job to smaller organizations who can only provide a fraction of the needs.. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 photo, Syrian refugees carry a bucket of water as they walk at Atmeh refugee camp, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, Syria. This rebel-controlled camp only yards from the border with Turkey houses some 16,000 people displaced by the civil war. But the U.N. and other major aid agencies best equipped to handle such a large-scale relief agency cannot reach them because they are inside Syria. That leaves the job to smaller organizations who can only provide a fraction of the needs. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

ATMEH CAMP, Syria (AP) ? Turki Abdel Qadir, a burly villager from the northern countryside, fled to this muddy camp amid olive groves three months ago after his 13-year-old daughter Haifa was wounded in the civil war.

Just yards from Syria's border with Turkey, the family lives in one of the camp's typical tents. Eleven people sleep on pads on the floor, surrounding a wood-burning stove with a makeshift chimney. Other tents, no bigger than a small bedroom, hold 30.

Their diet is largely bread, supplemented by vegetables bought with the salary Abdel Qadir earns as a rebel fighter.

"It's a little bit better than death," he said of their living conditions.

The rebel-controlled Atmeh camp houses 16,000 people displaced by the civil war.

But the U.N., the organization best equipped to handle such a large-scale relief effort, is legally barred from operating there because the camp is inside Syrian territory.

That leaves the job to smaller organizations that can only provide a fraction of the residents' needs.

The inability of aid agencies to do anything more for Atmeh, let alone for the hundreds of thousands of other Syrians living in even more dire conditions in less visible locations, has come to stand for the ineffectiveness of the international community in dealing with the Syrian crisis.

Nearly two years of fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad has left an estimated 3 million people displaced within Syria and hundreds of thousands more have fled the country to seek refuge in neighboring states.

U.N. resolutions prevent the UNHCR, the world's main refugee agency, from delivering aid inside Syria.

Valerie Amos, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, said in a news conference Tuesday that the group is bound by a 1991 General Assembly resolution that "makes it absolutely clear that in delivering humanitarian aid, you have to seek the consent of the affected country."

"The government of Syria has made it very clear that they will not accept materials coming over from the border with Turkey. So without a separate Security Council resolution, the United Nations and its partners are not able to come across that border," she said.

Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said there is a de facto partition of the country between rebels and government. But aid agencies continue to use methods that assume that sovereign powers hold this territory.

In absence of U.N. aid, Syria's Red Crescent ? a Damascus-based organization shunned by the rebels who supervise Atmeh ? is technically responsible for the camp inhabitants.

A first convoy from the Red Crescent arrived at the camp in early February, but was turned back at the gate, rejected by residents.

"No free Syrian would accept anything from Bashar," said Wifaf Abu Zeid, wife of Abdel Qadir.

In the shadow of a Turkish border post, Atmeh camp residents live in tents pitched in olive groves churned into mud, blanketed with the smoke of wood fires that are the only means of keeping warm in the deep of winter.

Residents now have tents and stoves provided by aid agencies. That is a big step forward from the camp's beginnings in August, when it was just families sleeping out in the trees under the rain.

But the camp residents ? many of them villagers, farmers or day laborers ? still face hunger, squalor, cold, and boredom. And sometimes tragedy.

A camp resident named Manar left her two small children alone in their tent for just five minutes to go to the bathroom one night last month.

She returned to find their tent in flames ? a candle had set it on fire. Her 4-year-old daughter, Diaa, and 5-year-old son, Fathi, suffered severe burns that they soon died from.

"It all happened in five minutes. I was in the toilet," she said.

"We flee the strikes of Assad, and we die here."

Manar asked to be identified by her first name only out of fear for her security.

Camp administrators who work under the supervision of rebels say deaths such as these are rare.

And administrators say that diarrhea and other water-borne diseases, a scourge of families on the move, have passed the camp over.

Residents say food is provided by the Turkish Red Crescent, and dozens of other private NGOs and individuals provide other supplies ranging from medicines to educational supplies, without the regime's approval.

To get around regime restrictions on humanitarian aid within the country, some groups get simply dump goods just on the Turkish side of the border.

Other NGOs fear outbreaks of disease.

The U.N. warned in a report released Monday that contaminated water and poor hygiene practices in populated areas of Syria have led to an increase in waterborne illnesses such as Hepatitis A and Typhoid.

"We need a worldwide effort, an international effort," said Ziyad al-Rawar, an Atmeh camp administrator.

The camp survived a miserable, cold, rainy, muddy winter.

But al-Rawar said the population is growing by 10 to 15 families each day. It already burgeoned from about 12,000 in November to 16,000 currently.

Al-Rawar fears that when summer comes, camp residents will fight over water.

In Atmeh, as elsewhere in Syria, rebels and civilians are intertwined. Armed fighters come and go in the camp.

Almost every family has someone in the rebel battalions, not least because this is often their only source of income.

___

Twitter account, (at)SteveNegusMasr

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-22-Syria-Displaced/id-06050b08dfd04044982499d719744e8a

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Obama considers weighing in on gay marriage case

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration is quietly considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage, a step that would mark a political victory for advocates of same-sex unions and a deepening commitment by President Barack Obama to rights for gay couples.

Obama raised expectations among opponents of the Proposition 8 ban when he declared in last month's inaugural address that gays and lesbians must be "treated like anyone else under the law." The administration has until Feb. 28 to intervene in the case by filing a "friend of the court" brief.

The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 and overturned a state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and Washington, D.C., recognize same-sex marriage.

An administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the Justices but the federal government's opinion does carry weight with the court.

A final decision on whether to file a brief has not been made, a senior administration official said. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli is consulting with the White House on the matter, said the official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to address the private deliberations publicly.

While the Justice Department would formally make the filing, the president himself is almost certain to make the ultimate decision on whether to file.

"I have to make sure that I'm not interjecting myself too much into this process, particularly when we're not a party to the case," Obama said Wednesday in interview with San Francisco's KGO-TV.

He said his personal view is that gay couples should have the same rights as straight couples and said his administration would do whatever it could to promote that principle.

Obama has a complicated history on gay marriage. As a presidential candidate in 2008, he opposed the California ban but didn't endorse gay marriage. As he ran for re-election last year, he announced his personal support for same-sex marriage but said marriage was an issue that should be decided by the states, not the federal government.

To some, Obama's broad call for gay rights during his Jan. 21 inaugural address was a signal that he now sees a federal role in defining marriage.

"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law," Obama said during his remarks on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. "For if we are truly created equal, than surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."

But administration officials said Obama ? a former constitutional law professor ? was not foreshadowing any legal action in his remarks and was simply restating his personal belief in the right of gays and lesbians to marry.

Seeking to capitalize on growing public support for gay marriage, advocates are calling on the administration to file a broad brief not only asking the court to declare California's ban unconstitutional but also urging the Justices to make all state bans illegal.

"If they do make that argument and the court accepts it, the ramifications could be very sweeping," said Richard Socarides, an attorney and advocate.

The administration could also file a narrower brief that would ask the court to issue a decision applying only to California. Or it could decide not to weigh in on the case at all.

The Supreme Court, which will take up the case on March 26, has several options for its eventual ruling. Among them:

? The justices could uphold the state ban on gay marriage and say citizens of a state have the right to make that call.

? The court could endorse an appeals court ruling that would make same-sex marriage legal in California but apply only to that state.

? The court could issue a broader ruling that would apply to California and seven other states: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island. In those states, gay couples can join in civil unions that have all the benefits of marriage but cannot be married.

? The broadest ruling would be one that says the Constitution forbids states from banning same-sex unions.

For weeks, supporters and opponents of Proposition 8 have been lobbying the administration to side with them.

Last month, Theodore Olson and David Boies, lawyers arguing for gay marriage, met with Verrilli and other government lawyers to urge the administration to file a brief in the case. A few days later, Charles Cooper, the lawyer defending Proposition 8, met with the solicitor general to ask the government to stay out of the case. Those kinds of meetings are typical in a high court case when the government is not a party and is not asked by the court to make its views known.

Boies and Chad Griffin, president of the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, also had a meeting at the White House on the case.

Ahead of next week's deadline, nearly two dozen states have filed briefs with the Supreme Court asking the Justices to uphold the California measure.

"There's a critical mass of states that have spoken out and believe states should continue to have the right to define marriage as between one man and one woman," said Jim Campbell, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents supporters of Proposition 8.

Public opinion has shifted in support of gay marriage in recent years. In May 2008, Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans felt same-sex marriages should not be recognized by the law as valid. By November 2012, some 53 percent felt they should be legally recognized.

Obama has overwhelming political support among those who support same-sex marriage. Exit polls from the November election showed that 49 percent of voters believed their states should legally recognize gay marriage. More than 70 percent of those voters backed Obama over Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

One day after the court hears the California case, the justices will hear arguments on another gay marriage case, this one involving provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA. The act defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.

The Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law in 2011 but continues to enforce it. Because DOMA is a federal law and the government is a party to the case, the administration does not have to state its opposition through a friend of the court brief.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-considers-weighing-gay-marriage-case-221057770--politics.html

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Dow bounces from 2-day slide to a 3-digit gain

In this Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, photo, a trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, photo, a trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Strong earnings from big U.S. companies pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to a rare triple-digit gain Friday, but the S&P 500 index still posted its first weekly loss of the year.

Hewlett-Packard had the biggest gain in the Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 index. It posted fiscal first-quarter earnings late Thursday that beat all forecasts, a relief after months of bad news for the computer maker. H-P rose $2.10, or 12.3 percent, to $19.20.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. was the S&P 500's second-best performer, jumping a day after reporting earnings that beat analysts' expectations. It rose $5.95, or 11.1 percent, to $59.81.

American International Group Inc. rose after its fourth-quarter operating results exceeded analysts' forecasts. The company's net loss was $4 billion, mainly because of claims related to Superstorm Sandy, in the first full quarter after it finished repaying its $182 billion government bailout. AIG rose $1.17, or 3.1 percent, to $38.45.

The Dow closed up 119.95 points, or 0.9 percent, at 14,000.57 ? its third-biggest gain this year. The S&P 500 rose 13.18 points, also 0.9 percent, to 1,515.60. The Nasdaq composite index rose 30.33, or 1 percent, to 3,161.82.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed slightly lower for the week, while the Dow edged higher.

Bill Stone, chief investment strategist with PNC Wealth Management, said he expects stocks to hold up despite this week's volatility.

"You're going to get bumps and bruises along the way, but we do believe things are actually getting better, so I think there's underlying demand" for stocks, Stone said.

Spooked investors sent stocks plunging Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting revealed disagreement over how long to keep buying bonds in an effort to boost the economy. The slide continued Thursday. The Dow lost 155 points over those two days.

Many analysts say the Fed's bond-buying and resulting low interest rates have driven this year's stock rally, which lifted indexes to their highest levels since before the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow is now just 164 points below its record close of 14,164 reached in October 2007.

U.S. stocks followed European stocks higher after a survey of German business optimism rose sharply, adding to evidence that the country will avoid a recession. Germany's economic vitality is crucial for the beleaguered region, offsetting economic contraction in surrounding countries.

"Germany is really the bedrock," Stone said. "If it gives way, then you have real problems."

France's CAC-40 closed up 2.2 percent, Germany's DAX 1 percent.

Among other stocks moving on corporate news:

? Abercrombie & Fitch sank after a key sales metric declined in the all-important holiday quarter. The stock fell $2.19, or 4.5 percent, to $46.86.

? WebMD Health Corp. soared after the health website operator reported better-than-expected revenue and an optimistic outlook for 2013. The stock rose $4.14, or 25.4 percent, to $20.44.

? Texas Instruments Inc. rose strongly after saying it will increase its dividend by one-third and buy back up to $5 billion more of its own stock. TI gained $1.70, or 5.2 percent, to $34.18.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports .

Associated Press

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Angela Logomasini, Ph.D.: 'Cancer Prevention Tips' to Avoid

If you want to reduce your cancer risks, be careful what advice you follow. A number of activist groups offer a range of cancer-fighting tips that don't mesh with the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) latest report on cancer trends.

For example, the Breast Cancer Fund explains on its website: "It's clear that our exposures to toxic chemicals and radiation are connected to our breast cancer risk." The group suggests that consumers avoid certain nail polishes, baby bottles, cleaning supplies and other consumer products.

The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) "cancer prevention tips" say we should: filter tap water, seal decks, avoid stain repellants, avoid many sunscreens, cut down on fatty meat to avoid "cancer-causing pollutants," avoid some fruits and vegetables because of trace pesticides, use only EWG-approved cosmetics, and read government warning labels about chemicals in consumer products.

But none of these "tips" will help a single soul, because they focus on phantom risks. If trace chemicals were a significant cancer cause, cancer rates would rise with increased chemical use, but the opposite is true.

In its "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer," the NCI reports that since 1975 cancer incidence has continued to decline among men and has declined for women until 2006, after which rates stabilized. In addition, thanks to earlier detection and treatment, mortality has continued to decline for both sexes.

NCI data also challenge activist attempts to link breast cancer to chemicals. It reports that breast cancer has stabilized after "sharply decreasing" following the reduction of hormone replacement therapy, and survival trends are very positive. A woman with breast cancer in the late 1970s had a 75 percent chance of surviving five or more years, while today she has a 90 percent chance, according to data on NCI's website.

While stable for other groups of women, breast cancer incidents increased for black and Asian and Pacific Islander women in recent years. NCI identifies the likely causes as: "reproductive factors and postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy, obesity after menopause, weight gain throughout life, and alcohol consumption." Chemicals are not listed among these likely causes.

The American Cancer Society posts a similar list of breast cancer causes on their website and also notes: "... at this time research does not show a clear link between breast cancer risk and exposure to things like plastics, certain cosmetics and personal care products, and pesticides."

In addition to breast cancer, activists say chemicals are increasing childhood cancer rates. However, NCI reports that cancer rates among children "have continued to decrease since 1975, although the decrease was briefly interrupted from 1998 to 2003." Short-term increases of childhood cancer are hard to explain, but because childhood cancer is rare, even relatively small variations can shift trends for a few years.

Some such increases may be related to improved detection and better reporting of cases. For example, while environmental activists claimed chemicals were to blame for an increase in childhood brain cancer in the 1990s, the NCI maintained that rates were actually stable but new detection technology made it possible to discover more cases.

Nonetheless, the cause of childhood cancers remain unknown and complex, NCI notes. Activists may try to connect childhood cancer to chemicals, but there isn't evidence to draw that conclusion.

In fact, trace chemicals are low on the list of possible cancer causes in the widely-recognized landmark research conducted by Richard Doll and Richard Peto. They list the most likely cancer causes to include tobacco (about 30 percent), dietary choices (35 percent), infections, natural radiation, and sexual behavior. All pollution -- air, water, pesticide residues, and trace chemicals in products -- may account for about 2 percent. Although included within the "pollution" category, it is not clear that trace chemicals are the cause of any cancers.

Hence, the battle against cancer should be fought on two fronts: prevention through lifestyle changes and treatment. For example, the NCI's special focus this year on cancers caused by human papillomavirus underscores how behavior changes along with treatment vaccines could greatly reduce cancers of the oropharynx/throat, vulva, and anus -- all of which have risen in recent years.

Trying to fight cancer by banning, regulating, or simply avoiding chemicals is foolish and, ultimately, dangerous because it diverts our focus and funding from the real solutions.

Angela Logomasini, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

?

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Video: Savannah proves women can talk, and talk, and?

>>> girl talk . do women really have nor say than men? research finds that may be true. i don't know. i don't think that really is exactly what happens here. i think women just like to talk. they have some opinion this is a want to express and -- squeaky noise -- i don't see a problem with that. for many of us talking just comes naturally. any way, we have a lot to chew on, don't we. thursday february 21 , 2013 .

>>> from nbc news, this is "today" with matt lauer and savannah guthrie . live from studio 1a in

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50886059/

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Lanza Had Sensory Processing Disorder

From the time he was little, Adam Lanza couldn't bear to be touched. By middle school, the chaos and noise of large, bustling classrooms began to upset him. At 20, just before the Newtown shootings, he was isolated and, the world would later learn, disturbed.

All this was revealed in "Raising Adam Lanza," an investigative report by the Hartford Courant in partnership with the PBS news program FRONTLINE, which aired Tuesday night.

Before the age of 6, Lanza had been diagnosed with a controversial condition, "sensory integration disorder" -- now known as sensory processing disorder, according to the report.

Those with sensory processing disorder or SPD may over-respond to stimuli and find clothing, physical contact, light, sound or food unbearable. They may also under-respond and feel little or no reaction to pain or extreme hot and cold. A third form involves sensory motor problems that can cause weakness and clumsiness or delay in developing motor skills.

In Photos: Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, Mourning

Whether SPD is a distinct disorder or a collection of symptoms pointing to other neurological deficits, most often anxiety or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has been debated by the medical community for more than two decades.

Parents Cope With Sandy Hook Students' Return to School Watch Video National Rifle Association Calls for Armed Security at Schools Watch Video Nurse Sues Michigan Hospital for Discrimination Watch Video

No one will know why the withdrawn Lanza shot his mother four times in her own bed, then went to Sandy Hook Elementary School to slaughter six women and 20 first-graders before taking his own life on Dec. 14, 2012.

But this report, the most detailed account to date on his troubled life, paints a picture of a child coping with special needs and a mother, "devoted but perhaps misguided," struggling unsuccessfully to help.

"The most surprising thing for me was this sort of inwardness of Adam, a world view of someone that was afraid of the world," said show producer Frank Koughan. "He just reacted badly to the whole world and didn't want to be part of it. He was not some violent monster, except on one particular day, when he was exceedingly monstrous."

The investigative team interviewed family and friends of the shooter's parents, Nancy and Peter Lanza, and reviewed a decade's worth of messages and emails from his mother to close friends, describing her son's socially awkward behavior.

"Adam was a quiet kid. He never said a word," Marvin LaFontaine, a friend of Nancy Lanza, told them. "There was a weirdness about him and Nancy warned me once at one of the Scout meetings ? 'Don't touch Adam.' She said he just can't stand that. He'd become teary-eyed and I think he would run to his mother."

In 1998, the Lanzas left their home in New Hampshire for Connecticut with Adam, who had already been diagnosed with the sensory disorder and was "coded" with an individual education plan, according to a family member who did not want to be identified by FRONTLINE.

"It was somebody well-placed who was completely in a position to know," said Koughan, 45, a veteran journalist who produced the film, "Drop-Out Nation."

Lanza didn't recognize pain, another feature of some types of SPD. He couldn't cope with loud noise, confusion or change, which would cause him to "shut down," according to the report.

"He'd almost go into a catatonic kind of state, which is another reason why in hindsight, he didn't seem like a threat to anybody," said Koughan. "He didn't lash out or beat up kids. He went within himself, until one day he didn't."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/newtown-shooter-adam-lanza-sensory-processing-disorder-controversial/story?id=18532645

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Former NOLA mayor pleads not guilty to federal corruption charges

Matthew Hinton / AP

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin arrives at the Hale Boggs Federal Building and U.S. District Courthouse to appear in federal court for an arraignment on public corruption charges in New Orleans.

By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded not guilty to a slew of federal corruption charges Wednesday afternoon, including bribery, conspiracy, and money laundering.

Nagin, 56, who gained national?prominence after Hurricane Katrina devastated his city,?is accused of accepting bribes or kickbacks from three prominent city contractors while New Orleans struggled to?recover from the disaster.?The graft schemes?included $50,000 in free granite for Nagin's family countertop business?and nine wire-transfer payoffs totaling $112,500.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan set Nagin's trial for April 29 at 10 a.m. The former mayor's bond was set at $100,000 during Wednesday's arraignment. His travel is confined to Louisiana and Texas, where Nagin now lives.

Wednesday's afternoon in court was his first public appearance since a federal grand jury delivered a 21-count public corruption indictment in January, Reuters reported.

Two of three city contractors who allegedly bribed Nagin -- Frank Fradella and Rodney Williams -- have signed plea deals that require them to testify against Nagin at his trial this spring.

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Williams has acknowledged a graft scheme in which he gave Nagin and his sons?$72,500 in cash in exchange for the mayor's promise to direct city engineering contracts to Williams' former firm, Three Fold Consultants. Fradella has admitted to bribing Nagin with $50,000 and gifting him at least two truckloads of granite to Stone Age, LLC, Nagin's family countertop concern.

A third contractor, technology vendor Mark St. Pierre, is currently serving out a nearly 18-year prison sentence for bribing Greg Meffert, Nagin's one-time chief technology officer, who pleaded guilty to conducting under-the-table deals?with St. Pierre.

Nagin, a former cable TV executive, emerged on the political scene in 2002, with his first successful run for the top spot at City Hall. He was a fixture of news coverage after Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, known for his brash and unorthodox style.

But after Nagin was re-elected for a second term in 2006, he was criticized for what was widely seen as a slow post-Katrina recovery and fell out of favor with many of his constituents.

Mitch Landrieu, who ran against Nagin in the 2006 election cycle,?succeeded him in 2010. Term limits prevented Nagin from seeking a third stint in office.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/20/17033334-former-new-orleans-mayor-pleads-not-guilty-to-federal-corruption-charges?lite

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Monster goldfish found in Lake Tahoe probably dumped from aquarium

Monster goldfish found: A?nearly 18-inch, 4.2-pound goldfish discovered in the depths of Lake Tahoe is not a native species, say scientists.

By Tanya Lewis,?LiveScience / February 21, 2013

Gigantic goldfish, like this one held by University of Nevada, Reno, researcher Christine Ngai, have been found in the waters of Lake Tahoe.

Heather Segale

Enlarge

A new kind of lake monster has been found, in the depths of Lake Tahoe: gigantic goldfish. Researchers trawling the lake for invasive fish species scooped up a goldfish that was nearly 1.5 feet long and 4.2 pounds.

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"During these surveys, we've found a nice corner where there's about 15 other goldfish," environmental scientist Sudeep Chandra of the University of Nevada, Reno, told LiveScience. "It's an indication that they were schooling and spawning." The arrival of the fish, which were probably dumped there by aquarium owners, has Chandra worried ? goldfish are aninvasive species?that could interfere with Lake Tahoe's ecosystem.

It's unclear whether the giant fish were introduced as fully grown adults, or while they were still small, Chandra said. But even a small creature can have a big impact, if there are enough of them.

The goldfish are just one of several species of invasive warm-water fishes in?Lake Tahoe. "The invasion is resulting in the consumption of native species," Chandra said. What's more, the invasive fish excrete nutrients that cause algal blooms, which threaten to muddy Tahoe's clear waters. [Photos: Giant Goldfish & Other Freaky Fish]

Fish out of water

Aquarium dumping has become a common practice in the United States and elsewhere, and it's taking a toll on native wildlife. A recent reporton?California's aquarium trade?found that fish owners and importers are introducing hardy, nonnative aquatic species to California waters. "Globally, the aquarium trade has contributed a third of the?world's worst aquatic and invasive species," Williams, who was lead author of the report, told OurAmazingPlanet, a sister site of LiveScience, in January.

While the exact number of aquarium owners dumping fish is unknown, scientists know the practice is occurring because these species could not have ended up in these waters naturally. Between 20 percent and 69 percent of fish keepers surveyed in Texas admitted to dumping, according to Williams.

Other ways that invasive species find their way into natural ecosystems include aquaculture, live seafood, live bait, and fishing and recreation vessels. More than 11 million nonnative marine organisms representing at least 102 species arrive at ports in San Francisco and Los Angeles alone, Williams has found.

The invaders include tropical fish, seaweed and snails. One of the nastiest is a deadly type of seaweed known asCaulerpa. A type of?algae that produces toxic compounds?that kill off fish,?Caulerpa?was eradicated in 2000 (at great expense) from lagoons in Southern California.

Aquarium owners should be more careful when disposing of unwanted fish and other animals, Williams cautioned. "It's pretty simple: Don't dump your fish," she said. Instead, she suggests calling the pet shop that sold the fish or your state department of fish and wildlife. (Euthanasia is another option, but simply flushing fish down the toilet can be problematic ? for the fish and for your plumbing.)

So why do people dump fish? Studies of dumping have shown that size and aggressiveness of the fish are two main factors, Williams said.

The?largest pet goldfish, according to the BBC, was a fish named Goldie that was 15 inches (38 cm) long and weighed more than 2 pounds (0.9 kg).

Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.?

Copyright 2013?LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/x-LZ3iaRnqQ/Monster-goldfish-found-in-Lake-Tahoe-probably-dumped-from-aquarium

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[Guest Post] Are ICT jobs decreasing in Mauritius?

Hello!

I have just got my Advanced Diploma in IT last week, aiming at a top-up degree later in a UK university later on, once I get a job to save some money aside.?Like most people in the IT industry, I have my own speciality too, or if you want, areas in which I do better. Mine are web design (Front-end development) and web marketing. I can teach as well.

After hunting on several recruitment sites, such as Myjob, I did notice some companies recruiting but most of them are looking for potential candidates with years of experience as requirement. As a fresh guy in the market, I find myself among the hundreds others who will be fighting for the few jobs vacancies left.

I remember very well of the time when many IT companies were massively recruiting software engineers, SAP professionals, Web developers and designers, and much more. But since some months now, things have changed. There has been a considerable decrease in the number of vacancies as well as the skills and experience demanded.

I am NOT saying these companies are not recruiting, of course, they still do, BUT, they are not doing it like in the past. Some reasons why I think they might be recruiting less are :

• Perhaps these companies have got sufficient people, so, they are not recruiting too much.
• Perhaps these companies prefer to recruit less Mauritians for some reasons
• Perhaps these companies are not making more profits, so they are not recruiting anymore

The vision of the government

With the vision of the Government to have at least one graduate per household, I?m asking myself lots of questions. Will the market able to absorb all those recently graduated students? Do they have any hope to get a job once their studies have been completed?

Right now, I am pretty worried! While some of my classmates have succeeded in getting a temporary job as a receptionist or even another one is doing metal works, I am constantly checking those web sites for new opportunities. Perhaps I may be luckier, or not. Only time will tell but meanwhile, I still need to rely on my parents who already have taken loans to get myself a good education.

Any hope for the youngsters of this country?

From a reader.

Few hours left? Don?t forget, there are free iPhone skins and some stickers to get freely. Click on the image below:

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Conserving corals by understanding their genes

Feb. 20, 2013 ? In reef-building corals variations within genes involved in immunity and response to stress correlate to water temperature and clarity, finds a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Genetics. This information could be used to conserve or rebuild reefs in areas affected by climate change, by changes in extreme weather patterns, increasing sedimentation or altered land use.

A research team led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and in collaboration with Penn State University and the Aix-Marseille University, studied DNA variations (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, SNPs) across populations of reef corals found at a range of temperatures and water clarity along the Great Barrier Reef.

SNPs which correlated to water clarity and water temperature preferred by cauliflower coral were found in genes involved in providing immune response, and regulating stress-induced cell-death. This means that coral with a specific version of these genes tended to grow at higher temperatures (or water clarity) and another variant at lower. A similar story was found for staghorn coral -- SNP in genes involved in detoxification, immune response, and defense against reactive oxygen damage, were found to be associated with temperature or to water clarity.

Dr Petra Lundgren, from The Australian Institute of Marine Science, explained, "Corals are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Not only is the temperature of the water they live in affected but extreme weather and higher rainfall leads to increased levels of sediment, agricultural runoff, and fresh water on the reef. This work opens up possibilities for us to enhance reef resilience and recovery from impacts of climate change and pollution. For example, if in the future we need to restore coral populations, we can make sure that we use the most robust strains of corals to do so."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Petra Lundgren, Juan C Vera, Lesa Peplow, Stephanie Manel and Madeleine JH van Oppen. Genotype -- environment correlations in corals from the Great Barrier Reef. BMC Genetics, (in press) [link]

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/3kT2hitEWAw/130221194042.htm

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Minister Clement Meets with Chinese-Canadian Business Leaders to Discuss Economic Priorities

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Feb. 21, 2013) - The Honourable Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, today held an economic consultation with Chinese-Canadian business leaders to discuss reducing red tape and using low-cost measures to support jobs and growth. Minister Clement was accompanied by the Honourable Alice Wong, Minister of State (Seniors) and Member of Parliament for Richmond.

"Today's discussion with business leaders provided me with valuable information on what they need to operate in today's climate of economic uncertainty," said Minister Clement. "Our Government is listening. We will continue to focus on supporting Canadian competitiveness and freeing business to do what it does best: innovate, invest, grow and create jobs."

Last October, the Government unveiled its Red Tape Reduction Action Plan, one of the most ambitious red tape-cutting exercises in the world today. As part of the Plan, the Government announced three new red tape initiatives in January that will generate about $10 million in annual savings for Canadian businesses.

"Our Government's Red Tape Reduction Action Plan is translating into real savings for businesses in Canada," added Minister Clement. "But this is only the beginning. In the coming months, our Government will announce more initiatives to cut red tape, while protecting the health and safety of Canadians."

The Government of Canada, which has instituted significant ongoing annual savings through a strategic review of government operations, also continues to look for ways to support jobs and growth, while returning to balanced budgets before the end of this Parliament.

"Prudent public finances are the solid foundation we need to ensure a healthy economy," said Minister Clement. "We are consulting with Canadians to get their input on fiscally responsible measures our Government can take to support jobs, growth and long-term prosperity."

Today's discussion in Vancouver is part of a nationwide consultation, as Canadians are asked what concrete actions can be taken to strengthen our economy in the face of global economic uncertainty, solidify our economic recovery, and position Canada to compete and prosper over the long term.

To ensure that all Canadians can participate in the process, the Government of Canada has also launched an online consultation. Those interested in participating can learn more on the Finance Canada website.

If there is a discrepancy between any printed version and the electronic version of this news release, the electronic version will prevail.

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This news release is available at www.tbs-sct.gc.ca.

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Source: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=1760042&sourceType=3

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PS4 Eye promises to unlock your PlayStation at a glance, tips hat to Kinect

Just finished watching Sony's "see the future" of PlayStation event? We hope you didn't blink, you might have missed a quick reveal of the next PlayStation Eye The optical sensor was overshadowed by the reveal of the DualShock 4, but it's nothing to scoff at -- the second generation Eye features two 1280 x 800 cameras, four microphones and an 85-degree field of view. Put together, the setup promises facial recognition, player positioning and depth sensing and enhanced PlayStation Move support. The Kinect-like camera is designed to work with Sony's new controller standard too, recognizing each player by the color of the DualShock 4's LED light bar. Sony says the Eye will allow the PS4 to use face login, and the collection of microphones might make voice control possible as well. No word yet if the new camera device will be a PS4 pack in or sold separately, but if you're interested in mining press releases for details, you'll find one after the break.

Gallery: DualShock 4 and PS4 Eye

Filed under: Sony

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/20/PlayStation4-eye/

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