Monday, April 29, 2013

Algeria president sent to Paris after mini-stroke

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, right, shakes hands with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma as they pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the presidential palace in Algiers, Algeria, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, right, shakes hands with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma as they pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the presidential palace in Algiers, Algeria, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

(AP) ? Algeria's president was transferred to Paris for medical treatment following a mini-stroke and tests show he isn't seriously ill, the state news agency reported Sunday.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika had a brief blockage of a blood vessel known as a transient ischemic attack and was sent to the French capital for further tests under the recommendation of his doctors.

The 76-year-old president had been checked into Val de Grace hospital, where he was treated in 2005 for a bleeding ulcer.

"Medical tests conducted at the Val de Grace hospital in Paris confirmed that there is no worry about the state of his health," according to a statement from the prime minister's office. "Daily life will continue as normal."

There have long been concerns about Bouteflika's health, especially since the president rarely appears in public.

Bouteflika, president since 1999, is credited with seeing Algeria through the end of a bloody civil war against Islamists and ruling in an uneasy partnership with the powerful military.

The last few years of his reign, however, have been slammed with accusations of corruption. Bouteflika was also widely believed to be planning to run for a fourth term in next year's presidential elections.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-28-Algeria-President-Stroke/id-b40acabf966f45288af2afbb1e7f41b6

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Missy Elliott likes literature classes (Unqualified Offerings)

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Lawmaker believes Boston suspects were trained

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack.

Rep. Michael McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack ? shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs ? and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training.

Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one.

McCaul also tells "Fox News Sunday" that he thinks the suspects' mother played "a very strong role" in her sons' radicalization process and that if she were to return to the United States from Russia, she'd be held for questioning.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmaker-believes-boston-suspects-were-trained-133504391.html

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Friday, April 26, 2013

PFT: Browns eye move into top 3? |? For Geno?

ForSaleGetty Images

The Rams currently hold the Redskins? first-round pick in the 2013 draft, thanks to the RGIII trade.? The Rams may not actually be using that pick.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the selection ?clearly is for sale.?

That Rams, who also have the 16th overall pick, would surely like to trade down and get more picks.? Last year, the combination of coach Jeff Fisher and G.M. Les Snead put together a great draft, thanks to having extra picks.? The more picks, the better the chances of emerging with good players.

Pick No. 22 comes one spot before the Vikings? first of two first-round selections.?? A team that wants a cornerback, receiver, or inside linebacker the Vikings may be targeting could be tempted to jump the line.? Which is precisely why every team creates smokescreens about who they do and don?t want.

Like most round-one trades, don?t expect anything to happen before the Rams are on the clock.? Teams that trade up want a specific player; trading up too early creates the risk that the player won?t be there.

Of course, doing the trade when the team is on the clock entails risk, since there?s a chance one of the two teams won?t be able to call the trade in to the league office.? Unless each team calls the trade in separately, the trade doesn?t happen.? And with only 10 total minutes to get it all done, there?s a chance that cutting it too close could keep the trade from happening at all.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/25/report-browns-want-into-top-3-for-a-pass-rusher/related/

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Maude Standish: Data Is The New Astrology - Huffington Post

Wearable technology is going to change everything. Yes, it will change when, where, and how we "connect." But, even bigger than that, it will reshape the way we find happiness--no longer looking for it in self help books or friends' advice. Instead, in our search for answers and fulfillment, we will dive into the data our bodies and actions create.

Data will become the new astrology. We will use it to divine our personal futures and deconstruct our present. It will alter the "human ideal" and change the meaning of what we think of as "success." Perfection will be quantified and comparable. We will search less in our own interior brains and memories for the answers but instead we'll try to understand ourselves in the context of others. We will know averages for happiness, weight, sleep, laughter, excitement, how clean our hands are, how strong our brain is--to be told exactly how we compare to those averages, rank listed among our peers.

Despite Heidegger's assurances that our own actions are technology, most of us understand technology as something separate from our bodies. It is something we make, control, hold, and are disconnected from. But, to feel fulfilled, the growing societal shift towards a culture of constant connectivity and data worshipping has made us increasingly reliant and emotionally dependent on technology.

As we've entered a co-dependency with technology, we've grown more open to applying it internally and externally to our own bodies. Responding to this new market, a growing crop of wearable technologies have popped up, each with its own compelling promise on how they can modify our lives positively.

There is the IntelligentM, a digital wristband that alerts medical employees if they haven't washed their hands well enough. Though it's currently only being used in the medical world, it's easy to foresee how it could move like Purell out of the medical community to the general population. There are all sorts of fitness related wearable technologies dedicated to tracking your health and wellbeing, including Nike's FuelBand, FitBit, and Jawbone Up.

2013-04-24-glass_photos458075.jpg

It's impossible to talk about wearable technology without bringing up Google Glass. Though the glasses have already been worn down the runway during fashion week, the specs were announced only recently, giving us a clearer idea of their capabilities. We now know that the glasses will have 12 GB of usable memory synced with Google cloud storage and 16GB Flash memory total. Supposedly, the battery is made for an entire day of use, though video and recording and Google Hangouts will drain it quicker. Through the glasses you'll be able to take photos, access apps, connect to the web and effortlessly track much of your day.

Sure, Goolgle Glass isn't mainstream yet, but they have slipped into the popular imagination enough to inspire their own slang such as "Glassholes." There is little doubt in my mind that with the help of hip companies like Google and Nike, the integration of wearable technology (and the data tracking it has to offer) will likely be ubiquitous in five years time. And as wearable technology continues to effortlessly collect data about us, we will turn to that data to "solve" our problems. Advice will be dished out not from friends' mouths, but from algorithms. We'll distinguish "right" and "wrong" by what is above average or below average. Instead of eagerly looking at tomorrow's horoscope, we will download yesterday's data in order to see our future.

A version of this blog was originally published on Metropolis Magazine.

?

Follow Maude Standish on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MaudeChild

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maude-standish/data-is-the-new-astrology_b_3150148.html

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PSN online purchases now automatically queue to download on your PS3, like your Xbox already does

There's now no need to dig around your PlayStation's downloads section for that fresh digital copy of Ni No Kuni you just picked up online at Sony's Entertainment Network store. Finally catching up to the likes of Steam (and other competition), your orders will now automatically start downloading a few minutes after booting up your PS3. PSN Stores has even uploaded a guided tour of the new function -- you'll find it after the break.

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Family members identified in Illinois killings

MANCHESTER, Ill. (AP) ? The five people found shot to death in a small south-central Illinois town this week were two young brothers, their pregnant mother, their father and their great grandmother, authorities said Thursday.

Investigators were still trying to piece together the events that led to Scott County's first homicide in two decades, and why the suspect, Rick O. Smith allegedly walked into a home Wednesday and shot an entire family ? including a 6-year-old girl who survived ? before he was killed during a shootout with police.

The Illinois State Police said the victims were: 1-year-old Brantley Ralston, 5-year-old Nolan Ralston, 29-year-old James Ralston, 23-year-old Brittney Luark, and 67-year-old Jo Ann Sinclair. Sinclair was Luark's grandmother.

Authorities believe Smith and the victims were acquainted, but they didn't provide details of the relationships. Manchester Mayor Ronald Drake confirmed Wednesday that Smith was his nephew.

The state police said they believe Smith, 43, entered the home through the back door Wednesday and shot the victims at close range with a shotgun. Two people were found in a bedroom, two in a second bedroom and the man in the hallway. A sixth victim, a 6-year-old girl, was injured and taken to a hospital in Springfield.

"The offender took the 6-year-old out of the residence and put her in the hands of a neighbor," State Police Lt. Col. Todd Kilby said.

A bystander called police and told them that Smith fled in a white sedan. Smith led authorities on a chase to the nearby town of Winchester, where they exchanged gunfire. Officers shot Smith, and he later died at a hospital.

Police said they found a rifle, shotgun and large hunting knife in Smith's car.

Scott County State's Attorney Michael Hill said Smith, of rural Morgan County, had previous convictions for reckless homicide, drugs and bad checks.

Drake said he hadn't spoken to Smith in two years but that he believed his nephew was unemployed. Drake said the last time Smith contacted him was to borrow tools.

The preschool program that Nolan Ralston attended was closed Thursday, and Winchester Community School District Superintendent Dave Roberts said staff was meeting Thursday to decide how to broach the subject.

"I am trying to work with staff to get them prepared," he said. "They are very emotional at this point."

Roberts said he also wants to meet with parents Thursday night.

"I would say at least 40 kids knew him, and they're 3,4, 5 years old and that makes it even more difficult," he said.

He said a school psychologist will be at the school on Friday to talk with the children in the classrooms ? including the class of the 6-year-old girl who survived. He said that the girl is the older sister of the two dead boys.

___

Associated Press writers Don Babwin and Jason Keyser in Chicago and David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-identify-victims-illinois-killings-150032733.html

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Miranda warning, then silence from bombing suspect

FILE - This combination of undated file photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The FBI says the two brothers are the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, and are also responsible for killing an MIT police officer, critically injuring a transit officer in a firefight and throwing explosive devices at police during a getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar captured, late Friday, April 19, 2013. The ethnic Chechen brothers lived in Dagestan, which borders the Chechnya region in southern Russia. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, one of their uncles reported said. Since Monday, Boston has experienced five days of fear, beginning with the marathon bombing attack, an intense manhunt and much uncertainty ending in the death of one suspect and the capture of the other. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File)

FILE - This combination of undated file photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The FBI says the two brothers are the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, and are also responsible for killing an MIT police officer, critically injuring a transit officer in a firefight and throwing explosive devices at police during a getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar captured, late Friday, April 19, 2013. The ethnic Chechen brothers lived in Dagestan, which borders the Chechnya region in southern Russia. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, one of their uncles reported said. Since Monday, Boston has experienced five days of fear, beginning with the marathon bombing attack, an intense manhunt and much uncertainty ending in the death of one suspect and the capture of the other. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File)

Michelle Littke, of Scituate, Mass., wites on a poster at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square on Boylston Street in Boston, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions on April 15.(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Running shoes hang from a barrier at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square on Boylston Street in Boston, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions on April 15. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

An unidentified woman visits the site where the first bomb detonated on April 15 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street in Boston, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Hillary Branyik, of Boston, kneels at the site where the first bomb detonated on April 15 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street in Boston, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions on April 15. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

(AP) ? Sixteen hours after investigators began interrogating him, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings went silent: he'd just been read his constitutional rights.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev immediately stopped talking after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered his hospital room and gave him his Miranda warning, according to four officials of both political parties briefed on the interrogation. They insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private.

Before being advised of his rights, the 19-year-old suspect told authorities that his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, only recently had recruited him to be part of the attack that detonated pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line, two U.S. officials said.

The CIA, however, had named Tamerlan to a terrorist database 18 months ago, said officials close to the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with reporters.

The new disclosure that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was included within a huge, classified database of known and suspected terrorists before the attacks was expected to drive congressional inquiries in coming weeks about whether the Obama administration adequately investigated tips from Russia that Tsarnaev had posed a security threat.

Shortly after the bombings, U.S. officials said the intelligence community had no information about threats to the marathon before the April 15 explosions that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Tsarnaev died Friday in a police shootout hours before Dzhokhar was discovered hiding in a boat in a suburban back yard. He was wounded.

Washington is piecing together what happened and whether there were any unconnected dots buried in U.S. government files that, if connected, could have prevented the bombings.

Lawmakers who were briefed by the FBI said they have more questions than answers about the investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said lawmakers intend to pursue whether there was a breakdown in information-sharing, though Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said he "hasn't seen any red flags thus far."

U.S. officials were expected to brief the Senate on the investigation Thursday. That same day, the suspects' parents, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, plan to fly to the U.S. from Russia, the father was quoted as telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. The family has said it wants to take Tamerlan's body back to Russia.

It is unclear whether the issue of their younger son's constitutional rights will matter since the FBI say he confessed to a witness. U.S. officials also said Wednesday that physical evidence, including a 9 mm handgun and pieces of a remote-control device commonly used in toys, was recovered from the bombing scene.

But the debate over whether suspected terrorists should be read their Miranda rights has become a major sticking point in the debate over how best to fight terrorism. Many Republicans, in particular, believe Miranda warnings are designed to build court cases, and only hinder intelligence gathering.

Christina DiIorio Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, said in an email late Wednesday, "This remains an ongoing investigation and we don't have any further comment."

Investigators have said the brothers appeared to have been radicalized through jihadist materials on the Internet and have found no evidence tying them to a terrorist group.

U.S. investigators traveled to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan in Russia and were in contact with the brothers' parents, hoping to gain more information.

They are looking into whether Tamerlan, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya but had lived in the U.S. for about a decade.

Dzhokhar told the FBI that they were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the killing of Muslims there, officials said.

Dzhokhar's public defender had no comment on the matter Wednesday. His father has called him a "true angel," and an aunt has insisted he's not guilty.

Investigators have found pieces of remote-control equipment among the debris and were analyzing them, officials said. One official described the detonator as "close-controlled," meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs.

That evidence could be key to the court case. And an FBI affidavit said one of the brothers told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

Officials also recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tamerlan from the site of an April 18 gunbattle that injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer, two U.S. officials said.

The officials told the AP that no gun was found in the boat where Dzhokhar was hiding. Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat.

Asked whether the suspect had a gun in the boat, Davis said, "I'm not going to talk about that."

But Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said a police officer was shot within half a mile of where Tsarnaev was captured, "and I know who shot him."

Authorities had previously said Dzhokhar exchanged gunfire with them for more than an hour Friday night before they captured him inside a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston neighborhood backyard. But two U.S. officials said Wednesday that he was unarmed when captured, raising questions about the gunfire and how he was injured.

In other developments:

? Vice President Joe Biden condemned the bombing suspects as "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis" while speaking at a memorial service Wednesday for Sean Collier, a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was ambushed in his cruiser three days after the bombing. More than 4,000 mourners paid tribute to the officer.

? The Office of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts confirmed a Boston Herald report Wednesday that Tamerlan, his wife and toddler daughter had received welfare benefits up until last year, when he became ineligible based on family income. The state also says Tamerlan and his brother received welfare benefits as children through their parents while the family lived in Massachusetts.

? The area around the marathon finish line was reopened to the public.

____

Yost and Jakes reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Matt Apuzzo, Eileen Sullivan, Adam Goldman and Eric Tucker in Washington, David Crary, Denise Lavoie, Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-25-Boston%20Marathon-Explosions/id-d1ebe03c64e9448d9800d263f8f253ac

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Roundworm quells obesity and related metabolic disorders

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, have shown in a mouse model that infection with nematodes (also known as roundworms) can not only combat obesity but ameliorate related metabolic disorders. Their research is published ahead of print online in the journal Infection and Immunity.

Gastrointestinal nematodes infect approximately 2 billion people worldwide, and some researchers believe up until the 20th century almost everyone had worms. In developed countries there is a decreasing incidence of nematode infection but a rising prevalence of certain types of autoimmunity, suggesting a relationship between the two. Nematode infection has been purported to have therapeutic effects and currently clinical trials are underway to examine worms as a treatment for diseases associated with the relevant cytokines, including inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, and allergies.

In the study researchers tested the effect of nematode infection on mice fed a high-fat diet. Infected mice of normal girth gained 15 percent less weight than those that were not infected. Mice that were already obese when infected lost roughly 13 percent of their body weight within 10 days. Infection also drastically lowered fasting blood glucose, a risk factor for diabetes, and reduced fatty liver disease, decreasing liver fat by ~25 percent, and the weight of the liver by 30 percent.

The levels of insulin and leptin also dropped, "indicating that the mice restored their sensitivities to both hormones," says corresponding author Aiping Zhao of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. Leptin moderates appetite. As with too much insulin, too high a level of leptin results in insensitivity, thus contributing to obesity and metabolic syndrome, Zhao explains.

The mechanism of the moderation of these hormones "was associated with a parasite-induced reduction in glucose absorption in the intestine, reduced liver triglycerides, and an increase in the population of cells called "alternatively activated macrophages," which regulate glucose metabolism and inflammation," says coauthor Joe Urban of the United States Department of Agriculture. Some of these changes involved "a protein called interleukin-13 and related intracellular signaling mechanisms," he says. "This suggests that there are immune related shifts in metabolism that can alter expression of obesity and related metabolic syndrome."

The incidence of obesity has been climbing dramatically, worldwide. It is a key risk factor for many metabolic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Recent studies indicate that it is accompanied by chronic low-grade inflammation in adipose tissues, causing the release of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines that contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.

Parasitic nematode infection induces a marked elevation in host immune Th2-cells and related type 2 cytokines which, besides combating the infection, also have potent anti-inflammatory activity, according to the report.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Society for Microbiology, 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. Z. Yang, V. Grinchuk, A. Smith, B. Qin, J. A. Bohl, R. Sun, L. Notari, Z. Zhang, H. Sesaki, J. F. Urban, T. Shea-Donohue, A. Zhao. Parasitic Nematode-Induced Modulation of Body Weight and Associated Metabolic Dysfunction in Mouse Models of Obesity. Infection and Immunity, 2013; DOI: 10.1128/IAI.00053-13

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/BtOQmRTqrHQ/130425164504.htm

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LG Q1 earnings come in lower than last year, but phone sales are up

LG Q1 earnings come in lower last year, but mobile business is improved

LG has released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2013, and while they were down overall from last year, there is good news to report for its phones. A net profit of $20.3 million is lower than Q1 2012's $214 million -- but better than Q4's lawsuit-related $428 million loss -- blamed on weaker earnings in its home theater business. The good news is reserved for phones, where sales were up 30 percent from last year thanks to devices like the Optimus G (original, Pro and Nexus 4) and L series. Home Entertainment sales dropped to their lowest level in the past year, blamed mostly on a decline in plasmas and professional displays. Q2 is expected to be another good one as the Optimus L Series II, 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro and Optimus F ship worldwide. According to LG its LCD sales were actually up thanks to growing demand in Europe and China, but profits took a hit because of increased competition. While it doesn't expect the overall market to change, it is looking for better results in Q2 as its new Smart and 3D TVs hit shelves along with upcoming 4K and OLED sets. We'll keep digging through the numbers for more details, check the source link below to take a look for yourself.

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Source: LG Korea, LG Q1 2013 earnings (PDF)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/7TmBC0WsgHc/

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US Offers $10 Billion Weapons Package to Counter Iran Threats (Voice Of America)

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NKorean soldiers put down arms to help plant rice

SASI-RI, North Korea (AP) ? The North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone is a hive of activity ? not of fighting, but of farming.

Beyond the barbed wire, ruddy-faced North Korean soldiers put down their rifles Wednesday and stood shoulder to shoulder with farmers as they turned their focus to another battle: the spring planting.

As neighboring nations remain on guard for a missile launch or nuclear test that South Korean and U.S officials say could take place at any time, the focus north of the border is on planting rice, cabbage and soybeans. In hamlets all along the DMZ, soldiers were knee-deep in mud and water as they helped farmers with the spring planting.

Along the boundary, hundreds of North Korean soldiers marched in a line with backpacks. On a hilltop above them in North Hwanghae province, Col. Kim Chang Jun said they were being dispatched to farms ? but still prepared for war if need be.

"From the outside, it looks peaceful: farmers are out in the fields, children are going to school," he said. "But behind the scenes, they are getting ready for war. They're working until midnight but come morning, if the call comes, they'll be ready to go to battle."

To the east, inside the Joint Security Area that is the heart of the DMZ, a tense quiet hangs over the area that divides North from South. This is the spot that foreign tourists see, a stage where the observation decks, pavilions, meticulously pruned pine trees, cherry blossoms and azaleas belie the tanks and traps hidden from view along the 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) buffer zone that divides the two Koreas.

___

Follow AP's bureau chief in Pyongyang at www.twitter/newsjean.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorean-soldiers-put-down-arms-help-plant-rice-114349990.html

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Marriage for all: A civil war in France? - Gay London clubs bars sex ...

WilfredYou may have heard about almost daily demonstrations, almost riots, in Paris and all over France. France is that European country above Italy and was the home of "Libert?, ?galit?, Fraternit?."

Fan of Discodamaged, Loran Concourdel sent in this article explaining what the French are up to, getting so excited about gay marriage.... It is a hilarious excellent summary of the situation and the hateful antics of the pathetic catholic church and associated fascists. Loran, we salute you!

Loran writes:

I'm French, gay and living between Paris and Berlin. The actual French debate and church hysteria surrounding opening civil marriage to all citizens became a recurrent questions from my Berliner friends these past few weeks.

Since 1999, same sex couples have been able to have their union recognized by French law. Well, almost? This contract is called the PACS and must be signed in front of a judge (like you are criminals), couples are not allowed to celebrate their union in the town hall and it does not give any rights concerning inheritance, mutual taxes, adoption or the legal relationship between parent and child. It was once again a treacherous way to categorize Gay and Lesbians into second class citizenship.

Then the struggle began to the extension of civil marriage to all.

Foot soldiers: Click the headline to read more

In France, marriage is defined by the "code civil" which was written during Napoleonic era by a certain Cambac?res, openly gay, who took great care to give marriage a non-sexual definition (the word couple is not restricted to male and female union). Nevertheless, judges have frequently and abusively interpreted this law in a restrictive straight couple sense. This created an unacceptable discrimination against gay and lesbians.

Let us remember that the French constitution claims that all citizens are equal before the law.

Since AIDS came into our lives, 30 years ago, how many friends have we seen being thrown out of their home after the death of their companion by hateful families? How many children have been raised in love by same sex couples? All this with violent disinterest from French society.

These past few years, the fight for equal rights became the major theme of Gay Prides. But the UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, founded an led by 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under President Jacques Chirac in 2002) has run France since 1995 and they never cared for social progress of any kind. Unfortunately the socialist paranthesis that has seen Lionel Jospin as prime minister from 1997 to 2002, didn't allowed any progress in this direction due mainly to his openly psycho-rigid bigot temper.

Then last year the French people elected Fran?ois Hollande with his 'promise number 31' of the opening of marriage to all. He chose to enact this with a new law. According to Robert Badinter (former minister of justice under Mitterand, who dragged France into modernity by cancelling death penalty in 1982 and decriminalizing homosexuality ) it would have been much simpler to change to code civil and state that a couple could be straight as well as gay or lesbian. But, we do not like simplicity in France. So the long process of law writing began and we gave time to the opponents of this fair progress to organize themselves, find funding, and start lobbying against our rights. Again!

Who are these noisy opponents?

Civitas 2
At first we were expecting the usual ones: catholic church and extreme right organizations (who have been married for a very long time, lucky them!) in addition with conservatives from the UMP.
But the time given was well used and we've seen the unexpected apparition of a third party headed by a certain Frigide Bargeot [Editor asks: Is Frigide Bargeot any relation to the fragrant Brigitte Bardot? Loran replies, sort of, you stupid ignorant islander.] Despise her traditionalist catholic background, she was a long time party girl and an annoying drunk in some of the less hyped gay bars of Paris - everybody finds a way to rebel against their origins. There she was until on the election of Benedict XVI in 2005 she had some mystical crisis and fell in love with the new pope, even creating a "Benoithon" to support this anti-charismatic head of church. So be it ! As the very obedient girl she is, she started to make the new pope's causes her own. Target:?Our devilish desire to be accepted as full citizens.

Frigide bargeotSo long to the party girl, let's start lobbying.

Right after the presidential election last year La Bargeot started to gather all opponents to gay marriage (bishop conference, extreme right organization, traditionalist catholic, UMP) and did a good job turning those intolerant bigots into a fake happy-looking crowd. She certainly went to many gay prides and learned how festive parades and positive messages are more effective than the strict hateful sad demonstrations those organizations were used to.

In parallel, Islamic council and Jewish representatives also called people to mobilization against this crime against their own gods. And so Gilles Bernheim (Grand Rabbi of France) even wrote a book fully dedicated to demonstrate the evilness of the project. Since then, this book has been proven to be a copy and paste of previous writing of different authors. The Rabbi has since resigned and was also proven to have used a fake university diploma in philosophy. Some people never know when to shut up! We certainly won't miss him. Islam is in a fragile position in France, due to an anti-semitic killing last spring by a French god-fool in Toulouse. So they are keeping a low profile on the marriage law. But you can be sure their hate against us isn't low profile at all.

What's left is Bargeot. And honestly, she did a successful job gathering something like 350 000 people in the streets of Paris. Pretending, of course, that the demos were anything but homophobic while keeping denying our citizens rights. Their main point is that the law will take from them the very meaning of their marriage (union of a male and female in the love of god and procreation). But they still pretend to love us and tell that we can not access the high level of their union because ours are sterile (I've check my balls this morning and I'm pretty sure I have all I need for that).

So we have those protesters, very well secretly funded by the catholic church and determined to keep on fighting even after the vote into law. But don't think they are only the tip of the iceberg, the iceberg is almost entirely visible. According to the last opinion polls here is what the French people think:
63% in favour of gay marriage, 5% without opinion, 32% against. 60% of people against are over 65 years old.

The question left is Why?
Why so much hate? Why so many people in the streets for something that went without any problems elsewhere (I'm thinking more specifically of Spain and Portugal which are well know for a deep attachment to the catholic church). Being neither sociologist or anthropologist, I've found a beginning of an explanation in the interview of Olivier Bobineau, sociologist specialized in religious studies. Here is my translation of a part of his interview (original French text available here.)Manif pour tous"The church is in agony in modern societies. It is in anthropologic shock. On one side you have a catholic anthropology that want to put individuals under control through the feeling of love that they pretend to control and incarnate. The catholic anthropology is this: an institution that wants to control love. It's a big ambition. On the other side, it just takes a little sociology, philosophy and history to understand that everybody agrees to acknowledge that the singularity of modernity is to separate institutions and feeling of the individuals. It is the separation of church and state, science and theology, private and public life. Once those institutions are separated from the feelings of the individuals, it allows them emancipation. On one side you have a catholic anthropology that want to control feelings and on the other side an anthropology that wants to separate them from institutions.

So, here's the shock: One of the two is gently winning. Only 2% of French population goes to catholic church on a regular basis. There are no priests anymore. This is why the church is in agony."

Last Friday, the law was adopted in the Senate; it will now go back this week to parliament for a final vote. There is no doubt of any kind that it will pass. This process was accelerated, surely to allow the first marriages to be celebrated before the gay prides in June. For 16 years, more than 500 000 people have been on the streets for the Parisian pride, not counting others cities. There is no doubt that the actual government fear that.

Since the Senate adoption last Friday, CIVITAS is organizing a funny praying demo, there are 60 of them.
Bargeot has promised, on television, blood to the president, finally letting her hate coming under the sun of the media.
She says she will continue the fight with all hateful extreme right and tiny catholic groups. They will surely continue to spread hate and intolerance. After all, this is all they know. Creating the perfect social climate for homophobic attacks as we've seen last weekend in Paris. Read here. http://www.rue89.com/2013/04/08/wilfred-olivier-agresses-a-paris-voici-visage-lhomophobie-241278
Since the Senate adopted the law, Venezuela and New Zealand have granted lesbians and gay marriage.

The fight for our rights has to stay an on-going priority, because we all know that when good men do nothing, evil flourishes.

Going deeper (!)

To be known
In France, since 1905, churches (of whatever confession) and state are separated by law, supposedly forbidding any kind of interactions between them. This is how we hoped to get rid of the oppression of the catholic church and it's authoritarian control over people's life. Since then, the French Republic is meant to be secular and free of all religious influence. Secularism is NOT a weapon against people's faith but a WARRANTY of respect for people's choices in spiritual matter. Religious affairs are handled by the ministry of the Interior, which is also in charge of police. However, still, religious forces are very active in lobbying. And of course, all monotheist religious representatives presented a united front against the opening of marriage to all citizens.

References
1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State
Gesetz_zur_Trennung_von_Kirche_und_Staat_(Frankreich)

1- The Battlefield

Heads of UMP @ demoUMP
The right wing, conservative, ultra liberal party. Chief of party: Jean-Fran?ois Cop? (He and his party are supporting actively the struggle against marriage for all, participating to the demos )
PS : Socialist party, now in charge with president F Hollande. Chief of party: Harlem D?sir.

S?nat (Senate)
High chamber of parliament in France.

Assembl?e Nationale
Lower chamber of parliament in France.

CivitasCIVITAS
Traditionalist Catholic organization with public links to extreme right organizations. Was a part of "La manif pour tous" at the beginning, but quickly separated from them.

Le Printemps Fran?ais
Name given to all the right extremist, participating in the anti extension to marriage for all citizens demonstrations, mainly composed of GUD (a student organization "Groupe Union Defense", training its members for paramilitary attacks) former members and neo-nazi scene allied with traditionalists catholics. Funded by the french catholic church via it's multiple underground organizations and headed by Beatrice Bourge.

Manif pour tous
Name of the organization created by Frigide Bargeot . Hypocrite movement pretending to be gay friendly.

Mariage pour tous
Name of popular movement supporting the extension of marriage to all citizens and rights equality in front of the law.

2- The Generals

Frigide bargeot2Frigide Bargeot
Nickname of Virginie Merle [Tellenne?] (humoristic deformation of Brigitte Bardot and meaning literally Dumb Frigid). Traditionalist Catholic, attention seeker, desperate for public acknowledgment. Formely in charge of communication in RPR party (RPR is the older name of the UMP). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigide_Barjot

Christine Boutin
Head of the Catholic "Democratic" party, know to Boutin pacs 99have dared brandish a bible in a session of the French parliament (which is a major offense against the laicity of parliament). They are old time fighters against the opening of civil union to gay and lesbians couples in 1998/99. She was leading the 1999 demos against the PACS (first civil union accepting same sex couples in France) were hateful slogans were told : "Fag today, paedophile tomorrow" "Fags on the pyre" ?.

Xavier bongibauldXavier Bongibault
The so called "gay" alibi of the anti-marriage movement. Employed by Frigide Bargeot as a "personal assistant" and recently compared Hollande to Hitler on French television (I let you make a personal evaluation of his IQ ).

Beatrice Bourges
Leader of Le Printemps Fran?ais, extremist traditionalist catholic, thinks Frigide Bargeot is "too cheesy".

Fran?ois Hollande
Actual French president, socialist, elected with the promise of extension of civil marriage to all citizens (civil, when talking about marriage, is intended in opposition to religious.)

Christine Taubira
French minister of justice, in charge of the law for the extension of marriage.

3 - The Foot Soldiers

Loran Concourdel
Frenchman living in Berlin and Paris, also known as Fw Projekt https://www.facebook.com/fw.projekt. Author of this article.

You! Civitas-france needs children not homosexuals

Source: http://www.discodamaged.com/2013/04/marriage-for-all-a-civil-war-in-france.html

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Emotional intelligence trumps IQ in dentist-patient relationship

Apr. 22, 2013 ? IQ directly relates to how students perform on tests in the first two years of dental school. But emotional intelligence (EI) trumps IQ in how well dental students work with patients, report researchers from Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine and Weatherhead School of Management.

EI influences how well dental students recognize and manage their emotions and professional relationships, explain Kristin Victoroff, DDS, PhD, and Richard Boyatzis, PhD, in the current issue of the Journal of Dental Education article, "What is the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Dental School Clinical Performance?"

EI differs from IQ, which measures the ability to think and perform on tests. EI, also a form of intelligence, is the ability to read one's own moods and those of others, remain calm under pressure and be optimistic and adaptable to change.

"Emotional intelligence is distinct from traditional intelligence or IQ," said Boyatzis, a Distinguished University Professor and professor of organizational behavior, psychology and cognitive science. He developed the EI management model and coauthored a book series on how to use it in business. He added that people need both to be successful.

The study evolved from discussions by heath-care educators about whether EI should be used in the admissions process or as a measure in clinical practice.

Boyatzis explained that other standardized admissions tests are equally incapable of predicting success in other fields, like medicine and management. "Such tests predict grades in courses but not effectiveness in professions. This is the first test of this relationship in dentistry, and one of the clearest studies of the dynamics," he said.

Until now, no evidence was available to determine if EI had a connection to clinical education, said Victoroff, the associate dean for education and associate professor of community dentistry.

The highly competitive admission process to dental school involves high scores on academic and perceptual ability tests. But that could change as educators understand the important role of EI in patient care.

Educators questioned why some high-performing students in the classroom didn't fare as well in the clinic. Researchers wondered if EI was a factor.

Students at Case Western Reserve dental school were among the first in dentistry to see if EI impacted clinical successes, as it does in corporate management.

The researchers recruited third- and fourth-year students, who receive clinical training under the guidance of two preceptors (part-time faculty who are practicing community dentists) that assess clinical performance.

One hundred of the 136 students from the two classes participated. Students themselves plus other individuals they work with were asked to complete a 72-item questionnaire from the Emotional Competence Inventory-University. EI competencies are grouped in four areas: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship management.

Overall clinical performance was determined by averaging the preceptors' assessments of a student's overall clinical performance over several rating periods.

In determining a student's overall clinical performance, preceptors consider such factors as diagnosis and treatment planning skills, work ethic and time utilization, preparation and organization, professionalism, patient management, knowledge and technical skills and ability to self-assess one's work.

The analysis looked at the clinical grade and the EI assessment to see if there was a correlation between high EI scores and high clinical performance. The researchers ruled out the student's year in school and gender in the analysis after finding those factors made no significant differences.

Their findings showed that a high EI related to excellent clinical performance. The researchers found EI skills in self-management were significant predictors of clinical grades. Self-management skills involve self-control, achievement orientation, initiative, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability and optimism.

They did not find a strong EI-clinical association to self- and social-awareness.

EI scores for relationship management, which relates to the ability to influence others, were harder to determine due to the transient nature between the student dentist and patient during the two-year clinical training.

The researchers concluded that teaching EI competencies could better serve patients and help students succeed. They recommended future studies extend EI assessments to practicing dentists to determine EI's impact in the professional setting.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Case Western Reserve University.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Kristin Zakariasen Victoroff and Richard E. Boyatzis. What Is the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Dental Student Clinical Performance? Journal of Dental Education, 2013 [link]

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/~3/ByWdRRzl-Mo/130422175714.htm

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Andreessen, Schroepfer, Others Rally For More Women In CS At She++ Conference

noname-1Marc Andreessen and Mike Schroepfer delivered keynote addresses today at the she++ conference, sharing their thoughts on women in technology and growing the pool of talented engineers. ?If we?re building technology that the whole population uses, then we should have people of all backgrounds building that technology so that they build it for the audience that is themselves,? he told me.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/i3_NRupQS-8/

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Best Electronic Products: Chooosing android tablets as the gift ...

12th, May is the great Mother?s Day. It is a great opportunity for you to show how much you love your mother. What gift will be best for your mother? Stunning jewelry, watch, clothing may be great idea. But those gifts are not good enough for her. Nowadays, there is nothing will be better than an advanced gadget. And china android tablets will best gift for your mother as gift. Generally speaking, there are three reasons why it is best as mother gift.

First of all, it is a necessary gadget in our daily life. It is possible to use tablet to call somebody and it is very convenient to shop online. It is true that mother has spent most of their time in taking care whole family and they have no time to enjoy shopping. So give her tablet and she can have some fun with tablet when they have free time at home.

Secondly, with tablet, mother can take the tablet into kitchen and develop some new and delicious food from foot website or how-to-cook video on the internet.
Thirdly, android tablet has easy operation and need not to take long time to study how to use it. Iphone is a little expensive and it seemed that it is more advanced than common Android tablet so that it will be better for young people not your parent.

Since cheap tablets are best gifts for your mother, it is time to learn how to choose best android tablet for her. You can shop one on physical shop, but there are more choices online. There are many great Android tablets on China online shop. It is safe and convenient to have one there. But it is necessary to search for the website and make sure it has good reputation on the shop and products. The review about the website will be helpful for you to tell whether it is a worthy to shop there.

All in all, android tablet is a good gift for your mother and more important is that it is convenient to choose best one for her from online shop if you often shop online. It is believed that it is not difficult for your mother to learn how to use it, because it is easy to operate. It is time to choose best and special gift for Mother?s Day.

Source: http://latestelectronictip.blogspot.com/2013/04/chooosing-android-tablets-as-gift.html

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A Pocket Full of Family Memories: A Place To Call Home

I have neglected my blog here at "Pocketfull", but I do have a good excuse. Well, maybe not a good excuse but an excuse nonetheless. In recent months I've created a new blog which is dedicated to the history of my childhood hometown and I've been contributing to it almost twice weekly (See it here). For now at least, I've run out of steam so I've decided to devote some of my free time back here, amongst my family history.

A new Australian drama is set to start on the Seven Network next week called 'A Place To Call Home' and while I've been rather looking forward to watching this post-world-war-two drama it has got me thinking lately about "home" and what it means to me personally. Even though I have lived in Australia for most of my life, I still have a hankering for my childhood home. Beyond this, I have often found myself wondering what my family and my ancestors would have called home.

Both of my grandmothers were devoted to their homes. My maternal grandmother Lilian always proudly called herself a "Londoner", even long after the war ended in 1945, when she was married and living in a quiet market town in Suffolk. Then, in 1978 she emigrated to Australia. Yet, all her life, at every opportunity she could get, she went back to London. Her heart was always right there and when she died in 1983 of a massive heart attack, I always believed (and still do, to this day) that it was because her heart was broken for home.

My paternal grandmother Freda lived in Beccles all her life. She never moved away from the town, except for a few years when she moved to nearby Brampton but she quickly welcomed a return to Beccles. There was no question of her living anywhere else but Beccles. She was born there, she was married there, she raised four boys there, and it never entered her mind to travel further than was absolutely necessary. She believed in setting down your roots and staying put and, for the most part, she was content with that. It didn't make her small minded but it certainly made her homely and connected to her roots.

My grandfathers? My paternal grandfather Herbert lived in Bungay, London, and later, Beccles. I don't think that any one particular place meant more to him. I believe he went where "duty called" for the most part, even during the Second World War when he was stationed at Sutton Coldfield.

My maternal grandfather was born and lived all his life in Bungay. While he fudged his age slightly on enlistment with the Norfolk Regiment I don't think it was necessarily because he wanted to escape home life. He just wanted to do what he felt was right. He was to travel to India during his pre-World War Two service and later to Dunkirk before his capture and internment in a German Prisoner-of-War camp. Later, in 1944-45, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and was stationed at Epsom, county Surrey. After the war, when he married my grandmother Lilian, they remained in Bungay and raised their family there, trying (against impossible odds at times) to live by the post-war standards of a secure family life.


If I look back another generation, to my great-grandparents' idea of what home meant to them, it differs quite dramatically. For example, my maternal great-grandparents Albert and Elizabeth, were born in the exact same town in London. They were both from working-class families and both were baptised at the same church. Their families possibly knew one another and shared a similar social history. Albert was restless though, even as a young boy. He wanted to travel and see the world, stretch his wings and leave Putney well behind him forever. He lied about his age to get into the Royal Navy and his only reason for returning to Putney was to marry his sweetheart, Elizabeth, in 1905. After that they lived in Southwark, Fulham, Tooting, Bloomsbury and later, Sutton (where they settled and remained until Elizabeth's death in 1951).

My other maternal great-grandparents, Percy and Nellie, were much like my paternal grandmother. They remained in the Suffolk market town of Bungay all their lives. There was no question of moving away, although my great-grandfather Percy, as a younger man, did love the sea and he took to fishing on trawler boats off the coast of Lowestoft for many years before settling back to farm life after the Great War (1914-1918).

My paternal great-grandparents were also a mixed bunch. Albert and Eva were Becclesians to the last, although my great-grandmother Eva was born in Loddon (her parents were Loddon born and raised before moving to Beccles) but she never had a great need to return there. Beccles was her home and Great Yarmouth was her favourite family holiday destination. Albert was born and raised in Beccles, and he remained staunchly faithful to the town and its townsfolk; at home, in religious circles, and in his work.

My other paternal great-grandparents, Arthur and Barbara, lived as a married couple in the market town of Bungay and raised their family there but they were not knowingly tied to their roots. Barbara was born in Holdenhurst, county Hampshire and lived there until she was a young girl, when her father took on a new job as a Railway Gatekeeper in Woodsford, county Dorset. Less than five years later, her mother passed away, her father abandoned her and she moved to London to work in the Domestic Service. Arthur joined the Norfolk Regiment as a young man and served in both the Boer War and the Great War. It was during the Great War that Barbara moved back to London with the children (including my grandfather Herbert) while Arthur was away fighting for King and Country. When the war ended they went back, as a family, to Bungay.

So there we have it; a mixture of loyalties towards home and yet, across the board, so very similar. There are those who willingly left home to fight in the war. Those who wanted to leave their homes for broader horizons. Those who stayed in the same town all their lives, loyal to the last. Those who wanted to run from their past and never look back and those who couldn't let go of their past and so returned again and again.

To this day I share the same tug-of-war with my maternal grandmother Lilian, the Londoner, who always found a way to go back even though the memories of her childhood were not altogether pleasant or heart-warming ones. Something always called her back and she was deeply proud of her London roots, even in the impossible heat and vastness of Australia that she made home for the last remaining years of her life. My own tug-of-war calls me back to Beccles, and sometimes that call is overwhelming. It certainly reflects in my ability to write about it without getting completely caught up and swept away in a sea of nostalgia and sentiment! Even though Australia is now the place I call my home I still carry a piece of Beccles deep within my heart, and I always will. I could never let it go.

Source: http://pocketfulloffamilymemories.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-place-to-call-home.html

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The Wolverine Stills: Presenting Viper

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/the-wolverine-stills-presenting-viper/

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Tim Harford ? Article ? A brief lesson in letter-writing

New research by the Financial Conduct Authority shows how simple, low-cost research can yield substantial gains

This column will tell you:

? How to write an email that will produce the results you want;

? Why the scientific method can produce practical insights, quickly.

How can I promise this? I?ve just been reading up on the latest research from Paul Adams and Stefan Hunt of the Financial Conduct Authority ? the UK?s shiny new financial industry regulator.

I am delighted to report that they?ve been trying to figure out how to write more effective letters. Better yet, to this end they have conducted a large randomised trial. The wonderful conclusion: science can help us write more clearly.

The letters in question were being written by a company to 200,000 former customers. The letters raised the prospect of a mis-sold product and offered the possibility of a refund. The question was: which wording would prod customers into claiming their money? The FCA researchers, in co-operation with the company in question, designed variants of the letter, mailed each variant to 1,000 customers, and compared the response rates.

The original letter looks brief and to the point, but on closer inspection it buries the key detail: the customer may be entitled to a refund. Response rates to this letter were dismally low, less than 2 per cent. Perhaps that is no surprise ? the recipients were ex-customers with every reason to throw the letter in the bin, unopened.

The experiment did the sort of thing that profit-seeking companies have been doing for many years: it tested seven different tweaks to the way the letter was written or presented. There are 128 different ways to combine these seven tweaks, and with each of 128 variants sent to 1,000 customers the experiment had a lot of power to pinpoint even quite small effects.

Here are three tweaks that made little difference: printing ?important: please read and act quickly? on the envelope induced a minuscule extra response; adding the regulator?s logo achieved nothing; using the company CEO?s name and signature instead of ?customer services team? actually dissuaded people from responding.

But four other tweaks had substantial effects: first, cutting a paragraph of waffle that had helped to bury the message about the refund; second, pointing out that a five-minute phone call would suffice to make a claim; third, sending a follow-up letter. And twice as large as any of these effects was adding a couple of bullet points in bold at the top with the key message: you may deserve a refund; if so, call us.

This research has been marketed by the FCA as ?behavioural economics exploring how people make financial decisions?, but like similar work on collecting fines and taxes conducted by the Cabinet Office?s Behavioural Insight Team, it is simpler and more pragmatic than that. There is no behavioural theory at play here, and nor do we really gain any insight into why consumers are reacting the way they do. But that?s fine. Simple, pragmatic research is a sensible thing for a regulator to be doing ? and the cost of this kind of experiment is tiny relative to the potential gains.

True, the results are unsurprising: say what you mean; be brief; ask for action; follow up if you hear nothing. But this is important. It?s important because it shows a regulator with an interest in learning and improving, and it?s important because while the advice is commonsense, it?s advice that many people ? and even more bureaucracies ? fail to heed.

And even if the findings seem obvious, the effect is huge. The best letter received seven times as many responses as the original one. The three best tweaks each made more of an impact than the decision to send a letter at all rather than nothing. Brevity and clarity matter: advice worth taking next time you write an email.

Also published at ft.com.

Source: http://timharford.com/2013/04/a-brief-lesson-in-letter-writing/

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