Krishna Vedati doesn?t want your children to just watch Saturday morning cartoons. He wants them to make their own.
Vedati is the CEO of Tynker, a ?learn to code? platform for kids in third through eighth grade, one of many that have popped up in recent years aimed at parents who think computing skills are critical for their children.
But rather than focus on computer languages like HTML, the Mountain View-based startup teaches kids how to think like a programmer, he said.
?The way I think about programming is just like any other language the kids are learning today,? Vedati said. ?This is just like another language, just a different set of life skills than if you learned French or Spanish.?
Consumer might want what Vedati?s offering, after results from a pilot of Tynker in Bay Area schools over the past year. The startup, which has raised $3.5 million in angel funding, was inundated with 10,000 new requests after openin up to educators nationwide earlier this month, the majority from parents eager to get their hands on a home version of the coding platform.
Vedati estimates that a home-based edition should be ready in the next couple months. However, for now, Tynker is only available to schools. The platform is free for educators, with an option to pay and upgrade to premium.
Vedati?s own son went to a coding camp at Stanford University and, two weeks later, was able to build a Flash player game. Still, Vedati noticed that he had merely learned how to regurgitate the pre-scripted instructions for building the game, without any understanding of programming?s fundamentals.
It got Vedati thinking. How could he and the rest of the Tynker team design a platform that could convey the conceptual logic behind programming to kids in a structured and, more importantly, fun manner? It was the ideal project for Vedati, an engineer turned entrepreneur. He has been coding since his university years in India where his love of video games drew him to field.
?[Kids are] exposed to so much technology,? he said. ?But school hasn?t changed in 50 years, so we thought these kids need a different set of skills for their generation to use the technology to their advantage.?
With Tynker, kids are introduced to coding through a simple, visual platform that allows its young users to create games and basic animations with nary a line of code in sight. Its drag and drop design is similar to Scratch, another kid-friendly coding language conceived at MIT. One of Tynker?s simplest concepts is animating a character and teaching it how to walk and talk.
?By the time they?re done training the character, they?ve probably learned 20 primitives,? said Vedati. ?Once they get the knowledge of 20 primitives, then they?re asking what else can I do??
In general, Vedati says girls focus on storytelling and characters, while boys gravitate towards designing games. And, in general, the coding projects grow more complex as the children get older. Whereas third graders are happy to make anything they can show their parents, eighth graders want to build multi-level games.
Later down the line, Vedati said he aims to extend Tynker?s reach to high schoolers in a manner that would transition students to a regular programming language, such as JavaScript or Python and he hopes Tynker will help fix the lack of coding courses at schools nationwide.
?Programming is very near and dear to me,? Vedati said. ?I firmly believe that it?s a life skill that anyone can learn and they could put it to use no matter what their interests are whether their interests are history, art ? there?s computation going on in every field.?
Following the adoption by the Security Council of a new resolution on the Sahara question without enlarging the mandate of the Mission of the United Nations in the Sahara, known by its French acronym as MINURSO, Polisario decided to increase its offensive against Morocco.
On Friday a group of a 100 pro-Polisario activists, especially teenagers staged a protest in one of the main streets of Layoune. When law enforcement officers asked them to clear the road and let the traffic flow, they started torching and stoning them.
Police said in a statement that eight members of the security forces were hurt and taken to a military hospital for treatment.
According to a eyewitnesses, the teenagers tried to entrap the Moroccan police forces and push them react violently to the protest, but the law enforcement official ?acted with wisdom.?
?Before the start of the protest I know the pro-Poplisario were expecting a harsh reaction from the police, film it, post on it YouTube and accuse Morocco of abusing the human rights of the Saharawis,? Mohamed Salem, a shop owner who lives in Es-Smara street in Laayoune, told Morocco World News.
?But I was relieved to see that they acted with wisdom and calm and prevented the Polisario from getting another pretexts to use against Morocco in their attempt to picture as violating human rights in the Sahara,? he added.
The international community should not fall in the traps of the Polisario who is trying to involve children and adolescents in such a dirty game, Aminato, a member of a feminist association based in Layoune, told Morocco World News.
?Human rights don?t mean chaos and attacking the people, destroying the public possession, cars and passerby,? she added while asking not to disclose her full name.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? South Korea on Thursday warned of an unspecified "grave measure" if North Korea rejects a call for talks on a jointly run factory park that has been closed for nearly a month.
In a televised briefing with reporters, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk refused to describe what Seoul would do if Pyongyang doesn't respond by a deadline Friday to a demand for formal working-level talks on the industrial complex just over the heavily armed border in the North Korean town of Kaesong.
But Seoul may be signaling it will pull out its remaining workers from the factory across the border in Kaesong. That could lead to the end of a complex considered the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
As animosity rose between the Koreas early this month, North Korea barred South Koreans from crossing the border and entering the factory. It later suspended operations and withdrew the 53,000 North Korean workers who manned assembly lines there. Pyongyang hasn't forced South Koreans to leave and about 175 are still there.
The factory has operated with South Korean know-how and technology and cheap labor from North Korea since 2004. It is a hold-over from an era that saw the Koreas try to cooperate through various projects.
For several weeks, until recently, North Korea issued a steady stream of criticism and threats aimed at Seoul and Washington, expressing anger over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that the North calls invasion preparations and U.N. sanctions over its February nuclear test. Pyongyang has recently eased its rhetoric, but tensions between the rivals are still high.
As Some South Korean businesses have been quietly mulling giving up on Kaesong altogether.
"Our people are suffering serious difficulties due to the shortage of food and medicines and our companies are suffering big damages and pains," Kim said.
To resolve deadlocked operations at Kaesong, Kim said North Korea should first allow some South Koreans to cross the border to hand over food and medicine to the remaining managers at Kaesong.
South Korea on Wednesday proposed talks between the head of a South Korean management office at Kaesong and the North's General Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone, but the North rebuffed the offer, Kim said.
"It's very regrettable for North Korea to reject (taking) the minimum humanitarian measures for our workers at the Kaesong industrial complex," he said.
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The intimidator, educator and safety enthusiast has a mission: to help keep soldiers and civilians deployed in Afghanistan out of harm's way.
To help Bagram Batman fulfill his destiny, the U.S. Army, along with AFN Afghanistan, has released a series of humorous public service announcements staring the camouflage-clad Dark Knight.
In the 30-second spots, Bagram Batman confronts soldiers on various safety violations around the base, like going running with headphones or smoking near flammable liquids.
After being roughed up, the soldiers say they'll be safer next time. To which Bagram Batman growls in his best Christian Bale voice, "Swear to me!"
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Union governments agreed on Monday to ease sanctions on Syria to allow for purchases of crude from the opposition, in hopes of throwing a financial lifeline to rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
The decision, taken at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, will allow European importers to buy oil from Syria, if authorized by an opposition umbrella grouping.
The sanctions were first imposed in 2011 in response to Assad's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests. Two years later, the conflict is largely a stalemate, and an estimated 70,000 people have died.
"Anything that can help more resources to be available to people affected by the crisis of course is welcome," EU commissioner for humanitarian aid, Kristalina Georgieva, told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting.
Buying Syrian crude will be complicated, because of security concerns and battered infrastructure, but officials said more financial help would be offered.
"It is important for us to send a signal that we are open to helping in other ways, in all the ways possible, including ways adding to the finances (of the opposition)," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters as he arrived for Monday's meeting.
(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak and Adrian Croft; Editing by Adrian Croft)
An IRB study contributes to the understanding and prevention of the side effects caused by drugsPublic release date: 19-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: S?nia Armengou armengou@irbbarcelona.org 34-934-037-255 Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)
This is the first study that studies and quantifies 1,600 known adverse effects of drugs currently on the market
Barcelona, Friday 19 April 2013.- Yellow vision, pseudo-pulmonary obstruction, involuntary body movements, respiratory paralysis. These are some of the 1,600 known side effects (SEs) produced by drugs. Adverse effects are one of the main causes of hospital admission in the west. These effects are difficult to predict, and in practice specific assays are required to test the safety of agents in pre-clinical phases, thus these effects are often not discovered until the drug has been launched. A study published by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) seeks to fill this information gap. The objective of the study is to shed light on the molecular bases of SEs and provide medical chemists with the tools to design safer drugs and to predict their effects. The study collects and proposes molecular hypotheses for 1,162 side effects. This information, which is about to be tested experimentally, is now available to the scientific community through the most recent issue of the specialized journal Chemistry and Biology, part of the Cell group.
The researchers Miquel Duran and Patrick Aloy collated all the drugs that cause each known SE. Next, they studied the proteins with which they interact and their chemical structure. "For most of the side effects we have a biological hypothesis, and for many of these cases we also have chemical information about the drug, which may be useful to predict a specific secondary effect," explains ICREA researcher Patrick Aloy, head of the "Structural Bioinformatics and Network Biology" at IRB Barcelona. Of the 1,162 SEs for which they have found a molecular description, 446 can be explained solely on the basis of biology and 68 only on the basis of chemistry, while for 648 (56%) both biological and chemical considerations are required.
Some examples: Xanthopsia and Buccoglossal Syndrome
One of the SEs described is Buccoglossal Syndrome, a disorder involving involuntary movements of the body and caused by six different drugs. The researchers propose that drugs whose structures include a piperazine ring and, in addition, interact with the receptors 5-HT2A and/or DRD2 are more likely to cause this syndrome. "This is one of the examples where we need a biological and chemical explanation," says Miquel Duran, a chemist doing his PhD in Aloy's lab, and first author of the paper. "Another interesting case is Xanthopsia, a predominance of yellow in the vision, a condition supposedly experienced by Van Gogh", explain the researchers. "In this case we do not suspect any related protein but observe that there are chemical structures that can cause this disorder, which we have annotated in 12 drugs that include this condition as a possible side effect" .
"We are providing the scientific community with lists of proteins and the chemical features associated with SEs. We refer to these as "alerts": they can be used by drug design experts to try to avoid certain interactions and/or structures in order to develop safer drugs," says Aloy.
For these scientists, it is necessary to combine biology and chemistry in order to determine what may be causing a given SE. "In practice, and for each unwanted effect, there is a biological part that we know, but this part does not offer a complete picture of the mechanism and perhaps we will be able to fill this gap by "looking at" the chemical structure," upholds Duran. "The multidisciplinarity provided by IRB Barcelona allows us to start studies with these characteristics, which require the convergence of several fields to achieve a more complete understanding," says Dr. Aloy, an expert in systems biology.
###
Reference article:
Analysis of Chemical and Biological Features Yields Mechanistic Insights into Drug Side Effects
Miquel Duran-Frigola and Patrick Aloy
Chemistry and Biology (2013): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2013.03.017
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)
Founded in 2005 by the Government of Catalonia and the University of Barcelona, the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) is one of eight centres in Spain to be first recognised by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness as a "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence". The 22 groups hosted by the institute are devoted to basic and applied research at the interface between molecular and cellular biology, structural and computational biology, and chemistry, with experts in proteomics, genomics, biostatistics, and advanced digital microscopy. The research at IRB Barcelona is organised into five programmes, which work together with the common goal of conducting multidisciplinary projects that address important biomedical problems affecting our society, with special emphasis on cancer and metastasis. The institute is home to approximately 430 employees from 38 countries. IRB Barcelona's ultimate objective is to translate research results to the clinic and has already established three biotechnology spin-off companies to this end. The institute is located in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), in the Diagonal Campus of the University of Barcelona. Director: Dr. Joan J. Guinovart. Adjunct director: Dr. Joan Massagu. http:http://www.irbbarcelona.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
An IRB study contributes to the understanding and prevention of the side effects caused by drugsPublic release date: 19-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: S?nia Armengou armengou@irbbarcelona.org 34-934-037-255 Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)
This is the first study that studies and quantifies 1,600 known adverse effects of drugs currently on the market
Barcelona, Friday 19 April 2013.- Yellow vision, pseudo-pulmonary obstruction, involuntary body movements, respiratory paralysis. These are some of the 1,600 known side effects (SEs) produced by drugs. Adverse effects are one of the main causes of hospital admission in the west. These effects are difficult to predict, and in practice specific assays are required to test the safety of agents in pre-clinical phases, thus these effects are often not discovered until the drug has been launched. A study published by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) seeks to fill this information gap. The objective of the study is to shed light on the molecular bases of SEs and provide medical chemists with the tools to design safer drugs and to predict their effects. The study collects and proposes molecular hypotheses for 1,162 side effects. This information, which is about to be tested experimentally, is now available to the scientific community through the most recent issue of the specialized journal Chemistry and Biology, part of the Cell group.
The researchers Miquel Duran and Patrick Aloy collated all the drugs that cause each known SE. Next, they studied the proteins with which they interact and their chemical structure. "For most of the side effects we have a biological hypothesis, and for many of these cases we also have chemical information about the drug, which may be useful to predict a specific secondary effect," explains ICREA researcher Patrick Aloy, head of the "Structural Bioinformatics and Network Biology" at IRB Barcelona. Of the 1,162 SEs for which they have found a molecular description, 446 can be explained solely on the basis of biology and 68 only on the basis of chemistry, while for 648 (56%) both biological and chemical considerations are required.
Some examples: Xanthopsia and Buccoglossal Syndrome
One of the SEs described is Buccoglossal Syndrome, a disorder involving involuntary movements of the body and caused by six different drugs. The researchers propose that drugs whose structures include a piperazine ring and, in addition, interact with the receptors 5-HT2A and/or DRD2 are more likely to cause this syndrome. "This is one of the examples where we need a biological and chemical explanation," says Miquel Duran, a chemist doing his PhD in Aloy's lab, and first author of the paper. "Another interesting case is Xanthopsia, a predominance of yellow in the vision, a condition supposedly experienced by Van Gogh", explain the researchers. "In this case we do not suspect any related protein but observe that there are chemical structures that can cause this disorder, which we have annotated in 12 drugs that include this condition as a possible side effect" .
"We are providing the scientific community with lists of proteins and the chemical features associated with SEs. We refer to these as "alerts": they can be used by drug design experts to try to avoid certain interactions and/or structures in order to develop safer drugs," says Aloy.
For these scientists, it is necessary to combine biology and chemistry in order to determine what may be causing a given SE. "In practice, and for each unwanted effect, there is a biological part that we know, but this part does not offer a complete picture of the mechanism and perhaps we will be able to fill this gap by "looking at" the chemical structure," upholds Duran. "The multidisciplinarity provided by IRB Barcelona allows us to start studies with these characteristics, which require the convergence of several fields to achieve a more complete understanding," says Dr. Aloy, an expert in systems biology.
###
Reference article:
Analysis of Chemical and Biological Features Yields Mechanistic Insights into Drug Side Effects
Miquel Duran-Frigola and Patrick Aloy
Chemistry and Biology (2013): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2013.03.017
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)
Founded in 2005 by the Government of Catalonia and the University of Barcelona, the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) is one of eight centres in Spain to be first recognised by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness as a "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence". The 22 groups hosted by the institute are devoted to basic and applied research at the interface between molecular and cellular biology, structural and computational biology, and chemistry, with experts in proteomics, genomics, biostatistics, and advanced digital microscopy. The research at IRB Barcelona is organised into five programmes, which work together with the common goal of conducting multidisciplinary projects that address important biomedical problems affecting our society, with special emphasis on cancer and metastasis. The institute is home to approximately 430 employees from 38 countries. IRB Barcelona's ultimate objective is to translate research results to the clinic and has already established three biotechnology spin-off companies to this end. The institute is located in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), in the Diagonal Campus of the University of Barcelona. Director: Dr. Joan J. Guinovart. Adjunct director: Dr. Joan Massagu. http:http://www.irbbarcelona.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch and weigh in on the illuminating online chat I had yesterday with Inside Climate News publisher David Sassoon, editor Susan White and reporter Lisa Song.
We explored the comprehensive series of articles on environmental risks from America?s fast-growing maze of oil pipelines that earned the tiny, foundation-supported Web site the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting on Monday.
This is the third online news outlet to win a Pulitzer (one prize for Huffington Post and two for Pro Publica). There?ll surely be more.
In our Google+ Hangout, we talk about the site?s reporting package, which charted the causes, impacts and significance of a million-gallon spill of diluted bitumen in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010 but expanded to look at the outdated rules for pipeline monitoring and safety. Bitumen is the very crude oil extracted from Canada?s enormous deposits of oil sands. Early on, Inside Climate News began using the shorthand ?dilbit? for this substance and the name is catching on, including in the title of the new e-book consolidating the reporting ? ?The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You?ve Never Heard Of.?
One of my questions:
Is the solution to ban pipelines or to have more rigorous oversight?
Susan White replied:
The idea that we?re building pipelines using rules and regulations that are out of date is appalling. Forget whether you want pipelines or you want Canadian crude oil. That?s a separate debate?. More than 10,000 miles of new or repurposed pipelines are planned for the United States in the next few years. Why aren?t we making sure that they?re safer?
I noted that it appeared to me that prominent environmental groups don?t want to discuss safer pipelines:
As soon as you say you want to make it safer you?re basically saying it?s okay.
Sassoon said this dynamic exists, and shifted the chat toward the pipeline of the moment, the proposed Keystone XL pipeline extension that would allow more Canadian oil to flow to American refineries:
We don?t have an energy and climate policy in this country. So Keystone is the fulcrum around which that discussion is happening, even though it?s not a particularly deep discussion.
He called for President Obama to hit the ?pause? button, given the big environmental stakes and implications for climate change. [Please have a look back at Sassoon's 2012 Op-Ed article for The Times, "Crude, Dirty and Dangerous," for more.]
Lisa Song described the technologies that are available, at a cost, to improve pipeline reliability and safety. The final piece in the Pulitzer submission noted that the Keystone plan doesn?t include advanced spill-protection technology.
Then we shifted into a discussion of the financial model for Inside Climate ? which was launched with grants from the Energy Foundation, Grantham Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and other philanthropies ? and mused on whether this kind of media outlet can be sustained and replicated.
White, in part, said:
I think the ones that survive and prosper will be the ones that focus on what we try to focus on ? following the basic core tenets of good journalism and building that trust over time.
Bob Perry donated over $75 million dollars to political causes, including bankrolling the 'swift boat' attack ads against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race.
By Paul J. Weber,?Associated Press / April 16, 2013
Houston homebuilder and GOP megadonor Bob Perry, seen here posing at one of his housing developments in 2002, died Saturday night April 14, 2013.
Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle / AP / File
Enlarge
Once in a rare interview, the Texas tycoon who gave at least $75 million in political contributions over his lifetime argued that writing big checks didn't buy big influence.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
"It is my view that government is not owned by anyone, least of all wealthy contributors," Bob Perry told the Houston Chronicle, his hometown newspaper, in 2002.
Perry was remembered Monday by friends and foes alike for his prolific bankrolling that gave him both stature and notoriety. Republicans chiefly benefited from the wealthy Houston homebuilder, who became a titan of spending in modern American politics.
Perry died at age 80 Saturday night "peacefully in his sleep," said former Texas state Rep. Neal Jones, a close family friend. Public word of his death didn't spread until late the next day ? perhaps a final victory for Perry and his aversion to the spotlight. He rarely spoke to the press, skipped fancy fundraisers and was a mystery to even some of his benefactors.
That top was blown off that low profile in 2004 when Perry spent $4.4 million financing the famous 2004 Swift Boat Veterans campaign against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, which remains among the most famous political television ads in history.
Critics sought to highlight the buying power Perry's largesse afforded ? particularly as the issue of campaign finance and the role of big money came before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2000s and vaulted to new levels of public consciousness.
Perry's supporters saw him as a quiet champion of conservative causes who wasn't merely an ideologue.
"His astonishing success story as a businessman serves as an inspiration to anyone who ever dreamed of bigger things, and his selfless dedication to the people and causes he believed in serves as an inspiration to anyone who has ever felt the call to get involved," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is of no relation and has received reliable financial support from Bob Perry.
Bob Perry was a fixture of GOP fundraising in Texas ? and nationally ? dating back to former President George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial races in the mid-1990s.
Heartworm disease is a serious and often times fatal condition for dogs and cats. Heartworms are parasitic worms that live in the arteries of the lungs and in the heart of dogs, cats and other mammals like foxes, wolves, ferrets and on rare occasion humans. Likewise, heartworms can easily be prevented in dogs and cats with one of several simple preventatives. Heartworm disease is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes get the heartworm larvae by biting an infected animal. Once inside the mosquito, the larvae mature and when the mosquito feeds off another animal, the larvae are transferred to the new host animal. It takes about 6 months for the larvae to mature into adult worms. They continue to mature and reproduce. The host animal will also infect any new mosquitoes that bite it. This continues to spread the larvae and infect additional animals. To prevent heartworm disease is a relatively simple process. The most important first step is to see if your pet is currently infected with heartworms. This can be done by a simple blood test at your veterinarian?s office. Once it is determined that your animal does not already have heartworms, it is safe to give them a heartworm preventative. Heartworm preventative can be given a number of ways. The heartworm preventative works by interrupting heartworm development before the adult worms can reach your pet?s heart and lungs. There are tasty chewable treats, pills, shots and topically preventatives. The key to success is to pick one method and always administer it according to directions. Many products offer text, email or little post-it calendar reminders to administer the preventative the same time each month. Your veterinarian will be able to help you determine which method is best for your pet. It is also recommended that animals be kept on preventative year round. The winters have steadily become milder and each year mosquitoes are seen as late as December and even in the early months of the new year. Heartworm treatment is a very serious process and it is extremely hard on the animal particularly with an advanced case of heartworms. Treatment is done over an extended period and needs to be monitored by your veterinarian. During treatment, your pet must have activity restricted. The animal also runs the risk of having blockage of the blood flow as the heartworms are dislodged and moving through the lungs and bloodstream. There is the risk of permanent heart damage due to the infection. In general, prevention is ALWAYS preferable to treatment. So if you are not currently using a heartworm preventative, please contact your veterinarian to schedule a test and find out which preventative will work best for your furry friend.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.
Every time I start to get a little bit excited about Spring we get smacked with another cold spell. It?s definitely an odd April with temperatures being as low as they have been but it?s not going to stop me from getting ready for a beautiful Spring. It?s just taking a little longer to get here than I had hoped for.
However, on Sunday we had a very nice day that was perfectly warm and a bit windy. We decided it would be a great day to take a trip to The Home Depot to shop for our first DIY gardening project of the year. After looking at all of the projects online in The Home Depot?s Garden Club idea center we got our list together to create not one, but two Whiskey Barrel planters.
The supply list for this project is small and all you need to create a beautiful Whiskey Barrel Garden is a whiskey barrel, small pebbles, potting mix and a beautiful assortment of flowers.
With our short list and all the kids packed into the minivan we took a small trip to Jacksonville, IL to visit The Home Depot. The indoor/outdoor garden center was packed with everything you could possibly need to start Spring planting. The first thing we did was stop and look at all of the potting mix options. Since I?m not known for a green thumb we ultimately decided on using the Miracle Gro Moisture Control Potting Mix. Hopefully this will help me with my odd ability to over and under water my plants.
The kids got really excited when they found the huge flats of purple flowers. There are so many options for a whiskey barrel garden that you can really customize this project to your own liking. The first flower the kids picked out was a Woodland Flox that has a nice height to it and is perfect for the center of each whiskey barrel.
Then we decided on four different shades of Geraniums to fill the border of each whiskey barrel. These sun loving flowers will be perfect since we?re planning on putting the barrels in front of our garage which gets a little shade in the morning and full sun the rest of the day.
We also looked at stacks and stacks of pots for planting. There?s just about every size imaginable, many of which I think I?ll be going back for to add some edible container gardens to my to-do list this summer.
It took a little bit of searching but we finally found the half size whiskey barrels. They are very, very large, holding 62 cubic feet of soil each. I adore the rustic look of these!
An hour or so into our shopping trip and we realized it was time to checkout when we found ourselves with three carts full of soil, rocks, flowers and whiskey barrels. It?s a good thing I have three kids to help push these carts around!
By the time it was all said and done we got through the trip spending just under $250 for the project supplies plus another $30 or so on other gardening supplies we had on our list.?The only real problem we faced during our Home Depot shopping trip was how to fit 3 kids and 3 carts worth of supplies into the minivan.
?A Message from The Home Depot
It?s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They?re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.
Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot?s gardening experts. Click here to join the world?s largest garden community today! Or go to homedepot.com/gardenclub to see some of the many benefits of membership.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.
Keep an out later this week for an update. As soon as it?s done raining I?ll be heading outside to tackle my Whiskey Barrel Garden project. Until then, I?d love to know what gardening projects you have started tackling!?For more outdoor DIY project ideas you can visit The Home Depot Garden Club online or take a look at The Home Depot on Pinterest.
Wrapping up his six-nation tour, Secretary of State John Kerry told NBC's Andrea Mitchell he's open to direct talks between the U.S. and North Korea, if Pyongyang stops testing nuclear weapons and issuing threats.
By Andrea Mitchell and Ian Johnston, NBC News
TOKYO -- Secretary of State John Kerry has called on China to do more to help resolve the North Korean missile crisis, saying the country provided the Pyongyang regime with a ?lifeline.?
In an interview with NBC's TODAY that aired on Monday, Kerry also said any deal with the rogue state would need to be structured so that Pyongyang could not later renege on its terms.
In Beijing, John Kerry tried to persuade China's President Xi Jinping to lean on his ally, North Korea - arguing that Pyongyang's erratic young leader is now threatening the stability of the entire region. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
The crisis developed after North Korea threatened to carry out a pre-emptive nuclear strike against its enemies in response to United Nations sanctions imposed because of an underground nuclear test in February and a rocket test in December.
In recent days the North Koreans have readied missiles for launch and some speculated this would happen on Monday, when the nation celebrates the birth of founder Kim Il Sung, current leader Kim Jong Un?s grandfather.
In an interview in Tokyo before flying back to the U.S. on Monday, Kerry said that if the missiles were not fired ?that would mean perhaps we're turning a corner and there's a possibility of moving in a better direction.?
?Everybody understands the negative side of what happens if there is a shoot.? And my hope is that we can move in a different direction here. China, I think, is serious about this,? he said. ?They understand the instability this is creating.?
Kerry said it was ?very important? for the United States to make clear to North Korea that there would be ?consequences for their action? and to reaffirm its security agreements with its allies in the region.
?That done, I think it is very important to the Chinese to focus on the fact that ... if they're not prepared to put the pressure on the North -- and they have the greatest ability to have an impact on the North -- then this can become more destabilizing,? he said. ?And that instability is not in China's interest, certainly. It's not in anybody's interest in the region.?
?So if we're going to operate according to what's in people's interest, China's and everybody else's, I believe China needs to become more engaged in this effort,? he said.
Secretary of State John Kerry opened the door to direct disarmament talks with North Korea, but there is still no sign Kim Jong Un is prepared to stop testing nuclear weapons. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
?It is obvious that China is the lifeline to North Korea. Everybody knows that China provides the vast majority of the fuel to North Korea.? China is their biggest trading party, their biggest food donor and so forth,? he added.
When asked about a comment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that North Korea had a history of breaking diplomatic deals, Kerry replied: "John is absolutely correct, that has been the pattern. And I have raised that issue with the Chinese ? There has been a history of ... just playing this game and then ultimately there's cheating or a complete reneging. We are determined, I am determined to try to find if there is a different formula.? And that is a ? conversation that I specifically had with the Chinese.?
On Sunday, Kerry said the United States was prepared to ?reach out? to North Korea?s leadership.
The United States has offered talks, but on the precondition that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. North Korea deems its nuclear arms a "treasured sword" and has vowed never to give them up.
On Monday, North Korean state media made hardly a mention of conflict in contrast to weeks of tirades against its enemies in what some saw as good sign.
"South Korea and the United States have sent a message for dialogue, so for now the North is switching to that mode," Yang Moo-jin, of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Reuters. "The North's strategic intention has been to try to get some kind of response from the United States and South Korea and now they have that. They won't be brushing away the suggestions to enter dialogue lightly."?
'Bright faces' In Pyongyang on Monday, residents spilled into the streets in apparent celebration, The Associated Press reported. Girls in red and pink jackets skipped along streets festooned with celebratory banners and flags and parents pushed strollers with babies bundled up against the chill.
"Although the situation is tense, people have got bright faces and are very happy," Han Kyong Sim, a drink stand worker, told the AP.?
The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.
North Korea's state-controlled KCNA news agency reported that Kim Jong Un had received a letter from the Central Committee of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front that praised his grandfather.
?The life of Kim Il Sung was an epic-like one of an invincible hero who clarified the truth that arms are a lifeline of the nation and guarantees the victory of revolution, restored the country by leading to victory the hard-fought battles against the Japanese and the U.S. imperialists,? the letter said.
The letter ?pledged to join the all-people resistance to frustrate the frantic moves of the hostile forces for a nuclear war and make positive contribution to bringing about a fresh turn in the efforts for national reunification,? KCNA said.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said it remained on guard against any missile launch to coincide with Kim Il Sung?s birth, Reuters reported.
"The military is not easing up on its vigilance on the activities of the North's military with the view that they can conduct a provocation at any time," a ministry spokesman said.?
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related:
Kerry in Japan: US ready to 'reach out' to North Korea
China urges peaceful resolution of North Korea nuclear standoff
Full North Korea coverage from NBC News
This story was originally published on Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:01 AM EDT
The Gillmor Gang ? Kevin Marks, John Taschek, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor ? spared no expense to bring you the finest in up-to-date tech commentary. In other words, we tore into Twitter Music, ignored Facebook Home, dissected the internals of AirPlay, and cashed our Bitcoin checks. Our attention is a zero sum game, and whether it’s West Wing or Twitter pointers into the musicsphere, how we make our streaming choices will determine who the big winners are. What we’re really waiting for is the tipping point when the streamer artists crossover and recapture the idea that the creators are the real coin of the realm. @stevegillmor, @kteare, @kevinmarks, @jtaschek Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor
(Reuters) - At least three Wall Street analysts this week have written reports about the possibility of the biggest banks breaking themselves up to boost profitability, signaling that investors may be more willing to embrace an idea that is still toxic to some lawmakers in Washington.
New regulations in areas like capital requirements are imposing higher costs on the biggest investment banks, raising doubts about their future profitability. These questions make the biggest global investment banks "un-investable," wrote analyst Kian Abouhossein, who himself works at JPMorgan, one of the biggest global investment banks.
Breaking up large "universal banks," could unlock value for shareholders, Wells Fargo analyst Matthew Burnell wrote in a report on Wednesday. These "financial supermarkets" typically house investment banking, consumer banking and wealth management operations under one roof.
If these banks broke up into smaller companies, the value of the parts would likely be greater than the current whole, Burnell wrote. He estimated that universal banks currently trade at 25 to 30 percent below publicly traded financial firms that focus on just one business.
CLSA analyst Mike Mayo, a long-time critic of big banks, wrote on Tuesday: "Almost every investor that we speak with indicates that a breakup would be bullish for the stocks."
"While there is skepticism as to whether a full breakup will occur, there is an undercurrent of shareholders who would support such a move," he added.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law was designed to end government bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks by creating mechanisms for winding down large financial institutions.
But some U.S. legislators are looking to add rules that would impose extra costs on the biggest banks, to reflect the fact that these companies could still end up being bailed out in the next crisis.
Under a proposal from senators David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, and Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, banks with more than $400 billion in total assets would face an additional capital surcharge. The bill would also prevent banks' riskier affiliates from accessing government support such as deposit insurance.
JPMorgan's Abouhossein said the risk of these types of rules being imposed by lawmakers and regulators around the world makes it difficult to buy shares of the biggest investment banks.
(Reporting by Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina)
AAA??Apr. 11, 2013?9:40 AM ET Jolie joins G-8 to urge end to sexual violence By CASSANDRA VINOGRADBy CASSANDRA VINOGRAD, Associated Press??
Flanked by G8 Foreign Ministers, US actress Angelina Jolie, in her role as UN envoy, talks during a news conference regarding sexual violence against women in conflict, during the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in London, Thursday, April, 11, 2013. The ministers are meeting in London as Britain currently holds the G8 Presidency, with the heads of government G8 meeting set for June in Northern Ireland.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, pool)
Flanked by G8 Foreign Ministers, US actress Angelina Jolie, in her role as UN envoy, talks during a news conference regarding sexual violence against women in conflict, during the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in London, Thursday, April, 11, 2013. The ministers are meeting in London as Britain currently holds the G8 Presidency, with the heads of government G8 meeting set for June in Northern Ireland.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, pool)
Flanked by G8 Foreign Ministers, US actress Angelina Jolie, in her role as UN envoy, talks during a news conference regarding sexual violence against women in conflict, during the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in London, Thursday, April, 11, 2013. The ministers are meeting in London as Britain currently holds the G8 Presidency, with the heads of government G8 meeting set for June in Northern Ireland.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, pool)
Angelina Jolie looks to the media as she leaves a G8 Foreign Ministers meeting on sexual violence against women in London, Thursday, April, 11, 2013. The ministers are meeting in London as Britain currently holds the G8 Presidency, with the heads of government G8 meeting set for June in Northern Ireland.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, flanked by US actress Angelina Jolie, right, in her role as UN envoy, talks during a news conference regarding sexual violence against women in conflict, during the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in London, Thursday, April, 11, 2013. The ministers are meeting in London as Britain currently holds the G8 Presidency, with the heads of government G8 meeting set for June in Northern Ireland.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, pool)
LONDON (AP) ? Angelina Jolie brought her celebrity wattage to London on Thursday to back an urgent cause: fighting sexual violence in military conflicts.
The Hollywood star joined British Foreign Secretary William Hague in announcing $36 million in additional funding from G-8 nations to go toward a series of measures for preventing sexual violence and ensuring justice for its survivors.
For too long, Jolie said, survivors of sexual violence have been "the forgotten victims" of wars in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.
"Today, I believe that their voices have been heard," she said alongside Hague, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and others at a meeting of foreign ministers from G-8 nations.
The British foreign secretary called sexual violence in conflict "one of the greatest and most persistent injustices" in the world and said the time had come to eradicate the scourge of rape in war.
"This in my mind is the slave trade of our generation," Hague said. "Now that we have put war-zone rape on the international agenda, it must never slip off it again and it must be given even greater prominence."
He said the G-8 ministers meeting in London have made the "historic" declaration that rape and serious sexual violence in conflicts constitute war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions ? putting responsibility on nations to search for and prosecute anyone accused of such crimes.
Jolie, who serves as a special envoy for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, welcomed the "long overdue stand" on sexual violence, saying that for too long international political will to prevent it has been "sorely lacking."
Sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war in several conflicts, including in Syria, Libya, Bosnia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hague said some funding will go toward training military personnel on how to respond to sexual violence, since they are often the first to encounter survivors.
Ministers also pledged to set out international standards for the investigation of rape and sexual violence, as well as to ensure there is no amnesty for sexual violence in peace agreements.
___
Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
Associated PressNews Topics: Arts and entertainment, General news, Government and politics, Movies, Entertainment, Sexual assault, War and unrest, Sex in society, Violence, Celebrity, International relations, Violent crime, Crime, Social issues, Social affairs
Apr. 11, 2013 ? The Maya are famous for their complex, intertwined calendric systems, and now one calendar, the Maya Long Count, is empirically calibrated to the modern European calendar, according to an international team of researchers.
"The Long Count calendar fell into disuse before European contact in the Maya area," said Douglas J. Kennett, professor of environmental archaeology, Penn State.
"Methods of tying the Long Count to the modern European calendar used known historical and astronomical events, but when looking at how climate affects the rise and fall of the Maya, I began to question how accurately the two calendars correlated using those methods."
The researchers found that the new measurements mirrored the most popular method in use, the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation, initially put forth by Joseph Goodman in 1905 and subsequently modified by others. In the 1950s scientists tested this correlation using early radiocarbon dating, but the large error range left open the validity of GMT.
"With only a few dissenting voices, the GMT correlation is widely accepted and used, but it must remain provisional without some form of independent corroboration," the researchers report in today's (April 11) issue of Scientific Reports.
A combination of high-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry carbon-14 dates and a calibration using tree growth rates showed the GMT correlation is correct.
The Long Count counts days from a mythological starting point. The date is composed of five components that combine a multiplier times 144,000 days -- Bak'tun, 7,200 days -- K'atun, 360 days -- Tun, 20 days -- Winal, and 1 day -- K'in separated, in standard notation, by dots.
Archaeologists want to place the Long Count dates into the European calendar so there is an understanding of when things happened in the Maya world relative to historic events elsewhere. Correlation also allows the rich historical record of the Maya to be compared with other sources of environmental, climate and archaeological data calibrated using the European calendar.
The samples came from an elaborately carved wooden lintel or ceiling from a temple in the ancient Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala, that carries a carving and dedication date in the Maya calendar. This same lintel was one of three analyzed in the previous carbon-14 study.
Researchers measured tree growth by tracking annual changes in calcium uptake by the trees, which is greater during the rainy season.
The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is incorporated into a tree's incremental growth. Atmospheric carbon-14 changes through time, and during the Classic Maya period oscillated up and down.
The researchers took four samples from the lintel and used annually fluctuating calcium concentrations evident in the incremental growth of the tree to determine the true time distance between each by counting the number of elapsed rainy seasons. The researchers used this information to fit the four radiocarbon dates to the wiggles in the calibration curve. Wiggle-matching the carbon-14 dates provided a more accurate age for linking the Maya and Long Count dates to the European calendars.
These calculations were further complicated by known differences in the atmospheric radiocarbon content between northern and southern hemisphere.
"The complication is that radiocarbon concentrations differ between the southern and northern hemisphere," said Kennett. "The Maya area lies on the boundary, and the atmosphere is a mixture of the southern and northern hemispheres that changes seasonally. We had to factor that into the analysis."
The researchers results mirror the GMT European date correlations indicating that the GMT was on the right track for linking the Long Count and European calendars.
Events recorded in various Maya locations "can now be harmonized with greater assurance to other environmental, climatic and archaeological datasets from this and adjacent regions and suggest that climate change played an important role in the development and demise of this complex civilization," the researchers wrote.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State. The original article was written by A'ndrea Elyse Messer.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Douglas J. Kennett, Irka Hajdas, Brendan J. Culleton, Soumaya Belmecheri, Simon Martin, Hector Neff, Jaime Awe, Heather V. Graham, Katherine H. Freeman, Lee Newsom, David L. Lentz, Flavio S. Anselmetti, Mark Robinson, Norbert Marwan, John Southon, David A. Hodell, Gerald H. Haug. Correlating the Ancient Maya and Modern European Calendars with High-Precision AMS 14C Dating. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01597
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.
Following brain surgery, your main worry should not be whether you?ll get fired at work for refusing to wear a wig that scrapes your scar. But former Hooters waitress Sandra Lupo contends in a lawsuit that?s what happened when she declined to don a wig and her hours were reduced so much, she was forced to quit.
She filed a disability discrimination lawsuit in Missouri against Hooters of St. Peters, LLC and Hooters of America LLC and is seeking $25,000 for mental and emotional distress, plus punitive damages, attorney fees and other relief.
"Hooters of America believes the lawsuit is without foundation, denies the accusations and has filed a motion that the lawsuit be dismissed," the company said in a statement to NBC News. Hooters, in an April 5 response to the court, denies most of her statements and says ?its actions were taken for legitimate, nondiscriminatory business reasons.?
Hooters is a privately held chain of restaurants that bank on attractive waitresses wearing short shorts and cleavage-hugging shirts.
Lupo, who had been working at the Hooters of St. Peters, Mo., since 2005, was in her last six weeks of nursing school and was at her computer in June 2012 when she felt tingling and numbness on her left side. ?I was bleeding out in my brain,? she told NBCNews.com.
She spent a week in the hospital following her July 2 surgery and was visited by her Hooters manager, according to her suit filed on the Circuit Court of St. Charles County.
The lawsuit claims that her store manager told her ?she could return to work as soon as she was capable, and that, she could wear a ?chemo cap? or any other items of jewelry to distract from her lack of hair and the visibility of her cranial scar.?
Her hair had been cut to ?-inch for the surgery.
On July 16, Lupo?s doctors gave her the all-clear to return to work. Soon after, she met with her manager and the Hooters' regional manager, who said she would be required to wear a wig at work, according to Lupo?s lawsuit.
Hooters? April 5 filing does not address whether any of its employees told Lupo to wear a wig. It says that her manager ?informed her she would need a head covering.?
At the time of the meeting, Lupo protested that she was unable to afford a wig, which can cost from several hundred to several thousands of dollars, according to her claim.
When she did return to work July 21, wigless, she was told a wig was required. She then borrowed a wig but it ?caused extreme stress to her body because of the surgery and the healing wound,? according to the suit.
Hooters then reduced her hours ?to the point that Plaintiff could not earn an income, thereby forcing Plaintiff to quit,? according to the suit. ?It is and has been the routine custom, policy and practice of Defendants to reduce their employees? hours which forces them to voluntarily resign thereby making them ineligible for unemployment compensation.?
The Hooters filing specifically denies that allegation.
After Lupo said she could not wear the wig, Hooters stopped scheduling her for as many hours, she said.
?I actually had to beg for one shift a week,? Lupo said. Pre-surgery, she was working several days a week while finishing nursing school. She had also trained staff and worked promotions for the restaurant, but no alternate duties were offered to her.
?They refused to accommodate it,? she said.
Today she is recovered, graduated and working as a registered nurse.
?Justice,? she said, is the main goal of the lawsuit.
Some rumors regarding the release Date & specs of Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and will it affect Samsung Galaxy S4!! At present, there have been quite a lot of rumors regarding Samsung. And according to these rumors Samsung is working on its upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 3 that is about to be released on latter half of this year. The Galaxy Note 3 from Samsung will be its next flagship device and the successor of the famous Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phablet.
lately Samsung made some announcements regarding Samsung Galaxy S4 which is the latest flagship device of Samsung and will be one of the most influential next generation smartphones of this year. However, it seems quite obvious that Samsung may very soon face competition among its very own smart devices and which may affect its overall business.
Source: technobuffalo
There?s no doubt that Samsung is one of the leading manufacturers of smartphone & tablet devices. This Korean firm has achieved top level due to its Galaxy range of smartphones & tablets. But the real question is, what will customers do when they have to select from Samsung Galaxy S4 & Samsung Galaxy Note 3? Moreover, the hardware configuration of the latest upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablet can be a threat to Samsung Galaxy S4. In fact customers have already posted comments on internet that say that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will for sure be a better smart device.
Source: technobuffalo
Also read: Rumors: Samsung to Release Galaxy S4 Mini to Complete with Apple?s iPhone Mini
The spectacular features of Samsung Galaxy S4 will not make a much difference because the Galaxy Note 3 will have all these features along with some extra cool features. One of such features is the flexible display which was initially expected to be seen in Galaxy S4. This latest feature will add extra protection and would make the device nearly unbreakable.
Source: technobuffalo
We all are familiar with the greatness of Galaxy Note 2, and we can tell that its successor would be equally good. So allow us to know what you all think regarding these two devices. Would the Galaxy Note 3 boost sales for Samsung or will it give a tough time to Galaxy S4 instead?
?Article source: captees
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Police said in a statement that eight members of the security forces were hurt and taken to a military hospital for treatment.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 19-Apr-2013
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The Gillmor Gang ? Kevin Marks, John Taschek, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor ? spared no expense to bring you the finest in up-to-date tech commentary. In other words, we tore into Twitter Music, ignored Facebook Home, dissected the internals of AirPlay, and cashed our Bitcoin checks. Our attention is a zero sum game, and whether it’s West Wing or Twitter pointers into the musicsphere, how we make our streaming choices will determine who the big winners are. What we’re really waiting for is the tipping point when the streamer artists crossover and recapture the idea that the creators are the real coin of the realm. @stevegillmor, @kteare, @kevinmarks, @jtaschek Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor
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