Water trucked to nearly bone-dry Texas town

SPICEWOOD, Texas (AP) ? Under dark clouds and rain, two tanker trucks for the first time delivered thousands of gallons of water Monday to a Texas town that came precariously close to becoming the state's first community to run out of water during a historic drought.

The 8,000-gallon water delivery arrived in Spicewood after it became clear the village's wells could no longer produce enough water to meet the needs of the Lake Travis community's 1,100 residents and elementary school, said Clara Tuma, spokeswoman of the Lower Colorado River Authority.

Several towns and villages in Texas have come close to running out of water during the driest year in Lone Star State history, but until now none has had to truck in water. Most found solutions to hold them over, often paying tens of thousands of dollars to avoid hauling water, a scenario that conjures up images from the early 1900s, when indoor plumbing was a novelty.

In reality, water still ran Monday through pipes and faucets of the Central Texas town, though the source will soon be different. Instead of being pumped from wells into the community's 129,000-gallon storage tank ? a two day's supply of water ? the already treated liquid will be hauled in from 17 miles away, treated a second time and put into the town's water system.

"The hauling of water is just a Band-Aid approach. It's just a short-term approach," said Joe Don Dockery, a Burnet County commissioner that oversees the Spicewood area.

LCRA realized last week how dire the situation was, and informed Dockery on Monday. By the next day, the situation was worse ? the well had dropped another 1.3 feet overnight. The severest forms of water restrictions were put in place, and LCRA said there would be no new hookups to the town's water supply.

Ryan Rowney, manager of water operations for the LCRA, said the agency plans to truck water into Spicewood for several more weeks while exploring alternatives, including drilling a new well or piping water from nearby Lake Travis. But the agency doesn't want to rush into any project, and prefers for now to pay $200 per truckload of water while ensuring the tens of thousands of dollars it will cost to find a permanent solution are well-spent.

"If we need to haul every day, we will. This will probably go on for several more months," Rowney said.

Trucks, including at least one 6,000 gallon tanker, will make about four or five deliveries a day, he said, but the town will still have to remain under the severest water restrictions.

"All you can do is take a bath, a shower, and that's really all you're allowed to do. You can flush the commode, but even that we're asking people to do judiciously," Rowney said.

Spicewood is a community about 35 miles from Austin, home to many retirees who spend their weekdays in the city and drive to their lakeside homes on the weekends. Residents are now being careful, taking shorter showers, and some are even bringing their clothes to Laundromats.

Until last week, when it became clear they could run out water, the most exciting event in Spicewood was the upcoming wild game chili cookoff advertised on a roadside sign at the entrance to the small community.

"When we had water it was pretty nice here," deadpanned Riley Walker a 73-year-old state transportation employee.

Walker bought land in Spicewood in 1988 when only a handful of families lived here. He built a house and moved into town full time in 2002.

"I have faith they will haul water in. They don't really have a choice, there are a lot of people here," Walker said.

Joe Barbera, president of the local property owner's association, said residents have been "really worried about this for a long time now," but have always been conservation minded.

"You look around and you don't see any immaculate lawns," he added. "This is just normal use for a normal community."

For more than a year, nearly the entire state of Texas has been in some stage of severe or exceptional drought. Rain has been so scarce lakes across the state turned into pools of mud. One town near Waco, Groesbeck, bought water from a rock quarry and built a seven-mile pipeline through a state park to get water. Some communities on Lake Travis moved their intake pipes into deeper water. And Houston started getting water from an alternative, farther away reservoir when Lake Houston ran too low.

And even though it has started to rain more this winter, it's not enough to fill the arid state's rivers and lakes.

A few inches of rain certainly won't be enough to fill Spicewood's wells.

"We're talking about rainfall events of 20 inches plus. Huge, huge flood events to bring the lake levels up," Rowney said, explaining that many parts of Texas can no longer wait for the rain. "The downside of that is that everyone's praying for a flood, well floods can be bad too."

___

Plushnick-Masti contributed to this report from Houston. You can follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com//RamitMastiAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Texas%20Drought-Wells%20Run%20Dry/id-dd7151a77b3041ed8bdc5504729195d3

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Rapper Cory Gunz Tweets Apology After Gun Arrest

Rapper Cory Gunz Tweets Apology After Gun Arrest

Rapper Cory Gunz has issued an apology to his fans for letting them down following his arrest this weekend for gun possession. The Young Money [...]

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/Qd61pfJV5FY/

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Utah schools start adopting open source textbooks (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY ? Utah classrooms may soon be making the switch to open-source online textbooks that can be cheaper and easier to update.

The Utah State Office of Education announced this month it will develop and support the open textbooks for language arts, science and math. The agency is urging schools and districts to adopt the books this fall.

Officials say open textbooks are written by experts, vetted by their peers, and posted online for free downloading and use by anyone. They also can be printed.

Pilot programs provided printed open textbooks to more than 3,800 Utah high school students at a cost of $5 per book, down from an average cost of $80 for a science book.

State superintendent Larry Shumway says the new strategy will help keep textbooks up to date.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/linux/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_ge/us_open_source_textbooks_utah

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Matthew Broderick Super Bowl Ad For Honda CR-V Pays Homage to Ferris Bueller

A new Super Bowl ad (first announced last week with this viral tease) for the Honda CR-V features Matthew Broderick in his iconic role as Ferris Bueller himself.

The just-released full-length version, featuring Broderick as a middle-aged Ferris and playing hooky from work instead of school, is certainly a fun homage.

Directed by Todd Philips (The Hangover), the CR-V ad campaign encourages people to do things they've always wanted to do ... as Ferris famously advocated.

Keep an eye out for various Ferris Bueller's Day Off tie-ins below:

Matthew Broderick's Day Off - Super Bowl Ad

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/matthew-broderick-super-bowl-ad-for-honda-cr-v-pays-homage-to-fe/

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Learning-based tourism an opportunity for industry expansion

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: John Falk
falkj@science.oregonstate.edu
541-737-1826
Oregon State University

CORVALLIS, Ore. New research suggests that major growth in the travel, leisure and tourism industry in the coming century may be possible as more people begin to define recreation as a learning and educational opportunity a way to explore new ideas and cultures, art, science and history.

Some of this is already happening, although the expansion of tourism in much of the 20th century was often focused on amusement parks and tropical resorts not that there's anything wrong with them.

But in a recent study published in the Annals of Tourism Research, experts say that increasingly affluent and educated people around the world are ready to see travel in less conventional ways, and that lifelong learning and personal enrichment can compete favorably with sandy beaches or thrill rides.

"The idea of travel as a learning experience isn't new, it's been around a long time," said John Falk, a professor of science education at Oregon State University and international leader in the "free-choice learning" movement, which taps into personal interests to help boost intellectual growth beyond what's taught in schools and through formal education.

In the 1700s and 1800s, a "Grand Tour" of Europe was considered an educational rite of passage for upper-class citizens of the gentry or nobility, in which months of travel throughout the continent offered education about art, culture, language, everything from history to science, fencing and dancing.

There may not be as much demand today to perfect one's skills with a sword, but the concept is the same.

"For a long time the travel industry has been focused on hedonistic escapism," Falk said. "That's okay, but as more and more people have the time, means and opportunity to travel, a lot of them are ready to go beyond that. There are many other interesting things to do, and people are voting with their feet.

"You're already seeing many tour operators and travel agencies offer educational opportunities, things like whale watching, ecotourism," Falk said. "The National Park Service does a great job with its resources, teaching people about science, geology and history. The push for more international travel experiences as a part of formal education for students is an outgrowth of this concept.

"We're convinced this is just the beginning of a major shift in how people want to spend their leisure time, and one that could have important implications for intellectual and cultural growth around the world," he said.

Among the observations the researchers make in their study:

• More leisure time and lower relative cost of travel near the end of the 20th century has opened the door for people to consider different types of recreation focused on intellectual engagement.
• A growing appetite for lifelong learning is being underserved by the existing tourism industry.
• A major expansion of learning-based tourism will require both participants and the tourism industry to overcome a long-standing bias that recreation and education are opposite ends of the spectrum to accept that learning can be fun.
• The cultural impact of "being there" makes for a memorable learning experience of great personal value to participants, and is often just the beginning of a continued interest in a topic.
• People seek experiences that are sensation-rich, alter their view of the world, or instill a sense of wonder, beauty and appreciation.
• A down side to travel and learning can occur if tourists use the experience to reinforce colonialist, racial or cultural stereotypes.
• Tourism activities are most successful if the participant feels active and engaged, rather than just receiving a recitation of facts to correct a "knowledge deficit."

Collaborators on this research were from the University of Queensland in Australia.

"It is expected that tourism will become ever more centered upon a quest for something larger, something more personally fulfilling," the researchers wrote in their report. "It is argued that the quest for knowledge and understanding, enacted through travel, will continue to be a dominant theme of the new century."

###

Editor's Note: Digital images and video are available to illustrate this story.

Image of educational tour in the Oregon Cascade Range: http://bit.ly/zwi2ic
Video of OSU program that trains people to become naturalist guides: http://bit.ly/yvu0rU

The study this story is based on is available in ScholarsArchive@OSU: http://bit.ly/wu3EvJ

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: John Falk
falkj@science.oregonstate.edu
541-737-1826
Oregon State University

CORVALLIS, Ore. New research suggests that major growth in the travel, leisure and tourism industry in the coming century may be possible as more people begin to define recreation as a learning and educational opportunity a way to explore new ideas and cultures, art, science and history.

Some of this is already happening, although the expansion of tourism in much of the 20th century was often focused on amusement parks and tropical resorts not that there's anything wrong with them.

But in a recent study published in the Annals of Tourism Research, experts say that increasingly affluent and educated people around the world are ready to see travel in less conventional ways, and that lifelong learning and personal enrichment can compete favorably with sandy beaches or thrill rides.

"The idea of travel as a learning experience isn't new, it's been around a long time," said John Falk, a professor of science education at Oregon State University and international leader in the "free-choice learning" movement, which taps into personal interests to help boost intellectual growth beyond what's taught in schools and through formal education.

In the 1700s and 1800s, a "Grand Tour" of Europe was considered an educational rite of passage for upper-class citizens of the gentry or nobility, in which months of travel throughout the continent offered education about art, culture, language, everything from history to science, fencing and dancing.

There may not be as much demand today to perfect one's skills with a sword, but the concept is the same.

"For a long time the travel industry has been focused on hedonistic escapism," Falk said. "That's okay, but as more and more people have the time, means and opportunity to travel, a lot of them are ready to go beyond that. There are many other interesting things to do, and people are voting with their feet.

"You're already seeing many tour operators and travel agencies offer educational opportunities, things like whale watching, ecotourism," Falk said. "The National Park Service does a great job with its resources, teaching people about science, geology and history. The push for more international travel experiences as a part of formal education for students is an outgrowth of this concept.

"We're convinced this is just the beginning of a major shift in how people want to spend their leisure time, and one that could have important implications for intellectual and cultural growth around the world," he said.

Among the observations the researchers make in their study:

• More leisure time and lower relative cost of travel near the end of the 20th century has opened the door for people to consider different types of recreation focused on intellectual engagement.
• A growing appetite for lifelong learning is being underserved by the existing tourism industry.
• A major expansion of learning-based tourism will require both participants and the tourism industry to overcome a long-standing bias that recreation and education are opposite ends of the spectrum to accept that learning can be fun.
• The cultural impact of "being there" makes for a memorable learning experience of great personal value to participants, and is often just the beginning of a continued interest in a topic.
• People seek experiences that are sensation-rich, alter their view of the world, or instill a sense of wonder, beauty and appreciation.
• A down side to travel and learning can occur if tourists use the experience to reinforce colonialist, racial or cultural stereotypes.
• Tourism activities are most successful if the participant feels active and engaged, rather than just receiving a recitation of facts to correct a "knowledge deficit."

Collaborators on this research were from the University of Queensland in Australia.

"It is expected that tourism will become ever more centered upon a quest for something larger, something more personally fulfilling," the researchers wrote in their report. "It is argued that the quest for knowledge and understanding, enacted through travel, will continue to be a dominant theme of the new century."

###

Editor's Note: Digital images and video are available to illustrate this story.

Image of educational tour in the Oregon Cascade Range: http://bit.ly/zwi2ic
Video of OSU program that trains people to become naturalist guides: http://bit.ly/yvu0rU

The study this story is based on is available in ScholarsArchive@OSU: http://bit.ly/wu3EvJ

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/osu-lta013012.php

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Retired Greyhounds as Pets | fox4kc.com ? Kansas City news ...

9:45 am, January 30, 2012, by Jason M. Vaughn

You know what makes a great pet? A retired racing greyhound, that?s what! Cher Oliver of Retired Greyhounds as Pets stopped by the FOX 4 Morning Show with more information.

Filed in:

Guests

Topics:

pets, retired greyhounds

Source: http://fox4kc.com/2012/01/30/retired-greyhounds-as-pets/

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Saturday Night Open Thread (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192785063?client_source=feed&format=rss

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St. Louis hosting 1st big parade on Iraq War's end (AP)

ST. LOUIS ? Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.

The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation's first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.

"It's not necessarily overdue, it's just the right thing," said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.

Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including "Welcome Home" and "Thanks to our Service Men and Women." Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.

Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands ? even the Budweiser Clydesdales ? joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.

That was the hope of organizers Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum. Neither man has served in the military but came up with the idea after noticing there had been little fanfare for returning Iraq War veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases. No ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations.

Appelbaum, an attorney, and Schneider, a school district technical coordinator, decided something needed to be done. So they sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. The grassroots effort resulted in a huge turnout despite raising only about $35,000 and limited marketing.

That marketing included using a photo of Radford being welcomed home from his second tour in Iraq by his then-6-year-old daughter. The girl had reached up, grabbed his hand and said, "I missed you, daddy." Radford's sister caught the moment with her cellphone camera, and the image graced T-shirts and posters for the parade.

Veterans came from around the country, and more than 100 entries ? including marching bands, motorcycle groups and military units ? signed up ahead of the event, Appelbaum said.

Schneider said he was amazed how everyone, from city officials to military organizations to the media, embraced the parade.

"It was an idea that nobody said no to," he said. "America was ready for this."

All that effort by her hometown was especially touching for Gayla Gibson, a 38-year-old Air Force master sergeant who said she spent four months in Iraq ? seeing "amputations, broken bones, severe burns from IEDs" ? as a medical technician in 2003.

"I think it's great when people come out to support those who gave their lives and put their lives on the line for this country," Gibson said.

With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed ? suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming. In New York, for example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said there would be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.

But in St. Louis, there was clearly a mood to thank the troops with something big, even among those opposed to the war.

"Most of us were not in favor of the war in Iraq, but the soldiers who fought did the right thing and we support them," said 72-year-old Susan Cunningham, who attended the parade with the Missouri Progressive Action Group. "I'm glad the war is over and I'm glad they're home."

Don Lange, 60, of nearby Sullivan, held his granddaughter along the parade route. His daughter was a military interrogator in Iraq.

"This is something everyplace should do," Lange said as he watched the parade.

Several veterans of the Vietnam War turned out to show support for the younger troops. Among them was Don Jackson, 63, of Edwardsville, Ill., who said he was thrilled to see the parade honoring Iraq War veterans like his son, Kevin, who joined him at the parade. The 33-year-old Air Force staff sergeant said he'd lost track of how many times he had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a flying mechanic.

"I hope this snowballs," he said of the parade. "I hope it goes all across the country. I only wish my friends who I served with were here to see this."

Looking at all the people around him in camouflage, 29-year-old veteran Matt Wood said he felt honored. He served a year in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard.

"It's extremely humbling, it's amazing, to be part of something like this with all of these people who served their country with such honor," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_us/us_iraq_war_parade

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Griner leads No. 1 Baylor women to easy win (AP)

WACO, Texas ? Brittney Griner scored 28 points and moved into second place on the NCAA career blocks list in No. 1 Baylor's 74-46 rout of Kansas on Saturday night.

Griner passed Michigan State's Alyssa DeHaan midway through the first half. The 6-foot-8 phenom has 506 blocks in her career and now only trails Saint Mary's star Louella Tomlinson, who had 663.

Kimetria Hayden added 10 points and Destiny Williams had 11 rebounds for Baylor (21-0, 8-0 Big 12), which is one of two unbeatens left. Wisconsin-Green Bay improved to 19-0 on Saturday by routing Valparaiso.

Carolyn Davis scored 12 and Angel Goodrich and CeCe Harper had 10 points each for Kansas (16-4, 5-3). Aishah Sutherland had 10 rebounds.

Griner got the Lady Bears going early with two two-handed blocks. Those came a 14-4 run to open the game and led to 3-pointers.

Baylor was up 37-17 at the half after holding Kansas scoreless for the final 6:45 of the period. The Lady Bears then opened the second half on a 10-4 run and never let Kansas get closer than 21 the rest of the way.

Midway through the second half, Sutherland had a short jumper in the lane and Harper followed with a 3 for Kansas' biggest scoring run of the game. Baylor answered with a short jumper by Griner and a jumper by Shanay Washington that put the Bears up 61-36 with 8:44 to play.

Kansas was coming off a 62-43 win over No. 21 Texas Tech on Wednesday, and had previously beaten then-No. 23 Texas by five points on Jan. 4.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkw_t25_kansas_baylor

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Some G20 countries soften stance on Europe: sources (Reuters)

MILAN/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? Some of the world's biggest economies want to move quickly on a cash injection for the International Monetary Fund to help rescue the euro zone, but hardliners may still scupper an early deal to boost the fund's war chest, G20 sources said on Friday.

Officials from the Group of 20 leading economies are engaged in what one called a 'chicken and egg' game as they work toward a possible deal on boosting the IMF's firepower at a meeting of the bloc's finance ministers and central bank governors in Mexico City in one month's time.

Emerging market powers Brazil and China are among the countries keen to pursue the two-track plan pushed by the current G20 president Mexico to work on additional IMF funding simultaneously with extra steps from Europe, one G20 official told Reuters, rather than insisting on European action upfront.

"There was a much more cooperative sentiment between G20 countries than in recent meetings," said the official, referring last week's discussions between G20 deputies in Mexico City.

"Some emerging countries are more open to consider contributions to increase IMF resources in parallel with euro zone efforts, so they are open to make commitments to increase IMF resources in the next few weeks," the source added.

Mexican central bank governor Agustin Carstens said a consensus was building on boosting IMF resources to help European countries and others that need aid.

But the February 25-26 meeting deadline may prove ambitious, given the United States' insistence that Europe boost its own crisis shield further before any pledges to the IMF - which estimates it needs $600 billion more to limit the fallout.

"Our view is that the only way Europe is going to be successful in holding this together is for them to bring a stronger firewall," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"If Europe is able and willing to do that, we believe the IMF is ready to play a constructive role."

Canada is also taking a tough public stance, although a G20 official from another country said Ottawa was becoming more conciliatory, along with Japan.

"Canada and Japan are more flexible than in the past," the second official said. "It could be a bit more difficult with the USA, although they too have softened their position, but it's still early in the game."

STANDOFF FEARS

Europe, for its part, supports the two-track approach, but officials are concerned that Germany's reluctance so far to back increased funding for the euro zone's own rescue fund may fuel a standoff at the G20.

Germany has insisted that the safety net should not exceed 500 billion euros, but officials close to the G20 talks estimate that a further 230 billion to 250 billion euros is needed.

"It is important that we should not let this be locked between the Americans and the Germans, or the IMF and the Germans, so that nobody would get any pretext or excuse to not do their part," one senior euro zone official said.

A G20 official from a large emerging market economy said Europe accepted the need to put in more resources but "won't say it for fear of" Germany.

"They will get to that point because they know not one cent of this IMF money will be made available unless they come up with their side ... the majority view is that we move in parallel we have things ready, but we don't have to deploy it until the Europeans have gotten their act together."

European Union leaders will discuss increasing the bloc's permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), on March 1-2, just days after the February meeting in Mexico, with the timing creating extra difficulty for policymakers.

"If the parallel approach wins inside the G20, a deal on increasing IMF resources could be clinched by the G20 meeting in February," the initial G20 source said. "Otherwise, the G20 will work on reaching a deal by next April in Washington, after an increase of ESM firepower is signed in March among euro zone countries."

G20 finance ministers are due to meet in Washington on April 19-20 ahead of a leaders summit in Mexico's Los Cabos on June 18-19.

Countries keen on the parallel approach are Brazil, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, China, Indonesia and South Korea, the source said.

A senior Brazilian government official confirmed Brazil was keen to push the two aims simultaneously, but said a commitment to a bigger ESM would definitely smooth the way.

"If the Europeans increase (funding to) the ESM then they increase the chances of additional resources to the IMF in support," he said.

The extra funding may come in the form of bilateral loans between individual countries and the IMF or an increase in countries' quotas, which could also give emerging economies more say in how the fund is managed.

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Alonso Soto in Brasilia, Paul Carrel in Davos and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Writing by Krista Hughes; Editing by Andrea Evans, Gary Crosse)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_imf_g20

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Ex-soldier behind Papua New Guinea mutiny arrested (AP)

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea ? A retired colonel who attempted to take over Papua New Guinea's military and ordered the prime minister to step down has been arrested and charged with mutiny.

Police spokesman Dominic Kakas said Yaura Sasa was arrested Saturday night in a suburb of Port Moresby, the capital. A court spokesman said Sasa was charged with mutiny and appeared in court Sunday.

Sasa led a small group of soldiers in a mutiny Thursday in which the military's top commander was briefly held under house arrest. The mutiny was part of a power struggle in which Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and former Prime Minister Michael Somare claim to be the rightful leader of the South Pacific nation.

Sasa demanded that O'Neill step down within a week to make way for Somare, who appointed Sasa defense chief after being removed from office.

Kakas said the soldiers who followed Sasa had not been arrested.

Parliament replaced Somare with O'Neill in August while Somare was getting medical treatment outside the country. Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court sided with Somare last month, but O'Neill continues to have support from lawmakers.

Somare issued a statement Sunday repeating his call to be reinstated, and calling on police and the military to join him.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_papua_new_guinea_mutiny

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Mitt Romney, the first Mexican-American president?

With a father who was born in Mexico and a son who lived in Chile and is fluent in Spanish, Mitt Romney has a compelling story to tell to Latino voters, some experts say.

Surely, the question from the anchor of a Spanish-language network to Mitt Romney was at least partly tongue-in-cheek:

Skip to next paragraph

Considering that Mr. Romney's father was born in Mexico, would that allow the candidate to?claim a Mexican-American heritage and dub himself the first?Hispanic president, asked Jorge Ramos of Univision TV.

Predictably, Romney laughed it off.?

?I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary,? where Cuban-American voters could play a decisive role, Romney said.??I think that might be disingenuous on my part.?

But the question was an interesting one, not least because it was asked by a Hispanic news outlet. True,?the elder Romney, whose parents were missionaries, was not a Mexican citizen and left Mexico at age 5. Romney the candidate doesn't even speak Spanish.

His son does, however ? and fluently, having spent time in?Chile as a Mormon missionary.?He has even narrated Spanish-language ads for his?father and addressed crowds by his?dad?s side on the campaign trail in Florida. And the Romney clan does have that connection to their patriarch's birthplace in Chihuahua, Mexico.

So does it amount to anything at all for Romney and the Latino vote?

?Absolutely,? says Charles Dunn, author of ?The Presidency in the 21st?Century.?

If a candidate has a connection to another people and culture, he says, ?he should use it to the greatest effect,? and Romney's background means he has a story to tell.?

Americans love a story well told, he notes, ?and this is the tale of his own?father?s beginning and his love for the Mexican people and their culture.?

Other presidents have used family connections to their benefit, notably John?F. Kennedy though his wife. ?He made the effort to speak German, and his own wife, Jackie, spoke French, which was a great plus for him,? he says. ?Romney?s story will play well in certain parts of the country.?

But a worldly display can cut both ways. Just look at the recent swipe by the Newt Gingrich campaign at Romney for speaking French, says Jim Broussard, professor of political science at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa.??

Similarly, most analysts agree that the decision by John Huntsman Jr. to speak Mandarin during a debate did not help him, because as one blogger noted, it made him seem somehow ?un-American.?

Playing to Latinos could also be a problem, particularly for Republicans, since it often leads to the issue of illegal immigration.?In hard economic times, ?immigrants become a popular scapegoat,? portrayed as taking away scarce American jobs, says Catherine Wilson, a political scientist at Villanova University in Philadelphia.

This makes the question of whether to create a?video clip in another language tricky, she adds. ?

But Latinos are an integral part of the American culture and political landscape, and some will be open to Romney's candidacy, says Steffen Schmidt, a political scientist at Iowa State University and a political commentator for CNN Espa?ol. ?

In the end, Latinos will ?probably make their decision on electability as much as anything else,? he says.

Given that, it?doesn?t hurt for Romney to play every card he has. ?All he has to say is that his father was born in Mexico,? he says. ?That?s pretty good right there. What?it says to Hispanics is that he may be more sensitive to their issues because of that.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/_MGLu8OqUhI/Mitt-Romney-the-first-Mexican-American-president

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Nokia loss tempered by Windows phone launch (AP)

HELSINKI ? Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter net loss of euro1.07 billion ($1.38 billion) as sales slumped 21 percent even as the company's first Windows smartphones hit markets in Europe and Asia.

The loss, widened by a euro1 billion loss booked on Nokia's navigation systems unit, compares with a profit of euro745 million in the same period a year earlier.

Nokia said net revenue ? including both its mobile phones and its network divisions ? fell from euro12.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010 to euro10 billion, with smartphone sales plunging 23 percent.

Nokia has lost its once-dominant position in the global cell phone market, with Android phones and iPhones overtaking it in the growing smartphone segment.

The Finnish company is attempting a comeback with smartphones using Microsoft's Windows software, a struggle that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop characterized as a "war of ecosystems."

He said Nokia has sold "well over" 1 million such devices since the launch of the Lumia line in the fourth quarter, in line with company expectations.

Including other models, Nokia sold 19.6 million smartphones in the quarter. By comparison, Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the same period.

The Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 hit stores in Europe and Asia in November while T-Mobile started offering the 710 in the U.S. in January. Nokia hopes to boost its poor presence in the U.S. with the higher-end Lumia 900, which AT&T will offer later this year.

"From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful," Elop said in a statement. "We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012."

In a conference call, he said Nokia would launch the Lumia 710 and 800 in Canada in February.

Nokia shares rose more than 2 percent to euro4.15 ($5.37) in afternoon trading in Helsinki.

Michael Schroeder, analyst at FIM bank in Helsinki, said markets had welcomed Elop's comments on sales of Lumia.

"It definitely alleviated concerns about a horror scenario, expected by some. Although a million is not a lot in the market, it was better than expected," Schroeder said.

The company said it would not provide annual targets for 2012 as it was in a "year of transition" but added that it expects operating margins in the first quarter of this year to be "about break-even, ranging either above or below by approximately 2 percentage points."

It repeated the target of cutting costs by more than euro1 billion by 2013.

Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics in London said Nokia "was not out of the woods yet," but its quarterly result was in line with expectations.

"Nokia is not necessarily dead in the water. Profit margins were a bit higher than expected and Nokia has not lost its third position in smartphones although it is suffering in North America and western Europe," Mawston said.

Nokia proposed a dividend of euro0.20 per share for 2011 and said that chairman and former CEO Jorma Ollila will step down at the annual meeting in May. A nomination committee proposed board member Risto Siilasmaa as the new chairman.

The average selling price of a Nokia handset rose by euro2 from the previous quarter to euro53 but was down by euro16 from a year earlier, reflecting a higher proportion of cheaper mobile phones in Nokia's product mix.

The company also reported a 4 percent drop in sales for Nokia Siemens Networks, its joint network equipment unit with Siemens AG of Germany.

After selling four in 10 cell phones worldwide in 2010, Nokia has steadily lost market share to competitors including Apple and Samsung. It didn't give any market share estimates in the report Thursday, but said its net revenue fell 9 percent to euro38.6 billion in the full year 2011, with smartphone sales plunging 27 percent and sales of lower-end mobile phones down 18 percent.

___

Ritter reported from Stockholm.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_hi_te/eu_finland_earns_nokia

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English footballer warned over Twitter predictions

By ROB HARRIS

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 9:30 a.m. ET Jan. 26, 2012

LONDON (AP) -Predicting the outcome of football matches on Twitter could land players in trouble, as the English football authorities are wary they could be seen to be providing inside betting information.

Queens Park Rangers captain Joey Barton used Twitter on Thursday to claim that the English Football Association had warned him not to provide opinions about the outcome of matches.

The FA regulations warn players that they cannot bet on games in competitions in which their club is involved or "pass inside information on to someone else which they then use for betting."

On Sunday, Barton correctly predicted to more than 1.1 million followers ahead of Sunday's Premier League matches that Manchester City would beat Tottenham and Manchester United would win at Arsenal.

According to Barton, the comments raised alarm bells at FA headquarters, although the governing body declined to comment.

"Just received my weekly warning letter from FA headquarters, this time regarding me tweeting about predicting the weekend's Manchester double," Barton wrote Thursday on his verified Twitter account. "According to the FA, I am not allowed to give my opinion of possible results in case that is seen as insider information. These people are so out of touch with reality it's untrue.

"What difference does my opinion of the outcome of a match have on the result? None."

The FA rules warn players: "You should be aware that the passing of information would not just be by word of mouth - the rule applies equally to emails or social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)."

But Barton believes the FA has not got "to grips with the change that's happening in the world around them," claiming that he has "probably" received 30 letters from the organization since he started tweeting in July 2010.

The midfielder first revealed in October that the FA had told him to moderate his online comments.

"The FA came to hush me down or make me not have an opinion," he said.

While using Twitter to transform his image since being jailed in 2008 for assault in a street fight, Barton has also used the platform to attack the hierarchy at former club Newcastle and criticize Neil Warnock after he was fired as QPR manager earlier this month.

---

Rob Harris can be reached at www.twitter.com/RobHarrisUK

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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'She wants the best for me'

U.S. defender Tim Ream cancels his honeymoon in Tahiti and heads east after being contated by English Premier League club Bolton.

Solo out?

Hope Solo has an ailing leg, the result of some extra work she was putting in to get back into playing shape after "Dancing With the Stars."

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46145514/ns/sports-soccer/

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Canadian pipeline needs aboriginal consent: chief (Reuters)

OTTAWA (Reuters) ? Enbridge Inc's controversial plan to build a pipeline to the Pacific Coast from oil-rich Alberta requires the consent of aboriginal bands, some of whom staunchly oppose the project, Canada's top native leader said on Wednesday.

The contention underlines the difficulties facing Enbridge as it tries to push through the C$5.5 billion ($5.4 billion) Northern Gateway project, which would cross land belonging to many Indian bands, or first nations, so the oil sands-derived crude could be shipped to Asia and California.

Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said bands had "the right to free, prior and informed consent" over projects affecting their territory.

"We need to move away ... from the notion that we are only stakeholders when it comes to major projects. Whether it be a pipeline or a mine, first nations have real rights (and) those rights must be recognized when it comes to any development in this country," he told a news conference in Ottawa.

The oil industry and Canada's federal government want the 525,000 barrel a day pipeline to proceed as quickly as possible as a way to diversify markets and increase returns for the Alberta tar sands, the world's third-largest oil deposit. Hearings into the development began this month.

Native Indians, who make up around 1.2 million of Canada's 34.5 million population, largely live on reserves and suffer high levels of poverty, crime, unemployment and poor health. However, Canada's booming resource industries are increasingly seeking access to those lands.

Enbridge has offered aboriginal communities affected by its proposal to share in 10 percent of pipeline's ownership and C$1 billion of community development money. A company executive said in Edmonton on Tuesday that 40 percent of first nations along the route have signed on to the equity offering.

However, many in British Columbia have said they do not want the project to move forward under any conditions, citing fears of oil spills on ancestral lands and in coastal waters.

In a blow to Enbridge's aboriginal relations last week, a deal it signed with British Columbia's Gitxsan First Nation fell apart when chiefs voted down the agreement, which had been signed in December by one of their ranks.

Canada's right-of-center Conservative government says Northern Gateway and other similar proposals will help boost exports of tar sands-derived crude and provide lots of employment for natives and economic development for their communities.

The project took on more urgency for the government and an industry spending billions of dollars tapping the oil sands after Washington this month rejected TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline to Texas from Alberta.

"There's money on the table, there's equity participation and there's jobs. So it's our hope to continue to have a dialogue with first nations and see whether we can, together, achieve our common objectives," Joe Oliver, Canada's natural resources minister, said in Calgary.

"We have a moral and constitutional obligation to consult, to accommodate, and we will of course do that, and the regulatory process contemplates it."

Oliver said the government has not been talking about intervening in the regulatory process should the proceedings not go as it hopes. Some aboriginal groups have said they are already preparing legal cases should the pipeline be approved against their wishes.

Increasingly unhappy aboriginal leaders say one big reason for their troubles is what they describe as the refusal of Ottawa to live up to treaties signed centuries ago between native bands and former colonial ruler Britain.

They say those agreements gave them rights over resources on their lands and are still valid.

"We have continued to lurch from crisis to crisis with deep social ills and deplorable conditions in our communities, very often when these communities are adjacent to major natural resources projects," said Atleo.

He said he wanted to break away from what he called the "Ottawa knows best" mentality.

Atleo spoke a day after hundreds of first nations chiefs held a formal meeting in Ottawa with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and senior cabinet ministers to press for more powers to improve living conditions and for more rights over resources.

Tempers are rising, and one senior British Columbia chief said this week that "an aboriginal uprising is inevitable" unless Ottawa handed over more control.

($1=$1.01 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Jones in Calgary; editing by Rob Wilson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_aboriginals

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Apple's Q1 hardware sales: 37 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs, 15.4 million iPods

We touched on the numbers in our report on Apple's Q1 earnings, but the company's throwing out a lot of "record" figures so we thought we'd take a moment to focus on just how its hardware sales stack up. The standout number is, of course, the 37.04 million iPhones sold during the quarter, which is up 128 percent from the same quarter a year ago (and up from 17 million in the previous quarter, a jump of 117 percent). That notably puts Apple back ahead of Samsung, which sold a total of 35 million total smartphones in its most recent quarter. And as if that wasn't enough, Apple's Tim Cook also said on the company's earnings call that it could have sold even more if it had more supply.

iPad sales also set a new record with 15.43 million units sold during the quarter, which is a 111 percent jump from the 7.3 million sold a year ago, and a 39 percent increase from the 11.1 million moved in Q4 2011. Once again, however, iPods are the one category that continues to decline in the face of the growth of smartphones. Apple sold a total of 15.4 million iPods -- over half of which were iPod touches -- which represents a 21 percent decline from the 19.4 million sold a year ago. The holiday shopping season did boost sales considerably from the 6.6 million sold in the previous quarter, though.

Mac sales were also on the upswing, totaling 5.2 million units -- a 26 percent increase year-over-year. Breaking things down further, that translates to 1.48 million desktops (including iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro), and 3.7 million laptops (including the basic MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro). As for the company's "hobby," the Apple TV, it rang up 1.4 million in sales for the quarter, and 2.8 million for the 2011 fiscal year. Fans of charts can get their fix after the break.

Continue reading Apple's Q1 hardware sales: 37 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs, 15.4 million iPods

Apple's Q1 hardware sales: 37 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs, 15.4 million iPods originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The End of the Time of Earth: Why Does the Leap Second Matter?

Dial of the Prague astronomical clock. Creative commons. Click on image for license and information.

Ed Note: We have a guest today! AiP is pleased to host this post by Dr. Kevin Birth, who is a professor of anthropology at Queens College, CUNY and an expert on time. His forthcoming book, Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality (Palgrave Macmillan) discusses the hidden logics in clocks and calendars.

As a specialist in the study of time, I occasionally get asked about what I think of the so-called Mayan prophecy that the world will end in 2012. I guess people think that I?ll have some interesting insight into the cultural anthropology of time, and some special knowledge into the mysterious Mayan logics. Truthfully, it is not the Mayan logics that are mysterious, but our own. 2012 was almost a significant year in the cultural creation of time as we know it. Recently, those in charge of the global time system decided to defer to 2015 the ending of the time of Earth. Because of the timing of the debate over Earth?s time, it may come as a shock to those who expect some dismissive answer from an ivory-tower intellectual, but I think the Maya maybe were on to something.

The Mayan calendrical system consists of multiple cycles of different durations. Like a set of different-sized gears whirring together with gears completing their cycles at different times, it takes a long time for the Mayan system to return to a previous state. The Gregorian year 2012 marks a moment when this Mayan system will start over?the end of the old long count and the beginning of a new one. The Maya took such things very seriously, and as Professor Prudence Rice has demonstrated in her books, the ending of one cycle and beginning of a new one coincided with political transformations for the Maya.

The Maya are not alone in such a sensitivity. People in the European tradition are enamored of base-10 mathematics, so when the year 2000 approached, there was a great deal of hoopla over the number. Many saw it as the beginning of the new millennium, although, in truth, the millennium did not begin until 2001. Still, there seems to be magic in chronological numbers and their cycles.

But there is another thing going on in all these calendrical and chronological systems. Behind the curtain of these cycles are a set of logics that deal with some fundamental problems in time keeping. This is as true for us as it was for the Maya. First, the cycles of the moon, stars, and sun are not equivalent. Second, the revolution of the Earth around the sun is an awkward 365.242 days. Different cultures have come up with different solutions to this problem, and the Mayan calendar is just one of many such solutions. Our currently dominant calendar, implemented by Julius Caesar and tweaked by Pope Gregory the XIII, ignores sidereal and lunar cycles, and deals with the duration of the Earth?s orbit through leap years that add a day.

Whether it is ancient Maya or our contemporaries in 2012, most people have very little idea of how systems of time reckoning are created?we simply look at our clocks and calendars and believe them without recognizing the cabal of astronomers and/or priests that lurk behind the logics.?? Through our objects of time, we rely on largely unknown experts to make sure that the trains and everything else run on a reliable time, and to ensure that we know when the airlines do not. All we need to know is how to read a clock and calendar, not how they work.

While almost everyone is familiar with the idea of the leap year, far fewer are aware that the Earth?s rotation is not uniform. It wobbles about with small deviations, and as a result, a international bureaucracy has been set up to keep our time system coordinated with the Earth?s foibles. In this bureaucracy, the International Earth Rotational Systems Service (IERS) has charted the Earth?s rotation and when necessary, made recommendations to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) to modify the international time keeping system by a second?a leap second. The BIPM receives time signals from atomic clocks distributed throughout the globe and then calculates what is called ?coordinated time? based on these signals. This created, coordinated time is then set to the prime meridian, and sent back out to all those in the time signaling business as something called ?Universal Coordinated Time? (UTC). It may be disconcerting to hear that time is created, but if one keeps in mind the theory of relativity, each point in space has its own unique time. From the perspective of relativity, a universal time is an illusion?but an illusion our society needs to function.

The BIPM creates time by following policies formulated by the Radiocommunications Sector of the International Telecommunications Union (the ITU-R). There are many technologies reliant on time, such as software and GPS, and these technologies do not work well with the Earth?s occasional hiccups and the irregular insertion or deletion of seconds from UTC. Since much software runs on a uniform time without leap seconds, to keep it coordinated with UTC requires software updates, and this gets expensive over time.

The recent consideration by the ITU-R to do away with leap seconds would have meant an end the time of Earth?in effect, the Earth?s cycles would no longer have a bearing on the time kept by clocks. In this culturally created system, the units of duration that define time for us are a choice of the ITU-R. A second is defined as 1/315,56,925.975 of the length of the tropical year for January 0, 1900 (in effect, December 31, 1899); a day as 86,400 of those seconds; a year as 365 or 366 (in a leap year) of those days. This decision would have meant our clocks are not tied to the Earth?s rotation, and our calendars are no longer associated with the Earth?s orbit?truly, the end of the time of Earth.

In an uncanny coincidence, this debate is unfolding at the end of the Mayan long count?the end of one time for the Maya and the beginning of a new one. A cataclysmic change that few will notice as global time ceases to refer to any single cycle but becomes entirely a cultural creation.

So maybe the time conscious Maya were right, but it is not the world that ends in 2012, only time as we knew it. However, since the decision has been delayed to 2015 it seems we have little to worry about, assuming we understand the Mayan calendar correctly (and that?s a big assumption).

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9aaf22132b3f4f127398fb23e37cfce7

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Marine pleads guilty, ending final Haditha trial (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? The U.S. Marine sergeant accused of leading a massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha pleaded guilty on Monday to dereliction of duty, ending the final prosecution stemming from a 2005 incident that brought international condemnation of U.S. troops.

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, entered his plea at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego as part of a deal with military prosecutors in which more serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault were dismissed.

As part of his guilty plea, Wuterich accepted responsibility for providing negligent verbal instructions to the Marines under his command when he told them to "shoot first and ask questions later," which resulted in the death of innocent civilians.

He faces a maximum sentence of three months of confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for three months and a reduction in rank when he is sentenced on Tuesday, a Camp Pendleton spokesman said.

"By pleading guilty to this charge, Staff Sergeant Wuterich has accepted responsibility for his actions," base spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Kloppel said.

Any discharge process Wuterich may face will be separate from the plea and sentencing, Kloppel added.

Wuterich, 31, was accused of being the ringleader in a series of November 19, 2005, shooting and grenade attacks that left two dozen civilians dead in Haditha, a city west of Baghdad that was then a hotbed of insurgent activity.

The killings were portrayed by Iraqi witnesses as a massacre of unarmed civilians and brought international condemnation of the U.S. military.

Local witnesses claimed angry Marines had killed unarmed men, women, and children after a popular comrade, Lance Corporal Miguel "TJ" Terrazas, was killed by a roadside bomb.

'CAULDRON OF WAR'

Lawyers for the troops involved argued the deaths resulted from a fast-moving situation in which the Marines believed they were under enemy fire.

Wuterich was originally charged with murder in the case.

"No one denies that the consequences of November 19, 2005 were tragic, least of all Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich," his civilian defense attorney, Neal Puckett, said in a statement released shortly after the plea hearing.

"But the fact of the matter is that he has now been totally exonerated of the homicide charges brought against him by the government and the media. For six years he has had his name dragged through the mud. Today, we hope, is the beginning of his redemption," the statement said.

Wuterich pleaded not guilty when the court-martial began in early January.

The proceedings were suspended last Wednesday by the military judge in the case, who ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers to seek a negotiated plea deal.

The trial resumed on Friday for one day, and the plea agreement was announced on Monday morning.

"Many pundits from all walks of life will comment on Wuterich's purported guilt and most of these are people who have never been remotely associated with the challenges of combat action," Colonel Willard Buhl, a U.S. Marine Corps military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Reuters.

"Marines know that they are the best trained and led military men and women in the world," Buhl said. "But the cauldron of war is the most intense thing humans can experience and this case falls on the extreme end of that spectrum."

Buhl served in the same battalion and regiment as Wuterich, but never met him and was deployed in that unit prior to the events at Haditha that are at the center of the case.

Six out of the eight Marines originally accused in the case had their charges dismissed by military judges, and a seventh was cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

Wuterich enlisted in the Marines after his 1998 graduation from high school, where he was an athletic honor-roll student and played with the marching band.

He was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq when the Haditha incident occurred.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb, Steve Gorman and Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/us_nm/us_marine_haditha

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Bryce Dallas Howard gives birth to daughter (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Actress Bryce Dallas Howard and her husband, Seth Gabel, welcomed their second child on Thursday, with the baby girl's grandfather, filmmaker Ron Howard, announcing the happy news on Twitter.

"Beatrice Jean Howard-Gabel Born Jan 19 2012 8lbs 6oz Bryce & Baby B are spectacular Daddy Seth & brother Theo are beaming ear to ear :-)," the filmmaker tweeted Saturday evening.

Bryce Howard and her actor husband who appears on the series "Fringe" also have a 4-year-old son, Theo. Howard has spoken publicly in the past about her struggles with postpartum depression after his birth in 2007.

The most recent big-screen appearances for Howard, 30, were in "50/50" and as a member of the ensemble cast of "The Help." She also appeared in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." Her movie career began with uncredited bit parts in films by her director-producer father.

"Beatrice's arrival is hugely exciting for our family," Ron Howard tweeted. "Thanks for all the kind tweets folks."

(Reporting by Sheri Linden)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/people_nm/us_brycedallashoward

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Nurturing mothers rear physically healthier adults

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? Nurturing mothers have garnered accolades for rescuing skinned knees on the playground and coaxing their children to sleep with lullabies. Now they're gaining merit for their offspring's physical health in middle age.

In a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science, Brandeis psychologist Margie Lachman with Gregory Miller and colleagues at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Los Angeles reveal that while children raised in families with low socioeconomic status (SES) frequently go on to have high rates of chronic illness in adulthood, a sizable minority remain healthy across the life course. The research sought to examine if parental nurturance could mitigate the effects of childhood disadvantage.

Lachman, the Minnie and Harold Fierman Professor of Psychology, and director of the Lifespan Initiative on Healthy Aging, says that her team is working to understand the sources of social disparities in health and what can be done to reduce them. Funded by the National Institute on Aging as part of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, this information will then be used to empower families through education.

"The literature is very clear that people who are low in socioeconomic status have worse health than their same age counterparts," says Lachman, a phenomenon called the social gradient in health. "Modifiable factors play an important role, and we are realizing that things can be done to try to minimize these health disparities."

Clearly money and health care access are part of it, she says, but numerous studies show they play a very small role, as countries with universal health care have the same social gradient.

While they have looked at income in other studies, the team has found that the level of educational attainment is a more reliable indicator of socioeconomic status; people who have a college education do well in many areas, such as physical health, psychological well-being and cognitive function. Her team is looking for ways to reduce the differences, as not all lower-socioeconomic status people fare the same -- some, Lachman says, are physically and cognitively active and have good social support, resources which seems to reduce their risks for poorer functioning.

The study is innovative in several ways. Other studies look at SES in adulthood and link it with self-reports of health. This study looked at SES during childhood and whether it predicted poor health many years later. The study also examined risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes within the context of a large survey.

More than 1,000 members of the nationally representative sample were brought to a medical clinic for an overnight stay and samples were taken to assess pre-clinical indicators of disease. To qualify for a metabolic syndrome diagnosis, which is a precursor to coronary artery disease, Type 2 diabetes and stroke, adults had to have central adiposity (large waist circumference) and at least two of the following: high blood pressure, raised triglycerides, raised fasting glucose levels, or low levels of high-density lipoprotein (a specific cholesterol reading).

Emerging literature reveals that many of the health problems in midlife, including metabolic syndrome, can be traced back to what happened in early childhood. The stresses of childhood can leave a biological residue that shows up in midlife, explains Lachman. Yet, among those at risk for poor health, adults who had nurturing mothers in childhood fared better in physical health in midlife.

"Perhaps it's a combination of empathy, the teaching of coping strategies or support for enrichment," says Lachman. "We want to understand what it is about having a nurturing mother that allows you to escape the vulnerabilities of being in a low socioeconomic status background and wind up healthier than your counterparts."

The study has followed the same 1,205 people for over a decade. Nurturance was assessed with data and included questions such as: How much did she understand your problems and worries and how much time and attention did she give you when you needed it?

"We would like to try to use this information to bolster vulnerable families who are at risk for not doing well," says Lachman. "Teaching them parenting skills to show children concern for their welfare, how to cope with stress, that they have some control over their destinies, and how to engage in health-promoting behaviors such as good diet and exercise -- the things that could protect against metabolic syndrome."

There still may be steps that can be taken later in life to reduce risk for those who are vulnerable, Lachman says.

Interestingly, in this study, paternal nurturing did not contribute to resilience.

"It could be that the results are tied to the particular cohort studied, and there may be generational differences," says Lachman. "With this cohort, people who are now in midlife, fathers weren't typically very involved. Paternal nurturance may play more of a role for the children of these midlife fathers who, in contrast, are more involved in the lives of their children and perhaps more nurturant."

As the study continues they will be able to look at new generations of middle-aged adults who have had different parenting experiences.

"The fact that we can see these long-term effects from childhood into midlife is pretty dramatic," says Lachman. "Yet this study is just one small piece of this overall puzzle. The more modifiable factors that can be identified, the more likely it is that we will be able to intervene successfully to optimize health."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brandeis University.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. G. E. Miller, M. E. Lachman, E. Chen, T. L. Gruenewald, A. S. Karlamangla, T. E. Seeman. Pathways to Resilience: Maternal Nurturance as a Buffer Against the Effects of Childhood Poverty on Metabolic Syndrome at Midlife. Psychological Science, 2011; 22 (12): 1591 DOI: 10.1177/0956797611419170

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

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120123123917.htm

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