Riot police broke up crowds of youths who turned violent in a Dutch town late night on Sept. 21 after several thousand people descended on the community following an invitation to a birthday party posted on Facebook, Dutch media reported.
Media reports said six people were hurt, including three seriously, after disturbances broke out in the northern Dutch town of Haren. Reports said shops were vandalized and looted, a car set on fire, and street signs and lampposts damaged before police broke up the crowds.
Up to 600 riot police were on the scene during the disturbances, according to one media report. There were at least 20 arrests, media said.
Some 30,000 people received the invitation from a girl announcing her 16th birthday party on Facebook, according to media reports. The party was intended to be a small-scale celebration, but the girl did not set her Facebook event to private and the invitation went viral.
Reports said up to 3,000 people showed up in the town of 18,000. Haren had been bracing for the event for most of the week.
Director of Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh invites tenders notice for provision of running of animal hospital in Jhirnya division, district Khargone. Tender document can be collected/downloaded from Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Bhopal .
A crocodile more than 22 feet long that ripped prey to death and another huge croc that sucked prey to its doom were at the top of the European marine food chain 150 million years ago, a new study finds.
The enormous prehistoric crocodiles, Plesiosuchus and Dakosaurus, were such ravenous carnivores that their methods have been compared to today's killer whales and a famous, iconic, meat-loving dinosaur.
"The skulls of these two sea croc species have some similarities to T. rex," lead author Mark Young of the University of Edinburgh told Discovery News. "The largest known skull of Plesiosuchus manselii was approximately four feet, three inches long, putting it in the size range of adult T. rex skulls."
NEWS: Largest Known Croc Likely Ate Early Humans
For the study, published in PLoS ONE, Young and his colleagues analyzed fossils for the two crocodiles, which were unearthed in sites from England to Germany. In their U.K. home, the crocs once dwelled in the shallow seas that covered England. At the same time, Archaeopteryx was flying over Europe and giant dinosaurs, such as Diplodocus and Allosaurus, were stomping around North America.
The researchers determined that Plesiosuchus was the largest known species of metriorhynchid, meaning sea crocodile.
"It was bigger than living salt water crocodiles and great white sharks," Young said.
Its teeth functioned like those of today's killer whales, based on shape and wear. This ripper crocodile probably bit into both large and small prey, which it would grab, kill and gulp.
Perhaps even more unusual was the sucker croc, Dakosaurus. The skull and jaw characteristics of this nearly 15-foot-long ancient crocodile suggest that it was a suction feeder, making it the first known suction-feeding crocodilian.
NEWS: Crocodile Turns Bright Orange
This way of eating "involves being able to rapidly open the mouth wide, and generating negative pressure," Young said. "This sucks a prey item into the mouth."
"We think that Plesiosuchus specialized in eating other marine reptiles, and Dakosaurus was a generalist," co-author Lorna Steel of the Natural History Museum in London said, "probably eating fish and whatever else it could get hold of, perhaps including the small metriorhynchid Geosaurus." The latter looked like a barracuda.
It's suspected that modern killer whales can also suck in victims. Young explained that juvenile killer whales in captivity are known to generate negative pressures with their mouths.
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Both prehistoric crocodiles, therefore, fed very similar to modern killer whales. These animals are not related, since killer whales are mammals. The researchers instead believe that the similarities exemplify what's known as convergent evolution.
"Convergence is the evolution of a similar body plan, feeding mechanism (or other characteristic or behavior) in two different and not closely related groups, in this case crocodiles and mammals," Young said.
NEWS: Ocean-Going Crocs Are Mean, Green Surfing Machines
"The continual evolution of these morphologies in distantly related groups could be telling us something about the limits and optimal method of underwater feeding in vertebrates," he added. "For example, the shearing, tooth-to-tooth occlusion of Dakosaurus is today found in false killer whales. But over the past 10 million years, numerous species of fossil sperm whales also evolved this feeding mechanism."
As for how the two different, yet equally formidable, crocodiles got along, there is no evidence that either species attacked the other. The scientists believe the Dinosaur-Era English seas had niche partitioning, whereby various predators fed on different animals, so the hunters never had to compete with one another for food. Today's ocean ecosystems are organized in much the same way, with animals such as whales, sharks and dolphins living in the same overall area.
Young and his colleagues would next like to delve deeper into understanding the feeding mechanics of the two crocs and other marine predators.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? The family of the man who killed four people at a Minneapolis sign company says he struggled for years with mental illness.
Police said Friday that Andrew J. Engeldinger of Minneapolis opened fire at Accent Signage Systems just hours after being let go from the company Thursday morning.
His family says in a statement released through the National Alliance on Mental Illness that they aren't trying to excuse Engeldinger's actions, but perhaps partially explain them.
Alliance director Sue Abderholden says the family had approached the group for help about two years ago. That's about when Engeldinger's uncle says his nephew broke off contact with his family.
Abderholden says Engeldinger's parents took a class on understanding and dealing with mental illness. But she says they couldn't convince Engeldinger to seek help.
Cricket Live Score of Australia vs South Africa 19th Match - Colombo on 2012. Get Cric Live Score of South Africa vs Australia, 19th Match of ICC World Twenty20 2012. South Africa vs Australia 19th Match begins at 30 Sep 2012 onwards at Colombo. Get Full Scorecard of Australia vs South Africa, 19th Match ICC World Twenty20 2012 online free. Get batting and bowling figures of 19th Match match starting at 2012, 30 Sep 2012. Online Live Match of Australia vs South Africa 19th Match - ICC World Twenty20 2012 live from Colombo.
Current Time: 09/30/2012 00:54:07 GMT
Time Left:
Australia vs South Africa, 19th Match
Toss: NA
: /()
Result: Match scheduled to begin at 15:30 local time (10:00 GMT)
Man of the Match
To be Decided
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Australia Team Squad: DJ Hussey, MEK Hussey, SR Watson, CL White, GJ Bailey, XJ Doherty, GB Hogg, DA Warner, GJ Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Patrick Cummins, MS Wade, DT Christian
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South Africa Team Squad: AB de Villiers, JH Kallis, JA Morkel, M Morkel, DW Steyn, HM Amla, J Botha, JP Duminy, RJ Peterson, JL Ontong, LL Tsotsobe, WD Parnell, RE Levi, Faf du Plessis, Farhaan Behardien
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Kenyan troops attacked the Somali port city of Kismayu on Friday, seeking to drive al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants from their last major stronghold and end a five-year rebellion.
The loss of the southern port would deal a huge blow to al Shabaab as it is a lucrative source of revenue and a centre for operations over areas it has controlled in Somalia since 2007, but by nightfall, it was not clear who was in control.
Residents said shelling had subsided after earlier fighting near a beach just outside Kismayu.
No Kenyan forces could be seen in the city centre, where shops and businesses were closed and some preachers called on their followers to join al Shabaab on the frontlines.
"Tension is high. It is getting dark and yet no group controls the town," resident Ali Gelle said by telephone. "People are afraid shells will be fired and there's no hope of getting any food," he said.
Al Shabaab, which formally merged with al Qaeda in February, has been steadily losing its footholds under sustained pressure from African Union peacekeeping forces (AMISOM) and Somali government troops for the past year.
While Kismayu's recapture would go a long way towards stabilizing Somalia, which has been largely lawless for the past 20 years, it may embolden the militants to resort to more guerrilla-style attacks.
Kenyan military spokesman Col. Cyrus Oguna said Kenyan soldiers and Somali government troops had advanced on Kismayu from the north, south and from the sea.
"We're moving towards the main city," Oguna told Reuters.
Residents reported fighting near the beach earlier on Friday, about 4 km (2.5 miles) outside the city, as military helicopters hovered overhead.
Many streets were deserted. Some masked men looked on from windows and balconies and the militants appeared to be in control of at least some entrances into the city.
Rukia Jelle, a mother of five, said she could hear "deafening shells" and jets flying overhead.
Residents said Kenyan and Somali troops had advanced to a university campus just to the north of Kismayu and shells had rained down on the presidential palace, an al Shabaab base.
"It's a hilltop palace and no houses surround it. The AU's ships have been shelling in that direction," Gelle said. Oguna could not be immediately reached to confirm that account.
Al Shabaab, which counts foreign al Qaeda-trained fighters among its ranks, is seen as one of the biggest threats to stability in the east and Horn of Africa. It has received advice from al Qaeda's leadership, counter-terrorism experts say.
Western states have poured money into stabilizing Somalia for years, unnerved by a rising tide of Islamic militancy.
Those efforts seem to have paid dividends in the past year.
AMISOM has driven the militants out of key urban strongholds, an EU naval force is clamping down on piracy, and a new president was elected in what appeared to be a largely corrupt-free process earlier this month.
There have also been targeted drone strikes against senior militant commanders. Kenya deployed troops inside Somalia last October, blaming the militants for attacks on Kenyan soil.
KISMAYU "NOT A PIECE OF CAKE"
The Kenyan military spokesman predicted an easy takeover.
"For now, we're not everywhere. We've taken a large part of it without resistance," he said.
Al Shabaab, however, said it would not surrender Kismayu.
"Going into Kismayu is not a piece of cake. For us, this is just the beginning, our troops are spread everywhere," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters on Friday.
Abdirashid Hashi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group said the loss of Kisamyu would be a "huge psychological blow" and a "significant loss" for the militants.
"The die-hard members will continue with their destabilization strategy of targeted killings, suicide bombings and IEDs (roadside bombs)," Hashi told Reuters, while low-level footsoldiers will see them as "a losing proposition".
He added the loss of funding from local taxes would hurt them less as the group morphed into a guerrilla force.
Al Shabaab's radio station, Radio Andalus, was still airing live in Kismayu, urging residents to take their guns and join the 'jihad', Ismail Suglow, a Kismayu resident, said. The radio also reported al Shabaab fighters had destroyed "enemy vehicles and chased away planes".
"The imam said mujahideen and civilians should go to the frontlines near the beach to fight. Many nodded their heads in affirmation," said Yunis Osman, who attended Friday prayers at Dabaqeyn mosque.
A woman named Halima said some residents who support the militants had already joined them with guns at the frontline.
Hashi said the fighters, who have been in Kismayu for the last five years, would have prepared for an assault they knew was coming after African troops seized Mogadishu, Afmadow, Baidoa, Beledweyne, and Marka.
"I am sure they have some contingency plans and have sent supplies outside the city," he said.
The fallout from Kismayu's eventual capture is far from clear. The city is home to rival clans who will be jockeying for power, especially over control of the port due to lucrative tax revenues.
The U.N. refugee agency said there had been a spike in residents fleeing the city on Thursday. More than 13,000 people have fled Kismayu since the beginning of September after Kenyan forces began targeting al Shabaab's positions in the city.
(Additional reporting by Feisal Omar in Mogadishu and Yara Bayoumy and Richard Lough in Nairobi; writing by Yara Bayoumy; editing by Richard Lough and Philippa Fletcher)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Renoir painting that caused a sensation when it was bought at a flea market for $7 may have been stolen from a museum six decades ago, and an auction house has put its sale on hold.
The planned Saturday auction was canceled Thursday after a reporter for The Washington Post discovered documents in the Baltimore Museum of Art's library showing that the painting was on loan there from 1937 until 1951, when it was stolen.
The Impressionist painting, whose title translates as "Landscape on the Banks of the Seine," was purchased two years ago at a West Virginia flea market. The buyer, a Virginia woman who has not revealed her name, took it to auction house The Potomack Co. in July, and experts there confirmed it was by the French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The frame of the painting includes a "Renoir" plaque.
It had been expected to fetch $75,000 or more at auction.
"Potomack is relieved this came to light in a timely manner as we do not want to sell any item without clear title," Elizabeth Wainstein, the owner of the Alexandria, Va.-based auction house, said in a statement.
Potomack and museum officials have notified the FBI about the theft, and an FBI spokesman said the bureau was investigating.
The documents uncovered by The Post in the museum's library indicated that the painting was part of the collection of Saidie May, a major donor to the BMA. It was reported stolen on Nov. 17, 1951, according to the documents, although there is no known police report and the painting does not appear on a worldwide registry of stolen art.
The reported theft occurred shortly after May's death, and the painting had not yet been formally accepted into the museum's collection, which is why museum officials did not initially realize it had been there, BMA director Doreen Bolger said.
"We were caught by surprise," Bolger said Thursday.
Bolger said she would be happy to show the painting again if it is ultimately returned to the museum.
"As this unfolds, we'll find out more about the ownership of the painting," she said. "If the painting is ours, we would be pleased to have it on view."
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Associated Press writer Brett Zongker contributed to this report.
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Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols
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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com
A 7-week-old puppy was stolen from the Animal Resource Foundation in Maryland on Tuesday and a $500 reward has been offered for the puppy's safe return.
ARF, located in Chester, Md., announced the reward on their Facebook?page.
They say a couple in their 20s came to the foundation around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 25 to visit puppies. After a quick visit, the couple left and drove away.
Here at Maclean's, we appreciate the written word. And we appreciate you, the reader. We are always looking for ways to create a better user experience for you and wanted to try out a new functionality that provides you with a reading experience in which the words and fonts take centre stage. We believe you'll appreciate the clean, white layout as you read our feature articles. But we don't want to force it on you and it's completely optional. Click "View in Clean Reading Mode" on any article if you want to try it out. Once there, you can click "Go back to regular view" at the top or bottom of the article to return to the regular layout.
Andy Richter/Aurora Photos/Corbis
Ragen Chastain, who carries 284 lb. on her five-foot, four-inch frame, has been an athlete since she was a kid: she was cheerleading captain, a varsity athlete and has won three national championships as a competitive country and western dancer. ?I focus on my fitness as a dancer, I get my five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and make healthy choices,? says Chastain, 35, who lives in Los Angeles. She isn?t our typical picture of health. With a body mass index of 48, Chastain classifies as morbidly obese. (BMI is a measurement of body fat based on weight and height; 25 or greater qualifies as overweight, and 30 or greater is obesity.)
Obesity has been linked to all sorts of serious health problems, such as hypertension, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. But not all obese people are alike. Surprisingly, some seem to be as metabolically healthy as their normal-weight peers?maybe even more so. The notion that it?s possible to be ?fit but fat? is still very controversial. ?I think it can be misinterpreted to suggest that obesity doesn?t matter in many people,? says Robert Ross, an expert in exercise physiology at Queen?s University. ?I?m as fat as you can get on the BMI chart,? acknowledges Chastain, author of Fat: The Owner?s Manual. She believes it says little about her overall fitness and health. On her blog, Dances With Fat, she writes: ?I am not a thin woman covered in fat, I am a fat woman who is also a very fit athlete.?
A new study in the European Heart Journal, the largest one ever to examine this, suggests just how common these ?fit but fat? people might be. Over 43,000 participants were given a detailed questionnaire and physical exam, including a treadmill test. Researchers concluded that 46 per cent of obese participants were metabolically healthy: they didn?t suffer from conditions like insulin resistance, diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure. (To qualify as ?metabolically healthy? in this study, they could have one or none of those conditions.) These people were at no greater risk of death from any cause than those who were of normal weight?in other words, their excess pounds didn?t seem to make a difference.
Dr. Arya Sharma, who holds the Obesity Chair at the University of Alberta, has seen it in his clinic. He?ll sometimes encounter patients with severe obesity, ?and when you do all the tests, they?re pretty healthy. They?re probably healthier than you or me.? These people tend to have healthier lifestyles, diets, are physically active, ?and quite happy with themselves,? he says, instead of suffering from depression or low self-esteem.
A second study in the European Heart Journal looked at the ?obesity paradox.? While being overweight is itself a risk factor for a host of health problems, the paradox is that once overweight people become sick, they actually seem to have a survival benefit over their less heavy counterparts. The study drew on data from over 64,000 patients in a Swedish registry, and found the relationship between BMI and mortality from any cause was u-shaped. ?Patients who are underweight have the worst prognosis, and normal-weight people have a worse prognosis than the overweight,? says Dr. Oskar Anger?s, consultant cardiologist at the University of Gothenburg. ?Once your BMI is over 35, it?s trouble again.? Those with a BMI between 30 and 35, who qualify as obese, ?have the best prognosis.?
More new research, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich, examined the opposite of being fit and fat: people who are of normal weight (a BMI between 18.5 and 25) but carry excess pounds around the waistline, sometimes called the ?thin-fat phenotype.? A team led by Dr. Francisco L?pez-Jim?nez of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. surveyed over 12,785 Americans for their height, weight, waist and hip circumference, as well as their socio-economic status and other factors. Normal-weight people with fat packed around their middles were at highest death risk from all causes?higher than the obese. ?I think it?s been surprising for many people,? L?pez-Jim?nez says. ?It may change the standard of how we assess obesity. It?s not just about BMI, or weight on the scale.?
Where we put on fat seems to be more relevant to our health than how much of it we carry. ?Body shape is more important than body size,? says obesity expert Jean-Pierre Despr?s, director of research, cardiology at the Qu?bec Heart and Lung Institute. People who are ?apple-shaped,? with fat gathered at the belly, seem to be at higher risk than those who are ?pear-shaped,? carrying excess fat on the hips and thighs. This message is catching on: the Heart and Stroke Foundation now has guidelines for a healthy waist circumference in addition to BMI.
Visceral fat, which packs around the abdomen, has all sorts of harmful effects, releasing free fatty acids and inflammatory substances through the body. It?s also associated with having an excess of fat in the liver and around the heart, increasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease; Despr?s says that it?s a sign the body?s fat deposits are being stored in the wrong places. Even thin people can carry too much visceral fat around their guts, whereas fit fat people, such as Sumo wrestlers, have been shown to have very low levels of it, says E. Louise Thomas of the Metabolic and Molecular Imaging Group at Imperial College London. Subcutaneous fat, the soft pinchable stuff, is comparatively harmless.
Scientists haven?t figured out why some people tend to gather fat around the waistline as opposed to the hips and thighs, where it seems to have a protective effect. Genetics almost certainly play a role, but Thomas believes that lifestyle is more important.
?Studies have shown that fat people tend to have fat dogs,? she says. ?If there was a strong genetic determinant, fat people wouldn?t have fat dogs. That points to environment and culture.? (Fat people don?t tend to have fat cats, though, because cats aren?t as dependent on their owners for exercise.)
Exercise seems to be the main differentiating factor. In that first European Heart Journal study, metabolically healthy obese people had better cardiorespiratory fitness than the unhealthy obese, lead author Francisco Ortega of the University of Granada says. When we exercise, visceral fat (including liver and heart fat) is the first fat to go, as Despr?s has shown. He took a group of sedentary, abdominally obese men and put them on an exercise program under his supervision for three years. They lost ?a tremendous amount? of dangerous fat around their waistlines, even if they didn?t drop a pound.
Ross cautions that the notion of ?metabolically healthy obesity? has to be handled with great caution. ?I?m positive the investigators who make these observations are not intending to suggest obesity is a good thing?that ?You?re okay, don?t worry about it.? ? The percentage of obese people who are ?healthy? is actually very low, he notes (another study from York University found that about six per cent of obese individuals had no metabolic risk factors). Even if an obese person?s blood pressure or cholesterol levels are in check, they might suffer from other problems, he says, like osteoporosis, back pain, or depression?or they might go on to develop common metabolic risk factors later.
The longevity of healthy obese people is still largely unknown, notes Patrick Bradshaw, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies obesity as it relates to chronic disease. In one study, he followed healthy individuals for about nine years, and found the obese were at much greater risk of developing full-blown metabolic syndrome (three or more risk factors like high blood pressure, high waist circumference and high blood sugar), suggesting problems can develop with time.
Whether someone is fat and fit, ?thin-fat,? or obese and unhealthy, exercise seems to be key in avoiding the buildup of visceral fat?even if it doesn?t melt pounds away. Overweight and obese people who take up an exercise program, but don?t see their bodies drastically change, shouldn?t be discouraged: it?s likely they?re becoming fitter even if they?re still fat. ?We somehow equate size to health. The idea that everyone could have a BMI of 25 is nonsense,? Sharma says. ?And the idea that if we were all a BMI of 25, we?d be perfectly healthy, is also nonsense.?
Breast cancer walk on Saturday, Oct. 20th at NASCAR hall of fame. All walkers need to register at www.stridescharlotte.org and pay $25. Register under the team name ? Team West. ?We will meet at wcumc at 7 am and leave for Charlotte at 7:15 am.
After you register, contact Lori Haas at blhaas@earthlink.net with your T-Shirt Size.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday it filed for marketing approval of its drug tivozanib as a treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer.
Aveo and its partner Astellas Pharma Inc. said they have asked the Food and Drug Administration to clear tivozanib, a tablet designed to be taken once a day. The companies are also studying it as a treatment for several other types of cancer.
Aveo and Astellas have said patients who were treated with tivozanib in two late-stage clinical trials lived longer before death or the resumption disease progression than patients treated with Nexavar, a drug marketed by Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer HealthCare. However, Aveo said in August that patients in one of the trials were less likely to survive for a year if they were treated with tivozanib: in that trial, 77 percent of tivozanib patients were still alive a year after the start of treatment compared to 81 percent of Nexavar patients.
The company said the FDA was concerned about the data and that it might have to delay is marketing application for a few months as it discussed the issue with the FDA. Analysts said Aveo argued that the Nexavar patients lived longer than the tivozanib patients because of other treatments they received after the trial ended.
Shares of Aveo Pharmaceuticals lost 15 cents to $10.37 in afternoon trading.
Fucking god damnit. I am not an MRA. I disagree with a number of things that MRAs stand for, but I am willing to admit that they get some things right sometimes. This isn't because I'm an anti-feminist. I recognize the damage that patriarchy has done to women and men. I'm an equalist (a term I just made up recently; feel free to use it), so I want a society that treats all people with the respect they deserve.
I see feminists try to tip the scale toward women's superiority sometimes and I see MRAs doing the same thing with men and manliness (Both sides are poor to Trans people and that's a huge point of contention with me because I do not believe in binary gender). Both sides say things that bother me sometimes and both sides say things that really hit home sometimes. When I am forced to defend one side or the other, though, that's when I get pissed off.
PZ Myers wrote this gem titled, Why do I Despise MRAs?, which has all the trappings of a classic PZ strawmania attack. After a diatribe about MRAs and taking a stab at Reddit (he really shouldn't be on the fucking internet), he describes a post "written by a smug jerk who is busily congratulating himself on how he and MRAs in general are superior beings with a greater grasp on reality than those childlike women, who are deluded by all those glossy women?s mags they read, don?t you know." He quotes a self post that was made by a man who is dealing with a wife who has had trouble adjusting to motherhood. Does he quote anything representative of the post itself? Of course not. It's PZ Myers we're talking about here.
What we see in PZ's post is a male listing a number of things he does throughout the day to keep his family together because his wife is having such a rough time. He mentions his ten-hour workday and six-figure salary, which is apparently nothing compared to what his wife does all day. PZ writes:
This guy does nothing. His wife is on non-stop baby duty all day long, while he?s off interacting with adult human beings who do not poop in their pants and expect him to clean them up, and who speak fluently of phenomena more complex than ?play with me? and ?feed me?.
Apparently, PZ already know exactly what this man's job entails and as long as it's with adults who don't need diapers, it's nothing compared to what his wife does all day.
PZ continues:
This guy blithely tosses all the child care responsibilities on his wife for 10 straight hours a day, then claims he does everything, and can?t understand why she?s depressed and exhausted...
?He then attacks the guy for addressing a commenter who asked why the man doesn't just get a divorce. PZ actually attacks him for giving reasons why he wants to stay to try to make it work.?
Yes, folks, this man is stressed, his wife has a serious depression problem going on and PZ is angry because the man wants to stay, his first reason being, "We don?t fight and our home life is stable, so I think divorce would likely make things a lot worse for her." Damn him!
The husband lists a couple of other reasons, but they are all valid and honest and his feelings are his alone. PZ doesn't get to decide whether or not he should be able to have them or express them in the subreddit!
Just the post was annoying enough, but low and behold! The assholery going on was far worse than I imagined! I went and actually read the guy's post, which I'm convinced PZ failed to do.
Here's what I found, folks, and it's actually a very interesting issue because his family would actually garner support from a lot of feminists (unbeknownst to the FtB feminazis who wouldn't know a women's rights issue if they were slapped in the face with a uterus).
A quote from the self post:
Those of you who have kids will know that the first little while is tough, unglamorous and grinding. But what my wife had expected was this. She'd been trained by years of rhetoric to believe that motherhood would be a beautiful, tranquil paradise entirely composed of moments like this. The screaming, shitting monster who allowed us three hours' sleep a night was something she was totally unequipped to deal with.
What that is, folks, if you click on the links, is the hyped up,?glamorized?illusion of motherhood that was shattered for this poor man's wife. This is exactly the kind of thing that anti-feminists use to fight the liberation of women. It gets worse. You know that poor mother sitting at home all day with babies she didn't expect would be so hard to raise while her husband was gone for ten hours?
Two years later, she's back at work and still miserable. She's successful, but at the cost of not seeing much of our daughter. She's put on weight and she's bone tired at the end of the day. Every part of her life is a protracted battle against what she was led to expect in the face of reality.?
Yes, you read that right. This woman is now balancing a career and a family. She fell victim to the anti-feminist "Superwoman" ideology that says a real woman should be able to do it all. Now that her illusion is shattered, her husband is left hurting and confused as well, doing the best he can to make it easier for her.
So now the image PZ paints of a poor, fragile thing sitting at home all day babysitting is a bit different, isn't it? If what the husband does for ten hours a day is nothing compared to child-rearing, what is it exactly that this woman is doing at her job for however long she's there? Would PZ suggest she do a little more real work and stay at home with the kids? We're walking a fine line here, now.
The redditor recognizes that it's not his wife's fault for her disillusionment and is spot on about how she came to hold these lofty ideas about motherhood and womanhood. He deserves some credit for what he does, support for sticking with it, and a pat on the back for being brave enough to express his feelings, which men are told they aren't supposed to do in our patriarchal society.
And PZ Myers calls this man a "self-centered asshole." ?Let that sink in.
I'd like to thank?WoolyBumblebee?from "Is God a Squirrel?"?for originally tweeting this story. Go check out some other posts, including this hilarious one about women's subversive pants pockets. After reading the shit PZ was spewing, you all deserve a little humor. (Sadly, though, the pockets post was in response to an actual, real life person complaining about how the iPhone being made longer was a dis' to women). Cheers!
Whether you have a small project, small business or a large commercial business, the decision to outsource work may be one of the best decisions you?ll ever make.
First of all, let me tell you of my experience in outsourcing work. I run a website, produce apps and I?m currently producing an indie movie. I only started outsourcing work about a year ago and in that year I have gained experience on the mostly ups, and sometimes downs of outsourcing. This article is subjective and is written off of the back of the experiences I?ve had personally in outsourcing work.
I won?t beat around the bush here. I was once like many other people producing projects and was thinking: ?I?ll never find anyone who would be willing to put the work in and enthusiasm that I do on specific tasks within a project.? Well, I was wrong, because that all changed ?when I started to give outsourcing a tentative try, to the present day where I am now outsourcing a lot of tasks. I?ve outsourced graphics, research, articles, videos and a whole host of other project components.
Here is a list of the positive aspects of outsourcing . . .
A Win/Win Situation
In response to my old way of thinking that no-one would be as energetic and enthusiastic in completing a task within a given project as I was, working on my personal project. Well, the business or self employed service provider is working on a project him or herself too . . . I?ll repeat that key phrase here. . .they are usually building a project themselves. They are trying to build the best service possible and want you to be happy, just as you probably are. You can outsource work to speed up your project and they in turn add you as a happy client if they do a great job. They then build up their business and cultivate word of mouth contacts, gain experience, build a portfolio and become trusted specialists to boot.
For example, let?s say you hire an up and coming web designer. He does a great job and you are happy with his work. In turn he gains profit and reinvests it into his business project. You also recommend this business or person to friends or contacts. Your website is also featured in a portfolio in that web designer?s array of completed works. Whose project benefits the most? The answer is that both of your projects are mutually benefited. It?s a win/win situation!
Specialisation
Let?s look at the outsourcing to a talented web designer scenario. Well, it?s real for me right now because I have teamed up with a good web designer ?- Octavian Rista at Laeta Designs to redesign an app promotion and landing page. Could I design this website on my own? Yes, with a considerable amount of time spent going around a time-consuming learning curve that would seriously eat up my time. Plus, an experienced web designer has had more experience than me and will come up with ideas that would take me ages to think up.
A specialist will be faster too. In fact, an experienced web designer will be up to 5 times faster than I would be with my limited experience in constructing websites regularly.
You Can Choose Your Team
How often have you been asked at an interview this hackneyed corporate question: ?Are you a team player. Can you work as a team?? How many people answer ?No, I prefer working on my own without interference.? The answer is that no-one, unless they have poor social skills would answer in this way. Instead, we give the hackneyed reply . . . ?Yes, I work well as a team and on my own too.? Yawn. It is one of the dumbest questions I?ve ever been asked and it is so automated and impractical. Of course we can work well in a team if the team is a great team. If it?s a dysfunctional team it can be a nightmare!
Here?s the beauty of outsourcing . . . you can build a ?really cracking team right from the start. You can look for like-minded people and really create that corporate hackneyed phrase ?synergy? fly in the real world, with real results.
As well as your team being built, the person doing business with you, however large or small has added you to their team too! That?s real teamwork, not a corporate mismatch through automated-like interview selection, eventually patching a team together who are stabbing each other in the back to race up the corporate ladder, due to deliberate attempts by corporations to get ?team members? in competition with each other ? disguised with such hackneyed titles such as ?Employee of the month? or ?Tops seller? with even a grade added such as ?Level 1 achiever? etc, etc.
It?s fun!
When you?ve found specialists and built a solid, real relationship with your partners you can really enjoy talking to like-minded people who have enthusiasm and their interests are following a close line parallel to your interests. You are helping each other in various ways and you make real friends. This is in stark contrast to the 1000 Facebook friends who would not even attend your own funeral, let alone notice that you?ve even kicked the bucket.
When you make a connection with someone like-minded and are working on a project together, which is mutually beneficial, it can be really fun. In fact, you can learn a lot from each other in the process.
Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Make Real Connections
That?s right, you can make real connections. Have you ever watched one of those sales guys or girls handing out business cards whilst drinking free coffee and cookies at a trade show or business convention. Revisit the convention next year and the chances are you will see the same sales reps doing the same exact thing. Yes, they drum up some business and link their employers with services. But you have an advantage, you are not linking up with people via some 3rd party employer. You are linking up 1 to 1. In fact, a smarter approach, instead of handing business cards out at events would be to ask yourself ?How can I help this person? And how can we help each other?? If a workable answer comes forth, approach them personally, as this is better than handing out 100 business cards, with %99 percent of the business cards being thrown in the bin.
I have never printed out business cards and never intend to either. In my view it is better to buy a beer for someone you can actually help and write down your email address or Facebook URL on a napkin whilst having a laugh and give it to them personally. First of all, if they feel the same way they will contact you for sure. If they have any doubts they will not. You will also have a genuine personal relationship with them and they know you as a person, which is a lot stronger than being just a ?contact?.
You may raise the question . . . yes, but they are not real friends as you both mutually need something. Well, this concept falls short in a number of areas. If you give your phone number to a hot girl/guy, is it because you don?t want anything? No. Your are interested in a relationship with them if you find them attractive. Would you hand your phone number over to a girl/guy who doesn?t keep up their personal hygiene? No. You are both looking for someone to share experiences with, to swap ideas, get a feel good factor going.
In any scenario you have to bring something to the table. Be it mutual friendship, a relationship or even an interest in mutually swapping points of view. That?s real life. Outside of your 9 to 5 job, that?s reality, you don?t waste time unless you can both grow from a friendship or relationship or even a business relationship. In fact, even if relationships start out to be a business project, if you make a connection and become a friend, well . . . that?s a win/win/win situation because you can help each other on projects, plus both enjoy a friendship and productive working relationship at the same time.
You Are Already Outsourcing (whether you are aware of it or not)
You may think . . . I?m new to this outsourcing thing, but are you? When you take your car in for a service, could you do it yourself? Of course you could change the oil, check the fluid levels and maybe even change the break pads and steam clean your engine if you put your mind to it. All you have to do is research how to do this, buy a steam cleaning machine, some brake pads, fluids and oil and off you go. But, what do you do ? you outsource the work as you don?t have time.
When you go to a local cafe and order a coffee and a sandwich. Part of the treat here is that you are paying for the privilege of relaxing. You don?t have to make the coffee or butter the sandwich, someone is doing it for you and their business is benefiting as a result. What about when you are on holiday and use the laundry service. Same thing again.
Disadvantages of outsourcing . . .
You?ll get the odd disappointing result of a service or a task. That?s life. Cross them off of your list and move on to finding the right team members.
People/services change. Sometimes, someone who you have been working with for a while may change, or take a different route in life. Never mind, remain friends and enjoy the ride while it lasts. You may even hook up again in an area where you are both working on in the future. People move on and you are not tied to each other, so give your team space and they will in turn give you space to take different tangents in life.
Delivery times: Sometimes there will be a late delivery as you are not in control of the process. I would outsource only work where there is not a stressful delivery date looming. If you want more control on delivery dates for a task within a project, either specify a delivery date way before you actually need it, or employ staff where you can control the process.
In Conclusion
So, in a nutshell, it may be worth looking at other areas of your work/business that could benefit from outsourcing. It is a circle that is ongoing . . . some people outsource to you, as in when I do app reviews on this site, and sometimes you will outsource to others.
Above all, it?s fun! Enjoy the ride.
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Article by Kevin Baker
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In this video, Minnesota attorney Aaron Hall speaks with Travis Van Slooten. Travis? company, TVS Internet Marketing, provides local SEO services to small businesses.
Aaron Hall: I?m Aaron Hall, attorney at Minneapolis. I?m here with Travis Van Slooten. He provides local SEO (search engine optimization) to small businesses throughout the country. Travis, can you tell us a little more in what you do?
Travis Van Slooten: Yes. I provide local SEO services to small businesses throughout the United States, and what entails is getting small businesses visibility and most importantly, sales via the Internet. We do that through a number of things I do with businesses.
Aaron Hall: What is the most common problem that a client has which brings that client to you?
Travis Van Slooten: Well, the most common problem I have is?the businesses I work with typically don?t have a website, or they have a website but it?s poorly designed, and it?s nowhere to be found. I?m working with businesses that are really at that kind of entry level in terms of the Internet marketing.
Aaron Hall: How do you help them once they start working with you? What?s the process?
Travis Van Slooten: The main thing I do is I always ask the small business, ?What are you goals?? because everybody?s going to have different goals as to what they want to accomplish with their website or their Internet marketing. The first thing I always ask them is, ?What are the goals?? and of course, the inevitable answer is ?We want to make money, and we want to make it through the Internet.? That?s a little too broad. We want to be more specific so a lot of times, it?s sitting down with them and drilling into what it is they do. Are there certain aspects of their business they want to concentrate on more in terms of gaining sales and leads from the Internet? An example of that is I was working with a construction company down at Florida, and he does remodelling. He builds homes. Does a number of things. After talking to him, we discovered for him, he wanted to concentrate on his remodelling services, his remodelling business. Once we have the goal in mind, then from there, we can construct a strategy to achieve that goal.
Aaron Hall: Are there any common misunderstandings that new clients have when starting to work with you?
Travis Van Slooten: Yeah. The biggest thing is this misconception that SEO is inexpensive and easy to do. It always surprises me. I work with a small business, and a small business owner will spend thousands of dollars a years in print ads, radio ads, billboards without batting an eye because it?s traditional. They know but when you start talking to them about SEO and the difficulties of SEO with the recent updates that Google came out, SEO is becoming increasingly harder to do, and it?s becoming more expensive as a result. The misconception is that SEO is cheap and when you start talking prices about SEO even though it?s in line with radio, billboard advertising, and things that they?re comfortable with, they?re shocked that it would cost ?that much.? That?s the biggest challenge I have. Educating small business owners on what SEO is, what it takes, and what it costs to do effectively.
Aaron Hall: It?s interesting that in the early 2000?s, late 90?s, you could put up a website and it would just start getting traffic but these days, the businesses online are so competitive. Your client?s competitors are spending a lot of money in SEO, and I imagine that ups the ante for what is required for them and the competitiveness and the strategy that they need to use.
Travis Van Slooten: It?s that and as I?ve just briefly mentioned, it?s Google is really making it more difficult for the small business owner to do SEO on their own. With the recent updates, the penguin updates, the panda updates, most small business owners have no idea what that is but suffice it to say, SEO?s requiring almost a full-time job, and small business owners just simply don?t have the time to deal with it. It?s the competition that increasing and it?s also Google making things a little bit more difficult so all of that together is becoming increasingly difficult. It?s actually coming to a point now where a small business owner either has to get an in-house SEO person or outsource it. It?s almost impossible on their own now.
Aaron Hall: We talk about the small business. Can you give me some examples of small businesses you?ve worked with as far as what type of businesses are they?
Travis Van Slooten: I concentrate exclusively on the service based businesses. We?re talking about the roofers. I have a gutter contractor down at Florida. Construction companies, fencing companies, dentists, chiropractors, and even some law firms.
Aaron Hall: Interesting. I know that services provide a unique challenge from a website standpoint because it?s not ecommerce. It?s not just selling a product that you can just describe. You?re talking about the individuals and what services they provide. I understand a lot more what goes behind the scenes in planning that out.
Travis Van Slooten: Yes. Definitely, there?s that. When you?re selling a product, the product a lot of times sells itself because people know the product. When you?re selling a service based business, you have to sell that customer on that person a lot of times because I?m dealing typically with a lot of business owners. When somebody comes to the website, you have to sell them on that person so that means providing them testimonials, the better business accreditation badges, and things like that. Also, pointing them to other outside resources as social proof that this guy is good and is an honest, ethical business person and that type of thing. Those are the things you don?t have to do when you?re selling a product because typically like I said, people know it. Sells itself.
The icon on the left represents iOS's music app. The icon on the right is for a now-shuttered Myspace service called iLike. Apple introduced the Music app to iOS in 2011. iLike was founded in 2006, granted its trademark 2008, acquired by Myspace in 2009 and then shutdown earlier this year. But in a recent decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, Apple cannot trademark the icon for the iOS Music app. The reasoning? The marks and services are too similar and would likely cause confusion.
Some people willingly overpay for half-baked features in obscure gadgets. These are the early adopters of the world, and they know full well that the things they buy will not work perfectly. Hiccups and glitches are just part of the contract, the accepted trade-off for being first. More »
Posted on: 9:50 pm, September 26, 2012, by Mallory Cooke, updated on: 10:10pm, September 26, 2012
A 13-year-old boy shot himself at Stillwater Junior High School Wednesday morning, according to police. A new study shows suicide now kills more people than car accidents.
?They face being bullied by other kids,? said Bryan Jones, a mental health therapist at Perspectives Behavioral Health Management in Fort Smith. ?They face disappointment in relationships, being overwhelmed by the school work.?
Life can be tough for teenagers.
?I think that society has put more pressure and more stress on people,? said Marion Pearson, a mental health professional.
A new study from the American Journal of Public Health shows suicide now kills more people than car accidents. Experts say suicide deaths rose 15-percent over the past decade.
?Economically you know life has gotten more harder for a lot of Americans and I see a lot of teens that try and help their parents with that burden by going to school and working and taking on more responsibility,? said Pearson.
Some say mental illness is sometimes misdiagnosed in young people. ?They say sometimes medications can increase the risk of suicide with those particular people,? said Darin Morgan, a nurse supervisor at Sparks Health System.
Experts recommend talking about suicide with your teen. ?If people talk about it people are less likely to actually go through with it when they know someone cares about them,? said Morgan.
Recognize warning signs like isolation, lots of sleeping, and being withdrawn.
?You wanna get help you know much sooner rather than later,? said Jones.
A Facebook memorial page set up by friends of the 13-year-old mentions that bullying may have caused the suicide. So far the superintendent says there is nothing to indicate that.
New simulation method produces realistic fluid movements Public release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Associate Professor Kenny Erleben kenny@diku.dk 45-24-48-25-24 University of Copenhagen
What does a yoghurt look like over time? The food industry will soon be able to answer this question using a new fluid simulation tool developed by the Department of Computer Science (DIKU) at the University of Copenhagen as part of a broad partnership with other research institutions. An epoch-making shift in the way we simulate the physical world is now a reality.
A five-year collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Alexandra Institute on simulating fluids in movement is now bearing fruit, and has earned the group a 'best paper award' at the highly esteemed Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA).
"Our new method is a breakthrough which will radically change tomorrow's computer simulation. We have taken the first step towards producing a more precise simulation of fluid materials than anything seen so far. Now we are looking forward to testing the method on a number of other materials with soft structures," says Associate Professor Kenny Erleben from the University of Copenhagen.
Goodbye to statistical methods
The new fluid simulation tool can boast of being very similar to physical reality.
The method distinguishes itself significantly from known simulation methods which use mesh structures where the vertices are locked in a fixed position. In the new method, the mesh structure is replaced by a dynamic structure where the vertices move one at a time.
This makes it possible to take account of the fluid's physical properties more precisely and to see how different types of fluids interact with one another.
The method also ensures such a high degree of detail that even very thin structures become visible. With previous statistical methods, it is often a problem that the simulated object's edges and structures become blurred, and that its precise physical properties are hard to recreate.
Food risk assessments and shelf-life
The new dynamic simulation method paves the way for countless applications.
First, as the company backing the research, the food producer Danisco wants to use the method to simulate the shelf-life of foods, for example yoghurt.
However, the research can also be used to perform risk assessments of, for example, oil slips and within building design.
For Kenny Erleben, it will be interesting to use the method to simulate the human body, for example clothing, hair, skin and patterns of movement.
But for the time being, the method cannot be used by what has traditionally been simulation research's biggest customers: games developers. This is because the simulation is extremely time-consuming as the vertices are moved one at a time.
It often takes a couple of minutes per image just for the simulation added to which is the time it takes to generate the detailed images. Optimising the calculation times will therefore be one of the main focus areas in the ongoing research.
###
You can see the new images and video results at Kenny Erleben's research group's blog, where the prize-winning conference article (Multiphase Flow of Immiscible Fluids on Unstructured Moving Meshes) is also available: http://iphys.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/multiphase-flow-of-immiscible-fluids-on-unstructured-moving-meshes/
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.
New simulation method produces realistic fluid movements Public release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Associate Professor Kenny Erleben kenny@diku.dk 45-24-48-25-24 University of Copenhagen
What does a yoghurt look like over time? The food industry will soon be able to answer this question using a new fluid simulation tool developed by the Department of Computer Science (DIKU) at the University of Copenhagen as part of a broad partnership with other research institutions. An epoch-making shift in the way we simulate the physical world is now a reality.
A five-year collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Alexandra Institute on simulating fluids in movement is now bearing fruit, and has earned the group a 'best paper award' at the highly esteemed Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA).
"Our new method is a breakthrough which will radically change tomorrow's computer simulation. We have taken the first step towards producing a more precise simulation of fluid materials than anything seen so far. Now we are looking forward to testing the method on a number of other materials with soft structures," says Associate Professor Kenny Erleben from the University of Copenhagen.
Goodbye to statistical methods
The new fluid simulation tool can boast of being very similar to physical reality.
The method distinguishes itself significantly from known simulation methods which use mesh structures where the vertices are locked in a fixed position. In the new method, the mesh structure is replaced by a dynamic structure where the vertices move one at a time.
This makes it possible to take account of the fluid's physical properties more precisely and to see how different types of fluids interact with one another.
The method also ensures such a high degree of detail that even very thin structures become visible. With previous statistical methods, it is often a problem that the simulated object's edges and structures become blurred, and that its precise physical properties are hard to recreate.
Food risk assessments and shelf-life
The new dynamic simulation method paves the way for countless applications.
First, as the company backing the research, the food producer Danisco wants to use the method to simulate the shelf-life of foods, for example yoghurt.
However, the research can also be used to perform risk assessments of, for example, oil slips and within building design.
For Kenny Erleben, it will be interesting to use the method to simulate the human body, for example clothing, hair, skin and patterns of movement.
But for the time being, the method cannot be used by what has traditionally been simulation research's biggest customers: games developers. This is because the simulation is extremely time-consuming as the vertices are moved one at a time.
It often takes a couple of minutes per image just for the simulation added to which is the time it takes to generate the detailed images. Optimising the calculation times will therefore be one of the main focus areas in the ongoing research.
###
You can see the new images and video results at Kenny Erleben's research group's blog, where the prize-winning conference article (Multiphase Flow of Immiscible Fluids on Unstructured Moving Meshes) is also available: http://iphys.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/multiphase-flow-of-immiscible-fluids-on-unstructured-moving-meshes/
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.
You only have to look at the tidal wave of Ultrabooks to know that Intel design specifications can carry a lot of influence with manufacturers. That's why the chip-maker's claims about its latest reference tablet, built around a dual-core Atom Z2760 processor (aka "Clover Trail"), likely give us a broad hint of what to expect from devices like the forthcoming Lenovo Think Pad 2, ASUS Vivo Tab and Samsung ATIV Smart PC.
In particular, Intel has shown us slides claiming that the dual-core 1.8GHz chip with Imagination SGX545 graphics will offer the "best Windows 8 experience" on a tablet with "compatibility and support for traditional apps and peripherals." And if you think that sounds like a subtle jibe at ARM-based tablets running Windows RT -- a version of the OS that doesn't even try to play nice with existing software -- then you could be right. To be fair though, the point of RT is to offer superior portability, and that's why Intel is also keen to emphasize that Clover Trail won't impact too heavily on your freedom of movement. Tablets should come in below 1.5 pounds (680 grams -- similar to the RT spec and much lighter than a Windows 8 Pro tablet) and 8.5mm in thickness, with built-in 3G, 4G and NFC. You shouldn't need to carry a charger either, since a new power management system promises a distinctly un-laptop-like three weeks on standby and a full day of "active use" -- defined as being at least 10 hours.
Windows 8 tablets won't be like Windows 8 Pro machines, however, so don't go expecting USB 3.0, or a guarantee of 1080p visuals (most Clover Trail devices we've seen are 1,366 x 768) or souped-up security -- the Atom Z2760 is very much an evolved Medfield processor, with similar silicon and firmware, rather than a shrunken laptop chip.
Needless to say, what really matters is how well manufacturers adopt this design and what price points they manage to hit. Intel says that at least 20 different Clover Trail tablets are already in the works, and early price tags seem to be around the $799 mark -- a hefty demand for sure, but perhaps one worth paying for those who need full-fledged Windows 8 and true portability at the same time. RT tablets, meanwhile, will have to come in much cheaper than that in order to be worthwhile.
The icon on the left represents iOS's music app. The icon on the right is for a now-shuttered Myspace service called iLike. Apple introduced the Music app to iOS in 2011. iLike was founded in 2006, granted its trademark 2008, acquired by Myspace in 2009 and then shutdown earlier this year. But in a recent decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, Apple cannot trademark the icon for the iOS Music app. The reasoning? The marks and services are too similar and would likely cause confusion.
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Public release date: 26-Sep-2012
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