Pope presides over trimmed Easter Vigil service

Pope Francis leads Easter vigil service in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican Saturday, March 30, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating a trimmed back Easter Vigil service after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he has begun to put his mark on the Catholic Church. Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the Saturday service, which recalls the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis leads Easter vigil service in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican Saturday, March 30, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating a trimmed back Easter Vigil service after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he has begun to put his mark on the Catholic Church. Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the Saturday service, which recalls the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis holding a tall, lit, white candle, enters a darkened St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican Saturday, March 30, 2013, to begin the Vatican's Easter vigil service. Pope Francis is celebrating a trimmed back Easter Vigil service after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he has begun to put his mark on the Catholic Church. Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the Saturday service, which recalls the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis leads the Easter vigil service in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican Saturday, March 30, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating a trimmed back Easter Vigil service after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he has begun to put his mark on the Catholic Church. Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the Saturday service, which recalls the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis leads Easter vigil service in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican Saturday, March 30, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating a trimmed back Easter Vigil service after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he has begun to put his mark on the Catholic Church. Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the Saturday service, which recalls the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis leads Easter vigil service in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican Saturday, March 30, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating a trimmed back Easter Vigil service after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he has begun to put his mark on the Catholic Church. Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the Saturday service, which recalls the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis celebrated a trimmed back Easter Vigil service Saturday after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he began to put his mark on the Catholic Church.

Francis processed into a darkened and silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the service, in which the faithful recall the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday.

One of the most dramatic moments of the Easter Vigil service that usually follows ? when the pope would share the light of his candle with others until the entire basilica twinkled ? was shortened this year as were some of the Old Testament readings.

The Vatican has said these provisions were in keeping with Francis' aim to not have his Masses go on too long. The Easter Vigil service under Benedict XVI would typically run nearly three hours. The new pope has made clear he prefers his Masses short and to the point: he was even caught checking his watch during his March 19 installation ceremony. Saturday was no different: The vigil ended just shy of 2.5 hours.

A trimmed-back vigil ? and one that started earlier than usual ? was just one of the novelties of this Holy Week under an Argentine Jesuit pope who just two weeks ago stunned the world by emerging from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica after his election with a simple "Brothers and sisters, good evening."

He riled traditionalists but endeared himself to women and liberals by washing and kissing the feet of two young girls during a Holy Thursday Mass at a juvenile detention center in Rome, when the rite usually calls for only men to participate. A day later, Francis reached out with friendship to "Muslim brothers and sisters" during a Good Friday procession dedicated to the suffering of Christians from terrorism, war and religious fanaticism in the Middle East.

In his homily Saturday, Francis kept his message simple and tied to the liturgical readings, recalling how Jesus' disciples found his tomb empty a day after his death and were surprised and confused.

"Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!"

He later baptized four men, part of the Easter Vigil ritual.

Just a few hours after the vigil ends, Francis on Sunday will celebrate Easter Mass and deliver his "Urbi et Orbi" speech, Latin for "To the city and the world." Usually the pope also issues Easter greetings in dozens of languages.

In his two weeks as pope, Francis' discomfort with speaking in any language other than Italian has become apparent. He has even shied away from speaking Spanish when the occasion would call for it, though the Vatican has said he has done so to avoid discriminating against other languages by favoring his native tongue.

Italian is the lingua franca of the Vatican and Francis has emphasized his role as bishop of Rome over that of pope of the universal church, making his use of Italian logical.

It's not clear how Francis will handle the multilingual greetings Sunday.

Typically, after the busy Easter week ceremonies, the pope would go to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo for a few days of vacation. Francis can't do that since the previous pope, Benedict XVI, is currently living there in retirement.

The Vatican has said Francis would stay put in the Vatican.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-30-Vatican-Easter%20Vigil/id-533729310db649578709e82565860b27

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Sherman's Food Adventures: Main Choice Chinese Restaurant

It doesn't happen often, but it did this time - a restaurant had changed hands before my blog post could go up.? Oh well, the food was pretty "meh" anyways, so I wasn't surprised at the changeover. What about the post in the queue??? There was only one thing I could do...? Go back and try the food again!? Yes, I know this is serious dedication, yet did you expect any less???? Formerly Kei's Chili Kitchen, Main Choice does not look any different from the inside and in fact, the menu still has some of Kei's "specialties".? Maybe they just changed the name?? Whatever, I needed food anyways.

With any of their lunch specials, Wonton Soup is included. For a complimentary soup, it was okay.? The wontons were of the all pork variety where the meat was soft in texture and mildly seasoned.? Of course the soup base was not exactly classic wonton soup, but at the very least, it was not something gross. The first of my 2 mains (yes, I really did get 2 lunches) was the Spicy Ginger Beef ($6.75).? It wasn't really all that spicy.? There was some elements of spice, but in the end, it was really just ginger beef with some peppers.? The beef itself was easy enough to eat being properly tenderized.? There was a good ginger hit, but the accompanying fried rice was somewhat dry.

?I also got one of their lunch combos which included Chicken Chow Mein, Sweet & Sour Pork and Almond Chicken ($8.75).? Yes, this is as far away from real Chinese food one could get, but I wanted to see how it was regardless.? The chow mein was okay being slightly dry but not greasy.? The sweet & sour pork was not all that crispy, yet the meat itself was moist.? It was mostly sweet with only a hint of sour.? As for the almond chicken, it was greasy as expected.? To be honest, I can never understand the popularity of this dish as the chicken itself doesn't really have that much flavour.? A dusting of slivered almonds doesn't do much. In the end, the food was okay and considering the low prices, is a lunch option for people in the area.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Good Portions

The Bad:
- Okay for a quick meal, but nothing amazing either

Source: http://www.shermansfoodadventures.com/2013/03/main-choice-chinese-restaurant.html

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Frontier Airlines To Suspend Trenton Flights Due To Runway Work

EWING, N.J. (AP) ? Frontier Airlines will suspend all flights at Trenton-Mercer Airport this fall while runway work is completed.

The airline announced Friday that the gap in service will last from Sept. 9 through Nov. 7.

During that time, the airport will upgrade its main runway with safety enhancements mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Frontier recently announced that the planned shutdown of Trenton-Mercer Airport's air traffic control tower due to federal budget cuts won't affect service.

The airline is scheduled to begin service to Atlanta, Chicago-Midway, Columbus, Ohio, Detroit and Raleigh, N.C. next month. Frontier already flies between Trenton-Mercer and New Orleans, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa, Fla.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/frontier-airlines-trenton-flights_n_2980733.html

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What role do small dams play in pollution control?

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Sometimes, little things can add up to a lot. In short, that's the message of a research study on small dams, streams and pollution by Steve Powers, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative (ECI).

"Small dams, reservoirs and ponds trap water pollution, which provides an important benefit to water resources," Powers said. "This is especially relevant in agricultural lands of the Midwest U.S., where there are lots of small, but aging dams."

Although small individually, the sum total of the small reservoirs and ponds have a global surface area comparable to that of all large reservoirs added together.

Powers and his fellow researchers showed in detail how a small aging dam, which was more than 100 years old and located in agricultural Wisconsin, trapped water pollutants associated with fertilizer and manure runoff. They also showed an increase in downstream transport of nutrient pollution after the dam was removed, which occurred because of concerns about the dam's safety.

"Many small dams are threatened by long-term structural decline and are also filling with sediment," Powers said. "If we don't better incorporate how small dams affect the movement of water and wastes through the environment, their benefit to downstream water quality could be lost. Meanwhile, legacy sediment and pollution currently trapped behind dams could release as dams lose their water storage capacity, fall apart, or are removed deliberately."

Powers notes that there is a crucial need to gain a better understanding of what small dams mean for our water quality before they crumble and disappear.

"I am continuing to work on the subject at a broader regional scale by looking at hundreds of stream and river monitoring stations throughout the Midwestern U.S. to detect signals of dams," he said. "One current goal is to try and figure out which regions are most vulnerable to water quality changes caused by accumulation of sediment and phosphorus behind dams."

The research paper appeared in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences.

Powers is conducting his research as part of the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative's Land Use Project. The Environmental Change Initiative conducts policy-oriented research designed to help policy-makers manage environmental changes.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Notre Dame.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. S. M. Powers, J. P. Julian, M. W. Doyle, E. H. Stanley. Retention and transport of nutrients in a mature agricultural impoundment. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1029/2012JG002148

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/YxvhKhIHuEg/130329090620.htm

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Wildfire threatens ecological zone in southern Brazil

Lauro Alves / Agencia RBS via AFP - Getty Images

An aerial view of the Taim Ecological Station on fire, in Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil, on March 27, 2013.

A wildfire that started on Tuesday has consumed around?1,400 acres of a protected ecological station in southern Brazil. The fire at the?Taim Ecological Station is at risk of spreading further, Agence France-Presse reports,?since there is limited access to water.?

Lauro Alves / Agencia RBS via AFP - Getty Images

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a216fb4/l/0Lphotoblog0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C290C1751530A10Ewildfire0Ethreatens0Eecological0Ezone0Ein0Esouthern0Ebrazil0Dlite/story01.htm

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Family displaced after fire destroys home next to firefighter training ...

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Five fire departments responded to a kitchen fire that destroyed a home at 340 Shields Road Thursday night.

Madison County Fire Marshall Bobby Rollins said two women and two children were able to escape the house before firefighters arrived around 7 p.m. Firefighters from Moores Mill, Central, New Market, BoBo and Hazel Green helped to extinguish the blaze.

Rollins said a woman was cooking on her stove and thought she turned it off when she accidentally turned up the heat. He said the two-story house will be a full loss and that the American Red Cross is providing temporary placement for the family.

Frank Foster said he was about to drive his daughter to the store to get milk for her 7-month old son when she told him there was a grease fire inside the home.

"I got out the car to go in the house to see if I could try to put it out and by the time I got to the door it had spread. It caught the curtains and the kitchen, and they said it was gone," Foster said. "I'm blessed that I got my family out."

Foster, a Vietnam-era veteran and pastor, said he had been renting the house for three years and was recently considering renter's insurance.

Rollins said the house fire happened next door to the training center where three agencies were training volunteer firefighters.

"It shows how fast you can go from training to real life," Rollins said.

Source: http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/03/family_displaced_after_fire_de.html

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A New Week in Gaming Apps for an All-New Kotaku

This week's special late edition of the Week in Gaming Apps is brought to you by leaning how to use an entirely new publishing system on the fly. It's a learning experience. Oh my goodness these images are so big.

Fortunately many of this week's gaming apps were big as well. We've got Magicka on iPad now! Ms. Splosion Man isn't just for Xbox Live Arcade anymore! Dungeon Hearts arrived! And hey, we've got a jousting game now! I am going to run out of exclamation points.

Yep, ran out.

While I go order more, go look at...

What We Played This Week

S

Grow, Dammit! - iOS - $1.99

The classic tale of a space plant trying to save his seedling nephews from the dark corners of planetoids by manipulating sunlight. Yeah, that old trope.

S

Pili Pili Rush - iOS, Android - Free

A colorful cartoon puzzle platformer about egg gathering, from the makers of The Flying Hamster and several non-hamster games. Quite lovely, though I still prefer the hamster.

S

Ms. Splosion Man - iOS - $2.99

Twisted Pixel's hilarious Xbox Live Arcade platformer debuted on PC and iPad this week, bringing the joy of Ms. Splosion to the masses. She's my new girlfriend. And hey, another iOS Microsoft game!

S

Lie Swatter - iOS - Free

From Jellyvision, the makers of You Don't Know Jack, comes this turn-based quiz game that challenges players to sort truth from lies. It's pretty damn entertaining, and informative!

S

Quantum Legacy HD Turbo - iOS - $1.99

Arcade space battles narrated by the worst voice acting ever. I think it's all tongue-in-cheek. Pretty sure. Neat combat, and the Star Trek references are a plus.

S

Knight Storm - iOS - Free

Mother-loving jousting, dammit. There's a little castle-building and maintenance here, plus the odd melee battle, but the reason for Knight Storm is jousting, and it's so good.

S

Dungeon Hearts - iPad - $2.99

Devolver Digital delivers a truly unique puzzle role-playing experience. Might look like a rhythm game, but this is a match-explosion title with a scrolling playfield. It's urgent and wonderful.

S

Fantasy Quest - iOS - Free

This week Gamevil released an odd little turn-based role-playing/kingdom builder/online multiplayer battle game. Actually they do that a lot. Worked out well this time.

App Reviews for the Week of 3/25 - 3/29

Red, green and blue ? these are the primary colors, which can be mixed together in varying amounts to create every color of the visible spectrum. I learned this in my grade school art program. At the time I was convinced the teacher made it up to cover for the fact that they only had enough money in the budget for three colors of bulk paint. What good is mixing colors when you can just buy a box of assorted pre-rendered crayons, markers or paints? Read?

You could search the iTunes app store for days and not come close to finding a game with the charm and polish of Big FishGames' Fetch. It's an animated movie come to life, an adventure riddled with arcade action wrapped around a warm beating heart. It's the story of a boy and his dog. Read?

When developer First5 Games were looking for a fresh method of movement for their new platforming game, they found inspiration in those old Wacky Wall Crawler toys you'd get for a quarter out of supermarket vending machines as a kid. You know, the ones with all the sticky legs? I used to tear off their limbs. I consider Cling!payback. Read?

Back in January, Square Enix released Final Fantasy: All the Bravest,a game about getting as many Final Fantasy character sprites on the screen at one time while finding creative new ways for players to pay for things. It wasn't a very good game. What Square Enix should have done was make Nimble Quest, the latest from the creators of Tiny Tower. Read?

As promised last month, Paradox Interactive and mobile developer Ludosity have teamed up to deliver a little cross-platform Magickamayhem for the iPhone and Android. Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet is nowhere near as deep and destructively satisfying as its PC inspiration, but it's got the right idea. the right idea, by the way, is killing your friends with magic. Read?

Red, green and blue ? these are the primary colors, which can be mixed together in varying amounts? Read?You could search the iTunes app store for days and not come close to finding a game with the charm? Read?When developer First5 Games were looking for a fresh method of movement for their new platforming? Read?Back in January, Square Enix released Final Fantasy: All the Bravest, a game about getting as many? Read?If you're looking for a mildly interactive trip through the history of the Final Fantasy? Read?As promised last month, Paradox Interactive and mobile developer Ludosity have teamed up to deliver ? Read?One of PC gaming's finest co-op experiences is coming to a rectangular productivity-enhancing? Read?

Source: http://kotaku.com/a-new-week-in-gaming-apps-for-an-all-new-kotaku-463154291

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Pat Roberts Heads Off Primary Challenge; Schwartz Will Run For PA GOV; Don Young Hit For Slur

Click hereto read online and see our archives.

WHAT'S NEWS

• Pres. Obama, at the WH, "tried to shame the nation and Congress into action against gun violence," invoking the Newtown shooting (CNN). Later, he signed an executive order forming an election reform commission to "shorten lines at the polls" and increase efficiency (NPR). Today in Miami, Obama will push for investment in infrastructure (AP).
• SC-01 Special: In their first one-on-one debate, ex-Charleston Co. Councilor Curtis Bostic (R) characterized ex-Gov. Mark Sanford (R) "as a 'compromised candidate'" and a "'Mr. No' with a record of failing to bring people together to accomplish reforms" (Hilton Head Island Packet).
• Boston Mayor '13: "At least a dozen would-be successors" of retiring Mayor Tom Menino (D) "are either running for mayor or strongly considering it, colleagues and strategists said" (Boston Globe).
• HI SEN: Sen. Brian Schatz (D) will kick off his special election campaign on Saturday, holding a grassroots organizational meeting as he tries to establish a ground game (Honolulu Civil Beat).
• KS SEN: Sen. Pat Roberts (R) ended talk of a potentially competitive primary in announcing his honorary campaign committee, which includes two of his most likely challengers: Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R) and Sec/State Kris Kobach (R) (On Call).
• SD SEN: Ex-LG Steve Kirby (R) is not ruling out a bid, but "doesn't have a timeline for his decision" (The Hill).
• VA SEN: Sen. Mark Warner (D) confirmed that he will seek reelection, despite his frustration with the chamber (Staunton News Leader).
• FL GOV: Gov. Rick Scott (R) has raised $1M over the last month, including a "whopping" $500K check from the William L. Edwards Trust (Miami Herald).
• PA GOV: Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D), "emboldened" by a poll commissioned by EMILY's List, has decided to run and will open a "state-level campaign account early next month," according to a source close to her (Politico).
• TX GOV: As Gov. Rick Perry (R) "weighs whether to run" for reelection, TX "politicos say it's largely unclear who would steer another reelection campaign -- or a second Perry attempt" at the WH (Politico).

OUR CALL

Hotline editors weigh in on the stories that drive the day

? 2014 will be the first electoral test of whether Democrats supporting gay marriage can win re-election in red states (e.g. Hagan, Begich, Baucus). Almost certainly, their calculation is that, win or lose, their fates will rest far more on other issues come next fall, so they may as well follow their consciences (and campaign pocket books) and align themselves with their blue-state brethren.

? The "Draft Brendan Johnson for Senate" campaign has drawn plenty of skepticism, but the senator's son has nothing on Nina Turner when it comes to fake shows of "organic" support. The new website that sprang up urging the Ohio state senator to run for secretary of state is paid for by her own campaign committee.

? Last night, Curtis Bostic laid out the strongest version yet of his argument against Mark Sanford: that he is a "compromised candidate" who would more easily fall to Elizabeth Colbert Busch -- and the national Dems backing her -- in a general election. While it appears to be true that there are anti-Sanford votes out there, if Bostic can't attract enough to overcome him now it's hard to imagine Colbert Busch accomplishing that feat in an 18-point GOP district in May.

?

HAIR OF THE DOG

"Eyeballs found in KC gas station trash not human" (AP).

FRESH BREWED BUZZ

• "I used to own -- my father had a ranch. We used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes. You know it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now" -- Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who later said he "meant no disrespect" in using the slur (Anchorage Daily News).
• Reps. Jim Matheson (D-UT) and Justin Amash (R-MI) voted against their parties more than any other House members over the first three months of the 113th Congress (National Journal Daily).
• "When the Revolutionary War was over, the Founding Fathers said 'Take your assault rifle home with you'" -- Bostic, asked for his position on gun control (Columbia Patch).
• Ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) released a two-minute web video, "Loaded for Bear," that makes it clear "she intends to be involved in the selection of Republican and Tea Party candidates in Congressional and Senate contests across the country" (New York Daily News).
• "I'm the assemblyman of sorrow. Why do they hate me so much? Fill in the blank: I'm so angry I could (blank) myself" -- NV Assemb. Steven Brooks (D), after being expelled from the state Assembly for threatening his colleagues (Ralston Reports).
• A court has refused to dismiss a FEC lawsuit against ex-Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) for misusing campaign funds in attempting to "overturn his 2007 guilty plea for disorderly conduct in an airport bathroom" (Idaho Statesman).
• "Dale Peterson explains 'bizarre' arrest for eating '22 cents worth of peanuts'" (Daily Caller).
• Businessman Herman Cain (R) will "cohost a private retreat" for business leaders and GOP "power brokers" in Palm Beach, FL, next month. Ex-FL Gov. Jeb Bush (R) will attend and "is expected to speak on education reform" (National Review).
• "Brazil clown will leave big shoes to fill in Congress" (Los Angeles Times).

SWIZZLE CHALLENGE

• Ex-SCOTUS Justice Wiley Rutledge is interred in the Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, CO, the westernmost burial site for any Justice to date.
• That last one stumped the Wake-Up Call! community, so here's a toss-up: "What is the Harlem Globetrotters' theme song?" The 3rd correct e-mailer gets to submit the next question.

NJ'S EARLY BIRD SPECIALS

SHOT...

"Steve King Blasts Obama Daughters For Going On Spring Break" (Huffington Post).

...CHASER

"Oh my God, Malia. He did not say that! Let's text him now" -- Devon Banks ("30 Rock").

Sarah Mimms, Editor

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pat-roberts-heads-off-primary-challenge-schwartz-run-085659216--politics.html

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New Teaching and Learning Resources | Centre for Teaching ...

What?s New in the Teaching and Learning Resources Portal?

The Teaching and Learning Resources Portal on the UBC Wiki hosts a collection of resources and articles on a diverse range of teaching and learning topics, strategies, issues, and tools.

The following new bibliographies/resources have been recently added to the portal:

You can submit a bibliography request around teaching and learning topics by filling out a request form.

For more information contact: Shaya Golparian, Ph.D., CTLT Resource Room Coordinator, at ctlt.resourceroom@exchange.ubc.ca.

iPeer Building Block ? Integrating iPeer with Connect

Back in January, a new version of iPeer was released, and alongside it, an iPeer building block was developed to integrate iPeer with the Connect learning management system (Blackboard Learn). iPeer is an open source web application that allows instructors to develop and deliver rubric-based peer evaluations, review and release student comments, build progress report forms online, and analyze evaluation results. The iPeer building block allows users to create iPeer courses within Connect. Users can synchronize class lists, and push and pull groups to and from iPeer and Connect. It also allows the instructor to add an iPeer grade into the Connect Grade Center.

iPeer was originally developed in the UBC Faculty of Applied Science, and is currently being developed, hosted, and maintained by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT). Each term, approximately 70-80 UBC instructors use iPeer in their course. It is used by the Faculty of Applied Science, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, Sauder School of Business, and UBC Okanagan. Since it is an open source application, others outside of UBC have been using it as well.

For more information about iPeer, email ipeer.support@ubc.ca or visit the Student Peer Review section of the e-learning website. You can learn more about the iPeer building block by visiting the documentation page, which was released in February.

---

This article was published in the March 2013 CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues. Below is a list of the articles included in the issue:

Find out more information about the CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues.

Source: http://ctlt.ubc.ca/2013/03/28/new-teaching-and-learning-resources-2/

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Telling tales can be a good thing: Personal stories help children develop emotional skills

Mar. 27, 2013 ? A new study finds that mothers tell better, more emotional stories about past experiences which help children develop their emotional skills.

The act of talking is not an area where ability is usually considered along gender lines. However, a new study published in Springer's journal Sex Roles has found subtle differences between the sexes in their story-relating ability and specifically the act of reminiscing. The research by Widaad Zaman from the University of Central Florida and her colleague Robyn Fivush from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, discusses how these gender differences in parents can affect children's emotional development.

Previous research in this area has concluded that the act of parents reminiscing with their children enables children to interpret experiences and weave together the past, present and future. There is also evidence that parents elaborate less when talking to sons than daughters.

The primary objective of Zaman's study was to compare the reminiscing styles of mothers and fathers with their pre-school daughters and sons. This included how they elaborated on the story and the extent to which their children engaged with the story while it was being told.

The researchers studied 42 families where the participating children were between four and five years old. Parents were asked to reminisce about four past emotional experiences of the child (happy, sad, a conflict with a peer and a conflict with a parent) and two past play interactions they experienced together. The parents took turns talking to the child on separate visits.

The researchers found that mothers elaborated more when reminiscing with their children than fathers. Contrary to previous research, however, Zaman's study found no differences in the extent to which either parent elaborated on a story depending on the sex of the child. Mothers tended to include more emotional terms in the story than fathers, which they then discussed and explained to the child. This increased maternal engagement has the effect of communicating to the child the importance of their own version, perspective and feelings about the experience.

The authors contend that through their increased interaction with the child, mothers are helping their children work through and talk about their experiences more than fathers, regardless of the type of experience. This may reflect the mother's efforts to try and help her child deal with difficult emotions, especially about negative experiences, all of which is related to better emotional well-being.

The authors conclude that "these results are intriguing, and a necessary first step to better understanding how parents socialize gender roles to girls and boys through narratives about the past, and how girls and boys may then incorporate these roles into their own narratives and their own lives."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Widaad Zaman, Robyn Fivush. Gender Differences in Elaborative Parent?Child Emotion and Play Narratives. Sex Roles, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s11199-013-0270-7

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/Wa7GWEuPVQc/130327103054.htm

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Preview of Frontline Commando: D-Day

We swung by the Glu offices while prepping for GDC 2013 today to check out their next Frontline Commando game, due to launch this Thursday on Google Play. You'll find a lot of the same third-person, duck-and-cover action that the franchise is known for, along with a few new elements that really sets it apart.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/mYNJS0_ZfGI/story01.htm

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'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius challenges bail restrictions in murder case

AP, file

Olympian Oscar Pistorius stands following his bail hearing in Pretoria, South Africa, on Feb. 19.

By Rohit Kachroo and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

PRETORIA, South Africa -- A South African court eased bail restrictions on Olympian Oscar Pistorius, who is?charged with murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, with the judge saying he should be allowed to travel abroad.

"I find no reason why Pistorius should be forbidden from leaving (South Africa) if he's invited to compete in athletic events in other countries,"?Judge Bert Bam told the court on Thursday.?

Pistorius, a?double-amputee who is also a Paralympic star, and?must provide authorities with an itinerary before he leaves the country, Bam said. He must also return his passport to the court within 24 hours of returning to South Africa, The Associated Press reported.

Pistorius' lawyers said the athlete had no immediate plans to travel or compete abroad, but may need to in order to make money.

Olympian Oscar Pistorius has not been seen since he left a South Africa courtroom in February, holed up in his uncle's mansion. His defense is now asking the judge to allow him to travel outside the country. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

His legal team had objected to him not being allowed to travel outside of South Africa even though a magistrate said he was not a flight risk?when granting him 1 million rand ($108,000) bail.

The court also reversed the ban on Pistorius visiting the gated housing estate where he shot Steenkamp dead early on Valentine's Day.

The sprinter denies murdering Steenkamp and says he shot her by mistake, fearing an intruder was in his home. Prosecutors say he killed her intentionally following an argument.

There was no sign of Pistorius or his family in Pretoria High Court on Thursday. Pistorius was not obliged to appear.?

On Wednesday, the sprinter's brother also appeared in court on trial for the death of a woman in a road collision in 2008.

Carl Pistorius arrived Wednesday at the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate's Court in Johannesburg to face a charge of culpable homicide, or unlawful, negligent killing.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

As Olympian Oscar Pistorius remains at his uncle's home since being released on bail last week, his brother Carl prepares for his own trial next month, after being charged with "culpable homicide" for a car accident six years ago. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Related:

Slain model's father: Pistorius will 'suffer' if he's lying about her death

Oscar Pistorius' father accused of racism over gun comments

Oscar Pistorius murder case detective quits South African police

This story was originally published on Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:30 AM EDT

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Coupon clipping declines as shoppers get savvier

Nati Harnik / AP file

Margery Gibbs uses coupons at a store in Omaha, Neb., in 2009. Coupon use fell in 2012 after several strong years.

By Allison Linn, TODAY

The good, old-fashioned coupon ? which surged in popularity in recent years ? appears to be falling out of favor.

Two separate studies show that coupon use declined significantly in 2012.

One study, from coupon industry consulting firm Inmar, found that about 3 billion coupons were redeemed in 2012, a drop of about 14.3 percent from approximately 3.5 billion coupons redeemed in 2011. Another, from NCH Marketing Services, found that coupon use fell by 17 percent in 2012 over the year before.

The drop came after several good years for the coupon, which seemed to indicate that the weak economy had helped bring coupon clipping back in style. The coupon has even enjoyed its 15 minutes of pop culture fame thanks to the reality show ?Extreme Couponing,? which documents people using thousands of coupons to save hundreds of dollars stockpiling diapers, paper towels and other items.

But experts say that while frugality is still in vogue, many shoppers have gotten so savvy at saving money that they've moved past the coupon.

?It was like the training wheels ? to teach people how to save money,? Phil Lempert, the chief executive of Supermarket Guru, said of coupons.

Experts say it?s pretty common for coupon use to rise when the economy goes south, and start falling as the economy gets better.

But the economic gains in 2012 weren?t really strong enough to warrant people giving up their frugal habits. In addition, experts say they saw plenty of other reasons that coupon use has declined.

?It?s sort of a thousand cuts,? said David Mounts, the chief executive of Inmar. ?It?s little things here and there.?

For starters, there were slightly fewer coupons. The industry distributed about 310 billion coupons in 2012, down from 313 billion in 2011 and a big drop from 336 billion in 2010, according to Inmar?s research.

Last year?s batch of coupons also tended to be for smaller discounts and to expire more quickly than in the past, Mounts said.

In addition, shopping habits have changed.

Some customers have started to want more than a one-size-fits-all coupon that you clip out of a Sunday newspaper, Mounts said.??Instead, more shoppers are looking for personalized deals that more closely match their shopping habits. They also want deals that are delivered digitally so they don?t have to manage a stack of paper.

So far, though, those types of coupons aren?t that widespread. Inmar?s data shows that more than four in 10 coupons still come from the newspaper inserts.

Frugally minded shoppers also are finding even more sophisticated ways to save money, said Lempert of Supermarket Guru, which tracks customer shopping habits.

These days, he?s seeing more savvy shoppers going to multiple stores to find the best prices on food and other items. Their stops may include drugstores, dollar stores, warehouse chains like Costco and specialty grocers such as Trader Joe?s.

They?re also turning more to store brands that may be cheaper than name brands, even when there?s a coupon for the branded item, he said.

Many younger customers also are constantly changing their eating and shopping habits, he said, and may not be as interested in buying the items that are traditionally discounted with coupons. They also may be more captivated by new types of ways to save, such as a four-hour sale promoted on Twitter.

?Frankly, the coupons weren?t meeting their needs,? Lempert said.

The extreme couponing fad may not have helped either.

The trend sparked a backlash among some in the industry, who alleged that the TV show set unrealistic expectations.

Lempert thinks it also made some shoppers feel uneasy. He said he receives thousands of emails a week from shoppers, and reaction to extreme couponing was largely negative.

Despite such challenges, experts say?the coupon industry is adapting to changing customer preferences.?Inmar?s early data from the start of 2013 appears to be showing more positive trends in coupon use than last year, Mounts said, which suggests coupon clipping likely won't disappear completely any time soon.

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Do you use coupons?

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Rights groups fears for hunger strikers in Bahrain

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rights-groups-fears-hunger-strikers-bahrain-115422989.html

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Brown University student missing

Sunil Tripathi, a 22-year-old philosophy major at Brown University was last seen in the campus area on March 15, 2013, according to spokesman Gregory Comcowich. The FBI is helping Providence police in the search. Sangeeta Tripathi, the student's sister, told the Providence Journal that Sunil's wallet, ID cards, credit cards and cell phone were found in his room. Sunil, who grew up in Bryn Mawr, Pa., was living in Providence since 2008 and was on approved leave from the Ivy League school. The search for Sunil has expanded outside Providence to Boston, Connecticut, New York and Philadelphia.

Author: Stephanie Slifer

Credit: Facebook

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/E_Rf48xXujU/2300-504083_162-10016233.html

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Experts: NKorea training teams of 'cyber warriors'

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Investigators have yet to pinpoint the culprit behind a synchronized cyberattack in South Korea last week. But in Seoul, the focus is fixed on North Korea, which South Korean security experts say has been training a team of computer-savvy "cyber warriors" as cyberspace becomes a fertile battleground in the nations' rivalry.

Malware shut down 32,000 computers and servers at three major South Korean TV networks and three banks last Wednesday, disrupting communications and banking businesses. The investigation into who planted the malware could take weeks or even months.

South Korean investigators have produced no proof yet that North Korea was behind the cyberattack. Some of the malware was traced to a Seoul computer. Without elaborating, police said Monday that some of the malicious code also came from the United States and three European countries, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. But South Korea has pointed the finger at Pyongyang in six cyberattacks since 2009, even creating a cybersecurity command center in Seoul to protect the Internet-dependent country from hackers from the North.

It may seem unlikely that impoverished North Korea, with one of the most restrictive Internet policies in the world, would have the ability to threaten affluent South Korea, a country considered a global leader in telecommunications. The average yearly income in North Korea was just $1,190 per person in 2011 ? just a fraction of the average yearly income of $22,200 for South Koreans that same year, according to the Bank of Korea in Seoul.

But for several years, North Korea has poured money into science and technology. In December, scientists succeeded in launching a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket from its own soil. And in February, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test.

"IT" has become a buzzword in North Korea, which has developed its own operating system called Red Star. The regime also encouraged a passion for gadgets among its elite, introducing a Chinese-made tablet computer for the North Korean market. Teams of developers came up with software for everything from composing music to learning how to cook.

But South Korea and the U.S. believe North Korea also has thousands of hackers trained by the state to carry its warfare into cyberspace, and that their cyber offensive skills are as good as or better than their counterparts in China and South Korea.

"The newest addition to the North Korean asymmetric arsenal is a growing cyber warfare capability," James Thurman, commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea, told U.S. legislators in March 2012. "North Korea employs sophisticated computer hackers trained to launch cyber-infiltration and cyber-attacks" against South Korea and the U.S.

In 2010, Won Sei-hoon, then chief of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, put the number of professional hackers in North Korea's cyber warfare unit at 1,000.

North Korean students are recruited to the nation's top science schools to become "cyber warriors," said Kim Heung-kwang, who said he trained future hackers at a university in the industrial North Korean city of Hamhung for two decades before defecting in 2003. He said future hackers also are sent to study abroad in China and Russia.

In 2009, then-leader Kim Jong Il ordered Pyongyang's "cyber command" expanded to 3,000 hackers, he said, citing a North Korean government document that he said he obtained that year. The veracity of the document could not be independently confirmed.

Kim Heung-kwang, who has lived in Seoul since 2004, speculated that more have been recruited since then, and said some are based in China to infiltrate networks abroad.

What is clear is that "North Korea has a capacity to send malware to personal computers, servers or networks and to launch DDOS-type attacks," he said. "Their targets are the United States and South Korea."

Expanding its warfare into cyberspace by developing malicious computer codes is cheaper and faster for North Korea than building nuclear devices or other weapons of mass destructions. The online world allows for anonymity because it is easy to fabricate IP addresses and destroy the evidence leading back to the hackers, according to C. Matthew Curtin, founder of Interhack Corp.

Thurman said cyberattacks are "ideal" for North Korea because they can take place relatively anonymously. He said cyberattacks have been waged against military, governmental, educational and commercial institutions.

North Korean officials have not acknowledged allegations that computer experts are trained as hackers and have denied many of the cyberattack accusations. Pyongyang has not commented on the most recent widespread attack in South Korea.

In June 2012, a seven-month investigation into a hacking incident that disabled news production system at the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo led to North Korea's government telecommunications center, South Korean officials said.

In South Korea, the economy, commerce and every aspect of daily life is deeply dependent on the Internet, making it ripe grounds for a disruptive cyberattack.

North Korea, in contrast, is just now getting online. Businesses are starting to use online banking services, and debit cards have grown in popularity. But only a sliver of the population has access to the global Internet, meaning an Internet outage two weeks ago ? which Pyongyang blamed on hackers from Seoul and Washington ? had little bearing on most North Koreans.

"North Korea has nothing to lose in a cyber battle," said Kim Seeongjoo, a professor at Seoul-based Korea University's Department of Cyber Defense. "Even if North Korea turns out to be the attacker behind the broadcasters' hacking, there is no target for South Korean retaliation."

___

Associated Press writer Jean H. Lee contributed to this story with reporting from Pyongyang, North Korea; Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul also contributed to this report. Follow AP tech writer Youkyung Lee at www.twitter.com/YKLeeAP and AP Korea bureau chief Jean H. Lee at www.twitter.com/newsjean.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/experts-nkorea-training-teams-cyber-warriors-050713868.html

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Ethics panel investigating Rep. Michele Bachmann

The Hindenburg. The Titanic. Michele Bachmann.

Eighteen months ago, the Minnesota House member was considered an unlikely but undeniable Republican rising star, winning the Iowa straw poll that unofficially begins the primary season. Today, she is embroiled in a litany of legal proceedings related to her rolling disaster of a presidential campaign?including a Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into campaign improprieties that has not previously been reported.

READ MORE Portman?s Son: ?I?m Proud of My Dad?

The Daily Beast has learned that federal investigators are now interviewing former Bachmann campaign staffers nationwide about alleged intentional campaign-finance violations. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which probes reported improprieties by House members and their staffs and then can refer cases to the House Ethics Committee.

?I have been interviewed by investigators,? says Peter Waldron, a former Bachmann staffer who?s embroiled in his own fight with his former boss, involving his allegations of pay-to-play politics and improper payments by the campaign?making him one of several members of Bachmann?s inner circle who?ve fallen out with the woman they once hoped would become commander in chief. While he was careful to avoid specifics in regard to the investigating body, Waldron said that ?investigators came [and] interviewed me and are interviewing other staff members across the country.?

READ MORE Michele Bachmann's Most Outrageous Comments

Two other former staffers confirmed the existence of the investigation this weekend, and on Monday Bachmann?s campaign counsel, William McGinley, of the high-powered firm Patton Boggs, confirmed that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) was looking into the congresswoman?s presidential campaign last year.

?There are no allegations that the Congresswoman engaged in any wrongdoing,? McGinley said. ?We are constructively engaged with the OCE and are confident that at the end of their Review the OCE Board will conclude that Congresswoman Bachmann did not do anything inappropriate.?

READ MORE Mississippi Lawmaker Found Dead

Former staffers tell The Daily Beast that investigators have allegedly asked about allegations of improper transfer of funds and under-the-table payments actions by Bachmann?s presidential campaign, specifically in relation to the campaign?s national political director, Guy Short, and Bachmann?s onetime Iowa campaign chairman, state Sen. Kent Sorenson. Questions directly about Bachmann, they said, have been primarily focused on what she knew about those men?s actions and when she knew it.

Sorenson and Short did not return separate calls for comment.

READ MORE Jurassic Republicans

The independent, nonpartisan OCE, established in 2008 and chaired by former CIA director Porter Goss, looks into charges of misconduct by House members and their staffs and then decides whether to recommend that the House Ethics Committee investigate the charges?thus relieving the committee members of the political pressure of deciding whether to investigate one of their own. When OCE, which has a limited window of about three months to investigate and decide, does recommend that the committee pursue a case, it publicly releases its report?giving its advice considerable sway. While it lacks enforcement powers, OCE has been widely credited for pressing the committee to probe and then censor New York Democrat Charles Rangel?and forcing the resignation from the House of Georgia Republican Nathan Deal (who left, thus removing himself from the authority of the committee, while he was running, successfully, for governor). OCE does not comment on ongoing investigations, but one source with knowledge of the Bachmann case said it was now in its final, 45-day period before OCE makes its determination about whether to recommend that the Ethics Committee pursue the investigation.

The emergence of still another investigation tied to Bachmann?s presidential misadventure is the latest hit in what?s been a slow-motion crash for an unusually irresponsible politician who?d briefly emerged as a national figure with White House ambitions.

READ MORE Bush Speechwriter Defends Gay Marriage

Narrowly reelected to what had been a safe House seat after abandoning her presidential run, Bachmann returned to Congress diminished. Her bids to join Republican leadership have been rebuffed, and House colleagues co-exist with her uneasily. The Tea Party caucus she helped found to much fanfare in 2011 is now dormant. And even before her year in Iowa, her staff rarely stayed with her for long?she?s seen a 46 percent annual turnover rate during her time on the Hill, according to The Washington Times?not a vote of confidence from those who know her best.

?She?s the Republican Dennis Kucinich,? says one longtime Bachmann senior staffer.? ?Politics is like jumping off a diving board. You rise, you plateau, but at the end of the day everyone comes down. Some people make a splash and some people belly flop. She belly flopped. And you don?t get a second chance at the diving board.?

READ MORE Rand Paul Ducks 2016 Question

Embarrassments have become routine whenever she?s tried to forcibly reinsert herself into the national debate, as the sort of wild claims that helped make her reputation in the first place have increasingly been swatted down, even by fellow Republicans. In the last week alone she has been called out by Fox?s Bill O?Reilly for ?a trivial pursuit? after dedicating much of her CPAC speech to what she called President Obama?s ?lavish? lifestyle (in fact, the costs she cited are primarily related to Secret Service protection, and some of them were simply false). She followed that up with a reality-challenged rant on the House floor, calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act ?before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens.?

Bachmann holds the distinction of having a higher percentage of statements analyzed by PolitiFact determined to be outright lies?or ?Pants on Fire??than any other politician, according to a survey by The Daily Beast.

READ MORE Rand Paul: Lighten Pot Laws

?She doesn?t use the most credible sources,? explains one former staffer, detailing Bachmann?s reliance on stories from the conspiracy-peddling WorldNetDaily to shape her worldview, ?and she tends to listen to the last person who talks to her.? Bachmann is also a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

But what critics charge is a persistent truth-telling problem is the least of Bachmann?s worries now. Bills are piling up in an Iowa court case, Heki v. Bachmann,?filed by another former Bachmann staffer, Barb Heki. That suit alleges that onetime state campaign chairman and state Senator Sorenson stole from her?and then used with the candidate?s knowledge?an email list of Christian homeschool families in Iowa. Heki?s accusation has been backed by a sworn affidavit by former campaign staffer Eric Woolson, who had also been named in the suit, though charges against him were dropped after he submitted his affidavit.

READ MORE The Week in Wingnuts

Sorenson told Politico that the alleged theft ?absolutely did not happen,? while Jeff Goodman, a lawyer representing the Bachmann campaign, has said his clients "vigorously deny the substantive allegations and claims against them."

Separately, the Urbandale Police Department in Iowa has conducted its own investigation into the theft of that list, and the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee had been probing the actions of Sorenson for allegedly taking ?under-the-table payments? from her campaign, according to Waldron, the former Bachmann staffer who filed the initial complaint. In a written response to the committee, Sorenson has ?vehemently denied any wrongdoing as alleged.? (That investigation has been put on hold until the criminal investigation is complete.) Ironically, when Sorenson defected to Ron Paul?s campaign days before the Iowa caucus, Bachmann herself publically charged that the influential state senator had told her that he?d been ?offered a large amount of money? to shift his allegiance.

READ MORE Newtown?s Pastor, Three Months Later

Waldron, a veteran evangelical outreach operative who worked on the Reagan-Bush and Bush-Cheney campaigns, said the campaign?s behavior had crossed a ?bright red line,? adding that ?I'm not sorry that I've had to file complaints at all.?

Back in Washington, the Federal Election Commission is investigating a separate complaint, also filed by Waldron this January, alleging that Bachmann?s congressional Political Action Committee, MichelePAC, improperly paid the presidential campaign?s political director, Guy Short, through his fundraising company C&M Strategies. Short received lump sums of $20,000 in December of 2011 and January of 2012, with the second payment deposited on the day of the Iowa caucus. Short, who did not return a call for comment Sunday, told Politico?s Maggie Haberman last year, when she noticed his name on a FEC filing, that he had ?multiple clients and Michele PAC and Mrs. Bachmann's Presidential campaign are only two of them. I don't discuss my client?s relationships with the press. The services I perform for each of my clients are separate and distinct ? the services I provide for one client doesn't effect service for another."

READ MORE FCC Chief Steps Down

In a statement when the charges were filed in January, McGinley, Bachmann's campaign counsel, said that "Bachmann for President denies the allegations contained in the complaint filed with the FEC and intends to file an appropriate response. We are confident that this matter will be resolved in the campaign?s favor."

Short helped start and direct MichelePAC, while its Treasurer, Barry Arrington, also filed the incorporation papers for Short?s Company, C&M strategies, with the Colorado Secretary of State. These connections appear to have put Short in a position to pay himself, even as other presidential campaign staffers were told that there was no money for their salaries. Short has yet to publicly comment on the allegations, and did not return a call for comment on Sunday.

READ MORE The GOP?s Three Fiscal Lies

?He?s there telling everyone to suck it up, that we?re not going to get paid ? and he?s paying himself?? said one indignant campaign staffer, who recalls Short telling the team he was working as a volunteer.

This alleged stiffing of the staff has led to an unusually large number of disgruntled former employees who have lodged public complaints against the woman they once wanted to be president. And now some of those former staffers are being interviewed by federal investigators.

READ MORE Tea Partiers Turn on Fox News

?She?s always been one of the most difficult members to work for ? very high maintenance, almost demeaning to a point,? says another former staffer. ?And that was amplified ten times over due to the presidential campaign. It was like she was a different person. You didn?t recognize her. All I can tell you is that it was the weirdest thing I?ve ever seen. It was by far the most bizarre campaign I?ve ever been a part of.?

But other staffers blamed the once-promising campaign?s derailment on persistent strategic missteps.

READ MORE Gingrich & Santorum Almost Teamed Up

?There was a shift in strategy. She needed to always be the outsider,? says Bob Heckman, a veteran of seven presidential campaigns who worked with the Bachmann campaign until the end and stresses he still believes she is ?a big asset to the conservative movement.?

?I felt that we were going on the wrong track the day after the straw poll, when I started to hear stories about how we didn?t want her to get off the bus when [Rick] Perry was in the room because she was the front runner,? says Heckman.

READ MORE Obama and Bibi's Comedy Tour

There was an abrupt shift in campaign leadership after the straw poll, when legendary Republican campaign manager Ed Rollins was replaced by Bachmann?s one-time advance man, Keith Nahigian, while her debate coach Brett O?Donnell rose to a position of high influence despite having what one operative described as ?the worst political judgment I have ever seen.? Unforced errors piled up, including misplacing the list of Bachmann?s straw poll voters in a Virginia warehouse.

Money was also a persistent problem for the Bachmann campaign. Despite her storied ability to raise millions online by playing the victim, very little of it actually went into the campaign coffers, according to Heckman? a sign of unusually high fundraising overhead. ?It did seem to me that we had a remarkably low net cash available,? he said. ?By the end, we couldn?t do TV, radio or even phones with the big guys.?

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In October of 2011, the troubles in Bachmann-land went public, when her New Hampshire staff quit en masse with a stinging letter that described the campaign?s operation as ?rude, unprofessional, dishonest and at times cruel.? ?Their assessment was concurrent with our own experience in Iowa,? says Waldron, simply.

The final insult was the abrupt departure of Sorenson, who endorsed Ron Paul in the waning days of the campaign ? a decision that Heckman describes as a ?pretty treacherous act,? while acknowledging that ?Kent wasn?t treated with a lot of respect inside the campaign. He?s a volatile guy and I can?t say I was surprised that he got fed up and decided to jump.?

READ MORE Where Are the Black Appointees?

By the time, the Iowa caucus occurred, Bachmann was an afterthought. Despite bold and baseless claims of a come-from-behind win, she received roughly the same number of votes statewide as she did four months before in the far smaller Ames Straw poll. Even in her home county, she collected less than 10% of the vote.

In the end, it seems the only people who profited from Bachmann?s face-plant of a presidential campaign were the consultants. The only lasting legacy has been the lawsuits. While junior staffers say they still haven?t been paid, Guy Short?s C&M strategies received a total of $157,000 from MichelePAC between January 2011 and July 2012, when Bachmann was primarily pre-occupied with presidential pursuits, according to FEC filings.

READ MORE That Elephant Won?t Hunt

Now, the prospect of a House Ethics Committee investigation into Bachmann?s presidential campaign adds an additional indignity to the self-inflicted disasters of her political career. Demagoguery eventually brings dishonor. And her most passionate supporters ought to consider what it means when the people who know Bachmann best, respect her the least.

There is a cost to playing fast and loose with the truth, former staffers say ? and not just in terms of escalating legal fees and over-lapping investigations. ?A lot of hearts were broken, a lot of lives were hurt by the behavior of the senior staff of the Bachmann campaign,? says Waldron. ?She's entangled in a cyclone. She can't get out.?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/office-congressional-ethics-eyes-bachmann-154500334--politics.html

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Aye-ayes: Endangered lemurs' complete genomes are sequenced and analyzed for conservation efforts

Mar. 25, 2013 ? For the first time, the complete genomes of three separate populations of aye-ayes -- a type of lemur -- have been sequenced and analyzed in an effort to help guide conservation efforts. The results of the genome-sequence analyses will be published in an early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online during the week of March 25.

The team of scientists is led by George H. Perry, assistant professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State University; Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering at Penn State; and Edward Louis, director of conservation genetics at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and director of the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, NGO.

The aye-aye -- a lemur that is found only on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean -- recently was re-classified as "endangered" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "The aye-aye is one of the world's most unusual and fascinating animals," said Perry. "Aye-ayes use continuously growing incisors to gnaw through the bark of dead trees and then a long, thin, and flexible middle finger to extract insect larvae, filling the ecological niche of a woodpecker. Aye-ayes are nocturnal, solitary and have very low population densities, making them difficult to study and sample in the wild."

Perry added that he and other scientists are concerned about the long-term viability of aye-ayes as a species, given the loss and fragmentation of natural forest habitats in Madagascar. "Aye-aye population densities are very low, and individual aye-ayes have huge home-range requirements," said Perry. "As forest patches become smaller, there is a particular risk that there won't be sufficient numbers of individual aye-ayes in a given area to maintain a population over multiple generations. We were looking to make use of new genomic-sequencing technologies to characterize patterns of genetic diversity among some of the surviving aye-aye populations, with an eye towards the prioritization of conservation efforts."

Louis, with his team at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, worked to locate aye-ayes and collect DNA samples from three separate regions of Madagascar: the northern, eastern, and western regions. To discover the extent of the genetic diversity in present-day aye-ayes, the researchers generated the complete genome sequences of 12 individual aye-ayes. They then analyzed and compared the genomes of the three populations. They found that, while eastern and western aye-ayes are somewhat genetically distinct, aye-ayes in the northern part of the island and those in the east show a much more significant amount of genetic distance, suggesting an extensive period of time during which interbreeding has not occurred between the populations in these regions.

"Our next step was to compare aye-aye genetic diversity to present-day human genetic diversity," explained Miller. "This analysis can help us to gauge how long the aye-aye populations have been geographically separated and unable to interbreed." To make the comparison, the team gathered 12 complete human DNA sequences -- the same number as the individual aye-aye sequences generated -- from publicly available databases for three distinct human populations: African agriculturalists, individuals of European descent, and Southeast Asian individuals. Using Galaxy -- an open-source, web-based computer platform designed at Penn State for data-intensive biomedical and genetic research -- the team developed software to compare the two species' genetic distances. They found that present-day African and European human populations have a smaller amount of genetic distance than that found to exist between northern and eastern aye-aye populations, suggesting that the aye-aye populations were separated for an especially lengthy period of time by geographic barriers.

"We believe that northern aye-ayes have not been able to interbreed with other populations for some time. Although they are separated by a distance of only about 160 miles, high and extensive plateaus and major rivers may have made intermingling relatively infrequent," explained Miller. He added that the results of the team's data further suggest that the separation of the two aye-aye populations stretches back much longer than 2,300 years, which is when human settlers first arrived on the island and started burning the aye-ayes' forest habitat and hunting lemurs.

The team members hope that their findings will help to guide future conservation efforts for the species. "This work highlights an important region of aye-aye biodiversity in northern Madagascar, and this unique biodiversity is not preserved anywhere except in the wild," said Louis. "There is tremendous historical loss of habitat in northern Madagascar that is continuing at an unsustainable rate today. This study is an excellent example of how a comprehensive and coordinated effort in the field and laboratory can identify previously unknown patterns of biodiversity for an endangered species, which then can be used by conservation organizations to base their management strategies."

The authors added that, in future research, they would like to sequence the genomes of other lemur species -- more than 70 percent of which are considered endangered or critically endangered -- as well as aye-ayes from the southern reaches of the island of Madagascar.

In addition to Perry, Miller, and Louis, other scientists who contributed to this research include Stephan C. Schuster, Aakrosh Ratan, Oscar C. Bedoya-Reina, and Richard Burhans from Penn State; Runhua Lei from the Center for Conservation and Research at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium; and Steig E. Johnson from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

Funding for aye-aye sample collection was provided by Conservation International, the Primate Action Fund, and the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, along with logistical support from the Ahmanson Foundation and the Theodore F. and Claire M. Hubbard Family Foundation. Additional support comes from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State University.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State. The original article was written by Katrina Voss.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. George H. Perry, Edward E. Louis, Jr., Aakrosh Ratan, Oscar C. Bedoya-Reina, Richard C. Burhans, Runhua Lei, Steig E. Johnson, Stephan C. Schuster, and Webb Miller. Aye-aye population genomic analyses highlight an important center of endemism in northern Madagascar. PNAS, March 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211990110

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/th-V7_WkuQM/130325160507.htm

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