Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Education: States should do more to reach students (AP)

MIAMI ? In its initial review of No Child Left Behind waiver requests, the U.S. Education Department highlighted a similar weakness in nearly every application: States did not do enough to ensure schools would be held accountable for the performance of all students.

The Obama administration praised the states for their high academic standards. But nearly every application was criticized for being loose about setting high goals and, when necessary, interventions for all student groups ? including minorities, the disabled and low-income ? or for failing to create sufficient incentives to close the achievement gap.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools where even one group of students falls behind are considered out of compliance and subject to interventions. The law has been championed for helping shed light on education inequalities, but most now agree it is due for change.

Indiana's proposal to opt out of the federal law's strictest requirements was criticized by the Education Department for its "inattention" to certain groups, like students still learning the English language. New Mexico's plan, a panel of peer reviewers noted, did not include accountability and interventions for student subgroups based on factors like achievement and graduation rates. In Florida, the department expressed concern that the performance of some groups of students could go overlooked.

The concerns were outlined in letters sent last December by the administration to the 11 states that have applied for a waiver. Since then, state and federal officials have been talking about how to address the concerns; some states have already agreed to changes.

The letters were obtained by The Associated Press for all of the states except Tennessee and Kentucky, which declined to provide them until an announcement is made on whether a waiver is granted. The Education Department has previously said it expected to notify states by mid-January.

"Our priority is protecting children and maintaining a high bar even as we give states more flexibility to get more resources to the children most in need, even if that means the process takes a little longer than we anticipated," said Daren Briscoe, a department spokesman.

Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, said federal officials are in a challenging spot.

"The current law means that each group of kids, whether they are children with a disability, or African-American, or poor kids, have attention paid to them, because the schools are accountable for each and every group," said Jennings. "But what the states are asking is that they all be lumped together."

The Bush-era law is aimed at making sure 100 percent of students reach proficiency in math and reading by 2014, a goal states are far from achieving. As that year draws closer, more and more schools are expected to fall out of compliance, subjecting them to penalties that range from after-school tutoring to closure.

While there is bipartisan agreement the 2002 law needs to be fixed, Congress has not passed a comprehensive reform. President Barack Obama announced in September that states could apply for waivers and scrap the proficiency requirement if they met conditions designed to better prepare and test students.

The 11 states that applied for the first round of waivers were Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico and Tennessee. Many more states are expected to request waivers in the second round ? meaning all eyes will be on the first approvals.

The Center on Education Policy analyzed all the waiver requests and found that in nine of the 11 states, almost all decisions on penalties and interventions would be based on the performance of two groups: all students and a "disadvantaged" group that would replace the current system of separate categories of students according to race, ethnicity, income, disability and English language proficiency.

Those separate categories are at the heart of what No Child Left Behind aimed to correct ? vast achievement gaps between white, black and Hispanic students, between the affluent and low-income ? and what most agree is the problem with the law: If any one of these groups of students does not meet the state's annual benchmarks for proficiency in reading and math, the school is labeled as "failing."

In a letter sent Jan. 17, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., urged Education Secretary Arne Duncan to require strong accountability measures and ensure civil rights and educational equity gains under No Child Left Behind are not lost.

"We fear that putting students with disabilities, English language learners and minority students into one `super subgroup' will mask the individual needs of these distinct student subgroups," they said.

In the feedback provided to states by a panel of peer reviewers in December, many states were praised for plans to institute college and career-ready standards and develop teacher evaluation systems that take into account student growth ? two hallmarks of the Obama administration's education policy. The panel's concerns varied, but meeting the needs of all groups of students was one consistent theme.

In New Mexico, for example, the U.S. Education Department expressed concern about a lack of incentives to close achievement gaps and hold schools accountable for the performance of all students. In a follow-up letter sent late in January, subgroup accountability was still an area of concern.

Hanna Skandera, secretary designate for the New Mexico Public Education Department, said the state's original plan did include breaking down data on student performance by subgroup on each school's report card. But after conversations with the U.S. Education Department, schools will be adding information on whether they are on track for progress and growth in meeting annual targets. If a group falls behind, schools will be subject to intervention measures.

"We had high level reporting," Skandera said. "Now we're going to provide another layer so everything is crystal clear to parents across the state."

Minnesota's initial feedback included concern about "the lack of incentives to improve achievement for all groups of students and narrow achievement gap between subgroups." Sam Kramer, federal education policy specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education, said most of that criticism was focused on the state's graduation rate. In its initial submission, the state did not take into account the graduation rate of different subgroups in its annual targets.

After receiving the letter, the state switched to a system that will take into account how subgroups of students did in meeting those graduation targets.

Kramer said he thinks Minnesota will be better able to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups of students under the new system.

"No Child Left Behind was very good at diagnosing the problem," Kramer said. "It was very good at shining a light on the differences between subgroups."

It was less effective, he said, at offering successful ways to help improve.

"We are going to be able to go in and be flexible and reactive to the specific needs of those subgroups," Kramer said.

Pedro Noguera, an education professor at New York University, said the struggle by school districts to lift the performance of different groups of students is a signal of a deeper problem that won't be solved by waivers.

"We need to make sure the districts and schools feel some pressure to make sure that all the students they are responsible for are being educated," he said. "However, they need to focus on different kinds of evidence, and not merely performance on a standardized test. That's where they don't get it."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_no_child_left_behind

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Huge asteroid may be packed with water ice

The surface of Vesta ? the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter ? appears to be quite dry. But water ice may lurk underground over roughly half of the huge space rock's area, particularly near the poles, researchers said.

The giant asteroid Vesta may contain a vast supply of water ice, a supply that has sat frozen for billions of years, a new study reveals.

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The?surface of Vesta?? the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter ? appears to be quite dry. But water ice may lurk underground over roughly half of the huge space rock's area, particularly near the poles, researchers said. And it may have been there for billions of years.

"Near the north and south poles, the conditions appear to be favorable for?water ice?to exist beneath the surface," study co-author Timothy Stubbs,? of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

Asteroid ice underground?

Vesta has an average diameter of about 330 miles (530 kilometers). It probably doesn't have any permanently shadowed craters where water ice could stay frozen at the surface, researchers said. [NASA Photos of Asteroid Vesta]

That's because the asteroid is tilted on its axis at about 27 degrees,?giving Vesta seasons?akin to the ones we experience on Earth. So every part of the space rock's surface likely sees the sun at some point during a Vestan year.

However, the research team ? using models based on data gathered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments ? determined that average annual temperatures near Vesta's poles are probably less than minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 129 degrees Celsius). Below this threshhold, water ice is thought to be able to survive in the top 10 feet (3 meters) or so of Vestan soil, or regolith.

The average temperatures near Vesta's equator, however, are roughly minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 123 Celsius), according to the study ? too high to allow water to remain within a few meters of the surface.

This band of relatively warm temperatures extends from the equator to about 27 degrees north and south latitude, researchers said.

"On average, it's colder at Vesta's poles than near its equator, so in that sense, they are good places to sustain water ice," Stubbs said. "But they also see sunlight for long periods of time during the summer seasons, which isn't so good for sustaining ice. So if water ice exists in those regions, it may be buried beneath a relatively deep layer of dry regolith."

Water ice might be stable at the bottom of some craters for much of the Vestan year (about 3.6 Earth years), the study found. But at some point during the summer, sunlight would probably drive it off the surface, either to be lost into space or redeposited somewhere else on the asteroid.

A spacecraft's view of Vesta

Modeling results such as those presented in the new study could soon be vetted by a robotic visitor to Vesta.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft?entered into orbit around the huge space rock in July 2011 and has been studying it ever since. Part of the probe's work involves searching for water with its gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND) spectrometer, and Dawn recently spiraled close enough to Vesta to get a good look.

"The Dawn mission gives researchers a rare opportunity to observe Vesta for an extended period of time, the equivalent of about one season on Vesta," Stubbs said. "Hopefully, we'll know in the next few months whether the GRaND spectrometer sees evidence for water ice in Vesta's regolith."

Dawn will stay at Vesta until July, when it will depart and journey to Ceres, the largest object in the?asteroid belt. It should arrive there in February 2015.

Both Vesta and Ceres are so large that scientists consider them protoplanets ? baby planets whose growth was interrupted when Jupiter formed. Scientists hope Dawn's observations shed light on the role water has played in the evolution of planets.

"Our perceptions of Vesta have been transformed in a few months as the Dawn spacecraft has entered orbit and spiraled closer to its surface," said Lucy McFadden, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard and a Dawn mission co-investigator. "More importantly, our new views of Vesta tell us about the early processes of solar system formation. If we can detect evidence for water beneath the surface, the next question will be is it very old or very young, and that would be exciting to ponder."

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/v32_LX3SZ44/Huge-asteroid-may-be-packed-with-water-ice

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Billionaire donates for Washington Monument repairs

A billionaire history buff has stepped forward to donate the $7.5 million matching gift that's needed to start repairing cracks near the top of the Washington Monument from last summer's East Coast earthquake.

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Businessman David Rubenstein told The Associated Press he was inspired to help fund the repairs to the 555-foot obelisk when it became clear how severely damaged it was by a 5.8-magnitude quake on Aug. 23. The monument received about 1 million visitors a year before the famous landmark was closed to the public after the quake.

The Park Service hopes to have a contractor begin work by the end of August. The repair work is expected to take a year to complete, likely keeping the monument closed for two years.

Largest gift
Congress allocated $7.5 million in December on the condition that private donations would match that amount. The National Park Service and nonprofit Trust for the National Mall are expected to announce Rubenstein's gift Thursday morning. It will be the largest gift to the nonprofit group, which aims to raise $350 million to restore the mall's grounds and facilities.

The combined $15 million in public and private funds is expected to cover the cost of repairing damage directly caused by the quake, said National Park Service spokeswoman Carol Johnson. Repairing water damage will cost more, as would a seismic study or reinforcements to strengthen the obelisk against future earthquakes, she said.

Rubenstein, a co-founder of The Carlyle Group, began building the private equity firm's business in Washington and said he wanted to restore a symbol of the nation and hasten repairs to reopen the landmark.

"This Washington Monument is probably one of the most recognizable buildings in the United States next to the Capitol and the Empire State Building," he said. "It could use a little repair work, and I wanted people to get to see it as soon as possible."

Experts have noted the monument needs more than just a little repair work, though it has been deemed structurally sound.

Extensive repairs needed
The August quake was centered some 40 miles west of Richmond, Va., and felt from Canada to Georgia. It damaged the Washington National Cathedral, where pieces of mortar rained down from its vaulted ceiling. At the Washington Monument, panicked visitors fled down flights of stairs on the day of the big shake, but there were no known deaths or serious injuries in the region.

The earthquake caused numerous cracks to form in the obelisk, which was the tallest man-made structure in the world when it was completed in 1884.

Surveillance video taken the day of the quake and later released by the park service showed the spire shaking violently. Daylight could be seen through some of the cracks, the largest of which was reported to be at least 4 feet long and about an inch wide.

A report in December recommended extensive repairs and reinforcements to preserve the spire. It said some marble panels were cracked all the way through near the top portion of the monument. Cracks near its peak also have left the monument vulnerable to water damage from rain, engineers noted.

Last fall, daredevil engineers on a "difficult access team" rappelled from the top to conduct a visual inspection of the exterior of the obelisk.

Officials said it's unclear whether the work will require scaffolding to be built around the monument, similar to what was erected during a restoration project from 1999 to 2001.

'A true patriot'
Caroline Cunningham, president of the Trust for the National Mall, called Rubenstein "a true patriot" and said his gift "demonstrates how much people care about this space." She said it should serve as an example for other philanthropists.

There has long been talk of sprucing up the mall at the heart of the nation's capital.

A design competition is under way to develop ways to improve the mall, including the Washington Monument grounds. Finalists will be chosen in May, and the group will seek funding for each project. The nonprofit group has targeted parts of the mall that are run down from over use and neglect as a focus for its restoration efforts.

Rubenstein has made large gifts in recent years to Washington's cultural institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center.

The monument, which he visited recently, was built with private $1 donations eventually totaling over $1 million, Rubenstein said. Construction began in 1848, but funds ran out during the Civil War when the monument was left as an embarrassing stump for years. It was finally completed in 1884 and was the world's tallest man-made structure until it was eclipsed by the Eiffel Tower. It remains the tallest structure in Washington.

Rubenstein owns a copy of the Magna Carta, among other historical documents, and reveres George Washington.

"I like to remind people about American history," Rubenstein said. "George Washington is an incredible figure. When he was the head of the Revolutionary War Army, he could have stayed on as really the head of the government when we won the Revolutionary War, but he put down his arms."

___

Trust for the National Mall: http://www.nationalmall.org

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46050494/ns/us_news-giving/

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Relief in Spain, tension in Greece for euro zone (Reuters)

MADRID/ATHENS (Reuters) ? The embattled euro zone cleared a major funding test on Thursday when Spain romped through a key bond sale, while signs pointed to only a mild recession for the 17-nation bloc.

Talks between Greece and its creditors remained deadlocked, however, threatening to derail a needed bailout and keep the region's all-consuming debt crisis on the boil.

A Reuters poll of economists pointed to the euro zone wallowing in a mild recession until the second half of this year, but contracting by just 0.3 percent for the year compared with a forecast three months ago of 0.9 percent.

At the same time, the International Monetary Fund is expecting the euro zone economy to contract by 0.5 percent in 2012, according to draft document reported by the Italian news agency ANSA.

Neither figure is comforting, but both suggest a downturn is seen as short and shallow.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, speaking in Abu Dhabi, repeated his view that the euro zone economy is fragile.

"We see a softening business cycle in Europe with significant downside risk. We also see some tentative signs... but I have to be quite cautious here... some tentative signs of stabilization of economic activity at low levels," he said.

"All this is subject to downside risk, in other words it can get worse."

One key risk is if the debt crisis intensifies, pushing borrowing costs to unsustainable levels and driving a further wedge between the robust northern euro zone economies such as Germany and The Netherlands, and the debt-laden south.

CHEAP MONEY

Spain's auction of benchmark 10-year bonds was a major test of investor appetite in the peripheral euro zone country. Short-term auctions last week had been successful but Thursday's sale was for longer-dated bonds.

It raised more than forecast at 3 billion euros, at a yield of 5.403 percent, a drop of more than 1.5 percentage points since the same bond was last sold in November.

The sale signaled that markets have largely shrugged off last week's salvo of euro zone rating downgrades from Standard & Poor's, an impression reinforced by a strong bond sale in Paris.

"These results are bullish for both Spain and the broader periphery and stand to further underpin the ongoing 'risk-on' tone... For now.. the glass half-full brigade have the upper hand," said Richard McGuire, rate strategist at Rabobank in London.

Euro zone bond auctions have been largely successful since the ECB offered nearly half a trillion euros of cheap, three-year loans to push investors towards buying government bonds and lowering borrowing costs.

"We start seeing also a fall of the longer-term part of the yield curve as well. I think that by and large this measure has really avoided a serious funding crisis that European banks might have to face," Draghi told reporters.

LITTLE PROGRESS IN GREECE

Greece remains the fly in the ointment, with Athens locked in negotiations with creditors on a deal to reschedule its debt and avoid an uncontrolled default.

Nearly a week after talks hit an impasse, the two sides remain bogged down over the coupon, or interest payment, that Greece must offer on new bonds under a debt swap.

Athens and its foreign lenders offered a coupon of just over 3.5 percent during a two-hour meeting on Wednesday, but bondholders rejected that as too low, one source said. They were angling for a coupon of at least 4 percent, one source said.

A senior Greek official also played down speculation that terms of a deal had been nearly pinned down, saying: "Nothing has been concluded yet."

The two sides must thrash out a deal within days to pave the way for Greece to receive a new infusion of aid and avoid bankruptcy when 14.5 billion euros ($18.5 billion) of bond redemptions fall due in late March.

Kept afloat by bailout loans, Greece faces the threat of having to leave the euro zone and slumping into further economic and social misery if it fails to come to grips with its debt, including securing a deal with the private bond holders.

"Now is the crucial moment in the final battle for the debt swap and the crucial moment in the final and definitive battle for the new bailout," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told parliament. "Now, now! Now is the time to negotiate for the sake of the country."

(Additional reporting by Andy Bruce in London and Martina Fuchs and Martin Dokoupil in Abu Dhabi; Writing by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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iBooks Author EULA claims all paid content is exclusive to Apple

Following Apple's iBooks Author announcement today, word started to circulate that content made with Apple's app could only be sold in Apple's iBookstore. Author's could freely distribute the work, but they couldn't sell it elsewhere.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/VsB5SMa5d1E/story01.htm

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Brisbane climate change study warns of many years of life lost

Brisbane climate change study warns of many years of life lost [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rose Trapnell
rose.trapnell@qut.edu.au
07-313-82361
Queensland University of Technology

Queensland University of Technology, in collaboration with CSIRO, has conducted a world-first study into the potential impact climate change will have on 'years of life lost' in Brisbane

Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in collaboration with CSIRO, has conducted a world-first study into the potential impact climate change will have on 'years of life lost' in Brisbane.

Associate Professor Adrian Barnett of QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) said while many other studies had examined death rates on hot and cold days, this was the first study to examine years of life lost.

"The results are startling," Professor Barnett said. "Temperature-related deaths currently account for 6,572 years of life lost per year in Brisbane, which is more than the annual number of years of life lost to breast cancer of 3,733.

"The figure is so high because Brisbane has a very narrow comfort zone of a mean temperature between 20 C, on days when the temperature is above or below this range we tend to see an increase in years of life lost."

Years of life lost sums the life expectancy of all deaths according to age at death, so it gives more weight to younger deaths. "We wanted to use years of life lost because we suspected that many temperature-related deaths were in the elderly, which would reduce the public health importance of temperature compared with other issues," Professor Barnett said. "In fact we found the opposite, with a surprisingly high years of life lost figure."

Professor Barnett said things would only get worse as Climate Change continued. "A 2 C increase in temperature in Brisbane between now and 2050 would result in an extra 381 years of life lost per year in Brisbane," he said. "A 2 C increase in temperature is the figure the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (http://www.ipcc.ch/) says is dangerous but could be reached unless more aggressive measures are undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Professor Barnett said should temperatures increase beyond the 2 C mark the results would be catastrophic. "A 4 C increase in temperature would result in an extra 3,242 years of life lost per year in Brisbane," he said. He said that many of these deaths could be avoided if we had better housing conditions.

"Many houses in Brisbane are built of thin planks of wood and are poorly insulated, which means the occupants are exposed to whatever the temperature is outside," he said. "This is in stark contrast to Scandinavian houses where the indoor temperature is kept constant all year round regardless of the extreme outdoor temperatures. "Our rates of cold weather deaths are far higher than all the Scandinavian countries despite our incredibly mild winters. "On the one hand this is an embarrassing finding, but it also shows that the problem is fixable if we work to improve indoor temperatures.

"Taking action to improve houses now will return an immediate gain in health and help prevent some of the future increase in deaths due to climate change." He said that much needs to be done in order to reduce the impact of climate change on population health. Both mitigation and adaptation are necessary. This study may have important implications for government policies on sustainable development, transport, energy and environmental protection.

The CSIRO scientist Dr. Xiaoming Wang said, "Not only energy efficiency and smart transport, we should also take public health into the consideration of urban planning and building design to mitigate or adapt to the impact of increasing temperature."

The study was based on all deaths in Brisbane between 1996, and most of the deaths were due the common causes of cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

###

The research, The impact of temperature on years of life lost in Brisbane, Australia, was conducted in conjunction with CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship, and was published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The research team included: Mr Cunrui Huang, Associate Professor Adrian Barnett, Dr Xiaoming Wang and Professor Shilu Tong.

Media contact: Rose Trapnell, QUT media officer, 07-3138-2361 or rose.trapnell@qut.edu.au



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Brisbane climate change study warns of many years of life lost [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Rose Trapnell
rose.trapnell@qut.edu.au
07-313-82361
Queensland University of Technology

Queensland University of Technology, in collaboration with CSIRO, has conducted a world-first study into the potential impact climate change will have on 'years of life lost' in Brisbane

Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in collaboration with CSIRO, has conducted a world-first study into the potential impact climate change will have on 'years of life lost' in Brisbane.

Associate Professor Adrian Barnett of QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) said while many other studies had examined death rates on hot and cold days, this was the first study to examine years of life lost.

"The results are startling," Professor Barnett said. "Temperature-related deaths currently account for 6,572 years of life lost per year in Brisbane, which is more than the annual number of years of life lost to breast cancer of 3,733.

"The figure is so high because Brisbane has a very narrow comfort zone of a mean temperature between 20 C, on days when the temperature is above or below this range we tend to see an increase in years of life lost."

Years of life lost sums the life expectancy of all deaths according to age at death, so it gives more weight to younger deaths. "We wanted to use years of life lost because we suspected that many temperature-related deaths were in the elderly, which would reduce the public health importance of temperature compared with other issues," Professor Barnett said. "In fact we found the opposite, with a surprisingly high years of life lost figure."

Professor Barnett said things would only get worse as Climate Change continued. "A 2 C increase in temperature in Brisbane between now and 2050 would result in an extra 381 years of life lost per year in Brisbane," he said. "A 2 C increase in temperature is the figure the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (http://www.ipcc.ch/) says is dangerous but could be reached unless more aggressive measures are undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Professor Barnett said should temperatures increase beyond the 2 C mark the results would be catastrophic. "A 4 C increase in temperature would result in an extra 3,242 years of life lost per year in Brisbane," he said. He said that many of these deaths could be avoided if we had better housing conditions.

"Many houses in Brisbane are built of thin planks of wood and are poorly insulated, which means the occupants are exposed to whatever the temperature is outside," he said. "This is in stark contrast to Scandinavian houses where the indoor temperature is kept constant all year round regardless of the extreme outdoor temperatures. "Our rates of cold weather deaths are far higher than all the Scandinavian countries despite our incredibly mild winters. "On the one hand this is an embarrassing finding, but it also shows that the problem is fixable if we work to improve indoor temperatures.

"Taking action to improve houses now will return an immediate gain in health and help prevent some of the future increase in deaths due to climate change." He said that much needs to be done in order to reduce the impact of climate change on population health. Both mitigation and adaptation are necessary. This study may have important implications for government policies on sustainable development, transport, energy and environmental protection.

The CSIRO scientist Dr. Xiaoming Wang said, "Not only energy efficiency and smart transport, we should also take public health into the consideration of urban planning and building design to mitigate or adapt to the impact of increasing temperature."

The study was based on all deaths in Brisbane between 1996, and most of the deaths were due the common causes of cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

###

The research, The impact of temperature on years of life lost in Brisbane, Australia, was conducted in conjunction with CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship, and was published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The research team included: Mr Cunrui Huang, Associate Professor Adrian Barnett, Dr Xiaoming Wang and Professor Shilu Tong.

Media contact: Rose Trapnell, QUT media officer, 07-3138-2361 or rose.trapnell@qut.edu.au



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/quot-bcc011712.php

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Colts fire coach Jim Caldwell

Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Caldwell talks about the season during a news conference at the NFL team's football practice facility in Indianapolis, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012. The Colts finished the season with a 2-14 record. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Caldwell talks about the season during a news conference at the NFL team's football practice facility in Indianapolis, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012. The Colts finished the season with a 2-14 record. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Caldwell talks about the season during a news conference at the NFL team's football practice facility in Indianapolis, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012. The Colts finished the season with a 2-14 record. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

(AP) ? The Indianapolis Colts have fired coach Jim Caldwell.

The team announced the decision Tuesday. Caldwell just finished his third and worst season as head coach of the Colts, who stumbled to a 2-14 finish without injured quarterback Peyton Manning.

It's the second big move since the miserable season ended. The day after the season ended, owner Jim Irsay fired team vice chairman Bill Polian and Polian's son, Chris, Indy's general manager.

Caldwell opened his career by winning his first 14 games, the most in NFL history by a rookie head coach, and leading Indianapolis to the Super Bowl. He won an AFC South title in his second season.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-17-Colts-Caldwell%20Fired/id-771bc0dfaf304c189d5833dac0ae12db

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Asia stocks gain as China slows less than expected (AP)

BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets rose Tuesday, buoyed by a successful sale of French government bonds and China's economic growth slowing less than expected.

Benchmark oil rose above $100 per barrel, while the dollar fell against the yen and the euro.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index added 0.7 percent to 8,435.78. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.9 percent at 19,369.91 and South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.4 percent to 1,885.23. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.5 percent to 4,208.70.

Shares in mainland China briefly slipped into negative territory before recovering after the release of government figures showing that growth in the world's second-largest economy slowed in the final quarter of 2011 to 8.9 percent, its lowest rate in 2 1/2 years.

Markets welcomed the news, however, as growth had been expected to settle at 8.7 percent, analysts said. The Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.9 percent at 2,226.67.

"That means China's economy is not slowing down as quickly as expected. That gave an overall boost to market sentiment," said Jackson Wong, vice president at Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong.

The slowdown was also in line with government plans to cool China's overheated economy. Analysts expect Beijing to try to stimulate growth this year with an interest rate cut or other measures to free up money for lending.

Other key benchmark stock indexes posted gains, buoyed by a strong sale of French bonds on Monday and taking a downgrade of the Europe's emergency bailout fund in stride. Stocks in Singapore, Taiwan, India, Indonesia and New Zealand rose.

France easily sold about euro 8.6 billion ($10.9 billion) of debt with very short maturities, as well as 25-week and 51-week bonds.

On the secondary markets, where the issued bonds are later traded openly, the interest rate on France's benchmark 10-year bond fell. That indicates investors feel France remains a relatively good bet, and perhaps are paying less heed to ratings agencies.

Analysts at Credit Agricole CIB said in an email that "given extremely bearish market sentiment, the market appears to absorb good news more easily and any good news may boost risk appetite with short-covering rallies."

Investor sentiment still faces multiple headwinds ? the latest being Standard & Poor's downgrade of the eurozone's rescue fund by one notch to AA+. While that could hurt the fund's ability to raise cheap bailout money to resolve the continent's debt crisis, Credit Agricole said the development had largely been priced in to the market.

Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group rose 1.1 percent after it announced the purchase of Royal Bank of Scotland Group's aviation leasing business, the fourth-biggest in the world by book value.

Gains overnight in gold, copper and oil helped commodity shares. Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd., China's biggest gold miner, jumped 4.6 percent.

Hong Kong-listed China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., Asia's biggest oil refiner that is also known as Sinopec, surged 3.2 percent. China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, added 3 percent.

Australian mining shares were big gainers, including uranium miner Paladin Energy, which soared 12.2 percent after it reported record production in the three months to December and reaffirmed its full-year production targets.

Fortescue Metals Group, Australia's third-largest iron ore producer, rose 3.7 percent after it reported shipping a record 14.77 million ton of iron ore in the December quarter.

U.S. markets were closed Monday for a public holiday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.2730 from $1.2670 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.71 yen from 76.96 yen.

Benchmark oil for February delivery jumped $1.44 to $100.14 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 40 cents to settle at $98.70 in New York on Friday.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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Monday, January 16, 2012

Samsung Galaxy S II for US Cellular clears FCC, lacks LTE

The Samsung R760 has been tossed around as the likely model number of US Cellular's upcoming Galaxy S II, and it's just cleared one more hurdle: the FCC. While this doesn't guarantee that the carrier will indeed get its own flavor of the GSII anytime soon, it's just another piece of evidence to consider. For anyone hopeful that this could've become the Skyrocket or Galaxy S II LTE, we're shooting down your dream -- the FCC docs don't indicate the presence of LTE, which means this will not be the mysterious smartphone slated to launch in April.

Samsung Galaxy S II for US Cellular clears FCC, lacks LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/16/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-us-cellular/

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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This Weekend [Weekendhacker]

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This WeekendFood is delicious, but only if it's well-prepared. If your culinary skills are lacking, or you could stand to improve, take a little time this weekend to learn some new tips, tricks, and skills to help you cook and bake a whole lot better.

Before diving in to all the tips, the best thing you can do is get yourself organized and prepared to cook well and efficiently. Be sure to read our station-by-station guide to becoming a kitchen pro so you're ready to cook like the best.

Start with Some Great Recipes

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This WeekendThere's no point in cooking anything yourself if it's going to suck, so you ought to have some great recipes. Although Lifehacker is not a recipe blog, we've shown you how to make a lot of great things. We even have a compilation of the 10+ dishes everyone should know how to make, including some of our own favorite recipes. If you're a fan of fast food, however, and would like to learn how to make some of your favorites at home, we've got 10 great fast food recipes you can replicate yourself. Outside of our collection, Gojee is a great place to find a lot of great options. So is Epicurious, How2Heroes, and Cookthink.

Another way to dig up a lot of great recipes is with your smartphone. Check out our favorite recipe and cooking apps for Android and iPhone for some great options.

Effortlessly Prep Your Ingredients

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This WeekendThe joy of cooking doesn't come from peeling garlic or dicing an onion?at least if they're the sorts of task that feel tedious and unpleasant. Skilled chefs have no trouble getting through these tasks quickly, but you don't necessarily have the time and devotion to master the culinary skill set required to do what they can do. In some cases it will take a lot of practice to prep your ingredients as fast as a professional. In other cases, you can learn in just a few minutes.

Garlic is a perfect example, as you can shake an entire clove in a bowl to peel it in 10 seconds. De-seeding a watermelon is also very simple if you simply know where to cut. Similarly, if you cut an onion properly you won't have to worry about any eye irritation. There is also a best method for slicing and dicing an onion quickly and easily. (Once you have a handle on prepping garlic and onions, you should learn how to get the most out of them in your cooking.) Whatever tricks you're using to get the job done faster, you'll save yourself even more time and effort by prepping in an assembly-line style. This not only makes it easier while you're cooking, but also saves a lot of time when cleaning up as well.

For more great skills you can pick up quickly, check out our top 10 how-to cooking videos.

Learn a Few New Cooking and Baking Techniques

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This WeekendSuccessfully cooking something isn't too hard, but certain techniques can make an enormous difference in the quality of your food. Such is the case with the fickle egg, which if cooked right, can be pretty amazing. For more tender and flavorful meat, you'll want to learn sous-vide. For those of you who prefer to grill, we've got a guide to mastering you grilling skill set.

Sometimes great techniques just involve a few little alterations. Marinating hot dogs, fruit, and steaks can add a lot of extra flavor when grilling. You can make better smoothies and desserts with the syrup from canned fruit. If you've fruit or veggies that could use some refreshing, an ice bath is good for lettuce and hot water will keep the mold off your berries. If you want to cookie pasta fast and with an easy sauce, cook it in a frying pan with cold water.Photo by Robin.

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This WeekendFor the bakers, there are a few handy tips to bake better and more efficiently. If you find you're burning the bottoms of your cookies too much, just run the cookie sheet under cold water between batches. For healthier baking, you can substitute applesauce for eggs. For a fun project, make your own cake pops or create your own cookie cutter shapes from a foil pan. And finally, one of our favorite tricks is making cokie bowls by baking cookies on an upside-down muffin tin.

Cook Quickly and Easily in the Microwave

You may not look at your microwave as much of a cooking tool but, rather, just a reheating mechanism. While it's not going to replace your oven or stove, there's a lot it can do in the cooking and baking department. Also, for those times you're reheating food, there are several ways to do it better. But before you go off and microwave anything, know the best placement for your food.

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This WeekendIf you're at all familiar with cooking in the microwave, you're probably aware of at least a few things you can make in a mug. Eggs and chocolate cake are two popular options. In the mug-less category, you can also make candy, potato chips, movie theater-caliber popcorn, and gourmet milk foam for your coffee (or whatever).

Microwaves, of course, were made for heating or reheating, not cooking, but they don't always leave food in the crispiest condition. There are ways around this. Parchment paper is one of them. When you're reheating pizza, for example, using a sheet of parchment paper will help keep it crispy. Microwaves are also great for restoring stale foods like chips and bread. Even if your food isn't stale, sometimes a few seconds in the microwave can help as well. This is the case with cheese, for example, as it helps bring out the flavor.

Brush Up on Your Culinary Skills This WeekendAlthough this is the case with anything in the kitchen, microwaves are especially prone to mess due to the way they reheat food. Fortunately there are quite a few tricks you can employ to keep the mess to a minimum, or at least clean it up easily when you can't. A damp coffee filter, two bowls, or even a shower cap are simple ways to stop the splatter. If things do get a little unruly, however, steam cleaning with vinegar can help you tame the mess a lot faster.

For more microwave cooking tips, and just some other cooking skills that'll save you time, check out our guide to low-effort cooking.

Photo by Vanilla and Lace.


Got any other great culinary tips you love? Share 'em in the comments!

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/-NAS34HAXOA/brush-up-on-your-culinary-skills-this-weekend

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Salman Rushdie's India visit sparks protest

When British author Salman Rushdie announced plans to visit India for the Jaipur Literary Festival beginning on Jan. 20, an influential Islamic seminary called on the Indian government to block his trip.

The vice chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, Maulana Abdul Qasim Nomani, told reporters, ?Rushdie should not be allowed to visit India. If he visits India, it would be adding salt to the injuries of Muslims. He has hurt our religious sentiments.?

Nomani called upon the Indian government to revoke Rushdie?s visa, according to the Guardian.

Rushdie?s pithy response via Twitter was: ?Re: my Indian visit, for the record, I don't need a visa.?

The controversy surrounding Rushdie?s 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, still haunts the Booker-prize winning author. When it was published, the book was banned in India and Iran?s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a religious edict, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie?s execution. Rushdie spent many subsequent years in hiding.

More on GlobalPost:?A century on, library lifts ban on Twain book

Rushdie is scheduled to give a talk at the session called, ?Inglish, Amlish, Hinglish: The Chutneyfication of English," the Guardian reported. Other authors present at the festival will include Lionel Shriver and Richard Dawkins, according to the AFP.

The Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, preaches a conservative brand of Islam based upon a 17th-century syllabus and has been accused of inspiring radical groups like the Taliban, the AFP said.

More on GlobalPost:?India: Is free speech on the way out?

The festival organizers confirmed Rushdie?s attendance said the Guardian, citing his previous visits to India, as recent as 2007. Sanjoy Roy, managing director of the festival?s producers, said, ?In plural societies such as ours, it is imperative that we continue to allow avenues for unfettered literary expression.??

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/120110/salman-rushdies-india-visit-sparks-protest

Source: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/120110/salman-rushdies-india-visit-sparks-protest

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In Republican debate tonight, Romney, Santorum have targets on backs

GOP rivals to Iowa caucus winners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are expected to take off the gloves in Republican debate tonight and follow-up one Sunday in New Hampshire.?

With at least 1 in 3 New Hampshire voters undecided ahead of Tuesday's first-in-the-nation GOP presidential primary, back-to-back debates this weekend could provide opportunity for the emergence of a clear alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney.

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The former governor of Massachusetts comes into Saturday night?s debate with a lead of at least 20 percentage points ? and a target on his back.?

So does former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who in an 11th-hour surge fell nine votes short of winning the Iowa caucuses but who is only beginning to face the withering fire rivals dish out to front-runners. He can probably expect to see more of that in a nationally televised debate Saturday night and in a second matchup Sunday morning.

?The first rule in any debate is to do no harm,? says Tom Rath, a senior Romney campaign adviser in New Hampshire. Mr. Romney, who has built his campaign around jobs and the economy, can be expected to stick to those themes.??He is not going to get an answer wrong,? says Mr. Rath. ?This state knows him so well.?

Mr. Santorum is just emerging on the radar screen of most voters here, despite making more than 100 visits to the Granite State in the runup to the primary.?Having been drawn into spats with New Hampshire audiences over issues such as gay marriage, in this weekend's debates Santorum needs to avoid mistakes and convince conservatives, especially in upcoming primary states of South Carolina and Florida, that he is a credible alternative to Romney ? and capable of holding his own against President Obama.

"There are going to be two debates in 16 hours," says Bill Cahill, cochairman of the Santorum campaign in New Hampshire. "In tonight's debate voters are going to see Rick Santorum, for the first time, in the center of the stage standing shoulder to shoulder with Mitt Romney. That's going to help a lot. He won't be at the edge of the stage, and people will pay more attention."?

Saturday's debate begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time on ABC; it will stream live on?ABCNews.com.?Sunday's takes place at 9 a.m., and it will be broadcast during local time slots for NBC's "Meet the Press." It will be livestreaming on?NBC Politics.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who opted not to compete in the New Hampshire primary but will take part in the debates, this week unveiled an ad campaign slamming Santorum for spending on earmarks, or member projects, during his years in Congress.?It?s a charge also leveled by GOP rival Ron Paul and Sen. John McCain, a two-time New Hampshire GOP primary winner and 2008 Republican presidential nominee, who endorsed Romney on Wednesday.

In a preview of likely exchanges in this weekend?s debates, Santorum defended his earmarks as a duty of any elected official to promote the interests of constituents.

?I represented the interests of the state of Pennsylvania,? he said at a town-hall meeting in Dublin, N.H., on Friday. ?There are men and women who have an improved quality of life, and maybe are alive, because we did that.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/fUckR3lwshk/In-Republican-debate-tonight-Romney-Santorum-have-targets-on-backs

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Woman's quest could mean Medal of Honor for dad (AP)

LABADIE, Mo. ? It was bravery at the highest level: William Shemin defied German machine gun fire to sprint across a World War I battlefield and pull wounded comrades to safety. And he did so no fewer than three times.

Then, with the platoon's senior soldiers wounded or killed, the 19-year-old American took over command of his unit and led it to safety, even after a bullet pierced his helmet and lodged behind an ear.

Yet Shemin never earned the nation's highest military citation, the Medal of Honor ? a result, many suspected, of the fact that he was Jewish at a time when discrimination ran rampant throughout the U.S. military.

Now, nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally get that medal, thanks to the tireless efforts of his daughter, whose long quest to see her father decorated also opens the door for other overlooked Jewish veterans of the Great War.

"A wrong has been made right here," said Shemin's daughter, 82-year-old Elsie Shemin-Roth of Labadie, Mo., a small town about 40 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Last month, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains a tiny provision known as the William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act. It provides for a Pentagon review of Jewish soldiers and sailors who may have been overlooked for the Medal of Honor simply because of their faith.

Shemin's daughter was the driving force behind the measure, an effort that began a decade ago when she read news accounts of a similar law that provided for review of Jews possibly denied recognition in World War II. She was horrified there was no similar mechanism for World War I veterans.

So she began gathering military records, photos, commendations and first-hand accounts of her father's heroism. Eventually, she enlisted the help of her congressman and support from both U.S. senators from Missouri.

Retired Army Col. Erwin Burtnick of Baltimore, who is active in the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., helped get the bill passed. He also reviewed Shemin's war record and will present the case on his behalf to the Pentagon.

"I believe based upon the criteria of World War I, the level of heroism exhibited by Sgt. Shemin will rise to the Medal of Honor," Burtnick said.

At the time, the enlistment age was 21, but Shemin lied about his age and got in at 18. A tall, strapping athlete who played semi-pro baseball at age 15 and later played college football at Syracuse, Shemin was sent off to France. On a hot day in August 1918, he and his platoon were doing battle near a river in Burgundy.

One of his superiors, Capt. Rubert Purdon, later wrote in support of a Medal of Honor: "With the most utter disregard for his own safety, (Shemin) sprang from his position in his platoon trench, dashed out across the open in full sight of the Germans, who opened and maintained a furious burst of machine gun and rifle fire."

Shemin didn't stop there. Casualties were heavy. Many senior platoon leaders had been killed or badly hurt, so the young sergeant led the group out of harm's way over the next three days.

Along the way, a German bullet hit him in the head, went through the steel helmet and lodged behind her father's left ear. He eventually collapsed and was hospitalized for three months. The wound left him deaf in that ear.

The heroics did not go unnoticed: Shemin was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest military honor.

He eventually left the military, got a degree from Syracuse and started a greenhouse-and-nursery business in the Bronx, where he raised three children.

Shemin was satisfied with the medal he got, his daughter recalled, and only occasionally wondered if he was passed over for the Medal of Honor because of anti-Semitism.

"My father told me there was a lot of discrimination, but he didn't dwell on it," she said.

But once, when another soldier paid a visit, Shemin's daughter was struck by something the man told her.

"He witnessed my father's actions," said Shemin-Roth, who was then 12. "He told me, `Your father never got the medal he deserved because he was a Jew.' I thought to myself how terrible that was."

Shemin was 78 when he died in 1973. His sense of determination clearly rubbed off on his daughter. Her first husband died when she was just 43 and a mother of five. She went to college and became a nurse.

Since then, she's done volunteer work in war-torn areas around the world. Back in Labadie, she heads a nonprofit animal-rescue group, and her property on a rural hilltop is home to dozens of rescued animals, from cats and dogs to donkeys, geese and fish.

The new law may have arrived too late to recognize many Jewish heroes from World War I. They're all gone now ? the last surviving American World War I veteran died last year. Even many of their children have died or are well into their 80s and 90s, Burtnick said, making it less likely that surviving relatives will have enough documentation to prove worthiness of the Medal of Honor.

So far, Burtnick said, the only veteran whose case will be presented for review is William Shemin.

A decision could come by spring. If the Pentagon approves, the president would present the medal on Shemin's behalf to his daughter in a White House ceremony. Just the thought chokes her up.

"I try so hard to think of what my father would think of this," she said. "He was such a humble man. All I can see in my head is this big handsome man sitting down, tears in his eyes."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120110/ap_on_re_us/us_jewish_veterans

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Monday, January 9, 2012

Five iPhone apps to help ace your next job interview (Appolicious)

Your iPhone rings and you already have butterflies in your stomach. You got the interview! But now what? Hit the iTunes App Store to locate the best apps to help you prepare for your next series of interviews starting with these suggestions, right here on Appolicious.

Showing up at an interview confident that you are a well-rounded business expert is a must for any industry. Check out the tips in the Business Secrets app ($2.99) to start off on the right path in your interview and even beyond that first meeting. There are 50 tips each for a myriad of business categories including interviews, leadership, career management and more. It?s the perfect business app to help you get your foot in the door and keep it there.

The last thing you want to do is walk into an interview unaware of the current state of the economy and world at large. Make a habit of reading the free CNN app for iPhone every day so that you are well prepared for any side conversations on everyday topics. Whether you are in the tech, finance or entertainment industry, the CNN app has reports you can use including breaking news alerts you don?t want to miss, especially right before a big interview.

A strategically placed and appropriate compliment can go a long way during an interview. Resist the urge to brown-nose right off the bat and save your flattery for the perfect moment or your final goodbye. Do you have trouble using compliments? Check out the iFlatter ? Compliment Yourself iPhone app ($0.99). It even has a special section for ?work? compliments. A nice and sincere, ?I like that tie? or ?That shirt makes your eyes pop? can be an easy way to set yourself apart from the mass of interviewees.

If you don?t have a lot of interviewing experience under your belt and need more than a little flattery to get you the job, then the free Monster.com Interviews app for iPhone is where you should start your preparation. This iPhone app is your interview coach with step-by-step instructions on how to prep for and ace your next series of interviews. It even includes guidance on how to navigate that oh-so important post-interview follow-up communication that is necessary to your job-acquiring success. Another fun feature allows you to record yourself answering tricky questions so you can prepare for even the thorniest question. Did you get the job offer but not the salary you wanted? This app even has income-negotiating advice.

Are you an MBA pursuing a career in marketing and business? In these professions, interview questions tend to veer from the ?What is your greatest strength?? to more complicated questions aimed to calculate your creative potential in a few minutes or less. Jobjuice Marketing ($14.99) is a dynamic app that helps you prepare for a higher level of job interview. It offers more than 50 cards filled with marketing concepts and frameworks. This smart app was developed by Wharton MBAs so you will be in fabulous company when you use it.

Create a list of must-have iPhone apps for nailing job interviews

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10705_five_iphone_apps_to_help_ace_your_next_job_interview/44120578/SIG=1367dli4f/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/shine/articles/10705-five-iphone-apps-to-help-ace-your-next-job-interview

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Lenovo's IdeaTab S2 10" does tablet transformation, packs a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon (update: hands-on)

This wouldn't be the first time for Lenovo to release a tablet-plus-keyboard combo, though the illusive IdeaPad U1 Hybrid was merely adding Windows to the updated LePad via the keyboard dock. That said, Lenovo's freshly-announced IdeaTab S2 10" is a full package dedicated to Android 4.0, and it sports a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon 8x60A or 8960. Compared to the ASUS Transformer Prime and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, this 10-inch IdeaTab comes close to or even beats them with a 0.34-inch (8.69mm) thickness and a 1.27-pound (580 grams) weight -- certainly much better than its Chinese counterpart, the LePad S2010. Other features include a 1,280 x 800 LED-backlit IPS display, 3G with call support, 1GB LPDDR2 RAM, SSD of up to 64GB, HDMI Micro connection and front (1.3MP) and rear (5MP with autofocus) cameras. As for battery life, the tablet alone can keep cranking for up to 9 hours, and sliding it into the keyboard dock gets you an additional 9 hours plus two USB 2.0 ports, a multitouch trackpad and an SDHC card reader. No word on availability or pricing yet, so we'll keep poking Lenovo until we hear something.

Update: We now have hands-on photos and video -- the latter after the break, as usual. Something interesting we spotted was the grid-like LeLauncher, which consists of square-shaped widgets that expand to bigger widgets or launch the relevant apps. Lenovo's folks also mentioned that compared to the ASUS Transformer series, the S2's "clam dock" slot hinge is designed in such a way that makes it easier to snap the tablet onto it, and we agree with them.

Continue reading Lenovo's IdeaTab S2 10" does tablet transformation, packs a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon (update: hands-on)

Lenovo's IdeaTab S2 10" does tablet transformation, packs a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon (update: hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Cobra JoyRide car charger automatically flips your phone into Car Mode when you get on the road

Most Android phones offer a Car Mode app, either built-in or at least through the Market. Going into this Mode, however, can often take additional steps that slows you down if you're trying to get on the road in a hurry. Cobra Electronics has announced a way to get around this hurdle: a car charger. More specifically, it's the Cobra JoyRide, and should be available in Q2 of this year for $40. Here's how it works: as soon as you climb into your car and plug your Android phone into the JoyRide, it automatically triggers a companion app that pulls up your own customized Car Mode with several options you can switch around yourself. We're hoping to have some hands-on time with the JoyRide next week at CES, so stay tuned. In the meantime, feel free to check out the press release below.

Continue reading Cobra JoyRide car charger automatically flips your phone into Car Mode when you get on the road

Cobra JoyRide car charger automatically flips your phone into Car Mode when you get on the road originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/06/cobra-joyride-ces-2012/

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