Report: Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users

Reuters ? ? ? 1 day

Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users in the country by limiting access to the site to people who register their identification documents, the Arab News daily reported on Saturday.

Last week, local media reported the government had asked telecom companies to look at ways they could monitor, or block, free internet phone services such as Skype.

Twitter is highly popular with Saudis and has stirred broad debate on subjects ranging from religion to politics in a country where such public discussion had been considered at best unseemly and sometimes illegal.

Early this month, the security spokesman for Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry described social networking, particularly Twitter, as a tool used by militants to stir social unrest.

The country's Grand Mufti, Saudi Arabia's top cleric, last week described users of the microblogging site as "clowns" wasting time with frivolous and even harmful discussions, local newspapers reported.

"A source at (the regulator) described the move as a natural result of the successful implementation of (its) decision to add a user's identification numbers while topping up mobile phone credit," Arab News reported.

That would not necessarily make a user's identity visible to other users of the site, but it would mean the Saudi government could monitor the tweets of individual Saudis.

The English-language daily and sister paper to the Saudi-owned pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper did not explain how the authorities might be able to restrict ability to post on Twitter. Both newspapers belong to a publishing group owned by the ruling family and run by a son of Crown Prince Salman.

Internet service providers are legally obliged to block websites showing content deemed pornographic.

One of the big investors in Twitter is Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of King Abdullah who also holds significant stakes in Citi Group, News Corp and Apple through his Kingdom Holding Company.

The country's telecom regulator, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) did not immediately responded to requests for comment on the report. Last week it did not comment on the report it was seeking to restrict Skype use.

A spokeswoman for Kingdom Holding said Prince Alwaleed was not available to comment.

"There are people who misuse the social networking and try to send false information and false evaluation of the situation in the kingdom and the way the policemen in the kingdom are dealing with these situations," said Major General Mansour Turki, the security spokesman, at a news conference on Mar 8.

At a separate interview with Reuters this month, Turki argued that a small number of supporters of al Qaeda and activists from Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority used social media to stir wider sympathy for their goals and social unrest.

However, he also argued against banning the site.

Two weeks ago one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent clerics, Salman al-Awdah, who has 2.4 million followers on the site, used Twitter to attack the government's security policy as too harsh and call for better services. He warned it might otherwise face "the spark of violence".

Two leading Saudi human rights activists were sentenced to long prison terms this month for a variety of offences including "internet crimes" because they had used Twitter and other sites to attack the government.

Some top princes in the monarchy now use Twitter themselves and Crown Prince Salman, King Abdullah's designated heir and also Defence Minister, recently opened an official account.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a29c693/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Creport0Esaudi0Earabia0Emay0Etry0Eend0Eanonymity0Etwitter0Eusers0E1C9144293/story01.htm

Mia Love wall street journal us map Electoral Map concede Obama Acceptance Speech Prop 30

Marketing studies help craft health overhaul pitch

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration is tapping the secrets of mass marketing to help sell the health care law to millions of uninsured Americans.

It's a big challenge:

How do you convince folks that one of the most complex and controversial programs devised by government may actually be a good for them?

The federal Health and Human Services Department has posted marketing research online that provides insight into more than 48 million uninsured.

Three groups are critical to so-called "Obamacare's" success or failure:

They're the "Healthy & Young," about 48 percent of the uninsured, the "Sick, Active & Worried," 29 percent, and the "Passive & Unengaged," 15 percent.

The challenge for the administration: sign up lots of the Healthy & Young to offset the higher costs of covering the sick and worried.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/marketing-studies-help-craft-health-overhaul-pitch-132308584--finance.html

Tom Kenny Long Island Medium Alfonso Ribeiro adam sandler College Football Scoreboard nfl scores nfl scores

The Science of Storytelling: Live Stream on Saturday, 10 PM EDT

A panel of well-known scientists, intellectuals and writers will discuss the stories behind cutting-edge science, as well as the importance of conveying science to the public at an event set for March 30

By The Editors

Image:

Watch a live stream below of an event, "The Science of Storytelling and the Storytelling of Science." The event, set for 10 pm EDT on Saturday, March 30,?will feature popular science educator Bill Nye, Hayden Planetarium astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, theoretical physicist Brian Breene, Science Friday's Ira Flatow, science fiction writer Neal Stephenson, World Science Festival Executive Director Tracy Day and Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University (ASU).?

The panelists will discuss stories behind the science of the origin of the universe as well as technologies that will change our future. Other topics will include the importance of public understanding of science and how to convey the excitement of science. The event is the final night in the Origins Stories Weekend, part of the Origins Project at ASU.?

Get the most recent updates from the Origins Project by following it on Twitter (@asuORIGINS) and Facebook (/ASUOriginsProject). The Twitter hashtag for the event is #OriginsStories.

Live stream videos at Ustream

?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=bb3e0af576e2c95f902b0a90aa59c57c

Snoop Lion London 2012 Table Tennis badminton Dominique Dawes Gabby Olympic Gymnast Robyn Lawley Gore Vidal

ClickAfrica offers you the best online marketing solutions

The abundance of websites and numerous web pages on the internet has created the urge for using the effective marketing strategies for the better visibility of the website on search engine result pages. Internet marketing is an effective and inexpensive tool for the companies to reach to their targeted customers but it is equally important to apply the right strategies as per the business requirement.

ClickAfrica is a leading Internet Marketing Agency which offers its customized services to the clients. The various kind of services offered by the company are SEO, SMO,Social Media Design and Reporting packages.

The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has the potential of marketing any kind of business at local and national level throughout South Africa. The internet is widely used today by the customers to find affordable services and products. Search engines would want to display relevant local business which are close to the searcher. Every business organization is trying to rank higher on search engines like Google, Bing ,yahoo for the success of their business activities online so what are your waiting for?Let our consultants work for your SEO plan to assist at getting number one page rankings.

The company provides the On-site and Off-site SEO as the good site content and structure is equally important to appearing of Keywords on Google search. The SEO Consultants works for the higher visibility of your company on the internet by researching for the keywords that will best fit your business requirements. Our team experts will focus on the keywords and will offer you best keywords that are in demand. We also handle the directory listings by ensuring that your business is ranked higher on map sections of Google,Yahoo and Bing in your area,to promote local SEO. The SEO packages starts at R 3,500.The SEO campaigns get monitored by the team of managers for optimizing the performance of the campaign and reporting the results to the client.

ClickAfrica is a SEO Company which also offers Social media design packages starting from R5,999 a month. The Social Media Optimization packages are starting from R 4,999.You can select from the vast range of packages or can ask for your own customize package as per the business requirement.

The major social networking sites like Face book and Twitter are mainly covered under the social media marketing technique as these are the potential platforms to build customer loyalty and build the new customer base. ClickAfrica will create an effective facebook campaign for your business and drive the fans by spreading the e-word of mouth among the large customer base. For more details log on to :http://www.clickafrica.co.za.

Click Africa

377 Rivonia Road,Rivonia, Johannesburg

Mail:- info@clickafrica.co.za

Phone:- +27 714 9 22258

Source: http://www.briefingwire.com/pr/clickafrica-offers-you-the-best-online-marketing-solutions

apple dividend snow white and the huntsman snow white and the huntsman rupaul drag race walking dead comic kratom broncos

Emails Show Ex-Deutsche Trader Lippmann Wanted Lehman ...

By Patrick Fitzgerald

Former Deutsche Bank star trader Greg Lippmann considered taking on some of Lehman Brothers? derivatives positions in the days following the investment bank?s September 2008 collapse, a deal that could have been worth more than $500 million to the investment bank?s creditors, according to newly released emails.

Lippmann, who made more than $1 billion for the German bank when he bet against subprime mortgage debt during the housing bubble, wanted to ?step into? the in-the-money credit default swaps of Lehman Brothers Specialty Finance, the heart of Lehman?s derivatives operations.

The trader, known on Wall Street for handing out T-shirts emblazoned with ?I?m Short Your House? in 2006 at the height of the bubble, was keen to strike a deal.

?I do think this is a value for Lehman?s creditors (and for me) that could suddenly evaporate,? said Mr. Lippmann in a Sept. 29, 2008, email to a Lehman executive, two weeks after Lehman?s holding company filed for Chapter 11.

Lippmann, who left Deutsche Bank in 2010 when he co-founded the hedge fund LibreMax, wasn?t the only one interested in Lehman. In a Sept. 18 email exchange between various Lehman executives Morgan Stanley also expressed interest in stepping into Lehman?s positions.

The emails, which were filed as part of lawsuit involving Lehman and Barclays PLC over a failed collateralized debt obligation called Ballyrock, bring into focus how some on Wall Street looked to capitalize from Lehman?s collapse as the bankruptcy filing and the subsequent bailout of American International Group was roiling financial markets. You can read them here and here.

Representatives for Lehman, Deutsche Bank and Lippmann declined to comment. A Morgan Stanley spokesman couldn?t immediately comment.

Write to Patrick Fitzgerald at Patrick.fitzgerald@dowjones.com.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2013/03/29/emails-show-ex-deutsche-trader-lippmann-wanted-lehman-derivatives/

troy miracle andy whitfield kennedy demi moore roy oswalt kevin martin

Vilanova to run 1st Barca practice since return

By JOSEPH WILSON

Associated Press

Associated Press Sports

updated 4:25 p.m. ET March 29, 2013

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova led his first team practice on Friday since returning from a 10-week medical stay in New York to treat a throat tumor.

Barcelona assistant coach Jordi Roura said that Vilanova would direct the session but that he would not accompany the team to Saturday's Spanish league match at Celta Vigo. Roura says that the club hopes Vilanova can travel with the team to Paris for Tuesday's first-leg Champions League quarterfinal against Paris Saint-Germain.

In Vilanova's absence, the team suffered a pair of painful defeats to archrival Real Madrid, but also pulled off a historic 4-0 win to come back against AC Milan in the Champions League. Roura insisted throughout that he was carrying out Vilanova's orders.

Barcelona leads the Spanish league by 13 points with 10 games to go.

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

advertisement

More newsClive Mason / Getty Images

Can Sunderland shock United?

PST: With Manchester United's EPL title all but wrapped up and an FA Cup quarterfinal looming Monday, are the Red Devils ripe for Sunderland's picking on Saturday?

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51374722/ns/sports-soccer/

blood diamond 8 bit google maps kids choice awards 2012 micah true kansas vs ohio state winning mega million numbers bruce weber

Beleaguered Hollande to reach out to nation on TV

By Catherine Bremer

PARIS (Reuters) - With his approval ratings and most of his economic pledges in tatters, French President Francois Hollande will try to convince a disillusioned nation on television on Thursday to keep faith in him to restore the economy to health.

Hollande will be grilled in a 45-minute interview on France 2 television, his first such appearance in several months, in a studio whose backdrop and lighting have been prepared by his media team to create a somber mood.

The careful stage-managing risked being spoiled, however, by news hours before the interview that French actress Julie Gayet had filed a legal complaint for breach of privacy over rumors on the Internet alleging a liaison with the president.

The prosecutor's office told Reuters that Gayet, 40, filed a complaint against "persons unknown" on March 18 over the rumors, which have been circulating for some weeks.

A lawyer for Gayet did not respond to phone calls and Hollande's office declined to comment.

Ten months into his term, the Socialist is battling to keep the public behind him. He has irked left-wingers with pro-market measures to foster growth, angered business leaders with high taxes and failed to stem a rise in unemployment to 10.6 percent.

His ratings have slid faster than those of any other French president to as low as 22 percent as he has backtracked on growth and deficit targets. Few believe he can meet a promise to bring down the unemployment rate by the end of the year.

The TV interview is part of a public relations push, including a two-day, hand-shaking tour by Hollande in southeast France this month. The trip backfired when hecklers asked what had become of campaign pledges and one was carted off by police.

Hollande's top promise to his left-wing base, a 75 percent income tax on millionaires, has been crushed by the Constitutional Court.

Analysts say he would do well to spell out how the bleak economic outlook is forcing him to deviate from his election manifesto with sweeping spending cuts and higher taxes.

"Hollande's problem is that he talks all the time, but we don't hear him," political commentator Alain Duhamel told RTL radio. "If he comes out and really explains what he is doing ... then he could change the climate, little by little."

He needs, among other things, to prepare the nation for a pension reform to curb a growing deficit in the system, despite having opposed a 2010 move to lift the retirement age to 62.

The left-wing Liberation daily's front page bellowed: "L'Oral de Rattrapage" ("Oral Resit"), suggesting the interview would be Hollande's second chance to pass a flunked examination.

The weekly Le Point said his challenge "is not to master communication but to show that he can govern".

VEERING OFF COURSE

Data this week showed households' purchasing power fell in late 2012 for the first time since 1984 and that jobless claims rose for a 22nd straight month in February to reach the highest level since June 1997, amid a stream of industrial layoffs.

National statistics institute INSEE sees unemployment rising to 11 percent by mid-year, making Hollande's insistence that he can reverse the trend by year-end sound increasingly hollow.

With consumer spending stifled and company investment choked, the economy is set for a flat year, and Hollande is stuck between adding to an already ambitious plan of public spending cuts or hiking taxes to fix the public deficit.

In a sign of how far things are veering off course, Hollande has ordered billions of euros in extra cuts at government ministries and pushed a key deficit target back by a year.

"Francois Hollande was not elected to lead the French people down an endless path of austerity," Socialist Party lawmaker Pascal Cherki grumbled in parliament this week.

Despite economic gloom being foremost in voters' minds, the news of Gayet's complaint could not have landed at a worst time as it threw a spotlight on chatter thus far confined to Twitter and blog sites. French media quoted Gayet's lawyer as saying the rumors of a romantic relationship were baseless.

Hollande, 58, has already suffered media speculation over the state of his relationship with first lady Valerie Trierweiler after a tweet she sent last year hinted at tensions over his former partner, Socialist politician Segolene Royal.

Hollande and Trierweiler first met in the late 1980s when Trierweiler was working as a magazine journalist and Hollande was with Royal. The pair are unmarried but have been in a committed relationship for several years.

A survey by pollster CSA published on Thursday found that just 22 percent of respondents rated Hollande as a "good" president and 51 percent rated him as "bad". An LH2 poll gave him a 27 percent approval rating and found 81 percent of people were unhappy with his efforts on unemployment.

(Additional reporting by Chine Labbe, Elizabeth Pineau and Ingrid Melander, edited by Richard Meares)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beleaguered-hollande-reach-nation-tv-182215074--business.html

chicago bulls st louis blues rueben randle mike trout ryan broyles jerel worthy alshon jeffery

Teens' struggles with peers forecast long-term adult relationships

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Teenagers' struggles to connect with their peers in the early adolescent years while not getting swept along by negative peer influences predict their capacity to form strong friendships and avoid serious problems even ten years later. Those are the conclusions of a new longitudinal study by researchers at the University of Virginia that appears in the journal Child Development.

"Overall, we found that teens face a high-wire act with their peers," explains Joseph P. Allen, Hugh P. Kelly Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia, who led the study. "They need to establish strong, positive connections with them while at the same time establishing independence in resisting deviant peer influences. Those who don't manage this have significant problems as much as a decade later."

Researchers followed about 150 teens over a 10-year period (starting at age 13 and continuing to 23) to learn about the long-term effects of their peer struggles early in adolescence. They gathered information from multiple sources -- the teens themselves, their parents and peers, and by observing teens' later interactions with romantic partners. The teens comprised a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse group.

Teens who had trouble connecting well with their peers in early adolescence had difficulty establishing close friendships in young adulthood. Teens who didn't connect well at 13 also had more difficulty managing disagreements in romantic relationships as adults.

Teens who had trouble establishing some autonomy and independence with peers (especially with respect to minor forms of deviance such as shoplifting and vandalism) were found to be at higher risk for problems with alcohol and substance use, and for illegal behavior, almost a decade later.

Conversely, teens who were seen as desirable companions -- those deemed empathetic, able to see things from different perspectives and control their impulses, and having a good sense of humor -- were more likely to have positive relationships in young adulthood.

Teens who were able to establish some autonomy vis a vis peers' influences were more likely to avoid problematic behavior in young adulthood, with teens who showed they were able to think for themselves in the face of negative peer influences using less alcohol as early adults and having fewer problems with alcohol and substance abuse as young adults. But teens who were seen as desirable companions were more likely to have higher levels of alcohol use in early adulthood and future problems associated with alcohol and substance use.

"The findings make it clear that establishing social competence in adolescence and early adulthood is not a straightforward process, but involves negotiating challenging and at times conflicting goals between peer acceptance and autonomy with regard to negative peer influences," Allen notes.

"Teaching teens how to stand up for themselves in ways that preserve and deepen relationships -- to become their own persons while still connecting to others -- is a core task of social development that parents, teachers, and others can all work to promote," adds Allen.

Teens who managed both of these goals simultaneously -- connecting with peers while retaining their autonomy -- were rated by their parents as being most competent overall by age 23. "There is a positive pathway through the peer jungle of early adolescence," says Allen, "but it is a tricky one for many teens to find and traverse."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Society for Research in Child Development, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Joseph P. Allen, Joanna Chango, David Szwedo. The Adolescent Relational Dialectic and the Peer Roots of Adult Social Functioning. Child Development, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12106

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/most_popular/~3/Shaf-2ktyMQ/130328080223.htm

girl scout cookies screen actors guild royal rumble results sag awards 2012 kyra sedgwick honor killings mary tyler moore

Texas retail gas prices drop 4 cents this week

IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Retail gasoline prices across Texas have dropped 4 cents this week.

AAA Texas on Thursday reported the average price at the pump fell to $3.53. The national average also has fallen, down to $3.64.

The association survey found Beaumont has the cheapest gasoline statewide at $3.39 per gallon. Dallas and Fort Worth have the most expensive retail gasoline in Texas at $3.62 per gallon.

Texas drivers on average are paying 28 cents less than this time last year.

AAA says it's too soon to determine whether retail prices have peaked for the spring because there's still refinery maintenance to be completed and much of the country has yet to transition to summer-blend gasoline.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-retail-gas-prices-drop-163846501.html

Yahoo Fantasy Football Nick Foles Auguste Rodin Breaking Amish Indianapolis explosion jay cutler applebees

Google Introduces Pop-Up Video Info That No One Will Use

Google wants to remind you that the Google Play store has more than just Android apps — like, say, movies you can download, with embedded pop-up information about actors. The Google Play Movies & TV app (yes, that’s actually what ...

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/03/google-video/

lovelace antioch the grey review demi moore 911 call ipo jim rome ufc on fox 2 weigh ins

George Zimmerman's brother says Twitter rant a "mistake"

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The brother of George Zimmerman, the man charged in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, said on Wednesday he was wrong to tweet a series of racially charged comments about his brother's case.

"I made a mistake," Robert Zimmerman Jr. said during an appearance on CNN's Piers Morgan Live. "It unfortunately may not have helped George."

George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder for killing Martin, who was 17, after an altercation in a residential neighborhood in Sanford, Florida.

Prosecutors contend George Zimmerman, then a neighborhood watch captain, racially profiled Martin, then pursued and shot him while Martin was returning from a convenience store to a townhouse where he was staying with his father.

Robert Zimmerman this week posted side-by-side photos of Martin and one of two teenagers arrested last week in a fatal shooting of a 13-month-old boy as his mother was pushing his stroller down the street in a coastal Georgia town.

The separate photos showed Martin and the teenager posing while making an obscene gesture.

Robert Zimmerman wrote in a tweet, "a picture is worth a thousand words ... any questions?" In another tweet, he said, "Lib media shld ask if what these2 black teens did 2 a woman&baby is the reason ppl think blacks mightB risky."

Morgan, in his interview with Zimmerman, called the tweets "incendiary" and "bordering on outright racism."

"I understand this was controversial and I apologize," Robert Zimmerman said.

Mark O'Mara, George Zimmerman's lawyer, has criticized Robert Zimmerman's tweets.

George Zimmerman's trial is set to start in June.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/george-zimmermans-brother-says-twitter-rant-mistake-032522332.html

israel AMA BCS Standings 2012 American Music Awards 2012 oregon ducks oregon ducks rob gronkowski

TV comedies "Girls," "Louie" headline Peabody Awards

(Reuters) - Irreverent U.S. cable television series "Girls" and "Louie" on Wednesday headlined the winners of the annual Peabody Awards, the oldest and one of the top honors in broadcasting.

The awards recognize excellence in television and radio broadcasting, as well as by webcasters, producing organizations and individuals.

HBO's "Girls," which has earned creator and star Lena Dunham, 26, two Golden Globe awards and a slew of Emmy nominations, was lauded by the Peabody panel for its "singular, decidedly unglamorous take on sex and the single girl."

Comedian Louis C.K.'s "Louie," a cult hit on FX of unconnected story lines and vignettes about a single father in the entertainment business, was praised as a "milestone of comedic reach and candor."

The Peabody panel, which also honors international and local programs, awarded a prize to WVIT-TV, an NBC affiliate in West Hartford, Connecticut, for its coverage of the elementary school mass shootings in December in nearby Newtown.

Other notable winners include British broadcaster ITV's documentary on the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile that explored allegations of decades-long sexual abuse by the once beloved star.

The BBC science-fiction drama "Doctor Who" won an Institutional Peabody Award for its ability to evolve with the times over its some 50 years in production.

Producer Lorne Michaels, the driving force behind NBC sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live," won an individual Peabody Award for career achievement.

The website SCOTUSblog.com, which provides analysis and archival material on the U.S. Supreme Court, also won an award and was praised as a one-stop shop for information on the court.

A 16-member board of critics, experts, and news and entertainment industry insiders select the winners of the annual awards handed out by the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The winners will be honored at a ceremony in New York on May 20.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tv-comedies-girls-louie-headline-peabody-awards-174737578.html

what time is the super bowl world war z groundhog day Ed Koch Groundhog Day 2013 What Time Is The Superbowl Caleb Moore

Athens High classes lack coding | The Post

From Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg to former President Bill Clinton, more and more leaders agree that coding is the way to a more technologically advanced future, and schools across the country are hopping on board.

At a time when new jobs can be scarce, Code.org estimates 1.4 million new jobs will be created in computers by 2020.

While some schools offer computer programming and coding classes, many school districts see computer programming as a course that is easy to cut to save funding, said John Slattery, who teaches science at Athens High School.

?We think that there?s a need for it because some students need to be able to think logically with 21st century skills,? Slattery said. ?(Coding) is a great way to get kids to think more logically and sequentially.?

Slattery taught information technology courses for 25 years at Athens High School, but because of budget cuts, he had to start teaching regular science courses two years ago.

In past courses, Slattery has taught word processing, HTML and GameMaker ? basic coding programs.

Though Athens County Schools Superintendent Carl Martin and Athens High School Principal Mike Meek said it is absolutely important to learn about coding and new computer technology methods, neither is able to fit coding courses into the curriculum.

?(Coding) is not something that?s a front-runner in terms of our budget, but we?ll definitely take it into consideration in the future,? Martin said. ?Our energies right now are implementing the proper core requirements set up by the state and federal learning standards and instruction.?

While Meek doesn?t see computer technology courses being added to the curriculum within the next few years, he said he sees even more advanced technology down the road, in which everything in schools will be computer-based.

?Over the next few years, you?ll probably see schools who will start meeting those types of technological needs,? Meek said. ?I can see books going by the wayside in the future. It probably won?t happen during my tenure, but it will eventually.?

While computer programming courses are offered at Ohio University, the only way to make these courses a reality in high schools is to make them a priority in the curriculum.

?I?d really like to see us be able to (teach more coding classes), but, unfortunately, the interests and demands of the administration don?t really focus on that because of the budget constraints and focus on standardized testing,? Slattery said.

az346610@ohiou.edu

Source: http://thepost.ohiou.edu/content/athens-high-classes-lack-coding

Hurricane prince harry hunger games Joey Kovar Expendables 2 Pussy Riot National Hurricane Center

T-Mobile: if you buy a phone with 'UnCarrier' and cancel, you own it -- but can trade it in

During its Q & A, T-Mobile's just confirmed that if your purchase one of its phones under its new contract / non-contract "UnCarrier" system, you'll be obligated to buy it out -- but you could keep making monthly payments, or even trade it for another device. If you opt for the latter, you'll get "fair market credit," for your handset, according to the carrier, which said it would decide such a value. In other news, all phones sold will be locked -- so should you decide to switch and keep the phone, you're gonna need T-Mo's help.

Filed under: Cellphones, T-Mobile

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/b9Soy7kgfUA/

arbor day mike adams janoris jenkins john edwards trial brandon weeden felicia day nfl 2012 draft

Women's Health South Africa ? April 2013 - Release BB

Women?s Health is the must-read magazine for women who want to live life to its fullest. Every issue of the magazine is a manual to better, healthier living in two key respects?physically and emotionally. Women?s Health magazine is your source of information on fitness, nutrition, sex and relationships, style, beauty and more. With success strategies, fitness tips and fashion and career advice, the magazine encourages readers to take charge and conquer all aspects of life. Each issue has something different to offer, such as healthy, delicious recipes and fun weekend activity ideas. Edited for a well-rounded readership, Women?s Health focuses on providing realistic goals and covering the issues most relevant to today?s modern woman.

Women?s Health South Africa ? April 2013
English | 180 pages | PDF | 130.72 MB
Torrent Search???UPLOADED???RAPiDGATOR

Source: http://www.rlsbb.com/womens-health-south-africa-april-2013/

google goggles one tree hill projectglass stock act new york auto show khalid sheikh mohammed masters par 3

Syrian rebels advance, oblivious to infighting

BEIRUT (AP) ? A dual picture of Syria's rebellion is emerging: Fighters on the ground make advances, seizing territory in the south and even firing one of the heaviest mortar volleys yet into the heart of Damascus on Monday. But at the same time, the would-be opposition leadership is falling deeper into disarray.

The dichotomy underlines the difficulties as the U.S. and its allies try to shape the course of the fight to oust President Bashar Assad ? and, more importantly, avert chaos in the event the regime is toppled.

As the Syrian civil war enters its third year, hopes that the perpetually fragmented opposition would coalesce to form a real leadership for the fighters on the ground seem more elusive than ever.

Instead, divisions broke out this week in the main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition. Its head announced he was stepping down, complaining of restrictions on his work. Amid infighting, 10 other members said they were suspending their membership.

The resignation by Mouaz al-Khatib, a respected Muslim preacher seen as a uniting figure and a moderate against the rising influence of Islamic extremists among Syria's rebels, came only days after the SNC narrowly elected a little-known information technology professional from Texas to head a planned interim government as its prime minister.

In another blow, the head of the SNC's military branch, Gen. Salim Idris, said his group refused to recognize the new prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, because he lacked broad support among the opposition. Hitto was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gulf nation of Qatar; many prominent opposition figures boycotted the vote that installed him.

Amid the disarray, the Coalition, largely comprised of exiles, has made little mark among the hundreds of independent rebel brigades that are doing the fighting against Assad's forces. Most rebel groups still cobble together their own funding and arms and give little more than lip-service to the authority of Idris' Office of the Chiefs of Staff.

Still, rebels have recently been running up successes on the ground. Fighters have been steadily gaining more ground near Syria's southern border with Jordan and Israel. In the north, they have been expanding the territory they hold, recently capturing the city of Raqqa, a series of military bases and the country's largest dam.

Rebels have also seized footholds on the edge of the heavily guarded capital and, while they have been unable to break into the city, they have used their positions for mortar barrages, trying to shake the government's grip.

On Monday, they fired off a volley of mortar shells that crashed near a landmark downtown traffic circle in the capital, killing two people and wounding several others, state TV said. It was some of the worst shelling in the heart of the city since the rebellion against Assad began in March 2011.

Such sporadic strikes on Damascus have grown more common in recent weeks and often appear to target government buildings. Most cause only material damage, but spread fear in Damascus that the capital, which has so far managed to avoid the widespread clashes that have destroyed other cities, could soon face the same fate.

Damascus residents reported hearing intensive shelling on Monday, though it was hard to tell where it was coming from.

"We have gotten used to the sounds, but it saddens me to see the streets of Damascus empty after 6 p.m.," said Youssef al-Ashhab, a 47-year-old civil servant.

The mortar barrage struck Damascus' Umayyad Square, at the center of a large intersection west of downtown near the government TV headquarters and less than a kilometer (mile) from Assad's formal residence. The office of Syria's general military command is also nearby.

It is also near the famous Opera House, often frequented by Assad and his British-born wife, Asma, before the uprising, and the Sheraton hotel, used by U.N. workers in Syria.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Monday that the U.N. is temporarily relocating some Damascus-based staff of the office of joint U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to Beirut and to the office's main office in Cairo following mortar fire that damaged the hotel and a U.N. vehicle.

He said all national staff from Brahimi's office have been asked to work from home until further notice.

The international community has been at a loss for ways to stop the bloodshed in Syria, complicated by the lack of cohesive opposition leadership. Hitto's election as interim prime minister of rebel-held territory is unlikely to create greater unity on the battlefield.

On Sunday, a rebel military leader was wounded in the foot by a bomb planted in his car in eastern Syria, according to activists and rebels.

Col. Riad al-Asaad, a former colonel in the Syrian air force who defected and fled to Turkey in 2011, was the leader of a now-sidelined rebel umbrella group known as the Free Syrian Army. Al-Asaad was said to be hospitalized in Turkey, and there were conflicting reports on whether his foot was amputated after the attack.

Al-Asaad was among the first to call openly for armed insurrection against Assad. Initially, most Syrian activists were inspired by the uprisings that had successfully toppled dictators in Tunisia and Egypt and thought popular protests would bring about the same result in Syria. But the Syrian government's vast, violent crackdown on opposition caused many to resort to arms.

Today, hundreds of independent rebel groups are fighting a civil war against Assad's forces across the country, and many activists no longer bother to stage unarmed protests. The U.N. says more than 70,000 people have been killed since the first protests in March, 2011.

Also Monday, the Syrian National Coalition said a delegation was heading to Doha, where the Gulf state of Qatar will host a two-day Arab League summit starting Tuesday.

Foreign ministers of the League's member states decided Monday to grant Syria's seat in the body to the opposition. The Syria government's membership was suspended earlier in the uprising.

Al-Khatib will head the delegation despite his resignation this week as head of the SNC. He said in a post on his Facebook page that he would address the summit "in the name of the Syrian people." He said the move had nothing to do with his resignation, "which will be discussed later."

____

Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed reporting from Damascus.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-advance-oblivious-infighting-201229815.html

nick swisher jaco san jose sharks humber perfect game ufc 145 fight card ufc145 chimpanzee

Graphene Sponges: The Lightest Material on the Planet

At this point, it'd be more of a surprise if graphene wasn't an integral part of a mind-bending, record-setting new technology. But, of course, it is. Again. Enter the lightest material in the world: graphene aerogel. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/GjTHYGhxxYE/graphene-sponges-the-lightest-material-on-the-planet

rory mcilroy Fatboy Slim Rio de Janeiro Shark Week London 2012 closing ceremony Shark Week 2012 evelyn lozada

Video: Same-sex marriage debate in advance of Court arguments (cbsnews)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294271058?client_source=feed&format=rss

The Following Anna Burns Welker Martin Luther King, Jr. Mlk Quotes Elder Scrolls Online joe biden michelle obama

US hands prison over to Afghans

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) ? The U.S. military gave control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan to Kabul on Monday, a year after the two sides initially agreed on the transfer.

The handover of Parwan Detention Facility ends a bitter chapter in American relations with Afghanistan's mercurial president, Hamid Karzai, who demanded control of the prison as a matter of national sovereignty.

It took place just a few hours before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew into Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to see Karzai amid concerns the Afghan president may be jeopardizing progress in the war against extremism with anti-American rhetoric.

The dispute over the detention facility fueled acrimony between the two countries in recent months and also threw a pall over the ongoing negotiations for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. Joseph Dunford handed over Parwan, located near the U.S.-run Bagram military base north of Kabul, at a ceremony there after signing an agreement with Afghan Defense Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi.

"The transfer of the detention facility is an important part of the overall transition of security lead to Afghan National Security Forces. This ceremony highlights an increasingly confident, capable, and sovereign Afghanistan," Dunford said.

An initial agreement to hand over Parwan was signed a year ago, but efforts to follow through on it constantly stumbled over American concerns that the Afghan government would release prisoners that it considered dangerous.

A key hurdle was a ruling by an Afghan judicial panel holding that administrative detention, the practice of holding someone without formal charges, violated the country's laws. The U.S. argued that international law allowed administrative detentions and also argued that it could not risk turning over some high-value detainees to the notoriously corrupt Afghan court system.

An initial deadline for the full handover passed last September and another earlier this month.

The formula for how the two sides resolved this dilemma has not been made public. Officials say that the Afghan government will be able to invoke a procedure that ensures prisoners considered dangerous will not be released from the detention center. According to a senior U.S. official in Washington, the agreement also includes a provision that allows the U.S. and Kabul to work together to resolve any differences. The official lacked authorization to discuss the details of the agreement publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who heads the Afghan transition commission and helped broker the deal, said the "transfer is an outcome of a long and sustained dialogue between the government of Afghanistan and the international community. A year ago we reached agreement in principle on the transfer but intense discussion in the last month is culminated in a principled agreement."

He said Karzai had made "transferring authority form international forces to our national forces as a key marker" of his administration.

The detention center houses about 3,000 prisoners and the majority are already under Afghan control. The United States had not handed over about 100, and some of those under American authority do not have the right to a trial because the U.S. considers them part of an ongoing conflict.

There are also about three dozen non-Afghan detainees, including Pakistanis and other nationals that will remain in American hands. The exact number and nationality of those detainees has never been made public.

"They are not the priority of the Afghan government so the Americans can keep them for the time being. Our priority are the Afghan detainees," Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said.

He added that under the agreement, the U.S.-led military coalition has 96 hours to hand over any new detainees it picks up on the battlefield to Afghan authorities.

A new agreement, or memorandum of understanding, was signed at the ceremony by Dunford and Khan, but the U.S. military said it will not be made public. The agreement supplants one signed last March, which had been made public.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the new agreement "affirms their mutual commitment to the lawful and humane treatment of detainees and their intention to protect the people of Afghanistan and coalition forces," an apparent reference to the release of detainees deemed to be dangerous.

The handover should also open the way for a resumption of talks for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

It is part of an ongoing effort to gradually shift control of the country's security to the Afghans as the U.S. and allies move toward the full withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2014.

There are about 100,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan, including about 66,000 from the United States. American officials have made no final decision on how many troops might remain in Afghanistan after 2014, although they have said as many as many as 12,000 U.S. and coalition forces could remain.

The U.S. started to hold detainees at Bagram Air Field in early 2002. For several years, prisoners were kept at a former Soviet aircraft machine plant converted into a lockup.

In 2009, the U.S. opened a new detention facility next door. The number of detainees incarcerated at that prison, renamed the Parwan Detention Facility, went from about 1,100 in September 2010 to more than 3,000.

After Monday's handover, it was renamed the Afghan National Detention Facility at Parwan and the U.S. military said it would provide the Afghan army with advisers and $39 million in funding.

The United States has spent about a quarter of a billion dollars to build the Bagram facility along with Kabul's main prison located in the capital.

_____

Patrick Quinn contributed from Kabul.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-hands-prison-over-afghans-095034574.html

christina aguilera etta james funeral sundance film festival the flintstones etta james ufc on fox evans vs davis fast times at ridgemont high

Genomes of peregrine and saker falcons throw lights on evolution of a predatory lifestyle

Mar. 24, 2013 ? In a collaborative study published online in Nature Genetics, researchers from Cardiff University, BGI, International Wildlife Consultants, Ltd., and Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, have completed the genome sequencing and analysis of two iconic falcons, the peregrine (Falco peregrinus) and saker (Falco cherrug). The work provides an invaluable resource for the deep understanding of the adaptive evolution in raptors and the genetic basis of their wide distribution.

Peregrine and saker falcons are widespread, and their unique morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations make them successful hunters. The peregrine is renowned as the world's fastest animal, and the falcon is the national emblem of United Arab Emirate. In recent decades, peregrine and saker falcons have been listed as endangered due to rapid population declines caused by a wide range of factors including environmental change, overharvesting for falconry, habitat loss and bioaccumulation of pesticides (e.g. DDT, PCBs).

In this study, researchers focused on the evolutionary basis of predatory adaptations underlying peregrine and saker. They conducted whole genome sequencing and assembled the high quality ~1.2 Gb reference genomes for each falcon species. Phylogenic analysis suggested that the two falcon species might diverged 2.1 million years ago.

Comparing with chicken and zebra finch, researchers found the transposable element composition of falcons was most similar to that of zebra finch. Large segmental duplications in falcons are less frequent than that in chicken and zebra finch, and comprise less than 1% of both falcon genomes. They also found that a gene expansion in the olfactory receptor ?-c clade in chicken and zebra finch is not present in falcons, possibly reflecting their reliance on vision for locating prey.

Observing genome-wide rapid evolution for both falcons, chicken, zebra finch and turkey, researchers found that the nervous system, olfaction and sodium ion trans-port have evolved rapidly in falcons, and also the evolutionary novelties in beak development related genes of falcons and saker-unique arid-adaptation related genes.

Shengkai Pan, bioinformatics expert from BGI, said, "The two falcon genomes are the first predatory bird genome published. The data presented in this study will advance our understanding of the adaptive evolution of raptors as well as aid the conservation of endangered falcon species."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BGI Shenzhen.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Xiangjiang Zhan, Shengkai Pan, Junyi Wang, Andrew Dixon, Jing He, Margit G Muller, Peixiang Ni, Li Hu, Yuan Liu, Haolong Hou, Yuanping Chen, Jinquan Xia, Qiong Luo, Pengwei Xu, Ying Chen, Shengguang Liao, Changchang Cao, Shukun Gao, Zhaobao Wang, Zhen Yue, Guoqing Li, Ye Yin, Nick C Fox, Jun Wang, Michael W Bruford. Peregrine and saker falcon genome sequences provide insights into evolution of a predatory lifestyle. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2588

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/nKjE34V6NSI/130325111216.htm

stations of the cross nike foamposite galaxy bill maher seabiscuit dingo nba all star weekend malin akerman

Live donkey helps church observe Palm Sunday

FAIRFIELD -- The children sat cross-legged in the front of the First Presbyterian Church Sunday morning holding palm branches close to their chests.

"Are these palms real?" asked one little boy, just minutes before the children headed to Sunday school to learn about Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and was welcomed by people waving palm branches.

Indeed, the palms were real. But it wasn't until the children were seated in class that they learned about the day's big surprise -- a live donkey would soon arrive on the church's front lawn.

After that, "it was so hard to keep their attention through the whole class," said teacher Kim Louise Spinosa, laughing.

As soon as the children were led outside, the palms were given to parents so Jessie, a 20-year-old donkey from JC's Pony Parties in Seymour, wouldn't confuse them for food.

"I feel like the donkey is going to chase me," said one middle-schooler, as Jessie lazily swung its head his way.

"I like it," declared kindergartner Audrey Anderson, who needed little prompting to remember who rode the donkey in the day's gospel readings.

"Jesus," she said, beaming.

Peti Deer, 14, said he didn't expect to be chosen to dress up as one of the disciples sent by Jesus to get the donkey he would later ride into Jerusalem.

"It was a good surprise," Peti said. "You have a real sense of what it was like."

Parishioner Jen Richard's eyes grew wide as Beth Brooks, Jessie's handler, informed the group that donkeys have dark hair on their backs shaped like a cross.

"I think it's fabulous," said Richard, a Fairfield resident. "It just strikes me that the donkey is so meek and mild. I didn't know there was a cross on the back of every one. It makes it seem more real."

Her son, James, who finished reading the Old Testament in his children's Bible recently, was excited to touch and take pictures with Jessie, "especially on Palm Sunday because that's when Jesus rode to town on a donkey."

The 10-year-old's younger siblings, meanwhile, preferred to stay inside the church.

"They want nothing to do with the donkey," said their father, Jeff Richard.

The Rev. Edward Duffy said the church has brought donkeys to Palm Sunday services in the past and would like to make it an annual tradition.

"We've been trying to do it every year, but it's not the easiest thing to find a donkey," Duffy said, noting that it took several tries to find a local farm with a donkey.

"Can you picture Jesus riding on one of these?" Carol Fraser, of Fairfield, asked those gathered around Jessie.

"They are so sturdy and so strong," Brooks said. "I absolutely could."

ktorres@ctpost.com, 203-330-6321, http://facebook.com/ktorresbpt or http://twitter.com/ktorresbpt

Source: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Live-donkey-helps-church-observe-Palm-Sunday-4380596.php

grok cirque du freak paul pierce pope joan pope joan strikeforce tate vs rousey strawberry festival

The Relative Age Effect in Sports: It's Complicated | World of ...

Malcolm Gladwell capitalized on research conducted by Roger Barnsley (et al., 1985) by suggesting in his 2008 book, Outliers, that there is an ?Iron Law of Canadian Hockey.? This theory is also known as the relative age effect in psychological research and it suggests that the older a player is when they begin training for a sport, the more likely they are to achieve success in that sport.

In fact, in a talk posted on YouTube, Gladwell goes even further, saying, ?In absolutely every system in which hockey is played, a hugely disproportionate number of hockey players are born in the first half of the year.? He says this in the context of a talk about society not taking advantage of opportunities to improve human potential.

?Logic tells us there should be as many great hockey players born in the second half of the year,? suggests Gladwell, ?as born in the first half. But what we can see here, there?s almost no one born it the end of the year, everyone?s from the beginning.?

But is this actually true ? are more elite hockey players born in the first half versus the second half of the year?

I was listening to this talk and couldn?t help but wonder, ?This seems like a really perhaps-too-neat result. Is this actually true? Does the relative age effect impact your likelihood to be a great hockey player??

So first I went over to Wikipedia and found this list, List of 100 greatest hockey players by The Hockey News from 1998. This is a quick and dirty way of testing the hypothesis at face value ? are the hockey greats of the world more likely to have been born in the first half of the year?

Only 39 of the hockey players on the list have Wikipedia entries, so they were the easiest to verify their date of birth. Of those 39 players, 20 were born in the first half of the year, and 19 were born in the second half. Hmmm? that doesn?t really seem to jive with Gladwell?s claims.

So finding some support that perhaps the issue isn?t as clear-cut and dried as Gladwell suggests, I turned to PsycINFO, the psychological research database. It didn?t take long to find a study that had the same questions I did ? does the relative age effect (RAE) actually predict excellence in sports?

Gibbs, Jarvis & Dufur (2012) suggest that the answer is no. In a far more systematic approach than my quick and dirty review of a top 100 list, the researchers examined the distribution of birth months for the first round draft picks of Canadian players in the NHL for the years 2007-2010. Then they looked at 1,109 players who played on major league rosters from 2000-2009.

Last, they examined All-Star and Olympic hockey rosters from 2002-2010. These are the elite players of hockey ? the cream of the crop.

So what did they find?

In our analyses, we found a strong relative age effect that eventually fades, then reverses across levels of hockey play among Canadian-born players.

In our first data, early birth-month advantage is apparent in the Medicine Hat Tigers championship roster of 2007
(56%) and for their opponents the Vancouver Giants (44%), but it is less true of the same teams three years later (33% and 39% respectively). [These were the teams Gladwell highlighted in his book chapter.]

The effect is also apparent among Canadian-born first round draft picks, with 40 percent, 41 percent, 47 percent, and 33 percent born in the first quarters of 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively.

But for the average player in the NHL, the effect seems to fade. Although the first round draft picks confirm Gladwell?s law (33?47 percent across 2007?2010) ? a reflection of their Major Junior Hockey performance ? the percent of all Canadian hockey players in the NHL born in the first three months is a modest 28 percent.

But it gets worse. Among the most elite hockey players, the effect completely reverses ? it?s better to be born later in the year if you want to become one of the great hockey players: ?The combined average of the All-stars and
Olympic rosters [born in the first three months of the year] is 17 percent.? Compare this to the 28 percent noted above and you see that it actually hurts your chances to be born earlier in the year if you want to play in the Olympics or on an All-Star team.

Last, the researchers found one more perhaps-not-so-surprising result ? players born earlier in the year have shorter hockey careers ? an average of a year less than those born in the last three months of the year (Gibbs, Jarvis & Dufur, 2012).

The incongruous findings come from Gladwell confusing simply playing on a team with being an elite player in that sport. He defined success in hockey as simply making the team ? a way most people who play sports probably wouldn?t agree with. The researchers sum it up nicely:

Our findings illustrate how critical it is to define hockey success. When hockey success is defined as playing Major Junior Hockey, the effect is strong, as Gladwell reported in the popular press.

But the effect diminishes when success is defined as making the NHL, and fades when performance and skill are considered.

When hockey success is defined as the most elite levels of play, the relative age effect reverses.

Who Will Tell YouTubers?

Now here?s the real problem ? these YouTube talks and videos don?t get updated or removed. Nobody is going to come along and point out that the things Gladwell says in this talk aren?t necessarily true based upon our latest understand and research.

Remember his line, ?Logic tells us there should be as many great hockey players born in the second half of the year.? Well, actually the data suggests that this is, in fact, true after all.

And that?s the challenge of disseminating pop-psychology tidbits on video and in books ? their conclusions will remain forever etched, while the science and research data continue to move forward.

Finally, it?s a reminder that psychology and sociology data rarely results in neat, clean conclusions. While initial research might draw such conclusions, later more-nuanced, rigorous research often demonstrates the problems with those first studies.

?

Watch the Gladwell YouTube talk: Malcolm Gladwell Explains Why Human Potential Is Being Squandered

Read Ben Gibbs? blog entry on his research: Relative Age Effect Reversal Found At Elite Level of Canadian Hockey

?

References

Barnsley, RH, Thompson AH and Barnsley PE. (1985). Hockey success and birthdate: The relative age effect. Canadian Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (CAHPER) Journal 51: 23?28.

Gibbs, B.G., Jarvis, J.A., & Dufur, M.J. (2012). The rise of the underdog? The relative age effect reversal among Canadian-born NHL hockey players: A reply to Nolan and Howell. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, 644-649.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown.

Footnotes: Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).

????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 23 Mar 2013
????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.

APA Reference
Grohol, J. (2013). The Relative Age Effect in Sports: It?s Complicated. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 23, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/23/the-relative-age-effect-in-sports-its-complicated/

?

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/23/the-relative-age-effect-in-sports-its-complicated/

dorial green beckham mike kelly kristen bell colbert super pac colbert super pac sloth birth control pill recall

Has Obama's Mideast trip changed the game on the ground?

President Obama wrapped up his four-day visit to the Middle East after helping Israel and Turkey end a three-year diplomatic dispute. That, in turn, will help the region deal with the civil war in Syria. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

By Martin Fletcher, Correspondent, NBC News

News analysis

TEL AVIV ? The verdict among Israeli pundits was unanimous: if President Barack Obama was an Israeli politician, he'd be a shoo-in to lead the liberal left.

His call for the Israeli government to halt Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, for a Palestinian state, his recognition of Israel's historical claim to the land and his demand for a secure Israel, is all straight out of the playbook of what remains of Israel's left.

---

His speech to Israeli students Thursday, who were carefully vetted to make sure they were in political agreement with him, was greeted numerous times by applause and a few standing ovations. And while many Israelis may have disagreed with the content of the speech, Obama's sincerity was felt by all.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

US President Barack Obama, left, listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their visit to the Children's Memorial at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, on Friday.

Obama drew a clear parallel between the Passover story of Jewish slaves fleeing Egypt and fighting for their rights, and the African-American struggle out of slavery and fight for their rights. That bond of shared experience, and the genuineness of his feelings, really came through.

So when Obama insisted that "all options are on the table" to stop Iran's nuclear program, he sounded convincing. And when he moved on to demand that Israel stop building settlements and make tough decisions to reach peace with the Palestinians, his words met with a more receptive audience.

For many Israelis, Obama won their hearts and their minds, but as one said to this reporter: "What now?"

Any closer to peace talks?
Are Israel and the Palestinians closer to peace talks than they were before Obama came? Did the fine words add up to momentum?

That will be up to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discover when he returns to Jerusalem Saturday to try, as so many have before him, to kick-start the peace process.?

President Obama spoke to an audience of more than 2,000 Israeli citizens at the Jerusalem Convention Center and stressed the necessity of peace between Israel and Palestine.

Overall, Obama's message had something for everyone.

The first half of Obama's speech, in which he confirmed Israel's right to the land, pleased Israel's right wing. The second half, in which he called for compromise with the Palestinians and a Palestinian state, pleased the left wing.

When he said this is a Jewish democratic state, Jews were thrilled and Palestinians were furious.

When he said Israel will not survive as a Jewish democratic state with settlements on Palestinian land, Palestinians were thrilled and many Israelis were furious.

But after trying to be all things to all people, Obama departed leaving behind a question: What just happened? Was there any American commitment to get started with the talks?

Israelis charmed, Palestinians insulted
The answer is: no. The message was: we are here to help, but first you have to do the work. In other words, nothing changed, beyond people?s impression of Obama as a leader.

Israelis were encouraged that Obama really does like them; Operation Charm worked.

But Palestinians were left fuming, and many say they were insulted.

President Obama, alongside and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, says the U.S. remains "deeply committed" to the creation of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine.

They complained that he mentioned a Jewish rocket victim by name, but didn?t mention any of the many Palestinian victims, or the approximately 4,500 prisoners in Israeli jails. He visited the grave of two Israeli icons, Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin, but refused even to walk by the shrine to Yasser Arafat. He did not repeat the Palestinian demand that Israel stop building settlements as a condition for peace talks.

In short, Palestinians got very little, and Israel got a bit more.

At least, that's what the public saw.

Big brother still calling the shots
There was at least one big surprise from the backroom talks between Obama and Netanyahu that should go a long way toward improving frayed ties between two important U.S. allies in the region.?

After three years of refusing to do so, Netanyahu called his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan Friday to apologize for "any error" that may have led to the deaths of nine Turkish activists during a 2010 raid on a boat off the Gaza Strip.

The two agreed to normalize relations ? a major breakthrough. It means the two big U.S. allies can now resume military cooperation, which should help to contain the spillover of the Syrian civil war in the region ? and lessen Israel's isolation in the volatile region.

What isn't known yet is what was agreed to behind closed doors about how to deal with the twin threats of Iran and Syria.

In the press conference that followed their discussions, both sides seemed satisfied with the current degree of military and intelligence cooperation on both subjects.

But did Obama leave with the certainty that Israel would not interfere with the American timetable for dealing with the Iranian threat?

We don?t know more than we knew before, which is that impatient little Israel can't do much without their more patient bigger brother.?

But at least, after this visit by the American president, the brotherly relationship appears more credible than before.

?

Related:

Israel's Netanyahu apologizes to Turkey over deadly flotilla raid

Photo Blog: Obama wraps up Holy Land visit at Bethlehem church after Holocaust tribute

Obama visits a Bethlehem in midst of change, Islamization

Obama appeals to Israelis: Give justice to the Palestinians

Iran threatens to destroy Tel Aviv, Haifa if Israel attacks

Obama: 'Still time' for diplomatic solution to Iran nuke dispute

?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/29e8042a/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C230C174171340Ehas0Eobamas0Emideast0Etrip0Echanged0Ethe0Egame0Eon0Ethe0Eground0Dlite/story01.htm

what time is the super bowl 2012 nfl mvp lana del rey snl performance nick diaz sheryl sandberg superbowl recipes super bowl kick off