Equity Begins With Effective Early Childhood Education | NEA Today

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By Tim Walker

?In our community, the passion for early childhood education is incredible,? says kindergarten teacher Laura Hamilton. Hamilton teaches at Northwoods Fine Arts Academy, a K-2 school in Sand Springs, a close-knit town in Oklahoma about 8 miles west of Tulsa. About 90 percent of Northwood?s students are eligible for free-or reduced price meals. Fortunately, many of them enter kindergarten after attending the Sand Springs Early Childhood Education Center, a groundbreaking facility that represents the community?s commitment to its children.

?A lot of our students come from very disadvantaged backgrounds,? Hamilton says. ?The fact that they can benefit from that head start before they come to kindergarten is huge. For kids that age and who may come from poverty, every little bit helps.?

Sand Springs is just one town in a state that has earned a reputation as a national leader in providing high-quality early childhood education. In this deep red state, public school for all intents and purposed begins at age 4. Oklahoma provides pre-K access to 74 percent of those children, and it?s ninth in the nation for early ed funding.

President Obama touted the Sooner State in his recent State of the Union Address as he called for a national investment in universal preschool education.

?In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own. We know this works,? Obama said.

President Barack Obama visited a pre-kindergarten classroom in Decatur, Ga., on Feb. 14, 2013. Photo: Pete Souza

Access to high quality early childhood education is particularly essential for students in high poverty communities. Research has consistently shown that effective programs, which can give these kids a major boost, are a significant predictor of a child?s future educational achievement and emotional development.

In 2011, Congress created the Equity and Excellence Commission, chaired by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, to examine educational disparities that give rise to the achievement gap. Last week, the Commission issued its report urging the federal government to ?guarantee, within the next decade, that all low-income children will have access to early childhood programs.? The Commission called for a federal match to states to enroll low-income children in quality pre-kindergarten programs, which is the hub of the White House proposal.

?We know that education creates opportunity and helps to ensure a level playing field for students who might be attending schools that are not equipped with the mostly up-to-date tools and resources,? explained NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, who served on the Commission. ?Early childhood education and full day kindergarten are fundamental to long term student success.?

We?re 28^th!

The United States currently ranks 28th out of 38 countries in enrolling children in pre-K programs. According to the 2011 State of Preschool report released by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEE), fewer than three in ten four-year-olds are enrolled in high-quality programs ? no surprise given that state funding for these pre-K programs has steadily decreased, plummeting by more than $700 per child nationwide over the past decade. Ten states provide no state pre-K funding at all.

Source: National Institute for Early Education Research

?We?re on the edge of a crisis in this country,? says NIEER Director W. Steven Barnett.

Barnet believes that early education advocacy isn?t necessarily a partisan issue and points to states where both political parties have worked together to make high-quality pre-school education available to more children.

As the Obama administration unveils more details about its pre-K initiative, however, the hyper-partisanship and bitter budget battles in Washington have undoubtedly created a steeper hill for early childhood advocates to climb.

?How Can We Not Invest In it??

Despite the well-documented benefits of high-quality early childhood programs, critics of a federal initiative to expand access believe that it is not something the country can afford right now. While the cost of any new program is a justifiable and sensible concern, so-called fiscally conservative lawmakers refuse to acknowledge how effective pre-K programs can actually improve the nation?s balance sheet.

In fact, investing in early childhood education is fiscally responsible because it yields a tremendous return on investment, ranging from $3 to $17 for every dollar invested. A recent National Institutes of Health study of Chicago?s preschool program, for example, concluded that it will generate up to ?$11 of economic benefits over a child?s lifetime for every dollar spent initially on the program.? Early childhood programs can reduce and eliminate educational costs many children end up facing down the road, including the need for special education services and education remediation ? not to mention lower juvenile justice rates, and improved health outcomes.

Teachers like Laura Hamilton in Oklahoma see the short-term educational benefits every day.

?It?s very clear to me which students have come from a preschool program and which have not,? Hamilton says. ?The kids who have gone through the program are at a huge advantage ? they know their ABCs, they?re familiar with the school structure, they?re just more ready to learn. Having access to a good pre-k program means so much for kids from low-income families. They really need this step-up. How can we not invest in it??

Learn more about NEA?s position on early childhood education

Related posts:

1. What Does High-Quality Early Childhood Education Look Like?
2. No Education Reform Without Tackling Poverty, Experts Say
3. Progress in the Fight Against Childhood Obesity
4. NEA President: ESEA Reauthorization Must Focus on Equity in Education
5. How Effective Family Engagement Makes a Difference

Source: http://neatoday.org/2013/02/27/equity-begins-with-effective-early-childhood-education/

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Would You Pay to Kiss Postal Mail Goodbye?

A new service called Outbox promises to come to your house, collect your physical mail, and scan it so you can read it online via computer, iPad or smartphone. Clever, but worth paying for?

The start-up already has over 600 customers in Austin, Texas and is now testing the service in San Francisco, with hopes of a much larger geographic expansion in the future. The Outbox subscription fee is $5 a month.

Outbox?s ?unpostmen? will collect mail from a P.O. Box, but amazingly they?ll also come to your physical address and remove mail from your mail box, or if you have a door or garage slot, they provide a special box they can access.

That mail is delivered to a secure warehouse where the physical paper is digitized and then sent to your email inbox. Once scans of physical mail start arriving in your email inbox, you can flag items as junk mail and tell Outbox you don?t want to receive mail from that sender again. Outbox will also alert you to new items they think qualify as junk. The site?s marketing explanation says ?think of Outbox as a mail filter: we'll deliver only the mail items you want or need.?

If Outbox picks up a physical item that you want, for example a package, a check, or a birthday card, they will send a notification of that item and you can flag it for return delivery to your residence.

But does paying someone $60 a year to pick up mail from your own mailbox make ANY sense? I mean, I like lying on the couch as much as the next person, but I go by the mail box every day!

Okay, there are a few compelling arguments for Outbox: the afore-mentioned junk mail filtering, the digitization of items that can be organized and accessed anywhere, and a special case where you travel a lot or have a second home. And remember, there was a time when we said who?d ever give up their landline telephones so maybe digital snail mail is the future, and I just can?t see it.

But I have to think hard about the supposed timesaving benefits: does tossing an ad circular take more time than deleting an email? Is asking to have your birthday cards returned to you worth the hassle? And if there?s more than one person in your household, do you forward items to other recipients?

There are other services that digitize your mail:

• Earth Class Mail starts at $20 a month. You redirect your mail to their address: either with a change of address for merchants or a forwarding request with the Post Office. Then they scan and send you an email of the mail.
• Zumbox only accepts mail from merchants who will go paperless. This service organizes all that on a secure personal site and they offer all this for free, with the catch that they will send you ads from ?verified marketers.?
• Paytrust charges $10 a month to gather all your bills in a central remote location and alert you. This service is tied to your checking account, and they will make payments for you as well.

But it?s worth mentioning that most banks will give you electronic bill paying for free. And you can stop a lot of your junk mail by opting out of prescreened credit offers and blocking out much other junk by going to Catalog Choice.

Still, the founders of Outbox see the US Postal Service and its customers as a target ripe for disruption. Plus, the company has some serious investors, including Peter Thiel co-founder of Pay-Pal, who have given the company 2.2 million dollars to get the service up and running.

Would you sign up for Outbox? Let us know on our Facebook page.

Austin skyline image thanks to StuSeeger.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upgrade-your-life/pay-kiss-snail-mail-goodbye-174542314.html

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Chrome for Android gets major update as ver. 25 graduates from beta

 

The stable version of Chrome for Android has received a major upgrade, from version 18 all the way up to 25 -- the version that was in beta until recently. Major changes include significantly improved scrolling performance, improved JavaScript and HTML5 processing speed and speedier pinch-to-zoom.

The new build is rolling out right now, so hit fire up the Play Store to update your devices. Alternatively, if you've yet to try Chrome for Android, you can pick it up using the Google Play link to the right.

When you're done updating, be sure to hit the comments and let us know how you're getting on.

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/uI6x4tfqtrk/story01.htm

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Senate defeats Republican plan to replace automatic budget cuts

MADRID, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Lionel Messi has rarely been accused of failing to deliver in big games, having scored in two European Cup finals, but after subdued performances against AC Milan and Real Madrid, questions are being asked. The four-times World Player of the Year and leading scorer in one of the greatest club teams of all time, was a shadow of his usual self at the San Siro in a Champions League last-16 first leg last week, when Barcelona slumped to a 2-0 defeat. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-defeats-republican-plan-replace-automatic-budget-cuts-201008822--business.html

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Barnes & Noble Nook, e-book sales slump in holiday qtr

(Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc reported a net loss for the holiday quarter, hurt by a sharp decline in sales in its Nook device and e-books business, at the same time that Chairman Leonard Riggio is trying to buy the company's profitable bookstore unit.

The company said earlier this week that Riggio plans to make an offer for the bookstore business, but not its Nook and e-book business and its college bookstores.

Revenue at its Nook business, including e-books and devices, fell 25.9 percent to $316 million in the fiscal third quarter that ended January 26, as it sold fewer e-readers and tablets and had to cut prices. The loss on the Nook business more than doubled to $190.4 million.

The poor results put into question Nook's long-term viability.

"It simply doesn't have the assets to make its tablet a useful productivity tool the way Apple and Google do," Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said in a note.

Still, Barnes & Noble Chief Executive William Lynch said the company "remains committed" to the Nook devices.

Last year Barnes & Noble carved out Nook and its college bookstore business into a new unit called Nook Media. That has attracted investments from Microsoft Corp and Pearson LLC, but Barnes & Noble still owns 78 percent.

The Nook and college bookstore business has been financing itself since October, rather than needing cash from the retail business, helped by the Microsoft and Pearson investments and cash from the college bookstores, Lynch told analysts on a conference call. That business has about $240 million in cash and no debt, he said.

Digital content sales rose 7 percent in the holiday quarter even though Nook device sales fell, and Barnes & Noble is in discussions for partnerships to sell the digital content it owns, he said.

The company's shares fell in early trading but were up 7 percent after the conference call.

Barnes & Noble, the largest U.S. bookstore chain, launched the first iteration of the Nook e-reader in 2009. At first the device was a hit, winning the retailer as much as 27 percent of the U.S. e-books market.

But more recently, the tablet version of Nook has struggled against rival devices from Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc, which offer far more apps and content and have improved their e-reading functions.

The disastrous holiday performance puts additional pressure to find other investors for Nook.

"The window of opportunity to sell Nook is closing," Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom told Reuters.

Barnes & Noble said that at its namesake book superstores, sales at stores open at least 15 months, excluding Nook products, slipped 2.2 percent in the latest quarter.

At its college bookstores, same-store sales fell 5.2 percent.

The company posted a net loss of $6.1 million, or 18 cents per share, compared with a profit of $52 million, or 71 cents, a year earlier.

Revenue was down 10.3 percent to $2.23 billion, below the $2.4 billion Wall Street was projecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba in Toronto; additional reporting by Brad Dorfman in Chicago; editing by John Wallace)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/barnes-nobles-nook-ebook-sales-fall-25-9-135001554--finance.html

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Modified bacteria turn waste into fat for fuel

Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: David Ruth
david@rice.edu
713-348-6327
Rice University

Rice University process is part of USDA project to develop energy from biomass

HOUSTON (Feb. 28, 2013) "Green" chemistry developed at Rice University is at the center of a new government effort to turn plant waste into fatty acids, and then into fuel.

The Rice lab of bioengineer Ka-Yiu San is part of a recently announced $25 million United States Department of Agriculture project to develop a new generation of renewable energy and bio-based products from switchgrass and forestry residues and from a new hybrid of sorghum being developed at Texas A&M University.

Patent-pending fermentation processes created by San and his colleagues use genetically modified E. coli bacteria to produce fatty acids from hydrolysates. The sugary, carbon-rich hydrolysate is extracted from cellulose, the tough, inedible part of plants that is usually thrown away. San said his lab already gets an 80-to-90 percent yield of fatty acids from model sugars and hopes to improve that over the next few years.

"Adding another 1 or 2 percent doesn't seem like much," said San, based at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative. "But when you're talking about making several million tons per year, it's huge."

The target products are synthetic diesel and lubricants, according to Ceramatec Inc., a Utah-based company that proposed the project and would produce hydrocarbons from fatty acids that could then be processed by petroleum refineries.

There are two ways to make fuel (from biomass)," said Mukund Karanjikar, innovation manager at Technology Holding LLC, which is administering the project. "You either make alcohols, or you make petroleum-like fuels that can go into current infrastructure. Our program is for infrastructure-compatible transportation fuels.

"There aren't many ways to go from sugars to a diesel-like compound," he said. "The best way is to make fatty acids from the sugars microbially, as many labs have tried to do. But the Rice University process is definitely the winner."

Postdoctoral researchers Xiujun Zhang and Mai Li have been nudging their bacteria toward efficient production of fatty acids for four years, San said. Zhang is responsible for the development of enzymes in E. coli that promote the efficient formation of free fatty acids, while Li, now at GlycosBio, worked to build microbial host strains for high-yield production.

"They have been instrumental to this project," he said. "In four years, with two postdocs, we beat everybody, even groups with dozens of members."

San said the researchers screened hundreds of strains of E. coli and genetically combined the best qualities to reach a high yield. "Other scientists thought we couldn't come close to a maximum yield," San recalled. "They said E. coli only needs to build enough lipid (fat) for its membrane and would stop."

That, as it turned out, was not true. "In fact, one of the strains we developed is very interesting: Instead of excreting the fatty acid, it wants to keep it inside. So more than 70 percent of the weight of these cells is fatty acid. These are obese E. coli," San said.

Since the project began, the researchers have increased their production 100-fold, San said. "We started with a titer of 0.4 grams per liter, and we were excited when we first produced 1 gram. Now we're up to 14 grams per liter and looking at ways to fine-tune the process. But at this point, the bug will not change that much."

Still, it will take time to scale up. "We have to be sure the bug is perfected and robust enough for industry," San said. "Strains that behave well in the lab may not do as well in an industrial setting." He said the development path will involve testing by independent labs to make sure the process is repeatable, and then initial scaling by a pilot plant in two or three years.

"I think this is a very rich area," San said. "When we started this project four years ago, nobody had paid attention to fatty acids. But I knew this would be a good model system with endless variations that could lead to real products."

###

The E. coli strains were developed in a project funded by the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Center for Renewable Chemicals. San is Rice's E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2013/02/28/modified-bacteria-turn-waste-into-fat-for-fuel/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related Materials:

Ka-Yiu San Group: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~ksan/

USDA announcement: http://tinyurl.com/bl3yn9n

The Center for Biorenewable Chemicals: http://www.cbirc.iastate.edu

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-1-web.jpg

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-2-web.jpg

Rice University bioengineer Ka-Yiu San holds a beaker of fatty acid produced by genetically modified E. coli from biomass. San's lab is part of a Department of Agriculture product to turn plant waste into fuels and lubricants. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-3-web.jpg

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-4-web.jpg

Feeding a plant waste-derived "sugar sauce" to genetically modified E. coli bacteria produces fatty acids in a project under development at Rice University. The carbon-rich acids can then be turned into fuel. Rice is part of a project funded by the Department of Agriculture to scale up the production of fuel and other petroleum-like products from biomass. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Mike Williams
713-348-6728
mikewilliams@rice.edu

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: David Ruth
david@rice.edu
713-348-6327
Rice University

Rice University process is part of USDA project to develop energy from biomass

HOUSTON (Feb. 28, 2013) "Green" chemistry developed at Rice University is at the center of a new government effort to turn plant waste into fatty acids, and then into fuel.

The Rice lab of bioengineer Ka-Yiu San is part of a recently announced $25 million United States Department of Agriculture project to develop a new generation of renewable energy and bio-based products from switchgrass and forestry residues and from a new hybrid of sorghum being developed at Texas A&M University.

Patent-pending fermentation processes created by San and his colleagues use genetically modified E. coli bacteria to produce fatty acids from hydrolysates. The sugary, carbon-rich hydrolysate is extracted from cellulose, the tough, inedible part of plants that is usually thrown away. San said his lab already gets an 80-to-90 percent yield of fatty acids from model sugars and hopes to improve that over the next few years.

"Adding another 1 or 2 percent doesn't seem like much," said San, based at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative. "But when you're talking about making several million tons per year, it's huge."

The target products are synthetic diesel and lubricants, according to Ceramatec Inc., a Utah-based company that proposed the project and would produce hydrocarbons from fatty acids that could then be processed by petroleum refineries.

There are two ways to make fuel (from biomass)," said Mukund Karanjikar, innovation manager at Technology Holding LLC, which is administering the project. "You either make alcohols, or you make petroleum-like fuels that can go into current infrastructure. Our program is for infrastructure-compatible transportation fuels.

"There aren't many ways to go from sugars to a diesel-like compound," he said. "The best way is to make fatty acids from the sugars microbially, as many labs have tried to do. But the Rice University process is definitely the winner."

Postdoctoral researchers Xiujun Zhang and Mai Li have been nudging their bacteria toward efficient production of fatty acids for four years, San said. Zhang is responsible for the development of enzymes in E. coli that promote the efficient formation of free fatty acids, while Li, now at GlycosBio, worked to build microbial host strains for high-yield production.

"They have been instrumental to this project," he said. "In four years, with two postdocs, we beat everybody, even groups with dozens of members."

San said the researchers screened hundreds of strains of E. coli and genetically combined the best qualities to reach a high yield. "Other scientists thought we couldn't come close to a maximum yield," San recalled. "They said E. coli only needs to build enough lipid (fat) for its membrane and would stop."

That, as it turned out, was not true. "In fact, one of the strains we developed is very interesting: Instead of excreting the fatty acid, it wants to keep it inside. So more than 70 percent of the weight of these cells is fatty acid. These are obese E. coli," San said.

Since the project began, the researchers have increased their production 100-fold, San said. "We started with a titer of 0.4 grams per liter, and we were excited when we first produced 1 gram. Now we're up to 14 grams per liter and looking at ways to fine-tune the process. But at this point, the bug will not change that much."

Still, it will take time to scale up. "We have to be sure the bug is perfected and robust enough for industry," San said. "Strains that behave well in the lab may not do as well in an industrial setting." He said the development path will involve testing by independent labs to make sure the process is repeatable, and then initial scaling by a pilot plant in two or three years.

"I think this is a very rich area," San said. "When we started this project four years ago, nobody had paid attention to fatty acids. But I knew this would be a good model system with endless variations that could lead to real products."

###

The E. coli strains were developed in a project funded by the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Center for Renewable Chemicals. San is Rice's E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2013/02/28/modified-bacteria-turn-waste-into-fat-for-fuel/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related Materials:

Ka-Yiu San Group: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~ksan/

USDA announcement: http://tinyurl.com/bl3yn9n

The Center for Biorenewable Chemicals: http://www.cbirc.iastate.edu

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-1-web.jpg

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-2-web.jpg

Rice University bioengineer Ka-Yiu San holds a beaker of fatty acid produced by genetically modified E. coli from biomass. San's lab is part of a Department of Agriculture product to turn plant waste into fuels and lubricants. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-3-web.jpg

http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0305_BIOMASS-4-web.jpg

Feeding a plant waste-derived "sugar sauce" to genetically modified E. coli bacteria produces fatty acids in a project under development at Rice University. The carbon-rich acids can then be turned into fuel. Rice is part of a project funded by the Department of Agriculture to scale up the production of fuel and other petroleum-like products from biomass. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Mike Williams
713-348-6728
mikewilliams@rice.edu

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/ru-mbt022813.php

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LeBron James Pre-Game Dunk: Hail the King!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/lebron-james-pre-game-dunk-hail-the-king/

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How You're Ruining Your Relationship [EXPERT] | Sherri Nickols ...

Do you exude masculine energy?

Plus: 5 ways you block love.

Are you creating a wedge between you and the men who love you? If you're favoring your masculine side too much, you sure are!

More from YourTango: Life Begins When You Live on the Edge of Your Comfort Zone(EXPERT

We all want to experience true love. Being in a healthy, loving relationship is an absolutely magical feeling. But if you're a strong, capable, independent woman, you could be unknowingly blocking yourself from love.

Whether single or in a relationship, women with masculine energy create an invisible barricade against men, hindering their own ability to attract and maintain healthy, loving relationships.

Do you exude masculine energy? Millions of women in today's world have ramped up their masculine sides. It's been necessary to embrace the male traits in order to be successful in business, run households and accomplish endless day-to-day tasks. Unfortunately, there is a price to be paid for this yin-yang imbalance. When you lose touch with your yin (femininity), and amplify your yang (masculinity), you create an unseen armor against men and love.

You see, inside of each of us are the traits and characteristics of both masculine and feminine energy. The masculine side is driven, competitive, protective and solution-oriented. The feminine side is collaborative, multi-tasking, intuitive, receptive, magnetic and flowing. Balancing the two is a beautiful dance. When in harmony, your masculine and feminine aspects are complementary, not opposing, and interact to achieve great success in all aspects of life, including love.

However, it's often true that successful, independent women over-utilize their masculine energy. While your masculine energy can propel your career, it can also wreak havoc in your relationships by blocking love. Here are the five ways that you block love when you exude masculine energy:

More from YourTango: How To Get Out Of A Rut [EXPERT]

1. You emasculate your man. If you're the type of woman who "wears the pants" in the relationship, you're forcing your partner to be the one wearing the dress, meaning, if you operate more in your masculine, your partner will be more in his feminine. For most men, this feminine energy is difficult to maintain. Even a sensitive man needs to be in touch with his masculinity. Men operating from the feminine become exhausted and depleted and thus will experience an urge to pull away or shut down. Keep reading ...

More relationship advice from YourTango:

Source: http://www.yourtango.com/experts/sherri-nickols/5-ways-living-your-masculine-energy-blocks-love-expert

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J. Cole Calls Original Born Sinner Release Date 'A Bad Move'

Rapper tells MTV News his label is 'cool with' extra LP planning.
By Rob Markman

J. Cole
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702658/j-cole-born-sinner-update.jhtml

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First lady's anti-obesity campaign prompts change

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Wal-Mart is putting special labels on some store-brand products to help shoppers quickly spot healthier items. Millions of schoolchildren are helping themselves to vegetables from salad bars in their lunchrooms, while kids' meals at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and a glass of low-fat milk.

The changes put in place by the food industry are in response to the campaign against childhood obesity that Michelle Obama began waging three years ago. More changes are in store.

Influencing policy posed more of a challenge for the first lady, and not everyone welcomed her effort, criticizing it as a case of unwanted government intrusion.

Still, nutrition advocates and others give her credit for using her clout to help bring a range of interests to the table. They hope the increased awareness she has generated through speeches, her garden and her physical exploits will translate into further reductions in childhood obesity rates long after she leaves the White House.

About one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese, which puts them at increased risk for any number of life-threatening illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

While there is evidence of modest declines in childhood obesity rates in some parts of the country, the changes are due largely to steps taken before the first lady launched "Let's Move" in February 2010.

With the program entering its fourth year, Mrs. Obama heads out Wednesday on a two-day promotional tour with stops in Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri. She has been talking up the program on daytime and late-night TV shows, on the radio and in public service announcements with Big Bird. She also plans discussions next week on Google and Twitter.

"We're starting to see some shifts in the trend lines and the data where we're starting to show some improvement," the first lady told SiriusXM host B. Smith in an interview broadcast Tuesday. "We've been spending a lot of time educating and re-educating families and kids on how to eat, what to eat, how much exercise to get and how to do it in a way that doesn't completely disrupt someone's life."

Larry Soler, president and chief executive of the Partnership for a Healthier America, said Mrs. Obama has "been the leader in making the case for the time is now in childhood obesity and everyone has a role to play in overcoming the problem." The nonpartisan, nonprofit partnership was created as part of "Let's Move" to work with the private sector and to hold companies accountable for changes they promised to make.

Conservatives accused Mrs. Obama of going too far and dictating what people should ? and shouldn't ? eat after she played a major behind-the-scenes role in the passage in 2010 of a child nutrition law that required schools to make foods healthier. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in 2008, once brought cookies to a school and called the first lady's efforts a "nanny state run amok."

Other leaders in the effort, such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have felt the backlash, too. Last fall, Bloomberg helped enact the nation's first rule barring restaurants, cafeterias and concession stands from selling soda and other high-calorie drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.

Despite the criticism, broad public support exists for some of the changes the first lady and the mayor are advocating, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

More than eight in 10 of those surveyed, 84 percent, support requiring more physical activity in schools, and 83 percent favor government providing people with nutritional guidelines and information about diet and exercise. Seventy percent favor having restaurants put calorie counts on menus, and 75 percent consider overweightness and obesity a serious problem in this country, according to the Nov. 21-Dec. 14 survey by telephone of 1,011 adults.

Food industry representatives say Mrs. Obama has influenced their own efforts.

Mary Sophos of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the country's largest food companies, including General Mills and Kellogg's, said an industry effort to label the fronts of food packages with nutritional content gained momentum after Mrs. Obama, a mother of two, attended one of their meetings in 2010 and encouraged them to do more.

"She's not trying to point fingers," Sophos said. "She's trying to get people to focus on solutions."

A move by the companies signaling willingness to work with Mrs. Obama appears to have paid off as the Obama administration eased off some of the fights it appeared ready to pick four years ago.

The Food and Drug Administration has stalled its push to mandate labeling on the front of food packages, saying it is monitoring the industry's own effort. A rule that would require calorie counts on menus has been delayed as the FDA tries to figure out whom to apply it to. Supermarkets, movie theaters and other retailers have been lobbying to be exempted.

The industry also appears to have successfully warded off a move by the Federal Trade Commission to put in place voluntary guidelines for advertising junk food to kids. Directed by Congress, the guidelines would have discouraged the marketing of certain foods that didn't meet government-devised nutritional requirements. The administration released draft guidelines in 2011 but didn't follow up after the industry said they went too far and angry House Republicans summoned an agency official to Capitol Hill to defend them.

Besides labeling its store brands, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, also pledged to cut sodium and added sugars by 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, by 2015, and remove industrially produced trans fats.

Leslie Dach, an executive vice president, said sodium in packaged bread has been cut by 13 percent, and added sugar in refrigerated flavored milk, popular among kids, has been cut by more than 17 percent. He said Wal-Mart shoppers have told the company that eating healthier is important to them. Giving customers what they want is also good for business.

New York reported a 5.5 percent decline in obesity rates in kindergarteners through eighth-graders between the 2006-07 and 2010-11 school years, according a report last fall by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which studies health policy. In Philadelphia, the decline was 4.7 percent among students in grades K-12 between the 2006-07 and 2009-10 school years, the foundation said.

Declines also were reported in California and in Mississippi, where Mrs. Obama stops Wednesday.

In Philadelphia, an organization called the Food Trust has worked since 1992 to help corner stores offer fresh foods, connect schools with local farms, bring supermarkets to underserved areas and ensure that farmers' markets accept food stamps, according to Robert Wood Johnson.

New York City requires chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus. Licensed day care centers also must offer daily physical activity, limit the amount of time children spend in front of TV and computer screens, and set nutrition standards.

Both cities also made changes to improve the quality of foods and beverages available to students in public schools.

___

Online:

Let's Move: http://www.letsmove.gov

___

Follow Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap and http://www.twitter.com/mcjalonick

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-27-Michelle%20Obama/id-f458882bef7147f78987cb585db37037

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What else could I write? I don?t have the right. (Unqualified Offerings)

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Zen Bound 2 for iPhone and iPad review

Zen Bound 2 is a very relaxing game in which you must wrap rope around a wooden object, and as you do, paint is applied to the object. The objective is to cover the entire object with paint, all while enjoying the relaxing and soothing environment the object is floating in.

In each level of Zen Bound, a strange wooden object floats in front of a beautiful background with soothing music playing. There's a nail in one end of it with a rope attached. With intuitive gestures, you spin the object around with the goal of wrapping the rope around it. As the rope touches the wood, paint appears on the object at the point of contact (plus a little more). Some levels have extra nails with paint balls at the end, and when the rope touches these, paint splatters on a fairly large area of the wood. The goal is to cover the object with as much paint as possible before tying the rope around the finishing nail.

The good

• Beautiful graphics (fancy shaders, realistic lighting)
• Over 100 levels
• 45-minute soundtrack from 'Ghost Monkey'
• Relaxing
• Challenging
• Retina Display and Gyro sensor support
• Game Center achievements
• Universal for iPhone and iPad

The bad

• No complaints

The bottom line

Zen Bound 2 is the perfect game for puzzle lovers who are looking for something a little more relaxing. This is a no-stress game where you can take your time completing each level. The soothing atmosphere makes Zen Bound meditative and therapeutic while at the same time being a challenge.

• $2.99 - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/8MTSpE2mtYk/story01.htm

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White House steps up campaign to avoid spending cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House escalated a campaign on Monday to convince Americans dire consequences await if government spending cuts go ahead on March 1, warning of a slowdown in global trade, a stalled fight against cancer and Alzheimer's disease and compromised security at U.S. borders.

At the same time, prominent Republicans said President Barack Obama was overstating the potential damage of the $85 billion in government-wide cuts to frighten the public.

"There is a responsible way to cut less than 3 percent of the federal budget. It's time for the president to show leadership," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal told reporters after a meeting between the president and governors. "The president needs to stop campaigning, stop trying to scare the American people."

Jindal's comments followed the president's plea for Republican and Democratic governors to press Congress to stop the cuts, telling them he was willing to compromise with Republican lawmakers.

Obama will meet leading Senate Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham on Tuesday to discuss immigration reform efforts, but a McCain aide said the talks could also delve into efforts to halt the cuts.

Graham is a member of Senate committees on appropriations and the federal budget. He and McCain both sit on the armed services panel. The McCain aide said the U.S. troop drawdown from Afghanistan could also be discussed on Tuesday.

But the president has given no sign that he would try to start negotiations or take steps to blunt the effect of the cuts. He bemoaned what he described as a confrontational atmosphere in Washington, where budget battles have provoked one near-crisis after another since the summer of 2011.

In recent weeks the White House has sought to highlight in stark terms the disruptions that would begin on Friday if federal programs are cut.

On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned the cuts would increase delays at ports of entry into the United States for container cargo by "up to five days."

Average wait times at customs for travelers will increase "by as much as 50 percent," she added, with even longer delays at the busiest airports such as Newark, Los Angeles and New York's JFK where delays could double to "four hours or more."

"I'm not here to scare people, I'm here to inform," Napolitano said at a White House briefing. "Please don't yell at the customs officer or the (Transportation Security Administration) officer because the lines are long," she said. "The lines over the next few weeks are going to start to lengthen in some dramatic ways in parts of the country."

Also Monday, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told reporters that the $1.6 billion cutback would hit the 240-bed NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where doctors study rare diseases and conduct clinical trials to test new drugs for conditions ranging from cancer and AIDS to depression and genetic disorders.

The NIH also predicted that a lack of funding for hundreds of new grants could jeopardize as many as 20,000 research jobs across the United States and slow vital projects to fight cancer and Alzheimer's disease, develop a universal influenza vaccine and gain fresh insights into the activities of the human brain.

The administration began ratcheting up its warnings on Friday when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood described cuts at airports that he said would cause domestic air travelers significant delays.

Over the weekend, the White House distributed state-by-state projections of lost jobs and cuts in education funding for poor children. These figures were widely reported on local news broadcasts.

HOW LONG WILL CUTS LAST?

The actual impact of the cuts will depend largely on how long they last.

Many of the projections are based on the likelihood that government employees will be furloughed - told to take unpaid days off - in order to meet the demands of the cuts.

But the furloughs won't occur for at least a month, or perhaps later, because federal rules require the government to give its employees 30-days notice.

Congress and the White House also could agree to stop or ease the cuts before they run their course.

Neither the White House nor members of Congress have offered reason to hope for a deal before Friday's deadline.

Asked Monday whether he thought the automatic cuts, called "sequestration" in Washington-speak, would take effect, House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, responded: "hope springs eternal."

Both sides have concentrated more in recent days on apportioning responsibility for the spending reductions, to which both sides agreed in August 2011 with the expectation that the sequestration would never come to pass.

The White House public relations initiative has increasingly drawn criticism from Republicans who accuse the president of exaggerating and traveling around "campaigning" instead of looking for ways to avoid the cuts.

"We heard the president say last week that he was going to be forced because of the sequestration to let criminals loose on the street if he didn't get another tax hike," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters Monday.

"Today, we're hearing discussions from the Secretary of Homeland Security that somehow we're going to have to sacrifice homeland security efforts and keeping our country safe if we don't get another tax hike. This is a false choice."

White House press secretary Jay Carney responded Monday that the administration is just trying to "highlight the impact of sequester, and by doing so, hope that attention will be brought to bear on that problem, and the need for Congress to act responsibly to avoid it."

Obama is scheduled to travel to Cantor's state of Virgina on Tuesday, to press his case at the Newport News shipyard. The cuts fall evenly on non-defense and defense spending, with states like Virginia, heavily dependent on Pentagon contracts, expected to be hardest hit.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal and David Morgan; Editing by Fred Barbash, Eric Beech, Jackie Frank, Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-steps-campaign-avoid-spending-cuts-021455164--business.html

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In separating gun-control bills, Democrats reveal strategy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats in the Senate have spread his gun-control proposals across four bills in an effort to get at least some of the less controversial measures - such as expanded background checks for gun buyers - passed into law.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote as early as Thursday on the bills, which together amount to an acknowledgement by Democrats that a ban on military-style "assault" weapons is unlikely to clear Congress.

The proposed ban on assault weapons makes up one of the four gun-control bills, all of which are likely to be approved by the Democrat-led Judiciary Committee and be considered by the full Senate, congressional aides said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, will decide how to package the measures for a vote on the Senate floor.

By breaking Obama's gun-control agenda into pieces, supporters hope to avoid having a less popular proposal such as the assault weapons ban contribute to the rejection of other proposals, aides said.

The proposed ban, introduced by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, has drawn opposition from Republicans and some Democrats. It will be the focus of a Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.

"We are taking a pragmatic approach that is designed to maximize our options," a senior Democratic aide said.

The four bills now before the Judiciary Committee include one introduced by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the panel's chairman, that would crack down on illegal gun trafficking.

Another bill, by California Senator Barbara Boxer, is designed to increase school safety.

A bill, still being finalized, would call for "universal" background checks for all prospective gun buyers. Currently, only about 40 percent of buyers are screened for previous crimes or mental illness.

Feinstein's proposal, targets assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips like those used in the December 14 massacre at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adults dead - and inspired the current action on gun control.

'NO WAY' ON ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN

Wednesday's hearing is likely be the latest in a series of dramatic Capitol Hill hearings to reflect the passion surrounding the debate over gun control.

Those scheduled to testify include the father of one of the students killed in Newtown, and a doctor who was in a local emergency room when victims of the shootings were brought in.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Democrats "are trying to create political theater" with the hearing, and that there is no way an assault weapons ban will become law.

"It faces bipartisan opposition," he said.

Even so, all four of the gun-control bills are widely expected to sent to the full Senate on party-line votes of 10-8, Senate aides said.

But to clear procedural roadblocks from Republicans on the Senate floor, the measures will need 60 votes in the 100-member Senate, where Democrats and independents who support them account for 55 seats and Republicans hold 45.

There have been calls from those in both parties for expanded background checks in an effort to keep firearms out of the hands of convicted criminals and the mentally ill.

But a bipartisan deal has not yet been struck despite weeks of talks among four senators - Democrats Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republicans Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mark Kirk of Illinois.

"It is the one thing we think can really pass, and we don't yet have an agreement on it," a Senate aide said.

On Tuesday, Coburn said, "We're still talking."

(Editing by David Lindsey and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/separating-gun-control-bills-democrats-reveal-strategy-233554019.html

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World powers wait to hear Iran response to nuclear offer

ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers hope Iran will respond positively on Wednesday to their new offer to lift some sanctions if Tehran scales back nuclear activity the West fears could be used to build bombs.

But any hopes of a significant easing of the deadlock in the decade-old nuclear dispute were dented when Russian media cited a source close to the talks as saying there had been no clear progress in the discussions in Kazakhstan.

"So far there is no particular rapprochement. There is an impression that the atmosphere is not very good," Interfax news agency quoted the source as saying.

The United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia presented the offer when their first meeting with Iran in eight months began in Almaty on Tuesday and the Islamic state was considering it, the powers' spokesman said.

The two sides began a second - and what is expected to be the last in this round of negotiations - day of discussions in the Kazakh city shortly after 11 a.m (0500 GMT) on Wednesday.

Western officials described the first day of the meeting as "useful". Iranian state television described the atmosphere in the discussions as "very serious".

The outcome of the meeting in the Kazakh city will be closely watched in Israel, which has strongly hinted that it could attack Iran's nuclear sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop the uranium enrichment program.

Iran says Israel's assumed nuclear arsenal is the main threat to peace and denies Western allegations it is seeking to develop the capability to make atomic bombs. It says it is only aiming to produce nuclear energy so that it can export more oil.

In their latest attempt to break years of stalemate in the dispute, the powers are offering Iran a relaxation of some of the sanctions that are taking a heavy toll on its economy.

"Hopefully the Iranians will be able to reflect overnight and will come back and view our proposal positively," the spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the powers in the talks, said.

"The ball is in their court," Michael Mann added after the first day of discussions on Tuesday.

He did not give details of the offer, but other Western officials have confirmed it includes some limited sanctions easing if Iran closes a underground site where it carries out its most controversial uranium enrichment work.

Diplomats see scant chances of a conclusive deal with Iran before a June presidential election - with the political elite preoccupied with domestic issues - but they hope to hold follow-up talks to the Almaty meeting soon.

IRANIAN COUNTERPROPOSAL

Iran would put forward its own proposal of "the same weight" as that of the other side, a source close to the Iranian negotiating team said on Tuesday, but Western officials said it had not done so during the first day of negotiations.

Iran has shown no sign of willingness to scale back its nuclear work. Its chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is a veteran of Iran's 1980s war against Iraq and the Western powers that backed it.

It argues that has a sovereign right to carry out nuclear enrichment for peaceful energy purposes, and in particular refuses to close its underground Fordow enrichment plant, a condition the powers have set for any sanctions relief.

Tightened Western sanctions on Iran are hurting Iran's economy and slashing oil revenue. Its currency has more than halved in value, which in turn has pushed up inflation.

But analysts say the sanctions are not close to having the crippling effect envisaged by Washington and - so far at least - they have not prompted a change in Iran's nuclear course.

Western officials said the powers' offer would include an easing of restrictions on trade in gold and other precious metals if Tehran closes Fordow.

The Fordow facility is used for enriching uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, a short technical step from weapons grade.

Western diplomats acknowledge an easing of U.S. and EU sanctions on trade in gold represents a relatively modest step. But gold could be used as part of barter transactions that might allow Iran to circumvent financial sanctions.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman last week dismissed the reported incentive as insufficient and a senior Iranian lawmaker has ruled out closing Fordow, close to the holy city of Qom.

A senior Israeli official said Iran was pressing ahead with its nuclear program while "everyone is talking".

"As of now, the Iranians are thumbing their noses," Sima Shine, head of the Iran desk at the Strategic Affairs Ministry, told Israel's Army Radio. "They are coming to negotiations, speaking hyperbolically, trying to talk about their right to uranium enrichment ... But in parallel they are advancing."

(Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Almaty; Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich; Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powers-wait-hear-iran-response-nuclear-offer-043022098.html

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Video: Pope Benedict makes final Sunday blessing

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50933219/

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Fiennes pulls out of Antarctica trek

25 February 2013 Last updated at 10:39 ET

Sir Ranulph's team mate Ian Prickett: "We could be in for a week, we could be in for another day"

Sir Ranulph Fiennes has pulled out of an expedition across Antarctica in winter because of severe frostbite.

The 68-year-old was injured after a fall while skiing during training at a base camp in Antarctica. He used his bare hands to fix a ski binding in temperatures around -30C.

His evacuation to South Africa is being hampered by blizzard conditions.

Sir Ranulph is said to be "gutted," but his five team-mates will still embark on the 2,000-mile (3,219km) trek.

Tony Medniuk from the 'Coldest Journey' expedition said Sir Ranulph had been due to lead the team from the front on skis, and had been practising his skiing in whiteout conditions when he fell.

"In seeking to reattach his binding he felt that he couldn't get it on and had to take his glove off in very cold conditions and exposed his hand to snow and as a consequence he has contracted frostbite," he told the BBC.

Continue reading the main story

Frostbite

• Frostbite is damage to the skin and tissue due to exposure to freezing temperatures
• It can affect any part of the body, but extremities like fingers, ears, the nose and toes, are particularly vulnerable
• When it is cold the body diverts blood flow from the extremities to vital organs like the heart and lungs
• As the blood is redirected, the extremities get colder and fluid in these tissues begin to freeze
• Initially you may feel pins and needles and painful throbbing, but as the tissues freeze the area becomes numb
• Ice crystals form, damaging cells, and the low blood flow starves the tissue of oxygen
• If the blood flow is not restored soon enough the tissue will die and may need to be amputated
• Almost all cases of frostbite can be prevented by wearing appropriate clothing and avoiding unnecessary exposure to cold

"After five years of preparation, a small slip like this and a few moments can undermine the most meticulous preparation," he added.

The team is attempting to evacuate Sir Ranulph by transporting him by skidoo to the Princess Elisabeth Station, about 70km away from his current position. From there he will be flown to Novo to get a connecting flight to Cape Town.

Blizzard conditions are currently making any evacuation impossible and Sir Ranulph will be unable to move until conditions ease.

The trek is known as The Coldest Journey on Earth. No human being has managed to walk across Antarctica in winter.

The team will face some of the toughest conditions on Earth - near permanent darkness and temperatures dropping close to -90C.

The expedition - from the Russian base of Novolazareskaya to the Ross Sea - is due to begin on 21 March, the start of winter, and is expected to take six months.

The journey is to benefit Seeing is Believing, a charity which tackles avoidable blindness.

Sir Ranulph's past feats include becoming the first person to reach both poles by surface means and the oldest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest, aged 65.

Guinness World Records describes him as the world's greatest living explorer.

This is not the first time the explorer has experienced frostbite. In 2000, he lost the fingers on his left hand during an unaided attempt to reach the North Pole.

When he returned to the UK, he was told he would have to wait several months before they could be amputated to allow the partially damaged tissue to heal. But he decided to do the job himself and carried out the amputations using a fretsaw.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21571870#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Are we human? Or are we cankers? (Unqualified Offerings)

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Has evolution given humans unique brain structures?

Monday, February 25, 2013

Our ancestors evolutionarily split from those of rhesus monkeys about 25 million years ago. Since then, brain areas have been added, have disappeared or have changed in function. This raises the question, 'Has evolution given humans unique brain structures?'. Scientists have entertained the idea before but conclusive evidence was lacking. By combining different research methods, we now have a first piece of evidence that could prove that humans have unique cortical brain networks.

Professor Vanduffel explains: "We did functional brain scans in humans and rhesus monkeys at rest and while watching a movie to compare both the place and the function of cortical brain networks. Even at rest, the brain is very active. Different brain areas that are active simultaneously during rest form so-called 'resting state' networks. For the most part, these resting state networks in humans and monkeys are surprisingly similar, but we found two networks unique to humans and one unique network in the monkey."

"When watching a movie, the cortex processes an enormous amount of visual and auditory information. The human-specific resting state networks react to this stimulation in a totally different way than any part of the monkey brain. This means that they also have a different function than any of the resting state networks found in the monkey. In other words, brain structures that are unique in humans are anatomically absent in the monkey and there no other brain structures in the monkey that have an analogous function. Our unique brain areas are primarily located high at the back and at the front of the cortex and are probably related to specific human cognitive abilities, such as human-specific intelligence."

The study used fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans to visualise brain activity. fMRI scans map functional activity in the brain by detecting changes in blood flow. The oxygen content and the amount of blood in a given brain area vary according to a particular task, thus allowing activity to be tracked.

###

"Evolutionary-Novel Functional Networks in the Human Brain?", is available on the website of The Journal of Neuroscience: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/8/3259.abstract.

KU Leuven: http://www.kuleuven.be

Thanks to KU Leuven for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126985/Has_evolution_given_humans_unique_brain_structures_

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Videogame review: Lara Croft is back in bold 'Tomb Raider' reboot ...

?I hate tombs,? Lara Croft sighs as she enters a musty crypt in Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics? bold reboot of the long-running series. The franchise had grown a bit musty in recent iterations, bogged down in clumsy shooting and silly supernatural elements like an evil Lara doppelg?nger, and distancing itself from the core experience of, you know, raiding tombs. Despite a string of solid if unspectacular efforts, Lara?s star had faded considerably, and Uncharted?s Nathan Drake largely supplanted her as gaming?s top adventurer, in gameplay and graphics ?until now. This new Lara has taken a page from Drake?s exploits and is officially reclaiming her throne.

In this new origin story, Lara is not a girl, not yet a woman when she is shipwrecked on a mysterious island. Separated from her crew and visibly scared, she is forced to grow up quickly when a murderous cult kidnaps her friends. Armed with a bow and arrow, she channels The Hunger Games? Katniss Everdeen in sheer grit and determination, gaining new weapons and abilities that open up the world as the game progresses in a nod to gaming?s first lady, Metroid?s Samus Aran.

The brutal island changes her, and voice actress Camilla Luddington (Grey?s Anatomy) gives a fully realized performance that sells Lara?s evolution from untested neophyte to warrior princess. She?s put through the wringer ? escaping burning buildings, getting tossed off cliffs and over waterfalls ? in a series of stunning set pieces that are as fun to play as they are to marvel at. The graphics are dazzling, zooming in close in tight corridors to show the emotion on her face, and then panning way out as she ziplines off a mountain, flaunting the game?s impressive scope and size.

The greatest improvement is in the game?s combat sequences. In past games, Lara would lock onto an enemy and then blast away with her trademark dual pistols, and it felt very disposable. But this game?s enemies are much smarter, rushing her, flanking her, and throwing explosives to keep her constantly scrambling for cover. While she gains access to several guns, the bow and arrow is most satisfying, as Lara can use it to silently pick off enemies from a distance or arm it with fire or explosive tips to make things go boom.

When not fighting crazed cultists, exploring the island is just as entertaining thanks to the rock-solid platforming system, which has Lara leaping across chasms and clinging to the sides of mountains. Hunting animals (sorry, Bambi!) and finding salvage rewards the player with XP that is used to upgrade weapons and unlock new abilities that prove invaluable. The titular tombs exist as optional side missions that are absolutely worth seeking out, since they contain clever physics-based puzzles that provide a nice reprieve from the campaign?s breakneck pace. Lara may hate tombs, but gamers are going to love them ? and her ? all over again. A?

Follow Aaron on Twitter: @airlinem

Read more:
The most anticipated games of 2013
E3 Snap Judgment: More serious ?Tomb Raider? hits its target
A new Lara Croft and ?Tomb Raider? reboot in the works ? farewell, Angelina Jolie

Source: http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/02/25/videogame-review-lara-croft-tomb-raider-reboot/

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