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Saturday, January 26, 2013
What Kid Wouldn't Want This Nuclear Power Plant Playset?
U.S. quits bilateral civil society group in rebuke to Russia
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States has quit a U.S.-Russian forum intended to promote civil society to protest Moscow's clampdown on civil rights and public activism, the State Department said on Friday.
The Civil Society Working Group was set up during a thaw in ties after Barack Obama became president, and the U.S. pullout reflects how strains have grown since Vladimir Putin started campaigning in 2011 to return to the Kremlin.
In the past year, Russia has restricted demonstrations after a wave of opposition protests that Putin accused Washington of encouraging, and has jailed or begun prosecuting several political activists.
Putin, who started a six-year term as president in May, signed a law last month that outlaws U.S.-funded organizations deemed to be involved in political activity, and Russia has ejected the U.S. Agency for International Development, which supported groups campaigning to improve civil institutions.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Melia said the restrictions on civil society "called into serious question whether maintaining that mechanism (the working group) was either useful or appropriate".
He said Washington's "commitment to engage Russian civil society in support of its objectives ... remains unwavering."
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland amplified Melia's remarks, saying Putin's crackdown frustrated the work of the group.
"We remain committed to a dialogue with the government of Russia on democracy issues and human rights issues, but this particular working group was not working," she told reporters.
"It was not advancing the cause of civil society in Russia, so we will do that in other ways," added Nuland.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded mildly, saying, "Russia sincerely wants good relations with the United States and it causes regret when we lose any format for dialogue without replacing it with another."
Efforts to reinvigorate relations after Obama's re-election have been poisoned by the fallout from the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who had accused police investigators of stealing huge sums from the state through fraudulent tax refunds, in pre-trial detention in 2009. The Kremlin's own human rights council said he was probably beaten to death.
Last year's U.S. Magnitsky Act bars Russians accused of involvement in Magnitsky's death or of other human rights violations from entering the United States, and freezes any assets they have there.
Russia responded with a law that imposes similar measures on Americans accused of violating the rights of Russians, outlaws U.S.-funded civil society groups deemed to be involved in politics, and prohibits adoptions by the thousands of Americans who came to Russia each year seeking to take in Russian orphans.
Russia has also accused Washington of meddling for criticizing the Kremlin's moves to quash political dissent.
The working group was one of about 20 in a U.S.-Russia commission announced in 2009 by Obama and Russia's then-president, Dmitry Medvedev, as ties were warming.
Melia said some issues that had been addressed by the group, such as those involving children, corruption, human trafficking and prisons, might be discussed through other channels.
(Editing by Kevin Liffey and Doina Chiacu)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-quits-bilateral-civil-society-group-rebuke-russia-162729761--sector.html
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How trained literacy coaches can improve student reading comprehension
Jan. 25, 2013 ? The language and reading comprehension skills of low-income upper elementary-school students -- especially English-language learners -- can improve markedly if trained literacy coaches engage teachers in conducting interactive text discussions with students, according to a three-year University of Pittsburgh study.
The Pitt researchers report in the journal Learning and Instruction that language and reading comprehension showed measurable improvement for young students when their teachers had worked "at-elbow" with content-specific literacy coaches to foster a more interactive learning environment during class reading assignments.
In the study -- one of the first of its kind -- the coaches were trained using a professional development system designed at Pitt's Institute for Learning called the Content-Focused Coaching Model? that has coaches provide teachers with the tools they need to implement rigorous, standards-based lessons. Teachers can then use the knowledge they've gained to train other teachers in their schools.
"Our goal was to create a method for closing the literacy gap between more privileged and low-income students," said study principal investigator Lindsay Clare Matsumura, a research scientists in Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center and an associate professor in Pitt's School of Education. "We found that a well-structured and content-specific approach to literacy coaching shows strong evidence of being able to really make an impact on classroom text discussion and reading achievement in these upper elementary grades -- a critical time for students to develop their higher-level reading skills."
This content-specific method, developed at Pitt's Institute for Learning within the University's Learning Research and Development Center, also lends itself to adherence of the Common Core State Standards, a national campaign aiming to increase the quality of the country's education system.
"Changing discussion patterns in classrooms is a big undertaking," said Donna DiPrima Bickel, a fellow in Pitt's Institute for Learning and codeveloper and leader of the Content-Focused Coaching Model?. "The Common Core State Standards require a broader and deeper level of comprehension from students at all grade levels beyond first grade. It's imperative that teachers learn ways of supporting students to interact effectively with a range of different types of texts. Teachers engaged with coaches trained in the Content-Focused Coaching Model? valued the support they received in helping them learn to facilitate text discussion on rigorous texts."
In a group-randomized trial, Matsumura -- along with Helen Garnier, a consultant with Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center, and Jessaca Spybrook of Western Michigan University -- investigated the effects of the Content-Focused Coaching Model?, zeroing in on the quality of text discussions in the classroom.
The researchers worked with 29 schools in a Texas school district that serves a high percentage of low-income and English-language-learning students. Half of the schools adopted the Content-Focused Coaching Model?, which entailed highly trained coaches entering schools and providing professional development training to upper elementary school teachers. The other half continued in their previously assigned literacy plan, which included the involvement of literacy coaches untrained in the coaching model.
"Many literacy coaches don't receive a lot of training on how to work effectively with teachers," said Matsumura. "So our goal was to work intensively with these coaches by teaching them how to model instructional strategies and work with teachers to better plan reading lessons. We provided them with effective strategies to share with teachers so they could boost their engagement with students."
During the study's first year, Pitt researchers collected baseline data on the quality of classroom discussions, teachers' participation in professional development, and students' reading achievement. Soon after, the coaches were placed in schools and began working with teachers on "Questioning the Author," one approach to the Content-Focused Coaching Model? in which students answer critical questions about the author and text. "Questioning the Author" was developed at Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center by Emeritus Professor Isabel Beck and Research Scientist Margaret McKeown.
Under this literacy approach, students are asked to stop throughout the reading of a book and answer thought-provoking questions. If a text is written unclearly, said Matsumura, the teacher will pause to make sure students understand what is happening and also review any unknown vocabulary. The approach is meant to result in more interactive discussions leading to better comprehension and retention, and it entails "quite a bit of planning" on the part of teachers for it to be effective, Matsumura said.
In the Pitt study, the coaches began by leading a classroom discussion while teachers observed. After several months of observation, the teachers adopted the technique into their classroom for the rest of the study. Students' reading scores were evaluated through a series of tests throughout the three years.
The team found that schools participating in the coaching intervention had a positive effect on students' reading achievement -- specifically for English-language learners, who made up 40 percent of the study's sample. English-language learners with trained teachers scored .48 of a standard deviation higher on the state reading rest than those in the comparison schools. A standard deviation is the average distance between any score in a distribution and the mean of the distribution.
"One of our suppositions is that in having these kinds of interactive discussions, you're really getting kids to talk and learn to use new vocabulary actively," said Matsumura. "Nevertheless, our study highlights the need for usage of literacy-coaching programs -- like the Content-Focused Coaching Model? -- to promote student reading achievement."
In addition to improving students' literacy at an individual level, the study had a larger, across-the-board success.
"Anyone can provide you with an anecdote about how one coach has helped one teacher but the real story here is in the systematic results," said Bickel. "Lindsay and her team retrieved data that clearly show that schools with coaches trained in the Content-Focused Coaching Model? improved literacy skills far beyond those where teachers worked with coaches who were not trained in this method. And, as a result of this study, we are able to better describe the components of an effective coaching program."
As is the case with most large-scale projects, widespread implementation of these interventions may prove to be a challenge. Therefore, Matsumura and her colleagues are now working towards delivering this coaching online.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Helen E. Garnier, Jessaca Spybrook. Literacy coaching to improve student reading achievement: A multi-level mediation model. Learning and Instruction, 2013; 25: 35 DOI: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2012.11.001
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/~3/Z4sMaIksWqE/130125111335.htm
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Essentially Angela talks Modern Love: What's the formula for success?
I?ve been thinking quite a bit about relationships this week?
What is it that keeps some going strong while others start promising, only to end tragically?
We all know the couple whose break up shocked us, and we also know the marriage that is still going strong despite everyone?s assumptions that it would end before the five-year Wood Anniversary.
So what gives? How is it that some people make it and others don?t??
It would be easy to give the standard answer and say it?s all about love. ?You either have it or your don?t.
But I disagree. ?LOVE has good intentions. I?ve seen people who love each other but can?t make it work.
Studying healthy relationships, toxic ones, and yes, even experimenting with the concept myself, I?ve realized there are five key elements that lasting partnerships must have.
?
1. Respect.?
If you don?t respect the person you lie down next at night, it won?t last. ?Respect. For their ideas, their dreams, their goals.?Respect for how they conduct themselves in life, and respect for the kind of person they are. ?The moment you feel disdain for your partner is the beginning of the end. ?It might take a long time to get there, but believe me, if you don?t have respect it?s a sure indicator you are on the road to break up.
2.?Healthy Disagreement.?
You will argue, that?s a given. ?You won?t agree sometimes on things- like politics, where to go to dinner, or how to discipline your children. ?But the way you handle yourself during these disagreements is telling to your relationship. ?Fighting fair is a must for strong relationships. ?So is talking it out. ?Remember what your grandparents told you about never going to bed angry? It?s true. ?Even if it means you hash it out all night, that?s what you do. ?Get to the bottom of things. ?If you don?t, resentment starts building its wall, layer upon layer until one day, one of you forgets to load the dishwasher and the other packs bags and is out the door for good.
3. Emotional & Physical Connection. ?
Sex has to be a priority. Cuddling has to be a priority. Romance can not die. The moment you let these fall to the back burner, is the moment you are short-changing your relationship. ?As much as we love our success, family, hobbies, ourselves?if you don?t constantly work on your relationship with your partner and put them as the most important thing in your life, YOU WILL FAIL.?
Success feels amazing but it doesn?t keep you warm at night, children grow up and find their own partners, hobbies and narcissistic pursuits are great at the time, but eventually it just gets empty. If we all worked as hard on our relationship as we did every other area in our lives, the divorce rate would be much lower?and we would all be much happier.
4. Support For Each Other.?
We all need someone to have our back. ?Someone to support us no matter if we have victories on a great scale or fail epically. Knowing that a partner supports everything we do is key for all of the above: Respect, Healthy Disagreement, and Connection.
When you commit to a partnership, you commit to support. No matter the cause.
5. The Three F?s.?
FEED him. FUCK him. Make him FEEL like a man.?
I?ve taken a lot of shit for this one belief more than any other over the years. Despite dissenter?s arguments (always women) I firmly believe that in the confines of the relationship:?A?man is the man and the woman is the woman.?
This has nothing to do with income or status. ?Don?t tell me this is the 21st century and my thinking is old school and puts women?s lib back 100 years.
This has everything to do with EVOLUTION. Men need to be taken care of, have their sexual needs met, and know they are in charge of their domain.
Try to manipulate this by emasculating?your man, withholding sex, or always being in control and eventually your man will turn from you, in one way or another. ?Emotionally or physically you will lose him, many times to someone who will provide exactly what you would not.
?
Whether you are in a relationship currently or in pursuit of one, reminding yourself of the 5 elements above on a regular basis will ensure that your partnerships remain healthy and strong forever. ?Despite the escalating divorce rate and fear of commitment, everyone walking this earth would be completely satisfied with one?forever if done properly.
Do you have the commitment it takes to honor FOREVER??
-angela
Source: http://essentiallyangela.com/2013/01/25/relationships-whats-the-perfect-formula/
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Printable Mardi Gras Mask | Fun Family Crafts
Here is an easy Mardi Gras mask. Set out sequins, jewels, feathers and whatever other supplies you have on hand. Let your young crafters use their creativity to decorate their masks however they want. You?ll love the results.
Get the instructions for ??> Printable Mardi Gras Mask
Source: http://funfamilycrafts.com/printable-mardi-gras-mask/
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Israelis expected to return Netanyahu to office
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israelis voted Tuesday in an election likely to keep hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm of government for a third term despite a turbulent record: no peace process with Palestinians, growing diplomatic isolation and signs of economic trouble ahead.
The balloting capped a lackluster three-month campaign that was expected to leave Netanyahu at the helm of a coalition dominated by hard-liners opposed to concessions that could bring Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
The outcome, if opinion polls are accurate, was expected to put Israel on the path to continued deadlock in peace efforts with the Palestinians and further run-ins with the international community, including its key ally, the United States.
Voters appeared to be overlooking Netanyahu's record over the past four years, and the conflict with the Palestinians, long the defining issue in Israeli politics, was largely absent from the campaign. That reflected the widespread Israeli belief that a peace deal is impossible and the dovish opposition's failure to unite behind a viable alternative candidate.
Netanyahu is widely seen, even by some opponents, as the man best suited to lead the country at a turbulent time. He has maintained a lead with a message that the country needs a tough-minded and experienced leader to face down dangers including the Iranian nuclear program, potentially loose chemical weapons in Syria and the rise of fundamentalist Islam in Egypt and other Arab countries amid the Arab Spring.
The results were not assured. Election officials reported relatively high turnout compared to previous years, boosted by sunny, spring-like weather. A heavy turnout could favor Netanyahu's opponents, whose voters tend to have a lower participation rate than the highly motivated hard-liners. In addition, opinion polls have often been inaccurate in the past.
Netanyahu, 63, was smiling when he arrived early at a heavily secured polling station in Jerusalem with his wife, Sara, and two sons, both first-time voters. After voting, the prime minister told reporters that a flood of ballots for his list "is good for Israel."
Many opponents have largely yielded the security issue to Netanyahu and instead campaigned on economic issues, such as the country's high cost of living and its much-maligned custom of giving generous handouts and draft exemptions to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority. While Israel's economy has remained on solid footing, Netanyahu's government has run up a huge deficit that could result in steep budget cuts in the coming months.
Only one major contender, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has campaigned on a platform centered on the need to restart peace talks and reach a deal with the Palestinians. Her new Movement party was expected to emerge as a midsize faction.
Livni implored voters to think about the "big decisions" at hand. "The vote I have cast includes the hopes of all the people who don't want four more years of Netanyahu and this government, for everyone who is worried about justice and Israel's isolation," she said
In the weeks running up to Tuesday's vote, opinion polls have universally forecast Netanyahu's Likud-Yisrael Beitenu emerging as the largest single bloc, controlling roughly one-quarter of parliament's 120 seats and in a strong position to form a new majority coalition. Along with other nationalist and religious parties that traditionally support him, Netanyahu is expected to be able to easily secure a majority of more than 61 seats.
Should the right wing and religious parties somehow fail to muster a majority, there will be a mad scramble on the center-left to try to form a coalition on their own.
Under such a shocking result, the prime minister could end up being Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich, a former radio journalist who once backed Israel's Communist party. Yachimovich, campaigning on a promise to narrow the gap between rich and poor, has already said she will not sit in a Netanyahu government. But such an outcome appeared unlikely.
In all, 32 parties were running for representation in parliament. Israel has historically had multiparty governments because no party has ever won an outright majority in the country's 64-year history. Polls close at 10 p.m. local time (3 p.m. EST, 2000 GMT), with exit poll results available immediately and official results trickling in throughout the night.
In a modern-day twist, many Israelis advertised their voting choice by photographing their completed ballot and uploading it to Facebook.
If victorious, Netanyahu is expected to explore reaching across the aisle to bring in at least one of the more centrist parties opposing him, both to reduce his reliance on the hard-liners and to present a more palatable face to the outside world.
But it remains unclear whether he would be able to do so, since it would require concessions on key issues, either economically or diplomatically, that would alienate his core supporters.
One potential centrist partner would be political newcomer Yair Lapid, a former TV talk show host, who has gained popularity by taking aim at the preferential treatment given to the ultra-Orthodox. Lapid has said, however, he will not be a "fig leaf" for an extremist government.
In any case, a shift by Netanyahu away from his tough line toward the Palestinians appears unlikely. Netanyahu himself has only grudgingly voiced conditional support for a Palestinian state, and his own party is now dominated by hard-liners who oppose even this.
A likely coalition partner, Naftali Bennett of the surging Jewish Home Party, has even called for annexing large parts of the West Bank, the core of any future Palestinian state. Bennett's party has siphoned off many Netanyahu supporters who believe the prime minister has grown soft.
Motti Saban, a 25-year-old student in Jerusalem, said he would vote for Jewish Home.
"We are right-wing and we want to see a parliament that is more right wing than now," Saban said. "Social issues affect us all, but I won't give up Jerusalem, that's more important," Saban said.
Up to one-sixth of the incoming legislature is expected to be settlers who advocate holding on to captured land the Palestinians want for a future state.
Netanyahu has won praise at home for drawing the world's attention to Iran's suspect nuclear program and for keeping the economy on solid ground at a time of global turmoil. Tehran denies it is seeking to develop atomic weapons as alleged by Israel, the U.S. and allies.
But internationally, he has repeatedly clashed with his allies over his handling of the peace process. Peace talks with the Palestinians have remained deadlocked throughout his term, in large part because of his continued construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of their future state and refuse to negotiate while settlement construction takes place.
Netanyahu has said talks should resume without preconditions. The continued construction, along with Netanyahu's insistence that Israel retain all of east Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, has led the Palestinians to conclude it is futile to even negotiate.
The international community has shown increasing impatience with Netanyahu. In November, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of establishing a Palestinian state in all of the territories captured by Israel in 1967 ? the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
The newly re-elected President Barack Obama has had a rocky relationship with Netanyahu and the two men could find themselves on a collision course in their new terms.
In London Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Obama must now make the Middle East peace process his top priority, warning "we are approaching the last chance to bring about such a solution."
Critics warn that Israelis are ignoring the issue at their peril. First, signs are growing that the current lull in violence may be temporary ? both because the Palestinian street is getting frustrated and because Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority may cease the security cooperation that even Israeli officials have credited with the halt in fighting.
Beyond that, a persistent chorus warns that the status quo is ultimately self-defeating for Israel because the default outcome is a single entity in the Holy Land ? comprising Israel and all the areas it seized in the 1967 war. Based on current birthrates, most experts believe that Arabs would soon be the majority.
Palestinian officials say that Abbas has repeatedly warned Israeli visitors in recent months that Israel could end up like an "apartheid-style" state with a Jewish minority ruling over a disenfranchised Arab majority. At that point, the Arabs would turn their struggle away from independence and instead seek equality in a single state.
The rival Hamas government in Gaza condemned Netanyahu.
"It's clear that the election trends are moving from an extremist government toward more extreme government, which requires us as Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims to draw a strategy to confront the Zionist rising extremism," Hamas' prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh said.
___
Associated Press writers Amy Teibel and Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israelis-expected-return-netanyahu-office-092240370.html
Allergan aims to widen migraine treatment with MAP Pharma buy
(Reuters) - U.S. specialty drugmaker Allergan Inc said late on Tuesday that it would buy MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $958 million in cash, an acquisition intended to widen its presence in the treatment of adult migraines.
MAP Pharmaceuticals is developing Levadex, an orally inhaled drug for the acute treatment of migraines in adults. Levadex is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is set to make a decision about the drug around April 15.
Under the deal, Allergan will acquire 100 percent of the shares of MAP Pharmaceuticals at $25 per share, a 60 percent premium over MAP's closing stock price on the Nasdaq of $15.58 on Tuesday.
"We plan to capitalize on depth of expertise in neurology as we continue the global development of Levadex as a potential acute treatment for migraine," Allergen Chief Executive David Pyott said in a statement.
In the last few years, Allergan has received regulatory approvals in 56 countries for its drug Botox for use in the treatment of chronic migraine. Allergen now aims to position Levadex as a potential treatment for migraine that is complementary to Botox.
Botox, a popular wrinkle treatment, had also previously been approved for other non-cosmetic uses such severe underarm sweating and loss of bladder control due to nerve damage.
Allergan expects the MAP deal to dilute 2013 earnings by about 7 cents a share and add to its earnings by the second half of 2014.
The company expects to fund the deal with a combination of cash on hand, cash equivalents and short-term borrowings under its commercial paper program. The transaction is not subject to any financing contingency.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Miral Fahmy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/allergan-buy-map-pharma-958-million-020954935--finance.html
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