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Friday, May 31, 2013
'The perfect poison': Ricin used in 3 recent cases
FILE - In this May 18, 2013 file photo, members of the Joint Federal Haz-Mat Team, FBI, and local law enforcement gather in front of the Osmun Apartments near the intersection of First Avenue and Oak Street in Browne's Addition during the execution of a search warrant, in Spokane, Wash., in connection with ricin-laced letters intercepted at a Post Office facility in Spokane earlier in the week. Over the past month and a half, the FBI has investigated at least three apparently unrelated cases of ricin-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama and other public figures. It's not clear if ricin attacks are on the rise. Experts say some of the recent letters are no doubt copycat attacks, made possible by the relative simplicity of making the poison. (AP Photo/The Spokesman-Review, Colin Mulvany) COEUR D'ALENE PRESS OUT
FILE - In this May 18, 2013 file photo, members of the Joint Federal Haz-Mat Team, FBI, and local law enforcement gather in front of the Osmun Apartments near the intersection of First Avenue and Oak Street in Browne's Addition during the execution of a search warrant, in Spokane, Wash., in connection with ricin-laced letters intercepted at a Post Office facility in Spokane earlier in the week. Over the past month and a half, the FBI has investigated at least three apparently unrelated cases of ricin-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama and other public figures. It's not clear if ricin attacks are on the rise. Experts say some of the recent letters are no doubt copycat attacks, made possible by the relative simplicity of making the poison. (AP Photo/The Spokesman-Review, Colin Mulvany) COEUR D'ALENE PRESS OUT
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) ? The key ingredient ? castor beans ? is easy to find. Crude instructions for extracting the lethal poison in them can be found on the Internet. And it doesn't require a chemistry degree or sophisticated lab equipment.
The FBI is investigating at least three cases over the past month and a half in which ricin was mailed to President Barack Obama and other public figures.
Ricin has been sent to officials sporadically over the years, but experts say that there seems to be a recent uptick and that copycat attacks ? made possible by the relative ease of extracting the poison ? may be the reason.
"I can absolutely promise you that when these kinds of things happen, we're going to have copycats. We expect them. We prepare for them. And we catch them," said Murray Cohen, founder of the Atlanta-based Frontline Foundation, which trains workers in how to respond to bioterrorism and epidemics.
Security and counterterrorism expert Michael Fagel, who teaches at Northwestern University and is a veteran of ricin investigations, said ricin may be employed because castor beans are so easy to come by.
The plants grow wild along highways and in other spots in the U.S. They are also considered ornamental by some gardeners and are cultivated for medicinal castor oil and other products.
"And you can go on the Internet and find out any one of a gazillion recipes on how to make ricin," Fagel said, adding that it takes only a beginner's knowledge of science to "weaponize" it.
If inhaled, ricin can cause respiratory failure, among other symptoms. If swallowed, it can shut down the liver and other organs, resulting in death. The amount of ricin that can fit on the head of a pin is said to be enough to kill an adult if properly prepared. No antidote is available, though researchers are trying to develop one.
Despite the poison's fearsome reputation, a draft of a 2010 Homeland Security Department handbook lists only one person killed by ricin, and that was a 1978 assassination in London involving injection with a ricin pellet. Someone associated with Bulgaria's secret police used a special umbrella to fire the pellet into a Bulgarian dissident.
The first of the three recent ricin investigations in the U.S. began in April. An Elvis impersonator, Kevin Curtis, was jailed and accused of sending poisoned letters to Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge. Then Curtis was suddenly released from jail when the FBI shifted its focus to his longtime foe, James Everett Dutschke. He was charged with making ricin.
The FBI said Dutschke, a former martial arts instructor and unsuccessful candidate for various political offices, bought his castor beans on eBay and may have used a coffee grinder to turn them into a powder from recipes he downloaded on his computer.
Then in May, three poison-tainted letters were mailed from Spokane, Wash., to Obama, a federal judge and a post office. A fourth letter sent to Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane also tested positive for the poison. The FBI is trying to locate a fifth letter it suspects was mailed to the CIA in McLean, Va.
Matthew Ryan Buquet, a 37-year-old janitor and a registered sex offender, was charged last week with mailing a threatening communication. He has pleaded not guilty.
In the most recent case, authorities say ricin-laced letters were sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Washington gun control group. Those letters were postmarked from Shreveport, La., but could have been mailed from Arkansas, Louisiana or Texas, officials said.
Cohen said it appears the ricin in all three cases was a crude form that's relatively easy to make. It would require laboratory equipment and scientific knowledge to make a more potent, weapons-grade version, he said.
Soon after the ricin case in Mississippi, the Congressional Research Service wrote a report for Congress that said recipes for ricin are available "on the Internet, from commercial bookstores, in patents and in scientific literature."
"The quality of these directions varies. Some directions would produce only crude preparations, while others would produce nearly pure ricin," the report said.
Thomas Pittman, a retired professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and an expert in toxicology, said ricin has a number of qualities that make it desirable to someone bent on doing harm: The ingredients are relatively easy to obtain, it's not that hard to make a crude form of it, it's deadly and it's hard to detect in a victim's body.
"It's the perfect poison," he said.
The congressional report noted some ricin cases over the years.
In 2008, authorities said a man in Las Vegas may have accidentally poisoned himself with ricin that he had made from a backyard castor plant. Roger Bergendorff told The Associated Press at the time that he made the ricin just for the sake of having it, and swore he had no intention of harming anyone. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
In 2003, someone sent a ricin-laced letter to the Transportation Department that was critical of new rules governing truck drivers. A similar letter was addressed to the White House the following month. Both were intercepted and nobody was hurt.
In 2004, ricin was detected in a letter sent to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's Washington office.
___
Associated Press writers Jason Keyser in Chicago and Doug Esser in Seattle contributed to this report.
___
Follow Holbrook Mohr at http://twitter.com/holbrookmohr
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Notable words from the National Spelling Bee
Amber Born, 14 of Marblehead, Mass., covers her face while spelling "malacophilous" during the semifinal round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, May 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Amber Born, 14 of Marblehead, Mass., covers her face while spelling "malacophilous" during the semifinal round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, May 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Caleb Miller, 13, of Calhoun, La., cast his head back after incorrectly spelling "cyanope'" during the semifinal round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, May 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Amber Born, 14 of Marblehead, Mass. reacts after spelling the word "malacophilous" correctly during the semifinal round of the National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 30, 2013, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) ? A look at some unusual, difficult or otherwise noteworthy words from the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
? KNAIDEL ? a small mass of leavened dough cooked by boiling or steaming. The winning word for 2013 was from German-derived Yiddish, a source of much amusement to champion Arvind Mahankali, 13, of Bayside Hills, N.Y., who finished third in 2012 and 2011 after misspelling German-derived words. This time, he had little trouble.
? CYANOPHYCEAN ? a blue-green alga. Runner-up Pranav Sivakumar, 13, of Tower Lakes, Ill., was bounced by this word, missing it by a single letter. He thought the final "a'' was an "i."
? LANSCENET ? a card game, similar to pharaoh, played in central Europe. Aspiring comedy writer Amber Born, 14, of Marblehead, Mass., seemed confident about this word until she was given an alternate pronunciation and deadpanned, "That is cause for panic." She let out a big sigh and spelled it right.
? KABURI ? a land crab common in mangrove swamps from the West Indies to southern Brazil. Chetan Reddy's run in the finals was over as soon as he asked for the language of origin and was told, "unknown." With little helpful information, Chetan, 13, of Plano, Texas, pursed his lips before guessing "c-a-b-u-r-r-i."
? MELOCOTON ? a peach grafted on a quince root stalk. Grace Remmer, 14, of St. Augustine, Fla., who spells quickly when she knows a word, asked for the definition twice and the etymology twice. She was off by two letters, and that was the end of her fourth and final National Spelling Bee appearance. "Thank you, everyone," she said, and left the stage to a standing ovation.
? GALERE ? a group of people having a marked common quality or relationship. Derived from French and old Catalan, this word nearly bounced champion Arvind Mahankali from the finals. He asked for the etymology twice, shifted his body back and forth and stroked his chin. He started with "g-a," and then asked to start again, getting it right with seconds to spare.
? DORYLINE ? a type of migratory tropical ant that is blind except for the functional males. In the finals, Christal Schermeister, 13, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., stood silently for a long time, trying to figure it out. "Can I have the definition again, please?" she asked, her voice cracking a bit. She went with "d-o-r-a-l-i-n-e" and was eliminated.
? SMELLFUNGUS ? a critic or faultfinder, taken from a novel by 18th-century absurdist Laurence Sterne. Gokul Venkatachalam, 12, of Chesterfield, Mo., spelled it correctly.
? MALACOPHILOUS ? adapted to pollination by snails. "I don't know if that's possible," Amber Born said. After spelling the word correctly, she leapt for joy and dashed back to her seat.
? CYANOPE ? a person with fair hair and brown eyes. Caleb Miller, 13, of Calhoun, La., asked if it came from the Greek word "ops," meaning eye. Told yes, he responded, "Thank goodness." He still misspelled the word, going with p-s-i-a-n-o-p-e. Told the correct spelling, he said, "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."
? BILBOQUET ? a device having a cup or spike at the top of a stick to which is attached a ball on a string. This word looked like it might trip up 11-year-old Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan., the sister of the 2009 champion and one of the favorites. She paused while pretending to write the word on her hand, a common technique among spellers. But she got it right and advanced to the finals.
? CABOTINAGE ? behavior befitting a second-rate actor. There was no acting from Eva Kitlen, 14, of Niwot, Colo., who struggled with this word, breathing quickly into the microphone, before getting it wrong. "Can I maybe get a different word?" she asked. "I hope you get a different word," pronouncer Jacques Bailly responded. She did not.
? TENERAMENTE ? a musical direction meaning "tenderly." Grace Remmer, who plays violin, chuckled with relief after being asked to spell this word, which helped propel her to the finals. She still asked Bailly to use it in a sentence, which turned out to be a gem: "The piano teacher repeatedly encouraged the Incredible Hulk to try to play the lullaby teneramente."
? OLEACRANON ? the clinical term for the funny bone. Emily Keaton, 14, of Pikeville, Ky., missed this word by adding an "h'' after the "c." She jumped back with surprise at the sound of the bell that ended her spelling bee career. Emily was a five-time National Spelling Bee contestant.
___
Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols.
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Thursday, May 30, 2013
Miditech to telecast two special episodes on Female Criminals ...
Miditech's?popular real life crime series 'Shaitaan - a Criminal Mind ',?currently
on-air on Colors, is telecasting its special series on?'Women Criminals'?this weekend-
June 2nd?and next weekend June 8th, 2013.?Hosted by the popular?TV actor Sharad Kelkar, the series
will focus on the not so often seen or heard; cold, calculative women criminal
masterminds.
On this announcement,?Nikhil Alva, CEO Miditech?said, "Shaitaan is a show that delves into the minds of the worst criminals the society has seen. Be it a man or a woman, when the mind takes its own turn all controls fail! This weekend and the next we are coming up with two shocking real life instances that involve the frightening criminal attempts by women. To help create some much needed awareness amongst its viewers we will soon be telecasting it in our upcoming special episodes this weekend."
Sharad Kelkar, TV Actor?&?the Show Host?on his association with Shaitaan said, "Considering the increasing rate in crime, where there is no demarcation between male or female, it's our prime duty to keep our alert button on. My association with this show has made me extra alert about different verticals in my life. Shooting for this series was thrilling as well as shocking to know that the rise on women criminals is a new?trend compared to several years ago when women took a more passive role in crime."
The story that will be showcased this weekend 2nd?of June, portrays the journey of a girl, from her childhood trauma of physical abuse from her uncle had such a psychological impact on her that she ended up having complete distrust and hatred towards men. The revulsion loathed to such an extent that she took revenge from as many as she could by turning into a serial bride.
Following this would be another episode of a female crime story, which will be telecasted on Saturday, 8th?of June wherein a spoiled daughter kills her father who decided to disown her from his wealth and property.
?
?
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Neil Patrick Harris to host Emmys again
TV 
2 hours ago
CBS
Neil Patrick Harris will host the 61st Emmy Awards.
Triple-threat Neil Patrick Harris will host the Emmy Awards for the second time, CBS announced Wednesday.
Harris has earned four Emmy nominations for his work on the network's comedy, "How I Met Your Mother," and has won two Emmys for hosting the Tony Awards and one for his guest stint on "Glee." He hosted the Emmys for the first time in 2009. With his charm, singing and dancing talent, Harris would be a shoe-in for the Oscars if that show didn't air on rival ABC.
?I couldn't be more honored and excited to be hosting this year's Emmy Awards," Harris said in a statement. ?And what perfect timing ? I'll just do the exact same script I'm about to use for the Tonys. ?And the Emmy for Best Revival of a Musical goes to ?Breaking Bad!? See, told you it works.?
The first time the actor hosted the show, he received rave reviews. Need a refresher? Take a look:
This year's show will air Sunday, Sept. 22. on CBS.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/neil-patrick-harris-host-emmys-again-6C10116674
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Pentagon programs target of China cyber threat
WASHINGTON (AP) ? New revelations that China used cyberattacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies have increased pressure on U.S. leaders to take more strident action against Beijing to stem the persistent breaches.
The disclosure, which was included in a Defense Science Board report released earlier this year, but is only now being discussed publicly, comes as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel heads to Southeast Asia, where he will discuss the escalating cyberthreat with counterparts from a number of area nations.
While officials have been warning for years about China's cyber espionage efforts aimed at U.S. military and high-tech programs, the breadth of the list underscored how routine the attacks have become. And, as the U.S. looks to grow its military presence in the Asia Pacific, it heightens worries that China can use the information to blunt America's military superiority and keep pace with emerging technologies.
"It introduces uncertainty on how well the weapons may work, and it means we may have to redo weapons systems," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "If they know how it works precisely, they will be able to evade it and figure out how to better beat our systems."
A chart included in the science board's report laid out what it called a partial list of 37 breached programs, which included the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon ? a land-based missile defense system that was recently deployed to Guam to help counter the North Korean threat. Other programs include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, and the hybrid MV-22 Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane.
The report also listed another 29 broader defense technologies that have been compromised, including drone video systems and high-tech avionics. The information was gathered more than two years ago, so some of the data is dated and a few of the breaches ? such as the F-35 ? had actually already become public.
The details of the breaches were first reported by The Washington Post.
According to a defense official, the report is based on more than 50 briefings that members of the board's task force received from senior leaders in the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence community, national laboratories and business. The official was not authorized to discuss the report publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. officials have been far more open about discussing the China cyberattacks over the past year or two, beginning with a November 2011 report by U.S. intelligence agencies that accused China of systematically stealing American high-tech data for its own national economic gain. The Pentagon, meanwhile, in its latest report on China's military power, asserted publicly for the first time that Beijing's military was likely behind computer-based attacks targeting federal agencies.
"In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military," said the report, which was released earlier this month.
In Beijing on Wednesday, Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang did not directly address the allegations, but said that China opposes all hacking and referred to an agreement with the U.S. to form a cybercrime working group.
Cybersecurity experts have for some time been urging the U.S. government to use sanctions or other punishments against China for the breaches.
The benefits to the cyber espionage are high and the costs are low, said Shawn Henry, former cyber director at the FBI and now president of CrowdStrike Services, a security technology company.
"There is no cost, there are no sanctions, no diplomatic actions, no financial disincentives," said Henry, adding that the U.S. intellectual property losses are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He said that the U.S. needs to have a discussion with Chinese leaders about "what the red lines are and what the repercussions will be for crossing those red lines."
U.S. leaders, including President Barack Obama, however, have instead been using the bully pulpit to increase pressure on the Chinese to confront the problem. Obama is expected to raise the issue with China's new leader Xi Jinping during a summit next month in Southern California.
Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Tuesday that the Pentagon maintains "full confidence in our weapons platforms," adding that the department has taken a number of steps to strengthen its network defenses and monitor for threats.
Defense contractors, meanwhile, declined to say whether their systems had been breached. But recent filings to shareholders indicate these companies see intrusions as a serious risk to their business, particularly when they must rely on third-party suppliers.
In its most recent annual report, Lockheed Martin ? a primary contractor on missile defense programs ? told shareholders that prior cyberattacks "have not had a material impact on our financial results," and that it believed its security efforts were adequate.
However, suppliers and subcontractors have "varying levels of cybersecurity expertise and safeguards and their relationships with government contractors, such as Lockheed Martin may increase the likelihood that they are targeted by the same cyber threats we face," according to the 2012 report.
In a statement emailed to reporters on Tuesday, Lockheed Martin said it has made "significant investments" in cybersecurity and that the company was trying to secure its supply chain given that "program information resides in a large cyber ecosystem."
Similar risk disclosures to shareholders have been made recently by Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Raytheon. For example, Northrop Grumman wrote in its 2012 annual report that cyber intrusions "could damage our reputation and lead to financial losses from remedial actions, loss of business or potential liability."
Company spokesman Randy Belote on Tuesday declined to say whether Northrop Grumman's systems had been breached, citing company policy. But, he added, "the number of attempts to breach our networks (is) increasing at an alarming rate."
___
Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
___
Follow Lolita C. Baldor at https://twitter.com/lbaldor
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
The Hisense Sero 7 Pro gets reviewed in the forums
Users seem to be loving the new $149 Hisense Sero 7 Pro tablet, be sure to join the discussion with questions or comments
Last week we told you about a new line of inexpensive Android tablets coming to Walmart from Hisense. The price looked marvelous, and the $149 Sero 7 Pro had some pretty nice specs -- besting the crowd favorite Nexus 7 in most ways. At that price you knew Android fans were going to bite, and now the forums has a handful of folks talking about their new purchase.
I don't want to give too many spoilers, but the reviews are good. It looks like Hisense has kept things mostly stock, and the Tegra 3 with Jelly Bean performs as well here as it does on other, more expensive models.
All this has me looking at the Sero 7 Pro myself, so maybe we'll squeeze a front page review into the schedule soon. But in the meantime, join folks just like you who are using the tablet every day in the forums, and see what they think about their new pick up.
The Hisense Sero 7 review thread
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/lesBsweBHAM/story01.htm
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UCLA receives award to study delivery of behavioral health services using telehealth
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-May-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Amy Albin
aalbin@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-8672
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved a $1.6 million research award to the Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA to study the use of videoconferencing technology to deliver behavioral health services to pediatric patients in community primary care settings.
Dr. Tumaini R. Coker, assistant professor of pediatrics at UCLA, will lead the research. The project will focus on the integration of developmental, behavioral, and mental health services into pediatric primary care using live videoconferencing technology. This study will examine whether using this telehealth technology can be an effective, efficient, and family-centered way to provide these integrated services to children in low-income communities.
"One of the key strengths of this project will be the emphasis on the partnership between UCLA researchers, the community clinics and the families to develop and test this strategy to bring behavioral health services into the primary care setting using live videoconferencing visits," said Coker.
The project brings together UCLA researchers from general pediatrics, developmental and behavioral pediatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, the UCLA/RAND Prevention Research Center and the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society to work in partnership with a large multi-site community clinic consortium.
The study is part of a portfolio of patient-centered research that addresses PCORI's national research priorities and will provide patients with information that will help them make better informed decisions about their care.
"This project reflects PCORI's commitment to support patient-centered comparative effectiveness research, a new approach to health research that emphasizes the inclusion of patients and caregivers at all stages of the study process," added Dr. Joe Selby, executive director of PCORI. "The research will provide patients and those who care for them better information about the healthcare decisions they face."
The UCLA study is one of 51 projects totaling more than $88.5 million approved for funding by PCORI's Board of Governors on May 6. All were selected through a highly competitive review process in which scientists, patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders helped to evaluate more than 400 applications for funding. Proposals were evaluated on the basis of scientific merit, how well they engage patients and other stakeholders, their methodological rigor, and how well they fit within PCORI's national research priorities.
###
The PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI is committed to continuously seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.
For more information Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, visit http://www.pcori.org.
For more information on the Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, visit http://www.uclahealth.org/cdii.
[ | 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-May-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Amy Albin
aalbin@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-8672
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved a $1.6 million research award to the Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA to study the use of videoconferencing technology to deliver behavioral health services to pediatric patients in community primary care settings.
Dr. Tumaini R. Coker, assistant professor of pediatrics at UCLA, will lead the research. The project will focus on the integration of developmental, behavioral, and mental health services into pediatric primary care using live videoconferencing technology. This study will examine whether using this telehealth technology can be an effective, efficient, and family-centered way to provide these integrated services to children in low-income communities.
"One of the key strengths of this project will be the emphasis on the partnership between UCLA researchers, the community clinics and the families to develop and test this strategy to bring behavioral health services into the primary care setting using live videoconferencing visits," said Coker.
The project brings together UCLA researchers from general pediatrics, developmental and behavioral pediatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, the UCLA/RAND Prevention Research Center and the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society to work in partnership with a large multi-site community clinic consortium.
The study is part of a portfolio of patient-centered research that addresses PCORI's national research priorities and will provide patients with information that will help them make better informed decisions about their care.
"This project reflects PCORI's commitment to support patient-centered comparative effectiveness research, a new approach to health research that emphasizes the inclusion of patients and caregivers at all stages of the study process," added Dr. Joe Selby, executive director of PCORI. "The research will provide patients and those who care for them better information about the healthcare decisions they face."
The UCLA study is one of 51 projects totaling more than $88.5 million approved for funding by PCORI's Board of Governors on May 6. All were selected through a highly competitive review process in which scientists, patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders helped to evaluate more than 400 applications for funding. Proposals were evaluated on the basis of scientific merit, how well they engage patients and other stakeholders, their methodological rigor, and how well they fit within PCORI's national research priorities.
###
The PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI is committed to continuously seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.
For more information Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, visit http://www.pcori.org.
For more information on the Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, visit http://www.uclahealth.org/cdii.
[ | 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/2013-05/uoc--ura052813.php
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Quora Grew More Than 3X Across All Metrics In The Past Year
Quora famously doesn't share its growth numbers. Due to this furtiveness, many people speculate that it is not growing. On Quora even:?Has Quora as a business failed??is a Quora question that smacked me in the face right as I opened the site to research this article.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TWGT5FifNO8/
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Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Lego's Opening a School In Denmark
You don't realize it at the time, but once you find yourself studying at a place of higher learning, you really miss your younger school days where playtime was actually a part of your daily routine. But imagine what life must be like for students of a school that was built and funded by Lego.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/w6pHrn4cIY8/legos-opening-a-school-in-denmark-509989678
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Monday, May 27, 2013
GOP dilemma: draw new voters without irking base
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Republican Party, having lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, confronts a dilemma that's easier to describe than to solve: How can it broaden its appeal to up-for-grabs voters without alienating its conservative base?
There's no consensus yet on how to do it. With the next election three years away, Republicans are tiptoeing around policy changes even as they size up potential candidates who range from tea party heroes to pragmatic governors in Republican- and Democratic-leaning states.
There's a partial road map, but it's more than two decades old, and the other party drafted it. Democrats, sick of losing elections and being tagged as out-of-touch liberals, moved their party toward the center and rallied behind Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in 1992.
Strategists in both parties say Clinton's achievement, however impressive, may look modest compared to what a Republican leader must do to construct a new winning formula, given the nation's changing demographics.
"Our challenge was to get voters back," said Al From, a chief architect of Clinton's political rise. "Their challenge is harder: get voters to come into a new coalition."
That will be complicated, From said, because the Republicans' conservative base "is more demanding and more important" than the Democrats' liberal base.
An array of Republican campaign veterans agree. They say the party's loyal base of conservative activists ? including evangelical Christians, anti-tax crusaders and anti-abortion advocates ? is too big, ideological and vital to be treated with anything but great care and respect. Republicans will go nowhere if they lose a hard-core conservative every time they pick up a new unaligned voter with a more moderate message.
While they circle that conundrum, Republican leaders hope for a charismatic nominee in the mold of Clinton or Ronald Reagan. They yearn for someone who can appeal to less ideological voters without prompting conservatives to feel their principles are losing primacy.
Several veteran strategists say Republicans should focus less on modifying their ideas than on improving their campaign mechanics and finding nominees with broader personal appeal than Mitt Romney, John McCain and Bob Dole.
"The foundation of the party as a conservative party hasn't been the principal liability, but the principal asset," said GOP campaign strategist Terry Holt.
"Among every voter group there are people who share our values," Holt said. The key to winning, he said, is to perform better at "micro-targeting" and other techniques designed to find and motivate potential voters.
In that area, he said, "the other party is about half a light year ahead of us."
Arizona-based Republican consultant Eddie Mahe said finding a charismatic candidate is more important than tweaking policies. Given Americans' low opinion of politics, he said, "to sell the party as a party is nonsensical."
Instead, Mahe said, Republicans must pick a nominee who appeals "to the non-voters, disinterested voters, the uninformed ? whatever you want to call them ? who are attracted to a personality, someone they feel good about."
The Republican who comes closest to that description, he said, is Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a tea party favorite. But Mahe said he doubts she could win a general election.
Dan Schnur, a former aide to President George W. Bush who teaches political science at the University of Southern California, said: "Parties don't remake parties. Leaders remake parties."
Schnur agrees that Clinton was a gifted politician, but he also had some help and luck, which Republicans will need, too.
Clinton has acknowledged that Gary Hart began tugging the Democratic Party from its liberal and outdated moorings in 1984 and 1988, even if he eventually fell short of the nominations. And a 1992 candidacy by New York governor and liberal hero Mario Cuomo might have doomed Clinton's lean-to-the-center strategy.
Republicans "need a Gary Hart before they get a Bill Clinton," Schnur said. And they may have trouble narrowing the ideological field in the 2016 primary and beyond, which could force the eventual nominee to embrace hard-right principles that excite GOP activists but turn off independent voters.
A 97-page post-mortem, commissioned by the Republican Party after Romney's loss last fall, said the GOP "is increasingly marginalizing itself, and unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future."
The report emphasized messaging and outreach more than possible changes to policies and proposals. "The party should be proud of its conservative principles," the report said, but it also must be more "welcoming and inclusive" to young voters, minorities and women.
From ? who founded the Democratic Leadership Council, a key proponent of Clinton's 1992 agenda ? says Republicans are on the wrong track. They must be more open to adjusting their policies, he said, if they want to win presidential elections.
In the early 1990s, From said, "people didn't trust Democrats on the economy, national security, crime, welfare." By pushing welfare reductions, community policing and other new ideas, he said, "we tried to systematically eliminate the obstacles. Republicans have got to do the same thing."
Clinton's 1992 team believed "if you get the argument right, people will vote for us," From said. "Republicans don't have the argument right."
Clinton campaign aide Paul Begala said parties that win presidential elections are "always more mainstream and more unified. Right now, the Republicans are neither."
Begala said liberal activists made only modest complaints about Clinton's shift toward the political center because they were sick of losing elections with nominees such as George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.
He said Republicans might need one more presidential loss to create a similar level of frustration, which can open the way to pragmatism and moderation. Nominating a tea party-leaning "true believer" such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas could do the trick, Begala said.
Holt, who has advised numerous GOP campaigns, said Republicans have already learned the lesson. "The most effective remedy for any party is an overdose of defeat," he said. "We've suffered that."
The Republicans' challenge is spelled out in exit polls from President Barack Obama's win over Romney. Nearly two-thirds of Republican voters labeled themselves as conservatives. But fewer than half of all Democratic voters called themselves liberals.
That indicates Democrats are working with a less ideological, more flexible base, giving a nominee leeway to embrace issues that might attract non-aligned voters in the general election.
Republicans, on the other hand, depend on a more ideological base. That's one reason party leaders ? for now, anyway ? talk less of modifying party policies and more of changing mechanics, technology and messaging.
"The brand has suffered," Holt said, "but the values have been very consistent."
___
Associated Press polling director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
Follow Charles Babington on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbabington.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-dilemma-draw-voters-without-irking-071512481.html
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Jennifer Mosher, Editor: Why marketing is the hardest task for self ...
My younger daughter works with me. Technically, she works for me, but we get on so well at the office that I think in terms of her working with me.
Now, you would think it would be easy to sell a book called The High School Survival Guide - a handbook for the modern teenage girl, wouldn't you??Apparently, not so!
4. Make sure that you or the book have some sort of website. It's all well and good?having a?social media presence, but you also need to be able to reach those people outside of social media - not everybody has a Facebook or Twitter account!
She spent her gap year working with me, and by the time her gap year was finished, she'd worked out that the last thing she wanted to do was go to uni full-time. Instead, she kept working for me, signing up for various online courses in graphic design, web development etc, and wrote a book. That's right: at the age of 20, she became a published author. And not just any book - it's a full-colour, magazine-style guide to help teenage girls through those difficult years.
We knew she was writing it, and had a photographer friend (Darren Phillips of Darphi Images) doing the photos (in some of the worst weather imaginable), and had managed to get contributions?from a UK 'triple threat' performer (Ben 'R-Tizt' Francis from Luminites) and a careers advisor from New Zealand (Tracy Keith of TMK Consulting), and we helped a little bit here and there as taxi drivers, but for the most part we kept out of it as it was her project.
We expected it to be reasonably good - we had seen the effort she'd been putting into it over two years - but we had no idea how good the book would be, until she showed it to us laid out, formatted, and almost ready to print. And that's when I said, 'Please don't take this to a traditional publisher - please let's do it ourselves.' I still don't quite know why. Perhaps I was worried that they might insist on certain changes to the book, taking it away from what she believed would be best. Or that they would push her into doing?appearances?and things that she wasn't ready for. Or that they would make more money out of it than she did. Perhaps that was it. I knew she would get 10% of the RRP of every book sold, but what if they were making 20% of the RRP after production and promotion? That just wouldn't be fair.
So we funded the printing, and put it out under our own MoshPit Publishing label, which was a good exercise for us anyway as we'd not published a colour book before.
Now, you would think it would be easy to sell a book called The High School Survival Guide - a handbook for the modern teenage girl, wouldn't you??Apparently, not so!
First off, you have to help your author not be embarrassed about having written such a full book at such a young age. My daughter is a reasonably humble kid, and once the book came out, she suddenly wanted to hide. Turns out it is much easier to say 'I'm writing a book' than it is to go around saying 'I have written a book'. Once you've written and?published your first book, you feel like just a teensy bit of a wanker! It gets easier with the second book as by then you start to feel that actually are an author, rather than an imposter. But there's a bit of mind shift with?that?first book.
Once you get your author to?believe?in their book, and themselves, the next thing you have to do is raise awareness of the book so that people will buy it. That's all well and good: we have the internet, we have a shop front, we have our online shop, and we've been able to stock it in a pharmacy and a book store in the local area from time to time. We've done mail outs to high school librarians and school counsellors. Ally has presented in front of 30 high school?liaison?officers. She has written articles for magazines and sent copious copies, in both print and ebook formats, to many magazines and parenting sites. As a mother-daughter/publisher-author team we've presented a double act in front of 170 junior high school girls (now that was an interesting hour!). The book is?available?on Amazon, and from our own online shop, and it has its own website and Facebook page.
But you know what??That's?just not enough. We've?managed?to sell some bulk orders to some high schools for their libraries, but generally speaking, it's one book at a time.
Now, I know part of the reason is that it's not cheap. At $34.95 it's not the sort of spur-of-the-moment book you grab as you're trawling the internet. But it's also not the sort of book you ignore. With young girls falling victim to the most horrendous side effects of low self esteem and poor parenting these days, you would think that so many adults would see it and think 'I must invest in that for my daughter/granddaughter/niece etc'. But no.
So we've?developed?ebook versions (at $4.99) and a free sample which means that potential buyers can decide if they want to invest in the print copy or not. And still it's not enough. And do you know why?
Because there are millions of books out there. Millions. And while there are millions of potential buyers, they need to come into contact with your book. They need to see it probably more than once before they commit to buying it. It has to be a book that they're going to be interested in. And it has to be there, ready and available for them to buy it, at that moment that they decide that this the book that they're going to buy next.
So if you're a self publisher and you're finding it hard to shift your book, don't despair. It doesn't mean (necessarily) that what you've written is crap. It doesn't mean (necessarily) that no one is interested. It is all about being in the right place at the right time.
The best advice I can give you is:
1. Be sure that you've written a good book. See if you can get some sort of feedback from people you don't know - people who are more?likely?going to be honest with you. If perhaps the feedback you're getting suggests that your book isn't as good as you thought it was, then consider pulling it off the 'shelves', polishing it up, and then re-releasing it. If the feedback suggests that it has too many errors, then at least get it proofread prior to re-release. Of course, if you've gone ahead and had 2,000 copies printed and they're taking up parking space in your garage, this isn't so much of an option for you.
2.?Get reviews! Wherever it is up for sale on the internet, ask people you know who have read it to log on and review it. However, make sure you ask them for honest reviews. The worst reviews are glowing five-star reviews from people who are clearly your friends and relatives. One of the most honest five-star reviews I have read was for J-L Heylen's book Wisdom Beyond Her Years. A buyer called KB admitted that they were a bit sceptical, but found it worth the read, despite saying?that the book was a little too ''explainy' for my personal taste, I think we can put that down to this novel being the author's first' and 'Wisdom Beyond her Years is not high literature, but it is a whole lot of fun'.
3. Don't be afraid to change the cover of a print on demand or ebook version. Ally recently changed her cover to the one above from the plainer, less emotional one below, and sold a print version on Amazon almost straight away:
4. Make sure that you or the book have some sort of website. It's all well and good?having a?social media presence, but you also need to be able to reach those people outside of social media - not everybody has a Facebook or Twitter account!
5. Set up author pages and profiles. If you have published through outlets such as CreateSpace, KDP or Smashwords, then take advantage of free marketing opportunities such as the Amazon Author profile page (see mine here:?http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Mosher/e/B00BO1OCTY/?for an example) and the Smashwords author profile page.
6. Think laterally. Ally recently wrote?10 Tips for Surviving Teenage Daughters for SchoolMum.net and organised the free sample as a result of a request from Family Deal Friday. This is not sales, it is marketing. And if all the dominoes are lined up correctly, marketing?leads to sales.
7. Find magazines and blogs which need content and send them details of your book. Family Australia Magazine were happy to include The High School Survival Guide on page 6 of their Autumn issue as one of their 'What We Love' items. A good source for Australian writers is SourceBottle (all puns intended!)
9. If you believe in it, don't give up. Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunity and keep plugging it. If it's an ebook or a print on demand book, then time is on your side.?
10. Spread your message as far and wide as you can. You can't expect family and friends to do all your sales work for you!
11. Enter?appropriate?awards. Ally entered her book in the 2012 Global Ebook Awards AND won the best book in the non-fiction teenage literature category! 12. List it on directories and other appropriate places, such as One Thousand Words Plus?(OTW+). If you'd like a coupon for a free life-time listing on OTW+, please contact me. 13. Don't bore people stupid with your 'I've written a book, would you like to buy a copy?' message. Yes, you need to publicise your book, but you also need to learn when to stop talking about it!
These are not the only things you can do - there are others, and if you'd like to share what's worked for you and what hasn't, feel free to leave a comment below.
Source: http://www.jennifermoshereditor.com/2013/05/why-marketing-is-hardest-task-for-self.html
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