Wednesday, October 31, 2012

New way to prevent recurrent ear infections?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2012) ? Eliminating bacteria's DNA and boosting antimicrobial proteins that already exist may help prevent middle ear infections from reoccurring. These are the findings from a Nationwide Children's Hospital study that examined how an immune defense protein common in the middle ear interacts with a structure meant to protect a colony of bacteria.

The bacterium nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) causes a wide range of diseases of both the lower and upper airways, including middle ear infection. NTHI, like most other bacteria, can form a biofilm, a robust community of bacteria that allows the bacteria to evade the host's immune system and protects the bacteria from antibiotics and other therapies designed to kill them.

Human beta-defensin-3 is an antimicrobial defense protein expressed in the middle ear of humans and other mammals that kills both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Previous research has shown that if expression of beta-defensin is disrupted, the host's ability to control the bacteria in the upper airway is altered and infection worsens.

Investigators in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital hypothesized that human beta-defensin-3 might lose its power to kill NTHI if it got caught up within the extracellular DNA that makes up a biofilm's outer layer, thus preventing its contact with bacteria within the biofilm.

"Antimicrobial host defense proteins, like human beta-defensin-3, have been shown to bind to non-host DNA," says Lauren O. Bakaletz, PhD director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis "This interaction has an impact on the defense protein's ability to function."

Upon examining their animal model of middle ear infection, Dr. Bakaletz' team found that bacterial DNA and the animal's defense peptides were detected together in biofilms that developed during infection. Also, the defense peptide was predominantly co-localized with the biofilm's extracellular DNA.

When the team exposed the bacteria that cause ear infections to a concentration of human-beta defensin-3 that is typically detected in the a middle ear of a child with active infection, the peptide was able to kill 100 percent of the NTHI, but the killing stopped when extracellular DNA was introduced to the reaction.

"These data support the conclusion that the killing activity of the antimicrobial defense protein was decreased in an NTHI-induced biofilm due to its interaction with eDNA," says Dr. Bakaletz, who is the lead study author and professor of Pediatrics and Otolaryngology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

When they removed extracellular DNA from the biofilm, the killing activity of the defense peptide was rescued.

"The ability to restore antimicrobial defense protein activity is encouraging, since biofilms are resistant to most treatments, including traditional antibiotics," says Dr. Bakaletz.

Dr. Bakaletz says this study provides evidence for a new treatment regimen to target biofilms formed by NTHI during middle ear infection. One approach would be to deliver a therapeutic agent that can disrupt bacterial DNA, in conjunction with human beta-defensin-3 to the middle ear of a child with chronic, recurrent infection. Physicians could follow the same pathway used to target the middle ear during ear tube surgery, a common treatment for chronic ear infections.

"This approach would likely bolster the ability of the innate immune system to manage NTHI-induced biofilms, avoiding the need for antibiotics or empowering the use of antibiotics we already have in our arsenal," says Dr. Bakaletz. "Doing so could help diminish the recurrent nature of middle ear infection."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Nationwide Children's Hospital, via Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Eric A. Jones, Glen McGillivary, Lauren O. Bakaletz. Extracellular DNA within a Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae-Induced Biofilm Binds Human Beta Defensin-3 and Reduces Its Antimicrobial Activity. Journal of Innate Immunity, 2012; DOI: 10.1159/000339961

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/health_medicine/genes/~3/8r4rBgRgauc/121030101340.htm

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New findings on men's genes could alter interpretation of PSA test

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2012) ? By studying a specific part of the male DNA, it may be possible to refine the interpretation of PSA tests. This would reduce the risk of men being treated for prostate cancer unnecessarily.

The findings have been presented in a thesis by Christel Bj?rk at Lund University, Sweden, who has carried out the study with her colleague Hannah Nenonen, supervised by researcher Yvonne Lundberg Giwercman.

A PSA test measures the level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in the blood, and raised PSA can signal an increased risk of cancer; however, this is not the case for everyone. The problem is that there is no good way to separate those with naturally high levels of PSA from those at increased risk of prostate cancer.

"If we know that a man has a naturally high level of PSA, this can be taken into account in a PSA test, and the patient may be able to avoid arduous treatment with a risk of side-effects," says Christel Bj?rk, a doctoral student at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University.

The present study shows how a man's genetic characteristics can affect the androgen receptor, a protein that has an important function in the male reproductive system. It regulates the effect of testosterone and controls production of prostate-specific antigen.

The researchers studied healthy men in different age groups and discovered a connection between PSA levels in the blood and DNA structure of the androgen receptor. The highest PSA levels were found in the men with the most common variant of the androgen receptor, i.e. the largest group of men.

"Both the PSA level and the genetic characteristics can be identified with a blood test," says Yvonne Lundberg Giwercman, Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University.

The study is based on samples from around 400 men from Sweden and Norway. Before the results can be implemented for PSA tests in the health service, the study must be repeated on a larger group.

"We have access to material covering around 3 200 men from seven European countries and the idea is to investigate whether our preliminary findings can be verified on this group in the near future," explains Yvonne Lundberg Giwercman.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/p1bpOYMJ7iY/121030093741.htm

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HBT: Melky bust makes Giants' title illegitimate?

This column from Ray McNulty of the T.C. Palm in Florida is so chock full o? stupid that it defies block quoting. But know that Mr. McNulty believes the following:

  • The Giants are not deserving of World Series congratulations because Melky Cabrera tested positive for PEDs, and that justifies us questioning ?the legitimacy? of the championship;
  • ?His season was a fraud. He cheated.?That?s shameful,? and ?the Giants ? knowingly or unknowingly ? reaped the rewards of his cheating.? He adds: ?That?s not right. It?s not fair.?
  • The Giants probably did know he was cheating or else they wouldn?t have traded for Hunter Pence in July;
  • This is even worse since it?s the Giants, because Barry Bonds played for them and several Giants players were mentioned in the Mitchell Report. Five years ago.
  • Bud Selig should act in the best interests of baseball and disqualify teams from playoff consideration if they have PED users on the team.

Because that?s workable.

Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you?re going to seriously question the legitimacy of the Giants championship, you need to account for the fact that the Giants were up by one game in the standings on the day Cabrera was suspended yet somehow ended up winning the division by eight games.

Wait, let me guess: once their criminal conspiracy was finally uncovered all of the stress of their deceit ended, thereby allowing them to loosen up and play better?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/31/the-giants-championship-is-illegitimate-because-of-melky-says-man-with-presumably-straight-face/related/

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

harshhaswani0: [ECP] Educational CyberPlayGround K-12 ...

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ECS: James Bryant Conant Award
The Education Commission of the States James Bryant Conant Award is bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to improving education across the country in significant ways such as: providing leadership on groundbreaking task forces or committees; publishing works and/or conducting research that profoundly influenced thinking on public education in the United States and/or had a substantial impact on policy; shepherding groundbreaking education reform through the legislative process; and/or demonstrating exemplary service as a public figure or elected official deeply involved in improving education for all. Maximum award: recognition. Deadline: November 21, 2012.
http://www.ecs.org/html/aboutECS/Awards.htm

Architecture for Humanity: Guerrilla Green Sustainable Showdown
The Guerrilla Green Sustainable Showdown invites teams of middle and high school students across the U.S. to bring innovative solutions to their school buildings, outdoor spaces, and activities. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: middle or high school teams of one to four people. Deadline: December 3, 2012.
http://guerrillagreen.architectureforhumanity.org/

Coalition for Community Schools: Individual Community Schools Awards
The Coalition for Community Schools is now accepting nominations for its Community Schools of Excellence Awards. The Individual Community Schools Awards will go to schools that have been operating as community schools for at least three years and have demonstrated success. Three individual schools will be recognized. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: schools that have been operating as community schools for at least three years. Deadline: December 15, 2012.
http://www.communityschools.org/2013_community_school_awards_for_excellence.aspx

Coalition for Community Schools: Community School Initiative Awards
The Community School Initiative Awards will go to initiatives with joint efforts between schools and community stakeholders that have organized multiple community school sites with a strong commitment to scaling up across the community or school systems. Up to two initiatives will be recognized. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: school systems operating more than one community school for more than three years, which has both community leadership and an intermediary organization (e.g., a CBO, institution of higher education, United Way, consortium of organizations, local education fund, local government, etc.) Deadline: December 15, 2012.
http://www.communityschools.org/2013_community_school_awards_for_excellence.aspx

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Educational CyberPlayGround, Inc.? strives to help Teachers, Parents, and Policy Makers: Learn about Music, Teaching, Internet, Technology, Literacy, Arts and Linguistics in the K12 classroom.

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How to make stem cells - nuclear reprogramming moves a step forward

Monday, October 29, 2012

The idea of taking a mature cell and removing its identity (nuclear reprogramming) so that it can then become any kind of cell, holds great promise for repairing damaged tissue or replacing bone marrow after chemotherapy. Hot on the heels of his recent Nobel prize Dr John B. Gurdon has published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Epigenetics & Chromatin research showing that histone H3.3 deposited by the histone-interacting protein HIRA is a key step in reverting nuclei to a pluripotent type, capable of being any one of many cell types.

All of an individual's cells have the same DNA, yet these cells become programmed, as the organism matures, into different types such as heart, or lung or brain. To achieve this different genes are more or less permanently switched off in each cell lineage. As an embryo grows, after a certain number of divisions, it is no longer possible for cells which have gone down the pathway to become something else. For example heart cells cannot be converted into lung tissue, and muscle cells cannot form bone.

One way to reprogram DNA is to transfer the nucleus of a mature cell into an unfertilized egg. Proteins and other factors inside the egg alter the DNA switching some genes on and other off until it resembles the DNA of a pluripotent cell. However there seem to be some difficulties with this method in completely wiping the cell's 'memory'.

One of the mechanisms regulating the activation of genes is chromatin and in particular histones. DNA is wrapped around histones and alteration in how the DNA is wound changes which genes are available to the cell. In order to understand how nuclear reprogramming works Dr Gurdon's team transplanted a mouse nucleus into a frog oocyte (Xenopus laevis). They added fluorescently tagged histones by microinjection, so that they could see where in the cell and nucleus the these histones collected.

Prof Gurdon explained, "Using real-time microscopy it became apparent that from 10 hours onwards H3.3 (the histone involved with active genes) expressed in the oocyte became incorporated into the transplanted nucleus. When we looked in detail at the gene Oct4, which is known to be involved in making cells pluripotent, we found that H3.3 was incorporated into Oct4, and that this coincided with the onset of transcription from the gene." Prof Gurdon's team also found that Hira, a protein required to incorporate H3.3 into chromatin, was also required for nuclear reprogramming.

Dr Steven Henikoff, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, commented, "Manipulating the H3.3 pathway may provide a way to completely wipe a cell's 'memory' and produce a truly pluripotent cell. Half a century after showing that cells can be reprogrammed this research provides a link to the work of Shinya Yamanaka (who shared the prize), and suggests that chromatin is a sticking point preventing artificially induced reprogramming being used routinely in the clinic."

###

BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com

Thanks to BioMed Central 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/124885/_How_to_make_stem_cells___nuclear_reprogramming_moves_a_step_forward

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Ira Stoll on Expanded Flood Insurance Subsidies for Beachfront ...

Four months before Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, President Obama quietly signed legislation expanding the federal program that offers taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance to ocean-front homeowners.

The extension of the flood insurance law was a textbook example of how the system in Washington works, or doesn?t work. Though billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake, the extension got virtually no mainstream press attention. It was covered extensively, however, in Insurance Journal, a trade publication that caters to the industry with?headlines?such as ?Agents, Insurers Cheer Congress OK of Flood Insurance Reform Bill.?

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/29/ira-stoll-on-expanded-flood-insurance-su

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Giants blow 23-point lead, but win 29-24 at Dallas

Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten (82) is tackled by New York Giants outside linebacker Michael Boley (59) and Keith Rivers (55) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten (82) is tackled by New York Giants outside linebacker Michael Boley (59) and Keith Rivers (55) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (90) celebrates with Stevie Brown (27) after intercepting a pass from Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and returning it for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant (88) makes a last-minute reception between New York Giants cornerbacks Corey Webster (23) and Michael Coe (37) for a touchdown that was nullified after review during an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Arlington, Texas. Bryant's hand landed on the line. The Giants won 29-24. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) gets past New York Giants middle linebacker Chase Blackburn (93) to score a touchdwon during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012 in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant (88) is taken down by New York Giants cornerback Jayron Hosley (28) and Stevie Brown (27) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012 in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)

(AP) ? Eli Manning stood on the New York Giants' sideline in disbelief when it looked as if the Dallas Cowboys had scored a go-ahead touchdown with 10 seconds left.

What was encouraging is what he didn't see: a replay on the giant videoboard that hangs above the field at Cowboys Stadium, where the Giants still have never lost following a wild 29-24 victory Sunday.

Officials reviewed and overturned Dez Bryant's apparent 37-yard touchdown catch, ruling his hand hit out of bounds, and the Cowboys couldn't get into the end zone after the overturned reception.

"I couldn't quite believe they were able to hit a touchdown in that situation. I kind of kept looking for the replay," Manning said. "You know the game was not going to be over until that clock hit zero."

This was the 20th time in Manning's career that the Giants rallied in the fourth quarter to win. And this comeback came after New York blew an early 23-0 lead.

"It speaks about our resiliency. We know how to win these games," receiver Victor Cruz said. "We've been in a bunch of them."

After their sixth win in seven games since a season-opening home loss to Dallas, the Giants (6-2) hurriedly cleared out of Cowboys Stadium trying to get home as quickly as possible with Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the East Coast.

The Giants are 4-0 in Arlington since Jerry Jones' football palace opened in 2009 with a New York victory.

"I'm very disappointed right now," Jones said. "I thought after all that, our defense played well enough, our offense kept going and I thought we were going to get a chance to pull one out."

Coupled with Sunday losses by Philadelphia (3-4) and Washington (3-5), the Giants strengthened their hold on the NFC East lead halfway through their schedule.

New York led 23-0 just 2 minutes into the second quarter when defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul returned an interception 28 yards for a touchdown. That was the third of four interceptions thrown by Tony Romo, and Dallas (3-4) finished with six turnovers.

But the Giants didn't score again until Lawrence Tynes made a 43-yard field goal with 10:20 left for a 26-24 lead. He kicked a 37-yarder with 3? minutes remaining in the fourth for his fifth of the game.

Stevie Brown set up Tynes' last field goal with a fumble recovery and also had two interceptions.

"We have good leadership, good people," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "They're fighters in that locker room. ... Sometimes it comes out differently than it was designed."

Dallas got to the Giants 19 on one of its last drives. On fourth-and-1 with 1:03 left, Romo scrambled and was picked off by Brown.

After New York failed to get a first down on three running plays and Dallas used all three of its timeouts, the Cowboys got the ball back with 44 seconds left at the 30. They got to the Giants 37 before Bryant's catch between two defenders in the back of the end zone was overturned.

"We scratched and scraped," Giants defensive lineman Chris Canty said. "At the end, we still had to have a little luck to pull that one out."

Manning completed 15 of 29 passes for 192 yards with an interception.

Romo threw for a career-high 437 yards while completing 36 of 62 passes. Jason Witten broke his own Cowboys team record with 18 catches, which resulted in 167 yards. Miles Austin had nine catches for 133 yards and Bryant had five catches for 110 yards.

The Giants led 13-0 in the first quarter after Romo's first two interceptions.

Brown, who has five interceptions in six games, stepped in front of Bryant and had a 37-yard return to set up Tynes' 37-yard kick that made it 6-0. Three plays later, Corey Webster's 37-yard interception return led to Andre Brown's 1-yard TD.

Michael Coe recovered at the Dallas 15 when Bryant fumbled after fielding a punt over his head, setting up a 26-yard field goal.

Three plays later, Pierre-Paul broke off a block and jumped to grab the ball. He punctuated his first-ever pick and touchdown by dunking the ball over the crossbar.

Things were so bad then that Jones was booed when he came on the videoboard during a public service announcement about breast cancer awareness. On another unrelated video during that same timeout, coach Jason Garrett got the same treatment when his image appeared on the screen.

"I've been to boo school so to speak," Jones said. "Seriously. I'm sure the fans had the same feeling I did. I was frustrated, mad and knew that we had dug ourselves a hole that was going to take super effort to get out of."

Dallas scored the last 10 points of the half, then added two more touchdowns in the third quarter to go ahead. Romo faked a handoff and rolled right for a 1-yard score on fourth down, ending the play with an emphatic spike.

After the Giants went three-and-out, the Cowboys drove to the 1 again. Romo faked another handoff and started rolling right, when he then shuffled the ball ahead to John Phillips for a 1-yard pass that put Dallas up 24-23.

None of that mattered after the closing sequence.

"Just tough when you think you've won the game," Romo said. "It switches as that moment. You put a lot into it, obviously. We put a week's worth (of emotion) in that one game.

NOTES: The only Cowboys with more passing yards in a game are Don Meredith (460 in November 1963) and Troy Aikman (455 in November 1998). ... The only other time Dallas had three 100-yard receivers was Nov. 10, 1963, at San Francisco. ... Tynes is now the second-leading scorer in Giants history. His 17 points Sunday pushed his career total to 535 (113 field goals, 196 extra points). He passed Brad Daluiso's 526 points. The career leader is Pete Gogolak's 646.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-28-Giants-Cowboys/id-800bcad3cd8a454fb0befe4decf8d09c

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Senior Human Resources Consultant - HigherEdJobs

School/Unit: Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Duties & Responsibilities

The Senior HR Consultant reports to the Director of HR Consulting with a dotted line reporting relationship to the respective Administrative Dean(s ) and/or Divisional Dean (s) of the assigned client groups. The Senior Human Resources Consultant contributes to the FAS HR mission: to attract, engage and retain a diverse, talented staff who are committed to excellence, mutual respect and trust, and in creating a collaborative and inclusive environment that promotes the full potential of the FAS community and supports the overall FAS mission. This role impacts this mission in the following ways:

HR Consultative Support

Partners strategically and consults proactively with FAS managers, faculty, staff and bargaining unit representatives to address a variety of workplace issues to provide tangible HR value to FAS.

Facilitates problem solving and collaborative solutions while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction for FAS clients. Provides guidance and advice on all HR related issues in a way that is planned, agreed upon and integrated.

Demonstrates solid understanding of the business needs and challenges of FAS customers.

Provides guidance and coaching to FAS managers on issues related to recruitment, employee orientation and on boarding, compensation, performance management, employee relations, retention and career development, mentoring, organizational development and employee departures.

Assures integrity of HR practices and policies, including compliance with state and federal requirements. Ensures manager and employee understanding of same through education, communication and consistent practices.

Communicating and Implementing FAS HR Initiatives

Delivers high quality HR programs and services, guided by relevant metrics to enhance the FAS environment and in response to FAS changing needs and challenges.

Aligns FAS HR strategy Harvard HR's overall strategy, interprets and communicates Harvard HR policies, practices, processes and metrics.

Proactively leverages existing resources and/or support within FAS and across all of Harvard.

Partners with FAS managers to diagnose organizational design, development and ongoing training needs and makes the most appropriate tools available to meet the need(s) of each of the FAS customers.

Provides leadership in the change process to create a culture of productivity and engagement. Takes initiative, works independently, manages projects effectively, and drives HR initiatives across FAS.

Aligns HR activities with FAS strategic goals, identifying opportunities for advancing talent acquisition and management strategies and approaches.

Creating new FAS HR Resources and Tools

Drives change initiatives and continuously improves HR processes by working on teams with other HR consultants, and on FAS HR projects from design through implementation.

Works with FAS HR and CWD colleagues to develop and to deliver HR programs, initiatives and offerings to FAS staff, contributing to enhancing the delivery of HR programs initiated by FAS HR as well as central HR.

Develops and drives key initiatives that support the accomplishment of FAS, divisional and department business objectives.

Basic Qualifications

Requires a Bachelor's degree?or equivalent professional experience with a minimum of 10 years' experience as an?HR Generalist or HR Business Partner/Practitioner.

Additional Qualifications

Proven experience working collaboratively with others and leading others in working together; demonstrated commitment to teamwork and positive collaboration to accomplish goals.

Experience in a multi-discipline Human Resource environment including expertise in employee relations,?recruitment and retention, training, compensation, performance management, and organizational development.

Demonstrated abilities as a creative problem-solver.

Able to address problems in a collaborative manner.?

Strong consultative skills; at ease in both formal and informal team leadership as well as team member roles.?

Strong employee relations and staffing experience (working in a Union environment a plus).

Track record of strong business judgment, connecting human resources with school goals/mission.?

High degree of credibility and integrity.?

Strong communication skills (writing, oral and listening).

Exceptional customer service skills.

Ability to analyze a situation, formulate responses and take appropriate action.?

Project management expertise preferred with demonstrated ability to drive programs/projects to completion.?

Strong organizational skills; ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects.?

SHRM certification or equivalent certification preferred.

Additional Information
All formal written offers will be made by FAS Human Resources.

Harvard University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

Source: http://www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?JobCode=175686460

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Increase Your Home&#39;s Worth With These Home Improvement Ideas ...

Maximize kitchen cabinet storage space. Use a turntable inside a cabinet for smaller items such as spice jars. In larger cabinets, use shelf dividers to double the storage space. Stack items on top of each other, such as canned or boxed food goods. Install floor to ceiling pantry cabinets. The most important tip? Get rid of anything you don?t need or use, such as old appliances or tableware. Any food that you don?t intend to eat, especially canned items, can be donated to your local food bank.

Make your child a room-sized blackboard! It will provide hours of entertainment and offer interest to practically any room. All you have to do is paint a section of a wall with paint that?s made especially for blackboards. If you want, you can even frame it in with molding to give it that professional look.

Before removing and replacing old wood floors attempt to refinish them first. In many cases, the original wood flooring of your home has a great deal more value than if you were to replace it. At the same time, many wood floors can be refinished and look as new as ever with less cost than replacing the wood floors altogether.

A very quick walk around your home once a month, will indicate small and effective home improvements that you can make easily. Such an example would be, identifying air leaks. Once you detect the leaks, you can insulate and correct the problem, which will then save you money on your energy bills.

Fun fact, most dishwashers, when full, are actually more efficient than washing dishes by hand. The water consumed is likely less than the amount you use to wash your own dishes. Bonus, it is faster, and typically the washer will dry your dishes too. If you are looking into buying a new appliance for your home, consider a dishwasher.

If you are thinking about ripping up some carpet to see what lies beneath, then it is best to start in a corner out of eyeshot. Use needle nose pliers to gently pull back the carpeting far enough to see the sub floor. You may be pleasantly surprised to see hardwood floors hiding under the carpet. Then again, you can always secure the carpet again if you did not find anything spectacular.

Instead of adding on to your home, consider new ways of using the space that already exists. By removing a wall or changing the way that you use a particular room, you can maximize the space you already have without adding square footage to your home that will need lighting, heating, and cooling.

Millions of homeowners decide every day to make some type of improvement to their homes, and many of them end up with poor results. Pay attention to the tips provided to you in this article so that you?re always making the best possible home improvement decisions when it?s time to spruce up your house.

Delmer Mana contributes articles relating to complum.com/house-water-filtration-systems-and-filters.html

Source: http://articlepdq.com/health-fitness/increase-your-homes-worth-with-these-home-improvement-ideas/

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Romney calls for more cooperation in Washington

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is calling for more partisan cooperation in Washington as he rallies supporters in Florida.

Romney says this is not a time to divide the country or demonize political opponents, but to, quote, "build bridges" to the other party.

The comments came before thousands of supporters who packed the Pensacola Civic Center. It's the first of three stops Romney planned for Florida Saturday.

Romney's been toning down conservative rhetoric as he courts women and independents as Election Day looms.

But the moderate tone did not last long.

Romney said that Obama is "shrinking from the magnitude of the times" by focusing on "small things." He also said that the president has shrunk from the promises he made as a candidate.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-calls-cooperation-florida-174721958--election.html

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Is Your Company Invisible Online? Try These Web Marketing Tips ...

Is Your Company Invisible Online? Try These Web Marketing Tips!

How do you feel about Website marketing? Do you find everything you can and work to improve your marketing efforts? If you haven?t done the research, you should. There are no shortage of resources available that will tell you everything you need to know about internet promotion. After you have researched the different types of affiliate marketing, choose one or two methods that may work for your company. These tips will give you a heads up on where you can begin.

Your customers can be offered a subscription of things they purchase. For example, if a customer purchases a ream of computer paper, offer him or her a twenty-five percent discount if he or she signs up to buy a ream every month.

Try and find leaders of your industry to interview. Make sure that you get their legal permission before publishing anything to avoid major legal repercussions. Following this, have the interviews transcribed to become articles, which you can submit to online article directories. This is a powerful tactic for improving your exposure, traffic, and profits.

Take advantage of the vast realm of information available online. The Internet is always changing, and doing so rapidly, so staying abreast of the latest innovations and high ranking websites can help you a lot in knowing the best routes to take to make your product readily available to the general public.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is a new conduit to customers that deserves your consideration. This gives you a chance to give visitors to your site a way to get alerts via text about discounts or new products. Mobile marketing is quickly becoming a necessary component of any successful marketing campaign.

When you can, avoid spam. Although it may seem more efficient to use web-crawling software to post hundreds of comments on hundreds of blogs, these posts will never have the effect you want them too. And actually your impersonal touch will probably turn people off and make them feel irritated instead of interested.

The first step in Internet promotion is to develop a website that makes a statement. It is important that your website is different from others, if you want more traffic. A simple way to do this, is by highlighting a special service that you offer.

One way to use Affiliate marketing is to link it with the charity of your choice. Choosing one that all of your customers would support, and donating some of your profits, can increase your revenue and credibility. This can boost your image and you?ll get some free advertising from the charity. If you so desire, you may support several charities and allow your customers to choose which they would like to help support with each purchase.

One absolute Web marketing necessity is information security. You need to take every possible step to protect your customers? information when they buy from you. People are wary of sending personal information over the Internet, so make sure you ease these fears by letting customers know that their information is secure.

You might want to package similar products together and then sell them together at a discounted price. You should be clear in your marketing of what the offer is and what it entails.

Make sure you have the money to buy a good domain URL. It?s probably going to be difficult to get the domain name that matches your company name. You can get any domain name you want if you have over a thousand dollars to spend. You should definitely weigh the pros and cons of this investment.

Never simply give up on an approach if it does not immediately produce the desired results. It may work better now than it did the first time. The web is forever morphing, new things are always becoming popular. Don?t invest in those ideas that don?t work; just keep them to use later.

When you are starting to market your business online, you should look in to advertising. Advertisements pay for themselves with higher traffic and more sales. This will assist in generating new business with unlikely customers.

Let your users post reviews. Customers who post their experience with your product can result in new sales, and they also increase your Internet presence with more content.

Internet marketing is both alike and different than other kinds of marketing. Be ready for any changes that may come up, like if search engines stop putting focus on title tags. Knowing this, you might need to place more effort in marketing a video to viral audiences.

Some say that you need to know about both arts and sciences to succeed in an web marketing campaign. True, you need to understand the technical aspects of marketing, but you also have to feel your way through the realistic side of things. This can sometimes be challenging.

Look into doing your own marketing online, there are many resources available and you can save a great deal of money not using high-priced consultants. Just a few of these resources could be joining a forum, reading blogs about marketing, going to a business conference or seminar, or downloading e-books.

If you don?t devote your full attention to all of your social media profiles it will be a detriment to your company. A profile which is stagnant is perceived as spam.

Try personalizing your campaign. In correspondence and advertisements, use your actual name. Adding a photo of yourself to your site is another way to humanize your campaign. You can have a handwritten welcome statement.

Before you settle into a single tone for your content, try out some variations and get a sense of the impact they have on your sales and traffic. When you have figured out which approach and tone represent your business the best, promote it and build on it. The customer might not always be right; you just need to approach things that way. Listen and react to your customers.

Marketing Plan

Now that you have an idea on where to start crafting your own Website marketing plan, are you ready to start experimenting? Are you prepared to use what you read about for your own business? This means you need to start improving your overall marketing plan strategically. If you feel sure of what you just learned, you can be on your way to progress.

Tags: affiliate marketing, marketing campaign, marketing plan, mobile marketing, web marketing

Source: http://make-money-blog.com/is-your-company-invisible-online-try-these-web-marketing-tips/

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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Virginia politics shaped by population shifts

FARMVILLE, Va. (AP) ? For 10 presidential races in a row, Virginia voted reliably Republican. Then came 2008, and Barack Obama's victory. Now the GOP is battling to take back what it still regards as its turf.

But this isn't the sleepy, agrarian Old Dominion that reflexively backed Republicans in every White House election from Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 through George W. Bush in 2004, except for Lyndon Johnson's 1964 national landslide.

A population boom and its attendant cultural, economic and demographic changes, particularly since the 1990s, has transformed a state both parties had dismissed for decades as a Republican redoubt into a pivotal electoral battleground for the second presidential race in a row.

Virginians are unaccustomed to nonstop presidential campaign stops and incessant negative ads.

It's all aimed at Harry Donahue and other independent voters, many of whom altered Virginia's political complexion by moving here in the past 20 years.

The 68-year-old retired chemical worker from the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia moved to Virginia in 2001 and brought with him an independent streak and a voting pattern that ranges from Ronald Reagan to Ross Perot. He plans to back Obama this year after supporting John McCain in 2008.

"I liked John McCain. I thought he made good sense, stood for something," Donahue said. The Air Force veteran who favors blue jeans and a brush-cut hair style also respected McCain's record as a Navy pilot who was captured and held as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

But Romney?

"He just flip-flops too much. He didn't have an agenda ? still doesn't," Donahue said. As for Obama, Donahue said: He's able to talk to ordinary people. He's not the uppity type that Romney is."

Donahue and his wife, Nancy, had vacationed often in Virginia. When he retired, they bought a farmhouse in Cumberland County, just outside this quaint and trendy small-college town that's steeped in Virginia's verdant political history.

In 1951, a classroom walkout by black students protesting a segregated and substandard public high school in Farmville became a signature moment in the civil rights struggle. It spawned a lawsuit over deep, race-based educational inequities 85 years after the Confederate surrender a few miles away at Appomattox. The case was part of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregated public schools.

Then, as it had since Reconstruction, Virginia was ruled by a conservative, segregationist Democratic Party that, for much of the 20th century, dominated government from courthouses to the Statehouse. That changed in 1952, when Eisenhower carried Virginia. In 1968, Richard Nixon cemented Virginia into a solidly Republican South with his "Southern strategy" of appealing to white Dixie Democrats who felt their party had strayed too far left in advancing civil rights under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Johnson.

The growth of federal power, born of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society programs, transformed Virginia's Washington, D.C., suburbs. The influx of people from all over the nation brought in new cultural and political ideas. Where people hunted rabbits in 1960, freeways and shopping malls stand today.

The sleepy tidewater communities of Hampton Roads, home to Virginia Beach and the world's largest U.S. Navy base at Norfolk, also grew into large cities and suburbs.

By the 1960s, the state's rural character had forever changed with more than half of Virginia residents living in urban settings, according to "Red State, Blue State," an analysis published in July by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

Virginia's population grew by 13 percent from 2000 to 2010, from about 7 million people to 8 million people. Hispanic or Latino populations nearly doubled over the period. The Asian population grew by 69 percent, the white population by 7 percent and the black population by 12 percent, according to census data.

Urbanization created a demand among city and suburban dwellers for more government services such as roads, public safety and public schools, a liberalizing influence on an electorate growing rapidly in the Washington Beltway and Hampton Roads.

Growth in northern Virginia in many cases exceeded the ability of state and local governments to keep pace with transportation demands, creating permanent highway gridlock that threatens the vitality of the state's economic engine.

Fairfax County, the state's most populous locality, has grown by 142 percent since 1960, from 455,000 people to 1.1 million. Its neighbor, bucolic Loudoun County, saw an eightfold increase, from 37,150 to 325,405 now, with three-fourths of it spiking in the last 20 years. Its rate of growth since 2000 was the fourth-fastest of any county in the nation.

"The center of energy in Virginia shifted increasingly to northern Virginia because of its population growth and its wealth," said Mark Rozell, a political science professor at George Mason University in Fairfax County. "Politically, this state is very different from what it was just a generation ago."

While Virginia is a newcomer as a presidential battleground, Democrats and Republicans have been competitive in state races.

Obama won in 2008 in no small measure because of deep voter dismay with lame duck GOP President George W. Bush. That capped an eight-year run of Democratic dominance in which the party won two gubernatorial elections and took both U.S. Senate seats from Republicans.

An occasional look at how and why various states became presidential battlegrounds

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/virginia-politics-shaped-population-shifts-172447418--election.html

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Super Addicting Ranch Chex Mix Recipe | Budget Savvy Diva

Everyday at 1 pm PST/ 4pm EST Budget Savvy Diva posts a NEW RECIPE :) I might miss this time every now or then ? but I know you understand

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What You Need

12 ounces of mini pretzels

2 cups of corn chex cereal

6 oz of salted cashews

8 ounces of Goldfish crackers

1 packet of ranch salad mix ( dry)

1/4 cup of Canola Oil ( helps the mix stay on the ingredients)

What To Do

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl VERY well.

Enjoy. Store leftovers in a airtight container ( but there is a good chance there will be no left overs)

Super Addicting Ranch Chex Mix Recipe

Serves: 3 ? 5

  • 12 ounces of mini pretzels
  • 2 cups of corn chex cereal
  • 6 oz of salted cashews
  • 8 ounces of Goldfish crackers
  • 1 packet of ranch salad mix ( dry)
  • 1/4 cup of Canola Oil ( helps the mix stay on the ingredients)
  1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl VERY well.
  2. Enjoy. Store leftovers in a airtight container ( but there is a good chance there will be no left overs)

2.2.8

Other recipes you'll love:


Source: http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/10/super-addicting-ranch-chex-mix-recipe/

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Big Ben remains Steelers' rock

Pittsburgh Steelers v Cincinnati BengalsGetty Images

These are not the Steelers you?re used to.

But it?s still the same Ben Roethlisberger, which means they?re always going to have a chance.

With a system, he?s still coming to grips with, a supposed lack of running game and lack of protection, and too many balls on the ground, the Steelers quarterback was undeterred, leading his team to a 24-17 win over the Bengals.

Roethlisberger finished 27-of-37 for 278 yards and a touchdown.

Those numbers would have been a lot better if not for some problems by his teammates (keep reading), but they were still enough.

You can tell Roethlisberger and offensive coordinator Todd Haley are still learning to dance together. Toes are still being stepped on, between getting the steps just right often enough.

He can still move the pocket to buy time, and he can still gun the ball (as he proved on his touchdown to Heath Miller just before halftime).

But all told, his is a game that is generally greater than the sum of its parts. And for a team in a bit of a transition, that?s something they need to count on.

Here are five more things we learned during Sunday Night Football:

1.?If the Steelers have been good at anything over the years, it?s been replacing guys well, and at just the right times.

But there are certain guys they have a hard time doing without.

Without safety Troy Polamalu, their defense lacks any kind of dynamic element. Outside linebacker James Harrison is back in body, but doesn?t appear to be making much of an impact. And their line borders on solid, but can?t change a game.

Where they?ve excelled at filling gaps is on the offensive line. While their blocking has been suspect in the past, they were playing without a pair of starters (inactive center Maurkice Pouncey and right tackle Marcus Gilbert) and kept it going. They protected well, and paved the way for more than enough running, even without their top two running backs (inactives Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman).

2. Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace should immediately ask for the contract offer the team made this offseason, take it, and use the proceeds to by some of the Chargers? (alleged) stickum.

And then he should pass it around.

Wallace was hardly the only ball-dropper for the Steelers, only the most egregious. You can only get so mad at Baron Batch (who gets few opportunities) or Larry Foote (because he?s a linebacker).

But Wallace wants to get rich for catching passes, so actually catching them would be a nice start.

3. Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins is not a household name, even though he can get in your kitchen in a hurry.

If he played in more prime time games, he would be better known, however.

The son of former Dolphins and Saints safety Gene Atkins is making his own name, showing the kind of strength to push the pocket in addition to his quickness. His 7.5 sacks last year tied for the league lead among interior linemen, and he?s nearly past that already this year (7.0).

4. The Bengals under Marvin Lewis are typically very sound.

There?s not a lot of flash about them (though you could make a case wide receiver A.J. Green was the best player in the building), but the things they do they do efficiently.

They went out and signed a running back whose claim to fame was not fumbling, and while he finally put the ball on the ground this year, BenJarvus Green-Ellis is a good fit. As is quarterback Andy Dalton. Not special, but effective.

Given the self-imposed constraints they?re under (i.e. their lack of scouting resources) It?s not hard to be sound and the Bengals at the same time, but the even keel they play with is a credit to Lewis.

5. That said, Lewis still doesn?t seem to understand when to challenge and when not to. It?s an unusual blind spot for a coach who is good at so many parts of the game.

He burns way too many timeouts on things that might gain him negligible amounts.

He?s not the only coach with that problem, but it?s a persistent issue for a coach who is good at so many of the larger aspects of the game.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/21/sunday-night-wrap-up-roethlisberger-keeps-it-going/related

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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Thefts of cell phones rise rapidly nationwide

FILE - In this Saturday Aug. 13, 2011 file photo, Nick Sabatasso checks his cell phone while waiting for a BART train at San Francisco's Civic Center station. A woman riding a city bus is punched in the face, then her cell phone is snatched. A man walking near Golden Gate Park is asked for the time, then a gunman demands his phone and wallet. Police say nearly one out of every three robberies in San Francisco this year has involved a cell phone. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

FILE - In this Saturday Aug. 13, 2011 file photo, Nick Sabatasso checks his cell phone while waiting for a BART train at San Francisco's Civic Center station. A woman riding a city bus is punched in the face, then her cell phone is snatched. A man walking near Golden Gate Park is asked for the time, then a gunman demands his phone and wallet. Police say nearly one out of every three robberies in San Francisco this year has involved a cell phone. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

In this photo taken Sept. 21, 2012, Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer and co-founder, poses for a portrait at the Lookout Mobile Security headquarters in San Francisco. A woman riding a city bus is punched in the face, then her cell phone is snatched. A man walking near Golden Gate Park is asked for the time, then a gunman demands his phone and wallet. Police say nearly one out of every three robberies in San Francisco this year has involved a cell phone. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

In this photo taken Sept. 21, 2012, programmers work at the Lookout Mobile Security headquarters in San Francisco. A woman riding a city bus is punched in the face, then her cell phone is snatched. A man walking near Golden Gate Park is asked for the time, then a gunman demands his phone and wallet. Police say nearly one out of every three robberies in San Francisco this year has involved a cell phone. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

In this photo taken Sept. 21, 2012, Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer and co-founder, poses for a portrait at the Lookout Mobile Security headquarters in San Francisco. A woman riding a city bus is punched in the face, then her cell phone is snatched. A man walking near Golden Gate Park is asked for the time, then a gunman demands his phone and wallet. Police say nearly one out of every three robberies in San Francisco this year has involved a cell phone. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

(AP) ? In this tech-savvy city teeming with commuters and tourists, the cell phone has become a top target of robbers who use stealth, force and sometimes guns.

Nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco this year are cell phone-related, police say, and most occur on bustling transit lines.

One thief recently snatched a smartphone while sitting right behind his unsuspecting victim and darted out the rear of a bus in mere seconds.

Another robber grabbed an iPhone from an oblivious bus rider ? while she was still talking.

And, in nearby Oakland, City Council candidate Dan Kalb was robbed at gunpoint of his iPhone Wednesday after he attended a neighborhood anti-crime meeting.

"I thought he was going to shoot me," recalled Kalb, who had dropped his phone during the stickup. "He kept saying, 'Find the phone! Find the phone!'"

These brazen incidents are part of a ubiquitous crime wave striking coast to coast. New York City Police report that more than 40 percent of all robberies now involve cell phones. And cell phone thefts in Los Angeles, which account for more than a quarter of all the city's robberies, are up 27 percent from this time a year ago, police said.

"This is your modern-day purse snatching," said longtime San Francisco Police Capt. Joe Garrity, who began noticing the trend here about two years ago. "A lot of younger folks seem to put their entire lives on these things that don't come cheap."

Thefts of cell phones? particularly the expensive do-it-all smartphones containing everything from photos and music to private e-mails and bank account statements? are costing consumers millions of dollars and sending law enforcement agencies and wireless carriers nationwide scrambling for solutions.

In San Francisco, police have gone undercover and launched a transit ad campaign, warning folks to "be smart with your smartphone." Similar warnings went out in Oakland, where there have been nearly 1,300 cell phone robberies this year.

When Apple's ballyhooed iPhone 5 went on sale last month, New York City police encouraged buyers to register their phone's serial numbers with the department. That came just months after a 26-year-old chef at the Museum of Modern Art was killed for his iPhone while heading home to the Bronx.

In St. Louis, city leaders proposed an ambitious ordinance requiring anyone who resells cell phones to obtain a secondhand dealers license. Resellers also would need to record the phone's identity number and collect detailed information including the seller's names, addresses, a copy of their driver's licenses ? even their thumbprints.

"It will take a national solution to make this problem go away," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said of the phone thefts.

Though some experts put annual cell phone losses in the billions of dollars, there is no precise figure on how many devices are stolen each year.

However, the problem has become so visible that it has caught the attention of lawmakers and regulators seeking to take the profit out of cell phone theft.

In April, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, and New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced that the major U.S. cell phone carriers and the Federal Communications Commission have agreed to set up a national database to track reported stolen phones. It is scheduled to launch in late 2013.

Schumer also introduced a bill called the Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act, which proposes a five-year prison sentence for tampering with the ID numbers of a stolen cell phone. The bill is supported by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), a Washington, D.C. advocacy group.

In addition, CTIA officials said carriers are expected to launch individual databases later this month to permanently disable a cell phone reported stolen. The initiative is similar to a successful decade-old strategy in Australia.

Previously, U.S. carriers have only been able to disable so-called SIM cards, which can be swapped in and out of phones. That's led to a profitable black market for stolen phones.

Chris Guttman-McCabe, CTIA's vice president of regulatory affairs, said the goal of creating theft databases is to render stolen cell phones worthless.

"We want to dry up the aftermarket," Guttman-McCabe said. "Hopefully, there will be no sense in stealing a phone and a once valuable piece of hardware will essentially turn into useless metal."

Right now, the incentive is to steal and that's creating huge losses, said Kevin Mahaffey, a co-founder of Lookout, a San Francisco-based mobile security firm which has advised carriers about the national database.

"Thieves know that carrying a smartphone is like carrying $500 in your hands," said Mahaffey. His company estimates that stolen and lost cell phones could cost American consumers more than $30 billion this year.

Many cities with highest rates of stolen and lost phones also rank among the FBI's listing of U.S. cities with the highest crime rates, including Cleveland, Detroit, Oakland and Newark, N.J., Mahaffey said.

Meanwhile, cell phone thefts and police response continue at a frenzied pace.

In Chicago, two men were each charged with armed robbery last week after stealing an iPhone from a teen.

In Oakland, nearly three dozen people were recently arrested during a sweep for allegedly stealing smartphones. On Tuesday, police arrested 15-year-old boy who allegedly swiped a woman's iPhone near Oakland's City Hall and sold it in downtown San Francisco for $200 to buy marijuana.

"It's a quick crime of opportunity, a snatch and grab, either by foot or on bike," Officer Johnna Watson, an Oakland police spokeswoman, said. "The thieves are gone in an instant."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-10-20-Cell%20Phone%20Thefts/id-672d4e7b34f744f4b8a7d131558e1ccd

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Prehistoric Flamingo Nest, Eggs Discovered In Spain

By: Megan Gannon, News Editor
Published: 10/19/2012 08:31 AM EDT on LiveScience

A fossil bird's nest has been discovered in Spain, cradling at least five eggs that scientists believe belonged to an ancient flamingo some 18 million years ago.

The nest was found in a limestone block in the Ebro Basin in northeastern Spain. The researchers think it was abandoned and sunk to the bottom of a shallow, salty lake (which once also housed snakes, turtles and crocodiles) before being covered in mud and fossilizing during the early Miocene.

Scans of the eggshell fragments revealed microscopic features that closely match that of the modern flamingo's eggs. However, the type of nest the eggs sit in is much different from the type the birds build today.

Modern flamingos make muddy volcano-shaped nests with a single, large egg in each, but this ancient nest was made from twigs and leaves and holds several eggs. The researchers said the nest actually looks more like those of modern grebes, diving birds that build floating platform nests, which typically hold three to eight eggs and are anchored to the bottom of a lake with aquatic plants.

Though they have very different reproductive and nesting behaviors, flamingos and grebes are closely related. This new fossil then might indicate that the grebe-style nest is ancestral to this group of birds and that, over time, modern flamingos diverged, developing their volcano-shaped nests, the researchers said.

The team, led by paleontologist Gerald Grellet-Tinner, reported their findings Oct. 17 in the journal PLoS ONE. (Grellet-Tinner is affiliated with the National Council of Research and Technology in Argentina, The Field Museum, Chicago, and The Journey Museum in South Dakota.)

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/20/prehistoric-flamingo-nest-eggs-spain_n_1986140.html

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Katatni elected as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood party chief

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood's political party, Egypt's biggest, chose veteran conservative Saad al-Katatni as its new leader on Friday to replace Mohamed Mursi who went on to become his country's first elected president.

Katatni, 61, a microbiologist who joined the Islamist movement in 1979, is seen as more conservative than his main challenger for the post, Essam el-Erian, and less ready to compromise with liberals and leftists.

He was speaker of the first parliament after a popular uprising toppled autocratic president Hosni Mubarak, an assembly dominated by the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and ultraconservative Salafis.

Liberals occasionally walked out of the assembly, protesting that their Islamist opponents were intent on railroading through their legislative agenda while ignoring the views of others.

The legislature was dissolved by court order in June after the rules of the parliamentary election were challenged. A court is to rule on October 23 on whether the assembly that is to draft Egypt's new constitution is legal.

Katatni took 67 percent of 866 votes by members of the FJP's general committee, or executive, on Friday.

Analysts expect no major policy change within Egypt's best-organized Islamist group, saying it was Katatni's calm, consensual stance within the movement that won him the leadership vote.

"I am indebted for this trust," Katatni said in a speech after the result was announced. "Egypt is waiting for us, the Freedom and Justice Party, to lead the political scene."

He said the role of the FJP, which has around 400,000 members, was to "implement righteous rule based on Islamic sharia laws," prompting loud applause from his audience.

(Additional reporting by Mohamed Abdellah and Omar Fahmy, writing by Yasmine Saleh, editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/katatni-elected-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-party-chief-171139634.html

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