Amid rampant reports and rumblings that Eagles quarterback Mike Vick believes the team is using his concussions as an excuse to keep him on ice while the team tries out younger players, the Eagles have issued a statement from Vick.
But the statement omits any clear statement from Vick that he believes the Eagles aren?t putting a thumb on the concussion assessment scale.
?I want to thank my fans for the thousands of well wishes,? Vick says.? ?I also appreciate the support of the entire Eagles organization. I feel strong and healthy. ? As a professional athlete, I want to play in every game but the NFL has a specific protocol to protect players.?? My focus is to complete this process successfully, so I can rejoin my team on the field.?
Earlier in the day, coach Andy Reid addressed more specifically the question of whether politics are keeping Vick on ice.
?[T]here?s nothing to that,? Reid told reporters.? ?I?ve talked with Michael and Michael is good.? I don?t know where things get started but Michael is fine with it.? He understands that everything is in the best interest of him right now and making sure that he?s ready to go.?
Reid also essentially said that, when Vick is cleared to play, he will.? ?Michael is the quarterback of this team,? Reid said.? ?That?s how I?ve approached it from the get go.? I?ve told you guys that.? Until I tell you guys differently, that?s how I feel.? Michael understands that so that?s the important thing.? I just want to make sure there?s open communication between us.?
Trainer Rick Burkholder said that reports Vick have regressed aren?t true, but that Vick has plateaued in his recovery.? Burkholder also disputed the suggestion that the concussion is being used as a way to justify not playing Vick; ?There?s no conspiracy here,? Burkholder said.
Still, the suspicion has been present from the outset that Vick isn?t injured as badly as advertised, and that the concussion allowed the Eagles to bench him without actually benching him.? From Vick?s perspective, not playing makes it hard to persuade other teams that he deserves a starting job and the contract that goes along with it after the Eagles inevitably cut him in the offseason, avoiding a $15.5 million salary for 2013.
And even if the Eagles aren?t fudging the concussion assessment results (indeed, there?s no evidence that they are), there?s a good chance they?re privately pleased with the situation, since it allows them to give Nick Foles extended reps and development.? As Reid said Friday regarding the decision to cut defensive end Jason Babin, ?It gives some of our young players, who I think deserve the right and can help us win football games, the opportunity to play.?
That same reasoning applies to Foles.? Even though he has yet to help them do anything other than lose football games.
The window to bring Double-A baseball to Ottawa has been extended into early 2013, Mayor Jim Watson said in a memo to city council Wednesday.
According to Watson, Beacon Sports Capital Partners, the group negotiating the purchase, asked for the extension ?given the complexity of the commercially confidential discussions still under way with a number of parties.?
Watson said he ?remain(s) optimistic? that a deal can be reached within the first quarter of the new year, in time to bring professional baseball back to the vacant Ottawa Stadium for the 2014 season.
Negotiations have been ongoing between the city, the Beacon group and the Eastern League, where it has long been rumoured the floundering Binghamton Mets, Double-A affiliate of the New York Mets, will be sold.
On Tuesday, Beacon COO Richard Billings shot down an ESPN report that suggested the sale of the Binghamton franchise to Ottawa had ?fallen through,? saying the report was ?inaccurate? and that negotiations are indeed continuing.
Binghamton Mets president Michael Urda has denied his team is on the move.
Eastern League president Joe McEacharn did not return requests for comment.
David Gourlay, founder of the Champions for Ottawa Baseball group building community support for the team, said the search for local ownership partners remains a key sticking point in negotiations, and could be a ?deal-breaker.?
The baseball winter meetings, starting Monday in Nashville, were thought to be a crucial point in the timeline to finalize a deal. However, Billings said the meetings are not a ?hard? deadline.
?When there is a final agreement with Beacon Sports Capital Partners and the Eastern League, I will update members of council at the earliest opportunity,? said Watson.
DKK 60 million for research center devoted to well-being among children and young peoplePublic release date: 30-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Merete Konnerup mek@trygfonden.dk 45-21-68-52-18 Aarhus University
Denmark invests billions in initiatives and schemes for children and young people every year. These efforts are intended to provide children and young people with safe conditions in which to grow, develop and prepare for adulthood. But do they work? And are the resources being used effectively? We do not know enough about these issues, and that is precisely why the TrygFonden foundation has taken the initiative to establish a centre to research the field of well-being among children and young people.
"There are a great many children in Denmark who have a difficult childhood, who learn little at school, who fail to complete an education, and who as adults find it very hard to provide for themselves and/or establish a functional family. We in Denmark invest billions in attempts to prevent and deal with issues in these areas every year heavily outspending other countries with which we normally compare ourselves but we still fail to achieve our goals. To put it mildly, the results are indifferent," says Merete Konnerup, Senior Consultant at TrygFonden.
Plenty of will but knowledge is lacking
Professor Michael Rosholm from Aarhus University is to head up the pioneering research centre. Over the coming six years, he will be joining forces with a range of partners to carry out research targeted at different ages, development phases and skills from children of daycare age to young people in higher secondary education and at the start of their working lives. The first research projects are scheduled for launch in 2013.
"There can be no doubt that we need to take a more systematic approach to the initiatives currently being applied in the area of children and young people. In particular, we need to raise the bar with regard to how we evaluate the input. There is no shortage of will to improve schools and institutions, for example, to ensure that they provide better support for the academic and social skills of children and young people, and great efforts are being made all over the country every single day. The problem is that due to a lack of knowledge about what actually works the resources are often spent on inefficient initiatives, while programmes that have a much greater effect are not being made available to relevant players. In other words, we are not learning from either our failures or our successes," says Michael Rosholm. He continues:
"We will be starting out by thoroughly evaluating a limited number of projects, and will then progressively work our way out to broader areas. In this way, we hope that we can contribute to changing the knowledge culture and to developing the area so that we can base future initiatives on more reliable knowledge."
A great many exciting projects are being launched in the field of children and young people, and Merete Konnerup is convinced that there is much to be gained from applying a more systematic approach.
"If we become better at assessing effect in the field of children and young people in Denmark, we can improve child welfare and boost both skills and happiness among children," she says.
Research attracting international attention
The Danish researchers will be joined by a number of international colleagues, including James J. Heckman, Nobel laureate, Professor at the University of Chicago and one of the world's leading experts in measuring the effect of social initiatives. He sees great potential in the Danish research into effect.
"The research centre is a promising initiative that is sure to contribute knowledge and help the Danes to prioritise their efforts better. The initiative will also benefit the rest of the world. Setting up a centre to work seriously with research-based evaluation of many different initiatives is a really good idea," he says.
The enclosed fact sheet presents an overview of the ten projects that the TrygFonden centre for research into well-being among children and young people will be working on.
###
Read more about the TrygFonden centre for research into well-being among children and young people at trygfonden.dk
The ten research projects at Aarhus University into well-being among children and young people
Economic Evaluations and Cross-Study Comparability
Project Manager: Michael Rosholm, Aarhus University
School Readiness in Young Danish Children: Does an Intervention in Nurseries Improve Short and Long-Term Outcomes?
Project Manager: Dorthe Bleses, University of Southern Denmark
The Incredible Years. Developing socioeconomically disadvantaged children at key developmental stages
Project Manager: Marianne Simonsen, Aarhus University
Follow-Up on Early Childhood Intervention: A Double-Randomized Field
Trial of a Two-Stage Investment in Parental Childcare
Project Manager: Simon Calmar Andersen, Aarhus University
School-Wide Positive Behavior Support
Project Manager: Sarah van Mastrigt, Aarhus University
School Absenteeism. Risk factors and Intervention
Project Manager: Mikael Thastum, Aarhus University
Spare Time Jobs for Socially Disadvantaged Youth
Project Manager: Anna Piil Damm, Aarhus University
Dropout and Self-Control Problems in Youth
Project Manager: Helena Skyt Nielsen, Aarhus University
Improving Outcomes for Children in Disadvantaged Families by More Intensive Counseling
Project Manager: Lars Skipper, Aarhus University
Mentoring Disadvantaged Youth
Project Manager: Michael Svarer, Aarhus University
[ | 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.
DKK 60 million for research center devoted to well-being among children and young peoplePublic release date: 30-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Merete Konnerup mek@trygfonden.dk 45-21-68-52-18 Aarhus University
Denmark invests billions in initiatives and schemes for children and young people every year. These efforts are intended to provide children and young people with safe conditions in which to grow, develop and prepare for adulthood. But do they work? And are the resources being used effectively? We do not know enough about these issues, and that is precisely why the TrygFonden foundation has taken the initiative to establish a centre to research the field of well-being among children and young people.
"There are a great many children in Denmark who have a difficult childhood, who learn little at school, who fail to complete an education, and who as adults find it very hard to provide for themselves and/or establish a functional family. We in Denmark invest billions in attempts to prevent and deal with issues in these areas every year heavily outspending other countries with which we normally compare ourselves but we still fail to achieve our goals. To put it mildly, the results are indifferent," says Merete Konnerup, Senior Consultant at TrygFonden.
Plenty of will but knowledge is lacking
Professor Michael Rosholm from Aarhus University is to head up the pioneering research centre. Over the coming six years, he will be joining forces with a range of partners to carry out research targeted at different ages, development phases and skills from children of daycare age to young people in higher secondary education and at the start of their working lives. The first research projects are scheduled for launch in 2013.
"There can be no doubt that we need to take a more systematic approach to the initiatives currently being applied in the area of children and young people. In particular, we need to raise the bar with regard to how we evaluate the input. There is no shortage of will to improve schools and institutions, for example, to ensure that they provide better support for the academic and social skills of children and young people, and great efforts are being made all over the country every single day. The problem is that due to a lack of knowledge about what actually works the resources are often spent on inefficient initiatives, while programmes that have a much greater effect are not being made available to relevant players. In other words, we are not learning from either our failures or our successes," says Michael Rosholm. He continues:
"We will be starting out by thoroughly evaluating a limited number of projects, and will then progressively work our way out to broader areas. In this way, we hope that we can contribute to changing the knowledge culture and to developing the area so that we can base future initiatives on more reliable knowledge."
A great many exciting projects are being launched in the field of children and young people, and Merete Konnerup is convinced that there is much to be gained from applying a more systematic approach.
"If we become better at assessing effect in the field of children and young people in Denmark, we can improve child welfare and boost both skills and happiness among children," she says.
Research attracting international attention
The Danish researchers will be joined by a number of international colleagues, including James J. Heckman, Nobel laureate, Professor at the University of Chicago and one of the world's leading experts in measuring the effect of social initiatives. He sees great potential in the Danish research into effect.
"The research centre is a promising initiative that is sure to contribute knowledge and help the Danes to prioritise their efforts better. The initiative will also benefit the rest of the world. Setting up a centre to work seriously with research-based evaluation of many different initiatives is a really good idea," he says.
The enclosed fact sheet presents an overview of the ten projects that the TrygFonden centre for research into well-being among children and young people will be working on.
###
Read more about the TrygFonden centre for research into well-being among children and young people at trygfonden.dk
The ten research projects at Aarhus University into well-being among children and young people
Economic Evaluations and Cross-Study Comparability
Project Manager: Michael Rosholm, Aarhus University
School Readiness in Young Danish Children: Does an Intervention in Nurseries Improve Short and Long-Term Outcomes?
Project Manager: Dorthe Bleses, University of Southern Denmark
The Incredible Years. Developing socioeconomically disadvantaged children at key developmental stages
Project Manager: Marianne Simonsen, Aarhus University
Follow-Up on Early Childhood Intervention: A Double-Randomized Field
Trial of a Two-Stage Investment in Parental Childcare
Project Manager: Simon Calmar Andersen, Aarhus University
School-Wide Positive Behavior Support
Project Manager: Sarah van Mastrigt, Aarhus University
School Absenteeism. Risk factors and Intervention
Project Manager: Mikael Thastum, Aarhus University
Spare Time Jobs for Socially Disadvantaged Youth
Project Manager: Anna Piil Damm, Aarhus University
Dropout and Self-Control Problems in Youth
Project Manager: Helena Skyt Nielsen, Aarhus University
Improving Outcomes for Children in Disadvantaged Families by More Intensive Counseling
Project Manager: Lars Skipper, Aarhus University
Mentoring Disadvantaged Youth
Project Manager: Michael Svarer, Aarhus University
[ | 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.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2012) ? Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built NORUSCA II, a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light. The camera was tested at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO) in Svalbard, Norway, where it produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of auroras -- commonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights" -- and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon.
Details on the camera and the results from its first images were published November 29 in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.
Auroras, nature's celestial fireworks, are created when charged particles from the Sun penetrate Earth's magnetic field. These shimmering displays in the night sky reveal important information about the Earth-Sun system and the way our planet responds to powerful solar storms. Current-generation cameras, however, are simply light buckets -- meaning they collect all the light together into one image -- and lack the ability to separately capture and analyze multiple slivers of the visible spectrum. That means if researchers want to study auroras by looking at specific bands or a small portion of the spectrum they would have to use a series of filters to block out the unwanted wavelengths.
The new NORUSCA II hyperspectral camera achieves the same result without any moving parts, using its advanced optics to switch among all of its 41 separate optical bands in a matter of microseconds, orders of magnitude faster than an ordinary camera. This opens up new possibilities for discovery by combining specific bands of the same ethereal phenomenon into one image, revealing previously hidden details.
"A standard filter wheel camera that typically uses six interference filters will not be able to spin the wheel fast enough compared to the NORUSCA II camera," said Fred Sigernes of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), Norway. "This makes the new hyperspectral capability particularly useful for spectroscopy, because it can detect specific atmospheric constituents by their unique fingerprint, or wavelengths, in the light they emit."
These spectral signatures can then reveal subtle changes in atmospheric behavior, such as the ionization of gases during auroras. This form of multispectral imaging also will enable scientists to better classify auroras from background sky emissions and study the way they cluster in the atmosphere.
A New Phenomenon
On Jan. 24, 2012, during the inaugural research campaign of NORUSCA II, a major solar flare jettisoned a burst of high-energy particles known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The CME eventually slammed into Earth's magnetic field, producing magnificent auroras and a chance to fully test the new camera.
The researchers were able to image the aurora in unprecedented clarity through a layer of low altitude clouds, which would have thwarted earlier-generation instruments (see Image 1). The camera also revealed something unexpected -- a very faint wave pattern of unknown origin in the lower atmosphere (see Image 2). The wave pattern resembles "airglow" -- the natural emission of light by Earth's atmosphere. Airglow can be produced by a variety of known sources, including cosmic rays striking the upper atmosphere and chemical reactions. Its concurrent appearance with the aurora suggests that it may also be caused by a previously unrecognized source.
"After the January CME, we think we saw an auroral-generated wave interaction with airglow," said Sigernes. This would be an entirely new phenomenon and if confirmed, would be the first time airglow has been associated with auroras.
"Our new all-sky camera opens up new frontiers of discovery and will help in the detection of auroras and the understanding of how our Sun impacts the atmosphere here on Earth. Additional development and commissioning will also hopefully verify our intriguing first results," concludes Sigernes.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Optical Society of America, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
At present, the average consumer has a credit card with a credit line of at least $4000 and about a quarter of Americans admit to maxing out at least a single credit card. Clearly, folks are in need of simple solutions to sooth the burdens of getting buried in debt. A non-profit debt consolidation system can extremely well be the answer most customers can look to and afford for debt relief.
The common consumer these days carries about three-5 credit cards, every with their personal outstanding balance, creditor terms and fees, due dates, and varied billing cycles. A non-profit debt consolidation organization negotiates these terms with every individual creditor to reduce interest prices, quit late, past due, over limit fees, and typically a decrease monthly payment. In acquiring the greatest prices for the account holders, the non-profit org consolidates all the accounts into a single month-to-month payment and the account holder then sends 1 payment each month to their consolidation agency.
This allows the consumer the following benefits:
Convenience of 1 monthly payment with a due date specified by the client.
A reduction in interest to a lower, fixed rate so that the debt can be paid back within a 5 year time frame, allotting the majority of the monthly payment each month to be applied to the principle balance versus the creditor fees.
Relief from harassing collection calls and creditor harassment.
Re-aging of accounts |specific creditors only |right after a specified quantity of time so the consumer can start to report present |if they were previous due | without paying the extra late charges.
Consecutive timely monthly payments to assist improve credit rating more than time.
A true non-profit organization begins their consultation with a free of charge price range counseling session outlining and assessing your debt to revenue ratio on a month-to-month basis and reviewing assets versus liabilities. Some creditors require this details for enrollment in a consolidation plan and other individuals even base the interest reduction on said info. A non-profit agency typically receives better rates with the creditors on behalf of their clients as creditors acknowledge the educational method of the consultation and appreciate the non-profit making certain a client not only understands their economic obligations, but guarantees the programs success with the budget evaluation, qualification process.
The mission of a great non-profit is not to charge you exorbitant fees for their services, but to get you out of debt and supply free educational information to ensure customers do not make the same blunders in the future. Remember that class in high school about how to manage credit card debt? Neither do we, simply because it didnt and nonetheless does not exist to this day. The American consumer is only partial to blame, so dont be also hard on your self. And remember, you definitely are not alone in this credit debt debacle.
Here are a couple of great ideas when buying for a debt consolidation service.
Check the organization out on the Far better Enterprise Bureau. You can usually search for a enterprise by zip then name of the organization.
Are they listed with the BBB?
What is their BBB rating?
Do they have complaints?
What type of charges do they charge for their service?
Does the first payment go out to the creditors? Each and every payment much less their nominal monthly fee should go out as received and cleared from client.
How a lot is the month-to-month service fee? This truly ought to not exceed an typical maximum of $five per account enrolled.
Are there any pre-payment penalties if you are able to pay the debt off early? The answer ought to be no.
Are there cancellation charges? A accurate non-profit typically will not charge a fee for cancelling before completion but most creditors take it as an chance to reinstate your original prices, justifying it as a program default.
Debt consolidation is a fantastic remedy to obtaining out of debt and preserving a positive credit score. Nevertheless, consolidation is not for everybody. You have to be prepared to cease spending on your accounts credit cards are closed once they are enrolled in the program so spending on them is no longer an alternative. In addition, most creditors need that all accounts be enrolled into the plan much less a single significant credit card for emergencies. No, your Victoria Secret card can not be left out for emergencies, lol.
Excellent non-profits require their credit counselors to be certified and keep their certification for continuing education as creditor recommendations and state practice regulations change frequently. They are also usually affiliated with an organization like ISO or AADMO. A accurate non-profit will also supply free spending budget assist and a free debt consultation with out any customer commitment until they completely realize the program and recognize the possible financial savings to come with the enrollment.
Starting a home-based business is one of the easiest things you can do.
Anyone can start a home-based business even people who lack in technical computer skills.
The only things needed for starting an internet home business is a website and a domain name.
You can get these for free from WordPress.org or Weebly.com.
But, if you want to present your home based business in a professional manner, you should buy the hosting and domain name.
Hosting and a domain name should only cost you about $5-$10 a month.
Starting A Home Based Business is Easy
Okay, it is easy to set up a website and a domain name, but the logistics of what you promote, your business plan and marketing is not so easy.
With that being said, starting a home-based business is not easy and 97% of the people who attempt it fail miserably.
There are couple of major reasons that contribute to this high rate of failure:
People waste time on the wrong things.
People constantly go from one opportunity to another.
Let?s take a closer look at the first problem.
Inherently, in a home-based business there are a lot of normal home distractions like family, friends and many other time wasters:
Email and IM.
Phone and texting.
Wasting time and energy on convincing ?Negative Nellies.?
Using social media the wrong way.
When you are focused and working on your high producing activities turn off your phone, IM and email.
Only check those after you have finished your high producing activities like article marketing, creating a video or blog post.
Never waste time with ?Negative Nellies,? people who really do not understand your business but have a lot of negative opinions about it.
Especially, our family and friends will be the first to say, ?Don?t waste your time on that crap, it doesn?t work.?
Once your business starts making money they will be the first to shut up and disappear.
Not only do these people distract you from your goals but they discourage you from succeeding at them.
When you a boss, he/she would tell you what to do, monitor your time and your productivity.
Being your own boss means your responsible for keeping track of what you?re time and productivity.
You must spend 95% of your time on high producing activities:
building your list,
driving traffic to your offer,
converting that traffic into buyers.
The second big reason people fail at starting a home-based business is constantly changing direction.
This is what it?s called the, ?next shiny object syndrome.?
There are hundreds if not thousands of home based business opportunities on the internet, promising money, fame and security.
Do your due diligence, find a company a product and a leadership you believe it and stick to it.
Become like the hungry dog with a large bone or a horse with blinders never give it up and never change your focus.
?What I Learned About Starting A Home Based Business
One major lesson I have learned in starting a home-based business.
No matter which home based business or opportunity you?re in you still have to do the same things to be successful.
You must build a list, find traffic and convert them into buyers.
So, you end in the same position you were with the last home business you were not successful in.
?
Another problem closely related to changing direction is starting more than one home based business at a time.
Everyone is looking for ?various streams of income? but if you haven?t succeeded at getting one stream.
How are you going to get various streams?
F. O. C. U. S. ? Follow One Course Until Successful
Become successful in one marketing strategy, automate the process, then rinse and repeat.
For example, you may want to get leads from YouTube.
Focus on it for at least two hours a day until you have mastered that particular marketing strategy.
Then move on to another marketing strategy.
?
To be successful in starting a home based business you must be fully committed to its success, stay focused on your goals, love what you do and do what you love.
If you enjoyed this article please pass it on.
If you?re in the market for starting a home based business with a great product, superior compensation and an outstanding leadership.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2012) ? People are able to detect, within a split second, if a hurtful action they are witnessing is intentional or accidental, new research on the brain at the University of Chicago shows.
The study is the first to explain how the brain is hard-wired to recognize when another person is being intentionally harmed. It also provides new insights into how such recognition is connected with emotion and morality, said lead author Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UChicago.
"Our data strongly support the notion that determining intentionality is the first step in moral computations," said Decety, who conducted research on the topic with Stephanie Cacioppo, a research associate (assistant professor) in psychology at UChicago. They published the results in a paper, "The Speed of Morality: A High-Density Electrical Neurological Study," to be published Dec. 1 and now on early preview in the Journal of Neurophysiology.
The researchers studied adults who watched videos of people who suffered accidental harm (such as being hit with a golf club) and intentional harm (such as being struck with a baseball bat). While watching the videos, brain activity was collected with equipment that accurately maps responses in different regions of the brain and importantly, the timing between these regions. The technique is known as high-density, event-related potentials technology.
The intentional harm sequence produced a response in the brain almost instantly. The study showed that within 60 milliseconds, the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (also known as TPJ area), located in the back of the brain, was first activated, with different activity depending on whether the harm was intentional or accidental. It was followed in quick succession by the amygdala, often linked with emotion, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (180 milliseconds), the portion of the brain that plays a critical role in moral decision-making.
There was no such response in the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex when the harm was accidental.
Other studies with functional MRI scans, including those in Decety's lab, have shown that those areas of the brain become activated when people see others intentionally harmed, but those studies have been unable to separate or time the way the various parts of the brain may work together.
"High-density ERPs can identify spatio-temporal patterns of communication between regions that contrast analyses (such as fMRI) with low temporal resolution may not detect, and such methods are necessary to advance knowledge of neuroscience of morality," said Cacioppo.
The ability to recognize and respond emotionally to the intentional infliction of harm is a critical source of morality that is universal across cultures, researchers believe. "It is part of humans' evolutionary heritage," Decety said. "The long history of mammalian evolution has shaped our brains to be sensitive to signs of suffering of others. And this constitutes a natural foundation for morality and sensitivity to justice."
Philosophers have debated the origins of this moral response for ages. Some maintain that moral judgments begin with an immediate aversive reaction to perceived or imagined harm to victims, though the full moral judgment may form only after the fact. Other philosophers maintain that moral principals develop from reason alone and are not connected to emotion.
The new research suggests that emotion and the perception of intentionality, rather than deliberate reasoning, comprise the vital first component of moral responses -- at least for responses that stem from care for others Decety said.
The research may help inform other areas of neurodevelopment research, including studies of the moral responses of psychopaths and of children who lack empathy for others, displaying what are called callous-unemotional traits.
The National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation supported the research.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Chicago. The original article was written by William Harms.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
J. Decety, S. Cacioppo. The speed of morality: a high-density electrical neuroimaging study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1152/jn.00473.2012
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.
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd and its Canadian takeover target Nexen Inc have withdrawn and resubmitted an application for U.S. approval of their $15.1 billion deal, as Canada gets close to its decision on whether to approve the transaction.
The energy companies said on Tuesday that discussions with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) were still in progress, "with a view to completing the CFIUS review process as expeditiously as possible."
In a brief statement, they did not provide a reason for, or the timing of, the unexpected move. It was not immediately clear whether the announcement meant the process had hit a snag or signaled a delay in closing the deal, which has become a topic of heated debate in Canada.
A spokesman from Nexen was not immediately available for comment. A CNOOC official in the United States declined comment.
The companies filed for approval by CFIUS, an eight-member panel chaired by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, because Nexen has extensive operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
The review takes 75 days and appeared to be close to conclusion. By law, CFIUS and the Treasury Department cannot comment on reviews, and leaks about their deliberations are rare.
A source familiar with the proposed transaction described the refilling as "routine" and pointed out that other transactions have gone through a similar process.
The panel has the power to negotiate or impose conditions, including divestitures and security-control agreements to mitigate any national security threats. In rare cases, a final decision on whether to allow a deal goes to the president.
North of the border, Canada's Conservative government has set a deadline of December 10 for deciding if CNOOC's takeover of Nexen would bring a net benefit to the country. By law, it must decide whether to approve the deal on that basis, though the term "net benefit" remains imprecise.
Ottawa is trying to balance the need for foreign investment to develop resources such as the Alberta oil sands with concern that China and other countries could snap up a big chunk of the energy sector and that state-owned companies might not play by free-market rules.
The United States has proved skeptical in past years about Chinese investments. CFIUS recently rejected a bid to build wind farms in Oregon by Ralls Corp, owned by two executives of China's Sany Group, and has blocked multiple deals by Huawei Technologies Co, a Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer.
Derek Scissors, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the resubmission may not be a major stumbling block for the transaction.
"It typically occurs when there's a declaration by the applicant that runs afoul of a CFIUS regulation but can be reformulated. The reformulations usually are procedural, not material."
(this story has been refiled to fix spelling of "that" in the second paragraph)
(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren, Rachelle Younglai and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Frank McGurty and Richard Pullin)
Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $587 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.
Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased at a Trex Mart in Dearbord, Mo. The holder of the ticket has not come forward.
"If you buy Powerball tickets at this location, please find them and check them closely," said May Scheve Reardon, executive director of the Missouri Lottery in a statement. "If you find you're holding the winning ticket, be sure you sign the back and put it in a safe place until you can take it to a Missouri Lottery office. You will also want to get some legal and financial advice before you claim."
Arizona lottery officials said they had no information on that state's winner or winners but would announce where it was sold during a news conference later in the day.
The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29. The Powerball was 6.
The jackpot swelled to $587.5 million, according to Lottery official Sue Dooley. The two winners will split the jackpot each getting $293.75 million. The cash payout is $192.5 million each.
An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes, according to Powerball's website.
"There were 58 winners of $1 million and there were eight winners of $2 million. So a total of $74 million," said Chuck Strutt, Director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.
PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes Before the Jackpot Drawing
PHOTOS: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners
This is the 27th win for Missouri, ranking it second in the nation for lottery winners after Indiana, which has 38 wins. Arizona has had 10 Powerball jackpot wins in its history.
Players bought tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute up until an hour before the deadline of 11 p.m. ET, according to lottery officials.
The jackpot had already rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.
"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."
That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.
The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers. As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.
"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."
The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."
About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one. Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.
Lottery officials put the odds of winning this Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.
Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.
Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.
"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."
The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.
Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.
When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."
So, did he buy two tickets this time?
"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.
In case you were wondering, this Saturday's Powerball jackpot is starting at $40 million.
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested in Manhattan after he tried to detonate what he thought was a live bomb, but was actually a dummy provided in a sting operation, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said.
By Reuters
NEW YORK -- A Bangladeshi man arrested in a sting operation denied on Tuesday charges that he attempted to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York last month with what authorities say he believed was a 1,000-pound bomb.
During a brief hearing in Brooklyn federal court, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, pleaded not guilty to a two-count indictment charging him with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, al-Qaida. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Nafis appeared in court wearing a tan, prison jumpsuit and did not speak during the hearing. His lawyer and a lawyer for the government, James Loonam, said discussions were being held about a possible plea negotiation.
His lawyer and a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn declined to comment to reporters.
From Bangladesh, the suspect's father has denied his son was involved and said he was the victim of a "racist conspiracy."
Nafis was arrested on Oct. 17 after pulling up to the Federal Reserve near Wall Street and attempting to detonate what he believed to be a van packed with explosives.
Quazi Nafis, 21, the former student accused of plotting to blow up the Federal Reserve, had tried to find likeminded people on Facebook to join him in his violent jihad. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
The inert explosives had been provided to Nafis by an undercover agent as part of a sting operation, federal authorities said.
A criminal complaint unsealed last month against Nafis said he traveled to the United States in 2012, and eventually moved to Queens, New York.
The complaint alleged he scouted out targets for a potential attack, considering the New York Stock Exchange and a high-ranking government official identified as U.S. President Barack Obama. He eventually settled on the Federal Reserve Bank, the complaint said.
Federal Reserve plot suspect thought he had 1,000-pound bomb
Nafis attempted to recruit others to his plan, claiming he was in contact with al-Qaida operatives, the complaint said.
One of the individuals he brought onboard was an undercover agent working for the FBI, who monitored Nafis' activities and helped arm him with the inoperable explosives, federal authorities said.
Nafis is scheduled to appear next in court on Jan. 9.
NBC News security analyst Michael Leiter discusses Quazi Mohammad Reswanul Ahsan Nafis' alleged attempt to blow up the New York Federal Reserve, including how the FBI helped identify him early as a radicalized student.
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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Commuters in the northern Swedish town of Umea are being treated to ultra-violet light therapy as the long, dark winter for which the Nordic state is renowned draws in.
Energy company Umea Energi has decided to install ultra-violet lights at about 30 bus stops for people, which will be in place for the next three weeks.
"This is so people can get a little energy kick as they are waiting," said Umea Energi marketing chief Anna Norrgard. Umea is about 600 km north of capital city Stockholm.
The company also wanted to highlight the fact that its energy comes from environmentally sound sources, she said. Any harmful rays from the light have been filtered out of it, the company said.
Much of Sweden is plunged into long, dark winters, often with lots of snow. The sun in Umea currently rises at about 8 a.m. local time (02.00 am EDT ) and sets at 3 p.m. The daylight hours are shortest in December, when the sun comes up at about 10 a.m. and disappears again at about 2:30 pm.
Some towns north of the Arctic circle have no daylight for several weeks in the winter.
(Reporting by Patrick Lannin, editing by Paul Casciato)
Five small fragments of the moon, which were collected at Tranquility Base 40 years ago and gifted to the people of Minnesota, have been found by the National Guard.
The small lunar stones, which are better described as dust and pebbles rather than moon rocks, were discovered as they were originally presented: embedded inside an acrylic button and mounted to a wooden podium with a Minnesota state flag that also flew to the moon in 1969.
"The Apollo 11 moon rocks were found amongst military artifacts in a storage area at the Veterans Service Building in St. Paul," said Army Maj. Blane Iffert, the former state historian for the Minnesota National Guard.
The Minnesota moon rocks are one of about 185 such lunar sample displays that were presented to each of the states, United States' territories and to foreign nations as a goodwill gesture following the return of the Apollo 11 crew, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
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Similar "goodwill moon rocks" from the final lunar landing, Apollo 17 in December 1972, were also gifted. [ NASA's? 17 Apollo Moon Missions (Countdown) ]
Minnesota's Apollo 17 goodwill moon rock is displayed by the state's Historical Society in St. Paul, where the Apollo 11 display will be transferred on Wednesday.
"We are honored to have this in our collection to preserve for future generations," Pat Gaarder, Minnesota Historical Society deputy director, said in a statement announcing the pending delivery of the Apollo 11 moon rocks. "Space exploration is an important part of our shared history. It is also exciting to think that our collection includes artifacts from across the globe and now with these moon rocks, the galaxy."
The six Apollo missions that landed on the moon returned a total of 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of lunar material to Earth. The goodwill gifts, which weigh between 0.05 grams (Apollo 11) and 1.142 grams (Apollo 17) represent in total less than half of one pound (220 grams) of the moon rock brought back by the astronauts.
Lowered by one
The recovery of Minnesota's Apollo 11 display is the latest chapter in a decade-long search for missing goodwill moon rocks. [ Lunar Legacy: 45 Apollo Moon Landing Photos ]
"When I searched the Internet to find additional information about the moon rocks, I knew we had to find a better means to display this artifact," Iffert said. "It is stated on some websites that approximately 180 (sample displays) are currently unaccounted for of the 270 moon rocks from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions. We've just lowered that number by one."
The effort to catalog the present whereabouts of each of the gifted moon rocks ? the only astronaut-returned lunar samples ever given away by the U.S. government ? has been led by collectSpace.com since 2002. NASA closely tracks its own lunar material holdings but as the goodwill rocks are no longer federal property, it has fallen to private efforts to find the state and foreign nation-owned samples.
Working with the public, museum staff and, in particular, graduate students at the University of Phoenix led by their professor Joseph Gutheinz, a former NASA special agent, the collectSpace "field guide" to the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 moon rocks has successfully located more than 170 of the displays.
Of the Apollo 11 samples that were gifted to the 50 states, 11 remain missing, including the lunar pebbles presented to Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Virginia. Eight of the states' Apollo 17 goodwill moon rocks have not been located, including those in Kansas, New Jersey and Ohio.
No rock unturned
That Minnesota's moon rocks turned up in storage is not too surprising given how many of the gifts that have been found to date have surfaced.
The lunar sample displays were originally intended to be placed on public display, and in many cases they were. But others were held in state officials' offices, or were only part of temporary exhibits. As the years passed, the rocks migrated into former governors' archives and homes, put into boxes and forgotten or otherwise disregarded.
In Nebraska, the state's Apollo 11 moon rocks were lost in the governor's mansion for several years, only to turn up during renovations. In Hawaii, they were locked inside a cabinet until a routine inventory revealed them.
In Delaware, the moon rocks' button-shaped acrylic was stolen in 1976 "right off its display plaque," which remains in state property. And in Alaska, a fire reportedly offered the opportunity for a then-teenage future reality TV star to take the rock from the debris. A court order has returned the lunar sample to NASA pending its authentication and a judge's ruling.
The search has been even more difficult outside the U.S., where language barriers, geography hurdles and differing laws have further complicated finding them. A few of the foreign-gifted moon rocks, such as Malta's Apollo 17 sample, have been reported as stolen, while others may be exactly where they are supposed to be but cannot be labeled as "found" until someone sets eyes on them and reports their location.
See collectSpace.com for the ?field guides? to missing moon rocks: Where Today are the Apollo 11 Lunar Sample Displays? and Where Today are the Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rocks?
Follow collectSpace on Facebook and Twitter @ collectSpace and editor Robert Pearlman @ robertpearlman. Copyright 2012 collectSpace.com. All rights reserved.
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After the deaths of 60,000 people in Mexico?s war on drugs, a presidential election rife with accusations of fraud, abject poverty and a serious economic disparity, now a deputy with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is finally rolling up his sleeves and attacking one of the country?s most serious problems, which no one else dares to address: chewing gum.
According to the Mexican newspaper, El Universal, PRI deputy, Juan Manuel Diez Francos, has finally moved forward and proposed a federal tax of 50 percent on chewing gum, or chicle as it is known in Mexico. He says the chewing gum tax would help pay for the cleaning of chewing gum that people spit out in public places like sidewalks, plazas and parks. As it stands now, he says, the government spends an average of 2 pesos and 50 cents on every piece of gum it un-sticks from these public areas. The cheapest pack of chicle costs only 50 cents.
It might sound like a trivial issue, but Mexican?s love their gum. It is the second largest consumer of gum after the U.S. according to Kraft Foods. There are 92 thousand tons of chicle produced each year in Mexico, and on average Mexicans consume 2.5 pieces of gum per day. The average cleanup in Mexico City is 70 chicles per square meter. And in a single day, the cost of cleanup of the Zocalo amounts to approximately 2,800 pesos according to Diez Francos.
The cleaning of chewed gum is not a problem isolated to Mexico. Diez Francos points out that England spends 7 million euros each year cleaning up gum. And the fact is, chewed gum can be a health hazard since it can contain over 50 thousand germs and transmittable diseases. England?s chewing gum problem is so bad, it inspired artist Ben Wilson to take his talents to the tiny blobs spread all over the sidewalks. Concerned about the environment and how advertisements rule the urban environment, Wilson began painting on the gum. He doesn?t just dab them with color, he uses the gum as a canvas for his miniature paintings which he does just about everywhere and on most any subject.
Mexico not the first to impose a chewing gum tax
According to Diez Francos, in China, chewing gum can be considered illegal because authorities there have counted over 600 thousand pieces of gum stuck in Tiananmen Square. Besides, Mexico is not the only country considering a chewing gum tax as a solution to what has become a sticky problem. Ireland is considering an 11 percent chewing gum tax as well.
Mexico?s chicle problem is not going to go away by itself. The machines to clean the gum cost $6000 each, and then there is the salary to the personnel. But what about the poor kids selling gum on street corners? Will they have to hire accountants to maintain their purchases and sales so they can pay their share of the tax to the Secretar?a de Hacienda? And what about corruption? Mexico is notorious for its corruption at all levels. My question is whether the 50 percent tax will actually make it to the proper authorities, buy more chewing gum cleaning machines, and hire more workers.
We tax cigarettes and alcohol, and just about everything else. Why not gum? Personally, I hate it when I?m walking down the sidewalk and I get a piece of fresh gum stuck on the sole of my shoe. It?s embarrassing and disgusting. But if the price of gum goes up, I?m not sure it matters so much to me since my favorite Mexican gum, banana flavored Motita, was discontinued years ago.
Originally published by Voxxi as Mexico?s chewing gum tax, a way out of a sticky problem
Setting up your office chair properly is key to maintaining an ergonomic workspace, but it's not always as simple as it sounds. Apartment Therapy suggests that the easiest way to quickly get your chair to the right height is to level the seat with your kneecap.
When you're sitting in your chair your feet should be flat on the floor with your knees at a 90 degree angle. So, it makes sense that a quick way to figure this out is to simply stand in front of your chair, and then adjust the seat so it's right below your kneecap. If you're sharing a chair with a few people who always adjust it up or down, this is an easy way to get it right quickly. It's also key if you're ergonomically optimizing your workspace.
Quick Tip: Finding the Ideal Height For Your Task Chair | Apartment Therapy
My client a top tier asset management company is looking for a C# serverside developer with ideally Risk experience (but its not essential) to join their expanding team based in Central London.
Main duties are to build back end platform using .net. The team is responsible for the delivery of innovative technology solutions for the business to enable maximised revenue performance while minimising costs.
My client is looking for the following skills and knowledge:
* Strong hands on C# developer with WCF
* In-depth working experience as a serverside developer
* Good multithreading experience
* Biztalk or TFS experience
* Strong SQL
* Business knowledge beneficial, Risk or Fixed Income
* Strong academic pedigree preferred, i.e. mathematics, computer science.
If your interested in this position on a contract basis then please email me your CV to j.jeffery(at)realstaffing.com
C# Serverside / SQL / Contract /London/ ?450-?550pdTo find out more about Real Staffing please visit www.realstaffing.com
Those are the two words that even parent wants their children to use. If nothing else you want people to at least think that your children are polite. The problem is how do you get them to say Please and Thank You all the time. The first thing you must do is start early! From the moment your child is born begin using the phrases because as your child grows and learns to speak they mimic what you do.
Once your child is old enough t start handing you things and has more movement tell them Please and Thank You. For example if your child hands you his or her bottle say ?Thank You.? When they are screaming wanting something tell?them?we say ?Please.? ?Also use them?with?your spouse and other people in the home so that your child learns when it is?appropriate?to use those words.
Once your child begins to speak don?t give them an item until they say please. This will teach them how important the words are and they will naturally begin using them. That way when people come in contact with your children you will?complimented?on what a wonderful job you did of raising them.
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Mamas, don?t let your babies grow up to be cowboys healthcare workers!
TriHealth, one of the largest employers in the Cincinnati, Ohio metro area, has confirmed the firing of 150 of its nearly 11,000 employees in recent days for refusing this year?s flu shot.
The deadline for employees to receive the flu vaccine was November 16, 2012. ?Employees who did not comply with the company?s directive were terminated Wednesday, November 21, 2012 according to a TriHealth spokesperson.
TriHealth?s excuse for its flu fascist policies?
The shots were offered for free!
What a deal!
Ladies and gentlemen, listen up: ? TriHealth cares so much for the wellness of its employees that it is paying for their flu shots out of its own pocket this year! ? This selfless, corporate act made out of true compassion and concern for its employees? health comes complete with the following ingredients (from Mercola.com) :
Aluminum ? a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer?s disease
Mercury ? a neurotoxin that has no allowable safety limit according to the EPA
Triton X-100 ? a detergent
Phenol (carbolic acid)
Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
Betapropiolactone ? a disinfectant
Nonoxynol ? used to kill or stop growth of STDs
Octoxinol 9 ? a vaginal spermicide
Sodium phosphate
In addition, this year?s flu shot also contains the Swine Flu vax which has been shown to increase the risk of fetal death by miscarriage or stillbirth by over 10 times if the person receiving the flu vaccination is pregnant!
Could it be that the company?s real motive for requiring the flu shot replete with these toxic ingredients is to help ensure that TriHealth?s employees will never be healthy or work long enough to collect that TriHealth pension or promised retirement benefits? ? Come to think of it, most employees probably won?t even be around long enough to fully vest those 401(k) matching funds!
Now there?s a company commitment to its employees that is worth its weight in, uh aluminum,?don?t you think?
The Rise of Flu Fascism
Since when did conditions of employment include the right of the employer to control the employee?s physical person and demand injection of known EPA toxins directly into an employee?s bodily tissues?
Sounds a lot like slavery to me. ?Will TriHealth be requiring their employees to be branded with the company logo next?
I certainly hope these employees have retained a high powered law firm to take this matter to court. There is absolutely no legal basis for forcing an employee to be vaccinated contrary to his/her religious or philosophical objections.
For those employees who are teetering on the brink of getting vaccinated in order to appeal for reinstatement of their TriHealth jobs, please consider another option: ?a written letter clearly stating your religious objections to the flu shot.
To read how to successfully refuse mandatory vaccinations and not get fired, click here for the details along with a sample letter for you to use.
?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: ?TriHealth Fires 150 Employees for Not Getting Flu Shot
Although xenophobic attitudes still plague Germany, particularly in the post-communist east, Germans are raising awareness of - and resistance to - the problem.
By Isabelle de Pommereau,?Correspondent / November 27, 2012
Supporters of the right-wing NPD party hold a rally against a march of refugees in Potsdam in October.
Thomas Peter/Reuters
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Councilman J?rg L?mmerhirt wanted people to stop looking the other way.
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In his Dresden districts, including one of myriad shoe-box-shaped "Plattenbauten" ? housing communities that communists in the former East Germany built hastily from large concrete slabs, or "platten" ? too few people reacted to the racist stickers with slogans like "National Socialism, Now!" and "Germany, Wake Up!" plastered on lampposts and bus stations. Young right-wingers, calling themselves "Free Forces," were left to take over local playgrounds, chasing kids away. And the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) scored strongly in municipal and regional elections.
So Mr. L?mmerhirt pushed back ? and joined a growing backlash against right-wing extremism in Germany, particularly eastern Germany, where xenophobia festered during the communist era and after reunification. Although right-wing attitudes are still prevalent in the East, people like L?mmerhirt are promoting awareness of the problem and working to counter it.
A latent problem
Twenty years after rioting neo-Nazis set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers in the eastern port city of Rostock, thereby bringing the world?s attention to right-wing violence in the former communist Germany, right-wing attitudes remain part of the fabric of society, particularly in eastern Germany and among young people, according to a new study.
In regions often battered by depopulation and unemployment ? and where foreigners are almost absent ? 15.8 percent of residents espouse rightist, extremist views, up from 10.5 percent two years ago, and compared with 7.3 percent in western Germany, according to the study by the Berlin-based Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a democracy-education organization close to the Social Democratic Party. Forty percent of residents in eastern regions express anti-foreigner views today compared with 20 percent in the west.
"The study shows it once again. We have a problem with right-wing extremism, especially in the East," says Christian Demuth, who created the anti-racism "Citizen.Courage" group six years ago to rally residents against a yearly neo-Nazi march marking the Allied bombing of the city at the end of World War II.
Released just days after German prosecutors formally charged the last surviving member of a neo-Nazi cell in Zwickau that was allegedly involved in the murdering of at least 10 migrants in recent years, the study shows that extremism in Germany is not confined to isolated acts of violence, experts say. Rather, and especially in Germany?s east, it is an entrenched attitude of turning a blind eye born out of decades of dictatorship. The study, they hope, will reinvigorate efforts to break away people's apathy.
"Back a few years ago, people didn?t do anything because they didn?t care," says Mr. Demuth. "But there is a counter movement, a public debate about what to do to fight neo-Nazism."
The mental legacy of East Germany
In August when he came to Rostock, where he had been a pastor on the 20th anniversary of the riots, German President Joachim Gauck said right-wing extremism?s stronger prevalence in the east resulted from people thinking "in black and white" after being deprived of democracy for decades.
Reuters
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Public release date: 30-Nov-2012
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mitment until they completely realize the program and recognize the possible financial savings to come with the enrollment.
Setting up your office chair properly is key to maintaining an ergonomic workspace, but it's not always as simple as it sounds. Apartment Therapy suggests that the easiest way to quickly get your chair to the right height is to level the seat with your kneecap. 
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