Heath Bar Slice 'n Bake Shortbread Cookies for ... - Creative Culinary

Can you hear that sigh?that huge exhale of relief? I?ve decided that this year I have to be more cognizant of MY priorities and that might include saying no to some interesting but otherwise way too time consuming projects for the blog. I won?t be heading to events that someone hopes I cover in exchange for an entry ticket or a free drink?sometimes they?re fun but not as much fun as meeting my own friends and buying my own drink?and I don?t have to write a post afterwards either! I?m officially taking a leave of absence from another baking group too; I just don?t have enough hours in the day to get it all done and I have some things of my own I want to start. A Cocktail Club. More salads and light dishes. Some posts that are near and dear to my heart about social issues and food. Still; one obligation that I hope to not miss is this one?when I bake with friends. Even if my baking this month would have me win the ?Better Late Than Never? award. Not just the last day of the month?no, I managed to make it the last day of the YEAR..buh bye 2012.

If I?m perfectly honest, this post for #Baketogether should not be happening at all. I started feeling a bit punk on Christmas Eve and missed a couple of things I wanted to go to; managed to muddle through Christmas OK but just crashed afterwards with a horrible cold?you know, the kind when you honestly feel like you might rip your lungs out of your body when you cough? Yeah, that kind. I was sick in bed Wednesday and Thursday (first time in many years I did that!) and in my fog, my Friday Cocktail post went live but it had not actually been completed so not only was there no photo?the ?post? was basically some notes and a recipe. I think that might have freaked me out more if I hadn?t been sick. Cough medicine was the great equalizer?I was pretty mellow and with an ?Oh, well? attitude I managed to make and photograph this Champagne Cocktail for New Year?s and revised that pathetic post as quick as possible. The cocktail was wonderful but I only had a sip?I could have downed it in a heartbeat but just could not convince myself that it was the perfect pairing for Tylenol Cold and Flu Medicine. Boo.

Now, I could attest to my great fondness for Abby Dodge and my total commitment to her monthly event and there would be truth in those words. But if I?m honest? I didn?t feel good and I wanted two things. Some soup and some cookies. I figure if I was going to make cookies, then I ought to do these and I?m so glad I did. They embody not only a great shortbread cookie but also the flavors of my favorite candy bar; the Heath Bar. I believe that the first cavity I ever got when I was little must have had ?Heath Bar? attributed to it. It?s been a long term love affair and these cookies were the perfect vehicle for those flavors of toffee and milk chocolate. An easy and delicious cookie filled with Heath Brickle Bits and then drizzled with some melted milk chocolate. I will blame the fever on the fact that I ate so many of the first batch I cooked that I had to bake more in order to get photos. They are that good?you know, the ?I think I?ll just have one more? type of good but then you keep saying that same thing over and over until they are all gone good?

Was it coincidence or is there truth in the fact that I feel better after indulging. I think it was the cookies. Next time? Forget gargling with salt water?I?m eating some more Heath Bar Ice Box Cookies! The doctor you need to call is Abby Dodge! :)

Heath Bar Slice 'n Bake Shortbread Cookies for #Baketogether

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups (10 1/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 12 tablespoons (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup Heath 'Bits 'O Brickle'
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) milk chocolate chips for drizzling
• 3 Tbsp half and half

Preparation

To make the dough:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt until well blended.
2. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the egg, Heath bits and vanilla to the sugar mixture and beat on medium until blended, about 1 minute. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until the dough begins to form moist clumps, about 1 minute.
4. Dump the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Using the plastic as a guide, gently knead into a smooth dough. Shape into a 18-inch-long, rectangular log. Cut into two pieces and wrap each well in plastic wrap.
5. Refrigerate until chilled and very firm, about 4 hours.

To bake the cookies:

6. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and heat the oven to 350?F. Line two (or more if you have them) cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners.
7. Using a thin-bladed knife, cut the dough into slices between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick
8. Arrange the slices about 1 inch apart on the prepared sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, until the tops look dry and the edges are golden brown, 11 to 13 minutes.
9. Move the sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies sit for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough using cookie sheets that are completely cold.

To drizzle the cookies:

10. In a small microwave-safe bowl, microwave the milk chocolate chips on high for 20 seconds, until soft (chips hold their shape so go ahead and stir them). Add the half and half and microwave for up to 20 seconds more until all of the chocolate is soft and can be stilled until smooth.
11. Pour the chocolate into a small ziploc bag and snip off the corner of the bag (Keep it small; you can always enlarge).
12. Squeeze the bag gently and drizzle the chocolate in both directions across each cookie.
13. Let sit at room temperature until chocolate is set or put the cookies into the fridge for 10-15 minutes if in a hurry to have them setup.

Notes

The dough can be prepared through Step 2 and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for 1 month before proceeding with the recipe. If frozen, thaw in the fridge overnight before baking. Layer the baked and cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or waxed paper in an airtight container. These cookies can be stowed for up to 5 days at room temperature or for up to 3 months in the freezer.

2.2

http://www.creative-culinary.com/2012/12/heath-bar-slice-n-bake-shortbread-cookies/

This recipe brought to you by © <b>Creative Culinary</b> | A Food and Cocktail Blog | Website: www.creative-culinary.com

Want to bake with us? Check out the details on Abby?s site and come on along. It?s fun, it?s creative and you?ll meet some new and wonderful bloggers too!

Source: http://www.creative-culinary.com/2012/12/heath-bar-slice-n-bake-shortbread-cookies/

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Wall Street tries to see past 'cliff'; outlook clouded

10 hrs.

Patti Domm , CNBC.com

As investors gaze across the "fiscal cliff," some see a better economy on the far side, making stocks and risk assets more appealing and bonds less so in the year ahead.

But there are many caveats to that scenario and some of them will be decided in the next few days as politicians struggle to strike a deal that would avert a fall off the "fiscal cliff." The cliff is the double-barreled blow to the economy from the reversal of dozens of tax breaks and the onset of automatic spending cuts, agreed as a solution to the contentious 2011 debt- ceiling debate.

Congress meets Sunday evening and may consider the latest proposals.

Stocks were spooked in the past week by the lack of movement in discussions between Congress and President Barack Obama. As the market closed Friday, the absence of new developments during talks underway at the White House provided a void for selling. The Dow fell 1.2 percent to 12,938, giving it a loss of 1.9 percent for the week. The S&P 500 fell 1.1 percent to 1402, for a one week loss of 1.9 percent. The Nasdaq lost 2 percent for the week to 2960.

Congressional leaders late Friday left the White House without a deal, setting the stage for a weekend of raw nerves. Obama said he was still optimistic the Senate leadership could come up with a deal that would?pass both houses, but he also laid out a second plan for a straight up-or-down?vote on middle class tax cuts if they can't reach an agreement.

The president repeated that strategy in an exclusive interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday in which he scolded House Republicans for not having come to an agreement sooner.

"They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected," Obama said. "That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme."

Obama said if Congress failed to agree on a deal and if the straight up-or-down vote was blocked, the first bill introduced in the new year would propose a cut in taxes for the?middle class.?

"Now I think that over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up. That would hurt our economy badly," Obama said.?

He warned that if there was?no deal by Jan. 1, it could hurt financial markets.?

"What's been holding us back is the dysfunction here in Washington," he said. "And if people start seeing that on January 1st this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them, if they say that people's taxes have gone up, which means consumer spending is going to be depressed, then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president's criticism, and pointed the finger of blame at Obama.

"Republicans made every effort to reach the 'balanced' deficit agreement that the president promised the American people, while the president has continued to insist on a package skewed dramatically in favor of higher taxes that would destroy jobs," Boehner said in a statement reacting to the 'Meet the Press' interview.

"We've been reasonable and responsible. The president is the one who has never been able to get to 'yes,'" Boehner said.?

Obama: GOP's insistence on halting tax hikes for the wealthy is blocking 'cliff' deal

Stock futures fell sharply after the market closed Friday.?

"You could tell a lot of people were very skittish about their trades," said Patrick Kernan of Cardinal Capital. "Everybody is fearful of what exposure they have right now. Right now, we're thinking if they reach a deal we go back to around where we were a week ago, right around 1440" on the S&P 500. If there's no deal, "we think it goes down 30 to 50 points."

Kernan, who trades S&P 500 options, said the market was swarmed by investors seeking portfolio protection Friday.?

"The other side of this thing from an investment standpoint, is if there's a deal, I don't know what the number is but is it a five-percent rally from here? Is it a three-percent rally?" said?said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management.? "There's risk on both sides of the trade, and I think that's been helping keep this reaction more muted than it otherwise might be."

"The cliff isn't December 31. The real cliff is somewhere down the line when the tax bite and spending cuts start to hurt," he said. "The most optimistic agreement was not that we got this done before the deadline.The most optimistic was we get it done right on deadline, and I think it was fully expected it would get really ugly right before that?the other reality is if it doesn't get done until mid-January it's not going to hurt anything."

Paulsen said the market's anxiety will increase the longer it goes on. "If we go over, the market reaction will start to build?I don't think it will fall apart if we go over. I think if we start to get to the second half of January, I think they'll get way more concerned."

Wait, There's More
Besides the action on Capitol Hill, there is the December employment report Friday and some other key data to look forward to in the week ahead. That includes Thursday's December car sales and chain-store sales and Wednesday's ISM manufacturing data. The minutes of the Fed's last meeting are also expected Wednesday afternoon.

But the outcome of the cliff discussion and congressional votes will be what drives markets in the week and months ahead, and what will ultimately decide whether the U.S. can be a driver of the global economy or a drag on it in 2013.

"I don't think the story is over yet," said Citigroup economist Steven Wieting. "We all expected agony . It just seems we keep adding to it."

"There's compromise that's needed and now seemed like a good time, but they already let the window substantially pass. The opportunity to have a really big framework has passed," Wieting added.

He?described a another possible scenario. "They're going to completely leave the debt ceiling out of this, and they're going to leave any signs of structural reform out of this. Then we have a deal that includes future cliff dates. That would leave uncertainty in play."

Yet, analysts and economists also see a possible optimistic outcome, where the cliff is fixed, at least in part, either by New Year's or several days later, and the debt ceiling and remaining issues are dealt with in the first part of the year. If that's the case, it might unleash economic growth, as consumer and business confidence improve.

"I think the global economy is going to surprise on the upside," said Ed Keon, portfolio manager with Quantitative Management Associates. Keon believes Congress will make a deal to avoid the cliff, and he sees gains in the U.S. economy as well as improvement in the European debt crisis and a pickup in the emerging world. "I think in the European situation, time is on our side and everyday things look a little better."

He also sees the U.S. ending the year with stronger growth. "It's hard to believe Washington would want to hurt the economy with malice of foresight," he said. "Doing a small deal will be viewed that they might be able to do a bigger deal."

Kind of a Small Deal
"We'll get a deal," said Steven Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities. "It will be a small deal that will address some of the more onerous aspects of the cliff. Tax rates, they're going to have to address the AMT, and they're going to have to do something with sequestration cuts,?either delay them or rejigger them. I think they'll probably do something on state and dividend tax rates, the Medicare doc fix and they'll probably extend the unemployment benefits."

It's the bigger deal, on the debt ceiling, that will be most difficult and most important in terms of the longer term strength of the economy. Treasury secretary Tim Geithner warned this past week that the U.S. will reach the debt ceiling limit Monday, but that the Treasury can make some adjustments to keep the government funded for a couple months while Congress works out a deal. The hope is that Congress would find a way to deal with bigger tax reform and entitlement spending issues as part of that debate.

Forget the 'fiscal cliff," the debt ceiling is much scarier

Avoiding the cliff, even with scaled back tax increases,?will not leave the economy unscathed but it should not trigger the recession expected if the cliff were hit. "Basically if we let the payroll tax expire it's going to blunt consumer spending in the beginning of the year, even if we know about it," Stanley said. "The upper income tax increases are not a free lunch either. It's substantially lower than the full cliff."

One of the most public points of contention is at what income level, Bush-era tax cuts are reversed. Both Republicans and Democrats agree tax rates should remain the same for 98 percent of taxpayers, but the disagreement is over taxing the rich and that's what the Senate leadership will have to tackle this weekend.

Obama did not specify on "Meet the Press" which income level he would accept. He has consistently promoted $250,000 as the dividing line between those who would continue to benefit from Bush-era tax cuts and those who would see their taxes increase. But the figure has been a bargaining chip in the negotiations.

The economy could handle that and move on, Wieting said. "If it's a fiscal tightening between 1 and 1.5 percent of GDP, the economy would absorb that in a discrete way and probably move on to stronger growth in the second half of the year. It could be better. It could be clearer. It could be sooner," he said.?

Wieting said, however, the more unresolved issues and pushed-out deadlines there are, the worse it will be for the economy because business spending would remain constrained.

Here's what happens to you if we go over the fiscal cliff

Wieting expects growth in the beginning of the year of about 1 percent, and assuming a resolution of the cliff and debt ceiling issues,?growth could accelerate to 3 percent by the end of the year.

The economic data this week should continue to show the same slow growth in employment, but possibly stronger auto sales and improved manufacturing. Economic data, particularly housing-related data, has been largely better than expected.

Stanley expects the December nonfarm payrolls to be about the same as November's 146,000. "I have 150,000 but that includes a couple of special factors that I think will push the number up a little bit," said Stanley. One of those factors is the addition of couriers, temporarily hired to deliver holiday gifts. Last year, that category gained 40,000 in December, and lost the same amount in January, he said.

The week's economic events:

Monday

• ?Final trading day of 2012
  
• "Fiscal Cliff" deadline

Tuesday

• New Year's Day, markets closed

Wednesday

• 10:00 am: ISM manufacturing
• 10:00 am: Construction spending
  
• 2:00 pm: FOMC minutes
  

Thursday

• ?Monthly vehicle sales
• Monthly chain store sales
  
• 8:15 am: ADP employment
  
• 8:30 am: Jobless claims
  

Friday?

• 8:30 am: Employment report
  
• 10:00 am: ISM nonmanufacturing report
  
• 10:00 am: Factory orders
  

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/wall-street-tries-see-beyond-fiscal-cliff-outlook-clouded-1C7776738

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Bulls vs. Wizards: Chicago defeats Washington, 87-77

Chicago snapped its two-game losing streak by beating Washington on Saturday.

Carlos Boozer recorded his 13th double-double of the season to help the Bulls defeat the Wizards, 87-77, on Saturday.

Boozer had 15 points and 12 rebounds on 5-of-12 shooting from the field to lead Chicago.

Richard Hamilton returned to Chicago's lineup after missing the last 12 games with a foot injury and scored nine points in just under 15 minutes of playing time. Marco Belinelli had a game-high 17 points off the bench for the Bulls. Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich also scored in double-figures, as they had 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Emeka Okafor had this third double-double in the last four games, as he recorded 11 points and 19 rebounds on 5-of-11 shooting from the field to lead Washington.

The Bulls shot just 39.1 percent from the floor but were able to hold Washington to 36.5 percent shooting.

Washington outscored Chicago 26-22 in the first quarter, but the Bulls were able to win every quarter after that to secure the win.

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Source: http://chicago.sbnation.com/chicago-bulls/2012/12/29/3816422/bulls-vs-wizards-chicago-defeats-washington

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How To Raise Revenue And Cut Childhood Obesity In One Fell ...

From Your Health Journal?..?The Washington Post is an excellent resource on all topics, but I love their health related stories. I encourage all of you to visit their site (link below) to read this full article being reviewed here today, as well as other great articles. Today?s article discusses an option of how to cut obesity by banning food ads. Advertisements can have that ?glorifying? effect on people, especially children ? who see ads for products that may entice them to eat fatty or sugary processed foods. There are many groups who feel advertisements play a big role in contributing to the obesity epidemic. Basically, kids see an ad, go to the supermarket and want this product ? maybe because the ad made the unhealthy food seem very appealing to eat, or simply because it comes with a prize. Now, on the other hand, there are some who feel all this in nonsense, as parents need to step up and show discipline ? and use the word ?no? when a child asks for a food product that may not be healthy. Then, there is another group who say buy the products, but moderate how much they eat, so it is not on a regular basis. Which side do you take? Would love to know, so post away here. Please visit the Washington Post web site to view the full article.?

From the article?..

It should come as no surprise to anyone with a television that advertising for fast food joints and snack foods can be mighty persuasive. A new working paper by public health economists Michael Grossman, Roy Wada, and Erdal Tekin tries to quantify exactly how persuasive, and what this means for public health.

Previous studies have mainly focused on the persuasiveness of junk food advertising to children. Not too surprisingly, the previous literature found that kids were pretty impressionable. One study found that watching 100 ads for soft drinks over a three-year period was associated to a 9.4 percent increase in soda consumption. Another, coauthored by Grossman, found that banning fast food advertising would reduce childhood obesity by 10 percent.

The new paper reproduces Grossman?s earlier calculations and reaches very similar conclusions. What?s more, it finds that banning fast food ads reduces obesity when measured using percent body fat (PBF), which many experts consider a better metric to body-mass index (BMI), upon which Grossman?s earlier study relied. Using PBF, the effects of an advertising ban are even larger. A PBF-based calculation suggests that a ban would reduce the number of obese youths by 14 percent, while Grossman et al?s most recent BMI-based calculation found a reduction of only 6 percent.

To read the full article?..Click here

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=11042

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No English Science, Maths books - Bonology.com Politically ...

Fourteen percent of schools in Sarawak have opted to use English in their Maths and Science, but parents doubt the Education Ministry's commitment to their choice.

Some 14% of primary and secondary schools in in East Malaysian state have opted to continue learning Mathematics and Science in English next year, but have failed to receive their English text books todate.

Said Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How: "On this eve of the opening of the new school year, it is discovered that schools in Sarawak have not received their English textbooks and workbooks, but only the Bahasa Malaysia versions were distributed to all the students.

"This is despite the fact that these schools have filled in and submitted a designated form distributed by the Education Department asking them to decide and indicate whether their primary school students from the PPSMI batch chooses to continue PPSMI fully in English, Bahasa Malaysia or both.

"These schools have expressly opted for English language for those students now in Standard 4 to Standard 6.

"In fact, it was the Deputy PM (Muhyiddin Yassin) himself who revealed last year that 5% from the total classes in 7,495 primary schools and 9% out of 2,192 secondary schools chose to fully used English for Maths and Science.

"He is fully aware of the needs and extent of schools requiring textbooks and workbooks in English for the batch of students still under PPSMI policy, yet these textbooks and workbooks are not being printed and distributed.

"The schools were given the textbooks and workbooks in Bahasa Malaysia instead."

He added that a quick survey in the bookshops had shown that no English reference books are prepared and printed in English, as the profit-driven private companies are switching immediately to produce reference texts and workbooks for the policy of MBMMBI (Upholding the Malay Language, Strengthening the English Language) whereby Mathematics and Science are only taught and learned in Bahasa Malaysia.

'Muhyiddin is worst Education Minister'

See, who is also state PKR vice president, said parents were now doubtful as to whether or not the Education Department has the contents and syllabus of the books prepared.

"The schools and parents can't be blamed for their doubts and queries as to whether the education department is going to supply the requisite textbooks and workbooks in English to these schools.

"There are even doubts whether the education department has the syllabus and contents of the textbooks and workbooks prepared and whether it is printing them," he said.

See said the availability of Malay language books on the subjects meant teachers and parents were forced to translate the syllabus and contents, according to their own respective understanding and perception of the Bahasa Malaysia texts.

"It certainly reflects poorly on the Umno-led BN federal government. The Education Ministry should have the proper planning in the formulation and implementation of the country's education policies and plans.

"The Deputy PM and Education Minister (Muhyiddin) has failed to appreciate the sensitivity and special needs in the East Malaysian states, particularly Sarawak, where English is also an official language and that special rights to use English is cherished and dear to Sarawakians.

"The inconsistency in the formulation and implementation of the educational policies, regulations, guidelines and instructions are the hallmark of his ministership. He is the country's worst Education Minister," he said .

Read More @ Source

More ? Barisan Nasional (BN) | Pakatan Rakyat (PR) | Sociopolitics Plus | ??????

Source: http://www.bonology.com/2012/12/no-english-science-maths-books.html

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Simple Tips For Increasing Your Self Improvement - Empower Network

TIP! It is normal to find unhealthy foods tempting. Stress is as bad for your body as a piece of cake, so remember that life is too short to sweat the small stuff.

It?s of utmost importance to work on your self improvement. You may want to develop a healthier lifestyle or less damaging spending habits. Always strive to improve yourself in every aspect of your life. There is always something you can improve on, keep this in mind as you strive to become a better person in life. Establishing good habits will make your life more enjoyable and beneficial!

TIP! Look for different sources of encouragement, like books. In certain cases, this could take the form of religious volumes, in others, it could be a collection of historical quotations.

To be the best you can be means hoping others share in your good fortune. Often the negative thoughts projected on others can boomerang and come back onto you. Look at other people and wish for them, the very best. If you keep your emotional self positive, you won?t be knocked down by all those negative feelings.

TIP! Keep looking for new challenges you are interested in. These new challenges can create many possibilities.

Stress is what often brings down happiness. Stress can take both a physical and an emotional toll on your body. Take care of the stress you have in your mind by thinking clearly. Find some spare time during the day to be by yourself and to clear out your mind by relaxing. This time can help you improve your overall life.

TIP! Employers usually don?t care where you went to college. They only care that you got your degree and are capable of doing the work.

Don?t be disorganized anywhere in your life. When you are organized you have much more of a feeling of being in control, and this will help you gain self confidence. The stress of living in disorganization will also disappear. Organizing your environment can be a calming and centralizing influence.

TIP! You should always look at the person you are on the outside rather than the person on the outside. It really does not matter what expensive clothing you wear, or if you look like someone from a magazine shoot.

Fuel your faith with love. Faith and love are intertwined. You should constantly look for ways to give meaning to your faith. You can make your faith meaningful by doing positive things for peers and loving them.

TIP! One thing to avoid when making a personal development plan is goals that are too broad. Create specific goals.

Learn how to listen to others. This is particularly true when you are talking about self-development. Many people talk to themselves, and this is something you should be doing as well. In addition, listen to yourself very carefully. Hearing your own thoughts and feelings when you express them will lead to a better understanding of what you need to improve your life.

TIP! Learn how to get through trying situations without letting your emotions get the best of you. Come up with methods that will help relieve your stress and remain calm when problems pop up.

Not only is getting organized an achievement in itself, but it will help you to meet other goals faster. If you break big goals down into little sub-goals, you will gain confidence as you achieve the sub-goals. There are several ways to do this, including jotting notes in a day planner or using a complete notebook for monitoring your goals.

TIP! Remember that you cannot please everybody, and that you should be your own top priority. Do not become a self-centered person, but keep in mind that no one else will help you be a happier person than yourself.

Take a step to cure your anxiety by going with a friend to a movie. Movies are social settings, but they do not require conversation or uncomfortable socialization. This also allows you to be around a large group of people in a stress-free environment.

TIP! Stop stressing yourself needlessly. Do not over-react to setbacks: this will only cause you more stress.

Read several highly-rated books on personal development. The best self improvement books can give you new ideas and advice that could change your life forever. Be sure that you pick out a book that has been favorably reviewed because a lot of the times, these type of books can be poorly written.

TIP! You may experience excess stress when you overreact to difficult situations. Acknowledge and manage your stress by carefully analyzing your circumstances.

Exercising is not only a way to lose weight. There are many other benefits from regular exercise. It helps stimulate your body so that you can create chemicals that make you calmer and happier.

TIP! One new trait that is being researched and is very important to develop is known as sexual capitol. This doesn?t mean you need to use your sexuality as a means of getting the results you desire.

You should always want a higher level of self restraint when working hard for personal development. Make sure that you develop self control skills. Overcome your basic urges, such as gluttony, lust or sloth. With proper self control you can stop vices from negatively impacting your body and mind.

TIP! Take every available opportunity to improve yourself. Choose not to live in fear of your decisions even if you do not have all of the information you desire.

Unless you take care of yourself, you won?t be able to care for anyone else. Whether you?re just starting your personal development plan or are well down the road and regardless of whether you?re succeeding or failing, you have to set aside time for yourself to rest, relax, and regroup.

TIP! Wisdom and modesty are two integral components of life. Use your daily situations to learn about what you can and cannot change about the things in your life.

The best way to go about self improvement is to concentrate your improvement efforts on one trait at a time. Even though there may be many things that you need to improve on, by working on only one, you increase your chance of being successful. Adopting new habits one at a time will make it easier to maintain them.

TIP! Have a notebook or a smartphone app to jot down notes wherever you go. Keep a small notepad and pen with you at all times.

Begin today setting some money aside regularly for emergencies. Each time an unexpected expense crops up, it seems we wind up adding it to our credit cards. Even a few dollars per week can quickly add up to a nice savings. This will be able to get you through a short term crisis like unemployment or a large unexpected health care bill.

TIP! Finding ways to live a healthier life will also help you in your personal development endeavors. Good health simply makes your whole life go better.

Don?t be a shopaholic like those people on Hoarders. Instead, find a hobby to take up your time that doesn?t cost you much money. This way, you won?t be running up high bills and filling your house with things you don?t need.

TIP! See what habits successful people have in common, and adopt them. Start with a couple habits and then practice them until they?re permanent parts of your life.

Put your core principles into practice. Each person has a set of beliefs that determine who they are. If you have this rooted in a good foundation, your self-esteem will benefit greatly due to this. This will also promote consistency in your life and actions, which is a trait almost everyone finds admirable.

TIP! Taking a few small risks may just be where you should start on your path towards happiness. Many people do not like to take chances because they don?t want to feel like a failure, so they would rather stay cemented in their comfort zone, which often leads to an unfulfilled life.

It is vital to watch your health when developing yourself to your full potential. Maintaining positive motivation is just as important as the diet and workout plan that you instill. When you are healthy, you feel your best and therefore can be more effective in all the other areas of your life.

TIP! You may reap great benefits by conferring with a therapist or a minister. Not only have they been trained to deal in personal growth, their experience in these issues is what makes them a good choice to speak with.

It may become discouraging to begin developing better personal habits and lifestyles, but once you start noticing your life developing towards a better future, you will never want to stop. You can always develop better ways to do things and it?s important to always try hard towards any self improvement goals you have.

P.S. Learn how to earn an extra $1,000 day. Don?t wait for the 2-4 year retirement plan, let me show you the NOW plan Click here for free info:SECRETS TO THE ONLINE MARKETING WORLD!

Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/lisagwilliams/index.php/simple-tips-for-increasing-your-self-improvement-2/

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Syria SAF helicopter dropping foot to besieged troops

~6 days ago Dec 23rd, 2012 on www.theaustralian.com.au

Sydney Morning Herald Gillard, Abbott use Christmas message to thank troops abroad The Australian Meanwhile, Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has used his Christmas message to the nation to thank Australian troops currently serving... digg in ?

continue reading on www.theaustralian.com.au ?

Source: http://www.rsshog.com/a/2012-12-29/syria-saf-helicopter-dropping-foot-to-besieged-troops/tzOEvPmzP8bl8a-sme6UmREzxvAyxp~O5Y5WDMbjRDs_/

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Strictly Ballroom&#39;s New Year&#39;s Eve Masquerade Ball ...

Monday, December 31, 2012, 8:00 pm

Strictly Ballroom Dance Studio, 125 Olde Greenwich Dr, Fredericksburg, VA | Get?Directions??
$25.00

Come one, come all, to our Masquerade Ball,
For a fun night of dancing to be had by all!
We're throwing a party and you'll have a blast,
As we ring in the New Year and say goodbye to the last!
Come alone or as a pair,
But whatever you do, please be there.
We just ask this one simple task,
Come wearing a mask!

Join us for Strictly Ballroom's New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball!
Monday, December 31st - 8:00pm - 12:30am

We would like to cordially invite you to ring in the New Year with everyone here at Strictly Ballroom! The night will include food, a group dance lesson and plenty of social dancing, as well as a toast at the stroke of midnight! And of course, don't forget to wear your mask!

Cost:
$35 (if paid by Dec 27th)
$45 (if paid after Dec 27th)
$25 (dance party only)

Feel free to contact the studio with any questions about the event. 540-898-9060. Visit the website for more information about group and private lessons!

38.27135

-77.48099

primary

/listings/strictly-ballroom-dance-studio

412262

/locations/8463280

Source: http://fredericksburg.patch.com/events/strictly-ballrooms-new-years-eve-masquerade-ball

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White House meeting a last stab at a fiscal deal

President Barack Obama waves to reporters as he steps off the Marine One helicopter and walks on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, as he returns early from his Hawaii vacation for meetings on the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama waves to reporters as he steps off the Marine One helicopter and walks on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, as he returns early from his Hawaii vacation for meetings on the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer of Md., pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, where he urged House Republicans to end the pro forma session and call the House back into legislative session to negotiate a solution to the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. walks to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Amid partisan bluster, top members of Congress and President Barack Obama were holding out slim hopes for a limited fiscal deal before the new year. But even as congressional leaders prepared to convene at the White House, there were no signs that legislation palatable to both sides was taking shape.

The Friday afternoon meeting among congressional leaders and the president ? their first since Nov. 16 ? stood as a make-or-break moment for negotiations to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts.

Obama called for the meeting as top lawmakers alternately cast blame on each other while portraying themselves as open to a reasonable last-minute bargain.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid all but conceded that any effort at this late date was a long shot. "I don't know timewise how it can happen now," he said.

For Obama, the 11th-hour scramble represented a test of how he would balance the strength derived from his re-election with his avowed commitment to compromise. Despite early talk of a grand bargain between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that would reduce deficits by more than $2 trillion, the expectations were now far less ambitious.

Although there were no guarantees of a deal, Republicans and Democrats said privately that any agreement would likely include an extension of middle-class tax cuts with increased rates at upper incomes, an Obama priority that was central to his re-election campaign. The deal would also likely put off the scheduled spending cuts. Such a year-end bill could also include an extension of expiring unemployment benefits, a reprieve for doctors who face a cut in Medicare payments and possibly a short-term measure to prevent dairy prices from soaring, officials said.

To get there, Obama and Reid would have to propose a package that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell would agree not to block with procedural steps that require 60 votes to overcome.

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, McConnell cautioned: "Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything the Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."

Nevertheless, he said he told Obama in a phone call late Wednesday that "we're all happy to look at whatever he proposes."

If a deal were to pass the Senate, Boehner would have to agree to take it to the floor in the Republican-controlled House.

Boehner discussed the fiscal cliff with Republican members in a conference call Thursday and advised them that the House would convene Sunday evening. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an ally of the speaker, said Boehner told the lawmakers that "he didn't really intend to put on the floor something that would pass with all the Democratic votes and few of the Republican votes."

But Cole did not rule out Republican support for some increase in tax rates, noting that Boehner had amassed about 200 Republican votes for a plan last week to raise rates on Americans earning $1 million or more. Boehner ultimately did not put the plan to a House floor vote in the face of opposition from Republican conservatives and a unified Democratic caucus.

"The ultimate question is whether the Republican leaders in the House and Senate are going to push us over the cliff by blocking plans to extend tax cuts for the middle class," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said. "Ironically, in order to protect tax breaks for millionaires, they will be responsible for the largest tax increase in history."

Boehner, McConnell, Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi are all scheduled to attend Friday's White House meeting with Obama. Vice President Joe Biden will also participate in the meeting, the White House said.

Despite the urgency to act, the rhetoric Thursday was quarrelsome and personal.

The House of Representatives is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker," Reid said on the Senate floor. He attributed Boehner's reluctance to put a version of Senate bill that raised tax rates on incomes above $250,000 for couples to fears he could lose his re-election as speaker next week.

"Harry Reid should talk less and legislate more if he wants to avert the fiscal cliff," countered Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner.

If a deal is not possible, it should become evident at Friday's White House meeting. If that occurs, Obama and the leaders would leave the resolution to the next Congress to address in January.

Such a delay could unnerve the stock market, which performed erratically Thursday amid the developments in Washington. Economists say that if the tax increases are allowed to hit most Americans and if the spending cuts aren't scaled back, the recovering but fragile economy could sustain a traumatizing shock.

But a sentiment is taking hold that despite a black eye to its image, Congress could weather the fiscal cliff without significant economic consequences if it acts decisively next month.

"Going over is likely because at this point both sides probably see a better deal on the other side of the cliff," Jared Bernstein, Biden's former economic adviser, wrote in a blog post Thursday.

By letting current tax cuts expire and rise, Bernstein and others say, Republicans would be voting to lower taxes next month, even if not for all taxpayers. Democrats ? and Obama ? would be in a stronger position to demand that taxpayers above the $250,000 threshold pay higher taxes, instead of the $400,000 threshold that Obama proposed in his latest offer to Boehner.

And the debate over spending cuts, including changes to politically sensitive entitlement programs such as Medicare, would have to start anew.

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Charles Babington and David Espo contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-28-Fiscal%20Cliff/id-4f35560ba2df40c0ba7c565a959e532c

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Stomach bug knocks Nadal from Australian Open

FILE - In this June 10, 2012, file photo, Spain's Rafael Nadal wipes his face as he plays Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their men's final match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris. Nadal will miss the Australian Open because of a stomach virus, further delaying his comeback after being sidelined since June.(AP Photo/David Vincent, File)

FILE - In this June 10, 2012, file photo, Spain's Rafael Nadal wipes his face as he plays Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their men's final match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris. Nadal will miss the Australian Open because of a stomach virus, further delaying his comeback after being sidelined since June.(AP Photo/David Vincent, File)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Just when Rafael Nadal had recovered from a knee injury, a stomach virus has delayed his return to tennis by a couple of months.

Nadal announced Friday he will miss next month's Australian Open and probably won't play again until the end of February. The Spaniard said he needs time to recover from the virus that already prevented him from coming back this week at Abu Dhabi.

Nadal has been sidelined since June with a knee injury, which forced him to miss the London Olympics and U.S. Open. He had planned to rejoin the ATP tour at the Qatar Open in Doha next month before the Jan. 14-27 Australian Open, but pulled out of both.

"We just hope he gets better quickly and we see him back on the tour as soon as possible," Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said. "Tennis fans across the world have been missing him."

While he is expected to recover from the virus in time for the year's first Grand Slam tournament, Nadal and his team said he wouldn't have the proper preparation for a five-set event.

Nadal stressed that his decision had nothing to do with the tendinitis in his left knee. That injury prompted him to take a break following a second-round loss to then 100th-ranked Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon in June.

"My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors," Nadal said in a statement from his hometown of Manacor on the island of Mallorca. "But this virus didn't allow me to practice this past week and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open."

The former No. 1 hopes to return at a tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, starting Feb. 27. He left open the possibility of playing at an earlier tournament if his recovery went well.

"As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks," Nadal said. "I always said that my return to competition will be when I am in the right conditions to play and after all this time away from the courts I'd rather not accelerate the comeback and prefer to do things well."

Nadal's doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, said in the same statement that the player needed at least a week to recover from the virus. That ruled him out for the Qatar Open, which starts Jan. 2.

Nadal's coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, said going straight to a five-set tournament after being sidelined so long was "not appropriate."

"It is simply not conceivable that his first event is a best-of-five sets event," he said in a statement. "He wouldn't be ready for that."

Nadal's knee injury prevented the 11-time Grand Slam winner from defending his Olympic singles gold medal at last summer's games, where he was supposed to be Spain's flag-bearer in the opening ceremony. He also had to pull out of the U.S. Open and Spain's Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic, which his teammates lost without him.

Nadal, ranked No. 4, won the Australian Open in 2009. Last year, he lost to top-ranked Novak Djokovic in a title match that lasted 5 hours, 53 minutes, the longest recorded Grand Slam final.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-28-TEN-Nadal-Injury/id-eb2a0dce5d1f4d27a101f9842ba2022a

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Start a successful financial KPO unit | Entrepreneurindia.in

Building a successful KPO unit can ensure fanciable success. Keeping these pointers in mind will ensure smoother flow in business

Financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, ABN Amro and several others have actively promoted India as an off-shore base to set up domain-oriented knowledge processes. The financial knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) market is also active with several large outsourcing firms such as Infosys, Cognizant, and EXL, which offer high-end services, and niche players such as Amba Research and Evalueserve, who have created highly specialized outfits to conduct financial analytics and research work. KPO involves tasks that range from financial modeling of companies, industry analysis and equity research, including company and sector research, all the way to sophisticated index and derivative product support, quantitative analysis, and underwriting support. Normally, KPO engagements comprise 10 to 50 member teams and are delivered by highly skilled domain specialists including CAs, CFAs, MBAs (Finance), statisticians, mathematicians and data scientists, with or without industry experience, with entry-level salaries ranging from `3-8 lakh per annum.

Understand the client?s perspective
I remember running a very large engagement to build 500 financial models and equity research reports for an investment banking client who did not deem it important to share that they were going to publish this research almost instantaneously on their research website. As we started to deliver these reports, the outputs did not integrate very well with the website?s publishing platform. This led to a lot of rework and delays in sending out timely research to their institutional customers. KPO work is very integral to a client?s business: knowing the ?big picture? always helps.

Build relationships with end-users
Unlike BPO (business process outsourcing) or ITO (information technology outsourcing) work where it is sufficient to align with strategic business leads and vendor management teams, success in KPO engagements is largely driven by strong integration and communication with individual business end-users. It is the end-users who determine which part of their core domain tasks should be moved to the vendor, including the pace and complexity of the work.

I have seen outsourcing program managers creating ambitious goals for the KPO program that get waylaid because the end-users have not bought into the program or are nervous about sharing critical tasks with a vendor.

This will only change when they build direct confidence in the vendor?s capability by interacting with the specialists and skilled resources that the vendor provides.

Knowledge workers at the vendor?s end also highly value their interpersonal relationships with end-users, and make the highest contribution when they feel they are a logical extension of the client?s team. One of our analysts, Ajay Dogra (name changed), prides himself for the fact that he is directly working for a celebrated US Telecoms Analyst?Tim Stevenson (name changed)?and would not like to change his sector for as long as he gets to work with Tim.

Consciously plan for work evolution
When I was part of the BPO industry, we used to be heavily preoccupied with ?dumbing down? the work profile to make tasks more process-oriented and easily trainable. In the past six years of running KPO units, I have realized that the exact reverse should be done! Knowledge workers naturally want to move up the value chain and do more sophisticated tasks for their clients. So don?t disrupt the natural evolution of work complexity, and instead encourage it. It makes for a happy client and a happy employee.

Choose the right team
The critical success factor in a KPO engagement is choosing each team with the right skill sets and not merely the right leader. Each individual member often directly interacts with the client and is responsible for the quality of the output he/she delivers. Any compromise on this front leads to frustration at both ends. If the chemistry between them is not working, make a quick swap of the team member as the relationship is unlikely to sustain in the long run anyway. Also, given that billing rates in this business are upwards of $60,000 per annum, there is low tolerance for mediocrity. It is also important to over-invest in the engagement in the first 90 days to closely iron out these issues expeditiously.

Sound culture to drive success
We cannot create a successful KPO doing equity research unless our knowledge workers (called analysts) behave like they belong in a capital markets firm. Our analysts should have morning meetings to discuss overnight developments in stock markets, discuss valuation impacts on critical stocks, or pursue CFA degrees in their spare time. A KPO firm providing insurance KPO support will not be worth its pedigree if their associates are not encouraged to take the LOMA or FSA (UK) exams. Therefore, it is this culture and ecosystem of specialization that distinguishes a successful KPO and allows it to obtain its disproportionate share in the market place.

In summary, the best KPO firms in the industry focus heavily on understanding the client?s domain and his objectives, investing in strong domain specialists, and relentlessly living the culture of the domain in which they operate.

Other Posts

Source: http://entrepreneurindia.in/howto/start-a-successful-financial-kpo-unit/17037/

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sheena_galapon: Predicting the Future of Teaching | HalalTec ...

Dec 23, 2012

tst G3-Halal eLearning Technology Future, Teaching

There is a mountain of speculation and debate about what school and learning will look like in the near future. Will education be online? Individualized? Self-paced? Flipped? Hybridized? Maybe even completely irrelevant? Rarely, however, is much speculation given to the role of the educator in the future of learning. All people seem to want to know is whether lectures are better recorded or in person or if educators at every level are giving students enough real world skills to be successful in the global economy. In reality, however, the radical changes in technology and the increasing demands on teachers are going to fundamentally change the very act of teaching. What will the educator of the future look like? How will the job description and qualifications change? And what effect will all of that have on students?

The Future of Learning

An October, 2012 video released by telecom company Ericsson presents a survey of educational experts and entrepreneurs speculating about the future of education. This promotional video for the company relies heavily on Knewton and Coursera as the models for the kinds of adaptive, individualized technology that will drive learning in the future.

The focus of the video is the ability of these technologies to track minute user data and facilitate intimately individualized instruction based on that data, including student learning preference, peak performance times, prior knowledge, and a host of other information. Even so, teaching and the role of the instructor was largely missing from this conversation about the techno-facilitated future of education.? One rather vague reference to the role of the educator was attributed to Coursera CEO Daphne Koller in an article accompanying the piece on GIGAOM:

?Coursera?s Koller says one of the revolutions in education is that teaching will be less about conveying information and more of a return to its original roots where instructors engage in dialogue, develop critical thinking skills and spark passion about a discipline.? (23 Oct., 2012)

The Role of the Educator on an Individualized World?

The Koller quote indicates that teaching will take a step backward (historically) with the implementation of these new technologies. Pretty far back, to the time of Plato, in fact, where the teaching and learning process was more about interpersonal interaction and fostering the individual ability to critically apply knowledge and cultivate individual passions for learning. While that is a wonderful plan, it is nearly impossible to imagine a way in which it could happen in a world where a factory model of education still dominates and teachers are overwhelmed with dozens of students in a single class. Plato never had 30 students following him around all attempting to interact at the same time. Given the reality of our education system, here are some more realistic roles for instructors in the world of high-tech education:

• Facilitator/Learning Manager: If instructional materials really become individualized to the extent that the video describes, there will need to be someone present to help students navigate the technical aspects of performing the work that the system pushes to them. Additionally, the instructor will have a role in keeping students on task, and in providing support when learners fail to reach the standards pre-programmed into the adaptive learning system. There may also be an increased role in making sure that each student is completing their own work, rather than the work of peers.

• Remediator: When students fail to achieve the learning objectives outlined by the automated system, the instructor will need to step in to troubleshoot the learning disconnect and either provide alternative instruction or adjust the learning system through some sort of control interface.

• Enricher: Playing off the flipped classroom model, the teacher?s role could shift to providing enrichment activities beyond the scope of the automated system. If adaptive content is provided that helps students master basic concepts and learn background information, teachers can focus on helping students use the information that they have gained in authentic ways to help turn it into knowledge.

• Collaborator/Mentor: One intriguing possibility in a technology-facilitated education future is for teachers to serve as collaborators and mentors with students engaging in real world, possibly entrepreneurial, activities. Such activities would help students develop actual marketable skills and could potentially provide a new and much needed revenue stream for schools and universities.

• Content Creator: One role that teachers already have ?unless their curriculum is standardized- is that of content creator. This is actually one of the most important functions that educators at all levels perform, and one for which they are well trained. Add to these qualifications the fact that they actually know their students, their strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities, and educators could become a valuable resource to be employed to help bolster the content in these adaptive systems. This serves the additional purpose of de-centralizing the curriculum so that a diverse set of perspectives and ideas can be assured.

• N/A: It is possible, though fairly far-fetched, that the further refinement of these adaptive learning systems will make educators obsolete. The Internet is rapidly becoming a repository for all human knowledge (information), and there is potential for these systems to become sophisticated enough to take existing content and reformulate it to create new learning opportunities. This is a frightening possibility that seems awfully close to the scenario that serves as the backdrop for the Terminator movies though.

While it is exciting to think about the rich possibilities that these new technologies could provide for students and the potential they have for liberating teachers from much of the routine, standardized content that all students must master in order to be successful. It is important to remember that true learning happens in context and through a socially mediated process of meaning making.? No technology can accomplish that (yet?), so we will need to keep teachers around to provide the most important aspect of education ? the human touch.

by Justin Marquis Ph.D.

Source: http://www.halaltec.com/predicting-the-future-of-teaching/

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Source: http://sheenagalapon2.blogspot.com/2012/12/predicting-future-of-teaching-halaltec.html

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Climate Model Coverage: Far from Model Journalism

November 2012 temperatures relative to average across the globe

With a less-than-stellar end to the Qatar climate talks, and with all eyes on the US for more ambitious commitments ahead of the next round, it is more important than ever for the American public to be better educated on the dire implications of a rapidly warming world.

Despite a recent shift toward greater belief in anthropogenic climate change, perception of its risks remains low among the US public.

A study published in the September issue of Nature Climate Change may help explain why. After analyzing climate coverage in major newspapers, and radio and television shows, the authors find a disproportionately large focus on op-ed and editorial topics in favor of actual explanations of science. The article concludes that the media not only provides insufficient scientific coverage, but also significantly undermines the reliability of climate models (in all news sources analyzed, almost two times the coverage of climate models was negative vs. positive).

Rather than merely focus on their imprecise nature, the media should take some time to elaborate on the complexity of computer models and shed light on why they are imprecise, describing what we know along with what we don?t know.

Reporting should emphasize that simulating the forces that drive climate, such as, ocean circulation and heat exchanges between land, air and sea, and their interactions with living ecosystems requires very sophisticated mathematical analysis. Systems of differential equations based on the laws of physics, fluid movement, and atmospheric chemistry take data from satellite observations, ocean buoys and other environmental monitoring equipment, which are then solved on supercomputers.

More importantly, these models entail dividing the Earth?s atmosphere into hundreds of thousands of grid points and predicting values for various physical factors, such as temperature, heat transfer, moisture content, and radiation at each grid point. The temperature at a given grid point is predicted five to 20 minutes at a time, until a projection far in the future, say the year 2100, is reached. Because of the short time-step of just a few minutes (which enables greater accuracy), even a one-year simulation would need to process this calculation tens of thousands of times; according to the World Meteorological Organization, for just one year, this would require processing 27,000 times for each of the 2.5 million grid points on Earth.

Climate models are by no means precise. Given their complexity, assumptions and simplifications have to be made to allow even supercomputers to generate projections in a reasonable amount of time. Nonetheless, they are rigorously mathematically tested, and data from past years have reliably been able to recreate the Ice Age and volcanic eruptions from past decades.

If the general public is given an intricate look at the processes that drive climate and the methods used to predict it, anyone with the ability to recall even a basic problem from middle school physics should begin to comprehend the sheer complexity of these projections. This will, perhaps, dispel the notion of climate scientists sitting in their labs and spewing conspiracy theories about a rapidly warming world.

In the aftermath of a political campaign where Republican candidates made a mockery of science, outrightly denying evolution, stem cell research, and human-induced climate change, it is even more important for the media to step up and defend science instead continuing to insist that there are two sides to this issue.

The fact that the Nature study found that The Rush Limbaugh Show provided the most ?explanation? of climate models among major news publications and programs should be disconcerting enough. More than a third of articles and shows explaining models were also seen to be in political commentary outlets.

Previous studies have called for greater transparency on the part of computer modelers in order to increase public trust in modeling. A paper that argues this in the Communications of the ACM aptly quotes the ?reasonable person doctrine?: ?information givers should provide enough information to takers for reasonable people to make decisions.?

Any less information is unacceptable, the authors state, since it does not give users the ability to make informed decisions, and instead forces them to place blind faith in the ?black box? that is computer modeling. The general public are users of information with regard to global warming, no doubt, because they make decisions everyday on energy consumption and carbon footprints: reusable vs. paper vs. plastic bags, energy-efficient vs. regular bulbs, cars vs. public transportation, and so on and so forth.

While all scientific issues suffer from perfunctory reporting due to lack of time, resources and expertise of journalists, climate change particularly lends itself well to the ?two sides to every issue? narrative, since so much of the research is still preliminary. And when the media encounters an event whose conclusion is unknown, it plays a guessing game, trying to predict a possible conclusion and argue for or against it, often based on little factual evidence (think presidential elections).

While this kind of coverage is corrosive anywhere, it?s even more so in the case of scientific stories, where it is important to report on the uncertainty itself rather than using it as a launching pad for pet theories.

Another reason the media gets it wrong is its endless thirst for the sensational, the controversial and the dramatic. Which is why controversies like Climate Gate or Rick Perry?s belief that global warming is a hoax make it to the front pages time and again.

Want dramatic?

Consider this reporting from Bloomberg Businessweek, accompanied by this very explicit cover page in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, which took nearly 200 lives and left millions without power on the East Coast:

?Sandy featured a scary extra twist implicating climate change. An Atlantic hurricane moving up the East Coast crashed into cold air dipping south from Canada. The collision supercharged the storm?s energy level and extended its geographical reach. Pushing that cold air south was an atmospheric pattern, known as a blocking high, above the Arctic Ocean. Climate scientists Charles Greene and Bruce Monger of Cornell University, writing earlier this year in Oceanography, provided evidence that Arctic icemelts linked to global warming contribute to the very atmospheric pattern that sent the frigid burst down across Canada and the eastern U.S.?

Since long-form journalism with context and background is now pass? in mainstream media, the media should at least take advantage of high-priority events like Sandy to shed light on the big picture. Unfortunately, these types of stories are exceedingly rare, but this is one way to educate audiences on the fact that computer models draw on the same logic that lies behind weather models, which most people rely on for their daily activities, and which are?unreliable-weatherman jokes aside?very close to accurate on a day-to-day basis.

Reporters could also make use of immersive multimedia technology to explain how models work, says Larry Pryor. Video games that allow people to ?play? with real simulations can give them firsthand experience in working with computer models.

Games could be specifically designed to allow users to see causes and effects, and to analyze the impact of various factors that affect global warming. The video game, SimCity, has a new version with an additional climate change component to be released next year.

Citizen science and crowdsourcing projects to model and predict climate change can also be great ways to enable the public to not only acquire information, but to also take part in the research. Old Weather, for example, is a crowdsourced effort aimed at gathering meteorological data from naval logs of?US ships from as far back as the mid-19th century, which can be used in climate models.

Initiatives like the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication are also great approaches to get citizens interested and involved in the climate debate. By tracking public awareness of climate change, including American attitudes, risk perceptions, and views on policies, the project tests new and effective ways to involve the public in climate science research.

Recent efforts to push for the teaching of climate science in schools, where children could learn the nuances, complexities and multidisciplinary aspects of climate research would make the job of the media easier, even while preparing the next generation of scientists and engineers who will likely address these challenges head on.

Meanwhile, the media should do its job. It?s the people?s right to know. If there were an impending terrorist attack or dangerous epidemic that could affect millions of people, surely the media would use every channel to communicate that to the public? What about global warming?a phenomenon that may cause entire coastlines to go under water and whole countries to disappear?doesn?t warrant communication?

Image: NOAA

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=99a8757a53f5533622f0c61e73846641

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Kazakh military plane crashes, all 27 on board killed

ALMATY (Reuters) - A military transport plane crashed in southern Kazakhstan on Tuesday, killing all 27 people on board, including the commander of the Central Asian nation's border guards, local media and the KNB security service said.

The twin-engine Antonov An-72 jet disappeared from radar screens at about 1900 local time (1300 GMT) as it was making a descent near the city of Shymkent, the capital of the South Kazakhstan Region.

Kazakhstan's Channel 7 television showed early footage of charred and mangled fragments of the airplane scattered around a cordoned off area in a raging blizzard.

Kazakhstan's KNB security service said the plane, bound for Shymkent from the capital Astana, belonged to its border troops.

The commander of the country's border guards, Turganbek Stambekov, was among those on board, it said on its site (www.knb.kz). The plane was carrying a crew of seven as well as 20 servicemen.

The passengers also included senior border guard officers from southern Kazakhstan. The border guards had been due to make a stopover in Shymkent and then fly to the Uzbek capital Tashkent for talks with Uzbek colleagues, local media said.

The plane plunged to the ground in bad weather from an altitude of about 800 meters as it was making a fourth circle, trying to land, Kazakh television channels said.

KTK channel broadcast footage of an eyewitness saying he had heard a loud explosion and had seen flames at the crash site.

Quoting Kazakh air traffic controllers, Channel 7 said the plane had crashed into an open-cast mine some 21 km (13 miles) from Shymkent, and rescue teams could not immediately reach the crash site.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Additional reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kazakh-military-plane-crashes-27-board-killed-003708209.html

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In passport kerfuffle, Taiwan is stickin' it to China

Taiwan is fighting back with stickers after China issued passports showing ownership over the entire South China Sea.

By Ralph Jennings,?Correspondent / December 18, 2012

A page from a Chinese passport displays a Chinese map which includes an area in the South China Sea inside a line of dashes representing maritime territory claimed by China, in Kunming, Yunnan province, in this November file photo.

Reuters/File

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China hasn?t started a military war with Taiwan ? as has been feared since the 1940s ? but a battle that began on paper last month has met with a fiery pulp-and-ink response that could burn a hole in goodwill between the two once-hostile governments.

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Pictures on Beijing?s latest passports show a map of China that includes two parts of Taiwan, including its scenic showpiece Sun Moon Lake. The travel documents also depict islets in the South China Sea as China's, despite competing claims by Taiwan and several Southeast Asian countries.

China, already a regional heavyweight, is believed to have issued 5 million of the passports between April and November when they inflamed a regional dispute with neighbors. Now Taiwan is joining the chorus of protest, not by refusing to stamp them as Vietnam has announced it is doing, and not by issuing their own maps as India has done, but with some provocative stickers with a message to China. ?

China has claimed Taiwan as part of its turf since the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek?s Nationalists set up a government to rival mainland China's about 100 miles offshore after losing the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong?s Communists. The relationship between China and Taiwan has been up and down for the past few decades: Both?formal reunification with the mainland and full Taiwanese independence have been suggested,?but a tempering of relations has kept many content with the middle ground status quo, with Taiwan considering itself an effectively independent territory.?

Still, the maps in China?s passports were taken as a bold affront to that. In response, Taiwan?s main opposition Democratic Progressive Party gave away 10,000 pink stickers at the foreign ministry consular office in Taipei. The stickers that read ?Taiwan is my Country? can be slapped onto the back cover of a Taiwan passport or onto a plastic passport protector.?

The stickers went fast two weeks ago, so the party copied off another 20,000. ?People just love them,? says its policy coordination executive director Joseph Wu. ?It?s quite clear that what China is doing trespasses into our sovereignty. Taiwan is not under any country?s jurisdiction.?

Across town, the smaller Taiwan Solidarity Union Party printed out oversized paper effigies of the Chinese passports and marred or burned them at a rally, according to local media.

Taiwan and China have set aside differences over sovereignty since 2008, when the island?s conciliatory President Ma Ying-jeou took office. Mr. Ma?s government has signed 18 deals with China, drawing Taiwan closer to the world economic powerhouse. Talks on those agreements built mutual trust that didn?t exist before.

The island?s foreign ministry says?that trust is now being questioned. The ministry?s news release calls China?s passport issue ?a provocative act that will ? damage the mutual trust laboriously built by the two sides in recent years.?

Taiwanese opposition forces are protesting the Chinese passports because they worry that the government is courting China rather than standing up to it, but analysts say officials in Taipei are just as irked as their skeptics.

?Our government thinks that China betrayed common ground, which is that there?s one China but subject to different interpretations,? says Nathan Liu, an associate international affairs professor at Ming Chuan University in Taiwan, citing the basis for talks and deals since 2008.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/mIjpkTDo_U0/In-passport-kerfuffle-Taiwan-is-stickin-it-to-China

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