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Three reasons politicians refuse to take steps to reduce the unacceptably high 9.1 percent unemployment rate
Why, you may be wondering, do politicians refuse to take the necessary fiscal steps to dislodge the unemployment rate from its elevated perch of 9.1%? Why, to the contrary, do they seem if anything intent on austerity measure that will push it in the wrong direction?
Skip to next paragraph Jared Bernstein?
Before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow, Jared was chief economist to Vice President Joseph Biden and executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class. He is a contributor to MSNBC and CNBC and has written numerous books, including 'Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?'
I can think of three reasons:
1) They want the President to fail;
2) They don?t believe fiscal measures will work;
3) They irrationally fear a higher budget deficit, even temporarily.
Re 1, what can anyone say? If you?re will to throw the economy under the bus to gain political advantage, you, not the millions hurt by your actions, should be the one who loses their job.
Re 2, I?ve got more sympathy for you. Folks have a hard time accepting counterfactuals?the idea that things would have been worse absent the Recovery Act. But the evidence is at this point pretty plain to see: here, where the economy improved while the Recovery Act was in place and stumbled as fiscal stimulus come off too soon, in the UK, where austerity is clearly stifling growth, and in southern Europe as well.
Re 3, it can?t be emphasized enough that temporary spending measures, even large one, are not what drive the long-term debt problem. Note how the Recovery Act?all $800 billion of it?adds nothing to the growth of the debt/GDP ratio starting around now. The culprit there would be the Bush tax cuts?it?s the permanent spending, not the temporary stuff that whacks you here.
I?m all for laying the groundwork to get on a sustainable budget path once the private sector is back in the business of creating jobs for people here in America. For now, the question regarding budget deficits should be: are they large enough to help pick up the slack until that moment arrives?
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on jaredbernsteinblog.com.
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The consequences of the Fukushima disaster will be emerging for at least several decades. According to the Japanese government, it will take up to 30 years for the complete clean up of the radiation released from the reactors.
Japan aims to reduce radiation by half over the next two years. To do so, it may have to remove and dispose of massive amounts of radioactive soil, possibly enough to fill 23 baseball stadiums, reports Reuters.
Experts say the areas inside the evacuation zone will have to remain uninhabited throughout the years of contamination. All collected soil and other waste will be stored in the Fukushima Prefecture, in an ?interim facility? with an estimated capacity of up to 28 million cubic meters.
Despite official information, some reports suggest the Japanese government is seriously downplaying the real amount of radioactive substances that leaked from Fukushima. Radioactive emissions from the crippled nuclear power plant may be five times higher than the numbers released by the authorities.
The Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics journal published a report that suggests the figures of radiation released into the atmosphere could be underestimated by almost 80 per cent. The report says only 19 per cent of radioactive cesium-137 fell on Japanese soil, while the remaining amount ended up in the Pacific Ocean. Only some two per cent of cesium is believed to have reached foreign lands.
The author of the report, Andreas Stohl, says that the Japanese government was only using the data that came from Japan for their estimations and missed the cesium that got into the ocean, while Stohl and his team used measurement data from several dozen stations in Japan, North America and other regions.
The report suggests that some 36,000 terabecquerels of cancer-causing cesium were released from the reactors, which amounts to 42 per cent of the total release from the Chernobyl disaster.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Stohl said that estimates are very imprecise, that even 50 percent divergence should not be considered a major difference. Moreover, Stohl?s report is not complete and it has to be reviewed by the field experts before it is accepted as a formal publication, so the numbers may vary.
The evaluation of the consequences is also hindered by poorly-developed methods of extensive radiation measurement. So far no one can tell the exact number of people who received dangerous doses of radiation or draw a prediction of how many of them will be affected by cancer in the long-run.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was heavily damaged by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in a reactor meltdown and the release of radioactive material. Since then, the authorities have struggled to contain the crisis, with pledges being given in the summer, that it will be resolved by the end of this year.
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A mere 12 years after surmounting six billion, the world's population will reach seven billion, according to the U.N. But that rate seems to be slowing
?| October 28, 2011
On October 31, 2011, a particularly special person will be born?the seven billionth human alive, according to United Nations demographers. He or she could be delivered by a starving mother in the growing wastelands of Somalia, a failed-state gripped by famine and war. The best odds are that the child will be born in India, which has the highest rate of births per minute in the world. She may even be an American girl, heiress to a complex legacy that is in no small part responsible for the fact that, for better or worse, people are shaping the destiny of the planet that engendered humanity.
Regardless, the seven billionth person raises the question: How much is too much? "Can Earth support seven billion or nine billion or 10 billion people in a good life for a long time?" asked demographer Joel Cohen of Columbia University's Earth Institute at its human population event on October 17. "The addition of four billion people in five decades has no precedent. That is an exceptional event and will probably never be repeated within human history."
There were only one billion people on the planet as recently as the turn of the 19th century and only a few hundred thousand just 10,000 years ago. In fact, there may have been as few as 15,000 of us, roughly 70,000 years ago.
With both more people and longer lifetimes, humanity's absolute numbers continue to rise, even though the number of children per women has halved since 1950. In fact, the absolute growth rate in human population peaked at 2.1 percent between 1965 and 1970, according to Cohen. "We're now down to 1.1 percent per year," he said, although that still means roughly 150 babies born every minute.
Consumers
The world's richest 500 million people produce half the world's carbon dioxide emissions?the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change?whereas the poorest three billion emit just seven percent. The average American?one of 312.5 million?uses up some 88 kilograms of stuff daily: food, water, plastics, metals and other material goods. Americans consume a full 25 percent of the world's energy despite representing just 5 percent of global population, and the band of industrialized nations combine to waste 222 million metric tons of food per year, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
"Population doubled while the economy grew by 15 times, cars by 16 times and fertilizer-use by sixfold," said geographer Ruth DeFries of Columbia at the same event. "There is no end in sight for that increase in consumption," particularly as it is emulated by people around the globe.
All this consumption requires a host of natural resources, from vast copper mines scarring the landscape to ever more land for food. More acreage was converted to growing crops between 1950 and 1980, than from 1700 to 1850, and arable land is one of nine "planetary boundaries" that scientists have identified?limits past which humanity should fear to tread. The others include: climate change, biodiversity loss, nutrient cycles, ocean acidification and freshwater use, among others. "Slowing population growth does not solve all the problems but it makes it easier by slowing demands," Cohen said.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a16330ca42cae623f77467f30f42ce56
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When a bacterial cell divides into two daughter cells and those two cells divide into four more daughters, then 8, then 16 and so on, the result, biologists have long assumed, is an eternally youthful population of bacteria. Bacteria, in other words, don't age -- at least not in the same way all other organisms do.
But a study conducted by evolutionary biologists at the University of California, San Diego questions that longstanding paradigm. In a paper published in the Nov. 8 issue of the journal Current Biology, they conclude that not only do bacteria age, but that their ability to age allows bacteria to improve the evolutionary fitness of their population by diversifying their reproductive investment between older and more youthful daughters. An advance copy of the study appears this week in the journal's early online edition.
"Aging in organisms is often caused by the accumulation of non-genetic damage, such as proteins that become oxidized over time," said Lin Chao, a professor of biology at UC San Diego who headed the study. "So for a single celled organism that has acquired damage that cannot be repaired, which of the two alternatives is better?to split the cellular damage in equal amounts between the two daughters or to give one daughter all of the damage and the other none?"
The UC San Diego biologists' answer?that bacteria appear to give more of the cellular damage to one daughter, the one that has "aged," and less to the other, which the biologists term "rejuvenation"?resulted from a computer analysis Chao and colleagues Camilla Rang and Annie Peng conducted on two experimental studies. Those studies, published in 2005 and 2010, attempted unsuccessfully to resolve the question of whether bacteria aged. While the 2005 study showed evidence of aging in bacteria, the 2010 study, which used a more sophisticated experimental apparatus and acquired more data than the previous one, suggested that they did not age.
"We analyzed the data from both papers with our computer models and discovered that they were really demonstrating the same thing," said Chao. "In a bacterial population, aging and rejuvenation goes on simultaneously, so depending on how you measure it, you can be misled to believe that there is no aging."
In a separate study, the UC San Diego biologists filmed populations of E. coli bacteria dividing over hundreds of generations and confirmed that the sausage-shaped bacteria divided each time into daughter cells that grew elongated at different rates?suggesting that one daughter cell was getting all or most of the cellular damage from its mother while the other was getting little or none. Click this link to watch the time-lapse film of one bacterium dividing over 10 generations into 1,000 bacteria in a period of five hours and see if you can see any differences.
"We ran computer models and found that giving one daughter more the damage and the other less always wins from an evolutionary perspective," said Chao. "It's analogous to diversifying your portfolio. If you could invest $1 million at 8 percent, would that provide you with more money than splitting the money and investing $500,000 at 6 percent and $500,000 at 10 percent?"
"After one year it makes no difference," he added. "But after two years, splitting the money into the two accounts earns you more and more money because of the compounding effect of the 10 percent. It turns out that bacteria do the same thing. They give one daughter a fresh start, which is the higher interest-bearing account and the other daughter gets more of the damage."
Although E. coli bacteria appear to divide precisely down the middle into two daughter cells, the discovery that the two daughters eventually grow to different lengths suggests that bacteria do not divide as symmetrically as most biologists have come to believe, but that their division is really "asymmetrical" within the cell.
"There must be an active transport system within the bacterial cell that puts the non-genetic damage into one of the daughter cells," said Chao. "We think evolution drove this asymmetry. If bacteria were symmetrical, there would be no aging. But because you have this asymmetry, one daughter by having more damage has aged, while the other daughter gets a rejuvenated start with less damage."
###
University of California - San Diego: http://www.ucsd.edu
Thanks to University of California - San Diego for this article.
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Anik spoke with Cagewriter about his legacy at ESPN, the final broadcast and his new job. He said that the opportunity to call fights and focus all of his time on MMA was just too good of an offer to pass on.
"Doing live events for a sports broadcaster is where it's at. It's what I've always wanted to do. There's nothing like the adrenaline and the rush of being a small part of that live event. For a lot of broadcasters, when you get to ESPN, that is the pinnacle. You never think you'll leave there. I wouldn't have left if there wasn't interest from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I'm appreciative that Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White were behind me."
Anik doesn't expect to make his TV debut for the UFC until January, but his first official day as a Zuffa employee is on Monday. All of his concentration can finally be on MMA, which is what he has wanted.
"At ESPN, I was pulled in a lot of different directions. With the singular focus, I have 280 fighters to learn every inch of, and that process begins on Monday. Part of my first month in November will be research, and I'm excited to do so. They deserve to have the person representing them on TV to be as informed as humanly possible. You can be sure that I'll be learning it all."
But before that first day of work, Anik had his final broadcast with the "MMA Live" crew. Kenny Florian and Franklin McNeil, two mainstays on the show, were with Anik during today's broadcast. That show will air tonight, and you might see Anik get emotional.
"It was tough today. Kenny Florian and Franklin McNeil were both there, and they've grown into great friends of mine. We all grew together. We're going through the show today, and obviously the focus is on UFC 137, but at the end, they paid a nice little tribute and I was holding back the tears. I appreciate that ESPN let me do one final show."
He said that though MMA's coverage at ESPN has grown, it was still only about 30 percent of his work week.
Anik said that "MMA Live" will continue on without him, though he does not know who his replacement will be. It's possible that ESPN will use a rotation of hosts to fill the job.
Though he is leaving, Anik is proud of what "MMA Live" has accomplished in its three years. The show started on the internet only, and was moved to ESPN2 after its viewership steadily increased.
"The staff wanted a news and information show cut from the same cloth as NFL Live, and I think we were able to do that. The fact that we were able to graduate to ESPN2 is really something that I will always look to with a great sense of pride, because it's very rare for ESPN to put a show on TV when they don't have rights to that sport. You don't see an NHL 2Night. A lot of the fighters who came on and served as analysts deserve a whole lot credit for that. I think that's some sort of legacy that I hope we leave, and MMA Live is going to go on long after I'm gone."
The work on ESPN prepared Anik for his new role with the UFC. A big part of his job will be the face of the UFC's programming on Fuel and FX.
"One of the goals that we have collectively with the UFC right now is to make Fuel TV a monster. There's going to be so much programming on Fuel TV and on FX that I think it's important to drive people to that platform."
Watch Anik's final episode of "MMA Live" on ESPN2 at 1 a.m. ET.
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FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
On Oct. 9 an underwater volcano started to emerge in waters off El Hierro Island in the Canaries, Spain. Researchers of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO, Ministry of Science and Innovation) only needed 15 days to map its formation in high resolution. The volcanic cone has reached a height of 100 m and the lava tongue flows down its side, even though its activity has slowed down in the past few days.
"This is probably the first time that such a young underwater volcano has been mapped in such high resolution," explains Juan Acosta, head of the IEO campaign set to study the volcanic cone that emerged this month near El Hierro island in the Canaries.
On the 9th October, scientists of Spain's National Geographic Institute (Spanish Ministry of Development) detected the initial seismic movements that gave way to the birth of the underwater volcano. Then, by the 24th of this month, scientists on board the IEO's ship Ramn Margalef had already completed the bathymetry (mapping of the sea bed) with unprecedented precision.
The boat has a cutting-edge sensor system which means that details of less than 10 metres can be observed on the sea bed. The bathymetry was obtained in two days by tracing parallel scans.
In 1998, within the framework in Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone, researchers of the IEO and Spain's Marine Hydrographic Institute (Spanish Ministry of Defence) also mapped the same area from within the oceanographic ship Hesprides. Using a geographic information system, these images have now been superimposed onto those just taken and thus the birth of the volcano has been confirmed.
Acosta says that "it is spectacular to see how what was once an underwater valley is now a volcanic cone with its descending lava tongue."
The base of the volcano lies at a depth of 300 m. It is conical and 100 m high with a base diameter of 700 m and a crater width of 120 m. The volume of the volcano is around 0.012 km3, 0.07 km3 of which is made up of its lava tongue that is slowly filling the adjacent valley.
Scientists have also created graphs of the gas plumes that are consistently coming out of the main crater and the surrounding cracks. However, at present the possible development and risks of the volcano have not been officially declared. Their mission is to provide data to those in charge of the Special Civil Protection Plan for Emergency Volcanic Risk in the Canary Islands (PEVOLCA) as a way of aiding them in the decision making process.
Named Bimbache after the first settlers of El Hierro Island, this scientific campaign is currently entering its second phase under the orders of the researcher Francisco Snchez who is also from the IEO.
Until the 31st October, photographs and videos will be taken of the volcanic cone with an array of high resolution cameras which will be pulled by the remote observation submarine Liropus. From there, a third stage is predicted to get underway. This will involve the analysis of the currents and the physicochemical properties of the columns of water that surround the new volcano.
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Public release date: 28-Oct-2011 Share ] Contact: SINC
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
On Oct. 9 an underwater volcano started to emerge in waters off El Hierro Island in the Canaries, Spain. Researchers of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO, Ministry of Science and Innovation) only needed 15 days to map its formation in high resolution. The volcanic cone has reached a height of 100 m and the lava tongue flows down its side, even though its activity has slowed down in the past few days.
"This is probably the first time that such a young underwater volcano has been mapped in such high resolution," explains Juan Acosta, head of the IEO campaign set to study the volcanic cone that emerged this month near El Hierro island in the Canaries.
On the 9th October, scientists of Spain's National Geographic Institute (Spanish Ministry of Development) detected the initial seismic movements that gave way to the birth of the underwater volcano. Then, by the 24th of this month, scientists on board the IEO's ship Ramn Margalef had already completed the bathymetry (mapping of the sea bed) with unprecedented precision.
The boat has a cutting-edge sensor system which means that details of less than 10 metres can be observed on the sea bed. The bathymetry was obtained in two days by tracing parallel scans.
In 1998, within the framework in Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone, researchers of the IEO and Spain's Marine Hydrographic Institute (Spanish Ministry of Defence) also mapped the same area from within the oceanographic ship Hesprides. Using a geographic information system, these images have now been superimposed onto those just taken and thus the birth of the volcano has been confirmed.
Acosta says that "it is spectacular to see how what was once an underwater valley is now a volcanic cone with its descending lava tongue."
The base of the volcano lies at a depth of 300 m. It is conical and 100 m high with a base diameter of 700 m and a crater width of 120 m. The volume of the volcano is around 0.012 km3, 0.07 km3 of which is made up of its lava tongue that is slowly filling the adjacent valley.
Scientists have also created graphs of the gas plumes that are consistently coming out of the main crater and the surrounding cracks. However, at present the possible development and risks of the volcano have not been officially declared. Their mission is to provide data to those in charge of the Special Civil Protection Plan for Emergency Volcanic Risk in the Canary Islands (PEVOLCA) as a way of aiding them in the decision making process.
Named Bimbache after the first settlers of El Hierro Island, this scientific campaign is currently entering its second phase under the orders of the researcher Francisco Snchez who is also from the IEO.
Until the 31st October, photographs and videos will be taken of the volcanic cone with an array of high resolution cameras which will be pulled by the remote observation submarine Liropus. From there, a third stage is predicted to get underway. This will involve the analysis of the currents and the physicochemical properties of the columns of water that surround the new volcano.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/f-sf-mtf_2102811.php
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Sometimes I think the euro zone debt crisis is like watching a remake of the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day, with the screenplay written by Financial Times correspondents. I wake up and read the news coming from Europe: worries mount about a Greek default, contagion spreads across the continent, the euro zone leaders are lost in befuddled bickering, and then a new pact to fix the problems emerges, hailed as historic. Then I get up the next day to find we're in exactly the same place we were before, with the cycle just repeating itself. Again and again. The only difference is that Groundhog Day made me laugh. The euro crisis version makes me want to cry.
So today, again, we find ourselves with yet another supposedly historic agreement, the one that will finally, really, once-and-for-all put an end the debt crisis, the most dangerous threat to global financial stability today. But is this the big one? Or will I wake up tomorrow listening to the same euro zone version of "I Got You Babe," sung by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel? (See pictures of the global financial crisis.)
This latest pact, reached after all-night, hard-fought negotiations Thursday morning, is still short on details and has a long way to go before it can be called actual policy. But looking at the general outlines, I see some good aspects, some bad, and some truly ugly.
First, the good. The euro zone is finally getting real. Its leaders had been in denial that far greater and more comprehensive measures were necessary to quell the crisis, but this agreement shows they're waking up to reality. Everyone knew Europe's banks needed to be repaired; now, finally, we have a plan to recapitalize them. Everyone knew Greece needed a more drastic debt restructuring; now we have a bigger bailout (130 billion euros, or $180 billion) with a bigger reduction of debt. Everyone knew the euro zone's bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF, was too small to fight contagion; now we have a deal to increase the fund's capabilities by using it to guarantee private bondholders against losses on sovereign debt purchases. These are all important ? in fact, crucial ? steps to tackling the debt crisis, and Europe's leaders should get kudos for taking them. (Read: "Euro Zone Strikes a Deal With Lots of Promise But Few Details")
But then there's the bad: As has been the custom, the plan is ultimately no more than a politically determined collection of half-measures. With voters at home turning more and more sour on euro bailouts, the zone's leadership has attempted to tackle the crisis with hardly any new money being put on the table. And, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. The bank recapitalization plan calls for banks to raise 106 billion euros ($150 billion) in fresh capital. But that's about half what private estimates say is necessary, so it's unlikely to be a final cure for Europe's banking woes. Nor is it clear what role European governments will play in providing that capital. On the expansion of the EFSF, the deal is aimed at giving the fund more firepower without adding any more ammunition. The actual size of the fund will remain the same; after the Greek bailout, no one is sure how much may actually be left. And as to that second bailout, Greece's situation will improve due to the 50% haircut being imposed on private bondholders. (Yes, imposed. Let's not kid ourselves that this debt restructuring is "voluntary." No one "voluntarily" loses half their money.) But Greece will still be stuck with a dangerously high debt burden. The new deal will lower its government debt to GDP ratio to a still-lofty 120% ? by the end of the decade. And even that estimate is based on unrealistic assumptions ? that Greece can close its budget gap with its economy in free fall, or raise tens of billions in a privatization program that has yet to get off the ground. So my guess is that this deal resolves none of the major issues. The Greek debt crisis will continue; the banking crisis will continue; and Europe still hasn't put its money where its rhetoric is.
And now the ugly. The deal includes a proposal to tap China and other cash-rich emerging markets to participate in bolstering the EFSF, possibly through the IMF. French President Sarkozy is expected to phone Chinese President Hu Jintao to woo him into the scheme. This whole idea is truly pathetic. If I were Hu, I'd be insulted. The euro zone leaders are unwilling to spend more to solve their own debt crisis, so they think the Chinese are gullible enough to put in their savings? I don't think so. If Sarkozy called you up and asked for your paycheck to bailout Italy, would you give it to him? China is not a global ATM machine, or a charitable organization. In the end, China will invest its money as any other financier would ? in ways that increase its return and preserve its wealth. Perhaps the Chinese can be bribed into cooperating ? a notion has been floating about that Europe would promise Beijing more voting rights at the IMF. But even if China throws Europe a bone to boost its political influence in the region (or to gloat that the Europeans have come begging), the euro zone needs hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps even trillions. They're not getting that from China. (See why it's make-up or break-up time for the euro zone.)
So in the end, this historic agreement will likely get dumped in the dustbin of history like all of the other historic agreements. So the same cycle will repeat itself again. We'll probably be talking about a new grand agreement to halt the debt crisis by early next year. I guess it could be worse. I could be the groundhog.
Is it time to admit the euro has failed?
See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis.
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(Reuters) ? Americans' opinion of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform in October reached its lowest point since the law passed in March 2010, according to a monthly poll by the non-profit, non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
The view of the law has been roughly evenly split since its passage, but in October 51 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion, while 34 percent said their opinion was favorable, poll results released on Friday showed.
In September, the split was 43 percent to 41 percent. And October's gap is closest to the one the poll tracked in July 2010, when the division was 50 percent to 35 percent.
The gap widened largely because the law appeared to be falling out of favor with Democrats, whose support dropped to its lowest point of 52 percent from 65 percent in September.
Although Democrats were still much likelier to view the law favorably than Republicans or independents, the percentage of Democrats who said they and their families were better off under the healthcare law dropped significantly to 27 percent in October from 43 percent in September.
As Republican candidates are gearing up in the effort to unseat Obama in 2012, the healthcare law has become one of the major sticking points and Mitt Romney's campaign has fielded shots at his own healthcare law in Massachusetts that, his opponents argue, closely mirrors Obama's.
The Kaiser poll in October found that almost three-quarters of Americans and about 70 percent of likely Republican primary voters didn't know enough about former Massachusetts Governor Romney's law to form an opinion about it, judge its effectiveness or compare it to Obama's.
The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll surveyed a nationally representative random sample of 1,223 Americans 18 and older between October 13 and 18 through telephone interviews.
(Reporting by Alina Selyukh in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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Empathy, a concept originally introduced as Einf?hlung by Theodore Lipps, is a state that allows us to share in the experiences and mental states of others. It lets us understand?or at least begin to approximate?their feelings, their internal conditions, their possible thoughts and motivations, and as such, is one of the central elements of social behavior. And surprisingly, if you take his almost pathological detachment from others seriously?or obviously, if you consider both his remarkable ability to take on others? points of views and his emotional attachment, however veiled, to the select few?it is an ability that Sherlock Holmes demonstrates to great effect on multiple occasions, sometimes going as far as to side with the criminal over the law when he identifies enough with the circumstances of the crime. In one such instance, we find him at the end of ?The Adventure of Abbey Grange? urging Watson to stop a moment before rendering justice on Captain Jack Croker.
When Holmes makes his way to Scotland Yard to share crucial information with Inspector Hopkins on the murder under investigation, he changes his mind: he departs before entering the station and goes back to Baker Street having told nothing to the police. Why does he do that? As he tells Watson,
?No, I couldn?t do it, Watson. Once that warrant was made out, nothing on earth would save him. Once or twice in my career I feel that I have dome more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by this crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience.?
When later that evening, Inspector Hopkins visits Baker Street with no more idea of the proper way to proceed than he?d had earlier on, Holmes dismisses him without much further explanation. He then addresses Watson:
?I dare say you thought I acted rather badly to Stanley Hopkins just now??
?I trust your judgment.?
?A very sensible reply, Watson. You must look at it this way: what I know is unofficial; what he knows is official. I have the right to private judgment, but he has none. He must disclose all, or he is a traitor to his service. In a doubtful case I would not put him in so painful a position, and so I reserve my information until my own mind is clear upon the matter.?
And when his own mind does clear up, after he and Watson listen to Croker?s account of events, he proceeds to take upon himself the role of judge and pronounce the man acquitted.
Of course, in this instance we are witnessing far more than empathy at work: we are seeing a detective ascertain the details of a case, and then decide that the crime was worth committing. But why? From where did that judgment arise?
Here, we can see Mr. Holmes empathizing with two individuals: Mary Fraser and Jack Croker. Because of Mary?s ill treatment at the hands of her husband, she was a victim and worthy of drastic interference; and because of the captain?s love for Mary, he, too, was a victim (of his passion) and an upholder of the chivalric code of honor (protecting his lady) that Sir Conan Doyle himself held so dear.
Holmes makes his judgments long before hearing the details of the case from Croker?s lips. From the moment he hesitates on the steps of Scotland Yard, he has placed himself on the side of the perpetrators, progressing from their mindsets, their motivations, their goals?not his own?in making his decision. In short, he demonstrates the very hallmarks of empathetic thinking. It?s a step beyond simple perspective-taking. True, Holmes must first take the perspective of those in question; but then, he emotionally identifies with them in a way that the more purely cognitive first step does not necessitate.
The origins of empathy
Where does such empathy come from? When we observe someone acting a certain way or exhibiting a certain emotion, we automatically mirror the action in our own minds. So, if we see someone smile, we enact that smile in our heads?and often, on our own faces. When we see them lift an apple, we imagine that action ourselves. And as we do so, we begin to grasp not just the hows but the whys of the action. Why is he smiling? Why is he taking an apple? He?s happy. He?s hungry. I begin to see where he?s coming from. It?s not yet empathy, but it?s a step in its direction.
Indeed, so basic is the process of mental imitation that even in a macaque monkey, observing another?s action activates identical neural firings as does performing that action. This accidental discovery, made in the 1980s by a team of Italian researchers led by Giacomo Rizzolatti, has since formed the basis for much of the research into models of empathy and empathetic behavior, though the exact relationship remains unclear. It seems that much of empathetic feeling comes from our minds mirroring back the actions of the world via the so-called mirror neurons (in reality, just specialized motor neurons that fire in response to others? actions). We don?t need to actually smile to model the smile in our minds?though we may do so anyway?and whether or not we physically perform an action, we are able to approximate its performance as if we had done so.
In a recent imaging study that attempted to untangle the mechanisms of imitation, individuals were shown images of different types of facial expressions (happy, sad, disgusted, surprised, angry, and afraid) while in a scanner. They either simply observed those expressions, or imitated them in addition to observing. The researchers found several interesting occurrences. First, the tasks engaged a largely overlapping neural network: even when individuals were just observing an emotion, the motor areas of the brain associated with performing the emotional action were activated, suggesting that internal imitation?a repetition of someone else?s action in your mind?was an essential component of experiencing empathy, even without physical mirroring. In order to emphasize with someone else, we must first mentally represent the actions that would be associated with the emotion that we see.
However, certain areas, namely the inferior frontal cortex (an area that codes action goals), superior temporal cortex (an area that codes early visual descriptions of actions and sends those descriptions to a specific subset of mirror neurons), and insula and amygdala (two areas heavily implicated in emotional processing), were in fact more active during the imitation trials than the observation trials. So, while we largely simulate similar reactions when we merely observe, actively imitating others? emotional states and engaging with them more completely may help explain that causal step from simple cognitive understanding (I know he smiled and I know what smiling feels like) to emotional understanding and engagement (I begin to sense why he?s smiling and I?m engaging myself with that emotion).
In fact, we are remarkably good at inferring an action?s goals as opposed to just observing the action itself, making the latter course of active engagement (where we imitate the smile and don?t just observe it) more attainable. We may even do so much more naturally. In one study, children were easily able to imitate the hand movements of an experimenter who was sitting across the table under normal circumstances, but began to make mistakes when two large red dots were placed on either side of the table. Now, whenever the experimenter moved a hand, it would cover a red dot, and the children began to imitate the goal of covering the dot as opposed to the motor action they had been instructed to follow; the former came much more instinctively. So, not only do we imitate quite naturally, but we begin to make inferences, assign states, make generalizations almost automatically as well. Even if we?re told not to think about goals and to focus on mechanics alone, the natural reaction is to do exactly what we?re not supposed to be doing anyway.
Developing empathy further
Perhaps, then, we can exploit such natural tendencies to develop our empathetic ability to the point where we are able to imagine ourselves letting a murderer go?simply because we understand where he?s coming from (of course, in real life this is a much more problematic proposition than in Holmes?s world, which tends to be far more clear-cut, but the principle of broader and deeper other-understanding itself is a worthy and valid one).
There is, for example, evidence that some people mimic behavior much more frequently than others; they then tend to identify more with the feelings of those others and, in turn, experience more compassion toward them. In other words, by being better imitators they become more empathetic individuals. We could use their example in trying to actively imitate others when we need to understand them and identify with them emotionally (perhaps part of what Holmes was accomplishing when, back in The Valley of Fear, he chose to return to the scene of the crime?).
There is also some indication that we tend to empathize more with close others than we do with more distant others, feeling their pain, to take one instance, more acutely. Another approach, then, may be to frame more people as closer to ourselves, members of our immediate in-group, and fewer as constituting out-group, further others.
And a final approach? It brings us right back to where we started: perspective-taking. Learning to simulate others? thoughts and actions from their own viewpoint and not ours, just as Holmes did with The Valley of Fear and as he does again in ?The Adventure of Abbey Grange.? In the latter instance, Holmes goes a step beyond what most people are capable of achieving, becoming the empathetic individual par excellence. In his understanding of Croker?s motives and actions, he exhibits empathy even without having ever seen the individual in question?a mirroring at a distance. He has mentally been able to put himself in someone else?s place, to embrace his perspective to such an extent that he can motivate a murder in the wake of its influence.
And that, in a sense, is the goal of empathy: to take ?mirroring? to its extreme, and instead of relying on those automatic, easy moments of imitation when something is staring us in the face, learning to use our powers of mental simulation on a deeper, broader, and more active level, empathizing at a distance and acting in accordance with that more open and accepting mental state.
Photo credit: Holmes and Watson welcome Captain? Jack Croker in ?The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.? By Sidney Paget (1860 ? 1908) (Strand Magazine) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Previously in this series:
Don?t Just See, Observe: What Sherlock Holmes Can Teach Us About Mindful Decisions
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Paying Attention to What Isn?t There
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Cultivate What You Know to Optimize How You Decide
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Perspective Is Everything, Details Alone Are Nothing
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don?t Underestimate the Importance of Imagination
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Confidence Is good; Overconfidence, Not So Much
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: The Situation Is in the Mindset of the Observer
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: The Power of Public Opinion
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don?t Tangle Two Lines of Thought
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Breadth of Knowledge Is Essential
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don?t Decide Before You Decide
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Trust in The Facts, Not Your Version of Them
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Don?t Judge a Man by His Face
Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: The Importance of Perspective-Taking
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HAKKARI, Turkey (Reuters) ? A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit near Van in southeastern Turkey on Sunday, Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Research Institute said, and state-run media reported some buildings had collapsed and 50 people had been injured.
The institute said the earthquake struck at 1041 GMT (6:41 a.m. EDT) and was 5 km (3 miles) deep. The U.S. Geological Survey earlier reported that the magnitude was 7.6.
Some buildings collapsed and emergency teams were trying to rescue people believed to be trapped in a building in Van, near the Iranian border, state-run news agency Anatolian said.
It said 50 injured people had been taken to hospital in Van, but did not give details on how serious their injuries were.
Television pictures showed damaged buildings and vehicles, crushed under falling masonry, and panicked residents wandering in the streets.
Turkish media said phone lines and electricity had been cut off. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will head to Van to see the damage, media reported.
Aftershocks continued after the initial quake, whose epicenter was at the village of Tabanli, north of Van city, the agency said.
In Hakkari, a town around 100 km (60 miles) south of the city of Van in southeastern Turkey, a building could be felt swaying for around 10 seconds during the quake.
There was no immediate sign of any casualties or damage in Hakkari, around two and half hours drive through the mountains from Van, around 20 km from the epicenter.
Major geological faultlines cross Turkey and small earthquakes are a near daily occurrence. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in northwest Turkey.
Two people were killed and 79 injured in May when an earthquake shook Simav in northwest Turkey.
(Additional reporting by Seda Sezer and Daren Butler; Editing by Alison Williams)
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BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) ? Discussions are under way on forming Libya's next interim government and a decision is expected in about two weeks, the head of its National Transitional Council said on Monday.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the council would discuss next week who would lead the new government, replacing Mahmoud Jibril who stepped down at the weekend.
Abdel Jalil, who on Sunday said Libya had taken Islamic sharia law as its source of legislation, tried to assuage concerns that the country may drift toward religious extremism.
"I want to assure the international community that we as Libyans are moderate Muslims," he said.
(Reporting by Tamim Elyan; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer)
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TOKYO (AP) ? Asian shares were mixed Tuesday as investors waited for European leaders to unveil a plan to tackle the continent's ongoing debt crisis.
Markets turned cautious after solid gains in Asia the previous day, unable to extend a Wall Street rally overnight.
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average slipped 0.3 percent to 8,820.29 as exporters struggled in the face of a strong yen. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.6 percent to 1,887.76, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5 percent to 4,234.90.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.4 percent to 18,838.06. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand also advanced modestly.
European leaders have said they made progress at a weekend summit and plan to unveil concrete plans for containing the crisis by Wednesday.
The 17-nation eurozone is set to shore up its bailout fund to contain the debt turmoil that threatens to engulf more countries, and German lawmakers said the plan could boost the fund's lending capacity to more than euro1 trillion ($1.39 trillion).
Overnight in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average finished with a gain of 104.83 points, or 0.9 percent, at 11,913.62.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose to 1,254.19, marking the highest close for the S&P 500 since Aug. 3, just as Washington was resolving a showdown over raising the country's borrowing limit.
In currencies, the dollar rose slightly to 76.14 yen from 76.05 yen late Monday in New York. The euro stood at $1.3905 from $1.3951.
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By Food & Wine
Courtesy of Grahamwich
Chicago chef Graham Elliot Bowles's take on grilled cheese features Wisconsin cheddar, prosciutto, tomato marmalade and cheese curds.
The best grilled cheese sandwich is the gooiest grilled cheese, says Laura Werlin,?the James Beard Award?winning cookbook author behind this year's "Grilled Cheese, Please!"
"After you bite into it, the cheese should stretch out past your face as far as your arm will reach. Otherwise, it's just not right."
Slideshow: Best Grilled Cheese in the U.S.
While it?s easy to achieve some level of crunchy, buttery excellence at home, chefs and restaurateurs are creating exceptional grilled cheese sandwiches across the country.
Given the West Coast?s reputation for producing great cheeses (there?s even a book titled?"The Guide to West Coast Cheese"), it?s fitting that some of the most delicious innovations are turning up in that part of the country. In San Francisco,?Heidi Gibson,?an?engineer with a degree from MIT,?won the national Grilled Cheese Invitational and opened American Grilled Cheese?Kitchen?in the city?s start-up-heavy SOMA neighborhood. Tech geeks now come for well-constructed sandwiches like the Mousetrap, with cheddar, Havarti and Monterey Jack on artisanal sourdough.
Over-the-top combinations are the specialty at the rabidly popular Grilled Cheese Truck in Los Angeles. In most places, mac and cheese would be served with house-smoked barbecued pork as a side dish. Here, that?s the basis for a Cheesy Mac & Rib Sandwich.
Angelenos looking for more restrained grilled cheeses head to Clementine, where?chef-owner Annie Miler got so excited about her bakery-caf??s 10th-Annual Celebration of Grilled Cheese Month in April 2011 that she offered 10 variations every week that month. A year-round favorite:?extra-sharp white Tillamook cheddar on country white with bacon or roasted cherry tomatoes.
The nouveau grilled cheese trend is now spreading through major cities. A new caf? in Queens, N.Y., called The Queens Kickshaw, focuses on two buzzy foods: grilled cheese and coffee.?The menu takes inspiration from the amazing ethnic diversity of the borough with sandwiches like a Greek-influenced feta with roasted red pepper spread and the French-style?Gruy?re?with pickled and caramelized onions.
Top chefs won?t be left out of the gooey movement either. Chicago?s?Graham Elliot Bowles is known for playful cuisine at Graham Elliot, and the sandwiches at his local take-out joint, Grahamwich, are equally inventive. The grilled cheese on sliced Pullman loaf features Wisconsin cheddar, prosciutto, tomato marmalade and cheese curds, which, when melted, add an extra soft, melty effect.
More from Food & Wine
Source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/11/8274235-best-grilled-cheese-in-the-us
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The iPod turns 10, celebrates a decade of destroying physical media originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The HP Pavilion Elite h8-1124 ($899.99 list at Best Buy) follows its forbears as the newest version of the HP Pavilion Elite line. This desktop is one to consider if you want high-end computing power to edit photos and re-encode videos for your tablet, smartphone, and on the Web. Even tasks like surfing the Web are fast, and it's nicely priced. There's an intangible price to pay, however: the system is full of extra programs you may never use, and it's somewhat limited in expansion room. The h8-1124 is, therefore, recommended with reservations.
Design and Features
The h8-1124 looks a lot like the other systems in the Pavilion Elite h8 series, like the HP Pavilion Elite h8-1050 ($1,299.99 direct, 4 stars) that we gave an Editors' Choice award to earlier this year. It's an upmarket tower, with a red-backlit line bisecting the front panel, plus an indented tray with USB ports on the top of the system for servicing your smartphone or tablet. Like other towers, the h8-1124 has a decent amount of internal upgrade space: There's room for three PCIe x1 cards, an extra internal hard drive, and one more optical drive. The desktop's two memory DIMM slots are full, as is the PCIe x16 graphics card slot, but these two components won't need to be upgraded for a while. The h8-1124 comes with a 300W power supply, which is a little light for future upgrades.
It comes with quite a bit of pre-installed software, which is surprising for a Best Buy system (we'd rather see a pre-installed e-commerce app like the Best Buy PC app, then install nothing else but the hardware drivers and a few utilities). On the desktop screen alone are six unnecessary icons: Blio (an online book store), eBay, Office 2010, HP Games, Snapfish, and Zya Music store. Aside from these, there are other programs strewn all over the Start menu: Skype, Kobo (another book store), Press Reader, Zinio, HP Download Store, HP Movie Time (yup, you guess it, a movie store), and Sprint Mobile Broadband. The last program is puzzling, as the h8-1124 is not a mobile device. The desktop's Norton Internet Security is a short 60-day trial. There are a couple of useful apps however, like the HP Link Up software that lets you remote control another Windows 7 desktop on your LAN or wireless network.
Performance
The h8-1124 was a decent performer at medium quality settings on our 3D game benchmarks: 70 fps at Crysis (DiretX 10) and 28 fps at Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 11). Crysis is most definitely playable, and Lost Planet 2 could be playable with some tweaking. The Dell XPS 8300 has a discrete graphics card too, but its lower-powered ATI Radeon HD 6450 results in scores on the 3D tests (29fps Crysis, 13fps Lost Planet 2). The Mac mini is in the middle performance-wise, thanks to an ATI Radeon HD 6630M graphics card (48fps on Crysis; 19fps on Lost Planet 2). Either way, you'll need a beefier GPU in order to play newer DirectX 11 titles.
The HP Pavilion Elite h8-1124 is a vexing choice. It's a better performer than the Dell XPS 8300 (x8300-4004NBK), justifying some of its added cost. But the h8-1124 is held back by its bloatware and more limited expansion. For the person who has an unused copy of Windows 7 lying around, it would be nice if you bought an h8-1124 and then put a "clean" install of Windows 7 on the system. Unfortunately, this isn't an option with the included version of Windows 7 on the h8-1124 (since that version already has the bloatware pre-installed). The more expensive HP h8-1050 holds on to its Editors' Choice award because its added features (Blu-ray, USB 3.0, HDTV Tuner, etc.) justify its higher price tag. The HP Pavilion Elite h8-1124 still comes in as a recommended high-performance desktop, but one recommended with reservations.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the HP Pavilion Elite h8-1124 with several other desktops side by side.
More desktop reviews:
??? HP Pavilion p7-1110
??? HP Pavilion Elite h8-1124
??? Toshiba DX735-D3201
??? HP Pavilion p7-1154
??? Dell XPS 8300 (X8300-4004NBK)
?? more
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It may seem hard to get through a day without generating trash or even recyclable waste. The easiest ways to buy products, clean surfaces and perform other tasks often involve disposable items. However, you can often reduce your environmental impact and save money by replacing standard disposable items with reusable alternatives.
Even if you buy disposable items made with recycled and recyclable materials, they require energy and materials to create. Moreover, they require more energy to recycle. If disposable items end up in landfills, they might take months or years to decompose.
Here are 12 categories of disposable products that can easily be replaced with reusable products.
1. Beverage bottles: Disposable plastic water bottles are one of the great demons of the environmental movement, sending unnecessary plastic into the landfill. A variety of reusable metal and plastic alternatives are widely available. They are typically more expensive than a bottle of Evian, but they are infinitely refillable, saving plenty of money in the long run. Also consider reusable bottles and cups for soda and other beverages.
Milk containers pose other environmental problems. While plastic jugs are typically recyclable, they often end up in the landfill, where they may take hundreds of years to decompose. However, old-fashioned milk delivery in reusable glass bottles is becoming popular again. Also, more vendors, particularly natural foods grocers, are offering milk in reusable glass or plastic bottles.
To be sure, production and transportation of glass bottles is quite energy-intensive. However, reusing the glass and getting milk from local dairies significantly reduces the environmental impact.
2. Plastic bags: Disposable plastic grocery bags, though convenient, are another environmental scourge. An estimated 60,000 plastic bags are used every five seconds in the U.S. However, it seems that with each passing month, more shoppers at local grocery stores are bringing reusable bags made of cloth, canvas or other materials.
Smaller disposable plastic produce bags can also be replaced with cloth bags. Consider getting some used pillowcases at thrift stores, or sew small cloth sacks, and take them to the store along with your reusable shopping bags. Also look for bulk bins, and bring your own containers for grains, snacks, cereals and other foods. Instead of getting cereal in a disposable waxed paper bag within a disposable cardboard box, just put it in your own container.
You can even pour cereal or other foods into your own glass jars for home storage. Just be sure to measure and mark the tare, or empty, container weight.
3. Takeout containers: Even if you get reusable containers and bags to clean up your act at the grocery store, you may still get plenty of disposable materials when you eat out. Fast food outlets and other restaurants that use plastic cutlery and containers generate plenty of waste. But you can help reduce the waste stream by carrying your own metal or bamboo utensil sets, and bringing reusable food containers.
Some restaurants may bar such containers for fear of cross-contamination. However, others encourage reusable containers and recognize the financial and environmental benefits. At the very least, they can?t stop you from putting leftovers in your own container instead of their disposable plastic or Styrofoam boxes.
4. Coffee cups and filters: Many of us can?t do without our daily coffee, but we can enjoy it without disposable cups and filters. Carry a reusable mug in your car for coffee on the go, and keep one at the office for workplace coffee. Many coffee shops even offer a discount for java junkies who bring their own cup.
For making coffee at home, consider replacing disposable paper filters with permanent filters made with stainless steel or other products. Also consider replacing disposable single-serving packages of coffee grounds with bulk coffee in reusable containers.
5. Toiletries: Next, it?s time to brush away the coffee breath. While a partly disposable toothbrush is essentially unavoidable, you can reduce 93 percent of toothbrush waste by replacing the head on these reusable toothbrush handles.
Likewise, disposable razors can be replaced with less wasteful (albeit more expensive) razors with permanent handles and small disposable heads, which last longer than many disposable alternatives. Other less wasteful alternatives include straight razors and electric razors. Of course, the latter require energy for charging, but they don?t require hot water or shaving foam.
6. Baby diapers and wipes: In 2006, American babies wore 3.6 millions tons of disposable diapers, generating 2 percent of all municipal waste, in the form of stinky plastic balls that might take centuries to decompose.
However, the reusable cloth alternative is making a comeback. Cloth diapers can either be washed at home or cleaned through a diaper service.
Stacks of studies in recent years have compared the environmental impacts of disposable and cloth diapers. While some studies show that more water and electricity is used in laundering cloth diapers than in producing an equivalent number of disposable diapers. However, it is undeniable that disposable diapers generate more waste. Moreover, cloth diaper users can reduce energy usage by line-drying diapers.
Reusable baby wipes and nursing pads are also widely available.
7. Feminine products: Women in the United States throw out an estimated 12 billion sanitary pads and 7 billions tampons every year. There are several reusable alternatives, including menstrual cups and washable cloth pads.
8. Toilet paper: This may be the toughest sell on the list, but washable cloth wipes can replace standard toilet paper. Another option, although it is a big-ticket item, is to switch to a bidet.
9. Newspapers and magazines: By some measures, newspapers and magazines are the only single source of trash larger than diapers. As a magazine contributor and former newspaper editor, it pains me to admit that reusable alternatives can replace physically delivered newspapers and magazines. Computers and e-readers offer low-waste options for reading the news, and many laptops and e-readers use relatively little energy.
10. Cleaning products: Replace paper towels and other cleaning products with reusable alternatives. For example, Skoy uses cotton and cellulose to make quick-drying, absorbent cloths that can replace both paper towels and sponges for many cleaning jobs.
Swiffer mops are also very popular, but are essentially disposable and quite wasteful. Reusable microfiber cloths do the same job with less waste. Standard disposable sponges can also be replaced with natural cellulose sponges, which can be disinfected in the microwave. These natural cellulose sponges also have other environmental advantages. They are not packaged with embedded chemical disinfectants, like most disposable sponges.
11. Batteries: As a new parent, I am starting to realize that children can generate a steady stream of used batteries, which should only be tossed out in certain locations. Avoid the hassle and the waste by using rechargeable batteries and a home charger.
Check for compatibility before using rechargeable batteries in certain devices. There are several types of batteries, and some devices work better with specific types. Also seek out high-quality rechargeable batteries, as their charge levels and longevity are worth the extra cost. The Sanyo Eneloop may cost more than $3 each, but they come pre-charged and can be recharged up to 1,500 times, and they are widely considered the best rechargeable batteries on the market.
12. Pens and ink cartridges: Disposable plastic pens may be everywhere, but you may be able to write better and generate less waste with a refillable pen. If you let your printer do most of your writing, switch to refillable cartridges. Many companies remanufacture and refill ink cartridges. These professional refills are generally considered a better option than home refill kits, which can be messy and ineffective.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla?? School administrators hoping to reward students for their A+ fund-raising efforts at a Florida elementary school unwittingly gave them X-rated gifts, officials said.
Only on msnbc.com
School officials at Jay Elementary School in the Panhandle on Wednesday were trying to collect more than 100 bracelets distributed to students involved in a fund-raising drive after pictures of naked women were found hidden beneath the bracelets' cloth coverings.
Known as slap bracelets, the accessories were handed out to about 160 students. One curious child removed the cloth cover to expose the springy, recycled metal measure tape used to give the bracelet its grip.
Along with inches and centimeter marks, the tape included pictures of partially clothed and nude women, Santa Rosa County School District spokesman Bill Emerson said.
"It was one of those calls you get from parents where you say, "Really?" Emerson said. "Then it turns out to be true."
The school district alerted the Nashville-based company that had purchased the bracelets from a Chinese manufacturer, and the company has stopped shipments of the naughty novelties, Emerson said.
Parents have been understanding, he said. The district is continuing efforts to retrieve the indecent prizes but has so far gotten only a handful back.
He said he wouldn't be surprised if some students keep the bracelets. "Curiosity is bound to get the better of some of them," Emerson said.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44966462/ns/us_news-life/
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