Rear seat design -- a priority for children's safety in cars

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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Contact: Dana Mortensen
mortensen@email.chop.edu
267-426-6092
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

New report recommends technology, policy changes to better protect older children and adolescents in crashes

2013 A research report released today from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) provides specific recommendations for optimizing the rear seat of passenger vehicles to better protect its most common occupants children and adolescents. By bringing technologies already protecting front seat passengers to the rear seat and modifying the geometry of the rear seat to better fit this age group, the US could achieve important reductions in serious injury and death. Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for children older than 4 years and resulted in 952 fatalities in 2010 for children age 15 and younger.

"Our review of the current science and data regarding rear seat occupant safety found clear evidence that use of a child restraint system (CRS) is protective for younger children. However, older children who have outgrown child safety seats and booster seats are at greater risk of injury," says Kristy Arbogast, PhD, lead author of the report and director of engineering at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP. "Many technologies that protect front seat passengers, such as load limiters and pretensioners, are not commonly found in the rear seat even though sled tests and computer modeling suggest that these seat belt features have the potential to reduce the risk of serious head and chest injury for rear seated occupants."

In addition to front seat restraints, CHOP researchers suggest that cues can be taken from booster seat design to determine how to keep kids who have outgrown boosters properly positioned in vehicle seat belts so the restraint can perform properly. They propose that adjustments to the geometry of the rear seat including shorter seat cushions, lower seat belt anchorages and contoured seats could increase comfort, keep the shoulder belt in position and, in side impact crashes, reduce lateral movement.

"For children under age 13, the rear seat is still the safer seating position as compared to the front seat of passenger vehicles," says Dr. Arbogast. "But we can do a better job at protecting children who have outgrown add-on restraints."

The report authors recommend the development of regulatory procedures or vehicle performance assessment programs for consumers that evaluate protection of rear seat occupants. Common vehicle rating systems do not evaluate the safety of rear seat occupants in frontal crashes. In addition to engineering solutions, the report also recommends policies and programs to increase rear seat restraint use, which remains lower than front seat restraint use and is a key risk factor for dying in a crash. Additional research is needed to further inform these priorities.

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To download the full report, made possible with support from Global Automakers, and additional materials including a one-page overview of CIRP's recommendations and an infographic, visit http://injury.research.chop.edu.

About The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was established in 1998 to advance the safety and health of children, adolescents, and young adults through comprehensive research that encompasses before-the-injury prevention to after-the-injury healing. The Center's multidisciplinary research team, with expertise in Behavioral Sciences; Medicine; Engineering, Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Human Factors; Public Health; and Communication, translates rigorous scientific research into practical tools and guidelines for families, professionals, and policymakers to ensure research results extend to the real world. For more information on the Center and its research initiatives, visit injury.research.chop.edu.

About Global Automakers

The Association of Global Automakers represents international motor vehicle manufacturers, original equipment suppliers, and other automotive-related trade associations. We work with industry leaders, legislators, and regulators to create the kind of public policy that improves vehicle safety, encourages technological innovation, and protects our planet. Our goal is to foster a competitive environment in which more vehicles are designed and built to enhance Americans' quality of life. For more information, visit http://www.globalautomakers.org.

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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.

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dana Mortensen
mortensen@email.chop.edu
267-426-6092
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

New report recommends technology, policy changes to better protect older children and adolescents in crashes

2013 A research report released today from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) provides specific recommendations for optimizing the rear seat of passenger vehicles to better protect its most common occupants children and adolescents. By bringing technologies already protecting front seat passengers to the rear seat and modifying the geometry of the rear seat to better fit this age group, the US could achieve important reductions in serious injury and death. Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for children older than 4 years and resulted in 952 fatalities in 2010 for children age 15 and younger.

"Our review of the current science and data regarding rear seat occupant safety found clear evidence that use of a child restraint system (CRS) is protective for younger children. However, older children who have outgrown child safety seats and booster seats are at greater risk of injury," says Kristy Arbogast, PhD, lead author of the report and director of engineering at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP. "Many technologies that protect front seat passengers, such as load limiters and pretensioners, are not commonly found in the rear seat even though sled tests and computer modeling suggest that these seat belt features have the potential to reduce the risk of serious head and chest injury for rear seated occupants."

In addition to front seat restraints, CHOP researchers suggest that cues can be taken from booster seat design to determine how to keep kids who have outgrown boosters properly positioned in vehicle seat belts so the restraint can perform properly. They propose that adjustments to the geometry of the rear seat including shorter seat cushions, lower seat belt anchorages and contoured seats could increase comfort, keep the shoulder belt in position and, in side impact crashes, reduce lateral movement.

"For children under age 13, the rear seat is still the safer seating position as compared to the front seat of passenger vehicles," says Dr. Arbogast. "But we can do a better job at protecting children who have outgrown add-on restraints."

The report authors recommend the development of regulatory procedures or vehicle performance assessment programs for consumers that evaluate protection of rear seat occupants. Common vehicle rating systems do not evaluate the safety of rear seat occupants in frontal crashes. In addition to engineering solutions, the report also recommends policies and programs to increase rear seat restraint use, which remains lower than front seat restraint use and is a key risk factor for dying in a crash. Additional research is needed to further inform these priorities.

###

To download the full report, made possible with support from Global Automakers, and additional materials including a one-page overview of CIRP's recommendations and an infographic, visit http://injury.research.chop.edu.

About The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was established in 1998 to advance the safety and health of children, adolescents, and young adults through comprehensive research that encompasses before-the-injury prevention to after-the-injury healing. The Center's multidisciplinary research team, with expertise in Behavioral Sciences; Medicine; Engineering, Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Human Factors; Public Health; and Communication, translates rigorous scientific research into practical tools and guidelines for families, professionals, and policymakers to ensure research results extend to the real world. For more information on the Center and its research initiatives, visit injury.research.chop.edu.

About Global Automakers

The Association of Global Automakers represents international motor vehicle manufacturers, original equipment suppliers, and other automotive-related trade associations. We work with industry leaders, legislators, and regulators to create the kind of public policy that improves vehicle safety, encourages technological innovation, and protects our planet. Our goal is to foster a competitive environment in which more vehicles are designed and built to enhance Americans' quality of life. For more information, visit http://www.globalautomakers.org.

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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/2013-04/chop-rs042813.php

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Woman unknowingly takes 30 pounds of pot across U.S.-Mexico border

Bricks of confiscated marijuana (Getty Images)

This is awkward. A woman who lives in Mexico and works in San Diego called the cops on herself when she apparently unknowingly transported 30 pounds of marijuana across the border.

According to a report by NBC New York, the unnamed 33-year-old drove her car to work Friday morning, arrived early and was sitting in her car in a parking lot around 4 a.m. when two unidentified men approached her car and began removing packages from underneath it.

The driver surprised the men, who got in their car and drove off. She called the police, who discovered 30 pounds of pot divided into six packages attached by heavy-duty magnets to the undercarriage of the vehicle.

Who put the drugs there?the woman said it wasn?t her?remains a mystery. Police tell NBC New York that no arrests have been made.

Officials want to remind people who regularly cross the border to check their car?as some people become targets by drug cartels as unwitting mules in the narcotics business.

Regular border travelers may be a boon to drug smugglers.

Last year, CNN reported a similar story of a
regular commuter from his home in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to the University of Texas at El Paso.

Even though the man, who goes under a fake name to protect his identity, said he was targeted and ferried drugs without his knowledge, he was sentenced to six months in prison.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/woman-unknowingly-takes-30-pounds-pot-across-u-144432116.html

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Fallout for states rejecting Medicaid expansion

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Rejecting the Medicaid expansion in the federal health care law could have unexpected consequences for states where Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to what they scorn as "Obamacare."

It could mean exposing businesses to Internal Revenue Service penalties and leaving low-income citizens unable to afford coverage even as legal immigrants get financial aid for their premiums. For the poorest people, it could virtually guarantee that they will remain uninsured and dependent on the emergency room at local hospitals that already face federal cutbacks.

Concern about such consequences helped forge a deal in Arkansas last week. The Republican-controlled Legislature endorsed a plan by Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe to accept additional Medicaid money under the federal law, but to use the new dollars to buy private insurance for eligible residents.

One of the main arguments for the private option was that it would help businesses avoid tax penalties.

The Obama administration hasn't signed off on the Arkansas deal, and it's unclear how many other states will use it as a model. But it reflects a pragmatic streak in American politics that's still the exception in the polarized health care debate.

"The biggest lesson out of Arkansas is not so much the exact structure of what they are doing," said Alan Weil, executive director of the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. "Part of it is just a message of creativity, that they can look at it and say, 'How can we do this in a way that works for us?'"

About half the nearly 30 million uninsured people expected to gain coverage under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul would do so through Medicaid. Its expansion would cover low-income people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $15,860 for an individual.

Middle-class people who don't have coverage at their jobs will be able to purchase private insurance in new state markets, helped by new federal tax credits. The big push to sign up the uninsured starts this fall, and coverage takes effect Jan. 1.

As originally written, the Affordable Care Act required states to accept the Medicaid expansion as a condition of staying in the program. Last summer's Supreme Court decision gave each state the right to decide. While that pleased many governors, it also created complications by opening the door to unintended consequences.

So far, 20 mostly blue states, plus the District of Columbia, have accepted the expansion.

Thirteen GOP-led states have declined. They say Medicaid already is too costly, and they don't trust Washington to keep its promise of generous funding for the expansion, which mainly helps low-income adults with no children at home.

The remaining states are still weighing options. Concerns about the unintended consequences could make the most difference in those states.

A look at some potential side effects:

?The Employer Glitch

States that don't expand Medicaid leave more businesses exposed to tax penalties, according to a recent study by Brian Haile, Jackson Hewitt's senior vice president for tax policy. He estimates the fines could top $1 billion a year in states refusing.

Under the law, employers with 50 or more workers that don't offer coverage face penalties if just one of their workers gets subsidized private insurance through the new state markets. But employers generally do not face fines under the law for workers who enroll in Medicaid.

In states that don't expand Medicaid, some low-income workers who would otherwise have been eligible have a fallback option. They can instead get subsidized private insurance in the law's new markets. But that would trigger a penalty for their employer.

"It highlights how complicated the Affordable Care Act is," said Haile. "We wanted to make sure the business community understood."

?The Immigrant Quirk

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, called attention this year to this politically awkward problem when she proposed that her state accept the Medicaid expansion.

Under the health law, U.S. citizens below the poverty line ? $11,490 for an individual, $23,550 for a family of four ? can only get coverage through the Medicaid expansion. But lawfully present immigrants who are also below the poverty level are eligible for subsidized private insurance.

Congress wrote the legislation that way to avoid the controversy associated with trying to change previous laws that require legal immigrants to wait five years before they can qualify for Medicaid. Instead of dragging immigration politics into the health care debate, lawmakers devised a detour.

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it was a legislative patch.

Now it could turn into an issue in states with lots of immigrants, such as Texas and Florida. It could create the perception that citizens are being disadvantaged versus immigrants.

?The Fairness Argument

Under the law, U.S. citizens below the poverty line can only get taxpayer-subsidized coverage by going into Medicaid. But other low-income people making just enough to put them over the poverty line can get subsidized private insurance through the new state markets.

An individual making $11,700 a year would be able to get a policy. But someone making $300 less would be out of luck, dependent on charity care at the emergency room.

"Americans have very strong feelings about fairness," said Weil. "The notion of 'Gee, that's just not fair' is definitely a factor in the discussion."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fallout-states-rejecting-medicaid-expansion-072613081.html

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Chechnya Brothers Are Boston Marathon Bombers: One Dead, One On Loose

Chechnya Brothers Are Boston Marathon Bombers: One Dead, One On Loose

Police swarmed a Boston suburb this morning as an “armed and dangerous” suspect of the Boston marathon bombings is at large. The drama unfolded last night after the two suspects, brothers from Chechnya, were in a gun battle that left one officer dead at the MIT campus. The two marathon bombers are brothers from Chechyna. ...

Chechnya Brothers Are Boston Marathon Bombers: One Dead, One On Loose Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/chechnya-brothers-are-boston-marathon-bombers-one-dead-one-on-loose/

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Spotlight: The Morning-After Pill | What the Health Magazine

At the beginning of this month, a judge in New York City demanded removal of the age restriction on the morning-after pill birth control prescription. The consequential legal battle has raised the following question: Is it ethical to give girls under the age of 17 access to the morning-after pill, or are these individuals not yet mature enough to use such a contraceptive?

What is it?

According to Mayo Clinic, the morning-after pill is a ?type of emergency birth control (contraception). The purpose of emergency contraception is to prevent pregnancy after a woman has had unprotected sex.?

In other words, it is an extreme version of birth control that needs to be taken within 72 hours of intercourse in order to ensure pregnancy does not occur. It does not, however, stop implantation (the early stage of pregnancy when an embryo attaches to the wall of a uterus) ? it is not the abortion pill.

What kinds of morning-after pills are there?

There are three forms of morning-after pills that are legal in the United States:?Plan B One-Step, Next Choice, and Ella

What are the differences?

All three contain roughly the same ingredients, though a package of Plan B One-Step costs between $35 and $60, significantly cheaper than the other two.

So what are some reasons why girls under the age of 18 should be given access to this pill?

• Young women should have control over their own bodies; they are the ones that live with it for the rest of their lives. Access to emergency contraceptives can be another step in equal rights for women.
• Adolescents who want to have sex are going to have sex, whether their parents or anyone else tell them not to. America must be realistic so that adolescents can act responsibly.
• 30 states in the US have the legal age of sexual consent set at 16, and 9 states have it set at 17. That?s 39 states, or 78% of the US, that can legally have sex under the age of 18.?If you can make the decision to have sex under the age of 18 without your parents? consent, then you should also have the ability to be responsible about it and have access to birth control without your parents? consent.

• Having access to other forms of contraception such as the morning after pill can be helpful in cases of missed birth control doses and forgetting a condom. It?ll decrease teen pregnancies and abortions.

• Decreasing unwanted pregnancies will decrease all those negative social, economic, mental, physical, and emotional health effects for children.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that reducing the unintended pregnancy rate is a national public health goal. This court decision will help the goal prosper.

Well that sounds great?. So why is it controversial?

• Like I said before ? teens like sex. Many argue that having unlimited access to the morning-after pill without their parents? knowledge may lead to excessive sexual promiscuity. Endless access could give kids the idea that they can have frivolous sex with an ?easy solution.? The morning after-pill should be used in only the most necessary cases.
• Sexual promiscuity can lead to not only pregnancy but also to STDS. Many young people do not realize that the morning-after pill does not prevent STDs, and so they forgo condoms in order to have unprotected sex, thinking that they can simply use the morning-after pill later.
• The morning-after pill does have a few side effects, including nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, menstrual changes, dizziness, breast tenderness, vomiting, and diarrhea.
• It arguably makes kids grow up too fast and takes away a parent?s control. When kids don?t have to ask for permission, it?s just another way parent?s lose control, says Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union. In a talk with HLN?s ?Evening Express,? she stated that the court decision ??gives a young child, between the age of 14 and 17, a chemical drug and hormonal cocktail without the knowledge of the parent, not knowing the medical history or if that child has any kind of drug allergies.?

56% of Americans believe the morning after pill should be made available to all women under the age of 18 without a prescription, while 44% of Americans are against it. Which side do you agree with? Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

By?Madysan Foltz

Photo courtesy of?www.swissinfo.ch?

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Source: http://whatthehealthmag.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/spotlight-the-morning-after-pill/

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Arctic nearly free of summer sea ice during first half of 21st century, experts predict

Apr. 12, 2013 ? For scientists studying summer sea ice in the Arctic, it's not a question of "if" there will be nearly ice-free summers, but "when." And two scientists say that "when" is sooner than many thought -- before 2050 and possibly within the next decade or two.

James Overland of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Muyin Wang of the NOAA Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean at the University of Washington, looked at three methods of predicting when the Arctic will be nearly ice free in the summer. The work was published recently online in the American Geophysical Union publication Geophysical Research Letters.

"Rapid Arctic sea ice loss is probably the most visible indicator of global climate change; it leads to shifts in ecosystems and economic access, and potentially impacts weather throughout the northern hemisphere," said Overland. "Increased physical understanding of rapid Arctic climate shifts and improved models are needed that give a more detailed picture and timing of what to expect so we can better prepare and adapt to such changes. Early loss of Arctic sea ice gives immediacy to the issue of climate change."

"There is no one perfect way to predict summer sea ice loss in the Arctic," said Wang. "So we looked at three approaches that result in widely different dates, but all three suggest nearly sea ice-free summers in the Arctic before the middle of this century."

Overland and Wang emphasized that the term "nearly" ice free is important as some sea ice is expected to remain north of the Canadian Archipelago and Greenland.

• The "trendsetters" approach uses observed sea ice trends. These data show that the total amount of sea ice decreased rapidly over the previous decade. Using those trends, this approach extrapolates to a nearly sea ice-free Arctic by 2020.
• The "stochasters" approach is based on assuming future multiple, but random in time, large sea ice loss events such as those that occurred in 2007 and 2012. This method estimates it would take several more events to reach a nearly sea ice-free state in the summer. Using the likelihood of such events, this approach suggests a nearly sea ice-free Arctic by about 2030 but with large uncertainty in timing.
• The "modelers" approach is based on using the large collection of global climate model results to predict atmosphere, ocean, land, and sea ice conditions over time. These models show the earliest possible loss of sea ice to be around 2040 as greenhouse gas concentrations increase and the Arctic warms. But the median timing of sea ice loss in these models is closer to 2060. There are several reasons to consider that this median timing of sea ice loss in these models may be too slow.

"Some people may interpret this to mean that models are not useful. Quite the opposite," said Overland. "Models are based on chemical and physical climate processes and we need better models for the Arctic as the importance of that region continues to grow."

Taken together, the range among the multiple approaches still suggests that it is very likely that the timing for future sea ice loss will be within the first half of the 21st century, with a possibility of major loss within a decade or two.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. James E. Overland, Muyin Wang. When will the summer arctic be nearly sea ice free? Geophysical Research Letters, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/grl.50316

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/UlBj8_buaZk/130412142848.htm

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Hapyrus Launches Service For Amazon Redshift, An Emerging Alternative To Hadoop And Hive

Hapyrus has launched FlyData, technology that enables it to automatically upload and migrate data to Amazon Redshift, the data-warehouse service that can scale to petabyte size. Amazon has claimed that Redshift will increase the speed of query performance when analyzing any size data set, using the same SQL-based business intelligence tools analysts use today. Hapyrus Co-Founder Koichi Fujikawa says their service, a big data router, makes Redshift even more effective and an alternative to Hadoop and Hive, the most widely recognized combination used for processing and analyzing data. After setup, FlyData runs in the background, moving the data to Redshift. Fujikawa said Hapyrus sets up a virtual private cloud on AWS. Customers can integrate their own virtual private network to transfer the data. Hapyrus competes against the likes of Informatica and Talend. Its current focus is on integrating with AWS, but going forward it will integrate data from a variety of sources. Fujikawa said in an email that Informatica and Talend provide complex data-integration solutions for big enterprise customers — mainly for on-premise systems. “We provide our data-integration service for cloud components like Redshift for any size of companies, from startups to relatively big organizations,” he said. Fujikawa says Redshift can be 10 times faster than?Hadoop?and Hive. Customers he hears from say they are seeking alternatives for the everyday kind of work that needs to get done. They can get stymied by the time and the expense that a query takes when using Hadoop and Hive. But there are also complexities with using Redshift, as Airbnb discovered: First, in order to load your data into Redshift, it has to be in either S3 or Dynamo DB already. The default data loading is single threaded and could take a long time to load all your data. We found breaking data into slices and loading them in parallel helps a lot. On its nerd blog, Airbnb said Redshift lacks some of the features that come with Hadoop. But data analysts are liking it so much that they want to use it pretty much exclusively. The Airbnb nerd blog makes the point that, in the end, Redshift and Hadoop may be more compatible than anything else. “Redshift, as a data warehouse, should be compared to Vertica, Greenplum, AsterData, Impala, Hadapt, and CitusData,” said Drawn to Scale Co-Founder Bradford Stephens in a recent email interview. “They’re just different things.” The smallest of startups take

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8LXyaBnQthk/

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As It Focuses On Profitability, Tumblr Lays Off Team Behind Editorial Initiative Storyboard

Tumblr has let go of the four-person editorial team behind Storyboard, an experimental initiative to highlight users and organizations on the blogging platform, less than one year after the project went live. In a blog post, Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp said “what we?ve accomplished with Storyboard has run its course for now, and our editorial team will be closing up shop and moving on. I want to personally thank them for their great work. And please join us in wishing them well.” Storyboard was launched last May, with Chris Mohney as its first editor-in-chief and Jessica Bennett as executive editor. Both came with plenty of publishing experience–Mohney was previously the editor of Gawker and Gridskipper and oversaw Blackbook magazine, while Bennett had formerly worked at The Daily Beast. The other two members of the team are editorial producer?Sky Dylan-Robbins and editorial director Christopher Price.?Storyboard’s initial features included one on the companion Tumblr set up by New York Times’ photo archive, an interview with pianist and Tumblr user Dotan Negrin, and an infographic charting the many “Fuck Yeah” blogs set up on the platform. In an interview with Fast Company just after Storyboard’s launch last year, Mohney said “this is the first thing Tumblr has done that has a significant outward-facing goal.” Mohney added monetization wasn’t an initial goal of the project and there were few immediate benefits for sponsors on Storyboard: “Tumblr?s revenue plan is to find partners who are interested in doing creative stuff on Tumblr as opposed to just bringing in banner ads. If (advertisers) are doing something great as part of their sponsorship program, they?ll get a lot more recognition out of that than from our editorial recognition.” It seems like Storyboard’s lofty but less-than-lucrative directive may have fallen by the wayside as six-year-old Tumblr focuses on finally turning its first annual profit after allowing advertisers to pay for more prominent posts on its Web version and mobile app. Inside of using banner ads and keywords–or placement on Storyboard–Twitter’s advertising system gives sponsors the chance to get more views and reblogs. Twitter’s vice president Derek Gottfrid recently told Bloomberg that Tumblr’s mobile users have quadrupled over the past six months, bringing the total closer to the number of Web users and making the advertising initiative more important. Tumblr has been emailed for comment.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/efVHmaYyBlA/

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UN ready to probe chemical weapon claims

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? U.N. experts are poised to move into Syria within 24 hours to investigate reported chemical weapons attacks in the country's civil war, but President Bashar Assad's government still has not given them the green light to enter the country, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

Ban told reporters in The Hague that an advance team is already waiting at a final staging post on Cyprus, while the U.N. negotiates "technical and legal" issues with Damascus.

All reports of chemical attacks "should be examined without delay, without conditions and without exceptions," Ban said.

His comments appeared aimed at increasing pressure on Assad's regime and ensuring that U.N. inspectors are given access to all sites of reported chemical weapons attacks and not just those Damascus wants them to see.

Ban said it is "a matter of principle" to investigate all allegations and not just a case in which Syria alleges that rebels used poison gas.

"I am hopeful we will be able to finish this as soon as possible, and I urge the Syrian government to be more flexible so this commission can be deployed as soon as possible," Ban said. "We are ready."

Syria asked the United Nations last month to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack by rebels on March 19 on Khan al-Assal village in northern Aleppo province. The rebels blamed regime forces for the attack.

Britain and France followed up by asking the U.N. chief to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in two locations in Khan al-Assal and the village of Ataybah in the vicinity of Damascus, all on March 19, as well as in Homs on Dec. 23.

Ban was speaking at the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, which is sending a team of 15 experts to join the commission, along with World Health Organization staff.

The team is led by Ake Sellstrom, a Swedish professor who was a U.N. chemical weapons inspector in Iraq and now works at a research institute that deals with chemical incidents. Ban said he spoke to Sellstrom on Sunday night and he was now heading to join the advance party in Cyprus.

Syria is widely believed to have a large stockpile of chemical weapons, but it is one of only eight countries in the world that have not signed up to the chemical weapons convention, which means that it does not have to report any chemical weapons to the Hague-based organization that monitors compliance with the treaty.

Ban said the experts need to get to Syria as soon as possible to investigate the attacks.

"The longer we wait, the harder this essential mission will be," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-chemical-investigators-ready-syria-104632401.html

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Personal Finance: The Gift of Giving ? Gerken Financial Coaching ...

He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,?and he will repay him for his deed. -Proverbs 19:17 (RSV)

Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won?t have? to hunt for happiness. ? William E. Gladstone

A benefit of having your financial house in order is that you do not have debt. Your income is your greatest wealth building tool. As you start to build some wealth, you will be in a position to give more freely. Giving is not only a gift to others but it is a gift to yourself as well. The happiness and sense of satisfaction that giving brings makes you look for ways to give more. God gave his only son to us. He wants to shape us in his image and God is a giver.

Giving can be done locally in your community and congregation. It can also be done nationally or globally. Our family has sponsored three children over the years through the Compassion International organization. All of them have lived in South America. We are able to correspond regularly with them through letters and photos. One of our children ?graduated? from the program, while the two others are coming closer each year. A recent independent study showed that sponsored children had more schooling, became leaders in their communities and had a higher chance of breaking out of poverty.

Sponsoring these children has brought the world closer to us. We have helped them and they have taught us the value of giving. Another way that we have been able to give internationally is by hosting high school exchange students. We have had 7 students live with us from 5 different countries. We have maintained communication with most of them over the years. While exchange student are partially supported by their families, we are responsible for meals and housing. Our food and utility bills go up during theses times and we usually travel?more with the students as well. If we were not out of debt,?this might be a financial burden. Happily, we are able to give of our time and resources so that these kids can have?an unforgettable experience in our country.

For many years, as our children were growing up, we would travel with our church to Tijuana, Mexico on mission trips. Like most church groups, we would have building projects and food distribution projects to keep us busy during the week. Again, we were able to give our time and our resources to help these people improve their living situations. We formed relationships with many of them and today we even Facebook with a few of the now grown children that we helped. At the same time we experienced the culture and traditions of the Mexican people, which we will remember all of our lives.

Eliminating debt from your life reduces your stress, but not only that, it enables you to help those that are less fortunate and it makes you?happy that you are able to continue helping people and causes as God points you into the future.

Tim and Kathryn Gerken are financial coaches in Newcastle, WA. They serve their community in the Greater Seattle area with coaching, classes, writing and speaking.

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Source: http://www.gerkenfinancialcoaching.com/2013/04/the-gift-of-giving/

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Book Review : Blackett's War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare by Stephen Budiansky

Blackett's War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare

By Stephen Budiansky

Web edition: April 4, 2013
Print edition: April 20, 2013; Vol.183 #8 (p. 30)

A small group of scientists helped win World War II and changed the way wars are fought, a military historian postulates.

Knopf, 2013, 336 p., $27.95

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349389/title/Book_Review__Blacketts_War_The_Men_Who_Defeated_the_Nazi_U-Boats_and_Brought_Science_to_the_Art_of_Warfare_by_Stephen_Budiansky

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'Teen Mom' Jenelle, fiance jailed after assault

MTV

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

"Teen Mom 2" served up two scoops of rocky road with back-to-back new episodes Monday night.

Two violent assaults, two arrests, two trips to the wedding chapel ? the docu-series really delivered double the dramz this week. Plus, Prince Charming himself, Kieffer Delp, made his second comeback.

To be fair, Kieffah really did come off as the good guy for possibly the first time ever. Then again, even Jenelle's Ed Hardy seat covers looked good when compared to Gary Head.

At first, it's nothing but romance and puppies for Gary and Jenelle. (Literally: He bought her a puppy.)

But after a whirlwind engagement, the explosive Marine first broke down Jenelle's front door, and hours later, was arrested for assaulting her.

Jenelle was arrested too, because when the cops arrived, Gary played a game of show-and-tell with her marijuana stash, pipe and Klonopin.

This time, her mom bailed her out of jail and let her stay at her house. Can't imagine Barbara was too pleased when she found out K.Delp crossed her threshold, however.

But hey, he did drop some wisdom when Jenelle said it was over with Gary.

"To keep it real wit ya, once he punched you in the face and you was done," Kieffer reminded her. (Did Babs know about this? And if so, why'd she let him babysit Jace?)

"We've been to the point where the police didn't want us together too," he added about the restraining order issued against Gary, "And we was chillin'."

But Kieffer's true jaw-dropper was this: "You can definitely find somebody better than Gary." Pause. "Or me."

Unlike Jenelle (this time), Leah's short engagement was much less tumultuous (only one breakup during Indecision 2012) and concluded with nuptials in the courthouse chapel. The couple are still planning a grand summer wedding, but in order to get the home loan they wanted, they needed to seal the deal.

There's only one negative: "In our wedding pictures it's going to look like I married a teenager with them braces on," Jeremy joked en route to picking up their rings. (Dude, she's 20. You almost did marry a teenager.)

Leah's ex, Corey, wasn't exactly overjoyed to hear the news -- especially when Leah asked him to up his childhood support. And although they made a verbal agreement for an extra $100 a month, the court recalculated it to $800 based on his salary. Ouch! Well, twins are expensive, y'all.

Kailyn and Javi also considered tying the knot for practical reasons: He's hoping to join the Air Force, and they will only provide housing and other benefits to married couples. But although they pay a visit to Vegas' world-famous Little White Wedding Chapel (Britney Spears was married there, and that worked out so well for her!), they decide to postpone. And as Kailyn pointed out, "I'm not marrying you unless I have a ring. We're not even engaged yet!"

MTV

Beauty-school student Chelsea's having a rough time of it lately, and not just because of her terrifying purple hair and makeup. (Maybe cosmetics class is next semester?) Baby-daddy Adam has a new girlfriend and a newfound interest in spending time with his daughter. Although he obliquely threatens to take her to court, Chelsea's lawyer assures her that he won't fare that well in a battle for even part-time custody.

Cue Chels' typical overreaction: "I don't know what it feels like to be happy," she cries to her dad. (Dierks Bentley would beg to differ.)?

Next week: Chelsea considers taking a leave of absence from school because of all the "stress," Corey's upset about paying so much child support, Javi passes his Air Force entrance exam, and Kieffer and Gary have a showdown outside the courthouse.

Related content:

More in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/04/02/17570640-teen-mom-2-jenelle-evans-and-fiance-jailed-after-violent-assault?lite

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U.S. deploys stealth fighters to South Korea

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will strike back quickly if the North stages any attack, the new president in Seoul warned on Monday, as tensions ratcheted higher on the Korean peninsula amid shrill rhetoric from Pyongyang and the U.S. deployment of radar-evading fighter planes.

North Korea says the region is on the brink of a nuclear war in the wake of United Nations sanctions imposed for its February nuclear test and a series of joint U.S. and South Korean military drills that have included a rare U.S. show of aerial power.

The North, whose economy is smaller than it was 20 years ago, appeared to move on Monday to addressing its pressing need for investment by appointing a reformer to the country's ceremonial prime minister's job, although the move mostly cemented a power grab by the ruling Kim clan.

North Korea had said on Saturday it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea in response to what it termed the "hostile" military drills being staged in the South. But there have been no signs of unusual activity in the North's military to suggest an imminent aggression, a South Korean defense ministry official said last week.

"If there is any provocation against South Korea and its people, there should be a strong response in initial combat without any political considerations," President Park Geun-hye told the defense minister and senior officials at a meeting on Monday.

The South has changed its rules of engagement to allow local units to respond immediately to attacks, rather than waiting for permission from Seoul.

Stung by criticism that its response to the shelling of a South Korean island in 2010 was tardy and weak, Seoul has also threatened to target North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and to destroy statues of the ruling Kim dynasty in the event of any new attack, a plan that has outraged Pyongyang.

Seoul and its ally the United States played down Saturday's statement from the official KCNA news agency as the latest in a stream of tough talk from Pyongyang.

North Korea stepped up its rhetoric in early March, when U.S. and South Korean forces began annual military drills that involved the flights of U.S. B-2 stealth bombers in a practice run, prompting the North to puts its missile units on standby to fire at U.S. military bases in the South and in the Pacific.

The United States also deployed F-22 stealth fighter jets on Sunday to take part in the drills. The F-22s were deployed in South Korea before, in 2010.

On its part, North Korea has cancelled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the Korean War and cut all hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS "NOT A BARGAINING CHIP"

Park's intervention came on the heels of a meeting of the North's ruling Workers Party Central Committee where leader Kim Jong-un rejected the notion that Pyongyang was going to use its nuclear arms development as a bargaining chip.

"The nuclear weapons of Songun Korea are not goods for getting U.S. dollars and they are ... (not) to be put on the table of negotiations aimed at forcing the (North) to disarm itself," KCNA news agency quoted him as saying.

At the meeting, Kim appointed a handful of personal confidants to the party's politburo, further consolidating his grip on power in the second full year of his reign.

The most surprising appointment came on Monday as former prime minister Pak Pong-ju was re-appointed as premier, although the move likely signaled another power struggle in Pyongang staged by the country's leader Kim Jong-un.

Pak is viewed as a key ally of Jang Song-thaek, the young Kim's uncle and also a protege of Kim's aunt and is viewed as a pawn in a power game that has seen Jang and his wife re-assert power over military leaders.

Analysts said the move would not likely change Pyongyang's approach to a confrontation that appears to have dragged the two Koreas closer to war.

Pyongyang's on-off negotiations saw it take part in nuclear disarmament talks for five years aimed at paying it off in return for abandoning its atomic weapons program. Those talks fell apart in 2008. Some experts say the talks gave the North grounds to pursue a highly enriched uranium program that took it closer to owning a working arsenal.

Songun is the Korean word for the "Military First" policy preached by Kim's father who used it to justify the use of the impoverished state's scare resources to build a 1.2-million strong army and a weapons of mass destruction program.

CALLS FOR RESTRAINT

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said North Korea's announcement that it was in a state of war followed a "familiar pattern" of rhetoric.

China has repeatedly called for restraint on the peninsula.

However, many in South Korea have regarded the North's willingness to keep open the Kaesong industrial zone, located just a few miles (km) north of the heavily-militarized border and operated jointly by both sides, as a sign that Pyongyang will not risk losing a lucrative source of foreign currency.

Closure could also trap hundreds of South Korean workers and managers of the more than 100 firms that have factories there.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in WASHINGTON; Editing by David Chance, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Ian Geoghegan and Ron Popeski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-korea-vows-fast-response-north-u-deploys-043826040.html

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