NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? Rwanda has been hailed for years as a beacon of peace and economic growth in its post-genocide period, and on Jan. 1 it took a prestigious seat on the United Nations Security Council. But after years of accolades, international opinion of the tiny Central African country appears to be shifting.
At issue are allegations in a U.N. experts' report that Rwanda last year began aiding a Congo rebel group called M23 that is accused of rape, using child soldiers and conducting summary executions in eastern Congo. Rwanda denies the accusations.
Since President Bill Clinton failed to intervene in Rwanda's 1994 genocide ? during which extremist Hutus killed more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus ? the United States has been one of Rwanda's staunchest allies. That made it all the more noteworthy when President Barack Obama warned President Paul Kagame in December that Rwanda must stop supporting M23.
One month earlier Britain announced it was withholding some $34 million in aid to Rwanda because of the allegations over M23. And the U.S. suspended its military aid to Rwanda, albeit only $200,000.
Philippe Bolopion, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, wrote in an op-ed article in the New York Times late last month that Rwanda was able to win its two-year, rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council in an October vote despite the June U.N. report because of its friendship with the U. S.
Still, Bolopion believes the international view of Rwanda is changing.
"They got away with a lot in the past because of their own tragic history concerning the Rwandan genocide, where the international community failed to do anything," Bolopion told The Associated Press. "They've also used the fact that they are a rather efficient country when it comes to spending aid money. These two elements have allowed them to get away with a lot of things in the past. But their support of M23 has been blatant, and they are such an abusive group. The past few weeks and months the pressure on Rwanda has increased significantly."
Rwanda's leaders bristle at the suggestions they are helping M23. Kagame, in his Dec. 31 state of the nation speech, addressed the allegations.
"As you know there is a report based on falsehoods which some of our longtime partners have used as the basis to suspend development aid, in a manner that violates agreed principles of international development partnerships," Kagame said.
Kagame touted Rwanda's economic growth in 2012 ? predicted to be 7.7 percent. But it would have grown even faster, he said, except for the global economic downturn, and "the consequence of conflict in a neighboring country that has been blamed on Rwanda when this is not true. We are not the cause of or contributing factor to this conflict, even those who claim this know it."
Just before Rwanda joined the Security Council, the council added M23 and two of its leaders to the international sanctions list, which many at U.N. headquarters viewed as a significant message to the Rwandan government.
Still, Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, noted this on Twitter: "Showing a sense of humor, UN Security Council names (hash)Rwanda to chair its Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention & Resolution in Africa."
Not everyone is souring on Rwanda, however. A book published in November called "Rwanda Inc." concludes that Rwanda "now stands as a beacon of economic rejuvenation and recovery" through self-reliance and self-determination. The authors say that Kagame's leadership reveals a comprehensive vision, exacting attention to detail and a drive for execution.
The book highlights glowing accolades of Rwanda's economic progress on its first pages from Clinton, the chairman of JPMorgan Chase, the chief executive of Starbucks and the president of Marriott International, businesses that may want to invest in Rwanda's growing economy. Still, the authors acknowledge the complicated ? and changing ? world view of Rwanda, especially concerning international standards of free speech and human rights.
Human Rights Watch has been calling on the Security Council for months to sanction the Rwandan officials the rights group believes is helping M23. But Bolopion says it's doubtful that will happen now that Rwanda sits on the council. Like the book "Rwanda Inc.," Bolopion says that Human Rights Watch recognizes the good Kagame has done economically.
"We just don't think it's an excuse for crushing dissent or arming rebels in neighboring countries," he said. "We recognize it but it doesn't change the point we're trying to make."
McGraw-Hill is taking on the one-size-fits-all approach to textbooks with its freshly unveiled SmartBook: an e-book that is claimed to adapt to student's learning patterns. Aimed at college students, the SmartBook service peppers users with questions as they read and determines what topics it should present to reinforce learning. Come sometime this spring, the SmartBook will be available for more than 90 course areas starting at $20. It'll be joined by a handful of similar tools for driving home the curriculum, including something called LearnSmart Achieve, which is designed to serve up videos and other interactive embellishments in response to automatically detected areas of weakness. When you're ready to hit the books, just be careful they don't hit you back.
LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Vodafone rose almost 3 percent on Tuesday after its partner in U.S. joint venture Verizon Wireless said it would be "feasible" to buy out the British group in what would be one of the biggest corporate deals ever.
Verizon Communications Chief Executive Lowell McAdam told the Wall Street Journal that "we have always said we would love to own all of that asset", which is 55 percent owned by Verizon Communications and 45 percent by Vodafone.
Investors in both groups have long speculated about the future of Verizon Wireless's ownership, especially after Vodafone embarked on a programming of selling stakes in businesses around the world that it did not control.
That was aimed at streamlining its portfolio and returning cash to shareholders who felt the company's share price did not reflect the sum of its many individual parts.
The two parent groups have also clashed in recent years over when and whether Verizon Wireless should pay its two owners a dividend and the comments from McAdam are likely to reignite the issue.
"I think is feasible," he told the newspaper. "Our wireline business is getting stronger and as that gets stronger, it makes it easier."
McAdam added that Verizon could buy the stake outright, or there are "lots of different ways we could do it".
"As things change in the environments that both of us operate in, if there is an opportunity, we would always be in the position to buy Vodafone out".
Analysts said the comments were an interesting development in what is likely to be a long-running issue for the two companies, but they did not think Vodafone would want to sell the asset yet.
Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said in November that he could not rule out an exit from the United States, shortly after reporting financial results that showed how the Verizon Wireless business had become the main growth engine for Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile phone group.
With consumers in Europe cutting back on making phone calls, the Verizon business contributed over half of Vodafone's adjusted operating profit in the first half of the financial year, and was a key driver of growth.
"It is an interesting opening salvo from the CEO," Espirito Santo analyst Will Draper said. "However, we do not believe that Vodafone is interested in selling at this stage. Verizon Wireless represents over half its earnings and is a rare source of growth, as well as underpinning its dividend growth too.
"In other words the offer price from Verizon would need to be compelling and we are not sure that it has the firepower for that, yet. It is more likely in our view that the status quo persists for a while longer."
Draper said he put the enterprise value of Verizon Wireless at 168 billion pounds ($270 billion), which on that basis, would put the 45 percent stake at 76 billion pounds before any discounts for taxes or the fact it is a minority holding.
Bernstein analyst Robin Bienenstock said she thought it would be a good moment for Vodafone to sell its stake, as it could be at the maximum value today.
"We are sceptical that (a) the two companies can find a price on which they agree and that (b) in the event of any sale shareholders of Vodafone would simply be handed any proceeds.
"Rather, we think any sale proceeds would be reinvested in helping solve the difficult structural problems Vodafone faces in Europe," she said. ($1=0.6218 British pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
On His Own seems to be getting fitter with time and there is a strong possibility that he returns to action pretty soon. He has not been seen during this season, but there are indications that his fans will see him in action sooner rather than later.
The nine-year-old gelding took a heavy fall in his last race at Aintree and that ruled him out of action for quite some time. He was given a pretty decent starting price of 14 to 1 back then and was expected to be fighting at the top of the order.
However, things did not work out well for him and he fell after trying extremely hard in the Grade 3 encounter. Luckily for him, he did not suffer a severe injury and was sent to the stables to get fit once again.
He kept on training hard and seems to be fully fit now. Despite that, his team will try and test him out in a couple of events before he lines up for action in the John Smith's Grand National.
His trainer, Willie Mullins, was hopeful of a strong comeback by the Irish challenger. He claimed that things have been working out well for them and there will be positive news for the fans of Presenting?s son.
According to Mullins, ?On His Own's back in training and working away. We haven't made any plan for his first run of the season just yet, but he will be entered for the National and, hopefully, will be on our team for the race. He was going well up with
the leaders in the race last year when he fell at Becher's on the second circuit last year.?
On the other hand, Coral spokesman David Stevens said: ?On His Own has not been seen in public since his fall in last year's National, but the money we have seen for him today suggests an imminent reappearance and a return trip to Liverpool are both on the
cards.?
The Semore Kurdi?s owned gelding has participated in a total of 10 events, winning four of them. He will be looking to make his team proud by claiming a few more titles in the future.
You have got to be kidding me! Did I seriously read that correctly? Many real estate agents would be and should be offended by this statement. However, having said this, I completely agree with the statement. Why you ask? Because when a person decides to have a career in real estate, he or she does not have a job, but instead he or she opened a business. Real estate agents are not employees of any company; they are business owners. So it is to be said that any real estate agent needs to think like a business owner and not an employee.
If you look up the definition of ?employee? Webster defines it as, ?a person employed by another for wages or salary.? Employees are given hours that they must work in order to get their wages. They (employees) are responsible for completing tasks that are given to them by others. They (employees) have very limited control over how successful they will be as well as limited control over what their responsibilities are. This basically boils down to ? employees cannot prosper alone. Instead their success lies in the hand of others. People who are employees and not business owners (real estate agents) are given a false sense of security because they receive a weekly paycheck. What a lot of employees don?t consider is the simple fact that someone else will benefit from their work.
The economy today is horrible and that is no secret. I have listened while numerous real estate agents contemplated obtaining a ?real job? instead of being a business owner. These agents want to close their business in order to secure a ?guaranteed? income. If you are one of those people, please take the time to read this article again from the beginning. It?s important that you realize that you would be closing YOUR business. Instead, you need to start thinking differently ? it?s time to start thinking as a business owner. It?s time to change the way you think and make the change you want!
What are the ?Top Ten? responsibilities of a business owner? They are, but in no specific order:
1. You need to generate a consumer need and/or for the product you are selling. 2. You need to convert your leads into money ? make a profit. 3. You need to provide an excellent level of service and make sure you have outstanding customer satisfaction. 4. You must create YOUR brand recognition. 5. You need to build residual income, by keeping your clients satisfied. 6. You need to protect your business?s image and reputation. 7. You need to focus on making a profit. 8. You need to determine how you can reinvest your profits back into your business to obtain growth. 9. You need to build security in your business, preferably by purchasing as much real estate as possible. 10. You need to learn how to balance your business and life responsibilities.
As you may have noticed, we did not get into detail about each of the ?Top Ten? responsibilities but don?t worry, we will be doing that in the future. Having said this, it is important to at least touch on one point; how and where you should reinvest your profits back into your business to increase growth.
When I first became a real estate agent, I saw the interest rates significantly increase to around 17%. I also noticed that home purchases immediately stopped. As you can image, this freaked me out especially since I was a new agent. I watched agent after agent leave the business. I watched the housing market inventory massively grow. I also watched homes sit on the market for what seemed like forever. I was in a state of panic and asked my personal broker, ?I need help. What can I do?? I was floored when he said he was going to be put a greater percentage of his income back into his business, especially while all the other agents were closing their doors. He also went on to say this was a great opportunity to actually increase his market share. I took what he said to heart and followed his advice. Within a year of implementing what he told me, I was the #1 real estate agent in the world.
Even though the economy is struggling, now is not the time to stop spending on your business. One thing you need to make sure of is that your money is spent in a place that generates leads for you, especially since that is how you will make a profit. Sometimes the truth is we don?t always have the money we want to put back into our business and if this is the case then you need to pay attention to where you spend your time. Yes, your time!
It?s time to start concentrating on the ?Top Ten? list in this article. Time spent on accomplishing something productive is never a waste of time; in fact, it will generate income, which will give you the finances you need to invest back into your business.
(Watch for our future articles where we will go into detail about the percentage you need to reinvest when it comes to our ?Top Ten? list among other specifics.)
Jan. 8, 2013 ? Graphene oxide has a remarkable ability to quickly remove radioactive material from contaminated water, researchers at Rice University and Lomonosov Moscow State University have found.
A collaborative effort by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour and the Moscow lab of chemist Stepan Kalmykov determined that microscopic, atom-thick flakes of graphene oxide bind quickly to natural and human-made radionuclides and condense them into solids. The flakes are soluble in liquids and easily produced in bulk.
The experimental results were reported in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
The discovery, Tour said, could be a boon in the cleanup of contaminated sites like the Fukushima nuclear plants damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It could also cut the cost of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") for oil and gas recovery and help reboot American mining of rare earth metals, he said.
Graphene oxide's large surface area defines its capacity to adsorb toxins, Kalmykov said. "So the high retention properties are not surprising to us," he said. "What is astonishing is the very fast kinetics of sorption, which is key."
"In the probabilistic world of chemical reactions where scarce stuff (low concentrations) infrequently bumps into something with which it can react, there is a greater likelihood that the 'magic' will happen with graphene oxide than with a big old hunk of bentonite," said Steven Winston, a former vice president of Lockheed Martin and Parsons Engineering and an expert in nuclear power and remediation who is working with the researchers. "In short, fast is good."
Determining how fast was the object of experiments by the Kalmykov group. The lab tested graphene oxide synthesized at Rice with simulated nuclear wastes containing uranium, plutonium and substances like sodium and calcium that could negatively affect their adsorption. Even so, graphene oxide proved far better than the bentonite clays and granulated activated carbon commonly used in nuclear cleanup.
Graphene oxide introduced to simulated wastes coagulated within minutes, quickly clumping the worst toxins, Kalmykov said. The process worked across a range of pH values.
"To see Stepan's amazement at how well this worked was a good confirmation," Tour said. He noted that the collaboration took root when Alexander Slesarev, a graduate student in his group, and Anna Yu. Romanchuk, a graduate student in Kalmykov's group, met at a conference several years ago.
The researchers focused on removing radioactive isotopes of the actinides and lanthanides -- the 30 rare earth elements in the periodic table -- from liquids, rather than solids or gases. "Though they don't really like water all that much, they can and do hide out there," Winston said. "From a human health and environment point of view, that's where they're least welcome."
Naturally occurring radionuclides are also unwelcome in fracking fluids that bring them to the surface in drilling operations, Tour said. "When groundwater comes out of a well and it's radioactive above a certain level, they can't put it back into the ground," he said. "It's too hot. Companies have to ship contaminated water to repository sites around the country at very large expense." The ability to quickly filter out contaminants on-site would save a great deal of money, he said.
He sees even greater potential benefits for the mining industry. Environmental requirements have "essentially shut down U.S. mining of rare earth metals, which are needed for cell phones," Tour said. "China owns the market because they're not subject to the same environmental standards. So if this technology offers the chance to revive mining here, it could be huge."
Tour said that capturing radionuclides does not make them less radioactive, just easier to handle. "Where you have huge pools of radioactive material, like at Fukushima, you add graphene oxide and get back a solid material from what were just ions in a solution," he said. "Then you can skim it off and burn it. Graphene oxide burns very rapidly and leaves a cake of radioactive material you can then reuse."
The low cost and biodegradable qualities of graphene oxide should make it appropriate for use in permeable reactive barriers, a fairly new technology for in situ groundwater remediation, he said.
Romanchuk, Slesarev, Kalmykov and Tour are co-authors of the paper with Dmitry Kosynkin, a former postdoctoral researcher at Rice, now with Saudi Aramco. Kalmykov is radiochemistry division head and a professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science at Rice.
The Office of Naval Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, M-I SWACO and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded work at Rice. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, a Russian Federation President stipend to Romanchuk and the Russian Basic Research Foundation funded research at Moscow State.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University. The original article was written by Mike Williams.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Anna Yu. Romanchuk, Alexander Slesarev, Stepan N. Kalmykov, Dmitry Kosynkin, James M Tour. Graphene Oxide for Effective Radionuclide Removal. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2012; DOI: 10.1039/C2CP44593J
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.
Four little letters, one simple word. No matter how humble, no matter how grand, home is where the heart is. And there is no place I'd rather be. Surrounded by family and friends, the dogs, the dazzling winter snow, the clear and starry sky, I spent almost two weeks in my quiet little bubble away from the world.
After a mild start to the winter, we were greeted with snow on Christmas day, then a bigger storm just a couple of days later, and another two days after that. The trees looked as though they were dipped in?marshmallow cream; the lawn sprinkled with pixie dust.
We set the hearth ablaze and gathered plenty of blankets to keep us warm. We positioned furniture to take advantage of optimum television viewing?as we sat and watched?countless?Christmas movies. We took out the snow gear and trekked through the woods with the dogs and a group of assorted holiday guests and friends while the snow continued to fall. We ate Christmas leftovers, holiday cookies and treats for days on end. As the year?was coming?to a close, we finally broke out the board games. We answered Christmas trivia questions?(a stocking stuffer gift for one) and started several rounds of dominoes. We held a Harry Potter marathon while the tree lights glowed from inside and out. It's a magical place this time of year.
My den is still fashioned into a guest room for my son. I haven't wanted to pack things away hoping he'd be back sooner than later. The tree, although dried and drooping, will come down this week as I just didn't have the heart over the weekend to remove it from the house. The girls are back in school (reluctantly of course), and my husband and I are back to our old schedules. The bubble has been broken and the world has eased its way back in.
As I look forward, I wanted to share a new family tradition. My oldest daughter gave my youngest daughter and me tea tins to keep?our favorite memories in. Whenever something good happens, no matter how small, we need to write it down on a slip of paper and?place it in our tins. The plan is that next New Year's Eve, we will share all of the good things that have happened in our lives. So far, all three of us have included the Harry Potter marathon, playing dominoes on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day,?and spending our vacation together at home. But I have one more thing to add this week... I'm a grateful mother who is thrilled that her teenage daughters wanted to spend time with the entire family, that my son was home this year, and that even though vacation has ended, we are still spending time together each and every day.
While we knew Microsoft Messenger was due to retire sometime in the first quarter of this year, we now have a confirmed date. According to The Next Web, Redmond has informed users via email that they have until March 15th to use the IM platform, after which they will need to hop on to Skype to chat with their Messenger pals. Your buddy list will automatically be migrated to the VoIP-focused offering. Desktop users of the outgoing service (globally except mainland China, where it will live on) should receive a banner notification to install Skype and, as it turns out, clicking on said banner will also uninstall Messenger. Road warriors are also taken care of, with Microsoft account support already baked into iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8 versions of the Skype app. Nostalgia notwithstanding, fans of the long-standing MSN descendent can at least take solace in the broader set of features Skype sports.
DPAC?s Jekyll and Hyde takes the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella and turns it into an exciting and perfectly dark edge-of-your-seat thriller. From the moment the curtain opens and a quote from the novella is scrawled, as if by magic, in front of the audience?s eyes, viewers are enthralled. An amazingly high-tech set, which effectively utilizes projection screens, contributes to the ?magic? feel and sometimes lends a cool music-video style to the scenes.
Constantine Maroulis? Dr. Jekyll hits every note as he expresses his desire to create a distinction between the good and evil that lies within man in the early song ?I Need to Know.? His performance continues to be stellar throughout, though he is particularly on-fire as the evil Hyde. In the intense first transformation scene, complete with flashing lights and creepy sound effects, Maroulis instantly and impressively goes from the slightly-nerdy-but-sweet Jekyll to the scarily sexy Hyde. His two leading ladies, sweet Emma (Teal Wicks) and sultry-voiced Lucy (Deborah Cox) also impress. While Wicks has a voice to die for, Cox is steamy, passionate magic onstage. Top moments for her include her bittersweet rendition of ?Someone Like You? and her incredibly soulful performance of ?A New Life.? Minor characters add their own flair and humor, including Dana Costello?s slutty Nellie and David Benoit?s less-than-holy, giant-cross-wearing Bishop of Basingstoke.
The musical clips along at a steady pace, effectively mixing darker moments with lighter ones, and raising questions about the evil that lies within us all. Maroulis? electricity and his ability to switch so convincingly from Jekyll to Hyde go a long way in making the main character understandable, if not exactly likeable. Fans of the original story as well as newcomers will find something to enjoy here and are sure to go home feeling slightly eerie but thoroughly entertained.
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DPAC Starts The New Year off Right with a Rocking Performance of Jekyll and Hyde, 5.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings
My daughter owns a piece of land with her home on it. The land is zoned for multiple homes. We, her and I, want for me to build a home on the proerty. Does she have to sell me a piece of her land? Can I lease the land from her or will a lender want me to own the land? What are our options? The land is in California, San Diego county, city of Chula Vista.
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Posted on January 9, 2013 by dufttuey508 in Internet
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Adam LaRoche was holding out for three years and the Nationals were steadfast in sticking with a two-year offer. Today the free agent first baseman decided that was good enough, as Buster Olney of ESPN.com reports that LaRoche has agreed to a two-year deal to return to Washington.
Having draft pick compensation attached to his free agency no doubt hurt LaRoche, who couldn?t secure a three-year deal and seemingly had trouble generating many two-year offers despite hitting .271 with 33 homers and an .853 OPS last season.
Now that LaRoche is back in the fold the Nationals are expected to shop Michael Morse, who had been slated to replace him at first base if needed. Instead with LaRoche at first base, Denard Span is center field, and Bryce Harper and Jayson Werth in the outfield corners there?s no room for Morse to play following a season in which he hit .291 with 18 homers and a .791 OPS in 102 games.
Morse is three years younger than LaRoche and out-played him in 2010 and 2011, but he?s also just one year from free agency and should have some decent trade value.
UPDATE: Amanda Comak of the Washington Times reports that LaRoche?s two-year deal is worth $24 million guaranteed, which includes a $2 million buyout of a third-year team option.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? President Barack Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. secretary of defense is causing jitters in Israel, where some circles view the former Nebraska senator as unsympathetic or even hostile.
Hagel's positions on Israel's two most pressing foreign policy issues ? Iran's nuclear program and relations with the Palestinians ? appear to be at odds with the Israeli government, and critics here fear the appointment could increase pressure on the Jewish state to make unwanted concessions. The appointment could also signal further strains in what is already a cool relationship between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to win re-election later this month.
"Because of his statements in the past, and his stance toward Israel, we are worried," Reuven Rivlin, the speaker of the Israeli parliament and a member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, told The Associated Press. But, he added, the strategic partnership between the U.S. and Israel is strong and "one person doesn't determine policy."
Netanyahu's office refused to comment on the appointment, as did officials in the Israeli foreign and defense ministries. But Rivlin's comments reflected what has been a common sentiment among analysts and commentators here in recent days. In their evening news broadcasts, Israel's three main TV stations on Monday all portrayed Hagel as cool toward Israel.
Known as a maverick in the Senate, Hagel has raised eyebrows in Israel with a series of comments and actions over the years that some here have deemed insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state.
Hagel once said "the Jewish lobby (in the United States) intimidates a lot of people here" and does some "dumb things" that aren't "smart for Israel." He also said that "I'm not an Israeli senator. I'm a United States senator."
"I support Israel, but my first interest is I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States, not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel," he said.
Six years ago, he refused to sign a letter pressing the European Union to declare the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group a terrorist organization.
Hagel's call in a bipartisan letter in 2009 for a 'pragmatic' approach toward Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, has also drawn criticism. The letter called for engaging Hamas to moderate its behavior, though it said direct U.S. engagement "may not now be practical." Critics, pointing to the letter, have accused Hagel of supporting dialogue with Hamas.
The 66-year-old Hagel, who faces a tough confirmation battle in the Senate, also has criticized discussion of a potential military strike by either the U.S. or Israel against Iran, and has backed efforts to bring Tehran to the table for future peace talks in Afghanistan.
While Hagel's positions on these issues are shared by many in Israel itself, including Netanyahu's own critics, they run counter to those of the Israeli prime minister and could antagonize him if, as polls forecast, he wins a new term in Israel's Jan. 22 elections.
Netanyahu has identified the Iranian nuclear program as his top priority. Convinced that the Islamic Republic is trying to develop a nuclear bomb, a view shared in many capitals around the world, Netanyahu says Tehran must be stopped. Iran says its program is only for peaceful purposes.
While voicing hope that international diplomatic pressure will halt the Iranian program, Netanyahu has said that the use of force must be seriously considered as well. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran, unilaterally if necessary, if he concludes that diplomacy has failed.
Israel also considers Hamas and Hezbollah to be terrorist groups, although it has held indirect cease-fire talks with both organizations. Israel refuses any direct talks with Hamas, which recently battled Israel during eight days of fighting in November, unless the group renounces violence and explicitly recognizes Israel's right to exist.
Ahead of Hagel's appointment, White House officials tried to play down such differences, saying his positions on Israel and Iran have been misrepresented and that he will be "completely in line with the president." They said that in the Senate, he voted in favor of billions of dollars of military assistance to Israel and supported multilateral sanctions on Tehran.
Despite such promises, the Hagel appointment is likely to fuel the common perception in Israel that Obama does not share the warmth toward Israel held by his predecessors.
In part, that impression stems from the relationship between Obama and Netanyahu. The two leaders took office just months apart in early 2009, and from the beginning, have appeared to be at odds both on the personal level and on key policy issues.
The men have sparred over Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the Iranian nuclear program. Last year, Obama rebuffed Netanyahu's calls to set "red lines" that would trigger an attack on Iran. The perception here that Netanyahu favored Mitt Romney in the U.S. presidential election ? an allegation denied by Netanyahu ? has further strained ties.
The U.S. is Israel's closest and most important ally, and the relationship is critical for Israel. Further cracks in the ties could make for a stormy second term for Netanyahu.
The one area where relations have remained strong is in security ties. The Israeli and American defense establishments cooperate closely in monitoring the Iranians, military training and weapons development. Israel's new "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system, which performed well during the recent fighting in Gaza, was developed with American financial aid.
Speaking at an event for mostly North American Jews in Jerusalem on Monday, Netanyahu thanked the U.S. for its support.
While he did not mention Hagel directly in his speech, Netanyahu he did warn of dangers ahead ? including Iran's nuclear program ? and said "it is time for many who don't see these dangers to wake up to them."
Eytan Gilboa, a specialist on U.S.-Israel relations at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, said he thinks if Hagel "will be a total disaster for Israel."
He said Obama's choice for CIA director, John Brennan, is considered good for Israel and could be a "stabilizing factor" on U.S. policy toward Israel. But overall, he said Obama's foreign policy team creates a "potential recipe for many problems with Israel."
"Obama is sending a message to Israel that rough times are ahead and if it doesn't accommodate U.S interests, there will be tense relations," he said.
But Dov Weisglass, who served as a top adviser to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a decade ago and was involved in sensitive dealings with the Americans, said concerns about Hagel are overblown.
"Ties between countries are not decided by this person or that. The ties between Israel and the U.S. are so important and complex that I don't see any reason why they should change,' Weisglass said, predicting that in his new role, Hagel would, generally speaking, revise his outlook on things.
What's more, "ultimately, he is not the only decision-maker," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin contributed to this report.
The United States' use of drones is counter-productive, less effective than the White House claims, and is "encouraging a new arms race that will empower current and future rivals and lay the foundations for an international system that is increasingly violent", according to a study by one of President Obama's former security advisers.
Michael Boyle, who was on Obama's counter-terrorism group in the run-up to his election in 2008, said the US administration's growing reliance on drone technology was having "adverse strategic effects that have not been properly weighed against the tactical gains associated with killing terrorists".
Civilian casualties were likely to be far higher than had been acknowledged, he said.
In an article for the Chatham House journal International Affairs, Boyle said the conventional wisdom over the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) needed to be challenged.
He said there was an urgent need for greater transparency because most Americans remained "unaware of the scale of the drone programme ... and the destruction it has caused in their name".
US use of drones has soared during Obama's time in office, with the White House authorising attacks in at least four countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. It is estimated that the CIA and the US military have undertaken more than 300 drone strikes and killed about 2,500 people.
Administration officials have argued their use is lawful, though the Pentagon's most senior lawyer, Jeh Johnson, recently admitted that the US was heading for a "tipping point", beyond which it should no longer pursue terrorists by military means because the organisation that Congress authorised the military to pursue in 2001 had in effect been destroyed.
In his study, Boyle said Obama pledged to end the "war on terror" and to restore respect for the rule of law in US counter-terrorism policies.
"Instead, he has been just as ruthless and indifferent to the rule of law as his predecessor ... while President Bush issued a call to arms to defend 'civilisation' against the threat of terrorism, President Obama has waged his war on terror in the shadows, using drone strikes, special operations and sophisticated surveillance to fight a brutal covert war against al-Qaida and other Islamist networks."
Boyle, who teaches at La Salle University, Philadelphia, said the government claim that drones were an effective tool that minimised civilian casualties was "based on a highly selective and partial reading of the evidence".
He argues one of the reasons why the US has been "so successful in spinning the number of civilian casualties" is that it has reportedly adopted a controversial method for counting them: all military-age men in a strike zone are classed as militants unless clear evidence emerges to the contrary.
"The result of the 'guilt by association' approach has been a gradual loosening of the standards by which the US selects targets for drone strikes," his study says.
"The consequences can be seen in the targeting of mosques or funeral processions that kill non-combatants and tear at the social fabric of the regions where they occur. No one really knows the number of deaths caused by drones in these distant, sometimes ungoverned, lands."
Boyle questions the claim that drone strikes have been effective in killing so-called high-value targets, saying records suggested lower-ranked foot soldiers were the ones who had been hit in greatest numbers.
And he also said the strikes had a debilitating effect on local populations and their governments.
"Despite the fact that drone strikes are often employed against local enemies of the governments in Pakistan and Yemen, they serve as powerful signals of the regimes' helplessness and subservience to the United States and undermine the claim that these governments can be credible competitors for the loyalties of the population," he writes.
"The vast increase in the number of deaths of low-ranking operatives has deepened political resistance to the US programme in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries."
Last week, a judge in New York rejected an attempt by the New York Times to force the US government to disclose more information about its targeted killing of people that it believes have ties to terrorism, including American citizens.
Colleen McMahon, a district judge in Manhattan, said the Obama administration did not violate the law by refusing the newspaper's request for the legal justifications for targeted killings.
She said the government was not obliged to turn over materials the Times had sought under the federal Freedom of Information Act, even though it had such materials in its possession.
SEE ALSO:?The NYU Student Tweeting Every Reported US Drone Strike Has Revealed A Disturbing Trend?
Jan. 8, 2013 ? According to NOAA scientists, 2012 marked the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States with the year consisting of a record warm spring, second warmest summer, fourth warmest winter and a warmer-than-average autumn. The average temperature for 2012 was 55.3?F, 3.2?F above the 20th century average, and 1.0?F above 1998, the previous warmest year.
The average precipitation total for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 26.57 inches, 2.57 inches below average, making it the 15th driest year on record for the nation. At its peak in July, the drought of 2012 engulfed 61 percent of the nation with the Mountain West, Great Plains, and Midwest experiencing the most intense drought conditions. The dry conditions proved ideal for wildfires in the West, charring 9.2 million acres-the third highest on record.
The U.S. Climate Extremes Index indicated that 2012 was the second most extreme year on record for the nation. The index, which evaluates extremes in temperature and precipitation, as well as landfalling tropical cyclones, was nearly twice the average value and second only to 1998. To date, 2012 has seen 11 disasters that have reached the $1 billion threshold in losses, to include Sandy, Isaac, and tornado outbreaks experienced in the Great Plains, Texas and Southeast/Ohio Valley.
This analysis from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.
U.S. temperature
Every state in the contiguous U.S. had an above-average annual temperature for 2012. Nineteen states had a record warm year and an additional 26 states had one of their 10 warmest.
On the national scale, 2012 started off much warmer than average with the fourth warmest winter (December 2011-February 2012) on record. Winter warmth limited snow with many locations experiencing near-record low snowfall totals. The winter snow cover for the contiguous U.S. was the third smallest on record and snowpack totals across the Central and Southern Rockies were less than half of normal.
Spring started off exceptionally warm with the warmest March on record, followed by the fourth warmest April and second warmest May. The season's temperature was 5.2?F above average, making it easily the warmest spring on record, surpassing the previous record by 2.0?F. The warm spring resulted in an early start to the 2012 growing season in many places, which increased the loss of water from the soil earlier than what is typical. In combination with the lack of winter snow and residual dryness from 2011, the record warm spring laid the foundation for the widespread drought conditions in large areas of the U.S. during 2012.
The above-average temperatures of spring continued into summer. The national-scale heat peaked in July with an average temperature of 76.9?F, 3.6?F above average, making it the hottest month ever observed for the contiguous United States. The eighth warmest June, record hottest July, and a warmer-than-average August resulted in a summer average temperature of 73.8?F, the second hottest summer on record by only hundredths of a degree. An estimated 99.1 million people experienced 10 or more days of summer temperatures greater than 100?F, nearly one-third of the nation's population.
Autumn and December temperatures were warmer than average, but not of the same magnitude as the three previous seasons. Autumn warmth in the western U.S. offset cooler temperatures in the eastern half of the country. Although the last four months of 2012 did not bring the same unusual warmth as the first 8 months of the year, the September through December temperatures were warm enough for 2012 to remain the record warmest year by a wide margin.
U.S. precipitation
The nationally-averaged precipitation total of 26.57 inches was 2.57 inches below average and the 15th driest year on record for the lower 48. This was also the driest year for the nation since 1988 when 25.25 inches of precipitation was observed.
The driest conditions during 2012 occurred across the central United States. Two states, Nebraska and Wyoming, had their driest years on record. Eight additional states had annual precipitation totals ranking among the bottom ten. Drier-than-average conditions stretched from the Intermountain West, through the Great Plains and Midwest, and into the Southeast. Wetter-than-average conditions occurred in the Pacific Northwest, where Washington had its fifth wettest year on record, as well as parts of the Gulf Coast and Northeast.
Each season of 2012 had precipitation totals below the 20th century average:
Winter brought below-average precipitation to both coasts and above-average precipitation to the Southern Plains, slightly lessening drought conditions that plagued the region in 2011. The winter precipitation total was 89 percent of normal.
Spring precipitation was 95 percent of the 20th century average with below-average precipitation in the Rockies and Midwest and above-average precipitation in the Northwest and Upper Midwest.
Summer precipitation was 88 percent of normal with dry conditions in the central United States. The West Coast, Gulf Coast, and Northeast were wetter than average.
Autumn was drier than average for most of the central U.S., with wet conditions in the Northwest, Ohio Valley, and Northeast. The autumn precipitation total was 85 percent of average.
Alaska and Hawaii
Alaska was cooler and slightly wetter than average during 2012. The year began very cold for the state with a January temperature 14.0?F below the 1971-2000 average. Each subsequent season was also cooler than average, resulting in an annual temperature 2.3?F below average. Much of 2012 was also wetter than average, and the annual precipitation total was 9.2 percent above average.
Drought conditions continued to plague Hawaii during 2012. At the beginning of 2012, 47.4 percent of the state was experiencing moderate-to-exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. By the end of the year, the percent area experiencing moderate-to-exceptional drought expanded to 63.3 percent of the state.
Significant weather and climate events
Tropical cyclone activity across the North Atlantic in 2012 as above-average with 19 named storms, ten hurricanes, and one major hurricane (Category 3 or stronger). This is the third consecutive North Atlantic tropical cyclone season with 19 named storms and ties with as the third most active season for the basin. Isaac and Sandy made landfall along the U.S. coast during 2012 causing significant impacts. Isaac brought large storm surge and torrential rains to the Gulf Coast. Sandy caused significant damage to the Northeast, with 8 million homes losing power and 131 fatalities reported.
The widespread drought conditions of 2012 peaked in July with approximately 61 percent of the country experiencing drought conditions. The footprint of drought during 2012 roughly equaled the drought of the 1950s which peaked at approximately 60 percent. The size of the current drought and the drought of the 1950s are smaller than the drought episodes of the 1930s. The current drought has yet to reach the intensity or duration of the 1950s and 1930s national-scale droughts.
Wildfire activity during 2012 was above-average with 9.2 million acres burned -the third most in the 13-year record. Numerous large and destructive wildfires impacted the western U.S. throughout the year. The Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs, Colorado destroyed nearly 350 homes and was the most destructive fire on record for the state. The Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire charred nearly 300,000 acres and was the largest on record for New Mexico.
Tornado activity during 2012 was below the 1991-2010 average of approximately 1,200. The year got off to a busy start with large tornado outbreaks in March and April causing significant damage in the Ohio Valley and Central Plains. May and June, typically the most active tornado months of the year, both had less than half of average tornado counts. The final 2012 tornado count will likely be less than 1,000-the least since 2002.
More information is available at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/
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FSBO: ?For Sale By Owner? ? it can be a siren?s call when you first mull over the prospects for selling your house.? A Tuscaloosa FSBO listing promises to allow a homeowner to sell without even consulting Tuscaloosa real estate agents! Depending on a home?s final sale price, the commission saved looks to be substantial.
While there are certainly theoretical attractions to the idea of working on your own, time and again statistics prove it is not only more efficient to work with a real estate agent ? it also frequently nets sellers more at the bottom line. There are logical reasons why it works out that way. They are the same reasons why only one in ten homes are successfully sold as FSBOs.
First off, while it may seem easy to arbitrarily pick a price and just see what happens, without a timely professional comparative analysis of the Tuscaloosa market, it?s pretty unlikely to be ?right priced?. Serious buyers will make current market comparisons to see whether a FSBO is a fair bargain being offered by a serious seller.? If the answer is wrong, buyers move on.
More than a convenience, relief from the paperwork tangle can be decisive in preventing technical logjams. Busy real estate offices are always humming, using today?s electronic signature platforms, scanners, printers and faxes to rapidly churn out legally binding documents. There are other technical issues, too: experienced buyers know that a FSBO seller also has a lower likelihood of being familiar with protective disclosures or even Tuscaloosa ordinances that can affect a sale.
Then there is the negotiation process. More than just working out a price, your agent can deal with all the details a prospective buyer sometimes throws into the mix. By sparing you the emotional cost every time you are asked to handle repairs or any number of other details, the odds rise that a transaction will stay on track and on time.
Long story short: there?s really no need to reinvent the wheel. A simple solution: call me for a pressure-free consultation.? I?d be delighted to come by to go over your options.
Many health care systems and hospitals transitioning to accountable care organizations are finding that it?s a more complex process than they initially thought. A necessary step many have missed is establishing relationships with the physicians who will provide the accountable care.
That?s according to a report on the readiness of 59 health care organizations moving to ACO settings. The organizations are members of the Premier Partnership for Care Transformation Readiness Collaborative, launched in June 2010 to help organizations switch to ACOs. Researchers said all 59 have much work to complete before becoming fully functional ACOs.
Those with the lowest scores on the evaluation reported difficult relationships between primary care physicians and the health system or hospital. Organizations with the highest scores reported positive relationships with physicians.
?Given that these 59 organizations were predisposed to becoming ACOs by virtue of their joining the collaborative, it was surprising to find at the outset of the collaborative that the level of readiness was modest,? the authors wrote in the report issued in December 2012 by the Commonwealth Fund. The health systems and hospitals were evaluated between August 2010 and June 2011.
The authors said the assessment provides insight into the overall state of ACO readiness and called the results ?sobering.? In an ACO, participants receive a share of the savings that result from meeting quality metrics and providing care that leads to healthier patients. Many of the created ACOs are being led by hospitals.
The Commonwealth Fund report was based on a ?capabilities framework? designed by Premier that consisted of six core components. Each component has a set of ?operating activities? that would be present in an ACO that has achieved full implementation.
No organization fully implemented any of the six core components, and ?it was not uncommon to find organizations that had not undertaken any of the activities associated with one or more of the framework?s prescribed capabilities,? the report said.
Study co-author Eugene Kroch, PhD, vice president and chief scientist for Premier, said the results should not be taken as an indictment of the organizations, but as a reality check. He said the organizations would agree. ?This is hard. Possibly even harder than we thought it was going to be.?
The challenge of determining an organization?s readiness ? and especially comparing its readiness to others ? is that there are many paths to becoming an ACO. Many start their journeys not knowing the path they ultimately will pursue, said Kroch, who agrees with a colleague who describes it as crossing a bridge while building it.
A group practice advantage?
Patrick Carter, MD, medical director for care coordination at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic in Houston, said it?s no coincidence that the organizations evaluated by Premier are hospitals and not physician groups.
?The whole idea of an accountable care organization, which is a group of providers ? in my mind, physicians ? who take care of a population of patients and are responsible for ensuring the quality, the patient satisfaction experience and controlling the cost for that population, is a multispecialty group practice paid by capitation,? Dr. Carter said.
Kelsey-Seybold, a 360-physician, multispecialty group with 20 locations, was among the first organizations in the nation to receive ACO accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Saying that ?many organizations that call themselves ACOs do not have what it takes to accomplish an ACO?s vital mission,? the NCQA created a voluntary ACO certification program in 2011. It awarded its first accreditations in December 2012.
Many requirements for NCQA recognition were things Kelsey-Seybold already was doing, such as running population health reports and focusing on preventive medicine, Dr. Carter said.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has a shared savings program and a ?pioneer ACO? program, each with a different set of criteria. Private-payer ACO plans also are growing in prominence, with an estimated 8 million to 14 million commercially insured patients in non-Medicare ACOs.
Most, if not all, of the trailblazing organizations that received early ACO recognition by either NCQA or Medicare were using a patient-centered medical home/ACO-type model long before the term ?accountable care organization? became well-known.
Many large health care organizations that want to become ACOs haven?t talked to physicians about what it means to provide accountable care, said Hal Teitelbaum, MD, managing partner and CEO of Crystal Run Healthcare. The multispecialty physician group in New York has more than 250 physicians and was among the first to receive NCQA accreditation.
Dr. Teitelbaum said establishing an ACO is a long process, but each step should involve physicians in three ways:
Awareness. Physicians have to be aware of the value of everything they do. Dr. Teitelbaum said every time they order a test or procedure, prescribe a drug or schedule a consultation, physicians need to ask themselves if it?s needed and whether it will improve care. It?s not about saving money, but reducing waste, he said.
Participation. Physicians can do this by working together to share ideas and develop their own best practices instead of being told by others how to provide the best care.
Innovation. Organizations need to encourage physicians to think of new ways to reduce waste and increase value. Crystal Run is doing this with an innovation contest in which the best ideas will be implemented and funded by the organization.
The role of IT
There?s widespread agreement that the backbone of an ACO is its health information technology infrastructure that allows the easy exchange of data among multiple care settings. The IT component has proven to be one of the most costly parts of achieving ACO readiness because of its complexity.
Even though Dr. Carter believes physician practices are best suited to lead an ACO, he said most small practices can?t afford the IT investment. That?s why many ACO efforts are being led by hospitals.
Another issue is a lack of standards describing what an ACO?s IT infrastructure should look like, said William Jessee, MD, executive director of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology. CCHIT is the body that certifies paperless records for CMS? meaningful use incentive program. The commission is working on developing a model health IT framework for ACOs.
Physicians in ACOs must start viewing themselves as members of a larger community in which to share information. That might be a challenge for doctors in small practices who have been working in their own information silos.
?We?ve been in this process of looking at what many people consider to be the foundational building blocks of accountable care for some time,? Dr. Teitelbaum said. ?In my opinion, the essential element is getting providers, and particularly physicians, to understand and embrace the core elements of accountable care. In our organization, I think that is why we have been successful to date and why we will be successful in the future.?
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management software, is often discussed in reference to customer care or account management. However, it can also be an important tool for your company to improve its sales and better nurture these leads and relationships.
As a business owner, increasing sales should be your number one priority, and using CRM software and all its capabilities to your advantage could be the key to achieving this success. Consider the ways that implementing CRM software will make your company run more efficiently, resulting in increased sales.
Understanding the Customer
Reaching out and better understanding your customer is the most important aspect of any business. However, when information is mismanaged, your ability to reach out or reference an important detail is impaired. With Cloud-based CRM solutions such as Second CRM, it is especially important that this information is up to date and detailed so sales reps can tap the database wherever they are.
Keep track of customer information, including buying trends, in order to better engage and upsell them. Once you understand the buying trends of your customer, you can better adjust the service provided and approach tactics.
Organise customer communication with email tracking of outbound messages to monitor client follow-ups.
Increasing Efficiency
CRM software offers a variety of new and updated tools to help your salesteam operate more efficiently, resulting in increased opportunities for sales.These tools will help you gain insight on what is working, what isn?t and how you can better cater your sales to your customers? needs.
Engagement history displays all of the specific tasks associated with each client, including calls to make, emails, and proposals to organize
Lead qualifying features help you track past performances to indicate which leads are hot and which are not. This will allow you to devote more attention to the best opportunities, which are more likely to convert to sales.
Tracking the sales pipeline helps improve financial planning. Goal reporting allows you to either track complicated projections or broader sales like quarterly revenues or close rates, which will in turn increase accuracy of revenue projections with forecasting
Managing Your Team
CRM not only allows you to manage sales and leads, but your team, as well. Not only is this an advantageous feature, but is necessary to use. Collier Pickard, a CRM consultancy, suggests, ?The long term success of CRM projects is directly proportional to the commitment of the management team to the CRM platform.?
Using CRM, you can monitor your team?s activities and see who is performing well and who needs help; what is working for those who are successful and where the others are falling short. However, be sure that goals are set and managed properly through the platform to get a proper read of the information and reports. Some important aspects you can manage include:
Territory
Sales goals
Potential leads
Implementing CRM software with your sales team will help to increase the efficiency of your business as a whole. By providing your employees with useful tools for tracking and managing goals, it will give your company the organization it needs to increase its sales and increase its profit.
Kate Webster writes for lead generation resource, ResourceNation.com. She focuses on a variety of topics including Follow Resource Nation on Facebook and Twitter, too! Compare CRM and Sales Software Systems at ResourceNation.?
Physical education requirement at 4-year universities at all-time lowPublic release date: 7-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brad Cardinal brad.cardinal@oregonstate.edu 541-737-2506 Oregon State University
CORVALLIS, Ore. Even as policy makers and health experts point to an increased need for exercise, more than half of four-year colleges and universities in the United States have dropped physical education requirements compared to historic levels.
Almost every U.S. college student was required to take physical education and exercise requirements in the 1920s; today, that number is at an all-time low of 39 percent, according to a new study.
Oregon State University researcher Brad Cardinal, lead author of the study, examined data from 354 randomly selected four-year universities and colleges going back to 1920, a peak year with 97 percent of students required to take physical education. The results are in the current issue of Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
"We see more and more evidence about the benefit of physical activity, not just to our bodies, but to our minds, yet educational institutions are not embracing their own research," Cardinal said. "It is alarming to see four-year institutions following the path that K-12 schools have already gone down, eliminating exercise as part of the curriculum even as obesity rates climb."
More than 34 percent of adolescents and teens ages 12-19 are overweight and more than 17 percent are obese. These rates have roughly doubled since 1980, according to the 2012 Shape of the Nation Report.
Cardinal, who is a professor of exercise and sport science at OSU and a national expert on the benefits of physical activity, said research shows that exercise not only improves human health, but it also improves cognitive performance.
"Brain scans have shown that physical activity improves the area of the brain involved with high-level decision making," he said. "In addition, we know employers often are concerned about employee health, in part because physically active employees attend work more and tend to perform better."
Cardinal's own university, Oregon State University, still requires physical education courses. He said requiring physical education sets the tone for students to understand that being active and healthy is as important as reading, writing and math. Cardinal believes even requiring just one or two exercise courses can at least jump-start a student into thinking about a healthy lifestyle as part of their overall college experience and later life.
"There is a remarkable disconnect in that we fund research as a nation showing that physical activity is absolutely critical to academic and life success, but we aren't applying that knowledge to our own students," he said.
While no research has conclusively shown why this downward trend is happening at universities, Cardinal said it is likely a result of shrinking budgets and an increased focus on purely academic courses, similar to what has happened at public elementary, middle, and high schools.
However, he noted that the median physical education budget for schools in the United States is only $764 per school year in K-12 and 61 percent of physical education teachers report an annual budget of less than $1,000. Yet, obesity will cost the United States $344 billion in medical-related expenses by 2018, about 21 percent of the nation's health-care spending.
While many universities offer recreation classes and fitness centers, Cardinal said, those facilities are often intimidating for first-year, international, and low-fitness or skill-level students. He said studies have shown that campus exercise facilities are often utilized by the healthiest population of the student body.
"The very people who want to work out, and likely would find a way to do so no matter what, are often the most frequent visitors to gyms and fitness centers," Cardinal said. "A public university should provide a way for people who may be intimidated by state-of-the-art facilities, or may be unfamiliar with even the basic concept of working out, a way to learn about basic health and physical activity."
He added that it may be up to researchers and experts in his own discipline of exercise science to turn the tide at universities, and bring the research into a policy arena.
"As health educators and exercise scientists, we need to get serious about our roles in advocating for and using research to bring physical education back to college campuses," Cardinal said. "College isn't too late to start influencing students and getting them on a healthy trajectory."
Spencer Sorensen of Portland State University and Marita Cardinal of Western Oregon University contributed to this study.
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Physical education requirement at 4-year universities at all-time lowPublic release date: 7-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brad Cardinal brad.cardinal@oregonstate.edu 541-737-2506 Oregon State University
CORVALLIS, Ore. Even as policy makers and health experts point to an increased need for exercise, more than half of four-year colleges and universities in the United States have dropped physical education requirements compared to historic levels.
Almost every U.S. college student was required to take physical education and exercise requirements in the 1920s; today, that number is at an all-time low of 39 percent, according to a new study.
Oregon State University researcher Brad Cardinal, lead author of the study, examined data from 354 randomly selected four-year universities and colleges going back to 1920, a peak year with 97 percent of students required to take physical education. The results are in the current issue of Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
"We see more and more evidence about the benefit of physical activity, not just to our bodies, but to our minds, yet educational institutions are not embracing their own research," Cardinal said. "It is alarming to see four-year institutions following the path that K-12 schools have already gone down, eliminating exercise as part of the curriculum even as obesity rates climb."
More than 34 percent of adolescents and teens ages 12-19 are overweight and more than 17 percent are obese. These rates have roughly doubled since 1980, according to the 2012 Shape of the Nation Report.
Cardinal, who is a professor of exercise and sport science at OSU and a national expert on the benefits of physical activity, said research shows that exercise not only improves human health, but it also improves cognitive performance.
"Brain scans have shown that physical activity improves the area of the brain involved with high-level decision making," he said. "In addition, we know employers often are concerned about employee health, in part because physically active employees attend work more and tend to perform better."
Cardinal's own university, Oregon State University, still requires physical education courses. He said requiring physical education sets the tone for students to understand that being active and healthy is as important as reading, writing and math. Cardinal believes even requiring just one or two exercise courses can at least jump-start a student into thinking about a healthy lifestyle as part of their overall college experience and later life.
"There is a remarkable disconnect in that we fund research as a nation showing that physical activity is absolutely critical to academic and life success, but we aren't applying that knowledge to our own students," he said.
While no research has conclusively shown why this downward trend is happening at universities, Cardinal said it is likely a result of shrinking budgets and an increased focus on purely academic courses, similar to what has happened at public elementary, middle, and high schools.
However, he noted that the median physical education budget for schools in the United States is only $764 per school year in K-12 and 61 percent of physical education teachers report an annual budget of less than $1,000. Yet, obesity will cost the United States $344 billion in medical-related expenses by 2018, about 21 percent of the nation's health-care spending.
While many universities offer recreation classes and fitness centers, Cardinal said, those facilities are often intimidating for first-year, international, and low-fitness or skill-level students. He said studies have shown that campus exercise facilities are often utilized by the healthiest population of the student body.
"The very people who want to work out, and likely would find a way to do so no matter what, are often the most frequent visitors to gyms and fitness centers," Cardinal said. "A public university should provide a way for people who may be intimidated by state-of-the-art facilities, or may be unfamiliar with even the basic concept of working out, a way to learn about basic health and physical activity."
He added that it may be up to researchers and experts in his own discipline of exercise science to turn the tide at universities, and bring the research into a policy arena.
"As health educators and exercise scientists, we need to get serious about our roles in advocating for and using research to bring physical education back to college campuses," Cardinal said. "College isn't too late to start influencing students and getting them on a healthy trajectory."
Spencer Sorensen of Portland State University and Marita Cardinal of Western Oregon University contributed to this study.
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Public release date: 7-Jan-2013
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