Aaron Swartz has been posthumously inducted into the Internet Society's Hall Of Fame this year. You can read a full list of new members here.
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Friday, June 28, 2013
Kris Jenner Shares the Meaning Behind North?s Name
"The way [Kim] explained it to me was that North means highest power and she says that North is their highest point together."
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/WUJxRXWWMHw/
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Music training may help learning to read - Daniel Willingham
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Does music training improve other academic skills?
One sometimes hears the inclusion of music in the curriculum justified by the claim that it improves mathematics, or reading.
I?ve never cared for this justification because I think students should study music for its own sake, whether or not it boosts other skills. And it seems a chancy argument; if it turns out that music doesn?t help other academic work, does that mean it should be dumped?
Setting that argument aside, it?s certainly of interest from a cognitive point of view to know whether musical training has an impact on reading or math. There are a good number of correlational studies showing a positive effect, but few experimental data.
Now a new experimental study (Rautenberg, in press) shows that music training does have some positive effect for reading.
159 German 1st graders participated. The music training lasted 8 months and focused on three areas: rhythmic skills training, tonal/melodic skills training and auditory discrimination of timbre and sound intensity. There were two control groups: one received no training. The other was an active control receiving ?training in art.
The results were fairly robust, as shown in the graph of single word reading accuracy at the beginning and end of the year.
What?s behind the benefit? Language does have a musical aspect to it, referred to as prosody. And indeed, children?s ability to appreciate the rhythmic aspect of speech is correlated with the ease with which they learn to read, even when controlling for phonemic awareness. In German (and in English) certain letter combinations signal certain stress patterns, so there is a signal in the written language that children can learn. The ideas is that children are less likely to learn the association of certain written letter patterns and their corresponding rhythms in speech if they don?t perceive the rhythms of speech very well.That?s the argument. More fine-grained analyses of the data partially support it.
The argument predicts that it?s rhythm that?s important, not tonality, and the data do show significant correlations of reading with ability in the former, but not the latter.
The argument further predicts that the training ought to reduce a particular type of error: one in which a child reads the phonetic sounds correctly but gets the rhythm wrong; they segment the word into syllables incorrectly, or they accent the wrong syllable. This prediction was not supported.
All in all, this study seems to be an important addition--although certainly not a conclusive one--to the argument that some types of music training aids children's learning to read, at least in certain languages.
Reference
Rautenberg, I. (in press). The effects of musical training on the decoding skills of German-speaking primary school children. Journal of Research in Reading.
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Source: http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2013/06/music-training-may-help-learning-to-read.html
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Monday, April 22, 2013
Insight: Pakistan cleric tries hand at politics
By Michael Georgy
JHANG, Pakistan (Reuters) - When Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi greets supporters on the Pakistan election trail, he opens his pitch with the kind of promises to the poor that any other politician might make.
But behind the reassuring rhetoric lies what his opponents believe is a dangerous agenda - to gain a foothold in parliament and further his designs to oppress Pakistan's Shi'ite minority.
Ludhianvi, a radical Sunni cleric, is a hate figure for Shi'ites who accuse him of devoting his decades-long career to fomenting an escalating campaign of gun attacks and suicide bombings targeting their community.
The prospect that he might win a place in the political mainstream at the May 11 vote horrifies Shi'ites who fear his presence in parliament will give him a much stronger platform to strike out at the sect.
And it looks like Ludhianvi may have a better shot than at the last election in 2008 when he came second. His main rival has been barred from the race and a Reuters visit to his constituency of Jhang, in the heart of populous Punjab province, found no shortage of supporters.
"I cannot bring any change if I am sitting as a layman outside parliament," Ludhianvi, flanked by bodyguards, said in an interview. "If I get into parliament, everyone will be listening to what we want."
As he toured Jhang, which served as the cradle of sectarian extremist groups in the 1980s, people in one village after another emerged from their homes to shower him with rose petals.
"If I get into parliament, I will be able to save this entire country from bloodshed," said Ludhianvi, who wears a thick beard and an embroidered skull cap and projects a commanding presence.
The election is seen as a milestone for Pakistan's fragile democracy, marking the first time a civilian government has completed a full term in a country which a long history of military meddling in politics.
Western powers are hoping the polls might deliver a government capable of grappling with huge domestic challenges and helping the United States bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table ahead of a NATO pullout in 2014.
Any triumph by Ludhianvi at the polls could be read as a sign that sectarianism - now seen as a top security threat - has made a troubling new in-road into the political sphere, which could further polarize the nuclear-armed country.
Ludhianvi was a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a sectarian Sunni group which emerged in Jhang in the mid-1980s with the support of Pakistani intelligence and which has since been linked to hundreds of killings of Shi'ites.
The group's offshoot, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), evolved into one of Pakistan's most feared militant groups and has claimed responsibility for many attacks on Shi'ites, including a series of bombings that killed almost 200 people in the southwestern city of Quetta this year.
Police in Karachi, the commercial capital, suspect LeJ or similar groups are behind a wave of gun attacks on Shi'ites.
Pakistan banned Sipah-e-Sahaba in 2001 under pressure from the United States to crack down on militancy but the group changed its name to Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ), which Ludhianvi heads.
Pakistan's sectarian fringe has long been plagued by divisions which make it hard to determine what role individual leaders play. But security officials see Ludhianvi as a member of a core group of ideologues whose anti-Shi'ite views have served as a source of inspiration for militants, though he denies any role in violence.
SUNNI-SHI'ITE DIVIDE
The military has in the past quietly supported Islamist politicians and parties in the interest of its own political agenda but it is not clear what stand the military-run security agencies that watch domestic politics are taking this time.
The army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, has avoided the overt meddling in politics of many of his predecessors and repeatedly insisted the election must be free and fair.
The schism between Sunnis and Shi'ites developed after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 when his followers could not agree on a successor.
Emotions over the issue have boiled in modern times and even pushed some countries to the brink of civil war. Pakistan is nowhere close to that, but security officials say groups like the LeJ and Sipah-e-Sahaba are stepping up their bloody campaign to persecute Shi'ites and are destabilizing the country.
These days, Ludhianvi is careful to portray himself as a man of peace and is waging a populist campaign to capitalize on resentment of Shi'ite landowners. Coming himself from a modest background, he has vowed to build schools, hospitals and roads.
"This is a tribal area which was ruled by a few rich people who used to treat the poor people like slaves," said Ludhianvi.
"There is no education system or schools for girls and boys. Nobody even tries to build schools or colleges."
But other senior members of his ASWJ party are more vocal about their desire to restrict the rights of Shi'ites.
Aurangzeb Farooqi, head of the party in Karachi, told Reuters in January that Shi'ites should be barred from holding important public office and their public religious activities should be restricted. Farooqi is also running for a seat in the national assembly.
In Jhang, Ludhianvi's blend of populism and sectarianism has earned him considerable grassroots appeal. He won 45,000 votes at the 2008 election, placing him second to Sheikh Waqas who won with 52,000 votes.
But Waqas has been barred from this election on the grounds that he had presented a fake education certificate, raising Ludhianvi's chances of victory.
Politicians are taking note. Rather than making alliances with big businessmen or going door-to-door for votes, aspiring office holders like Azad Ansari, who is in the wool industry, are rallying behind Ludhianvi.
Ansari once served in the secular PML-N but now hopes Ludhianvi can help him make a mark in politics.
"I will get more popular if I join him," Ansari said.
Such sentiment has fostered a perception that leaders of the PML-N party, which controls Punjab, have deliberately been soft on sectarian groups for fear of alienating potential voters.
These suspicions were compounded when Rana Sanaullah, Punjab's law minister and a PML-N stalwart, campaigned alongside Ludhianvi at a by-election rally in Jhang in 2010.
The spectacle of Ludhianvi reinventing himself sends chills through the Shi'ite community, which may make up to 20 percent of the population, though some estimates put the number lower.
"What can Ludhianvi do? He will do nothing but spread terrorism," said Raza Hussain, a resident of a Shi'ite neighborhood of Jhang.
Some fear that a victory for Ludhianvi and other hardliners at the polls will provide a veneer of political cover for violent sectarian extremists.
"This could be very dangerous," said Amir Rana, an expert on Pakistani militancy. "This would give all of their activities political legitimacy."
But some security officials argue that bringing leaders like Ludhianvi into conventional politics may be a way to weaken the sectarian threat by isolating the most violent elements.
Conscious of the need to project a respectable image, Ludhianvi is careful to avoid the kind of inflammatory rhetoric favored by many in his party.
But the presence of young men wearing headbands with the symbols of banned anti-Shi'ite groups, who hung on Ludhianvi's every word during his whistle-stop tour, keeps Shi'ites on edge.
"He has done nothing for Jhang except terrorism," said Sheikh Hussain, a businessman. "They should be stopped."
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-pakistan-cleric-tries-hand-politics-013733217.html
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Sunday, April 21, 2013
Russia says U.S. talks produced no progress on missiles
By Denis Dyomkin
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia and the United States remain at odds over U.S. plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe following talks in Moscow this week with President Barack Obama's national security adviser, a senior aide to President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
White House national security adviser Tom Donilon met Putin and senior Russian officials in the highest-level face-to-face talks since Obama began a new term in January at a time of tense relations with Moscow.
"There is no progress on missile defense," Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to news agency RIA.
Moscow says a missile defense system the United States is deploying in Europe together with NATO, mainly to combat a potential threats from Iran, may undermine Russia's security and upset the post-Cold War balance of power.
The Pentagon said last month it would station additional missile interceptors in Alaska in response to North Korean threats and at the same time forgo a new type of interceptor that would have been deployed in Europe as part of the shield.
NATO and U.S. officials have expressed hope that the change could help end the standoff by removing what Russia has called a chief concern: that the system's interceptors could eventually shoot down its long-range nuclear missiles.
But Ushakov said that U.S. proposals he said were laid out in a message delivered by Donilon contained little that was new and "did not make us very happy", though he added that Russia would examine them further, RIA reported.
He did not describe the proposals. In the past, the United States has offered ways to cooperate on missile defense, including joint assessments of threats, but has rejected Russia's call for a closely integrated joint system.
U.S. missile defense plans have been an irritant in ties for years.
The countries are also at odds over the war in Syria, and relations have been increasingly strained over human rights issues and what Putin's critics say is a crackdown on dissent since he returned to the presidency last May.
However, in a sign of an effort to improve ties, the White House said after Donilon's talks that Putin and Obama would hold a bilateral summit in September, when Russia hosts the G20 summit, in addition to meeting during a G8 summit in June.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Alison Williams)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-says-u-talks-produced-no-progress-missile-175155472.html
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Friday, April 19, 2013
Shocking New Video Exposes Cruel Cat Lab at Washington University
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Source: www.peta.org --- Thursday, April 18, 2013
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Thursday, April 18, 2013
Texas fertilizer plant blast injures dozens
Texas fertilizer plant blast injures dozens
By JOHN L. MONE and BETSY BLANEYBy JOHN L. MONE and BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press?
?Emergency workers assist an elderly person at a staging area at a local school stadium Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in West, Texas. An explosion Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant near Waco sent flames shooting high into the night sky, leaving the factory a smoldering ruin, causing major damage at nearby buildings and injuring numerous people. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Rod Aydelotte)
Emergency workers assist an elderly person at a staging area at a local school stadium Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in West, Texas. An explosion Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant near Waco sent flames shooting high into the night sky, leaving the factory a smoldering ruin, causing major damage at nearby buildings and injuring numerous people. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Rod Aydelotte)
Map locates fertilizer plant explosion near West, Texas
Emergency workers evacuate elderly from a damaged nursing home following an explosion at a fertilizer plant Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in West, Texas. An explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco caused numerous injuries and sent flames shooting high into the night sky on Wednesday. (AP Photo/ Waco Tribune Herald, Rod Aydelotte)
An elderly person is assisted at a staging area at a local school stadium following an explosion at a fertilizer plant Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in West, Texas. An explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco caused numerous injuries and sent flames shooting high into the night sky on Wednesday. (AP Photo/ Waco Tribune Herald, Rod Aydelotte)
Elderly persons from a nearby nursing home are triaged in a parking lot before being moved to a school stadium following a fertilizer plant explosion Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in West, Texas. The explosion near Waco Wednesday night injured dozens of people and sent flames shooting high into the night sky, leaving the factory a smoldering ruin and causing major damage to surrounding buildings. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Rod Aydelotte)
WEST, Texas (AP) ? The mayor of a Texas town where an explosion leveled a fertilizer plant says he doesn't yet know how many people were hurt or killed in the blast.
West Mayor Tommy Muska said at a news conference that there was a fire at the West Fertilizer plant before Wednesday night's explosion.
The blast could be heard at least 45 miles away and it caused major damage to surrounding buildings.
An official from a hospital in nearby Waco says at least 66 people were taken for treatment there, including 38 who were hurt seriously.
Associated PressNews Topics: General news, Fertilizer manufacturing, Explosions, Industrial accidents, Accidents and disasters, Agrochemicals manufacturing, Chemicals manufacturing, Materials industry, Industries, Business, AccidentsPeople, Places and Companies: Texas
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