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Source: http://kaatun881.blogspot.com/2012/12/i-think-i-need-anger-management-advice.html
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APIt?s obvious the Giants defense isn?t what it once was.
But if you ask their defensive coordinator why, he makes it clear it?s not the coaching.
?We?ve prepared better than what we?ve played,? Perry Fewell said, via Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News. ?I think if you look at the tape we?re in position to make plays. We haven?t made plays.?
While coaches default into self-preservation mode this time of year, it?s hard to pin the blame for the Giants? precipitous slide on one man.
They were seventh in the league in total defense in 2010, and won a Super Bowl a year ago. This year, they?re 30th in total defense.
But mostly, they?ve been awful when it counted most, allowing 67 points in their last two must-win games, which leaves them only a slim conditional chance at the playoffs heading into the final weekend.
?We?ve been in position,? Fewell said. ?We haven?t made a football play for the last couple of weeks. We?ve been in position to make football plays, but it hasn?t gone our way.?
If there?s a sign that players know Fewell?s right, it?s that there?s no open or indirect grumbling about him yet.
?We won a Super Bowl in this system ? I think that?s the main thing,? linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka said. ?We had the same system that we did last year.?
?There?s a lot of support for Perry,? defensive end Osi Umenyiora added. ?I?ll just say that.?
Of course, the Giants were trending this direction defensively last year, finishing 27th in the league. But their play late in the year was much of the reason they won a title, so that fades from memory. That?s added some insulation for Fewell, and any offseason changes should rightly begin with personnel.
He?s had chances to interview for head coaching jobs in the past (and the Panthers may have made a significant mistake picking Ron Rivera over him), and will likely continue to. But until he gets one of those jobs, he?s left trying to scheme for an aging cast which needs a re-tooling.
Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/27/mcelroy-concealed-concussions-symptoms/related/
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Those who are early in their IM careers can sometimes be hard to deal with if they are not willing to learn things on their own. An ebook or course pertaining to reversephonelookuphq.org will necessarily have to skip a lot that is needed but not necessarily the subject of that book. Even something as simple as setting up an autoresponder and doing email marketing requires some detailed knowledge to do it with good effect. As we proceed with our talk about these strategies, bear in mind they are just the tip of the iceberg. That is why so many people buy multiple books or courses about online business related topics, they are looking to round-out their knowledge. Also, do not forget to roll-out in smaller test runs because sometimes that will reveal a problem you can correct. Since there are many thousands of ezines online on all sorts of topics, they are an effective resource where you can advertise your own targeted offers. The following article talks about how you can take advantage of ezine advertising to drive traffic to your website. Start By Doing Research: Don?t just blindly start investing in ezine advertising; first, check out the ezine and publisher so you have an idea of whether it will be right for you. By doing some basic research, it?ll be easier for you to determine if the ezine you?re looking at is really an appropriate place to place your ad. One of the simplest ways to get an overall impression of the publication, and how informative and well written it is, is to subscribe to it yourself. You should also search for testimonials given by anyone who has placed ads with them before; you can also look for (or start) threads on a forum that might talk about them. It?s also helpful if you can find out, preferably from someone other than the ezine publisher, how many people subscribe to it and how long it?s been in existence. By being better informed, you?ll have a much better chance of advertising with a high quality publication rather than one that will only make a dent in your wallet. There are interesting attributes we all have because we are human, and this relates very strongly to suspending initial impressions if they seem negative until you have a complete picture. You probably know that a great many will overlook or ignore this encouragement, but all that matters is what you will do or are willing to do. Here is the bottom line, if win spy can be used in your business, then why would you ever not be willing to include it in your campaigns? On the other hand, there are a lot of people who are led too easily and tend to believe without due diligence. It is people who are probably a little too gullible and believe everything they read who always get in trouble. Actually, one very smart move for newbies is to buy slow and do a lot of reading and asking questions, if possible, about whatever it is. That experience is very common with web marketers who are relatively new and with little experience. You know about trolls, and there are those who bad-mouth just about anything regardless of how good it is; so keep that point in mind. There are other situations in which due diligence is a great idea, and it is not always with buying something for your business. You can never tell by how many people are queued up in front of you to run their ads, although it would seem that ezine is popular and effective. But you do realize that you cannot really tell much about anything else about this situation. Sometimes you just have to give things a try and see how it goes, and that is not so unusual. Overall, ezine advertising is a great place to start your online advertising adventure if you?re new to the Internet marketing game. You may have to be patient until you find the best fit for your business, but that is just how it is for so many things on the net. You can help yourself even more with ezine advertising by learning the principles of short ad copywriting. Obviously not everything you do will be a home run, and that is just normal for advertising. So do your homework upfront, and then if you feel it is worth pursuing just get started. In time you will find a small collection of ezines that you will want to continue doing business with, hopefully.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the final Cabinet meeting of the year in the government headquarters in Moscow, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Government Press Service)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the final Cabinet meeting of the year in the government headquarters in Moscow, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Government Press Service)
MOSCOW (AP) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children, while the Kremlin's children's rights advocate recommended extending the ban to the rest of the world.
The bill is part of the country's increasingly confrontational stance with the West and has angered some Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point.
The law would block dozens of Russian children now in the process of being adopted by American families from leaving the country and cut off a major route out of often-dismal orphanages. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children ? more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.
"I still don't see any reasons why I should not sign it," Putin said at a televised meeting. He went on to say that he "intends" to do so.
UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, while only 18,000 Russians are now waiting to adopt a child. Russian officials say they want to encourage more Russians to adopt Russian orphans.
Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov on Thursday petitioned the president to extend the ban to other countries.
"There is huge money and questionable people involved in the semi-legal schemes of exporting children," he tweeted.
Kremlin critics say Astakhov is trying to extend the ban only to get more publicity and win more favors with Putin. A graduate of the KGB law school and a celebrity lawyer, Astakhov was a pro-Putin activist before becoming children's rights ombudsman and is now seen as the Kremlin's voice on adoption issues.
"This is cynicism beyond limits," opposition leader Ilya Yashin tweeted. "The children rights ombudsman is depriving children of a future."
The bill is retaliation for an American law that calls for sanctions against Russian officials deemed to be human rights violators.
The U.S. law, called the Magnitsky Act, stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in jail after being arrested by police officers whom he accused of a $230 million tax fraud. The law prohibits officials allegedly involved in his death from entering the U.S.
Kremlin critics say that means Russian officials who own property in the West and send their children to Western schools would lose access to their assets and families.
Putin said U.S. authorities routinely let Americans suspected of violence toward Russian adoptees go unpunished ? a clear reference to Dima Yakovlev, a Russian toddler for whom the adoption bill is named. The child was adopted by Americans and then died in 2008 after his father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours. The father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
The U.S. State Department says it regrets the Russian Parliament's decision to pass the bill, saying it would prevent many children from growing up in families.
Astakhov said Wednesday that 46 children who were about to be adopted in the U.S. would remain in Russia if the bill comes into effect.
The passage of the bill follows weeks of a hysterical media campaign on Kremlin-controlled television that lambasts American adoptive parents and adoption agencies that allegedly bribe their way into getting Russian children.
A few lawmakers claimed that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants and become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army. A spokesman with Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that the children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not "enter God's kingdom."
Critics of the bill have left dozens of stuffed toys and candles outside the parliament's lower and upper houses to express solidarity with Russian orphans.
___
Mansur Mirovalev contributed to this report
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Dec. 27, 2012 ? A collaboration between researchers at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and the Department of Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin has identified a mechanism by which the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) colonizes our nasal passages. The study, published December 28 in the open access journal PLOS Pathogens, shows for the first time that a protein located on the bacterial surface called clumping factor B (ClfB) has high affinity for the skin protein loricrin.
S. aureus is a major human pathogen, with the potential to cause severe invasive diseases. It is a major cause for concern in hospitals and healthcare facilities, where many infections are caused by strains resistant to commonly used antibiotics [MRSA]. Interestingly, S. aureus persistently colonizes about 20% of the human population by binding to skin-like cells within the nasal cavity. Being colonized predisposes an individual towards becoming infected so it is vital that we understand the mechanisms involved.
ClfB was previously shown to promote S. aureus colonization in a human nasal colonization volunteer study. This paper now identifies the mechanism by which ClfB facilitates S. aureus nasal colonization. Purified ClfB bound loricrin with high affinity and this interaction was shown to be crucial for successful colonization of the nose in a mouse model. A knockout mouse lacking loricrin in its skin cells allowed fewer bacterial cells to colonize its nasal passages than a normal mouse. When S. aureus strains that lacked ClfB were used nasal colonization could not be achieved at all. Finally it was shown that soluble loricrin could reduce binding of S. aureus to human nasal skin cells and that nasal administration of loricrin reduced S. aureus colonization of mice.
Rachel McLoughlin, the study's corresponding author and Lecturer at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin concludes, "Loricrin is a major determinant of S. aureus nasal colonization." This discovery therefore opens new avenues for developing therapeutic strategies to reduce the burden of nasal carriage and consequently infections with this bacterium. This is particularly important given the difficulties associated with treating MRSA infections.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/QOrR-A2v5mo/121227173334.htm
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Park Geun-hye promises to reach out to North Korea with more humanitarian aid and deeper engagement after she moves into South Korea's presidential Blue House on Feb. 25. Pyongyang, however, may be in no mood to talk anytime soon.
Park's declarations ahead of Wednesday's election that she will soften five years of hard-line policy rang true with voters, even as they rejected her opponent's calls for a more aggressive pursuit of reconciliation with the North.
A skeptical North Korea may quickly test the sincerity of Park's offer to engage ? possibly even before she takes office. She is both a leading member of the conservative ruling party and the daughter of the late anti-communist dictator Park Chung-hee, and Pyongyang has repeatedly called her dialogue offers "tricks."
Outgoing President Lee Myung-bak's tough approach on North Korea ? including his demand that engagement be accompanied by nuclear disarmament progress ? has been deemed a failure by many South Koreans. During his five years in office, North Korea has conducted nuclear and rocket tests ? including a rocket launch last week ? and it was blamed for two incidents that left 50 South Koreans dead in 2010.
But reaching out to North Korea's authoritarian government also has failed to pay off. Before Lee, landmark summits under a decade of liberal governments resulted in lofty statements and photo ops in Pyongyang between then-leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean presidents, but the North continued to develop its nuclear weapons, which it sees as necessary defense and leverage against Washington and Seoul.
Analysts said Park's vague promises of aid and engagement are not likely to be enough to push Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions, which Washington and Seoul have demanded for true reconciliation to begin. To reverse the antipathy North Korea has so far shown her, Park may need to go further than either her deeply conservative supporters and political allies or a cautious Obama administration will want.
"North Korea is good at applying pressure during South Korean transitions" after presidential elections, said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University in South Korea. "North Korea will do something to try to test, and tame, Park."
Even the last liberal president, Roh Moo-hyun, a champion of no-strings-attached aid to Pyongyang, faced a North Korean short-range missile launch on the eve of his 2003 inauguration.
North Korea put its first satellite into space with last week's rocket launch, which the U.N. and others called a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology.
Despite the launch, Park says humanitarian aid, including food, medicine and daily goods meant for infants, the sick and other vulnerable people, will flow. She says none of the aid will be anything that North Korea's military could use. She's open to conditional talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The aid won't be as much as North Korea will want, to be sure, and it won't be as much as her liberal challenger in Wednesday's election, Moon Jae-in, would have sent. Park's conditions on aid and talks also could doom talks before they begin.
Pursuing engagement with North Korea "really would have to be her top priority for her to be a game-changing kind of leader on the issue," said John Delury, an analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University. He added that Park is more likely to take a passive, moderate approach.
"In the inter-Korean context, there's not a big difference between a passive approach and a hostile approach," Delury said, "because if you don't take the initiative with North Korea, they'll take the initiative" in the form of provocations meant to raise their profile.
North Korea was not a particularly pressing issue for South Korean voters, who were more worried about their economic futures and a host of social issues. But it is of deep interest to Washington, Beijing and Tokyo, which had been holding off on pursuing their North Korea policies until South Korean voters chose their new leader.
The next Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is a hawk on North Korea matters who has supported tighter sanctions because of the rocket launch.
The U.S. had attempted to warm relations with North Korea with an aid-for-nuclear-freeze deal reached with Pyongyang in February, but that collapsed in April when the North conducted a failed rocket launch.
Washington could use a new thaw on the Korean Peninsula as a cover to pursue more nuclear disarmament talks, analysts say, but the Obama administration will also likely want a carefully coordinated approach with Seoul toward Pyongyang.
Park's North Korea policy aims to hold talks meant to build trust and resolve key issues, like the nuclear problem and other security challenges. Humanitarian assistance to the North won't be tied to ongoing political circumstances, though her camp hasn't settled details, including the amount.
Park also plans to restart joint economic initiatives that were put on hold during the Lee administration as progress occurs on the nuclear issue and after reviewing the projects with lawmakers.
Park's statement that she's willing to talk with Kim Jong Un "practically means she's willing to give more money to North Korea," which is Pyongyang's typical demand for dialogue, said Andrei Lankov, a scholar on the North at Seoul's Kookmin University.
But the heart of the matter ? North Korea's nuclear program ? might be off limits, no matter how deeply the next Blue House decides to engage.
"North Korea isn't going to surrender its nukes. They're going to keep them indefinitely," Lankov said. "No amount of bribing or blackmail or begging is going to change it. They are a de facto nuclear power, period, and they are going to stay that way."
___
AP writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skoreas-president-elect-faces-nkorea-uncertainty-101950602.html
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Th
ere can be little doubt that this has been the year that mobile internet usage has stopped being something that only the teenagers do and become mainstream. Numerous statistics on mobile internet usage from early 2012? suggest that around 30% of all internet usage is from a mobile phone*. It is widely expected that most people will use the internet via a mobile device in 2013.
New smartphones have clearly been designed with this in mind. Several android devices, like the Galaxy, have screens almost as large as the new iPad Mini. I have recently got an iPhone 5 and initially wondered why the handset has a longer, thinner design. Apart from allowing an extra row of apps on the screen, the extra screen length actually makes browsing much easier in landscape mode. Yes you have to scroll, but the larger screen length allows even my older eyes to read text more easily. The higher resolution screen ? 1136 x 640 pixels (up from 960 by 640 pixels for the iPhone 4), adds to the user experience and clarity of web browsing. I now often browse sites on my iPhone first, especially if I?m clicking on website links within emails, which I invariably access first from a mobile device, if I?m not in front of my laptop when they come in.
So what does it all? mean? Quite simply design for mobile and tablet devices is something we now consider as important as designing for browsers on traditional laptop/desktop computers. We liase with clients to define a mobile strategy, whether the client requires a specific mobile website (that is different to the main website), a ?responsive? design ( same website content, but often styled differently, or with some sections not shown) or whether they require a mobile app in addition or instead.
2013 will see further huge changes in how people access web content and how businesses approach their online strategy. It is an exciting time to be involved in the digital domain.
* 2012 Mobile Internet Usage article ? http://www.gpmd.co.uk/blog/2012-mobile-internet-statistics/#PageComments_holder
Source: http://verulamwebdesign.co.uk/2012-the-year-of-the-mobile
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NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Six more victims of the Newtown school shooting will be honored at funerals and remembrances on Wednesday, including the school principal who was killed with 20 of her students and five other staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The massacre of so many children, most of them just 6 or 7 years old, has shocked the United States and the world, renewing debate over gun control in a nation where the right to bear arms is protected by the Constitution and fiercely defended by many.
Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old shooter, carried hundreds of rounds of ammunition in extra clips and shot his victims repeatedly, one of them 11 times. He also shot and killed his mother before driving to the school, and then killed himself.
The family of Principal Dawn Hochsprung invited mourners to visit at a local funeral home on Wednesday afternoon, though the burial was due to be private at an undisclosed time.
Another of the teachers, Victoria Soto, was among those to be buried at a funeral on Wednesday.
Funerals were also scheduled for 6-year-old Charlotte Bacon, 7-year-old Daniel Barden and 6-year-old Caroline Previdi, while the family of 7-year-old Chase Kowalski invited mourners to a public visitation and prayer vigil.
The surviving children from Sandy Hook Elementary faced another day at home as school authorities and parents made plans for an eventual return to a different location - the unused Chalk Hill School in nearby Monroe, where a sign across the street read, "Welcome Sandy Hook Elementary!"
At Sandy Hook itself, well wishers and mourners had left tributes such as candles, flowers and stuffed animals. A heavy rain that fell most of Tuesday had soaked many of them and extinguished some of the candles, leaving a smell of burned wax in the air as police continued their investigations inside.
They have said the investigation could take months and have revealed nothing yet about Lanza's motive.
Well wishers came to the town from as far afield as Iowa. Beth Howard said she had driven 17 hours from Eldon, Iowa, in an effort to do whatever she could to help. She joined a group of people from New Jersey who decided to bake pies for residents of the town to show their solidarity and support.
"It has already made the trip worthwhile," said Howard, describing the smiles she got from local residents.
The first of many funerals was held on Monday and two children were laid to rest on Tuesday. Most of the town's schools reopened on Tuesday, but there was no immediate word on when the Sandy Hook students would be back in the classroom.
The impact of the shooting was felt in the business world on Tuesday when private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP said it would sell its investment in the company that makes the AR-15-type Bushmaster rifle that was used by Lanza.
The powerful gun industry lobby, the National Rifle Association, broke its silence on Tuesday for the first time since the shootings, saying it was "shocked, saddened and heartbroken" and was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions" to prevent such massacres.
The NRA uses political pressure against individual lawmakers and others to press for loosening constraints on gun sales and ownership across the United States while promoting hunting and gun sports.
The group, which said it had not commented until now out of respect for the families and to allow time for mourning and an investigation, planned a news conference on Friday.
The massacre prompted some Republican lawmakers to open the door to a national debate about gun control, a small sign of easing in Washington's entrenched reluctance to seriously consider new federal restrictions.
(Additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis, Edith Honan, Dan Burns, Patricia Zengerle, David Ingram, Chris Francescani; Writing by Claudia Parsons; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/schools-reopen-newtown-washington-talks-gun-control-002828916.html
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Need a last-minute gift for a home cook in your life? A new cookbook is never unwelcome. Whether it ends up in a kitchen shelf, on a den coffee table or in the bedside nightstand stack, an intriguing cookbook always finds a place in the home of someone who thinks about good food.
Here are three of the year?s best new cookbooks, tailored to different kinds of cooks:
For the classicist: ?The Essential James Beard: 450 Recipes that Shaped the Tradition of American Cooking? by James Beard, edited by Rick Rodgers with John Ferrone (St. Martin?s Press, $35).
Compiled from 12 of the big guy?s classic volumes, this book pretty well taps into the collective unconscious of midcentury America in the way ?Mad Men? never will. Flip through the pages, and you see those recipes your mother cursed her way through for one of those dinner parties when you had to eat early and go upstairs to watch TV while daddy?s boss came over to the house. We?re talking chicken with 40 cloves of garlic as well as sole poached in vermouth with cream and butter. We?re talking souffl?: cheese or crab souffl? to start the meal, frozen lemon souffl? to end it. We?re talking fancy in that vaguely but not quite totally European way that dinner party food never is anymore.
But James Beard was also a champion of real, everyday American food as well. He has recipes for potatoes Anna as well as fully loaded baked potatoes, done just right. And twice-baked potato skins, which were apparently a Beard favorite long before fern bars got a hold of them. This book makes you hungry for a kind of food you rarely see exalted anymore.
For the Southerner: ?Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking? by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart (Gibbs Smith, $45).
Here?s the season?s one must-have for anyone with a Southern cooking library. These two longtime friends and collaborators show more than a little nerve evoking the name of Julia Child?s masterwork, ?Mastering the Art of French Cooking.? But they deliver the goods with this comprehensive and deeply researched 7-700720-page volume. The text does a terrific job of explaining the historical underpinnings of Southern cooking methods and the development of the Southern palate. (It offers a great rejoinder to those annoying Yankees who mock the Southern sweet tooth but ignore the uniquely Southern use of vinegar and tingly spice, or fail to notice the brilliant textures of Southern fare.)
Like Child, the authors make the decision to divide the sections by food group rather than region, so the chapter on vegetables and sides is followed by one on eggs, and then we?re on to fish and shellfish. This organization has some obvious advantages for the cook planning dinner, but that means you don?t get an upfront discussion of regional differences between, say, the Appalachians and the Louisiana coast. It?s there, along with sidebars on the different kinds of seasoning pork, from fatback to streak o? lean. You just have to look for the information as you page through. There?s much pleasure in the reading here.
For the Health-minded Cook: ?The New Way to Cook Light: Fresh Food & Bold Flavors for Today?s Home Cook? by Scott Mowbray and Ann Pittman (Oxmoor House: $34.95).
Of all the books that have stacked up on my desk, this is the one that has gotten the most attention from coworkers who?ve asked to take it for a spin. Written by the editors of ?Cooking Light? magazine, this colorful, easy-reading book bursts with ideas. From quick weeknight meals like spiced, honey-brushed chicken thighs to dinner-party ideas like chilled fresh corn soup with king crab and chives, it dishes up a lot of vivid food for your consideration. Small sidebars on technique (such as instructions for cubing a butternut squash) accompany recipes when warranted. Kudos go the editors for paying attention to the international pantry widely available in any good supermarket these days. Soba noodle salad, spicy Thai chicken and coconut soup, and bok choy with soy-ginger drizzle are all good recipes that any home cook can shop for and prepare with ease. Folks who need a concise, well-written recipe and like to see a calorie and nutrition count will love this book.
- by John Kessler for the Food & More Blog
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Dec. 19, 2012 ? Our eyes may be our window to the world, but how do we make sense of the thousands of images that flood our retinas each day? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that the brain is wired to put in order all the categories of objects and actions that we see. They have created the first interactive map of how the brain organizes these groupings.
The result -- achieved through computational models of brain imaging data collected while the subjects watched hours of movie clips -- is what researchers call "a continuous semantic space."
Some relationships between categories make sense (humans and animals share the same "semantic neighborhood") while others (hallways and buckets) are less obvious. The researchers found that different people share a similar semantic layout.
"Our methods open a door that will quickly lead to a more complete and detailed understanding of how the brain is organized. Already, our online brain viewer appears to provide the most detailed look ever at the visual function and organization of a single human brain," said Alexander Huth, a doctoral student in neuroscience at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study published Dec. 19 in the journal Neuron.
A clearer understanding of how the brain organizes visual input can help with the medical diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders. These findings may also be used to create brain-machine interfaces, particularly for facial and other image recognition systems. Among other things, they could improve a grocery store self-checkout system's ability to recognize different kinds of merchandise.
"Our discovery suggests that brain scans could soon be used to label an image that someone is seeing, and may also help teach computers how to better recognize images," said Huth.
It has long been thought that each category of object or action humans see -- people, animals, vehicles, household appliances and movements -- is represented in a separate region of the visual cortex. In this latest study, UC Berkeley researchers found that these categories are actually represented in highly organized, overlapping maps that cover as much as 20 percent of the brain, including the somatosensory and frontal cortices.
To conduct the experiment, the brain activity of five researchers was recorded via functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) as they each watched two hours of movie clips. The brain scans simultaneously measured blood flow in thousands of locations across the brain.
Researchers then used regularized linear regression analysis, which finds correlations in data, to build a model showing how each of the roughly 30,000 locations in the cortex responded to each of the 1,700 categories of objects and actions seen in the movie clips. Next, they used principal components analysis, a statistical method that can summarize large data sets, to find the "semantic space" that was common to all the study subjects.
The results are presented in multicolored, multidimensional maps showing the more than 1,700 visual categories and their relationships to one another. Categories that activate the same brain areas have similar colors. For example, humans are green, animals are yellow, vehicles are pink and violet and buildings are blue.
"Using the semantic space as a visualization tool, we immediately saw that categories are represented in these incredibly intricate maps that cover much more of the brain than we expected," Huth said.
Other co-authors of the study are UC Berkeley neuroscientists Shinji Nishimoto, An T. Vu and Jack Gallant.
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/IxW3LE7iLv4/121219142257.htm
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Your problem? Your problem is you.?
You make a choice about who you choose to love, how you love yourself, and what you're willing to accept from yourself and others.?
If a relationship is hurting your health, there is no one to blame but .... YOU.
This is a hard truth to swallow, isn't it? ?
We look at our spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends and think,?If he or she would just change, everything would be so much easier. ?
Well, if you're dating or married to someone who is unwilling to change, why did you choose this person in the first place??
I can comfortably bet it all that this person exhibited these qualities before you said "I do."?
You excused them away, ignored them, or imagined they would change. ?
So, again....look inward.?
If you want to change your love life, change how you are showing up for yourself.?
Make healthy choices.?I am challenging all of you today.?
For every single finger that you point and blame another, take that finger and point it at yourself. ?
All of the cliches about self-love and "not being able to truly love others until you love yourself" are true. You must love yourself first. You must raise your standards for your own life, first.?
If you want a healthy partner, you must be healthy FIRST. ?
We've been dating since April of 2012. For both of us, it's the healthiest relationship we've ever been in. ?
Yes, we have our struggles but we are honest to the core, willing to forgive, and grow as individuals. It also helps that we are crazy about one another.?We love without abandon, put one another first along with God, and work very hard to be the healthiest couple we can be. ?
It's been a really challenging journey because personal growth is painful and change is so incredibly uncomfortable. It's so worth it, though, and we both are growing healthier in our wellness journey as a result. ?So how do you know when you are in a healthy relationship??
Some people don't realize when their love life is unhealthy and some have come to acceptance in settling for so little. ?
This is how I believe you know your relationship is healthy:?
1. You communicate openly and fluidly.?
Communication (however challenging) is KEY to thriving in a relationship. When you are unhappy, talk about it. When you are elated, share those feelings, too. ?
When you are confused or troubled, talk about it. Keep the communication flowing always leaving no room for bitterness, resentment, unanswered questions, misunderstandings, etc. Lee and I communicate all of the time and when we have challenges, we "stay in the room" as I like to say. ?
We work it out, however hard it feels at the time and sometimes, it's hard. It's when you listen with an open heart and realize that this other person in the room is actually on your side, that your love is flourishing. Your health will begin to soar, too. Trust me on that one.2. You respect each other.??
Once you begin to chip away at respect in a relationship, by name calling, undermining the other's passions, flirting with someone outside of the relationship, insulting their job choices, lifestyles, etc. you are no longer in a healthy relationship. ?3. You respect one another's boundaries and opinions even when you do not agree. ?
If you see yourselves moving in an unhealthy direction, I recommend you change the direction of your mouths and feet right now. Respect is the glue. Respect helps your relationship to grow in ways you may have ever expected. Your health will improve. You will be motivated to delve into wellness further. Respect must be consistently present.
4. There are no lies.?
Being honest about everything, every single step of the way is a requirement of a healthy relationship . This means no lying, no white lying, and no dramatizing of the truth. ?
Lee and I have never lied to one another. When we started dating, we decided to be upfront about our pasts. Brave souls we were! (haha) I think we both agreed that we'd never do that again. (Haha).?
We did, though, and it was incredibly freeing. We have since told each other hard truths about our pasts and quite frankly, our present. Honesty is so healing and practicing acceptance is so very kind. I believe we have healed one another's hearts. ?
You can be in this type of relationship, too. It will require you to be honest with yourself about where you are right now and what you deserve. You deserve the kind of love that only comes around once. You deserve the kind of love that you imagine in your mind...the kind that you don't think is possible. It is possible. You deserve to be adored all of the time. Please be honest with yourself and realize that you are so worthy of true romance all of the time.
5. You have faith. ?
I believe it is not just Lee and I in our relationship, but, our Lord as well. There are three of us present and we treat it as such. We grow in faith in one another and in God. It is healthy to have faith in a Higher Power.?
Whatever it is that YOU believe, find someone who shares that belief system. You need a strong foundation of faith for your relationship to truly be healthy and thrive. Why? Because when true hardships arise, you are going to need solid ground to stand on together. You will crumble if you do not have faith in something as a couple.
6. You are faithful.?
When you are not seeking attention either emotionally or physically from the opposite sex, outside of your significant other, you are in a healthy relationship. ?Lee & I have entered into what we call a Christian Agreement. ?You don't have to be a Christian to come up with your own agreement. ?We do not seek out relationships with the opposite sex outside of one another. ?Sure, we socialize with the opposite sex in a group setting but that is it. ?Some of you may feel this is harsh but we think it is healthy and I promise you it is. Figure out what is healthy for the both of you - on both of your own terms - set boundaries - compromise - and follow through. ?When you are doing this? ?You are in a healthy relationship.
My hope is that those of you who are settling, stop.?
Your health depends on it.?
Was it Lee who improved my health? No, not certainly alone. It's being in a healthy partnership in which I am encouraged to grow, while being left to be myself. ?It is true healthy love that is helping to heal me.
I had no idea this kind of healthy love was possible until now. What I realize, though, is that it's the result of my loving myself more deeply the last couple of years. It's the result of my honoring who I am. It's the result of me finally accepting my body (even though I want to improve it).?It's the result of knowing (not just thinking!) that I deserve honest, healthy love.?
I feel I've won the lottery in love and I want you to feel that way, too. I want you to love yourself enough to accept nothing less than everything I listed above. ?
Why? ?
Because you're amazing and you deserve it.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
Published December 18, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Source: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7167/is-your-relationship-hurting-your-health.html
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Dec. 18, 2012 ? By synthesizing a stable "antiaromatic" compound, as well as a never before seen intermediate version of that compound, chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have written an important new chapter in the story of modern chemistry.
The research was done in collaboration with an international roster of colleagues from Yonsei University in Korea, the University of Hyderbad in India, and Osaka University in Japan. The results were published this week in Nature Chemistry.
This particular story began in 1825, when English scientist Michael Faraday first isolated benzene from gas lights. Benzene would later be identified as one of a class of compounds known as aromatics, which have immense importance in both biological function and industrial production.
In humans, for instance, all five nucleotides that constitute DNA and RNA are aromatic. In industry, aromatics derived from oil and coal tar are precursors to, among other things, plastics, solvents, lubricants, rubber, dyes, herbicides, and textiles.
"Benzene is probably the most famous aromatic compound," said Jonathan Sessler, the Rowland Pettit Centennial Chair in Chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences. "But there are many other critically important aromatic species. The heme in hemoglobin, which is what gives blood its red color, is one of a group of aromatics known as porphyrins. Without them we'd have either a very different or no existence."
Aromatic compounds have a ring-like structure that enables electrons to be shared amongst the different bonds between the atoms. This results, among other things, in an extraordinary degree of stability. They tend to persist in their structure under conditions that would cause other molecules to react.
"That's one of the reasons why they're so useful in industry," said Sessler. "It's also why they tend to be pro-carcinogenic. They're very hard for us to metabolize or catabolize, and the results of that are usually not benign. One of the first class of tumors ever observed was testicular cancer. It was highly prevalent among 18th century chimney sweeps, who were exposed to aromatic compounds found in coal tar."
Sessler made his name as a chemist synthesizing new classes of porphyrins, including Texaphyrin, a very large porphyrin, which is being developed as a key element in a potential new approach to treating cancer.
What he and his colleagues have now done is taken an already existing molecule, which was first synthesized by Sessler in 1992, and found a way to stabilize it in its so-called antiaromatic form. Antiaromatic systems are the evil twins of aromatics. Compounds that are antiaromatic have two additional or two fewer electrons than aromatic compounds.
"They don't want to exist in a planar form without giving up or adding the two electrons that distinguish them from their aromatic analogues," said Sessler, "so they tend to twist around, to a lower energy state. That destroys their antiaromaticity. The net result is that bona fide antiaromatic compounds are elusive. What we have done, by rational design, is put big buttressing groups around the compounds, basically clamping them into place."
The resulting compounds are antiaromatic -- with two electrons gone -- and an intermediate something, with both aromatic and antiaromatic properties, that doesn't have a common name yet because it hasn't been seen before.
"When you have to struggle for the words to describe what's being done, you know that it's cutting edge," said Christian Brueckner, a fellow porphyrin chemist and a professor at The University of Connecticut. "Twenty years ago when I was a graduate student I was told simply that you can't make large antiaromatics like this. Later the idea was that you can make them but you can't do much with them. Now you can do it, and it can switch between states, and it can exist in the intermediate state. It's just a beautiful progression of scholarship, a beautiful example of how the ability of chemists to manipulate matter is advancing."
In their natural state antiaromatics are as unstable as aromatics are stable. As a result they have only been stabilized a few times in the history of the field. The antiaromatic that Sessler has made, working with colleagues in Korea, Japan, and India, is significant simply for joining this elite group. As significant is the synthesis of the intermediate state, a scientific first, as well as the capacity of the system to be toggled back and forth between the three different electron states.
"It's the first time you can really do a Coke vs. Pepsi taste test," said Sessler. "We've had very sophisticated theory for a long time, but you need positive and negative controls in science to reach a really robust conclusion. Now we finally have a detailed, controlled comparison of what aromaticity really does, how it changes interactions with light, how it affects color, what an excited state does to the lifetime, and so on."
Sessler's compounds also have potential implications in the field of information storage.
"We are very good as humans at manipulating electrons," said Sessler, "and although this isn't my game at the moment, it's not hard to imagine how a system that has three different electron states, and is reversible, could provide an opportunity to store information in a way we couldn't previously. Binary gives us computers. Ternary could give us even more power."
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Tennessee has emerged this week as a center of the "the answer is more guns in schools" sentiment following the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting.
A member of the Republican-controlled legislature plans during its upcoming session to introduce a bill that would allow the state to pay for secretly armed teachers in classrooms so, the sponsor told TPM, potential shooters don't know who has a gun and who doesn't.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) has said the idea will be part of his discussions about how to prevent a shooting like the one in Newtown from happening in the Volunteer State.
As has been seen following other mass shootings, there's a strong segment of the gun rights lobby that says the answer to events like the one in Newtown is more guns in more places. But they've said the recent massacre shows how important it is to put guns into elementary schools, where even gun-friendly states like Tennessee don't currently allow them.
State Sen. Frank Niceley (R) told TPM on Tuesday he believes it's time for that to change. He plans to introduce legislation in the next session, which begins Jan. 8, that will require all schools to have an armed staff member of some kind. The current language of the bill -- which is in its early form -- would allow for either a so-called "resource officer" (essentially an armed police officer, the kind which most Tennessee high schools have already) or an armed member of the faculty or staff in every school in the state. The choice would allow schools that can't afford a resource officer to fulfill the requirement without having to pay for anything beyond the cost of the training and, presumably, the weapon. But Niceley said schools should use the wiggle room to train and keep on hand armed staff not in uniform.
That's the best way to protect students, he said.
"Say some madman comes in. The first person he would probably try to take out was the resource officer. But if he doesn't know which teacher has training, then he wouldn't know which one had [a gun]," Niceley said by phone. "These guys are obviously cowards anyway and if someone starts shooting back, they're going to take cover, maybe go ahead and commit suicide like most of them have."
Niceley described himself as a person who as grown up around guns his whole life and a strong supporter of gun owners' rights. He tussled with the NRA during his last election over the letter grade he received from the group, though for the most part he's been rated A+.
Niceley's proposal has gathered some high-level interest. Tennessee's governor told reporters Monday that he's open to including it on the agenda for a January conference to discuss school safety. Nicely said he expect the governor "to be receptive" to his plan to use tax money to arm and train teachers.
Asked about concerns from gun control advocates that putting more guns in schools in the wake of Newtown might make them more dangerous, Niceley said the sentiment was naive. Not only does an unarmed school leave itself unprotected, he said, it also presents a tempting target.
"Look at it this way, you never see one of these whacko shooters go to a gun show and start shooting. They don't go down to the police station and start shooting," he said. "They go to places we advertise are gun-free."
School resource officers are paid jointly by the local sheriff's department and the school district. Niceley's bill would allow schools to pay for background checks and firearms training for teachers that woud allow them to be armed as well. Asked if the guns for the trained teachers would also be part of the taxpayer expense, Niceley laughed.
"Well, that's a minor detail in Tennessee," he said. "We hoped the teachers would have them already."
The teachers that would be trained would be volunteers, he said, and would likely carry their own firearms to school.
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Signs protesting emergency legislation requested by apparel giant Nike Inc., greet visitors arriving at the Oregon state Capitol in Salem, Ore., on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. The Legislature is considering a tax deal requested by Nike in exchange for bringing hundreds of new jobs to Oregon. (AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)
Signs protesting emergency legislation requested by apparel giant Nike Inc., greet visitors arriving at the Oregon state Capitol in Salem, Ore., on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. The Legislature is considering a tax deal requested by Nike in exchange for bringing hundreds of new jobs to Oregon. (AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2006 file photo, the red Nike swoosh marks the entrance to the company's headquarters campus in Beaverton, Ore. Nike wants to expand its Oregon operations and hire as many as 12,000 new workers by 2020 but wants the government to promise it won't change the state tax code. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber says he'll call the Legislature into session Friday to create a law to give Nike its promise. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)
The Oregon House meets in Salem, Ore., on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 to consider a tax deal requested by apparel giant Nike Inc., in exchange for bringing hundreds of new jobs. The governor called a special session that will cost taxpayers $13,000 a day, and is evidence of the lengths Oregon will go to protect its best-known company. (AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)
Oregon House Co-Speaker Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, opens a special session Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, in Salem, Ore. The Legislature is considering a tax deal requested by apparel giant Nike Inc., in exchange for bringing hundreds of new jobs. (AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)
This Aug. 11, 2012 file photo shows the Nike campus from the air. Athletic footwear and apparel giant Nike Inc. plans to expand its operations in Oregon and hire hundreds of workers but wants the government to promise that tax rules won't change, prompting a special session of the Legislature. Gov. John Kitzhaber said he'll call lawmakers together Friday Dec. 14, 2012 in Salem to create a new law authorizing him to grant Nike's wish, and legislative leaders said they'll go along. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Torsten Kjellstrand)
SALEM, Ore. (AP) ? A deal proposed by Nike Inc. to create hundreds of jobs in Oregon in exchange for a guarantee that the state won't change a favorable corporate tax structure has prompted state lawmakers to approve emergency legislation.
Critics have questioned the timing and purpose of the special session. But rather than head out on holiday vacations, the state's part-time legislators met Friday in Salem on four days' notice and voted to give the world's largest athletic shoe and apparel company the assurances it demanded.
The deal was evidence of the lengths Oregon leaders will go to in order to protect the state's best-known company, and the economic footprint, with its trademark swoosh, that Nike has in the state.
"We have a wonderful, wonderful company that's going to be remaining in Oregon because of what we're doing here today," said Democratic Sen. Ginny Burdick of Portland.
Gov. John Kitzhaber's decision to call the special session stunned lawmakers who didn't see it coming, underscoring that even as tax incentives have become a common tool for politicians to lure large employers, Nike's deal is unconventional.
The meeting cost taxpayers $13,000 and came less than two months before the regular legislative session was set to convene. It is aimed at maintaining the status quo, rather than approving new tax breaks.
Such factors led Kitzhaber to acknowledge the emergency legislative session was "extraordinarily awkward."
Still, Nike plans to create 500 or more jobs and invest at least $150 million in an expansion if the so-called "single sales factor" tax benefit remains in place, according to the Democratic governor. The governor will sign the bill, potentially as soon as next week, spokesman Tim Raphael said.
It was unclear whether Nike would actually move to expand outside of Oregon ? a company spokeswoman refused to say ? but the mere threat was enough to prompt action.
In a statement, Nike spokeswoman Mary Remuzzi thanked legislators for acting "quickly and decisively."
"This is a very positive step forward, not only for our company but for the state of Oregon," the statement said.
The prospect of many new workers is critical in a state that has no sales tax, limited property taxes and relies heavily on personal income taxes, said Republican Rep. Vicki Berger of Salem.
Nike employs thousands of people in Oregon, many of them at its headquarters in relatively high-wage jobs, including legal, design, sales, information technology and corporate strategy.
Company officials have been mum about their expansion plans, refusing to say where they'll build or what the new workers will do.
The company's presence near Beaverton, a Portland suburb, has helped make the area a hub for athletic and outdoor apparel companies. Columbia Sportswear's global headquarters is in Beaverton, and Adidas has its North American headquarters in Portland.
Nike has deep roots in Oregon, where it was created in the 1960s by a former middle-distance runner and his college track coach. Together, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman built the company into one of the globe's most influential brands.
Knight also is the largest contributor to University of Oregon athletics, and his money is considered a key factor in vaulting the school's football program into national prominence.
Kitzhaber has said Nike approached his staff about a month ago, saying the company was being courted by other states but would expand in Oregon if officials promised to keep in place the substantial tax benefits for companies that employ many people in Oregon but sell most of their goods elsewhere.
The legislation passed Friday would authorize the governor to give Nike that promise for up to 30 years.
A handful of people opposed to the legislation set up anti-Nike signs in front of the Capitol as lawmakers met inside.
"You cannot do this in such a rushed manner, and this is just not an emergency," Susan Barrett of Portland told lawmakers.
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You haven't heard a lot about it so far in the fiscal cliff debate, but a new report out from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania indicates that the majority of the "pain" to come from budget cuts will trickle down to states and cities. As a result, our local governments will undoubtedly have to cut back on basic services to citizens. K-12 education, nutrition for kids, policing, funding of public universities and the maintenance of our roads, bridges and parks could take the biggest hits.
The States Project, produced by Harvard University's Institute of Politics and the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute, as well as the American Education Foundation (of which I am the current Executive Director), explains it this way:
If past is prologue, lawmakers will likely try to avoid big cuts to the most politically protected programs -- Social Security, Medicare and defense -- which together make up over half of the federal budget. Once all mandatory spending is considered (including Social Security, Medicare, interest on the debt, and block grants to Medicaid), a relatively small portion of the national budget -- less than 30% -- is left to debate. Contained in that 30% are many of the discretionary block grants to states, which help support programs that are crucial to the everyday lives of Americans: K-12 education, funding for colleges and universities, unemployment compensation, public housing, school lunch programs, state parks, and infrastructure. While grants make up only 16% of federal outlays as a whole, they make up more than 40% of this discretionary portion of the budget" -- or the part of the budget most likely headed for the chopping block.
The report notes that state block grants are on the chopping block because states don't really have advocates in Washington to lobby for state interests. There is no formal avenue by which state representatives can participate in the federal budget process -- a serious fault in our political system, and one that has real consequences for states and their citizens in the coming era of fiscal austerity.
Concerned governors formed an emergency bipartisan coalition to lobby the federal government on these issues. The group met with Vice President Biden last week to make their concerns heard. Even so, state concerns will likely get drowned out by the louder partisan noise between the national parties.
According to the Harvard/Penn report, Medicaid is the largest category of state block grants, accounting for almost 43 percent of all federal grants, or $265 billion in fiscal year 2011. Other social safety net programs (unemployment benefits, food stamps, etc.) constitute about 17 percent of the federal grants to states; education and training make up another 17 percent; and infrastructure and capital needs are roughly 16 percent.
The president's budget for fiscal year 2013 projects increases in grants to states for "mandatory" programs -- driven primarily by rapid growth in Medicaid, which will be expanded by the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). But the same budget projects a decline in outlays for almost everything else. According to the Congressional Budget Office, spending for education, transportation, housing and welfare programs for children will likely shrink by 35 percent between 2012 and 2022. Conversely, the CBO expects federal spending for Medicaid and CHIP to increase by 47 percent in those years.
The report says that these projections indicate that Medicaid is "crowding out" other areas of state spending. Assuming that the federal government has dwindling funds for state block grants, Medicaid will take a greater share of the total, leaving less available for other state spending needs.
The consequences of the reductions in federal block grants to states will trickle down to cities and localities, which are, in many ways, the most vulnerable part of our governmental structure. In order to balance budgets, state governments will likely have to cut spending to local governments. State aid to local governments represents the largest source of revenues for municipalities, comprising approximately 34 percent of municipal budgets.
The States Project indicates that many local governments may face major budget shortfalls if state aid is significantly reduced, having already depleted "rainy day" funds during the Great Recession. In addition, raising municipal debt may be more difficult if cities are perceived to be a bad credit risk. The recent Chapter 9 defaults of some larger cities like Stockton or San Bernardino, both in California, as well as a plethora of credit downgrades for other cities, may give investors pause. From 2009 to 2011, for example, municipal downgrades by Moody's have outnumbered upgrades by three to one.
"Since cities are the last stop on the government money train, budget gaps for localities will have to be addressed primarily with a combination of reductions in public services, some privatization, and tax increases," said the report.
Fragile state and local economies are just getting over the recession. Tax revenues are edging up, but they still have not returned to 2008 levels. Further, the fiscal stimulus, which buoyed state economies and saved thousands of local government jobs, has ended. Meanwhile, states are struggling to care for historically large numbers of poor and unemployed citizens, to fix deteriorating roads and bridges, and, most importantly, to educate our young.
The worry is that just as states are getting back on their collective feet, they will be sent back into deficits by fiscal austerity in Washington. What is most troubling to state leaders is that they will have very little to say about it.
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Follow Meredith Bagby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bagbyreports
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Dec. 13, 2012 ? New research by a University of Alberta archeologist may lead to a rethinking of how, when and from where our ancestors left Africa.
U of A researcher and anthropology chair Pamela Willoughby's explorations in the Iringa region of southern Tanzania yielded fossils and other evidence that records the beginnings of our own species, Homo sapiens. Her research, recently published in the journal Quaternary International, may be key to answering questions about early human occupation and the migration out of Africa about 60,000 to 50,000 years ago, which led to modern humans colonizing the globe.
From two sites, Mlambalasi and nearby Magubike, she and members of her team, the Iringa Region Archaeological Project, uncovered artifacts that outline continuous human occupation between modern times and at least 200,000 years ago, including during a late Ice Age period when a near extinction-level event, or "genetic bottleneck," likely occurred.
Now, Willoughby and her team are working with people in the region to develop this area for ecotourism, to assist the region economically and create incentives to protect its archeological history.
"Some of these sites have signs that people were using them starting around 300,000 years ago. In fact, they're still being used today," she said. "But the idea that you have such ancient human occupation preserved in some of these places is pretty remarkable."
Magubike: Home to a modern Stone Age family?
Willoughby says one of the fascinating things about Magubike is the presence of a large rock shelter with an intact overhanging roof. The excavations yielded unprecedented ancient artifacts and fossils from under this roof. Samples from the site date from the earliest stages of the middle Stone Age to the Iron Age. The earlier deposits include human teeth and artifacts such as animal bones, shells and thousands of flaked stone tools.
The Iron Age finds can be dated using radiocarbon, but the older deposits must go through more specialized processes, such as electron spin resonance, to determine their age. Other parts of the Magubike rock shelter, excavated in 2006 and 2008, include occupations from after the middle Stone Age. Taken together, this information could be crucial to tracking the evolutionary development of the inhabitants.
"What's important about the whole sequence is that we may have a continuous record of human occupation," said Willoughby. "If we do -- and we can prove it through these special dating techniques -- then we have a place people lived in over the bottleneck."
Rugged, hilly terrain may have been key to survival
The team made similar findings at Mlambalasi, about 20 kilometres from Magubike. Among the findings at this site was a fragmentary human skeleton that probably dates to the late Pleistocene Ice Age -- after the out-of-Africa expansion but at the end of the bottleneck period. The bottleneck theory explains what geneticists have found by studying the mitochondrial DNA of living people -- that all non-Africans are descended from one lineage of people who left Africa about 50,000 years ago.
Reconstructions of past environments through pollen and other archeological records in Iringa suggest that people abandoned the lowland, tropical and coastal areas during that period but remained in the highlands, where vegetation has remained mostly unchanged over the last 50,000 years. Those who moved to higher ground may have found what is likely one of the few places that facilitated their survival and forced their adaptation. Further testing will determine whether these findings point to a clearer link to our African ancestors -- a find Willoughby says could put that region of Tanzania on many archeologists' radar.
"It was only about 20 years ago that people recognized that modern Homo sapiens actually had an African ancestry, and everyone was focused on looking at early Homo sapiens in Europe who appeared around 40,000 years ago," she said. "But we now know that as far as back as around 200,000 years ago, Africa was inhabited by people who were already physically exactly like us today or really close to being the same as us. All of a sudden, it's not Europe in this time period that's really important, it's Africa."
Engaging community yields co-operation, opportunity
Along with its scientific significance, Willoughby's work may be a linchpin to potential economic growth for the region. Since 2005, when a local cultural officer showed her the sites, she has been sharing information about her research with local citizens, schools and government -- opening up opportunities for more research and co-operation. She keeps the region informed of the team's findings through posters distributed around Iringa, and has asked for and accepted assistance from local scholars. Now the community is also looking for her help in establishing the historic sites as a tourist attraction that will benefit the region.
Willoughby says she feels fortunate to have the support of the Tanzanian people. She tells people it is a shared history she is uncovering, something she is honoured to be able to do.
"They're telling me, 'You're putting Iringa on the map,'" she said. "As long as they keep letting me work there, and keep letting the people working with me work there, we'll be happy."
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/PCzrFgNqzPQ/121213142319.htm
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