Spark Magazine: Student Science Magazine Of York University

Many universities have dedicated student-run science publications. Such publications are ideal places for young science writers to work with or as part of an editorial team, build up confidence and grow their portfolios. But they are also teasers of what?s to come from the emerging generation of science writers.

Periodically, we?ll cover some of those student-run science publications here on The SA Incubator. Today, Matt Ravenhall, co-founder of Spark Magazine, the student-run science publication of York University, UK, gives us a preview of the latest issue which revolves around the theme ?Misconceptions.? Matt also recounts how partnerships are important to reach a wider audience.

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Spark Magazine was founded when two groups of York University students, both sharing one idea, came together. Both saw an opportunity to open the eyes of non-science (and even some science) students to the world of science and its powerful way of thinking. They also recognised that despite 40% of York University students on campus studying a science subject, it still had no real presence outside the lecture theatres. Addressing this issue is what drives Spark Magazine whether in print, online or more recently on radio.

Our bread and butter is the free magazine which we distribute on campus once a term. We start each edition with short and snappy news pieces focusing on recent research from around York, as well as tours of University laboratories. The aim here is simple, to inform readers about the cutting-edge progress happening whilst they are in lectures. Our first tour was of the recently opened Plasma Institute and featured loads of awesome photos. We also use this space to highlight upcoming open lectures and York ?Skeptics in the Pub? events.

The meat of each issue of the magazine consists of a mix of features, shorter articles and comment pieces all revolving around a particular theme; for example the last issue?s topic was ?Misconceptions? and our first issue dealt with ?Origins?. This ensures that each issue, whilst following a similar structure, is provided with its own unique identity. Plus, our writers prefer to have a certain theme to write about.

There?s also a stunning image in the centrefold, inspired by a similar feature in the Guardian, accompanied by a dynamic article. So far these have centred around space-themed images of stars and galaxies, though we aim to cover other subjects in future issues. You will also find an in-depth interview with visiting scientists or influential individuals (Mark Henderson, author of ?The Geek Manifesto? was the latest and Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan was the first), plus a crossword and a regular cartoon.

Supporting the magazine is our regularly updated website which also hosts its own unique content (check out the comment piece on eugenics). In the future we aim to expand to include more in-depth news pieces and blogs/columns to increase web-exclusive content. Bolstering our online presence are our Facebook page and Twitter feed and our ISSUU account where we promote and upload all the printed magazines.

From left to right: Claire (physics editor), Jess (chemistry editor), Will (co-founder), Matt (co-founder), Ellen (head of photography), James (biology editor).

Naturally, as with any large project, there is a lot going on behind the scenes as the editorial, photography and web teams work together. Production of each issue begins with choosing a suitable topic, emphasis being on something which is relevant to all the sciences. Once selected it is the job of both the founders (Will and myself) and the editors to get people writing.

To aid the process we have a large pool of potential writers in a Facebook group and send emails to science students via the University. From here it?s largely a case of editor-writer interaction until both are happy with a piece. At the end of this process we usually have too many articles to include in print so we then choose those that will work well online and make them web-exclusives. Additionally, we accept and commission articles between issues on a purely web-exclusive basis allowing the website to be constantly up to date.

All this is not to say that we work alone, indeed partnerships have been built with other societies to allow us to branch into voice communication. One example is our work with the University?s radio station to produce a fortnightly radio show and podcast. Here we have a large group of presenters who take it in turns to produce a show.

Another example of intersociety collaboration is with VivaVoce, an audio magazine based at the University. For this a selection of articles, usually three, are provided for inclusion in each of their issues.

Evidently, we passionately believe in grabbing any opportunities which present themselves and in light of that, look forward to growing further and bringing science to more students.

Matt Ravenhall
Co-Founder of Spark Magazine

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=8d1911f84ecf8f9a32b6f6facc676b68

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Baby Boomers Take Biggest Career Risks

If you think that baby boomers are just looking to reach retirement, you may want to think again. New research has found that baby boomers are more entrepreneurial and take more risks than younger counterparts at work.

Forty-three percent of baby boomers described themselves as high risk in a recent survey, compared with just 28 percent of Generation Y respondents and 40 percent of Generation X. In the survey, people between ages 18 and 29 were considered Gen Y, people between ages 30 and 49 were considered Gen X, and people between ages 50 and 69 were considered baby boomers.

Researchers say that Gen Y workers may be less willing to take risks because they see their jobs as temporary.? Fifty-five percent of Gen Y respondents say their job is only a step in their career while just 26 percent say they will stay at their job for a long time.?

Not only were boomers more likely to take risks, but they were also more likely to consider themselves to be entrepreneurial.? Forty-five percent of boomers called themselves entrepreneurial, compared with 32 percent of Gen Y and 41 percent of Gen Xers.

"This survey revealed that the entrepreneurial spirit resides in all of us and across all generations of workers," said Jeffrey Quinn, vice president of Global Monster Insights, which conducted the research. "Whether it?s a direct result of the current economy, or a person?s independent drive, we are seeing more and more people across generations starting their own businesses as alternatives to traditional jobs or careers. Employer-retention strategies could benefit from creating environments that encourage entrepreneurial culture?and opportunities for workers."

Though not all workers feel like they are able to be entrepreneurs, 1 in 3 workers say they have the freedom and flexibility to take responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable product at their company.? Forty two percent of respondents say they have the opportunity to work on projects that are outside their responsibility, but just 23 percent say they are encouraged to work on such projects. ?

"The Internet has created unique entrepreneurial opportunities, not just for Millennials, but for all generations of workers," said Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of "Promote Yourself" (St. Martin Press, 2013). "We don?t see the same barriers to entry to starting a new business as we saw 10 years ago. Everyone has the technology to connect and now all you need is an innovative idea and a website?to create a startup."

The research was based on the responses of 2,828 randomly selected Monster users.?

This story was provided by BusinessNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow David Mielach on Twitter @D_M89?or BusinessNewsDaily @bndarticles. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/baby-boomers-biggest-career-risks-191418227.html

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Republican losses obscure US drift to right

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican angst over presidential election losses obscures the fact that many conservative ideals have prospered for decades.

Conservative efforts have pushed the government rightward on taxes, spending and other policies, despite losses on some social fronts. One might say Republicans keep losing battles but winning wars.

This rightward drift serves as a curious, often ignored backdrop for GOP leaders' claims that the country is burdened by massive spending and taxation.

Republican lawmakers, for instance, adamantly oppose President Barack Obama's call for higher tax revenues as part of an alternative to big spending cuts about to hit government agencies. Yet the federal tax burden, as a portion of the overall economy, has been lower during Obama's four years in office than at any time since 1950.

And what about claims that spending on food stamps, environmental oversight and other nuts-and-bolts federal operations is out of control? Nonmilitary discretionary spending ranged from 3.8 percent to 5.1 percent of the overall economy throughout the 1970s. Starting in 1986, it didn't exceed 3.8 percent again until the 2008 recession dramatically slowed the economy.

Conservatives, however, have been unable in recent years to slow the rapid growth of "entitlement" programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. These popular but costly programs pose long-term fiscal dilemmas if not addressed.

Policy on some social matters ? gay rights, most notably ? has moved leftward. But the opposite is true for another big issue, gun control.

A 10-year ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 is unlikely to be renewed, even in the wake of school massacres. In 1969, a Republican-led presidential commission recommended the confiscation of most handguns, a nearly unthinkable idea today.

"The political spectrum as a whole has moved to the right," said Bruce Bartlett, an economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Even conservative activists differ on why this has happened. Some say Republicans' constant focus on a few simple ideas, such as never raising taxes, appeals to ordinary people who follow politics only sporadically.

Grover Norquist, author of a famous no-new-tax pledge, has long urged Republicans to use the strategy to build a powerful brand ? "We won't raise your taxes" ? similar to universally recognized products such as Coke. Whatever the Democratic "brand" is, Norquist says, it's much more muddled.

Others say Democrats, by nature, are more willing to compromise in pursuit of "good government" solutions. Republicans, who are less pro-government, are less likely to bend. When one side compromises and the other side doesn't, the center of debate moves toward the unyielding party.

Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz says the Democratic Party has become "essentially a centrist party, and has remained so despite losing its right wing since the 1960s as a result of the realignment of the South." Meanwhile, he said, the GOP "has moved rather dramatically to the right since the '60s." The political middle ground, he said, "has also shifted well to the right of where it was 30 or 40 years ago on most issues."

Abramowitz, who is writing a book on the GOP's transformation, also points to "the growing racial divide between the parties as the country has become more racially and ethnically diverse; the growing influence of right-wing think tanks, funders and media outlets; and a growing cultural/religious divide in the country."

Some Democrats say current deficit-spending debates take insufficient notice of the nation's long-running rightward shift on fiscal policies. Partisan disagreements have led to recent showdowns over the debt ceiling, the end-of-2012 "fiscal cliff" and some fast-approaching, across-the-board spending cuts called the "sequester."

Obama, saying both spending cuts and revenue hikes are needed, repeatedly has tried to reinstate a limited portion of the income tax rates that applied under President Bill Clinton, who left office with a budget surplus.

Republicans, thanks to a law they helped enact in 2011, were forced last month to accept tax increases on the richest Americans. Now, however, they say all further deficit reduction must come entirely from spending cuts.

It's a policy that would puzzle past Republican presidents such as Reagan and Richard Nixon. They mixed tax reductions and tax increases as circumstances changed. But over the past 20 years, the Republicans' "no new taxes" mantra has become virtually sacrosanct.

GOP leaders and tea party activists routinely describe Americans as overtaxed. By historical standards, at least, it's a questionable claim. In 1981, the top marginal income tax rate was 70 percent. Today it is 39.6 percent.

Federal tax revenues exceeded 20 percent of the gross domestic product in 2000. Under Obama, they have not exceeded 15.8 percent a year.

When revenues fall and spending grows, or even stays flat, deficits result. Big tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 contributed to rising deficits, and today the national debt exceeds $16 trillion. To help narrow the gap, Democrats and some independents have implored Republican lawmakers to mix higher taxes on the rich with further spending cuts.

Some Republicans fear their party's antipathy to tax increases, despite the huge debt, will put it out of step with middle America. A Pew Research poll for USA Today finds that 3 in 4 Americans support Obama's call for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.

"The truth is, Republicans just don't care about deficits," said Bartlett, who has parted ways with many former GOP associates.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans say the deficit is a threat. America has a spending problem, they say, not a taxing problem.

Even the often-criticized "Obamacare" law is built on foundations ? chiefly, universal health coverage ? proposed years ago by Nixon and the conservative Heritage Foundation. When Congress approved the new law in 2010, not a single Republican voted for it.

Some social issues are too much in flux to say, definitively, whether U.S. society has moved to their right or left. Momentum for more liberal immigration laws rose in the late 1990s, collapsed in 2007, and now seems to be rebounding.

On climate change, some conservatives dispute evidence about humans' role in rising temperatures, and the potential threat to the planet. But Obama and others are pointing to severe storms, record temperatures and other weather events in hopes of building public support for actions against greenhouse gasses.

"If you look at Republican positions on things like health care, climate change and cap and trade, they're moving away from their own positions due to internal political gravity," said David Di Martino, who was an aide to centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. "So when Obama arrives at a place where they were, say, on tax cuts, they have moved further right. So the president is always perceived to the left, even though the reality is that he's not."

Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. They have done a far better job of pushing government policy to the right.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republican-losses-obscure-us-drift-065418092--politics.html

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The Engadget Interview: Qualcomm's Raj Talluri talks Snapdragon at MWC 2013

Qualcomm finally detailed its Snapdragon 200 and 400 processors here at MWC, and we got the opportunity to discuss the new chips with Raj Talluri, SVP of product management. While the Snapdragon 600 and 800 SoCs are geared towards high-end devices, the 200 and 400 are targeting sub-$100 and $200-300 phones. He explained that the software remains as close as possible to what's available on the 600 and 800, but the hardware is scaled down to support lower-resolution displays and cameras by using ARM cores instead of the company's own Krait architecture. We then talked about the Snapdragon 800, which was decoding 4K video at CES but is being showcased here in Barcelona handling 4K playback with Dolby and DTS in Qualcomm's movie theater (sans popcorn, sadly). He also mentioned some of the other demos at the company's booth -- 4K encoding and streaming (via TransferJet), realtime video editing, voice activation, games (Modern Combat 4 and Need For Speed) and more. Don't miss our video interview after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/C8_YxwM0wec/

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Windmills at sea can break like matches

Feb. 26, 2013 ? Medium-sized waves can break wind turbines at sea like matches. These waves occur even in small storms, which are quite common in the Norwegian Sea.

"The problem is, we still do not know exactly when the wind turbines may break," says Professor John Grue from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oslo, Norway. Grue is one of the world's foremost experts on wave research. In 1989 he discovered an inexplicable wave phenomenon called ringing, which is a special type of vibration that occurs when choppy waves hit marine installations. The discovery was made in a 25-metre long wave laboratory located in the basement of the mathematics building at Blindern Campus.

So far scientists have studied ringing in small and large waves, but as it turns out, ringing is more common in medium-size waves.

For wind turbines at sea with a cylinder diameter of eight metres, the worst waves are those that are more than 13 metres high and have an 11-second interval between them.

Financial ruin

The ringing problem may increase significantly in the years ahead. There are plans to build tens of thousands of wind turbines at sea.

"If we do not take ringing into consideration, offshore wind turbine parks can lead to financial ruin," warns John Grue to the research magazine Apollon at University of Oslo.

Today, the largest windmill parks at sea are outside the coasts of Denmark and Great Britain. They are nevertheless like small miniatures compared to Statkraft and Statoil's enormous plans on the Dogger Bank outside Scotland. This windmill park is to produce as much electricity as 60 to 90 Alta power plants. A windmill park with the capacity of two Alta power plants will be built outside M?re og Romsdal in West-Norway.

"Thus far it has not been possible to measure the force exerted by ringing. Laboratory measurements show that the biggest vibrations in the wind turbines occur just after the wave has passed and not when the wave hits the turbine. Right after the crest of the wave has passed, a second force hits the structure. If the second force resonates with the structural frequency of the wind turbine, the vibration is strong. This means that the wind turbine is first exposed to one force, and is then shaken by another force. When specific types of waves are repeated this causes the wear to be especially pronounced. This increases the danger of fatigue."

It is precisely this secondary force that creates ringing and that the mathematicians until now have not managed to calculate.

Unfortunate vibrations

All structures have their own vibration frequencies, whether they are wind turbines, bridges, oil rigs or vessels.

When the vibration matches the structural frequency, things get tough. This phenomenon is called resonance, and can be compared to the steady march of soldiers on a bridge. If the soldiers march in time with the structural frequency of the bridge, it can collapse.

Unrealistic calculations

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have already made a number of calculations of ringing. Ecole Centrale Marseille and the French Bureau Veritas have also made such calculations. Det Norske Veritas is among those who use versions of these models.

"Current models are the best we have, but the estimates are too rough and erroneous. The theories are applied far outside of their area of validity. This means that we cannot calculate the fatigue adequately."

Ringing is not related to turbulence. Ringing is systematic and is about high underpressure at back of the cylinder.

Difficult mathematics

Internationally, very little has been done on this phenomenon. John Grue now has two Doctoral Research Fellows calculating these movements. He also collaborates with the Danish research community on wind power at Ris? National Laboratory and the Technical University of Denmark.

"Ringing is very difficult to calculate. There is great uncertainty. We want more precise descriptions of the physics of ringing. We are now trying sophisticated surface elevation models and complex calculations to reproduce these measurements accurately. We want to show that the ringing force arises systematically according to a general mathematical formula."

Saga Petroleum has previously conducted an extensive set of measurements of the ringing force in waves.

"These fit our measurements very well," says Grue.

Differences between deep and shallow waters

The scientists must also consider whether the installations are in deep or shallow waters.

"The structural frequency also depends on the conditions on the seabed.

You can compare it to a flagpole in a storm. The flag pole vibrates differently depending on whether the pole is fixed in concrete or on softer ground."

"There has been no research on the connection between vibrations and the conditions on the seabed."

Oil rig damaged

Ringing does not just harm wind turbines. Ringing has already been a great problem for the oil industry. The designers of the YME platform did not tak ringing into account, and lost NOK 12 billion.

"It is possible to build your way out of the ringing problem by strengthening the oil rigs. However, it is not financially profitable to do the same with wind turbines," says John Grue.

Improves the models

Arne Nesteg?rd, Chief Specialist in hydrodynamics at Det Norske Veritas, confirms to Apollon that wind turbines at moderate depths may be exposed to high-frequency resonant oscillations if the waves are extreme, but they safeguard against this. Nesteg?rd says that in the past twenty years, Veritas has developed ringing models and that they now work on improving the models for wind turbines at sea.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oslo. The original article was written by Yngve Vogt.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/bud8VULivoE/130226081005.htm

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Lawmakers, Vet Groups Panning Pentagon's New Medal

The military's new medal for cyber warriors should get a demotion, according to veterans groups and lawmakers who say it shouldn't outrank such revered honors as the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

The Distinguished Warfare Medal, announced by the Defense Department two weeks ago, is a sign of the changing nature of war, in which attacks conducted remotely have played an increasingly important role in gathering intelligence and killing enemy fighters and terrorists. It will recognize extraordinary achievement related to a military operation occurring after Sept. 11, 2001.

But the Veterans of Foreign War and other groups say that ranking it ahead of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart is an injustice to those who served on the front-lines.

On Wednesday, his first day on the job, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel received a letter from the VFW about the medal, the first combat-related award to be created since World War II.

John Hamilton, the group's commander in chief, said it's important to recognize drone pilots and others. "But medals that can only be earned in combat must outrank new medals earned in the rear," he said.

Members of Congress are also getting involved. Five veterans now serving in the House introduced a bill that would prohibit the Defense Department from rating the medal equal to or higher than the Purple Heart. A medal's order of precedence refers to how it is supposed to be displayed, with the Medal of Honor getting top billing among nearly 60 medals and ribbons.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said that putting oneself in harm's way automatically raises the bar for a medal in a way that others cannot match no matter what amazing things they do.

"It's still different if your lives are on the line. You got to differentiate and we'd like DOD to do that so I don't have to do this," said Hunter, who served two combat tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

There is no indication the Pentagon is rethinking the award or its ranking.

"The Defense Department remains committed to honoring the remotely piloted aircraft operators and the cyber warriors as appropriate," said Pentagon spokesman George Little. "This is recognition of their significant contributions and the changing nature of warfare."

The secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force are developing the criteria for the medal for each of the military services that will lay out what someone would have to do in order to qualify. The medal has been designed, but it has not yet been minted or created. Once the criteria are finalized, then troops can be nominated for the award.

The backlash to the Pentagon's announcement includes an online petition to the White House that has been signed by more than 15,000 people. The petition calls the medal "an injustice to those who served and risked their lives" and says it should not be allowed to move forward as planned. The organizers need to get to 100,000 signatures to elicit a formal response from the administration, a threshold established by the Obama administration.

John Bircher, a spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, said the veterans groups are not objecting to the medal at all ? just the ranking. He said some medals ranked ahead of the Purple Heart are achievement medals that can be earned outside of war time. What bothers many veterans is that the new Distinguished Warfare Medal appears be a war-time medal that trumps acts of valor, which he finds insulting.

He said it's extremely rare for veterans' service organizations to publicly chastise the Defense Department, but the new medal risks being looked down upon by veterans.

"These guys work relentless hours, and are dedicated and good at what they do, but it's completely different from the hardships of serving in combat and being on the battlefield," Bircher said.

A spokesman for Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the general has made clear that there will be very high standards for the award, which requires approval at the top service levels. The spokesman, Marine Col. David Lapan, said Dempsey believes the medal will be infrequently awarded because the bar for qualifying is so high.

It is widely expected that the award could be handed out and the public may never know about it because the actions envisioned in the types of cyber, intelligence or drone operations that might qualify for the honor would often be classified as top secret.

???

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-vet-groups-panning-pentagons-medal-200807920.html

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Windows 7 (finally) gets Internet Explorer 10

Microsoft has (after a few months) offered access to Internet Explorer 10 for users that haven't made the switch to Windows 8 just yet. The auto-upgrade process will roll out over the next few weeks and includes better JavaScript performance and, apparently, better battery life for mobile users. Spotted by Neowin user Mephistopheles, you can sample those fresh IE10 delights at the source link below.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/26/windows-7-finally-gets-internet-explorer-10/

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Officially authorised ? the open bookcases of Wrest Park | Christian ...

The ladies who lived at Wrest Park were prolific readers, as can be seen by the open bookcases lining the walls of the two exquisitely decorated libraries. Throughout March, English Heritage will be honouring this tradition with a series of lectures given by some of Britain?s top female history writers.

The original mediaeval Wrest Park mansion is long gone, torn down by Thomas de Grey in the 1830s and replaced by the opulent Chateau-style dwelling which now stands. The last surviving member of the de Grey family died in 1923, following which the house and gardens fell into neglect until being rescued by English Heritage which ? in a joint project with the Wolfson Foundation ? has restored the mansion and its 18th century gardens to their former glory.

Today, it is possible for visitors from Lancashire to see the open bookcases that would have been used by Lady Henrietta and her daughters, and view Victorian dining chairs and antique desks comparable with the ones that were here when the opulent Louis XV-style rooms were first decorated. Those wanting to learn more about the lives of the de Grey family can do so with a new interactive display. Better still, they can attend Sara Sheridan?s lecture ?How To Be A Lady?, one of several literary events in March, in which top-selling historical novelists share their research and knowledge to bring the stately home and its owners back to life.

People in the Ribble Valley can find Victorian balloon backed dining chairs and antique desks, like those used by Lady Henrietta and her descendants, by visiting their local antiques dealer.

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Source: http://blog.christiandaviesantiques.co.uk/officially-authorised-the-open-bookcases-of-wrest-park-3046.html

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Prenatal DHA reduces early preterm birth, low birth weight

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

University of Kansas researchers have found that the infants of mothers who were given 600 milligrams of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA during pregnancy weighed more at birth and were less likely to be very low birth weight and born before 34 weeks gestation than infants of mothers who were given a placebo. This result greatly strengthens the case for using the dietary supplement during pregnancy.

Susan CarlsonThe results are from the first five years of a 10-year, double-blind randomized controlled trial to be published in the April issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It is also available online. A followup of this sample of infants is ongoing to determine whether prenatal DHA nutritional supplementation will benefit children's intelligence and school readiness.

"A reduction in early preterm and very low birth weight delivery could have clear clinical and public health significance," said Susan Carlson, A.J. Rice Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition at the KU Medical Center, who directed the study with John Colombo, KU professor of psychology and director of the Life Span Institute.

John Colombo"We believe that supplementing U.S. women with DHA could safely increase mean birth weight and gestational age to numbers that are closer to other developed countries such as Norway and Australia," she said.

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) occurs naturally in cell membranes with the highest levels in brain cells, but levels can be increased by diet or supplements. An infant obtains DHA from his or her mother in utero and postnatally from human milk, but the amount received depends upon the mother's DHA status.

"U.S. women typically consume less DHA than women in most of the developed world," said Carlson.

During the first five years of the study, children of women enrolled in the study received multiple developmental assessments at regular intervals throughout infancy and at 18 months of age. In the next phase of the study, the children will receive twice-yearly assessments until they are 6 years old. The researchers will measure developmental milestones that occur in later childhood and are linked to lifelong health and welfare.

Previous research has established the effects of postnatal feeding of DHA on infant cognitive and intellectual development, but DHA is accumulated most rapidly in the fetal brain during pregnancy, said Colombo. "That's why we are so interested in the effects of DHA taken prenatally, because we will really be able to see how this nutrient affects development over the long term."

###

University of Kansas: http://www.news.ku.edu

Thanks to University of Kansas for this article.

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Channing Tatum: Our Baby Will Be Born in London

"I'm walking the carpet, trying to keep it together tonight but we're good!" a radiant Dewan-Tatum told Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet Sunday night.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/tqNzwgZZt4U/

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PFT: Packers torn on keeping TE Finley

Florida defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd said last week at the NFL Scouting Combine that he?s ?been getting ready to put on a show here.?

He did just that this morning, running a pair of sub-5.0 second 40s at nearly 300 pounds. The question now becomes, would it qualify as a show he wants to watch?

While Floyd?s ability to rush the passer and his athletic talent will make him a high pick, he raised more than a few eyebrows during his media interviews, when he admitted he wasn?t much of a football fan.

Asked the fairly standard question of which player he modeled his game after, Floyd replied: ?I haven?t really watched the league in a long time. I first started watching it in 2007, but I did get to know Ndamukong Suh in 2010 so we have a good relationship and I?ve watched him play a couple of times.?

That?s right, a possible Top 10 pick in the NFL Draft only started watching football six years ago. And it?s not as if he?s one of the foreign-born players from a land where football wasn?t readily available around the clock. He grew up in Philadelphia, a place where there seems to be some degree of interest in the NFL.

Asked to elaborate on the fact he didn?t watch football until recently, Floyd said ?The first game I ever watched was the Super Bowl when the Colts won it in 2007.?

?It wasn?t that there was no interest, I just didn?t know nothing about it, so there was no reason to watch it,? he continued. ?Even when I started playing there was no?interest in watching it because I liked to play it instead of sitting down and being still and watching a game while all my friends were jumping around and getting excited for no reason.

?It just wasn?t a preference of mine, but now it is so I watch it and play it now.?

Asked what he was watching instead, Floyd talked about the Disney Channel and Cartoon Network.

Don?t get me wrong, as the parent of young children, there?s a good bit of Looney Toons on hand in my home as well. And away from work, I respect people who are well-rounded, and can talk about something other than football.

But a team is about to invest millions of dollars in a man who may or may not like the game he?s about to turn into a career.

We know he?s motivated now, having trained specifically for the Combine to put on the kind of show that would boost his draft stock and make him financially secure.

But how motivated will he be come the dog days of training camp, or a Wednesday practice in November when his team might be out of the playoff hunt?

Will he be watching film of his next opponent, or catching up on That?s So Raven re-runs?

It?s possible to be great at football without being absorbed by it, but it?s probably not the kind of thing you want to admit at a job interview, either.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/25/report-packers-torn-on-keeping-jermichael-finley/related/

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Intel announces dual-core Atom, multiband LTE chip and OEM partnerships

Intel is laying down a whole group of announcements today, covering the launch of dual-core Atom processors, multiband LTE chips and partnerships with OEMs for future quad-core Intel chips. First up is Intel's dual-core Atom (known as Clover Trail+), which is a 32nm (nanometer) processor coming in three SKU's -- Z2580, Z2560, Z2520 -- at 2.0GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.2GHz, respectively. The new Atom will deliver "industry-leading" performance, with Intel's hyper-threading technology, and battery life (which hasn't been Intel's strong suit) to rival current high-end devices.

The new chips also now support up to 1900x1200 display resolution, which will make it a suitable chip for future Android tablets. The Clover Trail+ Atoms support Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and HSPA+ 42 mobile data modems as well. Intel says it has already made partnerships with ASUS, Lenovo and ZTE to integrate Clover Trail+ processors into future tablets and phones.

Intel is also announcing today the availability of its first multimode and multiband LTE chip, the XMM 7160. One of the world's lowest power and smallest chips available, the 7160 supports up to 15 LTE bands simultaneously, and offers full LTE, DC-HSPA+ and EDGE connectivity in one chip SKU. Intel expects the radio to be ready in the first half of this year, with the radio and processor roadmaps soon converging to offer an integrated solution in the future.

Last but not least, Intel is looking forward to its upcoming "Bay Trail" quad-core Atom processors for use in tablets. The new processor will double the performance of its current tablet offerings, with potential designs as small as 8nm going forward. Intel is working with Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo, LG Electronics and Samsung to have both Android and Windows 8 tablets in the market by the holiday season of 2013 with Bay Trail quad-core processors.

Things weren't too great for Intel in 2012 when looking at the complete dominance of ARM-based processors in high-end devices, but the company doesn't seem to be holding back on its mobile product developments. Give it a couple more product cycles and Intel could begin to see some market share gain going forward.

Source: Intel (BusinessWire)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ok9Re83GkXI/story01.htm

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Sat, February 23, 2013 - China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy

The best of the Bay Area for KQED fans: discover events hand-picked by our editors, sponsored listings, and more.

The event you are looking for cannot be found.

From here you can:

1. Select a shaded day 17 from the mini-cal.
2. Use the mini-cal to Navigate forward > or backward < a month.
3. Click here to view this week's events.

Source: http://events.kqed.org/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=25007

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Star Wars Family Tree: Intergalactic Who&#39;s Who In The Universe ...

It?s a rainy, cold, lazy Saturday morning as I?m writing this, and if you are like me, sitting in front of your computer waiting to be entertained by something, I have a few ideas for you. If you are a cat person, you can learn the Kitty Lingo and jump into Caturday today on Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. If your taste is more geek and less meow, you might prefer to meander over this Star Wars family tree. It?s like a Who?s Who of the Star Wars galaxy.

The first chart below, which is viral at the moment, is a very basic Star Wars family tree created by Chart Geek. It takes into account some of the Star Wars family facts from the Star Wars Expanded Universe (those who came after Return of the Jedi), which may or may not come in handy when the new Star Wars movie is released.

I don?t know why, but after seeing that chart, I was itching for more. I wanted something more detailed, more graphic and more like what I would think a Star Wars family tree should look like. I went on a search, and I found it in Oky ? Space Ranger?s Flickr photostream. As this more detailed chart explains, ?Six films, a Jedi Council, a set of twins and a secret Sith lord ? Who?s related to whom and how? You need a Jedi mind trick ? or this guide ? to understand it.?

If you are hungry for even more Star Wars family tree goodness, I found a humongous chart which covers only the Skywalker family tree. It?s of course also based on the Star Wars Expanded Universe. You can check that one out by clicking over to Star Wars Atlas. Enjoy!

Via: [Laughing Squid] [Chart Geek] [Star Wars Atlas] [Flickr]

Source: http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/star-wars-family-tree/

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Alcatel One Touch Star hands-on

Alongside Alcatel's other launches today at Mobile World Congress the One Touch Star is another example of an affordable handset that still manages to maintain good looks with excellent fit an finish. Featuring a 4-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, quad-band GSM and 900 / 2100 UMTS, all powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU.

The handset is a little on the heavy side, but not in an awful way, more like a quality sort of feeling, reminiscent of iPhone's weight. Clever touches such as the corner tab being recessed a little more to get at the 1500mAh battery and SIM slots -- or dual-SIM slots when optioned with that -- is also a clever touch and just generally adds to the device's appeal. Of course the One Touch Star will be a budget phone but it is also a brilliant example of how lower pricing and excellent quality can coexist. Well done Alcatel, well done. No word on pricing but it is expected to begin shipping sometime in March 2013. A Gallery showing off the cranberry variety is just below the break.

Filed under: Cellphones

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/alcatel-one-touch-star-hands-on/

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US troops in Niger to set up drone base

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama said Friday that about 100 American troops have been deployed to the African nation of Niger. Two U.S. defense officials said the troops would be setting up a base for unarmed drones to conduct surveillance.

Obama announced the deployment in a letter to Congress, saying that the forces "will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region."

The move marks a deepening of U.S. efforts to stem the spread of al-Qaida and its affiliates in the volatile region. It also underscores Obama's desire to fight extremism without involving large numbers of U.S. ground forces.

The drone base will allow the U.S. to give France more intelligence on the militants its forces have been fighting in Mali, which neighbors Niger. Over time, it could extend the reach not only of American intelligence-gathering but also U.S. special operations missions to strengthen Niger's own security forces.

One of the two U.S. defense officials who discussed the development confirmed the American troops would fly drones and other surveillance platforms from Niger military airstrips, tracking militant and refugee movement inside Mali and around the border. The U.S. will share that intelligence with Niger's military, the official said.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the project.

The drones at the Niger base will be unarmed and used for surveillance, not airstrikes. Still, the development of a base in Niger raises the possibility that it could eventually be used for launching strikes.

Obama said in his letter to Congress that the U.S. forces have been deployed with the consent of Niger's government. The forces were also deployed with weapons "for their own force protection and security," the president said.

Last month, the U.S. and Niger signed a status-of-forces-agreement spelling out legal protections and obligations of American forces that might operate in Niger in the future.

Africa is increasingly a focus of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, even as al-Qaida remains a threat in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. Last month's terrorist attack on a natural gas complex in Algeria, in which at least 37 hostages and 29 militants were killed, illustrated the threat posed by extremists who have asserted power propelled by long-simmering ethnic tensions in Mali and the revolution in Libya.

A number of al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist groups operate in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahara, including a group known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, which originated in Algeria and is active in northern Mali. Last month, French forces intervened to stop the extremists' move toward Mali's capital, and Washington has grown more involved by providing a variety of military support to French troops.

France has said it will eventually pull out of its Mali operation so that African forces can help stabilize the West African country.

___

AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-22-US-Niger/id-d99f2870140c4e94a5e840a1987a81d3

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Obama and Netanyahu aid Khamenei?s campaign for Iran?s next president

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The Obama administration was unmoved by the IAEA finding that Iran had installed 180 advanced centrifuges had been installed at Natanz. Indeed, the White House said Thursday, Feb. 21 that ?a diplomatic solution is still possible? for resolving nuclear issues with Iran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report came out the next day: The new IR-1m centrifuges installed in Natanz were said to enrich uranium three times faster than the outdated machines used at Natanz until now, considerably shortening Tehran?s path to a nuclear bomb. The IAEA also noted faster than expected progress in setting up the Arak plant for producing plutonium.
These findings mean that the red line drawn by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before the UN General Assembly last September - when he said Iran must not be permitted to stock 250 kilos of near weapons-grade uranium of 20 percent purity ? is approaching faster than the ?late-spring-early summer? deadline he set for stopping Iran before it can build a nuclear bomb.
Yet, in the response to the IAEA finding of Thursday, Netanyahu?s office said only, that the report's findings "prove that Iran continues to advance quickly to the red line" and "Iran is closer than ever to achieving enrichment for a nuclear bomb."
Administration sources report that the US is continuing to push Iran for one-on-one talks after the six powers face Iran in Kazakhstan on Feb. 26 ? even though a secret round a couple of months ago was a flop. Gary Samore, the Obama aide who set it up, has since quit the White House and moved over to Harvard University.
Yet Barack Obama stands by diplomatic engagement and ?increased pressure? (sanctions) as the sole means of preventing Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. ?

Iran?s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has put the US president on the spot, debkafile?s intelligence sources report: He is calling in a debt. He respected Obama?s request to refrain from spoiling his campaign for reelection in November and held back from delivering the ?October surprise? widely predicted by US media.
Now, Tehran faces a presidential election in June and Khamenei wants to be sure that the US doesn?t upset his plans. His foremost aspiration is to block the path of the retiring president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?s in-law to the presidency and replace him with a nondescript, uncharismatic figure handpicked by himself who is also a competent administrator and qualified to haul Iran out of its economic morass. Not all of Iran?s troubles are caused by sanctions; Ahmadinejad?s reign has seen plenty of dysfunction and corruption.
Extreme violence is already bedeviling the Iranian campaign up to and including threats of assassination. The supreme ruler is bidding the Obama administration for some peace on quiet on the diplomatic front.
According to our sources, Iran?s stormy election campaign will hold Tehran back from any real diplomatic breakthrough or progress toward definitive nuclear weaponization until a new president is elected and forms a government, some time in the fall.
At the same time, the ayatollah is playing a complex double game by keeping diplomatic tensions high and avoiding any real dialogue with Washington. Indeed, he may even welcome tougher sanctions and military threats for boosting his candidate for president and letting Ahmadinejad?s candidate in for punishment at the hands of the suffering Iranian voter.
Hence, the crossed signals from Washington, Europe, Israel and the IAEA. On the one hand, alarm over Tehran?s rapid advance toward a nuclear weapon capability, while on the other, insistence on doing nothing substantial beyond futile palaver to stop it. All four are playing into the ayatollah?s hands.

Source: http://www.debka.com/article/22788/

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Interfaith Group To GOP Congressman: Stop Demonizing Islam http://thinkprogress....

Interfaith Group To GOP Congressman: Stop Demonizing Islam

thinkprogress.org

An interfaith group is speaking out against Rep. Louie Gohert?s (R-TX) claim on Thursday that Americans need the Second Amendment?s protection in order to shield the nation from Sharia Law.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational/posts/428119510599916

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A Mini mindset: how an automaker's Connected platform could spark a seismic shift in infotainment expectations

Mini sold some 66,000 vehicles in the United States last year, and despite being on American soil (in its current incarnation, anyway) for just 13 years, this market has quickly become its biggest. Those drawn to the brand are likely intrigued by, if not outright enamored of, its quirkiness. Mini likes to say that the company is "Not Normal," and it only takes a glance inside its cartoonish Countryman to see what that means.

During a recent kickoff event to celebrate the impending launch of its Paceman model, we sought to get beneath the sheet metal and gear ratios, instead looking at the kinds of decisions that impact the marriage of automobiles and technology. Turns out, Johnly Velasquez and Chris Potgieter -- two gentlemen in charge of determining what technology ends up in Mini products -- were more than happy to discuss those nuances. In particular, we discussed how those details relate to the future of its Connected platform, the role that infotainment plays in its entire range of motorcars and the opportunities that lie ahead for Mini to embrace alternative power.

Could Mini's prioritization of technology as a pillar of automotive manufacturing influence the entire industry? That's exactly what we'll explore just beyond the break.

Gallery: 2013 Mini Paceman launch gallery

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Source: Mini

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/21/mini-mindset-infotainment-connected-platform-future-innovation/

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Rwanda: Resident Shares Success Story During President's Visit

On a rainy day in Buruhukiro Sector, Nyamagabe District, thousands of residents braved the rain to meet President Paul Kagame on the first stop of his two day tour in the Southern Province.

Elias Uzabakiriho, 50, one such resident, is considered the best farmer in Nyamagabe. With only a primary school education, his first job was working in a farmer's project where he received 175 RwF per day ($0.26 USD). He eventually bought one hectare of land where he started to grow produce. It was hard labour without any return on investment as Nyamagabe has acidic soils. Before the genocide against the Tutsi, Nyamagabe received little government support which meant food shortages, hunger and premature death.

Today, Elias has 30 hectares of land. He grows potatoes, maize and wheat. In terms of potatoes, he produces about 360 tonnes per year. From this harvest, he distributes seeds to his neighbours, a testament to the pay it forward attitude that Rwanda's government has encouraged in programs such as the One Cow Per Poor Family (Girinka) program. The program provides cows to poor families who give the first born calf to a neighbour who eventually does the same. Elias himself owns 33 cows and has given 23 away.

He is particularly proud that his children, unlike himself, have been able to attend University. "Even I have had a chance to enhance my skills. I have attended training in Holland and Benin. Something I never thought I would be able to do," he said.

Not only is Nyamagabe self sufficient in terms of producing food for itself, the district now exports potatoes to neighbouring districts. "To achieve anything you have to change your mindset and work hard. I thank the government for creating policies that facilitate business that help change the lives of Rwandans like myself. I call upon all Rwandans to take advantage of this," Elias said.

President Kagame, speaking to residents of Nyamagabe, applauded the hard work of people such as Elias saying that they had been active in moving themselves and their district forward. "The government works with you, supports you, but you do the biggest part. It's an example of what you can do for yourselves and we encourage you to work together, pooling your strengths, and working with the government in its strategic plan; then everything is possible and the best is yet to come."

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201302211551.html

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Video: Schlabach recalls 2008 SEC tornado

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/76755/video-schlabach-recalls-2008-sec-tornado

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GRE Vocab and the Seven Deadly Sins: Part II - Avarice

An early sixteenth century Dutch depiction of the seven deadly sins, by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch.

Last time on GRE Vocab and the Seven Deadly Sins, we discussed words that have to do with the sin of lust and the virtue of chastity. This time, we move on to another deadly sin, avarice, and its corresponding heavenly virtue, charity.

What is avarice? In short, avarice means greed. It comes from the Latin verb avere, which means ?to crave.? If? someone is guilty of the sin of avarice, you would say that that person or that person?s behavior was avaricious. In Catholicism, avarice is the sin of excessive desire for wealth and material possessions, especially when accompanied by a disregard for the well-being of others. Theologically, it is seen as the rejection of heavenly, spiritual treasures in favor of worldly, material ones.

Avidity, cupidity, rapacity, and acquisitiveness are all synonyms of avarice. You may know the word avid, which is an adjective that means showing great enthusiasm for or interest in something, as in ?he is an avid reader.? The word avid came to the English language in the 1700s from the French word avide, which in turn was derived from?the Latin verb avere, the same root from which avarice is derived. It?s interesting to see how these two words evolved to have rather different meanings and connotations even though they come from the same root. Avid has lost its sinful connotations and has come to mean ?enthusiastic,? whereas avarice is an official deadly sin. Avidity, a noun form of the adjective avid, retains the meaning of greed, however.

You might think that the word cupidity would have something to do with love, since it has the name Cupid in it, and in Roman mythology Cupid was the son of the goddess of love, Venus, and he famously would cause people to fall in love with each other by shooting his arrows into their hearts. Originally, in Latin the word cupiditas (which derives from the Latin verb cupere, which means to desire, and is also a root of concupiscent, which you may remember from the post on lust) did have erotic overtones; the Romans sometimes gave their gods names that were literally the words for the abstract forces they were supposed to control, and so Cupid literally meant ?desire.? Another name for him was Amor, which literally meant ?love.? When the word moved from Latin to English in the 1400s, the desire for flesh transformed into a desire for gold. Cupidity today always means greed.

Rapacity is another word for greed. The adjective form of this word is rapacious, and you may have noticed that these words sound like another word you know: rape. All of these words derive from the Latin verb rapere, which means ?to seize.? The word ?rape? first entered what was then Middle English in the 1200s from French, which inherited the word from Latin itself. Given this organic evolution and the violent nature of life in the Dark Ages, it is not surprising that the word came to refer to the forcible? seizing of women. The words rapacity and rapacious, however, entered English directly from Latin some 400 years later during the 1600s, and were probably invented by Latin speaking scholars. These words thus retained more of their original, unsexualized, Latin meanings of seizing things in general, and over time came to refer to insatiable and even violent greed for material wealth.

The Worship of Mammon, by Evelyn de Morgan. Mammon was a demon associated with avarice.

Acquisitiveness, or the quality of being acquisitive,? also refers to the desire to amass material possessions, although it does not necessarily have as negative a connotation as the other words we have been discussing. An innocent stamp collector, for instance, could be in an acquisitive mood when she goes shopping for stamps on eBay. It can also, however, have nasty, greedy overtones depending on the context in which it is used. You may have noticed the word ?acquire? lurking in these words. Acquire derives from the synonymous Latin verb aqcuirere, which has changed little over the years as you can see.

Avarice isn?t just about acquiring lots of stuff, though; it?s also about hoarding it all to yourself and refusing to share with others. The words miserliness, niggardliness, parsimoniousness, and penuriousness all have to do with this other aspect of greediness. A miser is a person who hoards money for its own sake and doesn?t even enjoy it. Ebeneezer Scrooge, from Charles Dickens? A Christmas Carol,? is the ultimate miser (at least, until he gets some ghostly visits on Christmas Eve). Even though he is very rich, he refuses to spend money on coal to heat his offices properly, and his own home is shabby, drab, and dark. As the narrator informs us, ?Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it.? If a person behaves like a miser, you might call him or his actions miserly, and the quality of being miserly is miserliness. In Latin, miser originally meant wretched. You might also call a miser a skinflint, a pinchpenny, a tightwad, a cheapskate, or a niggard.

A what?! Despite what you may think, the word niggard has absolutely no relation to the denigrating racial epithet that derives from the word ?negro.? Niggard comes from the Middle English word nyggard, which in turn came from the old Swedish word nygg, which simply meant stingy. Niggardly is a synonym of miserly, and niggardliness is a synonym of miserliness. The word ?negro? came from the Spanish and Portuguese words for the color black, which were in turn were derived from the Latin word for black, niger. Even though the two words have completely different etymologies and meanings, the word niggard has fallen out of use in public speech because it sounds a lot like that other word, although sometimes it still can occur in written language where the distinction between the two words is clear. While this word is most likely disappearing from the English language, the GRE can still test you on it, so you still have to know it.

As a final note on avarice, I offer you this charming song from Gounod?s Faust, in which the demon Mephistopheles encourages the village folk to worship the Golden Calf, a symbol of money and greed from the Old Testament. It?s pretty catchy:

In Catholicism, the heavenly virtue meant to combat the sin of avarice is charity. According to the Roman Catholic Church, charity is not only the action of giving away money and possessions to the poor; the Latin word caritas from which the English word charity is derived is a synonym of the Greek word agape, which in Christian texts refers to universal love for all humanity. Charity is thus a form of love for humanity that is the opposite of the selfishness implied by greed or avarice. Words that relate to the heavenly virtue of charity include philanthropy, altruism, largesse, liberality, and munificence.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a Guilded Age steel magnate who gave away the equivalent of 4.8 billion 2010 USD throughout his life to various projects, including Carnegie Hall, Carnegie-Mellon University, and countless public libraries.

A philanthropist is a rich person who gives away lots of money to charity. Philanthropy is this form of charitable giving. Philanthropy derives from the Greek roots philia and anthro. Philia is another Greek word for love (it specifically describes the kind of love that friends have for each other), and anthro means human (anthropology is the study of human cultures, for instance). A philanthropist is thus someone who loves humanity (and shows it by giving away lots of money). A misanthrope, on the other hand, is someone who hates humanity (in Greek, mis- indicates hatred. A misogynist is someone who hates women, for example).

Altruism is, according to the Random House dictionary, the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others. It was most likely coined by the nineteenth-century French writer Auguste Comte, who derived it from the Latin word alter, or ?other.? Altruism is thus ?other-ism? as opposed to egoism, which is ?I-ism? (ego is the Latin word for ?I?). An altruist is thus a person who puts the needs of others before his own needs, and might even go so far as to sacrifice his own well-being in order to help others. Such heroic deeds could be described as altruistic.

An allegory of Charity, presented as a mother by the painter Anthony van Dyck.

Largesse or largess is the generous bestowal of gifts, and this word was originally a French word that came to English in the late 1100s, and was probably first used in the context of feudal relationships. As you might guess, it has the same root as the word ?large:? largus, a Latin word meaning ample or generous. Liberality, while it does contain the word ?liberal,? is not an inherently political term. The word liberal derives from the Latin word liber, which means free. Back in the day, the word liberal referred to all sorts of qualities having to do with freedom, including freedom of thought and open-mindedness (as in the liberal arts) and freedom with one?s money, or generosity. Later, over the course of the eighteenth century, it came to be associated with proponents of political reforms and especially democratic government. Since then political liberalism has evolved in a number of different directions and can mean many things today, but, as modern political liberals like to point out, the word still carries many of its older meanings as well.

Munificence is the quality of being munificent, or unusually generous. It derives from the Latin word munificus, which means generous, bountiful, liberal. A generous person can be said to be munificent, and an especially generous gift can be said to be munificent as well.

That wraps up our discussion of avarice and charity for today. Remember, if you want even more help with trick GRE Vocab words, you can study them with me or another GRE expert through Test Masters. Until next time, happy studying!

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Source: http://www.newgre.org/uncategorized/gre-vocab-deadly-sins-part-ii-avarice/

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Armstrong won't interview with USADA

FILE - In this July 28, 2006 file photo, Lance Armstrong testifies during a U.S. Senate field hearing on cancer research and funding in Iowa City, Iowa. Armstrong is facing a Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 deadline to decide whether he will meet with U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials and talk with them under oath about what he knows about performance-enhancing drug use in cycling. The agency has said Armstrong's cooperation in its cleanup effort is the only path open to Armstrong if his lifetime ban from sports it to be reduced.(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - In this July 28, 2006 file photo, Lance Armstrong testifies during a U.S. Senate field hearing on cancer research and funding in Iowa City, Iowa. Armstrong is facing a Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 deadline to decide whether he will meet with U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials and talk with them under oath about what he knows about performance-enhancing drug use in cycling. The agency has said Armstrong's cooperation in its cleanup effort is the only path open to Armstrong if his lifetime ban from sports it to be reduced.(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - In this May 5, 2009 file photo, Lance Armstrong speaks during a press conference following a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, in Rome. Armstrong is facing a Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 deadline to decide whether he will meet with U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials and talk with them under oath about what he knows about performance-enhancing drug use in cycling. The agency has said Armstrong's cooperation in its cleanup effort is the only path open to Armstrong if his lifetime ban from sports it to be reduced. (AP Photo/Sandro Pace, File)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Lance Armstrong won't do a tell-all interview under oath with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to reveal everything he knows about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in cycling.

USADA officials had told Armstrong he must speak with them if he wanted to reduce his lifetime ban from sports. Under their offer, Wednesday was the deadline for him to agree to the interview.

Armstrong attorney Tim Herman said that, after two months of negotiations, the cyclist refused participate in a process designed "only to demonize selected individuals."

Armstrong said previously he is willing to participate in an international effort to clean up a sport that is based mostly in Europe.

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said the agency had expected Armstrong would agree to talk and would be "moving on" without him.

"Over the last few weeks he has led us to believe that he wanted to come in and assist USADA, but was worried of potential criminal and civil liability if he did so," Tygart said. "Today we learned from the media that Mr. Armstrong is choosing not to come in and be truthful and that he will not take the opportunity to work toward righting his wrongs in sport."

For more than a decade, Armstrong denied using performance-enhancing drugs. But last year, USADA released a report that detailed extensive doping on his seven Tour de France-winning teams and stripped him of those titles. Armstrong then admitted last month in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he doped to win those races.

He still faces several legal challenges.

Armstrong was the subject of a two-year federal grand jury investigation that was dropped a year ago without an indictment, but the Department of Justice is still considering whether to join a federal whistle-blower lawsuit filed by former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis.

Armstrong also has been sued by a Dallas-based SCA Promotions to recover more than $12 million in bonuses. And he has been sued by The Sunday Times in London to recover a libel judgment that Armstrong won against the paper.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-20-CYC-Armstrong-Doping/id-afaf4bb6158549af83df18596ddf7d9c

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