BERLIN (Reuters) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel will use a planned visit to China this week to encourage Beijing to reduce its imports of Iranian oil, a German government source said on Tuesday.
Last week, the European Union agreed to ban from July 1 all imports of oil from Iran, OPEC's second largest producer, in a drive to pressure Tehran into reining in its nuclear activities.
"It is in German interests that China does not raise its imports (from Iran). It would be good if China would reduce its imports," the government source told a news briefing ahead of Merkel's trip to China that begins on Wednesday.
China has criticized the EU ban, saying it is "not a constructive approach."
Beijing, the world's second largest crude consumer, has long opposed unilateral sanctions that target Iran's energy sector and has tried to reduce tensions that could threaten its oil supply.
The 27-nation EU delayed until July the entry into force of the oil import ban because it also wants to avoid penalizing the ailing economies of Italy, Greece and others for whom Iran is a major oil supplier.
The EU strategy will be reviewed in May to see whether it should go ahead.
Western powers accuse Iran of planning to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes.
(Reporting by Matthias Sobolewski and Gareth Jones; editing by James Jukwey)
Tripp Roth, a Pontchatoula, La., toddler who had junctional epidermolysis bullosa, died Saturday, ABC News reported. Here are details for parents dealing with this illness, dubbed "the worst disease you didn't know about."
* Epidermolysis bullosa is one of a family of inherited skin disorders in which the skin blisters in response to minor injury, says the National Library of Medicine. Varieties of the condition can range from mild to severe and deadly. Mild cases may not be caught until adulthood, but most forms are identified at birth or in childhood. Some types are linked to Crohn's Disease (an inflammatory bowel disorder) and autoimmune problems.
* According to Tripp's mother Courtney Roth, who wrote about her son's illness in her blog "EB"ing a Mommy, doctors said her son was diagnosed with epidermolysis bullosa when they noticed a lesion on his face and several blackened fingernails. Roth gives advice for other parents on her blog.
* Roth says children with EB can get blisters anywhere on the body but mostly on the face, eyelids, mucus membranes, esophagus, genital and rectal area. Some children's eyelids fuse shut from lack of skin-repair proteins and repeated scarring. Scarring will also cause skin on fingers and toes to fuse together, making movement difficult, says NLM. As the disease progresses, a feeding tube might be inserted because feeding by mouth is too painful. Throat and mouth lesions make speech challenging.
* Tripp died at two years and eight months. That's almost two years longer than most doctors give children with severe junctional EB. The disease degenerates quickly because the skin becomes so thin. In time, only the slightest pressure is needed for a blister to form.
* There is no known cure for EB, but the Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association says genetic research is showing some promise for gene transfer, stem cell use and protein therapy. Clinical Trials is exploring Alwextin cream for relief of blister pain. Current treatment involves symptom care and preventative measures to reduce infection.
* Parents with a family history epidermolysis bullosa may want to explore genetic testing and counseling to explore the possibility of transmission to children, says NLM.
* NLM lists several recommendations for parents caring for a child with EB. Bandaging the skin and using topical ointments can prevent infection and further blistering. Good nutrition is essential as blisters prevent children from eating comfortably. Soft foods are recommended and temporary use of oral steroids can help children swallow more comfortably. Physical therapy, particularly aqua therapy, can help soothe lesions and help children with mobility issues from scar-damaged tissue. DEBRA says parents should be mindful of good oral care, as children's teeth are often affected by the disease, too.
Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about parenting from 23 years raising four children and 25 years teaching K-8, special needs, adult education and home-school.
WASHINGTON ? Determined to weaken Iran economically, a top Senate Democrat and Republican on Monday unveiled a bill to impose sweeping new penalties on Tehran and thwart its nuclear ambitions.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the panel's top Republican, said they had agreed on the measure that would target Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, require companies that trade on the U.S. stock exchange to disclose any Iran-related business to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and expand penalties for energy and uranium mining joint ventures with Tehran.
The bill also would deny visas and freeze assets on individuals and companies that supply Iran with technology that could be used to crack down on its citizens, such as tear gas, rubber bullets and surveillance equipment.
Johnson and Shelby said their committee would consider the legislation on Thursday.
"A nuclear-armed Iran would represent a grave threat to regional peace and international security," Johnson said in a joint statement with Shelby. "Iran's continuing defiance of its international legal obligations and refusal to come clean on its nuclear program underscore the need to further isolate Iran and its leaders."
Shelby said the bill "sends a clear signal through strong measures that Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons program and its designs for the spread of international terror."
A report in November suggested that some of the Islamic Republic's alleged experiments could have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons. Iran contends that its program is designed to generate electricity, not build weapons. A U.N. inspection team currently is in the country.
Both the Obama administration and the international community have imposed tough sanctions on Iran. Johnson and Shelby said those penalties have been insufficient in deterring Tehran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Among the provisions of the legislation is an expansion of U.S. sanctions to include companies involved in joint energy ventures anywhere in the world in which Tehran is a significant partner or investor. The penalties also would apply if Iran receives energy technology or information that wasn't previously available to the government.
Penalties also would be imposed on companies involved in a joint venture with Iran in the mining, production or transportation of uranium. Individuals who agree to abandon such projects within six months would be exempt from the penalties.
The legislation would require the president to identify and designate officials, affiliates and agents of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. These individuals would be subject to sanctions and barred from the United States. Individuals or companies that engage in transactions with the Revolutionary Guard Corps, even through bartering, also would be subject to sanctions.
Penalties also would be mandatory for shippers or insurers who knowingly aid the shipment of materials that contribute to Iran's weapons of mass destruction or terrorism-related activities.
The bill is likely to garner strong bipartisan support. Last year, the Senate voted 100-0 for a measure sponsored by Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to the annual defense bill that targeted financial institutions that do business with Iran's Central Bank. President Barack Obama signed the wide-ranging defense bill on Dec. 31.
KHARTOUM, Sudan ? Sudanese officials say that 14 Chinese road workers have been freed by Sudan's military, two days after they were reportedly abducted by militants in a remote region in the country's south. The Chinese embassy said that a total of 29 had gone missing.
State-run Radio Omdurman on Monday quoted South Kordofan governor Ahmed Mohamed Haroun as saying that Sudanese forces "liberated" the workers, who were in good health.
The report, which is also carried by Sudan's SUNA news agency, says that the army is searching for the remaining missing workers.
A Chinese embassy spokesman said Sunday that the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, a guerrilla force which has fought for decades against Khartoum regimes, had announced that it carried out the abductions.
TEHRAN?? Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions on Sunday, vowing to stop oil exports soon to "some" countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to such sales to the European Union.
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The Islamic Republic declared itself optimistic about a visit by U.N. nuclear experts that began on Sunday but also warned the inspectors to be "professional" or see Tehran reducing cooperation with the world body on atomic matters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection delegation will seek to advance efforts to resolve a row about nuclear work which Iran says is for making electricity but the West suspects is aimed at seeking a nuclear weapon.
Tensions with the West rose this month when Washington and the European Union (EU) imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear program. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC's second biggest oil exporter to sell its crude.
In a remark suggesting Iran would fight sanctions with sanctions, Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would soon stop exporting crude to "some" countries.
Rostam Qasemi did not identify the countries but was speaking less than a week after the EU's 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1.
"Soon we will cut exporting oil to some countries," the state news agency IRNA quoted Qasemi as saying.
Iranian lawmakers had been due to debate a bill on Sunday that could have cut off oil supplies to the EU in days, in a move calculated to hit ailing European economies before the EU-wide ban on took effect.
But Iranian MPs postponed discussing the measure.
"No such draft bill has yet been drawn up and nothing has been submitted to the parliament. What exists is a notion by the deputies which is being seriously pursued to bring it to a conclusive end," Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament's Energy Committee, told Mehr.
Iranian officials say sanctions have had no impact on the country.
"Iranian oil has its own market, even if we cut our exports to Europe," oil minister Qasemi said.
Another lawmaker, Mohammad Karim Abedi, said the bill would oblige the government to cut Iran's oil supplies to the European Union for five to 15 years, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
By turning the sanctions back on the EU, lawmakers hope to deny the bloc a six-month window it had planned to give those of its members most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile in southern Europe - to adapt.
The Mehr news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying during a trip to Ethiopia: "We are very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA delegation's visit to Iran ... Their questions will be answered during this visit."
"We have nothing to hide and Iran has no clandestine (nuclear) activities."
Striking a sterner tone, Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned the IAEA team to carry out a "logical, professional and technical" job or suffer the consequences.
"This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally," said Larijani, state media reported.
"Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency."
Iran's parliament in the past has approved bills to oblige the government to review its level of cooperation with the IAEA. However, Iran's top officials have always underlined the importance of preserving ties with the watchdog body.
Before departing from Vienna, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said he hoped the Islamic state would tackle the watchdog's concerns "regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program."
The head of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said late on Saturday that the export embargo would hit European refiners, such as Italy's Eni, that are owed oil from Iran as part of long-standing buy-back contracts under which they take payment for past oilfield projects in crude.
"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," Ahmad Qalebani told the ISNA news agency. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."
Italy's Eni is owed $1.4-1.5 billion in oil for contracts it executed in Iran in 2000 and 2001 and has been assured by EU policymakers its buyback contracts will not be part of the European embargo, but the prospect of Iran acting first may put that into doubt.
Eni declined to comment on Sunday.
The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. However, analysts say the global oil market will not be overly disrupted if parliament votes for the bill that would turn off the oil tap for Europe.
Potentially more disruptive to the world oil market and global security is the risk of Iran's standoff with the West escalating into military conflict.
Iran has repeatedly said it could close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if sanctions succeed in preventing it from exporting crude, a move Washington said it would not tolerate.
The IAEA's visit may be an opportunity to defuse some of the tension. Director General Yukiya Amano has called on Iran to show a "constructive spirit" and Tehran has said it is willing to discuss "any issues" of interest to the U.N. agency, including the military-linked concerns.
But Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of using such offers of dialogue as a stalling tactic while it presses ahead with its nuclear program, say they doubt Tehran will show the kind of concrete cooperation the IAEA wants.
They say Iran may offer limited concessions and transparency to try to ease intensifying international pressure, but that this is unlikely to amount to the full cooperation required.
The outcome could determine whether Iran will face further isolation or whether there are prospects for resuming wider talks between Tehran and the major powers on the nuclear row.
Salehi said Iran "soon" would write a letter to the E.U.'s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to discuss "a date and venue" for fresh nuclear talks.
"Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in this letter, which may be sent in the coming days, also may mention other issues as well," Salehi said, without elaborating.
The last round of talks in January 2011 between Jalili and Ashton, who represents major powers, failed over Iran's refusal to halt its sensitive nuclear work.
"The talks will be successful as the other party seems interested in finding a way out of this deadlock," Salehi said.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Park police used a Taser to subdue an anti-Wall Street protester during an arrest at a park near the White House on Sunday as tension rose ahead of a police order for the demonstrators to stop camping in the parks overnight.
"He was arrested for disorderly conduct. In the course of the arrest he was tased," Park police spokesman David Schlosser said, adding that he had no additional information on the man who was taken into custody.
The National Park Service has said it will begin enforcing a ban on Occupy protesters from camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, two parks just blocks from the White House where they have been living since October.
That order, if carried out as promised starting at noon on Monday, could be a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement, which denounces economic inequality.
Earlier on Sunday, Park Police posted notices on tents indicating their intent to start enforcing a ban on sleeping in the park overnight, the Washington protest group said.
A spokeswoman for the movement said police singled out, detained and tased a man who goes by the name "Lash" after protesters began removing the notices from tents. The group posted video of the incident on its website.
Sara Shaw, 24, said the group would "maintain a presence in the park," but she did not indicate whether Occupy members intended to defy the camping restrictions.
The so-called "Occupy" protests against economic inequality began last year in New York and have spread across the country. More than 400 people were arrested on Saturday night in Oakland, California during clashes with police. But protests have been peaceful in most cities, including Washington.
(Reporting By JoAnne Allen; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Greg McCune)
ST. LOUIS ? Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.
The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation's first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.
"It's not necessarily overdue, it's just the right thing," said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.
Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including "Welcome Home" and "Thanks to our Service Men and Women." Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.
Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands ? even the Budweiser Clydesdales ? joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.
That was the hope of organizers Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum. Neither man has served in the military but came up with the idea after noticing there had been little fanfare for returning Iraq War veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases. No ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations.
Appelbaum, an attorney, and Schneider, a school district technical coordinator, decided something needed to be done. So they sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. The grassroots effort resulted in a huge turnout despite raising only about $35,000 and limited marketing.
That marketing included using a photo of Radford being welcomed home from his second tour in Iraq by his then-6-year-old daughter. The girl had reached up, grabbed his hand and said, "I missed you, daddy." Radford's sister caught the moment with her cellphone camera, and the image graced T-shirts and posters for the parade.
Veterans came from around the country, and more than 100 entries ? including marching bands, motorcycle groups and military units ? signed up ahead of the event, Appelbaum said.
Schneider said he was amazed how everyone, from city officials to military organizations to the media, embraced the parade.
"It was an idea that nobody said no to," he said. "America was ready for this."
All that effort by her hometown was especially touching for Gayla Gibson, a 38-year-old Air Force master sergeant who said she spent four months in Iraq ? seeing "amputations, broken bones, severe burns from IEDs" ? as a medical technician in 2003.
"I think it's great when people come out to support those who gave their lives and put their lives on the line for this country," Gibson said.
With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed ? suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming. In New York, for example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said there would be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.
But in St. Louis, there was clearly a mood to thank the troops with something big, even among those opposed to the war.
"Most of us were not in favor of the war in Iraq, but the soldiers who fought did the right thing and we support them," said 72-year-old Susan Cunningham, who attended the parade with the Missouri Progressive Action Group. "I'm glad the war is over and I'm glad they're home."
Don Lange, 60, of nearby Sullivan, held his granddaughter along the parade route. His daughter was a military interrogator in Iraq.
"This is something everyplace should do," Lange said as he watched the parade.
Several veterans of the Vietnam War turned out to show support for the younger troops. Among them was Don Jackson, 63, of Edwardsville, Ill., who said he was thrilled to see the parade honoring Iraq War veterans like his son, Kevin, who joined him at the parade. The 33-year-old Air Force staff sergeant said he'd lost track of how many times he had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a flying mechanic.
"I hope this snowballs," he said of the parade. "I hope it goes all across the country. I only wish my friends who I served with were here to see this."
Looking at all the people around him in camouflage, 29-year-old veteran Matt Wood said he felt honored. He served a year in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard.
"It's extremely humbling, it's amazing, to be part of something like this with all of these people who served their country with such honor," he said.
SARASOTA, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich has staked his presidential bid on one idea: that he is best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama. Even some of his supporters seem to be struggling to buy the former House speaker's claim, an indication that chief rival Mitt Romney's efforts to undercut him may be working.
"Beating Obama is more important than everything else," Patrick Roehl, a 51-year-old computer software engineer, said in the midst of a packed Gingrich rally inside a Sarasota airport hangar this week. "Can Newt win? I'm not sure. He's got a lot of high negatives. The elections are won and lost in the middle. I'm not sure he appeals to the middle."
John Grainger, a 44-year-old assistant golf pro, doesn't like Romney. But he's having trouble shaking skepticism about Gingrich.
"I want to be a Newt supporter," he said. "This guy's going to have the guts to stand up and speak his piece ? no holds barred." But Grainger said he wasn't quite ready to back the former House speaker.
Interviews with more than a dozen Republican voters at Gingrich's overflowing rallies this week suggest that while many Florida voters love his brash style as they look for someone to take it to Obama, they also have lingering doubts about whether the Republican's intellectual bomb-throwing alone will make him the strongest Obama opponent.
Romney and his allies have spent a week working to stoke those doubts with Florida Republicans ahead of Tuesday's primary. And the GOP's establishment wing has started to help the former Massachusetts governor make that case by castigating Gingrich at every turn.
On television and on the campaign trail, Romney and his allies have steadily highlighted Gingrich's liabilities ? consulting contracts and ethics investigations among them. And they've suggested that more baggage could emerge in the fall, when the Republican nominee would be at the height of a general election battle against Obama.
"In the case of the speaker, he's got some records which could represent an October surprise," Romney said this week, referring to Gingrich's consulting work and ethics allegations when he was in the House. "We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich."
An outside group dedicated to helping Romney has spent almost $9 million on Florida television advertising, including a massive $4 million investment this week alone, to make the case even more explicitly.
"Newt Gingrich's tough talk sounds good, but Newt has tons of baggage. How will he ever beat Obama?" says the new ad from the so-called super PAC, Restore Our Future.
Gingrich, to be sure, is not letting such criticism go unanswered. He's telling everyone ? on the trail, in television interviews, on conference calls and in fundraising messages ? that he alone can defeat Obama. He points to his 12 percentage point victory in the South Carolina primary as proof.
Exit polling there showed that the majority of Republican voters, 51 percent, said that Gingrich was better suited to defeat the Democratic president.
"Their highest value was beating Obama," Gingrich told evangelical voters this week. "And if they thought Romney was the only person who could beat Obama, then they would swallow a lie. But the minute they thought there were two people who could beat Obama, they suddenly turned and said, Well, you know, maybe we should be for Newt."
Polls suggest that Gingrich could defeat Romney in Florida, a surge fueled partly by growing support from the tea party movement and continued anti-Romney sentiment. Gingrich drew massive crowds at venues across Florida this week.
But in those swelling crowds were conservatives who said they were drawn less by Gingrich's electability than his fiery rhetoric.
"He's a fighter. Mitt, I think, is too wishy-washy," said Dominique Boscia, a 43-year-old unemployed woman from Lakewood Ranch. "I like feisty people. I like people who have spunk."
That's certainly Gingrich. For months, he has used aggressive debate performances to fuel his underdog candidacy. He has consistently thrilled conservatives by promising to take the fight directly to Obama in a series of free-form debates modeled after the 1860 meetings between Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
Should Obama refuse, Gingrich says he'll follow the president on the campaign trail until he agrees.
That gets good applause lines at rallies. But a closer look at polling suggests that a debate beat down doesn't necessarily mean Gingrich can beat the president in an election that will include independents and Democrats.
Gingrich struggled among independents in a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, in which 53 percent gave him unfavorable marks and just 22 percent had a favorable opinion of the former House speaker. While Romney has typically polled better among independents, the poll ? conducted between Jan. 18 and 22 ? found virtually no difference: 51 percent of independents viewed him unfavorably, compared with 23 with favorable views.
But when all Florida voters, including independents and Democrats, are asked to weigh in, Romney appears to have a strong advantage over Gingrich, according to a poll conducted by Suffolk University-WSVN-TV Miami. Romney would defeat Obama here 47 percent to 42 percent; Gingrich would lose, earning just 40 percent to Obama's 49 percent of likely Florida general election voters.
WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney accuses Newt Gingrich of calling Spanish a "ghetto language." Close, but not quite.
Gingrich denies doing so and said he merely promoted the use of English, "period." That's even more of a stretch.
The last Republican presidential debate before the GOP Florida primary Thursday brought viewers a blitz of charges and countercharges over immigration, the financial lives of the candidates and more. Here are how some of the claims compare with the facts:
GINGRICH: "It's taken totally out of context.... I did not say it about Spanish. I said in general about all languages. We are better for children to learn English in general, period."
THE FACTS: At issue is Romney's Spanish-language radio ad running in Florida that says Gingrich branded Spanish a ghetto language in a 2007 speech. In the contentious remarks in question, much more came after Gingrich's "period."
In his speech to the National Federation of Republican Women, Gingrich advocated making English the official language, a position he still holds, and added: "We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."
He did not explicitly call Spanish a ghetto language. But at the time, the remark was widely taken to mean Spanish, overwhelmingly the main foreign language spoken in the United States and the primary language of many immigrants.
Gingrich recognized as much when, in response to a Hispanic backlash against his remark, he made an online video days after the speech in which he more or less apologized for his choice of words and for producing "a bad feeling within the Latino community."
___
ROMNEY on the same topic: "I doubt that's my ad, but we'll take a look and find out."
THE FACTS: It's his ad.
___
RICK SANTORUM: "You had a president of the United States that held (up) a Colombian free trade agreement. Colombia, who's out there on the front lines working with us against the narco-terrorists, standing up to Chavez in South America ? and what did we do? ... The president of the United States sided with organized labor and the environmental groups and held Colombia hanging out to dry for three years."
THE FACTS: When President Barack Obama took office, he actually tried to revive a free-trade deal with Colombia that had been negotiated by his Republican predecessor but left to languish without congressional approval, just as he tried to make similar progress with South Korean and Panamanian free-trade pacts. He bucked considerable opposition from organized labor and fellow Democrats in doing so.
Obama did hold off on submitting the three deals to Congress as his administration tried to negotiate more palatable terms to Democrats. He finally submitted them in 2011 and Congress approved them in the fall ? with substantial GOP support and a fair amount of Democratic opposition.
___
ROMNEY: Fannie and Freddie are "offering mortgages again to people who can't possibly repay them. We're creating another housing bubble, which will hurt the American people."
THE FACTS: If there is another housing bubble forming, most homebuilders, mortgage lenders and real estate agents would like to find it. Instead, the housing market remains depressed, with sales low and home prices falling.
Fannie and Freddie don't sell or offer any mortgages. Their function has always been to support the housing market by purchasing mortgages from banks, packaging them into bonds and guaranteeing the bonds against default. This proved costly when the housing bubble burst: The two entities were formally taken over by the government in 2008 and have since cost taxpayers $150 billion.
The two mortgage giants are still functioning under government receivership, and now own or guarantee nearly all new mortgages, because banks are reluctant to make loans without the agencies' support. But banks have significantly toughened their credit standards since the housing bubble and are requiring higher credit scores and bigger down payments. That is causing an increasing number of home sales contracts to fall through as would-be buyers are unable to get mortgage loans.
___
SANTORUM: Criticized the Obama administration for its "abysmal treatment" of allies in Latin America, and said Obama has a "consistent policy of siding with the leftists, siding with the Marxists, siding with those who don't support democracy."
THE FACTS: Obama has not sided with the leading leftists, such as those ruling Cuba and Venezuela, and instead has roundly criticized them.
It's true that Latin America has been on the back burner for much of Obama's tenure, as he concentrated on other parts of the world, including the Middle East. But Obama visited three countries in Latin America last year, and the Panamanian and Colombian trade agreements were part of the biggest round of trade liberalization since the North American Free Trade Agreement and other pacts of that era.
___
ROMNEY: "My investments are not made by me. My investments for the last 10 years have been in a blind trust, managed by a trustee."
THE FACTS: Not all of his investments have been in a blind trust. Romney's personal financial disclosure forms show he owned between $250,001 and $500,000 in the Federated Government Obligation Fund, which contained mutual-fund notes of politically sensitive Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. An addendum to Romney' disclosure forms says that certain assets ? including the federated fund ? were outside the scope of his blind trust.
The investment was not on Romney's 2007 financial form, making it a relatively new one ? just as the housing and financial crises were hitting Americans full force.
___
RON PAUL: Obama "promises to end the wars, but the wars expand."
THE FACTS: By the most obvious measures, the wars are shrinking. Last month, the U.S. pulled its last troops out of Iraq, fulfilling a pledge by Obama to end the war there.
Obama did escalate America's fight in Afghanistan, announcing in December 2009 that he was sending an additional 33,000 troops.
The U.S. and its NATO partners in late 2010 agreed to end the combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. As part of that plan, Obama fulfilled his promise to bring 10,000 troops home from Afghanistan by the end of last year, and is moving ahead with plans to pull an additional 23,000 out by this fall. There are now about 90,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Lolita C. Baldor, Jim Drinkard, Christopher S. Rugaber and Jack Gillum contributed to this report.
CHEMISTRY COMMENTARY
In reading ?Toxins All around Us,? by Patricia Hunt [Forum], and the text pertaining to how the environment influences our genes in ?10 Unsolved Mysteries,? by Philip Ball, I wonder about the following: If toxins in the environment are affecting our bodies in a negative way, as Hunt in particular asserts, and if some genes that were heretofore inactive are now being reactivated in response to chemicals in the environment, as Ball refers to, might these newly activated genes allow us to evolve to cope with all these toxic exposures? Perhaps that?s what they are there for. Maybe our bodies of the future will be able to be healthy within this toxic mix. John Maas Rua Ernesto do Oliveira S?o Paulo, Brazil
Regarding the discussion of biofuels in ?10 Unsolved Mysteries,? you seem just as unwilling as other publications to discuss the economic law of diminishing returns. I don?t know exactly when this law became taboo, but technology-related reporting is especially notorious in this regard. Given the time and money spent researching biofuels, hybrid engines, hydrogen fuel-cell technology, and the like, it seems reasonable to suppose that, at some point, all this effort could be better spent investing in something like effective mass transit. David R. Witzling via e-mail
DARKNESS AND LIGHT
In ?The Dark Side of the Milky Way,? Leo Blitz states that what dark matter consists of ?remains as elusive as ever,? that the most conservative analysis is that it ?consists of an exotic particle not yet detected in particle accelerators? and that it ?reveals itself solely by its gravitational influence.?
A person familiar with the history of physics cannot help but think of the ?ether?: that equally mysterious ?substance? scientists of the 19th century supposed must exist, even though it could not be detected, to explain how light, then thought of exclusively as a wave, could propagate through space. The understanding of the dual nature of light made the ether?s existence unnecessary. We should thus not be surprised if a future, more complete theory of the nature of gravity, space and time will also render dark matter nothing more than a historic construct. Harvey Smith Carrollton, Tex.
Blitz replies: It remains possible that modifications to Einstein?s general theory of relativity could be responsible for the various phenomena that dark matter is invoked to explain. Nevertheless, despite the example of the ether, the history of astronomy is replete with dark objects that were later identified by other means. These include Neptune and the companion of Sirius, both of which, like dark matter, were first identified by their gravitational effects alone.
SCENT AND SENSIBILITY
While reading ?The Scent of Your Thoughts,? by Deborah Blum, I was somewhat startled to read a comment on University of Chicago researcher Martha McClintock?s ?friendly face and flyaway hair? and later a description of her clothes (?She wears a tweedy jacket over a bright, patterned shirt?). What has her appearance got to do with her considerable achievements as a scientist? I suspect that if she had been male, such comments would not have been written, and they are irrelevant, irrespective of gender. If I had read this in my local newspaper, I would have just rolled my eyes and sighed. Based on the usual standard of writing in Scientific American, such comments have no place in your journal. Sam Vincent Auckland, New Zealand
There are plenty of off-the-shelf controllers out there, but what if you fancy something a little more... you? How about fully customized, with a good seasoning of affordability and style? Design student Alex S has built a framework to help you build just that. The units shown above are for DJ-based programs, but you can create interfaces for any software that takes HID or MIDI input, and as they're modular, create endless ultra-custom set-ups. Keen to dismantle any technical barriers, Alex created a step-by-step Instructable, but you'll still need to get your hands dirty with Arduino and some circuitry. The whole project is open source, and while it's a step up from Lego, until we can just print these things, it seems like a great option to us.
MOSCOW ? A former senior Russian archive official says he saw a file that could shed light on Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg's fate ? challenging the insistence of Russia's KGB successor agency that it has no documents regarding the man who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary before disappearing into the hands of Soviet secret police.
Anatoly Prokopenko, 78, told The Associated Press that in 1991 he saw a thick dossier containing numerous references to Wallenberg that suggested he was being spied upon by a Russian aristocrat working for Soviet intelligence. Russian officials later said the file didn't exist, in line with blanket denials of having information on Wallenberg.
"That file is extremely interesting, because it could allow us to determine the reasons behind his arrest," Prokopenko said, while acknowledging he had only a few minutes to flip through hundreds of pages of documents.
As Sweden's envoy to Nazi-occupied Hungary, Wallenberg saved 20,000 Jews by giving them Swedish travel documents or moving them to safe houses, and managed to dissuade Nazi officers from massacring the 70,000 inhabitants of the city's ghetto. The 32-year-old diplomat was arrested by the Soviets in January 1945 when the Red Army stormed Budapest, and imprisoned in Moscow.
The Soviets had stubbornly denied that Wallenberg was in their custody before issuing a 1957 announcement that he had died on July 17, 1947, in his prison cell of a sudden heart attack. They stonewalled international demands for information about his fate, and rejected allegations that Wallenberg could have lived as a prisoner under a different identify as late as the 1980s.
Prokopenko said that in the fall of 1991, on an inspection tour of the main KGB archive in a tightly guarded facility outside Moscow, he came across a hefty dossier on Count Mikhail Tolstoy-Kutuzov, a Russian aristocrat who left Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and worked alongside Wallenberg in Budapest.
Prokopenko said that he only had a few minutes to peek at the dossier, but he saw Wallenberg's name mentioned repeatedly in what appeared to be Tolstoy-Kutuzov's reports to his handlers in Soviet intelligence.
"I realized that he was following every step Wallenberg made," Prokopenko said.
Prokopenko was fired just over a year later and deprived of his access to the archives ? a move Prokopenko attributes to his efforts to reveal secret Soviet archives to the public.
He said he advised Guy von Dardel, Wallenberg's half-brother who spent years searching for clues to his fate, to ask the KGB successor agency for permission to see the files on Tolstoy-Kutuzov. They turned him down, saying that no such files existed.
When von Dardel said that he knew from Prokopenko that this wasn't true, officials asked him to come back in a few days and handed him a dossier that contained only a few pages lacking any reference to Wallenberg.
Prokopenko said that Stalin's secret police possibly suspected Wallenberg of being involved in secret contacts between the Western allies and the Nazis and were eager to learn about his connections.
Wallenberg had been recruited for his rescue mission in Budapest by a U.S. intelligence agent, with Swedish government approval, on behalf of the War Refugee Board created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But he is not known to have been engaged in intelligence-gathering.
Susanne Berger, a German researcher who advised a Swedish-Russian working group that conducted a 10-year investigation that ended in 2001, backs Prokopenko's view that the Soviets likely saw Wallenberg as a valuable source of intelligence.
"The Soviet leadership was particularly paranoid about what it perceived as a possible Anglo-American conspiracy against Soviet interests," she said in e-mailed comments.
Berger added that Stalin might have hoped to use Wallenberg for future bargaining with the West.
"The most likely reason for Stalin to arrest Raoul Wallenberg would have been to use him as some kind of 'asset,' to bargain or negotiate for," Berger said. "Stalin may have felt that with Raoul Wallenberg, scion of a powerful Western business family, he held a rather interesting bargaining chip."
The former archivist said KGB officers privately told him that Wallenberg was killed because his refusal to cooperate made him a liability. "They couldn't have set him free, they would have needed to liquidate him," Prokopenko said.
The chief of the archives of the FSB, the main KGB successor agency, admitted in a rare interview with the AP in September that the Soviet version that Wallenberg died of a heart attack could have been fabricated and that his captors may have "helped him die." Lt. Gen. Vasily Khristoforov said that all documents related to Wallenberg likely had been destroyed back in the 1950s and denied that his agency was withholding any information related to his case.
Prokopenko, who headed the Special Archive containing documents from 20 European countries in the waning years of the Soviet Union, allowed researchers working for an international commission investigating Wallenberg's fate to search for clues to Wallenberg's fate amid Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's openness campaign.
They quickly found a document on Wallenberg's transfer from one Soviet prison to another, but the KGB immediately learned of the effort and ordered them out.
Prokopenko lost his job soon afterward, but continued his work to open the archives under the government of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia until he lost his post of the deputy chief of the Russian state archive agency in early 1993.
Erlotinib dose-adjusted for smoking status effective as first treatment for head and neck cancerPublic release date: 26-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nicole Napoli nicolen@astro.org 703-839-7336 American Society for Radiation Oncology
Head and neck cancers respond well to the anti-cancer drug erlotinib when it is administered before surgery and a stronger dose is given to patients who smoke, according to a study presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium, sponsored by AHNS, ASCO, ASTRO and SNM.
Erlotinib is an oral anti-cancer drug that can slow a tumor's growth and spread by inhibiting specific growth receptors on the surface of the cancer cells. Early detection of a patient's response to EGFR inhibitors, such as erlotinib, is critical to personalizing head and neck cancer treatments.
In a first of its kind study in patients with head and neck cancer, researchers sought to determine how well tumors unaffected by other therapies respond to erlotinib, when the drug dose was adjusted according to the patient's smoking status. It has been recently shown that smokers metabolize the drug faster than nonsmokers.
Nonsmokers received 150 mg per day and smokers received 300 mg per day for at least 14 days before surgery. A FDG-PET scan and neck CT was performed before treatment and at the end of erlotinib administration. In addition, an early FDG-PET was performed after four to six days of treatment.
The results showed that erlotinib is effective as a first line of therapy when the dose is adjusted per smoking status, even when used for a limited duration. Both smokers and nonsmokers tolerated the dose of erlotinib and neither experienced serious adverse effects. The study also showed that the FDG-PET scan taken early can show changes in the standard uptake value and predict a patient's response to erlotinib.
"We hope our results will motivate clinicians to consider and investigate further the use of erlotinib in patients with head and neck cancer and adjust the dose for smoking status," Mercedes Porosnicu, MD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston Salem, N.C., said. "We also hope that our study will help better select the patients expected to respond to erlotinib."
###
The abstract, "Pilot study to evaluation the effect of erlotinib administered before surgery in operable patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN)," will be presented as a poster presentation. To speak with one of the study authors, contact Beth Bukata or Nicole Napoli on January 26-27, 2012, in the press room at the Arizona Biltmore at 602-912-7854 or 703-839-7336. You may also email them at bethb@astro.org or nicolen@astro.org.
About the American Head and Neck Society
The American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) is the single largest organization in North America for the advancement of research and education in head and neck oncology. The purpose of the AHNS is to promote and advance the knowledge of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of neoplasms and other diseases of the head and neck; to promote and advance research in diseases of the head and neck; and to promote and advance the highest professional and ethical standards.
About the American Society of Clinical Oncology
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the world's leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. With more than 30,000 members, ASCO is committed to improving cancer care through scientific meetings, educational programs and peer-reviewed journals. ASCO is supported by its affiliate organization, the Conquer Cancer Foundation, which funds ground-breaking research and programs that make a tangible difference in the lives of people with cancer. For ASCO information and resources, visit http://www.asco.org. Patient-oriented cancer information is available at http://www.cancer.net.
About the American Society for Radiation Oncology
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, biology and physics, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through education, clinical practice, advancement of science and advocacy. For more information on radiation therapy, visit http://www.rtanswers.org. To learn more about ASTRO, visit http://www.astro.org.
About SNMAdvancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy
SNM is an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to raising public awareness about what molecular imaging is and how it can help provide patients with the best health care possible. SNM members specialize in molecular imaging, a vital element of today's medical practice that adds an additional dimension to diagnosis, changing the way common and devastating diseases are understood and treated.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Erlotinib dose-adjusted for smoking status effective as first treatment for head and neck cancerPublic release date: 26-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nicole Napoli nicolen@astro.org 703-839-7336 American Society for Radiation Oncology
Head and neck cancers respond well to the anti-cancer drug erlotinib when it is administered before surgery and a stronger dose is given to patients who smoke, according to a study presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium, sponsored by AHNS, ASCO, ASTRO and SNM.
Erlotinib is an oral anti-cancer drug that can slow a tumor's growth and spread by inhibiting specific growth receptors on the surface of the cancer cells. Early detection of a patient's response to EGFR inhibitors, such as erlotinib, is critical to personalizing head and neck cancer treatments.
In a first of its kind study in patients with head and neck cancer, researchers sought to determine how well tumors unaffected by other therapies respond to erlotinib, when the drug dose was adjusted according to the patient's smoking status. It has been recently shown that smokers metabolize the drug faster than nonsmokers.
Nonsmokers received 150 mg per day and smokers received 300 mg per day for at least 14 days before surgery. A FDG-PET scan and neck CT was performed before treatment and at the end of erlotinib administration. In addition, an early FDG-PET was performed after four to six days of treatment.
The results showed that erlotinib is effective as a first line of therapy when the dose is adjusted per smoking status, even when used for a limited duration. Both smokers and nonsmokers tolerated the dose of erlotinib and neither experienced serious adverse effects. The study also showed that the FDG-PET scan taken early can show changes in the standard uptake value and predict a patient's response to erlotinib.
"We hope our results will motivate clinicians to consider and investigate further the use of erlotinib in patients with head and neck cancer and adjust the dose for smoking status," Mercedes Porosnicu, MD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston Salem, N.C., said. "We also hope that our study will help better select the patients expected to respond to erlotinib."
###
The abstract, "Pilot study to evaluation the effect of erlotinib administered before surgery in operable patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN)," will be presented as a poster presentation. To speak with one of the study authors, contact Beth Bukata or Nicole Napoli on January 26-27, 2012, in the press room at the Arizona Biltmore at 602-912-7854 or 703-839-7336. You may also email them at bethb@astro.org or nicolen@astro.org.
About the American Head and Neck Society
The American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) is the single largest organization in North America for the advancement of research and education in head and neck oncology. The purpose of the AHNS is to promote and advance the knowledge of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of neoplasms and other diseases of the head and neck; to promote and advance research in diseases of the head and neck; and to promote and advance the highest professional and ethical standards.
About the American Society of Clinical Oncology
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the world's leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. With more than 30,000 members, ASCO is committed to improving cancer care through scientific meetings, educational programs and peer-reviewed journals. ASCO is supported by its affiliate organization, the Conquer Cancer Foundation, which funds ground-breaking research and programs that make a tangible difference in the lives of people with cancer. For ASCO information and resources, visit http://www.asco.org. Patient-oriented cancer information is available at http://www.cancer.net.
About the American Society for Radiation Oncology
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, biology and physics, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through education, clinical practice, advancement of science and advocacy. For more information on radiation therapy, visit http://www.rtanswers.org. To learn more about ASTRO, visit http://www.astro.org.
About SNMAdvancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy
SNM is an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to raising public awareness about what molecular imaging is and how it can help provide patients with the best health care possible. SNM members specialize in molecular imaging, a vital element of today's medical practice that adds an additional dimension to diagnosis, changing the way common and devastating diseases are understood and treated.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
And that horrid pun aside, this is a pretty stunning -- and surprising! -- development. Sources confirm that NBC is in the early stages of planning an "Office" spinoff with Rainn Wilson based on his character Dwight Schrute and his beet farm.
(TODAY.com is powered by msnbc.com, which is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
More from E!: Vote in TV's top couple tournament
Did anyone else see that coming?
So what are the details? When will we see it?
According to sources, NBC is loosely planning to launch Wilson's spinoff in early 2013.
As first reported by Deadline, the project is the brainchild of Wilson and executive producer Paul Lieberstein (Toby!). And sources confim NBC is reaching out to current "Office" cast members to see if they would take part.
E! photos: Snapped on the TV set
The series would be a family comedy that takes place on Dwight's (and Mose's) beet farm, which is also a bed and breakfast and has been featured on "The Office" mothership. This Dwight spinoff pilot would air as an episode of "The Office" this season.
And one can only assume this would be the last season of "The Office."
What do you think of the idea for a Dwight spinoff? Sound off on our Facebook page!
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo" leads the Academy Awards with 11 nominations, among them best picture and the latest director slot for the Oscar-winning filmmaker.
Also nominated for best picture Tuesday: the silent film "The Artist"; the family drama "The Descendants"; the Sept. 11 tale "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"; the Deep South drama "The Help"; the romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris"; the sports tale "Moneyball"; the family chronicle "The Tree of Life"; and the World War I epic "War Horse."
The nominations set up a best-picture showdown between the top films at the Golden Globes: best musical or comedy recipient "The Artist" and best drama winner "The Descendants."
"The Artist" ran second with 10 nominations, among them writing and directing nominations for French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, a best-actor honor for Jean Dujardin and a supporting-actress slot for Berenice Bejo.
Because of a rule change requiring films to receive a certain number of first-place votes, the best-picture field has only nine nominees rather than the 10 that were in the running the last two years.
Dujardin, who won the Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy as a silent-era star whose career goes kaput with the arrival of talking pictures, will be up against Globe dramatic actor winner George Clooney for "The Descendants," in which the Oscar-winning superstar plays a dad trying to hold his Hawaiian family together after a boating accident puts his wife in a coma.
Other best-actor contenders are: Demian Bichir as an immigrant father in "A Better Life"; Gary Oldman as British spymaster George Smiley in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"; and Brad Pitt as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane in "Moneyball."
Globe winners Meryl Streep (best dramatic actress as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady") and Michelle Williams (best musical or comedy actress as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn") scored Oscar nominations for best actress.
Two-time Oscar winner Streep padded her record as the most-nominated actress, raising her total to 17 nominations, five more than Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who are tied for second-place.
Streep went two-for-four on her first nominations, winning supporting actress for 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and best actress for 1982's "Sophie's Choice." But she has lost her last 12 times, and the Globe win for her spot-on personification of Thatcher looks like her best chance yet to break that losing streak.
Along with Streep and Williams, best-actress nominees are: Glenn Close as a 19th century Irishwoman masquerading as a male butler in "Albert Nobbs"; Viola Davis as a black maid going public with tales of white Southern employers in "The Help"; and Rooney Mara as a traumatized, vengeful computer genius in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
Octavia Spencer's win at the Globes as supporting-actress for "The Help," in which she plays a fiery maid whose mouth continually gets her in trouble, could give her front-runner status for the same prize at the Oscars. The same may hold true for supporting-actor nominee Christopher Plummer, who won a Globe for his role as an elderly dad coming out as gay in "Beginners."
An esteemed film and stage actor, Plummer went most of his 60-year career unacknowledged at the Oscars until earning a supporting-actor nomination two years ago as Leo Tolstoy in "The Last Station." If he wins this time, the 82-year-old Plummer would become the oldest acting recipient ever; Jessica Tandy now holds that position for her best-actress win in "Driving Miss Daisy" at age 80.
Also in contention for supporting actor: Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in "My Week with Marilyn"; Jonah Hill as a statistics whiz in "Moneyball"; Nick Nolte as a derelict dad making amends in "Warrior"; and Max von Sydow as a mute mystery man in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."
Bejo, the romantic partner of "The Artist" creator Hazanavicius, was nominated for her role as a new star of the sound era in the late 1920s and early `30s. "The Help" co-star Jessica Chastain also was nominated for her role as Spencer's lonely, needy boss.
Also up for supporting actress are Melissa McCarthy as crude but caring member of the wedding in "Bridesmaids"; and Janet McTeer as a woman posing as a male laborer in "Albert Nobbs."
McCarthy is a rare funny lady competing at the Oscars, which rarely honor performances in mainstream comedies such as "Bridesmaids."
A Quick Word With??is our ongoing series?in which?people from foundations of all sizes and types?tell us about themselves, their work and where they draw their inspiration. ?This installment features?Stefan Lanfer, Knowledge Officer, Barr Foundation
Last big improvement to your website? We launched a new site in 2011, which took Barr to a new level of transparency and clarity about our work. It also gave us new ways to feature grantees.
An interesting communications project you?re working on? One of Barr?s major focus areas is climate change. Even though this is a global challenge, Barr is focused on Boston and Massachusetts. We believe what happens locally can push the national conversation. So, we are starting conversations about what it would take to raise the national media profile of the local work.
Last nonfiction book you read?? The take-away? Half the Sky. The takeaway? That the world is a brutal, exploitative, limiting place for far too many women. Investments in setting that right have about the highest ROI imaginable.
?Networks? is a word that comes up frequently on your site. What role do networks play in your communications? Barr has been focused on networks for a long time and communications not long at all, so the question I am actually trying to answer is what role communications plays in our network efforts. We are increasingly looking at ways to embed communications from the beginning and throughout network efforts.
Are you engaging with social media? Barr does not have any social media profiles ? though I have a few personally. I like Twitter best as a listening tool. I devote 5% of my time at most.
Favorite communications tool more foundation folks should take advantage of? The telephone.
Do you evaluate communications? Not yet, though we intend to begin in 2012. I?d love to hear from Communications Network members what methods they use.
When you were 13, what did you want to be when you grew up? An English teacher.
What aspect of Barr?s work has received greater public attention than any other, and how did that happen? The Barr Fellowship. It happened because these are amazing people with amazing stories.
Do you do an annual communications plan? Not a communications plan, per se, but detailed work plans for every program staff. As we pull these together, we flesh out where communications opportunities are in their portfolios, and I make sure I understand any major initiatives where they?ll be depending on me.
Has the foundation ever talked publicly about a failure? Yes. Our Executive Director recently spoke to a group of Massachusetts education leaders. She started the talk with reflections on a failed strategy. It is on our site here.
Does your foundation blog? We don?t have a blog, though the ?News and Knowledge? area of our site is blog-like in look and feel ? short posts, regular updates, organized by topics, etc., all shareable on social media.
Another foundation whose communications work you admire? The Boston Foundation. They are as aggressive and out front communicating on issues as Barr is not. Even if we don?t always agree with the positions they take, I appreciate the role they play in fueling a robust public discourse.
Most memorable take-away from the Communications Network?s Fall conference in Boston last September? Swanee Hunt?s challenge to ?fall in love with your audience.?
Biggest complaint about how the media covers your issues? In general, the media hasn?t helped get us past confusion and policy gridlock?on climate.
Got a novel deep down inside you? No, but I have a play.
A Quick Word With? is edited by Michael Hamill Remaley, Vice President of Communications & Public Policy,?Philanthropy New York, and a frequent Communications Network contributor.
If you?d like to suggest someone for a future profile, please use?this form.
A tiny wasp with iridescent wings showed up in upstate New York in 2010. Just one year later it was spotted in Irvine, Calif. ? suggesting the fairyfly wasp is now well established in the United States within a year of sneaking into the country, a scientist says.
"This wasp was accidentally introduced in North America," said Serguei Triapitsyn of? the University of California-Riverside, who made the initial discovery but wasn't able to positively identify the species until two weeks ago.
The fairyfly wasp, Gonatocerus ater, is a millimeter (two-fifths of an inch) long. It lays its eggs inside the eggs of plant-eating insects called leafhoppers, which in turn lay their eggs inside plant tissue. When the fairyfly wasp eggs hatch, the little larvae munch on what is essentially the womb: the leafhopper eggs.
Triapitsyn, director of California-Riverside's Entomology Research Museum, said it is likely the wasp eggs were carried inside leafhopper eggs that were in twigs of Lombardy poplar seedlings coming from Europe. In fact, reports of the wasp in Italy suggested the leafhopper Rhytidodus decimaquartus was the wasp's host.
"In California, we do not know if the wasp's host is this leafhopper, but I found it on the same Lombardy poplar trees that had the wasp, so an association is very likely," he said.
Triapitsyn found the wasp species in August 2011 while doing fieldwork and brought ?samples back to his lab.
"I identified the wasp as Gonatocerus ater by comparing it to wasps from upstate New York and also Europe," he said. "It would not surprise me if this wasp is found wherever Lombardy poplars are located, because it's likely leafhopper host prefers these trees for feeding."
Though a relative newcomer, the wasp poses no known risk in the U.S., at least to humans. For leafhoppers, that's another story, as the wasp kills leafhopper larvae within their eggs.
"It actually helps naturally control leafhopper numbers," Triapitsyn said. "In its absence leafhopper populations could have skyrocketed."
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.
After the return and exit of Shawntel Newton last week, The Bachelor settled back into its normal routine of ridiculous dates, cat-fighting and emotional turmoil Monday.
The Bachelor spoilers we've read actually didn't include much on this episode, including who would get the boot. So it was interesting to watch unfold in that sense.
Ben Flajnik took the ladies on a BREATHTAKING horseback riding date, and later fly fishing, getting the women wet in a way they never imagined. Most likely.
One lucky bachelorette also won a private show from country singer Clay Walker ... but was there a rose in tow? And Courtney Robertson, as always, was insane.
Please, join us for THG's +/- Bachelor recap of week four ...
HE'S ON A HORSE: And Lindzi Cox has never been more jealous/turned on.
Regardless of any rose outcome, seeing these prissy, uptight women put up their hair and step into baggy fishing suits was satisfying in its own right. Plus 9.
This fly fishing endeavor features some of the most fake casting we've seen on this show since ... any girl in Bachelor history was cast on the show. Plus 18.
“Let’s be honest. It’s not really about catching the trout. It’s more about catching Ben.” - Courtney Robertson, using every one of her 75 I.Q. points. Minus 10.
Think the producers rigged it and threw a gimpy trout in there just for the scene of her smugly emerging from the stream hoisting her catch? Probably. Plus 2.
"Courtney caught a fish. [pause] What the f--k." - Lindzi. Plus 20.
Ben tossed a "catch" (named Samantha Levey) back into the sea (of dating!) after she whined about going on group dates. Dude, tell it to Mike Fleiss. Minus 21.
Who knows why she was even there in the first place, after Ben told her it was time to pack it in right there. Somewhat dick-ish, but honest, so Plus 17.
"It's so great to see Ben sending girls home," says Court. "I'm just really happy. [Samantha] just rubbed me the wrong way!" Her and everyone else. Minus 8.
Kacie B. has been appearing a bit jealous and insecure lately. It's likely she's just in over her head and is thrown off by piranhas like Courtney, so Minus only 3.
She’s already talking about the love connection, which is sweet ... and sad for her because watching these episodes now must be like getting waterboarded. Minus 4.
Especially after Ben told Kacie B. how much he wanted to kiss her on the fishing trip, but gave rose to Courtney, as "she needs that reassurance." Uhh. Minus 20.
Needs reassurance? Moron says "winning" every five minutes! Minus 5.
That phrase was outdated even when this was filmed! Minus 5 more.
Ben's first one-on-one with Rachel Truehart was a little on the quiet side (not throwing herself at him, thereby making him "not sure" about her). Crazy. Plus 5.
Plus 6 more for Ben deciding that after letting the night take its course, she deserved a rose. Sometimes maintaining an element of mystery works out well!
Poor Jennifer. Other girls get wined and dined Bachelor style with fireworks and epic scenery ... she gets stuck rappelling down into some hole. Minus 10.
Imagine if there hadn't been water there! She trusted Ben, though, and PHEW. Plus 3 for recycling the same cliches into new, absurd dates every season.
At least she did get dinner out of it, and a concert by Clay Walker. Plus 15 for the date itself, Minus 4 for the implication that any of it was Ben's call.
Jennifer is the anti-Courtney in that she appears a house favorite among the other girls. Plus 16, because she must be really cool to win over these loons.
Emily O'Brien couldn't take it anymore. “I feel like there is one girl here who is very different around you than around the rest of the girls,” she told Ben. Minus 15.
When you're that girl who says that line, and there's one every season, things do not work out. But Plus 7 since Court totally is “condescending and self-centered.”
Of course, Emily told Casey S., Courtney’s only friend it seems, about her conversation with Ben. Minus 8 for back-stabbing AND blowing your own cover Em.
In the best exchange of the night, Courtney started laughing at Emily, who then told Courtney to stop acting like a fifth grader. We smell a fight! Plus 30.
Naturally, the producers/Ben are keeping both around. Plus 5.
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Public release date: 26-Jan-2012
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