Jack Nicholson starred in "The Shining," which could receive a movie prequel.
By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC News
"The Shining" is?considered by many to be one of the most terrifying movies (and books) of modern time. But do fans want to know what went on at Colorado's spooky Overlook Hotel before Jack Torrance and family arrived?
Warner Bros., which made the 1980 film, is considering making a prequel to "The Shining," the Los Angeles Times is reporting.
The studio has producers working on a possible new take, but hasn't formally committed to the project, the newspaper reported. One of those producers, Laeta Kalogridis, wrote the script for the Leonardo DiCaprio film "Shutter Island," based on Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel.
Stephen King certainly gave Kalogridis and crew enough to work with in his 1977 novel. As fans of the movie and book know, Jack Torrance (played memorably by Jack Nicholson) comes to serve as caretaker at the Overlook after a previous caretaker murdered his family and committed suicide, and the hotel is full of ghosts of previous visitors.
The Times points out that King has been working on "Doctor Sleep,"?a sequel to "The Shining," featuring a grown-up Danny Torrance. Early reports were that the book will be published in 2013.
But some fans want "The Shining" to be left alone. "Is there a worse idea than this?" writes Scott D'Agostino on Twitter.
"Let me check. Nope," responds Jordan Raup, editor-in-chief of The Film Stage.
Is a "Shining" prequel a good or bad idea? Tell us on Facebook.
ScienceDaily (July 30, 2012) ? For the human brain, learning a new task when rules change can be a surprisingly difficult process marred by repeated mistakes, according to a new study by Michigan State University psychology researchers.
Imagine traveling to Ireland and suddenly having to drive on the left side of the road. The brain, trained for right-side driving, becomes overburdened trying to suppress the old rules while simultaneously focusing on the new rules, said Hans Schroder, primary researcher on the study.
"There's so much conflict in your brain," said Schroder, "that when you make a mistake like forgetting to turn on your blinker you don't even realize it and make the same mistake again. What you learned initially is hard to overcome when rules change."
The study, in the research journal Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, is one of the first to show how the brain responds to mistakes that occur after rules change.
Study participants were given a computer task that involved recognizing the middle letter in strings such as "NNMNN" or "MMNMM." If "M" was in the middle, they were to press the left button; if "N" was in the middle, they were to press the right. After 50 trials, the rules were reversed so the participants had to press the right button if "M" was in the middle and the left if "N" was in the middle.
Participants made more repeated errors when the rules were reversed, meaning they weren't learning from their mistakes. In addition, a cap measuring brain activity showed they were less aware of their errors. When participants did respond correctly after the rules changed, their brain activity showed they had to work harder than when they were given the first set of rules.
"We expected they were going to get better at the task over time," said Schroder, a graduate student in MSU's Department of Psychology. "But after the rules changed they were slower and less accurate throughout the task and couldn't seem to get the hang of it."
Continually making these mistakes in the work environment can lead to frustration, exhaustion and even anxiety and depression, said Jason Moser, assistant professor of psychology and director of MSU's Clinical Psychophysiology Lab.
"These findings and our past research suggest that when you have multiple things to juggle in your mind -- essentially, when you are multitasking -- you are more likely to mess up," Moser said. "It takes effort and practice for you to be more aware of the mistakes you are missing and stay focused."
In addition to Schroder and Moser, co-researchers include Erik Altmann, associate professor of psychology, and master's student Tim Moran.
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Journal Reference:
Hans S. Schroder, Tim P. Moran, Jason S. Moser, Erik M. Altmann. When the rules are reversed: Action-monitoring consequences of reversing stimulus?response mappings. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2012; DOI: 10.3758/s13415-012-0105-y
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The NSA director, General Keith Alexander, is coming under scrutiny after he told a crowd gathered at the Def Con hacker conference that the spy agency "absolutely" does not collect data from and maintain files on American citizens. A former official stopped just shy of calling Alexander a liar, accusing him of playing a "word game." William Binney left the department in late 2001, when it became apparent to him that it planned to use the terrorist attacks on September 11th as an "excuse" to launch a data collection program that was already in the planning stages. Alexander for his part maintains that any data, be it web searches, Twitter posts or emails, collected from American citizens is merely incidental, and associated with intelligence gathering on foreign entities.
Of course, Binney rejects this claim and testimony from Qwest CEO James Nacchio regarding the NSA's wiretapping program would seem to contradict it. ACLU attorney Alex Abdo, who was on the panel with Alexander, cast further doubt on the director's denial. He noted that loopholes in the law allow the NSA collect vast amounts of information on Americans, without them being the "target" of the surveillance. Since the agency can hold on to any data collected, it can retroactively build dossiers on citizens, should they eventually become the focus of an investigation. For a few more details, hit up the source link.
We gave up on Kickstarter a few months ago; too many unfulfilled orders of too many far-fetched concepts. It's the internet's biggest—and most expensive—letdown, to be honest. Unless, of course, it's being used to help Michael Bay bring the Bad Boys franchise back with aliens and explosions and oh gawd why can't this just be real. More »
A whale shark nicknamed Fermin who has become a popular tourist attraction in the Philippines has been slashed across the face by a boat propeller, marine biologists report.
The gentle giant ? whale sharks can grown more than 40 feet (12 meters) long but eat mostly tiny plankton ? is a common sight in the tourist area in Tan-awan, Oslob, a resort town in Cebu. In this area of ocean, boat operators are allowed to feed whale sharks, bringing them near their boats so tourists can see the enormous fish close up. ?
The practice is a popular one, but marine biologists are concerned. Not only does feeding sharks teach them to associate boats with free meals, said Samantha Craven, a scientist with the Philippines Large Marine Vertebrates Project, it also seems to dissuade the sharks from their natural migrations.
"If these sharks reach sexual maturity and don't migrate to breeding grounds, they are effectively removed?from the population and would no longer be adding to the numbers of genetic diversity of their species, which is listed as 'vulnerable to extinction' by the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature]," Craven told LiveScience. [Gallery: The Mysterious Lives of Whale Sharks]
A whale shark injury
Fermin is one of six whale sharks that has been feeding from the tourist boats nearly daily since late March, according to the Large Marine Vertebrates Project. The group, part of the nongovernmental organization Physalus, is the only one doing research in this area of the ocean.
Most days, a dozen or more sharks show up, Craven said, but Fermin is one of the most regular boat visitors. Between July 17 and July 19, though, Fermin disappeared. When he returned on July 20, his face was scarred with 11 deep cuts, one right across his left eye.
Whale sharks are vulnerable to propeller cuts because they're difficult to see when they swim just below the surface, Craven said. But most whale sharks that have been hit show scars on their backs or fins, indicating they've been run over. Fermin's injuries are different.
"Fermin's scars are at the front of his face, indicating contact was made head-on, as if he actively approached the boat," Craven said. [See images of Fermin's Injuries]
The grisly wounds likely came from a small propeller boat. No motor boats are allowed within the Tan-awan feeding area, and it is not clear where Fermin had his run-in. It's likely, however, that he approached a boat looking for food and came away with an injury instead.
The whale sharks that feed at Tan-awan all sport odd calluses around their mouths where they rub against the boats as fishermen drop shrimp meals into the water, Craven said. But recently, more troubling marks have been showing up.
"Since June, we have seen an increase in smaller propeller scars on the regular sharks," Craven said. "None as severe as Fermin, but I worry that it is a matter of time."?
The ethics of shark feeding
Strict rules govern the interactions between humans and sharks in the Tan-awan feeding area. No more than six tourists and four scuba divers may approach one shark at a time, and no one may touch the sharks. Only members of the local fisherman's association are allowed to feed the animals.
The rules are good ones, Craven said, but they're broken "on a daily basis." The situation pits conservation against education and tourism dollars.
"I do believe that increased education and awareness about whale sharks is important, but this is a high price to pay, when more sustainable options are already proven," Craven said. "Even if there was a way to feed the sharks without creating an association of food with boats and people, we are still preventing them from migrating."
Whale shark researcher Jennifer Schmidt, a biologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said she felt "sick to her stomach" when she saw the photographs of Fermin's injuries. Properly regulated ecotourism that allows divers to swim alongside naturally feeding sharks doesn't seem to disrupt these threatened animals' behavior, Schmidt said. But feeding the sharks appears to be a recipe for disaster.
"I was in Oslob in April, and I saw the situation there ? boats, many boats, and sharks and swimmers and even divers all in an extremely chaotic mix," Schmidt said. "It was only a matter of time before either a shark or a person was injured, and unfortunately as long as this activity continues more sharks will be injured, even killed."
Fermin's future
Since his disappearance and injury, Fermin has returned to the feeding area almost daily, Craven said. His wounds appear to be healing, but he usually has his eye rolled back. Whale sharks commonly roll their eyes back to protect them, but Craven said it's not clear whether Fermin is rolling back his eye because of pain or because scar tissue is hindering his ability to move his eye muscles.
"I think we have to wait to see how the wounds heal, and see how the eye is over the next two weeks before we will know more," Craven said.
The popularity of Tan-awan's whale shark feedings has spurred the nearby town of Moalboal to look into allowing similar interactions in their stretch of coastline. One Philippine senator has proposed banning whale shark feeding nationally, Craven said, but it is uncertain if it will be approved.
"I think this industry is so lucrative that one shark with a bad propeller cut is not enough to stop it locally," Craven said. "It will only stop if there is regulation from national law, coupled with education on the ground as to why it is bad, and what alternative activities can be run."?
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas?or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.?
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Bed bug infestations are very common in the UK. Bed bugs don't only affect the quality of your sleep but can also cause severe itching that can lead to secondary infection--which is why making your home bug-free is of utmost importance most especially if you have young kids. Babies have very sensitive skin and a single bug bite can cause inflammation that can lead to more serious skin problems.
Here are six basic techniques that any N1 pest control expert would suggest to you to keep your home bug-free:
1.First, know how to spot these bugs. By appearance, a newly hatched bed bug would look semi-transparent and is of the size of a poppy seed. Meanwhile, adult bed bugs would look flat and about the size of an apple seed. From a light tan hue, these bugs would turn into rusty red when they're already full-grown.
Since they feed mainly on human blood, expect to see them in mattress seams and tufts, sheets, pillow cases and several upholstered furniture. Baseboards of walls as well as crevices in furniture are their favorite spots.
2.Sealing wall cracks and crevices using caulk is a great way to prevent such pests from coming into your home.
3.Another technique is to kill the these pests with a change in temperature. They weaken and eventually die if continuously exposed to extremely low or high temperatures. To expose them to high temperatures, use steam vapor when cleaning all fabrics and walls in your home. If you don't have access to steam cleaning, using hairdryers and irons on mattresses and any other possible bug hotspots is also widely used. Just make sure that you expose the bugs to sudden temperature changes so that they will not have the opportunity to scatter and hide in other places.
4.Vacuuming and washing all beddings, fabrics and clothes are also effective in removing these pests. 5.If bed bugs are still there even after you've done all the tips above, then it's time to shift to another method of extermination. You can stir up a simple mixture composed of tea tree oil and water in a spray bottle and then lightly mist the places where you suspect these pests to be present.
If you must revert to pesticides, choose the ones that are least toxic and have been created specifically for bed bugs. Professional exterminators should be able to give you sound pieces of advice on the best products to use. Also, use pesticides sparingly because no matter how "safe" they are marketed to be, they will still contain chemicals that could affect your or your family's health.
If you are living in Islington and you have serious bed bug problems you cannot solve on your own, you can seek help from Islington pest control experts. Learn more about how to eliminate bed bugs and other pests thriving in your home through various effective N1 pest controltechnologies by visiting our website.
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WARREN, Mich., July 29, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Warren pet owners have a new resource for learning more about pet care. Abbey East Animal Hospital announced the launch of its redesigned website, http://abbeyeastanimalhospital.com. The site features a new, user-friendly interface that is designed to make it easy for pet owners to find needed pet health information. Pet owners may also access the 'Veterinary Topics' library to learn more about at-home wellness care, visit the video newsroom or find answers to common questions in the Vetopedia.
Warren veterinarian Dr. Denise Graye and veterinarian Dr. Wayne Gilchrist announced that the veterinary practice, Abbey East Animal Hospital, has launched a redesigned website. The entire site underwent a full visual redesign to make it easier for pet owners to find critical pet care information.
"Our redesigned website reflects our veterinary clinic's commitment to high quality, affordable pet care," said Dr. Graye. "We believe that a pet's long, healthy life begins with at-home wellness. We want to make it easy for pet owners to learn more about the basics of care and answer any questions they may have. We're excited to share this new website with our valued clients."
As part of the website's redesign, the site now features the "Veterinary Topics" library. This online reference includes pet training tips, seasonal care tips, and a video newsroom. Pet owners may also access the Vetopedia to learn more about the different terms used by vets when treating pets.
"As a veterinarian, I believe it's important for pet owners to have access to the latest veterinary care news," said Dr. Gilchrist. "Unfortunately, some information online is outdated or simply inaccurate. It can be difficult for pet owners to know what they can trust. That's why we are excited to offer new resources like the Vetopedia. We also encourage pet owners to sign up for our bi-weekly e-newsletter."
Pet owners who sign up for the e-newsletter will also receive free membership to the website. This includes access to the members-only web content, such as Pets4Kids and PetTV.
Pet owners who visit the website can learn more about the services and wellness packages available at the pet clinic. These include spay and neuter surgeries, microchipping, vaccinations, dental care, and annual exams. As part of the practice's puppy and kitten care services, the vets provide the full puppy/kitten vaccine series, deworming, and wellness care exams. Emergency vet services are also available.
(C) Copyright 2012 GlobeNewswire, Inc. All rights reserved.
Teen driver Shannon Carney, the daughter of writer Dan Carney, learns how to steer her way out of trouble at the BSR Accident Avoidance/Highway Safety course.
By Dan Carney, NBCNews contributor
Summer is typically the time when beginning drivers log their hours of behind-the-wheel training in driver's education courses so they can earn their licenses. Soon they?ll trek to the DMV, or maybe the courthouse, to pick up their freshly minted driving permits.
But driving, like most activities, is a skill that improves both with experience and training, so while these new drivers think they are done with piloting a car under the watchful eyes of an instructor, they may just be ready to move on to graduate school.
That?s the thinking of instructors at the BSR Accident Avoidance/Highway Safety course conducted at Summit Point Motorsports Park about an hour from Washington, D.C. And that?s why I sent my own teenage daughter to try the class, which mixes classroom instruction with on-track action.
Other schools around the country conduct similar classes, and in fact our own Fairfax County (Virginia) police department offers teens a class with a similar curriculum. Other parents offered a variety of motivations for signing their kids up for the class, but mostly everyone wants to keep their young drivers safe.
Student Jenny Burstein said she accidentally ran over a road sign when she lost control in an intersection in the rain.? ?It is a good experience,? she concluded. ?Now I know how to countersteer. It definitely helps. At least, I hope so.?
A mom said she believes it does. She enrolled her daughter in the course after the girl?s older brother took the class and as a result of what he learned avoided hitting a pair of skateboarders who skated through an intersection ? against the light ? directly in front of him the day after the class. Without the class? preparation for emergency braking, he?d have killed the skateboarders, the boy told his mom.
Many of the dads were car enthusiasts and former sports car racers who were already familiar with the track and had planned to bring their kids there to learn to drive since the day they were born. ?I?ve been planning for her to do this since she was very young,? remarked Wayne Burstein. ?It is all about taking care of your kids,? he continued. Of course, the racer dads figured they could teach their kids how to control the car themselves, but like Burstein, they recognized that kids listen to others better than to their parents in such situations.
?This is about learning the muscle memory you can?t get in driver?s ed,? he said.
The class covers topics like basic vehicle control, braking at the limit of traction, braking while turning, recovering control of a car that has left the road, swerving to avoid obstacles in the road (like skateboarders!), skid control and how to cope with loss of power steering and power brake assist.
How many drivers on the road today have received training and practice in having a car slide on a wet road so they can learn how to recover control in a safe environment? Or how to survive one of the most deadly forms of crashes: the off-road overcorrection?? That?s when a car drops the right-side wheels off the edge of the road and the driver panics and yanks the car to the left, causing it to shoot across the road into oncoming traffic.
The teens at the BSR Accident Avoidance class practiced how to react safety in this situation, so if it occurs on the road they?ll be ready. The trick? Do nothing.
Ease off the gas, hold the steering steady, ensure that the car is under control and then gradually drive back onto the road. It's as simple as that.
Critics of teen driver training complain that it will only encourage them to take more risks, but it is hard to see what risks ?do nothing? off-road recovery training could pose.
Then there is the fearsome ?backing up using the mirrors? test. Of course, the young drivers also have to back up looking over their shoulders, but the BSR instructors made the kids practice backing up using only mirrors for those occasions when they can?t see out the back for one reason or another. The orange cones fared poorly in this test, but it gave the kids good practice and reinforced the necessity for them to keep improving so they can park without crunching their parents? car.
But parking isn?t usually a matter of life and death, while other aspects of driving can be. That is why the Accident Avoidance class tries to prepare students for that moment between the realization that a mistake has been made and the striking of a solid object, reports instructor Don Ruschman. ?In those few seconds, an untrained driver will most often rely on their instincts,? he said.? ?The problem is that in driving under stress, our instincts are almost always wrong.?
The best preparation for emergencies that the class provides students is teaching them to look for the escape route from an impending collision, he explained. ?Drivers? instincts are to look at the interesting thing in their path that represents a threat to them, when what they need to do is to look for the way around that object,? Ruschman said. ?Looking for the escape path instead of what it is that's happening to make you need it, is incredibly difficult to do under the stress/pressure of the moment.??
On the track?s skid pad, teens spend time learning how to find their way out of trouble by looking where they want the car to go and practicing ways to get it there. ?Here, they learn about how to recognize, control and recover from skids, but even more importantly, the skid pad is most often where the ?light bulb? comes on about how where we look controls over 90 percent of where the car goes.?
My own daughter found that her instructor?s constant reminder to keep her ?eyes up,? looking ahead for trouble and ways out of it, was the best lesson she took from the school. This fact reinforces the need to have people other than parents provide instruction to teens, because her mother and I had frequently pointed out her habitual failure to look far enough ahead to anticipate events. Naturally, hearing essentially the same thing from someone else is all it took for the message to sink in, which made it worth attending the class just for that.
Kids may resist the idea of extra school, but parents will rest easier after seeing their kids? polishing their coping skills at a class like the BSR Accident Avoidance school.
If you could look back and wonder if you were the first people to have seen Yosemite Valley, what would you have thought? That is what it may have seemed for John Muir. He was not the first person to have seen the valley the first people in the valley. The first known people in the valley were the Ahwaneechee Indian or some call them Yosemite Indians. Their Chief was Chief Teneiya and there was eight villages including one at the base of Yosemite Falls called Ah-wah´-nee. The first know white man that came to the valley was in 1851. These men were looking for Indians and they had the intention of driving the Indians away from their land.
The valley was named by a young doctor, who gave the valley the name Yosemite. This is where I was confused many of the books and website I have read said that the Indians was Yosemite Indians but a website I just saw said that the doctor called the land Yosemite thinking that is what the Indians were named. This website said that the young doctor made a mistake. In a way I do not know if could trust that website as true history, but one can change history and made it the way he or she would have liked to see it. I am sure this website is true in most cases but many times a history story or a past story can also be made to more than it was at the time. Meaning making it a bigger deal then it was at the time. Now I am going to research the young doctor and see if this website got that right. Well according to this website the young man was named Lafayette Bunnell. I was interested in learning more about man. I searched his name on yahoo and found that it is true that he was one of the ones who first saw the Yosemite Valley. He was a doctor and was on Mariposa Battalion which purpose was to find Native American tribal leaders that lead raid on American settlements. I would like to read a book that has this man?s story of the discovery of Yosemite.
This book is called ?Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian war of 1851?. I will try to find a copy of this book and read it. I wanted to know more so I searched again. Bunnell encountered Chief Tenaya. Burnnell was the first non-Indian to see Chef Tenaya or at least that is what the website I saw said.
If you like this please check out this blog at http://www.yosemitehistorian.com
Facebook's iPhone app getting a complete, natively-coded, totally re-designed update is once again in the news today, though this time with the names of some former Apple talent behind it. Bloomberg says the people involved in the update include:
Greg Novick, who helped develop the touch-screen user interface; Tim Omernick and Chris Tremblay, who also worked on the device?s software; and Scott Goodson, who helped create the stock-market application, according to people with knowledge of the hires.
Last year, Facebook also bought Push Pop Press, a digital publishing software maker co-founded by Apple alumni Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, two designers who helped build the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad software. Matas is credited with creating the battery logo that shows on the iPhone screen when it?s charging. A longtime BlackBerry user, Mark Zuckerberg converted to an iPhone in the past couple of years.
An intermediate release is said to be coming in a few months, with a bigger redesign in the wings for 2013. Which is good, because while Facebook for iPhone is one of the most popular apps in the history of the platform, it's also been one consistently buggy and, frankly, not a great experience. Getting some former Apple talent behind it is a good thing. These folks have shown they know how to make great looking, great working apps.
Facebook, like Google, gets the web but they don't get mobile. Indie developers continue to code circles around these big companies, but finally the big companies have gotten smart enough to simply buy up the great indie developers. It's why Facebook bought and hired the developers mentioned above, it's why they bought Instagram, and it's why they're almost certainly not done yet.
Mobile is the future. Facebook knows it. Let's hope the next version of Facebook for iPhone shows it.
Oh, and Bloomberg repeats the rumor of Facebook teaming up with HTC to make a Facebook phone with deep social integration. Wasn't a surprise when it was first rumored years ago, isn't a surprise now. If you don't own a platform, you're at the mercy of those who do. It's why Google bought Android back in the Windows Mobile days, and why every company with pockets deep enough to try is working on a phone now.
Only question is, how many can the market support, and which ones will they rally behind? Apple and Google? Facebook and Amazon? Microsoft and BlackBerry?
WORLD NEWS TOMORROW SYDNEY ?? The Australian government on Tuesday dropped its court battle to seize profits from a book written by a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, saying his admissions of terrorist activity before a U.S. military commission could not be relied upon.
David Hicks, an ex-kangaroo skinner and Outback cowboy, said he felt vindicated by the decision. He was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and spent more than five years at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba. A plea deal in 2007 allowed him to return to Australia to serve a nine-month prison sentence for providing material support to al-Qaida.
Last year, the government launched court action against Hicks, arguing that he should not be allowed to profit from his autobiography, ?Guantanamo: My Journey,? because he is a convicted criminal. Hicks is believed to have made around 10,000 Australian dollars ($10,300) from sales of the book.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Lionel Robberds told New South Wales state Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling that the government had decided to drop the case. In a statement, the prosecutor?s office said there wasn?t enough evidence to continue.
In Australia, criminals can be sued for money that a federal court determines is proceeds from their crimes, including indirect profits from book and movie deals. But it was unclear whether Australia?s criminal profit law applied to Hicks because he pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission ? part of a justice system that has been widely criticized by lawyers and governments as unfair.
Hicks? lawyers had argued that their client could not be sued under Australia?s criminal profit law because the conditions at Guantanamo amounted to duress. In a statement Tuesday, Hicks? legal team said the commonwealth decided to drop the case weeks after the lawyers provided evidence of the circumstances under which Hicks pleaded guilty, ?including instances of severe beatings, sleep deprivation and other conditions of detention that contravene international human rights norms.?
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions said in a statement that Hicks had provided ?evidential material not previously available? to prosecutors after the initial legal challenge over his book profits was launched. The prosecutor?s office did not explain what that evidence was, but said it subsequently decided that Hicks? admissions to the U.S. military commission could not be relied upon and opted to drop the case.
Justice Garling ordered the government to pay Hicks? court costs.
?In a way I feel that this has cleared my name,? Hicks said outside court following the hearing. ?I hope that now the Australian government acknowledges that Guantanamo Bay and everything connected with it is illegal.?
Hicks was captured in Afghanistan by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001. In his autobiography, he wrote that he had undergone military training in Afghanistan at a camp that al-Qaida?s former leader Osama bin Laden visited, but he denied that it was terrorist training.
He wrote that he admitted to a charge of providing material support to al-Qaida so he could escape Cuba. He said his only options were to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit or commit suicide.
A comment from Steve Nakamoto ? The act of sincere listening is a largely underdeveloped communication skills. This book has done a lot to help people focus on this area of effective communication. While my book, Talk Like A Winner, only spent one to two chapters on listening, this one expands this topic in more detail. While listening is not the answer to all of your communication challenges, it most definitely is one of the most powerful and subtle way to achieve superior one-on-one communication results.
***********
The first make-or-break step in persuading anyone to do any thing is getting them to hear you out. Whether the person is a harried colleague, a stressed-out client, or an insecure spouse, things will go from bad to worse if you can?t break through emotional barricades. Drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist, business consultant, and coach, and backed by the latest scientific research, author Mark Goulston shares simple but power ful techniques readers can use to really get through to people?whether they?re coworkers, friends, strangers, or enemies. Getting through is a fine art but a critical one. With the help of this groundbreaking book readers will be able to turn the ?impossible? and ?unreachable? people in their lives into allies, devoted customers, loyal colleagues, and lifetime friends.
Planning for a party could be overwhelming, especially when you begin in the last second. So, do your favor and turn it into a priority to organize any soire early. A few days is sufficient time to obtain everything together, however, it will take effort and organization. fake oakley holbrook To jump start your planning, try this advice and you will be on the right path for an awesome party that buddies and family will discuss for a long time.
The simplest and best approach to organize any party is as simple as simply responding to five fundamental questions. Who, what, where, when and why. Much like anything else in existence, to become effective, you must have a obvious vision of where you stand going, or else you finish up moving in circles or going from the path completely. One method to fake oakley m Frame make certain this does not happen is as simple as producing your solutions towards the above questions and developing a sentence from this.
The most crucial real question is the ?who?. To be able to plan a celebration, you need to know who the party is perfect for. Answer the next three questions after which produce a sentence from their store.
1. Who?s my anticipated list of guests? (Buddies, family or colleagues?)
2. Would you like a little gathering or many people?
3. Will this be solely for grown ups or maybe there is children?
Possibly your sentence may be like one of these simple:
A little party for adult buddies
A large household party
Now you know who definitely are attending your event, you have to evaluate which type of party you would like where you want to host it.
1. Is that this an informal or formal party?
3. Are you going to host this party both at home and in a venue?
Now add individuals solutions for your sentence.
A little, casual home party for adult buddies.
A proper, large family event in the local entertainment center.
When you understand this far, you are able to evaluate which kind of drink and food you?ll be serving. Naturally, if it?s formal, you might like to think about a sit lower supper with wine. If it?s casual, possibly a buffet style supper or potluck with punch. If the party is after dinner hrs, then snacks is going to do all right. Allows see that sentence now.
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Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva ? Valor Economico, 07/21/2012
In their editorial on November 12, 2009, the magazine The Economist, generally considered to be one of the world?s finest journalistic publications (and one of the few that have seen their paid circulation go up in this century), declared: ?Brazil takes off.? In the cover illustration, usually in indisputably good taste but in this case doubtful, Christ the Redeemer flew like a rocket from Corcovado towards the stars. In the introductory text to the special section on the country, the caption read: ?Now, the risk to the big success story in Latin America is overconfidence.?
On July 9 of this year, the journal Financial Times, another icon of quality global journalism (and another rare example of success in a time of decline for paper media), was also definitive on the final judgment of Brazil, but in the opposite direction: ?Brazil: after Carnaval.?
Is the thrust of the Christ the Redeemer-rocket so weak that it would rise a little, only to fall without The Economist having realized it? Or is the Financial Times celebrating Ash Wednesday when it never occurred? Or, again, could it be that both are incorrect in their diagnoses and that what is happening to Brazil does not correspond to either the immense success reported in 2009 nor the tremendous failure noted in 2012?
The external perceptions of a nation depend on many diverse factors, the majority of which are rather subjective. The people who construct these perceptions are entrepreneurs and executives, analysts, diplomats, artists, tourists, scholars, athletes and international correspondents, who largely compile reviews and information they receive from other people, make a synthesis of them, and spread them to the society of their home country.
Without a doubt, this century clearly articulated the world?s perception of Brazil, especially in the main centers of capitalism. This is proven objectively in global surveys of public opinion on the attitudes of several nations, such as that done by the BBC World Service.
In 2011, the positive opinion of Brazil in 26 other countries jumped significantly (from 40% to 49%), while negative opinion has dropped to only 20%, according to the BBC. With the exception of Germany and China, all other nations viewed Brazil more favorably than unfavorably. In the U.S., 60% of respondents assessed Brazil sympathetically.
Research shows that the Brazilians began to see this optimism and believe that the world appreciated them towards the end of the last decade and the beginning of this one. According to the Pew Research Center in their study of global attitudes in 2010, 8 in 10 Brazilians believed that people of other countries liked Brazil, and only 18% believed it was unpopular.
?Brazil is having its moment in the sun. But what are its national goals and what are the values that guide modern Brazil?? asks House.
Only China, Jordan, India and Indonesia, of the 22 countries surveyed, had a more courageous self-image than that of Brazil. The Pew study also showed that in 2010, 24% of Brazilians thought their country was already a world power and 53% believed that it would be in the future. Only 20% believed that Brazil would never be a world power.
The extent to which one can attribute this collective opinion to media reports on Brazil is an ongoing question. The social sciences have not reached a consensus on how the media is in fact able to influence how the public thinks and acts.
However, there is certainly an association between news in favor of Brazil in many countries at the end of the past decade and the widespread acceptance of the hypothesis that things here were going exceptionally well, especially when compared to what was happening in the rest of the world.
In 2012, encouraged by the signs that something significant was happening to the country?s international image, the government took initiatives for the first time to track it systematically. The Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) submitted a questionnaire to hundreds of foreign entities with a presence in Brazil, and the Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency (Secom) has become a daily analysis of news about the country in international media.
The results of these two studies diverged from each other. The IPEA showed a moderately favorable perception of the country, but the Secom showed that only 15% of articles published about Brazil had negative biases, indicating that the international press has tended to be more optimistic than external agents who worked here, as noted by the journalist Claudia Antunes in a text featured in ?Folha de S. Paulo? at the time.
In this same text it was stated that the Brazilian government was taking the initiative to bring a group of international journalists to the country to write about Brazil with a similarly proactive attitude.
The countermove in the media of articles, reports, interviews and negative reviews about Brazil began just months ago, and it will only be possible to verify its effect on the public later this year, or, more likely, in 2013 and 2014.
But now we can ask whether the foreign correspondents and other observers of Brazil are realizing what is happening in the country. Richard House, currently a consultant in communications in Europe, who was a correspondent for the Washington Postin Brazil and worked for The Economist and Financial Times, thinks that yes, the correspondents portray the country well.
Confronted by some Brazilians perplexed view of the concept that suggests their country is plummeting in the international media, he says: ?They do not accommodate or tolerate an ?outside-in? perspective in an important moment of growth for their country.?
House thinks that Brazil is experiencing ?a Ch?teau P?trus phase with Coca-Cola?: many are undoubtedly dazzled with the advances obtained by their country, but they do not accept that they could be shown the many shortcomings that still exist; the country always wants to have fine wine, but sometimes they can?t escape the cheap soda.
Foreigners always had a predominantly negative image of Brazil (favelas, misery, poor children on the street, environmental devastation), thrown in with some exotic elements (samba, mulattos and soccer). This was always the world?s Brazilian stereotype for the greater part of the 20th century.
All of a sudden, the world has discovered that 19 new millionaires appear each day in Brazil, that Brazilians control huge global corporations, that here unemployment is much less grave than in Europe, that there is an immensity of oil deposits on their coasts, the their GDP has risen 7.5% in the same year that basically the rest of the world?s GDP was in decline.
At the same time, Brazil has given signals of wanting to enjoy this great moment by behaving in a way that many people saw as arrogant or presumptuous (?behaving in the same way Argentinians had when their country was doing well in comparison to Brazil, some 20 or 25 years ago? recalls House).
?Are correspondents ? albeit unconsciously ? seeking signs that the new kid on the block, bold, sassy and a ?smart guy?, still has its problems? Of course. But the media and their clich?s reflect issues that our very own Brazilians still have not responded to. Yes, the economy is enormous; yes, there is a lot of prosperity; yes, Brazil is having its moment in the sun. But what is our national goal? What are the values that guide modern Brazil?? argued House.
?My response is that it isn?t the correspondents or international agents that are confused. They are simply transmitting the signals of internal confusion from an only recently prospering Brazil that still has not reached a conclusion about their role in the world.?
Another veteran ?international correspondent, Paulo Sotero, who covered the United States for acclaimed Brazilian newspapers and is the current director of the Brazil Institute for the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington believes that ?the perception that Brazil was a success and has now turned into ?failure derives from ?economic news and? reflects the opinions of market analysts?.
In his view, market analysts generally pass judgments that have ?a definite tone, usually come accompanied by lectures, are invariably late , tend to exaggerate ?both ?positive and negative trends , and rarely consist of neutral analyses, since ?they reflect the immediate interests of the institutions that disclose the information to produce or justify results for their clients. ?
One example he mentioned was that ?the market euphoria that Brazil experienced started to turn sour? when the government reintroduced capital controls to counter the appreciation of the real and the Central Bank started to implement a strategy of aggressive interest rate reductions, without affecting inflation the way analysts predicted?.
Sotero also mentioned an article by Ruchir Sharma, published in the May/June ?issue of Foreign Affairs. In addition to making? ?various factual errors in ?the article , the ?Morgan Stanley economist ?announced ?- in a definitive tone ? the end of a positive growth cycle that the country has experienced since 1999 . Sotero cited ?as well? declarations made this month by Jim O?Neil of Goldman Sachs, who coined the acronym BRIC in 2001, saying that in the absence of stronger GDP growth rates Brazil would no longer be the B in BRIC.
In Sotero?s evaluation, ?the excesses of negative evaluations today could have the same ?fate as those raised in ?the financial market following the announcement of the Real Plan, which was received with skepticism, or the argument ?that Brazil should follow Argentina?s Domingo Cavalo and Carlos Menem and dollarize its currency, or yet the prediction that Brazil?s GDP would fall 4% in 1999, after the devaluation of the real.?
Other than economic news, Sotero sees in the international reporting about Brazil the reflection of information disclosed and discussed by Brazilian ?mass media: ?Reports about culture are generally positive. Those on topics such as politics and society are mixed. I would say that they tend to be negative? because? they ?reflect the news, analyses and debates? in ?the Brazilian media, ?which is the primary source for correspondents and international agencies. ?
For House, the coverage that was done for Rio +20, which was predominantly negative for Brazil, was only a prelude of what lies ahead in the World Cup in 2014 and 2016 Olympics. ?The correspondents [sent to? cover Rio+20] wrote about the slums, traffic congestion, deforestation of the Amazon, the war for nannies in the upper middle class.?
It is very common to blame the messenger when the message is unpleasant for the receiver. The international media?s coverage of Brazil may create more problems than it intends to, however, it generally relies on facts, although they may be exaggerated or unwarranted in several specific cases.
Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva holds a PhD in communications and serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Sao Paolo. He also holds a Masters in Communication from Michigan State University, and serves as an editor for Foreign Policy magazine.
This article was originally published? in Portuguese on the July 21st edition of the S?o Paulo daily Valor Econ?mico. It was translated into English by Lauren Phelps and Elizabeth Sweitzer, interns at the Wilson Center?s Brazil Institute, in Washington, D.C. View the article in its original format here.
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