Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295734546?client_source=feed&format=rss
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রবিবার, ৩১ মার্চ, ২০১৩
Italy president pledges to stay to deal with crisis
By Giselda Vagnoni
ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday ruled out standing down early to make way for new parliamentary elections, after the failure of attempts to form a government this week, saying he would keep trying to find a way out of the deadlock.
Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, spoke after news reports suggested he might resign to get around constitutional provisions which prevent a president dissolving parliament and calling elections during his final months in office.
"I will continue until the last day of my mandate to do as my sense of national responsibility suggests, without hiding from the country the difficulties that I am still facing," he told reporters at his Quirinale palace.
But he acknowledged that he had limited scope to force the divided parties to find a way out of political situation that he said was "frozen between irreconcilable positions".
With investors still mindful of the turmoil that took the euro zone to the brink of disaster in 2011, the gridlock has revived worries about Italy just as the Cyprus banking crisis reopened concern about the stability of the single currency.
Napolitano said he would ask two small groups of experts to formulate proposals for institutional and social and economic reforms that could be supported by all political parties.
He named 10 senior figures including Enrico Giovannini, the head of statistics agency ISTAT, European Affairs Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi and Bank of Italy board member Salvatore Rossi as well as one senior figure from each of the main parties apart from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.
Napolitano met leaders of the main parties on Friday to try to find a way out of the stalemate created by an election which has left Italy facing a return to the polls after no party won a viable majority in parliament.
However with all of the three main formations in parliament clinging to entrenched positions that have prevented a majority being formed, hopes of a solution that would head off potentially destabilizing early elections have faded.
Pier Luigi Bersani, whose center-left alliance has a majority in the lower house but not the Senate, was rebuffed by the populist 5-Star Movement, which rejects deals with the main parties it blames for Italy's social and economic crisis.
Bersani himself rejected demands by center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi for a cross-party coalition deal that would give the scandal-plagued former prime minister a share in power and the right to decide Napolitano's successor.
Both Berlusconi's group and the 5-Star Movement, led by ex-comic Beppe Grillo have also ruled out a new technocrat government like the one led by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, blocking what appears to be the only other option.
IRRECONCILABLE
Napolitano's pledge to stay on delayed an immediate crisis but left hopes of progress dependent on parties which are divided less by substantive issues of policy than by deep personal mistrust that has worsened as the standoff has worn on.
Bersani said he would be guided by Napolitano but Berlusconi's party secretary Angelino Alfano had a more lukewarm response and stuck to demands for a coalition government in which it would play a part.
"Either we have a political government with a grand coalition or we return to vote immediately," he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "If the initiative begun today leads to this outcome, good. Otherwise, the only way is to go straight to the polls with no delay," he said.
Napolitano stressed that Monti retained full authority at the head of a caretaker administration until a new government can be formed but he will be unable to undertake any significant reforms to Italy's stagnant economy, now deep in its longest recession for 20 years.
Parliament must soon begin preparations to vote for a new president either to oversee the first steps of a new government or early elections and the battle to choose the next head of state is unlikely to ease the political tensions.
The head of state, elected by a joint sitting of parliament and representatives from the regions, has a broadly defined but at times vital role in overseeing affairs of state, as Napolitano himself has shown repeatedly ever since the last Berlusconi government fell in 2011.
With bond markets closed for the Easter break, investors have been left on the sidelines but a poorly received auction of mid- and long-term debt last week underlined the danger if the crisis drags on.
(Additional reporting by Naomi O'Leary in Rome and Ethan Bilby in Brussels; Writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Barry Moody and Rosalind Russell)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-president-could-resign-allow-election-source-083108238--business.html
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Refresh Roundup: week of March 25th, 2013
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/31/refresh-roundup/
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Seven killed in northern Mexican bar shooting
CIUDAD JUAREZ (Reuters) - Seven people were killed when a gunman opened fire in the early hours of Friday in a bar in northern Mexico, which has seen a resurgence in drug-related violence in recent weeks.
The man, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, killed four men who were clients in the bar in Chihuahua state as well as three women who worked there, said a spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
"It has not been determined whether the attack is connected to drug trafficking, but by the type of weapon involved, it is to be assumed," said spokesman Carlos Gonzalez.
The attack occurred in the city of Chihuahua, the capital of the state that is also home to Ciudad Juarez, considered one of the most violent cities in the world until recently.
The attacker entered the bar with his face covered by a bandana, said the spokesman.
Chihuahua has seen heavy fighting between the local Juarez cartel and the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, who is seeking to control the city that is one of the main routes for trafficking drugs into the United States.
In spite of a change of government in December and a new strategy that avoids direct confrontation with the powerful cartels, violence in Mexico has picked up in recent weeks with fighting along the border, in the western state of Michoacan and the tourist destination of Cancun.
Nearly 3,200 people have been killed in drug-related violence during the first three months of President Enrique Pena Nieto's government, according to Mexican government data.
During the government of his predecessor Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), almost 70,000 people died as a result of the drug trade and 27,000 disappeared in one of the most violent periods in Mexico's history.
(Reporting by Julian Cardona; editing by Christopher Wilson)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seven-killed-northern-mexican-bar-shooting-194443659.html
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Pope refers to "Muslim brothers" on Good Friday
ROME (AP) ? Pope Francis reached out in friendship to "so many Muslim brothers and sisters" during a Good Friday procession dedicated to the suffering of Christians from terrorism, war and religious fanaticism in the Middle East.
The new pontiff, who has rankled traditionalists by rejecting many trappings of his office, mostly stuck to the traditional script during the nighttime Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum, one of the most dramatic rituals of Holy Week.
With torches lighting the way, the faithful carried a cross to different stations, where meditations and prayers were read out recalling the final hours of Jesus' life and his crucifixion.
This year, the prayers were composed by young Lebanese, and many recalled the plight of minority Christians in the region, where wars have forced thousands to flee their homelands. The meditations called for an end to "violent fundamentalism," terrorism and the "wars and violence which in our days devastate various countries in the Middle East."
Francis, who became pope just over two weeks ago, chose, however, to stress Christians' positive relations with Muslims in the region in his brief comments at the end of the ceremony.
Standing on a platform overlooking the procession route, Francis recalled Benedict XVI's 2012 visit to Lebanon when "we saw the beauty and the strong bond of communion joining Christians together in that land and the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters and so many others."
"That occasion was a sign to the Middle East and to the whole world, a sign of hope," he said.
Friday's outreach followed Francis' eyebrow-raising gesture a day earlier, when he washed and kissed the feet of two women, one a Muslim, in the Holy Thursday ritual that commemorates Jesus' washing of his apostles' feet during the Last Supper before his crucifixion.
Breaking with tradition, Francis performed the ritual on 12 inmates at a juvenile detention center, rather than in Rome's grand St. John Lateran basilica, where in the past, 12 priests have been chosen to represent Jesus' disciples.
Before he became pope, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio long cultivated warm relations with Muslim leaders in his native Argentina. In one of his first speeches as pope, he called for the church and the West in general to "intensify" relations with the Muslim world.
The Vatican's relations with Islam hit several bumps during Benedict XVI's papacy, when he outraged Muslims with a 2006 speech quoting a Byzantine emperor as saying some of Prophet Muhammad's teachings were "evil and inhuman." And in 2011, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, Cairo's Al-Azhar institute, froze dialogue with the Vatican to protest Benedict's call for greater protection of Christians in Egypt.
However, Francis' past outreach to the Muslim community in Argentina seems to have changed that. Al-Azhar's chief imam, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, sent a message of congratulations to Francis on his election and said he hoped for cooperation.
The Vatican's efforts to reconcile with the Islamic world have not been welcomed by all. Italy's most famous Muslim convert to Catholicism, Magdi Allam, announced last week he was leaving the church because of its "soft" stance on Islam. Allam was baptized by Benedict XVI in 2008 during the high-profile Easter Vigil service when the pope traditionally baptizes a handful of adults. There has been no Vatican comment on his about-face.
Thousands of people packed the Colosseum and surrounding areas for the nighttime procession, holding candles wrapped in paper globes as Francis sat in silent prayer as a giant torch-lit crucifix twinkled nearby. Some in the crowd had Lebanese flags around their shoulders in an indication of the special role Lebanese faithful played in this year's procession.
Lebanon has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East ? nearly 40 percent of the country's 4 million people, with Maronite Catholics the largest sect. As civil war has raged in neighboring Syria, Lebanon's Christian community has been divided between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Overall, Christians in the Middle East have been uneasy as the Arab Spring has led to the strengthening of Islamist groups in most countries that have experienced uprisings. Thousands of Christians have fled the region ? a phenomenon that the Vatican has lamented, given Christianity's roots in the Holy Land.
"How sad it is to see this blessed land suffer in its children, who relentlessly tear one another to pieces and die!" said one of the Good Friday meditations. "It seems that nothing can overcome evil, terrorism, murder and hatred."
Francis picked up on that message, saying Christ's death on the cross is "the answer which Christians offer in the face of evil, the evil that continues to work in us and around us."
"Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon themselves as Jesus did," he said.
At the end of the ceremony, a male choir sang a haunting Arabic hymn, a reflection of the Eastern rite influence that infused the ceremony.
On Saturday, Francis presides over the solemn Easter Vigil ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica and on Sunday, he celebrates Easter Mass and delivers an important speech. Usually the pope also issues Easter greetings in dozens of languages.
In his two weeks as pope, Francis' discomfort with speaking in any language other than Italian has become apparent. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Friday "we'll have to see" what Francis does with the multilingual greetings.
The Good Friday procession was conducted entirely in Italian, whereas in years past the core elements recounting what happens at each station would be recited in a variety of languages.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-refers-muslim-brothers-good-friday-001145243.html
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শনিবার, ৩০ মার্চ, ২০১৩
President Obama Pushes Infrastructure Spending to Spur Job Growth
Obama in Miami MIAMI - Standing in front of a giant cargo crane at the port of Miami Friday, President Obama promoted his plan to encourage private sector investment in infrastructure to increase job creation in the United States.
"There are few more important things we can do to create jobs right now and strengthen our economy over the long haul than rebuilding the infrastructure that powers our businesses and our economy - our roads, our bridges, our schools and our ports like this one," President Obama said.
"There's work to be done," Obama added. "There are workers who are ready to do it. Let's prove to the world there is no better place to do business than right here in the United States of America, and let's get started rebuilding America."
The president outlined his infrastructure spending plan, called the "Rebuild America Partnership," which consists of three components - the creation of a $10 billion national infrastructure bank, the establishment of new "America Fast Forward Bonds" for infrastructure investment, and the expansion of funding for the TIGER and TIFFIA infrastructure programs.
"Let's rebuild this country we love. Let's make sure we're staying on the cutting edge. Let's make sure we've always got the best ports. Let's make sure we've got the best airports. Let's make sure we've got the best rail lines. Let's make sure we've got the best roads. Let's make sure we've got the best schools," he said. "We're going to push on this issue each and every day and make sure we get the middle class going again."
As he pushed for creating more jobs through infrastructure investment in America, the president stood in front of a crane manufactured by a Chinese company called ZPMC.
Before he delivered his speech, the president toured a tunnel project at the port of Miami, which is undergoing a $2 billion renovation funded by government and private money.
"Breaking ground on more projects like this tunnel that I just saw means more good construction jobs that can't be outsourced," Obama said. "They have to be done right here in America and they end up getting people good pay and good opportunities to raise their family."
Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, said the program will total $21 billion but vowed that it would not increase the deficit. Details of the costs of the program will be outlined in the president's budget, which will be presented on April 10.
"They will not increase the deficit by a dime because they are paid for in our budget," Krueger told reporters aboard Air Force One Friday.
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DNA: How to unravel the tangle
Mar. 29, 2013 ? A chromosome is rarely found in the shape we are used to seeing in biology books, that is to say the typical double rod shape (the X pattern, to put it simply). It is usually "diluted" in the nucleus and creates a bundle that under the microscope appears as a messy tangle. In the last few years such chaos, however, has been "measured" and scientists have unveiled their secret: the genes in the tangle are actually arranged in regions that may perform a functional role.
A research coordinated by the scientists at SISSA of Trieste has now developed and studied a numeric model of the chromosome that supports the experimental data and provides a hypothesis on the bundle's function.
A chromosome spends most of its life "diluted" in the nuclear cytoplasm. To the untrained eye it may look like a randomly entangled thread, yet biologists claim the opposite: although a chaotic component does exist in the bundle, experimental measurements have identified regions that tend to contain specific genes. Thanks to such measurements, researchers have obtained maps of the chromosome in its diluted form, the one in which the DNA transcription processes occur.
Cristian Micheletti, a physicist of SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste, has coordinated an international research team -- in which Marco Di Stefano and Angelo Rosa stand out -- that has devised an ingenious method which, on one hand, has allowed to verify the already known experimental measures and, on the other, to find data in support of a theory which explains why the DNA bundle is arranged in regions. "Employing the vast amount of publicly available data on gene expression, we have identified families of genes co-regulated within a chromosome" explains Micheletti. The co-regulated genes codify "in accord," but how such synchronization occurs is a mystery, since often the genes are located very far from one another on the DNA filament. "Two main hypotheses may be considered: either 'messengers' exist that travel back and forth from one gene to the other and coordinate the activity, or the DNA filament folding up inside the tangle brings the genes belonging to the same family physically close."
On the basis of the second assumption Micheletti and his colleagues have used the computer to induce the DNA numeric model to bring the co-regulated genes closer. "The outcome of the simulation has provided a map of chromosome arrangement that is very close to the one obtained through experimentation," explains Micheletti. "Besides, the model has successfully brought closer the genes belonging to the same family, as we had asked for, in 80% of cases, that is without too much effort, which corroborates the validity of the hypothesis and the effectiveness of the simulation."
The article was chosen by PLoS Computational Biology journal as the cover story for the March issue.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Sissa Medialab, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Marco Di Stefano, Angelo Rosa, Vincenzo Belcastro, Diego di Bernardo, Cristian Micheletti. Colocalization of Coregulated Genes: A Steered Molecular Dynamics Study of Human Chromosome 19. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013; 9 (3): e1003019 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003019
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/5bCOx0FC-Ns/130329124420.htm
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শুক্রবার, ২৯ মার্চ, ২০১৩
The Jersey City Independent? Lead Story News ? Newport and ...
It?s been almost five months since Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast and some businesses are still rebuilding or just getting back on their feet. Some of the hardest hit areas were the low-lying areas closest to the rivers flanking Jersey City, the Hudson and the Hackensack.
Both of Jersey City?s malls, Newport Centre and Hudson Mall, are located near the Hudson and Hackensack respectively, and several businesses near each sustained significant damage after the storm.
As tides rose during the hurricane on Oct. 29, waters from the Hackensack that devastated areas like Society Hill and Country Village (small communities near the Greenville and West Side neighborhoods) also flooded Hudson Mall, located at 701 Route 440 (seen at right).
While water damage and power outages crippled the mall for weeks, most stores were able to reopen between Nov. 16 and 20. Some stores, however, like family shoe retailer The Shoe Dept., suffered severe water damage and had to completely renovate. New carpet, shelving and counters had to be installed at the store before it reopened in late November on Black Friday, Nov. 23, a day commonly called the biggest shopping day of the holiday season and often, of the year.
Other stores had it worse. Bath and Body Works, for example, was gutted after the storm and remained closed for over four months, reopening only two weeks ago. Kid City, a discount children?s clothing store not attached to the indoor mall but located within the complex, only reopened last Thursday on March 21.
This hasn?t stopped Hudson Mall?s plans for improvement, though. Hudson Mall Cinemas, which completed renovations just before Sandy struck, rebounded quickly and has been open, regularly screening movies since the mall reopened in November.
Some new tenants are also slated to come to Hudson Mall, including Retro Fitness, a 14,200-square-foot health and fitness club with a wide variety of health equipment and services including treadmills, stationary bicycles, elliptical machines, weight lifting equipment, professional personal training, and a juice bar. While the gym won?t open until May, a kiosk near the mall?s front entrance allows visitors to sign up for memberships in advance.
Also opening this fall is 30,600-square-foot discount retailer Big Lots, which will be located in Staples? old location outside the main mall, near Marshall?s. (Staples is now attached to the rest of the mall, but has its own entrance.) Big Lots offers seasonal products, health and beauty items, furniture, housewares, toys, electronics and more at reduced prices.
?We are making good progress on Hudson Mall?s repairs, following the damage from Hurricane Sandy,? says mall manager Steve Trivedi, adding that other retailers like Asian Market and new restaurant Asian Fusion will also be coming to Hudson Mall.
On the other side of town, the hardest hit areas were outside Newport Centre by the Hudson River Waterfront. For example, the Newport Veterinary Center, which suffered flooding from the Hudson River, reopened only two months ago.
Skylark on the Hudson?a ?fine diner? (seen at left) owned by restauranteur Constantine Katsifis, who opened the original Skylark Fine Diner and Lounge in Edison with Chef Craig Shelton in 2006?reopened in mid-January after suffering about a reported $200,000 in damages.
Katsifis, who opened the restaurant last summer, originally invested $2 million in his concept restaurant which aims to merge high-quality dining and classic Jersey diner eats. His dream was nearly washed away by the hurricane.
?We came back 24 hours after the storm and it looked, as you can imagine, like a river ran through it,? he says. ?We were insured for some things, but not flood insurance. Altogether we had about $100,000 in unrecoverable losses and spent about $200,000 on repairs.? (The post-repair interior can be seen, bottom right.)
Both the biggest challenge and the biggest blessing about the storm was a chance to restart, he adds. After a long search for a chef who could latch on to Katsifis?s concept, Skylark now has a new chef, Darryl Harmon, and several new staff members in addition to about half of their old crew. (Many of the original workers, Katsifis says, moved on to other jobs while the diner was closed.)
There are some menu changes, too. ?We?re reintroducing high-quality comfort food instead of just well-executed steak and seafood entrees,? says Katsifis, noting that two of their best-sellers are tomato soup and roast chicken, as simple as it gets. ?We want to present our dishes very traditionally and let the ingredients speak for themselves.?
Other goals include more daily specials; incorporating more fresh, local ingredients; and getting back their customers base. Overall, Katsifis is trying to move forward. ?I try not to dwell too much on things I can?t control, like the weather. Look, you have to make the best of what you?re dealt with. We?re doing our best to recover strongly and be better than ever.?
The mall, Newport Centre, located at 33 Mall Drive W, itself was not majorly impacted by the hurricane. It reopened on Nov. 1, the same week of the storm, and was one of the major safe, warm places where families left homeless or powerless by the storm could charge their electronic devices, get food and shop for critical items.
Since the storm, Newport Centre has seen a period of growth and change-including several new stores.
New additions include footwear retailer Call it Spring on the first floor in the JC Penney wing taking the place of Bakers and accessories shop Icing (a sister store to Claire?s aimed at older girls and young women) on the second floor in the same wing. Shoe and accessory store Clarks will also be opening near Pandora and the former location of the recently closed Disney Store.
The food court also has some new tenants, with vegetarian and Middle Eastern-inspired Crisp and Qdoba Mexican Grill.
Other retailers have relocated to new areas such as Yankee Candle, moving from their first-floor location in the Sears wing across the mall to a new 1,185-square-foot space on the second floor near Coach. Victoria?s Secret line Pink, which is geared toward college-age women, will soon have its own space on the second floor.
They have also regularly hosted special events in their Center Court (for example, kids can take pictures with the Easter Bunny through Saturday, March 30 at 8:30 pm). They also recently hosted a Be the Match Registry event to help find possible bone marrow donors for many in need.
Despite large setbacks, both commercial areas are continually recovering and most stores in both Newport Centre and Hudson Mall have now reopened. At a time when many other businesses and neighborhoods in the city and region are still rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy, the perseverance of business owners in both areas will likely serve as an inspiration and model for recovery.
Top photo by Summer Dawn Hortillosa, Skylark photos courtesy of Constantine Katsifis
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How hard is it to 'de-anonymize' cellphone data?
Mar. 27, 2013 ? The proliferation of sensor-studded cellphones could lead to a wealth of data with socially useful applications -- in urban planning, epidemiology, operations research and emergency preparedness, among other things. Of course, before being released to researchers, the data would have to be stripped of identifying information. But how hard could it be to protect the identity of one unnamed cellphone user in a data set of hundreds of thousands or even millions?
According to a paper appearing this week in Scientific Reports, harder than you might think. Researchers at MIT and the Universit? Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, analyzed data on 1.5 million cellphone users in a small European country over a span of 15 months and found that just four points of reference, with fairly low spatial and temporal resolution, was enough to uniquely identify 95 percent of them.
In other words, to extract the complete location information for a single person from an "anonymized" data set of more than a million people, all you would need to do is place him or her within a couple of hundred yards of a cellphone transmitter, sometime over the course of an hour, four times in one year. A few Twitter posts would probably provide all the information you needed, if they contained specific information about the person's whereabouts.
The first author on the paper is Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, a graduate student in the research group of Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Science Sandy Pentland. He's joined by C?sar Hidalgo, an assistant professor of media arts and science; Vincent Blondel, a visiting professor at MIT and a professor of applied mathematics at Universit? Catholique; and Michel Verleysen, a professor of electrical engineering at Universit? Catholique.
Focusing the debate
Hidalgo's group specializes in applying the tools of statistical physics to a wide range of subjects, from communications networks to genetics to economics. In this case, he and de Montjoye were able to use those tools to uncover a simple mathematical relationship between the resolution of spatiotemporal data and the likelihood of identifying a member of a data set.
According to their formula, the probability of identifying someone goes down if the resolution of the measurements decreases, but less than you might think. Reporting the time of each measurement as imprecisely as sometime within a 15-hour span, or location as imprecisely as somewhere amid 15 adjacent cell towers, would still enable the unique identification of half the people in the sample data set.
But while its initial application may be discouraging, de Montjoye and Hidalgo hope that their formula will provide a way for researchers and policy analysts to reason more rigorously about the privacy safeguards that need to be put in place when they're working with aggregated location data.
"Both C?sar and I deeply believe that we all have a lot to gain from this data being used," de Montjoye says. "This formula is something that could be useful to help the debate and decide, OK, how do we balance things out, and how do we make it a fair deal for everyone to use this data?"
Everybody's different
In the data set that the researchers analyzed, the location of a cellphone was inferred solely from that of the cell tower it was connected to, and the time of the connection was given as falling within a one-hour interval. Each cellphone had a unique, randomly generated identifying number, so that its movement could be traced over time. But there was no information connecting that number to the phone's owner.
The researchers randomly selected a representative sampling from the set of 1.5 million cellphone traces and, for each trace, began choosing points at random. For 95 percent of the traces, just four randomly selected points was enough to distinguish them from all other traces in the database. In the worst (or, from another perspective, best) case, 11 measurements were necessary.
"There's a concern with this data, to what extent can we preserve anonymity," says Luis Bettencourt, a professor at the Santa Fe Institute who studies social systems. "What they are showing here, quite clearly, is that it's very hard to preserve anonymity."
But for Bettencourt, the uniqueness of people's trajectories through cities is itself precisely the type of information that analysis of cellphone data is meant to uncover. "This is interesting, from a scientific point of view, to understand how people use urban space," Bettencourt says. "It shows what kind of social systems cities are."
The researchers suspect that similar relationships might hold for other types of data. "I would not be surprised if a similar result -- maybe requiring more points -- would, for example, extend to web browsing," Hidalgo says. "The space of potential combinations is really large. When a person is, in some sense, being expressed in a space in which the total number of combinations is huge, the probability that two people would have the same exact trajectory -- whether it's walking or browsing -- is almost nil."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Larry Hardesty.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, C?sar A. Hidalgo, Michel Verleysen, Vincent D. Blondel. Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01376
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/VTffQuQWigw/130327132547.htm
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৮ মার্চ, ২০১৩
New foreclosures fall to lowest since crisis: report
Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/foreclosures-fall-lowest-since-crisis-report-141454615--sector.html
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UK scientists develop safer foot-and-mouth vaccine
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have developed a new vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease that is safer and easier to manufacture, an advance they believe should greatly increase production capacity and reduce costs.
The technology behind the livestock product might also be applied to make improved human vaccines to protect against similar viruses, including polio.
The new vaccine does not require live virus in its production - an important consideration as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is extremely infectious and vaccine facilities handling virus samples are difficult to secure.
"It spreads like wild fire," said David Stuart, a professor of biology at the University of Oxford, who led the research.
A 2007 outbreak of FMD in southeast England, for example, was traced to a nearby vaccine site. The same facility, ironically, is home to some of the researchers behind the new vaccine.
In contrast to standard FMD livestock vaccines, the new product is made from synthetic empty protein shells containing no infectious viral genome, scientists reported in the journal PLOS Pathogens on Wednesday.
This means the vaccine can be produced without expensive biosecurity and does not need to be kept refrigerated.
"One of the big advantages is that since it is not derived from live virus, the production facility requires no special containment," Stuart said.
"One could imagine local plants being set up in large parts of the world where foot and mouth is endemic and where it still remains a huge problem."
Worldwide, between 3 billion and 4 billion doses of FMD vaccine are administered every year but there are shortages in many parts of Asia and Africa were the disease is a serious problem.
Current standard vaccines are based on 50-year-old technology, although U.S. biotech company GenVec last year won U.S. approval for a new one.
The purely synthetic British vaccine has so far been tested in small-scale cattle trials and found to be effective.
Stuart said the research team from the universities of Oxford and Reading and two state-funded bodies - Diamond Light Source and the Pirbright Institute - would now conduct larger tests while discussing the vaccine's commercial development.
"We are talking to a potential commercial partner," Stuart told Reuters, adding that it would probably take around six years to bring the new vaccine to market. He said it was too early to give an indication of how much the vaccine would cost.
He declined to name the company involved but said it was not Merial, the animal health division of Sanofi that shares Pirbright's site in southeast England.
Stuart and his colleagues were able to produce empty protein shells to imitate the protein coat that surrounds the FMD virus using Diamond's X-ray system to visualize images a billion times smaller than a pinhead.
The same approach could in future be used to make empty shell vaccines against related viruses such as polio and hand-foot-and-mouth, a human disease that mainly affects infants and children, the researchers said.
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/axRtswNhW4w/story01.htm
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Supreme Court limits drug-sniffing dog use
Alan Diaz / AP file
Miami-Dade narcotics detector canine Franky, who came out of retirement to give a demonstration, sniffs for marijuana in Miami on Dec. 6, 2011.
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News
The use of a drug-sniffing dog by police outside of a home where they suspected drugs were being grown constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court said in a decision handed down Tuesday.
The case, Florida v. Jardines, dealt with whether police could use trained canines to investigate the immediate surroundings of a home for drugs they suspected were being grown inside, but could not see.
Officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department approached Joelis Jardines? home with a drug dog in 2006 after receiving a tip that marijuana was being grown in the house. The animal alerted officers to the presence of marijuana in the house, after which officers obtained a search warrant and discovered the plants.
The justices affirmed the Supreme Court of Florida?s decision to suppress the evidence by a 5-4 vote. Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the court?s opinion.
?To find a visitor knocking on the door is routine (even if sometimes unwelcome); to spot that same visitor exploring the front path with a metal detector, or marching his bloodhound into the garden before saying hello and asking permission, would inspire most of us to ? well, call the police,? Scalia wrote.
This is the second of two police dog cases the court has delivered opinions on this term, both originating in Florida. In a February decision in the other case, Florida v. Harris, the court ruled that an alert by a trained police dog gave police officers probable cause to further search a vehicle.
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Embarrassing Women'S Conditions | Body Health ? Bodybuilding ...
Y?? h??? n? problem complaining ?b??t th? nagging headache ????ve h?? ??? day ?n? even brag ?b??t ???r sore muscles ?ft?r a workout, b?t wh?n ?t comes t? health issues below th? belt, mum?s th? word. Whether ?t b? diarrhea, ?th?r lower digestive tract conditions ?r bladder control problems, m??t women ?r? reluctant t? admit th??r embarrassing ailments. Ignoring those unmentionable ills, h?w???r, ??n ??t ???r health ?t risk. Here?s a list ?f health issues ??? m?? n?t willingly bring up during a lunch date b?t ?h???? divulge t? ???r doctor.
Diarrhea
Diarrhea ?? a common lower intestinal ailment th?t ?? typically n?t a serious medical emergency. Occasional bouts ?f diarrhea ?r? usually related t? bacterial ?r viral infections, food intolerances ?r reactions t? n?w medications. M??t acute cases ?f diarrhea resolve w?th rest ?n? hydration (?n? avoiding trigger foods ?n? medications, ?f possible). Viral ?n? bacterial toxins ?r? normally short lived, ?? b? patient. Frequent diarrhea, h?w???r, ??n indicate irritable bowel disorder, irritable bowel syndrome ?r another serious medical condition. Seek medical attention ?f ??? ??n?t hold ?n? liquid ?r food down, ??? ?h?w signs ?f dehydration, ???r diarrhea shows blood (wh??h appears black), ??? h??? abdominal pain ?n?/?r a high fever, ?r ???r symptoms last longer th?n a week.
Constipation
B?????? th? typical American diet delivers well below th? daily recommended 25 grams ?f fiber, constipation ?? a common problem. Acute constipation ???? ??n b? attributed t? lack ?f exercise, n?t drinking enough fluids, hormonal changes ?n? laxative abuse. Chronic constipation ??n b? a sign ?f irritable bowel syndrome ? a condition th?t needs medical attention ? ?r a side effect ?f ??rt??n medications. Lifestyle changes, such ?? increasing ???r fiber ?n? liquid intake ?? well ?? getting more exercise, ??n resolve constipation within a few days. Research suggests th?t probiotics m?? h??? alleviate th?? frustrating ?n? ?ft?n painful ailment, t??. If ??? ?r? constipated f?r a few weeks, though, see ???r doctor t? rule out ?n intestinal blockage ?r ?th?r medical condition.
Hemorrhoids
Hemorrhoids ?r? another (m???r?b??) condition sometimes caused b? a low-fiber diet, b?t th?? m?? ???? b? due t? pregnancy, straining during bowel movements, constipation ?n? obesity. Changing ???r diet t? include more high-fiber foods ?r supplements, increasing ???r liquid intake, ?n? exercising regularly ??n decrease th? occurrence ?f hemorrhoids. See ???r doctor ?f lifestyle changes ?? n?t offer relief ?r ?f ??? experience excruciating pain ?r bleeding.
Urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence ?? quite literally nothing t? laugh, cough ?r sneeze ?t, ?n? ??? ??rt??n?? don?t want t? talk ?b??t ?t. Bladder weakness ?? ?ft?n due t? weak ?r ??m???? muscles th?t control th? bladder, resulting ?n unexpected ?r uncontrollable leakage. Age, pregnancy, lack ?f exercise ?n? ??m? medications ??n lead t? urinary incontinence. If ??? ?r? pregnant, symptoms ?h???? subside during ???r postpartum recovery; doing Kegel exercises before, during ?n? ?ft?r pregnancy ??n h??? ??? gain control ?f ???r bladder. If ??? aren?t pregnant, m?k? ?n appointment w?th ???r doctor t? discuss treatment options th?t ??n reduce urinary leakage.
Embarrassing health conditions m?? b? uncomfortable t? discuss, b?t instead ?f ignoring th?m ?n? bearing th??r negative effects ?n ???r quality ?f life, h??? a discussion w?th ???r doctor ?n th? best ways t? treat ???r condition.
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Source: http://mybodyhealth.net/embarrassing-womens-conditions/
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Canada ups financial oversight, tags "too big to fail" banks
By Cameron French
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian authorities on Tuesday designated the country's top six banks as "systemically important" to the domestic economy and increased oversight of a widely used global derivatives clearing system in an effort to reduce banking system risk.
The so-called too big to fail designation was widely expected by the market and means the six banks will have to keep more capital on hand than required by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision after the 2008 financial crisis.
The banks, named soundest in the world for five years running by the World Economic Forum, are already in compliance with Basel III capital requirements. All but one meet the new tougher rules. Neither the United States nor the European Union have formally implemented the Basel standards yet.
"The measures we are announcing today are designed to limit the likelihood that a major bank would encounter distress or failure that could negatively impact the Canadian economy or taxpayers," Julie Dickson, head of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), said in a statement.
The changes are in line with the focus that the Group of 20 rich and developing nations is putting on banks that play significant roles in their home countries. The G20 has already imposed additional capital requirements on banks deemed globally systemically important.
No Canadian bank is considered systemically important globally, but OSFI said the concentrated nature of Canada's banking industry - the top six banks control more than 90 percent of the assets - meant the top players all required an additional capital buffer.
Canada's top six lenders in order of size are: Royal Bank of Canada
All six will be required to hold a minimum Tier 1 capital ratio of 8 percent as of January 1, 2016. As of the end of this past January, all but National Bank were already above that level, and National was just shy at 7.9 percent.
"We expect that when the dust settles the banks will be running at around 8.5-9 percent to give themselves a little bit of a buffer," said John Aiken, an analyst at Barclays Capital.
Shares of the banks were little changed on Tuesday, as the move had been widely expected. There had been some uncertainty about whether National, which is considerably smaller than the other five, would be included.
The bank was not immediately available for comment.
CIBC World Markets analyst Robert Sedran said the banks' strong capital positions means the additional buffer should not impact plans for capital outlays such as dividend hikes or buybacks.
"Given the pace of capital generation, we continue to view the issue of capital adequacy as more opportunity than risk," he said in a note.
SWAPCLEAR OVERSIGHT
Separately, the Bank of Canada said it would formally regulate SwapClear, the dominant global system for centrally clearing over-the-counter interest rate swaps.
In a statement, the bank said clearing activity of Canadian institutions in SwapClear has increased substantially, in line with Canada's G-20 commitment to centrally clear all standardized OTC derivatives.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-ups-financial-oversight-tags-too-big-fail-190320900--business.html
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মঙ্গলবার, ২৬ মার্চ, ২০১৩
Kerry arrives in Afghanistan on unannounced visit
KABUL (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has flown into Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to see President Hamid Karzai amid concerns the Afghan president may be jeopardizing progress in the war against extremism with anti-American rhetoric.
Kerry arrived in the Afghan capital on Monday for a 24-hour visit and was to meet Karzai, civic leaders and others to discuss continued U.S. assistance to the country. His visit coincides with the handover of a major detention center to Afghan officials.
It also comes as Karzai has infuriated U.S. officials by accusing Washington of colluding with Taliban insurgents to keep Afghanistan weak even as the Obama administration presses ahead with plans to hand off security responsibility to Afghan forces and end NATO's combat mission by the end of next year.
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'DWTS' pro Val: I'm destroying Zendaya this week
Steffen Thalemann
"Dancing With the Stars" pro Valentin Chmerkovskiy.
By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
"Dancing With the Stars" pro Valentin Chmerkovskiy will be blogging about his experiences and thoughts on his fourth quest for the mirror ball trophy in The Clicker throughout the season. The 14-time US champion in dance is paired with 16-year-old Disney star Zendaya, who plays Rocky Blue on "Shake It Up!"
By Valentin Chmerkovskiy
First of all, thank you to all the fans for all of your support, the really encouraging, really great comments I received after the debut performance with Zendaya! It means a lot that people take the time to write something nice for us to see, whether it?s on Twitter or Instagram or a website. I want to say that I really appreciate all the love and support. It makes me stay motivated, and it really inspires me to do better.
Last Monday?s performance was so inspiring! Not just for people watching. When I dance, I?m just in a different zone. When she dances, she?s in a different zone. That Monday night performance, it was heaven on earth! It was a feeling that you can?t really explain. At the end when we took our bow, and just hearing the roar and understanding that we just did something special? All the hard work paid off. It?s an unexplainable high. That kind of feeling is what we?re fighting for every day, every week. It?s worth the sweat, it?s worth the hard work.
I feel the thing about Monday?s performance with the contemporary wasn?t even the choreography or the dancing. It was just her performance. She?s a star now. Mark my words: I?ve worked with her for three weeks. She?s going to be a superstar. She?s the next Beyonce. She?s the next mega superstar.
This week we?re doing the jive. The jive is a very fast, very upbeat type of dance. The origins are -- vaguely speaking -- of the rock ?n? roll genre and era of dance: swing, Lindy, all those higher-paced, energetic dances. This is where having an understanding for connection and synergy and bonding and understanding each other and dancing completely in unison is very crucial to making this dance work. She?s put on three-inch heels, which is very difficult to dance in, and is something that is pretty new to a girl who is 16 years old. She?s a sneakerhead! She loves her Nikes and her Adidas! So it?s a challenge.
I?m not going to reveal too much about it. The dance is ? honestly, I?m so happy with how the dance came out! We don?t need too much production. We don?t need too much story. The story is simple. The song is very old-school sounding. When I hear the song, I think 1920s flapper vibe. I?m going to wear my pinstriped suit and she?s going to wear her flapper dress, and we?re going to come out and show a jive.
I basically choreographed the routine that I would?ve been dancing with a pro. That?s how challenging it is. I basically drove her, destroyed her into doing it pretty damn close to a pro! I?m excited to do an authentic, really competitive, challenging routine that doesn?t have a lot of fluff, but is something different. ? I?m glad that I finally have a partner that I can showcase those things with. Zendaya is somebody that I don?t hold back anything with choreographically. I?m not sacrificing anything.
I want her to be Zendaya at her best. It?s not easy because it?s constant work. I?ve put her through the same grueling practice schedule and work schedule that everybody else goes through, if not probably more. When she goes through that, that?s the result that you see -- Monday?s performance.? And it doesn?t matter if it?s contemporary, jive or tango. I will put the pressure on and I know a diamond is going to be the result. I just want to keep doing that, keep creating beautiful things, keep putting the pressure on, and see what she can do. I think she can do anything.
Whatever the judges want to give us, I?ll be happy with. I?m looking for what I want to see. At the end of the day, this is a matter of my pride and my integrity ? my integrity to her parents, my integrity to ?Dancing With the Stars? and the production, my integrity to everything that I represent as a teacher. It?s my integrity to my craft. That?s all I want. I want to come out and I want to surprise the people that I love. I want to surprise her parents. I want to surprise my parents. I want to surprise our fans. Those are the people I?m really prioritizing here.
Tune in Monday night to ABC, ?Dancing With the Stars?! And vote for Team Valdaya (3406)! We really appreciate it!
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Search Foreclosures for sale in Bellingham & Whatcom County | The ...
March 25th, 2013 by Fawn | Posted in Random No Comments ?
Are you looking for a list of local foreclosure properties that are for sale in Bellingham and Whatcom County?? The Johnson Team Real Estate can help. We have an extensive list of all foreclosure and real estate owned properties listed on the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
Before you you search for properties it?s important to understand the terms foreclosure and ?REO.?? A Foreclosure is a property which has been acquired by a lender when the borrower no longer makes the payments on a loan. Banks refer to these properties as ?REO?, an acronym for ?Real Estate Owned?.
Bellingham & Whatcom County real estate markets have been changing and more properties for sale are now owned by a lender who has acquired title by foreclosing on a loan. Lenders typically list these properties with agents in the local multiple listing service. In some cases, the pricing is very aggressive and offers an opportunity for a below market purchase to a buyer. In other cases, the lender is striving to get as much return on their investment as possible and is very firm on their price.
The process in purchasing a REO is much more straightforward than trying to purchase a short sale, because the lender has established the price. While the response time may be longer than with an individual seller, it is usually within a week or two.
You can search for Foreclosure/REO properties on our website by selecting the city name be
low:
Bellingham Foreclosures
Birch Bay Foreclosures
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Lynden Foreclosures
Sudden Valley Foreclosures
East Whatcom County Foreclosures
If you have specific question about real estate in Bellingham or foreclosures feel free to contact The Johnson Team Real Estate at 1-888-713-3056 or by email at Info@JohnsonTeamRealEstate.com
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সোমবার, ২৫ মার্চ, ২০১৩
Film academy sets Oscar dates for 2014, 2015
FILE - This Feb. 24, 2013 file photo shows Daniel Day Lewis and Meryl Streep in the press room at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday, March 25, 2013, that next year?s Oscar ceremony will be held on March 2, 2014. The 2015 trophies will be handed out Feb. 22. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - This Feb. 24, 2013 file photo shows Daniel Day Lewis and Meryl Streep in the press room at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday, March 25, 2013, that next year?s Oscar ceremony will be held on March 2, 2014. The 2015 trophies will be handed out Feb. 22. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2013 file photo, actress Anne Hathaway arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday, March 25, 2013, that next year?s Oscar ceremony will be held on March 2, 2014. The 2015 trophies will be handed out Feb. 22. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Film fans can already mark their calendars for the Academy Awards in 2014 and 2015.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that next year's Oscar ceremony will be held March 2. The 2015 trophies will be handed out Feb. 22.
Awards shows, including the Oscars, are juggling their calendars to avoid overlap with the 2014 Winter Olympics, which will be held Feb. 7-23 in Sochi, Russia.
The Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America each pushed up their 2014 awards ceremonies to the weekend of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, on Jan. 18 and 19, respectively.
The Directors Guild will present its annual awards on Jan. 25, 2014. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has yet to announce when its Golden Globe Awards ceremony will be held.
Nominations for the 86th annual Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 16, 2014, more than six weeks before the ceremony.
The Academy Awards in both 2014 and 2015 will be presented at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and broadcast live on ABC.
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Man breaks into church, steals ice cream
An intoxicated man allegedly broke into a church freezer to steal ice cream.
Police say that Andrew Steven Jung, 24, broke a glass door to the kitchen at St. Peters Catholic Church in St. Charlies, Missouri, early March 8. He has been charged with burglary, stealing and property damage.
Jung was spotted walking near the church, very intoxicated and had ice cream on his face and clothing, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Jung later told police he was an "ice cream junkie."
He is currently on probation for the 2010 burglary of another local church.
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রবিবার, ২৪ মার্চ, ২০১৩
Broke and ashamed: Many won't take handouts despite need
On college campuses, many students striving to make the grade don't have enough food to eat. Trying to tackle this challenge, colleges are now bringing food pantries onto campuses, hoping to help students through these tough times. NBC's Diana Alvear reports.
NBC News
Ashyle Horton, 22, was reluctant take help from a University of Arkansas food pantry because of the stigma of need. That program, like others, works to decrease the shame of seeking assistance.
By JoNel Aleccia, Senior Writer, NBC News
Ashyle Horton had volunteered in the past for the program that runs the University of Arkansas campus food pantry, but showing up as a client was an entirely different experience.
?I was very fearful and nervous,? said Horton, 22. ?It felt so weird going to a food pantry to get help.?
The graduating senior says she desperately needed the pasta, rice and other staples on the food bank shelves, but she worried that others might judge her, that they would think she ought to be able to get by on her own.
?I never thought that I would be struggling as much as I have this year,? said Horton, whose already-stretched income dropped abruptly when her hours were cut at the disability services agency where she works.
Suddenly, she found herself among the 50 million people in the U.S. who live in food-insecure households each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Pushing past the stigma of need was a hurdle for Horton ? as it is for many who find themselves in that situation, says Angela Oxford, director for the Fayetteville school?s Center for Community Engagement.
Oxford is among the ranks of local, state and federal experts ? officials from program managers to academic researchers???who work to reduce the onus of needing help.
Amber Kelsall, a volunteer at the University of Portland State's student food pantry, on helping students in need.
?There is a stigma in that people just want to be able to take care of themselves,? Oxford said. ?People don?t want to have to get assistance.?
Across the U.S., safety-net programs aimed at reaching the nearly 1 in 7 Americans living in poverty struggle to reach those in need. Food stamp enrollment climbed to record levels following the recent recession, with nearly 48 million participants in December 2012.?
Still, 1 in 4 people who are eligible for food stamps don't sign up, on average, the USDA says. Participation drops sharply in certain subgroups, as well. Only 34 percent of seniors and 60 percent of working poor households who could receive food stamps actually do, the USDA says.
That?s largely because of the perceived shame of taking a hand-out, researchers say.
?Stigma seems to be a big barrier to participation,? said Colleen Flaherty Manchester, an assistant professor of management at the University of Minnesota who studies the issue. ?We find it to be quite substantial.?
In fact, psychological barriers appear to be three times greater than time costs ? the effort and hassle it takes to enroll???in determining whether people seek benefits, Manchester said.
?I think it has to do with feelings of reduced self-efficacy, reduced self-esteem, psychological pressure from going against the social norm,? she said.
Angela Oxford, the director of the center for community engagement for the University of Arkansas describes how the campus food pantry was created.
Federal officials have tried to tackle the stigma issue in recent years. First they gave the Food Stamp Program a catchy new name -- SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Then they traded conspicuous food stamp coupons for discreet electronic benefit cards.
The USDA now runs cheery radio ads touting SNAP as a nutrition program, not a welfare plan, and the agency has worked to ease red tape and to reach out to underserved populations.
As a result, some experts say that stigma about receiving benefits is less than it was a dozen years ago, when states like New York erected complicated barriers to simply apply for the aid.
?I think stigma in general has been falling as a quotient in affecting social behavior,? said Thomas Fomby, a professor of economics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who has just launched a research project into the causes of hunger in North Texas.
Others, however, say there?s still considerable room for improvement.
?Have you ever been to a DHS office?? asked Oxford, referring to state department of human services offices. Even with improvements, potential participants may face long lines, complicated paperwork and embarrassing questions about income and assets.
But critics of the federal food program believe that it should be more difficult to get government benefits. They take aim at SNAP's ballooning numbers and its $78 billion a year cost.
Portland State University student Leaf Zuk tells NBC's Diana Alvear he was embarrassed when he first came to the school's food bank ?and discusses what he feels is an unhealthy stigma associated with poverty in America.
?It remains a program that discourages work, rewards idleness and promotes long-term dependence,? the conservative Heritage Foundation?s Robert Rector and Katherine Bradley wrote last summer.
Other critics argue that it should be the role of churches and charities, not the government, to provide food to people in need.
That would include the Arkansas campus food pantry, which is one of 50 college and university programs that have sprung up nationwide. There, as elsewhere, the emphasis is on offering help without rubbing it in, Oxford said.
No one will eyeball a student?s laptop and cell phone and figure that he or she is a rich kid trying to scam the system, she said. Students can apply discreetly online for food, there?s rarely a long waiting line ? and they don?t get standard-issue boxes of food. Instead, clients are allowed to choose the foods they want from the pantry shelves.
?That?s part of the dignity piece,? Oxford said.
For Ashyle Horton, her need for the food pantry may end with graduation this spring. She has applied for City Year, a national service program, and she hopes to pursue a master?s degree after that. But her months of accepting pasta and rice from the pantry have given her more empathy for others in that situation, she says.
"I don?t like to tell people when I?m in need,? she said. ?I like to help other people.?
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