T-shirts and sweatshirts, bumper stickers, laptop computer top case stickers and desktop wallpapers are good ways of expressing your inner geek or nerd or dork. Although originally popularized as a guard against scratches and bumps, iPhone cases have, in recent years, also become a way of displaying your solidarity with a cause, brand, or favorite anime character.
Fans of One Piece: gather 'round! We've got iPhone cases for you! There are five kinds of best scenes from the story, so choose your favorite one! Limited edition. Compatible with iPhone 4 and 4S.
Exactly 30 years ago, coach Bill Walsh transformed a perennially mediocre-at-best 49ers franchise into a juggernaut that would capture five Super Bowl titles in 14 seasons.
After 17 years without a return to the NFL title game, one of the key members of Walsh?s 49ers predicts a return to glory under coach Jim Harbaugh.
?I see these guys doing some wonderful things this decade ? I think Jim will do great job of creating another dynasty and winning some Super Bowls,? Craig recently told the San Francisco Chronicle, via NFL.com.? ?I foresee us winning some Super Bowls in the next decade, if not this year then in the years ahead.? Wherever he goes, he wins.? He has the secret sauce, and I?m loving his flavor.?
(Look, it would be way too easy to make a juvenile remark at this point, including but not limited to ?that?s what she said.?? Instead, I?ll just sit here and wonder how close Craig came to calling back Eric Branch of the Chronicle and begging him to pull that last sentence.)
?Jim Harbaugh is an amazing guy, an innovator, amazing coach, a leader,? Craig added.? ?When you get players to buy into your system the way he has, you?re going to have success.?
Amen to that.? We thought Harbaugh would make enough of a difference to win the NFC West, but we never dreamed he?d take the team to a 14-3 record and a berth in the NFC title game, especially since he had only seven weeks to get his team ready.
Some think that Jeff Fisher avoided the Dolphins for fear of competing directly with Bill Belichick and the Patriots.? In the end, Fisher may have wished he picked Belichick as his arch-rival instead of Harbaugh and the 49ers.
Facebook kids. (Photos used with permission of proud moms.) Top Left: Olivia Hellman, 7.5 months. Top Right: Juli Gomes, 8 months. Bottom Left: Chickpea, 2 years. Bottom Right: Sophia Gomes, 2 years.
You know the old saying that parenting doesn?t come with a handbook? Well, maybe it doesn?t need one?there?s Facebook.
In many ways I feel as though I?m watching the children of some of my friends grow up on Facebook. I?ve been with them from their first status update (e.g., ?Introducing Jane Smith at 7lbs, 6oz and 20 inches long!?) to first time sleeping through the night to first tooth to first step and first word to sentences, all the way to first days at preschool and beyond. It?s kind of exciting in its own way because I get to benefit from the experiences of my friends and their networks as they offer advice on croup or giving medicine or potty training or pacifier weaning.
Snow White has nothing on Chickpea and the Cookie.
According to some Facebook moms, these updates on Facebook are an extension of what goes between parents offline at play dates, while waiting for their kids after-school, at birthday parties, and wherever parents come together. In other words, this isn?t new?but the medium has changed. These Facebook updates raise the visibility of the socialness of parenting, re-imagining the proverb ?It takes a village? with a virtual village comprised of people more invested in the parent and child than might be those folks who are connected via circumstance, such as the playgroup connection. But they also seem to ?normalize? parenting. There are some extreme images of parenting that get popularized. On one side, there?s the idea of the perfectly behaved child and what life must be like in the household that produces such progeny: it?s a stark, controlled, sanitized image. And then there?s the acknowledgment that parenting is not easy and child-rearing can be chaotic. In this scenario, the house is a mess, the kids are running around unsupervised, and the parents are overwhelmed. These images seem to stand in opposition, representing two different parenting experiences, but often (as it typically is) the truth is a more muddled road. Social network parenting updates share the breadth of parenting experiences, including the good and the bad (insofar as people will share since we are particularly good at sharing the good and holding the bad close to our chests). They help create images of parenting that bypass media depictions and are more socially relevant within networks.
Emma Caster-Dudzick and big brother Charlie.
In what is symptomatic of a generation that has grown increasingly comfortable sharing their lives online, these updates are a sort of digital parenting class. They offer a peek at the curve balls that come with parenting and provide a forum for supportive feedback?because I?ve never seen anyone respond to an update with ?You?re doing it wrong, you pitiful excuse for a parent!??and I think as a result people are more willing to share the quirky things kids do. For example, in my feed, a two-year-old treated her mom to an explanation of feedback (her hands go in circular motions) and static (she shakes her hands frantically), another older child debated with her mom over whether tights are actually pants, and a mom talked about finally getting some time to herself while baby and dad were out for a little bit. Parents seem more likely to cast off the concern that they ?aren?t doing it right? or worry less about being perceived as a particular kind of parent and share the meaningful and worrysome moments in their lives. When the baby has croup and mom or dad is up at 3 am worrying about the cough or sitting with the kid in the shower, there?s a handy community available almost immediately to offer support and advice?and it?s a community that is likely to be aligned with the same parental and generational values as peers navigate life stages within the same relative time frame. That doesn?t mean that there isn?t unsolicited advice, or advice or comments that run counter to the parents? philosophies, but it?s easier to ignore those comments in the virtual world than it might be when Grandma is looming with her brandy remedy for sore gums.
Recently, a friend of mine preceded her update about her daughter with an apology for being ?one of those obnoxious parents? who over-share about their kids. She got several comments in response encouraging her to share. And why shouldn?t she? Parenting is hard enough as it is. You shouldn?t have to feel alone or that you and your kid need to meet some imagined standard?not when there are others out there with equally quirky stories to share.
Study shows connection between birth weights and armed conflictPublic release date: 18-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Kelly david.kelly@ucdenver.edu 303-315-6374 University of Colorado Denver
Psychological stress is likely cause
DENVER (Jan. 18, 2012) A new study shows pregnant women exposed to armed conflict have a higher risk of giving birth to underweight babies, a result that could change the way aid is delivered to developing countries.
"From a development side we need to ask, `Who is the population we should be focusing on?'" said Hani Mansour, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver who conducted the study with Daniel Rees, Ph.D., a CU Denver professor of economics. "Our results provide another reason why pregnant women deserve special attention when armed conflict breaks out."
The study, the first to examine the relationship between prenatal exposure to armed conflict and birth weight, will be published in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Development Economics. The manuscript is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387811001209?v=s5.
The research focused on a major uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories.
The Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, had claimed the lives of more than 4,000 Palestinians by 2005. Mansour and Rees drew on data from the Palestinian Demographic and Health Survey, which was collected by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics approximately four years after the start of the uprising. These data were matched with data on Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank collected by B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.
"We find that an additional conflict-related fatality nine to six months before birth is associated with an increase in the probability of having a low-birth weight child," Mansour said. "Psychological stress is a plausible explanation for this relationship, although we cannot rule out malnutrition."
The professors examined a sample of 1,224 births to women living in the West Bank. Conflict exposure in utero was measured by the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the district where the mother lived.
The authors controlled for a variety of potentially confounding variables including education of the mother and father, mother's age when she gave birth, father's occupation, birth order, gender of the baby, number of prenatal care visits, whether a curfew was in place, and self-reported anemia.
Because they control for anemia, the professors believe that psychological stress, as opposed to malnutrition, is the likely mechanism behind low birth weight. In addition, they note that previous studies have shown that exposure to earthquakes and terrorist attacks in the early stages of pregnancy can lead to low birth weight.
Rees and Mansour said they had no political agenda going into their research. They chose to study the impact of the Second Intifada "because of the quality of the data and the fact that mobility was very low in the West Bank during this period."
The authors noted that, "armed conflict is often associated with migration, which would complicate this type of analysis." According to Mansour, who was born in Haifa, Israel, "fully 94 percent of the mothers in our sample had not moved to a new community since the start of the Intifada."
Rees and Mansour plan to follow up by examining whether intrauterine exposure to armed conflict affects longer-term outcomes in educational attainment and test scores.
The authors said their findings had implications well beyond the West Bank and should be considered by policymakers around the world.
"At a minimum our results are consistent with those of medical studies showing a positive association between self-reported stress and low birth weight, and suggest a heretofore unexplored rationale for intervention when armed conflict occurs," they said.
###
The University of Colorado Denver offers more than 120 degrees and programs in 13 schools and colleges and serves more than 28,000 students. CU Denver is located on the Denver Campus and the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study shows connection between birth weights and armed conflictPublic release date: 18-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Kelly david.kelly@ucdenver.edu 303-315-6374 University of Colorado Denver
Psychological stress is likely cause
DENVER (Jan. 18, 2012) A new study shows pregnant women exposed to armed conflict have a higher risk of giving birth to underweight babies, a result that could change the way aid is delivered to developing countries.
"From a development side we need to ask, `Who is the population we should be focusing on?'" said Hani Mansour, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver who conducted the study with Daniel Rees, Ph.D., a CU Denver professor of economics. "Our results provide another reason why pregnant women deserve special attention when armed conflict breaks out."
The study, the first to examine the relationship between prenatal exposure to armed conflict and birth weight, will be published in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Development Economics. The manuscript is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387811001209?v=s5.
The research focused on a major uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories.
The Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, had claimed the lives of more than 4,000 Palestinians by 2005. Mansour and Rees drew on data from the Palestinian Demographic and Health Survey, which was collected by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics approximately four years after the start of the uprising. These data were matched with data on Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank collected by B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.
"We find that an additional conflict-related fatality nine to six months before birth is associated with an increase in the probability of having a low-birth weight child," Mansour said. "Psychological stress is a plausible explanation for this relationship, although we cannot rule out malnutrition."
The professors examined a sample of 1,224 births to women living in the West Bank. Conflict exposure in utero was measured by the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the district where the mother lived.
The authors controlled for a variety of potentially confounding variables including education of the mother and father, mother's age when she gave birth, father's occupation, birth order, gender of the baby, number of prenatal care visits, whether a curfew was in place, and self-reported anemia.
Because they control for anemia, the professors believe that psychological stress, as opposed to malnutrition, is the likely mechanism behind low birth weight. In addition, they note that previous studies have shown that exposure to earthquakes and terrorist attacks in the early stages of pregnancy can lead to low birth weight.
Rees and Mansour said they had no political agenda going into their research. They chose to study the impact of the Second Intifada "because of the quality of the data and the fact that mobility was very low in the West Bank during this period."
The authors noted that, "armed conflict is often associated with migration, which would complicate this type of analysis." According to Mansour, who was born in Haifa, Israel, "fully 94 percent of the mothers in our sample had not moved to a new community since the start of the Intifada."
Rees and Mansour plan to follow up by examining whether intrauterine exposure to armed conflict affects longer-term outcomes in educational attainment and test scores.
The authors said their findings had implications well beyond the West Bank and should be considered by policymakers around the world.
"At a minimum our results are consistent with those of medical studies showing a positive association between self-reported stress and low birth weight, and suggest a heretofore unexplored rationale for intervention when armed conflict occurs," they said.
###
The University of Colorado Denver offers more than 120 degrees and programs in 13 schools and colleges and serves more than 28,000 students. CU Denver is located on the Denver Campus and the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SEOUL (Reuters) ? Samsung Electronics Co said on Tuesday it planned to merge its 'bada' mobile software with a platform backed by chipmaker Intel Corp in its latest push to diversify away from Google's Android.
Samsung, which emerged as the world's biggest smartphone manufacturer on the back of booming Android models in the third quarter, joined forces with Intel last year to strengthen its mobile software push.
In September two Linux software groups, one backed by Samsung, and another by Intel, agreed to jointly develop Tizen, a new operating system for cellphones and other devices, by merging their LiMo and Meego platforms in a bid to gain wider industry and consumer support.
"We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen," a Samsung spokesman confirmed senior vice president Kang Tae-jin as telling Forbes magazine in an interview last week.
The open-source Tizen platform supports multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, Internet-enabled TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems.
It would have to attract wide support from developers and manufacturers to compete with the dozen or so other mobile operating systems available in a smartphone market dominated by Google's Linux-based Android and Apple's in-house software.
Google's Android accounted for 53 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter and Samsung's bada platform just 2.2 percent.
(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? U.S. stock investors will return to a tug of war between signs of domestic strength and overseas concerns this week as a batch of critical earnings reports look to add credence to the idea the economy is improving, while credit rating downgrades in Europe will keep that region's difficulties in view.
Bank stocks will probably once again be a primary focus, as not only will European issues call the group's profit outlook into question, but many key names report results.
Equities have recently undergone a decoupling with respect to Europe's sovereign debt crisis as signs of progress in the euro zone, along with improving U.S. data, have pushed Wall Street higher on improved growth prospects. Financials have been a beneficiary of that rising tide, with Bank of America up about 20 percent since the start of the year.
So far this month, the S&P 500 (.SPX) is up 2.5 percent, while the Dow (.DJI) is up 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq (.IXIC) is up 4.1 percent.
"We're going to see more volatility in the weeks ahead with tension between earnings and Europe," said Christopher Sheldon, the Boston-based director of investment strategy at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, which oversees $171 billion globally.
"We want to see Europe resolved, but there will continue to be ups and downs, and while earnings will continue to be relatively good, we do expect slowing compared with 2011."
However, the uncertainty about Europe returned in a big way on Friday after Standard & Poor's downgraded the ratings of nine of the 17 euro-zone countries, including France, Italy and Spain after the market closed. Talk of the downgrades spurred a selloff that erased most of the gains for the week, when the S&P rose for four straight sessions.
The downgrades could exacerbate the euro zone's difficulties and bring concerns about how they might affect U.S. banks' profits back to the forefront.
Still, market participants looking for signs of strength don't have to look far. Data has been bullish lately, including Friday's consumer sentiment reading at an eight-month high that sharply exceeded what was anticipated.
"The prospect of a downgrade has been around for a while, so despite today's reaction, everyone was aware of the potential, and I don't think it will be as impactful, especially as corporate business trends remain strong," said Hank Herrmann, chief executive of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc in Overland Park, Kansas.
HINTS OF BETTER TIMES AHEAD
Earnings reports from numerous bellwethers could reinforce the growth story. Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), General Electric Co (GE.N), Intel Corp (INTC.O), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) are among the names set to report.
Early reads have supported the idea that better times lie ahead. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said the domestic economy was strengthening even as its profit fell 23 percent, while Alcoa Inc (AA.N) rallied earlier in the week after giving a bullish outlook for the aluminum sector.
"Banks will be an important part of the story, especially with Europe in the picture, and investors will also be looking at names like GE, which have global exposure, to see what insights can be gleaned from that," said Herrman, who helps oversee $90 billion in assets.
The U.S. stock market will be closed on Monday in observance of the U.S. holiday honoring the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader.
When trading resumes on Tuesday, Wall Street will watch a number of economic indicators to gauge the strength of the recovery. Data scheduled for release in the abbreviated week includes the New York Fed's Empire State Index on January manufacturing, the December readings on the U.S. Producer Price Index and the Consumer Price Index, as well as December housing starts and December existing home sales.
For the past week, the Dow rose 0.5 percent while the S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq added 1.4 percent.
(Wall St Week Ahead runs every Sunday. Questions or comments on this column can be emailed to: ryan.vlastelica(at)thomsonreuters.com)
(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal; Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra: visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * BridgeStation: view story .134 For more information on Top News: http://topnews.reuters.com; For London stock market outlook please click on <.L/O>; Pan-European stock market outlook <.EU/O>; Tokyo stock market outlook <.T/O>)
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Public release date: 18-Jan-2012
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