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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Texas A&M Student Senate Passes Measure Allowing Religion ...

The Texas A&M Student Senate last night voted 35-28 in favor of a measure allowing students to opt out of funding the campus GLBT Resource Center if they have religious objections, the Dallas Voice reports:

Claybrook Less than 24 hours before the vote, the name of the bill was changed from the ?GLBT Funding Opt Out Bill? to the ?The Religious Funding Exemption Bill,? and specific references to the GLBT Resource Center were removed. However, opponents of the bill who packed a Student Senate meeting before the vote Wednesday said the name change did not alter the bill?s discriminatory, anti-gay intent.

With the crowd spilling into the hallways, an overflow viewing room was set up, and the Senate meeting had to be stopped several times so administrators could clear fire exits, according to a report in The Eagle of Bryan-College Station. Emotions ran high, with senators cursing and the woman assigned to tally their votes bursting into tears.

KBTX reports on the contentious meeting and has a long piece on the history of the bill:

According to a university spokesman, the GLBT Resource Center receives about $100,000 a year in funding provided by student fees, averaging out to a contribution of around $2 per student.

GLBT Aggies President Kimberly Villa says the center provides a "safe space" for those students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, and that a vote in any way to strategically divert funding would hurt a population which has experienced a history of discrimination on the Texas A&M Campus. The center provides reference materials, counseling support, and programming concerning GLBT health and awareness issues.

The "Religious Funding Exemption Bill" was originally written by a student who felt morally and religiously opposed to paying fees that go towards the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Resource Center on campus.

A&M Student Body President John Claybrook (who took the inset photo that was published by kbtx) has the option to veto the measure but has not said if he will.

(image kbtx)

UPDATE: Zack Ford at Think Progress makes note of this even more heinous development:

Though it?s unclear this student-led attack on LGBT Aggies is enforceable, the state legislature is considering a broader change that very well could. Texas Rep. Bill Zedler (R) has filed an amendment to the state?s appropriations bill to cut funding for public universities that have ?Gender and Sexuality Centers and Related Student Centers.? The amendment offensively claims that the centers promote behaviors that have a high risk for disease:

An institution of higher education may not use money appropriated to the institution under this Act, or any property or facility of the institution funded by appropriations under this Act, to support, promote, or encourage any behavior that would lead to high risk behavior for AIDS, HIV, Hepatitis B, or any sexually transmitted disease.

Source: http://www.towleroad.com/2013/04/texas-am-student-senate-passes-measure-allowing-religion-based-discrimination-against-campus-glbt-ce.html

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Madonna visits children's ward in Malawi

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) ? Pop diva Madonna, spending her fourth day in the southern African country of Malawi on Thursday, picked up ailing children and joked with them when she visited an overcrowded children's ward in Blantyre, the country's largest city.

"Muli bwanji? (How are you?)" she greeted them in Malawi's main language, Chichewa.

Madonna, with her son, Rocco, went to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, which she has been supporting for five years through its chief pediatrician, Dr. Eric Borgstein.

"Eric Borgstein is a hero of mine" said Madonna. "He is doing a wonderful job."

The ward performs at least 500 surgeries per year on poor children, said Borgstein.

Madonna is the largest individual donor to the hospital and funds programs run by Borgstein that include treating children with cancer, said Trevor Neilson, president of the Global Philanthropy Group that is managing Madonna's projects in Malawi.

Born and raised in Malawi, Borgstein said he studied medicine at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands before to returning to his home country. Borgstein said he has been working in children's health for 15 years, treating up to 40 patients daily. Malawi has only three pediatric surgeons, said Borgstein.

He is currently a partner of Raising Malawi, the non-profit organization Madonna co-founded with Michael Berg in 2006 to help Malawian children.

On Friday, Madonna is scheduled to visit Consol Homes Orphan Care Centre, 50 kilometers (31 miles) outside the capital, Lilongwe.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/madonna-visits-childrens-ward-malawi-193408729.html

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Physicists decipher social cohesion issues

Public release date: 3-Apr-2013
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Contact: Sophia Grein
sophia.grein@springer.com
49-622-148-78414
Springer

Studying the effect of migration of cooperation could help to better understand social cohesion

Migrations happen for a reason, not randomly. A new study, based on computer simulation, attempts to explain the effect of so-called directional migration migration for a reason on cooperative behaviours and social cohesion. These results appear in a study about to be published in EPJ B by Hongyan Cheng from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and colleagues.

The authors devised a computer simulation of what they refer to as selfish individuals those who are mainly concerned with their own interests, to the exclusion of the interests of others. In this study, they propose a new migration rule, dubbed directional migration, in existing models referred to as evolutionary game theory. This takes into account the fact that individuals in animal and human society make migration choices that are often motivated by the need to search for food or to look for alliances, for example.

Cheng and colleagues found that when they introduce a directional migration trend in their computer model, the cooperation level among individuals is greatly improved compared to situations with no migration. They also found that directional migration has a profound impact on the population structure. It drives individuals to form a number of dense clusters, which resembles social cohesion. In these clusters, individuals organise into a well-functioning group in which there are shared goals and a readiness to cooperate with others.

The authors expect that their model can be further improved in the future by incorporating some factors reflecting real-life situations. For example, the model could introduce a range of interaction that differs for each individual, or vary the collective interaction ranges of a given cluster of individuals in keeping with the number of individuals in the cluster. By combining these real factors, this approach could provide a deeper understanding of the emergence of cooperation among individuals.

###

Reference

H. Y. Cheng et al. (2013), Effects of directional migration on prisoner's dilemma game in a square domain, European Physical Journal B, DOI 10.1140/epjb/e2013-40076-5

For more information, please visit http://www.epj.org

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Physicists decipher social cohesion issues

Public release date: 3-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Sophia Grein
sophia.grein@springer.com
49-622-148-78414
Springer

Studying the effect of migration of cooperation could help to better understand social cohesion

###

Reference

H. Y. Cheng et al. (2013), Effects of directional migration on prisoner's dilemma game in a square domain, European Physical Journal B, DOI 10.1140/epjb/e2013-40076-5

For more information, please visit http://www.epj.org

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/s-pds040313.php

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Exclusive: Nationwide, Reich & Tang to buy HighMark funds -sources

By Jessica Toonkel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Financial and New York-based Reich & Tang are buying UnionBanCal Corp's mutual fund business, three sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

San Francisco-based UnionBanCal is expected to announce the sale of its HighMark Funds to the two parties in the next few days, said two of the sources, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media.

UnionBanCal is selling 19 of its 24 HighMark Funds to Nationwide Financial, the two sources said. Nationwide's funds group, based in Philadelphia, is made up of 91 funds that had $45 billion in assets under management as of December 31. Through the sale, Nationwide will be adding another $4 billion in funds to its group, based on Lipper data.

UnionBanCal is selling its five money market funds, which have $4.2 billion in assets, to Reich & Tang, a New York-based subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management, S.A., the two sources said.

It could not be determined how much Nationwide and Reich & Tang are paying for the funds.

A UnionBanCal official was not immediately available to comment, a spokeswoman said. Nationwide and Reich & Tang declined to comment.

UnionBanCal, which had $97 billion in assets at December 31, 2012, is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.

The firm joins a number of U.S. financial institutions that are shedding their asset management arms to focus on core banking businesses.

Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc is in talks to sell its RidgeWorth Asset Management and is also expected to announce a deal shortly.

Given how difficult it is for firms to make money offering money market funds in the current low interest rate environment, along with the potential for regulatory reform of money market funds, it makes sense that Highmark is getting out of the business, said Jeff Tjornehoj, an analyst at Lipper.

"The money market industry is skating on thin ice as far as profits go, so I can understand why they would sell it," Tjornehoj said. "It's a business that relies on scale and with $4 billion, that is simply not enough."

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer, Nick Zieminski and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-nationwide-reich-tang-buy-highmark-funds-sources-191847235--sector.html

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Op-Ed: Rookie Teachers Need Way More Support

Steve Jobs once said, "Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them." One of the most effective ways to use modern technology in education is in observing teaching to greatly influence the effectiveness of educators.

Reflection is vital for teachers to improve their craft as professionals. However, it can be difficult to objectively examine one's teaching skills. For new teachers, it can be particularly challenging.

I can remember many times myself, as a beginning teacher, feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information and areas of improvement I identified. Sometimes it was difficult to identify where, when, how, and why things went awry. I remember feeling both anxious and excited for others to come into my classroom and observe; I looked forward to hearing ways to improve. Many times, however, I was somewhat disappointed when little meaningful feedback was offered. That was then. This is 2013.

Now out of the classroom, I'm the director of a beginning teacher induction program serving five school districts in the California East Bay Area. I am responsible for helping new teachers become more effective.?

Most teachers are hungry for authentic, meaningful feedback to boost their development. Our limited resources, however, make this a hunger challenging to feed.

According to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Met Project study on measures of effective teaching, if observations are meant to positively influence professional growth, having more than one set of eyes to conduct the observation needs to occur.

The good news is many of us now carry a recording device in our pockets and can record and upload videos from anywhere in the world to anyone in the world in a matter of seconds. These devices can be extremely valuable in giving new teachers more than one perspective on their teaching, and helping them become more effective. Let me explain.

The districts I serve partner with New Teacher Center (NTC) to give new teachers the support they need to be effective and to remain committed to teaching. Thanks to a grant from Chevron, this includes a pilot initiative using video recordings of teachers to influence teacher growth. Teachers use a secure platform to post and share their recorded lessons with those they choose through NTC's E-Mentoring for Student Success (eMSS).?

Many educators I work with are critical of themselves, and this gives them the ability to reflect while playing back and pausing raw footage of their teaching. The benefits are endless. Not surprisingly, teachers find a wide variety of ways they can improve by viewing themselves. And when they watch the recording with a mentor, there are even higher yields in terms of communication and reflection.

Part of my work consists of coaching and providing support to beginning teachers. I have used video as a way to show teachers areas they can improve. Viewing recordings with teachers allows me to use a facilitative voice, allowing the teacher viewing themselves to offer suggestions for improvement. Afterwards, it's easy for them to generate next steps and understand how these modifications will be implemented into their classroom right away.?

How this looks in your district, at your school site, or in your classroom may be as unique as the students served. A few powerful concepts to keep in mind revolving around effective professional development are:

Educators willing to take risks are viewed as a professionally growing teacher.? Professional development that is sustained, intensive, and focused on subject matter has a large impact on teacher development.? There is a higher rate of growth for teachers who participate in ?hands on? learning relevant to daily tasks within the classroom. Designing high quality professional development needs to possess a focus on collective participation of educators, core features, and duration of time.

Utilizing technology in the classroom for teacher observations is a high yield strategy to increase teacher effectiveness, especially when paired with the expertise of a trained mentor. When teachers take ownership while collaborating and placing ownership and accountability on themselves, instead of sources far beyond their control, positive outcomes are a result.? Like Steve Jobs said, "Technology is nothing." As professionals, it is essential we use technologies wisely and "do wonderful things with them."

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Op-Ed: For First-Year Teachers, It?s Sink or Swim

? Diary of a First-Year Teacher: I Never Thought I?d Feel So Isolated

? Diary of a First-Year Teacher: Here?s the Most Stressful Part of My Job

Todd Airola is an accomplished educator who now leads an initiative to help beginning teachers accelerate their professional growth as a BTSA Induction Coordinator with the Far East Contra Costa County Consortium in California.? The consortium credentials teachers employed in Brentwood, Byron, Knightsen, Liberty, and Oakley school districts. TakePart.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/op-ed-rookie-teachers-way-more-support-185900665.html

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

UN Adopts First Arms-Trade Regulation Treaty (Voice Of America)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/296190332?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 isn't even out yet, but it's been rooted

We might have spent a few hours toying with Samsung's new mobile hardware, but tinkerers over at XDA-Developers have had enough time to root the Galaxy S 4, already. This means those (very) early adopters can start perusing the inner workings as soon as it arrives on store shelves. There's a video of the process after the break and you can pick up all the necessary files (and warnings of not to meddle with what you do not understand) at the source. There is one tiny caveat to the news, however, as the rooting magic is focused squarely on the Exynos 5 Octa model for now. According to SAM Mobile, several batches of the new Galaxy phone are rumored to be packing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 instead of Samsung's homemade chip series. An official spokesperson from the UK branch has confirmed that it'll arrive in the there with the Snapdragon processor.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung