VW brand bears brunt of crisis as first-quarter profit halves

BERLIN (Reuters) - First-quarter profit at Volkswagen's core brand almost halved, Europe's biggest carmaker said on Monday, as manufacturers battle the region's protracted slump in demand with ever deeper discounts.

Operating profit at the VW brand, which accounts for over half the German group's 46.6 billion-euro ($60.7 billion) sales, plunged to 590 million euros, VW said, giving details on a drop in quarterly group earnings announced last week.

The VW brand's profit margin tumbled to 2.4 percent from 4.1 percent in the first three months of 2012.

"The current environment is definitely a tough challenge for the entire industry," Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn said in a statement.

VW-brand deliveries, including VW's all-time best-selling Golf hatchback, fell in March for the first time in over three years.

Still, the company said last week it would stand by targets announced on March 14 to match the 2012 record operating profit of 11.5 billion euros and to push sales and deliveries to new record levels.

Wolfsburg-based VW is pinning its hopes for growing sales volumes on about 60 new models this year including facelifts and overhauls as well as the new Golf, launched in November.

One VW dealer told Reuters the multi-brand group has been pushing sales of models like the Golf or the Tiguan compact SUV since February with retail sales incentives of as much as 1,800 euros per vehicle under a special discount program slated to run through June 30.

Depending on VW's budget, the program could be extended by another 3 months, the dealer said, declining to be identified as the sales policy is confidential.

"The VW group is not completely immune to the intense competition and the impact this is having on business," CEO Winterkorn said.

Underlying profit at the Audi luxury brand declined 7.3 percent to 1.31 billion euros, VW said.

The loss at Spanish division Seat widened to 46 million euros from 29 million euros a year earlier, underscoring the need for action as VW plans to swap the brand's CEO on May 1.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Ludwig Burger and Mark Potter)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vw-brand-bears-brunt-crisis-first-quarter-profit-103511485.html

derek jeter Red Bull Stratos Redbull Stratos steve mcnair vice presidential debate Martha Raddatz Chris Lighty

Speed of Light May Not Be Constant, Phycisists Say

The speed of light is constant, or so textbooks say. But some scientists are exploring the possibility that this cosmic speed limit changes, a consequence of the nature of the vacuum of space.

The definition of the speed of light has some broader implications for fields such as cosmology and astronomy, which assume a stable velocity for light over time. For instance, the speed of light comes up when measuring the fine structure constant (alpha), which defines the strength of the electromagnetic force. And a varying light speed would change the strengths of molecular bonds and the density of nuclear matter itself.

A non-constant speed of light could mean that estimates of the size of the universe might be off. (Unfortunately, it won't necessarily mean we can travel faster than light, because the effects of physics theories such as relativity are a consequence of light's velocity). [10 Implications of Faster-Than-Light Travel]

Two papers, published in the European Physics Journal D in March, attempt to derive the speed of light from the quantum properties of space itself. Both propose somewhat different mechanisms, but the idea is that the speed of light might change as one alters assumptions about how elementary particles interact with radiation. Both treat space as something that isn't empty, but a great big soup of virtual particles that wink in and out of existence in tiny fractions of a second.

Cosmic vacuum and light speed

The first, by lead author Marcel Urban of the Universit? du Paris-Sud, looks at the cosmic vacuum, which is often assumed to be empty space. The laws of quantum physics, which govern subatomic particles and all things very small, ?say that the vacuum of space is actually full of fundamental particles like quarks, called "virtual" particles. These matter particles, which are always paired up with their appropriate antiparticle counterpart, pop into existence and almost immediately collide. When matter and antimatter particles touch, they annihilate each other.

Photons of light, as they fly through space, are captured and re-emitted by these virtual particles. Urban and his colleagues propose that the energies of these particles ? specifically the amount of charge they carry ? affect the speed of light. Since the amount of energy a particle will have at the time a photon hits it will be essentially random, the effect on how fast photons move should vary too.

As such, the amount of time the light takes to cross a given distance should vary as the square root of that distance, though the effect would be very tiny ? on the order of 0.05 femtoseconds for every square meter of vacuum. A femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second. (The speed of light has been measured over the last century to high precision, on the order of parts per billion, so it is pretty clear that the effect has to be small.)

To find this tiny fluctuation, the researchers say, one could measure how light disperses at long distances. Some astronomical phenomena, such as gamma-ray bursts, produce pulses of radiation from far enough away that the fluctuations could be detected. The authors also propose using lasers bounced between mirrors placed about 100 yards apart, with a light beam bouncing between them multiple times, to seek those small changes.

Particle species and light speed

The second paper proposes a different mechanism but comes to the same conclusion that light speed changes. In that case, Gerd Leuchs and Luis S?nchez-Soto, from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen, Germany, say that the number of species of elementary particle that exist in the universe may be what makes the speed of light what it is.

Leuchs and Sanchez-Soto say that there should be, by their calculations, on the order of 100 "species" of particle that have charges. The current law governing particle physics, the Standard Model, identifies nine: the electron, muon, tauon, the six kinds of quark, photons and the W-boson. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

The charges of all these particles are important to their model, because all of them have charges. A quantity called impedance depends on the sum of those charges. The impedance in turn depends on the permittivity of the vacuum, or how much it resists electric fields, as well as its permeability, or how well it supports magnetic fields. Light waves are made up of both an electric and magnetic wave, so changing those quantities (permittivity and permeability) will change the measured speed of light.

"We have calculated the permittivity and permeability of the vacuum as caused by those ephemeral virtual unstable elementary particles," Soto-Sanchez wrote in an email to LiveScience. "It turns out, however,?from such a simple model one can discern?that those constants contain essentially equal contributions of the different types of electrically charged particle-antiparticle pairs: both, the ones known and those so far unknown to us."

Both papers say that light interacts with virtual particle-antiparticle pairs. In Leuchs' and Sanchez-Soto's model, the impedance of the vacuum (which would speed up or slow down the speed of light) depends on the density of the particles. The impedance relates to the ratio of electric fields to magnetic fields in light; every light wave is made up of both kinds of field, and its measured value, along with the permittivity of space to magnetic fields, governs the speed of light.

Some scientists are a bit skeptical, though. Jay Wacker, a particle physicist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, said he wasn't confident about the mathematical techniques used, and that it seemed in both cases the scientists weren't applying the mathematical tools in the way that most would. "The proper way to do this is with the Feynman diagrams," Wacker said. "It's a very interesting question [the speed of light]," he added, but the methods used in these papers are probably not sufficient to investigate it.

The other issue is that if there really are a lot of other particles beyond what's in the Standard Model, then this theory needs some serious revision. But so far its predictions have been borne out, notably with the discovery of the Higgs boson. This doesn't mean there aren't any more particles to be found ? but if they are out there they're above the energies currently achievable with particle accelerators, and therefore pretty heavy, and it's possible that their effects would have shown up elsewhere.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/speed-light-may-not-constant-phycisists-133539398.html

Steel Magnolias Niels Bohr the Rumble 2012 Columbus Day 2012 carlina white Sam Champion Engaged Infield fly rule

Trader Dan's Market Views: Trader Dan Interviewed at King World ...

DISCLAIMER:

The charts and analysis provided here are not recommended for trading purposes but are instead intended to convey general technical analysis principles. Trade at your own risk. Futures trading in particular is fraught with peril due to extreme market volatility.

All the content of this website http://traderdannorcini.blogspot.com is presented for educational and/or informational and entertainment purposes only. Under no circumstances should it be mistaken for professional investment advice, nor is it intended to be taken as such. The information and opinions contained at this site have been compiled or arrived at from sources believed reliable but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to their accuracy or completeness.

The commentary and other contents reflect the opinion of Trader Dan Norcini or Dan Norcini alone on the current and future status of the markets, various economies and world events. It is subject to error and change without notice. The presence of a link to a website does not indicate approval or endorsement of that web site or any services, products, or opinions that may be offered there.

Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation to buy or sell any securities or investments or futures contracts. Trader Dan Norcini, or Dan Norcini, accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss arising from the use of this website or its contents. DO NOT EVER purchase or sell any security or investment or derivative such as a futures contract without doing your own and sufficient research.

Trader Dan Norcini or Dan Norcini, is not under any obligation to update or keep current the information contained herein. Trader Dan Norcini or Dan Norcini may, at times have positions in the securities or investments or futures markets referred to at this site, and may make purchases or sales of these securities, investments or futures contracts while this site is live. Those positions may and will more than likely be subject to rapid change due to ever changing market conditions.

Readers therefore are encouraged to conduct their own research and due diligence and/or obtain professional advice before making any investment or trading decision.

Source: http://traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/2013/04/trader-dan-interviewed-at-king-world_27.html

gary carter died cmas cmas tcu dr. oz heart attack grill las vegas the heart attack grill

DNA at 60: Still Much to Learn

On the diamond jubilee of the double helix, we should admit that we don't fully understand how evolution works at the molecular level, suggests Philip Ball

By Philip Ball and Nature magazine

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Yikrazuul

This week's diamond jubilee of the discovery of DNA's molecular structure rightly celebrates how Francis Crick, James Watson and their collaborators launched the 'genomic age' by revealing how hereditary information is encoded in the double helix. Yet the conventional narrative ? in which their 1953 Nature paper led inexorably to the Human Genome Project and the dawn of personalized medicine ? is as misleading as the popular narrative of gene function itself, in which the DNA sequence is translated into proteins and ultimately into an organism's observable characteristics, or phenotype.

Sixty years on, the very definition of 'gene' is hotly debated. We do not know what most of our DNA does, nor how, or to what extent it governs traits. In other words, we do not fully understand how evolution works at the molecular level.

That sounds to me like an extraordinarily exciting state of affairs, comparable perhaps to the disruptive discovery in cosmology in 1998 that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating rather than decelerating, as astronomers had believed since the late 1920s. Yet, while specialists debate what the latest findings mean, the rhetoric of popular discussions of DNA, genomics and evolution remains largely unchanged, and the public continues to be fed assurances that DNA is as solipsistic a blueprint as ever.

The more complex picture now emerging raises difficult questions that this outsider knows he can barely discern. But I can tell that the usual tidy tale of how 'DNA makes RNA makes protein' is sanitized to the point of distortion. Instead of occasional, muted confessions from genomics boosters and popularizers of evolution that the story has turned out to be a little more complex, there should be a bolder admission ? indeed a celebration ? of the known unknowns.

DNA dispute
A student referring to textbook discussions of genetics and evolution could be forgiven for thinking that the 'central dogma' devised by Crick and others in the 1960s ? in which information flows in a linear, traceable fashion from DNA sequence to messenger RNA to protein, to manifest finally as phenotype ? remains the solid foundation of the genomic revolution. In fact, it is beginning to look more like a casualty of it.

Although it remains beyond serious doubt that Darwinian natural selection drives much, perhaps most, evolutionary change, it is often unclear at which phenotypic level selection operates, and particularly how it plays out at the molecular level.

Take the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, a public research consortium launched by the US National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Starting in 2003, ENCODE researchers set out to map which parts of human chromosomes are transcribed, how transcription is regulated and how the process is affected by the way the DNA is packaged in the cell nucleus. Last year, the group revealed that there is much more to genome function than is encompassed in the roughly 1% of our DNA that contains some 20,000 protein-coding genes ? challenging the old idea that much of the genome is junk. At least 80% of the genome is transcribed into RNA.

Some geneticists and evolutionary biologists say that all this extra transcription may simply be noise, irrelevant to function and evolution. But, drawing on the fact that regulatory roles have been pinned to some of the non-coding RNA transcripts discovered in pilot projects, the ENCODE team argues that at least some of this transcription could provide a reservoir of molecules with regulatory functions ? in other words, a pool of potentially 'useful' variation. ENCODE researchers even propose, to the consternation of some, that the transcript should be considered the basic unit of inheritance, with 'gene' denoting not a piece of DNA but a higher-order concept pertaining to all the transcripts that contribute to a given phenotypic trait.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=22468e1a163e79ec52d768c51bb020a7

ipad 2 wal mart happy thanksgiving Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade 2012 Turkey Cooking Times Butterball mashed potatoes

Steiger Dynamics LEET Reference

The next frontier in PC gaming isn't about bigger, better processors and graphics cards. Premium components will always find their way into elite gaming machines, to be sure, but PC gaming is moving to the living room. With PC-to-HDTV integration becoming simpler than it has ever been, and PC gaming gaining steam with online distribution like, er, Steam, there's a large segment of the PC gaming market that wants to hop on the gaming grid while kicking back on the couch. Recognizing this shift, boutique PC manufacturer Steiger Dynamics has unleashed the LEET Reference ($6,323 as configured), which combines all the hardware of the most premium gaming PC?like the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan)?with a gorgeous design that will blend seamlessly into any high-end home theater setup.

Design
The Steiger Dynamics LEET lineup is designed as a premium gaming desktop packaged as a high-end home theater PC (HTPC). That's not to say that the LEET Reference is anything like the small form-factor gaming PCs we've reviewed recently, like the Digital Storm Bolt?oh, no. This is closer to the giant premium systems like the Maingear F131 Super Stock (GTX Titan) or the Origin Genesis (Core i7-3970X).

Unlike those systems, however, the LEET Reference is designed to be part of your home theater setup, and it has a design that will make it right at home next to a Denon AVR-1613 receiver or an Oppo BDP-103 Blu-ray player. From the black anodized aluminum chassis to the pillar-style feet underneath, the exterior of the LEET Reference looks like high-end stereo equipment.

Set in the center of the chassis front is an integrated 7-inch display?similar to that seen a few years ago on the BFG Phobos, but without touch control?which offers system monitoring in a format that's easy to read while sitting on the sofa a few feet away, cycling through several screens, monitoring CPU/GPU clocks, load levels, and temperatures, along with used and available drive space, and RAM capacity utilization. The display is tied to a customizable app, letting you tweak the displayed information to your liking, or you can simply leave it in its pre-configured state.

The front panel also features a tray-loading optical drive (12x Blu-ray Player/DVD Combo) and a small panel concealing an SDHC card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, and a pair of headphone and microphone jacks.

Features
But while the exterior of the LEET Reference looks like stereo equipment, looking inside is like popping the hood of a chromed-out hot-rod. Glowing interior LEDs highlight the immaculate interior through the acrylic window that makes up most of the lid. Peering inside you'll see the black custom cabling and white tubing for a liquid cooling system, silently chilling the high-end components inside: a hex-core Intel Core i7-3930K (normally 3.2GHz, but overclocked to 4.7GHz), 16GB of RAM (and room to upgrade to 32GB), and a pair of EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 Hydro Copper graphics processors (in an SLI configuration, 4GB of memory each), all plugged into an Asus Rampage IV Formula motherboard. There's also a ton of storage?two 120GB solid-state drives in RAID 0 and four 3TB hard drives in RAID5. Powering the whole thing is a Seasonic Platinum 1,000-Watt power supply.

This is one of the reasons gamers routinely choose boutique vendors over the mainstream behemoths for their premium gaming PCs?this system is lovingly crafted by obsessive-compulsive perfectionists, producing a beautiful system inside and out. And there's still plenty of room to expand, supporting up to quad-SLI graphics, as much as 64GB of RAM.

Turn the LEET Reference around and you'll find an equally impressive array of ports on the rear panel. Four more USB 3.0 ports are joined by seven USB 2.0 ports and two USB/eSATA combo ports, along with a PS/2 port, providing all the peripheral connectivity you could ever want. Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi will more than handle all of your web browsing, including downloading and streaming media. Two DVI ports and a DisplayPort provide connectivity for multiple displays, and an included adapter cable makes connecting to HDMI a snap.

Befitting an HTPC, the LEET Reference also features an array of audio outputs, including optical surround sound, and to take the media angle one step further, there's also an optional integrated Ceton InfitiTV PCIe Full-HD Quad Cable Tuner (an additional $239). With so many connections for home theater and so much available storage space, it should be no surprise that the LEET Reference, in addition to being an effective gaming system, does double duty as a media server, and comes with Windows 8 Pro Media Center preinstalled. Also preinstalled is CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra, Google Chrome, FRAPS for video capture, and GPU drivers from EVGA and Nvidia. And finally, Steiger Dynamics is generous to those who buy its systems?the LEET Reference has a 30-day money back guarantee, the hardware is covered by a three-year limited warranty, and purchasers get lifetime customer care.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/EY4BYNVEza8/0,2817,2418126,00.asp

the secret life of bees full moon aubrey o day johan santana viktor bout ncaa hockey role models

Boston bomb suspect charged; religious motive seen

BOSTON (AP) ? The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by a radical brand of Islam but do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, U.S. officials said Monday after interrogating and charging Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with crimes that could bring the death penalty.

Tsarnaev, 19, was charged in his hospital room, where he was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway. His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died Friday after a fierce gunbattle with police.

The Massachusetts college student was charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. He was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 200 a week ago.

The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the U.S. for about a decade, practiced Islam.

Two U.S. officials said preliminary evidence from the younger man's interrogation suggests the brothers were motivated by religious extremism but were apparently not involved with Islamic terrorist organizations.

Dzhokhar communicated with his interrogators in writing, precluding the type of back-and-forth exchanges often crucial to establishing key facts, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

They cautioned that they were still trying to verify what they were told by Tsarnaev and were looking at such things as his telephone and online communications and his associations with others.

In the criminal complaint outlining the allegations, investigators said Tsarnaev and his brother each placed a knapsack containing a bomb in the crowd near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race.

The FBI said surveillance-camera footage showed Dzhokhar manipulating his cellphone and lifting it to his ear just instants before the two blasts.

After the first blast, a block away from Dzhokhar, "virtually every head turns to the east ... and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm," the complaint says. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, "virtually alone of the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm."

He then quickly walked away, leaving a knapsack on the ground; about 10 seconds later, a bomb blew up at the spot where he had been standing, the FBI said.

The FBI did not say whether he was using his cellphone to detonate one or both of the bombs or whether he was talking to someone.

The criminal complaint shed no light on the motive for the attack.

The Obama administration said it had no choice but to prosecute Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the federal court system. Some politicians had suggested he be tried as an enemy combatant in front of a military tribunal, where defendants are denied some of the usual constitutional protections.

But Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and under U.S. law, American citizens cannot be tried by military tribunals, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Carney said that since 9/11, the federal court system has been used to convict and imprison hundreds of terrorists.

Also on Monday, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying two foreign nationals arrested Saturday in the Boston area on immigration violations are from Kazakhstan and may have known the two Marathon bombing suspects.

The foreign ministry said U.S. authorities came across them while searching for "possible links and contacts" to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Their names have not been released.

Shortly after the charges against Tsarnaev were unveiled, Boston-area residents and many of their well-wishers ? including President Barack Obama at the White House ? observed a moment of silence at 2:49 p.m. ? the moment a week earlier when the bombs exploded.

Across Massachusetts, the silence was broken by the tolling of church bells.

"God bless the people of Massachusetts," said Gov. Deval Patrick at a ceremony outside the Statehouse. "Boston Strong."

The governor and Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean O'Malley were among the mourners at St. Joseph Church at the first funeral for one of the victims, Krystle Campbell. The 29-year-old restaurant manager had gone to watch a friend finish the race.

"She was always there for people. As long as Krystle was around, you were OK," said Marishi Charles, who attended the Mass. "These were the words her family wanted you to remember."

At a memorial service for Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old graduate student at Boston University, friends and family vowed not to forget the light in their lives that was extinguished too soon.

"You need us to be strong and brave," Jing Li said of her roommate, killed as she watched the marathon a week ago. "We will keep running to finish the race for you and we will try to realize your unfinished dream."

Patrick also attended that service.

Amid a swirl of emotions in Boston, there was cause for some celebration: Doctors announced that everyone injured in the blasts who made it to a hospital alive now seems likely to survive.

That includes several people who arrived with legs attached by just a little skin, a 3-year-old boy with a head wound and bleeding on the brain, and a little girl riddled with nails.

"All I feel is joy," said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, referring to his hospital's 31 blast patients. "Whoever came in alive stayed alive."

As of Monday, 51 people remained hospitalized, three of them in critical condition. At least 14 people lost all or part of a limb; three of them lost more than one.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hands when he was captured hiding out in a boat in a backyard in the Boston suburb of Watertown, authorities said.

A probable cause hearing ? at which prosecutors will spell out the basics of their case ? was set for May 30. According to a clerk's notes of Monday's proceedings in the hospital, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler indicated she was satisfied that Tsarnaev was "alert and able to respond to the charges."

Tsarnaev did not speak during the proceeding, except to answer "no" when he was asked if he could afford his own lawyer, according to the notes. He nodded when asked if he was able to answer some questions and whether he understood his rights as explained to him by the judge.

Federal Public Defender Miriam Conrad, whose office has been assigned to represent Tsarnaev, declined to comment.

Tsarnaev could also face state charges in the slaying of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, who was shot in his cruiser Thursday night on the MIT campus in Cambridge.

News of the criminal charges pleased some of the people gathered at a makeshift memorial along the police barricades on Boylston Street, where the attack took place.

Amy McPate a Massachusetts native now living in Maine, said she usually opposes the death penalty, but thinks it should apply in this case.

"They were more than murderers. They're terrorists. They terrorized the city," she said. "The nation has been terrorized."

Kaitlynn Cates of Everett, who suffered a leg injury in the bombing, said from her hospital room: "He has what's coming to him."

Among the details in the FBI affidavit:

? One of the brothers ? it wasn't clear which one ? told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

?The FBI said it searched Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Sunday and found BBs as well as a white hat and dark jacket that look like those worn by one of the suspected bombers in the surveillance photos the FBI released a few days after the attack.

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Pete Yost in Washington and Steve Peoples, Allen Breed, Bridget Murphy, Jay Lindsay and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-bomb-suspect-charged-religious-motive-seen-003137288.html

Blue Moon August 2012 Eddie Murphy Dead Democratic National Convention 2012 myocardial infarction What Is Labor Day jersey shore Pasquale Rotella

Commentary: San Marcos should invest in early education | San ...

?
?

EDITOR?S NOTE: In the run-up to the May 11 school bond election, the San Marcos Mercury has invited a cross-section of community members to weigh in on the proposed $77 million capital improvement program, $12.7 million of which would build a new pre-K campus on the site of the former Bowie Elementary School. Early voting starts April 29.

by ELIZABETH MORGAN RUSSELL, SUE W. WILLIAMS and ELIZABETH BLUNK

A record 3.8 million children entered school as a kindergartner in 2011 but too many of these five-year-olds arrived at kindergarten unprepared to achieve the educational goals established set by their state and federal standard-setters.

??Research proves it. Research demonstrates that high-quality pre-k increases a child?s chances of succeeding in school and in life. Children who attend high-quality programs are less likely to be held back a grade, less likely to need special education, and more likely to graduate from high school. They also have higher earnings as adults and are less likely to become dependent on welfare or involved with law enforcement. ??Today?s Kindergarten is yesterday?s first grade. In many states, today?s kindergarten is yesterday?s first grade. With more ?academics? being presented in kindergarten, children must learn the pre-academic foundations for formal reading before they enter kindergarten. In pre-k, children become familiar with books, new words and ways to use language, numbers, and problem-solving strategies. They also learn the social skills they need to get the most out of school ? how to pay attention in class and interact with peers. ??Start behind, stay behind. Children who enter school behind their peers often stay behind. For example, children who do not recognize the letters of the alphabet when they enter kindergarten demonstrate significantly lower reading skills at the end of first grade. Eighty-eight percent of children who are poor readers in first grade will still be poor readers by fourth grade. Seventy-four percent of children who are poor readers in third grade remain poor readers when they start high school. ??Preparation. Nearly half of all kindergarten teachers report that their children have problems that hinder their success. For example, 46 percent of teachers feel that at least half of the children in their classes have difficulty following directions, 36 percent feel that half the children have problems with academic skills, and 34 percent find that more than half of their children have difficulty working independently. Children unprepared for kindergarten tax the resources of the entire system. ??It?s benefits all kids. Classrooms where all children are prepared have higher learning productivity and classroom efficiency. More able children perform more capably in the classroom and enhance the learning of other children. Teachers spend more time working directly with children and less on classroom management. Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts

In a large national study, 30 percent of kindergarten teachers estimated that one-half of the children in their classes did not meet the teachers? expectations for kindergarten readiness.

Nationwide, states have reported that 20 percent to 50 percent of young children arrived at school ?unprepared to learn?. Kindergarten readiness ? what children know and can do when they enter kindergarten ? is crucial to children?s academic success. Children who are ready for school are more likely to experience academic success from kindergarten through high school and they are less likely to have school adjustment problems, become delinquent or drop out of high school.

Costs associated with a lack of school readiness, according to Jerome Bruner, an award winning economist, include child education costs (e.g., special education, grade retention, school drop out), child human service costs (e.g., juvenile delinquency, mental health care), and adulthood costs (e.g., adolescent parenting, welfare dependency, lost economic activity, and costs of incarceration). These social costs exceed $260 billion annually.

Conversely, investments in comprehensive early education and family involvement programs can greatly reduce these social costs because high quality, early education prepares children to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. Research has indicated that society benefits from investments in early education.

For example, every dollar invested in the Perry Preschool comprehensive, family-focused early care and education program yielded more than $16 in savings by the time the original participants were age 40 years. The savings accrued due to fewer contacts with the legal system, fewer demands on the welfare system, more tax-paying, employed adults, as well as a greater number of financially secure families, according to Lawrence J. Schweinhart and colleagues, creators of the Perry Preschool program.

James Heckman, a University of Chicago professor who won the Nobel prize in Economics in 2000, puts the return on investment at $7-$10 for each dollar invested in high quality early education programs. Heckman describes this as a return on investment in young children?s growth and development as opposed to later paying for their remediation.

High quality early education programs foster kindergarten readiness because opportunities are provided for young children to master the components of readiness in ways that fit and appropriately challenge young children?s competence in the areas of physical-motor, social-emotional, language and communication, and intellectual development. Additionally, methods that can be adapted to fit each child?s learning needs and style dominate the high quality, early education program curriculum.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, family involvement is an essential component of a high quality early care and education programs. As noted by Claudia Galindo and Steven B. Sheldon in 2011, ?Decades of studies, reviews, and syntheses confirm this [positive family-teacher relationships help determine children?s school success] and have concluded that parents and family members are powerful influences on student achievement across grades?.

Pertinent to San Marcos CISD wherein 80 percent of students are Hispanic and 63 percent qualify for free or reduced cost meals, recent research has provided ?conclusive evidence that minority and low-income parents are deeply interested [in] and connected to their children?s education? according to Maria Teresa de la Piedra, Judith Munter, and Hector Giron.

Contrary to myths that minority parents lack interest in their children?s education, Hispanic families want their children to succeed in school, and they also value early education opportunities for their young children. Researchers have found Hispanic families to possess comparatively higher educational expectations for their children, more positive perceptions of school outreach, and the highest levels of parental involvement in their child?s education when compared to other ethnic groups.

Locally, in an initiative between San Marcos ISD and the Family and Child Development Program of Texas State University, faculty are examining the impact of parental involvement, as well as the contribution of tutoring of young children in math and literacy by college students, as part of a study known as Caminitos.

The eventual ?pay-off? for society?s investment in universal, high quality, family focused early education is huge in terms of both human and physical capital, according to the Brookings Institution.

The projected federal costs of universal preschool education by 2080 would be about $59 billion; however, ?the impact of a high-quality, universal preschool policy on economic growth?.could add $2 trillion to annual U.S. GDP by 2080.?

If this eventual pay-off were to be re-invested in education, this could benefit school districts nationwide, including SMCISD, in terms of enrolling greater numbers of children ready to succeed in school, purchasing state-of-the art curriculum materials, and increasing teacher pay and benefits to retain the best teachers.

The writers are faculty in Texas State University?s School of Family & Consumer Sciences. Professor SUE WILLIAMS coordinates the school?s Family and Child Studies graduate program. ELIZABETH M. BLUNK, a family and child development associate professor, holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction with emphasis in Early Childhood Education. ELIZABETH MORGAN RUSSELL is an assistant clinical professor and graduate advisor for family and children development.

RELATED IN THE MERCURY:

Source: http://smmercury.com/2013/04/22/commentary-why-san-marcos-cisd-should-invest-in-early-education/

ncaa football CES russell wilson Pokemon nhl jillian michaels Freddy E

Virtuix hooks up Oculus Rift to its Omni treadmill, shows off 'True VR' (video)

Sure, Omni-directional treadmills are nothing new, but Virtuix's take is worth a mention now that it's been shown off working in conjunction with the Oculus Rift. The company's been posting videos of its Omni treadmill working with Kinect for months, but last Thursday it upped the ante by adding the Rift. All told, it makes for what looks to be an intense VR session of Team Fortress 2 -- one-upping SixSenses' Razer Hydra demo for the VR headset. The company's been working on this unit as an affordable solution for households, aiming to eventually try for funding via Kickstarter. Catch the video demo after the break and please resist throwing money at the screen in an attempt to get in on the action early.

Filed under: Gaming

Comments

Via: Mashable

Source: Virtuix (YouTube)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/21/virtuix-omni-treadmill-oculus-rift-demo/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

bachelor finale courtney robertson ben flajnik hunger games premiere red meat bachelor ben jon hamm kim kardashian

Firms 'own unburnable fossil fuels'

19 April 2013 Last updated at 00:00 ET By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst

Some 60% to 80% of fossil fuel reserves owned by listed firms could be classed as unburnable if politicians stick to CO2 emission limits, a report warns.

The research by the London School of Economics and NGO Carbon Tracker says firms spend billions of pounds of shareholders' money on exploration.

It says 200 listed firms spent ?440bn in 2012 chasing more coal, oil and gas.

It says if this continues for a decade - and if CO2 limits are achieved - they would waste over ?4tn.

The research says the listed companies analysed own 762 billion tonnes of CO2 in the form of coal, oil and gas.

Many of the firms are listed in the City of London - the world's fossil fuel investment capital.

To stick to the current agreed global limit on emissions - which is sure to be breached - the firms would probably be able to emit no more than about 125-275 billion tonnes of CO2 - about a quarter of their assets.

The authors say that, even if the rules are relaxed to allow emissions to a level associated with a 3C temperature rise, there will still have to be limits on fossil fuel burning.

The carbon capture and storage technology can strip carbon from fossil fuel exhaust gases and store it in rocks, but it is unproven at scale, trials are years behind schedule and it may not work in some areas of the world.

The authors say the current fossil fuel business model assumes that there are no emissions limits.

This attitude is perhaps hardly surprising, given the mismatch between politicians' rhetoric on the need to cut emissions and the continued rise in atmospheric CO2.

Carbon Tracker has been campaigning for regulators to force firms to disclose the potential CO2 emissions embedded in their fossil fuel reserves, in order to inform potential investors.

It says there is a danger of a carbon "bubble."

Follow Roger on Twitter.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22211664#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

mark jenkins super bowl commercials 2012 mia amar e stoudemire m.i.a. adrianne curry hoekstra

World's Oldest Spacewalker: Russian Cosmonaut Makes Space History at 59

Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov made spaceflight history high above Earth on Friday (April 19) when, at age 59, ?he became the oldest person ever to venture outside a spacecraft during a spacewalk that was only marred by the last-minute loss of an experiment.

Vinogradov, a veteran cosmonaut, took his seventh cosmic excursion in 16 years during Friday's spacewalk. He donned a bulky spacesuit and left the confines of the?International Space Station?just after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) to upgrade the orbiting lab with new experiments.?

Vinogradov paired up with 41-year-old fellow cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, a first-time spacewalker but second-generation cosmonaut. Romanenko's father, former cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, logged more than 10 spacewalking hours in his career.

The spacewalkers were at times lighthearted during the more-than-six-hour job.

"Nobody took a photo of me," Romanenko jokingly protested aftering they used a camera to take pictures outside the lab. "How can it be like that? Please take a photo of me, Pavel."

In the last task of the spacewalk, Vinogradov was attempting to retrieve a panel from the Russian materials exposure experiment called Vinoslivost, but the panel flew out of his grasp before he had a chance to tether it. The cosmonauts were unable to recover the piece.

Flight controllers do not believe the 6.5-pound (3-kg) panel, which measured 18 inches by 12 inches (45 cm by 30 cm), hit any part of the space station. NASA announcers noted that there is another Vinoslivost panel still attached to the space station that will be retrieved in a future spacewalk, so all is not lost from the experiment.

Vinogradov and Romanenko's primary objective was to install a new Russian experiment called Obstanovka, which will measure charged particles interact with a variety of materials kept outside of the space station. Obstanovka could offer scientists new insights about how?space weather?affects the ionosphere, an active region of the Earth's atmosphere, NASA officials explained in a spacewalk description.

The pair also successfully retrieved a Biorisk canister, an experiment that measures the effects of bacteria and fungus on spacecraft materials, and prepared the outpost for the arrival of a robotic cargo ship later this year.

The spacewalkers are two members of the six-man Expedition 35 crew currently living aboard the International Space Station. The others are Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, and NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Chris Cassidy.

This was the 167th spacewalk dedicated to the construction and upkeep of the International Space Station, which was built by five different space agencies representing 15 countries. Construction of the $100 billion space station began in 1998, and it has been permanently staffed with rotating crews since 2000. It is roughly the size of a five-bedroom house with a wingspan the size of a football field.

Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-oldest-spacewalker-russian-cosmonaut-makes-space-history-201516346.html

new hope baptist church associated press foster friess new orleans hornets ghost rider spirit of vengeance hornets prince johan friso

The Morning Ledger: Heavy Debt Loads Don?t Deter IPOs

News Editor

Heavy debt isn?t much of an obstacle anymore for companies wanting to go public. Low interest rates are easing buyers? fears about issuers burdened with IOUs ?a ripple effect of the Fed?s easy money policy. Seven nonfinancial companies have gone public this year with debt exceeding three times their expected 2012 cash earnings, write the WSJ?s Telis Demos and Matt Jarzemsky. Intelsat ? one of the most highly leveraged companies to come to market since 2009 ? sold $498 million worth of common and preferred shares just this week.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2013/04/19/the-morning-ledger-heavy-debt-loads-dont-deter-ipos/?mod=WSJBlog

49ers lance armstrong Earl Weaver Inauguration Schedule barack obama dear abby WRAL

Background checks for gun buyers win more backing

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With the Senate set to begin debate on gun control legislation this week, a proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers picked up some key Republican support over the weekend. But it may not be enough to ensure the measure is adopted.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine issued a statement Sunday saying that she would vote for the compromise crafted by Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. The proposal requires background checks for people buying guns at gun shows and online, but exempts private gun sales.

The plan would "strengthen the background check system without in any way infringing on Second Amendment rights," Collins said. But Collins took a wait-and-see approach on the entire package, saying "it is impossible to predict at this point the final composition of the overall legislation."

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has a B+ rating from the National Rifle Association, said he was "very favorably disposed" to the Manchin-Toomey compromise. It was in McCain's home state that a gunman with schizophrenia shot then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head during a 2011 rampage in Tucson that left six people killed.

Even with their support, the vote on the measure ? expected as early as Wednesday ? will be close.

"It's an open question as to whether or not we have the votes," Toomey said.

Asked how many votes he thought he had now, Manchin said, "Well, we're close. We need more."

Collins and Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois are the only two Republicans besides Toomey who are expected to vote for the compromise as of now.

It will take 60 votes to pass, meaning that more Republicans will have to come on board because some Democrats from gun-friendly states are expected to oppose the measure.

The measure requires background checks for people buying guns at gun shows and online. Background checks currently apply only to transactions handled by the country's 55,000 licensed gun dealers. Private transactions, such as a sale of a gun between family members, would still be exempt.

Advocates say the measures would make it harder for criminals and the mentally ill to get weapons.

Opponents argue that the restrictions would violate the Constitution's right to bear arms and would be ignored by criminals.

Manchin urged lawmakers to read the 49-page proposal.

"If you are a law-abiding gun owner, you're going to like this bill," Manchin said. "Now, if you're a criminal or if you've been mentally adjudicated and you go to a gun show or try to buy a gun online, you might not like this bill because you can't do it."

Manchin later noted that one gun rights group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, has announced support for his plan.

And later Sunday, the Manchin-Toomey compromise was endorsed by the Independent Firearms Owners Association, a pro-gun group that is smaller and more moderate than the NRA.

The bill is the right way to "stand firm in defense of our constitutional rights and the security of our fellow citizens," said the group's president, Richard Feldman, a former NRA official.

The senators' agreement actually includes language expanding firearms rights by easing some restrictions on transporting guns across state lines, protecting sellers from lawsuits if buyers passed a background check but later used a gun in a crime and letting gun dealers conduct business in states where they don't live.

The compromise, if successful, would be added to broader gun control legislation to strengthen laws against illegal gun trafficking and to slightly increase school security aid.

Other additions to the legislation also are expected to be debated this week, including a measure that would allow concealed hand gun permits issued by one state to be accepted nationwide as a de facto background check.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on several news shows that concealed weapons permits should be applied nationally. He also called for more prosecution of people that are trying to buy guns and fail a background check.

The Senate is also expected to consider, and reject, Democratic amendments to ban assault weapons and ammunition magazines carrying more than 10 rounds.

Manchin and Toomey were on CNN's "State of the Union" and CBS' "Face the Nation." McCain was on CNN.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/background-checks-gun-buyers-win-more-backing-081148614--politics.html

wonderlic test texas tornado fantasy baseball jared sullinger jaleel white levi johnston 2013 srt viper