Big powers seek progress on day two of Iran talks

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Facebook settles sponsored stories suit for $10M

Facebook is paying $10 million to settle a lawsuit over ads that it called sponsored stories.

Facebook's service allowed companies to pay to retransmit users' activities to their friends' pages. If a user clicked the "like" button for a brand, the click might show up as a "sponsored story" on friends' pages. The ads started in early 2011.

Some Facebook users sued, saying that Facebook used their images for commercial activity. Facebook had argued that the plaintiffs did not show they were hurt by the practice.

Court documents from late last week say a settlement has been reached. Facebook attorney Michael Rhodes confirms Sunday that it's for $10 million, which will be given to charity. A judge still needs to approve the settlement.

Reuters first reported details of the settlement.

Associated Press

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Scientists reconstruct pre-Columbian human effects on the Amazon Basin

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Findings overturn idea that the Amazon had large populations of humans that transformed the landscape

Small, shifting human populations existed in the Amazon before the arrival of Europeans, with little long-term effect on the forest.

That's the result of research led by Crystal McMichael and Mark Bush of the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). The finding overturns the idea the Amazon was a cultural parkland in pre-Columbian times with large human populations that transformed vast tracts of the landscape.

The Amazon Basin is one of the highest biodiversity areas on Earth. Understanding how it was modified by humans in the past is important for conservation and for understanding the ecological processes in tropical rainforests.

McMichael, Bush and a team of researchers looked at how widespread human effects were in Amazonia before Europeans arrived. They published their results in this week's issue of the journal Science.

"The findings have major implications for how we understand the effect of the land-use change now occurring in Amazonia," said Alan Tessier, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

"Making the assumption that this system is resilient to deforestation, it turns out, isn't a position supported by historical evidence," Tessier said.

If the pre-Columbian Amazon was a highly altered landscape, then most of the Amazon's current biodiversity could have come from human effects.

The team retrieved 247 soil cores from 55 locations throughout the central and western Amazon, sampling sites that were likely disturbed by humans, such as river banks and other areas known from archaeological evidence to have been occupied by people.

They used markers in the cores to track the histories of fire, vegetation and human alterations of the soil.

The scientists conclude that people lived in small groups, with larger populations in the eastern Amazon--and most people lived near rivers.

They did not live in large settlements throughout the basin as was previously thought. Even sites of supposedly large settlements did not show evidence of high population densities and large-scale agriculture.

All the signs point to smaller, mobile populations before Europeans arrived. These small populations did not alter the forests substantially.

"The amazing biodiversity of the Amazon is not a by-product of past human disturbance," said McMichael. "We can't assume that these forests will be resilient to disturbance, because most of them have, at most, been lightly disturbed in the past.

"There is no parallel in western Amazonia for the scale of modern disturbance that accompanies industrial agriculture, road construction and the synergies of those disturbances with climate change."

###

Other co-authors of the paper are D.R. Piperno of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; M.R. Silman of Wake Forest University; A.R. Zimmerman of the University of Florida; M.F. Raczka of FIT; and L.C. Lobato of the Federal University of Rondnia in Brazil.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Findings overturn idea that the Amazon had large populations of humans that transformed the landscape

Small, shifting human populations existed in the Amazon before the arrival of Europeans, with little long-term effect on the forest.

That's the result of research led by Crystal McMichael and Mark Bush of the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). The finding overturns the idea the Amazon was a cultural parkland in pre-Columbian times with large human populations that transformed vast tracts of the landscape.

The Amazon Basin is one of the highest biodiversity areas on Earth. Understanding how it was modified by humans in the past is important for conservation and for understanding the ecological processes in tropical rainforests.

McMichael, Bush and a team of researchers looked at how widespread human effects were in Amazonia before Europeans arrived. They published their results in this week's issue of the journal Science.

"The findings have major implications for how we understand the effect of the land-use change now occurring in Amazonia," said Alan Tessier, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

"Making the assumption that this system is resilient to deforestation, it turns out, isn't a position supported by historical evidence," Tessier said.

If the pre-Columbian Amazon was a highly altered landscape, then most of the Amazon's current biodiversity could have come from human effects.

The team retrieved 247 soil cores from 55 locations throughout the central and western Amazon, sampling sites that were likely disturbed by humans, such as river banks and other areas known from archaeological evidence to have been occupied by people.

They used markers in the cores to track the histories of fire, vegetation and human alterations of the soil.

The scientists conclude that people lived in small groups, with larger populations in the eastern Amazon--and most people lived near rivers.

They did not live in large settlements throughout the basin as was previously thought. Even sites of supposedly large settlements did not show evidence of high population densities and large-scale agriculture.

All the signs point to smaller, mobile populations before Europeans arrived. These small populations did not alter the forests substantially.

"The amazing biodiversity of the Amazon is not a by-product of past human disturbance," said McMichael. "We can't assume that these forests will be resilient to disturbance, because most of them have, at most, been lightly disturbed in the past.

"There is no parallel in western Amazonia for the scale of modern disturbance that accompanies industrial agriculture, road construction and the synergies of those disturbances with climate change."

###

Other co-authors of the paper are D.R. Piperno of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; M.R. Silman of Wake Forest University; A.R. Zimmerman of the University of Florida; M.F. Raczka of FIT; and L.C. Lobato of the Federal University of Rondnia in Brazil.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


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Why Scientists Should Publicize Their Findings- for Purely Selfish Reasons

Recent debate over the role of scientists in public outreach efforts has been heated, to say the least. Some say scientists should make more of an effort to engage with the public on science-related issues, which is fair. Some say scientists have no business doing outreach work, because that?s not what they?re trained to do. Also fair. Some say it would be great to do outreach, but they just don?t have the time. You can?t argue with that.

I want to highlight some purely selfish reasons that scientists should engage in at least one kind of outreach ? publicizing their findings. And I?m focusing on selfish reasons because scientists are, we can all agree, human. We could talk about the need to inspire the next generation of scientists or addressing the paltry state of science literacy, but if we?re going to ask people to take time away from other obligations we?re going to have to do better than that. We need to explain what?s in it for them.

First off, what do I mean when I talk about publicizing research findings? I mean anything beyond publishing those findings in a peer-reviewed journal. This is important because, for most disciplines, there are multiple journals that publish work in the field. Each journal has multiple issues per year, consisting of multiple articles. From talking with researchers, it?s clear that it is virtually impossible to read all of the relevant literature in one?s field in any sort of timely way. That limits impact WITHIN the field, to say nothing of potential interdisciplinary work. Anything we can do to remedy this, by making research findings more broadly accessible (in terms of both language and visibility) would be a good thing. That?s the altruistic reason.

Here are a few reasons for the self-interested scientist to promote his or her work ? reasons that can support his or her work moving forward. To be clear, these are all things that have actually happened. While all of these things don?t happen every time someone makes an effort to promote his or her work, these are not purely hypothetical benefits.

Finding grad students. Good graduate students make your lab better. But those students won?t apply to be part of your program if they don?t know you exist ? or if they?re not aware of how their field of interest overlaps with your field of interest. I?ve worked with researchers who have told me how grad students have applied to work in their labs after first reading about the work those labs do in mainstream media outlets.

Making funding agencies happy. There?s a reason that most grant proposals include a section asking how you plan to disseminate your findings. Most federally-funded agencies want the public to know about the work they are supporting. It helps give agencies the political support they need to get additional funding in the future. The National Science Foundation (NSF), for example, uses its Science360 site to share a wide variety of science stories ? including stories about research findings that weren?t funded by NSF. Obviously the work that you do under a grant is paramount, but doing a good job of publicizing that work will also stand you in good stead with the agencies. Yes, program officers notice.

Informal networking. You want other people in your field, and in related fields, to know what you?re doing. I can think of dozens of examples of scientists who have been contacted by researchers at other institutions after publicizing their work. Sometimes it?s just a pat on the back, which is nice. But sometimes those contacts can include tangible benefits ? such as proposals to share data that will advance the efforts of all parties involved. These contacts can also include a lot of questions and ideas, which lead to the next potential benefit?

Creating opportunities for formal collaborations. I can think of several instances where publicizing the findings of one research project has led to an invitation for a researcher to be part of a new or emerging research project. Very often, these take the form of interinstitutional and/or interdisciplinary grant proposals. In case you haven?t noticed, words like ?interinstitutional? and ?interdisciplinary? are increasingly popular with the folks who review grant proposals these days. Funding is thin on the ground, and opportunities to participate in viable grant proposals are valuable.

Getting interest from the private sector, policy makers and non-governmental organizations. Not every research project will be of interest to these groups ? and not every researcher wants to work with them. But they can be valuable. For example, if new research findings have ramifications for bridge-builders, landfill operators or policy-making bodies that oversee those fields, it makes sense to get that information into the hands of people who can use it as quickly as possible. The findings may not be ready for immediate application. They may simply offer a glimmer of possibility, which needs to be explored further. But getting that information into the broader world creates opportunities for research partnerships (and potential funding) that may not otherwise come to light.

And publicizing your work doesn?t have to be particularly time-consuming. If you work for an institution that has public information officers (AKA press officers, flacks, etc.), let them know about forthcoming findings in a timely way. They can help. If you?re interested in social media or blogging (and many aren?t), that can be an effective way to take your science to the people. If you have friends or colleagues who have been successful in promoting their work, ask them how they did it. You?re scientists. You can figure this out.

Maybe you find these arguments compelling. Maybe you don?t. But the fact remains that outreach is important, and that obstacles exist that make it difficult for scientists who WANT to do outreach to act on that impulse. So let?s stop finger-pointing and start proposing solutions.

~~~

Photos: North Carolina State University

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Boehner campaigns with Romney in Ohio

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How Rodney King changed police brutality

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Calif. man rescued after whale knocks hole in boat

A Northern California man was rescued after his 50-foot boat was struck by a whale while he sailed alone about 40 miles off the western coast of Mexico, authorities said.

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The impact from the collision knocked out the sailboat's steering and the vessel began taking on water late Tuesday, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Pamela Boehland said.

Max Young of Sacramento stuffed a mattress into the hole caused by the whale, turned on four bilge pumps and was "trying to bail out water as fast as he could, because he didn't know how long it would take to be rescued," his wife, Debra Young, told The Associated Press.

He also activated an emergency beacon, which alerted the Coast Guard.

"His EPIRB delivered an exact position to us, contact information that allowed us to quickly discern the sail plan of and number of persons on the vessel, and really took a lot of the search out of the search and rescue," said Lt. Charles Kelly, of the Coast Guard's command center in Alameda, Calif.

With that information, officials at the command center were able to immediately direct a merchant ship, which was about 60 miles away, to the sinking craft.

Meanwhile, as the rescue efforts were just beginning, Young was initially unaware that the boat was taking on water, his wife said.

"He was steering the boat and trying to get it back on course," Debra Young said. "It took him a while to realize he didn't have any steerage at all. It took him a bit longer to realize he was taking on water."

When the freighter arrived at around 4 a.m. Wednesday, Young scrambled off his boat by a rope ladder thrown by the ship's crew.

Young had been on the final leg of a trip from the East Coast to a marina in Emeryville, Calif., when the collision took place. The 67-year-old has been sailing for at least 30 years, but having worked on boats with his father, who was a commercial fisherman, he's been on the ocean most of his life, his wife said.

Debra Young said she has been able to talk to her husband while he's on board the merchant ship. He's not expected to make it back to Sacramento for another week or so.

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Protesters rally before NYC 'stop-and-frisk' march

By Verena Dobnik, NBCNewYork.com

Prominent civil rights leaders joined protesters at a Harlem rally Saturday to voice objections to a police practice that has led to hundreds of thousands of innocent people being stopped and searched by officers.

The Rev. Al Sharpton led the gathering of about 200 people inside his New York City headquarters a day ahead of a planned Father's Day march against the New York Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" program. (Sharpton is the host of a show on msnbc cable TV.)

"If it were your child, Mayor Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelly, it would be one child too many," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said at Sharpton's National Action Network.


See the original report at NBCNewYork.com

Critics say the NYPD's practice of stopping, questioning and searching people deemed suspicious is illegal and humiliating to thousands of law-abiding blacks and Hispanics. The NYPD last year stopped more than 630,000 people, mostly black and Hispanic men. About half were frisked, and only about 10 percent were arrested.

A federal judge in May ruled that there was "overwhelming evidence" that the practice has led to thousands of illegal stops. The judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit challenging the practice.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defend the policy, saying the stop-and-frisk program keeps guns off New York streets and helps reduce crime.

The fathers of two youths killed during confrontations that have become civil rights causes also attended Saturday's rally. Tracey Martin, whose unarmed teenage son, Trayvon Martin, was fatally shot in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer, said: "It's hard to imagine tomorrow without him."

App records, reports controversial police 'stop and frisk' practice

Also in Harlem was Franclot Graham, whose teenage son, Ramarley Graham, was shot and killed after police chased him into his New York home. A New York police officer has been charged with manslaughter in his son's death.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said his 6-year-old daughter keeps asking him, "Why are you leaving?" each time news breaks of a young person who is shot or humiliated.

New York City stop-and-frisk lawsuit gets class-action status

"Let us take back Father's Day for all our children," Jealous told the rally.

Sunday's protest is billed as a "silent march" starting at 3 p.m. on Fifth Avenue and 110th Street and moving downtown to Bloomberg's town house at East 79th Street.

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Self-Help Ideas To Optimize Your Quality Of Life | My Journey to 100

When it comes to your personal development you want to make sure that you are getting information from the right source. The most important part is sorting out what information you should use and which information you should pass on. This article will provide important tips to assist you with your own plan.

A great way to self help your depression is to help others by volunteering. Many people who are depressed end up feeling sorry for themselves, but lending a helping hand will give you perspective on other peoples lives while making your own life feel more fulfilled. It is also a great way to meet new people.

Keep a journal of your private thoughts, feelings and ideas. This is a great way for you to be able to take a trip back in time and see how much you have grown over that time. Taking the little bit of time needed to jot down these things is really going to go a long way in your personal growth progress.

During difficult times ? times when you are battling some personal weakness or failing ? it is always best to stay busy. An occupied mind does not wander. If you let yourself sit quietly and just dwell and think about how bad the situation is, you will just feel worse. If you cannot do anything to improve the situation, it is better to spend time with friends, go out and get some exercise, and so on.

When setting goals, you have to believe in yourself. You are a wonderful person, you are unique, you are strong and able. Don?t listen to what others have to say, you are a winner. You may fall down, but you can get back up. Do not let anyone keep you down, you can do it.

Toss out the negative internal dialogue. Did you make an unwise decision? Possibly. Does this make you an unwise person who deserves a mental whipping after each mistake? Definitely not. Look for the humor, wisdom, and knowledge that can be gleaned from any of your mistakes, whether they were major or minor.

Never give up- unless giving up means you are gaining something better. If your job is not satisfying, it is permissible to give up that job and find a new job that you enjoy and that is more profitable. Giving up something to gain something better is an important part of improving yourself.

Whether you are spiritual, religious, or atheist, look for a higher force that can offer you guidance as you think about yourself, your identity, and your goals for who you want to be. Your higher power need not be a specific deity; the collective writing and stories of mankind can serve as a good example of something that is larger than yourself. You may find that exploring scriptures, literature, or proverbs can help you create yourself.

If you battle self-consciousness or self-esteem deficits, never overlook the transforming power of an especially sharp outfit. Making an effort to put together a highly polished and ?with-it? look can increase one?s confidence the second he or she steps out of the front door. Avoid throwing on just anything before you leave the house; do your self-esteem a great favor and go the extra mile to create a polished look for yourself.

In order to make certain thoughts flee your mind you may want to take the time to find and listen to inspirational and interesting music. Many people use music as inspiration to keep their thoughts focused on the future and the things they want to achieve throughout their life.

Try increasing your intelligence a little bit everyday. Be open to writing, reading, studying, or hearing something completely new and different. By broadening your horizons, you can meet and talk to new people about things that you otherwise would not have known about. You can also use this knowledge to find new hobbies, activities, or even a new career path that you may not have ever thought about.

Take small steps. It can be overwhelming to have goals that are large and don?t seem easy to accomplish. Break your goals down into smaller steps that you are comfortable with, and start small. Do a bit every day and ultimately you?ll see your dreams realized and your goals met.

Take baby steps along the road to personal development. Set small goals rather than lofty goals in order to reach them and feel proud of it. Do not listen to naysayers or toxic people who do not want you to succeed. Even if you do not meet your goals, you will know you tried.

Assess your life and decide what things are working and which ones are not. Don?t spend your time kicking yourself for the things that haven?t been working. Look at them objectively, and find ways to learn from them. Imagine how you would counsel a friend to do things differently. Become a detective and a problem solver.

Before positive personal development can occur, you must admit that there is a gap between where you are now and where your ultimate position in life is. Failing to admit that this gap exists, prevents any further steps from taking place and therefore, leaves you at a stand still.

To healthily administer self help in regards to bipolar disorder, make sure that you establish a daily schedule and stick to it. This is important because it removes any stress that is caused by uncertainty in your life. Having a schedule will help to put your overall life in order.

A great personal development tip is to use every part of your brain. When you think back on something, don?t just use your memory, but rather you should strive to use your analytic thinking as well. Reflect on past events and interpret them in many ways to gain a full understanding.

A great tip for personal development is to execute the truths that you have justified. You can not sit back and solely rely on your wisdom and knowledge. You must have the power to execute your truths. This is the only way that the proper amount of understanding is accomplished.

As you seek for a better tomorrow, the information in this article can assist you in making your dreams a reality. Holding onto your education, motivation and essential strategies help you make a concrete plan and stick to it; without such structure, moving forward may be more difficult than you can manage. By holding onto these strategies?and most importantly, to hope?you are setting your path toward a better, happier outlook.

If you are looking for ways to improve yourself but not sure of where should you begin, then read more about quotes on life.

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