Home > Opinions > Economics and Personal Finance: What?s the deal?
Lia Chiflemariam, Staff Writer February 28, 2013 Filed under Opinions, Opposing Viewpoints
Writing checks. Saving money. Those are some of the things you hear when you take the Economics and Personal Finance class. You know, the one that?s required in order to graduate. Many find it helpful, while others are starting to question its importance as to whether or not it gives you any benefit. The class is actually designed to be very useful. It teaches basic financial skills and helps you be better prepared when dealing with money and saving. You learn some of the simple concepts of writing a check, dealing with debit and credit cards, and balancing a budget, as well as some of the crucially important things you?ll need to know down the road. Have you ever heard of a W-4, or a 1040EZ? What about the significance of making retirement plans, or having insurance to cover basic expenses, such as health insurance or auto insurance? It will be overwhelming to you in the future if you don?t have even a general understanding of how these things affect you and what you should do to keep your money on track. ?I think it is a very useful class full of real-life content that students can begin to use now as a teen and continue to apply in their adult lives,? says Economics and Personal Finance teacher Michele Rock. ?It gives students a basic foundation for making SMART decisions regarding financial planning.? ?Economics and Personal Finance is definitely a helpful class? says Imirra Estep. Of course, there is the big question. Should this class be mandatory? Are there other classes that people find more helpful and that should be mandatory? ?Personally, I don?t think it?s worth being required,? said Katherine Espinal Cruz. ?It?s a very useful class, but we shouldn?t have to spend a block taking it if we have other classes that we need to focus on.? ?I don?t think it?s best for the class to be mandatory, but I do think it?s valuable? says Tatiana Loarca.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A powerful winter storm that buried the U.S. Plains moved on Tuesday into the southern Great Lakes region, where it snarled the evening commute in Chicago and Milwaukee, created near-whiteout conditions and forced hundreds of flight cancellations.
Wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour (56 km per hour) hurled a potent blend of wet snow and sleet on north-central Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northern Indiana and Ohio, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 500 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International and Midway airports, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. Those flights that managed to take off or land faced delays of up to an hour.
The Illinois Tollway agency, which maintains nearly 300 miles of highway around Chicago, deployed its fleet of more than 180 snowplows to keep the roads clear.
As the afternoon rush hour began in Chicago, blowing snow reduced visibility and created treacherous driving conditions, doubling average travel times in and out of the city on major expressways, according to Traffic.com.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation warned that much of Interstate 94 between the Illinois state line and Milwaukee was ice covered.
In Chicago, the city's public school system, the third-largest school district in the country, canceled all after-school sporting events, including six state regional basketball games.
The snowstorm may have discouraged some voters in Chicago and its suburbs from voting in a special election primary to replace indicted Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who resigned the seat in November citing health concerns.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service said the storm would continue to move eastward, dumping 3 to 5 inches of wet snow on Detroit overnight and into Wednesday morning.
It is then expected to move slowly into the Northeast, largely avoiding the cities of New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., but bringing snow to parts of New York state, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, said Brian Korty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
"It's going to linger for a long time over portions of the Northeast," Korty said.
'POTPOURRI OF WINTRY WEATHER'
Parts of New York and Pennsylvania could get a "sloppy mix" of snow, ice and rain. Already, ice accumulations were causing sporadic power outages across higher terrains of western Maryland, eastern West Virginia and far western Virginia, said Erik Pindrock, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.
"It's a very multi-faceted storm," Pindrock said. "It's a whole potpourri of wintry weather."
In Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, where the storm hit earlier, residents were digging out.
Highways in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and parts of Kansas remained closed because of heavy and drifting snow.
Amarillo, Texas, saw 19 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday, the third-largest snowfall ever in that city, Pindrock said.
In Kansas, a woman died and three passengers were injured Monday night on Interstate 70 when their pickup truck rolled off the icy roadway in Ellis County, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback said. Earlier Monday, a man was killed when his car veered off the interstate in Sherman County near the Colorado border, he said.
"We urge everyone to avoid travel and be extremely cautious if you must be on the roads," said Ernest Garcia, superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol.
A 58-year-old man and his 69-year-old sister died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Kansas City, Kansas, from a gas generator being used in their home because they lost power Tuesday in the snowstorm, said Deputy Fire Chief Craig Duke.
In northern Oklahoma, one person died when the roof of a home partially collapsed in the city of Woodward, said Matt Lehenbauer, the city's emergency management director.
"We have roofs collapsing all over town," said Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill Jr. "We really have a mess on our hands."
Kansas City, Missouri, was also hard hit by the storm, which left snowfalls of 7 to 13 inches in the metro region on Tuesday, said Chris Bowman, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. Another 1 to 3 inches is forecast for Tuesday evening and nearly two-thirds of the flights at Kansas City International Airport Tuesday afternoon were canceled.
In addition to the winter storm, National Weather Service forecasters on Tuesday issued tornado watches across central Florida and up the eastern coast to South Carolina.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Missouri, David Bailey in Minneapolis, James B. Kelleher in Chicago and Corrie MacLaggan in Texas; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Barbara Goldberg, Nick Zieminski, Dan Grebler, Phil Berlowitz, Eric Walsh and Lisa Shumaker)
Juliette Binoche is in talks for an unspecified role in Warner Bros' Godzilla, Variety reports (via Comingsoon).
If talks went well, she'll join Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Bryan Cranston. The latter three won't sign until the script is finalized, so, presumably, Binoche's contract will also have to wait for the finished script as well.
Speaking of the script, Frank Darabont is putting the finishing touches on a draft previously worked on my Iron Man 3's Drew Pearce.
To be directed by Gareth Edwards, Godzilla will reportedly center on a soldier (Taylor-Johnson) and his girlfriend (Olsen). Cranston will play Taylor-Johnson's grandfather.
Besides Godzilla, there may be two other monsters in the movie.
Godzilla is set for theaters on May 16, 2014. It remains to be seen whether or not the pending lawsuit brought on by producers Dan Lin, Roy Lee, and Doug Davidson against Legendary Pictures will affect the release date.
Are you sure working from home is such a good idea?
Photo by Ingram Publishing
Elsewhere in Slate, Farhad Manjoo argues that Marissa Mayer is wrong.
I completely get the utopian fantasy of working from home: the baby napping in his crib in the next room, the gold light filtering in through the window, a tagine made with vegetables from the farmers market simmering on the stove, while you are answering emails and brainstorming ideas, the dream of modern connected life. But is that the way it really works out?
Or, in fact, is eight-tenths of your attention during a pressing work call focused on whether the clamoring hooligans in the next room are going to agitate for something, or burst in, or stay quiet?? Is a large unmapped portion of your brain engaged in trivial domestic calculations: Did I remember to pay the cable bill? Is it time to change the laundry and put it into the dryer? Is your attention, in truth, divided, conquered? (And let?s be honest: The reason we want to work at home is that we want our attention to be divided.)
As a professor and writer, who works both from home and office, I don?t feel hugely qualified to comment on matters of corporate policy. But in the recent hullabaloo over Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer?s decision to stop allowing employees to work from home, I do wonder about all the righteous insistence that we should tear down the walls, break down the barriers, and all toil away in our bathtubs. I don't entirely buy the line that domestic life can hum on unfettered around us as we are all concentrating like Tolstoy on the task at hand.?
People argue that they can work just as efficiently, or more efficiently from home, but efficiency is not the only measure of whether working at home is a good idea. Is it possible that our ideas, our creativity, our wilder bursts of thought are often, or at least sometimes better achieved outside the home, in a more neutral space? I know from experience that it?s not that simple to transport your work thoughts into your house. I know what it is like to carry a laptop to a coffee shop, just to shake free of the clutter of home thoughts. One of the great thinkers on work-life conditions, Virginia Woolf, argued that our ideas themselves are subtly, but importantly, affected by the mundane, material conditions surrounding us. In A Room of One?s Own, she talks about the intangible but crucial effect on one?s concentration and quality of thought of things as seemingly superficial or irrelevant as a meal. She wrote that our ideas ?are attached to grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in.?
Of course those who have spent a lot of time working at home will recognize that being in your pajamas, in your bed, seeing little sticky handprints that you should really clean up, remembering an argument you had the night before in that same room, creates a different state of mind than the office state of mind. One of the reasons that the office must have been invented is to banish for a little while that home self, to get away from her and her preoccupations.?
In this weirdly emotional debate, we should at least be willing to admit that something is lost and something is gained from working at home. That the comfort and flexibility are counteracted by certain constrictions on the imagination, by a competition of focus, even by the relaxation and familiarity of home. In one of the places I work, there were cries this week that Mayer is ?draconian? in suggesting that her employees should drag themselves into the office, but to me it doesn't seem outrageous or draconian or Mussolini-like that a certain employer might choose to have her employees work in the office.
It seems instead that the dreamers of the technological dream have already gotten what they wanted; they have already achieved the perfect, ominous mingling of our attention: No matter where we work, whether the commute is to an office or the kitchen table, the line between our professional lives and our homes have basically been obliterated. You can be in bed with a boyfriend and emailing your boss, reading a child to sleep and fielding a text from your assistant. The separation between ?home? and ?work? is largely fictional as it is. It seems sometimes that our persistent, if silly, fantasy of ?having it all? often translates into having it all in the same minute. Which is to say that there are currently very few spaces you can go where your work cannot find you, very few moments where you are not available to both work and home. Rather than desperately pursuing the any further mingling, the separation of work and life might in fact be something to strive for or long for, something rare and more precious than we think.
Those up in arms about Mayer?s disrespect for ?the work-life balance? should consider this possibility: ?The work-life balance? might be best served by keeping work at work. By trying to pursue that tiny sliver of a chance of keeping the office and the thousands of meaningless work details and memos and preoccupations out of your home. ???
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Economic and business confidence in the 17 countries using the euro improved for the fourth straight month in February, the European Commission said on Wednesday, as factories saw their order books filling up.
Economic sentiment in the euro zone rose by a better-than-expected 1.6 points to 91.1, continuing a recovery started in November last year, the Commission said.
The euro hit a session high against the dollar after the data release, before slipping back slightly to trade around 1.3093 by 1035 GMT.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 89.8.
The euro zone was managing to eke out a small recovery, but it was too soon to be optimistic about a broader trend, Capital Economics economist Ben May said.
"Clearly the Italian election and the political uncertainty and the market uncertainty that resulted from that is potentially another trigger for a new downward leg in business and consumer sentiment, and given that this survey predates that I think you certainly wouldn't want to assume you are going to see this continued upward trend in sentiment over the months ahead," he said.
The Commission also said business morale increased by 0.36 points to -0.73, reaching a level last seen in May 2012.
The European Central Bank's unprecedented decision last year to buy the bonds of governments who ask for help calmed the euro zone crisis dramatically, removing the risk for businesses of a break-up of the currency bloc.
The mood in factories brightened in February and managers told the Commission they saw rosier outlooks on expected production and on the size of overall order books. Morale in services also drove the rise in confidence, with service confidence up slightly as managers revised past evaluations.
Optimism was due to "sharp improvements in managers' assessment of the past business situation, and to a lesser extent, their views on past demand", the Commission said.
Consumer confidence increased marginally in the euro zone, by 0.3 points. Consumers were more positive about the future economy in general, but pessimistic about their own ability to save money over the next 12 months.
Instagram started reporting its active user base in what many saw as an attempt to quell talk of an exodus following its terms of service debacle. It has a better reason to post hard numbers today, however: there's now a neat, tidy 100 million active Instagram users every month. The milestone suggests that another 10 million mobile photographers got hooked on square-shaped photography in about five weeks, and it implies that the Facebook-owned company isn't about to slow down just yet. Not that everyone is in a position to join the party, mind you.
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TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) ? Albert Pujols is nearly ready to start running on the field in the Los Angeles Angels slugger's deliberate recovery from offseason surgery on his right knee.
Pujols is taking batting practice and running on a treadmill at spring training, and he participated in fielding drills Tuesday. He's expected to start running on the field later this week. The $240 million first baseman isn't expected to play in a Cactus League game until mid-March, but Angels manager Mike Scioscia has no doubt Pujols will be ready for opening day.
Pujols is the Angels' only position player who hasn't played a game in spring training yet. New right fielder Josh Hamilton debuted for Los Angeles against Arizona on Tuesday.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki listens during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Al-Maliki warns that a victory for rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar Assad would spark a sectarian war in his own country and Lebanon, and create a new haven for extremists that would destabilize the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki listens during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Al-Maliki warns that a victory for rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar Assad would spark a sectarian war in his own country and Lebanon, and create a new haven for extremists that would destabilize the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Al-Maliki warns that a victory for rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar Assad would spark a sectarian war in his own country and Lebanon, and create a new haven for extremists that would destabilize the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Al-Maliki warns that a victory for rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar Assad would spark a sectarian war in his own country and Lebanon, and create a new haven for extremists that would destabilize the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Al-Maliki warns that a victory for rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar Assad would spark a sectarian war in his own country and Lebanon, and create a new haven for extremists that would destabilize the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraq's prime minister warned Wednesday that a victory for rebels in the Syrian civil war would create a new extremist haven and destabilize the wider Middle East, sparking sectarian wars in his own country and in Lebanon.
Nouri al-Maliki stopped short of voicing outright support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled regime. But his comments in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press marked one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that the collapse of the Syrian government could create.
The prime minister's remarks reflect fears by many Shiite Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere that Sunni Muslims would come to dominate Syria should Assad be toppled, and his statements could provide a measure of moral support for those fighting to keep Assad in power.
"If the world does not agree to support a peaceful solution through dialogue ... then I see no light at the end of the tunnel," al-Maliki said in his office in a Saddam Hussein-era palace inside Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone.
"Neither the opposition nor the regime can finish each other off," he continued. "The most dangerous thing in this process is that if the opposition is victorious, there will be a civil war in Lebanon, divisions in Jordan and a sectarian war in Iraq."
The Iraqi leader's comments come as his government confronts growing tensions of its own between the Shiite majority and an increasingly restive Sunni minority nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The war in Syria has sharp sectarian overtones, with predominantly Sunni rebels fighting a regime dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Rebel groups have increasingly embraced radical Islamic ideologies, and some of their greatest battlefield successes have been carried out by Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-affiliated group which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.
Assad's main allies are Shiite Iran and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah also warned Wednesday against sectarian infighting in Lebanon related to the Syrian civil war.
"There are some who are working night and day and pushing the country toward civil and religious strife, and specifically Sunni-Shiite strife," Nasrallah said on the group's Al-Manar TV. If this were to happen, he said, it would "destroy everyone and burn down the entire country."
Nasrallah denied accusations by the Syrian opposition that members of the group were fighting alongside forces loyal to the Assad regime, and reiterated that some Shiites in villages along the Lebanese-Syrian border, including Hezbollah members, have taken up arms in self-defense against Sunni gunmen.
Officials and analysts say there is real anxiety within Hezbollah that if Assad falls, it might lose not only a crucial supply route for weapons but also political clout inside Lebanon, where it currently dominates the government, along with its allies.
An opposition Sunni lawmaker in Iraq, Hamid al-Mutlaq, dismissed al-Maliki's contention that Assad's ouster would lead to a civil war contagion in the region.
"Through the statements and the behavior of the Iraqi government headed by al-Maliki, it seems that the Iraqi officials prefer the idea that Assad would remain in power," he said.
Asked about al-Maliki's comments, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Washington has been clear in expressing concern about extremists in the Syrian rebel ranks and the risk of Syria's war spilling over to neighboring countries.
"There are people who are trying to foment violence in Syria," he said. "These countries' histories are intertwined, and so we have concerns about sectarian violence and Iraq, as well."
"All the neighbors are concerned about the spillover," Ventrell said. "We're doing everything we can to end that violence and provide a future that's more stable for Syria, and that would be more stable for Iraq as well."
The toppling of Assad would deal a serious blow to the regional influence of Syria's patron Iran, which has built increasingly strong relations with Iraq's Shiite-dominated government.
Iraq has tried to maintain a neutral stance toward the civil war in Syria, saying that the aspirations of the Syrian people should be met through peaceful means.
Washington has criticized Baghdad, however, for doing too little to stop flights suspected of carrying Iranian arms to Syria from transiting Iraqi airspace.
Al-Maliki emphatically denied aiding the arms transfers: "Not to the regime and not to the opposition. No weapon is being transferred through Iraqi skies, territories or waters," he said.
He characterized Baghdad's relationship with the U.S. as maturing nearly a decade after the March 20, 2003, invasion, and said there is a strong will on both sides to strengthen relations further.
He also took another opportunity to note his country's appreciation for the U.S. role in toppling Saddam's dictatorship, and said the withdrawal of American troops in December 2011 was the right decision at the right time. A small number of U.S. military personnel remain in Iraq, but they are an arm of the American Embassy.
Many Sunnis have long blamed al-Maliki for promoting his Shiite sect at their expense and for being too closely aligned with neighboring Iran.
His government has faced two months of unexpectedly resilient protests from the Sunni community, whose members held many senior positions in Saddam's regime.
The rallies, which have been largely peaceful, erupted in Iraq's western Sunni heartland of Anbar in late December following the arrest of bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, one of the most senior Sunni politicians in government.
Although the detentions were the spark for the demonstrations, the rallies tap into deeper Sunni grievances, drawing on feelings of discrimination at the hands of al-Maliki's government.
Al-Maliki and his political allies initially dismissed the protesters. But as their rallies gained strength and spread throughout parts of Iraq where Sunnis are concentrated, the stern-faced premier began to offer concessions.
His government bowed to one of the protesters' early demands and released more than 2,000 detainees, including some held without charge. He also set up a committee to examine other grievances.
The prime minister vowed Tuesday to let the protests continue as long as they remain peaceful.
But he made a point of distinguishing between the protesters and the political leaders who back them.
He also suggested, as he has done in the past, that outside influences ? an apparent allusion to predominantly Sunni countries such as Turkey and the Gulf states ? are helping to fuel the unrest.
"What is going on in Iraq is connected to what is happening in the region. It is also connected to the results of the so-called Arab Spring and some sectarian policies in the region," he said.
"Our patience will continue because we believe that there are people in these provinces who are patriotic and they reject sectarianism, believe in the unity of the country and denounce the voices uttering sectarian words."
There is little chance of a return to open warfare in Iraq, since the Sunnis know they stand little chance of overpowering the Shiites. Nor do the majority of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, including protesters, support al-Qaida and its frequent widespread bombings of Shiite targets.
But Baghdad-based political analyst Hadi Jalo said al-Maliki is right to fear regime change in Syria.
"The removal of Assad by a Sunni government will weaken the Iraqi Shiites," Jalo said, noting that it could embolden Iraq's Sunnis to push for greater autonomy and even independence. "Any reasonable person would be surprised if the Iraqi government stands still and refrains from supporting Assad."
___
Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad, Bradley Klapper in Washington and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.
___
Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck
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The final version of Firefox 19 may have just left the den, but the Mozilla team are already hard at work on the beta version of Firefox 20, which just came out for Android today. Notable new features include a new per-tab private browsing feature that lets you alternate between normal and private tabs within the same session, customizable shortcuts for the home screen and support for additional ARMv6 devices. The browser also now supports lower-end phones with the minimum requirements of a 600MHz processor, 384MB memory and a QVGA display, which includes devices like the Samsung Galaxy Pop and the HTC Aria. Curious? Check out the release notes at the source, or if you're willing to tread those risky beta waters, just download it right now from Google Play.
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? A Jordanian official says there is a new surge in Syrians fleeing across the border to Jordan as fighting intensifies in southern Syria.
A government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Jordan now hosts 418,529 Syrian refugees.
Anmar Hmoud says 2,490 Syrians crossed into Jordan overnight, with the numbers averaging about 3,000 per night in recent days.
By the end of March, Jordan could have as many as half a million Syrian refugees.
Some of those coming through unofficial border crossings find shelter in Jordan's Zaatari camp, now home to more than 105,700 refugees. Many more live among Jordanian families.
The camp has seen sporadic violent protests over its harsh desert conditions.
The U.N. says there are nearly 925,000 Syrians displaced throughout the region.
LIMA (Reuters) - A young California couple feared by family to have been abducted while on a cycling trip through Peru have safely surfaced on a river boat headed for Ecuador, surprised to learn they were subjects of an international search, the Peruvian government said on Tuesday.
"The American tourists are continuing to enjoy their trip in the Peruvian Amazon," the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said in a statement, adding that a national police official had spoken with the couple and found them to be "in good health."
Garrett Hand and his girlfriend, Jamie Neal, both 25, had last been heard from by friends and relatives about a month ago, according to co-workers and a statement issued on Monday by the U.S. Embassy in Lima, the Peruvian capital.
The embassy said then that Peruvian authorities had mounted a search for the pair, who are residents of Oakland, California.
The couple were said to have vanished while en route to Lima from Cusco, in the mountainous southeastern Peruvian interior near the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu, an area where U.S. citizens have been warned by the embassy of kidnapping risks.
That advisory last month was widely interpreted as linked to efforts by a remnant band of Maoist Shining Path rebels to repel a government push to regain control of jungle valleys that are rife with coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking.
Friends and family of Hand and Neal said they worried the pair had been abducted and that their bank accounts had remained idle since they disappeared.
But a day after relatives and co-workers went public with efforts to organize a search for the couple, the Peruvian government said national police had caught up with the duo in the northern village of Angoteros along the Napo River.
SURPRISED BY CONCERN
The tourism ministry said the couple were passengers on a boat headed up the river, a tributary of the Amazon, to a town on the border with Ecuador.
The couple "were surprised by the concern generated by family, friends and the international community after the cessation of their communications in late January," a ministry statement said.
It added that the pair had been traveling overland by bicycle, bus and river boat through remote areas where access to telephones and the Internet was limited.
Meanwhile, Hand's mother, Francine Fitzgerald, posted a message on Facebook saying she had been informed by U.S. Embassy and Peruvian authorities that the couple were spotted in a remote village and were now on a river boat.
She gave few other details but said she would not be satisfied until receiving "proof of life" from her son.
"Proof of life is my son's voice on the phone and a picture of him holding the missing poster," she wrote.
ABC News reported on Tuesday that the tourism ministry was sending a crew with video cameras to the location where the couple's boat is scheduled to dock on Wednesday to show they are alive and well.
The U.S. Embassy issued a separate statement saying it was aware of "reports that the missing U.S. citizens have been located," adding, "we are working with local authorities to confirm those reports."
The location of the couple in northern Peru was reinforced by previous accounts from police and officials of an ecological community in the Amazonian region of Iquitos. They had told Reuters earlier this week that Hand and Neal were seen embarking on an upriver boat trip toward Ecuador on February 16, three weeks after their families had last heard from them.
(Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in San Francisco; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Bernard Orr and Eric Walsh)
Haven't we all suffered enough abuse at the hands of Big Smart Watch? No? Well now there's Buddy, a Bluetooth smartwatch that aims to solve the problems associated with all those other watches. Buddy is focused on social networking and notifications so it will ping you when your Facebook or Twitter feed is updated as well as send the standard call/text/calendar notifications you expect from a smart watch.
The islands Reunion and Mauritius, both well-known tourist destinations, are hiding a micro-continent, which has now been discovered. The continent fragment known as Mauritia detached about 60 million years ago while Madagascar and India drifted apart, and had been hidden under huge masses of lava. Such micro-continents in the oceans seem to occur more frequently than previously thought, says a study in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience ("A Precambrian microcontinent in the Indian Ocean," Nature Geoscience, Vol 6, doi: 10.1038/NGEO1736).
The break-up of continents is often associated with mantle plumes: These giant bubbles of hot rock rise from the deep mantle and soften the tectonic plates from below, until the plates break apart at the hotspots. This is how Eastern Gondwana broke apart about 170 million years ago. At first, one part was separated, which in turn fragmented into Madagascar, India, Australia and Antarctica, which then migrated to their present position.
Plumes currently situated underneath the islands Marion and Reunion appear to have played a role in the emergence of the Indian Ocean. If the zone of the rupture lies at the edge of a land mass (in this case Madagascar / India), fragments of this land mass may be separated off. The Seychelles are a well-known example of such a continental fragment.
A group of geoscientists from Norway, South Africa, Britain and Germany have now published a study that suggests, based on the study of lava sand grains from the beach of Mauritius, the existence of further fragments. The sand grains contain semi-precious zircons aged between 660 and 1970 million years, which is explained by the fact that the zircons were carried by the lava as it pushed through subjacent continental crust of this age.
This dating method was supplemented by a recalculation of plate tectonics, which explains exactly how and where the fragments ended up in the Indian Ocean. Dr. Bernhard Steinberger of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Dr. Pavel Doubrovine of Oslo University calculated the hotspot trail: "On the one hand, it shows the position of the plates relative to the two hotspots at the time of the rupture, which points towards a causal relation," says
Steinberger. "On the other hand, we were able to show that the continent fragments continued to wander almost exactly over the Reunion plume, which explains how they were covered by volcanic rock." So what was previously interpreted only as the trail of the Reunion hotspot, are continental fragments which were previously not recognized as such because they were covered by the volcanic rocks of the Reunion plume. It therefore appears that such micro-continents in the ocean occur more frequently than previously thought.
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: http://www.helmholtz.de/en/index.html
Thanks to Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres for this article.
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Mobile app developers using a technology called "cookie tracking" (sometimes called "Safari flip-flop" or "HTML5 first party cookies") are starting to have their apps rejected by Apple's App Review team, we've heard from a few different industry sources.?With this method in place, Safari is opened upon first launch in order to read a cookie that may exist there from a user's past interactions with ads. In terms of the user experience, it's not ideal,?but it is one some app makers are utilizing?as an alternative to the deprecated UDID? - the unique device identifier which?Apple first announced plans to phase out?back in mid-2011.
You may have recently spotted some goofy-looking headgear gracing the brows of the Google founders ? and a few supermodels, too. While it may seem like a cyberpunk fashion statement that just got too literal, Google's Project Glass, a wearable camera/display combo, may well be the future of human-machine interaction.
"One thing that we're really excited about and working hard on is transforming the way that people interact with Google," said Scott Huffman, Google's vice president of engineering for Search, showing off a video demonstrating the search engine giant's new sensation. "From the stilted one-keyword-at-a-time conversation, to more of a natural conversation ? like a human assistant."
Make no mistake, Huffman isn't talking about a virtual assistant along the lines of Apple's Siri, which responds to your questions. He's talking about a way to interact with a search engine ? and all its associated products ? that includes it gathering so much data about your life and habits, it will start anticipating your needs. Cool? Yes. Creepy? Maybe that, too.
"If you think about a good assistant," Huffman told me, pausing to correct himself, "a great assistant ? they don't interrupt you every few minutes." He described his own assistant, someone who doesn't interrupt him often, but certainly knows when she should give him a gentle reminder or a sharp kick.
"It's the opposite of the experience on your phone today," Huffman pointed out, referencing how disruptive our smartphones can be. Not only are they not capable of prioritizing our notifications, but they're mostly incapable of anticipating how the priorities themselves change depending on where we are ? or what time it is.
Though Google's improved experience will span all manner of devices ? "We're trying to think of it as ... your assistant is ubiquitously with you," said Huffman ? it's Google Glass that has everyone talking.
Under development in the Google X Lab ? that mysterious skunkworks where self-driving cars, neural networks, and other quirky yet ambitious projects are being dreamed up ? Glass is the most provocative way in which this assistant, your main touchpoint with Google, might interact with you.
A small display lives on a frame that resembles eyeglasses. It is connected to a camera, microphone, bone-conducting speaker, and more. Thanks to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, the device communicates with other gadgets, such as your smartphone, as well as the good ol' Web.
"OK, Glass!" ? with a command like that, you can prompt the device to take pictures, record video, initiate video chats, provide directions, send messages, search, translate and more. Cards resembling those seen in Google Now ? Google's response to Apple's Siri ? may occasionally appear in the tiny display, meant to remind you of a dentist appointment, provide updates on an upcoming flight, and so on.
A concept video released by Google about a year ago left some people under the misconception that Glass provides an augmented reality experience, where information is overlaid across a field of vision. Instead, as a new demo video confirms, Glass is significantly less disruptive. You actually have to glance up at the display.
Google's intent with Glass is to provide you with all the information you need, before you even think of a question, but without being a nag. Sound too crazy? Not for Google, says ... Google.
What people want ... and what they don't know they want "Our role is to understand user needs in terms of our search products and make sure that we're developing a search experience that meets and exceeds expectations," Jon Wiley, Google's lead user experience designer for Search, told me in mid-December. To get a sense of how that was going, Wiley said, the company conducted a little human-nature study.
Wiley's team gathered up a group of folks "from all walks of life" and installed specialized software on their mobile devices. Throughout the day, this software prompted the study participants with a very open-ended question: "What was the last bit of information you needed?" The point of the study wasn't to trace the flow of data through the participants' handsets. Wiley's team just wanted to know what sort of information ? simple or complicated, mundane or exciting ? people were hunting for at any given moment.
The study not only allowed Wiley's team to better capture the sorts of queries that people don't ask a search engine ? "Why is my daughter being mean to me?" ? but also the context in which all these questions arose. Where were people when they needed to know these things? What time was it? What were they doing? By gathering these details, the team could attempt to understand the contexts of searches (even the helpless ones) in our day-to-day, human trudge.
One day, Google could perhaps provide all that information without prompting. After all, a diligent user of Google Now already gets flight information, traffic alerts, and other details automatically ? just based on itineraries, daily travel patterns, etc. But with Glass that information could always be front-and-center at the very moment it's needed. What if you're late for a flight? Checking for its gate information by reaching for a boarding pass, pulling your phone out of your pocket, or finding an airport information board wastes precious seconds. Glass could put the information right in front of you without delay.
The more information we share with Google, even just so that Google can better understand our data needs, the more privacy concerns will be raised. Google is already no stranger to privacy lawsuits and legislation, so how much more heated will things get when the company introduces eyeglasses that know as much ? or more ? about you than you know yourself?
Perhaps even more importantly, Google Glass is one of the first digital technologies capable of recording the world around you constantly: Will that cause discomfort for others? Will they start to avoid you once you're wearing a device that allows you to take photos or record video without even the slightest warning? And when will Google Glass data be brought into the courtroom for a divorce case, a robbery, or worse?
Despite its magical promises (and ominous portents), Google's creation may remain out of reach for a while ? until late 2013, at the very earliest. Google's currently only allowing select individuals to participate in the Google Glass Explorer program. This first publicly available Glass edition costs $1,500, and comes with an invite to a special pick-up event and more. In order to be part of the Glass Explorer program, you had to pre-order during Google I/O 2012 conference last June or make it through the recently announced #IfIHadGlass application process.
Nerd alert! While the general public waits for the latest Google gadget to become available though, there's been plenty of criticism of Glass' appearance ? "these specs look like the freaky science fiction concept they are," Gizmodo's Mario Aguilar declared.
And the behoodied Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, not exactly a fashion icon himself, is among those concerned about how he'll look wearing Glass on his face, reports Ryan Mac. The Forbes' writer witnessed an exchange between Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin after an event at the University of California on Wednesday.
"How do you look out from this without looking awkward?" Zuckerberg reportedly asked. "You know, how are you supposed to use these this without breaking eye contact?" (Neither Facebook nor Google chose to confirm that this conversation occurred.)
Still, Google seems to be working hard to ditch the belief that only the nerdiest of nerds will don Glass. The New York Times' Claire Cain Miller reports that Google may be in negotiations with eyewear seller Warby Parker "to help it design more fashionable frames" for Glass.
The company also collaborated with designer Diane von Furstenberg during last year's New York Fashion Week and brought Glass onto the runway.
?I am so excited to introduce Glass to the fashion world and use this revolutionary technology to give everyone a unique perspective into fashion," von Furstenberg was quoted as remarking, while Google co-founder Sergey Brin added that "beauty, style and comfort are as important to Glass as the latest technology."
Until Glass is publicly available ? and until we discover whether this groundbreaking virtual personal assistant is worth bending a fashion rule or two ? the last words on the subject go to actor LeVar Burton. Speaking for Geordi La Forge, a character he played in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Burton tweets: "#ifihadglass It would be a downgrade."
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
This evening from the Twitter world we get a hint that Major League Soccer?s long-standing logo may be changing.
Someone who reads the fine print noticed a job ad from adidas group and then alerted the world ? via the wonder of Twitter. Here are the words grabbing attention as this thing spins through the social media rinse cycle. These are under ?Project Description:?
Support Global Product Creation during transition into new MLS logo ? all MLS/adidas branded products will be affected?
Interesting, eh?
We?ll dig around a little with people in the know at MLS HQ. And then we?ll let you know. Here ? and via Twitter.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel carried out a successful first test on Monday of its upgraded Arrow interceptor, which is designed to destroy in space the kind of missiles held by Iran and Syria, defense officials said.
The U.S.-backed Arrow III will deploy "kamikaze" satellites that track and slam into ballistic missiles above the earth's atmosphere, high enough to allow for any chemical, biological or nuclear warheads to disintegrate safely.
Monday's test was the first flight of the system, but did not involve the interception of any target. Israel deployed the previous version, Arrow II, more than a decade ago and says it has scored around a 90 percent success rate in live trials.
"Arrow II was 'Star Wars'. This is 'Distant-Star Wars'," Yoav Turgeman of state-run Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the system's manufacturer, told Army Radio.
Launched from a coastal air base south of Tel Aviv, the Arrow III interceptor missile maneuvered for 6 1/2 minutes over the Mediterranean sea, Israeli defense officials said. The test was attended by representatives of U.S. partner firm Boeing and the Pentagon.
"The success of the test is an important milestone in the operational capabilities of the State of Israel to be able to defend itself against threats in the region," Israel's Defence Ministry said in a statement.
A ministry official who briefed foreign reporters said the timing of the test, which took months to prepare and was postponed from mid-2012, was unrelated to current Israeli fears.
Topping these are Iran, whose disputed nuclear drive is the focus of international sanctions, and Syria, which has been wracked by a two-year-old civil war and whose arsenal is believed to include chemical warheads.
U.S. BACKING
Israel plans another Arrow III flight test followed by a simulated interception in space over the Mediterranean, the defense official said. Israeli officials previously predicted the new system would be deployed by 2014 or 2015, alongside Arrow II.
"Israel's hand is always outstretched in peace but we are also prepared for other eventualities. In this vein, I praise the successful test of the Arrow III," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Arrow is the long-range segment in Israel's three-tier missile shield. This also includes the successfully deployed "Iron Dome", which targets short-range rockets and mortar bombs favored by Palestinian guerrillas in Gaza, and the mid-range "David's Sling", still under development. They can be deployed alongside U.S. counterpart systems like the Aegis.
Officials say that if Arrow failed to hit an incoming missile at high altitude, there would still be time to destroy it with other systems before it landed on its intended target.
The United States and Israel have been developing Arrow jointly since 1988. Washington says helping Israel develop the capability to shoot down missiles will help prevent wars in the Middle East.
In a statement, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency called Monday's launch "a major milestone" which "provides confidence in future Israeli capabilities to defeat the developing ballistic missile threat".
Boeing thinks other potential clients for the system may include India, Singapore and South Korea.
"As we prove out that technology, and show that it's not only affordable but effective, we think there will be additional global market opportunities for that capability," Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing's defense, space and security arm, told Reuters last year.
The U.S. financial contribution to progressively improved versions of the Arrow system tops $1 billion, the Congressional Research Service said in a March 2012 report to lawmakers.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Peter Graff)
Global surveys show environmental concerns rank low among public concernsPublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ray Boyer boyer-ray@norc.org 312-330-6433 NORC at the University of Chicago
Newly released international study reveals that environmental issues in general and global climate change in particular are a low priority for people in the United States and around the world
2/25/2013, Chicago, IL--A newly released international study reveals that the issue of climate change is not a priority for people in the United States and around the world.
The surveys showed that when asked to rank priority worries, people were five times more likely to point to the economy over the environment. Additionally, when asked about climate change, people identified the issue as more of a national problem than a personal concern.
Coordinated surveys, conducted by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in 33 countries from 1993 through 2010, "are the first and only surveys that put long-term attitudes toward environmental issues in general and global climate change in particular in an international perspective," said Tom W. Smith, Director of the General Social Survey, a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, and author of a paper that summarizes the surveys.
In the surveys, respondents were asked the relative importance of eight issues: health care, education, crime, the environment, immigration, the economy, terrorism and poverty.
The economy ranked highest in concern in 15 countries, followed by health care in eight, education in six, poverty in two, and terrorism and crime in one country each. Immigration and the environment did not make the top of the list in any country over the 17-year period; in the United States, the economy ranked as the highest concern, while concern for the environment ranked sixth.
In terms of national averages, the order of concern was the economy (25 percent); health care (22.2) education (15.6); poverty (11.6); crime (8.6) environment (4.7), immigration (4.1) and terrorism (2.6), the surveys showed. Terrorism's low ranking was notable in light of the widespread attention the issue has received since 2001, though it topped the list of concerns in Turkey.
The paper, "Public Attitudes towards Climate Change and Other Global Environmental Issues across Time and Countries, 1993-2010," was presented recently at the "Policy Workshop: Public Attitudes and Environmental Policy in Canada and Europe, Canada-European Transatlantic Dialogue," at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
NORC is issuing the survey summary on behalf of the ISSP, a consortium of survey research organizations in 49 countries. The ISSP coordinates studies on topics worldwide and uses the same scientific standards to make the findings representative of the nations' populations.
A focus on the environment
In the United States, only 3.6 percent of the people surveyed selected the environment as the nation's most pressing issue, as opposed to 15 percent of the people in Norway, which had the highest level of environmental concern.
The surveys also asked questions about worries concerning particular kinds of environmental problems, including global climate change. One asked which problem among nine was most important for their country as a whole as opposed to the individual.
Air pollution ranked first in 13 countries, followed by climate change, which was the top concern in 10 countries. In another question, the surveys asked people which environmental problem they considered most personally dangerous and found that in only three countries was climate change listed as the most dangerous environmental problem, trailing nuclear power plants and industrial air pollution.
"One reason for the relatively low ranking of climate change is that people often believed it did not directly affect them. Climate change is seen more as a country-level problem than as a personal problem," Smith said. "While 14.6 percent cited it as the most important environmental issue for their country, only 9 percent rated it first for themselves."
The latest surveys were completed in 2010. Similar surveys have been conducted since 1993, and little change has been noted on people's concern for climate change. Differences exist among the countries, however, suggesting that widespread public support for current action on the issue will represent a major shift in attitude.
The surveys indicate some expectation for greater future concern about climate change. "The greater mentioning of climate change as a problem by those under 30 versus those 70 and older probably reflects generational effects and if so, should tend to increase levels of concern in the future," Smith said.
Environmental issues are of greatest concern in Scandinavian nations, Switzerland and Canada. They were followed by France, Austria, Finland, the former West Germany, Taiwan, Korea, and New Zealand. Toward the bottom of the list are Croatia, Latvia, Chile, Turkey, Lithuania and Argentina.
Climate change was listed as the top environmental concern in Japan, West Germany, Canada, Britain and Scandinavia, where between 19 and 26 percent of the population indicated it was their top environmental issue.
###
Smith is co-founder of the ISSP and on the group's Standing Committee. He is also Past President the World
Association for Public Opinion Research.
The General Social Survey (GSS) is a project of NORC at the University of Chicago with principal funding provided by the National Science Foundation. It is a unique and valuable resource that has tracked the opinions and behaviors of Americans over the last four decades. The GSS is NORC's longest running project, and one of its most influential. Except for U.S. Census data, the GSS is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences. More than 20,000 research publications of many types are based on the GSS; and about 400,000 students use the GSS in their classes each year. Since 1985, the GSS has taken part in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), a consortium of social scientists from 49 countries around the world. The ISSP asks an identical battery of questions in all countries; the U.S. version of these questions is incorporated into the GSS.
NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research organization headquartered in downtown Chicago with additional offices on the University of Chicago's campus, the D.C. Metro area, Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco. NORC also supports a nationwide field staff as well as international research operations. With clients throughout the world, NORC collaborates with government agencies, foundations, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses to provide data and analysis that support informed decision making in key areas including health, education, economics, crime, justice, energy, security, and the environment. NORC's more than 70 years of leadership and experience in data collection, analysis, and disseminationcoupled with deep subject matter expertiseprovides the foundation for effective solutions.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Global surveys show environmental concerns rank low among public concernsPublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ray Boyer boyer-ray@norc.org 312-330-6433 NORC at the University of Chicago
Newly released international study reveals that environmental issues in general and global climate change in particular are a low priority for people in the United States and around the world
2/25/2013, Chicago, IL--A newly released international study reveals that the issue of climate change is not a priority for people in the United States and around the world.
The surveys showed that when asked to rank priority worries, people were five times more likely to point to the economy over the environment. Additionally, when asked about climate change, people identified the issue as more of a national problem than a personal concern.
Coordinated surveys, conducted by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in 33 countries from 1993 through 2010, "are the first and only surveys that put long-term attitudes toward environmental issues in general and global climate change in particular in an international perspective," said Tom W. Smith, Director of the General Social Survey, a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, and author of a paper that summarizes the surveys.
In the surveys, respondents were asked the relative importance of eight issues: health care, education, crime, the environment, immigration, the economy, terrorism and poverty.
The economy ranked highest in concern in 15 countries, followed by health care in eight, education in six, poverty in two, and terrorism and crime in one country each. Immigration and the environment did not make the top of the list in any country over the 17-year period; in the United States, the economy ranked as the highest concern, while concern for the environment ranked sixth.
In terms of national averages, the order of concern was the economy (25 percent); health care (22.2) education (15.6); poverty (11.6); crime (8.6) environment (4.7), immigration (4.1) and terrorism (2.6), the surveys showed. Terrorism's low ranking was notable in light of the widespread attention the issue has received since 2001, though it topped the list of concerns in Turkey.
The paper, "Public Attitudes towards Climate Change and Other Global Environmental Issues across Time and Countries, 1993-2010," was presented recently at the "Policy Workshop: Public Attitudes and Environmental Policy in Canada and Europe, Canada-European Transatlantic Dialogue," at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
NORC is issuing the survey summary on behalf of the ISSP, a consortium of survey research organizations in 49 countries. The ISSP coordinates studies on topics worldwide and uses the same scientific standards to make the findings representative of the nations' populations.
A focus on the environment
In the United States, only 3.6 percent of the people surveyed selected the environment as the nation's most pressing issue, as opposed to 15 percent of the people in Norway, which had the highest level of environmental concern.
The surveys also asked questions about worries concerning particular kinds of environmental problems, including global climate change. One asked which problem among nine was most important for their country as a whole as opposed to the individual.
Air pollution ranked first in 13 countries, followed by climate change, which was the top concern in 10 countries. In another question, the surveys asked people which environmental problem they considered most personally dangerous and found that in only three countries was climate change listed as the most dangerous environmental problem, trailing nuclear power plants and industrial air pollution.
"One reason for the relatively low ranking of climate change is that people often believed it did not directly affect them. Climate change is seen more as a country-level problem than as a personal problem," Smith said. "While 14.6 percent cited it as the most important environmental issue for their country, only 9 percent rated it first for themselves."
The latest surveys were completed in 2010. Similar surveys have been conducted since 1993, and little change has been noted on people's concern for climate change. Differences exist among the countries, however, suggesting that widespread public support for current action on the issue will represent a major shift in attitude.
The surveys indicate some expectation for greater future concern about climate change. "The greater mentioning of climate change as a problem by those under 30 versus those 70 and older probably reflects generational effects and if so, should tend to increase levels of concern in the future," Smith said.
Environmental issues are of greatest concern in Scandinavian nations, Switzerland and Canada. They were followed by France, Austria, Finland, the former West Germany, Taiwan, Korea, and New Zealand. Toward the bottom of the list are Croatia, Latvia, Chile, Turkey, Lithuania and Argentina.
Climate change was listed as the top environmental concern in Japan, West Germany, Canada, Britain and Scandinavia, where between 19 and 26 percent of the population indicated it was their top environmental issue.
###
Smith is co-founder of the ISSP and on the group's Standing Committee. He is also Past President the World
Association for Public Opinion Research.
The General Social Survey (GSS) is a project of NORC at the University of Chicago with principal funding provided by the National Science Foundation. It is a unique and valuable resource that has tracked the opinions and behaviors of Americans over the last four decades. The GSS is NORC's longest running project, and one of its most influential. Except for U.S. Census data, the GSS is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences. More than 20,000 research publications of many types are based on the GSS; and about 400,000 students use the GSS in their classes each year. Since 1985, the GSS has taken part in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), a consortium of social scientists from 49 countries around the world. The ISSP asks an identical battery of questions in all countries; the U.S. version of these questions is incorporated into the GSS.
NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research organization headquartered in downtown Chicago with additional offices on the University of Chicago's campus, the D.C. Metro area, Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco. NORC also supports a nationwide field staff as well as international research operations. With clients throughout the world, NORC collaborates with government agencies, foundations, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses to provide data and analysis that support informed decision making in key areas including health, education, economics, crime, justice, energy, security, and the environment. NORC's more than 70 years of leadership and experience in data collection, analysis, and disseminationcoupled with deep subject matter expertiseprovides the foundation for effective solutions.
[ | 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.
Haven't we all suffered enough abuse at the hands of 
Mobile app developers using a technology called "cookie tracking" (sometimes called "Safari flip-flop" or "HTML5 first party cookies") are starting to have their apps rejected by Apple's App Review team, we've heard from a few different industry sources.?With this method in place, Safari is opened upon first launch in order to read a cookie that may exist there from a user's past interactions with ads. In terms of the user experience, it's not ideal,?but it is one some app makers are utilizing?![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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