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Monday, January 28, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Indonesia readies for $1 trillion trade talks
United States Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
United States Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
United States Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Participants leave the Congress Center the last day of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone/Laurent Gillieron)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Indonesia may hold the key to a $1 trillion injection into the global economy.
That's how much the World Trade Organization believes is riding on talks later this year in Bali, when trade ministers hope to cut through some of the red tape that slows global commerce.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The Associated Press that failure is not an option and that a strong effort is being put in to ensure that the WTO meeting in Bali is "crowned with success."
"It's very critical now, especially with the difficulties in the global economy, especially in the eurozone," he said. "Trade facilitation becomes a key driver for economic recovery, so this is now even ever more important to what it was before."
Trade ministers from 24 nations met Saturday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Afterward, Swiss Economic Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann said the group agreed they could reach a tentative agreement on some of the key elements of a global trade deal this summer, in preparation for the ministerial talks in December at Bali.
The current trade talks, known as the Doha Round, began in 2001, and after a decade of little progress, many had pronounced the negotiations to reduce global trade barriers as dead.
Schneider-Ammann said he sensed some "optimism" that efforts to streamline customs procedures and other rules to reduce the costs of trade "will be successful."
The Doha negotiations have been billed as a way of boosting economic development among the poorest countries, by reducing barriers on their exports to wealthier markets.
The WTO's director general, Pascal Lamy, has been telling the Davos gathering of political, business and academic elites that an international trade deal would provide a $1 trillion boost to the global economy.
Flanked by Schneider-Ammann, Lamy told reporters that he believes it is technically "do-able" to craft draft agreements on some of the key elements of a deal by next summer.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said he had to "temper" his enthusiasm for a deal since it has eluded the world for a decade.
"But, at least of the 24 countries represented today, it felt like we had made more substantive progress," he said.
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Computer Dependency
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Can we be addicted to a computer? No, I don?t think we can. Addict is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as ?One who is addicted to the habitual and excessive use of a drug.? A computer is not a drug, so in fact I would tend to say that we can be dependent on what the computer offers us. Shotton (1989) spoke at great lengths about the misuse of the word addict or addiction in the context of computers. She concluded that the most appropriate word to use was dependency or its other forms. Dependency was explained to mean that there was a strong, compelling desire to do something. As the world grows and the influence technology has increases, we can expect to see more children becoming dependent on their computers. There is nothing wrong with using a computer or technology in fact it makes our lives a lot easier in many ways. However it is when someone becomes obsessed with something a computer can offer them that problems occur.
The use of technology in our everyday lives has increased dramatically, according to the Office for National Statistics, 77 per cent of UK households have a home computer. This means that over three quarters of the population have the potential to become dependent on the computers found in their homes. over the last few days it was stated on Sky News (2013) that the average cost of raising a child has rocketed to ?222,000, with one of the main reasons for this being children?s desire for technology such as laptops and tablets. The big question is why do people become dependent on computers or what they offer? There are many reasons to why people become dependent on computers, allowing them to become a major part of their lives. One reason may be a problematic family or social life. Many people find computers as a form of escapism. They are able to forget the real world for a while and immerse themselves in the fictional world portrayed in a game or website. Research conducted by Shotton (1989) showed that the majority of the people considered to be dependent on their computers had in fact family troubles. They had experienced negative relationships with either one or both parents. In addition to this she found that although not all of these people came from cold environments in terms of their household they did often have neglecting parents. Considering the social life of those dependent on computers, it was found that they were object based people. Dependents spoke about how they felt ?alien? from their peers and it could in fact be this feeling of isolation that has driven people to seek comfort or acceptance from their computer.
There are several different types of computer dependents, defined by why they are dependent on their computers. There are those that are networkers, people who use their computer to be social. Website such as Facebook and Twitter have dominated the internet in recent years and in some cases the lives of children. Although it is technically illegal for anyone under the age of thirteen to have a Facebook account, research shows that in fact a consumer reports survey showed that as many as 7.5 million Facebook users are under 13, and two-thirds of those children are under 10. This sparks another debate regarding the safety of children on the internet. However those children dependent on social networking find themselves glued to their computer screen waiting on the next notification or message from one of their friends. Friends which they may not even know personally. Another group would be those that work on their computers. These people who often show themselves to be ambitious careerists who would struggle to differentiate between work and play. For these types of people work and play are one as they get enthralled in their activities, indulging their need to develop their passion into a viable financial solution. Finally I want to consider the gamers, the people that are dependent upon the virtual worlds that many platforms such as PC, Xbox and PlayStation offer. Gaming worlds offer people a chance to leave the world they are in and embrace a new one. These worlds are at their mercy and this can provide these dependents with a feeling of control, a feeling that they may be unable to experience outside of their video game.
There are many negative effects and health concerns that accompany computer dependency; these can be divided into three categories; mental, physical and social. If we first consider a few of the mental effects a dependency on computers can have beginning with stress. Many dependents can get frustrated when a system isn?t working leading to stress, which in turn can cause someone to act out their feelings sometimes violently. Grif?ths (1991) felt that an addiction or dependency on computers especially violent video games does in fact affect children negatively and they tend to show increased levels of aggression. Research has found children to exhibit addictive behaviour towards their participation in computer game playing (Phillips et al, 1995), which can be a catalyst for many problems. On such problem that I experienced first-hand whilst on a teaching placement was sleep deprivation. Children can get so enthralled in their computers especially video games that they lose all track of time or will sit into the late hours of the night. This of course has a great impact the following day as children show signs of drowsiness and a difficulty concentrating whilst in school. This was ratified by research conducted by (Meijar et al, 2000) who concluded that quality of sleep has a ?substantial impact? on school functioning for children. Secondly there are also physical repercussions for having a dependency on games. Long extended periods sitting at a computer or hunched over a video games can lead to the development of a sore back, neck and even eye problems. Personal hygiene can also suffer as looking after your own body becomes less of a priority and spending more time on the computer increases. In addition to this there is also a link between computer dependency and obesity, researchers from The Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University Hospital of Zurich published a study in the journal of Obesity Research in 2004 that establishes the link between computer dependency and childhood obesity.
Finally another factor which suffers because of a person?s dependency on their computer is their social life. The user can gradually withdraw into a virtual world where by the dependent becomes more focused on the computer and places emotional value on what happens in an artificial world rather than in real life. Brod (1984) suggested that children?s ability to learn would become distorted and that they might develop and intolerance for human interaction. He believed the computer was used as a refuge for stress, preventing the development of a well-rounded personality by cutting the child off from other activities.
We are very quick to jump to the conclusion that computers and video games are bad; only hampering the development of our children, but it is important to understand the opinions of the involved parties. The main concern of parents is that computers will affect their children in a negative way; this was proven in the Byron Review (2008) when 79 per cent of parents thought computers may affect the behaviour of children. Researching various debates recorded online I found many parents commented saying things such as, ?It?s a waste of time? or ?They could be out playing football or working on their homework.? Other parents believed that there is no problem with children using computers as long as it is in moderation and does not affect other aspects of their lives.
As a trainee teacher I found that computer dependency was not a big problem on my placements. There were children in my class who were obsessed with video games and games on their computer. In fact it would often be the topic of conversation during their lunch breaks and free time. However I found that this obsession never got in the way of their learning. A study conducted by (Gentile et al, 2004) with teachers found that computer dependency in children often led to more children confronting members of staff and they often witnessed a decline in their school achievements. On the 28th January 2011 BBC Radio Five live spoke to a young boy and his mother regarding his addiction to his computer and video games. The young boy described himself as feeling happy in his own world and stated ?I?d just get proper angry over nothing.? this interview highlighted some of the effects computer dependency has on children. The boy blamed the amount of time he spent on his computer as one of the reasons he become so dependent. In one study by Walsh (2000), a majority of teens admitted that their parents do not impose a time limit on the number of hours they are allowed to spend on their computers. Perhaps responsibility falls to the parents to regulate how much time children are allowed to spend on their computers, perhaps the blame for computer dependent children lies with them.
Children use their computers for a number of reasons, many use them for social networking, gaming and educational purposes. It is important that computers are not seen as detrimental to our children or their development. In fact if used correctly they can be one of the greatest tools at a child?s disposal, furthering their education. I feel that it is essential that parent regulate how long children are allowed on their computers but also guide their children. Show them new ways to exploit the capabilities of a computer.
Sources, References and Further Reading
- Brod, C. (1984) Technostress: The Human Cost of the Computer Revolution. Michigan: Addison-Wesley.
- Byron, T. (2008) The Byron Review: Safer Children in a Digital World.
- Gentile, D. A., Lynch, P., Linder, J. & Walsh, D. (2004). The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 5-22.
- Griffiths, M.D. (1991) ?Amusement machine playing in childhood and adolescence: A comparative analysis of video games and fruit machines?, Journal of Adolescence, 14, pp. 53?73
- Griffiths, M.D. (1993) ??Are computer games bad for children?? The Psychologist: Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 6, pp. 401?7
- Mark Griffiths. CyberPsychology & Behavior. April 2000, 3(2): 211-218.
- Meijer, A., Habekothea, H. & Vandenwittenboer, G. (2000) Time in bed, quality of sleep and school functioning of children. Journal of Sleep Research. 9(2): 145-153.
- Office for National Statistics. (2010) http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/family-spending/family-spending/family-spending-2011-edition/sum-consumer-durables-nugget.html
- Phillips, C.A., Rolls, S., Rouse, A. and Grif?ths, M.D. (1995) ?Home video game playing in school children: a study of incidence and patterns of play?, Journal of Adolescence, 18, pp. 687?691
- Shotton, M. (1989) Computer Addiction: A study of Computer Dependency. London: Taylor & Francis.
- Sky News (2013) Cost Of Raising A Child Soars To ?222,000. [Online] Available at: http://news.sky.com/story/1042120/cost-of-raising-a-child-soars-to-222000 (Accessed: 25th January 2013)
- Walsh, D. (2000). Interactive violence and children: Testimony submitted to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate. (March 21, 2000.) Available:http://commerce.senate.gov/ hearings/0321wal1.pdf (Accessed: 26th January 2013)
Don?t forget to visit the original author?s post here and leave a comment.
Source: http://blogs.plymuniprimary.com/2013/01/27/computer-dependency/
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Climate change views swayed by weather
Independent voters shift their views on climate change with the weather, new research suggests.
During cold snaps, Independents tend to be more skeptical of human-caused global warming than they are on unseasonably warm days, which seem to make them believers, according to a study published in the journal Weather, Climate, and Society. Democrats and Republicans stuck to their climate-change beliefs regardless of short-term weather changes.
"Independent voters were less likely to believe that climate change was caused by humans on unseasonably cool days, and more likely to believe that climate change was caused by humans on unseasonably warm days," said study author Lawrence Hamilton, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire, in a statement.
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Science news from NBCNews.com
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As the bitter cold in the northeastern United States keeps even hardy New Hampshire skiers off the slopes, there?s at least one potential upside to the cold snap: fewer mosquitoes come summer, according to an entomologist riding out the cold in upstate New York.
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Winter's big chill means fewer summer bugs
Previous studies have also shown that global warming belief depends on weather.
To see if there was a connection, the team looked 10 random-sample phone surveys conducted by the Granite State Poll between 2010 and 2012, with a total of 5,000 New Hampshire voters. The phone interviews asked respondents to choose between three options: climate change is happening now, caused mainly by humans; climate change is not happening; or it is happening, but mostly due to natural causes. [ The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted ]
They then correlated the dates of those phone calls with temperature and precipitation data drawn from the U.S. Historical Climatology Network.?
While Republicans and Democrats stuck to their views, self-identified Independents shifted their views with the weather.
"The shift was dramatic. On the coolest days, belief in human-caused climate change dropped below 40 percent among Independents. On the hottest days, it increased above 70 percent," Hamilton said in a statement.
Though it may be human nature to tie weather to climate change, that isn't scientific. An individual storm or warm front can't be attributed to climate change, because weather patterns happen over short time periods, while climate change is a long-term trend. On average, climate change may bring more extreme weather.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter@livescience. We're also on Facebook &Google+.
? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50594127/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
Woman sues Match.com for $10 million after brutal attack
16 hrs.
A Las Vegas woman who was severely beaten by a man she met through Match.com is suing the online dating site for $10 million?two years and multiple surgeries after the attack that left her hospitalized for months.
The woman, Mary Kay Beckman, was stabbed multiple times with a butcher knife on Jan. 21, 2011?by?Wade Mitchell Ridley, and when?the knife broke, he stomped on her head. Ridley, who was sentenced to?28 to 70 years,?died in prison last year. He was also facing a murder charge in Arizona for the stabbing death of a former girlfriend a few weeks after the attack on Beckman.
Beckman filed suit in Clark County, Nevada,?accusing Match.com of negligence, negligent misrepresentation, deceptive trade, failure to warn and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The site, she said, failed to warn her about the dangers of meeting "an individual whose intentions are not to find a mate, but to find victims to kill or rape."
The real estate agent said she joined Match.com about a month before her first in-person meeting with Ridley on Sept. 26, 2010. They dated for 10 days, but she called it off. That's when Ridley started sending her threatening and harassing messages.?
On Jan. 21, 2011, Ridley attacked Beckman in her garage, and left her for dead, she says, when she stopped making a "gurgling noise."?
Beckman, now 50, continues to recover and to speak out against online dating?"I do not believe that online dating is a safe venue for men or women,"?she?recently?told?a?local?FOX?TV?reporter.
Match.com, in a statement to NBC News Friday, said that what happened to Beckman "is horrible, but this lawsuit is absurd.?The many millions of people who have found love on Match.com and other online dating sites know how fulfilling it is. And while that doesn't make what happened in this case any less awful, this is about a sick, twisted individual with no prior criminal record, not an entire community of men and women looking to meet each other."
Safety, the site said, "is very important to Match," which, like many other online dating sites, includes online and offline tips for staying safe.In California, Match.com and two other dating sites, eHarmony and Spark Networks, signed a joint statement of business principles, agreeing to screen for sex offenders and take other safety steps after a woman was assaulted on a date, the state attorney general's office said last March.?
The joint statement ?was prompted by the 2010 sexual assault of a Los Angeles-area woman by a man she met through Match.com, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office said. The woman sued Match.com, seeking a court order requiring the site to check applicants' backgrounds to weed out convicted sex offenders. She dropped the suit after the site provided proof of such screening.
Meanwhile, in the last two years, friends and work associates of Beckman have held fundraisers for her, including one last year, with information shared about it on YouTube (see video below).
Check out Technology, GadgetBox, Digital?Life and InGame on?Facebook,?and on?Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
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Matt Damon takes over 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'
ABC
Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Jimmy Kimmel and Andy Garcia on "Jimmy Kimmel Sucks."
By Kimberly Nordyke, The Hollywood Reporter
Matt Damon finally got his revenge on Jimmy Kimmel. The actor took control of Kimmel's late-night show Thursday night, starting with the credits -- the ABC show's title was tweaked to "Jimmy Kimmel Sucks" and the host's face had been defaced -- and continuing through the monologue, guest interviews and conclusion of the show.
VIDEO: 5 best clips of "Jimmy Kimmel Live"
The show started out with the video that had been released earlier in the day of Damon with a bound and gagged Kimmel, whom he had kidnapped. After the credits rolled -- where all the guests, including the musical act, were announced as being "Matt Damon" -- the actor wheeled Kimmel out on stage, still tied up with duct tape and gagged with a necktie.
"Welcome to tonight's episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Sucks.' I am your host, Matt Damon," he said. "Let me ask you this, as an audience is it weird to see a person with actual talent host this show?"
Damon went on to explain that Kimmel had bumped him from the show "1,205 times" -- a reference to when Kimmel first started his talk show and began signing off with the line "Apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time" -- the joke being that no guest that he had on air possessed the star power of Damon.
He said he'd been "waiting for this moment for a long, long time. This is like when I lost my virginity except this is gonna last way longer than one second."
Damon also likened himself to Luke Skywalker and Kimmel to the Death Star, saying of Kimmel: "He's big and round and easily destroyed through his garbage hole."
He continued: "Look at Jimmy over there, with a gag in his mouth. You've never been funnier, my friend. Jimmy Kimmel is to late-night talk show hosts what Magic Johnson is to ... late-night talk show hosts."
Damon also went on to make some changes at the show, including replacing sidekick Guillermo with Andy Garcia -- who came complete with heavy, Guillermo-like accent -- and bandleader Cleto Escobedo Jr. with Sheryl Crow (who later performed her new single, "Easy"). Ben Affleck also popped up as a cue-card holder who demonstrated his loyalty to Kimmel, while Robin Williams dropped by to do jokes during the monologue.
"This is unbelievable -- it took Jimmy 10 years to accomplish what I just accomplished in 90 seconds," Damon said of the show's changes.
He explained that the origin of all the "hatred and bitterness" is that Kimmel is an aspiring actor and Damon has beaten him out for every role he wanted. A video of Kimmel's "auditions" showed him trying out for roles in "Good Will Hunting," "Adjustment Bureau," "Happy Feet 2," "We Bought a Zoo," "Stuck on You" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," during which Kimmel was confused about who was playing Jason Bourne despite the fact that the movie was the third in the Damon-starring franchise.
VIDEO: Matt Damon kidnaps Jimmy Kimmel ahead of long-awaited "Live!" appearance
A slew of A-listers popped up as guests -- Nicole Kidman, Gary Oldman, Amy Adams, Reese Witherspoon and Demi Moore -- all of whom continued the joke, saying that Kimmel "f------ sucks" (Kidman), is a liar who once cooked DiGiorno's Pizza and passed it off as homemade (Moore) and slipped the tongue during an on-air kiss (Adams).
At one point, Damon quipped: "Jimmy is always complaining about how hard it is it book celebrities on this show. We're only halfway through and I've booked seven big celebrities -- and that's not even counting me!"
Several other famous faces -- along with Kimmel's parents -- also appeared in recorded videos to praise Damon. Said Don Cheadle: "Thank you for allowing America to laugh again." Kimmel's parents, meanwhile, told Damon that he was "the son we always wanted."
Damon also brought out Kimmel's ex, Sarah Silverman, with whom Damon shot the "I'm F------ Matt Damon" video that went viral in 2008 (Kimmel and Affleck later released a follow-up, "I'm F------ Ben Affleck"). Silverman described her relationship with Kimmel to the fill-in host.
"You know when you're in New York and you pass those hot dog vendors and you think, 'I'm not going to eat one, it's not for me,' and then the smell gets to you, and you pound two or three of them? And then later one, you're puking, 'Why did I put this inside of me?' And you think about the encasing and all the entrails that are probably in there? So I guess it's like that."
Kimmel, incidentally, barely uttered a word during the entire episode despite being onstage the entire time.
At the end of the show, Damon asked Kimmel: "Is there anything you want to say before we wrap things up? Wait, I'm sorry, we're out of time."
During the East Coast airing, Kimmel tweeted: "You win this round Matt Damon. But I will win the war."
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