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Sunday, September 16, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Judge strikes down Wis. law limiting union rights
FILE - In this June 25, 2012 file photo, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at a news conference in Chicago. A Wisconsin judge struck down Walker's law ending most collective bargaining for public workers. Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - In this June 25, 2012 file photo, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at a news conference in Chicago. A Wisconsin judge struck down Walker's law ending most collective bargaining for public workers. Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? A Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.
Walker's administration immediately vowed to appeal, while unions, which have vigorously fought the law, declared victory. But what the ruling meant for existing public contracts was murky: Unions claimed the ruling meant they could negotiate again, but Walker could seek to keep the law in effect while the legal drama plays out.
The law, a crowning achievement for Walker that made him a national conservative star, took away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most workers and has been in effect for more than a year.
Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void.
In his 27-page ruling, the judge said sections of the law "single out and encumber the rights of those employees who choose union membership and representation solely because of that association and therefore infringe upon the rights of free speech and association guaranteed by both the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions."
Colas also said the law violates the equal protection clause by creating separate classes of workers who are treated differently and unequally.
The ruling applies to all local public workers affected by the law, including teachers and city and county government employees, but not those who work for the state. They were not a party to the lawsuit, which was brought by a Madison teachers union and a Milwaukee public workers union.
Walker issued a statement accusing the judge of being a "liberal activist" who "wants to go backwards and take away the lawmaking responsibilities of the legislature and the governor. We are confident that the state will ultimately prevail in the appeals process."
Wisconsin Department of Justice spokeswoman Dana Brueck said DOJ believes the law is constitutional.
The ruling throws into question changes that have been made in pay, benefits and other work rules in place across the state for city, county and school district workers.
Walker's law, passed in March 2011, only allowed for collective bargaining on wage increases no greater than the rate of inflation. All other issues, including workplace safety, vacation, health benefits, could no longer be bargained for.
The ruling means that local government and schools now must once again bargain over those issues, said Lester Pines, an attorney for Madison Teachers Inc. that brought the case.
"We're back to where we were before the law was enacted," he said.
Pines predicted the case would ultimately be resolved by the state Supreme Court.
"What's going to happen in the interim is unknown," he said.
The state Supreme Court in June 2011 ruled that the law was constitutional after it had been blocked by a different Dane County judge on a challenge over its passage being a violation of open meetings law.
Walker introduced the proposal in February 2011, six weeks after he took office. It resulted in a firestorm of opposition and led to huge protests at the state Capitol that lasted for weeks. All 14 Democratic state senators fled the state to Illinois for three weeks in an ultimately failed attempt to stop the law's passage from the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The law required public workers to pay more for their health insurance and pension benefits at the same time it took away their ability to collectively bargain over those issues. Walker argued the changes were needed to help state and local governments save money at a time Wisconsin faced a $3 billion budget shortfall.
Anger over the law's passage led to an effort to recall Walker from office. More than 930,000 signatures were collected triggering the June recall election. Walker won and became the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall.
The lawsuit was among several filed against the law.
A coalition of unions filed a federal lawsuit in Madison in June 2011, arguing that the law violated the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause because it exempted firefighters and police officers. A federal just upheld most of the law in March, but the rulings are under appeal.
Another lawsuit was filed in July 2011 by two unions representing about 2,700 public workers in Madison and Dane County. They also challenged the law on equal protection grounds. The case is pending.
Democrats and unions were ecstatic with Friday's ruling.
"As we have said from day one, Scott Walker's attempt to silence the union men and women of Wisconsin's public sector was an immoral, unjust and illegal power grab," said Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.
The Democratic minority leader in the state Assembly called the ruling a huge victory for workers and free speech.
"This decision will help re-establish the balance between employees and their employers," said Rep. Peter Barca.
Republican Rep. Robin Vos, a staunch supporter of the law and the presumptive next speaker of the Assembly, called the ruling an example of the "arrogance of the judiciary."
"I'm confident it's a single judge out of step with the mainstream," Vos said. He said the law is working "and we'll continue to implement it."
___
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this story.
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Understanding Adolescent Relationships - The Carmel Valley Life
Holly and Jenny have been best friends since 4th?grade.??Graduating from grade school together, they moved into middle school where they became ?best friends.???Where in grade school they had similar interests, played well together, and shared fond memories, once into middle school, their relationship has taken on a new form of intensity.??Clothing choices are almost identical. ?Hairstyles, make-up, choice of words, matching cell phones, and a sense of merging have been evident to all who know these two girls.??In fact, they even have their own special language which is both spoken and communicated through text messaging.
The Holly and Jenny story is a very common portrayal of how many parents describe the ?best friend? syndrome of adolescence.??Boys have similar relationships from an emotionally supportive point of view as girls, but tend to demonstrate physical closeness by play fighting or casual joking insults. ?Fun headlocks with lots of laughter would be an example of these type of solid bonding.
Trauma is typically evident if these best friend duos ?breakup? or fight. ?Crying, screaming and even statements such as ?how can I live without her? frequently echo in the households of the adolescents, commonly concerning the parents about the relationship possibly being unhealthy or atypical.
In some cases, the adolescent in turmoil will tell their parents that they can?t go to school, do their homework, or even function.??One adolescent once told me that when she and her best friend broke up, it felt like she lost a limb.?During these times the cell phones are burning endlessly with pleas of reunification, consultations with the second best friend asking for advice about how to ?get back together.???In a nutshell, for the adolescent, life feels like it?s over. Although typically temporary for either, the friendship heals or they find a ?new? best friend to replace the old one and life returns back onto the right track in a matter of hours or days.??Such common examples frequently leave the heads of the parents spinning and confused due to the drama feeling irrational.
How can we explain these types of ?normal? intense relationships? ?Furthermore, when the adolescents begin to date, usually (15 years) or at the beginning of late adolescence (16 years), these intense emotions then extend onto the new ?love? and have similar highs and lows as the relationships with the same-sex ?best friend.???Sexuality also becomes a cornerstone, making the picture even more confusing and intense.??Many parents who are experiencing these ?teen streak? feel as though they are living on the set of a soap opera.
What is this all about???The answer lies in how these friendships represent and replace the early important relationships to the adolescent. ?Ironically, most adolescent parents complain that their adolescents seem to push away from them during the teenage years in efforts to healthfully individuate, which although normal and important, is also painful for most parents.??Furthermore, the healthy parents of teenagers feel emotionally rejected, ignored, barely get a word or two out of their adolescent, and certainly have no clear idea of what is really going on in the personal life of their child, unless they spy, read their e-mails, or hijack their cell phone and read the text messages if they are not encoded.
From a developmental point of view, the friends of adolescents symbolically replace the very early relationship with the parents.??Holly?s mom was driving a group of Holly?s friends in the SUV and was taken back, how while she was driving and looking forward, it was as if the girls in the back of the car did not know she was there.??Turning her head to the side, Holly?s mother heard loving supportive discussions amongst the girls where they all seemed to be maternally nurturing to one of the girls who failed a math test.
?It reminded me of earlier talks I used to have with Holly when she was 6 years old?she would never talk like that to me at this point in her life?. ?To test out her theory, Holly?s mom turned the radio down and warmly commented to Holly?s friend that ?It was only one test, don?t worry about it.???She was stunned when Holly blurted out??Stay out of this mom?!
As adolescents are in an important stage of development, where they are trying to separate from parents, build a personality, become more independent and autonomous and plan ahead for their future, their friendships become essential to support them through this process as was having parents supportive to them in the early years of life.??This is not to say that the parents of the adolescent should be any less supportive then they were in the early years, it is more a question of how much the adolescent will allow them to be.
?Will she ever open up to me ever again????Holly?s mother asks.??The answer is yes.??Once through the developmental stage of adolescence and into young adulthood (roughly 18 to 19 years), the healthy young adult feels comfortably independent and strong.??At this point, the relationship with the parent feels less dependent and the early closeness and affection that was present in the early years between parent and child evolves into an adult parent/child relationship that becomes mutually supportive and caring.
Key Points:
- Adolescent friendships replace the early relationship with parents.
- Parents are frequently not invited into the adolescent?s emotional world.
- Emotionality is expected through Middle Adolescence (14-16 years).
- Mature closeness returns once they enter young adulthood.
Dr. Keith Kanner is a Licensed and Board Certified Clinical Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychologist and Psychoanalyst. In addition to a full-time private practice in Rancho Santa Fe, California, he is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego where he teaches both human development and also trains medical students how to better understand and relate to their patients. He also serves as the Director of Clinical Counseling for La Jolla Country Day School in La Jolla, California, and is a Clinical Professor at The San Diego Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. ?Dr. Kanner also sits on the National Board of Directors for Kids Korps USA, which is the largest organization in the country that teaches children and adolescents the importance of volunteering to help the community at large. As a father of three children, he is also a dedicated baseball, football, and soccer coach.
Source: http://www.thecarmelvalleylife.com/adolescent-relationships/
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Pope says import of arms to Syria a "grave sin"
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Pope Benedict appealed on Friday for a halt to the flow of arms into Syria, saying it would help end a civil war which has killed many thousands of people and which Christians fear could bring Islamists to power.
In his strongest comments yet on the conflict, Benedict branded the weapons imports as a "grave sin" as he arrived at the start of a three-day visit to Beirut, just 50 km (30 miles) from the Syrian border.
He also described Arab uprisings as a positive "cry for freedom" as long as they included religious tolerance - the central theme of Benedict's trip which is focused on promoting peace in the Middle East and harmony between its minority Christians and majority Muslims.
Christian, Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim and Druze religious leaders joined Lebanon's political elite in greeting Benedict on his arrival in a region rocked by protests against a U.S.-made anti-Islam film.
"The import of weapons has to finally stop," Benedict, 85, told journalists on the plane. "Without the import of arms the war cannot continue. Instead of importing weapons, which is a grave sin, we have to import ideas of peace and creativity."
The Arab Spring uprisings against authoritarian leaders were "a positive thing. There is a desire for more democracy, more freedoms, more cooperation and renewal," he said.
But he added that it had to include tolerance for other religions. Asked about Christians' fears about rising aggression from Islamist radicals, Benedict said: "Fundamentalism is always a falsification of religion."
All main faith groups in the country, which fought a civil war along sectarian lines from 1975 to 1990, have welcomed the visit. Among banners greeting Benedict on the road from the airport were several from the militant Shi'ite group Hezbollah.
PROTEST IN NORTH
Clashes from the Syrian war - an opposition group says more than 27,000 people have been killed in the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad - have occasionally spilled over into Lebanon, evoking fears of renewed strife.
Tensions have been rising between Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, who generally back the uprising led by Syria's Sunni majority, and Shi'ites who usually support Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
In the mainly Sunni Muslim northern city of Tripoli one person was killed in clashes with security forces after Islamist protesters set fire to a U.S. fast food restaurant and tried to storm a government building. At least 14 people were wounded, most of them from the security forces.
Witnesses said the crowd chanted against the pope's visit and shouted anti-American slogans in protests over a film insulting the Prophet Mohammad. "We don't want the pope," and "No more insults (to Islam)" they chanted.
Benedict angered Muslims early in his papacy by suggesting in a 2006 lecture that Islam was violent and irrational. He said this was a misunderstanding and visits to Turkey later that year and Jordan in 2009 largely calmed the controversy.
More than 5,000 military and security personnel were being deployed to protect the pontiff, al-Nahar newspaper said. Beirut airport closed for two hours on his arrival and roads on his route through the capital were closed.
"CHRISTIAN HAEMORRHAGE"
In Saint Paul's Basilica overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Benedict appealed to religious leaders to do all they could to uproot the threat of fundamentalism which he said "indiscriminately and fatally affects believers of all religions".
The call came in a so-called "apostolic exhortation" to Middle Eastern Christians which the pope formally issued in a signing ceremony watched by Lebanese church leaders.
The document said the Middle East was suffering a "haemorrage of Christians who find themselves in a delicate position, at times without hope", Benedict asked political and religious leaders to avoid policies that would lead to a "monochromatic Middle East".
Christians have been steadily abandoning the birthplace of their faith in recent decades to escape wars, political unrest and discrimination by the region's majority Muslims.
Benedict's message resonated among the crowd who gathered outside, waving Lebanese and Vatican flags.
"We feel weak here. His visit is a time for us to feel proud, to give us strength in a challenging time for the region that of course has us Christians nervous," said Isabelle, a 35-year-old resident of Harissa where the service took place.
Christians now make up about 5 percent of the Middle Eastern population, down from 20 percent a century ago. If current pressures and their low birth rates continue, some estimates say their 12 million total could be halved by 2020.
About two-thirds of Lebanon's Christians are in full communion with the Vatican, either as members of the five local churches linked to Rome - the Maronites, the largest group, and the Greek Melkite, Armenian, Syriac and Chaldean Catholics - or of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church itself.
The rest belong to five Orthodox churches - the Greek, Armenian, Syriac, Assyrian and Coptic Orthodox - and small groups of Protestants, mostly Presbyterians and Anglicans.
Benedict will also hold two major open-air events and meet leaders of all Lebanon's many Christian and Islamic communities, as well as the country's political leaders.
(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Tom Heneghan and Laila Bassam in Beirut, and Nazih Saddiq in Tripoli; Editing by Alison Williams)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-visits-lebanon-amid-syria-war-libya-protest-075018882.html
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Friday, September 14, 2012
Researchers develop rapid method to measure carbon footprints
ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2012) ? Researchers have developed new software that can rapidly calculate the carbon footprints of thousands of products simultaneously, a process that up to now has been time consuming and expensive. The methodology should help companies to accurately label products, and to design ways to reduce their environmental impacts, said Christoph Meinrenken, the project's leader and associate research scientist at Columbia University's Earth Institute and Columbia Engineering. A new study, published online in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, describes the methodology.
The project is the result of a collaboration between the institute's Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy and PepsiCo, Inc. Its original aim was to evaluate and help standardize PepsiCo's calculations ofthe amount of carbon dioxide emitted when a product is made, packaged, distributed and disposed of. Started in 2007, it resulted in the first U.S. carbon footprint label certified by an impartial third party, for Tropicana orange juice. PepsiCo has been pilot-testing the methodology for other uses since 2011.
Meinrenken and his team used a life-cycle-analysis database--a tool used to assess the environmental impact of a product--that covered 1,137 PepsiCo products. They then developed three new techniques that work together, enabling them to calculate thousands of footprints within minutes, with minimal user input. The key component was a model that generates estimated emission factors for materials, eliminating manual mapping of a product's ingredients and packaging materials. Meinrenken said the automatically generated factors enable non-experts "to calculate approximate carbon footprints and alleviate resource constraints for companies embarking on large-scale product carbon footprinting." He said the software complies with guidelines sponsored by the nonprofit World Resources Institute, which provides standards against which carbon footprints can be audited.
Up until now, life-cycle-analysis has mostly been performed one product at a time. This imposes large requirements for personnel, expertise, and time, and few companies have enough employees with specialized expertise. Meinrenken said that some have tried to overcome this bottleneck by reverting to aggregate data and calculations, but they usually miss out on the microscopic level of detail that a proper analysis requires.
The researchers' approach was inspired by fields outside environmental science, Meinrenken said. "At companies like Facebook or Netflix, engineers employ statistical wizardry to mine vast datasets and essentially teach computers to predict, for instance, who will like a particular movie," he said. He used similar methods to mine detailed product and supply chain data. "For an environmental engineer, using such data to estimate how much the environment will 'like' certain products and services is especially rewarding," he said. "Consumers will be able to make more informed choices." The information can also help companies design and assess ways to lessen products' impacts, he said.
Al Halvorsen, senior director of sustainability at PepsiCo, said, "The newly developed software promises to not only save time and money for companies like PepsiCo, but also to provide fresh insights into how companies measure, manage, and reduce their carbon footprint in the future."
Klaus Lackner, director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, said, "Fast carbon footprinting is a great example of how academic methodologies [coupled] with modern data processing and statistical tools can be brought to life and unlock their power in the real world." Meinrenken's team is now looking at transferring the methodology from carbon to other arenas, such as water use.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Earth Institute at Columbia University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Christoph J. Meinrenken, Scott M. Kaufman, Siddharth Ramesh, Klaus S. Lackner. Fast Carbon Footprinting for Large Product Portfolios. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00463.x
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/2yazD27foBo/120913151132.htm
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Looking at you: Face genes identified
Friday, September 14, 2012
Monozygotic twins have almost identical faces and siblings usually have more similar faces than unrelated people, implying that genes play a major role in the appearance of the human face. However, almost nothing is known about the genes responsible for facial morphology in humans.
This study, carried out on behalf of the International Visible Trait Genetics (VisiGen) Consortium, used head magnetic resonance images together with portrait photographs to map facial landmarks, from which facial distances were estimated. The researchers then applied a genome-wide association (GWA) approach, with independent replication, to finding DNA variants involved in facial shapes in almost 10,000 individuals.
Three of the five genes identified have been implicated previously by other approaches in vertebrate craniofacial development and disease; of these three, one was reported to be involved in facial morphology in a GWA study on children published earlier this year. The remaining two genes potentially represent completely new players in the molecular networks governing facial development.
Professor Manfred Kayser from the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, the leading author of the study, said: "These are exciting first results that mark the beginning of the genetic understanding of human facial morphology. Perhaps some time it will be possible to draw a phantom portrait of a person solely from his or her DNA left behind, which provides interesting applications such as in forensics. We already can predict from DNA certain eye and hair colours with quite high accuracies."
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Liu F, van der Lijn F, Schurmann C, Zhu G, Chakravarty MM, et al. (2012) A Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Five Loci Influencing Facial Morphology in Europeans. PLoS Genet 8(9): e1002932.doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002932
Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org
Thanks to Public Library of Science for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/123509/Looking_at_you__Face_genes_identified_
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Spherical Wheel Motorcycle Makes It Easier To Dangerously Weave Through Traffic [Design]
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