An interim solution on flood insurance policies: An editorial | NOLA ...

The U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year overwhelmingly passed a five-year extension of the National Flood Insurance Program. That's the kind of multi-year measure needed to end a cycle of congressional lapses on this important program.

The Senate, however, appears unlikely to vote soon on a bill to extend the flood program for six years. That has the American people staring at another interruption of the flood program when the current authorization ends Dec. 16.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, who said he supports a long-term extension, said that won't likely happen before February. So in the meantime he's urging his colleagues to pass an extension to Sept. 30, 2012, the end of the current fiscal year.

That's a sensible proposal, and Congress should quickly adopt it.

Sen. Vitter said that in 2010 Congress let the program expire four times for a combined 53 days. During those lapses, no new policies could be issued. That delayed house closings in flood-prone areas. The senator said extending the flood program until Sept. 30 would give real estate agents the confidence to schedule closings for months without worries about another flood program interruption.

This is no small matter. The flood insurance program covers about 5.6 million property owners across the nation, including 485,000 in Louisiana, Sen. Vitter said

Unlike many other issues in Congress, the extension of the flood insurance program doesn't appear to be divided along party lines. The House vote in July was 406 to 22 in favor of a five-year extension.

That measure also included financial reforms to make the program more sustainable. The program is $18 billion in debt, mostly due to claims paid for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The House plan would eliminate subsidies to commercial properties, second homes and vacation homes, among others. It also would allow for raising premiums for high-risk properties over a five- to six-year period.

Congress needs to be careful not to raise premiums so quickly and so dramatically that property owners would be unable to get insurance.

But the program clearly needs a long-term extension and more financial stability. Letting it expire again this month would hurt the economy and put people at risk. That shouldn't happen, and that's why quickly adopting Sen. Vitter's proposal to extend the program until September makes sense.

Source: http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2011/12/an_interim_solution_on_flood_p.html

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Oil price climbs to $102 a barrel on Europe hopes (AP)

NEW YORK ? Oil prices on Monday climbed above $102 for the first time since mid-November on hopes that European leaders will save the eurozone economy from drowning in debt.

Prices rose as French and German leaders proposed tough new measures for a eurozone treaty that would keep members from overspending. Investors cheered the move, pushing stocks and the euro higher. The price of benchmark crude rose 61 cents to $101.57 per barrel in New York. Earlier in the day, it hit $102.44 ? the highest since Nov. 17.

Brent crude rose 42 cents to $110.10 a barrel in London.

Analysts say a recession may be inevitable in Europe, but the proposal for tighter spending controls, balanced budgets and other measures was viewed as an important step to saving the euro and protecting the economy from widespread bank failures.

In the U.S., the government said companies sent fewer orders to factories in October, the second straight monthly decline. The report suggests that the U.S., the world's largest oil consumer, is still on a rocky road to recovery.

At the pump, retail gasoline prices stayed at a national average of $3.276 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular is 71 cents cheaper than the 2011 peak near $4 per gallon, but it's still 34 cents more than a year ago.

In other energy trading, heating oil rose 2.1 cents to $3.011 per gallon, while gasoline rose 1.27 cents to $2.6289 per gallon. Natural gas fell 11.7 cents to $3.467 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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85-year-old says she was strip searched at JFK

In this undated family photo provided by Bruce Zimmerman, Lenore Zimmerman is shown. Zimmerman, 85, who arrived in a wheelchair for a flight at New York?s Kennedy Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, said that she was required to go through a strip search after she asked to be patted down instead. She was concerned that passing through the airport?s body scanner would interfere with her defibrillator. (AP Photo/Zimmerman Family Photo)

In this undated family photo provided by Bruce Zimmerman, Lenore Zimmerman is shown. Zimmerman, 85, who arrived in a wheelchair for a flight at New York?s Kennedy Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, said that she was required to go through a strip search after she asked to be patted down instead. She was concerned that passing through the airport?s body scanner would interfere with her defibrillator. (AP Photo/Zimmerman Family Photo)

(AP) ? An 85-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.

Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her pants and other clothes after she asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one 2 1/2 hours later, she said.

"I'm hunched over. I'm in a wheelchair. I weigh under 110 pounds," she said from her winter home at a seniors community in Coconut Creek, Fla. "Do I look like a terrorist?"

But the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Saturday no strip search was conducted.

"While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case," the statement read.

Zimmerman was dropped off by her son at Kennedy Airport for a 1 p.m. flight Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on JetBlue, she said. She arrived to the ticket counter around 12:20 p.m. and headed for security in a wheelchair, her small, metal walker in her lap.

She's been traveling to Florida for at least a decade and has never had a problem being patted down until now, she said. "I worry about my heart, so I don't want to go through those things," she said, referring to the advanced image technology screening machines now in place at the airport.

As a result, she said, she was taken into the private screening room by one agent and made to strip.

A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed proper procedures were followed, Jonathan Allen, a TSA spokesman, said in a statement.

"Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes," the statement read. "TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance."

The private screening was not recorded.

Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, N.Y., said she banged her shin during the process and it bled "like a pig," partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn't get infected. There are no records indicating medical attention was called on her behalf.

"I don't know what triggered this. I don't know why they singled me out," she said.

Her son Bruce Zimmerman said he'd like to see someone fired and screeners re-trained after his mother's ordeal.

"My mother is a little old woman. She's not disruptive or uncooperative," he said Saturday. "I don't understand how this happened."

He said she's had an increasingly difficult time traveling, especially since her husband died a few years ago. She has two grandchildren, and her older son, a doctor, died in 2007.

Meanwhile, Lenore Zimmerman said she was healing, planned to go to the grocery store on Saturday and take it easy. The weather was about 76 degrees and sunny, and she's not headed back to an airport until April when she returns to New York.

"Thank goodness," she said. "It will give me some time to brace myself for the return flight."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-03-Elderly%20Woman%20Strip%20Search/id-e6f26d14813641f2931dd3d679525229

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Acceptance is protection: How can parents support gender nonconforming and transgender children?

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Dec-2011
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Contact: Ben Norman
Scholarlynews@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley-Blackwell

New approach supports families dealing with 'normal diversity' of gender identity and expression

How should parents respond when their four years old son insists on wearing girls' clothes, or their daughter switches to using a male version of their name? These are the questions increasingly being asked of family therapist Jean Malpas who writes in Family Process about a new approach to support parents with gender nonconforming and transgender children.

Jean Malpas, the Director of the Gender and Family Project at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, explains how families of gender nonconforming and transgender children can benefit from a multi-dimensional approach to negotiating two understandings of gender: One being a traditional system of male or female which dominates mainstream society, which contrasts with a more flexible and fluid spectrum of gender being expressed by their children.

"Parents of gender nonconforming children often struggle with how to best protect their child from bullying and ostracism, while accepting and nurturing their child's identity and expression." said Jean Malpas. "This research shows how coaching, education, parent support group and family therapy can support everyone in the family in negotiating this dilemma."

Jean Malpas' clinical findings confirm that a normal diversity of gender expression exists among children and uses anonymous case studies to demonstrate the varied paths children take when developing their identity. Some nonconforming children will grow up to be transgender, others will eventually feel comfortable identifying with their biological sex, while others will continue to display gender nonconforming traits without requesting social or medical transition.

"Research on gender nonconformity also has implications for education policy," said Malpas. "It is important that schools are aware and sensitive to the non-binary and non-biological aspects of gender, as it means gendered activities and segregation of students based on gender lines may no longer be appropriate if our children's understanding of gender is expressed in more complex ways."

Clinical approaches based on the non-pathologisation of gender diversity contrast with traditional psychiatric approaches, which have used cognitive-behavioral methods to extinguish atypical behaviours and reinforce traditional gender expression.

"Our clinical findings show that gender nonconformity in children is not a psychopathology but a normal display of diversity in gender expressions and identities," concluded Malpas. "Providing multi-dimensional support to parents of gender nonconforming and transgender children allows them to accept and affirm their child's identity while providing valuable protection at home, in school and out in the world."

###



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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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Ben Norman
Scholarlynews@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley-Blackwell

New approach supports families dealing with 'normal diversity' of gender identity and expression

How should parents respond when their four years old son insists on wearing girls' clothes, or their daughter switches to using a male version of their name? These are the questions increasingly being asked of family therapist Jean Malpas who writes in Family Process about a new approach to support parents with gender nonconforming and transgender children.

Jean Malpas, the Director of the Gender and Family Project at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, explains how families of gender nonconforming and transgender children can benefit from a multi-dimensional approach to negotiating two understandings of gender: One being a traditional system of male or female which dominates mainstream society, which contrasts with a more flexible and fluid spectrum of gender being expressed by their children.

"Parents of gender nonconforming children often struggle with how to best protect their child from bullying and ostracism, while accepting and nurturing their child's identity and expression." said Jean Malpas. "This research shows how coaching, education, parent support group and family therapy can support everyone in the family in negotiating this dilemma."

Jean Malpas' clinical findings confirm that a normal diversity of gender expression exists among children and uses anonymous case studies to demonstrate the varied paths children take when developing their identity. Some nonconforming children will grow up to be transgender, others will eventually feel comfortable identifying with their biological sex, while others will continue to display gender nonconforming traits without requesting social or medical transition.

"Research on gender nonconformity also has implications for education policy," said Malpas. "It is important that schools are aware and sensitive to the non-binary and non-biological aspects of gender, as it means gendered activities and segregation of students based on gender lines may no longer be appropriate if our children's understanding of gender is expressed in more complex ways."

Clinical approaches based on the non-pathologisation of gender diversity contrast with traditional psychiatric approaches, which have used cognitive-behavioral methods to extinguish atypical behaviours and reinforce traditional gender expression.

"Our clinical findings show that gender nonconformity in children is not a psychopathology but a normal display of diversity in gender expressions and identities," concluded Malpas. "Providing multi-dimensional support to parents of gender nonconforming and transgender children allows them to accept and affirm their child's identity while providing valuable protection at home, in school and out in the world."

###



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

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/w-aip120611.php

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ThinkGeek and Aperture Science do what they must, intro more Portal-themed goods because they can

Been yearning for more Portal 2-inspired goods from ThinkGeek? Fret not, dear test subject, the company's got some products ways that should satiate your desire for Cave Johnson-approved chachkas. Newly up for grabs are a $15 Aperture Science shower curtain, a $35 motion-sensing plush turret and a $40 Cave Johnson talking portrait -- think Billy Bass, but with a Portal twist. ThinkGeek's also announced a $30 Companion Cube cookie jar (the perfect companion for its Portal cookie cutters) and a $30 PotatOS Science Kit, complete with an insult-spewing "talking GLaDOS module." Sadly, the latter duo don't have an official release date just yet, and are merely listed as "coming soon." Of course, like the cake, they could just be lie. For the sake of science, portal past the break to find a press release with more details.

Continue reading ThinkGeek and Aperture Science do what they must, intro more Portal-themed goods because they can

ThinkGeek and Aperture Science do what they must, intro more Portal-themed goods because they can originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Dec 2011 07:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/0SFNV_S3w44/

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Dec. 1: Eat a Red Apple Day, Basketball Anniversary, World AIDS Day, Marie Tussaud 250th Birth Anniversary (ContributorNetwork)

Eat a Red Apple Day

"The taste for apples is one of the earliest and most natural of inclinations," according to Botanical.com. You've had them sliced, coated in cinnamon and nutmeg and baked in a flaky crust for Thanksgiving. Maybe you ate a caramel-covered one on Thanksgiving. On Dec. 1 enjoy the natural goodness of a plain, red apple. Eating red apples boosts your vitamin C, reduces belly fat and cholesterol and protects against cardiovascular disease. Munch on a fresh Macintosh, Macoun or Red Delicious.

Basketball Anniversary

Combine an understandable need for indoor physical education with a couple of peach baskets and soccer balls and you have a new sport: basketball. James Naismith is credited with creating basketball on Dec. 1, 1891, when he set up a new indoor game at the International YMCA Training School at Springfield, Mass. for students. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honors the sports, its history and its inventor.

* Grab some friends, head outdoors (weather permitting) or find an indoor gym where you can shoot some hoops.

* Support local high school basketball teams by attending their games.

* Start counting down the days until the delayed start of the 2011-12 NBA season.

World AIDS Day

The World Health Organization first declared Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day in 1988. The annual observance is "an international day of awareness and education about AIDS," according to World AIDS Day. How to get involved:

* Participate in a Bake Aware -- download the Bake Aware fundraising pack.

* Host a local event to observe the HIV/AIDS Awareness Days.

* Take individual action by getting tested for HIV or practice safer methods to prevent HIV advises the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

* Attend an Observe Day With(Out) Art, increasing public awareness through visual arts, because "AIDS is forever" according to Visual AIDS.

Marie Tussaud 250th Birth Anniversary

If you've always been equally fascinated and disturbed by wax figures, there's good reason. Wax artist Marie Grosholtz Tussaud, born Dec. 1, 1761, made a living during the French Revolution by giving the people what they wanted. She created death masks using corpses of those executed. She took her waxworks on a traveling show and eventually settled in London where she displayed her waxworks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/aids/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111205/us_ac/10530399_dec_1_eat_a_red_apple_day_basketball_anniversary_world_aids_day_marie_tussaud_250th_birth_anniversary

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Engadget Podcast 266 - 12.02.2011

Listener, it's been a weird week. Big Brother's inside your phone, a tasty new OS is inside your phone, and now it's even easier to livestream your life from your phone. How do all these revelations change the way you'll go about your gadgety business? There's only one way to find out: listen, listener, to the Engadget Podcast.

Host: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guest: Terrence O'Brien
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: All The Small Things

01:20 - Carrier IQ: What it is, what it isn't, and what you need to know
09:38 - ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime review
17:20 - Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich review
26:40 - FCC finds AT&T merger not in public interest, Genachowski issues order to hold trial
30:00 - AT&T, Deutsche Telekom withdraw FCC application for T-Mobile merger, look toward DoJ
32:10 - AT&T blows a gasket, calls FCC report 'an advocacy piece, not analysis'
36:25 - Spotify gets app-happy with new platform (video)
40:00 - Spotify apps hands-on
45:50 - Color for Facebook iPhone app hands-on
52:44 - Listener questions

Hear the podcast

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E-mail us: podcast at engadget dot com
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Engadget Podcast 266 - 12.02.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/02/engadget-podcast-266-12-02-2011/

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China leader warns about unrest due to economy

(AP) ? The Chinese leadership's law-and-order czar is warning that China is ill-prepared for social unrest generated by changes in the economy, in the latest sign that the government is worried about the consequences of flagging growth.

The government needs better methods for dealing with "the negative effects" of the economy, Politburo member Zhou Yongkang said in remarks to provincial officials Friday that were published Saturday by the official Xinhua News Agency. Zhou called for innovative approaches to social management ? a euphemism for a clutch of policies as diverse as stepped-up policing and unemployment insurance meant to dampen unrest.

"Especially when facing the negative effects of the market economy, we still have not formed a complete mechanism for social management," Zhou said. How to do so, he said, "is the great and urgent task before us."

Zhou's remarks underscore growing government uneasiness about an economic slowdown and the social unrest it might bring. In the past week, a much-watched index showed manufacturing contracting sharply, and the government lowered controls on bank reserves to encourage more lending. Meanwhile, strikes and other job actions have ticked up recently as factories retrench to confront higher labor costs and reduced demand for exports from Europe.

Zhou urged provincial officials to eliminate wasteful spending that has contributed to the mass protests, riots and other unrest that have proliferated in recent years.

In another instance of frayed tensions, Xinhua reported that hundreds of people overturned four police and government cars Friday in the central city of Xi'an after a truck hit and killed a girl and police did not arrive at the scene for two hours.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-03-AS-China-Unrest/id-e744939f3ba54d63a58229704e0aa7bc

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Serendipitous news reading online is gaining prominence

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Traditional media, such as newspapers and television news, require readers and viewers to intentionally seek out news by picking up a newspaper or turning on the television. The Internet and new technologies now are changing the way readers consume online news. New research from the University of Missouri shows that Internet users often do not make the conscious decision to read news online, but they come across news when they are searching for other information or doing non-news related activities online, such as shopping or visiting social networking sites.

Borchuluun Yadamsuren, a post-doctoral fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, found a shift in the way people have begun to perceive online news. She says that while some people still have the perception of news as tied to traditional media, others now hold a much broader perception of news that goes beyond what is reported by professional journalists. Yadamsuren attributes this to the wide array of information available online.

"Incidental exposure to online news is becoming a major way for many people to receive information about news events," Yadamsuren said. "However, many people don't realize how their news reading behavior is shifting to more serendipitous discovery."

Using mixed method approach, Yadamsuren surveyed nearly 150 respondents with further interviews of 20 of those respondents to understand their incidental exposure to online news. She found that respondents experience incidental exposure to online news in three different contexts. The first group of respondents reported that they come across interesting news stories while they visit online news sites. Others report incidental exposure to online news in the context of non-news related activities such as checking email and visiting Facebook and other social networking sites. The third group of respondents reported that they stumble upon "unusual," "weird," "interesting," "bizarre," unexpected," "outrageous," or "off the wall" news stories while they are conducting their normal Internet searches.

Currently, Yadamsuren is studying the relationship between incidental exposure to online news and different demographic and technology-access related factors. Yadamsuren believes it is important for media organizations to place links to their news stories on different sites throughout the Internet to take advantage of serendipitious news consuming behavior to expand their readership.

Yadamsuren's study was presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) 2011 and American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 2011 Annual Meetings. Her research was also published in Information Research. Her current research at RJI involves developing strategies for news organizations to engage younger generations with online news based on incidental exposure.

###

University of Missouri-Columbia: http://www.missouri.edu

Thanks to University of Missouri-Columbia for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115649/Serendipitous_news_reading_online_is_gaining_prominence

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