রবিবার, ৩১ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Pageonce (for Android)


In times of financial panic, like when you realize your credit card payment is overdue, the Pageonce mobile app (free) proves its worth. The free app, available for Android (the focus of this review), iPhone, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry, lets you see a snapshot of all your account balances and upcoming bills, with bill-payment functionality included, too. You can manage payments to credit card companies, utility providers, lenders, and even small proprietors, such as your landlord.

Don't mistake Pageonce for a complete financial management tool, though. You won't find in it budgeting tools or detailed information about your spending habits, something Editors' Choice Mint.com (free, 5 stars) provides through a fully automated site and mobile app. If your goal is to get a handle on your money, I highly recommend dedicating yourself to Mint. Pageonce is more for checking in on your financial situation and making quick corrections when you need to pay bills. It has one or two other miscellaneous features thrown in, such as the ability to see at a glance many of your travel reward program balances, but the core Pageonce experience on Android is to answer the question, "Do I have enough money in the right places right now?"

Fully Free
It may be worth pointing out that Pageonce formerly locked some features behind a paid Gold membership, but the company has done away with this premium tier. All Pageonce's features and functionality are now totally free.

You can set up a Pageonce account either right on your Android device or from the full Pageonce.com website?and while we're on that subject, I should note that in my review of Pageonce, I point out that the mobile apps meet a need more than the website does. For setting up your accounts, it helps to have a full screen, keyboard, mouse, and additional browser tabs at the ready. But in actually getting use out of Pageonce, I wholly prefer the mobile app over the site. I think the former meets a consumer need better than the latter.

App Features
Inside the Android app, a plus sign at the top of the screen is your key to adding more accounts. Connect any kind of financial account?savings, checking, investment, retirement, loan?and the balance will be counted toward your Pageonce net worth (updated once daily, with a manual refresh option included). As mentioned, you can also connect to online accounts for bills, be they for insurance policies, Internet service, gas and electricity, or phone service. Whenever one of these bills or your credit card bill is near due, Pageonce will let you know via an alert, shown at the bottom of the screen.

The app's main dashboard shows totals for available cash, bills owed and minimum payment due, investment balances, credit card debt, offers (essentially, advertisements for financial services), and Credit Guard (an offer for a credit report and protection service). These six items appear as easy-to-access tiles on the main dashboard.

Other buttons at the top let you manage existing connected accounts, view reports, access your settings, and add new accounts.

The reporting section contains a few interesting bits of information, such as a "file cabinet" that houses previous bill statements, although in testing the app, only two of my connected accounts put any information here, even though I had at least two more accounts that generate a monthly statement.

Another sub-section to the Reports page shows "all your account transactions." This area proves useful when you need to quickly check to see what changed recently in an account if the balance seems off from what you expected it to be. Also under the Reports page is payment history, although it doesn't contain any information prior to the date you connected your financial accounts to Pageonce. And finally, there's "Where your money's going," the place you can actually find real reports. Pie charts and tables detail your expenditures into five simple categories: bills and utilities; insurance; credit cards; loans; and other. In my testing, I found the report just didn't accurately capture what I truly wanted to know about my spending habits, like if I spend much more than I realize eating out, and whether I might be able to cut back on that kind of unnecessary expense to fund something else I need or want. Mint not only has those features, but it does most of the work for me in terms of identifying different kinds of credit card charges.

Bill Pay
The bill pay function is what makes Pageonce worthwhile for some people, namely, those who forget to pay their bills until the day before they're due (or later). ?

You can pay a bill, right from within the app, but the very first time you do so, it isn't exactly a one-two-three process (it does become more streamlined afterward, though). Let's say you want to pay your upcoming credit card bill. First, you have to enter the full credit card account number, even if that card is already connected to Pageonce. Second, you have to enter the complete information, meaning account and routing numbers, from the checking account you want to use to pay. Also, it can take up to two business days for a payment to process. That's typically of any online payment you initiate, however, so it's the same results you'd see from making an online payment right from your service provider's website.

One minor problem: In my account, I had one bill payment already scheduled (which I did outside Pageonce), but Pageonce had no knowledge of it, so had I not been careful, I might have tried to pay the same bill twice and double-taxed my own checking account. One thing I've always appreciated about one particular credit card company's online user account experience is that it pops up a warning if I try to schedule a payment within three days of an existing scheduled payment. You wouldn't believe how often I try to pay my bills more than once.

Security
Pageonce has good security measures in place to keep your financial information safe. You can't transfer money using Pageonce, so no one else can move your money through this service either. All your account info is kept under lock and key. Similar to Mint.com, Pageonce doesn't store any information on the phone itself, and uses bank-level encryption.

The app has a four-digit PIN, which you enter every time you exit the app or your phone goes on standby. Furthermore, Pageonce is VeriSign Secured (i.e., tested and approved by Norton) and TrustE approved.

Pageonce in a Pinch
The Pageonce Android app delivers on its promise to quickly show you your account balances as well as set up a bill to be paid on the fly when you forget to do it ahead of time. If you're the kind of person always getting hit by late charges, give Pageonce a try. But if you're looking for real guidance about how to manage your money and debts, put yourself in the hands of Editors' Choice Mint.com.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/jOypLjNjNmk/0,2817,2409130,00.asp

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Mate choice in mice is heavily influenced by paternal cues

Friday, March 29, 2013

Mate choice is a key factor in the evolution of new animal species. The choice of a specific mate can decisively influence the evolutionary development of a species. In mice, the attractiveness of a potential mate is conveyed by scent cues and ultrasonic vocalizations. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Pl?n investigated whether house mice (Mus musculus) would mate with each other even if they were from two populations which had been separated from each other for a long time period. To do this, the researchers brought together mice from a German population and mice from a French population. Although to begin with all the mice mated with one another randomly, the hybrid offspring of French and German parents were distinctly more choosy: they showed a definite preference for mating with individuals from their father's original population. According to the researchers, this paternal imprinting accelerates the divergence of two house mouse populations and thus promotes speciation.

In allopatric speciation, individuals of a species become geographically isolated from each other by external factors such as mountains or estuaries. Over time, this geographic separation leads to the sub-populations undergoing various mutations, and thus diverging genetically. Animals from the two different sub-populations can no longer successfully reproduce, so two new species evolve.

To find out what role partner selection plays in such speciation processes, Diethard Tautz from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and his colleagues conducted a comprehensive study on house mice ? the classic model organisms of biology. "To investigate whether there are differences in the mating behaviour of the mice in the early stages of speciation, we caught wild house mice in southern France and western Germany. The two populations have been geographically separate for around 3,000 years, which equates to some 18,000 generations," says Diethard Tautz. Due to this geographical separation, the French and German mice were genetically different.

The Pl?n-based researchers created a semi-natural environment for their investigations ? a sort of "Playboy Mansion" for mice. The research enclosure was several square meters in size and was divided up using wooden walls, "nests" made out of plastic cylinders, and plastic tubes. It also featured an escape tube with several entrances, which led into a cage system nearby. "We constructed the enclosure in such a way that all animals had unimpeded access to all areas, but thanks to the structural divisions were also able to create their own territories or retreat into nests," explains Tautz. "The escape tube was a control element. If the mice retreated to it only very seldom ? as was the case in our experiment ? then we could be sure there was no overpopulation in the central enclosure."

In this central enclosure, the French and German mice had both time and space to mate with each other and reproduce. "At first, all the mice mated with each other quite randomly. But with the first-generation offspring, a surprising pattern emerged," says Tautz. When the first-generation hybrid offspring of mixed French and German parentage mated, they showed a specific preference for pure-bred mates whose "nationality" was that of their father only. "There must be some kind of paternal influence that prompts the hybrid mice to choose a mate from a specific population, namely that of their father," concludes the biologist, based on the results of his study. "This imprinting must be learned, however, meaning that the animals must grow up in the presence of their fathers. This was not the case for the original mice, which were kept in cages for a time after being caught."

"We know that mice use ultrasonic vocalizations to communicate with each other and that particularly in the case of male mice these vocalizations can reveal signals of individuality and kinship. We believe that, like birdsong, the vocalizations of the males have a learned component and a genetic component," says Tautz. Therefore, French and German mice really could "speak" different languages, partly learned from their fathers, partly inherited from them. Individual mice thus have a mating preference for mice that speak the same language as they do.

The French and German mouse populations had evidently been geographically separated long enough for preliminary signs of species differentiation to be apparent as regards mating preferences. In addition, another aspect of mating behavior also sped up the speciation process.

Although mice have multiple mates, the researchers found evidence of partner fidelity and inbreeding. The tendency to mate with relatives fosters the creation of genetically uniform groups. When both occur together, this accelerates the speciation process.

In a next step, Diethard Tautz wants to find out whether the vocalizations of the mice play the decisive role in paternal imprinting, or if scent cues are also involved. Furthermore, the biologist wants to identify the genes that are involved in mate selection.

###

Inka Montero, Meike Tesche and Diethard Tautz: "Paternal imprinting of mating preferences between natural populations of house mice (Mus musculus domesticus)", Molecular Ecology (2013), doi: 10.111/mec.122271;

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: http://www.mpg.de

Thanks to Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 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/127520/Mate_choice_in_mice_is_heavily_influenced_by_paternal_cues

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Meghan McCain will have a reality show

By Ashley Majeski, TODAY contributor

Meghan McCain is joining the ranks of reality TV stars. The daughter of Arizona senator John McCain will star in and executive-produce 'Raising McCain,' a new docu-talk series that will be part of the initial programming of the new Pivot cable channel, set to debut on Aug. 1.

AP file

Meghan McCain with father Sen. John McCain in 2008.

"Raising McCain" will follow McCain, 28, as she interviews "experts, regular people and members of her generation, exploring the most important and unusual questions of the day, framed by Meghan's experiences in her personal life." The network will air 10 half-hour episodes of the show, which McCain recently described? as "?Meet the Press? meets 'Jackass.'"

?I grew up around journalists, and I came to realize that the best, most valuable moments happened in the green room before the interview and during the shots of whiskey afterwards," McCain said Wednesday at an event to promote the new Pivot network.

The political website The Daily Caller caused a ruckus after it posted an article about the show, along with a cartoon that featured McCain's breasts discussing her new program. McCain voiced her outrage for the cartoon on her Twitter account yesterday. She called out the website for its "offensive" and "sexist" article, and vowed to address these very issues on her upcoming talk show.

The Pivot network will reportedly be available as a pay-TV channel, as well as a broadband-only streaming service. In addition to McCain's show, it will feature five other new programs, including one hosted and co-produced by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. His show, "HitRECord on TV!" is being described by the network as an "open source variety show."

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/29/17519677-meghan-mccains-new-reality-show-will-be-a-cross-between-jackass-and-meet-the-press?lite

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SmackDown results: The Rock rolled over ?People Power?; a unified Orton, Sheamus & Big Show beat The Shield at their own game

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/2013-03-29/results

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শনিবার, ৩০ মার্চ, ২০১৩

7 Things I Was Baffled By When I Started Online

Baffled By BusinessI?d like to share some of the problems that prevented me making any money whatsoever for around 7-8 months after I began online almost exactly 3 years ago. I?ll also explain how I overcame them by giving some recommendations for each.

It?s quite interesting for me to see how my thinking and understanding of how to start and build a successful web business has changed over time.

But more importantly I hope you?ll be able to get a lot out of this because from talking to others I?ve learned that most people face the same challenges that I?ve experienced.

Let?s dive in with 7 things I was baffled by when I started out:?

1. How To Create Web Pages

Like all of us I visited lots of different websites on a daily basis but I really didn?t understand how to replicate them. Do you have to learn web design and HTML and get involved in the technical side of things?

Luckily, I was introduced to WordPress pretty early on. Although I have built a few pages in other systems (such as the free HTML editor Kompozer) I really never looked back.

What began as a blogging platform has now developed into a fully fledged content management system (CMS) for websites and for running a home business, there are very few cases when it makes sense to not use WordPress.

My Recommendation: If you don?t know WordPress. Learn it. Just create a simple personal blog and get acquainted. It?s time very well spent.

2. How To Get Traffic

I thought the only options were SEO (ranking your web pages high in Google) or Adwords (Google Paid ads).

Like most newcomers I didn?t want to risk any money so I went down the SEO path.

The trouble was by 2010 SEO was already becoming harder, more long term and increasingly uncertain. This didn?t stop me spending a small fortune on SEO software and training courses which resulted in virtually no revenue whatsoever.

My Recommendation: Traffic is a KEY element in your online success. So invest some time in learning about it. There are countless ways to promote your websites and many of them have been discussed on this blog (here and here?for example). Also, although I wouldn?t completely ignore SEO, I also highly recommend you don?t rely on it. Less than 10% of my traffic comes from SEO ? quite honestly I wouldn?t bother with it much at all!

3. Why The Websites Of Successful Marketers Didn?t Look Like Mine

During my ?SEO phase? I followed several ?gurus? who were very keen to tell me (and sell me) strategies which could rank my websites high in Google. Most of these involved setting up blogs, choosing the keywords, meta tags, headlines, H1 tags correctly and building backlinks to my site.

So how come when I visited these gurus? sites they had none of these things? I remember checking the backlinks and wondering why there weren?t any? How could they be making money if they didn?t seem to do the things they were telling me to do?

Also, a lot of their websites just had places for your name and email address (what I later learnt were called ?squeeze pages?) and had no content on them at all. Google wouldn?t rank these surely so I was baffled.

I was very na?ve really. But it just goes to show if you don?t know something then you just don?t know.

Of course, the reality was the the gurus were using joint ventures (JVs), affiliates and paid traffic to promote their websites. As silly as it might sound it really took me about 10 months to fully recognize this.

My Recommendation: Always ask yourself, ?Are the strategies that this person is teaching me what they actually use to make money themselves??. You can?t always be sure but being aware of this question really helps!

4. Who To Trust

A biggy.

As with any business ? online or offline ? there are scams and people who just want your money. In the internet marketing area there are definitely these kinds of people but also many very genuine businesses and marketers who provide solid products and services which can help you.

My Recommendation: Rather than expand on this here I will refer to a previous post where we covered this issue in detail.

5. Which Niche To Go Into

Again, usually a problem most of us have, especially at the early stage of our business.

This is partly related to ?I?m not an expert in anything? thinking but also because there are literally SO many different niches that it can become difficult to decide!

What I did was go into lots of niches. I don?t recommend this because you end up juggling so many balls that you can?t give the attention each niche deserves.

My Recommendation: Brainstorm niches you are interested in, check for sufficient audience size and profitability. Then pick one and go with it. Later on you can (as I have done) expand it more than one niche but that?s when you?ll have the experience of setting them up and promoting them. Also, understand you don?t need to be an expert: 1) You can learn, 2) You can get another expert to help (e.g., by interviewing them), 3) Many products (e.g., software) don?t rely on you being an expert at all.

6. How Can I Keep Up With The Information Coming At Me

Yes, the old information overload problem here!

What I specifically referring to though is the emails that I received as a result of signing up to people?s lists.

This distraction can manifest in at least 2 ways: 1) You are reading emails instead of implementing and taking action, 2) You get mixed messages and conflicting information which stops you taking action on your current plans by introducing doubt and shiny object syndrome.

My Recommendation: Unsubscribe from any list which just promotes things all the time. Follow the people you trust (or at worst think you trust!) ? see above for tips on this. Pick one project and stick with it, emotionally detach (as best you can) and work on your business (imagine you are consulting on someone else?s business which helps) instead of in your business.

7. Sales Funnels

Again I?m admitting naivety here but after coming online I really didn?t understand the importance of having a funnel or even what one was!

Basically, the sales funnel is process people go through after they go up the ?on ramp? into your business.

For example, they might sign up at for your squeeze page, get offered a promotion on the thank you page, receive email follow ups which offer free content and promotions which increase in price and value.

My recommendation: Be aware all the time of sales funnels and every time you purchase something or sign up for something watch what happens and take notes. I actually have a Word files called ?Other Marketers Swipe? which I take notes on what I see from my journeys around the internet in different niches.

3 Final Tips

Overall, If I could go back in time and speak to myself when I started out I?d give this advice:

  • Focus soley on building a list of subscribers in a profitable niche that you are interested in
  • Go to live events and meetups
  • Invest some time and money in solid training from people who have achieved what you want to achieve

If you can relate to any of my experiences I?ve described in this post then this is the same advice I?d give to you. Regardless of your history and where you are right now with your business the PERFECT time is NOW!

What things have baffled you in terms on setting up a successful web business? Please LIKE/TWEET if you enjoyed this and start some discussion by dropping a comment below. :-) Cheers, Rob.

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Source: http://www.gainhigherground.com/7-things-i-was-baffled-by-when-i-started-online/

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How To Do the Perfect Push-Up

How To Do the Perfect Push-UpPush-ups?we've all done ?em, but sometimes they just don't look so pretty. Fear not! We've got the guide to get it right. Push-ups are a total-body functional move that are great for increasing strength, much like bench-pressing, and have the added benefit of engaging the core and lower body (thanks, gravity!). The bodyweight exercise can be done just about anywhere?with a ton of variations to liven things up. So let's drop down and do the perfect push-up.

The Basics

1. Get into a plank position with hands planted directly under the shoulders (slightly wider than shoulder width apart). Ground the toes into the floor to stabilize the bottom half of the body. Engage the abs and back so the body is neutral. In other words, flat as a? plank (ah, now we get it!).

How To Do the Perfect Push-Up

2. Begin to lower the body?back flat, eyes focused about three feet in front of you to keep a neutral neck?until the chest nearly touches the floor. (Note: Some experts say a push-up isn't a push-up unless the chest actually grazes the ground). Don't let the butt dip or stick out at any point during the move; the body should remain flat from head to toe all the way through the movement. Draw the shoulder blades back and down, while keeping the elbows tucked close to the body, so the upper arms form a 45-degree angle at the bottom of the push-up position.

3. Keeping the core engaged, exhale as you push back to the start position as explosively as possible without leaving the ground (pow!). That's one! Repeat for 10-20 reps or as many as can be performed with good form (no sagging those hips, ya heard?).

Variations

Changing the positions of both the elbows and hands will activate different muscles and amp up the intensity of the basic push-up. Ready? Here we go!

Bent Knee Push-Up: These push-ups are great for beginners to nail down form before graduating to other varieties. Come to all fours, hands directly under the shoulders. With the knees on the floor, lower to the ground the same way as a standard push-up, just with the knees helping to stabilize the body rather than the feet.

How To Do the Perfect Push-Up

Alternating Med Ball Push-Up: This variety increases range of motion, and works core stability. Place one hand on top of the medicine ball, while the other stabilizes the body on the floor. Adjust the body into a plank (only this time, one arm is supported by the ball). Perform a standard push-up, then roll the ball to the other hand and repeat.

Single Leg Push-Up: This push-up is tricky, because the body is stabilized by only three points rather than four. Perform a standard push-up, but raise one leg up toward the ceiling, heel reaching toward the wall behind you. Alternate legs after each rep, or perform two sets (starting with one leg, then switching to the other for the next set).

Clap Push-Up: These push-ups are all about plyometrics, meaning the hands lift off the ground,, clap, then return to the floor. To break it down: Perform a standard push-up, but at the exhale, swiftly straighten the arms and forcefully push off the floor. Bring the hands together into a clap, then return to the start position. Note: This is not a beginner's exercise, and requires quite a bit of strength (and practice!) to perform correctly.

How To Do the Perfect Push-Up

Handstand Push-Up: Handstands? Why not! These push-ups really amp up the demands. And we're not kidding, they take a lot of practice and coordination (and usually a wall, maybe even a spotter for your first go at it). Position the body against a wall and practice a static handstand before lowering into the push-up. Once you've mastered that, slowly lower the body down a few inches then press back up to a full handstand. Eventually, work toward lowering down completely to the floor before pushing back up. Carefully lower those legs and it's a wrap.

The Most Common Push-Up Mistakes (And How To Fix 'Em)

The Mistake: Focusing too much on the upper body.
The Fix: Sure, push-ups are known for strengthening the pecs, shoulders, and triceps, but they're a total-body move. Pay attention to the glutes and legs, and keep ?em tight! Tightening that tush can help keep the lower back from arching during the move. Instead of letting the bum flop down first (and compromising the lower back), hit the ground chest first, keeping the hips in the same plane as the shoulders. Imagine the belly button drawing in toward the spine to help keep the torso flat.

The Mistake: Flaring the arms.
The Fix: Letting those arms pop out to 90 degrees can be really tough on the shoulders. Instead of forming a "T" with the arms and body, keep the elbows tucked close to the body.

The Mistake: Forgetting to breathe.
The Fix: Faith Hill had it right: Just breathe. Concentrating on form and reps can make it easy to forget one of the most important parts of working out?breathing. Inhale on the way down, and exhale on the way back up.

The Mistake: Cheating Yourself.
The Fix: The key is quality over quantity. Make sure each push-up reaches a full range of motion by getting the chest as close to the floor as comfortable, then fully extending the elbows at the top. Having sloppy form will make for a less effective strengthening exercise that targets fewer muscles.

How To Do the Perfect Push-Up?Greatist


Natalie McDermott tries her best to eat foods that make her feel good, but she has a lot of sweet teeth. She completed a 1-month ShakeWeight "challenge" ... well that was embarrassing... but she much prefers the gym with her coworkers or a hike in the woods. Nothing makes her happier than playing with puppies (and talking to them like they're human beings). She's a big fan of coloring, preferably with chalk or crayons.

Image remixed from BigStockPhoto and pixabay.

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Distro Issue 84: The inside story behind the Lenovo ThinkPad redesign

Distro Issue 84 The inside story behind the retooled Lenovo ThinkPad

Back at Expand, the folks at Lenovo unveiled the ThinkPad T431s, a unit that embodies an overhaul of the outfit's iconic laptop. The latest issue of our weekly magazine goes inside the process of balancing customer preference, perception and tradition with forward-facing design in order to construct the final model. As far as reviews go, Ableton Push, Sonos Playbar and Dell Latitude 10 all get put through their respective paces to tally up some final grades on each. Moog occupies both Eyes-On and the Q&A, Hands-On speed tests T-Mobile's LTE network and IRL has three more items that we've used on the daily. All of that and much more is a download away on your go-to e-reading gadget.

Distro Issue 84 PDF
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China's Xi wraps up Africa tour in Republic of Congo

BRAZZAVILLE (Reuters) - China's newly appointed President Xi Jinping wrapped up a six-day tour of Africa on Friday in Republic of Congo, where he signed off on infrastructure projects and pledged deeper cooperation between his country and the continent.

Thousands of people, many wearing T-shirts bearing the president's likeness, turned out under a blazing equatorial sun to welcome the new Chinese leader to the former French colony's sprawling riverside capital, Brazzaville.

Xi, who in previous stops along the week-long trip has attempted to outline his African policy as a partnership among equals, used a speech before Congo's parliament to point to China and Africa's mutual reliance for their future success.

"The future, the development of China will be an unprecedented opportunity for Africa, and Africa's development will be the same for my country," Xi told lawmakers.

"We expect to work together with our African friends to seize upon historic opportunities and deepen cooperation ... in order to bring greater benefit to the Chinese and African peoples," he said.

China is offering $20 billion of loans to Africa between 2013 and 2015, and many governments welcome Beijing's growing business-focused presence on the continent as a welcome alternative to Western influence.

China imports oil from Congo, and on Friday, in line with promises to deepen the relationship with African partners, Xi oversaw finalization of nearly a dozen new deals.

He agreed to finance a $63 million project to construct a river port in Oyo, the hometown of Congo's President Denis Sassou N'Guesso, where the government plans to develop a new special economic zone.

Other projects to receive Chinese backing include a 19-megawatt hydroelectric power station in the northwest, and the construction of a new port capable of handling mineral ore shipments in Congo's economic capital, Pointe-Noire.

China also agreed to around 15 billion CFA francs ($29.36 million) in grants and zero-interest loans, and will build 200 homes and a school in the capital's Mpila, which was largely destroy when a weapons depot exploded there last year.

(Reporting by Christian Tsoumou; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-xi-wraps-africa-tour-republic-congo-211422497.html

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Why We Write | The RANT

Typewriter and gun

Thursday, 12:40pm
Reno, NV
?I write because I cannot NOT write.? (Charlotte Bronte)

Howdy?

I want to cover three important things today.

Important Thing #1: Very exciting news this morning: My first Kindle ebook (?The Entrepreneur?s Guide To Getting Your Shit Together?) elbowed its way into best-seller territory on Amazon in less than half a day. It?s #4 on the ?entrepreneur? books-for-sale chart, with a bullet, and surging on the ?business? charts (in the top 35).

This is like watching your latest album climb the Billboard rankings. I labored over the book (with superb editing help from our pal David ?Flashman? Raybould) for many months, whipping it into shape and waiting for the right moment to dive into the wonderful new world of self-publishing that has just hit the Big Turning Point.

Now, it?s up to the reading public to decide if it?s worthwhile or not. A little scary, a little thrilling, a lot of fun for a writer who has craved being in control of publishing my own stuff, in my own damn way, for most of my life.

And, as satisfying as it is to read the great buzz-comments on the Amazon page (and in social media) for this new tome? it?s even more energizing to have finally busted my cherry in digital publishing. This first book took a while to finish and get launched. The next one will follow blazingly quick, and there are even more in the hopper.

If you are so inclined, you can check out a free preview of the book (or even, gasp, buy it) here.

Leave a comment, too. And hit the ?share? button on the page. The tome is getting rave reviews, which makes sense since it?s a lovingly-revised compilation of my best Rant newsletters (which I mailed to subscribers for 6 amazing years). This is time-tested stuff, the best ?here?s what Carlton?s been teaching all these years? resource possible.

Hope you enjoy it, if you buy it. Hope you stay awake all night thinking about it if you don?t buy it, and feel compelled to buy it first thing in the morning. Cuz it?s damn cheap as a digital book, and you really SHOULD own it. (And yes, we?ll be offering a paperback version down the road, but this digital version is what you need right now.)

Important Thing #2:?I now know much about self-publishing ebooks that was a mystery to me before.

For example? the publishing industry is in complete upheaval now. The tipping point was last summer, when Amazon introduced it?s ?so easy an idiot can do it? self-publishing model for Kindle (and other e-reading devices)? and it turned out to actually BE just that easy to do.

This was a huge blow to the traditional publishers. Much like the revolution in digital music-sharing spelled big-time trouble to the entrenched old-school music industry. At first there was denial, then disbelief, and finally much gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes as it became crystal clear that the Publishing Game had changed permanently and dramatically.

Now, I?ve dealt a bit with traditional publishers. The old model sucked for writers like me, because there were huge roadblocks on the way to getting a book produced and put on shelves in bookstores? including agents who were assholes, publishers who hated anything outside of their comfort zone, and a sales process rigged like a back-alley craps game. (My favorite line about gambling: ?If you look around the table and you don?t know who the sucker is? then you?re the sucker.?)

I was given the fisheye by so-called ?publishing professionals? who assured me a deal was in the works, if only I changed everything funny and outrageous and important in my writing. Oh, and they?d charge $20 for my book, and give me (maybe) 90 cents of that, down the road after the accountants had cooked the books.

Traditional publishers mocked ebooks, smug in their surety of how things would never change. They were slow to accept even Kindle?s open-armed invitation to make digital books more inviting.

I have zero sympathy for them now that ebooks are outselling ?real? books (where trees must die so they can be printed)? and especially now that those agents are increasingly out of a job, and the publisher mucky-mucks are looking at early retirement now that ANYBODY can self-publish on Amazon? and enjoy a level playing field amongst other authors. Which is something the trad pub folks just hate.

And they can?t even mock self-publishers anymore, after Amazon bought Create Space, which prints your book, on demand, for a couple of bucks, and ships it for you. No need to pre-order a print run (or store boxes of your damn book in the garage). You just do the writing, and they take care of everything else. You make a sale, they print ?er up and ship. And you collect your moolah.

Plus, if you really have your little heart set on seeing your tome on a shelf at Barnes & Noble, they can help you get that done, too.

All this revolution has all taken place just in the past year or so. Ebooks have been doing well for a while, but with the recent smoothing-out of the process (making it truly brain-dead simple to plunder the vast market share that Amazon provides) and the sheer volume of ebook reading devices (including your mobile arsenal) now out there? it?s officially a brand-new world of sizzling opportunity for writers.

Now, there are numerous entrepreneurs offering you advice and insight on using these new powers of self-publishing, and you can hook up with them if you like.

However, this ain?t brain surgery. You really can figure out almost everything on your own. I opted to have a colleague (the very tech-savvy Lawton Chiles) help me finish the formatting, and get this first book actually up on Amazon? and it was an excellent small investment that sped up the process hugely. I also paid my primo designer pal Rick Allen to do the cover. All optional, all at extra ?(but very reasonable) cost? and all worth it, because it shortcut the process and assured the best possible finished book.

So I?m happy.

And you should be happy, too. If you have a book cooking inside you, or even if you just have an idea for a book? there is now a functional, efficient and profit friendly vehicle for you to quickly create a digital book that can literally be ready for purchase overnight. (And you get to KEEP most of the sale, instead of getting crumbs from a trad publisher.)

Entrepreneurs are especially getting hip to the wild opportunities this revolution has created. Short books that introduce you to the market can be offered for free or a couple of bucks. You can release material in serial form, so a new chapter appears once a week (just like magazines used to offer novels chapter by chapter in subsequent issues). You can choose to release an audio book, or a series of podcasts, or ? hell ? you can re-invent the entire CONCEPT of what a ?book? is, and see if the world likes it.

We are in the early days of a self-publishing Brave New World that is so exciting for authors and wannabe-authors I get teary just considering where it might go.

Which leads us to the last point?

Important Thing #3:?When I was a kid, I enjoyed both writing short science fiction stories and graphic novels of cartoons in a long-story format. It was immature stuff, but it was edgy and entertaining.

My audience consisted solely of my pals, a few teachers who caught me drawing during class, and occasionally a stranger who?d borrowed a mimeographed copy somewhere. I didn?t really care ? I wasn?t writing for an audience, I was writing for the pure joy of creating something from nothing. I?ve always been a storyteller, and writing them out (sometimes with accompanying illustrations) was a thrill in and of itself.

I was almost embarrassed to have anyone else see these efforts. Their praise made me wince (I?ve been a shy dude forever), and their criticism broke my heart (usually because it was so far off-base and irrelevant).

I don?t believe I would have pursued getting any of that early stuff published, even if it was possible. It was my training period, in a way. I was self-aware enough to know it was early-stage stuff, not a final product.

However? just knowing that I COULD publish it would have re-focused my energies ten-fold. What a trip, to decide on my own when I was ready to release my stuff into the world.?Not when some publisher decided. When I decided.

I got a taste of wider readership in high school, when I took journalism (wanting to earn a spot writing for the Teepee Times sports page)? and the teacher caught me doodling and ordered me to do a weekly cartoon on the editorial page instead. I was terrified, especially to be working in ink for the first time (pencils have erasers), and to have my drawings and humor laid out bare and vulnerable in front of God and everybody like that. Every week.

I survived for two seasons. There was no credible celebrity involved, either ? I had to play it safe in the newspaper, and the other kids just took it for granted that another dumb Carlton ?toon would be in the weekly issue. No biggie. One transfer junior from La Habra (tough school) offered me $5 to draw a grinning demon on his notebook, but otherwise my high school ?career? as a cartoonist was uneventful.

Then, the same thing happened in college. I happened to meet the editor of the university daily, who demanded that I do a weekly cartoon? and he didn?t care what I did with it. That got me reinvested, and I drew edgy, weird stuff that did get me a little notice. Decades later, I occasionally still get a nod from someone who remembers my strip fondly.

This was the same period of time when Doonesbury was just making waves, and other ?underground? comix were getting noticed. But I had no idea how to go further with the career, so I just stopped.

The ?bug? for being published, however, had been planted.

When I first met Gary Halbert, one big thing we had in common was a reverence for the ?classic? age of self-publishing back in the 1950s. A nobody like Hugh Hefner could scrape together $500 and enter a crowded magazine market doing most of the writing (he was also a cartoonist, remember)? and, if his stuff stood out from the pack, he might create a little empire. The field was wide open. (Underground comix ? which are now mainstream ? went the same route.)

But traditional publishing remained a closed game, dominated by big-name authors and taste-making mavens who decided what America could and couldn?t read en mass. Gary?s way around that was to publish his own newsletter (which you can peruse at www. thegaryhalbertletter.com), mailed monthly to subscribers. I took the same route with my direct-to-consumer Marketing Rebel Rant newsletters.

It was freaking exhilarating to write, design, print and mail my own publication. The audience was still small (it cost a cool grand back then to be a subscriber to the Rant for a year), but large enough to support my speaking career by ensuring most events would have at least a handful of supporters egging on the crowds.

We still self-publish my first course/book, ?Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel?, and the Simple Writing System. We have a printer back east who binds and ships the packages (along with whatever CDs or DVDs are included).

But, again, the audience for these are whoever I can entice into my world through my blog, or via a speaking engagement. That ensures a healthy, but relatively segmented base.

So, when I caught wind of what Amazon was doing with the Kindle store, I perked up fast. This is a global market we?re talking about here, and Amazon is the 600-pound gorilla dominating the process.

Yes, allowing ?just any bozo with a manuscript? to self-publish and be available on their world-wide virtual bookshelves may lead to a certain amount of chaos. Some prospects will be overwhelmed with the choices. Some undeserving books will catch fire, while better ones sink into obscurity.

The bits of marketing you are allowed on your sales page are critical to your self-published dreams of grandeur. Just like every other marketplace in the universe.

However, with the interactive opportunities also available? comments, testimonials, ?buyers also bought? lists of robot-guessed stuff you might also want to buy, sharing in social media, etc? I see excellent chances for quality stuff to stay high on the charts for very long periods.

You aren?t dependent on a trad publisher dripping your book out to a few big-city bookstores? or on your ability to generate PR by going on endless author tours (and maybe snagging a desultory 2-minute slot on some foul-mouthed radio or cable chat show)? or on the sodden criticism of some unqualified reviewer in the New York Times (or Beaverton Gazette).

All the obstacles to producing and getting your book in front of a wide audience have now been obliterated.

O. Blit. Erated.

I was excited when the Web marketplace really got going a decade ago, and I?m a Net Junkie for sure. Modern tech changed my world view and my lifestyle habits. I?m fully wired, dude.

However? this publishing revolution rivals all the recent tech innovations put together.

This ain?t your father?s blog. This ain?t your grandfather?s hard-cover trilogy.

Nope.

What we got here is a stunning opportunity for the Little Author to beat up the Big Authors, in heroic fashion.

Self-publishing will change your life in ways none of us can yet imagine. (The TED talks on this subject are expanding exponentially.)

For those of us who?ve been hoping for fresh audiences, it?s paradise. Yet another thrill ride aimed right at entrepreneurs.

Now, go buy my book already.?

Stay frosty,

John

P.S. If you want to contact Rick, my designer? or Lawton, who helped get the book formatted and looking good on all devices? or Flashman, who is a primo copywriter and brilliant editor? just email my long-suffering assistant Diane at consult@john-carlton.com and ask for their contact info.

I only work with the best, and this team is spectacular at what they do. And, they?re open to working with you?

?

?

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Source: http://www.john-carlton.com/2013/03/why-we-write/

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New study aims to prevent sports-related brain injury in youngsters

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Ice hockey accounts for nearly half of all traumatic brain injuries among children and youth participating in organized sports who required a trip to an emergency department in Canada, according to a new study out of St. Michael's Hospital.

The results are part of a first-of-its-kind study led by Dr. Michael Cusimano that looked at causes of sports-related brain injuries in Canadian youth and also uncovered some prevention tactics that could be immediately implemented to make sports safer for kids.

"Unless we understand how children are getting hurt in sport, we can't develop ways to prevent these serious injuries from happening," said Dr. Cusimano, a neurosurgeon and the lead author of the study. "One would think that we know the reasons why kids are having brain injuries in sports, but until know, it was based mainly on anecdotes."

The study used data from The Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program to look at the almost 13,000 children and youth aged 5-19 who had a sports-related brain injury between 1990 and 2009. The results appeared in the journal PLOS ONE today.

The researchers categorized injuries by players' ages, what sport they occurred in and what mechanisms had caused them -- "struck by player," "struck by object" (such as net or post), "struck by sport implement" (such as ball or stick), "struck by playing surface" and "other."

Hockey accounted for 44.3 per cent of all injuries and almost 70 per cent of them occurred in children over 10 as a result of player-to-player contact or being hit into the boards.

Dr. Cusimano said they expected to see high numbers in hockey because it's Canada's "national sport."

"This shows that body contact is still an area where we need to make major inroads to preventing brain injuries," Dr. Cusimano said. "For example, enforcing existing rules and making more effective incentives and disincentives about checking from behind could make huge improvements."

Nineteen per cent of the youth who suffered brain injuries got them during soccer, with most in the 10 to 14 or 15 to 19 age group. In these age ranges, the most common cause of injury was being struck by another player, kicks to the head or head-on-head collisions. In the younger group, age five to nine, players were more likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury from striking a surface or a goal post than those in older groups.

"There's a really straightforward solution here," Dr. Cusimano said. "Padding the goal posts could have potentially prevented a large number of these brain injuries in young children."

The results also found that the youngest age group was at the highest risk for getting seriously injured in baseball. Most of the 15.3 per cent of injuries occurred in children under the age of 14, with 45 per cent of them in children under nine.

Ball and bat injuries were most common, with the majority of injuries caused because the players stood too close to the batter or bat and were not supervised by an adult.

"These results give us a very specific prevention message for kids under nine who play baseball: make helmets and supervision a mandatory," said Dr. Cusimano. "The younger the child, the more supervision they need when using things like bats and balls. Simple rules around not being close to the batter can be taught to children and adults."

Football and rugby accounted for 12.9 per cent 5.6 per cent of injuries respectively, and the majority of them were caused by tackling.

Basketball made up 11.6 per cent of injuries, mostly caused by player-to-player elbowing, which increased as players got older.

"There is a real opportunity for prevention here," Dr. Cusimano said. "Having educational programs, proper equipment, rules and other incentives that support a culture of safety in sports should be a mandate of parents, coaches, players, sports organizations, schools, sports sponsors, and other groups like governments."

Funding for the research was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by St. Michael's Hospital, 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:

  1. Michael D. Cusimano, Newton Cho, Khizer Amin, Mariam Shirazi, Steven R. McFaull, Minh T. Do, Matthew C. Wong, Kelly Russell. Mechanisms of Team-Sport-Related Brain Injuries in Children 5 to 19 Years Old: Opportunities for Prevention. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e58868 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058868

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/3M3mmJkKrl8/130329125301.htm

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Colorado theater shooter lawyers lack legitimate plea offer: prosecutors

(Reuters) - Attorneys for a man accused of killing 12 people at a Colorado movie theater last July have not made a legitimate offer to have him plead guilty in the case, prosecutors have said, the Denver Post newspaper reported on Thursday.

Defense attorneys for James Holmes, 25, said in court papers filed on Wednesday that they had offered to have him plead guilty in exchange for a life prison term.

Such an agreement would spare Holmes the death penalty in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

But prosecutors, in a response filed with the court on Thursday, said there was no acceptable offer on the table, the Post reported in a story on its website.

"There is not ? and has never been ? an actual or unqualified 'offer' to plead guilty," prosecutors wrote, according to the Post. "The prosecution indicated that it could not consider such an offer without specific additional information, which the defense refused to provide."

Holmes faces multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder stemming from the July 20 massacre at a showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado that also wounded 58 people.

Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler has said that he would formally inform the court during a hearing scheduled for Monday whether his office would seek the death penalty against Holmes.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Keith Coffman; Editing by Kevin Gray, Bernard Orr)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-theater-shooter-lawyers-lack-legitimate-plea-offer-000802456.html

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Singer Michelle Shocked sits in at canceled show

Alternative folk singer Michelle Shocked sits outside Moe?s Alley nightclub in Santa Cruz Calif., and strums her guitar on Thursday, March 28, 2013. After her show was canceled when she made an anti-gay slur earlier this month. Shocked had her face covered and her mouth taped shut. She dressed in a white disposable safety suit and invited people to write on it. (AP Photo

Alternative folk singer Michelle Shocked sits outside Moe?s Alley nightclub in Santa Cruz Calif., and strums her guitar on Thursday, March 28, 2013. After her show was canceled when she made an anti-gay slur earlier this month. Shocked had her face covered and her mouth taped shut. She dressed in a white disposable safety suit and invited people to write on it. (AP Photo

Alternative folk singer Michelle Shocked sits outside Moe?s Alley nightclub in Santa Cruz Calif., and strums her guitar on Thursday, March 28, 2013. After her show was canceled when she made an anti-gay slur earlier this month. Shocked had her face covered and her mouth taped shut. She dressed in a white disposable safety suit and invited people to write on it. (AP Photo

Alternative folk singer Michelle Shocked stands reading the signs outside Moe?s Alley nightclub in Santa Cruz Calif., on Thursday, March 28, 2013. After her show was canceled following making an anti-gay slur earlier this month. Shocked had her face covered and her mouth taped shut. She dressed in a white disposable safety suit and invited people to write on it. (AP Photo/Thomas Mendoza)

(AP) ? Her show had been cancelled, but that didn't stop alternative folk and rock singer Michelle Shocked from showing up at a Santa Cruz nightclub where she staged a sit-in with tape across her mouth that read "Silenced By Fear."

Moe's Alley was one of several nightclubs that cancelled Shocked's gigs after she made what were considered anti-gay comments during a rambling outburst at a show earlier this month.

On Thursday evening, Moe's Alley owner Bill Welch had replaced her with two local bands that support gay rights, Beaver Fever and Frootie Flavors.

"We will not be bashing Michelle Shocked," he said. "Rather, we will celebrate music, diversity and send some healing Santa Cruz energy her way."

Sitting on the ground outside the venue and strumming her guitar, Shocked was largely ignored and refused to speak. She pointed to a sign inviting people to pick up a Sharpie marker and write on the white disposable safety suit she was wearing.

Earlier this week in an email to The Associated Press and other media, Shocked apologized and said her comments during the San Francisco show were misinterpreted.

"Of course the fault for that is completely my own, and I cannot and do not blame anyone for defending the gay community," she wrote.

On Thursday night, she posted signs that read "Does speech scare you that much?" and on her back she had scrawled "Gimme Wit, Not Spit."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-29-US-People-Michelle-Shocked/id-a961389b64b8424fa6fe2132244c6ae5

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Obama: 'Shame on us' (CNN)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295405293?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Opinion: President Petraeus? (CNN)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295218700?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Majoring in English | The Feminist Wire

By Monica Torres

When I sign my name, it?s Monica, not M?nica. When I order pupusas at my favorite restaurant, the waiter will give my accent an approving nod, as if to say, you?re one of us. But it will only take a harder question for me to reveal the lie. I speak Spanish at a remedial 7th grade level. I can only write this essay in English.

To this day, my father has followed my teachers? suggestions and speaks exclusively to me in English, even though he cannot fully express himself in it. It was my perfect SAT verbal score that earned me the interest of top schools, and it was my minority status that sweetened my deal with many of them. My mother is frustrated by the rejection of my first language, and when she questions me in Spanish, I answer her in English, unwilling to communicate in the staccato rhythms of a song learned half-heartedly. Language is a battleground, and I prefer to fight in the tongue with which I am best armed. That lesson was passed down from my parents. My parents fought to their divorce in Spanish, the language of lovers, and when I was told everything was going to be fine, it was told to me in English, because in English, it doesn?t have to be true.

I?m an English major. It is a language of conquest.

What does it say that I?m mastering the same language that was used to make my mother feel inferior? Growing up, I had a white friend who used to laugh whenever my mother spoke English, amused by the way she rolled her r?s. My sister and I tease Mami about her accent too, but it?s different when we do it, or is it? The echoes of colonization linger in my voice. The weapons of the death squads that pushed my mother out of El Salvador were U.S.-funded. When Nixon promised, ?We?re going to smash him!? it was said in his native tongue, and when the Chilean president he smashed used his last words to promise, ?Long live Chile!? it was said in his. And when my family told me the story of my grandfather?s arrest by the dictatorship that followed, my grandfather stayed silent, and meeting his eyes, I cried, understanding that there were no words big enough for loss.

English is a language of conquest. I benefit from its richness, but I?m not exempt from its limitations. I am ?that girl? in your English classes, the one who is tired of talking about dead white dudes. But I?m still complicit with the system, reading nineteenth-century British literature to graduate.

Diversity in my high school and college English literature courses is too often reduced to a month, week, or day where the author of the book is seen as the narrator of the novel. The multiplicity of U.S. minority voices is palatably packaged into a singular representation for our consumption. I read Junot D?az and now I understand not only the Dominican-American experience, but what it means to be Latina/o in America. Jhumpa Lahiri inspired me to study abroad in India. Sherman Alexie calls himself an Indian, so now it?s ok for me to call all Indians that, too. We will read Toni Morrison?s Beloved to understand the horrors of slavery, but we won?t watch her takedowns on white supremacy.

Even the English courses that analyze race and diasporas in meaningful ways are still limited by the time constraints of the semester. Reading Shakespeare is required, but reading Paolo Javier and M?nica de la Torre is extra credit. My Experimental Minority Writing class is cross-listed at the most difficult level, as a 400-level course in the Africana Studies, Latina/o Studies, and American Studies departments, but in my English department, it is listed as a 300-level. I am reminded of Orwellian democracy: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

In order to graduate from my college, you must take one course that ?actively promotes a self-conscious and critical engagement with diversity.? It?s called the Exploring Diversity Initiative. Columbus called it exploration, too. Michel Rolph-Trouillot called it a sweeter word for conquest. In theory, the goals of exploring diversity?empathetic understanding, critical theorization, comparative studies of cultures and societies, and examining power and privilege? should produce my favorite kind of course, but the conversation shifts depending on who?s in the room. Conflicts arise when students try to map the trajectory of race from Point A to Point B without studying any of the legend. Without realizing that their landmarks may not match mine.

When my English professor asked my class to relate the recent campus hate crimes to the topic of captivity in America, I braced myself. I held myself back until the pressure under my ribs reached my lips, and I was buoyed by its depth.

I disagreed with the student who said that the solution to our campus hate crimes is to mentally rehabilitate the ones who do it. I disagreed with the student who said that she was a freshman who was not there for last year?s hate crime, and could therefore have no opinion on it. I disagreed with my professor who could not get his students to care about slave narratives and had to resort to provoking students with reductive questions. Would you have freed your slaves if you were a slaveowner? What is diversity and why has it failed at our school?

After I spoke, no one else did, not because they agreed with my statements, but because, in order to speak up, they would have to look me in the eye. I faked my bravery, jutting my chin and daring someone to contradict me. I am glad no one else could hear the blood pounding in my ear as my heart worried, Fight or flight? Fight or flight?

The professor took no one?s side, distancing our arguments as she said/he said, while reminding us that the problem of America is our miscommunication with one another. After class was dismissed, the boy who sat next to me turned to the boy who refused to look at me, and said, ?You just can?t reason with those kinds of people.? Those kinds of people being me. The Angry Minority label is a label that once stuck, will never peel away. As a freshman, I avoided it, speaking carefully, never calling anyone out, and framing racism as something that only happens between pages, in faraway cities, but never to us. It took a campus bias incident, a campus hate crime, and all of my Ethnic Studies courses to articulate my rage into a language that could not be dismissed so easily. Speaking and writing English are considered necessary requirements for playing the political game of the American education system. Crying and complaining get you disqualified, but if you appropriate their words of statistics, of fancy book learning, of speaking when it?s your turn, you can play the game of English thrones, and possibly win it. Checkmate by the Angry Minority. E1 to FU.

But there?s no prize for winning. The game is played with or without your consent. You are never quite sure who is this year?s gamemaster: is it our schools? is it the media? is it the government? is it you? The rules shift for each player, but one rule remains the same for the minority: you may wear the jersey, but you?re not on our team. I am reminded of this division when my favorite English teacher compliments me for speaking English so well. I am reminded of this in AP Spanish Language, where I?m the one whose accent needs to be Standardized. I am reminded of this when my career counselor tells me I need to italicize the foreign, to separate Spanish from English for the sake of my white interviewers. I am reminded of this when my mother?s misspelled pleas to a lawyer are never answered, but my politely worded complaint earns me a reply.

I have been the only person of color in my creative writing courses. I have been the only person writing about persons of color in my creative writing courses. I was never just a writer, but I never wanted to be just anything. The only grammar lesson I enjoyed promised me that in good writing, you never qualify someone as just-. Some minority writers don?t want to be hyphenated, and that is their right, but I welcome its conjunction. I don?t want you to forget that when I address ?you? in my stories, it is not always to you. The first attempts in a creative writing course are often thinly veiled versions of ourselves, but when I got the peer critique, Your white character needs to be more sympathetic, I was still stung by its implication. Why does any character need to be sympathetic at all? I wrote myself into the white stepmother as much as I did the cheating Latino father, the disillusioned Latina mother, the Latina child caught in the middle of it all. But out of all the characters in that story, it was the white woman that my reader was most concerned with saving. The U.S. education system trains you to read the universal voice as a white heterosexual male?s voice, and too many deviations from that path get you sent to the Ethnic Fiction section. I reject the notion that writing realistically means accepting a sympathetically sterilized vision of the world. ?Historically,? ?realistically,? ?in my experience,? are the qualifiers that let literary genres off the hook because it?s easier to qualify your ignorance as a product of the system than to admit that you share responsibility.

For the dominant majority, I can pass for white: I speak their kind of English, my skin is their shade of white, I wear their kinds of clothes, and I go to their kind of school. I don?t want to tell you which school, not to let my administration off the hook, but to demonstrate that this exclusion is not a problem limited to one institution. The older I get, the more aware I become of the contours of exclusion, and its shape does not fit the easy metaphor of a barrier. There are not only two sides, and participating in any side doesn?t mean you?re a member of it. Hegemony requires your consent, and when it opened its door to me, I held the door open for those that followed. I told my younger sister she needed to do better in English, not Spanish, if she wanted the good kind of college to notice her. When my close white friend told me those kind of girls were all so ghetto, I did not correct her.

My family and I have all fallen prey to the intoxicating allure of the American Dream, the vague, unsatisfying answer of America as a ?better life.? To help me claim this ?better life,? my mother gave me a name that could be accepted in both English and Spanish, accented and unaccented. How many ways can you say a name? This was the acting exercise I failed. I thought that if I stretched the syllable hard enough, the word would break even, and it would be enough to pay the toll ?Miss Mahnn-i-cuh for my teachers, Monica for my classmates, M?nica for my relatives, and M?ni for my family. How is the name meant to sound? It depends on who?s in the room. I carry my father in my last name and my mother in my middle name; the first name is mine to accent, at my privilege. For their daughters, my parents stretched their wallets and then their marriage, and one did not break even. My sister and I are the remainder of this fraction, and I am indebted to my parents, who gave up their dreams so I could major in my own.

In a few months, I will have a fancy degree in English, but my parents are more fluent in language than I am. To master a language, you have to understand differences that no grammar book can teach you. So much comes down to tone. No one wants their speaker to be unclear. After my father and I got into a fight about his money and my future, he sent me a long email explaining himself through Google translator. I?m the daughter who never calls him enough, and argues in heavy English consonants when I want to confuse him. He is the father who bolded would do anything for you, and said he loved, loves, and is always loving me. His English was not grammatically correct, but it was more emotionally honest than my feelings shielded in sarcasm. I pull it up when I need a reminder of my complicated, contradictory love for a hybridized language that is ours alone.

?I am extremely happy for Google Translator and spell check. I typed very slowly so don?t expect me to email you every time. ?I wish I could speak English better because I know your english is good but unfortunately I don?t write spanish well either.

Love you,

Papi?

________________________________________

MonicaTorres-Majoring_in_English-mtorres_photoMonica Torres is a senior English and American Studies major who concentrates in Latina/o Studies and is writing her way into a career.?She has previously written for?Creative Loafing Tampa.

Source: http://thefeministwire.com/2013/03/majoring-in-english/

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Spring Cocktails for Easter Brunch | Devour The Blog: Cooking ...

Mar 28

This is the season to celebrate the warming weather and spring holidays. Relax and host an Easter brunch with some fabulous food and drink. If you?re hunting (Easter egg-style) for colorful, spring-centric cocktails to pair alongside a savory ham or a springy frittata, look no further than these fizzy glasses that will make you think of warmer weather.

For Easter brunch, we?re thinking drinks that are crisp and refreshing with a touch of fruit to bring you out of the winter blues. These lighter, simple drinks get a shot of color and effervescence to mimic the cheery mood of spring. Put down your embellished eggs, wash your color-stained hands and whip up these celebratory cocktails in a cinch.

Here?s a roundup of our favorite Sunday brunch beverages:

Champagne Cocktail (pictured above)

Champagne gets a sweet fix in this festive cocktail. Simply soak a sugar cube in aromatic angostura bitters, drop in a flute and top with chilled Champagne. The spiral of lemon peel will give this drink an elegant twist.

Hibiscus Tea Punch

This crowd-pleasing punch made of hibiscus tea, tart grapefruit juice, pisco brandy and crisp Sauvignon Blanc is a wake-up call that spring is here! Let this concoction chill with mango and orange slices and then serve with sweet berries.

Orange Cream Mimosa

Make the simple orange-and-cream sherbet base the night before and freeze. For easy entertaining, simply scoop into glasses, top with some bubbly and garnish with a strawberry for a delicious take on the traditional mimosa.

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Tags: brunch drinks Easter Cocktail Recipes spring thirsty thursday

Source: http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com/2013/03/28/spring-cocktails-for-easter-brunch/

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