Figuring Out the Source of Your Back Pain | Karmanos Crittenton

If you?re trying to find out the causes of back pain, this article will provide you with some answers. The fact is, however, that this is a symptom that has a great many causes, and sometimes it takes medical tests to be certain. Discovering, or recognizing, what is causing your back pain can help you find out how to handle it, but it may not always be enough information to cause it to stop altogether. Are you one of those people who sit for a long time without getting up to stretch? It may surprise you to learn that this can lead to backaches and back pain. Simply sitting, in whatever kind of chair or seat, is the culprit here. The chair can be comfortable, or uncomfortable, and that doesn?t seem to make a difference. The fact is, sitting down puts a lot more pressure on your back than standing or walking. Office workers, draftsmen, and writers ? who spend hours on the computer ? are all vulnerable to back pain. There is a trend in some businesses to change over to desks that let you stand up and work. Draftsmen, for example, often stand at their drawing boards instead of working seated. There?s also the fact that your health and well-being will be improved if you spend more time moving around and standing than if you are seated. This has been proven by research. You may not want to stand and work, or you don?t have an adjustable desk. If so, take frequent breaks and walk around. You back will enjoy the change if you just get up, walk around, stretch, and then go back to work. If you have ever had an injury to your back, this may be what is causing your pain. If you have ever had a fall or impact that damaged your spine, your back may be injured as a result of this incident. Most individuals that have a car wreck will injure their back even if the impact was slight. If you play football, you may be susceptible to spinal injuries too. Exercises that strengthen your back, when done in the right way, can actually help you prevent injuries. Certain exercises must be done carefully or else you may injure your spine while working out. The best way to exercise is to use the right amount of weight for your level and to work out with proper style. There are a lot of other diseases and illnesses that have back pain in their list of side effects. With diabetes, there is always the chance of pain in many parts of the body, and back pain is one common area for pain to be a problem. One reason for this is that diabetes affects the immune system and causes a variety of nerve disorders. This can result in pain in many parts of the body, and this often includes the back. If you have diabetes, it?s very important to control your blood glucose, and doing this can help avoid this type of neuropathy, or nerve pain. Getting rid of your excess weight will not only help you control your diabetes but, as mentioned above, can help alleviate back pain due to stress on your spine. Suffering from back pain is very distressing. In fact, it can make it extremely difficult to even rise out of bed each day. You will more easily be able to prevent back pain from returning if you have been able to find out the root cause of your pain. If your back pain is caused by health issues, it?s wise to get those problems taken care of first. If not, simply pay attention to your overall health and fitness, your diet, and any other issues in your life that may lead to back pain. learn more about healing back pain naturally or the similar topic of back pain therapy in india .

gsa scandal kelis dick clark dies ibogaine jamie moyer bone cancer hossa

More TV, Less Self-Esteem, Except for White Boys

May 30, 2012 3:05pm

?

Children?s self-esteem generally goes down as TV watching goes up. But white boys are the exception, according to a new study published in the journal Communications Research.

Researchers from Indiana University surveyed close to 400 boys and girls between the ages? of 7?and 12, of whom 59 percent were black, and slightly less than half white, to see if there was a correlation between time spent in front of the TV and children?s self-esteem. They tallied the amount of TV watched and had the participants complete an 11-item questionnaire?intended ?to measure overall feelings of self-worth.

The existing research on the impact of TV on children?s health has focused on body image and eating disorders, Nicole Martins, an assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University and co-author of the study, told ABCNews.com. Given that children spend?more than?seven?hours a day with some sort of media (computers, TV, video games), examining the influence of? media on how they feel about themselves seemed long overdue, she said.

The study authors said that while white male TV characters tend ?to hold positions of power in prestigious occupations,?have?a lot of?education and beautiful wives,? the?TV roles of girls and women tend ?to be less positive and more one-dimensional. Female characters?are often sexualized, and success?is often measured?according to?how?they look.

Black men and boys are often criminalized on TV, the ?researchers said, which can affect their feelings of?self-worth.

According to the study, self-esteem has significant behavioral and emotional ramifications, and it is often correlated with motivation, persistence and academic achievement, particularly among children.

But Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University, said self-esteem? had??not been?found to? relate causally to anything at all. While it can be one?measure?of clinical depression, that does not mean it characterizes or causes depression.

?As citizens, we think of self-esteem as very important,? said Kazdin. ?But I deal with aggressive and violent children who have self-esteem that can be much higher than the average child. Yes, every parent wants their child to feel good about themselves, but high self-esteem is not an elixir to get you through life. It is not the protective factor we?d like it to be.?

Building confidence in children, and helping?them gain skills and competencies that contribute to a better life, such as learning instruments, playing sports or sticking with a difficult school lesson, will help do that. If children do not have friends, setting up ?light play dates? will help build socialization skills, a ?really important aspect of life,? Kazdin said.

Martins suggested that parents limit TV time, and as Kazdin suggested, help?their kids ?gain skills that will?improve ?their lives.

?Too much time in front of the screen may displace real-life experiences, such as playing a musical instrument, playing ball in the backyard, that could build a child?s feeling of self-worth,? said Martins. ?Another option would be to actively mediate? ?children?s?media use so that they can more easily understand fantasy from reality.

?Simple distinctions and conversations like this help mitigate the impact such an image might have on self-esteem and comparisons to media characters,? she said.

?

?

SHOWS: Good Morning America

michelle rounds michelle rounds dan quayle brett favre packers stock packers stock mastectomy

Ann Romney vs. Michelle Obama: Who Has the Most Obnoxious Hobby?

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

david decastro travis pastrana aj jenkins shea mcclellin nfl draft 2012 whitney mercilus 2012 nfl draft picks

The science of why you love coffee ? Living ? Bangor Daily News ...

A generation ago, most Americans recognized two kinds of coffee: regular and decaf. Now we?re concerned about every last detail ? from the beans? country of origin and whether they are organic, have been shade-grown and traded fairly to the degree of roasting and how much pressure was applied during brewing. Yet for all of this connoisseurism, how much do we understand about the science of coffee?

Get ready to know your joe.

?Coffee?s main attributes are bitterness, acidity and body, also known as mouth-feel,? according to Ronald Pegg, a food science professor at the University of Georgia who teaches an introductory course on coffee. ?The key is to get these three attributes in balance.?

As coffee makes its way from tree to mug, producers must keep this balance in mind. It?s not an easy task, because coffee contains more than 1,000 chemical compounds, according to research by Thomas Hofmann of the Technical University of Munich and Oliver Frank of the University of Muenster.

Consider the first element, the bean. There are 70 species of coffee, but two dominate the market: coffea arabica, the more common variety native to Ethiopia, and coffea canephora, also known as coffea robusta, a more disease-resistant plant. Arabica is almost universally acknowledged as the superior variety, although blends often contain robusta because it?s cheaper and adds a strong bitterness that some coffee drinkers enjoy in small doses.

There are several chemical differences between the two varieties. Arabica has 60 percent more fat than robusta ? and taste-testers typically favor coffee made from beans with more fat. Fat also helps during the production process because it creates a more even roast. Arabica beans also have a higher concentration of sugar.

To understand why a sugary bean makes a better brew, we have to consider roasting.

Freshly picked coffee beans have virtually no flavor. Roasting is what makes coffee palatable. The roasting process triggers a long list of chemical reactions. One is caramelization, the breaking-down of sugar, which contributes to coffee?s brown color. Roasting also creates compounds that contribute to coffee?s unique flavor and aroma, including diacetyl, which adds a butterscotch flavor, and furans, which contribute a nutlike taste.

Roasting also generates what are known as Maillard reactions. Named after the French chemist Louis Camille Maillard, these complex reactions occur when heat is applied to amino acids in the presence of sugars. Like caramelization, they are responsible for browning and for the production of hundreds of chemicals that, in combination, give unique flavors to cooked meats, baked breads, dark beers, toast and coffee. Since arabica beans have about twice as much sugar as the robusta variety, the roasting process generates a fuller and more complex variety of Maillard reactions in them than it does in robusta, making for a more interesting taste in the coffee.

Roasting is a touchy business, though. High heat can also overproduce bitter compounds and ruin the drink. For many years, food scientists believed that caffeine was the main source of bitterness in coffee. While it?s true that pure caffeine has a bitter flavor, it?s present in such low proportions in an average cup of coffee that it contributes only a small amount of flavor.

In fact, coffee bitterness is attributable to a family of chemicals known as chlorogenic acids, which are also present in tea, peaches and prunes. Chlorogenic acids aren?t bitter themselves, but, when roasted, they transform into two related chemicals ? lactones and phenylindanes. Lactones give a pleasant, soft bitterness. Phenylindanes are more powerful and harsh, and are present in higher concentration in dark roasts.

Getting the roast right is still more art than science. Expert coffee roasters must constantly pull sample beans out from the heat to check the color and aroma. These markers are actually proxies for the concentration of lactones and phenylindanes. Food scientists are working on ways to make the process more scientific. One day, perhaps, instead of asking your barista for medium roast or dark roast, you?ll ask for a precise balance of lactones and phenylindanes. (And you thought coffee orders couldn?t get any more complicated.)

Just as there is science to bean selection and roasting, there?s also a little bit of science in brewing and drinking coffee.

How much of the coffee ends up in the cup depends on the brewing method chosen. Percolators and drip machines are extremely inefficient at transferring chemicals from bean to beverage. The final result is only about 1.3 percent coffee; the rest is water. That?s okay if you like a coffee with mild flavor and body, but many find that extraction rate rather weak. French-press (or plunger pot) coffee is similarly mild, but it is high in oil content, providing a body that some drinkers prefer. (French-press enthusiasts should be advised that those oils may elevate cholesterol levels.) On the other end of the spectrum are espresso machines, which force the coffee compounds into the water. Espresso is more than 5 percent coffee bean. These differences affect not only flavor but also the perception of body and mouth-feel.

No matter which brewing method you select, drink your joe immediately. As hot coffee sits, those lactones break down into acids. The pH of brewed coffee can drop 15 percent in an hour or so, throwing off the acidity-bitterness-body balance so crucial to a good cup of coffee.

4/20 student loan forgiveness ufc 145 weigh ins record store day 2012 detroit red wings jose canseco zimmerman

What your Facebook picture says about your background

ScienceDaily (May 29, 2012) ? For millions of its Western users, the picture they choose to illustrate themselves on Facebook is an important decision to make. They know it can be the first impression that anyone in the world receives of them, so they're often deeply conscious of what features are displayed and what flaws are hidden by their chosen image. But despite their careful deliberation the decision may not be a personal or independent one at all -- the choice may be more conditioned by cultural factors than anyone assumes.

According to new research published in the International Journal of Psychology, the Facebook profile pictures of Americans and other Westerners are more likely to zoom-in and focus on the individual's face than those of Facebookers from the more collectivistic and interdependent cultures of East Asia, whose profile pics generally pull-out to include more background features.

These findings echo previous research on cultural factors influencing cognitive preferences: East Asians are more sensitive to contextual information than Westerners, who tend to process focal and discrete attributes of the environment. This is the first evidence that such real-world trends are carried over into the way we present ourselves online.

Remarkably, the research also found that these cultural influences over our self-presentation can shift over time and from place-to-place. So East Asian students at American universities, for example, will be more likely to follow the preferences of their hosts and go for close-ups of their own face in their profile pics.

Worth thinking about next time you're updating your online profile pictures -- for example, on your LinkedIn profile, what impression are you giving of yourself? Are potential employers seeing a close-up of your face, and will they think you're a hands-on, details-oriented person? Or should you consider a wider angle and a more interesting background, presenting you as an expansive 'big picture' employee?

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Taylor & Francis, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Chih-Mao Huang, Denise Park. Cultural influences on Facebook photographs. International Journal of Psychology, 2012; : 1 DOI: 10.1080/00207594.2011.649285

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.

cornucopia best buy black friday deals thanksgiving crafts matt cassel snowman playstation network down houston astros

Watching My Dad Try To Play Diablo 3 Was Certainly Entertaining

I was recently back at the family home and I had the fortune to watch my Dad try and play Diablo 3. This was certainly a very entertaining experience because it gave us all a good laugh, particularly some of the younger members of the family who have already mastered this game.

I think we all forget how difficult it is for the older generation to start playing some of the modern computer and video games. To be honest I think he, along with many others who are the same age, would really struggle to play this game even if he had the best Diablo 3 guide money can buy.

There are some things that the older generation are really good at, but playing computer games certainly isn?t one of them. To be fair I think that anyone under the age of 30 now will be just the same when they reach that age as well. The fact is that time moves on and we are all getting older, so I guess we shouldn?t really make fun of them when they embarrass themselves playing computer games such as Diablo 3.

Comments Off

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

pipa keystone xl sopa bill sopa and pipa piracy sopa marg helgenberger

Real estate lingo, and the sorriest apologies ? Sentence first

I have two new posts up at Macmillan Dictionary Blog, excerpted below.

The unreality of real estate language was prompted by the amusing hyperbole of property ads, where ordinary lawns are ?magnificent?, every room is ?filled with natural light?, and dreams lie forever on your doorstep. It is a world where

medium is ?large?, average is ?first rate?, and unusual is ?extraordinary?. Any site that isn?t a ruined shack sinking into a swamp may be described as ?superb?. A well-maintained building is ?stunning? and ?fabulous?, a better-than-average view ?must be seen to be believed?, and everywhere but the most dilapidated neighbourhoods are in a ?most sought after location?. (Hyphens, unlike typos, are often scarce in these ads.)

The comments offer such phrases as ?deceptively spacious? and ?compact and bijou? as further examples of this less-than-reliable repackaging of reality. You can read the rest here.

*

Apologies are being expressed ? or are they? examines the possible differences between saying ?I?m sorry? and ?Apologies? (and variations thereon):

Authentic remorse tends to be effectively communicated so long as sincere effort is made through tone, gesture, penitent behaviour and so on. But the words, as an explicit admission of wrongdoing or shortcoming, can be an important part of reconciliation. . . .

Because it omits the subject, ?Apologies? is somewhat disembodied and abstract, a bit like saying ?Mistakes were made? instead of ?I/We made a mistake.? It can be personalised, for example as ?My (sincere) apologies?, but this feels formal ? at least to me ? whereas ?I?m sorry? does not. Omission of the subject is why the passive voice is not best suited to apologising . . .

It?s a very subjective area, of course, and ?I?m sorry? can be as sarcastic as ?Apologies? can be sincere ? which is partly why it?s so interesting. The comments from other people helped to develop the discussion beyond my hunches and experiences. I didn?t use corpus data in arriving at my cautious conclusions ? for which, my apologies.

Like this:

Be the first to like this post.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2012 at 6:56 pm and is filed under advertising, language, words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Post navigation

? Previous Post

reese witherspoon pregnant billy joel bent new york jets etch a sketch romney tim tebow ny jets

Free Pets to Good Home ? Blog Archive ? Three Reasons Why You ...

Good groundwork is an essential component of all horsemanship. It is totally necessary that a top class coach be used to lay a sound foundation of groundwork in every pony. I give below the three most vital reasons for this.

Create good rapport: groom your horse

Grooming substitutes for the way horses care for each other in herds. They stand facing in opposite directions, shoulder touching shoulder. When they rub against each other, each is scratching the other?s shoulder. A pony cannot scratch his own shoulders. This is only accomplised by horses of the same ranking in a herd which shares proximity in relationship. Sometimes, horses that are at different levels on the totem pole will not to help one another out this way.

You can use grooming as a way of educating your horse. Quite often, for instance, a horse will try to reciprocate your kindness in grooming him by reaching back and giving you a nibble. While he means well, you can?t allow this sort of behavior. You should make it clear to the horse that nibbles, friendly or otherwise, are taboo. This is often done by the straightforward act of pushing the horse?s face away in order that it faces forward again. An alternative way you can do this is to wave your hands in front of you, signalling to the pony in a way he is going to understand that you are creating a confining wall. Ensure you don?t go wildly semaphoring your hands in such a way your entire body is moving with them. You do it in a relaxed and easy way. Excited behavior from you generates nervous energy in the pony, because he may see your behaviour as threatening. If that happens, then you?re not doing a lot of good to your activities to build a solid bond with your horse.

Open the way to in depth coaching

Work under saddle and lunging are vital groundwork components, but unfortunately they aren?t given sufficient importance all too often. The common horse owner makes the mistake of assuming that some mounted and some under-saddle work is sufficient for teaching the horse; she doesn?t give due significance to getting effective groundwork done. Usually such pony owners fail to train their horses to ?Whoa!? when they do groundwork. That suggests the pony isn?t going to recognise the importance of the word ?Whoa!? when a person is in the saddle. The unfortunate part is that when a horse fails to respond to a rider?s ?Whoa!?. That rider immediately assumes the foal is behaving badly. Riders actually don?t think enough about gaps in the training the horse has received. A good tutor would have familiarized the pony with ?Whoa!? during groundwork in order that it would have no problems with the term when being ridden.

All structures are at their strongest when their foundations are well built, and this is the case with a horse?s behaviour too. The foundation for horses is groundwork. Wrong groundwork will reflect itself in the horse?s responses and behaviour when under saddle. It is actually true that most issues that arise under saddle with a horse?s responses and behavior can be properly attributed to poor groundwork coaching, and not to the horse?s own nature.

Ground coaching should be conducted with kindness and patience. You must remember that one of the objectives of effective groundwork coaching is to establish total mutual trust and confidence between you and your pony. Immaculate connection with your horse will serve you perfectly well for years and years to come.

Keep things safe

A pony without the right ground coaching can have defiant traits. For one he may not let himself be led out of his stall and saddled eagerly. He may resist you in your endeavors. This defiance can build up till it reaches physically dangerous proportions. Your pony may start bucking, endangering itself, the rider and others in the area. Proper groundwork begins with teaching your horse the idea of personal space. When well taught, a horse will not be inclined to move blindly, without thought of consequence to anyone standing near. He is going to know how to maintain correct body posture. This is very useful when your pony is going through uncomfortable or potentially unpleasant experiences like he might have with farriers and vets. Times like that, a horse who knows how to remain still can be a benefit, since it won?t involve any required jerking or pulling on the halter.

You will find that with effective two-way communication, your relationship with your pony can be long term and extraordinarily rewarding.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about herbs for horses

oscar winners 2012 billy crystal oscars 2012 angelina jolie oscars chardon high school christopher plummer viola davis school shooting in ohio

Romney, McCain hold joint Memorial Day commemoration (Los Angeles Times)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

san francisco chronicle kourtney kardashian pregnant kourtney kardashian pregnant chip kelly billy cundiff super bowl tickets superbowl

Mexico finds cartels making fake military uniforms

Mexican marines say they have found a clandestine workshop in northern Mexico where presumed drug traffickers made copies of military uniforms.

The navy says hundreds of camouflage pants, shirts and vests were found at the workshop in the northern border city of Piedras Negras., across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.The uniforms are part of an effort by criminal gangs to damage the reputation of the marine corps, the navy said Thursday.

Read More

Tags: Illegal drug trade, mexico, Military uniform

Category: Incident Reports

jet crash in virginia beach john tortorella nicki minaj beez in the trap video food network good friday f/a 18 f 18 crash virginia

Why Africa Needs a Study Bible

Even in a nation long saturated with Christian resources, Americans love their study Bibles. By juxtaposing the inspired text with informed commentary, readers quickly grow in their knowledge and depth of insight into God's Word. So imagine the good that could come from a study Bible produced by Africans for Africa, where 200 million Christians don't have a Bible at all.

Oasis International, which aims to establish a Christian book industry across Africa, has assembled an 11-person editorial team leading hundreds of contributors across the continent to produce the Africa Study Bible. To learn more about this exciting project I corresponded with Oasis president and Africa Study Bible project manager Matthew Elliott, who has been working for more than 15 years to supply books and Bibles to Africa's poor majority. Elliott earned his PhD in New Testament from the University of Aberdeen and has written two books, Feel: The Power of Listening to Your Heart and Faithful Feelings: Rethinking Emotion in the New Testament. He explained how the study Bible idea originated, how they selected the contributors, and how we can help.?

How did this idea come together?

As early as 2002, we were talking about ways to make the Bible come alive for African readers. In Jos, Nigeria, one of our partners did a study for English-speaking Christians on how they understood the language of the Bible. Many millions across the continent go to school in English. We found that many words familiar to us in the United States are not so clear to the average African. We began thinking and dreaming of ways to increase understanding of the Bible. Then in 2010 I spent about two months traveling Africa asking questions of pastors, denominational presidents and bishops, and seminary residents. Is this a good idea? If so, what does this look like? What are the features and topics that will grow Christians deep in Africa? Every single conversation ended something like this: "Africa needs this Bible, what can I do to help?" We had a green light to stop dreaming and start working on the project.

Help us understand the need for an Africa study Bible and how it would contrast with the many study Bibles produced in the West.

We just received an article on "God's People in Transition." It starts like this:

The sun was rising when the first gunshot and bombardment were heard in the town of Dolisie. Everyone tried to find shelter or get to safety amid the cries of children, wailing, shouts, and heavy bombardments. War had come to our town, and we did not know what to do. After two days of trying to hide in our house we were driven out by lack of food and an encounter with angry and greedy soldiers.

It goes on to talk about the biblical basis for taking care of refugees. Our author has lived it. AIDS orphans, female circumcision, slavery---these are just some of the most obvious examples of the African context that would never appear in an application targeted to readers in America. This study Bible will equip Africans to live out the gospel in their context, to be disciples of Jesus.

The ASB will also capture the wonders and blessings of the African church and culture, their spirit of celebration, community, and faith. In many ways, African culture is closer to that of the Bible than ours. Africans understand things we cannot see. The ASB will bring African insights about the Scripture to the world as well.

Every feature has one simple purpose---growing disciples deep in the African context.

How did you select the various contributors?

Our editorial committee came to Accra, Ghana, from every major region and language group---English, French, Arabic, Portuguese (the Bible will be published in multiple languages). They set the direction for the project and made every major editorial decision. It was probably the most amazing week of my working life, to see these men and women come together from all these different denominations and cultures and have such unity of purpose and vision. All were highly educated, having a doctorate in one field or another; a number were seminary presidents or denominations presidents. One man was the president of an association representing probably 50 million African Christians. Most had never met each other. Can you imagine a greater possibility for conflict and disagreement? Yet all were strong believers in the authority and power of the Bible. From the first moment, we were on task and working as true brothers and sisters in Christ.

They had a pastor's heart to grow the church in every discussion. Our editors, directed by John Jusu from African International University (formerly NEGST), are now working with hundreds of writers across the continent to see their vision accomplished.

Previous African theological projects have been criticized for essentially offering the same Western perspective, since so many African leaders were educated in the West. Are you concerned with that critique on the Africa Study Bible?

Great question. That was a topic in about every conversation in my travels in 2010, and many, many conversations since. I wish you could see the notes coming in to see the results. We have designed whole feature criteria to set an authentic African tone for the project. In the stories and proverbs, writers are comparing their sayings and stories with the truth of Scripture. What wise sayings fit the truth of the Bible, and which ones contradict biblical truth and need to be changed or modified? In another feature, authors are working to draw parallels between passages of Scripture and practices in a part of African culture. I think the ASB may set a new precedent for this kind of project. That is our hope, anyway. All this is being run through a very strong filter of historical, biblical, orthodox Christianity. We have defined a very rigorous, African-led review process that will ensure this outcome. So the final result should be strong in both sound theology and cultural context.

How can readers participate in and support this project?

They can go online to www.africastudybible.com, give, and post a dedication or encouragement for our writers. That is a start. However, it is a $500,000 project just for the editorial process, and additional funds are needed for translation and to start printing Bibles. Our hope is that the ASB will affect many millions in the years to come. Many of these African Christians---even pastors---do not have a single book to equip their spiritual growth. The Africa Study Bible will be one volume that has the words of Scripture, defines the basic truths of Christianity, and teaches them to apply it in their lives. If they can own one single book to grow their faith, this should be it.

We need churches and other groups to come alongside the project as well. We have defined the cost of every book of the Bible. A congregation can give by underwriting the Gospel of Mark, or maybe a smaller group wold like to raise the funds for Jude---we all can do something. The editorial cost and printing the first 200,000 copies will cost about $50 per verse.

Last, pray for us! Africa is a place of intense spiritual warfare. The church is growing so quickly, but can you imagine a continent where more than 200 million Christians do not have a Bible, where many if not most pastors have two, three, or more churches to oversee? How do you learn what it means to be a Christian? What does the church become in this context? What kind of false teachings can arise when people do not have a way to learn what the Bible is really saying? Pray with us that God supplies the resources to complete the Africa Study Bible so it can be a tool to grow believers deep!

Collin Hansen serves as editorial director for The Gospel Coalition. He is the co-author of A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir. You can follow him on Twitter.

solstice x factor results x factor results the hobbit movie trailer xfactor frankincense cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Rouge Valley gets $144 million to become Canada?s first national park in a city

(Image: Vlad Litvinov)

As the federal government promised nearly a year ago, a massive stretch of the Rouge Valley will become Canada?s first urban national park, with the help of?$144 million in?federal funding. The government will mete the money out over the next decade to create Rouge National Urban Park, a 47-square-kilometre green space bordered by Lake Ontario, Toronto, Markham and Pickering. The exact boundaries of the park haven?t been decided yet, but so far the proposed space is about 15 times larger than Central Park and within easy reach of seven million Canadians?a fifth of the country. At an announcement today, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the government will seek consultation from the public and hopes the space will be a ?people?s park? (which is convenient, since some parkgoers will soon be taking the ?people?s highway? to get there).?[Globe and Mail]

---

Read more

by Monika Warzecha May 25, 2012 at 2:03 pm

benson henderson 2012 dunk contest edgar vs henderson berkshire hathaway ufc 144 james jones james jones

My Kind Of Church Music, Forever Young by Bob Dylan

As Unitarian Universalists we are as interested in getting heaven into people as people into heaven.
Kaaren Anderson

We need not think alike to love alike.
Francis David

"Separate but equal - NONSENSE. Genesis over geology - OH, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Peronal salvation before care and concern for those who really need us - BLASPHEMY."
Rev. Dr. John B. Wolf

livan hernandez soledad o brien mega ball lottery winner lottery numbers mega millions lottery jackpot

Bankia seeks US$24-billion bailout as debt worries mount

The Bankia group, a Spanish lender nationalized earlier this month, will seek 19-billion euros (US$23.8-billion) of government funds as it provisions against real estate and non-property loans.

The group will ask the state?s bank rescue fund to provide the money by buying shares in its parent company, Banco Financiero y de Ahorros, it said in a filing to regulators yesterday after a meeting of the board of Bankia SA, its listed arm. The group needs a further 4 billion euros to cover real estate on top of provisions already ordered by the government, and 5.5-billion euros for the rest of its loan book, it said.

?Bankia is the tip of an iceberg as we?ve been saying all along . . . It?s systemically important and it needs to be dealt with properly?

The unraveling of Bankia has deepened concern about the health of Spain?s banks and increased the government?s financing costs as it struggles with the debt crisis. The restructuring costs for BFA, which come on top of 4.5-billion euros from a first government bailout, compare with a May 11 estimate from Economy Minister Luis de Guindos that less than 15 billion euros of public funds would be needed to support the whole industry.

?Bankia is the tip of an iceberg as we?ve been saying all along,? said Tobias Blattner, an economist at Daiwa Capital Markets in London, in a phone interview yesterday. ?It?s a very large institution, it?s systemically important and it needs to be dealt with properly.?

Cut to Junk

The Bankia group, formed in 2010 from a merger of seven savings banks led by Caja Madrid and Valencia-based Bancaja, last year listed its banking business on the stock exchange after parking its worst real estate assets in the parent company.

Bankia was among three Spanish banks that had their credit ratings cut to junk by Standard & Poor?s yesterday, citing Spain?s weakening economy. S&P lowered Bankia to BB+ from BBB- and BFA to B+ from BB-, the ratings company said in a statement. Banco Popular Espanol SA and Bankinter SA were reduced to BB+ and Banca Civica SA was cut to BB.

Bankia announced yesterday a restated 2011 loss of 2.98-billion euros, ?without reservations from auditors.? The company plans to reduce its board to 10 members from 18, with only Chairman Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri and Chief Executive Officer Francisco Verdu remaining, it said in a filing.

Goirigolzarri will brief reporters on the restructuring plan today at 10 a.m. in Madrid and the bank will hold a webcast for analysts and investors at 12.30 p.m.

Spain said May 9 it would nationalize Bankia?s parent, making the state the biggest shareholder in the listed unit, just days after Chairman Rodrigo Rato resigned and the lender released 2011 accounts that weren?t signed by its auditor.

More Provisions

De Guindos on May 11 ordered lenders to set aside 30 billion euros to cover still-performing real estate loans, adding to demands made in February for provisions and capital of 53.8-billion euros.

Spain?s 10-year bond yield has climbed to 6.31% from 5.73% on May 7, the day Rato announced his resignation. Bankia has declined 58% in Madrid trading, to 1.57 euros, since selling shares to the public in July. The stock was suspended on May 25.

The additional 4-billion euros that the bank is seeking to cover real estate takes its total provisions for those assets to 12.7-billion euros. In addition to 5.5-billion euros to cover non-real estate lending under an ?adverse? stress scenario, the group needs 6.7-billion euros to clean up stakes in companies and tax assets, the group said.

?Big Number?

The group expects the state rescue fund, known as the FROB, to take control of BFA through the capital increase in June. After that, the Bankia unit will be recapitalized by a 12-billion-euro rights issue guaranteed by BFA that will probably go ahead in October, the group said.

The Bankia group will have a so-called principal capital ratio, a measure of financial strength, of 9.8% and a ratio of provisions to real estate assets of 48.9% after the cleanup, it said.

De Guindos told parliament on May 23 that Spain would provide as much public money as necessary for the Bankia group as he said it was a ?specific case,? without any read-across for the rest of the industry.

?It?s a big number for the restructuring, much more than the government had previously required, and shows the importance of going in and having a good look at the assets,? said Daragh Quinn, an analyst at Nomura International in Madrid.

Bloomberg.com

machine gun kelly saul alinsky annapolis trisomy wwe royal rumble leon panetta luck

Tropical storm Bud lashes Mexico

Tropical Storm Bud lashed the west coast of Mexico late on Friday, but this year?s first serious eastern Pacific storm was rapidly losing strength, giving Mexican emergency officials some respite.

However, a new storm named Beryl has formed in the Atlantic, threatening to disrupt the plans of thousands of US beachgoers taking advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend.

Mexican authorities breathed a sigh of relief as Bud displayed weaker wind gusts and lower swells than expected.

Overnight, the storm moved about 155km west-northwest of the port city of Manzanillo, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC). It was creeping northward at 11kph, packing maximum sustained winds of 95kph.

?Additional rapid weakening is forecast,? the NHC said. ?And Bud [was] expected to weaken to a tropical depression[yesterday].?

The weakening notwithstanding, emergency officials had alerted residents and prepared shelters as Bud ? which briefly intensified to a Category 3 storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale ? made its approach.

?We are on alert, we are preparing some 120 shelters in the coastal towns,? Colima civil protection chief Melchor Urusua said.

The Mexican government discontinued a hurricane warning along the central Pacific coastline from Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes, downgrading it to a tropical storm warning.

A tropical storm watch was in effect for the coast from north of Cabo Corrientes to San Blas.

The eye of the storm was expected to move near land overnight from Friday to yesterday before taking a gradual turn toward the southwest away from the coast today, according to the NHC.

Tropical storm conditions were already affecting part of the coastline.

Bud is expected to drop up to 25cm of rain in the Mexican coastal states of Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco and southern Nayarit, with up to 38cm in isolated areas.

This rainfall could produce ?life-threatening? flash floods and mudslides, the NHC said.

Mexican authorities have formed a task force in Jalisco, which includes 31 all-terrain vehicles and two helicopters to deal with emergency situations as well as deliver water and emergency food supplies to towns and villages that might be cut off by flooding

?A storm surge is expected to produce coastal flooding,? the NHC warned. ?The surge will be accompanied by large and damaging waves.? The center also said that swells generated by Bud could also produce dangerous, even ?life-threatening? surf and rip current conditions.

However, as Mexico appeared to have dodged the bullet, a new subtropical storm named Beryl formed in the Atlantic off the coast of South Carolina. Beryl, which was located 490km east of Charleston, South Carolina, was moving north at 15kph, the Miami-based center said.

hunger games miss canada justin bieber boyfriend marianas trench camille grammer camille grammer us supreme court

Once Again SKS to Offer Endowment Life Insurance Policy to its Borrowers | Insurance Blog, Insurance India, Health Insurance, Term Insurance, Car Insurance, Life Insurance, Save Tax

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

detroit red wings jose canseco zimmerman derek fisher lyrid meteor shower hippocrates andrew breitbart

Why Facebook isn?t embarrassed by its IPO

Why Facebook isn?t embarrassed by its IPO

So Facebook is now a public company but with the shares only one day old the news is already bad: Facebook shares didn?t pull a Google or a Yahoo or a Microsoft or even a TheGlobe.com and soar out of sight on IPO day. They ended right where they started pretty much after the day traders took their easy profits. And while Wall Street sees this performance as a dud, Facebook itself sees it as a masterful piece of financial engineering.

If you are an investment banker ? and let me re-emphasize that, if you are an investment banker ? you want IPO shares to go up on their first day, rising in price by at least 10 percent though no more than 20 percent. This shows the IPO is hot, the company is booming, yet the offering wasn?t so underpriced that the founders feel cheated.? Such IPOs make investors feel happy and happy investors buy and sell more shares and participate in future IPOs.

If you are an IPO company founder and ? even more explicitly ? you are Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, you want your share price on the first day to go exactly nowhere, which is what Facebook?s did. That means no money was left on the table and the company got the best possible deal.? Zuckerberg didn?t and doesn?t care about investors in this scenario, but then neither does he wish them ill. He just doesn?t give a damn.

And there?s the difference because investment bankers do give a damn because they?d like to have another IPO next week or next month and have that go very well, too. Zuckerberg expects Facebook to never issue another share of stock. He?s done raising money thanks, and on his honeymoon.

I?m sure there was a struggle at the end over how to price the offering. The bankers would have preferred $34 or even $32, but Facebook went for $38 and they were correct to do so from their point of view because we now see it was the optimal solution.

Then why don?t we feel better? Because for all its $100+ billion valuation the whole thing feels pretty low rent, like a big sale at K-Mart. Where?s the excitement? There isn?t any.

?

Tags: Facebook IPO, Mark Zuckerberg

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2012 at 11:57 pm and is filed under 2012, Business, Companies, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

ravi leigh espn greg oden st patricks day st. bonaventure ira glass

$1425000 :: 13795 Cameo CT, Lake Oswego OR, 97034 ? Lake ...

Posted by admin on May 25, 2012 in Blog

4 beds, 5 full, 2 part baths
Home size: 7,190 sq ft
Lot Size: 22,215 sq ft
Property Type: DETACHD
MLS Number: 11322158
Community: Forest Highlands
The price of this listing was last reduced on 5/25/2012 by 3%

Magnificent French inspired estate offering contemporary luxury & comforts with classic European style & charm. Built with superb attention to detail, this gorgeous home features a gourmet kitchen a chef would appreciate, light & bright sun room, 3 en suites, theater room, master retreat with sitting & exercise rooms, 3 stop elevator & whole home audio. A rare ?must see? home.

Listed with Keller Williams Realty Port Pr

---

Brought to you by Chris Larsson, Coldwell Banker Seal. Call me today at 503-683-2897!

The content relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the IDX program of the RMLS? of Portland, Oregon. All real estate listings are marked with the RMLS? logo, and detailed information about these properties includes the names of the listing brokers. Listing content is ? 2009 RMLS?, Portland, Oregon.

---

Lake Oswego Map Seach
Tags: Coldwell Banker Seal, 97034, Keller Williams Realty Port PrBrought

---

Chris Larsson- Lake Oswego Real Estate Agent

Let me help you find everything you need to know about buying or selling real estate in Lake Oswego, OR! I have been a top-producing Coldwell Banker real estate professional for over 8 years in LO. I am 120% dedicated to providing world-class concierge level service to my clientele.

---

SEARCH THE LAKE OSWEGO MLS AND REAL ESTATE LISTING HERE...

lana turner donald glover julio cesar chavez jr jason segel turducken power rangers jungle fury power rangers jungle fury

Solar desalination system for arid land agriculture

ScienceDaily (May 25, 2012) ? Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have created a human-made oasis in the desert with the successful application of a solar-powered desalination system that provides water for irrigation in arid regions. The project was made possible with support from American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU).

The solar-powered system uses nanofiltration membranes to treat the local brackish (saline) water, resulting in high-quality desalinated irrigation water. The results of the Josefowitz Oasis Project indicate that irrigation with desalinated water yields higher productivity from water and inorganic fertilizers compared with current practices. Crops grown with desalinated water required 25 percent less irrigation and fertilizer than brackish water irrigation. In some cases, the yield of crops increased.

The findings were presented in a paper at the Conference on Desalination for the Environment in Barcelona late last month by Dr. Andrea Ghermandi of BGU's Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR) on behalf of his colleagues Drs. Rami Messalem (ZIWR), Rivka Offenbach, and Shabtai Cohen of the Central Arava Research and Development Station. The Josefowitz Oasis Project was funded by Samuel Josefowitz, of Lausanne, Switzerland with additional support from The Alliance for Global Good, Greensboro, North Carolina through AABGU.

"The growing global demand for food and competition for resources between economic sectors compel future agricultural systems to be more efficient in the use of natural resources, such as land and water," says Dr. Ghermandi. "In the Middle East, the lack of fresh water promotes the exploitation of marginal quality sources such as brackish aquifers, but the sustainability of the current management practices is questionable."

The research was conducted in the Arava Valley of Israel, south of the Dead Sea at a facility that produces environmentally sustainable crops in arid environments. The Arava basin is extremely dry and its agricultural activities rely extensively on brackish groundwater from local aquifers.

Agricultural experiments with variable irrigation water quality, application rate and four different staple crops were conducted over two growing seasons between September 2010 and June 2011. Nanofiltration membranes allowed for less pumping of energy. The desalination plant operated at low pressure, low energy consumption and with little maintenance required during the period.

The researchers also used red beet, a salt-tolerant crop, to successfully consume the liquid wastes of the pilot facility over two growing seasons. This demonstrates that the moderately saline concentrate waste from brackish water desalination can be a useable byproduct.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

charles taylor calvin johnson calvin johnson carl crawford mad cow disease powerball rampart

AP NewsAlert

Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! homepage or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services.

Please try Yahoo Help Central if you need more assistance.

neil degrasse tyson neil degrasse tyson davy jones death born this way foundation lytro camera lytro camera andrew brietbart

Get A Man To Fall In Love With You - Steps To Take

Falling in love is one of the most beautiful things that can happen to a man and a woman. Relationships are even more blissful when the same love continues to blossom. Most women who have not taken the huge and bold step to commit themselves into relationships will most probably develop some jealousy about those already in relationships. However, getting into a relationship is not as easy as it may sound; it takes more than just love to get a man to fall in love with you. This article outlines the best workable strategies that will help you fall right into the arms of the man you want.

Gone are the good old days when it was a man's job to come looking for you. Though men still considerably dominate the dating scene, it is important to take a chance when ever it presents itself. If you are the kind of woman who subscribes to the outdated doctrines of love; that love waits, then you are utterly mistaken. Love is just as dynamic as any nation's economy. In order to get the man you want, self confidence is essential. Most men do not like shy women. Let him know from the start that you are there by giving him suggestive passes that may activate him to make a move on you. It is not good to sit about hoping for him to take action it could be that another woman who is more precise with what she wants will swoop in and take him for herself. Again, confidence is key.

Having a conversation with the man you want is likely to turn him away, or pull him closer to you depending on how you go about it. Before hitting on him, it is advisable to take some time to learn what kind of person he his; there are those that like talkative women while others love women with not so much to say. Either way, always endeavor to show maturity, composure and above all, confidence within your conversations with him. Talk to his colleagues and try to get a feel for his likes and dislikes if he is not know to you. Be precise and straightforward while maintaining your humor and always be friendly in the way you talk to him. By doing this, he has no choice but to respect what you want and sooner or later, he will be yours for as long as you want to keep him.

Other pertinent aspects that are essential in trying to get a man to fall in love with you include personal independence and respect towards him. As much as you are required to be straightforward with him, show him respect, and the ability to listen and be trustworthy. Men like women they can talk to who can help them through a problem with out being petty.

Conclusively, getting him to fall in love with you at the end of it all narrows down to your personal effort and how strongly he is attracted towards you. However beauty is only skin deep and unless your man is a vain playboy if you let your personality shine through you can claim him for your own. Nevertheless, falling in love still remains one the most beautiful and emotional things, and relationships, just like marriage, are blissful. Make sure you are in one, and protect it!

lsu crimson tide crimson tide dixville notch 2013 ford fusion lsu football lsu football

EU leaders support growth, give few concrete plans

Greek Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos addresses the media after an EU summit at the EU Council in Brussels, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union met in Brussels Wednesday to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Greek Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos addresses the media after an EU summit at the EU Council in Brussels, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union met in Brussels Wednesday to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

French President Francois Hollande, gestures as he speaks to the media during a press conference at an EU summit, at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, May 24, 2012. The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union meet in Brussels to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Greek Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos addresses the media after an EU summit at the EU Council in Brussels, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union met in Brussels Wednesday to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the media after an EU summit at the EU Council in Brussels Thursday, May 24, 2012. The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union met in Brussels Wednesday to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks away after she addressed the media after an EU summit at the EU Council in Brussels Thursday, May 24, 2012. The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union met in Brussels Wednesday to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? European Union leaders concluded their latest summit early Thursday with few concrete steps to fix the continent's festering financial crisis even as the potential for a messy Greek exit from the euro appears to be rising. Some leaders stressed the importance of planning for just such an event but offered no measures that might help Greece avoid it.

Also left unresolved was what Europe should do to spark economic growth and restore the confidence of investors, who have driven some countries' borrowing costs to unsustainable levels. The fiscal austerity agenda that Germany has promoted as the solution to Europe's problem of too much government debt has been met with rising skepticism in other euro countries.

The leaders of the 27 EU countries agreed to give institutions such as the European Investment Bank the task of drawing up proposals for growth in time for another summit in June. But there was discord over more aggressive actions promoted by some leaders heading into the summit, such as issuing bonds jointly as a way of reducing borrowing costs for heavily indebted nations among the 17 countries that use the euro.

The perception that European leaders lack the political will to tackle the continent's financial and economic problems has left markets on edge for weeks. Recession is spreading. Banks are under pressure. The biggest fear is that if Greece cannot be saved, other larger economies ? like Spain or Portugal ? might face the same fate.

The euro countries "have to consider all kinds of events," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters after a European Union summit, but insisted that "the working assumption" was that Greece would remain part of the euro. Leaders gathered in Brussels recognized that Greece had endured significant hardships and promised to release development funds aimed at spurring growth.

But the statement from Juncker, who also chairs meetings of eurozone finance ministers, was a frank admission that Greece could wind up abandoning the euro. The country's fringe political parties, which are threatening to renege on commitments made to secure bailout loans, saw their popularity surge in recent elections. No party has been able to form a government, and the country will vote again June 17.

Many analysts have said that Greece, already in its fifth year of recession, has no hope of recovery if it sticks to the spending cuts and tax hikes it agreed to in order to secure bailout loans.

"We want Greece to remain in the euro area," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the meeting. "We expect that they will stick to the commitments that they have entered into."

Political uncertainty in Greece is just one of the fires the Europe needs to put out. Leaders are also worried about rising borrowing costs in Spain and Italy that could force them to seek bailouts, just like Greece, Portugal and Ireland did.

Markets had expected the latest EU summit to disappoint and it did. Europe's stock markets had fallen heavily during trading on Wednesday and the euro hit a near two-year low against the dollar.

Asian stock markets retreated Thursday as the lack of a breakthrough in Europe unnerved traders. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was down 0.5 at 8,514.53 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.6 percent to 18,682.38.

Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong, said Thursday: "Europe is not doing enough, and the market may not wait for them."

One of the biggest questions facing Europe is whether it's time to cut Greece some slack. Some European countries seemed ready to ease the pressure, and international organizations have called for the pace of austerity measures to be slowed in some struggling countries.

But Thursday's summit of 27 European Union leaders ended with no apparent concessions. A final statement said Greece had to respect its commitments and trumpeted the money the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund had loaned Greece as a sign of their "solidarity." It did say that funds for economic development would be sent to Greece ? though it's unclear how much of an immediate impact on growth they would have.

Juncker insisted early Thursday that he had not asked the euro nations to prepare national contingency plans for a possible chaotic departure of Greece from the currency.

French President Francois Hollande said that to evoke the even the possibility was dangerous ? and would send a signal to the markets that the eurozone wasn't standing behind Greece.

The debate reflects the fine line European leaders must walk between pressuring Greece to stick to a program of spending cuts and tax hikes that have exacerbated its economic slowdown and trying to ensure its presence in the eurozone.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy suggested the European Central Bank resume some of its emergency measures, such as buying the bonds of weak countries, which has the impact of lowering countries' borrowing rates. The ECB has suspended the purchases because, as an independent body, it does not want to be seen supporting governments directly. Instead, it has given European banks massive amounts of cheap loans to bolster confidence in the financial system and allow banks to buy up their country's debt.

Leaders on Thursday also addressed the contentious issue of whether the countries that use the euro should spread the risk and borrow money jointly - issuing so-called "eurobonds." This would mean every country could borrow funds at the same rate, substantially lowering the costs for the more indebted countries.

Hollande has pushed for them as an important way to ensure such a crisis never happens again, but Merkel has rejected them, fearing they would reduce the pressure on heavily indebted governments to heal their finances and force Germany to borrow at higher rates.

___

Don Melvin contributed to this story.

Associated Press

buffalo bills minnesota vikings st louis rams baltimore ravens atlanta falcons ryan tannehill cispa

Massachusetts Special Education, Special Education Teacher Job ...

SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER
Pelham Elementary School
Amherst-Pelham Regional School District
Pelham, Massachusetts

Requirements
online submission of references is preferred. In the even that a reference can not be submitted online with your application, please direct references to: Amherst Public Schools, Human Resources Office
170 Chestnut Street, Amherst, MA 01002
or to
Rachel Bowen: bowenr@arps.org or by fax 413-549-6108.

INTERNAL APPLICANTS: The applicant should be aware that, if she/he is successful and is moving into another district, this transfer will result in the loss of professional teacher status and seniority for purposes of the Reduction in Staff provision of the collective bargaining agreement.

All candidates must hold a MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education License in Moderate Disabilities, level PK-8 or Severe Disabilities, All levels.
Bachelor degree preferred

Contact Information
Rachel Bowen, HR Assistant
170 Chestnut Street
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
Phone: 413-362-1810
Fax: 413-549-9811
Email: bowenr@arps.org

See here for more information

adastra holocaust remembrance day chesapeake energy dick clark death yom hashoah yolo liquidmetal

Hawaii Verifies Obama Birth Records (WSJ)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

jack del rio heaven is for real chapter 11 bankruptcy chapter 11 bankruptcy big ten acc challenge 2011 john wayne gacy amr