Col. David W. Maxwell holds a press conference at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va., on Friday, March 22, 2013 regarding a murder/suicide that occurred on Thursday night that resulted in the deaths of three Marines. A Marine killed a male and female colleague in a shooting at a base in northern Virginia before killing himself, officials said early Friday. (AP Photo/The Free Lance-Star, Peter Cihelka)
Col. David W. Maxwell holds a press conference at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va., on Friday, March 22, 2013 regarding a murder/suicide that occurred on Thursday night that resulted in the deaths of three Marines. A Marine killed a male and female colleague in a shooting at a base in northern Virginia before killing himself, officials said early Friday. (AP Photo/The Free Lance-Star, Peter Cihelka)
The Marine Base Quantico, spokesman Lt. Agustin Solivan briefs reporters following a shooting incident on the base Friday March 22, 2013. Three people, including the suspect, were killed in the shooting at Marine Base Quantico, Solivan said early Friday. He said they believe the suspect, whose name wasn't released, is a staff member at the officer candidate school at the base. No information on the victim was immediately released. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat)
The entrance to the U.S. Marine Corps Base Quantico Friday March 22, 2013. Three people, including the suspect, were killed in a shooting at Marine Base Quantico, base spokesman Lt. Agustin Solivan said early Friday. Solivan said they believe the suspect, whose name wasn't released, is a staff member at the officer candidate school at the base. No information on the victim was immediately released. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat)
This image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps shows snow covering one of Marine Corps Base Quantico?s many signs Wednesday March 6, 2013. One person was dead after a shooting at Marine Base Quantico and authorities were in a standoff early Friday March 22, 2013 with the suspect, who had barricaded himself in barracks, base spokesman Lt. Agustin Solivan said. Solivan said they believe the suspect, whose name wasn't released, is a staff member at the officer candidate school at the base. No information on the victim was immediately released. (AP Photo/US Marine Corps, Cpl. Antwaun L. Jefferson)
Changes scale from 50 to 150 mi/km; Map locates deadly shooting at Marine base in Virginia
QUANTICO, Va. (AP) ? A Marine who worked at an officer candidates school fatally shot two of his colleagues before killing himself in a barracks dorm room, officials said.
The Marine's colleagues were a man and a woman. Military officials did not release a motive or the identities of those slain.
Authorities were called at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia around 10:30 p.m. Thursday and found one Marine dead in the Taylor Hall barracks, base commander Col. David W. Maxwell said. A second victim was found elsewhere in the barracks. The body of the gunman was also located in Taylor Hall.
It wasn't immediately clear how much time passed between the killings or how far apart the bodies were found.
Only staff for the school live in Taylor Hall, a red brick building on the base that can house about 110 Marines. The officer candidates live elsewhere.
The base was put on lockdown after the first shooting and Marines and their families were told to stay inside over a loudspeaker known as the Giant Voice. The lockdown was lifted early Friday.
Officials said all three Marines were staff members at the school, but their jobs were not released. Base spokesman Lt. Agustin Solivan said everyone else was safe, including the officer candidates.
The shooting is the second tragedy the Marine Corps has faced this week. Seven members of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force were killed Monday when a mortar shell exploded in its firing tube during an exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. Eight others were injured.
Pentagon press secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was saddened to learn of the shooting.
"This tragedy, as well as the tragedy in Nevada earlier this week, took the lives of Marines who volunteered to serve their nation," Little said. "His heart and his prayers are with them and their families."
The sprawling Quantico base, which is 37 miles south of Washington, is also home to the FBI's training academy.
The officer candidates school's 10-week program trains Marines in the classroom and uses endurance hikes and obstacle courses to evaluate leadership potential. Candidates must also demonstrate a grasp of battlefield-tested leadership traits, the Marine Corps website said.
When they graduate, the Marines become second lieutenants.
In 2010, the Quantico base was one of several targets of an ex-Marine reservist who, during five nighttime shootings, fired on military targets including the Pentagon. Yonathan Melaku, on two separate occasions, fired at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. No one was injured and Melaku was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Florida Gulf Coast's Chase Fieler goes up for a dunk against Georgetown's Jabril Trawick during the second half of a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 22, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Florida Gulf Coast's Chase Fieler goes up for a dunk against Georgetown's Jabril Trawick during the second half of a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 22, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Florida Gulf Coast's Sherwood Brown reacts after a making a basket during the second half of a second-round game against Georgetown in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 22, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)
Georgetown's Jabril Trawick, center, dribbles between Florida Gulf Coast's Dajuan Graf, left, and Bernard Thompson during the first half of a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament on Friday, March 22, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Florida Gulf Coast head coach Andy Enfield reacts during the first half of a second-round game against Georgetown during the NCAA college basketball tournament on Friday, March 22, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Florida Gulf Coast's Brett Comer reacts after scoring during the first half of a second-round game against Georgetown during the NCAA college basketball tournament on Friday, March 22, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? College basketball, meet Florida Gulf Coast.
A school so new it wasn't eligible for the NCAA tournament until last year busted a load of brackets Friday night.
With 24 points from Sherwood Brown and a healthy dose of swagger, FGCU upset second-seeded Georgetown 78-68 in the second round of the South Regional.
"This is our first time being in the NCAA tournament. To actually go out there and win that first game, it means something really special to us," said Brown, who was the first of the players to head toward the Florida Gulf Coast cheering section with several seconds still on the clock.
The Eagles used a 21-2 second-half run to pull away from the Hoyas and then held on in the final minute to become just the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2.
"It's an unbelievable feeling. We played a very tough team in Georgetown. They have great players. They're a historic school," forward Chase Fieler said. "So being a newer school it's very exciting for us to be able to win a game like that and for the NCAA history. That's exciting and impressive to be a part of that."
Bernard Thompson had 23 points for Florida Gulf Coast, the champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
FGCU (25-10) will play seventh-seeded San Diego State, which beat No. 10 seed Oklahoma 70-55, in the third round on Sunday.
"We decided we can play with anybody and we did," said FGCU point guard Brett Comer, who finished with 12 points,10 assists and just two turnovers.
Comer was part of a play late in the game that almost brought down the house, throwing an alley-oop pass from the corner that Fieler grabbed and threw down with a one-handed dunk.
"Nothing special. It's something me and him have done this year," Comer said. "We knew what was going to happen there. Time and place didn't matter. I knew he'd catch it. You saw the result. The whole place went nuts and we really got the momentum from there."
Said Fieler: "That might be the highest I've ever jumped. We'll have to check the video. Brett has great vision. That was his 10th assist. He just threw it up and I had to go get it."
Just a night before, Harvard ? the nation's oldest university, founded in 1636 ? pulled off a major upset over third-seeded New Mexico. Now, one of its youngest ? FGCU's first student was admitted in 1997 ? has an even bigger one.
The Eagles' monster run gave them a 52-33 lead with 12:28 to play. The Hoyas staged a furious rally to get within 72-68 with 52 seconds left but the Eagles went 6 of 10 from the free throw line to seal it.
"In the second half, we pushed the ball, we got out, we ran, we made shots, got some alley-oop dunks to energize the crowd. I'm very proud of our players," said coach Andy Enfield, whose wife ? supermodel Amanda Marcum ? was shown several times on the arena's big screen.
For those who don't know FGCU, and that was probably plenty of people as of Friday afternoon, Florida Gulf Coast is a state university in Fort Myers with an enrollment of about 12,000 students.
This is FGCU's first tournament and Georgetown's 29th, including the 1984 national championship. But the Eagles did beat Miami earlier this season.
It was another disappointing NCAA exit for the Hoyas (25-7), who have lost to a double-digit seed in their last four appearances. The last time they made it to the second weekend of the tournament was in 2007, when they reached the Final Four.
"I wish I could, trust me, more than anyone on this Earth," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said when asked if he could figure out the losses to lower seeds. "I've tried to analyze it, think about it, look at it, think about what we should do differently and I don't know."
Markel Starks had 23 points for the Hoyas, a tri-champion of the Big East regular season and one of the top defensive teams in the nation.
That didn't seem to bother the Eagles much.
While Georgetown came in allowing 55.7 points per game, FGCU beat that number with 9:22 to play when it led 57-40. The Hoyas allowed opponents to shoot 37.6 percent from the field, fourth-best in the country. The Eagles shot 42.9 percent (21 of 49) and they held the Hoyas to 37.5 percent from the field (24 of 64).
Big East Player of the Year Otto Porter Jr. had 13 points on 5-of-17 shooting and 11 rebounds. On this night he couldn't match Brown, the A-Sun's player of the year.
Porter, a sophomore who said he hasn't made a decision yet on whether to return to Georgetown next season, said "winning is hard."
"They got out in transition, and that started their run," he said. "They started knocking down the shot. It's hard when a team is knocking down shots like that."
The FGCU fans who made the trip to Philadelphia were loud all game. The rest of the crowd at Wells Fargo Center joined them during the big run and there's nothing to bring fans together like rooting against a heavy favorite.
"I don't think anybody on our team has ever played in front of that many people," said reserve forward Eddie Murray, who had nine points.
The Eagles charged at their fans when the game ended and ? after some of them shook hands with Hall of Famer and TV analyst Reggie Miller ? it was a celebration that could be felt all the way to back to campus.
The Hoyas used an 8-0 run to take an 18-11 lead midway through the first half but that's where their offense went cold ? very cold.
The Eagles closed the half on a 13-4 run as Georgetown missed nine straight shots and committed five turnovers. FGCU took a 24-22 lead on two free throws by Eddie Murray with 26 seconds left. In another example of how out of synch Georgetown was offensively, the Hoyas passed the ball around as the halftime horn sounded, allowed the Eagles to keep their lead.
As the night wound down, one fan yelled at the Eagles to stick around Philly a couple of more days.
"Get a cheese steak, kid! Get a cheese steak!"
The crowd then paid Florida Gulf Coast the ultimate tribute: the E-A-G-L-E-S! Eagles! chant reserved for their favorite NFL team.
22 March 2013Last updated at 06:05 ETBy Paul RinconScience editor, BBC News website, The Woodlands, Texas
The space rock that hit Earth 65 million years ago and is widely implicated in the end of the dinosaurs was likely a speeding comet.
That is the conclusion of research which suggests the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought.
Many scientists consider a large and relatively slow moving asteroid to have been the likely culprit.
Details were outlined at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
But other researchers were more cautious about the results.
"The overall aim of our project is to better characterise the impactor that produced the crater in the Yucatan peninsula [in Mexico]," Jason Moore, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told BBC News.
The space rock gave rise to a global layer of sediments enriched in the chemical element iridium, in concentrations much higher than naturally occurs; it must have come from outer space.
Extra-terrestrial chemistry
However, in the first part of their work, the team suggests that frequently quoted iridium values are incorrect. Using a comparison with another extraterrestrial element deposited in the impact - osmium - they were able to deduce that the collision deposited less debris than has previously been supposed.
The recalculated iridium value suggests a smaller body hit the Earth. So for the second part of their work, the researchers took the new figure and attempted to reconcile it with the known physical properties of the Chicxulub impact.
For this smaller space rock to have produced a 180km-wide crater, it must have been travelling relatively quickly. The team found that a long-period comet fitted the bill much better than other possible candidates.
"You'd need an asteroid of about 5km diameter to contribute that much iridium and osmium. But an asteroid that size would not make a 200km-diameter crater," said Dr Moore.
"So we said: how do we get something that has enough energy to generate that size of crater, but has much less rocky material? That brings us to comets."
Dr Moore's colleague Prof Mukul Sharma, also from Dartmouth College, told BBC News: "You would need some special pleading for an asteroid moving very rapidly - although it is possible. But of the comets and asteroids we have looked at in the skies, the comets are the ones that are moving very rapidly."
Long-period comets are balls of dust, rock and ice that are on highly eccentric trajectories around the Sun. They may take hundreds, thousands or in some cases even millions of years to complete one orbit.
The extinction event 65 million years ago is now widely associated with the space impact at Chicxulub. It killed off about 70% of all species on Earth in just a short period of time, most notably the non-avian dinosaurs.
The enormous collision would have triggered fires, earthquakes and huge tsunamis. The dust and gas thrown up into the atmosphere would have depressed global temperatures for several years.
Lost in space
Dr Gareth Collins, who researches impact cratering at Imperial College London, described the research by the Dartmouth team as "nice work" and "thought-provoking".
But he told BBC News: "I don't think it is possible to accurately determine the impactor size from geochemistry.
"Geochemistry tells you - quite accurately - only the mass of meteoritic material that is distributed globally, not the total mass of the impactor. To estimate the latter, one needs to know what fraction of the impactor was distributed globally, as opposed to being ejected to space or landing close to the crater."
He added: "The authors suggest that 75% of the impactor mass is distributed globally, and hence arrive at quite a small-sized impactor, but in reality this fraction could be lower than 20%."
That could keep the door open for a bigger, more slowly moving asteroid.
The authors accept this point, but cite recent studies suggesting mass loss for the Chicxulub impact was between 11% and 25%.
In recent years, several space objects have taken astronomers by surprise, serving as a reminder that our cosmic neighbourhood remains a busy place.
On 15 February this year, 2012 DA14 - an asteroid as large as an Olympic swimming pool - raced past the Earth at a distance of just 27,700km (17,200mi). It had only been discovered the previous year.
And on the same day, a 17m space rock exploded over Russia's Ural mountains with an energy of about 440 kilotonnes of TNT. About 1,000 people were injured as the shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings.
Some 95% of the near-Earth objects larger than 1km have been discovered. However, only about 10% of the 13,000 - 20,000 asteroids above the size of 140m are being tracked.
There are probably many more comets than near-Earth asteroids, but Nasa points out they spend almost all of their lifetimes at great distances from the Sun and Earth, so that they contribute only about 10% to the census of larger objects that have struck the Earth.
Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow Paul on Twitter
This film image released by A24 Films shows, from left, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine and Vanessa Hudgens in a scene from "Spring Breakers." (AP Photo/A24 Films, Michael Muller)
Review ? Straddling line between art and exploitation.
Harmony Korine?s "Spring Breakers" is such a perfect object of its cultural moment ? an age of sexualized youth and stylized violence ? that it?s a shame it?s not a better movie.
And that may be the first and last time anyone uses the word "shame" in connection with Korine?s self-consciously taboo-breaking drama.
?
HH
?Spring Breakers?
Bad-boy director Harmony Korine deploys some Disney-friendly actresses for a dark drama in sunny Florida.
Where ? Theaters everywhere.
When ? Opens Friday, March 22
Rating ? R for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout.
Running time ? 94 minutes.
Korine begins with images of spring break on the Florida coast ? repeated (and repetitive) shots of hunky young men and buxom young women jumping around in the surf, sucking down multiple beers. The women shake their butts and occasionally bare their breasts, while the guys thrust their pelvises like they know what to do with them. The scene is every college kid?s dream and every parent?s nightmare.
To our movie?s four young heroines ? Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Cotty (Rachel Korine) and Faith (Selena Gomez) ? spring break isn?t just a party but a sun-drenched escape from their drab lives. That?s why they?re so desperate to get out, even if it means Brit, Candy and Cotty have to rob a local diner to raise the money necessary to get there. "Just f---in? pretend it?s a video game. Act like you?re in a movie or something," one of the girls says to the others.
Faith is the odd-girl-out in the foursome, a member of a Christian youth group who calls the Florida coast "the most spiritual place I?ve ever been." At least that?s what she tells her grandmother in one of the movie?s endless voice-overs, juxtaposed with images of the four girls partying hard in a hotel room and, ultimately, sitting in a jail cell after the cops find cocaine.
The girls are bailed out by a rapping street thug named Alien ? played by James Franco, in a chameleonic performance complete with cornrows in his hair and grilles on his teeth. Alien?s seaside mansion is loaded with drugs, cash and weapons, and the girls (except Faith, who leaves early) are attracted to his loot and dangerous attitude. When Alien gets into a turf war with a rival drug dealer (played by rapper Gucci Mane), the ladies are excited to go along for the bloody ride.
Korine, whose art-house reputation includes writing the controversial "Kids" and directing the repulsive "Trash Humpers," applies a lot of visual panache to what is essentially a straightforward exploitation scenario. With gorgeous footage that captures the spring-break party scene in all its lurid excess, he makes a thin story seem like something meatier.
He does this mainly by playing with our perceptions of performers who have made their bones in family-friendly confines. Except for Rachel Korine (the director?s wife), the actresses? best-known work has been on Disney Channel ? where Gomez?s "Wizards of Waverly Place" and Hudgens? "High School Musical" aired ? and ABC Family, home to Benson?s "Pretty Little Liars." Franco, of course, is now raking in the bucks in Disney?s "Oz the Great and Powerful."
Korine?s use of these stars is a bit of a cheat, especially for those who see the ads and expect to see TV princesses in the buff. As for exposing the young ladies? depth, the movie also leaves us wanting some character traits besides bodacious bodies.
"Spring Breakers," in the end, is all eye candy and little substance.
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Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Researchers at Hewlett-Packard Co. have developed a way to put glasses-free 3-D video on mobile devices with a viewing angle so wide that viewers can see an object more fully just by tilting the screen.
Glasses-free 3-D is not unique. Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s 3DS handheld allows video game play in 3-D without glasses, but it requires players to look straight into the screen with their noses centered.
HP's researchers have found a way to make images viewable in 3-D from angles up to 45 degrees from center in any direction ?up, down, side-to-side or diagonally. That means viewers can see a person's face with one ear blocked from view, but reveal the ear by swiveling the screen.
The company's findings will be published in the scientific journal, Nature, on Thursday.
The scientists used nanotechnology to etch multiple circles with tiny grooves into a glass layer of the display.
The grooves bend light in a way that allows for 64 different points of view. By moving the screen, people will perceive two of those points of view at any one time, one with their left eye and one with their right. As a result, the image will appear in 3-D.
David Fattal, the lead author of the paper, said the effect is "much like you'd see in the movie 'Star Wars' with the hologram of Princess Leia."
He acknowledged the effect wouldn't be identical to a hologram, however, since the images won't pop as far out of the screen as Leia's projection did in the movie.
The technology isn't exactly coming to a movie theater near you any time soon. While moving images can be created using computer animation, any live video capture would require an array of 64 cameras all pointed at an object, Fattal said.
We can't vouch with any certainty that individual subscribers have embraced AT&T's Mobile Share plans with open arms. Corporate customers (and simply the very well-heeled) are another matter: they could use big buckets of data to get their many devices online, which is why AT&T is adding considerably more headroom today. It's launching new 30GB, 40GB and 50GB Mobile Share plans that respectively cost $300, $400 and $500 per month when there's unlimited voice and messaging attached. While those rates will be eye-watering for most of us, they make more sense knowing that the carrier ups the maximum number of devices on these plans to a more office-friendly 15 to 25, instead of the usual 10. Data-only users can get away with paying 'just' $185, $260 or $335 for similar Mobile Share plans. Companies with a larger staff count can also spring for new Business Pooled Nation plans that offer per-device data between $20 per month for 300MB and $80 per month for 10GB. Hit the source for more details, whether you're outfitting your business with phones or just have a streaming movie marathon that really, really can't wait for WiFi.
Only one-third of parents follow doctors' orders for kids all of the timePublic release date: 18-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mary F. Masson mfmasson@umich.edu 734-764-2220 University of Michigan Health System
One in 10 say they follow pediatricians' advice 'only occasionally;' most likely to ignore guidance on discipline, sleep, watching TV -- U-M's National Poll on Children's Health
ANN ARBOR, Mich. Pediatricians regularly dispense advice to parents of young children during well-child visits, but a new University of Michigan poll shows that many aren't following doctors' orders.
Only one-third of parents (31 percent) said they follow advice from their child's health care provider all of the time, according to the most recent University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Thirteen percent said they follow the provider's advice only occasionally.
Parents from lower-income households (
Most parents (56 percent) said they follow provider's advice "most of the time."
Parents were asked to choose the areas where they are most and least likely to follow the provider advice. Among parents who follow provider advice only occasionally, the topics on which they are most likely to follow advice are nutrition, going to the dentist, and using car seats/booster seats.
In contrast, these parents are least likely to follow advice on discipline (40 percent), putting the child to sleep (18 percent) and watching TV (13 percent).
"During well-child visits, health care providers give parents and guardians advice about how to keep their kids healthy and safe. This poll suggests that many parents aren't heeding that advice consistently, putting kids at risk for long-lasting health concerns," says Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., Associate Director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan and Associate Director of the National Poll on Children's Health.
Clark says that many major health risks for children are closely tied to parenting behaviors. For example, childhood obesity has been linked to parents allowing the over-consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and excessive TV watching. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is associated with putting infants to sleep in the prone position.
"Even more concerning is that certain populations (poorer families, non-white families) were more likely to report following advice only occasionally. The children in these populations are known to have higher rates of health problems such as obesity, SIDS, and tooth decay," Clark says.
The poll also showed that parents' ratings of the quality of care offered by their children's healthcare providers are closely linked to whether they follow provider advice, says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.
Among parents who rated their child's provider as "good/fair/poor," 46 percent of those parents said they follow provider advice only occasionally, says Davis, who is a pediatrician.
"This poll suggests that parents need to ask for clarification if they are unsure about what the provider is saying, or why it's important. Providers should work on using clear language, asking parents about their concerns, and giving practical examples of what works with children of different ages,' says Davis.
###
Broadcast-quality video is available on request. See the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtdLOvju_FU&feature=youtu.be
Full report: C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health
http://mottnpch.org/reports-surveys/just-what-doctor-ordered-not-many-parents
Website: Check out the Poll's new website: MottNPCH.org. You can search and browse over 70 NPCH Reports, suggest topics for future polls, share your opinion in a quick poll, and view information on popular topics. The National Poll on Children's Health team welcomes feedback on the new website, including features you'd like to see added. To share feedback, e-mail NPCH@med.umich.edu.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mottnpch
Twitter: @MottNPCH
Additional resources:
Purpose/Funding: The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health based at the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan and funded by the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and the University of Michigan Health System is designed to measure major health care issues and trends for U.S. children.
Data Source: This report presents findings from a nationally representative household survey conducted exclusively by GfK Custom Research, LLC GfK Custom Research, LLC (GfK), for C.S. Mott Children's Hospital via a method used in many published studies. The survey was administered in January 2013 to a randomly selected, stratified group of parents with a child age 0-8 (n=907) from GfK's web-enabled KnowledgePanel that closely resembles the U.S. population. The sample was subsequently weighted to reflect population figures from the Census Bureau. The survey completion rate was 60 percent among panel members contacted to participate. The margin of error is 2 to 15 percentage points.
Findings from the U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health do not represent the opinions of the investigators or the opinions of the University of Michigan.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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Only one-third of parents follow doctors' orders for kids all of the timePublic release date: 18-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mary F. Masson mfmasson@umich.edu 734-764-2220 University of Michigan Health System
One in 10 say they follow pediatricians' advice 'only occasionally;' most likely to ignore guidance on discipline, sleep, watching TV -- U-M's National Poll on Children's Health
ANN ARBOR, Mich. Pediatricians regularly dispense advice to parents of young children during well-child visits, but a new University of Michigan poll shows that many aren't following doctors' orders.
Only one-third of parents (31 percent) said they follow advice from their child's health care provider all of the time, according to the most recent University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Thirteen percent said they follow the provider's advice only occasionally.
Parents from lower-income households (
Most parents (56 percent) said they follow provider's advice "most of the time."
Parents were asked to choose the areas where they are most and least likely to follow the provider advice. Among parents who follow provider advice only occasionally, the topics on which they are most likely to follow advice are nutrition, going to the dentist, and using car seats/booster seats.
In contrast, these parents are least likely to follow advice on discipline (40 percent), putting the child to sleep (18 percent) and watching TV (13 percent).
"During well-child visits, health care providers give parents and guardians advice about how to keep their kids healthy and safe. This poll suggests that many parents aren't heeding that advice consistently, putting kids at risk for long-lasting health concerns," says Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., Associate Director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan and Associate Director of the National Poll on Children's Health.
Clark says that many major health risks for children are closely tied to parenting behaviors. For example, childhood obesity has been linked to parents allowing the over-consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and excessive TV watching. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is associated with putting infants to sleep in the prone position.
"Even more concerning is that certain populations (poorer families, non-white families) were more likely to report following advice only occasionally. The children in these populations are known to have higher rates of health problems such as obesity, SIDS, and tooth decay," Clark says.
The poll also showed that parents' ratings of the quality of care offered by their children's healthcare providers are closely linked to whether they follow provider advice, says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.
Among parents who rated their child's provider as "good/fair/poor," 46 percent of those parents said they follow provider advice only occasionally, says Davis, who is a pediatrician.
"This poll suggests that parents need to ask for clarification if they are unsure about what the provider is saying, or why it's important. Providers should work on using clear language, asking parents about their concerns, and giving practical examples of what works with children of different ages,' says Davis.
###
Broadcast-quality video is available on request. See the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtdLOvju_FU&feature=youtu.be
Full report: C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health
http://mottnpch.org/reports-surveys/just-what-doctor-ordered-not-many-parents
Website: Check out the Poll's new website: MottNPCH.org. You can search and browse over 70 NPCH Reports, suggest topics for future polls, share your opinion in a quick poll, and view information on popular topics. The National Poll on Children's Health team welcomes feedback on the new website, including features you'd like to see added. To share feedback, e-mail NPCH@med.umich.edu.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mottnpch
Twitter: @MottNPCH
Additional resources:
Purpose/Funding: The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health based at the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan and funded by the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and the University of Michigan Health System is designed to measure major health care issues and trends for U.S. children.
Data Source: This report presents findings from a nationally representative household survey conducted exclusively by GfK Custom Research, LLC GfK Custom Research, LLC (GfK), for C.S. Mott Children's Hospital via a method used in many published studies. The survey was administered in January 2013 to a randomly selected, stratified group of parents with a child age 0-8 (n=907) from GfK's web-enabled KnowledgePanel that closely resembles the U.S. population. The sample was subsequently weighted to reflect population figures from the Census Bureau. The survey completion rate was 60 percent among panel members contacted to participate. The margin of error is 2 to 15 percentage points.
Findings from the U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health do not represent the opinions of the investigators or the opinions of the University of Michigan.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Seeking to fill yet another second-term Cabinet vacancy, President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general, to be the next secretary of labor, the White House says.
If confirmed by the Senate, Perez, who has been head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for 3? years, would take over the Labor Department as Obama undertakes several worker-oriented initiatives, including an overhaul of immigration laws and an increase in the minimum wage.
Before taking the job as assistant attorney general, Perez was secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which enforces state consumer rights, workplace safety and wage and hour laws.
In choosing the 51-year-old Perez, the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Obama would be placing an already high-ranking Hispanic official in a Cabinet slot. Perez, a lawyer with a degree from Harvard Law School, would replace Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman and the nation's first Hispanic labor secretary.
Perez's nomination has been expected for weeks, and comes with vigorous support from labor unions and Latino groups.
But a newly released report by the Justice Department's inspector general is likely to provide fodder for Republicans who say the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has been too politicized.
The report, released last week, said Perez gave incomplete testimony to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights when he said the department's political leadership was not involved in the decision to dismiss three of the four defendants in a lawsuit the Bush administration brought against the New Black Panther Party.
The report also concluded that Perez did not intentionally mislead the commission and that the department acted properly.
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Perez appeared to be "woefully unprepared to answer questions" from the Civil Rights Commission.
Lynn Rhinehart, general counsel at the AFL-CIO, said the report shows that Perez, who was first hired by the civil rights division as a career attorney under President George H.W. Bush, restored integrity to the voting rights program at the Justice Department.
New York State Police lead David Renz out of the North Syracuse state police barracks Friday, March 15, 2013. Renz, 29, abducted a school librarian and her daughter as they left a gymnastics class at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay at about 9 p.m. Thursday, according to state police. Troopers said he bound both victims, raped the child and drove a short distance to a spot where the girl managed to escape, possibly as her mother was being killed. She was helped by a passing motorist and was being treated at a hospital. Her mother died from multiple stab wounds. Renz was caught by a trooper as he tried to escape into some woods, police said. (AP Photo/The Syracuse Newspapers, Dick Blume) NO SALES
New York State Police lead David Renz out of the North Syracuse state police barracks Friday, March 15, 2013. Renz, 29, abducted a school librarian and her daughter as they left a gymnastics class at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay at about 9 p.m. Thursday, according to state police. Troopers said he bound both victims, raped the child and drove a short distance to a spot where the girl managed to escape, possibly as her mother was being killed. She was helped by a passing motorist and was being treated at a hospital. Her mother died from multiple stab wounds. Renz was caught by a trooper as he tried to escape into some woods, police said. (AP Photo/The Syracuse Newspapers, Dick Blume) NO SALES
New York State Police investigate a car involved in a fatal carjacking on Verplank Road, Clay, N.Y., Friday, March 15, 2013. David J. Renz, 29, abducted a school librarian and her daughter as they left a gymnastics class at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay at about 9 p.m. Thursday, according to state police. Troopers said he bound both victims, raped the child and drove a short distance to a spot where the girl managed to escape, possibly as her mother was being killed. She was helped by a passing motorist and was being treated at a hospital. Her mother died from multiple stab wounds. Renz was caught by a trooper as he tried to escape into some woods, police said. (AP Photo/The Syracuse Newspapers, Dick Blume) NO SALES
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) ? A man accused of killing a Syracuse woman and raping her 10-year-old daughter during a carjacking was beaten and suffered a broken nose on his first day in jail, authorities said.
David Renz had a swollen face and tissues stuffed up both nostrils when he appeared in federal court Friday to face a probation violation charge.
"I have a broken nose," he told his lawyer, according to The Post-Standard in Syracuse (http://bit.ly/15b7NLd).
His attorneys, James Greenwald and Kenneth Moynihan, said Renz was assaulted by other inmates at the Onondaga County Justice Center, where he was taken following his arrest Thursday night.
Sheriff Kevin Walsh told the newspaper he was looking into why Renz was put into a holding area with other prisoners ? not the usual practice in holding someone facing such accusations.
Walsh said Renz has been segregated from other prisoners and is being watched around the clock.
"We're dealing with a man who is innocent until proven guilty," he said. "He's got to be protected."
Renz was arraigned Friday morning at a court in East Syracuse on charges that he abducted the mother and daughter as they left a gymnastics class in the Syracuse suburb of Clay.
Police said Renz raped the girl and stabbed the mother to death before fleeing into some woods. The 10-year-old girl escaped and was found by a passing motorist, who dialed 911. Renz was captured a short time later.
At the time of the attack, Renz was awaiting trial on federal child pornography charges and was supposed to be wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet tracking his whereabouts.
Authorities said they believe Renz cut the device off before the attack. Tampering attempts with those devices are supposed to sound an alarm. Probation officials are investigating what went wrong, said Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan.
The Associated Press generally doesn't publish information that could identify potential sex crime victims and isn't naming the slain woman to protect the girl's identity.
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Information from: The Post-Standard, http://www.syracuse.com
Brainstorming is an essential part of writing. No matter whether you?ve got a common disease called writer?s block, don?t know what to write about or, on the contrary, feel rather confident in your abilities, brainstorming is an activity that you must do to create a good piece of writing. Generally speaking, the term brainstorming means generating as many ideas on the subject as possible with their subsequent sorting and selection. The outcome of a brainstorming process is usually a number of words, phrases or concepts that are relevant to the subject chosen by the writer.
Brainstorming Process
Prepare for the process of brainstorming. Turn on your laptop, or take a simple piece of paper and a writing instrument: you will need to write down your thoughts. Intriguingly, the condition of your workplace seems to affect the efficiency of the brainstorming session, so see to it that you have your workplace clear.
Set yourself a time limit. Though it may seem that the more time you spend on brainstorming the better, actually, 15-20 minutes for a session is usually enough.
Concentrate on your subject, and write down all the ideas and thoughts about it that come to your head. At this point, trying to organize your thoughts or sorting them out will only harm the efficiency of the process. This stage requires focusing on plain writing.
After your stream of thoughts dries out, see through the whole list. Now it is time to evaluate and regroup all the thoughts that you?ve written down so far. Choose the ideas that seem most valuable and intelligible and which you will use for writing; reorganize the ideas into sequential categories of importance.
If you consider your collection to be sufficient enough, use it to start creating a rough outline of your future piece of writing.
Brainstorming Techniques
There exists a vast amount of brainstorming techniques that can be applied during the creative process. These techniques can be divided into those that are used by a group of people working on the same subject, or by a single writer who works on his own. Some of the most popular brainstorming techniques are listed below:
Mind mapping. This is one of the most popular and interesting techniques; it assumes building your ideas using previously generated thoughts. To create a mind map, write down your certain idea and draw a circle around it. Then write down some ideas referring to the first one, take them in circles too, and connect them with the center circle. Do the same for each smaller idea. This procedure will help you notice your ideas and how they are connected.
Free writing. This method implies a completely free and uncensored flow of thoughts, when you don?t know where your mind will lead you. Your only task is to be in the present, writing everything down. This technique actually involves your subconscious into the creative process.
Questions. Instead of trying to write on the topic, start asking yourself questions about it. Answering these questions will give you ideas for writing.
Rolestorming. Imagine that you are someone else ? a person of a different gender, age, race and so on. Try thinking about your subject from this person?s point of view and see what happens.
Key Points to Consider
Brainstorming won?t necessarily completely break your writer?s block and shower you with great ideas immediately as you start doing it. Treat it more like a good warm-up exercise for your mind that will at least set you on course. Brainstorming is useful not only when you cannot think of any ideas relevant to your topic, but on the contrary, when your head is stuffed with various ideas, so that you feel a completely chaotic and disorganized. It will help you pull out your most significant thoughts one by one, without trying to decide where to start from.
Success of group brainstorming to a significant extent depends on the psychological atmosphere among the participants, so the role of the moderator is important.
A good way to whip up your thinking is to use associations. This way you can come to some interesting thoughts without excessive efforts, and expand some random words into an almost complete plot.
During group brainstorming sessions, discipline is among the key factors of successful idea generation. If the moderator of the session allows at least one of the participants to criticize someone?s thoughts, others will be discouraged from expressing some outrageous and spontaneous ideas to avoid mocking, and will tend to speak out only ?quality? ideas, which are often vapid and constrained.
Dos and Don?ts
Dos
Do try to expand on every idea that you?ve written down, even if it seems absurd or somewhat irrelevant to your subject.
Do review your list of ideas when you feel that the process is getting stalled. Some of the previously noted thoughts can whip up your thinking.
Do go rather for quantity than for quality when generating and noting your thoughts. It is easier to distinguish some amount of good thoughts from those that are worse, than to immediately generate a bright and fresh idea.
Do consider even those ideas that seem to be completely wild and impractical.
Do start with a well-formulated statement of the subject that you need to write on, or your purpose for writing.
Don?ts
Don?t neglect some of the ideas simply because they seem weird or absurd to you. On the contrary, these ideas are often the brightest. Write literally every thought on the subject that comes to your head while brainstorming.
Don?t criticize thoughts that come out during the process of brainstorming. Critiquing is a complete taboo.
Don?t write your thoughts in details, just sketch out the main points so that you were able to grasp the whole idea later.
Don?t organize expressing ideas in turns if you have a group brainstorming session. Good ideas are usually expressed spontaneously, so if you make everyone just sit and wait for their turn to talk, the flow will be forced and not productive.
Don?t be afraid to ride ideas of other people during group brainstorming. If you hear your colleague speak out an interesting thought, develop it, add some extensions, offer counter-proposals.
Common Mistakes When Brainstorming
- Trying to structure out the brainstorming process immediately, during the very process of generating ideas. Leave all kinds of editing and organizing for later, otherwise you will get distracted and may lose inspiration and the spontaneity of thinking.
- Analyzing the ideas that came out during brainstorming, criticizing and neglecting them without expanding just because they seem inappropriate.
-Dismissing brainstorming if one or more good ideas appear in the very beginning of the session. This is actually a self-robbery, because if you come up with several good ideas from the beginning, you can produce even more of them if you continue the session.
- Trying to come up with a fresh and original idea from scratch. Brainstorming is more about quantity, so your best option is to forget about quality for a while. You definitely can develop one bad idea into several good ones, but it is extremely difficult to produce these ideas without preparation and engaging in a creative search.
Title: How to Brainstorm Reviewed by Admin on Mar 14 Rating: 5.0?????
Miami's Shane Larkin, left, drives past Boston College's Patrick Heckmann, right, and Ryan Anderson, front, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Miami's Shane Larkin, left, drives past Boston College's Patrick Heckmann, right, and Ryan Anderson, front, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Miami's Kenny Kadji (35) shoots over Boston College's Dennis Clifford (24) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Bob Leverone)
Miami's Rion Brown (15) reacts after making a basket against Boston College during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Miami's Durand Scott, center, is trapped by Boston College's Joe Rahon, right, and Andrew Van Nest, left, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) ? It doesn't matter whether Shane Larkin is passing the ball or taking it from the other team. The Miami point guard always wants to keep his teammates involved.
Larkin scored 15 of his 20 points after halftime to help the ninth-ranked Hurricanes pull away and beat Boston College 69-58 on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Kenny Kadji added 15 points and Trey McKinney Jones finished with 12 for the top-seeded Hurricanes (25-6), who got a serious scare from eighth-seeded BC (16-17).
Miami let an early 13-point lead disappear, then shot nearly 70 percent in the second half while making all the plays down the stretch to avoid becoming the ACC's first No. 1 seed to lose its tournament opener since 1997.
And the Hurricanes ? who have won at least one ACC tournament game in eight of their 10 seasons in the league ? have Larkin to thank for their latest escape.
"By adding Shane to that group (of seniors), he adds an element that allows all of them to play better," coach Jim Larannaga said. "He's so good at what he does. A lot of times you'll see (Larkin) in the first half try to get the ball to (his teammates), and then the second half starts, he starts to pick his spots to attack and score or find the open man. We absolutely needed that."
Patrick Heckmann finished with 15 points for the Eagles, and his 3-pointer with 3? minutes left tied it at 55.
Durand Scott put Miami in front to stay with two free throws with 3:01 left, and Larkin took over a few moments later. He came up with a key steal from Olivier Hanlan, then buried a momentum-shifting 3 off an inbounds pass to make it 60-55 with 1:49 left.
"It wasn't just me who got the steal," Larkin said, adding that Kadji was in on the trap and Rion Brown made a heady play to save the ball. "It was all of us."
After Brown swished a pretty hanging jumper with 57.6 seconds left, and Kadji added a free throw to make it 63-55, BC didn't get closer than five points the rest of the way. McKinney Jones punctuated the victory with a dunk with 17.2 seconds left.
"We just had mental breakdowns" during the final 3 minutes, Hanlan said. "The little things hurt us."
Larkin also keyed the defensive effort on Hanlan, who a day earlier set an ACC tournament record for freshmen with 41 points in the first-round win over Georgia Tech.
Hanlan finished this one with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, missing 5 of his final 6 attempts after making 16 consecutive shots over two days. His streak ended when his 3-pointer over Larkin hit off the rim with just under 14 minutes left, and Larkin also forced him into four turnovers.
"It's very difficult to come back from that type of performance and not expect one of the best defensive teams in the country to put you on lockdown," BC coach Steve Donahue said. "I thought he handled it well, and I thought we played off it well."
Ryan Anderson also had 14 points for the Eagles, who had their ACC-best four-game winning streak snapped and were denied their first semifinal appearance since 2007.
They lost twice to Miami during the regular season in vastly differing ways: The Hurricanes romped by 32 points in Coral Gables a few weeks after holding on for a one-point win at BC.
And for a while, this one looked like a repeat of that blowout ? at least until BC dug itself out of a double-digit hole for the second straight day.
After rallying from 15 points down to beat the Yellow Jackets in the first round, the Eagles spotted Miami a 21-8 lead before closing the half on a 19-4 run and took their first lead when Anderson's layup with 4 seconds left made it 27-25. That coincided with a brutally cold spell for Miami, which missed 14 of its last 16 shots of the half against a BC team that started pressing the Hurricanes and defending them with a zone.
"We got a little passive," Larranaga said. "We didn't attack the way we wanted to."
BC stretched its lead to 30-25 on Heckmann's 3-pointer 20 seconds into the half. Miami eventually countered with an 11-2 run and took a 48-44 lead on Larkin's deep 3, and things remained tight until Larkin and the Hurricanes finally pulled away.
A few years ago, Spa Travel was not even a familiar word in tourism industry. Although, hotels had spas, they were mainly all about exercise equipment and programs. But as people are getting more health conscious, spa-focused travel has emerged and it is getting much popularity in every parts of the world.
Well, you might be thinking about the real purpose of this spa-focused traveling. This is just other kind of new life style travel option that can combine adventure, budget and wilderness. Mainly, travelers opt for programs like stress-reduction, fitness and weight loss.
SpaFinder Wellness, a healthy lifestyle service provider, reports that spa travel booking had ?increased 37 percent in 2011 and this number has been doubled in the year 2012. Based on this survey, Susie Ellis, the president of SpaFinder Wellness Inc, suggests that with time more travelers are deviating from exhausting, unhealthy vacations and it directly benefits the spa travel.
Don?t get confused by the idea of health and treatments, it is not meant for only old people. Surprisingly, results show that people between the age group of 26 and 45 are most keen to book spa vacations.
Well, this new kind of wellness tourism concept seems to be the next powerful, mainstream trend in the travel and tourism market.
Last we heard from V-moda, the company was appealing to audiophile sensibilities with its $300 Crossfade M-100 portable headphones. Continuing in that respect, today it's officially unveiling the Vamp Verza as a followup to last summer's $650 iPhone 4/4S-purposed Vampspy tool headphone amp, DAC & case combo. The aluminum-clad Verza is a device-agnostic solution that uses a sliding dock system with special $100 Metallo cases to give any supported devices a similar all-in-one feel to the original.
At launch, a GS III case is available, with an iPhone 5 model a few weeks out -- the company is aiming to get GS IV and Note II cases out next. The unit's 150mW x 2 amplifier will bypass your iDevice's audio output via a USB port on its bottom, while an adjacent microUSB port can take advantage of the external sound card profile found in Android Jelly Bean. V-moda notes the microUSB port acts like a traditional USB audio device, so it'll work with mostly any device. As you might guess, both ports have their own specific DACs routing audio at different power levels to its op-amp.
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Public release date: 18-Mar-2013
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