Moments of Awareness

BERLIN, N.H. – Mike Secinore is pinning his hopes on prison. Fresh with a criminal justice degree from the local community college, the 20-year-old Berlin native plans to apply for a corrections officer job at the federal prison expected to open in the city next summer. There aren't many options in this northern region of New Hampshire, where major employers have closed their doors in recent years and further unemployment woes beckon if the last surviving paper mill shuts down this week, letting 240 workers go. "I'm really wanting to have a career, not just a job," said Secinore, who recently lost a counter position at an auto parts store. He worked there for five years, coping with a wage freeze and a cut in hours. "I really need something where I'm going to make money." Although rural communities have successfully lobbied for — and built — prisons for years, not many studies have been done on their economic impact. Some studies indicate sl...

LONDON – An ordinary-looking white flower from Japan may carry something quite extraordinary within its pale petals — the longest genome ever discovered. Researchers at London's Kew Gardens said Thursday they'd discovered that the Paris japonica has a genetic code 50 times longer than that of a human being. The length of that code easily beats its nearest competitor, a long-bodied muck dweller known as the marbled lungfish. "We were astounded really," said Ilia Leitch, of Kew's Jodrell Laboratory. Leitch and her colleagues suspected the plant might have an larger-than-usual genetic code as its relatives have rather large ones too. But the sheer size of this flower's genome caught them by surprise. If laid end-to-end it would stretch to more than 300 feet. "We certainly didn't expect to find it," she said. A genome is the full complement of an organism's DNA , complex molecules that direct the formation and function of all living ...

New York – Fox News television host Glenn Beck says the idea of “collective salvation” – that our fates are linked – is “dangerous to the Constitutional republic.” He argues that related notions of social justice, redistribution, and ending oppression are fundamentally anti-American, communist creeds. American’s Founding Fathers would disagree. They embraced collective redemption and the protection of the common good. The Constitution made clear from its first lines the collectivist intent of the American enterprise: “We the people of the United States , in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Our collective best interestA union. For the common defense. General welfare. Justice. Though our unity has endured serious trials, Amer...

VIENNA – Greenpeace is warning of "surprisingly high" levels of arsenic and mercury in the red sludge that seeped out of a burst reservoir in Hungary and has devastated the surrounding area. The activists say samples taken Tuesday in the town of Kolontar showed 110 milligrams of arsenic and 1.3 milligrams of mercury per kilogram of dry matter. The result, which also show 660 milligrams of chrome per kilogram, are based on analyses carried out in laboratories in Vienna and in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Greenpeace officials told reporters Thursday that the detected arsenic concentration is twice that normally found in so-called red mud. Analysis of water in a canal also found arsenic levels 25 times the limit for drinking water. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. KOLONTAR, Hungary (AP) — The mighty River Danube was apparently absorbing the toxic red sludge with little immediate harm, officia...

WASHINGTON – More than 89,000 stimulus payments of $250 each went to people who were either dead or in prison, a government investigator says in a new report. The payments, which were part of last year's massive economic recovery package, were meant to increase consumer spending to help stimulate the economy. But about $18 million went to nearly 72,000 people who were dead, according to the report by the Social Security Administration's inspector general. The report estimates that a little more than half of those payments were returned. An additional $4.3 million went to more than 17,000 prison inmates , the report said. Most of the inmates, it turns out, were eligible to get the payments because they were newly incarcerated and had been receiving Social Security before they were locked up. In all, the $250 payments were sent to about 52 million people who receive either Social Security or Supplemental Security Income, at a cost of about $13 billion. Other federal r...

LONDON (Reuters) – Britons find being older than 52 is nothing to laugh about because that's the age when they start becoming grumpy, according to a survey on Friday. The poll of 2,000 Britons found those over 50 laughed far less than their younger counterparts and complained far more. While infants laughed up to 300 times a day, that figure had fallen to an average of six laughs by teenage years and only 2.5 daily chuckles for those over 60, the survey for cable TV channel Dave found. Men were also found to be grumpier than women. One reason for the decline in mirth might be the lack of joke-telling skills. The study found the average Briton only knows two jokes. (Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison) via news.yahoo.com Posted via email from Peace Jaway

On 07/07/07, couples ran to wedding chapels, and 08/08/08 was considered especially auspicious by the Chinese. Then Sept. 9, 2009 was heralded for its mathematical symmetry. Those dates signaled the end of repeating, single-digit dates , at least for another 90 years. Which begs the question: Is there anything special about 10/10/10? This repeating date isn't getting the short shrift, as it turns out, with numerous North American and British news outlets reporting that churches and city halls are booked solid for nuptials on Oct. 10, 2010. Most happy couples will tie the knot on 10/10/10 for the novelty factor, and for the ease of remembering their anniversary, presumably, though there are other motivations for celebration. Once again, the date in question is considered lucky in Chinese culture, because the number 10 represents perfection or completion, according to the "I Ching," an ancient Chinese text. Mo...

THE GIST Gossiping can be beneficial. THE SOURCE “Is Gossip Good for You? Links Between Gossiping Behavior and Subjective Well-Being” — Jennifer Cole and Hannah Scrivener, presented Sept. 7 at a British Psychological Society conference. “IF you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me,” Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a self-proclaimed “hedonist,” used to say. But it seems the greater pleasure comes from more temperate gossip. New research finds that gossiping can be good for you — as long as you have something nice to say. In a presentation in September, Jennifer Cole, a social psychologist, and Hannah Scrivener reported results from two related studies, both of which demonstrate that it’s in one’s self-interest to say “So-and-so’s second husband is adorable” rather than “She married that lout?” In the first study, intended to measure a person’s short-term emotional reaction to gossiping, 140 men and women, primarily undergradu...

via nytimes.com Posted via email from Peace Jaway

The plan swept states with some of the highest foreclosure levels, including California, Nevada and Arizona, into a swelling crisis over lenders’ flawed paperwork that had been mostly confined to 23 other states that require judicial review of foreclosures. Bank of America instituted a partial freeze last week in those 23 states, and three other major mortgage lenders have done the same. The bank’s decision on Friday increased pressure on other lenders to extend their moratoriums nationwide as well. An immediate effect of the action will be a temporary stay of execution for hundreds of thousands of borrowers in default. The bank said it would be brief, a mere pause while it made sure its methods were in order. But as the furor grows over lenders’ attempts to bypass legal rules in their haste to reclaim houses from delinquent owners, there is a growing expectation that foreclosures will dwindle for months as the foreclosure system is reworked. Stan Humphries, an eco...

HOME SCHOOLING / INTERNATIONAL Finland Finnish Homeschoolers Want Partnership, not Confrontation In Finland, interest in homeschooling is growing. But even though there is an apparent pro-homeschool sentiment in parliament, many families still encounter difficulty with local government officials. For example, the Finnish municipality of Hammarland is placing demands upon the Hammarnejd family to conduct their homeschool in a way that mirrors the local public school. While the Finnish Constitution and the country’s education law protect the right of parents to educate their children “otherwise” than at school, many officials attempt to coerce homeschool families into practically the same program as at their local school. Some municipalities require homeschoolers to take the same examinations as the schools and to follow the public school curriculum precisely. These requirements contradict the law, which states that local authorities hold only a supervisory...

* / KYDPL KYODO BEIJING, China - Police officers close the gate to the home of Liu Xia, the wife of Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, in Beijing on Oct. 8, 2010. The imprisoned Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle for human rights in China. This is just full of class. Reuters is reporting that Liu Xia, the wife of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo has been forced from her home by police. The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner's wife Liu Xia was being forced to leave her home in Beijing by plainclothes police officers Friday, she told Reuters during a phone interview shortly after the prize was awarded. The officers said they wanted to take Liu to the prison in Jinzhou in the northeastern province of Liaoning, where her husband Liu Xiaobo is being held in an apparent effort to prevent foreign report...

Physicists exposed four entangled particles to a noisy environment to see if they held on to their quantum entanglement. Credit: University of Innsbruck Full Size 1 of 1 Physicists exposed four entangled particles to a noisy environment to see if they held on to their quantum entanglement. Credit: University of Innsbruck Physicists have long been puzzled over a mystical link between particles called entanglement – and now they've established this bizarre connection in a new experiment. When two or more particles are entangled , they retain a connection even if separated across an entire galaxy. If an action is performed on one particle, its linked partner will also respond. Amazingly, entanglement has actually been proven to occur, though lab tests haven't established it out to anything like galactic distances, yet. (When Albert Einstein's calculations suggested the theoretical pos...

BOISE, Idaho — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's didn't play up his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during Wednesday's campaign swing through Idaho's capital. But his faith still played a front-and-center role, as Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter invited him for a visit aimed partly at luring members of the faith to vote for the incumbent. Otter is a Catholic. His opponent, Keith Allred - like Romney - is a Mormon, a faith whose members make up nearly a third of Idaho's population. At an event just west of Boise's downtown, Frank Vandersloot, the Mormon multimillionaire owner of Idaho Falls-based health care products company Melaleuca Inc., spoke before Romney and put religion in plain view. Vandersloot accused Allred of pandering to church members in order to secure votes - a charge Allred denied later in the day. "Keith Allred has been sending eastern Idaho Mormons the message, 'I'm Mormon s...

BOISE – The Idaho Lottery today announced plans for its fourth annual $1,000,000 Raffle game. Tickets will go on sale at 4 a.m. Mountain Time on Oct. 15. “The Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle has always sold out before the draw date in each of its first three years we’ve made it available,” said Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson. “This game represents the best odds for an Idaho Lottery player to win $1,000,000.”   Tickets will cost $10 each and the Idaho Lottery will only sell 250,000. This year’s game features a total of 2,505 prizes. In addition to the top prize of $1,000,000, there are four prizes of $25,000 and 2,500 other prizes ranging from $50 to $250. Raffle tickets will remain on sale until Dec. 29, 2010 at 11:59 a.m. or when the last ticket is sold, whichever occurs first.  The winning numbers will be announced on Dec. 29, 2010 at 6 p.m. Mountain Time.  The $1,000,000 top prize and the four $25,000 prizes must be claimed...

BRUSSELS — In Greece, taxes are up and so is the age of retirement. In Spain, civil servants have taken pay cuts. In Britain, spending on welfare, the military and education could be chopped by a quarter. Despite mounting public protests across the Continent, an austerity drive unparalleled in modern, united Europe is building. In Brussels, meanwhile, the bureaucracy that runs the European Union is haggling over how much to increase next year’s budget. In 2011, the European Union will pour billions more euros into the Continent’s regions for infrastructure and other projects. Spending on justice and security is set to rise sharply, while even purely administrative costs are expected to increase by more than 4 percent. Supporters see the spending as an antidote to austerity, a way to keep a fragile economic recovery alive. Critics say it highlights the remoteness of Brussels, where pay raises are written into law, spending priorities are decided up to seven years...

Dikembe Mutombo gives back STORY HIGHLIGHTS Former NBA star is committed to helping people in Democratic Republic of Congo His foundation helps provide health care and education for many Congolese Mutombo has been a part of CNN Heroes since 2007, when he served on the Blue Ribbon Panel RELATED TOPICS Dikembe Mutombo Democratic Republic of the Congo Philanthropy Editor's Note: Voting is under way for the 2010 CNN Hero of the Year. The winner will be announced at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," which airs Thanksgiving night, November 25, at 8 p.m. ET. See the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2010 and and cast your vote. (CNN) -- Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dikembe Mutombo came to the United States on an academic scholarship to study medicine at Georgetown University. But his career path soon changed after joining the school's basketball team. Mutombo would go on to play in the NBA for 18 years and become one of the league's all-time be...

Stress has an impact on the way we live, work and interact with others — and, it turns out, the environment can stress out our cells, too, a new study suggests. Environmental factors such as pollution , bacterial toxins and tobacco smoke can turn on genes in cells that are supposed to be off, said researchers from the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. When cells are exposed to damaging outside factors, they may have to change to survive. Genes activated by stressors from the environment have the potential to disrupt normal fetal development and cell function, the researchers said. For example, stress can cause brain cells to produce hormones and other chemical signals they're not supposed to produce, disturbing normal brain function, according to the study. The study adds to mounting evidence showing how stress can affect the body on a cellular level, said Alice Liu, a cell biology professor at Rutgers State Univer...