Enough with the facile Vietnam and Afghanistan analogies.
By Dan Murphy,?Staff writer / January 31, 2013
French soldiers patrol the area outside the Sankore Mosque, a world heritage site, in Timbuktu, Thursday.
Benoit Tessier/Reuters
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Some frankly silly thoughts and ideas have been punctured in the past few days about France's invasion of Mali. Most importantly, that the French military effort to roll back the advance of salafy jihadis who had captured much of the north of the country, bringing a reign of amputations and torture to locals for what they deemed violations of Islamic law, would turn into a repeat of Dien Bien Phu, where French forces were defeated by a 45,000 man Viet Minh army backed by both China and the Soviet Union.
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Or that it could come to resemble the American experience in the Vietnam War after the US had taken the lead from the French. Or, mon dieu! -- it was going to be just like Afghanistan.
No, it was never going to be like any of these places and historical contingencies. The simple fact that the United States' recent experience of war is of the long, grinding, expensive and inconclusive messes of Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't mean that other nations won't step more nimbly and carefully in their own wars. And while I don't know terribly much about Mali, I do know that the jihadis had nothing anywhere near either the number of fighters nor the powerful outside backers that the Viet Minh had at Dien Bien Phu and the Taliban, thanks to Pakistan's assistance, have today.
So here's one lesson we've learned so far: When the conditions are right, it's easier for professional, well-armed soldiers to defeat jihadi insurgents. France's war in Mali began on Jan. 11 and by Jan. 26 it was all but wrapped up.
Of course, a lot of the jihadis simply cut and ran, giving up the towns they'd held for months and in which, as they commonly do wherever they take control of the world, they'd alienated and antagonized the residents.
Could they come back? Sure. Mali's Tuareg's have had a bad relationship with the central government since the state was founded and while both the central government's troops and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) are now eager to see the back of Al Qaeda-inspired groups like Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Ansar al-Dine, they may find it hard to get along with each other for long.?
Laura Seay, a political scientist who focuses on central Africa at Morehouse College, explained in Foreign Policy yesterday some of the specifics of Mali and why France has done relatively well so far.
How is Mali different from Afghanistan? First, Mali is not where empires go to die. Afghanistan is well-known as a place that has always been difficult for any outsiders to invade and sustain military engagement, much less establish governing institutions. What governing institutions are established have long been weak and largely decentralized structures that allow local and tribal leaders maximum autonomy. Mali, by contrast, has a longer history of at least some centralized rule. The Mali Empire, which governed a huge swath of West Africa from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, included the renowned city of scholarship in Timbuktu. Mali's colonization by France in 1892 was largely peaceful, and the country has never engaged in a serious war until now, with the exception of a brief and violent border dispute with Burkina Faso in the mid-1980s. France's exit from Mali at the end of colonization was accomplished peacefully as well.
France's engagement in Mali is also unlike U.S. engagement in Afghanistan in that, because of their colonial history, the French know what they are getting into. There are decades of outstanding French scholarship on Mali; France is practically drowning in Mali experts in government, academia, and the private sector. This is more important than many realize; having deep cultural and historical knowledge and a shared language (most educated Malians still speak French) makes it much easier for French forces to relate to average Malians and build friendships with key local leaders whose support will be necessary for long-term success.
As long as we're learning about history, it's also time to put to rest the foolish trope so popular in some American circles that France is a wimpy has-been power that doesn't dare get its feet wet, even in good causes. This month, they've beat back jihadis in Mali, at least giving the country a chance to work out its own internal problems (which of course, it may well fumble again.)
(Below, video of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys from the Foreign Legion's 2nd Parachute Regiment arriving in Timbuktu overnight on Monday.)
The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference Public release date: 30-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barry Whyte communications@embo.org 49-622-188-91108 European Molecular Biology Organization
30 January 2013 The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), EMBO, and the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology will hold a joint conference for the life sciences in 2014. The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference will take place from the 30 August to 4 September at the Palais des Congrs in Paris, France.
The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference will be a unique international event that brings together many leading researchers to discuss the latest scientific findings in the life sciences. Scientists from across the world will be able to attend a jointly organized conference that offers unparalleled scope for the entire range of the molecular life sciences. The conference will also celebrate the 50th anniversaries of FEBS and EMBO and the 100th anniversary of the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Israel Pecht, Secretary General of FEBS, commented: "It gives me great pleasure to welcome EMBO and the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as partners for this life sciences conference that will take place in 2014. I believe the strengths of each organization will contribute to an outstanding event for all life scientists. It will also be an ideal opportunity to celebrate the achievements of all three organizations over the past decades."
Maria Leptin, Director of EMBO, remarked: "High-calibre conferences where scientists of all ages have access to the very best speakers are an essential part of building a research community. Our partnership with FEBS and the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference will help to increase the impact of our efforts to create a research environment where scientists can achieve their best work."
Frdric Dardel, President of the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, added: "It is a privilege and an honour to be holding this special event for the life sciences in France and I look forward to welcoming the scientific community to Paris next year. We have the perfect partners and venue for this prestigious occasion."
###
Further information about the joint conference will be made available at the 38th FEBS Congress in St Petersburg, Russia (6-11 July 2013) and The 5th EMBO Meeting in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (21-24 September 2013).
About EMBO
EMBO is an organization of more than 1500 leading researchers that promotes excellence in the life sciences. The major goals of the organization are to support talented researchers at all stages of their careers, stimulate the exchange of scientific information, and help build a European research environment where scientists can achieve their best work. For more information: www.embo.org
About FEBS
Founded in 1964, The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) is one of the largest organizations in European life sciences, with nearly 40,000 members distributed among 43 countries across the continent and its immediate neighbours. As a charitable organization, FEBS promotes and supports the molecular life sciences in various ways from offering advanced courses and different types of research fellowships to publishing journals. For more information: www.febs.org
About The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology develops and promotes Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in research and teaching, both in universities and centers of research as well as industry. Members of the organization are involved in learned societies devoted to biochemistry at the international level. The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which was founded in 1914, has been a member of FEBS since 1964. For more information: www.sfbbm.fr
Contact EMBO
Barry Whyte Head, EMBO Public Relations & Communications Phone + 49 (0) 6221 8891 108 communications@embo.org
Contact FEBS
Professor Israel Pecht, FEBS Secretary General Department of Immunology, The Weizmann Institute of Science 76100 Rehovot, Israel Tel: +972 8 9344020 Fax: +972 8 9465264 israel.pecht@weizmann.ac.il
Carolyn Elliss, FEBS Communications Officer FEBS Treasury 98 Regent Street Cambridge CB2 1DP United Kingdom
elliss@febs.org
Contact The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Xavier Coumoul INSERM UMR-S 747, Universit Paris Descartes 45 rue des Saints-Pres 75006 Paris France Tel: +33 1 42 86 33 59 Fax: +33 1 42 86 38 68 xavier.coumoul@parisdescartes.fr
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference Public release date: 30-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Barry Whyte communications@embo.org 49-622-188-91108 European Molecular Biology Organization
30 January 2013 The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), EMBO, and the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology will hold a joint conference for the life sciences in 2014. The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference will take place from the 30 August to 4 September at the Palais des Congrs in Paris, France.
The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference will be a unique international event that brings together many leading researchers to discuss the latest scientific findings in the life sciences. Scientists from across the world will be able to attend a jointly organized conference that offers unparalleled scope for the entire range of the molecular life sciences. The conference will also celebrate the 50th anniversaries of FEBS and EMBO and the 100th anniversary of the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Israel Pecht, Secretary General of FEBS, commented: "It gives me great pleasure to welcome EMBO and the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as partners for this life sciences conference that will take place in 2014. I believe the strengths of each organization will contribute to an outstanding event for all life scientists. It will also be an ideal opportunity to celebrate the achievements of all three organizations over the past decades."
Maria Leptin, Director of EMBO, remarked: "High-calibre conferences where scientists of all ages have access to the very best speakers are an essential part of building a research community. Our partnership with FEBS and the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for The FEBSEMBO 2014 Conference will help to increase the impact of our efforts to create a research environment where scientists can achieve their best work."
Frdric Dardel, President of the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, added: "It is a privilege and an honour to be holding this special event for the life sciences in France and I look forward to welcoming the scientific community to Paris next year. We have the perfect partners and venue for this prestigious occasion."
###
Further information about the joint conference will be made available at the 38th FEBS Congress in St Petersburg, Russia (6-11 July 2013) and The 5th EMBO Meeting in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (21-24 September 2013).
About EMBO
EMBO is an organization of more than 1500 leading researchers that promotes excellence in the life sciences. The major goals of the organization are to support talented researchers at all stages of their careers, stimulate the exchange of scientific information, and help build a European research environment where scientists can achieve their best work. For more information: www.embo.org
About FEBS
Founded in 1964, The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) is one of the largest organizations in European life sciences, with nearly 40,000 members distributed among 43 countries across the continent and its immediate neighbours. As a charitable organization, FEBS promotes and supports the molecular life sciences in various ways from offering advanced courses and different types of research fellowships to publishing journals. For more information: www.febs.org
About The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology develops and promotes Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in research and teaching, both in universities and centers of research as well as industry. Members of the organization are involved in learned societies devoted to biochemistry at the international level. The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which was founded in 1914, has been a member of FEBS since 1964. For more information: www.sfbbm.fr
Contact EMBO
Barry Whyte Head, EMBO Public Relations & Communications Phone + 49 (0) 6221 8891 108 communications@embo.org
Contact FEBS
Professor Israel Pecht, FEBS Secretary General Department of Immunology, The Weizmann Institute of Science 76100 Rehovot, Israel Tel: +972 8 9344020 Fax: +972 8 9465264 israel.pecht@weizmann.ac.il
Carolyn Elliss, FEBS Communications Officer FEBS Treasury 98 Regent Street Cambridge CB2 1DP United Kingdom
elliss@febs.org
Contact The French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Xavier Coumoul INSERM UMR-S 747, Universit Paris Descartes 45 rue des Saints-Pres 75006 Paris France Tel: +33 1 42 86 33 59 Fax: +33 1 42 86 38 68 xavier.coumoul@parisdescartes.fr
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Government agencies are often slowed down by the bureaucracy, creating challenges for pushing forward new ideas that could improve IT operations.?
In a keynote speech presented at Defining the Cloud for Government, a conference held Wednesday, Jan. 30, in Sacramento, Calif., Brian David Johnson, Intel?s futurist and director of future casting and experience research, said it?s crucial for government agencies to think well into the future when planning technology implementations. According to Johnson, cloud computing and big data will figure prominently into that future.
During opening remarks, Carlos Ramos, secretary of the California Technology Agency, said the agency plans to move some applications into a private cloud because he believes cloud computing is the future. He added that government is so reliant on technology that policies and programs ?don?t have a prayer? without the use of the cloud.?
But how can governments look a decade or more into the future?
Johnson is responsible for looking 10 to 15 years ahead to figure out how people will interact with technology. Similarly, he said that government agencies must prepare for the future of tech by having a vision, and contemplating what humans will be like down the road.?
Future casting -- a combination of social science research and technical research, can help organizations determine how to improve people?s lives using technology. But to better prepare for the future of technology, Johnson urged policy-makers to consider a major trend happening in the technology space.?
Around 2020, Johnson predicted, the size of meaningful computational power will approach zero. Since the intelligence inside a platform is getting smaller, traditional computers will no longer be the only vessels for computing. Other objects will also have the ability to serve as computers.?
While computing power shrinks, the proliferation of big data and the use of cloud computing will continue to grow.
?We humans are like fire hydrants of data,? Johnson said.?
Whether we create data from financial information, health records or social media, more and more data will be generated and collected, which will be stored in a cloud environment.?
Johnson said that in 20 years, we will start to see mobile devices diminish since computational power will live in the cloud. Living in the future will mean living in a ?smart? environment ? a time period where we are no longer dependent on laptops, PCs or mobile devices for computing.
Like any major technology shift, Johnson said the future will pose some challenges for governments looking to prepare. He said fear can be a driving force behind stifled innovation ? particularly fears about security threats.?
?You don?t come up with innovative ideas when you?re in fear,? he said.?
To prevent fear from holding an agency back, Johnson suggested communication to help increase government workers' understanding about technology implementations like cloud computing. While there will always be those who are wary of shifting to a cloud environment, Johnson feels that constant communication can help dispel some of that fear. When there is uncertainty, he concluded, public-sector organizations should embrace it as an area of opportunity to build and innovate in a more robust way.?
Decades ago, NASA would frequently light up the night sky with chemical trails as part of its measurements of upper atmosphere behavior. While those moments are increasingly rare, we'll get a rare chance to enjoy one of them this evening. The agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is launching a suborbital rocket that will generate (and test) a pair of trails of red-tinted lithium as it flies above Eastern US coastline -- trails bright enough that large parts of the seaboard may get a first-hand look as the rocket gains altitude. If you fall outside of that range, don't fret. NASA will stream the whole affair starting from 4:30PM Eastern, with a hoped-for takeoff over an hour later. Catch the feed below when the launch is live, and hit the source links for more about the mission itself.
FILE - In this Aug 5, 2012 file photo Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue speaks at a news conference on the Social Security and Medicare Trustees report at the Treasury Department in Washington. Astrue says he will step down in February after completing his six-year term. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
FILE - In this Aug 5, 2012 file photo Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue speaks at a news conference on the Social Security and Medicare Trustees report at the Treasury Department in Washington. Astrue says he will step down in February after completing his six-year term. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue says he will step down in February after completing his six-year term. Astrue's departure gives President Barack Obama the opportunity to name a new head to the federal government's largest program.
Astrue's term was marked by increasingly dire warnings about the long-term financial health of the massive retirement and disability program. Astrue worked to reduce backlogs of people applying for disability claims, despite a big surge in applications since the recession.
The trustees who oversee Social Security project that the program's trust funds will run dry in 2033. At that point, Social Security will collect only enough in taxes to pay 75 percent of benefits. As commissioner, Astrue is also a trustee.
Astrue has urged Congress to shore up the program's finances but has not publicly endorsed any solutions.
Astrue, 56, said he plans to return to his home state of Massachusetts. He did not elaborate on future plans.
"I consider it a great privilege to have led this remarkable agency for six years," Astrue said in a statement.
Social Security commissioners serve six-year terms. Astrue was nominated in 2007 by former President George W. Bush. The term of Obama's nominee would last beyond his presidency, if the person serves a full term. There was no word Monday on Obama's choice.
Astrue has a long history of public service. He previously worked as counselor to the Social Security commissioner and general counsel for the agency. He was also an acting deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Actor Taye Diggs arrives at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.
By Annette Arreola and Jonathan Lloyd, NBCLosAngeles.com
Actor Taye Diggs chased down and detained an intruder after returning home from the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night in the Studio City section of Los Angeles.
The "Private Practice" star returned home at about 11 p.m. Sunday to find the man in his Oakdell Lane residence, Los Angeles Police Department officials confirmed Monday morning. The subject ran, but Diggs chased the man and tackled him, detaining the intruder until police arrived, according to the LAPD.
It was not immediately clear how the man accessed Diggs' home or whether the actor was injured.
Diggs' encounter with a home invader comes about five months after rapper-actor LL Cool J confronted an intruder?in his Studio City home. The intruder, who was charged with first-degree burglary, was hospitalized with a broken nose, jaw and ribs after the encounter with the "NCIS: Los Angeles" actor.
The latest effort in Coca-Cola's "Let's Go Crazy" campaign from ad agency Ogilvy follows people who practice random acts of kindness. One woman high-fives everyone she meets. Another pays the highway toll for the cars behind her.
But one man gives strangers $1,000 each, just to see their reaction:
LONDON (Reuters) - UK companies closed final salary-based pension schemes at a record rate last year as funds struggled against rock bottom returns on their staple investments and growing life expectancy, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) said on Monday.
Firms closed 31 percent of so-called defined benefit (DB) pension pots, compared with 23 percent in 2011.
Only 13 percent of DB schemes in the private sector were open to new joiners, down one third from 19 percent in 2011 and against 43 percent in 2005 when NAPF started keeping records.
Just over half of the schemes still open to new members said they were "considering further changes in the next few years".
DB pension schemes have been grappling with spiralling deficits amid pressure from an ageing workforce, red tape from the European Union and the UK government and lacklustre investment returns, NAPF said in its 2012 Annual Survey.
Over the last three years, 375 billion pounds of quantitative easing by the Bank of England has contributed to a sharp drop in the yield on British government bonds, key investments for pension pots.
The deficit of British final-salary linked company pension schemes more than doubled to 231 billion pounds in 2012, according to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
Meanwhile, EU legislation requiring funds to have enough cash to cover employee pensions if a company goes bust may stop British firms offering final-salary linked pensions altogether.
The proposed rules would force British firms to find an extra 300 billion pounds to strengthen pension pots.
DB pensions, linked to an employee's salary at retirement and length of service, are typically more expensive to provide than other annuity-purchase schemes.
The NAPF survey comes amid major changes to the pensions sector. Last October, the government introduced an "auto-enrolment" scheme to draw up to 10 million more people into a workplace pension.
The government is also considering a new type of pension scheme to encourage more people to save for retirement.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A long-delayed $50.5 billion aid package for victims of Superstorm Sandy cleared the Senate on Monday, three months after the storm destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in coastal New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The package, approved 62-36 in the Democratic-controlled Senate, now goes to President Barack Obama to be signed into law. Added to flood insurance legislation passed by Congress earlier this month, it brings Sandy aid appropriations to $60.2 billion.
All the opposing lawmakers were Republicans. But nine Republicans joined Democrats in voting yes to narrowly cross the 60-vote threshold required for passage.
The Senate also defeated a Republican amendment that sought to offset the Sandy aid with cuts to discretionary spending spread over the next nine years.
The vote was delayed last week as Senate leaders wrangled over new rules aimed at limiting procedural roadblocks known as filibusters.
Sandy's victims "have been waiting for three months for their federal government to step up and help them rebuild their lives and rebuild their livelihoods," said Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. "They have been waiting and waiting."
The package will provide $10 billion to repair public transport infrastructure, $5.3 billion to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund and $16 billion in Community Development Block Grant funding - money to be used by municipalities largely to rebuild homes and businesses.
"This bill meets the current needs of the recovery efforts," Mikulski said.
CAUGHT IN BUDGET DEBATE
The Sandy aid package became ensnared in a bitter partisan battle over deficit reduction. Many Republicans saw it as an opportunity to take a stand against a big spending increase after being forced to swallow tax hikes on the wealthy as part of the New Year's deal to avert the "fiscal cliff."
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah tried to rein in the Sandy package by seeking to offset the costs with a 0.5-percentage-point reduction in annual discretionary spending.
He said senators owed it to Americans to consider how the disaster spending might impair U.S. ability to fund other programs such as defense or healthcare.
"We have to stop and consider the fact that we are more than $16 trillion in debt and we're adding to that debt at a rate of more than $1 trillion every single year," Lee said.
His amendment was defeated 62-35 in another party-line split.
Conservative groups, including the Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, had urged senators to vote against the package without any offsets, saying it was filled with "pork."
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the $50.5 billion package on January 15 - largely with Democratic votes - after shaving off about $160 million and preventing any funds from being diverted to disasters in other states.
House Speaker John Boehner enraged East Coast politicians on January 1 by canceling a previously scheduled vote on Sandy emergency funds. The storm wiped out many New Jersey and New York shore communities and flooded lower Manhattan transit tunnels on October 29.
Since then, Congress has approved $9.7 billion to shore up the National Flood Insurance program to allow it to continue paying the Sandy-related claims of homeowners who bought flood insurance.
The $60.2 billion in aid is short of the $82 billion initially requested by New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The legislative delays marked a stark contrast with the congressional response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated Gulf Coast communities and flooded New Orleans in 2005.
Within 10 days of that storm, Congress had approved $62.3 billion in aid. Subsequent measures brought total taxpayer funds to rebuild the region to more than $100 billion.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Xavier Briand)
?No subject has lately excited more curiosity and general interest among geologists and the public than the question of the Antiquity of the Human Race?[]? Lyell 1863
The debate over the age of the earth generated an even more intriguing question: how old is humankind? Written records date back some thousands of years, but geological evidence and the fossil record show us that earth must be millions of years old. Some authors tried to reconcile this discrepancy by assuming a succession of worlds, each destroyed by a global catastrophe. Therefore the ?age or reptiles? could be very ancient, the ice age mammals more recent and the final catastrophe, creating the human world, happened probably only some thousands of years ago. This succession of worlds seemed to be in accordance both with the geological record as with the biblical chronology. The discovery of stone tools made by humans in layers also containing fossils of extinct animals ? and therefore inhabitants of a world older than the supposed biblical deluge ? was met with incredulity.
In 1837 the French physician Casimir Picard (1806-1841) excavated various fossil sites near his hometown of Abbeville, where he recovered stone tools and bones of antediluvian beasts. He published his discoveries in 1838-1840, just shortly before his death. Another amateur ? Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868) ? continued Picard?s work and discovered the jaw of a fossil elephant near a man-made flint-axe. Most authors dismissed these discoveries arguing that this association was the result of taphonomic processes, as bones and tools became mixed together by agents like water, animals or even modern humans. Some authors even considered all the discovered human fossils as fakes. The most compelling evidence to support the antiquity of man was collected in 1858 during excavations in Windmill Hill Cave near the city of Brixham (Devonshire, England) by William Pengelly (1812-1894), a self-educated archaeologist. The cave was found untouched, the entrance sealed off by debris and stalagmites, proof that no living thing had entered the cave for thousands of years. Most important, the excavations were done by geologists, following the principles of the young science of stratigraphy.
Every uncovered layer of the floor of the cave was carefully mapped and the location of the fossils (bones of elephant, lion, bear and reindeer) and stone tools registered.
In the same period similar discoveries were made in France. In 1867, during the universal exposition in Paris , ?douard Lartet (1801-1871), a French lawyer, presented stone tools found in sediments and caves of the valley of the V?z?re. The most intriguing artifacts were bones with engravings of ice age animals ? evidence that prehistoric men met these animals.
Fig.1. Ancient rock carving, collection of the museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, valley of the V?z?re.
Finally in 1861, influenced by Charles Darwin?s explanation of the natural origin of all species on earth (including humans), eminent geologist Charles Lyell will publish ?The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man?[]? and establish the ancient origin of humankind as scientific fact.
Bibliography:
COHEN, C. (1998): Charles Lyell and the evidences of the antiquity of man. In: BLUNDELL, D.J. & SCOTT, A.C. (eds) Lyell: the Past is the Key to the Present. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 143: 83-93 LYELL (1863): The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man, with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by variation. PRESTWICH, J. (1860): On the occurrence of flint implements, associated with the remains of extinct mammalia, in undisturbed beds of the late geological period. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 10: 50-59 RUDWICK, M.J.S. (2008): Worlds before Adam ? The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform. The University of Chicago Press: 614
John Naughton at the Guardian has a perfect—albeit obvious—observation: Despite their overwhelming dominance, Facebook and Apple will eventually fall. "History should teach us that for today's technology industry titans, the only way is down." That goes for Google, too. And Amazon. It's inevitable. More »
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? The United Nations humanitarian chief was in Damascus on Sunday for talks with Syrian officials about the nation's conflict, which has forced millions of people from their homes, destroyed the country's cities and created food and fuel shortages.
Valerie Amos did not make any public remarks upon her arrival in Damascus on Sunday for a two-day visit, but at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, she said world powers had not done enough to lessen Syrian suffering.
"The humanitarian situation in Syria is already catastrophic and it's clearly getting worse," she said. "What we are seeing now are the consequences of the failure of the international community to unite to resolve the crisis."
The U.N. says more than 60,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in March 2011.
Living conditions have deteriorated across Syria during the 22-month conflict, which began with political protests that escalated into a civil war with scores of rebel groups battling President Bashar Assad's forces. Entire towns and neighborhoods have been damaged in the fighting, and more than 2 million people are internally displaced, with another 650,000 seeking refuge in neighboring countries.
Some areas face food shortages, and even areas that have been spared large-scale violence like Damascus lack sufficient quantities of gasoline, heating oil and cooking gas.
On Friday, the U.N. announced it was preparing to send $10 million in new U.S. aid to help alleviate hunger in northern Syria.
World powers remain divided on how to solve the crisis. The U.S. and many Arab and European countries have called on Assad to step down, while Russia, China and Iran refuse any pressure from outside that seeks to hasten the regime's fall.
On Saturday, Iran made its strongest warning to date that it could intervene militarily to help Assad's regime.
As quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency, an aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Syria held a key position among a group of Middle Eastern powers opposed to U.S. and Israeli influence in the region.
"Syria plays a very key role in supporting or, God forbid, destabilizing the resistance front," said Ali Akbar Velayati. "For this same reason, (an) attack on Syria is considered (an) attack on Iran and Iran's allies."
Iran is Syria's strongest ally in the Middle East, and has provided Assad's government with military and political backing for years. In September, the top commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said the elite unit had high-level advisers in Syria. Iran also is believed to be sending weapons and money to Syria.
A senior Israeli Cabinet minister warned on Sunday that Israeli could attack sites in Syria if Assad's regime transferred chemical weapons to the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom confirmed to Israel's Army Radio that top security officials held a special meeting last week to discuss Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.
"It would be crossing a line that would demand a different approach, including even action," he said. Asked whether this might mean a pre-emptive attack, he said: "We will have to make the decisions."
Also on Sunday, Syria announced that it would drop legal proceedings against opposition figures who returned to the country to participate in a "national dialogue" called for by Assad during a recent speech.
Syria's Higher Judicial Council announced the decision in a statement carried by the state news agency. The report gave no further details.
Assad proposed the national dialogue as part of his plan to end the country's crisis as laid out in a high-profile speech this month at the Damascus Opera House.
In the same speech, however, he vowed to keep fighting and referred the opposition as criminals and terrorists ? making it unlikely anyone will take their chances on the amnesty offer.
Tens of thousands of activists, their family members and opposition supporters remain jailed by the regime, according to international rights groups.
Opposition leaders have repeatedly rejected any talks that include Assad, insisting he must step down.
Violence continued around Syria on Sunday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes and government airstrikes in neighborhoods east and south of Damascus as well as elsewhere. At least seven people died in attacks in the suburbs, and three others died after a shell landed in the city's southern Yarmouk district.
The group, which relies on contacts throughout Syria, also reported clashes near a train station in southwestern Qadam neighborhood where four rebel fighters and one woman were killed.
___
Hubbard reported from Beirut. AP writer Joseph Federman contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
Actor Dick Van Dyke poses backstage with his life achievement award at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Actor Dick Van Dyke poses backstage with his life achievement award at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Actor Dick Van Dyke poses backstage with his life achievement award at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Dick Van Dyke accepts the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? He's acted, danced and sang his way through movies, television and the stage, making Dick Van Dyke an entertainment triple-threat long before Hollywood used such hyphenates.
The 87-year-old actor, best known for the 1960s hit comedy "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and Disney's big-screen musical "Mary Poppins," can now add lifetime achievement honoree. He picked up that honor at Sunday night's 19th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
"I've knocked around in this business for 70 years and I still haven't quite figured out exactly what it is I do," Van Dyke said after accepting his trophy from presenter Alec Baldwin.
"The years have been full of surprises for me and a lot of fun. Aren't we lucky to have found a line of work that doesn't require growing up?"
Van Dyke's career has spanned eight decades, starting with work as a disc jockey and a standup comic in the late '40s. He even worked as a national television morning-show host, with no less than Walter Cronkite serving as his news anchor.
But perhaps Van Dyke's most critical career break came in 1960, when director Gower Champion hired him as the male lead opposite Chita Rivera in the new Broadway-bound stage musical "Bye Bye Birdie."
Van Dyke had no professional dance experience, and out-of-town tryouts did not go well. Nevertheless, Champion refused to fire the actor, who would go on to New York with Rivera and win a Tony award for his performance.
About a year later, Van Dyke was starring in his own sitcom, in the role of TV comedy writer Rob Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Three prime-time Emmys for Van Dyke and more than 50 years later, the series remains revered by many critics as one of the earliest models of great workplace comedy.
"'The 'Dick Van Dyke Show' was the most fun I ever had and the most creative period of my life," he said on the red carpet.
During the series' run, Van Dyke also enjoyed big-screen hits, including the 1963 "Birdie" movie and the 1964 all-star comedy, "What a Way to Go!" But biggest of all was "Mary Poppins," in which he introduced the Oscar-winning song "Chim Chim Cher-ee."
"I'm world-famous for my Cockney accent," Van Dyke kidded in his acceptance speech. He has said his British-born co-star, Julie Andrews, told him he never got the accent right.
Van Dyke also saluted the room full of actors who gave him a standing ovation.
"I'm looking at the greatest generation of actors in the history of acting. You've all lifted the art to another place now," he said. "Besides that you're everywhere. You're in Darfur, Somalia, Haiti. You're all over the place trying to do what's right.
"This very heavy object here means that I can refer to you as my peers. I'm a happy man, God bless."
Last year, Van Dyke presented the same lifetime achievement honor to his former TV co-star, Mary Tyler Moore.
These days, Van Dyke sings with his vocal group, The Vantasix, and enjoys life with his wife of one year, makeup artist Arlene Silver. The couple met seven years ago at the SAG Awards.
"They tell me you never work again once you get this award," Van Dyke said on the red carpet. "I'll have to let them know I'm available."
Partnering with an affiliate marketing company is a great method of creating a second stream of income on your website. You need to have a good base of knowledge in order to be successful at affiliate marketing. This article will share techniques and information that other affiliate marketers have found effective.
Buy advertising space to increase your profits. Purchase the ads that use your keywords in order to drive people to your site. In addition, you will have more potential buyers that have indicated an interest in what you are promoting.
TIP! To make more money with affiliate marketing, you should make your review better by including videos, screenshots, and anything else that can enhance the product. You will get more people interested in your products.
Secret links can be useful but they could also cause a search engine to assess your website as untrustworthy so use them with care. There are certain ways you can embed affiliate links throughout your articles and other content without being obnoxious or blatant about it. You should use these tips, but let your readers know about it. You can keep readers from being unhappily surprised by providing a clear context for each link.
Let your readers know the truth about the fact that you profit from your affiliations. Don?t hide the fact that a link is an affiliate; readers know what they are and if you try to hide it, they won?t trust you. By being honest from the beginning, you are more likely to gain repeat visitors and customers for your affiliates.
TIP! Having a successful affiliate marketing campaign is not only tied to the sales you make up front, but to the ones you make on the back end also. You should benefit if you send customers to your affiliates end up being repeat business and you are entitled to a commission for that repeat business.
Having to frequently recheck email messages to remind yourself of the task at hand wastes your time and causes other areas to suffer. One way to save time is to copy the information from the emails and place them into a Notepad document. Doing this will save you time, as you can refer to one single document that contains all your instructions and tasks.
The most effective affiliate companies support affiliates and assist in cross-selling products. Affiliate companies are smart, at least most of them are. They have done their homework, and researched their customers well. The preferred companies share their findings with partners, so that these associates customize their operations to boost their sales and get more income.
TIP! Never promote a product that you cannot stand behind 100 percent. Your suggestions will have an impact on how you and also your business are perceived.
Pay per sale marketing plans can be very risky for affiliates. It can lead to great returns if it is effective though. Do your homework and see whether or not this is something you might be interested in.
Have your audience in mind when selecting affiliate programs. Choose advertising that complements the product or services you are selling. Website visitors come to you with a specific purpose and are looking for certain things. Keeping that in mind, place appropriate ads that will appeal to many visitors.
TIP! If you have made $1000 with affiliate marketing this month, go for $1500 next month. You should never settle, you should always try for the best and the greatest things in life.
Try selling something that is popular instead of trying to sell something new. Avoiding the most popular products for sale online means you?ll be able to stay clear of identical campaigns on your competition?s website, but won?t necessarily mean you profit more on other products. But, getting a sale from a popular product will always be easier than getting one from a market that is not. Additionally, a really popular niche may have a customer base so large that there is room for any number of competing sellers. Then it?s just a matter of beating out the competitors with a unique marketing strategy.
For more opportunities to make affiliate money consider a specialty niche. Specialty niches tend to be more profitable than broader topics, because customers are forced to come to you if there aren?t many other businesses that offer similar products.
TIP! Once you have determined which products you want to promote for your affiliate partner, you should ensure that your marketing strategy is directed toward the appropriate audience. Low cost products can succeed through high-volume sales.
Find as many partners as you can to help you with your marketing campaign. Try and promote a range of products with different affiliate companies. A well-spread portfolio of affiliates and products will protect you from heavy losses should you have to drop one when it becomes unprofitable. If there is room to advertise more products, find some more.
One way to get started in the affiliate marketing game is to sell a group of themed products from different vendors. Using several related sites for you affiliate marketing program offers your customers a wide range of links from which to choose.
TIP! Consider joining an online affiliate marketing community, as you can gain a lot of knowledge and helpful advice on improving your business plan. These are online places that you can share ideas, code for programming, pictures, and also get advice for your affiliate marketing endeavors.
Affiliate Networks
You need to build up your Google Plus followers as soon as possible to get the jump on your competition. Pull together your Google Plus account with your other social marketing accounts such as Facebook and Twitter, combining them for one purpose. The easiest way to make sure people want to follow you is to provide them with excellent content!
TIP! Have a plan in place for your accounting. This can be a person, or even simply an accountant program.
Use affiliate networks whenever possible. Affiliate networks are a great way to connect to high quality advertisers for your site. If you want to be a good webmaster, you need to only use reputable networks, and using these tools will get you there. You will increase your own reputation by partnering with respectable networks.
Set daily goals for yourself to help you with your affiliate marketing efforts. You can stay motivated using a method that works best for you!
TIP! One helpful way to generate sales is to provide user reviews and screenshots to promote your product. If your marketing materials are full of information, you are not only more likely to make a sale, but also generate referral business.
Banner ads can help draw in business. Consider including surveys in your ads to entice customers into clicking on them. Lots of people will click through to your site to find the answer. Entice your visitors by providing discounts to those who answer the questions correctly.
To be a successful, goal minded affiliate marketer you must learn the best practices of affiliate marketing. Just because a free option has been offered to you as an affiliate, does not mean that you need to start with this one. To reach your goals, you must consider the effectiveness of each method.
TIP! Do not put an excessive amount of banners on your site. Overuse will distract users, and cause your site to appear brash and amateurish.
Many will then choose to unsubscribe and then you will lose customers and need new ones. In order to attract new clients, make sure that you send them only the emails that gave you the best results so that you can capture their attention right away.
Maximize business profits by signing up with affiliate marketing companies. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways of advertising, because of the number of people who click links. As you work to select your affiliate program, consider the rate of payment you?ll be receiving, how easy it is to navigate, and how popular its products are.
TIP! When you are first getting your affiliate marketing business off the ground, you will need to spend some money before you start turning a profit. Always try putting money into your campaigns by advertising your products through various mediums.
Affiliate Partners
To make your affiliate efforts pay off, be sure to select partners with ratios that reflect a large volume of sales. Consider using a one percent ratio as a benchmark.
TIP! A lot of affiliate marketers push too hard to become ?super? affiliates. Ambitious affiliates take on too much work load, push too many widgets and just overextend themselves to the point of breaking.
Affiliate partners who have a good relationship should exchange information often, even daily if necessary. Free and frequent communication protects your revenue stream. Your affiliate partners who generate the highest returns for you are valuable assets, and you need to take any necessary steps to preserve your relationships.
Affiliate marketing helps many people make extra income, but it?s important to know how to maximize it in order to make big money. You should want your site to rank high in search engines. Accomplishing this will allow you to obtain more links and generate more sales.
TIP! If you want to get paid quickly, you should select an affiliate company that offers you different payment options. Some programs offer different payment options such as PayPal and AlertPay.
You must never try to take advantage of your visitors with the use of cookies. At the best, this is going to be irritating to your potential customers. It could also sever your tracking progress and perhaps give users viruses.
You should always research an affiliate company before making a decision, even if the company is popular. Your research should help you decide whether or not you will be successful marketing the affiliate without any major issues.
Hopefully, you have found some advice from this article that you can use in growing your affiliate promotion program. However, don?t stop reading now because new marketing techniques are made public every single day. Online marketing should be used to supplement the profits you?re already generating from the services and products you?re selling on your website. You should be able to kill two birds with one stone. ?
For more tips on Affiliate Marketing and to see the platform I use, go to: http://www.financialreboot.com.com
PRAGUE (AP) ? With his rants against the EU and gay rights, Vaclav Klaus has been no stranger to controversy in his 10 years as Czech president. But one of his final acts in power ? a sudden prisoner amnesty ? has backfired so badly he's being accused of treason.
His portrait has been torn down in anger in schools and offices across the country in a rapidly evolving scandal that has cast a shadow over this weekend's presidential election and tainted the post which, while largely ceremonial from the grandeur of Prague Castle, is seen to carry moral weight. It could also swing the outcome of the runoff vote that began Friday.
To mark the country's 20th anniversary of independence on Jan. 1, Klaus used a traditional tool of Czech presidents and ordered the release of more than 6,000 inmates serving short prison terms. But what really infuriated many Czechs was that the decree also halted court proceedings in several high-profile fraud cases and financial scams on the grounds he wanted to stop "endless criminal proceedings."
The opposition suspects his main motive may be to protect people close to his inner circle, a claim he vehemently denies.
The controversy has touched a raw nerve in a nation that threw off communism in 1989 and has become increasingly angered by widespread corruption. Czechs, voting Friday and Saturday to elect a new president to replace Klaus, are waking up every day to new names of pardoned felons and shocking tales of people who ripped off thousands.
Bronislava Kupkova, now 86, took out a loan of 2 million koruna ($104,000) from a bank in 1995 to buy a house she never got. She had to work till she was 82 to pay the money back. And the culprits are among those pardoned.
"It's injustice ... it's not right. But tell me: what can an ordinary person who has never stolen anything and had to work all the time do about it?" Kupkova told the AP. The amnesty means her chance to seek any compensation is "close to zero," she said.
The frustration at Klaus, who polarized the public with his strident views on Brussels, gays and global warming, has mushroomed.
And his legacy ? as the economics professor who oversaw the transition to free markets in the 1990s ? will now most likely be rewritten.
A businessman supported by 17 non-governmental organizations called on the Senate on Wednesday to file impeachment charges against Klaus in order to "renew the confidence of citizens in the rule of law."
Almost 35,000 people backed the call online in less than two days. And a group of 30 senators has challenged Klaus' decree at the Constitutional Court.
Only the Senate has the power to file treason charges at the Constitutional Court. The senators plan to discuss next month what steps to take. Klaus' final term ends in March.
"We need to know the view of the highest legal authority in the country ? whether this amnesty, its content, is in line with the Constitution," said Alena Gajduskova, deputy speaker of the Senate who filed the challenge and called Klaus' move "unacceptable."
Both candidates in this weekend's election runoff have distanced themselves from the amnesty.
Karel Schwarzenberg, a bow tie-wearing aristocrat, is a sworn enemy of Klaus and has been at odds with the current prime minister, Petr Necas, who co-signed the decree. Schwarzenberg accused Necas of failing to warn the government about what was coming. Left-winger Milos Zeman, the other candidate, is supported by Klaus but has said the amnesty should only have applied to people for humanitarian reasons.
The prisoner release has come as a major blow for tens of thousands of fraud victims who have been seeking compensation for damages, including Kupkova.
"It's terrible," said Hana Marvanova, a lawyer who represents about a hundred people who lost their money in a bogus housing scheme. "They have a feeling of total lawlessness."
Three managers in that case have already been cleared. They promised to build homes for a thousand people but made off with the funds worth about $100 million.
"It took years to investigate what it was all about and this is the result: the perpetrators have support at the top levels in the country. It's impossible to explain that to them," said Maranova, a former anti-communist dissident.
Klaus has dismissed the criticism, calling it a "wave of hysteria" and an attack on him by his enemies.
That has not helped.
"Vaclav Klaus is leaving his office in the worst possible way," said an editorial in the Lidove Noviny daily.
The deputy leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Lubomir Zaoralek, said the amnesty is a sign that "the state stands behind organized crime." Zaoralek, who says several presidential advisers have links to some of those covered by the pardon, asked Klaus to reveal who drafted the document for him. His request was rejected.
As the Czech president occupies a largely ceremonial post, the right to grant amnesty seems inappropriate to many. But there are precedents.
During his presidency, Vaclav Havel, a much-loved dissident playwright who helped topple communism, used it three times. In 1990, he ordered the release of some 23,000 prisoners in an attempt ? criticized by the public then ? to draw a line under more than 40 years of communism that ended in the 1989 peaceful Velvet Revolution.
But to free those charged with corruption is the last straw in a country that has taken an increasingly hard line against graft.
Many Czechs have been showing their indignation with corruption in unusual ways. CorruptTour, a travel agency established last year that organizes trips to places linked to corruption, has been doing a roaring trade under its slogan: "the best of the worst."
Some 40 people joined the tour Thursday, braving piercing cold, frost and snow. They burst into laughter when Eva Cechova, a tour guide, quipped in front of the presidential office that the amnesty was "the biggest achievement of Klaus' presidency."
Vanda Koleckova, a 23-year-old student, was among them. She said she hopes the constitutional court overturns the decree.
"It's very Czech to make fun of the unbelievable scope of corruption," she said. "Humor is a way for us Czechs to deal with that."
'Cool' kids in middle school bully more, UCLA psychologists reportPublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stuart Wolpert swolpert@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0511 University of California - Los Angeles
Study of seventh and eighth graders finds no difference between boys, girls
Bullying, whether it's physical aggression or spreading rumors, boosts the social status and popularity of middle school students, according to a new UCLA psychology study that has implications for programs aimed at combatting school bullying. In addition, students already considered popular engage in these forms of bullying, the researchers found.
The psychologists studied 1,895 ethnically diverse students from 99 classes at 11 Los Angeles middle schools. They conducted surveys at three points: during the spring of seventh grade, the fall of eighth grade and the spring of eighth grade. Each time, students were asked to name the students who were considered the "coolest," the students who "start fights or push other kids around" and the ones who "spread nasty rumors about other kids."
Those students who were named the coolest at one time were largely named the most aggressive the next time, and those considered the most aggressive were significantly more likely to be named the coolest the next time. The results indicate that both physical aggression and spreading rumors are rewarded by middle school peers.
"The ones who are cool bully more, and the ones who bully more are seen as cool," said Jaana Juvonen, a UCLA professor of psychology and lead author of the study. "What was particularly interesting was that the form of aggression, whether highly visible and clearly confrontational or not, did not matter. Pushing or shoving and gossiping worked the same for boys and girls.
"The impetus for the study was to figure out whether aggression promotes social status, or whether those who are perceived as popular abuse their social power and prestige by putting other kids down," she said. "We found it works both ways for both 'male-typed' and 'female-typed' forms of aggression."
The research is published online in the prominent Journal of Youth and Adolescence and will be appear in an upcoming print edition of the journal.
The study implies that anti-bullying programs have to be sophisticated and subtle to succeed.
"A simple message, such as 'Bullying is not tolerated,' is not likely to be very effective," Juvonen said, when bullying often increases social status and respect.
Effective anti-bullying programs need to focus on the bystanders, who play a critical role and can either encourage or discourage bullying, said Juvonen, who has conducted research on bullying since the mid-1990s and serves as a consultant to schools on anti-bullying programs. Bystanders should be made aware of the consequences of spreading rumors and encouraging aggression and the damage bullying creates, she said.
Juvonen's current research is federally supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Juvonen and her colleagues reported in 2003 that bullies are popular and respected and are considered the "cool" kids.
The rumors middle school students spread often involve sexuality (saying a student is gay or sexually promiscuous) and family insults, she said.
Like middle school students, Juvonen noted, non-human primates also use aggression to promote social rank (although gossiping is obviously limited to humans).
Co-authors of the new study are former UCLA psychology graduate student Yueyan Wang and UCLA psychology doctoral student Guadalupe Espinoza.
In previous research, Juvonen and her colleagues have reported that nearly three in four teenagers say they were bullied online at least once during a recent 12-month period, and only one in 10 reported such cyber-bullying to parents or other adults; that nearly half of the sixth graders at two Los Angelesarea public schools said they were bullied by classmates during a five-day period; that middle school students who are bullied in school are likely to feel depressed, lonely and miserable, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to further bullying incidents; and that bullying is pervasive.
"Bullying is a problem that large numbers of kids confront on a daily basis at school; it's not just an issue for the few unfortunate ones," Juvonen has said. "Students reported feeling humiliated, anxious or disliking school on days when they reported incidents, which shows there is no such thing as 'harmless' name-calling or an 'innocent' punch.'"
Juvonen advises parents to talk with their children about bullying before it ever happens, to pay attention to changes in their children's behavior and to take their concerns seriously.
Students who get bullied often have headaches, colds and other physical illnesses, as well as psychological problems.
###
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
'Cool' kids in middle school bully more, UCLA psychologists reportPublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stuart Wolpert swolpert@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0511 University of California - Los Angeles
Study of seventh and eighth graders finds no difference between boys, girls
Bullying, whether it's physical aggression or spreading rumors, boosts the social status and popularity of middle school students, according to a new UCLA psychology study that has implications for programs aimed at combatting school bullying. In addition, students already considered popular engage in these forms of bullying, the researchers found.
The psychologists studied 1,895 ethnically diverse students from 99 classes at 11 Los Angeles middle schools. They conducted surveys at three points: during the spring of seventh grade, the fall of eighth grade and the spring of eighth grade. Each time, students were asked to name the students who were considered the "coolest," the students who "start fights or push other kids around" and the ones who "spread nasty rumors about other kids."
Those students who were named the coolest at one time were largely named the most aggressive the next time, and those considered the most aggressive were significantly more likely to be named the coolest the next time. The results indicate that both physical aggression and spreading rumors are rewarded by middle school peers.
"The ones who are cool bully more, and the ones who bully more are seen as cool," said Jaana Juvonen, a UCLA professor of psychology and lead author of the study. "What was particularly interesting was that the form of aggression, whether highly visible and clearly confrontational or not, did not matter. Pushing or shoving and gossiping worked the same for boys and girls.
"The impetus for the study was to figure out whether aggression promotes social status, or whether those who are perceived as popular abuse their social power and prestige by putting other kids down," she said. "We found it works both ways for both 'male-typed' and 'female-typed' forms of aggression."
The research is published online in the prominent Journal of Youth and Adolescence and will be appear in an upcoming print edition of the journal.
The study implies that anti-bullying programs have to be sophisticated and subtle to succeed.
"A simple message, such as 'Bullying is not tolerated,' is not likely to be very effective," Juvonen said, when bullying often increases social status and respect.
Effective anti-bullying programs need to focus on the bystanders, who play a critical role and can either encourage or discourage bullying, said Juvonen, who has conducted research on bullying since the mid-1990s and serves as a consultant to schools on anti-bullying programs. Bystanders should be made aware of the consequences of spreading rumors and encouraging aggression and the damage bullying creates, she said.
Juvonen's current research is federally supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Juvonen and her colleagues reported in 2003 that bullies are popular and respected and are considered the "cool" kids.
The rumors middle school students spread often involve sexuality (saying a student is gay or sexually promiscuous) and family insults, she said.
Like middle school students, Juvonen noted, non-human primates also use aggression to promote social rank (although gossiping is obviously limited to humans).
Co-authors of the new study are former UCLA psychology graduate student Yueyan Wang and UCLA psychology doctoral student Guadalupe Espinoza.
In previous research, Juvonen and her colleagues have reported that nearly three in four teenagers say they were bullied online at least once during a recent 12-month period, and only one in 10 reported such cyber-bullying to parents or other adults; that nearly half of the sixth graders at two Los Angelesarea public schools said they were bullied by classmates during a five-day period; that middle school students who are bullied in school are likely to feel depressed, lonely and miserable, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to further bullying incidents; and that bullying is pervasive.
"Bullying is a problem that large numbers of kids confront on a daily basis at school; it's not just an issue for the few unfortunate ones," Juvonen has said. "Students reported feeling humiliated, anxious or disliking school on days when they reported incidents, which shows there is no such thing as 'harmless' name-calling or an 'innocent' punch.'"
Juvonen advises parents to talk with their children about bullying before it ever happens, to pay attention to changes in their children's behavior and to take their concerns seriously.
Students who get bullied often have headaches, colds and other physical illnesses, as well as psychological problems.
###
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 30-Jan-2013
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Fig.1. Ancient rock carving, collection of the museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, valley of the V?z?re.
