EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints
Wednesday, 27 February 2013 21:50
What may be causing this?
You are attempting to access this page via a Webhosting Account
Scripted access to public pages is not allowed.
You are accessing the web via a proxy.
If you are using a public proxy, you may wish to switch to another or disable it. If you believe your ISP is using a transparent proxy, please let us know.
You or someone on your network is running a bot to crawl our site.
Please contact your Network Administrator if you believe this to be the case.
We just need you to enter a Captcha so we can confirm that you are a person and not a bot.
FG_AUTHORS: Computers-and-Technology:Hardware Articles from EzineArticles.com
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI greeted the Catholic masses in St. Peter's Square Wednesday for the last time before retiring, making several rounds of the square as crowds cheered wildly and stopping to kiss a half-dozen children brought up to him by his secretary.
Tens of thousands of people toting banners saying "Grazie!" ? "thank you" ? jammed the piazza to bid farewell to the pope at his final general audience ? the appointment he has kept each week to teach the world about the Catholic faith.
Pilgrims and curiosity-seekers picked spots along the main boulevard leading to the square to watch Wednesday's event on giant TV screens. Some 50,000 tickets were requested for Benedict's final master class, but Italian media estimated the number of people actually attending could be double that.
"It's difficult ? the emotion is so big," said Jan Marie, a 53-year-old Roman in his first years as a seminarian. "We came to support the pope's decision."
With chants of "Benedetto" erupting every so often, the mood was far more buoyant than during the pope's final Sunday blessing and recalled the jubilant turnouts that often accompanied him at World Youth Days and events involving his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
Benedict on Thursday will become the first pope in 600 years to resign, a decision he said he took after realizing that, at 85, he simply didn't have the strength of mind or body to carry on. He will meet Thursday morning with cardinals for a final time, then fly by helicopter to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.
There, at 8 p.m., the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over ? for now.
Many of the cardinals who will choose Benedict's successor were in St. Peter's Square for his final audience, including retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, object of a grass-roots campaign in the U.S. to persuade him to recuse himself for having covered up for sexually abusive priests. Mahony has said he will vote.
Vatican officials say cardinals will begin meeting on Monday to decide when to set the date for the conclave to elect the next pope.
But the rank-and-file in the crowd on Wednesday weren't so concerned with the future; they wanted to savor the final moments with the pope they have known for eight years.
"I came to thank him for the testimony that he has given the church," said Maria Cristina Chiarini, a 52-year-old homemaker who traveled by train early Wednesday from Lugo, near Ravenna, with some 60 members of her parish. "There's nostalgia, human nostalgia, but also comfort, because as a Christian we have hope. The Lord won't leave us without a guide."
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Combat troops to four-star generals will soon be able to use cell phones or mobile tablets to quickly share classified information anywhere in the world.
The program soon to be rolled out by the Pentagon will allow the more than 600,000 Defense Department employees who use government-issued "smart" mobile devices to send top-secret information on those units or computers.
Until now, classified and other highly sensitive information has only been allowed to be shared by specially designated desktop systems.
Most Defense Department mobile device users peck away at Blackberries. Another 41,000 use Apple devices and a much smaller number use Android-based technology, according to statistics provided by the Pentagon.
The secure network would apply to all of those technologies.
"The application of mobile technology into global operations, integration of secure and non-secure communications, and development of portable, cloud-enabled capability will dramatically increase the number of people able to collaborate and share information rapidly," said Teri Takai, the Pentagon's chief information officer.
Mobile users range from ground troops in Afghanistan to the Joint Chiefs chairman to Pentagon policy wonks.
The motive for the Pentagon is to get a system in place as mobile technology increasingly advances.
The Pentagon eventually hopes to phase in a larger number of users and involve vendor competition to build a system that could possibly handle the agency's more than three million employees, officials said.
The initial system will allow mobile "smart" device users to run apps, e-mail and other functions securely even in remote and hostile locations.
The system will operate on commercial carrier networks that are able to handle classified data, according to Pentagon officials who briefed reporters on the plan.
Takai said the biggest challenge for the Pentagon has been to design a system that can fully leverage all of the uses of the "smart phones" in a way that allows the users to communicate securely.
"The challenge for the DOD is to balance the concern of cyber security with the need to have the capability of these devices," Takai said.
Annzo Corporation: Google local page optimization is important for local businesses because it?s free, cost-effective, popular and the most searched engine for local businesses online. Statistics shows that almost 80% of people search Google local business listings especially to locate local businesses within or outside of their vicinity. Google local business listings are constantly on demand because they are really helpful for people who use them and get their results right away! Whether they are searching from their smart phones, iPads or laptops the most important aspect is that they get their results ?right away? and results in a manner of useful information that a normal person would want to see such quality or popular wise business listings with a proper image and location. Plus all hours of operation and a verified local phone number and listings doesn?t stop here. Google maps listings also brings a well-integrated map with the perfect directions which takes you directly to the door of your potential business services. Who don?t want this kind of information right away altogether on the screens of their gadget especially when they are on the road looking for some business services?Google local business or Google maps listings also give its potential consumers time lapse in which they can reach to their destination.
Just imagine if a tourist happens to visit some country and is totally unaware of locality, how much Google maps listings will help that particular person for locating hotels, restaurants and places with a proper direction that he wants to visit while on his trip. It?s unbelievable that with Google giving so much regards and opportunity to local business, a lot of local business owners are still unaware of this accessibility. If you own a business that does not give you plenty of times to overtake this opportunity then get in contact with SEO Companies who only works in regards of promoting your business through internet marketing. Annzo Corporation Local SEO Company is one of the successful examples and has helped thousands of local business increases their sales and services only because of promoting their services online. Statistically speaking,? less than 50% of all businesses in the United States have no clue what Google Plus Local is (either that or they are just plain lazy).
Claim your business on Google free services now and get in touch with millions of potential customers who are constantly using these search engines. If Google is letting you sign up for free does not mean that its potential is weak or it?s not that important in terms of marketing. It is one of the most demand marketing strategy and predictions tells us that if you do not build your stance through local SEO or any other internet marketing strategies them your business would most likely go down in future. Google local business listings also allow you to add your official website plus all social engines links. And the most important is that it lets your happy customers rate your services in terms of increasing your potentiality of getting more importance on SERPs.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
An annual collection of short films featuring some of the most extreme outdoor sports, the Radical Reels Tour travels internationally with the Banff Festival. The show will be held at Kingsbury Hall on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. Photo Courtesy Wingsuit Downhill Target Punch
If the primary portion of the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival showcases the majestic beauty and adventurous spirit of the outdoors, then the Radical Reels portion of the tour reveals its adrenaline-pumping brutality.
The Radical Reels Tour, an annual collection of short films featuring some of the most extreme outdoor sports in existence, travels internationally with the Banff Festival.
Viewers of this year?s tour will be able to see everything from wing suit flights mere feet from sheer cliff faces to competitive kayaking down double white diamond runs. Rob Jones from the Outdoor Recreation Program said the tour always brings a diverse and enjoyable set of films.
?[The tour has] everything from extreme skiing to longboarding down mountains to rock climbing, BASE jumping and paragliding,? Jones said. ?It changes every year based on what the filmmakers have submitted, but this is our seventh year, and we?ve never been disappointed.?
Each year, the Radical Reels Tour brings between eight and 12 films to Kingsbury Hall. Most of the films run less than 20 minutes, but all together, the tour usually runs at least two hours, Jones said.
Whether or not viewers of the tour have participated in any sort of outdoor sports extreme in nature or otherwise, Jones said the tour could provide a unique perspective and a chance to glimpse some of the extreme sporting going on around the world.
?It never hurts to broaden everyone?s horizons a little bit,? Jones said. ?If you?ve never been skiing before, obviously you?re not going to be inspired by somebody jumping over a 50-foot cliff to get on skis for the first time, but it might open your eyes and give you some insight as to some of the things that people are doing in these venues with these sports.?
Jones said the tour represents a chance to see some of the best athletes in the world push the very limits of what these outdoor adventures have to offer. Those who have a vested interest in participating in extreme sports will be able to see the maximum limits of their hobbies.
?For the people who are active participants in these sports, it?s kind of nice to see what the extremes are like and what boundaries are being pushed,? Jones said. ?Whether it?s somebody throwing themselves off a 70-foot cliff with nothing but skis or climbing a huge mountain and then jumping off with a parachute for BASE jumping, those are not normal people?s ?sports.? Those people that are doing those things are typically very well-trained athletes that are out pushing the boundaries, and that?s the kind of things you?re going to see at the festival.?
Jones said the last couple of years have seen the tour attract between 1,600 to 1,800 people, but with the success of this year?s Banff Festival, he hopes to see a sold-out crowd.
Kingsbury Hall will be hosting the Radical Reels Tour on Thursday at 7 p.m. as the final set of films for the 2012-2013 Banff Festival. Tickets to the event are $9.
Short URL: http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/?p=2584749
Pessimism about the future may lead to longer, healthier life, research findsPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa Bowen lbowen@apa.org 202-336-5707 American Psychological Association
Optimistic older adults face greater risk of disabilities and death, study report
WASHINGTON Older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
"Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade," said lead author Frieder R. Lang, PhD, of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. "Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions." The study was published online in the journal Psychology and Aging.
Lang and colleagues examined data collected from 1993 to 2003 for the national German Socio-Economic Panel, an annual survey of private households consisting of approximately 40,000 people 18 to 96 years old. The researchers divided the data according to age groups: 18 to 39 years old, 40 to 64 years old and 65 years old and above. Through mostly in-person interviews, respondents were asked to rate how satisfied they were with their lives and how satisfied they thought they would be in five years.
Five years after the first interview, 43 percent of the oldest group had underestimated their future life satisfaction, 25 percent had predicted accurately and 32 percent had overestimated, according to the study. Based on the average level of change in life satisfaction over time for this group, each increase in overestimating future life satisfaction was related to a 9.5 percent increase in reporting disabilities and a 10 percent increased risk of death, the analysis revealed.
Because a darker outlook on the future is often more realistic, older adults' predictions of their future satisfaction may be more accurate, according to the study. In contrast, the youngest group had the sunniest outlook while the middle-aged adults made the most accurate predictions, but became more pessimistic over time.
"Unexpectedly, we also found that stable and good health and income were associated with expecting a greater decline compared with those in poor health or with low incomes," Lang said. "Moreover, we found that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability."
The researchers measured the respondents' current and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10 and determined accuracy in predicting life satisfaction by measuring the difference between anticipated life satisfaction reported in 1993 and actual life satisfaction reported in 1998. They analyzed the data to determine age differences in estimated life satisfaction; accuracy in predicting life satisfaction; age, gender and income differences in the accuracy of predicting life satisfaction; and rates of disability and death reported between 1999 and 2010. Other factors, such as illness, medical treatment or personal losses, may have driven health outcomes, the study said.
The findings do not contradict theories that unrealistic optimism about the future can sometimes help people feel better when they are facing inevitable negative outcomes, such as terminal disease, according to the authors. "We argue, though, that the outcomes of optimistic, accurate or pessimistic forecasts may depend on age and available resources," Lang said. "These findings shed new light on how our perspectives can either help or hinder us in taking actions that can help improve our chances of a long healthy life."
###
Article: "Forecasting Life Satisfaction Across Adulthood: Benefits of Seeing a Dark Future?" Frieder R. Lang, PhD, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and German Institute for Economic Research; David Weiss, PhD, University of Zurich; Denis Gerstorf, PhD, Humboldt-University of Berlin and German Institute for Economic Research; Gert G. Wagner, PhD, German Institute for Economic Research and Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Psychology and Aging, online Feb. 18, 2013
Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at
http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/pag-ofp-lang.pdf.
Contact:
Frieder R. Lang frieder.lang@fau.de
49-9131-852-6527
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 137,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.
[ | 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.
Pessimism about the future may lead to longer, healthier life, research findsPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa Bowen lbowen@apa.org 202-336-5707 American Psychological Association
Optimistic older adults face greater risk of disabilities and death, study report
WASHINGTON Older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
"Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade," said lead author Frieder R. Lang, PhD, of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. "Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions." The study was published online in the journal Psychology and Aging.
Lang and colleagues examined data collected from 1993 to 2003 for the national German Socio-Economic Panel, an annual survey of private households consisting of approximately 40,000 people 18 to 96 years old. The researchers divided the data according to age groups: 18 to 39 years old, 40 to 64 years old and 65 years old and above. Through mostly in-person interviews, respondents were asked to rate how satisfied they were with their lives and how satisfied they thought they would be in five years.
Five years after the first interview, 43 percent of the oldest group had underestimated their future life satisfaction, 25 percent had predicted accurately and 32 percent had overestimated, according to the study. Based on the average level of change in life satisfaction over time for this group, each increase in overestimating future life satisfaction was related to a 9.5 percent increase in reporting disabilities and a 10 percent increased risk of death, the analysis revealed.
Because a darker outlook on the future is often more realistic, older adults' predictions of their future satisfaction may be more accurate, according to the study. In contrast, the youngest group had the sunniest outlook while the middle-aged adults made the most accurate predictions, but became more pessimistic over time.
"Unexpectedly, we also found that stable and good health and income were associated with expecting a greater decline compared with those in poor health or with low incomes," Lang said. "Moreover, we found that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability."
The researchers measured the respondents' current and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10 and determined accuracy in predicting life satisfaction by measuring the difference between anticipated life satisfaction reported in 1993 and actual life satisfaction reported in 1998. They analyzed the data to determine age differences in estimated life satisfaction; accuracy in predicting life satisfaction; age, gender and income differences in the accuracy of predicting life satisfaction; and rates of disability and death reported between 1999 and 2010. Other factors, such as illness, medical treatment or personal losses, may have driven health outcomes, the study said.
The findings do not contradict theories that unrealistic optimism about the future can sometimes help people feel better when they are facing inevitable negative outcomes, such as terminal disease, according to the authors. "We argue, though, that the outcomes of optimistic, accurate or pessimistic forecasts may depend on age and available resources," Lang said. "These findings shed new light on how our perspectives can either help or hinder us in taking actions that can help improve our chances of a long healthy life."
###
Article: "Forecasting Life Satisfaction Across Adulthood: Benefits of Seeing a Dark Future?" Frieder R. Lang, PhD, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and German Institute for Economic Research; David Weiss, PhD, University of Zurich; Denis Gerstorf, PhD, Humboldt-University of Berlin and German Institute for Economic Research; Gert G. Wagner, PhD, German Institute for Economic Research and Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Psychology and Aging, online Feb. 18, 2013
Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at
http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/pag-ofp-lang.pdf.
Contact:
Frieder R. Lang frieder.lang@fau.de
49-9131-852-6527
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 137,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.
[ | 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.
In another seven years, India will overtake China with the youngest workforce in the 20-24 age bracket, positioning its demography as its strongest competitive advantage over developed nations, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor said Tuesday.
Speaking at a CII-sponsored event, Tharoor said the youth is India's "key national resource" and their importance should be recognised.
"By 2020, India will have a 116 million strong workforce in the bracket of 20-24 years, while for China it will be just about 94 million at the same time. This could be the strongest competitive advantage India will have in the years to come.
"What is also striking is that within two decades, the average age in US will be 40, it will be 46 in Japan, 47 in Europe and almost 50 in China, but we will still be at 29," Tharoor said at the national conference on secondary education titled "Is Secondary Education on Track?' at the Indian Habitat Centre here.
He emphasized that the country should translate the demographic advantage to yield productive results.
"Our youth are obviously our key national resource It needs to be cherished, nurtured and developed with vision, determination and engagement. And to achieve all this we need to get our education right."
"At the time when our neighbours China, Japan are facing demographic squeeze we have 516 million individuals under 25 years of age, 225 million between the ages of 10-19, and today the average age is 28 years to China's 38; so we will have a more youthful, dynamic workforce, when the rest of the world is ageing," the minister added.
The former UN diplomat however cautioned that if the youth are not equipped with skills that 21st century offers, the results would be "horrendous" to contemplate.
"We all know mobs, Maoists and insurrections are full of frustrated unemployed young men who feel they have no stake in society."
Tharoor said that higher education holds the key to the country's bright future for creating a knowledge-based society.
Expressing worry at the high drop out rates at secondary education level, Tharoor noted that as the classes became senior, the drop out rates became greater.
The minister said the government expenditure for education increased in last nine years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) from three per cent of GDP in 2002 to 4.8 percent currently.
"Our education system caters to about 600 million people, it is one of the highly capitalized sectors in India with an annual government spending of $30 billion, and an annual private spending of $43.2 billion."
He sought more Private-Public Partnership (PPP) in education.
Vijay Thadani, chairman CII national committee on school education, said that drop out rates at the secondary level can be tackled by introducing more vocational courses, partnerships and greater engagement with NGOs.
British duo AlunaGeorge have premiered their latest single, ?Attracting Flies,? on BBC Radio 1 with Zane Lowe. The new track has all their trademarks ??a bouncy electro beat, light stabs of warped synths and, of course, Aluna Francis? soft vocals hovering above the squiggles of activity.
She sounds sweet, but Aluna?s fed up as she sings, ?Little white fairy tales and little white lies / Everything you have said is attracting flies.? The song is off AlunaGeorge?s forthcoming debut LP Body Music, which is out July 1. Hear it below.
Last year, the Steelers cut quarterback Ben Roethlisberger?s base salary from $11.6 million down to the minimum of $900,000.? The $10.7 million became a guaranteed payment, with the cap hit spread equally over the four remaining years in Roethlisberger?s deal.
The move added $2.675 million in cap charges to each year of the contract, pushing this year?s cap number to a belt-bending $19.6 million.
As MDS pointed out earlier in the afternoon, the Steelers plan to do it again, without extending the deal.? But with only three years left on the contract, the Steelers can?t take as large a chunk out of Roethlisberger?s cap number this time around.
Once again, Roethlisberger?s base salary is $11.6 million.? The Steelers could drop it to the 10-year minimum of $940,000.? The $10.66 million difference would then be converted to a guarantee, with the amount spread out over the final three seasons of his contract.
This would create $7.1 million in cap space.? But it also would increase Roethlisberger?s cap number by $3.55 million in 2014 and 2015.? With last year?s restructuring, that?s another $6.225 million to be carried in each of the final two seasons of Roethlisberger?s deal.
And with a base salary of $12.1 million due in 2014, it converts to a minimum cap number of $18.325 million next year.
Whatever the Steelers do, they should wait until March 5 to finalize it.? If they reduce the deal before then, Roethslisberger?s cap number would drop out of the top five in 2013 ? and the exclusive franchise tender the Ravens would have to pay to quarterback Joe Flacco would drop again.
ROME (Reuters) - Italians voted for a second and final day in a general election on Monday with a surge in protest votes increasing the risk of an unstable outcome that could undermine Europe's efforts to end its three-year debt crisis.
Opinion polls give the centre-left coalition led by former Industry Minister Pier Luigi Bersani a narrow lead but the race has been thrown wide open by the prospect of protest votes against austerity and corporate and political scandals.
"I'm sick of the scandals and the stealing," said Paolo Gentile, a 49-year-old Rome lawyer who said he had voted for the 5-Star Movement, an anti-establishment protest group set to make a huge impact at its first general election.
"We need some young, new people in parliament, not the old parties that are totally discredited," he said.
Most of the voters interviewed outside polling stations by Reuters on Sunday and Monday expected the next government would quickly collapse, thwarting efforts to end an economic crisis.
"I'm very pessimistic, I don't think that whoever wins will last long or be able to solve the problems of this country," said Cristiano Reale, a 43 year-old salesman in Palermo, Sicily. He said he would vote for the far left Civil Revolution group.
A bitter campaign, fought largely over economic issues, has been closely watched by financial markets, nervous about the return of the kind of debt crisis that took the whole euro zone close to disaster and brought technocrat prime minister Mario Monti to office in 2011.
Italy is the third largest economy in the 17-member bloc and the prospect of political stalemate could cause dangerous market instability.
ANTI-EURO FORCES
"There are similarities between the Italian elections and last year's ones in Greece, in that pro-euro parties are losing ground in favor of populist forces," said Mizuho chief economist Riccardo Barbieri.
"An angry and confused public opinion does not see the benefits of fiscal austerity and does not trust established political parties."
Voting ends at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT), with the first exit polls due shortly afterwards. Projections based on the vote count will be issued through the afternoon and the final result should be known late on Monday or early Tuesday.
An extremely close Senate race is expected in several battleground regions and this could delay the final result.
Italian markets were sanguine on Monday morning, with both stocks and bonds showing little change.
Many analysts believe that whatever the result, the next government will be forced to stick to Italy's fiscal commitments because of the fear of a sudden spike in borrowing costs if markets take fright.
The election result is likely to be the most fragmented in decades, with the old left-right division disrupted by the rise of 5-Star, led by fiery Genoese comic Beppe Grillo, and by Monti's decision to run at the head of a centrist bloc.
"It will be a vote of protest, maybe of revolt," said Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest newspaper, on Monday.
It noted that for the first time the winning coalition is unlikely to get more than a third of the votes, making it harder to govern and likely opening weeks of complicated negotiations.
It is unclear how Grillo's rise will influence the result, with some pollsters saying it increases the chances of a clear win for the centre-left, led by Bersani's Democratic Party (PD), because 5-Star is taking votes mainly from Berlusconi.
After the first day of voting on Sunday, about 54 percent of voters had cast their ballots, a sharp fall on the level of 62.5 percent seen at the same stage in the last election in 2008.
If the trend continues on Monday it will confirm the disillusion of voters with a discredited political class.
Bad weather, including heavy snow in some areas, is also thought to have hampered the turnout in Italy's first post-war election to be held in winter.
This could favor the centre-left, whose voters tend to be more committed than those on the right, which has strong support among older people.
"Given the lower turnout, people are betting on a victory of the centre-left," said a Milan trader.
CALL TO ARMS
The 5-Star Movement, backed by a frustrated younger generation increasingly shut out of full-time jobs, could challenge former premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party as Italy's second largest political force.
"Come on, it isn't over yet," was Monday's front page headline in Il Giornale daily, owned by Berlusconi's brother, a call to arms to get out the vote.
The 76-year-old Berlusconi, has pledged sweeping tax cuts and echoed Grillo's attacks on Monti, Germany and the euro in an extraordinary media blitz that has halved the lead of the centre-left since the start of the year.
Support for Monti's centrist coalition meanwhile has faded after he led a lackluster campaign and he appears set to trail well behind the main parties.
Monti helped save Italy from a mounting debt crisis when he replaced a discredited Berlusconi in November 2011, but with the economy in its longest recession for 20 years analysts fear an electoral stalemate could delay vital moves to stimulate growth.
"I voted for the PD because a PD win is the only way to have a stable government and we need stability or we will end up like Greece," said Viola Rossi, an 80 year-old pensioner from Rome.
After drawing hundreds of thousands of supporters to its final campaign rally on Friday, Grillo has said he fears voting fraud to try to block a massive breakthrough, telling his supporters to wet the lead in the pencils they use to vote to prevent the crosses being rubbed out.
Whatever government emerges will inherit an economy that has been stagnant for much of the past two decades and problems ranging from record youth unemployment to a dysfunctional justice system and a bloated public sector.
If Bersani wins, it is far from clear that he will be able to control both houses of parliament and form a stable government capable of lasting a full five-year term.
Italy's electoral laws guarantee a strong majority in the lower house to the party or coalition that wins the biggest share of the overall national vote.
However the Senate, elected on a region-by-region basis, is more complicated and the result could turn on a handful of regions where results are too close to call, including Lombardy in the rich industrial north and the southern island of Sicily.
Many politicians and analysts believe Bersani and Monti will end up in an alliance after the vote, despite a number of spiky exchanges during the campaign and Monti's insistence that he will not join forces with Bersani's leftist allies.
As well as the national election, voters are also casting their ballots to elect new regional administrations in Lombardy, Lazio and Molise.
(Additional reporting by Stefano Bernabei, Steve Scherer and Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Lisa Jucca in Milan and Wladimiro Pantaleone in Palermo; Editing by Barry Moody and Anna Willard)
Taba Tours and Excursions We offer a variety of Taba excursions will enable to experience the best of Cairo and Luxor, Taba day trips to the pyramids, air tours to Petra Jordan from Taba, Taba Tours to Petra by ferry boat, Taba trips to Luxor by air, Taba Excursions to Ras Mohammed by boat, Jeep safari tours from Taba. One Day tour Cairo from Taba by private vehicle Now you can choose from Taba excursions to make a Cairo tour during your holidays in Taba, day tour to Cairo to visit the Great Pyramids, Sphinx, Valley temple and the Egyptian Museum, the trip will be private, so you are free to spend more time at any site with your private tour guide and private air-conditioned vehicle. Check our Taba Egypt tours Two Days Cairo trip from Taba by private vehicle Overnight trip to Cairo from Taba Egypt tours as you will visit the the Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Memphis, Sakkara Step Pyramid, and Egyptian National Museum of antiquities with lunch meals and hotel accommodation in Cairo with breakfast meal. Our Taba excursions to cairo are private Giza and Cairo tour from Taba by flight Discover the major monuments in Cairo and Giza from Taba Egypt tours by flight, Cairo tour includes all services start from your hotel till return back, Taba trips to Cairo are private one with private Egyptologist tour guide so, it is completely flexible Day Trip to Luxor from Taba Egypt by flight Taba trips to Luxor to spend one day Luxor tour to discover the biggest place for worship in the ancient world Karnak Temple and Valley of the Kings, as well you will see the temple of the first woman ruled Egypt Hatshepsut, with more information will be provided by your private tour guide during our Taba Egypt tours to Luxor. Petra tours from Taba by Ferry Boat One of our Taba excursions to have a Petra tour in Jordan . You will have Petra tour with the fast ferry to explore the sights magnificanse Petra from your hotel in Taba by Taba Marina Via fast ferry for a day trip to visit Petra, Roman-style theater, Petra Archaeological Museum, the Petra Nabataean Museum with horse riding in Petra. Join us in our Taba Egypt tours to Petra
For more information and prices please visit http://www.albaraagroup.com/Egypt/Excursions/Taba/
For hot deals and best offers please visit http://www.albaraagroup.com/
Or contact us Magdy Abdel ghany Call : - 002 01062922290 Email : - Info@albaraagroup.com
Performing home improvement does not must be a difficult task. Enhancing your home can be enjoyable and simple, and make your home environment a whole lot more enjoyable. Make-over the areas you like and make them into areas you love. Follow the guidelines below and you will be able to turn your home into your dream home.
Set electrical wire connectors on your tubes of caulking! Those little plastic covers that are included with the tubes often get missing! A commonly had alternative that works of the same quality or a lot better than the original top can be an electrical wire connection. Special colors can be even used by you for special forms of tubes.
An low priced method to give your kitchen a new search without spending thousands on new cabinets would be to give them a facelift. Install new hard ware and recondition them with oil to make them seem new. With respect to the substance of the units, you may be able to paint them too.
To save on energy prices, consider putting a number of small fluorescent lighting fixtures under your cabinetry. On the surface that is ideal for preparing food or illuminating a richly colored counter top or ornamental back dash region these lights eat up less power than your overhead light and can cast a great light.
Try changing the house figures outside your house for many easy home improvement. If the house numbers on your house are old, buy some new ones. Try trying to find contemporary house figures made from stainless, aluminum, or brass. Fit them with the final in your exterior light fixtures for greater curb appeal.
In regards to do-it-yourself, make sure to get prices from at minimum three different contractors. This is crucial as may the grade of work, because prices may differ considerably. Get yourself a good experience for the specialist by sitting yourself down with her or him and discussing your whole approach.
After some initial use, your kitchen cabinets can start to get rid of their appeal. You can shine up kitchen cabinetry by using car wax. Use some car feel liberally to a towel and wash your units down in a circular motion. This will make your units resemble they are new and shiny.
When it?s time for you to make improvements to your residence, engage the services of a reliable general contractor. Look around and make careful comparisons. A competent and sincere, general contractor, can complete home developments professionally. A contractor can also perform do-it-yourself work cheaper than you can control, by carrying it out yourself.
When signing a contract with a contractor doing home improvements, search for a place of business for that contractor. A clear sign that something is not around level with your builder is once they just give you a phone number for a contact and not a stone and mortar building address. It?s super easy for them to just change figures and start shop elsewhere If a problem occurs.
In regards to home improvement, consider putting solar power panels to your house. You may think it is to become a wise investment in comparison to the increasing costs of energy, while the upfront cost may be big. This will save on your monthly electric bills, because the most of your energy will come from the energy you?re saving. This is a great, natural treatment for running your house.
When cracks come in your interior walls or your ceilings, keep these things examined with a building professional as soon as possible. They can reveal greater, far more serious causes, while the most likely cause of such breaks is just a simple failure in the finished floor. You do not want to blithely paint over a break and just forget about it when it is actually showing base negotiation!
Raise the security of your home by adding motion detecting floodlights on the exterior of your house. These lights are ideal for domiciles with large front yards or those situated on dark streets. Mount these lights near your garage or shed. These lights will illuminate the area and decrease the threat of break-ins.
Take the time to look for inspiration in magazines, color swatches and whatever else that you can find, before you begin your next do it yourself project. It is important to plan ahead so that you don?t get stuck trying to do a lot of when it?s time for you to begin your project. This may make the entire process a whole lot more comforting for you personally.
Several things jazz up a residence such as for instance a well-maintained flower bed. Before you undertake a significant remodel, nevertheless, research your options. Find out which flowers are best suited to your home?s climate, soil type, and shaded places. This may ensure that you don?t spend your time or money by planting roses that aren?t appropriate.
Fit your fire extinguisher to the space where it?s being used. Along with could be the same old red but fire extinguishers are considered based on function. School B?s are best suited for the home but Class A?s would probably work well in the remaining portion of the house.
You don?t already have one and if you have a sizable backyard, it could be good for develop a deck before putting your property on the market. potential house buyers look at as an important entertaining space for family and friends a deck to hang out in in is because.
Do not place a television in your kitchen, If you should be creating the building of your dwelling. More time will be then spent by you in the kitchen, if you love television. This can put you in a position where you are convinced more, with the plethora of food around you.
As you can see, do-it-yourself can be quite simple. With the recommendations above, you can accomplish the task of turning your home into your private sanctuary, a place you are proud to call home. What?re you looking forward to? Go ahead and start that home improvement project you?ve been considering. cheap nautical cabinet hardware
In: Aparitii editoriale | | Link ????? 48 vizualizari
Apparently, rules are rules. After Disney's?"Paperman"?won the Academy Award for best animated short Sunday, producer?Kristina Reed?began throwing paper airplanes, about three or four -- with kisses on them, like the ones seen in the film -- from her seat in the mezzanine.
VIDEO: Disney's 'Paperman' Short Floats Online
The paper planes were nowhere near the stage, instead shooting straight down from the balcony. It went largely unnoticed by the crowd, but security didn't think the act was very sweet, kicking her out of the Dolby Theatre auditorium.
It would turn out to be temporary. After a short protest, security brought her back to her seat about five to 10 minutes later.?
The black-and-white "Paperman," which played on the big screen ahead of Oscar-nominated animated feature "Wreck-It Ralph"?(that film lost to?"Brave"), is a blend of hand-drawn and computer animation directed by?John Kahrs.
COMPLETE LIST: 2013 Oscar Winners
The film tells the story of a guy who notices a woman on the train platform and then in the office window across the street from his building. Stuck in a paper-pushing prison of an office, he does his best to catch her attention but is at the mercy of the wind's whim, as it takes his paper airplanes far from their intended destinations.
PARIS (AP) ? France's defense minister says French troops are involved in "very violent fighting" in the mountains of northern Mali, and that it's too early to talk about a quick pullout from the West African country despite the growing cost of the intervention.
Jean-Yves Le Drian said on France's RTL radio Tuesday that the French intervention in Mali has cost more than ?100 million ($133 million). French troops moved in Jan. 11 to help Mali's weak military push back Islamist extremists.
Le Drian said, "we are now at the heart of the conflict," in protracted fighting in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains. While some have suggested starting a pullout of the 4,000-strong French force next month, Le Drian said he couldn't talk about a quick withdrawal while the mountain fighting goes on.
It’s finally Hollywood’s big night! The 2013 Oscars aka the 85th Academy Awards show! The show is being hosted by “Family Guy” creator, Seth MacFarlane, which is sure to be entertaining. MacFarlane opened the show by saying of his hosting gig, “It’s an honor that everyone else said no”. The opening monologue featured Captain Kirk, ...
Feb. 25, 2013 ? Up to 10% of all women experience some form of elevated blood pressure during pregnancy. Researchers from the Centre for Social Evolution at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen show that mild maternal hypertension early in pregnancy actually benefits the fetus, but that late-pregnancy hypertension has negative health consequences for the child. The study is based on more than 750,000 births in Denmark, with follow-up data on children's hospital diagnoses for up to 27 years.
'It has been known for some time now that pregnancy-induced hypertension can lead to more serious toxic conditions (preeclampsia), but it has puzzled biologists why such a medical condition that can be quite dangerous for both mother and child has not previously been removed by natural selection in our stoneage ancestors. However, evolutionary theory also emphasizes that paradoxes of this kind can be due to genetic parent-offspring conflicts, so we set out to test whether we could find statistical evidence for that type of explanation', says Professor Jacobus Boomsma, Director of the Centre for Social Evolution and coordinator of the study.
Minor increases in blood pressure gives better health
The results clearly indicate that mothers with minor increases in blood pressure in the first trimester of pregnancy have babies that enjoy generally better health than children of mothers who never get a hypertension diagnosis during pregnancy. The difference was between 10 and 40% fewer diagnoses across all disease categories during the 27 years of available follow-up data, a result that has never been documented before. However, when hypertension continues or starts later in pregnancy, this advantage shifts to a ca. 10% disadvantage in terms of an increased risk of acquiring a diagnosis in the Danish public health data bases. Child mortality during the first year of life showed the same trend. In spite of this risk being very low in Denmark, no children of mothers with early pregnancy-induced hypertension died, whereas the mortality risk of children born to mothers with hypertension late in pregnancy was above average.
Fathers genes enhances blood pressure
Parent-offspring-conflict theory maintains that father-genes in the placenta will have a tendency to 'demand' a somewhat higher level of nutrition for the fetus than serves the interests of mother-genes. It argues that father genes that somehow manage to enhance maternal blood pressure will likely be met by maternal genes compensating this challenge. Both types of genes are 50/50 represented and thus likely to find a 'negotiated' balance while creating an optimally functioning placenta. However, when the pull of paternal genes cannot quite be managed by maternal counterbalances, there is a risk of elevated blood pressure to develop and persist, leading to late occurring pregnancy complications and compromised offspring health. The results obtained are consistent with the idea that some deep fundamental conflicts lay buried in our genes right from the moment of conception. Imprinted genes are prime suspects for mediating such conflicts as they 'remember' which parent they come from.
'Molecular biologists have recently found many such genes in mice and man, and they are particularly expressed in the placenta as the theory predicts. Our study therefore suggests that further research to test whether different patterns of pregnancy-induced hypertension are indeed related to paternal or maternal imprints would be highly worthwhile', says PhD student Birgitte Hollegaard, who did the analyses together with EU Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow Sean Byars.
The authors of the study hope these results will help build bridges between their evolutionary inspired public health analyses and established clinical praxis.
'Ultimately we are not only interested in the fundamental science aspects of genome level reproductive conflicts, but also in seeing some of these findings being made more directly useful, for example by adjusting pregnancy monitoring schemes to take long term risks for offspring health into account', concludes Jacobus Boomsma.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Copenhagen, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Birgitte Hollegaard, Sean G. Byars, Jacob Lykke, Jacobus J. Boomsma. Parent-Offspring Conflict and the Persistence of Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension in Modern Humans. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e56821 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056821
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan promised on Tuesday to make the country secure and stable after cruising to victory in an election which international vote monitors said lacked real competition.
But Sarksyan faces a challenge in his second five-year term to prevent tensions increasing with Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh that could lead to a new war in the South Caucasus, where pipelines carry Caspian oil and gas to Europe.
Preliminary results showed Sarksyan won 58.6 percent of the votes cast in Monday's election, enough to avoid a second-round run-off. His closest rival, U.S.-born former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian, trailed on nearly 37 percent.
"Armenia chose the path towards a safe Armenia and I am happy and proud of the fact that every resident of Armenia will be on that path," Sarksyan, 58, told celebrating supporters.
International observers said the vote was an improvement on recent elections in the former Soviet republic, including the 2008 presidential ballot in which 10 people were killed.
"However, the limited field of candidates meant that the election was not genuinely competitive," representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement.
"The candidates who did run were able to campaign in a free atmosphere and to present their views to voters, but the campaign overall failed to engage the public's interest."
Several of Sarksyan's potential rivals, most notably former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, decided not to run because they feared the election would be skewed in the president's favor.
A minor candidate was shot and wounded during campaigning, and police received 70 complaints of voting violations. The result was in line with opinion polls, however.
One group, the opposition Heritage Party, alleged some ballots cast for Sarksyan's opponents had been thrown out and said it planned a protest in the capital Yerevan later on Tuesday. It was not clear if other parties would take part.
EXPECTED OUTCOME
Armenians had expected Sarksyan to win and there was little celebrating. "I expect that things will get better in the next five years. And after that of course we will need to change (the president). That's all," said Yerevan resident Roza Atovyan.
Another woman in Yerevan, Elana Akapova, said: "The president has a lot of administrative power. Therefore it's natural that he received the majority of the vote."
The result strengthens Sarksyan's hold on Armenia, which borders Iran, Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, after his Republican Party won a parliamentary election last year.
Sarksyan's promises of economic recovery went down well with voters in the country of 3.2 million, where more than 30 percent live below the poverty line. The average monthly wage is about $300 and unemployment was 16 percent last year.
Armenia is an important potential ally for the West which is trying to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, although tightening international economic sanctions on its neighbors could affect Armenia's trade and economy.
Sarksyan has outlined no big policy changes and investors and foreign governments are worried by Armenia's fraught relations with Azerbaijan.
FEARS OF NEW CONFLICT
About 30,000 people were killed in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s and Azerbaijan uses its diplomatic and economic muscle to isolate Yerevan. It has vastly increased military spending in the last few years, alarming Yerevan.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside Azerbaijan, which Armenia-backed rebels wrested from Azeri troops. Firefights along the border still kill troops on both sides and experts say a wider conflict is possible.
Sarksyan has accused Azerbaijan of threatening a new conflict. Azerbaijan denies it is the aggressor and says Armenians should hand back control of the mountainous enclave.
"In terms of domestic policy, we should expect a continuation of deepening ties with the West and the European Union," said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre think tank in Yerevan.
He ruled out a breakthrough over Nagorno-Karabakh, saying: "Both sides remain too far apart."
Without a shift in regional politics, durable economic growth will be difficult for Armenia while its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey remain closed. Turkey shut the border in 1993 in solidarity with its ethnic kin in Azerbaijan.
Most regional pipeline projects between growing regional power Turkey and the oil and gas-producing Azerbaijan isolate Armenia, making Yerevan more dependent on ties with its Soviet-era master Moscow, which has a military base on Armenian soil.
(Reporting by Hasmik Mrktchyan and Margarita Antidze; Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Pravin Char)
This visualization shows the grid structure of major pathways of the human brain, as mapped by the NIH Blueprint Human Connectome Project. Click on the image for a Flash interactive exploring the brain.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
BOSTON ? The brain-mapping project that the Obama administration wants to facilitate isn't necessarily aimed at adding billions of dollars to the money already being spent on research, according to the scientists who inspired the idea. Instead, it's aimed at harnessing new technologies to uncover the secrets of neural function less expensively and more completely.
"We can bring down the cost and increase the quality of the technology," said Harvard geneticist George Church, one of the researchers who proposed the Brain Activity Map Project last year. "We are trying to work with current funding [levels] to bring down the cost."
The New York Times reported on Monday?that the White House has embraced the idea of having the Office of Science and Technology Policy spearhead the project, with participation by the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies. The federal initiative is to be unveiled as early as next month, the Times quoted its sources as saying.
The roots of the project go back months if not years earlier: The goals of the BAM Project were outlined last June in a?white paper appearing in the journal Neuron. The researchers proposed a 15-year international effort to map the functions of the brain's complex neural circuitry to an unprecedented degree?? using traditional tools such as magnetic resonance imaging in combination with novel technologies such as nanosensors and wireless fiber-optic probes that can be implanted into the brain, and genetically engineered cells that can be linked up with brain cells to record their activity.
The scientists' idea was to start with mice and work their way up to primates. "We do not exclude the extension of the BAM Project to humans, and if this project is to be applicable to clinical research or practice, its special challenges are worth addressing early," they wrote.
The discoveries generated by the effort could point to new strategies for dealing with brain-centered maladies such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism and schizophrenia.
Church and his colleagues compared the BAM Project's potential impact to the effects of the $3.8 billion Human Genome Project, a 13-year-long effort that analysts say?generated $796 billion in economic activity. "After the genome project, we brought the cost [of whole-genome sequencing] down by a million-fold," Church said. Advanced technologies for studying brain activity could bring savings on the same scale, he said.
In this month's?State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama made a similar point: "Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy ??every dollar. ?Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's. ?They?re developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries 10 times more powerful. ?Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. ?Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race."
Debate over the dollars The Times' report on the project quoted scientists familiar with the BAM Project as saying they hoped it would receive as much support as the Human Genome Project did, which amounted to more than $300 million a year. That was widely interpreted as implying that more than $3 billion would be shifted over to the effort from other federally supported research over the next decade ? a prospect that rankled some observers.
"If there is money for frivolities like the Billion Dollar Brain Project, doesn't it show that NIH has too much money?" evolutionary geneticist Detlef Weigel of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology?wrote in a?Twitter comment.
Some scientists noted that the European Union has already established a?Human Brain Project?in cooperation with a range of research centers, including some that are expected to play a role in the BAM Project. The European-led project is due to receive?up to 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) over the next decade.
Michael Eisen, a biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, pointed to a blog posting in which he said grand projects in biology such as?Project ENCODE?for DNA analysis?were emerging as the "greatest threat"?to individual discovery-driven science because they crowded out less costly, smaller-scale studies.
"It's one thing to fund neuroscience, another to have a centralized 10-year project to 'solve the brain,'" Eisen wrote in a?Twitter update.
Emphasis on existing funds Church said he couldn't speak for the federal government, and he didn't rule out the possibility that the project would receive new funding. But he noted that the concept outlined last year emphasized better coordination of existing publicly and privately supported brain research efforts, which already receive hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
"We want to use existing funds," he told NBC News.
The BAM Project received a strong endorsement from Allan Jones, chief executive officer of the privately backed Allen Institute for Brain Science.
"Our own work over the last 10 years has shown that large-scale brain research and sharing vast data sets and tools publicly for use by scientists around the world accelerate progress and catalyze important research advances across the field," Jones said in a statement emailed to NBC News. "In early 2012, we launched our large-scale initiative to understand brain activity, creating a foundation for other related projects."
The Allen Institute helped organize a workshop that gave rise to last year's white paper proposing the BAM Project, and it is also a partner in the Human Brain Project. Jones said such efforts "complement our work at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and hold promise for helping to bring on new discoveries about the human brain and bring us ever closer to much needed advances in medicine."
More about the brain:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Ramallah Ballet Center owner Shyrine Ziadeh decided not to leave the West Bank to study dance, but instead opened a space to cultivate talent and hope among local youth.
By Chelsea Sheasley,?Contributor / February 4, 2013
Shyrine Ziadeh leads one of her three classes at the Ramallah Ballet Center, which she opened in December 2011 with the help of her family.
Christa Case Bryant/The Christian Science Monitor
Enlarge Photos
The Ramallah Ballet Center, where girls in white tights and pink tutus twirl in front of a long mirror, seems a world away from the street below, where butchered lambs hang for sale, resentment lingers from the last intifada, and horns blare as cars snake dangerously close to each other in the narrow streets.?
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
?Doesn?t the music make you feel so peaceful?? asks studio owner Shyrine Ziadeh, as she surveys her students. ?That?s one of my favorite things about dancing.??
Ms. Ziadeh?s dance studio is the first to open in Ramallah and the only one she knows of in the West Bank, following years of foreign instructors teaching lessons out of their homes or in local schools. (Read more about female entrepreneurs in the West Bank here.)
Ziadeh, who grew up in Ramallah, planned to leave the West Bank to study dance abroad after graduating from Birzeit University four years ago. But she changed her mind after she opened the studio last year and saw how popular her classes are. If she leaves, she fears no one will be there for the students.
?The kids here, they have many talents but no one to support them,? she says. ?So when I find a talented girl, I support her with all my heart.? Ziadeh says part of her motivation was the fact that when people around the world think of the Palestinian territories, they don?t see hope or talent, but violence.
Ziadeh sees her studio as place where local kids ? she teaches between 30 and 40 students a month ? can come to have fun in a safe place.
?I want to show the world that as Palestinians, we have talent and can defend our land not only in violence, but in the arts.?
Ziadeh sees the studio as a success, though it?s not yet profitable. She charges 200 shekels (about $55) a month for two classes a week, but some parents can?t afford to pay. The Orthodox Church that owns the studio space has so far allowed her to pay rent late when needed and she?s still repaying a loan her parents gave her.?
Some Israelis who heard about her business offered to give funding, something she?s so far declined in the hopes that Palestinians will be the ones to provide support.
In a region where the political conflict is reflected in so much of society Ziadeh says Israeli-Palestinian politics have complicated her business. She can?t get the costumes she needs because West Bank stores don?t sell them and she doesn?t have a permit to travel 15 miles to Jerusalem to buy them. Instead, she goes to Amman, Jordan to buy the outfits necessary for performances, or has them made by hand.
Hoping for more boys
Another challenge Ziadeh hopes to overcome is gender. Her classes have been predominately female, but she thinks it?s important to involve boys as well because of the impact dance can have on them. She hopes that boys will start to enroll if she offers hip-hop classes.
?The problem is not with the Arab culture,? she says, citing a friend who teaches more boys than girls in the Egyptian royal ballet. ?I think it?s here, the boys want to be more tough.?
Being ready for an intifada is a prominent part of how boys are raised, she says. ?[They say] ?how can I dance when I have to defend my country?? But they can defend the country by dancing,? Ziadeh says.
Fadia Othman, the mother of one of Ziadeh?s students, says the classes help her 6-year-old daughter to be calmer in school.
Hadeel Kamil, a German-Palestinian gum surgeon who also has a daughter in the class, praises the decision of people like Ziadeh who stay in the Palestinian territories, sharing their talents locally instead of moving to a potentially easier and more lucrative life abroad.
"Palestine deserves people who know how to think," Ms. Kamil says.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
Share ] 
It’s finally Hollywood’s big night! The 2013 Oscars aka the 85th Academy Awards show! The show is being hosted by “Family Guy” creator, Seth MacFarlane, which is sure to be entertaining. MacFarlane opened the show by saying of his hosting gig, “It’s an honor that everyone else said no”. The opening monologue featured Captain Kirk, ...