Teens with Learning Disabilities Benefit from Closer Relationships ...

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 2, 2013

Many kids with learning disabilities also face social and emotional challenges, which in adolescence can lead to depression, anxiety and isolation.

For these youngsters, more positive relationships with the significant adults in their lives ? including parents and teachers ? can improve learning and ?socioemotional? experiences, said?Michal Al-Yagon, Ph.D., of Tel Aviv University in Israel.

In a recent study, Al-Yagon reported that teens with learning disabilities were less likely to have secure attachment relationships to their mothers and teachers compared to peers without learning disabilities.

The study, found in the journal of Journal of Youth and Adolescence, suggests the absence of close and supportive relationships can harm a teens? social and emotional functioning. In turn, this void can contribute to behavioral problems including isolation, depression, and aggression.

?We found that more secure child-adult attachments may act as a protective factor during this developmental period, whereas insecure attachments are a risk factor? for social and emotional issues,?Al-Yagon said.

These results could help researchers design more effective interventions for children and adolescents with learning disabilities. Helping to strengthen their relationships with parents and teachers may decrease their emotional and behavioral problems.

Researcher say attachment theory, which describes long-term relationship dynamics, may explain how parental involvement, availability, and support can shape a child?s social and emotional development.

Insecure attachments are damaging to a child, hindering future relationships with peers, romantic partners and family members.

For this study,?Al-Yagon measured the socioemotional state and the security of attachments to parents and teachers for 181 adolescents with learning disabilities and 188 with typical development, all between the ages of 15-17.

Participants completed a series of questionnaires regarding their attachment to their mother and father, perceived teacher availability and rejection, loneliness, experience of positive and negative emotions and behavioral problems.

Adolescents with learning disabilities were discovered to have less secure attachments with significant adult figures compared to their non-disabled peers, which had a direct impact on their socioemotional state.

Within the disabled group, those who had more secure attachments to their mother and father, or who considered their teacher caring and available, exhibited fewer negative emotions, feelings of loneliness, and behavior problems ? all of which can interfere with learning.

Experts say these findings can help guide clinicians in developing effective treatment strategies.

Examples include family intervention techniques that focus on creating more secure attachments between parents and children, or school workshops to help teachers understand the needs of their learning disabled students and make more of an effort to include them in classroom activities, said Al-Yagon.

While social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties cannot be entirely avoided,?Al-Yagon believes that a little effort, care, and attention can go a long way toward helping learning disabled children and teens feel happier and more secure.

?Parents and teachers should be aware not just of academic difficulties, but also of socioemotional difficulties ? and work to treat them. They should not avoid or ignore issues such as depression or aggression, which are another dimension of the original problem,? she said.

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Mother and daughter spending time together photo by shutterstock.

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2013). Teens with Learning Disabilities Benefit from Closer Relationships. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 2, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/02/teens-with-learning-disabilities-benefit-from-closer-relationships/52087.html

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Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/02/teens-with-learning-disabilities-benefit-from-closer-relationships/52087.html

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Late dinners, grappa: How a new pope is chosen

L'Osservatore Romano

Now that they have bid farewell to Pope Benedict XVI, the cardinals begin the work of choosing his replacement. It begins in earnest Monday with official meetings and off-the-record dinners where alliances are forged and names are considered, experts say.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Let the papal politicking begin. The College of Cardinals will meet Monday for the first time since the pope's resignation.

Officially, the princes of the church will gather every day to deal with important ecclesiastical business -- setting a start date for the conclave, receiving reports on the state of church affairs around the world.

But Vaticanologists say the most significant discussions will unfold at private apartments, in restaurant back rooms, around the coffee urn, as cardinals meet in small groups to suss out who among them will be the front-runners to become the next pope when they are locked up for voting some time before March 20.

"All the real business takes place at night over anisette and grappa," said Christopher Bellitto, associate professor of history at Kean University.

---

Gossip will be traded and names will be Googled. Coalitions will start to form, and lists of first and second choices will start to take form.

L'Osservatore Romano

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, shown here with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, will preside over the general congregations that start Monday and give papal candidates a forum to shine.

"This is the chance, especially for the cardinals out of Rome who don't travel a lot, to get to know the other cardinals better," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter.

Once or twice a day, the cardinals will converge on the Vatican for what are called general congregations, formal meetings that could touch on a wide range of worldly and spiritual issues -- from reforming the Roman bureaucracy to the church's "new evangelization" ethos.

A cardinal can boost or doom his chances during these confabs, which are presided over by the non-voting dean of the college, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, experts say.

Make a dismissive comment about the sexual abuse crisis and a potential candidate could lose the support of the Americans or Irish. One who stumbles on the subject of Islam could be written off by the African cardinals. But a lower-profile cardinal who impresses the group with his eloquence or energy could suddenly have dark-horse status.

After the congregations, the caucusing continues in informal, intimate settings.

"You're not going to do this in McDonald's," Reese said. "This is where the Roman cardinals have the home-court advantage because they have apartments, they probably have a cook, they know a restaurant with a private room where they can have three or four people for dinner."

James Weiss, a theology professor at Boston College, said it's an intricate dance, and this time there will be an overlay of intrigue because of the Vatican document leak scandal that exposed infighting and back-stabbing in the church hierarchy.

An internal report that may address accusations of financial skulduggery, sexual activity and even blackmail is being kept secret until the new pope is chosen.

"What's going to complicate this is they don't know who they can trust any more," Weiss said. "They know something bad was happening at the highest levels of the Vatican, but they don't know who. The level of distrust has not been this great since 1730."

Still, if recent history is any indication, by the time the 115 cardinal-electors actually go into the conclave -- not to emerge until the puff of white smoke is seen -- there will be a handful of front-runners.

It's possible none of those names are the one that will be announced outside St. Peter's. Two early leaders can cancel each other out, forcing their supporters to look for a compromise candidate who can get the two-thirds vote needed to score a pair of red shoes, Weiss said.

He said that unconfirmed reports out of the 1978 conclave -- all the ballots are technically secret, but there's always the possibility of post-election leaks -- had nearly 50 old-guard cardinals coalescing around a conservative.

When they realized their man would never reach the threshold, everyone started moving toward a more electable moderate, and Poland's Karol Wojty?a, championed by an Austrian cardinal, suddenly jumped from 18 to 30-plus votes. He became the new focus of the conclave and, eventually, Pope John Paul II.

While there is alliance-forging during the actual conclave, the opportunities are more limited, experts said.

There are two ballots every morning and night, and the process is tedious and time-consuming, with each cardinal taking an oath before casting a vote and the totals being tallied three times. It all happens in the Sistine Chapel, where silence is mandatory. There is no Internet access, so checking Google to see if a certain cardinal really said a certain something a few years back is impossible.

Jerry Lampen / Reuters file

There is a lot of politicking to be done before white smoke rises from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, as shown here in 2005.

Vatican watchers say the quicker the conclave happens, the less chance outsider cardinals will have time to research and talk up their colleagues. That likely benefits the cardinals of the Roman Curia who have the most to lose from major upheaval.

Modern conclaves have not lasted more than a few days -- not surprising, since the whole point of them is to make a quick decision.

They were created by Pope Gregory X after a papal election that dragged on for nearly three years, from 1268 to 1271, infuriating the people of the medieval town of Viterbo, where pontiffs lived at the time.

"The people of Viterbo had finally had it and locked the cardinals in a big hall until they elected someone. They still wouldn't elect, so the good people of Viterbo ripped the roof off the hall. They still wouldn't elect, so then they started to give them only bread and water," Bellitto said.

The townspeople finally threatened to start throwing garbage down on the cardinals if they didn't settle their differences, and "lo and behold, they elected Pope Gregory," he said.

Gregory decided that all future elections would be done by conclave with the cardinals cut off from the world until they picked a new leader.

For this election, a repeat of Viterbo isn't in the cards, but some speculate it could be the longest conclave of the last 100 years.

"While there are many possible candidates, there is no front-runner or front-runners, as there was in 2005," said NBC News Vatican expert George Weigel. "There's also a sense that this is a critical moment in the church's history, the cardinals aren't all that familiar with each other, and thus there's a concern to take the time required to get the decision right."

He guessed that if it isn't over in two days, it could take as long as two weeks, but Weiss thinks the cardinals are under pressure to get it done in three days or less for public relations reasons.

"One thing they're all concerned about is maintaining face," he said. "And once it goes beyond three days, the world knows the divisions are running pretty deep."

Ettore Ferrari / EPA

The pope delivers his final audience in St. Peter's Square as he prepares to stand down.

Related:

Cheers and tears as Benedict flies to temporary home in hilltop town

Inside Castel Gandolfo, Benedict's spectacular temporary retirement home

How the pope's retirement package compares to yours

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/03/17147348-late-dinners-grappa-the-behind-the-scenes-work-of-picking-a-pope?lite

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Reconciliation efforts urgently needed in Mali to address ...

March 01, 2013

The United Nations refugee agency today stressed?that efforts to achieve reconciliation and combat impunity are needed to avoid long-term displacement in Mali, where hundreds of thousands of people have been uprooted since fighting broke out over a year ago.

?UNHCR believes that reconciliation efforts are urgently needed, together with efforts to combat impunity, to encourage peaceful coexistence between communities, to help long-term stabilization and security and to prevent Mali?s displacement crisis from becoming more protracted,? the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards,?told?reporters in Geneva.

Northern Mali was occupied by radical Islamists after fighting broke out in January 2012 between Government forces and Tuareg rebels. The conflict prompted the Malian Government to request assistance from France to stop the military advance of extremist groups.

According to UNHCR estimates, some 430,000 people have been uprooted by the crisis. Of those, more than 260,000 are internally displaced and over 170,000 have fled as refugees to neighbouring countries.

Mr. Edwards said that almost two months after the French intervention, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) as well as refugees is still high and in some cases continues to increase as many people fear returning to their homes even though the security situation has improved.

?For IDPs and refugees alike the primary worry remains insecurity. Continued fighting, suicide attacks, reprisal attacks against some communities, the presence of mines and unexploded ordinance in the regions of Mopti, Gao, and Timbuktu, are all cited as reasons to delay returning,? Mr. Edwards said.

?However, the absence of services in the north is also a factor: with few schools functioning there, and Government authorities still absent in many towns and cities, many displaced families prefer to wait.?

Mr. Edwards noted that for those outside Mali there is the added complication of ethnicity, as the majority of refugees are Tuareg or Arab and fear reprisal attacks against them. In particular, they fear that radical extremists might remain present in the community. For this reason, refugee numbers continue to grow.

He added that UNHCR is currently planning to support reconciliation efforts in areas of displacement and returns, as well as in refugee camps.

UN News Center

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/03/80591/reconciliation-efforts-urgently-needed-in-mali-to-address-displacement-un/

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7 Scientifically-Backed Copywriting Tips | Copyblogger

The practice of persuasive copywriting is a necessity, if you want to sell products, services, or ideas online.

While great writing is truly an art, those looking to improve their craft as a copywriter can find a lot of help from behavioral psychology and neuroscience studies.

The only problem is, good writers are often busy people, and they don?t have time to slog through dry research papers to find an interesting nugget or two.

Fortunately, I?ve done the heavy lifting for you, and today you?ll get to look at 7 fascinating studies on the mind ? and see how you can apply their findings to produce more persuasive copy.

Sound good?

Let?s jump in!

1. Make em? feel something

Imagine with me if you will ?

You?re watching football, and your team?s quarterback gets slammed with a bone-crunching tackle, and snaps a rib.

Ooh ?

Can?t you just feel yourself cringing at the thought?

That?s the power of mirror neurons and how they affect the human mind.

According to research on the subject, these neurons activate when you ?observe? something happening, and then transfer some of the feeling (if it?s powerful enough) on to you.

It?s likely that they?re biologically useful for necessary evolutionary traits, such as empathy or ?walking in someone else?s shoes.?

Although a majority of the current research on mirror neurons focuses on literal observation, great writers know that strong emotions can be conveyed through words as well.

Think about my first example ? if you did cringe at the thought of a man breaking his ribs, you?re already experiencing this effect in action!

When crafting compelling copy, you have to understand what keeps your potential reader up at night.

It?s easy for me to write out, ?Envision this ?,? but it?s not as easy to get people to care.

You have to speak to a feeling that?s already there, not try to force one on your reader.

If you?re selling software that takes the hassle out of content optimization, you need to speak to the frustrated entreproducer who?s tired of nitpicking and game-playing for Google, and who wants to get back to writing.

If you?re selling beer (now we?re talkin?), you need to invoke memories of good times spent with friends over an ice-cold beer.

Using this information on mirror neurons to transfer a desired feeling onto readers is effective, but it?s only going to work if you know what makes them tick.

2. Be wary of ?selling? savings

Here?s something you should know ? if you?re using precious real estate to chest thump about your low prices, you?re doing it wrong.

Not only has research shown us that asking customers to directly compare prices is a bad idea, but new research from Stanford University has revealed that that selling ?time? is far more effective (for most businesses) than selling money.

Jennifer Aaker, the lead researcher, sought to explain why companies like Miller would use a slogan such as ?

It?s Miller Time!

As an inexpensive beer, shouldn?t they be promoting their reasonable prices instead? (I like that we?re back to talking about beer.)

It turns out, no ?

A person?s experience with a product tends to foster feelings of personal connection with it, referring to time typically leads to more favorable attitudes ? and to more purchases.

What does this have to do with writing great copy?

Simple ? it helps you speak to what really matters to your buyer, and that?s their time, troubles, and objectives.

We know that customers are willing to pay more for exceptional service, but you also need to understand that they?re willing to pay your prices if you speak to them in a way that shows you value what they hope to achieve, which is far more genuine (and effective) than trying to sell them on bottom-dollar prices.

Or, as Professor Mogliner would put it:

Ultimately, time is a more scarce resource ? once it?s gone, it?s gone ? and therefore it?s more meaningful to us.

3. Sweat the small stuff

This is an incredibly important study for copywriters and conversion experts.

A fascinating piece of research from Carnegie Mellon University was able to show that the devil really is in the details, especially when it comes to creating copy that converts.

In the study, researchers tested how changing a single phrase would affect conversions over the long haul.

They did this by setting up a free DVD trial program (remember DVDs?) that customers could sign up for, and testing it between two different phrases ?

1. ?a $5 fee? to
2. ?a small $5 fee?

? wait a minute, seriously? Yup, and here?s the best part:

They found that the second phrase was able to increase sign-up rates by over 20%.

The science behind it is actually pretty interesting: they found that this emphasis on the ?small? fee made it far easier to deal with for conservative spenders, also known as ?tightwad? customers.

When it comes to great copywriting, however, the lesson is more in the art of great writing rather than in the ?science.?

You must take the time to measure, improve, and track the success of your craft. Great writers today have no excuses for not testing their work, so make sure you?re sweating the small stuff, and keeping tabs on how it performs.

4. Embrace your devilish side

A big mistake that many copywriters make is taking little effort to be authentic.

Everything is high-level: they promise the world, and since many consumers are hesitant to believe claims like that, they?re more likely to glaze over your copy, rather than get swept up by it.

The answer?

Create strong copy that addresses their objections head-on.

You might be familiar with the term ?devil?s advocate,? which is when someone takes a position that they don?t inherently agree with in order to prove a point.

What you might not know is that the Catholic church used to use a person called the ?devil?s advocate? when they canonized someone into sainthood. Their job was to find flaws with the person so that the debate around them was impartial.

They ended the practice ? and with good cause, because you?ll soon see that playing the devil?s advocate actually enhances the persuasiveness of the original argument!

A study by social psychologist Charlan Nemeth was able to show that arguments framed in the ?devil?s advocate? style were more likely to persuade listeners to support the original argument, rather than to disagree with it.

Nemeth (and a few other researchers) have concluded that this occurs because potential flaws and concerns are brought up (and subsequently addressed) when engaging in the devil?s advocate style, either by the speaker, or ? subliminally ? by the listener.

When you?re listening to a persuasive argument and you think to yourself:

But will that address ____?

? you?re much more likely to be persuaded if the speaker says something like:

Many of you are probably worried about ____ right now.

? because your concerns are put in the spotlight instead of never being brought up.

Copywriters, are you listening?

Instead of trying to paint a picture of an infallible offer, point out common concerns that customers may have, and then assure them with facts and evidence that they have nothing to worry about.

5. Don?t rely on adjectives alone

Some writers might not agree with this, but college kids will tell you: an admissions letter is one of the most stressful pieces of persuasive copy you can write.

And believe me, it is very much a piece of selling copy ? you?re selling you to some person who decides the fate of your future.

Interestingly enough, in this analysis of persuasive admission letters ? as discussed by the Harvard MBA admissions director who read them ? verbs beat out adjectives more often than not.

Verbs get specific and are harder to ignore, especially in a vain world where everybody describes themselves with the same trite adjectives.

How about this example ?

I know this guy Brian who is intelligent, hard-working, and really insightful.

Big whoop.

Now what if I told you that he founded a successful company, he created a popular blog, and he leads a talented team.

Much more impressive, right?

In fact, the only thing you should hold against him is that he used to be an attorney.

Verbs get in your face, and since your competitors will be fluffing up their copy with adjectives they found in a thesaurus, you can win people over by describing what you actually do.

6. Include ?power? words

Smart copywriters know that there are certain persuasive words that hold more sway than others.

You?ll recall from my previous post on Copyblogger that the top 5 are as follow:

1. ?You? (in actuality, someone?s name, such as when sending an email newsletter)
2. Free
3. Because
4. Instantly
5. New

Here?s the breakdown ?

?You? ? According to recent research examining brain activation, few things light us up quite like seeing our own names in print or on the screen. Our names are intrinsically tied to our self-perception, and we become more engaged, and even more trusting of a message when our name appears in it.

Free ? Dan Ariely, in his book Predictably Irrational, revealed a study with chocolate truffles and Hershey?s Kisses that was quite startling: when the Kisses were advertised as free, people chose them over the truffles by 38% ? despite the fact that most people had chosen the truffles when the Kisses were just a penny!

Because ? A classic study from Robert Cialdini, the research found that people were more willing to heed to a request (in this case, to cut in line) when people used the word ?because?? even if the request was nonsensical (ie, ?Can I use the copy machine first because I need to make a copy??).

Instantly ? We all want things yesterday. According to certain MRI studies, few words light up our mid-brain quite like those that invoke a sense of fast reward. Let people know you?ll solve their problems quickly, and they?ll be more prone to buy.

New ? Novelty plays an incredibly important role in activating our brain?s reward center and in keeping us happy with our purchases. The research shows that perceived ?newness? is important for a product, but can actually be damaging for a brand (people trust brands that have been around for a long time).

7. Use transportation for persuasion

Why do good stories consume us so completely?

No other form of writing can keep you up into the wee hours of the night (willingly!) quite like stories.

According to research from social psychologists Melanie Green and Timothy Brock, there?s a very simple reason why stories are so persuasive:

Transportation leads to persuasion.

People can block out sales pitches ? but everybody loves listening to stories.

Their research shows that stories have a tendency to get in ?under the radar,? and transport us to another place, and in this place we may embrace things we?d likely scoff at in the harsh ?real world.?

This is great news for those adept at telling an enchanting tale, but how can the rest of us write more persuasive stories?

According to additional research by the duo, the following tactics work well:

1. Detailed imagery: Imagery paints the picture for story. It?s hard to understand how scary Mordor is without Tolkien giving you detailed descriptions of the barren landscapes, the looming presence of Mt. Doom, and the horrifying screams of the Nazgul.
2. Suspense: How do you get people to finish a story? Leave them begging to know the end in the very beginning. It?s hard for us to not finish things that catch our attention, so lead with something exciting first, not later.
3. Metaphors and irony: The reason that stories like Animal Farm are so popular is because they tell a hidden tale through metaphor (such as depicting the rise of Stalin). Many good stories include these elements so that readers will have ?Aha!? moments, allowing them to truly grasp the author?s message.
4. Modelling: If you?re looking to have someone change a behavior (or take a desired action), you can ?model? the action via a story. When we listen to transformation tales, we re-imagine ourselves as the main character, and according to the research, it makes the action easier to understand.

Here?s what to do next ?

1. Leave a comment below telling me which study surprised, inspired, or taught you the most.
2. For those who want more research-backed content, check out my free tactical kit on 10 Ways to Convert More Customers (with Psychology), which is free to download.

About the Author: Gregory Ciotti is the marketing guy at Help Scout, the invisible email support software built for solopreneurs and small business owners. Get more brainy content from Greg by joining their free newsletter.

Source: http://www.copyblogger.com/scientific-copywriting/

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Rodman tells Kim Jong Un he has 'friend for life'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and former NBA star Dennis Rodman watch North Korean and U.S. players in an exhibition basketball game at an arena in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to shoot an episode on North Korea for a new weekly HBO series. (AP Photo/VICE Media, Jason Mojica)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and former NBA star Dennis Rodman watch North Korean and U.S. players in an exhibition basketball game at an arena in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to shoot an episode on North Korea for a new weekly HBO series. (AP Photo/VICE Media, Jason Mojica)

Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman is surrounded by journalists upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The American known as "The Worm" arrived in Pyongyang, becoming an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman, fifth from right, poses with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, in red jerseys, and a production crew for the media upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Rodman known as "The Worm" arrived in Pyongyang, becoming an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman hung out Thursday with North Korea's Kim Jong Un on the third day of his improbable journey with VICE to Pyongyang, watching the Harlem Globetrotters with the leader and later dining on sushi and drinking with him at his palace.

"You have a friend for life," Rodman told Kim before a crowd of thousands at a gymnasium where they sat side by side, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and the U.S. play, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the New York-based VICE media company, told The Associated Press.

Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the professional Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, VICE correspondent Ryan Duffy and a production crew to shoot an episode on North Korea for a new weekly HBO series.

The unlikely encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet Kim since the young North Korean leader took power in December 2011, and takes place against a backdrop of tension between Washington and Pyongyang. North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a "hostile" policy toward the North.

Kim, a diehard basketball fan, told the former Chicago Bulls star he hoped the visit would break the ice between the United States and North Korea, VICE founder Shane Smith said.

Dressed in a blue Mao suit, Kim laughed and slapped his hands on the table before him during the game as he sat nearly knee to knee with Rodman. Rodman, the man who once turned up in a wedding dress to promote his autobiography, wore a dark suit and dark sunglasses, but still had on his nose rings and other piercings. A can of Coca-Cola sat on the table before him in photos shared with AP by VICE.

"The crowd was really engaged, laughed at all of the Globetrotters antics, and actually got super loud towards the end as the score got close," said Duffy, who suited up for the game in a blue uniform emblazoned with "United States of America. "Most fun I've had in a while."

Kim and Rodman chatted in English, but Kim primarily spoke in Korean through a translator, Smith said after speaking to the VICE crew in Pyongyang.

"They bonded during the game," Smith said by telephone from New York after speaking to the crew. "They were both enjoying the crazy shots, and the Harlem Globetrotters were putting on quite a show."

The surprise visit by the flamboyant Hall of Famer known as "The Worm" makes him an unlikely ambassador at a time when North Koreans are girding for battle with the U.S. Just last week, Kim guided front line troops in military exercises.

North Korea and the U.S. fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. The foes never signed a peace treaty, and do not have diplomatic relations.

Thursday's game ended in a 110-110 draw, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans, Detrick said. The Xinhua News Agency first reported on the game, citing witnesses who attended.

After the game, Rodman addressed Kim in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands of North Koreans, telling him, "You have a friend for life," Detrick said.

At a lavish dinner at Kim's palace, the leader plied the group with food and drinks as the group made round after round of toasts.

"Dinner was an epic feast. Felt like about 10 courses in total," Duffy said in an email to AP. "I'd say the winners were the smoked turkey and sushi, though we had the Pyongyang cold noodles earlier in the trip and that's been the runaway favorite so far."

Duffy said he invited Kim to visit the United States, a proposal met with hearty laughter from the North Korean leader.

"Um ... so Kim Jong Un just got the (hash)VICEonHBO crew wasted ... no really, that happened," VICE producer Jason Mojica wrote on Twitter.

Rodman's trip is the second attention-grabbing U.S. visit this year to North Korea. Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a four-day trip in January to Pyongyang, but did not meet the North Korean leader.

In Washington, the State Department refused comment on Rodman's visit or his meeting with Kim. "Private, individual Americans are welcome to take actions they see fit," spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

He said the Obama administration wasn't in touch with Rodman and wasn't making an effort to contact him.

The administration had frowned on the trip by Schmitt and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, but has avoided criticizing Rodman's outing, saying it's about sports.

North Korea's invitation to a man known as much for his piercings, tattoos and bad behavior as for his basketball may seem inexplicable. But Kim is known to love the NBA, and has promoted sports since becoming leader.

"We knew that he's a big lover of basketball, especially the Bulls, and it was our intention going in that we would have a good will mission of something that's fun," Smith said. "A lot of times, things just are serious and everybody's so concerned with geopolitics that we forget just to be human beings."

Rodman's agent, Darren Prince, said Rodman wasn't concerned about criticism about making a visit to an enemy nation.

"Dennis called me last night and said it's been a great experience and he made this trip out of the love of the USA ," he said. "It's all about peace and love."

___

Associated Press NBA writer Brian Mahoney in New York and writer Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report. Follow AP's Korea bureau chief Jean Lee at twitter.com/newsjean.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-28-NKorea-Rodman/id-06386f38e8b946e6bee95583f2563832

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Series of explosions in Iraq kill 19

BAGHDAD (AP) ? A series of bombings struck Baghdad and a livestock market south of the Iraqi capital on Thursday, killing at least 19 and wounding dozens in areas that are home to mostly Muslim Shiites ? the latest evidence of rising sectarian discord in Iraq.

The deadliest attack occurred around sunset when a pair of bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in Shula in northwestern Baghdad. One was a car bomb that was detonated outside a fast food restaurant and the other blast occurred near a soccer field. The double-bombing killed 15 people and left at least 40 wounded, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but car bombings in Shiite areas are a favorite tactic of Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida's local affiliate. The group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, considers Shiites to be heretics and accuses them of being too closely aligned with neighboring Shiite powerhouse Iran.

Earlier in the day, a car bomb tore through the crowded livestock market in the town of Aziziyah, 55 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Baghdad. That attack killed three people and wounded eight.

A few hours later, a roadside bomb missed a passing police patrol in western Baghdad but killed a bystander and wounded eight people.

Police and hospital officials provided details of the attacks and the casualty figures. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but deadly attacks still happen frequently. The latest attacks appear aimed at shaking Iraqis' confidence in the Shiite-led government. For the past two months, Sunni Muslims have been protesting what they describe as unfair treatment by the country's Shiite-led government. The protests have been largely peaceful.

Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities released a new batch of inmates from a Baghdad prison in a move aiming at calming the Sunni protesters. Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Sharistani announced the release of 160 prisoners, including 13 women, during a ceremony at the prison on Thursday.

He said 4,000 prisoners have been released since a government committee was set up earlier this year to consider protesters' demands. The Sunni protests were sparked by the arrest of bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, a senior Sunni politician, in December.

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Associated Press Writer Adam Schreck in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/series-explosions-iraq-kill-19-161802985.html

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Toxic oceans may have delayed spread of complex life

Friday, March 1, 2013

A new model suggests that inhospitable hydrodgen-sulphide rich waters could have delayed the spread of complex life forms in ancient oceans. The research, published online this week in the journal Nature Communications, considers the composition of the oceans 550-700 million years ago and shows that oxygen-poor toxic conditions, which may have delayed the establishment of complex life, were controlled by the biological availability of nitrogen.

In contrast to modern oceans, data from ancient rocks indicates that the deep oceans of the early Earth contained little oxygen, and flipped between an iron-rich state and a toxic hydrogen-sulphide-rich state. The latter toxic sulphidic state is caused by bacteria that survive in low oxygen and low nitrate conditions. The study shows how bacteria using nitrate in their metabolism would have displaced the less energetically efficient bacteria that produce sulphide ? meaning that the presence of nitrate in the oceans prevented build-up of the toxic sulphidic state.

The model, developed by researchers at the University of Exeter in collaboration with Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of Leeds, UCL (University College London) and the University of Southern Denmark, reveals the sensitivity of the early oceans to the global nitrogen cycle. It shows how the availability of nitrate, and feedbacks within the global nitrogen cycle, would have controlled the shifting of the oceans between the two oxygen-free states ? potentially restricting the spread of early complex life.

Dr Richard Boyle from the University of Exeter said: "Data from the modern ocean suggests that even in an oxygen-poor ocean, this apparent global-scale interchange between sulphidic and non-sulphidic conditions is difficult to achieve. We've shown here how feedbacks arising from the fact that life uses nitrate as both a nutrient, and in respiration, controlled the interchange between two ocean states. For as long as sulphidic conditions remained frequent, Earth's oceans were inhospitable towards complex life."

Today, an abundance of nitrate, in the context of an oxygenated ocean, prevents a reversion to the inhospitable environment that inhibited early life. Determining how the Earth's oceans have established long-term stability helps us to understand how modern oceans interact with life and also sheds light on the sensitivity of oceans to changes in composition.

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University of Exeter: http://www.exeter.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Exeter for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127075/Toxic_oceans_may_have_delayed_spread_of_complex_life_

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