Tuesday, March 17, 2015


News Clip For The Day


ISRAEL 2015 – TWO ARTICLES


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/israeli-pm-netanyahu-facing-quiet-rebellion-in-election/

Israeli PM Netanyahu facing "quiet rebellion" in tight election
By BARRY PETERSEN CBS NEWS
March 16, 2015

Photograph – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could face a significant challenge in Tuesday's election.
 CBS NEWS

TEL AVIV -- Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday that a Palestinian state will not be established if he is re-elected, a reversal of his position six years ago and part of what people in Israel are calling frantic last-minute campagining ahead of parliamentary elections.

"We will continue to build and fortify Jerusalem," said Netanyahu. "So it's division would become impossible."

As Netanyahu's popularity has dropped in recent days, he has appeared to some as increasingly desperate. Netanyahu called this snap election three months ago, expecting a break-no-sweat cruise to reelection.

Instead, his opponents have gained steam, and poll numbers for his Likud partyare faltering.

"I would say there is a feeling that there is a kind of quiet rebellion against the rule of Benjamin Netanyahu," said Israeli author Ari Shavit.

Critics say Netanyahu ignored pocketbook issues: high taxes and real estate prices that tripled in the last decade.

Shiran and Tal Vardi are giving up their dream of ever buying an apartment.

"No, we can't buy a house, because we need to pay so much money to the government and taxes are very high," said Shiran.

"I don't want to see Bibi anymore," said Tai. "If he will stay, we will go. We can't live here any more. We will find somewhere else."

With the polls set to open at 7 a.m. Tuesday, the best guess for Prime Minister Netanyahu's reelections is in the helpful words of one observer, a tossup.



http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/07/world/israel-protests/

Rally urges change in Israeli leadership
By Oren Liebermann, CNN
Sun March 8, 2015

(CNN)A crowd of tens of thousands filled Yitzhak Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, calling for a change in Israeli leadership amid growing discontent with the current administration.

The rally, called "Israel Wants Change," was put on by One Million Hands, a grassroots movement that focuses its efforts on two major issues: a two-state solution and a reduction in the cost of living.

On both of these topics, founder Dror Ben-Ami says, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed.

"We think that the only way to go forward on that account is to change government and to get this current government out of office. To get Bibi out of office," says Ben-Ami.
Organizers are not promoting any specific candidate or pushing voters toward any political party in the March 17 balloting. Instead, they are encouraging voters to change the current administration. Police estimated the crowd at 40,000 people.

Headlining the rally was Meir Dagan, the former head of Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and a vocal critic of Netanyahu. In recent weeks, Dagan criticized Netanyahu's decision to speak before the U.S. Congress, and he continued his criticism at the rally, saying that he has never seen such stagnation in Israeli politics.

Netanyahu still has broad support in Israel, and his Likud party is doing well in the polls. The Zionist Union is Likud's primary challenger.

In the initial round of polling immediately following Netanyahu's speech before Congress, the Zionist Union was expected to win 24 seats in the Knesset while Likud was expected to win 23 seats. The poll comes from CNN affiliate Channel 2 Israel.

Because of the nature of Israeli politics, Netanyahu's Likud party could lose the election while Netanyahu still becomes prime minister.

In many ways, this rally was reminiscent of a similar social movement that began in the summer of 2011. Hundreds of thousands of protesters packed the streets of Tel Aviv, demanding improvements in the cost of housing, education, and health care. What started as a small social media campaign turned into a nationwide movement that spread to other major cities.

This time, the issues are different. But the growing sense of discontent and the calls for change remain.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionist_Union

Zionist Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Zionist Union (Hebrew: המחנה הציוני‎, translit. HaMaḥane HaẒioni, lit.the Zionist Camp) is a centre-left political alliance in Israel. It was established in December 2014 by the Israeli Labor Party and Hatnuah to create a joint electoral list to contest the 20th Knesset elections scheduled for 17 March 2015.

The Labor Party and Hatnuah agreed on 10 December 2014 to form a joint ticket.[2] The list was established to create a large electoral list for the centre-left bloc, in the hope that it will lead the 34th government. Hatnuah leader Tzipi Livni has said that other parties will also be part of the alliance.[3] Livni and Labor leader Isaac Herzog initially said that if the alliance wins enough seats to lead the next government, they would rotate in the post of Prime Minister, with Herzog serving for the first half of the Knesset's four-year term and Livni for the second half,[4] though Livni announced on 16 March 2015 that only Herzog would serve as prime minister.[5]

Manuel Trajtenberg, number 11 on the list, is the list's candidate for finance minister. Amos Yadlin is the list's candidate for defense minister, though he is not a candidate for parliament.[6] The Green Movement is also represented on the list through the addition of Yael Cohen Paran on a spot (No. 25) for Hatnuah members.[7]

Key issues for the Zionist Union are reigniting negotiations with the Palestinians, repairing ties with Washington, and solving economic woes like the housing crisis and the gap between the rich and the poor.[8]




CBS – “Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday that a Palestinian state will not be established if he is re-elected, a reversal of his position six years ago and part of what people in Israel are calling frantic last-minute campagining ahead of parliamentary elections. "We will continue to build and fortify Jerusalem," said Netanyahu. "So it's division would become impossible.".... "I would say there is a feeling that there is a kind of quiet rebellion against the rule of Benjamin Netanyahu," said Israeli author Ari Shavit. Critics say Netanyahu ignored pocketbook issues: high taxes and real estate prices that tripled in the last decade.... "No, we can't buy a house, because we need to pay so much money to the government and taxes are very high," said Shiran. "I don't want to see Bibi anymore," said Tai. "If he will stay, we will go. We can't live here any more. We will find somewhere else."

CNN – “The rally, called "Israel Wants Change," was put on by One Million Hands, a grassroots movement that focuses its efforts on two major issues: a two-state solution and a reduction in the cost of living. On both of these topics, founder Dror Ben-Ami says, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed.... Organizers are not promoting any specific candidate or pushing voters toward any political party in the March 17 balloting. Instead, they are encouraging voters to change the current administration. Police estimated the crowd at 40,000 people.... Headlining the rally was Meir Dagan, the former head of Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and a vocal critic of Netanyahu. In recent weeks, Dagan criticized Netanyahu's decision to speak before the U.S. Congress, and he continued his criticism at the rally, saying that he has never seen such stagnation in Israeli politics.”


Wikipedia – Key issues for the Zionist Union are reigniting negotiations with the Palestinians, repairing ties with Washington, and solving economic woes like the housing crisis and the gap between the rich and the poor.[8]



In an effort to appease his critics Netanyahu recently pledged that there will be no Palestinian state as long as he is in office. I had thought that Netanyahu probably was a hardliner on the Palestinian issues compared to the Israeli people, but apparently his polemics in the region have been popular with at least a sizable number of Israelis. The Zionist Union, however, is against his diplomatic and economic positions. One article a few days ago was about a demonstration against him, however. For that story, see the CNN clip above. As long as Israel maintains a dogmatic stance on the matter of the two state solution, there will be no peace in the Middle East. Those who oppose his economic issues – high taxes and real estate costs – fear his reelection. The election is occurring today starting at 7:00 AM. I'll clip any article giving the outcome.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/03/17/393334231/a-new-community-rises-in-the-west-bank-and-its-not-israeli

A New Community Rises In The West Bank ... And It's Not Israeli
Steve Inskeep
March 17, 2015

Photograph – A Palestinian couple walks by an amphitheater under construction in Rawabi, a Palestinian real estate development in the West Bank. The couple lives nearby in East Jerusalem and says they are looking to buy in Rawabi as an investment or as a vacation home.
Tanya Habjouqa for NPR

Palestinian investor Bashar Masri is building an entirely new city in the West Bank. It's a huge investment, with 5,000 new homes for tens of thousands of families. And, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it's also a political statement.

As we approached this new city of Rawabi, north of Ramallah, we saw a row of high-rise apartment buildings topped by construction cranes. Scaffolding surrounds the minaret of an incomplete mosque. Nobody has moved in yet.

Masri has had to battle for years, but says he finally has permission to hook up the water system, which is controlled by Israel. The military occupation of the West Bank often complicates Palestinian efforts to build, and this distinctive project was no exception.

The buildings of Rawabi are clad in limestone, and in a stoneyard next to the project, we watched men in hard hats chiseling decorative grooves into stone tiles by hand, one by one by one.

Masri has done as much work as possible locally in order to make it harder for Israel's government to block materials from being brought in.

Some foreign assistance was required, though — namely, financing. In honor of the wealthy Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar, which has invested in the project and others in the Palestinian areas, the planned city's main street is shaped like the capital letter Q.

Inside the Q are offices and stores, while the outside is lined with multistory stone apartment buildings. Laser lights are planned, and they would be visible from an Israeli settlement, a row of houses on the next ridge line over. There's also a Roman-style amphitheater, large enough to seat thousands.

Masri is part of a wealthy and well-traveled Palestinian family. He says he has borrowed ideas from different places he's lived around the world.

"I lived in Virginia, so I know Reston, Va. So you probably will find quite a few things from Reston, Va., here," he says, referring to the planned community in suburban Washington, D.C.

Masri says he also lived in Cairo — and, for a time, inside an Israeli prison. He opposes Israel's military control of the West Bank, and his real estate development is inevitably an extension of that opposition.

"I'm not saying Rawabi is a political act. I'm saying that our daily life is a political act, whatever we do here," says Masri. "Anybody that builds in Palestine, anybody that creates a new company, a new factory, is a political act, as well, of course. Of course, their goal may be to make money and there's nothing wrong with that. But it is a political act because it creates jobs, it makes Palestinians stay on their land, and we are being pushed out."

The ultimate goal, shared by many Palestinians as well as the White House, is a permanent place for Palestinians.

"I am a strong believer that the Palestinian nation is in the making," says Masri.

U.S. officials have publicly spoken in favor of Rawabi. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the construction site while he was a U.S. Senator.

That's not to say that U.S. support has made the project easy to complete.

"This particular project is — very difficult to make money on a project like this," he says.

Israel has never formally opposed the project, but Israeli decisions delayed it. Until the very day of our visit, Masri was prevented from building a water pipe over land controlled by Israel's military.

Finally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arranged for the water hookup, in what was seen as a friendly gesture to Americans just before his controversial trip to address the Congress earlier this month.

The yearslong fight over water is a reminder that Palestinians have lived almost a half-century under Israeli military rule.

The Palestinians do have their own government, the Palestinian Authority, but Masri was equally frustrated with those officials. He says the group didn't keep a promise to build schools and roads for Rawabi.

"They signed the agreement and I think they should have delivered," he says. "Whenever I talk to them they say, 'Oh, Bashar, we need schools in other areas, we need roads in other areas.' Well, I think we should have gotten at least our fair share, proportional to the expected community in the next five years."

We were speaking with Masri in Rawabi's giant showroom, which has a view of the city center, as well as bank offices right on site to arrange financing. During our visit several families passed through.

When we met some of the buyers, we learned that several were not from the West Bank, but rather live inside Israel, and were Israeli citizens.

Sofian and Fahimeh Mowassi are Arab citizens of the Jewish state. About 20 percent of Israel's population are Arab Israelis — or, as many call themselves, Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Fahimeh say they are buying a second home because Jewish Israelis were not comfortable living with Arabs. "We don't feel they accept us," she says, adding, "it's nice to come here, among our people."

Fahimeh stresses she didn't want to engage in a deep political dispute, but there's no avoiding politics when it comes to real estate here. Jews were committing a political act when they began settling in what became Israel more than a century ago, in search of a nation to call home. Israelis have been committing another political act by settling in the West Bank since they captured land in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Rawabi represents a drive to establish a national home for Palestinians. In Israel and the Palestinian territories, nothing is more political than where and how you choose to live.




“Masri has had to battle for years, but says he finally has permission to hook up the water system, which is controlled by Israel. The military occupation of the West Bank often complicates Palestinian efforts to build, and this distinctive project was no exception. The buildings of Rawabi are clad in limestone, and in a stoneyard next to the project, we watched men in hard hats chiseling decorative grooves into stone tiles by hand, one by one by one. Masri has done as much work as possible locally in order to make it harder for Israel's government to block materials from being brought in.... "I'm not saying Rawabi is a political act. I'm saying that our daily life is a political act, whatever we do here," says Masri. "Anybody that builds in Palestine, anybody that creates a new company, a new factory, is a political act, as well, of course. Of course, their goal may be to make money and there's nothing wrong with that. But it is a political act because it creates jobs, it makes Palestinians stay on their land, and we are being pushed out." The ultimate goal, shared by many Palestinians as well as the White House, is a permanent place for Palestinians.... The Palestinians do have their own government, the Palestinian Authority, but Masri was equally frustrated with those officials. He says the group didn't keep a promise to build schools and roads for Rawabi. "They signed the agreement and I think they should have delivered," he says. "Whenever I talk to them they say, 'Oh, Bashar, we need schools in other areas, we need roads in other areas.' Well, I think we should have gotten at least our fair share, proportional to the expected community in the next five years."... When we met some of the buyers, we learned that several were not from the West Bank, but rather live inside Israel, and were Israeli citizens. Sofian and Fahimeh Mowassi are Arab citizens of the Jewish state. About 20 percent of Israel's population are Arab Israelis — or, as many call themselves, Palestinian citizens of Israel.... Fahimeh say they are buying a second home because Jewish Israelis were not comfortable living with Arabs. "We don't feel they accept us," she says, adding, "it's nice to come here, among our people."

Anything that creates a Palestinian State which can become a peaceful and permanent place is a good thing. Apparently group hostility goes on at the neighborhood level there, however, as with blacks and whites in the US. I do wish religion were not a divider rather than a “uniter.” It looks to me as though people tend to lose the main point of their faith and substitute ethnic traditions instead.





PSYCHOLOGY – THREE ARTICLES


http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/03/14/392798128/from-freud-to-possession-a-doctor-faces-psychiatrys-demons

From Freud To Possession, A Doctor Faces Psychiatry's Demons
NPR Staff
March 14, 2015

Photograph – Benjamin Rush, a physician and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, invented the rotational chair as a treatment for psychotic patients. He believed the chair helped improve circulation to the mentally ill brain.
U.S. National Library of Medicine/Courtesy of Little Brown and Company

People don't talk about psychiatrists the way they talk about neurologists, dentists or vets. In fact, there are those who call psychiatry voodoo or pseudoscience; and, to be fair, the specialty does have a history of claims and practices that are now considered weird and destructive.

In Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry, Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman looks at the development of what he himself calls the most distrusted, feared and denigrated of all medical specialties. Lieberman is chairman of psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, chief psychiatrist at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center and former president of the American Psychiatric Association. He tells NPR's Scott Simon about why it took so long for psychiatry to establish itself as a science.

Interview Highlights

On why so many people are put off by psychiatry

Mental illness has always been a mystery and in ancient times it was considered to be some kind of supernatural phenomenon — demon possession. In the modern era, meaning the beginning of the 19th century, there was an effort to consider mental disorders as illnesses; but then when researchers attempted to see what the pathology of the illness was in individuals ... they couldn't find anything.

And I think then what happened is that ... as an alternative [to asylums], people sought treatments. But the treatments turned out to be, in retrospect, pretty barbaric. And it's only really been in the last 50 years that psychiatry has established a scientific foundation for itself and developed treatments that truly work beyond a shadow of a doubt and are safe.

On Sigmund Freud's contributions to psychiatry and what he got wrong

Freud is undisputedly a towering figure and the most famous person in the history of psychiatry. And in the absence of any scientific theory of mental illness, he introduced concepts that were completely novel to civilization and endure today as valid and have really been given new life in the context of cognitive neuroscience. …

I think his biggest mistake was that he was a very strict controller of how the theory was handled by his disciples. In other words, he permitted no deviation or modification of his theory or methods, and he didn't encourage any research to empirically validate his theory. So basically people that followed him and embraced this theory had to take it on faith.

On psychiatrists going back and forth as to whether mental disorders are inherited

It's long been known that specific mental illnesses tend to run in families. But then, you know, the notion of this being kind of a Mendelian type of genetic condition was really not accurate. And if you looked at a family pedigree, you could see that schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, depression, autism often skipped generations in families or would occur in families that had no other biologic relative. So the mystery of the genetics of mental illness was really much more complicated than ever imagined and it's only recently started to be solved.

On whether the future of psychiatry is in the medicine chest
Not solely, no. And this is something that is commonly, I think, misunderstood. The cornerstone of the healing profession and the physician is the patient relationship. ... So medications were extraordinarily important — they were miraculous developments — but medications alone can't do it.

On why he wrote the book

In order for us to genuinely make a case for why psychiatry is a medical discipline that deserves sort of equal footing and respect as other medical specialties, we needed to fess up in terms of what the past was. And so in order to do so, we needed to tell the unvarnished history of the field and then describe why things may not have been helpful — and [in] some cases harmful — then [and] why that's different now. And nobody should avoid seeking treatment if they think they need it because of uncertainty or fear.




“In fact, there are those who call psychiatry voodoo or pseudoscience; and, to be fair, the specialty does have a history of claims and practices that are now considered weird and destructive.... And it's only really been in the last 50 years that psychiatry has established a scientific foundation for itself and developed treatments that truly work beyond a shadow of a doubt and are safe.... And in the absence of any scientific theory of mental illness, he introduced concepts that were completely novel to civilization and endure today as valid and have really been given new life in the context of cognitive neuroscience. … I think his biggest mistake was that he was a very strict controller of how the theory was handled by his disciples. In other words, he permitted no deviation or modification of his theory or methods, and he didn't encourage any research to empirically validate his theory.”

Inherited? Partly. Drug treatments and things like lobotomies and electroshock treatment have been harmful as well as helpful. The old style “loony bin” of a mental hospital was necessary in society, but sometimes a place of horrors – “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest” was a pretty realistic representation of too many of them. Two of my uncles were permanently housed at mental hospitals, one with schizophrenia and the other with bipolar disorder. Nowadays most mental health problems are treated with a combination of individual or group therapy and mental health drugs that are geared more at symptoms than an overall cure. The effectiveness of that is high, with few individuals nowadays being in permanent restrictive housing. Unfortunately many of those hospitals have been closed and some people such as the criminally insane have no place to go. They shouldn't be put in jails, and aren't reliable about “taking their meds” as they should. Suddenly they end up living on the street, killing someone, or committing suicide. Whatever we think of psychiatry, there is a demand for treatment and will be until the end of time. The human brain is a great thing, but it is simply not flawless, and when it malfunctions it's like when our computer suddenly mixes up the date and spits out total nonsense.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/03/17/387774026/q-a-raising-kids-who-want-to-read

Q&A: Raising Kids Who Want To Read
Cory Turner
Senior Editor, NPR Ed
MARCH 17, 2015

Photograph – Daniel Willingham
Courtesy of Daniel Willingham

In his new book, Raising Kids Who Read, Daniel Willingham wants to be clear: There's a big difference between teaching kids to read and teaching them to love reading.

And Willingham, a parent himself, doesn't champion reading for the obvious reasons — not because research suggests that kids who read for pleasure do better in school and in life.

"The standard things you'll hear about why kids should read I actually don't think are very strong arguments," he says. "Because if the goal is to become a good citizen or the goal is to make a lot of money, I can think of more direct ways to reach those goals than to read during your leisure time."

Willingham wants his kids to love reading because, he says, "for me it's a family value. It's something that I love, something that I find important. I think I gain experiences I wouldn't gain any other way by virtue of being a reader. And so naturally I want my children to experience that."

The professor of psychology at the University of Virginia uses his new book to map out strategies for parents and teachers hoping to kindle that same passion for reading.

What are a few things we can do when kids are young to set them on a path to being passionate readers?

Before preschool, probably the most important thing you can do is to play games that help your child hear speech sounds: rhyming games, reading aloud books that have a lot of rhyme in them and other types of wordplay, like alliteration. That's helpful.

Once they get that basic idea, you can get a little fancier. And these are the games that kids really love — where you play around with speech sounds.

If you had a child named Billy. You could say, "Daddy's name is Cory. What if we took the first sound in Billy's name, and my name is now Bory?" That kind of stuff is comic gold for kids. I talk with a lot of kindergarten teachers who say it's hard to get kids to stop doing stuff like that.

Banana-fana-fo-fana...

Exactly. You know, Dr. Seuss is full of that. Nursery rhymes are full of that. And it's been known for a while that kids who grow up in homes where they are exposed to nursery rhymes learn to read more readily than other kids.

But how do you foster a love of reading in young children?

The most obvious is to be a model of someone who loves reading. One of the things I hit hard in this book is the idea of creating a sense in the child that this is what we value in our family. I think a lot of parents don't appreciate what a powerful message that can be for kids — like the things that are on your wall, the rules you set in your household, who parents talk about as the people they respect.

You should model reading, make reading pleasurable, read aloud to your kid in situations that are warm and create positive associations. But also setting a tone where our family is one where we like to learn new things. We like to learn about the world, and a big part of that is reading. Developing a sense in the child that I am in a family of readers before the child can even read.

The second big piece I would recommend is you have to make reading the most appealing thing a child can do. It's not enough that the child like reading. If they like reading but there's something else available that they like more, they're going to choose that. The easy way to start is to put books in places that your child would otherwise be bored. The most obvious one is in the car. Part of that is also making sure you're not providing other types of ready entertainment at every moment.

My wife put a basket in our bathroom, full of kids magazines. My 6-year-old reads them voraciously, and now his 3-year-old brother copies him.

My 9-year-old is a very passionate reader, and I think her younger sister is, too. But I think it's in no small part that she grew up watching her older sister do this.

Do you think digital devices are a) keeping us from reading and b) keeping us from being able to focus?

There's no evidence they're keeping us from being able to focus. If you look at the way psychologists typically measure span of attention, there's no evidence that it's really declined in the last 50 years or so. The brain is plastic, but I think attention is so central to so much of what we do that it seems pretty improbable to me that attention span could shrink significantly. If it did, either we would all get really stupid or lots of other cognitive processes would have to adjust in some way.

I think there is something to what parents and teachers think they're seeing. They feel like kids are more distractible than they were 10 years ago, and they blame digital devices. What all these digital devices have in common is they provide instant entertainment. And the entertainment they provide requires very little effort from me. It's always available. There's pretty much endless variety. So the consequence may be that span of attention hasn't shrunk but rather what's changed is our attitudes and beliefs. And our attitudes and beliefs are, "Bored is not a normal state of affairs. I really should never be bored."

What's your point of view when it comes to rewarding kids for reading?

Rewards have the real potential to backfire. You communicate to your child, "This is not something I expect you to do on your own." You pay people to do things that you think are unpleasant and that they wouldn't do if you weren't paying them. So, by paying your child for reading, you're very clearly communicating to your child, "This is not something that I expect to be pleasurable for you."

There is good empirical evidence that, when you pay people to do something, if you find the right reward they will do more of it. But once the reward stops, they will quite possibly do less of it. The reason being, they have a different attribution for why they were doing it in the first place. So the child who wasn't paid looks back and says, "I've been reading this book because I'm the kind of kid who likes books." But if, instead, the attribution is, "I was reading this book because Dad paid me," now, if Dad is no longer paying him, he has no reason to read this book. That said, my recommendation is that a reward not be the first thing you try. But, if it is the only way to get a kid to read, then I would certainly consider it.




“Willingham wants his kids to love reading because, he says, "for me it's a family value. It's something that I love, something that I find important. I think I gain experiences I wouldn't gain any other way by virtue of being a reader. And so naturally I want my children to experience that."... The professor of psychology at the University of Virginia uses his new book to map out strategies for parents and teachers hoping to kindle that same passion for reading.... Before preschool, probably the most important thing you can do is to play games that help your child hear speech sounds: rhyming games, reading aloud books that have a lot of rhyme in them and other types of wordplay, like alliteration. That's helpful. Once they get that basic idea, you can get a little fancier. And these are the games that kids really love — where you play around with speech sounds.... And it's been known for a while that kids who grow up in homes where they are exposed to nursery rhymes learn to read more readily than other kids.... The most obvious is to be a model of someone who loves reading. One of the things I hit hard in this book is the idea of creating a sense in the child that this is what we value in our family.... But also setting a tone where our family is one where we like to learn new things. We like to learn about the world, and a big part of that is reading. Developing a sense in the child that I am in a family of readers before the child can even read.... The easy way to start is to put books in places that your child would otherwise be bored. The most obvious one is in the car. Part of that is also making sure you're not providing other types of ready entertainment at every moment.... Do you think digital devices are a) keeping us from reading and b) keeping us from being able to focus? There's no evidence they're keeping us from being able to focus.... I think there is something to what parents and teachers think they're seeing. They feel like kids are more distractible than they were 10 years ago, and they blame digital devices. What all these digital devices have in common is they provide instant entertainment.”

I have a couple of suggestions in addition to what this author said, though I agree with nearly everything he said. First of all, paying kids to read probably is just another way to lead them into materialism, and folks who love to read are not into materialism. Many kids do well in school because they are competitive about it, as about other things. I think that's another form of materialism.

Reading is an activity that involves contemplation, memory, actively looking for new information and ideas, and word play. One of the most important things for parents to do with kids is to TALK to them about life, and use an adult level vocabulary. In order to learn to read at a high vocabulary level it is necessary to know the meanings of many words. What words they find in their reading that are unfamiliar to them can be discovered and explained in a good dictionary. Every household should have a collegiate level dictionary. Nowadays, they can also look words up on Google, of course, but poor families can afford a dictionary when perhaps they don't have the money for a computer. I suggest also teaching kids to look at the word origin and “root word” meanings, because this opens up the skill of good spelling and a path to yet more related words. Words “link up” to other words to form a good vocabulary. That creates a ladder of related ideas and makes new learning easier.

I see people recommending that we should break down all ideas to a simple level “so kids can understand it.” I find that a bright kid picks up on new ideas pretty fast as he discovers them, and if he doesn't he should be encouraged to ask what the word means. Asking questions shouldn't be viewed as a sign of weakness. My parents discussed subjects that they were concerned about or simply interested in at the supper table at night, and we kids joined in and listened freely. Sometimes it became a “debating society,” but that stimulates learning, too. We were not sent away for our parents to talk as adults. The result is that we got a certain kind of education in our home life that supplemented our school courses.

We also had a set of Compton's Pictured Encyclopedias 1948 edition, which the whole family consulted when we had questions, and just simply read for pleasure. I used to pull out a volume, often when I had a question but sometimes merely to find something interesting to do. I believe in parents buying books that are on an adult or at least the high school level and encouraging their kids to read them. If you are a fundamentalist Christian you may have qualms about that, because the “danger” that the child will find something that challenges religious beliefs is very high, as long as you insist that the Bible is an up to date and full information resource on all subjects.

It's no wonder that the fundamentalist Christian community is often against the teaching of Common Core in the public schools. Governor Perry of Texas has been trying to strip out all material from the public school curriculum that is controversial either politically or on matters of faith. To me, if they don't want their kids to read anything about evolution they should send them to a Christian academy. They shouldn't prevent other peoples kids from learning. That's against the American way of free thought and, until dominionism is made the law of the land, it's unconstitutional. It is clear to me that for a democracy to work, 90% or so of the citizens need to be educated. That's what reading is for, not merely for pleasure, though of course it is fun in and of itself.






http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/03/16/393351760/clues-to-autism-schizophrenia-emerge-from-cerebellum-research3

Clues To Autism, Schizophrenia Emerge From Cerebellum Research
Jon Hamilton
Correspondent, Science Desk
MARCH 16, 2015

Photograph – Jonathan Keleher talks with a colleague, Rafael Wainhaus, at work. Keleher was born without a cerebellum, but his brain has developed work-arounds for solving problems of balance and abstract thought.
Ellen Webber for NPR

A new understanding of the brain's cerebellum could lead to new treatments for people with problems caused by some strokes, autism and even schizophrenia.

That's because there's growing evidence that symptoms ranging from difficulty with abstract thinking to emotional instability to psychosis all have links to the cerebellum, saysJeremy Schmahmann, a professor of neurology at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.

"The cerebellum has all these functions we were previously unaware of," Schmahmann says.

Scientists once thought the cerebellum's role was limited to balance and coordinating physical movements. In the past couple of decades, though, there has been growing evidence that it also plays a role in thinking and emotions.

As described in an earlier post, some of the most compelling evidence has come from people like Jonathan Keleher, people born without a cerebellum.

"I'm good at routine (activities) and (meeting) people," says Keleher, who is 33. He also has good long-term memory. What he's not good at is strategizing and abstract thinking.

But remarkably, Keleher's abilities in these areas have improved dramatically over time. "I'm always working on how to better myself," he says. "And it's a continuous struggle."
Researchers are learning from people like Keleher that, with enough time and effort, other areas of the brain can take over some of the cerebellum's functions.

"Jon has taught me a lot about the brain's ability to reorganize and the resilience factor — the ability to compensate for areas of weakness," says Janet Sherman, chief neuropsychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has been following Keleher's progress since he was 15.

As an example, Sherman shows me a sketch Keleher did when he was 19. It was his attempt to reproduce a complicated line drawing often used in neuropsychological testing. But many lines are missing, and others are out of place.

"As you can see he had significant difficulties in planning how to copy this figure," Sherman says. His effort earned just 12 of 36 possible points.

But years of practice with other spatial tasks in the real world and in video games have paid off for Keleher. At age 30, he took the test of line drawing again. "And you can clearly see the difference in how much better planned it was," Sherman says, "how much more accurate it was." This time his score was 30 out of 36 points.

One reason for the improvement is that, throughout his life, Keleher has found strategies that allow him to work around his brain's limitations, Sherman says.

For example, when Keleher was much younger he didn't have a clear concept of a face. But he realized he could refer to a concrete example to help him.

"Putting together a puzzle of a face," Sherman says, "he initially had put the eyes in the wrong place and then looked at my face and said, 'Oh, no, your nose actually goes between your eyes.' "

Sherman says Keleher's success suggests that similar strategies could help hundreds of thousands of people who have damage to the cerebellum from a stroke or tumor or infection.

And what scientists are learning about the cerebellum could help people with many other brain disorders, says Schmahmann.

It's intriguing that symptoms like weak abstract thinking and difficulty with social cues can be seen in both people with cerebellum damage and people with autism, he says. And, he says, the evidence is growing that the cerebellum is somehow involved in autism.

Cerebellum malfunction also seems to play a role in schizophrenia, Schmahmann says. So he is part of a team that is trying to help people with the disorder by stimulating the cerebellum with electricity to make it work better.

The approach looks promising, though very preliminary — the team has treated only a handful of patients so far, Schmahmann says. A published study of eight patients found that repeated, noninvasive stimulation to that part of the brain over the course of five days seemed, at least temporarily, to reduce symptoms and improve thinking.




“A new understanding of the brain's cerebellum could lead to new treatments for people with problems caused by some strokes, autism and even schizophrenia. That's because there's growing evidence that symptoms ranging from difficulty with abstract thinking to emotional instability to psychosis all have links to the cerebellum, saysJeremy Schmahmann, a professor of neurology at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.... "I'm good at routine (activities) and (meeting) people," says Keleher, who is 33. He also has good long-term memory. What he's not good at is strategizing and abstract thinking. But remarkably, Keleher's abilities in these areas have improved dramatically over time. "I'm always working on how to better myself," he says. "And it's a continuous struggle." Researchers are learning from people like Keleher that, with enough time and effort, other areas of the brain can take over some of the cerebellum's functions.... One reason for the improvement is that, throughout his life, Keleher has found strategies that allow him to work around his brain's limitations, Sherman says. For example, when Keleher was much younger he didn't have a clear concept of a face. But he realized he could refer to a concrete example to help him. "Putting together a puzzle of a face," Sherman says, "he initially had put the eyes in the wrong place and then looked at my face and said, 'Oh, no, your nose actually goes between your eyes.' "…. And what scientists are learning about the cerebellum could help people with many other brain disorders, says Schmahmann. It's intriguing that symptoms like weak abstract thinking and difficulty with social cues can be seen in both people with cerebellum damage and people with autism, he says. And, he says, the evidence is growing that the cerebellum is somehow involved in autism.”

When I was young nobody talked about autism, at least among us “common folk.” I saw the word and read a discussion of it in our home medical encyclopedia. That was published in 1948. The article said that it was considered by psychiatrists to be “childhood schizophrenia.” That's a pretty good guess on their part, since this article is linking autism, schizophrenia and other emotional/mental disorders with the cerebellum. I hope it isn't actually one of those intellectual “fads,” that sometimes develop among the citizenry – phrenology was one such popular belief that was propagated by some. People believed that the shape of the head was an indication of our moral and psychological structure. They would sit around in the 1800s and feel each other's skulls for telltale “bumps” in the skull. Even psychiatry of the period followed the belief. We now know it is a load of purest BS, but at that time it was commonly believed to be valid.

The practice of gently stimulating the cerebellum with electricity is producing some improvements, this article says. I don't know if that relates at all to the now generally discredited practice of electroshock therapy. It would be interesting if a mild shock can produce results without damaging the brain. Sometimes drugs are not effective enough on depression, and maybe this would help. At any rate this is a very interesting article and may represent a step forward on the treatment of mental illness. Hopefully that will prove true.





POLITICS AT ITS WORST


http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2015/03/16/393386825/im-mike-huckabee-and-i-approve-this-infomercial

I'm Mike Huckabee, And I Approve This ... Infomercial?
Amita Kelly
March 16, 2015

Photograph – Former Gov. Mike Huckabee's ad for the Diabetes Solution Kit.
YouTube

In an infomercial for Barton Publishing's Diabetes Solution Kit Huckabee says he knows diabetes can be reversed "because I did it and today, you can too."
Getty Images

Mike Huckabee has always had the reputation as a candidate who does things outside the box.

But he is now the face of the Diabetes Solution Kit, a $20 quasi-medical product that claims to reverse diabetes for good through lifestyle changes, and without the use of drugs.

If you've watched television past midnight lately, the tone of the 36-minute product video, which begins with a message from Huckabee, is about as infomercial as it gets.

"Let me tell you that diabetes can be reversed. I should know, because I did it and today, you can too," Huckabee says, referring to his 110-pound weight loss that he said got his own blood sugar under control.

"Prescription drugs aren't going to cure you," Huckabee continues. "They're only going to keep you a loyal, pill-popping, finger-pricking, insulin-shooting customer, so big Pharma and the mainstream medical community can rake in over $100 billion a year annually."

The product's website displays a photo of iced cinnamon rolls with the caption: "Discover which key ingredient in these pastries has the power to control your blood sugar fast."

Hint: The company contends that it's cinnamon. That claim, however, is not supported by the American Diabetes Association.

"It is best to get vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat," the association writes on its website. "In fact, research has not been able to prove that dietary or herbal supplements (including omega-3 supplements, cinnamon, and other herbs) help to manage diabetes."

Huckabee's spokeswoman, Alice Stewart, told The New York Times that he no longer has a relationship with Barton Publishing, the company behind the kit. She said the video "was something created several months ago, back in 2014, but due to possible future plans, they have concluded the relationship."

Huckabee is no stranger to out-of-the-box videos. In 2012, some of his supporters released a movie trailer-style ad titled, "It's A Marathon" and set to "Eye of the Tiger." It's a montage that shows Huckabee running races and opens with, "In 2012, one man will take back the White House for faith, family and freedom." During his 2008 presidential campaign, he cut ads with actor Chuck Norris.

But the infomercial, which is not related to a campaign or political party, has again raised questions about just how serious Huckabee is about running for president.

Unlike other potential 2016 candidates, Huckabee skipped the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC. And while others are crisscrossing the country – from Iowa to New Hampshire and soon South Carolina – meeting with voters and hiring activists, Huckabee – the 2008 Iowa caucuses winner – is traveling mixing in events to sell his book.

In addition to this diabetes ad, he has also gotten attention in the last several months for stories about his $3 million beachfront home in Florida and the approval of permits to build it – a far cry from image of a humble former Arkansas governor he built in the 2008 campaign.




“Mike Huckabee has always had the reputation as a candidate who does things outside the box. But he is now the face of the Diabetes Solution Kit, a $20 quasi-medical product that claims to reverse diabetes for good through lifestyle changes, and without the use of drugs. If you've watched television past midnight lately, the tone of the 36-minute product video, which begins with a message from Huckabee, is about as infomercial as it gets....

"It is best to get vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat," the association writes on its website. "In fact, research has not been able to prove that dietary or herbal supplements (including omega-3 supplements, cinnamon, and other herbs) help to manage diabetes." There is an anti-scientific trend in the US, which includes medical science. Many people who are afraid of “drugs” such as vaccines and pills that a doctor will prescribe – they fear side effects that are dangerous – are strong believers in herbal remedies. I consider that to be a kind of paranoia and, by definition, mental illness. It is popular because it is based on “faith” and “cleansing” and sometimes “folk medicine.”

There is nothing safe or effective either about many of the herbal remedies that are sold in the drugstores. Plants many times have toxic chemicals flowing through their leaves, fruit and stems that are potentially deadly. Tobacco and the other nightshades are especially dangerous. I wouldn't take an herbal remedy unless I have read closely about it on one of the medical sites to see that somebody has actually researched it. Herbal remedies are not restricted at all in what they claim to do, how much to take at one dose, or what side effects they may have. The FDA doesn't do that on herbs – just scientifically produced medicines. Not only is this “infomercial” not a way for Mike Huckabee to impress me as to his political knowledge, it makes him look to me as though he may have a mental problem. On the other hand he's a right wing candidate, so he may just be cynically twanging on the string that he thinks his equally right wing audience will listen to. I personally think he's too smart not to know better as to the validity of this herbal medicine stuff.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-sounds-unusually-upbeat-note-on-nuclear-talks/

Iran sounds unusually upbeat note on nuclear talks
CBS/AP
March 17, 2015

Photograph – Kerry scrambles to salvage nuclear negotiations with Iran

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - In an unusually upbeat assessment, both Iran's president and its top nuclear official said international talks surrounding its nuclear program appear on their way to a positive conclusion.

"In the path of talks sooner or later we will reach a conclusion," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday.

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akhbar Salehi also said Tuesday his government's main disagreements with the U.S. and its negotiating partners have been resolved and expressed optimism about meeting a late March deadline for a framework deal.

Now in their second extension, the talks have made headway in recent weeks. The sides have moved closer on limitations on Iran's nuclear activities that could be retooled to make weapons. In exchange, the West would progressively lift economic and political sanctions.

While some officials have described the talks so far as a "roller coaster" to CBS News State Department correspondent Margaret Brennan, one U.S. official admitted there has been progress between the two sides on sharpening some of the technical details.

Still, the comments by Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akhbar Salehi were among the most promising to date. "The main issues have been closed," he told Iranian state TV. "I hope that in the remaining time we can close this."

The sides are working to meet two target dates - a framework in the next two weeks that lays down the outlines of a final deal by the end of June.

A senior U.S. official was less bullish, saying the sides had made progress but still had a ways to go in eliminating differences on what Tehran had to do for a gradual end to sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have taken the lead in what formally remain talks between Iran on one side and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany on the other.

Most of the disputes focus on technical issues like the numbers of centrifuges which Iran would be allowed to operate as part of an agreement. The machines can enrich uranium up to levels used for the fissile core of nuclear arms, but Iran says it only has energy, medical and scientific aims.

Salehi and U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz joined the talks last month to try and iron out the technical differences.

Kerry and Zarif met for nearly five hours in the Swiss city of Lausanne Monday, before the Iranians departed for Brussels for talks with European negotiators.

There, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said "we are entering a crucial time, a crucial two weeks." German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after "more than 10 years of negotiations, we should seize this opportunity." British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said all sides were committed to trying.

A letter by Republican senators to the Iranian leadership warning that Congress could upend any deal cast a shadow on the negotiations. Senior American officials have told CBS News the issue has come up twice, once in the Kerry-Zarif meeting on Monday as well as at a Sunday gathering among senior U.S. and Iranian negotiators.

Both American officials demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks on record.

Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, told CBS News the letter "does give the Iranians an excuse if they decide to back out of the negotiations."

Republicans argue a deal would be insufficient and unenforceable, allowing Iran to become a nuclear-armed state. To that end, they've delivered a series of proposals to undercut or block an agreement, including ones that would require a Senate say-so on a deal and order new sanctions against Iran while negotiations are underway.

Obama and other officials insist they're not going to make any deal that would allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

The deal taking shape would limit Iran's uranium enrichment and other nuclear activity for at least a decade, with the restrictions slowly lifted over several years.




“Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akhbar Salehi also said Tuesday his government's main disagreements with the U.S. and its negotiating partners have been resolved and expressed optimism about meeting a late March deadline for a framework deal. Now in their second extension, the talks have made headway in recent weeks. The sides have moved closer on limitations on Iran's nuclear activities that could be retooled to make weapons. In exchange, the West would progressively lift economic and political sanctions.... A senior U.S. official was less bullish, saying the sides had made progress but still had a ways to go in eliminating differences on what Tehran had to do for a gradual end to sanctions.... There, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said "we are entering a crucial time, a crucial two weeks." German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after "more than 10 years of negotiations, we should seize this opportunity." British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said all sides were committed to trying.... Obama and other officials insist they're not going to make any deal that would allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. The deal taking shape would limit Iran's uranium enrichment and other nuclear activity for at least a decade, with the restrictions slowly lifted over several years.”

Constantly maintaining hostilities toward Iran is not going to stop them from making nuclear weapons, but rather make them more resolute in that direction. It's the old story about the north wind and the sun in which they have an argument over which can make a man walking below remove his coat. So why don't Netanyahu and the House Republicans allow peace talks? That alone can solve the problem.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hartford-connecticut-11-live-in-single-family-home-could-be-forced-out/

Hartford's 11-person "family" could be forced out
CBS NEWS
March 17, 2015

Photograph – From left: Joshua Blanchfield, Milo Rozza, Hannah Simms, Maureen Welch, Laura Rozza, Dave Rozza, Milo Rozza, 7, Simon DeSantis, Tessa Rosenfield, middle, Elijah Rosenfield, 4, Julia Rosenblatt, seated

The question of how you define a family is at the center of a dispute in Hartford, Connecticut. Nearly a dozen people, some of whom are not related, live together comfortably in a single-family home. But the city of Hartford says under its zoning code, that kind of living arrangement is not allowed, and they could be forced to split up, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

Hartford's historic West End neighborhood boasts stately mansions and high-profile homeowners, including the mayor and Connecticut's governor.

Just like like others, the home making headlines was purchased by a "family" who live in apparent domestic harmony -- except they're not. The group of 11 actually includes three couples, with three children and two single people. They're all longtime friends who decided years ago they wanted to live together.

"I think there's a real extension of our values as people," English teacher Kevin Lamkins said. "The values I'm speaking of are sustainability, cooperation, living more, living well but within your means. Being connected to other people and not being in a silo, so to speak."

The group of friends includes three teachers, a grants manager and a mental health therapist.

"It's not a cult, there's no religion, there's no intermingling," Julia Rosenblatt said. "We're really living like most people are, you know, we are just doing it together."

They purchased the nine-bedroom home and moved in last August. They have a legal partnership agreement and a shared bank account to pay expenses. The group has spent $30,000 so far to repair the home which was built in 1921.

They all say it works well, but some neighbors apparently don't agree.

Someone complained to the city, which determined in October that the living arrangement violates the zoning code for the neighborhood, which specifies that although the houses may be massive, no more than two unrelated people can live in them. It came as a surprise to the group.

"We did some research and the reason we thought we were OK is because specific to this area, there's a density clause. Only a certain amount of people per acre. And we more than fit that," Rosenblatt said.

Last month, they appealed and lost. They now have to decide whether to fight the decision in court or break up the group, and sell.

"It's been terrifying; it's been really stressful. We're just getting into living together and functioning as a family with all 11 of us and it's already become pretty precious, I think, to all of us," freelance theater teacher Hannah Simms said.

City officials would not comment, citing possible litigation. Land use attorney Diane Whitney said zoning codes were designed to protect neighborhoods.

"Historically, it was to rule out things like boarding houses or rooming houses," Whitney said. "It would be wise of Hartford to look at their definition of family; How does it work? Is it doing what you want it to do?"

This group says, in their case, definitely not.

"It's preposterous. Whomever is in your home, who you love, is who your family is," Josh Blanchfield said. "And the notion that the city is going to discount that is unacceptable to us."

Some cities and towns have found a way to address these living arrangements. They call it a "functional family," and that definition actually describes this group pretty well: They must have an ownership interest, share housekeeping duties, which usually means is there is only one kitchen and other specifications so that these homes don't end up as boarding houses.

As for the neighbors who allegedly made the initial complaint, none who we contacted would comment on camera.




“Hartford's historic West End neighborhood boasts stately mansions and high-profile homeowners, including the mayor and Connecticut's governor. Just like like others, the home making headlines was purchased by a "family" who live in apparent domestic harmony -- except they're not. The group of 11 actually includes three couples, with three children and two single people. They're all longtime friends who decided years ago they wanted to live together.... The group of friends includes three teachers, a grants manager and a mental health therapist. "It's not a cult, there's no religion, there's no intermingling," Julia Rosenblatt said. "We're really living like most people are, you know, we are just doing it together." They purchased the nine-bedroom home and moved in last August. They have a legal partnership agreement and a shared bank account to pay expenses. The group has spent $30,000 so far to repair the home which was built in 1921.... "We did some research and the reason we thought we were OK is because specific to this area, there's a density clause. Only a certain amount of people per acre. And we more than fit that," Rosenblatt said. Last month, they appealed and lost. They now have to decide whether to fight the decision in court or break up the group, and sell.... City officials would not comment, citing possible litigation. Land use attorney Diane Whitney said zoning codes were designed to protect neighborhoods. "Historically, it was to rule out things like boarding houses or rooming houses," Whitney said. "It would be wise of Hartford to look at their definition of family; How does it work? Is it doing what you want it to do?" This group says, in their case, definitely not.... Some cities and towns have found a way to address these living arrangements. They call it a "functional family," and that definition actually describes this group pretty well: They must have an ownership interest, share housekeeping duties, which usually means is there is only one kitchen and other specifications so that these homes don't end up as boarding houses. As for the neighbors who allegedly made the initial complaint, none who we contacted would comment on camera.”

“Hartford's historic West End neighborhood boasts stately mansions and high-profile homeowners, including the mayor and Connecticut's governor.” This pretty much says it all, I think. People sharing housing in this manner like a bunch of twenty somethings ruins the upper crust status of the neighborhood. I do hope this “family” wins their case – perhaps they can get the definition changed as one lawyer suggested. I hate to see pure snobbishness reign supreme.

I lived in a group house of 5 in Northern VA long ago and there were no neighborhood complaints. I did have one complaint from the Homeowners' Association because in the middle of my “butterfly garden” was a tall spindly plant with an unimposing flower on top. The lady came up to me and told me that there was “a weed” growing there and I should pull it. I did pull it – it did make the other flowers look less attractive – but I refrained from informing her that technically all of the plants were “weeds.” I bought a seed packet of “wild flowers,” which most people do call weeds. Butterflies love them and I love butterflies. Besides, they really were pretty.”