NBC's Richard Engel released in Syria a journalist danger zone

NBC News Chief Correspondent Richard Engel and three members of his production crew were released safely from captivity last night, five days after being kidnapped in Syria, the news network reports. It is unclear who is responsible for the kidnapping, but the episode highlights the dangerous nature of reporting in war-torn Syria, a country the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) dubbed the deadliest place for journalists this year.

NBC reports that Mr. Engel’s captors have not been identified but are “not believed to be loyal to the Assad regime.” (Editor's update: Engel later spoke live in Turkey and noted he believed his kidnappers were indeed pro-government shabiha militiamen.) Engel and his team went missing after crossing into Syria fromTurkey last week, and there had been no communication with the network – neither requesting ransom nor laying claim for the kidnapping – while the team was in captivity.

After entering Syria, Engel and his team were abducted, tossed into the back of a truck and blindfolded before being transported to an unknown location believed to be near the small town of Ma’arrat Misrin. During their captivity, they were blindfolded and bound, but otherwise not physically harmed, the network said.

Early Monday evening local time, the prisoners were being moved to a new location in a vehicle when their captors ran into a checkpoint manned by members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, a Syrian rebel group. There was a confrontation and a firefight ensued.  Two of the captors were killed, while an unknown number of others escaped, the network said.

Engel and his team have since re-entered Turkey and say they were unharmed in the incident, NBC reports.

Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 after a government crackdown on protests calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. The violence has spiraled into a bloody civil war that has claimed the lives of close to 40,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, according to the United Nationsrefugee agency. 

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But, according to The Wall Street Journal, “the multiplying of militias on both sides of the conflict has quickly and vastly complicated the scenarios for how fighting might end or a political transition may be negotiated, and what may come next after the end of the regime.”

"The civilian militias to come out of this conflict are going to make Hezbollah [in Lebanon] look like a walk in the park," Joseph Holliday, a senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, told the Journal. Syria is not simply seeing a faceoff between government forces and rebel fighters, but the involvement of Al Qaeda-linked fighters and Iranian militants have also been noted.

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CPJ projects that 2012 will be the deadliest year yet for journalists, with 67 journalist deaths registered through mid-December alone. The high numbers are in large part attributed to the conflict in Syria and how it has impacted local and international journalists trying to report there. Four international journalists were killed in Syria in 2012, but the majority of the 28 journalists killed there this year were local reporters, largely working online.

“This feels like the first YouTube war,” BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood told CPJ. “There’s a guy with a machine gun and two guys next to him with camera phones.” Mr. Wood added that local journalists are facing multiple risks. “We’ve seen pro-regime journalists targeted by rebels – it is well known. But opposition journalists say the regime is intent on targeting them as journalists.”

The number of fatalities related to the Syrian conflict approached the worst annual toll recorded during the war in Iraq, where 32 journalists were killed in both 2006 and 2007.

Paul Wood … who covered Iraq and numerous other wars, said the Syrian conflict “is the most difficult one we’ve done.” Bashar al-Assad’s government sought to cut off the flow of information by barring entry to international reporters, forcing Wood and many other international journalists to travel clandestinely into Syria to cover the conflict. “We’ve hidden in vegetable trucks, been chased by Syrian police – things happen when you try to report covertly.”

With international journalists blocked and traditional domestic media under state control, citizen journalists picked up cameras and notepads to document the conflict – and at least 13 of them paid the ultimate price. One, Anas al-Tarsha, was only 17 years old. At least five of the citizen journalists worked for Damascus-based Shaam News Network, whose videos have been used extensively by international news organizations.

Engel is an experienced reporter who reported on the Iraq war in its entirety and has “covered wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 15 years,” according to NBC. But there are many factors making reporting by inexperienced journalists in high-risk countries like Syria increasingly common today.

In addition to the rise of Internet journalism, there are other factors like “relatively cheap flights to some of the world’s trouble spots” and “shrinking budgets for foreign news” that “have dramatically reduced barriers to entry for would-be foreign correspondents,” reports the BBC.

For organisations working to improve the safety of journalists it’s a cause for increasing concern.

“There’s something of a worrying trend developing,” says Hannah Storm, director of theInternational News Safety Institute. “I’m hearing it from people that have recently graduated. I’m seeing it on Facebook. And I see it sometimes when I talk to students in universities.

“It feels like now in places like Syria there are more and more people in their early or mid-20s with little or no experience - but with an overriding enthusiasm which makes them want to go out there and make a name for themselves, without taking the realities on board.”

Many of these young reporters are working as freelancers, which can create an additional risk. Freelance reporter Austin Tice has been missing since August when he was kidnapped near Syria’s capital, Damascus. The Monitor reports that the number of journalists kidnapped has gone up, and "with the rise in the number of reporters operating in dangerous places like Syria – and with many parties seeing value in targeting them – many expect the threat to persist.” However, while all journalists reporting in conflict zones can expect to face threats, the increasing number of freelancers can make working in places like Syria “particularly acute, as they are often operating without significant institutional backing and experience.”

"More and more of those journalists are freelancers because of the nature of the changing field," El Zein says, referring to the rise in the number of freelancers reporting in dangerous places, traditionally more a world for journalists on the staff of major publications.

"Especially in Syria, the risks are very high for journalists, and a freelancer going in there without any support structure – it can be very risky and daunting."

The Christian Science Monitor’s Tom Peter has been in and out of Syria over the course of the past few months and noted other distinct differences in reporting from Syria compared to other conflict zones in the past. “With Aleppo just a two-hour drive from Kilis [Turkey], many journalists have opted to drive into Syria each morning and return to Turkey to write stories and sleep. Not only is it safer, but electricity and Internet access are a sure thing,” he writes.

The commute made my job of writing and filing stories easier, but it also made for a surreal reporting experience. In one afternoon, I might find myself taking cover as windows blew out around me in a bombing. By that evening, I'd be back in Kilis getting my hair cut in a barbershop where a miscommunication led to an accidental mud facial mask.

I've always thought the hardest part of conflict journalism is the anxiety you feel before and after an assignment. When you're navigating a war, you're too busy to think about the what-ifs. Commuting in and out every day creates one of the strangest cycles of stress and decompression I've ever experienced.

Hijab is mix up of beauty and charms

Fishes are bizarre enough as they are, but what about fishes with hands? Totally Weird! The pink handfish, as it is named, is a part of the handfish family, and is last seen in 1999. It is now one of the newly named species of the handfishes, among 9 others. This very strange fish doesn’t swim, and that give explanation why it’s to be found at the bottom of the ocean. It uses its “hands” that are supposed to be fins, to walk around. Tasmania, an Australian island, is the place where the nine fishes have been found, to be entirely precise, around the city of Hobart. It is perhaps the place to be for a handfish, because all the 14 species of this kind are found nearby southeastern Australia. The little pink beautiful creature is only 4 inch large and the scientists don’t know that much about its behavior because it has been poorly studied. 

To Honor the US President by named fish Obama

There is nothing fishy about naming a new species of fish after the President of the United States, particularly since he is not the only one. Researchers discovered five innovative species of darter that navigate the bottom of fast moving freshwater streams and rivers in Alabama and Tennessee and called all but one of them after past and present presidents; another was named after former Vice President Al Gore. Why? To honor their environmental record, of course.

Breathtaking! Watch Fiery Lava Spill into Ocean

Lava overtopped a seaside cliff in Hawaii sending up stunning steam plumes caught on film and in pictures by a camera crew aboard a helicopter. The sluggish stream of molten rock, a sticky form of lava called "pahoehoe," crested the edge around. Paradise Helicopters in Hawaii flew videographers Ann and Mick Kalber over the foaming ocean, capturing the formation of the world's most modern land. The thick lava drops downward, it tears and plops onto cooled rocks below, building 6 meter towers that look like stalagmites. It was truly beautiful at night, you could see them glowing because they were topped with hot lava. It made these very neat-looking towers.

The lava oozes from rift vents on the eastern flank of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, fed by its Pu'u O'o crater. The molten stream is about 4 to 5 feet wide and travels gradually, advancing only about 1,600 feet in two weeks. The lively lava flows are within the Kahauale'a Natural Area Reserve, which is closed to access and can be viewed only from the air or from Hawaii National Park's Kalapana viewing area. The slow Lava has repeatedly streamed into the ocean from Kilauea's east rift zone since the volcano started erupting Jan. 3, 1983. The last time molten rock from Kilauea met the ocean was in December 2011.

Researchers Develop a Self-Filling Water Bottle that Harvests Water from the Air

There is water in the air around us at every moment. While this may not seem very important if you live in a water-rich area, this untapped resource could help everyone from athletes on the go to people living in arid areas of the world. Taking a cue from the Namib Desert Beetle, researchers have developed a water bottle that can fill up itself up by harvesting water from the atmosphere.

The Namib Desert Beetle has a shell that is roofed in bumps, which permits humidity in the air to slowly accumulate on its back until water droplets form. These droplets roll down the beetle’s back and directly into its mouth, permitting the insect to stay alive in environments where ground water is scarce. Scientistics have mimicked this shell to develop a bottle that utilizes the same water collecting effect. The new technology can also be help in tent covers, roof tiles and other items.

NBD Nano is getting advantage of this technology to create a water bottle that can continually fill itself up. The company hopes to have the water bottle on the market by 2014. We see this being applicable to anything from marathon runners to people in third-world countries, because we realize that water is such a large issue in the world today, and we want to strive to alleviate those problems with a cost-efficient solution.

Japan is working on A 500 KPH Floating Train

The Central Japan Railway Co. unveiled a prototype it believes will bring faster train service than ever before to Japan. The Series Lo prototype is a magnetic levitation train, floating above its track and moving forward thanks to powerful magnets. It will run from Tokyo to Nagoya, and travel as fast as 311 mph (500 kilometers per hour).

The idea of maglev-powered transportation has been around for over a century. The first pertinent patent was issued in 1905; Britain operated a low-speed maglev shuttle in Birmingham between 1984 and 1995. Presently, only two commercial systems are in service. The first started operation in Shanghai in 2004, followed in 2005 by a Japanese system called Linimo, which runs at only 60 mph, 20% of the top speed the JR Tokai predicts for the new maglev train.

Japan is already operating by high-speed bullet trains, but maglev systems offer several advantages, which is frictionless, as they are faster and quieter than trains that make use of wheels, and even are not impacted by bad weather. Japan Railway Tokai plans to fabricate a train that will seat nearly 1,000 passengers that will be in function by 2027, and expand service to Osaka by 2045.

Chasing down the world’s vanishing glaciers

The melting glacial ice in places similar to the Alps, Greenland and the Himalayas is a spectacular visual document of how our planet's climate is fast changing. The United States based environmental photographer James Balog, it is a vision he has spent over 6 years trying hard to record and preserve. I was really shocked by the changes taking place and sought to find a way to capture what was going on, in the Arctic and glaciers elsewhere around the world. The effect has been a new documentary film, "Chasing Ice," based on 36 time-lapse cameras looking at 16 different glaciers in locations in Alaska, Canada, France, Greenland, Bolivia, Iceland, Nepal, the Rocky Mountains and Switzerland. Each camera has been taking a snap every half-an-hour during daylight, developing almost one million pictures in total. What we have seen has been an absolute shock. I never really projected to see this magnitude of change. Every time we open the backs of these cameras it's like 'wow, is that what's just happened.

He says at one point in the film, he has just removed memory card from camera and saying: "This is a memory of a landscape. A landscape that is now gone and will never be seen again in the history of civilization. It is the Arctic that has attracted most attention in recent years. In September 2012, the ice cap fell to its lowest point on record. Surprising it grows each winter but is retreating further and further every summer, and the summer ice extent has decreased by 13% each decade since the ice was first monitored in 1979. Climate researchers have previously forecasted the Arctic could lose almost all of its ice cover in the summer months by 2100. Though, the current accelerated ice losses have led some to believe that date could come much sooner.

What we are observing is a much more accelerated rate of change, particularly in the last 40 years or so and that has clearly been traced by researchers to the impact of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions into the atmosphere. In the last 100 years, the atmosphere has accumulated 40 percent more carbon dioxide in it than had been seen in the peak over the past one million years. He believes the economic and technological solutions to mitigate the effect of climate change already exist. What we require is a better political and public understanding of the immediacy and reality of these changes. I think that this film can help shift public perceptions by telling people a story that is true and happening now. 

Million to One Apple is Half Red, Half Green: Amazing

Million to One Apple is Half Red, Half Green: Amazing
Sometimes unusual facts happened, and you would be surprised off course and your initial thinking will be some graphic works; but it’s thought to be a random genetic mutation. The Apple was bringing into being in the orchard of a man named Ken Morrish, where he’s grown apples for 45 years. Ken Morris was picking apples in his garden for a family member when he surprised to see the unusual apple, which caught his attention immediately. The red side of the apple is said to taste sweeter than the green side does. The reason for this is thought to be that the red side has seen more sunshine during its growth. The apple discovery is extremely uncommon and intriguing. I believe you would be also curious to see this rare apple. 

Benefits of Lemon

Benefits of Lemon

Lemons are packed with plentiful health benefiting nutrients. The fruit is low in calories, only 29 calories per 100 gram, one of the lowest among citrus group. Lemon contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, but is wealthy in dietary fiber (7.36% of RDA). Its acidic taste is due to citric acid. Citricacid is present up to 8% in its juice. Citric acid is a natural preservative, aids, digestion. Most of studies found that citric acid plentiful to helping in dissolve kidney stones. Lemons, like other citrus fruits, are exceptional source of ascorbic acid and provide about 88% of DRI). Ascorbic acid or vitamin-C is a powerful water soluble natural anti-oxidant. This vitamin is helpful in preventing scurvy. Besides, consumption of foods rich in vitamin-C helps body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals from the blood. Lemons like oranges contain a diversity of phytochemicals. Hesperetin and naringenin are flavonoid glycosides commonly found in citrus fruits.

Naringenin is found to have a bio-active effect on human health as antioxidant, free radical scavenger, anti-inflammatory, and immune system modulator. This substance has also been shown to decrease oxidant injury to DNA in the cells in-vitro studies. And also contain diminutive level of vitamin A, and other flavonoid anti-oxidants such as ? and ß-carotenes, beta-cryptoxanthin, zea-xanthin and lutein. These compounds are known to have antioxidant properties. Vitamin A also requisites for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin and is also essential for vision. Consumption of natural fruits rich in flavonoids helps body to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers. Total ORAC value, which measures the anti-oxidant strength of 100 g of fresh lemon juice, is 1225 µmol TE (Trolex equivalents).They also an excellent source of B-complex vitamins such as pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, and folates. These vitamins are vital in the sense that body has need of them from external sources to replenish. Lemons contain healthy amount of minerals, like iron, copper, potassium, and calcium. Potassium in a significant component of cell and body fluids assists control heart rate and blood pressure.

The Longest Truck in the World!

The Longest Truck in the World!

You can call this amazing vehicle “Road Train” A road train or road-train is a trucking concept used in remote areas of Argentina, Mexico United States, Canada and Australia, to move logistics freight efficiently. The word “road train” is most often used in Australia. In United States and Canada the terms “triples,” “turnpike doubles” and “Rocky Mountain doubles” are frequently used for longer combination vehicles (LCVs). A “road train” consists of a relatively conventional tractor unit, but instead of pulling one trailer or semi-trailer, a road train pulls two or more of them. On February 18, 2006, an Australian built Mack truck with 112 semi-trailers, 1,300 t (1,279 long tons; 1,433 short tons) and 1,474.3 meters (4,836 ft 11 in) long, this road train pulled the load 100 metres (328 feet) to recapture the record for the longest road train (multiple loaded trailers) ever pulled with a single prime mover. It was on the main road of Clifton, Queensland, that 70-year-old John Atkinson claimed a new record, pulled by a tri-drive Mack Titan.

Australia Creates World’s Largest Marine Reserves

Australia Creates World’s Largest Marine Reserves

Australia created the world’s biggest network of marine reserves, protecting a huge swathe of ocean environment in spite of claims it will devastate the fishing industry. Australian years of planning and consultation, will considerably expand the protection of creatures such as the green turtle, blue whale critically endangered populations of gray nurse sharks, and dugongs. Marine reserves will cover more than 2.3 million square kilometers in six marine regions. There are very a small number of countries in the world that are as responsible for as much of the ocean as Australia is, because oceans are under serious threat. There are plenty of actions taken to turn the corner on the health of oceans by establishing national parks in the ocean is a big part of that total picture, which is very imperative for future generation.  On the other hand fishermen are extremely furious, claiming coastal communities would be ruined, thousands of jobs lost and aquaculture industry seriously impacted. No doubt decision would have an impact, but claimed it would only affect 1% of the commercial fishing industry nationally. Hope the initiative, would “go down in Australian history as an economically and environmentally sustainable decision”.

Wax Coating Apples

Wax Coating Apples

Apples normally have a natural wax coating on their surface. This all-natural wax coating really helps to preserve the apple fruit from shriveling and weight loss nevertheless before packaging of the apple fruits, they are cleaned by scrubbing the surface to take away dirt and chemical residues (if they are not organic). This scrubbing eliminates approximately 50% of the natural wax coating.

To replace the natural wax coating processors put other suggested waxes on the surface of apples (which is actually not harmful to the consumer). The waxes applied on apples may either be animal wax, vegetable wax or mineral and synthetic wax. After applying wax, the fruits assume glossy and firm appearance that is thought to be a necessary quality in apples. In spite of this, some dishonest producers can coat the apple in petroleum based waxes which are harmful to the consumer. It is important to refrain from harmful wax coating that you have to buy apples from markets and areas where apples are grown.

The probabilities that the farmers have not waxed apples are definitely good here.  Additionally it is a much better idea to shop for the dull apples that are fresh, without having kind of artificial coating. What is more important is, it will always be a very good practice to clean apples with lukewarm water carefully before eating .Furthermore, you can use a paper towel with some vinegar (acetic acid) (not any detergents) to wipe the apple before washing. A different evident way to stay away from destructive wax of apple fruits is to get rid of the entire peel, however you may well lose on certain vitamins and also the crispiness of the peel.

Notre Dame football analysis: Irish must avoid the noise

It wasn't just the season-ending injury to Jamoris Slaughter that put Brian Kelly in an all-business mood when the celebration was still percolating all around him.It was the knowledge that his Notre Dame football team’s 20-3 conquest of then-No. 10 Michigan State Saturday night could be much more than an upset. It could be a turning point. And the time to start building toward that possibility started before the team even got on the bus just after midnight in East Lansing, Mich.
The third-year Irish head football coach’s postgame mantra? Don't get infected with success.“It's easy to forget how you got here,” Kelly said Sunday afternoon. “It's easy to listen to how great you are. We've got to avoid the noise and stay disciplined on the process. If we do that, we'll be pretty good in November.”
If the Irish — 3-0 for the first time since 2002 and carrying their highest ranking (11th) since Dec. 3, 2006 — want to be pretty good this Saturday night against No. 18 Michigan (2-1) and beyond, they’ll have to do it without Slaughter, a fifth-year senior.
Notre Dame’s most-experienced member of its secondary and most-versatile defender is out for the season and perhaps for his college career with a torn Achilles tendon. The 6-foot, 200-pound free safety suffered the injury on the first play of the second half of Saturday’s game.
Slaughter had played drop linebacker as well against spread and option teams the past couple of seasons, nickelback when asked to and was Kelly’s safety net for a thin cornerback corps that already lost junior Lo Wood for the season to injury.
Sophomore Matthias Farley, a converted wide receiver and perhaps the biggest personnel surprise on either side of the ball this season, moves into the starting lineup.
“You lose a Jamoris Slaughter, you're losing an ‘A’ player,” Kelly said. “Matthias is certainly not at the level yet of a Jamoris Slaughter. So we'll have to continue to develop him, but we have a lot of confidence in him.”
Slaughter does have the option to petition the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility for 2013.While he mulls his future, his Notre Dame teammates will be cultivating theirs. Pushing beyond what they’ve already accomplished is a lesson learned the hard way last season by a deflating 31-17 loss to USC when the stage was quite similar to what Saturday’s Michigan game figures to be.
“A lot of the guys went through the USC experience, and we didn't play our best football,” Kelly said. “This is a group that has learned by their mistakes — not just players, but coaches. So moving forward, I think we've learned from the experiences over the last couple years that we've got to stay focused and away from the distractions.”
In that light, here are ND’s areas for growth potential and how that plays against the backdrop of the road ahead:
Quarterback play
Sophomore quarterback Everett Golson put up the ugliest stats of his three-game starting run Saturday against the Spartans, and yet probably took his most significant step forward in his overall evolution.
A 14-for-32 night gouged his historic start in the completion-percentage category. A 1-for-14 success rate on third down did the same to his conversion rate.
Yet the 6-foot, 185-pounder made big plays when he had to. He stayed poised. He took shots down the field in the passing game to try to loosen up the overloaded box Michigan State was using to stop the run.
Golson threw a 36-yard TD pass to John Goodman and scrambled for a six-yard score against a defense that hadn’t given up an offensive touchdown this season. And he may have done it all against the best defense overall and in the passing game the Irish will see this season.
Only Oklahoma has a better pass-efficiency defense rating nationally (third) than MSU’s (seventh) at the moment, and the Sooners’ was accumulated against the likes of UTEP and Florida A&M.
The most significant stat is turnovers. The Irish have a total of two through three games. Last year at this time, they had 13.
The next step in the QB evolution, Kelly insisted Sunday, isn’t adding more pages from the playbook or augmenting some formational bells and whistles, it’s Golson getting better at what’s already on his plate.
Catching on
Three games into life after Michael Floyd, an unlikely trio of TJ Jones, Robby Toma and Theo Riddick are tied for most receptions in 2012, with nine each.
Tight end Tyler Eifert, shut out Saturday night for the first time since he became a starter midway through the 2010 season, is right behind them with eight catches.
None of them are likely to fade, but the depth of the receiving corps needs to continue to develop, because there are some weapons in the younger classes that can open up opportunities for everyone.
Freshman Chris Brown showed off his speed on a first-quarter incompletion Saturday night in which Golson put a little too much air into the throw. Classmate Davonte’ Neal has a knack for getting big yards after the catch.
And sophomore DaVaris Daniels may be the most dangerous of any of the wide receivers on the roster. His participation Saturday night was limited to a handful of plays after he suffered a setback to his recovery from an ankle sprain Friday during a walkthrough.
Daniels is averaging 19.8 yards per catch, best among Irish players who have more than two receptions. Kelly’s expectation is that the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder will be available for the Michigan game.
Reshuffling the secondary
The good news in ND’s war of attrition in the secondary is that the Irish don’t face a team currently ranked higher than 40th nationally in passing efficiency the rest of the season.
The less-than-good news is that those numbers aren’t likely to hold up. USC (41st), with Matt Barkley; Oklahoma (47th), with Landry Jones; and BYU (61st) with Riley Nelson are among those who figure to climb significantly by the time the Irish face them.
At least they’re used to playing without Slaughter. In addition to sitting out all but one play of the second half Saturday, the safety missed the entire second half of the Purdue game on Sept. 8 with a shoulder injury.
Senior Zeke Motta becomes the air traffic controller of the group. He’s the only one among the four secondary starters who didn’t get moved from the offensive side of the ball.
“I think what we're seeing is the development of some really young players that can be really good players for us,” Kelly said. “We don't need to hide them. They just need to continue to develop.”
Polishing a diamond
The defensive front seven is this Notre Dame team’s calling card.
Even ND’s surprisingly sparkling No. 26 standing in pass-efficiency defense is due in large part to the pressure the Irish can get up front without a lot of gambling and blitzing.
Perhaps its most impressive numbers are these: The 30 points given up through three games are the fewest since its last national title run, in 1988. And Saturday night, the Spartans didn’t run a single play in the Irish red zone. In the second half, only one of MSU’s 33 plays was snapped on the ND side of the 50-yard line.
And yet it’s not even close to what it could be. Fifth-year senior end Kapron Lewis-Moore missed almost all of the Purdue game (Sept. 8) and was laboring with a calf injury Saturday night. Freshman Sheldon Day and sophomore Tony Springmann, key backups, are surging each week.
Drop linebacker Danny Spond is healthy and improving. Senior weakside linebacker Dan Fox probably played his most complete game. And middle linebacker Manti Te’o is inspiring everyone around him to keep pushing.
So is Kelly.
“I think you have to,” he said. “Obviously, they're 18- to 21-year-olds. You need to continue to remind them about where they are, how they got here.”

At $299, Wii U offers 'strong value,' says Nintendo's Fils-Aime

Is Nintendo's Wii U delivering the right value to consumers? The company's chief operating officer Reggie Fils-Aime certainly thinks so.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published today, Fils-Aime said that the Wii U Basic Set, which will retail for $299 when it goes on sale on November 18 in the U.S., "is a really strong value, and it's a value that's going to be strong for a long time."
Nintendo announced details of the Wii U at a press event yesterday in New York City. The device comes in two sets -- the $299 basic edition and a $349 deluxe offering. The basic set comes with the console, a single GamePad, sensor bar, and 8GB of onboard storage. The deluxe set adds a charging stand and the Nintendo Land game disc, and jumps to 32GB of storage.
In addition, the console will support a new, in-home entertainment feature, called Nintendo TVii, that will allow users to tap into live programming and streaming video from the GamePad for viewing on a television. Users will also be able to record live programming from the controller.
Despite all that, value isn't determined by companies; it's arrived at by consumers. And whether Nintendo customers will want to buy a new console for at least $299 remains to be seen.
So far, opinions are mixed on the quality of Nintendo's offering. Some say that the GamePad is an ideal addition, and the now-HD games are welcome. Others aren't so impressed by the graphics in the Wii U titles shown off so far, and wonder how the device might stack up against the long-expected Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4.
But Nintendo has time on its side. The company is the first to jump into the next generation, and with a mid-November launch, it'll be able to take advantage of the busy holiday shopping season. Its future competitors aren't expected to hit store shelves for about another year.
So far, that, along with the device's features, appear to be helping the Wii U out.
"In the end, the consumers are going to decide [the Wii U's value]," Fils-Aime told GamesIndustry.biz. "So I'll share this data with you. We've announced the price and we have a number of retailers taking pre-orders and the feedback that I'm getting from retailers is extremely strong in terms of pre-sales and consumer excitement at the store."

To Die For

To Die For

Amna again glanced towards the girl sitting across from her at the train station. Her nose buried in a book; it took her a while to realize that it was actually Tehmina her old friend from college days. Just about four months since their graduation, Tehmina was practically unrecognizable her face looked yellow, shriveled and gaunt; even the lips seemed to have retreated, and her pallid skin was unevenly shadowed and deeply lined. With a gasp, Amna felt as if she was looking at the features of a dead girl.

A few seconds later, Amna collected herself — Tehmina was sitting there, swinging her leg, reading a book, obviously very much alive. But then, why did she look so ghastly?

What Amna didn’t realize, was that Tehmina was showing stark symptoms of anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that preys upon one to five % of all female teens and adolescents. Tehmina was wrapped up in extra loose clothing to disguise her extreme loss of weight, and she was greedily perusing the images in a cookbook. Anorexia might not be rare, but few people recognize it as a problem, and it is encouraged by the ignorance of peers and family members.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder with underlying emotional causes. Those suffering from anorexia are haunted day and night by the urgency of losing as much weight as they can. They severely restrict their intake of calories and in many cases, also engage in extreme and arduous exercises. To an anorexic, each pound lost is a victory, and there are no worldly limits to the situation of the obsession expect death.

Anorexia is a psychological disorder and germinates from emotional stress or the onset of despair and lack of self-esteem. While a variety of conditions may be responsible for the development of anorexia, all patients feel the same need for control which they only find in the manipulation of their own diet and bodyweight, hence they continually abuse it. 90% of anorexics are female, and almost all are teens and adolescents. Moreover, anorexia is chronic, and those who are affected once are prone to show symptoms repeatedly.

Anorexics are averse to eating, count their calories, and sometimes even exercise madly, all in a rush to keep losing weight. They ignore signs of bad health and waning looks, and take pride in their weight loss. However, to divert attention from their extreme thinness, anorexic patients will often wear baggy clothes to make themselves look fatter than they are. People, who have anorexia often develop a sideways obsession with food and love to plan meals, look at picture of food or cook something for their family. Along with this, symptoms of slow starvation are soon visible. The skin becomes dry and pallid, circulation is low, and body temperature drops. With prolonged anorexia, the nervous system fails, followed by eye coördination. The patient has severe hair fall and feels cold. The body starts surviving on body fat and the patient loses his/her defense against the cold.

It is difficult to cure anorexia, because anorexics don’t want to be cured. However, need to that ht treatment starts off without delay, and first aims at eliminating the medical complications, and gradually normalizing bodyweight and eating habits. After that, the issues of self-esteem need to be addressed and a correct perception of a healthy body image needs to be established. The patient almost always needs professional help. The health complications that stem from anorexia are many and grave, and it s therefore vital that it is immediately dealt with. Psychotherapy can be employed to tackle the psychological or emotional problems responsible for the onset of this disorder.

There are many social problems underlying this disorder, chiefly projection of a thin girl as beautiful girl by the media, and the undue acceptance of this concept by society. An increasing number of 13 and 14 year olds look up to poster girls as role models for looks. Ask any school going teen girl and she will tell you that good sense of fashion is practically a free ticket to popularity. On the other fat girls are often subject to unintentionally cutting and discriminating jokes, and are acutely aware of their own excess mass when they want to fit into something chic and desirable. Loathing for one’s own shell can be so dehumanizing that once pushed off the edge, its little wonder they will go to any length to keep losing weight.

While anorexia can be fatal, similar body weight complexes are equally damaging to physical and mental health, not to mention the future prospects of the afflicted persons. Girls who keep but a vestige of their original appetite in order to remain skinny not only deprive themselves of the nutrition their mind and body desperately need, but also suffer the consequences of this malnutrition as are apparent in their declines in academic or professional performance. Look around you; there may be such people in your very social sphere, outwardly jovial but secretly weeping over their clumsy weight. Next time you start calling someone fatty think about that.