Delhi braces for return of some serious monkey business

The Indian capital had eased its rhesus monkey problems with the help of bigger langur monkeys. Now an animal rights activist argues the solution is illegal.

By Shaikh Azizur Rahman,?Correspondent / March 21, 2013

Badal Kalandar brings his langur monkey, Pawan, to work every day on a one-hour bicycle commute in New Delhi, April 2011. Pawan hops on the back seat readily and is not afraid of the traffic in the city. Mr. Kalandar has trained Pawan to scare away smaller monkeys at the home of his employer, India's Minister of Power. Many monkey trainers are hired to prevent monkey infestations in India's government buildings.

Ben Arnoldy/The Christian Science Monitor

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Monkeys are poised to take back the corridors of power in the world's largest democracy.?Once literally overrun with?packs of small but troublesome rhesus monkeys, Delhi's government zone began to fight back the menace a decade ago with large langur monkeys who were?trained to them chase away.?

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Now, an animal rights activist is putting a stop to the hiring of langurs and their handlers, leaving residents of the capital poised for a return of the monkey business from years past: Packs of monkeys had broken into the parliament, invaded the prime minister's office and defense ministry, at times ripping up wiring and tearing through files. Those who resisted them sometimes got bitten ? or worse.?In 2007, one deputy mayor in Delhi died after falling from his terrace while fighting off a rhesus attack.

The arrival of the black-faced langurs brought the red-bottomed?rhesus situation under control and became a normal part of life in Delhi.?

The langurs' human handlers keep them on a leash. It is commonplace on Delhi's clogged streets to see handlers bicycling to a job site with the giant monkey sitting side-saddle on a back rack. Each morning, langurs would chase the rhesus monkeys out of Parliament, then out of ministry buildings and down the streets past the living quarters of top officials. Each night, the rhesus would return, encouraged by offerings of food like bananas and peanuts left by Hindus who view monkeys as a living incarnation of the monkey god Hanuman.

So valuable were the langurs' services, that they commanded a salary higher than the vast majority of Indians.

But, now Delhi?s langur handlers have come under fire after animal rights activist and opposition politician Maneka Gandhi began protesting the practice of chaining and training the wild langurs and putting them to work.?Under the country?s Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the langurs are a protected species and cannot be owned, traded, bought, sold, or hired out. Any violation of the law entails a three year jail term or a fine or both.

Following pressure from the activist who is also a member of Parliament, India?s Ministry of Environment and Forests issued letters to Delhi state government and several federal ministries alerting them that hiring service of the chained langurs was illegal.??

Then, last month India?s urban development ministry issued a notice to different agencies in Delhi asking them to stop using the langur guards. Fearing legal action some offices have stopped hiring the handler-langur teams to curb the rhesus menace. Some others are still using the langur guards in Delhi but are apparently in the process of ending the practice soon, said one New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) officer.

That has some in the city worried.

?The urban rhesus monkey population in Delhi is rising. So, the threats of rhesus attacks on offices are also on the rise,? says Mahaveer Singh, an NDMC officer who looks after the hiring of the langur guards by the city's civic agency. ?The trained langurs provide a very efficient service. But the pressure to stop using them is rising following the recent ban by the [urban development] ministry. I think we have to stop hiring our langur guards soon.

?But it will be very difficult to tackle the rhesus menace in the absence of these langur guards.?

Mr. Singh adds that the NDMC have 40 langur guards on its roll and the agency would be in big trouble if it faced further pressure and was finally forced to stop using them.

Some handlers say their langurs would not lose the jobs in Delhi that easily.

?All other strategies to keep the rhesus monkeys at bay in Delhi failed in the past,? says handler Mohammad Nishar.??Only our langurs can keep the parliament, courts, police stations, and other offices free from the rhesus menace. Powerful citizens are working at these places. I believe they will help amend the wildlife laws and will let our langurs continue their smart service.?

*?Monkey stories from India are a proud sub-genre of journalism. Here is?an archive of some of the best?stories.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/_n4-N6pzi90/Delhi-braces-for-return-of-some-serious-monkey-business

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Mindfulness improves reading ability, working memory, and task-focus

Mar. 26, 2013 ? If you think your inability to concentrate is a hopeless condition, think again -- and breathe, and focus. According to a study by researchers at the UC Santa Barbara, as little as two weeks of mindfulness training can significantly improve one's reading comprehension, working memory capacity, and ability to focus.

Their findings were recently published online in the empirical psychology journal Psychological Science.

"What surprised me the most was actually the clarity of the results," said Michael Mrazek, graduate student researcher in psychology and the lead and corresponding author of the paper, "Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering." "Even with a rigorous design and effective training program, it wouldn't be unusual to find mixed results. But we found reduced mind-wandering in every way we measured it."

Many psychologists define mindfulness as a state of non-distraction characterized by full engagement with our current task or situation. For much of our waking hours, however, we are anything but mindful. We tend to replay past events -- like the fight we just had or the person who just cut us off on the freeway -- or we think ahead to future circumstances, such as our plans for the weekend.

Mind-wandering may not be a serious issue in many circumstances, but in tasks requiring attention, the ability to stay focused is crucial.

To investigate whether mindfulness training can reduce mind-wandering and thereby improve performance, the scientists randomly assigned 48 undergraduate students to either a class that taught the practice of mindfulness or a class that covered fundamental topics in nutrition. Both classes were taught by professionals with extensive teaching experience in their fields. Within a week before the classes, the students were given two tests: a modified verbal reasoning test from the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and a working memory capacity (WMC) test. Mind-wandering during both tests was also measured.

The mindfulness classes provided a conceptual introduction along with practical instruction on how to practice mindfulness in both targeted exercises and daily life. Meanwhile, the nutrition class taught nutrition science and strategies for healthy eating, and required students to log their daily food intake.

Within a week after the classes ended, the students were tested again. Their scores indicated that the mindfulness group significantly improved on both the verbal GRE test and the working memory capacity test. They also mind-wandered less during testing. None of these changes were true of the nutrition group.

"This is the most complete and rigorous demonstration that mindfulness can reduce mind-wandering, one of the clearest demonstrations that mindfulness can improve working memory and reading, and the first study to tie all this together to show that mind-wandering mediates the improvements in performance," said Mrazek. He added that the research establishes with greater certainty that some cognitive abilities often seen as immutable, such as working memory capacity, can be improved through mindfulness training.

Mrazek and the rest of the research team -- which includes Michael S. Franklin, project scientist; mindfulness teacher and research specialist Dawa Tarchin Phillips; graduate student Benjamin Baird; and senior investigator Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychological and brain sciences -- are extending their work by investigating whether similar results can be achieved with younger populations, or with web-based mindfulness interventions. They are also examining whether or not the benefits of mindfulness can be compounded by a program of personal development that also targets nutrition, exercise, sleep, and personal relationships.

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Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/pvpafk1DiYo/130326133339.htm

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Study finds nearly 2 in 3 hate crimes unreported

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Despite growing awareness of hate crimes, the share of those crimes reported to police has fallen in recent years as more victims of violent attacks express doubt that police can or will help.

Nearly 2 of 3 hate crimes go unreported to police, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Thursday. For the years 2003-06, 46 percent of hate crimes were reported to police. But more recently, for 2007-11, just 35 percent were reported.

There was an increase in the percentage of victims of violent hate crimes who didn't report the crime because they believed the police could not or would not help, from 14 percent in 2003-06 to 24 percent in 2007-11, the bureau said.

"It's shocking to see that much of an increase in the feeling of futility that hate crime victims are apparently experiencing," Jason Marsden, the executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said in an interview. Shepard, a gay college student, was killed in a 1998 attack that police said was motivated in part by his sexual orientation. His parents started the foundation.

Hate groups are becoming increasingly violent, which raises the possibility that victims are afraid to report the acts to police out of fear of reprisal, said Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, the nation's oldest police research organization.

Among various studies that point to rising violence in hate crimes, the statistics bureau found a growing percentage of violent hate crimes as opposed to property crimes. Violence accounted for 84 percent of the hate crimes during 2003-06 but rose to 92 percent during 2007-11. This comes as the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that it has identified more than 1,000 organized hate groups in each of the last three years, compared with 600 to 700 such groups in the period 2000-02.

The decline in reporting disclosed in the statistics bureau's new study comes despite increasing attention paid to the subject of hate crime by police and community groups.

"What's surprising about this is that knowledge of hate crimes is far more prevalent across the country than it ever has been at any time in our history," Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said in an interview. The forum is a Washington police research organization.

Congress has defined a hate crime as a criminal offense motivated by bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.

The data in the latest report comes primarily from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which has been collecting information on crimes motivated by hate since 2003. The statistics bureau is able to gauge the percentage of crimes that go unreported to police because its victimization survey is based on a large, representative sample of Americans interviewed annually by the Census Bureau about their experiences with crime and responses to it.

The Police Foundation's Bueermann said there is an increased sensitivity on the part of police to the devastating nature of hate crime.

"I certainly saw that in my career," said Bueermann, who spent 33 years as a Southern California police officer, 13 of them as a police chief.

"If those statistics are accurate, then police chiefs have to focus on the issue of why the members of their communities believe that the police aren't willing to investigate," Bueermann said. "I think this underscores the importance of police chiefs repeating these messages over and over and over" urging victims to report hate crimes.

The study found during 2007-11 an estimated annual average of 259,700 hate crimes against people age 12 or older.

The percentage of hate crimes motivated by religious bias more than doubled between 2003-06 and 2007-11 ? from 10 percent to 21 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage motivated by racial bias dropped from 63 percent to 54 percent.

In the years 2007-11, whites, blacks and Hispanics had similar rates of violent hate crime victimization.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-21-Hate%20Crimes/id-695dc3620103440298b278e690e66988

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The Legacy of the Iraq War? Anti-War Democrats and Rand Paul

Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, a tepid debate continues over whether the war was worth it. What is not debatable, however, is that the terrible costs of America?s diversion into Iraq after 9/11 have profoundly transformed American foreign policy. The post-Cold-War hubris that so infected American policymakers a decade ago has been replaced by its near-opposite. Today there is a new humility, indeed a kind of neo-isolationism, that is shaping major decisions as profoundly as hubris did a decade ago.

Call it the Iraq Syndrome. It has clearly become our generation's "Vietnam Syndrome," and it will likely be the dominant factor in foreign policy decisions of both Democratic and Republican administrations for years to come. Two recent indications: the return of Iraq war opponent Chuck Hagel, President Obama?s new Defense secretary, from the political dead?guaranteeing an ultra-cautious, ?realist? approach to the use of American power?and the rise of what columnist George Will called ?the libertarian strand of Republicanism? in evidence at the recently concluded CPAC conference, where Sen. Rand Paul won the straw poll even as he called for a scaled-down U.S. presence abroad.

Perhaps nothing more vividly illustrates this dramatic transformation in U.S. foreign policy than the reversal of roles on the world stage of the United States and France. A decade ago, in the months before the Iraq invasion, the French played the role of chief challengers to the Bush administration and were derided as ?cheese-eating surrender monkeys,? in the colorful tabloid phrase of the time. Today, it is France that is taking the lead in intervention, prodding the U.S. forward in Libya, Syria and Mali.

To a degree that the American public may not even be aware of, the U.S. military is now playing a supporting role to the French, with logistical aid and airlift in Mali, much as it did in Libya. In addition, Washington is only slowly coming around to the hawkish French view of Syria's stalemate: Autocrat Bashar al-Assad won?t be moved to negotiate unless the rebels can change the military balance with Western arms. A senior Western diplomat says America?s reluctance to intervene today, even in a humanitarian crisis as bloody as Syria?s, is not unlike where Washington was at the beginning of the Bosnia crisis of the early 1990s, when then-President Clinton was criticized for his hesitation (he eventually came around to supporting NATO strikes and empowered an aggressive U.S. diplomat, the late Richard Holbrooke, to take the lead from the Europeans in negotiations). ??

The main reason behind this transformation of U.S. worldviews, of course, is the terrible tally of the Iraq war in blood, treasure, and trauma. It has been vast and appears to mount with each year, a historical rebuff to the absurdly facile estimates that hawks such as then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz threw out at the beginning. In an infamous exchange before Congress in 2003, Wolfowitz dismissed estimates by then- Gen. Eric K. Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq as "wildly off the mark" and declared that the cost of war and reconstruction would never exceed $95 billion.

Today Shinseki is Obama?s secretary of Veterans Affairs, and the latest reckoning of the costs of that war come to a staggering $2.2 trillion, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. The study also found that at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians died, although the Watson Institute says the death toll could be up to four times higher. An estimated 36,000 American military personnel were also killed or injured during the war. The Brown study said that the nearly 10-year war cost $1.7 trillion, with $490 billion more owed in benefits to combat veterans, and that total expenses could soar to $6 trillion over the next 40 years. In addition, the study concluded, future health and disability payments for veterans will total $590 billion, and interest accrued to pay for the war will add up to $3.9 trillion.

The 10-year return on this huge investment has been scant at best. It?s not just that the casus belli for the war, Saddam Hussein?s alleged weapons of mass destruction and relationship with al-Qaida, turned out not to exist. Iraq is barely a democracy today, much less a model. Some advocates, such as former CIA analyst Reuel Marc Gerecht, still contend that taking out Saddam Hussein was justified and that ?the Iraq war convulsed the region and added jet-fuel to the Arab/Islamic discussion of democracy.? But he is in the minority, judging from polls that indicate that most Americans believe it was a foolhardy war.

The problem is not just that the war itself went wrong and seemed to lack justification; it's that few experts deem the counterinsurgency and development (nation-building) parts of the effort to have been worth the cost either. This is true of both Iraq and Afghanistan, even with an unprecedented 50-nation NATO-led alliance. As the just-departed Afghanistan commander, Gen. John Allen, said?at a recent forum convened by the Rand Corp. and Foreign Policy: "It will be 20 years before we undertake something like this again.? He added, ?Something I worry about increasingly as time goes on is the sense that the?development strategies in Iraq and now Afghanistan have failed. And?that the development dimension of what we have attempted to undertake?was either the wrong approach or just flawed from the beginning."

Twenty years is probably too sanguine. A decade ago, before the Iraq invasion, neoconservative hawks ruled foreign policy thinking in Washington, evincing a great deal of confidence that the lone superpower could easily ?walk and chew gum at the same time,? in a popular phrase from the time. Today we know that what most Americans, post-9/11, considered a necessary war in Afghanistan suffered because of the diversion to an unnecessary one in Iraq. We know that, rather than reasserting U.S. power, the hawks of a decade ago achieved the opposite: They succeeded only in exposing U.S. vulnerabilities to the world by creating generations of IED-savvy insurgents, generating more terrorists than existed before, and empowering Iran, the major threat today to Mideast stability.

So the debate, at least among the punditocracy, will likely go on. The war?s champions are still hoping that, someday, history will vindicate them. But the practical effects of America's overreach in Iraq are undeniable.?Wolfowitz and other policymakers who dominated the Bush administration wanted to put an end to the ?Vietnam syndrome? of self-doubt about the use of force. Instead they left us with an ?Iraq syndrome? that that will ensure no U.S. president, Democrat or Republican, will ever rush off to forcibly change regimes again.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/legacy-iraq-war-anti-war-democrats-rand-paul-123256161--politics.html

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Set meals in Mumbai | b! buzz | Know your city

There are days when we want to skip browsing through the menu, get straight to ordering food and get back to work quickly. Shirin Mehrotra finds restaurateurs in Mumbai that are launching fixed-priced menus to cater to just this busy lot.

Lunch platter @ Serafina
The North Italian restaurant in Palladium now offers a lunch platter on weekdays. The platter includes an appetizer, salad, pizza and pasta or an entree. You can start off the meal with a soup of the day or a bruschetta platter followed by the Serafina?s signature salads like D. Chopra ? mixed greens, pears, cherry tomatoes, corn, asparagus, walnuts with lemon vinaigrette dressing or Avocado and shrimps salad if you love seafood. Their wood-fired oven pizzas are a must try so take your pick from Margarita VIP ? imported Italian mozzarella, tomato and fresh basil, Marinara ? tomato, oregano and garlic or Alla Norcina ? mozzarella, mushrooms and chicken sausage. The mains section also has a choice of pastas or entrees. Try the Penne primavera all? Arrabbiata, Spaghetti aglio e olio or Chicken breast paillard ? organic chicken breast served with arugula and fresh tomatoes.

Price: Rs 750 + taxes (without alcohol)

For more details, click here.

Prix fixe lunch menu @ Indigo
If you were looking for a reason to dine at one of the Top 50 restaurants in Asia here?s one. Indigo, which is awarded the 28th position on the list put together by ?Asia?s 50 Best Restaurants List? , just launched a three-course lunch menu. Try their Carpaccio of beef tenderloin with a Salad of green asparagus or Caramelised Atlantic scallops with confit lamb for the first course. The second course includes Pan-fried red snapper; Zucchini wrapped tiger prawns and a Lemongrass risotto. The dessert selection includes a Macchiato brul?e, Chocolate raspberry meringue tart and Panna cotta among others. All side dishes and drinks are charged separately.

Price: Rs 1320 (inclusive of taxes without alcohol)

For more details, click here.

Set Lunch @ The Irish House
The Irish House?s at Kala Ghoda recently introduced a four-course lunch menu, which includes a salad of the day, choice of appetizer, a main course and a dessert. With dishes like Chicken pie, Spaghetti Bolognese and Grilled pepper chicken on the menu we wouldn?t mind hopping in for lunch more than once a week. Add Rs 99 to the cost and you can also sip on a glass of domestic beer or wine. Teetotallers can add Rs 40 extra for a mocktail.

Price: Rs 349 + taxes (without alcohol), Rs 439 + taxes (with alcohol)

For more details, click here.

Corporate Lunch @ Neel
Smack dab in the heart of business central, Neel at Mahalaxmi now has a Corporate lunch menu. Refreshed every fortnight, the elaborate menu includes a starter platter with three kinds of kebabs, a pre-plated main course with dal, biryani and roti, and a dessert. Since the menu changes often enough, there?s plenty to try. Palak akhrot ke sheikh, Gilawat kebab, Hare pyaz ka jhinga and Malpua are few dishes that you can expect to see here.

Price: Rs 1000 + taxes for the vegetarian option, Rs 1200 + taxes for the non-vegetarian. (without alcohol)

For more details, click here.

Networking Hours @ Canvas
While most of the restaurants focus on lunch Canvas has come up with a fixed priced evening menu. Step in for their Networking Hours, which go on from 5 ? 9.30pm and enjoy an alcoholic/non alcoholic drink, a pizza and an appetizer for just Rs 500. The offer is valid on all domestic alcohol and is a great way to unwind a bit on a hectic weekday.

Price: Rs 500 + taxes (with alcohol)

For more details, click here.

Breakfast @ Mocha Mojo
While lunch and dinner has been taken care of how can we forget the most important meal of the day? Mocha Mojo comes in to rescue the morning with Mocha Mornings ? a choice of hot or cold beverage and a single pick from their breakfast menu.
A cappuccino to elbow you from your sleep or a tomato, carrot and celery juice to perk you up with a shot of vitamins, the choice is yours. Club it with honey pancakes, Belgian waffles, two eggs (any style) or a bowl of fresh fruits and kick start your day on a healthy note.

Price: Rs 99 + taxes

For more details, click here.

Source: http://know.burrp.com/food-dining/new-set-meals-in-mumbai/50053

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PFT: Flacco's cap number low in '13? |? 'Fitting' deal

AP

On Monday, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco signed his contract.? On Tuesday, the full details have surfaced.

Per a source with his knowledge of the contract, here are the terms:

1.? $29 million signing bonus.

2.? $1 million base salary in 2013.

3.? $15 million option bonus due in 2014.

4.? $6 million base salary in 2014.

5.? $7 million option bonus due in 2015.

6.? $4 million base salary due in 2015.

7.? $18 million base salary in 2016.

8.? $20.6 million base salary in 2017.

9.? $20 million base salary in 2018.

The cap numbers are $6.8 million in 2013, $14.8 million in 2014, $14.55 million in 2015, $28.55 million in 2016, $31.15 million in 2017, and $24.75 million in 2018.

The reduced cap number in the last year of the deal gives the Ravens protection against the 20-percent raise arising from the use of the franchise tag.? The $24.75 million cap number in 2018 becomes a $29.7 million franchise tag in 2019.

Still, it?s the $28.55 million cap number in 2016 that will force a new deal, barring a major (and unexpected) spike in the salary cap.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/04/flaccos-cap-numbers-stay-low-in-2013-and-2014/related/

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Spending cuts unpopular yet not set to go away

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following a meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following a meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE ? In this Feb. 26, 2013, file photo Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate GOP leadership answer questions about the looming automatic spending cuts after a Republican strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington. McConnell is gearing up for a tough re-election fight in Kentucky next year by trying to head off a GOP primary challenge, trying to scare off potential Democratic contenders, and by giving all a glimpse of his no-holds-barred political tactics. From left, Sen.s John Cornyn, R-Texas, John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., right. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Despite their unpopularity, those deep federal spending cuts look like they'll be around for a while.

There appears to be little in the works to undo the budget cuts, although President Barack Obama is calling lawmakers to cajole them to undo them.

But the Senate's Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday called those cuts modest and House Speaker John Boehner said he isn't sure they will hurt the economy. White House economic adviser Gene Sperling says the pain isn't that bad ? yet.

After months of dire warnings, the deep budget cuts have started taking hold and there's no evidence officials are moving to reverse the $85 billion in reductions.

"This modest reduction of 2.4 percent in spending over the next six months is a little more than the average American experienced just two months ago, when their own pay went down when the payroll tax holiday expired," McConnell said.

"I don't know whether it's going to hurt the economy or not," Boehner said. "I don't think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work."

But Sperling cautioned: "On Day One, it will not be as harmful as it will be over time."

Both parties cast blame on the other for the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts but gave little guidance on what to expect in the coming weeks. Republicans and Democrats pledged to retroactively undo the cuts, but signaled no hints as to how that process would start to take shape. Republicans insisted there would be no new taxes and Democrats refused to talk about any bargain without them.

"That's not going to work," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. "If we're going to increase revenue again, it's got to go to the debt with real entitlement reform and real tax reform when you actually lower rates. ... I'm not going to agree to any more tax increases that are going to go to increase more government."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said any tax increases were unacceptable.

"I'm not going to do any more small deals. I'm not going to raise taxes to fix sequestration. We don't need to raise taxes to fund the government," Graham said.

All of this comes ahead of a new, March 27 deadline to deal with the question of funding the government and a debt-ceiling clash coming in May.

Obama has phoned lawmakers but it isn't clear to what end and the White House would not say whom Obama is calling.

Administration officials planned to criticize the cuts in appearances with those affected by them; Education Secretary Arne Duncan, for instance, planned to appear with school leaders who faced a leaner budget.

"Well, no one can think that that's been a success for the president," said Mitt Romney, Obama's unsuccessful rival in November's election. "He didn't think the sequester would happen. It is happening."

Obama and the Republicans have been fighting over federal spending since the opposition party regained control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections. The budget cuts were designed in 2011 to be so ruthless that both sides would be forced to find a better deal, but they haven't despite two years to find a compromise.

The $85 billion in cuts apply to the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But without a deal they will continue slashing government spending by about $1 trillion more over a 10-year period.

McConnell spoke to CNN's "State of the Union." Boehner was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press." Sperling appeared on ABC's "This Week," NBC and CNN. Ayotte appeared on ABC. Graham spoke with CBS' "Face the Nation." Romney was a guest on "Fox News Sunday."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-04-US-Budget-Battle/id-dab15139e907469ba8863fc07c97fbd4

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Wii-playing surgeons may improve performance on laparoscopic procedures

Feb. 27, 2013 ? Laparoscopic surgeons may improve certain aspects of surgical performance by regularly playing on a Nintendo? Wii, according to research published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Gregorio Patrizi and colleagues from the University of Rome, Italy.

Considering the technical skills required to perform laparascopic procedures, several studies aim to evaluate and improve training for surgeons outside the operating room. Previous studies have assessed the effect of playing video games on hand-eye coordination and spatial attention. In the current research, the authors combined these two aspects by analyzing how a four-week training regimen on the Nintendo? Wii impacted the laparoscopic skills of post-graduate residents in the first or second year of their surgical training. Half the surgeons were assigned to a training regimen on the Wii while the other half were not. Before and after the regimen, all the participants' performance was tested on a laparoscopic simulator.

The study found that participants in both groups improved their skills over the four week period, but those who had been trained on the Wii showed a significant improvement over the other group in their performance on several specific metrics like economy of instrument movements and efficient cautery. The study concludes, "The Nintendo? Wii might be helpful, inexpensive and entertaining part of the training of young laparoscopists, in addition to a standard surgical education based on simulators and the operating room."

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Journal Reference:

1. Domenico Giannotti, Gregorio Patrizi, Giorgio Di Rocco, Anna Rita Vestri, Camilla Proietti Semproni, Leslie Fiengo, Stefano Pontone, Giorgio Palazzini, Adriano Redler. Play to Become a Surgeon: Impact of Nintendo WII Training on Laparoscopic Skills. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e57372 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057372

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/TPR-SEe5As0/130227183500.htm

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