Vatican discloses Pope's Twitter handle: @pontifex

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - It's official. Pope Benedict's handle on Twitter will be @pontifex.

He already has 1.2 billion "followers" in the standard sense of the word but next week he will have another type when he enters what for any 85-year old is the brave new world of Twitter.

The Vatican said on Monday that the pope will start tweeting on December 12, the feast of the Madonna of Guadalupe.

"The handle is a good one. It means 'pope' and it also means 'bridge builder'," said Greg Burke, senior media advisor to the Vatican.

"The pope wants to reach out to everyone," he told a news conference.

The first papal tweets will be answers to questions sent to #askpontifex.

The tweets will be going out in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French. Other languages will be added in the future.

"We are going to get a spiritual message. The pope is not going to be walking around with a Blackberry or an iPad and no one is going to be putting words into the pope's mouth. He will tweet what he wants to tweet," Burke said.

Primarily the tweets will come from the contents of his weekly general audience, Sunday blessings and homilies on major Church holidays. They will also include reaction to major world events, such as natural disasters.

Benedict will be sending his first tweet himself on December 12 but in the future most will be written by aides and he will sign off on them before they are sent in his name.

But while the pope will be one of the world's most high-profile tweeters and have many followers, he will not be following anyone himself.

The pope's Twitter page is designed in yellow and white - the colors of the Vatican, with a backdrop of the Vatican and his picture. It may change during different liturgical seasons of the year and when the pope is away from the Vatican on trips.

FEAR OF HACKING

The Vatican said precautions had been taken to make sure the pope's certified account is not hacked. Only one computer in the Vatican's secretariat of state will be used for the tweets.

"The Pope's presence on Twitter is a concrete expression of his conviction that the Church must be present in the digital arena," the Vatican said.

"This initiative is best understood in the context of his reflections on the importance of the cultural space that has been brought into being by the new technologies ... the pope's presence on Twitter can be seen as the ?tip of the iceberg' that is the Church's presence in the world of new media," it said in a statement.

The pope, who still writes his speeches and books by hand, has given a qualified blessing to social networking.

In a document issued last year, he said the possibilities of new media and social networks offered "a great opportunity", but warned of the risks of depersonalization, alienation, self-indulgence, and the dangers of having more virtual friends than real ones.

In 2009, a new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, went live, offering an application called "The pope meets you on Facebook", and another allowing the faithful to see the pontiff's speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.

The Vatican famously got egg on its face in 2009 when it was forced to admit that, if it had surfed the web more, it might have known that a traditionalist bishop whose excommunication was lifted had for years been a Holocaust denier.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-discloses-popes-twitter-handle-pontifex-111503109.html

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How, in the animal world, a daughter avoids mating with her father: Paternal 'voice' recognition

How, in the animal world, a daughter avoids mating with her father: Paternal 'voice' recognition

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Paternal recognition ? being able to identify males from your father's line ? is important for the avoidance of inbreeding, and one way that mammals can do this is through recognizing the calls of paternal kin. This was thought to occur only in large-brained animals with complex social groups, but a new study published today in the open access journal BMC Ecology provides evidence in a tiny, solitary primate that challenges this theory.

The study, led by Sharon E Kessler, finds that the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) ? a small-brained, solitary foraging mammal endemic to Madagascar ? is able to recognize paternal relatives via vocalizations, thus providing evidence that this is not dependent upon having a large brain and a high social complexity, as previously suggested.

Because grey mouse lemurs are nocturnal solitary-foragers living in dense forests, vocal communication is important for regulating social interactions across distances where visibility is poor and communication via smell is limited. Though the mouse lemur shares sleeping sites with other mouse lemurs, it forages alone for fruit and insects. It is a particularly interesting species with which to study vocal paternal recognition because, in the wild, females remain in the same area of birth and cooperatively raise young with other female kin. Males do not co-nest with their mates or young and provide no paternal care, which limits opportunities for familiarity-based social interactions. Thus, vocalizations are likely to be important ? particularly for avoiding inbreeding.

The research team from Arizona State University and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany found that two of the most frequent calls of the mouse lemur were the mate advertisement call and the alarm call. Using multi-parametric analyses of the call's acoustic parameters, they could see that both call types contained individual signatures. Through this, they discovered that only male grey mouse lemur advertisement calls, but not alarm calls, contained acoustic paternal signatures. Furthermore, females paid more attention to advertisement calls from unrelated males than from their fathers.

The findings from the study suggest that the discrimination between mate advertisement calls and alarm calls may be an important mechanism for inbreeding avoidance. This is likely to be highly important in the grey mouse lemur species because males are likely to remain in an area for several years and they can expand their ranges to more than twice that of the female's range, making it likely that adult males' ranges will overlap with those of their daughters from previous mating seasons.

The team also proposed that the mouse lemur's ultrasonic calls above the hearing range of owls could be an anti-predator strategy, especially since the species suffers from high predation.

Lead author Kessler commented, "Given that more complex forms of sociality with cohesive foraging groups are thought to have evolved from an ancestral solitary forager much like the mouse lemur, this suggests that the mechanisms for kin recognition like those seen here may be the foundation from which more complex forms of kin-based sociality evolved."

She continued, "Future analyses will determine which acoustic parameters make this kin recognition possible by artificially manipulating acoustic parameters in the calls and then using the modified calls in playback experiments."

###

Paternal kin recognition in the high frequency / ultrasonic range in a solitary foraging mammal
Sharon E Kessler, Marina Scheumann, Leanne T Nash and Elke Zimmermann
BMC Ecology (in press)

BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com

Thanks to BioMed Central for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125623/How__in_the_animal_world__a_daughter_avoids_mating_with_her_father__Paternal__voice__recognition

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Mexico old guard has new face in return to power

In this image released by the press office of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday Dec. 1, 2012, Mexico's outgoing president, Felipe Calderon, left, gives a Mexican flag to president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto during the official transfer of command ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, Saturday Dec. 1, 2012. Pena Nieto will be officially sworn in as Mexico's new President during a ceremony at the National Congress later on Saturday. (AP Photo/Press Office of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto)

In this image released by the press office of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday Dec. 1, 2012, Mexico's outgoing president, Felipe Calderon, left, gives a Mexican flag to president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto during the official transfer of command ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, Saturday Dec. 1, 2012. Pena Nieto will be officially sworn in as Mexico's new President during a ceremony at the National Congress later on Saturday. (AP Photo/Press Office of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto)

President-elect of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto visits Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Wednesday Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Sean Kilpatrick)

A protestor throws a fire bottle over steel security barriers around the National Congress, where the swearing in of new Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will take place in Mexico City, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2012. Pena Nieto took power at midnight in a symbolic ceremony and will formally take the oath of office Saturday morning after campaigning as the face of a new PRI _ a party that claims to be repentant and reconstructed after voted out of the presidency in 2000.(AP Photo / Marco Ugarte)

Riot police take cover under their shileds as protestor throw stones over the steel security barriers around the National Congress, where the swearing in of new Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will take place in Mexico City, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2012. Pena Nieto took power at midnight in a symbolic ceremony and will formally take the oath of office Saturday morning after campaigning as the face of a new PRI _ a party that claims to be repentant and reconstructed after voted out of the presidency in 2000.(AP Photo / Marco Ugarte)

In this image released by the press office of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday Dec. 1, 2012, Mexico's outgoing president, Felipe Calderon, left, gives a Mexican flag to president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto during the official transfer of command ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, Saturday Dec. 1, 2012. Pena Nieto will be officially sworn in as Mexico's new President during a ceremony at the National Congress later on Saturday. (AP Photo/Press Office of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto)

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Protesters opposed to new President Enrique Pena Nieto's rule clashed with tear gas-wielding police outside Mexico's Congress early Saturday just hours before he was to take the oath of office and return the country's old guard to power.

Pena Nieto already took over at midnight in a symbolic ceremony after campaigning as the new face of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, repentant and reconstructed after being voted out of the presidency in 2000. The PRI ruled for 71 years with a mix of populist handouts, graft and rigged elections.

Hundreds of protesters banged on the tall steel security barriers around Congress, threw rocks, bottle rockets and firecrackers at police and yelled "Mexico without PRI!" Police responded by spraying tear gas from a truck to disperse the crowd and used fire extinguishers on flames from Molotov cocktails. The air was filled with smoke and shouts as officers, their faces streaming with tears from the gas, ordered the crowds to get back.

One officer was seen being taken for medical treatment for injuries to his face.

Pena Nieto has promised to govern democratically with transparency. But his first moves even before the inauguration showed a solid link to the past.

In announcing his Cabinet on Friday, he turned to the old guard as well as new technocrats to run his administration.

"I don't think there is any such thing as a 'new PRI,'" said Rodrigo Aguilera, the Mexico analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit. "There is a new generation of PRI members, but they don't represent any fundamentally different outlook."

Pena Nieto assumed office in the early seconds of Saturday during a brief ceremony with outgoing President Felipe Calderon at Mexico's historic National Palace. He was to take the formal oath of office later in the day.

The swearing-in ceremony at Congress and then a speech at the National Palace were set to be low on pomp and high on security as Calderon made a smooth transition his goal. Six years ago, Calderon's security unit literally had to muscle him past blockades and protesters to get him into Congress so he could take the oath of office after a razor-thin, disputed victory over a leftist candidate.

Demonstrations were likely outside Congress this time as well and at the city's key monuments. But the country's main leftist party pledged not to swarm the podium this time, and it planned no mass protests like those that paralyzed central Mexico City six years ago.

Mexicans for the most part seemed more focused on the end-of-the-month pay day and Christmas shopping than the arrival of a new president. Divided and ambivalent, many people are wary of a return to the old days, but they're also weary of Calderon's National Action Party and the spike in violence during his six-year attack on organized crime, which has had a toll of 60,000 deaths by some estimates.

Government worker Antonio Vidal, 37, was confident his country wouldn't see much of the PRI of old.

"We've invested heavily in our democracy," he said. "It's very closely watched by civil society, so I don't think the PRI can return to their ways of fraud."

Alma Rosa Martinez, a 40-year-old real estate agent, said she had a very bad feeling.

"It took 70 years to kick them out of power," she said. "How long will it take to kick them out again?"

Pena Nieto has pledged to make economic growth and job creation the centerpiece of his administration, with campaign manager and long-time confidant Luis Videgaray the point person. Videgaray, a 44-year-old economist with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will lead the treasury department.

Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, a 48-year-old former state governor who is known as a political operator and deal maker, has been named secretary of the interior, a post that will play a key role in security matters.

A bill proposed by Pena Nieto would gather the police and security apparatus under the control of the Interior Department and create a new national anti-corruption commission. Those changes are expected to pass Congress next week.

Pena Nieto has also promised to push for reforms that could bring major new private investment into Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, the crucial but struggling state-owned oil industry. Such changes that have been blocked for decades by nationalist suspicion of foreign meddling in the oil business.

___

Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-01-Mexico-Inauguration/id-871e899d5ce44c9db5843024534a5548

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Notre Dame ends season No. 1 in AP poll; Bama 2

NEW YORK (AP) ? Notre Dame ends the regular season as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press college football for the first time since 1988, the last championship season for the Fighting Irish.

The Irish (12-0) completed their regular season last week and will play No. 2 Alabama in the BCS championship game in Miami on Jan. 7. Notre Dame is a unanimous No. 1 for the second straight week.

The Tide holds its spot in the rankings after beating Georgia 32-28 in the Southeastern Conference title game.

Ohio State (12-0), which is banned from the postseason because of NCAA sanctions, moves up a spot to No. 3. Florida is No. 4, Oregon is fifth and Georgia fell to sixth.

Northern Illinois jumped to No. 16 after beating Kent State for the Mid-American Conference title. Kent State dropped seven spots to No. 25.

Louisville, the Big East champion, moved back into the rankings at No. 22.

No. 24 San Jose State is ranked for the first time since Nov. 24, 1975.

Texas and Oklahoma State dropped out of the rankings.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/notre-dame-ends-season-no-1-ap-poll-171251135--spt.html

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Caring for Aging Relatives in Their Home ? Part 2 - Elder Care Cafe

In a previous post we talked about the decisions a family must make when they realize their loved one needs additional care. The family should gather to discuss important issues and make decisions based on the needs of the loved on and the needs and ability of family members.

In this second article discussing the question regarding whether relatives can handle the in home care required, we will discuss the support team the aging senior(s) will need when they stay in their own home. It takes a village to keep seniors safe and sound, even when they have?lived in their home for a long time.

First of all, there are certain situations to consider when both parents are still alive and at an advanced age. People are living well into their nineties now and it is conceivable that both your mom and dad will do so. That will open up a whole new set of challenges for family members to have two people to care for rather than just one. Some adult children are finding they have seniors on both the wife and the husband?s side of the family requiring care. That puts an unimaginable strain on a marriage.

As they work through the process of getting care for their family member, what families soon learn is that it takes a team to fully support the elderly. Here are a few of the team members they may want to consider.

Primary care physician. He or she is the first level support and someone you will want to get to know. The primary physician can usually direct you to a myriad of community resources that will make your job as a caregiver much easier. Sometimes they may direct you to one resource, and from there a whole group of options open up. Take advantage of every bit of information you can get so that you can make informed decisions.

In-home care support. Aides and sometimes nursing staff will visit a home on a regular basis depending on the need and to assess the situation. They will discuss with the family what support they offer and what the senior needs, and make informed decisions from the information they receive. Some of the duties they perform have to do with direct patient care, while others help provide respite for the caregiver.

Outside help. Some areas, at least in the United States, have senior centers that will pick up your loved one and take them to a facility where they can spend time with other seniors, eat healthy meals ? usually breakfast and lunch, and see health care workers who will assess their current physical, mental and emotional condition. Staff doctors can prescribe drugs and other items the senior may need.

Family members. The amount of support the elder or the family members need depends on the level of care the senior requires. At the very least, someone should be available to make sure the person is able to get out of bed in the morning, eats healthy meals, and is able to wash and clothe themselves. If they become bedridden, further decisions must be made as to their care.

Additional outside help. Depending on whether the senior is living alone or a caregiver is living in the home as well, they may need someone to clean house, purchase and deliver groceries at least once a week, and perform other in-home care. When the caregiver is a family member, they often have a full time job and must continue with their work hours in order to support the senior and themselves, and pay the bills. That puts an added stress on the caregiver, who then may need to seek the help of others as mentioned above in order to keep food in the refrigerator and the house in good order.

Family members should also consider who will take care of the yard, snow removal, and maintenance issues if the senior(s) is living in their own home. If they are living in an apartment, the level of need for outside help is not as great.

There are a great many decisions family members need to make as their parents age. This article only addresses the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the number of questions that will need to be answered and the amount of resource that is available to seniors depending on where they live. Due diligence in researching and seeking answers to the questions will help everyone involved provide the best care possible to those in need.

You can find part one of Caring for Aging Relatives in Their Home by clicking on this link.

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Related Posts:

Source: http://www.eldercarecafe.net/caring-for-aging-relatives-in-their-home-part-2/

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Bed bugs found in two NH nursing homes ? Health ? Bangor Daily ...

KEENE, N.H. ? A second Cheshire County nursing home is battling bed bugs.

Representatives with Westwood Care and Rehabilitation Center and officials with the city of Keene confirmed Wednesday the Main Street nursing home facility has bed bugs. A Winchester facility owned by the same company has also been identified as having the bugs.

?We do have bed bugs, and we?re working to eliminate them,? Westwood Administrator Michael Johnson said Thursday.

Meanwhile, a N.H. House subcommittee is examining ways to deal with bed bugs in the state.

The bed bugs in Keene were first discovered Nov. 19, and an exterminator was immediately contacted to address the issue, Johnson said.

?We have had three sightings all isolated to one unit,? he said. A unit consists of multiple rooms.

Johnson said he doesn?t know how the bed bugs got into Westwood, but doesn?t believe their arrival is linked to another nursing center.

Earlier this fall, bed bugs were found at Applewood Care and Rehabilitation Center in Winchester.

Applewood and Westwood are owned by SunBridge Healthcare, which is part of the Sun Healthcare Group Inc.

Westwood is licensed to have 85 residents.

Johnson said educational information about bed bugs has been provided to Westwood residents, families and staff. Families of residents whose rooms were affected were notified, he said.

The educational information included a presentation to explain Westwood?s plan of action to eradicate the bed bugs and data from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, he said.

In addition, Westwood staff have been informed of precautions and procedures regarding bed bugs, he said.

Going forward, Westwood ?will continue to follow the guidance of our service provider, and as a precautionary measure, have them perform ongoing checks? for bed bugs, Johnson said.

John Rogers, code and inspections manager for the city of Keene, said his office recorded a complaint about bed bugs at Westwood on Nov. 20, and did an inspection of the facility Nov. 21.

?They already had conducted an inspection of the facility, and found evidence of bed bugs in three or four rooms. They had also contacted a professional company to do inspections and treat for bed bugs,? he said

New Hampshire doesn?t have any regulations pertaining to addressing a bed bug infestation, and because bed bugs don?t carry diseases, an infestation doesn?t have to be reported to local or state health departments.

Rogers said that if his department receives a complaint about a bed bug infestation, it approaches the situation by means of a city ordinance in which infestations aren?t allowed in housing.

?At that point in time, we require the property owner to take care of the situation, and we recommend they use a professional service,? he said.

A property owner would also be required to have a plan to prevent future bed bug infestations, he said.

?We receive about six to 10 complaints about bed bugs a year. We assume this is just the tip of the iceberg,? he said.

Philip J. Alexakos, chief of environmental health and emergency preparedness for Manchester and a representative on the state Legislature?s Bed Bug Subcommittee, said dealing with bed bugs is a complex problem, and one that isn?t easily solved.

?It?s not as simple as putting out a trap or spraying chemicals to get rid of them. It?s an ongoing process,? he said.

Bed bugs were eradicated from the United States after World War II with the use of DDT and other pesticides, he said.

With the use of those chemicals now more controlled, bed bugs developing a resistance to them, and with the increased frequency of people traveling, bed bugs have made a comeback, he said.

The Bed Bug Subcommittee, which is under the N.H. House?s Health and Human Services Oversight Committee, hopes to present a report within the first few months of the new legislative session, he said.

The subcommittee?s work has included collecting state bed bug data and looking at bed bug policies in other states, including New York and Maine, he said.

?Bed bugs are non-discriminating. They just want a blood meal,? he said.

The subcommittee, which grew out of the Bed Bug Action Committee in Manchester, knows that educating people about bed bugs is important to addressing the problem, and informing them of the best practices for dealing with them is key, he said. The state also needs to find a better way to track the problem, he said.

Bedbugs are small, oval insects that feed on the blood of mammals and birds. They often hide in cracks and crevices, and can live in furniture, cushions, mattresses and walls.

Bed bugs can be prevented by inspecting clothing and luggage before it enters a home after a trip, and by checking used clothing and furniture for bugs.

Heat treatments and chemicals applied by an exterminator are the most effective ways to get rid of bed bugs.

?This problem isn?t going away anytime soon,? Alexakos said.

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Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/01/health/bed-bugs-found-in-two-nh-nursing-homes/

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Trained Navy dolphins losing out to robots (Providence Journal)

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Green Blog: Delhi and Shanghai Aim to Reduce Plastic Trash

HONG KONG ? Two recent items of news from Asia appear to show that the region?s nations are starting to take seriously the ever-growing amounts of plastic trash they produce.

In India, plastic bags, sheets, films and the like were banned in Delhi beginning last week. The city is attempting to rein in the 250,000 tons of plastic waste it generates every year. My colleagues on the India Ink blog have written about the development here.

And beginning in February, the authorities in Shanghai have decided to fine manufacturers that use ?excessive? packaging, according to a recent article in the state-run China Daily newspaper.

The article was thin on details like what would constitute ?excessive? and who would make that determination. But the new regulations permit fines of as much as 50,000 renminbi, or about $8,000.

The China Daily piece also cited a recent poll showing that the vast majority of shoppers in China considered excessive packaging to be both a nuisance and a problem for the environment.

Judging by the ample and often superfluous wrapping that frequently envelops goods in China?and many other countries, consumer goods manufacturers and retailers have not gotten the message; many still appear to consider packaging a selling point they cannot do without.

A fine of 50,000 renminbi may do little to change that.

It is unclear how strictly the new regulations in Shanghai and Delhi will be enforced, or whether they will be extended to other parts of China and India.

Still, overall awareness of plastic pollution has risen in recent years, as I?have written about before.

The sheer amount of plastic that is produced, often to be used just once ? think shampoo bottles and industrial packaging ? is a growing problem. Much of it ends up in landfills or, even worse from an environmental point of view, in rivers or oceans.

Solutions exist, including turning plastic into goods or fuel.

Much of the future increase in global plastic use will occur in developing Asia, where per capita consumption is expected to soar from levels that at the moment are well below those in the West. At the same time, garbage collection and recycling infrastructures remain woefully inadequate.

The initiatives in Shanghai and Delhi thus have global resonance, and their progress will be worth watching.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/plastics-bans-in-the-works-for-delhi-and-shanghai/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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