oscars nba all star game 2012 academy awards 2012 nominations academy awards independent spirit awards 2012 jan brewer independent spirit awards
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Observatory: Volunteers Helped Piece Together an Asteroid?s Story
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The fast-moving fireball seen over Nevada and California in April was a small asteroid from the inner region of the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, scientists have concluded.
Food & Drink Innovation Network ? MZUZU FAIRTRADE COFFEE ...
December 27th, 2012
With a citrus flavour, floral notes and a toffee finish, the coffee is grown by the Mzuzu cooperative high in the Misuku hills, in the northernmost region of Malawi.
Behind the packaging and flavours is a story of cooperation which has linked organisations on both sides of the world and brought a specialist coffee to the UK.
Three years ago Sainsbury?s joined with Comic Relief coffee traders Finlays and Twin, the fair trade organisation which works with smallholder farming groups, to develop two new African speciality grade coffees, and strengthen the capacity of smallholder coffee producers in marginalised regions.
The project is funded by the Government?s Department for International Development under its Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund (FRICH), which sets out to improve the lives of poor communities in Africa.
The quality coffee is grown from seedlings in nurseries within each village.
Once the roots have developed, the plants are distributed to each small scale Mzuzu farmer who plants them on his farm, which is approximately two hectares.
The coffee trees take around three years to bear fruit and for the beans to be picked.
The hills in northern Malawi are of volcanic formation and the soils contain an abundance of minerals which allows the coffee to flourish as well as the high altitudes around Mzuzu, which slow down the photosynthesis of the plant, allowing the cherries to develop at a slower rate, enhancing the flavour.
Sainsbury?s and FRICH have now been supporting the Mzuzu cooperative for three years and this product is the culmination of all the hard work that the farmers of Mzuzu have done to produce a gourmet coffee using sustainable farming practices.
Ellen Msiska, Fairtrade coffee farmer said:
?I have brought water down to my house from the hills in a pipe which I paid for and laid myself.
?This was paid for from coffee money, and means I have good quality water for my children to drink.?
Related posts:
- HARRY HILL RELEASES NEW FAIRTRADE PEANUT BUTTER
- HARRY?S NUTS! LAUNCHES NEW FAIRTRADE PEANUT BUTTER
- HARRY?S NUTS SECURES LISTING IN THE CO-OPERATIVE FOR NEW PEANUT BUTTER
- STARBUCKS NOW TOTALLY FAIRTRADE
- NEW PACKAGING FOR HARRY HILL?S FAIRTRADE NUTS
- HARRY HILL?S FAIRTRADE NUTS MARKETED FOR FATHER?S DAY
- NESTL? DOUBLES COMMITMENT TO FAIRTRADE AS KIT KAT TWO-FINGER IS CERTIFIED
- CADBURY?S DONATES PROFITS FOR FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT
Source: http://www.fdin.org.uk/2012/12/mzuzu-fairtrade-coffee-hits-shelves-in-sainsburys/
superbowl commercials best superbowl commercials madonna half time m.i.a super bowl coin toss madonna super bowl halftime kelly clarkson super bowl
Luxury foreclosures offer real estate opportunities
Luxury home that go through foreclosure can end up with steep discounts that go as deep as 40%. AOL Real Estate is tracking prices on distressed properties in the luxury segment.?
http://realestate.aol.com/blog/gallery/luxury-foreclosures/#photoID-3782217
read more
Source: http://www.coestervms.com/blog/housingwire/luxury-foreclosures-offer-real-estate-opportunities/
diane sawyer Cnn.com Colorado Marijuana Washington Election Results drudge report Presidential Election 2012 Incumbent
Workers Connected To Tyson Charged With Animal Cruelty ...
Posted on: 9:01 pm, December 26, 2012, by Shain Bergan, updated on: 10:38pm, December 26, 2012
Managers at a Wyoming-based pork facility with connections to Tyson Foods have been charged with cruelty to animals, according to a news release from the Humane Society of the United States.
Tyson officials asked a subsidiary to end its business with Wyoming Premium Farms after an undercover video surfaced in May showing facility employees punching, kicking and abusing pigs.
Tyson did not buy any hogs raised on the farm for its pork-processing plants, although a subsidiary company bought animals from the facility, a Tyson official told 5NEWS.
The Platt County Attorney?s Office charged nine employees from the facility with cruelty to animals, including two managers, according to the Humane Society of the United States. An animal cruelty conviction could put offenders in prison for up to two years, coupled with a $5,000 fine.
Much of the alleged animal abuse involved breeding pigs in confined metal cages for the pigs? entire lives.
?In addition to adopting stronger protocols to deter and eliminate animal abuse at the hands of workers throughout their supply chains, Tyson, and other companies and pork industry trade associations that still contribute to this type of abuse, must develop plans to get these inhumane cages out of their operations,? states the humane society?s news release.
Tyson responded Wednesday night to the most recent development in the case, stating in an email to 5NEWS:
?We do not tolerate the mistreatment of animals by any of our suppliers. Since May, when the undercover video shot at this Wyoming farm surfaced, the supplier has been thoroughly investigated by our Office of Animal Well-Being. We were satisfied by the operator?s corrective actions, which included its work with on-site animal welfare consultants?and retraining its workforce in proper animal handling. We also understand the company made management changes and terminated some employees after its own internal investigation.
It should be noted that Tyson Foods does not purchase hogs raised on this farm for our pork processing plants. We have a small, but separate hog buying business that purchases aged sows from this farm; however, these animals are sold to other companies and are not used in Tyson?s pork processing business.?
Source: http://5newsonline.com/2012/12/26/workers-connected-to-tyson-charged-with-animal-cruelty/
HMS Bounty dominion power Heather Clem Con Edison LaGuardia Airport weather radar the weather channel
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Conservatives can be persuaded to care more about environmental issues when couched in terms of fending off threats to 'purity'
Dec. 10, 2012 ? When it comes to climate change, deforestation and toxic waste, the assumption has been that conservative views on these topics are intractable. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that such viewpoints can be changed after all, when the messages about the need to be better stewards of the land are couched in terms of fending off threats to the "purity" and "sanctity" of Earth and our bodies.
A UC Berkeley study has found that while people who identified themselves as conservatives tend to be less concerned about the environment than their liberal counterparts, their motivation increased significantly when they read articles that stressed the need to "protect the purity of the environment" and were shown such repellant images as a person drinking dirty water, a forest filled with garbage, and a city under a cloud of smog.
Published Dec. 10 in the online issue of the journal Psychological Science, the findings indicate that reframing pro-environmental rhetoric according to values that resonate strongly with conservatives can reduce partisan polarization on ecological matters.
"These findings offer the prospect of pro-environmental persuasion across party lines," said Robb Willer, a UC Berkeley social psychologist and coauthor of the study. "Reaching out to conservatives in a respectful and persuasive way is critical, because large numbers of Americans will need to support significant environment reforms if we are going to deal effectively with climate change, in particular."
Researchers conducted a content analysis of more than 200 op-eds published in such newspapers as The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, and found the pro-environmental arguments were most often pitched in terms of moral obligations to care about the natural environment and protect it from harm, a theme that resonates more powerfully with liberals, they added, than with conservatives.
They hypothesized that conservatives would be more responsive to environmental arguments focused on such principles as purity, patriotism and reverence for a higher authority. In their study, the authors specifically tested the effectiveness of arguments for protecting the purity of the environment. They said the results suggest they were on the right track:
"When individuals view protecting the environment as a moral issue, they are more likely to recycle and support government legislation to curb carbon emissions," said Matthew Feinberg, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Stanford University and lead author of the study which he conducted while at UC Berkeley.
Scientific consensus on the existence of warming global land and ocean temperatures -- attributed in large part to human activities that produce greenhouse gas emissions -- continues to grow and influence public opinion, especially with such extreme weather events as Hurricane Sandy. A recent Rasmussen poll reported that 68 percent of Americans view climate change as a "serious problem," compared to a 2010 Gallup poll in which 48 percent of Americans said they thought global warming was exaggerated.
In the first experiment, 187 men and women recruited via several U.S. Craigslist websites rated their political ideology on a scale of "extremely liberal" to "extremely conservative." They then rated the morality of such activities as recycling a water bottle versus throwing it in the garbage. The results of that experiment, and a similar one conducted on 476 college undergraduates, showed that liberals are more prone to viewing sustainability as a moral issue than are conservatives.
Next, researchers conducted a content analysis of pro-environmental videos on YouTube and more than 200 op-eds in national newspapers, sorting them under the themes of "harm/care," which they expected to resonate more with liberals, and "purity/sanctity," which they predicted would appeal more to conservatives. They found that most pro-environmental messages leaned strongly toward liberal moral concerns.
In the last experiment, 308 men and women, again recruited via Craigslist, were randomly assigned to read one of three articles. The harm/care-themed article described the destruction wreaked on the environment by humans and pitched protection of the environment as a moral obligation. Images accompanying the text were of a forest with tree stumps, a barren coral reef and drought-cracked land, which are more typical of the visuals promoted by pro-environmental groups.
The purity/sanctity-themed article stressed how pollution has contaminated Earth and people's bodies, and argued for cleaning up and purifying the environment. To enhance those themes and elicit disgust, the accompanying images showed a person drinking filthy water, a city under a cloud of pollution and a forest full of garbage. The neutral article talked about the history of neckties.
Participants were then asked to rate how strongly they felt certain emotions, including disgust, in response to what they'd read. Next, they reported how strongly they agreed or disagreed with such statements as "It is important to protect the environment," "I would support government legislation aimed at protecting the environment" and 'I believe humans are causing global warming."
Overall, the study found that the purity-themed message inspired conservatives to feel higher levels of disgust, which in turn increased their support for protecting the environment.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Yasmin Anwar.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Matthew Feinberg and Robb Willer. The Moral Roots of Environmental Attitudes. Psychological Science, 2012 DOI: 10.1177/0956797612449177
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/rOkNwxDjr4o/121210163749.htm
jon jones rashad evans ufc jones vs evans watergate mlb pregnant man outside lands 2012 lineup beloved
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Supreme Court will hear same-sex marriage cases
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court plunged into the contentious issue of gay marriage Friday when it agreed to take up California's ban on same-sex unions and a separate dispute about federal benefits for legally married gay couples.
The court's action gives the justices the chance to say by late June whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. Several narrower paths also are open to the justices as they consider both California's voter-approved Proposition 8 and the provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that denies to legally married gay Americans the favorable federal tax treatment and a range of federal health and pension benefits given to heterosexual couples.
The court is embarked on what could be its most significant term involving civil rights in decades. In the area of racial discrimination, the justices already have agreed to decide cases on affirmative action in admission to college and a key part of the Voting Rights Act. The gay marriage cases probably will be argued in March and decisions in all the court's cases are likely by the end of June.
The order from the court extends a dizzying pace of change regarding gay marriage that includes rapid shifts in public opinion, President Barack Obama's endorsement in May and votes in Maine, Maryland and Washington in November to allow gay couples to marry. Same-sex couples in Washington began picking up marriage licenses on Thursday.
Yet even as gay marriage is legal, or soon will be, in nine states ? Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont are the others ? and the District of Columbia, it is banned by the state constitutions of 31 others. Federal courts in California have struck down the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but that ruling and thus gay unions remain on hold while the issue is being appealed.
The high court's decision to hear the federal benefit question was a virtual certainty because several lower courts struck down the provision of the 1996 law and the justices almost always step in when lower courts invalidate a federal law.
There is nothing that compelled a similar response from the court in the case over California's Proposition 8, the state constitutional ban on gay marriage that voters adopted in 2008 after the state Supreme Court ruled that gay Californians could marry. Indeed, the gay marriage supporters who prevailed in the lower courts urged the Supreme Court to stay out of the case and allow same-sex unions to resume in the nation's largest state.
Even some gay rights activists worried that it was too soon in the evolution of views toward same-sex marriage to ask the justices to intervene and declare that same-sex couples have the same right to marry as heterosexuals. But Theodore Olson, the Washington lawyer who represents Californians who sued over Proposition 8, said he will argue that there is a "fundamental constitutional right to marry for all citizens."
Opponents of gay marriage said Friday they are heartened by the Supreme Court's action.
"We believe that it is significant that the Supreme Court has taken the Prop 8 case. We believe it is a strong signal that the court will reverse the lower courts and uphold Proposition 8. That is the right outcome based on the law and based on the principle that voters hold the ultimate power over basic policy judgments and their decisions are entitled to respect," said John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage and a law professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
On the other side of the issue, advocates for same-sex unions said the court could easily decide in favor of gay marriage in California without issuing a sweeping national ruling to overturn every state prohibition on marriage.
In striking down Proposition 8, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals crafted a narrow ruling that said because gay Californians already had been given the right to marry, the state could not later take it away. The ruling studiously avoided overarching pronouncements.
"I think the court can easily affirm the 9th Circuit's decision and leave for a later day whether broader bans on marriage are unconstitutional as well," said James Esseks of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The other issue the high court will take on involves a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, known by its acronym DOMA, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.
Four federal district courts and two appeals courts struck down the provision. Last year, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law, but continues to enforce it. House Republicans are now defending DOMA in the courts.
The justices chose for their review the case of 83-year-old Edith Windsor, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.
Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 after doctors told them that Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.
There is no dispute that if Windsor had been married to a man, her estate tax bill would have been zero.
The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York agreed with a district judge that the provision of DOMA deprived Windsor of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law.
In both cases, the justices have given themselves a technical way out, involving the legal issue of whether the parties have the required legal standing to bring their challenges, which would allow them to duck all the significant issues raised by opponents and supporters of gay marriage.
The cases are Hollingsworth v. Perry, 12-144, and U.S. v. Windsor, 12-307.
___
Associated Press writer David Crary in New York contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-hear-same-sex-marriage-cases-232901450--politics.html
mega millions march 30 lucky numbers odds of winning mega millions mary mary sag aftra merger dj am
Apple CEO Tim Cook Talks Transparency, $100M U.S. Mac Manufacturing Investment, Forstall, Maps And More
In one of the most candid, and certainly most extensive interviews with Apple CEO Tim Cook on record, Bloomberg Businessweek today got the executive to open up about Apple and discuss some of the recent hot button issues facing his company. The result is an incredible look behind the curtain at the operating principles of the man who took over for Steve Jobs, which provides some terrific insight into many of the decisions he's made while in charge.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/g6jOOtHzCCg/
gwen stefani overeem laron landry mary j blige burger king islands joe flacco 2013 nissan altima
Executive Spotlight: Carolyn Brownawell, MITRE HR Director, on ...
Carolyn Brownawell, MITRE
For the last 25 years, Carolyn Brownawell has been with the MITRE Corp.?a not-for-profit organization that manages research and development centers for the government.
During her tenure, Brownawell has worn many hats, most recently serving as executive director of human resources. ?
In an in-depth interview with ExecutiveBiz, Brownawell discusses what makes MITRE a unique place to work with many long-term employees, the various benefits of a phased retirement program, and the organization?s newly developed performance metrics.
?
ExecutiveBiz:? Can you describe your position and the human resources team you are in charge of?
Brownawell:? I started at MITRE as a compensation analyst.? In my time with the organization, I?ve managed a number of areas including compensation, benefits, and HR information technology.? I currently oversee our HR business partner and talent acquisition functions ?totaling about 45 people.? I also serve in an integration role around all of our HR management functions, helping to coordinate, communicate and share HR knowledge and best practices across our entire HR team of about 120 people.
I?ve spent a lot of my time at MITRE working on development of the HR organization. About 12 years ago, we put in place an HR business partner model, where each of our business units has a dedicated business partner organization to meet their needs.
I also manage the executive compensation process, working with the Compensation Committee of our board of trustees. That has been a fascinating journey.
?
ExecutiveBiz: What is the most interesting work you have conducted during your long career at MITRE?
Brownawell: In the last couple of years, we developed a set of enterprise performance metrics. This entailed creating an organizational ?scorecard? that provides a framework for evaluating company, as well as individual executive performance.
The scorecard goes well beyond the traditional financial and operational measures of corporate health.? We?ve incorporated measurements of customer engagement and outcomes, effective program and resource management, as well as employee engagement.
As part of developing the metrics, we?ve embarked on a process to assess all of our internal work based on the extent to which our contributions provide ?game changing? solutions to our customers.? This is really interesting, and very difficult to measure, but over time, as we refine our measurement methodology, it will help us to ensure we are providing the highest possible value to our customers.? We?re in a process now of learning how to measure, and how to refine those measurements. The metrics also contribute to the integrity of our executive compensation process, since we are beginning to tie rewards to performance against the measures.
We?re also in the midst of a transformation here at MITRE toward a more customer outcome-driven model, and this is going to impact all areas of our HR service delivery over time. We?ve brought in a new chief HR officer from the outside, Karen Quinn-Quintin, who is helping to align our HR strategies with the MITRE?s strategic priorities.
?
ExecutiveBiz:? What goes into figuring out an executive?s compensation, and what is your role in that process? How is it different at MITRE than it is at other firms??
Brownawell:? I serve as the liaison to the compensation committee of the board of trustees. In that role, I work with the committee as well as our third-party executive compensation consultant to assess the competitive external market and ensure we have reward programs that help us to attract and retain the type of quality executive talent we need.
I have a role in integrating the organizational and individual officer assessments, and pulling together all of those pieces to help the CEO and the board of trustees sort through the data and make well-grounded decisions around executive rewards.
At MITRE, we have to meet a very high standard of due diligence around all of our executive compensation processes.? We?ve put in place very strong governance processes on the part of our board of trustees to ensure that we?re meeting the reasonable pay standards for an organization in our industry.? We?ve worked to build a very high degree of rigor into the process in the past couple of years.
?
ExecutiveBiz:? Where do you draw your talent from??
Brownawell: More than half of our hires come from employee referrals, followed by Internet job board applications and college recruiting.
MITRE tends to focus on mid-career hires, just given the nature of our work. But we?ve recently ramped up our college recruiting. For all hires, we look for staff who are mission-oriented, have deep domain or technical expertise and are multi-disciplined so they can be moved across projects and organizations.
One way we differ from others is that we don?t hire solely for the project or the contract.? We hire people who can be leveraged across many areas at MITRE. We tend to retain people much longer, and we actually look for people who can contribute to MITRE over the course of a career as opposed to hiring to a particular task or project.? The majority of our positions require security clearances, and as most people in this space know, that bring its own recruiting challenges.
About 70 percent of our staff come from industry, 15 percent from former government or military organizations, agencies or the military services, and another 10 percent directly from college campuses.
?
ExecutiveBiz:? Some companies offer high salaries, others offer strong benefits.? How do you communicate the full scope of your compensation to employees??
Brownawell:? We have a very competitive total compensation package at MITRE. One difference for us is that we generally deliver our compensation in the form of base salary, whereas many other companies deliver their compensation in the form of base salary plus an annual bonus.? Our base salaries are designed to be competitive with ?total cash,? or base plus bonus, in other companies.
We are particularly strong with respect to our benefits packages. We have a strong retirement program (which includes a phased-retirement option). We also have flexible, paid time-off benefits, and other differentiators like civic time, which many of our employees use to give back to the community?particularly in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas.
Another major strength of our benefits program is our commitment to education. We provide world-class educational reimbursement, and we have many educational opportunities available internally. We also provide bonuses for employees who earn their masters or doctorate, and we have a special program called the ?Accelerated Graduate Degree Program? where individuals who are accepted into the program can pursue their advanced degree and take one paid day off a week, for studying, as well as receiving educational reimbursement.
Our communications challenge is to make sure that employees have a full view of their total reward package. We maintain an online site on our intranet that is tailored for each employee, which gives them a real-time look at their total rewards. We push this information out several times a year, as well as during our annual benefits open enrollment period.
?
ExecutiveBiz:? You mentioned the phased-retirement program. ?I was wondering if you could explain the program and how it boosts the employee retention rate at your company.
Brownawell: Our Phased Retirement Program is unique.? We introduced the program in the early 1980s.? We recognized that it?s often difficult for people to make the leap directly from working into retirement status ? many employees don?t really want to ?go cold turkey? when they retire. So we put in this program, which is a flexible option to phase into retirement.
If you have at least 10 years of service with the organization and you?re aged 59? or more, you can participate. In the program, employees can transition from a full-time to a part-time schedule, and withdraw assets from the retirement plan without incurring IRS penalties to supplement their income.
It allows people to gradually reduce the hours they work each week while shifting toward full-time retirement.
Click Here, to read an executive spotlight with Mark Kontos, MITRE CFO.
?
ExecutiveBiz:? What lessons have you learned in management positions that have helped you thrive at MITRE??
Brownawell:? When I was a new leader, I was pretty convinced that I knew what I was doing. The more time I spend in a leadership role, the more I?m convinced that I don?t know as much as I thought. This has actually been a very valuable insight as I?ve taken on different roles serving the organization, as it allows me to always be in a listening and questioning mode.
Over time, I?ve learned about the importance of partnering with your teams and your colleagues.? It?s critical to understand everyone on the team as an individual, they each have unique abilities, and you really have to appreciate what drives each individual, in order to leverage the whole team and produce quality work.
Another lesson I?ve learned is to hire people who are smarter and more talented than you are.? Then, trust them to do their jobs; don?t micromanage them.
And one of the most important lessons I?ve learned is to be flexible, especially with respect to managing people.? There are a lot of people out here who will tell you what you want to hear, but not many who can deliver consistently while also maintaining collegial and collaborative working relationships with the people around them.? And those are the employees who are the gems.? Those are the ones you want to get on your team and keep on your team.
Ryan Lochte Montenegro Olympic Games Dana Vollmer phillies phillies Ryan Dempster
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)