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Fixing America – Idea 20 – Truth/Balance Ratings of News Shows and Commentators
By Mack W. Borgen September 21st, 2020
Blog No. 123
Fixing America – Idea 20
By Mack W. Borgen, Recipient of Eight National Book Awards. For a "cleaner" / non-email presentation of this and my other blogs, essays, and articles, please go to my website at https://www.mackwborgen.com/
Copyright 2020 by Mack W. Borgen. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews, without prior written permission by the author.
Over the last two years, I have presented ideas for "resetting" and "fixing" America. This blog is the twentieth idea in this "Fixing America" series of articles.
Idea No. 20
-The Truth Problem-
The Need for Truth and Balance Ratings
For Newspapers, Magazines, Columnists and
Television and Radio Stations, Shows, Hosts, and Commentators
Background: Getting accurate information in this 21st Century is challenging. This is especially so in the context of this year's acrimonious, highly partisan, and fact-challenged national election. Words such as "hoax" and "fake news" have long replaced Rush Limbaugh's dismissive "drive-by media" chants of the 1990s. Adding insult to logic, even the concept of "alternative facts" has been suggested by some commentators and presidential spokespersons so that individual's can more easily be persuaded to conveniently mold a challenge, deflect a criticism, or pass off an excuse as an explanation.
Admittedly and regardless of the context, truth can sometimes be elusive. But, in America, finding the truth has become a never-ending task. At times, truth-finding feels more like game of wits and bluster. At times, truth itself is presented as a fungible blob which can be twisted, changed, or worse yet, hidden.
Americans do not deserve this. Even more frightening, our system of governance cannot long survive this.
However, there is good news. This article will outline that one aspect of the "truth problem" which could be readily fixed.
First, allow me to briefly present some background and perspective.
More than 50 years ago, in 1968, the United States implemented a film classification system whereby the Motion Picture Association began rating films based upon their content (G, PG, PG-13, R). Except for the R-rated films, this is not a form of censorship. Instead, the ratings are offered only for advisory use.
And America has become comfortable with rating systems. Especially in our Internet-dominated America, we rate nearly everything. We consult Yelp to find a good handyman, car mechanic, and house painter. Niche.com and greatschools.org offer every multiple comparative criteria for evaluating high schools and colleges, and U.S. News and World Report and Princeton Review present their annual ratings. We read jdpower.com to compare cars. We check with Consumer Reports to get the inside scope on every product in America.
There are also consumer warning labels everywhere. They, too, are intended both to inform and to warn us. Baby bottles, baby cribs, baby strollers come with warning labels. Our food is packaged with ingredient labels measuring product ingredients down to milligrams and Daily Percentages. Sports equipment, camping gear, lawn mowers, and power tools come with informational packets the size of small books. Backyard bar-b-ques and propane tanks have warning labels. Our medicines are delivered with pages of do's, don'ts, and cautions. In a curious turn of words, there is even a "Harmful-If-Swallowed" choking warning on, of all things, "Lifesavers."
But when it comes to the media, we are somehow left on our own. The manner in which most American adults "learn" almost everything, is hit-and-miss show. No guidance. No disclosures. No warnings. With newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations and shows, and commentators and writers, we get nothing except community gossip and an occasional Fact-Checker comments. And those are not enough to save America – especially in our read-and-run, hear-and-repeat, he said-she said world.
The problems relating to the American Disinformation Network are the result of at least four, highly inter-related reasons.
First – No Single Source. Up until about four decades ago, most Americans received their news from one of three sources – ABC, NBC, or CBS. Walter Cronkite (Years of New Anchoring: 1962-1981) was for years recognized as the "most trusted man in America," and he worked amidst a small group of other respected and serious news anchors – names like John Chancellor (1970-1982), Chet Huntly (1956-1970), David Brinkley (1943-1997), Tom Brokaw (1982-2004), Peter Jennings (1983-2005), and Bernard Shaw (1980-2001). Although every American interpreted "the news" in their own manner, at least everyone started from the same place. Everyone heard roughly the same news. Everyone read from roughly the same page. That is no longer the case. Now, "news" is distributed almost willy-nilly through and from hundreds of different sources. We no longer "start from the same place. I can have my facts. You can have yours.
Second – Blending of News and Entertainment. More and more over the recent decades, both television and talk radio sought to blend news with entertainment. Some argue that this coincided with the launch of CNN in 1980, but the more toxic mix of news and entertainment (or "news as entertainment") was accelerated with the launching of Fox News in 1996 and with the spread and reach of the Internet and other forms of social media.
Third – Glimpsing of the News. With the headline-grabbing, photo-based "journalism" of the Internet and social media, news is more and more the subject of glimpsing rather than study. Intellectually, most Americans know that there is proverbially "more to every story," but in the rush-madness of the Internet Age, casual listening is followed and conveniently reinforced by the echo chambers of talk radio. Too often, careful reading and thoughtful analysis are now left to nerds, scholars, insiders, and the Bill Moyers/NPR-types.
Fourth, Proliferation of New Sources. The proliferation of news sources also has changed everything. Most Americans once had a local paper and a few major network stations from which to choose; from which to get their news and information. Now, there are hundreds of television and cable stations. There are endless streams of 24-hour talk radio shows. Unsurprisingly, both newspapers and the dying art of reading the news have lost their hold on many Americans. Thus, as a cause and as a result, these developments reflect the increasingly tribalistic political environmental of America. We are no longer inconvenienced by truth. We are no longer burdened by the need for accuracy. Instead, we can tailor our news sources to those which best most reflect (and reinforce) our beliefs.
But in fairness, there is one more huge problem – whom to believe. There are multiple takes on every issue. The mastery of "spin" is no longer left to the politicians. It has become a skill and tool of newscasters, television, and radio talk show hosts as well.
It is beyond the scope of this article, but this author also believes that the Federal Communication Commission's 1987 elimination of the "fairness doctrine" contributed to the slanting or narrowing of balanced news reporting. The "fairness doctrine" was in place for almost 40 years after it was first introduced in 1949. It required all broadcasters to present controversial issues of public importance in a manner which was honest, equitable, and balanced. Broadcasters had wide latitude in the application of this fairness doctrine and although (despite common belief to the contrary) the rule did not require "equal time" for opposing positions, there was still FCC licensing and regulatory pressure to present the news with a certain degree of "fairness." Note that this did not mean that every angle, every article, and every rumor had to be presented. There was no requirement for any broadcasters to present QAnon's latest Pizzagate, cannibalistic pedophilia claims or their latest Reptilian, "deep state" absurdities. But there would have been a requirement at least to present, in a "fair" manner, other responsible ideas or interpretations. Many believe that the 1987 elimination of the fairness doctrine by the FCC contributed to the political polarization of the United States.
But even without the reinstatement of the fairness doctrine, there is something that can be done to help Americans more easily determine who to believe and what are the facts. In time, this "something" may greatly assist Americans in making better electoral selections and policy decisions. This "something" is the establishment of a truth and quality rating system for the media.
At first blush, this may seem challenging and dangerous. However, the American people have a right to know whether they are listening to an entertainer or a news reporter; whether what they are reading or hearing is raw propaganda or hard facts.
Furthermore, such media rating is neither unreasonable nor far-fetched. Americans already know that there is a difference between The New York Times and The National Inquirer; between Time Magazine and Mad Magazine.
Admittedly, the lines are more blurred in the context of television and radio. For example, at times, Rush Limbaugh has himself claimed to be the voice of truth in America. At other times, he has himself claimed to be merely an entertainer. Which is it? NPR puts out it seemingly-fact based stories, but there is no easy way for the average listener to ascertain their truth and accuracy. Some Americans do not believe anything unless it comes from right-biased Fox News or the left-biased MSNBC. But, some form of truth and balance ratings can help serve as a guide. For even in the context of television and radio, there is a difference between Alex Jones and Lester Holt. Fox News deserves credit for its clever "Fair and Balanced" slogan, but this slogan cannot be allowed to mislead the public about Fox News' bias as presented daily by Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, or Tucker Carlson. And the same is true with respect to the MSNBC voices from "the left." Truth and balance should not be required, but their absence must be noted. It is time for bias and selective editing to be registered and disclosed.
Idea: Based upon an established set of announced and evenly-applied criteria, an independent body of persons should rate the balance of editorial selection and the factual accuracy of the content of (a) all major newspapers and magazines, (b) all television and radio news or commentary stations and shows, and (c) all commentators and writers. Such guidance ratings should be conspicuously posted (in the corner of each television screen or on the front cover of each magazine and newspaper or, in the case of radio shows, disclosed at the commencement and end of each radio shows) so that the ratings are readily discoverable to the American reading and listening public. Lastly, all such ratings should be periodically reviewed.
Implementation. The implementation of such a truth and balance rating system will be challenging. However, the current absence of such a fact/balance rating system is devastating. The problems of both ignorance and bias have helped to nurture America's level of angst, anger, and acrimony within America.
The independence of the panel of reviewers must be steadfastly maintained. Just like Consumer Reports, WebMD or Healthgrades physician reviews, U.S.News and World Report's List of Best Colleges, J.D. Power and Associates car evaluations, Zagat's restaurant reviews, IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews, Expedia's hotel reviews, and on and on — the ratings, at times, will be imperfect. This author rarely uses the word "absurd." But it here applies. The Cronkite era is long dead, and now it borders on the absurd that there is no truth and balance rating system with respect to the sources of America's news and information.
The manner of selection of and appointment to the commission of reviewers deserves serious consideration. However, it can be done. The commissioners must be financially independent of such news and network organizations. They should not have been elected public officials. In addition, it is recommended that they be barred from appearing on any reviewed program or published in any reviewed publication both during one's tenure on the panel and for a fixed number of years thereafter. Again, the selection process will be challenging. But it can be done. It must be done.
In closing, a reminder: Americans have the right to easily know the relative truth and balance of those persons they read or hear. If a particular newspaper, magazine, network or cable station, or commentator gets a low, poor, 1-star rating, maybe it or they will try harder to present more truth and better balance — and that itself, would be a fine result for all of us.
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See Additional Previously Presented "Fixing America" Ideas
Idea 1 – Consolidated Interstate Database for Reports of License Suspension or Revocation (Blog 106, Oct. 14, 2019).
Idea 2 – Term Limits (Blog 106, Oct. 14, 2019).
Idea 3 – The Media – Report Corporate Settlements, Awards and Fines as Percentage of Annual Net Profits (Blog 106, Oct. 14, 2019).
Idea 4 – Award of Attorneys' Fess to Winning Party (Blog 107, Oct. 28, 2019).
Idea 5 – Inclusion of Positive Aspects of American Society as a Distinct Part of U.S. History School Curricula (Blog 107, Oct. 28, 2019).
Idea 6 – Office of International Comparisons (Blog 107, Oct. 28, 2019).
Idea 7 – The Need for Climate Scientists to Retain Professions for the Development of an Educational Campaign (Blog No. 109, Nov. 26, 2019).
Idea 8 – Redefining the Concept of "News" The Need for the Regular Infusion of Positive News (Blog No. 109, Nov. 26, 2019).
Idea 9 – The Necessity of Mandatory Public Service (Blog No. 109, Nov 26, 2019).
Idea 10 – Cap or Tie Congressional Pay Increases (Blog No. 110, Dec 7, 2019).
Idea 11 – Scrutinize (and Possibly Eliminate) the Congressional Health Care System (Blog 110, Dec 7, 2019).
Idea 12 – Eliminate the Congressional Retirement System (Blog 111, Dec 7, 2019).
Idea 13 – Cease production and eliminate the use of the U.S. penny (Blog 112, Dec 7, 2019).
Idea 14 – Institutionalized Use of U.S. Military Units in Event of Natural Disasters (Blog 113, February 11, 2020).
Idea 15 – Streamline the Federal and State Penal Codes and Address the Issue of Overcriminalization in American Society (Blog 114, February 25, 2020).
Idea 16 – It's Time to Reset America (Blog 118, June 30, 2020).
Idea 17 – If They're Good Enough for Our Capitalism, They're Good Enough for Our Democracy – Monthly Bonus Payments for Excellence in Citizenship (Blog 119, July 15, 2020).
Idea 18 – Let Us Try – The Simple Utility of Remembering America's "Good Celebrities" (Blog 120, August 2, 2020).
Idea 19 – – If We Get It Right – The Next "Greatest Generation" (Blog 121, August 18, 2020).
Idea 20 – -The Truth Problem – The Need for Rating Newspapers, Magazines, and Columnists and Television and Radio Stations, Shows and Commentators (Blog 123, September 22, 2020).
The Fancypants Word of the Day
Blandishment (Part of speech: Noun; Origin: Latin) 1) Flattering speech intended to coax or influence; 2) The act of persuasion by means of flattery.
Examples of use in sentences: "The fundraiser organizer used blandishments to convince the donors to pull out their checkbooks."
"Sometimes, you can get on your boss's good side with a little blandishment."
Source and thank to wordgenius.com and Shawna Borgen.
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This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2020 at 9:50 am and is filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


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FXX é um canal estadunidense de TV por assinatura da Disney. O canal foi lançado em 2 de setembro de 2013, substituindo o Fox Soccer. Dirigido a jovens de 18 a 34 anos de idade, a programação do canal se concentra em séries de comédia derivados do FX, seu canal-irmão.

Programação original

 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (a partir da 9ª temporada)
 Man Seeking Woman
 You're the Worst (a partir da 2ª temporada)
 Major Lazer
 Archer (a partir da 8.ª temporada)
 The League (a partir da 5ª temporada)
 Legit (a partir da 2ª temporada)
 Wilfred (a partir da 4ª temporada)
 Stone Quackers
 Lucas Bros. Moving Co. (a partir da 2ª temporada)
 High School USA! (a partir do 6º episódio)
 Axe Cop (a partir da 2ª temporada)

Programação adquirida
 The Simpsons
 Parks and Recreation
 Mad About You
 In Living Color
 Raising Hope
 Anger Management

Ligações externas

Canais de televisão por assinatura dos Estados Unidos
Canais de televisão fundados em 2013
Canais de televisão Disney
Canais de televisão de língua inglesa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Boots will provide "resilience and assertiveness training" to all of its pre-registration trainees, it has announced.
The multiple has enlisted charity Pharmacist Support to launch the training "in early 2018", it told C+D yesterday (December 5).
The support offered to Boots pharmacists has come under scrutiny following criticism from MPs during a parliamentary debate in October about Alison Stamps, a Boots pharmacist working in County Durham, who took her own life in May 2015.
C+D reported in October that Boots has worked with Pharmacist Support "for a number of years" – including delivering wellbeing training videos to all 6,500 of its pharmacists in 2016 (see below for ways to contact Pharmacist Support).
Boots chief pharmacist Marc Donovan attended a Pharmacist Support workshop last week (November 30) – along with representatives from Lloydspharmacy, Well and Day Lewis – to give senior executives a taster session of the assertiveness and time-management training the charity offers.
Mr Donovan told C+D yesterday (December 5) that Boots "recognised for some time the challenges faced in the UK around mental health and wellbeing".
"We regularly review the content of our wellbeing sessions and we will be looking to include resilience and assertiveness going forwards," Mr Donovan said.
Strengthening the mental health training the company offers its pre-reg trainees will play "an important part in our learning and development programme for our pharmacists", he added.
Pharmacist Support now offers three new training sessions – on assertiveness, stress management and building resilience, and time management – as well as their "introduction to wellbeing" workshop, to groups of 15 or more pharmacists.
For more information and for support and advice around mental health and wellbeing, visit the Pharmacist Support website here. For specific stress and wellbeing support, contact the charity's 'Listening Friends' scheme here.
What training do you offer your pre-reg trainees?
I was a pharmacist for about 8 years, many of those as a b**ts man, couldn't take it anymore, my CV really fits nothing else so I haven't been able to get a decent gig since. Be warned guys.
The question is why does Mr Waldron continues to provide a platform for this snakey advertising?
With respect to funeral directors, I'm not sure they have trays, 100 eps, inspector visits, phone queries, addicts, staff demands, area manager demands, targets and 15 people waiting all at the same time. It's an absolute nightmare out there in community pharmacy, a dreadful and depressing slog of a career with the promise of any more clinical developments quickly checked when you remember you will do them in addition to your current 20 hours worth of work you squeeze in to a 9 hour, break free day.
I'm sorry, but if you can get away, get away. Boots are some of the worst offenders and surely have a lot of pharmacists mental health in tatters. What a legacy. You need to make fundamental changes to how you treat us, before any sound bites about wellbeing courses. Yes, it'll be do the course and straight back to work and business as usual.
Nice advert. Editor, how is that letter about work conditions coming along??
I disagree - an article like this is akin to a state visit from Donald Trump as it gives an opportunity for a true out-pouring of scorn, ridicule and disgust.
A plaster to cover an infected open wound. Pharmacists had the assertiveness card taken away from them years ago, at least when it comes to the ability to change workplace conditions.
What kind of lame, limited respondant question is this to offer at the end of the article? How many replies will be on-topic?
People may be more inclined to talk about morale and why stunts such as this are thought of as necessary when they really shouldn't be.
Sorry, forgot to add - Allow them to enlist with a union who understands their working plight/conditions i.e. PDA, as opposed to putting up such a fight!
That might work a lot more than attending a training session!
There wouldn't be such a need for assertiveness and resilience if the multiples staffed their stores adequately, the area managers stopped bullying, and the branch staff were free to provide great service to patients.
Corporate greed is the main cause of stress and lack of resilience. Fear following bullying is draining assertiveness.
Mr Donovon should recognise the cause rather than proposing sticking plasters.
They could but then that would not be community pharmacy.
Most Pharmacists I have spoken to in the community sector is suffering with a form of depression. Its really a sad state of affairs when I listen to the working conditions, the regulations and responsibilty placed on them. This article just kicks the can further down the road. How many pharmacists have to suffer a breakdown before anything is done. Am sorry but dancing around the bush having meetings to raise awareness will not do anything, there needs to be a system overchange from the gphc, nhs, dh and the multiples. Working conditions need to improve and also, give your pharmacist a proper break. Close the pharmacy for an hour!
This isn't France. The idea of having lunch for the simple enjoyment of food and drink and a deserved period of quiet contemplation, is not something we comprehend in this country.
Just force some awful sandwich down your throat and prepare for the next onslaught of impatient and demanding consumers.
Pharmacies and Petrol stations don't close.
Or funeral directors and that's the direction of travel for us if we are not careful.
Funeral directors command vastly more respect.
Check out a salary for a embalmer !


I remember Katrina well, even though I was living in California at the time. My sister-in-law and her family had a home in New Orleans and were severely impacted when that massive hurricane swept through Louisiana. It seems strange to me that my sister-in-law was completely unprepared for disaster even though hurricanes and storms are a normal, yearly occurrence in that area. She didn't even have a flashlight, bottled water, or more than a few days worth of food. This meant she was entirely dependent upon food she could scrounge from the neighbors and whatever she could get from emergency centers. She survived the disaster but it would have been much easier with a little preparation.
It is very important to remember that even a small disaster may cause your utilities such as power, water, sewer service, trash collection and natural gas to fail. Part of your disaster preparation must include the assumption that your home or apartment is without power for several days or weeks. This is critical as it affects how you stockpile food. You can think of food as one of your most basic survival supplies because without it you could die.
If the power goes out and remains off for any length of time you are going to lose all of the food inside your refrigerator and your freezer (with the possible exception of horizontal, top-opening freezers). The problem with the refrigerator and freezer in your house is every time you open the door you lose cold air from inside. I've found that with the power out the food inside will last perhaps as long as a day or two as long as you don't open the door.
This is important as you should not consider the food in your refrigerator and freezer as part of your emergency stockpile. Instead, you need to stockpile dry and canned goods; you want food that will not spoil rapidly when warm.
I have about two weeks of canned goods in my pantry. These include canned vegetables, meats, beans and so forth. A good mixture of protein and carbohydrates is essential. Most people will not survive well on a diet of candy bars and frosted flakes.
You should use the stockpiled food as part of your day-to-day meals. Pull any food you use from the front.
As you purchase replacement food, add it to the back of the supply.
Once every six months or so, it's a good idea to look over all the expiration dates of the items in your stockpile to ensure that no out-of-date items remain. Any food which goes out-of-date should be discarded. What I like to do is pull out food that is within a month or two of the expiration date and donate it to the local food bank.
What should be in your stockpile?
Canned meats such as tuna, salmon, turkey and chicken.
Canned beans or similar items for protein.
Food bars high in protein, granola bars and power bars.
Be sure you have at least one can opener available. It would be very frustrating to be unable to eat the food due to lack of a can opener.
Just be sure that everything in your stockpile is something you will include in your normal meals, or you will find yourself throwing out a lot of food as things expire.


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Travel raises contention ahead of premier's next trip
Cayman News | 20/09/2013	| 32 Comments
(CNS): Having recently returned from a trip to Gibraltar, Jersey and the UK, the country's premier is taking another overseas trip this weekend, this time to Miami to represent the Cayman Islands at the 2013 KPMG Island Infrastructure Summit. Alden McLaughlin will be a panellist at a discussion on Monday regarding infrastructure projects in the islands but is expected to fly back to Cayman later that day to continue budget preparations. Travel became a contentious issue during the previous administration, with criticisms over the number of trips then premier McKeeva Bush and other UDP ministers took when in office. Now the opposition leader, Bush has described the new government as "hypocritical".
He pointed out that he was berated for travelling and criticised heavily by the opposition and others who have "turned 360 degrees" now that they are in government.
"When I was premier, I had many many subject matters that at the time I had to travel to conduct business for," he said. "Today, there are four ministers doing what 'me one' had to do … not to mention the duties and responsibilities as the premier of the country," he said, as he pointed to the role of financial services now held by Wayne Panton, planning now held by Kurt Tibbetts, tourism held by Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell, and finance held by Marco Archer.
He said covering those subject matters required his attendance at meeting, forums and negotiations, from Washington to Europe, in efforts to preserve relationships, bring new business to the island and get Cayman in good standing with the G20 and the OECD, keep the credit rating, and protect the financial services sector.
"I was criticised severely by the PPM and the now premier, Alden McLaughlin. It's more than hypocritical, to say the least, the extent that they went to berate and complain and point fingers, making mountains out of mole hills. Today, with just four months in office, he and his team is already 'on the road' quite a bit," Bush added
Less critical of the actual travel, however, he gave the premier the benefit of the doubt, adding that he could be doing what he said he would during the campaign, which was to hit the ground running.
"I wish him luck and I hope and pray he is successful in hitting the ground running, and not running the people into the ground!" Bush added, saying he was keen to put politics aside because if the country is to succeed, the premier and ministers must travel to be at meetings and negotiate on our behalf.
"In so doing, they will need protocol and transport services no matter how long it takes for a meeting to begin and end. They should, as the premier of the Cayman Islands, have personal security and they must be able to travel in a situation where they can read or study their papers, discuss the matter with their colleagues and be ready physically and mentally able," he said, explaining that meetings would sometimes come after a three to ten hour flight.
These comments by the opposition leader come just days after the announcement that the RCIPS Financial Crimes Unit has opened another investigation into the former premier, this time over the alleged misuse of limousine services in the US, accusations that Bush has denied.
Defending the travel, he said that the country's leaders needed to do it and needed protocol support and to think otherwise was putting down the government, the country and all the people.
"The premier must travel and have the necessary convenience and services to try and be successful for the country. He is the premier of the Cayman Islands, one of the largest financial and international business centres of the world," Bush added.
Nevertheless, the issue of travel has already dogged thisadministration after just four months, despite the introduction of a stricter travel policy, which will see politicians and civil servants flying economy-plus rather than business class, and delegations cut to the wire. On this trip McLaughlin is taking only one member of staff from his office, Kenneth Bryan, his political assistant.
CNS submitted questions to the premier regarding some of the questions that have been raised about his and his government's travel following the significant controversy over Education Minister Tara Rivers' extended trip to the CPA in South Africa, and we are awaiting a response.
With the exception of the situation concerning Rivers, however, since taking office the new government has been transparent about who is travelling where and why and has also proactively revealed the costs to the public purse.
On this trip, the premier will only be away for two days and stay just one night in a hotel. According to a release from his office, the conference will explore how island economies can use alternative financing models, such as public private partnerships, to work with the private sector to deliver innovation and efficiencies in asset management, and achieve accelerated infrastructure development that drives economic growth. In light of the plans for the cruise port, the conference has some direct relevance for the CIG
McLaughlin will be on a panel Monday with Bermuda Premier Craig Cannonier; Ryan Pinder, the minister of financial services, trade and industry in The Bahamas; and Dennis Richardson, Sint Maarten's justice minister.
Coma victim has no insurance after hit and run in CI
(CNS): A 27-year-old American woman who was struck by a vehicle in a hit and run incident along North Church Street, George Town, in July remains in a coma in the United States and her former local employers are not footing the insurance bill. People in her home district of Kane county in Illinois are organising a fundraiser to pay for the specialist care she has been receiving at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago since mid-August. Becky Nelson, who was working as a kindergarten teacher while here in Cayman, was hit as she walked along the road close to Cash Wiz and Dolce Vita. Police arrested one man following the incident after a Dodge Caravan was later discovered in West Bay with front windshield damages but he has not been charged.
According to the press in Kane county, Nelson's family believed that her workplace in the Cayman Islands was supposed to be covering her health insurance, but wasn't for a reason that remain unclear, and as a result, they have been forced to organise a fundraiser to try and cover the costs.
Realities of public accounts bemuse new members
(CNS): The newly elected back-bench members of government serving on the Public Accounts Committee got to grips with the reality of what the auditor general described as the "abysmal state" of some government accounts during the first open hearing of the committee Thursday. Chair Roy McTaggart, along with members Winston Connolly and Joey Hew, all new politicians, were clearly bemused by how it was that year after year government entities were submitting sub-standard accounts to the auditor general and yet there had been no consequences or sanctions of any kind.
"How have people been allowed to submit poor accounts year after year?" asked Winston Connolly, the newly elected George Town C4C member, now sitting on the government benches. "Why is there nothing in the system to correct poor behaviour and, well, incompetence? Who is it in government that makes these decisions?"
Despite the fact that most statutory authorities and government companies (SAGCs) have caught up in terms of submitting something to the Office of the Auditor General by the statutory deadline each year, PAC was informed that the quality is still a major problem.Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick and his team, who were sitting with the PAC, as is customary, indicated that for the core government ministries and portfolios, the situation was even worse.
Concentrating on the SAGCs, the members questioned the accountant general and her team as well as Swarbrick about the general state of affairs before beginning the second day of witnesses relating to the auditor's recent report on the on-going problems with public authority accounts.
For several years most government entities failed to submit anything after Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 and following the introduction of the Public Management and Finance Law (PMFL), which requires that accounts meet international standards and appeared to be too taxing for the government's bean counters. Some eight years later, the backlog has largely been addressed and most authorities are meeting the auditor general's deadline. But the problem now is that many of the accounts submitted to the public audit office are of such poor quality that the team is struggling to audit them.
As a former auditor, a qualified financial lawyer and a successful businessman, McTaggart, Connolly and Hew struggled to understand how it had happened, and despite the well-publicised details in the press over the last five years about the problems, they did not seem to realise the magnitude of the problem until Thursday.
PAC members pressed the audit team and Accountant General Debra Welcome, whose office's main function is to consolidate government's accounts into an annual entire public sector financial report, but has not been able to produce one for almost a decade. She said that chief officers are responsible for their departments.
Despite the massive focus on the issue and the money spent on external help and experts, the problem with quality continues.
Swarbrick said that while the deputy governor, in partnership with the financial secretary, had done much to drive government entities towards submitting their accounts on time, what they submit still falls far short in too many cases of the expected standard. He pointed out that it was critical for government to take responsibility for producing reliable and transparent accounts, not just for his office but so it knows what is being spent by whom and why, as it is public money.
"Government needs to reassure itself the information it submits is good and not wait for us to say it is or isn't. It needs to be able to rely on this information," Swarbrick said.
The new PAC members failed to understand how government was not able to catch and prevent the submission of substandard information.
The auditor general said that when he produces his report later this year on what was submitted for the year end 2012/13, there would be more details release, but he flagged the fact that there were still challenges among SAGCs and core government still had a long way to go.
"The issue of leadership is still fundamental to this," Swarbrick said. Acknowledging the work of the deputy governor, he said in his opinion there was still a role for someone to have clear and direct responsibility for the quality, accuracy, timeliness and transparency of government's accounts.
Governor faces crime surge
(CNS): Since the governor's arrival just two weeks ago, there has been a surge in gun-related crime in Cayman, with an increase in doorstep robberies, the first murder of the year and this week a frightening gunpoint carjack. Helen Kilpatrick said Thursday that as a result, she had called a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss crime in an effort to continue the work already done by the NSC in this area. Although Governor Kilpatrick has been billed as a finance expert, she has also worked closely with the UK police. She told CNS that with substantial experience both at local and national levels with the UK police services, she expected "to draw on this experience" in her new role.
Meanwhile, the RCIPS said they had a high visible police presence around commercial premises after hours and they were employing intelligence processes to target people suspected of being involved in the recent crime surge. Despite community concerns over house invasions and doorstep robberies, with five such incidents in recent weeks, the police said these types of crimes are still not prevalent.
"The profile of the victim in each of these five cases leads us to believe that these types of crimes are targeted on business people who, due to the very nature of their business, will arrive home at odd hours of the night," an RCIPS spokesperson stated, saying it was very likely that the offenders knew that the victims in each case were entrepreneurs and that their daily cash earnings would be taken home at the end of the night.
As law and order remains a key area of the governor's responsibility, Kilpatrick said, "The police have to be capable and equipped to meet the changing dynamics of crime and be able to investigate, arrest and prosecute those responsible for it.
"My aim is to ensure the RCIPS remains fit for purpose and support them in holding the line. Social policies are also important. These can help remove the vulnerable from potential criminal lifestyle and offenders can be transitioned into society with meaningful post sentence rehabilitation programmes," she added.
She is very aware that the public is extremely worried about crime Kilpatrick said, "but we must continue to put the situation in Cayman into perspective. When compared to a comparable jurisdiction, Cayman has the lowest rate of serious crime in the Caribbean and over the past few years there has generally been a downward trend in crime statistics."
The police will be holding a crime prevention seminar on 3 October at the Westin Hotel and will be inviting entrepreneurs and others to help them stay safe and not become a victimof crime. With small business owners being the targets recently, police advised owners not to take cash home after close of business but instead look at other safe alternative depository methods offered by security companies.
Business owners are also advised to check who is following them on the way home after close of business at odd hours of the night by checking rear view mirrors.
"If you suspect you are being followed home, do not turn into your home address; contact 911 and report that you suspect you are being followed, provide the location you are at and state that you are a business owner," a police detective advised. "Go to the nearest police station if you have to, and if you don't see a vehicle following you, look for any signs out of the ordinary when you arrive at home before getting out of your car."
The officer stressed that any victim who has cash on them when confronted by a robber should not resist because money is not worth the risk.
"As much as possible, try to remain calm, but I appreciate this is difficult given the traumatic experience one goes through with these types of crime. Panic can often lead to the robber too becoming nervous and possibly unintentionally discharging a firearm; I've seen this happen several times over the years whilst as a detective investigator," the senior officer advised.
Police management emphasised that the RCIPS was employing all investigative processes available to give them the best evidential opportunity to arrest, charge and bring persons suspected before the court.
Port outlook remains poor
(CNS): Officials from the Cayman Islands Port Authority said there is not much more they can do to address the major losses other than increase cargo fees after several years of the board ignoring warnings from the management team about the serious fall in revenue. James Parsons, the financial controller at the authority, said that despite his warnings, in the last two years the directors had invited him to just one board meeting. He explained this was to present a special report from KPMG that had offered some suggestions about how the port could turn around its losses. However, he was given only 15 minutes and when he got there, they cut that to ten.
Speaking before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday, Parsons spelt out the dire situation at the port as the MLAs made enquiries regarding the concerns raised by the Office of the Auditor General in his report The Financial and Performance Reporting of Statutory Authorities and Government Companies for the year ending June 2011, which was published this June. Alastair Swarbrick's team had found a catalogue of problems at the authority, not least the fact that the port was running at a significant loss.
Parsons revealed that the port's income from cargo was down some 50% since the economic slump began to bite around 2009, and with cruise revenue also falling, the authority was no longer a viable concern. Governmentis not officially injecting cash into the port, as it does with Cayman Airways and the Turtle Farm, but because the port owes government for several years of its costly annual insurance cover, it is indirectly subsidising the authority to the tune of over $3.5 million.
As a result of the labour intensive nature of the port and the need for expensive security, Parsons said the management had cut staff down to its bare minimum, but any more would risk the safety and efficiency of operations.
"There is not a whole lot more we can do," he said. With warnings going unheeded and what Parsons said was something in the region of a million dollars spent by the board on consultant and legal fees over the last few years, things were bad.
Attempts to increase fees to the tender operators was rejected by the board just weeks after the increase was passed into the regulations. Parsons explained that when the tender owners tried to push the increase on to the cruise lines, the FCCA complained because it had an agreement with the Cayman government not to put fees up as part of its contribution to the construction of the Royal Watler pier. Parsons said the only place left was an increase in cargo operation fees.
Pressed by the committee about what the board had done about the warnings, Parsons implied that no one had listened or heeded his warnings that action needed to be taken. However, Parsons and Port Director Paul Hurlston said that they had begun discussions with the new board about a gradual phasing of fee increases for cargo operations because, both men told the committee, based on the recommendations by KPMG there was little else to be done.
Several other issues were discussed by the committee, including the revelations in the report that former premier McKeeva Bush had directed the hiring of two men to oversee and report on issues relating to the Sandbar, which had caused considerable controversy because politicians should not be involved in hiring staff.
However, Hurlston said that over the years he had served at the port, he was aware of politicians directing certain people be hired at the port on many occasions. As director, he had been told several times to hire certain people for certain things who didn't necessarily answer to him.
Forced to discuss this issue with McKeeva Bush sitting on PAC, even though it was Bush in his role the tourism minister who had made the directive, Hurston was reluctant to elaborate and the PAC government members were also reticent about the issue. It was established, however, that the two men never reported to either the director or the board.
Bush defended the hiring and told PAC that had the auditor general asked around, he would have learned that the men were reporting to the ministry every month. He said he didn't hire them but the ministry did, and what was more, they had addressed the problems at the Sandbar of boats not following the rules and things had improved.
Making a point about the newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly, Bush said, "If people weren't paying attention to this country until recently," they would not be aware of the headaches at the Sandbar. "We spent every month dealing with trouble at Sandbar and we asked for something to be done but no one could get anything done," the former premier and current opposition leader said.
Although a member of the committee, Bush became a witnesses as he was the centre of the issues in the report — a problem that had been pointed out by the former PAC chair, Ezzard Miller, who had said that the committee risked being dysfunctional, given how frequently the former finance minister would be implicated in the work of the committee.
Regardless of the unusual situation, Bush took the opportunity to explain himself and the action taken in his role as tourism minister in the previous UDP administration 2001-2005. He said a decision was made to hire people to address the Sandbar problems following complaints from the cruise industry about what was happening at the attraction, from damaged boats and overcrowding to other boats damaging the Sandbar itself.
"At one point we had some boats capsize as they were overloaded with people," he said, adding that nothing he could do seemed to prevail. "So we came up with idea to have trustworthy people keep an eye on it." He said that had helped and further plans were developed to control the area before Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 derailed them.
The two men were let go during 2005-09 "for political reasons", Bush stated . However,the trouble started again, so when he returned to the tourism ministry in 2009, the ministry directed that the men were re-hired. "We had monthly reports and the board had agreed to the decision," he said. "Today the situation is much better … systems were put in place where boats anchor away off from the Sandbar."
He justified the $1,000 paid per month to each of the men, saying, "You think you get stuff done for nothing? We expect people to come work for us for nothing but government charges people for what they do."
He said the men, who were experienced trustworthy people, were not overpaid and the situation improved.
"They call it interference, but it was good interference; it was something done by me; it was agreed, and by the looks of it, you should all be hiring a whole lot more people as Caymanians are out of work," he added directly to the government PAC members.
It was established, however, that no one on the board or the management at the port had seen the reports or knew what the two men were doing, even though the money, which amounted to over $90,000, was being paid from the cash-strapped government company.
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Older and Wiser: New ideas for mentoring in the 21st Century
June 24, 2020 /0 Comments/in Editors Blog /by Jean Rhodes
By Jean Rhodes
Apologies for this bit of shameless self-promotion but my new book on youth mentoring, Older and Wiser: New ideas for Youth Mentoring (Harvard University Press) is now available for pre-order (out in August). This book is a synthesis and analysis of the research on youth mentoring, a topic to which I have devoted more than half my life. Indeed, I have been chipping away at researching the mentoring field for nearly thirty years and, like a compulsive gold miner, just can't seem to stop. Believe me, I've tried. But inevitably, other topics lose their appeal and I find myself returning to research this same rich intellectual seam, hoping to unearth and examine just one more nugget. Over time, some of my views on mentoring have changed. And, as you'll see in this book, a broader perspective has emerged, where each new finding fits more logically into the broader landscape. I lament that it took so long to gain this current perspective but am confident that some of my hard-earned lessons will offer new solutions to the field.
From the Harvard University Press catalogue
Older and Wiser: New Ideas for Youth Mentoring in the 21st Century
by: Jean E. Rhodes
Youth mentoring programs must change in order to become truly effective. The world's leading expert shows how.
Youth mentoring is among the most popular forms of volunteering in the world. But does it work? Does mentoring actually help young people succeed? In Older and Wiser, mentoring expert Jean Rhodes draws on more than thirty years of empirical research to survey the state of the field. Her conclusion is sobering: there is little evidence that most programs―even renowned, trusted, and long-established ones―are effective. But there is also much reason for hope.
Mentoring programs, Rhodes writes, do not focus on what young people need. Organizations typically prioritize building emotional bonds between mentors and mentees. But research makes clear that effective programs emphasize the development of specific social, emotional, and intellectual skills. Most mentoring programs are poorly suited to this effort because they rely overwhelmingly on volunteers, who rarely have the training necessary to teach these skills to young people. Moreover, the one-size-fits-all models of major mentoring organizations struggle to deal with the diverse backgrounds of mentees, the psychological effects of poverty on children, and increasingly hard limits to upward mobility in an unequal world.
Rhodes doesn't think we should give up on mentoring―far from it. She shows that evidence-based approaches can in fact create meaningful change in young people's lives. She also recommends encouraging "organic" mentorship opportunities―in schools, youth sports leagues, and community organizations.
"This engaging and well-written book is a significant advance in our understanding of when and how mentoring matters. Mentoring is widely recommended as a strategy to help disadvantaged kids get a fairer start in life, but research has often failed to support that strategy, because of conceptual confusion about what "mentoring" means. Jean Rhodes' new book clears away this confusion and lays the foundations for an approach to mentoring that is both rigorous and rich in new ideas."
-Robert D. Putnam, Harvard Kennedy School and author of Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In "Older and Wiser," Dr. Rhodes forces us to slam the brakes on ineffective practices; not to blame or criticize but to prove and improve an industry that is devoted to the potential of our nation's children. Ensuring access to mentors and effective mentorship programs has always been an essential component of the work of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative. We're thrilled to watch how this candid new research and concrete recommendations will disrupt and redefine how to build social capital and create new pathways to opportunity for youth in greatest need."
-Michael D. Smith, Executive Director
MBK Alliance & Director, Youth Opportunity Programs, The Obama Foundation
"In this superb book, Rhodes has demonstrated why she is regarded as the foremost authority on youth mentoring in the U.S. and internationally. Her singularly broad and deep knowledge of the science and her unparalleled understanding of the program and policy implications of mentoring research are crystallized magnificently in this important and timely book. Accessible to scholars, practitioners, students, parents, and other caregivers, this book will quickly be seen as a classic."
-Richard M. Lerner, Ph.D., Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science
Director, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development
"Rhodes is not only a pioneer in mentoring research but she has always looked around corners for where the power of relationships can be harnessed most effectively so our young people can thrive and strive. She sheds light on innovative approaches that can amplify and refine approaches in mentoring to do what it has the potential to do at its best: provide the connections that meet young people where they are with the personalized support we all need for healthy development."
-David Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer
MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership
"With a lifetime devoted to the study of mentoring, Dr. Rhodes delivers a powerful assessment of what is needed to best help young people today. She challenges us to consider a supportive accountability model focused on technology delivered interventions that may significantly improve outcomes for mentees. Older and Wiser is a wonderfully thoughtful, engaging, and interesting read, It serves the purpose of getting the mentoring community to think of different ways we can serve youth with greater impact."
-Pam Iorio, President and CEO
A case for the embracing the science of mentoring
The promise and pitfalls of mentoring in the digital age
7 reasons why some mentoring relationships "click" and others fail
Separating the wheat from the chaff in youth mentoring
https://www.evidencebasedmentoring.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/older-wiser2x.png 495 330 Jean Rhodes https://www.evidencebasedmentoring.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/chronicle-logo-1.png Jean Rhodes2020-06-24 21:55:282020-09-09 16:13:45Older and Wiser: New ideas for mentoring in the 21st Century


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Francisco Javier Salazar Sáenz (Ciudad de México, 29 de octubre de 1940) es un político mexicano afiliado al Partido Acción Nacional (PAN). Fue secretario del trabajo y previsión social de 2005 a 2006. También ha sido senador de la República de 1994 a 2000 y diputado federal de representación proporcional de 1991 a 1994 y de 2009 a 2012. Desde octubre de 2020 es senador de la República en representación del estado de San Luis Potosí.

Primeros años
Francisco Javier Salazar Sáenz nació el 29 de octubre de 1940 en el Distrito Federal de México. Estudió la carrera de ingeniería en química industrial en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) y en la Universidad Iberoamericana de 1971 a 1992. Estudió la maestría en administración en la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP) de 1998 a 2006 y el doctorado en ciencias sociales en la Universidad La Salle. Fue secretario general de la Unión de Asociaciones de Personal Académico de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí de 1979 a 1985, secretario general de la Asociación Nacional de Asociaciones de Personal Académico Universitario de 1984 a 1988 y secretario general de la Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores Universitarios de 1985 a 1989.

Trayectoria legislativa
En 1990 fue postulado por el Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) como diputado local de Congreso del Estado de San Luis Potosí. Del 1 de septiembre de 1991 al 30 de agosto de 1994 fue diputado federal de representación proporcional en la LV Legislatura del Congreso de la Unión. De 1992 a 1998 fue consejero nacional del PAN, puesto que volvió a ejercer de 2007 a 2010. Del 1 de septiembre de 1994 al 31 de agosto de 2000 fue senador de la República en la LVI y LVII Legislatura del Congreso de la Unión en representación del estado de San Luis Potosí. Dentro del senado fue presidente de la comisión de ciencia y tecnología. También fue secretario de la comisión de educación, de la comisión de energía y recursos no renovables, de la comisión de fomento a las artesanías y de la comisión de trabajo y previsión social.

Volvió a ser diputado federal de representación proporcional en la LXI Legislatura del 1 de septiembre de 2009 al 31 de agosto de 2012. Dentro del congreso fue vicepresidente de la mesa directiva. También fue vicepresidente de la comisión de decanos y secretario de la comisión de relaciones exteriores.

En las elecciones federales de 2018 fue postulado por el PAN como compañero de fórmula de Marco Antonio Gama Basarte, candidato a senador de segunda fórmula por el estado de San Luis Potosí. El 15 de octubre de 2020, Salazar Sáenz asumió el cargo de senador luego de que Gama Basarte pidiera licencia para postularse como candidato a la gubernatura de San Luis Potosí para las elecciones estatales de 2021. Dentro del senado Salazar Sáenz ocupa el cargo de secretario de la comisión de asuntos indígenas.

Secretario del trabajo y previsión social
Durante la presidencia de Vicente Fox fue secretario del trabajo y previsión social del 2 de junio de 2005 al 30 de noviembre de 2006. Durante su administración ocurrió el desastre minero de Pasta de Conchos, en que murieron 65 mineros tras la explosión de una mina de carbón operada por la empresa Grupo México. Salazar Sáenz consideró el evento como un accidente, descartando que la empresa tuviera responsabilidad en la explosión. Su postura fue criticada por el líder del sindicato de mineros, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, quién acusó a Salazar Sáenz de tener una «complicidad abierta» con Grupo México. En 2008 la Secretaría de la Función Pública (SFP) determinó que hubo negligencia por parte del personal de la Secretaría del trabajo por permitir que Pasta de Conchos siguiera operando después de que una revisión en 2004 hallara que la mina incumplía más de cuarenta normas de seguridad.

Referencias

Nacidos en Ciudad de México
Políticos de San Luis Potosí
Senadores de San Luis Potosí
Diputados de la LV Legislatura de México
Senadores de las LVI y LVII Legislaturas de México
Secretarios del Trabajo y Previsión Social (México)
Diputados de la LXI Legislatura de México
Senadores de las LXIV y LXV Legislaturas de México


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Pioneering programme gives great start for pre-schoolers and parents
A Renfrewshire school says that a scheme which eases the path of both children and parents into Primary One has led to an increased sense of community.
St Margarets PS Johnstone
St Margaret's Primary School in Johnstone has experienced an increase in parental engagement with 28 families going through the 'Good Start, Great Start' programme, developed by Middlesex University in London.
The programme offers parents the opportunity to develop relationships with their child as well as each other in their pre-school setting, helping them form vital networks ahead of the start of their offspring's first school year in August.
The school, one of just three places in Scotland to adopt the pilot programme, has two trained Nursery Officers who help promote school readiness at a point of big change for both parents and children.
The scheme, which started as a pilot in October, has worked so well that the school has continued to run it on a permanent basis.
Head teacher Gillian Miller said: "The children who attend have grown in confidence and self-esteem and have gained more independence as a direct result of attending the sessions.
"There is definitely an increased sense of community among the parents who attend, as there is a sharing of parenting skills, strategies and advice in both formal and informal forums.
"All of this is facilitated by skilled staff who know when to make a supportive intervention and who are benefitting from the increase in parental engagement.
"The results have been very positive so far and there is very positive feedback about the programme from the families involved.
"This has been a very worthwhile programme and we wish all of our families a very successful transition from St Margaret's Nursery Class to Primary One.
Each block of six structured sessions is designed to help to build a social support network for the parents and also promote independence for the children.
There is a welcome time and snack time, where nutritional food is prepared and served by the children themselves.
This is followed by a 'make and do' craft session directed by the parent, with a new skill or element of knowledge built into each week.
The children then continue their nursery session while the parents break off to have tea and coffee and an informal, confidential discussion of any parental issues they may be having.
The sessions end with the children returning for story time with a bag with figures and a mat so they can and they make up their own stories about what's inside.
Parent Donna Manson said: "My daughter and I have enjoyed our six weeks of this group and meeting parents and other children who are going to school.
"I feel less worried for her starting school, watching her being independent and her confidence at group time. We have had fun and would recommend this group to other pre-school parents."
The programme is sustainable because the staff are trained and the scheme has proved so popular that some parents have returned after their initial sessions.
Provost and Depute Education Convener Lorraine Cameron dropped into the school to see the programme first hand and said: "As well as being an exciting time, the step from nursery to school can leave both parents and children feeling uncertain.
"It's been great to come along and see how the programme works and how it lays down the ground work for a positive start at school for both children and their carers.
"It's clear how much the parents enjoy the one to one time with their children, which is a great benefit to the whole family.
"Some of the mums and dads have also told me that the sessions have helped show them what their children are capable of, like being able to use a knife to make a snack, allowing the children's independence to flourish.
"They also get great benefit from the parents group where they can share strategies and have a safe space to raise any parenting concerns."
https://i2.wp.com/www.johnstonetown.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/10922366_803212943049983_8458061807524524452_o.jpg?fit=2048%2C1839&ssl=1 1839 2048 admin https://www.johnstonetown.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/johnstone-town-logo-1.jpg admin2018-06-09 15:44:002018-06-09 15:44:00Pioneering programme gives great start for pre-schoolers and parents
Council credits Foster Care Fortnight with raising profile of the rewarding... PACE Youth Theatre / CREATE Paisley Present


Surprise, surprise: The DNA sequence of a "living fossil" reveals that it's evolving at a snail's pace compared to the rest of us.
In a paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, researchers from 40 institutions in 12 countries said they'd cracked the genetic code of the African coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae). The fish was long thought to have gone extinct in the late Cretaceous period, until one was hooked off of the eastern South African coast in 1938.
Though the coelacanth has been around for millions of years, its DNA sequence indicates that it hasn't changed much over the eons.
"We found that the genes overall are evolving significantly slower than in every other fish and land vertebrate that we looked at," Jessica Alfoldi, a researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and co-first author of the Nature paper, said in a statement Wednesday. "This is the first time that we've had a big enough gene set to really see that."
The coelacanth might not have changed over millions of years because it didn't need to. These fish live deep in the ocean, where conditions have largely remained the same for thousands of years.
"Coelacanths are likely very specialized to such a specific, nonchanging, extreme environment -- it is ideally suited to the deep sea just the way it is."
Ocean warming is a known consequence of climate change but it largely thought to occur in the upper reaches of the water. However, this may be due to a lack of data-- there are many more temperature probes floating closer to the surface than there are at lower depths. Recent studies suggest that ocean warming may go deeper than we think. The coelacanth's relatively static evolutionary strategy might not be a good bet to place in the near future.
Scientists are also using the coelacanth's DNA sequence to examine the larger question of how fish first made the transition to land. The coelacanth's lobed fins look similar to the legs of a tetrapod, or four-legged land animal; researchers have long wondered if a coelacanth ancestor gave rise to the first creature to haul itself onto land. There are other candidates too, including the lungfish group. The lungfish's genome is much longer and has yet to be fully sequenced, but comparing some lungfish genes to the coelacanth's genetic code seems to have clarified the evolutionary tree.
"We conclude that the lungfish, and not the coelacanth, is the closest living relative of tetrapods," the authors wrote in Nature.
Still, scientists can glean much from the coelacanth's DNA about the transition from water to land.
When scientists compared genes from the coelacanth with 20 other vertebrates, they found that moving to dry ground wrought some detectable changes. Many genes associated with smell and immunity changed, the better to adjust both the senses and the body's defenses to a new environment. There's a particular gene of interest, called HoxD, which contains a sequence found in both coelacanths and four-legged land animals. This sequence might have been "recruited" to form hands, paws, or feet where fins previously resided.
"This is just the beginning of many analyses on what the coelacanth can teach us about the emergence of land vertebrates, including humans, and, combined with modern empirical approaches, can lend insights into the mechanisms that have contributed to major evolutionary innovations," co-lead author Chris Amemiya, University of Washington biologist and a director at the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, said in a statement.
SOURCE: Amemiya et al. "The African coelacanth genome provides insights into tetrapod evolution." Nature, published online April 17, 2013.


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The tool is capable of handling different conditions of data deletion or corruption including accidental deletion, data loss during iOS update, jail breaking, device broken or lost and a host of other data recovery conditions. You may also like: Free iPhone Data Recovery iphonerecovery.com.
The Gihosoft data recovery software lets you recover data from your iPhone from any of the data loss situations. It can handle the data loss situations like accidental deletion, data loss as a result of iOS upgrade or jail breaking, or other reasons. It can even be used to recover data from your lost iOS device. In fact, it can also recover your data if your iPhone is broken or damaged.
The software does not let you deselect the option for iTunes and iCloud backup. If you have an older backup and have not been regularly taking a backup on iTunes, restoring the old backup can make your phone get all the existing data erased and replaced with an older backup.
If you some data on your iPhone or any other iOS device that you have not backed up to iTunes as yet, it may not be a good option. We tried deselecting the checkbox for iTunes backup but found it not working.
Gihosoft Re Picvid Free Photo Recovery Software provides a free photo recovery software for windows to help users recover the deleted or lost photo for free.


What's the difference between Captain's Club and a Coordinator?
Coordinators are members of the Captain's Club.
A Coordinator is an individual who has registered five (5) or more fully paid teams for the Open Championships or five (5) or more fully paid teams for the Women's Championships.
Captain's Club is a program created to reward Coordinators for their hard work. The rewards are tiered, so Coordinators can earn additional benefits at each level obtained.
What are the benefits of the 2019 USBC Captain's Club?
Benefits vary by the tier you achieve. Click on the links below to find out more about the benefits.
Where do I access the Coordinator's Letter?
What are the key dates that Coordinators need to know?
April 1, 2018: Deadline for return of this coordinator reservation form.
July 1, 2018: Deadline for non-refundable/non-transferable $50 deposit (per team).
Nov. 1, 2018: Team event portion paid in full.
Dec. 31, 2018: Deadline to register teams in order to qualify for the 2019 Captain's Club.
Jan. 15, 2019: Deadline for full payment for the Open Championships including doubles and singles.
Feb. 1, 2019: Deadline for full payment for the Women's Championships including doubles, singles and all-events.
How do I access the Sub Board?
What are the benefits for Coordinators for booking through MyBowlingVacation.com?
When is the best time to check my teams in?
To help avoid the rush during key busy times for both the Open and Women's Championships, it is recommended that your teams check-in two hours prior to their team event.
Will anyone in the group have 20 or more years of participation? Do you have any past champions on your teams?
Please fill out the participation card so that they will be recognized during the squad room announcements.
*These also are called the Bowler Recognition and Squad Room Announcements sheets.
Who can I contact if I have any problems or questions?
For questions related to the Coordinator's Corner, please call 1-800-514-2695 (option 3).


Head Full of Dynomite (HFOD) is an ongoing series of hazy IPAs, each one different from the one before.
Earned the Draft City (Level 71) badge! Earned the Haze for Days (Level 35) badge!
Earned the Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries (Level 2) badge! Earned the I Believe in IPA! (Level 14) badge! Earned the Land of the Free (Level 37) badge!
Earned the Middle of the Road (Level 60) badge! Earned the Haze for Days (Level 3) badge!
Super crisp and slightly sweet. Perfect summer beer.
Earned the Playing the Field badge! Earned the Middle of the Road (Level 2) badge! Earned the Hopped Up badge! Earned the I Believe in IPA! badge! Earned the Land of the Free (Level 2) badge!
Tasty. I mixed it with half CBD boneyard. Hope it helps the achy bones.
Earned the Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries (Level 7) badge! Earned the Brewery Pioneer (Level 5) badge! Earned the Draft City (Level 5) badge! Earned the Haze for Days badge! Earned the Land of the Free (Level 8) badge!


AIR SCENSE VANILLA AIR REFRESHER 7 FL. OZ.
Home > Frontier Iowa > Natural Home > AIR SCENSE VANILLA AIR REFRESHER 7 FL. OZ.
Air Scense Air Refreshers include only the finest essential oils and plant extractives. Beautiful package graphics. 7-ounce, non-aerosol, pump-spray aluminum bottles. Available in orange, vanilla, lavender and lime. No Artificial Ingredients SCENTVanilla SIZE7 fl. oz.