Researchers call for marine observation network

Public release date: 11-Apr-2013
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Contact: Tim Beardsley
tbeardsley@aibs.org
703-674-2500 x326
American Institute of Biological Sciences

Coordination of efforts and automation of existing technology seen as key

A comprehensive marine biodiversity observation network could be established with modest funding within 5 years, according to an expert assessment published in the May 2013 issue of BioScience.

Such a network would fill major gaps in scientists' understanding of the global distribution of marine organisms, which are under unprecedented threat from climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, and overfishing. The network would help resolve conflicts over ocean management and identify threats such as invasions by exotic species before they became obvious, according to the authors of the assessment, who were led by J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Many of the components of a marine biodiversity observation network already exist, although much could be done to incentivize cooperation, the assessment notes. Far more is known about shallow waters than deeper waters. The key need is to relate observations of biodiversity to prevailing environmental conditions. Expanding automation of acoustic and imaging technology would help, as would digitizing historical records.

The European Union and New Zealand have already built regional data systems, but existing data about US waters are not so readily available. The authors of the BioScience article suggest that the United States' many interests in the oceans over a wide area mean it has a special obligation to monitor them and to safeguard the services they supply. A national marine biodiversity observation network could feature sites established along both the East and West US coasts as well as nodes specializing in deep-sea observations and coral reefs.

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BioScience, published monthly, is the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS; http://www.aibs.org). BioScience is a forum for integrating the life sciences that publishes commentary and peer-reviewed articles. The journal has been published since 1964. AIBS is a meta-level organization for professional scientific societies and organizations that are involved with biology. It represents nearly 160 member societies and organizations. The article by Duffy and colleagues can be accessed ahead of print at http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/ until early June.

The complete list of peer-reviewed articles in the May, 2013, issue of BioScience is as follows. These are now published ahead of print.

The Overlooked Terrestrial impacts of Mountaintop Mining.
James Wickham, Petra Bohall Wood, Matthew C. Nicholson, William Jenkins, Daniel Druckenbrod, Glenn W. Suter, Michael P. Strager, Christine Mazzarella, Walter Galloway, and John Amos

Envisioning a Marine Biodiversity Observation Network.
J. Emmett Duffy, Linda A. Amaral-Zettler, Daphne G. Fautin, Gustav Paulay, Tatiana A. Rynearson, Heidi M. Sosik, and John J. Stachowicz

Intentional Fragmentation as a Management Strategy in Aquatic Systems.
Frank J. Rahel

Assembling, Governing, and Debating an Emerging Science: The Rise of Synthetic Biology in France.
Morgan Meyer

Instruction Matters for Nature of Science Understanding in College Biology Laboratories.
Elisabeth E. Schussler, Nazan U. Bautista, Melanie A. Link-Prez, Nancy G. Solomon, and Bruce A. Steinly

Opportunities for improving Aquatic Restoration science and Monitoring Through the Use of Animal Electronic-Tagging Technology.
Nicolas W. R. Lapointe, Jason D. Thiem, Susan E. Doka, and Steven J. Cooke

The Last Call for Marine Wilderness?
Nicholas A. J. Graham and Tim R. McClanahan

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 11-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Tim Beardsley
tbeardsley@aibs.org
703-674-2500 x326
American Institute of Biological Sciences

Coordination of efforts and automation of existing technology seen as key

A comprehensive marine biodiversity observation network could be established with modest funding within 5 years, according to an expert assessment published in the May 2013 issue of BioScience.

Such a network would fill major gaps in scientists' understanding of the global distribution of marine organisms, which are under unprecedented threat from climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, and overfishing. The network would help resolve conflicts over ocean management and identify threats such as invasions by exotic species before they became obvious, according to the authors of the assessment, who were led by J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Many of the components of a marine biodiversity observation network already exist, although much could be done to incentivize cooperation, the assessment notes. Far more is known about shallow waters than deeper waters. The key need is to relate observations of biodiversity to prevailing environmental conditions. Expanding automation of acoustic and imaging technology would help, as would digitizing historical records.

The European Union and New Zealand have already built regional data systems, but existing data about US waters are not so readily available. The authors of the BioScience article suggest that the United States' many interests in the oceans over a wide area mean it has a special obligation to monitor them and to safeguard the services they supply. A national marine biodiversity observation network could feature sites established along both the East and West US coasts as well as nodes specializing in deep-sea observations and coral reefs.

###

BioScience, published monthly, is the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS; http://www.aibs.org). BioScience is a forum for integrating the life sciences that publishes commentary and peer-reviewed articles. The journal has been published since 1964. AIBS is a meta-level organization for professional scientific societies and organizations that are involved with biology. It represents nearly 160 member societies and organizations. The article by Duffy and colleagues can be accessed ahead of print at http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/ until early June.

The complete list of peer-reviewed articles in the May, 2013, issue of BioScience is as follows. These are now published ahead of print.

The Overlooked Terrestrial impacts of Mountaintop Mining.
James Wickham, Petra Bohall Wood, Matthew C. Nicholson, William Jenkins, Daniel Druckenbrod, Glenn W. Suter, Michael P. Strager, Christine Mazzarella, Walter Galloway, and John Amos

Envisioning a Marine Biodiversity Observation Network.
J. Emmett Duffy, Linda A. Amaral-Zettler, Daphne G. Fautin, Gustav Paulay, Tatiana A. Rynearson, Heidi M. Sosik, and John J. Stachowicz

Intentional Fragmentation as a Management Strategy in Aquatic Systems.
Frank J. Rahel

Assembling, Governing, and Debating an Emerging Science: The Rise of Synthetic Biology in France.
Morgan Meyer

Instruction Matters for Nature of Science Understanding in College Biology Laboratories.
Elisabeth E. Schussler, Nazan U. Bautista, Melanie A. Link-Prez, Nancy G. Solomon, and Bruce A. Steinly

Opportunities for improving Aquatic Restoration science and Monitoring Through the Use of Animal Electronic-Tagging Technology.
Nicolas W. R. Lapointe, Jason D. Thiem, Susan E. Doka, and Steven J. Cooke

The Last Call for Marine Wilderness?
Nicholas A. J. Graham and Tim R. McClanahan

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/aiob-rcf040913.php

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PFT: Seahawks' CB says half of NFL on Adderall

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The Bears haven?t retired Mike Singletary?s No. 50, but for the first 20 seasons after his 1992 retirement, the number wasn?t worn by anyone else.

Now, the Bears are giving No. 50 to another linebacker.

James Anderson, who signed with Chicago in the offseason, will wear No. 50,?the club?s website reported Tuesday. Anderson wore No. 50 with the Panthers, his former club.

Singletary, a Hall of Famer who starred at middle linebacker for the Bears for more than a decade, is said to have no problem with his number being worn by someone else, the team said.

?He said he wasn?t aware that it hadn?t been assigned, that he?s got no problem with it, and he?s perfectly fine with it,? Bears chairman George McCaskey told the club?s website. ?In fact, he would prefer that it be assigned to somebody. He said, ?I?d rather somebody wear it than see it hanging it up in a window somewhere.?

Anderson told ChicagoBears.com that he knows the importance of the No. 50 jersey in club lore.

?There?s a lot of history behind this number with the Bears, and I?m honored and blessed that they would even consider letting me wear it,? Anderson said.

The 29-year-old Anderson is entering his eighth NFL season, and he has two seasons of 130 tackles or more to his credit.

According to the Bears? website, this is a matter of the Bears needing the number, as league rules limit linebackers to wearing jersey numbers in the 50s and 90s. The Bears have retired Nos. 51 (Dick Butkus) and 56 (Bill Hewitt).

At present, the Bears? only unassigned number in the 50s is ? drum roll ? No. 54.

With drafted rookies and undrafted free agents still to be added to the Bears? roster, it will be interesting to see what becomes of what was Brian Urlacher?s number.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/10/richard-sherman-half-the-nfl-takes-adderall/related/

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Baby dinos pumped their muscles inside the egg

JURASSIC life was fast and furious even before dinosaurs made it out of the egg. A rare clutch of fossil dinosaur embryos suggests they grew at record rates and flexed their muscles in preparation for life on the outside.

Long-necked sauropods grew to gigantic size, but we know little about how they got so big. Robert Reisz at the University of Toronto Mississauga in Canada and his colleagues have found 200 tiny dinosaur bones in Jurassic rocks from Yunnan Province, China. They are probably unhatched embryos of Lufengosaurus, which is a close relative of the sauropods, and grew up to 9 metres long (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature11978).

The bones appear to have been riddled with blood vessels, meaning the tissues were burning oxygen ? and growing ? rapidly. "If the embryonic growth rate extends to hatchlings and juveniles, these [dinosaurs] grew very, very fast," says Reisz.

The structure of the bones also suggests the tiny dinos were flexing their legs in the egg to strengthen their muscles ? the earliest evidence of embryonic bodybuilding in the fossil record.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Baby dinos pumped their muscles"

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The Stunning 355-Page Mega Report That Reveals the Radical ...

Bowdoin College, an elite university located in Maine, has recently found itself the nexus of a massive influx of controversy.

?And it?s all because its president talked down the wrong person.

Bowdoin College (Photo Credit: AP)

Bowdoin President Barry Mills reportedly engaged in a golf game during the summer of last year with philanthropist and investor Thomas Klingenstein who, while not being a graduate of Bowdoin, was himself interested in the college?s approach to education. The result was an apparently awkward conversation during which Klingenstein complained of Bowdoin?s excessive celebration of ?racial and ethnic difference,? in his words, rather than of ?common American identity.?

It is unclear precisely how sharp the conversation got, but it evidently distressed Mills enough that he decided to mention Klingenstein (albeit not by name) in his subsequent commencement address as a particularly unpleasant golfing partner who?d interrupted his backswing to spout racist platitudes.

Bowdoin College President Barry Mills (Photo Credit: Centre College)

Needless to say, Klingenstein found this response galling. What he decided to do about it, however, is almost certainly unprecedented: Klingenstein decided to commission researchers to do an academic report on Bowdoin?s culture, both academically and outside the classroom, to see just what the college was teaching its students. The result was a 355 page report by the conservative National Association of Scholars that systematically broke down Bowdoin?s entire culture and worldview with extreme frankness. TheBlaze took a look at this report, and spoke to one of its authors, and you may be alarmed at the results.

What did that report find? That Bowdoin College, and indeed most of its peers in the elite liberal arts college community, is in fact:

A) Obsessed with identity politics to the point of using them as an excuse to teach irrelevant and/or trivial courses, and to admit underqualified and undereducated students

B) At once entirely unconcerned with fostering healthy sexual behavior in students and consumed with making sure they follow inconsistent and ideologically motivated norms; and

C) Disingenuous in their purported support for critical thinking, which only extends as far as thinking critically about topics which the college finds institutionally inconvenient

The report, which runs 355 pages, is split into two sections ? first, there is the preface, which assesses the facts regarding Bowdoin and makes specific value judgments regarding those facts. Second, there is the report itself, which only explains the college?s behavior without passing judgment on it. The evidence for each of the above conclusions is too ample to rehearse in full, but a few highlights can be offered as examples to illustrate just what Bowdoin teaches.

A) Identity Politics

National Review?s Eliana Johnson, another reader of the report, summarized a few of its highlights on this point in an article last week:

The report documents an increasingly fractured academy that has no common curriculum and in which so-called identity studies take priority over a study of the West. It highlights, for example, the 36 freshmen seminars offered at Bowdoin in the fall of 2012. They are designed to teach writing and critical-thinking skills and to introduce students to the various academic departments. Some of the subjects are unsurprising: The Korean War, Great Issues in Science, Political Leadership. Others seem less conducive to critical thinking and fruitful classroom discussion: Queer Gardens, Beyond Pocahontas: Native American Stereotypes; Sexual Life of Colonialism; Modern Western Prostitutes.

Queer Gardens, an exploration of the work of gay and lesbian gardeners and of ?the link between gardens and transgression,? simply ?does not teach critical thinking as well as Plato?s?Republic,? the report notes; nor does any subject that has ?no canon of works that embody exemplary achievement in the difficult dialogic task of critical thinking.?

To many observers, such information might itself seem demonstrative. Yet the evidence goes beyond even these scattered examples. For example, in the section of the report that deals with distributional requirements, the authors observe (emphasis added):

When Bowdoin adopted the 2004 version of its distribution requirements, it took care to also provide a fuller rationalization for them than had been the case in previous iterations. In the new redaction the requirements were linked to a programmatic commitment to the ideal of ?diversity,? which was in turn given a prominent place in the college?s new statement, ?A Liberal Education at Bowdoin College.? Diversity serves an interesting function in the search for an underlying principle to give ?coherence? to both the requirements and cohesion to the larger curriculum. It gives a warrant for politicization while at the same time frees faculty members, departments, and students to go their own ways. In effect, the elevation of diversity to the level of governing principle institutionalizes the incoherence that it ostensibly corrects. As far as divergent departmental interests go, it is an agree-to-disagree arrangement that demands very little of anyone other than deference to one of the shibboleths of the Left.

Double standards also abound. For instance, while students who choose to major in history are given the option to major in US history or European history, all history majors are?required to take at least four courses that teach about history unrelated to either the US or Europe. In other words, history majors can leave Bowdoin with absolutely no instruction in the history of their own country, but cannot leave with no instruction in the history of non-Western cultures. The ideological bias is fairly obvious.

Nor does this concern with presumptively underrepresented subject material or peoples stop in the classroom. The report?s section on Academic Preparedness recounts several faculty members agonizing over how affirmative action admits are academically ill-prepared for the university?s rigor, in spite of their professed commitment to ?diversity.? In fact, the college apparently provides surreptitious extra help to these students to prop them up through their tenure at Bowdoin, in spite of their publicly professed belief that diversity and academic standards are not at odds. The report notes:

In the Minutes of the Faculty, the ?underpreparedness? of students is most emphatically linked with the college?s pursuit of racial diversity. This probably reflects a genuine gap in the level of academic performance of black students and members of other racially-defined segments of the student population. That is not something, however, that we can document, and even if true it might disguise a larger problem. ?Majority? students may generally perform better than black students, but majority students may also be ?underprepared? in significant ways. Indeed, that?s what the data nationwide attests, and there is small reason to think that Bowdoin is an exception.

This part is important to note, if only because it gives needed context to one of the report?s recommendations ? namely, that more

Protestors at Bowdoin place a sign in the hand of a statue of Civil War soldier Joshua Chamberlain (Photo Credit: Space4Peace)

introductory and/or survey courses in American history and other core topics be offered. While Bowdoin only admits 1 in 6 of the students who apply, and thus should presumptively count on those students having a superior grasp of such topics already, its extensive diversity programs make such a hope illusory. Reached by phone, Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, and one of the authors of the report, was devastatingly frank on this point.

?Courses that were truly taught at the introductory level might be below some of the students? ability,? Wood told TheBlaze, ?but then again, Bowdoin has a policy of admitting quite a few students either for athletic reasons or for diversity who don?t come anywhere near the academic attainment of the usual students. Those students may not need remedial courses, but they do need something. And Bowdoin has nothing to offer them.?

And if students want to avoid learning these basic concepts, but instead just imbibe politicized opinions without ice or water? The school?s so-called ?studies? departments are happy to provide that as well. For just a sample:

Africana Studies today offers courses such as ?Affirmative Action and United States Society,? ?Black Women, Politics, Music, and the Divine,? ?Transnational Africa and Globalization,? ?History of African and African Diasporic Political Thought,? ?The African ?American Experience in Europe,? ?Protest Music,? ?Global History of the Ghetto,? ?A History of the Global AIDS Epidemic,? ?Martin, Malcolm and America,? ?Spirit Come Down: Black Women and Religion,? and ?Race and Sexuality in Modern America.? This seems a scattered miscellany of topics, perhaps representing the scattered miscellany of the academic specializations of the faculty. It doesn?t, in any case, add up to a coherent curriculum. It is something of a model of the entropy?pedagogical, intellectual, and curricular?that is characteristic of the college. It does convey the ?intersectionality? of the various identity-based programs. Africana Studies is plainly allied with Gender and Women?s Studies and with Gay and Lesbian Studies.

B) Inconsistent attitudes toward sex

One of the elements of the report that may draw some derision both from liberals and from more libertarian readers is the implicit urging by the authors that universities like Bowdoin act?in loco parentis to their students, IE in the place of parents. The meaning of this suggestion is, quite plainly, that the university should attempt to inculcate moral norms in their students, especially with regard to sex.

In contrast, the authors argue that Bowdoin not only does not build character where sex is concerned, but actively encourages libertinism and dysfunctional attitudes among students by handing out condoms like candy and offering free coverage for venereal disease. It?s a moralistic position that some readers may find to be at odds with the report?s twin insistence that universities should promote openness of all kinds, even to conservative ideas, but Wood insists there?s no tension between the two.

?We are, and we say we are, operating from the premises of a classical liberal education, which is meant to shape mind and character, and both issues are in play at Bowdoin,? Wood told TheBlaze. ?They have an idea of what the student?s mind should be like. They have an idea of what the student?s character should be like. Are they teaching different ethics? For sure they are. Is teaching ethics a bad thing? Not at all. But once you say you?re teaching ethics, it seems to me to be fair play to question what ethics you are teaching. And in this case, much of what they are teaching is open to a meaningful critique as destructive of the lives that are employing those values. I don?t see anything from Bowdoin that defends promiscuity as a good, but they promote it anyway.?

?Are we being judgmental about that?? Wood continued. ?To a certain degree, we are, and there?s plenty of evidence in the psychological literature and the sociological literature that the lifestyle being promoted has negative long-term consequences on people hooking up, with multiple sexual partners, etc, have less stable marriages, have much higher divorce rates. The psychological consequences of this behavior pattern appear to set in and have long-term damage. Those are things that Bowdoin could at least consider or talk about to students in the same context of telling them they have sexual freedom.?

Yet even this license-focused approach has its limits, as for all its claims not to be morally invested in sex, Bowdoin is very much interested in promoting specifically ideological ideas about one particular facet of sex ? namely, consent. Indeed, an entire play is put on at the beginning of the school year for freshmen intended to drill the importance of this concept into their heads. And while the concept of consent to sex is itself completely noncontroversial, Wood says the way Bowdoin understands it is inconsistent and difficult to parse.

?Bowdoin has not only an explicit set of rules about consent, but the rules being somewhat difficult to envisage, they also follow their rules with a bunch of hypothetical scenarios in which you can test yourself as to whether you?ve adequately internalized the rules,? Wood explained. ?We do have a section in the report about that. It?s not intuitive to me. For example, one of the scenarios involves two young men. One of them invites the other to his dorm room to watch videos, and while watching videos, tries to take the hand of the other boy, and he refuses, and tries a second time, and is refused a second time, and at that point, the guest leaves. Is that a case of sexual harassment? Their answer is ?Yes, it is.? On the other hand, a male having sex with an intoxicated female who indicates willingness is perfectly okay under Bowdoin?s rules, so we?re in the realm here where the definitions are slippery, but since they?re promoting such an act of an adventurous approach to sexuality, there?s bound to be misunderstandings.?

Moreover, according to Wood, when Bowdoin does try to instruct its students about sex, it uses ideologically motivated, junk information.

?One of the things we looked at was the feminists on campus are quite worried about the low rate of reported cases of sexual assault and rape,? Wood explained, ?and they have gone back repeatedly to both broaden the definitions and to find other ways to try to increase the rate of reporting, under the supposition that the assaults and rapes must be happening, but aren?t being pursued through the legal channels. They?ve been frustrated in this quest that even after lowering the definitions and putting many forms of encouragement in place, the rate of harassment claims is very low?They?re also fond of citing and continue to cite, despite its being an utterly discredited statistic, that something like one in four undergraduates in college will be raped. It?s made out of whole cloth. There?s nothing to substantiate that level of rape anywhere in America, let alone on college campuses.?

In other words, Bowdoin doesn?t teach its students to follow any set of sexual norms at all?unless those norms happen to be the ones advanced by the same identity groups who dominate the rest of the conversation on-campus.

C) Lack of critical thinking

Bowdoin professes to support ?critical thinking? in classroom discussions, and to encourage ideological diversity in order to speed this process. In fact, given that President Mills? speeches apparently make reference to a relativistic conception of ?the common good? with fair frequency, some might even argue the school?s commitment to ?critical thinking? and independent-decision making could err too far in one direction. Fortunately, in practice, this philosophical problem is avoided. Unfortunately, it is avoided in a way that the report?s authors suggest hamstrings critical thought far more than it ought:

Official Bowdoin projects two broad purposes: it aims to teach students to think critically and it aims to help them to develop into good citizens. Our claim that critical thinking is a Bowdoin goal is not likely to be contested by either the Bowdoin community or outside observers. Bowdoin is explicit and emphatic in its promotion of this goal. The first requirement for critical thinking is a genuinely open mind. ?Openness? and ?critical thinking? aren?t quite the same thing, of course. The first is really a precondition of the second. But for the moment we will treat them as near synonyms and bring in other requirements of critical thinking only as needed.[...]

The two Bowdoin goals?global citizenship and openness?actually push against each other. Openness requires skepticism and a sincere willingness to look for hidden assumptions, but Bowdoin?s understanding of global citizenship requires that some very large questions be settled in advance. A commitment to global citizenship requires a commitment to diversity (in its current understanding, the notion that each of us is defined in the most meaningful ways by the group to which we belong) and to the racial preferences that follow from diversity; to multiculturalism (all cultures are equal); to the idea that gender and social norms are all simply social constructs (an assumption that justifies virtually unlimited government intervention necessary to achieve the global citizen?s understanding of sexual justice); and to ?sustainability? (which assumes that free market economic systems, and the materialistic, bourgeois values that drive them, are destroying the planet). These are notions that are not meaningfully ?open to ?debate? at Bowdoin; indeed, a commitment to global citizenship requires that they not be open to debate. Students are encouraged to ?think critically? about anything that threatens the college?s dogmas on diversity, multiculturalism, gender, and sustainability, etc., but, for the most part, not to think critically about those dogmas themselves.

This problem is so pervasive, the report alleges, that not only is there an absence of openness to conservative ideas, but the campus actively stereotypes them as ?boorish,? and many classes treat liberal dogma as settled truth in their own syllabi. For instance, the ?women?s studies? department describes itself as follows:

Courses in Gender and Women?s Studies investigate the experience of women and men in light of the social construction of gender and its meaning across cultures and historic periods. Gender construction is explored as an institutionalized means of structuring inequality and dominance.

Whatever one thinks of these ideas, they are hardly settled truth. The idea that gender is socially constructed, let alone that such a hypothetical construct would function to preserve dominance, is debatable even within academic culture. Yet the college simply defers to the department in allowing this apparent politicized reading of controversial concepts to continue.

Conclusion

These three problems barely scratch the surface of the full report, which also points out problems with Bowdoin?s uncritical attitude toward environmentalism, its ambivalence about the free market, the persistently opinionated stances of its President despite his apparent role as a neutral arbiter, or the uniformly Democratic voting habits of its professoriate. The report?s impact on Bowdoin as yet is unknown, but as criticisms go, it is quite possibly the most harsh analysis of a college?s culture since William F. Buckley?s book ?God and Man at Yale? in the early 20th century.

Editor?s note ? We?ll be discussing this story and all the day?s news during our live BlazeCast from 12pm-1pm ET?including your questions, comments & live chat:

Related: What?s happening to First Amendment freedoms on campus?

Source: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/08/the-stunning-355-page-mega-report-that-reveals-the-radical-curriculum-at-one-american-college-and-how-a-golf-game-gone-awry-led-to-it-all/

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Anatomy of another NRA victory

Most Americans support tougher gun control measures. Too bad the gun lobby has so many politicians in its pocket

There's no denying it: The National Rifle Association has won ? again. Even though more than 3,000 Americans have died via gun violence?since 20 children and 6 adults were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in December, the NRA has somehow managed to triumph. The victims' families and gun control advocates have lost. Forget an assault weapons ban?? or any other serious gun regulation. It's not happening.?

The Washington Post notes that not only have the NRA's tactics cowed politicians and beaten back substantive national gun control efforts, but in some instances, they've actually led to moves to make guns easier to get.?Meanwhile, at least a dozen GOP senators have signed on to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's call to filibuster any gun control measure.

SEE MORE: Poll: Americans pretty clueless about what gun laws already exist

This is just one more issue where polls show Republicans?at odds with mainstream America.?A Morning Joe/Marist?poll found six in 10 respondents?? including 83 percent of Democrats, 43 percent of gun owners, and 37 percent of Republicans ? believe that the laws covering gun sales should be stricter.

Here's the problem:?The NRA has a lot of money, and?NRA donations go overwhelmingly to Republicans. They are unsurprisingly blocking tougher gun control.

SEE MORE: Is Marco Rubio stalling on immigration reform?

Writes The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky: "I have never seen a situation in which a Congress, terrified of a particular lobby, has behaved in such open contempt of?American public opinion?as it's doing now on guns."?

The brutal truth is that the 20 little kids who perished in Newtown in a terrifying massacre involving 154 rounds fired in 5 minutes was NOT enough to significantly move the dial on gun control. These kids are now (more) collateral damage in the decades-long political gun-control ballet involving lobbying money and the way American politics truly functions. Poll numbers alone won't enact change.

SEE MORE: Sorry, steak-lovers: Even lean red meat may cause heart disease

Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein writes: "See, the problem here is equating '90 percent in the polls'" ? polls show that 9 in 10 Americans support universal background checks ? "with 'calling for change.' Sure, 90 percent of citizens or registered voters... will answer in the affirmative if they're asked about this policy. But that's not all the same as 'calling for change.'...Action works. 'Public opinion' is barely real... At best, public opinion as such is passive. And in politics, passive doesn't get results."

We know the pattern: (1) a massacre; (2) intial shock, media saturation, and noble-sounding rhetoric from politicians about change; (3) statements of regret or lawyerly type statements with loophopes from the gun lobby; (4) mobilization of the NRA and ideological echo chambers to go on the attack and wield political clout.?

SEE MORE: Obama consolidates power in second term

I was one of many staffers on The San Diego Union who covered James Huberty's July 18, 1984, San Ysidro McDonald's massacre. Huberty fired 250 rounds and killed 21 people from 8 months to 74 years old. He wounded 19 more before being shot dead by a sniper. There was outrage in the immediate aftermath. Then reform efforts failed.

For real gun control to triumph, it must get through a huge maze of institutional, political, and ideological media obstacle courses.?

SEE MORE: Is gridlock starting to ease?

Gun control advocate Matt Bennett told the Washington Post that if there was a secret ballot on gun control it would "pass overwhelmingly, because from a substantive point of view most of these senators understand that this is the right thing to do." Politics hold them back.

President Obama recently expressed dismay over these sad truths, and reminded America about the first-graders butchered in Newtown: "The entire country was shocked, and the entire country pledged we would do something about it and that this time would be different," he declared. "Shame on us if we've forgotten. I haven't forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we've forgotten."

SEE MORE: Huntsman etches a new conservative brand

Shame on us, indeed. Because in American power politics ? as the long battle for gun control stymied by big money, cowardice, and lack of organized-for-action public outrage shows ? there is no change. Just more and more cases of collateral damage.?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nra-won-062400047.html

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Marvel giving away over 700 free first issue digital comics (for real, totally seriously this time)

Remember, like, not even a month ago when Marvel tried giving away over 700 first issues of its comic library in digital form on ComiXology? Apparently that didn't work so well, with rabid fans crashing the digital comic service while attempting pull down as many issues as possible. Fret not, law-abiding citizens, as Marvel is re-introducing its offer today, albeit with a different method for snagging those free copies. Head over to the service's special sign-up page right here and enter a bit of information ahead of tomorrow night's expiration. Following that, you'll receive an invite from ComiXology sometime on April 11th with instructions for how to download more comics than you'll ever have time to read. Even better, the whole shebang hopefully won't be bookended by download errors this time! That's what we'd call super.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/marvel-700-comics-free-round-two/

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Kerry mourns 1st diplomat killed since Benghazi

This image made from AP video shows Afghan National Army soldier rushing to the scene moments after a car bomb exploded in front the PRT, Provincial Reconstruction Team, in Qalat, Zabul province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, April 6, 2013. Six American troops and civilians and an Afghan doctor were killed in attacks on Saturday in southern and eastern Afghanistan as the U.S. military's top officer began a weekend visit to the country, officials said. (AP Photo via AP video)

This image made from AP video shows Afghan National Army soldier rushing to the scene moments after a car bomb exploded in front the PRT, Provincial Reconstruction Team, in Qalat, Zabul province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, April 6, 2013. Six American troops and civilians and an Afghan doctor were killed in attacks on Saturday in southern and eastern Afghanistan as the U.S. military's top officer began a weekend visit to the country, officials said. (AP Photo via AP video)

ISTANBUL (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry mourned on Sunday the first death of an American diplomat on the job since last year's Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya.

Speaking to U.S. consulate workers on a visit to Istanbul, Kerry called the death of Anne Smedinghoff a "grim reminder" of the danger facing American foreign service workers serving overseas. The Illinois native was one of six Americans killed in an attack Saturday in Afghanistan. She was on a mission to donate books to students in the south of the country.

"It's a grim reminder to all of us... of how important, but also how risky, carrying the future is," Kerry told employees in the Turkish commercial capital.

"Folks who want to kill people, and that's all they want to do, are scared of knowledge. They want to shut the doors and they don't want people to make their choices about the future. For them, it's you do things our way, or we throw acid in your face or we put a bullet in your face," he said.

Kerry described Smedinghoff as "vivacious, smart, capable, chosen often by the ambassador there to be the lead person because of her capacity."

She aided Kerry when he visited the country two weeks ago, serving as his control officer, an honor often bestowed on up-and-coming members of the U.S. foreign service.

"There are no words for anyone to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction for a young 25-year-old woman, with all of her future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy to improve people's lives, making a difference, having an impact" to be killed, Kerry said.

Smedinghoff previously served in Venezuela.

"The world lost a truly beautiful soul today," her parents, Tom and Mary Beth Smedinghoff, said in a family statement emailed to The Washington Post.

"Working as a public diplomacy officer, she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war," they said. "We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world."

Kerry declared the protection of American diplomats a top priority on his first day as secretary of state.

The issue has been extremely sensitive since Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi almost seven months ago. No one has yet been brought to justice.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-07-Kerry-Afghanistan/id-05938936090344d1b37df8187a4d9b2c

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Reframing stress: Stage fright can be your friend

Apr. 8, 2013 ? Fear of public speaking tops death and spiders as the nation's number one phobia. But new research shows that learning to rethink the way we view our shaky hands, pounding heart, and sweaty palms can help people perform better both mentally and physically.

Before a stressful speaking task, simply encouraging people to reframe the meaning of these signs of stress as natural and helpful was a surprisingly effective way of handling stage fright, found the study to be published online April 8 in Clinical Psychological Science.

"The problem is that we think all stress is bad," explains Jeremy Jamieson, the lead author on the study and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. "We see headlines about 'Killer Stress' and talk about being 'stressed out.'" Before speaking in public, people often interpret stress sensations, like butterflies in the stomach, as a warning that something bad is about to happen, he says.

"But those feelings just mean that our body is preparing to address a demanding situation," explains Jamieson. "The body is marshaling resources, pumping more blood to our major muscle groups and delivering more oxygen to our brains." Our body's reaction to social stress is the same flight or fight response we produce when confronting physical danger. These physiological responses help us perform, whether we're facing a bear in the forest or a critical audience.

For many people, especially those suffering from social anxiety disorder, the natural uneasiness experienced before giving a speech can quickly tip over into panic. "If we think we can't cope with stress, we will experience threat. When threatened, the body enacts changes to concentrate blood in the core and restricts flow to the arms, legs, and brain," he explains. So, "cold feet" is a real physiological response to threat, not just a colorful expression.

"Lots of current advice for anxious people focuses on learning to 'relax,' -- you know, deep, even breathing and similar tips," says Jamieson. Such calming techniques, write the authors, may be helpful in situations that do not require peak performance. But when gearing up for a high-stakes exam, a job interview, or, yes, a speaking engagement, reframing how we think about stress may be a better strategy.

Then how can people reap the benefits of being stressed without being overwhelmed by dread? To answer that question, Jamieson and co-authors Matthew Nock, of Harvard University and Wendy Berry Mendes of the University of California in San Francisco, turned to the Trier Social Stress Test. Developed in 1993 by Clemens Kirschbaum and colleagues, this experiment relies on fear of public speaking and has become one of the most reliable laboratory methods for eliciting threat responses.

In the study, 69 adults were asked to give a five-minute talk about their strengths and weaknesses with only three minutes to prepare. Roughly half of the participants had a history of social anxiety and all participants were randomly assigned to two groups. The first group was presented information about the advantages of the body's stress response and encouraged to "reinterpret your bodily signals during the upcoming public speaking task as beneficial." That group also was asked to read summaries of three psychology studies that showed the benefits of stress. The second group received no information about reframing stress.

Participants delivered their speech to two judges. On purpose, the judges provided negative nonverbal feedback throughout the entire five-minute presentations, shaking their heads in disapproval, tapping on their clipboards, and staring stone-faced ahead. If study subjects ran out of things to say, the judges insisted that they continue speaking for the full five minutes. Following the speech, participants were asked to count backwards for five minutes in steps of seven beginning with the number 996. The evaluators again provided negative feedback throughout and insisted that participants start over if they made any mistakes.

Confronted with scowling judges, participants who received no stress preparation experienced a threat response, as captured by cardiovascular measures. But the group that was prepped about the benefits of stress weathered the trial better. That group reported feeling that they had more resources to cope with the public speaking task and, perhaps more tellingly, their physiological responses confirmed those perceptions. The prepped group pumped more blood through the body per minute compared to the group that did not receive instruction.

Surprisingly, this study also found that individuals who suffer from social anxiety disorder actually experienced no greater increase in physiological arousal while under scrutiny than their non-anxious counterparts, despite reporting more intense feelings of apprehension. This disconnect, argue the authors, supports the theory that our experience of acute or short-term stress is shaped by how we interpret physical cues. "We construct our own emotions," says Jamieson.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jeremy P. Jamieson, Matthew K. Nock, and Wendy Berry Mendes. Changing the Conceptualization of Stress in Social Anxiety Disorder: Affective and Physiological Consequences. Clinical Psychological Science, April 8, 2013 DOI: 10.1177/2167702613482119

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/living_well/~3/e_EvUzqwMwQ/130408133020.htm

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Cold case arrest prompts cross-country probe

In this Monday, March 4, 2013 photo, Samuel Little, a suspected serial killer, appears at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Little, 72, was arrested in Louisville, Ky., in September by U.S. Marshals on an unrelated narcotics warrant while investigators built their case. He later waived extradition and was brought to Los Angeles, where he was charged with three murder counts and the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

In this Monday, March 4, 2013 photo, Samuel Little, a suspected serial killer, appears at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Little, 72, was arrested in Louisville, Ky., in September by U.S. Marshals on an unrelated narcotics warrant while investigators built their case. He later waived extradition and was brought to Los Angeles, where he was charged with three murder counts and the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

In this Monday, March 4, 2013 photo, Samuel Little, a suspected serial killer, appears at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Little, 72, was arrested in Louisville, Ky., in September by U.S. Marshals on an unrelated narcotics warrant while investigators built their case. He later waived extradition and was brought to Los Angeles, where he was charged with three murder counts and the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

In this Monday, March 4, 2013 photo, Samuel Little, a suspected serial killer, appears at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Little, 72, was arrested in Louisville, Ky., in September by U.S. Marshals on an unrelated narcotics warrant while investigators built their case. He later waived extradition and was brought to Los Angeles, where he was charged with three murder counts and the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

In this Monday, March 4, 2013 photo, Samuel Little, a suspected serial killer, appears at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Little, 72, was arrested in Louisville, Ky., in September by U.S. Marshals on an unrelated narcotics warrant while investigators built their case. He later waived extradition and was brought to Los Angeles, where he was charged with three murder counts and the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Timeline follows the life of Samuel Little

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? When Los Angeles cold case detectives caught up with Samuel Little this past fall, he was living in a Christian shelter in Kentucky, his latest arrest a few months earlier for alleged possession of a crack pipe. But the LA investigators wanted him on far more serious charges: The slayings of two women in 1989, both found strangled and nude below the waist ? victims of what police concluded had been sexually motivated strangulations.

Little's name came up, police said, after DNA evidence collected at old crime scenes matched samples of his stored in a criminal database. After detectives say they found yet another match, a third murder charge was soon added against Little.

Now, as the 72-year-old former boxer and transient awaits trial in Los Angeles, authorities in numerous jurisdictions in California, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Ohio are scouring their own cold case files for possible ties to Little. One old murder case, in Pascagoula, Miss., already has been reopened. DNA results are pending in some others.

Little's more than 100-page rap sheet details crimes in 24 states spread over 56 years ? mostly assault, burglary, armed robbery, shoplifting and drug violations. In that time, authorities say incredulously, he served less than 10 years in prison.

But Los Angeles detectives allege he was also a serial killer, who traveled the country preying on prostitutes, drug addicts and troubled women.

They assert Little often delivered a knockout punch to women and then proceeded to strangle them while masturbating, dumping the bodies and soon after leaving town. Their investigation has turned up a number of cases in which he was a suspect or convicted.

Police are using those old cases ? and tracking down surviving victims ? to help build their own against Little.

"We see a pattern, and the pattern matches what he's got away with in the past," said LAPD Detective Mitzi Roberts.

Little has pleaded not guilty in the three LA slayings, and in interviews with detectives after his September arrest he described his police record as "dismissed, not guilty, dismissed."

"I just be in the wrong place at the wrong time with people," he said, according to an interview transcript reviewed by The Associated Press.

Still, as more details emerge, so do more questions. Among them: How did someone with so many encounters with the law, suspected by prosecutors and police officers of killing for decades, manage to escape serious jail time?

"It's the craziest rap sheet I've ever seen," said Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, who has worked many serial killer cold cases. "The fact that he hasn't spent a more significant period of his life (in custody) is a shocking thing. He's gotten break after break after break."

Deputy Public Defender Michael Pentz, who represents Little, declined to comment.

Authorities have pieced together a 24-page timeline tracking Little's activity across the country since his birth. His rap sheet has helped them pinpoint his location sometimes on a monthly basis. Law enforcement agencies are now cross-referencing that timeline with cold case slayings in their states.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is leading a review of that state's unsolved murders and helping coordinate the effort among 12 jurisdictions. The department published an intelligence bulletin alerting authorities in Florida, Alabama and Georgia about Little's case, noting he lived in the area on and off in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

"We strongly encouraged them to look at any unresolved homicides that they had during those time frames and then consider him as a potential suspect," said Jeff Fortier, a special agent supervisor at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The department is re-examining DNA evidence in about 15 cases that was collected before advances in forensic science allowed for thorough analysis, Fortier said.

"We are in the infancy stages of what we expect will be a protracted investigation," he said.

In Mississippi, Pascagoula cold case Detective Darren Versiga is re-investigating the killing of Melinda LaPree, a 22-year-old prostitute found strangled in 1982. Little had been arrested in that crime but never indicted, Versiga said. The detective has tracked down old witnesses and is working to reconstruct the case file because much of it was washed away during Hurricane Katrina.

Little, who often went by the name Samuel McDowell, grew up with his grandmother in Lorain, Ohio. His rap sheet shows his first arrest at age 16 on burglary charges. After serving time in a youth authority he was released and, months later, arrested again for breaking and entering.

In an hour- and 15-minute interview with Los Angeles detectives, Little spoke openly about his past and his time in the penitentiary, where he started boxing as a middleweight against the other inmates. "I used to be a prizefighter," he said.

In his late 20s, Little went to live with his mother in Florida and worked at the Dade County Department of Sanitation and, later, at a cemetery. Soon, he began traveling more widely and had more run-ins with the law; between 1971 and 1974 Little was arrested in eight states for crimes that included armed robbery, rape, theft, solicitation of a prostitute, shoplifting, DUI, aggravated assault on a police officer and fraud.

"I've been in and out of the penitentiary," he told the California officers.

"Well, for what?" a detective asked, to which Little responded: "Shoplifting and, uh, petty thefts and stuff."

Then came the 911 call of Sept. 11, 1976, in Sunset Hills, Mo.

Pamela Kay Smith was banging on the back door of a home, crying for help, naked below the waist with her hands bound behind her back with electrical cord and cloth. Smith, who was a drug addict, told officers that she was picked up by Little in St. Louis. She said he choked her from behind with electrical cord, forced her into his car, beat her unconscious, then drove to Sunset Hills and raped her.

Officers found Little, then 36, still seated in his car near the home where Smith sought refuge, with her jewelry and clothing inside. Little denied raping Smith, telling officers: "I only beat her." The case summary was recalled in court papers filed by prosecutors in Los Angeles.

Little was found guilty of assault with the intent to ravish-rape and was sentenced to three months in county jail. Pascagoula Detective Versiga, who reviewed the Smith case, believes Little may have pleaded to a lesser charge and received a shorter sentence because of the victim's lifestyle. The case file refers to Smith as a heroin addict who often failed to appear in court.

After that, the charges against Little grew more serious.

In Pascagoula, LaPree went missing in September 1982 after getting into a wood-paneled station wagon with a man witnesses later identified as Little. A month later her remains were found, and Little was arrested in her killing and the assault of two other prostitutes. Versiga believes grand jurors failed to indict in part because of the difficulty in determining a precise time of death but also because of credibility problems due to the victim and witnesses working as prostitutes.

Little, nevertheless, remained in custody and was extradited to Florida to be tried in the case of another slain woman.

Patricia Ann Mount, 26 and mentally disabled, was found dead in the fall of 1982 in rural Forest Grove, Fla., near Gainesville. Eyewitnesses described last seeing her leaving a beer tavern with a man identified as Little in a wood-paneled station wagon.

According to The Gainesville Sun's coverage of the trial, a fiber analyst testified that hairs found on Mount's clothes "had the same characteristics as head hairs taken from" Little. But when cross-examined the analyst said "it was also possible for hairs to be transferred if two people bumped together."

A jury acquitted Little in January 1984.

By October 1984, Little was back in custody ? this time in San Diego, accused in the attempted murder of two prostitutes who were kidnapped a month apart, driven to the same abandoned dirt lot, assaulted and choked. The first woman was left unconscious on a pile of trash but survived, according to court records. Patrol officers discovered Little in a car with the second woman and arrested him.

The two cases were tried jointly, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. Little later pleaded guilty to lesser charges of assault with great bodily injury and false imprisonment. He served about 2.5 years on a four-year sentence and, in February 1987, he was released on parole.

As he told the LA detectives in his interview, Little then moved to Los Angeles, where three more women were soon discovered dead: Carol Alford, 41, found on July 13, 1987; Audrey Nelson, 35, found on Aug. 14, 1989; and Guadalupe Apodaca, 46, found on Sept. 3, 1989. All were manually strangled.

It is for those slayings that Little now stands charged. No trial date has been set, though Little is due back in court this month for a procedural hearing. If convicted, Little would face a minimum of life in prison without parole, though prosecutors said they may seek the death penalty.

When the case landed on Detective Roberts' desk, she had no idea it would grow from two local cold case slayings to a cross-country probe into the past of a man with some 75 arrests. As she studied her suspect, Roberts also began calling agencies that had dealt with Little most recently.

He had been arrested on May 1, 2012, by sheriff's deputies in Lake Charles, La., for possession of a crack pipe and released with an upcoming court date. At Roberts' request, deputies tried finding him but came up empty. Then last September deputies called with a hit tracing an ATM purchase by Little to a Louisville, Ky., minimart. Within hours he was found at a nearby shelter.

In his interview with police, Little said he didn't recognize the slain LA women. Detectives said that DNA collected from semen on upper body clothing or from fingernail scrapings connect him to the crimes.

Roberts and others who've investigated Little through the years said some cases may not have gone forward because DNA testing wasn't available until the mid-1980s and, even when it was, wouldn't have been useful in these cases unless authorities tested clothing, fingernails or body swabs. Due to this perpetrator's particular modus operandi, DNA wouldn't necessarily be found through standard rape kit collection.

Even in those cases that did go to trial, they said, jurors may have found the victims less credible because of their backgrounds, and the witnesses ? often prostitutes ? in some cases disappeared. Because Little was also a transient, Roberts said: "I don't think he stuck in a lot of peoples' minds much."

"But what's different now, we're just not going to allow that to happen," she said. "I think we owe it to the victims. I think we owe it to the families."

Tony Zambrano was 17 when he learned his mother, Guadalupe Apodaca, was killed after going out for a drink one night.

"My brother told me she left, she went to go have a couple beers, and never came home," he recalls. Soon after he learned of her slaying.

For years Zambrano tried to find out what happened to his mother. When Roberts called him following Little's arrest, he was grateful. But he's also upset.

"My mom shouldn't really be dead now. For all those charges in San Diego, who gets four years?" Zambrano said. "This thing ain't over for a long shot."

___

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-07-Serial%20Strangling%20Suspect/id-6b5e1a680e504fe094ff6216909ceb09

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When CEOs get demoted (by the companies they founded)

Karsten Strauss , Forbes ? ? ? 25 min.

With RIM?s recent launch of its Blackberry 10, founder and board member Mike Lazaridis may have felt he?d, in some way, seen his company to safe harbor. ?Safe? may be an overstatement, given competition in the mobile smartphone market these days and RIMs place in it, but let?s just say it gave him a positive event to step out on. He will retire in May.

But Lazaridis gave up CEO leadership at RIM over a year ago, some say due to shareholder pressure. It must be a surreal moment to be cast aside by a company you?ve founded. At best it must be like being dunked on by your own son, at worst like being shot in the knee by him. No wonder Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg took such a strong ownership stance with his company.

A number of founding company leaders have been dressed down by their own companies; some are stories of betrayal, some failure and some of redemption.

In 2007, Jet Blue?s David Neeleman was pushed out of the top spot by the airliner he?d founded eight years prior. The reason? Service difficulties and the notion that JetBlue could have been more profitable with different leadership. His step down did not help JetBlue?s share prices, however, which ended 2007 at almost $5, down from over $16 a year before. Without skipping a beat, Neeleman stayed with the company and founded another airline, Azul, in 2008.

Aubrey McClendon founded Chesapeake Energy in 1982 at the age of 23. He announced this past January that he will step down as CEO amidst allegations of self-dealing, questionable business practices and a spendthrift nature. FORBES profiled McClendon in 2011, calling him America?s Most Reckless Billionaire. Possibly responsible for McClendon?s ouster is billionaire Carl Icahn, an investor with a presence on Chesapeake?s board, who felt he wasn?t cutting costs.

In the wake of his departure announcement share prices have risen from under $17 to over $21. Without the responsibility of running the company, McClendon may have time to complete the still unfinished massive wine cellar he began building in Oklahoma City in 2008. Win-win?

Perhaps the most famous story of founder ouster is that of Steve Jobs. After hiring John Sculley as CEO in 1983, Jobs changed his mind about the former Pepsi President and conspired to have him removed. In a shocking twist, the Apple board sided with Sculley and Jobs was removed from his managerial role with Macintosh and resigned some months later.

Following a failed but inspiring startup, NeXT Computer, and the acquisition of what would become Pixar, Apple?s purchase of NeXT brought Jobs back to Apple leadership and the rest, as they say, is history. Jobs confessed that his ouster from Apple was instrumental in his education and allowed him to develop his creativity and leadership.

Related at Forbes:

The World?s Favorite Bosses

The 12 Most Disruptive Names In Business

The Best Places For A Working Retirement In 2013

25 Top Places To Retire Rich

Copyright 2013 Forbes.com

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Politicians fed up with North Korea

Kim Jong Un on horseback in an undated photo (KNS/Getty Images)

Politicians and pundits painted a pretty bleak picture of the situation in North Korea on the Sunday talk-show circuit, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham predicting a "major war" breaking out if Kim Jong Un attacks South Korea.

"The North Koreans need to understand if they attack an American interest or an ally of this country, they're going to pay a heavy price," Graham said on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday. "I could see a major war happening if the North Koreans overplay their hand this time, because the public in South Korea, the United States, and I think the whole region, is fed up with this guy."

"I think we have to convince this new, young, inexperienced leader that he's playing a losing hand," Michele Flournoy said. "The only way out of the box to get the economic development he wants, to get the progress that he wants, is to ratchet back the rhetoric. Come back into compliance with the international obligations."

Since assuming power in late 2011, the provocative Kim has defied U.N. sanctions by continuing to develop North Korea's missile program.

"He's kind of reckless right now," U.S. Gen. James Thurman, the top U.S. military commander in South Korea, said on ?This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on ABC. "If they decided to, you know resume hostilities, I think we've got to be ready to go."

Earlier Sunday, U.S. officials said Thurman?who was expected to travel to Washington this week to appear before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees?will stay in Seoul as "a prudent measure."

When asked to speculate on the outcome of a war, Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said: "The North loses and the South wins, with our help. That's what happens."

[Related: Rodman says Kim Jong Un wants Obama to ?call him?]

On "Meet The Press," former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson called Kim's leadership "belligerent," but cautioned against U.S. military action.

"I think the goal should not just be to calm them down, to cool the rhetoric down," Richardson said. "The goal has to be [to] get North Korea back to the negotiating table on nuclear proliferation, on de-nuclearization. They have to do it, because that whole Asian area is a tinderbox."

Greta Van Susteren, who has visited North Korea three times, said negotiation is not something on the minds of most North Koreans.

"The whole time we were there, all we saw was preparation for war," Van Susteren said. "If you go inside, they have been at war with us since the early 1950s. They think that every single one of us is spending every Saturday night sitting around planning how to get them while we're busy ordering pizzas and Chinese food carryout, they think that we're getting ready for war."

Graham said the United States needs to keep its eye on Syria, too.

"Crazy people and nuclear weapons who proliferate those weapons throughout the world, who support terrorist organizations, are incredibly dangerous," Graham said. "That's why we need to stop Syria from getting chemical. Chemical weapons need to be controlled in Syria; the ayatollahs in Iran are just as crazy as this guy in North Korea."

He added: "This could be a nightmare in the making with these chemical weapons falling into radical Islamists. The number of radical jihadists on the ground in Syria today is growing every day this war goes on."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/north-korea-kim-jong-un-war-201715650.html

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S. Korea: N. Korea may be preparing to test missile

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? A top South Korean national security official said Sunday that North Korea may be setting the stage for a missile test or another provocative act with its warning that it soon will be unable to guarantee diplomats' safety in Pyongyang. But he added that the North's clearest objective is to extract concessions from Washington and Seoul.

North Korea's warning last week followed weeks of war threats and other efforts to punish South Korea and the U.S. for ongoing joint military drills, and for their support of U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. Many nations are deciding what to do about the notice, which said their diplomats' safety in Pyongyang cannot be guaranteed beginning this Wednesday.

Tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang led South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff to announce Sunday that its chairman had put off a visit to Washington. The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch.

His description suggests that the missile could be the Musudan missile, capable of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,490 miles).

Citing North Korea's suggestion that diplomats leave the country, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director said Pyongyang may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.

During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the U.S. to offer a dialogue. Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks ? which also include China, Russia and Japan ? that it abandoned in 2009.

The roughly two dozen countries with embassies in North Korea had not yet announced whether they would evacuate their staffs.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague suggested that North Korea's comments about foreign diplomats are "consistent" with a regime that is using the prospect of an external threat to justify its militarization to its people.

"I haven't seen any immediate need to respond to that by moving our diplomats out of there," he told the BBC on Saturday. "We will keep this under close review with our allies, but we shouldn't respond and play to that rhetoric and that presentation of an external threat every time they come out with it."

Germany said its embassy in Pyongyang would stay open for at least the time being.

"The situation there is tense but calm," a German Foreign Office official, who declined to be named in line with department policy, said in an email. "The security and danger of the situation is constantly being evaluated. The different international embassies there are in close touch with each other."

Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry said it was considering a plan to evacuate its diplomats. A statement released by the ministry on Saturday said that its embassy in Pyongyang has been preparing a contingency plan to anticipate the worst-case scenario, and that the Indonesian foreign minister is communicating with the staff there to monitor the situation.

India also said it was monitoring events. "We have been informed about it," said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry. "We are in constant touch with our embassy and are monitoring the situation. We will carefully consider all aspects and decide well in time."

Seoul and Washington, which lack diplomatic relations with the North, are taking the threats seriously, though they say they have seen no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a large-scale attack.

Kim Jang-soo said the North would face "severalfold damages" for any hostilities. Since 2010, when attacks Seoul blames on North Korea killed 50 people, South Korea has vowed to aggressively respond to any future attack.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Jung Seung-jo had planned to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Martin Dempsey, in Washington on April 16 for regular talks. But tensions on the Korean Peninsula are so high that Jung cannot take a long trip away from South Korea, so the meeting will be rescheduled, a South Korean Joint Chiefs officer said Sunday. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

The U.S. Defense Department has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that had been planned for this week because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis, a senior defense official told The Associated Press.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to delay the test at an Air Force base in California until sometime next month, the official said Saturday. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the test delay and requested anonymity.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has followed provocations from North Korea with shows of force connected to the joint exercises with South Korea. It has sent nuclear capable B-2 and B-52 bombers and stealth F-22 fighters to participate in the drills.

In addition, the U.S. said last week that two of the Navy's missile-defense ships were moved closer to the Korean Peninsula, and a land-based missile-defense system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam later this month. The Pentagon last month announced longer-term plans to strengthen its U.S.-based missile defenses.

The U.S. military also is considering deploying an intelligence drone at the Misawa Air Base in northern Japan to step up surveillance of North Korea, a Japanese Defense Ministry official said Sunday.

Three Global Hawk surveillance planes are deployed on Guam and one of them is being considered for deployment in Japan, the official said on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the issue.

North Korea successfully shot a satellite into space in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February. It has threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, though many analysts say the North hasn't achieved the technology to manufacture a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S.

North Korea also raised tensions Wednesday when it barred South Koreans and supply trucks from entering the Kaesong industrial complex, where South Korean companies have employed thousands of North Korean workers for the past decade.

North Korea is not forcing South Korean managers to leave the factory complex, and nearly 520 of them remained at Kaesong on Sunday. But the entry ban at the park, the last remaining inter-Korean rapprochement project, is posing a serious challenge to many of the more than 120 South Korean firms there because they are running out of raw materials and are short on replacement workers.

Nine more firms, including food and textile companies, have stopped operations at Kaesong, bringing to 13 the total number of companies that have done so, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

North Korea briefly restricted the heavily fortified border crossing at Kaesong in 2009 ? also during South Korea-U.S. drills ? but manufacturers fear the current border shutdown could last longer.

___

AP writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Louise Watt in Beijing, Cassandra Vinograd in London, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-nkorea-may-preparing-test-missile-095436309.html

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