FILE - In this March 9, 2012 file photo, Bishop Michael J. Fitzgerald takes part in a funeral at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., for five 19th-century Irish immigrants whose remains were excavated from the Duffy's Cut site. Researchers believe the site in Malvern, Pa., contains the remains of about 50 Irish immigrants who died weeks after coming to Pennsylvania to build a railroad in 1832. The remains of one of the immigrants who researchers believe was murdered while building the railroad will be reburied in his home country on Saturday, March 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - In this March 9, 2012 file photo, Bishop Michael J. Fitzgerald takes part in a funeral at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., for five 19th-century Irish immigrants whose remains were excavated from the Duffy's Cut site. Researchers believe the site in Malvern, Pa., contains the remains of about 50 Irish immigrants who died weeks after coming to Pennsylvania to build a railroad in 1832. The remains of one of the immigrants who researchers believe was murdered while building the railroad will be reburied in his home country on Saturday, March 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
In this March 24, 2009 file photo, Immaculata University history professor William Watson displays what he says are human remains that members of the Duffy's Cut Project unearthed in Malvern, Pa. The bones are from a mass grave for nearly five dozen 19th century Irish immigrants who died weeks after coming to Pennsylvania to build a railroad. The remains of one of the immigrants, who researchers believe was murdered while building the railroad, will be reburied in his home country on Saturday, March 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? The remains of a 19th-century Irish immigrant who researchers believe was murdered while building a Pennsylvania railroad will be reburied in his home country this weekend after being identified in part through a missing molar.
U.S. historians unearthed the bones of the young man thought to be 18-year-old John Ruddy near train tracks in suburban Philadelphia four years ago. On Saturday, they'll attend a re-interment for the railway worker more than 3,000 miles away at a cemetery in County Donegal.
"We can't help but think he would prefer to be buried there," said Bill Watson, a lead researcher on the team that found the remains.
Ruddy was among 57 Irishmen hired in 1832 to help build a stretch of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad known as Duffy's Cut. But the immigrants from Donegal, Tyrone and Derry died about six weeks after their arrival, and the railroad company never told their families.
Watson and his twin brother Frank, also a historian, led a team in a 10-year effort to research and dig up evidence of how the workers died in what is now a woodsy area behind homes in Malvern, about 20 miles west of Philadelphia.
Their conclusion? Many workers died of cholera and were dumped in a mass grave. Yet forensic evidence indicates several were homicide victims, likely killed by local vigilantes because of ethnic hatred or fear of the disease. Those immigrants, including Ruddy, were found buried separately.
The research team tentatively identified Ruddy based on a passenger list from the ship on which the immigrants traveled, and his small bone size. There was only one 18-year-old worker listed in railroad archives, Watson said.
Ruddy's jaw also had a genetic dental abnormality ? a missing molar. It's a trait that still runs in his family, according to Watson, who said modern-day Ruddys in Ireland contacted him after reading about the discovery. One Ruddy donated a DNA sample to confirm the identification in 2010, but researchers have not had the time nor the money to complete the analysis yet.
However, it's unlikely another body with that bone size and "super-rare" tooth anomaly would be found at the site, said University of Pennsylvania anthropologist Janet Monge, who works with the all-volunteer team.
Researchers are going ahead with Ruddy's burial this weekend because of a looming deadline for a documentary film crew that has been following the Duffy's Cut project. Ruddy's relatives, who could not be reached for comment, are expected to attend, as are other community members, Watson said.
"A lot of the people throughout Donegal see this as being important because they've all got stories in their family tree like this ? people who left for America and were never heard from again," said Watson, whose own ancestors also hail from the county.
Ruddy will not be buried in his homestead of Inishowen but in the nearby town of Ardara, where a grave was donated by a more recent immigrant to the U.S.
Vincent Gallagher, now president of the Irish Center in Philadelphia, said it was the least he could do for a fellow countryman who died on a lonely journey to build a better life. Gallagher himself emigrated from Donegal about 40 years ago, joining a slew of relatives who came before him.
"When I came to this country, there were a bunch of people waiting for me from my own family," said Gallagher, a landscaper. "But these people ? 57 of them ? they came here, they didn't know a soul."
The Watsons have been unable to identify the other alleged homicide victims because their bones indicate they were all in their 20s, leaving too many possibilities. However, their remains were reburied last year in a solemn ceremony at a suburban Philadelphia cemetery. The mass grave can't be excavated because of its proximity to active railroad tracks.
"The idea of somehow being able to get one of them back to Ireland, it seemed like a distant hope 10 years ago," said Watson, who is also a history professor at Immaculata University in Malvern, not far from where the workers died. "It's just a miracle, actually."
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Online:
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This post is part of the Roadmap To The Future Series. Roadmap To The Future explores innovative industry trends and breakthroughs in science, entertainment, and technology. This series is sponsored by Verizon.
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?
It takes a lot of technical chops to run an operation the size of Facebook.
Some 618 million people use Facebook every day and they use it to play games, post news and photos. Consider this: Facebook currently stores more than 240 billion photos.
All told, Facebook will spend $1.8 billion in 2013 on its IT needs mostly on servers, data centers, and infrastructure, it said.
A lot of what Facebook needs to operate its massive web site has never been done before, so It has to invent its own technology. And then Facebook often simply gives away the tech it creates, as open source projects.
Facebook benefits by sharing its tech freely like that. Other companies use it, improve it and share back. Sometimes Facebook doesn't invent a technology, but adopts another open source project and then becomes a major force working on it.
Through all of this behind-the-scenes work, Facebook is slowly, and radically, changing the entire tech scene.
LSU researchers find new information about 'Snowball Earth' periodPublic release date: 28-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ashley Berthelot aberth4@lsu.edu 225-578-3870 Louisiana State University
It is rather difficult to imagine, but approximately 635 million years ago, ice may have covered a vast portion of our planet in an event called "Snowball Earth." According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, the massive ice age that occurred before animal life appeared, when Earth's landmasses were most likely clustered near the equator, precipitated relatively rapid changes in atmospheric conditions and a subsequent greenhouse heat wave. This particular period of extensive glaciation and subsequent climate changes might have supplied the cataclysmic event that gave rise to modern levels of atmospheric oxygen, paving the way for the rise of animals and the diversification of life during the later Cambrian explosion.
But if ice covered the earth all the way to the tropics during what is known as the Marinoan glaciation, how did the planet spring back from the brink of an ice apocalypse? Huiming Bao, Charles L. Jones Professor in Geology & Geophysics at LSU, might have some of the answers. Bao and LSU graduate students Bryan Killingsworth and Justin Hayles, together with Chuanming Zhou, a colleague at Chinese Academy of Sciences, had an article published on Feb. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, that provides new clues on the duration of what was a significant change in atmospheric conditions following the Marinoan glaciation.
"The story is to put a time limit on how fast our Earth system can recover from a total frozen state," Bao said. "It is about a unique and rapidly changing post-glacial world, but is also about the incredible resilience of life and life's remarkable ability to restore a new balance between atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere after a global glaciation."
Bao's group went about investigating the post-glaciation period of Snowball Earth by looking at unique occurrences of "crystal fans" of a common mineral known as barite (BaSO4), deposited in rocks following the Marinoan glaciation. Out of the three stable isotopes of oxygen, O-16, O-17 and O-18, Bao's group pays close attention to the relatively scarce isotope O-17. According to Killingsworth, there aren't many phenomena on earth that can change the normally expected ratio of the scare isotope O-17 to more abundant isotope O-18. However, in sulfate minerals such as barite in rock samples from around 635 million years ago, Bao's group finds large deviations in the normal ratio of O-17 to O-18 with respect to O-16 isotopes.
"If something unusual happens with the composition of the atmosphere, the oxygen isotope ratios can change," Killingsworth said. "We see a large deviation in this ratio in minerals deposited around 635 million years ago. This occurred during an extremely odd time in atmospheric history."
According to Bao's group, the odd oxygen isotope ratios they find in barite samples from 635 million years ago could have occurred if, following the extensive Snowball Earth glaciation, Earth's atmosphere had very high levels of carbon dioxide, or CO2. An ultra-high carbon dioxide atmosphere, Killingsworth explains, where CO2 levels match levels of atmospheric oxygen, would grab more O-17 from oxygen. This would cause a depletion of the O-17 isotope in air and subsequently in barite minerals, which incorporate oxygen as they grow. Bao's group has found worldwide deposits of this O-17 depleted sulfate mineral in rocks dating from the global glaciation event 635 million years ago, indicating an episode of an ultra-high carbon dioxide atmosphere following the Marinoan glaciation.
"Something significant happened in the atmosphere," Killingsworth said. "This kind of an atmospheric shift in carbon dioxide is not observed during any other period of Earth's history. And now we have sedimentary rock evidence for how long this ultra-high carbon dioxide period lasted."
By using available radiometric dates from areas near layers of barite deposits, Bao's group has been able to come up with an estimate for the duration of what is now called the Marinoan Oxygen-17 Depletion, or MOSD, event. Bao's group estimates the MOSD duration at 0 1 million years.
"This is, so far, really the best estimate we could get from geological records, in line with previous models of how long an ultra-high carbon dioxide event could last before the carbon dioxide in the air would get drawn back into the oceans and sediments," Killingsworth said.
Normally, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are in balance with levels of carbon dioxide in the ocean. However, if water and air were cut off by a thick layer of ice during Snowball Earth, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could have increased drastically. In a phenomenon similar to the climate change Earth is witnessing in modern times, high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide would have created a greenhouse gas warming effect, trapping heat inside the planet's atmosphere and melting the Marinoan ice. Essentially, the Marinoan glaciation created the potential for extreme changes in atmospheric chemistry that in turn lead to the end of Snowball Earth and the beginning of a new explosion of animal life on Earth.
While previous work by Bao's group had advanced the interpretation of the strange occurrence of O-17 depleted barite just after the Marinoan glaciation, there was still much uncertainty on the duration of ultra-high CO2 levels after meltdown of Snowball Earth. Bao's discovery of a field site with many barite layers gave the opportunity to track how oxygen isotope ratios changed through a thickness of sedimentary rock. As the pages in a novel can be thought of as representing time, so layers of sedimentary rock represent geological history. However, these rock "pages" represented an unknown duration of time for the MOSD event. By using characteristic features of the Marinoan rock sequence occurring regionally in South China, Bao's group linked the barite layer site to other sites in the region that did have precise dates from volcanic ash beds. Bao's group has succeeded in estimating the duration of the MOSD event, and thus the time it took for Earth to restore "normal" CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
"To some extent, our findings demonstrate that whatever happens to Earth, she will recover, and recover at a rapid pace," Bao said. "Mother Earth lived and life carried on even in the most devastating situation. The only difference is the life composition afterwards. In other words, whatever humans do to the Earth, life will go on. The only uncertainty is whether humans will still remain part of the life composition."
Bao says that he had been interested in this most intriguing episode of Earth's history since Paul Hoffman, Dan Schrag and colleagues revived the Snowball Earth hypothesis in 1998.
"I was a casual 'non-believer' of this hypothesis because of the mere improbability of such an Earth state," Bao said. "There was nothing rational or logic in that belief for me, of course. I remember I even told my job interviewers back in 2000 that one of my future research plans was to prove that the Snowball Earth hypothesis was wrong."
However, during a winter break in 2006, Bao obtained some unusual data from barite, a sulfate mineral dating from the Snowball Earth period that he received from a colleague in China.
"I started to develop my own method to explore this utterly strange world," Bao said. "Now, it seems that our LSU group is the one offering the strongest supporting evidence for a 'Snowball Earth' back 635 million years ago. I certainly did not see this coming. The finding we published in 2008 demonstrates, again, that new scientific breakthroughs are often brought in by outsiders."
Bao credits his research ideas, analytical work and pleasure of working on this project to his two graduate students, Killingsworth and Hayles, as well as his long-time Chinese collaborators. Bao brought Killingsworth and Hayles to an interior mountainous region in South China in December 2011, where the group succeeded in finding multiple barite layers in a section of rocks dating to 635 million years ago. This discovery formed a large part of their analysis and subsequent publication in PNAS.
"Nothing can beat the intellectual excitement and satisfaction you get from research in the field and in the laboratory," Bao said.
###
Bao's research is funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
To read the original article, visit http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/05/1213154110.1.abstract.
To read more about Huiming Bao's research, visit http://www.geol.lsu.edu/hbao/.
[ | 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.
LSU researchers find new information about 'Snowball Earth' periodPublic release date: 28-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ashley Berthelot aberth4@lsu.edu 225-578-3870 Louisiana State University
It is rather difficult to imagine, but approximately 635 million years ago, ice may have covered a vast portion of our planet in an event called "Snowball Earth." According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, the massive ice age that occurred before animal life appeared, when Earth's landmasses were most likely clustered near the equator, precipitated relatively rapid changes in atmospheric conditions and a subsequent greenhouse heat wave. This particular period of extensive glaciation and subsequent climate changes might have supplied the cataclysmic event that gave rise to modern levels of atmospheric oxygen, paving the way for the rise of animals and the diversification of life during the later Cambrian explosion.
But if ice covered the earth all the way to the tropics during what is known as the Marinoan glaciation, how did the planet spring back from the brink of an ice apocalypse? Huiming Bao, Charles L. Jones Professor in Geology & Geophysics at LSU, might have some of the answers. Bao and LSU graduate students Bryan Killingsworth and Justin Hayles, together with Chuanming Zhou, a colleague at Chinese Academy of Sciences, had an article published on Feb. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, that provides new clues on the duration of what was a significant change in atmospheric conditions following the Marinoan glaciation.
"The story is to put a time limit on how fast our Earth system can recover from a total frozen state," Bao said. "It is about a unique and rapidly changing post-glacial world, but is also about the incredible resilience of life and life's remarkable ability to restore a new balance between atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere after a global glaciation."
Bao's group went about investigating the post-glaciation period of Snowball Earth by looking at unique occurrences of "crystal fans" of a common mineral known as barite (BaSO4), deposited in rocks following the Marinoan glaciation. Out of the three stable isotopes of oxygen, O-16, O-17 and O-18, Bao's group pays close attention to the relatively scarce isotope O-17. According to Killingsworth, there aren't many phenomena on earth that can change the normally expected ratio of the scare isotope O-17 to more abundant isotope O-18. However, in sulfate minerals such as barite in rock samples from around 635 million years ago, Bao's group finds large deviations in the normal ratio of O-17 to O-18 with respect to O-16 isotopes.
"If something unusual happens with the composition of the atmosphere, the oxygen isotope ratios can change," Killingsworth said. "We see a large deviation in this ratio in minerals deposited around 635 million years ago. This occurred during an extremely odd time in atmospheric history."
According to Bao's group, the odd oxygen isotope ratios they find in barite samples from 635 million years ago could have occurred if, following the extensive Snowball Earth glaciation, Earth's atmosphere had very high levels of carbon dioxide, or CO2. An ultra-high carbon dioxide atmosphere, Killingsworth explains, where CO2 levels match levels of atmospheric oxygen, would grab more O-17 from oxygen. This would cause a depletion of the O-17 isotope in air and subsequently in barite minerals, which incorporate oxygen as they grow. Bao's group has found worldwide deposits of this O-17 depleted sulfate mineral in rocks dating from the global glaciation event 635 million years ago, indicating an episode of an ultra-high carbon dioxide atmosphere following the Marinoan glaciation.
"Something significant happened in the atmosphere," Killingsworth said. "This kind of an atmospheric shift in carbon dioxide is not observed during any other period of Earth's history. And now we have sedimentary rock evidence for how long this ultra-high carbon dioxide period lasted."
By using available radiometric dates from areas near layers of barite deposits, Bao's group has been able to come up with an estimate for the duration of what is now called the Marinoan Oxygen-17 Depletion, or MOSD, event. Bao's group estimates the MOSD duration at 0 1 million years.
"This is, so far, really the best estimate we could get from geological records, in line with previous models of how long an ultra-high carbon dioxide event could last before the carbon dioxide in the air would get drawn back into the oceans and sediments," Killingsworth said.
Normally, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are in balance with levels of carbon dioxide in the ocean. However, if water and air were cut off by a thick layer of ice during Snowball Earth, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could have increased drastically. In a phenomenon similar to the climate change Earth is witnessing in modern times, high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide would have created a greenhouse gas warming effect, trapping heat inside the planet's atmosphere and melting the Marinoan ice. Essentially, the Marinoan glaciation created the potential for extreme changes in atmospheric chemistry that in turn lead to the end of Snowball Earth and the beginning of a new explosion of animal life on Earth.
While previous work by Bao's group had advanced the interpretation of the strange occurrence of O-17 depleted barite just after the Marinoan glaciation, there was still much uncertainty on the duration of ultra-high CO2 levels after meltdown of Snowball Earth. Bao's discovery of a field site with many barite layers gave the opportunity to track how oxygen isotope ratios changed through a thickness of sedimentary rock. As the pages in a novel can be thought of as representing time, so layers of sedimentary rock represent geological history. However, these rock "pages" represented an unknown duration of time for the MOSD event. By using characteristic features of the Marinoan rock sequence occurring regionally in South China, Bao's group linked the barite layer site to other sites in the region that did have precise dates from volcanic ash beds. Bao's group has succeeded in estimating the duration of the MOSD event, and thus the time it took for Earth to restore "normal" CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
"To some extent, our findings demonstrate that whatever happens to Earth, she will recover, and recover at a rapid pace," Bao said. "Mother Earth lived and life carried on even in the most devastating situation. The only difference is the life composition afterwards. In other words, whatever humans do to the Earth, life will go on. The only uncertainty is whether humans will still remain part of the life composition."
Bao says that he had been interested in this most intriguing episode of Earth's history since Paul Hoffman, Dan Schrag and colleagues revived the Snowball Earth hypothesis in 1998.
"I was a casual 'non-believer' of this hypothesis because of the mere improbability of such an Earth state," Bao said. "There was nothing rational or logic in that belief for me, of course. I remember I even told my job interviewers back in 2000 that one of my future research plans was to prove that the Snowball Earth hypothesis was wrong."
However, during a winter break in 2006, Bao obtained some unusual data from barite, a sulfate mineral dating from the Snowball Earth period that he received from a colleague in China.
"I started to develop my own method to explore this utterly strange world," Bao said. "Now, it seems that our LSU group is the one offering the strongest supporting evidence for a 'Snowball Earth' back 635 million years ago. I certainly did not see this coming. The finding we published in 2008 demonstrates, again, that new scientific breakthroughs are often brought in by outsiders."
Bao credits his research ideas, analytical work and pleasure of working on this project to his two graduate students, Killingsworth and Hayles, as well as his long-time Chinese collaborators. Bao brought Killingsworth and Hayles to an interior mountainous region in South China in December 2011, where the group succeeded in finding multiple barite layers in a section of rocks dating to 635 million years ago. This discovery formed a large part of their analysis and subsequent publication in PNAS.
"Nothing can beat the intellectual excitement and satisfaction you get from research in the field and in the laboratory," Bao said.
###
Bao's research is funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
To read the original article, visit http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/05/1213154110.1.abstract.
To read more about Huiming Bao's research, visit http://www.geol.lsu.edu/hbao/.
[ | 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.
LONDON (Reuters) - The emergence of a deadly virus previously unseen in humans that has already killed half those known to be infected requires speedy scientific detective work to figure out its potential.
Experts in virology and infectious diseases say that while they already have unprecedented detail about the genetics and capabilities of the novel coronavirus, or NCoV, what worries them more is what they don't know.
The virus, which belongs to the same family as viruses that cause the common cold and the one that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), emerged in the Middle East last year and has so far killed seven of the 13 people it is known to have infected worldwide.
Of those, six have been in Saudi Arabia, two in Jordan, and others in Britain and Germany linked to travel in the Middle East or to family clusters.
"What we know really concerns me, but what we don't know really scares me," said Michael Osterholm, director of the U.S.-based Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a professor at the University of Minnesota.
Less than a week after identifying NCoV in September last year in a Qatari patient at a London hospital, scientists at Britain's Health Protection Agency had sequenced part of its genome and mapped out a so-called "phylogenetic tree" - a kind of family tree - of its links.
Swiftly conducted scientific studies by teams in Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere have found that NCoV is well adapted to infecting humans and may be treatable medicines similar to the ones used for SARS, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected.
"Partly because of the way the field has developed post-SARS, we've been able to get onto this virus very early," said Mike Skinner, an expert on coronaviruses from Imperial College London. "We know what it looks like, we know what family it's from and we have its complete gene sequence."
Yet there are many unanswered questions.
SPOTLIGHT ON SAUDI ARABIA, JORDAN
"At the moment we just don't know whether the virus might actually be quite widespread and it's just a tiny proportion of people who get really sick, or whether it's a brand new virus carrying a much greater virulence potential," said Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist, also at Imperial College London.
To have any success in answering those questions, scientists and health officials in affected countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan need to conduct swift and robust epidemiological studies to find out whether the virus is circulating more widely in people but causing milder symptoms.
This would help establish whether the 13 cases seen so far are the most severe and represent "the tip the iceberg", said Volker Thiel of the Institute of Immunobiology at Kantonal Hospital in Switzerland, who published research this month showing NCoV grows efficiently in human cells.
Scientists and health officials in the Middle East and Arab Peninsular also need to collaborate with colleagues in Europe, where some NCoV cases have been treated and where samples have gone to specialist labs, to try to pin down the virus' source.
"ONE BIG VIROLOGICAL BLENDER"
Initial scientific analysis by laboratory scientists at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) - which helped identify the virus in a Qatari patient in September last year - found that NCoV's closest relatives are most probably bat viruses.
It is not unusual for viruses to jump from animals to humans and mutate in the process - high profile examples include the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS and the H1N1 swine flu which caused a pandemic in 2009 and 2010.
Yet further work by a research team at the Robert Koch Institute at Germany's University of Bonn now suggests it may have come through an intermediary - possibly goats.
In a detailed case study of a patient from Qatar who was infected with NCoV and treated in Germany, researchers said the man reported owning a camel and a goat farm on which several goats had been ill with fevers before he himself got sick.
Osterholm noted this, saying he would "feel more comfortable if we could trace back all the cases to an animal source".
If so, it would mean the infections are just occasional cross-overs from animals, he said - a little like the sporadic cases of bird flu that continue to pop up - and would suggest the virus has not yet established a reservoir in humans.
Yet recent evidence from a cluster of cases in a family in Britain strongly suggests NCoV can be passed from one person to another and may not always come from an animal source.
An infection in a British man who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, reported on February 11, was swiftly followed by two more British cases in the same family in people who had no recent travel history in the Middle East.
The World Health Organization says the new cases show the virus is "persistent" and HPA scientists said the cluster provided "strong evidence" that NCoV, which like other coronaviruses probably spreads in airborne droplets, can pass from one human to another "in at least some circumstances".
Despite this, Ian Jones, a professor of virology at Britain's University of Reading, said he believes "the most likely outcome for the current infections is a dead end" - with the virus petering out and becoming extinct.
Others say they fear that is unlikely.
"There's nothing in the virology that tells us this thing is going to stop being transmitted," said Osterholm. "Today the world is one big virological blender. And if it's sustaining itself (in humans) in the Middle East then it will show up around the rest of the world. It's just a matter of time."
Beyonc? performs during the half-time show of the 2013 Super Bowl. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)
Got a gun? Hand it in, and you could end up with a ticket to Beyonc?'s Mrs. Carter tour.
At least, that's the dream of music manager Michael "Blue" Williams, the head of Family Tree Entertainment. The idea is part of his proposal for what the New York Daily News says would be the "first private-sector gun buyback program."
Called Guns for Greatness, Williams' proposal, made to the New York City Police Department, would offer music industry mentorship and concert tickets in exchange for firearms. Of course, if the department rubber-stamps the program, Williams, who has managed Outkast and Cee Lo Green, among others, still has to get the wildly popular singer to sign on to the idea.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the Daily News that Williams' plan needs to be studied. He said, ?We want to get as many guns off the streets, and if this works, we?d like to support it.?
The hip-hop mogul has raised $75,000 toward his $100,000 fundraising goal. Richard Buery, CEO and president of the Children?s Aid Society, has added his name to the proposal.
In a letter to the NYPD and shown to the Daily News, Williams writes, ?A disturbingly high number of these [gun] victims are young people. As Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and others have noted strongly, the issue of gun violence is an urgent crisis that requires immediate attention.?
The NYPD currently has a program that offers cash for guns, no questions asked.
Feb. 26, 2013 ? Plentiful food can accelerate the spread of infections, Edinburgh scientists have shown in a study of water fleas.
Scientists studying bacterial infections in tiny water fleas have discovered that increasing their supply of food can speed up the spread of infection. They carried out the study to better understand factors that affect how diseases are transmitted.
Researchers found that when a population of parasite-infected water fleas was well-fed, some of them became highly contagious, compared with when food was limited.
Epidemic spread
"If we have an idea of which individuals transmit a lot of disease, we will be better able to stop its spread," said Dr Pedro Vale, School of Biological Sciences.
Scientists say the discovery highlights that, under certain conditions, some individuals may be more prone to spreading disease than others.
Their findings could help inform ways to monitor and control the spread of infections, such as epidemics, in large populations.
Some well-fed water fleas were more infectious than others because they were able to survive for longer with the parasite, giving it more time to multiply.
Parasite growth
Scientists at the University studied the impact of food quantity on the spread of a bacteria parasite that grows in the water flea gut, releasing infectious spores when the water flea dies.
Among those water fleas that were well-fed, some were found to be carrying many more parasites than others, and so were more prone to spreading the disease.
The study, published in Biology Letters, was supported by the Wellcome Trust and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France.
"We know that contact between individuals is important; but now we know that, for some animals at least, nutrition may also play an important role in the spread of disease," said Vale.
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Journal Reference:
P. F. Vale, M. Choisy, T. J. Little. Host nutrition alters the variance in parasite transmission potential. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (2): 20121145 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.1145
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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.
We've just received our invite to a Samsung event in New York on Mar. 14, inviting us to get "ready 4 the show." Looks highly likely that we're in for a Galaxy S4 event, and we'll be live in New York on the day to bring you full coverage!
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric resigned on Monday the day after he rejected allegations that he had behaved in an "inappropriate" way with other priests.
"The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today, 25 February 2013," Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who had been expected to take part in the conclave to choose the next pope, said in a statement.
O'Brien, who is known for outspoken views on homosexuality, had been reported to the Vatican over allegations of inappropriate behavior stretching back 30 years, according to the Observer newspaper.
O'Brien, the archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, had rejected the claims.
It began as a seemingly awkward Jack Nicholson introduction of the very long list on nominees, but the Best Picture denouement?at a very long Oscars ceremony on Sunday turned into a surprise appearance by Michelle Obama, via satellite from the Governors' Ball in Washington, D.C.?where earlier she had sat next to Chris Christie?to introduce and announce the winner,?Argo.?
TIP! You may not want to delay your bankruptcy if you secure a higher-paying job just prior to filing. It is possible that bankruptcy is still your best course of action.
Simply mentioning the word bankruptcy can cause people to become nervous and worried. Increasing debt, coupled with the inability to support their families is a real nightmare for many people. Does the thought of this scare you? Perhaps you are going through it right now, and the advice found here can help your situation.
TIP! Make sure that the lawyer you hire is has many years of experience dealing with bankruptcy. There are numerous attorneys available to assist you with your case.
Filing for bankruptcy is an option that can put an end to harassing creditors calling you at your work and home. Being buried under a mountain of debt is emotionally stressful. Bankruptcy protection may be a good way to keep things under control while you sort out your financial difficulties.
TIP! Prior to going through with a bankruptcy filing, be sure to list out every one of your expenditures and debts. The list will be a fundamental element of your bankruptcy petition, and therefore it is important not to omit anything.
Educate yourself as much as possible before filing for bankruptcy. By analyzing your debt, you?ll be able to determine which of your debts can be discharged via personal bankruptcy filing. There are debts that are not dischargeable. For example, a credit card debt consisting of nonessential purchases incurred within three months of the bankruptcy declaration cannot be discharged. Remember to research the laws that apply to your state.
TIP! If you know people who have filed for bankruptcy, ask them who they would recommend rather than relying on Internet reviews or worse, just randomly picking someone out of the phone book. To handle your bankruptcy, you need a trusted attorney, not a shady one that is out to take your money.
Filing for bankruptcy may damage your credit less than missing debt payments. Your credit report will show your bankruptcy for the next ten years, but it will also allow you to start working towards repairing your credit immediately. Getting a fresh start is one benefit of bankruptcy.
TIP! If you plan to seek bankruptcy soon, prevent using a credit card. Taking on a huge amount of debt will make it look as if you?re just going on a huge spending spree before attempting to have the slate wiped clean.
Consider any other options available before filing for personal bankruptcy. Think about seeing a credit counselor. Many different non-profit entities exist that can assist you without charging you any fees. Their job is to lower your payments and interest through negotiations with your creditors. You pay the organization, and they pay creditors for you.
TIP! Make sure you?ve exhausted all other options prior to declaring bankruptcy. There are other options available, such as credit counseling for consumers.
Filing for bankruptcy doesn?t always discharge 100% of the debts that you have. When a Chapter 13 is filed, you will restructure what you owe and pay, thus allowing your creditors to make some of their money back. Many people are ashamed to file for bankruptcy, as they believe not paying a creditor back is irresponsible behavior. This is a good way to pay parts of your debt while staying in control of your finances.
TIP! Do not forget to be around those you love. The process for bankruptcy can be hard.
Consider Chapter 13 bankruptcy. With a regular income and unsecured debt below $250,000, Chapter 13 is probably best for you. This allows you to keep possession of your real estate and property and repay your debt through a debt plan. The plan is usually for a term of three to five years, and a discharge will be granted at the end of that term. Bear in mind that if you miss a single payment that is due under your plan, the entire case will be dismissed by the Court.
TIP! If your finances are tight and you are considering filing for personal bankruptcy, why not put your plans for getting a divorce on the back burner? It is not uncommon for individuals to seek a divorce only to immediately file for bankruptcy due to unforeseen financial difficulty. It is always wise to think twice about divorcing.
Divorce can unexpectedly leave people in financial ruins. Divorcing will only complicate your financial situation. You may find that both you and your spouse must file for bankruptcy following divorce. It is always wise to think twice about divorcing.
TIP! Do your research ahead of time to find out if you permitted to get a Homestead Exemption with Chapter 7. If you don?t, the possibility may exist for you with Chapter 13.
Remember that just because you have filed for personal bankruptcy it will not cause you to lose everything you own. Personal property can be kept. Things like jewelry, clothes, and electronics are included in this category. The laws of your state and the kind of bankruptcy for which you are filing, coupled with your financial situation, will determine what personal property you are allowed to retain. Additionally, the retention of large assets, such as your automobile and your home, is determined by these considerations.
TIP! Once you have filed for bankruptcy, scrutinize new credit offers. It is not rare to have offers come pouring in for special loans and other lines of credit that claim they are intended specifically for those just out of bankruptcy.
When you are going through bankruptcy proceedings, it is sure to cause a great deal of stress. To combat these problems, look into securing a good lawyer. Don?t skimp when hiring a good lawyer. Quality is far more important than expense when it comes to a good bankruptcy attorney. Get referrals from those who have used a bankruptcy lawyer, talk to the bureau for better business, and take advantage of free consultations offered by most lawyers. You could also sneak into court to watch a real live bankruptcy proceeding to see how that attorney handles the situation.
TIP! If you meet with an attorney, be sure to disclose to them all significant debts you owe. You should include loans from friends and family as well as money owed for credit cards, medical expenses and any other loan companies.
Write down every one of your debts. Your debts in particular will serve as the basis of your claim. Every single debt you have will need to be listed here. Make sure you go through your records and be sure about the exact amounts. Remember to take your time here. Rushing through will ensure that some numbers somewhere will be mixed up and then the process will blow up in your face.
TIP! The best way to build your credit up after a bankruptcy is making all your payments on time. If you find that to be the situation, consider requesting secured cards.
Certain attorneys offer a phone service that creditors are directed to when they want to speak with you about debts you may owe. Creditors can receive confirmation that you are indeed filing for bankruptcy protection from them if they give that number a call. They will stop calling you at this point, and you will be able to answer your phone without fear.
TIP! Choose your personal bankruptcy lawyer wisely. There are a lot of new, inexperienced bankruptcy attorneys.
Before your first meeting, make a list of questions you have for the bankruptcy lawyer. This way you get straight to business and do not bother the lawyer for long. Write down any concerns and questions before your consultation in order to save yourself money and time. You should walk out of your lawyer?s office with a good understanding of the procedure.
TIP! Hire a lawyer if you plan on filing for bankruptcy. You might not understand all of the various aspects to filing for bankruptcy.
Anyone fearing bankruptcy has a legitimate fear; filing a claim can be scary. Don?t let your fear take over. You now have the knowledge necessary to overcome the fear. Use the personal bankruptcy information here as you work your way through your financial situation and make your life situation better for you and your family.
This article has hopefully provided you with a good deal of knowledge to continue on your journey of success. If you keep this material in mind and apply it wisely, life will be a breeze. This will cause an increase in the quality of your life.
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CAIRO (AP) ? A leading Egyptian opposition figure called on Saturday for a boycott of the country's upcoming parliamentary elections, saying he will not be a part of a "sham democracy."
Mohamed ElBaradei, who leads the main opposition National Salvation Front, wrote on Twitter that he was urging a boycott in the same fashion as he did in 2010 under then-president Hosni Mubarak.
"(I) called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception," he wrote Saturday, referring to elections called for by President Mohammed Morsi.
Elections under Mubarak were widely rigged and the chamber was dominated by members of his ruling party. The Muslim Brotherhood, at the time outlawed, won no seats as independents in the 2010 elections. More than 85 percent of seats were instead awarded to Mubarak loyalists.
The call for a boycott of this upcoming vote comes as little surprise since ElBaradei's opposition coalition has warned it would not take part in the elections if certain conditions were not met first. The opposition says it wants a real national dialogue that leads to the formation of a national unity government, changes to the new constitution and peace on the streets.
On the second anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising this year, anger spilled out onto the streets and violence again engulfed the nation. About 70 people died in a wave of protests, clashes and riots in the past four weeks, and more than half were killed in the city of Port Said alone.
Undeterred by the turmoil, Morsi called for elections to begin in April. His Muslim Brotherhood party hailed the timing of the vote and called on all groups to participate.
The Brotherhood has consistently come ahead in elections since Mubarak's ouster two years ago, while liberal parties have trailed significantly behind. They won nearly half the seats in the first parliamentary elections after the uprising. That body was disbanded on June 14, 2012, after the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that a third of the chamber's members were elected illegally.
Unlike under Mubarak, foreign groups are allowed to monitor elections in Egypt, but have complained they are not able to monitor them freely. Voting irregularities are still prevalent and critics have complained that election laws, still being hashed out, are being written in favor of the Morsi's Brotherhood supporters.
Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne and into the catch fence during a multi-car crash involving Justin Allgaier (31), Brian Scott (2) and others during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne and into the catch fence during a multi-car crash involving Justin Allgaier (31), Brian Scott (2) and others during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Emergency officials put out a fire from driver Kyle Larson's engine after his car hit the wall and safety fence along the front grandstands on the final lap of a NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III, left, speaks at news conference with Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR senior vice president, after numerous spectators were injured when driver Kyle Larson's car crashed in a catch fence on the last lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
The engine from Kyle Larson's car sits burning next to other parts from the car near a grandstand fence after the car hit the wall and safety fence along the front stretch on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Emergency personnel attend to an injured spectatos in front of the grandstands after Kyle Larson's car hit the safety wall and fence along the front stretch on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? At least 33 fans were injured Saturday during a NASCAR race when a car flew into the fence at Daytona International Speedway, hurling a tire and large pieces of debris into the stands.
The accident happened on the last lap of the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of Sunday's Daytona 500, which officials said would go on as scheduled.
The crash began as the field approached the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski to preserve the win. That triggered a chain reaction, and rookie Kyle Larson hit the cars in front of him and went airborne into the fence.
The entire front end was sheared off Larson's car, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Chunks of debris from the car were thrown into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.
The 20-year-old Larson stood in shock several yards away from his car as fans in the stands waived frantically for help. Smoke from the burning engine briefly clouded the area, and emergency vehicles descended on the scene.
Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.
"It was freaky. When I looked to my right, the accident happened," said Rick Harpster of Orange Park, Fla., who had a bird's-eye view of the wreck. "I looked over and I saw a tire fly straight over the fence into the stands, but after that I didn't see anything else That was the worst thing I have seen, seeing that tire fly into the stands. I knew it was going to be severe."
Speedway President Joie Chitwood said 14 fans were treated on site, and 14 others were taken to hospitals. Chitwood didn't give any updates on their conditions. Local officials said 19 fans were taken to neighboring hospitals, including two who were arrived in critical condition but were later listed in stable condition.
The accident happened the day before the Sprint Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 ? NASCAR's version of the Super Bowl. Daytona workers could be seen repairing the large section of fence where Larson hit, as well as the wall that was damaged in the accident.
"First and foremost our thoughts and prayers are with our race fans," Chitwood said. "Following the incident we responded appropriately according to our safety protocols, and had emergency medical personnel at the incident immediately.
"We're in the process of repairing the facility and will be ready to go racing tomorrow."
As emergency workers tended to injured fans and ambulance sirens wailed in the background, a somber Tony Stewart skipped the traditional post-race victory celebration.
Stewart, who won for the 19th time at Daytona and seventh time in the last nine season-opening Nationwide races, was in no mood to celebrate.
"The important thing is what going on on the frontstretch right now," said Stewart, the three-time NASCAR champion. "We've always known, and since racing started, this is a dangerous sport. But it's hard. We assume that risk, but it's hard when the fans get caught up in it.
"So as much as we want to celebrate right now and as much as this is a big deal to us, I'm more worried about the drivers and the fans that are in the stands right now because that was ... I could see it all in my mirror, and it didn't look good from where I was at."
The accident spread into the upper deck and emergency crews treated fans on both levels. There were five stretchers that appeared to be carrying fans out, and a helicopter flew overhead. A forklift was used to pluck Larson's engine out of the fence.
"It's a violent wreck. Just seeing the carnage on the racetrack, it's truly unbelievable," driver Justin Allgaier said.
It was a chaotic finish to a race that was stopped for nearly 20 minutes five laps from the finish by a 13-car accident that sent driver Michael Annett to a hospital, where his Richard Petty Motorsports team said he would be held overnight with bruising to his chest.
The race resumed with three laps to go, and the final accident occurred with Smith trying to hold off Keselowski through the final turn.
"I tried to throw a block. It's Daytona, you want to go for the win here," Smith said. "I don't know how you can play it any different other than concede second place, and I wasn't willing to do that today. Our job is to put them in position to win, and it was, and it didn't work out."
As the cars began wrecking all around Smith and Keselowski, Stewart slid through for the win, but Larson plowed into Keselowski and his car was sent airborne into the stands. When Larson's car came to a stop, it was missing its entire front end. The 20-year-old, who made his Daytona debut this week, stood apparently stunned, hands on his hips, several feet away from his car, before finally making the mandatory trip to the care center.
He said his first thought was with the fans.
"I hope all the fans are OK and all the drivers are all right," Larson said. "I took a couple big hits there and saw my engine was gone. Just hope everybody's all right."
He said he was along for the ride in the last-lap accident.
"I was getting pushed from behind, I felt like, and by the time my spotter said lift or go low, it was too late," Larson said. "I was in the wreck and then felt like it was slowing down and I looked like I could see the ground. Had some flames come in the cockpit, but luckily I was all right and could get out of the car quick."
It appeared fans were lined right along the fence when Larson's car sailed up and into it, but Chitwood indicated there was a buffer. He said there would be no changes to the seating before the Daytona 500.
"We don't anticipate moving any of our fans," Chitwood said. "We had our safety protocols in place. Our security maintained a buffer that separates the fans from the fencing area. With the fencing being prepared tonight to our safety protocols, we expect to go racing tomorrow with no changes."
Larson's car appeared to hit where the cross-over gate ? a section that can be opened for people to travel back and forth from the infield to the grandstands ? is located in the fence. Previous accidents in which drivers hit crossover gates were severe, but the gates were in the wall and not the fence for Mike Harmon's accident at Bristol in 2002 and Michael Waltrip's at the same track in 1990.
Still, NASCAR senior vice president Steve O'Donnell said it would be studied.
"I think we look at this after every incident," O'Donnell said. "We've learned in the past certain protocols put in place today are a result of prior incidents. Again, our initial evaluation is still ongoing. But it's certainly something we'll look at. If we can improve upon it, we'll certainly put that in play as soon as we can."
Larson had been scheduled to race his sprint car later Saturday night in Ocala, Fla., and even seemed restless to get there during the late stages of the Nationwide race. He pulled out of the event following the accident.
"Honestly, the race itself pales in comparison to the injuries sustained by the fans," said Chip Ganassi, the team owner who has Larson in his driver development program. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the fans that were injured as a result of the crash. As for Kyle, I am very happy that he is OK."
Keselowski watched a replay of the final accident, and said his first thoughts were with the fans. As for the accident, he agreed he tried to make a winning move and Smith tried to block.
"He felt like that's what he had to do, and that's his right. The chaos comes with it," Keselowski said. "I made the move and he blocked it, and the two of us got together and started the chain events that caused that wreck. First and foremost, just want to make sure everyone in the stands is OK and we're thinking about them."
Keselowski said the incident could cast a pall on the Daytona 500.
"I think until we know exactly the statuses of everyone involved, it's hard to lock yourself into the 500," Keselowski said. "Hopefully, we'll know soon and hopefully everyone's OK. And if that's the case, we'll staring focusing on Sunday."
___
AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston and Jerome Minerva in Daytona Beach and Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.
Perfect Redecorating Recommendations, Tips, And Pleasures
Home improvement allows to produce a property genuinely the one you have. Having every one of the proper information and facts can save you cash and prevent trouble for oneself or a loved one. These guidelines will bring you started.
It can be easy to enhance your home?s value without the need of task a tremendous project. If you want to sell your property, take into consideration doing a number of small jobs. An excellent example is actually a thoroughly clean jacket of indoor and outside color. Such as this which is relatively low in cost can improve your home?s worth tremendously.
Before signing about the dotted line, be sure to meticulously peruse any agreement drawn up using a service provider for your house upgrades. As goofy as it can certainly appear to be, you need to make sure anything you are agreeing to is always to your endorsement. Should you neglect to browse the commitment, the contractor might take you for all that you?re well worth. Read every thing, no matter how a lot believe in you may have in the service provider.
A terrific way to reduce the fee for your utility bill is to use a motion detector light-weight rather than standard veranda gentle. Light may still be turned on personally, and you will change the sensitivity on the majority of designs.
Protect the surfaces to get security if you are doing any renovations. When you begin piece of art, irrespective of how hard you keep it neat, there will inevitably be splatters that will terrain on other surfaces around the area that you?re piece of art. Also, when you?re doing any demolition, there will sections traveling close to that will scuff and harm the surrounding surface areas. When you don?t plan to color your surfaces, you should cover them to safeguard them.
Even though an area is lacking in sq footage doesn?t mean it needs to seem to be confined or limited. Search for strategies to create the room appear less heavy plus more airy. Thoroughly clean your house windows right up until they shimmer, and wide open the window shades! Sun light will make any space really feel greater. Also, use light-weight shades around the surfaces and keep the mess to a minimum. Your tiny space won?t appear crowded any longer.
The decision to fix up or expand your present property is actually cost-effective than seeking to commence anew by purchasing a new house. When you redecorate your home, you can make it merely how you will need it, rather than moving into a home created by somebody else. Makeovers may also be far more inexpensive than purchasing a new property totally.
Hiring a contractor right after a catastrophe has to be done very carefully. There are some shady character types who wait around for emergency circumstances to take place after which take advantage of those who are naive and who definitely have a having faith in cardiovascular system. Perform a little research prior to hiring someone to make fixes in your destroyed home.
If you want boost your home?s worth, consider getting a service provider and cooperating on new tips. The installers know what improvments will heighten the most value.
In case you are concentrating on numerous projects in the identical place, carefully prepare the transaction where you full them. It?s wise to replace cabinets very first and therefore the floor, by way of example. That way, design debris or problems comes about simply to the floors that will be replaced. Take the time to rest and pre-plan your projects in writing before commencing. You?ll be grateful you probably did.
Redesigning is extremely rewarding, and also calls for quite a bit of work. When you know very well what you?re doing, you?ll be able to efficiently complete all of your redecorating assignments. While you read through previously mentioned, be sure you do your homework to ensure that you obtain the final results that you are looking for.
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Willem Verstraten captured a wide range of exotic cars in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. London is definitely in the top 5 of car spotting locations in the world. The ?Arab summer? has now become infamous among supercar fans worldwide.
The set of photos includes some really rare exotic cars like a Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Edizione Tecnica, a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, various Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, a Ferrari 599 GTO, an Audi R8 GT and much more automotive highlights. C
heck it out in the gallery below and make sure you like his Facebook page!
Feb. 21, 2013 ? Feeling good about spending money on someone else rather than for personal benefit may be a universal response among people in both impoverished countries and rich nations, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
"Our findings suggest that the psychological reward experienced from helping others may be deeply ingrained in human nature, emerging in diverse cultural and economic contexts," said lead author Lara Aknin, PhD, of Simon Fraser University in Canada.
The findings provide the first empirical evidence that "the warm glow" of spending on someone else rather than on oneself may be a widespread component of human psychology, the authors reported in the study published online in APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Researchers found a positive relationship between personal well-being and spending on others in 120 of 136 countries covered in the 2006-2008 Gallup World Poll. The survey comprised 234,917 individuals, half of whom were male, with an average age of 38. The link between well-being and spending on others was significant in every region of the world, and it was not affected by other factors among those surveyed, such as income, social support, perceived freedom and perceived national corruption, the study said.
The results were similar in several experiments the researchers themselves conducted with participants in wealthy and poor countries. For one analysis, they compared responses from 820 individuals recruited mostly from universities in Canada and Uganda. The participants wrote about a time they had either spent money on themselves or on others, after which they were asked to report how happy they felt. They were also asked if they spent money on another person to build or strengthen a relationship. People who remembered spending money on someone else felt happier than those who recalled spending money on themselves, even when the researchers controlled for the extent to which people built or strengthened a relationship, according to the study.
The researchers obtained the same results when they conducted an online survey of 101 adults in India. Some respondents were asked to recall recently spending money on themselves or someone else, while others were tested for their happiness level without recalling past spending. Those who recalled spending on someone else said they had a greater feeling of well-being than those who remembered spending on themselves or those who weren't asked about spending.
In another experiment, 207 university students in Canada and South Africa reported higher levels of well-being after purchasing a goody bag for a sick child rather than buying one for themselves. Both groups went to labs where they were given a small amount of money and told to buy a bag of treats for themselves or one for a child at a local hospital.
"From an evolutionary perspective, the emotional benefits that people experience when they help others acts to encourage generous behavior beneficial to long-term human survival," said Aknin.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Psychological Association, via Newswise.
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Journal Reference:
Aknin, L. B., Barrington-Leigh, C. P., Dunn, E. W., Helliwell, J. F., Burns, J., Biswas-Diener, R., Kemeza, I., Nyende, P., Ashton-James, C. E., & Norton, M. I. Pro-social Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (in press) 2013 DOI: 10.1037/a0031578
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.
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Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
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