" />

Education

Fat is a prejudice issue

By
May 4, 2012

Venus of Willendorf 008 Fat is a prejudice issue

Are you fat! It’s a shame that our societies treat people that are over-weight with such disrespect.  This attitude to alienate individuals who are obese continues to linger despite  organizations attempt to educate the ignorant. Isn’t it time we bury discrimination in sand?

http://www.yepod.com/?p=49558

thats my comment …pass it on,

Dr Anthony

Yepod.com

poweredbyguardianREV Fat is a prejudice issueThis article titled “Fat is a prejudice issue” was written by Susie Orbach, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 3rd May 2012 14.10 UTC

A new study shows significant levels of discrimination towards fat people at work. No surprise, perhaps, when we live in a fat-phobic world. Today fat has become not a description of size but a moral category tainted with criticism and contempt.

Fat shaming is a new and vicious sport. Fat youngsters in Georgia have their photos pasted on billboards like mug shots. Children and their parents are being shamed for looking different than the thousands of Photoshopped pictures we see weekly on our screens, phone, computers, laptops and magazines. No wonder society has a thing about fat. Fat people are so rarely included in visual culture that fat is perceived as a blot on the landscape of sleek and slim.

Today our idea of fat is imbued with disease, indulgence, poverty, disregard for personal dignity and sloppiness. In recent characterisations, fat is a signal of determined self-abuse and the cause of preventable diseases such as cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

But is it true? Part of what drives this prejudice is a denial of the evidence that demonstrates that it is not fat per se that is a health problem. Indeed, a 2005 study led by Katherine Flegal of the Centres for Disease Control in the US found that people in the “overweight” category of 25-30 BMI (where Brad Pitt and George Clooney sit) demonstrate a lower death rate than their peers who are of “normal” weight.

Thin isn’t good and fat bad. Stable weight, for example, causes far less stress to the heart than going up and down the scales in weight. Thin people with health issues don’t get demonised for their size. Thank goodness. But then neither should fat people.

When it comes to looking for a job, there is, as this study shows, serious discrimination. Our idea of a healthy body is so destabilised that insecure people have come to bolster their own bodies by deeming others – those with fat bodies – less worthy, less capable and less employable.

Fat people are regarded as less successful at restraint. The paradox of consumer culture is that we should and must consume – our economy depends on it – but we should at the same time do so discreetly and expensively. Fat challenges this idea. Fat dares to show. Fat is disdained because it is read as greed and an inability to choose or say no.

Of course fat doesn’t really say or imply such things, but surrounded by images of perfected bodies, invitingly displaying the hugely expensive and lavishly marketed goodies that we are roused to desire, fat becomes the vehicle on to which we project all the ugly aspects of our over-consumption and hunger for objects. Consumer society tantalises us. We then try within ourselves to control the needs that are being constantly stimulated. We value holding back and then assign to fat people the contempt we can feel for our own longings. It’s not unlike other forms of discrimination. Things we don’t like or discipline in ourselves we choose to see in others, and in another group. In this case, people who have nothing in common except for their size.

Fat looks on the surface as though it is about a failure of restraint. It isn’t actually any more an issue of restraint than it is for many thin or medium-sized people. Most eating problems don’t show. Fat, which may or may not mean an eating problem, does. That doesn’t make it immoral or contemptible. It doesn’t mean the fat individual has faulty judgment or inferior leadership skills. It certainly doesn’t sanction discrimination. What it does demonstrate is that cruelty and stupidity arises when we are pressed to make our bodies into uniform shapes. This creates widespread body anxiety, and makes us search for a scapegoat to feel secure. We know from other forms of discrimination what a fruitless and lousy deal that is.

Fat is a prejudice issue

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Why plain packaging will not stop youths smoking

By
February 18, 2012

Cigarettes on display at 005 Why plain packaging will not stop youths smoking

http://www.yepod.com/?p=12616

Kids want to cool and smoking allows them to go against society rules…I like to call be the James Dean Syndrome . When there’s an opportunity to break the rules and get away with it…this is a source of excitement for youths. So the consequences of their actions does not come into play at the moment, unless they are caught and may aware of their lack of judgement. So as parents we must keep an ever-lasting watch on them.

That’s my comment…pass it on,

Dr Anthony

http://www.yepod.com

poweredbyguardian Why plain packaging will not stop youths smokingThis article titled “Why plain packaging will not stop youths smoking” was written by Richard White, for The Guardian on Tuesday 20th September 2011 15.00 UTC

Australia’s health minister Nicola Roxon is aiming for the country to be the first to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes. In what she calls a “courageous” move against the tobacco industry, legislation is expected to come into force on 1 July 2012 that will make all packets a uniform olive green with the name of the brand in small type. The World Medical Association has called on other governments to follow Australia’s example.

Here in the UK, health secretary Andrew Lansley says he wants to look at the idea of introducing plain packaging so that brightly-coloured cigarette packets do not lure youths into smoking. The coalition government will launch an official consultation by the end of the year to discuss introducing plain packaging in England as part of its tobacco control plan. It is unlikely to happen soon, however, as ministers and the Department of Health have stated that they want to judge the effectiveness of the measure in Australia before making a firm decision.

The immediate rhetoric in favour of plain packaging is the protection of children: that by having dull, plain packages, minors, and indeed non-smokers, will not be tempted to buy a packet on impulse, having been enticed by the shiny packet. The measure is an extension of the ban on tobacco companies advertising their products.

No evidence exists, however, to suggest that anyone “impulsively” buys cigarettes, nor is there evidence that the policy would make any difference to smoking rates as no country has yet implemented it. Just as a teetotaller would not be persuaded to take up drinking just because WKD is colourful, there is nothing to suggest that non-smokers start smoking because the packet has fancy emblems. In fact, with large text warnings on the front and graphic pictures on the back taking up a large portion of the packaging, there is little left of the manufacturers’ own designs.

A display ban in England has already been agreed on, which will come into effect from next year for large stores and 2015 for smaller shops such as newsagents, and if tobacco is being hidden then no one, child or adult, will be able to see the packets whether they are plain or decorated with flashing lights.

Behind the counter

We already have measures to stop children smoking. Cigarettes are always, without exception, kept behind the counter so neither child nor adult has any access to buying tobacco without the cashier physically handing it to them. Even if we accept the rationale that people impulsively want to smoke because the packet lures them in like fish to a worm on a hook, minors are still faced with the problem of needing to be in possession of identification proving they are over 18. Unlike alcohol, cigarettes cannot be pinched off the shelf and placed into a minor’s pocket as they hurry out the door and around the back to spark up.

Indeed, if anything, alcohol is a far bigger concern because children can simply pick up a bottle of spirits, place it in their rucksack and walk out. Within minutes, they could suffer alcohol poisoning which could lead to death. There are other dangerous things in a shop that minors can impulsively take, such as paracetamol, but tobacco is not one of them.

As for existing smokers, people still buy alcohol with plain labels so it is unlikely smokers will be deterred by plain packaging. Rather, we may just see an increase in cigarette cases, which would allow minors to be as creative as possible, thus potentially encouraging them to take up the habit.

The NHS Information Centre report, Statistics on Smoking: England, 2011 noted that last year over a quarter of children aged 11–15 had tried smoking while 5% confessed to being regular smokers.

Undoubtedly, plain packaging will fail in reducing youth smoking rates because counterfeit cigarettes are far cheaper and the criminals selling them will not require identification proving the buyer to be over 18 – rates might even increase.

The real danger lies in the smuggling trade. With cigarettes now the most widely smuggled legal product and about 85% of cheap cigarettes sold on London streets being counterfeit, introducing a policy that would only make it easier for criminal outfits to mimic a packet should be cause for grave concern.

• Richard White is the author of Smoke Screens: The Truth About Tobacco and writes about the latest policies on tobacco control.

Why plain packaging will not stop youths smoking

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Why willpower matters – and how to get it

By
February 8, 2012

Roy Bauermeister 007 Why willpower matters – and how to get it

Temptations are everywhere you look…but you can learn to refrain from them…aren’t you tired of being beaten by your own weaknesses?  Commit yourself to accomplishing your goals…let the year of 2012… be the year of the new you…you have the willpower to overcome all obstacles…whether it is to get that promotion,lose ten pounds, be nicer to people,learn the piano,get more education…you have the willpower within you…for so man y years you have gone without…now it’s time to change your destiny…make a plan,find the willpower, and find success…And when you do succeed I will be the first to congratulate you…welcome to the top of your dreams.. 

That’s my comment..pass it on,

Dr Anthony

Yepod.com

http://www.yepod.com/?p=31831

me pic Dec 2 20111 150x150 Why willpower matters – and how to get it

poweredbyguardianREV Why willpower matters – and how to get itThis article titled “Why willpower matters – and how to get it” was written by Jon Henley, for The Guardian on Tuesday 7th February 2012 20.30 UTC

In the smart restaurant of a very smart hotel in the West End of London, Roy F Baumeister, eminent American social psychology professor, orders a lunch of fish and chips, and then decides not to eat the chips. “I won’t eat something that’s not good for me unless it’s absolutely perfect, and it’s going to give me real pleasure,” he says. “I’m afraid … Well, it just didn’t look like these were going to do either.”

What willpower, you might say. You’d be right; the chips looked pretty good. But Baumeister is also, coincidentally, a leading authority on that very subject, and has just published a smash-hit book on it with New York Times science writer John Tierney.

Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength distills three decades of academic research (Baumeister’s contribution) into self-control and willpower, which the Florida State University social psychologist bluntly identifies as “the key to success and a happy life”.

The result is also (Tierney’s contribution) readable, accessible and practical. It’s an unusual self-help book, in fact, in that it offers not just advice, tips and insights to help develop, conserve and boost willpower, but grounds them in some science.

Willpower is, Baumeister argues over lunch, “what separates us from the animals. It’s the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation – do what’s right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It’s central, in fact, to civilisation.”

The disciplined and dutiful Victorians, all stiff upper lip and lashings of moral fibre, had willpower in spades; as, sadly, did the Nazis, who referred to their evil adventure as the “triumph of will”. In the 60s we thought otherwise: let it all hang out; if it feels good, do it; I’m OK, you’re OK.

But without willpower, it seems, we’re actually rarely OK. In the 60s a sociologist called Walter Mischel was interested in how young children resist instant gratification; he offered them the choice of a marshmallow now, or two if they could wait 15 minutes. Years later, he tracked some of the kids down, and made a startling discovery.

Mischel’s findings have recently been confirmed by a remarkable long-term study in New Zealand, concluded in 2010. For 32 years, starting at birth, a team of international researchers tracked 1,000 people, rating their observed and reported self-control and willpower in a different ways.

What they found was that, even taking into account differences of intelligence, race and social class, those with high self-control – those who, in Mischel’s experiment, held out for two marshmallows later – grew into healthier, happier and wealthier adults.

Those with low willpower, the study discovered, fared less well academically. They were more likely to be in low-paying jobs with few savings, to be overweight, to have drug or alcohol problems, and to have difficulty maintaining stable relationships (many were single parents). They were also nearly four times more likely to have a criminal conviction. “Willpower,” concludes Baumeister, “is one of the most important predictors of success in life.”

So how can we improve ours? Baumeister’s big idea, now borne out by hundreds of ingenious experiments in his and other social psychologists’ labs, is that willpower – the force by which we control and manage our thoughts, impulses and emotions and which helps us persevere with difficult tasks – is actually rather like a kind of moral muscle.

Like a muscle, it can get tired if you overuse it. Exercising willpower, but also making decisions and choices and taking initiatives, all seem to draw on the same well of energy, Baumeister has established. In experiments, he found that straight after accomplishing a task that required them to restrain their impulses (saying no to chocolate biscuits, suppressing their emotions while watching a three-tissue weepy), students were far more likely to underperform at other willpower-related jobs such as squeezing a handgrip or solving a difficult puzzle.

“The immune system also dips into the same pot, which is big, but finite,” says Baumeister, “and, we are pretty sure, so does women’s premenstrual syndrome. Having a cold tends to reduce your self-control, and PMS does the same. We get cranky and irritable, but it’s not that we have nastier impulses – it’s that our usual restraints have become weakened.”

So best avoid trying to do too many things involving mental effort at the same time, or if you’re ill. As with a muscle, though, you can train your willpower. Even small, day-to-day acts of willpower such as maintaining good posture, speaking in complete sentences or using a computer mouse with the other hand, can pay off by reinforcing longer-term self-control in completely unrelated activities, Baumeister has found. People previously told to sit or stand up straight whenever they remembered later performed much better in lab willpower tests.

The final way in which willpower resembles a mental “muscle” is that when its strength is depleted, it can be revived with glucose. Getting a decent night’s sleep and eating well – good, slow-burning fuel – is important in the exercise of willpower, but in times of dire need a quick shot of sugar can, according to Baumeister’s lab tests, make all the difference.

(This is, of course, something of a problem for crash dieters, who basically need to eat in order to summon up the willpower not to eat. Indeed some very strong impulses, such as the behaviour often exhibited by males in possession of an erect penis, can sometimes prove completely resistant to willpower, even after the ingestion of a can of Coca-Cola.)

Baumeister cites a “very impressive demonstration” of the glucose argument: in a study published last year, researchers found that Israeli judges making the difficult and sensitive decision of whether or not to grant parole opted to do so in roughly 65% of cases after lunch, and hardly ever just before.

Baumeister’s top willpower tips: Build up your self-control by exercising it regularly in small ways. Learn to recognise signs that your willpower may be waning. Don’t crash diet. Don’t try to do too much at once. Establish good habits and routines that will take the strain off your willpower. Learn how to draw up an effective to-do list.

Don’t put yourself in temptation’s way, or if you can’t avoid it, make it harder for yourself to succumb. Use your willpower actively: plan, commit, and do so (like members of religious communities) publicly. “People with low willpower,” Baumeister says, “use it to get themselves out of crises. People with high willpower use it not to get themselves into crises.”

Much of this, of course, is in the book. You may even learn how to say no to chips.

Why willpower matters – and how to get it

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Rapper Heavy D died from pulmonary embolism caused by DVT

By
December 29, 2011

Dwight Arrington Myers ak 006 Rapper Heavy D died from pulmonary embolism caused by DVT

Deep vein thrombosis is primarily a blood clot in a deep vein…think of a blood clot as a piece of tissue in your vein…it shouldn’t be there …but it is..now if it dislodges from its location, it becomes a piece of scab traveling in your vein and if it travels to the lungs…it becomes known as a pulmonary embolism. In either case, a very serious condition requiring emergency medical care. Certain diseases,life choices, trauma,infection,hospilizations,or pregnancy can increase the risks of deep vein thrombosis(DVT). So ask your family physician if you are at risk!

Pass it on and save a life…

http://www.yepod.com/?p=25541

Dr Anthony

Yepod.com   

poweredbyguardianREV Rapper Heavy D died from pulmonary embolism caused by DVTThis article titled “Rapper Heavy D died from pulmonary embolism caused by DVT” was written by Sean Michaels, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 29th December 2011 10.57 UTC

The sudden death of Heavy D was down to a pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis, coroners have announced. The rapper was killed by a blood clot that probably formed in his leg during a flight from London to Los Angeles, and which made its way fatally to his lung.

Although Heavy D’s autopsy was initially inconclusive, the Los Angeles county department of coroner have now completed their investigation into the 44-year-old’s cause of death. When Heavy D was found outside his home on 8 November, collapsed but conscious, the clot in his lungs was likely restricting blood flow and putting severe pressure on his heart. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre.

Heavy D’s flight “is the connection”, Craig Harvey, chief coroner investigator, told the New York Daily News. “He had reportedly been in London for about six weeks and had returned to LA within the preceding week or so.” The 344lb (26 stone) rapper was found to have deep leg vein thrombosis, pointing to the formation of a clot during the long flight. Air travel, as well as obesity, are common causes of thrombosis.

A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot formed in another part of the body migrates to the lungs and blocks an artery.

Despite early reports, pneumonia has been ruled out as a cause of death. So have drugs, despite a toxicology report that found medication in Heavy D’s system. “He was treating himself with cough syrup,” Harvey told the LA Times, “but it was not contributory.”

Born Dwight Arrington Myers, Heavy D was one of hip-hop’s leading voices in the late 80s and 90s. As leader of Heavy D & the Boyz, he released five top 40 albums in the US and the international hit single Now That We Found Love in 1991. Before returning to the stage in October 2011, Heavy D had not performed live in 15 years.

Rapper Heavy D died from pulmonary embolism caused by DVT

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Patients should have online access to medical records, says report

By
December 23, 2011

Woman filing medical reco 007 Patients should have online access to medical records, says report

Patients having access to their medical sounds like a good idea…as long as they attempt to use it to educate themselves and generate questions to ask their doctors. I support this idea 100 percent and look forward to it’s inception. This could facilitate patients take a more active role in supporting their health decisions.

http://www.yepod.com/?p=24491

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

http://www.Yepod.com

poweredbyguardian Patients should have online access to medical records, says reportThis article titled “Patients should have online access to medical records, says report” was written by Denis Campbell, health correspondent, for The Guardian on Friday 23rd December 2011 01.27 UTC

NHS patients will be allowed to see and edit their medical records under proposals in a government-commissioned report.

The plan is contained in a report that an expert advisory group, headed by Professor Steve Field, the coalition’s NHS troubleshooter, is finalising before handing it to the Department of Health.

The changes would enable patients to view their whole medical history, study the result of diagnostic tests and see what drugs they have been prescribed before. They would also be able to check on their next appointment and order a repeat prescription.

The NHS Future Forum will outline the significant extension of patients’ rights in a report on how greater availability of information in the health service can improve treatment and make users of NHS services feel more involved and empowered.

The plan will help the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, finally realise his longstanding goal of an “information revolution” intended to help put patients more in control of their own care.

The scheme could be operational in England inside three years, the forum believes.

One forum member said that in an age when citizens could access their bank account details from their home computer, it was “unsustainable” for existing restrictions on patients’ access to their medical records to continue.

Currently, patients’ right to see their records is protected under the NHS Constitution but they have to apply for access and explain why they want to see them.

Although the recommendations are not binding on the government, Lord Howe, the health minister in the House of Lords, has already welcomed that plan. “We fully support patients having online access to their personal GP records. Our vision for a modern NHS is to give patients more information and control over their health,” he told today’s Times.

Patient groups are also likely to back the plan. “Many patients phone our helpline saying that they are having difficulty accessing their medical records from their GP, even though the NHS Constitution states that they have a legal right to do this,” said Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association.

But, in a sign that not everyone involved may welcome the change, Murphy added that patient confidentiality was crucial.

“Health records are among the most personal and sensitive information kept about patients and they must be protected. There must be a guarantee that all patient data will be protected and that it will not be possible to trace back information to an individual”, she said.

Family doctors’ attitudes to the plan will be vital. GPs may not back the idea of patients having such access, which could see them allowed to suggest corrections. But the forum’s report will highlight the positive effect on doctor-patient relations of introducing such a scheme..

Patients should have online access to medical records, says report

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Sir Isaac Newton’s own annotated Principia Mathematica goes online

By
December 12, 2011

Newton manuscript publish 007 Sir Isaac Newtons own annotated Principia Mathematica goes online

Wow…Sir Isaac Newton’s notes are now online..! All due the efforts of Cambridge University’s desire to preserve and share Newton’s writing with the world. We surely live in a special time where technology has given us the ability to reach out and share knowledge with one another…a special thank you and Merry Christmas to Cambridge University…I look forward to reading the papers of Sir Isaac Newton..!

http://www.yepod.com/?p=22716

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

logo smaller with star Sir Isaac Newtons own annotated Principia Mathematica goes online 

poweredbyguardian Sir Isaac Newtons own annotated Principia Mathematica goes onlineThis article titled “Sir Isaac Newton’s own annotated Principia Mathematica goes online” was written by Stephen Bates, for The Guardian on Monday 12th December 2011 00.05 UTC

Cambridge University is putting the papers of Sir Isaac Newton online for the first time, including his own annotated copy of his greatest work, Principia Mathematica, with notes and calculations in his handwriting revising the book and answering critics.

So far, more than 4,000 pages, about 20% of the university’s Newton archive, have been put into digital form as part of a programme that will eventually give the public access to the papers of other famous scientists, ranging from Darwin to Ernest Rutherford. Included in the papers are the handwritten notes made after Newton’s death, in 1727, by his colleague Thomas Pellet, who was asked by relatives of the great scientist to examine the papers with a view to publication.

Pellet’s dismissive note, saying “Not fit to be printed”, can be seen on some pages – which are now, inevitably, among those most closely studied. It is thought Pellet was attempting to censor some of Newton’s more juvenile calculations and, more urgently, stifle his unorthodox religious views.

Grant Young, the university library’s digitisation manager, said: “You can see Newton’s mind at work in the calculations and how his thinking was developing. His copy of the Principia contains pages interleaved with the printed text with his notes.

“The book has suffered much, pages are badly burned or water-stained, so it is very delicate and rarely put on show. Before today anyone who wanted to see these things had to come to Cambridge and get permission to see them, but we are now bringing Cambridge University library to the world at the click of a mouse.”

Other papers now released come from Newton’s notebooks and the “waste book” he carried with him to continue his work while the university was closed down during the Plague in 1665.

These documents show his initial work in understanding calculus.

Among the next papers to be released will be those of the 18th-century Board of Longitude, which was charged with securing a more accurate method of navigation at sea.

The records of the early astronomers royal, including Edmund Halley and John Flamsteed, will also be put online. Charles Darwin’s papers are already being published separately online but eventually will be incorporated into the digital project.

The science papers project has received an initial grant of £1.5m from the Polonsky charitable foundation, which supports research and higher education.

Sir Isaac Newtons own annotated Principia Mathematica goes online

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Fingerprint Digital aims at kid-apps market with ‘Mom-Comm’ feature

By
December 8, 2011

fingerprint Fingerprint Digital aims at kid apps market with Mom Comm feature

More and more applications are using our individual fingerprints as a security lock option to protect our property and family. Fingerprints are a great way to reduce access or control access to our computers,phones,homes,etc….so as the market demand continues to grow…we should see more use of  fingerprint technology… 

Pass it on,

http://www.yepod.com/?p=21719

Dr Anthony

   

poweredbyguardian Fingerprint Digital aims at kid apps market with Mom Comm featureThis article titled “Fingerprint Digital aims at kid-apps market with ‘Mom-Comm’ feature” was written by Stuart Dredge, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 5th December 2011 15.00 UTC

There is no shortage of startups providing apps for children in 2011: Toca Boca, Mindshapes, Nosy Crow, Callaway Digital… and now Fingerprint Digital.

The San Francisco-based company has launched its first five iOS apps, and is counting on a feature called Mom-Comm to help it stand out from the herd. In short, it’s like a Game Center for kids and parents, providing rewards and app recommendations for the former, and an update on their progress for the latter.

Fingerprint was founded by Nancy MacIntyre, who previously worked at electronic learning company LeapFrog Enterprises as executive vice president of product innovation and marketing. Her new company raised $1.4m (£0.9m) in September 2011 to fuel her ambitions of finding an audience among 3-8 year-olds and their parents.

“There are tens of thousands of kids’ apps out there, and for parents just discovering what apps are good and knowing how to find them in the App Store is problematic,” she says.

“Once playing, they have no idea what their kids are doing with them. We set out to create a network of high-quality kids content where it’s easy for the parent to know what games are appropriate for their children, and get an insight into what the child is playing.”

This communication goes a bit further than just telling parents what their children have been doing. Parents can send voice or text messages of encouragement to their children within the apps, while the kids can send pre-scripted messages to their parents to tell them about achievements.

Fingerprint’s first batch of iOS titles includes three in its Big Kid Life franchise, focusing on firefighters, vets and fairy princesses, with a mixture of educational puzzles and more standard gameplay.

Fingerprint Play Maker is an avatar-based app designed to teach maths and spelling skills, while DoReMi 1-2-3 is a musical app introducing pitch and melody through the medium of cute animals. This last app is the work of an external developer, Creativity Mobile.

“Our apps were created to showcase how the platform works, and train people in how to use it and engage with it,” says MacIntyre. “We’ve created an SDK that third party developers can use to plug into our system, and we’ll have several more third-party apps coming out soon.”

Children will create their own character when they first use a Fingerprint game, and will then take that avatar from app to app, and device to device. They will also be able to collect and play with virtual pets, with one unlockable in every app – through play, it should be noted, not through an in-app purchase.

MacIntyre says that in Fingerprint’s tests, the messaging features have received the strongest response from parents and children. “We see it as transforming the solo app play of one child playing an app to making it a social experience between the child and their parent or caregiver,” she says.

“A child can send a message to mom, mom can send one back, and suddenly the parent is engaged in the learning. Kids have gotten really excited about that. We want to bring parents into the apps in a way that we think is interesting and clever.”

MacIntyre is under no illusions about the competitive nature of the kid-apps market, but she also warns that no developer in this space can afford to focus solely on their direct competition.

“Kids have so many choices,” she says. “The battle ground isn’t only about your apps versus Sesame Street. It’s about your apps versus Angry Birds. You need really compelling, fun content. We hope that our shared reward system gives children a reason to go from app to app, while bringing parents into the equation.”

The competitive kid-apps market could work in Fingerprint’s favour as it tries to get more third-party developers to use its SDK in their games and apps. MacIntyre says that the company’s pitch is its ability to deliver an audience for developers’ apps, while also providing them with analytics on how they’re being used.

“It gets them out of the mode of being one of tens of thousands of apps in the App Store, and into being one of a group of highly-curated very high-quality kids apps,” she says. “It’s not about being an app developer building one app at a time. It’s about the network.”

Fingerprint’s launch games are based on its own characters, but during the interview MacIntyre alludes to conversations she’s been having with children’s brands. Licensing looks set to play a part in the company’s future, although no deals have been announced yet.

“As a small company starting out, we need to attract as many customers as possible, and some anchor licensed brands is helpful in that regard,” she says. “However, the apps market has proven its ability to create new IP, and most of the biggest app brands are new IP. We’re really optimistic about Big Kid Life.”

Much of the competition for Fingerprint – but also many of its potential licensors – come from the toys industry that is very familiar to MacIntyre, given her background.

She thinks that most big toy companies still treat apps “as a marketing element” – something to bolster the brands of their physical toys, rather than a way to create new brands and become an important new revenue stream.

“I’m quite sure all of the major toy players are really thinking about the app business,” she says, though, expressing optimism about the idea of linking real-world toys with apps – something done already by Disney with its AppMates line.

What about companies like LeapFrog and Fisher Price making their own tablets for children, and so become a rival platform for kid-app developers to consider?

“Is it possible to have a good experience with a kid-oriented tablet? The answer is yes, but it’s still a toy,” says MacIntyre. “With the price of full tablets coming down, it will be very difficult for anybody to make a meaningful business out of making proprietary devices [for kids]. Every parent with an iPhone or iPad is actually a competitor for LeapFrog or Fisher Price.”

She cites a recent survey showing iOS devices at the top of children’s Christmas wishlists in the US as a sign that Apple’s devices in particular have “done an amazing job of becoming aspirational to children”.

Can Big Kid Life and Mom-Comm become similarly attractive to children, parents and other developers? 2012 should provide the answer.

Fingerprint Digital aims at kid apps market with Mom Comm feature

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Mapping the body: hyoid

By
December 7, 2011

hyroid mapping the body 007 Mapping the body: hyoid

The hyoid is a horse-shaped bone in the thoart…existing alone and being anchored by muscles surrounding it.  It helps with swallowing and does serve some protection . Normally located at the level of cervicals 3 and 4…in front or anterior of the cervical vertebra…many times in a case of murder, a victim who was strangulated would show a hyoid bone that was broken due to pressure applied to it…During CSI episode 9 Season 10: “We found the bones of a male body buried in three feet of dirt.  The hyoid bone was broken,which indicates death by strangulation,so…” here’s the link   http://subs.tv/en/se9/ep10/Csi_Crime_Scene_Investigation/hhmt1i4u/

http://www.yepod.com/?p=21712

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

logo smaller with star Mapping the body: hyoid
    

poweredbyguardian Mapping the body: hyoidThis article titled “Mapping the body: hyoid” was written by Gabriel Weston, for The Guardian on Monday 5th December 2011 20.30 UTC

The hyoid is the only bone in the throat. It is also the single bone in the body that doesn’t connect directly with any others, being anchored instead by ligaments and muscles. It is composed of a central portion called the body, flanked on each side by the greater and lesser cornu. If you run your finger backwards from your chin to the point where your head meets your neck and press gently, you will be able to feel the resistance of your own hyoid bone.

One of its functions is to anchor the back of the tongue while the rest is free to move. For this reason, it plays a crucial role in speech and swallowing. The hyoid also protects the fragile tissues of the larynx and pharynx.

Although the hyoid doesn’t often get seriously injured, it may break after trauma to the neck. It is a macabre statistic that in a postmortem study of a group of people murdered by strangulation, one third of victims were found to have fractured hyoids.

But most head-and-neck surgeons come into contact with the hyoid bone while performing something known as a Sistrunk’s operation. During embryological development, the thyroid gland starts life at the back of the tongue before finding its correct position in the neck. In some people, there is an abnormal remnant of this early journey, known as a thyroglossal duct. Cysts may develop anywhere along its course and appear as a painless lump in the mid line of the neck. Surgical removal is the best treatment and, in order to prevent recurrence, it is necessary to cut out a core of tissue running from the base of the tongue to the thyroid, including the central portion of the hyoid bone.

Gabriel Weston is a surgeon and author of Direct Red: A Surgeon’s Story.

Mapping the body: hyoid

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Mapping the body: fascia

By
November 30, 2011

fascia 007 Mapping the body: fascia

All kinds disease conditions can affect our bodies directly under the skin. Many of us, including myself have had the priviledge of dissecting cadavers for the sole purpose of education. It was an experience I will never forget and this opportunity gave me an enormous understanding of the human anatony! Dare to learn and continue learning. Map your body..

http://www.yepod.com/?p=20882

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

 logo smaller with star Mapping the body: fascia

poweredbyguardian Mapping the body: fasciaThis article titled “Mapping the body: fascia” was written by Gabriel Weston, for The Guardian on Monday 28th November 2011 20.00 UTC

Fascia is a fibrous connective tissue which is distributed throughout the body. It is made from dense bundles of collagen, and looks rather like cling-film. It surrounds muscles, organs, bones, nerves and blood vessels and prevents friction, allowing different structures to glide over each other on movement. For surgeons, it is a gift. Dissecting along fascia, known in surgical parlance as “finding the right plane” is a smooth and almost bloodless business. When planes are hard to find, or have been altered by disease, the process of operating becomes messy.

Plantar fasciitis, experienced by one in 10 people, also known as “policeman’s heel” because it tends to affect those who walk a lot, occurs when the fascia running along the sole of the foot becomes inflamed. Treatment is with stretching and rest.

Eosinophilic fasciitis is a rare condition in which there is build-up of a type of white blood cell called an eosinophil in the fascia and muscles of the hands, arms, legs and feet causing discomfort, redness and warmth. It is treated with anti-inflammatories and steroids.

But by far the worst condition to involve this connective tissue is the infamous necrotising fasciitis. Infection spreads like wildfire along the fascial planes, and a person may become extremely unwell with significant deep tissue destruction before any dramatic signs appear on the surface of the skin. High-dose intravenous antibiotics are given to anyone suspected of having contracted this devastating infection but, ultimately, the only way of saving someone is with aggressive surgery, sometimes involving amputation.

 

Mapping the body: fascia

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

The Brain is Wider Than the Sky by Bryan Appleyard – review

By
November 18, 2011

EEG 007 The Brain is Wider Than the Sky by Bryan Appleyard – review 

Perhaps IT technology can never replace the power of our minds …but one day it can come very close. I believe  there is a fear that IT technology will take away much of what is accomplished by us and could further obselete more people from current responsiblities. I am an optimist, and whatever advances we make in any field, one thing is constant…the human brain will always be required to control and maintain all technology…now and into the future. How widw is your brain?

http://www.yepod.com/?p=19308

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony   

poweredbyguardian The Brain is Wider Than the Sky by Bryan Appleyard – reviewThis article titled “The Brain is Wider Than the Sky by Bryan Appleyard – review” was written by Simon Ings, for The Observer on Thursday 17th November 2011 11.00 UTC

In 1610 Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei published Starry Messenger, a book of telescopic observations of the night sky, and opened the heavens to busy and ambitious imaginations. Johannes Kepler imagined a manned voyage to the moon in The Dream (1634). Galileo gave us much to look forward to. But the world never turns out to be what we expected.

Award-winning feature writer Bryan Appleyard reckons today’s neuroscientists are like Galileo. The images they pull from their fMRI scanners, tracing blood-flow in the living brain, are the equivalent of Galileo’s drawings of moon mountains. They are magnificent achievements – but they are the beginning of the story, not its end.

The Brain is Wider Than the Sky is not about the sciences of the mind. It’s about how ideas from those sciences are playing out in the culture at large. Appleyard is scientifically literate, rigorous and intelligent. He is also very good at tracing that perilously faint line where the science of consciousness leaves off and the moonshine begins. Not all moonshine is bad for us. Kepler’s Dream was and is a delight. But a culture cannot live on moonshine alone, and Appleyard reckons we’re consuming more of it than is good for us.

The human brain is the most complex object we know. To describe it, thinkers and writers quite understandably reach for the most complicated thing they can imagine. Four centuries ago the brain was considered a particularly fiendish plumbing problem; later it turned into a steam engine; then a telegraph office. Now it’s “like the internet”. The brain is no more a computer network than it is a heating system. Proper neuroscientists know this. The baseless assumption that the brain is some sort of meat computer has combined oddly with the IT revolution, giving many otherwise rational people the idea that our computers will someday soon acquire consciousness. If mere computational power were enough, of course, then any complex system would be conscious. The weather would be conscious. The oceans would think as they turned.

A new and powerful religion holds sway: a belief in the wisdom of the digital collective. To be saved, we must plug in. Plugging in leads, inevitably, to disenchantment. As humourist Alice Kahn has it: “For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.” Call trees are the least of it. Appleyard gives a voice to the victims, from the tearful teenager drowning in the flood of his own social media, to Cheryl Cole, whose every action is so thoroughly mediated and syndicated, she spends her life patiently explaining to journalists that she is actually a human being.

Appleyard’s central point is that, in our desire to think great things about our IT “cloud”, we’re deliberately oversimplifying ourselves. We’re hammering ourselves into ridiculously reductive boxes. In our desire to be part of something greater, we’re making ourselves small.

Appleyard is not alone, but, philosophically, this book is not quite on the same level as last year’s You Are Not a Gadget, a work of staggering apostasy by one of cyberspace’s founding fathers, Jaron Lanier. A couple of things make Appleyard’s work a valuable companion to the debate, rather than a latecomer to the party. First, his breadth of reference. He’s interviewed actors in his time, and celebrities, as well as geeks and gurus and scientists, and he treats all his subjects with a critical sympathy that looks easy but takes a career to acquire.

Second, he manages to distinguish between the work of individual scientists and the broader philosophical questions science raises. An early highlight is a vivid, concise, down-to-earth description of the workings of an fMRI scanner – a machine that can create maps of the functioning brain. Not many pages later, Appleyard turns philosopher, and offers an excellent explanation of what reductionism is, and why a science that simply anatomises phenomena into smaller and smaller parts misses a vast portion of scientifically explorable reality.

Poor thinking around digital technology is certainly damaging what is human in us, but not completely, and not for ever. Appleyard has a refreshing belief in a culture’s ability to laugh off its absurdities, eventually. He reminds us of one of the finer jokes in US sitcom Friends. Chandler shows off his new laptop, crowing about its staggering speed, immense processing power and gigantic memory. When asked what he’s going to do with it, he sheepishly admits that he might play a few games.

If only we were less gullible, this excellent joke would have lost its currency years ago, and this book need not have been written. As it is, Appleyard’s meditation is essential reading. We’re all Chandler now. And the joke – that a holy Father-figure may be lurking somewhere in the iCloud – is wearing very thin indeed.

Simon Ings’s new novel is Dead Water (Corvus)

 

The Brain is Wider Than the Sky by Bryan Appleyard – review

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

How to make classrooms engaging

By
November 11, 2011

Towers Junior School Walt 007 How to make classrooms engaging

Makes sense to me…teaching in a classroom that inspires rather than in one that puts you to sleep…I personally take the initiative in creating a teaching environment that “wows” a student into learning. Certain colors also have a positive effect on a student’s behavior and are more pleasing to the eye than just plain white barren walls. Teachers need to take a more active role in designing their classrooms … 

http://www.yepod.com/?p=18556

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony 

poweredbyguardian How to make classrooms engagingThis article titled “How to make classrooms engaging” was written by Professor Stephen Heppell, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 10th November 2011 11.06 UTC

An increasing number of teachers looking around their learning spaces today might be reflecting on how their classrooms have changed. So, what has been the main reasons for these developments?

The recession helped. Money is tight, and cost saving governments had two initial choices: take education back to the cheaper and simpler 1950′s model, or rely on incremental productivity – seeking a little more for a little less. However, the former can’t work because the world has moved on; the creative industries want a new fusion of art with computer science for example. And of course the productivity model has been widely tested with the inevitable performance plateaux seen everywhere. So, if we can’t go backwards and productivity gains are all spent, there is only one real option in a parsimonious world and that is to do things differently. Luckily, differently works.

Curiously that wise conclusion was also reached some time ago by a host of forward thinking teachers and students. The result has been a flurry of different, stunningly effective, affordable, evidence based “classrooms of tomorrow” popping up all around the world. Above all else these new spaces, with their agile pedagogies and designed playfulness generate engagement; the students and teachers in them love to work there. That engagement delivers on better behaviour, stellar results and delighted parents.

So what do these little time capsules from the future of learning all have in common beyond affordability? We teach with differentiation and personalisation, so it is surely no surprise to find a varied mix of seating and furniture. People like to stand, recline, chat at table, converse, focus and concentrate – and different furniture enables those behaviours in learning too, in a way that was never achieved with a set of identical straight backed chairs.

Great engagement feeds immersion – so we find longer blocks of time with fewer interruptions and one day or even longer timetable blocks – and November different to March. These agile learning space can change rapidly – with LED mood lighting, with curtain tracks and display surfaces, more like a stage than an office – to keep the day-to-day work fresh and exciting. And the braver schools are mixing ages in these spaces too. With no single point of focus, writing surfaces are everywhere – desks, walls, windows. The atmosphere of learing is pervasive and seductive. Curiously a substantial number of these spaces are shoes-off too. The shoeless revolution spread from Scandinavia. Just go with it, it works astonishingly well; shoeless boys are just plain nicer! And of course, these are globally connected tech-rich spaces with Skype bars and phones-out-on-desks.

In short, the simple rule is that if you create learning spaces that astonish children, they will astonish you right back with their learning. Rather encouragingly, it is not expensive to make learning this good. You only have to be brave, not rich!

Professor Stephen Heppell, Bournemouth University and Universidad Camilo José Cela, Madrid.

 

How to make classrooms engaging

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Big Bang Theory fuels physics boom

By
November 6, 2011

Big Bang Theory 005 Big Bang Theory fuels physics boom

People are now considering taking up physics as a subject in universities…perhaps the Bg Bang Theory show is motivating students or maybe physics is now  “cool” to do…whatever the reason, its refreshing to know that a comedy show is having a positive impact on education!

http://www.yepod.com/?p=17939

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

poweredbyguardian Big Bang Theory fuels physics boomThis article titled “Big Bang Theory fuels physics boom” was written by Mark Townsend, for The Observer on Sunday 6th November 2011 00.08 UTC

A cult US sitcom has emerged as the latest factor behind a remarkable resurgence of physics among A-level and university students.

The Big Bang Theory, a California-based comedy that follows two young physicists, is being credited with consolidating the growing appetite among teenagers for the once unfashionable subject of physics. Documentaries by Brian Cox have previously been mentioned as galvanising interest in the subject.

One pupil, Tom Whitmore, 15, from Brighton, acknowledged that Big Bang Theory had contributed to his decision, with a number of classmates, to consider physics at A-level, and in causing the subject to be regarded as “cool”. “The Big Bang Theory is a great show and it’s definitely made physics more popular. And disputes between classmates now have a new way of being settled: with a game of rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock,” he said.

Experts at the Institute of Physics (IoP) also believe the series is playing a role in increasing the number of physics students. Its spokesman, Joe Winters, said: “The rise in popularity of physics appears to be due to a range of factors, including Brian’s public success, the might of the Large Hadron Collider and, we’re sure, the popularity of shows like The Big Bang Theory.”

Alex Cheung, editor of physics.org, said: “There’s no doubt that TV has also played a role. The Big Bang Theory seems to have had a positive effect and the viewing figures for Brian Cox’s series suggest that millions of people in the UK are happy to welcome a physics professor, with a tutorial plan in hand, into their sitting room on a Sunday evening.”

According to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), there was a 10% increase in the number of students accepted to read physics by the university admissons services between 2008-09, when The Big Bang Theory was first broadcast in the UK, and 2010-11. Numbers currently stand at 3,672. Applications for physics courses at university are also up more than 17% on last year. Philip Walker, an HEFCE spokesman, said the recent spate of popular televisions services had been influential but was hard to quantify.

The number studying A-level physics has been on the rise for five years, up 20% in that time to around 32,860. Physics is among the top 10 most popular A-level topics for the first time since 2002 – and the government’s target of 35,000 students entering physics A-level by 2014 seems likely to be hit ahead of schedule. It is a far cry from 2005 when physics was officially classified as a “vulnerable” subject.

The number of those entered for AS level has also increased, by 27.8% compared with 2009, up from 41,955 to 58,190. The number of girls studying physics AS-level has risen a quarter to 13,540 and of boys by 28.6% to 44,650.

A Twitter debate on whether Big Bang Theory had played a role in encouraging more potential physicists provoked mixed reactions. PhD student Tim Green wrote: “I’d say it’s more to do with economics and good science docs than sitcoms with only the vaguest relation to physics.” Markela Zeneli said: “I think the show is hilarious, and it may make physicists seem nerdy and geeky, but what’s so bad about that? ”

Winters identified another more prosaic reason for the rising popularity of physics. He said: “TV shows and news coverage of exciting research both have the power to inspire their audiences but we firmly believe, and all the evidence suggests, that only good physics teaching has the power to convert student’s latent interest into action.”

 

Big Bang Theory fuels physics boom

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Romeo and Juliet Cartoon Video

By
October 27, 2011

Here’s a fun way to understanding Shakespeare”s Romeo and Juliet! Shakepeare’s writing can be very challenging to grasp.

http://www.yepod.com/?p=16715

Pass it on,

Dr anthony 

 

Can online careers advice work?

By
October 22, 2011

Illustration showing mach 006 Can online careers advice work?

Getting advice on possible   careers  to investigate or consider is extremely important at any age. During a  student’s high school years, it is crucial to begin getting an idea what interests them. The earlier an individual can decide what area of academic  study he or she will follow, the better decisions made to secure a happy and  rewarding career choice. 

http://www.yepod.com/?p=15911 

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony  

poweredbyguardian Can online careers advice work?This article titled “Can online careers advice work?” was written by Louise Tickle, for The Guardian on Friday 21st October 2011 22.02 UTC

Margaret-Anne Mackenzie left school in April without any qualifications. “I didn’t get any careers advice at school,” the 16-year-old says. She’s not alone – one in four 15- to 19-year-olds said the same in a survey published recently by vocational qualifications provider City & Guilds.

The teenager, who cares for her mother in sheltered accommodation, has also had to cope with the recent disruption of a move from Scotland to south Wales, which left her feeling “quite scared” of starting out again in a new place where she had no friends or contacts.

But Mackenzie may have just got lucky, because at a summer drop-in session run by the Newport Careers Centre, she was linked up with a personal careers adviser who took the time and trouble to get to know her.

With a lot of encouragement, she mustered the confidence to attend a pre-16 youth gateway course run by Careers Wales Gwent. Having said she wanted to be a hairdresser, her adviser’s assessment that Mackenzie needed to improve her communication and basic life skills led to some intensive one-to-one support to help her get on to a vocationalaccess course.

Seeing her adviser a couple of times a month over the summer, she was then helped to apply for educational maintenance allowance (though no longer available to new applicants in England, EMA is still paid in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and a college bursary, and put in touch with an organisation for young carers.

This ongoing relationship with an adviser who got to know her was clearly important. Without it, says Mackenzie, “I’d have been worried, because I wouldn’t have known what to do and I wouldn’t have been able to do my course. I’d have just been staying at home.”

With hard work and probably a fair bit more guidance as she navigates her way through future training options, Mackenzie hopefully won’t end up adding to the youth unemployment numbers. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show there are now almost one million young people under 25 who are out of work. If you are 16 or 17, the picture is bleaker still – fewer than a quarter have jobs.

Add in mid-career public sector employees being made redundant in their tens of thousands – 111,000 in the second quarter of this year to be more precise – and you have 2.57 million people out of work.

Given that Jobcentres do not do much for professionals who have been made redundant, their advisers are not available to anyone under the age of 18, and Connexions centres which did cater for the 16-19 age range are being closed en masse, many are confused as to the kind of advice available to the huge variety of differently skilled and experienced people seeking new career and training pathways.

Come next spring, when two national careers services will be launched in England and Wales (Scotland’s, a web portal called My World of Work, has just gone live), what is available may well look very different to what is on offer now.

A “blended” approach now seems to be the official mantra to describe the shape of careers services to come. Translated, that means more automation with websites and helplines being heavily promoted. Put more bluntly, careers websites are cheaper than trained and experienced advisers, meaning more of the former and fewer of the latter.

Cheaper, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean less effective. Jane Artess, research director at the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu), who is overseeing the revamp of its graduate careers website Prospects.ac.uk, says the increasing automation of careers services has the potential to work very well for certain segments of the population, but only if a good support mechanism is put in place around it. “The web is a fantastic place for information, but it’s not such a great place for guidance,” she says. “It is not sufficient on its own.”

Her view is shared by Ciaran Wrynn, head of programme design and delivery for career transition at recruitment consultants Hays. “There’s no way the internet can tap into motivation or challenge beliefs,” he says. “But a blended approach means people can enter the job market more effectively.”

At Skills Development Scotland, director of service design and innovation, Jonathan Clark, points out that because the workplace has become more complex and varied, “the notion that one person could be a gateway to all the opportunities in the world of work is not very realistic any more”.

Those who will benefit most from the new web portals, he says, will be self-motivated, with the personal skills and resilience to enjoy the experience of exploring and planning their career direction.

However, Paul Chubb, director of Careers England, the membership organisation for careers professionals, says many of his members are concerned that over-reliance on web portals and call centres will disadvantage those who are already struggling to break into the jobs market. “The idea of taking responsibility for their own career planning may be unthinkable for some younger and more vulnerable people without a great deal of one-to-one support,” he says.

Imagine you have literacy problems. Or don’t have a computer at home. Or you can’t afford a new computer and the one you’ve got won’t run Flash, so websites look weird and you can’t access certain pages. Or you’re 16 and left school with poor qualifications; you may not have the confidence to even get started, let alone the motivation to keep going when you realise how much self-directed research you have to do.

For many unemployed aged under 19, this last point may prove the biggest obstacle. In England, anyone over 19 is currently eligible to talk to an adviser face-to-face. But when the national careers service launches next year, those aged 16-19 will not have the right to personalised careers guidance. The £200m that pays for this advice service will disappear into the Department for Education’s coffers. Personalised careers advice will remain available to adults because the Department for Work and Pensions will continue to fund it.

The Education bill proposes that for those still in school, headteachers will need to buy in careers services from private providers, although no extra funding will be made available. A recently published Careers England report into the impact of career guidance in England claims that, because the bill does not require much in the way of quality assurance, bought-in services are “likely to have neither a guarantee of professional competence nor labour market intelligence” and raises “serious concerns about impartiality”.

On the other hand, there is not much out there for those leaving school at 16, other than a website and a phone number.

“If you’re just sitting typing at a computer it’s not really going to build your confidence – you need to be able to ask loads of questions,” says Shaun Donald, 18, from Dundee.

He left school in 2009 and, after a work placement at office supplies retailer Staples, began a college course in art and design. After five months when he realised he couldn’t afford the cost of travel, he dropped out. Since then he has been looking for jobs, but with no success: his experience of short work placements and a false start at college is exactly why, say careers experts, he needs personalised guidance rather than a website to help him.

“There’s a million different sites,” Donald says. “You spend hours and hours ploughing through jobs, and when you find one you’ll be directed to another site and it’ll be gone.”

Just a few weeks ago however, once he hit 18, he started to get some one-to-one help at a job club, during which he was introduced to the Scottish web portal My World of Work. “The job club people have given me more confidence to search for jobs, and the website helped me find out what my skills and strengths are and helped with my CV – it looks amazing now,” he says. Using the website has been enjoyable he says, but once you’ve done your CV “you need to be able to talk things through as well”.

Ministers who want to direct more people towards websites “are confusing information with guidance”, according to Adrian Fayter, trade union Unison‘s representative for young people’s services in York, and a qualified careers adviser.

“Would the public accept only a web-based consultation with their GP? Would anyone seriously suggest psychotherapy services operate via a call centre? A guidance interview is an in-depth discussion – a mix of counselling, job interview, pep talk and a way for young people to reflect on their skills. For some, it challenges their misconceptions, and also the misconceptions they’ve been fed by other people. My opinion is that it would be disastrous for young people who are Neets [not in employment, education or training] to find that there was no expert help.”

Those with a degree may have rather better prospects, but unemployment is still high with one in five recent graduates out of work.

University careers services have had a mixed press which, believes Hecsu’s Jane Artess, stems partly from students failing to understand the myriad ways that careers officers work to increase their employability behind the scenes – for example, by building relationships with companies that come to recruit at jobs fairs.

However, with students soon to be paying more for their degrees and needing to see a concrete return, Nadim Choudhury, head of careers at the private London School of Business and Finance (LSBF), thinks university careers advisers will have to up their game.

“At LSBF we have totally repositioned our school to being career focused,” he says. “We offer a proactive training and development programme – there are 12 workshops that students must attend – and from the first day they start university, from their induction, the careers service is part of that planning.”

LSBF has a very different student profile to the University of the Arts London (UAL), where Steve Beddoe, director of student enterprise and employability, says many creative graduates wanting to become sole traders or work in micro-enterprises face problems that orthodox careers services simply don’t address.

To give students the skills and knowledge they need, a new, interactive UAL website now shows updates on training courses, peer-learning opportunities and short films demonstrating how artists have moved into their chosen careers.

Whether you are a creative or professional or manual worker, straight out of university or facing redundancy in your 50s, with a few qualifications or none to your name, it seems that will soon be using a variety of automated means to find work – online forums, text alerts, interactive personality tests and online CV assessment tools to name just a few.

But whatever a jobseeker’s level of skill, experience or qualification, every careers expert Guardian Work spoke to for this article agreed an automated careers service would not work without also offering f ace-to-face support.

The Scottish and Welsh national careers services give everyone the option of talking to a qualified, impartial professional. Will the English service change tack to do the same?

Useful careers sites

 

Can online careers advice work?

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

So your four-year-old can’t concentrate? He’s probably been watching SpongeBob

By
September 15, 2011

SpongeBob Squarepants 007 So your four year old cant concentrate? Hes probably been watching SpongeBob

Too much television is too much television..children need to learn how to concentrate…especially for young developing minds…adjusting to a fast changing world..children can somtimes get lost in the television world …we need to monitor the hours children are spending in front of the flat screen.  Children need to limit their television hours and exchange them for activities that will better prepare them for real life situations…give them real life lessons and leave SpongeBob on the shelf.  

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

poweredbyguardian So your four year old cant concentrate? Hes probably been watching SpongeBobThis article titled “So your four-year-old can’t concentrate? He’s probably been watching SpongeBob” was written by Leo Hickman, for The Guardian on Monday 12th September 2011 19.30 UTC

SpongeBob SquarePants has long been a conductor for criticism. In recent years, he has been accused of promoting both homosexuality (a 2003 study in a US film journal concluded that SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick “are paired with arguably erotic intensity”) and global warming “propaganda”.

But now the criticism – or, at least, flag of concern – is coming for a paper published this week in the academic journal Pediatrics. Angeline Lillard, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, found that “fast-paced, fantasy television programmes”, such as SpongeBob Square Pants, might compromise a young child’s “executive function” – their ability to pay attention, problem-solve and control their behaviour.

Lillard observed 60 four-year-olds just after they had watched nine minutes of SpongeBob, as well as after nine minutes of a “slower-paced, educational” cartoon from Canada called Caillou. The children were also observed after drawing for nine minutes. “There was little difference on the tests between the drawing group and the group that watched Caillou,” said Lillard. But the children’s executive function was found to have been negatively affected by SpongeBob.

“It is possible that the fast pacing, where characters are constantly in motion from one thing to the next, and extreme fantasy, where the characters do things that make no sense in the real world, may disrupt the child’s ability to concentrate immediately afterward,” said Lillard.

The findings have been championed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has long urged parents to restrict the amount of television their children watch. For example, it says children under two should not watch any television at all and older children should watch no more than two hours of supervised, “educational” TV a day.

Nickleodeon is having none of it, though. “Having 60 non-diverse kids, who are not part of the show’s targeted demographic, watch nine minutes of programming is questionable methodology and could not possibly provide the basis for any valid findings that parents could trust,” it said in a statement, pointing out that SpongeBob is targeted at kids aged between six and 11, while the study focused on four-year-olds.

 

So your four year old cant concentrate? Hes probably been watching SpongeBob

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Mapping the body: achilles tendon

By
September 14, 2011

Heel 007 Mapping the body: achilles tendon

I have seen many injuries to the achilles tendon while treating patients over the years…most of them were strain/sprain injuries to the tendon or muscle. You must approach sport activity carefully, especially if you are now not as active ….due to family or occupation responsibilities keeping you from daily participation. Warming up and stretching muscles prior to physical activity will reduce your risk to injury.

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

logo smaller with star Mapping the body: achilles tendon

poweredbyguardian Mapping the body: achilles tendonThis article titled “Mapping the body: achilles tendon” was written by Gabriel Weston, for The Guardian on Monday 12th September 2011 20.30 UTC

There is truth in the view that doctors make the worst patients. I have never seen a person obstruct their own recovery more than a surgical consultant who snapped his achilles tendon while playing tennis.

The achilles is a ropelike band of tissue, which connects the calf muscle to the heel on each side, and is crucial for walking, running and jumping. With time and disuse, the tendon can become weak and prone to rupture. So it’s no surprise that injuries to this part of the body tend to occur in middle-aged men enjoying a spurt of uncharacteristic activity, especially where leaping and pivoting are involved. Tripping or falling from a height are also mechanisms of injury.

When it ruptures, sufferers feel sudden severe pain in the ankle or calf, and may hear an audible “pop”. Diagnosis in an emergency department is usually made by a doctor asking their patient to lie prone, feet dangling off the end of the examining table. On squeezing the calf muscle, an intact achilles will cause the foot to point – the absence of this reaction suggests a rupture. Although competitive athletes may be put forward for surgical repair of their tendons, most patients have their leg immobilised in a cast for at least six weeks.

Far worse than this, though, are fractures to the heel bone (or calcaneum). Such injuries tend to occur after a fall from a height or from severe twisting of the foot, and are known to be so painful that patients may be distracted from other injuries such as spinal or leg fractures, which often occur at the same time. Whether patients have surgery or not, it is usually not possible to start walking for at least three months after breaking your heel, and the incidence of lifelong disablility from chronic heel pain is high.

But after five weeks in a cast for his achilles tendon rupture, my boss decided he simply couldn’t bear to be hampered a day longer. He pulled off his own cast, and sprung out of the door, ready for another day at the hospital. He didn’t get as far as his car before he had ruptured his tendon all over again. Proving impatience is the surgeon’s true achilles heel.

Gabriel Weston is a surgeon and author of Direct Red: A Surgeon’s Story.

 

Mapping the body: achilles tendon

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

First Week ESL English Lecture Fall 2011

By
September 4, 2011

Here’s a video concerning my first week in esl lecture for the fall 2011 period.

Welcome to our teaching blog

By
September 2, 2011

Teacher at a whiteboard 007 Welcome to our teaching blog

Teachers need resources and develop networks to further their teaching skills.

poweredbyguardian Welcome to our teaching blogThis article titled “Welcome to our teaching blog” was written by Wendy Berliner, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 2nd September 2011 09.27 UTC

Hello and welcome to the new Guardian Teacher Network Blog.

Why the Guardian Teacher Network Blog? Well we thought it was high time that your fast growing community had its own place to discuss best practice in the classroom and a spot where we can shine a light into all areas of our rapidly growing teaching resources.

We know you already appreciate the Guardian Teacher Network resource library and find the weekly newsletter useful in locating materials to help you in class, and the blog won’t replace that – it will just take it a bit further.

At GTN HQ we will continue to highlight the thousands of resources we have for you but we are asking you also to blog to your community when and if you feel like it.

You might want to talk about how you’ve used a Guardian Teacher Network resource in your classroom; you might want to talk about a resource of your own and why it works so well for your students; there may be something in the news which affects classroom teaching and you may want to comment on that; you may want to share with your community colleagues a cracking piece of good practice in teaching or whole school activity – managing student behaviour, for example, that you know about.

Whether you are teaching early years or sixth formers or whether you are newly qualified or an experienced school leader – you will have something to share with your colleagues in other parts of the country and the world and perhaps something to learn collegiately too.

So give yourself a voice in your wider professional community and contact us at teacher.network@guardian.co.uk. Put ‘Blog’ in the subject field and can you keep it to a maximum of 800 words – anything longer than that gets a bit too much in the blog format we feel.

This is your community and we have been delighted to realise how engaged you are with it by your many messages over the last few months. We hope you enjoy being centre stage – the place teachers deserve to be.

• Wendy Berliner is Head of Education for Guardian Business and professional, the media services arm of Guardian News and Media. An award winning educational journalist, she has spent much of her career on The Guardian and is now leading the team developing Guardian Teacher Network, a ground breaking online professional network for teachers everywhere.

This content is brought to you by the Guardian Teacher Network.

 

Welcome to our teaching blog Welcome to our teaching blog

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Ebola: the solution may be in sight

By
August 28, 2011

Colorized transmission el 007 Ebola: the solution may be in sight

Research advancements into the understanding of the Ebola virus and eventually a cure will no doubt lead way to other many discoveries. Science is at the verge of a flood of discoveries that will change the destiny of medicine forever.

poweredbyguardian Ebola: the solution may be in sightThis article titled “Ebola: the solution may be in sight” was written by Robin McKie, for The Observer on Saturday 27th August 2011 23.06 UTC

One of the world’s most feared pathogens, the Ebola virus, has a key structural weakness that could be vital in developing drugs to treat the fevers it triggers, US researchers announced in Nature last week. The group say they have bred mice that produce low levels of a protein known as Niemann-Pick C1 which transports cholesterol inside cells. The mice then survived exposure to Ebola, which causes a haemorrhagic fever, and to a cousin pathogen, the Marburg virus.

“This research identifies a critical cellular protein that the Ebola virus needs to cause infection and disease,” said one of the lead scientists in the project, Sean Whelan of Harvard Medical School. “It also improves chances that drugs can be developed that directly combat Ebola infections,” he said.

Ebola fever was first detected by doctors in the 1970s in villages along the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is usually fatal in humans. There have been at least two dozen Ebola outbreaks in Africa though doctors still do not know exactly how the virus is spread. There are no vaccines or drugs to fight it.

The virus is known to interfere with the cells that line the interior surfaces of blood vessels and with the process of blood coagulation. As a result, it causes blood vessel walls to become damaged and to rupture.

The new research announced at Harvard is therefore extremely important. It indicates that the protein Niemann-Pick is used by the Ebola virus to get deep inside cells. “This virus needs this protein,” said Kartik Chandran, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “Mice that have less of this protein are very resistant to being killed by Ebola and the Marburg virus.”

Crucially, Chandran has also been involved in work that led to the discovery, in 2005, of a compound that has demonstrated considerable promise in being able to block the Niemann-Pick protein in human cells, according to a separate paper that was published in Nature last week. “Essentially, this compound can block infection by the virus,” said Chandran.

The compound has not yet been tested in mice, and would still need to show it is effective in non-human primates. Chandran said blocking Niemann-Pick in the long term would probably cause illness.

The researchers involved in the studies say they are very optimistic that the new understanding they have built up about the behaviour of the Ebola virus and the means by which it gets into cells may eventually lead to treatments. However, they acknowledge it will take many years, and possibly even a decade of further research and studies, before treatments would be available for human use.

 

Ebola: the solution may be in sight Ebola: the solution may be in sight

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

How an Ohio university made $1m through its venture capital fund

By
August 22, 2011

Researcher 008 How an Ohio university made $1m through its venture capital fund

More universities should follow this example of an Ohio university…every venture is risky but the reward can be immense. Such an investments would most probably be more  likely with larger universities. I am sure it is more easily said than done…for universities already over-burden by operating costs to take a leap of faith into the future.

Pass it on, 

Dr Anthony

logo smaller with star How an Ohio university made $1m through its venture capital fund

poweredbyguardian How an Ohio university made $1m through its venture capital fundThis article titled “How an Ohio university made $1m through its venture capital fund” was written by Debbie Andalo, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 22nd August 2011 10.02 UTC

When did the university decide to establish a venture capital fund?

Almost a decade ago, in 2002.

Why?

We wanted to establish funds to move preliminary, but exciting, advances to a stage where they could attract follow-on private capital and/or industrial support and to provide to our faculty a resource that would enable continued translation and development and spur entrepreneurial culture. We also wanted to attract external entrepreneurs to the region and university by providing early funding opportunities that could cover a year or two of the operational expense of a start-up enterprise such as salaries.

What did you hope it would achieve?

That it would inspire cultural change and boost our reputation in terms of the impact the university’s research activities had on the region and nation. Direct financial return from the fund was not an intended outcome.

Do most US universities have similar funds?

It’s a practice that is becoming much more prevalent. They are typically, universities that are what we term “large, research institutions”, executing $100 million or more in terms of externally funded research.

How much did the fund have when it was launched and where did the money come from?

Three million dollars came direct from the institution. Within one year the university secured an additional $1m through a state-level economic development program. We did not raise funds through limited partners or donors.

How did you go about setting it up?

It was managed by university employees. Its oversight – including the decision to make an investment – was comprised of seven university employees. Two from the technology transfer office (TTO); the vice-president for research and technology management; three others from the finance and administration leadership, including the CFO and treasurer and the provost.

How is it managed today?

The fiduciary responsibility is held by the seven-member board. Its day-to-day operations are managed by the technology transfer office (TTO) who are entrusted to elucidate and promote potential funding vehicles; ensure due diligence and negotiate the ultimate investment contract. They also have to track progress and oversee the commercial vehicles post-investment.

How much money has the fund made since it was established?

Less than $1m has been returned to the university since the fund made its first investment in 2003; however, of the eight for-profit vehicles in which the fund has invested, seven have garnered follow-on institutional capita.

Where does the profit go?

The money is redistributed to the account, hopefully affording the fund to remain constant.

What about its running costs?

The costs are borne through the central operations funding and staffing of the TTO and are not charged to the fund.

How do you decide what to back?

There are three criteria for eligibility – the vehicle must have an active license from the university; it must not have previously received dilutive financing and a C-level entrepreneur – typically a “CEO” – must represent the vehicle. We also look for its ability to garner significant value increase via technical risk reduction and/or opportunity elucidation within one two years, allowing for a fund-raising event via strategic or investment capital that would continue development.

What happens if an academic has something which he or she wants the fund to back?

Simply present the idea to the TTO who, in the course of its diligence, will discern whether the opportunity should be considered for investment.

Does any of the income generated by an academic’s project go back to the academic?

Our faculty receive half of the net income stemming from the license agreement. The faculty do not share in the return from the direct investment; this return is returned to the CTV account.

How many schemes or projects has the fund backed?

Eight. Seven have been in the biomedical technology space, comprised of five medical device companies and two therapeutic firms. One investment was in a specialty materials company (nanotechnology platform).

What difference has the fund made to the university, the academics and the local economy?

Undoubtedly it’s boosted our profile. Regionally, it has served as a point of continued positive interaction with the local investment and entrepreneurial communities. Nationally, it has served as symbol of our contributions to economic development and has increased our eligibility and likelihood for success with regard to translational and commercialisation programs from foundations and federal funding programs.

What advice do you have for UK universities establishing their own venture capital funds?

Recognise that while early-stage capital is critical to advancing technologies, it is far from sufficient. Low-cost capital will neither fix flawed business opportunities, nor create value if proper management is not in place. Be very careful not to “lower the bar” for investments. Recognise the time it takes to return (likely exceeding eight years) in the early stage technology sector. Structure your fund to align with the venture capital continuum that you intend to utilise. Do not underestimate the potential institutional and personal conflicts of interest that will be created when funding university initiatives. While such conflicts are usually manageable and created for the rights reasons, they are of increasing public concern, particularly in the medical space.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up for free to become a member of the Higher Education Network.

 

How an Ohio university made $1m through its venture capital fund How an Ohio university made $1m through its venture capital fund

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Dr Dillner’s health dilemmas: should I limit my child’s mobile phone use?

By
August 19, 2011

A girl using a mobile pho 007 Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I limit my childs mobile phone use?

Limit your child’s use of the mobile phone,television, and other activities that don’t stimulate physical and mental improvement. Your child’s health depends on you as the parent.

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony 

poweredbyguardian Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I limit my childs mobile phone use?This article titled “Dr Dillner’s health dilemmas: should I limit my child’s mobile phone use?” was written by Luisa Dillner, for The Guardian on Monday 15th August 2011 20.00 UTC

The problem

If you have a child of 10 years old or more, chances are they’ll have a mobile phone. Maybe you gave it to them to keep safe, so you would know where they are, but mobile phones are not without their own risks. Not only can your children waste an enormous amount of time texting their friends instead of doing their homework, but mobile phones emit radiofrequency energy – a form of non-ionising electromagnetic radiation that is absorbed by the brain. Last month the World Health Organisation said that mobile phones could “possibly” be carcinogenic, putting them in category 2b (with other substances that “possibly” cause cancer such as car exhaust fumes, lead and coffee). Children, who will not have finished developing and therefore have thinner skulls, could absorb more of this radiofrequency energy than adults and be at a greater risk of developing brain tumours. This radiation is non-ionising radiation, which unlike ionising radiation from radon and x-rays has not consistently been linked to causing cancer.

The dilemma

Should you rip your child’s BlackBerry from his or her hands, mid instant-message session? Or if the evidence is inconclusive and the WHO says it’s only likely to cause as much harm as coffee, maybe mobile phones are relatively safe.

The WHO spent a week reviewing the evidence from 14 countries. Very little research exists on the effects of mobile phones on children. The largest study, the Interphone study found no evidence that mobile use increased the risk for gliomas and meningiomas (types of brain tumours). However a small proportion of people in the study who spent the most time on mobile phones did have a small increase in gliomas, reporting them to be on the same side of their head as they used their phones. However this could have been due to reporting bias, ie people may have mistakenly remembered which side of the head they held their phone against. It may take decades for a brain tumour to develop, so memories of phone use from way back can be unreliable, and studies may not have long enough follow-up periods to detect when brain tumours develop.

A study by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute of children aged between seven and 19 found no difference in brain tumours in those using mobile phones and those without. The study looked at more than 350 people with brain tumours and tracked their mobile phone use. It was funded in part by mobile phone manufacturers, and critics have cited this as a potential for bias, as well as the fact that tumours can take many years longer than the time period of the study to develop. So far the incidence of brain tumours has not increased during this time of proliferation of mobile phones.

The solution

There is no evidence that mobile phones cause brain tumours, but that doesn’t mean there might not be, one day. Given that using mobile phones excessively can cause problems for your child – sleeping, doing their homework and being a social human being in the house – it makes sense to try to limit their use.

To reduce your child’s exposure to radiofrequency energy get them to text rather than phone (which they’re probably doing already) and to use hands-free so the phone is not pressed against their ears.

The latest advice from the chief medical officer in the UK was that children under the age of 16 should keep calls short and use their mobiles only for “essential purposes”. More evidence on the effects of mobile phones is being gathered. Cosmos, a large international study of mobiles and long-term health effects has been launched, which will enrol about 250,000 mobile users (they will be 18 and over) and track them for 20 to 30 years. An international study looking at children called Mobi-Kids has also kicked off in Spain. So at least you’ll know what to do about your grandchildren.

 

Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I limit my childs mobile phone use? Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I limit my childs mobile phone use?

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Dr Dillner’s health dilemmas: should I take antioxidant supplements?

By
August 12, 2011

Fruit is a good source of 007 Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I take antioxidant supplements?

This controversy has been going on for years, whether or not supplements or antioxidants should be taken on a regular basis or simply allow our diets to be the sole determinant of our nutritional arsenal. There are many supporters and critics concerning the use and sell of nutritional supplements. Even the AMA would like to be able to control the entire vitamin industry and make the public believe that it’s solely to protect the consumer. The consumer has free will and sufficient access to research to make intelligent decisions about their health. So if you need a little extra vitamin C or D, take it knowing the safe doses.

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

yepodcom2Logo1 150x150 Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I take antioxidant supplements?    

poweredbyguardian Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I take antioxidant supplements?This article titled “Dr Dillner’s health dilemmas: should I take antioxidant supplements?” was written by Luisa Dillner, for The Guardian on Monday 8th August 2011 20.00 UTC

Antioxidants are said by many to have almost magical powers – to reduce heart disease, strokes, cancers, arthritis, degeneration of the macula in the eye (causing loss of sight), Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Last month, researchers from the Laboratory of Functional Foods in Madrid and the Linus Pauling Institute in America said antioxidants could even help people with fertility problems. But what are they? Oxidation – when a substance combines with oxygen – is a normal chemical process that occurs in our bodies, but as a byproduct it can produce free radicals – unstable molecules that can damage cells. Our bodies use antioxidants to limit the cell damage (called oxidative stress) that occurs, for example, when you’re digesting food, or exposed to smoke. Antioxidants include ascorbic acid (vitamin C), glutathione, lipoic acid, carotenes, vitamin E and coenzyme Q.

The dilemma: Antioxidants are found in a variety of fruit and vegetables (such as carrots, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, apples, oranges). But how can you be sure you’ve eaten enough, and that cooking hasn’t destroyed their ability to fight free radicals? Surely it’s better to take supplements that manufacturers say have the concentrated goodness of fruit and vegetables, without having to chew on the real things? Antioxidant supplements are taken by up to 10%of people in Europe and America, so how could they do any harm?

The solution: People who eat a fair bit of fruit and vegetables have reduced rates for heart disease and some cancers, but we don’t know for sure that it is actually the antioxidants in these foods that protect people. It would be great to be able to take a fruit or vegetable pill that reduced the risk of getting heart disease, diabetes and neurological diseases, but, of course, life is never that simple. In fact, you shouldn’t take supplements – because not only is there no good evidence they work, but there is some evidence they may be harmful.

This harm may be indirect – people who take supplements may see them as lucky charms and be cavalier with the rest of their lifestyle choices – or it may be that too many antioxidants are bad for you. The Cochrane Collaboration, an international group that sums up the evidence for health care interventions, says antioxidant supplements do more harm than good. Their review in 2007 looked at 68 trials, which included a total of over 232,000 people, looking at the effects of vitamins C, E, A or beta carotene. They found that people taking beta carotene or any of the vitamins were more likely to die during the study than those who did not.

Giving up smoking, reducing the amount of fried food you eat (frying produces free radicals that can damage cells) and regular exercise would all have more health benefits than popping supplements. But they all require effort and may be less palatable.

Laboratory research has been much more optimistic about the benefits of antioxidants than studies on real people. The researchers who said last month that antioxidants could help people with fertility studies admitted that studies on humans showed no such thing because they hadn’t been done. They had looked at animal and laboratory studies.

So rather than pay for pills, spend your money on a healthy diet that includes lots of fruit and vegetables – where there is good evidence for the health benefits.

Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I take antioxidant supplements? Dr Dillners health dilemmas: should I take antioxidant supplements?

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Can You Describe The Picture?

By
July 31, 2011

aliens 300x272 Can You Describe The Picture?

An effective way to improve your English is to try and describe what you see in the picture. This is a good exercise for students that are trying to improve their English skills. Many English proficiency examinations include a section similar to this exercise. So if you are a student studying English as a second language this exercise will be of great benefit to you. Let’s look at the picture above and begin by saying “what do I see?” I see two Martians with a flying saucer behind them. It is also night time and there are many stars outside.

Now that we have established what we see in the photo, we can make our story more interesting by adding more detail. Your story can go like this: you have just arrived home after having a wonderful evening with your friends. You drive up to your house and open the garage door with your remote control. You carefully park your car in the garage. As you are exiting your car, you suddenly here a sound coming from the back yard.

You are curious about the humming sound  and so you go to investigate. It is a very dark night but it is also a full moon so visibility is good. As you walk closer to the yard the humming sound becomes louder and louder. You are startled by the presence of two figures. He can’t believe your eyes and you start questioning whether or not you are dreaming.

You see two aliens and you are speechless and afraid to move. The two aliens approach and you are now more afraid than ever but there is nothing you can do. Then suddenly there appears to flying saucer hovering above the two aliens. The strange thing now is that the humming sound that lured you  is gone and the only sound that you hear is the beating of your own heart. One of the aliens raises his arm and suddenly a flash of light is emitted from his palm.

You wake up hours later in your bed and realize that it must have been a dream after all. But it felt so real and you still need to convince yourself that it didn’t happen. You go to the back yard again to look for anything out of the ordinary. In the backyard you are taken back by the discovery of footprints that don’t appear to be human. The hairs on your neck raise and a chill runs down your back . The End.

Allow your imagination to fly when trying to describe pictures and your English skills will improve.

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

yepodcom2Logo 150x150 Can You Describe The Picture?

Is Your Heart on Schedule?

By
July 27, 2011


Let’s face it our professional jobs or responsibilities at home do not lend any benefits to cardiovascular system. So it is up to us to monitor it. Your heart is a muscle and requires maintenance in the form of physical activity that increases our heart rate way above the resting level. Keep in mind that whatever exercise program or routine you adopt, it should be one that is flexible.

Exercise Your Heart

I have four different exercising routines that I can choose from because my daily schedules change drastically from week to the next.  This will help you maintain some sort of exercise program no matter what surprising changes that may occur in your schedule. There is no excuse for not doing some exercise every day. Let’s talk about my leg routine that doesn’t require me to be in the gym. Let’s say I have no time to go to the gym and I will be stuck in the office for most of the day. I simply fall back into my most simplistic leg workout.

Here’s a Good Heart routine

I can simply do squats in my office, even while talking on the phone with a client. I will do a half squat or simply  use my chair as a guide. Begin in a standing position with your chair behind you,  lower yourself as if you were going to sit down. As soon as your buttocks touches the chair, return to a standing position. You have just completed one repetition of a squat. Now I normally do 20 repetitions per squat set. But if you are just starting, I recommend that you keep your repetitions to a maximum of 10 repetitions per set. Of course in a busy office one cannot take the time out to do several sets, but doing a set here and there throughout the day and you will be surprised of how many sets you can do at work. You will be surprised also that many people in your office will begin mimicking your routine. This is a great way to increase circulation throughout your entire body and maintaining a high level of alertness because you are delivering oxygenated blood to your brain.

A Good Heart is essential for a long life

A good heart can be only maintain by a proper exercise and diet program. So if you want to reap the rewards of a long life you will need to make the necessary adjustments in your lifestyle. If you smoke …quit ..smoking has been liked to cancer and heart disease. Eat a lot of green leafy vegetables and plenty of water.  

Do you have a simple routine you would like to share with us? If so I would like to hear about it and share it with our readers here. If you would like to submit your own article on our website please submit it to the following e-mail : yepodshoutout@gmail.com, this is Dr. Anthony from Your Educational Podcast and Video. Before beginning any exercise program, consult your primary physician.   

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

yepodcom2Logo 150x150 Is Your Heart on Schedule?

Best Ways To Teach ESL Children

By
June 12, 2011

children school cartoon 300x292 Best Ways To Teach ESL ChildrenI think sometimes it’s easy to slide in to the pitfall of either treating kids like adults or treating them as a solitary unit. Children are neither of these two options and that is something I love most about them! Some might have really short attention spans when compared with grown ups however they also simply soak up education like a sponge, without having lots of the preconceptions and doubts that cause adults to falter in their learning. This is the reason ESL beginners are a real joy to instruct and can make your job as a teacher so fulfilling. It’s crazy if you think that when kids are motivated and interested they could retain around 80% of a language lesson – this places them miles in front of the majority of adults!

Here are a couple of ideas to ensure that you’re giving kids the most appealing learning experience possible and getting the most reward out of your time with them as you can:

1.The very first tip is to show patience! This may sound like an obvious one… who would educate children should they did not have patience? Yet at times the best motives are tested when kids start getting restless within your lesson. ESL classes, as with any early development classes have to be set up to accommodate kids having numerous breaks and a lot of activities. Kids have brief attention spans but, by planning with this in mind, you’ll be able to stay away from feeling frustrated.

2. Keep levels of energy up! This is the reason lecture style English teaching materials have quite a low effectiveness. When looking at an hour or so of reproducing key phrases, children just lose almost all their vitality. This is such a shame as there is practically nothing more entertaining than a gang of vitalized, enthusiastic students. For this reason English language games along with other activity centered lessons are a much better choice for instructing kids languages. I think they’re almost certainly a better way of teaching different languages to grown ups too!

3. Modify your activities to permit for as many different learning styles as is possible. Children are just like us in that they all learn diversely and respond far better to different styles of teaching. For instance, certain children react well to singing or dancing. While other children just generally wish to read. Others enjoy craft time or perhaps resolving challenges in some way. If you recognize various learning styles it’s fairly simple to adapt your lesson strategy and activities to add as many as feasible.

4. Total physical response! This is actually the technical phrase for keeping kids moving around! For this reason English language games as an alternative to more immobile activities are acknowledged as the simplest way to educate ESL children in lessons. Once you get a kid moving, whether it’s jumping, skipping, or running they’ll have a lot more enjoyment and become much more enthusiastic about learning. In my experience, physical games generally have the magic ingredient for any class – laughter!

5. Attempt to make sure what you are teaching is within the framework of the child’s culture. If you’re residing in a country that has a beach life-style, design your game about going swimming and coast life. If the county is dependant on ranches and livestock commerce, integrate cows and horses in your game. As a result you will be enabling kids to connect something fresh with some thing they understand, which can make everything a lot more understandable for them.

And so whenever you plan your ESL beginners lesson don’t forget the magic ingredients – patience, energy, motion and cultural context! English language games can help with the engagement levels but you’ll have to bring the patience!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/english-language-games-are-the-best-ways-to-teach-esl-children-4529164.html

About the Author

Karlee is PASSIONATE about teaching English language games to ESL children! She has a great LOVE for kids and thrives on creating ESL exercises for beginners. Follow her on twitter @ESLchildren

Medical English Final Exam Review

By
June 7, 2011

This is a final exam review for my medical English students…hope it helps…

Dr Anthony

Yepod.com

Medical English Review

By
June 5, 2011

Here is the Medical English Review 2….. I promised my students…and for those who are not my students but are regular visitors to my site..feel free to view it…

Pass it on,

Dr Anthony

Yepod.com

Common English Words Used at the Movies

By
May 29, 2011

 

Here’s an interesting study on the most commonly used English words. The data used was based on Brad Bourland΄s 10000 best movies list.

Pass it on,
Dr Anthony
Your Educational Podcast and Video

Black students say they feel left out by ‘white cliques’ at universities

By
May 22, 2011

Black Science Summer Scho 007 Black students say they feel left out by white cliques at universities

Black students are still being left out in areas priviledged to whites…is racism continuing to prevent their progress? 

That’s my comment…pass it on,

Dr Anthony

Yepod.com

poweredbyguardianREV Black students say they feel left out by white cliques at universitiesThis article titled “Black students say they feel left out by ‘white cliques’ at universities” was written by Jeevan Vasagar Education editor, for The Observer on Saturday 21st May 2011 23.06 UTC

University coursework should be marked anonymously to deal with concerns that potential bias against a “foreign-sounding name” can cost students marks, a report by the National Union of Students recommends.

The report also urges universities to minimise “eurocentric bias” when drawing up curriculums. “This is critical, not only to demonstrate to black students that their learning reflects their own experience, but to promote understanding among their white peers,” it states.

It is standard practice for universities to assess exams anonymously because of concerns about preconceptions relating to race, sex or previous knowledge of a candidate, but the NUS report calls for anonymity to be extended across all “assessment procedures”, which would include coursework.

The NUS – which accepts that it is not possible to keep every form of assessment, such as presentations by drama students, anonymous – is also urging universities to address concerns about bias by having any contested work reassessed by a different lecturer.

The report, Race for Equality, is based on a survey of 900 students with African, Asian and Caribbean backgrounds. The survey found that, while most students were positive about their institutions, 23% described the universities they attended as “cliquey” and 7% as “racist”. There was also widespread frustration that courses did not reflect non-white backgrounds and views.

A third of black students felt unable to bring a perspective based on their race to tutorials. One student quoted in the report, published today, criticised the university they attended for “not being able to express or hear [our] own experience in learning – especially with a discipline as subjective as English, being told ‘you are wrong’ at the slightest transgression from the norm”.

Many of the students surveyed called for more diverse perspectives in areas such as history, arts and politics. One said: “Britain colonised most of the world and played a heavy role in the slave trade. How can you understand contemporary Britain without acknowledging this history or understanding how the rest of the world shaped it?”

The survey also found that some black students believe they are being “actively excluded” from the Russell Group of leading universities because of institutional racism in the application process. However, others blamed the scarcity of black students at the most prestigious institutions on class, and a lack of achievement at school.

Among black students, just 9.6% achieved the top grades required for entrance to Oxford or Cambridge in 2007, compared with 23% for white students.

The report says: “While widening participation efforts in the last few decades has been successful, these need to extend beyond simply increasing the quantity of students accessing [higher education] towards ensuring that black students are also able to access quality institutions.”

The report notes that in 2007-08, London Metropolitan University accepted 6,115 black students, “almost as many as the 7,815 black students spread between the 20 universities of the Russell Group”.

Some respondents to the survey and the focus groups that accompanied it said they had chosen to attend institutions that were ethnically diverse to minimise the chances of experiencing racism.

The report adds: “There was also a perception among respondents that the probability of experiencing racism in a Russell Group institution would be higher, as there would be fewer black students in these institutions, making the black students who study there more vulnerable.”

Universities should create a “bespoke website” for prospective black students, which could include testimonies from their students and details of support systems and extracurricular activities, the report suggests.

Nearly one in six – 16% – of those who responded to the survey said they had experienced racism in their current educational institution. The proportion was lowest among those aged under 20 – 14% – and highest among mature students. The survey finds that 29% of those aged 40 and over had experienced racism. International students were also more likely to view their academic environment as racist.

The NUS president, Aaron Porter, said: “We have a long way to go to close the participation gap for black students in education. If black students feel unwelcome in classrooms, this must be addressed by tackling the very real racism that still exists on our campuses.

“This report highlights the work that must be done by institutions and government to address the concerns of black students about their learning environment, how their courses are taught, and how their unique perspectives can be brought into the academic environment.”

The survey also found that almost one in three students, 32%, did not trust their institution to deal with complaints fairly. Two-thirds of respondents who had made a complaint were dissatisfied with how it was handled. They cited a range of reasons, including the procedure being too time-consuming or the complaint being ignored.

Some of those who responded to the survey believed that academic staff “stick together” and that making a complaint could therefore jeopardise their prospects. One student said: “It’s staff against you, and your degree is on the line, so you don’t feel like doing anything further that would rock the boat, especially when the person is responsible for marking your work and arranging your placements.”


Black students say they feel left out by white cliques at universities

Black students say they feel left out by white cliques at universities

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Arise and Walk: Interactive EFL Classroom Activities

By
May 19, 2011

teacher standing in class 199x300 Arise and Walk: Interactive EFL Classroom Activities

Arise and Walk: Interactive EFL Classroom Activities 

Ian Moodie 

Daegu Haany University

pdficon large Arise and Walk: Interactive EFL Classroom ActivitiesClick here for PDF file

Abstract 

As expounded upon by Long’s (1996) interaction hypothesis, achieving proficiency in a foreign language (L2) requires plenty of face-to-face interaction. Although the trend is changing, in South Korea, as in many places around the world, language classes tend to be given in what could be described as a traditional classroom with the white/blackboard at the front and students desks arranged in front-facing rows. This kind of set-up, ostensibly, limits students interaction. In this paper I will describe five activities that teachers can incorporate in their lessons to encourage student-to-student interaction in language classes. Employing these techniques will promote inclusive participation and can increase the frequency of target language use in class. The activities discussed can be easily incorporated in existing curricula. They include Rock-Scissors-Paper Conversations, People Search (Find someone who…) , Train Tracks, the Panauricon, and the Jigsaw.   

 

 

Archives

Links

  • Dr Anthony's English as a Second Language

Archives

Pages

Categories

Resources


© 2009-2012 Your Educational Podcast and Video All Rights Reserved