Social media attracts Peace Prize buzz

Gunnar Lier / AFP - Getty Images

This year's Nobel Peace Prize will honor a positive development in the world, the prize committee's chairman says.

By Alan Boyle

This year's Nobel Peace Prize, due to be announced early Friday in Norway,?seems certain to have a social-media spin. The only question is, which Twitterers or Facebookers will be listed on the Nobel committee's citation?

Although the identity of the laureate or laureates-to-be is a closely held secret, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee?sounds as if he's itching to let the cat out of the bag in a series of interviews given during the run-up to Friday's announcement.

"It will be an interesting and very important prize ... I think it will be well-received," Thorbjoern Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister, told Reuters a few days ago. That stoked speculation that the prize would go to activists involved in the Arab Spring democracy movement. Those activists?famously used Twitter and Facebook to organize anti-government protests in Arab countries from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond, ushering in nascent democracies.

Jagland went further in an Associated Press interview today. "The most positive development will get the prize," he said. "So I'm a little bit surprised that it has not already been seen by many commentators and experts and all this, because for me it's obvious."

He said the fact that the deadline for Nobel nominations fell in February did "not necessarily" rule out giving the prize to leaders of the Arab Spring, which came to a head in Egypt in early February. "We saw many of the actors at the time, but that doesn't mean that the prize goes in that direction, because there are many other positive developments in the world," Jagland said.

AP's Jamey Keaten came right out and asked whether the Arab Spring might be the source of the honoree, and Jagland responded: "That is one, but there are others, too."

How about the 27-nation European Union? Wouldn't that be considered a major peace-building institution? "Yes, of course, but today it's ..." he said. A press handler stopped him from saying anything more on that score.

Jagland said the Peace Prize honors would go to "not necessarily a big name, but a big mission ? something important for the world."

The five-member?committee decided upon the laureate at its final meeting?last Friday. A record 241 nominations, including 188 individuals and 53 organizations, were submitted for consideration. Committee members could?add their own suggestions until Feb. 28. That's just about the time that the anti-Gadhafi?Libyan revolution was heating up.

"For me and the committee, I think it's quite obvious if you look at the world today and see what is happening out there," Jagland said. "What are the major forces pushing the world in the right direction?"

You don't have to have 17,000 Twitter followers to see?that?social networkers would rank among those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations," as specified?by industrialist?Alfred Nobel in?1895 when he set up the Peace Prize. Commentators have floated lots of names of Arab Spring activists who used social media, including Egyptian Google executive Wael Ghonim, Egyptian?April 6 Youth Movement?leaders Israa Abdel Fattah and Ahmed Maher, and Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni.

But if the prize is going to?these leaders, or?even to the April 6?Youth Movement as a group, why would Jagland?voice surprise that the development honored by the prize has not yet been seen by so many? Also, Jagland's comment that?"there are others" beyond the Arab Spring movement suggests that the committee might be looking beyond just Tunisia, Libya?and Egypt.

This suggests a couple of potential twists: The prize could go to an array of activists including but not limited to the Arab Spring movement. The group of honorees might even include the folks involved in facilitating the global use of social media from outside.

Might Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg or Twitter's founders win a share of the medal? That seems unlikely ? not only because social-media tools have been used for evil?as well as for good, but also because focusing too much on the technological?tools would detract from the achievements of activists on the ground.

"Of course cyber activism as a movement can change things, but we cannot forget that the Tunisian revolution began on the ground," Ben Mhenni told AFP.

Another Tunisian activist, Riadh Guerfali, voiced a similar sentiment. "It wasn't Twitter, it wasn't Facebook that carried out the revolutions," Guerfali told AFP from Tunis. "Here, we are the children of those who were imprisoned, tortured, of those who truly sacrificed their lives."

Those children of the revolution, from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya,?should?win recognition. But based on Jagland's comments, there's a chance that others, living far away from North Africa but connected through the global Internet, will be given a nod as well.

All this is?just based on a quick reading of?the tea leaves ? and there's always a chance that the reading is totally wrong. After all, this year's Nobel medicine winners?were nowhere to be found on the Thomson Reuters prediction list. The experts predicted that this year's physics Nobel would go to quantum-entanglement researchers (it went to the discoverers of the cosmic speedup instead).

And the people supposedly in the know?guessed that the chemistry prize might focus on laser chemistry, electrochemistry,?DNA electron transport, signaling pathways or carbon nanotubes. (The answer was none of the above. Instead, the Nobel went to?Israeli researcher?Dan Shechtman for his discovery of quasicrystals.)

So even if the Nobel Peace Prize goes to someone completely different (Wikileaks, for example), my track record can't?get much worse. Keep an eye on the Nobel website and BreakingNews.com to get the answer, sometime around 7 a.m. ET Friday.

... And a program note:
Speaking of the Nobel Prize, Caltech physicist Sean M. Carroll and I will be talking about the implications of this year's physics prize and other weird and interesting research?tonight?at?9?p.m. ET (6 p.m.?PT) on "Virtually Speaking Science," an online talk show that I host on the first Wednesday of the month. You can listen to the hourlong show via BlogTalkRadio, or?be a?part of the audience at the Stella Nova auditorium in the virtual world known as Second Life. (Here's the SLURL for your teleporting pleasure.) You can ask questions during the show via Second Life chat or?BlogTalkRadio's call-in number.

If you can't make it in real time, don't worry: The show will be archived at BlogTalkRadio as an audio?podcast for on-demand listening. Many thanks to the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics for providing the Second Life venue.


Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.?

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/05/8170031-top-contender-for-nobel-peace-prize-the-social-network

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Lack of Adoption Action Tarnishes the Pro-Life Witness ? Catholic ...

I still get a strong vibe on the cognitive disconnect in adoption discussions in some pro-life circles. On a recent St Blog?s thread, someone didn?t like my insinuation that the tendency to adopt infants is a sign that parents see children as a commodity?a cure for childlessness, rather than as an act of charity, justice, and love. The commenter posted:

To accuse people of regarding children as commodities because they regard adopting older children from foster care as risky ? is unjust.

If I were accusing people who wanted to avoid risk by adopting babies, it would indeed be unjust. But that wasn?t what I was proposing at all.

It takes courage to adopt, and perhaps no more courage in many instances than becoming pregnant and bringing a child to birth within the confines of one?s own family. Parents are not materialists for wanting to control and protect the environment in which they rear their children. And indeed, not everyone is cut out to adopt older kids out of foster care. I?ve known unsuitable foster parents?I don?t need to be convinced it takes special, and sometimes extraordinary, gifts to do it.

My wife and I consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have adopted a rather well-adjusted five-year-old, despite what one of the four foster moms reported. We know from the social worker that the young miss was considered for adoption by other families. But in every case, the eventual decision was ?no.? It was largely because of her medical condition. Sad, but something for which I feel grateful.

My criticism of the Catholic Church, its bishops, Catholic Charities personnel, and some families?that?s more general. Not every bishop has the charism to promote adoption. Not every bishop has the charism for administration. But it is the task of a bishop to ensure that adoption, as a charitable act toward needful children, takes place in his diocese. That should happen either through a personal ministry, or by delegating it to appropriate people.

It is part of the mission of diocesan Catholic Charities to offer an outreach of charity and justice in the name of the Church. Because adoption is a legal reality in our culture, it is governed by legal realities. We acknowledge those realities, and participate in a Christian way however we can do so. It is unseemly for Catholic Charities personnel or efforts to allow the witness of the Gospel to be clouded by politics, hurt feelings, or an inability to discern new opportunities. Not every CC office has the knowledge, awareness, or inclination to train Catholic parents to submit winning homestudies to other agencies. But they darn well should. It is a? moral crime for bishops to be reducing CC staff in face of what they perceive to be an attack on morality. I could get behind the bishops if the moral witness on behalf of foster children was better placed.

Many Catholic couples welcome children into their families. A prerequisite for adoption is not being without children. The prerequisite is being able to provide a loving, stable, and safe permanent home. One must be prepared to adopt and to allow the child to adopt parents as her or his own. It might be that siblings welcome new siblings?the more the merrier, and so much the better to enter into the entirety of a loving family.

But certainly, not every family, not every couple has the charism to adopt. Many childless couples lack this charism as well.

As I?ve said countless times before, both on this blog, and in other forums, the pro-life credibility of the bishops, of Catholic Charities offices, and of Catholic families in general is crippled by the lack of action on adoption. I interpret the movement against same-sex unions and adoption as being simply an anti-gay movement of bigotry. I?ve seen nothing from any bishop to convince me otherwise. Certainly nothing on the adoption front. Archbishop Dolan and other spokesmouths can mewl all they want about persecution. But there?s a time for speaking out, and a time for rolling up one?s sleeves and getting to work. This current crop of bishops?and I?m speaking generally here?have a heck of a lot ot learn.

Why? Because of the?tragic lack of?witness on the adoption end. If there were indeed hundreds of thousands of same-sex, cohabiting, or single parents adopting children, why are nearly half a million American kids still in foster care? Catholics fret about ?giving? a child to an inappropriate couple or individual. But every adoption agency has standards. If more Catholic couples stepped forward to say, ?We will adopt,? that would be one thing. The institution seems more concerned with the narcissistic view: ?Don?t make us do anything immoral. Don?t force us to give our babies to gays. Don?t make us uncomfortable.? In other words, the concern is less with the kids, and more with how things will look with God, the pope, or heaven forbid, the Temple Police.

I?m more than happy to travel or fly on a bishop?s dime anywhere in North America to catechize them and their people?on this moral deficit. I?m not going to be a comfortable speaker?that?s true. But I will tell you the truth, and suggest ways you can turn this thing around. I can recommend others if they find this essay too distasteful to give me the time of day. It?s really past time for action. That one bishop doesn?t have the gift for promoting charity?I can understand it. That one CC agency lacks the personnel to promote adoption as a solution for hundreds of children within its diocesan borders who are waiting adoption?there?s an easy fix. That one Catholic family discerns, ?No thanks,? to adopting even one child?understandable, too. I respect that.

That no bishop is promoting their families to adopt: inexcusable. That CC ministries are being cut back: unconscionable. That so few families adopt kids from foster care: blindness to the opportunity, to the charity, and to the grace.

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Source: http://catholicsensibility.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/lack-of-adoption-action-tarnishes-the-pro-life-witness/

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Source: http://takethewindoutofonessails.blogmonster.de/2011/10/04/lack-of-adoption-action-tarnishes-the-pro-life-witness-catholic/

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Brainworks Sensory Diet Creator For Autism And Spd, Parenting ...

Brainworks is the premier sensory diet creation tool. Sensory diets are designed primarily for those with Autism and other Sensory Processing Disorders.

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  • Notices - October 4 - St. Martin Daily Herald

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Source: http://mentaltraining.onyourweb.net/categories/143-parenting-families/14398-brainworks-sensory-diet-creator-for-autism-and-spd-parenting-families.html

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Alpine Goes for the Ropes Course Challenge ? Health and Fitness ...

Hanging precariously 30 feet from the hard surface of the earth never felt so good, especially when it had to do with building teamwork.

The ropes course challenge provided by Missoula Parks and Recreation is nothing short of a rush. Additionally, it offers a unique team building activity that quickly takes your group to a new level.

One of our goals this year at Alpine Physical Therapy was to do some team building activities. The ropes course challenge was a great choice and one that has taken our team to new heights (pun intended!).

Along with the high ropes challenge, we went through a number of different activities that create opportunities for team members to collaborate and problem solve. We had a blast, and we?ve grown tighter as a company and team.

Check out some of our team in the heat of the ropes course challenge.

?

We all agreed this was a fun and meaningful event. Can?t wait to do this one again!

For more information about Alpine Physical Therapy, click here to view our clinic website.

Source: http://healthandfitness101.com/?p=2730

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Women's Business Network - Seven Fields Chapter Open ...

The Seven Fields Chapter of Women?s Business Network will be holding an Open Networking Event for local women business owners and professionals in the Mars, Cranberry Twp, Seven Fields, and surrounding areas to attend on Thursday, October 20th at 8:15 a.m. at the Shop N Save Meeting Room, 1197 Freedom Road, Cranberry Township. There is no cost to attend and light snacks and refreshments will be served. Bring business cards and brochures to share and make some quality connections with local area women professionals and those in sales and experience the benefits of networking to grow your business. Some of the open business categories are: Caterer, Florist, Car Dealer, Dentist, Optometrist, and Photographer. Each chapter is category exclusive so once a business category is filled by a qualified applicant, that chapter category is closed. RSVP is necessary to Mary Ann Nudi Burge at 724-935-2221.

Source: http://www.yourcranberry.com/blog/womens-business-network-seven-fields-chapter-open-networking-event

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Economics ? The Middle Class ? It Was Nice Knowing You

In the biosystem of the human body we have a series of nerves, veins, and sensors. We also have major components of our bodies that we can?t do without. If we look at the human body in all its complexity, we can begin to understand nation?s banking system. After all, the flow of blood and information in the body is paramount to a healthy human. Likewise, the flow of money and information is omnipotent for a healthy banking system and nation.

Have you ever slept on your arm incorrectly, and you wake up and you can?t move it or feel it? Well, it obviously it isn?t getting the right blood flow, and you aren?t getting any information from it. Therefore, is completely useless, and it is a drag on anything that you?re trying to do.

What if your arm was a state which grew a large percentage of the crops for our nation? And what if it wasn?t getting the right flow of money, or the banking system was not working in that region of our country? The farmers cannot get the money they need to deliver the crops, and therefore, the nation wouldn?t do as well either.

I can not say it any better than Elizabeth Warren has. She concludes her Huffington Post article with these cautionary words: ?America today has plenty of rich and super-rich. But it has far more families who did all the right things, but who still have no real security. Going to college and finding a good job no longer guarantee economic safety. Paying for a child?s education and setting aside enough for a decent retirement have become distant dreams. Tens of millions of once-secure middle class families now live paycheck to paycheck, watching as their debts pile up and worrying about whether a pink slip or a bad diagnosis will send them hurtling over an economic cliff. America without a strong middle class? Unthinkable, but the once-solid foundation is shaking.?

If each time a Corporation starts making more money the labor demands more money, then there is no profit gained. Therefore, the quarterly objectives are not met, and the shareholders value decreases, and that means the company becomes less viable to attract funding for the future, and therefore, it becomes more bureaucratic, older, and stodgy or to the point they cannot remain agile the market place or compete. The company then cannot invest in upgrading its facilities and business. The increased regulations which are caused by unions, hastened the downfall of some of America?s greatest corporations. Indeed, I?d like you to please consider this You can be published without charge. You can to republish this article in your website or blog. Please provide links Active. credit, credit card, credit union, credit check, federal credit union, tax credit, credit reporting, free credit, credit loans, credit scoring, credit score, free credit report, bad credit loans, loans for bad credit,?

Source: http://newsandsociety.ramon2412.ws/?p=725

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Remember mental health, too! - The Student at Wake Forest University

By: Katie Varga, contributing writer

The school year has begun on the Wake Forest campus, and students are taking advantage of Winston-Salem?s early fall weather by going for jogs on the Reynolda trails or participating in intramural sports in the evenings. Any day of the week, at any time of the day, students can be seen running along the sidewalks lining the academic buildings or getting in some laps around the track. Even professors will joke about the student population?s dedication to physical activity, claiming that Wake Forest students are significantly more concerned with fitness than they were when they were in college. Although this increase in physical awareness may just be a sign of the times, it also may be attributed to Wake Forest?s student life in general. Intramural sports are popular among a majority of students, whether it is flag football in the fall or water polo in the winter. Regardless of whether students know it or not, their involvement in these activities is just another way that Wake Forest students prove that physical activity is important in their day-to-day life. Students constantly request a renovation to the Miller Center, hoping that one day the building will hold more machines and provide more space for students to work out.

In addition to the students? increasing participation in physical activity, they have also shown healthy initiative by requesting healthier food options in campus dining areas. The Pit now houses a variety of healthier food options, including meats that are grilled and baked as opposed to fried, and a ?World?s Fare? area that serves a rotating choice of ethnic foods. The Sundry has introduced a selection of quick, healthy salads and sandwiches that students can grab on the go, and apparently these changes all began with the requests of the students themselves. The stereotypical EasyMac-eating college kid is slowly on its way out, and the adventurous, nutritional eater may be taking its place.

Wake Forest students go above and beyond when it comes to fitness and nutrition, but an aspect of health that may be forgotten in the lives of Wake?s busy scholars is mental health. Stress levels climb around midterm and final exams, but other influential factors about the fall semester may lead to an increased level of anxiety as well; freshman are experiencing their first year away from a familiar environment, seniors are beginning to put thought into their post-graduation plans, and sophomores and juniors attempt to organize their class schedule in order to fulfill requirements. Extracurricular activities can also cause stress levels to skyrocket if too many obligations overlap. Involvement and dedication to academia is important at Wake Forest, but students shouldn?t forget about the resources offered to keep not only their bodies, but also their minds healthy and happy. The Counseling Center is an easily accessible and entirely confidential resource located on-campus. The Learning Assistance Center helps students adapt to the busy college academic schedule, and also offers peer tutoring in almost all subjects.

Students at Wake are becoming more and more concerned with physical health and fitness, which is quite a feat considering the amount of coursework and extracurricular activities which populate the average student?s Daytimer. But aside from physical health, mental health is imperative to a successful school year, so be sure to remember the resources that Wake has made available?and keep your body and mind happy and healthy.

Source: http://wakestudent.com/2011/10/02/remember-mental-health-too/

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Finding Reputable Scuba Diving Lessons | Sports Venue Talk

October 2, 2011 ? 4:00 pm

Scuba diving, like every other expert activity, have to be realized before it may be mastered. So, for those who have a need to take to the ocean in scuba gear, selecting from among scuba diving classes is an inevitable part of the process. Discovering reputable scuba diving classes will be sure that you receive the talents it?s essential start your journey in scuba.

The fantastic thing about scuba diving lessons is that they can be discovered anyplace - from small cities to big cities - and don?t require proximity to the ocean. As a matter of reality, most scuba diving lessons are taught in a pool facility, giving instructors the benefit of a managed atmosphere through which to show the basics of scuba. And for a scuba novice, a pool surroundings is far less intimidating than the ocean, especially when you are just learning how one can function with the number of scuba gear you should don to dive.

Firstly in your quest to seek out scuba diving classes is to establish the reputation of lessons provided closest to you. It is imperative that you just receive lessons from licensed instructors who?ve experience with training - not just taking part in - scuba diving. Ask around to search out individuals who have taken scuba diving courses from particular instructors and amenities to narrow down your search. There are actual scuba colleges that exist but remember to examine public pool amenities the place instructors periodically visit to offer scuba diving classes.

Most often, you may go to the ability, and actually take part in a trial class - at no cost - to find out if it is the appropriate environment to your explicit needs. Most of the time, you?ll start with comprehensive classroom instruction earlier than even getting into the pool.

Moreover, most respected scuba diving lessons will provide equipment for use during lessons. This can be helpful when you have not but totally dedicated your self enough to scuba diving to purchase the expensive equipment.

A very powerful factor you need to obtain from scuba diving courses is confidence. It must be a snug, effectively-paced learning atmosphere where you feel that your entire questions are totally answered and where security is of the utmost concern. Before you recognize it, you?ll be nicely on your solution to exploring the numerous mysteries beneath the ocean.

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Source: http://blog.sportsvenue-technology.com/index.php/2011/10/02/finding-reputable-scuba-diving-lessons/

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