The U.S. presidential race on Facebook [infographic]

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Source: http://holykaw.alltop.com/the-us-presidential-race-on-facebook-infograp

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Gray wolf crosses into California, first seen in state in 88 years

By Lisa M. Krieger lkrieger@mercurynews.com

A lone gray wolf has crossed the border into California, marking the return of a fabled creature that vanished from the state 88 years ago.

The young male, known as OR7, trotted from southern Oregon into the wilds of Siskiyou County on Wednesday night, California Department of Fish and Game officials said, citing satellite tracking data.

No one knows if he'll stay there in the forested buttes west of Lower Klamath Lake, or be joined by others. Perhaps he'll simply turn around and return north.

But his entry suggests that it may be just a matter of time before re-establishment in California of a species that has been revered, reviled and once hunted to near extinction. Wildlife officials already are preparing for how to handle the return of wild wolves, an event sure to inspire dread among ranchers fearful of losing stock to the predators.

"Whether one is for it or against it, the entry of this lone wolf into California is a historic event and result of much work by the wildlife agencies of the West," said fish and game Director Charlton H. Bonham. "If the gray wolf does establish a population in California, there will be much more work to do here."

The last confirmed wild gray wolf in California was killed in Lassen County in 1924. While they were widely distributed, they were never abundant. Any California wolf would be protected under the state's endangered species law.

OR7 -- a code that identifies the wolf's GPS

transmitter -- is a member of the so-called Imnaha pack, Oregon's oldest and largest. Wolves re-established in Oregon in 1999, and there is evidence that they are spreading across the state, possibly to start new packs elsewhere. Others have been seen in the region near Walla Walla, Wash., and Pendleton, Ore. His mother, in 2008, returned to Oregon after migrating from Idaho.

Wearing a GPS collar, OR7's wanderings have been closely tracked by biologists. He migrated 730 miles across Oregon over two months beginning last September. Over the past month, he's been in the Siskiyou National Forest, northeast of Medford. This week, he wandered south of the Oregon town of Keno, just 10 miles from the California border.

"He's doing what young males typically do -- they outgrow their pack and go out to find their own mate, to try to make a pack," said fish and game spokeswoman Jordan Traverso.

Wolves have proved to be a resilient species, after nearly being extinguished by poisoning, trapping and shooting.

The re-emergence of wolves in the Rocky Mountain West has been an unexpected success. They started to move back into northern Montana from Canada in the 1980s. Then, in a re-establishment program, the U.S. government introduced 65 Canadian wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, after elk herds were destroying large tracts of vegetation.

To the surprise of federal experts, the wolves hit population targets in just seven years -- and spread. Wolf population has now reached about 1,600 across the Rocky Mountain region, with about a hundred breeding pairs. Legal wolf hunts began in Idaho and Montana.

But the wolf hunts have been controversial. In Oregon, which permits wolves to be killed if they attack livestock, two wolves from OR7's pack were killed this year. Kill orders for two more were issued after they were blamed for killing a calf, but were stayed after challenges from wildlife advocates.

If wolves gain a foothold in California, "We are concerned about a clash between wolves and livestock," said Jack King of the California Farm Bureau Federation. "We've been watching the advance very closely. Now it's come to our door stoop."

"It is a matter of numbers, and how aggressive the wolves become, that determines how much of a problem it becomes," he continued. "What forms of relief will be available to livestock producers, as restitution for losses?"

But Patrick Valentino of the San Francisco-based California Wolf Center called the wolf's arrival "great news" and "an opportunity for California to recover a top predator."

"The question is: What happens next?" Valentino asked. "Will they return? If it's up to wolves, the answer is yes. But it's up to people. Will we accept them?"

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 408-920-5565.

Species At a glance
Gray wolves are the largest member of the canine family that includes domestic dogs, and can be gray, black or white in color.
Height: 26-32 inches at shoulder
Length: 4.5 to 6.5 feet, nose to tail
Weight: 55 to 130 pounds; males are larger than females
Life span: 7-8 years in the wild; captives have lived 10 years or more

Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/education/ci_19643821?source=rss

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World rings in 2012 and bids adieu to a tough year

Fireworks burst over the Sydney Opera House, rigfht, as New Year's celebrations begin in Sydney, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Fireworks burst over the Sydney Opera House, rigfht, as New Year's celebrations begin in Sydney, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Fireworks burst over Sydney Harbour as New Year's celebrations begin in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Fireworks burst over Sydney Opera House as New Year's celebrations begin in Sydney, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

In this Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011 photo, a post office official shows memorial postage stamps featuring the phrase "into the future," marking the date line switch in Apia, Samoa. When the clock struck midnight Thursday, the country skipped over Friday and moved 24 hours ahead, straight into Saturday, Dec. 31. Samoa aimed to align its time zone with key trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region by shifting west of the international date line. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, FRANCE, HONG KONG, JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA

People gather along Beach Road in Apia, Samoa, and celebrate as the time approaches 12 midnight on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. At midnight the country will jump forward in time, crossing westward over the international date line and effectively erasing Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, from the country's calendar. (AP Photo/Samoa Observer)

NEW YORK (AP) ? With glittering fireworks and star-studded celebrations from New Zealand to Times Square, the world eagerly welcomed a new year and hope for a better future Saturday, saying goodbye to a year of hurricanes, tsunamis and economic turmoil that many would rather forget.

Revelers in Australia, Asia, Europe and the South Pacific island nation of Samoa, which jumped across the international dateline to be the first to celebrate, welcomed 2012 with booming pyrotechnic displays. Fireworks soared and sparked over Moscow's Red Square, crowds on Paris' Champs-Elysees boulevard popped Champagne corks at midnight, and up to a million revelers were expected to jam New York's Times Square for the famed crystal-paneled ball drop.

But many approached the new year with more relief than joy, as people battered by weather disasters, joblessness and economic uncertainty hoped the stroke of midnight would change their fortunes.

"Once the ball drops, I won't give 2011 another thought," said Kyralee Scott, 16, of Jackson, New Jersey, whose father spent most of the year out of work. "It was a pretty tough year, but God was looking after us and I know 2012 has got to be better."

Some New York revelers, wearing party hats and "2012" glasses, began camping out Saturday morning, even as workers readied bags stuffed with hundreds of balloons and technicians put colored filters on klieg lights. The crowds cheered as workers lit the crystal-paneled ball that drops at midnight Saturday and put it through a test run, 400 feet (120 meters) above the street. The sphere, now decorated with 3,000 Waterford crystal triangles, has been dropping to mark the new year since 1907, long before television made it a U.S. tradition.

As the country prepared for the celebration, glum wasn't on the agenda for many, even those that had a sour year.

"We're hoping the next year will be better," said Becky Martin, a former elementary school teacher who drove from Rockford, Illinois, to Times Square after spending a fruitless year trying to find a job. "We're starting off optimistic and hoping it lasts."

Many expressed cautious hope that better times were ahead after a year in which Japan was ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami triggering a nuclear disaster, hurricanes wreaked havoc across the U.S. and a debt crisis threatened Europe's economy.

"Everybody's suffering. That's why it's so beautiful to be here celebrating something with everybody," said Lisa Nicol, 47, of Melbourne, Australia, who was in Times Square.

For all of the holiday's bittersweet potential, New York City always treats it like a big party ? albeit one that now takes place under the watchful eye of a massive security force, including more than 1,500 police officers.

Dick Clark, who suffered a stroke in 2004, will be back to help host his namesake New Year's Eve celebration with Ryan Seacrest, featuring performances by Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Gaga will then join Mayor Michael Bloomberg to lead the 60-second countdown to the New Year.

In Las Vegas, police planned to shut down a four-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of the Strip to vehicle traffic six hours before midnight, letting revelers party in the street. Casino nightclubs touted pricey, exclusive bashes hosted by celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Fergie, and fireworks were expected to shoot from the rooftops of eight of the city's most famous casinos.

Atlanta was welcoming thousands to its downtown, where a giant peach is dropped every New Year's Eve at midnight. Fireworks were to be launched from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle; in Houston, tens of thousands were celebrating at a party with country singer Delbert McClinton.

Miami has its own fruit, The Big Orange, a neon citrus with a new animated face that will rise up the side of a downtown hotel as fireworks go off nearby. The town of Eastport, Maine, will lower an 8-foot (2.4-meter)-long wooden sardine from a downtown building at midnight, in celebration of its sardine canning and fishing history.

The first worldwide celebrations started in the island nation of Samoa, which hopped across the international date line at midnight on Thursday, skipping Friday and moving instantly to Saturday.

Samoa and the neighboring nation of Tokelau lie near the dateline that zigzags vertically through the Pacific Ocean; both sets of islands decided to realign themselves this year from the Americas side of the line to the Asia side to be more in tune with key trading partners.

In Sydney, more than 1.5 million people watched the shimmering pyrotechnic display designed around the theme "Time to Dream". In London, some 250,000 people gathered to listen to Big Ben chime at the stroke of midnight. Fireworks were set off from the London Eye, the giant wheel on the south bank of the River Thames.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate for a massive party complete with live performances from the Scorpions and other bands and a spectacular fireworks display.

Revelers in Spain greeted 2012 by eating 12 grapes in time with Madrid's central Puerta del Sol clock, a national tradition observed by millions who stop parties to follow the chimes on television.

Tens of thousands of young people in the Spanish capital gathered at six indoor "macro-parties" the city council had authorized in big venues such as the city's main sports hall.

Milena Quiroga was to be among the many there happy to move on. "I am glad to see 2011 go because it was a tough year; my restaurant laid off almost half of the staff," said the 25-year-old waitress.

World leaders evoked 2011's struggles in their New Year's messages with some ambivalence.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Europe's crisis is not finished and "that 2012 will be the year full of risks, but also of possibilities."

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wished well being and prosperity to all Russians "regardless of their political persuasion" after large-scale protests against him.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI marked the end of 2011 with prayers of thanks and said humanity awaits the new year with apprehension but also with hope for a better future.

"We prepare to cross the threshold of 2012, remembering that the Lord watches over us and takes care of us," Benedict said. "In him this evening we want to entrust the entire world. We put into his hands the tragedies of this world of ours and we also offer him the hopes for a better future."

Several people preparing to celebrate the holiday told the AP that they would usher in the New Year hoping the U.S. Congress would become a more cooperative place. Some talked about their hopes for the presidential election. Others said they hoped to hold on to their job, or find a new one to replace one they'd lost.

An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted Dec. 8-12 found that 62 percent of Americans are optimistic that the nation's fortunes would improve in 2012, and 78 percent hopeful that their own family would have a better year. Most wrote off 2011 as a dud.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Chris Hawley and David B. Caruso in New York, Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas, Bruce Shipkowski in Jackson, New Jersey, Dorie Turner in Atlanta, Greg Keller in Paris, Harold Heckle in Madrid, Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, Frances D'Emilio in Vatican City, Meera Selva in London and Melissa Eddy in Berlin.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-31-New%20Year's%20Eve/id-5aefec0634d24b3bb12abb2a22765881

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Learning to love vultures in order to save them

HARTBEESPOORT, South Africa?? Many people associate vultures with death and decay. But a couple of conservationists in South Africa are trying to show the public what they love and admire about these birds in order to try to save them.

"No one's going to try to save a species if they don't love them," said Kerri Wolter.

Wolter and partner Walter Neser run the Vulture Programme, where visitors can see the birds as they do ? as loyal mates, devoted parents and resourceful foragers, as well as spectacular fliers. Visitors to the Vulture Programme, a 25-acre plot with spectacular views of the Magaliesberg Mountains near Johannesburg, can observe the birds feeding at "vulture restaurants" where they dine on carrion, and get close to a Cape vulture breeding colony located on an artificial cliff made from mesh, concrete and paint.

The Cape vulture, with its 8 ? foot wingspan, creamy feathers and golden eyes, is southern Africa's only native vulture. South Africa has the largest population of breeding Cape vultures with about 2,400 pairs, but their habitats are threatened by human encroachment and the species is listed as vulnerable. Neighboring Namibia, where the bird is listed as critically endangered, is believed to have only about a dozen wild breeding pairs left.

This time of year, visitors to the Vulture Programme can watch the birds dining and will see young birds on the verge of flight. During the Southern Hemisphere spring, in September and October, visitors might glimpse a pair of adult birds brooding over an egg. While the scene looks natural, it is the result of painstaking human intervention.

To ensure as many successful hatchings as possible, Wolter and Neser remove the eggs from adults pairs, which mate for life, soon after they are laid, and replace them with wooden dummies.

The real eggs spend most of the 54-day incubation period in a kitchen in an old farmhouse near the large bird enclosures. When the chick is ready to hatch, signaled by the sound of tapping from within the egg, Wolter takes over the role of hen. She has spent hours tapping and pulling at shells with surgical clamps, and uses a syringe to dampen the feathers of the emerging bird with a solution resembling a mother bird's saliva.

In the wild, when overeager parents hatch their chicks too fast, the chicks can die of shock.

Once Wolter's chicks are hatched and deemed strong enough, they are returned to their parents. The dummy egg is removed and the chick, under what looks like half an egg, is placed in the enclosure. The sound of its tapping stimulates the parents' instincts.

"They, theoretically, hatch it again," Wolter said.

"They don't recognize it as their own chick if they don't hatch it," said Neser, who has scars from ankle bites as souvenirs of his frequent visits to the breeding enclosure.

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Both parents share in building nests, hatching and feeding their young.

The conservationists must strike a delicate balance. If they wait too long to place the chick back with its real parents, it may become too dependent on humans to be released into the wild. If they move too soon, the chick may be too weak to survive with its parents.

Clumsy parents seeking to shelter chicks under their feet have crushed them. Some parents don't buy the elaborate charade of wooden eggs and half shells, and kill chicks they see as outsiders.

Still, a successful hatching seems easy compared to the larger challenges.

The conservationists' long-term goal is to re-establish viable breeding colonies in Namibia. But a strong threat is posed to the species there: cattle farmers who poison predators such as jackals to protect their cattle.

A common method is to leave a poisoned horse carcass out for jackals. Vultures swoop down on the carcass. One poisoned horse "can wipe out an entire colony," Neser said.

Members of vulture colonies fly together, watching the ground but also watching one another. If one swoops for food, others follow.

"They have this pretty cool network going for locating food," Neser said.

Wolter and Neser meet regularly with Namibian farmers, trying to persuade them to stop using poison. But conservationists acknowledge alternatives, such as bringing cattle into enclosures at night when predators strike, are expensive and labor intensive.

"The situation where we are is, no, it is not safe right now to reintroduce vultures into Namibia," Wolter said.

They plan to start slowly, reintroducing vultures into a Namibian nature reserve, though they realize it will be difficult to keep the birds from ranging far in search of food, and perhaps finding poisoned offerings.

"They can easily travel 300 kilometers (nearly 200 miles) to go and feed and come back in the same day," Neser said.

Vultures can fly into Namibia from South Africa. Poisoning is not as widespread in South Africa, but this country is more crowded and developed, creating other problems for the birds.

Good Samaritans regularly bring vultures to Wolter and Neser who have damaged their wings crashing into power lines. Those that can be rehabilitated are released back into the wild.

Some South Africans believe the birds are clairvoyant, and kill them to use their body parts for talismans.

In addition to welcoming visitors to their conservancy ? reservations are required ? Wolter and Neser travel regularly to schools to talk about their birds. They stress that though they might not be cute and cuddly, vultures are nature's safety and health agents. The birds clean up carcasses before they attract flies, feral dogs, rats and mice, and thereby check the spread of diseases like anthrax.

The Vulture Programme also offers paraglider trips for about $400 that allow researchers and the occasional special guest a chance to fly with the vultures.

Neser says shaking human prejudice isn't easy, and the future for vultures is "not really a very pretty or optimistic picture."

Wolter steps in: "The idea is to try and make a difference for as long as you can, and not give up."

If You Go...
VULTURE PROGRAMME: Located in Hartbeespoort, South Africa, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Johannesburg; http://www.vultureconservation.co.za/. The center is open to the public by appointment. Adults, $6.20 (50 South African rand); children, $2.50 (20 rand).

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45571088/ns/travel-destination_travel/

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C. difficile lengthens hospital stays by 6 days

Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kim Barnhardt
kim.barnhardt@cmaj.ca
613-520-7116 x2224
Canadian Medical Association Journal

A new study published in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) reports that hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infection increases length of stay in hospital by an average of six days.

C. difficile is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in hospital, and it is estimated that 10% of patients who become infected in hospital will die.

Researchers used The Ottawa Hospital Data Warehouse to analyze data on 136 877 admissions to The Ottawa Hospital between July 1, 2002 and March 31, 2009. A total of 1393 patients acquired C. difficile in hospital during this time, and these patients spent 34 days in hospital compared with 8 days for patients who did not have C. difficile. However, the researchers also found that patients who became infected with C. difficile tended to have more serious illnesses and would have been more likely to stay longer in hospital anyway. When the researchers controlled for the level of illness using a mathematical model, they found that hospital-acquired C. difficile increased the length of stay in hospital by six days.

"We believe our study provides the most accurate measure yet of the impact of hospital-acquired C. difficile on length of hospital stay," says lead author Dr. Alan Forster, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and associate professor at the University of Ottawa. "C. difficile is a very serious problem for patients and for the health care system, however the good news is that tools such as The Ottawa Hospital Data Warehouse are providing us with more accurate information about C. difficile infection than we've ever had before, and this is helping us improve our infection-prevention efforts and also analyze their cost-effectiveness."

In a related commentary Dr. David Enoch, Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals, United Kingdom, and coauthor write that prevention and strict control measures are important for controlling the spread of the disease. "Adhering to basic evidence-based precautions can rapidly reduce the transmission of C. difficile and its associated mortality," they state. "Surveillance is essential to assess the efficacy of interventions."

###

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kim Barnhardt
kim.barnhardt@cmaj.ca
613-520-7116 x2224
Canadian Medical Association Journal

A new study published in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) reports that hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infection increases length of stay in hospital by an average of six days.

C. difficile is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in hospital, and it is estimated that 10% of patients who become infected in hospital will die.

Researchers used The Ottawa Hospital Data Warehouse to analyze data on 136 877 admissions to The Ottawa Hospital between July 1, 2002 and March 31, 2009. A total of 1393 patients acquired C. difficile in hospital during this time, and these patients spent 34 days in hospital compared with 8 days for patients who did not have C. difficile. However, the researchers also found that patients who became infected with C. difficile tended to have more serious illnesses and would have been more likely to stay longer in hospital anyway. When the researchers controlled for the level of illness using a mathematical model, they found that hospital-acquired C. difficile increased the length of stay in hospital by six days.

"We believe our study provides the most accurate measure yet of the impact of hospital-acquired C. difficile on length of hospital stay," says lead author Dr. Alan Forster, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and associate professor at the University of Ottawa. "C. difficile is a very serious problem for patients and for the health care system, however the good news is that tools such as The Ottawa Hospital Data Warehouse are providing us with more accurate information about C. difficile infection than we've ever had before, and this is helping us improve our infection-prevention efforts and also analyze their cost-effectiveness."

In a related commentary Dr. David Enoch, Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals, United Kingdom, and coauthor write that prevention and strict control measures are important for controlling the spread of the disease. "Adhering to basic evidence-based precautions can rapidly reduce the transmission of C. difficile and its associated mortality," they state. "Surveillance is essential to assess the efficacy of interventions."

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/cmaj-cdl112911.php

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Americans don't really want spending cuts (The Week)

New York ? Washington remains hyper-focused on slashing the deficit. But across the country, voters oppose even minor cuts to the feds' largest programs

The sound of metal on asphalt is becoming painfully familiar to many Americans. It's the sound of the can being kicked down the road by our feckless lawmakers. The latest can to be booted, of course, is that $1.2 trillion in debt reduction the super committee was supposed to have come up with by Thanksgiving. Now, supposedly, an automatic budget ax will drop in a year, cutting $600 billion from defense and $600 billion from domestic spending, most of the latter portion from Medicare.?

The less-than-surprising inability of the overhyped super committee to accomplish anything set off the usual snarky headlines and contemptuous utterances from the commentariat. Super failure, some sneered. Why can't our politicians do what the voters sent them to Washington to do??

SEE MORE: Can Obama save his jobs bill by splitting it up?

?

Many of the pundits have it wrong. Americans did not send their elected leaders to Washington to cut spending???at least not in a?meaningful way. And let's face it: The automatic cuts, at least as currently outlined, are unlikely to occur.?

Many of the pundits have it wrong. Americans did not send their elected leaders to Washington to cut spending ? at least not in a meaningful way.

SEE MORE: Should the GOP endorse Obama's payroll tax cut?

?

It's something of a paradox. Any truly meaningful debt reduction plan must include Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Why? For the same reason criminals rob banks: It's where the money is. Entitlements today gobble 41 percent of federal spending, and with baby boomers beginning to retire and living longer, the cost of these programs will almost certainly become unsustainable. No serious deficit reduction is possible without including entitlements. This is a fact, which as John Adams was fond of saying, can be a stubborn thing.?

The politicians understand this. Entitlement reform has been addressed in every major deficit reduction plan put forth in recent years. Simpson-Bowles. Domenici-Rivlin. The Gang of Six. Three panels, three similar conclusions. (Since the super committee???thrown together in a hurry and politicized from day one ? issued no formal recommendations, I'm excluding it from this list.) So why hasn't there been meaningful entitlement reform??

SEE MORE: Why the GOP caved in the payroll tax fight: 4 theories

?

The bitter partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats is clearly a major culprit. We all know that. But the media keeps missing another reason, and it is this: Americans simply don't want meaningful cuts. To wit:

? March 3: "Americans across all age groups and ideologies said by large margins that it was 'unacceptable'?to make significant cuts in entitlement programs in order to reduce the federal deficit. Even tea party supporters, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, declared significant cuts to Social Security 'unacceptable.'" (NBC-Wall Street Journal)?

SEE MORE: One cheer for the super committee failure

?

? April 20: "78 percent oppose cutting spending on Medicare as a way to chip away at the debt. On Medicaid ? the government insurance program for the poor ? 69 percent disapprove of cuts." (ABC-Washington Post)?

? And on July 21, with debt talks between the White House and Republican lawmakers dominating the headlines, a CNN poll said resistance to cuts was even greater, with 87 percent of Americans opposing Medicare cuts, and 84 percent Social Security.?

SEE MORE: Will the super committee 'save the economy' ? or wreck it?

?

Even after the once-unthinkable downgrade of U.S. government debt by Standard & Poor's, I've yet to see a survey any different than the above. A steady drumbeat of ominous warnings, images of rioting in debt-ravaged Greece???nothing seems to have gotten through. As Erskine Bowles, the Democratic half of President Obama's (largely ignored) deficit reduction commission has observed, America has to have "an adult conversation" about deficits. "The solutions," he warned, "are painful."?

SEE MORE: Budget countdown: Time to give up hope on the super committee?

?

Don't get me wrong. Americans understand we're up to our neck in debt. They know cuts have to be made. But this perception is often in the abstract, and when it comes to specifics, the classic NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) mentality rules. We just don't want anything cut that directly impacts us. This is why polls also show things like foreign aid are popular suggestions for cuts; most folks don't know that foreign aid is only about 1 percent of the budget. Another old saw: The triple bugaboo of "waste, fraud and abuse." No doubt there's money under the cushion here, but not nearly as much as folks think.?

Meantime, hard as it is to cut entitlements, what about the other half of the automatic budget ax ? defense? Surely that would be easier to cut, right? Perhaps not.?

SEE MORE: 6 people celebrating the super committee's collapse

?

Like the domestic cuts, slashing defense spending would occur through 2021 ? based on the ludicrous premise that the next four Congresses would leave the cuts intact. Next four Congresses? The cuts are unlikely to survive even the current one. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is busy working on a deal to scale back Pentagon reductions, for example, in return for the Democrats getting an extension of both the payroll tax break and jobless benefits for the unemployed.?

The broader problem with automatic defense cuts ? aside from the impact on security, which is an important discussion on its own ? is the impact it would have on jobs. Wily defense contractors have been preparing for this moment for years, sprinkling jobs across all 50 states and most congressional districts, thus making it awfully hard for lawmakers to support cuts.?

SEE MORE: The super committee's 'epic' failure: What now?

?

Some states are particularly vulnerable to this clever form of extortion. Consider Cantor. His state, Virginia ? home to both the Pentagon and the world's largest naval base (Norfolk) ? is dependent on federal spending for 38 percent of its economy. George Mason University economist Steven Fuller recently told Congress that if the automatic ax were to fall, the state would lose 122,000 jobs. Only a third of these are actual defense jobs; Fuller says the other two-thirds would be jobs supported by defense paychecks: restaurants, shops, and so forth. This kind of job loss would erode Virginia's tax base, threatening its pristine AAA credit rating and designation (by CNBC) as the best state in the country in which to business.?

This is what you might call a dilemma for the anti-spending Cantor. And it's not just him: Fuller estimates more than a million jobs would be lost nationwide if the defense cuts went through. That's why many lawmakers are fighting them tooth and nail. ?

SEE MORE: Congress' 'wild final month': 5 predictions for December

?

Domestic spending, military spending: Do Americans really want their representatives in Washington to cut these in a meaningful way? Sure doesn't look that way. So when does the adult conversation begin?

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get The budget: Is the GOP's plan to cut $32 billion enough?

Opinion Brief: Is Obama's 2012 budget 'irrelevant?'

Opinion Brief: Is Obama too 'weak' to tackle the deficit?

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111204/cm_theweek/222107

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AP Classes: Absolutely Preposterous Weapons Of Mass Instruction

This is a teen-written article from our friends at Teenink.com.

Weapons of Mass Instruction have been discovered in schools nationwide. Standardization of education is a plague that comes in many forms but none as detrimental as the AP class.

AP, or Advanced Placement, enrollment supposedly signifies that a ?student is intelligent enough to take college-level courses in high school. In reality, it?s just Academic Pollution. You do not learn the material to become enlightened. You learn to pass a test. You learn so that you can impress ?admissions officers with your weighted GPA. You learn so that when you enter college as a sophomore, you can fast-track your way to a high-paying job and the ?real world.? But signing away your childhood to the College Board is Absolutely Preposterous.

Dealing with those gifted children who actually want to be educated often presents a challenge to administrators. Easily bored in classes that don?t stimulate them, these students release their pent-up frustration at their intellectual stagnation in the form of classroom disruptions. The solution? Lump all the Annoying Prodigies into one class and teach them the higher-level material they crave.

However, this isolation only creates further problems: Students are stratified into two spheres of existence. Like oil and water, these groups rarely mix or interact, resulting in an unmotivated class of slackers and a bunch of Antisocial Puppets, neither group knowing how to deal with the other. School should develop students socially as well as academically, preparing them to coexist with people from all walks in this rapidly changing world.

The fundamental rule in AP classes is Avoid People. Who has time for distracting social engagements? The massive homework load, looming deadlines and supplementary study groups slowly suck up your week.

Life doesn?t exist outside of meaningless busywork. Most often this ?consists of Absentminded Prattle, or the art of explaining concepts that you don?t understand, care about, or ever really need. The essay is no longer a forum for sharing opinions or arguing a case; it?s a formulaic regurgitation of exactly what the teacher/grader/counselor wants to hear. Anything Pedantic scores very well. Dick and Jane don?t play ball; Dick and Jane ?violently propel spherical objects at each other?s cranial cavities.

Weekends are for Application Padding: community service, multiple musical instruments, perhaps a sport or two, and other such ?educational experiences.? Only Approved Pastimes are permissible. If a college wouldn?t care, neither should you.

Aggressive Parents enhance the whole experience with constant poking and pushing: ?Do more, do it better, and do it faster than everyone around you. Don?t slack off. Don?t you want get into college?? Flipping burgers at McDonald?s is a favorite all-purpose threat, as if no respectable place of ?employment accepts applications from students who can?t name all the Chinese dynasties or integrate complex polynomials. Applying Pressure is a parental specialty, ?although the constant in-class reminders about judgment day (a.k.a. the AP test) don?t do anything to alleviate the stress.

Abandon Principles and accept it; shape yourself to fit the College Board cookie-cutter. AP is not learning but memorizing and rewording when prompted. AP is Always Procrastinating, staying up until one to finish that paper due tomorrow or the last of those French conjugations. AP is an obstacle course with never-ending hoops to jump through. AP is being taught ?exactly what to think and how to think it. At the end of the year, they evaluate on how well you regurgitate.

And so we sit in our little box, ?swallowing unquestioningly and vomiting on command, waiting for the sweet freedom that college brings. But can we survive the blinding sun of ?individual opinion? Or are we Altered Permanently to obey?

- Sophie W., San Diego, CA

This piece has also been published in Teen Ink's monthly print magazine.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/ap-absolutely-preposterou_n_1127539.html

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