Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Forever Families: Athletic 13-year-old boy looks for forever home ...

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Children living in foster care often have to grow up faster than other kids their age. That?s why a day out at the Texas Fair and Rodeo was just what 13-year-old Marques needed to let loose. We had a fun afternoon playing some carnival games and he opened up about why he wants to be adopted.

"I do sports,? Marques said. ?So my whole season so far in 7th grade is sports."

Marques loves basketball and football the most, but his talents go far beyond athletics.

?My favorite subject in school is math,? Marques said. ?I'm just really good at math.?

Marques hopes to use his talents to help him travel the world when he grows up.

"One day I went to the beach and I want to travel back there," he said.

But first, he wants to be adopted.

"So I have a place to live, and pretty much a family," Marques said.

Living in foster care can sometimes feel like being a ping-pong ball, bouncing around from home to home, just hoping and waiting to land someplace permanent.

Marques doesn't have a long list of wants in a forever family.

"Someone nice and the rest it doesn't really matter."

For the family who adopts Marques they'd be hitting the jackpot. He?s a helpful, loving kid, hoping to find a forever family, who loves him just as much.

Marques said he also loves to dance and do anything fun outside of the house. When he grows up, he thinks he might like to be a police officer or a professional athlete.

For more information about Marques, please contact the Adoption Coalition of Texas at info@adopttexas.org

Source: http://austin.ynn.com/content/top_stories/291569/forever-families---athletic-13-year-old-boy-looks-for-forever-home

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Is pet ownership sustainable?

Apr. 22, 2013 ? There has been much talk about sustainability, but little attention has been paid to its nutritional aspects. University of Illinois animal sciences researcher Kelly Swanson, in cooperation with scientists at natural pet food maker The Nutro Company, have raised a number of important questions on the sustainability of pet ownership.

Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present while not compromising the future. Swanson said that although the carbon footprint aspect of sustainability receives the most attention, nutritional aspects are also important. "If you just change the diet a little, the financial and environmental costs associated with it are quite different," he explained.

The pet food industry faces some unique issues. First, it is tightly interlinked with livestock production and the human food system. Second, many people consider their pets to be part of the family, so the food has to be culturally acceptable to the owner as well as good for the animal. Finally, pet food has to be affordable.

As with human food, dietary ingredient selection and nutrient composition affect the sustainability of the pet food system. Protein is expensive, both financially and environmentally, so the choice of protein source and amount in the diet are particularly important.

There are thousands of widely varying pet foods on the market. Many are formulated to appeal to the owners, who think their pets need extremely high levels of protein and other nutrients. Often, they contain human-grade ingredients, thus competing directly with the human food system, which will have to feed a human population that is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.

This does not need to happen. Dogs and cats require specific nutrients, not ingredients. It is possible to meet nutritional requirements using a wide variety of nutrient sources. Previous research by Swanson showed that kittens fed vastly different protein:carbohydrate ratios all remained healthy.

For example, animal protein can be replaced by plant protein, which requires substantially less water and energy to produce. Soy-based proteins are a common pet food ingredient, and their production is estimated to be 6 to 20 times more efficient in terms of fossil fuel requirements.

Pet food manufacturers also make heavy use of the secondary products from the human food chain.

"That's great from a sustainability standpoint because we're using the products that would otherwise not be used," said Swanson.

In short, there are strategies to make pet food manufacturing more sustainable while meeting the animals' nutritional needs and keeping the products affordable. Pet food is a $55 billion industry worldwide, so adopting sustainable practices could have a global impact.

Nutritional sustainability is not just about minimizing environmental impact, it also involves promoting pet health through appropriate nutrition and food quality and safety. "Advancement in areas of nutritional sustainability will help us develop innovative products to improve pet health and nutrition and produce quality and safe pet food," said Rebecca Carter, research scientist at The Nutro Company. "Nutritional sustainability is part of a wider sustainability platform to improve the sustainability of our products and promote the sustainability of pet ownership and the pet food industry."

However, pet owners also need to adopt sustainable feeding practices. Overfeeding and obesity of pets is a growing concern. Swanson stresses the importance of educating "consumers, veterinarians, pet food professionals, everybody."

"They're being fed as much as 20 percent more than they need, so their health is poor, and you're wasting all that food," said Swanson. "Especially with cats, it's very difficult." Cats do not self-regulate their food intake well and have a decided preference for protein and fat.

Swanson said it would be helpful to develop a model that would estimate the environmental impact of pet foods and serve as a basis for strategies to increase the sustainability of pet foods in the future.

Such a model could be used to respond to those who argue that we should not keep pets at all. A controversial study published in 2009 equated the cost of keeping a mid-sized dog eating a normal diet with the environmental cost of driving an SUV 12,500 miles a year. A New Zealand environmentalist has launched a campaign, "Cats to Go," which aims to ban all cats from the country.

Both the study and the proposed ban have provoked heated, angry responses from animal lovers. Nonetheless, the issues they raise should be taken into account. Pet ownership is increasing in Eastern Europe, some areas of Latin America, and the China-Pacific region, so the impact of pet food production will certainly increase.

Pets play an important role in our lives and society, so sustaining pet ownership is critical in maintaining these benefits. Research has demonstrated the positive impact pets have on both the emotional and physical health of people with whom they have contact.

The researchers concluded that there are no "good" or "bad" practices; just some that are more or less sustainable. They hope that this article will serve to highlight areas where changes could be made to current practices and stimulate discussion within the industry so that the overall sustainability of pet foods may be improved in the future.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. K. S. Swanson, R. A. Carter, T. P. Yount, J. Aretz, P. R. Buff. Nutritional Sustainability of Pet Foods. Advances in Nutrition: An International Review Journal, 2013; 4 (2): 141 DOI: 10.3945/an.112.003335

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/lNB3ZsiYO7U/130422111150.htm

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Virtuix hooks up Oculus Rift to its Omni treadmill, shows off 'True VR' (video)

Virtuix hooks up Oculus Rift

Sure, Omni-directional treadmills are nothing new, but Virtuix's take is worth a mention now that it's been shown off working in conjunction with the Oculus Rift. The company's been posting videos of its Omni treadmill working with Kinect for months, but last Thursday it upped the ante by adding the Rift. All told, it makes for what looks to be an intense VR session of Team Fortress 2 -- one-upping SixSenses' Razer Hydra demo for the VR headset. The company's been working on this unit as an affordable solution for households, aiming to eventually try for funding via Kickstarter. Catch the video demo after the break and please resist throwing money at the screen in an attempt to get in on the action early.

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Via: Mashable

Source: Virtuix (YouTube)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Oz-Hz5pTljo/

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Egypt's Mubarak stays in detention despite second release order

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Cairo court on Saturday ordered Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak released pending a verdict on illicit gains charges, the second release order in a week, but he will remain in detention because he still faces other charges, court sources said.

The appeal hearing on Saturday was held in Torah prison, to where 84-year-old Mubarak was transferred from an army hospital on Wednesday after an apparent improvement in his fragile health.

Earlier this week, a judge ordered Mubarak's release on bail pending a retrial over charges of complicity in the murder of protesters in the 2011 uprising that unseated him, but court officials said he would remain in detention over graft charges.

The country's public prosecutor, appointed by new Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, on Saturday filed an appeal against the second order to release Mubarak, a security source said.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for almost 30 years before being toppled by the 18-day popular uprising in 2011, was convicted last June along with former Interior Minister Habib el-Adli of failing to prevent the killings of more than 800 demonstrators.

Mubarak and Adli were sentenced to life imprisonment, but the country's highest appeals court ordered a retrial in January. However, the case is facing a delay after the retrial was aborted last week when the presiding judge withdrew from the case.

The convoluted legal process has highlighted the difficulty of transitional justice in a country where many of the judges were appointed during the Mubarak era. Opponents of President Mohamed Mursi accuse him and his Islamist supporters of seeking to control Egypt's legal institutions.

On Friday at least 115 people were injured in clashes between Islamists and their opponents, the health ministry said. The Islamist protesters were demanding a purge of Egypt's judiciary, which they see as a redoubt of old regime influence.

The issue has divided many Egyptians and led to repeated street violence.

In comments to al Jazeera television on Saturday, Mursi said: "I hear the word purge in the context of fear and this fear is legitimate among people as sometimes verdicts are issued that are not clear in justice in the way people see it."

"The acquittals of symbols of the former regime worry people. (But) the judge could be fair in his verdict according to what is available to him in terms of information and evidence."

(Reporting by Shaimaa Fayed; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-mubarak-stays-detention-despite-second-release-order-150245482.html

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Friday, April 19, 2013

Gun background check amendment fails

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a bipartisan amendment that would have expanded background checks on gun purchases, a blow to advocates calling for more strict firearm laws after the mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., late last year.

The measure, the product of intense negotiations between Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, would have extended background check requirements on gun owners. It needed 60 votes to pass, but failed 54-46.

Democrats voting against the amendment were Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Max Baucus of Montana. (Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada switched his vote to no at the end, a procedural tactic that allows him to bring it up for a vote later.) In addition to Toomey, Republicans who supported the amendment were Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona.

Scores of onlookers filled the Senate gallery to watch the vote. When Vice President Joseph Biden read the final tally and announced the amendment had not passed, Patricia Maisch, who helped disarm the man who shot former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, yelled, "Shame on you!" before walking out of the chamber.

When the vote finished, families with loved ones killed by gun violence who had attended the vote consoled one another outside the Senate floor. Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Reid and Manchin joined them later. The parents of Jessica Ghawi, who was murdered last year in Aurora, Colo., during the November shooting at a movie theater, handed Reid a picture of their deceased daughter. When Ghawi spoke to the press, he placed the photo on the lectern and left it there so that speakers after him could see her picture.

"In the beginning of this process, I made it clear that any legislation that passes the Senate must include background checks to be effective. That is still the case," Reid told reporters. "I'm going to do everything that I can to fight for meaningful background check legislation. The fight has just begun. It's not going away."

After Reid's remarks, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the state where 27 people?most of them children?were killed in Newtown last year, approached the lectern.

"Today was a heart-breaker," Blumenthal said. "Probably the saddest day of my years in public life."

Despite the setback, the senators vowed that they would continue to press for overhauling the nation's federal gun laws.

At the White House, President Barack Obama spoke in the Rose Garden alongside family members who lost loved ones at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and Vice President Joe Biden.

Obama chastised Congress, saying, ?All in all, this was a pretty shameful day in Washington.?

The president placed most of the blame on Republicans, 90 percent of whom, he said, voted against the Manchin-Toomey amendment. ?It came down to politics,? Obama said in the Rose Garden. ?They caved to the pressure.?

He also blamed the gun lobby for spreading ?misinformation? about the amendment, saying the lobby and its allies ?willfully lied about the bill? and claimed it would work to establish a gun registry.

The president asked all Americans who support background checks to express their disappointment to their representatives in Washington, adding that those who want gun reform ?have to sustain the same passion about this? as the powerful gun lobby.

He vowed to keep up the fight. ?I see this as just round one,? Obama said. He added that his administration will continue to work towards reducing gun violence, but ?we can do more if Congress gets its act together.?

Additionally, the president thanked Toomey and Manchin for their ?courage? in introducing the amendment.

Throughout Obama's remarks, some of the family members of the Newtown victims?including Jimmy Greene, Nicole Hockley, Jeremy Richman, Neil Heslin, Mark Barden, Jackie Barden, Natalie Barden and James Barden?were visibly emotional. Obama and Biden comforted some of them.

The president also addressed accusations from Republican Sen. Rand Paul and others that he's using Newtown family members as ?props? in the gun control debate.

?Are they serious?? he asked, and challenged critics to question the rights of family members of victims to voice their opinions in the gun debate.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/senate-rejects-gun-bill-compromise-204629005--politics.html

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