So, up the ladder he went ? throwing the ball high in the back of the end zone to Demaryius Thomas.
Thomas leaped and brought it down with his right hand, then got both feet down inside the line for a touchdown. With that, he joined Eric Decker in Denver's one-handed-touchdown club Sunday and gave the Broncos another otherworldly highlight to go with their home-field advantage throughout the playoffs after a 38-3 runaway over the Kansas City Chiefs.
"They claim they can do that all the time," said cornerback Champ Bailey, who got to watch the replays of both catches about a half-dozen times on the scoreboard. "They say they practice that. I don't see it. But as long as they do it on Sunday, I'm all for it. Those are some great, hard-working boys and I expect nothing less."
Manning, in search of his fifth MVP award and, yes, a second Super Bowl title, finished 23 for 29 for 304 yards, three scores and a 144.8 passer rating. One of his main competitors for the award, Adrian Peterson of the Vikings, ran for 199 yards to reach 2,097 for the season in a 37-34 win over Green Bay that secured a playoff berth.
That one went down to the wire. Manning was out of his game by the fourth quarter.
This was the second straight Sunday he used a grey-and-orange glove to prepare for the cold, playoff weather he could face at home the next two games.
"I threw it OK today, I guess," said Manning, who finished the season with 4,659 yards, 37 touchdowns and a 105.8 passer rating, all second best in his 15-year career.
Thanks to Houston's 28-16 loss to Indianapolis before the Broncos kicked off, Denver (13-3) will be the top seed for the sixth time. The Broncos made the Super Bowl four of the previous five times they've had home-field advantage.
Though the Chiefs (2-14) gave the Broncos as tough a tussle as anyone during their 11-game winning streak ? in a 17-9 loss last month ? this wasn't expected to be much of a game. It wasn't.
Leave it to Manning, ever the perfectionist, to ramp up the degree of difficulty.
On the 16-yard touchdown to Decker, Manning slightly overthrew the pass but Decker reached out with his left hand, brought the ball into his helmet, had it pinball against his facemask twice, then cradled it with both hands as he was falling to the ground.
"Peyton throws the ball up, giving us a chance to make a play. It's our job to catch it," Decker said.
The 13-yard touchdown to the 6-foot-3 Thomas mirrored a TD pass Manning threw to Decker last week against Cleveland: high in the back of the end zone where only his receiver could catch it.
"That was probably the limit right there," Manning said. "But I've seen him in practice. He can jump. He can really elevate. It's hard to throw it over his head, I'll say that."
The Thomas touchdown made it 28-3 and the celebration was on. The only trip the Broncos will have to make on their road to a championship would be to New Orleans for the Super Bowl. They'll open the playoffs at home Jan. 12 against Baltimore, Cincinnati or Manning's old team, the Colts.
Coach John Fox, in search of his second trip to the Super Bowl, won his 100th career game. Thomas and linebacker Wesley Woodyard congratulated him with a big splash of orange Gatorade at the end.
"It's an accomplishment, but it's something that was a lot of people's work. It wasn't one guy," Fox said.
Nor would Manning take all the credit for all he's accomplished in this, a comeback season in which he didn't know what to expect.
This marked his 73rd three-touchdown game, surpassing the record held by Brett Favre. Manning closed the regular season only 41 yards short of his career high.
"It's been a gratifying regular season," Manning said. "I will admit that. It is certainly more than I expected. I'm grateful and humble for it."
On the other end of the spectrum are the Chiefs, who, like the Broncos, had five Pro Bowlers on their roster, but finished with 119 yards of offense and wrapped up the first pick in next year's draft.
Coach Romeo Crennel watched the game from the sideline, leaning on a crutch, after having his knee drained of fluid earlier in the week. Many in Kansas City expect him to be unemployed soon.
"I told him it's been a long one," Chiefs defensive lineman Shaun Smith said about his postgame conversation with Crennel. "Sorry it didn't turn out the way (we wanted). I have faith in you and that's all that matters."
The Broncos swept their division games for the first time since 1998 ? the last time they won the Super Bowl.
John Elway retired after that one. Now, he's back, running Denver's front office, and he signed Manning with only one goal in mind: a third Lombardi Trophy.
For a brief glimmer, this could have been a game. The Broncos led 7-0 when Ronnie Hillman fumbled and Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers picked it up and was sprinting toward the end zone.
Manning cut off the Flowers return, allowing tight end Joel Dreessen to drag down Flowers at the 12. The Chiefs settled for a field goal and the Broncos scored the next 31 points.
Notes: Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles had 53 yards to finish the season with 1,509. ... Broncos FS Rahim Moore got his first career sack and Von Miller had one to bring his season total to 18?. ... Hillman wasn't seen against after his fumble. Lance Ball replaced him as Knowshon Moreno's backup and led the team with 66 yards on 15 carries.
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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regardless of who takes the reins, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will likely face continued legal battles in President Barack Obama's second term as it tries to finalize pollution rules for power plants, analysts said.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who spearheaded the Obama administration's regulation of carbon emissions, said on Thursday she will step down after almost four years.
Her tenure was marked by opposition from industry groups and Republican lawmakers to the EPA's first-ever crackdown on carbon emissions, as well as other anti-pollution measures.
Analysts said whoever succeeds Jackson will probably face a spate of lawsuits to challenge rules that the EPA will finalize governing power plants, industrial sources and oil and gas production.
"This is shaping up to be four years of litigation," said Christopher Guith, vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Energy Institute.
Given the partisan divide, Guith said, legislators would struggle to draft laws that could serve as alternatives to the EPA's pending suite of carbon and air regulation.
"As we look to an even more divided Congress, the action will be in the federal courts," he said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, which hears most challenges to federal environmental rules, is likely to be busy as industry groups and states bring their cases against the EPA's rules after they are finalized.
The court sided with the agency in most of the recent challenges, most notably upholding its decision to use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
David Doniger, policy director of the National Resources Defense Council's Climate and Clean Air Program, said this could bolster the EPA as it tackles rules that may be more controversial than those rolled out under Jackson.
"The agency has a very good batting record on the clean air side. Carbon and climate (regulations) have come through completely unscathed," he said.
CARETAKER ADMINISTRATOR?
After the EPA was a political lightning rod during the first Obama administration, the president is likely to seek out a safe, possibly internal choice as Jackson's successor, or to avoid the confirmation process altogether.
"There are just so many arrows pointed at this agency," said Susan Tierney, managing principal and energy and environment specialist at Boston-based Analysis Group
Bob Perciasepe, deputy EPA administrator, will take over on an interim basis and could continue in that role indefinitely.
He previously worked at the EPA during the Clinton administration, specializing in water and air quality. Before rejoining the agency, Perciasepe was a top official at the National Audubon Society, a major conservation group.
Tierney said she expects the EPA to stay the course on its current agenda, especially as the agency faces some court-ordered deadlines to finalize rules, such as for coal ash, industrial waste from coal-fired plants and ozone standards.
PRIORITY ON CLIMATE CHANGE?
Some environmentalists have criticized Obama for being too timid on climate issues during his first term. But in his acceptance speech on election night in November the president gave a nod to climate change, raising hopes for more activism.
The White House may lean on the EPA to tackle one of the largest sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the current fleet of power plants, said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president at the National Wildlife Federation.
"The president has made clear that climate change is one of his top three priorities for the second term, so that means EPA needs to do its job," Symons said.
This, he said, means the agency needs to finalize the rules for new power plants and the standards for limiting carbon emissions from existing power plants.
The NRDC's Doniger said once the EPA meets an April 2013 legal deadline to finalize the greenhouse gas rules for new power plants, it will then have to address standards for existing plants.
The EPA has to start promptly in the beginning of the second term, said Doniger, because the rulemaking process is "a multistep process that will take time."
The controversial task will almost certainly trigger lawsuits because the rules will target a large number of domestic power plants and could jeopardize electric reliability.
"It's high stakes litigation when you are talking about bringing 40 percent of generation under regulations. That's disastrous," the Chamber's Guith said.
Guith said that while the EPA does have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide using the Clean Air Act, its rules are too difficult for industry - forcing the litigation.
"This EPA has been so aggressive in pushing the envelope by way of the compliance timeline that it has made itself more vulnerable to lawsuits," he said.
The EPA may also face legal challenges from environmental groups and certain states. The NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club joined a group of nine states led by New York that threatened to sue the EPA last year to propose air pollution standards for oil and gas drilling.
They said that the drilling, transportation and distribution resulted in a significant release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is not regulated by federal rules.
Doniger said the group is trying to negotiate a timeline with the EPA to set a rule but could sue the agency if it doesn't agree a schedule by February.
(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Gary Hill)
FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2012 file photo, a man runs between debris after a mortar shell hit a street killing several people in the Bustan Al-Qasr district of Aleppo, Syria. 2012 was a year of storms, of raging winds and rising waters, but also broader turbulence that strained our moorings. Old enmities and grievances resurfaced in the Middle East, clouding the legacy of the 2011 Arab spring. And the number of dead in the Syrian civil war passed 40,000. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2012 file photo, a man runs between debris after a mortar shell hit a street killing several people in the Bustan Al-Qasr district of Aleppo, Syria. 2012 was a year of storms, of raging winds and rising waters, but also broader turbulence that strained our moorings. Old enmities and grievances resurfaced in the Middle East, clouding the legacy of the 2011 Arab spring. And the number of dead in the Syrian civil war passed 40,000. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras, File)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's national airline canceled a flight to Aleppo on Saturday because of fighting near its international airport, while the United Nations top envoy to the country said it faced "hell or a political process" but gave no sign a truce was in sight.
The two developments underscored just how far international efforts to end the violence in Syria have fallen behind developments on the ground, more than 21 months into the conflict.
Speaking in Moscow, Lakhdar Brahimi, who represents the U.N. and the Arab League, warned that the civil war could spread chaos in the region by sending streams of refugees into neighboring countries.
Since starting his job in September, Brahimi has sought to advance an international plan that calls for an open-ended cease-fire between rebels and government troops and the formation of a transitional government to run the country until elections can be held.
After a trip to Damascus last week and talks with Russian officials, Brahimi said a truce is the country's only way out.
"If the only alternative is really hell or a political process, then we have got all of us to work ceaselessly for a political process," he said.
But neither side appears interested in the plan. The rebels reject any efforts that do not call for the ouster of President Bashar Assad, and Assad's government is unlikely to give up power voluntarily. It has not commented on Brahimi's plan.
Speaking alongside Brahimi, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his government would continue to refuse any plan that calls for Assad's ouster and that Assad had repeatedly said he would not step down.
"There is no possibility to change that stance," he said.
He criticized the opposition's insistence on Assad's departure as "counterproductive."
"The price for that precondition will be the loss of more Syrian lives," he said.
Russia has long been Assad's biggest international backer, selling arms to his forces and, along with China, protecting Syria from sanction by the U.N. Security Council.
Russia has called for a negotiated solution to the conflict, while top officials appear increasingly resigned to Assad's possible ouster by rebel forces.
Violence continued around Syria on Saturday.
Cairo airport officials said a flight that was supposed to stop in Aleppo before continuing to Damascus flew straight to Damascus "because of the deteriorated security situation" near the Aleppo airport.
It was the first time a flight to Syria's largest city had been canceled because of fighting near the airport, they said. The Syrian government and its airline did not comment.
Rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad have launched a campaign to seize government airports as a way to cut the regime's supply lines and strike a blow against its air power, the biggest threat faced by rebel forces.
While the rebels have yet to seize a major airport, they have disrupted traffic at some with heavy machine-gun fire, and flights to Damascus have been canceled due to fighting near its airport.
Syrian airlines is the only carrier still flying to Damascus, running one flight per day, though some officials still consider the trip too risky.
Last week, Brahimi flew into Beirut and drove to Damascus overland to avoid the airport. On Saturday, Lebanese security officials said Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad did the same while returning from Moscow.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Aleppo's international airport is just southeast of the city and still controlled by the government. It sits next to the Nerab military airport. The base of the army's 80th Brigade is nearby.
Rebels have been clashing with government troops near the airport for days, and videos posted online show them firing homemade rockets and shooting at targets inside. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other reporting by The Associated Press.
An Aleppo activist said the area's rebels see the airport's capture as a clear way to weaken regime forces fighting in the city since it is used to bring in supplies.
"Since the rebels have targeted all the supply roads, the airport is the main way for forces in the city to get supplies, so if they can take it over it will be a big blow to the regime," the activist said via Skype, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.
He and other activists reported a large explosion inside the airport on Friday, though it was unclear what caused it.
Illustrating the danger of the government's air power, anti-regime activists reported a number of deadly airstrikes in different parts of Syria, including in the towns of Azaz and Tel Rifat north of Aleppo and al-Nishabiyeh, south of Damascus.
Rebels also clashed Friday with soldiers inside the Mannagh helicopter base near the Turkish border.
Anti-regime activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria's crisis in March 2011.
___
Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed reporting.
While travelling 8,512 kilometers overland from Victoria Falls, Zambia to Lamu Island, Kenya does not quite make us experts in the field of transit, we did learn some very valuable lessons on the mysterious process of African overland travel.
Regardless of the name -- matatu in Kenya, dala dala in Tanzania, chapa in Mozambique -- the main form of transportation in east African countries is an extremely over-packed, yet incredibly cheap and surprisingly fun mini-van. If you're planning a trip to Africa and have an adventurous spirit, I highly recommend using this method of travel. Not only is it 10% of a flight fare, the immersion in local culture is priceless (if you can live to tell the tale).
Top 10 Matutu-Riding Tips:
Choose your vehicle wisely. Many matatus have names that shed insight into the owner's driving style. Do your best to avoid vehicles with names like "Beat the Reaper," "White Lightning," or "Eat The Dust," these guys are the wild cards-the kind that pull a three-car-wide pass on a double yellow. (That said, "Little Angel" could pull a similar move. No guarantees.)
Stretch before you get in. I am talking about deep stretching, as you will be often be contorted in ways a body shouldn't, with your legs and arms snaking around luggage, wheel wells and random metal bars that hold the minivan together.
Pre-determine the going rate to your destination. Optimally find out from your hotel or a local before you get to the transport pick-up area but, at the very least, ask a fellow passenger heading your way. Last resort is to watch what the locals are paying, then pay that same amount when the driver asks for your fare.
Don't pay for your luggage. On about 20% of our trips we were asked to pay extra for our luggage. Usually this is because the driver is just trying to take advantage of tourists and/or he is too lazy to secure your bag to the roof. Call them out. Tell him kindly that your luggage can fit on the roof or under your seat; if not, find another van.
Use duffel bags and luggage locks. Malleable duffels in a dark color are great at handling a rough and tumble matatu. Your bag will inevitably be squished up against something gross and possibly sat on by a shady character up on the roof so these two items will let you roll with the punches.
Go to the bathroom beforehand. Longer rides might come with a bathroom break, but they are uncommon and will most definitely be on the side of the road, and rarely include any privacy (yes, even for ladies).
Score a window seat. No one seems to like to open windows, no matter how hot and stuffy the van. Get command of a window that opens, optimally the right side of the back row or second to back row.
Carry small change for food and fares. At every stop, food vendors will approach the vehicle to sell passengers snacks (mostly grilled corn, eggs with amazing salsas, Marie cookies, fruits and tropical juices) and getting change can be a battle. Regarding your van fare, if you must pay the driver with a big bill, he will hold onto it as long as possible, pretending he can't break iat and hoping you forget, so keep eye contact with him until you get your change back.
Bring an iPod with audio books. This is crucial since the ride will be so bumpy can't read a book and you certainly can't write in a journal.
Roll with the punches and have fun! Find the humor in the Mad Max drivers, Jenga-like seating and junkyard amenities, and what some might see as unpleasant will become the ride(s) of your life.
Check out this quick tips video my travel cohort and I did in Nairobi, the unofficial "Matatu Capital of the World" and for a nitty gritty example of a matatu journey, see our photo-filled post on our four-day, 14-leg journey from Mozambique to Tanzania.
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Follow Anne E. Collins on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HoneyTrek
With the fiscal cliff finally upon us, it is time to review and renew your estate plan.? For the last decade, estate taxes have been a limited factor in estate plans for the vast majority of families.? With applicable exclusion amounts increasing steadily, fewer and fewer families were likely to be faced with the possibility of estate tax liability.? However, beginning January 1, 2013, the estate tax exclusion amount returns to $1 million (currently $5.12 million) and the highest estate tax rate returns to 55% (currently 35%).? Fortunately, this is largely a tax on those who are not paying attention.? Depending on your particular financial circumstances, there are certain actions you can take right now that will avoid all or substantially all of this tax increase.
Restate Your Trust If you are married and have a simple family trust, you could consider restating the trust as a Disclaimer Trust or an A-B Trust.? By doing so, you effectively double the amount of money you and your spouse may pass estate tax free.? Remember that the concept of ?portability,? which allowed a surviving spouse to use both applicable exclusion amounts, may expire as well.? Without proper advance planning, both spouses may not be able to maximize their estate tax exemptions, which could result in significantly more estate taxes due!? By restating your trust, you do not need to retitle all your assets in order to significantly alter your plan.
Plan Your ?Step-Up? Many assets receive a ?step up? in basis upon death, which often reduces the income taxes due when certain assets are sold.? The balancing and calculations involved can be complicated and should not be undertaken alone.? However, you may be able to achieve significant savings for yourself and your heirs by collaborating with your estate planning attorney and tax advisor to determine how to title, hold, and sell your assets.
Consider Life Insurance Life Insurance can be a valuable way to provide for the payment of estate taxes that will be due.? However, life insurance is also subject to estate tax!? With careful planning and the right policy, you may be able to structure your plan to eliminate the estate taxes due on proceeds from life insurance and provide some financial security to your heirs. Consider Charitable Beneficiaries In cases where your estate plan has already necessarily done a significant amount of estate tax planning, but some estate taxes are still likely to be due, consider leaving some of your estate to charity.? Charitable organizations receive bequests tax free and, when certain qualifications are met, no estate tax is due on the bequest.? If your family heirs are only going to receive 45% on the dollar while the IRS is the main beneficiary, maybe an organization you support would be a better use of funds.
Estate planning is a process and your documents should be reviewed regularly in order to ensure that they are still working for you and your family?s needs.? Now is the perfect time to determine whether any changes ought to be made in light of the highest tax rates we have seen in years!
Estate Planning: The Price of Organization, Rewards, Gifts, and Wondrous Tax Things? FREE REPORT: This complimentary report, focused on Estate Planning, is comprised of many of Mr. Miller?s articles from his long running column for the largest regional newspaper in San Diego County. This report will guide you through the questions surrounding getting your estate planning in order.
28 December 2012Last updated at 22:17 ETBy Victoria GillBBC reporter
Performing deliberate acts of kindness makes pre-teen children more popular with their peers, say scientists.
A team led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, "assigned" children three acts of kindness each week for four weeks.
After the four weeks, children were happier and more liked by classmates.
The researchers say than encouraging such simple "positive acts" could help children to get along with classmates and even prevent instances of bullying.
The findings are published in the open access journal Plos One.
Cuddling and cleaning
Working with 400 school children aged between nine and 11, the team assigned whole classrooms either to perform and note down three kind acts per week or - as a control group - to keep a diary of three locations they visited each week.
The kind acts were not necessarily directed towards their classmates. Some examples of the things children reported were: "Gave my mom a hug when she was stressed by her job", "gave someone some of my lunch," and "vacuumed the floor".
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
I was surprised that a simple activity could change the dynamics of a well-established classroom?
End QuoteKristin Layous UC Riverside
"Before the four weeks, we had each student circle [the names] of students from their classroom who they would like to be in school activities with," explained the lead researcher, Kristin Layous from UC Riverside's department of psychology.
The children were asked to repeat this same "nomination process" at the end of four weeks.
"Both conditions - kindness and comparison - received more nominations from their classmates after the four weeks were over," explained Dr Layous, but students in the kindness [group] gained significantly more nominations than the [other group].
"The most interesting finding to me is that a simple positive activity can promote positive relationships among peers," said Dr Layous.
She suggested that by reinforcing social connections between children in this simple way, schools could help to combat bullying.
"I was not completely surprised that students increased in happiness, because we have found the same effects in adults," said the researcher.
"[But] I was surprised that a simple activity could change the dynamics of a well-established classroom.
"This study was conducted in the spring, so students had already known each other all year. For them to nominate more peers at the end of a four-week activity period is promising."
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The Geminids?will peak overnight tonight (Dec. 13) with the moon at its new phase. The skies will thus be free of the moon's glare, allowing viewers in rural areas to see perhaps 100 or more meteors per hour, experts say.
A new and as-yet unnamed?meteor shower?may also make an appearance tonight, ramping up the celestial display even further.
"Meteors?from the new shower (if any) will be visible in the early evening, with the Geminids making their appearance later on and lasting until dawn," Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said in a statement.?[Photos: Geminid Meteor Shower of December 2011]
The Geminids ? so named because they appear to emanate from the constellation Gemini (The Twins) ? result when Earth plows through debris shed by the huge, enigmatic asteroid 3200 Phaethon. This is unusual for annual meteor showers, which are typically caused by comet particles.
The potential new shower's source is a comet called Wirtanen, Cooke said. Earth hasn't run into Wirtanen's debris stream before, but computer models suggest this year could be different.
If the new shower does indeed materialize, it could produce up to 30 meteors per hour tonight by itself, Cooke said. These shooting stars will seem to be coming from the constellation Picses (The Fish), so the shower may end up being called the Piscids.
A few scattered Geminids can be spotted shortly after sunset tonight. The show will really start picking up around 10 p.m. local time, experts say, and it should peak at 2 a.m. or so. You won't need binoculars or a telescope to see the shooting stars; just crane your neck up, preferably in a spot away from bright city lights.
You can also watch the meteor action online tonight if you so choose. Cooke and several NASA colleagues will host a live web chat overnight from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. EST (0400 to 0800 GMT), complete with live video of streaking meteors captured by a special camera at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. It will all happen here:?http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/geminids2012.html
Skywatchers who miss tonight's peak will have a few other chances to catch the Geminids this year. The shower should linger until Dec. 16 or so before petering out completely.
Editor's Note:?If you take a photo of this year's Geminids that you'd like to share with SPACE.com for a possible story or gallery, please send it, along with your comments, to spacephotos@space.com.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?and?Google+.?
Live and learn: Everybody went mobile in 2012 (or so it seemed), but the most groundbreaking movement on the Web may have been the rise of digital education.
For all the attention lavished on the Web?s growth on mobile devices this year, one of the most interesting Internet trends is still best experienced on a desktop computer: online education.
The rising cost of higher education (the average bachelor?s degree now costs more than $100,000), combined with increasing access to high-speed Internet service and a desire for more efficient and flexible learning methods, brought new prominence to websites offering free or low-priced courses in everything from programming to literature.
Free online code-learning startup Codecademy?s effort to teach novices to code snagged more than 400,000 participants for its weekly lessons in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Harvard and MIT joined forces to create edX, a $60 million nonprofit company that streams free college courses online, while nearly three dozen schools?including Stanford and Princeton?formed their own free online course site, Coursera, which has more than 1.5 million users so far.
Udacity, cofounded by Sebastian Thrun, a Google Fellow and former Stanford researcher, started out by offering a single Stanford artificial intelligence class online for free. It has since grown and now offers 19 different free courses, mostly geared toward computer science and math. And Duolingo, a free crowdsourced language-learning startup cocreated by Carnegie Mellon University professor Luis von Ahn, has about 300,000 users per week learning French, Spanish, English, Italian, German, and Portuguese.
Perhaps the most ambitious (and highly funded) online education offering unveiled in the last year was the Minerva Project, which raised $25 million from Benchmark Capital for its plan to offer a completely online college education for about $25,000 a year. We?ll have to wait to gauge the Minerva Project?s impact, though: it?s not starting classes until 2015.
Despite the initial wave of enthusiasm, it?s not yet clear whether many of these startups or universities will be able to form sustainable business models, or if online classes can really work well on a large scale (many of the students that sign up for classes don?t actually complete them).
Fortunately, because they operate on the Web, these education efforts are able to gather lots of data about how their students are learning?potentially useful for tweaking lessons and improving performance.
Another segment of the Web that experienced major changes in 2012 was social networking. More than eight years after it began in Mark Zuckerberg?s Harvard dorm room, Facebook crossed the billion-user milestone in October.
The leading social network also became a publicly traded company, albeit not a particularly successful one; the stock began trading on May 18 at $42; as of Wednesday, it had declined to $26.51. This move means that Facebook, which is constantly gathering more data about our lives, is now facing even greater pressure to find ways to profit from this information. Facebook bought the popular photo-sharing service Instagram in a bid to beef up its own photo-sharing offerings and capitalize on Instagram?s influence as a standalone app. Facebook set the acquisition price at $1 billion in April, but the stock and cash deal was worth about $715 million when it closed in August due to the drop in Facebook?s share price.
Pinterest, a social-curation site founded by Ben Silbermann that lets you ?pin? interesting items found online to virtual pinboards, emerged in 2012 as one of the most popular social networking sites. Though Pinterest launched back in 2010, it suddenly ascended early this year. In April, a report from Experian Marketing Services named it the third most popular social network behind Facebook and Twitter.
Of course, more and more of the Web was experienced on smartphones and tablets in 2012. The first time smartphones and tablets outsold personal computers?was 2011, and that trend continued in 2012. Mobile Internet usage has been rising quickly?it accounted for 13 percent of Web traffic in November?and it?s expected to grow more dramatically. According to IDC, the number of mobile users is expected to climb from 174 million this year to 265 million in 2016, with more of us accessing the Web with a mobile device than with a PC in 2015. So if you?re not already reading this story on a smartphone or tablet, chances are you will be soon.
Dec. 27, 2012 ? Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have figured out intimate details of how the hepatitis C virus takes over an invaded cell, a breakthrough that could point to way for new treatments for the virus.
Hep C hijacks the machinery by which a cell makes proteins and uses it instead to create proteins for the virus. Over the last two decades, researchers have figured out that Hep C uses an RNA molecule to do this. Now they're trying to fill in the details.
One key detail is reported in a paper published online Dec. 23 in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. It's written by Jeffrey Kieft, PhD, an associate professor at the CU medical school's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and an Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and his former graduate student, Megan Filbin, PhD, a graduate of the Program in Molecular Biology.
Working with researchers from the lab of Tamir Gonen at the Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Kieft used ultra high-power electron microscopes to take images of individual RNA molecules from Hep C as they interacted with the cell's machinery. The researchers combined those images with a variety of other experiments and these clues led them to identify a new way that the virus' RNAs takes over the cell's machinery.
Specifically, the researchers focused on how a ribosome, the cell's protein-making factory, can be manipulated by the Hep C RNA to affect a part of the protein process called translocation. And they saw something else -- that even very small changes in the interactions important for that hijacking process can be blocked.
"This points the way to developing drugs to fight hepatitis C in ways that current therapies do not," Kieft says.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado Denver, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Megan E Filbin, Breanna S Vollmar, Dan Shi, Tamir Gonen, Jeffrey S Kieft. HCV IRES manipulates the ribosome to promote the switch from translation initiation to elongation. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2465
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Imagine your family leaving for an indefinite period of time without knowing where or why they?re going and how long they?ll be away. This is what many pets experience when their families leave. Without the ability to understand that they?ll return, pets become anxious?experiencing feelings of fear, depression and other taxing emotions. They communicate these feelings in a variety of ways, causing both their families, and themselves, a great deal of distress otherwise known as separation anxiety.
WHAT IS IT?
Separation anxiety syndrome is a distress response most common in dogs when they?re separated from the person or people they?re most attached to. Roughly 7-28 percent of domesticated dogs may experience some degree of separation anxiety, according to Leighanne Goyder, D.V.M., with Johnson Ranch Veterinary Clinic in Roseville. Dr. Goyder goes on to say that while it?s possible, it?s much less common in cats or other domesticated animals.
CAUSES
While it?s not fully understood why some dogs experience separation anxiety and others don?t, it?s important for families to know that their dogs aren?t trying to punish them for being left alone; rather, their behavior is a panic response. ?Some speculated causes include lack of appropriate pet-owner interactions, improper socialization to owner departure and absence, prolonged contact with humans without learning to be alone, traumatic episodes during owner absence, and cognitive decline,? Dr. Goyder says.
Patti Hebert, R.V.T., with MarketPlace Veterinary Hospital in El Dorado Hills, notes that, ?It is common practice to label any ?home alone? problems as separation anxiety. [Similar behaviors] may not be due to separation anxiety. These behaviors may be seen from boredom. Your pet may not be getting enough exercise, playtime, potty breaks or social contact.? It?s important to rule those possible causes out before concluding that your pet has separation anxiety.
SYMPTOMS
According to Dr. Goyder, barking, howling, destructive behavior and inappropriate elimination are the most common symptoms of separation anxiety. She adds that ?specific events may trigger anxiety in an affected dog, like getting keys, putting on shoes or jackets, or packing the car, etc.? Really, any undesired behavior, especially those harmful to the dog or the home while you?re away, may be signs of separation anxiety syndrome.
In an attempt to protect their home and belongings, families often turn to leaving their dog outside. Hebert advises against this, stating that, ?When left outside, these dogs will turn into escape artists as they tunnel under, chew through or jump over fences. In their attempt to escape, they often injure themselves.?
TREATMENT
If you suspect that your dog may have separation anxiety syndrome, see your veterinarian, who will perform necessary steps to determine the cause of your pet?s symptoms. ?Providing your vet with a complete history will help determine if the pet is suffering from a behavioral condition, such as separation anxiety syndrome,? Dr. Goyder explains. The severity of the pet?s behavior will determine the treatment, which may include:
Behavior modification techniques. Whether alone or in conjunction with other treatments, behavior modification techniques are the best method for managing separation anxiety. Dr. Goyder explains that ?independence training, counter conditioning (associating leaving with something pleasant like a good stuffed toy or treat), changing departure and return routines, and graduated planned departures and absences can all help.?
Oral medication. Some pets with separation anxiety syndrome may be prescribed oral medication to help decrease anxiety. Dr. Goyder recommends that families pair this option with behavior modification techniques for best results.
DAP plug-in diffusers and collars. DAP is a synthetic version of a pheromone of nursing dogs. It has been found to pacify puppies and can be helpful in calming dogs in fearful, stressful or anxiety-ridden situations.
WHAT WON?T HELP
The Humane Society of the United States has found the following tools in treating separation anxiety to be ineffective:
Punishment
Getting another dog
Crating
Radio/TV noise (unless used as a safety cue)
Obedience training (separation anxiety is not the result of disobedience or lack of training; therefore, it has not been found effective in treating separation anxiety.)
Living with a pet who suffers from separation anxiety syndrome can be extremely difficult, especially for the primary member of the family whom the pet is most attached to. For the well-being of the animal and his ?people? family, it?s imperative to identify the problem then work to find an effective treatment. ?
Article by Kelley Saia?? Family Health & Wellness Magazine published by?Style Media Group.
My Dog with Separation Anxiety
Living with a dog with separation anxiety is like living with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When I?m home, my dog Sailor is perfectly well behaved and simply the cutest thing (in my humble opinion). The minute I leave the house, however, she becomes a completely different dog. I have to ?dog proof? my house before departing, because if something?s left out (even a loaf of bread), it will be eaten or destroyed. She?ll jump on counters and on top of the refrigerator, try to get into the trash (which I?ve learned to barricade off), attempt to escape, etc. Whenever I leave, I don?t know what I?ll come home to, which often makes it difficult to enjoy my day. Once she was diagnosed with separation anxiety, I worked with her vet to find effective treatments. While her anxiety has improved with treatment, it doesn?t seem to be something that will ever be cured, but we work very hard to make the situation work because Sailor?s an important member of our family.
?Megan Hodge
Article appears in the January/February 2013 Issue of Family Health & Wellness Magazine.
Subscribe to the Family Health & Wellness?Magazine Blog!
The tastes of the reading public are turning digital.
A Pew Internet Research Center survey released Thursday found that the percentage of Americans aged 16 and older who read an e-book grew from 16 percent in 2011 to 23 percent this year. Readers of traditional books dropped from 72 percent to 67 percent. Overall, those reading books of any kind dropped from 78 percent to 75 percent, a shift Pew called statistically insignificant.
Those owning an e-book device or tablet jumped from 18 percent to 33 percent, with much of that increase coming from last year's holiday season, when millions received Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers as gifts.
Awareness that libraries offer digital texts grew from 24 percent to 31 percent.
The telephone survey of 2,252 people aged 16 and older was conducted from Oct. 15 to Nov. 10. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi signed into law a new constitution shaped by his Islamist allies, a bitterly contested document which he insists will help to end political turmoil and allow him to focus on fixing the economy.
Anxiety about a deepening political and economic crisis has gripped Egypt in past weeks, with many people rushing to buy dollars and withdraw their savings from banks. The government has imposed new restrictions to reduce capital flight.
The new constitution, which the liberal opposition says betrays Egypt's 2011 revolution by dangerously mixing religion and politics, has polarized the Arab world's most populous nation and prompted occasionally violent protest on the streets.
The presidency said on Wednesday that Mursi had formally approved the constitution the previous evening, shortly after results showed that Egyptians had backed it in a referendum.
The text won about 64 percent of the vote, paving the way for a new parliamentary election in about two months.
The charter states that the principles of sharia, Islamic law, are the main source of legislation and that Islamic authorities will be consulted on sharia - a source of concern to the Christian minority and others.
The referendum result marked yet another electoral victory for the Islamists since veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, following parliamentary elections last year and the presidential vote that brought Mursi to power this year.
Mursi's government, which has accused opponents of damaging the economy by prolonging political upheaval, now faces the tough task of building a broad consensus as it prepares to impose austerity measures.
The Egyptian pound came under renewed pressure on Wednesday as market players, worried about the economy, switched their funds into U.S. dollars and other currencies, traders said.
Keen to be seen as decisive, the government is now in talks with business figures, trade unions and other groups to highlight the need for tax increases to resolve the crisis.
Mursi has committed to such austerity measures to receive a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
However, Al-Mal newspaper quoted Planning Minister Ashraf al-Araby as saying the government would not implement the tax increases until it had completed the dialogue with different parts of society.
In Cairo's bustling centre, people openly expressed their frustration with economic instability as they went about their daily business.
"The country's going to the pits. Everything is a mess," Hamdy Hussein, a 61-year-old building janitor, said angrily. "It's worse than ever. Mubarak was better than now. People were living and there was security."
Ashraf Mohamed Kamal, 30, added: "The economic situation will be a mess in the next few years. It already is. People will get hungrier. People are now begging more."
TURMOIL CONTINUES
Mursi, catapulted into power by his Islamist allies this year, believes adopting the constitution quickly and holding the vote for a permanent new parliament will help to end the long period of turmoil and uncertainty that has wrecked the economy.
Mursi's government argues the constitution offers enough protection to all groups, and that many Egyptians are fed up with street protests that have prevented a return to normality and distracted the government from tackling the economy.
The charter gives Egypt's upper house of parliament, which is dominated by Islamists, full legislative powers until the vote for a new lower house is held.
While stressing the importance of political stability to heal the economy, Mursi's government has tried to play down the economic problems and appealed for unity despite the hardship.
"The government calls on the people not to worry about the country's economy," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohamed Mahsoub told the upper house in a speech. "We are not facing an economic problem but a political one and it is affecting the economic situation. We therefore urge all groups, opponents and brothers, to achieve wide reconciliation and consensus."
Mursi is due to address the upper house on Saturday in a speech likely to be dominated by economic policy.
Sharpening people's concerns, the authorities imposed currency controls on Tuesday to prevent capital flight. Leaving or entering Egypt with more than $10,000 in cash is now banned.
Adding to the government's long list of worries, Communications Minister Hany Mahmoud has resigned citing his "inability to adapt to the government's working culture".
The opposition has condemned the new basic law as too Islamist, saying it could allow clerics to intervene in the lawmaking process and leave minority groups without proper legal protection. It said this month's vote was marred by major violations.
Nevertheless, major opposition groups have not called for new protests, suggesting that weeks of civil unrest over the constitution may be subsiding now that it has passed.
The United States, which provides $1.3 billion a year in military aid plus other support to Egypt and sees it as a pillar of security in the Middle East, called on Egyptian politicians to bridge divisions and on all sides to reject violence.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Werr; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by David Stamp)
The U.S. government is considering expanding its mortgage refinancing program to include borrowers whose mortgages are not backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The refinancing program now being considered also seeks to include "underwater" borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth, the Journal said.
The proposal would also transfer potentially riskier loans held by private investors to the government-sponsored mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the paper said.
Such a move would require congressional authorization to temporarily change the charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Journal.
About 22 percent of all homes with a mortgage, or around 10.8 million homes, down from 12.1 million last year, were worth less than the outstanding balance at the end of June, the Journal said, citing data from CoreLogic.
Under the proposal, Fannie and Freddie would be allowed to charge higher rates to borrowers in order to compensate for the risk of guaranteeing refinanced loans that are underwater and more likely to result in default.
The U.S. Treasury declined to comment.
Combined with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy loans and repackage them as securities for investors, Washington's footprint in the market has grown to account for nearly nine of every 10 mortgages.
President Obama will return to Washington from Hawaii Thursday while First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters plan to continue their vacation, adding at least $100,000 and probably more than $200,000 to taxpayer costs for the excursion.
Instead of accompanying her husband home on Air Force One, Mrs. Obama will fly on her own Air Force jet at a later date and require security and staff to remain in place in Hawaii for the length of her stay, which reportedly could extend until January 6.
The White House does not reveal the price tag for the Obamas? vacations. But an estimate can be made given several known and likely expenses.
Assuming Mrs. Obama uses the type of plane she has flown before to Hawaii, the Air Force C-40B Special Mission Aircraft, the cost of a flight from Honolulu to Washington would be about $63,000. If the C-40B must be flown out to Hawaii to retrieve Mrs. Obama, as would seem likely, the first lady?s travel costs could amount to about $126,000, assuming the jet is dispatched from Washington.
And the cost would be much higher still if a supply-carrying cargo jet comes home along with Michelle in addition to the cargo jet that accompanies Air Force One ? particularly if that jet too must be flown out to Hawaii just for Mrs. Obama.
Once you throw in the tens of thousands of dollars that must be dished out to house, pay, and support the military and Secret Service assets enlisted to protect Mrs. Obama ? as well as other support staff ? the price tag for her stay is probably in excess of $200,000, and possibly much more, depending on how long she remains on vacation.
Mrs. Obama flew to Hawaii separately from the president in 2010 and 2011, in those cases leaving early with the family while he finished work with Congress and then joined them for the remainder of the vacation.
If Obama strikes an early deal on the fiscal cliff and then returns to Hawaii to finish up his vacation, the tab for taxpayers would be extraordinary. Air Force One costs about $180,000 an hour to fly, and the roundtrip taxpayer-funded ticket for the nine-hour flight would amount to about $3.24 million.
Obama plans to fly out of Hawaii Wednesday night at about 10:00 pm local time, which would get him to the White House at around 12:30 pm ET on Thursday.
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Birdsong study pecks theory that music is uniquely humanPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory University
A bird listening to birdsong may experience some of the same emotions as a human listening to music, suggests a new study on white-throated sparrows, published in Frontiers of Evolutionary Neuroscience.
"We found that the same neural reward system is activated in female birds in the breeding state that are listening to male birdsong, and in people listening to music that they like," says Sarah Earp, who led the research as an undergraduate at Emory University.
For male birds listening to another male's song, it was a different story: They had an amygdala response that looks similar to that of people when they hear discordant, unpleasant music.
The study, co-authored by Emory neuroscientist Donna Maney, is the first to compare neural responses of listeners in the long-standing debate over whether birdsong is music.
"Scientists since the time of Darwin have wondered whether birdsong and music may serve similar purposes, or have the same evolutionary precursors," Earp notes. "But most attempts to compare the two have focused on the qualities of the sound themselves, such as melody and rhythm."
Earp's curiosity was sparked while an honors student at Emory, majoring in both neuroscience and music. She took "The Musical Brain" course developed by Paul Lennard, director of Emory's Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology program, which brought in guest lecturers from the fields of neuroscience and music.
"During one class, the guest speaker was a composer and he said that he thought that birdsong is like music, but Dr. Lennard thought it was not," Earp recalls. "It turned into this huge debate, and each of them seemed to define music differently. I thought it was interesting that you could take one question and have two conflicting answers that are both right, in a way, depending on your perspective and how you approach the question."
As a senior last year, Earp received a grant from the Scholars Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research (SPINR), and a position in the lab of Maney, who uses songbirds as a model to study the neural basis of complex learned behavior.
When Earp proposed using the lab's data to investigate the birdsong-music debate, Maney thought it was a great idea. "Birdsong is a signal," Maney says. "And the definition of a signal is that it elicits a response in the receiver. Previous studies hadn't approached the question from that angle, and it's an important one."
Earp reviewed studies that mapped human neural responses to music through brain imaging.
She also analyzed data from the Maney lab on white-throated sparrows. The lab maps brain responses in the birds by measuring Egr-1, part of a major biochemical pathway activated in cells that are responding to a stimulus.
The study used Egr-1 as a marker to map and quantify neural responses in the mesolimbic reward system in male and female white-throated sparrows listening to a male bird's song. Some of the listening birds had been treated with hormones, to push them into the breeding state, while the control group had low levels of estradiol and testosterone.
During the non-breeding season, both sexes of sparrows use song to establish and maintain dominance in relationships. During the breeding season, however, a male singing to a female is almost certainly courting her, while a male singing to another male is challenging an interloper.
For the females in the breeding state every region of the mesolimbic reward pathway that has been reported to respond to music in humans, and that has a clear avian counterpart, responded to the male birdsong. Females in the non-breeding state, however, did not show a heightened response.
And the testosterone-treated males listening to another male sing showed an amygdala response, which may correlate to the amygdala response typical of humans listening to the kind of music used in the scary scenes of horror movies.
"The neural response to birdsong appears to depend on social context, which can be the case with humans as well," Earp says. "Both birdsong and music elicit responses not only in brain regions associated directly with reward, but also in interconnected regions that are thought to regulate emotion. That suggests that they both may activate evolutionarily ancient mechanisms that are necessary for reproduction and survival."
A major limitation of the study, Earp adds, is that many of the regions that respond to music in humans are cortical, and they do not have clear counterparts in birds.
"Perhaps techniques will someday be developed to image neural responses in baleen whales, whose songs are both musical and learned, and whose brain anatomy is more easily compared with humans," she says.
Earp, who played the viola in the Emory orchestra and graduated last May, is now a medical student at the Cleveland Clinic.
So what music makes her brain light up? "Stravinsky's 'Firebird' suite," Earp says.
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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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.
Birdsong study pecks theory that music is uniquely humanPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory University
A bird listening to birdsong may experience some of the same emotions as a human listening to music, suggests a new study on white-throated sparrows, published in Frontiers of Evolutionary Neuroscience.
"We found that the same neural reward system is activated in female birds in the breeding state that are listening to male birdsong, and in people listening to music that they like," says Sarah Earp, who led the research as an undergraduate at Emory University.
For male birds listening to another male's song, it was a different story: They had an amygdala response that looks similar to that of people when they hear discordant, unpleasant music.
The study, co-authored by Emory neuroscientist Donna Maney, is the first to compare neural responses of listeners in the long-standing debate over whether birdsong is music.
"Scientists since the time of Darwin have wondered whether birdsong and music may serve similar purposes, or have the same evolutionary precursors," Earp notes. "But most attempts to compare the two have focused on the qualities of the sound themselves, such as melody and rhythm."
Earp's curiosity was sparked while an honors student at Emory, majoring in both neuroscience and music. She took "The Musical Brain" course developed by Paul Lennard, director of Emory's Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology program, which brought in guest lecturers from the fields of neuroscience and music.
"During one class, the guest speaker was a composer and he said that he thought that birdsong is like music, but Dr. Lennard thought it was not," Earp recalls. "It turned into this huge debate, and each of them seemed to define music differently. I thought it was interesting that you could take one question and have two conflicting answers that are both right, in a way, depending on your perspective and how you approach the question."
As a senior last year, Earp received a grant from the Scholars Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research (SPINR), and a position in the lab of Maney, who uses songbirds as a model to study the neural basis of complex learned behavior.
When Earp proposed using the lab's data to investigate the birdsong-music debate, Maney thought it was a great idea. "Birdsong is a signal," Maney says. "And the definition of a signal is that it elicits a response in the receiver. Previous studies hadn't approached the question from that angle, and it's an important one."
Earp reviewed studies that mapped human neural responses to music through brain imaging.
She also analyzed data from the Maney lab on white-throated sparrows. The lab maps brain responses in the birds by measuring Egr-1, part of a major biochemical pathway activated in cells that are responding to a stimulus.
The study used Egr-1 as a marker to map and quantify neural responses in the mesolimbic reward system in male and female white-throated sparrows listening to a male bird's song. Some of the listening birds had been treated with hormones, to push them into the breeding state, while the control group had low levels of estradiol and testosterone.
During the non-breeding season, both sexes of sparrows use song to establish and maintain dominance in relationships. During the breeding season, however, a male singing to a female is almost certainly courting her, while a male singing to another male is challenging an interloper.
For the females in the breeding state every region of the mesolimbic reward pathway that has been reported to respond to music in humans, and that has a clear avian counterpart, responded to the male birdsong. Females in the non-breeding state, however, did not show a heightened response.
And the testosterone-treated males listening to another male sing showed an amygdala response, which may correlate to the amygdala response typical of humans listening to the kind of music used in the scary scenes of horror movies.
"The neural response to birdsong appears to depend on social context, which can be the case with humans as well," Earp says. "Both birdsong and music elicit responses not only in brain regions associated directly with reward, but also in interconnected regions that are thought to regulate emotion. That suggests that they both may activate evolutionarily ancient mechanisms that are necessary for reproduction and survival."
A major limitation of the study, Earp adds, is that many of the regions that respond to music in humans are cortical, and they do not have clear counterparts in birds.
"Perhaps techniques will someday be developed to image neural responses in baleen whales, whose songs are both musical and learned, and whose brain anatomy is more easily compared with humans," she says.
Earp, who played the viola in the Emory orchestra and graduated last May, is now a medical student at the Cleveland Clinic.
So what music makes her brain light up? "Stravinsky's 'Firebird' suite," Earp says.
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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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.
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My Dog with Separation Anxiety
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Public release date: 27-Dec-2012
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