Students foreshadowed Taft shooting on Twitter

Many students in Taft wonder if?Thursday's shooting at their school could have been avoided. They point to warning signs online, long before shots were fired. As investigators continue to piece together the suspected gunman's motive, 17 News got a look at some of the revealing tweets that foreshadowed the tragedy at Taft Union High School. Students took to Twitter last month, to tweet their worries about 16-year-old Bryan Oliver. A girl who identified herself as 'Allie Who' wrote " If Brian Oliver shoots up the school, I swear to God. I have like four classes with him." As students returned to school Friday to pick up their belongings, some had seen the tweets online. "I feel unsafe about it. I don't like it at all," said Tara Kelley. " It makes me kind of uneasy. It's unsettling, but what can you do?" asked Ashley Carr. The disturbing tweets are from December 15th, almost a month before students say Oliver walked into a classroom and opened fire. Another student on Twitter wrote "He made a hit list. Why is he still allowed in school and he always talks about murder like he's obsessed with it." The girl goes on to say "Yeah, he told Bowe (the victim of the shooting) that he watched five serial killer movies and thought of Bowe the whole time...?creepy." 17 News wanted to know if the school monitors social media. Did they know about these tweets? But, the district wasn't talking Friday. "They check all of our Twitters and our Facebook, and if you get caught doing something you get called up to the office," said student Meghan Clark. "You can't hide anything from this school," explained Kelley. "The vice principal and the supervisors, they go through it," noted Carr. Students told 17 News Oliver was caught last year with a hit list and was suspended for a few days. Investigators could not confirm the list. "I heard about it when I moved here, but I thought he was just a kid messing around, ya know?" said Juan Barbosa. "Everybody knew about it. I honestly don't think someone who chooses to openly voice that they want to cause other students ill will, should not be able to be re-admitted to the school," said Carr. Sierra Curry told 17 News she was on Oliver's hit list. She said the shooting was especially hard on her. We asked Curry what she thought when she heard Oliver was the suspected gunman. "He was coming to get me. I was still on his list. That I was the next one," she explained.

Click here to read this story on www.kget.com

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50439230/ns/local_news-bakersfield_ca/

toure patti smith lottery winners lottery winners april fools day pranks ohio state vs kansas daniel von bargen

Scientists urge end to limits on gun safety research

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Research restrictions pushed by the National Rifle Association have stopped the United States from finding solutions to firearms violence, more than a hundred scientists from virtually every major U.S. university told Vice President Joe Biden's task force on gun violence in a letter on Thursday.

In the wake of the December school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and other mass homicides, the group of economists, health researchers, educators, doctors and criminologists said funding should be restored to a range of study areas, from gun safety to tracking illegal guns.

President Barack Obama has asked Biden to head a task force to come up with gun policy proposals, and Biden was to meet with NRA representatives on Thursday. He said the task force will have recommendations ready for the president by Tuesday.

"While mortality rates from almost every major cause of death declined dramatically over the past half century, the homicide rate in America today is almost exactly the same as it was in 1950," the academics wrote in a letter organized by scholars at the University of Chicago Crime Lab research center.

"Politically-motivated constraints" left the nation "muddling through" a problem that costs American society on the order of $100 billion per year, it said.

The federal Centers for Disease Control has cut firearms safety research by 96 percent since the mid-1990s, according to one estimate. Congress, pushed by the gun lobby, in 1996 put restrictions on CDC funding of gun research into the budget. Restrictions on other agencies were added in later years.

The NRA, the main lobbyist for gun rights, has taken credit for the research halt. "These junk science studies and others like them are designed to provide ammunition for the gun control lobby by advancing the false notion that legal gun ownership is a danger to the public health instead of an inalienable right," it said in 2011.

Research into links between teenagers' use of guns and alcohol, and firearm storage practices, were examples the gun rights group cited, arguing that the studies were meant to show gun ownership was a "disease."

The NRA did not respond to a request for comment ahead of the letter's release.

'ANTI-GUN PROPAGANDA'

A political fight over firearms research has waxed and waned for years. Public health researchers began digging into gun violence in the late 1980s as homicides surged. By 1996, the NRA and allies had concluded that the work was producing "anti-gun propaganda."

Congress in 1996 nearly cut the CDC budget by $2.6 million, the amount the agency spent on firearms research at the time, researchers say. The funds were later restored, but a restriction was added to the budget and remains.

"None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control," the budget read.

Similar language was added to the budget in 2011 for the National Institute of Health and other federal health agencies.

Officials have largely pulled the plug on gun research.

A forthcoming study by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group, estimates that CDC funding for such research was cut to $100,000 a year in 2009-2012 from an average of $2.5 million, in current dollars, in 1992-1996.

Gun related studies as a percentage of total peer-reviewed research dropped 60 percent, the mayors' group estimates.

"Scientific inquiry in this field has been systematically starved, and as a result almost no one does it," said emergency room physician and University of California, Davis, professor Garen Wintemute, who signed the letter. He estimated that there were fewer than a dozen researchers in the country whose primary commitment was to firearm violence prevention.

Separate federal actions have stopped federal law enforcement officials from collecting, keeping and distributing gun ownership data. Wintemute said that made it much more difficult to effectively study gun trafficking.

Without the research, there is no clear evidence of what to do to curb gun-related violence, the scientists said. Gun rights advocates put the matter differently, saying there is no evidence that gun control works.

The letter will be available on the University of Chicago Crime Lab's Web site, http://crimelab.uchicago.edu.

(Reporting By Peter Henderson; Editing by Martin Howell and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-urge-end-limits-gun-safety-research-194015136.html

russell westbrook horsetail falls ice t new york knicks president day lin j.r. smith

Kodak patent sale approved by Judge, Apple, Google to pay $527 million

Despite hammering out the details late last year, Kodak still had to wait for the Bankruptcy court to greenlight its big patent sale. Today, that happened: Judge Allan Gropper has approved the $527 million deal between Kodak, Apple and Google -- giving the floundering photo company final permission to offload more than 1,000 imaging patents. Kodak originally valued its collection of IP at over $2 billion, which Gropper deemed a bit high. Despite hoping for a higher payout, Kodak's attorney admits the deal is probably the best it could have hoped for, explaining that the $525 million the company will collect in the agreement will give it some "patent peace." Apple and Google, once rivals for Kodak's intellectual property, struck a deal to bid on the patents together -- lowering their respective costs and and keeping the bid war out of the courts. Less litigation sounds good to us, even if it's only for a little while. Check out Bloomberg's report at the adjacent source link for more info.

Filed under: Misc

Comments

Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/11/kodak-patent-sale-approved/

big ten tournament 2012 dennis quaid bruce weber fired notorious big biggie smalls lyrics azores emmylou harris

A review of new interpretations of the tectonostratigraphy, geochemistry and evolution of the Onverwacht Suite, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa

---

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

net.sourceforge.stripes.exception.StripesServletException: Unhandled exception in exception handler. 	net.sourceforge.stripes.exception.DefaultExceptionHandler.handle(DefaultExceptionHandler.java:179) 	net.sourceforge.stripes.controller.StripesFilter.doFilter(StripesFilter.java:263) 	org.apache.catalina.filters.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:108) 

root cause

java.lang.NullPointerException 

note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Elsevier logs.

---

Elsevier

Source: http://rss.sciencedirect.com/action/redirectFile?&zone=main&currentActivity=feed&usageType=outward&url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_origin=IRSSSEARCH&_method=citationSearch&_piikey=S1342937X12001839&_

caucus results exton kurt warner kurt warner ricky williams missouri primary minnesota caucus

BAFTA Nominations: Lincoln Leads the Way

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/bafta-nominations-lincoln-leads-the-way/

fred thompson red hook romney tax return the tree of life movie academy award nominees 2012 2012 oscar nominations kyle williams

Cancer screenings at a low in Berkshire County - North Adams ...

Wednesday January 9, 2013

PITTSFIELD -- Across Berkshire County hospitals and clinics, the number of patients getting possible life-saving breast and colonoscopy screenings -- two of the most popular forms of cancer screenings -- has declined from recent highs.

Cancer screenings have become widely adopted in the general population, but there's been an unexplained countywide drop in the number of colonoscopy and mammography tests, according to Berkshire Medical Center spokesman Michael Leary. Locally, the trend seems to follow national statistics since the American Cancer Society recently warned of a decline in the number of cancer screenings nationwide.

The decline could be the result of financial decisions for some people, according to Leary. An American Cancer Society representative said people also could be confused about when they are supposed to get screenings.

Cancer screenings are an invaluable tool for early detection and prevention. In 2009, 40,676 women died in the U.S. from breast cancer and 51,848 people died from colorectal cancer, according to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Countywide, colon screenings -- recommended for individuals older than 50 -- has dropped from 66 percent in 2008 to 60.3 percent in 2010. The percentage reflects the number of 50-year-olds eligible for a screening, Leary said.

However, Leary said colon screenings, which includes a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy (a less invasive procedure),

have doubled since 2000 when the rate was only at 31.6 percent.

In 2010, the breast cancer screening rate among women over 40 was at 77 percent -- a decline from the 90 percent that were screened in 2002.

Paul Hopkins, the spokesman at North Adams Regional Hospital, said in recent years there's been a decline in the number of people receiving preventive skin cancer screenings at an annual event hosted by the hospital.

Every May for Skin Cancer Awareness Month, Hopkins said that North Adams Regional offers skin cancer screenings. In most years, at least one case of skin cancer has been detected during these screenings, according to Hopkins.

Last May, the skin cancer screening attracted nearly 100 people, according to Hopkins, who said in years past 150 or more would participate in a screening.

"We have seen fewer people last couple of years take advantage of that," Hopkins said. North Adams Regional will increase publicity for the event this year.

Leary said that Berkshire Health Systems offers reduced rates for colonoscopy or mammography screenings. For additional information on the program, individuals are encouraged to call 855-262-5465.

"We would hate to see financial difficulties keep people from benefits need," Leary said. Cancer tips

Here are the American Cancer Society's recommendations of screenings for certain cancers. For more information, call the American Cancer hotline at 1-800-227-2345.

Breast cancer: Annual mammograms recommended starting at age 40. Clinical breast exams recommended about every three years for women in their 20s and 30s.

Colorectal cancer: Beginning at 50, men and women should either receive a flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years or colonoscopy every 10 years.

Cervical cancer: Women between 21 and 29 should have a pap test every three years. Women between 30 and 65 should receive a human papillomavirus (HPV) test every five years and pap test every three years.

Note: A women who has had her uterus removed for reasons not related to cervical cancer who has no history of cervical cancer or serious pre-cancer should not be tested.

Prostate cancer: Starting at 50, men should talk to a doctor about the pros and cons of testing so they can decide if it is an appropriate test for them.

Source: http://www.thetranscript.com/northberkshirenews/ci_22336900/cancer-screenings-at-low-berkshire-county?source=rss

march of dimes james randi wargames blake griffin dunk florida primary full force odd fellows

Herschel spacecraft eyes asteroid Apophis

Jan. 9, 2013 ? Scientists using the Herschel Space Observatory made new observations of asteroid Apophis as it approached Earth this past weekend. The data show the asteroid to be bigger than first estimated, and less reflective.

Discovered in 2004, Apophis was initially thought to have a 2.7 percent chance of impacting Earth in 2029. Additional observations of the asteroid ruled out any possibility of an impact in 2029. However, Apophis is expected to make a record-setting -- but harmless -- close approach to Earth on April 13, 2029, when it comes no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) above Earth's surface. The asteroid will make another approach to Earth in 2036. Data collected by telescopes during today's close approach are expected to refine the asteroid's orbit to the point where an impact in 2036 can be ruled out.

The Herschel Observatory is a European Space Agency mission in which NASA plays an important role.

Over the weekend, Herschel gathered data while observing Apophis for about two hours on its approach to Earth, ahead of today's closest encounter at a little less than one-tenth of the distance from Earth to the sun: about 9 million miles (14.5 million kilometers). The space observatory provided the first thermal infrared observations of Apophis at different wavelengths, which together with optical measurements helped refine estimates of the asteroid's properties. Previous estimates bracketed the asteroid's average diameter at about 885 feet (270 meters). Herschel's observations indicate the space rock is about 1,060 feet (325 meters) across.

By analyzing the heat emitted by Apophis, Herschel also provided a new estimate of the asteroid's albedo -- a measure of its reflectivity-- of 0.23. This value means that 23 percent of the sunlight falling onto the asteroid is reflected; the rest is absorbed and heats up the asteroid. The previous albedo estimate for Apophis was 0.33.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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

---

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/space_time/nasa/~3/T1XHPpzYda0/130109200639.htm

mpaa south carolina debate lauren scruggs william shatner seattle weather skier sarah burke gingrich wife