ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) ? Dell's first-quarter earnings plunged 79 percent as the shift to smartphones and tablets reduced demand for the company's personal computers.
The dismal performance announced Thursday actually might work to Dell Inc.'s advantage. That's because Dell's board is trying to persuade shareholders to accept a $24.4 billion buyout offer from CEO Michael Dell and other investors.
Some shareholders say the sales price of $13.65 per share is too low, but Dell's board contends it's a good deal in light of challenges facing the Round Rock, Texas, company.
The company earned $130 million, or 7 cents per share, in the three months ending May 3. That compares with $635 million, or 36 cents per share, at the same time last year.
DEEP RIVER? An $18,025 grant provided through the state Office of Policy and Management will help pay for a new emergency radio communications system that will link the five Region 4 schools and the district?s administrative office.
Voters at a town meeting Tuesday approved a resolution accepting the grant provided under the Inter-town Capital Equipment Incentive Program (ICE). With Deep River as the host town, selectmen and town meetings in Essex and Chester are also authorizing a joint application to apply the funds to the school district shared by the three towns. Region 4 is expected to provide matching funds to cover the estimated $38,000 to $40,000 cost of the radio system.
The funds will be used to purchase radio repeater equipment that would be attached to an existing 100-foot telecommunications tower at John Winthrop Middle School. The new system will provide direct radio communications between the middle school, central office, Valley Regional High School, and the elementary schools in Chester, Deep River, and Essex. The radio system could be used during any emergency, whether weather-related or as a result of an incident at one of the schools. The new radio system is expected to be installed over the summer to be put in operation during the next school year.
Poor government response to earthquakes in Iran exposes the regime's corruption and incompetence.?As the EU's Catherine Ashton and Iran?s Saeed Jalili meet in Turkey today, Tehran should heed history?s warning: No nuclear program can save a regime from a toppling earthquake.
By Daniel Nisman,?Op-ed contributor / May 15, 2013
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, leave a podium in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Feb. 26. Ms. Ashton and Mr. Jalili meet in Istanbul today to work toward an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Op-ed contributor Daniel Nisman writes: 'Whether it be armed conflict, economic prosperity, or natural disasters, history has shown that the legitimacy of any government rests primarily on its ability to provide security for its people.'
Stanislav Filippov/AP/File
Enlarge
In the past half-century, earthquakes have directly contributed to the overthrow of at least two authoritarian regimes in Nicaragua and Iran. By exposing government corruption and incompetency, earthquakes wield the ability to inflict political damage to the world?s most ironclad regimes with a level of potency matched only by their unpredictability.
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As EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran?s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili meet in Turkey today to continue working toward an agreement on Iran?s nuclear program, the Iranian leadership should heed history?s warning: No nuclear program can save a regime from a toppling earthquake.
In 1972, a powerful earthquake devastated Nicaragua?s capital, Managua, setting off a chain reaction of public discontent that eventually led to the ousting of the notoriously corrupt Somoza dynasty. For the Nicaraguan people, President Somoza?s squandering of international emergency aid following the earthquake was the last straw in a series of blatantly corrupt moves that showed little regard for their wellbeing.
The second instance occurred in September 1978 in Iran, when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake killed more than 26,000 near the eastern city of Tabas. The dismal response of the equally corrupt shah pushed Iran?s already bubbling popular uprising to a boiling point, one month after the CIA made its historically erroneous assessment that the country was ?not in a revolutionary or even pre-revolutionary situation.?
As the Somozas and the shah can attest from their resting place in history?s dustbin, earthquakes are much more than nature?s most destructive physical force.
Since the ayatollahs took power in 1979, more than 78,000 Iranians have died in hundreds of powerful earthquakes. The vast majority of those killed were crushed by their own poorly constructed homes, with earthquakes flattening entire villages in Iran?s neglected and impoverished rural areas in several instances.
Although the entirety of Iran?s territory sits on one of the most seismically active areas in the world, it ranks far lower than countries like Japan, Chile, and Turkey in terms of average earthquake magnitude and frequency.
And yet, the scale in which seismic events translate into humanitarian and economic disasters in Iran is staggering. This is due primarily to the wanton mismanagement and underfunding of the government?s disaster relief programs and earthquake preparedness measures, which in other nations have a proven ability to save countless lives.
While Iran?s seismic reality cannot be altered, the region?s political and economic tectonic plates are shifting against the ayatollahs? favor. The potential damage ? both political and physical ? of another powerful earthquake will only multiply as Iran?s economy deteriorates and the government?s budget buckles.
Currently an estimated 2 percent of the country?s expenditure is devoted to disaster relief. This amount will be further expected to dwindle under the weight of international sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?s irresponsible subsidy policies, and untold corruption throughout Iran?s ruling class. These factors have already caused tremors of public discontent among the middle class.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the retraining of every person in the US military who works in sexual assault prevention.
This order comes in the wake of news that an Army sergeant who was a sexual assault response coordinator in Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation for sexual assault.
While no charges have yet been filed, the soldier has been removed from his post, suspected of ?pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault, and maltreatment of subordinates,? according to an Army statement, which does not name the suspect.
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The soldier is also suspected of being involved in a prostitution ring, says a congressional staffer familiar with the case.
Secretary Hagel directed the ?retraining, re-credentialing, and re-screening? of all sexual assault prevention officers.
In the meantime, the Defense secretary ?is looking urgently at every course of action to stamp out this deplorable conduct and ensure that those individuals up and down the chain of command who tolerate or engage in this behavior are appropriately held accountable,? said Pentagon Press Secretary George Little.
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On Capitol Hill, lawmakers once again expressed outrage over the second high-profile sexual assault scandal in as many weeks among military members tasked with preventing the crime.
?I see no meaningful distinction between complacency or complicity in the military?s latest failure to uphold their own standards of conduct,? said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard ?Buck? McKeon (R) of California, who has a granddaughter in the Army.
?Nor do I see a distinction between the service member who orchestrated this offense and the chain of command that was either oblivious or tolerant of criminal behavior.?
Lawmakers also vowed action. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) of New York is proposing legislation this week to remove chain of command influences from prosecution of these offenses.
In the wake of the scandal last week involving Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, a sexual assault response coordinator who was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in a parking lot, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D) of Massachusetts introduced legislation in the House to do the same. The bill also creates minimum sentences for those charged with sexual assault, as well as to expand legal assistance services available to military sexual assault victims.
A congressionally-mandated Pentagon report released last week found that more than 26,000 US troops reported an episode of ?unwanted sexual contact,? up from 19,300 in 2010.
Despite these figures, only 3,374 reported the crime last year. Victims who experience the crime but do not report it say that fear of reprisal and a belief that the perpetrator will not be punished are the top reasons why they don?t move forward with prosecution.
Secretary of the Army John McHugh emphasized the Army?s concern with the problem. ?As I said to our new brigadier general corps when I spoke to them about two weeks ago, ?You can do everything from this point forward in your military career perfectly, but if you fail on this, you have failed the Army.? ?
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LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron suffered an embarrassing blow in parliament on Wednesday when a third of his Conservative lawmakers voted against him in protest at his stance on Britain's membership of the European Union.
Though the revolt was defeated, the rebellion could undermine Cameron's leadership, as scores of his own party's lawmakers took the highly unusual step of voting to criticize his government's legislative plans, a week after they were first put before parliament.
The rebels are angry that the government's policy proposals did not include steps to make Cameron's promise of a referendum on Britain's EU membership legally binding.
The party turmoil has fuelled talk of Britain sliding towards the EU exit and has stirred memories of Conservative infighting that contributed to the downfall of former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
While the vote was non-binding, the scale of the mutiny, less than two years before the next parliamentary election, will embolden eurosceptics pushing him to take a harder line on Europe.
Just before the vote, Cameron played down its significance, saying he was "extremely relaxed" about what was a free vote for Conservative lawmakers, except ministers.
"It's a free vote, and as I've said I'm relaxed about that, so I don't think people can read in anything to the scale of that free vote," he told reporters in New York, where he is on an official trip.
Labor deputy leader Harriet Harman said earlier that Cameron was "becoming a laughing stock".
A total of 130 lawmakers voted against the government. More than 100 of them were expected to be confirmed as Conservatives when the full voting figures are released later. The center-right party has 305 members of parliament.
CAMERON'S DILEMMA
Cameron had hoped to end party squabbling over Europe in January when he promised to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU and hold a referendum on its membership before the end of 2017, provided he wins the next general election in 2015.
But Conservative eurosceptics soon began pushing for a law before 2015 to guarantee the referendum would take place. Some even called for an earlier referendum.
Cameron's offer on Tuesday of draft legislation that would make his pledge legally binding received a lukewarm reception. Rebels say it will be blocked by the Conservatives' coalition partner, the pro-EU Liberal Democrats.
Wednesday's parliamentary vote underscored how Cameron is boxed in over Europe.
Keen to avoid a rift with the Liberal Democrats, he must also avoid alienating Conservative eurosceptics who see the EU as an over-mighty "superstate" that threatens Britain's sovereignty.
The success of the anti-EU UK Independence Party in local elections this month only intensified Conservative pressure for Cameron to go further on Europe. A YouGov poll in April put support for withdrawal at 43 percent, with 35 percent wanting to stay in.
(Additional reporting by William James in London and Andrew Osborn in New York; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Will Waterman)
Where, when will thunderstorms strike Colorado's Front Range, adjacent Great Plains?Public release date: 14-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Month-long field research campaign targets severe storm prediction
To better predict where and when spring thunderstorms rip across Colorado's Front Range and the adjacent Great Plains, researchers are launching a major field project this week with high-flying aircraft and fine-grained computer simulations.
The month-long study could point the way to major improvements in lead times for weather forecasts during what has been called a crucial six- to 24-hour window.
"People want to know whether there will be thunderstorms and when," says National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Morris Weisman, one of four principal investigators on the project.
"We're hoping to find out where you need to collect observations in order to get the most improvement in short-term forecasts. Better prediction with a few hours of lead time could make a big difference in helping people prepare."
MPEX (pronounced "em-pex"), the Mesoscale Predictability Experiment, runs from May 15 to June 15 and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The project includes participants from NCAR; Colorado State University; the University at Albany, State University of New York; Purdue University; the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory.
"MPEX will lead to a better understanding of the initiation and development of severe storms in an area of the country that's particularly affected by them," says Chungu Lu, program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences.
"If we can move 'early warnings' even sooner through the results of MPEX, it will lead to safer skies for air travelers and safer situations on the ground as well."
The project will include early morning flights with the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V aircraft to sample the pre-storm atmosphere across Colorado and nearby states.
The Gulfstream V can cruise at 40,000 feet for up to six hours, which will enable researchers to thoroughly canvass the entire region where triggers for severe weather might be lurking.
MPEX will also include afternoon launches of weather balloons carrying instrument packages called radiosondes, which will profile conditions around thunderstorms as they develop and move east across the Great Plains.
Filling the same-day gap
Severe weather warnings from the National Weather Service give people up to an hour's notice for tornadoes and other threats on a county-by-county basis. A key goal of MPEX is to help improve the forecasts that fall between two types of longer-range alerts:
convective outlooks, which highlight the risk of severe weather up to eight days in advance across large parts of the country;
tornado and severe thunderstorm watches, which are issued up to eight hours in advance for state-sized areas.
Same-day forecasts often note the likelihood of severe storms, but they do not usually specify where and when the storms will develop.
MPEX will help determine whether more detailed observations and simulations could lead to more specific forecasts of storm location and behavior as much as a day in advance.
Advanced forecast models can now simulate the weather using data at points packed as closely as about a half-mile from each other. This allows showers and thunderstorms (known as "convection") to be explicitly depicted. But the newer models still struggle to reliably map out storm behavior beyond about six hours in advance.
Scientists believe this may be largely because the models need more detail on upper-level features, such as pockets of strong wind or dry air, located several miles above ground level.
As these features move into the Great Plains, they can be critical for triggering or suppressing severe storms. However, weather satellites may not see these features, and they often go undetected by limited surface and upper-air networks across the Rocky Mountain states.
"The structure of the atmosphere two to six miles above sea level is incredibly important," Weisman says. "This appears to be where the biggest forecast errors develop, so we need to collect more data at these heights."
In the sky and on the ground
To get around the data roadblock, MPEX will send the Gulfstream V from its base at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield on missions that will start as early as 3 a.m.
The Gulfstream V will sample jet-stream winds, upper-level temperatures, and other features across Colorado and nearby states.
The aircraft will use a microwave-based temperature sensor to profile horizontal temperature contrasts miles above the region.
At pre-specified locations, the Gulfstream V will also use parachute-borne minisondes--compact instrument packages, similar to the 200-plus radiosondes used every day across the nation--to gather extra detail between flight level and ground level.
The minisondes will provide information on temperature, moisture, and winds four times each second.
"The Gulfstream V is perfect for this kind of study," says NCAR project manager Pavel Romashkin, who will oversee MPEX aircraft operations. "The G-V is one of very few aircraft in weather research that can sample the atmosphere near the top of important features for a number of hours."
MPEX will also gather data with three radiosonde launch units operated by Purdue and NSSL in vehicles that will maneuver around late-day thunderstorms.
The goal is to find out how well the extra data can help predict local and regional weather conditions into the next day, as well as to assess how the thunderstorms interact with the atmosphere that surrounds and supports them.
"We know that even isolated, short-lived thunderstorms influence their environment," says Robert "Jeff" Trapp of Purdue, an MPEX principal investigator.
"The MPEX data will allow us to quantify these influences and examine how well they are represented in computer forecast models. This information can then be used to help improve weather forecasts."
Testing the value of enhanced observations
With the help of improvements in computing power and scientific understanding, forecast models can depict weather in far more detail than just a few years ago.
On each day of operations (about 15 in all during the project), MPEX will produce an ensemble of up to 30 forecasts using the NCAR-based research version of the multiagency Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW).
Along with data from the Gulfstream V flights, each WRF-ARW ensemble member will use a slightly different characterization of early-morning weather conditions in order to allow for the uncertainty inherent in those measurements.
Forecasters can then issue forecasts with greater or lesser confidence based on how the ensemble forecasts agree or disagree.
The MPEX team will also evaluate how much the Gulfstream V data improve forecasts in two other modeling systems, both of which are updated each hour.
The complex process of incorporating observed data into the MPEX simulations will be handled by NCAR's Data Assimilation Research Testbed.
Studies have shown that major forecast improvements are possible when the right kinds of data are collected and assimilated into forecast models.
Scientists hope the results from MPEX will help advance this process, which could improve predictions of severe thunderstorms as well as other types of high-impact weather where better forecasts in the six- to 24-hour period could help people and communities better prepare.
###
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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.
Where, when will thunderstorms strike Colorado's Front Range, adjacent Great Plains?Public release date: 14-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Month-long field research campaign targets severe storm prediction
To better predict where and when spring thunderstorms rip across Colorado's Front Range and the adjacent Great Plains, researchers are launching a major field project this week with high-flying aircraft and fine-grained computer simulations.
The month-long study could point the way to major improvements in lead times for weather forecasts during what has been called a crucial six- to 24-hour window.
"People want to know whether there will be thunderstorms and when," says National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Morris Weisman, one of four principal investigators on the project.
"We're hoping to find out where you need to collect observations in order to get the most improvement in short-term forecasts. Better prediction with a few hours of lead time could make a big difference in helping people prepare."
MPEX (pronounced "em-pex"), the Mesoscale Predictability Experiment, runs from May 15 to June 15 and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The project includes participants from NCAR; Colorado State University; the University at Albany, State University of New York; Purdue University; the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory.
"MPEX will lead to a better understanding of the initiation and development of severe storms in an area of the country that's particularly affected by them," says Chungu Lu, program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences.
"If we can move 'early warnings' even sooner through the results of MPEX, it will lead to safer skies for air travelers and safer situations on the ground as well."
The project will include early morning flights with the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V aircraft to sample the pre-storm atmosphere across Colorado and nearby states.
The Gulfstream V can cruise at 40,000 feet for up to six hours, which will enable researchers to thoroughly canvass the entire region where triggers for severe weather might be lurking.
MPEX will also include afternoon launches of weather balloons carrying instrument packages called radiosondes, which will profile conditions around thunderstorms as they develop and move east across the Great Plains.
Filling the same-day gap
Severe weather warnings from the National Weather Service give people up to an hour's notice for tornadoes and other threats on a county-by-county basis. A key goal of MPEX is to help improve the forecasts that fall between two types of longer-range alerts:
convective outlooks, which highlight the risk of severe weather up to eight days in advance across large parts of the country;
tornado and severe thunderstorm watches, which are issued up to eight hours in advance for state-sized areas.
Same-day forecasts often note the likelihood of severe storms, but they do not usually specify where and when the storms will develop.
MPEX will help determine whether more detailed observations and simulations could lead to more specific forecasts of storm location and behavior as much as a day in advance.
Advanced forecast models can now simulate the weather using data at points packed as closely as about a half-mile from each other. This allows showers and thunderstorms (known as "convection") to be explicitly depicted. But the newer models still struggle to reliably map out storm behavior beyond about six hours in advance.
Scientists believe this may be largely because the models need more detail on upper-level features, such as pockets of strong wind or dry air, located several miles above ground level.
As these features move into the Great Plains, they can be critical for triggering or suppressing severe storms. However, weather satellites may not see these features, and they often go undetected by limited surface and upper-air networks across the Rocky Mountain states.
"The structure of the atmosphere two to six miles above sea level is incredibly important," Weisman says. "This appears to be where the biggest forecast errors develop, so we need to collect more data at these heights."
In the sky and on the ground
To get around the data roadblock, MPEX will send the Gulfstream V from its base at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield on missions that will start as early as 3 a.m.
The Gulfstream V will sample jet-stream winds, upper-level temperatures, and other features across Colorado and nearby states.
The aircraft will use a microwave-based temperature sensor to profile horizontal temperature contrasts miles above the region.
At pre-specified locations, the Gulfstream V will also use parachute-borne minisondes--compact instrument packages, similar to the 200-plus radiosondes used every day across the nation--to gather extra detail between flight level and ground level.
The minisondes will provide information on temperature, moisture, and winds four times each second.
"The Gulfstream V is perfect for this kind of study," says NCAR project manager Pavel Romashkin, who will oversee MPEX aircraft operations. "The G-V is one of very few aircraft in weather research that can sample the atmosphere near the top of important features for a number of hours."
MPEX will also gather data with three radiosonde launch units operated by Purdue and NSSL in vehicles that will maneuver around late-day thunderstorms.
The goal is to find out how well the extra data can help predict local and regional weather conditions into the next day, as well as to assess how the thunderstorms interact with the atmosphere that surrounds and supports them.
"We know that even isolated, short-lived thunderstorms influence their environment," says Robert "Jeff" Trapp of Purdue, an MPEX principal investigator.
"The MPEX data will allow us to quantify these influences and examine how well they are represented in computer forecast models. This information can then be used to help improve weather forecasts."
Testing the value of enhanced observations
With the help of improvements in computing power and scientific understanding, forecast models can depict weather in far more detail than just a few years ago.
On each day of operations (about 15 in all during the project), MPEX will produce an ensemble of up to 30 forecasts using the NCAR-based research version of the multiagency Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW).
Along with data from the Gulfstream V flights, each WRF-ARW ensemble member will use a slightly different characterization of early-morning weather conditions in order to allow for the uncertainty inherent in those measurements.
Forecasters can then issue forecasts with greater or lesser confidence based on how the ensemble forecasts agree or disagree.
The MPEX team will also evaluate how much the Gulfstream V data improve forecasts in two other modeling systems, both of which are updated each hour.
The complex process of incorporating observed data into the MPEX simulations will be handled by NCAR's Data Assimilation Research Testbed.
Studies have shown that major forecast improvements are possible when the right kinds of data are collected and assimilated into forecast models.
Scientists hope the results from MPEX will help advance this process, which could improve predictions of severe thunderstorms as well as other types of high-impact weather where better forecasts in the six- to 24-hour period could help people and communities better prepare.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he thinks direct U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war ? particularly direct military involvement ? would be a mistake.
Gates, who served both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, says he oversaw wars that began with quick regime change "and we all know what happened after that."
He asks on CBS' "Face that Nation, "Haven't we learned that when you go to war, the outcomes are unpredictable?"
To those who think intervention might be 'clean" and "neat," Gates says "most wars aren't that way."
He says that if the U.S. were to do anything in Syria, it might be picking opposition groups that the U.S. believes would have some degree of moderation, and providing them with intelligence and basic military equipment.
VERNON, Calif. (AP) -- True Religion Apparel, best known for its high priced denim, has agreed to a buyout offer of about $826 million from the investment management firm TowerBrook Capital Partners LP.
The announcement Friday comes seven months after True Religion said it was exploring strategic options. Like many high-end jean companies, True Religion's business suffered in recent years as recession-scarred shoppers no longer wanted to pay $200 for a pair of jeans.
In March, its CEO Jeff Lubell stepped down and was named chairman emeritus and a creative consultant.
TowerBrook Capital has previously invested in companies including designer shoe marketer Jimmy Choo and athletic apparel retailer Odlo but has since sold those stakes.
It has agreed to pay $32 per share for True Religion, a 9 percent premium to its closing price of $29.44 on Thursday.
"At this critical inflection point in our business, global growth and product development effort, TowerBrook's support and experience will be a true differentiator," Lynn Koplin, the interim CEO and president of True Religion, said in a statement.
True Religion's board unanimously approved the transaction. It still needs approval from the Vernon, Calif., company's stockholders.
Separately, True Religion Apparel Inc. reported a dramatic drop in its first-quarter net income on Friday as the company's results were dragged down by costs of the company's strategic review and the separation agreement with Lubell.
Its shares rose $2.17, or 7.4 percent, to $31.61 in midday trading ? below the offered price. That suggests investors don't anticipate a richer offer. The company's shares have traded between $20.22 to $31.74 over the past 52 weeks.
For the first quarter ended March 31, True Religion posted net income of $526,000, or 2 cents per share, compared with $10.4 million, or 41 cents per share, in the year ago period.
Excluding the items, the company earned 22 cents per share for the quarter. Analysts expected 34 cents per share, according to a survey by FactSet.
Revenue increased 13.1 percent to $120.8 million. Analysts expected revenue of $113.2 million.
FactSet says True Religion has approximately 25.8 million outstanding shares. The companies put the deal's total value at about $835 million.
This friendly gentleman, Robert, was spotted by author and HuffPost blogger Joel Conarroe at the corner of 6th St. and 8th Ave. in New York. Robert is single and obviously ready to mingle -- any takers?
HuffPost attempted to contact Robert but received no response. However, we wish him well in his search!
Robert is not the first man to use the written word to search for love -- earlier this year, a pair of brothers posted a hilarious ad on Craigslist in hopes of scoring wedding dates.
How do you know you're in the right relationship? See HuffPost readers' responses in the slideshow below.
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A specialized task force led by the Indiana State Police is trying to tackle the growing number of adults who are targeting children and teens online or sharing pornographic pictures and videos of underaged boys and girls online. Local authorities have seen a number of disturbing trends that involve younger victims so the use of a mobile lab at the time of a search warrant has become a necessary tool.
Fox59 got an exclusive look at how the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is protecting local children as they track down online predators who live in Indiana or are preying on local kids and teens from another state or country.? Recent trends suggest the underground world of international organized crime centered around child pornography is growing, and the suspects are abusing younger children.
?It?s not a question of not having sufficient targets. It?s sufficient resources and energy. What can we do and how many we can do at the same time?? said Steve DeBrota, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.
Around 1,500 cyber tips are reported to the task force in Indiana each year. Tips also come from police departments in other states and countries.
?The cyber tip said they were advertising on Facebook for another couple to have sex with preteen daughters,? said Lieutenant Chuck Cohen as he briefed members of the task force before they executed a search warrant at the home of a suspect.
Lt. Cohen said they have made arrests outside million dollar mansions and small apartments that do not have running water. He also said the suspects may or may not work around children.
?If it says family photos 2009, we?ll still preview it,? said a member of the task force as he reviewed a large stack of CD?s belonging to a suspect.
Once a search warrant is executed, the task force immediately unpacks laptops and specialized equipment inside an unmarked mobile lab parked just out the home of the suspect. They remove digital evidence of any kind from a home: DVD?s, CD?s, computer hard drives, flash drives, cell phones and cameras as other members of the team interview the suspect in the front of the mobile lab. It is considered a rare asset that saves time, money, resources and a possible next victim.
?Very seldom are you doing an interview and getting live feeds of information and verification of whether they?re telling you the truth or not,? said Kurt Spivey, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Detective with the Cyber Crimes Unit.
He is also a member of the task force which includes the FBI and is led by the Indiana State Police.
Kerry Gomez was arrested as Fox59 cameras were rolling. A detective on scene said he had shared graphic material with him multiple times during an undercover operation. Gomez was charged with five counts of distribution of child pornography and five counts of possession of child pornography.
?There?s a possibly that he?s a contact offender, and if he is, he?s not going to have access to these kids,? said Darin Odier, another task force member and detective with IMPD?s Cyber Crime Unit.
Children and teens who have been victimized have been targeted on Facebook and other social media sites. Predators have also gotten access to them through so-called anonymous video chat websites and made threats after using programs like messaging application Snap Chat.
The victimization may also never end. Lt. Cohen said they have to notify victims years after the abuse when they are well into adulthood.
?This individual in Bedford, Indiana, has 6,600 files that he is distributing to other people,? said Cohen, who gave Fox59 a look at programs specifically created to track down and monitor these online offenders.
The programs that allow authorities across the United States to share real-time data cannot be viewed by the public.
?Unfortunately, many people trade it like baseball cards where they have to get the entire set of the child pornography videos and images that are out there, and they will organize it and keep it in that manner,? said Cohen.
The participants in the underground world also use acronyms for terms like Preteen Hardcore Pornography. They have their own language and often use old screen names of the worst offenders to find the illegal material. File names often name the child, give their age or describe the sex act they have been forced into.
The task force has been seeing larger collections and many more videos downloaded by the suspects. Videos of babies and toddlers being tortured for sexual gratification have also been turning up more rapidly.
?I can think of one where a pre-pubescent girl is asking her dad, ?Are you sure this is okay, daddy? Does sissy do this?? and it?s heartbreaking,? said Cohen.
?It is almost as if, when we knock on their door, we are less interested in them because we already know much about what they have done and are primarily focused on asking them, ?Who did you get it from?? said Joe Hogsett, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.
He and DeBrota candidly said they must prioritize the cases and track down the offenders who they believe have the highest possible impact first.
?I go home and hug my kids. Some days are harder than others, but it?s a mixed bag a lot of days,? said Odier after the Gomez?s arrest.
A review of recent cases also reveals another harsh reality. The U.S. Attorney?s Office has been representing younger victims of extortion who are in elementary and middle school. DeBrota claimed it is misconception that only high school kids are targeted by these predators who lie, manipulate and threaten them after the victims have possibly made one mistake online.
Lt. Cohen had these suggestions for parents.:
Have a relationship with your children such that they feel comfortable coming to you with problems or concerns.
?If you want to know what your child is doing online, ask them to teach you about it.? They won?t feel spied on and you get insight into whom they are communicating with and the nature of the communication.
Supervise your children and know what they are doing online the same way you would supervise them and know what they are doing if they are out in public.
Trust your instincts ? if something feels wrong or your child starts acting differently, don?t discount it.
Set reasonable boundaries for your children?s online activities.
It is often not feasible to prevent your children from interacting in online social networking.? That is how this generation socializes in a manner similar to how previous generations went to the shopping mall or to the movies.? What you can do is only allow your children to interact online with others who are friends in real life.? That makes is a little more difficult for a predator to insinuate himself into your child?s life.
Seduction offenders groom children through a combination of attention, affection and gifts.? They prey on children either perceiving or in reality not receiving those at home.? Do what you can to make your child feel attended to, loved, and cared for.
More information can be found at www.netsmartz.org, which is a project of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Carnegie Mellon Research shows self-affirmation improves problem-solving under stressPublic release date: 3-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Shilo Rea shilo@cmu.edu 412-268-6094 Carnegie Mellon University
PITTSBURGHIt's no secret that stress increases your susceptibility to health problems, and it also impacts your ability to solve problems and be creative. But methods to prevent associated risks and effects have been less clear until now.
Published in PLOS ONE, new research from Carnegie Mellon University provides the first evidence that self-affirmation can protect against the damaging effects of stress on problem-solving performance. Understanding that self-affirmation the process of identifying and focusing on one's most important values boosts stressed individuals' problem-solving abilities will help guide future research and the development of educational interventions.
"An emerging set of published studies suggest that a brief self-affirmation activity at the beginning of a school term can boost academic grade-point averages in underperforming kids at the end of the semester. This new work suggests a mechanism for these studies, showing self-affirmation effects on actual problem-solving performance under pressure," said J. David Creswell, assistant professor of psychology in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Because previous research indicated that self-affirmation may be an effective stress management approach, Creswell and his research team had college students rank-order a set of values (e.g., art, business, family and friends) in terms of their personal importance, and indicate their levels of chronic stress. Participants randomly assigned to a self-affirmation condition were asked to write a couple of sentences about why their number one ranked value was important (a standard self-affirmation exercise). All participants then had to complete a challenging problem-solving task under time pressure, which required creativity in order to generate correct solutions.
The results showed that participants who were under high levels of chronic stress during the past month had impaired problem-solving performance. In fact, they solved about 50 percent fewer problems in the task. But notably, this effect was qualified by whether participants had an opportunity to first complete the self-affirmation activity. Specifically, a brief self-affirmation was effective in eliminating the deleterious effects of chronic stress on problem-solving performance, such that chronically stressed self-affirmed participants performed under pressure at the same level as participants with low chronic stress levels.
"People under high stress can foster better problem-solving simply by taking a moment beforehand to think about something that is important to them," Creswell said. "It's an easy-to-use and portable strategy you can roll out before you enter that high pressure performance situation."
###
In addition to Creswell, the research team consisted of Janine M. Dutcher, who participated as a Carnegie Mellon undergraduate student and is now at UCLA; William M. P. Klein of the National Cancer Institute; Peter R. Harris of the University of Sheffield; and John M. Levine of the University of Pittsburgh.
The National Science Foundation and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Opportunity Fund supported this research.
For more information, visit http://www.psy.cmu.edu/people/creswell.html.
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Carnegie Mellon Research shows self-affirmation improves problem-solving under stressPublic release date: 3-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Shilo Rea shilo@cmu.edu 412-268-6094 Carnegie Mellon University
PITTSBURGHIt's no secret that stress increases your susceptibility to health problems, and it also impacts your ability to solve problems and be creative. But methods to prevent associated risks and effects have been less clear until now.
Published in PLOS ONE, new research from Carnegie Mellon University provides the first evidence that self-affirmation can protect against the damaging effects of stress on problem-solving performance. Understanding that self-affirmation the process of identifying and focusing on one's most important values boosts stressed individuals' problem-solving abilities will help guide future research and the development of educational interventions.
"An emerging set of published studies suggest that a brief self-affirmation activity at the beginning of a school term can boost academic grade-point averages in underperforming kids at the end of the semester. This new work suggests a mechanism for these studies, showing self-affirmation effects on actual problem-solving performance under pressure," said J. David Creswell, assistant professor of psychology in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Because previous research indicated that self-affirmation may be an effective stress management approach, Creswell and his research team had college students rank-order a set of values (e.g., art, business, family and friends) in terms of their personal importance, and indicate their levels of chronic stress. Participants randomly assigned to a self-affirmation condition were asked to write a couple of sentences about why their number one ranked value was important (a standard self-affirmation exercise). All participants then had to complete a challenging problem-solving task under time pressure, which required creativity in order to generate correct solutions.
The results showed that participants who were under high levels of chronic stress during the past month had impaired problem-solving performance. In fact, they solved about 50 percent fewer problems in the task. But notably, this effect was qualified by whether participants had an opportunity to first complete the self-affirmation activity. Specifically, a brief self-affirmation was effective in eliminating the deleterious effects of chronic stress on problem-solving performance, such that chronically stressed self-affirmed participants performed under pressure at the same level as participants with low chronic stress levels.
"People under high stress can foster better problem-solving simply by taking a moment beforehand to think about something that is important to them," Creswell said. "It's an easy-to-use and portable strategy you can roll out before you enter that high pressure performance situation."
###
In addition to Creswell, the research team consisted of Janine M. Dutcher, who participated as a Carnegie Mellon undergraduate student and is now at UCLA; William M. P. Klein of the National Cancer Institute; Peter R. Harris of the University of Sheffield; and John M. Levine of the University of Pittsburgh.
The National Science Foundation and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Opportunity Fund supported this research.
For more information, visit http://www.psy.cmu.edu/people/creswell.html.
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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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Public release date: 14-May-2013
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