Monday, October 8, 2012

Nobel Prize-winning discovery opens new medical window

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Friday, October 5, 2012

Solange's 'Losing You': Our Five Favorite Scenes!

With Melina Matsoukas at the helm, the youngest Knowles sister delivers a captivating South African travel diary.
By Rebecca Thomas


Solange Knowles in "Losing You"
Photo: Terrible Records

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1694848/solange-knowles-losing-you-video.jhtml

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Developing a Comprehensive Workplace Safety Manual | Business ...

safety manualNo business owner should operate a company or hire employees without a carefully crafted safety manual in place. The most cautious, safety-conscious company might do a great job of verbally educating employees on workplace safety issues, but if that information isn?t reduced to writing, the employer is vulnerable to legal liability if something goes wrong.

While insurance such as workers compensation is important, a safety manual is a necessary component of workplace safety. In addition, providing employees with a comprehensive set of written safety instructions reinforces the importance of the training they may already receive and reduces the likelihood of accidents or injuries.

When drafting your own safety manual, consult materials published by the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor that specializes in workplace safety. Also, seek out expert advice. Labor and employment attorneys are often involved in creating manuals related to workplace safety, and some consulting firms specialize in advising employers about how to run a safe working environment. Regardless of what resources you use to develop your company?s safety manual, consider including the following concepts and ideas:

Reacting to Emergencies

First, employers should address the procedures it expects its employees to follow in the event of an emergency. Emergencies come in a variety of different forms, and a good manual will contemplate the possibilities and instruct employees on how to address the complexities of different scenarios.

For example, if a condition on the premises puts employees at risk, the manual should provide a standard for evacuation procedures. Provisions in a workplace safety manual related to emergencies should also emphasize the need for calm, deliberate actions to avoid preventable accidents and injuries.

Reporting Accidents

Prudent employers will outline a clear chain of command in their safety manuals ? that chain becomes important when accidents occur. Employees should understand exactly which supervisor or manager they need to notify, as well as the need to phone 911 if the circumstances demand it. Typically, safety manuals also detail the procedures for documenting workplace accidents.

Location of Safety Items

Safety manuals should inform employees where to find important safety-related items around the workplace. For example, a well-crafted manual will explain how to locate first aid kits and fire extinguishers. In addition, safety manuals should instruct employees to wear certain protective gear, such as hard hats and gloves, when engaging in dangerous activities.

Workplace Violence

Most companies have adopted a violence-free workplace policy, and safety manuals should emphasize that zero tolerance stance. Employee-on-employee violence accounts for a shocking number of serious workplace injuries, so taking proactive steps to prevent any altercations among staff members is important. Implementing mediation and conflict resolution initiatives can quell tensions before arguments escalate.

Instructions on Operating Equipment

In addition to the hands-on training companies conduct to educate employees on the proper way to use tools, equipment, and machinery, companies should provide employees with detailed written instructions in the safety manual so employees can routinely refer back to the information. After all, safety training sessions are often overwhelming, so this provides an opportunity to reinforce the information.

Outline Discipline for Failure to Comply

Upfront, employees should understand the implications of failing to adhere to their employer?s safety standards. Therefore, the safety manual provides a perfect platform for outlining the consequences of deviating from a company?s policies and procedures related to safety.

Using these ideas as inspiration, you?ll be on the right track to creating a safety manual that is both informative and helpful. In addition, make sure you customize the material to relate to the unique realities of your workplace.

Photo credit:?safetymanualtoday.com

At?safetyservicescompany.com, the team run by Jay Acker makes?safety manuals?and a variety of safety training materials. They make videos, posters, training kits and other items for safety training.

Source: http://www.business.com/blog/developing-a-comprehensive-workplace-safety-manual/

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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Wiley Beefs Up Higher Ed Biz: Partners With Knewton, Buys Online Degree Veteran Deltak For $220M

Screen shot 2012-10-03 at 5.51.37 PMJohn Wiley & Sons, the 200-year-old publishing giant best known for its scientific, technical and medical texts and journals geared towards academic and scholarly audiences, appears to be on a mission to beef up its higher education business with a dose of technology. Following on the heels of its partnership with Knewton, the academic publisher has announced that it will acquire Chicago-based online degree services company, Deltak.edu for $220 million. The acquisition, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the month, diversifies Wiley's offerings in higher ed and adds some fuel to its digital learning strategy.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HYEUKffIfxY/

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Weather Channel Plans To Start Naming Winter Storms

By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Hurricanes have names, but now The Weather Channel wants to start naming storms, too.

The Weather Channel has announced it will start naming storms this winter, and some people think it?s a bad idea.

?How? I mean, what qualifies as a storm? It seems like we have a lot; I mean, how many storms are there? Can we keep track and differentiate? I can?t. I mean, I don?t feel like I can.?

?I think it?s probably not good because of the frequency of the storms.?

According to The Weather Channel, storms would be named after gods and goddesses.

?That sounds like it would get confusing. There would be a lot of names.?

Even more confusing, The Weather Channel is a commercial organization, unlike the National Weather Service. So channels who choose to copy the idea could come up with their own names, too.

?Well um, I think that would be redundant!?

Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/10/04/weather-channel-plans-to-start-naming-winter-storms/

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Amazing A's are kings of the AL West

Oakland completes sweep of Rangers with 12-5 victory in season finale

updated 8:19 p.m. ET Oct. 3, 2012

OAKLAND, Calif. - Same chaotic, champagne dance-party scene in the clubhouse just two days later. New T-shirt: AL West champions.

The Oakland Athletics won the division title with another improbable rally in a season full of them, coming back from four runs down and a 13-game division deficit to stun the two-time defending league champion Texas Rangers 12-5 on Wednesday.

"We knew this is a beast of a team we would have to beat, and to be able to beat them three games in a row and win the division on top of it, really it's a magical-type thing," manager Bob Melvin said.

Josh Hamilton dropped a fly ball in center field for a two-run error that put the A's (94-68) ahead 7-5 in a six-run fourth inning. The A's only added to Texas' troubles the rest of the way.

While Hamilton's Rangers (93-69) are headed to the new one-game, wild-card playoff at home against Baltimore on Friday, the A's get two days off before opening the division series at Detroit on Saturday in their first postseason appearance since being swept by the Tigers in the 2006 AL championship series.

"It's going to be a tough matchup," Melvin said. "They have a very powerful lineup that can certainly score some runs. They also have great starting pitching. We will have our work cut out for us."

The A's needed a sweep and they delivered to win their first division crown in six years and 15th in all. They overcame a five-game deficit in the final nine days and took sole possession of the West's top spot for the first time this year.

"It shows how important Game 162 is," Oakland's Jonny Gomes said. "I don't think it took 162 to games to check the character of this ballclub."

Grant Balfour retired Michael Young on a fly to center for the final out, then raised his arms in the air as the A's streamed out of the dugout and began bouncing up and down in the infield.

"2012 AL WEST CHAMPIONS" flashed on the scoreboard two days after the A's clinched a playoff spot Monday and held a wild dance party in the clubhouse.

"I'm glad there's not one tomorrow or Friday," owner Lew Wolff said. "I can relax and go home. I'm running out of underwear."

Players high-fived fans while taking a victory lap through the rundown Coliseum, where the outfield still has a light patch of grass from football in the venue shared by the NFL's Raiders.

Soon, the celebratory champagne and beer made its way to the field ? and players sprayed it into the stands. The A's returned to the field almost an hour later to greet fans still gathered along the top of the dugout.

Oakland pulled off another remarkable performance in a season defined by thrilling walkoffs, rallies and whipped-cream pie celebrations by a team that was never supposed to be here.

A club that trailed Texas by 13 games on June 30. A club with a $59.5 million payroll, lowest in baseball. General manager Billy Beane found ways to get a blue-collar franchise back to the playoffs.

"You can have all the experience as you want but when you run into a team that's hot, experience has nothing to do with it," Texas manager Ron Washington said.

Coco Crisp hit a tying two-run double in the fourth against Derek Holland (12-7) and Brandon Moss drove in three runs, including a two-run single in the four-run eighth.

Rookie winning pitcher Evan Scribner (2-0) left the mound in the sixth to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 30,067. He allowed two hits and struck out two in three scoreless innings after replacing struggling starter A.J. Griffin.

Ryan Cook, pitching for a fifth consecutive game, gave up a double to Nelson Cruz before retiring the next three Texas hitters with strikeouts of David Murphy and Mike Napoli. Catcher Derek Norris pumped his right arm as the Coliseum fans jumped to their feet.

Norris then homered leading off the bottom of the eighth for his second RBI. It was his seventh homer and Oakland's majors-leading 112th since the All-Star break.

"Ever since Day 1 I've been here, it's been, the A's can't compete with the payroll, can't compete with this team or that team," Norris said. "We're better off if we're down. It just gives us the extra energy."

The A's join the NL West champion San Francisco Giants as division champions. The Bay Area is already buzzing about a possible Bay Bridge World Series like the 1989 championship swept by Oakland, one interrupted by an earthquake.

Hamilton's miscue while charging forward might haunt the to-be free agent if his Rangers don't get past their wild-card game.

"I just missed it, man," Hamilton said. "You guys have a hard time believing we can forget about it and move ahead. But that's what we get paid to do."

Murphy's two-run single highlighted a five-run third inning that put Texas in prime position.

In the fourth, Moss drew a leadoff walk and Josh Reddick followed with an RBI double. Josh Donaldson singled and Seth Smith's base hit made it 5-3 and chased Ryan Dempster with none out and runners on first and second.

Washington turned to the lefty Holland, a starter who was tagged for four runs in the first inning of the second game of Sunday's doubleheader with the Angels before working into the seventh.

He retired the first two batters before Crisp's double down the right-field line.

The only other teams to come back from at least 13 games down to win the division were the 1914 Boston Braves, the 1951 New York Giants, the '78 Yankees and the '95 Seattle Mariners.

Oakland accomplished this with an ever-changing roster managed by Melvin in his first full season as skipper. They lost third baseman Scott Sizemore to a knee injury on the first full day of spring training workouts, never promoted slugger Manny Ramirez from the minors before parting ways, and dealt with devastating injuries all year long.

Opening day starter Brandon McCarthy took a line drive to the head Sept. 5 that required surgery and ended his season, Brett Anderson missed most of the year coming off Tommy John surgery, and Dallas Braden never pitched because of shoulder problems. Starter Bartolo Colon received a 50-game suspension in August for a positive testosterone test.

Third baseman Brandon Inge needed shoulder surgery last month and prized Cuban rookie Yoenis Cespedes missed time with a pair of injuries in May and June.

And that's just the beginning for a team that traded away catcher Kurt Suzuki to the Nationals during the year after swapping three top pitchers during the offseason ? Trevor Cahill to Arizona, NL Cy Young Award favorite and 21-game winner Gio Gonzalez to Washington and All-Star closer Andrew Bailey to Boston.

"There hasn't been a lot of luck involved," said Beane, who received a celebratory pie in the face. "The one thing about baseball, when you play 161 games, you don't get lucky this late in the season. There have been a lot of adjustments on the fly."

NOTES: The A's, whose 14 walkoff victories lead baseball, won their seventh game this year after trailing by four or more runs. ... The A's won the season series 11-8, just the second time in seven seasons they've done so. ... The sellout crowd included 1,000 standing-room only tickets. ... Holland pitched in relief for the second time this year.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/49279462/ns/sports-baseball/

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Afghan, NKorean films on display at Asian festival

In this image made out of film "Comrade Kim Goes Flying" released on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 by Busan International Film Festival, Comrade Kim Yong Mi played by Han Jong Sim smiles as she wears a coal miner's helmet. Along with the now inevitable galaxy of stars promoting blockbusters from across Asia, this year?s Busan International Film Festival will screen the North Korean film for the first time in almost a decade as well as six classic Afghan movies that were hidden in a wall to save them from a radical Taliban regime that banned most entertainment. (AP Photo/Busan International Film Festival)

In this image made out of film "Comrade Kim Goes Flying" released on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 by Busan International Film Festival, Comrade Kim Yong Mi played by Han Jong Sim smiles as she wears a coal miner's helmet. Along with the now inevitable galaxy of stars promoting blockbusters from across Asia, this year?s Busan International Film Festival will screen the North Korean film for the first time in almost a decade as well as six classic Afghan movies that were hidden in a wall to save them from a radical Taliban regime that banned most entertainment. (AP Photo/Busan International Film Festival)

In this image made out of film "Comrade Kim Goes Flying" released on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 by Busan International Film Festival, Comrade Kim Yong Mi played by Han Jong Sim is pulled up in the air by a crane. Along with the now inevitable galaxy of stars promoting blockbusters from across Asia, this year?s Busan International Film Festival will screen the North Korean film for the first time in almost a decade as well as six classic Afghan movies that were hidden in a wall to save them from a radical Taliban regime that banned most entertainment. (AP Photo/Busan International Film Festival)

(AP) ? Along with the now inevitable galaxy of stars promoting blockbusters from across Asia, this year's Busan International Film Festival will screen a North Korean film for the first time in almost a decade as well as six classic Afghan movies that were hidden in a wall to save them from the Taliban.

The continent's showcase film festival, a glitzy nine-day affair that opens Thursday, has become a way for Asian nations such as China and especially South Korea to highlight their rise in the world pop culture scene. This year's fest will even take a break from film for a performance by South Korean rapper PSY, who galloped to global fame with his song "Gangnam Style."

But films from two nations not normally on the radar of regional cinephiles are also drawing attention.

"Comrade Kim Goes Flying," which was co-directed by a North Korean and two Europeans, is the first North Korean film to screen at the South Korean festival since 2003. The movie, about a young woman who runs off to join the circus as an acrobat, won the award for best director at the biennial Pyongyang International Film Festival last month.

Observers are curious to see how local audiences will react to it while relations remain badly frayed between two nations still technically at war.

"There is great expectation among South Korean viewers about this film because they can have a rare look into the northern neighbor's film-making world without political worries," said Kim Ji-seok, one of the festival organizers who noted they had determined the North Korean film to be "free from ideologies and propaganda."

Six Afghan movies made from the 1960s to the 1980s will also be shown, including "Like Eagle," a 1965 work about a wide-eyed girl traveling in Kabul. The films were hidden in a wall when the radical Islamist Taliban regime took power in the 1990s and banned most forms of entertainment, including movies. The films resurfaced in 2004 after the Taliban were ousted.

"These Afghan films shed a light on the lives of people in a country that we have only known as war-torn and once a hideout for Osama bin Laden," said Kang Yu-jung, a South Korean film critic. "Their screening shows that this part of Asia has started to have an interest in the stories of Afghans, not just in the country's political situation."

The festival, held since 1996 in the southeastern port city of Busan, is considered the biggest of its kind in Asia and has expanded rapidly along with the region's film industry, led by China and South Korea. Both countries films and stars will be front and center at this year's event.

"Cold War," a Hong Kong gangster thriller featuring top stars Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok, opens the festival, and Chinese actress Tang Wei will host the opening ceremony.

Other films drawing attention are Kim Ki-duk's "Pieta," the brutal story of a debt collector who cripples those who can't pay until he meets a woman who claims to be his mother. It took the Golden Lion award for best picture at last month's Venice Film Festival, the first South Korean film to do so.

Some of the biggest buzz has been around South Korean director Hur Jin-ho's "Dangerous Liaisons," which is set in 1930s Shanghai and stars South Korea's Jang Dong-gun and China's Cecilia Cheung. Organizers said tickets for the movie sold out in just 12 seconds.

A film with a political angle is "National Security," which based on a memoir written by an opposition politician who faced harsh torture under South Korea's military regime in the 1980s.

Other films making their world premieres include: "The Commander and the Stork," a joint Italian-Swiss comedy about a widowed man who falls in love with a poor artist; "El Condor Pasa," a South Korean movie about a Catholic priest who gets involved the death of a teenage girl he cherishes; and "A Motor Home Adventure," a Chinese movie about a man who is trying to find a child he may have had with one of his 36 former girlfriends in the hope of receiving bone marrow transplant.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-10-03-SKorea-Film%20Festival/id-97e9e37edff04df5a4f5834ee07bdd71

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