It's All Treats at Sesame Place | Musings on Motherhood and Mid-Life

Here is a guest post by Darla DeMorrow on Sesame Place. Request your free 31 Simple Tips for Organizing Space, Time, Paper and Information and check out her blog at HeartWork Organizing.

?Also, check out Musings on Motherhood and Midlife?s report on a trip to Sesame Place and other cool locations in my post Seeking Salvation on a Short Vacation.

Spooktacular Cookie Monster and I are tight, and I have the picture to prove it. He took a moment with me at the?Sesame Place Spooktacular. We?ve been going to Sesame Place theme park, which sits just north of Philadelphia, for a couple of summers with our two little girls.

My little people really enjoyed the rides, the shows, the activities, of course the trick or treating, and chance to hang with their muppet friends one more time this season. I really appreciated that I didn?t have to shield them from any scary tricks, or worry that I?d have to explain something inappropriate. Who can argue with one more chance to wear Halloween costumes? It really was a special way to kick off fall this year.

My own mid-life motherhood includes a minimum of TVs and movies for my kids, but that doesn?t stop my kids from having a love affair with Elmo and Cookie Monster, which we?re lucky enough to mostly fuel by real interaction with them at Sesame Place, bolstered by the books we read at home. Sesame Street is all about sneaky learning. Everything at the park, the decorations (pumpkins carved with numbers), the Count von Count?s UnHaunted Castle, and especially the Sunny Day parade, which is all a counting and alphabet rock extravaganza, is geared to kids but still fun for adults. It?s almost impossible not to smile when Elmo makes an appearance in the Thriller takeoff during one of the shows.

My kids are three and five, but a friend?s ten year-old said that he still enjoys coming, especially during the summer when the water park is open. We really think this park, such an easy drive for most of the eastern PA and New Jersey region, is a hidden gem in the Northeast. If you were thinking of going to the Sesame Place Spooktacular, or to the very Furry Christmas?event in November and December, book your tickets before it?s too late, bwahahahaha. Along with a great day with the family, treats and even new toothbrushes for the girls (They pestered me to get them out the next morning. Cool!), I also came away with some very specific Halloween decorating ideas. Read about how I?m planning on using all of the cute decorating ideas I saw here to freshen up our Halloween d?cor.

Darla DeMorrow is a Wayne, PA mom, certified professional organizer, business owner and author of The Pregnant Entrepreneur.

Source: http://musingsonmotherhoodmidlife.com/2012/10/13/its-all-treats-at-sesame-place/nationwide race  wanderlust  gone  tyler perry good deeds  pretty in pink  nba all star game  shark tank

5 UK marines charged with murder in Afghan death

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2010 file photo a Royal Marines Commando cap badge is seen. Five Royal Marines have been charged with murder over a death in Afghanistan last year, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Sunday Oct. 14, 2012. They are the first British troops to be charged with murder in the country since deployments began in 2001. (AP Photo/PA, Chris Ison, file) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2010 file photo a Royal Marines Commando cap badge is seen. Five Royal Marines have been charged with murder over a death in Afghanistan last year, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Sunday Oct. 14, 2012. They are the first British troops to be charged with murder in the country since deployments began in 2001. (AP Photo/PA, Chris Ison, file) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE

(AP) ? Five Royal Marines have been charged with murder over a death in Afghanistan last year, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Sunday. They are the first British troops to be charged with murder in the country since deployments began in 2001.

The five are among nine marines arrested ? seven on Thursday and two in the last 48 hours. Four have been released without charge.

Officials have said the incident involved an "engagement with an insurgent" in Helmand province, where the majority of Britain's 9,500 troops in Afghanistan are deployed. They say no civilians were involved.

The BBC and other outlets reported that the arrests stemmed from video footage found on the laptop of a British serviceman who had been arrested in Britain on an unrelated charge.

The Ministry of Defense said the cases had been referred to the Service Prosecuting Authority, which oversees military trials. The ministry said the suspects, who have not been named, were in custody.

Even though the incident does not involve a civilian, the case could cause a backlash from Afghans and further erode efforts to provide political stability to Afghanistan.

The brigade believed to be involved in the incident, 3 Commando, was in the thick of the fighting with Taliban insurgents during its deployment last year to Helmand, which lies in Afghanistan's south. Seven members of the brigade were killed during the tour of duty between April and October 2011.

British troops operate under rules of engagement, largely derived from the Geneva Convention, that dictate under what circumstances they are allowed to open fire.

"Everybody serving in theatre knows the rules of engagement," Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said Sunday, vowing that "any abuse will be dealt with."

Experts say the military has been strict about enforcing the rules after a disastrous period in Iraq, where there were multiple allegations of torture and abuse by British troops.

The most notorious case involved a hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, who died while in custody at a British base after being detained in a raid in Basra in September 2003. Britain's defense authorities later apologized for the mistreatment of Mousa and nine other Iraqis and paid a $4.8 million (3 million pound) settlement. Six soldiers were cleared of wrongdoing at a court martial, while another pleaded guilty and served a year in jail.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-14-Britain-Afghanistan-Marines/id-37a52168540742a2ac5ad90c58a0e94d

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'Alarming' low testosterone levels found in obese teenage boys ...

Obese teenage boys are at risk for more than diabetes and heart disease, a new study has found. They also have alarmingly low levels of testosterone - between 40 to 50% less than males of the same age with a normal body mass index.

The study, published this week in the journal?Clinical Endocrinology, investigated the effect of obesity on testosterone levels in young males.

It has its origins in earlier research, which showed that type II diabetes and obesity in older men are linked to a high rate (25-33%) of hypogonadism, or low testosterone levels. According to the new study, the rate of hypogonadism in type II diabetic men ages 18-35 is greater than 50%.

In addition, concentrations of free testosterone ? testosterone that isn?t chemically bound and thus available to the body ? were shown to be negatively related to BMI: ?The higher the body mass, the lower the concentration.

?This raises the question whether obesity is associated with lower testosterone concentrations, even in younger males,? the study said.

Controlling for age, physical maturity and certain medical factors, 25 obese and 25 lean males between the ages of 14 and 20 were studied.

Blood samples were drawn in the morning to measure both total and free testosterone.

Mean testosterone concentration was 50% lower in obese males. Mean free testosterone concentration was 46% lower.

The results present several problems for those affected, according to Dr. Paresh Dandona, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Buffalo?s medical school and the study?s lead author.

Obesity can lead to diabetes and heart disease. What?s more, low testosterone can slow or stop sexual maturation ? and there?s nothing more hurtful than ?a male not having his maleness,? Dandona said.

?It?s alarming, because these guys could grow up to be inadequate in sexual performance and also in terms of fertility,? he said.

The next step is a larger study to confirm the findings as well as investigate more questions, such how the hypothalamus part of the brain is ?turned off? when triggering the pituitary gland to produce testosterone ? and how it might be turned back on.

The brain?s mechanisms are especially important, Dandona said, because it?s there that the problem begins.

Research has shown that adults who have gastric bypass surgery return to normal testosterone levels. It?s possible that weight loss alone would have a similar effect.

There is no confirmation yet if this holds true for teenaged males.

For cautious parents, the best first step is to be proactive against obesity, doctors say.

?Because that?s the passport to disaster in the long-term,? Dandona said - ?diabetes, heart disease and now inadequate sexual maturation.?

Source: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/12/alarming-low-testosterone-levels-found-in-obese-teenage-boys/

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Preps Roundup: Field hockey, boys soccer, girls tennis - The Sports ...

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Gretchen Geisler and Morgan Lowry had two goals each, and Olivia Hubert supplied two assists to help Mountain View get a 6?0 Commonwealth District field hockey win against visiting Riverbend on Thursday.
Emily Johnson and Caity Maffia also scored for the Wildcats (14?0), while Morgan LaRowe, Morgan Skavdahl and Johnson had assists.
Mountain View hosts Brooke Point on Tuesday.

FIELD HOCKEY
COLONIAL FORGE 6, ORANGE 0

Nikki Simpao scored twice and assisted on another, and Ashley Vastano also tallied twice for Colonial Forge in a Commonwealth District win over visiting Orange.
Colleen Weekman and Amy Dziekowicz both scored once and Kate Roberts added an assist for the Eagles (10?4), who host Massaponax on Tuesday.

STAFFORD 7, ALBEMARLE 0
Katie Deuell had three goals as the Indians defeated the Patriots for the Commonwealth District victory.
McKenzie Bowler added two goals and an assist, while Audrey Braxton and Elizabeth Brownell contributed a goal apiece.
Cassie Hooghouse (two), Lindsey Lysher, Natalie Bohmke, Gail Podlesny and Kenley Belman added assists for Stafford (11?3), which visits Orange on Tuesday.

BROOKE POINT 5, NORTH STAFFORD 0
Liz Washington scored three goals to lead the homestanding Black?Hawks in a Commonwealth District win.
Kate Kennedy and Rachael Payne also scored, while Kristen Johnson and Katie Beiswanger provided assists. Maddie Davis had four saves in goal for Brooke Point (10?4).
Goalie Tabria Cochran made nine saves for the Wolverines.
Brooke Point visits Mountain View on Wednesday.

W. ALBEMARLE 2, LOUISA 0
Maddie Morales made 10 saves and Kelsey Stanley six saves in goal to Louisa in Jefferson District action. Alaina Meadows and Sara Harris provided two defensive saves each.

JM 6, COURTLAND 0
Catesby Willis scored twice and Sarah Miller dished out three assists to help visiting James Monroe get a Battlefield District win.
Hannah Fisher added a goal and an assist, while Sarah Frank, Allison Black and Miranda Rigg also scored for the Yellow Jackets (12?1).
Rebecca Hamlet added an assist for JM, which hosts first-place Chancellor on Monday.

BOYS SOCCER
FAITH BAPTIST 5, LIGHTHOUSE BAPTIST 0

Stone Lewis had a goal and two assists to help homestanding Faith Baptist get a victory.
Zac Whiting and Morgan Copeland also scored, and Jeremiah Morgan set up Ash Lewis for another score for the Conquerors (4?5?2).
Justin McClymonds and Josh Mattozzi led the defense for Faith, which hosts Heritage on Monday.

GIRLS TENNIS
FRED. ACADEMY 5, HIGHLAND 2

Singles: Emily Berg (Hi) d. Emma Vance 8?4, Nicole Brown (Hi) d. Kendra Nedell 8?6, Lucy Castles (FA) d. Aria Pahari 8?3, Sam King (FA) d. Marie Macklin 8?4, Amanda Smithson (FA) d. Camille La Branche 8?2.
Doubles: Vance?King (FA) d. Berg?Brown 8?4, Nedell?Castles (FA) d. Pahari?Macklin 8?4.

Source: http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/sports/2012/10/11/preps-roundup-field-hockey-boys-soccer-girls-tennis/

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Small businesses rank Canada's banks lower than retail customers ...

TORONTO ? Small businesses are less satisfied with Canada?s five largest banks than retail customers, says a J.D. Power and Associated study that ranked Scotiabank in top spot in terms of satisfaction among this key banking customer.

The inaugural Canadian small business banking satisfaction study found that overall satisfaction averaged 728 on a 1,000-point scale, 25 points below satisfaction among retail customers.

Respondents who ranked their bank poorly were more than three times more likely to switch banks. That?s a potentially costly decision for financial institutions since small business customers have almost double the deposits of the average retail customer and four times higher loans.

?The in-person experience is extremely important to small businesses and banks need to get it right to maintain and grow these relationships,? said Jim Miller, senior director of banking at J.D. Power.

Scotiabank led the survey with a ranking of 733 points on the scale. It was followed by Royal Bank of Canada (725), TD Canada Trust (724), Bank of Montreal (711) and CIBC (689).

The study measured small business satisfaction in a number of categories: account activities, account manager, facility, fees, product offerings, account information, credit services and problem resolution.

It found that nearly two-thirds of Canadian banks assign account managers to small business banking customers, compared with just half of U.S. banks.

Yet satisfaction was dragged down severely among small business customer who found their account manager fell short of expectations.

For example, although overall satisfaction was 828 among small business customers who perceived their assigned account manager ?completely? understood their business, it dropped to 685 among those customers who perceive their account manager did not fully, or only partially, understood their business.

That, in fact, was lower than overall satisfaction rating (693) among those not having an account manager assigned at all.

?Having a relationship manager is a great contributor to small business customer satisfaction, but only when the manager is knowledgeable of the customer?s business and can provide tailored advice and personal attention,? said Lubo Li, senior director of Canadian financial services at J.D. Power and Associates.

?However, if the manager cannot provide valuable and individualized information, the customer is better off not having an assigned account manager at all.?

The J.D. Power survey polled 1,200 small business owners or financial decision-makers in July and August who used business banking services. Included were the big five Canadian banks ? Royal Bank, Scotiabank, CIBC , Bank of Montreal and TD Bank.

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/11/small-business-owners-think-canadas-banks-can-do-better-j-d-power/

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Don't Bury your Estate Plan with You - The Carmel Valley Life

Tips to avoid loss of important documents.

Carmel Valley San Diego Community | Christine Ellingsen | Reams of PaperImagine your family trying to search stacks of paper in your home to find your estate plan. ?In those stacks, they find nothing but old bills. ?They turn to your rolodex and find a business card for an attorney. ?They call that office in hopes it was your estate planning attorney who can guide them to your documents. ?That office is no longer in business. ?What do they do now?

An estate plan is private. ?Your trust does not get recorded with the county. ?This means you need to take efforts to protect yourself and your documents so they can be found by your family or successor agents when the time comes that they need to act on your behalf.

  • Keep an electronic copy of your documents. ?Your original paper copies may get destroyed in a fire, or lost during a move, so it is important to have electronic access to your documents. ?Scan all the originals into an electronic copy. ?Upload these documents to a secure document storage program (inquire with your attorney for suggestions). ?Send the electronic copy to your family and/or successor agents.
  • Communication is key. ?You may not want to provide your family and/or successor agents with copies of your documents. ?If that is the case, inform your successor agents where the original estate plan is stored. ?Store the estate plan somewhere in your home that is both safe and easily accessible, such as a fire-proof cabinet or a secured drawer where you keep your records in your home. ?Also provide your successor agents with the contact information of the law firm that drafted the plan. ?Inquire with your law firm as to their record keeping policy to determine whether or not a copy of your estate plan will remain in their files.
  • Prefer more privacy? ?Lock it up. ?Only if you have made arrangements for your safety-deposit box to be immediately accessible by your successor agents should you keep your original documents in that box. Remember, your documents will only be accessible during bank hours, and only by that person you give a key or authorization to. ?If this is your preference, consult with your attorney about funding your safety deposit box into your trust.

Prevent your family from a treasure hunt by providing or communicating the existence of these important documents to them.
______________________________________________________________
Carmel Valley San Diego Community | Christine Ellingsen | Barger Law Group APC

Christine Ellingsen is a Northern California native now practicing law as an estate planning attorney in Carmel Valley San Diego at the Barger Law Group, APC. ?She spent a year in New York working in the business sector before moving to Southern California to attend law school at the University of San Diego. ?She is happy to have started her law career in San Diego and to now call Encinitas home, where she keeps busy between exploring Coastal North County and training her new puppy.

Source: http://www.thecarmelvalleylife.com/dont-bury-your-estate/

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When you and boss split, social media can be an issue

By Bob Sullivan

If you and your company get an ugly divorce, does your company get to keep the friends?

A controversial court ruling last week has shined a light on this made-in-the-digital age problem: Who owns Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections when employers and employees part ways? With personal and professional lives mingled online as never before, a distinctly 21st Century fight is brewing over who owns your friendships.

A ?federal judge in Pennsylvania on Oct. 4 rejected a claim by Linda Eagle that her prior employee had illegally accessed her LinkedIn account after she left her company, Edcomm. Workers there changed Eagle's password after her departure, preventing her from accessing critical contacts and, she claimed, damaged her ability to find new work.?

But the judge dismissed most elements of her lawsuit, giving fuel to those who argue that social media groomed at work belongs to employers.

"The initial outcome of the case is very troubling," said Bradley Shear, a Washington, D.C.,-area lawyer who specializes in social media. It opens the door for employers to claim ownership of any social account -- even personal accounts -- because Eagle's account was created under her own name, he warned. "It demonstrates there's a need for people to become much more educated about this."


Other court rulings have hinted that courts might be inclined to see things the employer's way.? Earlier this year, a federal California court allowed a publication named PhoneDog to proceed with a lawsuit against former writer Noah Kravitz, who had amassed 17,000 Twitter followers while working there.

Kravitz claimed the followers were his, but PhoneDog sued for ownership in 2011, and the judge denied a motion to dismiss the case in a February ruling ? a positive sign for PhoneDog?s legal argument. Two other recent cases also sided with firms making ownership claims on social media contacts.

Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, cautioned that each of these cases is "incredibly fact specific," and none establishes a universal principle that could be widely applied. Still, workers should be on notice that their employer getting their ?friends in the divorce is not so far-fetched.

"People should learn from this that it's dangerous to mix business with pleasure," he said.

In many ways, the "who owns the connections and the conversations" issue is unique to social media and the digital age.? In the past, there was never any question that a public relations professional was speaking on behalf of a company, and that communication was company-owned ?? ?as were the contact lists. But what of a long-time flack who arrives at a new firm with a long list of her own Twitter followers, and who writes messages using that account that are decidedly personal?? Who owns those messages, and those contacts? The issue is as murky as most employees' work-life balance.

?Many of these accounts have 'mingled interests,' " Goldman said. ?That makes things difficult.?

In fact, the very nature of social media means the accounts don't really work unless they have a touch of personality. Tweeted press releases aren't interesting on Twitter; personal wit is regarded above all, and encouraged at every smart firm with a social media presence.?

On the other hand, it's reasonable to think of LinkedIn contacts as akin to customer lists, which are clearly proprietary and belong to employers as intellectual property. For decades, firms have claimed ownership of client lists (and employees have tried sneak out the door with them). If a LinkedIn account is little more than a list of business connections that are directly related to a job, why wouldn't a company claim it?

Of course, fights over Rolodexes aren?t new ? but old-fashioned piles of business cards make a poor analogy for a long-curated group of Twitter followers. ?Besides, users who have a developed a personal relationship with a social media creator aren't likely to be much use to a company which takes over an account, Goldman noted.

?You can grab the Rolodex, but you can?t really grab the relationship?? he said.

There's also the subtle "you are nothing without me" argument. When television anchor and early Twitter adopter Rick Sanchez left CNN, he had a follower list of 150,000. Without CNN, Sanchez would not have compiled such a following, and when he left, observers imagined a brewing controversy. A fight was averted when CNN Sanchez keep the list as long as he changed his Twitter handle, from @ricksanchezcnn to @ricksancheznews .

LinkedIn hasn't offered a lot of guidance in the issue, but in a brief statement to NBC News, the company seemed to suggest that it might take up the fight on behalf of users at some point.

"We don't know the specific facts and circumstances of the relationships or agreements between Ms. Eagle and her former employer, nor are we parties to the lawsuit, so we can't comment on it specifically," said LinkedIn spokesman Hani Durzy. "However, LinkedIn prides itself on being a members-first organization, and in general we believe that a member's professional profile belongs to them.?

Other digital-era issues offer conflicting notions.? In the United States, employees have no right to privacy over emails they write at work, even if they are using personal email accounts. Employers are within their rights to employ snooping software to watch everything workers do with company computers.? That might suggest any Facebook or Twitter work done by an employee on company property belongs to the company. On the other hand, there's a long history of domain name confusion that sides with workers. Employees who register company domains in their own names, for example, often end up with an awful lot of leverage after they leave the company -- they can redirect the domain, for example.

To Shear, the lawyer specializing in social media, that leads to a practical question for companies that might be inclined to make claims on social media accounts.

"LinkedIn is an external system. Why are you are putting resources into an external system that you don't have control over?? Companies prefer their own email to Gmail for this reason," he said.?

One critical element of the Eagle case is that she had shared her password with a coworker, who updated the LinkedIn page for her. That put the company in a good position to make a claim -- it could change the password, lock her out and ask questions later.? So should employees refuse such password sharing? Some companies compel users to do so, though increasingly state legislatures are considering laws making the practice illegal. ?Meanwhile, most social networks -- including LinkedIn -- say it's against their terms of service to share passwords.

There may already be existing laws that cover a lot of this controversy. Non-compete and non-solicitation agreements -- which prevent workers from contacting clients after exiting a firm -- prevent a lot of the issues that businesses are really concerned about when they make social media contact claims.? Still, those are often unenforceable, particularly in California, which has broad employment right laws. That has Shear and Goldman concerned that future employment agreements will contain the broadest possible provisions, with companies seeking rights to all online relationships while workers are in their employ.

"That would be an egregious overreach," Goldman warned.

It would also kill the spirit of social media, as popular Twitter posters would disappear overnight, each time they change jobs.

"In the end, we as readers will be the losers, because we won't be able to find the people we are looking for," he said

There is one saving grace in this discussion: Despite our pride of amassing a few thousand friends or followers, Goldman points out that most social media accounts are not so valuable that they are worth fighting over in court.

"The economics don't support litigation," he said. "How much is an account with 17,000 followers worth?? At $1 a follower, that's $17,000 -- that would hardly even get (the lawsuit) filed."

RED TAPE WRESTLING TIPS
Both Shear and Goldman stressed that companies need to have very specific social media policies -- pre-nuptial agreements, if you will -- specifying who gets what when the inevitable breakup arrives.?

For workers who are concerned, Shear offers three quick tips.

  • Make sure the email used to set up the social networking account is a personal email that you control, not a corporate email address that can be cut off -- and could be used as evidence of ownership in litigation. Also, use personal contact information, such as a home number and address.
  • Make sure the name on the account is personal -- Sally Smith, not Sally_XYZCompany. Finally, use a personal photograph, rather than a company logo, in the profile picture.

* Follow Bob Sullivan on Facebook.
* Follow Bob Sullivan on Twitter.

?More from Red Tape Chronicles:?

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Source: http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/12/14373762-when-you-and-employer-split-who-gets-your-friends-and-followers?lite

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AP IMPACT: Cartels flood US with cheap meth

FILE - In this June 20, 2011, photo released by Mexico's Attorney General's office, police from the Federal Public Ministry looks at drums of precursor chemicals for methamphetamine that were seized in Queretaro, Mexico. Mexican drug cartels are flooding U.S. cities with cheap, extraordinarily pure methamphetamine made in factory-like "super labs? _ a surge in production that has all but negated the nation's long effort to curb meth production at home with tighter controls on key ingredients.(AP Photo/Attorney General's office, File)

FILE - In this June 20, 2011, photo released by Mexico's Attorney General's office, police from the Federal Public Ministry looks at drums of precursor chemicals for methamphetamine that were seized in Queretaro, Mexico. Mexican drug cartels are flooding U.S. cities with cheap, extraordinarily pure methamphetamine made in factory-like "super labs? _ a surge in production that has all but negated the nation's long effort to curb meth production at home with tighter controls on key ingredients.(AP Photo/Attorney General's office, File)

In this Sept. 7, 2012, photo a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration technician holds several pounds of Mexican meth confiscated in the St. Louis area. Methamphetamine has long been a significant problem in the United States, but the DEA says the influx of meth from south of the border is offsetting any gains made against clandestine meth labs in the U.S. DEA statistics show that the Mexican cartels are making the meth more pure, creating a faster and easier high for users, and they?re selling it more cheaply in hopes of creating a new market. Seizures at the border and in several U.S. cities are up sharply. (AP Photo/Jim Salter)

FILE - In this Dec. 28, 2011, file photo released by the Mexican navy, Navy marines stand guard over barrels containing 120,000 kilograms of methylamine, a precursor chemical, seized at the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, that were headed for Guatemala. The meth problem is spilling into other parts of Latin America, too, almost all of it bound for Guatemala. (AP Photo/SEMAR, File)

In this June 20, 2011, photo released by Mexico's Attorney General's office, police investigators look at drums of precursor chemicals for methamphetamine that were seized in Queretaro, Mexico. Over the last several years, the cartels have quietly swooped in to fill a void in the American drug market created by years of crackdowns that began more than a decade ago.(AP Photo/Attorney General's office, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2012, file photo a soldier stands in what was identified as "metal reactors" after a seizure of a large clandestine methamphetamine lab at a ranch in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico. Soldiers made a historic seizure, 15 tons of pure methamphetamine, a haul that could have supplied 13 million doses worth over $4 billion. (AP Photo/Bruno Gonzalez, File)

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Mexican drug cartels are quietly filling the void in the nation's drug market created by the long effort to crack down on American-made methamphetamine, flooding U.S. cities with exceptionally cheap, extraordinarily potent meth from factory-like "superlabs."

Although Mexican meth is not new to the U.S. drug trade, it now accounts for as much as 80 percent of the meth sold here, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. And it is as much as 90 percent pure, a level that offers users a faster, more intense and longer-lasting high.

"These are sophisticated, high-tech operations in Mexico that are operating with extreme precision," said Jim Shroba, a DEA agent in St. Louis. "They're moving it out the door as fast as they can manufacture it."

The cartels are expanding into the U.S. meth market just as they did with heroin: developing an inexpensive, highly addictive form of the drug and sending it through the same pipeline already used to funnel marijuana and cocaine, authorities said.

Seizures of meth along the Southwest border have more than quadrupled during the last several years. DEA records reviewed by The Associated Press show that the amount of seized meth jumped from slightly more than 4,000 pounds in 2007 to more than 16,000 pounds in 2011.

During that same period, the purity of Mexican meth shot up too, from 39 percent in 2007 to 88 percent by 2011, according to DEA documents. The price fell 69 percent, tumbling from $290 per pure gram to less than $90.

Mexican meth has a clearer, glassier appearance than more crudely produced formulas and often resembles ice fragments, usually with a clear or bluish-white color. It often has a smell people compare to ammonia, cat urine or even burning plastic.

"You can look at it and see it has a much more pure look," said Paul Roach, a DEA agent in Denver.

The rise of Mexican meth doesn't mean American labs have disappeared. The number of U.S. meth labs continues to rise even as federal, state and local laws place heavy restrictions on the purchase of cold and allergy pills containing pseudoephedrine, a major component in the most common meth recipe.

The crackdowns that began a decade ago have made it more difficult to prepare large batches, so many American meth users have turned to a simpler method that uses a 2-liter soda bottle filled with just enough ingredients to produce a small amount of the drug for personal use.

But south of the border, meth is being made on an industrial scale. Sophisticated factories put out tons of the drug using formulas developed by professional chemists. The final product often is smuggled into the U.S. taped beneath tractor-trailers or hidden inside packages of other drugs.

While clandestine U.S. labs generally supply rural areas, Mexican meth is mostly targeted to urban and suburban users. Increasingly large quantities are turning up in dozens of American cities, including Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, St. Louis and Salt Lake City, according to the DEA.

The marketing format follows a well-established pattern. By simultaneously increasing the purity and cutting the price, the cartels get people hooked and create a new customer base.

"They're marketing geniuses," said Jack Riley, the agent in charge of the DEA office in Chicago.

When Illinois authorities recently confiscated 1,000 pounds of Mexican marijuana, they found 10 pounds of meth hidden among the pot ? essentially a free sample for the distributor to give out to drug users, Riley said.

Until recently, meth was seldom seen in major urban areas, except in biker gangs and parts of the gay community, Riley said.

"We've never really seen it on the street like we've seen cocaine and heroin," Riley said. He worries that if the estimated 180,000 members of street gangs in Chicago get involved in meth trafficking, violence could follow.

Like the U.S., Mexico has tightened laws and regulations on pseudoephedrine, though some labs still are able to obtain large amounts from China and India. To fill the void, cartel chemists have turned to an old recipe known as P2P that first appeared in the 1960s and 1970s in some parts of the western U.S.

That recipe uses the organic compound phenylacetone. Because of its use in meth, the U.S. government made it a controlled substance in 1980, essentially stopping that form of meth in the U.S. But in Mexico, the cartels can get phenylacetone from other countries, DEA experts said.

In the third quarter of 2011, 85 percent of lab samples taken from U.S. meth seizures came from the P2P process ? up from 50 percent a little more than a year earlier, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.

Federal agents say the influx of meth from Mexico illustrates the difficulty of waging a two-front war on the drug in neighboring countries. When one source of the drug is dealt a setback, other suppliers step in to satisfy relentless demand.

Considering the relatively untapped market of bigger American cities, the rise of Mexican meth is not surprising, said Illinois State University criminologist Ralph Weisheit, a meth expert.

"It's something that was inevitable," Weisheit said. "This wasn't hard to predict."

American authorities are not the only ones taking notice. The sharp spike in meth activity also is evident from the other side of the border. Seizures of labs and chemicals have increased nearly 1,000 percent in the past two years.

Last year, Mexican authorities made two major busts in the quiet central state of Queretaro, seizing nearly 500 tons of precursor chemicals and 3.4 tons of pure meth with a street value of more than $100 million. In Sinaloa, investigators found a sophisticated underground lab equipped with an elevator and ventilation systems as well as cooking and sleeping facilities. The facility was reachable only by a nearly 100-foot tunnel with its opening concealed under a tractor shed.

And in February, soldiers in western Mexico made a historic seizure: 15 tons of pure methamphetamine, a haul that could have supplied 13 million doses worth more than $4 billion.

The meth problem is spilling into other parts of Latin America too. In December and January, Mexican authorities seized nearly 900 tons of precursor chemicals at Mexican ports, almost all of it bound for Guatemala, which seized about 1,600 tons of meth precursors in 2011 ? four times the 400 tons seized there a year earlier.

For now, cocaine remains far and away the cartels' most profitable drug. The RAND Corp. estimates the annual street value of cocaine is about $30 billion, heroin about $20 billion and meth about $5 billion.

But cocaine is getting more expensive and less pure. According to the DEA, the price per pure gram of cocaine rose 59 percent from 2007 through September 2011. At the same time, the purity level dropped 25 percent.

Cocaine also typically comes from Colombia, meaning Mexican cartels serve as middle men who compete against each other to smuggle it into the U.S. That marginalizes their profits.

Because methamphetamine is a synthetic drug the cartels can make for themselves, the profit potential is enormous.

"It's not plant-based," Weisheit said. "It can be completely produced in Mexico. It's very compact, and that makes it easy to smuggle."

___

Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson in Mexico City and Christopher Sherman in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-11-Mexican%20Meth/id-0d97b34fecb440a197c8d6969292a49f

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The good, the bad, and the guilty: Anticipating feelings of guilt predicts ethical behavior

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2012) ? From politics to finance, government to education, ethics-related scandals seem to crop up with considerable regularity. As whistleblowers and investigative journalists bring these scandals to light, one can't help but wonder: Are there specific character traits that predispose people to unethical behavior?

Converging evidence suggests that the answer could be guilt proneness.

In a new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers Taya Cohen and Nazli Turan of Carnegie Mellon University and A.T. Panter of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examine the existing research on guilt proneness, exploring how it might influence our behavior in the workplace and beyond.

According to Cohen, Panter, and Turan, guilt proneness isn't the same thing as feeling guilty after you've done something wrong -- people who are guilt prone actually anticipate having negative feelings before they ever commit a moral transgression. Importantly, these people don't need their mother, their boss, or their significant other looking over their shoulder to prevent them from committing moral transgressions because their conscience does it for them.

Guilt proneness can be measured with four items, drawn from the Guilt and Shame Proneness scale (GASP), which ask people to imagine how they would feel in a given scenario. Although answers to the items vary across different groups of participants, the researchers estimate that about 30% to 40% of the adults they have surveyed are considered low in guilt proneness.

Not surprisingly, guilt proneness seems to be correlated with certain aspects of personality. Research suggests that people who are high in guilt proneness are more likely to be sympathetic, take the perspective of others, consider the future consequences of their behavior, and value having moral traits. Furthermore, women are more guilt prone than men, and older adults are more guilt prone than younger adults.

Across several studies, Cohen, Panter, and Turan have found that people who report higher levels of guilt proneness are less likely to make unethical business decisions, lie for monetary gain, or cheat during negotiations. People who are guilt prone are also less likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviors, like showing up to work late without permission, stealing office supplies, and being rude to clients, even after taking into account other factors like gender, age, and interpersonal conflict at work.

All of this research suggests that it may be wise to keep guilt proneness in mind, whether we are looking for an ethical friend, an ethical lover, or an ethical employee.

The guilt-proneness scale has the potential to be "an important measurement tool for predicting which individuals are likely to behave unethically in their social interactions inside and outside the workplace," Cohen and her colleagues write. The researchers encourage additional research to examine whether GASP might be a useful and valid tool in high-stakes settings such as personnel selection.

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Journal Reference:

  1. T. R. Cohen, A. T. Panter, N. Turan. Guilt Proneness and Moral Character. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2012; 21 (5): 355 DOI: 10.1177/0963721412454874

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/Fa0-WxXanpU/121010141452.htm

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