accumulate unambiguity: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

The importance of minimum viable products and user focus

Michael Jurewitz, former developer tools evangelist at Apple, has been blogging up a storm this week, with two great pieces on two important subjects for developers. First is the idea of minimal viable products, or how much you need to build in order to be able to start selling your current work, and supporting your future work. Jury says:

You need to get your product out the door and into your user's hands. The very act of someone touching and using your product will inherently change what you think you know about it and how you envision people using it. You will change your mind, you will change your plans, and things you used to think were important will melt away and be replaced by other needs and priorities. Having real users is a formative event for a product and one you shouldn't artificially delay.

The second, not unrelated topic is user focus, or understanding how your product will provide a delightful user experience before you type character one on code. Jury again:

Focus on the user. Focus on their life, their problems, and how you are helping them. Put down that database, put down that web server, put down that Core Data model and think. No, this step doesn't involve code. Yes, for many of you this will feel foreign and scary, but focusing on the user is liberating. It frees you from your technical shackles and puts the world in real perspective. Your focus becomes the things that matter, the things that change people's lives. Technology is a hindrance when it doesn't get out of the way. Technology is a hindrance when it becomes the point, as opposed to the human experiences we are trying to improve.

Back in a past life, when I was working in product marketing, I used to think of roadmaps like season arcs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'd seen how Joss Whedon would graph out major character moments and beats on a white board, and I wanted that same sense of story, of major plot points, and of epic final releases that he brought to television.

In entertainment, you have to grab the audience. In software, you have to grab the user. Each major point release has to have something interesting in it, and it all has to build to the next major version number.

You can't and shouldn't blow the whole story in the first episode, and you can't and shouldn't blow all your features in a 1.0 release. You should create interest and get the job done, absolutely, but you should also leave people wanting more. And you should know how your next act, your 2.0 is going to premiere, and build towards it. (That's also how you attract and maintain press attention for your products, of course, because we're simply an extension of audience.)

Go read Jury's articles, then go make some more great stuff.

Sources: Jury, Jury

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/933Y90zWoDo/story01.htm

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Veterans fight changes to disability payments | CapeCodOnline.com

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In this March 24, 2013 photo, former Marine Corps Cpl. Marshall Archer, left, a veterans' liaison for the city of Portland, Maine, speaks to a man on a street in Portland. Veterans groups are rallying to fight any proposal to change disability payments as the federal government attempts to address its long-term debt problem. They say they've sacrificed already.AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

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WASHINGTON -- Veterans groups are rallying to fight any proposal to change disability payments as the federal government attempts to address its long-term debt problem. They say they've sacrificed already.

Government benefits are adjusted according to inflation, and President Barack Obama has endorsed using a slightly different measure of inflation to calculate Social Security benefits. Benefits would still grow but at a slower rate.

Advocates for the nation's 22 million veterans fear that the alternative inflation measure would also apply to disability payments to nearly 4 million veterans as well as pension payments for an additional 500,000 low-income veterans and surviving families.

"I think veterans have already paid their fair share to support this nation," said the American Legion's Louis Celli. "They've paid it in lower wages while serving, they've paid it through their wounds and sacrifices on the battlefield and they're paying it now as they try to recover from those wounds."

Economists generally agree that projected long-term debt increases stemming largely from the growth in federal health care programs pose a threat to the country's economic competitiveness. Addressing the threat means difficult decisions for lawmakers and pain for many constituents in the decades ahead.

But the veterans groups point out that their members bore the burden of a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past month, they've held news conferences on Capitol Hill and raised the issue in meetings with lawmakers and their staffs. They'll be closely watching the unveiling of the president's budget next month to see whether he continues to recommend the change.

Obama and others support changing the benefit calculations to a variation of the Consumer Price Index, a measure called "chained CPI." The conventional CPI measures changes in retail prices of a constant marketbasket of goods and services. Chained CPI considers changes in the quantity of goods purchased as well as the prices of those goods. If the price of steak goes up, for example, many consumers will buy more chicken, a cheaper alternative to steak, rather than buying less steak or going without meat.

Supporters argue that chained CPI is a truer indication of inflation because it measures changes in consumer behavior. It also tends to be less than the conventional CPI, which would impact how cost-of-living raises are computed.

Under the current inflation update, monthly disability and pension payments increased 1.7 percent this year. Under chained CPI, those payments would have increased 1.4 percent.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that moving to chained CPI would trim the deficit by nearly $340 billion over the next decade. About two-thirds of the deficit closing would come from less spending and the other third would come from additional revenue because of adjustments that tax brackets would undergo.

Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow in economic studies at The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, said she understands why veterans, senior citizens and others have come out against the change, but she believes it's necessary.

"We are in an era where benefits are going to be reduced and revenues are going to rise. There's just no way around that. We're on an unsustainable fiscal course," Sawhill said. "Dealing with it is going to be painful, and the American public has not yet accepted that. As long as every group keeps saying, `I need a carve-out, I need an exception,' this is not going to work."

Sawhill argued that making changes now will actually make it easier for veterans in the long run.

"The longer we wait to make these changes, the worse the hole we'll be in and the more draconian the cuts will have to be," she said.

That's not the way Sen. Bernie Sanders sees it. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs said he recently warned Obama that every veterans group he knows of has come out strongly against changing the benefit calculations for disability benefits and pensions by using chained CPI.

"I don't believe the American people want to see our budget balanced on the backs of disabled veterans. It's especially absurd for the White House, which has been quite generous in terms of funding for the VA," said Sanders, I-Vt. "Why they now want to do this, I just don't understand."

Sanders succeeded in getting the Senate to approve an amendment last week against changing how the cost-of-living increases are calculated, but the vote was largely symbolic. Lawmakers would still have a decision to make if moving to chained CPI were to be included as part of a bargain on taxes and spending.

Sanders' counterpart on the House side, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, appears at least open to the idea of going to chained CPI.

"My first priority is ensuring that America's more than 20 million veterans receive the care and benefits they have earned, but with a national debt fast approaching $17 trillion, Washington's fiscal irresponsibility may threaten the very provision of veterans' benefits," Miller said. "Achieving a balanced budget and reducing our national debt will help us keep the promises America has made to those who have worn the uniform, and I am committed to working with Democrats and Republicans to do just that."

Marshall Archer, 30, a former Marine Corps corporal who served two stints in Iraq, has a unique perspective about the impact of slowing the growth of veterans' benefits. He collects disability payments to compensate him for damaged knees and shoulders as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. He also works as a veterans' liaison for the city of Portland, Maine, helping some 200 low-income veterans find housing.

Archer notes that on a personal level, the reduction in future disability payments would also be accompanied down the road by a smaller Social Security check when he retires. That means he would take a double hit to his income.

"We all volunteered to serve, so we all volunteered to sacrifice," he said. "I don't believe that you should ever ask those who have already volunteered to sacrifice to then sacrifice again."

That said, Archer indicated he would be willing to "chip in" if he believes that everyone is required to give as well.

He said he's more worried about the veterans he's trying to help find a place to sleep. About a third of his clients rely on VA pension payments averaging just over $1,000 a month. He said their VA pension allows them to pay rent, heat their home and buy groceries, but that's about it.

"This policy, if it ever went into effect, would actually place those already in poverty in even more poverty," Archer said.

The changes that would occur by using the slower inflation calculation seem modest at first. For a veteran with no dependents who has a 60 percent disability rating, the use of chained CPI this year would have lowered the veteran's monthly payments by $3 a month. Instead of getting $1,026 a month, the veteran would have received $1,023.

Raymond Kelly, legislative director for Veterans of Foreign Wars, acknowledged that veterans would see little change in their income during the first few years of the change. But even a $36 hit over the course of a year is "huge" for many of the disabled veterans living on the edge, he said.

The amount lost over time becomes more substantial as the years go by. Sanders said that a veteran with a 100 percent disability rating who begins getting payments at age 30 would see their annual payments trimmed by more than $2,300 a year when they turn 55.

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Source: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130330/NEWS11/130339991/-1/rss04

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You Need a Budget's Mobile Apps Are Now Free

You Need a Budget's Mobile Apps Are Now Free Android/iOS: If you happened to snag You Need a Budget's desktop app last week on sale, you might have been disappointed to find the popular finance tool's mobile apps were still $4.99. Thankfully, they're both now free.

You Need a Budget is one of your favorite personal finance tools, but it's always been a bit strange that it requires you to pay for both the desktop app and the mobile app even though the mobile apps won't work without the desktop version. You won't have to worry about that anymore as both the iOS and Android versions are free from here on out.

You Need a Budget (free) | Google Play via YNAB Blog

You Need a Budget (free) | iTunes App Store via YNAB Blog

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/-Y-6d1ioQUo/you-need-a-budgets-mobile-apps-are-now-free

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Third Eye Crime - a unique mix of pathfinding gameplay and film noir

Third Eye Crime is a promising puzzle game for iOS that we got to spend some time playing at GDC 2013. Players have to guide a thief through a maze filled with security guards without getting caught. Sounds simple, right? Wait until you see how many guards there are later on in the game and how big their guns are. Luckily, your character can read minds, so you can see where guards have visibility, and around which corners they think you are. To keep things interesting, each level has a comic book style interstitial which tells the game's chilling tale of intrigue.

Though the premise of a psychic art burglar in a film noir graphic novel setting is a little out there, the developer explained that it really came from a common artificial intelligence mechanic. Basically, when you play any game with AI opponents, these visibility cones and pathfinding maps already exist in some capacity, except they're typically hidden in the background. By explicitly showing these regions, levels can be made much more difficult, and some might say interesting.

I'm pretty excited to try out Third Eye Crime when it comes out in early June. 80 - 90 levels should be plenty to chew on for awhile. ?What do you guys think?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/5OF6gEDuSyw/story01.htm

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Good Reads: dogs with PTSD, children in the news, unwed mothers, waking up the Ice Age

This week's round-up of Good Reads includes helping dogs who come home from war zones, the dilemma behind telling Malala Yousafzai's story, why more mothers aren't choosing marriage, and a quest to bring back the wooly mammoth.

By Jenna Fisher,?Staff writer / March 29, 2013

Gina, a US military bomb-sniffing dog, suffered from stress after serving in Iraq.

Ed Andrieski/AP/File

Enlarge

It has been said that war has no winners. That statement could easily include not just soldiers and civilians, but also the hundreds of stray animals that are caught in the crossfire.

Skip to next paragraph Jenna Fisher

Asia editor

Jenna Fisher is the Monitor's Asia editor, overseeing regional coverage for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine.

Children on camera

By the time a 15-year-old schoolgirl named Malala Yousafzai was shot point-blank by the Taliban six months ago in Pakistan, her activism and story had captured interest around the world. She exemplified a rare courage, spunk, and determination that made her a powerful symbol of the fight for female education amid extremism.

It was the media that handed this young girl the soapbox ? and possibly made her a target, worries Syed Irfan Ashraf, who first put Malala on camera when she was just 11 years old.

Disclosing the guilt he felt for doing so, he told Marie Brenner of Vanity Fair, ?No one was paying attention to what was happening in Mingora. We took a very brave 11-year-old and created her to get the attention of the world. We made her a commodity.?

The economy of unwed mothers

Good news: Over the past two decades, teen birthrates have fallen. The other news? By the time American women turn 30, about two-thirds have had their first child ? usually outside of marriage, according to a recent report highlighted in The Atlantic Monthly.

Take note of ?usually outside of marriage,? writes Derek Thompson, asking, ?Why so few marriages?? The answer, he writes, is best seen through the lens of three factors:

?(1) The changing meaning of marriage in America; (2) declining wages for low-skill men; and (3) the declining costs of being a single person.?

It used to be that the marriage contract was entered into in the US with specific roles in mind. The wife would stay home and take care of the kids, and the husband would go to work and put food on the table. That model has been upended.

?Think of marriage like any other contract or investment. It?s most likely to happen when the gains are big. So we should expect marriages among low-income Americans to decline if women perceive declining gains from hitching themselves to the men around them.?

Back to life, back to reality

Right now scientists in South Korea are combing the frozen remains of woolly mammoths looking for the scientific version of a needle in a haystack: a live cell. Any live cell. If they find one, they?ll try to use it to bring the mammoth back from centuries of extinction. (Don?t worry, they?ve got a Plan B.)

Roll your eyes if you must, but, writes Carl Zimmer in National Geographic, the idea of bringing vanished species back to life has percolated in popular culture and in science labs at least since ?Jurassic Park,? and that technology is close ? really close.

Indeed, advances in manipulating stem cells, in recovering ancient DNA, and in reconstructing lost genomes has pushed science closer to reviving that which was once thought to be lost for good. Remember Dolly, the first sheep to be cloned in 1996? Amateur. Scientists now offer up the hopeful example of Celia the bucardo (an extinct type of mountain goat).

?Celia?s clone is the closest that anyone has gotten to true de-
extinction. Since witnessing those fleeting minutes of the clone?s life, [Alberto] Fern?ndez-Arias, now the head of the government of Aragon?s Hunting, Fishing and Wetlands department, has been waiting for the moment when science would finally catch up, and humans might gain the ability to bring back an animal they had driven extinct.?

The question now is, Should it be done?

? ?The history of putting species back after they?ve gone extinct in the wild is fraught with difficulty,? says conservation biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University. A huge effort went into restoring the Arabian oryx to the wild, for example. But after the animals were returned to a refuge in central Oman in 1982, almost all were wiped out by poachers. ?We had the animals, and we put them back, and the world wasn?t ready,? says Pimm. ?Having the species solves only a tiny, tiny part of the problem.? ?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/4ar0XcjYUSA/Good-Reads-dogs-with-PTSD-children-in-the-news-unwed-mothers-waking-up-the-Ice-Age

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

South Africa's Mandela back in hospital with lung infection

By Ed Stoddard

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection, the government said on Thursday, renewing concerns about the health of the revered anti-apartheid leader.

A statement said the 94-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate went into hospital shortly before midnight on Wednesday. It gave no further details other than to say he was receiving the "best possible expert medical treatment and comfort".

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, has been mostly absent from the political scene for the past decade, but remains an enduring and beloved symbol of the struggle against racism.

He is renowned at home and abroad for spending 27 years in prison fighting the last bastion of white rule in Africa and then promoting the cause of racial reconciliation.

Mandela has been frail and in poor health for several years.

He was admitted briefly to hospital earlier this month for a check-up and spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones.

It was his longest stay in hospital since his release from prison in 1990 after serving almost three decades for conspiring to overthrow the white-minority apartheid government.

Mandela has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner.

As he has receded from public life, critics say his ruling African National Congress (ANC) has lost the moral compass he bequeathed it when he stepped down as president in 1999.

Under such leaders as Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, the ANC gained wide international respect as it battled white rule. Once the yoke of apartheid was thrown off, it began ruling South Africa in a blaze of goodwill from world leaders who viewed it as a beacon for a troubled continent and world.

Almost two decades later, this image has dimmed as ANC leaders have been accused of indulging in the spoils of office, squandering mineral resources and engaging in power struggles.

Mandela spent much of last year in Qunu, his ancestral village in the poor Eastern Cape province. But since his release from hospital in December he has been at his home in an affluent Johannesburg suburb, closer to sophisticated medical care.

(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-mandela-back-hospital-070717156.html

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Deep freeze: Home sales to barely budge this spring

Diana Olick , CNBC.com ? ? ? 14 hrs.

The U.S. housing market will see no surge at the start of spring, as fewer buyers signed contracts to purchase existing homes in February. An industry index of so-called pending home sales fell 0.4 percent from January but is up 8.4 percent from February of 2012.

While the number of for-sale listings increased more than the seasonal norm, realtors still say a lack of supply is keeping many potential buyers from desired deals. Pending home sales are a one to two month forward indicator of closed sales.

"Only new home construction can genuinely help relieve the inventory shortage, and housing starts need to rise at least 50 percent from current levels," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors in a release. "Most local home builders are small businesses and simply don't have access to capital on Wall Street. Clearer regulatory rules, applied to construction loans for smaller community banks and credit unions, could bring many small-sized builders back into the market."

Sales of newly built homes fell nearly five percent in February, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Inventories did rise, but only slightly, as the nation's home builders struggle with labor and land shortages, as well as higher costs for materials.

Pending home sales fell 2.5 percent month-to-month in the Northeast, rose 0.4 percent in the Midwest, fell 0.3 percent in the South and rose 0.1 percent in the West, according to the Realtors.

"The volume of home sales appears to be leveling off with the constrained inventory conditions, and the leveling of the index means little change is likely in the pace of sales over the next couple months," Yun added.

A better sign for March, after two weeks of declines, mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped 7 percent during the past week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This as interest rates fell slightly, due to concerns over the banking crisis in Cyprus.

"The rebound in mortgage applications is a small piece of a brighter housing outlook," says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. "Interest rates are still at record lows despite their upward trend, and consumers are taking advantage of record home affordability. Look for more buyers to enter the market this spring and a more robust housing recovery to occur."

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a0e46eb/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Ceconomywatch0Cdeep0Efreeze0Ehome0Esales0Ebarely0Ebudge0Espring0E2B910A4579/story01.htm

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Supreme Court, in next gay marriage case, eyes federal law

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the second day running, the Supreme Court on Wednesday will confront the issue of gay marriage, hearing arguments on a U.S. law that denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples.

Almost two hours of oral argument before the court will focus on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), just a day after the nine justices considered the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage.

Both cases come before the court as polls show growing support among Americans for gay marriage but division among the 50 states. Nine states recognize it; 30 states have constitutional amendments banning it and others are in-between.

Rulings in both cases are expected by the end of June.

DOMA limits the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. It permits benefits such as Social Security survivor payments and federal tax deductions only for married, opposite-sex couples, not for legally married same-sex couples.

President Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law in 1996 after it passed Congress with only 81 of 535 lawmakers opposing it. Clinton, a Democrat, earlier this month said that times have changed since then and called for the law to be overturned.

In the California case argued on Tuesday, the justices seemed wary of endorsing a broad right for gay and lesbian couples to marry, as gay rights advocates had wanted. As a result, the Proposition 8 case is less likely to influence how the court approaches DOMA, which presents a narrower question.

The slightly lower-profile case being argued Wednesday focuses on whether Edith Windsor, who was married to a woman, should get the federal estate tax deduction available to heterosexuals when their spouses pass away.

Windsor's marriage to Thea Spyer was recognized under New York law, but not under DOMA. When Spyer died in 2009, Windsor was forced to pay federal estate tax because the federal government would not recognize her marriage. She sued the government, seeking a $363,000 tax refund.

Windsor's lawyers say the federal government has no role in defining marriage, which is traditionally left to states.

"It's the states that marry people," said James Esseks, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who is part of Windsor's legal team. "The federal government doesn't do that."

The roughly 133,000 gay couples nationwide, married in one of the nine states where it is legal, are not recognized as married by the federal government, Windsor's supporters say.

Various groups are calling for DOMA to be struck down, such as the Business Coalition for DOMA Repeal, whose members include Marriott International Inc, Aetna Inc, eBay Inc, and Thomson Reuters Corp, the corporate parent of the Reuters news agency.

OBAMA TURNS BACK ON DOMA

The Obama administration has agreed with Windsor that the section of law that defines marriage violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. The Justice Department has therefore declined to defend the statute, as it normally would when a federal statute is challenged.

That has left a legal group acting on behalf of the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives, known as the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, or BLAG, as the party defending the federal law. Its lawyer, Paul Clement, will argue that there are several reasons to support Congress' decision to enact DOMA.

Noting the strong bipartisan support the law attracted when it was first enacted, Clement said in court papers that a move to strike it down as unconstitutional "would be wholly unprecedented."

Before the court reaches that bigger question, preliminary matters could prevent the court deciding the case. One is whether BLAG has legal standing.

If such a procedural issue prevents the court from deciding the case on the merits, Windsor would win her refund. Yet DOMA would remain on the books in parts of the country where courts have not ruled on it. Further litigation would likely ensue.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-next-gay-marriage-case-eyes-federal-050121766.html

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Sony Xperia ZL goes on pre-order for US customers, off-contract: $720 for HSPA, $760 for LTE

Remember the Xperia ZL? While it lingered in the shadow of the waterproof Xperia Z back at CES, the phone does still exist and has now gone on preorder at Sony's own webstore. With the same 5-inch 1080p display, 13-megapixel camera and Snapdragon S4 Pro of the omnibalanced Z model, the Xperia ZL packs it into a smaller footprint and adds the courtesy of a physical camera button. Sony's NFC skills remain onboard and that lead camera is capable of HDR video capture, alongside recent improvements to the Xperia range's automatic shooting mode. While its own retail site is currently down (and there's no concrete date for when you'll get your hands on the phone), Sony says that it will be available from other online stores soon, pricing the Xperia ZL, contract- and carrier-less, at a hefty $720 on HSPA, or $760 for the 4G variant. That pricier option includes LTE Bands 2, 4 5, and 17, which means it should connect with AT&T's 4G network -- with or without any carrier branding.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony

Comments

Source: Sony Store

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/96nq_k9HGgo/

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A Narrow Escape, and Lasting Guilt - NYTimes.com

I was a new mom at 36, and there was a lot about motherhood that terrified me. I had no experience with infants, nor did my husband,? Michael. As happy as we were to be expecting, I was filled with fear and trepidation. How on earth would I know what to do?

So it was revelatory to discover that holding my new daughter, Gillian, was like being home.

In my arms her soft, solid warmth still felt a part of me, part of my body. Over the first few weeks the power of my love grew such that nothing could? ever pry her out of my arms. I know this. I knew it once, anyway.

On the morning after Thanksgiving, 1998, Gillian and I were alone in the quiet house. She woke early as 10-week-olds do and smiled as I entered the room.

After our blissful morning cuddle, off we went, toward the stairs, ready to take on the day. Gillian was cooing in my arms and I was thinking about the leftovers and festive clutter needing my attention down in the kitchen.

And just at the top of the stairs ? an overconfident step, slightly off balance, a moment?s distraction. My feet went flying, my hands grasping for the handrails in frantic reflex and instantly, shockingly, Gillian?s soft weight left my hold.

My vision was filled with her face, contorted in surprise but no fear ? she didn?t yet know fear ? floating down the stairway in front of me.

I had slipped at the very top of the stairs, a 14-step flight. As she flew down she looked up at me, her mouth an ?O? and her eyebrows as far up as they could go, all the long way down. As I crashed down the stairs myself, clumsily and painfully, unfathomable thoughts crashed through my brain.

How? How could I ever have let go?

Our child would never grow up, Michael would never forgive me, the pain would be eternal.

I?d wrecked our family forever.

And then she landed. Feet first, face down, her tummy hit the edge of the bottom step as her head clocked the wall, right at the sharp edge of the wooden molding. I frantically finished my own descent, holding my breath and hearing only silence.

And then she cried. Somehow I managed to call 911 and somehow I got Gillian, still wailing, into her bucket-shaped car seat and made my way to the street. The ambulance finally came to take us away.

The questions began immediately. What happened? they asked. Is this your first child? Does she cry a lot? How are you feeling? Have you been sleeping well? Have you been sad?

I understood what they were looking for, but it felt appropriate to be judged and found wanting. Clearly, I thought, I?m unfit for this job. It?s wrong to trust me to take care of my own baby.

Gillian was fine. And forgetful, and forgiving. I wasn?t. Michael carpeted the stair steps and covered me with love and unstinting support. He never wavers from his affirmation that, yes, accidents happen and, yes, this was indeed an accident.

I was not so easily convinced.

The shame of having dropped my baby was ? is ? palpable. You what? You dropped your baby down the stairs? Other mothers can?t fathom such a thing. Of course not. Neither could I, before it happened to me.

We so often hear of tragedy ? a hot car, an unlocked pool gate, the limits of a rear-view mirror ? caused by devoted parents or caregivers. I?m more sympathetic because I think I understand a little bit of the dark shape of a life burdened with guilt beyond repair.

For those brief moments, as my daughter flew dangerously down a long, long flight of stairs, I was there, thinking I had killed my child. And I will never forget.

The Christmas pictures from that year show my wrist brace from my own injury, clear evidence of my carelessness. I walk down those stairs every day and shudder a little, and thank providence once again that we were lucky.

It took a long time but I eventually started to trust myself to keep my baby safe. Our second baby was born two years later, and we managed to get her through her toddler years unscathed. Yet I never felt fully relieved of the guilt until Gillian herself could understand the story and forgive me, and promise me she doesn?t remember a thing.

I do.

Source: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/a-narrow-escape-and-lasting-guilt/

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Church members clean community in lieu of Sunday service

by WCNC.com

WCNC.com

Posted on March 24, 2013 at 5:42 PM

Updated today at 6:39 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Instead of heading to church for Sunday service, members of the Rock Worship Center in Charlotte hit the streets.

Sunday, members called their efforts ?Serve His Day?. Volunteers walked through the Greir Heights Community and along West Boulevard picking up trash.
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Organizers say despite the rain, the event was a huge success.

?I was a little nervous that people would not show up.? But I tell you -- they've exceeded my expectation.? I believe people want to give back,? said Pastor Frank Jacbos.

?I'm trying to teach the church this is another form of worship.? It's not only about being preached to -- but being able to take the word that we've preached and bring it to brothers and sisters.? That's what it's all about,? he said.

Organizers said they had about 200 people come out and help throughout the day.

Source: http://www.wcnc.com/news/Church-members-clean-community-in-lieu-of-Sunday-service-199775861.html

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Joe Weider Dies; Bodybuilding Guru Was 93

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/joe-weider-dies-bodybuilding-guru-was-93/

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What's at stake in U.N. arms trade treaty negotiations?

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Members of the United Nations have been meeting at the world body's New York City headquarters this week for a final round of negotiations on what could become the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade.

The treaty drafting conference will continue until March 28. Following are questions and answers about the draft arms trade treaty.

WHAT IS THE ARMS TRADE TREATY?

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of any type of conventional weapon - light and heavy. It would also create binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure the munitions will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism, violations of humanitarian law, do not breach U.N. arms embargoes and are not illegally diverted.

It would require governments to refuse to export weapons to countries that would likely use them to violate human rights or commit war crimes. It would also require governments to regulate arms brokering.

WHAT WEAPONS WOULD BE COVERED?

The current draft treaty says that the following weapon types will be covered by the pact "at a minimum": battle tanks; armored combat vehicles; large-caliber artillery systems; combat aircraft; attack helicopters; warships; missiles and missile launchers; small arms and light weapons, ranging from assault rifles to handguns.

It would not cover unconventional weapons like nuclear, chemical and biological arms. Separate treaties cover those.

WHO WANTS SUCH A TREATY?

Human rights groups, arms control advocates and a majority of the United Nations' 193 member states want a strong treaty that imposes tough new standards on the largely unregulated arms trade. Many of the treaty's most ardent supporters come from Europe, Latin America and Africa, though it has supporters from all over the world.

Some 108 countries, led by Mexico, issued a joint statement on Monday saying "the overwhelming majority of (U.N.) Member States agree with us on the necessity and the urgency of adopting a strong Arms Trade Treaty. Our voice must be heard."

Among that statement's supporters were major arms producers Britain and Germany. The other four top arms exporters - the United States, Russia, China and France - did not endorse it.

The five permanent Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - issued their own joint statement of support for a treaty that "sets the highest possible common standards by which states will regulate the international transfer of conventional arms."

The five also said that "an effective (treaty) should not hinder the legitimate arms trade or the legitimate right to self defense under the U.N. Charter."

The main reason the arms trade talks are taking place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms trader - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support a treaty.

Delegates have expressed concern that other major arms producers like Iran, Pakistan and others might take issue with some of the provisions in the treaty and demand the inclusion of language that weakens it and adds loopholes. Since the treaty-drafting conference works on the basis of consensus, any country can veto the outcome if it chooses to do so.

WHAT WILL AN ARMS TRADE TREATY NOT DO?

According to the U.N. Office of Disarmament, it will not do any of the following: interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in member states; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm states' legitimate right to self-defense; undermine national arms regulation standards already in place.

The National Rifle Association, the powerful U.S. gun lobby group, is strongly opposed to the arms trade treaty. The group has vowed to fight the convention's ratification by the U.S. Senate if Washington backs it at the United Nations.

The NRA says the treaty would undermine gun ownership rights under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobbying group, last month disputed the NRA position, saying in a paper that "ratification of the treaty would not infringe upon rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment."

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE CONFERENCE FAILS TO APPROVE A TREATY?

If the conference fails to agree to a treaty because it cannot reach the required consensus, delegates say they can put it to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly to rescue it. Either way, if a treaty is approved, national legislatures will need to ratify it.

WHAT ARE THE STICKING POINTS IN NEGOTIATIONS?

- Ammunition. Most countries and rights groups want ammunition to be covered comprehensively in the treaty. Exports of ammunition are covered in the draft treaty but not imports. The United States has said it opposes inclusion of ammunition.

- Self-defense. Some delegations are insisting that the draft include more language on the right of countries to legitimate self-defense. That is because some major arms-importing states, especially in the Middle East, have expressed concern that their ability to import weapons could suffer if the treaty comes into force.

- Risk of diversion. Some countries want the risk of diversion of weapons to unintended recipients, such as rebel groups or governments under a U.N. arms embargo, to be a criterion for refusing to grant an export license.

- "Overriding." The current draft says that arms exports should be canceled if there is an "overriding" risk that they could be used in human rights violations. Some countries have suggested that a better threshold would be if there is a "substantial" risk involved.

- Exemptions. There are a number of scenarios under which arms deals would be exempt in the current draft, such as defense cooperation agreements - something India wanted - and gifts and loans of weapons. Supporters of a tough treaty call them loopholes and want them removed.

- Reporting. There is disagreement over whether required reports on arms trade should be made public. Countries like China, Iran and others oppose making them public.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/whats-stake-u-n-arms-trade-treaty-negotiations-211121132.html

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Saplings from Anne Frank's tree take root in US

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Saplings from the chestnut tree that stood as a symbol of hope for Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis for two years in Amsterdam are being distributed to 11 locations in the United States as part of a project that aims to preserve her legacy and promote tolerance.

The tree, one of the Jewish teenager's only connections to nature while she hid with her family, was diseased and rotted through the trunk when wind and heavy rain toppled it in August 2010. But saplings grown from its seeds will be planted starting in April, when the Children's Museum of Indianapolis will put the first one in the ground.

The 11 U.S. locations, which also include a park memorializing 9-11 victims in New York City, an Arkansas high school that was the heart of the desegregation battle and Holocaust centers in Michigan and Washington state were chosen by The Anne Frank Center USA from 34 applicants.

Winners were selected based on their commitment to equality, demonstration of the consequences of intolerance or historical significance to civil rights and social justice in the U.S., according to a news release from the center.

"The heart of our mission is tolerance. ... Tolerance is really essential for being able to bring better welfare to everybody," said center spokesman Mike Clary.

The tree is referenced several times in the diary that Anne Frank kept during the 25 months she remained indoors until her family was arrested in August 1944.

"Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs," she wrote on Feb. 23, 1944. "From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind."

A global campaign to save the chestnut was launched in 2007 after city officials deemed it a safety hazard and ordered it taken down. The tree was granted a last-minute reprieve after a battle in court, but age and nature ultimately brought it down.

Jeffrey Patchen, president and chief executive officer of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, said the sapling planted in the museum's Peace Park will stand next to a limestone carving of a podium with Anne's diary on it. A mock chestnut tree looms over the entrance to the museum's permanent Anne Frank exhibit, which features live performances in a space that teaches visitors about life in the Secret Annex where the Franks hid.

"We're taking the lead in producing the educational materials that will go along with the tree," Patchen said. "We're producing this unit of study ... that focuses heavily on the humanities and presents the tree through selections of her diary and ... as a symbol of renewal."

Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. plans to plant its sapling in September, on the 56th anniversary of the previously segregated high school's integration. A group of black students called the Little Rock Nine, who braved angry mobs in the fall of 1957 to integrate the school, became a symbol of the civil rights movement.

"Both (Anne Frank and the Little Rock Nine) dealt with hatred from ignorant people," said Nancy Rousseau, the school's principal. "All of them displayed great bravery and courage, which wasn't necessarily seen then or now, also, in adults. They were all children."

Other states that have sites receiving saplings are Massachusetts, Idaho and California.

The Anne Frank Center wants the sapling project to go beyond the initial planting of the trees. The center is launching an education initiative called Confronting Intolerance Today that will encompass a "teaching and discovery" website to create dialogue and show how the sites are using the sapling project to advance tolerance, a distinguished speaker series and temporary exhibits from the center that will show the history of Anne Frank.

"We know that the tree was a sign of hope of Anne Frank who was unable to leave her living quarters," said Yvonne Simons, executive director of The Anne Frank Center USA. "She wrote about it in a diary. For us, the tree portrays a symbolism of hope and growth and renewal."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saplings-anne-franks-tree-root-us-163048542.html

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UK police: Russian tycoon Berezovsky found dead

FILE - A Wednesday, July 18, 2007 photo from files showing Russian exile Boris Berezovsky, a close friend of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned by Polonium 2-10, speaking to the media in a news conference in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

FILE - A Sunday, April 18, 1999 photo from files showing Boris Berezovsky as he arrives at Moscow's Sheremetiyevo-I international airport. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013.(AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, File)

FILE - A Monday, April 28, 2008 photo from files showing Boris Berezovsky as he arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London for his hearing against Roman Abramovich. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

LONDON (AP) ? Boris Berezovsky, a self-exiled and outspoken Russian tycoon who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead in southeast England on Saturday. He was 67.

In recent years, the one-time Kremlin powerbroker-turned-thorn in Putin's side fended off verbal and legal attacks in cases that often bore political undertones ? and bit into his fortune.

The cause of Berezovsky's death was not immediately clear, and Thames Valley police said it was being treated as "unexplained." The police would not directly identify him, but when asked about Berezovsky by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London.

Lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky told Russian state TV that his client ? who had survived assassination attempts in the past ? lately had been in "a horrible, terrible" emotional state.

"All he had was debts," Dobrovinsky told Russian state TV. "He was practically destroyed. He was selling his paintings and other things."

A mathematician-turned-Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In return for backing former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, he gained political clout and opportunities to buy state assets at knockdown prices, making a fortune in oil and automobiles.

He also played a key role in brokering the rise of Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin, in 2000. But Berezovsky later fell out of favor with Putin, and eventually sought political asylum in the U.K. in the early 2000s to evade fraud charges he contended were politically motivated.

Berezovsky was one of several so-called Russian "oligarchs" to butt heads with Putin.

After coming into power, the Russian president effectively made a pact: the oligarchs could keep their money if they didn't challenge him politically. Those who refused often found themselves in dire circumstances. Some were imprisoned ? like the former Yukos Oil chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky ? while others, like Berezovsky, fled Russia.

The assets of these pariah businessmen, meanwhile, were acquired by state corporations or cooperative tycoons, often at bargain prices.

Over the years, Berezovsky accused Putin of leading Russia toward dictatorship and returning it to a Soviet-style system of state monopoly on the media.

In the U.K., Berezovsky allied himself with an array of other Kremlin critics. Among them was ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who fled Russia with Berezovsky's help after accusing officials there of plotting to assassinate political opponents.

Litvinenko died on Nov. 26, 2006, after drinking tea laced with a lethal dose of the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210 in a London hotel. From his deathbed, Litvinenko accused the Kremlin of orchestrating his poisoning, and British police named former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi as the prime suspect.

Both Lugovoi and the Kremlin denied the accusations, with the former instead claiming that Berezovsky ? whom Russia repeatedly sought to extradite on a wide variety of criminal charges ? engineered Litvinenko's death as a way of embarrassing the Kremlin and buttressing his refugee status.

Berezovsky, who considered Litvinenko a close friend, consistently denied the allegations. In 2010, he won a libel case against Kremlin-owned broadcaster All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting, which aired a show in which it was suggested he was behind the former agent's poisoning.

Berezovsky, too, was the target of assassination attempts. In 1994, a car bomb injured him and killed his driver. He also said he briefly fled the U.K. in 2007 when British intelligence services told him his life was in danger.

"I was informed by Scotland Yard that there was a plot to kill me, and they recommended to me to leave the country," he told The Associated Press at the time. Scotland Yard later arrested a man on suspicion of conspiring to murder the tycoon.

More recently, Berezovsky has made headlines for costly legal battles that have dealt serious blows to his finances.

Last year, the Russian business magnate was ordered to pay 35 million pounds ($53.3 million) in legal costs to fellow Russian Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, after losing a multimillion-dollar legal battle against him.

Berezovsky had claimed that Abramovich cheated him out of his stakes in the oil group Sibneft, arguing that he blackmailed him into selling the stakes vastly beneath their true worth after he lost Putin's good graces.

But a judge threw out the case in August, ruling that Berezovsky was a dishonest and unreliable witness, and rejected Berezovsky's claims that he was threatened by Putin and Alexander Voloshin, a Putin ally, to coerce him to sell his Sibneft stake.

It also recently emerged that Berezovsky ran up legal bills totaling more than 250,000 pounds in just two months of a case against his former partner, Elena Gorbunova, with whom he had two children and who claimed the businessman owed her millions.

Earlier this week, The Times of London newspaper reported that Berezovsky was selling property ? including an Andy Warhol portrait of the former Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin ? to settle his debts and pay expenses owed to lawyers.

The Russian president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a telephone interview on state television that Berezovsky had sent a letter to Putin about two months ago asking to be allowed to return to Russia. In the letter, Berezovsky acknowledged having made many mistakes, Peskov said.

Peskov said he did not know how Putin reacted to news of the death.

"But you can say that information about the death of someone, no matter who he was, cannot elicit positive emotions," the spokesman said.

___

AP writer Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this story.

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-23-Britain-Obit-Berezovsky/id-058e2e3bab4e46edbd113fae3d201947

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Is Depression Contagious? | World of Psychology

Is Depression Contagious? This guest article from YourTango was written by?Dr. Susan Heitler.

Someone recently asked me about the following:

?My husband has been depressed for months. Now I?m getting depressed, too! Did I catch it from him??

My answer? Probably. Depression is most certainly contagious.

With that in mind, here are five prominent attributes of depression that make downer moods so easy to catch?

1. The ?negative cognitive triad.?

Psychologist Aaron Beck coined the term ?negative cognitive triad? to describe three arenas in which depressive thinking is negative. Depressed folks see themselves, others and their futures through dark-colored glasses. For example, Owen was depressed for several months after losing his job. Julie, his wife, felt dragged down by Owen?s constant, negative comments.?Owen tried to be more upbeat, but his dialogue was always peppered with self-reproach.

Owen had also become uncharacteristically critical of his wife. As she headed to work feeling good about the way she looked, Owen ended his goodbyes with, ?Do you really have to wear so much makeup?? As to his future, Owen would say, ?I?m sure I?ll never get another job I love as much as the one I lost.? Eventually, Julie began to agree with him. His bad mood brought her down to his emotional level.

2.?Negative energy.?

Just walking into a room where Owen was sitting was enough for Julie to feel her energy level sink. Sometimes she avoided talking to him. Even being in the same room with him seemed to let the air out of her proverbial balloon.

3. ?Social isolation.

Owen seldom left the house. When the family was home, he?d stay in his room, alone with the TV.

Soon, Julie followed suit and became a virtual shut-in. Bringing Owen with her to social gatherings was too painful. She could see that their friends, who used to love Owen, now avoided him. His dark cloud must have appeared contagious to them as well.

For years, Julie and Owen exercised together. When it became too difficult for Julie to convince Owen to run with her anymore, Julie also stopped running. Running was once a way for Julie and Owen to stay in touch with their neighbors, who also were runners.Increasingly, Julie felt cut off, depressed at the loss of her old, fun, casual friendships.

3. Learned helplessness.?

Psychologist Martin Seligman identified the depressive phenomenon he labeled ?learned helplessness.? When people are seriously depressed, trying to do anything feels overwhelming.

For example, for years, Julie and Owen shared household responsibilities. Eventually, however, Owen seemed to have lost his ability to see what needed to be done and take care of it. ?He seldom swept the floor no matter how much food the baby had scattered on it. He?d get up from the dinner table and walk into the TV room as if there were no dishes to be cleared from the table.

With all the work of childcare and keeping up a household falling into her lap, Julie felt overwhelmed and helpless.

4.?Dominant-submissive interactions.

An episode of depression is usually triggered by a dominant-submissive interaction, like being criticized or told what to do, or by a decision in which someone submissively gives up on what they wanted.? Owen had known for a while that the hostile relationship he had with his boss was likely to get him fired. One final flare-up did the tric, and Owen was the clear loser.

As Owen?s depression continued, his wife became wary of doing anything that might make it worse. This concern led her to say ?Yes? far too often when she really wanted to say ?No? ? ?Yes, I can clean up the kitchen;? ?Yes, I?ll cancel our plans to go out with friends.?

Each time Owen and Julie made a decision together where one had to concede something of importance to him/her, more depression was the by-product.

5. It?s treatable.?

The good news is that depression is highly treatable. Psychotherapy, medications or both can make a significant difference. My experience as a therapist has clarified that couples therapy and/or a marriage education program is particularly high-impact for depressed people who are in ongoing relationships. Recovery brings light back into your life. The main goal of all therapy for depression is for internal feelings of empowerment, optimism and positive energy to return, lifting depression?s dark cloud for everyone.

Denver clinical psychologist Susan Heitler, Ph.D. is author of PowerOfTwoMarriage.com, an interactive website that teaches the skills for marriage success.

More from YourTango:

Contributed by YourTango.com, an online magazine dedicated to love, life and relationships. From dating to marriage, parenting to empty-nest, relationship challenges to relationship success, YourTango is at the center of the conversations that are closest to our over 3 million readers' hearts. With daily contributions from our Experts, we have a little something for everyone looking to create healthier lives. We're excited to offer our contributions to the PsychCentral community, and invite you to visit us on YourTango.com.

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Catch up on other posts by YourTango Experts (or subscribe to their feed).

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????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.

APA Reference
Experts, Y. (2013). Is Depression Contagious?. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 23, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/22/is-depression-contagious/

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/22/is-depression-contagious/

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Will $5M bring down tweeting, rapping US jihadi?

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? Will the allure of a $5 million reward be the downfall of a tweeting, rapping American jihadi who once fought alongside the Somali militant group al-Shabab but now denounces their methods and motivations in online feuds?

A U.S. State Department official who specializes in Somalia said Thursday that the new $5 million reward offered for the arrest of Omar Hammami could exploit what are believed to be fault lines between extremist groups in Somalia that may be for and against Hammami. The Alabama-born American was once close to al-Shababab's leadership, but has since had a falling out with the group's leader.

"I think that this kind of (reward) program is designed precisely to elicit those who have information and those who are willing to respond to that offer," Pamela Friest, the State Department Somalia expert, said in a telephone news conference. "As far as the internal dynamics to where Hammami is, etc., I think it's anyone's guess as to whether he's sheltered by anyone in particular."

Hammami, whom the FBI named as one of its most-wanted terrorists in November, "has always been a controversial figure inside Somalia. He's certainly been a controversial figure for the United States," Friest said.

Part of that controversy stems from Hammami's high Internet profile. The star of several YouTube videos where he raps about jihad or fights on the front lines of Somalia's insurgent battles, Hammami over the last year has become a mini-star on Twitter, where he engages in running conversations with militant fighters and even U.S.-based terrorism experts.

Hammami appeared to confirm last week in a Twitter conversation with terror analyst J.M. Berger what intelligence experts have long suspected ? that he posts on Twitter using the handle (at)abumamerican. Hammami's nom de guerre is Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, or "the American."

While he's made his interest in global jihad well known, Hammami hasn't made public threats against the U.S. Berger, who runs the website Intelwire.com, said in an interview Thursday that the $5 million bounty is "an awfully large reward" for someone who "hasn't taken direct violent action against the U.S. or worked with al-Qaida proper in any meaningful capacity."

Kurt R. Rice, a top official at the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, said the reasoning behind reward levels are classified but that the threats posed by individuals to Americans and U.S. property are taken into account. The U.S. announced the $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Hammami and another $5 million reward for a second American fighting in Somalia, Jehad Mostafa, on Wednesday.

"The fact that these rewards are at the $5 million level should give you some understanding where they are with regard to the threat that they pose," Rice said.

Along with Adam Gadahn in Pakistan ? a former Osama bin Laden spokesman ? Hammami is one of the two most notorious Americans in jihad groups. He grew up in Daphne, Alabama, a bedroom community of 20,000 outside Mobile. He is the son of a Christian mother and a Syrian-born Muslim father.

Hammami had a falling out with al-Shabab and has engaged in a public fight with the group over the last year. He first expressed fear for his life in an extraordinary web video in March 2012 that publicized his rift with the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab. He said he received another death threat earlier this year that was not carried out.

Hammami accuses al-Shabab leaders of living extravagant lifestyles with the taxes fighters collect from Somali residents. His second major grievance is that the Somali militant leaders sideline foreign militants inside al-Shabab and are concerned only about fighting in Somalia, not globally. He also claims that al-Shabab assassinates fighters inside its group.

Al-Shabab slapped Hammami publicly in a December Internet statement, saying his video releases are the result of personal grievances that stem from a "narcissistic pursuit of fame." The statement said al-Shabab was morally obligated to stamp out his "obstinacy."

The U.S. will advertise the rewards for Hammami and Mostafa inside Somalia on posters and matchbooks and over the Internet on Facebook and Twitter. Both wanted Americans are believed to be in Somalia, Rice said.

One question that cropped up on Twitter on Thursday was if members of al-Shabab would try to turn Hammami in and claim the reward. Rice said the government would closely vet any claimant to "to be sure we don't end up becoming a terrorist financier."

Hammami might be in an area of Somalia controlled by Mukhtar Robow, a rival al-Shabab leader of Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, who is also known as Godane, terrorism expert Clint Watts previously told The Associated Press.

Wherever Hammami might now be, he continues to tweet, and has survived death threats issued by al-Shabab. Analysts have suggested that al-Shabab would suffer big damage to its reputation among foreign fighters if it kills off an American militant.

"I suspect that Hammami's major enemies are unlikely to turn him over to the Americans, but you never know," said terror analyst Berger. "It seems to me that the bigger challenge in arresting Hammami is physically getting him into custody rather than locating him."

___

On the Internet:

www.rewardsforjustice.net

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5m-bring-down-tweeting-rapping-us-jihadi-151648286.html

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