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CHICAGO ? Hull House, the Chicago social services organization founded more than 120 years ago by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, closed Friday after running out of money.

The Jane Addams Hull House Association announced earlier this month plans to close in the spring, but the shutdown came unexpectedly. More than 300 people are losing their jobs. Many spent Friday packing belongings and saying goodbye.

Founded in 1889, Hull House was the best known of the 400 settlement houses in the United States in the early 1900s. The settlements were designed to provide services to immigrants and the poor while uplifting them through culture, education and recreation. At its peak, Hull House served more than 9,000 people a week, offering medical help, an art gallery, citizenship classes, a gardening club and a gym with sports programs.

In recent years, it has provided child care, domestic violence counseling, job training, housing assistance and other services for 60,000 people a year at nearly four dozen sites in the Chicago area.

The agency said the poor economy increased demand for services but made it difficult to raise enough money to cover the cost of providing them. Other service agencies are expected to step in to help provide services to Hull House clients.

Lizzie Harrington, 32, a project director for a Hull House program that helps low-income people find jobs said employees are emotional and angry about the closing. Harrington has a long history with the agency. She received help from Hull House when she was a teenager in foster care and wanted to live independently.

"It's unfortunate, and it's been emotional," Harrington said. "I have a special connection to this place. This was part of my childhood."

Agency officials have said the organization will file for bankruptcy protection in the first quarter of this year. The decision to close came after the agency's management and board of trustees worked for two years to reduce operating costs and improve services, officials said.

The Hull House agency isn't affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, which will remain open. The Hull House site on Chicago's West Side is a National Historic Landmark.

___

Online:

Jane Addams Hull House Association: http://www.hullhouse.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_hull_house_closes

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COMMENTARY | President Obama has, in the past, been very vocal about his support of teachers unions, especially in the wake of multi-state collective-bargaining battles throughout 2011. However, in President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, he made some remarks that uncharacteristically went against core, traditional teachers union beliefs. So which side is he on? Is President Obama for or against teachers unions?

In his 2012 State of the Union address, according to WhiteHouse.gov, President Obama remarks:

"Give [schools] the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. And in return, grant schools flexibility: to teach with creativity and passion, to stop teaching to the test, and to replace teachers who just aren't helping kids learn."

According to his statements, President Obama cuts right to the heart of teachers unions and their core philosophies. In essence, he's endorsing the idea of rewarding good teachers and firing bad ones.

This goes against traditional union philosophies, in that he is proposing differentiation - or publicly calling out and pointing fingers at both good and bad teachers, with benefits or consequences for each group, employment (and salary) based on merit, and eliminating tenure as a means of continued employment or pay raises.

This being said, the pro-Obama National Education Association still supports the president, with its top headline on the NEA webpage reading "NEA President Praises President Obama's Vision for America."

According to HableDash, the NEA even raised its annual fees $10 for each of its 3.2 million members in 2011, in order to raise $32 million for its campaign endorsing the president. So if the NEA, the most powerful teachers union in the United States, is heavily-endorsing President Obama, it seems to suggest he is pro-union.

The 2012 State of the Union address, though, leaves open the possibility for debate. While his background may appear labor-supportive, Obama's carefully-crafted words in his address were meant to satisfy both those who were for and against unions. After stating firmly that teachers are important, he then backtracks and says teachers must be held accountable. In this short statement, he has made both sides of the aisle happy.

So is President Obama for or against unions? Or is he simply playing the politician, and artfully choosing the right words, with the right audiences, in order not to alienate any one group, and draw in as many votes for a re-election as possible? Is he playing both sides of the aisle?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120126/us_ac/10884969_is_president_obama_for_or_against_teachers_unions

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Since its discovery 150 years ago, scientists have puzzled over whether the winged dinosaur Archaeopteryx represents the missing link in birds' evolution to powered flight. Much of the debate has focused on the iconic creature's wings and the mystery of whether ? and how well ? it could fly.

Some secrets have been revealed by an international team of researchers led by Brown University. Through a novel analytic approach, the researchers have determined that a well-preserved feather on the raven-sized dinosaur's wing was black. The color and parts of cells that would have supplied pigment are evidence the wing feathers were rigid and durable, traits that would have helped Archaeopteryx to fly.

The team also learned from its examination that Archaeopteryx's feather structure is identical to that of living birds, a discovery that shows modern wing feathers had evolved as early as 150 million years ago in the Jurassic period. The study, which appears in Nature Communications, was funded by the National Geographic Society and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

"If Archaeopteryx was flapping or gliding, the presence of melanosomes [pigment-producing parts of a cell] would have given the feathers additional structural support," said Ryan Carney, an evolutionary biologist at Brown and the paper's lead author. "This would have been advantageous during this early evolutionary stage of dinosaur flight."

The Archaeopteryx feather was discovered in a limestone deposit in Germany in 1861, a few years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Paleontologists have long been excited about the fossil and other Archaeopteryx specimens, thinking they place the dinosaur at the base of the bird evolutionary tree. The traits that make Archaeopteryx an evolutionary intermediate between dinosaurs and birds, scientists say, are the combination of reptilian features (teeth, clawed fingers, and a bony tail) and avian features (feathered wings and a wishbone).

The lack of knowledge of Archaeopteryx's feather structure and color bedeviled scientists. Carney, with researchers from Yale University, the University of Akron, and the Carl Zeiss laboratory in Germany, analyzed the feather and discovered that it is a covert, so named because these feathers cover the primary and secondary wing feathers birds use in flight. After two unsuccessful attempts to image the melanosomes, the group tried a more powerful type of scanning electron microscope at Zeiss, where the group located patches of hundreds of the structures still encased in the fossilized feather.

"The third time was the charm, and we finally found the keys to unlocking the feather's original color, hidden in the rock for the past 150 million years," said Carney, a graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, studying with Stephen Gatesy.

Melanosomes had long been known to be present in other fossil feathers, but had been misidentified as bacteria. In 2006, coauthor Jakob Vinther, then a graduate student at Yale, discovered melanin preserved in the ink sac of a fossilized squid. "This made me think that melanin could be fossilized in many other fossils such as feathers," said Vinther, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas?Austin. "I realized that I had opened a whole new chapter of what we can do to understand the nature of extinct feathered dinosaurs and birds."

The team measured the length and width of the sausage-shaped melanosomes, roughly 1 micron long and 250 nanometers wide. To determine the melanosome's color, Akron researchers Matthew Shawkey and Liliana D'Alba statistically compared Archaeopteryx's melanosomes with those found in 87 species of living birds, representing four feather classes: black, gray, brown, and a type found in penguins. "What we found was that the feather was predicted to be black with 95 percent certainty," Carney said.

Next, the team sought to better define the melanosomes' structure. For that, they examined the fossilized barbules ? tiny, rib-like appendages that overlap and interlock like zippers to give a feather rigidity and strength. The barbules and the alignment of melanosomes within them, Carney said, are identical to those found in modern birds.

What the pigment was used for is less clear. The black color of the Archaeopteryx wing feather may have served to regulate body temperature, act as camouflage or be employed for display. But it could have been for flight, too.

"We can't say it's proof that Archaeopteryx was a flier. But what we can say is that in modern bird feathers, these melanosomes provide additional strength and resistance to abrasion from flight, which is why wing feathers and their tips are the most likely areas to be pigmented," Carney said. "With Archaeopteryx, as with birds today, the melanosomes we found would have provided similar structural advantages, regardless of whether the pigmentation initially evolved for another purpose."

###

Brown University: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau

Thanks to Brown University for this article.

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LONDON (AP) ? Organizers of the 2012 London Olympics said Tuesday they would consider options for new mothers who want to bring their babies into venues, after some parents complained that they have to buy full price tickets for their infants.

The London Organizing Committee made the statement after complaints flooded the British parenting website Mumsnet, with pregnant women who bought tickets for themselves ? but not for their unborn children ? wondering what they could do with babies who were breast-feeding. They argued that a months-old child would not be taking up a seat of its own.

"Of course we understand that some new mums may want to take their babies to events they have tickets to, and we will look at what we can do when the remaining tickets go on sale in April," the committee said in a statement.

Organizers have said that every child ? including newborns carried in a parent's arms ? must have their own tickets, in part to keep track of the number of visitors so venue capacity is not exceeded. They said special programs exist to make some tickets more affordable to young people, but those discounts did not apply to all events.

London's ticket policy is similar to that of Vancouver, which hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. Organizers in the Canadian city used discretion at the gate, however, categorizing parents who brought an infant without a ticket as a child care issue. In other words, parents who appeared with children less than a year old ? babes in arms, so to speak ? were not turned away.

Many of the mothers who posted on Mumsnet said they're now in a quandary because they had bought Olympic tickets before they became pregnant, or will have newborns by the time of the games.

One of the mothers, Katherine Baker, told The Associated Press that she was frustrated by the lack of clarity in the official policy regarding infants. Baker, 35, said that she and her husband are keen to attend the swimming heats, to which they were allocated tickets before she became pregnant.

She said she now doesn't know what to do because she will have to breast feed the baby during the event. She said she would not mind paying for a third ticket to let their newborn in ? but it would be nearly impossible to obtain one for the family to all sit together.

"We'll have to apply for one more ticket and compete against thousands of people again," she said.

Another fuming woman wrote that while she and her husband were lucky enough to get tickets to an equestrian event in August, organizers had told her there are no children's tickets so she will have to pay 95 pounds ($147) for a three-month old in a sling.

The latest ticket gaffe is expected to boomerang unhappily on London organizers. Tickets issues of all kinds have dogged the London Olympics as demand for seats at events from July 27-Aug. 12 has far outstripped supply.

Edward Parkinson, United Kingdom director of the ticket resale site Viagogo, said he was somewhat surprised by the organizers' policy that even newborns need tickets.

He compared the Olympics to music festivals, where parents are given concessions for children. In some cases organizers allow children under a certain age to get in for free.

__

Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-24-OLY-London-2012-Tickets/id-7e66b18602654592868c3e5a7d0ee550

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Switzerland's Didier Cuche speeds down the course on his way to set the fastest time during the second training session for Saturday's alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Kitzbuehel, Austria, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Switzerland's Didier Cuche speeds down the course on his way to set the fastest time during the second training session for Saturday's alpine ski, men's World Cup downhill, in Kitzbuehel, Austria, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka)

KITZBUEHEL, Austria (AP) ? Swiss ski star Dider Cuche will retire after the season despite being in contention for a record-equaling fifth World Cup downhill title.

The unexpected announcement Thursday by the 37-year-old former butcher skier came at a news conference leading to Saturday's classic race on the Streif course, where he is a four-time winner.

"Kitzbuehel represents something for me and I decided to make my decision here," Cuche said. "It's not a decision that I took last night or today."

Cuche captured the downhill title four of the past five seasons. He won a race in Lake Louise, Alberta, in November.

"I'm in top form and I can still aspire to win races. It's in this condition that I wish to retire from the World Cup," he said.

"Today marks a very emotional moment for me," Cuche added while fighting tears. "An important milestone in my career and in my life. .. I am convinced this is the right moment to retire."

Cuche said the announcement was a relief.

"Now that I am freed from other thoughts, I can give them full throttle," he said about Friday's super-G and Saturday's downhill in Kitzbuehel. "I would like to leave my mark one way or another."

Cuche became the oldest men's world champion in 2009 when he won the super-G in Val d'Isere, France, at 34. He was a silver medalist in the super-G at the 1998 Nagano Games, but he never won an Olympic gold medal.

"Of course, that's a race I would have loved to win," Cuche said. "But being runner-up to someone like Hermann Maier made it bearable."

Cuche also is the oldest racer to win a men's World Cup race since his victory at the 2011 Kitzbuehel downhill at 36, beating Liechtenstein great Marco Buechel's record by 85 days.

Cuche is beloved in Switzerland, and on Saturday was elected the country's top personality of 2011. Hours earlier, he failed in his 13th ? and final ? attempt to win Switzerland's biggest sports event, the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen. He was runner-up three times, twice to Bode Miller (2007, 2008).

Swiss ski federation president Urs Lehmann called Cuche "a fantastic sportsman, a wonderful person, and a superb role model."

"He has done great things for Switzerland as a skiing nation," Lehmann said. "We hope Didier will remain part of the Swiss ski sport one way or the other. That would be great."

Cuche made his first appearance in the World Cup at a downhill in Bormio, Italy, on Dec. 29, 1993. He was 57th.

After his Nagano medal, when he was beaten by Maier, Cuche's career was interrupted by injuries, including a broken leg and ruptured knee ligaments.

Cuche came back even stronger to win his first crystal globe when he was 32 as downhill World Cup champion in the 2006-07 season. Now, with four downhill trophies, Cuche trails only another Austrian great, Franz Klammer, whose five season-long titles leads the list.

Cuche also won the giant slalom World Cup title in 2009 and the super-G title last season.

In the overall standings, Cuche finished in the top three six times. His best finish was second last season behind runaway winner Ivica Kostelic of Croatia. He has four career world championship medals, with back-to-back downhill silvers in 2009 and 2011 and a giant slalom bronze in 2007.

Buechel, who retired two years ago, understood Cuche's reasoning.

"He is a great athlete and a great person," Buechel said. "I know Didier would rather go on until he is 60, but someday you feel your time has come. You have to respect such a decision."

___

Willemsen reported from Kitzbuehel, Dunbar from Geneva.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-19-SKI-Cuche-Retirement/id-854e3200c1634b0fb3acea9d2fe0ce6d

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Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots

Public release date: 19-Jan-2012
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Contact: Jason Maderer
maderer@gatech.edu
404-385-2966
Georgia Institute of Technology

New robot is designed to use less energy

Designing an all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue missions is an arduous task for scientists. The machine must be flexible enough to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it's restricted from tight spaces. It might also be required to climb slopes of varying inclines. Existing robots can do many of these things, but the majority require large amounts of energy and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine by studying the locomotion of a certain type of flexible, efficient animal.

"By using their scales to control frictional properties, snakes are able to move large distances while exerting very little energy," said Hamid Marvi, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech.

While studying and videotaping the movements of 20 different species at Zoo Atlanta, Marvi developed Scalybot 2, a robot that replicates rectilinear locomotion of snakes. He unveiled the robot this month at the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) annual meeting in Charleston, S.C.

"During rectilinear locomotion, a snake doesn't have to bend its body laterally to move," explained Marvi. "Snakes lift their ventral scales and pull themselves forward by sending a muscular traveling wave from head to tail. Rectilinear locomotion is very efficient and is especially useful for crawling within crevices, an invaluable benefit for search-and-rescue robots."

Scalybot 2 can automatically change the angle of its scales when it encounters different terrains and slopes. This adjustment allows the robot to either fight or generate friction. The two-link robot is controlled by a remote-controlled joystick and can move forward and backward using four motors.

"Snakes are highly maligned creatures," said Joe Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta. "I really like that Hamid's research is showing the public that snakes can help people."

Marvi's advisor is David Hu, an assistant professor in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering and Biology. Hu and his research team are primarily focused on animal locomotion. They've studied how dogs and other animals shake water off their bodies and how mosquitos fly through rainstorms.

This isn't the first time Hu's lab has looked at snake locomotion. Last summer the team developed Scalybot 1, a two-link climbing robot that replicates concertina locomotion. The push-and-pull, accordion-style movement features alternating scale activity.

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This project is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award No. PHY-0848894). The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.

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