A con man extraordinaire who fell for an epic Big Con. A killing ? along with a blimp crash, race riot and transit strike ? that turned Chicago upside down. The brutal murders of beautiful young British women in 2000 Japan and 1937 China. And the legacies of the worst school massacre in American history (not Newtown) and of that horrific day at Columbine High. The pointless and immensely tragic assassination of a now-forgotten president. The eternal fascination of Alcatraz. Plus a man named Roosevelt who tried, in vain, to turn back the violence and vice of New York City in the 1880s and 1890s. Over the past year, I interviewed authors who have tackled each one of these topics. With a couple exceptions, their books were published in 2012. And with no exceptions, all are great ? if sometimes harrowing ? reads. Here are excerpts from our chats. Click on the links to read the full interviews.
- Randy Dotinga
1. Candice Millard on the killing of a president
"It took me three years to work on the book, two years of doing research, and I was far into it by the time I wrote his death scene. I called my husband in tears.? "I didn't want to write it. That's ridiculous: It's been 130 years since he died. But I felt like I knew him. I cared about him, and I admired him, and I was surprised by all of that."
??Candice Millard, author of "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President."
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP:</a> They were supposed to be for the holidays, but finally on Friday, after hearing much begging, Charlotte Bacon's mother relented and let her wear the new pink dress and boots to school. It was the last outfit the outgoing redhead would ever pick out. Charlotte's older brother, Guy, was also in the school but was not shot. Her parents, JoAnn and Joel, had lived in Newtown for four or five years, JoAnn's brother John Hagen, of Nisswa, Minn., told Newsday. "She was going to go some places in this world," Hagen told the newspaper. "This little girl could light up the room for anyone."
Daniel Barden, 7
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP:</a> Daniel's family says he was "fearless in the pursuit of happiness in life." He was the youngest of three children and in a statement to the media, his family said Daniel earned his missing two front teeth and ripped jeans. "Words really cannot express what a special boy Daniel was. Such a light. Always smiling, unfailingly polite, incredibly affectionate, fair and so thoughtful towards others, imaginative in play, both intelligent and articulate in conversation: in all, a constant source of laughter and joy," the family said.
Rachel D'avino, 29
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP: </a>Days before the Connecticut shooting rampage, the boyfriend of Rachel D'Avino had asked her parents for permission to marry her. D'Avino was a behavioral therapist who had only recently started working at the school where she was killed, according to Lissa Lovetere Stone, a friend who is handling her funeral planned for Friday. D'Avino's boyfriend, Anthony Cerritelli, planned to ask her to marry him on Christmas Eve, Lovetere Stone said.
Olivia Engel, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP:</a> Images of Olivia Rose Engel show a happy child, one with a great sense of humor, as her family said in a statement. There she is, visiting with Santa Claus, or feasting on a slice of birthday cake. Or swinging a pink baseball bat, posing on a boat, or making a silly face. Olivia loved school, did very well in math and reading, and was "insightful for her age," said the statement released by her uncle, John Engel. She was a child who "lit up a room and the people around her." Creative with drawing and designing, she was also a tennis and soccer player and took art classes, swimming, and dance lessons in ballet and hip hop. A Daisy Girl Scout, she enjoyed musical theater.
Josephine Gay, 7
Josephine Gay was nicknamed "Boo" because she looked so much like the character of the same name in the movie "Monsters, Inc.," the <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/ci_22201501/sandy-hook-shooting-victim-josephine-gay-profile">Denver Post reported.</a> She would set up lemonade stands in the summer, enjoyed riding her bike in the street, and celebrated her 7th birthday only three days before the shooting.
Dawn Hochsprung, 47
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP: </a> Dawn Hochsprung's pride in Sandy Hook Elementary was clear. She regularly tweeted photos from her time as principal there, giving indelible glimpses of life at a place now known for tragedy. Just this week, it was an image of fourth-graders rehearsing for their winter concert; days before that, the tiny hands of kindergartners exchanging play money at their makeshift grocery store. She viewed her school as a model, telling The Newtown Bee in 2010 that "I don't think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day." She had worked to make Sandy Hook a place of safety, too, and in October, the 47-year-old Hochsprung shared a picture of the school's evacuation drill with the message "safety first." When the unthinkable came, she was ready to defend. Officials said she died while lunging at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him.
Madeline Hsu
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324481204578181244231543014.html">Madeline Hsu was "very upbeat and kind," </a>a neighbor told the Wall Street Journal, remembering the young girl's love of bright, flowery dresses.<a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/12/18/massacre-victim-madeleine-hsu-lit-up-around-dogs/"> Hsu's face would "light up" </a>when she got off the bus and saw the neighbor's golden retriever each day, the woman told CBS.
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> Catherine V. Hubbard, aged six, one of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, who was shot by Adam Lanza, 20, and died in hospital. Catherine's parents released a statement expressing gratitude to emergency responders and for the support of the community. "We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy," Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard said. "We ask that you continue to pray for us and the other families who have experienced loss in this tragedy."
Chase Kowalski, 7
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP:</a> Chase Kowalski was always outside, playing in the backyard, riding his bicycle. Just last week, he was visiting neighbor Kevin Grimes, telling him about completing ? and winning ? his first mini-triathlon. "You couldn't think of a better child," Grimes said.
Nancy Lanza, 52
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP: </a>She once was known simply for the game nights she hosted and the holiday decorations she put up at her house. Now Nancy Lanza is known as her son's first victim. Authorities say her 20-year-old son Adam gunned her down before killing 26 others at Sandy Hook. The two shared a home in a well-to-do Newtown neighborhood, but details were slow to emerge of who she was and what might have led her son to carry out such horror. Kingston, N.H., Police Chief Donald Briggs Jr. said Nancy Lanza once lived in the community and was a kind, considerate and loving person. The former stockbroker at John Hancock in Boston was well-respected, Briggs said.
Jesse Lewis, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> Six-year-old Jesse Lewis had hot chocolate with his favorite breakfast sandwich ? sausage, egg and cheese ? at the neighborhood deli before going to school Friday morning. Jesse and his parents were regulars at the Misty Vale Deli in Sandy Hook, Conn., owner Angel Salazar told The Wall Street Journal. "He was always friendly; he always liked to talk," Salazar said. Jesse's family has a collection of animals he enjoyed playing with, and he was learning to ride horseback. Family friend Barbara McSperrin told the Journal that Jesse was "a typical 6-year-old little boy, full of life."
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> A year ago, 6-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene was reveling in holiday celebrations with her extended family on her first trip to Puerto Rico. This year will be heartbreakingly different. The girl's grandmother, Elba Marquez, said the family moved to Connecticut just two months ago, drawn from Canada, in part, by Sandy Hook's sterling reputation. The grandmother's brother, Jorge Marquez, is mayor of a Puerto Rican town and said the child's 9-year-old brother also was at the school but escaped safely.
James Mattioli, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> James Mattioli especially loved recess and math, and his family described him as a "numbers guy" who came up with insights beyond his years to explain the relationship between numbers. He particularly loved the concept of googolplex, which a friend taught him. He was born four weeks before his due date, and his family often joked that he came into the world early because he was hungry. They wrote in his obituary that 6-year-old James, fondly called `J,' loved hamburgers with ketchup, his Dad's egg omelets with bacon, and his Mom's french toast. He often asked to stop at Subway and wanted to know how old he needed to be to order a footlong sandwich. He loved sports and wore shorts and T-shirts no matter the weather. He was a loud and enthusiastic singer and once asked, "How old do I have to be to sing on a stage?"
Grace Audrey McDonnell, 7
Grace McDonnell, 7, was a "girly girl" who loved playing dress-up and wearing pink, her grandmother Mary Ann McDonnell told <a href="http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Little-angel-Grace-McDonnell-remembered-by-family-after-Newtown-massacre-183767921.html"> Irish Central.</a> "Grace was like a little doll. She was utterly adorable," said neighbor Dorothy Werden.
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP: </a>A happy soul. A good mother, wife and daughter. Artistic, fun-loving, witty and hardworking. Remembering their daughter, Anne Marie Murphy, her parents had no shortage of adjectives to offer Newsday. When news of the shooting broke, Hugh and Alice McGowan waited for word of their daughter as hours ticked by. And then it came. Authorities told the couple their daughter was a hero who helped shield some of her students from the rain of bullets. As the grim news arrived, the victim's mother reached for her rosary. "You don't expect your daughter to be murdered," her father told the newspaper. "It happens on TV. It happens elsewhere."
Emilie Parker, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP: </a>Quick to cheer up those in need of a smile, Emilie Parker never missed a chance to draw a picture or make a card. Her father, Robbie Parker, fought back tears as he described the beautiful, blond, always-smiling girl who loved to try new things, except foods. Parker, one of the first parents to publicly talk about his loss, expressed no animosity for the gunman, even as he struggled to explain the death to his other two children, ages 3 and 4. He's sustained by the fact that the world is better for having had Emilie in it. "I'm so blessed to be her dad," he said.
Jack Pinto, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> Jack Pinto was a huge New York Giants fan. New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz said he talked to Pinto's family, which is considering burying the 6-year-old boy in Cruz's No. 80 jersey. Cruz honored Jack Sunday on his cleats, writing on them the words "Jack Pinto, My Hero" and "R.I.P. Jack Pinto." "I also spoke to an older brother and he was distraught as well. I told him to stay strong and I was going to do whatever I can to honor him," Cruz said after the Giant's game with the Atlanta Falcons. "He was fighting tears and could barely speak to me." Cruz said he plans to give the gloves he wore during the game to the boy's family, and spend some time with them. "There's no words that can describe the type of feeling that you get when a kid idolizes you so much that unfortunately they want to put him in the casket with your jersey on," he said. "I can't even explain it." Jack's funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Monday at the Honan Funeral Home in Newtown, followed by burial at the Newtown Village Cemetery.
Noah Pozner, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP:</a> Noah was "smart as a whip," gentle but with a rambunctious streak, said his uncle, Alexis Haller of Woodinville, Wash. Noah's twin sister Arielle, assigned to a different classroom, survived the shooting. He called her his best friend, and with their 8-year-old sister, Sophia, they were inseparable. "They were always playing together, they loved to do things together," Haller said. When his mother, a nurse, would tell him she loved him, he would answer, "Not as much as I love you, Mom." Haller said Noah loved to read and liked to figure out how things worked mechanically. For his birthday two weeks ago, he got a new Wii. "He was just a really lively, smart kid," Haller said. "He would have become a great man, I think. He would have grown up to be a great dad."
Caroline Previdi, 6
Caroline Previdi is remembered as a "sweet" and "precious" girl, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/ci_22204448/sandy-hook-shooting-victim-caroline-previdi-profile">the Denver Post reported.</a> She loved to draw and dance, and her smile brought happiness to everyone around her, according to her <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newstimes/obituary.aspx?n=caroline-previdi&pid=161771763#fbLoggedOut">obituary.</a>
Jessica Rekos, 6
"Jessica loved everything about horses," her family said in a statement, <a href="http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/12/16/meet-jessica-rekos/">MSNBC reported,</a> adding that they planned on getting their daughter her own horse when she turned 10. "She was a creative, beautiful little girl who loved playing with her little brothers, Travis and Shane," the statement reads. She spent time writing in her journals, making up stories, and doing ?research? on orca whales ? one of her passions after seeing the movie Free Willy last year. She said her dream was to see a real orca. Thankfully her dream was realized in October when she went to SeaWorld.
Lauren Rousseau, 30
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html?utm_hp_ref=crime">From the AP: </a>Lauren Rousseau had spent years working as a substitute teacher and doing other jobs. So she was thrilled when she finally realized her goal this fall to become a full-time teacher at Sandy Hook. Her mother, Teresa Rousseau, a copy editor at the Danbury News-Times, released a statement Saturday that said state police told them just after midnight that she was among the victims. "Lauren wanted to be a teacher from before she even went to kindergarten," she said. "We will miss her terribly and will take comfort knowing that she had achieved that dream." Her mother said she was thrilled to get the job. "It was the best year of her life," she told the newspaper.
Mary Sherlach, 56
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> When the shots rang out, Mary Sherlach threw herself into the danger. Janet Robinson, the superintendent of Newtown Public Schools, said Sherlach and the school's principal ran toward the shooter. They lost their own lives, rushing toward him. Even as Sherlach neared retirement, her job at Sandy Hook was one she loved. Those who knew her called her a wonderful neighbor, a beautiful person, a dedicated educator. Her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz, told the South Jersey Times that Sherlach rooted on the Miami Dolphins, enjoyed visiting the Finger Lakes, relished helping children overcome their problems. She had planned to leave work early on Friday, he said, but never had the chance. In a news conference Saturday, he told reporters the loss was devastating, but that Sherlach was doing what she loved. "Mary felt like she was doing God's work," he said, "working with the children."
Victoria Soto, 27
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> She beams in snapshots. Her enthusiasm and cheer was evident. She was doing, those who knew her say, what she loved. And now, Victoria Soto is being called a hero. Though details of the 27-year-old teacher's death remained fuzzy, her name has been invoked again and again as a portrait of selflessness and humanity among unfathomable evil. Those who knew her said they weren't surprised by reports she shielded her first-graders from danger. "She put those children first. That's all she ever talked about," said a friend, Andrea Crowell. "She wanted to do her best for them, to teach them something new every day." Photos of Soto show her always with a wide smile, in pictures of her at her college graduation and in mundane daily life. She looks so young, barely an adult herself. Her goal was simply to be a teacher. "You have a teacher who cared more about her students than herself," said Mayor John Harkins of Stratford, the town Soto hailed from and where more than 300 people gathered for a memorial service Saturday night. "That speaks volumes to her character, and her commitment and dedication."
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html">From the AP:</a> Music surrounded Benjamin Wheeler as he grew up in a household where both his mother and father were performers. They left behind stage careers in New York City when they moved to Newtown with Benjamin and his older brother Nate. "We knew we wanted a piece of lawn, somewhere quiet, somewhere with good schools," Francine Wheeler told the Newtown Bee in a profile. She is a music educator and singer-songwriter. Sometimes the musical mother would try out tunes on her own children, with some tunes that she made up for Ben as a baby eventually finding their way onto a CD, she told the newspaper. In writing songs for children, melodies needn't be simplified, she said. "I try to make it my mission to always present good music to kids." Benjamin's father, David, a former film and television actor, writes and performs still, according to a profile on the website of the Flagpole Radio Cafe theater, with which he's performed in Newtown. The family are members of Trinity Episcopal Church, whose website noted that Nate, also a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School, was not harmed in Friday's shooting.
Allison Wyatt, 6
<a href="http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Allison-Wyatt-Made-the-World-a-Better-Place--184002071.html">Allison Wyatt "loved to laugh</a> and was developing her own wonderful sense of humor that ranged from just being a silly six-year old to coming up with observations that more than once had us crying with laughter,? her family wrote in a statement obtained by NBC. She was talented and wanted to be an artist, and would often "surprise [her family] with random acts of kindness -- once even offering snacks to a complete stranger on a plane."
Victoria Soto's Sister, Jillian
Jillian Soto uses a phone to get information about her sister, Victoria Soto, a teacher at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 after a gunman killed over two dozen people, including 20 children. Victoria Soto, 27, was among those killed. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Emilie Parker, 6
This photo posted to the Emilie Parker Fund Facebook page shows Emilie Parker and her father Robbie Parker. Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, Robbie Parker the father of 6-year-old Emile Parker who was gunned down in Friday's school shooting in Connecticut told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman. (AP Photo/Emilie Parker Fund)
Robbie Parker
Robbie Parker, the father of six-year-old Emilie who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, fights back tears as he speaks during a news conference, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Victoria Soto's Mother, Donna
STRATFORD, CT - DECEMBER 15: Donna Soto (R), mother of Victoria Soto, the first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who was shot and killed while protecting her students, leans on her son Matthew while mourning their loss at a candlelight vigil in honor of Victoria at Stratford High School on December 15, 2012 in Stratford, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot dead, including twenty children, after a gunman identified as Adam Lanza opened fire in the school. Lanza also reportedly had committed suicide at the scene. A 28th person, believed to be Nancy Lanza was found dead in a house in town, was also believed to have been shot by Adam Lanza. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
Emilie Parker, 6
This photo posted to the Emilie Parker Fund Facebook page shows Emilie Parker and her father Robbie Parker. Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, Robbie Parker the father of 6-year-old Emile Parker who was gunned down in Friday's school shooting in Connecticut told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman. (AP Photo/Emilie Parker Fund)
Watching Christmas movies with the family is a holiday tradition on par with opening presents and eating a sugary breakfast.
Whether you are a traditionalist and stick to "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life," or prefer the North Pole as depicted in Tim Allen's "The Santa Clause," these 17 movies are sure to please even the pickiest viewer.
Click through below and vote on your favorite festive flick. Leave your favorites in the comments section below.
There is a mountain of speculation and debate about what school and learning will look like in the near future. Will education be online? Individualized? Self-paced? Flipped? Hybridized? Maybe even completely irrelevant? Rarely, however, is much speculation given to the role of the educator in the future of learning. All people seem to want to know is whether lectures are better recorded or in person or if educators at every level are giving students enough real world skills to be successful in the global economy. In reality, however, the radical changes in technology and the increasing demands on teachers are going to fundamentally change the very act of teaching. What will the educator of the future look like? How will the job description and qualifications change? And what effect will all of that have on students?
The Future of Learning
An October, 2012 video released by telecom company Ericsson presents a survey of educational experts and entrepreneurs speculating about the future of education. This promotional video for the company relies heavily on Knewton and Coursera as the models for the kinds of adaptive, individualized technology that will drive learning in the future.
The focus of the video is the ability of these technologies to track minute user data and facilitate intimately individualized instruction based on that data, including student learning preference, peak performance times, prior knowledge, and a host of other information. Even so, teaching and the role of the instructor was largely missing from this conversation about the techno-facilitated future of education.? One rather vague reference to the role of the educator was attributed to Coursera CEO Daphne Koller in an article accompanying the piece on GIGAOM:
?Coursera?s Koller says one of the revolutions in education is that teaching will be less about conveying information and more of a return to its original roots where instructors engage in dialogue, develop critical thinking skills and spark passion about a discipline.? (23 Oct., 2012)
The Role of the Educator on an Individualized World?
The Koller quote indicates that teaching will take a step backward (historically) with the implementation of these new technologies. Pretty far back, to the time of Plato, in fact, where the teaching and learning process was more about interpersonal interaction and fostering the individual ability to critically apply knowledge and cultivate individual passions for learning. While that is a wonderful plan, it is nearly impossible to imagine a way in which it could happen in a world where a factory model of education still dominates and teachers are overwhelmed with dozens of students in a single class. Plato never had 30 students following him around all attempting to interact at the same time. Given the reality of our education system, here are some more realistic roles for instructors in the world of high-tech education:
Facilitator/Learning Manager: If instructional materials really become individualized to the extent that the video describes, there will need to be someone present to help students navigate the technical aspects of performing the work that the system pushes to them. Additionally, the instructor will have a role in keeping students on task, and in providing support when learners fail to reach the standards pre-programmed into the adaptive learning system. There may also be an increased role in making sure that each student is completing their own work, rather than the work of peers.
Remediator: When students fail to achieve the learning objectives outlined by the automated system, the instructor will need to step in to troubleshoot the learning disconnect and either provide alternative instruction or adjust the learning system through some sort of control interface.
Enricher: Playing off the flipped classroom model, the teacher?s role could shift to providing enrichment activities beyond the scope of the automated system. If adaptive content is provided that helps students master basic concepts and learn background information, teachers can focus on helping students use the information that they have gained in authentic ways to help turn it into knowledge.
Collaborator/Mentor: One intriguing possibility in a technology-facilitated education future is for teachers to serve as collaborators and mentors with students engaging in real world, possibly entrepreneurial, activities. Such activities would help students develop actual marketable skills and could potentially provide a new and much needed revenue stream for schools and universities.
Content Creator: One role that teachers already have ?unless their curriculum is standardized- is that of content creator. This is actually one of the most important functions that educators at all levels perform, and one for which they are well trained. Add to these qualifications the fact that they actually know their students, their strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities, and educators could become a valuable resource to be employed to help bolster the content in these adaptive systems. This serves the additional purpose of de-centralizing the curriculum so that a diverse set of perspectives and ideas can be assured.
N/A: It is possible, though fairly far-fetched, that the further refinement of these adaptive learning systems will make educators obsolete. The Internet is rapidly becoming a repository for all human knowledge (information), and there is potential for these systems to become sophisticated enough to take existing content and reformulate it to create new learning opportunities. This is a frightening possibility that seems awfully close to the scenario that serves as the backdrop for the Terminator movies though.
While it is exciting to think about the rich possibilities that these new technologies could provide for students and the potential they have for liberating teachers from much of the routine, standardized content that all students must master in order to be successful. It is important to remember that true learning happens in context and through a socially mediated process of meaning making.? No technology can accomplish that (yet?), so we will need to keep teachers around to provide the most important aspect of education ? the human touch.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Kerry gave up his presidential dreams after a narrow loss to Republican George W. Bush in the 2004 U.S. election, but forged a new identity as a congressional leader on foreign policy - and dutiful supporter of President Barack Obama.
Obama rewarded the five-term Massachusetts senator on Friday by nominating him to succeed Hillary Clinton as U.S. secretary of state.
Kerry, a patrician Yankee, will confront a raft of policy problems as the United States' top diplomat, ranging from the Syria crisis and impasse over Iran's nuclear program to mapping out the next phase of U.S. relations with prickly powers such as China and Russia.
He also will face the personal challenge of succeeding Clinton, who has become one of Obama's most popular and most visible Cabinet secretaries during her four years in office.
Obama's choice of Kerry comes after Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who had been the front-runner for the job, withdrew from consideration amid scathing Republican criticism of her handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Even Republicans in Congress said they expect Kerry to sail through the confirmation process.
Kerry has sometimes served as Obama's special emissary in times of crisis. He flew to Afghanistan in 2009, when he helped talk President Hamid Karzai into agreeing to a runoff election, and to Pakistan in 2011 amid an uproar over a U.S. government employee who was arrested for killing two people allegedly trying to rob him.
But Obama has centralized national security decision-making in the White House and analysts say Kerry's selection could signal an even firmer White House hand in Obama's second term.
Kerry, known as an able negotiator and cautious public speaker, is likely to be put to the test soon after taking over at the State Department as two major U.S. foreign policy challenges move to the fore.
The 21-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears to be nearing a tipping point as rebels advance, leaving Washington scrambling to map out policies to deal with everything from a power vacuum to the potential use of chemical weapons as a last-ditch defense by Damascus.
As senator, Kerry visited Damascus repeatedly prior to the outbreak of protests and was a proponent of U.S. re-engagement with Assad, partly in hopes of nudging Syria toward peace talks with Israel. He later joined the chorus calling for Assad to step down, saying he had been wrong in his earlier view of the Syrian president as a potential reformer.
On another issue, the United States and other major powers may soon start new talks with Tehran about its nuclear program, hoping to breathe life into thus-far fruitless negotiations aimed at heading off a wider confrontation that could draw in key U.S. ally Israel and wreak havoc on the global economy.
CLOSE TIES TO WHITE HOUSE
Republicans criticized Rice for being more of an Obama ally than a stateswoman. But Kerry, 69, has his own close ties to the Democratic president and little of the personal celebrity wattage that Clinton used to bolster her term in office.
Kerry supported Obama, then a Senate colleague, early in his 2008 presidential campaign and was thought to be a leading contender for his first secretary of state before Obama made the surprise choice of Clinton, his erstwhile rival for the Democratic nomination.
Despite losing out to Clinton, Kerry wan an important Obama ally in the Senate and a strong defender of administration policies on everything from the need to keep funding foreign aid to stepping up sanctions on Iran.
This year, the senior senator from Massachusetts helped the president prepare for his campaign debates with Mitt Romney, standing in for the Republican as Obama practiced for their three head-to-head encounters.
Kerry became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in early 2009, replacing Vice President Joe Biden. But he has been a specialist in foreign affairs for years, both boosting and damaging his political career.
The Yale-educated son of foreign service officer Richard John Kerry, he differed from most of well-heeled peers in the 1960s by enlisting in the U.S. Navy and serving two tours of duty during the Vietnam War.
But he broke from - and enraged - the military establishment by becoming a prominent antiwar demonstrator after he returned home, testifying before Congress and even famously throwing away some of his medals.
Foreign policy also helped deal the biggest blow of Kerry's political life - his narrow loss to Republican incumbent Bush in the 2004 presidential election.
Kerry centered his campaign on his opposition to the Iraq war, but Bush's team was able to paint Kerry as a "flip-flopper" for switching policy positions, including his stance on that conflict.
After losing a race for the U.S. House in 1972, Kerry went to Boston College Law School, became a county prosecutor and worked his way up the political ladder before winning his Senate seat in 1984.
He spent his early Senate career in the shadow of his senior Senate counterpart, the late Edward Kennedy. Kerry's background is solidly patrician, like Kennedy's. He can trace his roots back to the first Massachusetts governor, John Winthrop.
He also is one of the Senate's richest members, thanks to his second wife's fortune. Ketchup heiress and philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry was the widow of the late Pennsylvania Republican Sen. John Heinz.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Warren Strobel and Bill Trott)
Remember MySpace? No, not the new one, but the old, horrible one, the acne of the Internet, the one with Tom's dumb face plastered across it? Ever wonder what happened to him? He makes fun of regular people on Twitter. More »
Want to feel better about your body?? Stop reading fashion magazines.
It?s the holidays. ?Magazines focus on our waistlines and ways to survive the season while keeping a slender figure. I?m all for good health, but we?re frequently sold an image, product or diet that does not always result in good mental or physical health, particularly for women.
What?s your ideal weight?? In one alarming study, adolescent girls described their ideal girl as 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing a mere 100 pounds.
This ideal is ? at best ? unhealthy and, for many, anorexic.?
And while it?s unattainable for most girls, they still hold it.? In doing so, they are more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies, no matter their shape or size. They may feel disgust and revulsion toward themselves and envy and bitterness toward others.? Carrying this skin-and-bones ideal is associated with low self-esteem and the development of eating disorders.
Males also can hold unhealthy, unrealistic body ideals and suffer from similar dissatisfaction and distress.? According to one study, when boys experience body dissatisfaction, it is more likely associated with large, muscular bodies than a thin and skinny image.
Body image is believed to be a less prevalent issue for boys, who tend to view their bodies as a tool, rather than as a means of attracting others, but it is also a much less studied topic.
So where does the desire to be skinny come from?? The answer is both complex and simple.? It can be transmitted through family, peers, schools, athletics, business, and health care professionals.
But advertising is the most aggressive source of the overly slender image, according to a study in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Thinness is equated with goodness and self-control.? Slender images are used to sell diets, cosmetics and exercise programs.? The female body is portrayed as an object of desire and when girls and women feel they don?t live up to the ideal, they are more likely to feel shame and anxiety.
Some simple strategies to improve body image include:
Putting down the magazine.?
Make a choice not to subject yourself to ideals and images that will make you feel worse about yourself.
Seeking healthy role models.?
Role models can help girls and women focus on eating to sustain healthy, functional bodies, rather than on dieting to become skinny.
Refusing to talk about dieting.?
Peers have a huge influence on adolescent girls, but our friends affect our worldview at any age.?Resist the urge to talk about dieting, especially non-nutrition-based fad diets, with friends.
Not isolating yourself.?
Encouraging adolescent girls to develop healthy relationships with peers may prevent them from developing body dissatisfaction, according to one study.
If you or someone you know is struggling with body image problems or with an eating disorder, you can get more information from the National Eating Disorder Association.
?
Associate Editor Margarita Tartakovsky covers topics of gaining a healthier body image over at her blog, Weightless.
?
Christy Matta M.A. is a trainer, consultant and writer. She is the author of "The Stress Response: How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Free You from Needless Anxiety, Worry, Anger, and Other Symptoms of Stress."
Christy has worked in mental health since 1994, is intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy(DBT) and has extensive training in Mindfulness. She is an experienced group leader and trainer in both Mindfulness and DBT Skills Groups. Christy blogs regularly for Psych Central at Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood.
Like this author? Catch up on other posts by Christy Matta, MA (or subscribe to their feed).
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 18 Dec 2012 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference Matta, C. (2012). Do Fashion Magazines Make You Feel Fat?. Psych Central. Retrieved on December 21, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/20/do-fashion-magazines-make-you-feel-fat/
'The world as we knew it did come to an end in 2001 ... so my math was correct,' Bus tells MTV News hours before failed doomsday. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Ade Mangum
Actor and comedian Jay Mohr will host middays on Fox Sports Radio, effective Jan. 2. ?Jay Mohr Sports? will replace the ?Jim Rome Show? on weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Mohr has guest hosted for the network for the past 15 years. His show will cover a mixture of sports and entertainment.
Fox Sports Radio is a Sports Talk network based out of Los Angeles.
Jay Mohr Fox Sports Radio (818) 461-8289 www.foxsportsradio.com
Dec. 19, 2012 ? Over the last half decade, it has become increasingly clear that the normal gastrointestinal (GI) bacteria play a variety of very important roles in the biology of human and animals. Now Vic Norris of the University of Rouen, France, and coauthors propose yet another role for GI bacteria: that they exert some control over their hosts' appetites. Their review was published online ahead of print in the Journal of Bacteriology.
This hypothesis is based in large part on observations of the number of roles bacteria are already known to play in host biology, as well as their relationship to the host system. "Bacteria both recognize and synthesize neuroendocrine hormones," Norris et al. write. "This has led to the hypothesis that microbes within the gut comprise a community that forms a microbial organ interfacing with the mammalian nervous system that innervates the gastrointestinal tract." (That nervous system innervating the GI tract is called the "enteric nervous system." It contains roughly half a billion neurons, compared with 85 billion neurons in the central nervous system.)
"The gut microbiota respond both to both the nutrients consumed by their hosts and to the state of their hosts as signaled by various hormones," write Norris et al. That communication presumably goes both ways: they also generate compounds that are used for signaling within the human system, "including neurotransmitters such as GABA, amino acids such as tyrosine and tryptophan -- which can be converted into the mood-determining molecules, dopamine and serotonin" -- and much else, says Norris.
Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly clear that gut bacteria may play a role in diseases such as cancer, metabolic syndrome, and thyroid disease, through their influence on host signaling pathways. They may even influence mood disorders, according to recent, pioneering studies, via actions on dopamine and peptides involved in appetite. The gut bacterium, Campilobacter jejuni, has been implicated in the induction of anxiety in mice, says Norris.
But do the gut flora in fact use their abilities to influence choice of food? The investigators propose a variety of experiments that could help answer this question, including epidemiological studies, and "experiments correlating the presence of particular bacterial metabolites with images of the activity of regions of the brain associated with appetite and pleasure."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Society for Microbiology.
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Journal Reference:
V. Norris, F. Molina, A. T. Gewirtz. Hypothesis: bacteria control host appetites. Journal of Bacteriology, 2012; DOI: 10.1128/JB.01384-12
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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.
Seminole LL continues registration SEMINOLE ? Seminole Little League plans open registration for spring baseball and softball, ages 4-18, at the SYAA complex, 12100 90th Ave, on the following dates:
? Wednesdays, Jan. 9, 16, 23 and 30, 6 to 8 p.m.
? Saturdays, Jan. 12, 19 and 26, 10 a.m. to noon.
The fee is $150 for the first child and $100 for each additional child. Three proofs of residency are required (utility bill, voter?s ID card, driver?s license) as well as an original birth certificate. For more information, call Jane Dekorte at 647-1472.
Junior camps set at Treasure Bay TREASURE ISLAND ? Treasure Bay Golf and Tennis, 10315 Paradise Blvd., is offering tennis and golf camps for juniors Wednesday, Dec. 26 through Friday, Jan. 4, 9 a.m. to noon. The fee is $20 per day. Preregistration is required. Call 360-6062.
Fast Pitch Softball registration starts PINELLAS PARK ? Pinellas Fast Pitch Softball is registering players for spring softball at Youth Park. Girls ages 6-16 are eligible. Visit www.sportssignup.com/Pinellas-Fast-Pitch-Softball?Inc?Online-Registration.start to register online. The fee is $125. Call Candy at 686-0957 for more information.
Team USA plans baseball tryouts PINELLAS PARK ?The Team USA 10-under travel baseball club plans open tryouts at Davis Field for motivated kids wanting to take their skills to another level. Call 410-5037 or 452-3680 for tryout dates and more information.
Tides WGA seeks 9-hole players SEMINOLE ? The Tides Women?s Golf Association invites players to participate in its weekly 9-hole league Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. at the Tides Golf Club. The 18-hole league tees off at 7:30 a.m. For more information, call Judy at 392-3576 or the Tides Golf Club at 393-8483.
SAN ANTONIO?Authorities say a San Antonio restaurant worker apparently upset when his girlfriend left him shot a random patron outside a theater before being wounded by an officer.
Bexar (bayr) County sheriff's Sgt. Raymond Pollard says the suspect will face charges of attempted capital murder of an officer and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Pollard says the man worked at a Chinese restaurant but was off Sunday night. Pollard says the suspect, following the breakup, sent the woman a message saying he was going to the restaurant. The suspect arrived and chased a co-worker toward the nearby theater, shooting out the window of an arriving police car.
An off-duty officer followed the suspect into the theater and shot him. He's hospitalized in stable condition.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former managing director at Deutsche Bank sued the firm for age discrimination on Tuesday.
Robert Jeffe, 62, former chairman of the corporate advisory group, said clients were taken from him and given to younger managing directors, according to the lawsuit filed in New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
Jeffe also claims he was grossly underpaid and missed out on millions of dollars in bonuses in 2009 before fired last year.
Deutsche Bank "wanted to reap the benefits of Jeffe's successful and long-standing relationships and shift them to the younger managing directors, at Jeffe's expense," the lawsuit said.
"We believe this suit has no merit," Duncan King, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank, said.
Jeffe was recruited in 2004, according to the lawsuit. He received a $2 million signing bonus and guaranteed compensation of $3 million for each of 2005 and 2006. In 2007, he was paid $5.3 million.
In 2009, despite helping land work on the $50 billion merger of Petro-Canada and Suncor Energy Inc, his compensation was $1.25 million, the lawsuit says. Younger managing directors got $2 million or more for that year, plus special awards of another $2 million.
In 2010, he was denied year-end compensation, the complaint said.
Jeffe is seeking monetary damages and other relief.
The case is Robert Jeffe v Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., New York state Supreme Court, New York County 654408/2012.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
VoIP providers are appreciated by more and more businesses these days mainly because of the functions they offer. There are several features, functions, and operations a business can take advantage of once subscribed to an excellent VoIP company. These are often not present with the traditional system of telephone communications and can even give you an upper hand over other businesses. To give you an overview, here are some of the indispensable features and benefits of a VoIP phone system.
Lower monthly bills
Depending on how far the destination of you calls and the duration, you can actually be charged with high monthly bills when using a traditional phone. However, VoIP providers can give you a better system that won?t charge you based on these factors. Because the internet is utilized to facilitate calls and other communication chores, you get far lower monthly bills than that of the old phone structure. This makes use of Internet tools and functions in order to make communication faster and easier.
No charges for long-distance and international calls
Once you know how to maximize the functions offered by VoIP service providers, you can actually save a lot of money. With a VoIP system, there are no charges when you call clients or business partners from across the globe. Your internet connection is the main medium used to carry out various communication transactions. And the internet does not actually distinguish the distance of your calls. Thus, regardless of the location or destination of you calls, the internet regards all of these as local ones. On top of this, a VoIP system enables you to carry out different communication transactions with clients and contacts overseas at a rate similar to local charges. This then allows you to broaden your business scope outside your locality. Because of the absence of long distance charges, you can easily and efficiently get in touch with important clients and contacts at a less costly way.
Uncomplicated process of acquiring a phone system
Besides the capacity to grant your company with a telecommunication system that is cost-efficient, VoIP services are as well very easy and trouble-free to get. Even if you are operating a home-based business, you will not encounter problems when getting one. The chief requirement before you can take hold of a VoIP phone system is a high-speed internet connection. You do not have to buy added telephone lines, and other devices just so you can facilitate a VoIP system. Therefore, there is no need to spend on unnecessary additional equipment unlike with the regular telephone line. You just need to find an excellent VoIP provider which will handle all the installation and maintenance of the communication functions and features you want for your company.
Eliminates per minute call charges
Utilizing web interface as the chief communication mode gets rid of the idea of per minute call fees. Rather than relying on the charges of per minute calls, VoIP bills are dependent on the volume of information and communication data that are delivered. With this billing fashion, there will be no added communication charges and you only pay for the data or information you process.
VoIP is without a doubt an essential system to be availed by any business. There are several companies, such as RingCentral VoIP provider, which can bring you the exact communications functions you need.
In the current day's uncertain market, I have found the easy way to invest is with foreign exchange trading. I have always done O.K, nevertheless it was not till I learned about Fibonacci numbers that I began to see regular gains. Developed in the thirtheenth century by Leonardo Fibonacci, the Fibonacci sequence is a strategy of expressing certain relations that are continuing across the universe. If nevertheless, you plan to keep the stock for a longer period like five years or longer, you'll need to check the performance of the stock monthly to make certain that the company has not sustained substantial losses that would affect the value of your investment. These relations may be seen in both natural phenomena and in human behaviour.
How can they earn cash from you? I'm not going to go much more deeply into the broker side f trading, what I'm talking about is Stockmarket Trading Software. Taking the Conjecture out of Trading On The Net stockbrokers could have many excellent tools and services available to their clients, but recall they're truly only out to earn income from your account with them. Stock trader software has been about for years, generally utilized by banks and other fiscal establishments to forecast market fluctuations and future stock costs, it's been available to the overall public in recent times. They will not regret anything, and then just move on to the following trade. There's not one single methodology that works one hundred pc of the time. Never trade when you're indignant or irritated because you'll make dumb choices. If they didn't follow the method, then they'd pose questions , for example, ?Why did I not follow the plan?? Infrequently folks would lose focus, and this is when folks take 5 from the stock exchange. Picking the ?gainers? and avoiding the ?losers? is the name of the game.
Warren Buffett knows this idea well, and that made him the second-richest man in the world today. What if you had a technique to tell which stocks are going to make a murdering in the market? Spot the ?gainers? earlier without counting on brokers or cunning insider data. What you will additionally notice is they are not all made the same. What if you might leverage a powerful solid research of market factors and patterns, exactingly presaging the best stocks to buy? Now would not that give you the benefit easily? These are what automated stockmarket trading robotic systems do best. You need to invest your money and time in a programme that meets your particular wishes. Take a while to evaluate what it is that you truly want to gain from such materials. You most certainly want to buy stock dealing software that enables you to get free updates.
It?s a balancing act to enjoy holiday festivities and foods without feeling the pangs of regret when you step on your scale on January 2nd, but you can do it.
What?s your holiday eating style?
Do you eat in moderation most of the time?
Do eat first, then think about what you should or shouldn?t have eaten, or do you think about what you want, choose and then eat?
Do you have little or no self control?
Do feel in control of what you eat?
Do you eat in excess ? certain foods, all foods, at certain festivities, at all festivities?
Do you stuff yourself ? some of the time, most of the time, all of the time?
Do you overeat ? all foods, certain foods, no foods?
If it isn?t broken, don?t fix it
If you?ve selected phrases above that indicate you are in control, most likely last year you successfully managed to enjoy the holidays and partake of some of your favorite foods and desserts without gaining holiday weight.? Whatever you did right last year will work this year, so keep on doing what you did.
If it is broken, fix it
On the flip side, if you?ve selected phrases that indicate you did overindulge, and you ??suffered the consequences of gaining those hard-to-lose extra pounds, then this article is for you.
Insight ? the first step towards change
There are myriad reasons why we overeat during the holidays. First and foremost ? we are inundated with a host of foods that smell good, look tempting, and (if I didn?t cook it) taste pretty good.?? These cues trigger overeating. The sight, smell, and memories associated with holiday foods are definitely challenging, but if you understand that these powerful cues can override your good intentions, you can change the outcome. You can determine which cues you want to respond to and which ones you will avoid or overcome, but you will need a plan.
How to outwit holiday food cues
1. ??First and foremost don?t go to holiday events on an empty stomach. Hungry people are more susceptible to sensory cues. If you think saving calories by not eating all day is a good strategy think again. You?ll eat all the calories you saved and hundreds if not thousands more.
Never go into a holiday food zone hungry or thirsty.? Drink a glass of water or two and eat approx 200 calories containing protein and/or fiber within an hour.? Hungry people don?t make good eating choices. If you are not hungry, you?ll be better able to pick and choose, instead of acting on impulse in response to food cues.
2. Before you go, decide what you want to eat. Be selective. You really don?t have to taste it all.? In fact, research indicates that eating small portions of everything is not a good strategy because you never feel quite full or satisfied, so you eat more and more.? Choose a few foods and desserts and eat reasonable portions.
3.? Adjust your attitude. If you tell yourself you are depriving yourself, most definitely you will overeat.? Instead, tell yourself that you are making informed choices.? Let?s face it, you can eat whatever we want to, but there is a price in gained weight. Armed with this knowledge, you are more likely to make wiser choices. When deciding which foods to eat and how much of them you will eat, think about how difficult it has been to lose those excess holiday pounds. Ask yourself if it was worth it. Only you can be the judge of that. ?Remember, it?s always your choice.
4. If you didn?t pay attention to tips 1, 2 or 3 and you wind up eat everything that isn?t nailed down, take a few minutes before the day is out to count calories and fat. Use the CalorieKing Food & Exercise Journal along with the 2013 CalorieKing Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter, or use CalorieKing online tools.?? You will be so shocked at how much you ate, it will motivate you to make wiser choices the next go round. In fact, the best defense against weight gain is to maintain a food and exercise journal especially during the holidays.
It?s not just the food, It?s the Big Excuses
Excuse #1 ?The holidays only come once a year, so why shouldn?t I eat everything I want to??
To be very clear, the holidays do not come only once a year.? We are always celebrating some holiday or other -? birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, Easter, Passover, Valentine?s Day, 4th of July, Labor Day Week End ? you get the point. Even week-ends are high on the holiday excuse list. Add it up ? counting weekends, holidays, etc there are approximately 126 days you can find reasons (excuses) to overeat. ?Granted, this is a very special time of year, with unique circumstances, but don?t use that as an excuse.
Excuse #2 it?s really not the holidays if we don?t eat and drink and make merry (with lots of drinks, desserts, candy, cookies, etc).
Now, even you don?t believe this one really ? do you? Isn?t there more to the holidays than food? ?Don?t get me wrong. I look forward to holiday dinners and desserts, but I always keep in mind the years that I?ve gone overboard.? I enjoyed the food during the short period I ate it, but I suffered months afterwards kicking myself and trying to lose the extra pounds. Shift your focus from food (when you can) to the other aspects of this season.? It is not all about food.? It s about sharing and giving and loving and socializing and spiritual growth and being thankful.
Bottom line, I?m not saying don?t eat holiday foods.? Just don?t eat them to excess. ?You?ll enjoy what you do eat more and you will be happier on January 2nd than you would be if had no self-control.
A new breed of stable anti-aromatic compoundPublic release date: 18-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer daniel.oppenheimer@utexas.edu 512-745-3353 University of Texas at Austin
The compound can be toggled back and forth between its aromatic and anti-aromatic states, as well as to a never before seen intermediate state
AUSTIN, Texas By synthesizing a stable "antiaromatic" compound, as well as a never before seen intermediate version of that compound, chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have written an important new chapter in the story of modern chemistry.
The research was done in collaboration with an international roster of colleagues from Yonsei University in Korea, the University of Hyderbad in India, and Osaka University in Japan. The results were published this week in Nature Chemistry.
This particular story began in 1825, when English scientist Michael Faraday first isolated benzene from gas lights. Benzene would later be identified as one of a class of compounds known as aromatics, which have immense importance in both biological function and industrial production.
In humans, for instance, all five nucleotides that constitute DNA and RNA are aromatic. In industry, aromatics derived from oil and coal tar are precursors to, among other things, plastics, solvents, lubricants, rubber, dyes, herbicides, and textiles.
"Benzene is probably the most famous aromatic compound," said Jonathan Sessler, the Rowland Pettit Centennial Chair in Chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences. "But there are many other critically important aromatic species. The heme in hemoglobin, which is what gives blood its red color, is one of a group of aromatics known as porphyrins. Without them we'd have either a very different or no existence."
Aromatic compounds have a ring-like structure that enables electrons to be shared amongst the different bonds between the atoms. This results, among other things, in an extraordinary degree of stability. They tend to persist in their structure under conditions that would cause other molecules to react.
"That's one of the reasons why they're so useful in industry," said Sessler. "It's also why they tend to be pro-carcinogenic. They're very hard for us to metabolize or catabolize, and the results of that are usually not benign. One of the first class of tumors ever observed was testicular cancer. It was highly prevalent among 18th century chimney sweeps, who were exposed to aromatic compounds found in coal tar."
Sessler made his name as a chemist synthesizing new classes of porphyrins, including Texaphyrin, a very large porphyrin, which is being developed as a key element in a potential new approach to treating cancer.
What he and his colleagues have now done is taken an already existing molecule, which was first synthesized by Sessler in 1992, and found a way to stabilize it in its so-called antiaromatic form. Antiaromatic systems are the evil twins of aromatics. Compounds that are antiaromatic have two additional or two fewer electrons than aromatic compounds.
"They don't want to exist in a planar form without giving up or adding the two electrons that distinguish them from their aromatic analogues," said Sessler, "so they tend to twist around, to a lower energy state. That destroys their antiaromaticity. The net result is that bona fide antiaromatic compounds are elusive. What we have done, by rational design, is put big buttressing groups around the compounds, basically clamping them into place."
The resulting compounds are antiaromaticwith two electrons goneand an intermediate something, with both aromatic and antiaromatic properties, that doesn't have a common name yet because it hasn't been seen before.
"When you have to struggle for the words to describe what's being done, you know that it's cutting edge," said Christian Brueckner, a fellow porphyrin chemist and a professor at The University of Connecticut. "Twenty years ago when I was a graduate student I was told simply that you can't make large antiaromatics like this. Later the idea was that you can make them but you can't do much with them. Now you can do it, and it can switch between states, and it can exist in the intermediate state. It's just a beautiful progression of scholarship, a beautiful example of how the ability of chemists to manipulate matter is advancing."
In their natural state antiaromatics are as unstable as aromatics are stable. As a result they have only been stabilized a few times in the history of the field. The antiaromatic that Sessler has made, working with colleagues in Korea, Japan, and India, is significant simply for joining this elite group. As significant is the synthesis of the intermediate state, a scientific first, as well as the capacity of the system to be toggled back and forth between the three different electron states.
"It's the first time you can really do a Coke vs. Pepsi taste test," said Sessler. "We've had very sophisticated theory for a long time, but you need positive and negative controls in science to reach a really robust conclusion. Now we finally have a detailed, controlled comparison of what aromaticity really does, how it changes interactions with light, how it affects color, what an excited state does to the lifetime, and so on."
Sessler's compounds also have potential implications in the field of information storage.
"We are very good as humans at manipulating electrons," said Sessler, "and although this isn't my game at the moment, it's not hard to imagine how a system that has three different electron states, and is reversible, could provide an opportunity to store information in a way we couldn't previously. Binary gives us computers. Ternary could give us even more power."
###
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A new breed of stable anti-aromatic compoundPublic release date: 18-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer daniel.oppenheimer@utexas.edu 512-745-3353 University of Texas at Austin
The compound can be toggled back and forth between its aromatic and anti-aromatic states, as well as to a never before seen intermediate state
AUSTIN, Texas By synthesizing a stable "antiaromatic" compound, as well as a never before seen intermediate version of that compound, chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have written an important new chapter in the story of modern chemistry.
The research was done in collaboration with an international roster of colleagues from Yonsei University in Korea, the University of Hyderbad in India, and Osaka University in Japan. The results were published this week in Nature Chemistry.
This particular story began in 1825, when English scientist Michael Faraday first isolated benzene from gas lights. Benzene would later be identified as one of a class of compounds known as aromatics, which have immense importance in both biological function and industrial production.
In humans, for instance, all five nucleotides that constitute DNA and RNA are aromatic. In industry, aromatics derived from oil and coal tar are precursors to, among other things, plastics, solvents, lubricants, rubber, dyes, herbicides, and textiles.
"Benzene is probably the most famous aromatic compound," said Jonathan Sessler, the Rowland Pettit Centennial Chair in Chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences. "But there are many other critically important aromatic species. The heme in hemoglobin, which is what gives blood its red color, is one of a group of aromatics known as porphyrins. Without them we'd have either a very different or no existence."
Aromatic compounds have a ring-like structure that enables electrons to be shared amongst the different bonds between the atoms. This results, among other things, in an extraordinary degree of stability. They tend to persist in their structure under conditions that would cause other molecules to react.
"That's one of the reasons why they're so useful in industry," said Sessler. "It's also why they tend to be pro-carcinogenic. They're very hard for us to metabolize or catabolize, and the results of that are usually not benign. One of the first class of tumors ever observed was testicular cancer. It was highly prevalent among 18th century chimney sweeps, who were exposed to aromatic compounds found in coal tar."
Sessler made his name as a chemist synthesizing new classes of porphyrins, including Texaphyrin, a very large porphyrin, which is being developed as a key element in a potential new approach to treating cancer.
What he and his colleagues have now done is taken an already existing molecule, which was first synthesized by Sessler in 1992, and found a way to stabilize it in its so-called antiaromatic form. Antiaromatic systems are the evil twins of aromatics. Compounds that are antiaromatic have two additional or two fewer electrons than aromatic compounds.
"They don't want to exist in a planar form without giving up or adding the two electrons that distinguish them from their aromatic analogues," said Sessler, "so they tend to twist around, to a lower energy state. That destroys their antiaromaticity. The net result is that bona fide antiaromatic compounds are elusive. What we have done, by rational design, is put big buttressing groups around the compounds, basically clamping them into place."
The resulting compounds are antiaromaticwith two electrons goneand an intermediate something, with both aromatic and antiaromatic properties, that doesn't have a common name yet because it hasn't been seen before.
"When you have to struggle for the words to describe what's being done, you know that it's cutting edge," said Christian Brueckner, a fellow porphyrin chemist and a professor at The University of Connecticut. "Twenty years ago when I was a graduate student I was told simply that you can't make large antiaromatics like this. Later the idea was that you can make them but you can't do much with them. Now you can do it, and it can switch between states, and it can exist in the intermediate state. It's just a beautiful progression of scholarship, a beautiful example of how the ability of chemists to manipulate matter is advancing."
In their natural state antiaromatics are as unstable as aromatics are stable. As a result they have only been stabilized a few times in the history of the field. The antiaromatic that Sessler has made, working with colleagues in Korea, Japan, and India, is significant simply for joining this elite group. As significant is the synthesis of the intermediate state, a scientific first, as well as the capacity of the system to be toggled back and forth between the three different electron states.
"It's the first time you can really do a Coke vs. Pepsi taste test," said Sessler. "We've had very sophisticated theory for a long time, but you need positive and negative controls in science to reach a really robust conclusion. Now we finally have a detailed, controlled comparison of what aromaticity really does, how it changes interactions with light, how it affects color, what an excited state does to the lifetime, and so on."
Sessler's compounds also have potential implications in the field of information storage.
"We are very good as humans at manipulating electrons," said Sessler, "and although this isn't my game at the moment, it's not hard to imagine how a system that has three different electron states, and is reversible, could provide an opportunity to store information in a way we couldn't previously. Binary gives us computers. Ternary could give us even more power."
###
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Want to feel better about your body?? Stop reading fashion magazines.
Christy Matta M.A. is a trainer, consultant and writer. She is the author of "The Stress Response: How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Free You from Needless Anxiety, Worry, Anger, and Other Symptoms of Stress." 
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Public release date: 18-Dec-2012
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