EMC to Acquire Silver Tail Systems - Arik Hesseldahl - News ...

Data storage giant EMC just announced that it has reached a deal to acquire Silver Tail Systems.

This is the privately held company that specializes in detecting fraud on the Web, and the reason that venture capitalist Marc Andreesseen was speaking so highly of security companies when he spoke at D: All Things Digital in 2011. His firm, Andreessen Horowitz, led Silver Tail?s $20 million B round.

Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, and EMC says it won?t be material to the 2012 fiscal year.

I just got off the phone with Scott Weiss, the partner at Andreessen Horowitz who led the firm?s investment. Weiss, you may remember, is the founder of IronPort Systems, now part of Cisco Systems, and became a partner at AH in March of 2011. He?s also a director at Silver Tail.

Silver Tail, he says, will essentially become part of RSA, the security branch of EMC that operates more or less independently within EMC.

Weiss told me that when AH made its investment, Silver Tail had about a dozen employees, two paying customers, and a lot of promise. ?I made 10 reference calls before doing the deal, and the customers made sure I knew they were not on the fence,? he said. ?Some even told me they thought Silver Tail was charging too little.?

That?s not a bad sign. So, what does Silver Tail do, anyway? Banks and insurance companies and Web commerce companies use it to keep track of incoming traffic to their sites in real time, and to distinguish good traffic generated by normal customers from bad traffic generated by criminals probably trying to do bad and shady things that more often than not tend to break the law.

It does this using a form of predictive analytics on live Web traffic, at a massive scale. Among the ways to tell good guys from bad are the speed with which they move from one page within a site to another, and the kinds of data they look for. Traffic that?s outside the norm gets flagged for additional scrutiny. Given that the normal patterns are known, there are almost never any false positives. Weiss told me that Silver Tail?s customers include Merrill LynchE-trade and Citibank.

Update: So I?m hearing from sources familiar with the deal that the purchase price was the neighborhood of $300 million to $400 million. I?m going to try and narrow that down a little bit.

Also I just got off the phone with Silver Tail CEO Tim Eades and RSA CEO Art Coviello. Here?s a few more details on the deal. Eades is calling it a ?match made in Heaven,? in part because of RSA?s knowledge in understanding the specific needs and buying patterns that large enterprises have when it comes to security.

Coviello, who essentially runs RSA as an all-but-independent company within EMC says thats how Silver Tail will run initially. ?At RSA we take the same Hippocratic Oath-like approach that EMC does with acquisitions, that of ?first do no harm.? Silver Tail has tremendous momentum and we?re certainly not going to upset that,? he told me. ?That said, we have a specialized sales organization that understands the unique uses cases of the Silver Tail technology.?

Here?a hint at what kind of momentum. Eades told me that SilverTail had recently deployed its product with a ?large bank,? with 21 million customers. It had deployed its product fully within two days. Not bad.

EMC?s announcement is below:

HOPKINTON, Mass. and MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ ?

News Summary:

EMC Corporation announced it has signed an agreement to acquire privately-held Silver Tail Systems, a leader in real-time web session intelligence and behavioral analysis.

Silver Tail?s innovative technology enhances RSA?s position in the rapidly growing Web Fraud Detection market and complements RSA?s anti-fraud solutions that help leading banks and retailers thwart sophisticated cybercrime attacks.

Silver Tail?s pioneering product portfolio has witnessed rapid adoption by some of the largest brands in financial services, ecommerce and federal government.
Silver Tail?s Big Data approach to fighting cybercrime will help accelerate RSA?s strategy to leverage data analytics and adaptive risk-based controls for broader consumer and enterprise security use cases.

Full Story:

EMC? Corporation (EMC) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Silver Tail Systems, a leader in real-time web session intelligence and behavioral analysis. Upon closing, Silver Tail will operate within the RSA security division and is expected to extend the capabilities of RSA?s Identity Protection and Verification (IPV) solutions, as well as other areas across RSA?s enterprise security portfolio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2012, subject to certain closing conditions. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to EMC GAAP or non-GAAP EPS for the full 2012 fiscal year.

The rapid evolution of malware and advanced online threats has left growing numbers of online banking, ecommerce and government web sites and their customers vulnerable to attack, account takeover and fraud. In response to this evolution organizations historically have focused on building fraud detection and security strategies that try to identify what a bad transaction looks like, creating solutions that must always play catch-up to the latest threats.

Silver Tail Systems? web session intelligence is the response to this evolution in threats and fraud, using a Big Data-driven approach to gather and analyze mass quantities of information in real time and at scale to deepen visibility into web sessions and mobile traffic. The information is fed into Silver Tail Systems? behavior analysis engine to review at both user and population levels to detect anomalies, IT security threats, fraud, insider threats, business logic abuse and other malicious activity.

Silver Tail Systems has been recognized as a leader by prominent industry analysts for its innovative approach and disruptive technology. Silver Tail?s solutions are deployed globally in large customer environments, helping to secure online banking traffic and ecommerce and government web sites and portals. Their team has extensive experience in building high-performance solutions that provide monitoring for upwards of 330,000 clicks per second for some of the largest ecommerce and banking providers on the market today.

Within RSA, Silver Tail is expected to contribute to multiple areas across RSA?s enterprise security portfolio. Silver Tail?s products will add a disruptive fraud-fighting technology designed to install and begin providing value in a matter of days, lowering complexity and cost of ownership. In addition, it is expected Silver Tail?s core transaction and behavioral analysis technology will help further extend the security analytics capabilities across RSA?s enterprise security solutions portfolio.

Executive Quotes:

Art Coviello, RSA Executive Chairman and Executive Vice President, EMC Corporation

?The industry is well beyond the point of providing effective security using static, perimeter point tools that fail to keep up with dynamic cyber attackers. Customers need better intelligence, analytics, and the ability to respond in real time which is a capability that Silver Tail?s products do extraordinarily well to help foil web-based attacks. Silver Tail offers proven anti-fraud solutions that complement RSA?s portfolio of risk-based and adaptive products and services.

?We see tremendous opportunity with Silver Tail at the intersection of Big Data and Security to leverage our collective expertise and technologies to move beyond the hype to execute on the vision of intelligence-driven security that is risk-based, agile and contextual. Together RSA and Silver Tail can deliver compelling solutions that leverage session intelligence and Big Data analytics to help our customers gain better visibility and control risk.?

Tim Eades, Chief Executive Officer, Silver Tail Systems

?Stopping cybercrime has never been harder than it is today. The recent attacks on the North American banking infrastructure are stark reminders of the pace of innovation in the cybercriminal ecosystem, the convergence of the fraud and info-security attack techniques and the profound responsibility of the CISO to help defend against these attacks.

?Silver Tail pioneered an approach that uses web session intelligence to provide unmatched visibility and the behavioral analysis that detects these threats and protects web-based platforms around the world. Together with RSA, we have an incredible opportunity to extend these capabilities beyond what we do today to protect web-based platforms. Silver Tail?s session intelligence technology demonstrates the capacity to expand the awareness and intelligence of what is occurring on the network with context, helping to rapidly sift through data to identify unexpected behavior and apply controls against advanced threats and malicious attacks.?

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20121030/emc-to-acquire-silver-tail-systems/

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A Third Day of Protests in China Against Refinery

Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

Protesters faced off against the riot police on Sunday in Ningbo, China. Many said they were wary of the government?s about-face.

BEIJING ? Officials in the coastal city of Ningbo, China, promised on Sunday night to halt the expansion of a petrochemical plant after thousands of demonstrators clashed with the police during three days of protests that spotlighted the public?s mounting discontent with industrial pollution.

The protests, which followed similar demonstrations in other cities in the past year, point to the increasing willingness of the Chinese to take to the streets despite the perils of openly challenging the country?s authoritarian government.

Although local officials were undoubtedly alarmed by the size and ferocity of the protests, their decision to bend so quickly was also probably influenced by the coming series of meetings that will determine China?s next generation of leaders. The ruling Communist Party, always eager to keep a lid on public discontent, is especially nervous about any disruptions that might mar the 18th Party Congress, which is set to begin on Nov. 8 in the capital and will serve to ratify the first change of leadership in a decade.

But Ningbo residents reached by phone said they were skeptical of the government?s sudden change of heart. ?The announcement is just a way to ease tensions,? said Yu Xiaoming, a critic of the plant who took part in negotiations with the authorities on Sunday.

The protests, which began last week when farmers blocked a road near the refinery, grew over the weekend as thousands of students and middle-class residents converged on a downtown square carrying handmade banners and wearing surgical masks painted with skull and bones.

On Saturday, the demonstrations turned violent when riot police fired tear gas and began to beat and drag away protesters. At one point, according to people who were there, marchers tossed bricks and bottles at the police. At least 100 people were detained, according to some estimates, although most were later released.

The project, an $8.8 billion expansion of a refinery owned by the state-run behemoth Sinopec, was eagerly backed by the local government, which has been promoting a vast industrial zone outside Ningbo, a city of 3.4 million people in Zhejiang Province. Residents were particularly unnerved by one major component of the project: the production of paraxylene, a toxic petrochemical known as PX that is a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of polyester, paints and plastic bottles. Many residents contend that the concentration of polluting factories in the Ningbo Chemical Industrial Zone has led to a surge in cancer and other illnesses.

While mass demonstrations against mining operations, copper smelters and trash incinerators have disrupted Chinese cities in recent years, the construction of paraxylene plants has been especially controversial. In 2007, protesters in the coastal city of Xiamen, in Fujian Province, successfully forced the relocation of a PX plant that had been planned just 10 miles from downtown. Last August, officials in Dalian, in northeast China, announced that they would shut down a PX plant there after thousands of residents angrily confronted the riot police. That factory is still operating.

Ma Jun, an environmental activist in Beijing, applauded the government?s sudden about-face but said he hoped the weekend of unrest would convince Chinese leaders that soliciting public opinion on industrial development is in their best interest, especially given how much money is wasted when such projects are canceled midway.

?We?ve seen the same pattern over and over again,? said Mr. Ma, the director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. ?Ignoring public concerns leads to confrontation. We can?t resolve all our environmental issues through street action. The cost is just too high.?

Despite the best efforts of government censors, many of the protests have been fueled by social media. In Ningbo, residents held aloft smartphones and computer tablets and flooded microblog sites with images and vivid descriptions of the running battles with the police. The Chinese news media carried no reports of the protests.

In recent days, the district government of Zhenhai, which includes Ningbo, one of China?s most affluent cities, tried to reassure residents, saying the plant would include the latest pollution-control technologies. Officials also said they had spent nearly $1 billion to relocate 9,800 households away from the refinery site.

In a brief statement posted on the government?s Web site on Sunday, officials said they decided to cancel the PX plant after consulting with investors. They also pledged to conduct ?scientific verifications? on other elements of the project, although they provided no further detail.

The announcement appears to have done little to mollify popular anger. According to The Associated Press, an official who read the statement through a loudspeaker on Sunday evening was drowned out by the crowd, which then called on the mayor to resign and demanded the release of protesters who had been detained.

Later in the evening, several people posting on Sina Weibo, a popular microblog service, said the police were arresting students at Ningbo University and protesters on the street who had refused to disperse. The accounts could not be verified.

Patrick Zuo contributed research.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 29, 2012

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the timing of an announcement by officials in Dalian. They announced that they would shut down a PX plant there in August of last year, not this year.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/world/asia/protests-against-sinopec-plant-in-china-reach-third-day.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Obama vows to protect women's health care rights

President Obama holds up his jobs plans booklet while speaking at a campaign stop, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

President Obama holds up his jobs plans booklet while speaking at a campaign stop, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

President Barack Obama greets local patron during an unannounced visit to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. Obama, who traveled to Florida for a campaign event nearby, surprised local patrons when he drove up in the morning. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? President Barack Obama says voters saw again this week why male politicians shouldn't be making health care decisions for women.

Obama's comments were a reference to remarks by Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. The Republican said pregnancies that result from rape are "something God intended."

The president didn't mention Mourdock by name. He said, as long as he is president, women will be able to make their own health care decisions.

It's the first time Obama has referenced Mourdock's comments at a campaign rally.

Obama's team is intensifying its criticism of Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney for refusing to withdraw support for Mourdock. Romney appears in a television advertisement on Mourdock's behalf.

Obama's Thursday morning rally in Tampa, Fla., kicked off the second day of his 40-hour battleground state blitz.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-10-25-Obama/id-1e2054809b75430a8f77f8e5979e5d2d

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How Food Became Technology [Excerpt]

Patent protection helped transform agriculture into agribusiness

By Frederick Kaufman

Image: Flickr.com / Antaean

Editor's Note: Excerpted from Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food, by Frederick Kaufman. With permission from the publisher, Wiley. Copyright ? Frederick Kaufman, 2012.

Once upon a time, nymphs, sprites, and spirits ruled every?cavern, tree, field, and brook, and a meal was plucked from?a bush, scooped from the mud, or carved from the carcass?of some unfortunate creature. Then everything changed.?A tribe of infidels and heretics decided it could no longer?leave something as important as breakfast, lunch, and dinner?to the vagaries of chance and the whimsy of the gods. These revolutionaries drained lakes, rerouted rivers, chopped down?forests, and slashed straight into the guts of Mother Earth.?They were the first farmers.

Ten thousand years of meddling with food has not made the?meddling any more popular, even if the history of civilization?has hinged on the science of food. Assyrian bas-reliefs and?Sumerian cuneiform tablets depict artificial pollination?and manipulating the sex life of plants was one of the first?technological feats that enabled our world of abundant fruits?and vegetables, meat, bread, and chocolate.

What set the earliest agriculturalists apart from the even?earlier hunter-gatherers? As the first farmers denuded nature,?hoarded seeds, and engineered crops, they most likely appeared?to be mad scientists, coaxing mutant monsters from the black?earth. Of course, we no longer think very much about the fact?that almost everything we eat has been?domesticated and that?domestication implies a history of human intervention. In fact,?most people are unaware that the typical supermarket and?green market varieties of apples, oranges, lettuce, and raspberries are not at all the same as their wild cousins.

Domesticated fruits and vegetables are generally larger?than their undomesticated counterparts. They are sweeter and?more aromatic. Compared to their great-great-grandparents,?modern fruits and vegetables have lost their fuzz, their fiber,?their thorns, and their puberty. A modern tomato?heirloom,?organic, process, vine-ripened, or otherwise?bears little?resemblance to its puny, sour, undomesticated relations that?sprout in the Peruvian Andes. Tomato breeding has changed?tomatoes down to the DNA, and the successful varieties that?have found their way into our supermarket carts have been?cloned and cloned again.

The red jungle fowl of Thailand eventually became a Perdue chicken. The extinct aurochs of the Fertile Crescent?eventually became Holstein cows. The primeval apples of?Kazakhstan eventually became Gala and Red Delicious.?Ancient tillers of the earth needed at least 300 years to domesticate corn and more than 1,000 years to?domesticate wheat. But no one really knows how weeds first?became crops.

Did mongrel grains serendipitously meld together and?sprout from the sewage dumps of sedentary fishing tribes?(a current theory), or was the domestication of wheat grasses,?pomegranates, and fig trees a willful act of genius? The most?ancient of these technologies created new forms of life. And?our fear of Frankenstein predates Mary Shelley's monster.??In? The Winter's Tale, William Shakespeare laced Perdita's?voice with anxiety and disgust as she condemned "Nature's?bastards," new varieties of flowers created by Elizabethan?methods of artificial pollination. Not to worry, argued Polixenes, for "Nature is made better by no mean / But Nature?makes that mean; so over that art / Which you say adds to?Nature, is an art / That Nature makes."

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a42b01ed838d90f5376aadd7a274038f

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Suit filed to block deer shoot in Washington park

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Check out brunette Scarlett Johansson ? in fur

By Kurt Schlosser, NBC News

Scarlett Johansson is currently filming scenes for the sci-fi flick "Under the Skin" in Glasgow, Scotland, and was photographed on Tuesday sporting a brunette 'do and a fur coat. In one scene, the actress is seen falling face first?in the street (below).

INFphoto.com

Scarlett Johansson filming "Under the Skin" in Glasgow, Scotland.

The film, being directed by Jonathan Glazer ("Sexy Beast"), is based on the 2000 book by Michael Faber about?an alien in human form who comes to Earth to pick up hitchhikers to be used as meat.

Indiewire.com reports that the filming taking place is part of reshoots, since the film was shot last year.

Maybe it's a stretch, but when we hear sci-fi and see a lovely brunette in a fur coat, we can't help but picture Sean Young's Rachael in the classic "Blade Runner."

But Johansson told Variety earlier this year that "Under the Skin" is deeper than it appears on the surface. "OK, yes I do play an alien who is wearing my own skin. But it's actually not a science-fiction film; it's sort of a film that asks existential questions and much more complex than the logline."

INFphoto.com

Johansson hits the deck in a scene from "Under the Skin."

More Entertainment news:

Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/24/14669237-scarlett-johansson-gets-under-the-skin-filming-sci-fi-movie?lite

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Church?s Chicken robbery

POLICE SEEK SUSPECT WHO ROBBED CHURCH?S CHICKEN WITH A SWORD. By Mass Appeal News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MassAppealNews.com) ? Investigators are searching for a man who robbed a Church?s Chicken restaurant on Tuesday night (Oct. 23) with a samurai sword. The crime occurred at the fast food venue on 55th Street and Prospect Avenue around 10 p.m.? After demanding and receiving cash from the clerk, the suspect left in a brown, two-toned, 1980s model Chevrolet pickup truck. The suspect is described as being a light-skinned black man, around 5 feet, 5 inches in height. He weighs approximately 130 pounds. He wore a dark gray hoodie and jeans. If you know anything, please contact the TIPS Hotline at 816.474.TIPS.

See surveillance video footage from Church?s Chicken below:

Source: http://www.massappealnews.com/2012/10/24/man-robs-churchs-chicken/

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Coming Home: AmeriCorps Members Return to Mentor Local Youth ...

By Staff

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AmeriCorps recently placed five young adults from the area? at Horace Mann Middle School and Crawford High School as part of The California Endowment?s Building Healthy Communities program. Each AmeriCorps mentor will work with 20 students during and after school. The goal is to encourage academic success and improve attitudes toward education.

The AmeriCorps members are planning four service projects during their 11-month program. The goal of these projects is to engage students, residents and community members around issues such as increasing school attendance, improving access to healthcare and decreasing childhood obesity and violence. Their ultimate goal is to make City Heights a healthier, stronger, more vibrant community.

Here is more about the AmeriCorps members, in their words:

Christine Ma
Hi ya?ll! I?m Christine and I?m excited to embark on my year with Building Healthy Communities as an AmeriCorps Mentor and working closely with students at Horace Mann Middle School. A little background on me: I was born and raised in Los Angeles? Chinatown neighborhood. I went to the University of California, San Diego, as a first-generation college student, and I majored in communications and minored in ethnic studies. I had plans for a career as an editor, but in my last year of college, I got heavily involved in student-of-color organizations and activism work, so with this, along with my ethnic studies classes, I really started to develop my social consciousness. After I graduated, I switched career paths to the nonprofit and education fields and working with youth.

After I graduated college, I moved back home and volunteered and interned at Asian- and Pacific Islander-focused nonprofits. I was involved with the Southeast Asian Community Alliance, where I helped the coordinator facilitate an afterschool program that educated high school students on social justice issues. It was here that I cemented my passion of social justice education for youth.

It was extremely rewarding for me to be involved in the same community that I grew up in. And it was so inspirational to see these young people doing youth organizing work and feeling like they have a direct impact in their community, and that is what I hope to continue supporting in more communities of color. One of my favorite aspects of working there were the one-to-one conversations I would have with students, which is why I was so excited for this AmeriCorps position, because I saw the need for more positive, emotional support for students.

Deyna Roberson
I am a 23-year-old San Diego native. I have a beautiful 2-year-old son and 5 younger sisters. I am a University of California, San Diego, graduate and am currently earning my master?s in public health, with a concentration in health promotion and behavioral science. After obtaining my master?s degree, I plan on pursuing a medical degree and hope to become a child and adolescent psychiatrist. I am also a NCAA track and field athlete and two time All-American. My hobbies include singing, songwriting, going to the beach and Boogie Boarding, and running track and field.

I chose to serve as a BHC AmeriCorps member to give back to my community, and more specifically, the children in it. I feel that as a member of the City Heights community, it is not only my passion but duty to help bring others up with me. I doubt I would have made it this far without the positive role models and influences I had growing up. I witnessed both my sister and brother fail to graduate from Crawford High School and this made me well aware that there is something missing in the system to motivate students to stay in school and to encourage them to plan for bright, healthy futures. As an AmeriCorps Mentor, I look forward to instilling hope in the students I will be working with. It?s my desire to not only be a positive role model for these student, but also an example of the many people who care about their well-being, are confident in their potential success, and are willing to invest in their futures.

Yen Vu
My name is Yen and I am one of the youth mentors at Crawford High School for Building Healthy Communities in City Heights. I am a daughter of Vietnamese refugees, born in Oklahoma and raised in the Los Angeles area. I moved to San Diego in 2007 to attend the University of California, San Diego. I am now a first generation college graduate with a bachelor?s degree in psychology and a minor in education studies.

While in college, I was involved in progressive students-of-color organizations geared toward social justice activism. I became familiar with City Heights through mentoring and tutoring at some of the local schools. I chose to return to City Heights after I graduated because I recalled how at home I felt when I first stepped foot there. It reflects the community I grew up in and the kind of place I hope to root myself.

Growing up, I often witnessed economic inequalities that affected my education and limited the resources that were available to my working-class parents. I wasn?t able to articulate or understand my family?s struggles or the challenges that people from communities like mine faced until I came to college. Through education, I became empowered and realized the potentials of social change and how I can take part in that movement. In college I started working with youth through implementing access and outreach programs that catered to underserved and underrepresented students. Immediately after graduation, I went to Oakland to pursue community organizing. While I was there, I realized that the skills I was learning in organizing aligned with my passion in working with youths. I believe that the most effective change happens in the community through collaboration and empowerment. I hold the same belief in my pursuance of a future career as an educator. I want to work inside the classroom, directly with students, to empower them to become more socially conscious and ready to question the structural barriers that affect them, their family, and their community.

Gracelynne West
Hi everyone! My name is Gracelynne West and I currently serve as one of the Building Healthy Communities AmeriCorps Mentors at Horace Mann Middle School. I am originally from San Diego, the North Park and Linda Vista area, and I am a graduate of San Diego High School and an alumna of the SDHS Women?s Tennis Team. I also recently graduated from the University of California, San Diego, as an ethnic studies major and I am passionate about working within my local community.

I was the first person in my family to attend college, so it was a big accomplishment for both my family and me as well. I have worked with youth in afterschool and summer enrichment programs. I also recently completed an AmeriCorps term with the local nonprofit, MAAC project, which provides services for low-income families and youth in Spring Valley. I really enjoy community engagement work and working with other community members to navigate resources and services.

I have served as a canvasser with Alliance San Diego in previous campaigns to educate and engage new and occasional voters in predominantly low-income communities of color. At first, it was difficult to assert myself to others, but I eventually built up confidence speaking to people by recognizing why I am passionate about community work. Every time I work with youth, I always learn something new or catch something that I have never thought of before; they have such diverse experiences and different views of the world, and I think that is the beauty of working with youth because we are both learning from each other.

Laura Yamaguchi
Hi everyone, my name is Laura Yamaguchi and I?m very excited to begin my second year as a BHC AmeriCorps Mentor at Crawford High School. Last year was such an adventure for me ? a growth experience for myself as well as the students I mentored. I look forward to deepening my connections with students and encouraging them to live out their dreams.

I began my work with youth when I was 16 and my first job was teaching second graders about different birds at the San Diego Zoo. In college, I worked with student groups of color and outreached to San Diego high school students about college access. After graduating from the University of California, San Diego, with my bachelor of the arts in Spanish literature and a minor in ethnic studies, I pursued a career in youth- and community-based development in communities of color.

I started with a labor organizing internship at the Oakland International Airport, and then went on to empower youth through writing programs in San Francisco. I finally moved back to my hometown of La Mesa and I continued partnering with youth in schools as a special education assistant in the San Diego Unified School District. Last year, I pursued an opportunity to mentor ninth graders at Crawford High School through AmeriCorps. If it?s going to be anything like last year, I?m ready to take students surfing at the beach, making sushi with the Japanese club, going to San Diego State and UCSD high school conferences, and reciting lots and lots of One Direction lyrics.

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[Disclosure: Speak City Heights is funded by The California Endowment but operates as an independent media collaborative. The above article appeared in City Heights Life, which is funded and distributed by Price Charities.]

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Monster Energy Drink Killed a 14 year old girl | Simple Recipes for ...

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Cooking Panda Simple Recipes for Desserts and Daily Food

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Climate Scientist Sues for Defamation

Climatologist Michael Mann has sued two organizations that have accused him of improperly manipulating data

By The Daily Climate

"There is a larger context ... namely the onslaught of dishonest and libelous attacks that climate scientists have endured for years." -Michael Mann Image: Flickr/AAUP

Michael Mann, an influential climatologist who has spent years in the center of the debate over climate science, has sued two organizations that have accused him of academic fraud and of improperly manipulating data.

Mann, director of Pennsylvania State University's Earth System Science Center, on Monday sued the National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, along with two of their authors, Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn.?

The lawsuit, Mann's lawyer said in a statement, was based upon their "false and defamatory statements" accusing him of academic fraud and comparing him to a convicted child molester, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Neither Mann nor his lawyer, John B. Williams of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Cozen O'Connor, were available for comment Tuesday afternoon. But on Facebook, where news of the lawsuit was initially posted Tuesday, Mann said the lawsuit was part of "a battle" to assist climate scientists in the fight against those who attack their work.

"There is a larger context for this latest development," he wrote, "namely the onslaught of dishonest and libelous attacks that climate scientists have endured for years by dishonest front groups seeking to discredit the case for concern over climate change."

But he faces a high bar: Mann has played a key role in climate science for decades, and the law generally requires a much higher burden of proof from public figures, said CEI general counsel Sam Kazman.

"I don't think he's got a shot at reaching it," Kazman said in an interview. "Our stuff may have been debatable, but it was solidly based and we had a perfect right to say what we did."

"We plan to defend the suit vigorously but we think it is a totally unfounded lawsuit."

In 1999 Mann published a timeline of global temperatures stretching back almost 1,000 years. The graph showed a fairly stable trend until 1900, when temperatures spiked sharply upward. That so-called "hockey stick" diagram became a lightning rod in the debate on whether humans were influencing the climate.

In 2007 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore and ?authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report for work connecting human activities to global warming.

$500,000 and two years
Two years later a cache of emails illegally obtained from University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom purported to show climate scientists manipulating data. Many of the emails were to or from Michael Mann.

Upwards of seven organizations, from the National Science Foundation to Penn State, conducted investigations into Mann's work. All declared baseless allegations of academic fraud.

Yet the attacks persisted: Virginia Attorney General spent $500,000 and two years unsuccessfully suing to obtain email correspondence from the University of Virginia, where Mann worked from 1999 to 2005.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=869aeb6d89c0afa4d00997a4f17fb11e

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University applications rise

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Source: www.independent.co.uk --- Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Applications by English students to UK universities have risen slightly this year, official figures show. Related Stories Manchester Metropolitan: 'Bullying' University bans world-renowned professor who spoke out Cambridge to set new maths A-levels ...

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News Summary: Commodities plunge on demand worries

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DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Public Art Portfolio

Immersive Public Art Portfolio by Obscura Digital from Ed Purver on Vimeo.

Obscura Digital created an amazing interactive public art portfolio highlighting the various public artworks throughout the city commissioned by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities (DCCAH).? This portfolio installation debuted at the (e)merge Art Fair in early October and will now take residence at DCCAH's new office at 200 I (Eye) St SW.? The permanent exhibit features a curved panoramic screen allowing visitors to not only view the public artworks.? The interactive experience givers viewers the opportunity to virtually immerse themselves into the artwork's natural environment, complete with audio taken from the artwork's surrounding areas.? If you can't make it to the DCCAH's new office, make sure to check out the video above.

Related Posts

Source: http://www.artisticrepresentation.com/2012/10/dc-commission-on-arts-and-humanities.html

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Real Estate Agent | My WordPress Website

house for sale utah With interest and homeownership rates decreasing and plenty of affordable properties on the market, the best time to invest in real estate is now. But even with encouraging conditions, it is necessary to work with a realtor if you are thinking about making a real estate investment. Your location can make a big difference on whether investments will be more or less favorable. An experienced real estate agent can help you select the right property, at the right time, at the right price. Realtors are knowledgeable in every step of the investment process and will make sure you adhere to every law and regulation. When you invest in real estate, you are choosing a great way to diversify your portfolio and receive potential tax advantages. Speak with a realtor today and learn how to get the most out of your real estate investment. Investment houses

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Relax with Stash Lemon Ginger Herbal Tea ... - ThingsThatWeDo.com

?Copyright? 2012 ThingsThatWeDo.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you follow ThingsThatWeDo.com, you?ll know that I do enjoy my cup of coffee. Sure, I don?t buy it out as often anymore but still, I like it. I?m not a big tea drinker but recently there?s been a sale of Stash tea at my local health food store. So, taking advantage of the sale, I scoped out the section and found the Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea that happens to be caffeine free.

Now, I?m intrigued you see, because I like the kick that ginger offers to cooked food but I?ve never really ever had ginger tea. I read the Stash tea box and it says that this Stash Lemon Ginger herbal tea ?offers wide awake flavour without caffeine?. Is that even possible?

Product Review: Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea

This Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea is made with the following ingredients: ginger root, lemongrass, lemon flavour, safflower, hibiscus and citric acid. Hm?it?s a good sign that the first ingredient is in fact ginger root and that the second ingredient is lemongrass. There is hope that this Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea might just win me over.

I open the Stash tea packet and I?m immediately immersed in a world of fragrant lemon and ginger and now I?m even more excited about how potentially good this Stash tea might taste.

The water boils and away I go. I let the Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea steep in my cup for a while and decided to try it with just a hint of honey. That initial sip was completely fascinating. The kick of ginger hits you as does the lemon. The honey I added helped to soften the edges but the best part is that I can still feel the lingering ting from the ginger as I swallow the tea. I feel re-energized and soothed at the same time. Is that even possible?

My entire kitchen smells like spiced lemon and ginger. I have to say, considering I rarely drink teas, this Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea has completely won me over. It?s strong yet mild, vibrant without being overwhelming. It really is the perfect hot alternative to coffee. It?s got snap and zing and I feel invigorated even though it is caffeine free.

Verdict:

I am surprised by the Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea. I had hoped it would taste good but I didn?t expect it to taste THAT good. The lemon and ginger notes in this tea are well balanced. I drink the tea and can feel the zing traveling along. I feel refreshed and somehow not quite so tired. If nothing else, I?m really glad I found an alternative to coffee that I can enjoy because sometimes you want a hot drink that?s not caffeinated so this Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea truly is a gift. If you?ve never had this Stash Premium Lemon Ginger herbal tea, you should definitely try it!

For more details, you can visit the Stash website by clicking here.

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San Diego media baron promotes conservative causes

In this photo taken Oct. 10, 2012, John Lynch, CEO of the U-T San Diego newspaper, poses for a picture outside his office in San Diego. Lynch and his partner Douglas Manchester gave their 143-year-old newspaper a new slogan ? "The World's Greatest Country & America's Finest City" ? ran a front-page editorial that declared their plan to reshape the city's downtown waterfront their highest priority, and forecast doom if President Barack Obama wins re-election. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In this photo taken Oct. 10, 2012, John Lynch, CEO of the U-T San Diego newspaper, poses for a picture outside his office in San Diego. Lynch and his partner Douglas Manchester gave their 143-year-old newspaper a new slogan ? "The World's Greatest Country & America's Finest City" ? ran a front-page editorial that declared their plan to reshape the city's downtown waterfront their highest priority, and forecast doom if President Barack Obama wins re-election. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In this photo taken Oct. 10, 2012, John Lynch, CEO of the U-T San Diego newspaper, reads mail in his office in San Diego. Lynch and his partner Douglas Manchester gave their 143-year-old newspaper a new slogan ? "The World's Greatest Country & America's Finest City" ? ran a front-page editorial that declared their plan to reshape the city's downtown waterfront their highest priority, and forecast doom if President Barack Obama wins re-election. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In this photo taken Oct. 10, 2012, a man runs on a path in front of the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal in San Diego. The new media barons of San Diego, America's eighth-largest city, are upfront about wanting to use their newspaper to promote their agenda of downtown development and politically conservative causes ? and they are making their points in a brash, bare-knuckle style. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? The new media barons of America's eighth-largest city are upfront about wanting to use their newspaper to promote their agenda of downtown development and politically conservative causes ? and they are making their points in a brash, bare-knuckle style.

Douglas Manchester and his partner John Lynch gave their 143-year-old newspaper a new slogan ? "The World's Greatest Country & America's Finest City" ? ran a front-page editorial that declared their plan to reshape the city's downtown waterfront their highest priority, and forecast doom if President Barack Obama wins re-election.

Manchester, who became wealthy building hotels during the dawn of San Diego's downtown renaissance and insists on being called "Papa Doug," bought The San Diego Union-Tribune last year and its most serious competitor, the North County Times, this month. As he and Lynch eye expansion to Los Angeles and other major cities, they are frank about seeking to use their new platforms to advance their agenda ? and they think they can make a profit while they're at it.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Lynch said the new owners bought the newspaper in part to promote their views in editorials. He called those views pro-family, pro-military and pro-America, and said "anybody who isn't shouldn't be living here."

"We think our country is on the edge of real, real danger, and you have to stand up, and that was a huge part of why we bought this," said Lynch, vice chairman and chief executive officer of U-T San Diego, the newspaper's new name.

The editorial page named Obama the worst U.S. president and predicted a second term will result in "Arab terror states" attacking Israel, "death panels" rationing health care, income tax rates between 60 and 70 percent for many Californians and an attempt to get taxpayers to pay for late-term abortions. It warned of an effort to erase "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency.

Manchester, 70, is likened to a smaller market version of Rupert Murdoch and earlier moguls like William Randolph Hearst and Robert McCormick who used newspapers to wield influence. The unusually strong editorial tone stands out in an era when many newspapers are owned by corporations.

"Hard to believe UT could go further to the right and for the developers but now it is owned by the developers!" Ron Belanger, a 70-year-old retired Navy aviator, wrote on a Facebook page for critics of the new owners called "Bring the L.A. Times back to San Diego."

"It's a strong voice for a minority viewpoint in the media," countered Josef Horowitz, a 67-year-old retired college administrator who renewed his subscription in March, having canceled it under previous owners because he felt the editorials were mealy-mouthed and too liberal.

Lynch said editor Jeff Light has complete control of news coverage and that neither he nor Manchester, as chairman and publisher, meddle.

"Aside from the activist stance of the owners, I am someone who is scrupulously concerned with fairness," Light said.

Lynch, a former radio station owner with a linebacker's build at age 65, speaks bluntly. He recently wrote to Scott Peters, a Port of San Diego commissioner and Democratic nominee for Congress, demanding to know his position on a shipping contract to unload bananas that could complicate the publisher's plans for the downtown waterfront redevelopment. He wanted an exit clause.

"Otherwise this will become a major issue in the campaigns and the UT will be forced to lead a campaign to disband the PORT," he wrote.

The email correspondence, dated in early August and released after a public records request by KPBS/I-Newsource, came as Peters wages a bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray, a Republican endorsed by the newspaper.

In May, Lynch lashed out when the city warned of a fine for hanging a promotional banner outside its offices. He agreed to take it down while seeking approval for a large video screen atop the five-story building.

"If it weren't for the digital sign pending approval, I would instruct our folks to run a piece on how this is so reflective of this city being anti-business," Lynch wrote a city councilman's aide, according to an email published by the San Diego Reader.

Lynch said his missive about the sign was intended as a joke and questions why other news organizations haven't taken a harder look at the port.

Dean Nelson, director of Point Loma Nazarene University's journalism program, said he hasn't seen blatant examples of editorial views seeping into news coverage and is skeptical how much newspaper editorials shape public policy. The question that will be watched most closely in the beleaguered U.S. newspaper industry, he said, is whether the business succeeds.

Tim McGuire, a journalism professor at Arizona State University, said San Diego is at the forefront of what he predicts will be a major trend of wealthy people buying newspapers to push for their agendas.

"People are going to buy and treat newspapers like sports teams," he said. "It's a toy, it's fun to have, and it gives you great power."

Manchester embraced the "Papa Doug" moniker after a Little League coach used it to distinguish him from a son, also named Doug. "Papa Doug" sold interests in two giant downtown hotels but still has major holdings in San Diego and is pursuing prospects, including a $1.3 billion hotel and office complex on the downtown waterfront.

Lynch said Manchester was unavailable for an interview. The pair are old friends and allies since they led a failed campaign to move San Diego's airport out of downtown in the 1990s.

Manchester spent $550,000 on his 65th birthday bash, as well as traveled extensively around the world and stayed at luxury hotels, according to court documents from his 2010 legal separation from his wife of 43 years. Elizabeth Manchester claimed he had $57 million in the bank.

His $125,000 donation to support a 2008 ballot initiative to ban gay marriage in California drew protests ? a decision Lynch says his partner regrets.

"If you're a Catholic, marriage is between a man and a woman," Lynch said. "He had no idea there would be these kind of ramifications."

Manchester invested in San Diego-area resident Dinesh D'Souza's hit documentary, "2016: Obama's America," which portrays a gloomy future if the president is re-elected, according to Lynch.

Manchester bought the U-T from private equity firm Platinum Equity LLC for $110 million and picked up the North County Times from Lee Enterprises Inc. for $12 million. Last week, the Times' print edition was folded into the U-T.

The U-T has spent $5 million on a television venture with a studio in the middle of the newsroom and 12 hours of daily cable programming that highlights Lynch's radio background. The Sunday edition features more in-depth reports and military coverage.

Lynch said the privately held U-T is "significantly profitable" but declined to be specific about revenue or earnings. One test comes when the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases semiannual paid circulation figures Oct. 30.

Amid a brutal decline in the newspaper business, Manchester and Lynch hope to extend their San Diego empire to other major U.S. cities, eyeing adjacent markets like Los Angeles.

"We're trying to do what we can to change the direction of this country," Lynch said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-21-San%20Diego%20Publisher/id-85473ab551b747129ea2fd3fe2dc520a

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5 Terrifying Moments from Video Game History ? Man Cave Daily

by Steve Stevenson

The great thing about video games is their potential to immerse us totally in a fictional world. Even in their early days, with graphics that would make a Rubik?s Cube laugh scornfully, video games could capture the imagination and tap directly into our adrenal glands. That?s great if you want the buzz of drifting a ferrari, or exploding a star-cruiser. It?s slightly more worrying, though, when the video game?s sole objective is to make you @?$! your pants.

So steel yourself, brave gamer, as we take a journey through video game history and take a look at some of the? OH MY GOD LOOK BEHIND YOU!!

METROIDS!! (Metroid, 1986)

For about ten days in the ?80s, there were more female video game characters than female video game players

When home gaming was just beginning its golden-age, Metroid was a ground-breaking newcomer that seemed gargantuan and labyrinthine compared to its peers. Set on an eerie alien world, you took control of a futuristic bounty-hunter, and could wander for hours through haunting caverns filled with more dangerous indigenous lifeforms than Australia could shake a spider-infested stick at.

It wasn?t until the final level that the true horror began. Dropping suddenly into a laboratory-like environment where automated guns fired at you with alarming regularity was disconcerting enough; but then came the Metroids? hulking jellyfish-like abominations unlike anything you had encountered before. They were impervious to most of your weaponry, honed in on you with frightening speed, and once they caught you they didn?t stop leeching your energy until you were dead.

Metroids might seem like child?s-play to a modern gamer, but at the time, enemies with this kind of merciless attack-pattern were unprecedented. More worrying still is that you would have been leveling up your character throughout the entire game up to this point, modifying your energy and weapons capabilities until you felt damn near invincible. To have an enemy that made a nonsense of all your achievements suddenly ambush you was, to say the least, bowel troubling. Worst of all, if you were unfortunate enough to make it this far without obtaining the ice-beam weapon, the Metroids were impossible to kill. There hadn?t been a more horrifying surprise at the end of a game since John Doe from Se7en hosted Let?s Make A Deal.

LEECH AMBUSH!! (Splatterhouse, 1988)

If the ?80s taught us one thing, it?s that nobody in a goalie mask is the hero

In the late ?80s Splatterhouse carved its way into the arcades with all the subtlety of a rusty lump hammer. Squeezing every horror movie trope for all it was worth, Splatterhouse became a nightmare mishmash of grotesque demons, deadly poltergeists and womb-like abominations? all of which you could splat into wallpaper paste with a well-timed blow from your axe-handle. With hanging corpses that puked acid at you, and chainsaw-handed freaks getting all up in your grill, Splatterhouse was full of awful surprises?none more so awful than the boreworm ambush.

It started when you entered the first boss room, and instantly realised that you were totally boned. By this point you would yet to have encountered boreworms?they?re leech-like creatures that are fast and difficult to hit, a pain in the ass that rank right up there with the birds from Castlevania. And now you had wandered into a room where they were piled up like dirty laundry. What followed was possibly the most button-mashing, joystick-wiggling panic dance in arcade history, as you desperately tried to avoid being overwhelmed. Then, when you thought it was all over, the corpse that had been hanging by its neck from an open attic throughout the whole ordeal suddenly had a surprise for you? a final boreworm that burst from its chest, just in time to see you squeal like a girl. Perhaps not one of the first examples of a video game salute to the Thank-God-He?s-Dead-Oh-No-Wait-He-Isn?t horror trope, but certainly one of the most memorable.

WHY WON?T IT DIE!?!? (Resident Evil, 1996)

?Excuse me, sir? Is this your mansi?AAAIEEE IT HAS NO NOSE!?

Although Resident Evil wasn?t the first game in its genre, it was the first of its kind to find a home on the massively popular Playstation games console, and is justly credited with bringing survival horror to the masses. It?s important to remember that up to this point, for many gamers, the entire concept of survival strategy in a horror game was summed up with ?shoot stuff until stuff is dead?. A demon/zombie/girl-scout would charge you, and you would shoot it. Rinse and repeat. End of story. So when us innocent console gamers of the past piloted our clumsy Jill Valentines or Chris Redfields into their first zombie encounter, we really weren?t prepared for what came next?

The game?s focus on tense atmosphere, creepy music and a (for the time) ground-breaking cutscene couldn?t have prepared us for that first moment when, after pumping a zombie full of your limited pistol bullets, it got up from the ground and tried to eat the look of panic clean off your face. More shots, more blood, and still it came. Crawling now, and still moaning like some kind of ghostly cow. And God help you if you tried to take it on with the knife?

Sure, the rest of the game was mostly solving over-elaborate puzzles and hilariously bad dialogue, but for that one shining moment, when I fondly remember spending a full two minutes training a pistol on a computer sprite just incase it wasn?t really dead, Resident Evil raised the bar in video game terror.

DWARVES!!! ARRRRGH!! (Silent Hill, 1999)

?We prefer to be called little people from hell.?

Unlike Resident Evil, which became more about terrible plots and convoluted action sequences, Silent Hill dedicated itself entirely to creeping you out. Whether you were being chased through the dense fog by sinister mutants, or stumbling through a dark alternate nightmare world of blood and rust, Silent Hill used every trick in the book to keep you on edge.

Perhaps one of its cleverest tricks was the use of the radio and the torch. For those of you unfamiliar with either the game or the movie (shame on you, go rent one or both right now) the broken radio would emit a creepy burst of static whenever monsters were approaching, and with many of the levels being in total darkness, the torch would often be the only point of light in the game. The clever twist was that the very things that let you see and hear your enemies, also let them see and hear you?

This was first made apparent in the school level, where the abandoned, pitch-black corridors were patrolled by shuffling, mutant dwarf monsters. You could walk into a room with your radio and torch turned off and hear them moving around. You could choose to brave the dark and hopefully sneak past them, or you could use your torch and radio. Almost as soon as you turned the torch on the monsters would zero in on you, coming out of the shadows and into your circle of light like something out of a nightmare, while your radio crackled and whined the soundtrack to your imminent demise.

These days, the kind of lighting effects in games that allow a room to be lit by a portable light source are taken for granted, but at the time of its release the technology was still groundbreaking, and Silent Hill used it in a way that still stands up to modern games in terms of ruining a perfectly good pair of pants.

I?M LOSING MY MIND!! NEEEEEEEE!!!! (Eternal Darkness, 2004)

Blood is great for the skin, but only when it?s underneath it

Eternal Darkness doesn?t make the scary-moments grade because its monsters are the most intimidating, or its atmosphere the most tense; it makes the grade because how it tries to scare you is by far the most fun and original way in video game history. Eternal Darkness tries to convince you that you?re losing your mind.

For those of you who haven?t played the game, please don?t read on. Go and find an old copy of the game and play it through. It?s not the best game out there, but there are certain moments that?ll make you glad you made the effort.

Now, for those who have played, you?ll likely remember the times when your character would suddenly return to a room only to find themselves walking on the ceiling, or that your television would appear to mute itself, or that your inventory would suddenly be wiped. Or maybe your game would pretend to to crash, or stop midway to tell you you?d only purchased a demo version. Or sprinkle power-ups around making you think you?d hit the jackpot, only to have the screen white out while your avatar clutched his or her head, bemoaning their lost marbles as you realize the power-ups were never there in the first place. Eternal Darkness was crammed with more ?What the @?$%?? moments than Clint Eastwood?s entire history of political commentary.

Eternal Darkness may not have been a heavy-weight in the horror game circles- appearing only on the comparatively under-powered Game Cube system- but it achieved with originality and creativity what many slicker games failed to do with blood and guts.

CONCLUSION

Its easy to become jaded with horror themed games these days. After all, those of us who are grownup are less concerned with zombies and demons and more concerned with unemployment or that weird lump on our foot. And the younger kids? They?ve grown up with YouTube, and have thus become desensitised to the point that grizzled Vietnam veterans would shake their head in pity. But there are still great games out there bringing us brand new worlds, brand new monsters, and brand new ways to die. So here?s to the game developers, past and present, who have done their damnedest to momentarily take us out of the real world, and submerge us fully into a realm of spine-tingling terror. Thanks guys? I guess?

---

We don?t need your judgment, Star, we need you to be in awe of our toe-dexterity

Steve Stevenson lies awake at night, reliving the time he was almost a Jill sandwich. You can follow him on twitter, read his book, or check him out at The Leaky Wiki? if you dare.?

It just kinda looks like sea life

Steve also chronicled the ?80s with our?Harsh Life Lessons learned from Classic Video?Games. But if you want to see where horror meets failure, check out?The 5 Worst Monsters In Resident Evil.

Source: http://mancave.cbslocal.com/2012/10/22/5-terrifying-moments-from-video-game-history/

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Hearing Loss Remedies: A Healthy Heart | Hearing Aid News

It is not exactly breaking news that cardiovascular disease (CVD), which impacts heart and / or blood vessels, is a very dangerous affliction. In fact, American Heart Association (AHA) says CVD is the No. 1 killer in the United States, accounting for more than a third of all deaths every year.

Healthy heart, arteries and veins are crucial to good overall health and longevity. And, research shows, they also have a positive impact on hearing.

We already knew that there was a strong correlation between heart health and good hearing, but now we have even more proof: New research published in a recent edition of the American Journal of Audiology, a publication of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), reported that a healthy cardiovascular system boosts our hearing over time, particularly among older adults.

All this may sound Greek to you, but, in fact, the mechanism we are talking about here is not as complex as it sounds.

The Cochlea ? an essential part of hearing

The cochlea is a snail-shaped, fluid-filled tube in each of our inner ears and contains millions of tiny receptor hair cells. It plays a very important role in our hearing because it translates sound into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain. However, trauma to a cochlea?s blood vessels can cause nerve deafness.

If the cochlea becomes damaged ? for example, by a degenerative cardiovascular disease ? our hearing capacity can be greatly diminished or lost altogether.

This is not just hearsay; it has been proven by various research, including the Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (EHLS), carried out in 2002 in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. As part of that research, cochlear function was tested in about 1,600 people ages 52 to 97.

Researchers found that participants with a history of cardiovascular disease were on average 54 percent more likely to have impaired cochlear function (hearing loss) than those without CVD.

Additionally, hearing loss appeared in nearly 80 percent of those who had myocardial infarction ? damage or destruction of heart tissue caused by obstruction of the blood supply to the heart muscle.

If you are frightened by these findings, you should be. But don?t just sit there and be scared ? take action.

Be good to your heart and hearing

Love your heart, love your hearing

Since we know that blood flow is directly related to the vascular pattern of the cochlea, common sense dictates that we should be proactive in keeping our circulation ? and thus the entire cardiovascular system ? in top shape.

The good news coming out of the ASHA study is that cardiovascular fitness can protect our hearing by having a beneficial effect on the vascular pattern of the cochlea and, consequently, on hearing loss prevention.

Now that you know this, what can you do to protect your hearing ? and health in general? The answer is very simple (and you have heard it many times before): Get healthy!

The AHA suggests these seven steps: get active, eat better, lose weight, stop smoking, control cholesterol, manage blood pressure, and reduce blood sugar (risk of diabetes).

What exactly does it mean? If you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, don?t wait for a heart attack to take action. If you can?t lower your risk factors with a low-fat, healthy nutrition, your doctor might prescribe medications to help you get on the right track.

As far as smoking is concerned, it is not only bad for your heart (and health in general) but for your hearing as well ? smoking and hearing losss studies have shown that smokers are nearly 70 percent more likely than non-smokers to suffer hearing loss.

In regards to reducing blood sugar, this can improve your hearing outlook even further by preventing diabetes. Studies have demonstrated diabetics are at risk for developing hearing loss. By preventing diabetes you are also helping to prevent hearing loss.

And getting active is easy too. You don?t need an expensive gym membership, a personal trainer or high-impact fitness routine to see positive results. The AHA says that even low-to-moderate intensity activities, when done for as little as 30 minutes a day, bring benefits. These activities include pleasure walking, climbing stairs, gardening, moderate-to-heavy housework, dancing and home exercise.

See, taking proactive steps to prevent both CVD and hearing loss is easy. As the saying goes: ?Just do it!?

Article source: http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/articles/Hearing-loss/Causes/45600-Hearing-loss-heart-health

Source: http://www.hearing-aid-news.com/hearing-loss-remedies-a-healthy-heart/

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