Obama doesn't foresee US ground troops in Syria

President Barack Obama and Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla speak during their news conference at the National Center for Art and Culture in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama and Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla speak during their news conference at the National Center for Art and Culture in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) ? President Barack Obama said Friday he doesn't foresee any circumstance requiring the U.S. to send ground troops into Syria, even as Washington pursues more evidence about the regime's purported use of chemical weapons.

"I do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground in Syria, American boots on the ground, would not only be good for America but also would be good for Syria," Obama said at a news conference.

The president's declaration was in line with the apparent prevailing sentiment in Washington. Even one of Obama's chief antagonists on Syria, Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., has said he does not advocate sending ground troops, arguing that would be "the worst thing the United States could do right now."

Obama also said he had consulted with Mideast leaders who want to see Syrian President Bashar Assad's departure and agree with his assessment that the U.S. shouldn't send ground forces. After long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, another U.S. intervention in the region could further inflame anti-American sentiment.

Obama, who was meeting with Central American leaders in Costa Rica, was asked what the United States would do if its investigations find firmer evidence of Syrian use of chemical weapons. He repeated his earlier assertion that it would be a "game-changer."

"We will stay on this," Obama said. The United States has sent humanitarian aid to the Syrian rebels, but not arms. The two-year civil war that has left an estimated 70,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels. Hagel said that the U.S. was consulting with allies and that and he personally hadn't decided whether it would be a wise move. Sending arms is considered risky partly because of fears that some would end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked fighters and might someday be used against the United States.

Obama said the U.S. already is putting pressure on the Syrian government, including through humanitarian aid to the opposition. If systematic use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces were confirmed, he said, the United States would present that evidence to the international community.

"When it comes to using chemical weapons, the entire world should be concerned," he said.

He also stressed the importance of moving cautiously. The Syria question comes as the U.S. is leaving Afghanistan after more than a decade of war there, most of it fought as the nation was also at war in Iraq.

"When we rush into things, when we leap before we look, not only do we pay a price but oftentimes we see unintended consequences on the ground," Obama said. "It's important for us to do it right."

The administration announced last week that it believes Assad has used chemical weapons but said the intelligence wasn't clear enough to be certain that the regime has crossed a "red line" of definite chemical weapons use that he said would have "enormous consequences" for Assad's government.

Obama said Friday it's not yet clear when, where or how the weapons might have been used.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-03-LT-US-Syria/id-37da978cd0fa4c8c8762d90f88b1e933

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Weekly Meditations for Healthy Sex (May 3-9) - Huffington Post

It's vital for mindful acts of emotional and spiritual intimacy to steadily develop as a daily practice for healthy sex. To that end, Center for Healthy Sex has created daily meditations to help you reach your sexual and relational potential. (You can subscribe for free here.)

Even momentarily concentrating on healthy solutions rewires psychological patterns to receive and share healthy sexual love in the present. Here are three meditations with the themes of sexual fascination, discrimination, and happiness for you to ponder and practice this week.

Meditation 1: Sexual Fascination

"Sex, a great and mysterious motive force in human life, has indisputably been a subject of absorbing interest to mankind through the ages." -- William J. Brennan, Jr.

"Sex sells," they say. We know advertisers use subliminal sexual messages to sell products -- orgies hidden in ice cubes. That's because erotic imagery affects people's brains first, followed by body parts, like an accident we can't not look at. What is it about sex and sexuality that's so provocative? If we weren't repressed on some level, would sex still hold us enthralled? Certainly the world is wounded by sex-negative messages, and part of our cultural fleshly fixation might be trying instinctively to restore sacred sexuality to its rightful place. Yet true eroticism really does demand a deep connection to stir us inside, to rouse us from sleepwalking through life. So the issue of sexual fascination might not be so much the result of sexualization intruding on society, but more likely is the imposition of societal obligations onto individual erotic integration and genuine interaction. Were we to live more authentic lives, perhaps our sexual fascination would be absorbed by our sexual expression.

Surely there's a biological imperative to mate and reproduce. But even beyond that, there's a psychological imperative to sexual fascination in that sexuality is one of the rare, true transformations of ourselves we've witnessed: We started out with scant consciousness of the subject, but that unawareness transformed with puberty. All of us lived life when sex was the farthest thing from our minds. Try to remember the careless freedom of play, basking in the beingness of others. As adults, responsibilities and obligations can often bind us to a daily grind. For some adults, then, sex might be one of the few interactions that restores their openness and sensory exploration of play. It's not hard to see why sexual preoccupation might take over when people become locked out from experiencing fulfilling lives.

Daily healthy sex acts

• Consider your fascination with sex. What is the feeling as sexuality suddenly enters a routine day, whether by an erotic image or a sexualized spark?

• Speak from your center. Does your vocal pitch waver throughout the day as circumstances overwhelm? One way to counterbalance the overpowering allure of the sensory world is to operate out of your inner potency. Whenever you find yourself transfixed by anything or anyone, summon personal power and speak from your heart and in your true voice.

Meditation 2: Discrimination

"Of all the girls that are so smart
There's none like pretty Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And lives in our alley." -- Henry Carey

It's vital for human beings to recognize the light in everyone. When our walls of prejudice block others' light, we might seek out unconscious, subversive, or even illicit means to integrate those we deem inferior. How many of us have fantasized about or fooled around with people we would never take home to our parents? Is that reluctance based on the people or our prejudice? To judge and divide sets us in a prison of our own making. We might feel virtuous by uplifting those that we (delusively) consider lowly, but we're still blind to their (and our) true light.

But to discriminate wisely we need to see our own and another's natures. Just because we want to open our hearts, eyes and minds to honor all life doesn't mean we should open our arms, homes, and wallets. Mother Teresa could transmute all personalities to share her unconditional love, but most of us will strive to balance our dual capacities for charity and self-care.

Valid discrimination requires self-knowledge. "Trauma bonding" explains the attraction between couples who share similar or counterbalancing psychological damage. Romeo and Juliet's impulsive affair, usually cited as the epitome of true love, is more a tale of trauma bonding. We can only perceive in others the qualities we have perceived in ourselves, and what we haven't worked through will be worked out on others. Many profess attraction to rebel types over supposedly nice types, but to someone else the nice one might not seem so nice and the rebel might seem quite conformist. But willfully to choose "bad" over "good" people, things, or behavior is a personal delusion -- the result of repressed desire meeting unexamined conditioning. Illuminating how we discriminate helps us define deeper values that may guide us to seek what's truly good for us.

Daily healthy sex acts

• Show unconditional love today for all you encounter, but protect your personal boundaries. Recall the difference between unconditional and indiscriminating, and that you might hold someone in your heart while keeping them at arm's length.

• What attracts you to others? Define your "arousal template," all the factors you find sexually stimulating. How does your present discriminating taste serve your sexual health?

• Often, sex and love addicts in recovery struggle to release unhealthy patterns and tolerate intimacy with a healthy partner, which differs from their familiar arousal template. Where does your own internal system of discrimination need restriction or expansion?

Meditation 3: Happiness

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." -- Buddha

Happiness is a peculiar feeling. Most of us long for happiness when it's gone. Yet when life pleases, some of us anxiously treasure and fanatically document our joy. There's even a word for the irrational fear of excessive happiness -- cherophobia -- recognizing that such an exalted state carries the potential for disappointment or consequent tragedy. Material happiness refers to a temporary state depending on outside factors, and being based in externals results in a dual experience. In the physics of the material world, what goes up must come down. Similarly, material pleasures have a beginning and end, a rise and decline. That's why we can chase after every desire and peak experience and it doesn't necessarily create long-term happiness. The core belief that happiness will inevitably trigger displeasure may strike us as familiar, because we all know fluctuating cycles and the pain of polarity. But this is clearly a falsity, a mental distortion to ever think that happiness and pain must be received in equal measure.

Is there a possibility for everlasting happiness, perpetual grace? We certainly do seem to seek the happy ending as a species, and the right to the pursuit of happiness is even indoctrinated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, although the right to the fulfillment of said happiness is noticeably absent except in assorted religious promises of the afterlife. We do know that true inner happiness is an act of communion because it results in identification and connection to the flow of life. This happiness must involve intimacy, the ability to make oneself known. Receptivity to the experience of personal happiness is a form of self-knowledge. To be capable of self-knowledge, intimacy and communion manifests fulfillment, a deeply enduring happiness.

Daily healthy sex acts

• When you seek happiness from something outside of yourself, first seek the inner values promised by your object of desire: A vacation promises freedom, and a new lover might promise eroticism or esteem. Cultivate lasting happiness by focusing on these inner values, which you can work toward any and every day, with or without that object of desire.

• Today, practice smiling for two minutes nonstop. How long can you last? If your habitual mental loop spasms to negativity (anxiety, fear, or sadness) you'll feel your facial muscles twitch. Even if you don't feel happy, the physical act of smiling can trigger neurotransmitters to induce a healthy surge of happiness.

For more by Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T., click here.

For more on conscious relationships, click here.

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Follow Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sexaddexpert

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexandra-katehakis-mft/sex-meditation_b_3072404.html

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A playboy with panic attacks is our best hero

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC News

Four major superheroes have new movies this year. Superman gets a reboot in June's "Man of Steel," the deadly claws of "The Wolverine" spring back out in July, and Thor will swing his hammer in November's "Thor: The Dark World." But the liveliest of the current superhero franchises arrives Friday, as "Iron Man 3" hits theaters.

Paramount Pictures file

Iron Man feels like a more human, relatable superhero than most of his type.

Thanks in no small part to its star, the can't-take-your-eyes-off-him Robert Downey Jr., the "Iron Man" movie series has soared. With Downey in the suit and smart writing and directing behind the scripts, Iron Man/Tony Stark has transformed from his comic-book portrayal as Captain America's billionaire buddy to the most super of superheroes. Here's why.

He's got problems
Superman and Captain America are so goody-two-shoes you could bring them home to mother, even if she's Mother Teresa. Iron Man, like Downey himself, has a bad-boy rep. In his real identity as Tony Stark, he drank too much, he spent too much, he slept with too many women. He's a little more on the straight-and-narrow now, but he still has crippling anxiety attacks that leave him hyperventilating by the side of the road in a most un-heroic fashion. And he's not above dancing like a dork in his super-secret lab.

Disney

Don Cheadle, aka War Machine/Iron Patriot, is Tony Stark's pal. Unlike Robin, he's no fawning sidekick.

He's got the coolest friends
Col. James Rhodes, aka War Machine (Don Cheadle), is a much more entertaining sidekick than Batman's Robin. In his real life, he's a full-on military man, and in his suit, he's just about as tough as Iron Man. But he and Tony have the greatest just-bros relationship outside of Joey and Chandler. ("It's not the '80s, nobody says 'hacks' anymore," Tony chides him in the new film.) And we also love Tony's pal Happy (Jon Favreau), who's head of security for a global corporation but still has no idea how to work an iPad.

He's not ashamed of his suit
Captain America has his super-soldier serum, the Incredible Hulk his dose of gamma radiation. Iron Man is a smart and buff billionaire, but he wouldn't be a superhero without the powerful suit he himself invented. And who cares? Batman's just a regular billionaire too, with a really cool arsenal of Bat-gadgets. Tony's never hidden the fact that he needs his suit -- in fact, he almost revels in it, displaying his different outfits in his mansion and even giving them names.

Sometimes his stuff fails
Does it ever. Like a smartphone, sometimes Iron Man's suit is crying out for a charge at the most inconvenient moments. Other times, Tony tries to call the pieces of the suit to him, and gets smacked in the face for his troubles. In the third film, it even zips to his aid while he's sleeping, which really freaks out Pepper.

Disney

Gwyneth Paltrow is neither a babe nor a wimp as Pepper Potts.

His girlfriend is neither a wimp nor a babe
Whatever you think of?World's Most Beautiful Woman Gwyneth Paltrow, she does a decent job as Tony's girlfriend, the goofily named Pepper Potts. She doesn't slink around in gowns cut down to there like a Bond girl, and she doesn't cower in the background and wait to get kidnapped either (although it has happened). She and Tony have an easy rapport and you do believe they care about each other. Tony's lost a lot of things through his own stupid fault, and it's clear he doesn't want Pepper to be one of them.

He's up on pop culture
Tony, and his entire film series, doesn't live in the 1940s, like Captain America, or in some grim and somber Gotham, like Batman. He's a part of our world, with all its bad TV and fast food and cheesy products. He wears a Black Sabbath shirt (in sly tribute to their "Iron Man" song). ?He references Barrel of Monkeys during a mid-air rescue. In "Iron Man 3," he finds himself donning a Dora the Explorer watch, and learning that his pal Happy is addicted to "Downton Abbey." Tony lives in Malibu, not Made Up Ville.

He knows how to be rich
Tony Stark is a billionaire, and he knows how to be one. He bought himself a space-age stunner of a mansion on the cliffs of Malibu, and he drives fancy speedsters like the all-electric concept car, the Audi R8. He sweeps in to fancy dinners and balls in a tux and occasionally breaks a paparazzi's camera -- just as we like to think we would do if our bank account were a whole lot fatter.

Who's your favorite superhero? Vote in our poll, and tell us on Facebook.

Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/18004404-why-iron-man-a-playboy-with-panic-attacks-is-our-best-superhero?lite

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GOES-R EXIS instrument ready for integration

Public release date: 2-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rob Gutro
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
301-286-4044
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The first of six instruments that will fly on GOES-R, NOAA's next-generation of geostationary operational environmental satellites, has been completed on schedule, seven months before its scheduled installation onto the spacecraft.

The instrument, the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors, or EXIS, will give scientists a greater measure of the extreme solar energy output from the sun, which can severely disrupt telecommunications, air travel, and the performance of power grids.

"Extreme solar activity has the potential to wreak havoc on the U.S. and global economy, so it's critical that the GOES-R satellite will have this technology in place to monitor for it," said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service in Silver Spring, Md.

GOES-R, scheduled to launch in 2015, will be more advanced than NOAA's current GOES fleet. The satellites are expected to more than double the clarity of today's GOES imagery and provide more atmospheric observations than current capabilities with more frequent images.

"Data from the GOES-R instruments will be used to create many different products, enabling NOAA meteorologists and other users to better monitor the atmosphere, land, ocean and the sun enabling more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings," said Steven J. Goodman, GOES-R program senior scientist, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

EXIS will be shipped from the LASP site in Boulder to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Littleton, Colo., later this year to be installed onto the spacecraft. Lockheed is building the GOES-R spacecraft.

"Completing our first instrument is a major milestone in the satellite building process," said Pam Sullivan, who manages the GOES-R Flight Project at NASA Goddard, and is responsible for the development of the instruments and spacecraft.

The remaining GOES-R instruments to be delivered are:

• the Advanced Baseline Imager, the primary instrument on GOES-R for imaging Earth's weather, climate, and environment;
• Geostationary Lightning Mapper, which will provide for the first time a continuous surveillance of total lightning over the western hemisphere from space;
• the Space Environment In-Situ Suite will consist of sensors that will monitor radiation hazard and warn of high radiation flux events and help mitigate any damage to radio communication;
• the Solar Ultraviolet Imager is a high-powered telescope that observes the sun, monitoring for solar flares and other solar activity that could impact Earth, and
• the Magnetometer, will provide measurements of the space environment magnetic field that controls charged particle dynamics in the outer region of the magnetosphere. These particles can be dangerous to spacecraft and human spaceflight.

NOAA manages the GOES-R Series Program through an integrated NOAA-NASA program office, staffed with personnel from NOAA and NASA, and co-located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"We're just a few years away from seeing significant improvements in the way NOAA will serve the public with better weather forecasts and warnings," said Greg Mandt, director of the GOES-R Series Program.

###

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 2-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rob Gutro
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
301-286-4044
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The first of six instruments that will fly on GOES-R, NOAA's next-generation of geostationary operational environmental satellites, has been completed on schedule, seven months before its scheduled installation onto the spacecraft.

The instrument, the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors, or EXIS, will give scientists a greater measure of the extreme solar energy output from the sun, which can severely disrupt telecommunications, air travel, and the performance of power grids.

"Extreme solar activity has the potential to wreak havoc on the U.S. and global economy, so it's critical that the GOES-R satellite will have this technology in place to monitor for it," said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service in Silver Spring, Md.

GOES-R, scheduled to launch in 2015, will be more advanced than NOAA's current GOES fleet. The satellites are expected to more than double the clarity of today's GOES imagery and provide more atmospheric observations than current capabilities with more frequent images.

"Data from the GOES-R instruments will be used to create many different products, enabling NOAA meteorologists and other users to better monitor the atmosphere, land, ocean and the sun enabling more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings," said Steven J. Goodman, GOES-R program senior scientist, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

EXIS will be shipped from the LASP site in Boulder to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Littleton, Colo., later this year to be installed onto the spacecraft. Lockheed is building the GOES-R spacecraft.

"Completing our first instrument is a major milestone in the satellite building process," said Pam Sullivan, who manages the GOES-R Flight Project at NASA Goddard, and is responsible for the development of the instruments and spacecraft.

The remaining GOES-R instruments to be delivered are:

• the Advanced Baseline Imager, the primary instrument on GOES-R for imaging Earth's weather, climate, and environment;
• Geostationary Lightning Mapper, which will provide for the first time a continuous surveillance of total lightning over the western hemisphere from space;
• the Space Environment In-Situ Suite will consist of sensors that will monitor radiation hazard and warn of high radiation flux events and help mitigate any damage to radio communication;
• the Solar Ultraviolet Imager is a high-powered telescope that observes the sun, monitoring for solar flares and other solar activity that could impact Earth, and
• the Magnetometer, will provide measurements of the space environment magnetic field that controls charged particle dynamics in the outer region of the magnetosphere. These particles can be dangerous to spacecraft and human spaceflight.

NOAA manages the GOES-R Series Program through an integrated NOAA-NASA program office, staffed with personnel from NOAA and NASA, and co-located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"We're just a few years away from seeing significant improvements in the way NOAA will serve the public with better weather forecasts and warnings," said Greg Mandt, director of the GOES-R Series Program.

###

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/nsfc-gei050213.php

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Hazen students teach lessons about big-budget decisions ...

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Home / Schools / Hazen students teach lessons about big-budget decisions

May 1, 2013

By Christina Corrales-Toy

By Christina Corrales-Toy
Hazen High School sophomore Shiva Prasad (center) is surrounded by Nelsen Middle School students as they make real-world financial decisions during a simulation that teaches kids about budgeting.

Adulthood comes with its perks, including a long-awaited sense of freedom, but it also brings to light the inevitable financial, familial and personal responsibilities that go with it.

Dana White, UFC gave money to Boston bombing victims

UFC president Dana White is proud of his Boston roots. He openly cheers for the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins on Twitter, and he was downright giddy when he announced the UFC would return to Boston on Aug. 17. The Boston Marathon bombing affected him, and he and the UFC responded to the tragedy.

White called the act cowardly:

?How cowardly and disgusting that these people, who lived in the city as long as they did, did that. To put the bag right next to kids, I don?t even like talking about it. It?s just disgusting.

He told the Boston Globe that he and the Fertitta brothers donated personally to the One Fund, which will help the people most affected by the bombings. The UFC and Fox also gave money.

The UFC also did something on a smaller scale that still gave some smiles to Boston UFC fans. The days after UFC 159, they conducted their #Hunt4UFC in Boston. Usually, the UFC only does their Twitter-based scavenger hunt in fight cities. White tweeted locations where Bostonians could find UFC gear. On Monday, Red Sox player and friend of the UFC Shane Victorino participated.

Be near Fenway in 1 hr RT @shanevictorino: Signing some @redsox gear for the next #Hunt4UFC. Get ready Boston!!! twitter.com/ShaneVictorino?

? Dana White (@danawhite) April 29, 2013

White and the UFC's actions won't erase what happened to Boston, but it can help some of its citizens on the way to recovery.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/dana-white-ufc-gave-money-boston-bombing-victims-194156167.html

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With $7.5M From Redpoint, Bill Campbell & Others, Curious Launches A Marketplace For Life-Long Learning

With the growing demand for video-based online education, Curious.com is joining the crowd today with a marketplace that aims help students and teachers connect around a range of subjects, from pipe soldering and salsa dancing to jewelry making and knife sharpening.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/o_bvVTbljek/

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