Thursday, March 28

Month: September 2014

New Study Points to Traditional Gender Roles in Elderly Parent Care: Daughters Give More Than Sons
Lifestyle

New Study Points to Traditional Gender Roles in Elderly Parent Care: Daughters Give More Than Sons

As Mom and Dad age, it's daughters -- not sons -- who are more likely to provide care for their elderly parents, according to a new study. The research, presented in a paper to the American Sociological Association in San Francisco, was conducted by Angelina Grigoryeva, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Princeton University. Grigoryeva's study concluded that daughters of aging parents provide an average of 12.3 hours of care per month, as opposed to sons' care, which averaged out to 5.6 hours per month. Overall, the study found that in families with sons and daughters, gender tended to determine which child would perform care-giving duties. In fact, daughters tended to not only spend more time with an elderly parent, but sons would actually reduce their time if they had a siste...
Chicago Public Schools Have Installed New Air Conditioning in 57 Schools
Local

Chicago Public Schools Have Installed New Air Conditioning in 57 Schools

Classrooms in Chicago city schools are going to get more comfortable soon. Air conditioning has been installed in 57 out of 681 public schools, and 29 more will receive air conditioning units by October's end. According to officials, 154 schools total have received air conditioning over the past two years. The air conditioning comes after several years of complaints from parents, teachers, and students alike. Both parents and teachers say that the high temperatures in the classroom make it difficult for students to actually learn. In Chicago, temperatures in the mid to high 80s persist from May until the end of September. The Chicago Public School system serves approximately 400,000 students, elementary to high school. The air conditioning installations are part of a larger, five yea...
House Flippers Change Gears, Seek Out High-End Neighborhoods
Business

House Flippers Change Gears, Seek Out High-End Neighborhoods

House flipping might be risky, but it can also be highly profitable. According to a new report by CNBC, however, house flippers need to get smarter -- the margins for flippers are smaller, and it's led to a much larger group of high-end house flippers, at least for now. "Flippers no longer have the luxury of 20 to 30% annual price gains to pad their profits," explains Daren Blomquist, the VP of RealtyTrac, a real estate information website. "As the market softens, successful flippers will need to focus on finding properties that they can buy at a discount and efficiently add value to." Consequently, many home-flippers have been looking toward high-end neighborhoods. Not only do these homes have greater potential for adding value, but they are also being bought by less penny-pinching ...
US Coast Guard Tackles Communication Problems In The Arctic
World

US Coast Guard Tackles Communication Problems In The Arctic

Most naval tasks are difficult. Most tasks performed in the Arctic are difficult too. Combine the two, and it becomes a true challenge. Naval tasks performed in Arctic have always been difficult and required additional effort to perform, and not just because of the cold. The region is one of the most remote in the world with extremely limited infrastructure. Even very basic communication from other units deployed north of the Arctic Circle (66 degrees 33 minutes north latitude) are tough. Luckily however, Lockheed Martin is lending a hand with their new five-satellite MUOS, or mobile user objective system. The MUOS is satellite communication constellation that was specifically developed for the Navy as a partial solution to Arctic communication, according to Paul Scearce, Lockheed Marti...
Heavy Rains and Flooding Wreak Havoc on Unsuspecting Michigan Communities
Local

Heavy Rains and Flooding Wreak Havoc on Unsuspecting Michigan Communities

Clean up crews are working around the clock to clear debris from parts of Michigan that were devastated by recent heavy rains and flooding. In many neighborhoods, piles of water-damaged furniture, carpets and other house hold items that could not be salvaged line the streets. As trucks attempt to clear the tons of garbage left in front of homes, many reinforcements have been called in. The city of Warren has already spent $100,000 in overtime costs to deal with the damage left by the storm. Many basements experienced severe flood damage, with some that had water up to the ceiling. As a place that doesn't typically receive this kind of rain or flooding, many residents were not prepared for the amount of water that invaded their homes, and many are facing thousands of dollars in repair...
Closed Captioning of SEO Video Content Could Boost Views, Engagement
Business

Closed Captioning of SEO Video Content Could Boost Views, Engagement

Recent studies have discovered something surprising about the use of closed captioning for video content created for search engine optimization (SEO): it's surprisingly effective. According to a July 29 Business2Community article, adding closed captioning and transcripts to a video can increase "traffic, page views, search rank, and engagement." In a Discovery Digital Networks study that measured the impact of captioning on web videos, videos with closed captioning saw a 13.48% growth in views and a lifetime increase of views by 7.32%, according to Business2Community. In addition to causing an increase in the number of views a video gets, closed captioning can also help a video move up the ranks in search engine results faster, which is what every SEO strategy tries to attain. ...
Buses in Florida Lack Air Conditioning; Some Students Suffer Heat Stroke
Local

Buses in Florida Lack Air Conditioning; Some Students Suffer Heat Stroke

Education has often been a hot topic, whether it's in regard to the latest budget cuts, the newest testing requirements, or the confusing nature of the Common Core. One issue that is often under-addressed, though, is the problem of buses not having any air conditioning, especially in Southern states where temperatures can soar to head indexes above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In Lake County School District -- near Orlando, Florida -- several buses in the district still lack air conditioning. Now that school is starting back up, many students are stuck sitting for up to an hour in hot temperatures. According to the district's spokesman, Chris Patton, 47 out of 330 buses lack air conditioning in the district. The issue is that, while new buses have air conditioning, older ones don't -- and th...
California Considers Mandatory Drug Testing for Doctors
Business

California Considers Mandatory Drug Testing for Doctors

Job seekers and current employees alike are usually pretty familiar with random drug testing, and the majority of people have either had to take a random drug test for a job or expect to do so in the near future. Jobs that directly affect the health and safety of others -- and especially those jobs which have the potential to be very high-profile, such as police work and firefighting -- are nearly expected to mandate drug tests for employees. But one group of workers have remained untouched by random drug tests, despite being directly responsible for the health of others: doctors. But if the state of California has anything to say about it, this may change soon. This coming November, a mandate, called Proposition 46, requiring that all doctors be subject to random drug and alcohol tests...
California Lemon Grower Has Suggestion for Getting Through Drought
Business

California Lemon Grower Has Suggestion for Getting Through Drought

California is still caught in the grips of a severe drought that has everyone worried about what the future holds for residents, farms, and rivers alike. According to the latest released records, the state's reservoirs are still "dangerously low."The drought has caused a series of repercussions that there is no quick relief from anytime soon. Residents have been asked to drastically cut back on their water intake. Consequently, the sale of pools has fallen dramatically in a state often known for its excessive homes and gardens. Landscaping has had an impact, as many residents choose to stop watering their lawns every day. Almond farmers are battling local tribes, who rely on salmon in the Klamath River, for reservoir water.In San Diego, Bruce Henderson was worried about his lemon groves, w...
Think You’re a Diehard Fan? Seattle Seahawks Fan Gets Team Logo on Prosthetic Eye
Sport

Think You’re a Diehard Fan? Seattle Seahawks Fan Gets Team Logo on Prosthetic Eye

Bill VandenBush has been a diehard Seahawks fan ever since it was announced back in the '70s that Seattle was getting a football team. Little did he know that his wife would surprise him for their anniversary on July 23 with a gift that would allow him to show off just how much he loves his favorite team: a customized prosthetic eye. I had mentioned it to my wife," he says, "She wasn't a big Seahawks fan. I said it'd be cool to have Seahawks logo right there in my eye." VandenBush lost his right eye and vocal cords as the result of being caught in an explosion when he was trying to rescue the crew of a downed helicopter in Vietnam in 1969. Every six years he has to be fitted for a new prosthetic eye, and this year, following the Seahawks' Super Bowl championship run, his wife w...