David W. McFadden wins $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize

TORONTO ? Toronto?s David W. McFadden appeared utterly shocked to win the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize on Thursday night, thanking his daughter Jennifer for being ?such a wonderful person? and providing inspiration for his collection.

McFadden?s ?What?s the Score?? (Mansfield Press) was named the winner of the lucrative accolade at a gala attended by literary luminaries including Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Susan Swan and Michael Winter.

?I can?t talk, I?m sorry, but I can read,? said a tongue-tied McFadden as he referred to a prepared speech in which he also thanked the prize creators, his family and his editor and publisher.

?I didn?t expect this. I didn?t know what I was doing up there,? he said with a laugh in an interview after receiving the prize.

?All I know is that I feel sorry for all the great poets that haven?t had this experience.?

The author of 35 books of poetry, fiction and travel writing, McFadden started publishing poetry in 1958 and has been previously shortlisted for the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize, as well as for three Governor General?s Awards.

In their citation of ?What?s the Score?? the judges said: ?With their arch yet affable tone, these ninety-nine irreverent and mock-earnest poems lay siege to the feelings of boredom, anxiety, and alienation that afflict a culture obsessed with wealth and prestige, leading us, again and again, down the road of excess to the palace of wisdom.?

Meanwhile, ?Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems? (Yale University Press), by Ramallah-based Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan and translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah of Houston, won $65,000 for the international Griffin honour. Zaqtan has written 10 poetry collections while Joudah is an internal medicine doctor as well as a translator and poet himself.

Speaking in Arabic translated by Joudah, Zaqtan thanked his fellow nominees, the prize creators, his poet father and his mother, ?who was essentially the librarian of the house.?

He and Joudah also thanked late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who published Zaqtan?s work in a magazine that caught the translator?s attention.

?That?s how we came together as two brotherly souls, I think, who had never met or spoken,? Joudah said in an interview.

?I began on the work simply by asking him permission through email and he sent me the texts and then later on, as time passed, we spoke and then years later we met.?

Zaqtan?s visa to enter Canada to attend the Griffin gala was initially denied by the Canadian embassy in Cairo but after Joudah and other writer groups took to social media to garner support for him, the visa was eventually granted.

?I think the visa thing is recognizably an unfortunate twist of events,? said Joudah. ?But it was solved and I think one?s thoughts turn most importantly to the celebration of beauty and poetry.?

The Griffin prize, he added, ?really puts, in part, Palestinian poetry in a light that it should have been under and in for quite some time. And it?s about time and I am happy for that.?

This is the 13th year for the Griffin, which recognizes one Canadian and one international poet.

Judges Suzanne Buffam of Vancouver, Mark Doty of the U.S., and China?s Wang Ping each read 509 books of poetry, from 40 countries, including 15 translations.

Toronto businessman Scott Griffin created the honour along with trustees including Atwood and Ondaatje.

The prize money includes $10,000 each finalist received for participating in Wednesday evening?s readings.

Guests at the Thursday bash feasted on shrimp tacos, truffled wild mushrooms, beef tenderloin and mini chocolate bars. The night was a celebration of poetry, which former Griffin winner A.F. Moritz called ?a guardian of the health of language and the creativity of language.?

He lamented its marginalization, adding: ?If there were more of a balance of poetry and all that it represents, or (it was) more central in our culture, our culture would be doing a lot better.?

Last year?s winners were Toronto?s Ken Babstock and Britain?s David Harsent.

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/David+McFadden+wins+Griffin+Poetry+Prize/8525414/story.html

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NSA head says spy programs thwarted terror attacks

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. Cyber Command testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, before the Senate Appropriations Committee, his first public appearance since revelations that the electronic surveillance agency is sweeping up Americans' phone and Internet records in its quest to investigate terrorist threats. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. Cyber Command testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, before the Senate Appropriations Committee, his first public appearance since revelations that the electronic surveillance agency is sweeping up Americans' phone and Internet records in its quest to investigate terrorist threats. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. Cyber Command testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, before the Senate Appropriations Committee, his first public appearance since revelations that the electronic surveillance agency is sweeping up Americans' phone and Internet records in its quest to investigate terrorist threats. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, opens a hearing on cybersecurity with Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, as a primary witness, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 12, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., right, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, right, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., listen to testimony from Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. Cyber Command, as he answers questions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, before the Senate Appropriations Committee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. Cyber Command, prepares to answer questions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, before the Senate Appropriations Committee. It is his first public appearance before Congress since revelations that the electronic surveillance agency is sweeping up Americans' phone and Internet records in its quest to investigate terrorist threats. At right is Rand Beers, under secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Once-secret surveillance programs were crucial in enabling the U.S. government to thwart dozens of terrorist attacks, says the director of the National Security Agency in a forceful defense of spy operations that have stirred fears of government snooping and violations of privacy rights.

Army Gen. Keith Alexander, in his first congressional testimony since disclosure of the secretive programs, offered few details on Wednesday about the disrupted terror plots but asserted that the two government programs ? they have collected millions of telephone records and kept tabs on Internet activity ? were imperative in the terror fight.

The director of national intelligence has declassified some details on two thwarted attacks ? Najibullah Zazi's foiled plot to bomb the New York subways and the case of David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American who used his U.S. passport to travel frequently to India, where he allegedly scouted out venues for terror attacks on behalf of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organization.

Alexander said he is pressing for the intelligence community to provide details on the other plots.

"I do think it's important that we get this right and I want the American people to know that we're trying to be transparent here, protect civil liberties and privacy but also the security of this country," Alexander told a Senate panel.

He described the steps the government takes once it suspects a terrorist organization is about to act ? all within the laws approved by Congress and under stringent oversight from the courts. He said the programs led to "disrupting or contributing to the disruption of terrorist attacks," without offering specifics.

Half a world away, Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former contractor who fled to Hong Kong and leaked documents about the programs, said he would fight any U.S. attempts to extradite him. American law enforcement officials are building a case against him but have yet to bring charges.

"I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality," Snowden said of the surveillance programs in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

In plain-spoken, measured tones, Alexander answered senators' questions in an open session and promised to provide additional information to the Senate Intelligence Committee in closed session on Thursday.

But he also warned that revelations about the secret programs have eroded agency capabilities and, as a result, the U.S. and its allies won't be as safe as they were two weeks ago.

"Some of these are still going to be classified and should be, because if we tell the terrorists every way that we're going to track them, they will get through and Americans will die," he said, adding that he would rather be criticized by people who think he's hiding something "than jeopardize the security of this country."

Alexander said he was seriously concerned that Snowden, a former employee with government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, had access to key parts of the NSA network, a development that demands a closer examination of how well the agency oversees contract employees.

Alexander said Snowden was a system administrator who didn't have visibility into the whole NSA network but could access key portions of it.

The director was questioned at length by senators seeking information on exactly how much data the NSA gathers through programs to collect millions of telephone records and keep tabs on Internet activity as well as the legal backing for the activities.

Members of the House and Senate Intelligence panels and key leaders have been briefed on the programs and have expressed their support for the operations as a valid tool in the terrorism fight.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday that the programs are constitutional and "very important to the security of the American people and they help us in a big way to address the terrorist threat that does in fact remain."

But rank-and-file lawmakers who haven't been privy to the details expressed concerns and bewilderment, reflected in the comments of several senators at the hearing and one exchange between Republican Sen. Mike Johanns and Alexander.

Johanns asked the NSA director whether the government could check to see what an individual is searching for through Google, or sending in email.

Alexander said once an individual has been identified, the issue is referred to the FBI.

"The FBI will then look at that and say what more do we need to now look at that individual themselves. So there are issues and things that they would then look at. It's passed to them," Alexander said.

"So the answer to the question is yes," Johanns said.

"Yes, you could. I mean, you can get a court order to do that," Alexander said.

The Nebraska lawmaker said it was imperative for the government to get information about the programs to the American people "because right now we're all getting bombarded with questions that many of us at the rank-and-file level in the Senate cannot answer."

Congressional leaders and intelligence committee members have been routinely briefed about the spy programs, officials said, and Congress has at least twice renewed laws approving them. But the disclosure of their sheer scope stunned some lawmakers, shocked allies from nations with strict privacy protections and emboldened civil liberties advocates who long have accused the government of being too invasive in the name of national security.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he planned on Thursday to announce "legal action against government surveillance and the National Security Agency's overreach of power," his political office said.

Paul told "Fox News Sunday" that he would ask "all the Internet providers and all of the phone companies" and their customers to join a class-action lawsuit against surveillance techniques that he called "an extraordinary invasion of privacy."

Recent polling on the issue found Americans troubled by the intrusion but perhaps willing to give the government even more leeway in its efforts to fight terrorism.

A poll by CBS News and The New York Times found that 58 percent disapprove of the government collecting phone records of all Americans. Yet it also found that 59 percent think the government has struck the right balance or not gone far enough.

___

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes, Kimberly Dozier, Frederic Frommer, Alan Fram, Andrew Miga and Pete Yost contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-13-NSA%20Surveillance/id-21fac66b515144e8a9e7d535e8a33aea

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Fingernails reveal clues to limb regeneration

June 12, 2013 ? Mammals possess the remarkable ability to regenerate a lost fingertip, including the nail, nerves and even bone. In humans, an amputated fingertip can sprout back in as little as two months, a phenomenon that has remained poorly understood until now. In a paper published today in the journal Nature, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center shed light on this rare regenerative power in mammals, using genetically engineered mice to document for the first time the biochemical chain of events that unfolds in the wake of a fingertip amputation. The findings hold promise for amputees who may one day be able to benefit from therapies that help the body regenerate lost limbs.

"Everyone knows that fingernails keep growing, but no one really knows why," says lead author Mayumi Ito, PhD, assistant professor of dermatology in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU School of Medicine. Nor is much understood about the link between nail growth and the regenerative ability of the bone and tissue beneath the nail. Now, Dr. Ito and team have discovered an important clue in this process: a population of self-renewing stem cells in the nail matrix, a part of the nail bed rich in nerve endings and blood vessels that stimulate nail growth. Moreover, the scientists have found that these stem cells depend upon a family of proteins known as the "Wnt signaling network" -- the same proteins that play a crucial role in hair and tissue regeneration -- to regenerate bone in the fingertip.

"When we blocked the Wnt-signaling pathway in mice with amputated fingertips, the nail and bone did not grow back as they normally would," says Dr. Ito. Even more intriguing, the researchers found that they could manipulate the Wnt pathway to stimulate regeneration in bone and tissue just beyond the fingertip. "Amputations of this magnitude ordinarily do not grow back," says Dr. Ito. These findings suggest that Wnt signaling is essential for fingertip regeneration, and point the way to therapies that could help people regenerate lost limbs. An estimated 1.7 million people in the U.S. live with amputations.

The team's next step is to zoom in on the molecular mechanisms that control how the Wnt signaling pathway interacts with the nail stem cells to influence bone and nail growth.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NYU Langone Medical Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Makoto Takeo, Wei Chin Chou, Qi Sun, Wendy Lee, Piul Rabbani, Cynthia Loomis, M. Mark Taketo, Mayumi Ito. Wnt activation in nail epithelium couples nail growth to digit regeneration. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12214

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/9MLp15md8q4/130612132532.htm

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Opinion article: 'Apartheid thinking in academia' | News

?Stellenbosch social anthropologist?Kees (C.S.) van der Waal?traces the history of racial indexing in South African ethnographic research. This opinion article was published in?Die Burger?on 8 June.

The announcement in April of new anthropological research at Stellenbosch University (SU) following the discovery of anthropometric material in the University Museum ? a human skull, the hair colour chart of Eugen Fischer and the eye colour chart of Rudolf Martin ? immediately caught the public?s attention and elicited extensive commentary in the media.

This was to be expected in a society that is deeply divided into racial castes and accommodates notions of perceived cultural purity. Unfortunately, though, the responses focus too much on the colour charts and the allocation of blame about crimes against humanity. It is necessary to identify the underlying issue, namely how ideas about human classification continue to shape society to this day.

Most comments draw on a defensive neo-Afrikaner perspective to deny the importance of the find, or vehemently question the link to the work of Fischer, the German physical anthropologist who promoted Nazi racism. Leopold Scholtz argued in?Die Burger?(3 May) that the relationship between the excrescences of racial classification and apartheid is far-fetched. He insists that recognition should be given to the work of Maties (SU)?volkekundiges(ethnologists or cultural anthropologists) such as P. J.?Schoeman and P.J.?Coertze who, according to him, tried their best to push apartheid into a morally acceptable direction.

It is too early in our historical reconstruction of the production of knowledge in the former?volkekunde?(ethnology or cultural anthropology) department of Maties to arrive at any definitive conclusions about the influences of Fischer?s brand of physical anthropology. However, from the historical work of David Hammond-Tooke, Robert Gordon and John Sharp on anthropology andvolkekunde?in South Africa, and from my own experience, there is enough reason to question Scholtz?s positive reading of?volkekunde.

We know that eugenics, racial hygiene and hereditary genetics formed part of the student curriculum and that the notion of ?racial distinctions? was deemed non-problematic. The challenge to critically track the destructive impact of thinking tools used for social classification ? such as ?ethnos?, ?race?, ?culture?, ?population? and ?community? ? into the present is academically and politically very important .

Volkekunde?was established at Stellenbosch by Werner Eiselen, one of the intellectual architects of apartheid, in 1926 as an Afrikaans variant of anthropology. This was after social anthropology had already come into being at the Universities of Cape Town, Pretoria and the Witwatersrand. From the beginning, a strong Afrikaner-nationalist element prevailed in?volkekunde. Anthropologists like Eiselen, Schoeman, Coertze and J.P.?Bruwer approached their work as?volksdiens?(service to the?volk, or Afrikaner people). They viewed ?the poor-white question? and ?racial purity? as important challenges.

Political activism, including membership of the?Ossewabrandwag?(Ox-wagon Sentinel), was for some of these academics (Coertze and Schoeman were members), a logical extension of their work. In 1943, Coertze, F.J.?Language and B.I.C.?van Eeden published?Die Oplossing van die Naturellevraagstuk in Suid-Afrika: Wenke Ooreenkomstig die Afrikanerstandpunt van Apartheid?(The Solution of the Native Problem in South Africa: Suggestions According to the Afrikaner Standpoint of Apartheid). This document by Stellenbosch?volkekundiges?would inform the ideological debates in Afrikaans religious and cultural circles for the rest of the decade, and after 1948 its ideas would systematically be turned into government policy.

Volkekunde?developed its own theoretical approach, especially under the leadership of Coertze, who was later based at the University of Pretoria (UP). Together, the departments of?volkekunde?and applied?volkekunde?at Afrikaans universities comprised an academic industry for training thousands of civil servants and soldiers involved in the administration of separate development in the cities and Bantustans, and in the army.

The theoretical and methodological approach of?volkekunde?was unsophisticated and ideologically determined. The core concept was the idea of the ?ethnos?, a group of people who, in terms of physical similarity (?race?), formed a strong unit and were guided by their culture.

During colonial times, this concept of people also prevailed elsewhere in the world, but it would gradually be undermined in other academic work by the realisation of the importance of cultural borrowing, mixing and variation in all populations.?Volkekunde, however, continued to use race and?ethnos?as core concepts.

My training in the subject in the late sixties at UP was also stamped by these ideas. As students we received no training in participant observation, the main method of ethnographic work. We were supposed to maintain a social distance from black Africans and to use only interviews for research and not stay with black people.

The work of?volkekundiges, quite predictably, emphasised the importance of the cultural traditions of peoples [stet]. This knowledge was obtained primarily from older male informants during short field visits, and was then presented as the general state of affairs although it was largely a patriarchal ideology representing a single dominant variant. The results of this research seamlessly slotted in with the ideals of separate development.

Much of the?volkekunde?research was instrumentally focused on identifying and using traditions for modern public administration, for example the use of customary law in courts and the strengthening of tribal authorities in the homelands.

In time, the differences between?volkekunde?and social anthropology grew bigger, and in 1977 the majority of?volkekundiges?left the professional society for anthropology in South Africa to establish their own exclusive disciplinary association.

There were also young scholars who gradually moved away from thevolkekunde?laager. It was my privilege in 1983 at the former RAU (Rand Afrikaans University, now the University of Johannesburg) to resign from theVereniging van Afrikaanse Volkekundiges?(Association of Afrikaans?Volkekundiges) and to leave the highly restrictive anthropological training that I had received at Tuks (UP) behind.

We tackled new research with practising participant observation, approached ?race?, ?ethnos? and ?culture? critically as ideological concepts, and adapted our curricula to increasingly reflect global anthropology?s rich variety of theory and ethnography.

After 1990, the historical role of?volkekunde?had expired and the?volkekundeparadigm went through its last convulsions. In 2001, the two societies merged, and these days very little of?volkekunde?is left in academic circles. A Kuhnian paradigm shift away from race and?ethnos?had taken place around the world and eventually also in much of the Afrikaans intellectual circles.

The significance of our new research into the use of anthropometric instruments by?volkekundiges?is not only historical in nature. In fact, the impact of devastating social classifications serves as a starting point for extensive work on the impact of social divisions, which continues to this day.

The new anthropological research agenda that we recently launched in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at SU is called?Indexing the Human. One of our focus areas is the history and influence of the?volkekundeapproach in teaching and research.

The anthropometric instruments discovered in the Stellenbosch University Museum will have a lasting value when they become the catalyst for engaging with the thinking tools of the past that continue to separate humans, and when our new anthropological research helps us to think about humanity in a more inclusive and humane way.

* Prof?Van der Waal teaches Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University.

Source: http://blogs.sun.ac.za/news/2013/06/12/opinion-article-apartheid-thinking-in-academia/

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US budget deficit widens $139 billion in May

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 file photo, a statue of former Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin stands outside the Treasury Building in Washington. The Treasury reports on the federal budget deficit for May, on Wednesday, June 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 file photo, a statue of former Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin stands outside the Treasury Building in Washington. The Treasury reports on the federal budget deficit for May, on Wednesday, June 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The government reported Wednesday that the U.S. budget deficit widened in May by $139 billion. But the annual deficit stayed on track to finish below $1 trillion for the first time since 2008.

Steady economic growth and higher tax rates have boosted the government's tax revenue. At the same time, government spending has barely increased.

With the May increase, the deficit through the first eight months of this budget year totaled $626 billion, according to the Treasury. That's down $218 billion lower than the same period last year.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the deficit won't grow much before the budget year ends on Sept. 30. It forecasts an annual deficit of $642 billion. If correct, that would be well below last year's deficit of $1.09 trillion and the lowest in five years. It would still be the fifth-largest deficit in U.S. history.

The federal deficit represents the annual difference between the government's spending and the tax revenues it takes in. Each deficit contributes to the national debt, which recently topped $16 trillion. At the same time, a smaller deficit has taken pressure off of negotiations to raise the federal borrowing limit.

So far this budget year, revenue has risen 15 percent to $1.8 trillion. The government is taking in more money because of higher rates that went into effect on Jan. 1. Modest economic growth has also boosted tax revenue.

And this month the government is expecting large dividend payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which will keep the deficit from growing. Fannie is expected to pay $59.4 billion; Freddie is expected pay $7 billion. The mortgage giants are profitable again and are paying dividends to the government in return for the loans they received during the financial crisis.

While revenue has increased greatly, spending has only risen 0.8 percent this year to $2.43 billion.

Military spending has dropped 4.3 percent, reflecting the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spending on unemployment benefits, which had swelled as millions lost their jobs during the Great Recession, fell 25.3 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

Across-the-board government spending cuts that began on March 1 are expected to lower spending further in the remaining months of this budget year.

The deficit reached a record $1.41 trillion in budget year 2009, which began four months before President Barack Obama took office. That deficit was largely because of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Tax revenue plummeted, while the government spent more on stimulus programs.

The budget gaps in 2010 and 2011 were slightly lower than the 2009 deficit as a gradually strengthening economy generated more tax revenue.

President George W. Bush also ran annual deficits through most of his two terms in office after he won approval for broad tax cuts and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The last time the government ran an annual surplus was in 2001.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-12-Budget%20Deficit/id-4ac20361e7c24e568f6679471280dbf9

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ESA Report: Women Comprise Nearly Half of Gamer Population ...

The Entertainment Software Association released its report, "2013 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry" on the official opening day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. The ESA represents the video games industry, operates the E3 Expo trade show, and owns the ESRB, in case you didn't know.

According to the freshly released report, adult women represent a significant percentage of the video game-playing population than boys age 17 or younger. Nearly half of all video game players are women, according to the report. Women make up 31 percent of the video game-playing population, while boys 17 and under represent only 19 percent of game players. Women are 45 percent of the entire game playing population and 46 percent of the time are the most frequent game purchasers.

"This new data underscores the remarkable upward trajectory for video games. It is an entertainment form enjoyed by hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide," said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of ESA, the trade association that represents the U.S. video game industry. "A diverse and energized consumer base, remarkable new hardware, and outstanding software all combine to foster growth for our industry."

The report also shows that parents are closely monitoring what their children are playing. According to Essential Facts, parents are present when games are purchased or rented 89 percent of the time, and children receive their parents' permission before purchasing or renting a game 80 percent of the time. More than a third of parents report playing video games with their children at least once a week. Nearly 90 percent of parents said the ESRB rating system is either very or somewhat helpful in choosing games for their children, and 86 percent said parental controls available on all video game consoles are useful - up from 73 percent in 2012.

Some other notable data: 58 percent of Americans play video games; 51 percent of U.S. households own a dedicated game console, with an average of two games owned; the average game player is 30 years old, with 36 percent of game players 36 or older; 43 percent of game players believe that computer and video games give them the most value for their money, compared to other forms of entertainment; 62 percent of gamers play games with others in-person or online; and consumers spent nearly $21 billion on game content, hardware, and accessories in 2012.

You can read the full report here.

Source: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2013/06/11/esa-report-women-comprise-nearly-half-gamer-population

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Home buyers need to play all the angles... - Zillow Real Estate Advice

Sure - I have seen similar situations. ?When the market was bad in 2009, I suggested to a seller of mine to hang out outside to possibly answer questions immediately after showings on his 150+ year old home. ?The buyers found the history he provided interesting and he received a very good offer (for the time).

In the same year, I had another seller that had me send personal notes to the agents for the buyers offering to provide any history or answers to other questions. ?

In this market, it's the opposite. ?But I think there is a definite value for the consumer to separate themselves by trying to make a connection with the other side.

Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Home-buyers-need-to-play-all-the-angles/496585/

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