BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Army deserters killed 27 soldiers in southern Syria on Thursday, an activist group said, in some of the deadliest attacks on forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since the start of an uprising nine months ago.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes flared in the southern city of Deraa, where protests against Assad first erupted in March, and at a checkpoint east of the city where all 15 personnel manning it were killed.
It did not say how they broke out, but the high casualties among security forces suggested coordinated strikes by the army rebels who have escalated attacks in recent weeks, raising the specter of Syria slipping towards civil war.
The United Nations says 5,000 people have been killed in Assad's crackdown on protests inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world. Assad has denied any orders were issued to kill demonstrators and says gunmen have killed 1,100 of his forces.
But a report published by Human Rights Watch on Thursday, based on interviews with dozens of defectors, said army commanders have ordered troops to use "all means necessary" to halt protests, often giving explicit instructions to open fire.
One special forces soldier said his brigade was told to "use as many bullets as you want" on protesters in Deraa in April.
A sniper in the city of Homs said his commanders ordered that a specific percentage of demonstrators should die. "For 5,000 protesters, for example, the target would be 15 to 20 people," he told Human Rights Watch (HRW).
HRW identified 74 commanders who ordered, authorized or condoned killings, torture and unlawful arrests during the anti-government protests. "These abuses constitute crimes against humanity," it said, calling on the United Nations Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.
Assad, 46, whose family is from the minority Alawite sect which has held power in majority Sunni Muslim Syria for four decades, faces the most serious challenge to his 11-year rule.
Rami Abdulrahman of the British-based Observatory said fighting broke out on Thursday around dawn in two districts of Deraa city and a joint army-security checkpoint near Musayfrah, about 25 km (15 miles) to the east.
Army rebels have stepped up their campaign against security forces in the last month, ambushing military convoys, opening fire on an intelligence centre on the outskirts of Damascus and killing six pilots at an air base.
FEARS OF CIVIL WAR
The bloodshed prompted the head of the main Syrian opposition group to call on the rebels forces' Free Syrian Army to restrict operations against Assad's military to defending protests. "We want to avoid a civil war at all costs," Burhan Ghalioun of the Syrian National Council told Reuters last week.
But his influence over the insurgents appears limited.
One Free Syrian Army officer, speaking before Thursday's clashes, said the rebels were justified in targeting Assad's forces and said Ghalioun's comments betrayed "a lack of knowledge of the military basis of this regime."
"Anyone who bears arms against civilians, either army, security or shabbiha (pro-Assad militia), and kills civilians - we will respond and inflict whatever damage we can," said Major Maher Ismail al-Naimi.
"In our view, that does not mean the revolution is abandoning its peaceful nature," said Naimi, who deserted from the Republican Guards. He is now the spokesman for the Free Syrian Army but said he was giving his personal opinion.
"This is a defensive strategy against a regime which has deployed special forces across the country, artillery, tanks and machine guns to kill civilians and defectors."
In Istanbul, a former ambassador-turned-dissident announced the formation of an opposition group named the National Alliance of Revolutionary Forces in Syria.
Mohammad Bassam Imadi, Syria's former envoy to Sweden who resigned his post two years ago and left Syria earlier this month, said the group would work together with the Syrian National Council in a bid to overthrow the government.
"We constitute the majority of the revolutionary and political groups inside Syria. We have managed after a long time and a lot of effort to unite all these groups under one umbrella," Imadi told a news conference.
Syria's Foreign Ministry said Imadi had been dismissed and had his assets frozen last year after he was investigated for fraud and "using his authority for material gain."
Activists said Assad's forces combed the streets of eastern Damascus suburbs before dawn on Thursday, hunting for defectors and trying to break the opposition's "Strike for Dignity."
In the city of Hama, stormed by the army 24 hours earlier, they said the army took over a children's hospital and snipers could be seen on the top of government buildings.
The official SANA news agency said one member of a "terrorist group" was killed and three others wounded as they planted bombs in a villa they had robbed in Damascus province.
The United States and France, which blame Assad's forces for the violence, have urged the U.N. Security Council to respond to the rising death toll.
"This cannot go on," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York. "In the name of humanity, it is time for the international community to act."
Syria's foreign backers Russia and China have blocked Western efforts to secure Council condemnation of Damascus. Its closest regional ally Iran promised support for Syria's economy, ravaged by the unrest, Western sanctions and an Arab League decision to halt business with the central bank.
Despite the worsening economic crisis and a growing number of desertions, mainly among Sunni conscripts, Assad still has the loyalty of most of the army. Unlike in Libya, the rebels have secured neither high-level defections from the military or government, nor do they fully control any territory.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul; Editing by David Stamp)
America?s Got Talent fans get ready because shock jock Howard Stern is joining the show. Stern has signed on to be a judge. Holy moly good times are head for this show. It is official the man who will say anything, Howard Stern, will be taking a seat at the judges panel on the upcoming season of America?s Got Talent. He will be taking the seat vacated by Piers Morgan, who left to do his own CNN show. Fans of Stern?s radio show don?t worry his show is not going anywhere. The AGT production will be moved to New York once the live shows begin airing to accommodate Howard?s Sirus XM Radio show, which just so happens to be where he made the announcement today about his new gig. In all honesty I was really freaking surprised by this choice and I am pretty sure I am not the only one. This statement made by NBC programming exec Paul Telegdy didn?t really make me any less surprised by the decision to hire Stern either. Howard Stern’s larger-than-life personality will bring a thrilling new dynamic to America’s Got Talent, starting this summer. He’s a proven innovator and his track record in [...]
WASHINGTON ? Entering 2012, President Barack Obama's re-election prospects are essentially a 50-50 proposition, with a majority saying the president deserves to be voted out of office despite concerns about the Republican alternatives, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.
Obama's overall poll numbers suggest he could be in jeopardy of losing re-election even as the public's outlook on the economy appears to be improving, the AP-GfK poll found. For the first time since spring, more said the economy got better in the past month than said it got worse. The president's approval rating on unemployment shifted upward ? from 40 percent in October to 45 percent in the latest poll ? as the jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, its lowest level since March 2009.
But Obama's approval rating on his handling of the economy overall remains stagnant: 39 percent approve and 60 percent disapprove.
Heading into his re-election campaign, the president faces a conflicted public that does not support his steering of the economy, the most dominant issue for Americans, or his reforms to health care, one of his signature accomplishments, yet are grappling with whether to replace him with Republican contenders Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich.
The poll found an even divide on whether Americans expect Obama to be re-elected next year.
For the first time, the poll found that a majority of adults, 52 percent, said Obama should be voted out of office while 43 percent said he deserves another term. The numbers mark a reversal since last May, when 53 percent said Obama should be re-elected while 43 percent said he didn't deserve four more years.
Obama's overall job approval stands at a new low: 44 percent approve while 54 percent disapprove. The president's standing among independents is worse: 38 percent approve while 59 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, the president holds steady with an approval rating of 78 percent while only 12 percent of Republicans approve of the job he's doing.
"I think he's doing the best he can. The problem is the Congress won't help at all," said Rosario Navarro, a Democrat and a 44-year-old truck driver from Fresno, Calif., who voted for Obama in 2008 and intends to support him again.
Robin Dein, a 54-year-old homemaker from Villanova, Pa., who is an independent, said she supported Republican John McCain in 2008 and has not been impressed with Obama's economic policies. She intends to support Romney if he wins the GOP nomination.
"(Obama) spent the first part of his presidency blaming Bush for everything, not that he was innocent, and now his way of solving anything is by spending more money," she said.
Despite the soft level of support, many are uncertain whether a Republican president would be a better choice. Asked whom they would support next November, 47 percent of adults favored Obama compared with 46 percent for Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Against Gingrich, the president holds a solid advantage, receiving 51 percent compared with 42 percent for the former House speaker.
The potential matchups paint a better picture for the president among independents. Obama receives 45 percent of non-aligned adults compared with 41 percent for Romney. Against Gingrich, Obama holds a wide lead among independents, with 54 percent supporting the president and 31 percent backing the former Georgia congressman.
Another piece of good news for Obama: people generally like him personally. Obama's personal favorability rating held steady at 53 percent, with 46 percent viewing him unfavorably. About three-quarters called him likeable.
The economy remains a source of pessimism, though the poll suggests the first positive movement in public opinion on the economy in months. One in five said the economy improved in the last month, double the share saying so in October. Still most expect it to stay the same or get worse.
"I suppose you could make some sort of argument that it's getting better, but I'm not sure I even see that," said independent voter John Bailey, a 61-year-old education consultant from East Jordan, Mich. "I think it's bad and it's gotten worse under (Obama's) policies. At best, it's going to stay bad."
Despite the high rate of joblessness, the poll found some optimism on the economy. Although 80 percent described the economy as "poor," respondents describing it "very poor" fell from 43 percent in October to 34 percent in the latest poll, the lowest since May. Twenty percent said the economy got better in the past month while 37 percent said they expected the economy to improve next year.
Yet plenty of warning signs remain for Obama. Only 26 percent said the United States is headed in the right direction while 70 percent said the country was moving in the wrong direction.
The president won a substantial number of women voters in 2008 yet there does not appear to be a significant tilt toward Obama among women now. The poll found 44 percent of women say Obama deserves a second term, down from 51 percent in October, while 43 percent of men say the president should be re-elected.
About two-thirds of white voters without college degrees say Obama should be a one-term president, while 33 percent of those voters say he should get another four years. Among white voters with a college degree, 57 percent said Obama should be voted out of office.
The poll found unpopularity for last year's health care reform bill, one of Obama's major accomplishments. About half of the respondents oppose the health care law and support for it dipped to 29 percent from 36 percent in June. Just 15 percent said the federal government should have the power to require all Americans to buy health insurance.
Even among Democrats, the health care law has tepid support. Fifty percent of Democrats supported the health care law, compared with 59 percent of Democrats last June. Only about a quarter of independents back the law.
The president has taken a more populist tone in his handling of the economy, arguing that the wealthy should pay more in taxes to help pay for the extension of a payroll tax cut that would provide about $1,000 in tax cuts to a family earning about $50,000 a year. Among those with annual household incomes of $50,000 or less, Obama's approval rating on unemployment climbed to 53 percent, from 43 percent in October.
The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted December 8-12 2011 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Tehran does not look like a city under siege.
Its shops and markets are full of goods and customers; signs that international sanctions are ravaging Iran's economy are hard to detect.
With global oil prices above $100 a barrel, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter is proving it can cope with trade and financial restrictions that the United States and Europe hope will force a halt to its controversial nuclear program, which is suspected of seeking to build an atomic bomb.
That helps to explain the Iranian government's continued defiance as the West considers fresh sanctions that would take direct aim at the country's oil income.
"Sanctions do not turn off the money spigot, even while they may force re-routing of money flows through new third-party actors -- foreign banks unaffiliated with the U.S., for instance," said Kevan Harris, an Iran expert at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
PRICES
International sanctions imposed over the last five years have so far banned most U.S.-Iran trade, caused many shipping companies to cut back services to the country, and made it difficult for Iranian banks to do business with Western banks.
But in the vast majority of cases, that does not appear to have stopped Iranian factories from operating or everyday products from reaching shelves in shops. Imports can be obtained from new suppliers and ships run to different foreign ports, many of them in Asia, analysts say.
The sanctions are mainly being felt in the form of inflation, which is hitting some companies' bottom lines as well as consumers' wallets.
In a well stocked greengrocer's in central Tehran, the shopkeeper and an elderly customer exchange the obligatory courtesies known in Iran as "t'aarof."
"There's no charge" for her purchases, the shopkeeper tells her with customary politeness.
After she insists on paying and he reveals that the small bag of fruit costs more than $10, she drops the social niceties and exclaims: "How much? Are you sure?"
The official inflation rate stands at just under 20 percent -- up from a 25-year low of 8.8 percent in August 2010. According to an International Monetary Fund report based on government data, Iran can expect consumer price inflation of 22.5 percent for the fiscal year ending in March 2012.
Many Iranians believe the statistics grossly underestimate the true cost of living, which is eroding their spending power in a country where the average monthly household income in urban areas is just 10 million rials (around $750) and unemployment is estimated at 14.6 percent.
Most of the rise in inflation can be put down to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to abolish billions of dollars of government subsidies that until one year ago had held down the prices of gasoline, food and utility bills.
But sanctions -- particularly those passed by the EU in July 2010 which made it difficult to transfer cash in and out of Iran -- have also pushed up prices, analysts say.
Because of the EU sanctions, Western banks no longer offer Iranian importers letters of credit, the common way of paying for products in international trade.
That forces importers to pay for their goods with other means, including through banks that have branches in countries in the Middle East and Asia where the sanctions do not apply, or through money exchange bureaus.
COSTLY DOLLARS
Not only does that deprive importers of good terms of credit, it obliges them to pay the free market exchange rate for foreign currency, making dollars or euros much more expensive than the official Iranian central bank rates indicate.
Dollars bought in the open market cost almost 20 percent more than the official rate posted by the central bank, which is struggling to maintain the value of the Iranian rial in the face of speculative buying of hard currency inside Iran.
Imported goods from Europe have become more expensive in Iran not because the products themselves are banned, but because of the added costs due to channeling payment for them through third parties.
A businessman who runs a paint factory near Tehran said sanctions had forced him to look elsewhere for a chemical additive that he once imported from Germany, but had now become too expensive to buy from German suppliers.
"It isn't a static situation, it's changing day-by-day," he said, adding that while all products would continue to find their way to the Iranian market, costs would continue to rise.
Some businesses are obtaining favorable letters of credit from banks in South Korea and China as exporters there seek to make up for waning demand in the economically weakened West.
"At the end of the days it's the people who are losing their buying power...They will feel it in six months, eventually they will pay the price, there's no doubt," the businessman said.
NEW SANCTIONS
The ability of the Iranian economy to keep functioning in such adversity is at least partly responsible for the decision of the West in the last several months to consider additional sanctions, and for Iran's defiance in the face of the threat.
The European Union may stop buying the 18 percent of Iran's oil shipments that it imports. And the U.S. Congress is pushing for measures that would penalize foreign banks doing any business with Iran's central bank -- potentially a heavy blow against the body which takes payment for the 2.6 million barrels of oil that Iran exports per day.
The sensitivity of targeting the Central Bank of Iran was demonstrated two weeks ago after Britain, before any similar action by its EU partners, banned all its financial institutions from doing business with the country including the central bank. A mob stormed the British embassy compound in Tehran.
Iran's mild-mannered foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, expressed "regret" at the violence but he said London only had itself to blame. "Britons angered the Iranian people with their stance," he said.
London's move was largely symbolic as few if any British banks have business with Iran or its central bank. The threat from Washington is far greater, as banks around the world would face being frozen out of the global financial system if they continued to trade with Tehran.
So far, however, Iranian politicians and media say they doubt the EU will ban Iranian oil or that Washington will push ahead with isolating the central bank completely.
"Greece, Italy and Spain are Iran's top oil importers (in the EU), and they have the most fragile markets as well. Any disruption of oil flow will cause an energy crisis in those countries," an Iranian Oil Ministry official said.
That analysis is to some degree shared by many Western diplomats and traders contacted by Reuters. Officials in the Obama administration have said they oppose hitting Iran's global oil exports or its central bank, because of the potential impact on the world's economy, although pressure for such a move has increased in Congress.
"Europe and America cannot seriously put the sanctions into practice and the Islamic Republic has the upper hand in the current situation and can take advantage from the existing circumstances," Parviz Sorouri, a member of parliament's national security committee, told the Fars news agency.
Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said sanctions on Iranian oil would hurt the global market and that Iran would have "no problem to find a replacement for the EU."
Help is at hand for teachers struggling with technologyPublic release date: 6-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pressoffice Pressoffice@esrc.ac.uk Economic & Social Research Council
Innovative software to help teachers stay at the forefront of the digital revolution in education has been developed by researchers funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The Learning Designer is an interactive program for teachers that will help them to design and develop lessons plan using digital technologies. "It is vital that the teaching community stay at the forefront of teaching and learning through the use of technology - often referred to as technology enhanced learning (TEL)" says Professor Diana Laurillard, the lead researcher at the Institute of Education.
Despite teachers playing a key role in the introduction and use of TEL in education, until now there has been no large scale development of software to assist teachers in the critical task of lesson design. The innovative nature of TEL presents a new kind of design challenge for teachers used to course and lesson planning for a conventional environment.
"Teachers need support in working out how to introduce technology gradually within resource constraints, how to best use existing materials and how to take full advantage of technology for the benefit of their learners," says Professor Laurillard. "The Learning Designer supports them in all these tasks. It offers teachers an array of ideas and advice, from educational concepts relevant to their chosen activity, to alternative designs relevant to the teaching and learning of that activity" she continues.
The Learning Designer supports the teaching community by enabling teachers to work together on how to plan and design their teaching resources. It shows how the technologies that are changing the way students learn through collaboration can also support teachers' learning in new ways.
"Computer-supported collaborative learning has long been established as an important form of TEL for students," says Professor Laurillard. "We believe it is equally applicable to teachers' professional development."
Once a teacher has planned a lesson or a module, the software will analyse how the student's time is spent on different types of learning and how much teacher-time it will require. It also allows the teacher to export his or her design to share with colleagues.
Professor Laurillard points out that one of the particular gains of using TEL is that it allows the learning experience to be tailored to individual students. It also makes it possible to save significant teacher preparation time since TEL resources are reusable.
"The programme has been developed in the spirit of reflective and collaborative design," says Professor Laurillard. "Evaluation with teachers and lecturers has now shown that it is not only meeting their requirements, but also helping them develop new ways of thinking about how they design teaching and learning."
The Learning Designer has been built to sustain collaboration and to develop a wider teacher design community. Furthermore, it could be an important research tool to investigate teachers' approaches to innovation in both conventional and technology-based learning environment.
###
For further information contact
Professor Diana Laurillard
Email: D.Laurillard@ioe.ac.uk
Telephone: 020-7763-2154, 07789-111965
ESRC Press Office:
Danielle Moore
Email: danielle.moore@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone 01793-413122
1. This release is based on the findings from 'Learning Design Support Environment', research project. The research team is led by Professor Diana Laurillard at Institute of Education, with collaborators across six universities: Prof Tom Boyle at London Metropolitan University, Dr Patricia Charlton at Birkbeck University, Dr Brock Craft at Institute of Education, Dionisis Dimakopoulos at Birkbeck University, Dr Dejan Ljubojevic at Institute of Education, Prof George Magoulas at Birkbeck University2, Dr Elizabeth Masterman at Oxford University, Roser Pujadas at London School of Economics and Political Science, Carrie Roder at Royal Veterinary College, Steve Ryan at London School of Economics and Political Science, Dr Edgar A. Whitley at London School of Economics and Political Science, Kim Whittlestone at Royal Veterinary College and Dr Joanna Wild at Oxford University
2. 'Power tools for teachers', video to demonstrate the software in more detail
3. The project has adopted an iterative research-design process to build the means by which the teaching community can collaborate further on how best to deploy TEL. It aims to lower the TEL threshold so that the majority of teachers can engage with it in a way that draws on good practice by others and is informed by the findings of pedagogical research, thereby optimising the benefits to their learners.
4. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2011/12 is 203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at http://www.esrc.ac.uk
5. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and physical sciences. EPSRC invests around 800m a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information and communications technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.
[ | 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.
Help is at hand for teachers struggling with technologyPublic release date: 6-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pressoffice Pressoffice@esrc.ac.uk Economic & Social Research Council
Innovative software to help teachers stay at the forefront of the digital revolution in education has been developed by researchers funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The Learning Designer is an interactive program for teachers that will help them to design and develop lessons plan using digital technologies. "It is vital that the teaching community stay at the forefront of teaching and learning through the use of technology - often referred to as technology enhanced learning (TEL)" says Professor Diana Laurillard, the lead researcher at the Institute of Education.
Despite teachers playing a key role in the introduction and use of TEL in education, until now there has been no large scale development of software to assist teachers in the critical task of lesson design. The innovative nature of TEL presents a new kind of design challenge for teachers used to course and lesson planning for a conventional environment.
"Teachers need support in working out how to introduce technology gradually within resource constraints, how to best use existing materials and how to take full advantage of technology for the benefit of their learners," says Professor Laurillard. "The Learning Designer supports them in all these tasks. It offers teachers an array of ideas and advice, from educational concepts relevant to their chosen activity, to alternative designs relevant to the teaching and learning of that activity" she continues.
The Learning Designer supports the teaching community by enabling teachers to work together on how to plan and design their teaching resources. It shows how the technologies that are changing the way students learn through collaboration can also support teachers' learning in new ways.
"Computer-supported collaborative learning has long been established as an important form of TEL for students," says Professor Laurillard. "We believe it is equally applicable to teachers' professional development."
Once a teacher has planned a lesson or a module, the software will analyse how the student's time is spent on different types of learning and how much teacher-time it will require. It also allows the teacher to export his or her design to share with colleagues.
Professor Laurillard points out that one of the particular gains of using TEL is that it allows the learning experience to be tailored to individual students. It also makes it possible to save significant teacher preparation time since TEL resources are reusable.
"The programme has been developed in the spirit of reflective and collaborative design," says Professor Laurillard. "Evaluation with teachers and lecturers has now shown that it is not only meeting their requirements, but also helping them develop new ways of thinking about how they design teaching and learning."
The Learning Designer has been built to sustain collaboration and to develop a wider teacher design community. Furthermore, it could be an important research tool to investigate teachers' approaches to innovation in both conventional and technology-based learning environment.
###
For further information contact
Professor Diana Laurillard
Email: D.Laurillard@ioe.ac.uk
Telephone: 020-7763-2154, 07789-111965
ESRC Press Office:
Danielle Moore
Email: danielle.moore@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone 01793-413122
1. This release is based on the findings from 'Learning Design Support Environment', research project. The research team is led by Professor Diana Laurillard at Institute of Education, with collaborators across six universities: Prof Tom Boyle at London Metropolitan University, Dr Patricia Charlton at Birkbeck University, Dr Brock Craft at Institute of Education, Dionisis Dimakopoulos at Birkbeck University, Dr Dejan Ljubojevic at Institute of Education, Prof George Magoulas at Birkbeck University2, Dr Elizabeth Masterman at Oxford University, Roser Pujadas at London School of Economics and Political Science, Carrie Roder at Royal Veterinary College, Steve Ryan at London School of Economics and Political Science, Dr Edgar A. Whitley at London School of Economics and Political Science, Kim Whittlestone at Royal Veterinary College and Dr Joanna Wild at Oxford University
2. 'Power tools for teachers', video to demonstrate the software in more detail
3. The project has adopted an iterative research-design process to build the means by which the teaching community can collaborate further on how best to deploy TEL. It aims to lower the TEL threshold so that the majority of teachers can engage with it in a way that draws on good practice by others and is informed by the findings of pedagogical research, thereby optimising the benefits to their learners.
4. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2011/12 is 203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at http://www.esrc.ac.uk
5. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and physical sciences. EPSRC invests around 800m a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information and communications technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.
[ | 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.
FILE - This undated file artist's rendering shows one of NASA's twin Voyager and Voyager 2 spacecrafts. More than three decades after launching, NASA's workhorse spacecraft is inching closer to leaving the solar system behind. Currently 11 billion miles away from the sun, Voyager 1 has been exploring the fringes of the solar system since 2004. Scientists said Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, the spacecraft has entered a new region in the solar system that they have dubbed the "stagnation zone."(AP Photo/NASA, File)
FILE - This undated file artist's rendering shows one of NASA's twin Voyager and Voyager 2 spacecrafts. More than three decades after launching, NASA's workhorse spacecraft is inching closer to leaving the solar system behind. Currently 11 billion miles away from the sun, Voyager 1 has been exploring the fringes of the solar system since 2004. Scientists said Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, the spacecraft has entered a new region in the solar system that they have dubbed the "stagnation zone."(AP Photo/NASA, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? More than three decades after launching, NASA's workhorse spacecraft is inching closer to leaving the solar system behind.
Currently 11 billion miles away from the sun, Voyager 1 has been exploring the fringes of the solar system since 2004. Scientists said Monday the spacecraft has entered a new region in the solar system that they have dubbed the "stagnation zone."
Voyager 1 still has a little way to go before it completely exits the solar system and becomes the first manmade probe to cross into interstellar space, or the vast space between stars.
The spacecraft has enough battery power to last until 2020, but scientists think it will reach interstellar space before that ? in a matter of several months to years.
Chief scientist Ed Stone of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the timing is unclear because no spacecraft has ever ventured this far.
"The journey continues," Stone told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
For the past year, Voyager 1 used its instruments to explore the new region. It appeared to be the cosmic doldrums where solar winds streaming out from the sun at 1 million mph have dramatically eased and high-energy particles from outside are seeping in ? a sign that Voyager 1 is at the doorstep of interstellar space.
Scientists expect to see several telltale signs when Voyager 1 finally crosses the boundary including a change in the magnetic field direction and the type of wind. Interstellar wind is slower, colder and denser than solar wind.
Even with certain expectations, Stone warned that the milestone won't be cut-and-dried.
"We will be confused when it first happens," Stone said.
Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 to tour the outer planets including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. After their main mission ended, both headed toward interstellar space in opposite directions. Voyager 2 is traveling slower than Voyager 1 and is currently 9 billion away miles from the sun.
___
Follow Alicia Chang's coverage at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
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