Face-sized tarantula lives in trees in Sri Lanka

Face-sized tarantula: With a leg span of up to 8 inches across, the?Poecilotheria rajaei, is one of the larger species of tarantula.

By Eoin O'Carroll,?Staff / April 4, 2013

Wired reports on what may be a new species of tarantula in Northern Sri Lanka, and it's unlikely to be appearing on the island nation's tourism materials any time soon.

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Writer Nadia Drake describes the tree-dwelling?Poecilotheria rajaei??as "about the size of your face" ? the human face apparently being a standard metric for tarantula sizes ? and notes that it has a pink band on its underside.?

The spider was first discovered in 2009, by?Ranil Nanayakkara, co-founder of Sri Lanka?s Biodiversity Education and Research.

?They are quite rare,? Nanayakkara told Wired. ?They prefer well-established old trees, but due to deforestation the number have dwindled, and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old buildings.?

As huge as P. rajaei is, it's not actually the world's biggest tarantula. That distinction goes to Theraphosa blondi,?the Goliath birdeater, a burrowing spider native to the rainforests of northern South America. These spiders have a leg span of up to 12 inches ? or 1.5 faces.

The Goliath birdeater is the world's second largest spider by leg span, and might be the largest by mass. The cave-dwelling giant huntsman spider, Heteropoda maxima,?discovered in Laos in 2001, has a leg span that is slightly longer than that of the birdeater.

For what it's worth, the world's smallest spider is the?Patu marplesi, a species native to Western Samoa. According to the Guinness Book of World records, It measures?0.017 inches. You could fit about 470 of them on your face, if you felt so inclined. ??

But back to the Sri Lankan tarantula. Researchers are not completely certain that it represents a new species. Wired's Drake spoke with?Robert Raven, an arachnologist at the Queensland Museum in Australia, who suspects that it very well could be a local variant of a related species. She notes that the spider closely resembles?Poecilotheria regalis, a species native to the Indian mainland. We won't know until DNA samples are taken.

Ms. Drake writes that the spider's discoverer "hints that he?s got several more potential new tarantulas up his sleeve, awaiting review." Let's hope that she didn't mean that literally.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/sZAV51obdRY/Face-sized-tarantula-lives-in-trees-in-Sri-Lanka

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New premier pledges to shield Lebanon from Syria dangers

By Dominic Evans and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese politician Tammam Salam was named prime minister on Saturday after he won a sweeping parliamentary endorsement, pledging to bridge the country's deep divisions and shield it from the dangers of neighboring Syria's civil war.

Salam was designated after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose two years in office were dominated by efforts to contain sectarian tensions, violence and economic fallout from the Syrian conflict.

His immediate task, if he is able to form a cabinet accepted by Lebanon's rival political forces, will be to prepare for a parliamentary election which is due in June but faces delay.

The Syrian bloodshed has exacerbated tensions in Lebanon, which fought a ruinous civil war from 1975 to 1990. Rival Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim and Christian politicians have failed to agree an electoral system under which the vote will take place.

In his first comments after his appointment, Salam said he would seek to "unite opinion and reach speedy agreement on a parliamentary electoral law to achieve fair representation for all citizens and sects".

He also pledged to focus on "ending Lebanon's political divisions and its impact on the security situation, and averting the dangers from the neighboring tragedy (in Syria)".

Salam, born in 1945 into a prominent Sunni political dynasty, is close to the Saudi- and Western-backed March 14 coalition but was chosen as a consensus candidate acceptable to the March 8 bloc, which includes the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its mainly Shi'ite and Christian allies.

March 14 groups mainly Sunni and Christian parties which pushed, with U.S. and European support, for Syria to end nearly three decades of military presence in Lebanon in 2005.

Referring to speculation over whether his government should be a short-term technocratic administration focused only on preparing for elections, or a 'national unity' government with longer-term ambition, Salam said: "I will absolutely strive to form a government of national benefit".

SHIFTING POWER

In a sign of shifting foreign influence in Lebanon, whose politicians lived in the shadow of Damascus long after President Bashar al-Assad withdrew his army eight years ago, Salam's elevation appear to owe much to Saudi intervention.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose announcement on Thursday that he backed March 14's nomination guaranteed Salam a parliamentary majority, said he reached his decision after talks with Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

Despite the overwhelming support for Salam - he was backed by at least 120 of 128 parliamentarians - he may face a lengthy struggle to form a government. His predecessor, Mikati, took five months assemble a ministerial team and a March 8 source said Salam could also take months to put together a cabinet.

He has to satisfy conflicting demands for portfolios amid a heightened political standoff over the Syrian crisis.

March 14 strongly supports the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels battling to overthrow Assad in a conflict which the United Nations says has killed 70,000 people. Another 400,000 refugees have poured into Lebanon, a country of just 4 million.

March 8 has backed Assad's campaign to crush the uprising, which began with mainly peaceful protests but descended into a civil war which has reduced parts of its main cities to rubble.

Lebanon itself has been shaken by the violence, which has spilled across the border into the Bekaa Valley and inflamed tensions in the northern city of Tripoli between Sunni Muslims who actively support the Syrian rebels and members of Assad's minority Alawite community.

Dozens of people have been killed in the northern city of Tripoli in waves of street fighting since 2011.

Before his resignation, Mikati called for international aid to help Lebanon deal with the impact of the ever-growing number of refugees. President Michel Suleiman called this week for refugee camps to be set up inside Syria itself, under United Nations auspices, to ease the burden on Syria's neighbors.

Salam, a cabinet minister from 2008 to 2009, is the son of former prime minister Saeb Salam. His grandfather served under the Ottoman Empire and the French colonial mandate.

(edited by Richard Meares)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lebanons-president-asks-salam-form-government-110352537.html

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Relationship and Marriage Advice | The Gottman Relationship Blog ...

?Variety is the spice of life? ? William Cowper While we?re on the subject of intimate trust, let?s take a look at some fun and sex...

? ? ? ?Happy Friday! It?s been a hectic week here at the Gottman Institute with the official release of the Gott Sex Series on Monday. ...

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? In addition to nurturing sexual intimacy in your relationship by talking openly about sex, it is just as important to c...

In the research?study ? we introduced in Monday's posting on The Gottman Relationship Blog, "Patterns of Marital Conflict P...

? ? ? ? We spent this past weekend at the Gottman Art and Science of Love Couples Workshop in Seattle and were overwhelmed by the posit...

? Today on the Gottman Relationship Blog, we continue the discussion of Manage Conflict by introducing Dr. Gottman's six skills...

The presence of positive affect during everyday interaction is crucial. However, for a relationship to be healthy, both positivity a...

Today on the Gottman Relationship Blog, we are happy to announce the beginning of a new seven-week series: "The Sound Relationship H...

Over ONE THOUSAND page views for the weekend! Not too bad. Thanks for reading and welcome to the Gottman Institute?s Sex Blog or? ? ...

Before we continue on with The Sound Relationship House Series ?and move to Make Life Dreams Come True, the level above Manage Conflict, ...

Source: http://www.gottmanblog.com/2013/04/weekend-homework-assignment-connect.html

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Pope Francis urges decisive action against sex abuse

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis wants the Catholic Church to "act decisively" to root out sexual abuse of children by priests and ensure the perpetrators are punished, the Vatican said on Friday.

Francis, in a meeting with the Holy See's doctrinal chief, Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, had declared that combating sexual abuse was important "for the Church and its credibility", a statement said.

Francis inherited a Church mired in problems and a major scandal over priestly abuse of children. It was believed to be the first time he had taken up the issue of sex abuse with a senior member of his staff since his election on March 13.

Mueller is head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department which includes the office of the "promoter of justice", or sex crimes prosecutor, which investigates cases of sexual abuse and decides if priests are to be defrocked.

Francis said the department should continue to "act decisively as far as cases of sexual abuse are concerned, promoting, above all, measures to protect minors, help for those who have suffered such violence in the past (and) the necessary procedures against those who are guilty," a statement said.

It said the pope wanted Catholic bishops around the world to promote and put into place "directives in this matter which is so important for the witness of the Church and its credibility".

A victims' group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said the statement did not go far enough and criticized it for saying that the Church's stance against sexual abuse was "a continuation" of the line wanted by Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict.

"Action, not discussion, is needed," SNAP said in a statement.

"We can't confuse words with actions. When we do, we hurt kids. We must insist on new tangible action that helps vulnerable children protect their bodies, not old vague pledges that help a widely-discredited institution protect its reputation," it said.

SNAP and other victims groups say there is much still to be discovered about how the Church behaved in the past and want more bishops who were aware of abuse to be held responsible.

The Catholic Church's crisis began in Boston in 2002 when media began reporting how cases of abuse were systematically covered up and abusive priests shuttled from parish to parish instead of being defrocked and handed over to civil authorities.

Since then, the Catholic Church in many countries has set up new guidelines to deal with cases of past abuse, prevent new cases, report abuse to police, and stop potential abusers from entering the priesthood in the first place.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Barry Moody and Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-francis-wants-church-act-decisively-against-sex-120001698.html

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This Facebook Phone Parody Actually Makes Some Good Points

Well, that didn't take long - Facebook Home is already being parodied on YouTube, in a video which actually ends up making a few biting comments about the potential problems the new application will face. For example, will the promised monthly updates to Facebook Home end up confusing users as to the basics of how their phone operates? Where will the ads (you know they're coming) eventually appear? How aggressive will Facebook become when it comes to filtering content from friends on our phone, a platform that's more personal and private than Facebook proper?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/SkeZdF2-IfQ/

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How to avoid liability when adding new employees ? Business ...

Hiring great employees is difficult?and legally dangerous. Just a few ill-timed words in a want ad or interview can trigger a legal complaint. Here are the key liability hot spots to watch out for in the hiring process.

Employment advertisements

An ad that directly or indirectly states a preference for applicants based on gender, age or other protected characteristic is generally unlawful. When drafting ads, list only the necessary job-related skills and qualifications?for example, ?must be able to lift 50 lbs.??rather than assumptions about who can perform the functions of the position?such as ?male furniture-mover wanted.?

Exceptions to this general rule: When a ?protected? characteristic is a bona fide occupational qualification, such as seeking a female to staff a women?s locker room.

Job descriptions

No law requires maintaining job descriptions, but it?s a good practice. Job descriptions can help applicants understand job requirements and discourage unqualified applicants. When drafting job descriptions:

• List the ?essential functions? of the job.
• Detail skills, knowledge and abilities required to perform essential functions, plus any special requirements.
• Include nonessential functions that an employee may be asked to perform occasionally.
• Include descriptions of the work environment, equipment and expected work habits.
• Include a disclaimer that the job description does not constitute an exhaustive list of duties and that management may revise it at any time.

Job interviews

Face-to-face interviews help hiring managers assess applicants? qualifications. But asking for some kinds of applicant information may violate anti-discrimination laws. Stick to questions that assess a candidate?s skills, ability or qualifications. Avoid questions that may trigger stereotypical assumptions about protected class status, such as:

• Marital status: Are you married? Is that your maiden or married name?
• Age: How old are you? When did you graduate?
• Disability: Do you have any disabilities that would impair your ability to work? How often were you out sick in your last job?
• Religion: Which church do you attend? What religious holidays do you observe?
• National origin/race: Where were you born?

Background checks

Federal law limits employers? ability to obtain background reports and demand pre-employment medical examinations. Before checking an applicant?s references, notify him or her in writing. Obtain written consent to the reference checks.

When checking an applicant?s references, ask only for job-related information. Stay away from anything unrelated to how the person could perform the task at hand.

Job offers

Don?t make promises you don?t intend to keep. Enthusiastic managers sometimes make statements to applicants that suggest long-term or permanent employment (?You?ll always have a job here if you hit your sales quota?) or indicating that they can only be fired for cause. (?You will always be treated fairly.?) Those statements can easily become ammunition in later breach-of-contract litigation.

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The Rock and John Cena: a lifetime in WWE

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/classics/rock-and-cena-a-lifetime-in-wwe

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