Abrakadoodle Art Education Opens First Unit in ... - Franchising.com

Children's art and creativity programs set to get underway in Northwest Arkansas this spring.

March 29, 2013 // Franchising.com // Reston, VA - Abrakadoodle Remarkable Art Education is expanding its reach to children with the addition of its first franchise unit in Arkansas. The mother/daughter duo Cora J. and Joy Davis of Fayetteville will be providing a wide range of art programs to include visual arts classes, camps, workshops, as well as in-school field trips, special events and arty parties at schools, community centers, faith-based locations and other sites that serve children throughout Northwest Arkansas to include Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale.

"We are delighted to welcome Joy and Cora to our award-winning Abrakadoodle franchise system," said Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE, President and Co-Founder of Abrakadoodle, Inc. "They bring impressive educational backgrounds and a true passion for education and creative literacy, which I am confident will help ensure their tremendous success in a community that values art, culture and creativity."

"Creative literacy is very important for children," stated Cora J. Davis, Director of Abrakadoodle-Northwest Arkansas. "Abrakadoodle will provide an educationally-rich learning environment enabling children to develop skills and imagination." Married to Paul, mother of three (Kendrick, Vanessa and Joy) and grandmother of two young children (Kennedy and Katelynn), Cora brings to Abrakadoodle 15 years of K-5 teaching experience, as well as a BS in Elementary Education, a Master's in Education, and she is working on her PhD in Public Policy and Education at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. She explained that her daughter Joy approached her about the opportunity to operate a well-respected art education franchise, an idea she met with enthusiasm.

""I always dreamed of owning my own business," Joy Davis, Director of Abrakadoodle-Northwest Arkansas remarked. Joy discovered Abrakadoodle when she read a business magazine and saw a fit with Abrakadoodle's creative concept. From a long line of educators, Joy brings a BS in Biology and a Master's in Operations Management. "Through Abrakadoodle, we will stimulate creativity in children, which they will carry with them throughout their lives. I find that very exciting!"

To learn more about art programs or to bring Abrakadoodle classes and activities to your location, please go to www.abrakadoodle.com/AR01/ or contact Joy Davis at jdavis@abrakadoodle.com or 479-856-6651.

Abrakadoodle was the first American franchise company to bring a comprehensive, standards-based art education program to children in the U.S. More than just a drawing program, Abrakadoodle embraces art in its broadest scope - from public art to all types of painting, sculpture, animation, paper and fabric art, digital photography and more. Abrakadoodle students develop a fine arts vocabulary as they learn about the styles and techniques of such artists as Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso, Ansel Adams, as well as contemporary artists through its Artist of Distinction program. Abrakadoodle students use an abundance of creative materials (bamboo brushes, sculpting materials, fabric, watercolor, acrylics, and more) to explore the visual arts. Students often take home framed, labeled original creations that extend the learning at home, as well as boost self-confidence.

Abrakadoodle classes employ a "process art" methodology. These classes not only inspire a child's imagination, but they also build motor, language and cognitive skills. Abrakadoodle students develop an appreciation for art and a sense of craftsmanship. Research suggests that getting an early start in the arts can make a real difference in the lives of children, not only in terms of increased academic achievement but also greater problem solving, leadership capabilities, and confidence.

About Abrakadoodle

Abrakadoodle was co-founded in 2002 by award-winning educator/franchise developer Mary Rogers, CFE, MA.Ed, and children's services franchising expert Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE. Abrakadoodle is the most comprehensive creativity and art education company of its kind, offering extensive visual arts classes, camps and parties for children ages 20 months to 12 years old. Abrakadoodle has received seven First Place Awards from Nickelodeon's Parent Picks Awards for "Best Art Program to inspire your child's inner Picasso." Recently Abrakadoodle also received seven additional nominations for "Best Kids Party Entertainer" and "Best Kids Party Place."

SOURCE?Abrakadoodle

Contact:

Joy Davis
Director
479-856-6651
jdavis@abrakadoodle.com

Karin Machusic
Director of Public Relations
(Mobile) 925-708-2179
Karin@abrakadoodle.com

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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130329_abrakadoodle_art_education_opens_first_unit_in_ark.html

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Slovenia will not be the next Cyprus: finance minister

By Marja Novak and Zoran Radosavljevic

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenia will not be the next euro member to need a financial rescue as it can afford to wait for lower borrowing costs before issuing new debt, its top economic official said on Friday.

The new center-left government was widely expected to raise money on financial markets shortly after taking office on March 20 but has not done so because Slovenia's borrowing costs have soared due to the turmoil in Cyprus.

Investors are betting that Slovenia, another tiny member of Europe's currency zone with a population of just 2 million, will also need a rescue to keep its banks and economy afloat.

Last week, Cyprus became the fifth euro member to receive financial help from Brussels to survive a regional debt crisis.

While Slovenia's banks are also in trouble the sector is smaller than in Cyprus and it does not share the exposure to toxic Greek debt and Finance Minister Uros Cufer said his country did not need help.

"We will need no bailout this year," he said. "I am calm."

Like many other euro zone members, Slovenia is in recession, with slowing exports to its neighbors and high unemployment.

It last issued a bond in October last year before the conservative government collapsed over a corruption scandal in January and was this month replaced by the new center-left cabinet of Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek.

Analysts were expecting a swift debt issue from the government but yields have jumped. The 2021 bond yield rose to 6.06 percent on Friday, from 5.45 a week ago.

The International Monetary Fund says Slovenia will need to raise at least 3 billion euros this year for the budget, debt repayment and the bank overhaul, and former Prime Minister Janez Jansa has said Slovenia must issue debt by June.

But Cufer said Slovenia, a mountainous country on the Adriatic neighbored by Austria, Italy, Croatia and Hungary, was not in a hurry.

"We do not have to go to the markets in these overheated times due to Cyprus," he said. "We can wait for the markets to calm down, for the investors to feel comfortable about our action and then we will tap the market."

BAD BANK

He said the government would launch a "bad bank" by September that would take over a part of 7 billion euros in bad loans from the three main banks, all of which are in majority or large state ownership.

The banks would then require up to 1 billion euro ($1.28 billion) in a capital injection, which Cufer said Slovenia could raise later this year via a bond, part of the total 3 billion in planned debt issuance for this year.

With successive governments citing national interests, Slovenia was the only ex-communist state that refused to sell its largest lenders ahead of EU entry last decade, creating a toxic combination of political control and poor management in banks that backfired when the economy went downhill in 2009.

The global financial crisis ended years of fast growth and indiscriminate lending that included loans worth a reported 187 million euros from one bank to the largest builder, SCT, which went bankrupt after a collapse in real estate and construction.

Many other highly leveraged local companies went bust, sticking banks with more bad loans that combined amount to about a fifth of the economy.

Cufer, 42, took part in shaping the bad bank under a plan launched by the previous conservative government on the side of the biggest lender, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), where he worked as head of financial management.

He said the bad bank had already been established and would be fully operational "surely in a few months, definitely by the start of September".

Along with the 1 billion euros to shore up their balance sheets this year, the lenders will swap bad loans in exchange for state-guaranteed bonds issued by the bad bank, he said.

NO BANK SALES SOON

Cufer said the banks were now worth 10-20 percent of their book value, which would be 25 to 50 million euros, and the government would wait until they were recapitalized and markets stabilized before sells them into private hands.

"Now is not the appropriate time to sell. Selling at these prices makes no sense... Even next year is very optimistic," he said.

Cufer tried to stress that unlike Cyprus - where banking assets were seven times larger than the economy, as opposed to about 1.3 times for Slovenia - Ljubjana could handle its problems on its own.

"Slovenia cannot be compared to Cyprus, it is certainly not a tax haven... the basic problem of the banks in Slovenia is too much debt in companies and a lack of capital," he said.

To offset the costs of bank cleanup, the government will step up the sale of state companies rather than pursue the type of austerity measures that have deepened economic downturns in Greece, Portugal and other struggling states.

He declined to name what companies could be privatized but said they would continue with the program of the previous government. He added there would be at least "one major privatization" by the end of the year.

The last government was mulling selling stakes in telecoms operator Telekom Slovenia, insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav and fuel retailer Petrol. ($1 = 0.7788 euros)

(Writing by Zoran Radosavljevic; editing by Michael Winfrey and Anna Willard)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/slovenia-not-next-cyprus-finance-minister-012924950.html

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If 'Girls,' 'Full House' And More Had 'Game Of Thrones' Sigils

HBO has released a delightful sigil-maker before the start of the third season of Game of Thrones. This got me thinking, what would some of the most famous characters from fiction adopt as their sigils and mottos if they were in the world of Westeros? Let's have a look.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/game-of-thrones-sigils_n_2980146.html

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This is the Modem World: Nerds in rabbit holes

Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

I have many interests: mountain biking, martial arts, video games, running, reading, cooking and horror movies. For each one of these, there is an internet rabbit hole so deep, so full of information and compatriots that it's a miracle I ever actually follow through on them. Ask yourself this: Do you do what you say you do online?

The internet is great at allowing people to nerd out on their particular interests. While it serves up news and media like a champ, many of us spend our time deep-diving into whatever rabbit hole interests us. When we nerd out about technology here at Engadget, for instance, we're getting a double dose: reading about technology in a tech environment. It's a beautiful thing; it's addictive and we lose sight of reality while we're going deep. We could be in a bar, at home, at the office -- wherever it is, we lose sense of our environment.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/nerds-in-rabbit-holes/

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Report: Rep. Gohmert 'rude and irate' after ticket

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Texas congressman was "rude and irate" after receiving a parking ticket near the Lincoln Memorial earlier this month, according to a police report.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told U.S. Park Police he was on a committee that oversees the agency and would not pay a fine, according to the report, which was obtained by Politico. Gohmert was given a citation after 11 p.m. on March 13 for parking his vehicle in a spot reserved for National Park Service vehicles.

The outspoken conservative lawmaker referred officers to a congressional plate in his car window, according to the police report, and left without the ticket.

Kimberly Willingham, a spokeswoman for Gohmert, said the congressman parked in a one of several empty spots and believed he was allowed to do so. She said a park service officer apologized to Gohmert when he identified himself.

"A park service vehicle pulled up as he was putting a note with the ticket on a vacant park service vehicle, so he showed his official card, explained that his congressional plate was showing and he was authorized to park there," she said. "The park service officer said he had not noticed the ... congressional plate in the front window and would not know what it meant had he seen it. The officer accepted the ticket back and apologized."

The police report contains no mention of an apology, according to Politico.

Willingham said Gohmert's office would study the incident and, if he was not allowed to park in the spot, "will most certainly pay the $25 parking ticket."

On Thursday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an outside watchdog group, said it filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Gohmert "for conduct that reflects discreditably upon the House."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-rep-gohmert-rude-irate-ticket-185413520.html

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Striiv Play

The Striiv Play ($69.95 direct) is an activity tracker that, as its name suggests, is all about making fitness fun. It tracks typical fitness stats like steps taken, stairs climbed, and calories burned, but instead of simply presenting the information in quantifiable terms, it incentivizes the process. There are mini games, personal challenges, and social interaction elements, but the app and device design are missing some of the polish found with competitors like our Editors' Choice, the FitBit One. The Striiv Play will appeal to the younger set, with cartoon avatars and games galore, but those same kid-friendly features will likely turn off serious fitness fanatics.

Design and Setup
A small oblong device, the Striiv Play measures 1.95 by 1.07 by .033 inches (HWD), making it slightly larger than the FitBit One, but still very pocket friendly. Unlike the FitBit, the Striiv Play has a permanently built-in metal clip. That, coupled with the hard lines and edges, makes it less ergonomically friendly, especially if you plan on clipping the device somewhere discreet like a bra strap or waistband. The plastic construction also feels a bit chintzy, while the mirrored plastic face draws attention to the device. There's a button hidden behind one end of the face, which activates the blue OLED readout. Pressing the button scrolls through recorded metrics (steps taken, stairs climbed, miles walked, calories burned, and minutes active), while holding the button brings up the Settings menu. The OLED is bright and clear, making it easy to see exactly where you stand with your daily fitness goals.?

Setup is a bit different than your typical Bluetooth accessory. The Striiv Play uses low-energy Bluetooth 4.0, and the connection must be made through the free iOS app rather than your device's Bluetooth settings menu. The process is easy enough, though, and after following a few prompts, you'll be ready to go. Bluetooth 4.0 also means the Striiv Play is only compatible with the iPhone 4S or later, fifth-gen iPod touches, and the fourth-gen iPad or iPad mini. The Striiv Play automatically syncs with your device when it's in range (about 30 feet). There's no Android support or Web interface like you get with the FitBit.

There's a microUSB port along the side of the Play for charging (a cable is included), and Striiv claims up to 7 days of battery life, but only 3-4 days for active users, on a single charge. In my tests, the Play went from a full charge to half after 3 days of active use.?

Fitness Made Fun
Like many other activity trackers, the Striiv Play keeps track of stats important to overall fitness. These include steps taken, stairs climbed, miles walked, calories burned, and minutes active. Where the Play differs is how it presents this information and how it challenges you to reach your fitness goals. With the FitBit One, you get a very clean interface with all of your stats in one place. It shows your fitness goals and your current progress, as well as your history over time. This is a boon for proactive users who are already motivated to get active, but there are a few extra features that can help encourage you to do more.

The home page for the app is split into two parts. Swiping to the left or right along along the top half cycles through recorded metrics. Below the current count for each metric is your current challenge with a progress bar showing how close you are to finishing each challenge.

Striiv utilizes traditional goals and challenges, like reaching a certain number of steps in a day. The challenges also have real world context; for example, a 150-calorie challenge will read "Burn a Soda." Finishing each challenge nets you a virtual trophy, while a more difficult challenge automatically replaces the one you just finished.

Where it gets more interesting is the mini games and social challenges. Striiv encourages you to attain fitness goals with a mini game called MyLand. Imagine a rudimentary city-building game, where you create virtual towns, but instead of using experience or in-game activity, you use real life activity points. The more you move about, the more points you get to use towards improvements for your virtual world. You can also take on quests that net you more points for improvements. Social challenges like relay races let you pit your own activity stats against those of your friends. All of your friends will have to have a Striiv Play as well, though, but it could definitely be a great motivational tool if deployed in a classroom setting. Each player is represented by a virtual avatar (usually an animal), and the race is determined by how much each participant walks and how fast they walk in real life.

Great for Kids, Good for Adults
With the Striiv Play, it's all fun and games, which is great for motivating kids and those who enjoy games to get active. With the childhood obesity problem, I can see the Striiv Play fitting in nicely in a classroom environment, where the games and social challenges will really click with younger kids. But the cartoonish graphics and playful nature might turn off some more serious-minded fitness enthusiasts. And it can't quite match the FitBit One, which lets you do things like log activities and food, as well as track your sleep patterns and even set silent alarms to gently wake you. The Striiv Play is a good activity tracker, and might even be the best for kids, but in terms of overall fitness our Editors' Choice remains with the FitBit One. If your budget is a bit tighter, you should also check out the FitBit Zip, which offers many of the features of its more expensive sibling. And if you prefer the wristband form factor over the clip, be sure to check out the Jawbone UP?or Nike+ Fuelband.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/7O3Vequd7fg/0,2817,2416961,00.asp

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Aye-ayes: Endangered lemurs' complete genomes are sequenced and analyzed for conservation efforts

Mar. 25, 2013 ? For the first time, the complete genomes of three separate populations of aye-ayes -- a type of lemur -- have been sequenced and analyzed in an effort to help guide conservation efforts. The results of the genome-sequence analyses will be published in an early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online during the week of March 25.

The team of scientists is led by George H. Perry, assistant professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State University; Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering at Penn State; and Edward Louis, director of conservation genetics at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and director of the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, NGO.

The aye-aye -- a lemur that is found only on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean -- recently was re-classified as "endangered" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "The aye-aye is one of the world's most unusual and fascinating animals," said Perry. "Aye-ayes use continuously growing incisors to gnaw through the bark of dead trees and then a long, thin, and flexible middle finger to extract insect larvae, filling the ecological niche of a woodpecker. Aye-ayes are nocturnal, solitary and have very low population densities, making them difficult to study and sample in the wild."

Perry added that he and other scientists are concerned about the long-term viability of aye-ayes as a species, given the loss and fragmentation of natural forest habitats in Madagascar. "Aye-aye population densities are very low, and individual aye-ayes have huge home-range requirements," said Perry. "As forest patches become smaller, there is a particular risk that there won't be sufficient numbers of individual aye-ayes in a given area to maintain a population over multiple generations. We were looking to make use of new genomic-sequencing technologies to characterize patterns of genetic diversity among some of the surviving aye-aye populations, with an eye towards the prioritization of conservation efforts."

Louis, with his team at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, worked to locate aye-ayes and collect DNA samples from three separate regions of Madagascar: the northern, eastern, and western regions. To discover the extent of the genetic diversity in present-day aye-ayes, the researchers generated the complete genome sequences of 12 individual aye-ayes. They then analyzed and compared the genomes of the three populations. They found that, while eastern and western aye-ayes are somewhat genetically distinct, aye-ayes in the northern part of the island and those in the east show a much more significant amount of genetic distance, suggesting an extensive period of time during which interbreeding has not occurred between the populations in these regions.

"Our next step was to compare aye-aye genetic diversity to present-day human genetic diversity," explained Miller. "This analysis can help us to gauge how long the aye-aye populations have been geographically separated and unable to interbreed." To make the comparison, the team gathered 12 complete human DNA sequences -- the same number as the individual aye-aye sequences generated -- from publicly available databases for three distinct human populations: African agriculturalists, individuals of European descent, and Southeast Asian individuals. Using Galaxy -- an open-source, web-based computer platform designed at Penn State for data-intensive biomedical and genetic research -- the team developed software to compare the two species' genetic distances. They found that present-day African and European human populations have a smaller amount of genetic distance than that found to exist between northern and eastern aye-aye populations, suggesting that the aye-aye populations were separated for an especially lengthy period of time by geographic barriers.

"We believe that northern aye-ayes have not been able to interbreed with other populations for some time. Although they are separated by a distance of only about 160 miles, high and extensive plateaus and major rivers may have made intermingling relatively infrequent," explained Miller. He added that the results of the team's data further suggest that the separation of the two aye-aye populations stretches back much longer than 2,300 years, which is when human settlers first arrived on the island and started burning the aye-ayes' forest habitat and hunting lemurs.

The team members hope that their findings will help to guide future conservation efforts for the species. "This work highlights an important region of aye-aye biodiversity in northern Madagascar, and this unique biodiversity is not preserved anywhere except in the wild," said Louis. "There is tremendous historical loss of habitat in northern Madagascar that is continuing at an unsustainable rate today. This study is an excellent example of how a comprehensive and coordinated effort in the field and laboratory can identify previously unknown patterns of biodiversity for an endangered species, which then can be used by conservation organizations to base their management strategies."

The authors added that, in future research, they would like to sequence the genomes of other lemur species -- more than 70 percent of which are considered endangered or critically endangered -- as well as aye-ayes from the southern reaches of the island of Madagascar.

In addition to Perry, Miller, and Louis, other scientists who contributed to this research include Stephan C. Schuster, Aakrosh Ratan, Oscar C. Bedoya-Reina, and Richard Burhans from Penn State; Runhua Lei from the Center for Conservation and Research at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium; and Steig E. Johnson from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

Funding for aye-aye sample collection was provided by Conservation International, the Primate Action Fund, and the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, along with logistical support from the Ahmanson Foundation and the Theodore F. and Claire M. Hubbard Family Foundation. Additional support comes from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State University.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State. The original article was written by Katrina Voss.

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. George H. Perry, Edward E. Louis, Jr., Aakrosh Ratan, Oscar C. Bedoya-Reina, Richard C. Burhans, Runhua Lei, Steig E. Johnson, Stephan C. Schuster, and Webb Miller. Aye-aye population genomic analyses highlight an important center of endemism in northern Madagascar. PNAS, March 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211990110

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/th-V7_WkuQM/130325160507.htm

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