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Channel 12. Innovation As A Team Sport. More job seekers now employing social networks. Social networking is playing an increasing role in helping people find jobs, with a projected 22 million Americans finding work in the past year through their Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter contacts, according to survey released Wednesday.

More job seekers now employing social networks

That compares to the 14.4 million who found work through social networks in 2010, according to a survey commissioned by Jobvite Inc., a Burlingame social recruiting software maker. But Facebook – the largest social network by far – may be proving more important to finding a job than LinkedIn, which bills itself as the professional social network. One in six found work through social networking, but of those, 83 percent credited Facebook – generally regarded as a personal social networking site – for their success. That compared to 46 percent for LinkedIn and 36 percent for Twitter. However, 31 percent of job seekers said they used all three. The effect on social networking with job recruiters and employers are clear. Washington Post Social Reader. Tin-Tone ~ Sonic Fascinators! Practical sustainability in action: A community sharing of new and better ways to be at home in the desert by fitting in with the natural environment.

Inexpensive Innovation. When local builder Michael Ginsburg set out to design an energy-efficient home on Tucson's northside, he certainly knew what he didn't want.

Inexpensive Innovation

In short, he had zero desire to create a pricey, aesthetic showcase that would merely give a nod to energy efficiency. What he ultimately achieved was a comfortable, appealing home where utility bills hover in the low double-digits—when there are bills at all. The home only cost around $150 per square foot to build, making it widely affordable. Nicotine as a gateway drug: Biological mechanism in mice identified.

A landmark study in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person's future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Nicotine as a gateway drug: Biological mechanism in mice identified

The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine. The gateway drug model is based upon epidemiological evidence that most illicit drug users report use of tobacco products or alcohol prior to illicit drug use. This model has generated significant controversy over the years, mostly relating to whether prior drug exposure (to nicotine, alcohol or marijuana) is causally related to later drug use. New ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ to give U.S. more site-seizing power.

The controversial PROTECT IP bill languished on Capitol Hill, but a new proposal could take up its cause.

New ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ to give U.S. more site-seizing power

HR 3261, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, will “promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property” and allow the U.S. Attorney General to go after foreign sites engaging in copyright infringement. According to SOPA (.pdf), rogue sites operating within the U.S. would face immediate seizure while international infringing sites would face in rem legal action. SOPA architect Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) believes the bill is necessary so the U.S. government can hit foreign piracy groups where it hurts: their revenue streams.

“The online thieves who run these foreign websites are out of the reach of U.S. law enforcement agencies and profit from selling pirated goods without any legal consequences,” said Smith. EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne, EFF intellectual property director, explained: Psychology Secrets: Most Psychology Studies Are College Student Biased. Psychology, like most professions, holds many little secrets.

Psychology Secrets: Most Psychology Studies Are College Student Biased

They’re well known and usually accepted amongst the profession itself, but known to few “outsiders” or even journalists — whose job it is to not only report research findings, but put them into some sort of context. One of those secrets is that most psychology research done in the U.S. is consistently done primarily on college students — specifically, undergraduate students taking a psychology course.

It’s been this way for the better part of 50 years. But are undergraduate college students studying at a U.S. university representative of the population in America? In the world? These questions were raised by a group of Canadian researchers writing in Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal last month, as noted by Anand Giridharadas in an article yesterday in The New York Times: Social network Path announces more ways to share. College students think they're so special - Health - Mental health.

NEW YORK — Today’s college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society.

College students think they're so special - Health - Mental health

“We need to stop endlessly repeating ‘You’re special’ and having children repeat that back,” said the study’s lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. “Kids are self-centered enough already.” College Students Are Less Empathic Than Generations Past: Scientific American Podcast. The rise of social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Flikr, has been accompanied by fears that we are producing the most narcissistic “Generation Me” in history.

College Students Are Less Empathic Than Generations Past: Scientific American Podcast

But is there any actual scientific evidence for that view? Well, a study of 14,000 college students found that today’s young people are 40 percent less empathetic than college kids from 30 years ago. The research was presented this weekend at the annual meeting of Association for Psychological Science. Researchers analyzed data from studies conducted between 1979 and 2009, and found the sharpest drop in empathy occurred in the last nine years.