World leaders mourn Chavez; Latin America grieves

One of the world's most flamboyant leaders lost his two-year battle with cancer on Tuesday, ending 14 years of a tumultuous and often bitterly divisive socialist reign. NBC's Mark Potter reports.

By Becky Bratu and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

A wave of public grief washed over Latin America following the death of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, reflecting the powerful emotions the charismatic leftist leader evoked in the region and around the world.?

The Cuban government, Venezuela's closest ally, declared official mourning for Wednesday and Thursday, and nationwide mourning for Friday.

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"I tell you, this is sad and painful news not just for me, because ... Cuba and the entire world has lost a great man," said Armando Fuentes, a store clerk in Havana, after Venezuela?s Vice President Nicolas Maduro broke the news of Chavez?s death Tuesday.

Dayana Calzado, a 27-year-old Cuban lawyer, said the world had lost a great leader. "A very long time will pass before there is another leader like him," she said.

Chavez's passing was acutely felt in Latin America where his anti-colonialist and anti-American policies and rhetoric provoked both loyalty and anger.

Reports featuring crying mourners from around the continent dominated Venezuelan television in the hours after his death was announced.

Claudio Santana / AFP - Getty Images

Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the United States and elsewhere mourn his death.

Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff, said she was mourning the loss of a great "friend" of her country, the BBC reported.

"This death should fill all Latin and Central Americans with sadness," she added, according to the BBC. "Hugo Chavez was without doubt a leader committed to his country and to the development of the people of Latin America."

Chavez has often criticized the United States on its history of intervention in the Americas and Washington's stance on countries such as Iran.

Argentina?s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner suspended activities after receiving the news and traveled to Venezuela. She and her late husband, Nestor Kirchner, were close friends of Chavez.

Chile and Ecuador released official notes of condolence, while in Peru a minute of silence was held in Chavez?s honor. Meanwhile, Bolivia's President Evo Morales announced he would travel immediately to Caracas to pay his respects. Uruguayan President Jos? Mujica also set off for Caracas.

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted: "I profoundly lament the death of the president of Venezuela Hugo Ch?vez Fr?as. Our sincere condolences."

Chavez's friends further afield also reacted to news of his death immediately.

"It's a tragedy. He was a great politician," Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said of the death.

'Understood the needs of the poor'
In the United States, Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., who represents a largely Hispanic district, tweeted his condolences: "Hugo Chavez was a leader that understood the needs of the poor. He was committed to empowering the powerless. R.I.P. Mr. President."

Serrano's statement provoked an angry reaction form?pro-troops charity Move America Forward.

"Chavez openly hated the United States and opposed any effort to spread freedom, democracy and free markets to Latin America," it said in a statement.

Nevertheless, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter also paid tribute to Chavez, and said in a statement that he "will be remembered for his bold assertion of autonomy and independence for Latin American governments."?

Joseph P. Kennedy II, chairman of non-profit Citizens Energy, which was criticized for receiving heating oil donations from the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, released a statement thanking Chavez for his generosity.

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The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.

"There are close to two million people in the United States who received free heating assistance, thanks to President Chavez's leadership," Kennedy's statement read. "Our prayers go out to President Chavez's family, the people of Venezuela, and all who were warmed by his generosity."

The friction between the U.S. and the Chavez regime lasted until the end of his life.

Only minutes before the Venezuelan leader's death was announced, the State Department issued a statement rejecting Maduro?s earlier accusations that Chavez?s enemies gave him cancer and that U.S. diplomats in Venezuela plotted to destabilize the government.

Following the news of his death, the White House released a statement reinforcing its goal of improving its relationship with the Venezuelan government.

"At this challenging time of President Hugo Chavez's passing, the United States reaffirms its support for the Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government," President Barack Obama?s statement read. "As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Mike Rogers, R-Mich., also said he hoped for the two countries to turn a new leaf in their relationship.

"Hugo Chavez was a destabilizing force in Latin America, and an obstacle to progress in the region. I hope his death provides an opportunity for a new chapter in U.S.-Venezuelan relations," he said.

Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., issued a statement saying, "Sic semper tyrannis,? which translates to, "Thus always to tyrants."

Those words were used by John Wilkes Boothe before he fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford?s Theatre.

"After the welcome news of Hugo Chavez's death, I hope that the oppressed people of Venezuela will be able to live in freedom, not under miserable tyranny. I look forward to working in the House to promote a free, democratic, and pro-American government in Venezuela," Cotton added.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also used the opportunity to take a parting shot at Chavez, releasing a statement that read in part: "The Venezuelan people now have an opportunity to turn the page on one of the darkest periods in its history and embark on a new, albeit difficult, path to restore the rule of law, democratic principles, security and free enterprise system in a nation that deserves so much better than the socialist disaster of the past 14 years."

NBC News' Andrea Mitchell, Mary Murray, Edgar Zuniga, Sofia Perpetua, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Venezuela's 'Comandante' Hugo Chavez dies

Analysis: Chavistas begin search for Latin America's next 'Comandante'

Full Venezuela coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Tue Mar 5, 2013 7:45 PM EST

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/05/17199243-world-leaders-pay-tribute-to-hugo-chavez-as-wave-of-grief-washes-over-latin-america?lite

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Affordable care alone may not be enough to help Latinos overcome cancer care barriers

Public release date: 5-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Laura Perry
lperry@sonnet.ucla.edu
310-794-4022
University of California - Los Angeles

A combination of financial, cultural and communication barriers plays a role in preventing underserved Latino men with prostate cancer from accessing the care and treatment they need, according to a new study by researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing.

The study, "Barriers to Prostate Cancer Care: Affordable Care Is Not Enough," is published in the March issue of the peer-reviewed journal Qualitative Health Research.

According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Latino men. Additionally, Latino men are more likely to be diagnosed with later-stage disease than non-Hispanic white men.

"We found that an array of obstacles compromise access and frequently result in negative outcomes," said Sally L. Maliski, associate dean of academic affairs at the UCLA School of Nursing and senior author of the study. "Sadly, these obstacles disproportionately affect underserved individuals and require a new focus on not only adequate health care coverage but also on the array of hurdles that limit patient access."

The UCLA study looked at Latino men who were enrolled in Improving Access, Counseling and Treatment for Californians With Prostate Cancer (IMPACT), a state-funded public assistance program. The analysis revealed barriers throughout the entire prostate cancercare process, including screening, treatment and follow-up care.

Among the key findings:

Financial hardship

Low socioeconomic status was commonly cited by the Latino men in the study as the primary impediment to care. The inability to afford medical insurance not only made it difficult to access care but also intensified the gravity of the prostate cancer diagnosis, leaving many participants feeling hopeless.

Participants often had difficulty understanding state- or county-based insurance policies, and this resulted in denied claims, loss of coverage or difficulty in accessing prescriptions. It ultimately led to increased out-of-pocket expenses and a fragmented system of care, leaving patients frustrated.

Lack of doctor continuity and care coordination

Participants frequently experienced poor care coordination, increased distrust for their doctors and decreased levels of comfort when care was administered disjointedly, by a frequently changing group of medical personnel.

Their frustration was exacerbated when they perceived faulty equipment and multiple doctor referrals as a cause for delayed diagnosis. Surgical procedures for prostate cancer and treatments for side effects were also frequently complicated by poor care coordination.

Inadequate access to primary care left many participants ill-equipped to navigate a complex medical system that often requires self-advocacy to demand the right care.

Communication and education

A lack of health literacy among the men, compounded by insufficient provider awareness of this issue, frequently resulted in the men misunderstanding doctors' treatment recommendations and procedures.

Patients' limited proficiency in English also often hampered their ability to describe their symptoms and express their needs to providers.

"Our study highlighted that we have an intricate web of barriers societal, system and individual that when combined leave many individuals without the care they should be receiving," Maliski said. "These overlapping obstacles make it clear we need a system where not only is care affordable but where we use a multi-faceted approach to improve access, increase health literacy and greatly improve care coordination."

###

Maliski's co-investigators on the study were Charlotte Oduro (Albert Schweitzer Fellow at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health) and Sarah E. Connor (UCLA Department of Urology). The study was funded through a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation.

The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. For more information, visit nursing.ucla.edu.

For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

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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.

Public release date: 5-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Laura Perry
lperry@sonnet.ucla.edu
310-794-4022
University of California - Los Angeles

A combination of financial, cultural and communication barriers plays a role in preventing underserved Latino men with prostate cancer from accessing the care and treatment they need, according to a new study by researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing.

The study, "Barriers to Prostate Cancer Care: Affordable Care Is Not Enough," is published in the March issue of the peer-reviewed journal Qualitative Health Research.

According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Latino men. Additionally, Latino men are more likely to be diagnosed with later-stage disease than non-Hispanic white men.

"We found that an array of obstacles compromise access and frequently result in negative outcomes," said Sally L. Maliski, associate dean of academic affairs at the UCLA School of Nursing and senior author of the study. "Sadly, these obstacles disproportionately affect underserved individuals and require a new focus on not only adequate health care coverage but also on the array of hurdles that limit patient access."

The UCLA study looked at Latino men who were enrolled in Improving Access, Counseling and Treatment for Californians With Prostate Cancer (IMPACT), a state-funded public assistance program. The analysis revealed barriers throughout the entire prostate cancercare process, including screening, treatment and follow-up care.

Among the key findings:

Financial hardship

Low socioeconomic status was commonly cited by the Latino men in the study as the primary impediment to care. The inability to afford medical insurance not only made it difficult to access care but also intensified the gravity of the prostate cancer diagnosis, leaving many participants feeling hopeless.

Participants often had difficulty understanding state- or county-based insurance policies, and this resulted in denied claims, loss of coverage or difficulty in accessing prescriptions. It ultimately led to increased out-of-pocket expenses and a fragmented system of care, leaving patients frustrated.

Lack of doctor continuity and care coordination

Participants frequently experienced poor care coordination, increased distrust for their doctors and decreased levels of comfort when care was administered disjointedly, by a frequently changing group of medical personnel.

Their frustration was exacerbated when they perceived faulty equipment and multiple doctor referrals as a cause for delayed diagnosis. Surgical procedures for prostate cancer and treatments for side effects were also frequently complicated by poor care coordination.

Inadequate access to primary care left many participants ill-equipped to navigate a complex medical system that often requires self-advocacy to demand the right care.

Communication and education

A lack of health literacy among the men, compounded by insufficient provider awareness of this issue, frequently resulted in the men misunderstanding doctors' treatment recommendations and procedures.

Patients' limited proficiency in English also often hampered their ability to describe their symptoms and express their needs to providers.

"Our study highlighted that we have an intricate web of barriers societal, system and individual that when combined leave many individuals without the care they should be receiving," Maliski said. "These overlapping obstacles make it clear we need a system where not only is care affordable but where we use a multi-faceted approach to improve access, increase health literacy and greatly improve care coordination."

###

Maliski's co-investigators on the study were Charlotte Oduro (Albert Schweitzer Fellow at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health) and Sarah E. Connor (UCLA Department of Urology). The study was funded through a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation.

The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. For more information, visit nursing.ucla.edu.

For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uoc--aca030513.php

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Vietnam capital to reassign obese, rude traffic cops - paper

HANOI (Reuters) - Pot-bellied, short, or abusive traffic policemen will be barred from working on the streets of Vietnam's capital and assigned desk jobs instead as Hanoi police try to clean up their unsavoury image, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The city's traffic police are following the worst offenders closely and compiling lists of those to be reassigned. All police on traffic duty will be made to carry a book on the code of conduct to remind them how to behave, the official Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper said.

"Little officers, or those with too big a belly will be moved to work in offices instead of guiding traffic and settling violations," Colonel Dao Vinh Thang, head of the Hanoi Traffic Police Department, was quoted by Tien Phong as saying.

He said five teams of inspectors had been sent to monitor the behaviour of police on the street. Thang could not be reached for additional comment.

Tempers often flare in the city of 7 million famous for constant streams of motorcycles and sometimes haphazard driving. Complaints have mounted about the conduct of traffic police, including allegations of corruption and abusive behaviour.

The latest initiative follows the deployment in January of female traffic police, all part of a campaign to improve the image of the security forces.

Crackdowns on overweight policemen have taken place in Thailand, Pakistan, Britain, Indonesia and the Philippines in recent years. Several of those countries ordered officers to get fit and lose weight before they could return to work.

(Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom; Editing by Martin Petty and Ron Popeski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vietnam-capital-reassign-obese-rude-traffic-cops-paper-172128706.html

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Distance to nearest galaxy measured

Public release date: 6-Mar-2013
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Contact: Ian Thompson
ian@obs.carnegiescience.edu
626-304-0225
Carnegie Institution

Pasadena, CA A team of astronomers including Carnegie's Ian Thompson have managed to improve the measurement of the distance to our nearest neighbor galaxy and, in the process, refine an astronomical calculation that helps measure the expansion of the universe. Their work is published March 7 by Nature.

The Hubble constant is a fundamental quantity that measures the current rate at which our universe is expanding. It is named after 20th Century Carnegie astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, who astonished the world by discovering that our universe has been growing continuously since its inception. Determining the Hubble constant (a direct measurement of the rate of this continuing expansion) is critical for gauging the age and size of our universe. One of the largest uncertainties plaguing past measurements of the Hubble constant has involved the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), our nearest neighboring galaxy, which orbits our own Milky Way.

Astronomers survey the scale of the Universe by first measuring the distances to close-by objects (for example Cepheid variable stars studied by Wendy Freedman, director of the Carnegie Observatories, and her collaborators) and then using observations of these objects in more distant galaxies to pin down distances further and further out in the Universe. But this chain is only as accurate as its weakest link. Up to now finding a precise distance to the LMC has proved elusive. Because stars in this galaxy are used to fix the distance scale for more remote galaxies, an accurate distance is crucially important.

"Because the LMC is close and contains a significant number of different stellar distance indicators, hundreds of distance measurements using it have been recorded over the years," Thompson said. "Unfortunately, nearly all the determinations have systemic errors, with each method carrying its own uncertainties."

The international collaboration worked out the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud by observing rare close pairs of stars, known as eclipsing binaries. These pairs are gravitationally bound to each other, and once per orbit, as seen from Earth, the total brightness from the system drops as each component eclipses its companion. By tracking these changes in brightness very carefully, and also measuring the orbital speeds of the stars, it is possible to work out how big the stars are, how massive they are, and other information about their orbits. When this is combined with careful measurements of the apparent brightness, remarkably accurate distances can be determined.

This method has been used before in taking measurements to the LMC, but with hot stars. As such, certain assumptions had to be made and the distances were not as accurate as desired. This new work, led by Grzegorz Pietrzynski of the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile and Warsaw University Observatory in Poland, used 16-years-worth of observations to identify a sample of intermediate mass binary stars with extremely long orbital periods, perfect for measuring precise and accurate distances.

The team observed eight of these binary systems over eight years, gathering data at Las Campanas Observatory and the European Southern Observatory. The LMC distance calculated using these eight binary stars is purely empirical, without relying on modeling or theoretical predictions. The team refined the uncertainty in the distance to the LMC down to 2.2 percent. This new measurement can be used to decrease the uncertainty in calculations of the Hubble constant to 3 percent, with prospects of improving this to a 2 percent uncertainty in a few years as the sample of binary stars is increased.

###

This work was supported by BASAL Centro de Astrofisica y Tecnologias Afines (CATA), the Polish Ministry of Science, the Foundation for Polish Science (FOCUS, TEAM), the Polish National Science Centre, and the GEMINI-CONICYT fund. The OGLE project has received funding from the European Research Council "Advanced Grant" program.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

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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.

Public release date: 6-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ian Thompson
ian@obs.carnegiescience.edu
626-304-0225
Carnegie Institution

Pasadena, CA A team of astronomers including Carnegie's Ian Thompson have managed to improve the measurement of the distance to our nearest neighbor galaxy and, in the process, refine an astronomical calculation that helps measure the expansion of the universe. Their work is published March 7 by Nature.

The Hubble constant is a fundamental quantity that measures the current rate at which our universe is expanding. It is named after 20th Century Carnegie astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, who astonished the world by discovering that our universe has been growing continuously since its inception. Determining the Hubble constant (a direct measurement of the rate of this continuing expansion) is critical for gauging the age and size of our universe. One of the largest uncertainties plaguing past measurements of the Hubble constant has involved the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), our nearest neighboring galaxy, which orbits our own Milky Way.

Astronomers survey the scale of the Universe by first measuring the distances to close-by objects (for example Cepheid variable stars studied by Wendy Freedman, director of the Carnegie Observatories, and her collaborators) and then using observations of these objects in more distant galaxies to pin down distances further and further out in the Universe. But this chain is only as accurate as its weakest link. Up to now finding a precise distance to the LMC has proved elusive. Because stars in this galaxy are used to fix the distance scale for more remote galaxies, an accurate distance is crucially important.

"Because the LMC is close and contains a significant number of different stellar distance indicators, hundreds of distance measurements using it have been recorded over the years," Thompson said. "Unfortunately, nearly all the determinations have systemic errors, with each method carrying its own uncertainties."

The international collaboration worked out the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud by observing rare close pairs of stars, known as eclipsing binaries. These pairs are gravitationally bound to each other, and once per orbit, as seen from Earth, the total brightness from the system drops as each component eclipses its companion. By tracking these changes in brightness very carefully, and also measuring the orbital speeds of the stars, it is possible to work out how big the stars are, how massive they are, and other information about their orbits. When this is combined with careful measurements of the apparent brightness, remarkably accurate distances can be determined.

This method has been used before in taking measurements to the LMC, but with hot stars. As such, certain assumptions had to be made and the distances were not as accurate as desired. This new work, led by Grzegorz Pietrzynski of the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile and Warsaw University Observatory in Poland, used 16-years-worth of observations to identify a sample of intermediate mass binary stars with extremely long orbital periods, perfect for measuring precise and accurate distances.

The team observed eight of these binary systems over eight years, gathering data at Las Campanas Observatory and the European Southern Observatory. The LMC distance calculated using these eight binary stars is purely empirical, without relying on modeling or theoretical predictions. The team refined the uncertainty in the distance to the LMC down to 2.2 percent. This new measurement can be used to decrease the uncertainty in calculations of the Hubble constant to 3 percent, with prospects of improving this to a 2 percent uncertainty in a few years as the sample of binary stars is increased.

###

This work was supported by BASAL Centro de Astrofisica y Tecnologias Afines (CATA), the Polish Ministry of Science, the Foundation for Polish Science (FOCUS, TEAM), the Polish National Science Centre, and the GEMINI-CONICYT fund. The OGLE project has received funding from the European Research Council "Advanced Grant" program.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/ci-dtn030513.php

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Reed wants to stay in Baltimore

AP

The Chiefs did a lot of business in the hours before the franchise tag deadline, signing wide receiver Dwayne Bowe and punter Dustin Colquitt to long-term deals, and tagging left tackle Branden Albert.

Now they have something even more valuable than good players ? they have options.

While many will immediately assume this takes them out of the market for a left tackle (specifically Luke Joeckel) with the first pick in a quarterback-less draft, that doesn?t seem wise.

First, they should create the full impression that it?s still a possibility, if only to create a trade market that might not otherwise exist.

But the realities of their line wouldn?t preclude drafting him anyway.

Even though they just tagged Albert (keeping him there for a year, at $9.828 million), there?s no reason they can?t draft Joeckel, and have one of them play right tackle. While Eric Winson has been solid, he?s also entering his 30-year-old season, and isn?t so good that you?d bypass a potential left tackle because of him.

And Albert?s back injury, which coach Andy Reid referred to as a ?fairly significant injury? at the Combine, might also give them pause. At the very least, the uncertainty over Albert?s long-term health or contract status would make it wise to keep Joeckel as an option. Many also thought Albert was better suited to play guard when he entered the league, which creates another layer of possibility.

With the chance at a solid offensive line in front of an average quarterback (the recently acquired Alex Smith), along with a good run game, a solid receiving threat in Bowe and a coaching staff that knows how to move the ball, it gives the Chiefs the chance at a new look on offense.

And it gives them more options for the first pick, which makes it more valuable by definition.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/04/ed-reed-hasnt-heard-from-ravens-cant-imagine-playing-elsewhere/related/

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Jim Flaherty mortgage warning to banks a ... - Financial Post

When did it become the job of the minister of finance to boost bank profits and stick it to the consumer?

How else do you describe a policy in which the minister of finance appears to tell the banks to cool it when it comes to battling on the mortgage front for customers.

If I?m buying a home today I say: Bring on the mortgage rate wars!

?Race to the bottom? proves it?s a great time to be in debt

Let?s face it: This is a great time to be in debt. Never mind the warnings from bank officials, economic handwringers, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Today, Mr. Flaherty is warning banks not to cut rates too low in a ?race to the bottom? ? as if competition were a destructive part of banking.

Continue reading.

But Jim Flaherty?s comments seemed aimed at getting the banks to try and curb some of the heated competition that happened a year ago when the banks started battling for market share.

?As for decisions by individual banks, as I have said repeatedly before, my expectation is the banks will engage in prudent lending ? not the type of race to the bottom practices that led to the mortgage crisis in the United States,? Mr. Flaherty said Monday.

The finance minister has moved on four separate occasions to tighten mortgage rules. One of his toughest measures has been to lower amortization lengths.

Amortization lengths climbed to as high as 40 years but after three cuts are now back to 25, the long-term standard. A longer amortization lowers monthly payments at the cost of more interest but also allows a buyer to qualify for a larger loan.

No one can say for sure how much impact Mr. Flaherty will have on the banks ? he does have bigger concerns about an overheated housing market than making sure you get the best rate.

But the reality is the banks have a little room to give, considering government of Canada five-year bonds have been trading 25 basis points lower since a peak at the end of January. The savings should be passed on.

?The spread between the five-year mortgage and five-year bond is quite large,? said Gregory Klump, chief economist with the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Bank of Montreal appears to have kicked off the discussion again with its five-year closed mortgage rate of 2.99%.

It is hardly the only bank out there with a deal. National Bank has quietly offered 2.99% to some customers and is willing to commit to that rate for 120 days based on a signed deal, say brokers.

The much publicized BMO deal also includes some tough restrictions that include an inability to break the mortgage and switch banks and yearly prepayment privileges of 10% of your mortgage instead of the industry standard of 20%.

Kelvin Mangaroo, president of ratesupermarket.ca, said obviously the finance minister is concerned about people taking on more debt.

But there is a certain reality that if the banks don?t pass on better rates, consumers will go to one of the many monoline lenders that fund mortgage brokers.

?It comes down to each person and what each person can tolerate,? said Mr. Mangaroo, about the extra cost a consumer might face for not shopping around.

As bond yields have dropped, it has become easier for those monoline lenders to compete with the banks that won?t match with lower rates.

?We know BMO was gaining market share at the expense of margins,? said Mr. Mangaroo.

Peter Routledge, an analyst with National Bank Financial, said the banks look to mortgages as much for generating other business as the profit itself.

?They make more of their money from the relationship,? said Mr. Routledge. ?The mortgage is such a tight spread product, I don?t think they make a lot of money on it.?

Most consumers would probably like to see them make even less and might prefer the finance minister stay out of it. And, if he won?t, there?s always the brokers and generally lower rates.

Financial Post, with files from Gordon Isfeld

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/04/flahertys-mortgage-rate-warning-doesnt-do-consumer-any-favours/

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Getting Better Grades and Improving Test Scores

As a high school student, I used to get good grades but I never got the best grades in the class. I was able to improve test scores by studying with my friends and learning different memory techniques. I also started to change my study environment and I removed distractions such as music and I didn't answer my cell phone when I was studying.

One of the things that helped me the most was to rewrite my notes after a class. Whenever I took notes, I found that I wasn't very present to what the teacher was saying so I started. After the class I would re-write down all the notes which ended up filling in lots of blank areas as well as making more copious and legible notes. It took me years to figure out to do this since I would just scribble down as much as I could and then when I would look at my notes weeks or maybe even months later I had no idea what I had written. Even if I could read my writing, it didn't make much sense. Going over my notes the same day and making them more understandable and legible helped me to connect with the lecture material in a more meaningful way.

I would also often ask questions during lecture. I even made that one of my assigments during the lecture which would force me to reflect on what I was hearing and would prevent me from spacing out on what the teacher was saying. This also helps you to stand out from the other students which becomes more valuable later when you want to ask for recommendations. The teacher will remember your face and sometimes the questions you asked during their lecture.

For the ACS Organic Chemistry Study Guide, I found that by re-doing the formulas I was better able to learn all the different science equations. You need to study and redo the equations over and over so you know them seamlessly. It is a difficult and long test so you need to practice taking the test with your study guide so it won't be unfamiliar to you the first time you take it during the exam. Time is not on your side during the exam so you need to pace yourself as well.

Don't get caught up thinking that just because you are in a study group that will help you get better grades. Make sure you are not just goofing off or gossiping during study group time and make sure that you are maximizing this time to go over the course materials.

Jasmine blogs about educational topics such as getting better grades for the ACS Organic Chemistry Study Guide and how to improve test scores.

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/getting-better-grades-and-improving-test-scores-319395

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