Surge Energy announces dividend increase, operating and financial results for the second quarter 2013, and reiterates 2013/2014 guidance

Surge Energy Inc. (TSX: SGY) is pleased to announce an increase to its dividend, the Company's financial and operating results for the three and six month periods endedJune 30, 2013 and a reiteration of 2013/2014 guidance.

DIVIDEND INCREASE

Based upon: 1) better than anticipated drilling results at Valhalla, Silver and Nipisi South; 2) better than anticipated early waterflood response at Nipisi; 3) significantly better than forecasted North American crude oil prices; and 4) continued execution of Surge's ongoing hedging/risk management program, the Company is increasing its dividend by five percent.

Surge's Board of Directors (the "Board") has approved an increase in the Company's annual dividend from CAD$0.40per share ($0.0333 per share per month) to CAD$0.42 per share ($0.035 per share per month).

Accordingly, on September 16, 2013 the Company will be paying its first monthly dividend of CAD $0.035 per share ($0.42 per share annually) for August production.

CHANGES TO SENIOR MANAGEMENT/NON-CORE ASSET SALE

On May 9, 2013, the Board announced the appointment of Mr. Paul Colborne as the President and CEO of Surge on that date. In addition, Mr. Murray Bye was appointed the Vice President of Production of Surge.

The Board also announced Mr. Dan O'Neil's retirement from his role as CEO and President of the Company. The Board thanks Mr. O'Neil for his efforts and service on behalf of Surge shareholders. Mr. O'Neil will continue as a director of the Company and will provide technical assistance.

On May 9, 2013 Surge also announced the sale of its non-core, primarily non-operated assets in North Dakota for a purchase price of approximately USD$42.75 million. This transaction closed on May 31, 2013.

The non-core assets sold comprised production of approximately 650 barrels of oil per day, with independently proved plus probable reserves of 2.2 million boe, and a net present value of $36.8 million (discounted at ten percent before tax as of December 31, 2012).

STRATEGIC TRANSITION TO SUSTAINABLE GROWTH + DIVIDEND MODEL

On June 11, 2013, Surge announced the orderly transition of the Company to a sustainable, moderate growth dividend paying oil and gas company with high quality, focused, operated light and medium gravity crude oil assets.

Surge has a high quality, high netback, reserves, production and cash flow base focused primarily in just four operated, crude oil properties. Over 95 percent of the Company's assets are concentrated in these four elite properties at Valhalla and Nipisi in western Alberta, the Silver area in SE Alberta, and the Shaunavon area of SW Saskatchewan. These core assets are characterized by large Original Oil in Place ("OOIP")1 reservoirs, low recovery factors, significant upside from infill and step-out development drilling, and successful waterflood implementation.

In addition, in the first half of 2013, Surge delivered the best drilling program in the Company's history, with three significant exploration discoveries at its core properties of Valhalla, Nipisi and Silver, respectively.

In spite of these very positive developments, Surge continued to trade at a significant discount to the Company's net asset value. At year-end 2012, Surge's independent engineering report provided an estimate net asset value of $8.21per basic share2, before tax, based on proved plus probable reserves (PV10).

Consequently, given that Surge has an elite, high quality crude oil asset and opportunity base, and that the Company's true value as a growth junior was being significantly discounted, Surge's Board and management approved an orderly transition to a sustainable growth plus dividend business model for the Company on a go-forward basis.

On this basis, Surge will now:

1. Grow, cost effectively, 3 to 5 percent per year on a reserves, production and cash flow per share basis; and
2. Provide a sustainable, resilient, annual dividend to shareholders payable monthly; and
3. Provide additional growth through accretive acquisitions of new, high quality, large OOIP assets with low recovery factors.

$240 MILLION ACQUISITION OF AN ELITE, LARGE OOIP, CRUDE OIL ASSET; $247.5 MILLION BOUGHT DEAL FINANCING

On June 11, 2013, Surge also announced an accretive acquisition of an operated, medium gravity crude oil producing asset in the Southwest area of Saskatchewan (the "Acquisition") with OOIP of more than 250 million barrels and a recovery factor of less than 1.4 percent. Surge estimates over 260 (net) lower risk development drilling locations on the acquired assets, together with full waterflood upside.

In conjunction with the Acquisition, Surge entered into a $247.5 million bought deal equity financing (the "Equity Financing") with a syndicate of underwriters. The Acquisition and the Equity Financing closed on July 3, 2013.

1 Original Oil in Place (OOIP) is the equivalent to Discovered Petroleum Initially In Place (DPIIP) for the purposes of this press release. DPIIP is defined as quantity of hydrocarbons that are estimated to be in place within a known accumulation, plus those estimated quantities in accumulations yet to be discovered. There is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources. A recovery project cannot be defined for this volume of DPIIP at this time, and as such it cannot be further sub-categorized.
2 Based on Sproule's independent engineering report as at December 31, 2012 (pre-Acquisition/Disposition, and pre-equity financing).

FINANCIAL AND OPERATING SUMMARY:

($000s except per share amounts)
		Three Months Ended June 30,									Six Months Ended June 30,
		2013			2012			% change			2013			2012			% change
Financials highlights
Oil and NGL sales		52,624			45,610			15%			100,840			92,977			8%
Natural gas sales		5,342			3,308			61%			10,698			6,986			53%
Other revenue		38			9			nm			48			24			nm
Total oil, natural gas, and NGL revenue		58,004			48,927			19%			111,586			99,987			12%
Funds from Operations3		26,812			24,315			10%			52,049			48,322			8%
Per share basic ($)		0.38			0.34			12%			0.73			0.68			7%
Per share diluted ($)		0.38			0.34			12%			0.73			0.67			9%
Net income (loss)6		(15,004)			13,273			nm			(16,358)			15,930			nm
Per share basic ($)		(0.21)			0.19			nm			(0.23)			0.23			nm
Per share diluted ($)		(0.21)			0.18			nm			(0.23)			0.22			nm
Capital expenditures - petroleum & gas properties4		25,166			27,707			(9%)			65,231			82,605			(21%)
Capital expenditures - acquisitions & dispositions4		(39,377)			9,347			nm			(40,184)			113,745			nm
Total capital expenditures4		(14,212)			37,054			nm			25,046			196,350			(87%)
Net debt at end of period5		193,597			171,692			13%			193,597			171,692			13%
Operating highlights
Production:
Oil and NGL (bbls per day)		6,966			6,568			6%			6,910			6,339			9%
Natural gas (mcf per day)		14,442			16,246			(11%)			15,559			16,822			(8%)
Total (boe per day) (6:1)		9,373			9,275			1%			9,504			9,142			4%
Average realized price (excluding hedges):
Oil and NGL ($ per bbl)		83.01			76.31			9%			80.62			80.59			0%
Natural gas ($ per mcf)		4.06			2.24			81%			3.80			2.28			67%
Realized loss on financial contracts ($ per boe)		(2.12)			(0.29)			nm			(1.28)			(0.61)			nm
Net back (excluding hedges) ($ per boe)
Oil, natural gas and NGL sales		68.00			57.97			17%			64.87			60.09			8%
Royalties		(12.56)			(9.69)			30%			(11.74)			(10.94)			7%
Operating expenses		(11.97)			(10.63)			13%			(12.28)			(11.14)			10%
Transportation expenses		(2.46)			(2.59)			(5%)			(2.35)			(2.19)			7%
Operating netback		41.01			35.06			17%			38.50			35.82			7%
G&A expenses		(4.88)			(3.50)			39%			(4.03)			(3.56)			13%
Interest expense		(2.62)			(1.87)			40%			(2.67)			(1.81)			48%
Corporate netback		33.51			29.69			13%			31.80			30.45			4%
Common shares (000s)
Common shares outstanding, end of period		71,918			71,065			1%			71,918			71,065			1%
Weighted average basic shares outstanding		71,358			71,058			0%			71,288			70,766			1%
Stock option dilution (treasury method)		-			1,080			(100%)			-			1,403			(100%)
Weighted average diluted shares outstanding		71,358			72,138			(1%)			71,288			72,169			(1%)

3 Management uses funds from operations (cash flow from operations before changes in non-cash working capital, legal settlement expenses, transaction costs and current tax on disposition) to analyze operating performance and leverage. Funds from operations as presented does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and, therefore, may not be comparable with the calculation of similar measures for other entities.
4 Please see capital expenditures note in the Management Discussion and Analysis dated June 30, 2013.
5 The Corporation defines net debt as outstanding bank debt plus or minus working capital, including the deposit on acquisition and excluding the fair value of financial contracts.
6 The Corporation views this change calculation as not meaningful, or "nm".

Source: http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Surge_Energy_announces_dividend_increase_operating_and_financial_results_for_the_second_quarter_2013_and_reiterates_20132014_guidance/ea518b31a829.aspx

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Voyager 1 Returns Surprising Data about an Unexplored Region of Deep Space

Credit: NASA

About the Voyager 1 spacecraft, this much is clear: the NASA probe has traveled farther than any other. Voyager 1 is now more than 18.5 billion kilometers from the sun?almost 125 times the distance between Earth and the sun. The spacecraft, one of two Voyagers launched by NASA in 1977, is truly in unexplored territory?so much so that defining its current whereabouts poses a bit of a challenge.

Someday soon, it is expected, Voyager 1 will become the first spacecraft to exit the heliosphere?the bubble of solar plasma encasing the sun and planets?and enter the interstellar medium. Right now, however, Voyager appears to be crossing through one of several puzzling new regions of the heliosphere that mission planners had not anticipated.

In a trio of studies published online June 27 in Science, Voyager scientists describe the latest heliospheric wrinkle discovered by the probe en route to interstellar space. Voyager 1, they report, appears to have crossed last August into what is now being called the ?heliosheath depletion region.? The researchers described some characteristics of the new region in a December 2012 teleconference with reporters, but the new studies go into far more detail about Voyager 1?s environs.

Credit: NASA

One major change signaling that Voyager had entered new territory was a sudden decrease in the number of particles from the sun hitting the spacecraft?s Low Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instrument. On August 25, those solar particles dropped to less than one-thousandth their prior levels. Simultaneously, cosmic rays emanating from sources elsewhere in the galaxy began striking the LECP at a rate nearly 10 percent above the previous clip.

A second particle detector known as the Voyager Cosmic Ray Subsystem noted a similar change: charged atomic nuclei from the sun disappeared as nuclei from outside the solar system surged.

Such changes might seem a clear marker that Voyager 1 has completed its ultimate mission by breaking free of the sun?s plasma cocoon and reporting back from the unexplored realm of interstellar space. But crucial measurements from a third Voyager instrument contradict that conclusion.

The heliopause?the boundary between the local heliosphere and the interstellar medium beyond?is a boundary not only of particles but of magnetic fields as well. And although the magnetometer on Voyager 1 did register an increase in magnetic field strength as the spacecraft crossed over into the new realm, the direction of the magnetic field did not change. So either Voyager 1 has measured the interstellar magnetic field and found that it somehow perfectly aligns with the solar system (a possibility that the Voyager researchers consider ?highly improbable?) or, more likely, the spacecraft remains within the sun?s magnetic domain.

Taken together, the evidence suggests that the heliosheath depletion region now being explored by Voyager is a new kind of solar system environment, one where the sun?s influence wanes and interstellar particles can enter more easily. And although the new region appears not to qualify as interstellar, the researchers report, it ?may form part of the interface between solar plasma and the galaxy.?

So godspeed, Voyager. May you soon reach interstellar space?a place humankind has never before accessed. And may we know it when you see it.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/ZioCSCkifoc/post.cfm

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U.S. military court overturns Marine's conviction in Iraqi's death

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The highest U.S. military appeals court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction of a Marine sergeant found guilty in 2007 of leading a squad in Iraq that was accused of killing a civilian they had captured, bound and gagged.

Three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins gave a statement to a U.S. Navy investigator while in custody that should have been ruled inadmissible and tainted his court-martial.

The case stems from the 2006 death in Hamdania, Iraq, of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, a father of 11 and grandfather of four.

In 2007, a court-martial at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego sentenced Hutchins to 15 years in military prison after finding him guilty of unpremeditated murder, larceny and other crimes.

Hutchins was the leader of a squad that went on a mission aimed at stopping militants' use of improvised explosive devices. Witnesses had testified that Hutchins and another Marine shot Awad and placed an AK-47 and a shovel next to the corpse to suggest he had been planting a bomb.

Earlier, Awad had been bound and gagged at another location, according to a finding by a lower court of appeal for the military.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces said that in May 2006, a Navy investigator began to question Hutchins but he invoked his right to an attorney and was put under guard in a trailer.

Hutchins was not allowed to call a lawyer and no attorney was provided to him, according to the ruling written by Judge Charles Erdmann. Seven days later, the investigator entered the trailer and asked to search Hutchins' belongings and the sergeant said he wanted to talk, the ruling states.

The next day, Hutchins provided a written confession, the ruling stated.

The court found that after Hutchins requested an attorney the investigator had initiated the conversation - by coming back for a search. That led to Hutchins' admission and the judge and two colleagues found that it violated his constitutional right to remain silent.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found "it was an error for the military judge to admit the statement made by Hutchins," which was used at his court-martial.

"Therefore, notwithstanding the other evidence of Hutchins' guilt, there is a reasonable likelihood that the statement contributed to the verdict," the court ruled.

A spokesman for Camp Pendleton where the 2007 court-martial was held said he could not comment on whether Hutchins might soon be released from custody.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces sent the case to a military judge advocate general for referral to an "appropriate convening authority who may authorize a rehearing."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-military-court-overturns-marines-conviction-iraqis-death-040915181.html

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Supermoon photos: Spectacular moon pics wow stargazers

Supermoon photos: Sunday's full moon coincided with our natural satellite's closest distance from the Earth, making it the biggest full moon of the year.

By Clara Moskowitz,?SPACE.com / June 25, 2013

Experienced space photographers Edwin Aguirre and Imelda Joson created this composite view of the biggest full moon of 2013, a so-called 'supermoon,' from a series of images taken as the full moon rose over downtown Boston on Sunday.

Imelda B. Joson and Edwin L. Aguirre

Enlarge Photos

If you happened to catch the full moon over the weekend, you may have noticed a slightly bigger and brighter display than usual ??a lunar view that captivated skywatchers around the world. Dubbed the "supermoon," Sunday's full moon on June 23 was the largest moon of the year, because the moon's full phase coincided with its arrival at perigee, its closest distance from Earth.

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In spots with good weather Sunday night, the moon offered an awesome sight. SPACE.com readers sent in supermoon photos from across the United States, as well as Canada, Guam, Macedonia, Italy, and other far-flung locales.

"Because of the haze, the rising moon exhibited a vivid reddish orange color, similar to that of a deep total lunar eclipse," photographer Edwin Aguirre, who snapped photos of the?supermoon?from Boston, told SPACE.com in an email. "Others thought?it looked like the red planet Mars. The sky cooperated so everyone had a great time." [Photos: Dazzling Supermoon Views for June 2013]

"Dozens of people, young and old, gathered well before dark where we were ? at Robbins Farm Park in Arlington, which overlooks the city skyline," Aguirre wrote. "They brought blankets and lawn chairs ??and their dogs ??to enjoy not only the spectacular view, but also the nice, cool evening breeze, which was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity earlier in the day."In many places, moon watching over the weekend was a big event.

Some celebrated the supermoon in style.

"Took the kids out to see the supermoon near Las Vegas," wrote Tyler S. Leavitt, whose children dressed in capes and spandex for the occasion. "They had so much fun running around as superheroes as the moon rose."

The?supermoon occurs?because the moon's orbit around our planet is not perfectly circular, so sometimes it swings closer than others. When the moon is also full at the time, it creates a vision that's about 12 percent larger in the sky than other full moons.

In addition, when the moon is sighted low on the horizon, behind trees and buildings, the contrast can create an optical illusion that makes the moon seem even bigger.

"The total personal experience is surely wonderful!!" Giuseppe Petricca from Pisa, Italy wrote in an email. "And the 'horizon illusion' makes you really think that the moon is way bigger that the reality."

If you missed this supermoon, your next chance to observe an especially large full moon is more than a year away, on Aug. 10, 2014.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on?Twitter?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/AMR4q7PdSZw/Supermoon-photos-Spectacular-moon-pics-wow-stargazers

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UCLA beats Miss. St. 3-1 in opener of CWS finals

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? UCLA followed its script yet again.

The Bruins churned out a few early runs and let their pitching and defense take care of the rest in a 3-1 victory over Mississippi State on Monday night in the opener of the College World Series finals.

They're one win from their first national championship in baseball and their school's record 109th in a team sport.

"We dodged some bullets, no doubt about it, but you have to give credit to our defense," UCLA coach John Savage said. "Kind of a Bruin game. Tight game, and at the end of the night we were fortunate to come out with the win."

The Bruins (48-17) know it won't be easy to finish off a Mississippi State team that had an estimated 8,000 fans migrate from the Magnolia State to be at TD Ameritrade Park to see their team play for the school's first national title in any sport.

Adam Plutko limited the Bulldogs (51-19) to a run on four hits in six innings and turned the game over to his bullpen. The Bulldogs left runners in scoring position in four of the last six innings.

"They're great hitters, they grind it out every at-bat, and they're not going away," UCLA closer David Berg said. "They want to win this thing as bad as we do. They're not going to give it up."

Bulldogs second baseman Brett Pirtle said he and his teammates can't give the Bruins any openings because they're so capable of capitalizing on them.

"Nobody that's extra special," Pirtle said of the Bruins. "They're just small ball. They bunt and put pressure on the defense, and that's what helped them out, and that's the kind of ballclub they are. So keeping runners off base and just catching the ball and putting pressure on them will help us win the game tomorrow."

The Bruins can play some defense, too. Eric Filia made a great catch in right field to rob Trey Porter of extra bases in the fourth inning, Cody Regis made a couple diving stops and also started both of UCLA's double plays.

UCLA is 40-0 when leading after seven innings. There was drama all the way to the end.

The Bruins made it 3-0 in the fourth on Filia's two-out, two-run single off Chad Girodo, who replaced starter Trevor Fitts (0-1) in the second. That was the last of the Bruins' six hits.

Mississippi State's fans started the "Maroon and White" chant in the bottom of the ninth after C.T. Bradford and pinch-hitter Sam Frost singled to put runners on first and second with one out against Berg.

Nick Ammirati flew out, and pinch-hitter Jacob Robson ended the game with his comebacker to Berg, who sprinted toward first base before under-handing the ball to Pat Gallagher.

Berg, making his 50th appearance of the season, earned his NCAA-record 24th save for 1 2-3 innings of work.

"Records are meant to be broken, but titles are what matter," Berg said. "So if we all win a national championship, I'll enjoy that. But right now I don't think about it at all."

The loss spoiled a splendid performance by Girodo, who pitched the last 7 2-3 innings. He allowed three hits, walked two and struck out nine. Both runs against him were unearned.

Plutko (10-3) walked in Mississippi State's only run in the fourth. He wasn't overly sharp, but he continued his impressive run in postseason play. In eight career NCAA tournament games, he's 7-0 with an 0.94 ERA.

The Bruins brought a .248 season batting average into the finals, and a .182 average through their first three CWS games.

They eked out enough offense to win again. In the first three innings, they had batters reach on a dropped third strike, infield single, two hit batsmen and a throwing error.

But there were big hits, too.

Filia, who came in 1 for 9 in the CWS, doubled after Kevin Kramer struck out but reached because strike three was in the dirt. Pat Valaika's single to center drove in Kramer for a 1-0 lead.

"First baserunner of the game kind of spells it out," Bulldogs coach John Cohen said. "I really wish that kid hadn't swung at that pitch. I'm not saying it to be a smart aleck, but that kid doesn't swing at that pitch, it lands in front of the plate, I think the ballgame could be different. But crazy things happen in sports."

The Bruins added two more in the fourth. Brenton Allen singled and Brian Carroll reached when he bunted and catcher Ammirati made a bad throw to first.

Carroll ran into the Bulldogs' 6-foot-5, 272-pound first baseman Wes Rea while running through the bag. Rea stayed down after the knee-to-knee contact but was able to keep playing after an athletic trainer attended to him. Allen and Carroll came home on Filia's base hit to right.

Alex Detz and Brett Pirtle produced Mississippi State's first and second hits against Plutko with one out in the fourth. Rea was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

That got the "Maroon and White" chant started as Bradford came up to face Plutko. Bradford fouled off three straight pitches before the count ran full. Plutko walked him with a high changeup, scoring Detz. Plutko's 30-pitch inning ended when Trey Porter lined out.

Plutko had to endure more stress in the fifth. Filia made his big catch on Ammirati, and Demarcus Henderson reached when Plutko misplayed a comebacker, and moved to second on a balk. The inning ended with Detz's line out to second.

Freshman reliever James Kaprielian came on in the seventh with a man on and none out. After he walked Ammirati, Henderson, the team leader in sacrifice bunts, fouled off two bunt tries and then grounded to second for the first of UCLA's two double plays.

"Not much to get excited about," Savage said. "It comes down to tomorrow."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ucla-beats-miss-st-3-1-opener-cws-035257713.html

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Giving children non-verbal clues about words boosts vocabularies

June 24, 2013 ? The clues that parents give toddlers about words can make a big difference in how deep their vocabularies are when they enter school, new research at the University of Chicago shows.

By using words to reference objects in the visual environment, parents can help young children learn new words, according to the research. It also explores the difficult-to-measure quality of non-verbal clues to word meaning during interactions between parents and children learning to speak. For example, saying, "There goes the zebra" while visiting the zoo helps a child learn the word "zebra" faster than saying, "Let's go to see the zebra."

Differences in the quality of parents' non-verbal clues to toddlers (what children can see when their parents are talking) explain about a quarter (22 percent) of the differences in those same children's vocabularies when they enter kindergarten, researchers found. The results are reported in the paper, "Quality of early parent input predicts child vocabulary three years later," published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Children's vocabularies vary greatly in size by the time they enter school," said lead author Erica Cartmill, a postdoctoral scholar at UChicago. "Because preschool vocabulary is a major predictor of subsequent school success, this variability must be taken seriously and its sources understood."

Scholars have found that the number of words youngsters hear greatly influences their vocabularies. Parents with higher socioeconomic status -- those with higher income and more education -- typically talk more to their children and accordingly boost their vocabularies, research has shown.

That advantage for higher-income families doesn't show up in the quality research, however.

"What was surprising in this study was that social economic status did not have an impact on quality. Parents of lower social economic status were just as likely to provide high-quality experiences for their children as were parents of higher status," said co-author Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at UChicago.

Although scholars have amassed impressive evidence that the number of words children hear -- the quantity of their linguistic input -- has an impact on vocabulary development, measuring the quality of the verbal environment -- including non-verbal clues to word meaning -- has proved much more difficult.

To measure quality, the research team reviewed videotapes of everyday interactions between 50 primary caregivers, almost all mothers, and their children (14 to 18 months old). The mothers and children, from a range of social and economic backgrounds, were taped for 90-minute periods as they went about their days, playing and engaging in other activities.

The team then showed 40-second vignettes from these videotapes to 218 adults with the sound track muted. Based on the interaction between the child and parent, the adults were asked to guess what word the parent in each vignette used when a beep was sounded on the tape.

A beep might occur, for instance, in a parent's silenced speech for the word "book" as a child approaches a bookshelf or brings a book to the mother to start storytime. In this scenario, the word was easy to guess because the mother labeled objects as the child saw and experienced them. In other tapes, viewers were unable to guess the word that was beeped during the conversation, as there were few immediate clues to the meaning of the parent's words. Vignettes containing words that were easy to guess provided high-quality clues to word meaning.

Although there were no differences in the quality of the interactions based on parents' backgrounds, the team did find significant individual differences among the parents studied. Some parents provided non-verbal clues about words only 5 percent of the time, while others provided clues 38 percent of the time, the study found.

The study also found that the number of words parents used was not related to the quality of the verbal exchanges. "Early quantity and quality accounted for different aspects of the variance found in the later vocabulary outcome measure," the authors wrote. In other words, how much parents talk to their children (quantity), and how parents use words in relation to the non-verbal environment (quality) provided different kinds of input into early language development.

"However, parents who talk more are, by definition, offering their children more words, and the more words a child hears, the more likely it will be for that child to hear a particular word in a high-quality learning situation," they added. This suggests that higher-income families' vocabulary advantage comes from a greater quantity of input, which leads to a greater number of high-quality word-learning opportunities. DMaking effective use of non-verbal cues may be a good way for parents to get their children started on the road to language.

Joining Cartmill and Goldin-Meadow as authors were University of Pennsylvania scholars Lila Gleitman, professor emerita of psychology; John Trueswell, professor of psychology; Benjamin Armstrong, a research assistant; and Tamara Medina, assistant professor of psychology at Drexel University.

The work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/U2KmlDslfMQ/130624152529.htm

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Web companies to disclose surveillance information after deal with U.S.

By Joseph Menn and Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Several Internet companies have struck an agreement with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Facebook became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying in a blog post that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users' accounts.

The agreements underscore the pressure imposed on the U.S. government and Internet companies after news leaked last week of a controversial National Security Agency program involving surveillance of foreigners. The disclosure of that program triggered concern about the scope and extent of the information-gathering exercise.

Other Internet companies are expected to release numbers of government requests without breaking out how many originate from the National Security Agency, the sources said.

Google, Facebook and Microsoft have publicly urged the U.S. government to allow them to reveal the number and scope of the surveillance requests they receive, including confidential requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Google and Microsoft declined to comment.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/companies-disclose-surveillance-deal-u-010442116.html

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