What Challenges Are Boys Facing and What Opportunities Exist to Address those Challenges?

Many adolescent boys are doing well. They graduate from high school, stay out of trouble, and reach adulthood prepared for the world of work and the responsibilities of family. For young men like these, opportunities have never been greater.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation commissioned a review of the literature on the risks and assets that affect boys ages 10 through 18. By summarizing and synthesizing the existing literature, the project aims to pinpoint what strengths make some boys likely to succeed and what risks, or challenges, increase the likelihood that they will struggle. It does not make an effort to compare boys to girls; it does not intend to imply that an issue for boys isn't also relevant for girls. In fact, research shows that many of the same risk and protective factors, as well as interventions, may be relevant for both boys and girls.

A major goal of the project is to provide information about approaches that help boys stay on the right track. These approaches range from formal programs, such as anti-drug or anti-gang programs, to environmental interventions, such as when a community bands together to create safe places for youth to congregate, to more informal approaches, such as when a concerned adult befriends a troubled adolescent.

The project has produced a brief on key findings, an annotated bibliography, and fact sheets focusing on seven research areas, or domains: mortality and victimization, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, mental health, education, employment, and constructive use of time. The project examines the influence, both positive and negative, of boys' characteristics; their families, peers, and schools; and their communities. This project also highlights the positive impact that caring adults in families, schools, and communities can have on the well-being of boys and young men.

House arrest for 'drug delivery boy'

Despite concerns from Crown that a conditional sentence could not "control" him, a provincial court judge has sentenced a 23-year-old Courtenay man to one year house arrest for trafficking cocaine.

Phillip Morgan Saunders was initially arrested on Nov. 16, 2007, after police smelled marijuana during a scuffle over a bottle of vodka in Saunders' possession.

When returned to the detachment, a small amount of pot as well as 0.6 grams of cocaine were found on Saunders.

"He was rambling on about how the marijuana, the vodka and the coke were all his and he was bringing them home," said federal Crown prosecutor Bonnie Macdonald.

About three months later, as Saunders awaited trial on the drug possession charge, an unidentified source told police that a particular phone number was being used for a dial-a-dope operation.

Police called the number and set up a buy for three spitballs, or 1.2 grams, of cocaine. They were met by Saunders.

Defence lawyer Michael Harris said his client was not the one behind the dial-a-dope operation.

More information : http://www.canada.com/House+arrest+drug+delivery/1506620/story.html

Helium rains inside Jovian planets

LIVERMORE, Calif. – Models of how Saturn and Jupiter formed may soon take on a different look.

By determining the properties of hydrogen-helium mixtures at the millions of atmospheres of pressure present in the interior of Saturn and Jupiter, physicists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have determined the temperature at a given pressure when helium becomes insoluble in dense metallic hydrogen. The results are directly relevant to models of the interior structure and evolution of Jovian planets.

Hydrogen and helium are the two lightest and most common elements in the universe. Because of their ubiquitous nature, they are critical in cosmological nucleosynthesis and are essential elements of stars and giant planets. Hydrogen by itself in the observable universe provides clues to the origin and large-scale structures of galaxies.

However, scientists have struggled to determine what conditions are needed for the two elements to mix.

Ornithopter

Man has long been fascinated with birds and their ability to fly. Before the Wright Brothers achieved their first heavier-than-air controlled flight in 1903, hundreds of men and women attempted to fly in gliders, airships, balloons and other fantastic innovations. As early as the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci studied the flight and wing structure of birds. His detailed design of a human-powered ornithopter - an aircraft deriving its thrust and lift from flapping wings - was based on these studies. Although he never actually flew the machines he designed, his ideas were replicated and modified throughout the next four centuries. In 1871, Alphonse Penaud successfully flew a rubber-powered model ornithopter - the Planophore - for a distance of 181 feet in 11 seconds. Since then, many other inventors have developed ornithopters. This turn-of-the-century photograph pictures Arnold Coblitz in his ornithopter. The engraving - Flugmaschine - depicts an ornithopter constructed and tested unsuccessfully by Swiss watchmaker Jakob Degen living in Vienna in the early 1800s. Even today, a team based at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies is conducting research on ornithopters.