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Despite recent reports of possible fossils in Martian meteorites, Venus, not Mars, may hold the most promise for harboring life elsewhere in our solar system, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder professor.
Some four billion years ago when the sun was 40 percent cooler than today, Earth and Mars probably were frozen, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor David Grinspoon of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department. But Venus, closer to the sun, may have had warm liquid oceans and a mild climate at the time. "There is some reason to believe Venus may have been the best haven for life in the early solar system," he said.
Humans on Earth "may have evolved from life forms provided by Venus," Grinspoon said. "Pieces of planets were blasting off of each other all the time early in the evolution of the solar system, and microbes from Venus could easily have wound up on Earth."
With 900 degree Fahrenheit surface temperatures and an atmosphere permeated by carbon dioxide, chlorine and sulfuric acid clouds today, Venus seems inhospitable to "our kind of life," he said. "But we really don't know much about life -- its requirements, it's differences and how to recognize it."
The standard scientific view is that life requires water and carbon-based molecules, he said. "We simply do not know if that is the only chemical system that can make life, because the only example of a biosphere we have is our own," said Grinspoon, who has been studying the surface, atmosphere and clouds of Venus for 10 years through NASA-sponsored programs.
Grinspoon is the author of "Venus Revealed," released this month by Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. of Reading, Mass. Written for non-scientists, the book contains a number of surprising new findings and speculations gleaned from recent space missions in addition to photos and illustrations.
In some ways, Venus may have a better environment for nurturing life than Mars, he said. Like Earth, Venus has a "chemically lively surface and atmosphere" that could provide organisms with energy and nutrients.
"In my view, what makes Earth special is its atmospheric cycles that renew themselves like a garden tilling itself," he said. "It could well be that kind of an environment on Venus is just as important for life as carbon."
Because the surface and atmosphere of Venus are constantly renewing themselves through volcanic activity, there is "more potential for interesting chemical and even biochemical processes on Venus than on Mars."
It's possible, he said, that Venus could have tiny microbes in its cloud particles, or that some form of Venusian life could have developed by using ultraviolet light much like Earth's plants use sunlight to make food. There could even be a non-carbon-based equivalent to lichens atop Venus' five-mile-high volcanoes, perhaps feeding on sulfur gases, he said.
The interactions of Earth's oceans, clouds, surface and biosphere has led some scientists to support the Gaia theory that Earth itself is a living system, he said. "By constantly exhaling sulfur gases that react with the clouds and surface minerals, Venus could be considered in that Gaia realm."
Although NASA's 1989 Magellan probe opened a new window on the planet using sophisticated radar mapping, there is still much to learn about Venus, said Grinspoon. One key is to keep an open mind about chemical and perhaps biological processes that may be occurring there and on other planets.
"Venus is the closest thing Earth has to a twin," he said. "Studying Venus is how we learned about the problem with our ozone layer, and it's a way for us to become wiser in taking care of our own planet."
Excerpts and images from "Venus Revealed" can be accessed on the World Wide Web at: http://sunra.colorado. edu/david/book.html


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Fast and Easy Pear Galette Recipe
Pear Galette
Pear Galette
Modified from Food & Wine
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter — 5 tablespoons cut into small pieces and chilled, 2 tablespoons melted
1 egg
1 teaspoon milk
2 tablespoons apricot preserves, strained
2 large Bosc pears
1/2 teaspoon very hot water
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, toss the flour with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and the salt. Cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg with the milk. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg over the flour mixture and stir. Working quickly, gather the dough into a smooth mass, squeezing it gently. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and pat it into a 5-inch disk. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate until firm but not hard, about 30 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 9 1/2-inch round, turning it clockwise an inch or two each time you roll to maintain an even shape. Transfer the dough to a heavy flat baking sheet. Fold up 1/4 inch of the edge of the dough.
- Brush the rim with a little of the remaining beaten egg. Brush 1 tablespoon of the apricot preserves over the bottom of the dough and refrigerate while you prepare the pears.
- Peel, quarter, and core the pears. Slice each quarter lengthwise into 5 thin wedges. Arrange as many of the pear wedges as can fit on the dough in a spoke pattern, overlapping them slightly. Brush the pear slices with the melted butter, and sprinkle with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar.
- Bake the galette in the middle of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the pears are tender and the pastry is crisp and golden. Carefully slide the galette onto a rack to cool slightly.
- Stir the hot water into the remaining 1 tablespoon of apricot preserves and brush on the pears. Serve the galette at room temperature.
Serves 6.
- Category
- Desserts, Pies/Tarts
- Cuisine
- French

subset: commoncrawl


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The Minnesota Vikings are interested in wide receiver Greg Jennings, the latest Green Bay Packers free agent pursued by their NFC North rival.
The agent for Jennings, Eugene Parker, told The Associated Press his client was visiting the Vikings on Thursday. ESPN first reported the trip.
The 29-year-old Jennings played in only eight games for the Packers in 2012, plus two in the playoffs, because of a torn lower abdominal muscle and finished with a career-low 366 yards receiving with an average of 10.2 yards per catch, also his worst NFL total. In 2011, he missed three games with a sprained left knee.
But as the Vikings well know, Jennings has been one of the best in the league since he was drafted in the second round in 2006 out of Western Michigan. He has three years of at least 1,100 yards receiving and two 12-touchdown seasons. In 14 career games against the Vikings, Jennings racked up 964 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Packers won 10 times.
The Vikings sure haven't been shy about signing players from their fiercest intra-division competitor.
They brought in safety Darren Sharper in 2005, kicker Ryan Longwell in 2006 and wide receiver Robert Ferguson in 2007. They've tried to woo others in recent years, too: fullback William Henderson, defensive end Aaron Kampman and wide receiver James Jones.
Then, of course, there was Brett Favre, whose embittered departure from the Packers in 2008 paved the way for him joining the Vikings in 2009 and nearly taking them to the Super Bowl.
More important to the Vikings than nabbing a popular, productive player from the Packers, though, is upgrading their perilously thin group of wide receivers. After trading Percy Harvin, cutting Michael Jenkins and letting Devin Aromashodu become a free agent, the Vikings currently have only three players at the position with any NFL experience: Jerome Simpson, Jarius Wright and Stephen Burton. Wright has played in seven career games. Burton has seven career catches.
Vikings general manager Rick Spielman has repeatedly stated the organization's preference to focus on drafting and developing players rather than relying on free agency to fill gaps on the roster, but they'll likely need to add at least one veteran to the group even if they draft a handful of them.
Quarterback Christian Ponder said in an interview this week he doesn't think it's paramount to add more experience but acknowledged he wouldn't mind throwing to a polished, versatile wide receiver like Jennings.
"He's as great player. He's been doing great things in Green Bay, and he'd bring leadership to that position," Ponder said. "Kind of a dynamic guy you can put in the slot and outside. I've always admired his work in Green Bay, and he seems like a great guy to have on a team."
Plenty of money has been flying around the NFL the last few days for wide receivers, beginning with Mike Wallace's big contract with Miami. Wes Welker went to Denver, and Danny Amendola replaced him in New England. Donnie Avery signed with Kansas City. By waiting during the initial wave, the Vikings ought to get a lower price for Jennings if he's willing to come to a team with a still-developing quarterback in Ponder.
Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP


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During the last week, two new and notable resources on the web have come to my attention relevant to emancipation in the American Civil War.
The first, Visualizing Emancipation, produced by the University of Richmond, literally maps out events in the Civil War era about emancipation. "Funded by a We the People grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities," Visualizing Emancipation, "shows how emancipation occurred unevenly across the South, beginning before the first major battles and ending after the end of the Confederacy. It shows the complex interactions between federal policies, armies in the field, and the actions of enslaved men and women on countless farms and city blocks." Practically speaking, this website allows users to create maps of emancipation-relevant events documented in books, newspapers, official records, and personal papers. It categorizes these events as: 1) abuse of African Americans; 2) African Americans helping the Union; 3) capture/enslavement/re-enslavement of African Americans by the Confederates; 4) capture of African Americans by Union troops; 5) conscription and recruitment, Union (army or labor); 6) conscription, Confederate (army or labor); fugitive slaves/runaways; 7) irregular fighting (insurrection/raid); 8) orders or regulations; 9) protecting slave property from Union troops; 10) uncategorized.
Although he keeps his credit for this site relatively modest, Visualizing Emancipation displays the clear imprint of Edward L. Ayers, the President of the University of Richmond and noted scholar of the Civil War and the American South. Quantitative data, computers, group projects, and pioneering use of the Internet long have characterized Ayers' scholarship. His most notable contribution in this regard before Visualizing Emancipation is The Valley of the Shadow, a pioneering website on the Civil War, with documentary resources on two piedmont counties, in Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively, during the Civil War era. It remains to be seen if Visualizing Emancipation has the impact of its predecessor site, but it looks like it will be valuable both to scholars and the public. Ayers and company are to be congratulated for this timely contribution. 🙂
The second new web resource is the emancipation petitions at Civil War Washington. As many readers are no doubt aware, the sesquicentennial of emancipation in the District of Columbia is only days away. What made the end of slavery unique in Washington, D.C., was that under the emancipation law signed by President Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1862, it provided for the compensation of slaveholders. Lincoln was pushing at the time for gradual compensated emancipation in the border states, and Congress obliged by passing such a law in the one jurisdiction where its authority over slavery was unquestioned–the District of Columbia. Of course, in order to receive compensation slave owners had to apply for it. What Civil War Washington has done is make these petitions available over the web (heretofore only accessible by visiting the National Archives in Washington, D.C.). This is quite a service, since these petitions represent a priceless social history resource, a snap shot of a large group of slaves in a particular location at the time of their liberation. As with Visualizing Emancipation, these compensation applications will be useful to scholars and beyond. Civil War Washington is to be commended for putting them online.
Hopefully, other institutions will follow the lead of Visualizing Emancipation and Civil War Washington by making more resources about emancipation during the Civil War available over the web (hint hint, Leslie Rowland at the Freedmen and Southern Society Project at the University of Maryland).


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Remembering Sparky
Baseball lost one of its greatest ambassadors last week when George "Sparky" Anderson left us.
He was best known as a Hall of Fame manager who won three World Championships, two in Cincinnati with the Reds and one with the Detroit Tigers.
Sparky did have a little bit of a Phillies connection. His lone big league experience came with the Phillies in 1959. He played 152 games at second base and batted .218. He wore #45.
Found the following in the 1959 Phillies Yearbook: "Runner-up as the Most Valuable Player in the International League, Sparky Anderson came to the Phillies in a trade that cost Rip Repulski and two minor league pitchers. A slick gloveman, and a swift customer on the base paths, Sparky has youth, speed and hustle. A second sacker with great competitive spirit, high hopes are held for Anderson."
Sparky didn't make it as a major leaguer but he certainly did as a manager. Sparky was a genuine person who was friendly with anyone. Oh, he could bark but being nice to people was first.
When you are a PR person in baseball, you get to know the other team's manager a little. But, I experienced firsthand about him as a person during the 1975 World Series, a true fall classic that the Reds won in seven games over the Boston Red Sox, 4-3.
The National League was without a PR person for the Series. So, I was "lent" to the NL by Bill Giles. Sparky and his players were great to deal with during that tense Series. After all, I was a total stranger.
"You let me know if there is anything you need," I remember him telling me before the start of the Series. For the Game 1 pre-game introductions, some players were wearing red jackets in the dugout and some weren't. I thought it would look better if everybody looked the same, so I barked, "jackets off, please." Led by Sparky, off came the jackets. Nobody bitched or asked, "Who is this clown telling me what to do?"
I sent Sparky a letter after the Series, thanking him for all his cooperation.
Lo and behold, on November 3, I received a hand-written letter from him:
"Thank you so much for your letter. But you shouldn't be thanking me. I should thank you for all the help you gave me and our players. You did a great job. You were so patient with all of us.
"Larry, now that it is all over, I really realize what a great thrill it was to win the World Series. If I can help you in any way this winter, let me know."
Sparky may have batted .218 as a major leaguer, but as a human being, he batted 1.000.


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Monday, January 9, 2012
The Restorer by Amanda Stevens
"My name is Amelia Gray. I'm a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I've always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe.
It started with the discovery of a young woman's brutalized body in an old Charleston graveyard I've been hired to restore. The clues to the killer—and to his other victims—lie in the headstone symbolism that only I can interpret. Devlin needs my help, but his ghosts shadow his every move, feeding off his warmth, sustaining their presence with his energy. To warn him would be to invite them into my life. I've vowed to keep my distance, but the pull of his magnetism grows ever stronger even as the symbols lead me closer to the killer and to the gossamer veil that separates this world from the next."
(from Goodreads)
my thoughts:
What a terrific paranormal story and a very promising beginning to the Graveyard Queen trilogy! The Kingdom, book 2, and The Prophet, book 3, are to be published this year.
Lots of thrills and chills with southern gothic elements of crumbling cemeteries, ghostly apparitions, murder, and ancient secret societies set in sultry Charleston, South Carolina. Add in a spunky taphophile (graveyard restorer) who sees ghosts and a dark, attractive, enigmatic police detective with a tragic past and you've got a great sensual thriller/murder mystery. If you are a fan of Karen Marie Moning's Fever series, you'll likely enjoy The Restorer as it had that same kind of dark, sexy vibe with a spirit world intermingling with the main players.
I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this read, and I'm so glad I won't have long to wait for the continuation!
4.5/5 stars
Title: The Restorer (Graveyard Queen #1)
Author: Amanda Stevens
paranormal/southern gothic
kindle edition
7 comments:
- Anne said...
I have been meaning to read this one for a while. Thanks for the great review, I am going to order it from my library today.
- January 9, 2012 at 9:31 AM
- Joanne said...
Hope you enjoy it, Anne. It's a quick, fun read!
- January 9, 2012 at 11:16 AM
- Anjuli said...
oh my goodness!!!! It sure does sound intriguing. I was captivated by the excerpt you put on here- wanted to rush out and find the book so I could continue reading.
- January 9, 2012 at 4:59 PM
- Melissa @ Confessions of an Avid Reader said...
I loved this book! So glad you did, too :-)
I can't wait for the next one in the series either.
- January 9, 2012 at 6:39 PM
- Joanne said...
Anjuli - I hope you like it!
Melissa - Did you review this one on your blog? How did I miss it? I have to go back and do a search if you did. Glad you enjoyed it, too.
- January 9, 2012 at 6:55 PM
- Staci said...
I'm glad that you wrote about this one because I wouldn't have noticed that cover. But the story however sounds awesome!!
- January 9, 2012 at 9:42 PM
- Melissa @ Confessions of an Avid Reader said...
Hi Joanne. No, I didn't review this one. I should have since I enjoyed it so much :-)
- January 10, 2012 at 7:24 PM


text: The scarlet ibis is hard to miss! Adults are bright red or scarlet, with somewhat lighter shading on the head, neck and underparts. The longest flight feathers are tipped in black. The long legs of this wading bird are pink, and the toes are partially webbed. They use their long, curved, pinkish-brown bill to probe the mudflats, shallow water and grasses in search of food. These highly social birds form large breeding colonies—often in mangrove swamps—and fly in a V-formation to their feeding grounds. Did You Know? The ibis gets its bright pink color from pigments in its food. Diet In the wild, ibis eat a varied diet, including crabs and other crustaceans, small fish, mollusks, frogs, worms and insects. At the Aquarium, the ibis's diet includes fish, crustaceans and insects, as well as a commercial pellet diet. Size Adult scarlet ibis reach 22 to 30 inches in length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail. The male is larger than the female and also has a longer, thicker bill. Range The ibis's range extends from northern South America southward along the coast of Brazil. Scarlet ibis are occasional visitors to Florida. Population Status The scarlet ibis is listed in Appendix II (threatened in some parts of its range) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It is highly protected in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, where it is the national bird. Predators Predators of the ibis include raccoons, snakes and large cats. Some humans kill these birds for their feathers. Back to the Top


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Would Christopher Nolan's Inception be looking more like a sure-fire hit if it had a dumber, more obvious title? Like, say, Thief Of Dreams? That's what our own AngriestGeek suggested.
And now we're dying to see what the movie poster for Thief Of Dreams would look like. Post your best, cheesiest, photoshop mockups in the comments. We'll put the best ones into a gallery in a couple of days. And maybe, we can help spread a bit more buzz about Thief Of Dr— I mean, Inception.


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- Countries of movie : United States of America,
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Salaam and Greetings of Peace:
Glory to Allah! Exalted is He who did take His Servant by night from the Sacred Mosque ( al-Masjid al-Haram) to the farthest Mosque ( al-Masjid al- Aqsa), whose precincts We did bless, that We might show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing. – Qur'an 17:1
For indeed he saw him at a second descent,
Near the Lote-tree beyond which none may pass:
Near it is the Garden of Abode.
Behold, the Lote-tree was shrouded (in mystery unspeakable!)
(His) sight never swerved, nor did it go wrong!
For truly did he see of the Signs of his Lord, the Greatest!
– Qur'an, 53: 13-18
Alhamdulillah! Thursday evening, June 6, 2013, or June 7th in some parts of the world, is Laylat al-Miraj – The Night Journey.
The story of the Night Journey focuses on how the Prophet Muhammad's (saw) heart was purified by the archangel Gabriel, who filled him with knowledge and faith in preparation to enter the seven levels of heaven. The exact date of the Journey is not clear, but is celebrated as though it took place before the Hijra and after Muhammad's visit to the people of Ta'if. It is considered by some to have happened just over a year before the Hijra, on the 27th of Rajab. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and surrounding area, with the Dome of the Rock marking the place from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven, is the third-holiest place on earth for Muslims.
May Allah bless us all this Laylat al-Miraj, with the bounty of increased prayer, faith, and wisdom to discern His signs, on the horizons and in ourselves. Amin!
Ya Haqq!


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Editor�s Note: This is the first of six profiles about the four candidates running for two open seats on Burlington�s City Council, and the two candidates running for mayor in Burlington. The profiles will be printed daily through Sunday in alphabetical order, beginning with council candidates and ending with mayoral candidates.
Julie Budd is all about keeping it local: eating locally, working locally, and now � running for her local government�s city council.
Budd�s great-grandfather had a hardware store, Coble-Bradshaw Company on Davis Street, and the 50-year-old mother of two has managed to make her way back to downtown Burlington. Since moving from Charlotte in her late twenties, Budd has come to value the connections she�s made in Burlington, and believes such working relationships among community members will help the city change for the better.
�The economy has changed so much that a lot of the answers we�re looking for � as far as answers to unemployment, answers to hunger, answers to eduation � they�re all truly local issues that we have to solve ourselves,� said Budd.
�So we need a lot of involvement and engagement from the community,� she said.
Budd feels that should also extend to the local government level.
Involvement � especially from people of various gender, races, backgrounds and geography � in the city council means varied perspectives and a broader representation of Burlington�s citizens, said Budd.
When Budd talks about �representation,� she�s not just referencing the fact that she�s the only female running for city council - and that there hasn�t been a woman council member since the 1990s. Budd said it�s also important for those on council to be living in various parts of the city to accurately represent Burlington�s constituents.
�Your perspective is different based on where you live,� said Budd.
Living only a short walk from downtown Burlington has obviously influenced Budd�s perspective, seeing as one of her main passions � now and if she were elected � is supporting established and incoming businesses in the downtown area.
�People are looking for close-knit communities with sidewalks and outdoor dining and entertainment,� said Budd.
She said Burlington already has a lot to offer, and the city�s engagement with the Burlington Downtown Corporation is a step in the right direction.
Budd said she�d like to encourage that as a member of council, and thinks a varied council would also attract individuals and businesses to the city.
�By showcasing involvement by a lot of different types of people on our (city council), we can show that we are a good place for everybody to be,� she said.
In addition to her 20 years in television marketing and working as a sales and marketing consultant, Budd has served as past president of the Alamance Burlington Kiwanis Club, the Gate City Kiwanis Club of Greensboro, and the American Advertising Federation Triad.
She also volunteers at the CrossRoads Sexual Assault Response & Resource Center and the Christian Counseling Center, both in Burlington.
Name: Julie Budd
Age: 50
Family: Budd has two sons, the elder a junior in college at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the younger a senior in high school at The Burlington School.
Education: Budd earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in marketing, from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1985.
Work: She spent about 20 years in the television marketing industry and in the past few years has worked as a sales and marketing consultant for local businesses. Budd also worked part time for the city, watering the potted plants downtown, but resigned from the position in order to run for office.
Political Hero: Budd can�t see herself going above the local government level and therefore doesn�t have a political hero, per se. However, she�s recently begun admiring Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., for the way he interacts with and responds to those in his community � often via Twitter.
�He�s using the tools of today,� said Budd, who happened across Booker on Twitter. �He responds to his constituents promptly, and with humor and respect,� she said.
Follow: on Twitter @BurVegas, on Facebook on the profile, �Julie Budd.�


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No one climbs Mount Everest without the right equipment. And according to the government of Nepal, there's a new must-have item for the 2014 climbing season: extra garbage bags.
Everest towers 5 miles above sea level, but it's no longer above the sea of garbage that plagues many lower-altitude wilderness areas. The mountain has been climbed more than 6,000 times in the past 60 years, a surge in tourism that has boosted Nepal's economy but also littered Everest with cans, bottles, oxygen tanks and other reminders that what goes up doesn't necessarily come down.
In hopes of removing this mess, Nepal announced a new rule this week that will require all Everest climbers to bring back not just their own trash, but also 8 kilograms — 17.6 pounds — of garbage left on the mountain by previous climbers. The rule will take effect in April, according to Agence France-Presse, and will apply to anyone who travels beyond the mountain's base camp.
"The government has decided in order to clean up Mount Everest, each member of an expedition must bring back at least eight kilos of garbage, apart from their own trash," Nepalese tourism ministry official Madhusudan Burlakoti tells AFP. "Our earlier efforts have not been very effective. This time, if climbers don't bring back garbage, we will take legal action and penalize them."
Expeditions are already charged a $4,000 garbage deposit to climb Everest, refunded only if they return with everything they brought, but that strategy has reportedly suffered from enforcement issues. The new rule is designed to make violators more visible, and to foster a collective sense of responsibility for Mount Everest that goes beyond lean packing and personal cleanliness.
Not all Everest climbers who ditch their gear and garbage do so out of carelessness, however. Many are trying to shed weight, often a life-or-death decision made hastily on unforgiving slopes. Everest has claimed the lives of more than 240 climbers since the early 20th century, and many of their bodies remain on the mountain, preserved in place by the extreme cold.
Still, with hundreds of climbers successfully taming Everest every year, the garbage goes beyond necessity. The annual Eco Everest Expedition has collected more than 13 tons of trash from the mountain since 2008, and experts estimate another 10 tons are still up there. If each of the 658 people who reached Everest's summit in 2013 had brought back 17.6 pounds of trash — assuming they packed lightly enough to carry the extra weight — they could have cut those 10 tons in half.


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Eyewitnesses to the recent attempt on the life of the Emir of Fika, Alhaji Muhammed Abali Ibn Mohammed Idrisa, narrated how the emir, who is also the Chairman, Yobe State Council of Chiefs, scampered away from the scene of the attempted assassination, falling down, stumbling over his traditional robes, his turban flailing behind him as he fled for safety.
The assassination attempt happened as the emir, who had just finished his Friday prayers at the Potiskum Central Mosque, was standing, when a young man with explosives strapped to his body inched close to him, but was stopped by the emir's police orderly. Realising that his mission to blow up the traditional ruler had failed, the suspected assassin brought out a gun and tried to shoot the emir instead, when the explosives on him detonated.
Although the emir escaped unhurt, his police orderly and the suicide bomber were reportedly killed in the blast while several people were injured. The attack came barely a month after the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, also narrowly escaped death when a suicide bomber targeted him after Friday prayers at the Maiduguri Central Mosque.
This year, for the first time in over 200 years, the traditional Sallah Durbar celebrations were cancelled in Kano and most parts of the North. The excuse was that the emir – for whom the occasion was an opportunity for district heads and the nobility to pay homage and pledge allegiance – was ill. However, many suspected that Boko Haram had planned to use the occasion to cause carnage among the royalty. Even the calamity of the British occupation of Kano in 1903 did not stop the Durbar that year.
Last year, in the aftermath of the bitterly divisive presidential election, angry mobs attacked the palaces of several prominent traditional rulers, burning and looting. Their grouse was the suspicion that the traditional rulers connived with, and were bribed by, the ruling party to facilitate the process that many saw as systematic rigging of the election.
To put these events in context, not too long ago, refusal to remove your shoes in the presence of district heads, not to talk of an emir, could be interpreted as a rebellion, and in some places, punishable. Today, it is with glee that people describe the speed with which emirs scamper away from danger. Many now guffaw when revered traditional symbols of authority – the staff of office and the turban – are discarded at the slightest hint of danger.
All over the North, the inbred respect for ward and district heads, as well as emirs, is fast diminishing and, consequently, the authority and the myths behind the traditional institutions they head. For those who feared the institutions, a new boldness is in place; for those who had high regards for them, a subtle disdain has emerged and for members of the ruling clans, the rewards of being part of the royal classes are fast ebbing.
This is not to say that the North's emirs have lost their powers: they remain largely powerful and able to influence economic and social policy. But events of the last few years have eaten away the basis of their legitimacy. And that precisely is the challenge facing the Emirate System in the North and the traditions they represent.
Whatever the truth of the matter, there is common perception that emirs were given huge sums of money to support a government seen as inimical to the interests of the ordinary citizen. How can those emirs retain public respect? When traditional rulers watch while local schools and hospitals decay simply because they can educate their children abroad and travel overseas for medical treatment, how can they be seen as responsible and responsive by their people?
A case in point: a strategic federal government agency recently advertised job vacancies. While qualified candidates without powerful contacts applied and prayed for miracles to have even the faintest hope of getting employment, a highly respected traditional ruler reportedly sent a delegation to the head of the agency, along with gift items… and a list of candidates. Actually, this is not class, but crass opportunism.
In that, and other similar instances, how can traditional rulers who use their positions and influence to muscle out ordinary folks to secure positions in the public sector, military and the corporate world for their offspring and anyone connected to the ruling class, possibly hope to command respect as unbiased leaders of all?
In another scenario, how can traditional rulers jostle for contracts and, like typical Nigerian contractors, refuse to execute the contracts after collecting mobilisation fees? Worse is when the contracts happen to be a road, school, hospital or water projects located within their domains….
The British occupation of Northern Nigeria may have begun the decline of the influence of traditional institutions; however, unless they embark on deep-reaching and wide-ranging reforms, they may vanish altogether in the not too distant future. And the best way to reform is simply to be on the side of the people. It is not an accident that the monarchical systems in the Middle East – on which we modeled our institutions – are also scrambling to reform and promote more freedoms and opportunities for their people. It is time to open an aperture into the 21st century.


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Down Syndrome
Down syndrome, congenital disorder characterized by mild to severe mental retardation, slow physical development, and characteristic physical features. Down syndrome affects about 1 in every 730 live births and occurs in all populations equally. It was first described in 1866 by an English physician, J. Langdon Down. In 1959 a French physician, Jerome Lejeune, discovered that the syndrome was caused by an extra chromosome. It was later discovered that this extra chromosome appears as a third chromosome attached to the 21st of the 23 pairs of chromosomes normally present in the human genome. This third chromosome gives rise to the alternate name trisomy 21.
The extra genetic material is responsible for the physical characteristics of the syndrome: low muscle tone, flattish facial features, an upward slant to the eyes and epicanthal folds (which were the basis for the former name, mongolism), a single crease across the palm, hyperflexibility of the joints, and a displastic middle phalanx on the fifth finger. People with Down syndrome have an increased incidence of infection, childhood leukemia, congenital heart defects, and respiratory problems, but modern medical treatment has improved the life expectancy from 9 (in 1910) to 55 (in 1995).
Mental retardation varies widely, from minimal to severe. The great majority of those who have the disorder attend public schools and as adults can live independently or in group homes. After age 35 individuals with the syndrome develop the neurological changes of Alzheimer's disease, and many develop the dementia that accompanies them.
Eighty percent of children with Down syndrome are born to women under 35 years of age, but the incidence of Down syndrome births does increase with age. Approximately 5% of cases are transmitted by the sperm. Amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling can be used to detect the disorder in the fetus. Children born to women with Down syndrome have a 50% chance of having the disorder.


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Eliminating Technology Trade-Offs
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The technology industry is full of trade-offs. Take for example solar cells that convert sunlight to electricity. Every hour, more energy hits the Earth in the form of sunlight than the entire planet consumes in an entire year. The general trade-off is between energy conversion efficiency versus abundance of materials:
IBM has eliminated this trade-off with a record-setting breakthrough last week, demonstrating 9.6 percent efficiency [thin film solar cells using earth-abundant materials].
A second trade-off is exemplified by EMC's recent GeoProtect announcement. This appears similar to the geographic dispersal method introduced by a company called [CleverSafe]. The trade-off is between the amount of space to store one or more copies of data and the protection of data in the event of disaster. Here's an excerpt from fellow blogger Chuck Hollis (EMC) titled ["Cloud Storage Evolves"]:
Seized by the government? falling into the wrong hands? Is EMC positioning ATMOS as "Storage for Terrorists"? I can certainly appreciate the value of being able to protect 6PB of data with only 9PB of storage capacity, instead of keeping two copies of 6PB each, the trade-off means that you will be accessing the majority of your data across your intranet, which could impact performance. But, if you are in an illicit or illegal business that could have a third of your facilities "seized by the government", then perhaps you shouldn't house your data centers there in the first place. Having two copies of 6PB each, in two "friendly nations", might make more sense.
(In reality, companies often keep way more than just two copies of data. It is not unheard of for companies to keep three to five copies scattered across two or three locations. Facebook keeps SIX copies of photographs you upload to their website.)
ChuckH argues that the governments that seize the three nodes won't have a complete copy of the data. However, merely having pieces of data is enough for governments to capture terrorists. Even if the striping is done at the smallest 512-byte block level, those 512 bytes of data might contain names, phone numbers, email addresses, credit cards or social security numbers. Hackers and computer forensics professionals take advantage of this.
You might ask yourself, "Why not just encrypt the data instead?" That brings me to the third trade-off, protection versus application performance. Over the past 30 years, companies had a choice, they could encrypt and decrypt the data as needed, using server CPU cycles, but this would slow down application processing. Every time you wanted to read or update a database record, more cycles would be consumed. This forced companies to be very selective on what data they encrypted, which columns or fields within a database, which email attachments, and other documents or spreadsheets.
An initial attempt to address this was to introduce an outboard appliance between the server and the storage device. For example, the server would write to the appliance with data in the clear, the appliance would encrypt the data, and pass it along to the tape drive. When retrieving data, the appliance would read the encrypted data from tape, decrypt it, and pass the data in the clear back to the server. However, this had the unintended consequences of using 2x to 3x more tape cartridges. Why? Because the encrypted data does not compress well, so tape drives with built-in compression capabilities would not be able to shrink down the data onto fewer tapes.
(I covered the importance of compressing data before encryption in my previous blog post [Sock Sock Shoe Shoe].)
Like the trade-off between energy efficiency and abundant materials, IBM eliminated the trade-off by offering compression and encryption on the tape drive itself. This is standard 256-bit AES encryption implemented on a chip, able to process the data as it arrives at near line speed. So now, instead of having to choose between protecting your data or running your applications with acceptable performance, you can now do both, encrypt all of your data without having to be selective. This approach has been extended over to disk drives, so that disk systems like the IBM System Storage DS8000 and DS5000 can support full
Certainly, something to think about!
technorati tags: , sunlight, solar cells, electricity, indium, gallium, cadmium, copper, tin, zinc, sulfur, selenium, thin+film, efficiency, EMC, Chuck Hollis, GeoProtect, Cleversafe, governement, seizure, Facebook, terrorists, encryption, forensics, hackers, protection, performance, disk, tape


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Anders H necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 66 diseños de 6 diseñadores freelance.
Soladii is a new startup (http://www.soladii.com), which is dedicated to creating a new type of web experience for elderly which may not have any internet experience and/or poor vision.
Our web pages provides a community for elderly to connect with their family and friends via various services through a deceptively simple user experience.
The service will only be available to use via a facebook login.
We're based in San Diego, and we appreciate original ideas and submissions. We love a great typeface design, but we're on a budget so fonts used must be free.
Our service is targeting two different audiences:
1. Family and friends that have internet experience (normal users), who can create and setup accounts for the others to use. This should be reflected in the home page. I call these "admin users". The home page should include call to actions for these users.
2. Once someone has created an account, the other target (which is our MAIN target in this competition), is an elderly family member with little to no computer or internet experience, or anyone with poor vision. I call these "end users". The home page should facilitate easy login for these users, and the second photo album page should be dedicated to serving this type of users.
However, we want the design to be useful by anyone, which means even regular users could use it just because it's simple and beautiful.
The primary goal of Soladii is to make it abundantly easy to read, see and enjoy shared content with a minimum of clutter or confusing graphics and text. Site should be 'beautiful' when viewing photo album. End users should never be confused as to what they are doing. End users should also have as few options as possible for clicking away from the slideshow page.
We require that all texts are large and easily readable.
For a type 1 audience (admin users), a use case would be:
1. Homepage: Signup for new account
2. Enter basic information of other user in a form (type 2 user)
3. Create new account and invite type 2 user via e-mail.
For the type 2 audience (end users), a use case would be:
1. Homepage: Login via facebook -> go to the second designed page
2. Select a friend from a list of friends (potentially large list)
3. Select a photo album from the friend's list of photo albums (potentially large list)
4. The photo's in the album starts playing in a slideshow automatically, and are shown via thumbnails. (potentially large list)
5. User has the option to see extra photo information if needed (mouse over image, or next to image), including title and notes.
- Prefer layouts with flexible width, but should look OK down to 1024x768, and great on 1200x800 or larger.
- Fonts used should be free. Extra credit if the font used is standard browser font (and looks great)
- Logo and navigation. We are thinking the two 'i''s in Soladii could be two people holding hands? We like clever negative-space logo's.
- Same on all pages
- Large facebook logo for login. This must be prominent and easy to see.
- Call-to-action (sign up), clearly separated from the login.
- Footer with links (small font OK): About, Contact
Slideshow page:
- Must contain a way for user to select a Friend and an Album in the easiest way possible.
- Slideshow will auto-play, but must have previous and next functionality and thumbnails for photos. Mouseover thumb should be highlighted.
- Friends and albums may or may not have thumbnails available, please show design that includes some with and without.
- The slideshow must look beautiful on the page. Photo's should be shown as large as possible.
- It must be clear which friend, and which album is currently selected.
- Photo's may have titles and notes attached. Title must be shown, possible on mouseover only. Notes may be shown if/when space allows (for flexible layouts).
- Users should have a way to add notes to photo's
Website is not live and/or in a weird test mode.
like: Simplicity, spacing
This is the slideshow we envision using, with approximately the functionality we envision as well.
picassa photo albums:
Like that photo's fill screen, and user can enter comments. Do not like small fonts and too many options via icons
Like the simplicity, the font selection for that style, and the whitespace. Also like the flexible layout.


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She's included his name and phone number in the text. You may know that texting protected health information (PHI) is not legal but feel justified because this is a serious medical concern. Perhaps you even believe that deleting the text right away will protect you — and Mr. Smith. In reality, this text message with PHI has just passed from your nurse's phone, through her phone carrier, to your phone carrier, and then to you — four vulnerable points where this unencrypted message could be intercepted or breached.
In many situations similar to this one, texting is the fastest and most efficient way of sending important information. But physicians who text each other or their staff clinical information risk exposing themselves to the privacy and security violations of HIPAA unless they use a secure messaging app that encrypts messages as they passes through all four points of contact.
Fortunately for TMA members, DocbookMD is breaking down this communication barrier between physicians, and now members of your clinical care team as well. DocbookMD is a FREE, members-only, application for Apple and Android smartphones and tablets that allows you to send HIPAA-compliant messages bundled with photos of x-rays, EKGs, wounds, and more just as if you were sending a text. DocbookMD's new CareTeam feature lets you add members of your care team to your secure communication network.
More than 7,000 TMA members have signed on to use DocbookMD. It's just one of the exciting technology developments that truly can help you in your practice. TMA's next Tech Tuesday webinar will explore others. The Mobile Movement: Technology On the Go, scheduled for noon-1 pm on Sept. 17, 2013, will look at how smartphone and tablets are putting everything from more efficient patient registration to HIPAA-secure consultations within reach. Register now.
Published Aug. 27, 2013
TMA Practice E-Tips main page
May 13, 2020
What could a TMA Membership mean for you, your practice, and your patients
A guide from TMA-endorsed DocbookMD helps smaller practices understand the risks of using mobile devices and how to stay HIPAA-secure.
The Joint Commission now says it's OK to text orders, with certain requirements. If you do send orders via text messaging, be sure to establish guidelines in writing in your practice's policies and
procedures manual. Read More
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The test, code named "Divider," was detonated on Sept. 23, 1992 as the last of an eight-test series called "Julin."
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, Sept. 26, 2012—Two decades ago the last full-scale underground test of a nuclear weapon was conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory at the Nevada Test Site. The test, code named "Divider," was detonated on Sept. 23, 1992 as the last of an eight-test series called "Julin."
The test had an announced yield less than the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT. The purpose of the test, also announced at the time, was "to ensure the safety of U.S. deterrent forces."
Divider was the last of 1,030 nuclear tests carried out by the U.S. The first nuclear test, Trinity, also conducted by Los Alamos, took place in southern New Mexico 47 years earlier on July 16, 1945.
Early in September of 1992, Congress adopted the Hatfield-Exon-Levin amendment to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill calling for a nine-month moratorium on nuclear testing. In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev unilaterally declared a halt on all Soviet nuclear tests. Because of this, Los Alamos scientists were well aware that Divider might be the last U.S. test for a while, though they did not envision a future completely without testing.
Los Alamos physicist Gary Wall was part of the two-person design team for the Divider test. "We knew there was a short period of time to conduct a few tests before the moratorium took effect," said Wall, "so there was a lot of discussion surrounding the importance of the last tests. Of course we still believed there would be many more than there were."
Shortly after the Divider test, the Energy and Water bill including the Hatfield-Exon-Levin amendment was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush mandating the nine-month moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing, a mandate that has been extended by every subsequent U.S. President into the present day.
"Once the moratorium went into effect," said Wall, "there were many high-level discussions about what kind of science program we would build to take care of the stockpile without testing—this ramped up very quickly once it was clear the moratorium was serious." These discussions led to what was eventually called the Stockpile Stewardship Program.
"Over the past 20 years, the United States has been able to innovate and develop the tools we need to keep our stockpile safe, secure, and effective without underground testing," said NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino. "We have the world's leading scientific facilities, the world's fastest computers, and the world's brightest minds working to ensure that we never again have to perform nuclear explosive testing on U.S. nuclear weapons."
"Because of the talent, intellect, creativity, and determination of the scientists, engineers, and technicians at Los Alamos, and across the NNSA's nuclear enterprise, we have been able to deliver on the promise of Stockpile Stewardship for 20 years without full-scale testing," said Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. "It is our most important job, one that will continue well into the future."
The Stockpile Stewardship Program carried out by scientists and weapons experts at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Nevada National Security Site (formerly the Nevada Test Site) has significantly advanced the nation's ability to understand the stockpile without nuclear explosive testing through analysis of legacy data, new data from sub-critical experiments, supercomputer modeling and simulation, and other non-nuclear experiments.
Facilities and capabilities at Los Alamos that have enabled the successes of Stockpile Stewardship include the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) facility, the Proton Radiography facility, the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research facility, the Plutonium facility, and a wide variety of dynamic experiments facilities.
Computing advancements have include the development of massively parallel computers like the Connection Machines CM-5 and the "Q" supercomputer—and the more modern computing "clusters" like Roadrunner (the first to reach a million billion calculations per second in 2008) and the Cielo and Luna supercomputers now shouldering the bulk of classified, weapons-related computing at Los Alamos.
According to Wall, data from the Divider test is still applicable today. "Divider was a rousing success," he said, "it clearly demonstrated a concept that remains viable for future stockpile options."


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I spent last Sunday at the East Coast Food & Wine Festival put on by Slow Food of Central New Jersey. It may have been called the East Coast festival, but this was a New Jersey event -- highlighting several of New Jersey's fine wineries and several eateries. I was very impressed with several of the wines I tasted -- much more impressed than I was expecting to be. If Slow Food of Central New Jersey choses to make this an annual event, I'll be back.
The first tent we visited was from Laurita Winery out of New Egypt, N.J. I was particularly pleased with their Pinot Gris and their '05 Cabernet Sauvignon.
My friends Joanne and Amy enjoy a red from Laurita.
Gary Pavlis gave us a "30-Minute Wine Expert" talk. He taught about the 5 S's -- sight, swirl, smell, sip, savor. We had the opportunity to sit and eat with him for a bit after his lecture which was a real treat.
There was more than just wine at this festival. This shaved pork, corn bread and a salsa made with fresh ingredients looks delicious.
Award-winning winemaker John Altmaier from Alba Vineyard in Milford, N.J., took us through his selection of wines. I'm not a big fan of Reisling but his Dry Reisling was very good. I also enjoyed his Forbidden dessert wine and came home with a bottle.
I've learned that New Jersey bees produce some excellent honey. This Herbertsville Honey took Best of Show in the 2008 New Jersey State Honey Show.


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Just got back from the Urgent Care before writing this. Standing in my fish room I sharpened a dull jig and within 30 seconds somehow buried it deeply in my index finger.
I pulled and pulled. Nope, buried.
You know what hurts at the hospital? Yep, that needle. Wow!
Article Photos
Capt. George Tunison
"This will dull the pain."
Sure, I thought while nearly biting through my lip, which hurt about 66 times worse than any hook I've EVER been stuck with, especially when he was moving it in semicircles. I've been gaff impaled and it hurt less.
Anyway, bandaged up and for extra fun a 16-inch tetanus needle. Always carry a sharp set of cutters to be able to cut off lures till you can get help.
The nurse said earlier a man came in holding his head. He told her he had a lure hook stuck deeply in his scalp. She said, "Well, move you're hand and let me see."
"I can't he replied, I got my hand hooked in the other hook while trying to remove the first hook."
Florida's recreational and commercial stone crab claw harvest season opens Oct. 15 in state and federal waters. To be harvested, stone crab claws must be at least 2 3/4 inches in length when measured from the elbow to the tip of the lower immovable portion of the claw in order to increase the likelihood of survival of the crab once released. Females are identified by a brownish/orange egg mass on their underside.
Harvesters are encouraged to take only one claw, even if both claws are of legal size, so that the released crab will be better able to defend itself from predators. The season is open through May 15, 2014.
Better news is crab trap floats, miles of them attended by a great light tackle sporting and eating fish, the tripletail. If you are a trophy tripletail hunter travel to the Coco Beach area where it seems the really big boys (over 20 pounds) like to hang out. (A 37 was caught there).
If you're boating along and see a fish swimming on its side its not dying, it's a tripletail doing its thing. Trips like to hang on structure and are particularly fond of crab trap floats. Slowly motor by a float and you may see a big hand sized dark brown fish sulking below it. The next one may be trash can lid sized.
Whatever the size they are great fighters even somewhat acrobatic and more importantly to many, trips are very tasty.
So you just passed close to a float and saw a 10-pounder looking at you, which means you didn't pass too close. Don't crowd them or they will sink lower in the water column or take off. Now quietly motor uptide, while resting the fish. I use my trolling motor to hold my position while the angler drifts/freelines a live shrimp with the current, back toward the crab float. Others prefer a small cork to keep the shrimp up high in the water. Trips definitely will eat a fly and shrimp patterns are a good starting choice.
If you are lucky the hungry trip will dart out and eat with gusto, you set the hook he laughs, gives you the fin and circles around the rope. PING! Line broke, game over.
The deal is to set the hook and move his weight away from the rope to have a shot at landing this rather odd looking fish. Once free of the dreaded rope he will fight hard, even leap before coming to the boat.
The triple guides I've been with all keep the big motor running and at the hookset hit the gas literally towing the tail away from danger. Otherwise put your back into it then enjoy the fight and the dinner. Long fluorocarbon leaders work best in clear offshore waters.
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. Contact him at 239-282-9434 or firstname.lastname@example.com, or www.flyingfinssportfishing.com.


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With 3 powerful mind bending rounds of Trivia our Trivia will entertain you the whole night. Call us today to book your establishment!
We offer several different games for you to enjoy including: Trivia, Music Bingo, Feud, and much more.. Call us today
Our live interactive trivia will set the standard for your teams entertainment needs! Are you smart enough? Come and find out!


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3rd Floor
60 South High Street
Akron, Ohio 44326
Phone: 330.643.9030
Main Library and its Divisions are temporarily closed.
Division Manager:
Mary Plazo
Contact the Manager
The Special Collections Division houses the Library's genealogy and local history materials. Our goal is to collect, preserve, and provide access to the history of Summit County and to continue to maintain one of the area's most extensive genealogy collections.
Our genealogy collection includes books, microfilm, periodicals, databases and more. While our collections are focused primarily on Ohio and surrounding states, we also actively collect materials for the states of the Eastern Seaboard, New England and the South.
Our local history collection includes a variety of materials pertaining to all aspects of Akron and Summit County history including the archival and photograph collections of the Summit County Historical Society. Sharing and providing access to these materials is our goal.


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Saving Bambi
Each year, some 100 000 fawns are killed by mowing machines, but help is on its way
The sound of the drone is like the humming of a giant swarm of bees. Anita Weimann holds it up in the air, her arm outstretched. The small machine looks something like a kite with eight buzzing rotors fixed onto two rods positioned in a V. A long, black rechargeable battery and a tiny camera are suspended from its center. Weimann, 38, releases the drone as she might a falcon, and the device zips off into the blue sky above a meadow of tall grass near Frauenstetten, north of Augsburg, in southern Germany. It halts for a moment 80 meters up, turns its nose in a northeasterly direction and starts to fly zigzags across the field. The fawn rescue mission has begun.
It's a warm morning in June and the sun has just appeared over the horizon. Weimann is already perspiring because she's in a hurry. Farmer Heinz Mengele has said he'll be coming to mow this afternoon. Mother deer have been sighted in the area recently, which means their fawns, well hidden in the grass, are now in mortal danger. When the mowing machine approaches, the fawns follow their natural instinct and flatten themselves against the ground. As they are only a few days old, their legs are still pretty wobbly, so they don't try to run away. In fact, they aren't able to run properly until they are about six weeks old.
Weimann strides over to a folding table at the edge of the field and looks hard at her laptop. She is agricultural advisor to the Bavarian hunting association and has been testing the drone for some weeks. On the screen, she follows in real time what the thermal imaging camera transmits from above. The meadow is depicted as a black area because the grass is still cool. Weimann is looking out for light-colored patches on the image, for hot spots that could come from fawns, because their temperature is warmer. Weimann gets increasingly anxious with every passing minute. It's nearly half past nine, the sun is climbing higher all the time and the meadow is growing warmer. "There!" she exclaims, and clicks a pale spot on the screen – then another and another, more and more of them all the time. A program determines the geodata for each spot. A quarter of an hour later, the drone's survey is complete and the coordinates of all the pale spots have been determined. Weimann quickly connects a GPS device to her laptop to transfer the geodata. Then, eyes glued to the device in her hand and its compass arrow indicating the position of a hot spot, Weimann runs out into the field with a handful of helpers in tow, one of whom is Christoph Kunad, 46, a ranger. The closer they get, the more gingerly they move through the tall grass because the coordinates are only accurate up to eight meters, and the fawns are often so well hidden, it would be easy to trample them.
Now I can mow with a clear conscience
"Over here!," yells Kunad. He parts the grass and gently slips his hands under the fawn cowering on the ground. He lifts it up and cradles it like a newborn baby – saved! The baby deer's eyes are alert and wide with bewilderment. It struggles briefly, then nestles into Kunad, who beams. "It doesn't look more than eight days old," he says. He has rescued quite a few young animals from farm machinery. According to the German Wildlife Foundation, around 100 000 fawns fall victim to mowing machines in German meadows every year. After foxes, the greatest threat comes from agricultural machinery.
Until now, rescuing fawns was a difficult undertaking for ranger Kunad. For more than three decades, he and his friends spent long hours tramping through fields in early summer. "The drone is brilliant," he says, setting the fawn back down in the grass and placing a laundry basket over it. We hear branches snapping in a plot of woodland nearby: The doe has been observing us and now retreats back into the woods, but she will not give up her young. At the next opportunity, she will try to hide it somewhere else in the meadow, which is what the upended laundry basket is intended to prevent.
The drone Anita Weimann is demonstrating today is still at the trial stage. The Technical University in Munich, the agricultural machinery maker Class, the industrial electronics company Isa Industrieelektronik and the German Aerospace Center have been collaborating on the development of a marketable version since 2012. The project, entitled "Wildretter" (wild animal rescuers), is funded by the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture to the tune of some three million euros. The aim is to make most of the rescue procedure automatic. As soon as the rescue team knows where a farmer plans to mow, they download an aeriel photo from Google Earth and the precise coordinates of the area in question, and a program suggests the most battery-efficient flight route. The drone does have a remote control, but it's only intended for emergency use, for instance if the drone is attacked by an eagle.
"The Oktokopter will be ready for operation by the end of this year," promises Sebastian Krug, 41, project coordinator at Projektbüro Zentec. He talks of great demand for the device, especially from hunting cooperatives, who want to help save fawns out in the fields. Drones like these are fast becoming a universal tool in agriculture because from the air, storm damage is easier to assess, and fruit farmers can see much more quickly whether the crop in a plantation will soon be ready to pick.
Shortly before ten, Weimann sends the drone up once again. She wants to investigate some of the hot spots from nearer the ground. But conditions are growing tougher as the sun climbs higher and the contrasts on the screen become fainter. One of the spots turns out to be a molehill, another an anthill. But then she and the team find a second fawn. It is 15 days old and also ends up under the basket. The rescuers now have to wait for the farmer to arrive. The animals need to be released within a period of three hours so that their mothers can suckle them.
By afternoon, all has quieted down at the meadow. Kunad is waiting for the farmer to call. "It's often like tilting at windmills," he explains. Too many farmers wait too long before informing him that they are planning to mow. And in good weather, they all head out into the fields at once. When the drone has been perfected, everything will be easier, he hopes. Then he and his fellow rangers will be able to find and eartag the fawns in plenty of time, so that later, they can be located and removed from a meadow in a matter of minutes.
The farmer has sent his son to mow the meadow. Jürgen Mengele, 19, will one day take over the farm. "I've been looking for fawns ever since I was a boy," he says: "Now I know I can mow with a clear conscience."
Meanwhile, Anton Demharter, 63, a ranger friend of Kunad's, is carrying the fawns to safety in a vegetable field thirty meters away. They won't be returned to the meadow after mowing, where they would be easy prey for foxes. The does find their young calling among the vegetables later. Demharter strokes the fawns one last time, then releases them saying: "Take care."


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Submit Your Picks For The Winners of The Top Six Categories
Joey C's Picks-
You can go to http://movies.yahoo.com/oscars/pick-em/ and make your selections.
Write in who you picked in these 6 categories in the comment selection below this post. Be sure to fill out your ballot before the Oscars Telecast tonight.
Best picture: Argo
Of the movies nominated I've seen Argo and Django Unchained. Both must see movies IMO. I was on the edge of my seat throughout Argo. Fantastic movie.
Django Unchained, the Quentin Tarantino Directed Movie was a complete spectacle and just like everything else from Tarantino you had no idea where everything was going. I'd like to see it win but they don't seem to like to reward Tarantino and I think Argo takes home the honor based on the sympathy vote for Ben Affleck getting the snub in the director category.
I would not at all be surprised to to see Lincoln with though. I just won't root for it because I'm just not a fan of period pieces. even though it's probably a great movie.
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis In Lincoln
If there was a lock I'd say Daniel Day-Lewis is about a big a lock as you can get in this category this year. The Oscar voters love Daniel Day-Lewis, he's already won twice, he was in an important movie and none of the other movies in this category were huge movies. Easiest category to pick. Book it.
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
I'm going with Jessica Chastain here because once again no one has seen any of the other movies in this category. Amour, a French sub-titled film. The Impossible, didn't hear about it. They say Jennifer Lawrence didn't have to act much for her role in Silver Linings Playbook. and Beasts of the Southern Wild, another movie no one has gone to see. Also Meryl Streep wasn't nominated in this category. Because it doesn't matter when Meryl is in the race Meryl wins.
Another easy category to pick.
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln
I'd rather see Christopher Waltz win for his performance in Django Unchained but I'm picking Tommy Lee Jones. I figure for the Spielberg movie they're gonna give a bunch of awards and this is a category where they can give another one. Alan Arkin was great in Argo but it wasn't a huge role onscreen. Philip Seymour Hoffman is great in everything he's in but I never saw The Master and didn't hear a lot about it. Silver Lining Playbook is just a movie that despite all the huge stars in it I never heard anyone say "You Have To Go See This Movie" so that's why I doubt it goes to Dinero.
Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field
Sally Field because she's Sally Field.
I can't root for Anne Hathaway and her phony humble brag. Never saw her in anything that blew me away. Would I be shocked to see Anne Hathaway win it? No, in fact she probably will but I just root against here every time.
Best director: Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
I just think Spielberg doing an important piece with big actors is gonna get votes. It's probably a movie I ought to go see but it's just not my kinda film. I'm no history buff. Would have loved to see Quentin Tarantino win for Django Unchained but he wasn't even nominated. Also wouldn't have minded to see Affleck win for Argo.
They're not going to give it to the director of a French sub-titled movie (Amour). Not gonna give it to the director of a small movie that no one saw, Beasts of The Southern Wild. Never heard anyone say "You must go see Silver Linings Playbook". Maybe the long shot here is the Life of Pi but I highly doubt it.
Gotta be Spielberg for the lock.
Don't forget to click on the comment below this post to leave your predictions in the top six categories. You can view the nominees here- http://movies.yahoo.com/oscars/pick-em/


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She couldn't have sang that bad -- sheesh.
Six women were arraigned this week for allegedly beating up another woman because they didn't like the way she was singing karaoke.
Five of the women, all from Connecticut, were arraigned yesterday in Stamford Superior Court, and the other appeared in court Monday.
The attack on Leidy Alcantara, 25, of Port Chester, happened on the night of Sept. 23 when she was singing a Spanish song at Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery and Cafe in Stamford, cops told The Stamford Advocate.
It's not clear if the attack was prompted by Alcantara's voice or the song she chose -- "A Dios Le Pido" by Colombian singer Juanes. She did admit it was her first time doing karaoke.
U.S. & World
Alcantra said the fight started with heckling; one of the defendants, Kiana Strickland, said she was annoying, the singer claimed.
"Then she said something else and punched me in my face," Alcantara told the Daily News. "I don't know if I was good or bad. I was a little confused. I didn't really know the song. But nobody was complaining. Everybody was happy. She was the only one. She was crazy."
The six women, all under the legal drinking age of 21, knocked Alcantra to the floor, punched her and pulled her hair. The singer suffered bruises and a chipped tooth, authorities said.
"The verbal exchange didn't go well," said Stamford Police Lt. Sean Cooney.
Apparently not.
But another one of the defendants, Michelle Rosedom, said the charges are completely bogus. The singing did not precipitate the fight and she never even touched Alcantra, she told the News.
"This wasn't about her singing, it was about her putting her hands on one of the girls, and a fight started. All we were doing was eating wings," Rosedom said. "We weren't even drinking, she was. And now we're facing three charges. I didn't even touch her."
The defendants -- Rosedom, Strickland, Martisa Chambers, Danielle Swanson, Chaniel McRae and Deja Hines, all between ages 19 and 20 -- are charged with third-degree assault, conspiracy to commit third-degree assault and breach of peace.
They're due back in court later this month.


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RES said it had signed a 50:50 agreement with STFA with a view to completing the project next year. STFA specialises in the construction and chemical sectors.
Speaking about the deal, RES Anatolia country manager Ayhan Gok said: "This plant ranks in the top four of the 148 projects granted in recent wind tenders in terms of size. We are delighted to be partnering with STFA in this venture, which will be on a 50:50 basis. Our expertise in renewable energy, combined with STFA's construction experience and presence in the Turkish energy market, makes this a winning combination."
Turkey is expecting a sizeable increase in new wind capacity this year, although market observers are divided as to whether 2013 will be the year that the wind industry really takes off.
Turkish deputy energy minister Hasan Murat Mercan told the European Wind Energy Association annual conference last month that the country must spend some $10 billion annually through to 2023 to boost overall power capacity from 55GW to 110GW, with wind capacity targeted to rise nearly tenfold to 20GW.


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Reiji wants two things in life: a black belt in karate and Misa, the girl of his dreams. Luckily, Misa's big brother is the captain of the university karate club and is ready to strike a deal: Reiji can join the club if he tutors Misa in linear algebra.
Follow along in The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra as Reiji takes Misa from the absolute basics of this tricky subject through mind-bending operations like performing linear transformations, calculating determinants, and finding eigenvectors and eigenvalues. With memorable examples like miniature golf games and karate tournaments, Reiji transforms abstract concepts into something concrete, understandable, and even fun.
As you follow Misa through her linear algebra crash course, you'll learn about:
But Misa's brother may get more than he bargained for as sparks start to fly between student and tutor. Will Reiji end up with the girl—or just a pummeling from her oversized brother? Real math, real romance, and real action come together like never before in The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra.
Ages 13+


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Zero Punctuation: Guitar Hero World Tour
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"Neo Genesis Evangellion theme", eh Yahtzee?
I find it suprising how Yahtzee could quote such a profilic anime series even though he hates the medium with a passion. Then again, a child of the early 90's is sure to at least heard of the series.
Great review.
Excellent! Well done, Yahtzee!
I loved the part about being too preoccupied with Guitar Hero saving the day that it has LEPROUSY!!!
My brain is recovering from the last part going, "What. . .what magical thing did I just witness?"
No mention of Clive?
Anyway, good luck getting Stairway to Heaven.
Page or Plant or whoever holds the rights wont spit it up.
But hey, Harmonix is making a Beatles game. So I guess that means something.
Also you could always import Rock Band for the PS3.
Oh, i was hoping for a COD:[email protected] review ah well.
Good as always Mr. Crowshaw loved the section about no-one being able to sing.
Also great Deux Ex song at the end.
No idea what to make of either game, Rock Band has the better song list, but being a Wii owner that doesn't apply to me. GH:WT has its ups and downs but I think its better on the Wii than Rock Band is.
I agree with Yahtzee's rage at the ignorance of Australia. The delay on Rock Band was far too long.
oh fucking great... it's "Guitar Hero"... yippie... ... ... :/
Sigh...I hope Deus Ex 3 doesn't shatter what's left of my halfway-broken dreams of a sequel...or that the high-def Deus Ex mod finishes soon.
Good review...and I've been fortunate with singers, either I belt out something decent, or an engineer with a rock star personality jumps into the room and does it instead -_-.
"Fun Street Station" change here for Ruislip.
No Stairway? Denied!
And if you think waiting for Rockband was bad....You're gonna be getting older, losing your hair, many years from now to get Sgt. Pepper
The video? Epic. The song? Double epic.
Ugh... I'll be honest, I didn't laugh once through that video. I only watch these videos to listen to Yahtzee's opinion on games and most of that video wasn't about the game at all. Also, what a bad choice of game to feature this week. I don't see any difference between this and the Guitar Hero III video; just the same sort of jokes about the weird controls and the people who like them along with some strange hyperboles that failed to make me laugh.
Also, you said you already had Far Cry 2, why don't you review that? Theres tons of jokes you could come up with about that. I'm quite dissapointed this week.
And he's complaining about no-one wanting to sing, yet he's put in aa brilliant rendition of "Deus Ex: The Musical" right at the end? My god, Mr. Yahtzee, I'm suprised you don't fend people off the microphone to belt out some tunes after that peformance!
Pretty good review though, the drumkit is pretty useless, seen so many faulty ones get returned.
Does anyone have a mp3 of that song?
I DEMAND the mp3 of the Deus Ex parody song
Loved ZP this week, and we Mexicans also got screwed with RB (but not as much as the Aussies though)
The song at the end was amazing... really awesome!
Great work as normal!
That ending bit was random...
(Pedro Steckecilo is slightly ashamed as is the one who actually likes singing in his "band")
Oh my god, now for something completely different, Deus Ex!
Also I think Stairway to Heaven has been murdered enough by every kid looking to pick up there first electric in said music store.
LOL Harmonix *sniggers*
No LEFT4DEAD Review?
Yay for the Deus Ex song :D
Yahtzee actually surprised me..
I still love his job, but his drunken monkey review style is somewhat wearing old..He's slowly descending from the olympus where I placed him last year, becoming an (discard:-ephemeral-) human once again.
@FuckYouDad: Fixed
Deus Ex was my first FPS and that song was about a million times better than the review.
Rock on, Yahtzee. \o/
Excellent- the song at the end was brilliant
Oh no! Not ephemeral!
To be honest the only thing that saved this 'review' was the Deus Ex song at the end. Rock On.
And now I'm nostalgic and feeling sad for not experiencing a game as epic as Deus Ex was :(.
Fantastic review. It basically just comes down to what set list you like more, or if you are like me, have both games.
and stairway will never be in one of these games, as Led Zeppelin rarely licenses their music, and probably would never allow the master tracks to be out in the public.
Well, to be fair, he is pretty busy hanging out with Yoko Zeppelin.
Very amusing as always.
I'm sure Harmonix's refusal to export to certain countries is closely tied to their new distributor's policies. But I can understand how you could get upset by that.
You must be new here. welcome to the world of video games, where creativity goes to die.
As always a pleasure. So true about nobody wanting to sing!
Great feature as always...DAMN YOU LED ZEPPELIN!!!
It seems to me the only reason Yahtzee hates Harmonix is because of their retarded handling of the Australian release, or am I missing something? Frankly, I feel that Rock Band 2 is a much more polished product than Guitar Hero: WT (probably because I know the majority of the songs in RB2, hehe). I'm surprised he didn't comment on how stupid the management of star power was, as that pretty much screws over most of my multiplayer sessions.
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The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe: The Jew of Malta
Clarendon Press, 1995 - Drama - 127 pages
This is the latest volume in the acclaimed Oxford English Texts edition of Marlowe--the first complete edition of the works that provides both an original spelling text and detailed commentary. Roma Gill here presents an authoritative text of this great play derived from the 1633 Quarto.
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LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - JVioland - LibraryThing
Not thrilling. I was disappointed. Perhaps I expected the talent of a peer: Shakespeare that is. Read full review
THE JEW OF MALTA i
Epistle Prologues and Epilogues
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abas abbasse Abigal abigall Act III scene Act V scene BARABAS the Jew Barabas's Bashawes basso Bawcutt Bellamira Bernardine bosco calymath Christian Christopher Marlowe confesse Craik curse curtezane daughter dead death Don Lodowicke Don Mathias doth Dr Faustus Dyce e're emendation Enter barabas Enter governor Enter ithimore Exeunt Exit faith Farewell farre father Ferneze fryar give gold hath heaven Hero and Leander holy hundred Crownes I'le intreat ithimore Jacomo Jew of Malta Knights Knights of Malta live lodowicke London Lord Machevil Marlowe's Master Mdina Mediterranean merchant mony ne're Nunnery Nuns officer pilia-borza play poyson poyson'd pray Prethe Prologue Reed Rhodes Scaena selfe Selim Selim-Calymath sinne Sirra slave sonne souldiers Spanish summe sweet Tamburlaine tell thee there's THOMAS HAMMON thou hast Tilley Towne tribute Turkes University Press unto villaine warres wealth


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D2 Rods' '36 Pickup - Dynamic Dodge
D2 Rods' '36 Pickup
Most car guys are fans of all cars, but there are those out there who are a little more fanatical about liking one particular brand over another. Those camps are typically divided between the Blue Oval guys and the Bow Tie bunch. But it's when you bring the Chrysler guys into the fray that things become interesting.
Through the 'teens, '20s, and '30s, Ford and Chevrolet battled each other for sales supremacy, with the Dodge Brothers (who were later bought by Chrysler in 1928) coming well behind the leading two manufacturers. To drive that point home, half of the world's production of vehicles in 1924 was a Ford product!
But that doesn't mean much to those devoted to products developed under the Pentastar (the five-pointed logo for Chrysler products that first appeared in 1962). By the time the '60s rolled around, Chrysler was well known as one of the Big Three, and for good reason.
And while Ford and Chevy automobiles looked fairly similar in those early days, Dodge and Chrysler vehicles always seemed to look different (remember the Airflow?). One facet of Dodge/Chrysler legacy has been the success of its truck line. From the early KC model of the '30s to the Ramcharger of the '60s, Dodge trucks have always enjoyed popularity with the American driving public.
Ray Evernham knows how much Americans like Dodge products, and so does he. Ray helped revive the International Race of Champions (or IROC) series in the early '80s (when he was 26 years old), had 116 top five finishes in Winston Cup Series racing (winning 47 of them) as Jeff Gordon's first crew chief (from '92 to '99, including Gordon's three NASCAR Winston Cup Champion wins in 1995, 1997, and 1998), and collected dozens of wins as a NASCAR team owner (with drivers such as Bill Elliot under contract) in the late '90s and into the new millennium. In 2001, with the backing of 3,000 Dodge dealers and the Chrysler factory, Ray helped bring Dodge back into NASCAR after a 16-year absence. So to say Ray Evernham likes Dodges is like saying kids like ice cream-he's all over it.
When Ray came up with the idea to have a hot rod truck built with the flavor of the '50s, he looked to D2 Rods in Mooresville, North Carolina, to get the job done. The D2 facility is smack dab in the middle of NASCAR country and was formed in 2004 by two Dans: Dan Baker and Dan Richardson. Baker is from Ohio and brings his body and paint skills to the team, while Richardson is a SoCal transplant whose mechanical and assembly expertise rounds out the twosome.
Knowing Ray's penchant for the Pentastar, they began looking for a suitable cab to begin the project and found it in Delbarton, West Virginia, though it did have some rust and some signs it had been involved in a minor rollover (is there such thing as a minor rollover?).
The frame for the truck was custom built to fit the cab and to provide a super-low stance while retaining drivability. Set up on a wheelbase of 115 inches, the 2x5-inch tapered chassis uses a Ford 9-inch out back with parallel monoleaf springs while hairpins and a dropped I-beam axle were used in the front suspension up front. All four corners utilize big Buick aluminum drums as well as a set of steel rims (15x5 and 16x7) wrapped in Coker Classic whitewalls (G78-15 and 750-16).
Hidden under the custom wood-lined bed is a 15-gallon ATL bladder-type fuel cell-one of several items on the truck that make it safer than your average hot rod truck. Another item is the collapsible aluminum steering column out of a race car, which was fabricated to have a simple design without looking like it was taken out of some '78 Dodge van.
The cab received a fair amount of custom work too, beginning with a 2-inch chop, performed by the two Dans and Bill Deese. The cab was then channeled 7 inches to provide the correct look before Baker used a 1 1/2-ton truck shell for an intentional oversize look for the truck (he also fab'd the insert). Things look stock inside the cab, right down to the twin gloveboxes. A set of whiteface VDO gauges are mounted in the center of the dash, and, with the metalwork done, Baker prepped the truck before he covered everything with PPG flat black paint.
Perhaps lending itself to the interior of a NASCAR racer, sections of brushed aluminum were used on the door panels, kick panels, and behind the bench seat created by the Dans. A simple red material was stretched by Chuck Guffey, an upholsterer working out of Statesville. Black carpet, a banjo steering wheel, and a white knob for the three-speed shifter round out the truck's interior.
Evernham took delivery of the Dodge in May of '06 and if you had looked between the thousands of people who attended the NASCAR race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, you might have seen the truck there. D2 Rods is continuing with their street rod building ways, and are currently working on a '41 Plymouth convertible project. For more on the dynamic duo of Dan and Dan, check out www.d2rods.com.


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Write success stories with us
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Cabral designated after plunking three batters
Right-hander Daley added to active roster after Yankees fall to Rays in St. Pete
ST. PETERSBURG -- Left-hander Cesar Cabral was designated for assignment by the Yankees on Friday night after hitting three batters and getting ejected by home-plate umpire Joe West during New York's 11-5 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.
To fill Cabral's spot, the Yankees have called up right-hander Matt Daley. The 31-year-old New York native struck out eight batters and gave up only two hits in six scoreless innings last September. In four appearances for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season, he put together a 1-1 record and 5.40 ERA.
Cabral, 25, faced five batters on Friday night and did not retire any of them, as the Rays swelled their lead from 8-5 to 11-5 during his outing. Cabral allowed a leadoff single to Ben Zobrist, threw a wild pitch and served up a run-scoring single to Brandon Guyer.
Evan Longoria and James Loney were hit by pitches, loading the bases, and Wil Myers delivered a two-run single that struck the third-base bag. Cabral then drilled Logan Forsythe in the back with a pitch, prompting the immediate ejection by West.
"He just clearly has no command; it's unfortunate," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Obviously we're not trying to hit anyone there, and I feel bad that we hit three people there. You've just got to move on and go from there."
Girardi came out of the dugout to argue on behalf of Cabral, who was making his fourth appearance of the season after starting the year with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and the manager indicated afterward that he wasn't happy with West's decision to eject Cabral. He also wasn't pleased that he had to further empty out his bullpen and send in right-hander Shawn Kelley.
"You really don't want to," Girardi said. "It's unfortunate that we had to do it."
Cabral said he felt good when pitching to Zobrist but couldn't explain his complete loss of command after that. He said his pitches might have been moving too much, which is why they were "all over the place."
Cabral said West didn't offer a warning at any point, nor did he provide a reason for the ejection.
"Today was not a good day," Cabral said before the announcement that he had been designated for assignment. "I didn't try to hit anybody. I want to throw strikes. That happens sometimes. They know I don't want to hit anybody. I'm surprised because they [didn't] tell me [anything], you know?"


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2019 Basic Estimates and 2024 Projections
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