Peter Kirn makes music with an unusual instrument - his own body.
The Kentucky native pinches two electrically charged pennies connected to a laptop via two short green wires.
The rudimentary contraption is held together by bits of solder and hot glue which allow him to measure the electrical currents of his body and synthesize them into melodic sound.
Kirn, 34, a writer of creative technology, is one of several artists performing in Berlin who are exploring new ways of composing music with the human body.
"As your mood changes, the skin responds because it is part of the same system as your brain, which controls the pores of your skin," Kirn told Reuters.
Fluctuating sweat levels affect the skin's ability to transmit electricity, a characteristic Kirn calls "galvanic skin response".
But Kirn's technique is just one way to tap into the human body's musical potential.
Marco Donnarumma, a 27-year-old teacher from Italy with a passion for live music, tunes into the sounds muscles make when they move. Listeners can literally hear the friction of tissue as it expands and contracts.
Using a sensitive microphone to amplify the low frequency sound waves a muscle emits when it is flexed, Donnarumma has learned how to produce actual rhythms by simply moving his body.
"In the beginning, for instance, I was just standing with my legs still and waving my arms," Donnarumma said. "Now I completely involve the whole body in the performance."
His song "Hypo Chrysos", for example, sees Donnarumma tie two concrete blocks to his arms - an idea inspired by Dante's classic poem "Inferno" in which the poet encounters sinners in hell wearing cloaks filled with lead. The extra stress gives off a dry, crackly sound.
The technical term for listening in on the body's internal functions and converting them into melodies is "musical biofeedback", according to Claudia Robles Angel, an audiovisual artist from Colombia who played a concert at Berlin's Leapknecht sound lab alongside Kirn and Donnarumma earlier this month.
Robles's specialty is using a so-called electroencephalogram, or EEG, to measure her brain waves while forcing her mind from a state of calm to one of utter stress, a feat she says is accomplished through breathing and meditation.
Sensors inside the device, which resembles an open helmet, relay the data back to a computer which then reprograms it into music.
"With this kind of bio-device you become more aware of your body," Robles said. "That's really how I can change my mood."
Complete relaxation is also what Kirn said produces the richest sound. He found that the more he tried to control his thoughts, the plainer the music became.
"If you too heavily try to think about what you're doing or apply intention to what you're doing, you can short circuit your own creative process," Kirn said. "The paradox of the brain is it thinks best when it's not really thinking."
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Eye Eye captain: Bounty mutineer descendants may hold key to myopia
Descendants of the famous Bounty mutineers who now live on an isolated Pacific Island have among the lowest rate of myopia in the world and may hold the key to unlocking the genetic code for the disease, according to a new study.
A study of residents on Australia's Norfolk Island, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northeast of Sydney, showed the rate of myopia, or short-sightedness, among Bounty descendants was about half that of the general Australian population.
Fletcher Christian led a mutiny on the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty against captain William Bligh in 1789 in the South Pacific. The mutineers settled in Tahiti but later fled, along with their Tahitian women, to remote Pitcairn Island to escape arrest.
Some 60 years after arriving on Pitcairn, almost 200 descendents of the original mutineers relocated to Norfolk Island to avoid famine.
"We found the rate of Pitcairn group myopia is approximately one-half that of the Australian population and as a result would be ranked among one of the lowest rates in the world," said David Mackey, the managing director of Australia's Lions Eye Institute which led the studies.
Mackey said there may be genetic differences in the Norfolk Island population that could lead to breakthroughs in the causes of short-sightedness, but added it was also apparent that spending too little time outdoors raised the risk of myopia.
"The big cities of East Asia like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mountain cities of China, myopia has become very common and we think that there are environmental factors that have changed," he said.
Myopia affects one in six people in Australia and more than one in four in the United States. A quarter of the world's population, 1.6 billion people, suffer from the disease.
A study of residents on Australia's Norfolk Island, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northeast of Sydney, showed the rate of myopia, or short-sightedness, among Bounty descendants was about half that of the general Australian population.
Fletcher Christian led a mutiny on the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty against captain William Bligh in 1789 in the South Pacific. The mutineers settled in Tahiti but later fled, along with their Tahitian women, to remote Pitcairn Island to escape arrest.
Some 60 years after arriving on Pitcairn, almost 200 descendents of the original mutineers relocated to Norfolk Island to avoid famine.
"We found the rate of Pitcairn group myopia is approximately one-half that of the Australian population and as a result would be ranked among one of the lowest rates in the world," said David Mackey, the managing director of Australia's Lions Eye Institute which led the studies.
Mackey said there may be genetic differences in the Norfolk Island population that could lead to breakthroughs in the causes of short-sightedness, but added it was also apparent that spending too little time outdoors raised the risk of myopia.
"The big cities of East Asia like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mountain cities of China, myopia has become very common and we think that there are environmental factors that have changed," he said.
Myopia affects one in six people in Australia and more than one in four in the United States. A quarter of the world's population, 1.6 billion people, suffer from the disease.
SpongeBob coins among Peregrine assets seized by FBI
Silver SpongeBob SquarePants coins minted by a private company in New Zealand were among the assets seized by FBI agents from Peregrine Financial Group after its chief confessed to nearly 20 years of fraud last week.
Ira Bodenstein, the trustee in Peregrine's bankruptcy case in Chicago, said the coins were in a vault at the firm's Cedar Falls, Iowa, headquarters. The value of the takings was not immediately clear.
The coin disclosure adds a new twist to the case of Peregrine Finiancial Group CEO Russell Wasendorf Sr., who was arrested last Friday after he confessed to doctoring bank statements to make regulators think his futures brokerage had nearly twice the assets it did, leaving customers with an estimated shortfall of over $200 million.
Peregrine, which operated as PFGBest, filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
The brokerage has $24 million in liquid assets in its general operating accounts, not in customer accounts, leaving little to repay customers, according to a filing from Bodenstein late on Thursday.
The filing does not say how much is in the customer accounts.
Peregrine ran a unit called PFG Precious Metals Inc, which offers investors "whole sale prices, fast & fully insured shipping" for gold, silver and platinum coins, as well as novelty items created through a partnership with the Auckland-based minting firm.
Customers from as far away as Bulgaria bought coins through the program, using Paypal accounts or credit cards to fund the purchases, said James Koutoulas, CEO at Typhon Capital Management. The coins were stored in a vault in Iowa.
A four-coin set of SpongeBob Squarepants, housed in a "distinctive" treasure chest, went for $259, according to a website that displays both the PFGBest logo and that of the New Zealand Mint. (http://www.spongebobcoins.com/)
Each coin in the set shows a character from the Nickelodeon animated series and bears the inscription "IN SPONGEBOB WE TRUST."
The mint told local reporters last week it was paid in full by PFG for the coins.
Ira Bodenstein, the trustee in Peregrine's bankruptcy case in Chicago, said the coins were in a vault at the firm's Cedar Falls, Iowa, headquarters. The value of the takings was not immediately clear.
The coin disclosure adds a new twist to the case of Peregrine Finiancial Group CEO Russell Wasendorf Sr., who was arrested last Friday after he confessed to doctoring bank statements to make regulators think his futures brokerage had nearly twice the assets it did, leaving customers with an estimated shortfall of over $200 million.
Peregrine, which operated as PFGBest, filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
The brokerage has $24 million in liquid assets in its general operating accounts, not in customer accounts, leaving little to repay customers, according to a filing from Bodenstein late on Thursday.
The filing does not say how much is in the customer accounts.
Peregrine ran a unit called PFG Precious Metals Inc, which offers investors "whole sale prices, fast & fully insured shipping" for gold, silver and platinum coins, as well as novelty items created through a partnership with the Auckland-based minting firm.
Customers from as far away as Bulgaria bought coins through the program, using Paypal accounts or credit cards to fund the purchases, said James Koutoulas, CEO at Typhon Capital Management. The coins were stored in a vault in Iowa.
A four-coin set of SpongeBob Squarepants, housed in a "distinctive" treasure chest, went for $259, according to a website that displays both the PFGBest logo and that of the New Zealand Mint. (http://www.spongebobcoins.com/)
Each coin in the set shows a character from the Nickelodeon animated series and bears the inscription "IN SPONGEBOB WE TRUST."
The mint told local reporters last week it was paid in full by PFG for the coins.
New York area homeowners turning to "lawn painting"
Despite the summer's persistent heat waves, the grass really is greener in some neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey.
Homeowners with brown, dried-up lawns are turning to "lawn painting" to liven up their yards.
Business is booming, according to Joe Perazzo, who launched his lawn painting company in New York's most suburban borough of Staten Island a few years ago, inspired by the tinting process used to color professional athletic fields. Other companies have sprung up in the region and elsewhere in the country.
"We've had a lot more calls and jobs in the past few weeks," said Perazzo, who added that this season's heat has been particularly hard on lawns due to a lack of rain.
For about 15 cents a square foot ($1.61 a square meter), or $150 for 1,000 square feet ($161.40 for 100 square meters), Perazzo will spray a plant-based, non-toxic turf dye on lawns or even dried-up shrubs and trees.
The biodegradable spray can last up until next spring's new growth if grass is truly desiccated, he said.
For lawns with a bit of life left in them, the paint will last for "two to three mows," he said.
In such hot weather, with temperatures hovering near the triple digits, lawns are not growing very fast, he said.
Rich Pacailler of Howell, New Jersey, had his 1,500 square foot lawn sprayed this week.
"It gave me the green lawn I've been working for," he said. "I come home and see I've got the greenest lawn on the block."
He said it was very natural looking, "like new sod."
"It's not hampering the lawn, but really showcasing it and giving it that curb appeal," he said.
Perazzo said he can custom mix the lawn shade, "depending on how yellow or brown the turf is."
Someone recently suggested painting a lawn red, white and blue for the Fourth of July holiday, he said.
"I haven't gotten into blues and reds," he said. "But I've researched it, and it's a definite possibility."
Homeowners with brown, dried-up lawns are turning to "lawn painting" to liven up their yards.
Business is booming, according to Joe Perazzo, who launched his lawn painting company in New York's most suburban borough of Staten Island a few years ago, inspired by the tinting process used to color professional athletic fields. Other companies have sprung up in the region and elsewhere in the country.
"We've had a lot more calls and jobs in the past few weeks," said Perazzo, who added that this season's heat has been particularly hard on lawns due to a lack of rain.
For about 15 cents a square foot ($1.61 a square meter), or $150 for 1,000 square feet ($161.40 for 100 square meters), Perazzo will spray a plant-based, non-toxic turf dye on lawns or even dried-up shrubs and trees.
The biodegradable spray can last up until next spring's new growth if grass is truly desiccated, he said.
For lawns with a bit of life left in them, the paint will last for "two to three mows," he said.
In such hot weather, with temperatures hovering near the triple digits, lawns are not growing very fast, he said.
Rich Pacailler of Howell, New Jersey, had his 1,500 square foot lawn sprayed this week.
"It gave me the green lawn I've been working for," he said. "I come home and see I've got the greenest lawn on the block."
He said it was very natural looking, "like new sod."
"It's not hampering the lawn, but really showcasing it and giving it that curb appeal," he said.
Perazzo said he can custom mix the lawn shade, "depending on how yellow or brown the turf is."
Someone recently suggested painting a lawn red, white and blue for the Fourth of July holiday, he said.
"I haven't gotten into blues and reds," he said. "But I've researched it, and it's a definite possibility."
Cash-strapped Berlin stalked by 450-year-old debt
The sleepy hamlet of Mittenwalde in eastern Germany could become one of the richest towns in the world if Berlin were to repay it an outstanding debt that dates back to 1562.
A certificate of debt, found in a regional archive, attests that Mittenwalde lent Berlin 400 guilders on May 28 1562, to be repaid with six percent interest per year.
According to Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), the debt would amount to 11,200 guilders today, which is roughly equivalent to 112 million euros ($136.79 million).
Adjusting for compound interest and inflation, the total debt now lies in the trillions, by RBB's estimates.
Town historian Vera Schmidt found the centuries-old debt slip in the archive, where it had been filed in 1963. Though the seal is missing from the document, Schmidt told Reuters that she was certain the slip was still valid.
"In 1893 there was a debate in which the document was examined and the writing was determined to be authentic," Schmidt said.
Schmidt and Mittenwalde's Mayor Uwe Pfeiffer have tried to ask Berlin for their money back. Such requests have been made every 50 years or so since 1820 but always to no avail.
Reclaiming the debt would bring significant riches to Mittenwalde, a seat of power in the middle ages, which now has a population of just 8,800. Red brick fragments of medieval fortifications still dot the leafy town centre.
The town's Romanesque church was once the provost seat for Paul Gerhardt, one of Germany's most prolific hymn writers. Gerhardt, who lived there briefly in the 17th century, is the only noted Mittenwalde resident to date.
Schmidt and Pfeiffer met with Berlin's finance senator Ulrich Nussbaum, who ceremonially handed them a historical guilder from 1539. The guilder was put in a temporary display at the Mittenwalde museum.
"This case shows that debts always catch up with you, no matter how old they are," Nussbaum told the Berliner Zeitung paper.
The debt-laden German capital would have difficulty meeting Mittenwalde's demands anyway. According to a report released by the senate finance administration in June 2012, Berlin is already close to 63 million euros in the red.
($1 = 0.8188 euros)
(This story was corrected to change years in the headline to 450 from 540)
A certificate of debt, found in a regional archive, attests that Mittenwalde lent Berlin 400 guilders on May 28 1562, to be repaid with six percent interest per year.
According to Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), the debt would amount to 11,200 guilders today, which is roughly equivalent to 112 million euros ($136.79 million).
Adjusting for compound interest and inflation, the total debt now lies in the trillions, by RBB's estimates.
Town historian Vera Schmidt found the centuries-old debt slip in the archive, where it had been filed in 1963. Though the seal is missing from the document, Schmidt told Reuters that she was certain the slip was still valid.
"In 1893 there was a debate in which the document was examined and the writing was determined to be authentic," Schmidt said.
Schmidt and Mittenwalde's Mayor Uwe Pfeiffer have tried to ask Berlin for their money back. Such requests have been made every 50 years or so since 1820 but always to no avail.
Reclaiming the debt would bring significant riches to Mittenwalde, a seat of power in the middle ages, which now has a population of just 8,800. Red brick fragments of medieval fortifications still dot the leafy town centre.
The town's Romanesque church was once the provost seat for Paul Gerhardt, one of Germany's most prolific hymn writers. Gerhardt, who lived there briefly in the 17th century, is the only noted Mittenwalde resident to date.
Schmidt and Pfeiffer met with Berlin's finance senator Ulrich Nussbaum, who ceremonially handed them a historical guilder from 1539. The guilder was put in a temporary display at the Mittenwalde museum.
"This case shows that debts always catch up with you, no matter how old they are," Nussbaum told the Berliner Zeitung paper.
The debt-laden German capital would have difficulty meeting Mittenwalde's demands anyway. According to a report released by the senate finance administration in June 2012, Berlin is already close to 63 million euros in the red.
($1 = 0.8188 euros)
(This story was corrected to change years in the headline to 450 from 540)
Weather cuts short trip of U.S., Iraqi "lawn chair" balloonists
Two men sitting in lawn chairs tied to 350 helium-filled balloons failed in their bid on Saturday to set a world record for the longest two-man cluster balloon flight when bad weather forced them down well short of their destination.
A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people watched as American Kent Couch and Fareed Lafta of Iraq lifted off on Saturday morning from the parking lot of Couch's Stop & Go Mini Mart in the Oregon town of Bend.
They soared into clear skies with light winds, perched underneath balloons in the colors of the U.S. and Iraqi flags. Half an hour later, they were a speck in the skies northeast of Bend, drifting toward Idaho. The pair was equipped with parachutes in case of emergency.
They had been seeking to make a trip of at least 500 miles and register the feat with Guinness World Records.
Couch, who had hoped to make it to Montana on the flight, said before taking off that Lafta, an experienced skydiver, contacted him a year ago and asked to join him on a cluster balloon flight to raise funds for children orphaned by the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
But bad weather brought the trip to an early end about 30 miles from where it started. Previous flights had taken Couch much farther, including a 2008 flight in which he drifted 235 miles into Idaho.
A post at the Facebook page for the project said wind had turned the balloonists around and pushed them back toward the town of Prineville, Oregon, and that thunderstorms heading toward the area were "simply too much" for the balloons.
A later post said the two men landed near Prineville.
To Couch, the real appeal of cluster balloon flight is the sensation of being in the open air at 15,000 feet.
"There is perfect peace up there," he said before the flight.
Asked if he contemplated meaning-of-life issues as the balloon rises above the earth, he replied: "I am a God-fearing man, a believer in Jesus Christ. But I don't consider cluster balloon flight death-defying. When people say that, it kind of just eggs me on."
"Balloon flight is really quite simple." he added. You have 1,400 pounds (635 kg) of lift in the balloons, and 1,350 pounds (612 kg) of weight and ballast. What goes up must come down."
A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people watched as American Kent Couch and Fareed Lafta of Iraq lifted off on Saturday morning from the parking lot of Couch's Stop & Go Mini Mart in the Oregon town of Bend.
They soared into clear skies with light winds, perched underneath balloons in the colors of the U.S. and Iraqi flags. Half an hour later, they were a speck in the skies northeast of Bend, drifting toward Idaho. The pair was equipped with parachutes in case of emergency.
They had been seeking to make a trip of at least 500 miles and register the feat with Guinness World Records.
Couch, who had hoped to make it to Montana on the flight, said before taking off that Lafta, an experienced skydiver, contacted him a year ago and asked to join him on a cluster balloon flight to raise funds for children orphaned by the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
But bad weather brought the trip to an early end about 30 miles from where it started. Previous flights had taken Couch much farther, including a 2008 flight in which he drifted 235 miles into Idaho.
A post at the Facebook page for the project said wind had turned the balloonists around and pushed them back toward the town of Prineville, Oregon, and that thunderstorms heading toward the area were "simply too much" for the balloons.
A later post said the two men landed near Prineville.
To Couch, the real appeal of cluster balloon flight is the sensation of being in the open air at 15,000 feet.
"There is perfect peace up there," he said before the flight.
Asked if he contemplated meaning-of-life issues as the balloon rises above the earth, he replied: "I am a God-fearing man, a believer in Jesus Christ. But I don't consider cluster balloon flight death-defying. When people say that, it kind of just eggs me on."
"Balloon flight is really quite simple." he added. You have 1,400 pounds (635 kg) of lift in the balloons, and 1,350 pounds (612 kg) of weight and ballast. What goes up must come down."
Berlin gripped by family feud over sausages
Call it the battle of the bangers. A family feud over sausage succession rights is adding some spice to Berlin's summer.
This week, after months of bitter legal wrangling with his mother, Mario Ziervogel opened a fast-food outlet serving Berlin's famous dish, the currywurst - fried pork sausage sliced up and smothered in ketchup and curry powder.
His shop is just a few blocks away from his family's restaurant, Konnopke's Imbiss, one of the city's most famous eateries because it was the first to introduce the currywurst to then-communist East Berlin in 1960.
Hungry Berliners would queue for up to an hour to buy the spicy sausage in communist times and Konnopke's remains a popular tourist destination to this day.
Ziervogel's mother Waltraud, 76, has sued him for wanting to name his new outlet "Ziervogel's Cult Curry - since 1960". Her lawyer Fabian Tietz argued that the son, 48, was not even born in 1960, let alone serving sausages.
The local court ruled on Tuesday that Ziervogel could keep the name for his new restaurant but must drop the year.
"In this regard, Ziervogel was anti-competitive," Tietz told Reuters. "We are glad that we won."
The son's lawyer, Christian Weizberg, also claimed victory, saying the mother had also wanted to prevent him naming his shop Ziervogel's Cult Curry.
At the court hearing, Waltraud Ziervogel revoked her son's inheritance rights and said she would hand over the reins of the family business instead to her daughter.
"In the end, it will be for the clients to decide whose currywurst tastes better," said Weizberg.
On Thursday, under the headline "The new currywurst invasion", Germany's best-selling daily Bild said four new outlets serving the snack, including Ziervogel's, had opened in Berlin in the past week alone.
The dish is said to have been invented by the late Herta Heuwer in 1949 after she obtained ketchup and curry powder from British soldiers based in West Berlin.
This week, after months of bitter legal wrangling with his mother, Mario Ziervogel opened a fast-food outlet serving Berlin's famous dish, the currywurst - fried pork sausage sliced up and smothered in ketchup and curry powder.
His shop is just a few blocks away from his family's restaurant, Konnopke's Imbiss, one of the city's most famous eateries because it was the first to introduce the currywurst to then-communist East Berlin in 1960.
Hungry Berliners would queue for up to an hour to buy the spicy sausage in communist times and Konnopke's remains a popular tourist destination to this day.
Ziervogel's mother Waltraud, 76, has sued him for wanting to name his new outlet "Ziervogel's Cult Curry - since 1960". Her lawyer Fabian Tietz argued that the son, 48, was not even born in 1960, let alone serving sausages.
The local court ruled on Tuesday that Ziervogel could keep the name for his new restaurant but must drop the year.
"In this regard, Ziervogel was anti-competitive," Tietz told Reuters. "We are glad that we won."
The son's lawyer, Christian Weizberg, also claimed victory, saying the mother had also wanted to prevent him naming his shop Ziervogel's Cult Curry.
At the court hearing, Waltraud Ziervogel revoked her son's inheritance rights and said she would hand over the reins of the family business instead to her daughter.
"In the end, it will be for the clients to decide whose currywurst tastes better," said Weizberg.
On Thursday, under the headline "The new currywurst invasion", Germany's best-selling daily Bild said four new outlets serving the snack, including Ziervogel's, had opened in Berlin in the past week alone.
The dish is said to have been invented by the late Herta Heuwer in 1949 after she obtained ketchup and curry powder from British soldiers based in West Berlin.
Chinese city declares war on piranhas
A southern Chinese city is on the alert for piranhas after two people were attacked in a river, and is offering a 1,000 yuan ($160) reward for every fish caught, dead or alive, state media reported on Thursday.
The government of Guangxi region's Liuzhou is asking people to hunt the alien South American species, which badly bit two people earlier in the week who were paddling in the Liujiang River, the China Daily said.
"Fishing with nets is not allowed in the section of the river that flows through the city, but we have made an exemption. Five fishing boats with experienced fishermen have been deployed on the river since Monday," Liuzhou official Wei Yongwen told the newspaper.
"In addition, more than 40 other fishermen from the local fishing association have joined us as well. They all use small pieces of pork as bait."
Other people have taken up position along the river's banks with rods, it added.
"It's horrible to know that the river has such fish. I will not swim there anymore," resident Liu Junjie was quoted as saying. "I'll pray they catch them soon."
However, their days may be numbered anyway, as piranhas die when the water temperature drops below 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit), as it will do in Guangxi over the winter, the China Daily added.
Chinese media has said the piranhas may have been released by people who had bought them as ornamental fish, and that authorities are now stepping up patrols of markets to ensure no more are sold.
($1 = 6.3686 Chinese yuan)
The government of Guangxi region's Liuzhou is asking people to hunt the alien South American species, which badly bit two people earlier in the week who were paddling in the Liujiang River, the China Daily said.
"Fishing with nets is not allowed in the section of the river that flows through the city, but we have made an exemption. Five fishing boats with experienced fishermen have been deployed on the river since Monday," Liuzhou official Wei Yongwen told the newspaper.
"In addition, more than 40 other fishermen from the local fishing association have joined us as well. They all use small pieces of pork as bait."
Other people have taken up position along the river's banks with rods, it added.
"It's horrible to know that the river has such fish. I will not swim there anymore," resident Liu Junjie was quoted as saying. "I'll pray they catch them soon."
However, their days may be numbered anyway, as piranhas die when the water temperature drops below 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit), as it will do in Guangxi over the winter, the China Daily added.
Chinese media has said the piranhas may have been released by people who had bought them as ornamental fish, and that authorities are now stepping up patrols of markets to ensure no more are sold.
($1 = 6.3686 Chinese yuan)
EU farmers deliver moo-ving "milk lake" protest
Dairy farmers sprayed thousands of liters of milk outside the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, creating a "milk lake" to protest against low prices.
Protesters from around Europe, including Italy, Germany, Ireland and France blocked off a square with tractors and statues of cows brightly painted in the national colors of EU member states.
One milk producer perched on a haystack and used an industrial-sized hose to spray the contents of a milk truck into a makeshift tarpaulin pool, splashing demonstrators, spectators and reporters.
The "milk lake" was intended to symbolize an oversupply of milk in the European market, with protesters ringing cowbells and denouncing moves to phase out production quotas, resulting in more milk on the market and lower prices.
European Milk Board members in flannel shirts and cowboy hats addressed the gathering. One lamented the excess milk production and how little farmers were getting paid, to loud cheers from the crowd. Another blamed the European Union's executive Commission, to even more raucous applause.
Once the "lake" was full, the pool was opened, and the milk ran down the street into the gutter. Some farmers in rubber boots happily splashed around in the milk river.
Marc Tarabella, a socialist member of the Parliament, said the protesters had a just cause.
"Their fight is also ours," he said.
"How can we accept that some workers are working at a loss? Working to lose money? We cannot close our eyes to this human and social drama."
Protesters from around Europe, including Italy, Germany, Ireland and France blocked off a square with tractors and statues of cows brightly painted in the national colors of EU member states.
One milk producer perched on a haystack and used an industrial-sized hose to spray the contents of a milk truck into a makeshift tarpaulin pool, splashing demonstrators, spectators and reporters.
The "milk lake" was intended to symbolize an oversupply of milk in the European market, with protesters ringing cowbells and denouncing moves to phase out production quotas, resulting in more milk on the market and lower prices.
European Milk Board members in flannel shirts and cowboy hats addressed the gathering. One lamented the excess milk production and how little farmers were getting paid, to loud cheers from the crowd. Another blamed the European Union's executive Commission, to even more raucous applause.
Once the "lake" was full, the pool was opened, and the milk ran down the street into the gutter. Some farmers in rubber boots happily splashed around in the milk river.
Marc Tarabella, a socialist member of the Parliament, said the protesters had a just cause.
"Their fight is also ours," he said.
"How can we accept that some workers are working at a loss? Working to lose money? We cannot close our eyes to this human and social drama."
Batman could fly, but he'd crash and die
Holy crash landing Batman! The crime-fighting caped crusader could fly but if he did, he would smash into the ground and probably die, a group of British physics students have calculated.
Dashing the dreams of comic fans across the world, four students from the University of Leicester said that while Batman could glide using his cape as he does in the 2005 film "Batman Begins", his landing would almost certainly prove fatal.
The superhero is back in cinemas later this month in "The Dark Knight Rises" and they suggested Batman should go shopping before trying a similar attempt to become airborne over Gotham City.
"If Batman wanted to survive the flight, he would definitely need a bigger cape," said David Marshall, 22, one of the students in the final year of their four-year Master of Physics degree.
"Or if he preferred to keep his style intact he could opt for using active propulsion, such as jets to keep himself aloft."
In a paper titled "Trajectory of a falling Batman", the group argued that if he jumped from a 150-metre (492-foot) high building, the 4.7 meter (15-foot) wingspan of Batman's cape would allow him to glide 350 meters (1148 feet).
However, he would reach a speed of 68 miles per hour (109 km per hour) before hitting the ground at a life-threatening speed of 50 mph.
Dashing the dreams of comic fans across the world, four students from the University of Leicester said that while Batman could glide using his cape as he does in the 2005 film "Batman Begins", his landing would almost certainly prove fatal.
The superhero is back in cinemas later this month in "The Dark Knight Rises" and they suggested Batman should go shopping before trying a similar attempt to become airborne over Gotham City.
"If Batman wanted to survive the flight, he would definitely need a bigger cape," said David Marshall, 22, one of the students in the final year of their four-year Master of Physics degree.
"Or if he preferred to keep his style intact he could opt for using active propulsion, such as jets to keep himself aloft."
In a paper titled "Trajectory of a falling Batman", the group argued that if he jumped from a 150-metre (492-foot) high building, the 4.7 meter (15-foot) wingspan of Batman's cape would allow him to glide 350 meters (1148 feet).
However, he would reach a speed of 68 miles per hour (109 km per hour) before hitting the ground at a life-threatening speed of 50 mph.
Berlin gripped by family feud over sausages
Call it the battle of the bangers. A family feud over sausage succession rights is adding some spice to Berlin's summer.
This week, after months of bitter legal wrangling with his mother, Mario Ziervogel opened a fast-food outlet serving Berlin's famous dish, the currywurst - fried pork sausage sliced up and smothered in ketchup and curry powder.
His shop is just a few blocks away from his family's restaurant, Konnopke's Imbiss, one of the city's most famous eateries because it was the first to introduce the currywurst to then-communist East Berlin in 1960.
Hungry Berliners would queue for up to an hour to buy the spicy sausage in communist times and Konnopke's remains a popular tourist destination to this day.
Ziervogel's mother Waltraud, 76, has sued him for wanting to name his new outlet "Ziervogel's Cult Curry - since 1960". Her lawyer Fabian Tietz argued that the son, 48, was not even born in 1960, let alone serving sausages.
The local court ruled on Tuesday that Ziervogel could keep the name for his new restaurant but must drop the year.
"In this regard, Ziervogel was anti-competitive," Tietz told Reuters. "We are glad that we won."
The son's lawyer, Christian Weizberg, also claimed victory, saying the mother had also wanted to prevent him naming his shop Ziervogel's Cult Curry.
At the court hearing, Waltraud Ziervogel revoked her son's inheritance rights and said she would hand over the reins of the family business instead to her daughter.
"In the end, it will be for the clients to decide whose currywurst tastes better," said Weizberg.
On Thursday, under the headline "The new currywurst invasion", Germany's best-selling daily Bild said four new outlets serving the snack, including Ziervogel's, had opened in Berlin in the past week alone.
The dish is said to have been invented by the late Herta Heuwer in 1949 after she obtained ketchup and curry powder from British soldiers based in West Berlin.
This week, after months of bitter legal wrangling with his mother, Mario Ziervogel opened a fast-food outlet serving Berlin's famous dish, the currywurst - fried pork sausage sliced up and smothered in ketchup and curry powder.
His shop is just a few blocks away from his family's restaurant, Konnopke's Imbiss, one of the city's most famous eateries because it was the first to introduce the currywurst to then-communist East Berlin in 1960.
Hungry Berliners would queue for up to an hour to buy the spicy sausage in communist times and Konnopke's remains a popular tourist destination to this day.
Ziervogel's mother Waltraud, 76, has sued him for wanting to name his new outlet "Ziervogel's Cult Curry - since 1960". Her lawyer Fabian Tietz argued that the son, 48, was not even born in 1960, let alone serving sausages.
The local court ruled on Tuesday that Ziervogel could keep the name for his new restaurant but must drop the year.
"In this regard, Ziervogel was anti-competitive," Tietz told Reuters. "We are glad that we won."
The son's lawyer, Christian Weizberg, also claimed victory, saying the mother had also wanted to prevent him naming his shop Ziervogel's Cult Curry.
At the court hearing, Waltraud Ziervogel revoked her son's inheritance rights and said she would hand over the reins of the family business instead to her daughter.
"In the end, it will be for the clients to decide whose currywurst tastes better," said Weizberg.
On Thursday, under the headline "The new currywurst invasion", Germany's best-selling daily Bild said four new outlets serving the snack, including Ziervogel's, had opened in Berlin in the past week alone.
The dish is said to have been invented by the late Herta Heuwer in 1949 after she obtained ketchup and curry powder from British soldiers based in West Berlin.
Chinese city declares war on piranhas
A southern Chinese city is on the alert for piranhas after two people were attacked in a river, and is offering a 1,000 yuan ($160) reward for every fish caught, dead or alive, state media reported on Thursday.
The government of Guangxi region's Liuzhou is asking people to hunt the alien South American species, which badly bit two people earlier in the week who were paddling in the Liujiang River, the China Daily said.
"Fishing with nets is not allowed in the section of the river that flows through the city, but we have made an exemption. Five fishing boats with experienced fishermen have been deployed on the river since Monday," Liuzhou official Wei Yongwen told the newspaper.
"In addition, more than 40 other fishermen from the local fishing association have joined us as well. They all use small pieces of pork as bait."
Other people have taken up position along the river's banks with rods, it added.
"It's horrible to know that the river has such fish. I will not swim there anymore," resident Liu Junjie was quoted as saying. "I'll pray they catch them soon."
However, their days may be numbered anyway, as piranhas die when the water temperature drops below 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit), as it will do in Guangxi over the winter, the China Daily added.
Chinese media has said the piranhas may have been released by people who had bought them as ornamental fish, and that authorities are now stepping up patrols of markets to ensure no more are sold.
($1 = 6.3686 Chinese yuan)
The government of Guangxi region's Liuzhou is asking people to hunt the alien South American species, which badly bit two people earlier in the week who were paddling in the Liujiang River, the China Daily said.
"Fishing with nets is not allowed in the section of the river that flows through the city, but we have made an exemption. Five fishing boats with experienced fishermen have been deployed on the river since Monday," Liuzhou official Wei Yongwen told the newspaper.
"In addition, more than 40 other fishermen from the local fishing association have joined us as well. They all use small pieces of pork as bait."
Other people have taken up position along the river's banks with rods, it added.
"It's horrible to know that the river has such fish. I will not swim there anymore," resident Liu Junjie was quoted as saying. "I'll pray they catch them soon."
However, their days may be numbered anyway, as piranhas die when the water temperature drops below 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit), as it will do in Guangxi over the winter, the China Daily added.
Chinese media has said the piranhas may have been released by people who had bought them as ornamental fish, and that authorities are now stepping up patrols of markets to ensure no more are sold.
($1 = 6.3686 Chinese yuan)
EU farmers deliver moo-ving "milk lake" protest
Dairy farmers sprayed thousands of liters of milk outside the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, creating a "milk lake" to protest against low prices.
Protesters from around Europe, including Italy, Germany, Ireland and France blocked off a square with tractors and statues of cows brightly painted in the national colors of EU member states.
One milk producer perched on a haystack and used an industrial-sized hose to spray the contents of a milk truck into a makeshift tarpaulin pool, splashing demonstrators, spectators and reporters.
The "milk lake" was intended to symbolize an oversupply of milk in the European market, with protesters ringing cowbells and denouncing moves to phase out production quotas, resulting in more milk on the market and lower prices.
European Milk Board members in flannel shirts and cowboy hats addressed the gathering. One lamented the excess milk production and how little farmers were getting paid, to loud cheers from the crowd. Another blamed the European Union's executive Commission, to even more raucous applause.
Once the "lake" was full, the pool was opened, and the milk ran down the street into the gutter. Some farmers in rubber boots happily splashed around in the milk river.
Marc Tarabella, a socialist member of the Parliament, said the protesters had a just cause.
"Their fight is also ours," he said.
"How can we accept that some workers are working at a loss? Working to lose money? We cannot close our eyes to this human and social drama."
Protesters from around Europe, including Italy, Germany, Ireland and France blocked off a square with tractors and statues of cows brightly painted in the national colors of EU member states.
One milk producer perched on a haystack and used an industrial-sized hose to spray the contents of a milk truck into a makeshift tarpaulin pool, splashing demonstrators, spectators and reporters.
The "milk lake" was intended to symbolize an oversupply of milk in the European market, with protesters ringing cowbells and denouncing moves to phase out production quotas, resulting in more milk on the market and lower prices.
European Milk Board members in flannel shirts and cowboy hats addressed the gathering. One lamented the excess milk production and how little farmers were getting paid, to loud cheers from the crowd. Another blamed the European Union's executive Commission, to even more raucous applause.
Once the "lake" was full, the pool was opened, and the milk ran down the street into the gutter. Some farmers in rubber boots happily splashed around in the milk river.
Marc Tarabella, a socialist member of the Parliament, said the protesters had a just cause.
"Their fight is also ours," he said.
"How can we accept that some workers are working at a loss? Working to lose money? We cannot close our eyes to this human and social drama."
On a New York island, firefighters set homes ablaze
Firefighters will spend the next two weeks setting homes ablaze on a small island in New York Harbor for one purpose: Saving lives.
Eighteen abandoned townhouses on New York City's Governors Island, formerly housing for members of the Coast Guard, have been turned into a setting for roaring fires in experiments aimed to develop new strategies firefighters can use to save lives.
In one on Tuesday, a match was lit near newspaper in the basement of a fully-furnished home. Within five minutes thick black smoke began to billow from the rear door; before ten minutes had passed, dark red flames licked around the basement windows.
Firefighters gradually broke open the windows to change air flow, seeing how the flames reacted to different ventilation. Under real-life circumstances, air is added as soon as possible from immediately opening roofs, windows and doors.
"They are bringing the lab out to the firefighters," said Dan Madryzkowsky, a fire protection engineer from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which conducted the tests with the FDNY and Underwriters Laboratories, a non-profit group.
The idea behind this and other experiments taking place on Governors Island is to find flaws in fire-fighting techniques that, in many cases, haven't changed in decades.
At the same time, modern households have undergone dramatic shifts, with organic materials, such as cotton and feathers, largely replaced by more affordable synthetic materials introduced in the 1970s.
With the change came a disturbing trend, said Fire Department deputy assistant chief Robert Maynes. The new materials have shortened the time it takes a house to burn, and cause fire to burn even hotter. Where more natural homes would take 17 to 20 minutes to burn, modern homes can be engulfed in five minutes.
As a result, Maynes said, an increase in burns and fatalities started to show up in fire department statistics in 1983.
The researchers performing the experiments on Governors Island hope that each home, outfitted with more than 100 sensors which measure oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, airflow through the houses and heat levels, would give them valuable information in fighting fires.
Though an official report is set to be released in a year, important information could be known minutes after the tests and would be taught as soon as possible, said Fire Department commissioner Salvatore Cassano.
Similar experiments have been conducted elsewhere, but those are done at testing facilities where houses are built in laboratories and conditions such as wind and temperature are controlled. The Governors Island homes, by contrast, offered a natural environment in everyday homes, allowing researchers to test with more real-life variables.
"This is where science meets the streets," said John Drengenberg, Consumer Safety Director for Underwriters Laboratories.
Eighteen abandoned townhouses on New York City's Governors Island, formerly housing for members of the Coast Guard, have been turned into a setting for roaring fires in experiments aimed to develop new strategies firefighters can use to save lives.
In one on Tuesday, a match was lit near newspaper in the basement of a fully-furnished home. Within five minutes thick black smoke began to billow from the rear door; before ten minutes had passed, dark red flames licked around the basement windows.
Firefighters gradually broke open the windows to change air flow, seeing how the flames reacted to different ventilation. Under real-life circumstances, air is added as soon as possible from immediately opening roofs, windows and doors.
"They are bringing the lab out to the firefighters," said Dan Madryzkowsky, a fire protection engineer from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which conducted the tests with the FDNY and Underwriters Laboratories, a non-profit group.
The idea behind this and other experiments taking place on Governors Island is to find flaws in fire-fighting techniques that, in many cases, haven't changed in decades.
At the same time, modern households have undergone dramatic shifts, with organic materials, such as cotton and feathers, largely replaced by more affordable synthetic materials introduced in the 1970s.
With the change came a disturbing trend, said Fire Department deputy assistant chief Robert Maynes. The new materials have shortened the time it takes a house to burn, and cause fire to burn even hotter. Where more natural homes would take 17 to 20 minutes to burn, modern homes can be engulfed in five minutes.
As a result, Maynes said, an increase in burns and fatalities started to show up in fire department statistics in 1983.
The researchers performing the experiments on Governors Island hope that each home, outfitted with more than 100 sensors which measure oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, airflow through the houses and heat levels, would give them valuable information in fighting fires.
Though an official report is set to be released in a year, important information could be known minutes after the tests and would be taught as soon as possible, said Fire Department commissioner Salvatore Cassano.
Similar experiments have been conducted elsewhere, but those are done at testing facilities where houses are built in laboratories and conditions such as wind and temperature are controlled. The Governors Island homes, by contrast, offered a natural environment in everyday homes, allowing researchers to test with more real-life variables.
"This is where science meets the streets," said John Drengenberg, Consumer Safety Director for Underwriters Laboratories.
Four held over Spanish medieval manuscript theft
A former church caretaker, his wife, son and another woman have been arrested in connection with last year's disappearance of a priceless medieval text from the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in northwest Spain, police said on Wednesday.
The Codex Calixtinus, a 12th century collection of sermons and liturgical passages, vanished from a safe deposit box in the cathedral, the endpoint of the ancient pilgrimage route the Camino de Santiago.
The elaborately illustrated manuscript, considered an important part of Spain's cultural and religious heritage, has yet to be found, though the police say they are close.
"I think we're heading in the right direction to crack the case ... The main objective is to find the Codex," Spanish police chief Ignacio Cosido told national radio.
The key suspect is a man who was sacked after working for the cathedral as a caretaker, electrician and odd job man for more than 25 years, police said in a statement.
The force did not name the man but said his wife, son and another woman linked to the family were also detained.
Police said they had also recovered at least 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million), eight copies of the Codex and other ancient books that had also disappeared from the cathedral, during searches of garages, houses and storage rooms.
Officers also found documents and correspondence related to senior church figures and keys to various outbuildings.
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is the reputed burial place of Saint James the Greater, one of Jesus Christ's twelve apostles who, according to church tradition, arrived in Spain to preach Christianity.
The Codex Calixtinus, a 12th century collection of sermons and liturgical passages, vanished from a safe deposit box in the cathedral, the endpoint of the ancient pilgrimage route the Camino de Santiago.
The elaborately illustrated manuscript, considered an important part of Spain's cultural and religious heritage, has yet to be found, though the police say they are close.
"I think we're heading in the right direction to crack the case ... The main objective is to find the Codex," Spanish police chief Ignacio Cosido told national radio.
The key suspect is a man who was sacked after working for the cathedral as a caretaker, electrician and odd job man for more than 25 years, police said in a statement.
The force did not name the man but said his wife, son and another woman linked to the family were also detained.
Police said they had also recovered at least 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million), eight copies of the Codex and other ancient books that had also disappeared from the cathedral, during searches of garages, houses and storage rooms.
Officers also found documents and correspondence related to senior church figures and keys to various outbuildings.
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is the reputed burial place of Saint James the Greater, one of Jesus Christ's twelve apostles who, according to church tradition, arrived in Spain to preach Christianity.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
POP QUIZ (Furious at George)
After the memorable preamble to the Declaration of Independence ---- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" ---- comes a list of charges against King George III.
Find the word or phrases missing from some of those charges below.
1. "He has refused his [ ], the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
a) Subjects' Petitions
b) Assent to Laws
c) Royal Blessings
d) Citizens Rights
2. "He has forbidden his [ ] to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance."
a) Assemblies c) Governors
b) Parliament d) Burgesses
3. "He has called together legislative bodies at places [ ] from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."
a) inconvenient and remote
b) hostile and foreign
c) uncivilized, unusual, and remote
d) unusual, uncomfortable, and distant
4. "He has made [ ] dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries."
a) Judges c) Delegates
b) Governors d) Tax Collectors
5. "He has kept among us, in times of peace, [ ] without the Consent of our legislatures."
a) Foreign Mercenaries
b) Unregulated Militias
c) Standing Armies
d) Cutthroats and Brigands
6. "For imposing [ ] on us without our Consent."
a) Military Governors
b) Taxes
c) Tariffs and Import Fees
d) Martial Law
7. "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of [ ]."
a) Taxation with Representation
b) Wholesome and Good Government
c) Legislative Assemblies
d) Trial by Jury
8. "For transporting us [ ] to be tried for pretended offences."
a) beyond Seas
b) to Foreign Jurisddictions
c) to Unusual and Hostile Territory
d) Away from Kith and Kin
9. "He has abdicated [ ] here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."
a) His Royal Authority
b) His Claim to Rule
c) Government
d) Law and Good Order
10. "He has excited [ ] among us ...."
a) frontier violence
b) domestic insurrections
c) slave rebellions
d) discord and division
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. b ; 2. c ; 3. d ; 4. a ; 5. c ; 6. b ; 7. d ; 8. a ; 9. c ; 10. b
F. Y. I.
Still on the Books
In North Dakota, it is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.
Endless Stretch
Broadway, at 150 miles long, is one of the longest streets in the world.
Actually Said
by Laura Dern, on the special effects in the movie "Jurassic Park"
"You can hardly tell where the computer models finish and the real dinosaurs begin."
No Kidding!
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Nose for Prey
Polar bears can smell a seal from 20 miles away.
State Stats
Louisiana is home to more than 80 percent of the world's crayfish.
In North Dakota, it is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.
Endless Stretch
Broadway, at 150 miles long, is one of the longest streets in the world.
Actually Said
by Laura Dern, on the special effects in the movie "Jurassic Park"
"You can hardly tell where the computer models finish and the real dinosaurs begin."
No Kidding!
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Nose for Prey
Polar bears can smell a seal from 20 miles away.
State Stats
Louisiana is home to more than 80 percent of the world's crayfish.
On a New York island, firefighters set homes ablaze
Firefighters will spend the next two weeks setting homes ablaze on a small island in New York Harbor for one purpose: Saving lives.
Eighteen abandoned townhouses on New York City's Governors Island, formerly housing for members of the Coast Guard, have been turned into a setting for roaring fires in experiments aimed to develop new strategies firefighters can use to save lives.
In one on Tuesday, a match was lit near newspaper in the basement of a fully-furnished home. Within five minutes thick black smoke began to billow from the rear door; before ten minutes had passed, dark red flames licked around the basement windows.
Firefighters gradually broke open the windows to change air flow, seeing how the flames reacted to different ventilation. Under real-life circumstances, air is added as soon as possible from immediately opening roofs, windows and doors.
"They are bringing the lab out to the firefighters," said Dan Madryzkowsky, a fire protection engineer from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which conducted the tests with the FDNY and Underwriters Laboratories, a non-profit group.
The idea behind this and other experiments taking place on Governors Island is to find flaws in fire-fighting techniques that, in many cases, haven't changed in decades.
At the same time, modern households have undergone dramatic shifts, with organic materials, such as cotton and feathers, largely replaced by more affordable synthetic materials introduced in the 1970s.
With the change came a disturbing trend, said Fire Department deputy assistant chief Robert Maynes. The new materials have shortened the time it takes a house to burn, and cause fire to burn even hotter. Where more natural homes would take 17 to 20 minutes to burn, modern homes can be engulfed in five minutes.
As a result, Maynes said, an increase in burns and fatalities started to show up in fire department statistics in 1983.
The researchers performing the experiments on Governors Island hope that each home, outfitted with more than 100 sensors which measure oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, airflow through the houses and heat levels, would give them valuable information in fighting fires.
Though an official report is set to be released in a year, important information could be known minutes after the tests and would be taught as soon as possible, said Fire Department commissioner Salvatore Cassano.
Similar experiments have been conducted elsewhere, but those are done at testing facilities where houses are built in laboratories and conditions such as wind and temperature are controlled. The Governors Island homes, by contrast, offered a natural environment in everyday homes, allowing researchers to test with more real-life variables.
"This is where science meets the streets," said John Drengenberg, Consumer Safety Director for Underwriters Laboratories.
Eighteen abandoned townhouses on New York City's Governors Island, formerly housing for members of the Coast Guard, have been turned into a setting for roaring fires in experiments aimed to develop new strategies firefighters can use to save lives.
In one on Tuesday, a match was lit near newspaper in the basement of a fully-furnished home. Within five minutes thick black smoke began to billow from the rear door; before ten minutes had passed, dark red flames licked around the basement windows.
Firefighters gradually broke open the windows to change air flow, seeing how the flames reacted to different ventilation. Under real-life circumstances, air is added as soon as possible from immediately opening roofs, windows and doors.
"They are bringing the lab out to the firefighters," said Dan Madryzkowsky, a fire protection engineer from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which conducted the tests with the FDNY and Underwriters Laboratories, a non-profit group.
The idea behind this and other experiments taking place on Governors Island is to find flaws in fire-fighting techniques that, in many cases, haven't changed in decades.
At the same time, modern households have undergone dramatic shifts, with organic materials, such as cotton and feathers, largely replaced by more affordable synthetic materials introduced in the 1970s.
With the change came a disturbing trend, said Fire Department deputy assistant chief Robert Maynes. The new materials have shortened the time it takes a house to burn, and cause fire to burn even hotter. Where more natural homes would take 17 to 20 minutes to burn, modern homes can be engulfed in five minutes.
As a result, Maynes said, an increase in burns and fatalities started to show up in fire department statistics in 1983.
The researchers performing the experiments on Governors Island hope that each home, outfitted with more than 100 sensors which measure oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, airflow through the houses and heat levels, would give them valuable information in fighting fires.
Though an official report is set to be released in a year, important information could be known minutes after the tests and would be taught as soon as possible, said Fire Department commissioner Salvatore Cassano.
Similar experiments have been conducted elsewhere, but those are done at testing facilities where houses are built in laboratories and conditions such as wind and temperature are controlled. The Governors Island homes, by contrast, offered a natural environment in everyday homes, allowing researchers to test with more real-life variables.
"This is where science meets the streets," said John Drengenberg, Consumer Safety Director for Underwriters Laboratories.
Four held over Spanish medieval manuscript theft
A former church caretaker, his wife, son and another woman have been arrested in connection with last year's disappearance of a priceless medieval text from the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in northwest Spain, police said on Wednesday.
The Codex Calixtinus, a 12th century collection of sermons and liturgical passages, vanished from a safe deposit box in the cathedral, the endpoint of the ancient pilgrimage route the Camino de Santiago.
The elaborately illustrated manuscript, considered an important part of Spain's cultural and religious heritage, has yet to be found, though the police say they are close.
"I think we're heading in the right direction to crack the case ... The main objective is to find the Codex," Spanish police chief Ignacio Cosido told national radio.
The key suspect is a man who was sacked after working for the cathedral as a caretaker, electrician and odd job man for more than 25 years, police said in a statement.
The force did not name the man but said his wife, son and another woman linked to the family were also detained.
Police said they had also recovered at least 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million), eight copies of the Codex and other ancient books that had also disappeared from the cathedral, during searches of garages, houses and storage rooms.
Officers also found documents and correspondence related to senior church figures and keys to various outbuildings.
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is the reputed burial place of Saint James the Greater, one of Jesus Christ's twelve apostles who, according to church tradition, arrived in Spain to preach Christianity.
The Codex Calixtinus, a 12th century collection of sermons and liturgical passages, vanished from a safe deposit box in the cathedral, the endpoint of the ancient pilgrimage route the Camino de Santiago.
The elaborately illustrated manuscript, considered an important part of Spain's cultural and religious heritage, has yet to be found, though the police say they are close.
"I think we're heading in the right direction to crack the case ... The main objective is to find the Codex," Spanish police chief Ignacio Cosido told national radio.
The key suspect is a man who was sacked after working for the cathedral as a caretaker, electrician and odd job man for more than 25 years, police said in a statement.
The force did not name the man but said his wife, son and another woman linked to the family were also detained.
Police said they had also recovered at least 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million), eight copies of the Codex and other ancient books that had also disappeared from the cathedral, during searches of garages, houses and storage rooms.
Officers also found documents and correspondence related to senior church figures and keys to various outbuildings.
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is the reputed burial place of Saint James the Greater, one of Jesus Christ's twelve apostles who, according to church tradition, arrived in Spain to preach Christianity.
Doctors remove 51-pound tumor from New Jersey woman
New Jersey surgeons removed a rapidly growing, 51-pound (23-kg) cancerous tumor from a woman who had delayed treatment for more than a month until she became eligible for health insurance, her doctor said on Tuesday.
"She was a skinny lady with a huge belly. I mean it looked like she was literally pregnant with triplets," said Dr. David Dupree, who led the surgery on the 65-year-old woman, at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, New Jersey.
"She was just all belly," he said in describing his first meeting with the patient, a homemaker from nearby Union Beach, New Jersey, who asked to be identified only as Evelyn, her first name.
About six to eight weeks before she showed up at the hospital, Evelyn noticed discomfort in her abdomen and that her normally 120-pound frame was rapidly ballooning. Dupree said she sought medical help on June 4, just days after her 65th birthday, when she would qualify for Medicare, the U.S. healthcare program for seniors.
"The reason she didn't go earlier was because she had no insurance," he said.
By now, she weighed more than 170 pounds, her legs were swollen with trapped blood, she was badly dehydrated, and, scans showed, the tumor - a malignant sarcoma - was crushing her inferior vena cava, one of the main veins returning blood to the heart, and putting her life in danger.
With her body too weakened to be operated on immediately, Dupree scheduled surgery for the following Monday, allowing time for her to become rehydrated and for her blood pressure to be brought under control.
But after she became short of breath on Sunday evening, Dupree brought the surgery forward.
"I knew that she wasn't going to make it through the night," he said.
"Either she goes now or she dies tonight," he recalled thinking.
Opening her up, Dupree and his team found the tumor, which appeared to have originated out of the fatty tissue around her large intestine, had engulfed many of her internal organs, and had to be sliced away "millimeter by millimeter" over the course of the five-hour surgery.
Evelyn was still recovering from the operation in a rehabilitation center on Tuesday, Dupree said. She declined to be interviewed.
Although the immediate threat to her life has passed, she must still see an oncologist about treatment for her cancer, which may not have been completely eradicated by the surgery, and may require chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Dupree said he would advise uninsured patients to see a doctor immediately if they knew they were unwell no matter how near their 65th birthday might be. He said the hospital would have operated on Evelyn regardless of her insurance status, but added he did not know whether doing so would have cost her more money.
"She was a skinny lady with a huge belly. I mean it looked like she was literally pregnant with triplets," said Dr. David Dupree, who led the surgery on the 65-year-old woman, at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, New Jersey.
"She was just all belly," he said in describing his first meeting with the patient, a homemaker from nearby Union Beach, New Jersey, who asked to be identified only as Evelyn, her first name.
About six to eight weeks before she showed up at the hospital, Evelyn noticed discomfort in her abdomen and that her normally 120-pound frame was rapidly ballooning. Dupree said she sought medical help on June 4, just days after her 65th birthday, when she would qualify for Medicare, the U.S. healthcare program for seniors.
"The reason she didn't go earlier was because she had no insurance," he said.
By now, she weighed more than 170 pounds, her legs were swollen with trapped blood, she was badly dehydrated, and, scans showed, the tumor - a malignant sarcoma - was crushing her inferior vena cava, one of the main veins returning blood to the heart, and putting her life in danger.
With her body too weakened to be operated on immediately, Dupree scheduled surgery for the following Monday, allowing time for her to become rehydrated and for her blood pressure to be brought under control.
But after she became short of breath on Sunday evening, Dupree brought the surgery forward.
"I knew that she wasn't going to make it through the night," he said.
"Either she goes now or she dies tonight," he recalled thinking.
Opening her up, Dupree and his team found the tumor, which appeared to have originated out of the fatty tissue around her large intestine, had engulfed many of her internal organs, and had to be sliced away "millimeter by millimeter" over the course of the five-hour surgery.
Evelyn was still recovering from the operation in a rehabilitation center on Tuesday, Dupree said. She declined to be interviewed.
Although the immediate threat to her life has passed, she must still see an oncologist about treatment for her cancer, which may not have been completely eradicated by the surgery, and may require chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Dupree said he would advise uninsured patients to see a doctor immediately if they knew they were unwell no matter how near their 65th birthday might be. He said the hospital would have operated on Evelyn regardless of her insurance status, but added he did not know whether doing so would have cost her more money.
Brazilian club asks fans to give blood
Brazilian football club Vitoria has removed its trademark red hoops from its shirt and told supporters it will add the color back gradually as fans donate blood.
The campaign, entitled "My Blood is Red and Black", is named after the club's traditional colors and comes amid a nationwide drive to get more Brazilians to give blood for transfusions.
"We wanted to do more than just ask fans to give blood," said Vitoria's president Alexi Portela Junior. "With this initiative, fans of the red and black can participate more actively in the campaign and they will see the importance of a gesture like this that can help save countless lives."
The club normally plays in a red-and-black hooped shirt, with white shorts and red-and-black socks. At its most recent game, players wearing black-and-white hooped shirts carried a banner onto the field reading: "Vitoria has always given its blood for you. It's time for you to give yours."
Portela Junior said the club plans to add a red hoop back after each game, starting with next weekend's match. The club has four red and four black hoops on its jersey.
"In this novel way we are making our fans aware of the importance of giving blood," Portela Junior said.
The campaign comes just a few weeks after Sao Paulo, one of Brazil's biggest clubs, put the slogan "Give Blood" on its shirts for a game.
Brazil's Health Ministry and blood banks often launch campaigns during school holidays as donations fall by as much as 25 percent. Officials said that although Brazil has invested heavily in the area, only around two percent of Brazilians give blood regularly. The World Health Organization recommends that number should be three percent.
Vitoria, which is based in Salvador in the northeastern state of Bahia, was founded in 1899 and is one of Brazil's oldest clubs. It is famous for having launched the careers of World Cup winners Bebeto and Vampeta, and current Chelsea defender David Luiz.
It currently sits in fourth place in the Serie B after eight games and is one of the favorites to gain promotion. The give blood campaign already seems to have brought them luck on the pitch. In their first red-less shirt, they beat Avai 2-0.
The campaign, entitled "My Blood is Red and Black", is named after the club's traditional colors and comes amid a nationwide drive to get more Brazilians to give blood for transfusions.
"We wanted to do more than just ask fans to give blood," said Vitoria's president Alexi Portela Junior. "With this initiative, fans of the red and black can participate more actively in the campaign and they will see the importance of a gesture like this that can help save countless lives."
The club normally plays in a red-and-black hooped shirt, with white shorts and red-and-black socks. At its most recent game, players wearing black-and-white hooped shirts carried a banner onto the field reading: "Vitoria has always given its blood for you. It's time for you to give yours."
Portela Junior said the club plans to add a red hoop back after each game, starting with next weekend's match. The club has four red and four black hoops on its jersey.
"In this novel way we are making our fans aware of the importance of giving blood," Portela Junior said.
The campaign comes just a few weeks after Sao Paulo, one of Brazil's biggest clubs, put the slogan "Give Blood" on its shirts for a game.
Brazil's Health Ministry and blood banks often launch campaigns during school holidays as donations fall by as much as 25 percent. Officials said that although Brazil has invested heavily in the area, only around two percent of Brazilians give blood regularly. The World Health Organization recommends that number should be three percent.
Vitoria, which is based in Salvador in the northeastern state of Bahia, was founded in 1899 and is one of Brazil's oldest clubs. It is famous for having launched the careers of World Cup winners Bebeto and Vampeta, and current Chelsea defender David Luiz.
It currently sits in fourth place in the Serie B after eight games and is one of the favorites to gain promotion. The give blood campaign already seems to have brought them luck on the pitch. In their first red-less shirt, they beat Avai 2-0.
Fetish fashion takes over the Berlin underground
Riders of the Berlin subway have been taking trips this week that go far beyond the hip German capital's already outlandish standards, as models in latex wear, fetish gear and "spirit hoods" staged a fashion show on a train.
Girls wearing all-leather sado-masochist bodysuits tottered through the train car, followed by male models wearing nothing but ornamental metallic sculptures around their groin. Models in neon tulle dangled from the subway poles.
Around 600 people showed up for "Underground Catwalk", a ticketed show during Berlin Fashion Week that took place entirely on a train running underneath the city.
"Because of the special location, models pretty much walk across people's laps. There's loud music blasting, it's pretty wild and colorful," event director Alexander van Hessen told Reuters.
Micaela Schaefer, a German reality TV star known for her self-professed 'fabric allergy' and near-nude appearances, made tabloid headlines by performing in the show as a burlesque Marilyn Monroe in a costume made entirely of artificial blonde hair.
But "Underground Catwalk" is also a forum for young Berlin designers to show more classic couture fare without paying the price for a fashion tent show, said van Hessen.
Berlin's fashion week, which ends this the weekend, is no showcase for haute couture on the scale of Paris or Milan.
Though a strong host of young local designers have significantly raised Berlin's fashion profile in recent years, the culture of the fashion week remains alternative and less focused on exclusive designer goods.
"We are the alternative to Berlin Fashion Week," said von Hessen. "You wouldn't drink champagne here, but beer or whisky."
Girls wearing all-leather sado-masochist bodysuits tottered through the train car, followed by male models wearing nothing but ornamental metallic sculptures around their groin. Models in neon tulle dangled from the subway poles.
Around 600 people showed up for "Underground Catwalk", a ticketed show during Berlin Fashion Week that took place entirely on a train running underneath the city.
"Because of the special location, models pretty much walk across people's laps. There's loud music blasting, it's pretty wild and colorful," event director Alexander van Hessen told Reuters.
Micaela Schaefer, a German reality TV star known for her self-professed 'fabric allergy' and near-nude appearances, made tabloid headlines by performing in the show as a burlesque Marilyn Monroe in a costume made entirely of artificial blonde hair.
But "Underground Catwalk" is also a forum for young Berlin designers to show more classic couture fare without paying the price for a fashion tent show, said van Hessen.
Berlin's fashion week, which ends this the weekend, is no showcase for haute couture on the scale of Paris or Milan.
Though a strong host of young local designers have significantly raised Berlin's fashion profile in recent years, the culture of the fashion week remains alternative and less focused on exclusive designer goods.
"We are the alternative to Berlin Fashion Week," said von Hessen. "You wouldn't drink champagne here, but beer or whisky."
U.S. seizes Tyrannosaurus bones on suspicion of smuggling
U.S. officials on Friday seized the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus dinosaur that Mongolia wants returned on suspicion that it was smuggled to the United States from the Gobi desert.
The bones of the tyrannosaurus bataar, an eight-foot-tall, 24-foot-long cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex, were taken in a moving van from the Cadogan Tate Fine Art storage company in Queens, where they had been stored in four large wooden crates.
The President of Mongolia, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, demanded that the skeleton be returned to his country after it was auctioned on May 20 for $1.05 million by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.
The buyer of the skeleton was never disclosed. But the man who acquired the skeleton and offered it to Heritage for auction, said he has been unfairly labeled as a smuggler.
"I'm just a guy in Gainesville, Florida trying to support my family, not some international bone smuggler," commercial paleontologist Eric Prokopi said in a statement.
"It's been claimed that I misrepresented what was being imported and did not properly declare its value. I can wholeheartedly say the import documents are not fraudulent," Prokopi said in the statement issued through Heritage.
A U.S. government lawsuit filed on Tuesday on behalf of Mongolia said the customs forms filed when the skeleton was imported incorrectly stated the country of origin was Great Britain, its value was $15,000 instead of $1 million it sold for, and mentioned only reptiles not dinosaurs.
Prokopi did not say in his statement where or from whom he acquired the skeleton. He said that when he received the tyrannosaurus bataar, it was a collection of loose, mostly broken bones and rocks with embedded bones. Prokopi said he and his wife spent thousands of hours preparing and mounting the skeleton, which increased its value, before it was auctioned.
On Monday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed a lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of the skeleton to the Mongolian government. An order to seize the fossil was issued on Tuesday.
Robert Painter, the lawyer representing Mongolia, said that the dinosaur will be held by the U.S. government while legal proceedings on its future continue.
Anyone who comes forward to claim ownership of the skeleton will have to prove they are the rightful owner or the U.S. will repatriate the skeleton to Mongolia.
"Today we send a message to looters all over the world: We will not turn a blind eye to the marketplace of looted fossils," Mongolian President Tsakhia said in a statement.
The skeleton was discovered in 1946 during a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert, Bharara said.
Heritage Auctions and the Mongolian government agreed in May to jointly investigate the ownership of the skeleton. Several paleontologists examined the bones and determined they were removed from the western Gobi Desert between 1995 and 2005.
The bones of the tyrannosaurus bataar, an eight-foot-tall, 24-foot-long cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex, were taken in a moving van from the Cadogan Tate Fine Art storage company in Queens, where they had been stored in four large wooden crates.
The President of Mongolia, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, demanded that the skeleton be returned to his country after it was auctioned on May 20 for $1.05 million by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.
The buyer of the skeleton was never disclosed. But the man who acquired the skeleton and offered it to Heritage for auction, said he has been unfairly labeled as a smuggler.
"I'm just a guy in Gainesville, Florida trying to support my family, not some international bone smuggler," commercial paleontologist Eric Prokopi said in a statement.
"It's been claimed that I misrepresented what was being imported and did not properly declare its value. I can wholeheartedly say the import documents are not fraudulent," Prokopi said in the statement issued through Heritage.
A U.S. government lawsuit filed on Tuesday on behalf of Mongolia said the customs forms filed when the skeleton was imported incorrectly stated the country of origin was Great Britain, its value was $15,000 instead of $1 million it sold for, and mentioned only reptiles not dinosaurs.
Prokopi did not say in his statement where or from whom he acquired the skeleton. He said that when he received the tyrannosaurus bataar, it was a collection of loose, mostly broken bones and rocks with embedded bones. Prokopi said he and his wife spent thousands of hours preparing and mounting the skeleton, which increased its value, before it was auctioned.
On Monday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed a lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of the skeleton to the Mongolian government. An order to seize the fossil was issued on Tuesday.
Robert Painter, the lawyer representing Mongolia, said that the dinosaur will be held by the U.S. government while legal proceedings on its future continue.
Anyone who comes forward to claim ownership of the skeleton will have to prove they are the rightful owner or the U.S. will repatriate the skeleton to Mongolia.
"Today we send a message to looters all over the world: We will not turn a blind eye to the marketplace of looted fossils," Mongolian President Tsakhia said in a statement.
The skeleton was discovered in 1946 during a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert, Bharara said.
Heritage Auctions and the Mongolian government agreed in May to jointly investigate the ownership of the skeleton. Several paleontologists examined the bones and determined they were removed from the western Gobi Desert between 1995 and 2005.
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