Climate Hunger
Millions of people across Africa and parts of Asia could become destitute and face a mounting threat of starvation in the coming decades as greenhouse gas-induced climate change shifts how and where crops can be grown. That was one of the issues being discussed at an international conference in Dublin, convened to examine the link between food security and global warming. Many researchers and activists there believe climate change may spell lower crop yields, higher food prices and widespread hunger later on in the 21st century. "We live in a world of plenty, but one which is reaching its environmental limits. And we are struggling to feed a rapidly growing population under a changing climate," said Eamon Gilmore, foreign affairs minister of Ireland, speaking before 350 delegates from 60 countries. As the climate of the Earth continues to change, there are concerns that extreme weather and changing seasonal preciptation patterns will limit both crop yields and livestock production.
Antarctic Melt Surges
New evidence suggests that certain regions of Antarctica are now experiencing more intense summer ice melt than at any time in the last thousands years. After analyzing a 1,200-foot-deep ice core taken from James Ross Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula, Australian and British climatologists found that the rate of melting has increased dramatically over the last 50 years in particular. Using the same method, the research team found that the coldest observable period on the peninsula was 600 years ago. Compared to those record conditions, the current rate of ice melt is 10 times more intense and has spiked in the last half-century.
Blocked Migration
A rare sequence of spring snowstorms across the northern Great Plains is causing difficulties and even starvation for some migratory birds. While it's not unusual to get a single snowstorm in April, the weekly storms during late March and the first half of April have taken their toll, according to bird expert Kent Jenson of South Dakota State University. He and others beneath North America's Central and Mississippi migratory "flyways" have found dead robins in their backyards. The birds were emaciated and had even burned up their breast mucles for nutrition in a last-ditch effort to survive. "The ground to the north in North Dakota and Canada is still frozen, and we're only getting occasional thaws that allow the birds to feed from the ground here in eastern South Dakota," Jenson tells Earthweek. He said many species are holding back farther south until spring finally arrives.
Dolphin Poaching
The high demand for shark fin soup is causing an alarming rise in the killing of dolphins off the coast of Tanzania, which an official says fishermen use illegally as bait for the predatory fish. Most dolphins have been protected by the country's fisheries laws since 2009. But tourists report seeing the "distressing " killing of dolphins within plain sight. A Tanzania official said dolphins are being actively targeted by dynamite fishermen around the city of Dar es Salaam because "their flesh makes a very good bait for sharks." While the slaughter of dolphins to feed the illicit shark fin market may be disturbing, experts warn that as many as one in 15 of all sharks are fished from the world's oceans each year. It's often just for their fins.
Earthquakes
The most powerful earthquake to strike Iran in more than 50 years caused widespread destruction and an unknown number of casualties on each side of the Iran-Pakistan border.
* At least nine people were injured when a 5.1 magnitude quake struck southwest China's Yunnan province.
* Earth movements were also felt in Japan's southern Honshu Island, northern Papua New Guinea, northeast India, Hawii and along the southern Quebec-Ontario border.
Mexican Eruption
Mexico's famed Popcatepetl volcano spewed a large cloud of dense ash that fell to the ground in several towns near Mexico City. "Popo" occasionally produces blasts of steam and ash, at times accompanied by glowing rocks.
Tsunami Fish
Marine biologists say they are amazed that a small group of fish, believed to have been washed across the entire width of the Pacific inside a boat by the 2011 Japanese tsunami, survived the two-year journey. Five striped beak fish were found submerged in the hold of a 20-foot fishing boat after it washed up on the southern Washington state coast. The Sai-shoumaru was traced back to the same region of northeastern Japan devasted in the titanic ocean surge generated by the March 11, 2011, earthquake. The fish were appartently scooped up as the boat was tossed about by the tsunami and washed offshore. Scientists believe the fish survived by feeding off tiny organisms that were encrusted on or attached to the vessel.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
NASA Kepler mission brings sci-fi closer to reality
Americans who lament that this country can no longer seem to do anything great are overlooking technological wonders like NASA's Kepler mission and its search for habitable planets.
The Kepler space telescope, launched in March 2009, has led to abreak-through in planet hunting. Aimed at a specific patch of the Milky Way, it already hsad identified 115 planets. And, NASA announced last week, Kepler has found the two most Earth-like worlds yet ------ and the ones most capable of supporting life ------ in a five-planet system named Kepler-62 in the constellation Lyra.
The most promising planet for life is Kepler-62f, 40 percent larger than Earth but the right temperature and right in the middle of the habitable zone. The other planet, Kepler-62e, is 60 percent larger than Earth and on the inner edge of the habitable zone.
NASA's William Borucki, head of the Kepler project, called 62f the best planet Kepler has yet found. Alan Boss, a planetary expert and member of the team, said this discovery alone justified the approximately $600 million cost of the mission.
Kepler, like other NASA missions, has accelerated the speed of discovery.
For the sake of argument, let's say that astronomy ----- the systematic study of stars, planets and the universe ----- dates back to at least 3000 B.C., roughly when Stonehenge was built to track solstices and equinoxes.
Forthose intervening thousands of years, astronomers vainly tried to locate a planet outside our solar system. Although it seemed mathematically unlikely, the empirical evidence was alone in having planets, and that Earth alone was inhabited.
That changed in 1992 with the discovery of the first "exoplanet," a planet outside our solar system. Other discoveries followed, but these were of gas giants, larger than Jupiter, incapable of supporting life.
The search was on for rocky planets, roughly the size of Earth, orbiting a star at a distance called the "Goldilocks zone," where it is not too hot, not too cold, with moderate temperatures hospitable to life.
In the brief time we've known of exoplanets, astronomers have discovered almost 1,000 of them, along with more than 2,700 "candidate" bodies, potential planets for which proof is still lacking.
The Kepler system is 1,200 light years away, or 708,000 trillion miles, dampening any immediate visitation prospects. But the lesson of exoplanets is never to say never.
The Kepler space telescope, launched in March 2009, has led to abreak-through in planet hunting. Aimed at a specific patch of the Milky Way, it already hsad identified 115 planets. And, NASA announced last week, Kepler has found the two most Earth-like worlds yet ------ and the ones most capable of supporting life ------ in a five-planet system named Kepler-62 in the constellation Lyra.
The most promising planet for life is Kepler-62f, 40 percent larger than Earth but the right temperature and right in the middle of the habitable zone. The other planet, Kepler-62e, is 60 percent larger than Earth and on the inner edge of the habitable zone.
NASA's William Borucki, head of the Kepler project, called 62f the best planet Kepler has yet found. Alan Boss, a planetary expert and member of the team, said this discovery alone justified the approximately $600 million cost of the mission.
Kepler, like other NASA missions, has accelerated the speed of discovery.
For the sake of argument, let's say that astronomy ----- the systematic study of stars, planets and the universe ----- dates back to at least 3000 B.C., roughly when Stonehenge was built to track solstices and equinoxes.
Forthose intervening thousands of years, astronomers vainly tried to locate a planet outside our solar system. Although it seemed mathematically unlikely, the empirical evidence was alone in having planets, and that Earth alone was inhabited.
That changed in 1992 with the discovery of the first "exoplanet," a planet outside our solar system. Other discoveries followed, but these were of gas giants, larger than Jupiter, incapable of supporting life.
The search was on for rocky planets, roughly the size of Earth, orbiting a star at a distance called the "Goldilocks zone," where it is not too hot, not too cold, with moderate temperatures hospitable to life.
In the brief time we've known of exoplanets, astronomers have discovered almost 1,000 of them, along with more than 2,700 "candidate" bodies, potential planets for which proof is still lacking.
The Kepler system is 1,200 light years away, or 708,000 trillion miles, dampening any immediate visitation prospects. But the lesson of exoplanets is never to say never.
F. Y. I.
Quotable
by Rosario Castellanos, Mexican author and poet (1925-1974)
"We have to laugh because laughter, we already know, is the first evidence of freedom."
Top of the Heap
The mango is the most consumed fruit in the world.
Still on the Books
In Baltimore, it is illegal to take a lion to the movies.
Household Tip
The average bar of soap lasts twice as long as a bottle of body wash.
by Rosario Castellanos, Mexican author and poet (1925-1974)
"We have to laugh because laughter, we already know, is the first evidence of freedom."
Top of the Heap
The mango is the most consumed fruit in the world.
Still on the Books
In Baltimore, it is illegal to take a lion to the movies.
Household Tip
The average bar of soap lasts twice as long as a bottle of body wash.
Seattle's interim police chief sorry for video mocking homeless
Seattle's interim police chief has apologized for appearing in a 1986 video that showed him and other officers mocking the homeless in what the city's police department this week called an "ugly piece" of its history.
Interim Chief Jim Pugel, who is implementing sweeping reforms in the wake of a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice report that found the city's police routinely used excessive force, appeared in the video when he was a 26-year-old officer.
In the roughly five-minute clip, which officials say was part of a training video and which they released this week, Pugel and a few colleagues are seen wearing fake beards, dancing with bottles of alcohol under a freeway overpass and singing parody lyrics to the 1964 song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
Some of the officers sport blacked-out teeth as they croon lyrics such as, "We'll be drinking Thunderbird (wine) all through the day, under the viaduct. Who could ask for anything more?"
"Even by 1980s standards, the Seattle Police Department considered the video to be insensitive and inappropriate," Pugel, who was appointed to his position earlier this month, said in a statement late on Thursday. "I regret my participation and have professionally apologized for my role in it. I do so now publicly. I am truly sorry."
He takes over a department that has at times experienced a troubled history with minority communities and is in the first year of a reform plan overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice to revise the use of force by officers.
The Seattle Times reported in a story posted on its website on Friday that the newspaper and other media outlets had received several tips about the video's existence before it was made public late on Thursday by police.
Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Pugel, who has not said whether he will seek to lead the department on a permanent basis, disclosed the existence of the video to other city officials and homeless groups when he was appointed interim chief.
"It's not a problem but an opportunity to showcase who Chief Pugel is," Whitcomb said. "For him it was a leadership moment."
Police say all existing copies of the video have been destroyed, except for a single copy retained for their records.
Pugel said in his statement that he had the video released because he felt it was "important to show where this department has been and where it is going" and that he discussed it with Mayor Mike McGinn and several Seattle-based homeless groups.
Interim Chief Jim Pugel, who is implementing sweeping reforms in the wake of a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice report that found the city's police routinely used excessive force, appeared in the video when he was a 26-year-old officer.
In the roughly five-minute clip, which officials say was part of a training video and which they released this week, Pugel and a few colleagues are seen wearing fake beards, dancing with bottles of alcohol under a freeway overpass and singing parody lyrics to the 1964 song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
Some of the officers sport blacked-out teeth as they croon lyrics such as, "We'll be drinking Thunderbird (wine) all through the day, under the viaduct. Who could ask for anything more?"
"Even by 1980s standards, the Seattle Police Department considered the video to be insensitive and inappropriate," Pugel, who was appointed to his position earlier this month, said in a statement late on Thursday. "I regret my participation and have professionally apologized for my role in it. I do so now publicly. I am truly sorry."
He takes over a department that has at times experienced a troubled history with minority communities and is in the first year of a reform plan overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice to revise the use of force by officers.
The Seattle Times reported in a story posted on its website on Friday that the newspaper and other media outlets had received several tips about the video's existence before it was made public late on Thursday by police.
Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Pugel, who has not said whether he will seek to lead the department on a permanent basis, disclosed the existence of the video to other city officials and homeless groups when he was appointed interim chief.
"It's not a problem but an opportunity to showcase who Chief Pugel is," Whitcomb said. "For him it was a leadership moment."
Police say all existing copies of the video have been destroyed, except for a single copy retained for their records.
Pugel said in his statement that he had the video released because he felt it was "important to show where this department has been and where it is going" and that he discussed it with Mayor Mike McGinn and several Seattle-based homeless groups.
Return to sender? Maybe not as Somalia to restart mail 22 years on
Somalis may soon be receiving letters from abroad for the first time in more than 20 years after a deal was struck with the United Nations' postal agency, the latest step towards ending Somalia's isolation following two decades of civil conflict.
But the challenges to bringing the Horn of Africa country back into the global postal community are manifold - there are no functioning post offices, only the main roads are named and most houses do not have a number.
Add to that the ongoing struggle with al Qaeda-linked insurgents, who still control much of the countryside, and parts of the coastline infested with pirates, and it is clear the U.N.'s Universal Postal Union (UPU) and its partners have their work cut out.
The Swiss-based UPU said in a statement on Friday that international postal services could start operating again in Somalia within the next few months.
Somalia's Minister of Information and Communication Abdullahi Hirsi signed a memorandum of understanding with Emirates Post Group this week for Dubai to act as a hub for handling mail destined for Somalia, it said.
The UPU, which brokered the deal, said its 192 member countries could resume sending mail to Somalia once the arrangements were finalized.
About 2 million Somalis live abroad and 9.9 million in Somalia, served by a postal network that is "basically inexistant", the UPU said, having dwindled from 100 post offices in 1991.
UPU spokesman Rheal LeBlanc said Somalia had created an office at the airport to handle mail moving in and out of the country, initially to service the government, embassies and universities, "but they seem to have plans to phase in postal services across the country over the next few months and years".
Hirsi said his country would need help getting the post going again.
"We ask for all means of assistance as we have to start from ground zero," the UPU statement quoted him as saying.
In the latest sign of optimism that Somalia was emerging from its violent recent past, Britain opened an embassy at Mogadishu airport on Thursday after its previous mission closed in 1991 as civil war broke out.
But the challenges to bringing the Horn of Africa country back into the global postal community are manifold - there are no functioning post offices, only the main roads are named and most houses do not have a number.
Add to that the ongoing struggle with al Qaeda-linked insurgents, who still control much of the countryside, and parts of the coastline infested with pirates, and it is clear the U.N.'s Universal Postal Union (UPU) and its partners have their work cut out.
The Swiss-based UPU said in a statement on Friday that international postal services could start operating again in Somalia within the next few months.
Somalia's Minister of Information and Communication Abdullahi Hirsi signed a memorandum of understanding with Emirates Post Group this week for Dubai to act as a hub for handling mail destined for Somalia, it said.
The UPU, which brokered the deal, said its 192 member countries could resume sending mail to Somalia once the arrangements were finalized.
About 2 million Somalis live abroad and 9.9 million in Somalia, served by a postal network that is "basically inexistant", the UPU said, having dwindled from 100 post offices in 1991.
UPU spokesman Rheal LeBlanc said Somalia had created an office at the airport to handle mail moving in and out of the country, initially to service the government, embassies and universities, "but they seem to have plans to phase in postal services across the country over the next few months and years".
Hirsi said his country would need help getting the post going again.
"We ask for all means of assistance as we have to start from ground zero," the UPU statement quoted him as saying.
In the latest sign of optimism that Somalia was emerging from its violent recent past, Britain opened an embassy at Mogadishu airport on Thursday after its previous mission closed in 1991 as civil war broke out.
Mamma Mia! Bookie offers odds on ABBA reunion
A British bookmaker is taking bets on an ABBA comeback after singer Agnetha Faltskog hinted at a possible reunion for Sweden's most successful band.
Faltskog, who has come out of retirement to release a solo album called "A", was asked by German's Die Zeit Magazine if she would be open to an ABBA reunion and she responded positively.
"Maybe a charity concert? I would not say 'No' right away," she said.
Her former husband Bjorn Ulvaeus and his fellow ABBA songwriter Benny Andersson vowed in 2008 not to reform the group that broke up in 1982 after nine British No.1 hits.
The fourth member of the group whose hits included "Mamma Mia", "Super Trouper", and "Dancing Queen", was Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
But speculation about ABBA reforming has mounted in the lead-up to the opening of a ABBA museum in Stockholm in May.
British bookmakers Paddy Power seized on the speculation to offer odds of 14/1 for ABBA to perform together in 2013.
The bookmaker was offering 16/1 on ABBA opening the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, on May 16 as this was the show that propelled ABBA to fame following their 1974 win with the song "Waterloo".
"ABBA fans will be spitting out their meatballs in excitement at prospect of a reunion. Given home turf, plus the 40th anniversary of their Eurovision triumph, Paddy Power's 16/1 to open the show looks to be worth a pound of anybody's money," said a spokesman for the bookmaker.
Faltskog, who has come out of retirement to release a solo album called "A", was asked by German's Die Zeit Magazine if she would be open to an ABBA reunion and she responded positively.
"Maybe a charity concert? I would not say 'No' right away," she said.
Her former husband Bjorn Ulvaeus and his fellow ABBA songwriter Benny Andersson vowed in 2008 not to reform the group that broke up in 1982 after nine British No.1 hits.
The fourth member of the group whose hits included "Mamma Mia", "Super Trouper", and "Dancing Queen", was Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
But speculation about ABBA reforming has mounted in the lead-up to the opening of a ABBA museum in Stockholm in May.
British bookmakers Paddy Power seized on the speculation to offer odds of 14/1 for ABBA to perform together in 2013.
The bookmaker was offering 16/1 on ABBA opening the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, on May 16 as this was the show that propelled ABBA to fame following their 1974 win with the song "Waterloo".
"ABBA fans will be spitting out their meatballs in excitement at prospect of a reunion. Given home turf, plus the 40th anniversary of their Eurovision triumph, Paddy Power's 16/1 to open the show looks to be worth a pound of anybody's money," said a spokesman for the bookmaker.
Mamma Mia! Bookie offers odds on ABBA reunion
A British bookmaker is taking bets on an ABBA comeback after singer Agnetha Faltskog hinted at a possible reunion for Sweden's most successful band.
Faltskog, who has come out of retirement to release a solo album called "A", was asked by German's Die Zeit Magazine if she would be open to an ABBA reunion and she responded positively.
"Maybe a charity concert? I would not say 'No' right away," she said.
Her former husband Bjorn Ulvaeus and his fellow ABBA songwriter Benny Andersson vowed in 2008 not to reform the group that broke up in 1982 after nine British No.1 hits.
The fourth member of the group whose hits included "Mamma Mia", "Super Trouper", and "Dancing Queen", was Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
But speculation about ABBA reforming has mounted in the lead-up to the opening of a ABBA museum in Stockholm in May.
British bookmakers Paddy Power seized on the speculation to offer odds of 14/1 for ABBA to perform together in 2013.
The bookmaker was offering 16/1 on ABBA opening the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, on May 16 as this was the show that propelled ABBA to fame following their 1974 win with the song "Waterloo".
"ABBA fans will be spitting out their meatballs in excitement at prospect of a reunion. Given home turf, plus the 40th anniversary of their Eurovision triumph, Paddy Power's 16/1 to open the show looks to be worth a pound of anybody's money," said a spokesman for the bookmaker.
Faltskog, who has come out of retirement to release a solo album called "A", was asked by German's Die Zeit Magazine if she would be open to an ABBA reunion and she responded positively.
"Maybe a charity concert? I would not say 'No' right away," she said.
Her former husband Bjorn Ulvaeus and his fellow ABBA songwriter Benny Andersson vowed in 2008 not to reform the group that broke up in 1982 after nine British No.1 hits.
The fourth member of the group whose hits included "Mamma Mia", "Super Trouper", and "Dancing Queen", was Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
But speculation about ABBA reforming has mounted in the lead-up to the opening of a ABBA museum in Stockholm in May.
British bookmakers Paddy Power seized on the speculation to offer odds of 14/1 for ABBA to perform together in 2013.
The bookmaker was offering 16/1 on ABBA opening the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, on May 16 as this was the show that propelled ABBA to fame following their 1974 win with the song "Waterloo".
"ABBA fans will be spitting out their meatballs in excitement at prospect of a reunion. Given home turf, plus the 40th anniversary of their Eurovision triumph, Paddy Power's 16/1 to open the show looks to be worth a pound of anybody's money," said a spokesman for the bookmaker.
Thief with conscience returns cremated remains in Washington state
A thief with a soft-hearted streak, who inadvertently nabbed some cremated remains along with thousands of rare gems in a truck burglary in Washington state, has anonymously mailed back the ashes to their owner, police said on Wednesday.
The truck owner had been golfing in a Tacoma suburb when his vehicle was broken into by a thief who stole a briefcase filled with 3,000 prized Oregon sunstone gemstones, more than 30 silver and gold sunstone rings and a bracelet with 34 multi-hued stones, said Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.
Also taken was a green suitcase containing the cremated remains of the truck owner's son, he said. Days later, the thief anonymously mailed back the ashes to an address on the truck owner's business card, which had also been taken.
"The case is unique because of the high dollar amount of the gems and because you've got a criminal, a thief, who has somewhat of a heart," Troyer said, without giving a value for the stolen valuables.
The types of Oregon gemstones stolen are popular for jewelry, especially in the Pacific Northwest, said Steve Flock, a Bureau of Land Management geologist in Lakeview, Oregon. They are found near the Oregon towns of Plush, Burns and at the Ponderosa Mine, he said.
It was unclear if the thief acted alone or had an accomplice, and Troyer said the thief likely "got lucky at random" in finding the gems.
The truck owner had been golfing in a Tacoma suburb when his vehicle was broken into by a thief who stole a briefcase filled with 3,000 prized Oregon sunstone gemstones, more than 30 silver and gold sunstone rings and a bracelet with 34 multi-hued stones, said Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.
Also taken was a green suitcase containing the cremated remains of the truck owner's son, he said. Days later, the thief anonymously mailed back the ashes to an address on the truck owner's business card, which had also been taken.
"The case is unique because of the high dollar amount of the gems and because you've got a criminal, a thief, who has somewhat of a heart," Troyer said, without giving a value for the stolen valuables.
The types of Oregon gemstones stolen are popular for jewelry, especially in the Pacific Northwest, said Steve Flock, a Bureau of Land Management geologist in Lakeview, Oregon. They are found near the Oregon towns of Plush, Burns and at the Ponderosa Mine, he said.
It was unclear if the thief acted alone or had an accomplice, and Troyer said the thief likely "got lucky at random" in finding the gems.
Obama threatens "family tattoo" if daughters get their own
If they were thinking about getting tattoos, the Obama daughters may want to reconsider.
Speaking on NBC's "Today" show in a segment originally filmed before the Boston Marathon bombings, President Barack Obama revealed the strategy he and First Lady Michelle Obama have been using to keep their daughters away from tattoos.
"What we've said to the girls is, 'If you guys ever decide you're going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo, in the same place, and we'll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo,'" Obama said.
"Our thinking is that might dissuade them from thinking that somehow that's a good way to rebel."
During the segment, the president also said he understood his wife's "slip of the tongue" when she called herself a "single mother" in early April, noting that they were often apart for a week at a time when he was campaigning for the Senate and presidency.
"I tend to cut my wife or anybody some slack when it comes to just slips of the tongue," he said.
"But there's no doubt that there have been times where Michelle probably felt like a single mom ... She definitely, I think, understands the burdens that women in particular tend to feel if they're both responsible for child rearing and they're responsible for working at the same time," he added.
Speaking on NBC's "Today" show in a segment originally filmed before the Boston Marathon bombings, President Barack Obama revealed the strategy he and First Lady Michelle Obama have been using to keep their daughters away from tattoos.
"What we've said to the girls is, 'If you guys ever decide you're going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo, in the same place, and we'll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo,'" Obama said.
"Our thinking is that might dissuade them from thinking that somehow that's a good way to rebel."
During the segment, the president also said he understood his wife's "slip of the tongue" when she called herself a "single mother" in early April, noting that they were often apart for a week at a time when he was campaigning for the Senate and presidency.
"I tend to cut my wife or anybody some slack when it comes to just slips of the tongue," he said.
"But there's no doubt that there have been times where Michelle probably felt like a single mom ... She definitely, I think, understands the burdens that women in particular tend to feel if they're both responsible for child rearing and they're responsible for working at the same time," he added.
Liverpool's Suarez gets 10-game ban for biting
Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was handed a 10-match suspension by the Football Association (FA) on Wednesday following his bite on Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic at the weekend.
Suarez accepted a charge of violent conduct after the incident in the 2-2 Premier League draw at Anfield on Sunday but disputed the FA view that it merited more than a three-game ban.
An Independent Regulatory Commission met in London on Wednesday to decide the Uruguayan international's fate and added seven games to the usual ban for violent conduct.
The suspension begins immediately meaning Liverpool's leading scorer will miss his side's last four games of the season and the first six at the beginning of next term.
Liverpool, who expressed their shock at the Commission's decision, have until Friday (1100 GMT) to appeal.
"Both the club and player are shocked and disappointed at the severity of today's Independent Regulatory Commission decision," Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre said in a statement on the club's website (www.liverpoolfc.com).
"We await the written reasons tomorrow (Thursday) before making any further comment."
Suarez's bite on Ivanovic's arm at Anfield was missed by referee Kevin Friend but television replays showed him sinking his teeth into the Serbian.
WIDELY CONDEMNED
The 26-year-old Suarez, who was banned for biting an opponent while with Dutch club Ajax before joining Liverpool in 2011, apologized for the bite after the game and was fined a reported 200,000 pounds ($305,700) by the club.
However, he was widely condemned for his behavior with some media suggesting he was in danger of being sacked by the club.
Former Liverpool player Graeme Souness said Suarez's latest misdemeanor had left him in the "last chance saloon" although the Merseyside club said this week that they wanted the Uruguayan to see out his four-year contract.
The FA said a three-match ban was "clearly insufficient" for the serious nature of the offence.
Controversy has followed Suarez since he joined Liverpool, with his antics often overshadowing his impact on the pitch.
He served an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra last season and later angered United manager Alex Ferguson by failing to shake the French defender's hand before their league match in February last year.
He has also been regularly accused of diving to win penalties and free kicks, while in an FA Cup tie this season against minor league Mansfield Town he was again criticized for scoring a goal despite a blatant handball.
Until Manchester United forward Robin Van Persie's hat-trick against Aston Villa on Monday that secured the title, Suarez was leading scorer in the league with 23 goals - a record that saw him included on a six-player list for PFA Player of the Year.
($1 = 0.6542 British pounds)
Suarez accepted a charge of violent conduct after the incident in the 2-2 Premier League draw at Anfield on Sunday but disputed the FA view that it merited more than a three-game ban.
An Independent Regulatory Commission met in London on Wednesday to decide the Uruguayan international's fate and added seven games to the usual ban for violent conduct.
The suspension begins immediately meaning Liverpool's leading scorer will miss his side's last four games of the season and the first six at the beginning of next term.
Liverpool, who expressed their shock at the Commission's decision, have until Friday (1100 GMT) to appeal.
"Both the club and player are shocked and disappointed at the severity of today's Independent Regulatory Commission decision," Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre said in a statement on the club's website (www.liverpoolfc.com).
"We await the written reasons tomorrow (Thursday) before making any further comment."
Suarez's bite on Ivanovic's arm at Anfield was missed by referee Kevin Friend but television replays showed him sinking his teeth into the Serbian.
WIDELY CONDEMNED
The 26-year-old Suarez, who was banned for biting an opponent while with Dutch club Ajax before joining Liverpool in 2011, apologized for the bite after the game and was fined a reported 200,000 pounds ($305,700) by the club.
However, he was widely condemned for his behavior with some media suggesting he was in danger of being sacked by the club.
Former Liverpool player Graeme Souness said Suarez's latest misdemeanor had left him in the "last chance saloon" although the Merseyside club said this week that they wanted the Uruguayan to see out his four-year contract.
The FA said a three-match ban was "clearly insufficient" for the serious nature of the offence.
Controversy has followed Suarez since he joined Liverpool, with his antics often overshadowing his impact on the pitch.
He served an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra last season and later angered United manager Alex Ferguson by failing to shake the French defender's hand before their league match in February last year.
He has also been regularly accused of diving to win penalties and free kicks, while in an FA Cup tie this season against minor league Mansfield Town he was again criticized for scoring a goal despite a blatant handball.
Until Manchester United forward Robin Van Persie's hat-trick against Aston Villa on Monday that secured the title, Suarez was leading scorer in the league with 23 goals - a record that saw him included on a six-player list for PFA Player of the Year.
($1 = 0.6542 British pounds)
Oops! N.Y.'s Suffolk County accidentally defaults on debt
As if Suffolk County, home of the Hamptons and playground of the rich and famous on New York's Long Island, didn't have enough financial problems already.
A regulatory filing on behalf of the county dated April 16 shows it accidentally missed an interest payment on some of its debt, including $76.1 million of public improvement bonds, putting the county technically in default. Oops.
The county is wealthy with income per capita well above the national average but it has run into difficulty recently, declaring a fiscal emergency last year after an independent task force predicted a three-year deficit of $530 million.
The county could have a budget shortfall of as much as $250 million by the end of next year, local officials said last month.
The error is more of an embarrassing glitch than anything else. The missed payment - just $722.65 - would be small change for many of the county's residents.
That will buy you fewer than 20 butter-poached lobster rolls (not the most expensive thing on the menu) at Dave's Grill in Montauk, a quaint fishing village on the island's northern tip, or just 10 bottles of Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc Russian River 2009 at La Plage in Wading River. A mere picnic.
The mistake was pointed out by the Depository Trust Company, a clearing firm, the day after it was missed and the filing says the error was the fault of the county's escrow agent, M&T Bank.
"The county informed M&T of its error and the escrow agent immediately wired the $722.65 payment to DTC," the regulatory filing said.
So what went wrong? The county was making the first payment in a complicated arrangement that uses $17 million in state HEAL grants for medical costs, primarily related to the Foley Nursing home, said Richard Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors, the county's financial adviser.
The $722.65, part of a debt payment of over $1 million, was the portion of the payment from the HEAL grants. The $17 million is being held in an escrow account at M&T.
"M&T for reasons we can't fathom just blew it: 'Oops it wasn't in our system, we missed it'", said Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors. Tortora said missing the payment and having to make a regulatory filing with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board was frustrating after months spent putting the arrangement together for the county.
M&T Bank was not immediately available for comment.
Fitch Ratings, the credit ratings agency, downgraded Suffolk County's general obligation bond rating to A from A-plus last month, affecting about $1.4 billion of debt. General obligation bonds have the full faith and credit of the issuer and are the best gauge of how risky investors think the county is.
Fitch said it had concerns about the county's ability to become financially stable, let alone reduce its big deficit.
(This story was corrected to fix name of Suffolk County's financial advisers)
A regulatory filing on behalf of the county dated April 16 shows it accidentally missed an interest payment on some of its debt, including $76.1 million of public improvement bonds, putting the county technically in default. Oops.
The county is wealthy with income per capita well above the national average but it has run into difficulty recently, declaring a fiscal emergency last year after an independent task force predicted a three-year deficit of $530 million.
The county could have a budget shortfall of as much as $250 million by the end of next year, local officials said last month.
The error is more of an embarrassing glitch than anything else. The missed payment - just $722.65 - would be small change for many of the county's residents.
That will buy you fewer than 20 butter-poached lobster rolls (not the most expensive thing on the menu) at Dave's Grill in Montauk, a quaint fishing village on the island's northern tip, or just 10 bottles of Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc Russian River 2009 at La Plage in Wading River. A mere picnic.
The mistake was pointed out by the Depository Trust Company, a clearing firm, the day after it was missed and the filing says the error was the fault of the county's escrow agent, M&T Bank.
"The county informed M&T of its error and the escrow agent immediately wired the $722.65 payment to DTC," the regulatory filing said.
So what went wrong? The county was making the first payment in a complicated arrangement that uses $17 million in state HEAL grants for medical costs, primarily related to the Foley Nursing home, said Richard Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors, the county's financial adviser.
The $722.65, part of a debt payment of over $1 million, was the portion of the payment from the HEAL grants. The $17 million is being held in an escrow account at M&T.
"M&T for reasons we can't fathom just blew it: 'Oops it wasn't in our system, we missed it'", said Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors. Tortora said missing the payment and having to make a regulatory filing with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board was frustrating after months spent putting the arrangement together for the county.
M&T Bank was not immediately available for comment.
Fitch Ratings, the credit ratings agency, downgraded Suffolk County's general obligation bond rating to A from A-plus last month, affecting about $1.4 billion of debt. General obligation bonds have the full faith and credit of the issuer and are the best gauge of how risky investors think the county is.
Fitch said it had concerns about the county's ability to become financially stable, let alone reduce its big deficit.
(This story was corrected to fix name of Suffolk County's financial advisers)
New Jersey parents demand girls' right to bare arm - in strapless dresses
A New Jersey principal's ban on strapless dresses at a junior high school dance because they would be "distracting" to boys has enraged parents, who called on Tuesday for its reversal on the grounds it violates their daughters' constitutional rights.
The dress code shreds the 14th Amendment right to equal protection since girls for the past six years have been wearing sleeveless fashions to the dance at Readington Middle School in Readington Township, New Jersey, said parent Charlotte Nijenhuis.
Parents petitioned the school board on Tuesday to overturn the policy before the June 12th dance.
The school's principal, Sharon Moffat, said in a letter last month that a "dress with straps" was the only style that would be allowed.
Nijenhuis said she called Moffat to ask why strapless dresses had been forbidden. "She told me, 'It is because it's distracting to boys and inappropriate','" Nijenhuis said.
Moffat did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Another parent, Michelle D'Amico, said she was "livid" that her 14-year-old daughter was being prevented from wearing the same strapless dress that her older daughter had worn six years ago. "It's completely unjust," D'Amico said.
The Readington Township School District said in a statement on Tuesday that it "has a policy regarding dress code which is being universally applied to the school day and school events. We regret that a small number of families are upset by this and we welcome their input and communication."
At least one student, Claudine Nijenhuis, 14, said she planned to defy the ban and press her right to bare arms.
"Basically by saying 'it distracts the boys' you're also saying that it is our fault on how they control their own behavior," the teenager wrote in a letter to the principal. "I will still be attending the dinner dance function, but I will also be wearing a dress with no straps."
The dress code shreds the 14th Amendment right to equal protection since girls for the past six years have been wearing sleeveless fashions to the dance at Readington Middle School in Readington Township, New Jersey, said parent Charlotte Nijenhuis.
Parents petitioned the school board on Tuesday to overturn the policy before the June 12th dance.
The school's principal, Sharon Moffat, said in a letter last month that a "dress with straps" was the only style that would be allowed.
Nijenhuis said she called Moffat to ask why strapless dresses had been forbidden. "She told me, 'It is because it's distracting to boys and inappropriate','" Nijenhuis said.
Moffat did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Another parent, Michelle D'Amico, said she was "livid" that her 14-year-old daughter was being prevented from wearing the same strapless dress that her older daughter had worn six years ago. "It's completely unjust," D'Amico said.
The Readington Township School District said in a statement on Tuesday that it "has a policy regarding dress code which is being universally applied to the school day and school events. We regret that a small number of families are upset by this and we welcome their input and communication."
At least one student, Claudine Nijenhuis, 14, said she planned to defy the ban and press her right to bare arms.
"Basically by saying 'it distracts the boys' you're also saying that it is our fault on how they control their own behavior," the teenager wrote in a letter to the principal. "I will still be attending the dinner dance function, but I will also be wearing a dress with no straps."
"Penmanship" is now 'handwriting' as Washington state removes gender bias in statutes
Washington state's governor signed into law on Monday the final piece of a six-year effort to rewrite state laws using gender-neutral vocabulary, replacing terms such as "fisherman" and "freshman" with "fisher" and "first-year student."
Lawmakers have passed a series of bills since 2007 to root out gender bias from Washington statutes, though a 1983 state mandate required that all laws be written in gender-neutral terms unless a specification of gender was intended.
"This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman," said Democratic state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle.
The new gender-neutral references, for example, include "journey-level plumber" instead of "journeyman plumber," "handwriting" in place of "penmanship," and "signal operator" for "signalman."
"There's no good reason for keeping our legal terms anachronistic and with words that do not respect our current contemporary times," Kohl-Welles, the 475-page bill's sponsor, told Reuters.
Several words, however, aren't easy to replace, said Kyle Thiessen, the state's code reviser, who heads up the 40-staff Washington Code Reviser's Office agency.
The state likely won't change the words "airmen" and "seaman," for example, because of objections by the state's Washington Military Department, he said.
Civil engineering terms such as "man hole" and "man lock," also will not be changed because no common-sense substitutes could easily be found, Thiessen said.
Nearly 3,500 Washington state code sections, out of a total of about 40,000 have been tediously scrubbed of gender bias, although most involve adding pronouns "she" and "her" to augment the existing "he" and "his," Thiessen said.
The bill passed the Democrat-controlled state House 70-22 on April 9 and unanimously cleared the state Senate on February 8 before being signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee.
Washington state is the nation's fourth to boast of eliminating gender bias from its official lexicon, following in the footsteps of Florida, North Carolina and Illinois, Kohl-Welles said.
Other states that have passed gender-neutral constitutional mandates include California, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Utah, Kohl-Welles said. At least nine other states are currently considering gender-neutral legislation, she said.
"Words matter," said Liz Watson, a National Women's Law Center senior adviser. "This is important in changing hearts and minds."
Lawmakers have passed a series of bills since 2007 to root out gender bias from Washington statutes, though a 1983 state mandate required that all laws be written in gender-neutral terms unless a specification of gender was intended.
"This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman," said Democratic state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle.
The new gender-neutral references, for example, include "journey-level plumber" instead of "journeyman plumber," "handwriting" in place of "penmanship," and "signal operator" for "signalman."
"There's no good reason for keeping our legal terms anachronistic and with words that do not respect our current contemporary times," Kohl-Welles, the 475-page bill's sponsor, told Reuters.
Several words, however, aren't easy to replace, said Kyle Thiessen, the state's code reviser, who heads up the 40-staff Washington Code Reviser's Office agency.
The state likely won't change the words "airmen" and "seaman," for example, because of objections by the state's Washington Military Department, he said.
Civil engineering terms such as "man hole" and "man lock," also will not be changed because no common-sense substitutes could easily be found, Thiessen said.
Nearly 3,500 Washington state code sections, out of a total of about 40,000 have been tediously scrubbed of gender bias, although most involve adding pronouns "she" and "her" to augment the existing "he" and "his," Thiessen said.
The bill passed the Democrat-controlled state House 70-22 on April 9 and unanimously cleared the state Senate on February 8 before being signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee.
Washington state is the nation's fourth to boast of eliminating gender bias from its official lexicon, following in the footsteps of Florida, North Carolina and Illinois, Kohl-Welles said.
Other states that have passed gender-neutral constitutional mandates include California, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Utah, Kohl-Welles said. At least nine other states are currently considering gender-neutral legislation, she said.
"Words matter," said Liz Watson, a National Women's Law Center senior adviser. "This is important in changing hearts and minds."
Liverpool fine Suarez for bite but won't sack him
Liverpool have fined Uruguay striker Luis Suarez an undisclosed amount for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic at the weekend but will not sack him, the Premier League club said on Monday.
Suarez, the league's top scorer with 23 goals, has been widely condemned for his behavior in Sunday's 2-2 draw and is expected to get a lengthy ban from the Football Association but Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre said the club would stand by him.
"I think the most important thing is that we acted swiftly yesterday," Ayre told the club's website (www.liverpoolfc.com).
"Luis issued his apology and then we spoke with him last night and then again this morning. We've taken action to fine Luis for his actions."
Ayre did not specify the size of the fine but Suarez asked for the money to be donated to the Hillsborough Family Support Group - an organization set up after the 1989 stadium disaster that left 96 Liverpool fans dead.
Former Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness said on Sunday that Suarez had reached "last chance saloon" at Anfield after the latest in a string of misdemeanors while others have suggested the club could take a moral stance and terminate his contract.
However, Ayre said manager Brendan Rodgers would work with the player to help improve his discipline.
"The owners are happy with the way we are handling the matter," said the managing director.
"He's a very popular player with his team mates. As we keep saying, he signed a new four-year contract last summer and we'd all love to see him here throughout that contract.
"He's a fantastic player, top scorer and everything we'd want in a striker so there's no change there."
The Professional Footballers Association (PFA) said on Monday that Suarez would be offered anger management classes.
Suarez, the league's top scorer with 23 goals, has been widely condemned for his behavior in Sunday's 2-2 draw and is expected to get a lengthy ban from the Football Association but Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre said the club would stand by him.
"I think the most important thing is that we acted swiftly yesterday," Ayre told the club's website (www.liverpoolfc.com).
"Luis issued his apology and then we spoke with him last night and then again this morning. We've taken action to fine Luis for his actions."
Ayre did not specify the size of the fine but Suarez asked for the money to be donated to the Hillsborough Family Support Group - an organization set up after the 1989 stadium disaster that left 96 Liverpool fans dead.
Former Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness said on Sunday that Suarez had reached "last chance saloon" at Anfield after the latest in a string of misdemeanors while others have suggested the club could take a moral stance and terminate his contract.
However, Ayre said manager Brendan Rodgers would work with the player to help improve his discipline.
"The owners are happy with the way we are handling the matter," said the managing director.
"He's a very popular player with his team mates. As we keep saying, he signed a new four-year contract last summer and we'd all love to see him here throughout that contract.
"He's a fantastic player, top scorer and everything we'd want in a striker so there's no change there."
The Professional Footballers Association (PFA) said on Monday that Suarez would be offered anger management classes.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Issue of underage drinking taken far too lightly
By Caitlin Friel
Central Bucks East High School
Recently, I had the pleasure of viewing an hour-long seminar about the risks of underage drinking on the TV screen in my homeroom.
The refreshingly humorous Jim Matthews gave this presentation, entitled "Beer, Booze and Books."
His sense of humor definitely earned some laughs from the school, and it is my hope he got his message across, as well.
To my continuing dismay, it seems the brick wall that is the teenager is nearly impossible to penetrate. Most teens live in a world where nothing can ever go wrong and bad things only happen to other people.
Stories about fatal car crashes or death by alchol poisoning are mere fables in the ears of a teenager. The reality is these stories are not fiction, but most teens won't believe it until it happens to them.
The story of Steubenville is still fresh in many of our minds, so I'll call on it for an example. A long night of drinking and partying ends in what is legally considered rape, and ultimately the conviction of two young men with otherwise promising futures.
No matter how you slice it, the fact of the matter is that none of the above would have happened if there wasn't any drinking involved. It all boils down to the decision to drink ----- and not only to drink, but to get absolutely wasted.
Peresonally, I think people take the concept of underage drinking far too lightly. It's a depressing thought, but perhaps it has simply become so common these days that people just accept it.
However, on behalf of the United States of America, I would like to remind everyone the consumption of alcohol under the age of 21 is illegal ---- and with good reason.
Maybe it's just me, but I've always been under the impression there are consequences for going against the law. One could argue teens are eventually punished for their illegal drinking habits through some otherworldly force that causes them to become alcoholics later in life or get in car crashes, but (thankfully) that doesn't happen to everyone.
Maybe those tragedies wouldn't occur so frequently if there were actual implementable punishments for these actions.
However, teenagers could make the job of law enforcement a whole lot easier if theysimply wouldn't drink. Ther is no neccessity to the act, and if you argue it makes for a good time, I feel sorry for you. If you need alcohol to have fun, you really should reevaluate your life.
Many teens are simply too impatient or live by this psychotic "YOLO" mentality that they have to do everything they could ever want to do in life right this moment or they may never be able to do it.
What they don't seem to understand is if you live your life safely and healthily, you will likely live to see.
But guess what? The excitement of being able to go out and have a drinl with your friends on your 21st birthday will definitely not feel as special if you've been doing it since you were 15.
Besides, before long, we'll all be adults and have to worry ;about mature things like taxes and which kind of dish detergent to purchase and which store has it for the best price.
Can't we just enjoy these last few years of freedom and (relative) simplicity without alcohol?
Central Bucks East High School
Recently, I had the pleasure of viewing an hour-long seminar about the risks of underage drinking on the TV screen in my homeroom.
The refreshingly humorous Jim Matthews gave this presentation, entitled "Beer, Booze and Books."
His sense of humor definitely earned some laughs from the school, and it is my hope he got his message across, as well.
To my continuing dismay, it seems the brick wall that is the teenager is nearly impossible to penetrate. Most teens live in a world where nothing can ever go wrong and bad things only happen to other people.
Stories about fatal car crashes or death by alchol poisoning are mere fables in the ears of a teenager. The reality is these stories are not fiction, but most teens won't believe it until it happens to them.
The story of Steubenville is still fresh in many of our minds, so I'll call on it for an example. A long night of drinking and partying ends in what is legally considered rape, and ultimately the conviction of two young men with otherwise promising futures.
No matter how you slice it, the fact of the matter is that none of the above would have happened if there wasn't any drinking involved. It all boils down to the decision to drink ----- and not only to drink, but to get absolutely wasted.
Peresonally, I think people take the concept of underage drinking far too lightly. It's a depressing thought, but perhaps it has simply become so common these days that people just accept it.
However, on behalf of the United States of America, I would like to remind everyone the consumption of alcohol under the age of 21 is illegal ---- and with good reason.
Maybe it's just me, but I've always been under the impression there are consequences for going against the law. One could argue teens are eventually punished for their illegal drinking habits through some otherworldly force that causes them to become alcoholics later in life or get in car crashes, but (thankfully) that doesn't happen to everyone.
Maybe those tragedies wouldn't occur so frequently if there were actual implementable punishments for these actions.
However, teenagers could make the job of law enforcement a whole lot easier if theysimply wouldn't drink. Ther is no neccessity to the act, and if you argue it makes for a good time, I feel sorry for you. If you need alcohol to have fun, you really should reevaluate your life.
Many teens are simply too impatient or live by this psychotic "YOLO" mentality that they have to do everything they could ever want to do in life right this moment or they may never be able to do it.
What they don't seem to understand is if you live your life safely and healthily, you will likely live to see.
But guess what? The excitement of being able to go out and have a drinl with your friends on your 21st birthday will definitely not feel as special if you've been doing it since you were 15.
Besides, before long, we'll all be adults and have to worry ;about mature things like taxes and which kind of dish detergent to purchase and which store has it for the best price.
Can't we just enjoy these last few years of freedom and (relative) simplicity without alcohol?
Bladder Up!
Baseball season is back, and you're happier than a pig ----- make that Iron Pig ---- in slop.
You're enjoying a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs minor-league game at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown.
You and your buds have been enjoying some Buds for several innings. You disagree with the close play at first base that ended the Iron-Pigs' threat in the fourth; your eagle eyes, even after a few beers, swear the ump missed the call.
But that call is immediately followed by another, from nature, and it's one you don't want to miss for obvious reasons. So, you zip up to the restroom, unzip at a urinal and .... play a video game?
Yes, it's true. Gone are the days when you stood at a urinl at the ballpark and saw only chipping paint and "Good Time" Betsy's phone number. Now when you have to go, your restroom experience is nearly as much Wii as wee.
The new restroom attraction at Coca-Cola Park, and the only one of its kind at a North America sporting venue, is a hands-free video game controlled by urine flow. As a guy takes his place at the urinal, he seesa video screen mounted at eye level. Sensors detect the player's presence and initiate the start of the game. On the screen is a downhill skiing game in which the object is to hit animated penguins for bonus points. As the player's stream goes left, center or right in the urinal, the sensors read the direction of the flow and that direction is reflected on the screen, hopefully knocking down the penguins and racking up points.
Each game lasts about 55 seconds. (How many large Cokes did you have anyway?) The longer and faster you, uh, go, the more you'll rack up. Each player is provided his final score and an online access code in the event he'd like to see how his score stacks up with others.
Top scores are posted on video screens throughout the ballpark. Imagine the level of pride upon seeing your name ranked above all others. Hey, I'm No.1 in that restroom video game! Can't wait to tell the kids! As you drive home, "Wee Are the Champions" plays in your head. Talk about becoming a whiz at live streaming.
Other games to be offered throughout the season include "Art Splash," designed to bring out the artist in the restroom guy by having him paint from a palette, and "Clever Dick," in which true/false trivia questions can be answered by 'going" left or right .
While the urinal video games at Coca-Cola Park are easy fodder for various types of sophomoric bathroom humor, there is a serious component here. Lehigh Valley Health Network is sponsoring the games in the hope of promoting prostate cancer awareness.
"Baseball fans know all about RBI, ERA and OBP," said LVHN urologist Angelo Baccala, Jr. "But when it comes to their own PSA (prostate specific antigen, a test for prostate cancer), many men don't have a clue. We see this game as a fun and unique opportunity to remind men about the importance of prostate health."
The urinal video games are about the guys. From a far corner of the ballpark, I can almost hear the ladies calling for equal time. We enjoy beer and video games, too, they shout. What about us?
While there aren't restroom video games for women at the ballpark, Captive Media, the United Kingdom-based company that designed the system, has installed video screens in ladies rooms so they can keep track of the men's scores.
But for now, it's all about the guys. And should a baseball-type game be offered down the road, a shout of "Bladder Up!" won't be far behind.
You're enjoying a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs minor-league game at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown.
You and your buds have been enjoying some Buds for several innings. You disagree with the close play at first base that ended the Iron-Pigs' threat in the fourth; your eagle eyes, even after a few beers, swear the ump missed the call.
But that call is immediately followed by another, from nature, and it's one you don't want to miss for obvious reasons. So, you zip up to the restroom, unzip at a urinal and .... play a video game?
Yes, it's true. Gone are the days when you stood at a urinl at the ballpark and saw only chipping paint and "Good Time" Betsy's phone number. Now when you have to go, your restroom experience is nearly as much Wii as wee.
The new restroom attraction at Coca-Cola Park, and the only one of its kind at a North America sporting venue, is a hands-free video game controlled by urine flow. As a guy takes his place at the urinal, he seesa video screen mounted at eye level. Sensors detect the player's presence and initiate the start of the game. On the screen is a downhill skiing game in which the object is to hit animated penguins for bonus points. As the player's stream goes left, center or right in the urinal, the sensors read the direction of the flow and that direction is reflected on the screen, hopefully knocking down the penguins and racking up points.
Each game lasts about 55 seconds. (How many large Cokes did you have anyway?) The longer and faster you, uh, go, the more you'll rack up. Each player is provided his final score and an online access code in the event he'd like to see how his score stacks up with others.
Top scores are posted on video screens throughout the ballpark. Imagine the level of pride upon seeing your name ranked above all others. Hey, I'm No.1 in that restroom video game! Can't wait to tell the kids! As you drive home, "Wee Are the Champions" plays in your head. Talk about becoming a whiz at live streaming.
Other games to be offered throughout the season include "Art Splash," designed to bring out the artist in the restroom guy by having him paint from a palette, and "Clever Dick," in which true/false trivia questions can be answered by 'going" left or right .
While the urinal video games at Coca-Cola Park are easy fodder for various types of sophomoric bathroom humor, there is a serious component here. Lehigh Valley Health Network is sponsoring the games in the hope of promoting prostate cancer awareness.
"Baseball fans know all about RBI, ERA and OBP," said LVHN urologist Angelo Baccala, Jr. "But when it comes to their own PSA (prostate specific antigen, a test for prostate cancer), many men don't have a clue. We see this game as a fun and unique opportunity to remind men about the importance of prostate health."
The urinal video games are about the guys. From a far corner of the ballpark, I can almost hear the ladies calling for equal time. We enjoy beer and video games, too, they shout. What about us?
While there aren't restroom video games for women at the ballpark, Captive Media, the United Kingdom-based company that designed the system, has installed video screens in ladies rooms so they can keep track of the men's scores.
But for now, it's all about the guys. And should a baseball-type game be offered down the road, a shout of "Bladder Up!" won't be far behind.
Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (April 12, 2013)
Greenhouse Gas Fuel
Scientists say they have developed two processes to use the carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas pollution created by burning fossil fuels as an alternative fuel itself. Laboratory-scale experiments have been successful in doing that by using the three most abundant and inexpensive resources available ---- sunlight, carbon dioxide and water. A full-scale commercial facility would use a field of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central reactor. In it, CO2 captured in calcium oxide panels placed in smokestacks of coal-fired power plants would be the initial fuel source. The concentrated sunlight would break down the stored CO2 with water to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which are two componets of "synthesis gas" or "syngas." It can easily be converted to hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Researchers from the University of Minnesota say the technolgy could allow "carbon-neutral" energy production, in which the same amount of CO2 released into the air from burning fossil fuels is captured and put back into "synfuels."
South Seas Eruption
Residents on the Vanuatu island of Tanna have been alerted to the possibility of more explosive eruptions from Yasur volcano. The mountain is a popular desination for tourists wanting to see lava spewing from its nearly circular summit crater. But vulcanologists say Yasur is exhibiting the potential for blasts that could send lava bombs falling far from the crater. Raining ash is also an increased threat. Yasur has been erupting nearly continuously for more than 800 years, although it can usually be approached safely. Its lava glow at night was apparently what attracted Capt. James Cook to approach Tanna in 1774.
Ocean Heat Bank
A new study warns that the surface of the Earth could see a sharp increase in average temperatures if the world's oceans, which store much of the excess heat generated by human-induced global warming, begin to release that excess energy back into the atmosphere. Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Climate Change, a team of Spanish climate scientists found that between 2000-2010, the oceans absorbed much of the overall warming that occurred on the planet. By storing heat in this way, the oceans have moderated the surface impact of ever-higher greenhouse gas emissions. But that dampening effect could be the result of temporary changes in oceanic current patterns, says the study's lead author, Virginie Guemas.
Tropical Cyclones
Mauritius and Reunion received pounding surf from Cyclone Imelda, which passed well to the northeast of both Indian Ocean islands.
* Cyclone Victoria formed south of Java and was a threat to only shipping during its life span.
Bird Flu Alert
Human bird flu deaths spread across parts of eastern China, but there has been no evidence the avian virus was transmitted from human to human. The new H7N9 strain has killed at least nine people since it emerged last month. It had never before infected humans, according to health officials. The patients all initially suffered from fevers and coughing, which eventually developed into severe pneumonia. Tens of thousands of birds have been slaughtered to halt the spread of the disease, especially in Shanghai. Officials in that financial hub closed all of the city's live poultry markets, emptying food stalls. The move came after the virus was detected in birds at three sites. Chinese authorities say the H7N9 virus remained sensitive to the drug Tamiflu, and those diagnosed early can be cured.
Earthquakes
Two villages in western Iran were virtually leveled by a powerful temblor that killed 37 people and injured nearly a thousand others.
* Earth movements were also felt in eastern Indonesia's Papua province, south-central Burma and the far northern Philippines.
A Loud Emergence
Eerie ssounds like those out of a science fiction film are about to ring ears across the eastern United States. Every 17 years at this time, like clockwork, Brood II cicadas crawl out of the ground from North Carolina to New England. The bugs live underground for nearly two decades, feeding off fluids that gather near the roots of plants. they will eventually emerge by the billions when the temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The Brood II, red-eyed cicada is smaller than the larger common cicada, which has green eyes and comes out every year. They last emerged in 1996 and will fill the air with high-pitched buzzes that can be so loud they disrupt outdoor events. But their periodic emergence and return to the ground help aerate the soil, and they return nutrients to the earth when they die. They also provide food for birds and other animals. The 1.5-inch-long insects do not sting or bite. They spend their brief two-week lives above ground climbing trees, shedding their crunchy skins and reproducing.
Scientists say they have developed two processes to use the carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas pollution created by burning fossil fuels as an alternative fuel itself. Laboratory-scale experiments have been successful in doing that by using the three most abundant and inexpensive resources available ---- sunlight, carbon dioxide and water. A full-scale commercial facility would use a field of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central reactor. In it, CO2 captured in calcium oxide panels placed in smokestacks of coal-fired power plants would be the initial fuel source. The concentrated sunlight would break down the stored CO2 with water to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which are two componets of "synthesis gas" or "syngas." It can easily be converted to hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Researchers from the University of Minnesota say the technolgy could allow "carbon-neutral" energy production, in which the same amount of CO2 released into the air from burning fossil fuels is captured and put back into "synfuels."
South Seas Eruption
Residents on the Vanuatu island of Tanna have been alerted to the possibility of more explosive eruptions from Yasur volcano. The mountain is a popular desination for tourists wanting to see lava spewing from its nearly circular summit crater. But vulcanologists say Yasur is exhibiting the potential for blasts that could send lava bombs falling far from the crater. Raining ash is also an increased threat. Yasur has been erupting nearly continuously for more than 800 years, although it can usually be approached safely. Its lava glow at night was apparently what attracted Capt. James Cook to approach Tanna in 1774.
Ocean Heat Bank
A new study warns that the surface of the Earth could see a sharp increase in average temperatures if the world's oceans, which store much of the excess heat generated by human-induced global warming, begin to release that excess energy back into the atmosphere. Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Climate Change, a team of Spanish climate scientists found that between 2000-2010, the oceans absorbed much of the overall warming that occurred on the planet. By storing heat in this way, the oceans have moderated the surface impact of ever-higher greenhouse gas emissions. But that dampening effect could be the result of temporary changes in oceanic current patterns, says the study's lead author, Virginie Guemas.
Tropical Cyclones
Mauritius and Reunion received pounding surf from Cyclone Imelda, which passed well to the northeast of both Indian Ocean islands.
* Cyclone Victoria formed south of Java and was a threat to only shipping during its life span.
Bird Flu Alert
Human bird flu deaths spread across parts of eastern China, but there has been no evidence the avian virus was transmitted from human to human. The new H7N9 strain has killed at least nine people since it emerged last month. It had never before infected humans, according to health officials. The patients all initially suffered from fevers and coughing, which eventually developed into severe pneumonia. Tens of thousands of birds have been slaughtered to halt the spread of the disease, especially in Shanghai. Officials in that financial hub closed all of the city's live poultry markets, emptying food stalls. The move came after the virus was detected in birds at three sites. Chinese authorities say the H7N9 virus remained sensitive to the drug Tamiflu, and those diagnosed early can be cured.
Earthquakes
Two villages in western Iran were virtually leveled by a powerful temblor that killed 37 people and injured nearly a thousand others.
* Earth movements were also felt in eastern Indonesia's Papua province, south-central Burma and the far northern Philippines.
A Loud Emergence
Eerie ssounds like those out of a science fiction film are about to ring ears across the eastern United States. Every 17 years at this time, like clockwork, Brood II cicadas crawl out of the ground from North Carolina to New England. The bugs live underground for nearly two decades, feeding off fluids that gather near the roots of plants. they will eventually emerge by the billions when the temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The Brood II, red-eyed cicada is smaller than the larger common cicada, which has green eyes and comes out every year. They last emerged in 1996 and will fill the air with high-pitched buzzes that can be so loud they disrupt outdoor events. But their periodic emergence and return to the ground help aerate the soil, and they return nutrients to the earth when they die. They also provide food for birds and other animals. The 1.5-inch-long insects do not sting or bite. They spend their brief two-week lives above ground climbing trees, shedding their crunchy skins and reproducing.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (April 5, 2013)
Deep Warming
A new study shows that the world's oceans are warming significantly under the influence of greenhouse gas-induced climate change, especially the deeps. Scientists from the U.S. and European weather agencies reassembled data from 1958 to 2009, using all available sources to create a model of ocean temperature changes. They found that dimmed sunlight due to massive volcanic eruptions in the early 1980s and 1990s briefly reversed an otherwise profound trend of ocean warming. About 90 percent of the energy added to the global environmentby human activities was found to have gone into the ocean. Deep waters absorbed a surprising amount of heat, which may be related to a long-term cycle known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Once it changes, researchers believe the ocean surface temperatures will begin to warm more.
Bat Die-Off
One of Pennsylvania's largest bat habitats has suffered an almost complete die-off this past winter. The deaths are the result of a lethal fungal infection that has decimated bat caves and mines across a broad swath of the eastern United States during the past few years. Greg Turner, a biologist from Pennsylvania's Game Commission, found that all but 23 of the approximately 10,000 bats that have hibernated for generations in the Durham mine, died over the winter. It's the lastest colony to succumb to white nose syndrome, an epidemic that has spread across the region since 2006. The syndrome is caused by a white fungus, which builds up around the snout of stricken bats. Once infected, a bat will repeatedly wake from hibernation, leading the flying mammal to use up its stores of body fat before the end of the season.
Sea Lion Starvation
Unprecedented numbers of starving sea lion pups are swimming to shore in California, straining local animal care centers and puzzling marine biologists who have yet to determine what is ailing the sea mammals. According to marine biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more fledgling sea lions have beached themselves along the central and southern California coast in 2013 so far than in the previous five years combined. The agency says 948 sea lion pups, many of them less than a year old, have come ashorethis year between San Diego in the south and Santa Barbara in the north. That compares to only 88 strandings in all of 2012.
Locust Alert
Madagascar's worst locust plague in 60 years has infested more than half of the island's crops and has prompted a U.N. warning of potential food shortages. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that half of the island's population could be at risk of hunger as the insects continue to devour crops. "The last (locust plague) was in the 1950s and it had a duration of 17 years. So if nothing is done, it can last for five to 10 years, depending on the conditions," FAO locust control expert Annie Monard told the BBC.
Earthquakes
Manila and other parts of Luzon were jolted by a strong quake that struck just offshore from the northern Philippines island. Residents rushed outside during the shaking.
* Earth movements were also felt in south-central Burma, Trinidad, central West Virginia and southeastern Missouri.
Argentine Cloudburst
One of the most severe storms on record inundated the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, leaving half the city submerged and many residents stranded on rooftops. Nearly 6 inches of rain fell over parts of the city in two hours during an overnight cloudburst. It was the heaviest April rainfall to douse the capital in a century. Dozens of people were killed in the floods across Buenos Aires Province. Major streets and avenues turned into streams and rivers that carried away thousands of cars.
Fairy Circles
Puzzling patterns of grass rings that blanket parts of southwest Africa have left casual observers and even experts scratching their heads for centuries. Fairy circles can reach 50 feet in diameter and are most common in Namibia. The indigenous Himba people have, since prehistoric times, attributed the rings to a higher power. But botanist Norbert Juergens of the University of Hamburg says the lowly termite is the true force that creates them. Writing in the journal Science, Juergens says that the sand termite Psammotermes allocerus is the only creature that is always there when the circles are forming. He and colleagues found that the insects, which seem to "swim" through the sandy terrain around fairy circles, damage plant roots and feed on them, slowly forming fairy circles in the process. The termites benefit from the moisture that gets trapped inside the circle. This leaves other plants in the mainly arid region cut off from the moisture, causing the grass rings to appear as the most prominent signs of life.
A new study shows that the world's oceans are warming significantly under the influence of greenhouse gas-induced climate change, especially the deeps. Scientists from the U.S. and European weather agencies reassembled data from 1958 to 2009, using all available sources to create a model of ocean temperature changes. They found that dimmed sunlight due to massive volcanic eruptions in the early 1980s and 1990s briefly reversed an otherwise profound trend of ocean warming. About 90 percent of the energy added to the global environmentby human activities was found to have gone into the ocean. Deep waters absorbed a surprising amount of heat, which may be related to a long-term cycle known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Once it changes, researchers believe the ocean surface temperatures will begin to warm more.
Bat Die-Off
One of Pennsylvania's largest bat habitats has suffered an almost complete die-off this past winter. The deaths are the result of a lethal fungal infection that has decimated bat caves and mines across a broad swath of the eastern United States during the past few years. Greg Turner, a biologist from Pennsylvania's Game Commission, found that all but 23 of the approximately 10,000 bats that have hibernated for generations in the Durham mine, died over the winter. It's the lastest colony to succumb to white nose syndrome, an epidemic that has spread across the region since 2006. The syndrome is caused by a white fungus, which builds up around the snout of stricken bats. Once infected, a bat will repeatedly wake from hibernation, leading the flying mammal to use up its stores of body fat before the end of the season.
Sea Lion Starvation
Unprecedented numbers of starving sea lion pups are swimming to shore in California, straining local animal care centers and puzzling marine biologists who have yet to determine what is ailing the sea mammals. According to marine biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more fledgling sea lions have beached themselves along the central and southern California coast in 2013 so far than in the previous five years combined. The agency says 948 sea lion pups, many of them less than a year old, have come ashorethis year between San Diego in the south and Santa Barbara in the north. That compares to only 88 strandings in all of 2012.
Locust Alert
Madagascar's worst locust plague in 60 years has infested more than half of the island's crops and has prompted a U.N. warning of potential food shortages. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that half of the island's population could be at risk of hunger as the insects continue to devour crops. "The last (locust plague) was in the 1950s and it had a duration of 17 years. So if nothing is done, it can last for five to 10 years, depending on the conditions," FAO locust control expert Annie Monard told the BBC.
Earthquakes
Manila and other parts of Luzon were jolted by a strong quake that struck just offshore from the northern Philippines island. Residents rushed outside during the shaking.
* Earth movements were also felt in south-central Burma, Trinidad, central West Virginia and southeastern Missouri.
Argentine Cloudburst
One of the most severe storms on record inundated the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, leaving half the city submerged and many residents stranded on rooftops. Nearly 6 inches of rain fell over parts of the city in two hours during an overnight cloudburst. It was the heaviest April rainfall to douse the capital in a century. Dozens of people were killed in the floods across Buenos Aires Province. Major streets and avenues turned into streams and rivers that carried away thousands of cars.
Fairy Circles
Puzzling patterns of grass rings that blanket parts of southwest Africa have left casual observers and even experts scratching their heads for centuries. Fairy circles can reach 50 feet in diameter and are most common in Namibia. The indigenous Himba people have, since prehistoric times, attributed the rings to a higher power. But botanist Norbert Juergens of the University of Hamburg says the lowly termite is the true force that creates them. Writing in the journal Science, Juergens says that the sand termite Psammotermes allocerus is the only creature that is always there when the circles are forming. He and colleagues found that the insects, which seem to "swim" through the sandy terrain around fairy circles, damage plant roots and feed on them, slowly forming fairy circles in the process. The termites benefit from the moisture that gets trapped inside the circle. This leaves other plants in the mainly arid region cut off from the moisture, causing the grass rings to appear as the most prominent signs of life.
POP Quiz (Mr. President Said What?)
Surprising quips from the past 50 years.
You remember the Great Society and a thousand points of light. You ask not what your country can do for you.
But can you match each president with two of his lesser-known witticisms?
Take our quiz and find out.
1. "Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security."
2. "I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators."
3. "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans."
4. "One lesson you'd better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on the golf course and beat the president."
5. "I'm the president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!"
6. "The ultimate test of leadership is not the polls you take, but the risks you take."
7. "Even Albert Einstein reportedly needed help on his 1040 form."
8. "My esteem in the country has gone up......it's very nice now that when people wave at me, they use all their fingers."
9. " Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion."
10. "The trouble with Republicans is that when they get into trouble, they start acting like cannibals."
11. "America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it's the other way around. Human rights invented America."
12. "My doctor ordered me to shut up, which will make every American happy."
13. "Words wound. But as a veteran of 12 years in the United States Senate, I happily attest they do not kill."
14. "Politics is like football. If you see daylight, go through the hole."
15. "The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife."
16. "These stories about my intellectual capacity do get under my skin a little bit."
17. "It wasn't my finest hour. It wasn't even my finest hour and a half."
18. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
19. "What's wrong with being a boring kind of guy?"
20. "What Washington needs is adult supervision."
A) John F. Kennedy F) Ronald Reagan
B) Lyndon B. Johnson G) George H. W. Bush
C) Richard M. Nixon H) Bill Clinton
D) Gerald Ford I) George W. Bush
E) Jimmy Carter J) Barack Obama
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. A ; 2. D ; 3. F ; 4. B ; 5. G ; 6. D ; 7. F ; 8. E ; 9. C ; 10. C ; 11. E ; 12. H ; 13. B ; 14. A ; 15. J ; 16. I ; 17. H ; 18. I ; 19. G ; 20. J
You remember the Great Society and a thousand points of light. You ask not what your country can do for you.
But can you match each president with two of his lesser-known witticisms?
Take our quiz and find out.
1. "Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security."
2. "I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators."
3. "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans."
4. "One lesson you'd better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on the golf course and beat the president."
5. "I'm the president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!"
6. "The ultimate test of leadership is not the polls you take, but the risks you take."
7. "Even Albert Einstein reportedly needed help on his 1040 form."
8. "My esteem in the country has gone up......it's very nice now that when people wave at me, they use all their fingers."
9. " Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion."
10. "The trouble with Republicans is that when they get into trouble, they start acting like cannibals."
11. "America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it's the other way around. Human rights invented America."
12. "My doctor ordered me to shut up, which will make every American happy."
13. "Words wound. But as a veteran of 12 years in the United States Senate, I happily attest they do not kill."
14. "Politics is like football. If you see daylight, go through the hole."
15. "The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife."
16. "These stories about my intellectual capacity do get under my skin a little bit."
17. "It wasn't my finest hour. It wasn't even my finest hour and a half."
18. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
19. "What's wrong with being a boring kind of guy?"
20. "What Washington needs is adult supervision."
A) John F. Kennedy F) Ronald Reagan
B) Lyndon B. Johnson G) George H. W. Bush
C) Richard M. Nixon H) Bill Clinton
D) Gerald Ford I) George W. Bush
E) Jimmy Carter J) Barack Obama
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. A ; 2. D ; 3. F ; 4. B ; 5. G ; 6. D ; 7. F ; 8. E ; 9. C ; 10. C ; 11. E ; 12. H ; 13. B ; 14. A ; 15. J ; 16. I ; 17. H ; 18. I ; 19. G ; 20. J
Friday, April 19, 2013
POP Quiz (Don't be an April Fool)
For successful scammers and thieves, every day is April Fool's Day.
How prepared are you to avoid common crimes of the season?
Take this quiz to find out.
1. Home burglaries increase as the weather warms. Where is the safest place to hide valuables?
a) The laundry room
b) The bathrom
c) The bedroom
2. A contractor offers a big discount on a home repair. Which tip-off suggests his work will likely be a rip-off?
a) His truck has no company name on it or bears an out-of-state license plate.
b) He wants payment upfront to buy materials.
c) He offers to help finance the project.
d) All of the above.
3. If your wallet is lost or stolen, should you report it to the police?
a) No. The police are unlikely to have time to investigate.
b) Yes. Sending copies of the report to card issuers and credit bureaus can help clear up any resulting ID theft.
4. You get an email from a well-known company, asking you to click on a link to get information. How can you tell it's a scam?
a) You're a customer but you never provided your email address to the company.
b) The message begins with "Dear Member" or "Valued Customer" ----- even though the company has your name and email address.
c) You hover your cursor over the link to see the full URL, and the company's Internet address is missing, is incomplete or ends with letters such as ".us" or ".exe."
d) All of the above.
5. Your grandchild calls, saying he was arrested while on vacation and needs money. What next?
a) Head to Western Union as instructed.
b) Hang up and immediately call his cellphone or parents to check his whereabouts and safety.
c) Give your credit card number to the cop he puts on the line.
6. You receive a $3,500 check, which you're told is partial payment for winning a lottery. You're instructed to deposit the check and forward a certain amount to pay for taxes. What tells you the check is authentic?
a) All edges on the check are smooth and bottom numbers are shiny.
b) Your bank accepts it for deposit.
c) The deposit immediately shows as credited to your account.
d) None of the above. These checks are always a scam.
Results: 1-2 correct: Learn to foolproof yourself against fraud.
3-4 correct: You need new anti-scam radar.
5-6 correct: You're nobody's fool, in April or any other month.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. (a) : Laundry rooms are the last place most theives will check, says former cat burglar Bill Mason.
2. (d) :Reputable contactors rarely travel far for work or offer to finance a project. For small repairs, no advance payment is necessary.
3. (b) : Also send copies to issuers of other missing cards, such as your driver's license, Medicare or health insurance cards, etc.
4. (d) : The same answer applies to unsolicited emails supposedly from a government agency, which will use U.S. mail for official correspondence.
5. (b) : Don't be fooled. It's likely not your grandchild. Scammers can easily learn family names and other details that make a con convincing.
6. (d) : You never have to pay upfront ---- taxes or otherwise ---- to claim a prize. Be aware that you are responsible for any money you withdraw from your bank.
How prepared are you to avoid common crimes of the season?
Take this quiz to find out.
1. Home burglaries increase as the weather warms. Where is the safest place to hide valuables?
a) The laundry room
b) The bathrom
c) The bedroom
2. A contractor offers a big discount on a home repair. Which tip-off suggests his work will likely be a rip-off?
a) His truck has no company name on it or bears an out-of-state license plate.
b) He wants payment upfront to buy materials.
c) He offers to help finance the project.
d) All of the above.
3. If your wallet is lost or stolen, should you report it to the police?
a) No. The police are unlikely to have time to investigate.
b) Yes. Sending copies of the report to card issuers and credit bureaus can help clear up any resulting ID theft.
4. You get an email from a well-known company, asking you to click on a link to get information. How can you tell it's a scam?
a) You're a customer but you never provided your email address to the company.
b) The message begins with "Dear Member" or "Valued Customer" ----- even though the company has your name and email address.
c) You hover your cursor over the link to see the full URL, and the company's Internet address is missing, is incomplete or ends with letters such as ".us" or ".exe."
d) All of the above.
5. Your grandchild calls, saying he was arrested while on vacation and needs money. What next?
a) Head to Western Union as instructed.
b) Hang up and immediately call his cellphone or parents to check his whereabouts and safety.
c) Give your credit card number to the cop he puts on the line.
6. You receive a $3,500 check, which you're told is partial payment for winning a lottery. You're instructed to deposit the check and forward a certain amount to pay for taxes. What tells you the check is authentic?
a) All edges on the check are smooth and bottom numbers are shiny.
b) Your bank accepts it for deposit.
c) The deposit immediately shows as credited to your account.
d) None of the above. These checks are always a scam.
Results: 1-2 correct: Learn to foolproof yourself against fraud.
3-4 correct: You need new anti-scam radar.
5-6 correct: You're nobody's fool, in April or any other month.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. (a) : Laundry rooms are the last place most theives will check, says former cat burglar Bill Mason.
2. (d) :Reputable contactors rarely travel far for work or offer to finance a project. For small repairs, no advance payment is necessary.
3. (b) : Also send copies to issuers of other missing cards, such as your driver's license, Medicare or health insurance cards, etc.
4. (d) : The same answer applies to unsolicited emails supposedly from a government agency, which will use U.S. mail for official correspondence.
5. (b) : Don't be fooled. It's likely not your grandchild. Scammers can easily learn family names and other details that make a con convincing.
6. (d) : You never have to pay upfront ---- taxes or otherwise ---- to claim a prize. Be aware that you are responsible for any money you withdraw from your bank.
Kennections
All five correct answers have something in common.
Can you figure out what it is?
1. In 1813, who told his generals, "The word impossible is not French!" despite his recent defeat in Russia?
2. One of Harry Potter's mean Muggle aunts is named for what popular pink or purple flower?
3. What '90s Nickelodeon cartoon character was constantly bullied by Helga Pataki, a classmate with a crush on him?
4. Which 1979 ballad about a guy who's "leavin" and "must be on [his] way " was Styx's only No. 1 hit?
5. Which of the Wright brothers was the eldest, and the first president of their aviation company?
Bonus : What's the "Kennection" between all five answers?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. Napoleon
2. Petunia
3. Arnold
4. Babe
5. Wilbur
Bonus : All are famous Pigs
Can you figure out what it is?
1. In 1813, who told his generals, "The word impossible is not French!" despite his recent defeat in Russia?
2. One of Harry Potter's mean Muggle aunts is named for what popular pink or purple flower?
3. What '90s Nickelodeon cartoon character was constantly bullied by Helga Pataki, a classmate with a crush on him?
4. Which 1979 ballad about a guy who's "leavin" and "must be on [his] way " was Styx's only No. 1 hit?
5. Which of the Wright brothers was the eldest, and the first president of their aviation company?
Bonus : What's the "Kennection" between all five answers?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. Napoleon
2. Petunia
3. Arnold
4. Babe
5. Wilbur
Bonus : All are famous Pigs
F. Y. I.
Food for Thought
There are moredoughnut shops per capita in Canada than in any other country.
Quotable
by Diane Lane, actor
"I think the secret to happiness is having a Teflon soul. Whatever comes your way, you either let it slide or you cook with it."
Still on the Books
In Salt Lake County, Utah, no one may walk down the street carrying a paper bag containing a violin.
No Kidding!
The Venus flytrap can eat an entire cheeseburger.
Light as a Feather
An albatross can glide for months on ocean winds without landing, even sleeping in the air.
There are moredoughnut shops per capita in Canada than in any other country.
Quotable
by Diane Lane, actor
"I think the secret to happiness is having a Teflon soul. Whatever comes your way, you either let it slide or you cook with it."
Still on the Books
In Salt Lake County, Utah, no one may walk down the street carrying a paper bag containing a violin.
No Kidding!
The Venus flytrap can eat an entire cheeseburger.
Light as a Feather
An albatross can glide for months on ocean winds without landing, even sleeping in the air.
F. Y. I.
Royal Fear
King Louis XIV was so afraid of weapons, he ruled all pointed knives at dinner tables illegal.
Quotable
by Carl Sagan, astronomer (1934-1996)
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it, we go nowhere."
Celebrate Breakfast
Today is National Eggs Benedict Day.
Sudsy Start
Prior to becoming a top TV mom on "The Cosby Show," Phylicia Rashad appeared on the soaps "One Life to Live" and "Santa Barbara."
King Louis XIV was so afraid of weapons, he ruled all pointed knives at dinner tables illegal.
Quotable
by Carl Sagan, astronomer (1934-1996)
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it, we go nowhere."
Celebrate Breakfast
Today is National Eggs Benedict Day.
Sudsy Start
Prior to becoming a top TV mom on "The Cosby Show," Phylicia Rashad appeared on the soaps "One Life to Live" and "Santa Barbara."
Spas for pigs, dogs with psychics: meet the "Spoiled Rotten Pets"
Every dog has its day, and for Afghan pooch Aiden, today is for dancing lessons while cats Lucky and Missy are legally guaranteed their nightly shrimp dinners according to their owner's last testament.
These are just a few of the "Spoiled Rotten Pets," a new television series that dives into the world of fawning pet owners who outfit rats in formal wear and pamper Burmese pythons like princes.
The series, which will debut on U.S. cable network Nat Geo Wild on Saturday, follows host Beth Stern as she meets devoted pet owners who go above and beyond spoiling their pets - a venture the network's chief, Geoff Daniels, said was not so hard to find.
"This is about saying that this is more pervasive that anybody thinks," Daniels, executive vice president for Nat Geo Wild, a sister network of the Natural Geographic Channel, told Reuters.
"The show is about colorful and relatable people," he added. "Everybody knows someone like this or does something for their pets to this degree."
Indeed, as the series seeks out the over-the-top pet owner, it also shows they are not alone. After all, there is a thriving market for their spoils of clothing and comfort.
New York resident Cynthia takes time to iron the countless dresses and sweaters that her Yorkie, Toto, wears every day.
"Toto is spoiled," Cynthia says. "I want to do everything possible that I can to make sure that Toto is happy and healthy."
But Toto also has her own psychic, who cautions that the toy-sized dog feels trapped in her fashionable threads.
"She wants to run naked on the beach," pyschic Madrette says while reading Toto's paw print.
"Just once in a while, make sure that she feels that she's being put first ... I think she would really like a mommy-and-me day," Madrette says in her final analysis.
'PIG-TICIANS' AND 'BARK MITZVAHS'
"It's really interesting to see how these people put their pet care above their own," Daniels said. "You consistently get the sense that there's nothing too great for these animals if you see them as family and friends."
Enter Dave and Jennifer, who drop off pet pigs Wilma and Pebbles at a nearby "pig spa" for the night, which will be the couple's first night without them in eight years.
Wilma and Pebbles get the five-star treatment, like Chinese massage from a "pig-tician," while Dave and Jennifer have a quiet but uneasy night as empty-nesters.
Not to be outdone, Diane from upstate New York keeps her 10 rats on a strict vegan diet while spoiling newcomer Vinnie with a special first birthday party where he gets his own tuxedo.
"It's one thing about spoiling dogs and cats, but we're talking pigs and donkeys and rats and tortoises," Daniels said.
Religion also gets its due when New Jersey couple David and Donna give their Pomeranian dog, Sophia, a "bark mitzvah," a canine take on the Jewish coming-of-age bar mitzvah ceremony.
"She's my daughter so I feel like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make her happy," says Donna.
More than 70 guests, including dogs, attend the ceremony under a tent in the couple's yard. But it is not the first bark mitzvah for the rabbi, who says she has done the same for the dogs of comedians Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr.
Daniels said Nat Geo Wild sees "Spoiled Rotten Pets" as adding a lighter touch to its wildlife-heavy programming, which attracts many more male viewers.
"We are really trying to transform our offerings and bring in more women, especially," Daniels said. "We're looking for differentiation in the marketplace and a more balanced demographic."
Nat Geo Wild is owned by the National Geographic Society and News Corp.
These are just a few of the "Spoiled Rotten Pets," a new television series that dives into the world of fawning pet owners who outfit rats in formal wear and pamper Burmese pythons like princes.
The series, which will debut on U.S. cable network Nat Geo Wild on Saturday, follows host Beth Stern as she meets devoted pet owners who go above and beyond spoiling their pets - a venture the network's chief, Geoff Daniels, said was not so hard to find.
"This is about saying that this is more pervasive that anybody thinks," Daniels, executive vice president for Nat Geo Wild, a sister network of the Natural Geographic Channel, told Reuters.
"The show is about colorful and relatable people," he added. "Everybody knows someone like this or does something for their pets to this degree."
Indeed, as the series seeks out the over-the-top pet owner, it also shows they are not alone. After all, there is a thriving market for their spoils of clothing and comfort.
New York resident Cynthia takes time to iron the countless dresses and sweaters that her Yorkie, Toto, wears every day.
"Toto is spoiled," Cynthia says. "I want to do everything possible that I can to make sure that Toto is happy and healthy."
But Toto also has her own psychic, who cautions that the toy-sized dog feels trapped in her fashionable threads.
"She wants to run naked on the beach," pyschic Madrette says while reading Toto's paw print.
"Just once in a while, make sure that she feels that she's being put first ... I think she would really like a mommy-and-me day," Madrette says in her final analysis.
'PIG-TICIANS' AND 'BARK MITZVAHS'
"It's really interesting to see how these people put their pet care above their own," Daniels said. "You consistently get the sense that there's nothing too great for these animals if you see them as family and friends."
Enter Dave and Jennifer, who drop off pet pigs Wilma and Pebbles at a nearby "pig spa" for the night, which will be the couple's first night without them in eight years.
Wilma and Pebbles get the five-star treatment, like Chinese massage from a "pig-tician," while Dave and Jennifer have a quiet but uneasy night as empty-nesters.
Not to be outdone, Diane from upstate New York keeps her 10 rats on a strict vegan diet while spoiling newcomer Vinnie with a special first birthday party where he gets his own tuxedo.
"It's one thing about spoiling dogs and cats, but we're talking pigs and donkeys and rats and tortoises," Daniels said.
Religion also gets its due when New Jersey couple David and Donna give their Pomeranian dog, Sophia, a "bark mitzvah," a canine take on the Jewish coming-of-age bar mitzvah ceremony.
"She's my daughter so I feel like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make her happy," says Donna.
More than 70 guests, including dogs, attend the ceremony under a tent in the couple's yard. But it is not the first bark mitzvah for the rabbi, who says she has done the same for the dogs of comedians Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr.
Daniels said Nat Geo Wild sees "Spoiled Rotten Pets" as adding a lighter touch to its wildlife-heavy programming, which attracts many more male viewers.
"We are really trying to transform our offerings and bring in more women, especially," Daniels said. "We're looking for differentiation in the marketplace and a more balanced demographic."
Nat Geo Wild is owned by the National Geographic Society and News Corp.
World's oldest person celebrates his 116th birthday in Japan
The world's oldest living person, Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, celebrated his 116th birthday on Friday with congratulations from around the world and from Japan's prime minister.
Kimura was crowned the world's oldest person by Guinness World Records last December after the death of 115-year-old Dina Manfredini of Iowa in the United States.
"I truly congratulate you on your 116th birthday," Prime Minister Shenzo Abe said in a video message.
"I'm 58 years old, still a young man at only half your age. Thanks to your generation's efforts, Japan could overcome several difficult times and achieve the prosperity we enjoy today. Your healthy existence becomes our confidence and pride."
The Mayor of Kyotango City, Yasushi Nakayama, visited Kimura at his home in Kyotango, western Japan, to present him with messages from around the world.
Kimura is living with his 60-year-old granddaughter-in-law and has a three-meal-a-day diet of rice, pumpkins and sweet potatoes, according to local media.
Japan has more than 50,000 people aged 100 or more, 2011 government data showed, reinforcing its reputation for longevity.
The country also boasts the world's longest living woman, 115-year-old Misao Okawa
Kimura was crowned the world's oldest person by Guinness World Records last December after the death of 115-year-old Dina Manfredini of Iowa in the United States.
"I truly congratulate you on your 116th birthday," Prime Minister Shenzo Abe said in a video message.
"I'm 58 years old, still a young man at only half your age. Thanks to your generation's efforts, Japan could overcome several difficult times and achieve the prosperity we enjoy today. Your healthy existence becomes our confidence and pride."
The Mayor of Kyotango City, Yasushi Nakayama, visited Kimura at his home in Kyotango, western Japan, to present him with messages from around the world.
Kimura is living with his 60-year-old granddaughter-in-law and has a three-meal-a-day diet of rice, pumpkins and sweet potatoes, according to local media.
Japan has more than 50,000 people aged 100 or more, 2011 government data showed, reinforcing its reputation for longevity.
The country also boasts the world's longest living woman, 115-year-old Misao Okawa
Criminal lawyer courts UK charts in her alter ego as pop star
An Australian lawyer who for years has traded her staid court robes and wig for fur and lycra to sing pop tunes in her off hours now stands only a step away from every musician's dream - breaking into the top 10 on the music charts.
"Luv Bomb", the debut single by "Bowie Jane", the 27-year-old's musical alter ego, has climbed to No. 11 on the UK Pop Club Charts in the high point of a double life she has kept secret for more than four years.
"Of course my close friends were aware ... but generally it hasn't been too hard to keep the two separate," said Bowie Jane, declining to reveal her real name, in an email to Reuters.
"I dress differently in court and I don't have a fringe. On stage you wouldn't pick it was the same person."
Passionate about music all her life, she originally wanted to pursue it as a career but went to university and became a lawyer to please her parents, who wanted her to have something practical to fall back on.
A typical day involved arriving at court, meeting with clients and preparing a case before racing off in the evening for her shows. Once, she had to leave early to get to her performance on the main stage at the Australian Open tennis.
"I'd perform, then go home with a husky voice, rest and get up and do court the next day," she said.
The hectic double life occasionally has led to her wearing her stage costumes under her legal robes.
"I really have to flick my mind from one mode to the other. I am very serious in court and on stage I am the complete opposite," she said.
"Luv Bomb", the debut single by "Bowie Jane", the 27-year-old's musical alter ego, has climbed to No. 11 on the UK Pop Club Charts in the high point of a double life she has kept secret for more than four years.
"Of course my close friends were aware ... but generally it hasn't been too hard to keep the two separate," said Bowie Jane, declining to reveal her real name, in an email to Reuters.
"I dress differently in court and I don't have a fringe. On stage you wouldn't pick it was the same person."
Passionate about music all her life, she originally wanted to pursue it as a career but went to university and became a lawyer to please her parents, who wanted her to have something practical to fall back on.
A typical day involved arriving at court, meeting with clients and preparing a case before racing off in the evening for her shows. Once, she had to leave early to get to her performance on the main stage at the Australian Open tennis.
"I'd perform, then go home with a husky voice, rest and get up and do court the next day," she said.
The hectic double life occasionally has led to her wearing her stage costumes under her legal robes.
"I really have to flick my mind from one mode to the other. I am very serious in court and on stage I am the complete opposite," she said.
Playboy club to miss date with sun-kissed Indian state
Plans to open India's first Playboy club in coastal Goa state have hit a stumbling block, with local politicians rejecting the idea of "bunnies" on its pristine beaches amid growing pressure for better treatment of women after a fatal gang rape last year.
India has strict censorship laws and there is no Indian version of Playboy magazine, but the promoters of the Playboy brand in India last year revealed plans to open clubs around the country, with dress adapted to fit Indian mores.
A lawmaker from the right-wing party that rules the state had threatened a hunger strike if the government allowed Playboy to set up shop in Goa, saying it would tarnish the image of the state.
"If the government had to give a license to Playboy, it amounts to giving a license for prostitution," Michael Lobo told Reuters, adding that Playboy promoted vulgarity.
"We respect our women," he said. "We don't want to promote Goa as a sex tourism destination like Thailand."
Tens of thousands of tourists visit Goa during the peak October-March season to enjoy its golden beaches, which are also famous for night-long parties.
Media reports suggest many other politicians and women's groups share Lobo's misgivings, but the Bharatiya Janata Party that rules Goa has not officially made its displeasure known.
On Monday, though, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the state assembly that Playboy's license application had been rejected on "technical grounds", citing rules that allow such licenses for individuals but not companies.
Playboy clubs are part of the hedonistic lifestyle promoted by octogenarian Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy magazine which features pictures of naked women. Playboy clubs around the world feature waitresses dressed in black satin bodices, bow ties, cuffs and bunny ears.
The clash highlights the growing pressure for a more restrictive climate in India after the brutal gang rape of a young woman in the capital of New Delhi in December provoked widespread outrage about attitudes towards women.
Undaunted, the promoters of the Playboy brand in India - PB Lifestyle, which has a licensing agreement with U.S.-based Playboy Enterprises Inc - said they would try again.
"There are certain technical glitches that we need to correct and then we'll take it from there," said Sanjay Gupta, CEO of PB Lifestyle. "I cannot predict what the government's decision will be."
Gupta said they have tried to ensure the Playboy club dresses did not offend Indian sensibilities, even toning down its characteristic bunny costumes to suit local tastes - a first for Playboy clubs worldwide.
He added that the Goa property was planned not as a night club but as a beach café where women would be given special privileges. He did not specify what those privileges were.
"The environment and atmosphere we are creating are women friendly," Gupta said. "It's not a male bastion, spouses are more than welcome."
The company still plans to open Playboy clubs in other Indian cities.
India has strict censorship laws and there is no Indian version of Playboy magazine, but the promoters of the Playboy brand in India last year revealed plans to open clubs around the country, with dress adapted to fit Indian mores.
A lawmaker from the right-wing party that rules the state had threatened a hunger strike if the government allowed Playboy to set up shop in Goa, saying it would tarnish the image of the state.
"If the government had to give a license to Playboy, it amounts to giving a license for prostitution," Michael Lobo told Reuters, adding that Playboy promoted vulgarity.
"We respect our women," he said. "We don't want to promote Goa as a sex tourism destination like Thailand."
Tens of thousands of tourists visit Goa during the peak October-March season to enjoy its golden beaches, which are also famous for night-long parties.
Media reports suggest many other politicians and women's groups share Lobo's misgivings, but the Bharatiya Janata Party that rules Goa has not officially made its displeasure known.
On Monday, though, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the state assembly that Playboy's license application had been rejected on "technical grounds", citing rules that allow such licenses for individuals but not companies.
Playboy clubs are part of the hedonistic lifestyle promoted by octogenarian Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy magazine which features pictures of naked women. Playboy clubs around the world feature waitresses dressed in black satin bodices, bow ties, cuffs and bunny ears.
The clash highlights the growing pressure for a more restrictive climate in India after the brutal gang rape of a young woman in the capital of New Delhi in December provoked widespread outrage about attitudes towards women.
Undaunted, the promoters of the Playboy brand in India - PB Lifestyle, which has a licensing agreement with U.S.-based Playboy Enterprises Inc - said they would try again.
"There are certain technical glitches that we need to correct and then we'll take it from there," said Sanjay Gupta, CEO of PB Lifestyle. "I cannot predict what the government's decision will be."
Gupta said they have tried to ensure the Playboy club dresses did not offend Indian sensibilities, even toning down its characteristic bunny costumes to suit local tastes - a first for Playboy clubs worldwide.
He added that the Goa property was planned not as a night club but as a beach café where women would be given special privileges. He did not specify what those privileges were.
"The environment and atmosphere we are creating are women friendly," Gupta said. "It's not a male bastion, spouses are more than welcome."
The company still plans to open Playboy clubs in other Indian cities.
Price of fame: Performers and sports stars die younger
The price of fame can be high with an international study on Thursday finding that people who enjoy successful entertainment or sporting careers tend to die younger.
Researchers Richard Epstein and Catherine Epstein said the study, based on analysing 1,000 New York Times obituaries from 2009-2011, found film, music, stage performers and sports people died at an average age of 77.2 years.
This compared to an average lifespan of 78.5 years for creative workers, 81.7 for professionals and academics, and 83 years for people in business, military and political careers.
The Australian-based researchers said these earlier deaths could indicate that performers and sports stars took more risks in life, either to reach their goals or due to their success.
"Fame and achievement in performance-related careers may be earned at the cost of a shorter life expectancy," the researchers wrote in their study published in QJM: An International Journal of Medicine.
"In such careers, smoking and other risk behaviors may be either causes of effects of success and/or early death."
Britain's most high-profile celebrity publicist, Max Clifford, said the pressure that celebrities and sports stars put on themselves to succeed had to play a part, and even at the top they were always worried about who could replace them.
"People assume that fame and success is all about riches and happiness but as someone who has worked with famous people for 45 years I know that is not the case," Clifford told Reuters.
"The success becomes like a drug to them that they have to have and they are always worried about losing it so they push and push and work harder and harder. You have to be competitive in these fields otherwise it will not work."
WARNING TO ASPIRING STARS
For the study the researchers separated the obituaries by gender, age, and cause of death as well as by occupation, with anyone involved in sports, acting, singing, music or dance put into a performance category.
Others were split into creative roles such as writing and visual arts, into a business, military and political category, or a group of professional, academic and religious careers.
The study found that the list was heavily skewed towards men who accounted for 813 of the obituaries and the main causes of earlier deaths were linked to accidents, infections including HIV, and cancer.
Lung cancer deaths - which the authors considered a sign of chronic smoking - were most common in performers.
Richard Epstein, a director at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, acknowledged that the one-off analysis could not prove anything but raised interesting questions.
"If it is true that successful performers and sports players tend to enjoy shorter lives, does this imply that fame at younger ages predisposes to poor health behaviors in later life after success has faded?" he said.
He suggested maybe psychological and family pressures favouring high public achievement could lead to self-destructive tendencies or that risk-taking personality traits maximized the chances of success, with the use of cigarettes, alcohol or illicit drugs improving performance output in the short-term.
"Any of these hypotheses could be viewed as a health warning to young people aspiring to become stars," he said.
Researchers Richard Epstein and Catherine Epstein said the study, based on analysing 1,000 New York Times obituaries from 2009-2011, found film, music, stage performers and sports people died at an average age of 77.2 years.
This compared to an average lifespan of 78.5 years for creative workers, 81.7 for professionals and academics, and 83 years for people in business, military and political careers.
The Australian-based researchers said these earlier deaths could indicate that performers and sports stars took more risks in life, either to reach their goals or due to their success.
"Fame and achievement in performance-related careers may be earned at the cost of a shorter life expectancy," the researchers wrote in their study published in QJM: An International Journal of Medicine.
"In such careers, smoking and other risk behaviors may be either causes of effects of success and/or early death."
Britain's most high-profile celebrity publicist, Max Clifford, said the pressure that celebrities and sports stars put on themselves to succeed had to play a part, and even at the top they were always worried about who could replace them.
"People assume that fame and success is all about riches and happiness but as someone who has worked with famous people for 45 years I know that is not the case," Clifford told Reuters.
"The success becomes like a drug to them that they have to have and they are always worried about losing it so they push and push and work harder and harder. You have to be competitive in these fields otherwise it will not work."
WARNING TO ASPIRING STARS
For the study the researchers separated the obituaries by gender, age, and cause of death as well as by occupation, with anyone involved in sports, acting, singing, music or dance put into a performance category.
Others were split into creative roles such as writing and visual arts, into a business, military and political category, or a group of professional, academic and religious careers.
The study found that the list was heavily skewed towards men who accounted for 813 of the obituaries and the main causes of earlier deaths were linked to accidents, infections including HIV, and cancer.
Lung cancer deaths - which the authors considered a sign of chronic smoking - were most common in performers.
Richard Epstein, a director at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, acknowledged that the one-off analysis could not prove anything but raised interesting questions.
"If it is true that successful performers and sports players tend to enjoy shorter lives, does this imply that fame at younger ages predisposes to poor health behaviors in later life after success has faded?" he said.
He suggested maybe psychological and family pressures favouring high public achievement could lead to self-destructive tendencies or that risk-taking personality traits maximized the chances of success, with the use of cigarettes, alcohol or illicit drugs improving performance output in the short-term.
"Any of these hypotheses could be viewed as a health warning to young people aspiring to become stars," he said.
Captive particles and Dr. Who show physicists are human too
Physicists are deadly serious people, right? Clad in long white coats, they spend their days smashing particles together in the hunt for exotic creatures like quarks and squarks, leptons and sleptons -- and the Higgs Boson.
At night their dreams are all about finding them.
When discoveries show up amid the colorful displays on their monitor screens - as the Higgs Boson did last summer - they may share a glass or two of champagne, but then get down to writing learned papers for the heavy science journals.
True? Well, not quite. They do have a sense of humor too.
At the start of this month, a blog from the Great Temple of the particle hunting profession at CERN, near Geneva, offered a captive boson of the Higgs genus to each of the first 10 readers to e-mail in a request.
Simultaneously, across the Atlantic the U.S. Fermilab announced a months-long search for a new director was over with the appointment of "the obvious candidate," the Time Lord.
It WAS April Fools' Day, and no one was misled, right? Wrong, they were, according to both august institutions.
At CERN, scientist-blogger Pauline Gagnon now reports that over 1,500 eager respondents entered her boson lottery.
"Most of them wrote very enthusiastic notes, explaining why they wanted a Higgs," - so far no more than a ripple on a graph she told Reuters.
"Even some physics students fell for it.... One told me it would help to win his girlfriend's heart as he was about to propose."
Nearly half the entries came from Belarus or Russia. Gagnon suspects that a serious report on the "lottery" by a regional news agency may have had something to do with that response.
Other applications for an original of the ephemeral Higgs came from Australia, China, Canada and Finland - which have strong physics communities. One came from Rwanda, which doesn't.
"Many applicants were not completely fooled but happily played along," says Gagnon. Ten of them, finally selected at random, will get a cuddly toy boson in reward.
Over at Fermilab, which for years competed with CERN in the Higgs chase but lost its particle collider in a U.S. government economy drive, spokesperson Andre Salles reported a "tremendous response" to their April 1 announcement.
Run in its online daily Bulletin, it said the new director to replace departing Pier Oddone - an Italian-born physicist with his feet firmly on the ground - would be "someone dedicated to exploring the mysteries of space and time"
"On July 1, the Time Lord known as the Doctor will join Fermilab," said the Bulletin, alongside a portrait of British actor Matt Smith with a scientifically suitable mop of ruffled hair and tweed jacket.
Smith is currently playing the title role in the cult British television science fiction serial, "Dr Who", now in its 50th year in which the hero battles alien villains seeking the destruction of humankind.
"After facing down Daleks, Cybermen and the Master, I can't think of anyone more qualified to take on a congressional budget committee," the Bulletin quoted Oddone as saying.
But Bulletin readers were not so easily misled. A number of emails came in, one from a Nobel physics prize-winner, appreciating the joke.
Just one writer "was fooled for a few seconds," said Salles. A local reporter, "she initially couldn't believe we'd picked a new director who was so young."
At night their dreams are all about finding them.
When discoveries show up amid the colorful displays on their monitor screens - as the Higgs Boson did last summer - they may share a glass or two of champagne, but then get down to writing learned papers for the heavy science journals.
True? Well, not quite. They do have a sense of humor too.
At the start of this month, a blog from the Great Temple of the particle hunting profession at CERN, near Geneva, offered a captive boson of the Higgs genus to each of the first 10 readers to e-mail in a request.
Simultaneously, across the Atlantic the U.S. Fermilab announced a months-long search for a new director was over with the appointment of "the obvious candidate," the Time Lord.
It WAS April Fools' Day, and no one was misled, right? Wrong, they were, according to both august institutions.
At CERN, scientist-blogger Pauline Gagnon now reports that over 1,500 eager respondents entered her boson lottery.
"Most of them wrote very enthusiastic notes, explaining why they wanted a Higgs," - so far no more than a ripple on a graph she told Reuters.
"Even some physics students fell for it.... One told me it would help to win his girlfriend's heart as he was about to propose."
Nearly half the entries came from Belarus or Russia. Gagnon suspects that a serious report on the "lottery" by a regional news agency may have had something to do with that response.
Other applications for an original of the ephemeral Higgs came from Australia, China, Canada and Finland - which have strong physics communities. One came from Rwanda, which doesn't.
"Many applicants were not completely fooled but happily played along," says Gagnon. Ten of them, finally selected at random, will get a cuddly toy boson in reward.
Over at Fermilab, which for years competed with CERN in the Higgs chase but lost its particle collider in a U.S. government economy drive, spokesperson Andre Salles reported a "tremendous response" to their April 1 announcement.
Run in its online daily Bulletin, it said the new director to replace departing Pier Oddone - an Italian-born physicist with his feet firmly on the ground - would be "someone dedicated to exploring the mysteries of space and time"
"On July 1, the Time Lord known as the Doctor will join Fermilab," said the Bulletin, alongside a portrait of British actor Matt Smith with a scientifically suitable mop of ruffled hair and tweed jacket.
Smith is currently playing the title role in the cult British television science fiction serial, "Dr Who", now in its 50th year in which the hero battles alien villains seeking the destruction of humankind.
"After facing down Daleks, Cybermen and the Master, I can't think of anyone more qualified to take on a congressional budget committee," the Bulletin quoted Oddone as saying.
But Bulletin readers were not so easily misled. A number of emails came in, one from a Nobel physics prize-winner, appreciating the joke.
Just one writer "was fooled for a few seconds," said Salles. A local reporter, "she initially couldn't believe we'd picked a new director who was so young."
Mary! Your message in a bottle has arrived...28 years later
A Canadian man's message in a bottle honoring his promise to write to a woman named Mary has finally washed ashore 28 years later in Croatia.
Surfers cleaning the debris from a beach at the mouth of the Neretva river in the southern Adriatic came across a half-broken bottle with a paper inside, Croatian newspaper Dubrovack Vjesnik said on its website on Wednesday.
A 23-year-old local surfer, who gave her name as Matea, nearly threw it away when she spotted a wet paper inside, which contained a message from Jonathon in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, which lies on Canada's eastern coast.
"Mary, you really are a great person. I hope we can keep in correspondence. I said I would write. Your friend always, Jonathon, Nova Scotia, 1985," said the message, which the daily carried in English.
Surfers cleaning the debris from a beach at the mouth of the Neretva river in the southern Adriatic came across a half-broken bottle with a paper inside, Croatian newspaper Dubrovack Vjesnik said on its website on Wednesday.
A 23-year-old local surfer, who gave her name as Matea, nearly threw it away when she spotted a wet paper inside, which contained a message from Jonathon in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, which lies on Canada's eastern coast.
"Mary, you really are a great person. I hope we can keep in correspondence. I said I would write. Your friend always, Jonathon, Nova Scotia, 1985," said the message, which the daily carried in English.
Charging elephant injures two tourists in South Africa park
A Polish and a Chinese tourist visiting South Africa's flagship Kruger National Park were taken to hospital after an elephant charged their car and overturned the vehicle on Monday, park officials said.
An emergency medical team was dispatched by helicopter to the accident scene in the vast park. The Polish man, who was not identified, suffered broken ribs while the Chinese woman, also not identified, had no major injuries, park spokesman William Mabasa said.
"We stay here every day. We meet elephants on the road," Mabasa said. "We basically give them space but tourists sometimes don't."
More than 1 million people visit Kruger each year and incidents of this sort are rare but not unheard of with the animals that can flip cars and uproot trees with ease.
The last incident of this sort took place in November 2012, when an elephant overturned a car, injuring one passenger.
An emergency medical team was dispatched by helicopter to the accident scene in the vast park. The Polish man, who was not identified, suffered broken ribs while the Chinese woman, also not identified, had no major injuries, park spokesman William Mabasa said.
"We stay here every day. We meet elephants on the road," Mabasa said. "We basically give them space but tourists sometimes don't."
More than 1 million people visit Kruger each year and incidents of this sort are rare but not unheard of with the animals that can flip cars and uproot trees with ease.
The last incident of this sort took place in November 2012, when an elephant overturned a car, injuring one passenger.
Florida battles slimy invasion by giant snails
South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world's most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster.
More than 1,000 of the mollusks are being caught each week in Miami-Dade and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Residents will soon likely begin encountering them more often, crunching them underfoot as the snails emerge from underground hibernation at the start of the state's rainy season in just seven weeks, Feiber said.
The snails attack "over 500 known species of plants ... pretty much anything that's in their path and green," Feiber said.
In some Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, which are overrun with the creatures, the snails' shells blow out tires on the highway and turn into hurling projectiles from lawnmower blades, while their slime and excrement coat walls and pavement.
"It becomes a slick mess," Feiber said.
A typical snail can produce about 1,200 eggs a year and the creatures are a particular pest in homes because of their fondness for stucco, devoured for the calcium content they need for their shells.
The snails also carry a parasitic rat lungworm that can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis, Feiber said, although no such cases have yet been identified in the United States.
EXOTIC INVASION
The snails' saga is something of a sequel to the Florida horror show of exotic species invasions, including the well-known infestation of giant Burmese pythons, which became established in the Everglades in 2000. There is a long list of destructive non-native species that thrive in the state's moist, subtropical climate.
Experts gathered last week in Gainesville, Florida, for a Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium, to seek the best ways to eradicate the mollusks, including use of a stronger bait approved recently by the federal government.
Feiber said investigators were trying to trace the snail infestation source. One possibility being examined is a Miami Santeria group, a religion with West African and Caribbean roots, which was found in 2010 to be using the large snails in its rituals, she said. But many exotic species come into the United States unintentionally in freight or tourists' baggage.
"If you got a ham sandwich in Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, or an orange, and you didn't eat it all and you bring it back into the States and then you discard it, at some point, things can emerge from those products," Feiber said.
Authorities are expanding a series of announcements on buses, billboards and in movie theaters urging the public to be on the lookout.
The last known Florida invasion of the giant mollusks occurred in 1966, when a boy returning to Miami from a vacation in Hawaii brought back three of them, possibly in his jacket pockets. His grandmother eventually released the snails into her garden where the population grew in seven years to 17,000 snails. The state spent $1 million and 10 years eradicating them.
Feiber said many people unfamiliar with the danger viewed the snails as cute pets.
"They're huge, they move around, they look like they're looking at you ... communicating with you, and people enjoy them for that," Feiber said. "But they don't realize the devastation they can create if they are released into the environment where they don't have any natural enemies and they thrive."
More than 1,000 of the mollusks are being caught each week in Miami-Dade and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Residents will soon likely begin encountering them more often, crunching them underfoot as the snails emerge from underground hibernation at the start of the state's rainy season in just seven weeks, Feiber said.
The snails attack "over 500 known species of plants ... pretty much anything that's in their path and green," Feiber said.
In some Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, which are overrun with the creatures, the snails' shells blow out tires on the highway and turn into hurling projectiles from lawnmower blades, while their slime and excrement coat walls and pavement.
"It becomes a slick mess," Feiber said.
A typical snail can produce about 1,200 eggs a year and the creatures are a particular pest in homes because of their fondness for stucco, devoured for the calcium content they need for their shells.
The snails also carry a parasitic rat lungworm that can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis, Feiber said, although no such cases have yet been identified in the United States.
EXOTIC INVASION
The snails' saga is something of a sequel to the Florida horror show of exotic species invasions, including the well-known infestation of giant Burmese pythons, which became established in the Everglades in 2000. There is a long list of destructive non-native species that thrive in the state's moist, subtropical climate.
Experts gathered last week in Gainesville, Florida, for a Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium, to seek the best ways to eradicate the mollusks, including use of a stronger bait approved recently by the federal government.
Feiber said investigators were trying to trace the snail infestation source. One possibility being examined is a Miami Santeria group, a religion with West African and Caribbean roots, which was found in 2010 to be using the large snails in its rituals, she said. But many exotic species come into the United States unintentionally in freight or tourists' baggage.
"If you got a ham sandwich in Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, or an orange, and you didn't eat it all and you bring it back into the States and then you discard it, at some point, things can emerge from those products," Feiber said.
Authorities are expanding a series of announcements on buses, billboards and in movie theaters urging the public to be on the lookout.
The last known Florida invasion of the giant mollusks occurred in 1966, when a boy returning to Miami from a vacation in Hawaii brought back three of them, possibly in his jacket pockets. His grandmother eventually released the snails into her garden where the population grew in seven years to 17,000 snails. The state spent $1 million and 10 years eradicating them.
Feiber said many people unfamiliar with the danger viewed the snails as cute pets.
"They're huge, they move around, they look like they're looking at you ... communicating with you, and people enjoy them for that," Feiber said. "But they don't realize the devastation they can create if they are released into the environment where they don't have any natural enemies and they thrive."
Opulent Hotel Crillon bids farewell to treasures at Paris auction
One of the grandest luxury hotels in Paris will put most of its of furniture and fine wines under the hammer next week to help raise funds for a lengthy restoration.
The sumptuous Hotel Crillon, hushed after the departure of its last guests in March, has been transformed into a buyer's wonderland as it closes its doors for a two-year renovation.
Full suites of furniture are on display ahead of a series of auctions scheduled for April 18-22, with about 3,500 lots including carpets and curtains expected to raise hundreds of thousands of euros.
Buyers seeking to recreate a little bit of the hotel in their homes can even stock up on reception counters, staff uniforms and bathrobes.
"A sale like this is a unique moment, a real cherry on the cake," auctioneer Stephane Aubert from auction house Artcurial said.
Such vast hotel sales are rare, with once-in-a-lifetime treasures available.
A highlight is the hotel's mirror-encrusted bar designed by 20th-century French sculptor Cesar, who gave his name to the annual French film awards where, similar to the Oscars, miniature reproductions of one of his works are distributed.
The artist's signature is inscribed on the twinkling glass front of the bar - protected beneath a perspex panel ever since a cleaner unwittingly took the first version for graffiti and scrubbed it off. Cesar was able to return and sign again before his death in 1998.
Dominating one side of Place de la Concorde, the Crillon has housed the great and the good since its construction as a private home under French King Louis XV in 1758.
The ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette took music lessons on its first floor only to be guillotined years later in the shadow of the palace's grand neoclassical façade.
Since its conversion into a hotel in 1909, it has welcomed U.S. pop singer Madonna, former president Bill Clinton and was the site of the formal founding of the League of Nations.
U.S. composer Leonard Bernstein regularly set up home in a top floor suite with a view onto the Arc de Triomphe. One anonymous client rents that same suite every year to watch the finale of the Tour de France with friends and an unspecified amount of champagne.
Bidders with deep pockets can fork out for the piano Bernstein is believed to have used during his stays, while fans of lesser means can still hope to go home with light fittings and rugs.
A large part of the Crillon's vast wine and spirit cellar is likely to be snapped up by connoisseurs, including a rare Louis XIII Black Pearl Remy Martin cognac with a list price of 7,000 euros ($9,200). Mini-bars and chairs customized by artists are also being auctioned for two French charities.
Profits raised from the auction will fund a sweeping modernization to bring the hotel up to date while preserving its character, with work due to last until 2015.
The Ritz in Paris is also out of action for a revamp, with both hotels aiming to reinvigorate their classic grandeur and poach customers tempted by high-end newcomers such as the Shangri-La opened in Paris in 2010.
A sad tale of a grand old dame selling off her jewels? Not at all, according to Aubert.
"It's part of the story of these objects that they go and have a new life," he said, eyeing up his favorite lots - the silver-plated cocktail shakers from the bar.
($1 = 0.7642 euros)
The sumptuous Hotel Crillon, hushed after the departure of its last guests in March, has been transformed into a buyer's wonderland as it closes its doors for a two-year renovation.
Full suites of furniture are on display ahead of a series of auctions scheduled for April 18-22, with about 3,500 lots including carpets and curtains expected to raise hundreds of thousands of euros.
Buyers seeking to recreate a little bit of the hotel in their homes can even stock up on reception counters, staff uniforms and bathrobes.
"A sale like this is a unique moment, a real cherry on the cake," auctioneer Stephane Aubert from auction house Artcurial said.
Such vast hotel sales are rare, with once-in-a-lifetime treasures available.
A highlight is the hotel's mirror-encrusted bar designed by 20th-century French sculptor Cesar, who gave his name to the annual French film awards where, similar to the Oscars, miniature reproductions of one of his works are distributed.
The artist's signature is inscribed on the twinkling glass front of the bar - protected beneath a perspex panel ever since a cleaner unwittingly took the first version for graffiti and scrubbed it off. Cesar was able to return and sign again before his death in 1998.
Dominating one side of Place de la Concorde, the Crillon has housed the great and the good since its construction as a private home under French King Louis XV in 1758.
The ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette took music lessons on its first floor only to be guillotined years later in the shadow of the palace's grand neoclassical façade.
Since its conversion into a hotel in 1909, it has welcomed U.S. pop singer Madonna, former president Bill Clinton and was the site of the formal founding of the League of Nations.
U.S. composer Leonard Bernstein regularly set up home in a top floor suite with a view onto the Arc de Triomphe. One anonymous client rents that same suite every year to watch the finale of the Tour de France with friends and an unspecified amount of champagne.
Bidders with deep pockets can fork out for the piano Bernstein is believed to have used during his stays, while fans of lesser means can still hope to go home with light fittings and rugs.
A large part of the Crillon's vast wine and spirit cellar is likely to be snapped up by connoisseurs, including a rare Louis XIII Black Pearl Remy Martin cognac with a list price of 7,000 euros ($9,200). Mini-bars and chairs customized by artists are also being auctioned for two French charities.
Profits raised from the auction will fund a sweeping modernization to bring the hotel up to date while preserving its character, with work due to last until 2015.
The Ritz in Paris is also out of action for a revamp, with both hotels aiming to reinvigorate their classic grandeur and poach customers tempted by high-end newcomers such as the Shangri-La opened in Paris in 2010.
A sad tale of a grand old dame selling off her jewels? Not at all, according to Aubert.
"It's part of the story of these objects that they go and have a new life," he said, eyeing up his favorite lots - the silver-plated cocktail shakers from the bar.
($1 = 0.7642 euros)
French scientist bemused by buzz over bra research
A little-known French sports doctor who spent 16 years studying the busts of about 300 women sent a scare through a country known for its love of lingerie this week when he suggested bras were useless.
Jean-Denis Rouillon, 62, was thrust into the limelight after he told a student radio station that his work suggested wearing a bra weakened the natural muscles that hold up breasts and women should consider going bra-less.
National radio picked up the story and Rouillon, based at the small University of Franche-Comte in the eastern town of Besançon, was soon being hounded by newspapers and TV.
France Info radio interviewed a 28-year-old volunteer in the study, Capucine, who said abandoning her bra had liberated her in more ways than one, improving her breathing and posture.
"You breathe better, you stand up straighter, you have less back pain," she told the national news station.
Even the highbrow daily Le Monde weighed in, offering an historical insight into the origins of the bra dating back to the 14th century.
Rouillon told Reuters that his unpublished work is still in the early stages and he is hesitant about giving one-size-fits-all advice to women, despite the media circus.
His preliminary results on 330 women aged 18 to 35 suggested that wearing a bra from an early age does nothing to help a wearer's breasts and going without could improve firmness.
"The suspension system of the breasts degenerates," Rouillon said, explaining that bras also unnaturally hamper circulation.
"But a middle-aged women, overweight, with 2.4 children? I'm not at all sure she'd benefit from abandoning bras," he added.
Jean-Denis Rouillon, 62, was thrust into the limelight after he told a student radio station that his work suggested wearing a bra weakened the natural muscles that hold up breasts and women should consider going bra-less.
National radio picked up the story and Rouillon, based at the small University of Franche-Comte in the eastern town of Besançon, was soon being hounded by newspapers and TV.
France Info radio interviewed a 28-year-old volunteer in the study, Capucine, who said abandoning her bra had liberated her in more ways than one, improving her breathing and posture.
"You breathe better, you stand up straighter, you have less back pain," she told the national news station.
Even the highbrow daily Le Monde weighed in, offering an historical insight into the origins of the bra dating back to the 14th century.
Rouillon told Reuters that his unpublished work is still in the early stages and he is hesitant about giving one-size-fits-all advice to women, despite the media circus.
His preliminary results on 330 women aged 18 to 35 suggested that wearing a bra from an early age does nothing to help a wearer's breasts and going without could improve firmness.
"The suspension system of the breasts degenerates," Rouillon said, explaining that bras also unnaturally hamper circulation.
"But a middle-aged women, overweight, with 2.4 children? I'm not at all sure she'd benefit from abandoning bras," he added.
Japanese fish survive 5,000-mile trip across Pacific in tsunami boat
Scientists are baffled as to how a group of small fish native to Japan survived a journey across the Pacific after they were found on a boat swept away by the 2011 tsunami and washed up last month on the coast of Washington state.
The batch of striped beak fish - five in all - were discovered submerged in the hold of the 20-foot-long fishing skiff, dubbed the Sai-shou-maru, on Long Beach in southwestern Washington.
The vessel, found beached right-side-up, was confirmed this week to have originated from the region of northern Japan devastated in the immense tidal surge generated by the March 2011 Fukushima earthquake.
Other boats carried away by the tsunami have previously washed up along the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Alaska, as have chunks of piers and large quantities of other debris. But the fish found aboard the Sai-shou-maru are the first vertebrates - animals with backbones - known to have made the voyage.
Marine biologists studying the phenomenon are puzzled over precisely how striped beak fish, natural denizens of warmer, shallow southern Japanese waters, ended up as live stowaways in the well of the boat, and how they endured a two-year journey across the ocean.
"It is quite remarkable," Curt Hart, a spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology, told Reuters. "Everyone is very amazed that these fish survived for two years in that hold."
The fish were apparently swept up with the skiff as it was washed down the coast of Japan and out into the Pacific.
Scientists surmise that the fish made their home beneath the boat for much of the trip as it drifted upside down and partially submerged, feeding on other organisms that became encrusted or otherwise attached to the inverted vessel. Then they might have been scooped up into the skiff's hold when wind or waves righted the vessel, Hart said.
NOURISHMENT MYSTERY
The middle of the Pacific is far less rich in nutrients than coastal waters, raising questions of how the fish found enough food to survive the trip, said Jeff Adams, an expert at Washington Sea Grant, an agency supporting marine research.
The 6-inch-long striped beak fish, named for their protruding mouths and black-and-white striped markings, were the most surprising of an estimated 30 to 50 species of marine organisms that hitchhiked across the Pacific with the skiff.
Other stowaways included various types of algae, anemones, crabs, marine worms and shellfish.
Many were believed to be non-native species, and all were treated as potentially invasive - capable of displacing native organisms and disrupting the natural ecological balance if allowed to escape into the environment and propagate.
As a precaution, state officials swiftly removed the Sai-shou-maru from the shoreline before samples of organisms were collected for study, and the boat was scraped and steam-cleaned, Hart said.
Four of the fish found alive in the boat on March 22 have since died, and the lone surviving specimen has been moved to an aquarium in Seaside, Oregon.
The Sai-shou-maru is not the only Noah's ark of potential invasive species carried to the U.S. West Coast by the tsunami. Several more Japanese boats have washed ashore since last year in Washington, Oregon and California, and a fishing vessel found drifting off Alaska was scuttled by the Coast Guard.
Dozens of non-native and potentially invasive species - more than hitched a ride aboard the Sai-shou-maru - were previously found attached to two large hunks of piers that washed up, one in Oregon and one in Washington, Hart said.
The batch of striped beak fish - five in all - were discovered submerged in the hold of the 20-foot-long fishing skiff, dubbed the Sai-shou-maru, on Long Beach in southwestern Washington.
The vessel, found beached right-side-up, was confirmed this week to have originated from the region of northern Japan devastated in the immense tidal surge generated by the March 2011 Fukushima earthquake.
Other boats carried away by the tsunami have previously washed up along the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Alaska, as have chunks of piers and large quantities of other debris. But the fish found aboard the Sai-shou-maru are the first vertebrates - animals with backbones - known to have made the voyage.
Marine biologists studying the phenomenon are puzzled over precisely how striped beak fish, natural denizens of warmer, shallow southern Japanese waters, ended up as live stowaways in the well of the boat, and how they endured a two-year journey across the ocean.
"It is quite remarkable," Curt Hart, a spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology, told Reuters. "Everyone is very amazed that these fish survived for two years in that hold."
The fish were apparently swept up with the skiff as it was washed down the coast of Japan and out into the Pacific.
Scientists surmise that the fish made their home beneath the boat for much of the trip as it drifted upside down and partially submerged, feeding on other organisms that became encrusted or otherwise attached to the inverted vessel. Then they might have been scooped up into the skiff's hold when wind or waves righted the vessel, Hart said.
NOURISHMENT MYSTERY
The middle of the Pacific is far less rich in nutrients than coastal waters, raising questions of how the fish found enough food to survive the trip, said Jeff Adams, an expert at Washington Sea Grant, an agency supporting marine research.
The 6-inch-long striped beak fish, named for their protruding mouths and black-and-white striped markings, were the most surprising of an estimated 30 to 50 species of marine organisms that hitchhiked across the Pacific with the skiff.
Other stowaways included various types of algae, anemones, crabs, marine worms and shellfish.
Many were believed to be non-native species, and all were treated as potentially invasive - capable of displacing native organisms and disrupting the natural ecological balance if allowed to escape into the environment and propagate.
As a precaution, state officials swiftly removed the Sai-shou-maru from the shoreline before samples of organisms were collected for study, and the boat was scraped and steam-cleaned, Hart said.
Four of the fish found alive in the boat on March 22 have since died, and the lone surviving specimen has been moved to an aquarium in Seaside, Oregon.
The Sai-shou-maru is not the only Noah's ark of potential invasive species carried to the U.S. West Coast by the tsunami. Several more Japanese boats have washed ashore since last year in Washington, Oregon and California, and a fishing vessel found drifting off Alaska was scuttled by the Coast Guard.
Dozens of non-native and potentially invasive species - more than hitched a ride aboard the Sai-shou-maru - were previously found attached to two large hunks of piers that washed up, one in Oregon and one in Washington, Hart said.
Finland apologizes for "incorrect" Putin blacklisting
Finland apologized to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday after its police accidentally put him on a blacklist of people with connections to criminal activity.
Seeking to avoid a diplomatic spat with its historically dominant neighbor, Finland quickly removed Putin's name from the list which is not public, but whose inclusion of Putin was revealed by Finnish broadcaster MTV3 earlier on Wednesday.
Police acknowledged the list existed and said Putin's name was accidentally included, but had since been deleted.
"I wish to extend Russia's President Vladimir Putin sincere apologies for the incorrect registry entry," Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said in a statement.
Police said it was not immediately clear how Putin's name came to be included on the list, and it was being investigated. Finnish chief of police Mikko Paatero said the incident was regrettable.
"These kind of incidents are extremely exceptional, and not under any circumstance acceptable," he said in a statement.
Many Finns are wary of their powerful neighbor, having fought the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-1940 and the Continuation War during World War Two.
Official relations since then have mostly been cordial, with Finland sidestepping any policies, including membership in the NATO alliance, that could provoke Russia.
Seeking to avoid a diplomatic spat with its historically dominant neighbor, Finland quickly removed Putin's name from the list which is not public, but whose inclusion of Putin was revealed by Finnish broadcaster MTV3 earlier on Wednesday.
Police acknowledged the list existed and said Putin's name was accidentally included, but had since been deleted.
"I wish to extend Russia's President Vladimir Putin sincere apologies for the incorrect registry entry," Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said in a statement.
Police said it was not immediately clear how Putin's name came to be included on the list, and it was being investigated. Finnish chief of police Mikko Paatero said the incident was regrettable.
"These kind of incidents are extremely exceptional, and not under any circumstance acceptable," he said in a statement.
Many Finns are wary of their powerful neighbor, having fought the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-1940 and the Continuation War during World War Two.
Official relations since then have mostly been cordial, with Finland sidestepping any policies, including membership in the NATO alliance, that could provoke Russia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)