American, Indonesian Students Link Hands Via Distance Learning

American, Indonesian Students Link Hands Via Distance Learning
A dozen Indonesian students gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta (at left in the split-screen video monitor) had the opportunity to query their American high school counterparts on their interests, experiences and culture during the interactive video linkup recently at NASA Dryden's Aerospace Exploration Gallery in Palmdale, Calif.

named Agatha.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of a low pressure area called "90E" in the Eastern Pacific that forecasters are watching for tropical development. If the low develops it could be named Agatha.

NASA Joins Web Consortium

WASHINGTON -- NASA announced Thursday it has joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The consortium is an international organization that develops protocols, standards and guidelines to ensure universal Web access.

"Standards will play a key role in making NASA's content more accessible on the Internet and in the implementation of our Open Government plan," said Chris Kemp, chief technology officer for Information Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Additionally, standards nurture technology innovation. We are especially interested in participating in those areas where NASA's ongoing technical requirements overlap with the W3C's standardization efforts."

W3C's staff works with member organizations and the public to enhance long-term growth for the Web. The organization has more than 350 members. It is run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics in France, and Keio University in Japan.

"W3C is delighted to welcome NASA back as a member," said Jeff Jaffe, W3C chief executive officer. "The agency's participation in W3C activities such as eGovernment, Linked Open Data and Semantic Web technologies will bring great depth and breadth of experience to these communities and opportunities for leadership in emerging technologies."

For more information about W3C, visit:


http://www.w3.org

Dubai, UAE to enact urgent financial reforms

Released on - Sunday,23 May , 2010 -23:01 Dubai and the United Arab Emirates are to implement urgent reforms to address weaknesses in their financial systems, the head of Dubai's Supreme Fiscal Committee said on Sunday.

The "committee... is establishing a comprehensive programme to address vulnerabilities in our financial system," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, who also heads Emirates Group.

"At a federal level, urgent steps are being taken to address the gaps in the UAE's legal and regulatory infrastructure," he said at the opening in Dubai of the two-day MENASA economic form.

"A clear framework for the financial restructuring and reorganisation of companies, based on international principles, is being put in place" by the federal government, he said.

And "the (federal) government is set to issue a public debt law this year," after which it will "establish a debt management office to coordinate the raising of debt for government-related entities," he said.

"A similar debt management unit is planned to be set up in Dubai to centralise debt decision-making."

Dubai rocked global financial markets in late November when it said it might need to freeze debt payments by its largest conglomerate Dubai World, stoking fears of a state default over sovereign debt.

The conglomerate said on Thursday that it had "in principle" reached an agreement with most of its lenders, but the proposal still requires the approval of its remaining creditors.

"The proposal demonstrates Dubai's commitment to ensuring the success of government-related entities," Sheikh Ahmed said.

Dubai World's total debt, including liabilities, is about 60 billion dollars. Dubai's total debt is estimated at between 80 and 100 billion dollars, although some analysts say it could be as high as 170 billion.

Sheikh Ahmed also emphasised financial reforms enacted by countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) had helped these areas weather the global financial crisis better than other parts of the world.

"The financial reforms undertaken by many countries in the region over the past decade have greatly supported its ability to be resilient and recover faster" from the financial crisis, he said.

He said many MENASA governments "responded with speed and intensity" to the financial crisis.

"However, we need to sustain our focus on ensuring the safety and efficiency of our financial systems

Saudi 'emo' girls busted by religious cops

Saudi Arabia's religious police have arrested 10 "emo" women for allegedly causing a disturbance in a coffee shop, Al-Yaum newspaper reported on Saturday.

The coffee shop owner in the eastern city of Dammam called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to complain after the young women, dressed and made up in the "emo" fashion, apparently began disturbing other clients.

The religious police then called their parents to come and collect the women, and to sign pledges that the girls would not repeat their ostensibly offensive un-Islamic behaviour and dress.

According to recent reports, growing numbers of urban young Saudi women are latching on to the emo fashion popular from Japan to Europe and the Americas.

The trend is characterised by wearing skinny black jeans, tennis shoes, colourful T-shirts bearing the names of emo bands, heavy make up and sharply chopped and sometimes radically coloured hair-dos.

While Saudi women normally must appear in public shrouded by all-black abayas and headscarves, some daringly open their abayas in places such as malls and coffee shops to reveal more trendy outfits

winning design -N.J. architect group

NEWARK :::St. Paul bills itself as the place “Where Minnesota Adventure Begins!” It even has a visitor center to trumpet its clarion call for tourism dollars.

Some 1,178 miles away, Newark, N.J. — with a population oh-so-close to St. Paul’s — doesn’t.

No place to tout its largest-in-the-state museum, its ultra modern performing arts center, its new 18,000-seat arena, its historic venues, its nation's largest cherry blossom collection, its picture-perfect setting for such Hollywood flicks as 2001’s “Riding in Cars with Boys” starring Drew Barrymore.

Not that they aren’t trying.

The American Institute of Architects —- in a stiff design competition with nearly 200 entries from 31 countries — just selected a 13,435-square-foot prototype Newark Visitors Center, complete with bike rentals, a cafe, auditorium and tour-bus stop.

There’s even a gift shop, no less, where tourists might someday grab a “Brick City” T-shirt or a little replica of Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s breathtaking “Wars of America” monument in Newark’s Military Park.

“I felt a city on the rise needs a place where you can funnel visitors,” said Alok Saksena, the Montclair architect who created the competition for the Newark and Suburban Architects wing of AIA-New Jersey and hopes it will inspire a go-to destination for tourists in New Jersey’s largest city.

After all, St. Paul, with 287,151 inhabitants, as well as Buffalo, N.Y., with 292,648 inhabitants, are just two American cities with visitor centers in the same population ballpark as Newark, the nation’s 63rd largest with a head count of 273,546.

Buffalo, which opened its center in 1996, takes this tack with tourists: “‘Who knew?’ We hear that all the time from visitors.” Then, it trumpets its stature as home of the Buffalo Bills and the birthplace of buffalo wings. Last year, the center, with an art gallery and small theater showing videos about Buffalo, welcomed 75,132 visitors lured there, in part, by its rich architecture.

St. Paul, like Newark, sometimes finds itself with an inferiority complex. “We know we sit in the shadows of Minneapolis,” said Adam Johnson of the St. Paul Convention & Visitors Authority.

Still, the St. Paul’s visitors center, first opened three decades ago in a circa 1902 landmark resembling a castle, registered traffic of 121,972 last year — nearly twice as many as those who came before a “new age” interior redesign in 2007. Still, it occupies a relatively small 700 square feet.

In the past 15 years, Johnson said, “serious investment” has transformed St. Paul’s strategic greenway along the Mississippi River. “Our river used to be pretty much a sewer line,” Johnson said. But these days, it’s the launching point for riverboat rides. “From margarita cruises to sunset cruises,” he said.

New Jersey is home to just a few visitor centers to show off their assets. Only Atlantic City, Liberty State Park and Trenton have centers, according to the state Division of Travel and Tourism. And at rest areas along the state’s Thruway there are kiosks with brochures.

In the AIA design competition, Newark’s visitors center was positioned on a “conceptual site” along the banks of the Passaic River, sandwiched between the Ironbound and the central business district.

The winning entry, by Di Domenico + Partners of Long Island City, N.Y., is actually called “Portal to the City on the Meandering Passaic,” inspired by the curves of the waterway. The eight-member jury that selected Di Domenico was chaired by Newark-born architect Richard Meier, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture. For its handiwork, Di Domenico nabbed a $10,000 prize at a February awards gala at the Newark Club.

Just days ago, the Newark Club, whose 22nd floor location in One Newark Center provides panoramic vistas of the New York skyline, was a lunch-time stopover for Liz Del Tufo and her entourage of 54 out-of-towners, all from Westfield.

Del Tufo, president of the non-profit Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee, operates Newark Tours, leading visitors — 600 in April alone, she said — who arrive on rented buses for half-day and full-day tours of many of Newark’s 75 state or national landmarks. Among them is the majestic Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, one of the nation’s largest cathedrals.

“The cathedral is the favorite stop,” Del Tufo said.

Newark has no shortage of favorites sons and daughters, either.

Gloria Gaynor of the disco era’s “I Will Survive” fame was born in Newark, as was Eva Marie Saint, who won an Academy Award for 1954’s “On the Waterfront.” Many others, including director Brian De Palma, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Marvelous Marvin Hagler and NBA star Shaquille O’Neill all hailed from Newark, too.

Unlike St. Paul, Newark’s waterfront may not be the best place to put the center, Del Tufo said.

“It’s kind of an out-of-the-way location,” she said. “The Ironbound is a tough place to get around.”

Whether a Newark center will rise is yet to be seen, but officials have talked for some time about creating some facility to show off the city’s assets.

In 2008, the Greater Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau was born, with the arrival of the first-ever Newark Restaurant Week. Newark, which has a small visitors “booth” at Newark Liberty International Airport, has been in talks with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to do more, said Stefan Pryor, Newark’s deputy mayor of economic development.

To Pryor, who had not yet seen the winning architects’ design, it’s all worthy of attention. “I think these conversations should encompass these ideas,” he said.

Oldest Mesoamerican pyramid tomb found in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — Archaeologists in southern Mexico announced Monday they have discovered a 2,700-year-old tomb of a dignitary inside a pyramid that may be the oldest such burial documented in Mesoamerica.
The tomb held a man aged around 50, who was buried with jade collars, pyrite and obsidian artifacts and ceramic vessels. Archaeologist Emiliano Gallaga said the tomb dates to between 500 and 700 B.C.

Based on the layers in which it was found and the tomb's unusual wooden construction, "we think this is one of the earliest discoveries of the use of a pyramid as a tomb, not only as a religious site or temple," Gallaga said.

Pre-Hispanic cultures built pyramids mainly as representations of the levels leading from the underworld to the sky; the highest point usually held a temple.

The tomb was found at a site built by Zoque Indians in Chiapa de Corzo, in southern Chiapas state. It may be almost 1,000 years older than the better-known pyramid tomb of the Mayan ruler Pakal at the Palenque archaeological site, also in Chiapas.

The man — probably a high priest or ruler of Chiapa de Corzo, a prominent settlement at the time — was buried in a stone chamber. Marks in the wall indicate wooden roof supports were used to create the tomb, but the wood long ago collapsed under the weight of the pyramid built above.

Archeologists began digging into the pyramid mound in April to study the internal structure — pyramids were often built in layers, one atop another — when they happened on a wall whose finished stones appeared to face inward. In digging last week, they uncovered the four by three meter tomb chamber about six or seven meters beneath what had been the pyramid's peak.

The body of a 1-year-old child was laid carefully over the man's body inside the tomb, while that of a 20-year-old male was tossed into the chamber with less care, perhaps sacrificed at the time of the burial.

The older man was buried with jade and amber collars and bracelets and pearl ornaments. His face was covered with what may have been a funeral mask with obsidian eyes.

Nearby, the tomb of a woman, also about 50, contained similar ornaments.

The ornaments — some imported from as far away as Guatemala and central Mexico — and some of the 15 ceramic vessels found in the tomb show influences from the Olmec culture, long considered the "mother culture" of the region.

The find raised the possibility that Olmec pyramids might contain similar tombs of dignitaries, especially at well-known sites like La Venta.

Olmec pyramids, while well-known, have not been excavated, in part because the high water table and humidity of their Gulf coast sites are not as conducive to preserving buried human remains.

"The Olmec sites have not been explored with the depth they deserve," said Lynneth Lowe, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Autonomous University who participated in the dig. "It is possible that this type of tomb exists at La Venta."

Despite the Chiapa de Corzo tomb's location, experts said it is not clear the later Maya culture learned or inherited the practice of pyramid burials from the Zoques, or Olmecs.

"While I have no doubt it relates to Olmec, there is no tie to Maya at this time per se," said archaeologist Lisa Lucero of the University of Illinois, who was not involved in the Chiapa de Corzo project. "There are scholars who would like to see Olmec-Maya connections so they can show direct ties from Olmec to Maya, but this would be difficult to show with evidence at hand."

Get ready for Google on TV.

Today, the search giant is expected to announce a new way of watching Web contenton televisions, via a Google operating system of sorts, at a conference in San Francisco.

"Google has been really itching to get at the $60 billion TV advertising market for years," says Richard Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group. "It's been working on Google TV longer than even Android (the operating system for cellphones), but it's taken this long to get ready."

TECH LIVE: More on Google's plans

The initiative is Google's attempt to bring its multibillion-dollar advertising system to TVs, Doherty and other tech analysts say. Google reported earnings of nearly $15 billion in 2009, almost all generated by little text ads that appear near search results.

Google is expected to be working with a host of partners including Sony, which will have the Google channels as part of new TVs in stores either this year or next. Google and Sony declined comment.

Google is staging a big conference for software developers this week.

"If Google was doing this by itself, it wouldn't be a big deal, but to have the developers see Sony on stage means this is serious, not just another promise," says James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Many new TVs are deemed "Internet-ready" and can offer select Web channels for viewing over Wi-Fi, but Doherty says the presentation is often poor.

"Google wants to give a quality TV and advertising experience," he says. "As more and more TV goes on a personal schedule, Google wants to be the screen where the shows are viewed."

Some 1.5 million Internet-ready TVs have been sold, and that will grow to 11 million next year, says Forrester.

McQuivey says that if Google can persuade folks to "sign-in" when they watch TV as they often do online, it can pass on to advertisers vital data including age and viewing habits. "If anyone should be scared about this announcement, it's Comcast (the No. 1 cable operator)," he says.

Meanwhile, Google on Wednesday introduced an online video format to compete with Adobe's beleaguered Flash, which has come under fire from Apple. Google said it hopes the new video format, VP8, will become the dominant way to show videos on the Web and mobile phones.

As it does with most new programs, Google is giving the video code away for free.

First Horse Whisperers

Paleolithic hunters in Europe and Asia began exploiting horses for meat thousands of years ago, yet the origin of horse domestication long has eluded archaeologists--for some captivating reasons.

One of the biggest reasons is that for many centuries, horse skeletons did not significantly differ in size or physical structure from those of their wild ancestors, making early taming and use of the animal more difficult to identify.

But as part of an international team of archaeologists, my colleagues and I may be getting closer to the beginnings as we look for clues in Kazakhstan.

Our team conducted extensive research at three sites belonging to the Botai culture in the northern part of the country, at locations dated to the Copper Age around 3,500 B.C.

We selected the region because it was here in the heart of the Eurasian steppe where the tarpan, a small wild horse, thrived after they had vanished from most parts of the world. It was estimated that the tarpan lived successfully in the area through most of the Holocene, beginning about 11,700 years ago, before going extinct in the early 20th century.

Upon examining the sites, we found evidence that could point to the early phases of horse domestication and help explain its initial impacts on society. We found that early domesticated horses were eaten, milked and ridden.

More than 90 percent of the animal bones from the main site of Botai, a vast collection estimated at around 300,000, were from horses. Stone-tool butchering marks on the bones indicated a community whose diet consisted primarily of horsemeat. In addition, there was evidence that horses were sacrificed for religious purposes.

Some of the most common artifacts in all Botai settlements are tools made from horse mandibles that were used to prepare rawhide thongs necessary for equipment such as bridles, hobbles and whips. This supported the idea that the Botai horses were ridden.

To me, the most compelling evidence that the Botai kept horses was the fact that they suddenly appeared in large, permanent settlements.

The main site of Botai had over 160 houses, which raises a question: If the people were still just pedestrian hunters with no form of livestock or agriculture, how could they sustain large communities for years without soon depleting the wild horses? And why would they focus so heavily on just one species of large game?

Still, this array of evidence was not sufficient to convince many scholars that the Botai were some of the earliest horse herders in the world, so we kept searching for more definitive proof.

With the assistance of geologists Michael Rosenmeier and Rosemary Capo, we collected soil samples from inside suspected corrals. The samples contained high levels of phosphorus and sodium, as well as traces of lipids that signal the presence of manure. Corrals would have been essential for keeping herds of horses on the open steppe.

Finally, after more than a decade of research, our team discovered residues of mare's milk in pottery. One of our team members, Alan Outram, collected modern samples of horsemeat and milk from Kazakhstan for comparison and brought some of our potsherds to Richard Evershed and Natalie Stear, at Bristol University, for biochemical analysis.

Lipids in the sherds signaled the presence of either horsemeat or milk, but only after years of research did these dedicated chemists discover that a deuterium (hydrogen isotope) marker indicated that the fats from horses in some sherds were collected during the summer--the main season when mare's milk is available.

With the identification of this by-product of domestication, we have compelling evidence that the Botai were indeed horse herders, since milking wild mares would be incredibly difficult.

Finding these early beginnings of modern horse domestication was akin to discovering a watershed moment. Few would dispute the fact that horse domestication was pivotal in human history. Since horses were first domesticated, their cultural value has grown and their roles diversified to include transportation, herding, haulage, plowing, dairy production, warfare, sports and many other functions.

Moreover, no other animal has had such a tremendous impact on geopolitics, chiefly through the successes of imperial cavalries, and no other beast has had so many occupations. Horse domestication certainly has changed the course of human culture as we know it.

sources::: , Carnegie Museum of Natural History

First Women in Antarctica

In the spring of 1969, Terry Tickhill Terrell was 19 and an undergraduate chemistry major at Ohio State University, bored with her lab work and restless. She had never traveled more than 250 miles from the Barnesville, Ohio, farm where she grew up.

One day, after reading an article in the school newspaper about a graduate student who had just returned from Antarctica, Terrell decided that that was where she wanted to go.

"I couldn't understand why all this awful lab work was important," Terrell said. "So I walked into the Polar Studies office and said: 'I want a job in Antarctica.' The room fell dead silent. The secretary took pity on me and said: 'There's a group of women going this year. Dr. Lois Jones is in her office right now, and I'll call her."'

The secretary was referring to geochemist Lois Jones, the leader of the four-woman Ohio State team scheduled to leave in October for four months in Antarctica. Terrell wanted to be a part of it.

"Dr. Jones said, 'We have everyone we need, but tell me about yourself,"' Terrell recalled. "I said, 'I'm a chemistry major. I grew up on a farm. I am a hard worker.' She asked if I'd done any camping. I said, 'I'm an outdoor person, and took outdoor cookery at 4H.' The next day she called me up and said: 'One of the ladies is unable to go. I need a cook and field assistant."'

In addition to Terrell and Jones--who passed away in 2000--the team also included Kay Lindsay and geologist Eileen McSaveney. McSaveney, the other surviving member of the group, had graduated from the University of Buffalo and came to Ohio State for graduate work in landscape changes and glacial geology.

"One day, Lois asked me if I would be interested in going to Antarctica as one of her field assistants," McSaveney said. "I said yes without any hesitation--many fellow geology grad students were involved in polar work. Also, my fiancé, Mauri, had already been to Antarctica that year. Going to the Antarctic didn't seem an unusual thing to do."

At the time, neither woman thought much about the fact that their forthcoming journey would mark the triumphant end to a decade-long struggle. Until then, no one could convince the U.S. Navy to rescind its long-standing policy against transporting women onto the Antarctic continent.

The Navy, which had established McMurdo Station, the main American base in Antarctica, as a military outpost in 1956, had been adamant in its refusal to allow women there. Moreover, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funded the program, did not challenge the Navy's position.

"The U.S. Navy was in charge of field operations and they regarded Antarctica as a male-only bastion," McSaveney said. "Eventually they agreed to allow women to go, but specified an all-female field team."

Now, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of that pioneering expedition, about a third of Antarctic scientists are women. Hundreds of women have worked in the program, some of them leading research stations and heading major expeditions. More than 50 are working at the South Pole during the 2009-2010 summer season.

Yet in 1969, the pole was unexplored territory for American women. "When I told my parents where I was going, my father was ecstatic," Terrell said. "My mother was convinced I would kill myself. But to me, everything was a wonderful adventure."
The team soon left for snow school, where the women, "learned how not to fall into a bottomless crevasse, and how to make snow caves and use an ice axe," Terrell recalled. "I wasn't scared, I was excited. Besides, we were going to the Dry Valleys. There were no crevasses there."

The McMurdo Dry Valleys region is one of the few areas of Antarctica not covered by thousands of meters of ice.

"An elementary school had sent us some curtains to use in Antarctica," remembered McSaveney. "They weren't terribly useful, but we did string them on the outside our tents, and photograph them. We sent the photos back to the class. Years later, I did several talks, which I called: 'The Only Tent with Curtains in the Antarctic."'

"We spent our days breaking rocks and hauling heavy backpacks full of rocks to send back for chemical analysis," Terrell said. "The wind blew all the time, and there was sand in our boots, sand in our clothes and sand in our food. There was sand in everything. We had oatmeal for breakfast every morning--not because we liked it, but because it was the only thing that was edible with sand in it." Terrell, a tall, strong broad-shouldered woman, never considered the physical differences between genders as she did work at the research sites. "On a farm, milking cows is not men's work or women's work, it's the work of whoever can do it," she said.

When a helicopter eventually came to pick up the women and their rock specimens and bring them back to the Dry Valleys, stereotypes once again were shattered. "One closed box was loaded with rocks," recalled McSaveney. "Terry picked it up and started lugging it toward the helicopter. One of the crew members immediately rushed up and said, 'Let me take that,' and grabbed it. He sank to his knees. I don't think his fellow crew members ever let him forget that." For the most part, the project went on as planned, and everyone got along. As Terrell pointed out, "Do you know many women who have fist fights?"

There were a few frightening experiences, however, including a helicopter crash that occurred after a bolt holding one of the propeller blades blew off, causing the blades to separate from the aircraft. The craft had just taken off.

"All of a sudden we heard what sounded like a rifle shot and the helicopter started falling out of the sky," Terrell said. "You know how young people feel immortal? In that one moment, I ceased being immortal."

Everyone survived, and interestingly, "we, the ladies, knew how to set up the survival equipment and the guys did not," Terrell said. "They did not pay attention in snow school. We'd started melting ice and making a meal by the time the rescue helicopter came."

Despite initial resistance to the idea of women in Antarctica, the Navy later sponsored a media event at the South Pole station, a location where women had never been. A ski-equipped LC-130 flew six women researchers there on Nov. 12, 1969. They included the four members of Jones' team; Pam Young, a biologist doing research with the New Zealand Antarctic program; and Jean Pearson, a science writer for the Detroit Free Press.

All six linked arms and stepped off the airplane's cargo ramp onto the ice together--so they all would be first. "Getting to the South Pole by climbing on and off an airplane hardly rivals the daring of the early explorers who walked there," McSaveney said. "Nevertheless, it was, of course, a great honor."

Ultimately, Terrell earned a doctorate in ecology and enjoyed a long career as an aquatic ecologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Retired in 2006, she now plans to earn a Masters degree in fine arts and quilting history. "It's time to stimulate the other half of my brain," she said. She has never been back to Antarctica, although it was "the most exciting, interesting place I'd ever been in my entire life."

Two years after her first trip, McSaveney returned to Antarctica for three months as a field assistant for her husband, Mauri, who was studying glacier movement. McSaveney, an American, lives in Christchurch with her husband, who is from New Zealand. She has worked as a writer and editor, specializing in geology and geological history, landscapes, glaciers, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and tsunamis. She also has taught geology, evolution and climate change at the University of Canterbury, and at local high schools

Prehistoric Fish Extinction

A mass extinction of fish 360 million years ago hit the reset button on Earth's life, setting the stage for modern vertebrate biodiversity. The mass extinction scrambled the species pool near the time at which the first vertebrates crawled from water towards land.

Those few species that survived the bottleneck were the evolutionary starting point for all vertebrates--including humans--that exist today, according to results of a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"Everything was hit; the extinction was global," said Lauren Sallan of the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper. "It reset vertebrate diversity in every single environment, both freshwater and marine, and created a completely different world."

The Devonian Period, which spanned from 416 to 359 million years ago, is also known as the Age of Fishes for the broad array of species present in Earth's aquatic environments.

Armored placoderms such as the gigantic Dunkleosteus and lobe-finned fishes--similar to the modern lungfish--dominated the waters, while ray-finned fishes, sharks and tetrapods were in the minority, according to Maureen Kearney, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research, along with NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

But between the latest Devonian Period and the subsequent Carboniferous period, placoderms disappeared and ray-finned fishes rapidly replaced lobe-finned fishes as the dominant group, a demographic shift that persists to today.

"The Devonian period is known as the Age of Fishes, but it's the wrong kind of fish," Sallan said. "Just about everything dominant in the Devonian died at the end of the period and was replaced."

"There's some sort of pinch at the end of the Devonian," said the paper's second author, Michael Coates, an organismal biologist and anatomist at the University of Chicago.

"It's as if the roles persist, but the players change: the cast is transformed dramatically. Something happened that almost wiped the slate clean, and, of the few stragglers that made it through, a handful then re-radiate spectacularly."

Scientists have long theorized that the Late Devonian Kellwasser event--considered to be one of the "Big Five" extinctions in Earth's history--was responsible for a marine invertebrate species shake-up.

But an analysis of the vertebrate fossil record by Sallan and Coates pinpointed a critical shift in diversity to the Hangenberg extinction event 15 million years later.

Prior to the extinction, lobe-finned forms such as Tiktaalik and the earliest limbed tetrapods such as Ichthyostega had made the first tentative "steps" toward a land-dwelling existence.

But after the extinction, a long stretch of the fossil record known as "Romer's Gap," is almost barren of tetrapods, a puzzle that had confused paleontologists for many years.

Sallan and Coates' data suggest that the 15-million-year gap was the hangover after the traumatic Hangenberg event.

"Something that's seen after an extinction event is a gap in the records of survivors," Sallan said. "You have a very low diversity fauna, because most things have been killed off."

When tetrapods finally recovered, those survivors were likely the great-great-grandfathers to the vast majority of land vertebrates present today.

Modern vertebrate traits--such as the motif of five-digit limbs that is shared by all mammals, birds and reptiles in utero--may have been set by this early common ancestor, the authors propose.

"Extinction events remove a huge amount of biodiversity," Coates said. "That shapes in a very significant way the patchiness of biodiversity that persists to the present day."

The analysis benefitted from recent advances in filling in the vertebrate fossil record, Coates said.

Previously, estimates of the earlier extinction had been made using fossils of invertebrates such as mollusks and clams, which are far more abundant.

With a larger dataset of vertebrates and analytical techniques borrowed from modern ecology, Sallan and Coates were able to see the abrupt changes in species composition before and after the Hangenberg event.

"It's a big extinction during what was already considered a critical time in vertebrate evolution, so it's surprising that it went unnoticed for so long," Sallan said. "But it took the right methods to reveal its magnitude."

What remains mysterious is exactly what happened 360 million years ago to trigger this mass extinction.

Other researchers have found evidence of substantial glacier formation at the end of the Devonian period, which would have dramatically lowered sea levels and affected life.

The first appearance of forest-like environments in some regions might also have produced atmospheric changes catastrophic to animal life.

The research also raises questions about the pattern of evolution after the extinction event.

It remains unclear why groups that were abundant before the event did not recover, while other groups spread and diversified in radical new ways.

Regardless of these questions, the consequences are still being felt hundreds of millions of years later.

"It is a pivotal episode that shaped modern vertebrate biodiversity," Coates said. "We are only now beginning to place that important event in the history of life and the history of the planet, which we weren't able to do before."

Funding was also provided by the University of Chicago Hinds Fund, the Paleontological Society, the Palaeontological Association, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and the Evolving Earth Foundation.

Hidden Chemicals in Popular Perfumes

By Siel Ju, MNN.com

Last week, the President’s Cancer Panel warned that the many hormone-disrupting chemicals in our everyday products could up the risk of getting cancer. This week, a new analysis reports that a whole bunch of hormone-disrupting chemicals can be found in popular fragrances like American Eagle Seventy Seven and Chanel Coco.

That finding is based on a study commissioned by an environmental and health coalition called Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which brings attention to the potential dangers in common personal care and beauty products. Dubbed Not So Sexy: Hidden Chemicals in Perfumes and Colognes, this new study reports on lab tests of 17 scented products — which contained an average of 14 chemicals that weren’t even listed on the ingredient list.

Both women’s and men’s products are tainted. American Eagle Seventy Seven, for example, contained a whopping 24 hidden chemicals, while Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio contained 19 sensitizing chemicals associated with allergies and asthma.

How can perfume companies get away with putting secret chemicals in products bought by unsuspecting consumers? Because companies can claim perfumes as a trade secret; a simple word — fragrance — on an ingredient list can mask all manner of questionable chemicals that haven’t been adequately tested for consumer safety.

The fact that “fragrance” is a cover-all for scary chemicals isn’t new news. Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, as well as individual health and environmental nonprofits like Environmental Group, have been warning consumers about scary phthalates and musks in perfumes for years. What the new study shows, unfortunately, is that the government and the industry have yet to take action to make perfumes safer.

To avoid these secret chemicals, avoid personal care products that have “fragrance” on the ingredient list. Don’t worry — you won’t have to resign yourself to wearing patchouli. More perfumes that cater to health conscious and eco-friendly consumers are coming on the market — and they’ll make you smell lovely without strange chemicals.

Taco Bell's new $2 Meal

Fast food's value-menu war hits a new low today: the $2 combo meal.
Taco Bell will announce plans to roll out $2 Meal Deals that include a taco or burrito, a medium soft drink and a bag of Doritos. It is the only national chain selling an entree, side dish and drink for $2 — a penny more than an iTunes video download.

"This is certainly thinking outside the bun," says Bob Sandelman, CEO of the restaurant research firm Sandelman & Associates. "I'm sure McDonald's will be watching with interest."


COUPONS: Group-buying sites offer deals in your area
BARGAINS: Retailers, restaurants offer deals as more of us pinch pennies

The restaurant industry has struggled throughout the recession and recovery to respond to consumer demands for cheap eats. Pizza Hut is selling $10 any-size pizzas. T.G.I. Friday's briefly offered $5 sandwiches last year. Denny's recently rolled out $4 all-you-can eat pancakes.

Taco Bell's $2 combo meals lower the bar for McDonald's Dollar Menu, where three items cost $3.

"If we just tossed a pebble into the pond, the ripple wouldn't find its way to shore," explains Greg Creed, president of Taco Bell. "We're throwing a boulder into the pond. This will be a disrupter in the marketplace."

Besides a medium drink and Doritos chips, consumers choose from four items: Chicken Burrito, Double Decker Taco, Gordita Supreme or 5-Layer Burrito.

Taco Bell will begin TV ads on Sunday with Taco Bell workers and customers pondering how the chain can sell three items for $2. The actors make the assumption that one of the items must be "free" — then argue over which item is the freebie.

With unemployment hovering around 10% nationally and the prospect of foreclosures still haunting many folks, "Our customers really need us now," says David Ovens, marketing chief. "They love the fact that we're doing this — even if they can't understand how."

Here's how: The 150 million bags of Doritos it expects to sell this year will come from former parent and current supplier PepsiCo. Beverages typically cost chains pennies on the retail dollar.

Taco Bell will continue to offer its 79-cent, 89-cent and 99-cent value menu, Creed says. "This is a way to reframe another point of value," he says.

It's also a way to boost sales. Taco Bell's same-store sales were down 2% in the first quarter. More serious, sales of its combo meals — which peaked at 31% of all sales in 2008 — are now down to 24% of all sales, Creed says.

McDonald's says it isn't impressed.

"Our research shows that we consistently rank among the best in the industry in consumers' perceptions of value," says spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling.

Thanks to Face Book-Father and Son reunited after 37 yrs.

London, May 11 (IANS) A man in Britain was united with his long-lost father after 37 years with the help of the social networking site Facebook.

Andy Spiers-Corbett, 39, who had lost contact with his father Graham Corbett when his parents separated, typed his father's name into Facebook and instantly picked out his photo from a long list of Graham Corbetts, The Daily Mail reported on its site Tuesday.

'There were about 15 Graham Corbett that came up but I saw this picture and my heart just started pounding. I knew it was him. It was like looking at a picture of me when I'm older,' the report said quoting Andy.

'I just sent a message and a day or two later got one back saying, 'Hello son'. I couldn't believe it,' he added.

The report said the pair later had an emotional reunion at Graham's home and were now 'making up for lost time'.

'I was in bits when he came over to see me. There were a few tears shed. There's been a big part missing for so long but now everything is all right. The Internet is an amazing invention,' said Andy.

'early menopause,???' it's primary ovarian insufficiency

Recently graduated from college and living in Los Angeles, Christine Eads went from doctor to doctor, hoping someone could figure out why her periods had stopped and why she often awoke in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.
They provided lots of possible explanations but no answers:

She was too skinny.

She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
She should start taking the pill.

She should stop taking the pill.

But they pretty much agreed that there was no way a woman who hadn't menstruated in five years could conceive a baby.

Finally, her then-boyfriend learned of a National Institutes of Health doctor who studied women with her symptoms.

Eads moved back to her native Northern Virginia and went to see Lawrence Nelson, an obstetrician/ gynecologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Md.

Nelson immediately recognized that Eads had an uncommon condition called primary ovarian insufficiency, or POI. It affects fertility and leads to osteoporosis and other conditions related to inadequate estrogen production.

Once known as "premature menopause," the name change reflects how research has changed the way doctors think about the condition.

"We need to divorce this from menopause," Nelson says, not to raise false hopes but to erase POI's stigma: A diagnosis of premature menopause affects women's self-image and emotional health.

"Menopause is defined as the permanent cessation of menstrual cycles and the permanent cessation of fertility," Nelson notes. "The word implies that there aren't any eggs left in the ovary that work."

Sure, occasionally there's a report in a medical journal about a POI patient who got pregnant, he says, but "everybody assumed it was a really rare thing, a fluke."

Maybe not.

In primary ovarian insufficiency, "there probably is a period of time where there is less-than-optimal ovarian function but not absence of ovarian function," says Paula Hillard, a Stanford University OB/GYN and board member of Rachel's Well, a POI advocacy group.

"We don't completely understand that, and that's one of the reasons why Larry Nelson's studies are so very, very important," Hillard says.

A long shot but possible

In fact, Nelson and Hillard say, probably 5% to 10% of women with primary ovarian insufficiency are able to conceive.

Eads' diagnosis at 30 sent her reeling. "I was so devastated," says Eads, now 40 and co-host of Broadminded on SiriusXM Radio.

Hoping to help save other women from a similar fate, Eads enrolled in one of Nelson's studies. All the participants were given estrogen patches to wear.

Several months into it, she was asked to come in so the researchers could repeat a blood draw. Something about her hormone levels had looked odd.

Nelson himself called her with the news. "I thought something was wrong," she recalls.

"Are you sitting down?" she says Nelson asked her. "You're not going to believe this. I've got some great news." The reason her hormone levels had looked out of whack? She was pregnant.

When she heard the news, "I was in shock, but I didn't want to tell anybody," Eads says. "I didn't really believe him. I thought maybe they made a mistake."

Eads' son, Aidan, a soccer- and math-loving second-grader, celebrated his 8th birthday this month. Maybe it was the estrogen patch, says Eads, a single mother. Definitely, though, "it was an act of God," she says. "I think he's a total miracle."

Aidan's conception, and a few others in women in his studies, spurred Nelson to study further the fertility potential in POI patients. In research posted online last month by the journal Fertility and Sterility, Nelson and his coauthors compared the ovaries and hormone levels of 97 primary ovarian insufficiency patients and 47 women with normal periods.

FSH isn't the main problem

Using ultrasound, the researchers were surprised to find that three-fourths of the POI patients had follicles — the fluid-filled sacs in the ovary that give rise to egg cells — capable of producing ovarian hormones.

This was the problem, though: While the patients' pituitary glands were releasing plenty of follicle-stimulating hormone, or FSH, which causes follicles to grow, the glands also were releasing excessively high levels of luteinizing hormone, or LH.

LH normally surges once a month, signaling a follicle to break open and release an egg.

Those constantly high LH levels in women with POI cause follicles to try to break open and release an egg too soon. "These women are getting the signal to ovulate all the time," before their follicles are mature enough, Nelson says.

The next step: See if estrogen therapy might suppress LH in POI patients and improve their ovulation rate, says Nelson, who's ready to start such a study as soon as he finds a company that will provide the estrogen and a placebo.

One must read this <> :: Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia

An extract from :::
1876 Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia
May 10th, 2010 by Donna Scanlon
Our guest author today is Gulnar Nagashybayeva, Business Reference Specialist, with another “Favorite from the Fifth Floor.”
( this msg is posted to my friends to know better about this)

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition. 1876
May 10, 1876 was the opening date of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where industrial exhibits of 37 nations were displayed in over 250 pavilions for six months until its formal closure on November 10, 1876. It was the first major international exhibition to be held in the U.S. and a significant event in the history of the young republic as an opportunity to display to the world the technological and industrial progress it had made in its first hundred years of being.

I discovered some interesting publications on the Centennial Exhibition in the Adams stacks when I looked for answers to a couple of questions related to the event. Some of them offer valuable information on the history of American business and industry.

Available online from the Internet Archive Important events of the century: containing historical and important events during the last hundred years; illustrations and descriptions of the Great Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia… 1876 covers: significant events that happened in the United States from 1776 to 1877; Centennial program where you can find what day of the Exhibition the parade of butchers was held; a lengthy listing of fictitious names of states, cities, noted persons; facts about important inventions and improvements; sketches of Presidents, etc. The section Leading business houses can serve as a business directory of the time as it lists company names, the nature of business and dates of establishment for various U.S. cities.

Another book that I found most fascinating is Frank Leslie’s illustrated historical register of the Centennial Exposition, 1876. With about 800 fabulous illustrations of the Centennial drawn by prominent artists of the time this book is more than just the register of the Centennial Exhibition. You can find interesting historical facts in the sections on: all the previous world fairs; early history of American industry; illustrations and descriptions of various exhibition halls of the Centennial with information on each of the major participating countries; agricultural statistics by country; industrial progress of States and statistics of the exhibition.

The Library has over 300 items on the Centennial in its collections including prints and photographs and many titles from other countries such as Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, Germany, etc. You can view and download images from the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. A search for “Centennial Exhibition 1876” on the Library of Congress American Memory site brings up close to 100 digitized items including photographs, illustrations, books and letters for your enjoyment.

Fire crew saves old woman from sinking car

Firefighter Knud Bucholt feared the worst as he dived into the Whanganui River to free an elderly woman, trapped in a sinking car. "I thought I was looking at a body," he said.

But Hillary Guilford, 83, was still alive – just.

She was in intensive care last night, after almost drowning when her Mazda plunged into the Whanganui River just after 6am yesterday.

Firefighters say it appears she drove off the Wharf St boat ramp.

Police have praised the efforts of two fishermen who tried in vain to free her from her sinking car, before calling emergency services.

Fire service senior station officer Craig Gardiner said the car was fully submerged by the time his crew arrived about 6.20am.

Firefighter Shaun Wooller used a large metal pick, known as a "Hooligan tool", to smash the car windows, before Mr Bucholt and firefighter Lindsay Taylor dived underwater, cut Mrs Guilford free of her seatbelt and pulled her to safety.

The quick-thinking of his four-man crew, who "had her in the ambulance within minutes", proved the difference between life and death, he said.

But for Mr Bucholt, time was moving much more slowly.

"What was probably just minutes felt a lot longer," he said.

"Every time you dive into the water to unlock a door or cut a seatbelt, it felt like we were losing seconds – and they were vital seconds."

Dawn was only just breaking and the water was extremely dark.

"It was pretty hazy. When I pulled her out she was pale white and completely limp."

Mr Gardiner said he rode with Mrs Guildford in the ambulance, and it was not until then that he realised she still had a pulse.

Firefighters attended about two river rescues a year in Whanganui, he said.

Senior Sergeant Dave Kirby, of Whanganui, said the fishermen who were first on the scene deserved special praise.

"They heard someone screaming and rushed over.

"I don't know exactly how long the woman was under for ... we're talking minutes."

A resident living near the boat ramp said she did not see the fishermen who had rushed to Mrs Guilford's aid but they were the only people using the boat ramp that early.

The weather was quite foggy yesterday morning.

Mr Kirby said police were still investigating how the car ended up in the river

Sources : Stuff.co.nz. The Dominian Post

Freekish find shoks southland woman

Southland woman Wendy McMahon reckons she will never look at canned pears the same way.

The latest can she opened contained a demonic face carved into one of its contents.

However, Mrs McMahon said the shock of the find is nothing compared with the trial she has had trying to get answers out of the pears' supplier.

She bought the Budget brand can of pears from Invercargill Pak'N Save a fortnight ago and feeling "a bit peckish", she opened it, late on May 1.

She said it was when she returned to the can for a second helping that she scooped the freakish piece of fruit out.

"I thought `oh my God, is that a face'... it really kind of shocked me."

Inspecting the can, she found an 0800 number and called it.

That call went through to voicemail and, despite feeling "embarrassed", she left a message, Mrs McMahon said.

She took photos of the pear, posted them to websites, including TV3 and Facebook and listed it on Trade Me before going to bed.

Last Monday, her call was returned by a woman from Safeway Traders Ltd in Auckland.

Mrs McMahon said the woman was reluctant to accept the find was genuine, became angry she had "gone public" online with the find, assured her the manufacturing process was automated and there was no way this could have happened.

Forwarding the photos to the woman made her change her tune.

On Thursday she received a letter and a $15 voucher.

Mrs McMahon said because no-one had phoned her back, she called the woman, who assured her the "technical adviser" would call her after lunch.

The woman then phoned, demanding the pear and its can be sent to Auckland so its manufacturer Heinz-Wattie's could investigate, Mrs McMahon said.

She sent the pear, along with the voucher, by courier the same day and pulled the Trade Me listing.

On Friday, the woman phoned again, read her a letter that conceded that during production the pear halves were checked by people at the Chinese plant as a quality control measure and offered her a $30 voucher, Mrs McMahon said. "I said that wasn't good enough, then she turned on me and got nasty again – she said `you're just after money aren't you?' – I asked her to send the pear back."

Last night she was still waiting, but said rather than the satanic slice of fruit, it is her treatment by the company she takes exception to.

sources:"Stuff.co.nz news

nudist hotel plan hits hitch

Turkey's first nudist hotel plan hits hitch


What was billed as the Muslim world's first nudist hotel has been forced to close, just six days after it opened.
It was shut after a local authority inspection which found that one of the balconies did not conform to the architect's drawings.
The first 12 sparsely-clad guests at the 64-room resort in Datca on the Turkish Riviera have had to be moved to more conventional accommodation.

The hotel owner said he hoped to modify the balcony and re-open by Wednesday.
Entrepreneur Ahmed Kosar, a 15-year veteran of the Turkish tourism industry, told the BBC that he was always looking for new niches to exploit in the $20bn (£13.6bn) business, and that a number of European clients at his other hotels had expressed an interest in nudism.
The resort was constructed in a quiet spot on the Datca peninsula, east of the popular resort of Marmaris.

It offers guests the opportunity to bare all around the pool, or to take a special shuttle bus to a private beach where nudity is tolerated.
Mr Kosar said he was campaigning to re-open the hotel, and argued that many other hotels in the area have been allowed to continue operating despite not getting some of the many different licences required in Turkey.
It took him two years to build, and he said there were no objections from the local inhabitants, provided the naked tourists confined themselves to the grounds of the resort and the private beach.

The hotel is only open to foreigners - Turks are not allowed to stay - and the staff, nearly all male, keep their clothes on.

Mr Kosar would not be drawn on the subject of whether officials from the governing AK Party were behind the closure - the party is frequently accused of quietly implementing a conservative Muslim agenda in many parts of Turkey.
But he said that if his project continued to be blocked, he would consider moving it to another country like Croatia or northern Cyprus.

'Growth hormone stopped the bullying'

When Hayley Cowan was 14 she was barely five foot tall.
Some children at her secondary school bullied her badly, constantly referring to her size.
"I hated going to school because people kept making comments about my height.

"They called me very unoriginal names, like 'midget'," she said.

I had much lower self-esteem than my friends, which probably was not helped by the continual questioning of my age by people at cinemas, shops and restaurants

Hayley Cowan
"You start to think your height is your defining feature.
"I was always short, but I got progressively lower than average as my friends grew taller so the difference between me and my friends grew."
Hayley, now aged 18 from Hertfordshire, was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency.
Doctors started her on a growth hormone and within four years she had grown four inches.
But not all children are as lucky as Hayley and medics worry that some are slipping through the net.
Hormone controversy
Now Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry have launched an appeal to fund a new child health research centre to look into diseases like abnormal growth.
Adrian Clark, Professor of Medicine at Barts, said: "New research is urgently needed to increase our understanding of these serious health problems as, if they are not treated early, they can cause even greater difficulties in later life.
"Our aim is to raise £2.4 million to fund a team of researchers which will translate into better care for sick children and improvements in their long-term health."
In the past there has been controversy surrounding the use of growth hormone, with suspected links to Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) - or so-called "mad cow disease" - low IQ and an increase in tumours.

But Dr Helen Storr, consultant in paediatric endocrinology at William Harvey Research Institute, Barts, said that these studies were old and no longer relevant.
This is particularly the case with the CJD link, as the hormone used is synthetic rather than taken from a pituitary gland as in the past.
And growth hormone was not linked with an increase in tumour risk - unless a child has a tumour already - Dr Storr added. Nor was there a link with a decrease in intelligence.
She said children reaching a normal height tended to have better health with stronger bones and better muscle tone, as well as an increase in confidence.
"Hayley was helped and many children like her do have a positive outcome," she said.
Borrow clothes
Hayley said she had no qualms taking a growth hormone and that it had transformed her life.
"They did consult me about the side effects, but I really wanted to try it because I was so unhappy I have would tried anything. But I didn't really have any problems.
"I am happy with my height now.
"My body has become more adult. I used to think I was quite fat. I hated the way I looked, now I am much happier.
"Now I can buy clothes and can borrow my friends' clothes because they are the same size."
And best of all Hayley, who has been offered a place at Oxford to study maths, said the bullying has stopped.
"The difference in my attitude towards school now and six years ago is unimaginable.
"I used to dread going to school and count down the time until I could leave.
"I had much lower self-esteem than my friends, which probably was not helped by the continual questioning of my age by people at cinemas, shops and restaurants.
"But now, thanks to the growth hormones, I look the same age as my friends and can match them in self-assurance."


HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE
Human growth hormone (HGH) has been helping stunted children in the UK to grow normally since 1959
Concerns about the transmission of CJD mean that all supplies of HGH are now manufactured using artificial techniques
Human growth hormone is made naturally in the pituitary gland of humans, deep inside the brain just behind the eyes. It is a microscopic protein substance that is secreted in short pulses during the first hours of sleep and after exercise

new record, creating a huge 10-tonne vat of the chickpea-based dip in Fanar.

Lebanon has claimed the latest victory in the continuing battle with Israel over which country can make the largest serving of hummus.

Some 300 chefs set the new record, creating a huge 10-tonne vat of the chickpea-based dip in Fanar.

That more than doubles the previous record of about four tonnes, set in January by cooks in the Israeli-Arab town of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem.

Both Lebanese and Israelis claim hummus as a national dish.

A Guinness World Records adjudicator confirmed that Lebanon now held the record.

Hummus is a dip made of chickpeas, olive oil, sesame paste, lemon juice and garlic. The chefs mixed the ingredients together in a giant plate which itself claimed a record for the largest earthenware dish.

'Historic' day as first non-Latin web addresses go live

Arab nations are leading a "historic" charge to make the world wide web live up to its name.

Net regulator Icann has switched on a system that allows full web addresses that contain no Latin characters.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first countries to have so-called "country codes" written in Arabic scripts.

The move is the first step to allow web addresses in many scripts including Chinese, Thai and Tamil.

More than 20 countries have requested approval for international domains from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).

It said the new domains were "available for use now" although it admitted there was still some work to do before they worked correctly for everyone. However, it said these were "mostly formalities".

Icann's senior director for internationalised domain names, Tina Dam, told BBC News that this has been "the most significant day" since the launch of the internet, adding that "it's been a very big day for Icann, more so for the three Arabic countries that were the first to be introduced".

Icann president Rod Beckstrom described the change as "historic".

Read right

The introduction of the first web names using so-called country code top-level domains (CCTLDs) is the culmination of several years of work by the organisation.

Previously, websites could use some non-Latin letters, but the country codes such as .eg for Egypt had to be written in Latin script.

The three new suffixes will allow web addresses to be completely written in native characters.

One of the first websites with a full Arabic address is the Egyptian Ministry of Communications.

Egypt's communication and information technology minister Tarek Kamal told the Associated Press that three Egyptian companies were the first to receive registrar licences for the '.masr' domain, written in Arabic.

Mr Kamal described the development as a "milestone in internet history".

Masr means Egypt in Arabic.

Some countries, such as China and Thailand, had already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language.

However, these were not internationally approved and do not necessarily work on all computers.

Ms Dam explained that the change was "not about shutting non-Arabic or non-Chinese speakers out of the internet.

"It's about including that large part of our world into the internet today."

She said there had previously been a risk the internet might have started to split.

"The chances are people would start creating their own internets, where it was only in Chinese, Arabic, Thai or whatever," she said.

Icann warned that the internationalised domain names (IDNs), as they are known, would also not work on all PCs immediately.

"You may see a mangled string of letters and numbers, and perhaps some percent signs or a couple of "xn--"s mixed into the address bar," said Mr Davies. "Or it may not work at all."

Previously, Icann has said that people would have to update the software on their computers to view the domains.

"Computers never come with the complete set of fonts that will allow it to show every possible IDN in the world.

"Often this is fixed by downloading additional language packs for the missing languages, or specifically finding and installing fonts that support the wanted languages."

Global access

When Icann first announced its plans for non-Latin web names it said it was the "biggest change" to the net "since it was invented 40 years ago".

"Over half the internet users around the world don't use a Latin-based script as their native language," said Mr Beckstrom at the time.

"IDNs are about making the internet more global and accessible for everyone."

Icann said it had received 21 requests for IDNs in 11 different languages, including Chinese, Russian, Tamil and Thai.

Website owners in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will now be able to apply for web addresses using the new country codes.

Death threats leave Jharkand politicians in fear (India)

There has been a surge in Maoist violence in recent months
Senior politicians in the Indian state of Jharkand say they are living in fear and hardly dare venture from their own homes.

In recent weeks Maoist rebels have begun issuing death threats against local Congress Party leaders - demanding they oppose the government's latest military offensive against the guerrillas.

These are not empty threats.

Earlier this month the Maoists gunned down Congress leader Govardhan Mahli in the East Singhbhum district of the state.

The Indian government recently launched a major offensive against the rebels. In Jharkand, government and state security forces want to flush the Maoists out of the remote swathes of forest they occupy.

But Jharkand is at the centre of the Maoists' "red corridor" - they have a heavy presence in 18 of the state's 24 districts and call strikes, blow up train tracks and lay landmines.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the insurgency in Jharkhand.

Poster campaign

Around the same time of the assassination of Mr Mahli, 24 Congress leaders in the district of Palamu resigned in fear of the Maoist diktat.

We have advised party leaders to take the utmost precautions

Radha Krishna Kishore
And in late April the rebels issued a fresh ultimatum through a poster campaign exhorting 38 Congress leaders in Palamu to quit the party or face the consequences.

Seventeen of them quit last week.

Congress politicians say they feel helpless in the face of the threat.

"It's a question of life. We're not able to come out of our homes or go outside the state capital. The state government has completely surrendered before the Maoists," a Congress leader told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Congress legislator Radha Krishna Kishore described the atmosphere among the political elite in Jharkand.

"They [the Maoists] have already been executing their threat and the situation is even more alarming and grave than it appears," he said.

Security plea

He says there is a very real fear that Jharkhand could go the same way as the state of Punjab during the height of its insurgency in the 1970s - when he says that more than 36,000 Congress party members and their families were killed by militants.

Mr Kishore says that his colleagues in Jharkhand have been pleading with the chief minister and police chief for better security.

They have also established a five-member committee to take stock of the situation and suggest possible ways the party can escape the wrath of the Maoists.

Mr Kishore is convener of the committee as is Jharkhand Congress President Pradeep Balmuchu.

"Now the committee has submitted its report we'll put it before our party chief Sonia Gandhi, the prime minister and home minister to make them aware of the threat," Mr Balmuchu told the BBC.

"Until then we're keeping our fingers crossed and have advised party leaders to take the utmost precautions when moving out from their houses or constituencies."

Congress party members are being subjected to a campaign of intimidation
But the Maoist influence in Jharkand extends beyond the remote jungles of the state.

Their presence is so strong that in the latest elections to the state assembly, their representatives - in different political parties - won nine seats.

The Maoists contend they are fighting for the rights of poor, marginal farmers and the oppressed classes.

But the authorities are sceptical about their dedication to the cause.

Police say that since they have stepped up operations, many top Maoist leaders have fled into neighbouring Bihar state.

Some Congress leaders may do likewise. As the Indian government forges ahead with the biggest anti-Maoist offensive on record, the ramifications in individual states across India are far-reaching and potentially deadly.

Sources::: Amarnath Tewary
Patna, Bihar - India

IT CAN BE ONLY IN CHINA ???

In order to attract more customers, a Chinese hair-stylist, trained in the art of kung-fu, cuts hair, while standing upside down, on his head.

36-year-old Wang Xiaoyu first attracted media attention,in May of last year, when local papers reported a man cutting his customers’ hair, while doing a headstand. The wacky barber has been cutting hair, in the city of Changsha, Hunan Province, for 16 years, and is now using his 18 years of kung-fu training to boost up his business.

What can I say, his customers better pray Wang doesn’t get dizzy while using a sharp razor. Someone could literally lose their heads over this. But, on the other hand, if you’ve ever doubted the power of kung-fu martial arts, now’s the time to stop.

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Do We Push Kids Too Hard ???

Do too many parents and grandparents try to live through their kids and put too much pressure on them?

At a young age, kids are often pushed into playing sports or music or other activities. While there are some great benefits that can come from these activities like learning teamwork and gaining self-confidence, there are also dangers, none the least of which comes from the parents themselves.

The Gazette reports that “More than half of Canadian adults who attend children’s sporting events say they’ve witnessed verbal or physical abuse against officials and coaches by parents, according to a new survey.”

In the article Peter Crocker, chair of the Canadian Psychological Associations’ sports and exercise section and professor at the University of British Columbia explains that “there’s a lot of pressure at these games because they want their kids to do well and there’s this dream of the college scholarship, or in Canada of (a hockey player) getting drafted and going through the system.”

As important and beneficial as sports can be, I wonder how much these kids would benefit if instead of being so passionate about sports, parents were instead as passionate about God’s word, and teaching them to chase hard after righteousness instead of athletic success?

Were you ever pressured by a parent in extracurricular activities? Have you witnessed an instance of angry parents at kids sporting events or unfairly trying to live out their dreams through their children? Share your experiences with us in the comments!

If you are struggling with issues relating to anger in your marriage or relationship, you may want to try our online interactive life lesson “Lovebusters: Angry Outbursts“.
Sources ::>> Women Today Magazine

Goan Civil Code
Did you know that the state of Goa (South West of India) has one of those legal rarities- the pre-nuptial agreement?

The Goan civil code

Goa has had a uniform civil code for the last 500 years.
Though written in Portuguese, it has been translated into English. The Goan government has realised that these old laws may need to be changed or altered to some extent. Especially the laws concerning property distribution during marriage and divorce.

Marriage

The uniform civil code insists that all couples must register their intent to marry as well as the marriage itself. The code supersedes religious rules. If a marriage is not registered, the court does not recognize it.

Pre- Nuptial Agreement

In a pre- nuptial agreement, the couple should choose any of the three available systems which deal with property distribution. This contract cannot be changed after the marriage has taken place.

Property

If no contract has been signed, it is custom of the country that governs by default. It is assumed that the couple married under communion of property.

Properties that belong separately to each of the spouses need to be registered. Otherwise it will be assumed to be community property. All property acquired during the marriage is considered joint property - to be equally divided in case of divorce.

Couples who choose to marry under separate property regime must necessarily reject the communion of property. Each of the property acquired even after marriage can only be registered in the name of one of the spouses. There is no dual ownership.

The third system is dotal regime, which has couples specifying the property included in the endowment.

Though these contracts have a lot of flexibility, they must be drawn up before the marriage. Not a single clause can be changed after the wedding.

These family laws in Goa aim to protect both the parties. But like any other law, ignorance of these laws render them less effective. Women should be made aware of these laws and their rights to prefer separate property regimes.

Divorce Laws

The divorce laws in Goa aim to be fair to both parties. Both the families have three of their members to represent them. They play a significant role in granting a separation and maintenance to be allotted to the needy spouse.

If the divorce is not mutually sought but contested, the children's custody usually goes to the person who wants to keep the marriage intact and avoid divorce.

These laws apply equally to every one in Goa. Personal law plays no role here. Goan laws are an example of how uniform civil codes treat every member of the society impartially.

Ruby Dickinson - World's

Ruby Dickinson - World's
youngest tattoos Artist.

3 year old Ruby Dickinson, from Wales, is preparing to ink a small tattoo,
on her father's body, and become the youngest tattoo artist on Earth.

Ruby has been living in a tattoo-filled environment,
ever since
she was born. Her father, Blane, has his own tattoo shop,
set up right in their home.
Tattooing has already become part of
Ruby's life, and she always talks to her father's customers,
about what they are planning to ink on their bodies, and
repeats whatever her father tells them, on the matter.

Blane has already ordered a special tattooing tool, from the States,
one that fits Ruby's small hands. Right now, she is practicing
her favorite design, a spider, about the size of a 2 p coin.
Since her father already has 70% of his body covered with tattoos,
he's not worried Ruby might mess up the spider.

Brent says this will set her off on a fantastic career, and
a tattoo machine is a lot cheaper than university fees.

New pizza recipe did wonders

Just four months after a desperate Domino's (DPZ) tossed its much-mocked pizza recipe out the window and rolled out a spicy new one, the chain reported on Tuesday what CEO J. Patrick Doyle calls a "historic" leap in sales at locations open at least one year.
That gain of 14.3%, Doyle says, ranks as one of the largest quarterly same-store sales jumps ever recorded by a major fast-food chain. Even more impressive, the turnaround is taking place at a time when the $22 billion pizza-delivery business — quashed by the recession and vastly improved frozen-pizza technologies — fell 3%, researcher Technomic estimates.

Domino's was painfully aware of its old pizza recipe's bottom-of-the-barrel reputation. It even ran a self-flogging ad campaign earlier this year in which it let a consumer rant about its former crust tasting like cardboard and its sauce tasting like ketchup.

Domino's instant turnaround is almost without precedent in the fast-food industry, says Christopher Muller, hospitality professor at Orlando's University of Central Florida. "No one in the industry thought it was going to be this successful," Muller says. "This changes the pizza landscape."

Rolling out all-new crust, sauce and cheese, Muller says, "was like the world poker championship. Domino's put everything on the table."

The move was made in the midst of a CEO change, as well. Doyle was named CEO in January, just days after the new recipe began to roll out. He says the recipe was a needed move. "It proves that if you do the right thing, then look people in the eye and tell them the truth about what you've done, they'll respond."

Jeremy White, editor of trade magazine Pizza Today, agrees: "Domino's is really kicking it right now."

But not all is perfect. Domino's stock rose more than 70% over the past year, but it took a hit Tuesday, closing down $2.04 at $14.02, a drop of 12.7%. Some had expected Domino's numbers to be even stronger after the massive amount it spent promoting the new recipe and the discounting it has offered over the past quarter.

Meanwhile, Papa John's, which likes to brag about being the pizza taste leader — and whose domestic same-store sales fell 0.4% in the first quarter — is unimpressed with Domino's gains. "It's not surprising that they drove trial on a new product," says spokesman Chris Sternberg.

But Doyle believes it's much more than trial. "Not only did folks try the pizza — they're coming back," he says.

Doyle concedes, however, this kind of same-store sales results can't continue forever. "If we did this every quarter for seven years, we'd be bigger than U.S gross domestic product."

Nano-tech for faster Net

Washington, May 4 (ANI): Communication devices will soon turn smaller, more flexible and more powerful, thanks to a nano-based technology that can make computers and the Internet hundreds of times faster.

Currently being creataed by Dr. Koby Scheuer of Tel Aviv University's School of Electrical Engineering, the communications technology "enabler" could only be used in five or ten years in the future.

Scheuer has developed a new plastic-based technology for the nano-photonics market, which manufactures optical devices and components.

The plastic-based "filter" is made from nanometer-sized grooves embedded into the plastic.

When used in fibre optics cable switches, the new device will make our communication devices smaller, more flexible and more powerful, he said.

"Once Americans have a fibre optics cable coming into every home, all communication will go through it - telephone, cable TV, the Internet. But to avoid bottlenecks of information, we need to separate the information coming through into different channels. Our polymeric devices can do that in the optical domain - at a speed, quality and cost that the semi-conductor industry can't even imagine," said Scheuer.

Every optical device used in today's communication tools has a filter.

Ten years from now, fibre optic cables that now run from city to city will feed directly into every individual home.

When that technology comes to light, the new plastic-based switches could revolutionize the way we communicate.

"Right now, we could transmit all of the written text of the world though a single fiber in a fiber optics cable in just a few seconds. But in order to handle these massive amounts of communication data, we need filters to make sense of the incoming information. Ours uses a plastic-based switch, replacing hard-to-fabricate and expensive semi-conductors," said Scheuer.

Semi-conductors, grown on crystals in sterile labs and processed in special ovens, take days and sometimes months to manufacture. They are delicate and inflexible as well, said Scheuer.

"Our plastic polymer switches come in an easy-to-work-with liquid solution. Using a method called 'stamping,' almost any laboratory can make optical devices out of the silicon rubber mold we've developed," he added.

The silicon rubber mould is scored with nano-sized grooves, invisible to the eye and each less than a millionth of a meter in width.

A plastic solution can be poured over the mould to replicate the optical switch in minutes.

When in place in a fibre-optic network, the grooves on the switch modulate light coming in through the cables, and the data is filtered and encoded into usable information.

The device can also be used in the gyros of planes, ships and rockets; inserted into cell phones; and made a part of flexible virtual reality gloves so doctors could "operate" on computer networks over large distances.

The study has been published in the journal Optics Express.