Love is in the breathable air at John Krasinski and Emily Blunt's new house. The handsome pair, further proving that the couple who renew energy together stay together, have...
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Check Out Emily Blunt and John Krasinski's Eco-Friendly Love Nest
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October 05, 2012 19:49 PM
Perak, Penang Inshore Fishermen Seek Action Against Trespassing Fishermen
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- Inshore fishermen in Kerian, Perak and Penang have asked the authorities to act against trespassing fishermen using the so-called "Apollo" nets which they claim harm the eco-system and undermine their catch.
The president of the Education and Welfare Association of the Malaysian Inshore Fishermen's Network (Jaring), Jamaluddin Mohamad, said today the trespassing fishermen had modified the nets into damaging and illegal aids.
"The nets were used since the 1980s under the seine net licence issued by the Fisheries Department, but the nets of today do not adhere to that classification," he said in a statement.
He urged the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and the Fisheries Department to act immediately against the trespassing fishermen, saying the Apollo nets damaged the eco-system and fish-breeding locations.
Jamaluddin said the inshore fishermen feared for their lives because some of the Apollo net boat operators allegedly used ball firecrackers to scare away the inshore fishermen.
The authorities must address the issue because it can undermine the country's fisheries sector and threaten the livelihood of the inshore fishermen, he said.
-- BERNAMA
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Perak, Penang Inshore Fishermen Seek Action Against Trespassing Fishermen
They're beautiful, they're close to home, and they're steeped in history. But the best reason to vacation in one of our 6,624 state parks? They're fast becoming an endangered species.
California's Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve has made big news twice in the past two years. The first time came in December 2010, when scientists thought they'd discovered an unusual form of bacteria that devoured arsenic while it lurked in the mud around the lake's knobby limestone spires. But it was the second headline, five months later, that was really scary. That was when California's state parks department announced that Mono Lake itself was about to be wiped out--though by a far more mundane force.
See the State Parks Now
Mono was one of 70 parks targeted by the state in an effort to cut $22 million from California's budget gap, which totaled $9.2 billion at the time. Also on the list: Jack London's former home and writing studio in Sonoma County and a handful of old-growth redwood forests along the northern coast. All told, California was talking about mothballing about 25 percent of its 278 parks. The news hasn't been much better elsewhere. New York, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Virginia, and Idaho have contemplated closing parks in recent years; Ohio has considered leasing some state park lands for oil and gas drilling to help raise money; and Virginia has explored corporate partnerships to keep park gates open.
What gets lost in this game of budgetary Russian roulette is how precious these lands can be. State parks, such as the ones you'll see here, often rival their national-park cousins in sheer beauty: Did you know that Niagara Falls is actually a New York state park? Last year, the nation's 6,624 state parks attracted 720 million visitors, more than twice what the national parks see, and they do it with almost $1 billion less in annual operating revenue. "Some states have had cuts of 30, 40, 50 percent or more in their operating budgets, and some budgets have been cut twice in one year," says Rich Dolesh, the vice president for conservation and parks at the National Recreation and Park Association.
Yet, true to their more-with-less ethos, state parks are finding imaginative ways to hang on. Michigan has seen some success selling annual passes to its parks system, and other states have made arrangements with communities and nonprofits to share the financial burden-at least for a while. In April 2012, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged $89 million for repairs and improvements to his state's parks. As for California: As of press time, 65 of the 70 endangered parks had been temporarily spared-including Mono Lake-thanks to help from the communities that depend on them. They've cobbled together private donations, volunteer staffing, and funding by city and county governments and nonprofits to try to bridge the gaps. We may not be out of the woods yet, but we're certainly sniffing out the trail.
Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve
California
This park's namesake tufa towers, limestone formations that rise from its 65-square-mile lake, are impressive from wherever you're standing. But to fully apprecate them, you've got to approach like an osprey might: coming in low over the water. Can't fly? Then bring a canoe. Up close, the spires resemble white-chalk skyscrapers, a kind of surreal city that's visited by more than a million migratory birds each year. Just don't get too close to the ospreys themselves. From April through August, the birds nest on the towers, and it's forbidden to come within 200 yards.
Like anything else this old-the lake has been around for anywhere from 760,000 to 3 million years-Mono Lake endured its share of woe long before the latest California budget struggle. Between 1941 and 1981, Mono lost half its volume and doubled in salinity after four of its five tributaries were diverted to supplement Los Angeles's water supply. Even now, it's almost three times as salty as the ocean. Yet, thanks to the Mono Lake Committee, which rallied to reclaim those lost streams in 1978, the lake is slowly filling up again. And now that the nonprofit Bodie Foundation has stepped in to help keep Mono Lake open to the public, you'll be able to witness the lake's gradual climb back to a healthy level-however long that takes. Let's hope we can say the same for the rest of California's parks.
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The UFC President told the media at the UFC on FX 5 post-fight presser that he was getting closer to making Rousey vs. Cyborg, potentially the biggest fight in women's mixed martial arts history, a reality.
How close is what could be one of the biggest women's mixed martial arts fights of all-time to being made? According to UFC President Dana White, things are heating up.
White spoke to the media at the UFC on FX 5 post-fight press conference in Minneapolis, Minn. on Friday and when asked about the state of a potential bout between women's Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and former women's Strikeforce featherweight champion Cyborg Santos, White hinted at his active involvement in trying to make the fight happen. He also suggested progress was being made.
"I think we are," White said with a wry smile Friday answering whether the bout was getting closer to being made. "You've been seeing me hanging around with Ronda a lot. So, I'm working on it."
White declined to give any potential details of the fight, including a timeline, weight class and whether the bout would take place in Strikeforce or the UFC.
Rousey has publicly stated were the bout to happen, it'd need to take place at her weight class, namely, bantamweight or 135 pounds. Santos, by contrast, has suggested she cannot cut to any weight below 145 pounds.
While there's been no public, firm commitment to any formal plan, White has expressed interest in hosting a Rousey bout in the UFC over her normal promotional home of Strikeforce. He's even gone as far as suggesting a potential Rousey vs. Cyborg bout could headline a UFC pay-per-view.
Rousey was in attendance for UFC on FX 5, but did publicly address or speak about any updates on a potential bout with Santos.
Santos, however, is currently unable to fight even if a landmark deal with Rousey and Zuffa were reached. She last competed in December of 2011 at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal where she defeated Hiroko Yamanaka by first-round TKO. The bout was subsequently overturned and she was stripped of her Strikeforce title for testing positive for stanozolol. She was fined $2,500 and suspended one year by the California State Athletic Commission.
Continued here:
Dana White suggests progress being made on Ronda Rousey vs. Cyborg Santos bout
TripShock.com offers spectacular hotel & activity rates in Destin/Santa Rosa Beach during the 2012 Beaches to Woodlands Tour.
Santa Rosa Beach, FL (PRWEB) October 05, 2012
For the 9th year in a row, both visitors and locals have the chance to discover the diversity of Santa Rosa County during the 9th Annual Beaches to Woodlands Tour, which will be held each weekend during October 2012.
The self-guided tour showcases arts & culture, heritage, and nature-based venues along a route peppered with fun-filled festivals, seasonal foods, and adventurous activities from the sugar-white beaches along the Gulf of Mexico up through historic riverfront districts in Floridas Canoe Capital and into vast farmlands surrounded by one of Floridas largest state forests, Blackwater River State Forest.
TripShock.com is the #1 travel agency designated to the Northwest Florida region. During the entire month of October, TripShock is promoting Hotel Rates for As Low As $59.95 Per Night.
Visit http://www.TripShock.com for the lowest hotel rates and discounted outdoor activities/attractions in Destin, Santa Rosa County, Panama City Beach and many more.
About TripShock.com
TripShock! is the one and only online travel agency in the Northern Gulf Coast that enables travelers to book tours and activities directly. TripShock! offers trusted reviews from real travelers, photos, videos and other planning tools to help create the perfect Gulf Coast vacation. TripShock! attracts more than 500,000 visitors annually and partners with over 100 activity and lodging providers from Florida to Louisiana
Greg Fisher TripShock.com 800-450-7139 Email Information
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9th Annual Beaches to Woodlands Tour in Santa Rosa County, Fl
LONG BEACH Almost a week after a sewage spill forced beach closures on eastside shorelines, many beaches were still closed Friday.
Health officials said the sites could reopen as early as Saturday, after water tests Thursday were clear of contamination.
An estimated 1,000 gallons of sewage contaminated Alamitos Bay following a spill from a private sewer system that began Sept. 29.
The spill initially resulted in the closure Sunday of Mother's Beach and Marine Stadium. However, additional testing resulted in other beach closures in Alamitos Bay and parts of Seal Beach later in the week.
Ocean-facing beaches in Long Beach, as well as the Colorado Lagoon swimming area, remained open to public swimming.
The spill originated with a homeowners association complex at Bixby Terrace Drive area near Seventh Street and the Cerritos Channel, according to Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services environmental health specialist Nelson Kerr.
He said health workers have been testing the water daily, and they'll keep the recreational water areas closed until two consecutive test results show no contamination.
Earlier in the week, the Health Department was still finding "hot spots" of bacteria contamination, Kerr said. By Friday, the water quality was improving.
"The test results looked good," Kerr said about Thursday's samples.
Officials continued to keep close tabs on the situation Friday, taking samples from the
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Alamitos Bay beaches could reopen Saturday, one week after sewage spill
In which we win an award from the New Frontiers in Astronomy Program.
The New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology program announced its research grant award winners yesterday.
The last, but not least of the Big Questions solicited in the Call for Proposals, was: Are we alone in the universe? Or, are there other life and intelligence beyond the solar system?
There were four awards in this Astrobiology and SETI category, focusing on different approaches in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe.
We got one:
Constraining the Abundance of Kardashev Type II and III Civilizations From Large Area Infrared Surveys
with PI Prof. Jason Wright (Penn State), yours truly, and Prof. Matthew Povich, formerly at Penn State, now at Cal Poly.
This is one of the most fun projects Ive been involved with, and I am really looking forward to working on this over the next couple of years, and hopefully beyond, if we find something
The proposal came together serendipitously when I bumped into Jason in a stairwell at the office. Jason had just been to a seminar on infrared surveys, and I had been thinking about the New Frontiers call for proposals (I was working on another proposal on complexity, which, sadly, did not get selected). Within hours we had put together a pre-proposal and sent it in to New Frontiers. The proposal then made the cut to be invited for a submission of a full proposal. The full proposal was actually really good, in my humble and impartial opinion, and, we got one of the awards. Yay us!
So now what?
Visit link:
New Frontiers in Astronomy: Cosmic Abundance of Kardashevs [Dynamics of Cats]
The Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) program is currently accepting applications from teachers and student for its 2012-13 cycle.
WAS is a free statewide program for high school juniors that emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and encourages students to consider careers in these fields. The program is divided into two components: an online distance learning curriculum and a six-day summer residency.
Students:
Beginning in mid-December, students will begin Phase One: a series of online distance-learning lessons using curriculum designed in partnership with NASA and the University of Washington (UW) Department of Earth and Space Sciences. In this phase, students will have the option to pay a fee to receive five UW credits in Space and Space Travel (ESS 102) upon their successful completion of the WAS curriculum. This course will satisfy the Natural World area of knowledge requirement for graduation from UW. Applying for UW credit is optional and students will be able to participate in Phase One even if they choose not to register for credit.
Student performance on the Phase One curriculum will determine eligibility for Phase Two: a six-day summer residency session hosted by The Museum of Flight in Seattle. Participants will work with professional engineers on the design of a human mission to Mars. Participants will also receive briefings from experts, tour engineering and scientific facilities and laboratories and compete in a variety of hands-on engineering challenges. These challenges include model rocket design, construction and launch, robotic rover design, construction and obstacle course competition, lander design, construction and deployment and payload lofting system design.
Program participants must be high school juniors, Washington residents and U.S. citizens. A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 is required for full status; however, students with a GPA below 3.0 may be admitted on a conditional basis.
The student application deadline is Nov. 9.
Teachers:
Teachers accepted into WAS will participate in both phases of the program. During Phase One, teachers serve as online academic evaluators (OAE) and receive a $400 stipend to evaluate approximately 25 students from mid-December to May through the WAS Moodle website. Phase One consists of eleven online lessons and every two weeks OAEs use program-developed rubrics to evaluate the essays and math assignments that students submit online.
Phase One teachers will also be provided a $500 stipend to participate in the six-day summer residency held at The Museum of Flight in Seattle. During the residency, teachers work with a STEM professional to guide a team of ten students as they plan a human mission to Mars. The summer residency also features guest speakers, tours of engineering facilities that are not available to the general public and hands-on engineering challenges. Teachers can opt to earn 60 free clock hours and all summer residency room/board and travel expenses are covered by the WAS Foundation.
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Washington Aerospace Scholars accepting teacher and student applications
UTC Aerospace Systems has opened its first facility in Africa, establishing a subsidiary operation in Casablanca, Morocco, BizJournals.com reports.
The subsidiary, Ratier-Figeac Maroc, is part of the UTC Aerospace Propeller Systems business, The Charlotte Business Journal reports. The unit designs, manufactures and services propeller systems, cockpit controls, cabin equipment and actuator systems for commercial, regional, corporate and military aircraft.
RFM's Morocco facility encompasses 46,000 square feet and specializes in cockpit controls and cabin equipment, the paper reports, citing a press release from UTC Aerospace.
Charlotte-based UTC Aerospace Systems, formerly Goodrich Corp., is a unit of Hartford's United Technologies Corp.
The rest is here:
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- UTC Aerospace Systems held a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by dignitaries, partners and suppliers to celebrate the inauguration of its new Propeller Systems facility in Casablanca, Morocco. The new subsidiary, Ratier-Figeac Maroc, (RFM) is UTC Aerospace Systems' first facility in Africa. UTC Aerospace Systems is a unit of United Technologies Corp. (UTX).
"We are delighted to celebrate the opening of RFM in Morocco and to build partnerships within the community," said Michel Ferey, who leads the Propeller Systems business at UTC Aerospace Systems. "This is a great opportunity for UTC Aerospace Systems to expand operations and grow our Propeller Systems business."
RFM was created in January 2011 as part of an ongoing Propeller Systems' cost reduction strategy. During the facility's construction, RFM technicians trained at the IMA ("Institut des Metiers de l'Aeronautique") the Moroccan Institute specialized in training in aeronautical activities. Employees began working onsite at the RFM facility in Morocco upon the building's completion in March 2012.
In addition to the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the inauguration included a tour of the RFM assembly shop and several speeches by key dignitaries, including the French Ambassador in Morocco, the President of the GIMAS, and the Moroccan Minister Abdelkader Amara, who thanked the Propeller Systems' team for its confidence in Morocco to build this new industrial site.
The RFM facility covers 46,000 square feet, and is specialized in the assembly of cockpit controls and cabin equipment.
UTC Aerospace Systems' Propeller Systems unit designs, manufactures and services propeller systems, cockpit controls, cabin equipment and Trimmable Horizontal Stabilizer Actuator (THSA) systems for commercial, regional, corporate and military aircraft..
UTC Aerospace Systems designs, manufactures and services integrated systems and components for the aerospace and defense industries. UTC Aerospace Systems supports a global customer base with significant worldwide manufacturing and customer service facilities.
United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company that provides high-technology products and services to the aerospace and building industries.
http://www.utcaerospacesystems.com
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The UMass Lowell Emerging Technologies Innovation Center will officially open next week.
The opening of the UMass Lowells 84,000-square-foot Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETIC) is slated for next week.
Susan Windham-Bannister, president and COO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center told Mass High Tech that the $80 million education and research-based facility specializing in nanotechnology, molecular biology and plastics engineering, will not only support the university, it will position UMass Lowell as an integral member of the regions life sciences cluster and ultimately become a powerful resource for the entire state.
The North Shore has a very strong life science cluster, and with this investment, UMass Lowell is becoming a focal point for this cluster, said Windham-Bannister.
High on the list of facility assets is the nano-manufacturing research laboratories and clean room. These amenities equate to a $5 million-a-year operation is largely supported by federal grants.
In addition to high tech clean rooms, the facility located off VFW Highway in Lowell will also house a plastics-processing high bay. The facility mission is to educate students in the fields of life sciences, energy, national security and environmental protection and become a corporate and government-sponsored research site, a release states.
Officials said the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center will commit $10 million dollars and house nano medicine and biomaterial laboratories on the facilitys third floor.
We are very excited to not just support the university but to be creating a resource that will create value for the life sciences community more broadly, Windham-Bannister said.
06 October 2012 | last updated at 11:37PM
Kids Lab will teach 600 children the importance of sun protection and letting them make their own sunscreen lotion.
The children, aged 6 to 12 years, will have the opportunity to discover the world of chemistry by conducting experiments at BASF Kids' Lab in Sekolah Taman Hi-Tech, Kedah.
This year, Kids' Lab will introduce the importance of sun protection by teaching the children to make sunscreen lotion and discover the various strength of UV protection.
They will also learn how to detect the presence of vitamin C in food and beverages.
"We want to bring the joy of chemistry to the children," said BASF (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd managing director Daniel Loh.
"We trust these experiments will show them the role chemistry plays in everyday life. Skin protection and nutrition are crucial in achieving a healthy lifestyle.
"The knowledge and understanding on how these work is a powerful way for children to learn about healthy living," he added.
Thirty students from Persatuan Dyslexia Malaysia were also invited to participate at the event this year. "Dyslexic children learn better through hands-on experiments.
"I believe the children who participated in the simple experiments learned more effectively in a conducive environment," said Persatuan Dyslexia Malaysia president Sariah Amirin.
More here:
Learn chemistry the fun way
By Liz Raftery,
Attention, Grey's Anatomy fans: There's hope for Calzona.
Showrunner Shonda Rhimes defended her decision to have Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) lose her leg as a result of last season's plane crash in a blog entry Thursday. While the amputation may be a temporary setback (to say the least) for Arizona's relationship with her wife, Callie (Sara Ramirez), Rhimes promises that this won't be the end of the line for the couple.
"Callie and Arizona are going to have a fun romance-y, sexy love life again," Rhimes writes. "I stated in the Writers Room that Arizona could not lose a leg unless we were going to see how a person missing a leg could be sexy and fun and romance-y. So get ready for it-- Arizona is gonna get her mojo back in a BIG WAY."
Grey's Anatomy's Ramirez: I'm concerned about the future of Callie and Arizona's relationship
Rhimes says the rekindling will happen before Valentine's Day, but the characters will face a bumpy road to get there, especially after the reveal in this week's episode that Callie defied Arizona's written orders by having doctors amputate her leg (in order to save her life, but still).
As for Callie? "Callie is no hero," Rhimes writes. "I think it must be terribly difficult to be Callie right now. To have your partner hate you. To have your sex life taken away. To have your BEST FRIEND taken away. Arizona has been taken from her and Callie is doing her best to survive that."
Grey's Anatomy recap: "Remember the Time"
Rhimes also has high praise for Capshaw, whom she calls "fearless" for her handling of the material this season. (Responding to critics who have speculated that Arizona lost her leg because she's a lesbian, Rhimes calls the theory "insane.")
"It felt real to me that Arizona would lose her leg," Rhimes explains. "That someone we love so much would go from being ambulatory to WORKING on being ambulatory, that we would begin to understand what it is like to be differently abled from watching a person we love BECOME differently abled."
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Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes: Arizona will "get her mojo back"
05-10-2012 05:00 Danone plans to double its baby and medical nutrition business in India within the next three to four years. The French firm has acquired the nutrition company Wockhardt to enter the markets, re-naming the new entity Nutricia International. Danon sells baby nutrition products in 137 countries, with a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific region, whicih accounts for 40 percent of its volumes. Revolution Laboratories has new tools on its website that allow users to track their body mass index and to inform men and women about recommended intake levels for calories, protein, and water. An activity calculator also helps show how many calories are burned through various activities and at various intensity levels. Rev Labs focuses on optimizing health through workout programs, diet guides, and balanced nutritional supplements. The Pharma Manufacturing and Quality Management China 2012 conference plans to bring together more than 120 decision makers from government institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Attendees will discuss quality management systems, API manufacturing, solid dosage form production, and sterile drug products. The conference opens on November 6th in Suzhou, China. For more information on these and other stories, go to http://www.csrminute.com. The Health Minute is produced for 3BL Media by Video4Good
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Danone Baby Nutrition; Revolution Labs Online Health Tools; Pharma Conf in China- Health Min 10/5/12 - Video
GERONIMO, Okla_Like many other senior citizen nutrition sites in Southwest Oklahoma, the center in Geronimo is in danger of closing down.
The Delta Nutrition Program, which oversees Geronimo's site, announced last month that their center and several others were in danger of closing because of federal budget cuts. Geronimo's center sees about 18 seniors per day, which is not enough to keep it open. But some of the center's employees and the seniors who visit say they're still fighting for it.
Geronimo's nutrition center has been feeding local seniors since 1988. It's managed to stay open from grants and a $2 daily admission fee for visiting seniors. That $2 is all most of them can afford. The center just received a $3,800 ASCOG grant for the 2012-2013 fiscal year but center officials say they're worried that it may be their last.
Dorothy McNabb has been coming to Geronimo's nutrition center for the past two years. She said the women have become a part of her family. So when she heard that a place she calls her second home may close, she was worried.
"I was so upset, I just can't imagine us not having a place to go everyday. We would miss so much. The whole community, they were very saddened."
She said the center offers seniors a way to stay active and socialize. Not to mention, gain access to nutritious foods.
"It is not like I cook at home. Where, we would just have leftovers and leftovers of the same thing. You get a variety of food each day."
Site manager Joanie Sutton said the reason this center is on the chopping block is because not enough seniors are coming in each day. At least, not when compared to larger cities like Lawton but she said those figures are skewed.
"We are a smaller community. So my numbers are going to be low. Some of them still work over 60, so they can't make it up here from 8 to 1."
Sutton said that in the last year, at least five more seniors have been coming in per day. Time will tell if that increase will be enough to stay open. But for the Geronimo community, this center means everything.
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Geronimo nutrition site in jeopardy
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/94tb9h/analysis_of) has announced the addition of the "Analysis of Microbiology Testing Technologies And Strategic Profiles of Leading Suppliers" report to their offering.
This 155-page report provides detailed analyses of current and emerging technologies, and their potential applications for the microbiology testing market, including molecular diagnostics, biochips, monoclonal antibodies, immunoassays, IT, gel microdroplets, differential light scaltering, chromatography and several others.
The report also presents strategic assessments of leading market players and emerging suppliers with innovative technologies and products, including their sales, product portfolios, distribution tactics, technological know-how, new products in R&D, collaborative arrangements, and business strategies.
Key Topics Covered:
Current and Emerging Technologies
Molecular Diagnostics
0 Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Temperature Cyclers
- PCR Variations
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Research and Markets: Analysis of Microbiology Testing Technologies And Strategic Profiles of Leading Suppliers such ...
Readmore: Local, Crime, News, Imogene Wilmoth Harris, Tulia Texas, Tulia Death, Tulia Woman Killed, Homicide, Murder, Tulia Homicide, Woman Killed by Blunt Force Trauma, Blunt Force Trauma, Harris Killed in Tulia, Dna Evidence, Esequiel Gomez, Dna Evidence Tulia Murder, Tulia Murder, Swisher County Murder
TULIA, TEXAS -- DNA evidence helped to link a man to the murder of an elderly Tulia woman in 2011.
According to Tulia Police, the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab linked evidence from a sexual assault investigation in Willmar, Minn., to the murder of Imogene Harris.
An arrest warrant was issued for Esequiel Gomez, Jr., for the offense of Capital Murder.
Imogene Wilmoth Harris, 84 was found deceased in a Tulia residence in August 2011 by a family member. The cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma, police said.
Authorities said Gomez had been living in Texas but was extradited to Minnesota for aggravated sexual assault. Additionally, police said Gomez was linked to an assault of an elderly person in Hico, Texas, in 2008.
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DNA evidence links man to elderly Tulia woman's murder
Eric Michael Johnson has a masters degree in evolutionary anthropology focusing on great ape behavioral ecology. He is currently a doctoral student in the history of science at University of British Columbia looking at the interplay between evolutionary biology and politics.He blogs atThe Primate Diariesat Scientific American, where this postoriginally appeared.
Rand by Nathaniel Gold
Every political philosophy has to begin with a theory of human nature, wrote Harvard evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin in his bookBiology as Ideology. Thomas Hobbes, for example, believed that humans in a state of nature, or what today we would call hunter-gatherer societies, lived a life that was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short in which there existed a warre of all against all. This led him to conclude, as many apologists for dictatorship have since, that a stable society required a single leader in order to control the rapacious violence that was inherent to human nature. Building off of this, advocates of state communism, such as Vladimir Lenin or Josef Stalin, believed that each of us was borntabula rasa, with a blank slate, and that human nature could be molded in the interests of those in power.
Ever sinceAtlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand has been gaining prominence among American conservatives as the leading voice for the political philosophy of laissez-faire capitalism, or the idea that private business should be unconstrained and that governments only concern should be protecting individual property rights. AsI wrote this week inSlatewith my piece Ayn Rand vs. the Pygmies,the Russian-born author believed that rational selfishness was the ultimate expression of human nature.
Collectivism, Rand wrote inCapitalism: The Unknown Idealis the tribal premise of primordial savages who, unable to conceive of individual rights, believed that the tribe is a supreme, omnipotent ruler, that it owns the lives of its members and may sacrifice them whenever it pleases. An objective understanding of mans nature and mans relationship to existence should inoculate society from the disease of altruistic morality and economic redistribution. Therefore, one must begin by identifying mans nature, i.e., those essential characteristics which distinguish him from all other living species.
As Rand further detailed in her bookThe Virtue of Selfishness, moral values are genetically dependent on the way living entities exist and function. Because each individual organism is primarily concerned with its own life, she therefore concludes that selfishness is the correct moral value of life. Its life is the standard of value directing its actions, Rand wrote, it acts automatically to further its life and cannot act for its own destruction. Because of this Rand insists altruism is a pernicious lie that is directly contrary to biological reality. Therefore, the only way to build a good society was to allow human nature, like capitalism, to remain unfettered by the meddling of a false ideology.
Altruism is incompatible with freedom, with capitalism and with individual rights, she continued. One cannot combine the pursuit of happiness with the moral status of a sacrificial animal. She concludes that this conflict between human nature and the irrational morality of altruism is a lethal tension that tears society apart. Her mission was to free humanity from this conflict. Like Marx, she believed that her correct interpretation of how society should be organized would be the ultimate expression of human freedom.
As I demonstrated in mySlatepiece,Ayn Rand was wrong about altruism. But how she arrived at this conclusion is revealing both because it shows her thought process and offers a warning to those who would construct their own political philosophy on the back of an assumed human nature. Ironically, given her strong opposition to monarchy and state communism, Rand based her interpretation of human nature on the same premises as these previous systems while adding a crude evolutionary argument in order to connect them.
Rand assumed, as Hobbes did, that without a centralized authority human life would erupt into a chaos of violence. Warfarepermanent warfareis the hallmark of tribal existence, she wrote inThe Return of the Primitive. Tribes subsist on the edge of starvation, at the mercy of natural disasters, less successfully than herds of animals. This, she reasoned, is why altruism is so pervasive among indigenous societies; prehistoric groups needed the tribe for protection. She argued that altruism is perpetuated as an ideal among the poor in modern societies for the same reason.
It is only the inferior men that have collective instinctsbecause they need them, Rand wrote in ajournal entrydated February 22, 1937. This kind of primitive altruism doesnt exist in superior men, Rand continued, because social instincts serve merely as the weapon and protection of the inferior. She later expands on this idea by stating, We may still be in evolution, as a species, and living side by side with some missing links.
He had the trust of Pope Benedict XVI and the cardinals, monsignors and priests who run the Roman Catholic Church. And because of his privileged position as papal butler, he had access to their deepest secrets: confidential letters, memos, financial reports.
From under Benedict's nose, Paolo Gabriele used the photocopier in the small office he shared with the two papal secretaries that adjoined the pope's library, studio and chapel and, he says, started copying them all.
At first he kept the documents to himself. Then he found a journalist he trusted, and the intrigues and injustices he saw around him spread around the world in the gravest Vatican security breach of modern times.
A three-judge Vatican tribunal on Saturday will decide whether Gabriele is guilty of aggravated theft, accused of stealing the pope's private papers and leaking them to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book "His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's secret papers" became an immediate blockbuster when it was published in May. Gabriele has pleaded innocent, claiming he never took original documents, though he said he was guilty of "having betrayed the trust of the Holy Father, whom I love as a son would."
AP
From court documents, trial testimony and the book itself, the anatomy of the scandal has taken shape: They describe how a 46-year-old father of three, said by court-ordered psychiatrists to be unstable, desperate for attention and with illusions of grandeur, came to consider himself inspired by the Holy Spirit to expose the Vatican's dirty laundry for the sake of saving the church. They demonstrate how he instigated a Hollywood-like plot to sneak the documents out of the Apostolic Palace under the cover of darkness to a waiting journalist outside the Vatican walls, who then exposed them on TV and in the most talked-about book of 2012.
Gabriele himself told the court this week that he became increasingly "scandalized" when, as he would serve Benedict his lunch, the pope would ask questions about issues he should have been informed about. That suggested to Gabriele that the pope was being intentionally kept in the dark by his advisers.
"I had a unique and privileged occasion to mature the conviction that it's easy to manipulate someone with decision-making power," Gabriele said of the pope. "With the help of others like Nuzzi, I thought I could help things be seen more clearly," he told prosecutors in a July 21 interrogation.
Gabriele told Nuzzi that he started copying documents sporadically soon after Benedict became pope in 2005, and then in earnest in 2010 and 2011, when the No. 2 Vatican administrator began complaining about a smear campaign launched against him for having uncovered corruption and waste in running the Vatican City state.
In his testimony, Gabriele almost boasted that he would copy the letters in broad daylight, during his 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. shift, while Monsignor Georg Gaenswein and the other papal secretary, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, were at their desks facing his. He was free to sort through the mail that would come in daily to the office inboxes, even documentation that was on Gaenswein's desk.
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Anatomy of Vatican Scandal: How the Butler Did It
A new study suggests that mothers with high blood pressure during pregnancy might have a detrimental effect on their childs IQ. The research was published this week in the American Academy of Neurologys medical journal, Neurology.
The study found that men whose mothers blood pressure was high during pregnancy scored 4.36 points lower on thinking ability tests at age 69 than men whose mothers did not have high blood pressure. Researchers also found that these men scored lower than others at age 20 and had greater declines in their scores over time. This trend was seen most noticeably for math reasoning skills.
High blood pressure and related conditions such as preeclampsia complicate about 10 percent of all pregnancies and can affect a babys environment in the womb, said Dr. Katri Riknen, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at the University of Helsinki. Our study suggests that even declines in thinking abilities in old age could have originated during the prenatal period when the majority of the development of brain structure and function occurs.
The study looked at the medical records of mothers with high blood pressure during pregnancy for 398 men born between 1934 and 1944. The men were tested on their thinking abilities at age 20 and age 69. The tests included measurements of language skills, math reasoning, and visual and spatial relationships.
Researchers isolated other factors and found that premature birth did not affect the mens thinking abilities. Likewise, whether a mans father was a blue-collar or white-collar worker made no difference in his childs thinking abilities.
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High Blood Pressure Pregnancy Linked to Lower Child IQ, Study Finds