TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Protesters attacked offices of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood and the headquarters of a liberal coalition on Saturday after demonstrations sparked by assassinations in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent, witnesses said.
Hundreds took to the streets overnight to denounce the killing of a prominent political activist and critic of the Brotherhood, Abdelsalam al-Mosmary, who was shot dead on Friday after leaving a mosque.
Mosmary was an outspoken opponent of the Brotherhood, whose Islamist political wing is the second biggest party in the national congress. Two military officials were also killed in Benghazi on Friday.
Libya's government is struggling to assert its authority over armed groups that helped topple veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, part of the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that also felled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.
Protesters in Benghazi set fire to two buildings - one belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and another to its political wing, the Justice and Construction Party (JCP), witnesses said.
"They shouted 'Gather your belongings. Benghazi wants you out'," Benghazi resident Rami al-Shahibi said.
In Tripoli, a crowd stormed JCP headquarters before heading on to ransack the headquarters of the liberal National Forces Alliance (NFA), the country's biggest political party founded by wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril.
There has been rising opposition to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has links to several government ministers. It has struggled to convince Libyans wary of foreign interference that it has no financial or administrative links to its namesake in neighboring Egypt, whose Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was overthrown by the military on July 3.
Tensions are also high between secularists and the ruling Islamists in Tunisia, where the funeral of an assassinated secular politician was taking place on Saturday.
"THE STATE HAS FAILED"
Many of the Libyan protesters accused the Brotherhood of being behind the killings in Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 revolution - a charge rejected by Abdulrahman al-Dibani, a JCP member in congress.
"We have strongly condemned the assassination of Mosmary and all the Libyan people should hear this and not openly blame us," he said.
Reached by phone, Bashir el-Kubti, head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, declined to comment on the attacks on the movement's offices.
Libyans are growing increasingly frustrated as they witness continuous political squabbling and lawlessness across the north African country, a major oil producer.
"The people were in the streets because they are fed up of all political parties and how the state has failed," said Hisham Idris, who had demonstrated in Tripoli's Martyrs Square.
"Maybe the growing opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood is because they are trying to achieve their political ambitions using religion as a cover for their agenda."
The Tripoli protesters waved Libyan flags and shouted anti- Brotherhood slogans. A group of youths then descended on the JCP offices, smashing its windows, climbing on desks, grabbing documents and throwing them in the streets.
Graffiti reading "Go shave your beards hypocrites, Libya does not need you" was sprayed on the building.
Calm later returned to Tripoli and Benghazi but residents did not rule out more protests after Mosmary's funeral later in the day.
(Additional reporting by Feras Bosalum and Reuters Television; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Originally published July 27, 2013 at 5:42 p.m., updated July 27, 2013 at 5:42 p.m.
An international teacher education conference in Israel provided the dean of the University of Houston-Victoria School of Education & Human Development the opportunity to learn how educators worldwide prepare student teachers to include children with special needs in classroom activities.
"Sometimes, we think the U.S. is light-years ahead of other countries, and in some ways, we probably are in terms of education for children with special needs," said Fred Litton, dean of UHV School of Education & Human Development. "But educators in other countries are seeing some of the same classroom problems that we are experiencing in the U.S. It was enlightening to see how some of the struggles are universal."
Litton attended the Sixth International Conference on Teacher Education on July 2-4 in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This year's conference theme was "Changing Reality through Education."
On July 3, Litton joined professors from Austria and Israel in presentations about teacher preparations to include students with special needs in the education system.
"From our presentation and my informal conversations with educators at the conference, I found out there are a lot of struggles with how to include students with special needs," he said. "There can be resistance. Sometimes, they are not warmly embraced. Sometimes, teachers don't know how to deal with it. My focus was on attitudes. We have laws about inclusion, but it doesn't work if people's attitudes are negative and unproductive."
Litton and Joseph Ben-Ur, a marketing professor in the UHV School of Business Administration, wrote a paper regarding attitudes toward students with special needs.
Ben-Ur, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also was invited to present at the conference but couldn't because of a previous commitment.
In their paper, "Attitudes Toward Individuals with an Intellectual Disability: A Major Barrier Toward Successful Inclusion," Litton and Ben-Ur explained that a positive attitude by teachers can encourage the development of helpful relationships between students with disabilities and those without disabilities. They prepared a study to determine how to change the attitudes of teachers from negative to positive.
They tried several strategies and found that the most effective were lessons about famous people with disabilities, books about people with disabilities and education about accepting people who are different.
The conference was organized by The David Yellin Academic College of Education, a teacher preparation university in Jerusalem. Conference sessions were held at the university and a research institute in Tel Aviv.
Litton said his favorite part of the conference was interacting with professionals in the field from other countries. Between conference sessions, Litton exchanged ideas with fellow attendees.
"A couple of us agreed to exchange research and stay in communication," he said. "I also made good contacts with educators from other places that might lead to some professional development opportunities for our teachers at UHV."
Piles of of garbage, ashes, cosmetics and even a destroyed smoke alarm can be seen in the photos taken inside Amanda Bynes' hotel room.
Days before Amanda Bynes landed in enforced psychiatric hold in Los Angeles, the "Easy A" actress trashed a room in New York City's Ritz-Carlton hotel.
The 27-year-old former child star, who was last spotted in New York on July 17, left mounds of garbage in her wake, scattering ashes, cosmetic products, empty soda bottles and other detritus around the room.
RELATED: AMANDA BYNES POSES 'A SUBSTANTIAL RISK TO HERSELF AND OTHERS,' SAY PARENTS
According to TMZ, Bynes was kicked out of the hotel for smoking marijuana and ran up a $9,000 bill during a nine-day stay in the swanky digs.
The pictures show a destroyed smoke alarm hanging from the ceiling. The damaged alarm is consistent with claims that Bynes' parents, Rick and Lynn Bynes, made?in a filing seeking temporary conservatorship of their daughter, who they believe has run off the rails and requires immediate help.
PHOTOS: CHILD STAR MELTDOWNS
According to her parents, Bynes had become "extremely paranoid" about being watched. She would cover smoke alarms with towels, tape windows shut, and cover her car's dashboard with cardboard and tape due to fears "cameras were watching her."
Bynes' parents claim that they have no idea how their daughter got from Southern California from New York, as she has no formal identification. According to the filing, Bynes told them she "cabbed it."?
RELATED: AMANDA BYNES' MOM FILES FOR TEMPORARY CONSERVATORSHIP
"We believe she is essentially homeless," the filing states.
The request came after Bynes was forcibly hospitalized to examine her mental state after an incident in which Bynes began a fire in a driveway around the block from her parents' house.
PHOTOS: CELEBRITIES WHO'VE FELT THE WRATH OF AMANDA BYNES
Bynes and her parents had been estranged in recent months, but they filed for conservatorship over concerns that "Amanda poses a substantial risk to herself to others and to property based on recent events in her life."
Bynes has also apparently blown through $1.2 million of her $4 million in savings in a "very short amount of time."
Doctors plan to hold Amanda for two more weeks in a psychiatric ward to further evaluate her. A California judge will rule on her mother's request for conservatorship after speaking with Bynes when she is released from hospitalization.?
The actress is due to appear in court in Manhattan on Sept. 26.?
PHOTOS: AMANDA BYNES' BIZARRE ANTICS: IS SHE HAVING A MELTDOWN?
Bynes? downward spiral began with a DUI arrest in Hollywood in 2012. Since then, her increasingly bizarre behavior has nabbed headlines and sparked rampant speculation about the state of her mental health.
Supporters hope their proposal will qualify for the November 2014 ballot. In response, a second coalition -- this one consisting of doctors and hospitals -- is working to defeat the measure.??
Los Angeles Times: Watchdog Group, Father Begin Medical Malpractice Initiative Campaign
Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog and the father of two children killed by a drug-abusing driver have taken the first step toward waging an initiative campaign to raise limits on medical malpractice "pain and suffering" jury awards. ... Supporters hope to qualify for the November 2014 general election ballot. The campaign wants voters to change a 38-year-old California law that puts a $250,000 cap on the amount of money that juries can award for non-economic damages resulting from a medical provider's malpractice. A key element would hike the cap by accounting for inflation since 1975 and then adjusting it annually as needed. In today's dollars, the current cap would be about $1 million?(Lifsher, 7/25).
Sacramento Bee: Initiative To Lift California Medical Malpractice Cap Filed
The drive to raise the amount victims can recover in medical malpractice lawsuits may be going to California's ballot box. A coalition that includes the Consumer Attorneys of California, an organization representing trial lawyers, has been lobbying the Legislature aggressively this year to lift a $250,000 ceiling on pain and suffering damages in malpractice cases (White, 7/25).
Los Angeles Times: Doctors, Hospitals Join To Fight Changes To Malpractice Awards
The fight to raise the cap on awards in medical malpractice cases was officially joined on Thursday with groups backed by litigators filing a ballot initiative that could be before voters next year, and a coalition of doctors and hospitals responding with a new political committee to defeat the proposal (York, 7/25).?
This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Report - a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Aiming to quell heated national debate about gun control with factual answers, two mathematicians have designed parameters to measure how to best prevent both one-on-one killings and mass shootings in the United States.
Publish Date: 27-07-2013 04:54:25 | Contact name: Janina Mount | Place: Blackford | 12 times displayed |
An amount work strengths or sometimes hindrances to get your own gym equipment? Yoga is a stress-free but powerful way to exercise. The online world is full of sites committed to getting healthy and fit.
For more in regards to fitness boot camp (investor.mainemirror.com) visit investor.mainemirror.com/bnn.mainemirror/news/read/24653221
Dr. William Stimmler gets 16 months for child molestation
File photo: Dr. William H. Stimmler stands in front of the Bright Health Physicians of PIH building in Whittier on Wednesday February 23, 2011. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger/SWCITY)
The former president of a Whittier-based organization of hospitals and clinics received a 16-month prison sentence Wednesday after taking a plea bargain on a count of child molestation stemming from the 1990s.
Dr. William Stimmler, 60, was handcuffed and led from the courtroom to begin serving his sentence handed down by Norwalk Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza.
He pleaded "no contest" June 21 to a single county of oral copulation of a person under 16, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Heba Matta said.
The charge stemmed from the molestation of a 14-year-old female resident, which took place between July of 1993 and July of 1994, according to court documents.
Prosecutors initially charged Stimmler with a total of three counts, however two counts of committing a lewd acts upon a child were dismissed under a plea deal, the prosecutor explained. The sentence given for the single conviction was the most lenient sentence allowed under the law.
Matta said she and the victim, who is now in her mid-30s, were satisfied with the outcome of the case, "mostly to avoid any further trauma to the victim."
Though he received a shorter prison sentence than he might otherwise have received without a plea bargain, the arrangement spares the victim the emotional difficulty of
testifying at a trial, Matta said.
The molestation did not involve a patient at the hospital.
Stimmler did not address the court before receiving his sentence. Both he and the attorney who represented him Wednesday, Case Barnett, declined to comment Wednesday.
Under state law, Stimmler will be required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, supply a DNA sample and undergo HIV testing, officials said. Upon his release, he will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Stimmler was named president of Bright Health Physicians of PIH in February of 2011. The organization of 11 hospitals and clinics has since been renamed PIH Health.
He served in the position for just under two years before resigning in January, one month after he was arrested in connection with the case and one month before he was formally charged.
Stimmler's medical license, which he first obtained in July of 1983 after graduating from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, was suspended via a court order on May 24, more than three months after charges were first filed against him in Feb. 14, according to court and Medical Board of California documents.
Stimmler was first arrested shortly after the victim came forward to report the abuse late last year.
According to the court order issued in May, "It is hereby ordered that as a condition of bail during the pendency of this criminal action until its final conclusion and the expiration of probation or parole, Defendant William Harold Stimmler, M.D., shall immediately cease and desist from consultation,examination, treatment, and/or otherwise practicing medicine on any and all patients. Additionally, Defendant Stimmler shall immediately turn over all his prescription pads to the investigator for the Medical Board of California forthwith."
The California Business and Professions Code requires in most circumstances that the medical board "promptly revoke the license of any person who, at a time after January 1, 1947, has been required to register as a sex offender pursuant to the provisions of Section 290 of the California Penal Code."
Medical Board officials could not be reached Wednesday for comment on Stimmler's case.
Stimmler posted bail the same day he was arrested and has remained free on bail pending the conclusion of the case.
NASA's Van Allen Probes discover particle accelerator in the heart of Earth's radiation beltsPublic release date: 25-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe called the Van Allen radiation belts. Scientists knew that something in space accelerated particles in the radiation belts to more than 99 percent the speed of light but they didn't know what that something was. New results from NASA's Van Allen Probes now show that the acceleration energy comes from within the belts themselves. Particles inside the belts are sped up by local kicks of energy, buffeting the particles to ever faster speeds, much like a perfectly timed push on a moving swing.
The discovery that the particles are accelerated by a local energy source is akin to the discovery that hurricanes grow from a local energy source, such as a region of warm ocean water. In the case of the radiation belts, the source is a region of intense electromagnetic waves, tapping energy from other particles located in the same region. Knowing the location of the acceleration will help scientists improve space weather predictions, because changes in the radiation belts can be risky for satellites near Earth. The results were published in Science magazine on July 25, 2013.
In order for scientists to understand the belts better, the Van Allen Probes were designed to fly straight through this intense area of space. When the mission launched in August 2012, it had top-level goals to understand how particles in the belts are accelerated to ultra-high energies, and how the particles can sometimes escape. By determining that this superfast acceleration comes from these local kicks of energy, as opposed to a more global process, scientists have been able to definitively answer one of those important questions for the first time.
"This is one of the most highly anticipated and exciting results from the Van Allen Probes," said David Sibeck, Van Allen Probes project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It goes to the heart of why we launched the mission."
The radiation belts were discovered upon the launch of the very first successful U.S. satellites sent into space, Explorers I and III. It was quickly realized that the belts were some of the most hazardous environments a spacecraft can experience. Most satellite orbits are chosen to duck below the radiation belts or circle outside of them, and some satellites, such as GPS spacecraft, must operate between the two belts. When the belts swell due to incoming space weather, they can encompass these spacecraft, exposing them to dangerous radiation. Indeed, a significant number of permanent failures on spacecraft have been caused by radiation. With enough warning, we can protect technology from the worst consequences, but such warning can only be achieved if we truly understand the dynamics of what's happening inside these mysterious belts.
"Until the 1990s, we thought that the Van Allen belts were pretty well-behaved and changed slowly," said Geoff Reeves, the first author on the paper and a radiation belt scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. "With more and more measurements, however, we realized how quickly and unpredictably the radiation belts changed. They are basically never in equilibrium, but in a constant state of change."
In fact, scientists realized that the belts don't even change consistently in response to what seem to be similar stimuli. Some solar storms caused the belts to intensify; others caused the belts to be depleted, and some seemed to have almost no effect at all. Such disparate effects from apparently similar events suggested that this region is much more mysterious than previously thought. To understand and eventually predict which solar storms will intensify the radiation belts, scientists want to know where the energy that accelerates the particles comes from.
The twin Van Allen Probes were designed to distinguish between two broad possibilities on what processes accelerate the particles to such amazing speeds: radial acceleration or local acceleration. In radial acceleration, particles are transported perpendicular to the magnetic fields that surround Earth, from areas of low magnetic strength far from Earth to areas of high magnetic strength nearer Earth. The laws of physics dictate that the particle speeds in this scenario will speed up when the magnetic field strength increases. So the speed would increase as the particles move toward Earth, much the way a rock rolling down hill gathers speed simply due to gravity. The local acceleration theory posits that the particles gain energy from a local energy source more similar to the way hot ocean water spawns a hurricane above it.
To help distinguish between these possibilities, the Van Allen Probes consist of two spacecraft. With two sets of observations, scientists can measure the particles and energy sources in two regions of space simultaneously, which is crucial to distinguish between causes that occur locally or come from far away. Also, each spacecraft is equipped with sensors to measure particle energy and position and determine pitch angle that is, the angle of movement with respect to Earth's magnetic fields. All of these will change in different ways depending on the forces acting on them, thus helping scientists distinguish between the theories.
Equipped with such data, Reeves and his team observed a rapid energy increase of high-energy electrons in the radiation belts on Oct. 9, 2012. If the acceleration of these electrons was occurring due to radial transport, one would measure effects starting first far from Earth and moving inward due to the very shape and strength of the surrounding fields. In such a scenario, particles moving across magnetic fields naturally jump from one to the next in a similar cascade, gathering speed and energy along the way correlating to that scenario of rocks rolling down a hill.
But the observations didn't show an intensification that formed further away from Earth and gradually moved inward. Instead they showed an increase in energy that started right in the middle of the radiation belts and gradually spread both inward and outward, implying a local acceleration source.
"In this particular case, all of the acceleration took place in about 12 hours," said Reeves. "With previous measurements, a satellite might have only been able to fly through such an event once, and not get a chance to witness the changes actually happening. With the Van Allen Probes we have two satellites and so can observe how things change and where those changes start."
Scientists believe these new results will lead to better predictions of the complex chain of events that intensify the radiation belts to levels that can disable satellites. While the work shows that the local energy comes from electromagnetic waves coursing through the belts, it is not known exactly which such waves might be the cause. During the set of observations described in the paper, the Van Allen Probes observed a specific kind of wave called chorus waves at the same time as the particles were accelerated, but more work must be done to determine cause and effect.
"This paper helps differentiate between two broad solutions," said Sibeck. "This shows that the acceleration can happen locally. Now the scientists who study waves and magnetic fields will jump in to do their job, and find out what wave provided the push."
Luckily, such a task will also be helped along by the Van Allen Probes, which were also carefully designed to measure and distinguish between the numerous types of electromagnetic waves.
"When scientists designed the mission and the instrumentation on the probes, they looked at the scientific unknowns and said, 'This is a great chance to unlock some fundamental knowledge about how particles are accelerated,'" said Nicola J. Fox, deputy project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "With five identical suites of instruments on board twin spacecraft each with a broad range of particle and field and wave detection we have the best platform ever created to better understand this critical region of space above Earth."
###
The Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the twin Van Allen Probes for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Van Allen Probes comprise the second mission in NASA's Living With a Star program, managed by Goddard, to explore aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.
For more information about the Van Allen probes, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vanallenprobes/
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NASA's Van Allen Probes discover particle accelerator in the heart of Earth's radiation beltsPublic release date: 25-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe called the Van Allen radiation belts. Scientists knew that something in space accelerated particles in the radiation belts to more than 99 percent the speed of light but they didn't know what that something was. New results from NASA's Van Allen Probes now show that the acceleration energy comes from within the belts themselves. Particles inside the belts are sped up by local kicks of energy, buffeting the particles to ever faster speeds, much like a perfectly timed push on a moving swing.
The discovery that the particles are accelerated by a local energy source is akin to the discovery that hurricanes grow from a local energy source, such as a region of warm ocean water. In the case of the radiation belts, the source is a region of intense electromagnetic waves, tapping energy from other particles located in the same region. Knowing the location of the acceleration will help scientists improve space weather predictions, because changes in the radiation belts can be risky for satellites near Earth. The results were published in Science magazine on July 25, 2013.
In order for scientists to understand the belts better, the Van Allen Probes were designed to fly straight through this intense area of space. When the mission launched in August 2012, it had top-level goals to understand how particles in the belts are accelerated to ultra-high energies, and how the particles can sometimes escape. By determining that this superfast acceleration comes from these local kicks of energy, as opposed to a more global process, scientists have been able to definitively answer one of those important questions for the first time.
"This is one of the most highly anticipated and exciting results from the Van Allen Probes," said David Sibeck, Van Allen Probes project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It goes to the heart of why we launched the mission."
The radiation belts were discovered upon the launch of the very first successful U.S. satellites sent into space, Explorers I and III. It was quickly realized that the belts were some of the most hazardous environments a spacecraft can experience. Most satellite orbits are chosen to duck below the radiation belts or circle outside of them, and some satellites, such as GPS spacecraft, must operate between the two belts. When the belts swell due to incoming space weather, they can encompass these spacecraft, exposing them to dangerous radiation. Indeed, a significant number of permanent failures on spacecraft have been caused by radiation. With enough warning, we can protect technology from the worst consequences, but such warning can only be achieved if we truly understand the dynamics of what's happening inside these mysterious belts.
"Until the 1990s, we thought that the Van Allen belts were pretty well-behaved and changed slowly," said Geoff Reeves, the first author on the paper and a radiation belt scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. "With more and more measurements, however, we realized how quickly and unpredictably the radiation belts changed. They are basically never in equilibrium, but in a constant state of change."
In fact, scientists realized that the belts don't even change consistently in response to what seem to be similar stimuli. Some solar storms caused the belts to intensify; others caused the belts to be depleted, and some seemed to have almost no effect at all. Such disparate effects from apparently similar events suggested that this region is much more mysterious than previously thought. To understand and eventually predict which solar storms will intensify the radiation belts, scientists want to know where the energy that accelerates the particles comes from.
The twin Van Allen Probes were designed to distinguish between two broad possibilities on what processes accelerate the particles to such amazing speeds: radial acceleration or local acceleration. In radial acceleration, particles are transported perpendicular to the magnetic fields that surround Earth, from areas of low magnetic strength far from Earth to areas of high magnetic strength nearer Earth. The laws of physics dictate that the particle speeds in this scenario will speed up when the magnetic field strength increases. So the speed would increase as the particles move toward Earth, much the way a rock rolling down hill gathers speed simply due to gravity. The local acceleration theory posits that the particles gain energy from a local energy source more similar to the way hot ocean water spawns a hurricane above it.
To help distinguish between these possibilities, the Van Allen Probes consist of two spacecraft. With two sets of observations, scientists can measure the particles and energy sources in two regions of space simultaneously, which is crucial to distinguish between causes that occur locally or come from far away. Also, each spacecraft is equipped with sensors to measure particle energy and position and determine pitch angle that is, the angle of movement with respect to Earth's magnetic fields. All of these will change in different ways depending on the forces acting on them, thus helping scientists distinguish between the theories.
Equipped with such data, Reeves and his team observed a rapid energy increase of high-energy electrons in the radiation belts on Oct. 9, 2012. If the acceleration of these electrons was occurring due to radial transport, one would measure effects starting first far from Earth and moving inward due to the very shape and strength of the surrounding fields. In such a scenario, particles moving across magnetic fields naturally jump from one to the next in a similar cascade, gathering speed and energy along the way correlating to that scenario of rocks rolling down a hill.
But the observations didn't show an intensification that formed further away from Earth and gradually moved inward. Instead they showed an increase in energy that started right in the middle of the radiation belts and gradually spread both inward and outward, implying a local acceleration source.
"In this particular case, all of the acceleration took place in about 12 hours," said Reeves. "With previous measurements, a satellite might have only been able to fly through such an event once, and not get a chance to witness the changes actually happening. With the Van Allen Probes we have two satellites and so can observe how things change and where those changes start."
Scientists believe these new results will lead to better predictions of the complex chain of events that intensify the radiation belts to levels that can disable satellites. While the work shows that the local energy comes from electromagnetic waves coursing through the belts, it is not known exactly which such waves might be the cause. During the set of observations described in the paper, the Van Allen Probes observed a specific kind of wave called chorus waves at the same time as the particles were accelerated, but more work must be done to determine cause and effect.
"This paper helps differentiate between two broad solutions," said Sibeck. "This shows that the acceleration can happen locally. Now the scientists who study waves and magnetic fields will jump in to do their job, and find out what wave provided the push."
Luckily, such a task will also be helped along by the Van Allen Probes, which were also carefully designed to measure and distinguish between the numerous types of electromagnetic waves.
"When scientists designed the mission and the instrumentation on the probes, they looked at the scientific unknowns and said, 'This is a great chance to unlock some fundamental knowledge about how particles are accelerated,'" said Nicola J. Fox, deputy project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "With five identical suites of instruments on board twin spacecraft each with a broad range of particle and field and wave detection we have the best platform ever created to better understand this critical region of space above Earth."
###
The Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the twin Van Allen Probes for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Van Allen Probes comprise the second mission in NASA's Living With a Star program, managed by Goddard, to explore aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.
For more information about the Van Allen probes, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vanallenprobes/
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WELCOME TO THE PRO REPORT, where we?re counting the days until recess. How many you ask? Nine full days; six if you don?t count the weekends and if Congress leaves town this Thursday for a long weekend before the five-day wrap-up. Start planning your happy hour celebration. Always reachable: rbade@politico.com. Or tweet me @RachaelMBade and follow @POLITICOPro.?
TODAY?S TOP NEWS:
OBAMA SELLS ECONOMIC MESSAGE. Here are some clips from Obama?s Knox College speech in Galesburg, Ill., which focused on his promise to help the poor and middle class through this sluggish economic recovery: "I'm here today to tell you what you already know: We're not there yet ? Even though our businesses are creating new jobs and have broken record profits, nearly all the income gains of the past 10 years have continued to flow to the top 1 percent. The average CEO has gotten a raise of nearly 40 percent since 2009. The average American earns less than he or she did in 1999. ? I care about one thing and one thing only, and that?s how to use every minute of the 1,276 days remaining in my term to make this country work for working Americans again.? Jennifer Epstein has more: http://politi.co/1bNO4c9
A LOOK AT THE POLICIES. There wasn?t much in the way of newbies or specifics, but here are some topics he touched on ? vague as they are:
1.)Energy and Manufacturing: ?I?ll push new initiatives to help more manufacturers bring more jobs back to America. We?ll continue to focus on strategies to create good jobs in wind, solar, and natural gas that are lowering energy costs and dangerous carbon pollution. And I?ll push to open more manufacturing innovation institutes that turn regions left behind by global competition into global centers of cutting-edge jobs.?
2.) Education: ?If you think education is expensive, wait until you see how much ignorance costs in the 21st century.? ? [W]e must begin in the earliest years.? That?s why I?ll keep pushing to make high-quality preschool available to every 4-year-old in America ? not just because we know it works for our kids, but because it provides a vital support system for working parents.? I?ll also take action to spur innovation in our schools that don?t require Congress.? Today, for example, federal agencies are moving on my plan to connect 99 percent of America?s students to high-speed internet over the next five years.?
3.) Tax Reform: ?If you are serious about a balanced, long-term fiscal plan that replaces the mindless cuts currently in place, or tax reform that closes corporate loopholes and gives working families a better deal, I?m ready to work ? but know that I will not accept deals that do not meet the test of strengthening the prospects of hard-working families.?
4.) Gridlock. ?A faction of Republicans in the House won?t even give [the Senate immigration] bill a vote, and gutted a farm bill that America?s farmers and most vulnerable children depend on.? If you ask some of these Republicans about their economic agenda? they?ll shift the topic to ?out-of-control? government spending ? despite the fact that we have cut the deficit by nearly half as a share of the economy since I took office.??
DON?T MISS Ben White?s ?5 takeaways from Obama?s economy speech,? which will run in tomorrow?s POLITICO: http://politi.co/13EKSdV
TO BE CONTINUED THURSDAY: TRANSPORTATION. Flying down to Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday, Obama will continue his economic pitch at the city?s Port Authority around 2:30 p.m. He hinted at his Thursday topic Wednesday, saying he?ll ?offer new ideas for doing what America has always done best, which is building things.? A second hint: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will accompany him, our Kathryn A. Wolfe reports. And a third hint from his speech: The U.S. has ?100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify for Medicare.? In other words, transportation and infrastructure ? ports, roads, high-speed Internet and all ? will dominate his address tomorrow.
EASTER EGGS AND SUBPAR ?70S FILMS. Even before he took the stage, Republicans panned Obama?s plans pre-emptively. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) likened his pitch to a ?a hollow shell? and ?an Easter Egg with no candy in it? on the House floor. (http://politi.co/12j3WjE) Across the Rotunda, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called it a "midday rerun of some '70s B-movie.? ?He?ll probably try and cast this as some titanic struggle between those who believe in ?investing? in the country and those who supposedly want to eliminate paved roads, or stop signs, or whatever ridiculous straw man he invents this time,? McConnell said. (http://politi.co/12LPiMG)
HOT TICKET THIS EVENING: VOTE ON AMASH AMENDMENT. What do lawmakers really think of this NSA surveillance program? Tonight, America will get to gauge this sentiment for the first time through a vote. The House this evening will vote on rebel-rouser Justin Amash?s amendment to bar NSA from collecting private call records ? a vote that will highlight just how divided Republicans are on this issue. While top GOP brass on security and defense issues ? backed by the White House ? are condemning the amendment for various reasons, the Michigan Republican is bound to get some support from his likeminded libertarian or tea party-esque friends. Watch this defense appropriations amendment roll call to find out who?s willing to go against House leadership and stick their necks out for privacy.
HEARING OF THE DAY THURSDAY: At 11 a.m., the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee sits Obama?s nominee for deputy secretary of Homeland Security Department, Alejandro Mayorkas, in the hot seat. It?s unfortunate timing for the potential No. 2 Homeland leader: The hearing comes two days after the AP reported that he?s under investigation for helping a company run by Anthony Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton?s brother, secure an international investor visa for a Chinese executive who had previously been denied approval.
TRAYVON?S DAD: PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING AGAIN. At the congressional hearing on the challenges facing black males in America, Tracy Martin, the father of Trayvon Martin, asked lawmakers to keep black children from following in his son?s tragic path.? ?Some people say that nothing positive comes from death,? he said. ?What we can do tomorrow as a nation, as a people, to stop someone else?s child from being killed is a positive.? Others testifying were more blunt, boldly quoting Tupac and Jay-Z rap lyrics, and telling firsthand accounts of the dissemination they faced as black men. Former representative and NAACP chief Kweisi Mfume, for example, spoke of his mother tracing his foot on a piece of paper, taking it to the shoe store and ordering him shoes ? because African Americans weren?t allowed in the store or to try on shoes.
? The main point witnesses and lawmakers were trying to get across: that discrimination goes on today. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) opened the hearing saying Black boys are ?clothed in stereotypes from their years as boys, as youth and finally as men.? Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), who just hired Trayvon?s younger brother for an internship in her office, said she first got involved in politics because ?I wanted to save African American boys from the school-to-prison pipeline.? ?These children are angry; they have a hole in their hearts,? she said, wearing a bright yellow cowboy hat and matching blazer. ?These boys are not to be feared. They are to be loved. They are to be lifted up and made to feel proud so that they can stay in school; obey the law.? Ginger Gibson is following for POLITICO: http://politi.co/1c3xvaB
IT?S HERE! ? MORNING EDUCATION: Looking for coverage of federal and state education policy? Get schooled with POLITICO Pro?s latest morning newsletter ? Morning Education. The newsletter covers everything from student loans and K-12 federal policies to state-level education policy disputes, and much more. Check out today?s edition and subscribe here.
ON PRO TODAY ?
NTSB CRASH MEDICINE: CAR CHATTER. Kevin Robillard reports: ?The NTSB recommended this week that the federal government require all new vehicles to come equipped with ?connected vehicle? technology that would enables cars to talk to one another wirelessly. Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and others have hailed the technology as a safety game-changer, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated it could prevent four out of every five crashes involving non-impaired drivers. ?? Connected vehicles communicate in much the same way a computer talks to a Wi-Fi network. Ten times every second, a device ? either embedded in the car, mounted on the dashboard or operating as a smartphone app ? sends out speed, location and direction data and receives the same data from other nearby cars. After reading the signals, the device can warn the driver to brake, slow down or not change lanes. The exact nature of the warning ? a flashing light, an alarm or a rumbling of the steering wheel ? would be up to the automakers.? http://politico.pro/1bhWdWP
FINANCE ON TAX PROPOSALS: WE?LL LOCK THEM UP UNTIL 2064. Pro Tax?s Kelsey Snell got a funky little tip Wednesday: a notice sent by Senate Finance leaders to their Senate colleagues promising that none of the tax breaks they push to keep will get leaked to press or industry. She explains: ?For starters, the committee says submissions will be sealed by the panel and the National Archives until Dec. 31, 2064. Today?s fiscal policy fights, which have an endless feel about them, should be less relevant by then. But staffers are taking other measures to transform the Finance Committee into Washington?s version of Fort Knox. The documents will receive unique identifying numbers, a confidential seal and a special encryption. Paper copies of each proposal will be kept in a safe. ? [O]nly 10 staffers will have any sort of access to the proposals.? http://politico.pro/13dHALe
GOP HOUSING BILL HEADS TO THE FLOOR. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) pushed his massive housing bill through his panel on a 30-27 vote Wednesdays. And next week, he?ll appear before the GOP Conference explain and take questions on his proposal, our MJ Lee reports. The bill ? which would wind down government sponsorship of mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie over half-decade ? should hit the floor this year. And while Senate Democrats will likely snub their noses at the legislation, it could push the upper chamber to do something. MJ says the bill overhauls the Federal Housing Administration, too, ?so that the agency only insures loans for first-time and low-income homebuyers. The bill also would create a new utility to help small banks finance their mortgages through the securitization market.? Meanwhile, Democrats worry that the overhaul would end 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, making them unaffordable to Average Joe Homebuyer. http://politico.pro/144BiN8
QUOTE OF THE DAY: ?That?s why God made conference committees,? Hensarling?s answer when asked about how he planned to reconcile differences between his GOP housing proposal and what the Senate?s cooking up. (h/t MJ.)
ON TAP THURSDAY: VEEP Joe Biden leaves India for the second part of his diplomacy tour: Singapore. ? At 8 a.m. at the Newseum, Politico Pro Health hosts a breakfast briefing on the exchange enrollment process with Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), former Gov. Mark Parkinson (D-Kan.) and health experts.? ? At 9 a.m., the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Center for Strategic and International Studies Energy and National Security Program hold a news conference on the future of energy security. They?ll outline their projections of world energy demands through 2040, the sources that will be available and the level of carbon dioxide emissions we could see.?
? Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) will talk clean energy at the National Academy of Sciences. On the Hill, the Senate Finance Committee considers Tax Court nominations. ? The Senate Foreign Relations Committee looks at the situation in Egypt. ? And the House Energy and Commerce Committee marks up FCC reform.
JUST LAUNCHED ? DOCUMENT DRAWER: See what the power players are reading with POLITICO Pro's new feature, Document Drawer. Document Drawer provides Pros with the latest policy documents at their fingertips. Pros can search, view and download the latest congressional correspondence, court filings, reports and more, quickly and easily. Check it out! http://politico.pro/13KLgKK
POLICY AROUND THE WEB:
? Britain?s most beloved baby got a name today: George Alexander Louis. BBC?s Finlo Rohrer asks and explains: what?s in the name? http://bbc.in/12jD3fn
? The Senate today should wrap up work on the student loan interest rate compromise. Here?s The Hill with an overview of the politics: http://bit.ly/1dVGWHi
? The Pentagon is delaying its shipment of fighter jets to Egypt because of the military?s overthrow of Mohammed Morsi. Here?s AP: http://politico.pro/12jMhbu
? And the Christine O?Donnell plot thickens ? just a day after she wouldn?t rule out another Senate run ? with this Washington Times report that the Delaware state tax office that improperly breached her tax records might have discarded needed evidence. Oops: http://bit.ly/17CZ2fz
Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Anthony Weiner outside his apartment on Wednesday.
Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters
Anthony Weiner says he has stopped sexting, has leveled with his wife, and is no longer hiding anything from her or the public. He says he?s a changed man. But he has said these things before. Now that we have a time line of his alleged sexting last year with a 22-year-old woman, let?s go back and look at what he was saying publicly and doing politically during that time. Do his conduct and his statements match up? Take a look.
June 16, 2011: Weiner resigns from Congress. He apologies to his wife, Huma Abedin, and says they will ?continue to heal from the damage I have caused.?
Summer to Fall: ?Not long? after Weiner?s resignation, the young woman ?reached out to express her disappointment in him,? according to a New York Times summary of an account by Nik Richie, a blog editor who has communicated with her. Richie calls her ?Anonymous.?
Dec. 21: Abedin gives birth to the couple?s first child. Weiner announces the boy?s birth in a text: ?Did I mention his mom is amazing??
Spring 2012: Weiner?s dormant $4.5 million mayoral campaign fund (left over from previous elections) continues to pay office rent. According to New York Post sources, the period leading up to late June includes ?months of discussion between Weiner and his wife ? about the best way to pull off a comeback.? During this time, ?Weiner summoned former staffers to a dinner ? to discuss his potential comeback.? New York later describes a dinner with Weiner in 2012, ?less than a year? after his resignation, at which he ?seemed a shambling figure with the furtive, chastened aspect of a teenage boy caught with a cache of stroke books under his mattress.? During the dinner, Weiner says, ?I?m supposed to be sorry, sorry in this way you?re supposed to be sorry ? but I don?t know if it?s hitting me like that.?
June 29: After ducking previous invitations, Weiner agrees to a long interview on WNYC about health care. Post sources say ?the real purpose is for Weiner to begin rolling out his return to public life.? He tells Brian Lehrer, ?I feel great regret for the people that I let down.?
July 12: According to Anonymous, this is the day on which ?Anthony Weiner and I first started talking.? Richie?s blog, the Dirty, claims Weiner ?lured? her ?via Facebook.?
July 15:Post sources say Weiner is ?trying to figure out how to run for mayor.? He has ?reached out to politicos to ?talk about the landscape.? ? A day later, the Times reports that Weiner ?wants to return to politics, according to friends and former staff members.?
July 16: ?Sources close to Huma ? tell the Post she has been pushing her husband to do a single interview ? that would be the final word on the sexting mess that ended Weiner's career in Congress last year. She believes it would clear the air once and for all and allow him to move forward.? One source says, "She wants to figure out how to get all this behind them so they can get back on track, but he's still in denial.? Another source says the couple "thinks everything's going to be OK.?
July 18:People announces an ?exclusive interview? with Weiner and Abedin, featuring a photo of the happy couple with their son. Post sources say they ?sat for the interview three weeks ago, but it had been in the works ?for months.? ? A People press release quotes Abedin: "It took a lot of work to get to where we are today, but I want people to know we're a normal family.? She adds: ?Anthony has spent every day since [the scandal] trying to be the best dad and husband he can be. ? I'm proud to be married to him." The magazine reports: ?Weiner says he sought professional counseling but won't go into detail except to say that it helped. Abedin concurs.? Weiner tells the interviewer that 1) "I really do feel like a very, very different person,? 2) ?With a baby, it is pretty easy to put things into perspective,? and 3) ?I'm not doing anything to plan a campaign.?
July 19: According to Anonymous, this is the day on which Weiner ?found me on Formspring? and sent two messages, recorded as screen shots and published on the Dirty. The messages are not overtly sexual. Weiner appears to greet her and say that he has just followed her.
August: According to Anonymous, ?Things were very intense? by this time, with ?talks of the Chicago sex condo and having sexual conversations. We would send naked images to each other and have phone sex. Anthony Weiner would send me penis pictures from his Carlos Danger yahoo email to my Gmail.? More than 70 sexually graphic messages between Anonymous and ?Dangr33,? undated, are later published on the Dirty, along with the exact address of the proposed sex condo.
Summer to Fall: According to the Dirty, Weiner and Anonymous ?spoke on?the phone?daily multiple times a day for 6 months. ? Most calls were?phone?sex.? ?Richie later tells the Times that Weiner ?would demand pictures almost every day? from her. Anonymous claims that ?by November 2012 our relationship began to fizzle out,? though they also ?spoke once in December.?
Nov. 7: Weiner officially returns to Twitter for the first time since his resignation. He tweets about local damage from Hurricane Sandy.
Jan. 29, 2013: The Post and Daily News report that voters have been called by a pollster testing Weiner?s favorability and his prospects for mayor or city comptroller. In early February, Weiner confirms that his political committee has spent more than $100,000 on polling.
February to March: Weiner and Abedin give interviews to the New York Times Magazine for a profile. Weiner says he has changed, though some people ?just don?t have room for a second narrative about me.? But he also implies that he?s still in counseling: ?Now I start sentences with, ?My therapist says ?? ?
April 11: On this day, according to Anonymous, Weiner ?reactivated his Facebook and asked me what I thought of? the Times Magazine story. An undated screen shot shows a Facebook message from ?Anthony Weiner? (with a photo of him and Abedin) asking, ?are we ok? i turned my fb back on after the story to field the onslaught and to hear the feedback. well, my brother emailed me asking about you and whether i pissed you off. ? ill call back, but just checking.?
April 24: Weiner tells WABC, ?The two years that I?ve had to step back have been devoted to basically two foundational things: one, being a much better husband, repairing the relationship with my wife, re-earning her trust, repairing our marriage. And two, being a good father.? In an interview with WNBC, he is asked: ?Since you resigned, have you been in touch with any of the women that you were in touch with before you resigned?? He answers: ?Some of them have reached out to me to say things that I don?t ? You know, their lives have been put upside down as well. Some of them have come forward willingly, but some of them haven?t, and they?ve got drawn into things that, frankly, they didn?t deserve. And that?s it. But we haven?t stayed in touch or anything like that.? The interviewer asks: ?You haven?t reinitiated conversations?? Weiner replies: ?Definitely not, definitely not. I mean, I?ve basically said, ?I thank you,? or ?I?m sorry.? ? If they?ve reached out to me, I?ve apologized, and we?ve left it at that.?
July 23: The Dirty publishes the screen shots from Anonymous. At a press conference, Weiner responds: ?Some of the things that have been posted today are true, and some are not ... Some of these things happened before my resignation. Some of them happened after. But the fact is that that was also the time that my wife and I were working through some things in our marriage.?I?m glad these things are behind us.? Abedin concurs: ?Anthony's made some horrible mistakes, both before he resigned from Congress and after. ? We discussed all of this before Anthony decided to run for mayor.? A reporter asks: ?When was the last ? text or Facebook?? Weiner replies: ?I can't say exactly. Sometime last summer, I think.? He affirms that it was after the People interview. Abedin smiles and nods.
If this time line is accurate, what does it tell us? At least four things. First, Weiner and Abedin began to orchestrate Weiner?s return to politics months before he began sexting with Anonymous. During these preparations, in early 2012, Weiner seems to have still been processing his understanding of what he had done.
Second, if Weiner sat for the People interview three weeks before it was disclosed on July 18, 2012, then he initiated contact with Anonymous two weeks after that interview took place. He sat with Abedin as she told the reporter that he was ?trying to be the best dad and husband he can be.? He said he was a ?very different person? and had a fresh perspective since their child was born. He held the baby and smiled for the camera. And then he looked up Anonymous and began sexting with her.
Third, if Weiner and Anonymous exchanged calls for six months, mostly for phone sex, that must have extended well into the fall. Even if their interactions ceased to be sexual in November, that?s well past the point (?sometime last summer?) at which Weiner claims the sexting ended.
Fourth, having reinitiated contact with Anonymous in July 2012?leading to the sexting?and again in April 2013 to check on her, Weiner proceeded to give at least two misleading TV interviews. He claimed that he had devoted the two years since his resignation to repairing his marriage and regaining his wife?s trust. In truth, by his own current reckoning, he didn?t stop sexting until more than halfway through that period, and he began to poll his prospects in the mayoral race just two months after the point at which Anonymous claims the relationship ?fizzled.? His comments to WNBC, stoutly denying that he had ?reinitiated conversations? with his sexting targets, can be defended only on the Clintonian grounds that the interviewer asked about women he had been in touch with before his resignation. It?s clear that Weiner was not being candid.
Today, Weiner says his days of deceit are over. This time, he swears, he really is a changed man, never mind what he said in 2012. He looks sincere. And he?ll look just as sincere a year from now, when he?s giving the same excuse for what he said in 2013.
William Saletan's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter:
Professor William Barklow was on vacation when this happened. He was in Tanzania sitting on a river bank gazing about, when all of a sudden a hippopotamus pushed its head out of the river right in front of him, opened its huge mouth and bellowed.
It was really loud. Barklow could feel sound waves hitting his chest, his neck; he could hear the cry echoing along the riverbank. He knew next to nothing about hippos being himself a bird man, a specialist on the North American loon, but he was intrigued by what happened next.
Hippo Chorusing
Every time the big hippo bellowed, other hippos in the neighborhood picked up the roar and bellowed too, passing the sound along the river in serial fashion, like one of those "waves" in sports stadium ? this one moving from hippo to hippo.
He decided to map the phenomenon, and discovered that a hippo cry can move eight miles down a river in just four minutes. Doing the math, that's a "bellow wave" traveling at 120 miles per hour (though the roars peter out after eight miles, so it's more like a sprint).
Which raises a question: What if we compare a human sports stadium wave to a hippopotamus down-the-river wave? Who does it faster? Humans or hippos?
It turns out somebody's looked into this.
Clocking Sports Waves
Professor Tamas Vicsek of the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest and his team collected a bunch of sports videos where folks in the stadium did waves. According to Gavin, after Vicsek analyzed the footage, he created a simple computer model that was able to accurately reproduce the stadium waves.
Alas...
Vicsek's group reportedthat while reaction times can vary (How drunk is the crowd? How pumped? How bored?), some human waves can circumnavigate a stadium at about 12 meters per second. That sounds fast, but it translates to 27 miles per hour.
So, sorry, Homo sapiens, 27 mph does not beat 120. Hippopotamus amphibius gets the crown.
Hippos Win, Unless ...
Unless subtlety matters. Professor Vicsek admires Notre Dame football fans in Indiana. He told Gavin Pretor-Pinney, "They can set a wave moving in whichever direction they choose. They can even make them go both ways at the same time," he says. "For that you have to really know what you are doing."
Hippos, on the other hand, are no slouches. When a hippo bellows, Professor Barklow noticed, other hippos underwater seem to hear the sound and start surfacing, because it turns out hippos double-bellow. They can keep their nostrils above the surface, their lower jaw and throat under the water, and send two bellows simultaneously ? an underwater one that does four times faster because sound travels more quickly through fresh water ? and an airborne one.
Maybe...?
"Do they perhaps use the difference in sounds to judge the distance of the calling hippo just as we judge the distance of a thunderstorm by counting the seconds between the flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder?" Pretor-Pinney asks.
Maybe. I don't pretend to understand what hippos are up to. But I am mindful that if you spend too much time wondering which animal is best at something, there's always another one that's better.
The Fastest Wave?
So, before I go, please check out this video of giant honeybees of southern Asia. They also do a wave. I don't know how fast it is, but it looks almost lightning fast. Imagine a hornet approaching this honeybee nest. The hornet wants to attack to feast on bee pupae and honey. But as it approaches, suddenly, this happens ...
This is called "shimmering." Gavin Pretor-Pinney says these bees are flicking "their bottoms" in waves. "Since the undersides of their abdomens are darker than their yellow backs, the appearance is of black swathes moving across the surface ... in a spiral pattern."
Hundreds of bees are serially mooning a hornet! It's an unlikely strategy, but it seems to work. Hornets see the spirals and think they're looking at some big looming thing, and they retreat.
I wonder if the hippos are jealous.
Gavin Pretor-Pinney's description of hippo-chorusing and hornet-mooning, can be found in his book The Wave Watcher's Companion.
The three surviving original band members ? guitarist Michael Nesmith, drummer Micky Dolenz, and bass player Peter Tork ? will star in A Midsummer?s Night with The Monkees, presented by AC Entertainment and Broadway Series South, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23rd, in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. (Diminutive British vocalist and tamborine player Davy Jones, a.k.a. ?The Cute One,? died on Feb. 29, 2012 of a heart attack, at age 66; but his three American bandmates will include a touching tribute to Jones in A Midsummer?s Night with The Monkees.)
According to The Monkees official website:
?Following their sold out 2012 fall tour, Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork return to the concert stage this summer for a reprise. Because of the overwhelming demand from fans unable to see the limited run the trio undertook last November, The Monkees are bowing to popular demand, bringing their show to all new venues and markets this summer. Dubbed A Midsummer?s Night with The Monkees, the jaunt kicks off at Port Chester, NY?s Capitol Theatre on July 15th and wraps at Portland, OR?s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Aug. 18th?.
?Last year?s tour elicited raves from both fans and critics alike. ??Nothing could have prepared the uninitiated for the powerful concert the Monkees delivered?,? wrote Chrissie Dickinson in the Chicago Tribune, ?It wasn?t just a recap of the band?s greatest hits. It was an emotionally disarming multimedia show that, for all its backward glance, felt fresh and electric.?
?The trio?s set list will feature a selection of their classic hits (such as ?Last Train To Clarksville,? ?I?m a Believer,? ?Pleasant Valley Sunday? and ?(I?m Not Your) Steppin? Stone?), deep cuts from their first five platinum albums (including some performed for the first time since the 1960s) and fan favorites from the soundtrack to their [1968] cult-film classic Head and their Emmy?-Award winning [1966-68] television series. Plus, a few surprises!
?The show will encompass a full multimedia evening of music, rare films and one-of-a-kind photographs culled from the archives. Backed by the same stellar crew of musicians from their 2012 run, Nesmith, Dolenz, and Tork will also perform an unaccompanied set as a trio. This foray into tracks from their 1967 homespun #1 long player, ?Headquarters,? is sure to be among the highlights of the upcoming dates.
?In many cases, this tour will mark the first concerts from The Monkees to some areas of the United States in decades. Antenna TV, who air ?The Monkees? series, will (in conjunction with The Monkees and Rhino) run a national contest to send lucky winners to one of the shows on the tour.?
SECOND OPINION: July 19th Raleigh, NC News & Observer preview by Roger Friedensen: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/18/3036392/the-monkees-raleigh-concert-will.html, July 16th New York, NY Rolling Stone preview by Rob Sheffield: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-monkees-return-with-michael-nesmith-20130716, April 29th interview with Micky Dolenz, conducted by Andy Greene: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-monkees-reveal-u-s-summer-tour-dates-20130429, April 1st interview with Michael Nesmith, conducted by Steve Appleford: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-michael-nesmith-on-solo-tour-and-being-the-difficult-monkee-20130401, and Nov. 9th review by Peter Holslin: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/monkees-delight-believers-in-reunion-tour-kickoff-20121109; and July 15th McLean, VA USA TODAY preview by Brian Mansfield: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/07/14/monkees-on-the-road-again/2515371/ and April 29th preview by Brian Mansfield: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/04/29/monkees-set-summer-tour/2121761/.
AC Entertainment and Broadway Series South present A MIDSUMMER?S NIGHT WITH THE MONKEES, starring original band members Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork, at 8 p.m. July 23 in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., Raleigh, North Carolina 27601.
TICKETS: $71.05-$118.55 (including fees).
BOX OFFICE:
Duke Energy Center Box Office: 919-996-8700 or info@dukeenergycenterraleigh.com (information only).
Ticketmaster: 800-745-3000 or http://www.ticketmaster.com/venueartist/115203/735678. SHOW: http://www.dukeenergycenterraleigh.com/event/the-monkees-4159.
PRESENTERS:
AC Entertainment: http://acentertainment.com/.
Broadway Series South: http://www.dukeenergycenterraleigh.com/broadway-series-south.
A Midsummer?s Night with The Monkees (2013 summer tour): http://www.monkees.com/article/back-by-popular-demand-the-monkees-announce-summer-tour-a-midsummer-s-night-with-the-monkees and https://www.facebook.com/monkeestour (Facebook page).
The Monkees (group): http://www.monkees.com/ (official website), https://www.facebook.com/TheMonkees (Facebook page), https://twitter.com/MonkeesOfficial (Twitter page), and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkees (Wikipedia).
Micky Dolenz (drums): http://mickydolenz.com/ (official website) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micky_Dolenz (Wikipedia).
Davy Jones (vocals and tamborine): http://www.davyjones.net/ (official website) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Jones_%28musician%29 (Wikipedia).
Michael Nesmith (guitar): http://old.monkees.net/nez/default.php (official website) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Nesmith (Wikipedia).
Peter Tork (bass): http://www.petertork.com/ (official website) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tork (Wikipedia).
The Monkees (music videos): http://www.youtube.com/user/MisterMusicMan382?feature=watch (MisterMusicMan382?s YouTube Monkees music page).
The Monkees Archive (more music videos): http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMonkeesArchive?feature=watch.
The Monkees (1966-68 television series): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkees_%28TV_series%29 (Wikipedia) and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060010/ (Internet Movie Database).
EDITOR?S NOTE:
Robert W. McDowell is editor and publisher of Triangle Review, a FREE weekly e-mail arts newsletter. This review is reprinted with permission from Triangle Review.
To start your FREE subscription to this newsletter, e-mail RobertM748@aol.com and type SUBSCRIBE TR in the Subject: line.
To read all of Robert W. McDowell?s Triangle Review previews and reviews online at Triangle Arts & Entertainment, click http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/author/robert-w-mcdowell/.
Tagged as: A Midsummer's Night with The Monkees, AC Entertainment, Broadway Series South, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, The Monkees
NEW YORK (AP) ? Officials say the nose gear of a plane landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport collapsed as the aircraft touched down on the runway. The Federal Aviation Administration says the plane landed safely and no injuries were reported
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has temporarily closed the airport.
The FAA says the Southwest Airlines flight from Nashville landed at 5:45 p.m. Monday and safely came to a stop on the tarmac with the front of the plane pointing down to the ground. The plane, which was carrying 149 passengers and crew, was surrounded with emergency vehicles.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines spokespeople didn't immediately respond to phone and email inquiries.
As expected, the star of the show is here: Verizon has unveiled the Motorola Droid Ultra at its New York City press event. The 5-inch smartphone is "all about thin," according to Moto, and sports a glossy, unibody Kevlar shell that makes it thinner (7.18mm) yet stronger than its predecessors. It's also speedier: a new dual-core X8 Mobile Computing System delivers about 24 percent faster processing power than the previous generations, graphics that are twice as quick and dedicated chips for both contextual computing and language processing. It sports the software tricks we've seen in leaks of the Moto X, such as hands-free voice control, Active Display notifications and Quick Capture. Google's augmented reality game Ingress comes preloaded for more adventurous owners. The Droid Ultra ships August 20th for $199, and pre-orders are starting today.
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Public release date: 25-Jul-2013
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