Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Harry Potter: first 30 minutes of Deathly Hallows leaked onto web


The other big film premiere of the night took place in New York for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. Cast members (Lt-Rt) Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Tom Felton 


The first half an hour of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 turned up on a file-sharing website on Tuesday night ahead of the movie's premiere in numerous countries around the globe.


Industry watchers and the studi have predicted that the film could eclipse the $100 million mark in the US and Canada over its first three days, starting on Nov 19. They are even predicting a full run of more than $1 billion in global ticket sales.


But the leak has cast a pall over the film's opening.


Warner Bros said in a statement that the excerpt was "stolen and illegally posted on the internet. This constitutes a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros. property.


"We are working actively to restrict and/or remove copies that may be available. Also, we are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law."


The first six Harry Potter movies, which are based on the best-selling books about the boy wizard by author J.K. Rowling, have earned $5.42 billion at world-wide box offices, according to California-based BoxOfficeMojo.com.


Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief, said the film should top $100 million in the US and Canada during its first weekend. Throughout the movie's entire life in cinemas around the globe, he sees ticket sales rising to the rare level of more than $1 billion.


View the original article here

Hong Kong confirms first human case of bird flu since 2003

The government has raised Hong Kong's bird flu alert to "serious", meaning there is a "high risk" of contracting the potentially fatal disease, a spokesman for the Department of Health said.

Hong Kong recorded its last case of bird flu in humans in 2003, and had the world's first major outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of a then-unknown mutation of the virus. Millions of poultry were culled.

The 59-year-old woman tested positive for Influenza A (H5), a variant of avian influenza, after she was first diagnosed with pneumonia, health officials said. She is now listed in a serious condition in hospital.

Officials are working to determine whether she contracted the virus in Hong Kong or elsewhere, and are monitoring people who have been in contact with her.

The city's health chief York Chow said that there was no sign so far of human-to-human transmission in the case.

"I think we have to first concentrate on the source of infection from the poultry as origin," he said.

"But we will be concentrating on people who were in contact with her when she showed symptoms and also when she was in Hong Kong.

"The chances of her catching it is most likely on the mainland, but you cannot rule out... Hong Kong," he added.

The woman travelled to mainland China between Oct 23 and Nov 1 with her husband and daughter, the Centre for Health Protection at the Department of Health said in a statement.

She did not visit farms or have contact with live poultry, an initial investigation found. The woman was admitted to hospital on Nov 14 after complaining of a persistent fever and cough.


View the original article here

Pope Benedict XVI calls for release of Christian sentenced to hang in Pakistan

The Pope told his weekly public audience in the Vatican of his "spiritual closeness" to Asia Bibi, a mother of five children, who is accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Last week The Daily Telegraph revealed that she had been sentenced to death after a mob of angry villagers, spurred on by clerics, tried to attack the 45-year-old over a dispute about whether a Christian should be allowed to handle a container filled with drinking water for Muslims.

The Pope said that Christians in Pakistan often faced violence or discrimination as he called for Mrs Bibi's "full freedom".

"I pray for those who are in similar situations that their human dignity and their fundamental rights be fully respected," he said.

Supporters of Mrs Bibi said she had fetched water for other women working in fields in Punjab province, sparking a row over whether the water was still fit for Muslims to drink.

The dispute escalated a few days later, when she was accused of making derogatory remarks against the Prophet Mohammed. She has been in prison for the past one and a half years and is thought to be the first woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Similar convictions are usually overturned by higher courts and Mrs Bibi's family have already lodged an appeal.

However, the verdict has drawn attention to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which human rights campaigners believe are used to persecute the country's religious minorities and to settle personal rivalries.

Although governed by a secular party, Pakistan's conservative clerics wield considerable influence and few political leaders are willing to risk their ire by repealing the blasphemy laws.

However, Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, said the government was working to reform the law so that it could not be abused.


View the original article here

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Silvio Berlusconi's allies 'helping mafia spread across Italy'

Mr Saviano, who has been under 24-hour police guard since writing a book on the mob, said the ‘Ndrangheta mafia were courting the Northern League, a powerful ally of the prime minister and a member of his conservative coalition.

Mr Saviano alleged that the ‘Ndrangheta had expanded far outside its traditional power base in the southern Calabria region and had infiltrated Italy’s rich northern Lombardy region, including Milan, Italy's business and fashion capital.

“In the north, as in the south, ‘Ndrangheta seeks out political power and in the north it courts the League,” Mr Saviano said on a national television programme watched by nine million Italians on Monday night.

He cited judicial investigations into links between the ‘Ndrangheta and the Right-wing anti-immigration party, as well as the example of a League councillor who was filmed meeting a businessman with alleged links to the Calabrian mob.

His claims were also backed up by the release on Wednesday of a report by a parliamentary anti-mafia committee, which concluded that the ’Ndrangheta’s presence in northern Italy was in “constant, progressive development” and that the criminal organisation “interacts” with business interests in Lombardy.

The ‘Ndrangheta is suspected of laundering money earned from illegal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution and toxic waste dumping by investing in legitimate businesses such as construction and public works contracts in the affluent north, the heartland of the League.

Mr Saviano’s on-air claims infuriated Roberto Maroni, the interior minister and a heavyweight in the Northern League, who said they were potentially defamatory and demanded a right of reply on the same television programme.

“As a minister and a member of the League I feel offended and outraged by Roberto Saviano’s slanderous words, which were fuelled by evident prejudice against the League,” he said.

“I would like a face-to-face meeting with him to see if he has the courage to say those things while looking me in the eye.”

The battle of words intensified further when Mr Saviano compared the minister’s challenge to threats that had once been made to him by the lawyer of a notorious Mafioso, Francesco “Sandokan” Schiavone.

“I’m amazed and alarmed by the minister’s words,” he said.

Mr Saviano’s 2006 book Gomorrah, a play on the name of the Naples-based Camorra mafia, became an international best-seller and was later turned into an award-winning film.

The government has arrested several top mafia leaders and seized millions of pounds’ worth of assets over the last two years, actions which Mr Maroni has hailed as evidence of its determination to crush organised crime.

The latest blow to be struck was on Wednesday, when anti-mafia police arrested Antonio Iovine, 46, one of the most powerful leaders of the Camorra, after they found him hiding in a wall cavity in a house in the town of Casal di Principe.

Mr Maroni said he had set up a special commission to keep track of any attempts by the mafia to muscle in on contracts for the 2015 Milan Expo.


View the original article here

Name That Butterfly

Silver spotted skipper butterfly  

The Chesapeake Bay is the winter home for a variety of birds



Counting butterflies is one of those things that sound easy but isn’t. Six of us are squinting and sweating in the morning sun, cameras and binoculars in hand, in the Peterson Butterfly Garden in Northern Virginia, and the butterflies are thick. Our goal today is to conduct a census of the butterflies in this garden and several neighboring fields.


In order to count a butterfly, we first have to identify it. Jocelyn Sladen, our group leader, points to the first butterfly of the day. “That is exactly the problem,” she says. “That little black butterfly could be one of any number of species.” What’s more, the trouble with counting butterflies in a butterfly garden is that there are a lot to count, and none of them hold still. Our little group moves through the garden together, one plant at a time, consulting our field guides whenever another butterfly species is discovered. While one volunteer questions a butterfly — “Oh, what are you?” — another cries “Come back, come back!” as a butterfly flits off, unidentified and uncounted.


In the midst of the chaos, there are successful identifications. “Now, that is a pearl crescent,” says Sladen. “Oh, good, good, good!” she says. We shout out more species names as that day goes on: Eastern tiger swallowtails, silver-spotted skippers, cabbage whites. A fritillary is spotted, to Sladen’s delight. And, only once, “That’s a monarch!”


We six are among the thousands of people who will take part in a North American Butterfly Association (NABA) butterfly count this year. Our count, which we share with several other groups of volunteers, encompasses a 15-mile-wide circle of fields, forests and gardens. The butterfly garden at the center of this circle is part of Airlie Center, a conference center and foundation in Northern Virginia. This year’s count is the 15th annual Airlie Butterfly Census. By sharing our results with NABA, we contribute to a continent-wide effort to track butterfly population trends over the years.


And the trends do not look good. Twenty-two species of butterflies in the United States are listed as endangered or threatened, and another 38 are considered candidates for listing, are species of concern or are currently under review, out of about 600 species in the lower 48 states. Butterflies, like bees, bats and hummingbirds, are important pollinators, and their numbers are declining. In 2007 the National Academy of Sciences issued a report called Status of Pollinators in North America that drew attention to a “demonstrably downward” trend in many wild pollinator populations, including some butterflies.


Scientists, gardeners and casual observers agree that our pollinators are in trouble. “When we were younger, we used to see so many more butterflies,” recalls Robin Williams, a volunteer in today’s census. But identifying a decline is not enough. To reverse downward trends, the causes of pollinator decline must be known. This may prove the greater challenge. As the National Academy of Sciences points out, “declines in many pollinator groups are associated with habitat loss, fragmentation, and deterioration, although in the United States data are, in most cases, inadequate to demonstrate causation unambiguously.”


As pollinator populations decline, interest in the butterfly count grows. NABA launched its butterfly count program in 1975. During that first year, only 29 counts were completed across the continent. By 2009, that number had grown to 463 individual counts — including the Airlie census — in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The vast majority of butterfly counters are citizen scientists—untrained volunteers who lend their eyes, ears and enthusiasm to ongoing scientific projects such as butterfly censuses or bird counts. Sladen speculates that there is a strong relationship between environmental decline and the rise of citizen scientists. “We are becoming so much more aware of what we are losing.” Still, Sladen wants to see more participation, especially from parents and children. “We need to get our children closer to nature.”


Counting butterflies could be a good way to reach this goal. Nearly 600 species of butterflies live in the lower 48 states, and dozens of these could be seen during our census. Proper identification requires sharp eyesight (a specialty of children) and patience to study detailed field guides. Every mark on the census sheet increases our knowledge about butterflies. Ultimately, this information may help scientists better understand the reasons behind pollinator decline and develop effective conservation solutions.


Of course, citizen science has its limitations. None of us are trained entomologists, and many butterflies are never identified. Others are surely misidentified. The differences between some species are subtle. For example, the Eastern tiger swallowtail, in its black phase, is nearly identical to the black swallowtail. Both are large black butterflies with blue accents and streamers on their wings. The only difference is a row of yellow spots running along the wings of the black swallowtail. The skippers are an even greater challenge. These little butterflies are plentiful and tiny—some are no larger than my thumb—and share similar markings across species. We see an agonizing variety of skippers. Mistakes are common. Perfection is not expected. “We are tremendously inaccurate,” admits Sladen, who has a simple piece of advice for volunteers: “Use your eyes and enjoy. Don’t worry about being wrong.”


Sladen’s advice is both kind and correct. These annual butterfly counts track population trends— evidence of more or fewer butterflies—not the actual number of all butterflies in a given census area. Because errors in counting and identification tend to hold fairly steady over the years, the census results can be trusted to illustrate these long-term population trends. By comparing census results across regions and years, NABA is able to follow changing trends in butterfly diversity and population numbers across North America.


By lunchtime, and the end of our census, we tallied 19 different species of butterflies and a total of 113 positively identified individuals (not including the countless unidentified butterflies). Our group’s totals will be combined with those of other census groups in the area and then submitted to the North American Butterfly Association.


The benefits here go beyond data. These annual butterfly censuses are open to volunteers of all ages and abilities — no prior butterfly counting experience is required. First-time participants may come simply to learn butterfly identification skills or enjoy a stroll in the summertime sun, but they go home as citizen scientists. Often, they return the next year as well. With any luck, they bring a friend or relative, eager to chase after butterflies for a summer morning.


“Once people do this, they tend to be hooked,” says Sladen. She appears to be right. After we’ve completed our census, first-time participant Janice Clarke leaves on this note: “I can’t wait to go home and do this in our gardens.”


Counting butterflies is one of those things that sound easy but isn’t. Six of us are squinting and sweating in the morning sun, cameras and binoculars in hand, in the Peterson Butterfly Garden in Northern Virginia, and the butterflies are thick. Our goal today is to conduct a census of the butterflies in this garden and several neighboring fields.


In order to count a butterfly, we first have to identify it. Jocelyn Sladen, our group leader, points to the first butterfly of the day. “That is exactly the problem,” she says. “That little black butterfly could be one of any number of species.” What’s more, the trouble with counting butterflies in a butterfly garden is that there are a lot to count, and none of them hold still. Our little group moves through the garden together, one plant at a time, consulting our field guides whenever another butterfly species is discovered. While one volunteer questions a butterfly — “Oh, what are you?” — another cries “Come back, come back!” as a butterfly flits off, unidentified and uncounted.


In the midst of the chaos, there are successful identifications. “Now, that is a pearl crescent,” says Sladen. “Oh, good, good, good!” she says. We shout out more species names as that day goes on: Eastern tiger swallowtails, silver-spotted skippers, cabbage whites. A fritillary is spotted, to Sladen’s delight. And, only once, “That’s a monarch!”


We six are among the thousands of people who will take part in a North American Butterfly Association (NABA) butterfly count this year. Our count, which we share with several other groups of volunteers, encompasses a 15-mile-wide circle of fields, forests and gardens. The butterfly garden at the center of this circle is part of Airlie Center, a conference center and foundation in Northern Virginia. This year’s count is the 15th annual Airlie Butterfly Census. By sharing our results with NABA, we contribute to a continent-wide effort to track butterfly population trends over the years.


And the trends do not look good. Twenty-two species of butterflies in the United States are listed as endangered or threatened, and another 38 are considered candidates for listing, are species of concern or are currently under review, out of about 600 species in the lower 48 states. Butterflies, like bees, bats and hummingbirds, are important pollinators, and their numbers are declining. In 2007 the National Academy of Sciences issued a report called Status of Pollinators in North America that drew attention to a “demonstrably downward” trend in many wild pollinator populations, including some butterflies.


Scientists, gardeners and casual observers agree that our pollinators are in trouble. “When we were younger, we used to see so many more butterflies,” recalls Robin Williams, a volunteer in today’s census. But identifying a decline is not enough. To reverse downward trends, the causes of pollinator decline must be known. This may prove the greater challenge. As the National Academy of Sciences points out, “declines in many pollinator groups are associated with habitat loss, fragmentation, and deterioration, although in the United States data are, in most cases, inadequate to demonstrate causation unambiguously.”


As pollinator populations decline, interest in the butterfly count grows. NABA launched its butterfly count program in 1975. During that first year, only 29 counts were completed across the continent. By 2009, that number had grown to 463 individual counts — including the Airlie census — in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The vast majority of butterfly counters are citizen scientists—untrained volunteers who lend their eyes, ears and enthusiasm to ongoing scientific projects such as butterfly censuses or bird counts. Sladen speculates that there is a strong relationship between environmental decline and the rise of citizen scientists. “We are becoming so much more aware of what we are losing.” Still, Sladen wants to see more participation, especially from parents and children. “We need to get our children closer to nature.”


Counting butterflies could be a good way to reach this goal. Nearly 600 species of butterflies live in the lower 48 states, and dozens of these could be seen during our census. Proper identification requires sharp eyesight (a specialty of children) and patience to study detailed field guides. Every mark on the census sheet increases our knowledge about butterflies. Ultimately, this information may help scientists better understand the reasons behind pollinator decline and develop effective conservation solutions.


Of course, citizen science has its limitations. None of us are trained entomologists, and many butterflies are never identified. Others are surely misidentified. The differences between some species are subtle. For example, the Eastern tiger swallowtail, in its black phase, is nearly identical to the black swallowtail. Both are large black butterflies with blue accents and streamers on their wings. The only difference is a row of yellow spots running along the wings of the black swallowtail. The skippers are an even greater challenge. These little butterflies are plentiful and tiny—some are no larger than my thumb—and share similar markings across species. We see an agonizing variety of skippers. Mistakes are common. Perfection is not expected. “We are tremendously inaccurate,” admits Sladen, who has a simple piece of advice for volunteers: “Use your eyes and enjoy. Don’t worry about being wrong.”


Sladen’s advice is both kind and correct. These annual butterfly counts track population trends— evidence of more or fewer butterflies—not the actual number of all butterflies in a given census area. Because errors in counting and identification tend to hold fairly steady over the years, the census results can be trusted to illustrate these long-term population trends. By comparing census results across regions and years, NABA is able to follow changing trends in butterfly diversity and population numbers across North America.


By lunchtime, and the end of our census, we tallied 19 different species of butterflies and a total of 113 positively identified individuals (not including the countless unidentified butterflies). Our group’s totals will be combined with those of other census groups in the area and then submitted to the North American Butterfly Association.


The benefits here go beyond data. These annual butterfly censuses are open to volunteers of all ages and abilities — no prior butterfly counting experience is required. First-time participants may come simply to learn butterfly identification skills or enjoy a stroll in the summertime sun, but they go home as citizen scientists. Often, they return the next year as well. With any luck, they bring a friend or relative, eager to chase after butterflies for a summer morning.


“Once people do this, they tend to be hooked,” says Sladen. She appears to be right. After we’ve completed our census, first-time participant Janice Clarke leaves on this note: “I can’t wait to go home and do this in our gardens.”



 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Camp Guard Denied Early Release

Judge rules crimes were too grave to allow Zoran Zigic to leave prison after nine years of 25-year sentence. By Rachel Irwin - International Justice - ICTY TRI Issue 669, 12 Nov 10

A former Bosnian Serb reserve police officer and prison camp guard has been denied early release, the Hague tribunal president ruled this week.

Zoran Zigic was sentenced in 2001 to 25 years in prison for the murder, torture and cruel treatment of non-Serb detainees at the Omarska and Keraterm detention camps in northern Bosnia. He was transferred to Austria to serve his sentence and under that country’s laws was eligible in October for early release.

In their judgement, appeals judges noted that Zigic was briefly a guard in Keraterm, but otherwise “entered the camps for the sole purpose of abusing detainees”.

He was found to have beaten detainees with “a rod with a metal ball attached to one end”. On another occasion, he made the prisoners sit on their hands and feet, “like dogs”, while he beat them. Afterwards, “they were made to crawl outside like dogs and wash their bloody faces in a puddle of dirty rainwater”.

In his decision this week, tribunal president Patrick Robinson noted the “high gravity” of Zigic’s crimes.

“I do not consider that the amount of time that Mr Zigic has served in detention militates in favour of his release,” he stated.

Zigic was tried alongside four other defendants – Miroslav Kvocka, Dragljub Prcac, Milojica Kos and Mlado Radic - who were also convicted of committing crimes against camp detainees. All except Zigic and Radic, who was sentenced to 20 years, have already been released.

Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.


View the original article here

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Indelible Images - The Rarest Bird - Sept10

The ivory-billed woodpecker is one of the most extraordinary birds ever to live in America’s forests: the biggest woodpecker in the United States, it seems to keep coming back from the dead. Once resident in swampy bottomlands from North Carolina to East Texas, it was believed to have gone extinct as early as the 1920s, but sightings, confirmed and otherwise, have been reported as recently as this year.


The young ornithologist James T. Tanner’s sightings in the late 1930s came with substantial documentation: not only field notes, from which he literally wrote the book on the species, but also photographs. In fact, Tanner’s photographs remain the most recent uncontested pictures of the American ivory-bill. Now his widow, Nancy Tanner, has discovered more photographs that he took on a fateful day in 1938.


Tanner was a doctoral candidate at Cornell University when, in 1937, he was sent to look for ivory-bills in Southern swamplands, including a vast virgin forest in northeast Louisiana called the Singer Tract. Two years earlier, his mentor, Arthur Allen, founder of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, had proved that the “Lord God” bird—so named for what people supposedly exclaimed after getting a look at its 20-inch body and 30-inch wingspan—was still extant, with observations of several adult ivory-bills in the same forest.


“There are relatively few references to young Ivorybills,” Allen wrote in 1937, “and there is no complete description of an immature bird.” But that would soon change.


On his initial solo trip to the Singer Tract, Tanner became the first person to provide such a description, after watching two adults feed a nestling in a hole they’d carved high in a sweet gum tree. “It took me some time to realize that the bird in the hole was a young one; it seemed impossible,” he scribbled in his field notes. When he returned to those woods in early 1938, he discovered another nest hole, 55 feet off the ground in the trunk of a red maple. And in it he discovered another young ivory-bill.


Watching the nest for 16 days, Tanner noted that the bird’s parents usually foraged for about 20 minutes at midday. No ivory-bill had ever been fitted with an identifying band, so Tanner resolved to affix one to the nestling’s leg while its parents were away.


On his 24th birthday, March 6, 1938, Tanner decided to act. Up he went, on went the band—and out came the ivory-bill, bolting from the nest in a panic after Tanner trimmed a branch impeding his view of the nest hole. Too young to fly, the bird fluttered to a crash landing “in a tangle of vines,” Tanner wrote in his field notes, “where he clung, calling and squalling.” The ornithologist scrambled down the tree, retrieved the bird and handed it to his guide, J. J. Kuhn. “I surely thought that I had messed things up,” Tanner wrote. But as the minutes ticked away, he “unlimbered” his camera and began shooting, “jittery and nervous as all get-out,” unsure of whether he was getting any useful pictures. After exhausting his film, he returned the bird to its nest, “probably as glad as he that he was back there.”


When Tanner’s Cornell dissertation was published as The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in 1942, the book included two pictures of the juvenile bird perched on Kuhn’s arm and head. Those frames, along with four others less widely printed—the only known photographs of a living nestling ivory-bill—have provided generations of birders with an image laden with fragile, possibly doomed, hope.


The ivory-billed woodpecker is one of the most extraordinary birds ever to live in America’s forests: the biggest woodpecker in the United States, it seems to keep coming back from the dead. Once resident in swampy bottomlands from North Carolina to East Texas, it was believed to have gone extinct as early as the 1920s, but sightings, confirmed and otherwise, have been reported as recently as this year.


The young ornithologist James T. Tanner’s sightings in the late 1930s came with substantial documentation: not only field notes, from which he literally wrote the book on the species, but also photographs. In fact, Tanner’s photographs remain the most recent uncontested pictures of the American ivory-bill. Now his widow, Nancy Tanner, has discovered more photographs that he took on a fateful day in 1938.


Tanner was a doctoral candidate at Cornell University when, in 1937, he was sent to look for ivory-bills in Southern swamplands, including a vast virgin forest in northeast Louisiana called the Singer Tract. Two years earlier, his mentor, Arthur Allen, founder of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, had proved that the “Lord God” bird—so named for what people supposedly exclaimed after getting a look at its 20-inch body and 30-inch wingspan—was still extant, with observations of several adult ivory-bills in the same forest.


“There are relatively few references to young Ivorybills,” Allen wrote in 1937, “and there is no complete description of an immature bird.” But that would soon change.


On his initial solo trip to the Singer Tract, Tanner became the first person to provide such a description, after watching two adults feed a nestling in a hole they’d carved high in a sweet gum tree. “It took me some time to realize that the bird in the hole was a young one; it seemed impossible,” he scribbled in his field notes. When he returned to those woods in early 1938, he discovered another nest hole, 55 feet off the ground in the trunk of a red maple. And in it he discovered another young ivory-bill.


Watching the nest for 16 days, Tanner noted that the bird’s parents usually foraged for about 20 minutes at midday. No ivory-bill had ever been fitted with an identifying band, so Tanner resolved to affix one to the nestling’s leg while its parents were away.


On his 24th birthday, March 6, 1938, Tanner decided to act. Up he went, on went the band—and out came the ivory-bill, bolting from the nest in a panic after Tanner trimmed a branch impeding his view of the nest hole. Too young to fly, the bird fluttered to a crash landing “in a tangle of vines,” Tanner wrote in his field notes, “where he clung, calling and squalling.” The ornithologist scrambled down the tree, retrieved the bird and handed it to his guide, J. J. Kuhn. “I surely thought that I had messed things up,” Tanner wrote. But as the minutes ticked away, he “unlimbered” his camera and began shooting, “jittery and nervous as all get-out,” unsure of whether he was getting any useful pictures. After exhausting his film, he returned the bird to its nest, “probably as glad as he that he was back there.”


When Tanner’s Cornell dissertation was published as The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in 1942, the book included two pictures of the juvenile bird perched on Kuhn’s arm and head. Those frames, along with four others less widely printed—the only known photographs of a living nestling ivory-bill—have provided generations of birders with an image laden with fragile, possibly doomed, hope.


In a 1942 article for the ornithological journal The Wilson Bulletin, Tanner wrote “there is little doubt but that complete logging of the [Singer] tract will cause the end of the Ivorybills there.” The tract was indeed completely logged, and an ivory-bill sighting there in 1944 remains the last uncontested observation anywhere in the United States. Before he died at age 76 in 1991, Tanner, who taught for 32 years at the University of Tennessee, had sadly concluded that the species was extinct.


Three years ago, I began working with Nancy Tanner on a book about her husband’s fieldwork. In June 2009, she discovered a faded manila envelope in the back of a drawer at her home in Knoxville, Tennessee. In it were some ivory-bill images. At her invitation, I started going through them.


One of the first things I found was a glassine envelope containing a 2 1/4- by 3 1/4-inch negative. Holding it up to the light, I realized it was of the nestling ivory-bill from the Singer Tract—an image I had never seen. I quickly found another negative, then another and another. My hands began to shake. It turned out that Tanner had taken not 6 pictures on that long-ago March 6, but 14. As a group, they show the young bird not frozen in time, but rather clambering over Kuhn like a cat on a scratching post, frightened but vital.


Like almost any ornithologist, Jim Tanner would have liked to have been proved wrong about the ivory-bill’s fate. In 2005, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology announced that searchers had seen an ivory-bill multiple times in ten months in the Big Woods in Arkansas. Other researchers, connected to Auburn University, reported 13 sightings in 2005 and 2006 along the Choctawhatchee River in Florida’s panhandle. In both cases, the sightings were made by experienced observers, including trained ornithologists. Yet neither group’s documentation—including a 4.5-second video of a bird in Arkansas—has been universally accepted. So the wait for incontrovertible evidence continues. Photographs like the ones Jim Tanner took in 1938 would do nicely.


Stephen Lyn Bales is a naturalist in Knoxville. His book about James Tanner, Ghost Birds, is due out this month.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Google's new Android phone aims to replace credit cards

Eric Schmidt shows off Google's new Gingerbread-powered Android handset.


Eric Schmidt shows off Google's new Gingerbread-powered Android handset. Photo: REUTERS


Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, showed off the company’s next Android-powered phone, which will contain a chip that will allow people to make payments via their handsets.


Opening this year’s Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Schmidt showed off the new phone, which had the manufacturer’s label deliberately covered up, but is assumed to be the next Nexus device, following the Nexus One, and will contain a Near Field Communication chip, that will allow people to use their phones like credit cards.


The latest version of Android, called Gingerbread, due to come out in the “next few weeks”, will power this new handset according to Schmidt, and will feature this new mobile payments system as a key tool.


“This could replace your credit card,” Schmidt said. “The reason this NFC chip is so interesting is because the credit card industry thinks the loss rate is going to be much better, they’re just more secure.”


Users will need both a phone with an NFC chip and Android’s Gingerbread operating system in order to activate the technology. The near field communication technology allows people to tap their phones on a symbol or an item in the real world to make an action happen, such as a payment. Schmidt said it will it will allow people to “tap and pay”.


Schmidt stressed that Google had no alliances with any retailers and those relationships would be put in place by the credit card companies and retailers independent of the search giant. Instead Google will partner with third party payment processors.


He also said that Google would not retain any personal data obtained through credit card transactions via the phone.


However, despite saying that he could envision this type of mobile technology replacing the credit card, Schmidt would not put a time frame on this migration. Instead he said: “ Who knows? [how long it will take]. I anticipate my credit cards will be around for some time.”


Schmidt was keen to emphasise that NFC technology provides a brand new platform for people to start thinking about new apps, which can use the same “bump for everything” technology, as it was described on stage.


View the original article here

Glimpses of Hope in Impoverished Kibera

Corrugated jungle that is Africa's second largest slum was one of the flashpoints of ethnic violence following Kenya's 2007 election. By Blake Evans-Pritchard - International Justice - ICC ACR Issue 276, 12 Nov 10

A little short of breath in the stifling Kenyan heat, I pause at the top of a slight incline, where the rusty tracks of a railway snake into the smoky distance.

My guide - a tall, genial university student - points to the other side of the ridge, where the land falls away and is replaced by a thick tangle of corrugated iron roofs. Narrow streets, strewn with rubbish, wind their way through this corrugated jungle. Whoops of children float upwards on the gentle breeze, and the acrid scent of raw sewage tinges the air.

This is Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa, where perhaps as many as one million people are crammed into no more than a few square kilometres of living space. It was also one of the flashpoints of the ethnic violence that engulfed the country following the 2007 election. An estimated 800 people lost their lives, many reportedly gunned down by the police.

Trains still run occasionally along the railway upon which we are standing, ferrying people between Kampala in the west and the Indian Ocean, although today the tracks team with swarms of traders, hawking goods. There is not a train in sight.

I am told that when Kibera residents become really upset with the government, they cause chaos by tearing up the railway tracks.

My guide points into the middle-distance, where a few unfinished red-brick buildings huddle together, looking naked amidst all the chaos and dirt.

This, he tells me, was a new housing project launched by Raila Odinga, the country's prime minister and local member of parliament, in a bid to clean up the slum and provide decent housing for its inhabitants.

When President Mwai Kibaki won the election in 2007, amid serious allegations of vote-rigging, those living in Kibera felt cheated: their man, they felt, should have won. The ensuing violence was a direct result of the feeling that, once again, Kenyan politics had swindled them.

"Odinga is our man," one local resident says, swaying unsteadily on his feet and smelling of cheap alcohol. "You won't find anyone here who doesn't support him." He holds out his hand expectantly, into which I thrust a few loose coins.

My guide turns away from the forlorn half-built housing, and indicates something else in the distance, which I cannot see.

Just beyond my vision, on the edge of the Kibera slum, lies the oldest golf course in Nairobi. As the last of the haphazard shacks falls way, the visitor to the slum suddenly understands the vast difference between rich and poor in Kenya.

It is just this other side of Kibera where former president Daniel Arap Moi once lived in palatial surroundings, and where now the nouveau-riche come for a quick round of golf before getting back to running the country.

I stop looking at what I cannot see and turn my gaze downwards to something that has caught my eye. A group of mzungos - white people - are scrambling clumsily up the slope from the rubbish-strewn streets below. A Kenyan with a straw hat is leading the group. The woman at the back appears to be wearing thoroughly inappropriate footwear.

"Tourists," mutters my guide, by way of explanation.

But not everything about Kibera reminds the casual visitor of desperate poverty. Living conditions may be unsanitary and opportunistic beggars sometimes seem ubiquitous. But one can also catch glimpses of elegance and order, and perhaps a little hope for the future.

As we come from the railway embankment, a bespectacled man, clutching a handful of books, scurries past us. I glimpse the title of one of them. It is Hamlet.

A little distance away, I see a group of smartly-dressed young men, leaning on a fence post, talking and laughing. One of the group is wearing Nike trainers. On the T-shirt of another, I can make out the Lacoste label.

At first, such brand consciousness looks oddly out of place in the destitute wilderness that is Kibera. But then I notice that they are not out of place, but part of the wilderness itself.

This is Kibera. A place of often desperate poverty - dirty, unhygienic, overcrowded. But one, also, where ordinary people still get on with their lives. They go to university, they work, they earn money. And they hope, one day, for a better life.

Blake Evans-Pritchard is IWPR's Africa Editor.


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How to survive LeWeb 2010: a guide for start-up CEOs

Europe's largest - and most daunting - gathering of geeks is almost upon us. LeWeb's 2010 incarnation promises to be bigger and even more extravagant than ever before. But before I get into telling you how to prepare for the mother of all tech conferences, I suppose first of all you should think about whether it's for you.

First things first: the tickets aren't cheap (although there are plenty of sneaky discounts around if you're smart). And then there's the travel and hotel to consider. But aside from the fact that you can lump all that under marketing spend - especially if you follow the tips below - to be honest it's money well spent, whatever stage your company's at.

Why? Well, without going into too much of sales pitch on organiser Loïc Le Meur's behalf, there's a lot on offer - most importantly the opportunity to grab any one of 2,500 attendees from over 60 countries, including some of the biggest names in tech, and the chance to show off your start-up or Next Big Idea to whoever you can lay your hands on - including about 500 journalists. (That sounds like a huge number of journos per start-up, but as a CEO that's to your advantage: just think how many of them you'll be able to get hold of if you're clever about it.) All the big tech firms are there - Google, Facebook, Twitter, you name it - and a healthy smattering of investors. Plus there's the usual keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats and all that sort of stuff.

So how do you navigate this hulking great monster of a conference? Here are some tips.

1. Bring business cards. A lot of them. Sure, it's a technology conference and everyone will be tweeting, checking in to their geolocation app of choice and even, if they're lucky, swapping hotel room keys, but the real business is done when you get back home, presuming you can remember who's who out of the fistful of cards that tumble out of your hand luggage. I'd say 500 of your own card should do the trick: after all, if you don't give them all away personally, you can always crash the stage and throw them into the crowd in handfuls. Yeah, it'll probably get you thrown out and arrested, but it'll sure as hell get your start-up noticed.

2. Check the programme. There's no point sitting there for every panel discussion - though, mercifully, most of the stuff on stage is limited to 20 minutes. All the exciting stuff happens in the corridors at this sort of conference. At least, it will if you follow step three...

. Make appointments beforehand. Check who's going and contact them before the event, suggesting a time to duck out of the main show and have a chat. If you're clever about this you ought to be arranging at least ten coffees per day. (So, item 3.1: make sure you know where the loos are.) LeWeb is your chance to connect with useful people from all over the world and you shouldn't waste it wandering the corridors eating free bonbons from the corporate stands.

4. Pick one or two of the big names to approach. When you do, make it quick. Tell them exactly why you want to speak to them and offer them your card. Don't take up any more of their time than you have to. If you're in any doubt about how to approach one of the big hitters...

5. Follow Parisian PR guru Colette Ballou on Twitter. Her infamous "conference tips" are unmissable, and frequently very funny.

6. Bring a charger, plus whatever adapters you need. I know that sounds ridiculously obvious but you'll be surprised by how quickly your phone battery will die with all the tweeting and emailing. There are power sockets behind every chair, so there's really no excuse to be out of battery by the time the parties start, which is when you'll really need it. Seriously, no excuse. Even if you have an iPhone.

7. Get plenty of sleep beforehand. You'll want to party until the early hours and then be at the conference venue ready to go by 8.30am. This is a lot easier said than done; ask anyone who was at F.ounders.

8. Take naps! Real, actual naps on real, actual beds! There are resting areas at LeWeb with plasma screens in the ceiling (yes, we are living that far into the future) so you can doze but not miss yours truly making a tit of himself on stage or one of the TechCrunch guys making the 94th Aol joke of the day.

9. Take full advantage of the free coffee. There's a Nespresso lounge which last year distributed 15,000 cups of coffee to conference attendees. Stop being so British, barge to the front and grab a cup. Or two cups. (q.v. point 3.1, above)

10. One last thing. Le Meur tells me there's an official dress code at LeWeb, and it is: "No suits!" So unless you're from IBM, or you're a venture capitalist who doesn't own anything that isn't from Savile Row, it's jeans and tees all the way. And if you see someone in a suit, conference rules state that you're allowed to throw your free coffee over them.*

So there you have it. And if all that wasn't enough to whet your appetite, there's a huge party being thrown by one of Europe's most prestigious newspapers; you'll hear about it once you get to Paris. See you there!

(*OK, I may have made that last one up. Don't throw your coffee over any Microsoft SVPs. Please.)


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MySpace 'will be forced to allow Facebook Connect'

The news follows on from Mike Jones, MySpace’s chief executive, admitting to The Telegraph last week, that the site was no longer a social network, effectively surrendering to Facebook.

Last week, Jones would not be drawn on what he called “rumours” that MySpace will soon implement a Facebook Connect button across its service, allowing people to use their Facebook identities on MySpace. However, several technology executives, present at this week’s Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, have told the Telegraph that MySpace has been left with no choice but to do so.

“MySpace are going to install a Facebook Connect button across the site, but no one at the company can admit it publicly yet. They have to. They need the same audience to come to MySpace, that now goes to Facebook, if their re-launch to a social entertainment portal is going to have any traction,” said one Silicon Valley-based technology entrepreneur, who wished to remain anonymous.

Another senior technology executive, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the move: “MySpace has finally realised that it needs to face the inevitable. It needs to get out of the way of the oncoming train and just get on board. Installing Facebook Connect is a bold but very necessary move. It will happen imminently.”

Talking to The Telegraph at the Monaco Media Forum last week, Jones said the bold statement: “MySpace is a not a social network anymore. It is now a social entertainment destination.”

The troubled site, which saw its UK audience halve to 3.3 million monthly visitors in July earlier this year, is pinning its hopes of renewed success with a return to its music and content roots.

Three weeks ago, the redesigned MySpace, which focuses a lot more on content, rather than social networking, launched in the US and will go live in the UK very soon. Everything has been changed; right down to the logo – which is now the word 'My' and an extended underscore to represent the ‘Space’.

MySpace, founded in 2003, at its peak had more than 100 million registered and active members, but its audience has been declining since the rise of Facebook in 2008.

It has come under increasing pressure from its parent News Corporation, which bought the site in 2005 for $580 million (£351 million) in 2005, to reverse its ailing fortunes.

On an earnings call at the start of this month, Chase Carey, News Corporation’s chief operating officer, said: "We've been clear that MySpace is a problem. The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable." And that he wanted "a clear path to profitability" on a timetable measured "in quarters, not in years”.

MySpace lost $156 million in the quarter that ended in September 2010 compared to a loss of $126 million in the same period last year, on revenues of $298 million, down 25.5%.

Jones said that Carey’s words were taken out of context, and that all of News Corp’s businesses are assessed quarterly.

“There is no timeline to shutdown MySpace. The goal of relaunching the site is to a build a new path and use the tools of social around entertainment content which will appeal to audiences aged between 13-35 around the world,” Jones explained.


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RIM CEO tells Apple: 'You don't need an app for the web'

Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of Blackberry-maker Research in Motion.


'You don't need an app for the web,' said RIM's CEO in the company's latest dig at rival Apple Photo: reuters


Balsillie told delegates at the event that Research in Motion’s forthcoming tablet computer, the PlayBook, will be “three or four times” faster at browsing the web than Apple’s iPad.


He also criticised Apple’s ecosystem of applications for its iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and said that users “don’t need an app for the web”.


Balsillie acknowledged that there was a role for native apps, but that the web browser remained the best way of getting information on mobile devices.


"We believe that you can bring the mobile to the web,” he said. “You don’t need to go through some kind of software development kit. That’s the core part of our message. You can use your existing development environment.


“There’s still a role for apps, but can you use your existing content? Can you use your existing web assets? Do you need a set of proprietary tools to bring existing assets on to a device, or can you use known tools that you use for creating websites?”


It’s the latest exchange in an increasingly fractious relationship between Apple and Research in Motion.


During a quarterly earnings call earlier this year, Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, bragged that iPhone sales had outstripped BlackBerry sales, and that he didn’t see Research in Motion catching up with his company “in the foreseeable future”.


His comments sparked a furious response from RIM, who questioned the sales iPhone and BlackBerry sales figures Jobs had used for his comparison.


Balsillie retaliated by claiming that Apple only told “half the story”, and that everything was skewed by the company’s “reality distortion field”.


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Sarah Palin says she could beat Barack Obama in 2012

The former Alaska governor told ABC News she was seriously considering running for the Republican Party presidential nomination in the next elections.

"I'm looking at the lay of the land now, and ... trying to figure that out, if it's a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it's a good thing," Mrs Palin said in excerpts of an interview to air on December 9.

Asked whether she could defeat Mr Obama if she ran, Mrs Palin, who was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, answered: "I believe so."

Mrs Palin, who left midway through her first term in office as governor of Alaska, has previously hinted at a potential White House bid but has yet to formally announce if she will run.

Even if she won the Republican primary, Mrs Palin would face an uphill fight in the elections, as she is not considered popular in the country at large and was found wanting on foreign policy experience during Senator John McCain's losing campaign for president.

Now one of the most popular conservatives in America, Mrs Palin solidified her life in the spotlight by launching her own reality show on Sunday, featuring her family fishing, kayaking, bear-watching and relaxing in their tiny Alaskan hometown of Wasilla.


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Friday, November 19, 2010

Top Yakuza crime boss arrested in Japan

Top Yakuza crime boss arrested in Japan


The arrest of Takayama coincides with a nationwide attempt to clampdown on organised crime groups in Japan Photo: GETTY


Kiyoshi Takayama, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate – the largest in Japan - was detained by police on alleged extortion charges.


With the official head of the Yamaguchi-gumi already in prison, Takayama, 63, is believed to be the number one operating member of Japan's most powerful organised crime group.


Takayama, from Kobe, was arrested in Kyoto for allegedly extorting protection money totalling around £302,000 (40 million yen) from a man engaged in construction business between 2005 and 2006, according to police.


The arrest of Takayama, who is head of the syndicate's Kodokai gang, coincides with a nationwide attempt to clampdown on organised crime groups in Japan, according to Kyodo News reports.


It also comes shortly before Kenichi Shinoda, the official head of the Yamaguchi-gumi group, is due to be released from prison next spring following his detention in 2005 for violating gun control laws.


Dubbed the Walmart of crime syndicates, the Yamaguchi-gumi is the largest organised crime group in Japan with its roots in the Kobe region and active membership estimated by some reports as high as 45,000.


Extortion, real estate, sex industry, gambling and stock market manipulation are among a raft of activities that have been tied to the activities of the powerful crime syndicate.


Government legislation has increasingly attempted to stem the powers of the crime groups, while financial institutions have also joined forces in a growing movement to close down the accounts of yakuza members.


The Japanese Bankers Association announced last year that it was asking its member banks to refuse the creation of new accounts for customers with yakuza ties.


Earlier this month, there were reports that a bank in Tokyo had taken steps to terminate the account of a high-ranking yakuza boss.


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Facebook says new messaging service will make email addresses obsolete

In a posting on the Facebook blog after the launch of the social network’s new messaging service, Joel Seligstein, a engineer at the company, said: "Relatively soon, we'll probably all stop using arbitrary ten digit numbers and bizarre sequences of characters to contact each other.

"We will just select friends by name and be able to share with them instantly. We aren't there yet, but the changes today are a small first step.

At the launch of Facebook's new messaging service earlier Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, called email "too slow and formal".

Speaking at an event in San Francisco, ahead of this year’s Web 2.0 Summit, Zuckeberg showcased the ‘next generation messaging system’, which will allow users to have an @facebook.com email address.

He said: “Email is too slow… email is too formal. There is too much friction, like the filling in the subject line…. when people send an email.”

Zuckerberg stressed that the new system, which will combine Facebook’s instant messaging system, SMS, Facebook messages and email in one place, would allow people to reply seamlessly across multiple devices to different types of messages.

For instance, when somebody emails a Facebook friend using their Facebook email account, that person can reply in the same window using either the system’s instant messaging system, or by email, or by SMS. The aim is to combine all types of messaging in one place, allowing people to reply in real-time.

Zuckerberg emphasised that email would only be a part of the new messaging system. The three key aspects the new system would be seamless messaging allowing people to communicate in several formats, across multiple devices. Secondly the new messaging system will store all conversation history in once screen shot, regardless of whether it was email or IM.

And thirdly the new system works on the premise of the ‘social inbox’. Zuckerberg explained that the system would work better than other email spam detectors and will prioritise key contacts’ messages. “You will only be able to see messages that really matter to you,” he said.

The new messaging system is only live to those with an invite at this stage. Zuckerberg said that it will be rolled out slowly across the next several months.

He also revealed he had ambitions for the system to be able to sync with other email accounts in the future.

Zuckerberg said that his team had been working on the new system for over a year and that 350 million people regularly use Facebook current messaging system.


View the original article here

Indelible Images - Unmasked - Aug10

On the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, a mood of boisterous celebration filled the particulate-dense air of New York City. Mayor John V. Lindsay traveled around by electric bus. In a speech at Union Square he asked, “Do we want to live or die?”A crowd of 20,000 packed the square to catch a glimpse of Paul Newman standing on a raised platform. Stretches of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street, closed to automobile traffic, were transformed into pedestrian seas, amid which office workers set down picnic blankets and girls handed out fresh daisies. Activists hauled nets of dead fish through Midtown streets. “You’re next, people!” they cried. “You’re next!”


Out of all the hubbub that beset the nation that day 40 years ago—a day when students buried trash-filled caskets and put a Chevy on trial for polluting the air—one image would capture the spirit with particular efficiency and wit. It’s a black-and-white photograph of a young man wearing a vintage gas mask as he stretched to smell the magnolias. Reproduced instantly and ever since, it came to symbolize the occasion. (This magazine, which made its debut in April 1970, published the picture in its 20th-anniversary issue.)


But the photograph presents a few substantial mysteries. For one, there’s no record of who took it. The credit line reads simply “Associated Press,” and the AP’s files identify the photographer only as a “stringer,” or freelancer. For another, though a few newspapers printed the young man’s name with the picture at the time, he too was soon rendered anonymous.


Now it can be told, or retold: his name, resurrected from a Pace College publication dated 1970, is Peter Hallerman. He was then a sophomore at Pace, commuting to its Lower Manhattan campus from Queens. In all these years, he says, he has never been interviewed about the event in question.


As he recalls, he was one of about 30 Pace students who held what was surely one of the day’s puniest demonstrations. They crossed the street from their campus to a park near City Hall and chanted slogans and waved brooms, some of them daring to make a sweep or two. (Their permit forbade them to actually clean the park.)


At least the collegians had planned for maximum impact: they demonstrated at lunch hour, hoping the City Hall press corps would straggle out to gather a bit of Earth Day color. “We figured we’d at least get noticed,” Hallerman says. “Whether it would be reported on was something else.”


Sure enough, a handful of journalists appeared. In a dramatic flourish, Hallerman strapped on a gas mask that he believes his mother, Edith, had saved from her service with the Red Cross during World War II. (Though gas masks were a common Earth Day accessory, this long-snouted beast looked particularly awful.) The AP photographer posed Hallerman in front of a blossoming magnolia tree, then changed his mind. “Try leaning over and smelling those flowers,” Hallerman recalls the photographer saying. Hallerman bent his six-foot frame over a short fence surrounding the tree so that the mask’s proboscis touched the pink-white blossoms. The photographer snapped his shot, and Hallerman thought nothing more of it.


On the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, a mood of boisterous celebration filled the particulate-dense air of New York City. Mayor John V. Lindsay traveled around by electric bus. In a speech at Union Square he asked, “Do we want to live or die?”A crowd of 20,000 packed the square to catch a glimpse of Paul Newman standing on a raised platform. Stretches of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street, closed to automobile traffic, were transformed into pedestrian seas, amid which office workers set down picnic blankets and girls handed out fresh daisies. Activists hauled nets of dead fish through Midtown streets. “You’re next, people!” they cried. “You’re next!”


Out of all the hubbub that beset the nation that day 40 years ago—a day when students buried trash-filled caskets and put a Chevy on trial for polluting the air—one image would capture the spirit with particular efficiency and wit. It’s a black-and-white photograph of a young man wearing a vintage gas mask as he stretched to smell the magnolias. Reproduced instantly and ever since, it came to symbolize the occasion. (This magazine, which made its debut in April 1970, published the picture in its 20th-anniversary issue.)


But the photograph presents a few substantial mysteries. For one, there’s no record of who took it. The credit line reads simply “Associated Press,” and the AP’s files identify the photographer only as a “stringer,” or freelancer. For another, though a few newspapers printed the young man’s name with the picture at the time, he too was soon rendered anonymous.


So who was that masked man?


Now it can be told, or retold: his name, resurrected from a Pace College publication dated 1970, is Peter Hallerman. He was then a sophomore at Pace, commuting to its Lower Manhattan campus from Queens. In all these years, he says, he has never been interviewed about the event in question.


As he recalls, he was one of about 30 Pace students who held what was surely one of the day’s puniest demonstrations. They crossed the street from their campus to a park near City Hall and chanted slogans and waved brooms, some of them daring to make a sweep or two. (Their permit forbade them to actually clean the park.)


At least the collegians had planned for maximum impact: they demonstrated at lunch hour, hoping the City Hall press corps would straggle out to gather a bit of Earth Day color. “We figured we’d at least get noticed,” Hallerman says. “Whether it would be reported on was something else.”


Sure enough, a handful of journalists appeared. In a dramatic flourish, Hallerman strapped on a gas mask that he believes his mother, Edith, had saved from her service with the Red Cross during World War II. (Though gas masks were a common Earth Day accessory, this long-snouted beast looked particularly awful.) The AP photographer posed Hallerman in front of a blossoming magnolia tree, then changed his mind. “Try leaning over and smelling those flowers,” Hallerman recalls the photographer saying. Hallerman bent his six-foot frame over a short fence surrounding the tree so that the mask’s proboscis touched the pink-white blossoms. The photographer snapped his shot, and Hallerman thought nothing more of it.


The following week, a Pace administrator presented him with an inch-thick stack of newspaper clippings that included the picture: clearly, it had struck a nerve around the country.


Peter Hallerman wasn’t your standard hippie activist. In 1967 he paraded down Fifth Avenue in support of the Vietnam War. In 1969 he followed the music to Woodstock but remained ignorant of the intricacies of igniting hashish. His status as Earth Day poster boy, however, seems just: “The desire to get out, to camp, to have contact with my environment beyond the city streets, was always very strong for me,” says Hallerman, a former Boy Scout and still an intrepid camper.


Hallerman’s 19th birthday was on May 4, less than two weeks after that inaugural Earth Day. That was the day Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on protesters at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine. Four days later, Hallerman attended his first antiwar demonstration, in New York’s financial district; he remembers standing on the steps of the Federal Hall National Memorial when hundreds of construction workers from the World Trade Center building site poured onto the scene, attacking the youthful protesters before storming City Hall in what came to be known as the Hard Hat Riot.


And then his witness-to-history days were over. “My wife, Ellen, jokes that I went through a mini-Forrest Gump phase,” he says.


Rather than return to Pace in the fall of 1970, Hallerman drifted out West, working in coal mines and on railroad crews—fulfilling a high-school guidance counselor’s judgment that he was “uniquely qualified for manual labor.” After six grueling years, he headed back East and into the white-collar world. Now he’s an account executive for Trans World Marketing Corporation of East Rutherford, New Jersey, which designs and makes retail displays, and he lives with his wife on a quiet, leafy lane in South Salem, New York, 50 miles north of the city.


A few years ago, Ellen and their two sons, Ethan and Matthew, now 24 and 21, gave him a mounted blowup of the famous picture for his birthday. But he hasn’t hung it. Even now, he says he’s surprised that it became a cultural touchstone. “I’m flattered to have been involved in something of such historic significance,” he says. “But if that was my 15 minutes of fame, it’s a little frustrating that I was wearing a gas mask and looked like an anteater.”


Timothy Dumas wrote the August 2009 Indelible Images, about a photograph taken at the Woodstock music festival in 1969.

'SafeSocial' monitors children on social networks

The ‘SafeSocial.co.uk’ subscription service uses an email address to track children online and alerts parents to any interactions on social networks that could cause concern. Although children must consent to being monitored, the service invisibly cross-checks them and their friends against up to 50 databases to see if there are any suspicious links, for instance with users who may be of significantly different ages.

Once a child has agreed to be monitored, SafeSocial provides parents with a dashboard of their online activity and also provides alerts to indicate any suspicious behaviour. This could include, for instance, conversations about sex, drugs or suicide.

Launched by American web company AOL, the service costs £6.99 per month to monitor up to four accounts, and claims to encourage parents and children to talk about potential risks posed by the internet.

The service also scans the web for photos tagged with the child’s name, but it cannot see beyond standard privacy settings. Equally, by using an email address SafeSocial cannot “see” any behaviour from an email address that a child sets up but does not tell his parents about. AOL said that in such an instance, however, the lack of activity in a child’s normal account would raise the alarm to a parent.

"The average social networking user has an average of 173 friends and until now the job of tracking online activity has been both difficult and time consuming. SafeSocial enables teens to have their freedom and enjoy time on their favourite social networks, without being visibly monitored or censored, at the same time providing parents with a quick overview of any irregular activity," said David Smith, Head of AOL UK Paid Services.


View the original article here

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg launches 'next generation of email'

Speaking at an event in San Francisco, ahead of this year’s Web 2.0 Summit, Zuckeberg showcased the ‘next generation messaging system’, which will allow users to have an @facebook.com email address.

He said: “Email is too slow… email is too formal. There is too much friction, like the filling in the subject line…. when people send an email.”

Zuckerberg stressed that the new system, which will combine Facebook’s instant messaging system, SMS, Facebook messages and email in one place, would allow people to reply seamlessly across multiple devices to different types of messages.

For instance, when somebody emails a Facebook friend using their Facebook email account, that person can reply in the same window using either the system’s instant messaging system, or by email, or by SMS. The aim is to combine all types of messaging in one place, allowing people to reply in real-time.

Zuckerberg emphasised that email would only be a part of the new messaging system. The three key aspects the new system would be seamless messaging allowing people to communicate in several formats, across multiple devices. Secondly the new messaging system will store all conversation history in once screen shot, regardless of whether it was email or IM.

And thirdly the new system works on the premise of the ‘social inbox’. Zuckerberg explained that the system would work better than other email spam detectors and will prioritise key contacts’ messages. “You will only be able to see messages that really matter to you,” he said.

The new messaging system is only live to those with an invite at this stage. Zuckerberg said that it will be rolled out slowly across the next several months.

He also revealed he had ambitions for the system to be able to sync with other email accounts in the future.

Zuckerberg said that his team had been working on the new system for over a year and that 350 million people regularly use Facebook current messaging system.


View the original article here

Weather forecasts should include Australian style updates on water shortages

At the moment the Environment Agency will put out alerts of floods or droughts, but people are not regularly updated on water availability.

Martin Spray, Chief Executive of the WWT, said people are unaware that many areas of Britain are in water stress. The crisis is greatest in the South East where at least 10 million people have less water available per head than those living in Egypt and Morocco.

He said regular reports on the weather would help people to understand the need to cut down on water use in their area when river levels are low. Ultimately, he said it would it would make water part of the “weather small talk”, therefore educating and encouraging people to conserve water when it gets critical.

“There is a perception that this is a wet country. But it is a wet country with a high population using a huge amount of water so it is important we inform people and find new and innovative ways to to do that,” he said.

The wildlife charity said unless water use is cut by 20 per cent in the next decade streams will begin to dry up or become polluted and important species like salmon, water voles and otters will be lost from many catchment areas.

The WWT has teamed up with 13 other charities, including the RSPB and WWF, to call for tougher measures on both consumers and water companies to save water.

The Blueprint for Water calls for water meters in every home in the South East by 2015 and across the whole country by 2020.

At the moment just 30 per cent of households in England and Wales have water meters, although the devices are common in most other European countries.

Water companies are likely to pass the cost of installing the meters onto customers and Government advisers have already warned that prices may have to go up to encourage more efficient use of water.

The Department for the Environment will publish a white paper in summer next year on the reform of the water industry to ensure a more efficient use of water and to protect poorer households.

Ten ways to save water in Britain

:: Waste less water – Reduce water consumption by at least 20 per cent through more efficient use in homes, buildings and businesses.

:: Keep our rivers flowing and wetlands wet – Reform abstraction licensing to reduce pressure on rivers, lakes and wetlands today and increase flexibility to adapt to future climate change.

:: Price water fairly – Make household water bills reflect the amount of water people use.

:: Make polluters pay – Make those who damage the water environment bear the costs through more effective law enforcement, tougher penalties and fairer charges.

:: Stop pollutants contaminating our water – Introduce targeted regulations to reduce harmful pollutants in water.

:: Keep sewage out of homes and rivers and off beaches – Reduce discharges of sewage into urban environments and ecologically sensitive areas.

:: Support water-friendly farming – Support and reward farmers who deliver healthy rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands, and provide a range of other benefits to society.

:: Slow, manage and clean drainage from roads and buildings – Create a modern urban drainage network that can mitigate surface water flooding and trap pollution.

:: Protect and restore catchments from source to sea – Protect, and restore rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands in partnership with local communities.

:: Retain water on floodplains and wetlands – Restore large areas of wetland and floodplain to create and link vital wildlife habitats, improve water quality, protect soil carbon and reduce urban flooding.


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Natural History Museum expedition could be "disaster" for indigenous people

The 100-strong expedition, one of the largest undertaken by the museum in the last 50 years, is due to set off in the next few days to explore one of the most unknown regions of the world for one month.

However the museum has been warned by campaigners that the trip could cause “genocide” for isolated tribes.

The group Iniciativa Amotocodie, that protects local indigenous people, said groups of Ayoreo Indians in the area have never come into contact with westerners before. If they come across the expedition without preparation they could catch common western viruses that could wipe out the small groups in a matter of weeks.

A statement from the group, that has been circulated online, read: “If this expedition goes ahead we will not be able to understand why you prefer to lose human lives just because the English scientists want to study plants and animals. There is too much risk: the people die in the forest frequently from catching white people’s diseases – they get infected by being close. Because the white people leave their rubbish, their clothes, or other contaminated things. It’s very serious. It’s like genocide.”

Jonathan Mazower, Director of Advocacy at Survival International, said there was also a risk to the scientists as tribes have been known to throw spears at groups they fear have come to cause them harm. Westerners going into the area have been killed before.

He said it was impossible to know where the tribal groups are therefore it is better to “err on the side of caution given that the consequences for either side could be pretty disastrous.”

“The danger is to the scientists and to the indigenous people. The scientists because the indigenous people may view them as hostile and attack them and the indigenous people because the scientists carry common western viruses that they have no immunity to,” he said.

The vast area of dry forest across parts of Bolivia, Argentina as well as Paraguay, known as the Gran Chaco, is the only place in South America outside the Amazon where there are uncontacted tribes. Until about 1950 it was thought there were around 5,000 people in the area but now there are thought to be less than 150 as people leave or die out.

Richard Lane, Director of Science at the NHM, confirmed that he had received a letter from a group representing indigenous groups.

But he insisted the expedition has taken every precaution to ensure they do not come into contact with isolated tribes. He said a member of the Ayoreo community will go ahead of the rest of the rest of the group to make sure that there is no opportunity of contact with isolated tribes, as well as helping the scientists through local knowledge.

“Clearly the needs of indigenous people to remain uncontacted needs to be respected and we as an institution have always respected that,” he said.


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Mexico Resort Explosion Kills 7 People in Playa del Carmen: Video

An Explosion at the Grand Riviera Princess Resort in Playa del Carmen Mexico Has Killed Seven People, Including One Minor

Authorities have confirmed that five Canadians and two Mexicans were killed in the blast; the Canadians were tourists and the Mexicans were employees of the hotel.

According to the Globe and Mail, the identities of the five Canadians are:

Paul Charmont Christopher, 51John Charmont, 9Malcolm Johnson, 33Elgin AronDarlene Ferguson, 52

Malcolm Johnson was in Mexico for his wedding; his spouse survived the explosion.

Pete Travers, who is the program director of 570 News in Kitchener, Ontario, was actually staying at the resort at the time, and recorded the video uploaded here. 

About 15 people were injured, including two Americans.

Lawrence Cannon, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued a statement on Sunday saying:

“Canadian officials in Ottawa and in Mexico continue to monitor the impact of the explosion and remain in close contact with Mexican authorities,” he said. “We are aware that a number of Canadians are staying at the Grand Riviera Princess and of reports of Canadian deaths and injuries. However, due to privacy considerations we can provide no further information at this time.”

The cause of the explosion is under investigation, but it is thought it was likely caused by a buildup of natural gas that somehow ignited.

Video from the scene on Mexico's east coast showed debris spilled into a grassy area in front of an area covered by thatched roofs where the restaurant presumably sits.

The explosion occurred around 9am local time and was centered in the lobby of the hotel.


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Antimatter discovery: how physicists explore science fiction frontier

Under a theory expounded in 1928 by the eccentric British physicist Paul Dirac, when energy transforms into matter, it produces a particle and its mirror image - called an anti-particle - which holds the opposite electrical charge.

When particles and anti-particles collide, they annihilate each other in a small flash of energy.

If everything were equal at the birth of the cosmos, matter and anti-matter would have existed in the same quantities.

The observable Universe would have had no chance of coming into being, as these opposing particles would have wiped each other out.

In reality, though, matter came to be far more dominant, and antimatter is rare.

But understanding why there is this huge imbalance presents a daunting technical challenge.

Until now, experiments have produced anti-atoms, namely of hydrogen, but only in a free state. That means they instantly collide with ordinary matter and get annihilated, making it impossible to measure them or study their structure.

But to science fiction fans an antimatter reactor powers the starship Enterprise in the TV series Star Trek, and in Angels & Demons a secret society hides an antimatter bomb beneath St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Theoretically, a single pound of antimatter would contain more destructive power than the largest H-bomb.

According to Nasa scientists antimatter is not antigravity.

"Although it has not been experimentally confirmed, existing theory predicts that antimatter behaves the same to gravity as does normal matter," the space agency says.

But to produce any meaningful power it would cost a huge amount of money.

"Right now it would cost about $100 billion dollars to create one milligram of antimatter," a Nasa spokesman said.

"One milligram is way beyond what is needed for research purposes, but that amount would be needed for large scale applications.

"To be commercially viable, this price would have to drop by about a factor of Ten-Thousand."


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Humans do have psychic powers, study claims

The author Lucy Pinney asks


The author Lucy Pinney asks "psychic" Daz Smith to help her visualise the final moments of her late husband's life Photo: Jay Williams


The report - by a part-time magician turned psychologist - suggests that people may have latent psychic powers which allow them to sense future events.


Professor Daryl Bem, of Cornell University in New York State, carried out nine different experiments involving more than 1,000 volunteers, and all but one appeared to point to psychic powers.


In one experiment, students were given a list of words to memorise which they were later asked to recall, before being given a selection of the words to type out.


The volunteers were able to recall some words more easily than others – which tended to be those that they would later be asked to type.


In another experiment, the students were shown an image of two curtains on a computer screen and told to pick the one that concealed an erotic picture. They chose the correct curtain more often than could be explained by coincidence, Prof Bem claims.


The position of the picture was randomly determined by a computer after the students made their decision, which Prof Bem views as evidence that the students were influencing future events.


Joachim Krueger, a US psychologist, said the claim that humans may have psychic powers is “ridiculous” but admitted that, having examined Prof Bem’s methodology, “frankly, everything seemed to be in good order”.


The New Scientist, which published the study, said that the results will gain credence if other scientists can repeat them.


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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Learn maths to boost the economy, scientist advises

Britons should improve their understanding of mathematics in order to boost the economy and stimulate growth, a scientist has claimed.


Britons should improve their understanding of mathematics in order to boost the economy and stimulate growth, a scientist has claimed. Photo: Getty Images


A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) has found that a country's general competence in the subject is a major component in its economic success.


The level of mathematical knowledge among the general population was found to have a direct relation to Gross Domestic Product.


Prof Brian Butterworth, an Emeritus professor from the Centre of Educational Neuroscience at UCL, said that if the least able section of the population brushed up on their maths they would contribute significantly to the British economy.


He said: "It's not just raising the overall level that helps.


"If you just get the lowest 10 or 11 per cent – the percentage of our population that fails to reach the OECD minimum standard at 15 – to the minimum level this will increase GDP growth by 0.44 per cent per annum.


"It might not sound like much but actually over the years this creates an enormous improvement in GDP for the country."


He told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The UK is not very good at maths. We are about average looking at all OECD countries. So, we are significantly worse than Canada and Australia and much worse than China and Japan although we are a bit better than Germany and significantly better than the United States.


"We know from a recent OECD report that maths ability in the population is correlated with GDP growth. So the better at maths the country is the better their GDP growth."


Prof Butterworth said that maths is particularly important in terms of GDP but that science also had an impact.


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Lukic Claims "Media Lynching"

Bosnian Serb convicted of Visegrad killings asks for opportunity to address media ahead of appeals hearing. By Rachel Irwin - International Justice - ICTY TRI Issue 669, 12 Nov 10

At a Hague tribunal status conference this week, convicted war criminal Milan Lukic told judges that he was “no killer” and said the media was spreading false information about him.

Lukic, a former Bosnian Serb reserve policeman, was convicted in July 2009 of personally killing at least 132 Bosniak civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad during the summer of 1992, more than 100 of whom were trapped in barricaded houses and burned alive. Milan Lukic was sentenced to life in prison, while his cousin Sredoje Lukic, who was tried alongside him for some of the same crimes, was given 30 years.

The Lukic cousins, both of whom were present at the status conference, have appealed against their convictions and are now awaiting the appeals hearing, which Presiding Judge Mehmet Guney said will probably not take place until February 2011.

Judge Guney also asked after Milan Lukic’s health and about conditions in the United Nations detention unit.

“Before I tell you what the problem is, I’d like to inform you that [I am] doing everything to stay dignified and proud until the end,” Milan Lukic responded. “I am no killer…you are the only hope and the last chance … to have the truth established.”

He then referred to the recent discovery of hundreds of human bones in Perucac lake, a reservoir on the Drina river which runs through Visegrad. He said that “nothing is known about these bones” but he is still being implicated in media reports about them.

Trial judges found that Milan Lukic summarily executed 12 Bosniak men on the banks of the Drina in June 1992. In addition, during his trial several witnesses testified that Bosniak civilians were routinely taken to the river, shot and then thrown into the water, leaving it clogged with bodies.

Milan Lukic said that the media reports also refer to him as a leader of a group called the White Eagles, even though trial judges found there was not enough evidence to connect Lukic or his crimes to the paramilitary group.

“Even the trial chamber had to conclude that I was no commander or leader of any paramilitary formation,” he said.

He asked that judges allow him to address the media about these issues, which would “contribute to truth and justice, and give me the strength to fight and prove my innocence”.

“Mr Milan Lukic, would you be kind enough to talk to us [about] your detention conditions and physical and mental state of health? And could you please try to be brief?” asked Judge Guney after the defendant had finished speaking.

“Your honour, the media is lynching me, so I can’t feel well,” Milan Lukic responded. “They keep circulating lies about me….I am asking you to allow me to defend myself, your honour. My request is modest and minor and I hope you will have understanding for this request. Thank you for allowing me to address [the court.] Once we have an appeals hearing I will have a lot to say publicly.”

“I take note of your concerns you’ve just informed us about,” Judge Guney said. “Thank you for your cooperation. Mr Sredoje Lukic, would you like to raise any issues about your detention or your state of health?”

“Everything is fine and there are no problems whatsoever,” Sredoje Lukic replied.

Judge Guney noted that Milan Lukic’s defence team had previously filed three confidential motions in which they asked to present additional evidence for the appeal. The chamber will issue a decision on these requests prior to the appeals hearing, Judge Guney said.

Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.


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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Sting operations are morally, ethically and professionally wrong

Bara Banki: "Sting operations are morally, ethically and professionally wrong, they are pure drama and stunt, aimed at creating sensationalism. This is not responsible journalism." These were the views of veteran journalist and chief patron of Media Nest, while speaking in a seminar "Sting operation: trial by fire", organized by Media Nest at Jahangirabad Media Institute  at Bara Banki on 13 November 2010. Read more

Media Nest, a registered pan India forum of media professionals had organized the seminar as part of its day long celebrations on its third anniversary.

Asserting that if the means are wrong the results cannot be right Mr. Nayar urged media persons to practice responsible journalism and to follow the code of ethical reporting norms. He said the work of a journalist is to report the truth and only the truth and he should not act as a CID or policeman.
“Media is the Fourth Estate of a democracy and must be strongly rooted in truth, if they do not speak the truth who will,” said Mr. Nayar  

Editor of Urdu weekly Jadeed Markaz, Hissamul Siddiqui in his address earlier termed sting as a “blatant invasion of one’s privacy.”

“Sting is a dangerous trend. Mainly done due to personal and professional rivalry, mostly staged managed, sting is driven by vested and commercial interests and the sting targets are on ‘soft targets,” said Siddiqui blaming media for cheating its viewers into believing which is not the truth.
Agreeing with him in the tenor was senior BBC correspondent Ramdutt Tripathi

“The first pre-requisite of journalism is that the reporter should be ‘detached’ from the subject, but this is not possible in a sting because the reporter is a party to the whole thing. Therefore sting violates the reporter’s code of ethics,” said Mr. Tripathi.    

But speakers like ETV senior correspondent Khurram Nizami, and senior journalist and President of Media Nest, Sharat Pradhan defended sting saying it is essential and vital in today’s world where corruption is rampant.

Going into the genesis of sting, Khurram who has done many sting operations said that requires time, effort and through planning. He said before a sting operation the essential thing is to have all the evidence and documents in one’s hand.

“Sting is a double edged sword, it should be used carefully. It must be ensured that it is being done to benefit society and is not aimed at raising the TRP of the channel,” said Nizami.

“We need sting operations to expose the untruth,” asserted Sharat Pradhan adding that if the aim is pious the means used can be justified.”

Ajay Upreti, The Week’s senior correspondent spoke about sting and how it evolved.

Though the speakers differed in their views on the subject they all said that any sting or report in public interest and in the national security is justified.

The secretary general of Media Nest, Kulsum Talha in her welcome address talked about how Media Nest came along and how it has been working. She highlighted the major events of these three years.
MN will on the day also announce its three flagship programme -Medical group insurance for Media persons and families, special health camps plans for media persons and lastly computer literacy workshops for retired and journalists of remote districts.

“It has been the privilege of Media Nest, to work with UNICEF as partners on vital children’s issue for the past several years. In a historic move, still unparallel by any other press body, the UP Press Club has been generous to open its premises two afternoons, every month, for engaging with children’ issues (Media for Children). From May 2010, on the special request of the other Press Clubs Media Nest has been holding a session on children every month at different Press Clubs in the district,” informed Ms Talha.

In the second half of the celebrations Media for Children was held. “Babu behni manch children who had come from Maharajganj, Gorakhpur spoke about their work in highlighting Children’s rights.
“They do this through mimes, corner plays, sketches, comic,” said Ramachandra of J N K Plan, which had trained children on media advocacy.  

Media Nest has through Media for Children attempted to ensure that the children of Uttar Pradesh, especially those from the under-privileged section of society get a voice, their demands are heard and their pain shared. M4C is   ‘media movement for children’.

The programme was conducted by journalist Durgesh Narain Shukla.

Kulsum Mustafa
(The author is a senior journalist and also serves as Secretary General of Media Nest)


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ATM - Night at the Museum - Nov10

Hope Diamond


Several months ago, the Hope Diamond was taken from the National Museum of Natural History for an overnight stay in the mineralogy lab.

Detlef Rost with Hope DiamondBy Joseph CaputoSmithsonian magazine, November 2010

Smithsonian scientists extract atoms from the surface of the Hope Diamond



At first, Evalyn Walsh McLean, an heiress living in Washington, D.C., didn’t want to buy the Hope Diamond. She was unhappy with the setting surrounding the precious blue stone that had once belonged to King Louis XIV and asked jeweler Pierre Cartier to create a new one: a circle of 16 clear diamonds, shaped like squares and pears.


That was in 1910, and for much of the past century the Hope Diamond remained in its Cartier setting. But several months ago, it was taken from the National Museum of Natural History’s gem hall for an overnight stay in the mineralogy lab. There, geologists conducted an experiment to learn precisely why the Hope Diamond is so blue. Every gem has its own unique molecular formula, which is determined by how its atoms bond together in the extreme heat of the planet’s crust. But the formula for deep ocean blue is rare, occurring in only one out of every several hundred thousand diamonds. At 45.52 carats, the Hope, discovered in 17th-century India, is the largest-known deep blue diamond. “Its creation, as far as we know, is a completely unique event in the history of the earth,” says geologist Jeffrey Post, a curator at Natural History.


But before the experiment could begin, some delicate surgery had to be performed to remove the blue diamond from its setting. At 9:16 p.m in a room almost as long as a bus, where fluorescent lights and white walls canceled out even the sparkle of topaz on the shelves, jeweler Stephen Clarke donned a pair of glasses equipped with magnifying lenses and reached for his tools. He steadied the walnut-size gem in his left hand—his fingerprints smearing its 60 facets—while his right hand wielded a pair of tweezers. “It’s like a little puzzle,” Clark said, as he unhooked the small wire rivets holding the diamond in place.


A security officer peeked into the room. “Look at that,” he said. “It’s even more beautiful out of the setting than in.”


At 12:35 a.m., two researchers wearing blue gloves cleaned the stone of the jeweler’s prints. Carefully, they loaded it into a custom-made mount and placed it into the chamber of a device that would fire an ion beam, boring a ten-angstrom-deep hole (just over four-billionths of an inch) into the gem.


“Looks more like a science experiment than a fancy gemstone right now, doesn’t it?” Post said to a film crew from the Smithsonian Channel, which will air a documentary on the Hope Diamond on November 21.


It would be another hour before the experiment could begin, since all the air first had to be pumped out of the chamber to create a vacuum. The scientists rested their eyes. “This is our one shot,” Post said. “We’ll take measurements until they tell us the diamond has to be put back on display.”


While the precise recipe for the Hope is a mystery, geologists know that the primary ingredient endowing the diamond with its color is the element boron. The night’s research may someday be applied to making synthetic blue diamonds—not only for jewelry, but for electronics. Boron allows current to pass through the stones more efficiently than your average semiconductor. “It’s not clear yet how we’re going to be able to make these things,” Post said, “but the experiment gives us a way of seeing how nature did it.”


At 2:35 a.m., with the click of a computer mouse, the ion beam fired. Millions of Hope Diamond atoms sputtered into the vacuum. They were sucked into a tube, past a detector that analyzed the elements.


The initial results came in. Colored spikes appeared on a computer screen, announcing the presence of boron, carbon, hydrogen and possibly some nitrogen. Based on the findings so far, the concentration of boron varies within the diamond, ranging from zero to eight parts per million. The Hope is actually a mosaic of blues.


It will be months before the scientists publish the full results of their experiment. In the meantime, the Hope is back in its display case and—unknown to most museum visitors—a few million atoms lighter.


At first, Evalyn Walsh McLean, an heiress living in Washington, D.C., didn’t want to buy the Hope Diamond. She was unhappy with the setting surrounding the precious blue stone that had once belonged to King Louis XIV and asked jeweler Pierre Cartier to create a new one: a circle of 16 clear diamonds, shaped like squares and pears.


That was in 1910, and for much of the past century the Hope Diamond remained in its Cartier setting. But several months ago, it was taken from the National Museum of Natural History’s gem hall for an overnight stay in the mineralogy lab. There, geologists conducted an experiment to learn precisely why the Hope Diamond is so blue. Every gem has its own unique molecular formula, which is determined by how its atoms bond together in the extreme heat of the planet’s crust. But the formula for deep ocean blue is rare, occurring in only one out of every several hundred thousand diamonds. At 45.52 carats, the Hope, discovered in 17th-century India, is the largest-known deep blue diamond. “Its creation, as far as we know, is a completely unique event in the history of the earth,” says geologist Jeffrey Post, a curator at Natural History.


But before the experiment could begin, some delicate surgery had to be performed to remove the blue diamond from its setting. At 9:16 p.m in a room almost as long as a bus, where fluorescent lights and white walls canceled out even the sparkle of topaz on the shelves, jeweler Stephen Clarke donned a pair of glasses equipped with magnifying lenses and reached for his tools. He steadied the walnut-size gem in his left hand—his fingerprints smearing its 60 facets—while his right hand wielded a pair of tweezers. “It’s like a little puzzle,” Clark said, as he unhooked the small wire rivets holding the diamond in place.


A security officer peeked into the room. “Look at that,” he said. “It’s even more beautiful out of the setting than in.”


At 12:35 a.m., two researchers wearing blue gloves cleaned the stone of the jeweler’s prints. Carefully, they loaded it into a custom-made mount and placed it into the chamber of a device that would fire an ion beam, boring a ten-angstrom-deep hole (just over four-billionths of an inch) into the gem.


“Looks more like a science experiment than a fancy gemstone right now, doesn’t it?” Post said to a film crew from the Smithsonian Channel, which will air a documentary on the Hope Diamond on November 21.


It would be another hour before the experiment could begin, since all the air first had to be pumped out of the chamber to create a vacuum. The scientists rested their eyes. “This is our one shot,” Post said. “We’ll take measurements until they tell us the diamond has to be put back on display.”


While the precise recipe for the Hope is a mystery, geologists know that the primary ingredient endowing the diamond with its color is the element boron. The night’s research may someday be applied to making synthetic blue diamonds—not only for jewelry, but for electronics. Boron allows current to pass through the stones more efficiently than your average semiconductor. “It’s not clear yet how we’re going to be able to make these things,” Post said, “but the experiment gives us a way of seeing how nature did it.”


At 2:35 a.m., with the click of a computer mouse, the ion beam fired. Millions of Hope Diamond atoms sputtered into the vacuum. They were sucked into a tube, past a detector that analyzed the elements.


The initial results came in. Colored spikes appeared on a computer screen, announcing the presence of boron, carbon, hydrogen and possibly some nitrogen. Based on the findings so far, the concentration of boron varies within the diamond, ranging from zero to eight parts per million. The Hope is actually a mosaic of blues.


It will be months before the scientists publish the full results of their experiment. In the meantime, the Hope is back in its display case and—unknown to most museum visitors—a few million atoms lighter.



View the original article here