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TORONTO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Canada's Rebecca Marino, a rising star in women's tennis, stepped away from the sport in search of a normal life on Wednesday, weary of battling depression and cyber-bullies. Ranked number 38 in the world two years ago, the 22-year-old admitted she had long suffered from depression and was no longer willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reach the top. "After thinking long and hard, I do not have the passion or enjoyment to drive myself to the level I would like to be at in professional tennis," Marino explained in a conference call. ...
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Google expands into high end of laptop market with Chrome machine that responds to touch
SAN FRANCISCO - Google is adding a new and more expensive touch to its line of Chrome laptops in an attempt to outshine personal computers running on software made by rivals Microsoft and Apple.
The Chromebook Pixel unveiled Thursday includes a nearly 13-inch (33-centimetre) display screen that responds to the touch or swipe of a finger. That duplicates a key feature in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 8, a dramatic makeover of the world's leading operating system for PCs.
The Pixel's high-resolution screen displays 239 pixels per inch, slightly more than Apple Inc.'s MacBooks with high-resolution Retina displays. A MacBook Pro with a screen that measures 13.1 inches (33.3 centimetres) diagonally can handle 227 pixels per inch (2.5 centimetres), while the 15.4-inch (39.1-centimetre) model is at 220 pixels per inch.
"This is the future: high-resolution screens and touch," said Sundar Pichai, a senior vice-president who oversees Google's Chrome Web browser and operating system.
Google Inc. designed and built the Pixel for "power users" ? a fastidious and generally more affluent segment of the PC market willing to pay more for machines equipped with compelling features and components not found in cheaper laptops.
The strategy is a departure for Google, which had positioned Chromebooks based on its Chrome operating system as affordable options for homes and offices looking for a quick and easy way to connect to the Web. Google has been partnering with PC makers to make Chromebooks over the past two years. Among them: Acer Inc. makes a bare-bones Chromebook for just $199, while Samsung Electronics Co. sells one for $249.
The Pixel, which Google is building without a partner, will cost $1,299 for a Wi-Fi only model with 32 gigabytes of flash storage. A 64-gigabyte machine that can connect on both Wi-Fi and a 4G LTE cellular network will cost $1,499. That's the same price as the cheapest MacBook Pro with a comparable screen, though the Apple laptop comes with 128 gigabytes of storage.
Apple does have a cheaper, lighter laptop, the MacBook Air. A 13-inch (33-centimetre) model with 128 gigabytes of storage starts at $1,199. It weighs less than 3 pounds (1.35 kilograms) and doesn't have a high-resolution screen. The Pixel has the high-resolution screen and weighs 3.35 pounds (1.52 kilograms). The 13-inch high-resolution MacBook Pro weighs 3.57 pounds.
Google believes Pixel is a better value than the Air, given its higher-resolution screen with touch controls. Google is also throwing in 1 terabytes of free online storage in its data centres for three years ? a benefit that Pichai estimated would cost $500 to $600.
The Pixel "will stand up very, very well to the MacBook Air," Pichai said. "The goal here is to push the boundaries to deliver the best laptop at the best possible price."
Though its popular iPad has a touch screen, Apple has shunned touch-screen laptops. Apple figures that because people use laptops with the screen in front of them, rather than in their hands or laps, it's not a pleasant experience to constantly have to reach out to touch the screen.
Microsoft, on the other hand, considers touch screens to be central to all computing environments. Windows 8 was designed to make desktop and laptop computers work more like tablet computers. Computers with touch-screen monitors can respond to touch along with old-style mouse and keyboard commands.
Google's online Play store will begin selling the Pixel in the U.S. and U.K Thursday, with BestBuy.com expected to take orders on Friday. A hands-on experience with the Pixels also will be available beginning Friday in 10 of Best Buy's retail stores in California, Minnesota, Washington state, Virginia and New York.
Pichai declined to say how many of the lower-priced Chromebooks have been sold, but said the models have ranked as the most popular laptop sold by Amazon.com Inc. for the past four months.
The free online storage is being included with the Pixel to overcome the laptop's lack of a hard drive. Like other Chromebooks, the Pixel functions like a terminal dependent on an Internet connection to get to information and applications stored in large data centres run by Google or other technology providers.
Spurred by the growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers, Google is betting more people will prefer having data, photos and video stored in remote data centres instead of individual hard drives so the content can be accessed from any Internet-connected device.
Google's expansion into the high-end of the laptop market immerses the Internet search and advertising company more deeply into the business designing and making gadgets.
The company is already a major player in the mobile device market through its Android software. To help promote Android, Google also has designed a line of smartphones and tablets under the Nexus brand. The company also owns smartphone maker Motorola Mobility, which it bought for $12.4 billion last year.
Google's deepening involvement in hardware has ignited speculation that the company might eventually open its own chain of stores to sell its products, just as Apple and Microsoft already do. Pichai didn't address that in a response to a question on that topic at Thursday's event.
Apple and Microsoft already have been hurt by the increased competition from Google. Most smartphones and tablets running on Google's free Android software cost less than Apple's iPhone and iPad, helping to siphon sales away from those devices. Sales of PCs running on Windows also have been sagging during the past year, partly because consumers are relying more on Android devices.
Google says it expects to make a small profit on each Pixel sold, but the company figures to make more money from the online traffic delivered from the machines. Like other Chromebooks, the Pixel is set up to automatically use all of Google's services, including its search engine, Gmail and YouTube video site.
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Iconic Brand Soars to 25% Growth with Multi-Unit Deals, Domestic and International Expansion
Dallas, TX? (RestaurantNews.com)? On the heels of another phenomenal year of growth in 2012, Bennigan?s Franchising Company is continuing to reinvent itself in the U.S. and on a global scale.? Today, the iconic brand announced the signing of five new franchise agreements and plans to develop 20 new restaurants.? These newest franchise partners will bring the chain?s Legendary Irish hospitality to cities throughout Texas, Tennessee and Florida, joining a franchise team that is also currently expanding the brand internationally in the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus and Mexico.? This explosive?growth, along with three domestic openings at the end of 2012 and a recent debut in Dubai, is another example of how Bennigan?s has rekindled a ?bleeding green? passion in loyal guests and partners around the world.
?We are honored to team up with so many committed franchisees who believe in our mission and want to grow with us as we continue to revolutionize casual dining,? said Paul Mangiamele , Bennigan?s President & CEO. ?This intense passion and nostalgia for our brand is what has fueled our return to relevance and shown our guests and franchise partners that the beloved Irish brand they remember is back and better than ever.?
New Bennigan?s Area Developer Aslam Khan, CEO of Falcon Holdings, is a well-respected businessman in the QSR space with over 200 Church?s Fried Chicken locations. The Bennigan?s corporate team is looking forward to partnering with such a talented and experienced restaurateur to develop five restaurants and expand the brand into Florida and Texas markets. Khan?s first restaurant is expected to open in late 2013 on the site of a former high-volume Bennigan?s location in Orlando, Fla.
?Having been a franchisee for several decades, I seek franchisors with a razor-like focus on providing the resources and infrastructure that not only supports their franchisees but also provides a business model capable of producing compelling returns on capital,? said Aslam Khan , CEO of Falcon Holdings. ?For me, it?s about finding true restaurant operators servicing operators. Falcon Holdings has found this unique formula with the Bennigan?s Franchise model.?
David and Melissa Hunt are also new multi-unit franchise partners joining the Green Dream Team, signing an agreement to develop five Bennigan?s restaurants in Tennessee. The first location is expected to open in Fayetteville this summer. The Hunts are long-time residents of Jackson, Tenn., and have owned Hunt Services since 1999. Through that company, they own and operate several foodservice and hotel businesses.
David Hollinger of Hollinger Restaurant Group has signed an agreement to develop three Bennigan?s restaurants in the Florida Panhandle. Hollinger has also enjoyed business success in the automotive industry and real estate development, but he started in the restaurant industry and has always had a passion for the service sector.
Mesa Restaurant Holdings, LLC, led by Marisol Gonzales and her husband Dr. Allamm Morales, has signed on to bring Bennigan?s to Melbourne, Fla. Finally, Paradigm Restaurant Hospitality, LLC, led by Nimit Patel , will open Bennigan?s in the Pampa, Texas, area in late 2013.
?Our newest franchise partners are joining the Bennigan?s renaissance at a very exciting time, and we are thrilled to grow our presence in these three states in the years to come,? said Mangiamele. ?Over the past few months, we have launched new prototype and design options, new menus, a new bar experience and new marketing initiatives that have set our restaurant teams on a path for success and customer loyalty in their communities. Our food, our Irish hospitality and our passion for what we do is delivering results and fueling our continued growth.?
Internationally, the brand recently celebrated a grand opening in the United Arab Emirates.? Franchise partners Dynamic Hospitality opened their first Dubai location in January and plan to open two more Bennigan?s in the United Arab Emirates this year. One will be in the Dubai Mall, the world?s largest shopping mall, and is expected to open in the first quarter of 2013.? The second will be in the Sahara Centre in Sharjah. In Mexico, Bennigan?s will be opening two new restaurants in Veracruz with the Consorcio Restaurantero Group.? Finally, the AXM Overseas Holdings Group will be adding their fifth Bennigan?s in Cyprus later this year.
Now approaching 100 units, Bennigan?s experienced extensive domestic and international expansion in 2012, ending the year with three openings in December alone. These included Clarksburg, Md., where the opening of Bennigan?s brought the first official casual dining restaurant to that town. Bennigan?s restaurants also opened in Jonesboro, Ark., and Fort Worth, Texas.
These new and existing franchisees are benefitting from the chain?s Legendary comeback, which began in May 2011 and has separated Bennigan?s from a sea of sameness. Through careful attention to menu optimization and a streamlined new prototype, the brand has honored its heritage while launching new initiatives that both rekindle emotional connections and affect a dramatic impact on restaurant sales and profits.
Bennigan?s Franchising Company plans to continue its growth momentum and has agreements to develop over 30 new restaurants in the next few years in New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, Minnesota, Florida, Tennessee and Michigan. International openings are slated for Dubai, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Cyprus and U.S. Army Base Camp Humphreys in the Republic of Korea.
For Bennigan?s franchise information, please visit http://bennigans.com/franchise-overview/.
About Bennigan?s
Bennigan?s is a high-energy neighborhood restaurant and tavern that is redefining casual dining. With chef-driven food, innovative drinks and warm, friendly Irish Hospitality, this Legendary brand delivers memorable dining experiences to every guest, every meal, every day. Every member of the team ?bleeds green? and demonstrates a 25/8 focus to support its franchise community. The company?s revolutionary comeback has introduced a new generation of Bennigan?s that reflects the brand?s history and pays respect to its rich heritage. A focus on reinvention, flexible prototypes, innovative food, Legendary service and other sales-generating initiatives has resulted in explosive growth both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit www.bennigans.com.
Contact:
Amanda DelPrete
Fish Consulting
954-893-9150
adelprete@fish-consulting.com
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On a cloudless afternoon in the foothills of the Andes, Eliana Mart?nez took off for the Amazon jungle in a single-engine Cessna 172K from an airstrip near Colombia?s capital, Bogot?. Squeezed with her in the tiny four-seat compartment were Roberto Franco, a Colombian expert on Amazon Indians; Crist?bal von Rothkirch, a Colombian photographer; and a veteran pilot. Mart?nez and Franco carried a large topographical map of R?o Pur? National Park, 2.47 million acres of dense jungle intersected by muddy rivers and creeks and inhabited by jaguars and wild peccaries?and, they believed, several isolated groups of Indians. ?We didn?t have a lot of expectation that we?d find anything,? Mart?nez, 44, told me, as thunder rumbled from the jungle. A deluge began to pound the tin roof of the headquarters of Amacayacu National Park, beside the Amazon River, where she now serves as administrator. ?It was like searching for the needle in the haystack.?
Read the full story, "Lost Tribes of the Amazon," at Smithsonian.com
Mart?nez and Franco had embarked that day on a rescue mission. For decades, adventurers and hunters had provided tantalizing reports that an ?uncontacted tribe? was hidden in the rainforest between the Caquet? and Putumayo rivers in the heart of Colombia?s Amazon. Colombia had set up R?o Pur? National Park in 2002 partly as a means of safeguarding these Indians, but because their exact whereabouts were unknown, the protection that the government could offer was strictly theoretical. Gold miners, loggers, settlers, narcotics traffickers and Marxist guerrillas had been invading the territory with impunity, putting anyone dwelling in the jungle at risk. Now, after two years? preparation, Mart?nez and Franco were venturing into the skies to con- firm the tribe?s existence?and pinpoint its exact location. ?You can?t protect their territory if you don?t know where they are,? said Mart?nez, an intense woman with fine lines around her eyes and long black hair pulled into a ponytail.
Descending from the Andes, the team reached the park?s western perimeter after four hours and flew low over primary rainforest. They ticked off a series of GPS points marking likely Indian habitation zones. Most of them were located at the headwaters for tributaries of the Caquet? and the Putumayo, flowing to the north and south, respectively, of the park. ?It was just green, green, green. You didn?t see any clearing,? she recalled. They had covered 13 points without success, when, near a creek called the R?o Bernardo, Franco shouted a single word: ?Maloca!?
Mart?nez leaned over Franco.
"Donde? Donde???Where? Where? she yelled excitedly.
Image courtesy of Dominic Bracco II/Prime for Smithsonian Magazine.Directly below, Franco pointed out a traditional longhouse, constructed of palm leaves and open at one end, standing in a clearing deep in the jungle. Surrounding the house were plots of plantains and peach palms, a thin-trunked tree that produces a nutritious fruit. The vast wilderness seemed to press in on this island of human habitation, emphasizing its solitude. The pilot dipped the Cessna to just several hundred feet above the maloca in the hope of spotting its occupants. But nobody was visible. ?We made two circles around, and then took off so as not to disturb them,? says Mart?nez. ?We came back to earth very content.?
Back in Bogot?, the team employed advanced digital technology to enhance photos of the maloca. It was then that they got incontrovertible evidence of what they had been looking for. Standing near the maloca, looking up at the plane, was an Indian woman wearing a breechcloth, her face and upper body smeared with paint.
Franco and Mart?nez believe that the maloca they spotted, along with four more they discovered the next day, belong to two indigenous groups, the Yuri and the Pass??perhaps the last isolated tribes in the Colombian Amazon. Often described, misleadingly, as ?uncontacted Indians,? these groups, in fact, retreated from major rivers and ventured deeper into the jungle at the height of the South American rubber boom a century ago. They were on the run from massacres, enslavement and infections against which their bodies had no defenses. For the past century, they have lived with an awareness?and fear?of the outside world, anthropologists say, and have made the choice to avoid contact. Vestiges of the Stone Age in the 21st century, these people serve as a living reminder of the resilience?and fragility?of ancient cultures in the face of a developmental onslaught.
***
For decades, the governments of Amazon nations showed little interest in protecting these groups; they often viewed them as unwanted remnants of backwardness. In the 1960s and ?70s Brazil tried, unsuccessfully, to assimilate, pacify and relocate Indians who stood in the way of commercial exploitation of the Amazon. Finally, in 1987, it set up the Department of Isolated Indians inside FUNAI (Funda??o Nacional do ?ndio), Brazil?s Indian agency. The department?s visionary director, Sydney Possuelo, secured the creation of a Maine-size tract of Amazonian rainforest called the Javari Valley Indigenous Land, which would be sealed off to outsiders in perpetuity. In 2002, Possuelo led a three-month expedition by dugout canoe and on foot to verify the presence in the reserve of the Flecheiros, or Arrow People, known to repel intruders with a shower of curare-tipped arrows. The U.S. journalist Scott Wallace chronicled the expedition in his 2011 book, The Unconquered, which drew international attention to Possuelo?s efforts. Today, the Javari reserve, says FUNAI?s regional coordinator Fabricio Amorim, is home to ?the greatest concentration of isolated groups in the Amazon and the world.?
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Other Amazon nations, too, have taken measures to protect their indigenous peoples. Peru?s Man? National Park contains some of the greatest biodiversity of any nature reserve in the world; permanent human habitation is restricted to several tribes. Colombia has turned almost 82 million acres of Amazon jungle, nearly half its Amazon region, into 14.8 million acres of national parks, where all development is prohibited, and resguardos, 66.7 million acres of private reserves owned by indigenous peoples. In 2011 Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed legislation that guaranteed ?the rights of uncontacted indigenous peoples...to remain in that condition and live freely according to their cultures on their ancestral lands.?
The reality, however, has fallen short of the promises. Conservation groups have criticized Peru for winking at ?ecotourism? companies that take visitors to gape at isolated Indians. Last year, timber companies working illegally inside Man? National Park drove a group of isolated Mashco-Piro Indians from their forest sanctuary.
Colombia, beset by cocaine traffickers and the hemisphere?s longest Marxist-Leninist insurgency, hasn?t always succeeded in policing its rainforests effectively either. Several groups of Indians have been forcibly assimilated and dispersed in recent years.
Today, however, Colombia continues to move into the vanguard of protecting indigenous peoples and their land. In December, the government announced a bold new plan to double the size of remote Chiribiquete Park, currently 3.2 million acres in southern Colombia; the biodiversity sanctuary is home to two isolated tribes.
Franco believes that governments must increase efforts to preserve indigenous cultures. ?The Indians represent a special culture, and resistance to the world,? argues the historian, who has spent three decades researching isolated tribes in Colombia. Mart?nez says that the Indians have a unique view of the cosmos, stressing ?the unity of human beings with nature, the interconnectedness of all things.? It is a philosophy that makes them natural environmentalists, since damage to the forest or to members of one tribe, the Indians believe, can reverberate across society and history with lasting consequences. ?They are protecting the jungle by chasing off gold miners and whoever else goes in there,? Franco says. He adds: ?We must respect their decision not to be our friends?even to hate us.?
***
Especially since the alternatives to isolation are often so bleak. This became clear to me one June morning, when I traveled up the Amazon River from the Colombian border town of Leticia. I climbed into a motorboat at the ramshackle harbor of this lively port city, founded by Peru in 1867 and ceded to Colombia following a border war in 1922. Joining me were Franco, Daniel Matapi?an activist from Colombia?s Matapi and Yukuna tribes?and Mark Plotkin, director of the Amazon Conservation Team, the Virginia-based nonprofit that sponsored Franco?s overflight. We chugged down a muddy channel and emerged into the mile-wide river. The sun beat down ferociously as we passed thick jungle hugging both banks. Pink dolphins followed in our wake, leaping from the water in perfect arcs.
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After two hours, we docked at a pier at the Maloca Bar?, a traditional longhouse belonging to the 30,000-strong Ticuna tribe, whose acculturation into the modern world has been fraught with difficulties. A dozen tourists sat on benches, while three elderly Indian women in traditional costume put on a desultory dance. ?You have to sell yourself, make an exhibition of yourself. It?s not good,? Matapi muttered. Ticuna vendors beckoned us to tables covered with necklaces and other trinkets. In the 1960s, Colombia began luring the Ticuna from the jungle with schools and health clinics thrown up along the Amazon. But the population proved too large to sustain its subsistence agriculture-based economy, and ?it was inevitable that they turned to tourism,? Franco said.
Not all Ticunas have embraced this way of life. In the nearby riverside settlement of Nazareth, the Ticuna voted in 2011 to ban tourism. Leaders cited the garbage left behind, the indignity of having cameras shoved in their faces, the prying questions of outsiders into the most secret aspects of Indian culture and heritage, and the uneven distribution of profits. ?What we earn here is very little,? one Ticuna leader in Nazareth told the Agence France-Presse. ?Tourists come here, they buy a few things, a few artisanal goods, and they go. It is the travel agencies that make the good money.? Foreigners can visit Nazareth on an invitation-only basis; guards armed with sticks chase away everyone else.
***
Image courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine.In contrast to the Ticuna, the Yuri and Pass? tribes have been running from civilization since the first Europeans set foot in South America half a millennium ago. Franco theorizes that they originated near the Amazon River during pre-Columbian times. Spanish explorers in pursuit of El Dorado, such as Francisco de Orellana, recorded their encounters?sometimes hostile?with Yuri and Pass? who dwelled in longhouses along the river. Later, most migrated 150 miles north to the Putumayo?the only fully navigable waterway in Colombia?s Amazon region?to escape Spanish and Portuguese slave traders.
Then, around 1900, came the rubber boom. Based in the port of Iquitos, a Peruvian company, Casa Arana, controlled much of what is now the Colombian Amazon region. Company representatives operating along the Putumayo press-ganged tens of thousands of Indians to gather rubber, or caucho, and flogged, starved and murdered those who resisted. Before the trade died out completely in the 1930s, the Uitoto tribe?s population fell from 40,000 to 10,000; the Andoke Indians dropped from 10,000 to 300. Other groups simply ceased to exist. ?That was the time when most of the now-isolated groups opted for isolation,? says Franco. ?The Yuri [and the Pass?] moved a great distance to get away from the caucheros.? In 1905, Theodor Koch-Gr?nberg, a German ethnologist, traveled between the Caquet? and Putumayo rivers; he noted ominously the abandoned houses of Pass? and Yuri along the Pur?, a tributary of the Putumayo, evidence of a flight deeper into the rainforest to escape the depredations.
The Pass? and Yuri peoples vanished, and many experts believed they had been driven into extinction. Then, in January 1969, a jaguar hunter and fur trader, Julian Gil, and his guide, Alberto Mira?a, disappeared near the R?o Bernardo, a tributary of the Caquet?. Two months later, the Colombian Navy organized a search party. Fifteen troops and 15 civilians traveled by canoes down the Caquet?, then hiked into the rainforest to the area where Gil and Mira?a had last been seen.
Saul Polania was 17 when he participated in the search. As we ate river fish and drank a?a? berry juice at an outdoor caf? in Leticia, the grizzled former soldier recalled stumbling upon ?a huge longhouse? in a clearing. ?I had never seen anything like it before. It was like a dream,? he told me. Soon, 100 Indian women and children emerged from the forest. ?They were covered in body paint, like zebras,? Polania says.
The group spoke a language unknown to the search party?s Indian guides. Several Indian women wore buttons from Gil?s jacket on their necklaces; the hunter?s ax was found buried beneath a bed of leaves. ?Once the Indians saw that, they began to cry, because they knew that they would be accused of killing him,? Polania told me. (No one knows the fate of Gil and Mira?a. They may have been murdered by the Indians, although their bodies were never recovered.)
Afraid that the search party would be ambushed on its way back, the commander seized an Indian man and woman and four children as hostages and brought them back to the settlement of La Pedrera. The New York Times reported the discovery of a lost tribe in Colombia, and Robert Carneiro of the American Museum of Natural History in New York stated that based on a cursory study of the language spoken by the five hostages, the Indians could well be ?survivors of the Yuri, a tribe thought to have become extinct for more than half a century.? The Indians were eventually escorted back home, and the tribe vanished into the mists of the forest?until Roberto Franco drew upon the memories of Polania in the months before his flyover in the jungle.
***
A couple of days after my boat journey, I?m hiking through the rainforest outside Leticia. I?m bound for a maloca belonging to the Uitoto tribe, one of many groups of Indians forced to abandon their territories in the Colombian Amazon during the rubber atrocities early in the past century. Unlike the Yuri and the Pass?, however, who fled deeper into the forest, the Uitotos relocated to the Amazon River. Here, despite enormous pressure to give up their traditional ways or sell themselves as tourist attractions, a handful have managed, against the odds, to keep their ancient culture alive. They offer a glimpse of what life must look like deeper in the jungle, the domain of the isolated Yuri.
Read about the race to save the world's dying languages at Smithsonian.com
Half an hour from the main road, we reach a clearing. In front of us stands a handsome longhouse built of woven palm leaves. Four slender pillars in the center of the interior and a network of crossbeams support the A-frame roof. The house is empty, except for a middle-aged woman, peeling the fruits of the peach palm, and an elderly man wearing a soiled white shirt, ancient khaki pants and tattered Converse sneakers without shoelaces.
Jitoma Safiama, 70, is a shaman and chief of a small subtribe of Uitotos, descendants of those who were chased by the rubber barons from their original lands around 1925. Today, he and his wife eke out a living cultivating small plots of manioc, coca leaf and peach palms; Safiama also performs traditional healing ceremonies on locals who visit from Leticia. In the evenings, the family gathers inside the longhouse, with other Uitotos who live nearby, to chew coca and tell stories about the past. The aim is to conjure up a glorious time before the caucheros came, when 40,000 members of the tribe lived deep in the Colombian rainforest and the Uitotos believed that they dwelled at the center of the world. ?After the big flooding of the world, the Indians who saved themselves built a maloca just like this one,? says Safiama. ?The maloca symbolizes the warmth of the mother. Here we teach, we learn and we transmit our traditions.? Safiama claims that one isolated group of Uitotos remains in the forest near the former rubber outpost of El Encanto, on the Caraparan? River, a tributary of the Putumayo. ?If an outsider sees them,? the shaman insists, ?he will die.?
A torrential rain begins to fall, drumming on the roof and soaking the fields. Our guide from Leticia has equipped us with knee-high rubber boots, and Plotkin, Matapi and I embark on a hike deeper into the forest. We tread along the soggy path, balancing on splintered logs, sometimes slipping and plunging to our thighs in the muck. Plotkin and Matapi point out natural pharmaceuticals such as the golobi, a white fungus used to treat ear infections; er-re-ku-ku, a treelike herb that is the source of a snake-bite treatment; and a purple flower whose roots?soaked in water and drunk as a tea?induce powerful hallucinations. Aguaje palms sway above a second maloca tucked in a clearing about 45 minutes from the first one. Matapi says that the tree bark of the aguaje contains a female hormone to help certain males ?go over to the other side.? The longhouse is deserted except for two napping children and a pair of scrawny dogs. We head back to the main road, trying to beat the advancing night, as vampire bats circle above our heads.
***
In the months before his reconnaissance mission over R?o Pur? National Park, Roberto Franco consulted diaries, indigenous oral histories, maps drawn by European adventurers from the 16th through 19th centuries, remote sensors, satellite photos, eyewitness accounts of threatening encounters with Indians, even a guerrilla from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia who had seen the Indians while on a jungle patrol. The overflights, says Franco, engendered mixed emotions. ?I felt happy and I also felt sad, maybe because of the lonely existence these Indians had,? he told me on our last morning in Leticia. ?The feelings were complicated.?
Franco?s next step is to use the photographs and GPS coordinates gathered on his flights to lobby the Colombian government to strengthen protection around the national park. He envisions round-the-clock surveillance by both semi-assimilated Indians who live on the park perimeter and rangers within the park boundaries, and an early warning system to keep out intruders. ?We are just at the beginning of the process,? he says.
Franco cites the tragic recent history of the Nukak tribe, 1,200 isolated Indians who inhabited the forests northwest of R?o Pur? National Park. In 1981, a U.S. evangelical group, New Tribes Mission, penetrated their territory without permission and, with gifts of machetes and axes, lured some Nukak families to their jungle camp. This contact drove other Nukak to seek similar gifts from settlers at the edge of their territory. The Indians? emergence from decades of isolation set in motion a downward spiral leading to the deaths of hundreds of Nukak from respiratory infections, violent clashes with land grabbers and narco-traffickers, and dispersal of the survivors. ?Hundreds were forcibly displaced to [the town of] San Jos? del Guaviare, where they are living?and dying?in terrible conditions,? says Rodrigo Botero Garc?a, technical coordinator of the Andean Amazon Project, a program established by Colombia?s national parks department to protect indigenous peoples. ?They get fed, receive government money, but they?re living in squalor.? (The government has said it wants to repatriate the Nukak to a reserve created for them to the east of San Jos? del Guaviare. And in December, Colombia?s National Heritage Council approved an urgent plan, with input from the Nukak, to safeguard their culture and language.) The Yuri and Pass? live in far more remote areas of the rainforest, but ?they are vulnerable,? Franco says.
Some anthropologists, conservationists and Indian leaders argue that there is a middle way between the Stone Age isolation of the Yuri and the abject assimilation of the Ticuna. The members of Daniel Matapi?s Yukuna tribe continue to live in malocas in the rainforest?30 hours by motorboat from Leticia?while integrating somewhat with the modern world. The Yukuna, who number fewer than 2,000, have access to health care facilities, trade with nearby settlers, and send their kids to missionary and government schools in the vicinity. Yukuna elders, says Matapi, who left the forest at age 7 but returns home often, ?want the children to have more chances to study, to have a better life.? Yet the Yukuna still pass down oral traditions, hunt, fish and live closely attuned to their rainforest environment. For far too many Amazon Indians, however, assimilation has brought only poverty, alcoholism, unemployment or utter dependence on tourism.
It is a fate, Franco suspects, that the Yuri and Pass? are desperate to avoid. On the second day of his aerial reconnaissance, Franco and his team took off from La Pedrera, near the eastern edge of R?o Pur? National Park. Thick drifting clouds made it impossible to get a prolonged view of the rainforest floor. Though the team spotted four malocas within an area of about five square miles, the dwellings never stayed visible long enough to photograph them. ?We would see a maloca, and then the clouds would close in quickly,? Eliana Mart?nez says. The cloud cover, and a storm that sprang up out of nowhere and buffeted the tiny plane, left the team with one conclusion: The tribe had called upon its shamans to send the intruders a message. ?We thought, ?They are making us pay for this,?? Franco says.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/the-lost-tribes-of-the-amazon-202206728.html
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LONG BEACH - For millions of students around the country like Cal State Long Beach student Dan Deguzman, the appeal of online classes is growing.
"It's great because I can stay at home and I don't have to commute to school every day and spend money on gas," said Deguzman, a mechanical engineering major who is considering taking an online class next fall. "I think a lot of students would like to have that option."
U.S. colleges and universities in recent years have been beefing up their online offerings in an effort to improve graduation rates, alleviate overcrowded classrooms and reach a generation of tech-savvy students.
In the fall 2011 semester, more than
6.7 million students nationally took an online course, for an increase of 570,000 students from the previous year, according to a study by the Babson Survey Research Group.
Today, 32 percent of college students are enrolled in at least one course online.
State officials are taking note. In Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed California budget released last month, he slated $10 million each for the Cal State University and University of California systems to expand their online offerings.
The 23-campus CSU system is moving in that direction with the launch of Cal State Online, which offers two bachelor's degrees and four master's degrees that can be earned online via three campuses: Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State Monterey Bay.
The effort kicked off last month with a bachelor of arts in business administration pilot program at Fullerton. The full Cal State Online program will launch this fall.
The Fullerton program started small with about 25 students per course, said program director Jenny Zhang, adding that the program will grow in the fall. Zhang said Fullerton received about 140 applications this year and more than 500 for fall 2013.
"So far I think our students are very happy with the program," she said. "Almost all of our students are working full time, and it's hard for them to come to campus, so this is a good solution."
But as the demand grows, online learning also faces challenges, including costs for program development and concerns over quality and academic rigor.
"The vast majority of our faculty is not opposed to online education, but we want to make sure it's the quality education that you'd find in a regular classroom," said Teri Yamada, a professor of Asian Studies at Cal State Long Beach and member of the Cal State Online Taskforce, a group of faculty and other CSU officials who oversee the development of online programs. "The ideal online class would be small, under 35 students. Because to teach a quality online course, you have to establish a relationship with the student."
At $500 per unit, the cost of Fullerton's online classes is steeper than the regular $372 per unit for out-of-state students, but Zhang said funds generated from the program will be reinvested into improving the online experience.
University officials hope to eventually expand Cal State Online to offer degrees for tens of thousands of students across the world.
Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander said online courses can alleviate some of the overcrowding on campuses while at the same time enrolling more working students, international students and those serving in the armed forces overseas.
His campus last year was the most in-demand in the CSU system with more than 80,000 undergraduate applicants for fall 2013. The university plans to admit less than 20 percent of those students.
"We're about 10 years behind where we should be in online education," Alexander said. "But now we have an opportunity to increase our enrollment and give the university a much broader reach around the world."
San Jose State is already working toward a global approach with its launch last month of a series of massive open online courses, or MOOCs. The pilot project, called San Jose State University Plus, is offering entry level mathematics, elementary statistics and college algebra at $150 per course, a fraction of the cost of other online programs.
The program, which is starting out with 100 students enrolled in each of the three courses, will be analyzed for dropout rates and overall student performance.
If the project works, it could pave the way for the CSU to eventually offer low-cost credit courses to hundreds of thousands of students worldwide.
Cathy Sandeen, vice president for education attainment and innovation at the American Council for Education, said the rising popularity of MOOCs is shining a spotlight on the demand for new technology in education.
"In general, online education is growing, and I think it's becoming more sophisticated in terms of technology and in terms of the student experience," she said.
However, the jury is still out on whether MOOCs are a sustainable method in online learning. Sandeen said her Washington, D.C.-based group, which represents 1,800 degree-granting institutions, is conducting studies on the effectiveness of online courses. The Council for Education just this month recommended degree credit for five courses, including two - pre-calculus and algebra - at the University of California, Irvine. Many institutions use the association's recommendations to determine whether to grant credit for courses.
"When all is said and done, when we compare in-class and online learning, what we're seeing is that outcomes for student learning are the same," Sandeen said.
While some students enjoy online courses, others say they prefer the traditional classroom setting.
Ahn Tran, a 23-year-old art major at Cal State Long Beach, said her online course this semester is too demanding.
"It's a lot of work because you have to check the info every day and really keep up with it," she said. "Maybe it's great for students who are superorganized, but it's not for me."
For more information on CSU online classes, go to www.calstateonline.com.
kelly.puente@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1305, twitter.com/kellypuentept
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>>> back now at 7:49. tom costello is in richburg, south carolina this morning, getting ready for hail season. tom, good morning.
>> reporter: good morning, david. we are 60 feet off in the catwalk. below me is a house, test house that they are going to pound with hail. 10,000 pieces of hail, some of it two inches in diameter, coming from air canons, 72 of them. in a minute, tanya brown will give the order. tanya, go ahead.
>> all right, ian, three, two, one. fire!
>> reporter: this is the biggest test ever of what hail can do to a house. we've seen them blast homes with hurricane force winds. we've seen them re-create wildfires with flying embers. now at this massive test chamber in south carolina , it's hail. two-inch balls of ice, loaded and fired from high-powered air canons. within seconds, they're gouging the siding and punching holes in the roof, to replicate actual hail, that can contain bubbles of oxygen, they use regular water and seltzer water . the rest is a determination of size, mass, terminal velocity , speed and air drag . insurance industry says hail causes $1 billion worth of property and crop damage each year. colorado and wyoming are known as hail alley because they receive the biggest hail. but in texas, hail is the number one cause of homeowners' insurance losses.
>> sidings shouldn't be scraped bare when it hails. it's unacceptable we are spending so much time, money and energy to replace and repair building materials that should be able to withstand an inch or inch and a half hailstone.
>> reporter: which is why the insurance institute is firing volley after volley of hail at this test house. after the hail, the wind and rain start. slow at first. then building to a major storm. when it stops, the how has been pelted, punched, ripped and soaked.
>> damage we produced was very representative of what you would see in the field. if you actually go on the roof and look at the impact marks, they're very similar to what you find in a field study .
>> reporter: how much of this could be prevented in the future with newer, more robust building materials ? hail can vary in size from pea size to golf ball to softball. the question insurance adjusters often ask is whether the damage to a home is cosmetic or serious enough to let in the rain and wind.
>> we want to make sure we understand the difference between real damage and something that just looks bad.
>> reporter: because in the end all of us pay for hail damage with higher and higher premiums. but they hope to learn from this is what building materials hold up best. david?
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50869415/
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Feb. 19, 2013 ? Models of the human brain, patterned on engineering control theory, may some day help researchers control such neurological diseases as epilepsy, Parkinson's and migraines, according to a Penn State researcher who is using mathematical models of neuron networks from which more complex brain models emerge.
"The dual concepts of observability and controlability have been considered one of the most important developments in mathematics of the 20th century," said Steven J. Schiff, the Brush Chair Professor of Engineering and director of the Penn State Center for Neural Engineering. "Observability and controlability theorems essentially state that if you can observe and reconstruct a system's variables, you may be able to optimally control it. Incredibly, these theoretical concepts have been largely absent in the observation and control of complex biological systems."
Those engineering concepts were originally designed for simple linear phenomena, but were later revised to apply to non-linear systems. Such things as robotic navigation, automated aircraft landings, climate models and the human brain all require non-linear models and methods.
"If you want to observe anything that is at all complicated -- having more than one part -- in nature, you typically only observe one of the parts or a small subset of the many parts," said Schiff, who is also professor of neurosurgery, engineering science and mechanics, and physics, and a faculty member of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. "The best way of doing that is make a model. Not a replica, but a mathematical representation that uses strategies to reconstruct from measurements of one part to the many that we cannot observe."
This type of model-based observability makes it possible today to create weather predictions of unprecedented accuracy and to automatically land an airliner without pilot intervention.
"Brains are much harder than the weather," said Schiff. "In comparison, the weather is a breeze."
There are seven equations that govern weather, but the number of equations for the brain is uncountable, according to Schiff. One of the problems with modeling the brain is that neural networks in the brain are not connected from neighbor to neighbor. Too many pathways exist.
"We make and we have been making models of the brain's networks for 60 years," Schiff said at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. "We do that for small pieces of the brain. How retina takes in an image and how the brain decodes that image, or how we generate simple movements are examples of how we try now to embody the equations of motion of those limited pieces. But we never used the control engineer's trick of fusing those models with our measurements from the brain. This is the key -- a good model will synchronize with the system it is coupled to."
Schiff is looking for the models that represent the parts of the brain he is studying. He looks at the model to see if it can simulate what he observed and if he can fuse the model with the real system. He and his colleagues, with support from the National Institutes of Health, are exploring a wide range of control strategies for epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and migraines.
To do this with brain networks, researchers often have to measure from only one or a few nodes of the system and seek to reconstruct the rest.
"We need to simplify, and then ask, how far into that network can we reconstruct?" asks Schiff. "How far can we control?"
Using group theory, Schiff is trying to answer these questions. Group theory tests whether the inputs onto these nodes can be swapped. If a regular swap of the nodes ends up with the same network, then this is a symmetry of the network. Such symmetries underlie powerful ways to simplify models that represent the underlying structure within brain networks. The brain is full of such symmetries as neurons hook themselves up in rings and star patterns.
"But 10 billion neurons produce a number of possible networks that no one wants to think about," said Schiff. "Luckily, in the brain, internet or power grid we can begin to take symmetries into account. We don't need to go and specify all the particulars about how things are connected, but take advantage of the underlying symmetries in those networks and produce representative networks."
In essence, complicated networks can be boiled down to the simpler networks that represent what the complicated ones do. Brain symmetry permits synchrony to arise, and this is critical since synchronies are so important to both the normal and abnormal function of brain networks.
Recording from just one electrode from the brain is very limiting. Researchers and clinicians now use arrays of 100 or more electrodes to study epilepsy, but technology will soon provide the capability of deploying a 1,000 or more electrodes that, when fused with models, will enable us to reconstruct activity more deeply into the nervous system. "The pathologies of epilepsy or Parkinson's disease, we think are very 'simple,' compared with many more complex activities we perform in our brains, " said Schiff. "If they have more synchrony than normal they might produce really good reconstructions when fused with models."
These simplified models are important not just for these specific diseases, but because a fidelity model of the brain, one that models everything in detail, would be impossible to create. In addition, such large-scale models would be very inaccurate if used in such a control-engineering framework. If Parkinson's disease, epilepsy or migraines can be modeled more simply and still be accurate, then other brain pathologies or functions might also be modeled and controlled with simplified models.
The mechanism underneath migraine headaches is a very slow wave that propagates through the brain cortex. Schiff is using these engineering principles to model this wave. He and his colleagues are using these principles to do real time control of this wave phenomenon in brain.
"It is a very exciting time as we see the results of fusing these engineering and mathematical principles with observing and treating the brain," said Schiff who is the author of Neural Control Engineering: The Emerging Intersection between Control Theory and Neuroscience (MIT Press, 2012).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State.
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/qP_8tiNmoZI/130219161257.htm
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If you or someone connected to your network ? a family member or an employee, for instance ? visited one particular malware-ridden website in the last few months, you may be in a lot of trouble.
Facebook and Apple have both suffered at the hands of hackers, thanks to a zero-day vulnerability in Java that led to hackers infiltrating both of the companies' internal networks in recent weeks. While there was "no evidence" to suggest that company or user data had been stolen, the companies said in separate statements, it sent a shiver down the spine of many who had invested their trust in the companies to keep their data safe.
The root cause is reportedly one iPhone development website that became infected with malware, which was then able to dump its malicious payload on vulnerable machines. If those infected machines were then connected to a corporate network, that network would likely have been infected.
Other technology news sites have reported that the mobile development site "iPhoneDevSDK" is the source of both Apple and Facebook's internal network breaches, according to AllThingsD and The New York Times, which both confirmed the source of the malware.
It's absolutely vital that you do not visit this site in any way, shape, or form, as it may still contain active malware that could lead to infection.
According to AllThingsD, which spoke to Facebook sources under the condition of anonymity, a number of the company's employees visited the site more than a month ago. The site, laden with malware that was injected into the website's code, used an exploit in the Java web plugin to gain access to the employee laptops.
This "watering hole" technique attacks a centralized website with many visitors, and secretly attacks and infects vulnerable machines using an unpatched exploit. This is different from a targeted attack, such as emailing a malware-laden attachment to a certain user.
While Apple's laptops were clearly MacBook machines running the latest (if not pre-release) version of OS X, it most certainly would not be limited to these devices. PCs and devices running Windows would also be at risk if they were running a vulnerable version of Java.
Facebook confirmed that the internal network breach was a result of a zero-day exploit in the Java plugin, as did Apple in a statement on Tuesday. Law-enforcement agencies were informed in both cases.
Java developer Oracle patched the vulnerability in a February 1 security update.
Twitter suffered a similar hack earlier this month, but the microblogging company did not identify exactly what the root cause for the breach was. It was believed at the time that it was connected to Chinese hackers, which may have been associated with the country's government or military. It's now looking more likely that a Twitter employee visited the "root" infected website that led to the company's network being hacked.
Exactly who is behind this threat is unknown. Many are looking at the Chinese, who have been known to carry out cyberattacks on networks and infrastructure before. In 2010, Google pulled out of China altogether, after its networks were compromised by the Chinese government.
However, sources speaking to Bloomberg are pointing the finger in an entirely different direction. The publication reported that "at least 40 companies", including Apple, Facebook, and Twitter, were targeted by Eastern European hackers who were "trying to steal company secrets".
So, now what?
Here's the troubling thing: You may not have accessed the allegedly infected website, but have your employees? Do you run onsite iPhone application or service development? And can you be absolutely sure that your company, network, or individual computer has not been compromised in some way?
Of course not. Here's what you can do. (This list is far from exhaustive, but it's a start.)
The chances are that you are running Java on your machine, or, at the very least, someone on your network is.
You can either disable Java or remove it completely, thus lowering the attack vector considerably. Java has been known to contain flaw after flaw, even after numerous updates, and is commonly used by hackers to gain access to computers, devices, and networks.
Oracle released yet another update to its Java plugin on Tuesday. Apple has also released a Java patch ? this can be downloaded here, if it hasn't already appeared in your software updates window ? that should patch any vulnerabilities currently being exploited in the wild.
Run updates on your system through the Java Control Panel item on Windows, or check System Preferences on OS X.
While it may not be the easiest thing to do, you may need to trawl through your DNS logs and other browsing records to determine whether anyone on your network ? be it a single family member, or a thousand employees ? has visited this "root" infected website in the past two months.
If at any point that website appears ? again, do not visit this website: "iPhoneDevSDK" ? then there is a significant chance that certain machines, if not others on that network, may have been infected with malware.
Even if nothing has shown up, run a full, network-wide malware sweep using an up-to-date network malware or antivirus solution. If you can set server-side IT policies to force users connecting to your network to run an antivirus scan before connecting (such as Network Access Protection on Windows machines, for instance), this may help mitigate the spread of such malware across your network.
Vulnerable machines are those running unpatched versions of Java, particularly those not running the latest version ? Java 7 (Update 15) and Java 6 (Update 41) ? and the malware can infect both Mac and Windows machines.
Many companies rely on Java ? even if many websites do not use the plugin anymore ? thus, removing it may not be an option. Patching the software to the latest version is the best you're going to get, at least for now, but adding an extra layer between the Java plugin and the host machine can mitigate any network-wide malware attacks.
Java is the zero-day king, and more and more flaws will likely be found with the software. By using a virtual machine that's not connected to the host or the host's network (but still connected to the internet), Java-based web applications and Java-enabled websites can be run in an isolated and sandboxed environment, away from company files and other machines.
Updating the software may not have prevented the attack on Facebook, Apple, and others, but keeping it sandboxed may have lessened the risk of any data being stolen.
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/facebook-apple-hacks-could-affect-anyone-heres-what-you-can-do-7000011520/
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Flowing lines of fine singletrack in beautiful lakeside bush: Rowan Lamont finds a lot to love about this new SE Queensland venue.
Opened in 2011, Mt Joyce Recreation Park sits beside Lake Wyaralong, 85km south west of Brisbane. It was developed by SEQwater when the dam was built, with mountain biking identified as being a perfect activity for the terrain.
Forty kilometres of trail including 25km of pure singletrack were constructed by Pete Wilson and Bill Van?Haren. Downhill legend Nathan Rennie worked with them to add some spice to the DH trails. They were built to International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) standards, meaning conservation and sustainability were given priority, and time was also spent with local elders to ensure consideration was given towards indigenous sites of significance.
Hard work at the beginning to do things correctly has resulted in what could arguably be some of the finest singletrack riding in Queensland and means that the trails are here to stay for the long term!?Easily accessible by car, the park is situated between the small towns of Boonah and Beaudesert. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to drive from Brisbane or 45 minutes from the Gold Coast. The park has hosted a number of local and national mountain bike races and is fast establishing itself as a popular destination for mountain bikers of all abilities.
The best thing about the trails at Mt Joyce is that there is something for everyone.
The network of trails cater for all off-road riders from first-timer to skilled and fit enthusiasts. The park regularly sees whole families coming in to enjoying a day?s riding. Trails have been colour coded in a similar manner to ski runs, green being the easiest, blue moderate, black difficult and black diamond for the serious thrill seekers. Trails are well marked for navigation. Beware that some are one-way, so be careful you don?t find yourself heading into oncoming riders.
The Eastern Trail Head car park is at the water?s edge about 2km from the trails. Riders enter the park near the dam wall and pass a purpose built 4X track with skills park before they reach the trails.
Here the Shoreline Trail shared path can be picked up: it can either be ridden as an all-day out-and-back, or you might persuade a friend to pick you up at the other end. While the Shoreline Trail may sound flat, be warned there are some stiff little climbs which wear you down, especially after 30km each way. A lovely feature is a campsite along the way, the Base Camp, which allows for walk-in or ride-in visitors to camp overnight.
Within the MTB park?s network of trails, the grassy area in Secret Valley makes a natural meeting point as many trails converge into it. A helpful trail board allows riders to choose their own adventure to match their ability and ambition and allows for flexibility when deciding how much riding you wish to do.
Cartography by Wayne Murphy
Distance: 40km of trail including 25km of pure singletrack
Surface: Natural materials, sustainably-built; trails do need time to rest after significant rain fall
Difficulty: IMBA-style grades ranging from green, through blue and black to black diamond
Scenery: Dry eucalypt bush, dam views
Accommodation: Eastern Trailhead camping area and Mt Joyce Base Camp campsite
Web: www.mtjoyceescape.com.au
A dirt road heads up the Mt Joyce spur line which can be ridden although most opt to follow the single track Worm Juice. This navigates its way to almost the top of the mountain and is a steady tough climb that steepens towards the end. For some it can be too much and there are short cuts which are great trails in themselves at one third and two thirds of the way up. Conquering the mountain does reward with fabulous views to the north: on a clear day the skyscrapers of Brisbane can just be picked out on the horizon. Often wedge tailed eagles can be spotted circling in thermals keeping an eye out for a feed scurrying through the tall grasses.
Photo by Rowan Lamont
Along the way it is not unusual to spot goannas, kangaroos, echidnas and every now or then a snake or two, so keep your eyes peeled! The trails mostly pass through dry eucalypt forest, which provides a little bit of shade, with the trails beneath being dry and dusty. When it rains the trees send out a vital aroma and the colours completely change from dry greys to oranges, purples and greens. Fortunately the trails handle the weather well, but they do need time to rest after some of the significant rain falls and storms which maraud through south-east Queensland.
Worm Juice leads into perhaps the most loved trails at Mt Joyce: Big Bertha, which then becomes Bovine Groove. These trails were designed for flow and momentum with large sweeping bermed corners and undulating traverses that allow riders to pump the terrain without needing to pedal. Being ?blue? trails there are occasional trail features such as drops or logs but they really are fun tracks to stay off the brakes and zoom along making the hard work getting the initial height all the more worth-while.
The top of Worm Juice intersects with the gravel road and marks the start of the black diamond trails specifically designed for downhill riding. Widowmaker is the toughest with spectacularly steep descents, large rock drops and huge jumps between gaps, some sections are cordoned off for events only. These are thrilling trails reserved for those with the skills, bikes and body armour to match.
Heading back towards Secret Valley are a number of delightfully sinuous blue and green trails that wriggle and twist along the natural cleft in the hills. The trail designers have been ingenious finding natural features to use as bermed walls, little jumps or natural swoops. The Secret Valley trail is a loop up and down each side of the valley where the vegetation is denser and therefore can be a little bit cooler. It is an ideal trail for beginners as it is not too long and without steep hills great for building confidence. More experienced riders find it equally rewarding as they can practice maintaining momentum and linking undulations into little gap jumps and humps that can be pumped for extra speed.
The best thing about the trails at Mt Joyce is that there is something for everyone. Even if you are the best rider in the world you will still love the easiest trails in the park as they are built by mountain bikers for mountain bikers and are so much fun to scoot along.
Photo by Rowan Lamont
Riding at Mount Joyce is reasonably remote and it can get very hot, so prepare well. Water is only available at the car park so take plenty with you. Sunscreen, a phone with good reception and a first aid kit are must-pack items. Aim to be as self-sufficient as possible, with a selection of tools and spares for likely mechanical issues. Cafes can be found in Boonah and Beaudesert, but bike shops have yet to arrive, so don?t go looking there for new brake pads or the like.
The trails are occasionally closed after severe storms or during fire season so check the Mt Joyce Escape website if you think this could put a stop to your fun. It also has trail maps that can be downloaded and printed to take with you. Mt Joyce and Wyaralong Dam are also enjoyed by water sports enthusiasts, hikers, campers and horse riders. While the mountain bike trails are specifically for mountain bikers, beware that at times you may be on a shared-use trail with other people.
Ride On?content is editorially independent, but is supported financially by members of Bicycle Network Victoria. If you enjoy our articles and want to support the future publication of high-quality content, please consider helping out by?becoming a member.
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Source: http://rideons.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/mount-joyce-mountain-bike-park/
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Thanks to Machel Spence for the photo from Lincoln Park! Here?s a look at what?s up for the rest of today/tonight
ROXHILL CASTLE HELP: As noted here on Monday, every day this week, the Roxhill Castle turret project ? final part of the playground construction ? can use help, 10 am-2 pm daily all week. Details here.
DISCOVERY SHOP: From the cancer-fighting nonprofit shop at 4535 California SW in The Junction:
Our popular Antiques, Vintage and Collectibles event starts today with many one of a kind items on display and available. The all volunteer run, non profit American Cancer Society shop is open Sundays 11 am to 3 pm and all other days 10 am to 4:30 pm.
WEST SEATTLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ANNUAL MEETING: Noon today at The Kenney (WSB sponsor), the Chamber?s annual lunch meeting has a big agenda including introducing the new Board of Directors, revisiting 2012 successes, and looking ahead to 2013. If you haven?t already made a reservation, call the office to see if there?s room.
TOUR K-5 STEM AT BOREN: Final scheduled tour for the new elementary at 5950 Delridge Way SW, 1 pm.
PRUDENTIAL REAL-ESTATE CAREER NIGHT: Wondering if real estate might be the right career for you? Prudential Northwest Realty (WSB sponsor) is presenting a ?Career Night? event at 6 pm tonight at their offices in Jefferson Square, 4700 42nd SW, Suite 600. Details here.
OPEN FORUM ABOUT AGING & FAMILY DYNAMICS: Big topic for so many families, the change in dynamics as they care for aging family members. Come talk about it during an open forum, 6 pm at Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights (WSB sponsor; 2326 California SW).
SAFETY IN THE SNOW: Avalanche awareness is the topic of a free event at Mountain to Sound Outfitters tonight in The Triangle, 6:30 pm, 3602 SW Alaska. Details ? and signup link ? in our Monday preview.
DELRIDGE GREENWAY DESIGN: 6:30 tonight at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, come to a city-led meeting to find out about the design for the Delridge Greenway, an off-arterial route that would be safer for walking and biking. Find project details here.
WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL: Tonight?s guest speakers will deal with park safety and victim assistance, as previewed here. 7 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster), all welcome.
(added) SUSTAINABLE WEST SEATTLE: The announcement for tonight?s 7 pm meeting:
Bring your Green Project Incubator grant ideas to tonight?s Sustainable West Seattle meeting at the Senior Center in Alaska Junction (4217 SW Oregon St. around the corner from California Ave. SW.
At our February Sustainable West Seattle meeting, groups or individuals with a proposal will be asked to present their idea and to interact with the audience describing their idea and the impact that project will have on the community. We will hand out comment cards to everyone for each project and as each presenter gives their idea, we will ask everyone to add a comment or suggestion to their card. At the end of all presentations we will ask the presenters to staff a table where they can further explain their project. The comment cards will be given to the presenters at their tables so that the reaction and additional suggestions can be integrated into their proposal.
We will also have a listing of all the proposals on a white board and will hand out stickers and request that everyone place stickers next to the various projects listed based on their priority. We will use a weighted system so everyone will get about 10 stickers and can distribute them as they wish, e.g. all 10 could be used to support a single project or the stickers could be distributed among several projects.
Nightlife and lots more on the calendar!
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Washington County has ascended to the top spot in the Class 2A rankings this season thanks to a stifling defense. On Tuesday night, Houston Academy found that out the hard way.
The Bulldogs limited the Raiders to 31 percent shooting for the game, beating Houston Academy 57-52 at the South Regional Tournament. With the win, the Bulldogs advanced to face Elba for the 2A Regional Title on Friday.
Washington County jumped on the Raiders early, leading 23-10 midway through the second quarter. But, HA would find some rhythm late in the period, cutting the Bulldogs lead to 31-26 at halftime.
The game remained tight throughout. Houston Academy cut the Bulldogs lead to two points with less than four minutes to play at 50-48.
The Raiders would mount one final charge, pulling within three points in the final 30 seconds and stealing the ball. However, Richard Howell missed two 3-point attempts and Alex Thompson also misfired from downtown, and the Bulldogs were able to escape with the five-point win.
Jaylin Cooper led three Bulldogs in double figures with 13 points. Washington County also enjoyed a decided advantage on the glass, outrebounding Houston Academy 46-33.
Alex Thompson led the Raiders with 25 points and 14 rebounds, but he hit just 7-of-19 shots and only 10-of-17 free throws. Howell struggled even more, hitting just 1-of-16 shots in the losing effort.
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Public release date: 19-Feb-2013
Share ] Contact: Joan Robinson
joan.robinson@springer.com
49-622-148-78130
Springer
Yaohua Wang (30) is the recipient of the Best Paper Award 2012, presented by the Springer journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (ABC). Wang is the lead author of a paper published in ABC on a method to isolate peroxisomes with biological function from other cellular organelles. Her research could lead to further developments in the investigation of the anticancer drug doxorubicin. The award, accompanied by 1,000 euros, was created by Springer to honor exceptional young scientists and to stimulate their research careers. The ABC Best Paper Award has been given since 2005.
One of the major focuses of Yaohua Wang's research is the investigation of the subcellar distribution and metabolism of doxorubicin (DOX). DOX is effective in the treatment of hematological malignancies and cancers localized in solid tissues, however use of this drug is impaired by its side effects which may be associated with subcellular-specific accumulation of DOX metabolites. The most notorious side effect of DOX is cardiotoxicity, which is irreversible. Up to now, no one has investigated the accumulation and metabolism of DOX in peroxisomes. The investigation of DOX metabolism in peroxisomes provides a more comprehensive view of DOX toxicity in cells and is an indispensable part of Dr. Wang's research.
Yaohua Wang was born in 1982. She received her Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 2010. In 2008-2009, she received the Merck Research Laboratories Fellowship in Analytical/Physical Chemistry to recognize her outstanding research work.
Dr. Sylvia Daunert, Editor of ABC, said, "The elegant and innovative work of Dr. Wang and her mentor, Dr. Arriaga, focused on understanding the metabolism of DOX. It is important in that it sheds light on the mechanism of toxicity of a very well-known widely used anticancer drug. Her discoveries will help in understanding how drug resistance and drug toxicity occur in cellular compartments. This, in turn, can lead to the design and preparation of new drugs with reduced toxicity. The work of Dr. Wang is not only of analytical significance, but is also a perfect example of how bioanalytical work can impact the field of medicine."
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Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry's mission is the rapid publication of excellent and high-impact research articles on fundamental and applied topics of analytical and bioanalytical science. Its scope is broad, encompassing the entire range of analytical and bioanalytical research and encouraging multidisciplinary solutions to problems in this field. ABC counts among the leading journals in its field and is partly owned by eight prestigious chemical societies.
Springer Science+Business Media is a leading global scientific publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporations with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe especially in Germany and the Netherlands primarily for physicians and professionals working in the automotive, transport and healthcare sectors.
The article "Analysis of the bioactivity of magnetically immunoisolated peroxisomes" is freely available online at www.springer.com/abc or can be requested as a pdf.
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Public release date: 19-Feb-2013 Share ] Contact: Joan Robinson
joan.robinson@springer.com
49-622-148-78130
Springer
Yaohua Wang (30) is the recipient of the Best Paper Award 2012, presented by the Springer journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (ABC). Wang is the lead author of a paper published in ABC on a method to isolate peroxisomes with biological function from other cellular organelles. Her research could lead to further developments in the investigation of the anticancer drug doxorubicin. The award, accompanied by 1,000 euros, was created by Springer to honor exceptional young scientists and to stimulate their research careers. The ABC Best Paper Award has been given since 2005.
One of the major focuses of Yaohua Wang's research is the investigation of the subcellar distribution and metabolism of doxorubicin (DOX). DOX is effective in the treatment of hematological malignancies and cancers localized in solid tissues, however use of this drug is impaired by its side effects which may be associated with subcellular-specific accumulation of DOX metabolites. The most notorious side effect of DOX is cardiotoxicity, which is irreversible. Up to now, no one has investigated the accumulation and metabolism of DOX in peroxisomes. The investigation of DOX metabolism in peroxisomes provides a more comprehensive view of DOX toxicity in cells and is an indispensable part of Dr. Wang's research.
Yaohua Wang was born in 1982. She received her Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 2010. In 2008-2009, she received the Merck Research Laboratories Fellowship in Analytical/Physical Chemistry to recognize her outstanding research work.
Dr. Sylvia Daunert, Editor of ABC, said, "The elegant and innovative work of Dr. Wang and her mentor, Dr. Arriaga, focused on understanding the metabolism of DOX. It is important in that it sheds light on the mechanism of toxicity of a very well-known widely used anticancer drug. Her discoveries will help in understanding how drug resistance and drug toxicity occur in cellular compartments. This, in turn, can lead to the design and preparation of new drugs with reduced toxicity. The work of Dr. Wang is not only of analytical significance, but is also a perfect example of how bioanalytical work can impact the field of medicine."
###
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry's mission is the rapid publication of excellent and high-impact research articles on fundamental and applied topics of analytical and bioanalytical science. Its scope is broad, encompassing the entire range of analytical and bioanalytical research and encouraging multidisciplinary solutions to problems in this field. ABC counts among the leading journals in its field and is partly owned by eight prestigious chemical societies.
Springer Science+Business Media is a leading global scientific publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporations with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe especially in Germany and the Netherlands primarily for physicians and professionals working in the automotive, transport and healthcare sectors.
The article "Analysis of the bioactivity of magnetically immunoisolated peroxisomes" is freely available online at www.springer.com/abc or can be requested as a pdf.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/s-ywr021913.php
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