August 17, 2008

BEIJING — Michael Phelps locked arms with his three teammates, as though they were in a football huddle calling a play, then hugged each one of them. It took a team to make him the grandest of Olympic champions. And one last big push from Phelps himself.

Going hard right to the end of a mesmerizing nine days in Beijing, Phelps helped the Americans come from behind Sunday in a race they've never lost at the Olympics, cheering from the deck as Jason Lezak brought it home for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay. It was Phelps' history-making eighth gold medal of these games.

"Everything was accomplished," he said. "I will have the medals forever." Phelps sure did his part to win No. 8, eclipsing Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games. Aaron Peirsol got the Americans off to the lead in the backstroke, but Brendan Hansen — a major disappointment in this Olympic year — slowed them down with only the third-fastest breaststroke leg.

By the time Phelps dived in for the butterfly, the U.S. was trailing Australia and Japan. That's when he really went to work. With his long arms whirling across the water like propellers, Phelps caught the two guys ahead of him on the return lap and passed off to Lezak a lead of less than a second for the freestyle.

August 15, 2005

This is the dramatic moment a TV reporter was shot by a sniper as she reported live from war-torn Georgia. Tamara Urushadze took a bullet to her left arm in the flashpoint town of Gori as Russian forces continued their illegal occupation.

Bravely, or foolishly, the 32-year-old brunette continued her report after a few moments as other journalists and aid workers dashed for cover. Siege-town Gori has become a deadly 'sniper's alley' with citizens at the mercy of rampaging militiamen - believed to be from the breakaway republic South Ossetia - looting and firing guns, some drunkenly.

On Sunday video footage caught reporters from two Turkish stations ducking and saying their last prayers as they were fired upon by Russian snipers. One of the journalists was hit in the eye but his injuries are reportedly not thought to be life-threatening. 'Friends, I got hit on the head,' the journalist, Levent Ozturk shouts in the video. 'I am OK now, but in a few minutes ... .' The four journalists begin reciting a Muslim last prayer.

Then they wave through the shattered sunroof of their truck and shout 'Press! Press!' in English. All the journalists, from Turkish networks NTV and Kanal Turk, were safely back in Turkey by yesterday. The Kremlin stands accused of turning a blind eye to renegades bent on 'ethnic cleansing' in revenge for Georgia's ill-conceived invasion of South Ossetia last Friday.

By Chris Chase
Aug 12, 2008 9:23 am EDT

Spain's Olympic basketball team posed for an advertisement prior to the Games which appears to show all its players slanting their eyes, a move that could offend its Olympic hosts in Beijing. The ads, for a Spanish courier company, appeared in the Spanish-language newspaper La Marca.

As the uproar over the picture has grown today, more information about the advertising shot has come to light. The ad was sponsored by a Spanish courier company, Seur. Spain's team, ironically, also is sponsored by Li-Ning Footwear, a Chinese company founded by Li Ning, the final torchbearer who was hoisted along the top of Beijing National Stadium during the Olympic Opening Ceremony finale.

The Spanish-language paper El Mundo has a piece debating whether the ad was racist that basically calls out the British press for trying to smear Spain's good name. But they miss the point. Whether the picture was made in good fun is irrelevant. It was a ridiculous idea that was bound to upset a lot of people. It's baffling that nobody involved in the picture -- from the photographers to the players -- even seemed to consider that this ad would be looked at negatively.

Did it not occur to somebody that it might not be a good idea to mock a large portion of the continent before the world's largest athletic competition that, by the way, happens to take place on that continent. Were they not aware of an invention called "the Internet" that allows pictures taken in Spain to be transmitted all over the world for the eyes of everyone?

August 15, 2008

Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called upon Russia to immediately stop using cluster bombs, weapons so dangerous to civilians that more than 100 nations have agreed to ban their use.

"Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "Russia's use of this weapon is not only deadly to civilians, but also an insult to international efforts to avoid a global humanitarian disaster of the kind caused by landmines." Human Rights Watch said Russian aircraft dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions, on the town of Ruisi in the Kareli district of Georgia on August 12, 2008.

Three civilians were killed and five wounded in the attack. On the same day, a cluster strike in the center of the town of Gori killed at least eight civilians and injured dozens, Human Rights Watch said. Dutch journalist Stan Storimans was among the dead. Israeli journalist Zadok Yehezkeli was seriously wounded and evacuated to Israel for treatment after surgery in Tbilisi. An armored vehicle from the Reuters news agency was perforated with shrapnel from the attack.

This is the first known use of cluster munitions since 2006, during Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions or bomblets. They cause unacceptable humanitarian harm in two ways. First, their broad-area effect kills and injures civilians indiscriminately during strikes. Second, many submunitions do not explode, becoming de facto landmines that cause civilian casualties for months or years to come.

August 14, 2008

WASHINGTON — Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The secret comes out Thursday — all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series.

August 13, 2008

DEVELOPING STORY: — Russians are bombing and looting the city of Gori outside the breakaway province of South Ossetia on their way deeper into the country, witnesses say. Georgian Security Council Chief Alexander Lomaia said that the Russian military bombed Gori Wednesday morning and entered the city.

The Russian military then let paramilitaries into Gori who started massive looting. An AP reporter outside the city of Gori saw the convoy speeding past and heading south. The accusation came less than 12 hours after Georgia's president said he accepted a cease-fire plan brokered by France. The Russian president said that Russia was halting military action because Georgia had paid enough for its attack on South Ossetia, a separatist region along the Russian border with close ties to Moscow.

Still, Medvedev ordered the Russian defense minister at a televised Kremlin meeting to destroy any resistance or aggressive actions. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had gambled on a surprise attack late Thursday to regain control over his country's pro-Russian breakaway province of South Ossetia. Instead, Georgia suffered a punishing beating from Russian tanks and aircraft that has left the country with even less control over territory than it had before.

In the west, Georgian troops acknowledged Wednesday they had completely pulled out of a small section of Abkhazia, a second separatist region — a development that leaves the entire area in the hands of the Russian-backed separatists. A few dozen separatist fighters moved into Georgian territory on Wednesday, planting their flag on a bridge over the Inguri River.

August 13, 2008

BEIJING — For Michael Phelps, it's not enough to just set a new standard. He has to demolish the old one. Winningest Olympian ever? He's two golds past that already and not finished yet, just over halfway to his goal of breaking Mark Spitz's record seven in a single Olympics.

World records? In a sport measured down to the hundredths for a reason, Phelps sets a pace to crush one of them by more than four seconds. Even when his goggles malfunctioned during the first race of a golden morning in China, the gangly, 23-year-old American squinted through water-filled lenses on the way to, yes, a world record. Of course, he was none too happy to beat it by only six-hundredths of a second.

So un-Phelps-like. "In the circumstances, not too bad I guess," he said with a shrug. "I know I can go faster." No wonder his competitors realize they're merely swimming for second. Monumental challenges for mere mortals seem almost inconsequential to Phelps. "He is just a normal person, but maybe from a different planet," said Russia's Alexander Sukhorukov, fresh off a thrashing by the Phelps-led Americans but still good enough to have a silver around his neck.

On Wednesday, Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals — and five world records in five events at the Beijing Games. A day after etching his name alongside Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis with gold No. 9, Phelps set a standard all his own when he won the 200-meter butterfly.

By Rich Jones
August 13, 2008 @ 7:24 AM

Mr. Unstable is now Mr. Unemployed. The Burger King employee who took a soapy bath in a utility sink at work and then posted a video of it online doesn't work at Burger King anymore. Timothy Tackett, who was fired, says he regrets the bath because a couple of other people also lost their jobs...the co-worker who did the taping and the shift manager.

Burger King says two people were fired from their jobs at the restaurant in Xenia, Ohio, and a third quit. The video was posted last week, with a worker who appeared to be naked calling himself ``Mr. Unstable.'' By the time a health inspector went to the restaurant, the sink that's used to clean large pieces of equipment had been sterilized.

August 11, 2008

MONTREAL — Montreal's police chief vowed to mend shaky relations between his department and the community, hours after a deadly riot broke out among youth gangs angry over the shooting death of a young man by police.

The rampage erupted late Sunday in the city's north end after a peaceful demonstration to protest the shooting. The violence started when some protesters torched eight cars parked outside a fire station and then spread as rioters set dozens of fires in the streets and pelted responding fire trucks with bottles.

Early Monday morning, heavily armed Quebec provincial police officers escorted firefighters as they doused dozens of fires. Police helicopters surveyed the sector from above. Police said three officers were injured during the clashes overnight, including one shot in the leg, and an ambulance technician was injured. Six people were arrested for charges such as drug possession and breaking and entering.

Hundreds of officers in full riot gear marched through the Montreal North neighborhood early Monday morning and eventually brought calm to the area. Montreal police Chief Yvan Delorme said he's prepared to do whatever it takes to mend the shaky relations between police and the community.

August 11, 2008

Elizabeth Edwards has "bad energy," claimed the woman who had an affair with two-time presidential candidate John Edwards, according to Monday's online edition of Newsweek magazine. Rielle Hunter, the mistress at the center of the political storm around Edwards, held the former North Carolina senator in high regard.

However, the party girl-turned-healer-turned-videographer was apparently less generous with her former paramour's wife. "I've only met her once," Hunter told Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman in late 2006 during a lunch in which she mistakenly cast him as a friend. "She does not give off good energy. She didn't make eye contact with me."

Weeks later, Hunter was fired from her job documenting Edwards on the campaign trail. She called the reporter to tell him, saying Edwards did not defend her when she was relieved of her $1114,000-plus job. But her scorn for Elizabeth Edwards was evident, blaming her for her misfortune. "Someday, the truth about her is going to come out," Hunter told Newsweek.

Darman, who first met Hunter in Iowa in July 2006 while she was filming the documentary series for the Web, said the woman described Edwards as an old soul who had barely tapped into his potential, but had the power to be a "transformational leader" on par with Mahatmas Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

August 11, 2008

BEIJING — By a fingertip, Michael Phelps is still on course for eight gold medals. He can thank Jason Lezak for getting him No. 2.

The oldest man on the U.S. swimming team pulled off one of the great comebacks in Olympic history Monday morning, lunging to the wall just ahead of France's Alain Bernard in a race so fast it actually erased two world records.

Wow! Few sporting events live up the hype — this one exceeded it. The 32-year-old Lezak was nearly a body length behind the massive Bernard as they made the final turn, but the American hugged the lane rope, drafting off the Frenchman and stunningly overtaking him on the very last stroke.

Watching on deck, Phelps let out a resounding "Yeaaaaaah!" and thrust both arms toward the roof of the Water Cube. His quest to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals had survived what will likely be its toughest test. The Americans shattered the world record set by their "B" team the previous evening in the preliminaries, touching with a time of 3 minute, 8.24 seconds — nearly 4 full seconds below the 15-hour-old mark of 3:12.23.

August 11, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia — As Russian troops continue their attacks on Georgia, the world's seven largest economic powers are calling on Russia to accept an immediate cease-fire with Georgia and agree to international mediation over the crisis in Georgia's separatist areas.

A State Department official says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the other foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations spoke by telephone on Monday and pledged their support for a negotiated solution to the conflict that has been raging since Friday between the former Soviet state and Russia.

They called on Russia to respect Georgia's borders and expressed deep concern for civilian casualties that have occurred. Georgian President Saakashvili said Monday that he had signed a cease-fire pledge proposed by envoys from the European Union. President Mikhail Saakashvili says he signed the document together with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb.

Saakashvili says the EU mediators will head to Moscow later Monday to try to persuade Russia to accept the cease-fire. Meanwhile, a senior general says Russia has no plans to move its troops from Georgia's two breakaway provinces into Georgian-controlled territory. Deputy chief of General Staff Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn says Russia does not intend to move deeper into Georgia.

By Chris Lee
August 08, 2008 - 09:16AM CT

The eyes in the living world are pretty amazing. Take the human eye: with a single lens, it achieves a huge effective field of view (around 120 degrees) with a resolution that might make your Nikon SLR turn in its CMOS chip. The reasons for this can be traced back to two simple features: the eye has a curved sensor surface, and it moves continually in tiny, angular steps.

Now, researchers have demonstrated the ability to replicate this in an electronic eye that holds the promise of delivering cheap, small, high-resolution cameras. The key to the technology is in the curved sensor surface. Normally, a single lens with a spherical surface will work best when it projects an image onto a spherical surface. However, most sensor surfaces are flat, resulting in distortions outside of the center of the image.

To overcome this, camera manufacturers use a system of lenses to flatten the projection, making the camera big and expensive. Given that the camera lens is already quite expensive, adding a higher resolution sensor—a sensor with a pixel size matched to the lens resolution is the optimum—has been the cheapest way to boost the resolution of your camera.

Making a curved sensor is not a simple business because the entire semiconductor industry is pretty much devoted to keeping things as flat as possible. A team of scientists from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University have developed a method that uses normal processing technology to make a flat sensor and then deposits that onto a spherical surface.

July 30, 2008

A previously unknown portrait of a woman by Vincent van Gogh has been revealed in a high-tech look beneath another of his paintings, it was announced today. Scientists used a new technique to peer beneath the paint of van Gogh's "Patch of Grass." Already it was known there was something there, likely a portrait of some sort.

Van Gogh was known to paint over his work, perhaps as much as a third of the time. Behind the painting, done mostly in greens and blues, is a portrait of a woman rendered in browns and reds. The new technique is based on "synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy" and is said to be an improvement on X-ray radiography, which has been used to reveal concealed layers of other famous paintings.

The new method measures chemicals in the pigments. Specifically, mercury and the element antimony were useful in revealing the woman's face. The work was done by researchers at Delft University of Technology in the the Netherlands and the University of Antwerp in Belgium, along with help from other institutions.

"Patch of Grass" was painted by van Gogh in Paris in 1887 and is owned by the Kröller-Müller Museum in the rural eastern Netherlands. The reconstruction enables art historians to understand the evolution of van Gogh’s work better, the researchers said in a statement. And the new technique is expected to pave the way for research into many other concealed paintings.

by Christopher Dawson
July 25th, 2008 @ 9:22 pm

New research published in the journal Science confirms what all of us teachers have known for a long time: girls are just as smart as boys. I hope none of our tax dollars went into that one. A quick quote from the article before I get into the more interesting findings from the researchers:

Overall, the researchers found “no gender difference” in scores among children in grades two through 11. Among students with the highest test scores, the team did find that white boys outnumbered white girls by about two to one. Among Asians, however, that result was nearly reversed. Hyde says that suggests that cultural and social factors, not gender alone, influence how well students perform on tests.

So on to the good stuff. The researchers found that most of the standardized tests on which they based their results were omitting difficult math questions. These are the questions that require critical thinking or simply call on higher-level math courses.

As we all know, especially here in the States, teachers everywhere must “teach to the test,” since so much is tied to the standardized testing mandated by No Child Left Behind (anyone here counting down until GW gets left behind, by the way?). Whether it’s graduation, funding, or teacher promotion, a lot rides on these tests.