20 Feb Top 5 Headlines:
1. Girl Who Took Bullet for Mom Slowly Heals (CNN)
2. No bull-et! DVD saves man's life (New York Daily News)
3. Abducted woman escapes car crashFebruary 20, 2008 (News.AU)
4. Freekishly Large Sea Creatures Found Near Antartica (Fox News
5. IAPG Houston to Host: Biofuels in Latin America - Argentina's Expanding Role in the Future of Renewable Energy (Centre Daily)
Honorable Mention:
Total Lunar Eclipse February 20-21, 2008 (NASA)
1. Girl Who Took Bullet for Mom Slowly Heals
updated 5:29 p.m. EST, Wed February 20, 2008http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/20/mothers.defender.ap/index.html
DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- Alexis Goggins climbed aboard a special bicycle and maneuvered through hospital hallways, beginning the months of physical therapy she needs to recover from six gunshot wounds.
Alexis Goggins laughs as she stretches her back on a big red ball during physical therapy.
1 of 3 To many people, the soft-spoken 7-year-old is a hero after she threw herself across her mother just as a gunman was about to shoot the woman in an SUV.
"An angel is what I call her," Seliethia Parker said of her daughter.
After more than two months in the hospital and six surgeries, Alexis was recently released. She returns twice a week for physical therapy.
The young girl bears several scars from the December 2 shooting, including a long, thin surgical line stretching from one side of her hairline to the other. Her right eye, which was blinded in the attack, has also been removed.
During rehabilitation, she rides a bicycle designed to be pedaled with a person's hands and plays hand-eye coordination games.
"I'll be good for therapy," Alexis promised her mother before bounding back to the games.
Alexis speaks little about the shooting.
"She remembers bits and pieces, but she's not really talking about it much. It's like she's blocking it out or something," said Parker, 30.
The mother and daughter were getting a ride from a friend when Parker's former boyfriend emerged from the shadows outside Parker's house and jumped into the vehicle. He then forced the friend to drive at gunpoint for several minutes.
Under the pretense of needing fuel, Parker's friend stopped at a Detroit gas station to call 911.
Inside the SUV, Parker pleaded with the gunman not to shoot. As he was about to open fire, Alexis cried, "Don't hurt my mother!" and jumped into her mother's arms from the back seat.
Despite her daughter's efforts, Parker was shot twice.
Alexis is learning-disabled and lags behind other youngsters her age. As a result, police say, it may never be known whether Alexis meant to shield her mother from the bullets. But Parker has said that if her daughter had not put herself in between she might have been killed.
Calvin Tillie, a 29-year-old former convict on parole, is charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, along with other offenses. Parker said she met Tillie last year but called off the relationship after three months.
His court-appointed attorney, Kim Basen Michon, did not return phone calls.
Since the attack, Alexis and her family have received more than 200 letters from well-wishers, some from as far away as London. Supporters have also contributed $30,000 to a fund set up for Alexis through her school.
In addition to the physical therapy, she also meets with a teacher assigned to the hospital until she's ready to return to school. And in the coming weeks, she will be fitted with an artificial eye.
Parker says her daughter is a living miracle.
"I'm thanking God every day that me and my baby are still here," she said. "It has taught me to ... appreciate the smaller things in life."
2. No bull-et! DVD saves man's life
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/02/20/2008-02-20_no_bullet_dvd_saves_mans_life-2.html
Wednesday, February 20th 2008, 4:00 AM
WALTERBORO, S.C. - A South Carolina man owes his life to a DVD.Barry McRoy says he was leaving a Waffle House restaurant in Walterboro when two men began to fight over a gun. The weapon fired and the slug ricocheted into McRoy, police say. But the bullet hit a DVD McRoy was carrying in his pocket. He only realized he had been shot when he noticed a bullet hole in his jacket. McRoy, the Colleton County fire and rescue director, peeked into his pocket and saw the bullet had shattered the DVD case. The DVD was a recorded TV show about fire extinguishers. "I was saved by a DVD," McRoy said. "How lucky can you get?"
3. Abducted woman escapes car crash
February 20, 2008 07:45pm
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23247367-1246,00.html
AN Adelaide woman has been found almost 48 hours after being abducted from her car by a man who left her six-year-old son behind.Donna Pridham, 38, was in a car which crashed near Swan Reach, east of Adelaide late today, police said. Ms Pridham was not hurt but the male driver of the car was treated at the scene by ambulance officers and was expected to be airlifted to hospital in Adelaide with unspecified injuries.
"Donna Pridham was not injured and was brought back to Adelaide by road,'' the police spokesman said.
Patrols in the area spotted the car about 5.40pm (CDT) today and when they tried to stop the vehicle it left the road and rolled, a police spokesman said. Police said earlier they held fears for the mother of three who was snatched from her car in Adelaide's northeastern suburbs on Monday night. She was driving the Magna sedan when she stopped, possibly at a set of traffic lights, where she was taken from her vehicle by a man. "A woman and another man then got into the victim's car and drove the sedan with the child still in the vehicle to the victim's home address and left the child in the vehicle in a distressed state,'' Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Shanahan said.
4. Freekishly Large Sea Creatures Found Near Antartica
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331313,00.html
SYDNEY, Australia — Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said Tuesday they have collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders and huge worms in the murky depths.
Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world collected specimens from up to 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) beneath the surface, and said many may never have been seen before.
Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand.
"Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters," Martin Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led the expedition, said in a statement. "We have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates."
• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Natural Science Center.
The specimens were being sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies.
5. IAPG Houston to Host: Biofuels in Latin America - Argentina's Expanding Role in the Future of Renewable Energy
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008
http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/415268.html
HOUSTON — On March 6th, the Instituto Argentino del Petroleo y del Gas of Houston (IAPGH) will host a meeting with featured speaker Carlos Saint James on the expanding opportunities in the biofuels industry in Argentina. The presentation will address current issues in renewable energies and discuss the effects on the oil & gas sector in Argentina and specific opportunities available to investors.Because of its position as the world's largest exporter of soy oil, Argentina is particularly well positioned to take advantage of this new industry as a large-scale producer and exporter of biodiesel. Domestically, its government has recently established a "B5" requirement, whereby beginning in the year 2010, 5% of all fuels need to contain a 5% biofuels mix. This decision will have long-term effects on Argentina's petroleum industry, which has seasonal diesel shortages. This, in turn, opens the door to attractive investment opportunities in biofuels for investors looking to produce for either the Argentine or foreign markets.Featured speaker Carlos Saint James is the Managing Director of Santiago & Sinclair, LLC, an economic and trade development organization focusing on the burgeoning biofuels industry in Latin America. Mr. Saint James is also the Founder and President of the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber, a trade association dedicated to the sustainable development of the Argentine biofuels industry.The IAPG Houston is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in the State of Texas on March 22, 2002. It shares the principles and character of its sister organization, the Instituto Argentino del Petroleo y del Gas, a non-profit organization serving the oil and gas sector of Argentina for half a century.
Honorable mention:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html
Total Lunar Eclipse: February 20, 2008
A total eclipse of the Moon occurs during the night of Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event is visible from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.
An eclipse of the Moon can only take place at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow or penumbra is a zone where Earth blocks some (but not all) of the Sun's rays. In contrast, the inner shadow or umbra is a region where Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon.
If only part of the Moon passes through the umbra, a partial eclipse is seen. However, if the entire Moon passes through the umbral shadow, then a total eclipse of the Moon occurs. For more information on how, what, why, where and when of lunar eclipses, see the special web page lunar eclipses for beginners.
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