2008: Feb 25th-26th Good News (Organ donor saves 7 lives, Father and neighbors catch kidnapper, more...)

Hello All,
Well, for some reason there were TONs of great articles today. I stuck with 5 in the top, and put all the rest in honorable mention. I did also put one article on the update of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's visit to North Korea. I hope you enjoy today's articles. :) See you tomorrow!

Today's Top 5:
1. V8 Driver's Organs Save Seven Lives
2. Police: Neighbors Help Father Catch Kidnapper
3. Group Really Makes Dreams Come True
4. Tiny Orem Dog Uses Big Ruff-ruffs to Take a Bite out of Crime
5. Ancient Ceremonial Plaza Found in Peru


Honorable Mentions:

A. Jet Lands Safely Despite Hydraulic Problem
B. Horse Racing Bet Makes Man Birthday Millionaire
C. Silica Smart Bombs Deliver Knock-out to Bacteria
D. North Koreans Give New York Philharmonic Standing Ovation for Historic Musical Diplomacy Concert



1.V8 Driver's Organs Save Seven Lives
By Lauren Novak and Rob Malinauskas
February 27, 2008 11:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23283947-2,00.html

The family of the late V8 driver Ashley Cooper has saved the lives of seven seriously ill people by donating his organs.The 27-year-old, who died on Monday afternoon after a weekend crash at the Clipsal 500, was a registered organ donor.
A six-year-old received part of his liver. Others received his heart, lungs, kidneys and pancreas. Part of Cooper's liver was sent interstate. The decision was applauded by the David Hookes Foundation, race organisers and South Australian Health Minister John Hill.
Cooper's father, Alan, said his family had all supported the organ donation. "We all believed that it would have been Ashley's wish for his organs to be donated . . . so there was no decision to be made," he said."We are going to miss one heck of a guy, one thorough gentleman, one man of the highest morals I'll ever know and it's just shattering for us all.





2. Police: Neighbors Help Father Catch Kidnapper
http://www.turnto23.com/news/15401540/detail.html
POSTED: 8:10 am PST February 25, 2008
UPDATED: 4:50 pm PST February 25, 2008

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Police said at least one neighbor is responsible for the safe return of a 4-year-old girl after being snatched off her bicycle Sunday.
The kidnapping occurred on Tupper Court in east Bakersfield.
Police said 43-year-old Robert Perez Rodriguez allegedly tried to lure an 11-year-old girl into his car. When she ran to her mother, police said he grabbed 4-year-old Frances Ramirez and took off.

"I felt, very, very like my life was over. Like I wasn't anything," the girl's father, Pedro Ramirez said. "I was watching her from the house and I yelled at her and suddenly she didn't answer anymore."

The girl's father and a neighbor chased Rodriguez's car to Stiern Park, where police said the father rescued his daughter. "We thought we'd never see her again and that's just an experience I don't wish upon any parent." Ramirez said. "We thought we'd never see her again."
Jeannette Merjil who witnessed the abduction, said Rodriguez already had the girl in his car and was pushing her down when she got his license plate and called the police.

Before police officers were able to respond, Ramirez said he raced after his child's alleged abductor, tracking down the maroon Camry to Steirn Park, where he got his daughter back and then continued to pursue Rodriguez in his car.

“I don't know how God gave me the sense to go behind him and not lose him,” Ramirez said.
The car chase continued down Monitor Street where police said Rodriguez tried to ram the victim’s father’s car. Ramirez tracked Rodriguez to a neighborhood near Hughes Lane and Pacheco Road, where after a neighbor's tip, he was later found by police hiding under a truck.
It was a roller coaster of emotions for Ramirez, his wife and daughter. He said it was an experience he wishes upon no one. "Don't leave your children alone, because it's something very hard that I don't even have any words to tell you what I felt yesterday."

“To have this child returned safely, this quickly, is absolutely outstanding,” said Sgt. Greg Terry of the Bakersfield Police Department. He also said Pedro Ramirez is a hero.
Rodriguez will be in court on Tuesday. While he is not a known sex offender, he does have a criminal history and has been charged with kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon.
The girl wasn't injured.




3. Group Really Makes Dreams Come True
By Dennis McCarthy, ColumnistArticle
Last Updated: 02/25/2008 10:09:39 PM PST
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8362739

I love dreamers. They take these crazy, wonderful ideas, throw them out on the table, and ask, "So, what do you think? Will it fly?"
Most of the time they stay on the table, but once in a while an idea not only flies, it soars.
L.A. Shares - a nonprofit that takes from the rich and gives to the poor in this town - is soaring.
Since 1991, it has taken more than $120 million worth of valuable goods and supplies from the offices of big corporations that don't need them anymore, and put them into the hands of poor inner city schools and nonprofit corporations that desperately need them.
No money changes hands. It's all free. Used office equipment and furniture that would have wound up in landfills doesn't. And the corporations get a tax credit to boot.
Better still, it doesn't cost the taxpayers a dime.
The program started 18 years ago with one truck, a warehouse on loan from the city near Griffith Park and a dreamer named Bert Ball.
He had just left his job as executive director for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs after throwing his Robin Hoodesque - sans the stealing - idea out on the table.
It was a spinoff from a smaller city program called Material for the Arts that Bert wanted to expand and take countywide.
City officials liked his idea well enough to loan him a warehouse and a truck, while a private foundation underwrote a small salary and gas money.
Bert Ball's dream - opening a one-stop shopping warehouse for the poor from the rich - was in business. When I stopped by in 1993, a few school teachers, low-income seniors and drug abuse and teen pregnancy counselors were there shopping for used desks, cabinets and art supplies for their low-budget programs.
Bert's truck was parked out back. He had just returned from picking up discarded office furniture from Sony, Paramount Studios, the Walt Disney Co. and Northrop Grumman, which were original supporters of the program.
Take what you need, Bert was telling his shoppers. Just don't be greedy. The wish list from others just like them was long.
All he asked was that they write a "thank you" note to the corporations and businesses that donated everything from furniture and computers to musical instruments and books for schools.
Stacked in the corner of the warehouse that day were used musical instruments donated by the Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps.
Sam Cignorelli, president of a North Hollywood youth group that would be playing these instruments at local schools, looked on in awe.
"We would have had to raise $50,000 to buy these instruments," he was saying. "Who can raise that kind of money today?"
Not many groups, Bert said. That's why he opened his warehouse.
"This could be big," the dreamer told me back in 1993. He had no idea how big.
His mom and pop warehouse with the truck out back boomed in 1997 when the Internet came along.
"It dynamically changed what we could do and how many organizations and groups we could reach," he said Monday. "It put us out of the truck business."
L.A. Shares became a Web-based philanthropy - www.lashares.org. Last year alone it redistributed more than $12 million worth of goods and materials to more than 2,500 Los Angeles nonprofit organizations and schools.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Organization for the Needs of the Elderly, Habitat for Humanity, Inner City Cultural Center, Union Rescue Mission, the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic and many more.
Bert Ball's dream has become the single largest donor of goods and materials to the Los Angeles Unified School District, and this month L.A. Shares donated $100,000 worth of technology equipment to the city's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools program.
"I've gone shopping at Bert's warehouse with people from nonprofit groups in my district, and it's wonderful to see the smiles on their faces and how excited they are picking up equipment and supplies they never could have afforded," City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said.
"He's a pretty incredible guy to have done all this."
You gotta love those dreamers."



4. Tiny Orem Dog Uses Big Ruff-ruffs to Take a Bite out of Crime
By Sara Israelsen-Hartley
Deseret Morning News
Published: Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008 12:28 a.m. MSThttp://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695256321,00.html

OREM — The Trochez family never thought their 12-pound Yorkie-poodle, Hercules, would scare anyone — especially not a would-be burglar who broke into their condo early Saturday morning."He's extremely friendly to those whom he knows," said owner Andre Trochez of his year-old pup. "If he doesn't know you, he pretends to be tough, but as soon as he (sniffs you), he's as nice as they come."
But Hercules was all guard dog just after 4:30 a.m. on Saturday when he heard an intruder pry open the screen door and the sliding glass door.
"As soon as he heard the intruder, he went berserk and chased him out of the apartment," Trochez said.
The man left the same way he had come in, Trochez said, because the front door remained locked the entire time.
Trochez said he's not sure exactly how long the burglar had been in their home — though it had to be long enough that the man made it from the patio to the back bedroom, where Hercules sleeps on the floor watching over his owners.
Once there, the intruder was able to reach in the slightly open door and grab Stephanie Trochez's purse, which was sitting just inside.
But Hercules' frenetic barking startled the man and he ran out, leaving the purse in the hallway.
"I think he was just looking for cash," Trochez said. "We had debit cards, a checkbook and had only $2 in my wife's purse. He ended up getting nothing out of the whole deal."The couple called police, who quickly responded and found that the patio's screen door had been locked but pried open by the burglar, said Orem Police Lt. Doug Edwards. They also found a large footprint outside the patio in the flower bed.
The couple has lived in their condo near 1000 West and 1200 South in Orem for only about two weeks and said they're planning to reinforce their sliding door to avoid problems like this in the future.
"The (police) were kind of surprised," Trochez said, referring to his miniature guard dog. "With the size of him, they thought the burglar didn't get a good look at him. (But Hercules) alarmed him enough to where he knew he was caught, and, thankfully, nothing (bad) happened."
Hercules didn't calm down for a while but paced around the condo, sniffing to make sure the burglar was gone, then camped out by the Trochezes' bed while they went back to sleep hours later.
"We would never have predicted this," Trochez said. "But if this is how he's going to be, that's fantastic. We don't mind. It's really comforting that he knew something was wrong and that he reacted."





5. Ancient Ceremonial Plaza Found in Peru
By ANDREW WHALEN, Associated Press Writer Tue Feb 26, 5:38 PM EThttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080226/ap_on_sc/peru_ancient_plaza;_ylt=AiGzAhufU.M5eFGCwcIQo_6s0NUE
LIMA, Peru - A team of German and Peruvian archaeologists say they have discovered the oldest known monument in Peru: a 5,500-year-old ceremonial plaza near Peru's north-central coast.
Carbon dating of material from the site revealed it was built between 3500 B.C. and 3000 B.C., Peter Fuchs, a German archaeologist who headed the excavation team, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday.
The discovery is further evidence that civilization thrived in Peru at the same time as it did in what is now the Middle East and South Asia, said Ruth Shady, a prominent Peruvian archaeologist who led the team that discovered the ancient city of Caral in 2001. Shady serves as a senior adviser to Peru's National Culture Institute and was not involved in the project.
The find also raises questions about what prompted "civilizations to form throughout the planet at more or less the same time," Shady said.
The circular, sunken plaza, built of stones and adobe, is part of the Sechin Bajo archaeological complex in Andes foothills, 206 miles northwest of Lima, where Fuchs and fellow German archaeologist Renate Patzschke have been working since 1992.
It predates similar monuments and plazas found in Caral, which nonetheless remains the oldest known city in the Americas dating back to 2627 B.C.
The plaza served as a social and ritual space where ancient peoples celebrated their "thoughts about the world, their place within it, and images of their world and themselves," Fuchs said.
In an adjacent structure, built around 1800 B.C., Fuchs' team uncovered a 3,600-year-old adobe frieze — six feet tall — depicting the iconic image of a human sacrificer "standing with open arms, holding a ritual knife in one hand and a human head in the other," Fuchs said.
The mythic image was also found in the celebrated Moche Lords of Sipan tombs, discovered on Peru's northern coast in the late 1980s.
Walter Alva, the Peruvian archaeologist who uncovered the Lords of Sipan tombs, said the plaza found in Fuchs' dig was probably utilized by an advanced civilization with economic stability, a necessary condition to construct such a ceremonial site.
The excavation was the fourth in a series of digs at the Sechin Bajo complex that Fuchs and Patzschke began on behalf of the University of Berlin in 1992. Deutsche Forschung Gemeinschaft, a German state agency created to sponsor scientific investigations, has financed the most recent three digs.
The find "shows the world that in America too, human beings of the New World had the same capacity to create civilization as those in the Old World," Shady said.
Her discovery, Caral, made headlines in 2001 when researchers carbon-dated material from the city back to 2627 B.C., proving that a complex urban center in the Americas thrived as a contemporary to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt — 1,500 years earlier than previously believed.



Honorable Mentions:


Jet Lands Safely Despite Hydraulic Problem
Daily News Wire Services
Article Last Updated: 02/26/2008 09:50:53 AM PST
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_8367802?source=rss_viewed

A Northwest Airlines Boeing 757 jetliner on a flight from Minneapolis landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport today after the pilot reported a possible hydraulic problem, authorities said.
The aircraft landed safely about 8:45 a.m., said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The cause of the problem was under investigation.



Horse Racing Bet Makes Man Birthday Millionaire
Tue Feb 26, 9:59 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080226/od_nm/millionaire_dc;_ylt=AtIixhBN3kOVp7gCOcdWXyus0NUE

LONDON (Reuters) - A British man celebrated his 60th birthday in unexpected style at the weekend when a 50 pence ($1) bet on the horses turned him into an instant millionaire.
Fred Craggs, from Yorkshire in northern England, was not even aware of his win when he walked into a branch of the William Hill betting agency to see how he had done with his accumulator bet.
When he was informed of his good fortune he was said to have turned rather pale and muttered that he had better go home to tell his wife.
His coup was selecting eight winners running at various courses around the country -- starting with one called "Isn't That Lucky" and finishing with "A Dream Come True" -- at odds of 2,000,000 to one.
"This is the most amazing bet ever placed since betting shops were made legal in 1961," William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said on Monday.




Silica Smart Bombs Deliver Knock-out to Bacteria
ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2008)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225213452.htm

— Bacteria mutate for a living, evading antibiotic drugs while killing tens of thousands of people in the United States each year. But as concern about drug-resistant bacteria grows, one novel approach under way at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeks to thwart the bug without a drug by taking a cue from nature.

Mark Schoenfisch and his lab of analytical chemists at UNC have created nano-scale scaffolds made of silica and loaded with nitric oxide (NO) -- an important molecule in mammals that plays a role in regulating blood pressure, neurotransmission and fighting bacterial infections, among other vital functions.

"There was evidence that nitric oxide kills bacteria, but the difficult part involved storing it in a manner such that it could be delivered to bacterial cells," said Evan Hetrick, a doctoral student in Schoenfisch's lab and lead author on a paper in the February issue of the American Chemical Society's journal ACS Nano.

While the body constantly produces NO, and can ramp up its production to fight infection, sometimes it can't produce enough to mount a sufficient defense. Previous research using small molecules to deliver NO hit roadblocks -- controlling the release of the compound was difficult and the molecules were potentially toxic to healthy cells in the body."

With silica scaffolds, nitric oxide stores easily and we could very carefully control the release," said Schoenfisch, an associate professor of chemistry in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences.Schoenfisch, Hetrick and their colleagues tested their silica scaffolds head-to-head with small molecules against the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is commonly found in burn and other wound infections.

NO delivered by both methods completely killed the bacteria. But the silica nanoparticles delivered the NO right to the bacteria's doorstep. In contrast, the small molecules released NO indiscriminately, and the concentration of NO is lost as it makes its way toward bacterial cells."

With the silica particles, more NO actually reached the inside of the cells, enhancing the efficacy of the nanoparticles compared to the small molecule. So, the overall amount of NO needed to kill bacteria is much less with silica nanoparticles," Schoenfisch said. "And, with small molecules, you're left with potentially toxic byproducts," Schoenfisch said. Using mouse cells, they proved that the silica nanoparticles weren't toxic to healthy cells, but the small molecules were.

Schoenfisch has a history of success with NO-releasing materials. His lab has successfully created a variety of coatings for different biomedical applications. Such materials hold promise as anti-infective coatings and as methods to improve the body's integration of biological implants -- such as hip or knee joints -- and implanted sensors that relay various biological measures, such as blood glucose or oxygen concentrations.

The amount and rate of NO release are easily modified and controlled by using these different silica nanoparticles. "Release rates are a function of the precursors used to make the nanoparticles," Schoenfisch said. "It depends entirely on how we build the silica structures."Future research will include studying additional bacterial strains, active targeting, preferential uptake and biodistribution studies.



North Koreans Give New York Philharmonic Standing Ovation for Historic Musical Diplomacy Concert
By Burt Herman
Associated Press Published: Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008 9:44 a.m. MST
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695256513,00.html


PYONGYANG, North Korea — The New York Philharmonic performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and North Korea's anthem for Pyongyang's communist elite Tuesday — a historic feat of musical diplomacy aimed at improving ties with the isolated nuclear power that considers the U.S. its mortal enemy.The Philharmonic is the first major American cultural group to perform in the country and the largest delegation from the United States to visit its longtime foe.
The unprecedented concert, shown live on television inside North Korea, represents a warming in relations between the nations that remain technically at war and locked in negotiations over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.
The country's tentative cultural ties to the West may be expanding. On Tuesday, a North Korean diplomat in London told The Associated Press that Pyongyang has invited rock guitarist Eric Clapton to perform. The diplomat, who did not give his name, confirmed reports in the British media that Clapton had been officially invited to Pyongyang — the first such invitation to a Western rock star to the country.
With the U.S. and North Korean flags at opposite ends of the flowered bedecked stage, the Philharmonic began with "Patriotic Song" — North Korea's national anthem, then played the U.S. anthem. The audience stood during both anthems and held their applause until the conclusion of the second.
Story continues below "My colleagues of the New York Philharmonic and I are very pleased to play in this fine hall," Philharmonic music director Lorin Maazel said in English. Then in Korean, he told the audience: "Please have a good time."Other works included Dvorak's "New World Symphony," written while the Czech composer lived in the United States and inspired by native American themes; Wagner's Prelude to Act 3 of "Lohengrin"; and Gershwin's "An American in Paris."
"Someday a composer may write a work entitled 'Americans in Pyongyang,"' Maazel said in introducing the Gershwin, drawing warm applause.
When the concert ended with a final encore of the traditional Korean folk song "Arirang" — beloved in both the North and South — the orchestra received a five-minute standing ovation, with many audience members cheering, whistling and waving to the beaming musicians.
"There may be a mission accomplished here. We may have been instrumental in opening a little door," Maazel said after the concert.
North Koreans in attendance — men in suits and women in colorful traditional Korean dresses — fixed their eyes at the stage. Many wore badges with a portrait of Kim Il Sung, father of current leader Kim Jong Il. Kim was not in the 2,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theater.
Ri Gun, North Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator, sat next to former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry, who called the performance a "historic moment" and remembered how close the countries came to war in 1994 amid an earlier nuclear crisis.
"This might just have pushed us over the top," Perry said of the concert. "I hope so. ... You cannot demonize people when you're sitting there listening to their music. You don't go to war with people unless you demonize them first."
Traveling in China, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the North Korean people should have more opportunities to engage the world.
"It's a society that certainly needs ways to open up ... but it's a long way from playing that concert to changing the nature of the politics of North Korea, but I think it's a good thing," she said.
In Washington, the White House urged Pyongyang to live up to its agreement to end its nuclear weapons program. "We need them to move faster on denuclearization. We need a full and accurate report from them. And we also need a report on all their proliferation activities," press secretary Dana Perino said.
The U.S. government has supported the Philharmonic's visit, agreed upon last year when efforts to end the North's nuclear weapons program were making unprecedented progress. The country shut down its main nuclear reactor in July and has started disabling it so it cannot easily be restarted under the eyes of U.S. and international experts.
However, disarmament has stalled this year because of what Washington says is the North's failure to give a full declaration of its atomic programs to be dismantled, as Pyongyang promised to do under an international agreement.
In a bid to show that it is complying with the disarmament accord, North Korea last week opened its main reactor to foreign media for the first time.
Before the concert, Maazel said the orchestra has been a force for change in the past, noting that its 1959 performance in the Soviet Union was part of that country's opening up to the outside world that eventually resulted in the downfall of the regime.
"The Soviets didn't realize that it was a two-edged sword, because by doing so they allowed people from outside the country to interact with their own people, and to have an influence," he told journalists in Pyongyang. "It was so long-lasting that eventually the people in power found themselves out of power."
When asked if he thought the same could happen in North Korea, he said: "There are no parallels in history; there are similarities."
Still, he said, the concert could spark other cultural and social exchanges.
"We are very humble. We are here to make music," he said.
Kim Cheol-woong, a North Korean pianist who defected to South Korea in 2002 because of the lack of musical freedom, said last week that regular citizens in the North were prohibited from listening to or playing foreign music produced after 1900.
On the streets of Pyongyang on Tuesday, North Koreans said they were aware of the orchestra's visit. But the trip was not front-page news: A picture of the orchestra's airport arrival was printed on page 4 of the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, along with brief stories.
At the Grand People's Study House, the country's largest library said to include 30 million volumes, journalists saw North Koreans looking up information in an electronic catalog, reading industrial journals and attending language and science classes.
In one boisterous classroom, teacher Jeon Hyun Mi led students through an English lesson using materials from an American-designed program. Her students enthusiastically shouted out "yes" or "no" to her questions and gave brief replies.
The teacher said she welcomed the orchestra's visit as a way to bring the people of the two countries together, implying it was only the governments that harbored differences.
"We think we have good relations, people are very close," Jeon said. The trip "is a gesture of improvement."
Ri Myong Sop, an electrical engineering student walking outside a subway station, repeated the country's official line that the U.S. started the Korean War, which ended in a 1953 cease-fire that has never been replaced with a peace treaty.
"At present, if the United States takes the decision of a more encouraging policy toward the North then we can embrace the United States," he said.
Inside the concert hall, audience member Pak Chol said the concert was "not only just an art performance."
"I think the concert is just a wonderful gesture for greater understanding between the peoples of the U.S. and the DPRK," said Pak, using the initials for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.