Good morning all,
Well, there weren't that many stories today. I did manage to get a good one about a singer, and a great one about a wonderful dad. The story about the dad takes place in Staten Island. A woman who had just been told her pains were false labor, and who had just gotten home, went into labor in her home. The dad delivered the baby. Way to go dad! The story about the singer takes place in Wales. The Operatic Soprano is slated to be the voice of summer football (soccer) in Wales. Yea! Sports and Music are meshing!
Anyway, I hope that you enjoy todays posts. See you tomorrow! :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Welsh Soprano to be Voice of Summer Football (Soccer, in Wales) (IC Wales)
2. Lodi CA Man Narrowly Saves 82-Year-Old Woman From Speeding Train (News10.net)
3. Staten Island Dad Delivers on Mother's Day (Staten Island Live)
4. Rookie Teacher Plants Crane with Hope (Chicago Sun Times)
5. Boater Rescues kayakers who Capsized in Greenwich Bay (Povidence Journal)
Honorable Mention:
1. Bread Mold May Unlock Secret to Eliminating Disease-causing Genes (Science Daily)
Today's Top 5:
1. Welsh Soprano to be Voice of Summer Football (Soccer, in Wales)
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/05/12/welsh-soprano-to-be-voice-of-summer-football-91466-20894377/
May 12 2008 by Darren Devine, Western Mail
A WELSH opera star whose debut album topped the classical charts will be the voice of ITV’s coverage of the European Championships this summer.
Soprano Natasha Marsh will be the latest classical artist to forge an association with a major football tournament – Luciano Pavarotti began the trend when he recorded Nessun Dorma for the 1990 World Cup.
Natasha, 27, has recorded Queen Of The Night from Mozart’s opera the Magic Flute for the tournament in Austria and Switzerland next month.
The performer, from Brecon, is dismissive of those who suggest recording classical music theme tunes for major football tournaments has now become passe.
Natasha, whose mother and father ran the music department at Brecon High School, said: “There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just so moving, it’s so epic, and that’s what people feel.
“When you see footballers crying their eyes out, or spectators who are just full of emotion, classical music matches that.
“There’s a bit of a stigma attached to it, that you’ve got to be educated to really get it and that’s just rubbish, total rubbish,” she added.
While at 5ft 10in tall with blonde locks cascading over her shoulders, she may look more like a Bond girl than a typical soprano, Natasha has no time for the preconceptions of opera purists.
Her influences come from across the musical spectrum – encompassing pop and classical.
“There was always music playing in our house and I was brought up to the sounds of Steeleye Span to Bach and Mozart via Shirley Bassey and Whitney Houston and I’ve always loved to sing.”
But she is quick to point out that her classical background could not be stronger.
“I came from the real opera world. I went to college and didn’t get a record deal when I was 18. I worked for years as an opera singer.
“When EMI approached me for the record deal, I knew that the purists were going to look at me and say, ‘Why are you wasting your time?’.
“But I can’t bear snobbism. Music is music – if you commit to the songs and the lyrics and you give a compelling performance, then that’s what it’s about.”
Her debut album Amour was a runaway success – reaching No1 in its first week in the classical charts last year.
She viewed this as a pay-off for her impeccable operatic credentials.
Natasha got a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and has performed with companies such as the Glyndebourne Touring Opera.
At the moment she is performing alongside Britain’s Got Talent’s Paul Potts – he triumphed in the ITV competition with a powerful rendition of Nessun Dorma.
But in June, Natasha, who graduated with a first in music and drama from Birmingham University, will regale the House of Commons with a song inspired by the theme from Schindler’s List.
The event will mark the 79th anniversary of the birth of teenage diarist and holocaust victim Anne Frank.
The wife of composer Dobs Vye, Natasha is convinced there is much to connect classical music and football.
“The passions in football and opera are identical. You get goosebumps when you sing a high note, you get goosebumps when you score a goal.
“It’s the same electrifying experience when the audience, or the spectators, go, ‘Wow, what an amazing moment.’”
2. Lodi CA Man Narrowly Saves 82-Year-Old Woman From Speeding Train
Updated: 5/12/2008 12:11:18 AM
Written by Jason Kobely, Internet News Producer
LODI, CA - A 20-year-old Lodi man was being hailed as a hero Sunday after pulling an 82-year-old wheelchair-bound woman from the path of a speeding train with just seconds to spare, according to Lodi Police. Sam Huffman says he saw 82-year old Marguerite Jones fall from her motorized wheelchair as he drove past about ten o'clock Saturday night. "And I saw her laying in the middle of the railroad tracks," he said.
With the train bearing down at nearly 40 miles an hour, Huffman jumped out of his vehicle, grabbed Jones and managed to pull her off the tracks just as the train passed within three feet of the pair. Huffman says he just reacted, then realized what he'd done later. "I'm just really glad I got the opportunity to save a life. Because not everybody gets that opportunity."
Eubanks said Lodi Police Lt. Virgil Monroe was driving through the area and arrived just in time to see Huffman pull Jones from the tracks. The woman's motorized wheelchair was demolished by the train. "It was a split-second," said Monroe. "He truly saved this woman's life."
Monroe interviewed the train's engineer, who stopped the train after fearing he'd struck Huffman and Jones.
Jones was not injured. She later thanked Huffman, saying, "I want to thank you again and again and again." She said she felt as if Jones were an angel sent by God. "He put him here so he could pull me off the tracks," she said.
3. Staten Island Dad Delivers on Mother's Day
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/05/staten_island_dad_delivers_on.html
Monday May 12, 2008, 8:00 AM
Bill Lyons/Staten Island
He's only a full day old, but Anthony Occhinero already has a dramatic sense of timing.
Just minutes after Denise Occhinero returned from Richmond University Medical Center yesterday morning, where she was told that the contractions she had felt were premature, her husband delivered their first child on the floor of their Great Kills home.
"I was like, 'Oh my God, the baby can't come out here,' but there was no stopping it," said the baby's father, also named Anthony, 36, at Staten Island Hospital yesterday. "I feel like it's not real."
Little 6-pound, 6-ounce Anthony is under observation at SIUH's north campus as a precaution, because the he was born on the floor of the couple's Glover Street home and not in a hospital.
He's the couple's first child, born on the first day Mrs. Occhinero can call herself a mom, on a day to celebrate motherhood.
"That's the way life goes, I knew it wasn't going to be the average birth," Mrs. Occhinero, 33, said from a wheelchair at SIUH, cradling her infant son. "It's wonderful; it was meant to be."
The Occhineros' story begins Saturday afternoon, when Mrs. Occhinero went to RUMC twice for what hospital staff said were false alarms -- first at about 3 p.m. that day, and then at about 3 a.m. yesterday.
Anthony Occhinero joked that it was the bumpy ride down Clove Road that did it, but within minutes of arriving home, at about 6:15 a.m., Mrs. Occhinero called up to her husband, "the baby's coming" and neither had any time to think.
Anthony Occhinero called 911 immediately, looking for help or at least some advice, but by the time the emergency medical technicians were on the phone the show was over.
"They said, 'tell me what's happening,' and I said, 'my baby's in my arms,'" he said.
Anthony Occhinero said it all happened so fast, but he did remember to make sure his infant's mouth was clear, turn him over and give him a hard slap on the back.
The EMTs arrived just as he was contemplating how he should cut the umbilical cord. The Occhineros have been married for almost 11 years, with a backstory that began like so many others on Staten Island: He was 17, she was 15, and they both met at Midland Beach back when it was a spot where hundreds of teenagers would congregate.
Asked yesterday if they planned to have any other children, both laughed.
They were most thankful for the EMTs who arrived at their home so fast, but neither got their names.
"I don't know who they were, but they were excellent," Mrs. Occhinero said. "A lot of things could have gone wrong."
4. Rookie Teacher Plants Crane with Hope
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/944447,CST-NWS-teach12.article
May 12, 2008Recommend (6)
BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter/rrossi@suntimes.com
Despite a school year marred by death, the earth around Crane Technical Prep is bursting with new life. And rookie teacher Cody Thompson and the garden club he started can't wait to survey it.
At the farthest reaches of Crane's campus, the group examines the strongest survivors of 1,500 red and white tulip bulbs they planted last fall.
"These are the best ones because there's nobody here to bother them,'' says club member Tyeisha Underwood, 16.
As the students stare, fascinated, it's clear these kids have been transported to another world, far from the gunfire 2 1/2 blocks away that killed a classmate March 7 and drew attention to the violence that has claimed the lives of 24 Chicago Public Schools students this school year.
Thompson, a slightly built first-year chemistry teacher from Ohio, has led them to this quiet spot where they can relax, think and soak up the wonders of nature -- in peace.
After eight months, kids say, Thompson has made a difference. The year's tragedies and triumphs have only reinforced his belief that he was meant to teach -- even that he was meant to teach at Crane.
"I've heard a lot of teachers say their first year in teaching made them rethink their career choice,'' said Thompson, 27, who looks like a 1960s folk singer with his shag haircut and goatee.
"My first year in teaching has only solidified my belief that I am absolutely doing what I'm supposed to be doing.''
One victory for Thompson was starting an after-school garden club in this hardscrabble area, where many students' primary concern at dismissal time is making it home through various gang turfs. Thompson persuaded about 25 Near West Side kids to shovel dirt, hoe soil, scatter blood meal and plant bulbs in an effort to expand the clubs at Crane, an almost all-black, high-poverty school where just 7 percent of juniors passed state tests last year.
'It's hard work'
"Most people were saying the garden club was for soft people, but I wanted to see for myself,'' said freshman Montrell Hallom, 16.
"It's hard work. The soil was hard like a brick. We had to dig it up and break it down," he said.
Other kids got even more out of it.
"One of the greatest moments was when a kid walked away and said, 'I feel good. I feel like I just worked out for an hour,'" Thompson said.
Thompson also recruited 10 kids to enter the Science Olympiad during CPS' first attempt to field entrants for one of the country's premier science competitions. In preparation, students worked after school for weeks, building trial electric cars and constructing boomilevers -- structures that support weight.
At the city meet, Crane walked off with a best-sportsmanship award, and every Crane student carried home at least one medal.
"I was proud of myself,'' said Tabias McKethan, 16, who took home two medals. Winning a medal, Tabias said, shows "an African-American student can do more than dribble a basketball.''
Thompson lights up when he remembers the Olympiad, a competition he entered as a young boy in Ohio. "When those kids got those medals at the Science Olympiad, I was high the whole day,'' said Thompson, who has a master's in science education from Ohio State University.
Despite his brief time at Crane, Thompson has been able to recruit kids to clubs they'd never heard of by quickly garnering a reputation as a "cool teacher.''
Kids say he makes up rhymes to help them remember chemistry words, challenges them with frequent experiments, and keeps his door open during his free period for tutoring or just "hanging out.''
Thompson's classroom is lined with soaring windows filled with plants. There, he taught one regular visitor how to play chess. One day, another student came in, forlorn, and burst into tears. She didn't want to talk, Thompson said, "but I think my room just provided her a space to be safe. ... She found comfort, somehow, some way, in my room.''
Even Jean Mason, who observes Thompson weekly as a Loyola University chemistry coach, says he has great rapport with kids. And overall, she said, in eight years of observing teachers, "he's in the top 10 percent'' of rookies she has ever seen.
'The Cody Thompson show'
The buzz about Thompson grew even stronger in April, after hip-hopper KRS-One visited Crane with an inspirational rap session and invited audience members to free-style rap. In response, Thompson, a former Ohio hip-hop group member, launched into a free-style that triggered screams of approval from the crowd and even wowed KRS-One.
"It was the Cody Thompson show, not the KRS One show,'' said Crane Principal Richard Smith.
Smith still can't figure out where Thompson got his "phenomenal'' ability to connect with kids. He's just glad he hired him.
"How could this kid come from a rural community ... and be that effective with these kids?'' asked Smith. "Don't ask me how. If it ain't broke, I'm not going to fix it.''
Thompson, a vegetarian, lives with his fiancee in Chicago's hip Andersonville neighborhood. But he grew up on the edge of corn and soybean fields in Bellefontaine, Ohio. His great grandmother was a Cherokee from Appalachian West Virginia. He calls himself a man "in tune with nature.''
His roots are far from the West Side, but his connection to the kids here has blossomed, just like the tulips he planted last fall.
"I believe I'm in the right place,'' Thompson says as he heads out the door at the end of the school day. "It's what feels natural. It's what feels right.''
5. Boater Rescues Kayakers who Capsized in Greenwich Bay
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RI_KAYAKERS_RESCUED_MAOL-?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
May 12, 12:04 AM EDT
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The U.S. Coast Guard says two kayaks capsized in Greenwich Bay and two people were treated for mild hypothermia.
The Providence Journal says the incident occurred Sunday afternoon, off the Warwick shoreline.
The Coast Guard station in Newport received a call about 3 p.m. reporting two people in distress about a half-mile from shore.
By the time Coast Guard personnel arrived, a local boater had rescued the 47-year-old Massachusetts woman and a 26-year-old Rhode Island man.
The Coast Guard boat took the two to shore, where Warwick rescue personnel examined them.
Honorable Mention:
1. Bread Mold May Unlock Secret to Eliminating Disease-causing Genes
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508135223.htm
ScienceDaily
May 11, 2008
When most people discover mold on their bread, they immediately throw it out. Others see a world of possibilities in the tiny fungus. A University of Missouri scientist, along with a collaborative research team, has examined a new mechanism in the reproductive cycle of a certain species of mold. This mechanism protects the organism from genetic abnormalities by "silencing" unmatched genes during meiosis (sexual reproduction). The finding could have implications for higher organisms and may lead to precise "targeting" of unwanted genes, such as those from the HIV virus.
"Meiotic silencing also occurs in worms, mice and human beings," said Patrick Shiu, assistant professor of biological sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science. "It's unlikely that all share the same mechanism, but the principle of targeting unpaired DNA for silencing seems to be found in both simple and complex organisms. Knowing the process of how DNA in molds is targeted for silencing could be important for silencing genes you don't want to be expressed, like disease-causing genes."
Shiu and his colleagues discovered that each sexual cell in mold has an internal mechanism that "scans" paired chromosomes for anomalies. The researchers found that when one chromosome in a pair carries an extra copy of a gene not found in its partner chromosome, it is a good indication of an intruder and the fungus will "turn off" all copies of that gene during meiosis. The researchers call this process "meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA," or MSUD.
"MSUD defends the fungus against invasion at a time when chromosomes are especially vulnerable to the spread of viruses and insertion sequences," Shiu said.
Shiu's research enhances understanding of how to "shut off" undesirable genes, sheds light on the genetic components of the MSUD pathway, and may have applications in a number of industries, including pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
Because of his contribution to the field of genetics, Shiu recently received the Beadle and Tatum Award, named after Nobel Prize-winning geneticists George Beadle and Edward Tatum. The award was established to recognize outstanding and original research by a scientist using Neurospora, a type of bread mold, as a model organism.
Shiu's latest study, funded by the National Science Foundation, was published as the cover feature in the journal Fungal Genetics and Biology.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.
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