Good Morning all,
Well, my friend Lisa and I made it to Cheju Island this evening. All is well, especially since there is a Cinnabon in town. YIPPEE!! Anyway, my western food cravings aside, I have some good news articles for you. :)
Today, I'd like to highlight just two. First, is the article about the 8th Century tablets found in Shiga Japan. The cool thing about these is that they contain ancient poetry! I think it's pretty awesome to find 1200 year old poetry hidden inside wooden tablets.
The second article I'd like to highlight is about the comback Humpback Whales have made. In the 1960s when they were put on the endangered species list, there were less than 2000 left in the world. Now there are about 20,000! I guess that explains why some countries think hunting them should be just fine, in moderation.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's posts! I'll see you tomorrow! :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Flame the Robot Walks Like a Human (Inventor Spot)
2. Mid-8th Century Wooden Tablets in Shiga (Japan) Found to Contain Ancient Poetry (Mainichi Daily News)
3. The Write Stuff: 8,000 (Irish) Pupils Compose Books "as Gaeilge" (Irish Independent)
4. Japan Earmarks $54 Million in Food Grants (Yahoo News)
5. New Books and Film Find Hidden Hero of Holocaust (Reuters)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Teen's Care Packages Bring Music, Movies to Troops (CNN)
2. Cosmic Supermagnet Spreads Mysterious "Morse Code" (Science Daily)
3. New Study Finds Most North Pacific Humpback Whale Populations are Rebounding (eurekalert.org)
4. Irish Film Wins New Festival Contest (Irish Independent)
5. Plane's Miracle Landing on a Wing and a Prayer (Sky News)
Today's Top 5:
1. Flame the Robot Walks Like A Human
http://inventorspot.com/articles/flame_robot_walks_like_a_human_13801
Posted May 23rd, 2008
By Lisa Zyga
A new robot named Flame is the most advanced walking robot that walks like a human. Researchers from TU Delft including Daan Hobbelen have designed the cutting-edge robot by making the traditional sloppy human walking movement more stable.
Flame the robot. Credit: TU Delft
Basically, as the researchers explain, humans walk by lifting a leg and falling forward. While this is a very energy-efficient (and lazy) strategy compared with the industrial, highly-controlled approach, it's also relatively unstable. In other words, it's very difficult for researchers to program a robot to fall forward.
But Hobbelen invented a method for measuring the stability of the way that people and robots walk. He built the robot Flame to demonstrate the improvement. Besides containing seven motors, Flame also possesses an "organ of balance." With information from its organ of balance, Flame can do things such as place its feet slightly further apart in order to prevent a potential fall.
This understanding of human walking can also provide insight into how people walk. The researchers hope that individuals with walking difficulties will benefit from improved diagnoses, training, and rehabilitation.
Hobbelen will receive his PhD for this research on Friday, May 30.
p.s. To see a .wmv of Flame, there's a link at PhysOrg.com here .
2. Mid-8th Century Wooden Tablets in Shiga Found to Contain Ancient Poetry
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080523p2a00m0na021000c.html
May 23, 2008
A wooden tablet fragment containing poetry from the Manyoshu is pictured on May 14.KOKA, Shiga -- A wooden tablet unearthed from the Miyamachi ruins here contains a version of a poem from the Manyoshu, the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, municipal education board officials have announced.
The tablet, estimated to be from the mid-eighth century, contains the collection's Asakayama poem. It is the first time for a wooden tablet containing a poem from the Manyoshu to be found.
The characters used on the wooden tablet, or mokkan, were completely different from those in the Manyoshu. In addition to the Asakayama poem, officials added that an inscription of the Naniwazu poem had also been found.
It had been known that the two poems were used as models for poetry during the Heian Period when the Kokin Wakashu collection of verse was compiled, but the discovery of the wooden tablets suggests that the poems had been held up as examples as many as 150 years earlier, during the period in which the Manyoshu emerged.
The Miyamachi ruins in Koka are believed to contain the remains of the Shigaraki-no-Miya palace built by Emperor Shomu (701-756) during the Nara Period. The tablets were unearthed in 1997 from a ditch thought to have been used as a drain for the palace.
3. The Write Stuff: 8,000 (Irish) Pupils Compose Books 'as Gaeilge'
http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/the-write-stuff-8000-pupils-compose-books-as-gaeilge-1383896.html
Friday May 23 2008
Who says pupils don't like Irish? With an imaginative project and encouragement from their teachers they will write fluently 'as Gaeilge'.
More than 8,000 children took part in 'Scriobh Leabhar', a project which promotes reading and writing through Irish. Hosted through seven education centres nationwide, 'Scriobh Leabhar' encourages primary school children to compose, design and publish their own books in Irish.
The 'Write a Book' project was started by the Blackrock Education Centre over 20 years ago, to promote reading and writing among primary school pupils.
In 2006, Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge and An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaiochta (COGG) began working in conjunction with a number of education centres to offer an Irish strand of the project -- 'Scriobh Leabhar' -- to promote reading and writing through Irish.
The first prize-winning ceremonies were held in early 2007.
All teachers were offered an in-service course which helped them devise strategies to motivate and inspire children's Irish language writing.
The participating schools swap books so that children can read and discuss material written by their counterparts.
Over the coming weeks, the students and their schools will be recognised for their participation in the project.
Aedin Ni Bhroin, director of Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge, said: "We are delighted with the success of Scriobh Leabhar. We realise the importance of cultivating readers and writers from a young age as they are the future of the Irish language and this scheme goes a long way towards achieving that goal."
- John Walshe
4. Japan Earmarks $54 Million in Food Grants
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080523/ap_on_re_as/japan_food_aid
Fri May 23, 4:19 AM ET
TOKYO - Japan allocated $54 million in emergency grants on Friday to the United Nations to help Afghanistan, Africa and Palestinian refugees cope with the ongoing food crisis.
The money will be given to the U.N.'s World Food Program and Relief and Works Agency to buy and distribute food in the impoverished areas, the Foreign Ministry said.
Sudan, Kenya and eight other countries in Africa are included, it said.
"Chronic food shortages are spreading in these countries and regions due to poverty, natural disasters, bad weather, as well as conflicts," the ministry said in a statement. "The recent rises in global food prices has made the food shortage all the more serious."
The funds represent the first allocation of Japan's $100 million pledge of emergency food aid over three months, the Foreign Ministry said. With the announcement, Japan's global food aid this year totals $140 million.
High oil prices, growing demand, panic buying and speculation have sent food prices soaring worldwide, triggering protests from Africa to Asia and raising fears that millions more would suffer malnutrition.
Internationally, rice prices skyrocketed by about 76 percent from December to April while overall food prices have risen 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.
The Japanese government announced Thursday it would release some of its huge stockpile of rice to help ease the crisis, sending some 20,000 tons to five African nations in coming weeks.
5. New Books and Film Find Hidden Hero of Holocaust
http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKN2249654220080523?pageNumber=4&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
Fri May 23, 2008 2:47am BST
By Arthur Spiegelman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - History has not been kind to Rezso Kasztner.
He saved more Jews from death in the Holocaust than any other Jew. His reward was the accusation that he sold his soul to the devil and assassination by Jewish extremists.
But Kasztner's reputation may be about to be restored, more than 60 years after he negotiated a "blood for money" deal with an armed, drunk and often ranting Adolph Eichmann to save Jewish lives in exchange for cash, jewels and trucks.
Two new books about Kasztner have been published and a documentary film is being prepared for distribution later this year. All paint him as a hidden hero of the Holocaust, a man who risked his life in countless bargaining sessions with the Nazis.
During World War Two, he negotiated a train to carry almost 1,700 Hungarian Jews to safety in Switzerland, while he stayed behind to continue negotiating.
Later in the war, he also accompanied an SS officer on visits to concentration camps to tell commandants to stop the killings, saving up to 100,000 Jews according to some experts.
At that point, it was clear that Germany was on the verge of losing the war and there would be trials afterward. SS Col. Kurt Becher took Kasztner along possibly because he wanted a Jewish witness to his good deed.
Anna Porter, whose book "Kasztner's Train" draws on seven years of research, scores of interviews and previously unknown papers, says that it is time to honour Kasztner and to dismiss the many accusations against him.
The second book, German literature professor Ladislaus Lob's "Dealing with Satan: Rezso Kasztner's Daring Rescue Mission," is part reexamination of Kasztner and part memoir.
Lob was 11 years old when he escaped with his father on Kasztner's train to Switzerland from the Bergen-Belsen camp.
A NOBODY
At the time, Kasztner was an obscure official of a minor Zionist committee but who had links with Jewish rescue groups in the United States, Turkey and Switzerland.
"He was a nobody who had muscled his way into the negotiations," said filmmaker Gaylen Ross. "He was just a member of a small group of Zionists." Ross' upcoming film has the working title of "The Persecution and Assassination of Dr Israel Kasztner."
After the war, Kasztner and his family emigrated to Israel.
Complaints against him surfaced along with a scathing book by American screenwriter and journalist Ben Hecht. Hecht painted Kasztner as a Nazi collaborator who withheld key information from the Allies, stuffed the train with his own relatives and charged for the seats.
Kasztner had saved 19 of his relatives by getting them seats on the train but 100 other relatives died in Auschwitz.
As for making money off the train, 150 people paid for tickets and that was enough to cover the costs of the other, poorer Jews.
In 1952 he was accused of collaborating with the Nazis by Machiel Grunwald, an elderly pamphleteer.
The Israeli government sued Grunwald for libel but the trial proved to be an all-out attack on Kasztner, with the lone judge ruling that he had made a deal with the devil.
The verdict was overturned in 1957 but by then it was too late. Kasztner had been assassinated outside his home by three extremists, his reputation already dead in the courtroom.
Holocaust author and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel says of Kasztner, "I followed his trial and I think he wanted to help but he chose the wrong method."
Ross, the filmmaker, likened Kasztner to the Rorschach inkblot test, a psychological evaluation in which patients are asked to interpret inkblot patterns.
"For me, Kasztner is a Rorschach test. People put on him what they feel," Ross said.
First and foremost, there is the guilt felt by the survivors for having lived while others died and then there are the moral questions of dealing with the Nazis and of buying Jewish lives for cash, Ross said.
Jews questioned the motives of other Jews, forgetting that the Holocaust was a crime against humanity perpetrated by the Nazis, not Jews, Ross said.
For Porter, the Kasztner story is how his acts of bravery could be so fiercely debated even though they equalled those of righteous Gentiles Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg.
"He wanted to be seen as a saviour of Jews and he was essentially a good man. Schindler called him the most fearless person he knew," Porter said.
(Reporting by Arthur Spiegelman; Editing by Eddie Evans)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Teen's Care Packages Bring Music, Movies to Troops
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/05/21/heroes.radzyminski/index.html?eref=rss_latest
May 22, 2008 -- Updated 1733 GMT (0133 HKT)
CLEVELAND, Tennessee (CNN) -- At 14, while attending the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet camp in Florida, Kaylee Marie Radzyminski asked one question to troops returning from overseas military service. Their simple answer spurred the small-town teen into action.
"I asked, 'What was the number one thing they missed?' " recalls Radzyminski. "The first thing was, of course, their families. But second to that was entertainment."
They described limited access to Internet and satellite service, with some soldiers sharing just a few DVDs or CDs with an entire unit. So Radzyminski returned home and gathered her CDs and DVDs to send to the troops. What started as an individual project at home is now 16-year-old Radzyminski's nationwide nonprofit, Tunes 4 the Troops. Since 2005, she and volunteers have organized the collection and delivery of more than 200,000 CDs and DVDs to deployed service members around the world.
"My mission is not about supporting or opposing the war, it's about supporting the troops," says Radzyminski, whose own family has a military background. "They sacrifice so much for us, why can't I do a little bit to give back to them?"
Reaching out to friends, classmates and community members for donated discs of all kinds, Radzyminski's own community joined her cause. She made disc donations easy by placing Tunes 4 the Troops collection boxes at football games, churches, neighborhood events, and community centers. Her own Cleveland High School helped out by setting up an account for the school's management of financial donations -- for disc purchases, packing supplies, and shipping costs.
"It first started with my collection, then my friends chipped in with their music and movies, and it just spread and spread through my community -- and now, nationwide," says Radzyminski. "It's great to see the amount of people that care."
When she receives a CD or DVD, Radzyminski first sends a hand-written "thank you" to the donor. Then she separates all discs into genres and combs through them to ensure there is no explicit, burned or copied material. Each disc to be sent is branded with a Tunes 4 the Troops sticker, which allows a soldier who has never heard of her organization to request more items.
"That way, if they get sent to a unit, and then that unit gives it to another unit, that unit can always request a box," explains Radzyminski.
Each Saturday, the teen tapes, wraps and labels boxes before spending about two hours at the post office. Radzyminski originally stored donations and materials in her home, but in 2006, her local Home Depot donated a small shed for Tunes 4 the Troops operations.
Today, the organization has about 200 satellite locations across the United States and has collected more than $3 million worth of donations. They also hold yearly Outback Steakhouse fundraisers, which have grossed close to $5,000 for each of the past two years.
In addition to Tunes 4 the Troops, Radzyminski also runs track, maintains a 4.0 GPA, and works night shifts at a restaurant, admitting that life can get "a bit stressful sometimes."
She recently received the Prudential Spirit of Community Service Award, missing her junior prom to be in Washington for the honor. But she says her own sacrifices pale in comparison to those made by thousands of American soldiers everyday.
"I love what I do because it's not just affecting me, it's affecting thousands of other people," she says. "To have such a large outcome of happy soldiers is so worth it."
Radzyminski's goal? She hopes to collect and ship 500,000 CDs and DVDs to deployed soldiers overseas by the end of the year.
2. Cosmic Supermagnet Spreads Mysterious 'Morse Code'
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080522084419.htm
ScienceDaily
May 22, 2008
Astronomers from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research have discovered mysterious pulses that are being emitted by an extremely magnetic star. The magnetic star, a magnetar, emits the pulses as very high energy X-rays. The astronomers made their observations using the ESA space telescopes INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton and the NASA satellite RXTE.
Sometimes observations confirm a scientific theory perfectly, yet at other times telescopes bring completely new phenomena to light. That is what happened in the case of SRON astronomer Peter den Hartog. ‘I was looking for new sources of high energy X-rays on a celestial chart, made using the space telescope INTEGRAL. To our surprise, at the edge of this chart a star was visible that we knew was a magnetar. However, we never expected that it would emit this type of radiation,' says the researcher, who upon making this discovery immediately requested additional observation time with INTEGRAL for follow-up research.
Magnetars are small compact neutron stars with a magnetic field that is one billion times stronger than what can be artificially made on Earth. They are the strongest magnets in the universe. They have a mass one-and-a-half times that of the Sun but this is squeezed into a sphere with a radius of 10 kilometres. How they form exactly is a mystery. As they emit enormous quantities of energy in the form of X-rays, they have a lifespan of only 10,000 years. The magnetars rotate like mad around their axes, as a result of which they regularly sling a bundle of radiation into space like a lighthouse emitting a beacon of light. Although these X-rays to not reach the Earth's surface, they are nevertheless visible in space with the aid of an X-ray telescope.
For a long time astronomers thought that they had understood the nature of magnetars. The internal energy of a magnetar, stored in the extreme internal magnetic field that spirals through the star, was emitted as relatively low energy X-rays. However, that image was overturned several years ago by SRON astronomer Lucien Kuiper, when he used observations from INTEGRAL to demonstrate that the magnetars emit far more radiation of a far higher energy level. The phenomenon of the magnetars was once again shrouded in mystery. And Peter den Hartog's research has only added to this by revealing even more striking properties.
‘By converting the observations from INTEGRAL, XMM-Newton and RXTE into a type of short film, we could see how the characteristics of the X-rays changed over the course of time,’ explains Den Hartog. The characteristics of the radiation were found to drastically change during the rotation of the magnetar. Den Hartog: ‘Three different processes were found to be taking place in the magnetar that gave rise to three different pulses’. For the time being, the meaning of this Morse code remains a mystery. This is why astronomers look with high expectations forward to the first data of space observatory GLAST due for launch by NASA on the 2nd of June. GLAST will study the high energy radiation from the universe in detail.
SRON is strongly involved in both INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton. SRON astronomer Wim Hermsen is a mission scientist in the INTEGRAL team and as such is closely involved in the satellite's scientific programme. SRON has also built an instrument for XMM-Newton that unravels the X-rays picked up by the telescope and then analyses these in detail.
Peter den Hartog defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Non-thermal X-ray emission from Anomalous X-ray Pulsars’ on Wednesday 21 May 2008 at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Adapted from materials provided by SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research.
3. New Study Finds Most North Pacific Humpback Whale Populations are Rebounding
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/nnmf-nsf052108.php
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
The number of humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean has increased since international and federal protections were enacted in the 1960s and 70s, according to a new study funded primarily by NOAA and conducted by more than 400 whale researchers throughout the Pacific region.
However, some isolated populations of humpbacks, especially those in the Western Pacific Ocean, have not recovered at the same rate and still suffer low numbers.
The new research reveals that the overall population of humpbacks has rebounded to approximately 18,000 to 20,000 animals. The population of humpback whales in the North Pacific, at least half of whom migrate between Alaska and Hawaii, numbered less than 1,500 in 1966 when international whaling for this species was banned. In the 1970s, federal laws including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act provided additional protection.
“NOAA is proud to have played a key role in initiating and funding this study,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “It is only through this type of international cooperation that we can gauge our success and measure what additional work needs to be accomplished to protect highly migratory marine mammals.”
The results of this new report come from SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks), an international effort involving more than 50 organizations. Launched in 2004, the project determined whale migratory patterns and estimated population sizes by using a library of 18,000 photographs of whale flukes to identify 8,000 individual whales.
Cascadia Research in Olympia, Wash., the central coordinator for the SPLASH project, matched photographs from six different feeding and breeding areas. By matching whale flukes photographed in their feeding areas with those photographed in the wintering areas, researchers were able to determine the patterns of individual whale movements, as well as estimate the sizes of different populations.
In addition to whale fluke photographs, SPLASH researchers collected more than 6,000 biopsy samples for studies of genetics and pollutants, along with thousands of additional photographs to determine how levels of scarring from line entanglement and ship strikes vary among regions. The samples, which are yet to be analyzed, will provide valuable insights into the complex population structure and current threats to further recovery.
Funding for the SPLASH project comes from NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Pacific Life Foundation, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, along with support from a number of other organizations and governmental agencies.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
On the Web:
NOAA’s Fisheries Service: http//:www.nmfs.noaa.gov
NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov
NOAA SPLASH Web site: http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/special_offerings/sp_off/splash/splash.html
4. Irish Film Wins New Festival Contest
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-film--wins-new-festival-contest-1383907.htmlFriday May 23 2008
A young Irish film-maker has made it big at the Cannes Film Festival where renowned film director Spike Lee announced the first-ever winners of a new online film competition called Babelgum.
Brian Deane (29), originally from Glanmire, Co Cork, was awarded the Social/Environment Award for his first movie, the short film 'Without Words'.
Along with winners from six other categories, Brian received a €20,000 cheque.
Brian is a graduate of NUI Galway's Huston School of Film & Digital Media.
'Without Words', which was filmed in Galway, explores a world where technology has given us the tools to communicate but not the ability.
It has been described as a personal film about two friends who pay a very high price for our failure as a society to connect.
The Babelgum Online Film Festival is said to be the first of its kind, and provides a unique distribution opportunity for new film-making talent.
Over a thousand entries from 86 countries were uploaded for the online festival. The festival jury was led by Spike Lee, the Emmy award-winning director.
5. Plane's Miracle Landing On A Wing And A Prayer
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1316712,00.html?f=rss
Updated:13:49, Wednesday May 21, 2008
Two pilots in a microlight were literally flying on a wing and a prayer when their fuel ran out - and it seemed that divine intervention took a hand in bringing them down safely.
Microlight made miracle landingGrant Stubbs and Owen Wilson, both from the town of Blenheim on New Zealand's South Island, were flying up the sloping valley of Pelorus Sound when the engine spluttered, coughed and died.
"My friend and I are both Christians so our immediate reaction in a life-threatening situation was to ask for God's help," Mr Stubbs said.
He said he prayed that the tiny craft would get over the top of a ridge and that they would find a landing site that was not too steep - or in the nearby sea.
Mr Wilson said that the pair would have been in deep trouble if the fuel had run out five minutes earlier.
"If it had to run out, that was the place to be," he said.
"There was an instantaneous answer to prayer as we crossed the ridge and there was an airfield - I didn't know it existed till then."
Mr Wilson glided the craft to a landing on the grassy strip, coming to rest just beside a 20ft sign that read "Jesus is Lord - The Bible".
"When we saw that, we started laughing," Mr Stubbs said.
"It was a bit of relief, and I guess confirmation for us that it was God that really did save us from this one!"
Nearby residents provided them with enough petrol to fly home.
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