Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
News/Events
Stonehenge skeleton came from Mediterranean
LONDON — A wealthy young teenager buried near Britain's mysterious Stonehenge monument came from the Mediterranean hundreds of miles away, scientists said Wednesday, proof of the site's importance as a travel destination in prehistoric times.
The teen — dubbed "The Boy with the Amber Necklace" because he was unearthed with a cluster of amber beads around his neck — is one of several sets of foreign remains found around the ancient ring of imposing stones, whose exact purpose remains unknown.
The British Geological Survey's Jane Evans said that the find, radiocarbon dated to 1,550 B.C., "highlights the diversity of people who came to Stonehenge from across Europe," a statement backed by Bournemouth University's Timothy Darvill, a Stonehenge scholar uninvolved with the discovery.
"The find adds considerable weight to the idea that people traveled long distances to visit Stonehenge, which must therefore have had a big reputation as a cult center," Darvill said in an e-mail Wednesday. "Long distance travel was certainly more common at this time than we generally think."
[A contrarian tourist's opinion: 5 reasons not to bother with Stonehenge]
The skeleton, thought to be that of a 14- or 15-year-old, was unearthed about two miles (3 kilometers) southeast of Stonehenge, in southern England.
Clues to the adolescent's foreign origins could be found in the necklace, which isn't a recognized British type. But he was traced to the area around the Mediterranean Sea by a technique known as isotope analysis, which in this case measured the ratio of strontium and oxygen isotopes in his tooth enamel.
Different regions have different mixes of elements in their drinking water, for example, and some of those are absorbed into a person's tooth enamel as he or she grows up. Analysis of the isotopes of oxygen and strontium carried in the enamel can give scientists a good but rather general idea of where a person was raised.
[Around the world: Stonehenge replicas, impressive and whimsical]
The teen, whose necklace suggests he came from a rich family, is one of several long-distance travelers found near Stonehenge. The "Amesbury Archer," so-called because of the stone arrowheads he was found with, was buried three miles (5 kilometers) from Stonehenge but is thought to have come from the Alpine foothills of central Europe. The "Boscombe Bowmen," also found nearby, are thought to have come from Wales or possibly Brittany.
It isn't clear precisely what drew these people to Stonehenge, a site which has existed in various forms for some 5,000 years. It clearly had an important ceremonial function, and the area around it is dotted with the remains of prehistoric monuments and tombs. Some say it was at the center of a sun-worshipping culture or that it served as a kind of astronomical calendar.
Others, like Darvill, also say it might have been an important healing site, drawing pilgrims from across Europe like a prehistoric version of Lourdes.
Could 'Goldilocks' planet be just right for life?
WASHINGTON – Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right.
Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.
It's just right. Just like Earth.
"This really is the first Goldilocks planet," said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighborhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth-like planets circle other stars.
Finding a planet that could potentially support life is a major step toward answering the timeless question: Are we alone?
Scientists have jumped the gun before on proclaiming that planets outside our solar system were habitable only to have them turn out to be not quite so conducive to life. But this one is so clearly in the right zone that five outside astronomers told The Associated Press it seems to be the real thing.
"This is the first one I'm truly excited about," said Penn State University's Jim Kasting. He said this planet is a "pretty prime candidate" for harboring life.
Life on other planets doesn't mean E.T. Even a simple single-cell bacteria or the equivalent of shower mold would shake perceptions about the uniqueness of life on Earth.
But there are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet. It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star — 14 million miles away versus 93 million. It's so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn't rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.
Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between — in the land of constant sunrise — it would be "shirt-sleeve weather," said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
It's unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Vogt believes "that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent."
The astronomers' findings are being published in Astrophysical Journal and were announced by the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.
The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It's about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is "like right in our face, right next door to us," Vogt said in an interview.
That close proximity and the way it was found so early in astronomers' search for habitable planets hints to scientists that planets like Earth are probably not that rare.
Vogt and Butler ran some calculations, with giant fudge factors built in, and figured that as much as one out of five to 10 stars in the universe have planets that are Earth-sized and in the habitable zone.
With an estimated 200 billion stars in the universe, that means maybe 40 billion planets that have the potential for life, Vogt said. However, Ohio State University's Scott Gaudi cautioned that is too speculative about how common these planets are.
Vogt and Butler used ground-based telescopes to track the star's precise movements over 11 years and watch for wobbles that indicate planets are circling it. The newly discovered planet is actually the sixth found circling Gliese 581. Two looked promising for habitability for a while, another turned out to be too hot and the fifth is likely too cold. This sixth one bracketed right in the sweet spot in between, Vogt said.
With the star designated "a," its sixth planet is called Gliese 581g.
"It's not a very interesting name and it's a beautiful planet," Vogt said. Unofficially, he's named it after his wife: "I call it Zarmina's World."
The star Gliese 581 is a dwarf, about one-third the strength of our sun. Because of that, it can't be seen without a telescope from Earth, although it is in the Libra constellation, Vogt said.
But if you were standing on this new planet, you could easily see our sun, Butler said.
The low-energy dwarf star will live on for billions of years, much longer than our sun, he said. And that just increases the likelihood of life developing on the planet, the discoverers said.
"It's pretty hard to stop life once you give it the right conditions," Vogt said.
LONDON — A wealthy young teenager buried near Britain's mysterious Stonehenge monument came from the Mediterranean hundreds of miles away, scientists said Wednesday, proof of the site's importance as a travel destination in prehistoric times.
The teen — dubbed "The Boy with the Amber Necklace" because he was unearthed with a cluster of amber beads around his neck — is one of several sets of foreign remains found around the ancient ring of imposing stones, whose exact purpose remains unknown.
The British Geological Survey's Jane Evans said that the find, radiocarbon dated to 1,550 B.C., "highlights the diversity of people who came to Stonehenge from across Europe," a statement backed by Bournemouth University's Timothy Darvill, a Stonehenge scholar uninvolved with the discovery.
"The find adds considerable weight to the idea that people traveled long distances to visit Stonehenge, which must therefore have had a big reputation as a cult center," Darvill said in an e-mail Wednesday. "Long distance travel was certainly more common at this time than we generally think."
[A contrarian tourist's opinion: 5 reasons not to bother with Stonehenge]
The skeleton, thought to be that of a 14- or 15-year-old, was unearthed about two miles (3 kilometers) southeast of Stonehenge, in southern England.
Clues to the adolescent's foreign origins could be found in the necklace, which isn't a recognized British type. But he was traced to the area around the Mediterranean Sea by a technique known as isotope analysis, which in this case measured the ratio of strontium and oxygen isotopes in his tooth enamel.
Different regions have different mixes of elements in their drinking water, for example, and some of those are absorbed into a person's tooth enamel as he or she grows up. Analysis of the isotopes of oxygen and strontium carried in the enamel can give scientists a good but rather general idea of where a person was raised.
[Around the world: Stonehenge replicas, impressive and whimsical]
The teen, whose necklace suggests he came from a rich family, is one of several long-distance travelers found near Stonehenge. The "Amesbury Archer," so-called because of the stone arrowheads he was found with, was buried three miles (5 kilometers) from Stonehenge but is thought to have come from the Alpine foothills of central Europe. The "Boscombe Bowmen," also found nearby, are thought to have come from Wales or possibly Brittany.
It isn't clear precisely what drew these people to Stonehenge, a site which has existed in various forms for some 5,000 years. It clearly had an important ceremonial function, and the area around it is dotted with the remains of prehistoric monuments and tombs. Some say it was at the center of a sun-worshipping culture or that it served as a kind of astronomical calendar.
Others, like Darvill, also say it might have been an important healing site, drawing pilgrims from across Europe like a prehistoric version of Lourdes.
Could 'Goldilocks' planet be just right for life?
WASHINGTON – Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right.
Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.
It's just right. Just like Earth.
"This really is the first Goldilocks planet," said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighborhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth-like planets circle other stars.
Finding a planet that could potentially support life is a major step toward answering the timeless question: Are we alone?
Scientists have jumped the gun before on proclaiming that planets outside our solar system were habitable only to have them turn out to be not quite so conducive to life. But this one is so clearly in the right zone that five outside astronomers told The Associated Press it seems to be the real thing.
"This is the first one I'm truly excited about," said Penn State University's Jim Kasting. He said this planet is a "pretty prime candidate" for harboring life.
Life on other planets doesn't mean E.T. Even a simple single-cell bacteria or the equivalent of shower mold would shake perceptions about the uniqueness of life on Earth.
But there are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet. It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star — 14 million miles away versus 93 million. It's so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn't rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.
Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between — in the land of constant sunrise — it would be "shirt-sleeve weather," said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
It's unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Vogt believes "that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent."
The astronomers' findings are being published in Astrophysical Journal and were announced by the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.
The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It's about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is "like right in our face, right next door to us," Vogt said in an interview.
That close proximity and the way it was found so early in astronomers' search for habitable planets hints to scientists that planets like Earth are probably not that rare.
Vogt and Butler ran some calculations, with giant fudge factors built in, and figured that as much as one out of five to 10 stars in the universe have planets that are Earth-sized and in the habitable zone.
With an estimated 200 billion stars in the universe, that means maybe 40 billion planets that have the potential for life, Vogt said. However, Ohio State University's Scott Gaudi cautioned that is too speculative about how common these planets are.
Vogt and Butler used ground-based telescopes to track the star's precise movements over 11 years and watch for wobbles that indicate planets are circling it. The newly discovered planet is actually the sixth found circling Gliese 581. Two looked promising for habitability for a while, another turned out to be too hot and the fifth is likely too cold. This sixth one bracketed right in the sweet spot in between, Vogt said.
With the star designated "a," its sixth planet is called Gliese 581g.
"It's not a very interesting name and it's a beautiful planet," Vogt said. Unofficially, he's named it after his wife: "I call it Zarmina's World."
The star Gliese 581 is a dwarf, about one-third the strength of our sun. Because of that, it can't be seen without a telescope from Earth, although it is in the Libra constellation, Vogt said.
But if you were standing on this new planet, you could easily see our sun, Butler said.
The low-energy dwarf star will live on for billions of years, much longer than our sun, he said. And that just increases the likelihood of life developing on the planet, the discoverers said.
"It's pretty hard to stop life once you give it the right conditions," Vogt said.
News/Events
It's good to be king; it's even better to be the power behind the throne. That power belongs to Nancy Berliner, curator of Chinese art at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), who helped organize the current exhibition of imperial treasures from Beijing's Forbidden City.
Ms. Berliner's first curatorial coup took place in 1996 when, as a freelance curator, she persuaded PEM in Salem, Mass., to buy the 200-year-old home of a Chinese merchant in Anhui Province, dismantle and ship it to the United States, and reassemble the house in the museum's courtyard.
When officials from Beijing's Palace Museum, which administers the Forbidden City, visited PEM in 2006, they were so impressed with the Chinese house that they asked Berliner to join them on the Qianlong Garden project.
For Berliner, no workday is ever the same. Exhibitions take years to arrange, especially those requiring international cooperation. For the Qianlong project, she drew on her fluency in Mandarin and her familiarity with Chinese culture. She traveled frequently to Beijing, researching the art, studying its origins and materials. She met with officials from the Palace Museum and the World Monuments Fund, and kept PEM staff apprised of their progress. She wrote the exhibition catalog, approved marketing materials, and spoke to the press.
"Nancy was the only curator who could have done this project. She totally understands the culture from the inside," says Henry Ng, executive vice president of the World Monuments Fund. "The authorities knew her and trusted her."
Liberia's only woman newspaper editor packs a 'Punch'
Ora Garway runs the tiny newspaper Punch, which despite its modest size has exposed the need for reform in Liberia, a West African country still recovering from a civil war.
Mango Town, Liberia
Ora Garway quietly takes notes as two male journalists interview teachers – nearly all of them men – about poor classroom resources and irregular salaries at their village school.
Garway is accustomed to a male-dominated world in a news business that, like the country itself, is still struggling to recover from a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003. She is Liberia's only female newspaper editor – and a crusader in reporting on major issues in this fragile nation.
Women rarely cover the important stories, she says. "You will only find them assigned to just rewriting press releases," says Garway, who launched the biweekly Punch in June 2009.
Male editors "can't allow us to do what we are able or capable of doing," she says. "I really don't know why it's like that."
Her struggle may seem ironic in a country headed by Africa's lone female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Women are still scarce in decisionmaking positions and classrooms here.
According to recent government surveys, 56 percent of Liberian women have not attended school. Only 18 percent of girls graduate from high school, compared with 25 percent of boys.
Garway spent six years as a reporter before starting her own paper, in part to address what she sees as paltry media coverage of Liberia's daunting problems with health, education, and poverty.
Friends had suggested several names for the masthead. She liked "Punch," she says, because "a woman was coming out to do something that [only] men are doing. It would be like a punch,... like a blow."
Punch was a gamble in a crowded market – 26 newspapers serve the 1.2 million residents of Monrovia, the capital. High rates of illiteracy and poverty crimp newspaper sales. A poor transportation system makes delivery outside Monrovia costly.
Garway says she sells 500 copies per issue, compared with about 3,000 copies for the most widely read dailies, at less than US 10 cents per copy.
"I didn't think [Punch] would have lasted a year," says Marquita Smith, a former editor at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., who visited Liberia to help Punch improve its financial and news operations.
The Punch editor is an inspiration to other Liberian journalists, says Ms. Smith, who now teaches journalism at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark.
Garway "is very quiet and unassuming," Smith says in a phone interview. But "once you get to know her and ... see her in action ... you're basically in awe. Ora is very hardworking. She gets up early, she stays up late," Smith says. Garway will work from a cafe or a friend's house. "Whatever she has to do to [get the paper] out."
Garway's newspaper has ruffled feathers. After Punch published reports of medical supply and equipment shortages at Monrovia's main hospital, Liberian health officials threatened to sue it for disclosing confidential records and for entering hospital wards without permission to interview patients. The lawsuit was never filed.
Punch also reported on faults with new firefighting equipment, sparking an angry response from the supplier.
"He came and said, 'You there, girl, you can't write this story about me. You want to live?' he started saying," she says. The man then smiled. "He turned around and said, 'Congratulations. Every media institution that I visited here I only saw men…. I'm so proud to come to meet a woman here, even though you ran a story against me.' "
Garway's staff of eight – all men – are accustomed to taunts about their boss.
David Patterson Jr. has worked for two Monrovia dailies. "Someone who is willing to change society, someone who has determination, who is determined and willing to work with you, I respect," he says of Garway. "So anyone who criticizes me about working with a woman, I get more motivated so that the paper will get improved and those who criticize will become changed."
The paper recently started an Internet edition in hopes of generating more revenue. But in this country of 3.5 million people, only 20,000 have Internet access, the World Bank estimates.
Garway credits her interest in journalism to her father's encouragement and to growing up in a period of turmoil, a civil war that killed some 200,000 people and sent more than 750,000 Liberians fleeing to other countries. While Garway hopes to inspire young women, she gets more feedback from men, she says.
Has Liberia's best-known woman, President Sirleaf, offered her words of encouragement? "No, never," Garway says with a smile. "Never."
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
News/Events
Roberto Cavalli's Fringe Dressing
Milan – Roberto Cavalli celebrated his 40th anniversary as a designer with a racy, high-tempo meeting of the Wild West and cool Goth rocker on Monday, Sept. 27, in Milan.
In an impressive display of longevity in an industry where fads and change of taste are of the essence, Cavalli presented a whopping and dramatic show in a custom-made tent before an audience of 1,200.
Cavalli has always tapped into western and hippie rock chick imagery, but the cross was rarely more evident than in this spring 2011 collection.
It opened with Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova in a barely-there ragged skirt and spider web bustier top of black string, covering a silver base. Like the skirt, pretty much every outfit in this show was fringed. Long hair flared back, eyes smoky and eyebrows blackened, Vodianova projected a haute rocker image.
No wrist was left untied on the catwalk, where every model sported silver bracelets, leather bands and beaten metal on their arms. The gunslinger's gal mood rippled through the show, with dozens of snake and reptile skin bags, worn at the hip, with horns and shells attached.
Vodianova brought immediate cheers from an audience that included Heidi Klum, Leona Lewis, Rachel Bilson, Elisabetta Canalis and "Project Runway" executive producer Desiree Gruber.
The designer riffed on his signature material - animal prints - featured on revealingly cut dresses, flirty blouses and symmetrical skirts.
Open backs, cut away sides, and pants finished all the way up the leg with string meant there were acres of flesh on display.
After spending a decade as a successful print maker, supplying the likes of Hermes and Mario Valentino, Cavalli launched his own brand in 1970, going on to build a fashion business, which became a defining symbol of sexy rock and roll fashion dressing.
"I know that I am most famous for my prints, but I'd like to think my clothes have a certain architectural style. Anyway, it's been a great 40 years," said the designer after taking his bow with his wife and joint creative director Eva Cavalli.
Northern lights dance over Knik River
The northern lights dance over the Knik River near Palmer, Alaska, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Goals/Projects
Presently, my goals is to learn how to play the piano. I would like to graduate from Texas A&M Commerce next year. I am looking into two type of fields: medical photography and food photography. I have researched both fields. I have not yet found internship for medical photography, however, there are open positions for food photographers interns. I need to learn lightroom. Most are looking for some knowledge of photoshop.
My projects are food photography and landscape.
Self-portrait photographers
James Van Der Zee
Edward Weston
Weegee aka (Arthur Fellig
Andy Warhol
Robert Capa
Edward Weston
Weegee aka (Arthur Fellig
Andy Warhol
Robert Capa
Thursday, September 16, 2010
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