AP PHOTOS: South Africa: children learn by playing

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Hundreds of South African children celebrated what some children's advocates call World Play Day on Tuesday, romping with toys at two Johannesburg centers run by a non-profit organization.

The Cotlands organization campaigns for improvement in early education in South Africa, where a 2010 general household survey released by a government-backed statistics agency showed only 32 percent of children under 5 had access to early childhood development programs.

The biggest challenge for the organization is convincing families that it wants to introduce children to early learning skills, and is not a haven for neglected or abused kids, said Lois Moodley, Cotlands' marketing manager. It runs a child care unit that houses abandoned children up for adoption, and coordinates with child welfare services run by the state.

Individuals and day cares with no access to play areas partner with the center, which provides a two-hour morning lesson, meal, playtime and access to a nurse and social worker at no additional cost. It costs the center R25 (about $2.50) daily to provide for each child, which it funds through corporate and private donations. The doors remain open for after-school play activities.

World Play Day is in its 14th year and is commemorated on May 28 as part of an advocacy campaign for early childhood education. It was started by a non-profit group, The International Toy Library Association.

Cotlands used to run an HIV hospice in 1996 to address the increasing problem of children born with the virus that causes AIDS in South Africa, which claimed 98 children at the non-profit group in 2002. The state later stepped up funding for anti-retroviral drugs, and infection rates have dropped.

At the peak of the AIDS crisis, the disease killed a child in the organization's care every week, Moodley said. In the last three years, she said, "we haven't had a single child die."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-south-africa-children-learn-playing-165821325.html

khalid sheikh mohammed masters par 3 gwen stefani overeem laron landry mary j blige burger king islands

Shatner's seatmate in iconic 'Twilight Zone' dies

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

19 hours ago

CBS via Getty Images

Christine White and William Shatner in "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" in 1963.

Christine Lamson White may have had a career in Hollywood spanning over 20 years, but to many she'll always be known as "the woman on the plane next to William Shatner."

The actress starred alongside Shatner in the iconic "Twilight Zone" episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," in which he believes he sees a gremlin tearing up the wing of the plane.

Lamson died on April 14 at Brinton Woods Nursing Home in Washington, D.C., as her death notice in the Carroll County Times reports. She was 86.

Washington, D.C. native White was born in 1926 and acted in plays while studying English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also earned a Masters degree in speech and drama from Catholic University. By the 1950s she had relocated to Hollywood and appeared in series including "Perry Mason," "The Loretta Young Show" and "Bonanza." According to the New York Times, she appeared in more than 50 television shows and movies during her acting career.

Eventually she left acting to return to Washington, D.C to help care for her aging mother, and wrote, produced and distributed quarterly bulletin called "The Rampart Papers."

Her obituary indicated that she "became acquainted with several celebrities" including James Dean; in a biography of the actor by Val Holley White admitted their relationship "did become romantic at times." She appeared in a 1976 dramatization of Dean's life, "James Dean" as a secretary; according to the IMDb it was her last acting credit.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/christine-white-seatmate-william-shatner-iconic-twilight-zone-dies-86-1C9989314

mountain lion hanley ramirez Christian Bale visits victims Christian Bale Sherman Hemsley Olympics Opening Ceremony Katherine Jackson

Budget deal reached (Offthekuff)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/306658536?client_source=feed&format=rss

asante samuel salton sea arizona immigration law aubrey huff the killers julianne hough brandy

$590M-plus Powerball: 1 winning ticket sold in Fla.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? It's all about the odds, and one lone ticket in Florida has beaten them all by matching each of the numbers drawn for the highest Powerball jackpot in history at an estimated $590.5 million, lottery officials said Sunday.

The single winner was sold at a supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla., according to Florida Lottery executive Cindy O'Connell. She told The Associated Press by telephone that more details would be released later.

"This would be the sixth Florida Powerball winner and right now, it's the sole winner of the largest ever Powerball jackpot," O'Connell told AP. "We're delighted right now that we have the sole winner."

She said Florida has had more Powerball winners than any other state.

The winner was not immediately identified publicly and O'Connell did not give any indication just hours after Saturday's drawing whether anyone had already stepped forward with that winning ticket.

With four out of every five possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, lottery executives said earlier that someone was almost certain to win the game's highest jackpot, a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars ? and that's after taxes.

Saturday night's winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball of 11.

Estimates had earlier put the jackpot at around $600 million. But Powerball's online site said Sunday that the jackpot had reached an estimated $590.5 million.

Terry Rich, CEO of the Iowa Lottery, initially confirmed that one Florida winning ticket had been sold. He told AP that following the Florida winner, the Powerball grand prize was being reset at an estimated jackpot of $40 million, or about $25.1 million cash value.

The chances of winning the prize were astronomically low: 1 in 175.2 million. That's how many different ways you can combine the numbers when you play. But lottery officials estimated that about 80 percent of those possible combinations had been purchased recently.

While the odds are low for any one individual or individuals, O'Connell said, the chance that one hits paydirt is what makes Powerball an "exciting game to play."

"There is just the chance that you will have the opportunity and Florida is a huge Powerball state. We have had more winners than any other state that participates in Powerball."

Such longshot odds didn't deter people across Powerball-playing states ? 43 plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands ? from lining up at gas stations and convenience stores Saturday for their chance at striking it filthy rich.

Calls by AP to the Publix supermarket outlet in Florida where the winning ticket was sold were not answered Sunday.

Elsewhere, Rich said, lottery officials reported 33 winning tickets for a $1,000,000 prize each were sold around 17 states, led by six tickets in New York. He said lotteries reported 2 winning tickets each for the $2,000,000 PowerPlay, one in New York and the other in South Carolina.

Before the drawing, there was a rush for tickets around the country.

At a mini market in the heart of Los Angeles' Chinatown, employees broke the steady stream of customers into two lines: One for Powerball ticket buyers and one for everybody else. Some people appeared to be looking for a little karma.

"We've had two winners over $10 million here over the years, so people in the neighborhood think this is the lucky store," employee Gordon Chan said as he replenished a stack of lottery tickets on a counter.

The world's largest jackpot was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012. If $600 million, the jackpot would currently include a $376.9 million cash option.

Clyde Barrow, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, specializes in the gaming industry. He said one of the key factors behind the ticket-buying frenzy is the size of the jackpot ? people are interested in the easy investment.

"Even though the odds are very low, the investment is very small," he said. "Two dollars gets you a chance."

That may be why Ed McCuen has a Powerball habit that's as regular as clockwork. The 57-year-old electrical contractor from Savannah, Ga., buys one ticket a week, regardless of the possible loot. It's a habit he didn't alter Saturday.

"You've got one shot in a gazillion or whatever," McCuen said, tucking his ticket in his pocket as he left a local convenience store. "You can't win unless you buy a ticket. But whether you buy one or 10 or 20, it's insignificant."

Seema Sharma doesn't seem to think so. The newsstand employee in Manhattan's Penn Station purchased $80 worth of tickets for herself. She also was selling tickets all morning at a steady pace, instructing buyers where to stand if they wanted machine-picked tickets or to choose their own numbers.

"I work very hard ? too hard ? and I want to get the money so I can finally relax," she said. "You never know."

___

Associated Press Radio Correspondent Julie Walker and AP writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., John Rogers in Los Angeles and Verena Dobnick in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow Barbara Rodriguez at http://twitter.com/bcrodriguez .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/590m-plus-powerball-1-winning-ticket-sold-fla-061647844.html

Kristen Stewart Rupert Sanders Photos 2016 Olympics TD Bank mountain lion hanley ramirez Christian Bale visits victims Christian Bale

$590M-plus Powerball: 1 winning ticket sold in Fla

A woman prepares to choose her numbers on a lottery ticket Saturday, May 18, 2013, in the Chinatown district in Oakland, Calif. A record Powerball jackpot has climbed to $600 million, and lottery officials speculated the jackpot would continue to soar in the run-up to Saturday?s drawing. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

A woman prepares to choose her numbers on a lottery ticket Saturday, May 18, 2013, in the Chinatown district in Oakland, Calif. A record Powerball jackpot has climbed to $600 million, and lottery officials speculated the jackpot would continue to soar in the run-up to Saturday?s drawing. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Armous Peterson figures out what numbers he is going to play in the Powerball lottery at Jimmy's Mart on Saturday, May 18, 2013, in Columbia, S.C. Peterson keeps track of what numbers he plays from week to week. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Armous Peterson fills out his slip for the Powerball lottery at Jimmy's Mart on Saturday, May 18, 2013, in Columbia, S.C. Peterson keeps track of what numbers he plays from week to week. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Kelly Branscom, of Zionsville, buys 2 Powerball lottery tickets, one for her and one for her cat Token, from a walk up window at a Hess gas station on the corner of Brodhead Avenue and Broadway, Saturday, May 18, 2013 in Bethlehem, Pa.. At left, is Alex Lopez, of Bethlehem, with Powerball tickets in hand. (AP Photo/The Express-Times, Stephen Flood)

A clerk dispenses a Powerball Lottery ticket in Oklahoma City, Friday, May 17, 2013. Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600 million, making it the largest prize in the game's history and the world's second largest lottery prize.(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? It's all about the odds, and one lone ticket in Florida has beaten them all by matching each of the numbers drawn for the highest Powerball jackpot in history at an estimated $590.5 million, lottery officials said Sunday.

The single winner was sold at a supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla., according to Florida Lottery executive Cindy O'Connell. She told The Associated Press by telephone that more details would be released later.

"This would be the sixth Florida Powerball winner and right now, it's the sole winner of the largest ever Powerball jackpot," O'Connell told AP. "We're delighted right now that we have the sole winner."

She said Florida has had more Powerball winners than any other state.

The winner was not immediately identified publicly and O'Connell did not give any indication just hours after Saturday's drawing whether anyone had already stepped forward with that winning ticket.

With four out of every five possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, lottery executives said earlier that someone was almost certain to win the game's highest jackpot, a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars ? and that's after taxes.

Saturday night's winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball of 11.

Estimates had earlier put the jackpot at around $600 million. But Powerball's online site said Sunday that the jackpot had reached an estimated $590.5 million.

Terry Rich, CEO of the Iowa Lottery, initially confirmed that one Florida winning ticket had been sold. He told AP that following the Florida winner, the Powerball grand prize was being reset at an estimated jackpot of $40 million, or about $25.1 million cash value.

The chances of winning the prize were astronomically low: 1 in 175.2 million. That's how many different ways you can combine the numbers when you play. But lottery officials estimated that about 80 percent of those possible combinations had been purchased recently.

While the odds are low for any one individual or individuals, O'Connell said, the chance that one hits paydirt is what makes Powerball an "exciting game to play."

"There is just the chance that you will have the opportunity and Florida is a huge Powerball state. We have had more winners than any other state that participates in Powerball."

Such longshot odds didn't deter people across Powerball-playing states ? 43 plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands ? from lining up at gas stations and convenience stores Saturday for their chance at striking it filthy rich.

Calls by AP to the Publix supermarket outlet in Florida where the winning ticket was sold were not answered Sunday.

Elsewhere, Rich said, lottery officials reported 33 winning tickets for a $1,000,000 prize each were sold around 17 states, led by six tickets in New York. He said lotteries reported 2 winning tickets each for the $2,000,000 PowerPlay, one in New York and the other in South Carolina.

Before the drawing, there was a rush for tickets around the country.

At a mini market in the heart of Los Angeles' Chinatown, employees broke the steady stream of customers into two lines: One for Powerball ticket buyers and one for everybody else. Some people appeared to be looking for a little karma.

"We've had two winners over $10 million here over the years, so people in the neighborhood think this is the lucky store," employee Gordon Chan said as he replenished a stack of lottery tickets on a counter.

The world's largest jackpot was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012. If $600 million, the jackpot would currently include a $376.9 million cash option.

Clyde Barrow, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, specializes in the gaming industry. He said one of the key factors behind the ticket-buying frenzy is the size of the jackpot ? people are interested in the easy investment.

"Even though the odds are very low, the investment is very small," he said. "Two dollars gets you a chance."

That may be why Ed McCuen has a Powerball habit that's as regular as clockwork. The 57-year-old electrical contractor from Savannah, Ga., buys one ticket a week, regardless of the possible loot. It's a habit he didn't alter Saturday.

"You've got one shot in a gazillion or whatever," McCuen said, tucking his ticket in his pocket as he left a local convenience store. "You can't win unless you buy a ticket. But whether you buy one or 10 or 20, it's insignificant."

Seema Sharma doesn't seem to think so. The newsstand employee in Manhattan's Penn Station purchased $80 worth of tickets for herself. She also was selling tickets all morning at a steady pace, instructing buyers where to stand if they wanted machine-picked tickets or to choose their own numbers.

"I work very hard ? too hard ? and I want to get the money so I can finally relax," she said. "You never know."

___

Associated Press Radio Correspondent Julie Walker and AP writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., John Rogers in Los Angeles and Verena Dobnick in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow Barbara Rodriguez at http://twitter.com/bcrodriguez .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-19-Powerball%20Jackpot/id-4b986dc638c040059532ab5b30da5c90

turkey brine Imessage Not Working mc hammer pecan pie recipe Hector Camacho Jill Kelly McKayla Maroney

Sea turtle comeback in a corner of the Caribbean

GRANDE RIVIERE, Trinidad (AP) ? Giant leatherback turtles, some weighing half as much as a small car, drag themselves out of the ocean and up the sloping shore on the northeastern coast of Trinidad while villagers await wearing dimmed headlamps in the dark. Their black carapaces glistening, the turtles inch along the moonlit beach, using their powerful front flippers to move their bulky frames onto the sand.

In years past, poachers from Grande Riviere and nearby towns would ransack the turtles' buried eggs and hack the critically threatened reptiles to death with machetes to sell their meat in the market. Now, the turtles are the focus of a thriving tourist trade, with people so devoted to them that they shoo birds away when the turtles first start out as tiny hatchlings scurrying to sea.

The number of leatherbacks on this tropical beach has rebounded in spectacular fashion, with some 500 females nesting each night during the peak season in May and June, along the 800-meter-long (875-yard) beach. Researchers now consider the beach at Grand Riviere, alongside a river that flows into the Atlantic, the most densely nested site for leatherbacks in the world.?

"It's sometimes hard remembering that leatherbacks are actually endangered," said tour guide Nicholas Alexander as he watched more emerge from the surf.

With instincts honed over 100 million years, these mighty leatherbacks have migrated from cold North Atlantic waters in Canada and northern Europe to nest. The air-breathing reptiles can dive to ocean depths of more than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) and remain underwater for an hour. They are bigger, stronger, and tolerate colder temperatures than any other marine turtle.

On a recent night, the protected beach was so busy that female leatherback turtles bumped into each other as they trudged up the sloping beach. Occasionally grunting from the effort, the big reptiles swept away powdery sand with their front flippers and then painstakingly dug holes with their rear flippers, laying dozens of white eggs before heading back to the ocean. These same females will be back in about 10 days to deposit more eggs.

The resurgence of leatherbacks in Trinidad is touted by many as a major achievement, with more than half of all adult leatherbacks on the planet having been lost since 1980, mostly in the Eastern Pacific and Asia.

When local conservation efforts started here in the early 1990s, locals say a maximum of 30 turtles emerged from the surf overnight during the peak of the six-month nesting season. Now, at Grande Riviere and in the eastern community of Matura, where another major leatherback colony has grown, locals say more than 700 of the turtles appear overnight at the very height of the season, in May and June.

Flourishing turtle tourism is providing good livelihoods for people in formerly dead-end farming towns, with the Trinidad-based group Turtle Village Trust saying it brings in some $8.2 million annually. The inflow of visitors, both domestic and foreign, to Trinidad's northeast coast jumped from 6,500 in 2000 to over 60,000 in 2012. Officials with the U.S.-based Sea Turtle Conservancy say Trinidad is now likely the world's leading tourist destination for people to see leatherbacks.

Hopes are high that tourism boom can help the creatures survive a slew of pressures. In a 2009 global study on the economics of marine turtle tourism, researchers from the environmental group World Wildlife Fund found turtle tourism earned nearly three times as much money as the sale of turtle meat, leather and eggs.

While Trinidad supports some 80 percent of total leatherback nesting in the Caribbean, with a population of some 15,000 females laying eggs every two years, the turtles are also flourishing in other spots around the region.

In northern Guyana, leatherbacks have become the most abundant marine turtle species instead of the rarest one as it was in recent decades. In neighboring Suriname, the creatures' numbers have jumped tenfold, according to a 2007 assessment by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Earlier this year, Puerto Rico protected a swath of beach along the island's northeast coast that hosts over 400 nesting leatherbacks per year. In 2012, Florida wildlife officials surveyed some 250 miles of beaches and counted some 515 leatherback nests.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Pacific leatherback population has collapsed to some 1,700 females, according to Aimee Leslie, marine turtle manager with the World Wildlife Fund.

The number of Atlantic leatherback has likely grown due to a variety of factors such as nesting beach protections, modifications of fishing gear in some places and increased public awareness, according to Jeanette Wyneken, a sea turtle expert at Florida Atlantic University. Leatherbacks may have also encountered growing stocks of the food they depend upon, mostly jellyfish and gelatinous sea creatures called salps.

Len Peters, a founding member of the Grande Riviere Nature Tour Guide Association, which patrols and manages the Trinidadian village's nesting beach, said local conservation hasn't come easy. When he started out as a 23-year-old volunteer in the early 1990s, protecting turtles was rough, sometimes intimidating work. His group would physically drag people off the beach if they were bothering leatherbacks.

"That kind of approach wasn't really helping. People were becoming very aggressive toward us, called us the turtle police," Peters said. "Now, the villagers here feel proud knowing that people come from all over the world to see the turtles. On a whole, the community has really embraced the opportunities these turtles have brought to them."

But for local fishermen, the six-month turtle nesting season from March through August is a hardship to endure.

Ervan James, a veteran fishermen from Grande Riviere, recognizes turtle tourism has been a boon for his village, but he and other fishermen are calling for the government to compensate them for not casting wide gill nets during the turtles' nesting season. Perhaps anticipating being paid not to fish, the number of fishing boats at Grande Riviere has expanded from three a few years ago to about 20 now.

Since sea turtles must surface at regular intervals to breathe, they drown when entangled in nets. Roughly 3,000 leatherbacks are snared off Trinidad's nesting beaches each season, with about 1,000 of them drowning after getting caught in the net for an hour or getting their flippers hacked off by frustrated fishermen trying to untangle their damaged nets.

"This needs very urgent attention because too many turtles have been losing their lives in nets. For a night, five or six turtles could end up in one of these nets, you understand?" James said, pulling up some of a nylon gill net piled on the beach.

Conservationists have showed fishermen modified equipment, even distributing fish finder instruments, to help balance turtle protection with profitable fishing. But local fishermen continue to use gill nets instead of trolling with hook and line, insisting they work best during the time of year that leatherbacks swim offshore.

A looming and potentially greater threat is climate change. According to one modeling analysis, beach nesting sites for sea turtles in the Caribbean will come under significant danger due to beach erosion associated with sea level rise.

A warmer climate may also create too many females since turtle gender is determined by ambient temperatures in the sand where eggs are incubating. Cooler temperatures favor males, while warmer temperatures result in females.

"However, many turtle beaches already seem biased toward the increased production of females so it's anyone's guess whether the climate change scenarios will really change sex ratios," said Scott Eckert, who has researched the turtles in Trinidad since 1992 as science director for the U.S.-based Wider Sea Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network.

Even without such threats, the dangers are many. Experts have even long estimated that just 1 in 1,000 eggs will result in an adult turtle.

"These leatherbacks are the world's last living dinosaurs," said Alexander, the Grand Riviere tour guide, as three young apprentices learned to tag a nesting turtle's flipper on the town's beach. "We have to protect them for the next generation."

___

David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter/com/dmcfadd

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sea-turtle-comeback-corner-caribbean-145258910.html

patriots Sandy Hook Hoax 2014 Corvette Stacie Halas Corvette Stingray Claire Danes Amy Poehler

Why the Shower Gets Hot or Cold When You Flush (and How To Prevent It)

A sudden burst of piping hot (or freezing cold) water is a showering human's worst nightmare. But what's the cause? And how can you prevent it? The DIY experts at Stack Exchange provide a few tips.

When the shower is running and someone flushes a toilet, why does the shower get cold (or sometimes hot) in some houses, but not others? More importantly, would fixing that require replacing the water heater, or re-doing the piping in the entire house? Or is there some cheap/easy way to fix it?

See the original question.

Tester101 answers:

Why You Get Burned

One of the most common plumbing configurations is a trunk and branch system. This is where a larger diameter pipe runs from one end of the building to the other, and smaller diameter pipes branch off to supply rooms or individual fixtures. If any of the branches demand water (you flush the toilet), there is less water available to all the other branches. Since the toilet only uses cold water, there is less cold water available to your shower when the toilet is filling. This causes the water in the shower to be warmer, because there is less cold water mixing with the hot water. There are a few ways to reduce or eliminate this burning feeling. Probably the cheapest is to reduce the amount of water going to the toilet.

Reducing Toilet Water

You can reduce how quickly the toilet uses water by simply closing the supply valve slightly. This means the toilet will take longer to fill, but will reduce the temperature fluctuation in the shower. Adjusting the supply valve can also have negative side effects, such as increased fill times and noise. You can also reduce the overall amount of water the toilet needs by either buying a low flow toilet, or placing a brick, jug of water, or other object in the tank. However, this method will reduce the amount of water available for each flush, so you may encounter difficulty clearing solids from the bowl.

Smarter Mixing

Installing a new mixing valve in the shower can reduce or eliminate the temperature fluctuations. Thermostatic mixing valves automatically balance the amount of hot and cold water being mixed, which will prevent drastic fluctuations in shower temperature. If the cold water flow is reduced (due to a toilet flush), the valve automatically adjusts the amount of hot water being mixed. This keeps the shower temperature more consistent, even when other fixtures are using water.

Increasing Available Water

Increasing the amount of water available in the system can alleviate the problem, but will likely require a major change to the plumbing. If you have a trunk and branch system, increasing the trunk pipe diameter and/or the branch pipe diameter (if the branch feeds the entire room) will increase the amount of water available to the fixtures.

Distributing Water Evenly

A more drastic solution would be to install a manifold with home runs. This would likely require a major plumbing renovation, with almost all of the plumbing changed. In this type of system, there is a central load balancing manifold. Then for each fixture in the house, a dedicated pipe is run between the fixture and the manifold.

Supply and Demand

In the end, it's all about supply and demand. If the demand is greater than the supply, you end up with a burnt butt. The only way to avoid uncomfortable showers is to reduce demand or increase supply.

Matthew PK answers:

The shower temperature changes when you flush (or use water) because the pressure in that supply line has changed. This means less supply to the mixing valve in the same setting. Modern thermostatic mixing valves are designed to keep the total pressure constant. This means that a reduction in cold water pressure (from a flush) is detected and the mixing valve responds by reducing corresponding flow in the hot water. So, the solution to shifting shower temperatures is to install a thermostatic mixing valve.

Tester101 comments:

The shower would get cold if somebody used hot water for something (almost certainly not a toilet flush), instead of cold. It could be caused by an over-enthusiastic thermostatic mixing valve, which reduced the hot water flow too much. Using up all the water in the hot water tank would also lead to a cold shower. And yes, you do have to install a thermostatic mixing valve at each shower/tub. They are used to replace the plain old standard mixing valve.

bcworkz comments:

I believe Matthew is suggesting that upgrading your shower valves is the best solution. I agree. A different water heater will do nothing. Changing the piping so the pressure change is minimal will help but not eliminate the problem. A thermostatic mixing valve is the best solution, but note it still takes a brief time for it to adjust to a sudden change in pressure, so a brief cold period will still be noticed.

Find more answers or leave your own at the original post. See more questions like this at Home Improvement, the DIY site at Stack Exchange. And of course, feel free to ask a question yourself.

Image via Mark Sayer (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/85bm626KrJM/why-the-shower-gets-hot-or-cold-when-you-flush-and-how-508252782

after christmas sales case mccoy case mccoy UFC 155 Jack Klugman merry Christmas a christmas story

Android chief says Google I/O will focus on devs, not new products

Sundar Pichai, Andy Rubin's replacement as Android chief, has been talking to Wired about his new job. He poured ice water on the idea that we'll see a raft of new hardware at Google I/O, the company's annual developer conference. Instead, he said that this year's show will focus on "all of the kinds of things we're doing for developers, so that they can write better things" for Android and Chrome OS. He also let slip that his daily driver is a Galaxy S 4, but that he's never even used the flagship's much-hyped eye-tracking feature -- an admission which'll surely go down well with HTC One fans.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

Comments

Source: Wired

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/13/sundar-pichai-interview-google-io/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

google augmented reality glasses wonderlic test texas tornado fantasy baseball jared sullinger jaleel white levi johnston

Researchers identifies gene associated with eczema in dogs

Sunday, May 12, 2013

A novel gene associated with canine atopic dermatitis has been identified by a team of researchers led by professors Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Uppsala university and ?ke Hedhammar, SLU, Sweden. The gene encodes a protein called plakophilin 2, which is crucial for the formation and proper functioning of the skin structure, suggesting an aberrant skin barrier as a potential risk factor for atopic dermatitis.

Details appear today in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Atopic dermatitis (or eczema) is an inflammatory, relapsing non-contagious skin disease affecting about 10-30 percent of the human population. It is not only humans that suffer from the disease: about 3-10 percent of dogs are also affected. The skin of a patient with atopic dermatitis becomes easily irritated by various allergens such as certain types of food, pollens or house mites. Such irritation causes very strong itching which leads to scratching, redness and flaky skin that becomes vulnerable to bacterial and yeast infections.

To-date, despite many scientific efforts, little has been known about the genetics of the disease. In their study, researchers from Uppsala University, SLU and Broad Institute, compared DNA samples from a large group of German shepherd dogs affected by atopic dermatitis with DNA coming from healthy dogs to reveal the specific DNA segment associated with the disease.

"With the help of pet owners, we have managed to collect a unique set of DNA samples from sick and healthy dogs which allowed us to gain insight into atopic dermatitis genetics," said first author Katarina Tengvall, Uppsala University.

Purebred dogs such as German shepherds have been selected for specific physical features for several generations. Selection led to an inadvertent enrichment for disease-risk genes in certain breeds. Moreover, the resulting architecture of canine DNA makes it easier to pinpoint segments that carry these disease risk-genes. This helped the researchers to reveal the genetics of atopic dermatitis. They found a region associated with the atopic dermatitis containing the gene PKP-2, which encodes Plakophilin-2, a protein involved in the formation and maintaining of the proper skin structure.

"The finding that certain variants of the PKP-2 gene may increase the risk of developing the disease opens new possibilities in understanding the disease mechanism leading to atopic dermatitis," continues Katarina Tengvall.

These findings will not only lead to better understanding of the disease, which may lead to better treatment strategies long term. It also opens up the possibilities of development of a genetic test for the disease.

"Our study suggests that plakophilin-2 and an intact skin barrier is important to avoid atopic dermatitis", says senior author, Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, professor at Uppsala University and Director of SciLifeLab Uppsala. "Another gene involved in the skin barrier has recently been linked to human atopic dermatitis emphasizing the similarity between canine and human atopic dermatitis" continues Kerstin Lindblad-Toh.

###

Uppsala University: http://www.uu.se

Thanks to Uppsala University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 36 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128185/Researchers_identifies_gene_associated_with_eczema_in_dogs

madden cover obama slow jams the news metta world peace ron artest gladys knight private practice deion sanders

Pedro Castro: ?If I knew, I would have reported it?brother or no brother?

Onil and Pedro Castro (CNN)

The brothers of accused kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro broken their public silence, giving CNN what's billed as an exclusive sit-down interview about the case.

Pedro, 54, and Onil Casto, 50, told CNN's Martin Savidge that they had no knowledge of their 52-year-old brother's alleged crimes.

"It?s going to haunt me down because people going to think, 'Yeah, Pedro got something to do with this,'" Pedro Castro said in an excerpt from the interview released Sunday. "And Pedro don?t have nothing to do with this. If I knew, I would have reported it?brother or no brother.?

The full interview with the brothers will air Monday, one week after three women?Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus?were freed from Ariel Castro's west Cleveland home where they were beaten and raped over a decade of captivity, police say. A six-year-old girl, believed to be Berry and Ariel Castro's, was also rescued.

The women had several miscarriages during their captivity, police said.

Pedro, Onil and Ariel Castro were arrested on Monday. Pedro and Onil were questioned and held on on outstanding misdemeanors. They were released on Thursday. Ariel Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. He is being held on $8 million bail and is currently on suicide watch.

In 2012, as excavating crews dug through an empty lot in the neighborhood looking for Berry's remains, Pedro Castro told a local news crew that the search for the missing girl was "a waste of money."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/pedro-castro-onil-cleveland-interview-132025979.html

john boehner HGTV Dream Home 2013 eric cantor eric cantor HGTV Sugar Bowl 2013 chick fil a

What a Facebook Re-Design Would Be Like in Real Life

By now we're mostly used to Facebook moving the furniture around every once in a while. We complain for a while, then just deal with it. But in a way, it's still maddening. Your stuff was HERE and now it's HERE. (Right, right, glass houses.) But at least Facebook can't barge in and rearrange your real life. That would be terrible. [YouTube]

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/LNU70RsyJks/what-a-facebook-re-design-would-be-like-in-real-life-502564802

Breaking Amish Indianapolis explosion mike brown bcs rankings jay cutler applebees jeff gordon

Michelle Knight, Kidnap Victim, Shuns Family Following Rescue

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/michelle-knight-kidnap-victim-shuns-family-following-rescue/

College Football Scoreboard nfl scores nfl scores Devon Walker Tom Cruise ryan reynolds Star Trek: The Original Series

Gillmor Gang Live 05.10.13 (TCTV)

Gillmor Gang - Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Recording live today at 1:30pm Pacific time.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4feGKx0fSHY/

halftime show 2012 kelly clarkson super bowl 2012 ok go peyton manning super bowl nsx chad ochocinco roman numerals

Great debut for Castro, Woods solid at Players

Tiger Woods hits from the seventh tee during the first round of The Players championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass, Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Tiger Woods hits from the seventh tee during the first round of The Players championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass, Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Roberto Castro hits from the ninth tee during the first round of The Players championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass, Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Castro finished at 9-under-par 63, tying the course record. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, hits from the 18th tee during the first round of The Players championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass, Thursday, May 9, 2013 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Roberto Castro shows his ball after finishing the first round of The Players championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass, Thursday, May 9, 2013 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Castro finished at 9-under-par 63, tying the course record. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Tiger Woods reacts to his shot from the 11th fairway during the first round of The Players Championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass, Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Tiger Woods was nine shots out of the lead, not the best position at The Players Championship, especially since he had not even started his round. Perhaps the bigger surprise was the guy who posted the record-tying round Thursday.

Roberto Castro had only played the TPC Sawgrass in a practice round. He made a debut he won't soon forget.

There was the 9-iron to a foot on the island-green 17th and a 4-iron to about the same tap-in range on the 18th, the hardest hole on the course. He hit a 3-iron to 3 feet for eagle, and twice hit wedge so close he didn't even have to read the putt.

When his memorable day was over, Castro had a 9-under 63 and his name in the record book twice. He tied the course record held by Fred Couples and Greg Norman, and his three-shot lead was the largest margin after the opening round at The Players in 21 years.

Welcome to Sawgrass.

"I hit it close a lot," said Castro, making it sound as easy as it looked.

He led over Rory McIlroy, who broke par for the first time in his fourth appearance with five birdies after the turn and conservative play off the tee on the front nine for a bogey-free 66. Zach Johnson also had a 66 while playing in the pristine morning conditions.

Woods had to work a little harder in the afternoon. Not only did he spot Castro nine shots, Woods had never broken 70 in the opening round in his 15 previous tries.

"It was a day that I felt I had to shoot something in the 60s," Woods said.

He ran off four straight birdies around the turn. He was on the cup of his first bogey-free round at The Players until his 8-iron from 200 yards went just over the green and he flubbed his chip. The bogey gave him a 67, a strong effort considering he knew he had a lot of ground to make up before hitting his first shot.

"I've seen that a lot, but not at this golf course," he said.

Vijay Singh, playing one day after he sued the PGA Tour for its handling of his doping case, was largely ignored while playing in the group behind Woods. One fan wore felt deer antlers in the bleachers behind the first tee ? Singh's case involved taking deer antler spray ? but only a dozen or so people followed the 50-year-old Fijian on the back nine and it was a quiet day.

At one point, Singh let out a hearty laugh walking off the tee with Robert Garrigus and J.J. Henry. His golf wasn't the subject of the laughter. Singh hit into the water on the last hole and made bogey for a 74, leaving him in danger of missing the cut.

So ended a first round filled with plenty of action ? a record-tying score by a player hardly anyone knows, McIlroy breaking par for the first time at Sawgrass, 17 balls in the water around the island-green 17th and 33 rounds in the 60s. Padraig Harrington followed an eagle with a double bogey. Michael Thompson made a hole-in-one.

But it all started with Castro, a 27-year-old who felt like he couldn't miss.

"I don't think anyone has figured out what the secret is to this place," Castro said.

Woods, Webb Simpson and Ryan Palmer each had a 67, the lowest score from the afternoon.

McIlroy also played in the morning, in the same group as Masters champion Adam Scott (69) and Steve Stricker (67). The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland had never made the cut or even broken par at The Players, but McIlroy figured it out on a gorgeous morning by dialing it back off the tee and letting his iron play take over. McIlroy never came seriously close to a bogey, and he didn't hit driver once on the front nine.

"When you hit the shots, it seems very simple," McIlroy said. "I had a lot of good shots out there, lot of iron shots that were 12, 15 feet away from the pin and I got myself a lot of looks for birdies. I adopted maybe more of a conservative strategy off the tee this year. But once you put your ball in the fairway that means you can be more aggressive into the greens. So it sort of balances itself out."

The Stadium Course has rarely looked so vulnerable with barely a trace of wind and some pins in bowls that allowed for good looks at birdie. Half the 72 players in the morning broke par.

But the punishment is never far away, as Scott Stallings discovered. He opened with five straight birdies to get everyone's attention, but after going out in 31, Stallings gave most of it back with a bogey, double bogey and a triple bogey on the 16th when he hit two balls into the water. He shot 40 on the back for a 71.

"It just goes to show about the golf course and really how volatile it is," Stallings said.

Castro hasn't discovered that yet. This was a day when everything went right.

He made three birdies early in his round on the back until making his tap-in birdies on the 17th and 18th. Then, he hit 3-iron into 3 feet on the par-5 second hole for an eagle and was 7-under through 11 holes. On the fourth, he hit his approach inside 2 feet for another birdie, and then he hit wedge to 18 inches on the sixth.

Castro had a birdie putt just outside 12 feet to break the course record, but missed it.

After his eagle on the second hole ? his 11th of the round ? Castro was reminded of a game he plays to try to birdie every other hole.

"When I eagled, I was like, 'Oh, now I'm 7 (under) through 11, so that's keeping ahead of that 50 percent mark.' But this is a different golf course," he said. "The golf course is much harder than most of the other times I've kind of taken that attitude."

Couples shot his 63 in 1992 in the third round. Norman opened with a 63 in 1994 when he went on to shatter the tournament record at 24-under 264. Along with joining them in the record book, Castro matched the record set by Billy Ray Brown in 1992 with his three-shot lead after one round.

Castro is not well known even in golf circles. His mother grew up in Peru and moved to America as a teenager along with her sister, Jenny Lidback, who played the LPGA Tour. He toiled in the minor leagues for five years after getting his industrial engineering degree at Georgia Tech.

Woods wasn't pleased with how he struck the ball, only with where he missed it. Despite missing six greens, he was left with straightforward shots to save par. The only blemish came at the end, when his 56-degree wedge came up heavy into the grain and failed to reach the putting surface.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-09-GLF-Players-Championship/id-1cba8a17d28b4ec499f85d668c9dc329

kiribati vernal equinox mr rogers jamie lee curtis spring equinox audacious pollen count

Fact vs. Fiction from San Antonio Spurs' NBA Playoff Perfomance so Far

When I saw the breaking news headline that Oklahoma City Thunder's?point guard?Russell Westbrook would be out indefinitely with a torn meniscus, I had two thoughts simultaneously: What a heartbreak for OKC, and what an interesting new dynamic in the Western Conference.

After this strange twist of fate, many began to claim the Spurs as the new favorite to represent the West in the NBA Finals. And although the second-seeded Spurs will certainly surprise no one if they make it there, the road is still anything but easy.

Right now, San Antonio has its hands full dealing with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the latter going 8-for-9 from beyond the rainbow in Wednesday night's 100-91 Warriors victory.

The Spurs displayed a few troubling signs during the loss in Game 2, where they once again found themselves chasing the Warriors' tail most of the night. A lack of their usual?pristine ball movement? hampered their offense and they seemingly had no answer for Golden State's trigger-happy guards.

If San Antonio wants to make it past this round, they will need to bring heightened intensity and maybe make a few shots of their own, after going 35 percent from the floor in Game 2.

Supposing the Spurs pull out of this round, they will be facing?a defensive juggernaut in the Memphis Grizzlies, or a familiar foe in the Kevin Durant-led OKC Thunder, both of which have handed San Antonio playoffs defeat.

The Grizzlies boast one of the most intimidating frontcourts in the league and stifling defense. The Thunder, though without Westbrook, still have KD, youth and a taste of the NBA finals they'll be aching to revisit.

But hey, this is the playoffs, and it's not supposed to be easy. Like the ancient proverb states: "It's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock n' roll."

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1634638-fact-vs-fiction-from-san-antonio-spurs-nba-playoff-perfomance-so-far

tmz Sizzurp the bachelor earthquake What is a Jesuit pi day Samsung Galaxy S4

Wade Robson Allegations: Motivated By Michael Jackson Wrongful Death Case, AEG?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/wade-robson-allegations-motivated-by-aeg-michael-jackson-wrongfu/

oikos kentucky wildcats oakland school shooting nike nfl jerseys katie couric barista university of kentucky

Khamenei adviser enters Iran's presidential contest

DUBAI (Reuters) - An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined the presidential race on Friday, with powerful conservatives keen to make the June vote a peaceful contrast to the upheaval that followed the disputed 2009 poll.

Khamenei has the final say on all matters in Iran and in theory stands above the political fray, but it is thought he wants a reliable follower in the presidency after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two turbulent terms in office.

Reformist groups have been suppressed or sidelined since 2009 and the next president is likely to be picked from among a handful of politicians known for fealty to Khamenei, minimizing the chances of political rifts leading to post-election chaos.

Former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel registered to run, state news agency IRNA reported, becoming the first of a trio of Khamenei loyalists expected to do so.

Allied with Haddad-Adel are former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf - Iranian media say two of them will step aside later in favor of whoever appears to have the best chance of winning the election.

"Our final choice will be announced after the Guardian Council's decision," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Haddad-Adel as saying after registering, referring to a body which vets applicants before they are allowed to run.

The conservative council, normally made up of six clerics and six jurists, will publish the final list of candidates it has approved later this month.

The June 14 vote is a test for Iran after Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009 ignited the biggest street protests in the Islamic Republic's history, badly denting the legitimacy of its entrenched leaders and its hybrid clerical-electoral system.

But there is little of the popular enthusiasm there was in the run-up to the 2009 election when many sensed there was a possibility of real change in Iran. After years of ever tougher international sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program, many Iranians care more about the economy than political infighting.

The election is unlikely to have much effect on Tehran's nuclear policy which is closely controlled by Khamenei.

The most powerful person in Iran, Khamenei endorsed Ahmadinejad's victory in 2009, rejecting opposition charges of election fraud. But the president later alienated the leader by pursuing his own policies in often provocative ways.

Khamenei is now thought to want to thwart any attempt by Ahmadinejad to preserve his influence by promoting a favored successor, possibly the outgoing president's former chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.

Conservatives are vehemently opposed to Mashaie who they accuse of promoting a "deviant current" within Islam that undermines the role of the clergy. If he does run, it would be seen as a direct challenge to Khamenei's authority.

ENDORSING RAFSANJANI

Among other candidates who registered on Friday were veteran Iranian politician Mohsen Rezaie, who lost to Ahmadinejad in 2009, and reformist Mohammad Reza Aref, who served as vice-president under former moderate President Mohammad Khatami.

Khatami, who was elected in landslide victories in 1997 and 2001, has not made it clear whether he will run this time but on Friday he threw his support behind moderate former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and urged him to stand in the vote.

"I believe the best person who can help the establishment and solve the current problems is Mr. Hashemi. I hope he runs in the election," the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) quoted Khatami as saying.

Some analysts say Rafsanjani's candidacy could ignite the contest as he can attract reformist voters.

Rafsanjani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential race, is one of the founding figures of the Islamic Republic. He is a veteran politician who wants better ties with the West and would be likely to pursue a pragmatic reform program.

But the former president from 1989 to 1997 has faced heightened pressure from hardliners since the last presidential vote. His backing of opposition candidates in 2009 and sympathy for opposition demonstrators incurred the anger of conservatives and led to a decline in his influence.

Candidate registration started on Tuesday and ends on Saturday.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/khamenei-adviser-enters-irans-presidential-contest-141116350.html

Washington Election Results drudge report Presidential Election 2012 Incumbent politico Tammy Baldwin house of representatives

SPORTS: Seymour senior stays moving in track, soccer

---

We also have more stories about:
(click the phrases to see a list)

?

Photos:

Aaron Piper, The Tribune/ Seymour senior Adam Davis, left, kicks the ball away from a Madison defender during a home soccer match last fall.

Zach Spicer, The Tribune/ Seymour senior Adam Davis, right, passes a Martinsville runner in the 3,200-meter relay during the Seymour Invitational.

Whether Adam Davis is on the soccer field or the track, he is always moving, always competing.

Davis wrapped up his fourth and final year of soccer in the fall at Seymour High School, and he is now in his last year of track.

This spring in track, he has competed in the 1,600 and 3,200 relays and either the 800 or the mile. Davis said his favorite individual race is the mile, and his favorite relay is the 3,200.

This story appears in the print edition of The Tribune. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.

Source: http://www.tribtown.com/view/local_story/Senior-focus-Seymour-senior-st_1368074775

google privacy changes windows 8 preview leap year moratorium dwts season 14 cast leap day michigan primary results

APNewsBreak: 5 charged in CA immigration scam

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Authorities said Wednesday they have broken up an immigration fraud ring that led to the arrests of four federal law enforcement officers accused of accepting bribes to help foreigners enter the country.

An 18-count indictment laid out a detailed account of alleged corruption where tens of thousands of dollars, a flat-screen TV and airline tickets to Thailand were some of the bribes used to have the officers forge documents and other illegal activity that involved three federal agencies.

Among those charged with conspiracy to commit bribery are James Dominguez, 46, a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Jesus Figueroa, 66, a supervisory officer with Citizenship and Immigration Services and Michael Anders, 53, a Customs and Border Protection officer.

Federal prosecutors said lawyer Kwang Man Lee, who was previously charged in a related case, paid bribes to the officers to secure admission stamps and lawful permanent residence status for people who paid fees ranging from a few hundred dollars to more than $50,000.

The bribes ranged from as little as $50 to as much as $10,000, prosecutors said.

"The allegations in this case concern federal law enforcement officers selling their services and betraying their oaths to our nation so they could profit from a clandestine immigration fraud ring that allowed scores of aliens to improperly enter and reside in the United States," said United States Attorney Andr? Birotte Jr.

A fifth person seeking legal status in the U.S. also was indicted.

Authorities said they have identified several dozen people who improperly received immigrations benefits, but that number is growing as the investigation continues.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-08-Immigration%20Bribery/id-1986195dce154ae688bf470304b04a9f

ncaa tournament 2012 peyton manning 49ers andy pettitte tyler clementi kevin kolb sarah shahi rutgers

Facebook Home Is Now Available For the HTC One and Galaxy S4

Since Facebook launched last month, it's only officially been available for a small pool of phones. But no longer: it seems the HTC One and Galaxy S4 are now fully Facebooked, too.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QBWaKW-U5fQ/facebook-home-is-now-available-for-the-htc-one-and-gala-499488791

Medal Count 2012 Olympics victoria beckham London 2012 rhythmic gymnastics Meteor Shower August 2012 jessie j jessie j David Boudia

Insect Media in Wired? | VIRALITY

This from Wired last week?

03 May 13 by Mark Piesing

?

Shutterstock

Humanity has often looked to the insect world for its technological metaphors, and now for digital inspiration

Swarms. Hive minds. The web*.

It can be hard to avoid talking about our digital culture without using insect metaphors.

Yet for new media theorist Jussi Parikka, it may be more than just a metaphor. Parikka is reader in Media and Design at Winchester School of Art and author of the Anne Friedberg Award-winning?Insect Media.

?For me?Insect Media?started from a realisation and a question: why do we constantly talk about digital culture and networks through insect metaphors?? says Parikka. ?Is it just a metaphoric relation? If yes, why do we make sense of high technological culture through references to these small brained, rather ?dumb? animals? Or is there even more to this?

Parikka explains that philosopher of communication theory?Marshall McLuhan?thought about media as extensions of man, but that he sees media as extensions of the non-human.

According to Parikka, the Victorians were the first to spot the relationship between the insect world and the technological one they were creating. Out of this fascination came entomology, the scientific study of insects.

?Victorians were as fascinated with insects as they were with steam,? he says, as they perceived the ?parallels, connections and impacts that insects had on human populations and cultures?.

They saw insects as ?media machines? that sensed, moved, and indeed communicated in different ways from that of humans. Beehives became a ?constant reference? in culture. So the smooth efficiency of the then relatively new Bank of England or the General Post Office was as easily compared to that of ?a hive of bees? as are the workings of the internet today.

Other arthropods like spiders were described as builders, engineers and weavers. They were even portrayed as the original inventors of telegraphy, the email of the day.

As a result of this use of metaphor the ?ideas of calculation, optimisation and rationality were firmly embodied in the insect world long before the advent of the computer?. So it was only ?a small step? to start to see digital culture in a similar way, using the same metaphors, Parikka believes.

?From the perspective of a computer scientist, it is hard not to see ant colonies as massive computation machines, optimising their algorithms, for instance, to find the best food routes.

?After all, insects are hackers and are interpreting the rules to survive.?

However, Parikka began to think that this use of metaphor was more than just a way of our culture perhaps trying to ?domesticate these new machines of computation?.

?We need to be aware of the massive amount of things that happen in digital culture which are not human? and instead appear more insectoid.

?The speed of the flash crash of the stock market was due to the automated software processes; the speed of the signal travelling through the fibre-optic cable; the distributed calculations and packets firing across the globe as part of internet connection? These are much quicker than us humans.?

It has even been argued that today the best technology can be created only by disregarding what it means to be human, rather than as an extension of humanity.

In robotics, Parikka argues that pioneers such as Rodney Brooks started to design insectoid and arachnoid types of robots as they would be much more efficient forms of machine in, for example, the harsh conditions of space missions.

?Think of it through robotics or artificial intelligence: if you want to design a very efficient robot, let?s say for moving, you do not necessarily make it bipedal, with two legs ? or even with two eyes, two ears: instead, it is as if robotics had picked up entomology books and realised that insects do it better.

?In fact, insects give clues as to how to robots may evolve, as there are more efficient ways of using the space with, for instance, six legs; or perceiving space with a different mechanism of vision; or distributing your brain power into a hive formation, rather like crowd sourcing.?

Phil Husbands has ?some sympathy? with Jussi Parikka?s argument. Husbands is Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex. He is co-director of The Sussex Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) that takes inspiration from insect behaviour and physiology to help with artificial intelligence, robotic control and control of simulated objects in games.

?We are trying to understand some fundamental things and trying to understand them relative to humans can be very unhelpful,? Husbands says.

By observing the behaviour of ants, including the way they sometimes stop and visually scan the world, scientists at Sussex last year were, for example, able to understand the nature of the special ?learning walks? ants engage in when exploring new terrain. Then using these ?very efficient and simple view-based methods? they were able to come up with a biologically plausible algorithm that could provide robots with ?a highly robust and minimal method for navigation in difficult environments like deep space.?

?If we think like a human then it?s going to be very hard work to solve some of these challenges,? according to Husbands. ?Instead ants are optimised for interacting with their environment. Their resources are limited but they are very sophisticated.

?So with a very small brain they can do very simple things in very efficient ways which can then be implemented very economically? in robots and artificial intelligence. ?It?s very illuminating and chastening to think about insects,? he adds. ?It?s a reminder of a very different view of the world.?

For Michael Dieter, a researcher into media and culture at the University of Amsterdam, the significance of Parikka?s work is that it is ?an attempt to historically trace the relationship between entomology, or the study of insects, and the development of modern media technologies.?

He describes the goal of Parikka?s work as ?to unsettle our commonplace conceptions of the divide between nature and digital culture when it comes to technology and these small animals?.

What he achieves, Dieter believes, ?is to demonstrate that there are significant direct relations between the design of modern and contemporary media and the analysis of insect behaviours?.

Parikka is able to do this by a combination of thinking beyond the human world-view and using the new approach of ?media archaeology?, which tries to understand the development of our technical communication systems through the technologies that weren?t followed or reached a dead end.

However, for Dieter the relationships between the insect world and our modern wired world have been ?forged by capitalism?, and the economic forces that have driven this are something that Parikka ?needs to give further thought to?.

For others the criticism of Insect Media may be more straightforward: digital networks don?t grow ? they are built.

In the end, for Jussi Parikka, Insect Media is ?is not about predicting the future but more about realising that this is a fundamental link in terms of how we see technology from the Victorians to the current high-tech culture. It is as if the most advanced technologies of today have established a link to the ancient evolutionary force of insects.?

Even if our digital networks are built by humans, they still contain within them the same tendencies as those of the ants or bees.

Indeed, Parikka doesn?t want to stop with insects, as other animals ? such as dolphins ? could be seen as having their own media or methods of communication that connect with the digital world, almost a kind of ?cybernetic zoology?.

Ultimately this is a reminder, he believes, that our digital culture exists in a biological context: ?It is completely reliant on natural resources, from rare earth minerals to energy.?

So when ?soft technologies? such as pesticides are perceived to be causing the colony collapse disorder that is causing the mass extinction of bees, perhaps we should be ?gravely worried about that? for the future of our own hive mind.

?Bees then are the canaries in the mine for our own technological culture.?

Jussi Parikka?s latest article on ?Insects and Canaries? is due out in a forthcoming edition of Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities

*We realise spiders are arachnids, not insects, but the word ?arthropod? isn?t quite so snappy.

Like this:

Like Loading...

Source: http://viralcontagion.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/insect-media-in-wired/

lesotho a wrinkle in time benjamin netanyahu storm shelters nick lachey lifelock chevy volt