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By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News
The Alabama man who is suspected of taking a young boy hostage had only lived in the area a few years and kept to himself, according to neighbors and officials.
Sources close to the investigation in the Dale County Sheriff's Office identified the suspect to NBC News as Jimmy Lee Dykes, age 65.
Police in the small town of Midland City, Ala. scrambled Tuesday afternoon after a gunman shot a local school bus driver and took a boy, age 5 or 6, hostage.
Local NBC station WSFA reported on Wednesday that the suspect was talking to police through a PVC pipe from an underground bunker where the man kept the boy captive overnight.
But before the dramatic events of the past two days, neighbors were worried about Jimmy Lee Dykes.
Dykes missed a bench hearing on a misdemeanor charge of menacing at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dale County Court Circuit Clerk Delores Woodham told NBC News.
That charge is related to an allegation by a James E. Davis, Jr., who said that on Dec. 10 Dykes threatened him with a pistol and then fired at Davis? truck as he pulled away, according to a document filed in Dale County District Court on Dec. 26, 2012,
The sources close to the investigation told NBC News that police did not know if the missed court appearance had anything to do with Dykes' motive.
Deputies from the county sheriff?s office had arrested Dykes on the charge of menacing. He was placed in Dale County Jail on Dec. 22 and bond was set at $500, according to the documents. No employment was listed on the documents. Dykes was bonded out that same day by D&D Bonding Co., Woodham said.
Neighbor Danny Dean, 57, said that he saw Dykes working in his yard most of the time.
?He's always got a shovel,? said Dean, who had lived in the neighborhood for about twelve years. ?He loved to shovel for some damn reason.?
Dean said that Dykes only moved into the area about a year and a half ago. A property tax clerk for Dale County confirmed that Dykes has paid his taxes on his 1.5 acre property on time for the past two years.
Boy held hostage in bunker after being snatched from school bus
Dean, whose property is about three-tenths of a mile from Dykes? home, said that he did not know the man well, but that no one else seemed to, either.
?He just works in the yard constantly,? Dean said of Dykes, who dug his own driveway. ?As far as passing, he?s always been a friendly fellow.?
Another neighbor, Claudia Davis, told the Associated Press that she had seen a darker side of Dykes.
?Before this happened, I would see him at several places and he would just stare a hole through me,? Davis, 54, told the AP. ?On Monday I saw him at a laundry mat and he seen me when I was getting in my truck, and he just stared and stared at me.?
Tim Byrd, a chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff?s Office, told the Southern Poverty Law Center?s Hatewatch that Dykes was a ?survivalist? with ?anti-American? views.
?His friends and his neighbors stated that he did not trust the government, that he was a Vietnam vet, and that he had PTSD,? Byrd told the SPLC. ?He was standoffish, didn?t socialize or have any contact with anybody.?
?He?s the type that thinks the government?s out to get him,? neighbor Michael Creel told local paper the Dothan Eagle. ?He?s not right in the head.?
Another man who said he lives near Dykes told the AP that the man had once threatened his children after Smith?s dogs went on to Dykes? property. Smith told the AP that his son and daughter were on the school bus during the shooting in Midland City on Tuesday.
?He?s very paranoid,? Smith told the AP. ?He goes around in his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.?
Eva Syples, a clerk for the Dale County Probate Office, said she has lived in the area since 1968 and the small town has never seen anything like the situation that developed Tuesday. She said most people just stop at the fresh fruit and vegetable stands and barbecue joints that dot Highway 231 on their way by the town to Montgomery or the beaches of Panama City, Florida.
It?s the kind of small town where people extend an unasked for hand, Syples said: ?They have true southern hospitality down here. We go above and beyond to help your neighbor.?
The owner of one of those nearby barbecue stands, Charlie Webb, said his restaurant sits on Highway 231 about 300 yards from the property where law enforcement converged on Tuesday afternoon.
?Most people just pulled up in the parking lot wanting to know what was going on,? Webb, 59, said of the people that pulled into his Webb?s 231 Bar-B-Q last night to watch the police lights. ?They?re all just pretty shocked.?
NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez contributed to this report.
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MILAN (AP) ? One region looms large over Italy's upcoming election: Lombardy.
The nation's industrial powerhouse and home to its financial capital Milan, the region generates a fifth of Italy's wealth and boasts one-sixth of its population. The way Lombardy goes will likely determine whether the eurozone's third largest economy gets the stable government it needs to take strong action against its economic crisis.
It's not for nothing that Lombardy is being dubbed by the media "Italy's Ohio" ? for the U.S. state that has historically helped swing American presidential elections.
Until recently, Lombardy's choice has been taken for granted. It's where billionaire businessman and former premier Silvio Berlusconi has his home base. And it's where Berlusconi's on-again, off-again allies, the populist Northern League, draw some of their strongest support. Together, the two forces have all but swept the Lombardy sweepstakes in recent elections.
Things are different this time around.
Polls show that the center-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi and the center-left forces backing Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani's bid for premier are neck-and-neck in Lombardy.
The Bersani camp has made its surprising inroads due largely to Berlusconi's ongoing legal woes, including a trial on a charge of paying for sex with an underage teen, and his decision to team up again with the anti-Europe Northern League.
The wild-card in the Lombardy race is former Milan Mayor Gabriele Albertini. He defected from Berlusconi's People of Liberty Party and aligned himself with Premier Mario Monti's centrist forces, bolstering the reformist leader's chances of taking a powerful role in the next government ? although Monti's own chance of victory is slim.
With Bersani leading in national polls for control of the lower house in the Feb. 24-25 vote, most eyes are on the race for the Senate. While winning the lower house could put Bersani in the driver's seat to form a government, no coalition will be able to rule effectively without control of the Senate.
Lombardy delivers 49 of the Senate's 315 seats, significantly more than any other region ? giving it an outsized role in the outcome of the election. With undecided voters running around 30 percent, there is still a lot of room to woo support.
Albertini is important because he could siphon votes away from Berlusconi and the Northern League. This could boost the chances of pro-Monti forces to help Bersani create a stable Senate majority. There's also an outside chance that moderate forces from left and right might rally around Monti to give him another stint as premier. If, however, the Berlusconi camp triumphs in the Senate, Italy can expect a burst of political chaos, with a hung Parliament just as it needs bold action to attack its economic woes.
In Lombardy, Berlusconi is entering another marriage of convenience with the raucous, anti-immigrant Northern League. The League has propped up Berlusconi in the past, but their squabbles have also dragged down the media mogul's governments and created an ugly spectacle that has hurt international confidence in Italy.
Many in Lombardy's center-right are horrified by Berlusconi's renewed alliance with the League. Among them is Albertini, a former industrialist who broke with Berlusconi in protest over his deal with the League, causing him to embrace Monti's economic reform drive and more moderate political tone.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Albertini criticized Berlusconi for adopting "demagogic and populist language" including a promise to scrap an unpopular property tax, and rants about German domination and a purported conspiracy to make Italy pay more to borrow money. He has also slammed Berlusconi's attempts at a political comeback, which comes a year after being forced from office amid a loss of faith in his ability to manage Italy's debt crisis, and legal woes that include corruption charges and the underage prostitution scandal.
Albertini, 62, is backing Monti campaign to introduce a reform culture to Italian politics, engage more deeply with Europe and re-align centrist forces, once gathered around the old Christian Democratic Party that was wiped out in the bribery scandals of the early 1990s.
"Our bet is that we are facing a moment of political transition," Albertini said. "And that the leadership of Premier Mario Monti becomes the transition toward another scenario, different from one that sees the opposition positions of two irreconcilable worlds, both damaging to our country."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lombardy-stars-kingmaker-national-elections-100934780.html
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Sony NEX Interchangeable Lens HD Camcorders are popular for us, they all can record richly-detailed, film-like AVCHD Progressive footage with breathtaking quality. The NEX-VG10, NEX-VG20, NEX-VG30 and NEX-VG900 cameras are the most popular for us.
Here I will give you a brief introduction about them:
Sony NEX-VG10: world?s first interchangeable lens HD Handycam camcorder, shoot 1080p (1,920 x 1,080/60i at 24Mbps)
Sony NEX-VG20: an updated version of its NEX-VG10 Handycam Camcorder capable of 1080p60 recording
Sony NEX-VG900: Full-Frame Interchangeable Lens HD Camcorder, offer 1080/24p along with 1080/60p shooting
Sony NEX-VG30: succeeds the acclaimed NEX-VG20, 1080 60p/24p Progressive recording
The above four cameras all exccellent for us to shoot HD videos. However, the HD video uses AVCHD Progressive technology, which may cause some incompatible troubles. Please see the below faqs.
FAQs for Sony NEX Lens HD Camcorders:
1. How to ingest Sony NEX Interchangeable Lens HD Camcorder AVCHD to Final Cut Pro?
As we all know AVCHD is not a good editing format for many video editing softwares, especially 1080 60p or 60i AVCHD movies. Though Apple company says FCP 7 and FCP X can support AVCHD, which can't support 1080 60p full framerate well, because the FCP is designed to edit ProRes. So the best way to directly get Sony NEX AVCHD to FCP is convert AVCHD to ProRes firstly by using the AVCHD to ProRes Converter.
Step 1: Install and launch this MTS Converter for Mac. Import your Sony NEX-VG900, VG30, VG20 footage to the converter. Merge several AVCHD clips by ticking ?Merge into one? box.
Step 2: Click "format" bar to choose the output format. Click and choose "Final Cut Pro -> Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)" as Final Cut Pro compatible codec for editing AVCHD MTS files in FCP smoothly.
Note: To have a smooth playback and editing after conversion, for FCP 6, you can only choose ProRes 422 and ProRes 422(HQ); while, for FCP 7 and FCP X, Pro Res 422(LT)/Pro Res 444/Pro Res 422(Proxy) are all supported.
Step 3: You can click "settings" to customize the output parameters, adjust the resolution, bitrate as you want. Set video size as 1920*1080, video frame rate as 30fps is better.
Step 4: If you got the 1080 60i video, you can deinterlace 1080i AVCHD files first follow Edit >> Effect >> Deinterlacing. Then click convert button; start to convert Sony NEX AVCHD to ProRes for FCP on Mac OS X. When the conversion ends, get the output MOV video via tapping the Open button.
2. How to transfer converted Sony AVCHD files to FCP X/7/6?
- To import transcoded Sony NEX- VG900/VG30 AVCHD videos to Final Cut Pro X, do as the follow:
From File menu > Import > Files?
-To load re-wrapped Sony NEX MTS files into Final Cut Pro 6/7, do as the follow:
From File menu > Import > Files?
Tip:
The AVCHD to ProRes Converter is the best tool for Sony NEX Interchangeable Lens HD Camcorder user, which not only can help you convert Sony NEX mts to ProRes for FCP editing easily, but also help you transcode Sony AVCHD to AIC for iMovie and FCE, DNxHD for Avid Media Composer, etc. Get more info from Brorsoft MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac.
Related guides:
Transcode Sony NEX-VG10 AVCHD to FCP 7 on Mac
Get Sony NEX-VG900 1080/60P AVCHD footages to work with FCP
Convert Sony NEX-VG20 1080/60p AVCHD to Apple ProRes for FCP X
Putting and Ripping DVD to Nokia Lumia 920 playback
Playing/Viewing 1080p Videos/Movies on Sony Xperia P/GO
Transcode Pansonic HDC-HS900 1080p AVCHD files to iMovie'11
Blackberry 10 Smartphones Tips and Simple Review
Encode GoPro Hero3 MP4 files to DNxHD video for Avid MC ?
Source: http://forums.automotive.com/70/9409131/for-sale/how-to-convert-import-sony-nex-1080p-recording-to/
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From a sixth century coin, to pieces from the Middle Ages and? Renaissance, to modern American works, the Cross/ Purpose art exhibit displays how artists throughout history have depicted the crucifix and cross in various expressive ways.
The traveling show from Christians in the Visual Arts includes 49 artworks and is on view until Feb. 1 in the Baugh Center for the Visual Arts. An opening reception was held Jan. 10.
Professor and Chair for the art department Hershall Seals said the exhibit complements the university?s values.
?Since this is a Christian institution, we felt it was a really good fit to bring quality works of art that deal with our primary theological source, which is Christ,? he said.
Though it deals with a religious theme, Seals believes it can be of interest to a wide audience.
?The show is not only interesting to Christians who are more theologically? interested, but it?s also a show that appeals to fine artists who may or may not be that enthused about the subject,? he said.
?What?s so interesting is the variety of art in it and the quality of the prints and drawings and paintings.?
With pieces spanning so many time periods, the exhibit is also a lesson in art history and has received positive reactions so far.
?People who have seen the show love it,? Seals said. ?I think they can get a miniature art history overview?. You can see by looking from picture to picture to picture where that thing came from,historically speaking, by the way that image is drawn, the technique. To me, the takeaway is the beauty of the differences in the art historical time frame.?
Sophomore graphic design major Brittany Davis found the etchings particularly? interesting.
?They had so much detail on such a small amount of space,? she said.
Sophomore fine arts major Sarah Wright was also impressed with the quality of the show?s pieces.
?I really enjoyed looking at the old lithograph pieces that incorporated a lot of figures, symbols and beautiful details of the moment Jesus was on the cross. I also enjoyed looking at the abstract versions of Jesus?s crucifixion as well. The impact of the harsh lines and the use of colors emphasized the pain and suffering He had endured,? she said.
Overall, Davis enjoyed the exhibit?s theme and the quality of the show and believes other students should take advantage of the opportunities to see such works.
?UMHB chooses art exhibits that have a lot of meaning,? she said. ?All art is meant to communicate to the viewer. That?s the point of art, to evoke feeling and emotion, so the art chosen at UMHB really represents our school as a whole?.?
Seals said the Cross/ Purpose exhibit, as well as other shows are part of the department?s efforts to create a well-rounded individual with a broad sense of the world in which they live.
He said, ?It?s not that we?re trying to force culture down people?s throats, but we?re making more aggressively available to students objects of beauty here in the art department, and objects that make people think.?
Source: http://thebells.umhb.edu/2013/01/29/art-exhibit-highlights-christian-symbol/
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Storified by Digital First Media? Mon, Jan 28 2013 06:06:50
A bipartisan group of eight senators will reveal the broad outlines of a proposal to reform U.S. immigration laws today. Articles posted on?Politico?and the New York Times this morning detailed the proposal.?Here?s what we know so far:
Denverpost
Araceli Cortes, an undocumented immigrant, is shown at her home in California in 2012. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
The deal includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation?s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. Long opposed as ?amnesty? by conservatives, this is considered the hardest but most important part of any comprehensive package.
But it would not be easy.
Undocumented immigrants would be required to undergo multiple background checks, pay a fine and back taxes, learn English and pass a civics test in order to become legal residents. Anyone with a serious criminal record would be deported.
Before they are approved, immigrants would be on a ?probationary legal status? that would allow them to live and work in the United States but not qualify for federal benefits.
Denverpost
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The pathway to citizenship would not take effect until border security has been beefed up. That would include more drones and border guards and a supervisory commission made up of governors, community leaders and law enforcement officials from the Southwest.The proposal also calls for an electronic verification system to allow employers to check if they are hiring undocumented immigrants.?
Another section of the proposal also calls for better tracking of people in the United States on visas through an exit system at airports and seaports.
Denverpost
Undocumented?immigrant Layios Roberto waits outside a legal group?s offices in ?Los Angeles in ?2012. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
The proposal would also incorporate parts of the DREAM Act, a long-stalled measure to allow people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to become citizens.?
Last year, the Obama administration decided to allow tens of thousands of people in that situation to defer deportation. This proposal would presumably build off that effort.
Denverpost
An unidentified man takes the oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony in 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The proposal would overhaul the existing legal immigration system to allow more highly skilled workers in so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math, in part by giving green cards to immigrants tho obtain advanced degrees in those fields from American universities.
Supporters of an overhaul include many in the business community in areas like Silicon Valley and standalone?bills have been successful before. These measures are considered vital to help sell other parts of a comprehensive reform bill to skeptics in Congress.The bill would also allow more low-skill workers into the country, creating a new program for?seasonal agricultural workers.?
Denverpost
(AP Photo/Ryan J. Foley)
In recent surveys, 70 percent of Americans supported the DREAM Act provisions and 62 percent supported a pathway to citizenship. Groups lobbying for STEM immigration claim to have broad support as well.
Politico
The proposal was crafted by a group of eight senators from both parties which includes former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona?and high-ranking Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. Other members: Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that the framework agreed on by the senators could provide important protections for illegal immigrants who are exploited by employers and live in ?constant fear? over their immigration status.
But the ACLU took issue with the proposal to require employers to use an electronic employment-verification system, calling it ?a thinly disguised national ID requirement? that would undermine employees? privacy and lead to discrimination against those ?who look or sound ?foreign.??
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) ? There was no alarm, no extinguishers, no sprinklers and almost no escape from the nightclub that became a death trap for more than 200 Brazilian college students.
As investigators began poking through the rubble and families mourned their dead, questions abounded as the university city in southern Brazil tried to understand how the Sunday morning blaze that killed 231 people could have been sparked in the first place, then rage rapidly out of control.
Why was there only one door available for exit and entry? What was the flammable material in the ceiling that allowed the conflagration to move so quickly? And, more pointedly, why was a band playing at the club allowed to use pyrotechnics inside the building?
Police were leaning toward the band's pyrotechnics as the cause of the blaze during a party at the Kiss nightclub organized by several academic departments at the Federal University of Santa Maria. Inspector Antonio Firmino, who's part of the team investigating the fire, said it appeared the club's ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that ignited with the pyrotechnics.
Firmino said the number and state of the exits is under investigation but that it appeared that a second door was "inadequate," as it was small and protected by bars that wouldn't open.
The disaster, the worst fire of its kind in more than a decade, also raises questions of whether Brazilian authorities are up to the task of ensuring safety in such venues ahead of it hosting next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
Some critics have said conditions in many Brazilian bars and clubs are ripe for another deadly blaze. They say that in addition to modernizing sometimes outdated safety codes and ensuring sufficient inspectors, people must change their way of thinking and respect safety regulations.
Hundreds of people marched peacefully outside the nightclub Monday night to remember the victims, and demand justice. Some carried signs with slogans such as, "May God's justice be carried out."
"We hope that the justice system, through its competent mechanisms, succeeds in clarifying to the public what happened, and gives the people an explanation," said marcher Eglon Do Canto.
Brazilian police said they detained three people Monday in connection with the blaze, while the newspaper O Globo said on its website that a fourth person had surrendered to police. Police Inspector Ranolfo Vieira Junior said the detentions were part of the ongoing police probe and those detained can be held for up to five days.
Vieira declined to identify those detained, but local media has identified them as two co-owners of the club, and two members of the band that was using a spark machine inside the building when the fire erupted.
According to state safety codes here, clubs should have one fire extinguisher every 1,500 square feet as well as multiple emergency exits. Limits on the number of people admitted are to be strictly respected. None of that appears to have happened at the Santa Maria nightclub.
"A problem in Brazil is that there is no control of how many people are admitted in a building," said Joao Daniel Nunes, a civil engineer in nearby Porto Alegre. "They never are clearly stated, and nobody controls how many people enter these night clubs."
Rodrigo Martins, a guitarist for the group Gurizada Fandangueira, told Globo TV network in an interview Monday that the flames broke out minutes after the employment of a pyrotechnic machine that fans out colored sparks, at around 2:30 a.m. local time.
"I felt that something was falling from the roof and I looked up and I saw the fire was spreading, and I shouted 'Look, it's catching on fire, man, it's catching fire,'" Martins said. "Then the drummer tried to throw water on it, and it looked like the fire spread more then. Then the security guards came with an extinguisher, tried to use it, but it didn't work."
He added that the club was packed and estimated the crowd at about 1,200-1,300 people.
"I thought I was going to die there. There was nothing I could do, with the fire spreading and people screaming in front."
Standing next to the stage when the fire broke out, Rodrigo Rizzi, a first-year nursing student, watched the tragedy unfold.
"I was right there, so even though I was far from the door, at least I realized something was wrong," he said. "Others, who couldn't see the stage, never had a chance. They never saw it coming."
As he headed toward the door, the air turned dense and dark with smoke; there was no light, nothing pointing to the single exit. Rizzi found himself clawing through a panicked crowd that surged blindly toward the door.
"I was halfway across the floor, I could see the door, but the air turned black with this thick smoke," he said. "I couldn't breathe. People started to panic and run toward the door. They were falling, screaming, pulling at each other."
Witnesses said security guards who didn't know about the blaze initially blocked people from leaving without paying their bills. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they're allowed to leave.
Inside the club, metal barriers meant to organize the lines of people entering and leaving became traps, corralling desperate patrons within yards of the exit. Bodies piled up against the grates, smothered and broken by the crushing mob.
About 50 of the victims were found in the club's two bathrooms, where the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.
Martins confirmed that the group's accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other band members made it out safely. Martins said he thought Jacques made it out of the building and later returned to save his accordion.
The first funeral services were held Monday for the victims, including brothers Pedro and Mercello Salle. Most of the dead were college students 18 to 21 years old, but they also included some minors. Almost all died from smoke inhalation rather than burns.
National Health Minister Alexandre Padilha cautioned that the death toll could worsen dramatically, telling news media in Santa Maria on Monday that 75 of those injured were in critical condition and could die.
Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said officials were investigating the cause of the disaster.
The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub anywhere in the world since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309 people.
___
Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja contributed to this report from Brasilia, Brazil, Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks contributed from Sao Paulo and Jenny Barchfield contributed from Rio de Janeiro.
___
Associated Press video:
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/focus-turns-brazil-club-safety-fire-073637802.html
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By Michael Aling | Announcements?
January 28, 2013
The girls? home basketball game Tuesday, January 29 at 7:00 PM will be dedicated to breast cancer awareness.
The team will be incorporating pink accessories into their uniforms.
DP?s organization of this Breast Cancer Awareness Day pays homage to the roughly 300,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed annually in the United States.
Students are encouraged to participate in this event.
Wear pink to school tomorrow to show solidarity with the 1 in 8 women who will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
Formerly known as "The Freshman" in two of his classes, Michael is now a sophomore. This is his second year as a writer for the Charger Account.
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CAIRO (Reuters) - A man was shot dead on Monday in a fifth day of violence in Egypt that has killed 50 people and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world's biggest nation.
Emergency rule announced by President Mohamed Mursi on Sunday covers the cities of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. The army has already been deployed in two of those cities and cabinet approved a measure to let soldiers arrest civilians.
A cabinet source told Reuters any trials would be before civilian courts, but the step is likely to anger protesters who accuse Mursi of using high-handed security tactics of the kind they fought against to oust President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt's politics have become deeply polarised since those heady days two years ago, when protesters were making most of the running in the Arab Spring revolutions that sent shockwaves through the region and Islamists and liberals lined up together.
Although Islamists have won parliamentary and presidential elections, the disparate opposition has since united against Mursi. Late last year he moved to expand his powers and push a constitution with Islamist leanings through a referendum, punctuated by violent street protests.
Mursi's call for a national dialogue meeting on Monday to help end the crisis was spurned by his main opponents.
They accuse Mursi of hijacking the revolution, listening only to his Islamist allies and breaking a promise to be a president for all Egyptians. Islamists say their rivals want to overthrow by undemocratic means Egypt's first freely elected leader.
Anti-Mursi protesters were out on the streets again in Cairo and elsewhere on Monday, the second anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in the revolution that erupted on January 25, 2011, and ended Mubarak's iron rule 18 days later.
CONCERNS
Hundreds of demonstrators in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, cities which all lie on the economically vital Suez Canal, had turned out against Mursi's decision on Sunday within moments of him speaking. Activists there pledged to defy a curfew that starts at 9 p.m. (1700 GMT).
Instability in Egypt has raised concerns in Western capitals, where officials worry about the direction of a key regional player that has a peace deal with Israel.
The political unrest has been exacerbated by street violence linked to death penalties imposed on soccer supporters convicted of involvement in stadium rioting a year ago.
In Cairo on Monday, police fired volleys of teargas at stone-throwing protesters near Tahrir Square, cauldron of the anti-Mubarak uprising. A 46-year-old bystander was killed by a gunshot, a security source said. It was not clear who opened fire.
"We want to bring down the regime and end the state that is run by the Muslim Brotherhood," said Ibrahim Eissa, a 26-year-old cook, protecting his face from teargas wafting towards him.
Propelled to the presidency in a June election by the Muslim Brotherhood, Mursi has lurched through a series of political crises and violent demonstrations, complicating his task of shoring up the economy and of preparing for a parliamentary election to cement the new democracy in a few months.
"The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law," Mursi said, angering many of his opponents when he wagged his finger at the camera.
The president offered condolences to families of victims of violence and also called a dialogue meeting on Monday at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) between Islamist allies and their liberal, leftist and other opponents to discuss the crisis.
The main opposition National Salvation Front coalition rejected the offer as "cosmetic and not substantive" and set several conditions that have not been met in the past, such as forming a national salvation government. They also demanded that Mursi announce his responsibility for the bloodshed.
SECURITY MEASURES
"We will send a message to the Egyptian people and the president of the republic about what we think are the essentials for dialogue. If he agrees to them, we are ready for dialogue," opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei told a news conference.
The opposition Front has distanced itself from the latest flare-ups but said Mursi should have acted far sooner to impose security measures that would have ended the violence.
"Of course we feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground, which is his own policies," Front spokesman Khaled Dawoud said after Mursi made his declaration.
Other activists said Mursi's measures to try to impose control on the turbulent streets could backfire.
"Martial law, state of emergency and army arrests of civilians are not a solution to the crisis," Ahmed Maher of the April 6 movement that helped galvanise the 2011 uprising said. "All this will do is further provoke the youth. The solution has to be a political one that addresses the roots of the problem."
Thousands of mourners joined funerals in Port Said for the latest victims in the Mediterranean port city. Seven people were killed there on Sunday when residents joined marches to bury 33 others who had been killed a day earlier, most by gunshot wounds in a city where arms are rife.
Protests erupted there on Saturday after a court sentenced to death several people from the city for their role in deadly soccer violence last year, a verdict residents saw as unfair. The anger swiftly turned against Mursi and his government.
Rights activists said Mursi's declaration was a backward step for Egypt, which was under emergency law for Mubarak's entire 30-year rule. His police used the sweeping arrest provisions to muzzle dissent and round up opponents, including members of the Brotherhood and even Mursi himself.
Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch in Cairo said the police, still hated by many Egyptians for their heavy-handed tactics under Mubarak, would once again have the right to arrest people "purely because they look suspicious", undermining efforts to create a more efficient and respected police force.
"It is a classic knee-jerk reaction to think the emergency law will help bring security," she said. "It gives so much discretion to the Ministry of Interior that it ends up causing more abuse, which in turn causes more anger."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-leader-declares-emergency-clashes-kill-dozens-052915983.html
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Sam Edelman Louie in Whiskey
Over the past couple of years, my go to shoe company has been Sam Edelman. The price point is higher than say, Steve Madden or sometimes Dolce Vita but the quality and fit have always been spot on. I don?t mind paying a little more if I see the value in it. I currently own 10 pairs of Sam Edelman shoes ? booties, flats and sandals. I would branch out to their heels as well but so far everything is 3 inches and above. I am a kitten heel kind of women, I walk everywhere. I don?t like to wear anything higher than 2 1/2 inches (for mobility and comfort) but I still want the sex appeal of a high heel (JCrew is my go to for kitten heels).
One of my favorite booties from Sam Edelman is the Louie, a suede ankle boot with upper ankle cuffs and tassels, and a 2 1/4 inch heel. I love the western/boho look, and they work well with skinny jeans, leggings and dresses. I am amazed with how comfortable they are to walk in for long extended periods of time, even with the 2 1/4 inch stacked heel. I?ve trekked 7+ miles in these booties many times in a day without any issues.? They have a nice cushioned fabric foot bed with a fabric lining and the best part is, they run true to size.
I love these booties so much, that I own two pairs ? in whiskey and taupe.? These are so popular now, that I doubt they will discontinue them anytime soon. In fact they?ve been coming out with new seasonal colors. The Louie?s typically retail for $160.00 ? click here for more information.
Sam Edelman Louie in Taupe
Source: http://ingalicious.com/blog/sam-edelman-louie/
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Jan. 28, 2013 ? A new optical prescription for automobile side-view mirrors may eliminate the dreaded "blind spot" in traffic without distorting the perceived distance of cars approaching from behind. As described in a new paper? in the Optical Society's (OSA) journal Optics Letters, objects viewed in a mirror using the new design appear larger than in traditional side-view mirrors, so it's easier to judge their following distance and speed.
Today's motor vehicles in the United States use two different types of mirrors for the driver and passenger sides. The driver's side mirror is flat so that objects viewed in it are undistorted and not optically reduced in size, allowing the operator to accurately judge an approaching-from-behind vehicle's separation distance and speed. Unfortunately, the optics of a flat mirror also create a blind spot, an area of limited vision around a vehicle that often leads to collisions during merges, lane changes, or turns. The passenger side mirror, on the other hand, possesses a spherical convex shape. While the small radius of curvature widens the field of view, it also causes any object seen in it to look smaller in size and farther away than it actually is. Because of this issue, passenger side mirrors on cars and trucks in the United States must be engraved with the safety warning, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." In the European Union, both driver and passenger side mirrors are aspheric (One that bulges more to one side than the other, creating two zones on the same mirror).The inner zone -- the section nearest the door -- has a nearly perfect spherical shape, while the outer zone -- the section farthest from the door -- becomes less and less curved toward the edges. The outer zone of this aspheric design also produces a similar distance and size distortion seen in spherical convex designs.
In an attempt to remedy this problem, some automotive manufacturers have installed a separate, small wide-angle mirror in the upper corner of side mirrors. This is a slightly domed square that provides a wide-angle view similar to a camera's fisheye lens. However, drivers often find this system to be a distracting as well as expensive addition.
A simpler design for a mirror that would be free of blind spots, have a wide field of view, and produce images that are accurately scaled to the true size of an approaching object -- and work for both sides of a vehicle -- has been proposed by researchers Hocheol Lee and Dohyun Kim at Hanbat National University in Korea and Sung Yi at Portland State University in Oregon. Their solution was to turn to a progressive additive optics technology commonly used in "no-line multifocal" eyeglasses that simultaneously corrects myopia (nearsightedness) and presbyopia (reduced focusing ability).
"Like multifocal glasses that give the wearer a range of focusing abilities from near to far and everything in between, our progressive mirror consists of three resolution zones: one for distance vision, one for close-up viewing and a middle zone making the transition between the two," says Lee. "However, unlike glasses where the range of focus is vertically stacked [from distance viewing on top to close-up viewing on bottom], our mirror surface is horizontally progressive."
Lee says that a driver's side mirror manufactured with his team's new design would feature a curvature where the inner zone is for distance viewing and the outer zone is for near-field viewing to compensate for what otherwise would be blind spots. "The image of a vehicle approaching from behind would only be reduced in the progressive zone in the center," Lee says, "while the image sizes in the inner and outer zones are not changed."
The horizontal progressive mirror, Lee says, does have some problems with binocular disparity (the slight difference between the viewpoints of a person's two eyes) and astigmatism (blurring of a viewed image due to the difference between the focusing power in the horizontal and vertical directions). These minor errors are a positive trade off, the researchers feel, to gain a mirror with a greatly expanded field of view, more reliable depth perception, and no blind spot.
To prove the merits of their design, the researchers used a conventional glass molding process to manufacture a prototype horizontal progressive mirror. They were able to produce a mirror with more than double the field of view of a traditional flat mirror.
Other wide-angle designs have also been proposed, but the new design described January 28 in the Optics Letters paper offers a particularly easy-to-manufacture approach to the problem of blind spots by seamlessly integrating just three zones.
The researchers claim that the manufacturing cost of their proposed mirror design would be cheaper than the mirror design with the added small wide-angle viewing section. Since mirror designs are stipulated by national automobile regulations, the new design would need to be approved for use in the United States before appearing on cars here.
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Every week, Coldfront features five cross-borough readings in NYC. Here are this week?s picks.
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Boog City presents d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press
Tuesday, January 29 @ 6:30 pm
Sidewalk Caf?, 94 Ave. A, New York, NY
$5 suggested
Event will be hosted by Hyacinth Girl editors Margaret Bashaar and Sarah Reck.
Curated and with an introduction by Boog City editor David Kirschenbaum.
Hyacinth Girl Press is a micro-press founded in 2011 that publishes poetry chapbooks. They specialize in handmade books of smaller press runs. They consider themselves a feminist press and are particularly interested in manuscripts dealing with topics such as radical spiritual experiences, creation/interpretation of myth through a feminist lens, and science. They think outer space, in particular, is pretty darn cool. Hyacinth Girl Press is edited by Margaret Bashaar and designed/laid out by Sarah Reck.
Margaret Bashaar?s second chapbook, Letters from Room 27 of the Grand Midway Hotel, was released by Blood Pudding Press in 2011. Her poetry has also appeared in or is forthcoming from journals such as Caketrain, Copper Nickel, Menacing Hedge, New South, and RHINO, among others. She edits Hyacinth Girl Press and lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, her son, and far too many typewriters.
Sarah Kain Gutowski?s poems have been published in Epiphany, So to Speak: A Feminist Journal, The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review, and Verse Daily. She keeps a record of her writing life, experience in academia, and motherhood at the above url.
Crystal J. Hoffman was raised by a biker and a truck driver in the woods outside of a dead mining town. This explains why her most important accomplishments to date are having been reprimanded for climbing trees on three continents and nearly freeing a monkey within one week of assuming her first full-time teaching post. Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in Arsenic Lobster, Redactions: Poetry and Poetics, Strange Horizons, Whiskey Island, and WomenArts Quarterly. She cofounded and directed the TypewriterGirls Poetry Cabaret with Hyacinth Girl Press editor Margaret Bashaar for five years and spent the past year inducing the Cabaret Voltaire spirit in the Middle East while teaching creative writing at the American University of Beirut.
Niina Pollari wrote two chapbooks, Book Four (Hyacinth Girl Press) and Fabulous Essential (Birds of Lace). A full-length translation of the work of Tytti Heikkinen is due out from Action Books in spring 2013.
Sarah Reck?s short stories have appeared in Elephant Tree and The Tributary. She is co-founding and managing editor of Litterbox Magazine (on hiatus), and blogs at the above url. She lives in New York City and works as a web publicist for a major publishing house.
J. Hope Stein is the author of [Talking Doll] (Dancing Girl Press), [Mary] (Hyacinth Girl Press), and Corner Office (H_ngm_n Bks). She is the editor of Poetry Crush.
Boog City is a New York City-based small press now in its 22nd year and East Village community newspaper of the same name. It has put out approximately 200 publications, including 35 volumes of poetry and various magazines and a newspaper, featuring work by Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti among others, and theme issues on baseball, women?s writing, and Louisville, Ky. It hosts and curates three regular performance series?d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press, featuring a non-NYC small press, its writers, and a musical act; the new BoogWork series, which features two poets reading, followed by a musical performance, and then the featured poet giving the gathered a poetry workshop; and Classic Albums Live, where up to 13 local musical acts perform a classic album live. Past albums have included Elvis Costello, My Aim is True; Nirvana, Nevermind; Sleater-Kinney?s, Dig Me Out; and Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville. All of these series are hosted at Sidewalk Cafe.
and music from
mindtroll
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Fledge: A Tribute to Stacy Doris
Wednesday, January 30th @ 8pm
The Poetry Project, 131 E. 10th Street, New York, NY
Join us at The Poetry Project for readings of work by internationally acclaimed poet and translator Stacy Doris, with special attention to her final book?Fledge?(Nightboat Books). Doris?s previous books of poetry in English are?Kildare, Paramour, Conference, Knot, Cheerleader?s Guide to the World: Council Book, and?The Cake Part. She also wrote three books in French and translated three volumes of French poetry into English. She died on January 31, 2012 at her home in San Francisco, where she taught in the Creative Writing Programs at SFSU. With?Chet Wiener, James Sherry, Lee Ann Brown, Rob Fitterman, Kim Rosenfield, Nada Gordon, Jena Osman, Ann Lauterbach, Cole Swensen, Laynie Browne, Charles Bernstein, Carol Mirakove, Julie Regan and Daria Fain.
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Sorry House Book Release
Thursday, January 31st @ 7pm
Housing Works Bookstore, 126 Crosby Street, New York, NY
Poet Mira Gonzalez is joined by Kool A.D., Giancarlo DiTrapano, Spencer Madsen, Melissa Broder, Willis Plummer, and Marshall Mallicoat for a reading & celebration. Drinks, books, limited-run zines & prints will all be available.
Sorry House?is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher of books in print. The first title?I will never be beautiful enough to make us beautiful together?by Mira Gonzalez will be released and sold for the first time at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on January 31st.
All proceeds benefit Housing Works.
Flyer by?Erik Carter.
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Brenda Shaughnessy and Craig Morgan Teicher
Friday, February 1st @ 5 pm
Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 West 10th St, New York, NY
Brenda Shaughnessy?s new collection is Our Andromeda (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). To Keep Love Blurry, Craig Morgan Teicher?s latest title, was published by BOA Editions in 2012.
Sponsored by NYU Creative Writing Program
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The Death and Life of American Cities
Friday, February 1st @ 10pm
The Poetry Project, 131 E. 10th Street, New York, NY
In the tradition of?Floating Bear,?Try!,?Rolling Stock?and other hyperactive journals before it,?The Death and Life of American Cities?is couched in the necessity of materializing writing?s frequency in all its cantering grime.? Please join us for a one night procedural intervention in this circuit to parse the first 10 months of publication/gestation with readings by?erica kaufman, Jennifer Nelson, Jamie Townsend, Andrew Durbin, Josef Kaplan and others.
Liquor will flow (though you may want to bring forth from the earth, etc); myna birds will sing; there will, with god?s grace, be karaoke.
And, of course, the new Death and Life of American Cities will be available.
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Have a listing for consideration? Email stephanie.whited(at)gmail(dot)com.
Source: http://coldfrontmag.com/news/nyc-featured-readings-3
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With snowfall nearing record totals in many parts of Washington State, the 2012-13 ski and snowboard season is looking to be one of the best in many years. About half the average annual snowfall in the Cascades was on the ground as of mid-January, which means the season will be spectacular for ski resorts barring any late-season droughts.
Ski resort operators - like farmers - are dependent on the weather. Man-made snow can help, but there's no substitute for the fresh powder that both skiers and snowboarders so desire. There have been years when the Cascade ski resorts couldn't even get open before Christmas and then seasons that produced barely enough snow to keep the rocks covered. New skis and snowboards hate rocks.
But this year that doesn't seem to be a concern - at least not yet - as ski resort operators enjoy the benefits of having good snow and even better crowds. In North Central Washington, for example, Mission Ridge is enjoying the second most snow for the beginning of the year - ever. The Wenatchee area was hit in December and January with several storms - one local resident estimated this has been the second snowiest winter since he moved there in the mid-90s. Snow also has been good at most other Washington areas.
If you're looking for destination skiing, the best choice is Crystal Mountain, about 76 miles southeast of Seattle near Mt. Rainier. It's the only ski area in the state with ski-in, ski-out accommodations near the lifts and boasts 50 runs with a vast network of intermediate and expert terrain, but also beginner slopes to get you started. Altogether the lodging at Crystal accommodates about 700 people. There is an extra 1,000 acres of backcountry skiing at Crystal.
Another favorite is Mission Ridge, which is a semi-destination area. While no accommodations are located on the mountain, the ski area is just a few miles from a well-developed infrastructure of hotels and restaurants in the city of Wenatchee. The area's skiing is superb - a little bit drier snow than on the west side of the mountains and not quite as busy as the larger ski areas near Seattle.
Among the new developments this year at Washington ski resorts is the new partnership between Mission Ridge and the Summit at Snoqualmie that offers unlimited free midweek skiing at both ski areas for season pass holders. If you hold a pass to Mission Ridge, you can show your pass for free skiing at the Summit's three midweek areas: Summit Central, Summit West and Alpental.
According to Mission Ridge General Manager Josh Jorgensen, "this partnership gives our season pass holders a fun midweek option for exploring different terrain and parks."
Passholders for the Summit at Snoqualmie Big S Gold, Unlimited and L-T-D pass holders can present their pass for midweek skiing at Mission Ridge. There is also a free Sunday "bonus day" lift ticket on weekends when you purchase a full-priced Saturday lift ticket.
The reciprocal agreement is valid through April 7, 2013. To redeem, simply show your 2012-13 Mission Ridge season pass at any Summit ticket window on midweek days to get your lift ticket.
The big news over at Crystal Mountain is the extended spring season. Winter season will conclude April 15 and then Crystal will be open Fridays-Sundays in April and Saturdays-Sundays in May, along with Memorial Day.
At Stevens Pass, there's a new half-pipe located at the bottom of the main park and above the base of the Brooks chair. Stevens says this is the only half-pipe open in the state. Stevens is popular with Seattle-area skiers who like challenging terrain and a beautiful drive through the jagged mountains, following the Skykomish River.
Cary Ordway is a syndicated travel writer and president of Getaway Media Corp, publisher of www.californiaweekend.com, a site focusing on California travel, and www.northwesttraveladvisor.com, which features Pacific Northwest travel
Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/washington-ski-areas-enjoy-near-record-snow-314070
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Source: http://www.melissamusgrove.com/feather-her-nest-santa-barbara-baby-shower/
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Pulsars?tiny spinning stars, heavier than the sun and smaller than a city?have puzzled scientists since they were discovered in 1967.
Now, new observations by an international team, including University of Vermont astrophysicist Joanna Rankin, make these bizarre stars even more puzzling.
The scientists identified a pulsar that is able to dramatically change the way in which it shines. In just a few seconds, the star can quiet its radio waves while at the same time it makes its X-ray emissions much brighter.
The research "challenges all proposed pulsar emission theories," the team writes in the January 25, 2013 edition of the journal Science and reopens a decades-old debate about how these stars work.
Like the universe's most powerful lighthouses, pulsars shine beams of radio waves and other radiation for trillions of miles. As these highly magnetized neutron stars rapidly rotate, a pair of beams sweeps by, appearing as flashes or pulses in telescopes on Earth.
Using a satellite X-ray telescope, coordinated with two radio telescopes on the ground, the team observed a pulsar that was previously known to flip on and off every few hours between strong (or "bright") radio emissions and weak (or "quiet") radio emissions.
Monitoring simultaneously in X-rays and radio waves, the team revealed that this pulsar exhibits the same behaviour, but in reverse, when observed at X-ray wavelengths.
This is the first time that a switching X-ray emission has been detected from a pulsar.
Flipping between these two extreme states?one dominated by X-ray pulses, the other by a highly organized pattern of radio pulses?" "was very surprising," says Rankin.
"As well as brightening in the X-rays we discovered that the X-ray emission also shows pulses, something not seen when the radio emission is bright," said Rankin, who spearheaded the radio observations. "This was completely unexpected."
No current model of pulsars is able to explain this switching behavior. All theories to date suggest that X-ray emissions would follow radio emissions. Instead, the new observations show the opposite. "The basic physics of a pulsar have never been solved," Rankin says.
The research was conceived by a small team then working at the University of Amsterdam, including UVM's Rankin, who has studied this pulsar, known as PSR B0943+10, for more than a decade; Wim Hermsen from SRON, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research in Utrecht, and the lead author on the new paper; Ben Stappers from the University of Manchester, UK; and Geoff Wright from Sussex University, UK.
These researchers were joined by colleagues from institutions around the world to conduct simultaneous observations with the European Space Agency's X-ray satellite, XMM-Newton, and two radio telescopes, the Giant Meter Wave Telescope (GMRT) in India and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands, to reveal this pulsar's so-far unique behavior.
"There is a general agreement about the origin of the radio emission from pulsars: it is caused by highly energetic electrons, positrons and ions moving along the field lines of the pulsar's magnetic field," explains Wim Hermsen.
"How exactly the particles are stripped off the neutron star's surface and accelerated to such high energy, however, is still largely unclear," he adds.
By studying the emission from the pulsar at different wavelengths, the team's study had been designed to discover which of various possible physical processes take place in the vicinity of the magnetic poles of pulsars.
Instead of narrowing down the possible mechanisms suggested by theory, however, the results of the team's observing campaign challenge all existing models for pulsar emission. Few astronomical objects are as baffling as pulsars and despite nearly fifty years of study they continue to defy theorists' best efforts.
Of the more than 2000 pulsars discovered to date, a number of them have erratic behavior, with emissions that can become weak or disappear in a matter of seconds but then suddenly return minutes or hours later.
B0943+10 is one of these erratic stars. Discovered at Pushchino Radio Astronomical Observatory near Moscow, "this star has two very different personalities," that were uncovered by Svetlana Suleymanova in the 1980's, says Rankin.
"But we're still in the dark about what causes this, and other pulsars, to switch modes," Rankin says. "We just don't know."
"But the fact that the pulsar keeps memory of its previous state and goes back to it," says Hermsen, "suggests that it must be something fundamental."
Recent studies indicate that the switch between "radio-bright" and "radio-quiet" states is correlated to the pulsar's dynamics. As pulsars rotate, their spinning period slows down gradually, and in some cases the slow-down process has been observed to accelerate and slow down again, in conjunction with the pulsar switching between bright and quiet states.
This correlation between a pulsar's rotation and its emission has led astronomers to wonder about a connection between the star's surface and the much-larger surrounding magnetosphere, which may extend up for 30,000 miles.
These new observations "strongly suggests that a temporary 'hotspot' appears close to the pulsar's magnetic pole which switches on and off with the change of state," said Geoff Wright one of the team's astronomers from the University of Sussex.
But the new results also suggest that something in the whole magnetosphere is changing suddenly and not just at the poles or other hotspots. "Something is happening globally," Rankin says, across the whole star.
In order for the radio emission to vary so radically on the short timescales observed, the pulsar's global environment must undergo a very rapid ? and reversible ? transformation.
"If that is true, it means the entire magnetosphere is alive and connected in very important ways," Rankin says, allowing a change in the pulsar's basic mode of shining in about one second, less time than it takes it to spin once on its axis.
"Since the switch between a pulsar's bright and quiet states links phenomena that occur on local and global scales, a thorough understanding of this process could clarify several aspects of pulsar physics," says Hermsen. "Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to explain it."
The team planned to search for the same pattern in X-rays that has been observed in radio waves ? to investigate what causes this switching behavior. They chose as their subject PSR B0943+10, a pulsar that is well known for its switching behavior at radio wavelengths and for its X-ray emission, which is brighter than might be expected for its age.
"Young pulsars shine brightly in X-rays because the surface of the neutron star is still very hot. But PSR B0943+10 is five million years old, which is relatively old for a pulsar: the neutron star's surface has cooled down by then," explains Hermsen.
Astronomers know of only a handful of old pulsars that shine in X-rays and believe that this emission comes from the magnetic poles ? the sites on the neutron star's surface where the acceleration of charged particles is triggered. "We think that, from the polar caps, accelerated particles either move outwards to the magnetosphere, where they produce radio emission, or inwards, bombarding the polar caps and creating X-ray emitting hot-spots," Hermsen adds.
There are two main models that describe these processes, depending on whether the electric and magnetic fields at play allow charged particles to escape freely from the neutron star's surface. In both cases, it has been argued that the emission of X-rays follows that of radio waves.
Monitoring the pulsar in X-rays and radio waves at the same time, the astronomers hoped to be able to discern between the two models.
"The X-ray emission of pulsar PSR B0943+10 beautifully mirrors the switches that are seen at radio wavelengths but, to our surprise, the correlation between these two emissions appears to be inverse: when the source is at its brightest in radio waves, it reaches its faintest in X-rays, and vice versa," says Hermsen.
The new data also show that the source pulsates in X-rays only during the X-ray-bright phase ? which corresponds to the quiet state at radio wavelengths. During this phase, the X-ray emission appears to be the sum of two components: a pulsating component consisting of thermal X-rays, which is seen to switch off during the X-ray-quiet phase, and a persistent one consisting of non-thermal X-rays.
Neither of the leading models for pulsar emission predicts such behavior.
In the second half of 2013 the team plans to repeat the same study for another pulsar, PSR B1822+09, which exhibits similar radio emission properties but with a different geometry.
In the meantime, these observations will keep theoretical astrophysicists busy investigating possible physical mechanisms that could cause the sudden and drastic changes to the pulsar's entire magnetosphere and result in such a curious flip in how they shine.
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University of Vermont: http://www.uvm.edu
Thanks to University of Vermont for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126470/Chameleon_star_baffles_astronomers
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FILE - In this Tuesday Feb. 14, 2012 file photo, Libyan militias from towns throughout the country's west parade through Tripoli, Libya. Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. There is a growing fear that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad. (AP Photo/ Abdel Magid Al Fergany, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday Feb. 14, 2012 file photo, Libyan militias from towns throughout the country's west parade through Tripoli, Libya. Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. There is a growing fear that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad. (AP Photo/ Abdel Magid Al Fergany, File)
FILE -- In this Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 file photo, a Libyan follower of Ansar al-Shariah Brigades chants as he carries the Brigades flag, with Arabic writing that reads, "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger, Ansar al-Shariah," during a protest in front of the Tibesti Hotel, in Benghazi, Libya. Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. There is a growing fear that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 file photo, Libyan military guards check one of the U.S. Consulate's burnt out buildings during a visit by Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif, not shown, to the U.S. Consulate to express sympathy for the death of the American ambassador, Chris Stevens and his colleagues in the deadly attack on the Consulate last Tuesday, September 11, in Benghazi, Libya. Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. There is a growing fear that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad.(AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)
FILE --In this Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012 file photo, graffiti on one of the city walls calls on people to stop random firing of weapons making the point that when a bullet goes up it also comes down and can injure or kill people, in Benghazi, Libya. Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. There is a growing fear that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)
FILE -- In this Friday, Sept. 21, 2012 file photo, Libyan civilians watch fires in the Ansar al-Shariah Brigades compound, after hundreds of Libyans, Libyan Military, and Police raided the Brigades base, in Benghazi, Libya. Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. There is a growing fear that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)
Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. Fears are growing that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad.
The possibility of a Mali backlash was underlined the past week when several European governments evacuated their citizens from Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, fearing attacks in retaliation for the French-led military assault against al-Qaida-linked extremists in northern Mali.
More worrisome is the possibility that Islamic militants inspired by ? or linked to ? al-Qaida can establish a strong enough foothold in Libya to spread instability across a swath of North Africa where long, porous desert borders have little meaning, governments are weak, and tribal and ethnic networks stretch from country to country. The Associated Press examined the dangers in recent interviews with officials, tribal leaders and jihadis in various parts of Libya.
Already, Libya's turmoil echoes around the region and in the Middle East. The large numbers of weapons brought into Libya or seized from government caches during the 2011 civil war against Gadhafi are now smuggled freely to Mali, Egypt and its Sinai Peninsula, the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad. Jihadis in Libya are believed to have operational links with fellow militant groups in the same swath, Libyan fighters have joined rebels in Syria and are believed to operate in other countries as well.
Libyan officials, activists and experts are increasingly raising alarm over how Islamic militants have taken advantage of the oil-rich country's weakness to grow in strength. During his more than four-decade rule Gadhafi stripped the country of national institutions, and after his fall the central government has little authority beyond the capital, Tripoli. Militias established to fight Gadhafi remain dominant, and tribes and regions are sharply divided.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, birthplace of the revolt that led to the ouster and killing of Gadhafi, militias espousing an al-Qaida ideology and including veteran fighters are prevalent, even ostensibly serving as security forces on behalf of the government since the police and military are so weak and poorly armed. One such militia, Ansar al-Shariah, is believed to have been behind the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in the city that killed four Americans, including the ambassador. Since then, militants have been blamed for a wave of assassinations of security officers and government officials.
Earlier this month, former Libyan leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil warned the militant threat extends to efforts to establish a state that can enforce rule of law.
"Libya will not see stability except by facing them," he told a gathering videotaped by activists and aired on Libyan TV. "It is time to either hold dialogue or confront them." He listed 30 officials and police officers assassinated in Benghazi the past year.
The Mali drama illustrates how the threat bounces back and forth across the borders drawn in the Sahel, the region stretching across the Sahara Desert. Libya and Mali are separated by Algeria, but the two countries had deep ties under Gadhafi. Thousands of Tuaregs moved from Mali to Libya beginning in the 1970s, and many joined special divisions of Gadhafi's military where they earned higher salaries than they would have at home.
As Gadhafi was falling in 2011, thousands of heavily armed Tuareg fighters in southern Libya fled to northern Mali. The Tuareg are an indigenous ethnic group living throughout the Sahel, from Mali to Chad and into Libya and Algeria.
The fighters, led by commander Mohammed Ag Najem, broke the Mali government's hold over the north and declared their long-held dream of a Tuareg homeland, Azawad. But they in turn were defeated by Islamic militants, some linked to al-Qaida's branch in North Africa, who took over the territory and imposed rule under an extreme version of Shariah, or Islamic law. This month, as militants moved south, France launched its military intervention to rescue the Mali government, conducting airstrikes against militants.
In retaliation, militants seized an oil complex in eastern Algeria, prompting a siege by Algerian forces that killed dozens of Western hostages and militants.
The militant group that carried out the Algeria hostage taking, in turn, had help from Libyan extremists in the form of smuggled weapons and "organizational ties," the group's leader, Moktar Belmoktar said.
"Their ideological and organizational connection to us is not an accusation against a Muslim but a source of pride and honor to us and to them," Belmoktar, the one-eyed Algerian founder of the Masked Brigade, said of the Libyans in an interview with The Mauritanian newspaper in mid-December. "Jihadists in al-Qaida and in general were the biggest beneficiaries of the Arab world uprisings, because these uprisings have broken the chains of fear ... that the agent regimes of the West imposed."
He urged Libyan militants not to submit to calls by the Tripoli government to hand over their weapons, saying their arms are "the source of their dignity and their guarantee of security."
With pressure building on Mali's Islamists, Libya provides a possible alternative haven for jihadis, said Scott Stewart of the global intelligence group Stratfor.
"It is a very good place to operate if you are an extremist," he said. "There are fault lines and divisions ... The central government has very little authority outside Tripoli. This is very conducive environment for Jihad to thrive."
They already have a free rein in Benghazi.
"Libya became a heaven for them," Col. Salah Bouhalqa, a leading military commander in Benghazi, said of al-Qaida. "The Westerners are fearful that what happened in Algeria will take place in Libya. And here, just like Mali and Egypt and Iraq, these groups have extensions."
Some extremists say they are determined to shape the new Libya. Youssef Jihani, a member of Ansar Shariah in Benghazi, vowed that he and other jihadis would not accept a return to the days when they were jailed and executed under Gadhafi's rule. He told the AP in Benghazi late last year that the toppling of Gadhafi would not have been possible without the strength of jihadi fighters who he said joined the uprising to ensure an "Islamic state of Libya, where Shariah rule is implemented."
The bearded young man said he lay down his weapons last year. But he said he would take arms up again if Libya's next constitution doesn't make a clear reference to rule by Islamic law or if secular politicians hold power and try to rein in jihadis.
Jihani proudly said he believes in al-Qaida and supports its slain leader Osama bin Laden and Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar. He said that during Libya's civil war in 2011, he killed a captured soldier from Gadhafi's army after discovering 11 video clips on his mobile phone showing soldiers raping women and men. Jihani said he ordered the soldier to dig his own grave, then severed his head with a knife.
"I wish I could behead him 11 times," he said. His story could not be independently confirmed.
Stewart, of Stratfor, also pointed to a concern that al-Qaida could make inroads among Libya's impoverished and alienated Tuareg.
Living in mud-brick slums or camps in the deserts of southwestern Libya, most Tuaregs were never given citizenship under Gadhafi's rule, though he used their fighters as mercenaries, and now they suffer not only from poverty but from the disdain of Libyans who see them as Gadhafi loyalists.
For centuries, Tuareg ran caravan routes across the Sahara, carrying gold and other valuables. Now they're known for smuggling weapons and drugs. In slums around the towns of Sabha and Owbari, they sleep next to livestock in shacks with corrugated metal roofs, with webs of electric cables dangling from poles overhead and garbage-filled streets.
Libya's new leadership has largely shunned them. The Tuareg's four members in parliament were removed because of ties to Gadhafi's regime, leaving them without a political voice. The Tuareg contend they were exploited by Gadhafi, along with all other Libyans.
"Gadhafi's rule left behind a breeding ground for terrorism by depriving people of their rights and education .... After all the promises, we thought we will live in heaven, but kids here die from scorpion bites," said Suleiman Naaim, a Tuareg rights activist, told the AP in Owbari.
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