Source: blogs.chron.com --- Saturday, September 22, 2012
This report was written by Eva Ruth Moravec of the San Antonio Express-News. Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he was frustrated that after two weeks, he hasn't heard back from President Barack Obama on his request to declare the... ...
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?I?m searching for the best of the best for my annual series of tailgating stories: Favorite recipes. Beverages with names that reflect a school?s mascot or nickname. Especially photos that capture the tailgating spirit. Cocktails with names like Seminole Sangria, Bulldog Big Bite, 'Bama Bloody Mary, Clemson Cooler, Auburn Eye-Opener, Miami Martini, Gator Snapper, Carolina Cooler or Tennessee Stud and what?s in these and the others we don?t know about yet but would want to drink and enjoy? Recipes including casseroles, grilled shrimp wrapped in bacon, fried chicken, catfish, homemade and artisan sausage, desserts, and all things delicious will be featured with credits given to the originator. Plus potent punch creations, different Sangria recipes, appropriate wines, craft beers, new cocktails and anything that helps tell the tailgating story. Priority will be given to originality and imagination. These stories and recipes plus colorful photos will appear in my regular food, wine and spirits columns, broadcasts and television shows, now through the end of this year. Photos of enthusiastic fans feasting in stadium parking lots are always welcome! Send them to me: editors@docsnews.com. ??????????????????May your team go undefeated! Just published. The Year of Alabama Food: http://global-writes.com/2012/07/navigating-tennessees-thunder-road.html Source: http://doclawrencenews.blogspot.com/2012/08/tailgating-down-south-2012.html
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Because a significant amount of money is spent on sales training each year and getting it right is increasingly important, we thought a review of sales simulations would be useful.? Let?s take a look at what it takes to design an effective sales simulation and then explore some of the potential payoffs.
Sales Simulations ? What does it take to design a good one? First, it is important to establish some background.? When we discuss sales simulations we are talking about classroom programs versus computer simulations.? The programs are either one or two days in length.? In order to design a good one, the following considerations are important:
Sales Simulations ? What are some of the potential payoffs? Given that sales simulations are a high-impact design and assuming they are custom-developed for each client, the potential payoffs and associated priorities can be fine-tuned for each implementation.? A short list is:
Blue ribbons should not be awarded casually.? However we have found sales simulations to be a powerful and successful training methodology time and time again ? so this is a case where we feel the designation is totally appropriate.
If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the?Sales Training Connection.
?2012 Sales Horizons, LLC
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Sarah Milkovich, a member of the science team for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, guides you through an orbital view of the Curiosity rover as well as its heat shield, parachute, backshell and sky crane wreckage.
By Alan Boyle
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is in fine shape, but the sky crane that lowered the car-sized, 1-ton craft to the Red Planet's surface is not looking so good. That's plain to see from the "crime scene photo" provided by Curiosity's high-flying sister probe, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The orbital image, released today, not only shows Curiosity and the sky crane, but the rover's parachute, backshell and heat shield as well. The picture was snapped on Monday night (Pacific Time), about 24 hours after the sky crane executed a perfect maneuver to lower Curiosity to its landing spot in Gale Crater, then flew away for a planned crash landing.
Sarah Milkovich, a member of the orbiter's science team, unveiled the latest jaw-dropping image during today's news briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The debris scattered around the rover documents each step of the Mars Science Laboratory's nail-biter of a landing sequence.
"It's like a crime scene photo here," she said.
The heat shield is visible toward the lower right corner of the scene, which is part of a larger strip of imagery acquired by the orbiter. NASA's schedule for Curiosity's landing called for that disk-shaped part of the spacecraft to be thrown off two and a half minutes before landing ? and in fact you can see the shield falling away in a video released Monday. Milkovich said it landed about three-quarters of a mile (1,200 meters) from the rover's landing site.
Curiosity's backshell and its attached parachute are spread out southwest of the rover, about four-tenths of a mile (615 meters) away. Those pieces were jettisoned from the spacecraft about a minute before landing. You can see them still attached to the rover in a different picture?taken by the orbiter during Curiosity's descent.
The sky crane was the last piece of the landing puzzle: It was a rocket-powered platform designed to reduce the descent velocity to a near-standstill, and then drop the rover to the ground on the end of three strong cables. When the rover hit the surface, the cables were cut with explosive charges, and the sky crane flew itself away to avoid crashing on top of the rover. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's picture shows the dark streaks left behind by the crane's crash, about a half-mile (650 meters) to the northwest. The blast pattern suggests that the crane hit the dirt obliquely, Milkovich said.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Arizona
This view shows the whole scene around the Curiosity rover, as captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Click on the image for a larger view, or check out NASA's close-ups for the rover, the parachute, the sky crane and the heat shield.
Analyzing the crime scene
At each site where something landed, the relatively bright material on the surface has been disrupted, exposing darker material beneath, Milkovich said. The pattern of dark and light material around the rover supports the view that Curiosity is oriented along a northwest-to-southeast axis, with the rover's front facing the 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp.
"You're getting the same information from orbit as you're getting from the ground, and that really makes you feel very good," Milkovich said.
Some observers noted that images taken just after the landing, by a rear-facing camera on Curiosity, seemed to show a puff of dust rising from a spot northwest of the rover ??and they hypothesized that the disturbance was caused by the sky crane's crash. Now the orbital imagery shows that the spot really is roughly where the wreckage is located. A reporter asked Mike Watkins, one of the mission managers for Curiosity's $2 billion mission, whether the hypothesis could actually be right.
"I don't think you can rule it out, based on this image," Watkins replied.
In order to get the shot, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had to be rolled to an unusually high 41-degree angle, producing a sidelong view similar to what you'd see from an airplane window. The picture was taken from a height of roughly 186 miles (300 kilometers), yielding a resolution of 15 inches (39 centimeters) per pixel. ?Future pictures are expected to show the hardware in greater detail.
Kenneth Edgett, a member of the Curiosity team from Malin Space Science Systems, said the picture showed three different types of geological formations converging on a point near Curiosity's landing site. "If it were up to me, I would go where those three come together," Edgett said. Nature's Eric Hand provides more detail on Curiosity's potential future route. However, mission managers say it's too early to tell exactly which places the rover will visit.
There's one place the rover will definitely not visit: the sky crane crash scene. Engineers estimate that there were still about 300 pounds (140 kilograms) of hydrazine rocket fuel left over from the sky-crane platform's 880-pound (400-kilogram) supply when the crash occurred. Mission managers want to make sure the rover avoids having its scientific instruments contaminated by the fuel that was splashed around the impact zone.
Steven Lee via Twitter
The Curiosity mission's team for entry, descent and landing evaluates an orbital image that shows the impact location for the sky-crane descent stage on Mars.
Curiosity is getting busy
Watkins said the rover is in good shape. It's already taking lots of pictures and acquiring scientific data with its RAD experiment (which reads radiation levels) and its REMS weather station. Over the next day, mission managers will tweak the REMS settings to get it in better working order, and fine-tune the orientation of Curiosity's high-gain antenna to get it pointing more directly at Earth.
By Wednesday, Curiosity's mast should be raised to its full height of 7 feet (2.1 meters) above the ground, which will clear the way for the checkout of the mast's science and navigation cameras. The first high-resolution, 360-degree views of Curiosity's surroundings could become available in the next day or two.
Curiosity will be gathering data for at least the next two years, with the prime objectives of unraveling billions of years' worth of the geological record at Mount Sharp and looking for chemical evidence that could show whether or not Mars was ever potentially habitable. There'll be lots of cool pictures ahead, but Watkins said the early pictures are particularly treasured because they show places that have never been seen up close before.
"These are the days that people have worked five or 10 years for, going on right now," he said.
Update for 5:45 p.m. ET: Thanks to JPL's Steven Lee for sharing his picture of the entry, descent and landing team poring over the picture of the sky crane crash site. Lee also reports on the winner of the team's office pool to predict the landing location: Congratulations to entry controller designer Paul Brugarolas.?
More about the Curiosity mission:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Fighter jets trailing red, white and blue smoke, a pulsating soundtrack that included snippets from Beatles songs and giant puppets from "Harry Potter" all came together during opening ceremonies for the London Olympics on Friday.
Oscar winner Danny Boyle's $42 million show, with 15,000 volunteers, was a rich and textured journey through British history. Boyle drew from Shakespeare, British pop culture, literature and music, and other sources of inspiration that speak to not just Anglophiles but people across the globe.
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Here's a gallery of photos from the ceremony.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-rockin-olympics-opening-ceremony-224018729--oly.html
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AURORA, Colo. (AP) ? Authorities on Saturday began disarming trip wires and explosive devices "set up to kill" inside the apartment of the suspect in the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting, hoping to find clues to his motive without destroying key evidence in a blast.
Federal authorities detonated one small explosive and disarmed another inside James Holmes' suburban Denver apartment, including one that emits a shock wave and water, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation into the shooting rampage that killed 12 people and wounded 58.
Holmes' apartment appears to have three types of explosives ? jars filled with accelerants, chemicals that would explode when mixed together and more than 30 "improvised grenades," the official said.
Makeshift memorials sprang up for the victims, including a 6-year-old girl, an aspiring sportscaster and a man celebrating his 27th birthday, after police grimly went door to door with a list of those killed in the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. Holmes, 24, was arrested early Friday outside the Aurora theater after witnesses say he unleashed gunfire and gas canisters on a crowd of moviegoers watching the midnight showing of the new Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises."
The devices in Holmes' booby-trapped apartment were "set up to kill that person and that could have been a police officer executing a search warrant," Aurora police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson said. Police planned an intricate procedure to disarm the possible weapons without destroying evidence that could be in the apartment.
"We don't want to lose evidential value," Carlson said.
Federal officials said in a bulletin obtained by The Associated Press that they still hadn't determined a motive for the suspect as families grieved and others waited at hospitals, where seven of the wounded remained in critical condition on Saturday.
In his Saturday radio address, President Barack Obama urged Americans to pray "for the victims of this terrible tragedy, for the people who knew them and loved them, for those who are still struggling to recover."
The victims included 23-year-old Micayla Medek, said Anita Busch, the cousin of Medek's father. The family took the news hard, but knowing her fate after waiting without word brought them some peace, Busch said.
"I hope this evil act, that this evil man doesn't shake people's faith in God," she said.
Besides Medek, relatives confirmed that Alex Sullivan and Jessica Ghawi were among those killed, Sullivan on his 27th birthday.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Holmes used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol to open fire on the unsuspecting theater-goers. He had bought the weapons at local gun stores within the last two months. He also recently purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the Internet, the chief said.
The suspect's stellar academic record, apparent shy demeanor and lack of a criminal background made the attack even more difficult to fathom.
It also wasn't known why the suspect chose a movie theater to stage the assault, or whether he intended some twisted, symbolic link to the film's violent scenes.
The Batman movie, the last in the trilogy starring Christian Bale, opened worldwide Friday with midnight showings in the U.S. The plot has the villain Bane facing Bale's Caped Crusader with a nuclear weapon that could destroy all of fictional Gotham.
The Dark Knight Rises" earned $30.6 million in Friday morning midnight screenings, and, according to industry estimates, roughly $75-77 million on the day. That put it on track for a weekend total of around $165 million, which would be the second highest opening weekend ever, following "The Avengers."
Warner Bros. has announced it would forgo the usual revenue reports until Monday out of respect for the victims. Sony, Disney and Universal also said they would delay reporting box office receipts until Monday, a day later than the routine Sunday releases for Hollywood.
In New York City, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said: "It clearly looks like a deranged individual. He has his hair painted red. He said he was the Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman."
Oates would not confirm that information, but did say he spoke to Kelly. Asked whether Holmes had makeup to look like the Joker, Oates said: "That to my knowledge is not true."
Near the entrance to the theater's parking lot, a makeshift memorial of 12 candles sat in a row alongside piles of flowers. Up the hill from the theater, about 20 pastors led a vigil for 350 people, some hugging and crying. A sign read, "7/20. Gone Not Forgotten."
An emotional Gov. John Hickenlooper said earlier Friday that people would not be defined by the tragedy.
"We are clear that we are going to rise back and lift ourselves above this," he said.
A federal law enforcement official said Holmes bought a ticket to the movie, went into the theater as part of the crowd and propped open an exit door as the movie was playing. The suspect then donned protective ballistic gear and opened fire, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Authorities said Holmes shot scores of people, picking off victims who tried to flee. At least one person was struck in an adjacent theater by gunfire that went through the wall. Adding to the terror and chaos were two gas canisters thrown by the suspect that filled the theater with smoke.
Tanner Coon, a 17-year-old Aurora resident who was watching the film with two friends, said he first thought the gunshots were firecrackers. When he realized what was happening, he ducked between seats and waited for the shooter to bark demands.
"When is he going to start telling us what to do? When is this going to become a hostage situation?" Coon said.
When the firing ended, Coon said he started running up the row but slipped in blood and fell on a woman who was lying on the ground. He tried shaking her, he said, but she didn't respond, so he left her behind and ran from the theater.
The shooting was the worst in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others. It was the deadliest in Colorado since the 1999 attack at Columbine High School, where two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves.
Holmes had enrolled last year in a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver, though he left last month for unknown reasons. In academic achievement, "he was at the top of the top," recalled Timothy P. White, chancellor at the University of California, Riverside, where Holmes earned his undergraduate degree before attending the Denver school.
Those who knew Holmes described him as a shy, intelligent person raised in California by parents who were active in their well-to-do suburban San Diego neighborhood. Holmes played soccer at Westview High School and ran cross-country before going to college.
Police released a statement from his family Friday that said, "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved."
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Associated Press contributors to this report include Kristen Wyatt, Steven K. Paulson, Ivan Moreno, P. Solomon Banda in Aurora; Dan Elliott, Nick Riccardi and Colleen Slevin in Denver; Tom Hays in New York; Brian Skoloff in Salt Lake City; Monika Mathur and Jennifer Farrar at News Research Center in New York; and Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan in Washington.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-squads-disarm-traps-colo-suspects-apt-182603411.html
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