An important aspect of structural design of super-tall buildings and structures

Public release date: 30-Oct-2011
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Contact: Gu Ming
minggu@tongji.edu.cn
86-021-659-81210
Science in China Press

Across-wind loads and effects have become increasingly important factors in the structural design of super-tall buildings and structures with increasing height. Although researchers have investigated the problem for over 30 years now, the research achievements of across-wind loads and effects and the computation methods of equivalent static wind loads are still not satisfactory. Professor GU Ming and his group from the State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering set out to tackle this problem. After more than 10 years of innovative research, they have obtained many results for across-wind loads on super-tall buildings and structures with various cross-sections and developed new methods for determining across-wind aerodynamic damping and across-wind equivalent static wind loads. These achievements have been adopted in national and local load codes and have been applied to the structural design of a large number of actual super-tall buildings and structures. Their work, entitled "Across-wind loads and effects of super-tall buildings and structures", was published in Science China Technological Sciences.

Professor GU Ming and his group have performed a series of wind tunnel tests on models of typical tall buildings and structures for across-wind forces employing a wind pressure scanning technique and high-frequency force balance technique. There were a total of 121 general building models and dozens of real tall structure models. Twenty-five building models for wind pressure tests and 96 building models for direct measurements of wind forces were sampled employing the high-frequency force balance technique. The models had different cross-section shapes, namely a square, rectangular, triangle, Y shape, polygon, L shape, corner-modified square, ladder shape, twin-tower shape, and a shape with a continuously contracting cross section.

Formulas for across-wind aerodynamic forces were derived for practical use from many experimental results obtained in wind tunnel tests. As an example, a unified formula for the non-dimensional power spectra density of the across-wind force acting on rectangular buildings and square buildings with corner modifications was derived. The formula has better features than previous formulas.

Aeroelastic models were used to investigate the aerodynamic damping characteristics of buildings. A base for supporting the aeroelastic models of tall buildings was specially designed for the tests. The frequency, mass distribution, and damping of the aeroelastic models could be easily adjusted for parametric study. Three series of buildings, namely rectangular buildings, corner-modified square buildings, and buildings with continuously contracting cross sections, were modeled and tested under four categories of terrain conditions in the TJ-1 Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel at Tongji University. The effects of the cross-section shape and dynamic parameter of buildings as well as the terrain condition on the aerodynamic damping were thoroughly investigated. The time-averaging method of the random-decrease technique and the stochastic sub-space identification method were adopted in the current study to identify the aerodynamic damping ratio. On the basis of testing results and analyses, a formula for the aerodynamic damping ratio of a square building was derived for practical purposes.

A new method of determining the across-wind equivalent static wind load was also developed. The across-wind equivalent static wind load was firstly divided into mean, resonant and background components for separate computation, and these components were combined as the total equivalent static wind load. The resonant component is equal to the inertial force due to vibration of the structure and the background component is essentially the base-moment-based equivalent static wind load.

Since there is no corresponding guidance in the present Chinese code, the across-wind loads and responses have not been considered by structural engineers for many super-tall buildings and structures. As an important application, the above new formulas and methods have been adopted in the national code of China and a local load code and have also been directly applied to the structural design of many super-tall buildings and structures.

The recent trend of constructing higher buildings and structures implies that wind engineering researchers will face new challenges, even problems they are currently unaware of. Therefore, there needs to be more effort to resolve engineering design problems and to further the development of wind engineering.

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see the article: GU Ming, Quan Yong. Across-wind loads and effects of super-tall buildings and structures. SCIENCE CHINA Technological Science, 2011, 54(10)

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 30-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gu Ming
minggu@tongji.edu.cn
86-021-659-81210
Science in China Press

Across-wind loads and effects have become increasingly important factors in the structural design of super-tall buildings and structures with increasing height. Although researchers have investigated the problem for over 30 years now, the research achievements of across-wind loads and effects and the computation methods of equivalent static wind loads are still not satisfactory. Professor GU Ming and his group from the State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering set out to tackle this problem. After more than 10 years of innovative research, they have obtained many results for across-wind loads on super-tall buildings and structures with various cross-sections and developed new methods for determining across-wind aerodynamic damping and across-wind equivalent static wind loads. These achievements have been adopted in national and local load codes and have been applied to the structural design of a large number of actual super-tall buildings and structures. Their work, entitled "Across-wind loads and effects of super-tall buildings and structures", was published in Science China Technological Sciences.

Professor GU Ming and his group have performed a series of wind tunnel tests on models of typical tall buildings and structures for across-wind forces employing a wind pressure scanning technique and high-frequency force balance technique. There were a total of 121 general building models and dozens of real tall structure models. Twenty-five building models for wind pressure tests and 96 building models for direct measurements of wind forces were sampled employing the high-frequency force balance technique. The models had different cross-section shapes, namely a square, rectangular, triangle, Y shape, polygon, L shape, corner-modified square, ladder shape, twin-tower shape, and a shape with a continuously contracting cross section.

Formulas for across-wind aerodynamic forces were derived for practical use from many experimental results obtained in wind tunnel tests. As an example, a unified formula for the non-dimensional power spectra density of the across-wind force acting on rectangular buildings and square buildings with corner modifications was derived. The formula has better features than previous formulas.

Aeroelastic models were used to investigate the aerodynamic damping characteristics of buildings. A base for supporting the aeroelastic models of tall buildings was specially designed for the tests. The frequency, mass distribution, and damping of the aeroelastic models could be easily adjusted for parametric study. Three series of buildings, namely rectangular buildings, corner-modified square buildings, and buildings with continuously contracting cross sections, were modeled and tested under four categories of terrain conditions in the TJ-1 Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel at Tongji University. The effects of the cross-section shape and dynamic parameter of buildings as well as the terrain condition on the aerodynamic damping were thoroughly investigated. The time-averaging method of the random-decrease technique and the stochastic sub-space identification method were adopted in the current study to identify the aerodynamic damping ratio. On the basis of testing results and analyses, a formula for the aerodynamic damping ratio of a square building was derived for practical purposes.

A new method of determining the across-wind equivalent static wind load was also developed. The across-wind equivalent static wind load was firstly divided into mean, resonant and background components for separate computation, and these components were combined as the total equivalent static wind load. The resonant component is equal to the inertial force due to vibration of the structure and the background component is essentially the base-moment-based equivalent static wind load.

Since there is no corresponding guidance in the present Chinese code, the across-wind loads and responses have not been considered by structural engineers for many super-tall buildings and structures. As an important application, the above new formulas and methods have been adopted in the national code of China and a local load code and have also been directly applied to the structural design of many super-tall buildings and structures.

The recent trend of constructing higher buildings and structures implies that wind engineering researchers will face new challenges, even problems they are currently unaware of. Therefore, there needs to be more effort to resolve engineering design problems and to further the development of wind engineering.

###

see the article: GU Ming, Quan Yong. Across-wind loads and effects of super-tall buildings and structures. SCIENCE CHINA Technological Science, 2011, 54(10)

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/sicp-aia102111.php

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Students stage anti-government protest in east Sudan (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Hundreds of students staged an anti-government rally in eastern Sudan on Sunday, protesting against poverty and rising food prices, witnesses said.

Protests are rare in the African country but anger has been building up over a severe economic crisis with spiraling food prices. Several small anti-government protests took place in the capital Khartoum in the past few weeks.

Hundreds of students took to the streets in the eastern city of Kassala late on Sunday, several witnesses told Reuters.

"They were chanting 'people are hungry' and 'people want the overthrow of the government," one witness said, declining to be identified.

There was no immediate comment from the government.

Kassala lies in an underdeveloped region near the border of Eritrea where anger has been simmering for a long time.

Opposition activists said a protest was held in Kassala two weeks ago when students initially demanded better study conditions. Since then anger has been building up over high inflation and a lack of economic development.

Last week, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir visited Kassala to unveil government projects in the region.

Sudan has been struggling with an economic crisis since its former civil war foe South Sudan took away much of the oil production when it became independent in July.

The lack of oil revenues -- the dominant source of state income -- has driven up inflation as Sudan imports much of its food needs. The government is trying to diversify the economy but analysts say little has been achieved due to a U.S. trade embargo, corruption and lack of planning.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/wl_nm/us_sudan_protest

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Marcus Cannon in Full Remission After Cancer Treatment, Says ...

by Jeff Howe on Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 5:21PM ?

FOXBORO, Mass. -- Patriots rookie offensive lineman Marcus Cannon said he is in full remission after several months of chemotherapy to cure him from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and he'll take the next steps as they come.

Cannon, who is on the non-football injury list, started practicing this week. The Patriots have until Nov. 15 to either promote him to the active roster or place him on injured reserve.

He met with the New England media for the first time Friday and said it was "awesome" to finally get a chance to join his teammates on the field.

"Just happy to be here and play football," Cannon said.

Doctors found a benign tumor in his pelvic area in 2006. Because of that, one team requested him to have a biopsy after the draft combine earlier in 2011. He obliged because he wanted his health to be an open book, but the biopsy revealed that he had cancer.

The news hit the week before the NFL draft in April, and the one-time second-round prospect fell to the Patriots in the fifth round. He was a tackle at TCU, but he could also play guard in the NFL. To this point, there's no clear indication where the Patriots will use him.

Either way, they'll use this window to get him three weeks of practice. There's no guarantee that he'll progress quickly enough to help the team in 2011, though the possibility is there, but this opportunity will at least give him a jumpstart on 2012.

"Just working wherever coach tells me to work, just getting out there and doing whatever he tells me to," Cannon said. "There's not a defined position right now, just doing what I'm told to do, helping wherever I can."

Cannon said he was able to get through chemotherapy without many side effects, so he did his best to stay in shape by running and working out in the weight room, and he said he's feeling "pretty good" these days. He said he's 6-foot-6 and 348 pounds, though it's not clear what his preferred playing weight should be. He noted that he weighed as much as 370 pounds in college.

Cannon admitted that he didn't think about the possibility of never playing football again, but he noted that if that turned out to be his path, he had a college degree and would make due.

Through the process, he had plenty of help from his closest supporters among his friends and family, as well as tweets and letters from fans. He was also contacted by former Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich, who defeated cancer during his collegiate career.

There was also plenty of support from his newest teammates, and that's something that will stay with him for a long time.

"Everybody in here is awesome," Cannon said from his locker at Gillette Stadium. "I was blessed not to have such a bad chemo outcome, so it really wasn't a big deal because they didn't see it in my face. Everybody in here has been real supportive. The offensive line has been helping me get into. I love this team. Everybody is great. Everybody was real supportive."

Source: http://www.nesn.com/2011/10/marcus-cannon-in-full-remission-after-cancer-treatment-says-patriots-were-supportive-through-process.html

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Organised chaos on Indian roads intrigues Vettel (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? Nothing Sebastian Vettel experiences on the track this weekend can match what the world champion has witnessed on India's roads.

Speaking at the new Buddh International Circuit on Thursday, the 24-year-old German laughed when talking about the "organised chaos" of traffic in the world's second most populous nation.

"It's an interesting country, a lot of people obviously -- very different," he said, relating how he had followed the tourist trail to the Taj Mahal some 200 km from Delhi.

"It was a long drive and I asked our Indian driver whether people do have a licence here and he said 'You just buy it. Just pay and you get the licence'.

"The funny thing is that coming from Europe where we have so many traffic rules... Sometimes it's complicated sticking to so many rules. Here, I would not say you have no rules, but you have very less," Vettel said.

"But it works for you. We didn't see a single crash happening. Even though we sometimes think it's chaos, but it's organised chaos."

Motorists here are used to dealing with a range of hazards, from bullock carts to cows wandering across the roads and cars driving on the wrong side of the road on multi-lane highways.

The 24-year-old said the Taj Mahal trip had been an education.

"The drive to get there and come back teaches you about the country. It's inspiring in many ways. People seemed very, very happy, always smiling even though living standard is quite low compared to Europe. But people are happy.

"It makes you understand a lot of things and appreciate things, that you take things for granted."

(Editing by Robert Woodward; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/india_nm/india601571

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Graciela Tiscareño-Sato: Discretionary Income Causing a Values Clash?

At a recent media event in Southern California, I was speaking to a roomful of journalists from various Hispanic media organizations. My talk featured several Latino entrepreneurs in the green economy and I discussed learning how their innovations were sparked by the cultural imperative Latinos have to creatively reuse, conserve and preserve. As I wrapped up my talk, one woman asked me a fascinating question which I want to post to all parents (and those who are thinking of soon becoming parents). Here's the question I was asked, "How do we balance the desire to use our discretionary income to shower our kids with gifts we never had with our desire to continue to teach these important cultural values of conservation and creative reuse?"

It was a fascinating question that led to further discussion. Someone at my table wondered, "Didn't I go to the university so I could earn enough money to be able to buy actual Barbie clothes for my daughter inside of having to make clothes from old socks?" I answered the question this way and would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Yes, of course as an educated parent, likely earning many more times what your father earned, you may feel the desire (or need) to spend money to constantly buy nonessential items (toys, gadgets, etc) for your children, just because you can. That's understandable and our American consumer culture makes the case for this behavior thousands of times a day in front of your eyes and ears. But does that mean you stop teaching creative reuse, reduction, preservation and conservation? Does this mean that only poor Latino families have the responsibility to creatively use available resources and that those with significant discretionary income must join the over-the-top consumption/throwaway thinking so prevalent in the USA?

I think not. As parents, we recognize the need to balance teaching both. We want to pass down the cultural, familial values we learned from our ancestors about giving things away, finding other uses for them and giving objects a second life. We hopefully also want to teach financial literacy and delayed gratification in a consumer culture, values that are more readily taught within a family not purely struggling to survive. You have to have money to manage money, right?

This is how we do it in my home, with my children. We teach creative problem solving and reuse (yes, Barbie and other dolls can have gorgeous sock/used fabric-based clothes, properly accessorized with fancy beads and fabric paint.)

We teach organic gardening not because we can't afford vegetables but because it's an important skill and relationship with the earth that my husband and I want our children to have.

But we also teach financial literacy using a clever piggy bank that teach the 70-10-10-10 formula for using/saving their allowances. We don't shower them with excessive gifts but instead teach goal setting so they can purchase something special, as little consumers, with money they earned and saved. We also teach that money that buys experiences (instead of stuff) so that they can learn to make these choices too. These lessons are much more important we feel than having them feel temporarily happy with the gadget du jour that they'll lose interest in within 96 hours because it didn't really satisfy a need.

Our conversation at the media lunch brought out other questions I want to pose here for readers to consider as we get bombarded with Christmas messages before the pumpkins have gone moldy:

What good comes from our children learning instant gratification? How does that help them become productive, contributing, responsible citizens as adults? Isn't teaching delayed gratification more important? If you don't teach the process of delayed gratification to your children, who will? Do you feel torn between the need to consume and the need to teach your children important cultural values about reuse and conservation? Have you achieved a balance you can live with?

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Follow Graciela Tiscare?o-Sato on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GraceTiscareno

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/graciela-tiscarenosato/discretionary-income-caus_b_1031530.html

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Study uncovers clues to young children's aggressive behavior

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2011) ? Children who are persistently aggressive, defiant, and explosive by the time they're in kindergarten very often have tumultuous relationships with their parents from early on. A new longitudinal study suggests that a cycle involving parenting styles and hostility between mothers and toddlers is at play.

The study was done by researchers at the University of Minnesota and appears in the journal Child Development.

The researchers looked at more than 260 mothers and their children, following them from the children's birth until first grade. They assessed infants' difficult temperament as well as how they were parented between the first week and the sixth month of life, based on both observations and parent reports. When the children were 2 and a half and 3 years old, the researchers watched mothers with their children doing tasks that challenged the children and required assistance from the parents. Finally, when the children were in kindergarten and first grade, researchers asked moms and teachers to rate the children's behavior problems.

"Before the study, we thought it was likely the combination of difficult infant temperament and negative parenting that put parent-child pairs most at risk for conflict in the toddler period, and then put the children at risk for conduct problems at school age," according to Michael F. Lorber, a research scientist at New York University and lead author of the paper (Lorber was previously at the University of Minnesota). "However, our findings suggest that it was negative parenting in early infancy that mattered most." Negative parenting occurred when parents expressed negative emotions toward their children, handled them roughly, and so forth.

The researchers also found that it was conflict between moms and their toddlers that predicted later conduct problems in the children -- and not just a high level of conflict, but conflict that worsened over time. And in a cyclical pattern, when moms parented their infants negatively, that resulted in their children showing high levels of anger as toddlers, which in turn caused more hostility from the moms.

By the same token, moms who parented their infants negatively also may have had angrier kids because these moms were more hostile toward their toddlers. Negative parenting in infancy appeared to set the stage for both moms and their kids being more hostile and angry during the toddler years, bringing out the worst in one another.

"The results of our study move beyond descriptive findings to explain the underlying process linking how mothers parent their children in infancy and the problems children have in early elementary school," Lorber adds.

The study's findings can inform the development of appropriate interventions that target negative parenting as early as 3 months to help prevent later conduct problems in children.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Society for Research in Child Development.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Michael F. Lorber, Byron Egeland. Parenting and Infant Difficulty: Testing a Mutual Exacerbation Hypothesis to Predict Early Onset Conduct Problems. Child Development, 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01652.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111026091227.htm

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IPhone 4S Raises the Bar for Google Android Event (ContributorNetwork)

The iPhone 4S launched Oct. 14, just a week and a half after it was unveiled. Now, on Wednesday, Samsung and Google are expected to unveil the Nexus Prime smartphone and Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android. (As Mashable's Ben Parr put it, "the invite itself features the iconic Android character in the form of an ice cream sandwich. You do the math.")

Apple has set a bar that might be impossible for Google and Samsung to jump, though ... not only in terms of subjective values, like "coolness" or user experience, but in terms of hard numbers and specs.

Preorder record

For the third year in a row, the iPhone 4S sold out in preorders before launch day. It broke the iPhone 4's server-crashing record of 600,000 orders in a single day by selling more than 1 million smartphone preorders, and for the first time it will be available on three carriers at launch. The only top-tier U.S. carrier that Google and Android will have to themselves is T-Mobile, and it's unknown which carriers will have the upcoming Nexus Prime.

Weekend sales record

The iPhone 4S sold more than 4 million smartphones over its opening weekend; "the most ever for a phone," according to Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller. No single Android device has ever mustered such sales numbers.

Operating system upgrade numbers

Apple's news release does not state whether the numbers are record-breaking or not, but more than 25 million Apple devices have been upgraded to iOS 5, the latest version of Apple's operating system for smartphones and tablets. New versions of Google's Android operating system typically take months to reach widespread adoption, and then it's usually through new hardware sales; older handsets receive upgrades infrequently, if ever.

Siri

The iPhone 4S' "intelligent assistant" has left many Android enthusiasts nonplussed, insisting that voice command features have "been on Android for some time" in the form of Voice Actions. But as Tim Bajarin of PCMag explains, Siri may have made history as the first real natural language interface in a computer ... just as the first Macintosh did by introducing the computer mouse to the masses. It's unknown if Google has any plans to top Siri, but it's possible that it will have to if the feature catches on the way that the mouse did.

Performance benchmarks

The iPhone 4S trounced every one of its Android competitors when it was benchmarked. This may be the one area that Google and Samsung will be able to beat it in; Motorola and Verizon's upcoming phone, expected to be called the Droid RAZR, is already being billed as faster than the iPhone 4S. Raw power hasn't been enough to put any one Android phone over the top in the last year and a half, though, and that's not expected to change anytime soon.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111027/us_ac/10230391_iphone_4s_raises_the_bar_for_google_android_event

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Telescopes solve 2,000-year-old stellar mystery (AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? Astronomers finally know why the first documented supernova was super-sized.

The exploded star was observed by the ancient Chinese in the year 185, and visible for eight months. It was later found to be a bigger-than-expected supernova remnant, 8,000 light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles.

New observations in the infrared show the explosion took place in a cavity in space. The cavity allowed the stellar shrapnel to shoot faster and farther out into the universe.

The star ? similar to our sun ? died peacefully and turned into a dense white dwarf. It sucked up material from another star, and then exploded in a supernova.

NASA announced the findings Monday. Four space telescopes were used in the study.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/pia14872.html

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_sc/us_sci_stellar_mystery

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Protesters defy calls to quit St. Paul's cathedral (AP)

LONDON ? St. Paul's Cathedral has welcomed visitors for 300 years, but for almost a week its heavy oak doors have been shut, locked because of an anti-capitalist protest camp outside the landmark building.

Church officials say the campsite is a health hazard, and on Wednesday London's Anglican bishop asked the demonstrators to leave. But the protesters are settling in for a long stay, and accuse the church of choosing the wrong side in the standoff between capitalism and idealism that has spawned sit-ins from New York to Sydney.

"We want this church to open," said a 50-year-old protest spokesman who gave his name as Akira. "We were shocked that they closed it."

The Dean of St. Paul's, Rev. Graeme Knowles, said Wednesday evening he was optimistic that the cathedral would reopen Friday following changes to the layout of tents used by the protesters.

The cathedral is considering all its options in response to the protest ? including legal action ? Knowles said, adding that a final decision would be made Thursday on whether St. Paul's could open in time for a midday service Friday.

In recent days authorities in several cities around the world have swooped in to evict encampments of anti-corporate demonstrators inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street movement. But London's campsite has grown since protesters erected tents near the base of the cathedral steps on Oct. 15. They had hoped to camp outside the nearby London Stock Exchange, but were stopped by police. Cathedral officials initially permitted the protesters to stay.

The camp, perhaps 100 tents and 500 people strong, has the air of a scruffy village carnival, with banners, speeches, activities ? and even, one recent afternoon, a singalong. "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right," sang a small but enthusiastic group attempting a Stealers Wheel classic. "Here I am, stuck in the middle with you."

That is a fair summary of how cathedral officials feel. They say they support the right to demonstrate and did not want to shut the building ? for the first time since German bombers blitzed London during World War II ? but made the decision last Friday because the protesters' tents, stoves and generators pose a threat to public safety.

The closure is costing the cathedral thousands of pounds (dollars) a day ? St. Paul's charges adults 14.50 pounds ($23) for admission, unless they are attending a service ? and means disappointment for tourists hoping to visit Christopher Wren's domed church, one of London's most famous buildings and the site of the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

On Wednesday, Bishop of London Richard Chartres, the third highest-ranking cleric in the Church of England, asked the protesters to go home, saying: "The camp's presence threatens to eclipse entirely the issues that it was set up to address."

The protesters say they have worked with health-and-safety officials to make sure the site is safe, and want to negotiate a compromise with the church.

The protest is less than two weeks old but has a semi-permanent feel. There is a kitchen dispensing donated food and water, a tent offering free "tea and coffee and empathy," a technology tent linking the camp to the world via the Internet, a music tent, a meditation tent, a library, a movie theater and a newspaper.

There are twice-daily meetings to plan strategy, and near-constant debates. The activists include many students and veteran protesters, but also, organizers say, doctors, shopkeepers and teachers.

Their demands are diverse, ranging from tighter control of banks to the complete dismantling of the capitalist system. But that diversity, the protesters say, is the point.

"This is a free space ? a free space for ideas, for discussions, for coming together and trying to brainstorm something, as a collective," said Emma Medoes, a student who works part time in a bar.

Similar camps have sprung up across the United States and around the world since activists took over a plaza near New York's Wall Street seven weeks ago to protest corporate greed and social inequality.

Most have withered or been dismantled, sometimes by force. On Tuesday police in Oakland, California, fired tear gas and bean bags to disperse about 170 protesters who had been camping in front of City Hall for the past two weeks. Police in Atlanta also moved in to break up a 2-week-old camp.

Several high-profile protests remain. In the hub of Asian capitalism, Hong Kong, 30 to 40 protesters are camped outside the headquarters of banking giant HSBC.

In Germany, crowds of several thousand demonstrated on Oct. 15 and again on Saturday, and a small camp has been pitched outside the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. But the protests have failed to catch fire in a country that has one of Europe's strongest economies.

As winter approaches in London, it's unclear whether the protest will prosper or shrink.

At the moment police can't remove the protesters, who technically are not trespassing ? they camped with the Cathedral's approval. A handful of people have been arrested for public disorder offenses since the protest began, but police say it has been mainly peaceful.

The local governing authority, the City of London Corporation, says it is taking legal advice on the best way to evict the protesters ? but that could be a long process.

An anti-war vigil outside Britain's Parliament has continued for 10 years, despite repeated legal attempts by local authorities to move it. A handful of die-hards remain, even though legal challenges have limited the protesters to the sidewalk, rather than the grass area of Parliament Square.

The issue is complicated because this patch of London dates back to medieval times, with complex ownership split between the local authority and the cathedral.

Bookmaker William Hill is taking bets on a reopening date, offering 50 to 1 odds on the building still being shut at Christmas.

The camp is drawing support from some of the tourists, office workers ? and even bankers ? who stop by the site to take photographs and chat. Many say they understand the anger at bankers at a time when economic crisis and government austerity are bringing rising unemployment, higher prices, scarcer services and dwindling pensions.

"I agree with some of the things they are saying," said David Pressman, a 19-year-old trainee investment banker. "I think there is a lot of greed from a small number of people."

The protest has already spawned a second, smaller camp, a mile (1.6 kilometers) away in Finsbury Square. But a local councilor claimed this week that infrared photographs revealed that 90 percent of the tents at St. Paul's were unoccupied at night as protesters returned home to hot showers and warm beds.

Camp organizers insist that most of the tents are occupied at night, saying there are plenty of newcomers willing to take over from those whose who have to leave.

Protester Malcolm Blackman, 44, said the photographs were probably taken before midnight ? when many demonstrators were in the pub.

"If you're going to have a tent city in the middle of London, you're going to enjoy London," he said. "We're not all so poor we can't afford a pint."

____

Associated Press Writers Juergen Baetz in Berlin and Peter Enav in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_wall_street_protests

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Napoli in middle of Rangers' fourth in WS loss (AP)

ARLINGTON, Texas ? A wild throw home. A close play at the plate. The missed call at first base.

Mike Napoli was in the middle of almost everything that went wrong in the fourth inning for the Texas Rangers in a 16-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.

Playing first base for the first time in this World Series, Napoli made a rushed throw home in the fourth that sailed past catcher Yorvit Torrealba for an error that allowed two runs to score by the Cardinals in Game 3.

"I just yanked it," Napoli said. "Got a groundball we needed and didn't make the play."

The Cardinals' four-run outburst in the fourth began when second baseman Ian Kinsler made a wide throw to first to finish what should've been a double play. Napoli reached wide to his left to snag the ball, then with a sweeping motion tagged the approaching runner squarely on the shoulder.

Almost as quickly, Napoli was holding his glove up in front of first base umpire Ron Kulpa in utter disbelief after Matt Holliday was ruled safe.

"Call him safe, there's nothing you can do about it," Napoli said. "We had a chance to minimize the inning and we let it snowball a little bit."

After the game, Kulpa acknowledged he missed the call.

"At the time of the play, I had him on the base at the time of his tag," Kulpa said. "I saw a replay when I walked off the field, and the tag was applied before his foot hit the bag."

The Rangers lost because of more than the blown call and Napoli's error. There were other fielding blunders, and all six Texas pitchers allowed runs.

Shortstop Elvis Andrus had a fielding error that led to an unearned run in the sixth when the Cards scored four more runs ? the third of four innings in a row they scored multiple runs.

And while Kinsler's throw to Napoli wasn't officially an error, there would have been no need for a swiping tag if the throw had been on target. Kinsler had an earlier fielding error that didn't cost the Rangers.

Among the pitchers allowing runs were the former starters who have been so reliable out of the bullpen this postseason. Scott Feldman had pitched 10 1-3 scoreless innings in the playoffs before allowing three runs in 1 1-3 inning while Alexi Ogando gave up four runs while getting only one out. Ogando had allowed only one run in 11 innings over nine playoff appearances.

Still, a lot happened in that fourth inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Rangers got three runs in a span of five pitches when Michael Young homered, Adrian Beltre singled and Nelson Cruz hit his seventh homer of the postseason. Napoli followed with a single, but the inning ended when he was thrown out at home trying to score on Kinsler's flyball to left.

Napoli was thrown out by Holliday.

"He made a perfect throw," Napoli said. "You try to put pressure on the defense and make bad throws, and he made a perfect throw."

Albert Pujols, who later hit three home runs, had a leadoff single in the fourth before Holliday hit a perfect double-play ball toward shortstop Elvis Andrus. Second baseman Kinsler took the throw to force Pujols, but his throw toward first was high and a bit up the line. Napoli, who has been primarily the Rangers catcher, made a nice stretch to grab the ball and make a tag in one quick swoop.

Napoli and manager Ron Washington argued to no avail.

"Well, he missed the play, and I knew he missed the play when I went out there," Washington said. "We still had an opportunity to get off that field with maybe them just pushing one run across the plate. We just didn't make the plays."

After David Frese's double that scored Holliday, the Rangers intentionally walked Yadier Molina to load the bases with one out. Jon Jay hit a grounder toward Napoli, who snagged the ball and then threw on the run toward home.

Two runs scored on the play, giving St. Louis a 4-0 lead.

Team president Nolan Ryan held his hands to his temple while watching from his first-row seat near the Rangers dugout.

"I don't think you can just start all of a sudden making excuses about things," Washington said. "We had a chance to get off the field with them scoring one run in that inning right there, and we just threw the ball around in that inning, and it really messed up (Matt) Harrison's outing because he was throwing the ball well."

During a pitching change a couple of batters later, Napoli and Kinsler stood together halfway between first and second base.

"Just normal talk," Napoli insisted. "We knew we had a chance to get out of that inning, and didn't do it."

Rangers have taken to chanting "Nap-o-li!, Nap-o-li!" each time he bats at home in the postseason. They did it even after his throwing error, and he delivered a single and two sacrifice flyballs after that.

The primary catcher during the postseason, and most of the second half of the year, Napoli was at first base with the Rangers back at home with American League rules. Washington inserted Torrealba at catcher while Young was the designated hitter, a lineup Texas has used many other times.

When asked if he would consider a change at first base for Game 4, Washington quickly responded, "Why would I have to make a change? ... Any baseball player in the world could have made that bad throw."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111023/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_world_series_rangers_napoli

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Libya "liberated," but Gaddafi still unburied (Reuters)

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) ? A day after Libyans declared a "liberation" that consigned Muammar Gaddafi to the "garbage bin of history," hundreds again filed past his rotting corpse in a grim display that has raised questions about the nation's new direction.

With their Western allies expressing quiet unease that Gaddafi was battered and shot after his capture on Thursday, then put on show for days in a market cold store, the rebel factions which ended his 42-year rule were still wrangling over the body, amid wider negotiations on dividing up power.

The killing of the 69-year-old in his hometown of Sirte ended a nervous, two-month hiatus since the motley rebel forces of the National Transitional Council overran the capital Tripoli and ended eight months of war -- though Gaddafi's son and heir-apparent Saif al-Islam is still at large.

Yet while the death of the fallen strongman allowed the NTC to trigger mass rejoicing by declaring Libya's long-awaited "liberation" on Sunday in Benghazi, the seat of the revolt, it has also turned a harsh spotlight on jockeying for power among heavily armed local commanders as negotiations begin in earnest to form an interim government that can run free elections.

In Misrata, Libya's long-besieged third city whose war leaders are pushing for a big role in the peace, fighters handing out surgical masks against the stench were still ushering hundreds of sightseers into the chill room where the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Mo'tassim and his former army chief lay on the floor, their flesh darkening and leaking fluids.

Officials at one point declared the show was over, closed the gates and started turning people away. "That's enough," said one of the guards. "He's been causing us as much trouble dead as he did alive." But within an hour, there seemed to be a change of plan as dozens more sightseers arrived by bus.

The Islamic law that NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil said during Sunday's liberation announcement should be upheld in the new Libya would dictate a swift burial within the day.

But NTC officials said negotiations were going on with Gaddafi's tribal kinsmen from Sirte and within the interim leadership over where and how to dispose of the bodies - and on what the Misratans might receive in return for cooperation.

CONTROVERSIAL KILLING

The killings in Sirte, after cellphone video footage was taken showing the captive Gaddafi being beaten and mocked by fighters apparently from Misrata, are also a matter of controversy - at least outside Libya. The United Nations human rights arm has joined the Gaddafi family in seeking an inquiry.

Abdel Jalil told a news conference on Monday that the NTC had formed a committee to investigate. He also indicated that the interim authorities still held to an official line that Gaddafi may have been killed in "crossfire" with his own men - a view many NTC officials themselves seem ready to discount.

"We have formed a committee to investigate how Gaddafi was killed during the clashes with his supporters while arresting him," Abdel Jalil said, adding that whoever killed him may have had something to hide.

"All Libyans wanted to prosecute him over what he did to them, from executions to imprisonments, corruption, wasting their money. Those who have an interest in killing him before prosecuting him are those who had an active role with him," said Abdel Jalil, who like many of the new leadership formerly held positions of authority under Gaddafi.

Adding to concerns about Libya turning over a new leaf on respect for individuals, New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the NTC to probe an "apparent mass execution" of 53 people, apparently Gaddafi supporters, whom it found dead, some with their hands bound, at a hotel in Sirte.

FEW QUALMS

Yet few Libyans seem troubled about either how Gaddafi and his entourage were killed or why they are being kept exposed for so long in what seemed a grim parody of the lying in state often reserved for deceased national leaders.

"God made the pharaoh as an example to the others," said Salem Shaka, who was viewing the bodies in Misrata on Monday. "If he had been a good man, we would have buried him.

"But he chose this destiny for himself."

The killing of fallen autocrats is far from a novelty - in Europe in living memory, similar fates befell Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania in 1989 and Benito Mussolini, who had created modern Libya as an Italian colony a decade before he died in 1945.

However, some of the anti-Gaddafi rebels' Western allies have expressed disquiet about the treatment of Gaddafi both after his capture and after his death and worry Libya's new leaders will not uphold their promise to respect human rights.

Asked whether France, a driving force in NATO backing for the rebels, was concerned about the state of democracy in the emerging new Libya, the French foreign ministry noted that Abdel Jalil had said he would defend a "moderate" Islam:

"We are confident in the Libyan people, who have courageously set themselves free of 42 years of dictatorship, to construct a state of law, conforming to the principles and universal values shared by the international community," it said in a statement. "We will be vigilant about human rights."

"ROTTEN SYMBOL"

As their Tunisian and Egyptian neighbors whose uprisings inspired Libyans to rebel contemplated free elections, some fellow Arabs voiced distaste at Gaddafi's treatment, even though sympathy for the fallen strongman was in short supply.

"Forty-two dark years under a merciless dictator has naturally left the Libyan people very damage," said Mahmoud Nofal, a 36-year-old bank employee in Cairo. "It has driven them mad for revenge. The rotting body is just emblematic of the rotten political and social environment under Gaddafi."

In Britain, the best-selling Sun tabloid splashed a picture of one of its journalists posing by Gaddafi's body under the headline "Dead Dog" - a reminder of Ronald Reagan's description of Gaddafi as the "mad dog of the Middle East" in the 1980s.

The NTC wants the bodies buried in a secret location to prevent the grave becoming a shrine for Gaddafi loyalists. But authorities in Misrata do not want them under their soil.

Gaddafi's tribe centered around Sirte has asked for the body so they can bury it there. Gaddafi requested to be buried in Sirte in his will. One NTC official said authorities were negotiating with Gaddafi's tribe for them to accept the bodies and then taken them to buried elsewhere in secret.

An NTC official in Misrata said one option was to inter them alongside hundreds of pro-Gaddafi troops and fighters who besieged the city earlier in the year have been buried. Some in Misrata, he said, wanted the people of Sirte, some 250 km to the east, to produce the remains of relatives believed to have been killed by Gaddafi supporters over the past 30 years.

With big oil and gas reserves, Libya has the potential to become very prosperous, but regional rivalries fostered by Gaddafi could erupt into yet more violence.

The loosely disciplined militias that sprang up in each town with the help of NATO air power are still armed.

The places they represent will want a greater say in the future, particularly the second and third cities Benghazi and Misrata, which were starved of investment by Gaddafi.

(Reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Misrata, Christian Lowe, Jon Hemming and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Samia Nakhoul in Dubai and William Maclean, Andrew Roche and Matthew Jones in London; Writing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/wl_nm/us_libya

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NASA caught Tropical Storm Rina forming, strengthening

Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rob Gutro
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
443-858-1779
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite called "TRMM" and NASA's Aqua satellite captured radar and temperature data that showed Tropical Storm Rina forming in the western Caribbean Sea yesterday. Today, Rina continues strengthening.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded an area of disturbed weather in the Caribbean to tropical depression eighteen and then to tropical storm Rina on October 23, 2011. The TRMM satellite flew over the forming tropical cyclone on October 23, 2011 at 1728 UTC (1:28 p.m. EDT).

Data from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) was used to create a rainfall image from the TRMM team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The rainfall image showed that the future storm already was well organized and had a large area of heavy rainfall extending toward the northeast from eastern Honduras. Up until the morning hours (local time) on Monday, October 24, Honduras had a tropical storm watch in effect for its northeastern coast. That watch was dropped by 10 a.m. EDT as Rina moved away.

Today, Oct. 24, that rainfall is affecting the northeastern coast of Honduras and Cayman Islands. The NHC said "Rina is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 1 to 3 inches along the northeast coast of Honduras. Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are possible over the Cayman Islands."

At 11 a.m. EDT on Oct. 24, Rina's maximum sustained winds were near 45 mph (75 kmh). Those tropical storm-force winds extend out 85 miles (140 km) from the center, making Rina a small tropical storm over 170 miles in diameter.

Rina is in an environment with warm water (over the 80F/26.6C threshold needed to maintain a tropical cyclone) and low wind shear. It is centered near 17.1 North latitude and 82.9 West longitude, which is about 190 miles (305 km) southwest of Grand Cayman and 370 miles (595 km) east-southeast of Chetumal, Mexico. Rina was moving to the northwest at 6 mph (9 kmh). Minimum central pressure is 1001 millibars.

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Rina earlier today at 2:47 a.m. EDT the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument took an infrared reading of Rina's cloud top temperatures. The colder the cloud top temperatures, the higher and stronger they are. AIRS temperature data showed a very large area of strong convection and thunderstorms around the center of circulation where cloud top temperatures were colder than -63F (-52C). Those temperatures indicate strong thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. AIRS infrared data showed that Rina continues to become better organized. The AIRS data was created into a color-coded image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

There are a couple of factors steering Rina through the Caribbean Sea. In the mid-level of the atmosphere there's a ridge (elongated area) of high pressure building over the northern Gulf of Mexico, which is expected to turn Rina to the west-northwest. The NHC noted that as the ridge moves eastward in a couple of days, it will take Rina northwest, then northward. The NHC expects Rina to become a hurricane tomorrow

###

Images and video of the birth of Tropical Storm Rina at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2011/h2011_Rina.html ALSO on Facebook and Twitter as NASAHurricane

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rob Gutro
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
443-858-1779
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite called "TRMM" and NASA's Aqua satellite captured radar and temperature data that showed Tropical Storm Rina forming in the western Caribbean Sea yesterday. Today, Rina continues strengthening.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded an area of disturbed weather in the Caribbean to tropical depression eighteen and then to tropical storm Rina on October 23, 2011. The TRMM satellite flew over the forming tropical cyclone on October 23, 2011 at 1728 UTC (1:28 p.m. EDT).

Data from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) was used to create a rainfall image from the TRMM team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The rainfall image showed that the future storm already was well organized and had a large area of heavy rainfall extending toward the northeast from eastern Honduras. Up until the morning hours (local time) on Monday, October 24, Honduras had a tropical storm watch in effect for its northeastern coast. That watch was dropped by 10 a.m. EDT as Rina moved away.

Today, Oct. 24, that rainfall is affecting the northeastern coast of Honduras and Cayman Islands. The NHC said "Rina is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 1 to 3 inches along the northeast coast of Honduras. Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are possible over the Cayman Islands."

At 11 a.m. EDT on Oct. 24, Rina's maximum sustained winds were near 45 mph (75 kmh). Those tropical storm-force winds extend out 85 miles (140 km) from the center, making Rina a small tropical storm over 170 miles in diameter.

Rina is in an environment with warm water (over the 80F/26.6C threshold needed to maintain a tropical cyclone) and low wind shear. It is centered near 17.1 North latitude and 82.9 West longitude, which is about 190 miles (305 km) southwest of Grand Cayman and 370 miles (595 km) east-southeast of Chetumal, Mexico. Rina was moving to the northwest at 6 mph (9 kmh). Minimum central pressure is 1001 millibars.

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Rina earlier today at 2:47 a.m. EDT the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument took an infrared reading of Rina's cloud top temperatures. The colder the cloud top temperatures, the higher and stronger they are. AIRS temperature data showed a very large area of strong convection and thunderstorms around the center of circulation where cloud top temperatures were colder than -63F (-52C). Those temperatures indicate strong thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. AIRS infrared data showed that Rina continues to become better organized. The AIRS data was created into a color-coded image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

There are a couple of factors steering Rina through the Caribbean Sea. In the mid-level of the atmosphere there's a ridge (elongated area) of high pressure building over the northern Gulf of Mexico, which is expected to turn Rina to the west-northwest. The NHC noted that as the ridge moves eastward in a couple of days, it will take Rina northwest, then northward. The NHC expects Rina to become a hurricane tomorrow

###

Images and video of the birth of Tropical Storm Rina at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2011/h2011_Rina.html ALSO on Facebook and Twitter as NASAHurricane

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/nsfc-nct102411.php

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Pete Seeger enters 9th decade as an activist (AP)

Tao Rodriguez-Seeger was halfway through Friday night's march down Broadway to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, a guitar strapped over his shoulder and his grandfather Pete Seeger at his side. Suddenly a New York City police officer stepped from the crowd and grabbed his elbow.

"Are you Tao Seeger?" the officer asked tersely. "Was this your idea? Did you think of this?"

Rodriguez-Seeger, a New Orleans-based musician, was certain arrest was imminent. The officer reached for his hand and he readied for the cuffs. Then something unexpected happened.

"He shook my hand and said, `Thank you, thank you. This is beautiful,'" Rodriguez-Seeger said. "That really did it for me. The cops recognized what we were about."

That moment affirmed the message that his grandfather has preached tirelessly across nine decades. The causes and movements have changed from time to time over 75 years, but his message has always been the same: Song is the key to understanding and change.

"Music does something to you," Rodriguez-Seeger said. "It can cross rivers of meaning that entire books can't get across. ... You take any one of Bob Dylan's songs and you get to the heart of the matter where it took Homer volumes and volumes of books to get to the same point."

Today, Pete Seeger is approaching the far end of a life lived walking hand in hand with American history, often at odds with the government that runs things. It failed to shut him up. The courts had no chance. Changing tastes and values? Never. Even time seems to have taken a step back in deference to the musical rabble-rouser's resolve and determination.

This time around, the 92-year-old Seeger was carried along by two canes, not the sound of his banjo. But his presence, in a crowd of nearly 1,000 with guitar players and chanting sign-holders and police swirling around, gave the new protest movement something it seemed to lack over the last month.

A momentary clarity, longtime friend Guy Davis thinks. A purpose. A direction.

"It's his humanity," Davis said.

Seeger's voice first rose in the 1930s against Hitler. He met Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax and Lead Belly, and began to advocate for migrant workers and miners in the 1940s. He stared down Sen. Joseph McCarthy and endured a blacklisting he simply shrugged away. In middle age, he was a key figure in the folk revival that produced Dylan and, later, the protests that helped shape modern America.

Seeger still takes delight in lending his presence to important things, even if his voice doesn't carry like it used to. He found himself attracted to the studied inorganization of the Wall Street protesters.

"Be wary of great leaders," he said Sunday in a phone interview full of songs and stories when asked what he identifies with in the Occupy Wall Street message. "Hope that there are many, many small leaders."

Other than the canes and snowy beard, Seeger hasn't changed much since he began singing out against fascism in the mid-1930s after dropping out of Harvard in frustration.

"The sociology professor said, `Don't think that you can change the world. The only thing you can do is study it,'" Seeger said. "... But this was 1937 and Hitler had taken power. He was murdering people and was ready to go to war."

You could say Seeger inherited his activism. His great-great grandfather came to America seeking self-determination after reading the Declaration of Independence. His great-grandfather was an abolitionist. His father was a socialist who spoke out against World War I.

His views didn't always make him popular. He was a member of the Communist Party, something he later apologized for. He was initially for staying out of World War II, but changed his mind when Hitler broke his nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union. He also spoke out against the war in Vietnam, a move that got him censored on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," and visited North Vietnam in 1972.

Seeger's influence is incalculable, however. He's the rare artist whose music and message transcends time, speaking to his children and their children and on and on.

The son of a musicologist and a violinist, he began leading others in song at 8 and was introduced to protest music around 12. Early on, he saw beauty and possibility in traditional songs often considered regional hokum or race records unfit for an upstanding white audience.

His message found an eager audience in the young generation of kids who would go on to define rock `n' roll, changing American and world culture in myriad ways. He introduced Martin Luther King Jr. to "We Shall Overcome." In his hands, songs like "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" and "Turn, Turn, Turn!" became galvanizing anthems.

He remains a voice for the disenfranchised ? the poor of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta and victims of racism and greed.

Kira Moyer-Sims, a 19-year-old participant in the Occupy Wall Street movement, was introduced to Seeger's music on mix CDs from her high-school social studies teacher. Those songs, from a time that seems far away in the age of the iPod, spoke to her with modern urgency and helped push her into the protest ranks.

"Hearing this new music for me was huge and made me realize totally the importance of our nation's history and the fact that we can change it if we want to," she said. "Seeing Pete Seeger there in solidarity with the thing I've been living the past 38 days ... was phenomenal for me."

The idea of protesting for progressive change seemed to have gone out of vogue in the U.S. ? or at least disappeared from public view. After the flower children moved on to mid-life and minivans, Americans turned their focus inward. Fewer people had time for simple songs with complex meanings.

Rodriguez-Seeger said he was attracted to the nascent Occupy Wall Street movement when he joined a support march two weeks ago in Las Vegas. He was drawn to the anti-establishment message but noticed immediately that something was missing.

"I saw a lot of people getting angry at us for marching, getting out of their SUVs and giving us the finger and screaming obscenities" and using anti-gay slurs, Rodriguez-Seeger said. "I thought, if we were singing right now my gut tells me they'd be less inclined to behave like that because it's very difficult when you're hearing music to get that angry."

Davis, a 59-year-old Bronx bluesman who has been friends with the Seegers for 50 years, saw more than a little something of the grandfather in the grandson when he looked over at the pair Friday night. Rodriguez-Seeger helped organize the march, which came together in 30 hours and was driven for the most part by social-media sites like Twitter, Facebook and now YouTube, where dozens of videos mark the night.

"Pete is seeing his life come to fruition," Davis said. "He is seeing the fruits of his labors. All the years he invested in Tao, all the years I used to see him take Tao around when Tao was just a teenager, have paid off beautifully."

And the grandfather doesn't mind the fact that a new generation of Seegers is lifting its voice, even as he gladly slides into the background. Pete Seeger, in fact, says he's a little bemused by all the attention.

"Of course it's a great honor, but I'd just as soon be anonymous," he said. He would like to go down to Zuccotti Park, the heart of the movement, but he hopes he can just do it on the sly without the star power. Maybe next week on Halloween. "I won't be recognized," he muses. "Everybody will be in costume."

___

Online:

http://taorodriguezseeger.com/fr_home.cfm

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_en_mu/us_music_pete_seeger

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Personal finance: Ways to invest in gold on Dhanteras | Firstpost

[unable to retrieve full-text content]There are several investment options for putting your money in gold this Dhanteras.

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/investing/personal-finance-ways-to-invest-in-gold-on-dhanteras-115390.html

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ainanews: Turkish Military: 49 Kurdish Rebels Killed in Fighting in Southeast - http://t.co/jJWvwSql

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Turkish Military: 49 Kurdish Rebels Killed in Fighting in Southeast - aina.org/news/201110221? Il y a environ 1 heure via Assyrian International News Agency

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Suspect writes he targeted 'non-white' Calif. man (AP)

PORTLAND, Ore. ? The Oregonian newspaper reports it received a letter from one of the suspects in a Northwest killing spree indicating a racist motive in one of the slayings.

David Joseph Pedersen and girlfriend Holly Grigsby ? both acknowledged white supremacists ? are accused of killing four people in Washington, Oregon and California.

The newspaper reports ( http://bit.ly/owQtWB) Pedersen wrote about the killing of a 53-year-old Eureka, Calif., black man, Reginald Alan Clark. He said the couple intended to take Clark's car and decided to "kill two birds with one stone so to speak and target a non-white."

Pedersen and Grigsby also are accused of killing a 19-year-old man in Oregon and taking his car. And they are charged with killing Pedersen's father and stepmother in Everett, Wash.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_re_us/us_northwest_crime_spree

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Stocks rise sharply on solid corporate earnings

In this Oct. 10, 2011 photo, trader Douglas Glander, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stock index futures are rising after a round of solid corporate earnings reports. Industrial giant General Electric Co. said Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, that its third-quarter net income rose 18 percent. Software maker Microsoft Corp. said its profit rose 6 percent. Traders are monitoring European leaders' efforts to solve the Greek debt crisis. Worries about a default by Greece have caused much of the market's volatility in recent months. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Oct. 10, 2011 photo, trader Douglas Glander, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stock index futures are rising after a round of solid corporate earnings reports. Industrial giant General Electric Co. said Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, that its third-quarter net income rose 18 percent. Software maker Microsoft Corp. said its profit rose 6 percent. Traders are monitoring European leaders' efforts to solve the Greek debt crisis. Worries about a default by Greece have caused much of the market's volatility in recent months. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Stocks are rallying after McDonald's and other large corporations reported solid third-quarter earnings.

The S&P 500 index closed higher Friday for the third straight week, as hope builds that a weekend meeting will bring European leaders closer to easing the region's debt troubles.

Fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. rose 3 percent after reporting a 9 percent increase in income. The government also said unemployment fell last month in half of all U.S. states

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 267 points, or 2.3 percent, to 11,809.

The S&P 500 added 23, or 1.9 percent, to 1,238. The Nasdaq composite index gained 39, or 1.5 percent, to 2,638.

More than six stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was average at 4.3 billion.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-21-Wall%20Street/id-0913bcdc3fbb4150a9dccafe7477f97b

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Ohio animal owner traded guns for tiger, monkey (AP)

ZANESVILLE, Ohio ? An owner of dozens of wild animals who freed them before committing suicide this week was an avid gun collector who had traded weapons for a monkey, a leopard and a tiger cub, federal documents show.

Terry Thompson built his collection of exotic animals by swapping guns, sheltering animals no longer wanted by their owners and buying others at auctions, according to public records released Friday and interviews with those who knew him.

"Once you have an exotic animal, you're somewhat tagged as someone who will take unwanted or abandoned animals. And that's how it grew," Thompson said, according to a deposition that was part of the government's attempt to seize 133 weapons from him.

No one knows for sure why Thompson freed 56 animals including lions, tigers and bears on Tuesday and then committed suicide, triggering a big-game hunt in the Ohio countryside as police officers shot and killed 48 of them for fear they would harm humans. A 49th animal was killed by one of the big cats. The remaining animals were captured and taken to the Columbus Zoo.

The frightening situation put a spotlight on the lack of oversight on exotic pets in some states. Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions. Gov. John Kasich on Friday ordered temporary measures to crack down on private ownership of exotic wild animals while tougher laws are drafted this fall.

Under his executive order, the state will work with health departments and humane societies to better enforce existing laws, try to temporarily halt auction sales of wild animals, shut down unlicensed auctions, and review existing permits the state issues to people who own wild animals.

Kasich had let an order that banned buying and selling exotic animals expire last spring. Friday, he defended that decision, saying the legislative process was in the works to address the issue. He said a committee now has put drafting new laws on a fast track for the end of next month.

Thompson likely would have been in violation of the previous order because he had animal cruelty convictions in the past, but it's unclear if or when he would have lost his animals.

"All the statutes in the world don't keep something like what happened from happening," Kasich said. "I mean, who would have ever dreamt the guy's gonna commit suicide, open up the cages? The question is why did he have all those animals to begin with."

Deputies killed 18 rare Bengal tigers, 17 lions and eight bears in a hunt across eastern Ohio that has been criticized by some who say the animals should have been saved. The officers were ordered to kill the animals instead of trying to bring them down with tranquilizers for fear that those hit with darts would escape in the darkness before they dropped and would later regain consciousness.

Over the years, neighbors complained about a lion running loose and regularly called the sheriff about Thompson's horses roaming away from the property where the wild animals were kept.

Thompson, 62, had his share of troubles in the last year. He owed thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, had marital problems and just returned home only a few weeks ago after spending a year in federal prison for possessing unregistered weapons.

A week before Thompson killed himself, a sheriff's deputy visited his farm because a neighbor complained about his horses getting out again.

Thompson promised he'd check the fences and admitted he was struggling to take care of all the animals, authorities said.

"Terry stated to me that he had just recently got home out of prison and he has not had very good control over any of his animals since he had been locked up," the deputy wrote in a report released Friday.

Thompson's estranged sister said he likely was overwhelmed financially when he committed suicide.

"I can just see him standing on that hill looking at every animal, thinking, `How am I going to do this?'" Polly Thompson told The Associated Press. "And I'm sure he thought, `Nobody wants me.'"

Terry Thompson got by financially on proceeds from a motorcycle business he sold, sales of horse trailers and other equipment and a small family inheritance. He also was a pilot who occasionally flew chartered planes for businesses.

Polly Thompson reluctantly testified against her brother about five years ago when he was charged with starving bison and cattle kept at their parents' farm near Zanesville.

"Anybody that has animals should take care of them," she said in an interview at her home on the outskirts of Zanesville.

Terry Thompson was a gun dealer in Zanesville for many years but told federal authorities he never hunted, according to court records. "Absolutely unequivocally not a hunter," he said.

His wife, Marian Thompson, told investigators that they never sold the animals or opened the farm to visitors.

"We don't want them on display," she said.

She told detectives in the past that they took in the animals because no one else wanted them. She also said she was trying to end the practice.

"I'm going to put a stop to bringing in all these animals. I'm telling Terry, `No more,'" she said in a report filed in April 2005.

Authorities and animal experts went to the farm three years ago during a cruelty to animals investigation and found that some of the cages weren't padlocked and a few were secured with plastic ties that had been partially chewed, according to the records released by the Muskingum County Sheriff's Office.

The director of animal management from a wildlife preserve in Ohio said the bottoms of fences weren't secured and gates meant for dog kennels were used in pens housing the big cats. He also noted that a cage housing two lions should have had a much higher fence.

"There was also a tree in this cage area, and there was nothing to prevent the animal from climbing the tree and escaping," a report said.

Animal pens were scattered on the patio and driveway of the Thompsons' home on the property, and there were several others inside the garage and basement. They had a black leopard in the basement and two tigers and two lion cubs in the garage.

On a patio next to the Thompsons' pool, two lion cubs and one black bear cub were in the same pen.

A veterinarian from Columbus Zoo saw that a tiger was missing its tail and thought it had been ripped or bitten off by another animal in an adjoining cage. Two tigers were in a cage filled with standing water, rotting carcasses and lots of bones.

The zoo officials also expressed concerns about malnutrition and the sizes of the pens.

Thompson also kept a monkey in a cage too small for it to stand up in, kept a wolf in an old car and had a zebra in a horse trailer, said a Muskingum County resident familiar with Thompson who saw the conditions and spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions over the comments.

Authorities decided not to take the Thompsons' animals because there were no serious health problems but told the couple to fix the cages or they would get a court order forcing the changes.

Within three weeks, taller fences had been constructed. A county prosecutor then told detectives there was little else they could do because they had no authority to regulate anyone who keeps wild or exotic animals.

Even after the changes, detectives wrote in their final report that "it is impossible for the sheriff's office to say the Thompson property is safe."

___

Seewer reported from Toledo. Associated Press writers Doug Whiteman and Ann Sanner in Columbus also contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111022/ap_on_re_us/us_exotic_animals_loose

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