Aldenn's photos

My life-Travellings

2012-01-07T20:28:00.000-11:00

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Summer time in Michigan, USA

SEASONAL GREETINGS!!!

2011-12-26T06:45:00.000-11:00

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One of my favorite place, where my soul is full of harmony and peace...
God bless us!

Home, sweet home...

2011-11-12T07:31:00.000-11:00

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Winter time is almost here and the home warm is a well deserved...

Fall moms...

2011-11-07T07:51:00.000-11:00

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It is Fall time and moms o crizanteum flowers are so beautiful!
Let's enjoy looking...
Have a great day ahead!!!

Memories...

2011-10-27T04:32:00.000-11:00

Memories from another world... A2, Michigan, USA...

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Harvesting...

2011-10-14T22:02:00.000-11:00

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It's Fall time, so let's harvest...

White flowers ( mushcate)

2011-09-16T04:12:00.000-11:00

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Nice white bunch flowers, very common in the gardens in my community. There name are : Mushcate! they can be in many colors, like deep red, light red, pink, but these ones are rarely met...

Daisy (me and myself))

2011-09-07T02:28:00.000-11:00

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Blooming daisy and opened one...

Shyness

2011-08-18T22:37:00.000-11:00

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I am so shy and afraid to show my beauty...

Rain, rain drops

2011-08-11T05:25:00.000-11:00

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Just after a summer short rain,i gave a camera shot...

White on purple

2011-08-10T10:48:00.000-11:00

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Astonish image! It' s like a magical moment...

Aldenn's photos: Shiness

2011-08-06T04:10:00.001-11:00

Aldenn's photos: Shiness

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Shiness

2011-08-06T04:10:00.000-11:00

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I am so shy...My name is Purple Morning Glory, but I am so afraid to show myself...

Lily

2011-08-04T01:15:00.000-11:00

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A new flower in my garden, a gorgeous, large lily! I was waiting to open it, and, now, here it is! Shining in the sun ...

Dragon-flies

2011-07-31T05:31:00.000-11:00

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In my garden, I noticed two beautiful dragon-flies: a metal-blue one and a big green one.They were playing in the sun-set rays.
Amazing creatures!

Daisies

2011-07-23T04:44:00.000-11:00

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I just love these flowers!!!

Moss on the old wall

2011-07-18T20:55:00.000-11:00

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Walking along my native places, I have found out this part of the oldest wall in my town...It is covered by mos, but this rock, in the wall attracted my eyes... It seemed to me that "somebody" is just watching me...

Summer time rose

2011-07-16T20:01:00.000-11:00

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E.T.

2011-07-15T04:25:00.000-11:00

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Is it an alien? Or, maybe...

A spider on a spider web...

2011-07-08T04:20:00.000-11:00

I apologize for so many photos with the same subject, but I tried capturing the spider, a nice white and light brown legs one, on its web. In the morning, when I usually visit my garden, I was surprised by the Sun light playing on a big spider web...So many colors, and reflections...I was just astonished, and quickly, I have taken my camera, to share the beauty...
Hope you enjoy it!

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Grasshopper on a leaf...

2011-06-28T05:25:00.000-11:00

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Ones upon a time, there was a big, nice grasshopper who happened stopping in my garden...And, because it was exhausted, it started relaxing on a big, green flower leaf...

Lilies time!

2011-06-22T19:32:00.000-11:00

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A treasure in my garden...It is so beautiful, mainly in the morning, and the smell, is is soul joy!
Have a great day ahead, no matter where are you in the world!!!

Just pink

2011-06-17T18:57:00.000-11:00

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On the fence, beautiful roses, came to life,
again and again...

Fighting for life...

2011-06-16T07:05:00.000-11:00

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In my garden, this morning, I discovered a life fighting...

A white with green stripes spider, being in a purple poppy cup, realised to capture a be e. There were many bees, looking for food... But the lucky spider was delighted just with one of them...

Flori de maces

2011-06-11T04:33:00.000-11:00

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Some wild roses in my neighborhood...

When I noticed them, I had been passed away... But, suddenly, I have just turned my eyes, first on the flowers, then, I took my camera, from my bag and started to make just a photo...
I closed the camera, and I continued my everyday walking...
At home, when the photo was ready, I posted it, on Flickr, It was a great one...
I can not believe, but it is true!
Hope you like it, too!

Purple poppy

2011-06-09T06:17:00.000-11:00

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In the garden, I have just discovered a beauty...Yes, a new and interesting flower: a poppy. It is their period to blooming, in the of summertime...
Let all your worries and just look at it! It's so nice...

Pure white rose

2011-06-08T02:00:00.000-11:00

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In the garden, new roses show there beauty.
I like looking, smelling and enjoying Mother Nature's treasures...
I invite all of you to do so... Step-by-step, you'll realize that your every day's trouble, aren't so important... And the soul is enchanted...
Just try!

Strawberry flowers

2011-05-29T05:01:00.000-11:00

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Thinking to the harvest, I admire the beauty of these flowers...

Bleeding...

2011-05-26T02:23:00.000-11:00

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Bleeding hearts are decorating my heavenly court-yard...

White daffodils

2011-05-16T03:23:00.000-11:00

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In my garden, white daffodils are at their home, together with many other flowers.
Here it is a beautiful one, called"Shyness" and, another one,just after a heavy rain.
You can notice the wet borders of the flower...Poor thing!

Spring time

2011-05-02T01:10:00.000-11:00

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Flowers in my garden...All kind of flowers, all colors, all shapes and everything is full of LIFE!!!

Spring is here!

2011-04-18T21:00:00.000-11:00

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Spring flowers:berries, forget-me-not,"grapes", beautiful peach tree flowers, white violets and daffodills

Spring 2011

2011-04-10T06:40:00.000-11:00

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Spring has already been coming and it spread everywhere color, smelling and fresh air...let's enjoy Mother Nature's Treasures...

Spring is almost here...

2011-03-03T07:04:00.000-11:00

Welcome to my world. Enjoy! Even it is cold outside, and it is snowing, spring is almost here...
I feel it, I smell it...

Small earrings

2011-01-31T05:56:00.000-11:00

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Winter photos...

2011-01-28T09:37:00.000-11:00

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Snow covered the hills and the houses, making a new world, more pure and white...

The trees become something like the ghosts from the fairy tales...

And, people enjoy the beauties, even it is cold and windy outside...

Snow is playing hide-and-seek, showing new dimensions and shapes...

Fairy tales are real, aren't they???

Bushes and trees refresh themselves in the cold snow and air...

Even youth is here, trying to grow...

Water, mist, Nature...

2011-01-14T06:13:00.000-11:00

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Nature makes beautiful things around us!
The only thing we have to do is the amaze ourselves and to believe...

Happy New Year!

2011-01-13T06:45:00.000-11:00

Welcome to my world. Enjoy!/ Bine ati venit!

Merry Christmas to all people who happen to visit my blog!!!

2010-12-25T06:51:00.000-11:00

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2010-12-21T04:43:00.000-11:00

Welcome to my world. Enjoy!Peonies in Thomson Arboretum, in Ann Arbor, Mi, USA

Photography and flowers

2010-12-15T04:43:00.000-11:00

Welcome to my world. Enjoy! Nature's treasurers!

Photography and flowers

2010-12-12T08:11:00.000-11:00

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Even it is a lot of snow outside, in my soul it is pink! Nature's treasures!

Travelling/ Calatorii

2010-12-11T07:53:00.004-11:00

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[calameo code=00045690272feead9546b lang=en width=240 height=147 clickto=public clicktarget=_blank clicktourl= autoflip=0 showarrows=1 mode=mini]

Rain drops

2010-11-21T21:55:00.002-11:00

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Lily

2010-11-11T04:16:00.000-11:00

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Nice flowers are in the park, to show us Mother Nature's treasures...Are you seeing them???

Magpie Gemstones: Business Cards

2010-11-06T21:18:00.000-11:00

Magpie Gemstones: Business Cards

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Snow flakes in May

2010-11-05T20:29:00.000-11:00

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In a park, in Ann Arbor, Mi, USA, I've found these nice poenies, that captured my eyes...

Pink.../ Roz...

2010-10-30T23:23:00.000-11:00

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Phoenies...Even it is almost finished of October, the summer dream it is still here.../ Bujori...Chiar daca noembrie bate la usa...

Flowers and photography

2010-10-21T06:28:00.000-11:00

Welcome to my world. Enjoy! Bambus plant is so gracious. It gives luck and harmony in the house...

Morning glory, is waking early in the morning, filling with color the whole court-yard...

Small pink roses are so nice and joyful...

When night is pretty close, the night-star is opening, refreshing the air with nice smell around...

Big nice white tree flowers,started to blossom in Ann Arbor, Mi

Park with poenies, in late May, Ann Arboe, Mi, 2010...

Aldenn's style( Photography, flowers and thoughts): Flowers and photography

2010-10-18T05:41:00.000-11:00

Aldenn's style( Photography, flowers and thoughts): Flowers and photography

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Flowers and photography

2010-10-18T05:29:00.000-11:00

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Flowers are one of my hobbies.

But roses keep the first place...

Beauty flower

2010-09-22T22:01:00.000-11:00

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Flowers and photography

2010-08-02T03:32:00.000-11:00

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Flowers and photography

2010-07-27T00:07:00.000-11:00

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My garden is full of flowers: roses, rock flowers, bluebells and all kind of them..I would like to share with you all the Mother Nature's beauties!

French scientists crack secrets of Mona Lisa

2010-07-18T16:30:00.000-11:00

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French scientists crack secrets of Mona Lisa

322 votes

ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 16, 9:38 pm ET

PARIS – The enigmatic smile remains a mystery, but French scientists say they have cracked a few secrets of the "Mona Lisa." French researchers studied seven of the Louvre Museum's Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the "Mona Lisa," to analyze the master's use of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze - a technique that gave his works their dreamy quality.

Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint on his works to meet his standards of subtlety. Added up, all the layers are less than 40 micrometers, or about half the thickness of a human hair, researcher Philippe Walter said Friday.

The technique, called "sfumato," allowed da Vinci to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow. His use of the technique is well-known, but scientific study on it has been limited because tests often required samples from the paintings.

The French researchers used a noninvasive technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to study the paint layers and their chemical composition.

They brought their specially developed high-tech tool into the museum when it was closed and studied the portraits' faces, which are emblematic of sfumato. The project was developed in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

The tool is so precise that "now we can find out the mix of pigments used by the artist for each coat of paint," Walter told The Associated Press. "And that's very, very important for understanding the technique."

The analysis of the various paintings also shows da Vinci was constantly trying out new methods, Walter said. In the "Mona Lisa," da Vinci used manganese oxide in his shadings. In others, he used copper. Often he used glazes, but not always.

The results were published Wednesday in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a chemistry journal.

Tradition holds that the "Mona Lisa" is a painting of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo, and that da Vinci started painting it in 1503. Giorgio Vasari, a 16th-century painter and biographer of da Vinci and other artists, wrote that the perfectionist da Vinci worked on it for four years.

Flowers and photography

2010-07-10T19:02:00.000-11:00

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Horthensia...

Night star /Regina noptii...

Orange rocky flower / Floare de piatra

Detours Original SOng

2010-07-04T08:45:00.000-11:00

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Flying Car a Step Closer to Reality/ Masina zburatoare

2010-06-29T23:52:00.002-11:00

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Flying Car a Step Closer to Reality

by Mike Krumboltz

13 hours ago

1,366 Votes

Weird-looking cars are a dime a dozen. Far less common are weird-looking cars that can also fly AND have approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Indeed, as far as we know, there's only one of those babies: The Terrafugia Transition.

The private aircraft/funky-looking car has been in the news before. But the recent announcementthat it's going into production sparked mega-searches on the Web. Almost immediately, online lookups for "terrafugia transition" and "terrafugia transition pictures" both, well, took off.

A popular article from the UK's Daily Telegraph explains that the FAA's special exemption allows the vehicle to function as both a "light aircraft" and a car. Normally, for a plane to meet the "light aircraft" designation, it can weigh no more than 1,200 pounds. The Terrafugia Transition weighs 1,320, due primarily to the number of car-related safety features, like airbags and crumple zones. The "light aircraft" designation is key, because licenses for planes with that label require only 20 hours of flying time. Fewer hoops to jump through means more potential sales.

So, how does the plane/car work? Check out the flying car's official video below. So far, 70 people have placed a deposit. The total retail cost: $194,000. Expensive, but really, can you put a price on skipping commercial flights?

Flying Car Video - Terrafugia @ Yahoo! Video

Flowers and photography

2010-06-29T06:42:00.000-11:00

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Many beautiful flowers have greeted me in my garden...

Poenies, bleeding hearts, lily, roses

Home, sweet home

2010-06-28T23:33:00.000-11:00

Home, sweet home

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Rarely animals and insects

2010-06-26T18:52:00.002-11:00

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Animal:
The Pinta Island tortoise - Without argument, this turtle is one of the few species of Giant Galapagos tortoises and the rarest animal in the world since there is only one left alive. Lonesome George is the sole surviving member of the Pinta Island race, the giant tortoise being a symbol for the fragility of the Galapagos islands, and a constant reminder for vigilance and conservation of the species. The species was considered extinct until 1971, when a lone example was located by rangers. Since then, the Charles Darwin Research Station has been searching for a female tortoise, even posting a reward of $10,000 to those that find one.

Insect:
The Lord Howe Island stick insect - The remnants of a once massive volcano, Ball's Pyramid juts 1,843 feet out of the Pacific ocean. Discovered in 1788, the barren, rocky spire was thought to be devoid of life until 2001 when a group of scientists discovered what may be the world's rarest insect.
The Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) had not been seen alive in over 70 years. Known as "land lobsters" or "walking sausages," the six inch long insects had once been common on the neighboring Lord Howe Island, but were assumed to have been eaten into extinction by black rats introduced when a supply ship ran aground in 1918.
Yet in 2001 the scientists found a colony of the huge Lord Howe Island stick insects living under a single bush, a hundred feet up the otherwise entirely infertile rock. Somehow a few of the wingless insects escaped and managed--by means still unknown--to traverse 23 kilometers of open ocean, land on Ball's Pyramid, and survive there. Just 27 of the insects have been found on the rocky spire. They are currently being bred in captivity.

Source(s):

http://www.greenexpander.com/2007/10/01/…
http://boingboing.net/2009/06/19/worlds-…

PORTALURILE TERREI

2010-06-23T02:07:00.000-11:00

PORTALURILE TERREI

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REVISTA COSMOS ANIVERSEAZĂ 3 ANI!

2010-06-23T01:36:00.000-11:00

REVISTA COSMOS ANIVERSEAZĂ 3 ANI!

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Flowers and photography

2010-05-24T06:14:00.000-11:00

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Home...

2010-05-23T07:11:00.002-11:00

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http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=091be554-a099-4c9a-82d3-e554fd9a5439&m=false&i=0:0:3&c=0.0532592:0.00502563:0.00755234&z=635.845836518159&d=2.59200144371498:-2.37939358124209:-2.34553168278978&p=0:0&t=False

Why We Exist...

2010-05-20T00:04:00.000-11:00

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Why We Exist: Matter Wins Battle Over Antimatter

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SPACE.com StaffSPACE.com Space.com Staffspace.com – Tue May 18, 6:30 pm ET

The seemingly inescapablefact that matter and antimatter particles destroy each other on contact haslong puzzled physicists wondering how life, the universe or anything else canexist at all. But new results from a particle accelerator experiment suggestthat matter does seem to win in the end.The experiment has shown asmall — but significant — 1 percent difference between the amount of matterand antimatter produced, which could hint at how our matter-dominated existencecame about.The current theory, knownas the Standard Model of particle physics, has predicted some violation ofmatter-antimatter symmetry, but not enough to explain how our universe aroseconsisting mostly of matter with barely a trace of antimatter.But this latest experimentcame up with an unbalanced ratio of matter to antimatter that goes beyond theimbalance predicted by the Standard Model. Specifically, physicists discovereda 1 percent difference between pairs of muons and antimuons that arise from thedecay of particles known as B mesons.The results, announcedTuesday, came from analyzing eight years worth of data from the Tevatroncollider at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory inBatavia, Ill."Many of us felt goosebumps when we saw the result," said Stefan Soldner-Rembold, a particlephysicist at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. "We knewwe were seeing something beyond what we have seen before and beyond whatcurrent theories can explain."The Tevatron collider andits bigger cousin, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland, can smash matter andantimatter particles together to create energy, as well as new particles andantiparticles. Otherwise, antiparticles only arise due to extreme events such asnuclear reactions or cosmic rays from dying stars.Measurements made by theDZero collaboration, a 500-member international group, are still limited by thenumber of collisions recorded so far. That means physicists will continue tocollect data and refine their analysis of the matter-antimatter struggle fordominance.Researchers came up withtheir latest finding by performing a so-called blind data analysis, so thatthey would not bias their analyses based on what they observed. They have submittedtheir results to the journal Physical Review D.

Flowers and photography

2010-05-17T12:30:00.000-11:00

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No comment...

Flowers and photography

2010-05-09T04:04:00.000-11:00

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Spring time...

May Day / 1 Mai

2010-05-01T11:28:00.000-11:00

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5/1/2010 /May Day?1 Mai
Ziua internationala a oamenilor muncii...May Day!!!! O zi de sarbatoare, desi, azi, in state fiind nu simt nimic...Chiar si primele cuvinte, care trebuiau sa fie cu majuscule, nu mai sunt asa...O zi mai mult decit obisnuita...A, da, un eveniment: Obama a venit in Ann Arbor, la incheierea anului universitarde la UVM .E eveniment...
Unde sunt zilele de 1 mai, din tineretile noastre???Au zburat, iar noi am imbatrinit...A ramas o nostalgie a tineretii, e drept comuniste, sau mai bine spus, socialiste...
Insa, imi amintesc ca, dimineata devreme, intr-o astfel de zi de 1 mai, Domnul Birta, Dumnezeu sa-l odihneasca, pleca cu fanfara prin oras, chemind oamenii, la petrecerea unei zile festive...Incet, incet, oamenii se trezeau, se imbracau frumos, cu haine de sarbatoare, si, de la cel mai in virsta si pina la copii, toti se indreptau catre Piata de sus, unde era instalata o tribuna, din scinduri, acoperita cu o pinza, musai rosie, cu tablourile nelipsite ale lui Marx, Engels si Lenin, deasupra si alui Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, intre anii 1960-1967 si apoi, a lui Nicolae Ceausescu, singur, ca sa nu fie deranjat de "altii"...
In tribuna erau alesii comunitatii, imbracati frumos, in costume inchise la culoare, care, tineau discursuri...Spuneau multe cu intelesuri putine...Elevii, in haine de pionieri, cu pantaloni sau fuste negre si camasi si bluze albe, cu cravate rosii la git...Fiecare avea cite un steag cu rosu, galben si albastru...In spatele pionierilor, erau barbati si femei imbracati in haine taranesti, cusute cu ata neagra...Alb si negru...Denota mandrie, respect, demnitate si frumustete. Portul popular din Cugir...Apoi, era restul oamenilor..Dupa festivitate, toata lumea, familii si grupuri, plecau cu autobuze, masini si cei mai tineri, pe jos catre locul de sarbatorire a zilei de 1 mai, in Cugir, pe Riul Mare, intr-o poiana de pe marginea riului...Acolo, cu citeva zile inainte, se ridicau casute din scinduri. In ziua cea mare, fiecare unitate comerciala isi etala prosusele...
Mititei,gratare, dulciuri, bere, vin, dupa gustul fiecaruia...Printre casute, erau citiva care vindeau baloane colorate, "puiul tirgului", un fel de turta, uneori cu oglinda in mijloc,
seminte de bostan, de floarea soarelui sau floricele, vata pe bat si cite si mai cite...Oamenii, cu familiile se intilneau cu prietenii si, la o sticla de bere, tocmai scoasa din riu, ca sa fie rece ca ghiata,si stind pe o patura sau direct pe iarba, vorbeau, se veseleau si petreceau cu totii...Petrecerea tinea pina seara tirziu, cind, obositi dar multumiti, oamenii se reintorceau in orasul care, timp de citeva ore, era pustiu...Magazine inchise si oameni putini...si aceia, se retrageau in curti sau in apartamente sa perteaca acolo, clipele de sarbatoare...Iar a doua zi, era ziua tineretului si, cine mai era in stare, continua petrecera inca citeva ore...De multe ori, acolo, pe riu, imi revedeam prieteni pe care nu ii vazusem de mult, sau, imi faceam noi prieteni...Era un mod de socializare, chiar placut...Nu ca as avea nostalgii, dar acum, nimeni nu mai ia in seama sarbatorile asa ca alta data...Totul e simplu, anost, rece, distant...Oare, noi, oamenii suntemm altfel, sau vremurile sunt altele??? Ce bine ca avem calculator...Pe el ne razbunam, il certam, il stringem in brate, il folosim sa ne socializam, insa, vai, socializarea aceasta e ...virtuala! Rece, distanta...Oare nu mai avem nevoie sa ne apropiem sufleteste???Unde e iubirea? Si ea e virtuala?!

Flowers and photography

2010-04-29T05:14:00.000-11:00

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Spring, gives all kind of colors around us...

Flowers and photography

2010-04-25T08:10:00.000-11:00

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Spring is here...Just watch it...

Greco-Roman mummy, tombs uncovered in Egypt oasis

2010-04-13T04:12:00.000-11:00

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Greco-Roman mummy, tombs uncovered in Egypt oasis

244 votes

Mon Apr 12, 10:16 am ET

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian archaeologists carrying out excavations at the site of a planned youth center have found 14 tombs dating back to the third century BC, including one with a female mummy adorned with jewelry.The Greco-Roman tombs, in Bahariya Oasis, 300 km (190 miles) southwest of Cairo, were discovered during probes that indicated they may be part of a much larger necropolis, Egypt's Culture Ministry said in a statement Monday.A 97-cm (38-inch) tall female mummy, found in the stair-lined interior of one of the rock-hewn tombs, was cast in colored plaster inlaid with jewelry and eyes.Archaeologists, who dug at the site ahead of the planned construction of a youth center, found the tombs contained other treasures as well. The area has now been turned over to Egypt's antiquities authority."Early investigations uncovered four anthropoid masks made of plaster, a gold fragment decorated with engravings of the four sons of Horus, and a collection of coins, and clay and glass vessels," the ministry's statement quoted Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass as saying.The four sons of Horus -- Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef -- were ancient Egyptian gods. The engravings show the influence of Egyptian religion well into the Greco-Roman period.The gods were believed to protect the stomach, liver, intestines and lungs of mummified bodies.Bahariya Oasis is home to Egypt's famed Valley of the Golden Mummies, where a collection of 17 tombs with about 254 mummies was discovered in 1996.(Writing and reporting by Dina Zayed, Editing by Jeffrey Heller)Click image for more photos

Eeaster time

2010-04-09T04:22:00.000-11:00

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Even Easter has almost done, I could not stop myself to post this photo...It seem to me that it really show the Easter Spirit time and a lot of charm and warm feelings...

7.2 Earthquake Erupts In Mexico & Southern California

2010-04-05T02:21:00.000-11:00

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7.2 Earthquake Erupts In Mexico & Southern California

A 7.2 earthquake epicentered on Mexico’s Baja peninsula shook Southern California yesterday, sending high-rise buildings in Los Angeles and San Diego rocking back and forth.
Preliminary U.S. Geological Survey information indicated the trembler originated 19 miles southeast of the town of Mexicali.
Officials in San Diego and Los Angeles reported no major damage, though a swarm of small aftershocks — one of which reached 5.1 on the Richter scale — left southern California rattled.
The earthquake occurred 6.2 miles below the earth’s surface, according to the USGS.
In Los Angeles, everyone from Ashton Kutcher to Adam Lambert grabbed their Twitter handles and posted their reaction.
“We just felt an earthquake in LA that happened in Mexico?” tweeted Kutcher.
A terrified Paris Hilton tweeted her terror.
“OMG! So scary, just felt an Earth Quake! Anyone else feel it? I hope there isn’t anymore.”
Super Bowl star Reggie Bush tweeted: “I’m in San Diego and I felt it.”
“The Office” star Rainn Wilson jokingly wrote: “Couldn’t tell if that was an earthquake or if Matt Damon was angry.”
Nancy Dillon, Daily News Los Angeles Bureau Chief, said the effects of the quake were felt in Hollywood, where she and her family were celebrating Easter at a pool party.
“We felt the ground tremble — a rolling motion like on a boat — that went on for maybe 10 to 20 seconds,” she said.
“After about 10 seconds, you could see the water in the pool rocking back and forth, and it splashed over the edge of the pool.”
Television Host Bill “The Science Guy” Nye told CNN he was in a restaurant when when the chandeliers above began to sway.
“It felt like a snake moving underneath my building,” a woman in San Diego told CNN. “I started sweating I was thinking it could be the big one…I’m still pretty shaken up.”
“I’m shaking like a leaf … the pool water was just going everywhere,” said Jean Nelson in Indio, California, outside Palm Springs.
Near the epicenter in Mexico, some people were reported trapped in elevators, while retaining walls collapsed in some places and electricity was out in several parts, said Alfredo Escobedo, the state of Baja’s director of emergency services.
Hotel worker Benito Rodriquez told Sky News: “Everything was shaking. The mirrors were moving – I was hoping they would not break.”
source – NY Daily News

Is any work better than no work? Not for unemployment benefits.

2010-03-31T03:51:00.000-11:00

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Is any work better than no work? Not for unemployment benefits.

By Ron Scherer Ron Scherer – Mon Mar 29, 6:28 pm ET

New York – Roberta Hanson of North Haven, Conn., had been searching for work for 22 months when she landed a part-time job weekend afternoons and nights for a nearby municipal parks and recreation department. But now Ms. Hanson rues the day she took that work. Why? The Connecticut Department of Labor used her negligible earnings in her part-time job as the new baseline for Hanson's unemployment benefits. She went from receiving $483 a week to getting nothing."Afterwards, unofficially, they said I shouldn’t have taken the job," Hanson says.It's a twist in the law that may affect thousands of other workers, given that the ranks of the long-term unemployed are now so high. Many people who have been out of work for a year are picking up work as temps or part-timers, unaware that state agencies will recalculate their unemployment benefits after a year – and use their most recent work history and pay level to do it."What is going on for these workers is that because their most recent wages are much lower than the wages they earned in their prior full-time job, they are facing substantial cuts in their weekly unemployment benefits," says George Wentworth, a consultant at the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in New York.Benefits recalculated after a yearMost of the people caught in this snag are on Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), a federal program to help those who have exhausted their state benefits. However, after workers have been jobless for 52 weeks, states are required to check to see if a worker has requalified for state benefits. If someone is eligible for state benefits – no matter how small – federal law requires that he or she stop collecting EUC and go back onto state benefits. The states, many with unemployment pools that are borrowing from the federal government, are dramatically reducing the amount paid out to individuals.Mr. Wentworth cites the example of a Massachusetts woman who had been getting $540 a week in unemployment benefits and, when returned to state benefits, saw her weekly benefit cut to $103. To make matters worse, her husband, also unemployed, saw his benefit drop from $600 a week to $199 a week. Each cut came as a result of having taken a short-term job.Hanson’s situation is even worse. Connecticut's formula for parttime workers is to take two-thirds of their gross salary (in her case $130 a week, which is $87) and subtract that amount from $39, which would be her weekly benefit based on the parttime job. This gives her a negative $48, or no benefit at all.“Something is wrong,” Hanson says. “I am allowed to get nothing!”Temp jobs on the riseThe potential reduction in benefits for parttimers and temps comes as temp services are starting to hire more workers because businesses don’t want to add fulltimers until they're sure the economic recovery is permanent. In February, temporary help services added 48,000 jobs, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Since September, jobs at temp services have risen by 284,000.In the 1990s, the last time America saw high long-term unemployment among a sizable share of its work force, Congress changed the law to prevent the unemployed from being penalized for taking up parttime work. However, that change expired.Now, Sen. Jack Reed (D) of Rhode Island is sponsoring legislation to accomplish the same thing today. Senator Reed attached his proposal to a bill that extended several tax provisions, plus farm disaster assistance, unemployment benefits, and COBRA health benefits.“We need to incentivize people to find work, not unfairly punish folks who were able to find short-term, temporary employment,” said Reed in a statement. However, the legislative package, which passed the Senate on March 10, is in limbo because the House version is different. Reed argues that his change could potentially help states, because the long-term unemployed would receive benefits from the US Treasury. Many state unemployment funds are now insolvent and have had to borrow from the US government.It could also help people like Hanson, who worked for 28 years for a Connecticut social services program that was eliminated. She is trying to support her elderly father as well as herself on her parttime job, credit cards, and Social Security. “I have written everyone from President Obama – from whom I [have] heard nothing back – to my local representative [in Congress], Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D), who is very supportive,” she says.

Flowers, flowers.../ Flori, flori...

2010-03-27T05:27:00.000-11:00

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On Sunday, it is a tradition, in my country, to celebrate all the flowers in the world, and people who happen to have flowers' names...So, I think that the suitable post, now, is to have the opportunity to see many, many flowers, and, to enjoy their beauties and spring around us...

Hope you like them all!!!

Last Supper paintings supersize the food

2010-03-24T04:51:00.000-11:00

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Last Supper paintings supersize the food
AP

In this March 16, 2010 photo provided by Cornell University, Prof. Brian Wansink, holds a plate illustrating how food portion size has grown over the AP – In this March 16, 2010 photo provided by Cornell University, Prof. Brian Wansink, holds a plate illustrating …

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By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, Ap Medical Writer – Tue Mar 23, 7:52 am ET

Has even the Last Supper been supersized?

The food in famous paintings of the meal has grown by biblical proportions over the last millennium, researchers report in a medical journal Tuesday.

Using a computer, they compared the size of the food to the size of the heads in 52 paintings of Jesus Christ and his disciples at their final meal before his death.

If art imitates life, we're in trouble, the researchers conclude. The size of the main dish grew 69 percent; the size of the plate, 66 percent, and the bread, 23 percent, between the years 1000 and 2000.

Supersizing is considered a modern phenomenon, but "what we see recently may be just a more noticeable part of a very long trend," said Brian Wansink, a food behavior scientist at Cornell University.

The study was his idea. For biblical context, he sought help from his brother, Craig Wansink, professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, Va., and an ordained Presbyterian minister.

The Bible says the Last Supper took place on a Passover evening but gives little detail on specific foods besides bread and wine.

"There's nothing else mentioned. They don't say there's a fruit cup or carrot cake," though other foods such as fish, eel, lamb and even pork have appeared in paintings through the years, Brian Wansink said.

For the study, he used paintings featured in the book "Last Supper," published in 2000 by Phaidon Press. They include perhaps the most famous portrayal of the meal, by Leonardo da Vinci. Computer technology allowed them to scan, rotate and calculate images regardless of their orientation in the paintings.

Details are in the April issue of the International Journal of Obesity.

The study is "not very meaningful science," said Martin Binks, a behavioral health psychologist and a consultant at Duke University Medical Center. "We have real life examples of the increase in portion size — all you have to do is look at what's being sold at fast-food restaurants."

A more contemporary test would be to analyze portion sizes in Super Bowl commercials, he suggested.

"That would be a much more meaningful snapshot of how this society's relationship to food has changed," Binks said.

SARMISEGETUZA VANDALIZATĂ

2010-03-18T11:54:00.002-11:00

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SARMISEGETUZA VANDALIZATĂ
Dosar: Diverse — incappucciato @ 18:28

Încep prin a spune că în locul acestui articol urma să fie, aşa cum am scris în numărul 31 al revistei noastre, continuarea serialului despre Legile Universale ale Kybalionului.
O ştire ce mi-a fost trimisă printr-o adresă de internet a schimbat priorităţile şi veţi vedea de ce. Drept urmare articolul „Legea Mentalismului” ce trebuia să apară în acest număr va fi reprogramat pentru numărul din aprilie. Acum să intrăm direct în subiectul la care face referire şi titlul pe care l-aţi citit. Este vorba despre Sarmisegetuza. Şi dacă am mai scris despre sanctuarul dacic aflat acolo sus în munţi, fără să atingem corzi sensibile, de data aceasta vom spune lucrurilor pe nume pentru că altfel nu se mai poate!
Odată cu prezentul articol sperăm să stârnim o alarmă de gradul 0, cum se spune, deoarece după ce veţi citi şi vă veţi dumiri despre ce este vorba, cu siguranţă nu veţi rămâne pasivi. Cum spuneam, am primit o adresă de internet de la un coleg de redacţie, ce ducea spre site-ul unui cotidian central bucureştean, car eîn ediţia sa de Transilvania semnala un fapt extrem de îngrijorător. De altfel fotografiile alăturate vorbesc singure despre ce s-a întâmplat la Sarmisegetuza, străvechea capitală spirituală a Daciei. Am realizat o serie de investigaţii pe mai multe siteuri de internet care au preluat ştirea despre sanctuarul dacic, şi punând informaţiile cap la cap s-a conturat un tablou care demonstrează că în mod dirijat şi coordonat se atentează la originea şi spiritualitatea strămoşilor noştri geto-dacii. În urmă cu aproximativ 10 zile Nunu Brilinsky, vicepreşedintele Fundaţiei „Renaşterea Daciei” a urmărit un reportaj difuzat de o televiziune centrală din Bucureşti despre un grup de persoane care urcaseră sus la sanctuar. Vă daţi seama, o adevărată nebunie pe vremea asta de iarnă! Reportajul i s-a părut suspect şi Nunu s-a dus până la Sarmisegetuza ca să verifice dacă totul este în regulă. Ajuns acolo a rămas stupefiat. Unul dintre stâlpii calendarului sacru fusese pur şi simplu carbonizat pe dinăuntru, aşa cum puteţi vedea îb forografie, iar alţi 5 stîlpi scoşi şi distruşi de parcă nemernicii care făcuseră asta ar fi pregătit lemne de foc. (continuarea în revista COSMOS nr.32)

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NASA finds shrimp dinner beneath Antarctica

2010-03-15T04:47:00.001-11:00

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NASA finds shrimp dinner beneath Antarctica

Video could cause scientists to rethink life in harsh environments

	This video frame grab image provided by NASA, taken in Dec. 2009, shows a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is related to a shrimp. View related photos
NASA via AP

By Seth Borenstein

updated 48 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.

Six hundred feet below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist.

That's why a NASA team was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera's cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish.

"We were operating on the presumption that nothing's there," said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler, who will be presenting the initial findings and a video at an American Geophysical Union meeting Wednesday. "It was a shrimp you'd enjoy having on your plate."

"We were just gaga over it," he said of the 3-inch-long, orange critter starring in their two-minute video. Technically, it's not a shrimp. It's a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is distantly related to shrimp.

The video is likely to inspire experts to rethink what they know about life in harsh environments. And it has scientists musing that if shrimp-like creatures can frolic below 600 feet of Antarctic ice in subfreezing dark water, what about other hostile places? What about Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter?

"They are looking at the equivalent of a drop of water in a swimming pool that you would expect nothing to be living in and they found not one animal but two," said biologist Stacy Kim of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California, who joined the NASA team later. "We have no idea what's going on down there."

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Microbiologist Cynan Ellis-Evans of the British Antarctic Survey called the finding intriguing.

"This is a first for the sub-glacial environment with that level of sophistication," Ellis-Evans said. He said there have been findings somewhat similar, showing complex life in retreating ice shelves, but nothing quite directly under the ice like this.

Ellis-Evans said it's possible the creatures swam in from far away and don't live there permanently.

But Kim, who is a co-author of the study, doubts it. The site in West Antarctica is at least 12 miles from open seas. Bindschadler drilled an 8-inch-wide hole and was looking at a tiny amount of water. That means it's unlikely that that two critters swam from great distances and were captured randomly in that small of an area, she said.

Indonesia Earthquake 2010: Strong Quake Shakes Eastern Islands

2010-03-14T04:45:00.000-11:00

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Indonesia Earthquake 2010: Strong Quake Shakes Eastern Islands

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A 7.0 Indonesia earthquake struck early Sunday morning, not long after a separate Indonesia earthquake on Saturday

A strong earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia on Sunday morning, registering with a 7.0 magnitude, according to reports.
The quake struck just before 8 a.m. local time. The Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said it did not trigger a tsunami, per BNO News.
The USGS measured the same quake as 6.4 magnitude and says it happened off the coast of Sumatra Island.
There were no initial reports of injuries or damage.
A separate 5.9 earthquake had hit Indonesia just hours earlier on Saturday.

How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear

2010-03-12T03:53:00.002-11:00

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How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear

By Michael Reilly | Thu Mar 11, 2010 03:47 AM ET

If you want to grow a truly massive earthquake, you've got to give it space.
Scientists have known this basic fact for years -- more powerful earthquakes ramp up the shaking by breaking along huge stretches of faults. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake just outside Port-Au-Prince in January unzipped a 65-kilometer (40.4-mile) long section of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault. Despite the unfathomable devastation it caused, it was a second-tier quake at best.
As has been widely reported, the Chile quake was a megathrust earthquake, the largest class of tremor we know of. At magnitude 8.8, it was over 500 times more powerful than the Haiti quake.
In a preliminary analysis of data from the quake, researchers from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences are starting to unravel how it got to be such a monster. Turns out, it was a chain reaction of sorts. In the first minute, activity was confined to the area around the epicenter of the quake, about 200 miles south of Santiago. In the second minute, it tore north toward Santiago and stopped, before rearing its ugly head again south of the epicenter and racing toward the city of Concepcion.

As the animation shows, the quake was a string of different activity all popping off at roughly the same time. How this happens is a mystery of science. Stress builds ever so slowly, gradually for centuries and then -- Blam! -- a tear in the crust forms and propagates as fast as a bullet shot from a gun. In the latest Chile quake, a ribbon of Earth 700 kilometers (435 miles) long was shredded in a matter of about two minutes.
It's like nuclear fission: if just one atom goes, no big deal. But string enough together and suddenly...mushroom cloud.
Studying huge, sprawling forces operating at such high speeds tens of miles underground is tough work, which is what makes a study like this so useful. If scientists can figure out how ruptures propagate through faults to form giant quakes, they may be able to predict the impending final chapter in this round of Chilean megathrust quakes, as well as others around the world.

Unemployment: State by State

2010-03-11T04:48:00.000-11:00

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Unemployment: State by State

Jobless Rate Rose in 30 States inJanuary, Five Hit Records

by By Joseph Pisani, CNBC.com

Unemployment rose in most states in January--even breaking records in several states, according to government data released Wednesday.Joblessness in five states--California (12.5 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent), Florida (11.9 percent), Georgia (10.4 percent), and North Carolina (11.1 percent)--hit a record high. The District of Columbia, at 12.0 percent, also reached a record high.
In all, 30 states and the District of Columbia saw their rates increase in January over the previous month. Nine states reported a decrease and 11 states had no change in their unemployment, according to the Labor Department.
Fewer states showed an increase in their unemployment rate in January compared with December, when 43 states showed an increase in jobless rates.
=========================================
"It shows that the labor market is virtually frozen," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group. Although the data is from January, he said that "there has not been any dramatic change in these past six weeks."
The national unemployment rate was at 9.7 percent in January, down from 10 percent in December 2009. The unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent in February.
Michigan, again, had the highest jobless rate in the nation, though it eased to 14.3 percent from 14.5 percent in December. Michigan's unemployment rate has hovered over 14 percent since July 2009.
"Michigan's unemployment rate fell slightly, as typical January auto industry job cuts did not occur in January 2010," said Rick Waclawek, director of Michigan's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives in a statement. "Also, jobs in a number of Michigan industry sectors, including manufacturing, have stabilized since the summer of 2009."
Behind Michigan, Nevada had the second highest jobless rate in the country with 13 percent, followed by Rhode Island (12.7 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent), and California (12.5 percent).
North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate in country at 4.2 percent in January, followed by Nebraska (4.6 percent) and South Dakota (4.8 percent).
Separately on Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a sharp increase in job openings in January. There were 2.7 million job openings in that month, up 7.6 percent from December. That was the highest number of openings since February 2009.

Nasca

2010-03-03T03:01:00.000-11:00

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Animation

Constructing the Geoglyphs

See how ancient people created the designs, beginning more than 2,000 years ago.

Published: March 2010

Nasca

Spirits in the Sand

The ancient Nasca lines of Peru shed their secrets.

By Stephen S. Hall

Photograph by Robert Clark

From the air, the lines etched in the floor of the desert were hard to see, like drawings left in the sun too long. As our pilot cut tight turns over a desert plateau in southern Peru, north of the town of Nasca, I could just make out a succession of beautifully crafted figures.
"Orca!" shouted Johny Isla, a Peruvian archaeologist, over the roar of the engine. He pointed down at the form of a killer whale. "¡Mono!" he said moments later, when the famous Nasca monkey came into view. “¡Colibrí!” The hummingbird.

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Since they became widely known in the late 1920s, when commercial air travel was introduced between Lima and the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, the mysterious desert drawings known as the Nasca lines have puzzled archaeologists, anthropologists, and anyone fascinated by ancient cultures in the Americas. For just as long, waves of scientists—and amateurs—have inflicted various interpretations on the lines, as if they were the world's largest set of Rorschach inkblots. At one time or another, they have been explained as Inca roads, irrigation plans, images to be appreciated from primitive hot-air balloons, and, most laughably, landing strips for alien spacecraft.
After World War II a German-born teacher named Maria Reiche made the first formal surveys of the lines and figures—called geoglyphs—outside Nasca and the nearby town of Palpa. For half a century, until her death in 1998, Reiche played a critically important role in conserving the geoglyphs. But her own preferred theory—that the lines represented settings on an astronomical calendar—has also been largely discredited. The ferocity with which she protected the lines from outsiders has been adopted by their caretakers today, so that even scientists have a hard time gaining access to the most famous animal figures on the plain, or pampa, immediately northwest of Nasca.
Since 1997, however, a large Peruvian-German research collaboration has been under way near the town of Palpa, farther to the north. Directed by Isla and Markus Reindel of the German Archaeological Institute, the Nasca-Palpa Project has mounted a systematic, multidisciplinary study of the ancient people of the region, starting with where and how the Nas ca lived, why they disappeared, and what was the meaning of the strange designs they left behind in the desert sand.
As our plane banked into another turn, Isla, a native of the highlands who works at the Andean Institute of Archaeological Studies, kept his broad, high-cheeked face pressed to the window. "Trapezoid!" he shouted, pointing out a huge geometrical clearing looming into sight. "Platform!" he added, gesturing with his finger. "Platform!"
Platform? He was pointing at a small heap of stones at one end of the trapezoid. If Isla and his colleagues are right, such unprepossessing structures may hold a key to understanding the true purpose of the Nasca lines. The story begins, and ends, with water.
The coastal region of southern Peru and northern Chile is one of the driest places on Earth. In the small, protected basin where the Nasca culture arose, ten rivers descend from the Andes, to the east, most of them dry at least part of the year. These ten fragile ribbons of green, surrounded by a thousand shades of brown, offered a fertile hot spot for the emergence of an early civilization, much as the Nile Delta or the rivers of Mesopotamia did. "It was the perfect place for human settlement, because it had water," says geographer Bernhard Eitel, a member of the Nasca-Palpa Project. "But it was a high-risk environment—a very high-risk environment."

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NASA: Quake Shifted Earth's Axis, Shortened Day

2010-03-02T05:13:00.002-11:00

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NASA: Quake Shifted Earth's Axis, Shortened Day

Updated: 4 hours 33 minutes ago

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David KnowlesWriter

(March 1) -- Apart from claiming the lives of hundreds of people and wreaking enormous property damage, Chile's massive earthquake has likely altered the distribution of the Earth's overall mass, scientists from NASA say.

As a result, the length of a day is now a little shorter than it was before Saturday's magnitude 8.8 earthquake.

"The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds [millionths of a second]," Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Bloomberg. "The axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds [about 8 centimeters or 3 inches]."

More Coverage:
- Latest on Chile Earthquake
- Bus Full of Retirees Swept Away
- Mother Nature Out of Control?
- Why Damage Not as Bad as Haiti
- Hawaii 'Dodged a Bullet'
- Quake Shifted Earth's Axis
- Tsunami Ravaged Coastal Areas

The speed that the Earth rotates also increased slightly in 2004 following the earthquake that struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. That 9.1 earthquake shortened the length of an Earth day by 6.8 microseconds, scientists say.

The reason is that sudden changes in the dimensions of the Earth's tectonic plates, like those experienced in the earthquakes in Chile and Indonesia, can alter the velocity.

David Kerridge, the head of Earth hazards and systems at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, likened the change in rotation speed to what happens when a figure skater draws her arms in close to her body while spinning. "As she pulls her arms in," Kerridge told Bloomberg, "she gets faster and faster. It's the same idea with the Earth going around: If you change the distribution of mass, the rotation rate changes."

Man, daughter fall 13 floors in Chile quake

2010-03-01T03:53:00.000-11:00

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Man, daughter fall 13 floors in Chile quake

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By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 28, 9:55 pm ET

CONCEPCION, Chile – When their 13th-floor apartment began to shake, Alberto Rozas pulled his 7-year-old daughter into the bathroom doorway and waited for it to stop.

Instead, they fell.

Plummeting as their brand-new apartment building toppled like a felled tree, they hugged each other all the way down.

Rozas had no idea which way was up until he looked through his apartment's shattered window and spotted light — "the light of the full moon."

Rozas and his daughter, Fernanda, clambered up and to safety with nothing more than a few cuts, scrapes and bruises.

"The earthquake and the fall were one single, horrible thing," Rozas told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I held onto her and she never let me go."

Rozas' neighbors who lived on the other side of the hall found themselves trapped beneath the structure, while rescuers painstakingly used electric saws and a generator-powered hammer to cut into the concrete.

"We don't have any listening devices or cameras," said Ian Argo, a firefighter commander.

As of Sunday, 23 people had been pulled alive from the 15-story Rio Alta building and seven bodies had been removed. An estimated 60 people remained trapped inside.

Socovil, the company that opened the concrete-and-glass structure last June, issued a statement saying it had complied with all building codes. But many residents were angry.

"The construction was obviously poor," Rozas said.

Abel Torres, 25, had a view of the Bio Bio River from his sixth-floor apartment. He had just gotten home from his job at a nightclub when the quake hit at 3:34 a.m.

"My TV fell on top of me and suddenly I saw stars shooting across my window," he said.

Torres and his roommate stacked furniture to reach that window — now a skylight — and escaped without clothes, coated in dust.

On the second floor, Maribel Alarcon and her husband Gunther rushed to comfort their 2-year-old son Oliver when he started crying moments before the temblor.

Their concern was their salvation: Oliver's bedroom was the only place spared in their apartment.

"We prayed a lot," Alarcon said. "And if God let us survive, that was because someone was going to rescue us."

Much higher in the building, Rozas was sleeping alongside his daughter when the shaking began.

"There was dust, noise, everything falling," he said. "We went to the bathroom doorway. Then there was the fall. Finally it stopped."

After they climbed out of the wreckage, Rozas took Fernanda to her mother's house, then returned to help firefighters understand the layout of the toppled building.

He retrieved medicine and clothes for Fernanda. And his own guitar.

Huge quake hits Chile; tsunami threatens Pacific

2010-02-27T05:39:00.000-11:00

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Huge quake hits Chile; tsunami threatens Pacific

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By ROBERTO CANDIA and EVA VERGARA, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago

TALCA, Chile – A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe.

Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Chile in 50 years and one of the strongest ever measured anywhere. President-elect Sebastian Pinerasaid more than 120 people died, but that number was rising quickly.

The quake shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, and was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east.

In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, furniture toppled as the earth shook for more than a minute in something akin to major airplane turbulence. The historic center of town largely collapsed, but most of the buildings of adobe mud and straw were businesses that were not inhabited during the 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) quake.

Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.

Collapsed roads and bridges complicated north-south travel in the narrow Andean nation. Electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas — meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.

Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific. Emergency officials set off shrieking alarm sirens across parts ofHawaii, which could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Police and troops in Tonga began evacuating people from low-lying coastal areas and experts warned that tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and Alaska, too, were threatened.

Waves 6 feet (1.8 meter) above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake, andPresident Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast. There were no immediate reports of major damage from the waves.

Bachelet said she had no information on the number of people injured in the quake. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile but said Chile has not asked for assistance from other countries.

"The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have," she said.

Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast — 29 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. A bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside down.

Several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage, Bachelet said.

Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours after the passenger terminal suffered major damage, airport director Eduardo del Canto told Chilean television. TV images showed smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.

Santiago's subway was shut as well and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, Transportation and Telecommunications Minister said. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.

In Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city and only 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the epicenter, nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms. A 15-story building collapsed, leaving only a few floors intact.

"I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, marveling that he escaped with no major injuries. He said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK."

Marco Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.

"All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor," he said. "I felt terrified."

Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.

"But then I thought, `Oh, there's no train here.' And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed."

The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, but it caught partiers leaving a disco.

"It was very bad. People were screaming. Some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them," Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "urgent action to protect lives and property" in Hawaii, which is among 53 nations and territories subject to tsunami warnings.

"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near theearthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts," the warning center said. It did not expect a tsunami along the west of the U.S. or Canada.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii,Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.

Saturday's quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.