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Twist and shout: fixing twisted deformation

2012-01-26T19:27:00.002-05:00

Skin & Bone , a photo by d.lerche / Spot On: Textiles on Flickr.

In "A Joint Effort" (Artist's View, February 2004), we introduced the fix-up bones as a means of combating the regrettable state of conventional real-time skin deformation. Fix-ups work by reproducing a fraction of the rotations in an animating skeleton. Assigning vertices to the fix-up bones, rather than directly to the animation skeleton, prevents the worst forms of vertex collapse around problematic joints like shoulders. This month we're going to look at some advanced fix-up strategies for a different class of deformation problems.

Sick and Twisted

The shoulder is clearly the worst villain of skin deformations, but there are many runners-up with different kinds of deformation failures. The most notable contenders are twisting joints. Necks, forearms, and biceps can all shrink or even turn inside out when twisting around their long axes. The problem stems from the same source we discussed in February. As with ball-joints, the skinning algorithm interpolates vertices linearly between their original and newly rotated positions. Naturally the rotation of the vertices takes place along an arc. The interpolation, being linear, always cuts a chord on that arc, slicing deeper into the volume of the model as the twist increases. At 180 degrees the chord passes right through the origin of the arc--in other words, the bone--collapsing all of the vertices down to a point (Figure 1).

The cure for this nasty hourglass effect is to adapt the strategy we used for the ball-joint fix-ups described in the February column. Twist fix-ups rotate around the long axis of a twisting bone by some fraction of the real rotation. They carry their assigned vertices to positions that reflect the correct rotational interpolation. This preserves the volume of the geometry and prevents the hourglass effect.

Doin' the Twist

Unlike ball-joint fix-ups, twist fix-ups only work in a single axis. This means they have to be controlled by expressions rather than constraints. So before we can build twist fix-ups, we need some way of representing the twist as a number that can be fed into an expression. Unfortunately, twisting (like obscenity) is easy to recognize but hard to define. Consider the arm of a typical animation skeleton. Intuitively we know that the twist of the arm is the rotation around the axis between the shoulder and the elbow. Naturally you'd assume that the Eulerangle rotation value for the axis that points along the biceps would be the twist value. The reality, alas, is a bit more complex. Figure 2 shows three sets of F-curves, which produce identical animations. The only difference among them is the order in which the Euler rotations are executed. As you can see, different rotation orders produce remarkably different results.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

How can you get a good twist value then? The source of the problem is that each rotation influences the meaning of the numbers that come after it. Since each rotation changes the meaning of the next, only the first term in an Euler sequence has a stable meaning. Therefore, it's possible to determine the twist of a bone with Euler angles only if the twist axis is the first axis in the rotation order. Before trying to build twist fixups, double check the rotation order on your bones to be sure the axis which points down the bone is the first Euler term (Figure 3). In both Max and Maya the skeleton tools usually create bones this way by default, with the x as the twist axis and the rotation order set to the conventional x-y-z. But be sure to check! Your defaults may have changed, and building skeletons out of disjointed parts can cause unpleasant surprises.

The bad news about deriving twist values from Euler angles is Max's animation-controller architecture makes it impossible to get consistent Euler values from bones driven by IK, constraints, or TCB rotations. For IK-driven bones, the twist angle value on the IK handle is often an adequate substitute and can be fed to twist expressions. Generally, though, the only alternative for Max users is to create a custom twist attribute and animate it by hand. Ferreting information out of Max controllers for expression and script writing will be the subject of a future column.

Everybody do the Twist

Once you've succeeded in abstracting a twist value from your bone, adding twist fix-ups is pretty easy. Let's look at a common example: a one-link neck (Figure 4). The fix-ups themselves are merely extra bones laid out along the length of the neck. Fix-ups always form a parallel branch of the animation hierarchy rather than an in-line part. Here the fix-up bones are all children of the neck bone, thus, siblings of the head and also of one another. As siblings of one another, the numbers we feed into their twist expressions will have consistent meanings. Before the expressions are added, the fixups' rotations should be zeroed out so they start off aligned exactly with the neck. Each fix-up should be matched to a ring of vertices in the cross section around the neck. In this case three fix-ups seems sufficient to keep the neck from collapsing.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

In this example we have three fix-ups, located at the base of the neck, one-third of the way down, and two-thirds of the way down, respectively. Each fix-up gets an expression of its twist axis, assigning a rotation proportional to the fix-up's position along the length of the bone. We don't want the first fix-up bone (the one at the base, located at zero-third of the way down) to twist at all. The fix-up at one third of the way will rotate 33 percent of the total twist, while the one at two-thirds of the way reaches 66 percent. The remaining 33 percent of the total twist rotation is handled by assigning vertices directly to the neck bone itself, which of course rotates by three-thirds of the way.

The subtlety here is that the fix-ups are actually counter-rotating, reversing the twist of their parent, the neck bone. Therefore, the first fix-up rotates backwards by the whole twist value, the second rotates negative two-thirds of the twist, and so on. The mathematically-minded may express this as follows:

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

As you can see, the setup is very simple and can be driven by kindergarten-level expressions. If all you're after is avoiding twist-induced collapses, that's all you need. If you're feeling adventurous, you can tweak the distribution of the twist by changing the rate at which the fix-ups rotate. The previous example is a simple linear distribution: each fix-up's rotations are mapped directly to its positions along the bone. You could compare this to the behavior of an F-curve with linear tangents. Changing that relationship will distribute the twist differently. For example, if the twist expressions were set up as (1--the fix-up's position over bone length, squared) (-1) (bone twist), you'd get a slow start and a sharp end to the distribution of the twist--in other words an ease-out F-curve. Don't be afraid to experiment if you have a particularly difficult piece of geometry or motion. Don't obsess over the math. There's nothing wrong with skipping the formulas and just fiddling with different constraints to get good-looking results.

Let's Twist Again

So far we've tried using counter-rotating fix-ups to remove parts of the rotation from the base of the neck. Often, though, you may want to put twist fix-ups onto a bone that is not itself twisting. Our hypothetical neck bone might be set up with its twist rotation locked, and the twist value could be derived from the rotation of the head instead. The fix-ups will work equally well at preventing collapses. Using a downstream bone to drive the fix-ups involves only two changes to the arrangement we've already described.

The first difference is that the distribution of the fix-up bones is reversed. In our example, we positioned fix-ups starting at the bottom of the neck, since we wanted to remove the twist at the base. If the neck is not twisting, though, we can eliminate the fix-up at the base and assign the vertices there directly to the (untwisted) neck bone. At the same time we'll need to add a fix-up at the upper end of the neck bone that will handle the three-thirds rotation previously left to the neck bone.

The second difference is in the expressions. When the neck was twisting, we needed the fix-ups to counter-rotate against that twist. Now that the neck is not twisting, the fix-ups rotate positively. The fix-up one-third of the way along rotates one-third of the twist value, the fix-up two-thirds of the way along rotates two-thirds, and so forth. The new expressions can be summed up as follows: fix-up rotation = twist times the fix-up's position as a fraction of bone length.

You may ask, why drive the twist with a different bone? This technique is particularly useful for fixing troublesome forearm deformations. Although we conventionally rig characters with ball-joints in their wrists, in reality the wrists have only two degrees of freedom. The twisting motion actually comes above the wrist, from the torsion of the ulna and radius bones in our forearms. Long sleeve can disguise the problem, but bare-armed characters are often afflicted with pinched, robotic wrists or rubbery Gumby-style forearms. Splitting out the forearm twist into a separate bone is cumbersome for FK animation and problematic for IK as well. With twist fix-ups driven by the wrist, though, it's easy to get reasonably good forearms without changing the animation rig at all (Figure 5).

Twist Off

The ultimate challenge for twist fix-ups is our old nemesis: the shoulder. As we have lamented in the past, shoulders are very tough to skin effectively. With a twist range of nearly 180 degrees, shoulders also cause nasty shearing in the upper arm. It doesn't help that the game industry's steroidal mindset creates a lot of characters with gigantic biceps that magnify every twist problem. When we introduced ball-joint fix-ups in February, we noted they can preserve the volume of a collapsed shoulder but don't protect against biceps shearing. Now we can rescue the biceps as well by combining the best aspects of twist and ball-joint fix-ups.

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

Relaxed Shoulder

Ahybrid ball-and-twist approach starts very much like our first example, by adding twist fix-ups to the biceps bone. These fix-ups will rotate backwards against the twist of the biceps bone, as in the first example. The fix-up located on the shoulder, though, works rather differently. Instead of being parented to the bone, it's parented to a ball-joint fix-up, also located at the shoulder. The ball-joint fix-up will produce a weighted average of the shoulder's and clavicle's rotations. The twist fix-up then needs to counter-rotate against the twist component of the shoulder's rotation to remove the twist from the base, just as in the neck example. To do this, the twist fix-up's expression will equal the biceps' twist times-1 times the weight coefficent of the ball fix-up. When assigning vertices, simply ignore the ball-joint fix-up and use only the twist fix-ups. The result of this should be to spread the twist of the arm along the biceps without losing the rotational compensation of the shoulder fix-up (Figure 6). This goes a long way towards preventing the worst shoulder deformation atrocities. The fix-up bone technique we've described here is still only a crude approximation of what really goes on under the skin of a real person. There's no denying it's a hack; nevertheless, it's a pretty useful one and, despite the large chunk of text it takes to describe it, not really very difficult to implement. The biggest handicap is the difficulty of extracting twist data from Max controllers, so if anyone out there has developed good ways of getting those Max numbers, feel free to send them to me. I'll share them when we return to the topic of using Max bones with expressions a few months later.

[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]

STEVE THEODORE | Steve started animating on a text-only mainframe renderer and then moved on to work on games such as HALF-LIFE and COUNTER-STRIKE. He can be reached at stheodore@gdmag.com.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Theodore, Steve

Source Citation
Theodore, Steve. "Twist and shout: fixing twisted deformation." Game Developer Apr. 2004: 18+. Gale Power Search. Web. 26 Jan. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA115836023&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A115836023

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Berkeley clings to cash

2011-12-08T14:47:00.002-05:00

Cheetah, the fastest land animal, a photo by Foto Martien on Flickr.

Berkeley has a strong balance sheet and is conserving cash

Berkeley Group is no ordinary housebuilder - after all, it makes a profit and has no debt. Under normal circumstances this would not be that unusual or particularly impressive. But in today's trading environment it elevates Berkeley into a league of its own. What's more, unlike other housebuilders, it has not seen the need to write down the value of its land bank.

Berkeley has done well to shield itself from economic effects that are largely beyond its control, namely rising unemployment, the mortgage drought and planning restrictions. True, sales were down in the first half of the year from 1,630 to 968, but a change in the sales mix boosted average selling prices from GBP245,000 to GBP399,000. Average prices are expected to stay around this level in the second half, boosted by some properties sold in excess of GBP1m, before falling back. But management has been successful in generating and holding onto cash, and the group is now in a position to pick up cheap distressed assets at knock down prices should it choose to do so.

Meanwhile, Berkeley's strong balance sheet will help to steer the group through what is expected to be another tough year. Sales reservations in the first half were down 55 per cent on the previous year, and 60 per cent lower for the period since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September. And cash held in respect of forward sales fell from GBP1.21bn in April, to GBP807.9m as of 31 October. The trend is likely to continue, and the group expects this to result in a lower level of production to match falling demand. As a result, Berkeley is also holding off on fresh land purchases, with just four new site agreements in the first half.

Broker Numis expects full-year pre-tax profits of GBP180m and EPS of 105p.

|BERKELEY GROUP(BKG)

|ORD PRICE:|815p|MARKET VALUE:|GBP984.7m|

|TOUCH:|808-815p|12-MONTH HIGH:|1,196p|LOW: 613p|

|DIVIDEND YIELD:|Nil|PE RATIO:|7|

|NET ASSET VALUE:|591p|NET CASH:|GBP138m|

|Half-year to 31 Oct Turnover (GBPm) Pre-tax profit (GBPm) Earnings per share (p) Dividend per share (p)

|2007|441|90.6|52.6|nil|

|2008|453|79.6|47.8|nil|

|% change|+3|-12|-9|-|

|

Guide to the terms used in IC results tables http://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/Companies/ByEvent/Results/Inbrief/article/20070903/d39ffee8-5a0d-11dc-9089-00144f2af 8e8/Guide-to-IC-results-and-tip-tables.jsp Guide to the terms used in IC results tables.

More analysis of company results

Berkeley is one of the strongest housebuilders, boasting a solid balance sheet, good cash flow and no debt. This places it in an enviable position for when the housing market recovers, and justifies the 38 per cent share price premium to net asset value. That said, being the strongest player in a deteriorating market is no recipe for short-term growth so, until the housing sector improves, the shares are fairly priced.

FairlyPriced

Jonas Crosland

Source Citation
"Berkeley clings to cash." Investors Chronicle - magazine and web content 8 Dec. 2008. General OneFile. Web. 8 Dec. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA190686635&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A190686635

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Capital gains from the super-rich

2011-10-22T22:41:00.003-04:00

dinosaur foot, a photo by aquapastel on Flickr.

Suddenly it is starting to look as if the period after 1914 - when London lost its position as the financial capital of the world to New York - was an aberration, a downturn in an otherwise upward trend. Stroll around Chelsea, Belgravia and Holland Park and see the flash cars with blacked-out windows, waiting with chauffeurs inside. Listen to the foreign voices echoing down Bond Street; chat to estate agents, or to bankers or art dealers or even to a good dentist, and the message is clear: London is on the up, and the world's rich are congregating here like bees around the blossom of spring.

This week London's position as the headquarters of globalisation will be reaffirmed overtly and boldly. As I write, its wealthiest resident, Lakshmi Mittal - the very posterboy of the super-rich - is putting the finishing touches to a $20 billion offer for Arcelor, a lumbering rival to his Mittal Steel. Already Mittal's proposal has been denounced in the chancelleries of Europe, but Mittal (named after a Hindu god of wealth) was prepared for this. 'It is a strike straight at the heart of Old Europe from the New World, ' says one of his advisers. If he succeeds, he will win a great victory for shareholder value and free markets in the EU. No doubt the knowledge that he is already worth [pounds sterling]14 billion helps him maintain a zen-like calm. 'He bought well, ' I am told.

'When everybody was thinking about hightech companies like Microsoft, Mittal was sticking to a traditional metal-bashing industry in countries everybody had written off, like Romania and South Africa.' He moved to London in 1996 and runs his dynastic interests (Mittal Steel, though quoted, is family-controlled and his 30-year-old son Aditya is his finance director) from Berkeley Square, although the company is technically domiciled in Rotterdam. He spent his early years sleeping on the floor at his parents' home in Rajasthan, but these days he has money to burn on a [pounds sterling]50 million wedding for his daughter, Vanisha, and a [pounds sterling]2 million donation to the Labour party.

'London is cosmopolitan, culturally diverse, ' he explains. 'And it is in the right time zone.'

One of the things which recommended it to him as a base was Heathrow. 'It's easy to get anywhere else, ' he says. He evidently does not want to be pigeonholed as a Londoner, however. 'Mittal is a global company.' But one of the interesting things about Mittal is that he is far from unique. He is merely the best-known member of a tribe now congregating in London: foreign-born billionaires, many of whom made their fortunes in basic industries such as copper mining, steel and, of course, oil. They hail from India, the former Soviet republics and the Middle East and, as a class, they are importing a culture of private luxury to rival anything F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about in 1920s New York.

There is Vladimir Kim, the controlling shareholder of Kazakhmys, a vast copper company from Kazakhstan, which recently joined the FTSE 100; Russian entrepreneur Leo Blavatnik, Mittal's neighbour in Kensington Palace Gardens (where Mittal set a record with his [pounds sterling]57 million house purchase in 2002); Oleg Deripaska, another Russian copper baron; Johnny Hon, the Chinese gambling tycoon; and, of course, Roman Abramovich, who rubs along with assets of [pounds sterling]4 billion, including Chelsea Football Club (assuming that's an asset and not a liability).

Forbes magazine reckons there are 28 billionaires now living in London - and that is just the ones we know about.

There are many, many others too, who are either too secretive or not quite rich enough to be considered billionaires. The super-rich are obsessed with security. This is partly because they were alarmed by the murder of the banker John Monckton in Chelsea last year; and partly because some of them made their money in what might euphemistically be described as exotic and opaque circumstances. They have dangerous enemies - such as the Kremlin, or even each other.

Perhaps the most eloquent demonstration of this paranoia is to be found in their homes.

Nick Candy and his brother Christian are property developers by appointment to the super-rich. Among the brothers' successes is selling a flat for [pounds sterling]27 million in Chelsea Square (a world record) to an unnamed foreign buyer last year. Nick Candy tells me, 'There is so much money coming into London. London is the most important global city in the world. It is not just Russians, it is Chinese, Indians, Arabs and even Irishmen. Actually, many of our clients are British but nobody ever seems interested in that.' Candy & Candy's latest project is the redevelopment of Bowater House in Knightsbridge, which is being renamed No. 1 Hyde Park. The project will include 84 multimillion-pound apartments, with underground parking, CCTV cameras, 24-hour security guards and a concierge service provided by the neighbouring Mandarin Oriental hotel. 'A lot of our clients don't want to live in houses any more, ' says Candy. 'They want lateral living, because that means you get proper security, air-conditioning and porterage. You can just drive in, get out of your car and into the lift.' So, why London? The arrival of the superrich is, of course, a sort of flattery for the British way of life, our institutions, our professional services and for the English language and culture. But let us not be naive. It carries risks too. Foreigners who are here for only a few weeks a year are creating fierce competition for scarce items. They are driving through the roof the prices of nice houses, grouse moors, Old Master paintings and domestic help. Mittal himself is a UK resident and pays tax here. But many of those who emulate him are not so scrupulous. They are technically non-residents, so they contribute little to the Exchequer. Let's face it: some of them are rather selfish, unmoved by the sense of noblesse oblige that might make them pay tax voluntarily or pour money into struggling football clubs; and a minority of them are probably crooks.

The biggest factor attracting the wannabe Mittals is not sentimentality about Britain but a series of own-goals by America. For years, New York was the natural home of the global nouveaux riches, but now they no longer feel comfortable there. The US Immigration Service makes visitors stand in long lines; the US tax authorities enforce a tough global regime (HM Revenue & Customs still has generous non-domicile rules for those who live here for only part of the year); and Congress has passed a nasty securities law called SarbanesuOxley, which is wrapping Wall Street in red tape.

That said, the long-term economic effects of welcoming the super-rich to Britain are, on balance, beneficial - and not just because we can all find work as their butlers or interior designers. Indeed, Ajay Kapur, a bright spark at Citigroup, has invented an economic theory he calls 'Plutonomy'. He believes that the Mittals of this world are putting rocket fuel into financial markets. For the super-rich are the clients of the hedge funds and private equity groups, of which there are now about 1,000 in London. Hedge funds and private equity not only provide lucrative employment for aspirational young British financiers, but are also starting to wield the sort of influence once reserved for the mightiest pension funds.

Thanks to the super-rich, a colossal arsenal of money - hundreds of billions of pounds - is now being managed in London. Our competitive advantage in financial services is being handsomely reinforced.

'I think wealth and income inequality explain many of the conundrums which vex investors, ' says Kapur - one of those conundrums being the continuing growth of the British economy, despite the punitive taxation regime of Gordon Brown. Money is flooding into London, squirting through complicated tax loopholes unavailable to ordinary Britons who plod away in salaried employment, slaves to PAYE. 'The rich are now the dominant drivers in many economies in the world, such as the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, ' says Kapur. 'Asset booms, a rising profit share, and favourable treatment by market-friendly governments have allowed the rich to prosper.' He believes we have seen nothing yet.

'Global capitalists are going to be getting an even greater share of the wealth pie over the next few years, as capitalists benefit disproportionately from globalisation and the productivity boom at the expense of labour.' It is an arresting thesis, exemplified by the princely Mr Mittal - and London will be the richer for it.

George Trefgarne

Source Citation
Trefgarne, George. "Capital gains from the super-rich." Spectator 20 May 2006. Military and Intelligence Database Collection. Web. 22 Oct. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA147832057&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A147832057

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Americans Can Protect Best Friends from Cancer

2011-09-25T11:12:00.002-04:00

Animals vs. Technology [Digg Reel - Ep. 148], a photo by revision3 on Flickr.

ANAHEIM, Calif., April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Dogs and cats with cancer now have a better chance of living longer and feeling better with a life-saving combination of early detection, technology and Veterinary Pet Insurance (www.petinsurance.com). And that's good news for American pet owners, because a recent survey conducted by the Morris Animal Foundation reports cancer as the leading cause of disease related death in dogs and cats in the United States.

Less than 10 years ago, many pets with cancer may have died for two reasons: The limits of veterinary medicine, or the inability of pet owners to pay the high costs of available treatments. According to Alice Villalobos, DVM and medical director at Coast Animal Hospital and Cancer Center in Hermosa Beach, Calif., veterinarians can use the same life-saving procedures available in human medicine, such as chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, laser therapy, immunotherapy, and even bone transplants. More advanced treatments, such as genetic therapy and bone marrow transplants, are currently under investigation for use on pets.

Dr. Villalobos sees between 400 and 500 new cancer cases a year. "The demand to treat pets with cancer has really increased in the past decade," says Villalobos. "People know that cancer in humans can be beat, and they want that for their pets."

While advancements in technology give veterinarians the tools they need to save more pet lives, the costs can be overwhelming. Cancer care can cost up to thousands of dollars and many pet owners can't afford treatment for their companion animals without financial help. However, companies such as Veterinary Pet Insurance, the nation's oldest and largest pet health and accident insurer, are making costs manageable by providing the financial assistance pet owners need to allow the veterinarian to use available technology to treat and save their pet.

Financial assistance eased the burden for Veterinary Pet Insurance policyholder Karen Penney. "The day after Thanksgiving last year, our dog, Odin, started urinating blood. With x-rays and exploratory surgery, our veterinarian diagnosed Odin with a rare form of kidney cancer.

"The veterinarian referred us to a specialist who was able to remove the cancerous kidney," Penney said. "I couldn't believe how quickly Veterinary Pet Insurance sent a reimbursement check. I work in the human health field and was expecting slow turnaround."

Early detection, according to Villalobos and veterinarians throughout the country, is the best way to win the battle against cancer. "Taking your pet in for a yearly checkup can save his or her life," Villalobos explains. "During preventive checkups, veterinarians can spot clinical symptoms of cancer and do a biopsy right away. We recommend that all pet owners think of cancer as the enemy, and then declare war by forming an alliance with their veterinarian."

When cancer is diagnosed, Villalobos has noticed that her clients who have Veterinary Pet Insurance seem less burdened by the reality of what it takes to save their pet. "They listen to all the options, choose the most aggressive approach, and commit to fighting the cancer right away."

Pet owners are often surprised when they discover how much they can save with a pet health insurance policy. With Veterinary Pet Insurance, pet owners have the choice of two accident and illness plans -- a Gold Plan that starts at $89 a year or an Advantage Plus Plan starting at $159 annually for puppies and kittens. An additional cancer endorsement, that starts at $9 a year, can be added to a policy and will double the plan's cancer benefits. For example, a pet owner with an Advantage Plus Plan would be reimbursed up to $1,025 for surgery to treat thyroid cancer. If that pet owner also carried the cancer endorsement, Veterinary Pet Insurance would pay up to $2,150, a 100 percent increase in benefits.

Terry Vinocur, a policyholder since 1995, added the cancer endorsement to her plan because she knew her dog, a Boxer named Brooke, is one of several breeds more prone to developing cancer. During the past four years, her dog has suffered several skin cancers and mast cell tumors.

"At the end of last year, I was petting Brooke and found what I thought was a swollen gland," says Vinocur. "It turned out to be a tumor the size of an egg in her thyroid. A specialist removed all of the visible cancer. Between the surgery and all of the medication, the procedure cost $1,200. Veterinary Pet Insurance paid for $800. For me, the pet insurance was a godsend. I didn't even have to consider not having the surgery done because of how expensive it was."

Founded in 1980 by 750 independent veterinarians, Veterinary Pet Insurance is the nation's oldest pet health insurance provider. Policies are licensed in 46 states and the District of Columbia. More than 850,000 Veterinary Pet Insurance policies have been sold and are exclusively endorsed by the American Humane Association. For more information on how pet insurance makes costs manageable for pet owners, call 1-800-USA-PETS (in Texas, call 877-PET-HEAL) or visit the company's World Wide Web site at www.petinsurance.com.

Source Citation
"Americans Can Protect Best Friends from Cancer." PR Newswire 15 Apr. 1999: 0815. Military and Intelligence Database Collection. Web. 25 Sep. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA54381935&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A54381935

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Bearcats revs up for diners in the Stutz Building

2011-09-22T22:11:00.002-04:00

Animal, originally uploaded by Emmepi79.

OK, so its moniker is actually tied to the Stutz sports car, but Bearcats Restaurant (1055 N. Senate Ave., 602-3509) nevertheless made this month's list of animal-named eateries--all the better to check out the latest option from serial restaurateur Tim Reuter (Bourbon Street Distillery, Living Room Lounge and Tip Top Tavern).

Located in the labyrinthine Stutz Business Center, Bearcats replaced the Loading Dock pub a year or so ago and Reuter took over in October. The good news for the directionally challenged (guilty) is that diners can bypass the Stutz's often-confusing corridors in favor of the restaurant's own Senate Avenue entrance.

We did just that and seated ourselves in the unassuming lounge, where we were greeted by a friendly server.

Sticking with her advice, we tried Onion Rings ($5.99) and a couple of standard sandwiches: Breaded Tenderloin ($7.95) and The "Dublin" Reuben ($7.95). Each was served with a mound of decent French fries and a cup of sweet coleslaw, making us wish we'd eschewed the o-rings, which were enormous, if a bit limper than we would have liked.

The Reuben, on the other hand, was stellar. Bearcats roasts its own corned beef--a lean, flavorful meat that had my mouth watering. Like most other Reubens, the corned beef was topped with grilled sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing, but it wasn't piled so high that I had to dislocate my jaw to take a bite.

My companion opted for the tenderloin, wavering momentarily on the grilled-or-fried question before giving in to decadence. What's the point of a grilled tenderloin, really? And what's the point of a tenderloin at all if it isn't cut fresh (as Bearcats' are) and the right balance isn't found between the crisp and the tender (ditto). At half the size, it would have been a pleasure. He also tried a cup of chili ($2.99 or part of a $6.99 Endless Soup and Salad combo), finding it heartier than standard bar fare.

Yes, Bearcats is a bar, too, with a lounge-like area for adults only. Families and artistic-minded teens can sit at the all-ages counter or one of the booths in the wide corridor that features the titular auto.

Duty called, so we couldn't stick around for a lunchtime libation--the beer menu includes selections from Indianapolis-based Sun King Brewery--but we were tempted by the couches surrounding a gas fireplace. Next time. If we have time.,

Third in our month-long series of reviews of animal-named eateries.

Davis, Andrea Muirragui

Source Citation
Davis, Andrea Muirragui. "Bearcats revs up for diners in the Stutz Building." Indianapolis Business Journal 15 Mar. 2010: 33A. Small Business Collection. Web. 22 Sep. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA222485589&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A222485589

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Returning to Myron

2011-09-17T14:18:00.002-04:00

Spa and health centers , originally uploaded by YASSER AMMAR.

"Lost Books" is a weekly series highlighting forgotten books through the prism of Tablet Magazine's and Nextbook.org's archives. So blow the dust off the cover, and begin!

Remember Me To God, Myron Kaufmann's debut novel, came out 54 years ago this month. As Josh Lambert noted on the 50th anniversary of the novel's publication, the book has fallen out of favor, though it had been initially heralded by the likes of Norman Mailer and Alfred Kazin and appeared on New York Times bestseller lists. "Even excellent books fall into obscurity all the time," Lambert explained, "no matter how popular they've beenparticularly when, like Kaufmann's, they spill out over nearly 700 pages of fine print."

The novel tells the story of a Jewish family, the Amsterdams, in 1941, a year during which the older son, Richard, manages to ascend the social ranks at Harvard and earn a coveted spot on The Harvard Lampoon and induction into the Hasty Pudding Institute. His subsequent proposal to a Radcliffe-attending society girl (named Wimsy Talbot, no less) wreaks the expected havoc within his familymaking the novel, in Lambert's comparison, the emotional equivalent of an excruciatingly slow-motion car wreck, and inspiring Jewish leaders in the late 1950s to denounce the book as a literary documentation of Kaufmann's own Jewish self-hatred.

Yet, Lambert argues, it actually offers a thorough analysis of the phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred, rather than simply serving as an example of it. "It is as an unusually evenhanded entry into this rich tradition that Remember Me to God deserves to be remembered," Lambert wrote, "and as a finely wrought triumph of midcentury realism so precise in its observation that it captures perfectly the incline of streets in Harvard Square and the musty smell inside the Lampoon castle."

Read Regatta Land, by Josh Lambert

Stephanie Butnick

Source Citation
Butnick, Stephanie. "Returning to Myron." Tablet Magazine 9 Sept. 2011. Religion and Philosophy Collection. Web. 17 Sep. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA266607064&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A266607064

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Fitch Rates California Dept Water Resources 2011N Power Supply RevBds 'AA'; Stable Outlook

2011-09-07T22:31:00.002-04:00

T2i - Fish, originally uploaded by doug88888.

Fitch Ratings assigns an 'AA' rating to California Department of Water Resources (DWR; Electric Power Fund) series 2011N power supply revenue bonds.

Depending upon market conditions, DWR may issue up to $1.1 billion in 2011N refunding bonds, via negotiation, the week of Aug. 15. In addition, Fitch affirms the 'AA' rating on the DWR Electric Fund's $7.8 billion in outstanding parity power supply revenue bonds. The Rating Outlook is Stable.

SECURITY

The power supply revenue bonds are secured by DWR's Electric Power Fund bond charge revenues, imposed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on approximately 11.4 million electric customers served by the state's largest investor owned utilities: Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E; Issuer Default Rating [IDR] of 'A-'), Southern California Edison Co. (SCE; IDR of 'A-'), and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E; IDR of 'A'). The bonds are separately secured from any other obligations of DWR and are not obligations of the state.

KEY RATING DRIVERS:

Irrevocability of Bond Charge: California legislation AB1X (enacted 2001) established the irrevocability and enforceability of DWR's bond charges. Pursuant to this legislation, the bond charges are required to be adjusted as needed to ensure full recovery of DWR's debt service costs.

Timely Approval of DWR's Revenue Requirement: DWR has had a solid nine-year track record of timely processing of DWR's annual revenue requirement by the CPUC.

DWR Revenues Derived from Large Customer Base: DWR's revenues are supported by a very large (11.4 million), diverse customer base, spread throughout the state of California.

Winding Down of Purchased Power Contracts: A key credit strength of late, are the rapidly declining power supply expenses, particularly beginning in 2012, as purchased power contracts expire. The power supply portion of DWR's charges have historically been the more volatile component (due to the associated natural gas commodity exposure and kwh sales risk).

Solid Cash Reserves: DWR continues to maintain ample operating and debt service reserves. In particular, as of Jan. 1, 2012, DWR projects to have $899 million in its power charge accounts which is estimated to be sufficient to pay all remaining power costs through the expiration of the last purchased power contract in 2015.

Sharly Declining Variable Rate Exposure: Depending upon market conditions, DWR could refinance, with proceeds from the 2011N fixed rate bonds, all remaining variable rate securities ($947 million outstanding currently). As a result, the refunding will reduce or eliminate associated interest rate exposure and bank liquidity replacement risk.

Ongoing Risks to Cash Flows: While power supply costs continue to be collected, certain risks to transaction cash flows remain, including: actual kwh sales below annual projections, volatility in natural gas prices, and the potential for delays in IOUs' servicing of DWR revenues or the CPUC approving DWR's revenue requirement.

CREDIT PROFILE

DWR's Electric Power Fund was created by state legislation in 2001 when soaring energy prices outpaced the capped retail electric rates charged by the state's IOUs. PG&E and SCE were unable to pay their full power expenses, and the ability of all three of the state's largest IOUs to reliably deliver power was severely comprised. Governor Davis at the time declared a state emergency in California and directed DWR to take over the responsibility to procure power for the state's IOUs. Toward this endeavor, DWR issued over $11.3 billion in power supply revenue bonds, including roughly 60 percent fixed rate and 40 percent of variable rate securities.

DWR entered into more than 50 power supply contracts to meet the IOUs residual net retail load. Since 2001, DWR has favorably utilized very conservative financial stress scenarios and regularly updated kwh sales and natural gas price forecasts in order to maintain adequate power cost recovery from customers. Since 2008, the power supply contracts, which are subject to greater cost volatility, have begun to expire, reducing DWR's power supply exposure as each contract is terminated. Contractual power purchases are scheduled to fall from 3,293 GWHs in 2012, to 90 GWHs in 2015, and ultimately to zero by May 1, 2015.

Once all the power supply contracts expire, solely DWR's bond charges remain to be collected through 2022, at an average cost of less than 1 cent per kwh. Additionally, risk of DWR having to siphon funds from the bond charge accounts to meet under-funded power costs (as provided in the Indenture) is eliminated as well. To date, DWR has more than sufficiently covered power supply costs through collected power charges.

With respect to DWR's bond charge revenues, DWR experienced some fluctuation in variable rate interest expense during the financial market fallout in 2007-2008. Positively, DWR weathered the market turmoil given its significant operating and debt service reserves. Historically, DWR has also benefited from conservative variable interest cost projections. Prospectively, with the planned 2011N refunding, DWR's variable rate debt exposure may well be eliminated. Variable rate debt as a percentage of total debt is currently modest, at 12.1 percent, and will only decline with this planned financing.

Additional information is available at 'fitchratings.com'.

In addition to the sources of information identified in Fitch's Revenue-Supported Rating Criteria, this action was additionally informed by information from Bond Counsel, Financial Consultant, CreditScope, and State of California website.

Source Citation
"Fitch Rates California Dept Water Resources 2011N Power Supply Rev Bds 'AA'; Stable Outlook." Professional Services Close-Up 12 Aug. 2011. Gale Power Search. Web. 7 Sep. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA264530296&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A264530296

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habitat

2011-09-02T10:47:00.002-04:00

habitat, originally uploaded by Lamerie.

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Dinosaur appears

2011-08-31T18:04:00.002-04:00

Dinosaur appears, originally uploaded by architekt2.

Sure, a good pair of running shoes is the only equipment you really need. But anything that makes running easier, safer, more health-enhancing and more enjoyable is also a good idea.

So now, for the first time ever, we've collected hundreds of top-notch running products together in a complete Gear Guide for runners. Whether you're interested in big-ticket items like home gyms and stairclimbers, or smaller devices like chronographs and water carrying systems, you'll find them all here (except treadmills, which we'll review in a special article next month).

We suggest you save this guide for future references. Experience has shown that you can never tell when you'll be needing one of these products. It might not be today, but there are plenty of tomorrows in your running career.

Sports Watches

After shoes and clothing, the runner's next most important piece of equipment is the sports watch. These come in a range of functions: you can find anything from the simplest stopwatch to one that measures your blood pressure.

If all you ever want to know is how long you've been running, a running watch with a timer is all you need, but if you regularly do speedwork, you'll benefit from one that records and stores lap times.

Must-have features: Waterproofness, stopwatch, digital display

All-Sport Instalite by Armitron

This is a good basic chronograph with a stopwatch function for those who simply want to know how long they've been running. It has a night-vision display that allows you to read the time in the dark. $25. (800) 937-0050 (ask for Armitron).

BP 100 by Casio

If you're interested in quick and easy pulse and blood pressure measurement, you'll like the BP 1 00. You simply place your fingers on sensors on the watch, and your pulse and blood sure appear on the display. The BP 100 also has a stopwatch, which measures total time and split time. $169.95. (800) 962-2746.

100-Lap Ironman Triathlon by Timex

This watch offers so many features, it can just about substitute for a coach. It has an internal log that can store and recall 100 laps compiled over many training sessions. The log displays the session number, date, total time and your best and overage lap times and split times. In addition, you can program up to nine timed intervals with up to nine repetitions each. Also, the watch has a memo log for phone numbers and dates. It will hold up to 10 entries of 24 characters each. $54.9 5. (800) 367-8463.

Performance Series PSX005S by Pulsar

In addition to all the basics--stopwatch, water resistance, alarm--this watch counts up to 99 laps and can recall 30. It also has a countdown timer and a tachymeter for calculating average speed. $79.50. Available wherever Pulsar watches are sold.

Predator by FreeStyle

For serious speed training, the Predator gives 75 split times, and you can measure improvement equal-distance laps from day to day or week to week. This watch also features a countdown timer. It's so new we couldn't even get a sample to photograph. $49.95. (800) 776-6449.

Aqua Gear

One of the best ways to cross-train on your off days or stay fit when you're injured is to take your running to the pool. Pool running uses the same muscles and ranges of motion that road running does. The difference is, your body doesn't get pounded.

You don't need aqua gear to run in the pool, and you'll get a harder workout if you don't wear any. But when you want to go easy, or if you're so lean you sink like a rock no matter how hard you work to stay up in the water, use an aqua vest or belt.

Or shorts. Aqua gear comes in a variety of forms. Any of the flotation devices described here should offer you enough buoyancy. Pick what will be most comfortable for you.

Must-have features: Adequate flotation, comfortable fit

AquaJogger Pro by Excel Sports Science, Inc.

If you drop like a brick anytime you get into a pool, this buoyancy belt may be the one for you. It's thicker than the company's Classic model and provides 30 percent more flotation. $59.95. (800) 922-9544.

AquaTunners Footwear by Excel Sports Science, Inc.

"Running shoes" for the deep water, AquaRunners are worn along with an upper-body flotation device. They boost your buoyancy a little, but their primary purpose is to increase water resistance for a tougher workout. (800) 922-9544.

[H.sub.2]O Works Shorts by ERO Industries

In this piece of aqua gear, pads of EVA foam for flotation are sewn inside a purple waistband attached to neoprene shorts. Zippers on both sides of the shorts make them easy to put on and take off. $49.99-$59.99. (800) 323-5999.

Wet Vest II by Bioenergetics

True to its name, this flotation device fits like a vest over your whole torso. Because the buoyant maternal is spread over a wide area, the vest has a less bulky construction than other flotation devices and provides more stability in the water. Suggested retail price: $169.95. (800) 938-8378.

Gear Bags

Though they may look alike, all gear bags are not created equal. The most basic have just one compartment into which you dump everything--your running shoes, shorts, T-shirt, sunglasses, towel, soap, sports bars.... The best have several compartments or pockets so that you can organize your running gear and personal items for easy access.

Also, multiple compartments keep wet towels and sweaty gear separate from dry clothing so they don't all tumble together into one pile of smelly, soggy stuff. Mesh pockets on the outside of a bag are especially nice, as they allow you damp things to dry out

Must-have features: Multiple compartments, mesh pockets

Laguna by Mizuno

The Laguna has two mesh pockets, one at each end of the bag, and there are zip pockets inside and out. $50. (800) 966-1 234.

Mesh Gear Bag by TYR

If you want mesh, here it is. This is a full mesh bag with two nylon pouches on the front for personals. $27. (800) 252-7878.

Mesh Signature Duffle by Nike

A zippered mesh pocket covers one whole side of this gear bag. Inside, there's a special small pocket for personal items. $37.50. (800) 238-2775.

Mini Wet/Dry Gear Bag by Patagonia

This bag is split down the middle into two compartments: mesh on one side and nylon on the other. An interior zip pocket holds personal items. $62. (800) 638-6464.

Runner's Duffle by Asics

This bag has two outside mesh pockets, and a water-bottle holder on the front. Inside there's plenty of room for gear. $35. (714) 962-7654.

Signature-Team Duffle by Reebok

The Signature-Team Duffle has several compartments, including an interior expandable nylon pouch for wet clothes and a diagonal zippered pocket at one end shoes. $25. (800) 228-7867.

Training Duffle by Adidas

A large outer mesh pocket can hold all your wet clothes, and there's plenty of room inside for other gear. $59.99. (800) 448-1796.

Sports Cameras

Have you ever been running on a beautiful trail or in a new city and seen something that you wished you could photograph? Next time you're headed for a scenic run, take a camera with you.

Most manufacturers of photo equipment make "point-and-shoot" cameras. They're small, lightweight and fully automatic, and they take high-quality photos in a snap. Many are rugged and weatherproof, and some have zoom or panoramic features. Don't leave for your next run without one.

Must have features: Fully automatic mechanism, light weight easy operation

Infinity Mini by Olympus

Neither rain nor snow will harm the Infinity Mini. This weatherproof camera weighs only 6 1/2 ounces and takes high-quality photos. $1 80. (800) 221-3000.

IQZoom 90-WR by Pentax

At 15 1/2 ounces, the IQZoom is a little heavier than the other models reviewed here, but it's worth its weight in features. It has a zoom lens, a detachable remote control unit that operates both the zoom and the shutter, and a contour design for easy grip, and it's fully weatherproof. $402. (800) 255-0415.

Lite-Touch by Nikon

The lightest point-and-shoot around, this camera weighs in at only 5.5 ounces. It has a panorama mode for wide-view shots, and the quality of photographs you'll get with the Life-Touch is hard to beat. $1 64. (800) 645-6687.

Mermaid by Konica

Take the Mermaid on your next running/scuba vacation. It's completely waterproof for underwater photography and has a "sports finder" attachment for framing underwater shots. For wide-view shots, the lens switches easily from standard to panorama format. It weighs 12 1/8 ounces. $450. (800) 695-6642.

Mini Zoom by Leica

This supercompact camera has a zoom lens and weighs a mere 6 1/2 ounces. To try and catch those fleeting moments you encounter on the run, hold the shutter release down, and the camera will shoot continuously. $379. (800) 222-0118.

RW-1 by Ricoh

The RW-1 is weather resistant and offers a panorama mode. A databack, which imprints date and time and shows the number of pictures taken, is optional. The camera weighs 9 1/5 ounces with the databack and 8 4/5s without. $129. (800) 225-1899.

Sure Shot A1 Date by Canon

This waterproof camera will survive underwater depths of about 16 feet--in case you happen to fall in a lake or something. Two layers of glass on the lens ensure that it won't fog up. The Sure Shot weighs 11 1/5 ounces. $345. (800) 828-4040.

Weathermatic Dual 35 by Minolta

This camera is also waterproof to 16 feet. It weighs 14 1/8 ounces, and its lens changes from standard to telephoto. $320. (201) 825-4000.

Carbohydrate-Loading Drinks

Not to be confused with fluid-replacement drinks, carbo-loading drinks have a much higher concentration of carbohydrates: approximately 100 grams per serving, versus 30 grams for beverages such as Gatorade or AllSport. Most of the carbohydrates come from glucose polymer (a complex carbohydrate), and a small amount comes from fructose.

Drink these carbo-loads before a workout or race to store up carbohydrates and glycogen, and take them afterward to replace spent energy stores and speed recovery. Carbo-loading drinks are good for those runners who have difficulty with solid food before or after a long run or race. As with other food products and beverages, you need to try several brand to find what tastes best and work best for you.

Must-have features: High carbohydrate concentration, easily digestible formula, good flavor

Carb-BOOM by TriBro

Not quite liquid, Carb-BOOM is a fruit-puree base blended with a concentrated complex carbohydrate solution. One serving (4.93 ounces) provides 78 grams of carbohydrates. $7.95 per six-pack. (800) 554-2791.

GatorLode by Gatorade

GatorLode gives you 70 grams of carbohydrates (280 calories) per 12-ounce serving. $23.90 for of 24 cans. (800) 884-2867.

Ultra Fuel by Twin Laboratories, Inc.

In addition to supplying 100 grams (400 calories) of carbohydrates in each 16-ounce serving, Ultra Fuel provides 100 percent of the RDA for vitamin C and several B vitamins. Other nutrients include chromium, potassium and magnesium. Only available through GNC stores and Nature Food Centres. For more information about Ultra Fuel, write: Twin Laboratories, Inc., Ronkonkoma, NY 11779.

Water-Carrying Systems

During an hour of running, you can easily lose more than 2 quarts of water through sweat If you don't replace water as you sweat, your blood thickens, forcing your heart to work harder, transport of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles slows, and your performance suffers. If you become overly dehydrated, you may become weak, dizzy, nauseated or worse. The message is clear: Drink during your run.

Unless you know a route that takes you fountains at regular intervals, you'll need to can ids with you. Fortunately, several manufacture have recognized this need and have designed carriers for easy transport of fluids. There is a range of water-carrying systems to choose from, depending on whether you're out for a long training run or crisscrossing the Grand Canyon

Look for the lightest, simplest carrier what will meet your fluid needs. Make sure it's comfortable and won't bounce around as you run.

Must-have features: Comfortable, snug fit; easy access to beverages

Go-Be by Camelbak

The Go-Be wraps securely around your hips and holds up to 50 ounces of fluid in an insulated pouch. You drink through a plastic tube that extends from the pouch around your waist or over your shoulder, so there's no fussing with water bottles. Side pockets hold extra items. $63.95. (800) 767-8725.

[H.sub.2]O Rapido by Outdoor Products

The Rapido waistbelt carries one 21-ounce bottle in an insulated pouch. It has two side mesh pockets with zippered closures. $20. For a dealer listing, write to: Customer Service, The Outdoor Recreation Group, 1919 Vineburn Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90032.

Liquid Solo Belt and Liquid II Storage Pack by OGIO International

The Liquid Solo Belt carries a 21-ounce bottle in a foam-insulated pouch and has two zippered pockets. For trail runs, take along the Liquid II Storage Pack, which holds two 21-ounce bottles and has more room for carrying gear. Solo Belt, $20; Storage Pack, $50. (800) 922-1944.

Sierra and Stansport by Winter Creek

The Sierra has four pouches along its belt, each holds a contoured, 16-ounce bottle. A fifth pouch stores small items. The Stansport is designed more like a fanny pack. It carries two 21-ounce bottles and has a roomy compartment for carrying additional items. The Sierra uses a Velcro closure, and the Stansport a quick-release buckle. Sierra, $58; Stansport, $47.99. (714) 536-1522.

Solo, Extender and Nimbus by Ultimate Direction

All three of these carrying systems fit securely and comfortably, have insulated holders to keep beverages cool and feature zippered pockets for holding other items. The Solo carries one 22-ounce bottle and is great for long training runs. Trail runners might prefer the Extender, which holds two 22-ounce bottles and has extra space for food and other items. If you're planning an extended excursion, you'll want the Nimbus, which carries 82 ounces of fluid and 12 to 14 pounds of gear. Solo, $24; Extender, $70; Nimbus, $100. (800) 426-7229.

Energy Gels

When it comes to long runs and marathons, you'll perform best if you refuel along the way. Energy bars supply a lot of carbohydrates, but the fiber, protein and fat they contain slows digestion. Energy gels contain only carbohydrates and are more easily digested.

They come in 1-ounce plastic or foil packets that fit in the palm of your hand. Each packet provides 70 to 100 calories from carbohydrates with small amounts of electrolytes. You simply tear off the top, squeeze the gel into your mouth and swallow. Follow with water. Currently, there are four energy gels on the market. Try them all to find what works best for you.

Manufacturers recommend that you eat one packet every 30 minutes of your run or race. Of course, before using one of these gels during a race, test it out in training.

Must-have features: Easily digestible formula, easy-open package, good flavor

GU by Sports Street Marketing

In addition to its carbohydrates, GU contains tiny amounts of calcium, herbal extracts, beta-carotene and vitamins C and E. It also has a slight amount of caffeine--equivalent to 1/5 cup of coffee. GU comes in chocolate, vanilla and orange (vanilla reportedly tastes best). The bottle-shaped packaging makes it easy to use on the run. $1.25 per packet. (800) 400-1995.

Pocket Rocket by Sports Pep

Pocket Rocket comes in lemon-lime and chocolate--go with the chocolate, say taste-testers. $1 per packet, $1 4.95 for a box of 12. (800) 833-8737.

ReLode by Gatorade

ReLode is more syrupy in texture than the other gels. The banana flavor is reported to be pretty yummy. Other flavors are grape and "unflavored," which tastes like vanilla. $1 per packet, $9.99 for a box of 10. (800) 884-2867.

Squeezy by Perfect Performance USA

Squeezy comes in lemon-lime, peach, pineapple, vanilla, strawberry and banana. The lemon-lime, strawberry and banana taste best. $1 per packet, $10 for a box of 10. (800) 853-7746.

Heart-Rate Monitors

You've read those training stories that tell you to do your easy runs at 65 percent of maximum heart rate, tempo at 85 percent and speedwork at 95 percent. Great, but how do you know when your heart is beating at the proper percentage? It's easy with a heart-rate monitor.

Some heart-rate monitors use sensors that attach to the ear, and others pick up signals from your hand, but the chest-band type works best under a variety of conditions. Heart-rate monitors work on the same principle as hospital EKG equipment. Sensors in the chest band pick up signals from your heart and then send the data to the receiver on your wrist where you can read your heart rate as clearly as the time on your running watch.

The simplest monitors display only your heart rate, but others will tell you the time of day, give you elapsed running time, alert you to when you are over or under your target zone and more. Most are waterproof and highly accurate. One thing to keep in mind regarding wireless heart monitors: because they use radio-type signals, they may be affected when you are near electrical equipment (such a treadmills and stairclimbers) that can interfere with those signals.

Must-have features: Wireless construction with chest strap and wrist-band receiver (all models below are this type); easy-to-read display; simple operation

CardioChamp by Sensor Dynamics

If it's simplicity you're after, the CardioChamp is the monitor for you. It gives you heart rate only, it's a cinch to use, and its display is very easy to read. $89.95. (800) 764-4327.

Heartsafe-T by Cardiosport

This monitor displays heart rate, time of day and elapsed time and can record up to 30 sample heart rates at set intervals of 5, 15, 60 and 120 seconds. An alarm indicates when you are above or below your target zone. $129. (800) 494-4320.

Protrainer by Polar

The Protrainer, one of several excellent models from Polar, can display heart rate, lap time, elapsed running time and time of day. It has alarms that signal when you are above or below your target zone; calculates time spent above, below and within your zone; and records your average heart rate for total exercise time. $219. (800) 227-1314.

Insoles

Some insoles, such as the Cross Trainer by Superfeet, provide extra stability for your feet as you run, but most simply add an extra layer of shock absorption to your shoes.

Heel inserts or cups may provide just the adjustment some runners need in their shoes to end heel pain, Achilles tendon pain or even lower-back pain. However, insoles are not orthotics, so if you think you may have a biomechanical problem of any sort see a podiatrist

Must-have features: Comfort cushioning, breathability

Cross Trainer and Heel Cups by Spenco

Not just for cross-training shoes, the Spenco Cross Trainer has forefoot and heel-strike cushioning to protect the whole foot. Spenco's Heel Cups provide extra stability in the heel and have a neoprene heel drop for good shock absorption. Insole, $1 7.50; Heel Cups, $8.40. (800) 877-3626.

Cross Trainer Low by Superfeet Inshoe Systems

Designed to provide some stability as well as shock absorption, these insoles are semirigid. They're made from full-length foam with a 3/4-length polypropylene stabilizer cap. Superfeet has developed a Trim to Fit technology that allows you to tailor the insole to your shoe. $27.95. (800) 634-6618.

Sof Sole Insoles by Implus

The foam used to make these insoles has an open-cell structure, which allows air to move freely and moisture to evaporate for cool, dry feet. In addition to the full-foot insole--the Sof Runn Plus--Implus makes a heel pad for runners, as well as a gel pad that fits under the heel and may be a solution for those who experience lower-back pain or heel pain when they run. Sof Runn Plus, $1 5.99; Sof Sole Heel Pad, $3.99; Sof Sole Gel Heel Pad, $6.99. (800) 446-7587.

Ultra Performance Air Pro by Kiwi Performance Group

Designed to keep your feet dry and cool, this insole features a DynaPump system that pushes air through channels on the underside of the insole from the heel forward and then up to the foot through more than 100 perforations. In addition, the fabric on the top of the Air Pro wicks moisture away from your skin. $14.95. (800) 289-5494.

Ultra Sole Runner/ Walker by Spectrum Sports

Sorbothane is one of the oldest and best-known insole materials, and it's the basis of the products made by Spectrum Sports. The manufacturers ore so confident of their insoles they offer a moneyback guarantee with every product. Full-foot insole, $18.95; heel cups, $10.95. (800) 321-4145.

Reflective and Safety Gear

If you're like most runners, you make time for your run when you can, even if that means after the sun sets or before it rises in the morning. On those days when you have to head out into darkness, be sure to don some reflective gear or take along a safety light. There are several safety products available now, from the standard reflective vest to clip-on lights.

Must-have features: Reflective material or some source of fortable fit; ease of use

Jogalite Reflective Vests and Wallet by Jogalite

Just slip on one of these lightweight, easy-to-use vests and attach the straps at the front to Velcro strips. Reflective stripes across the vest let drivers know you're coming. Available in several styles and colors. $6.50 to $8, depending on model. A reflective wrist wallet is $3.25. (800) 258-8974.

Lightning Belt by Austin Innovations

Weighing around 6 ounces, this belt adjusts comfortably and snugly around your waist. It contains a light ship powered by a 9-volt battery. The green glow of the Lightning Belt is visible from 5,000 feet away. $24.95. (800) 966-2275.

OGIO Safety Light by OGIO International

This 1-ounce light attaches with a belt clip or an arm band (included). It can be seen from over a half-mile away and provides more than 160 hours of light. It's weatherproof and durable. $8. (800) 922-1 944.

Tetra-Glo Reflective Gloves by Polygenex International

Be seen day and night with Tetra-Glo reflective gloves by Polygenex. The fluorescent orange color can't be missed during the daylight hours, and reflective yarn woven into stripes makes the gloves visible in the dark from over 350 feet away. $12.95. (800) 380-0071.

Zeonz by Barker Technologies

Some running shoes have reflective stripes on them, but if you really want to be seen, consider the Zeonz. This 6-inch neon tube clips to your running shoe. At the flick of a switch, the light beams a bright red. It comes with batteries that last 80 to 100 hours. $20 for a pack of two. (618) 462-3527.

Sport Sandals

Ah, rebel That's what your tired feet will feel when you step into a pair of sport sandals after a hard run or a race. Sport sandals let your feet recuperate on a comfortable, anatomically correct footbed. And, of course, sandals protect you from all kinds of nasty stuff--from broken glass and sharp stones to locker-room bacteria.

When you consider a sport sandal, comfort, fit and stability should be your first concerns. Also think about where and for what activity you'll be wearing them--the house, yard, pool, beach or trail, for wading, hiking, even running--as recommended use varies by product

Must-have features: A footbed perimeter slightly larger than your foot's dimensions (an oversized footbed lets the foot settle comfortably and securely into the shoe and allows room for socks); a strap and closure system that's adjustable for a customized fit and made of durable fastening materials

Air River Guide by Nike

The superior control you get from the advanced "wet" traction outsole pattern is a river rat's delight. Easy-to-adjust, double-layer straps provide reinforcement and a custom fit. $75. (800) 352-6453.

Amazone Ultra by Reebok

The lugged outsoles of these sandals grip the ground with authority, and full-grain leather hook-and-loop straps will keep your sandals securely in place on land or in water. $59.99. (800) 843-4444.

Gel Sport Sandal by Asics

The padded, double-layer closure system delivers a secure fit and comfort that will keep you walking. Constructed with Asics's high-quality Gel insole. $40. (714) 962-7654.

Gulf by American Sporting Goods OP Sandals

Life's a perpetual beach when you strap on the fully adjustable Gulf. The sturdy, ridged outsole lets you comfortably and securely negotiate the steepest dune or deepest creek. $34.95. (800) 848-8698.

M'Bogo by Avia

Durable, gripping and stable, this sandal is made for aggressive outdoor use on land or in water. Adjustable mid- and forefoot strops customize fit, and the footbed's raised diamond texture eliminates slippage. $50. (800) 345-2842.

Milano by Birkenstock

Milano's "ergonomic" design lets your foot rest on an anatomically accurate contoured footbed. The shock-absorbing cork insole supports arches, and top-quality leather uppers will last for miles and miles. $89.95. (800) 597-3338.

Molokai by Merrell

A state-of-the-art closure system and an extra-supportive midsole invite you to hammer, trash and generally abuse these shoes in the great outdoors. Secure fitting features prevent "sandal flop." $70. (800) 869-3348.

Mundaka by Roof Brazil

Tired feet will rest easy on the Mundaka's soft-cushion EVA/neoprene footbed. The leather upper with quick-release buckle is easy to open and close. $64.95. (800) 423-6855.

Na-Pali by Adidas

An easy-to-use, lace-and-toggle closure system keeps you snug and secure for any outdoor venture. The rubber outsole with lug traction pattern gives you a safe foothold on soil or sand. $50. (800) 448-1796.

Shaka Whitewater by B-West

These imports from Africa were designed by the Zulus for use in rugged outback conditions. Fully adjustable ankle, arch and forefoot straps ensure comfort and custom fit. $59.95. (800) 293-7855.

Terra-Fi by Teva

Teva brought flip-flops out of the five-and-dime-store age in 1983 by adding heel straps to hold the feet in place. Now the company has cut channels in the topsole of the Terra-Fi to drain water and increase ventilation. $70. (800) 433-2537.

Topozoic Sandal Plus by Timberland

The gripping lug rubber outsole of this sandal is in a zone of its own in providing walking security on uneven topography. The strap system with Velcro fastener is fully adjustable. $85. (800) 445-5545.

Whitewater by Hi-Tec

Well-constructed yet lightweight, this sandal provides a cushioned, stable ride in both wet and dry conditions. Suede uppers with Velcro closures wick moisture away. $39.99. (800) 521-1698; (800) 558-8580 in California.

Snowshoes

Runners looking to stay fit when there's snow on the ground are finding great cardiovascular and aesthetic satisfaction in snowshoeing. Anybody who can walk--or run--can master basic shoeing in minutes. Stamp out the old image that snowshoes are big, clunky, rough-hewn things worn by grizzly mountaineers trapping for their next meal. Today's high-performance, metal-frame shoes are light fast and stable. Just strap yourself in and go.

When deciding what snowshoe is best for you, consider whether you'll be walking, running or racing in them and what conditions and terrain you're likely to encounter. For running or racing, you'll want smaller, narrower, lighter shoes than you might use for walking.

Must-have features: A cleated traction device on the bottom of the shoe for secure stepping over a wide range of conditions, especially steep climbs and ice; a solid decking for better flotation, resistance to tear and elimination of ice or snow buildup; custom-fitting, supportive bindings with the flexibility to accommodate running shoes

Redtail by Redfeather

A solid training snowshoe for runners under 160 pounds, the Redtail is light yet strong. Steel talons on the front and rear provide excellent traction in soft snow and ice. Drifts on the trail won't slow your progress, thanks to this shoe's upturned forward "shovel." $219-$244. (800) 525-0081.

10-K by Tubbs

If snowshoe racing is your thing, take a look at the 10-K. This asymmetrically shaped shoe provides superior balance and control. Light and efficient, the 10-K comes with toe and heel crampons that will steady your ride and let you air it out over packed race courses and trails. $210-$249. (800) 882-2748.

1022 by Atlas

Efficient in both the back country and the backyard, the 1022 is a small snowshoe that works well in tracked a untracked snow. Its spring-loaded binding lets you stride without drug, and its dual-cleat cleat system gives you great traction without weighing you down. $229. (800) 645-7463.

Rehabilitation & Injury Prevention

Those nagging running injuries. We've all had them, and we've all sworn to take better care of ourselves the next time. Well, now is the time to finally keep those promises. Whether you're plagued by shinsplints, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis or even back pain, we've found a handful of rehab devices to help you prevent those annoying aches and pains.

Stretching Devices

Lower-leg injuries can put you on the injury list for weeks. To prevent long-term pain, you need to stretch and strengthen these important muscles regularly. Here are two devices that can help.

Flex-Wedge by Flex-Wedge

By stretching with this incline device, you can increase the mobility of your feet,, legs and lower back, which decreases your risk of shinsplints and many other lower-leg injuries. The Flex-wedge has an incline board that con be set to any one of four angles depending on your range of motion. An illustrated manual describes 12 exercises. $39. (800) 477-7466.

Step Stretch by Prism Technologies

With this rolling device, you place your foot on the flat platform and slowly rock back onto your heel until you feel tension in your muscles. The Step Stretch exercises your plantar fasciae, Achilles, calves, shins and hamstrings. An instruction manual is provided. $29.99. (800) 432-8722.

Ice Packs

What's the answer every time you ask what to do about a running injury? "Ice it" Every runner should have an ice pack in the freezer, and the pack shown here is top of the line.

Thera P Gel Pak by Norsk

Even when frozen, this pack remains flexible and conforms to the contours of your body. Velcro straps keep it in place so you can do other things while you're icing your injury. It can also be heated in the microwave when you need to soothe and loosen fight, achy muscles. Thera P Gel Paks are available in different sizes and designs for treating knees, ankles, thighs, elbows and other areas. $14.99 to $34.99. (800) 667-7510.

Back Supports

If you experience lower-back pain, you probably need to do some strength training. Strong hamstrings, abdominal muscles, obliques and lower-back muscles all help support the lumbar region. But while you're getting in shape, you can get some support and pain relief from a back wrap.

BackThing Back Support by Sportstech

Wrap your lower torso with this support, and your back will thank you. Made with a high-density, closed-cell latex foam pad that conforms to the curve of your spine, the BackThing provides good support, won't fide up while you work out and is flexible and comfortable. It increases circulation in the muscles of the lower back, keeping them warm and promoting healing. $69.95. (800) 279-7123.

Lower-Leg Supports

Injuries happen. Stretching and strengthening, ice and rest help you recover and can help prevent injuries from happening again, but sometimes you need a little extra support the following devices will provide it. They help to absorb shock, reduce the stress that running puts on your muscle relieve pain by applying compression and warmth and stabilize weak ankles and knees.

Cheetah Ankle Brace and Ankle Support with Hool Cups by Muellor

If you're prone to ankle sprains and injuries, slip on a Cheetah Ankle Brace. It can also help relieve shinsplints and pain in your heels, ankles, knees and Achilles tendons. Use the Cheetah Ankle Support when less support and stability are needed. A key feature of these products is the built-in Tuli's Heel Cup, which is very effective in absorbing shock. Brace, $29.95; Support, $19.95. (800) 356-9522.

Cho-Pat Sports Straps by Cho-Pat

If you're suffering from knee pain due to patellar tendinitis, the Counter Force Knee Wrap helps alleviate that pain and stabilizes the kneecap while allowing full mobility. The Cho-Pat Achilles Tendon Strap helps reduce the pain of Achilles tendinitis. It also promotes early heel rise for an easier push-off during running, thus lowering the stress on the Achilles. Both wraps are made from neoprene fabric and have Velcro fasteners. Knee Wrap, $23.95; Achilles Tendon Strap, $18.50. (800) 221-1601.

Count'R Force Arch Brace and Shin'aid by Medical Sports

If plantar fascritis plagues you, then the Coun'R Force Arch Brace could be your ticket to happier running. Two strops hold the once up gainst your arch. The curved design provides a wide surface of support. For shinsplints, try the Shin'aid, which can also help relieve calf injuries. Arch Brace, $15.45; Shin'aid, $22.95. (800) 783-2240.

Hyperflex Bionic Knee and Ankle Brace by Seirus

Bothered by weak knees or ankles? Try the Hyperflex Bionic Knee Bruce or Ankle Brace by Seirus. Both wraps are made of breathable neoprene, which provides maximum support and allows moisture to evaporate. The Bionic Knee uses Lycra behind the knee to provide support without bunching up or inhibiting knee-flex as neoprene would. Bionic Knee, $34.99; Ankle Brace, $7.99. (800) 447-3787.

Kneed-It and Kallassy Ankle Support by One-up Health & Sport

The Kneecht knee guard absorbs shock at the knee and relieves minor pain by applying compression and warmth to the soft tissues in front of the knee. If you're weak in the ankles, the Kallassy Ankle Support will prevent your ankle from turning or rolling over as you run. Kneed-It, $29.95; Kallassy Ankle Support, $35. (800) 997-6789.

Lastrap by Coopercare

Lastrop supports have bio-engineered Thermovibe pods, which absorb shock, lessen vibrations and retain body heat for increased blood circulation. Whether your pain is in your knee or your shin, the Lastrap can provide relief. $29. (416) 741-9675 (ask for Coopercare).

Pronation/Spring Control (PSC) and U-Wraps by Fabrifoom Products

The PSC support/control device, which wraps around the foot and ankle, boasts the holding properties of a tape wrap, the alignment effect of an orthotic and the lifting function of an arch support-all in one. The PSC is recommended for the prevention and treatment of shinsplints, plantur fascilitis, heel spurs, stress fractures of the foot and other foot and ankle injuries. U-Wraps are breathable, reusable Velcro wraps that provide support for the wrisst, ankle and knee and help relieve tendinitis of these joints. PSC, $29.95; U-Wraps, $8-$20. (800) 577-1077. Indoor exercise machines might seem about as inviting as jury duty, but they do have their place. They can help preserve fitness during injury-related layoffs from running, because most are low or nonimpact. They can target muscle groups not effectively taxed by running. They can provide a reprieve from running in less-than-friendly weather And they can offer variety, even if it's the negative kind (nothing like staring into the dashboard of a stationary bike for what seems like an eternity to make you want to hit the roads all the more). That said, here's what's out there--or, rather, in there. As a rule of thumb with all exercise devices, put function and construction ahead of frugality. Unless it works the right muscles and does so in a smooth and stable fashion, chances are an inexpensive machine is only going to exercise your ire.

Rowing Machines

Races are not won by legs alone. Upper-body strength is needed for maintaining the most efficient running form, especially as fatigue begins to set in, and that's where rowing makes a good adjunct to your running. Rowing works the arms, shoulders, chest abdominals, buttocks and back.

Even the legs get a good workout as an estimated 75 percent of the force generated by a proper rowing stroke comes from down under. Moreover, because this force is nonimpact, workouts on a rowing machine can be a good way to keep the quads, and to a lesser degree the hamstrings, in shape while you're on the mend from an impact-related injury. Let your comfort be your guide when using a rower, however. if the action in any way aggravates an injury, head for shore.

Rowers come in two basic types: flywheel and hydraulic. The flywheel design most closely replicates the feel of rowing on water. All the models described here are flywheel types, and all also have monitoring systems that show elapsed time, number of strokes and calories burned.

Must-have features: A comfortable seat and a good, smooth action (if the machine's seat doesn't slide smoothly or its rowing action feels inconsistent or clunky, you won't enjoy using it and it probably won't last)

Aerow Pro 971 by Ross Fitness

The Aerow Pro's onboard computer allows you to choose a preset workout or program your own. An ergonomically designed seat and padded pull-handle provide a comfortable fide. Guaranteed for the lie of its original owner, the Aerow Pro is certainly no toy. $999. (800) 338-7677.

Concept II Model C by Concept II

The third generation of Concept II rowers, Model C offers quieter operation, collapssibility for earlier storage and a redesigned seat With this rower, you can set up to four different kinds of workouts, and an optional interface enables you to monitor your heart rate. But perhaps best of all about the Concept II is the competition it invites you to join. Called the C.R.A.S.H.-B Sprints indoor Roxong Championships, the tournament allows you to pit your rowing prowess against that of thousands of competitors taking part in over 80 races held nationwide. Ordered from the factory: $725. (800) 245-5676.

R740 ECB Rower by Tunturi

At 119 pounds compared to 61 and 97 pounds respectively for the Concept 11 and Ross rowers, the Tunturi is more difficuff to tote around. However, this rower is stable and quiet to use ond has a comfortable, onatomically designed seat. The magnetic resistance design of the flywheel allows you to set stroke resistance at numerous levels. $1,099. (800) 827-8717.

Stationary Bikes

Stationary bikes were the first, and in many ways still are one of the best ergometers for runners, especially when ridden in a standing position, which studies show comes closer to the action of running than any other indoor exercise (except treadmill work). When shopping for a bike, stick to those that allow you to adjust pedal resistance so you can simulate hill training.

Also, keep in mind that models that provide pedal resistance by way of a flywheel or belt drive generally are more durable than those that derive their resistance from mechanical friction. And if you're intending to monitor your workouts in terms of miles covered or calories burned, opt for a bike capable of making such calculations. All the bikes presented here have monitoring systems.

Must-have features: A comfortable seat, smooth pedal action and basic structural integrity (if the unit wobbles or feels generally flimsy, it's probably going to find a home in your garage)

Airdyne by Schwinn

A "bike" that works your upper body, too, the Airdyne has handlebars that move in tandem with the pedals and give your arms and shoulders a great workout as you ride. With the Airdyne, resistance is created by a flywheel with numerous air-grabbing fins. $499.95 to $799.95, depending on the model. (303) 545-1 725.

F510 Executive Recumbent Cycle by Tunturi

If you're having a bout of back trouble, a recumbent bike is the way to ride. The body position you take on a recumbent, plus the back support and seat, minimize stress to the lower back, whereas the posture required on an upright bike or a stairclimber may aggravate any problems. Recumbents exercise the some muscles as upright bikes, but because the contractions occur in different areas of the muscles, recumbents give the abdomen, inner thighs, hamstrings and calves a better workout than other areas. The unit's monitor displays standard workout information. $449. (800) 827-8717.

Futura EZ 947 by Ross Fitness

Another flywheel and duabaction bike like the Airdyne, the Futura EZ 947 differs from the Aire models in that it allows you to work the upper and lower body either together or separately. Also, pedal straps enable you to pull on the pedals (good for the hamstrings) as well as push on them (good for the quads). The Futura's electronic monitor uses an ear-mounted sensor to measure heart rate. $525. (800) 338-7677.

HOMCycle by Universal Gym Equipment

Belt-driven but quiet and smooth, the HOM-Cycle is a rugged, no-nonsense ergometer. It offers three options for training by target

Lifecycle 3500 by Life Fitness

Want to combat the boredom of cycling to nowhere by playing a litfle Nintendo, Speed Racer or Pac Man? Then hop aboard an LC 3500. The unit's LED display screen interfaces with some pretty entertaining software (the Life Fitness Exertainment system), not to mention some no-nonsense fitness programs to moisten your brow. Cycle at a moderate 65 percent of your maximum heart rate, or a cardia-training regimen at a more demanding 85 percent. You can even watch TV on the bike's ample console. $999 for the lifecycle plus Exertainment system. (800) 877-3867.

MS.2E/L Personal Cycle Trainer by Precor

No belts or even wind-ressisting flywheels her--just a precission-balanced aluminum disk spinning freely between variable magnetic fields. As the magnetic force increases, so does resistance, totally without friction, so durability is this units middle nome. The bike's display panel features a host of preprogrammed as well as programmoble workouts, fitness tests, a weightloss program, plus elapsed time, RPM's, heart rate and colories burned. $1,300-$1,850. (800) 477-3267.

Wavecycle 502 by Dicor

Here's a novel and durable approach to the standard stationary bike-using water to provide pedal resistance. Difficult to wear out for sure. The patented technology uses H2O for a smooth and friction-free pedal ressistance, which can be adjusted even while the unit is in use. Resistance also increases with pedaling speed, giving even greater variety in intensifies. The computerized dashboard shows heart rate (via a sensor worn on the ear) in addition to the usual data. $399. (800) 985-8999.

Strength-Training Machines

Wait a minute--you're trying to run faster, not kick sand in anyone's face.

Chill. Strength can be a good way to do it Strength-building exercises recruit primarily fast-twitch muscle fibers. Research shows that strength-building workouts can be a valuable complement to speedwork Arm, shoulder and torso exercises also can build the upper-body power needed for faster times.

In selecting a strength-building machine, look for one capable of giving a full-body workout. Put a priority on basic structural integrity as well as smoothness of operation. And if time is important to you, be sure the adjustments needed to implement the machine's different exercises do not require a workout in themselves to employ.

Must-have features: Apparatus for a full-body workout, with exercises for the legs, arms, shoulders and back

Bowflex 210 Pro by Bowflex

The Bowflex supplies resistance isotonically (force must be generated not only to perform a lift, but also to return to the lift's starting point) via a unique system of flexible `power rods' attached to pulleys. This allows a freedom of movement not possible with many similar units, as well as an impressive variety of exercisesin 64 all. The unit is relatively light in weight and even collapsible enough to be stored in a closet when not in use. $999. (800) 269-3539.

Complete PersonalCircuit Multi-Station Gym by Nautilus

Employing the patented Nautilus cam--a device that allows smooth movement through the entire range of motion of exercise--this large unit offers 12 exercises (eight for the upper body and four for the lower). As many as three people con work out at the some time. Resistance is supplied tonically, and changing exercises takes only 5 seconds. $5,985. (800) 628-8458.

Direct Drive 200 by Cybox

"Direct Drive" refers to this unit's more-efficient-than-most cable system, which attaches to weights hidden inside the machine's center column and allows an immediate application of resistance. Exercises for all major muscle groups are possible, and in one of the smallest spaces for a multistation machine of this type--just 49 square feet. $3,595. (800) 926-4704.

Multi-function 880 by Hoist

"The simpler the better" is the main theme of this machine. The other is saving space: it requires only 13.5 square feet of floor space, yet offers 1 5 exercises that work all major muscle groups. Pulleys attached to cost-iron weights (up to 200 pounds) provide the machine's mode of actioh, and all seated exercises are possible without cable changes from just one position--a plus for exercisers in a hurry. $2,395. (800) 548-5438; (800) 541-5438 in Calgornic.

NordicFlex Gold by NordicTrack

With a patented resistance system that adjusts automatically to the amount of force you generate against it, this unique unit from Nordictrack requires no changing of weights or cables between exercises--just the position of your body. Over 30 exercises for all major muscle groups are possible, and a Power Meter measures the number of repetitions and pounds of force generated by each lift. $799.95. (800) 445-2360.

On-Line 1800 by Vectra

This rugged unit offers 29 exercises for 11 major muscle groups. It employs pulleys attached to weights (all the way up to 305 pounds' worth) and uses a cam system to ensure that resistance remains consistent through the entire range of motion each exercise requires. The unit also boasts a unique, space-saving design that allows it to be set up in a corner of a room, as opposed to the center--a limitation of most similar multistation machines. Only 65 square feet of floor space is required. $3,995. (800) 283-2872.

Pacific 2000 by Pacific Fitness

Your own body weight provides the resistance with this clever design, and yet an impressive 25 exercises are posssible for targeting all major muscles, abdominals included. Resistance levels (adjustable from 3 pounds to 129 pounds of user's body weight) are changeable without leaving the machine's seat, and the unit is a space saver, taking up only 16 square feet. $1,049. (800) 722-3482.

Persona Fitness Trainer 1000 by Paramount

The PFT 1000 features biomechanically correct positions for all of the most popular strengtl/building exercises. It uses a smoothly operating pulley system that hoists plates of cast iron. No cable changes are required during exercises, and weight selections are made extra safe via a custom-designed selector pin. The units leg-press station is optional. $2,895. (800) 721-2121.

Pro Form Cross Trainer by Icon

Versatility is the claim to fame of this multifaceted unit--an upper- and lower-body strength trainer plus an aerobic stairclimber all in one. Resistance is supplied electronically and in easily adjustable, 1-increments (all the way up to 250 pounds). Over 30 upper- and lower-body exercises are possible, two people can work out simultoneously, and the stepping machine features variable resistance as well as an electronic display of elapsed fime, distance covered, cadence and calories burned. $799. (800) 727-9777.

TriFlex by the DTX Corporation

Hydraulic cylinders provide the resistance (up to 500 pounds) in this versafile yet compact unit. The device is very user-friendly, as resistance adjusts automafically to the amount of force generated, and only changes in body position are needed to perform most of the machine's 40 exercises. $795. (800) 600-3050.

Stairclimbers

A relatively recent addition to the ergometer family, stair-climbers, like stationary bikes, can be a great low-impact way to keep the legs and cardiovascular system strong while nursing a stress-related injury. Steppers work primarily the quads, hamstrings and buttocks. (Stairclimbers generally are not effective at improving leg speed, however, so be forewarned if speed more than endurance is your training goal.)

In shopping for a stepper, expect, as with ergometers in general, to get what you pay for. what you may save in money, you'll pay for in durability and pleasure of use.

Must-have features: Variable resistance, an electronic readout showing energy expenditure, a handlebar design that's comfortable for you (if you find yourself leaning too far forward, you'll be putting undue strain on your back) and "good feel" (that is, smooth pedal motion)

Aerstep Pro 986 by Ross Fitness

The patented step-drive system of this machine uses air resistance, so that as you increase your effort, the resistance of the machine increases. Computer-controlled magnetic tension also allows you to program the base resistance level to change at certain points throughout the workout. The Aerstep includes six preset programs, or you can design your own. Time, distance, calories burned, step rate and heart rate are all displayed on the monitor. $999. (800) 338-7677.

Dynastep 759 and 859 by Dicor Fitness

Both of these steppers have independent stepping action, variable magnetic resistance, four hill programs, a manual setting and a display that features step rate and calories burned. The 759 allows you to program a target heart rate, and if that heart rate is exceeded, the stepper resets to its easiest setting to let you know you've exceeded your upper range. The 859 has a heart-rate control computer, which automotically adjusts the machine's resistance to maintain proper heart rate. 759, $899; 859, $1,050. (800) 985-8999.

4000 PT by StairMaster

Known for its "great feel," the 4000 features a patented design that provides a nearly constant spied during the entire downward motion of the pedal. This stairclimber uses an independent stepping action, so a stronger leg can't overcompensate for a weaker leg or force the weaker leg through a posssibly injurious movement or range. The monitor displays time elapsed, step rate, course and calories burned. 2,195. (800) 635-2936.

5500 by Life Fitness

This self-powered stepper has five workout programs, including a Heart Rate Zone Training program that adjusts pedal resistance automotically, based on your heart rate and stepping pace. It offers two stepping actions: independent, in which the pedols move separately from one another and you control the height of each, and dependent, in which the pedals are linked together. The monitor displays heart rate, elapsed time, colories burned, stepping rate and terrain. $999. (800) 877-3867.

M7.2E/L Personal Climber Trainer by Precor

This stepper has some of the most sophisticated fitness software around. Its computer con store information about weight, preferred work level and best performances for up to four people. The M7.2E/L offers several preprogrammed courses, or you can create your own. A fitness test measures your heart-rate response to different levels of exercise, and this stepper includes a weightloss program based on research from the Cooper Clinic, that will help you burn the most calories during a 30-minute workout. The monitor displays course, work level, time, elevation, steps per minute, calories, heart rate and your fitness score. Wheels make this stairclimber easy to move. $1,400. (800) 477-3267.

Professional 330 by Schwinn

Rugged enough to withstand commercial use, the 330 boosts friction-free electromagnetic stance, self-leveling footheds, independent leg action and multiposition handlebars for optimally comfortable stepping posture. The device also offers 16 levels of resistance, five preset workouts and digital readouts of elapsed time, steps per minute, distance covered and calories burned. $1,299.95. (303) 545-1725.

Quantum by Monark Bodyguard Fitness Corp.

Smooth, sturdy and virtually silent, thanks to new noise-reduction technology, the Quantum has three exercise modes: novice, intermediate and expert. It offers several programs, including heart-rate control and race programs, or you can manually set your own. The computer monitor displays calories burned and step rate. $1,795. (800) 665-3407.

VersaClimber by Heart Rate

The VersaClimber takes stair climbing to new and potentially more exhausting heights. It can be used as a conventional stepping machine for working the lower body only, or it can provide a more complete workout by employing the arms, chest, shoulders, bock and even abdomen when used in its "ladder-climbing" mode. Complete, too is the information the VersaClimber gives you on its digital readout: elapsed time, climbing speed in feet per minute, distance climbed, number of colories burned and (optionally) heart rate attained. $1,295; with heartrate monitor, $1,595. (800) 237-2271.

Ski Machines

Touted as effective simulators of the highest calorie-burning activity of all, cross-country ski machines work not just the legs but the chest, shoulders and arms. Because your feet don't leave the ground, there's no impact. Ski machines come in "Yugo" as well as "Mercedes" forms, however, so beware. You can spend as little as $100 for some models, but if you do, you'll soon want to heave it into a snowdrift somewhere.

Must-have features: A smooth, comfortable and stable action; padded hand grips; snug but comfortable foot grips

Achiever by Nordictrack

Unlike most cross-country skiers, the Achiever allows you to custorn-tailor your workouts by adjusting upper- and lower-body resistance independently. Resistance is supplied by a flywheel, so action is smooth, and the units platform can be filted upward to simulate the even more exhausting expedence of skiing uphill. All this effort gets closely monitored, moreover, in terms of speed, distance covered, time elapsed, calories burned and heart rate reached, by way of a digital readout mounted for easy view. $769.95. (800) 445-2606.

Abstract: An array of running gear, with descriptions and prices, is presented. The equipment includes sports watches, water gear, carbohydrate drinks, water-carrying supplies, gear bags, sports cameras, heart-rate monitors, reflective clothing, and exercise equipment.

Source Citation
"Runner's World 1995 gear guide." Runner's World Dec. 1995: 50+. Gale Power Search. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A17632802

(Web-Page) http://dinosaur.hunter2008.googlepages.com (Album / Profile) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10031&id=1661531726&l=cf90f7df9c Email: leonard.wilson2009@hotmail.com

"Look sharp! No one wants to look like a dullard. That's why MF polledour style council--experts in fashion, grooming, fitness, health, andnutrition--to come up with this hot list (62 strong!) of ways to polishyour appearance."

2011-08-30T20:04:00.002-04:00

Drinking water for canyon wildlife, originally uploaded by oldmantravels.

MAYBE YOU LOST OUT ON THE GOOD-GENES SWEEPSTAKES. You've got a schnozz with its own seat in Congress. Or you've got a lace and bod like Brad but a fashion sense that is truly the Pitts. Maybe you wish you could look half as good as Danny DeVito. Whatever. You can still move from not to hot without having the Queer Eye guys ripping you to pieces like hyenas on Animal Planet.

Start with these tips, our definitive list of everything you need to do to improve your looks: from what to wear and how to work out to what to eat and health dos and don'ts. In three months, when the paparazzi are hounding you 'cause you look like a star, just turn toward the camera and wink. We'll take that as a "Thank yon."

CLOTHING

SUIT YOURSELF: When shopping for suits, worry more about fit than price: A $400 suit that fits perfectly flatters you better than a $4,000 ensemble that doesn't.

GET SHORTY: If you're under 5'10", stick with suits and jackets that have a "short" cut. They're better proportioned and won't make you look like David Byrne in Stop Making Sense.

PLAY YOUR HEAVY HITTERS. Better to own a few swanky clothing items you love than a closet full of cheap, ridiculous items you won't even wear.

MAKE AN UNDER STATEMENT: Wear a white undershirt in the office (under your outer shirt, Einstein). It soaks up sweat, plus that little bit of white poking out helps you look more put-together.

GET LOOPY: Wear a belt. Always. It's the follow-through in your backhand, the whipped cream on your Frappuccino. Plus, it gives the gals something to do (or undo) while you're kicking off your shoes.

TEE OFF YOUR WARDROBE: Everyone's real impressed by your muscles. But outside the gym, an armless muscle tee says "Clueless" before it says "Call me."

STRIPE A POSE: It's still true: Vertical stripes make you look slimmer, Fact: Rockers Jack and Meg White are actually 240 and 370 pounds, respectively.

COLOR SCHEME: Never pair a brown belt with black shoes (and vice versa). You're not a Doberman pinscher.

HANG UP YOUR TIGHTS: When your tighty-whities are no longer white, burn them. (That goes for your pit-stained tees, too, Casanova.)

PLEAT GUILTY: Take your pleated pants and donate them to the Salvation Army. Same goes for ones that taper at the bottom. They make you book top-heavy, fat, and, well, like you're trapped in 1985.

GET A LOOK: Pick a clothing style and stick with it. Don't dress like you're in Glee Club one day and like you're going to a Marilyn Manson concert the next.

PULL YOUR DAMN PANTS UP: When Britney Spears' undies stick out of her jeans, it's cute. When yours do, it's pathetic. If you've got bunching issues, wear boxer briefs--women eat 'em up.

COVER UP: Don't let chest shrubbery blossom from your undershirt. No need to hire a gardener to manicure your lawn. Just stick with a crew neck.

DON'T BAG OUT: When it comes to leather jackets, windbreakers, and winter outerwear, err on the small side. Don't be afraid to buy a fitted jacket: A baggy leather bomber is not "do bomb."

GROOMING

YOU GO, GIRLY: Dip into your girlfriend's I bag of tricks: Exfoliation and moisturizing aren't just for chicks--they'll help your skin glow. Man brands include Gillette I and Nivea for Men.

TAKE A POWDER: Use Gold Bond for your private areas--the powder cuts down on ugly red chafing. Just don't overuse or you'll puff clouds like a gymnast.

NOSE YOUR LIMITS: What's more embarrassing: plopping that nose-hair trimmer down at the checkout counter or having wheat grass protruding from your nostrils?

IT'S OK TO FLIP-FLOP: Fungus ain't fun. To avoid it, keep your bare feet from touching anything in the locker room. That means wearing flip-flops in the shower stall and standing on a towel while drying off.

MAP OUT YOUR HAIR BORDERS; When your neck hair starts to meet your back hair, it's called an "ape drape." Let your barber have at it, Kong.

GET ORGAN-IZED: Trim the hair "down there" to make it look bigger. Hey, it's far less painful and expensive than penis enlargement. Trust us.

WHO'S THE FLOSS? Think flossing once a week is OK? Try after every meal You'll keep your gums healthy and prevent receding. Bonus: free leftovers! Yum.

TELL THE TOOTH: Think about making your pearly whites even whiter. Bleached teeth brighten your whole face in a not-too-obvious, soap-actor kind of way.

ZAP YOUR ZITS: To tame acne outbreaks, use a cleanser with salicylic acid, such as Clearasil. Playing mirror hockey (squeezing them) seems like a solution, but it can leave permanent scars.

TRIM YOUR TALONS: Clip your fingernails as soon as you see the whites. Unless you're going for that '70s pimp--or worse yet, Nosferatu--look.

DON'T BE A MEISTER-BROW: One reason Sesame Street's Bert has been a bachelor for so many years may be that unibrow. All Ernie's pal needs is tweezers and as steamy bathroom, A separate bedroom wouldn't hurt either, by the way.

WAX OFF: Wanna show off your muscles and lose the Dr. Zaius look? Then don't shave your body--wax it. Shaved hair grows in at different cycles and looks uneven. Waxing keeps you stubble-free longer, which she'll appreciate.

FITNESS

UTILIZE PEDAL POWER: If it's feasible, commute on a bike. You'll get leg definition, cardio, and a healthy glow when you arrive at the office. We surest the iXi bike. It has a rubber drive belt (substituting for that greasy chain), an iPod compartment, and can fold down flat. ($1,28g @ ixibike.com)

CHART YOUR PROGRESS: Log your fitness advancements: At specific intervals, have photos taken (clothing optional) and get a trainer to tape*measure your muscles. "It shows the fruits of your labor," says former Mr. Universe Lee Labrada, founder of Labrada Nutrition, That gives you motivation to go back for more.

FOLLOW THROUGH WITH EVOLUTION: Don't get no respect? Get erect. A guy with good posture "stands taller and walks prouder," says trainer Craig Ballantyne. Practice on the seated-row machine: Use a wide overhand grip on a wide-grip handle. As you pull the bar back toward you, pinch your shoulder blades together while pushing your chest out.

GET PUMPED: Get a quick pump before a big date. No, we're not talking about cleaning out your pipes, pal. Repeating upper-body exercises like biceps curls causes fluid to temporarily increase the size of your veins and muscles, says Ballantyne. It lasts about an hour--just enough time for you to work your mojo.

BE EVEN-STEVEN: Pay attention to symmetry and proportion. If you're working lust your chest and biceps, you'll get top-heavy. "A balanced body is beautiful to the eye," says Labrada.

WATCH YOUR ASS: "Most guys ignore everything behind them, training-wise," says Alwyn Cosgrove, owner of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, Calif., "especially what they can't see in the mirror." Cosgrove recommends stepups on a bench for booty-ful balance.

STICK IT UP: The transverse abdominis (the muscle you contract when you suck in your gut) can be trained merely by holding in your stomach--the first step to a six-pack, Tie a string tight around your belly, instructs Cosgrove, and pull in your tummy every time you feel tension from the string. You should see results in a week--even if you're already ab-ulous.

BECOME TAN-TASTIC: Bring out muscle definition with a fake (non-premature-aging, non-cancer-causing) tan (we like Clinique Skin Supplies for Men Bronzer). Darker skin brings out muscle definition better than a pasty casing. Just be sure to rub in the self-tanner carefully--streaks are for freaks.

GROW SHOULDER AND WISER: Atlas had a pretty good look, carrying the world on his shoulders and all. So take a page out of his book and work on your cannonball delts, says Cosgrove. "It makes your arms look better and your waist look thinner."

HEALTH

AVOID WET T-SHIRT CONTESTS: Change clothes after your workout, Your soaking-wet T-shirt and shorts not only smell bad, but the moisture also breeds fungus. Plus, sweat clogs pores and can lead to body zits, a.k.a. backne, chestne, and yes, the dreaded assne.

TEST NEGATIVE: Anabolic steroids cause greasy skin, acne, and premature balding. Unattractive Bonus: They make you as volatile as Tony Soprano.

EXPAND YOUR SOLE: If your shoes are tight around the toes, get them stretched. Narrow dress shoes can give you bunions, which is not another name for onion rolls but, rather, for nasty looking sores.

SLEEP IT OFF: Not getting enough sleep may contribute to obesity. While you're sleeping, your body peaks in producing hormone called leptin, which regulates fat stored in the body. Not sleeping throws your leptin production out of whack and disorients your fat monitors, leading your body to store fat instead of burning it.

STEER CLEAR OF THE SUN: Apply sunscreen--always. Even when you're skiing, the snow reflects the sun's rays and amplifies them up to 80%. And the higher the altitude, the greater the UV exposure. Look what happened to Robert Redford after years of his sun dance.

BANG A GONG: Get laid. A lot. A Scottish researcher found that sex helps slow the aging process by reducing stress, increasing contentment, and bettering sleep. Which means, get some at least three times a week, and you'll look better longer. (Yeah, it's our favorite study, too.)

THE SALINE SOLUTION: Keep your salt intake low, especially late at night. Too much puffs up the circles under your eyes. And retaining water not only sounds feminine, it gets in the way of looking ripped.

IGNORANCE IS BLISTERS: If you're prone to blisters, invest in some double-layer socks. And once the painful little suckers pop, apply antibiotic ointment like Bacitracin for your sake. Then cover the mess with a bandage for everyone else's.

UNCOVER THE MOLE: Frequently check your body for new freckles and moles (or have your woman do it). Larger or raised, ones should be monitored to make sure they're not risk factors for melanoma, Unattractive Bonus: Find a third nipple and become a documentary subject.

GRAPE ADVICE: Take grape-seed extract, which significantly speeds up wound recovery for bruises or cuts by allowing tissue to repair itself more quickly.

DRY UP: Take fewer, faster showers. Water--especially hot water--robs your skin of natural oils, which help keep you looking natural and young.

DOG YOURSELF OUT: You'll never be as cute as Desmond, your dachshund. But owning him makes you that much more attractive. A study conducted by the U.K.'s University of Warwick found that women are much more likely to talk to a man walking his dog than one walking himself.

NUTRITION

STIFF DIET: Eating the right foods contributes to a healthy sex life. A diet rich in fruits, veggies, legumes, and grains keeps your arteries clear, increasing blood flow to you-know-where. And you don't have to be Ozzy to know that an Iron Man is more impressive than Mr. Softy.

WASH AND WEAR: Look shampoo-commercial fabulous by loading up on B vitamins, especially one called biotin. (Make sure your multivitamin includes it.) Your 'do will shine like the top of the Chrysler Building.

COMBAT FREE RADICALS: Sounds like a call to arms against anarchists, no? But those nasty free radicals actually kill cells and age you. Fight them by ingesting antioxidants, such as lycopene, which you can find by juicing a grapefruit or a tomato. Hey, who wants lycopene-a-coladas?

TASTE THE RAINBOW: The more colorful your grub, the more packed it is with essential vitamins and nutrients. So load up on orange peppers, blueberries, and red snapper (just kidding about the fish). But careful on the preparation: Cook the hell out of them and you lose some important ingredients. The best advice? Steam veggies to maximize their powers.

STAY REGULAR: We're not advocating a daily bowl of Colon Blow, the Saturday Night Live cereal that clears your innards and more. But do have a daily dose of fiber. Familiar with the Michelin Man? Never had a gram of fiber.

DON'T DO THE DEW: A study found that canned sodas and teas--even diet versions--damage tooth enamel. If you must go that route, root beer--with the fewest additives--does the least harm.

BONE UP: Unless you're chugging milk or crunching sardine bones, you may not be getting enough calcium. This raises your risk for osteoporosis, which will wreck your posture and make you shorter. (Ed. Note: Men's Fitness does not recommend ingesting milk and sardines simultaneously, if only for the awful breath consequences.)

REEL-A-MEAL: Eat more fish--especially salmon and tuna. They're high in omega-3 fatty acids, which improve blood flow, giving you better color. Omega-3s also boost your mood, which will make you smile more. (Fish can't smile, can they?)

Five things you could do ...

1. Stop hogging the remote.

2. Lose that ugly posse of yours.

3. Figure out why you've lost interest in giving me oral sex.

4. Buy me something expensive.

5. Shut up. Seriously.

POLL SOME CHICKS: Ask your girlfriend, wife, or coolest gal pal for five suggestions on how to look better. They'll give you the most honest, up-to-date advice. (But don't call Mom. She means well, but she thinks Dad's suspenders look "neat.")

HAVE BALD AMBITION: If your hair's thinning, take a tip from Air Jordan, Vin Diesel, and Mr. Clean--shave that chrome dome. Unless you have a head like Freddy Krueger, you'll come off cool, confident, and bad ass. And a sweet 'stache never hurt nobody nohow, Geraldo.

GO NATIVE: Planning a trip abroad? Leave the baseball caps and ironic T-shirts at home--unless you want to be easily identified as an SUV-driving, Toby Keith-listening tourist from the Land of the Great Satan.

GET INTO THE GROOVE: Find gear that inspires you to work out longer. The Nike MP3Run by Philips plays music and also wirelessly tracks your time, distance, and pace. You'll know when you're done running--and when you've earned the right to play "We Are the Champions." ($299 @ nike-philips.com)

LAY OFF THE CANCER STICKS:

Seriously, dude don't smoke. Lung damage aside, it causes premature wrinkles and yellow teeth, making you look like those old ladies who play the slots in Atlantic City. Ditto for chewing tobacco, which may appear enticing when baseball players chomp on it, but seems less cool when your gums are rotting. Unattractive Bonus: Nothing in the world a woman loves less than spittle juice on your chin!

ACID TEST: Lack of linoleic acid can give you lizard skin. Scrap the scales by munching on nuts and seeds or drizzling some safflower oil on your chow.

SAY YES TO JOE: This ain't no java jive. A recent study says coffee's high antioxidant content (four times that in green tea!) makes it one of the best sources for fighting wrinkle-producing free radicals. Drink too much, though, and you'll never get off the pot.

New York Daily News fashion editor Amy Diluna always looks great.

Diluna, Amy

Source Citation
Diluna, Amy. "Look sharp! No one wants to look like a dullard. That's why MF polled our style council--experts in fashion, grooming, fitness, health, and nutrition--to come up with this hot list (62 strong!) of ways to polish your appearance." Men's Fitness Nov. 2004: 94+. Gale Power Search. Web. 30 Aug. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA124007835&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A124007835

(Web-Page) http://dinosaur.hunter2008.googlepages.com (Album / Profile) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10031&id=1661531726&l=cf90f7df9c Email: leonard.wilson2009@hotmail.com

ACCLAIM UNLEASHES THE POWER OF THE NINTENDO 64 WITH 'TUROK: DINOSAUR HUNTER'; Acclaim's Debut 64-Bit Title Thrusts Gamers Into Incredible 3-D World of Dinosaur Hunting

2011-08-22T22:25:00.001-04:00

Humanoid Female , originally uploaded by Tinker0101.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 1996--Gamers will be taken back to the beginning of time and ahead to the future of interactive entertainment when Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKLM) releases Turok: Dinosaur Hunter(TM), its first title for Nintendo's forthcoming Nintendo 64(R) system. The release date of the game will coincide with the launch of Nintendo's new 64-bit system on September 30th. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter features incredible 3-D graphics; 100% computer rendered, polygonal characters; Acclaim's proprietary motion capture technology; and first-person perspectives that will provide action and adventure of tyrannosaurus proportions.

"Turok is one of the most popular characters from Acclaim Comics with an extensive history and compelling storyline that translates perfectly into a first-person, action-adventure title," says Sam Goldberg, vice president of marketing. "The advanced capabilities of the Nintendo 64, coupled with Acclaim's motion capture technology, will make gamers feel like they're actually going where no man has gone before."

Turok Hits The `Campaign' Trail

Assuming the role of Turok, gamers set out to stop The Campaigner and his army of "Bionosaurs" -- bionic dinosaurs -- from controlling time with a device called the Chronosceptor and taking over the Lost Land. Only Turok knows that the device is flawed and it will destroy the entire universe if activated. In keeping with the title's comic book origins, game play is spread out over nine levels that are organized into three chapters -- The Plot Revealed, The Ancient Ruins and The Lost Land.

Developed by Iguana Entertainment, the Austin, Texas-based programming studio of Acclaim, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter offers an array of exciting features, including:

- 100% computer-rendered polygonal characters, including Dinosaurs, Bionosaurs, Robot Droids and many other characters from the Turok comic book universe;

- Fast and furious action from a first-person perspective, including running, climbing, swimming and fighting;

- Incredible 3-D graphics, which allows gamers to explore their 360 degree environment;

- 100% interactive backgrounds;

- Arsenal of weapons, including the low-tech bow and arrow, to futuristic tek bow, riot shotgun and grenade launcher, all of which inflict enemy damage accordingly;

- Various equipment and maps to aid players throughout the game;

- Warp generators Advanced game design, allowing gamers to experience non-linear action which monitors their progress and provides opportunities to increase health or weapons at critical times;

- Many hidden power-ups and secret areas.

Acclaim Comic's Turok: Dinosaur Hunter issue No. 1 sold over 1.8 million copies, which places it among the top ten best-selling comic book titles of all time. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is based on Gold Key Comics' Turok: Son of Stone which debuted in the market in the 1950s. In December 1996, Acclaim will re-launch the Turok comic book series with an entirely new storyline, enemies and characters. The new series will also include Turok video game tips and hints.

Acclaim's Turok: Dinosaur Hunter will be backed by an aggressive, integrated marketing program that includes broad-based print advertising in dedicated video game, personal computer, youth and comic book publications; direct mail; in-store retailer support; and on-line promotions on Acclaim's Worldwide Web site (http://www.acclaimnation.com). In addition, Acclaim is currently developing Nintendo cross-promotions and consumer sweepstakes to further promote the title.

Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. is a leading worldwide publisher of software for Nintendo, Sega, Sony, personal computer and CD-ROM hardware systems; and comic books under the Valiant and Armada imprints. Acclaim also develops coin-operated arcade and ticket redemption games, and operates blue screen and motion capture studios, as well as A.D.I., a global sales and distribution company for products from a variety of entertainment software publishers, including Domark, Interplay, Marvel, Pulse Entertainment, Sunsoft and Take 2. Acclaim, which also entered into a joint venture with Tele-Communications, Inc. for electronically distributed interactive entertainment, is publicly traded on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol AKLM.

Source Citation
"ACCLAIM UNLEASHES THE POWER OF THE NINTENDO 64 WITH 'TUROK: DINOSAUR HUNTER'; Acclaim's Debut 64-Bit Title Thrusts Gamers Into Incredible 3-D World of Dinosaur Hunting." Business Wire 17 May 1996: 5171010. Gale Power Search. Web. 22 Aug. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA18293554&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A18293554

(Web-Page) http://dinosaur.hunter2008.googlepages.com (Album / Profile) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10031&id=1661531726&l=cf90f7df9c Email: leonard.wilson2009@hotmail.com

Ancient Painting

2011-08-10T12:33:00.002-04:00

Ancient Painting, originally uploaded by mccoryjames.

The 2011 PhotoEspana festival focuses on portraiture, and how it exposes the photographer and viewer as well as the sitter

Portraiture is one of our most ancient and enduring art forms. The earliest surviving portraits stretch back to ancient Egypt, and the fascination with documenting our own image has been a feature of art and photography ever since. Today it is easier than ever to record ourselves, and share the resulting imagery with others. As with portraiture throughout history, these depictions may not present the whole truth: Facebook and other social media sites are littered with photographs designed to articulate a certain projection of ourselves, one that is largely sunny, with little room for darkness or even shades of grey.

It is this complexity at the heart of portraiture that makes it so fascinating, and thus a rich subject matter for a photography festival. As Gerardo Mosquera, the main curator of this year's PhotoEspana event in Madrid explains, the face is "a place of exchange". A portrait communicates messages about the sitter, but also reveals much about the attitudes of the artist or photographer, and in turn of the viewer. The exhibitions at the centre of PhotoEspana aim to explore this triangular relationship.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous form of portraiture in the modern age is the documentation of celebrities. Images of the famous (and infamous) litter our media, provoking fascination and revulsion in equal measure. For many, the paparazzi, the source of most of these pics, represent the lowest form of photographer, obsessed with money rather than art. And yet, as the two exhibitions at PhotoEspana by 'paparazzo extraordinaire' Ron Galella demonstrate, their images are difficult to resist.

Galella's most celebrated pictures are from the 70s and 80s, a golden age of celebrity, prior to the obsessive control of PR consultants and the face-melting effects of plastic surgery on stars. And Galella shot them all: Brando, Streisand, Presley, Onassis, Redford, Burton and Taylor. He captured them looking happy, and he paved the way for today's paparazzi by also snatching images of them drunk, scared and angry. His photographs are captivating as historical documents, not least due to our knowledge of how the lives of those snapped were to unfold, so often tragically. Their presence in a gallery environment inevitably provokes debate, and is likely to unsettle traditionalists. Yet, Galella's work reveals much about our uneasy relationship with fame; we happily study the famous as if they were family and friends, but equally we despise them, and revel in their transgressions.

A different world

The Circulo de Bellas Artes is displaying its expansive Galella show on its top floor, but offers a counterpoint to its glossiness in the basement. Here can be found a series of work by Columbian photographer Fernell Franco, which documents the lives of a number of prostitutes in the city of Cali. The images are also shot at roughly the same time as Galella's, the early 70s, but capture an entirely different world. Unbearably young girls are posed provocatively on dingy mattresses, gazing out at the viewer, while less contrived shots show the girls bathing and laughing, seemingly oblivious to the photographer's presence. The contrast is unsettling, giving the impression of Franco both as impartial observer but also pimp.

PhotoEspana has established a reputation for excellent shows of archival work, and this year historical photography dominates the festival. Alongside Galella and Franco are shows of work by Jacques Henri Lartigue and Ecuadorian photographer Carlos Endara, whose series of early 20th century studio portraits of the residents of Panama, both rich and poor, are fascinating. Fundacion Telefonica is hosting an exhibition that brings together Cindy Sherman's compelling Bus Riders series with portraits by Thomas Ruff, and the photographs of Mexican photographer Frank Montero. Though he was born in the mid-19th century, Montero's series reflects ideas of identity inherent within Sherman's work as he stages dramatised images of himself acting out various (presumably fake) occupations and situations.

The proletarian eye

If you were to see only one historical show from PhotoEspana this year though, it should be Museo Reina Sofia's enormous survey of the Worker- Photography Movement from 1926-39. The exhibition traces the long development of the movement, from the early, amateur shots of everyday working life that were solicited by German communist magazine AIZ (Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung) to images of the Popular Front and later the Spanish Civil War by photographic luminaries such as Robert Capa, Chim and Gerda Taro. The grinding poverty captured in many of the images is interspersed with choreographed propaganda shots of triumphant workers, smiling as they toil, illustrating the two primary discourses of proletarian documentary photography of the time. With over 1,000 images, many also shown within the original publications they first appeared in, it is difficult to imagine a more detailed and concise exploration of this important period of photography.

Contemporary art is represented at this year's festival by several group exhibitions that showcase a wide variety of artists from all over the world. The principal of these is Face Contact, curated by Gerardo Mosquera and showing at Teatro Fernan Gomez Centro de Arte. It is ambitious in scale, with 31 artists shown. The works are linked by the theme of the contemporary portrait, and there are many interesting pieces here - especially a series of coming-of-age photographs of Cuban teenage girls - but with little textual guidance and a huge variation of styles, the show is ultimately perplexing.

This is the first of a three-year curatorial stint at PhotoEspana by Mosquera, and he arrives at the festival with Spain in the midst of a recession, complete with enormous cuts to the arts. In this difficult situation, he has done well to choose a theme that will no doubt prove popular amongst gallery-goers and sponsors alike. The festival is slimmer this year, though contains much to entertain and excite newcomers to the world of photography, plus enough rare and thought- provoking treats to please those well-versed in the medium.

Source Citation
"REVIEW: The many faces of portraiture." Creative Review 18 July 2011: 62. Gale Power Search. Web. 10 Aug. 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA261556348&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A261556348

(Web-Page) http://dinosaur.hunter2008.googlepages.com (Album / Profile) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10031&id=1661531726&l=cf90f7df9c Email: leonard.wilson2009@hotmail.com

Earth work: careers in the natural sciences. (Grab Bag)

2011-07-28T13:11:00.002-04:00

Earth, originally uploaded by tonynetone.

Do you know how natural scientists responded to recent natural disasters, from rockslides in Yosemite National Park to volcanoes in the Philippines? An article describing what those scientists did is part of a newsletter, "Scientists in Action!," from the U.S. Geological Survey. Additional articles depict the work of biologists, geologists, cartographers, and other scientists--exploring the ocean floor, preparing dinosaur bones for display, and solving the mystery of three-legged frogs, for example.

The newsletter, with 15 oversized, full-color pages, gives readers a glimpse of natural sciences careers, especially those with the Federal Government. For a free copy of "Scientists in Action!," call 1 (888) 275-8747 or write USGS Information Services, PO Box 25286, Denver, CO 80225.

Source Citation
"Earth work: careers in the natural sciences. (Grab Bag)." Occupational Outlook Quarterly Spring 2002: 49. Gale Power Search. Web. 28 July 2011.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA84970296&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A84970296

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Human-like body temps for dinos: dental analysis reveals how warm sauropod blood was

2011-07-27T18:38:00.001-04:00

Dinosaur teeth, originally uploaded by doug88888.

Scientists have done the paleontological equivalent of jamming a thermometer up a giant reptile's rear end. Reporting online June 23 in Science, researchers say the huge, four-legged dinosaurs known as sauropods would have registered a body temperature similar to that of any modern Homo sapiens.

The work provides perhaps the best glimpse yet at dinosaurs' internal temperature, a key factor in understanding their metabolism. The findings measure some 4 to 7 degrees Celsius cooler than one theory of dinosaur growth has suggested.

Once thought to be cold-blooded and sluggish, dinosaurs got a reputation makeover in the 1960s and 1970s as active, possibly warm-blooded creatures. But scientists still don't agree on exactly how dinosaurs exchanged heat with their surroundings and how warm or cold they might have been inside.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

To tackle this question, a research team led by Rob Eagle of Caltech decided to look at sauropods, the biggest land animals that ever lived. Eagle's adviser, John Eiler, had invented a way to tease out body temperature by studying the number of chemical bonds formed between rare versions of carbon and oxygen in growing teeth and bone. More of those bonds form at lower temperatures, so fossilized teeth can reveal how warm it was inside the living animal.

Eagle's team analyzed teeth of several sauropod species excavated in Tanzania, Oklahoma and Wyoming. The creatures' internal temperatures clocked in between 36[degrees] and 38[degrees] Celsius. That's warmer than cold-blooded creatures like crocodiles, cooler than birds, and just about the range of modern mammals.

Other scientists have suggested that sauropod body temperature could have reached 40[degrees] or even higher, simply because of the sheer amount of the dinosaurs' flesh. The new work fits with other recent evidence suggesting that sauropods and modern mammals were about the same temperature, says Luis Chiappe, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Witze, Alexandra

Source Citation
Witze, Alexandra. "Human-like body temps for dinos: dental analysis reveals how warm sauropod blood was." Science News 16 July 2011: 10. Gale Power Search. Web. 27 July 2011.
Document URL
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A viking mystery: beneath Oxford University archaeologists have uncovered a medieval atrocity that colored the course of English history.

2011-02-22T13:45:00.001-05:00

Neolithic stamps, originally uploaded by diffendale.

BEFORE CONSTRUCTION COULD begin on new student housing at one of Oxford University's 38 colleges, St. John's, archaeologists were summoned to investigate the site in January 2008. After just a few hours of digging, one archaeologist discovered the remains of a 4,000-year-old religious complex--an earthwork enclosure, or henge, built by late Neolithic tribesmen, probably for a sun-worshiping cult. About 400 feet in diameter, the temple was one of the largest of Britain's prehistoric henges, of which more than 100 have been found.

Later, the archaeologists found pits hall of broken pottery and food debris suggesting that people had used the henge as a medieval garbage dump millennia after it had been dug. Excited, they began searching for items that might reveal details of daily life in the Middle Ages. Instead they found bones. Human bones.

"At first we thought it was just the remains of one individual," says Sean Wallis of Thames Valley Archaeological Services, the company that did the excavating. "Then, to our surprise, we realized that corpses had been dumped one on top of another. Wherever we dug, there were more of them. Not only did we have a 4,000-year-old prehistoric temple, but now a mass grave as well."

After one month of digging at the grave site and two years of lab tests, the researchers concluded that between 34 and 38 individuals were buried in the grave, all of them victims of violence. Some 20 skeletons bore punctures in their vertebrae and pelvic bones, and 27 skulls were broken or cracked, indicating traumatic head injury. To judge from markings on the ribs, at least a dozen had been stabbed in the back. One individual had been decapitated; attempts were made on five others.

Radiocarbon analysis of the bones convinced the archaeologists that the remains date from A.D. 960 to 1020--the period in which the Anglo-Saxon monarchy peaked in power. Originally from Germany Anglo-Saxons had invaded England almost six centuries earlier, after the Roman Empire had fallen into disarray. They established their own kingdoms and converted to Christianity. After decades of conflict, England enjoyed a degree of stability in the tenth century under the rule of King Edgar the Peaceful.

But "peaceful" is a relative term. Public executions were common. British archaeologists have discovered some 20 "execution cemeteries" across the country--testifying to a harsh penal code that claimed the lives of up to 3 percent of the male population. One such site in East Yorkshire contains the remains of six decapitated individuals.

The Oxford grave, however, didn't fit the profile of an execution cemetery, which typically contains remains of people put to death over many centuries--not all at once, as at Oxford. And execution victims tended to be various ages and body types. By contrast, the bodies buried at Oxford were those of vigorous males of fighting age, most between 16 and 35 years old. Most were unusually large; an examination of the muscle-attachment areas of their bones revealed extremely robust physiques. Some victims had suffered serious burns to their heads, backs, pelvic regions and arms.

The most telling clue would emerge from a lab analysis, in which scientists measured atomic variations within the skeletal bone collagen. The tests indicated that the men ate, on average, more fish and shellfish than did Anglo-Saxons.

The mounting evidence increasingly pointed to an astonishing conclusion: this was a mass grave of Viking warriors.

IN THE LATE EIGHTH CENTURY A.D., the Vikings--a Scandinavian people from Denmark, Norway and Sweden--began a 300-year campaign of pillaging and piracy throughout Europe. Some scholars say that political changes (especially the emergence of fewer yet more powerful rulers) forced local Viking chieftains to seek new sources of revenue through foreign conquests. Others point to advances in shipbuilding that enabled longer voyages--allowing the Vikings to establish trade networks extending as far as the Mediterranean. But when an economic recession hit Europe in the ninth century, Scandinavian seamen increasingly turned from trading to pillaging.

Most historians believe that England suffered more from the Vikings than other European countries. In the first recorded attack, in A.D. 793, Vikings raided an undefended monastic community at Lindisfarne in the northeast. Alcuin of York, an Anglo-Saxon scholar, recorded the onslaught: "We and our fathers have now lived in this fair land for nearly three hundred and fifty years, and never before has such a terror been seen in Britain as we have now suffered at the hands of a pagan people. Such a voyage was not thought possible. The church of St. Cuthbert is spattered with the blood of the priests of God."

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a contemporary historical account, records that the Vikings waged some 50 battles and destroyed or ravaged scores of settlements. Dublin, one of the largest Viking cities in the British Isles, became a major European slave-trading center, where, historians estimate, tens of thousands of kidnapped Irishmen, Scotsmen, Anglo-Saxons and others were bought and sold.

"In many respects the Vikings were the medieval equivalent of organized crime," says Simon Keynes, a professor of Anglo-Saxon history at Cambridge University "They engaged in extortion on a massive scale, using the threat of violence to extract vast quantities of silver from England and some other vulnerable western European states."

"Certainly the Vikings did all these things, but so did everyone else," says Dagfinn Skre, a professor of archaeology at the University of Oslo. 'Although admittedly, the Vikings did it on a grander scale."

Martin Carver, an emeritus professor of archaeology at the University of York, characterizes the antagonism between the Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavians as part of a wider clash of ideologies. Between the sixth and ninth centuries, Vikings in Scandinavia preferred to be organized "in loose confederations, favoring enterprise," says Carver. But other parts of Europe, such as Britain, yearned for a more orderly centralized government--and looked to the Roman Empire as a model.

Only one Anglo-Saxon kingdom--Wessex, ruled by Alfred the Great--is known to have withstood the Viking invasion. Alfred and his son, Edward, built up an army and navy and constructed a network of fortifications; then Edward and his successors wrested back control of those areas the Vikings had taken over, thus paving the way for English unification.

After decades of peace, Vikings again raided England, in A.D. 980. At the time, the Anglo-Saxon ruler was King Aethelred the Unraed (literally "the ill-advised"). As his name suggests, popular history has portrayed him as a mediocre successor to Alfred the Great and Edgar the Peaceful. The 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury wrote that Aethelred "occupied rather than governed" the kingdom. "The career of his life was said to have been cruel in the beginning, wretched in the middle and disgraceful in the end."

To avert war, Aethelred paid the Vikings some 26,000 pounds in silver between A.D. 991 and 994. In the years that followed, the king employed many of them as mercenaries to discourage other Vikings from attacking England.

But, in A.D. 997, some of the mercenaries turned on their royal employer and attacked the Anglo-Saxon southern counties. In early A.D. 1002, Aethelred again tried to buy off the Vikings--this time with 24,000 pounds in silver.

The geopolitical situation changed in England's favor only when Aethelred made an alliance with Normandy and sealed the deal by marrying the Duke of Normandy's sister in A.D. 1002. Possibly emboldened by the support of a powerful ally Aethelred decided to take pre-emptive action before the Danes again broke the truce.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Aethelred was "informed" that Danish mercenaries intended to "beguile him out of his life." (It is unknown whether an informer learned of an actual plot, or if Aethelred and his council fabricated the threat.) Aethelred then set in motion one of the most heinous acts of mass murder in English history, committed on St. Brice's Day, November 13,1002. As he himself recounted in a charter written two years later, "a decree was sent out by me, with the counsel of my leading men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle [weeds] amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination."

PRIOR TO 2008, the only known inhabitants of the St. John's College garden had been the songbirds and squirrels that darted across the neatly cropped lawn and hid in an ancient beech tree. Generations of dons and students had strolled across that greenery, unsuspecting of what lay beneath.

The lab data indicating that the men buried there for 1,000 years had eaten lots of seafood, plus the burn markings and other evidence, convinced the archaeologists that the grave probably held victims of the St. Brice's Day massacre. Aethelred himself recounted exactly how the residents of Oxford killed the Danes in a local church: "Striving to escape death, [the Danes] entered [a] sanctuary of Christ, having broken by force the doors and bolts, and resolved to make a refuge and defence for themselves therein against the people of the town and the suburbs; but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced by necessity, to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to the [building's] timbers and burnt [it] down."

Wallis, the archaeologist in charge at Oxford, surmises that the townspeople loaded the corpses onto a cart and drove out through the north gate of the city, past land that today encompasses the Oxford colleges of Balliol and most of St. John's, then threw the Vikings into the prehistoric henge--the largest ditch nearest the city's northern exit.

A year after this discovery another team of investigators, from the company Oxford Archaeology, were looking for evidence of prehistoric activity at a site 90 miles to the southwest in the English county of Dorset, near Weymouth, when they discovered a second mass grave. This one held the skeletons of 54 well-built, fighting-age males, all of whom had been decapitated with sharp weapons, most likely swords. Lab tests of the teeth suggested the men were Scandinavians. The ratio between various types of oxygen atoms in the skeletons' tooth enamel indicates the victims came from a cold region (one man from inside the Arctic Circle). Radiocarbon dating placed the victims' deaths between AD. 910 and 1030; historical records of Viking activities in England narrow that to between A-D. 980 and 1009. The corpses had been unceremoniously dumped in a chalk and flint quarry that had been dug hundreds of years earlier, possibly during Roman times. Although no historical account of the massacre exists, the archaeologists believe the Vikings were apprehended and brought to the site to be executed.

The discovery of the two mass graves may resolve a question that has long vexed historians. In the centuries following the St. Brice's Day massacre, many chroniclers believed that the Danish community in England (a substantial percentage of the population) was targeted for mass murder, akin to a pogrom. Certainly there was undisguised hatred for the Scandinavians, who were described by contemporary writers as "a most vile people," "a filthy pestilence" and "the hated ones." But more recently the massacre has been seen more as a police action against only those who posed a military threat to the government. The discovery of the two mass graves supports this view, since victims were found where the rebellious mercenaries would have been stationed: close to royal administrative centers (usually towns or important royal estates) on or near England's south coast and in the Thames Valley By contrast, no such graves have been found in the region of eastern England once known as the Danelaw, which was populated by descendants of Scandinavian settlers. "I would estimate that out of a total population of around two million in England, perhaps half were of Scandinavian or partly Scandinavian origin--most of whom were loyal subjects," says Ian Howard, a historian writing a biography of Aethelred. "I think it inherently unlikely that the king ever intended to kill them all, as it would obviously have been impossible to do so."

Far from being just a ghoulish footnote to medieval history, Aethelred's massacre of the Danes likely reinforced Danish determination to attack England and set in motion a chain of events that would change the course of England's future. In A.D. 1003, the year after the massacres, King Svein of Denmark launched his own assault against a much wider swath of Anglo-Saxon England. This renewed aggression continued off and on for more than a decade, inspiring a level of terror the Anglo-Saxons had not faced since the first Viking invasions a century and a half earlier. An Anglo-Danish text, the Encomium Emmae Reginae, written around A.D. 1041 or 1042, described the Danish war fleet of 1016: "What adversary could gaze upon the lions, terrible in the glitter of their gold ... all these on the ships, and not feel dread and fear in the face of a king with so great a fighting force?"

Both circumstantial and historical evidence suggests that revenge was at least part of the motivation for Svein's invasions. There were almost certainly blood ties between Aethelred's victims and Danish nobility. According to medieval chronicler William of Malmesbury, Svein's sister (or, possibly, half sister) Gunnhild was a victim of the St. Brice's Day massacre (although her body has never been found). Neither her gender nor her royal blood saved her, probably because she was the wife of Pallig, one of the turncoat mercenaries. Wrote William of Malmesbury: "[She was] beheaded with the other Danes, though she declared plainly that the shedding of her blood would cost all England dear."

Gunnhild's words proved prophetic. The Danes ultimately conquered England, in A.D. 1016, and Canute, the son of Svein, was crowned the nation's king in London's St. Paul's Cathedral in January 1017. Twenty-five years later, the Anglo-Saxons would regain the crown, but only for a generation. The Scandinavians, who had refused to renounce the throne, embarked on yet another onslaught against England in September 1066--less than a fortnight before William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy launched his own invasion of the country

Although the English pushed back the Scandinavian invaders, the effort so weakened the Anglo-Saxons that they were defeated by William at the Battle of Hastings, also in 1066. The Norman Conquest consolidated the unification of England, as the new rulers introduced a more centralized, hierarchal government. The Anglo-Saxons would rise again, their culture and language merging with that of their oppressors to produce a new nation--the predecessor of modern England, and eventually an empire that would span half the globe.

DAVID KEYS is The Independent's archaeology correspondent.

Source Citation
Keys, David. "A viking mystery: beneath Oxford University archaeologists have uncovered a medieval atrocity that colored the course of English history." Smithsonian Oct. 2010: 64+. General OneFile. Web. 22 Feb. 2011.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A243456953&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=18551_mcpls&version=1.0

Gale Document Number:A243456953

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Farm Bureau suit heats Chesapeake Bay battle.(Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2010.).

2011-02-14T15:44:00.001-05:00

Clean water in the countryside, originally uploaded by DFID - UK Department for International Development.

Sabers rattled once more over the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort as the American Farm Bureau Federation filed suit on Jan. 10, challenging the TMDL or total maximum daily load component of the ChesapeakeA Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2010.

The latest of a number of complaints was filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and one of its members, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, in a federal court in Harrisburg, Pa.

Currently, the federal EPA has the authority under the Clean Water Act to implement maximum daily levels for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. Farmers in Virginia and other affected states contend the data used to establish TDML (total daily maximum loads) is seriously flawed.

Among other criteria, farmers and farmer advocate groups disagree with EPAas contention that 15 percent of farmland bordering streams that feed into the Chesapeake Bay are under conservation-tillage. Virginia farmers contend over 90 percent of the acreage in question is in conservation-tillage, much of it in long-term no-till.

Farm bureaus in each of the six states impacted by Chesapeake Bay cleanup have challenged various components of the federal act, claiming the federal governmentas speed-up of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup will force some farmers out of business.

Mandatory fencing of all streams that feed into any stream that eventually ends up in the Chesapeake Bay is another sticking point for farmers. The high cost of fencing a the Virginia Farm Bureau says $30,000-$40,000 a agriculture support organizations claim would put dozens of family-owned dairy, swine and cattle operations out of business.

Were costs exaggerated?

In response to recent publication of the fencing issue, Libby Norris, Virginia Watershed Restoration Scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundationas Richmond, Va. office says, "The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is concerned that recent statements made by the Virginia Farm Bureau and quoted by Southeast Farm Press exaggerate the cost to the average farmer for helping clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

The Farm Bureauas cost estimates (1) fail to recognize the financial benefits that stream fencing offers livestock producers; (2) appears to reflect the most costly scenarios, i.e., farmers who to date have taken few steps to reduce farm runoff; and (3) neglect the significant funding assistance provided by popular state and federal cost-share programs that defray most of the out-of-pocket expenses for constructing farm conservation practices."

Ms. Norris says the following agencies and contact personnel could provide cost sharing funds to help farmers comply with the fencing component of the proposed legislation:

aC/ Jack Bricker, Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), 1606 Santa Rosa Road, Suite 209, Richmond, Va. 23229.

aC/ David Johnson, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, 203 Governor Street, Suite 206, Richmond, VaA 23219.

aC/ Low interest loan program: David Paylor, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, 629 East Main Street, Richmond, Va. 23218.

The Jan. 10, American Farm Bureau Federation suit challenges three components of the proposed TDML rule:

aC/ AFBF believes that the rule unlawfully "micromanages" state actions and the activities of farmers, homeowners and businesses within the six-state Chesapeake Bay watershed. EPA's plan imposes specific pollutant allocations on activities such as farming and home-building, sometimes down to the level of individual farms. The Clean Water Act, the AFBF action contends, requires a process that allows states to decide how to improve water quality and take into account the economic and social impacts on businesses and communities in the states.

aC/ To establish the TMDL, EPA relied on inaccurate assumptions and on a scientific model that EPA itself admits was flawed, AFBF noted. AFBF claims that the TMDL violates the Administrative Procedures Act's prohibition of "arbitrary and capricious" agency action.A

aC/ AFBF asserts that EPA violated the requirement that agencies allow meaningful public participation on new rules. The suit alleges that EPA failed to provide the public with critical information about the basis for the TMDL and allowed insufficient time (45 days) for the public to comment on the incomplete, but highly technical, information that EPA did provide.

"We all want a clean and healthy Chesapeake Bay," says AFBF President Bob Stallman. "This lawsuit is about how we get there. Farm Bureau believes EPA's 'diet' for the Chesapeake is dangerous and unlawful.

"Our laws require agencies to show the public what their actions are based on, so the public can tell the agencies if they are getting it wrong. In this instance, EPA failed to provide critical information," Stallman adds.

EPA finalized the TMDL on Dec. 29, 2010 despite documented discrepancies in the data it used to establish the TMDL, AFBF said. The six states in the Chesapeake watershed (Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia) must now follow very detailed watershed plans, or else EPA could block necessary permits and cut federal funding to the states.

"Farmers and ranchers already are taking real, on-the-ground actions every day to improve water quality, actions that have been shown by USDA reports to reduce soil erosion and provide other environmental benefits," Stallman says. "Those actions will continue, regardless of what happens with this lawsuit."

At stake are billions of dollars in the Chesapeake Bay border states. Cost estimates for the 15 year program run the gamut, depending on which economist makes the claim. Virginia officials claim their cost could exceed $7 billion, while Pennsylvania contends their state tab could top $2 billion.

These staggering costs are miniscule compared to the cost nationwide, if the Chesapeake Bay cleanup becomes a model for watersheds across the U.S.

rroberson@farmpress.com

Source Citation
Roberson, Roy. "Farm Bureau suit heats Chesapeake Bay battle." Southeast Farm Press [Online Exclusive] (2011). General OneFile. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A246928023&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=22054_acld&version=1.0

Gale Document Number:A246928023

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Dusty Old Bones.(Company overview).

2011-02-12T12:24:00.001-05:00

Dinosaur, originally uploaded by InfoMofo.

Clearing the air in a dinosaur excavation laboratory

Nate Murphy is dedicated to his passion and profession of paleontology but he didn't want to literally 'live and breathe' his dinosaurs. So he went digging for a solution and found a better way to prevent himself and his crew from inhaling particles of ancient dinosaur dust generated during the excavation process.

Murphy is the founding director of the Judith River Dinosaur Institute (JRDI) (http://designnews.hotims.com/22268-553 ) and curator of paleontology at the Phillips County Museum - both located in Malta, MT. Founded in 1992, JRDI collects dinosaur specimens for display at the museum and also raises funds for the museum's Paleontology Department by offering field programs where ordinary citizens can participate in dinosaur digs. In fact, teams of JRDI volunteers - which include people from every walk of life - have found some of the best dinosaur specimens in North America.

Introducing Leonardo

One of the most exciting projects currently underway at JRDI centers around the remains of a bracylophosaurus dubbed Leonardo. According to the 'Guinness Book of Records,' the world's 'best preserved dinosaur remains' are none other than Leonardo's. His bones were discovered by a JRDI team in July 2000 and Leonardo has been a beloved subject of scrutiny in the scientific community ever since. Since that time, JRDI teams have uncovered many awe-inspiring pieces of Leonardo, including an imprint of the scales that once covered his body and remains of food in his stomach.

For anyone who has observed paleontologists in action, it's easy to see why effective dust collection is so important. During the excavation process at JRDI, for example, large chunks of Leonardo's bones and fossilized soft tissue are brought into the lab. Paleontologists carefully brush and even chip away at the dirt and cement-like pieces of earth that cling to the rare specimen. This creates fine particles of dust that are lightweight enough to stay suspended in the ambient air.

Field Dust vs. Lab Dust

Of course, professionals like Murphy are no strangers to dirt and dust. He has spent the past 30 years leading or participating in dinosaur digs in the U.S., Canada, South America and Mexico. He has also been a consultant for the U.S. government, public museums and documentary film groups such as PBS, BBC, The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel. Hunting for dinosaurs is a dry and dirty job - but the dust found at the dig sites is quite different than the tiny particles released into the air during the tedious process of chipping away at specimens in the lab.

Murphy affirms, 'The dirt around Leonardo chips into very small particles ... really very fine.' But without effective dust collection and filtration technology, these tiny particles are an unwelcome (and unhealthy) part of the discovery process.

Let's Clear the Air

After Leonardo was brought into the lab, Murphy noticed that their shaker-type dust collector could not adequately keep up with the volume of dust created in the JRDI lab. It was a small unit that collected dust from the ambient air in the entire room. To find a solution, he turned to Donaldson Co. Inc., a global leader in filtration solutions.

After considering all of the factors in JRDI's uniquely challenging application, Donaldson recommended its highest-performance dust collector: a Donaldson Torit[R] Downflo[R] Oval (DFO) with Ultra-Web[R] nanofiber filters. The collector was configured with three hooded extraction arms, which each paleontologist positions above his work area to capture dust directly at the source. The DFO is on casters so the crew can easily move it from one lab area to another, wherever it's needed.

According to Donaldson Torit[R] Product & Engineering Director Paul Kojetin, the Ultra-Web[R] filter media is engineered and manufactured with patented processes that have evolved over the last 25 years into the optimum filter media. He comments, 'Ultra-Web[R] nanofiber media efficiently captures the very small particles (sub-micron), as well as the larger particles. It arrests particles as small as 0.3 micron, primarily on the surface of the media, so the filter substrate does not become prematurely plugged. That means the breathing air in Murphy's lab is cleaned more thoroughly. And, Ultra-Web[R] filters are designed to have twice the filter life of other standard filter cartridges.'

The dust collector JRDI had was a shaker style. When the gauge indicated the filters were full, Murphy could manually press a button to trigger a shaking of the bags that would knock some of the dust off the filters. One of the features Murphy says he likes about the new DFO is that it cleans itself. He simply sets the control for four inch w.g. (differential pressure or IP) and a valve blasts clean air back through the cartridge-style filters to blow dust off. Because the filters are made with Ultra-Web[R], much of the captured dust stays on the surface of the filter and can be more easily cleaned off. This helps the filters last three times longer than Murphy was used to.

Murphy says he is extremely happy with the cleanliness of the air in the JRDI lab. Much of the improvement is due to the hooded extraction arm on the dust collector. 'We used to wear coveralls when working on Leonardo. Now, with the Ex-Arm™ hood right at the point where dust is created, we no longer need to cover ourselves,' Murphy says. 'The dust is sucked up into the hood immediately.'

Murphy and his team at the institute are also seeing some of the benefits and advanced capabilities of this next-generation filter media. 'The Ultra-Web[R] filters, with their fine web of nanofibers over a thicker substrate, are designed to capture the tiny, tiny particles, yet allow strong airflow. They really work!' Murphy adds, 'We no longer have layers of dust over everything in the lab. No bones about it - our lab is the cleanest it's been in years!'

Exploration Station

In May 2003, JRDI opened a Dinosaur Field Station (http://designnews.hotims.com/22268-554 ), complete with a state-of-the-art fossil preparation laboratory. Visitors to the Dinosaur Field Station can enjoy guided tours and view the latest discoveries including Leonardo, Roberta and the new Jurassic dinosaurs, Giffen and Ralph. They can also learn about fossil preparation techniques and what's new in the world of dinosaur science.

The Phillips County Museum (http://designnews.hotims.com/22268-555 ), not far from the JRDI Dinosaur Field Station in Malta, is the 'official repository' for the artifacts JRDI teams have uncovered over the years. In addition to dinosaur displays, visitors to the museum can also see exhibits about the Native Americans, pioneers and homesteaders who once made their homes along Montana's rugged landscape.

To learn more about the Judith River Dinosaur Institute and the Phillips County Museum or to apply for a spot in a JRDI exploration program such as the 2009 dinosaur dig in the Montana Badlands, visit www.montanadinosaurdigs.com

.

Source Citation
"Dusty Old Bones." Design News 63.17 (2008): FP5. General OneFile. Web. 12 Feb. 2011.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A189071019&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=18551_mcpls&version=1.0

Gale Document Number:A189071019

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Horns of plenty: when it comes to reconstructing spiny dinosaurs, too many bones can be as confusing as too few.(includes related articles on the ceratopsids horned dinosaurs).

2011-02-01T19:42:00.001-05:00

Dinosaur Bones, originally uploaded by Arco Iris De Dios.

You can never know too much about a dinosaur. Consider the ceratopsids, large-headed, barrel-chested plant eaters that roamed the lowlands of North America near the end of the dinosaur era. Ceratopsids all had fairly standard-issue bodies, but their heads were decked with kaleidoscopic combinations of horns, hooks, studs, and spurs.

Most flamboyant of all were the centrosaurs, slightly older, rhino-sized ceratopsid cousins of the bigger, better-known horned dinosaur Triceratops. Why so many different kinds of headgear? Did they belong to animals of different ages? Different sexes? Different species? It's hard to tell.

The reason we know about all that variation is that ceratopsids lived and died in vast herds, leaving behind bone beds that give paleontologists like me a lot of information to work with. It would be wonderful if those beds were bulging with good fossils -- perfectly preserved records of animals of both sexes, all ages, and every single species. Instead we have to settle for second or third best. A paleontologist might find a complete, well-preserved skeleton of one animal -- but if that animal was a half-grown male, it might say little about adult females (just as the skeleton of a Texas Longhorn bull calf might give a misleading picture of a Jersey milk cow). Alternatively, a paleontologist might have to piece together a single skull from pieces of many poorly preserved ones. At best, the result would be a fairly good composite of a creature that never existed as an individual; at worst, it would be a mishmash of young and old, male and female.

Scientists who study dinosaurs can afford to be wishy-washy about the models we propose. The artist who make models of those dinosaurs, on the other hand, must choose. How big? What pose? Horns or no horns? In the centrosaur models that follow, part of a traveling exhibit called Ceratopsians: Life and Times of the Horned Dinosaurs, artists contracted by the Dinamation International Society worked with paleontologists to give the bones of these creatures a new lease on life. Pairing the models with the skulls on which they are based shows how much imagination goes into building dinosaurs from the bones up. But in many cases the bones themselves are reconstructions, too -- and works of just as much hard thought and imaginative daring as the models they inspired.

CENTROSAURUS

With its deep skull and hefty nasal horn, Centrosaurus is the classic centrosaur. It is also one of the best known, thanks to bone beds being excavated in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada, by paleontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Field teams have discovered thousands of bones packed in river sediments, along with teeth from crocodiles and meat-eating dinosaurs. Apparently a Centrosaurus herd drowned while crossing a river, and scavengers feasted.

The jumbled-up bones from such mass deaths show that Centrosaurus probably reached adulthood in three to four years, as fast as large mammals do today. Fossils of young centrosaurs lack most of the horns, spurs, and other skull decorations that fused to the frill in adults. Since those decorations are the easiest way to tell one kind of centrosaur from another, it's risky to try to identify centrosaur fossils from the remains of young animals alone.

MONOCLONIUS

Skull from the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa

Since its discovery, this contemporary of Centrosaurus has been a shadowy and controversial member of the centrosaur clan. Monoclonius was named on the basis of a few bones, skull fragments, and teeth found in Montana in 1876 by the prodigious dinosaur hunter Edward Drinker Cope. Since then several skull fragments have been discovered, but only one complete skull of the creature has turned up. It shows that Monoclonius resembled Centrosaurus but had a smooth frill (Centrosaurus frills have short barbs called epoccipitals curling forward over the frill at the back of the skull).

Many paleontologists, in fact, think Monoclonius and Centrosaurus wee the same animal. The so-called Monoclonius skull, they say, actually belonged to a young Centrosaurus whose frill decorations hadn't developed yet. But others hold that the disputed skull was unmistakably adult (it's big for one thing) and that the two dinosaurs were different animals.

AVACERATOPS

When it was first identified in 1986 by the paleontologist Peter Dodson, Avaceratops was the first new ceratopsid discovered in thirty-six years. Check out the brow horns. No other known centrosaur had them, but there is evidence that ceratopsid ancestors from Asia and North America did. One branch of the family, the centrosaurs, gradually lost them, while another branch -- the line leading to Triceratops and its closest relatives -- kept them and carried them to breathtaking extremes.

So far only two Avaceratops skulls have been found, one with a frill but no horns, the other with a frill and horns but no face. The skull shown in the photograph, and the model based on it, are composites based on those specimens. Paleontologists are hedging their bets. If better fossils turn up, this odd creature might prove the key to a peculiar byway in centrosaur evolution. Otherwise it could disappear from the textbooks.

BRACHYCERATOPS

This creature is another puzzler. For a long time Brachyceratops was known mainly from several partial skeletons identified in 1914. The skulls were plain and primitive looking -- but they also came from young animals. If their owners had grown up, would they have blossomed into something a little fancier -- maybe a young Einiosaurus or Achelosaurus (see page 30)? Or were they just quirky, old-fashioned, dowdy dinosaurs?

More-mature-looking fossils discovered since then may help to resolve the identity crisis. Meanwhile, paleontologists and model makers have an excellent idea of what a young Brachyceratops looked like. They just don't know what it really was.

STYRACOSAURUS

This outrageous-looking creature had the longest nasal horn of any known ceratopsid (the bony core alone is twenty inches long). It also sported six huge spikes sprouting from its frill, as well as a fearsome assortment of thornlike spurs on its cheeks, brows, frill, and forehead.

Little of this formidable-looking headgear would have been much use in combat. Most of its probably was just for show, like ceremonial armor -- handy for bluffing down opponents and impressing females. If the bluff failed, the huge nasal horn could also be employed for ritual combat or defense. There is no way to tell whether styracosaurs were as garish as the model suggests, but it's reasonable to suppose that they and other ceratopsids evolved bright pigments to highlight their fancy trim.

The nasal horn of Styracosaurus was the last of its kind. Curiously, centrosaurs that came after Styracosaurus -- Einiosaurus, Achelosaurus, and Pachyrhinosaurus -- became less and less spiny. The transition from horn-heavy to hornless is shown on the following two pages. It can be traced for ten million years in the fossil record, one of the clearest evolutionary sequences known for any dinosaur.

EINIOSAURUS AND ACHELOSAURUS

When these two creatures from Montana burst on the scene in 1995, paleontologists could hardly believe it. It's rare to see a clear-cut example of missing links. Yet there they were, looking for all the world like a tidy transition between the spiky Styracosaurus and the spineless Pachyrhinosaurus. Einiosaurus, found in rocks about seventy-two million years old, came equipped with a pair of frill spikes and a nasal horn. The seventy-million-year-old Achelosaurus also had two spikes, but instead of a horn, its nose sported a roughened patch of bone called a boss -- a smaller version of the one on Pachyrhinosaurus.

The name Achelosaurus comes from Achelos, a Greek river god who turned himself into bull and lost a horn in a fight with Hercules. In centrosaurs the evolutionary shape-shifting was probably due to changes in geography. Einiosaurus and Achelosaurus lived at a time when rising oceans reached right up to the mountains, drowning low coastal plains and splitting the ceratopsids that lived there into isolated herds. Separate populations no longer share their genes, so each group can evolve in a different way. In this case the change took two million years -- an instant in geologic time.

PACHYRHINOSAURUS

As its many well-preserved fossils show, Pachyrhinosaurus was a superlative beast. It was the biggest centrosaur, the last to die out, and the most far flung. A Pachyrhinosaurus skull has been discovered on the North Slope of Alaska -- 350 miles from the position, at the time the animal lived, of the geographic north pole.

Perhaps most unusual of all is what Pachyrhinosaurus lacked: a horn. Young pachyrhinosaurs had small, bladelike nasal horns, but those crumbled away as the animals grew up, leaving adults with a massive rough boss, or buttress of bone, covering the top of the skull. In living animals the boss probably was capped by a knob of keratin, the same protein that makes up hair and fingernails.

Some paleontologists, however, suspect the "knob" of keratin may have been a spike -- possibly a big one. Rhinoceros horns, they point out, are made of keratin anchored in bony bosses on the animals' skulls. No such horn has ever been identified from a centrosaur, but keratin from beaks and claws of other dinosaurs has been discovered, and fossil-hunters are keeping their eyes peeled.

The skull in the photograph belonged to one unlucky animal. The bone under the eye was eaten away by infection; even the lower rim of the eye socket is missing. The abscess may have started as a wound from a fight, probably with another member of the herd. But whatever caused it, the infection wasn't fatal. The skull was found in a bone bed; its owner survived long enough to perish along with the herd in one common catastrophe.

ROOTS OF A LINEAGE

In sheer numbers and variety, the horned dinosaurs called ceratopsids were a North American success story. But they probably didn't start out there. Most paleontologists think they arose in Asia, the home of smaller, more primitive frilled dinosaurs called protoceratopsids. A new fossil I have been studying gives the "immigrant makes good" story an unexpected twist.

The fossil, which has not yet been given an official name, was found near the border between Arizona and New Mexico by Doug Wolfe of the Mesa Southwest Museum in Mesa, Arizona, and his son Christopher. In life it probably looked something like a baby Triceratops, with horns jutting out above each eye. It came from rocks between ninety-one million and ninety-two million years old.

That makes it older than Turanoceratops, a creature from Uzbekistan that had been considered the ancestor of all North American ceratopsids. The Wolfes' find may be an even stronger candidates, because, while clearly related to Turanoceratops, it is even more primitive. The key is in its teeth. Later North American ceratopsids all had specialized double-rooted teeth, which locked together efficiently for chewing. Turanoceratops had some double-rooted teeth and some older-style, single-rooted ones, By contrast, all of the new fossil's teeth were single-rooted.

The new horned dinosaur doesn't overturn the idea that horned dinosaurs originated in Asia, but it does show that fairly advanced ones roamed North America earlier than anyone had thought. Perhaps brow horns originated in North America, and Turanoceratops, Asia's only known ceratopsid, represents a short-lived lineage of reverse immigrants. The fossil also shows that brow horns evolved before double-rooted teeth did, something paleontologists had wondered about.

Source Citation
Kirkland, James. "Horns of plenty: when it comes to reconstructing spiny dinosaurs, too many bones can be as confusing as too few." Earth Dec. 1997: 26+. General OneFile. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.
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Travis the Menace; He was the most famous ape in America. But to reallyunderstand a chimp, you have to know his mother.(Sandy Herlold).

2011-01-31T12:44:00.002-05:00

Chimp Chimpanzee Ape, originally uploaded by doug88888.

Throughout her life, Sandy Herold had long, straight hair so black it almost looked wet. She wore it down below her shoulders, her bangs cut straight across. She applied bright-pink lipstick and copious amounts of bronzer. She wore skintight size-7 jeans. She spoke with a strange accent, a New York-New England hybrid, and spent her entire life in Stamford, Connecticut.

She was born in 1938 to a Jewish mother and Italian father who operated a popular bakery downtown and eventually built an unassuming shingled house on a windy road called Rock Rimmon, to the north of the city. As an only child, Sandy spent much of her time playing with her German shepherd Gretchen and tending to the horses on the property. At birthdays, her parents outfitted her in silk dresses and cardigans and had her pose for photographs, smiling, near multitiered cakes, Gretchen standing at her side.

She married shortly after high school, then again in 1960. Her second marriage was romantic, intense, and desperate--she adored her new husband, with whom she had a daughter named Suzan, in 1961, but they fought violently over his frequent affairs and divorced after four years. At 30, Sandy married her third husband, Jerry Herold, who was kind, intelligent, and devoted. Her life stabilized; she, Jerry, and Sue, whom Jerry raised as his own, ultimately settled in the house on Rock Rimmon Road with Sandy's parents. Sandy and Jerry opened several businesses in Stamford, including a tow operation and an auto-body shop, that would soon make them unlikely millionaires.

For a time in the seventies, Sandy, Sue, and Jerry towed their horses from state to state so that Sandy (and later Sue) could barrel-race semi-professionally in rodeos. It was during a stint with the country singer Loretta Lynn's traveling rodeo that Sandy struck up a lifelong friendship with an 18-year-old runaway named Charla Nash, who was rodeoing her way around the country. One day, Sandy and Charla spotted a chimpanzee dressed in Westernwear who rode a horse around the ring. Sandy sought him out backstage. She was carrying gummy bears. He took them from her with his fingers. Later, back atop his horse and wearing a cowboy hat, the chimp spotted Sandy in the audience. He jumped down, ran on two legs, and leaped into her arms.

Between the expanding businesses, the horses in the yard, and their many dogs, the Herolds lived a happily frenetic life. Sue grew into a platinum-blonde version of her mother. The two raced side by side, country-line-danced, worked together at the businesses. Mother and daughter were engaged in one endless conversation. And so when Sue married an employee from her parents' shop and moved away, Sandy was bitter and heartbroken. Then each of her parents became sick and died. Her world narrowed further. Seemingly all of a sudden, she saw herself and Jerry drifting beyond the outer periphery of middle age.

Jerry was home tending to the businesses as Sandy landed at the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport one day in 1995. A few days earlier, she had received a call from Connie Casey, a breeder in Festus, Missouri, a rural town 35 miles south of St. Louis. "Sandy," she said, "your baby has arrived. It's a boy."

Sandy stood in the Caseys' living room. In her arms, swaddled and in a diaper, lay tiny Travis--named after her favorite singer, Travis Tritt. Travis was the son of Coco, who'd been snatched from the jungles of equatorial Africa in the early seventies and purchased for $12,000, and an 11-year-old retired zoo chimp named Suzy. A day earlier, the Caseys had shot a tranquilizer in Suzy and removed Travis from her cage. Travis peered up at Sandy. Black hair covered all but the interior of his face, which was pink, and the two tiny Dumbo ears that jutted from the top of his head. Sandy cried as his hands and feet grasped at her. She paid the Caseys $50,000 in cash, and a few days later, with Travis wrapped in baby blankets, the two of them boarded a flight home.

Back in Stamford, Sandy and Jerry played with Travis, who absorbed their smells and cues and began learning their language. Sandy bottle-fed him formula, burped him, put him down for naps in a crib in their bedroom. At 3 months, he turned over. Soon he was scooting, then walking on his arms and legs, his knuckles absorbing much of his weight. They taught him to use the toilet. They joined him in the bathtub. They brushed his teeth, and later taught him to brush his own teeth. Sandy bought him an extensive wardrobe and dressed him every morning.

The Herolds retrofitted their house to accommodate Travis. They caged in a large room in the rear, which had a set of sliders that led to an outdoor enclosure. They installed a heavy, lockable metal door on their bedroom, creating a suite of rooms, including the caged room, where Travis could roam freely when he was left alone. When Sandy and Jerry were home, Travis had the entire house at his disposal, knuckle-running from the couch in the living room to the kitchen, swinging from the tires and ropes in his room, jumping on his bed. The Herolds also laid a mattress on the floor of their bedroom, though most nights Travis slept in bed with them.

Sandy and Jerry took Travis to work with them every day. They installed tire swings, ropes, and trampolines in a giant room above the tow shop. He was inquisitive and friendly. Even the tow drivers and mechanics melted when they saw him.

These were some of the happiest days of Sandy's life. By then, Sue had divorced her first husband, and she and her young son had returned to Stamford, moving into a spacious loft-style apartment her parents constructed next to the auto-body shop. Sandy and Sue worked together every day, in the room above the tow shop, with Travis. They joked, gossiped, talked about men. Sue's son, Tyler, and Travis were close in age, and they played well together; as Travis matured more rapidly than Tyler, his fondness for the boy grew, so that he often held him in his lap, kissing him.

Travis grew quickly. Jerry played catch with him and taught him to ride a tricycle (which was awkward at first, what with his long arms), then a bike, then a ride-on lawn mower. Sandy put on a blue bikini and big gold-hoop earrings and took him to the beach, carrying him into the water with her.

Sandy and Jerry invited Travis to join them at the table for meals. He ate oatmeal with a spoon every morning. At their favorite Italian restaurant, Pellicci's, she read him the menu, offering him choices. His favorite food was filet mignon. He also enjoyed lobster tail. He preferred Lindt's chocolates. He liked Nerds candy and taffy, and he loved ice cream, hooting and pulling at Sandy when the ice-cream man came down the street. When he was thirsty, he swung his body up onto the counter and took out a glass, opened the refrigerator, and poured himself juice or soda.

Travis had a distinct sense of humor. He'd become particularly impish when Sandy was on the phone talking. He'd change the channels of the remote furiously. He'd blast the volume on the TV. "Cut it out, you little son of a bitch!" Sandy would yell, and then laugh. "I'm gonna kill you, you little bastard!"

"I'll tell you," she'd say into the phone, "you should see how smart Travis is. Just today he ..." Sandy was ceaselessly dumbfounded by Travis's humanness. Though she did not know their name, she seemed to intuit the so-called spindle cells in his brain, cells shared by humans and chimps that are believed to help us to process complex thoughts and empathize.

Sandy's old friend Charla Nash came to visit, bringing with her her young daughter, Briana. They sat outside, Charla playing with Travis, the chimp climbing all over her, messing with her long blonde hair, the two of them posing for pictures. He climbed the tall oak trees around their property, racing up them, jumping from one to the next.

Travis quickly became Stamford's most famous resident. The Herolds plastered his image on the side of their tow trucks and flatbeds. He sat shotgun on tow calls, waving as the truck pulled up. He came to love police officers especially, and virtually everyone on the force had his photo taken with him. Strangers approached in stores, on the street. Sometimes they handed him their babies to hold.

One fall day, a neighbor was out raking leaves. Across the street, he noticed a Corvette coming down the Herolds' driveway. It was Travis's favorite car--he perceived it as his own, Sandy said--and in fact there were rumors that Travis had once taken the keys and gotten behind the wheel, turned the ignition, and, half-standing in the driver's seat, his opposable-thumbed feet grabbing the pedals, steered the car down the driveway and out onto Rock Rimmon Road. The man raking leaves watched as the car drew closer. Dressed in animal prints and decked to the nines, Sandy was driving, with Travis, in a ball cap and T-shirt, sitting beside her; the windows were down, and each had an arm hanging out. Reflexively, the man raised his hand. Sandy and Travis both waved back.

When Travis was around 5 years old, Sue fell in love and married again. She had two more children. She and her husband eventually decided to relocate near the Outer Banks, where he was opening a mechanic's shop. Sandy did not take kindly to the news. Again, she felt abandoned; again she disapproved of Sue's husband. Within a few months, however, Sandy was calling to tell Sue she couldn't stand not talking every day. She sent money and gifts down to North Carolina. Every note Sue mailed to her mother, no matter how banal, Sandy read repeatedly, showed repeatedly to Jerry, and bound in plastic for safe keeping.

Sue was making repeated trips to Connecticut to retrieve their remaining belongings. On her way home one night in September 2000, Sue, who'd complained of back pain and taken a Percocet, was driving on a mostly empty highway. Somewhere in Virginia, her car left the roadway and collided with a tree. Her infant daughter, strapped in her car seat, was unscathed. Sue was ejected from the car. The phone rang inside Rock Rimmon Road, waking Sandy, Jerry, and Travis, all asleep in bed.

At an open-casket viewing in Stamford, Sue's body lay in a floral-print dress her mother had bought her. Beside her stood an enlarged photo of her in the same dress, holding her newborn daughter. Sandy was anything but stoic in her mourning. She stalked the room, gasping, and blocked certain visitors from coming inside. "That's that bastard!" she shouted at Sue's husband. "If it wasn't for him my daughter would be alive!"

In the years after Sue's death, Sandy vacillated between combustible anger and unrelenting depression. She struggled to maintain relationships with Sue's children. She distanced herself from her friends and at one point considered suicide. Her life was now built almost entirely around Jerry and Travis, and when she finally began venturing out of the house again, it was with the two of them. One bright winter day, they all drove down to the sea. They walked out onto the beach holding hands, in a line straight across; it was Travis who held their dog Apollo's leash. Sandy now considered Travis her only child.

Travis quickly moved beyond the gangly phases of early adolescence, through puberty, and into early adulthood. One night after work, Jerry was sipping a glass of wine when Travis climbed up into the seat next to him. Travis was interested in what he was drinking. Jerry offered him a sip. Thus began their nightly ritual: a glass of wine, one for Travis, one for Jerry, served in stemware, which they clinked together as Jerry said cheers.

Travis was also growing more willful. Three years had passed since the death of Sue. It was a warm night in October 2003. Jerry, Sandy, and Travis had eaten a dinner of sausage and peppers and were sitting on the couch watching the World Series. Travis was an avid TV watcher, and he particularly liked sports. All three were cheering for the Yankees. Sandy and Jerry decided they needed to make a trip to the tow shop. They asked Travis whether he had any interest in a ride. It was a rhetorical question.

They were in the 4Runner, stopped downtown at the intersection of Tresser and Washington Boulevards, when someone, for reasons unknown, threw an empty soda bottle into Travis's partially open window. Travis looked, grunted, unbuckled his seat belt, unlocked and opened the door, and began knuckle-running across the road.

He stood, surveying the area in his extra-large adult diaper (though he was potty-trained, he often wore diapers when he was out). At one point, he lunged at a passerby. And then, all of a sudden, he lay down in the street and began rolling on his back. People in their cars honked and pointed. Traffic at the intersection came to a standstill. Neighbors came out to watch.

Travis was clearly enjoying himself, climbing over cars, hooting, smiling. He chased the dozen police officers who responded to the call for a "loose chimpanzee downtown." The spectators cheered for him as he evaded capture, smacking several officers on their behinds. Cookies and ice cream could not coax him back. Each time they lured him into the 4Runner, Travis opened the door and got out again before they could lock it. This continued for two hours.

Finally, when he began to tire, Travis climbed into the SUV and buckled his seat belt. No charges were pressed; several of the police officers who knew Travis personally wrote in their reports that his attitude was only playful. They escorted the Herolds home. Travis spent the next day in his room, grounded.

Virtually everyone made light of the escapade downtown. The state Department of Environmental Protection was aware of what happened, and also that the Herolds were in violation of a new statute that required a permit to keep a primate over 50 pounds. But they determined that pressing any action would amount to a most likely unwinnable battle to "take custody of a local celebrity" and opted not to pursue the matter.

Stamford's animal-control officer was more concerned. After contacting primatologists, she spoke with Sandy, arguing that Travis was by now a fully sexualized adult (chimpanzees in the wild have sex, nonmonogamously, as often as 50 times a day); that he had the strength of at least five men; that adult chimpanzees are known to be unpredictable and potentially violent (which is why all chimp actors are prepubescent); and that maintaining Travis for the duration of his five- or six-decade lifetime was not viable. Sandy seemed to pay an open mind to the officer's warning but ultimately concluded that Travis had never exhibited even the slightest capacity for violence.

There was one piece of information, however, that Sandy chose not to share with the officer. Two years earlier, the Herolds had received a phone call from Connie Casey, the breeder in Festus. She explained how Travis's parents, Suzy and Coco, had escaped their cages and, with a third chimp, run across the ranch to a nearby housing development, where a 17-year-old named Jason Coats and some friends were pulling into Coats's driveway on their way home from the Dairy Queen. Coats claimed the chimps approached his Chevy Cavalier and trapped the teenagers inside, baring their teeth and rocking the car. Coats eventually got out, ran into his house, and grabbed a shotgun. Casey had by then arrived at the driveway and tranquilized Suzy, who was now, according to Casey and several eyewitnesses, sitting at the edge of the road, stoned, fingering the grass and flowers. Casey begged Coats not to shoot. He fired three rounds at Suzy; she died two hours later.

Following several neighbors' testimony that the chimps were behaving playfully and had posed no threat, a jury found Coats guilty of property damage and animal abuse, and he served a month in jail. Coats nevertheless remained steadfast in his belief that the chimps were dangerous.

The Herolds stopped taking Travis out in public after the incident in downtown Stamford, and they spent most of their time away from work at home with him. One night, over takeout spaghetti dinners at the kitchen table, Travis was sulking. He was sitting next to Jerry, facing away from him. Jerry was eating heartily, after some dental work he'd had earlier in the day. Jerry and Sandy were trying to engage Travis.

"Daddy got his tooth fixed today," Jerry said. "Look."

Travis wouldn't.

"Come on, Trav," Sandy said. "Look at Daddy's new tooth."

Travis turned, glanced begrudgingly.

"Come on, Trav," Jerry said. "Which tooth had a boo-boo? Which one?"

Travis looked finally. Jerry opened his mouth.

"Which one?"

Travis looked for a second before extending his long index finger. He placed the tip of it directly on Jerry's left molar. Sandy and Jerry cheered: "That's the one, Travis! That's the one!" Travis's lips curled open around his gleaming white teeth. He bounced in his chair and buried his face in Jerry's chest.

"Show Daddy your teeth now," Sandy told him. Travis looked at her, looked at Jerry, puckered his lips again, exposed his teeth, and tilted his head up toward Jerry. Jerry cheered.

"Show Daddy your big tongue now!" Sandy said. Travis opened his mouth and unfurled his giant pink tongue. Once again, they cheered. By now Travis could not contain himself: He smiled broadly and grunted, his shoulders shaking in silent laughter. He patted Jerry on the back. Finally he wrapped his long arm around him.

Occasionally, Jerry complained that he wasn't feeling well. After playing with Travis one morning in March 2005, he went off to work, where his discomfort sharpened. He asked one of his employees to take him to the hospital.

Over the course of Jerry's weeks-long stay, during which his doctors tried to arrest his rapidly spreading stomach cancer, Sandy spent virtually every minute at the hospital. One night he said he wanted to talk to her about Travis. He asked her what she would do if he were to die--if it were to become just her, alone with Travis. As much as he said it pained him, he urged her to send Travis to a sanctuary. He told her Travis was too much for her to manage alone. He said it was best for both of them.

When Sandy arrived home from the hospital, Travis smelled her clothing frantically, inhaling Jerry's scent. He was at first disoriented by Jerry's sudden absence, then despondent. Several times Sandy put Travis on the phone to talk to Jerry; each time Travis became so upset that she had to take the phone away. Travis sat rocking back and forth for hours. He lifted pictures of Jerry off the wall, put his lips to the glass, held them to his chest. Sandy took them all down and put them in a box. On April 12, Jerry died.

After Jerry's death, Sandy ignored condolences and stopped speaking to many of her friends. Travis continued his rocking. When she sat on the sofa crying, Travis gently brushed her hair. He bit her nails and used an emery board to file them.

When almost a year had passed, Sandy sat down to write a letter. She drafted it in longhand, and addressed it to a woman in Florida who runs a respected chimpanzee sanctuary. These were the last two paragraphs.

"Needless to say, after 45 years with the most wonderful man in the world we are both lost without him and miss him dearly. Travis still waits for him especially at supper time, because at that time they both had a glass of wine with their supper and if my husband ever cooked anything you can bet it has garlic in it. Try having two guys breathing on your sleep time with (garlic breath). Travis would go to the bedroom window many nights sit on the bench seat look out, get very vocal and happy then come back to sleep, this was always very late at night. Finally I went to psychic and she told me Jerry would visit at night and talk to Travis and my husband would always kiss me good night. P.S. (him and Travis kiss alike) that's good too.

"I have no family, my only child, Suzan had gotten killed in an auto accident 4 years before Jerry died and who Travis also loved. My grand kids live in North Carolina and I don't see them very often. I live alone with Travis, we eat and sleep together but I am worried that if something happens to me as suddenly as my husband what would happen to Travis, therefore I have to try to do something before that happens. I set up a trust fund for him but that's not enough, he needs someone to play with of his own kind and have the best most possible life if I'm not here to care for him. I would love to see and talk to you if that's possible. I am flying down to see your member event enclosed is our donation. I am looking forward to meeting you."

She signed the letter, "Sandy (Jerry) and Travis," and enclosed photos of Travis and the family. She wrote out a check for $250, signing it from both her and Travis. She put everything in a stamped envelope. She never mailed the letter and never made the trip.

Charla Nash and Sandy reunited around the time of Jerry's death. Charla and her then-12-year-old daughter had lived itinerantly, at one point staying for more than a year in a homeless shelter. Charla had taken odd jobs, picked up occasional yard work, cleaned horse stalls. The reunion was mutually beneficial: Sandy invited Charla and her daughter to move rent-free into the loft apartment that had once been Sue's. She gave Charla a job, handling towing dispatch and bookkeeping. Over time the terms of Charla's employment blurred. Charla tended to Sandy's lawn and would look in on Travis if Sandy was away.

She rarely was. For four years, Travis never left home, and Sandy only sporadically did, aside from compulsive shopping trips: She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at stores like T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, stuffing bags of clothes in dozens of plastic bins that filled almost every room of the house. She and Travis relegated themselves to the kitchen and the suite in the rear of the house. In early 2008, construction was under way on a gigantic new addition that Jerry had designed for Travis years earlier. Travis, by this point, no longer bore much physical resemblance to his former self. He was 14 years old, five feet tall, 240 pounds, and morbidly obese. His hairline had receded dramatically, and his center torso had gone gray. His face was black and wrinkled. His chest sagged. He spent the majority of his days snacking, watching TV, playing on the computer, and roaming the house.

It was February 16, and Sandy and Charla had just returned from a weekend at the Mohegan Sun casino; before leaving, Sandy had taken Charla to get her hair colored and curled, in case, Sandy had joked, two eligible bachelors crossed their paths. Sandy had offered Charla some gambling money. At dinner one night, Sandy had opened her purse and showed the waiter several pictures of Travis. "Do you think he looks more like his mom," she had asked, "or his aunt?"

Now it was after 3 p.m., and Sandy was in a bit of a panic. She was meeting a friend, and as she'd been cleaning Travis's room, he'd walked into the kitchen, picked up the keys from the counter, unlocked the door, and ventured out into the yard. He'd seemed agitated for a good part of the day; after eating a lunch of fish and chips and Carvel ice-cream cake, he'd not been particularly interested in watching any of the three TVs that were playing in the house. He did not want to draw or color. He did not want to pet his cat, Misty. Even the smorgasbord of food--the Popsicles in the freezer she'd labeled for him with R for red and F for Fudgsicle, the steam-in-a-bag vegetables he liked to toss in the microwave himself--was unappealing. Sandy, slightly concerned, had dropped a Xanax in his mug of afternoon tea.

She was on the phone with Charla. She told her about Travis. He was outside, she said, running from car to car, apparently wanting to go for a ride; he'd ignored her entreaties to come back inside. Later, Sandy would say that Charla volunteered to come over and help; Charla would maintain she was asked. In any case, Charla arrived at about 3:40, opened the iron gate at the end of the driveway, and drove to the front of the house. She stepped out onto the frozen dirt and grass and held over her face a red Elmo doll she'd thought to bring with her. Travis was in the front yard, about 35 feet away. He knuckle-ran toward her, then came up on his two legs.

"Travis!" Sandy shouted. "Travis! What are you doing? Travis! Stop! Travis! It's Charla, Travis!"

Travis knocked her into the side of her car. Then to the ground. Almost immediately, Charla turned red with blood. Sandy screamed and grabbed a nearby snow shovel. She ran to Travis and began beating him over the head. He was screaming, too, a terrible high-pitched screech. He continued at Charla, unyielding.

Hysterical, Sandy ran back to the house. She grabbed a butcher knife. She ran back, screaming all the while. As Travis stood over Charla, chewing, ripping, pulling, Sandy plunged the knife into his back. He did not stop. She pulled the knife out and stabbed him twice more, to little effect. Travis stood up finally, turned to look Sandy in the face--directly in the face--then continued.

Sandy ran to her Volkswagen Passat, parked about fifteen feet away. She got in and locked the door. She dialed 911, still holding the butcher knife.

"Stamford 911, where's your emergency?"

"Two-forty-one Rock Rimmon Road, send the police!"

"What's the problem?"

"Send the police!"

"What's the problem there?"

"The--that--the chimp killed my--my friend!"

"What's wrong with your friend?"

Sandy gasped, pressed her feet into the floor of the car to turn around and look, her face pushing the buttons of her cell phone. She sobbed.

"Oh, please! Send the police with a gun--with a gun--hurry up!"

"Who has the gun?"

"Please, hurry up! Please hurry up! He's killin' my girlfriend!"

"I need you to talk to me, I need you to calm down. Why do you need somebody there?"

"What? Please, God!"

"What is the problem?"

"He's killing my friend!"

"Who's killing your friend?"

"Chimp--my chimpanzee!"

"Oh, your chimpanzee is killing your friend?"

"Yes! He ripped her apart! Hurry up! Hurry up! Please!"

"What is going on? What is the monkey doing? Tell me what the monkey is doing."

"He--he ripped her face off!"

"He ripped her face off?"

"Gun! They got to shoot him! Please! Please! Hurry! Hurry! Please!"

"Ma'am, ma'am, I need you to calm down. They're already on their way."

"I can't. I can't ... He's eating her! He's eating her!"

"He's eating her?"

"Please! God! Please! Where are they? Where are they?"

It went on for twelve minutes.

When the authorities finally arrived, they saw a body lying mostly naked on the ground, lifeless and covered in nearly half its blood supply. Travis was roaming the property. He made his way to the police car. He swatted off its driver's-side mirror. He went to the passenger's side and tried to open the locked door. He walked back around to the driver's side. He tried the door. It opened.

The officer lurched. He struggled to remove his gun from its holster. His body became wedged against the center-console computer. Travis stared into the car, baring his blood-streaked teeth. In one swift motion the officer at last released his gun and fired four rounds. Travis staggered backward, screeched, defecated, and ran off.

The officer got out of his car. Huge chunks of scalp and fingers lay scattered around the yard. He walked slowly to the body. With the stump of what remained of her arm, Charla Nash reached for his leg.

As another group of officers set out into the woods to look for him, Travis scampered unnoticed into the house. Leaving a trail of blood, he knuckle-walked through the kitchen, the bedroom, and into his room. Then he grasped his bedpost, heaved forward, and died.

Charla Nash's injuries were overwhelming. Travis had bitten or torn away her eyelids, nose, jaw, lips, and most of her scalp. He'd broken nearly all the bones of her facial structure. He'd fully removed one of her hands and virtually all of the other. He'd rendered her blind.

And yet she did not die. Three days after the attack, in critical condition, Charla was flown by specialized jet from Stamford to the Cleveland Clinic. Fifteen months of intervention followed.

One month after the attack, her family filed a $50 million lawsuit against Sandy.

Sandy was alone.

After weeks of blistering coverage, journalists from around the world--who, hoping to coax Sandy out of the house, had left her flowers, coffee, and sympathy notes--had finally moved on. The reporting had included many inaccuracies, such as the unsubstantiated assertion (which Sandy never disputed) that Travis was the same chimpanzee who had appeared in the iconic Old Navy ads of the nineties and on The Maury Povich Show. The New York Post had accused Sandy of "weird jungle love" and all but said that she and Travis had sexual relations. Even after the press mob had lost interest in her chimp, the allegation that hurt her most was that she'd cared more about Travis than Charla. "I stabbed my own son," she cried to friends on the phone. For a long time, inside her house, she refused to clean up his blood. She sat a gigantic stuffed chimpanzee in the leather chair in his room.

"I just--you just--you can't imagine," she sobbed into the phone late at night. "They cut off his head!" She was referring to the last time she'd seen Travis, when she'd gone to the crematorium to drop off his favorite tie-dyed T-shirt and discovered he'd been decapitated for rabies testing.

She tried to reconstitute her life. She visited occasionally with friends, and made trips to the casino. She continued shopping--much of it for clothes for her three grandchildren that she would end up never sending--until her house became impassable. She sat at her kitchen table and leafed through stacks of mail, old letters, old pictures, doodling Sue's name on the back of envelopes. She tuned in nightly to Bill O'Reilly. She talked--and cried--on the phone incessantly; the subject was almost exclusively Travis. One of her daughter's friends helped her set up a profile on Match.com; she went on a date with an elderly Stamford man who appalled her by requesting oral sex as they were having dinner.

In the end, all that was really left for Sandy were animals. She put bowls outside for the raccoons. She fed deer in the yard from her hands. And she found another chimpanzee. His name was Chance. She knew she could never bring him back to Connecticut, so she contributed money to a friend out of state, and the two women were to assume a kind of joint custody. One spring day, she sat on a couch in the woman's mobile home. Chance, about a year old, stretched his young, long body out across her lap. Sandy tickled his belly. He climbed all over her. The two of them snuggled and played. They opened their mouths wide and put them up against each other's. Sandy's makeup ran with her tears.

Back in Connecticut one day last summer, shortly before sunset, Sandy was alone, outside, feeding the animals. She looked up. A cloud formation resembling a fish's backbone was unspooling against the sky. She found her camera, held it up, and clicked.

Sometime later, her chest began hurting. The pain came on quickly and intensified. Frightened, she called a friend, who drove over to her house to sit with her. A hot bath provided no relief. The friend called 911. She put Sandy in her car, in her pink bathrobe and slippers, and drove her down Rock Rimmon Road, to meet the ambulance on its way.

At the ER, tests determined Sandy's aorta was bulging. She was prepared for emergency surgery. In the operating room, two hours in, Sandy's lungs filled with blood.

And then they were all gone. All the Herolds were dead.

Last May, Charla Nash was transferred to a long-term assisted-living facility outside Boston. The innumerable cosmetic surgeries she has undergone have accomplished little cosmetically. On her 56th birthday, nine months after the attack, in what will undoubtedly go down as one of the most extraordinary moments in television history, she revealed her face--a bulbous surface of transmogrified skin--to Oprah Winfrey; she told Winfrey she remembers nothing from the attack and is disinclined to worry about how others see her. "I just look different," she said. "Things happen in life that you can't change. It's a tragedy." She is financially insolvent; her brothers and a team of representatives are apparently shopping two book ideas and weighing several movie deals on her behalf. Her daughter is in her freshman year of college. Through Brigham and Women's Hospital, she is hoping to become the world's first face- and double-hand-transplant recipient.

When her brother informed her of Sandy's death, Charla was shocked.

She said: "Sandra was a troubled woman, and maybe she has some peace now."

Two-forty-one Rock Rimmon Road remains almost exactly as it was the day Sandy left, held in limbo by order of the court. Rumors abounded after Sandy's death that along with jewelry, antiques, and other valuables, somewhere in the ramshackle house she had secreted $80,000 in cash, and burglars broke in five times in the first two months. The gigantic addition is frozen in mid-construction, exactly as it had been that February day, its windows still glassless, so that leaves and small drifts of snow blot its unfinished floor. The life-size stuffed chimpanzee still sits in the oversize chair in Travis's room, gazing out the window to the backyard and the woods beyond it.

A few miles away is a cemetery that has no tombstones. A plot there belongs to the Herolds. Beside Jerry, inside a sealed vault inside a sealed coffin, Sandy Herold wears an animal-print shirt and tight jeans distressed from ankle to hip. Her fingernails are painted pink, and her hands rest atop her abdomen. Against her one side stands an urn containing the ashen remains of her daughter Suzan. On the other, in the same urn she'd slept with every night since that day in February, are Travis's.

Source Citation
Lee, Dan P. "Travis the Menace; He was the most famous ape in America. But to really understand a chimp, you have to know his mother." New York 31 Jan. 2011. Academic OneFile. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A247343992&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=broward29&version=1.0

Gale Document Number:A247343992

(Web-Page) http://dinosaur.hunter2008.googlepages.com (Album / Profile) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10031&id=1661531726&l=cf90f7df9c Email: leonard.wilson2009@hotmail.com

Good sports: from baseball to wind-surfing, outdoor fun abounds insarasota.(SPORTS & RECREATION).

2011-01-18T12:49:00.002-05:00

Scuba Diving, originally uploaded by John (giannis) Kotsifas.

When Southwest Floridians refer to the "active lifestyle" they're not talking about apple-picking. Try scuba diving, kayaking and reeling in the biggest tarpon you've ever seen. Looking for some swinging pursuits? With dozens of golf courses in the area, you can always get in 18 holes before lunch. Or maybe you'd like to sit back on a sailboat and take in the sunset: There are countless opportunities to get on the water and get away from it all. Even elite athletes flock to our shores, be they Major League baseball players reporting for spring training, golf Legends staking out their latest course designs or international polo players saddling up and taking the field.

BASEBALL

Baltimore Orioles | Ed Smith Stadium, 2700 12th St., Sarasota. (888) 329-3365. Sarasota is the spring training home for Maryland's Major League Baseball team.

Bradenton Marauders | McKechnie Field, 1611 Ninth St. W., Bradenton. (941) 747-3031. Single-A minor league team plays a full summer season in Bradenton's charmingly old-fashioned park. Pittsburgh Pirates | McKechnie Field, 1611 Ninth St. W., Bradenton. (941) 747-3031. The Major League Baseball team plays its home spring training games here, too.

Tampa Bay Rays | Tropicana Field, 1 Tropicana Drive, St Petersburg. (888) 326-7297. Southwest Florida's Major League team, which last season captured its division.

BOATING/FISHING

There are a number of boat rental and charter services available throughout the area. Check your local listings for additional options.

CB's Saltwater Outfitters |1249 Stickney Point Road, Siesta Key. (941) 349-4400. cbsoutfitters.com. Boat rentals, fishing charters, equipment sales.

Cannon's Marina | 6040 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key. (941) 383-1311. cannons.com. New and used boat dealer, rentals and service.

Flying Fish Fleet | Marina Jack, Sarasota. flyingfishfleet.com. Party boat and private fishing trips, corporate charters. Online reservations.

Hart's Landing | 920 John Ringling Causeway, Sarasota. (941) 955-0011. hartslanding.com. Sarasota's oldest bait and tackle shop; adjacent to free fishing along the seawall and the Tony Saprito Pier.

Key Sailing | (941) 346-sail Sailing charters and instruction. Based in downtown Sarasota near Marina Jack.

LeBarge Tropical Cruises | (941) 366-6116. A local favorite for relaxed sunset cruises, dolphin watch tours, charters and more. Departs from downtown Sarasota, near Marina Jack.

Top Notch Sportfishing | (941) 809-5793. topnotchfishing.com. Guided, light-tackle fishing trips.

CANOE/KAYAK

Adventure Kayak Outfitters | (941) 779-7426. adventurekayakoutfitters.com. Kayak tours and rentals.

Island Style Watersports | 2433 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. (941) 954-1009. islandstyle.ws. Kayaking, windsurfing, kiteboarding.

DIVING/SNORKELING

Florida Underwater Sports | 6345 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. (941) 870-4461. floridaunderwatersports.com. Training, equipment sales.

Scuba Quest | 1129 s. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. (941) 366-1530. scubaquestusa.com. Classes, retail, dive trips. Additional locations in Bradenton and Venice.

Sea Trek Divers | 105 Seventh st N., Bradenton Beach. (941) 779-1506. seatrekdivers.com. SCUBA rental, instruction, guided charters.

FITNESS

Bath and Racquet Club | 2170 Robinhood St, Sarasota. (941) 306-4113. sarasota-health-ctub.com. Tennis, racquet-ball, classes, fitness equipment and more. Curves | 4438 Bee Ridge Road or 7616 Lockwood Ridge Road, Sarasota; four additional locations in Sarasota and Manatee counties. curves.com. Fitness for women. Evolution Health and Fitness | Courthouse Centre, 1990 Main St., second floor, Sarasota. (941) 955-9300. myevo-lutionfitnessclub.com. Upscale private health club with weights, Pilates, yoga and fitness facilities, as well as amenities like oxygenated air and infrared saunas. Gold's Gym | 3762 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota. (941) 923-GOLD. goldsgym. com. Cardio and strength facilities, group classes offered.

Sarasota YMCA | sarasota-ymca. org. Three local fitness branches offering weight training and fitness equipment, classes, personal training, youth programs, social services and more. Babe Weiller Branch, 1991 Main St., Suite 200, Sarasota. (941) 366-6779. Cardio, weights, group classes in the heart of downtown. Evalyn Sadlier Jones Branch, 8301 Potter Park Drive, Sarasota. (941) 922-9622. Full gym equipment, plus racquetball, indoor track, climbing tower and aquatics center. Frank G. Berlin Sr. Branch, 1075 S. Euclid Ave., Sarasota. (941) 955-8194. Full gym equipment, plus gymnasium, indoor racquetball, indoor pool, outdoor track, childcare.

YouFit | 3840 S. Tuttle Ave. or 6198 N. Lockwood Ridge Road, Sarasota. you-fithealthclubs.us. Weight and cardio facilities. Memberships starting at just $10 per month.

FOOTBALL

Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Raymond James Stadium, 4201 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa. (813) 879-BUCS. Southwest Florida's NFL team.

Tampa Bay Storm | St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Cfiannelside Drive, Tampa. (813) 301-6600. Professional football team plays in the Arena Football League.

GOLF

Bobby Jones Golf Course |1000 circus Blvd., Sarasota. (941) 365-GOLF. bob-byjonesgolfclub.com. Municipal courses (45 holes) designed in 1927 by Bobby Jones himself.

The Concession Golf Club and Residences | 18804 Ganton Ave., Bradenton. (941) 322-1922. theconces-sion.com. Eighteen holes designed by Jack Nicklaus to commemorate the historic 1969 Ryder Cup. Private. The Founders Golf Club | 3800 Golf Hall Drive, Sarasota. (941) 371-7462. the-foundersgolfclub.com. Private. Heron Creek Golf and Country Club | 3401 S. Sumter Blvd., North Port. (941) 240-5100. heron-creek.com. Innovative 27-hole championship course. Semi-private.

IMG Academies Golf and Country Club | 4350 El Conquistador Parkway, (941) 758-1466. Bradenton. imggcc.com. Training facilities and 18 holes along Sarasota Bay. Semi-private.

Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club | 7650 Legacy Blvd., Bradenton. (941) 907-4700. lakewoodranchgolf. com. Three championship courses, two designed by Arnold Palmer. Private. Laurel Oak Country Club I 2700 Gary Player Blvd., Sarasota. (941) 378-3608. laureloak.com. Private club; certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Legacy Golf Club at Lakewood Ranch | 8255 Legacy Blvd., Bradenton. (941) 907-7067. legacygolfclub.com. An Arnold Palmer signature 18-hole golf course. Public.

Longboat Key Club and Resort | 442 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key. (941) 387-1602. longboatkeydub.com. Two courses combining for 45 holes of golf, plus two pro shops, two driving ranges and a golf academy. Private. Mission Valley Country Club | 1851 Mission Valley Blvd., Laurel. (941) 488-9683. missionvalleycc.com. Walker-friendly 18-hole course with several scenic lakes. Private.

The Oaks Club | 301 MacEwen Drive, Osprey. (941) 966-2161. theoaksclub.com. Two championship-conditioned golf courses. Private.

Palm-Aire Country Club | 5601 country Club Way, Sarasota. (941) 556-0782. palmaire.net. Recently renovated golf courses. Private. Plantation Golf and Country Club I500 Rockley Blvd., Venice. (941) 497-1479. plantationgcc.com. Two championship courses. Private.

The Ritz-Carlton Members Golf

Club | 15140 70th Terrace E., Bradenton. (888) 363-6237. rcmcsarasota.com. Sarasota's only course designed by architect Tom Fazio. Private. Sara Bay Golf and Country Club |

7011 Willow St., Sarasota. (941) 355-7658. sarabaycc.org. Private club established in 1926; the course was fully renovated in 2006. Sarasota Golf Club | 7280 N. Leewynn

Drive, Sarasota. (941) 371-2431. saraso-tagc.com. Public course with good variety, natural Florida setting. TPC Prestancia | 4409 TPC Drive, Sarasota. (941) 922-2800. tpcprestancia.com Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, two courses. Private.

University Park Country Club | 7671 The Park Blvd., University Park. (941) 359-9999. universitypark-fl.com. Driving range, practice areas, pro shop, golf schools, 27 holes. Semi-private. Waterlefe Golf and River Club | 1022 Fish Hook Cove, Bradenton. (941) 744-0393. watertefegolfandriverclub. com. Semi-private championship course designed by Ted McAnlis, located along the upper Manatee River.

GREYHOUND RACING

Sarasota Kennel Club | 5400 old Bra-denton Road, Sarasota. (941) 355-7744. sarasotakennelclub.com. Live greyhound racing, simulcast horse racing and poker.

HOCKEY/ICE SKATING

Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex | 5309 29th St. E., Ellenton. (941) 723-3663. ellentonice.com. Children's and adult hockey leagues, figure skating, public skate sessions. Tampa Bay Lightning | St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. (813) 301-6500. NHL team.

POLO

Sarasota Polo Club | 8201 Polo club Lane, Sarasota. (941) 907-0000. Sunday afternoon matches held December through April.

TENNIS

Bath and Racquet Club | 2170 Robinhood St., Sarasota. (941) 306-4113. sarasota-health-ciub.com. Private health club offering 23 clay tennis courts, six hard courts, plus racquetball, pros, | leagues and more. Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club Tennis Center | 8488 Legacy Blvd., Lakewood Ranch. (941) 907-2825. Members enjoy 18 lighted clay courts, pro shop, deli and more.

Longboat Key Club and Resort | 220 Sands Pointe Road, Longboat Key. (941) 383-8821. longboatkeyclub.com. New tennis complex featuring 20 courts, i pro shop, cafe, clubhouse and more; hosts a pro tournament each spring.

The Oaks Club | 301 MacEwen Drive, Osprey. theoaksclub.com. Members enjoy 12 Har-Tru tennis courts.

Palm-Aire Country Club | 5601 Country Club Way, Sarasota. (941) 556-0782. palmaire.net Eight Har-Tru courts and two all-weather courts.

Payne Park Tennis Center | 2050 Adams Lane, Sarasota. Twelve Har-Tru courts, locker rooms. Fees apply.

Plantation Golf and Country Club | 500 Rockley Blvd., Venice. (941) 497-1479. plantationgcc.com. Offers 13 Har-Tru tennis courts.

Serendipity Racquet Club | 3600 Torrey Pines Blvd., Sarasota. (941) 922-1591. serendipityracquetclub.com. Private club featuring 19 Har-Tru courts and a variety of programs.

University Park Country Club | 7671 The Park Blvd., University Park. universitypark-fl.com. Members enjoy 11 lighted tennis courts, instruction and more.

ADULT LEAGUES

SoCO Sports | (941)266-8578.so-cosports.com. Adult social leagues in a number of sports, including flag football, bowling, volleyball, softball and ultimate Frisbee.

Source Citation
"Good sports: from baseball to wind-surfing, outdoor fun abounds in sarasota." Sarasota Magazine 15 Dec. 2010: 103+. General OneFile. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A245395007&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=18551_mcpls&version=1.0

Gale Document Number:A245395007

(Web-Page) http://dinosaur.hunter2008.googlepages.com (Album / Profile) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10031&id=1661531726&l=cf90f7df9c Email: leonard.wilson2009@hotmail.com

Galileo on trial: four centuries ago, an Italian scientist dared toclaim that Earth revolved around the sun--at the risk of hislife.(World History Play).

2011-01-03T12:17:00.002-05:00

Life History of Clipper, originally uploaded by Balakrishnan Valappil.

Narrator A: During the Middle Ages (400s-1400s A.D.), the center of life and learning for most of Europe was the Roman Catholic Church. Challenging the doctrines, or official teachings, of the church and its leader, the Pope, was a very risky business. A person branded a heretic could be imprisoned, exiled, or even executed.

But in the 1300s, a flowering of learning and creativity called the Renaissance started in Italy. For the first time, people openly questioned the church's authority. This questioning would continue with Galileo Galilei, a leader of a new era of experimentation called the Scientific Revolution. He challenged a central teaching of the church--that the sun and the planets revolve around Earth. Speaking this truth put him on a collision course with the church's most powerful leaders.

SCENE ONE

Narrator B: Born in the city of Pisa in 1564, Galileo is a man of tireless curiosity. He is a professor at the University of Padua in 1609 when he builds a telescope and begins recording his observations of the planets and stars. One evening in 1610, a student visits him.

Galileo Galilei: Vasco, come here and look through my telescope.

Vasco Conti: That's amazing, sir. I recognize the planet Jupiter--but what do I see near it?

Galileo: Its moons. They orbit Jupiter like our moon orbits Earth.

Conti: I can see so many more stars through this device!

Galileo: It makes the heavens clearer than ever before.

Narrator C: But some professors don't approve of Galileo's studies. One comes to see him.

Bernardo Castino: Professor, we're disturbed that your so-called discoveries may be supporting the dangerous views of Copernicus.

Narrator D: Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who, a century before, had said that Earth revolved around the sun--contrary to the church's teachings.

Galileo: I seek only to learn how our universe works. Come, look through my telescope!

Castino: I will not! God made Earth to be His human home and the sun and all the heavenly bodies to turn around it. It is heresy to suggest otherwise.

SCENE TWO

Narrator E: Galileo's observations prove to him that Copernicus was right--but he is cautious about saying so. When he publishes a book about his findings, Starry Messenger, his reputation grows. But he also begins to attract enemies. Some report him to the Roman Inquisition. Alarmed, Galileo goes to Rome in 1615 to defend himself. There, one of the church's cardinals warns him.

Cardinal Robert Bellarmine: My friend, your views have gotten you into deep trouble with the church.

Galileo: I don't mean any disrespect. I simply use the methods of observation and science to learn the truth--

Bellarmine (interrupting): I'll tell you the truth. If your methods lead you to defend the theories of Copernicus, the Inquisition will imprison you--or worse. Remember that another stargazer, Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake a few years ago for doing the same.

Galileo (shaken): Of course. I will obey the holy church's decisions.

Narrator A: Soon after, the Inquisition formally declares that the writings of Copernicus are heresy. Galileo must be cautious.

SCENE THREE

Narrator B: Back in Florence, where he now lives, Galileo resumes his research quietly. But in time, he again begins writing about and defending the methods of science. In 1626, Pope Urban VIII agrees to let him write a new book, but only if Copernicus's views are discussed as theory instead of fact. Published in 1633, the book, Dialogues Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, gets an explosive reaction. At a meeting of the Pope's inner circle ...

Pope Urban VIII (furious): Cardinal Verdi, tell the others what Galileo has written.

Cardinal Verdi: In the book, three people discuss theories about the movement of the universe.

Cardinal Sama: Theories? The speakers in Galileo's book advance the heresies of Copernicus as if they were fact.

Pope: And he puts words of mine in the mouth of a simpleton, whom he is clearly ridiculing.

Narrator C: The Inquisition orders all copies of the book to be confiscated--and its author to stand trial in Rome for teaching heresy.

SCENE FOUR

Narrator D: By now, Galileo is 69, in poor health, and terrified of what the Inquisition might do to him. On April 12, 1633, he is called to appear before a panel.

Inquisitor: You were told not to teach the theories of Copernicus as fact. Confess your guilt!.

Galileo: But, sir, I did just as His Holiness the Pope instructed me.

Inquisitor: You answer deceitfully. So it's just the people in your book who speak heresy, is it? Do you think we're stupid?

Galileo (stammering): Of course not. I meant no harm.

Narrator E: The Inquisition doesn't reach a verdict at first. Galileo is held as a prisoner and then summoned again on April 30.

Inquisitor: Your book is inflicting grave damage on the church.

Galileo (haltingly): I would never harm the church. Perhaps I gave more emphasis to the case for Copernicus than I should have.

Narrator A: There is still no verdict. Over the next two months, Galileo is called before the Inquisition two more times. He grows sicker and more frightened. Finally, on June 22 ...

Bishop Dina: We've reached a verdict and find you guilty of heresy.

Galileo: Please don't hurt me. Forgive a tired old man.

Dina: Kneel and renounce your heresy!

Galileo: With all my heart I curse my errors. I will never again contradict the holy church.

EPILOGUE

Narrator B: The trials left Galileo a broken man. Because of his condition, he was allowed to spend the remaining years of his life under house arrest. But in the end, his ideas could not be ignored. In 1992, 350 years after his death, the Roman Catholic Church officially admitted that Galileo had been right.

Today, Galileo's contributions to modern science (see p. 19) are considered indispensable. In 1989, when NASA launched a space probe to examine the mysteries of Jupiter and its moons, the probe was named Galileo.

* Think About It

1 Which conclusion of Galileo's did the church object to?

2. Why do you think Galileo admitted guilt at the end? Might you have done the same in his situation? Why or why not?

Characters

Galileo Galilei, mathematician and astronomer

* Vasco Conti, student

* Bernardo Castino, professor at the University of Padua

Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, official of the Roman Catholic Church

Pope Urban VIII, head of the Roman

Catholic Church

* Cardinal Verdi * Cardinal Sama advisers to Pope Urban

* Inquisitor

* Bishop Dina, official of the Inquisition

Narrators A-E

* Indicates a fictional or composite character. All others were real people.

* Words to Know

* heresy (n): a view contrary to church teachings

* heretic (n): one accused of holding dangerous beliefs

* Inquisition (n): an official court of the Roman Catholic Church created to root out heresy

* Renaissance (n): a European cultural movement; in Italy, from about the early 1300s to 1600

* Scientific Revolution (n): an era of great scientific advancement in the 16th and 17th centuries

RELATED ARTICLE: The Father of Modern Science

Why we owe the Italian astronomer a huge debt

Born in Pisa in 1564, Galileo has been called "the greatest mind of all time." His work helped lead to the development of a rigorous scientific method to observe and understand the mysteries of the universe.

Here are a few of his contributions to our scientific understanding.

A STATIONARY SUN

Galileo's observations helped prove that the sun is the center of our solar system, with Earth and the planets revolving around it.

JUPITER'S MOONS

Galileo was the first person to observe Jupiter's four largest moons--now called the Galilean moons.

THE TELESCOPE

After learning about a device from the Netherlands that made distant items appear close, Galileo made his own telescope and used it to study the heavens.

Source Citation
Brown, Bryan. "Galileo on trial: four centuries ago, an Italian scientist dared to claim that Earth revolved around the sun--at the risk of his life." Junior Scholastic 13 Dec. 2010: 16+. General OneFile. Web. 3 Jan. 2011.
Document URL
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Gale Document Number:A245169493

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Hurricane Felix (NASA, International Space Station Science, 09/03/07)

2010-12-28T14:11:00.002-05:00

Hurricane Felix (NASA, International Space Station Science, 09/03/07), originally uploaded by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

During his 14 years in the top leadership spot of the 205,000-member Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, David Waide led the organization through challenges ranging from devastating hurricanes to the horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the crafting of three major farm bills and the influencing of many legislative issues at the state and national level.

For his many accomplishments during his tenure and his contributions to agriculture in Mississippi and nationally, Waide was honored at this yearas state convention with the organizationas highest honor for individuals, the Distinguished Service Award.

The Clay County row crop farmer and cattleman is retiring at the end of December after choosing not to seek another term.

"David Waide has been a diligent and effective advocate for Mississippi farmers and livestock producers," said Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran in a video message. "His ability to find solutions affecting farmers large and small, his business acumen, and his public service record have made him a very effective leader."

During his tenure that spanned three presidential administrations, Waide says he has seen "seasons of bountiful harvests and seasons of despair," as the stateas farmers have dealt with adverse weather, including the unprecedented devastation from Hurricane Katrina, a faltering economy, escalating fuel/feed costs, the decline of cotton as the stateas leading crop, major changes within the dairy and catfish industries, the specter of Asian soybean rust, avian flu, mad cow disease, and a myriad of other problems.

Forward-thinking sensibility

Through it all, his associates and fellow farmers say, his "work ethic, humor, compassion, down-to-earth common sense and forward-thinking sensibility were unrelenting."

Waide began his Farm Bureau leadership journey when he was elected president in his home county in 1972. When he ran for vice president of the north Mississippi region in 1994, the 1996 farm bill was about to be written.

"One of the priorities of my campaign was to emphasize the importance of agriculture continuing to have target prices and loan support for the commodities," he says. "This was paramount in allowing the flexibility of marketing that farmers needed to get out of the huge harvest glut of crops and to give them a mechanism to market their crops during the other 10 or 11 months of the year. We were successful in maintaining the loan program range and the target prices, and agriculture survived."

When he became the eighth Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation president in 1996, two of his top goals were to further strengthen the organizationas already powerful voice in the state legislature and to raise its visibility and clout in dealing with an increasing regulatory burden on agriculture.

"I wanted those in the legislature and those in the regulatory arena to recognize Farm Bureauas influence," he says. "I wanted those in the regulatory field to understand that we would only accept decisions based upon sound science a not on emotion or what some bureaucrat thinks might be a good idea."

Other priorities included increased emphasis on education and communications.

1996 farm bill "one of the best ever"

The 1996 farm bill, he says, was "probably one of the best weave ever had. The fundamentals of that bill would be essential to support agriculture in the future. The 2002 bill was very similar, and we continued to maintain the necessity of having supports that agriculture needed to allow flexibility in marketing and have cash flows available.

"I think one of the more significant measures in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills was the fact that all livestock producers were given some conservation monies that they could access to help their operations."

The question that always seems to surface, Waide says, is "Can farmers live without government supports? I guess the real question in my mind is, can we as a nation survive if we lose the ability we have to produce a domestic supply of food, energy, and fiber."

In the aftermath of the multi-billion dollar disaster from Hurricane Katrina, and a subsequent blow from Hurricane Rita, Mississippi Farm Bureau leaders, staff, and members throughout the state worked round the clock to lend aid to farmers and rural communities devastated by the storms.

"No sector of agriculture was left untouched," Waide says.

The organization led efforts to get desperately needed fuel to farmers to keep critical operations going, and feed and supplies to help them keep their animals from dying. It also managed money that was donated to the relief effort and made sure funds got to producers in need.

Increasing visibility of agriculture

As part of his goal to increase the visibility of agriculture in the state, Waide oversaw the launch of a new four-color magazine, Mississippi Farm Country, and Mississippi was among the earliest state Farm Bureaus to establish a website and open Facebook and Twitter accounts.

"Iam also very proud of our ag image campaign, The Farmers of Mississippi, which we launched in February with TV spots, billboards, radio ads, and other promotional efforts," he says.

"Most consumers nowadays are generations removed from farm life, and this campaign is designed to give them confidence in our food supply and make them more aware of the important role that agriculture and our stateas farmers play in their lives."

The campaign, financed by Farm Bureau and contributions from dozens of partnering organizations and agribusinesses, will be expanded in 2011.

Waide has not announced future plans, other than returning to his farming operation. "Iam evaluating a number of options," he says.

Randy Knight, Pelahatchie, Miss., dairyman and vice president for central Mississippi, was elected to succeed Waide as president.

"No other president in the history of Mississippi Farm Bureau has worked harder to represent the people in agriculture," Knight says. "His contributions have truly made a difference to everyone involved in agriculture and Farm Bureau."

Source Citation
Brandon, Hembree. "Farm Bureau's David Waide honored for service to agriculture." Delta Farm Press [Online Exclusive] (2010). General OneFile. Web. 28 Dec. 2010.
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