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Source: http://www.texasguardian.com/index.php/sid/211901771/scat/42acbe017a594c30
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Saturday, January 12, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Lottery winner's cyanide death being investigated
CHICAGO (AP) ? Urooj Khan had returned to Chicago from the hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia inspired to lead a better life and had sworn off buying lottery tickets ? except just this once.
To his astonishment, the scratch-off ticket was a $1 million winner. But just as he was about to collect his money, Khan died suddenly. There were no signs of trauma and nothing suspicious, and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said he died July 20 of natural causes.
Now, authorities have determined that Khan, 46, ingested a lethal dose of cyanide. The finding, spurred by a relative's pleas for an expanded screening, has triggered a homicide investigation, the Chicago Police Department said Monday.
"It's pretty unusual," said Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina, commenting on the rarity of cyanide poisonings. "I've had one, maybe two cases out of 4,500 autopsies I've done."
Khan, who owned a number of dry cleaners, stopped in at the convenience store near his home in the West Rogers Park neighborhood on the city's North Side in the summer and bought a ticket for an instant lottery game.
Convenience store clerk Ashur Oshana told The Associated Press on Monday that Khan had gone on the pilgrimage and told him he was done gambling. But Khan couldn't resist and scratched off the winner in front of Oshana.
"Right away he grabbed my hand," Oshana said. "He kissed my hand and kissed my head and gave me $100. He was really happy."
At an Illinois Lottery ceremony days later, Khan recalled that he jumped up and down in the store and repeatedly shouted, "I hit a million!"
"Winning the lottery means everything to me," he said at the June 26 ceremony, also attended by his wife, Shabana Ansari; their daughter, Jasmeen Khan; and several friends. He said he would put some of his winnings into his businesses and donate some to a children's hospital.
Khan opted for a lump sum of slightly more than $600,000. After taxes, the winnings amounted to about $425,000, said lottery spokesman Mike Lang. The check was issued from the state Comptroller's Office on July 19, the day before Khan died. It was cashed Aug. 15, Lang said, explaining that if a lottery winner dies, the money typically goes to his or her estate.
Calls to Khan's family went unanswered Monday. A knock on the door at the family's small, two-story house late Monday afternoon wasn't answered.
Khan was pronounced dead July 20 at a hospital, but Cina would not say where Khan was when he fell ill, citing the ongoing investigation. The external exam showed no signs of trauma on Khan's body.
No autopsy was done because, at the time, the Medical Examiner's Office didn't generally perform them on people 45 and older unless the death was suspicious, Cina said. The cutoff age has since been raised to age 50. After the basic toxicology screening for opiates, cocaine and carbon monoxide came back negative, the death was ruled a result of the narrowing and hardening of coronary arteries.
Cyanide can be inhaled, swallowed or injected. Deborah Blum, an expert on poisons who has written about the detectives who pioneered forensic toxicology, said using cyanide to kill someone has become rare partially because it's difficult to obtain and easy to detect ? often leaving blue splotches on a victim's skin.
"It has a really strong, bitter taste, so you would know you had swallowed something bad if you had swallowed cyanide," Blum said. "But if you had a high enough dose it wouldn't matter, because ... a good lethal does will take you out in less than five minutes."
It takes only a small amount of fine cyanide powder to be deadly, she said, as it disrupts the ability of cells to transport oxygen around the body, causing a convulsive, violent death.
"It essentially kills you in this explosion of cell death," she said. "You feel like you're suffocating."
After the initial cause of death was released, a relative of Khan's asked authorities to look into the case further, Cina said. He would not identify the relative. The full results came back in November.
"She (the morgue worker) then reopened the case and did more expansive toxicology, including all the major drugs of use, all the common prescription drugs and also included I believe strychnine and cyanide in there just in case something came up," Cina said. "And in fact cyanide came up in this case."
Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Melissa Stratton confirmed the department was now investigating the death, and said detectives are working closely with the Medical Examiner's Office.
Investigators will likely exhume the body, Cina said.
Oshana said he was shocked to hear that someone might have killed Khan.
"I'm very sorry for him," Oshana said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lottery-winners-cyanide-death-being-investigated-080709446.html
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Zero Dark Thirty Movie Review ? When do the secrets stop ...
With all the controversy surrounding the recently acclaimed movie,?Zero Dark Thirty?, I was more than interested when I was invited to a viewing of the film last year. ?Zero Dark Thirty?is based on the true story of a Central Intelligence Agency Officer who headed the raid that uncovered the location of Osama bin Laden, later organizing SEAL Team SIX to follow through. Though this film is ?not a documentary?, as screenwriter Mark Boal reminds us in various interviews; it is hard for our general public, the civilian world, to separate fact from fiction in this world-renowned story we have all followed in interest.? Therefore, we believe what we see. How do we know better? But is this okay? When do the secrets stop? The film was better than I expected it to be, but the fact that it was supported with secrets now available to the public is what makes me cringe.?
?..the towers have just been hit! Help!!? All you hear are the emergency calls from September 11, 2001 as the film begins with a pitch black screen, an appropriate beginning to a movie whose title is Zero Dark Thirty, an?unofficial?term which refers to 30 minutes past midnight, in other words, total darkness.?It's 2003 and the films main character, Maya, is the CIA Officer who has devoted her career to finding Al Qaeda?s Osama bin Laden. She locates herself in Pakistan, so that she is in the center of the search, subjecting herself to possible terrorists as her fellow Officer, Dan, tortures them. After various leads and interrogations, Maya discovers that a man named Abu Ahmed was a courier for bin Laden and therefor may have access to bin Laden?s current location. She follows the leads for years, even surviving various threats and a bombing, as assassins attempt to end her life.? She continues the search, finally locating Abu Ahmed and following him in his car to a compound in Abottobad, Pakistan, the ultimate location where Osama bin Laden had been living.?After various plans regarding the capture of bin Laden, the CIA eventually tasked Navy SEALs from Team SIX, the United States Navy?s main counterterrorist unit, with the mission. We all know the ending; on May 2, 2011, SEALs find bin Laden on the compound?s third level, where he is ultimately killed.
?While the movie didn?t have a political agenda, the topics of controversy are still plenty. A few are worth noting, one of the topics being torture. While the movie suggests that?water boarding?led to the finding of bin Laden, others have noted otherwise. Senator John McCain spent 5 ? years in inhumane and brutal conditions in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and mentioned after watching the film that waterboarding was not what led us to bin Laden?s compound. That article, and McCain?s statement, can be found below. It is then that we are reminded once again that this a movie, not a documentary.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/18/mccain-rejects-torture-s...
?A final point to make, and in my opinion the most important, is that of the safety of our United States Military, and the SEALs that completed this very mission. Known as ?silent warriors?, more attention is being brought to the not-so-undercover missions of our Special Warfare Operators these days. Should it be our business to see just how that mission was carried out? Well, either way, it?s our business now, and because of that the safety of our operators are at a much higher risk. When do the secrets stop?
I can understand writing a book, No Easy Day,?on which the movie was based, to clarify the mission because of so many reports in error, but is it necessary to clarify? Is recognition needed, individually, when any media is bad media? According to sworn testimony from CIA Information Review Officer Martha Lutz, releasing of this type of information could provide an ?unnecessary security and counterintelligence risk?, unnecessary being the key word.
As a current SEAL* recently mentioned after I asked him for a response to the film, ?None of us need recognition. We are not athletes pandering for the spotlight or our next big break. We are warriors, looking to silently accomplish whatever difficult task we are given without any attention, so we can quietly return to our families and lives. It is unnecessary and unwelcome to use our community to sell an agenda. It is also unwelcome to create an obsession within our culture with Navy SEALs and our work.? I think he put it best as he followed that with, ?Secrecy is safety, safety is coming home, and coming home alive is what all of us want.?
On that note, thank you to all those in uniform currently serving to protect our freedom every day. Your service does not go unnoticed, whether we know your name or not.
Promo posters for this movie are up in Village Theatre, which means it should be opening soon here in Coronado.
To read more about the movie and to watch more trailers, click here:
http://www.zerodarkthirty-movie.com/site/?hs308=ZDT6186
Source: http://www.ecoronado.com/xn/detail/2019736%3ABlogPost%3A145315?xg_source=activity
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Hands-on with the Dyle-, DTV-capable RCA Mobile TV tablet (video)
RCA's new Mobile TV Tablet appeared in the flesh here at Pepcom at CES 2013. The 8-inch tablet's a little weighty, but packs a combination DTV and Dyle TV tuner -- an industry first -- so we'll forgive it a little. There's an 8-inch IPS touchscreen, which, while suitably bright, was coated in fingerprints. It's not the prettiest tablet we've seen but it's something you'll have to forgive for all that wireless functionality paired with Android 4.0. There's also 8GB of built-in storage with microSD expansion and while those TV functions work without data, in the thick signal mess of tonight's event we couldn't get the Dyle app running. Take our word for it, it did work prior to filming our hands-on and we were able to watch live TV and hop around channels with ease. The device will arrive in stores this April, priced at $299.
Continue reading Hands-on with the Dyle-, DTV-capable RCA Mobile TV tablet (video)
Filed under: Tablets
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/vVI8quElYOY/
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Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Disney World to track visitors with wireless wristbands
22 hrs.
New wireless-tracking wristbands designed to make the "Most Magical Place on Earth"?even more hassle-free will hit Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., over the next few months.
The "MagicBands" will be linked to customers' credit-card information and function as room keys and park entry passes, thanks to radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips, which are most commonly used in wireless toll collection and public-transit turnstiles.
The MagicBands are part of a bigger system called "MyMagic+," which also allows the theme park to collect sensitive personal information, including names of guests both young and old, their purchasing and riding patterns and real-time location data.
"Imagine booking guaranteed ride times for your favorite shows and attractions even before setting foot in the park," wrote Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, in a blog posting on Monday. "With MyMagic+, guests will be able to do that and more, enabling them to spend more time together and creating an experience that?s better for everyone."
Granular controls
Compared with many companies foraying deeper into the world of data collection, Disney seems to make it very easy for customers to control what and how much information is shared with whom or to opt out of the program completely.
The New York Times reports that, for example, mascot characters could use the information transmitted by the MagicBands to greet visiting children by name ? and even wish them happy birthday if so informed.
But parents could also choose not to share their children's information with park employees in that manner.
The Times said a new part of the official Disney World website, called "My Disney Experience," makes it fairly straightforward to manage MagicBand privacy controls for each member of a family. (There's already a MyDisneyExperience app for iOS and Android devices.)
Parents could share more information about themselves and less about their children, or choose whether to link a credit card to the wristband or simply use it as a ticket to a park or attraction.
Creepy or convenient?
The operation is a huge one. Analysts told the Times that they estimate the cost of installing the system, which will impact 60,000 employees and more than 100,000 guests every day, at somewhere between $800 million and $1 billion.
Some commenters on the StitchKingdom Disney fan site?said they felt "a bit creeped out" and "not terribly comfortable with the idea" in response to an article on MyMagic+ posted in March.
But most commenters there and on other Disney fan sites either thought MyMagic+ was a great idea, or lamented that its users would be able to jump queues ahead of holders of other premium Disney ticket options.
There's no word on when the MyMagic+ program will spread to the four other Disney theme parks in southern California, Japan, Paris and Hong Kong.
More from TechNewsDaily:
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/travelkit/disney-world-track-visitors-wireless-wristbands-1B7874882
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Yoga for skiers and snowboarders | MNN - Mother Nature Network
Unless you are lucky to live within an hour of the slopes (or get a lot of time off in the winter season), skiing and snowboarding can be tough on the body ? not because they are inherently dangerous (unless you take a spill, of course), but because most of us don't do them often enough to build up the specific strength and flexibility we need for a day out on the snow. It's tough to build up those muscles when you only go out five or six days each season; ideally we could start the winter riding or skiing a couple hours a few times a week, building up to a full day on the slopes. But most of the time, we get our time at the ski resort in small chunks.?
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Not only do I not want to hurt myself when I go riding, there are few things as frustrating as your thigh and calf muscles giving up after a few hours when you have the rest of the day to use your lift ticket ? and your heart and mind want to keep going. When you push yourself once your legs start shaking, that's when accidents and injuries occur, so being in decent shape will help avoid some of that (I like to vary leg-centric exercises like spinning, running and using the elliptical with lunges and jump-roping to build strong legs and core). But yoga strengthening exercises that target specific areas can really target those muscles you use the most while riding and skiing.?
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While overall and flexibility will always benefit a rider or skiier, I'm always sure to focus on legs, spine and core muscles so I can go all day long. Indeed, in this excellent piece on Yoga Journal for skiers, writer and yogi Baron Baptiste likens the proper skiing position to yoga poses.?
? ? Feet?should be shoulder-width apart, as if in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), to create a stable base for the body.
? ? Knees?should be in line with the toes, as in Utkatasana (Chair Pose).
? ? Hips?should be tipped slightly forward. This is a somewhat unnatural position for most people; however, ski boots help encourage this shape in the lower body.
? ? This posture helps you gain control. Boris likens it to walking down a roof: "If your hips are back, then your feet will come out from under you," she says.
? ? Shoulders?should be dropped, or relaxed, as in?Tadasana.? ? Torso?should be still. Referred to as a "quiet upper body" in skiing, having a "still" torso is akin to riding a bicycle with the lower body doing most of the work while ?the upper body provides stability.
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Here's an example of how simple these moves can be, even if you've never done yoga before:?
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Chair Pose
Start:?In Mountain Pose
Action:
? Take a deep breath through the nose and exhale as you sit back, bend your knees and drop the tailbone back. Lift your chest and reach your arms forward and up alongside ears.
? Press into the feet, extend through the hips and knees, then rise back up to Mountain Pose.
? Repeat 10?15 times. On the last chair, remain ?seated? for at least six deep breaths.
Benefits:?Keeps the ankles, hips and shoulders in alignment with the knees over the toes, which, when snowboarding, is the correct centered and balanced position. Engages core muscles in your abdomen and spine.
In this video, yoga teacher Sarah Kline is joined by Olympic skiracer Resi Stiegler and professional snowboarder Rob Kingwill, in a pre-riding or skiing warmup.?
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This 20-minute yoga practice will build stregth and flexibility specifically for snowboarders and skiers.?
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Source: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/yoga-for-skiers-and-snowboarders
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Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Did Lucy walk on the ground or stay in the trees?
Dec. 31, 2012 ? Much has been made of our ancestors "coming down out of the trees," and many researchers view terrestrial bipedalism as the hallmark of "humanness." After all, most of our living primate relatives -- the great apes, specifically -- still spend their time in the trees. Humans are the only member of the family devoted to the ground, living terrestrial rather than arboreal lives, but that wasn't always the case.
The fossil record shows that our predecessors were arboreal habitu?s, that is, until Lucy arrived on the scene. About 3.5 million years ago in Africa, this new creature, Australopithecus afarensis, appeared; Lucy was the first specimen discovered. Anthropologists agree that A. afarensis was bipedal, but had Lucy and her legions totally forsaken the trees? The question is at the root of a controversy that still rages.
"Australopithecus afarensis possessed a rigid ankle and an arched, nongrasping foot," write Nathaniel Dominy and his co-authors in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "These traits are widely interpreted as being functionally incompatible with climbing and thus definitive markers of terrestriality," says Dominy, an associate professor of anthropology at Dartmouth.
But not so fast; this interpretation may be a rush to judgment in light of new evidence brought to light by Dominy and his colleagues. They did what anthropologists do. They went out and looked at modern humans who, like Lucy, have feet adapted to terrestrial bipedalism, and found these people can still function as effective treeclimbers.
Co-authors Vivek Venkataraman and Thomas Kraft collaborated with Dominy on field studies in the Philippines and Africa that inform their PNAS paper. Venkataraman and Kraft are Dartmouth graduate students in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD program in the Department of Biological Sciences, and are supported by National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships.
The studies in Uganda compared Twa hunter-gatherers to their agriculturalist neighbors, the Bakiga. In the Philippines, the researchers studied Agta hunter-gatherers and Manobo agriculturalists. Both the Twa and the Agta habitually climb trees in pursuit of honey, a highly nutritious component of their diets. They climb in a fashion that has been described as "walking" up small-diameter trees. The climbers apply the soles of their feet directly to the trunk and "walk" upward, with their arms and legs advancing alternately.
Among the climbers, Dominy and his team documented extreme dorsiflexion -- bending the foot upward toward the shin to an extraordinary degree -- beyond the range of modern "industrialized" humans. Assuming their leg bones and ankle joints were normal, "we hypothesized that a soft-tissue mechanism might enable such extreme dorsiflexion," the authors write.
They tested their hypothesis using ultrasound imaging to measure and compare the lengths of gastrocnemius muscle fibers -- the large calf muscles -- in all four groups -- the Agta, Manobo, Twa and Bakiga. The climbing Agta and Twa were found to have significantly longer muscle fibers.
"These results suggest that habitual climbing by Twa and Agta men changes the muscle architecture associated with ankle dorsiflexion," write the scientists, demonstrating that a terrestrially adapted foot and ankle do not exclude climbing from the behavioral repertoire of human hunter- gatherers, or Lucy.
In their conclusions, the Dartmouth team highlights the value of modern humans as models for studying the anatomical correlates of behavior, both in the present and in the dim past of our fossil ancestors.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Dartmouth College. The original article was written by Joseph Blumberg.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Vivek V. Venkataraman, Thomas S. Kraft, and Nathaniel J. Dominy. Tree climbing and human evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208717110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Nj87vBz84zw/121231161043.htm
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