A whale of a time for cruise passengers - Stuff

Black Cat Cruises

DROPPING IN: A humpback whale plays in the water near Akaroa.

Passengers on board an Akaroa Harbour cruise in Canterbury today were treated with views of a breaching humpback whale.

Black Cat Cruises managing director Paul Bingham said the whale provided some spectacular sights leaping out of the water.

He said the mammal was just off Akaroa heads and briefly came into the harbour.

The whale was thought to be on its way north from Antarctica to warmer tropical waters.

Humpback whales have wide-ranging but distinctly seasonal migration patterns, travelling thousands of kilometres between high-latitude summer feeding grounds and low-latitude winter breeding and calving grounds, Bingham said.

They travel mainly along the east coast and through Cook Strait during winter and return along the west coast in spring.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

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Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8719135/A-whale-of-a-time-for-cruise-passengers

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Obama: Gov't with Oklahoma 'every step' of the way

President Barack Obama tries to comfort Plaza Towers Elementary School principal Amy Simpson Sunday May 26, 2013, in Moore, Okla., as he views the devastation of the school caused by tornado and severe weather last week. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama tries to comfort Plaza Towers Elementary School principal Amy Simpson Sunday May 26, 2013, in Moore, Okla., as he views the devastation of the school caused by tornado and severe weather last week. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama walks across the tarmac to greet people as he arrives on Air Force One, Sunday, May 26, 2013, at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City, Okla., en route to the Moore, Okla., to see the response to the severe tornadoes and weather that devastated the area. He will also visit with the families affected, and with first responders. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama greets people on the tarmac as he arrives Sunday, May 26, 2013, at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City, Okla., en route to the Moore, Okla., to see the response to the severe tornadoes and weather that devastated the area. He will also visit with the families affected, and first responders. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama is greeted by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin as he arrives Sunday, May 26, 2013, at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City, Okla., en route to the Moore, Okla., to see the response to the severe tornadoes and weather that devastated the area. He will also visit with the families affected, and first responders. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama and school officials view the destroyed Plaza Towers Elementary School, Sunday, May 26, 2013, in Moore, Okla., following the devastating tornado and severe weather last week. At the far right is FEMA administrator W. Craig Fugate. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

MOORE, Okla. (AP) ? President Barack Obama visited tornado-devastated Moore, Okla., Sunday, consoling people staggered by the loss of life and property and promising that the government will be behind them "every step of the way."

"I'm just a messenger here," the president said, saying "folks are behind you" across America. He offered moral and monetary support in the wake of the monstrous EF5 tornado that killed 24 people, including 10 children, last Monday afternoon.

Standing with Gov. Mary Fallin and other state and federal officials, Obama noted a substantial rebuilding job ahead and said that "our hearts go out to you."

"This is a strong community with strong character. There's no doubt they will bounce back," he said. "But they need help."

The White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has already provided $57 million in rebates and incentives to help build about 12,000 storm shelters in Oklahoma. "These storm shelters can be the difference between life and death," presidential spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters accompanying Obama to Oklahoma on Air Force One.

For Obama, Sunday's visit had an all-too-familiar ring.

Only five months into his second term, he has traveled to the northeast to console people in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, and visited Connecticut and Arizona to comfort people traumatized by shooting rampages. He also has undertaken his consoler-in-chief role at the site of plant explosions and mine disasters, not to mention a series of natural disasters including Joplin, Mo., and the Jersey Shore, which was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last year.

Once on the ground, Obama urged the American people to make contributions, saying the damage was "pretty hard to comprehend."

Shortly after his arrival on a partly cloudy day, Obama rode past grassy fields strewn with scattered debris, witnessing devastation so awesome that it appeared as if garbage had literally rained from the sky. His first stop was the demolished site of the Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven students were killed when the tornado turned the one-story building into a heap of bricks, broken concrete and twisted metal.

"I know this is tough," he told superintendent Susie Pierce as he gripped her hand. As he walked, the demolished school was on his left and on his right, homes as far as the eye could see were reduced to piles of rubble. Vehicles were turned upside down and toys like a pink doll carriage and children's books were strewn with furniture and ripped out wall insulation. Every tree had been stripped of its leaves and bark.

Obama at one point joined the Lewis family, which lost their home behind the school. He said the important thing was that they survived and could replace their things.

"What a mess," he told their son Zack, a third grader at the shattered school. Zack's father, Scott, ran into the school just before the storm hit and ran with his terrified son back to their home's storm shelter.

"You've got some story to tell," Obama told the boy. "This is something you'll remember all your life."

Obama later met privately with victims' families at Moore Fire Department Station (hash)1, which has turned into a command center with dozens of first responders sitting at folding tables where fire trucks are normally parked. Obama marveled that they saved so many lives "given the devastation."

"I know this is tough," he told superintendent Susie Pierce as he gripped her hand.

As he descended the stairs upon landing at Tinker Air Base near here, Obama was greeted first by Fallin, who had said earlier she appreciated the visit, but that her state also needed quick action from FEMA.

The Republican governor said that so far, the agency has done a great job of speeding relief and cash assistance to affected families, but said she's concerned about the long run.

"There's going to come a time when there's going to be a tremendous amount of need once we begin the debris clearing, which we already have, but really get it cleared off to where we need to start rebuilding these homes, rebuilding these businesses," she said on CBS' "Face the Nation." ''And we know at different times in the past, money hasn't come always as quickly as it should."

Fallin said the money is particularly vital for the victims. "A lot of people lose their checkbooks, they lose their credit cards, they lose their driver's license, their birth certificates, their insurance papers, they lose everything, and they have no cash. And some of the banks were even hit, the ATM machines, so people need cash to get immediate needs," she said on CBS.

Earnest touted the federal contributions so far, including Obama's signing of a disaster declaration within hours of the storm to speed aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Earnest said that 450 FEMA personnel were working on the ground in Oklahoma and have delivered 43,000 meals, 150,000 liters of water and thousands of cots, blankets and tarps. He said 4,200 people have applied for disaster assistance, and $3.4 million in payments have been approved.

Among the tornado victims were 10 children, including two sisters pulled by the strong winds out of their mother's grasp, an infant who died along with his mother trying to ride out the storm in a convenience store and seven students at Plaza Towers. Many students were pulled from the rubble after the school was destroyed.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-26-Obama/id-a8bbc9ac55ba4979b8f0a336687fa5ca

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TrustPort Total Protection 2013

By Neil J. Rubenking

Antivirus protection and a firewall are the core of any security suite, and most suites add a standard set of features including spam filtering and parental control. Encryption and access control can also be useful, especially in a business setting, but these features are less common. TrustPort Total Protection 2013 ($69.95 direct; $89.95 for three licenses) offers the same suite components as TrustPort's basic suite and adds a range of encryption and access control features that will please the tech-savvy user. Yes, you pay more for the mega-suite, but you get your money's worth.

Just looking at this product, you'd be hard pressed to distinguish it from TrustPort Internet Security 2013. The main window is the same, the color scheme is the same. The only visible difference is the product name in the title bar. Under the hood, though, there's a lot more.

TrustPort Total Security 2013 shares quite a lot of features with TrustPort Internet Security 2013 and TrustPort Antivirus 2013. You'll want to read those reviews for full details. I'll summarize here, and then dig into the features specific to the mega-suite.

Shared Antivirus
I had next to no trouble installing TrustPort on my 12 malware-infested test systems. I did need to generate a bootable Windows PE antivirus CD on a clean system to get past problems with two of the 12, but it did the job easily.

TrustPort's low score of 4.7 for malware removal reflects the fact that it didn't effectively clean up the malware samples it found. It left behind quite a few executables, many of them still running. Among products tested with this same set of samples, only G Data TotalSecurity 2014 scored lower, with 4.3 points. At 6.0 points, Kaspersky PURE 3.0 Total Security did the best in this group. For details about how I test malware removal, see How We Test Malware Removal.

TrustPort tied with Ad-Aware Pro Security 10.5 for best detection rate (94 percent) in my malware blocking test, and tied with G Data TotalSecurity 2014 for second-best malware blocking score overall, 9.0 points. Looking at products tested with my previous malware collection, Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete 2013 led the pack with 9.9 points. To learn how I run the malware blocking test, see How We Test Malware Blocking.

The independent testing labs mostly ignore TrustPort, unfortunately. West Cost Labs does certify TrustPort's technology for virus detection and removal, and TrustPort got VB100 certification in eight of the last ten tests by Virus Bulletin. The chart below summarizes recent lab results; for more about these tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/3iwVbeG7wtc/0,2817,2419449,00.asp

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Terrified Motorists Get Lift Across Bridge

The Mackinac Bridge in Michigan spans five miles and is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world with the roadway soaring more than 200 feet over Lake Michigan. The bridge's dimensions provide stunning views of the surrounding landscape, but those vistas can be stomach-churning for people with gephyrophobia, or an abnormal fear of crossing bridges.

Between 1,200 to 1,400 calls are made every year to the bridge's Drivers Assistance Program that provides motorists with a crew member to drive them across if they're too afraid to drive themselves.

After the Thursday collapse of a highway bridge in Mount Vernon, Wash., the number of calls might increase with more fearful drivers wanting to be chauffeured across the Mackinac Bridge. But experts say phobias like gephyrophobia are sometimes more complicated in their origins.

READ MORE: I-5 Bridge Collapse Sends Cars Into Water

Dr. Frank Schneier, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, said many people who're afraid to cross bridges are also suffering from agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder triggered by a fear of feeling trapped.

"They have intense anxiety symptoms or panic attacks," Schneier said. "It's not so much the idea that bridges are [going to collapse]. It's that they are places you can't escape from."

About 0.8 percent of Americans older than 18 have a form of agoraphobia, according to the National Institute of Health.

Paul Souders/WorldFoto/Corbis

Washington State Bridge Collapse Investigation Watch Video I-5 Bridge Collapses, 2 Cars Plummet Into Water Watch Video Bridge Collapse Survivor: 'Lucky to Be Alive' Watch Video

"There are techniques that can help people overcome these kinds of fears," Schneier said, citing therapy and anti-anxiety mediation as options for drivers to ease their worries.

But for those who haven't conquered their fear of crossing the Mackinac Bridge, the Driver's Assistance Program is another option. Bob Sweeney, the secretary of the Mackinac Bridge, said phone booths on either side of the bridge allow motorists the chance to call the program. Some even use it during their commute to and from work.

"There's a truck driver, who comes once month," Sweeney said. "He gets into a sleeper behind the cab and lays down for the whole trip [under a blanket]. It's amazing."

Only one crew member is available during the night shift, so a toll operator has to pitch in and drive a second car that picks up the crew member for the return trip to the opposite side of the bridge.

The Mackinac Bridge isn't the only bridge that provides the extra service for fearful drivers. A similar program exists for New York City's Tappan Zee Bridge. The New York Thruway Authority allows motorists afraid of driving across the bridge to make an appointment to be chauffeured over.

But a New York Thruway Authority representative estimated that the service is used far less than the Michigan program, likely only a handful of times annually.

Schneier said such programs to ferry scared drivers across bridges can be helpful to keep traffic moving but don't solve the core of the problem and that people should seek help if their fears become incapacitating.

"It's a patch to get the person over the bridge that day," Schneier said. "Most people, with the right kind of help, can overcome these disorders if they become debilitating."

For some people, however, even being chauffeured over the bridge is too much. Sweeney said his own brother-in-law is too afraid to drive across the Mackinac Bridge and, as a result, has never been to his home in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which is joined to the state's Lower Peninsula by the bridge.

"Surprisingly, there's a lot of people who [have this] phobia," Sweeney said. "I just found out my brother-in-law is so afraid they stay [on the other side of the bridge.]"

For an upcoming family visit, Sweeney's brother-in-law is planning to take two ferries to make the trip.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/terrified-motorists-lift-bridge/story?id=19250164

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Fast start for Serena Williams at French Open

PARIS (AP) ? Serena Williams won her opening match at the French Open, and then achieved a career breakthrough by speaking French to the crowd for the first time.

"I'm a beginner," Williams said ? referring to her French, not tennis.

Her play spoke volumes Sunday. Williams returned to the red clay that tripped her up in the first round a year ago, channeled any lingering frustration into her overpowering strokes and drubbed Anna Tatishvili 6-0, 6-1.

Roger Federer, the 2009 champion, remained unbeaten in first-round matches at major tournaments since 2003 by sweeping qualifier Pablo Carreno Busta 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. Sam Querrey, the highest-ranked American on the men's tour, equaled his best showing ever at Roland Garros by reaching the second round when he beat Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Williams lost her opening match at a Grand Slam tournament for the only time in her career a year ago, when she was beaten by France's Virginie Razzano. That was the most shocking in a succession of losses for Williams at Roland Garros, where she hasn't won the title since 2002 and hasn't reached the semifinals since 2003.

Determined to avoid another bad start, Williams won the first nine games, and 30 of the first 37 points. There was no letup from there, and she was still pumping her fist and shouting "Come on!" a game from the finish.

Williams won 56 of 78 points, including 28 of 33 on her serve, and hit eight aces. She maintained a stern expression throughout the match, and allowed herself only a brief smile when Tatishvili pushed a forehand wide on match point.

Williams, who keeps an apartment in Paris, was then interviewed on center court and spoke French with only a slight accent.

"I think I am French because I have a flat here," she said. "I love Paris."

She'll face tougher competition in the rounds to come ? Tatishvili fell to 2-11 this year and 0-3 at the French Open.

Others advancing on a chilly, gray first day of play included Sara Errani, the 2012 runner-up to Maria Sharapova, and 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic.

American Mallory Burdette, whose ranking has climbed to a career-best 80th from 142nd at the start of the year, made a successful Roland Garros debut by beating Donna Vekic 6-3, 6-4.

Burdette, a 22-year-old Stanford alum, said she has enjoyed learning how to play on clay.

"It's a bit of a challenge," she said. "You have to change up your strategy a little bit, especially if you're a big hitter. It takes a little bit of effort, but it's fun."

Former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt lost a seesaw marathon to No. 15-seeded Gilles Simon, 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5.

Play began with the temperature in the mid-50s, and an hour into the tournament, Errani was into the second round. The tenacious Italian beat Arantxa Rus 6-1, 6-2 in the opening match on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Errani reached a Grand Slam final for the first time a year ago at Roland Garros.

"Last year was an unbelievable tournament, the best tournament of my life," Errani said. "But I don't want to think about that. I just want to come here and play another tournament. I try to concentrate on my tennis, not too much about last year."

Now ranked a career-best No. 5, Errani dominated Rus from the baseline and won four games at love. Rus double-faulted seven times and lost her 13th consecutive match on the WTA Tour.

Ivanovic, seeded 14th, beat Petra Martic 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. Ivanovic improved to 30-4 in the first round of Grand Slam tournaments.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fast-start-serena-williams-french-open-123505034.html

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Family Home and Life: Sweet & Sour Cucumber Salad

I don't like cucumbers too much, and I am not a big fan of pickles. But this Cucumber Salad is just perfect and I love it!?It is super easy and is best made the night before though you can serve after an hour in the fridge.


Cucumber Salad

4 cucumbers, sliced thin

???of a white onion thinly sliced

1 tb of chopped fresh dill

? c of apple cider vinegar

? c sugar

Peel skin from cucumbers leaving a strip of peel creating stripes to make it pretty. (If you don't like the peel, then peel it all the way off.)?Slice thinly and place in a large bowl. Add onions and dill. In a microwavable container, mix sugar, vinegar and salt and microwave till it almost boils, about?1 1/2?minutes. Pour over cucumbers and stir. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and stir?every now and then. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving, overnight is best.* Serve using a slotted spoon.

*It will seem as if there is not enough of the vinegar/sugar mixture but as the cucumbers marinade in it, they will release their moisture and you will?have a lot of juice in the bowl.

?* This is a repost.?

I link at these parties.?

If you are reading this post anywhere else but at www.FamilyHomeandLife.com then it was used without permission! Please report it! Copyright ? Family Home and Life 2010-2013 All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.familyhomeandlife.com/2013/05/sweet-sour-cucumber-salad.html

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Research effort deep underground could sort out cosmic-scale mysteries

May 24, 2013 ? The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has begun delivery of germanium-76 detectors to an underground laboratory in South Dakota in a team research effort that might explain the puzzling imbalance between matter and antimatter generated by the Big Bang.

"It might explain why we're here at all," said David Radford, who oversees specific ORNL activities in the Majorana Demonstrator research effort. "It could help explain why the matter that we are made of exists."

Radford, a researcher in ORNL's Physics Division and an expert in germanium detectors, has been delivering germanium-76 to Sanford Underground Research Laboratory (SURF) in Lead, S.D., for the project. After navigating a Valentine's Day blizzard on the first two-day drive from Oak Ridge, Radford made a second delivery in March.

ORNL serves as the lead laboratory for the Majorana Demonstrator research effort, a collaboration of research institutions representing the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada. The project is managed by the University of North Carolina's Prof. John Wilkerson, who also has a joint faculty appointment with ORNL.

Research at SURF is being conducted 4,850 feet beneath Earth's surface with the intention of building a 40-kilogram germanium detector, capable of detecting the theorized neutrinoless double beta decay. Detection might help to explain the matter-antimatter imbalance.

Before the detection of the unobserved decay can begin, however, the germanium must first be processed, refined and enriched. Radford coordinated the multistep process, which includes an essential pit stop in Oak Ridge.

The 42.5 kilograms of 86-percent enriched white germanium oxide powder required for the project is valued at $4 million and was transported from a Russian enrichment facility to a secure underground ORNL facility in a specially designed container. The container's special shielding and underground storage limited exposure of the germanium to cosmic rays.

Without such preventative measures, Radford says, "Cosmic rays transmute germanium atoms into long-lived radioactive atoms, at the rate of about two atoms per day per kilogram of germanium. Even those two atoms a day will add to the background in our experiment. So we use underground storage to reduce the exposure to cosmic rays by a factor of 100."

The germanium must further undergo a reduction and purification process at two Oak Ridge companies, Electrochemical Systems, Inc. (ESI) and Advanced Measurement Technology (AMETEK), before being moved to its final destination in South Dakota. ESI works to reduce the powdered germanium oxide to metal germanium bars. ORTEC, a division of AMETEK, further purifies the bars, using the material to grow large single crystals of germanium, and turning those into one-kilogram cylindrical germanium detectors that will be used in the Demonstrator. Once they leave AMETEK, Radford and his team transport the detectors to SURF.

The enrichment process is lengthy. The Majorana Demonstrator project began the partnership with ESI four years ago. To date, ORNL has delivered -- via Radford's two trips -- nine of the enriched detectors, which are valued at about $2 million including the original cost of the enriched germanium oxide powder.

Requiring a total of 30 enriched detectors, the Majorana Demonstrator is not expected to be fully complete and operational until 2015.

Those involved in the Majorana research effort believe its completion and anticipated results will help pave the way for a next-generation detector using germanium-76 with unprecedented sensitivity. The future one-ton detector will help to determine the ratio and masses of conserved and annihilated lepton particles that are theorized to cause the initial imbalance of matter and antimatter from the Big Bang.

"The research effort is the first major step towards building a one-ton detector -- a potentially Nobel-Prize-worthy project," Radford says.

ORNL's partner institutions in the Majorana Demonstration Project are Black Hills State University, Duke University, Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Russia), Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Russia), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, North Carolina State University, Osaka (Japan) University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Centre for Particle Physics (Canada), University of Chicago, University of North Carolina, University of South Carolina, University of South Dakota, University of Tennessee and the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics.

The Majorana Demonstrator research project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Physics.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/_pJyzsPVy5A/130524134308.htm

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