Battle of Charleston Harbor, Panoramic View

English: First Battle of Charleston Harbor. "Panoramic View of Charleston Harbor. -- Advance of Ironclads to the Attack, April 7th, 1863" Line engraving published in "The Soldier in our Civil War", Volume II, page 172, with a key to individual ships and land features shown. U.S. Navy ships present are (from left to center): Keokuk, Nahant, Nantucket, Catskill, New Ironsides, Patapsco, Montauk, Passaic and Weehawken. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Photo #: NH 59269. Online Image: 107KB; 900 x 350 pixels. Nederlands: Eerste slag bij Charleston Harbor

link: File:First Charleston Harbor.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Illustration by Viera Bombová (1932 - 2005)

Viera Bombová (1932 - 2005) was a Slovak illustrator. Along with Albín Brunovský, she studied graphic design and illustration with Vincent Hloznik in the 50s. She won awards at the "Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava" in 1967 and 1969.

link: A Journey Round My Skull: Forgotten Illustrator - Viera Bombova

5th Ave. and 23rd St., New York

link: File:Looking up 5th Avenue from 23rd Street, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views 2.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

# Original source: Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views. / United States. / States / New York / New York City / Stereoscopic views of parades, holidays and events in New York City (Approx. 72,000 stereoscopic views : 10 x 18 cm. or smaller.) digital record # Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building / Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs # Catalog Call Number: MFY Dennis Coll 91-F182 # Record ID: 624219 # Digital ID: G91F182_044F

Bomb in Kirkuk as US Departs

Up to 40 people have been killed in a bomb blast in the northern city of Kirkuk, just hours after US troops withdrew from Iraq's towns and cities.

A further 100 were wounded as the car bomb was detonated in a crowded market in the central Shurga district of the city on Tuesday.

Dr Sabah Mohammed al-Dawoudi, a local doctor, said: "All of the killed and wounded are civilians, among them women, children and men.

"The explosion happened at the peak time for shopping."

The attack came hours after Iraqi forces formally assumed responsibility for the capital, Baghdad, and other cities as the midnight deadline for the US to hand over control passed on Tuesday, six years after US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq.

link: Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Kirkuk bombed amid US pullout

The Tragic Saga of the Packing Noodle

While Burchard was experimenting with refrigerator insulation, he came up with a novel way of molding low-density foam. The foam wasn't a very good insulator (in other words, not useful to him at the time), but he was impressed by how light and strong it was. He realized that he could use it to improve upon the packing peanut. Burchard shaped the new material into rough- textured lightning bolts of foam that locked together to stay put under the weight of heavy, priceless objects. He christened his creation Expans O Fill and in 1998 sent it to Michigan State University's School of Packaging for independent testing. It trounced all seven competitive products, transmitting up to 90 percent less shock and cushioning four times better than the packing peanut. Five years later, 3M bought the design, renamed it the Packing Noodle, and rolled it out in 2004.

Even though the Noodle was a vast improvement over the peanut, "they didn't sell well," says Carter Swift, a brand manager at 3M. "They were just too different." The Noodles came fitted together in compact, shrink-wrapped blocks. Retailers loved them because they took up such little shelf space. But consumers didn't understand that the blocks broke apart into hundreds of Noodles. In June, Burchard's brilliant idea was discontinued, and once again we're left with only God (and a few lesser earthly products) to protect our precious cargo.

link: Packing It In: Why the Foam Noodle Couldn't Cut It in the Protection Racket

A Critique of Impure Tweeting: Alice Hoffman and the Critics

Fortunately, as Alice Hoffman's weekend meltdown suggests, the form is still thriving -- in 140-character nuggets. Smarting from a so-so review of "The Story Sisters" in the Boston Globe, the prolific novelist tweeted her fury to the world. She came out swinging, calling reviewer Roberta Silman "a moron," quickly moving on to "idiot," then expanding her repertoire to dis the newspaper and the city of Boston itself. But the real jaw-dropper in Hoffman's two dozen plus tweets on the subject was her suggestion that "If you want to tell Roberta Silman off, her phone is [Silman's phone number and email address]. Tell her what u think of snarky critics."

As of late Monday morning, Hoffman's Twitter account -- and with it, her petulant tweets -- have disappeared. Did she have a pang of remorse about her actions, or a fear of a lawsuit? She issued a statement through her publisher that read, "I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion. Of course, I was dismayed by Roberta Silman's review which gave away the plot of the novel, and in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions and that's the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn't mean to hurt anyone and I'm truly sorry if I did." (Who better than Diana Joseph, author of the recent memoir "I'm Sorry You Feel That Way," to point out that Hoffman's "I hope my readers understand that I didn't mean to hurt anyone and I'm truly sorry if I did" is a pretty passive-aggressive statement? Why is she apologizing to her readers but not to Silman? "Hoffman is still too perturbed about the review, still kicking and screaming that it 'gave away the plot,'" said Joseph on Monday. "Translation: It's Silman's fault. She made me do it.")

link: Hey, authors, don't tweet in anger! | Salon Books

Outsourcing the Horse Meat Trade

Not many people realize slaughtering horses for meat has been big business in the U.S. for generations. Yet in recent decades, public sentiment, matched by state and local laws, has risen against the practice, and in 2007 the last three U.S. horse slaughterhouses were shuttered. Since 2005, Congress has also withheld U.S. Department of Agriculture funding for horse-meat inspections to prevent new abattoirs from opening in states where horse slaughter is still legal. No federal law, though, forbids U.S. horses from being sent to slaughterhouses across the border. Which is exactly what has been happening in the two years since horse slaughter stopped here. The number killed in Canada and Mexico doubled to 49,000 in 2007 and rose to more than 72,000 last year, according to trade data.

link: Horses to the slaughter | Salon

Obama Wines and Dines LGBT Constituents

"I know that many in this room don't believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that," [Obama] said. "It's not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago."

That may have helped buy him some, well, patience. "He acknowledged the sense of frustration and disappointment and disillusionment that many in our community have been expressing -- very justifiably so," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who attended the event with her 13-year-old son. By making clear he knew he had disappointed many supporters, Obama won a chance to persuade them that he'd follow through with action. The administration has also been more open to hearing from gay and lesbian activists in recent weeks, Kendell said. "He acknowledged without condescension, without defensiveness, the fact that there was a sense that we had expected and been hoping for more ... I do believe, and feel comforted, that part of his value system includes full equality for LGBT Americans."

link: Obama woos LGBT leaders | Salon News

Dept. of Wheels Within Wheels: Govt. Buys Online Tools To Monitor Online Spending

The Obama administration introduced online tools on Tuesday that will track and analyze the more than $70 billion a year that the federal government spends on information technology.

The new Web tools, called IT Dashboard, are part of a Web site set up to monitor government spending, USASpending.gov. Administration officials said the technology-tracking dashboard was a step toward greater openness and accountability in government, and a model for the kinds of tools it would increasingly make available to the public for other kinds of spending, like following the flow of dollars in the economic recovery package.

link: New Tool Will Track Federal Tech Spending - NYTimes.com

O Arizona: Myopic State Goverment Hamstrung Over Budget

With only hours left to avert a possible state shutdown, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer visited the state House Tuesday, seeking support from Democratic lawmakers for a sales tax increase to help close the state's multibillion dollar budget shortfall.

Two Democratic representatives later said that they told the governor they couldn't oblige without getting something in return. The lawmakers said they met with Brewer and state House Speaker Kirk Adams.

Democratic state Rep. Jack Brown of St. Johns said he asked Brewer to halve the one-cent sales tax increase and to dump other tax measures opposed by Democrats, but "she wouldn't bend."

link: Brewer To Dems: Back Sales Tax - Money News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Reliquary

File:Reliquary Thomas Becket MNMA Cl23296.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Stereopticon View: Old Fort Holmes

File:Old Fort Holmes, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.png - Wikimedia Commons

Iran's Poet Laureate Simin Behbahani

4:11 pm: Iran’s poet laureate speaks out – Iran’s national poet Simin Behbahani went on NPR and recited two poems inspired by the protests in Iran. Listen to them here or watch on Youtube.

Stop Throwing My Country To The Wind

Simin Behbahani

Translated by Kaveh Safa and Farzaneh Milani

June 2009

If the flames of anger rise any higher in this land Your name on your tombstone will be covered with dirt.

You have become a babbling loudmouth. Your insolent ranting, something to joke about.

The lies you have found, you have woven together. The rope you have crafted, you will find around your neck.

Pride has swollen your head, your faith has grown blind. The elephant that falls will not rise.

Stop this extravagance, this reckless throwing of my country to the wind. The grim-faced rising cloud, will grovel at the swamp’s feet.

Stop this screaming, mayhem, and blood shed. Stop doing what makes God’s creatures mourn with tears.

My curses will not be upon you, as in their fulfillment. My enemies’ afflictions also cause me pain.

You may wish to have me burned, or decide to stone me. But in your hand match or stone will lose their power to harm me.

link: niacINsight

Inhofe Puts Out Contract on Climate Legislation

James Inhofe is quoted in the Enid Oklahoma News & Eagle from statements made yesterday (Monday) at an Enid, Oklahoma Rotary Club meeting. His appraisal of the chances of a climate bill passing the US Senate this week:

"It's dead on arrival in the Senate. It will not happen," Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe told Enid Rotarians during their noon meeting Monday. "I can absolutely guarantee you it's not going to happen in the Senate."

link: Quote Of The Day: "I can absolutely guarantee you it's not going to happen in the Senate." : TreeHugger

Detail from a Pair of Doors in India

File:Detail from pair of doors, northern India, 19th century.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Dinosaur Yields Skin Secrets, But Not for the Fashion Minded

A remarkably well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur has been analysed by scientists writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

They describe how the fossil's soft tissues were spared from decay by fine sediments that formed a mineral cast.

Tests have shown that the fossil still holds cell-like structures - but their constituent proteins have decayed.

The team says the cellular structure of the dinosaur's skin was similar to that of dinosaurs' modern-day descendants.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Dinosaur mummy yields its secrets

Academic Publishing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Non-Policy

Ed Kohler points us to a long, but fascinating blog post, by Stuart Shieber, a CS professor at Harvard, discussing the somewhat ridiculous copyright situation that many academics deal with in trying to promote their own works. I've heard similar stories from other professors I know, but this one is worth reading. Shieber points out the importance of academics getting their research published in journals, but how annoying it is that most journals require those academics to give up all sorts of rights -- including the right to distribute their own research on their websites. However, he notes that most published academics simply ignore this rule, and you end up with a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Even though they're legally prevented from putting up a PDF of their work on their website, they do so anyway, and journals just look the other way.

link: The Ridiculous Copyright Situation Faced By Academics Who Want To Promote Their Own Research | Techdirt

Little Walky Man Says "Walk" In 250 Languages: Traffic Lights from Around the World

This one is from Armenia.

Traffic lights - Wikimedia Commons

One of a Kind: Thank God!

File:Funnel-dog.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Smog and Premature Births: One More Reason to Clean it Up

Add it to Asthma, High Blood Pressure, and Cardiovascular Diseases Did we need one more reason to to fight against smog? I don't think so, but we got one anyway thanks to a study to be published in Environmental Health Perspectives and covered by Discovery News. A team from the University of California, Irvine, has shown that pregnant women living within 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) of a major roadway in Los Angeles are 128% more at risk of giving birth prematurely. "Moms-to-be were also between 33 and 42 percent more likely to develop preeclampsia, an affliction characterized by high blood pressure that often forces doctors to induce premature birth in order to save mothers' lives."

link: Smog is Increasing Risks of Premature Births by 128% : TreeHugger

Make Your Home A Cougar- and Gator-Free Fortress

Use wildlife smarts and DIY know-how to make your yard a predator-free zone. Animal attacks are rare, but they do happen. Here's how to handle an encounter with a mountain lion, alligator or black bear and survive–in the backcountry or backyard. Be sure to check out PM's story about the rise of endangered predators.

link: Survive Bear Attacks - Protect Your Home From Wild Animals - Popular Mechanics

Child Mapping: Michael Chabon on Childhood

Matt Groening once did a great Life in Hell strip that took the form of a map of Bongo's neighborhood. At one end of a street that wound among yards and houses stood Bongo, the little one-eared rabbit boy. At the other stood his mother, about to blow her stack—Bongo was late for dinner again. Between mother and son lay the hazards —labeled angry dogs, roving gang of hooligans, girl with a crush on bongo—of any journey through the Wilderness: deadly animals, antagonistic humans, lures and snares. It captured perfectly the mental maps of their worlds that children endlessly revise and refine. Childhood is a branch of cartography.

link: Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood - The New York Review of Books

Extreme Layoff Strategies: 1. Kill Boss 2. Revise Resume

Spanish police have arrested a man whom they suspect hired a contract killer to murder his boss in a desperate bid to avoid being laid off, newspaper El Pais reported on Tuesday.

The head of audiovisual services at the Barcelona International Convention Center contracted a Colombian man who shot and killed the director of the convention center on Feb 9, according to police.

The director had planned to lay off the arrested man as part of a restructuring project, police said.

link: Man had boss killed to save job? | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Book Review: "Censoring an Iranian Love Story"

In what now reads like an eerie echo of the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman cut down by a bullet during this month’s election protests and captured on video, the Iranian author of this new novel foresees the possible death of his heroine in the streets of Tehran: “The girl does not know that in precisely seven minutes and seven seconds, at the height of the clash between the students, the police, and the members of the Party of God, in the chaos of attacks and escapes, she will be knocked into with great force, she will fall back, her head will hit against a cement edge, and her sad Oriental eyes will forever close.”

Her fellow students, “aware that they are about to be attacked, break into a heartrending anthem: My fellow schoolmate, you are with me and beside me, ... you are my tear and my sigh, ... the scars of the lashes of tyranny rest on our bodies.”

“Censoring an Iranian Love Story” by Shahriar Mandanipour — an Iranian writer who is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard — is, at once, a novel about two young Iranians trying to conduct a covert romance in Tehran; a postmodern account of the efforts of their creator — or his fictional alter ego — to grapple with the harsh censorship rules of his homeland; and an Escher-like meditation on the interplay of life and art, reality and fiction.

link: Books of The Times - In Shahriar Mandanipour’s ‘Censoring an Iranian Love Story,’ Romance Requires Courage - Review - NYTimes.com

The Pros Provide Advice for Citizen Journalists

How would you like to get some pointers from Katie Couric and Tavis Smiley on how to conduct a good interview, from Bob Woodward on doing in-depth investigative journalism in the digital age, from Mike Isikoff on digging deeper to break news, and from Nicholas Kristof on how to cover a global humanitarian crisis and not get shot? This expert input is now just a click away, thanks to a cool new project being launched today by YouTube. The YouTube Reporters' Center aims to be a one-stop-shop for people looking to learn how to report on what's going on around them, offering over two dozen videos -- ranging from how to capture breaking news on your cell phone to the ins and outs of journalistic ethics.

link: Arianna Huffington: Katie Couric, Tavis Smiley, Bob Woodward, Nicholas Kristof, and I Hit YouTube with Pointers for Citizen Journalists

Infantilization Leads to Intelligence: Have a Long Talk with your Toddler

For decades scientists have noted that mature humans physically resemble immature chimps—we, too, have small jaws, flat faces and sparse body hair. The retention of juvenile features, called neoteny in evolutionary biology, is especially apparent in domesticated animals—thanks to human preferences, many dog breeds have puppy features such as floppy ears, short snouts and large eyes. Now genetic evidence suggests that neoteny could help explain why humans are so radically different from chimpanzees, even though both species share most of the same genes and split apart only about six million years ago, a short time in evolutionary terms.

link: Being More Infantile May Have Led to Bigger Brains: Scientific American

Get Used to This Big Crazy Grin: Franken FINALLY Wins

Minnesota Supreme Court rules Franken beat Coleman - War Room - Salon.com

The Art of Anatomy: William Rimmer

Looking at old prints sometimes reveals more than just their own history, simple or not: there are, from time to time, subtle bits of otherness that creeps into the image, if you allow yourself the time to see it. And sometimes looking at images of the past reveal a little of the future, or the possibility of the future.

William Rimmer’s (1816-1879) Art Anatomy (1877 and subsequent printings) is another such adventure. Rimmer was a very accomplished artist, and was also a fine anatomist. He was very concerned and interested in what happens to the skin, forced into action by all of the stuff underneath it. He pursued the movement of muscle, and bone, and the interplay of the two, and produced a wonderful exponent of artistic anatomy.

link: Ptak Science Books: Dadaist Images in 19th Century Prints: William Rimmer's Artistic Anatomy, 1877

The Preservation of Art Works by Children

From Ptak Science Books:

I think that I can safely say that artwork by children does not make very many appearances in Western art prior to the 20th century. Nor do the originals--considering the ephemeral nature of the effort at art by children, their work just don't seem to survive. Some of that reason--particularly in America--was the scarcity of materials for kids to produce art with: paper was not inexpensive, and neither brushes and paints. Crayons, invented for chubby and reachy fingers, were not invented for the mass market until 1903. (Crayola sold eight crayons in a box for a nickel. The colors? Black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green.)

Then of course the artwork would have to be saved, somehow, for generations. As much as it would be fascinating to find artwork done at age 4 by your great-great grandparents, it would have to survive the cleansing tendencies of four generations of clean-up. End result: there's just not that much antiquarian chldrens' art floating around.

It also doesn't appear as art in artwork. It is possible to find numerous examples of kids' scratches in stone and such in ancient graffiti, but it doesn't appear as elements of fine artwork, or, for that matter, in book illustration.

There is an example however in Thomas Truman's The Nurse's Rhyme Book, a New Collection of Nursery Rhymes, published in Philadelphia in 1847. The book is filled with unusual illustrations and fantastic ornamental borders, all used in support of some odd, scary, mean and occasionally pretty mid-century posies meant as night-time entertainment for the young ones. Our prize is found on the very last page, the final slug of an illustration to a more-finely illustrated book: a coy, small boy, holding an example of his art, seemingly drawn on a framed slate. He looks happy, pleased, proud to me--on the one hand he is interested in sharing his achievement and on the other is really too shy to share, an emotion I've seen from time to time with my girls.

As a matter of semi-fact, this is a rare emotion to see displayed in art, the too-shy-to-share routine saved more for fluttery self-conscious Victorian grown-ups more so than for children..

link: Ptak Science Books: Missing Images in Art: Depictions of Art by Children

Where's the Bacon? Eco-Atkins Diet

Journalists traditionally like to show "two sides" of the story, even if, as is the case with climate science, one side is fringe, and the result is a confused, angry public. This need for journalistic "balance" has helped develop the equally absurd dichotomy of vegetarian versus meat eater. From which, comes the pale, thin vegetarian, versus the fat meat-eater. Then came the Atkins low carb diet, offering nothing for the overweight vegetarian (yes, they exist), and requiring the awful trade-off of waste-line versus carbon footprint. For me, that left Ben Franklin's dictum, 'everything in moderation,' sounding like the most sensible way forward. TreeHugger does like to stir the pot, however. Adding "Eco-Atkins" to the lifestyle sandwich sounds like more fun than a TV cable talk show. Falafel on, then.

link: ‘Eco-Atkins’ Diet Lowers Weight, Cholesterol Level, & Carbon Footprint : TreeHugger

Repellent Firm? Very!

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Sri Lankan court threatened a mosquito repellent factory manager with six months in jail for failing to destroy mosquito breeding areas on company premises to stop the spread of dengue fever, an official said Tuesday.

The Indian Ocean island nation is battling an outbreak of the mosquito-borne viral infection that has killed more than 150 people this year and infected 13,479 people, according to Health Ministry figures.

link: Mosquito repellent firm in dock for mosquito breeding | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Global Digital Elevation Map

The most complete terrain map of the Earth's surface has been published.

The data, comprising 1.3 million images, come from a collaboration between the US space agency Nasa and the Japanese trade ministry.

The images were taken by Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) aboard the Terra satellite.

The resulting Global Digital Elevation Map covers 99% of the Earth's surface, and will be free to download and use.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Most complete Earth map published

Honduras: You Can't Go Home Again

The newly appointed president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, is warning that if ousted president Manuel Zelaya attempts to return here, he will be immediately arrested and sent to prison.

link: New Honduran President Warns Former Leader of Arrest - washingtonpost.com

Recognition for Ahmadinejad's Victory

According to Ahmadinejad’s website, as of today the following 35 countries have recognized him as the winner of the election:

-India -Tunisia -Malaysia -Lebanon -North Korea -Kuwait -Nicaragua -Comoros -Cambodia -Senegal -Cuba -Belarus -Sudan -Syria -Libya -Algeria -Turkmenistan -Iraq -Kazakhstan -Indonesia -Bahrain -Yemen -Sri Lanka -Ecuador -Russia -Azerbaijan -Qatar -Tajikistan -Armenia -Oman -Turkey -Afghanistan -Pakistan -China -Venezuela

link: niacINsight

Iran: Conditions for Arrrested Protestors

Evin Prison – A Student’s Firsthand Account

“Reza,” a university student who was arrested and detained at Evin Prison, provided a firsthand account of his ordeal via twitter. (Independent confirmation is not available.)

Reza estimated around 200 people were in each room and there were not enough space to even sit on the ground. There was also an awful problem of only one toilet for all people in there and a impossible time limit of around 1 minute for each person. They didn’t open the plastic handcuffs for a day and half, and they randomly beat up people. Reza said the only exception was they didn’t hit arrested people directly in the face. He said in the second day some pain cloth people came with papers forcing people to sign them. The papers were prewritten confessions all in different handwritings saying the signer is a member of a pro-Mousavi organization

link: niacINsight

That Fish Is Actually A Genius: The Aesthetics of Conservation

David A. Fehrenthold writes:

The furry, the feathered, the famous and the edible have dominated government funding for protected species, to the point that one subpopulation of threatened salmon gets more money than 956 other plants and animals combined.

Now, though, scientists say they're noticing a little more love for the unlovely.

They say plain-Jane plants, birds with fluorescent goiters and beetles that meet their mates at rat corpses are getting new money and respect -- finally valued as homely canaries inside treasured ecosystems.

But it still can be a hard sell. That's obvious here in California's Central Valley, where farmers are locked in a bitter fight with a glassy-eyed smelt.

"Over a stupid fish," said Mendota Mayor Robert Silva.

link: Saving Species No Longer About the Prettiest - washingtonpost.com

Revenge of the Geezers

“A group of well-to-do pensioners who lost their savings in the credit crunch staged an arthritic revenge attack and held their terrified financial adviser to ransom,” Roger Boyes reported from Germany for The Times of London.

The alleged kidnapping is the latest example of what is being dubbed “silver crime” – the violent backlash of pensioners who feel cheated by the world.

link: Silver Crime - Schott’s Vocab Blog - NYTimes.com

Iraqis Celebrate the Departure of Their "Liberators"

Iraq declared a public holiday Tuesday to celebrate the official withdrawal of American troops from the country’s cities and towns, emptying the streets as many people stayed home because they feared violence.

link: U.S. Pullout From Iraqi Cities Marked by Holiday - NYTimes.com

Child Survives Airplane Crash

At first, Comoros officials said there were no signs of survivors among the dead bodies floating in the choppy waters. But then rescuers found the young child.

Cox said it reminded him of the 1987 crash of Northwest Flight 255 in Detroit, Michigan in which only a 4-year-old girl survived, while 156 others died.

"This has come up before and it's where the toddler was seated (during the impact) that allowed them to survive," he said.

"It's a miracle and I'm glad ... the toddler is safe. I'm just saddened for the loss of everybody else," he added.

link: Child found alive after plane crashes in sea - CNN.com

Book Review: This is Your Brain on Feng Shui

Say you are living in less than optimal surroundings. Your upstairs neighbor routinely rearranges furniture at midnight. The dog next door is bored and lonely and loud. His owner snarls as you pass by. Your living room is the wrong shape, the windows are in the wrong place, and the paint color that seemed so creatively chic five years ago is getting on your last nerve.

Then you move. And as you bask in silence and symmetry, with pleasant neighbors, a soaring view and soothing white walls, you feel something in your brain click on. Or does it click off? Either way, you feel very good. What is doing the clicking, and why?

These are the deceptively simple questions Esther Sternberg tries to answer in “Healing Spaces,” an exploration of environmental influences over the brain, the body and (all due respect to your new living situation, but there are more important issues at hand) the course of mental and physical disease.

link: Books - The Puzzle of Spaces That Soothe - Review - NYTimes.com