NEW YORK (Reuters) - A piece of landing gear believed to be from one of the commercial airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, has been discovered, wedged between two lower Manhattan buildings, police said on Friday.
The piece of landing gear found in a narrow alleyway behind 51 Park Place and 50 Murray Street in Manhattan's financial district includes a "clearly visible" Boeing identification number, New York City Police spokesman Paul Browne said.
Browne said the discovery was made on Wednesday by a construction crew inspecting the rear of the Park Place building. The location is the site of an Islamic prayer space and community center that opened amid controversy in the fall of 2011, two blocks from Ground Zero.
The piece of landing gear, wedged one story above ground, is about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide (0.9 meter).
Police have secured the area between the buildings and are treating it as a potential crime scene, said Browne.
Nearly 12 years after two commercial airliners smashed into the two Manhattan skyscrapers, destroying them and killing nearly 3,000 people, city officials continue to turn up debris from the attack and identify human remains.
It will be up to the New York City medical examiner's office to determine whether to sift the soil around the site where the landing gear was found for more evidence.
This month the medical examiner's office said 39 possible human remains were discovered in 9/11 debris hauled years ago to the New York City borough of Staten Island, according to CBS News.
Since 2006, the painstaking work has led to 34 new positive identifications of victims.
(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Paul Thomasch, James Dalgleish and Kenneth Barry)
So I'm kind of known in the Multiverse OOC chat room for making actual semi-professional looking maps. I've recently been looking into new project ideas and with no restrictions on what I should make from people commissioning the work, I've been able to just do whatever I want and create some pretty creatively designed maps. My current project is a crescent moon shaped tropical island with realistic looking geography.
Here's a snap shot of a tropical jungle forest brush that I created in Photoshop CS6 Extended.
This is a snap shot after a couple tweaks to the forest brush above in combination with my new mountain style. I think the combination of the two work really well with one another.
I'll be posting updates when I can to show everyone snap shots of the map. My goal with the project is to learn some new styling techniques on how to do the geography so I can have more professional looking maps and maybe a cool look that people would actually want to spend money to have.
There is no race quite like the Baja 1000, and there is no better place to pay tribute to the legendary event like the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Next weekend, they?ll do just that with a trip down memory lane to celebrate the race that started with two motorcycles and turned into one of the most grueling competitions in motorsport.
Launched in 1962, with Honda eager to prove the mettle of their new CL72 Scrambler, drivers Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson blasted down the coast of Baja California and ended in La Paz. Ekins completed the 952.7-mile run in 39 hours and 56 minutes. Five years later, the first official NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally took place and media coverage brought the intense desert race into the magazines and televisions of fans all over the world. The rest is history, and it will all be on display at the Petersen on Saturday, May 4.
Today, the event includes more than 20 classes of trucks and buggies, plus about a dozen classes of motorcycles and ATVs. Overall winners in the past have included almost all major manufacturers, from the dominance of Ford and Chevrolet in recent years to an incredible nine wins from 1973-85 for Volkswagen, and even a couple of victories for Toyota sprinkled in there.
But it all comes back to Honda, the originators, and presenters of the Braving Baja: 1000 Miles to Glory event. The original CL72 Scrambler will be on display, alongsidethe Harley Davidson Baja 100 that won the 100cc class in 1971, the 1970 winning Miller Havens Volkswagen and a replica of the famous ?Big Oly? Ford Bronco that racing icon Parnelli Jones took to victory in 1971. Owners of Baja racers are encouraged to bring their own rides to the show, as well. For more information, click here to visit the official Braving Baja: 1000 Miles to Glory page.
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Visit the?autoMedia.com?Honda Research Center?for quick access to reviews, pricing, photos, mpg and more. Make sure to follow?autoMedia.com?on?Twitter?and?Facebook.
If you're a fan of Kate McKinnon's impression of Ellen DeGeneres on Saturday Night Live -- and boy, is it spot on! -- then you'll love this. On yesterday's Ellen, McKinnon gamely accepted DeGeneres' offer to impersonate her right there on the show. Watch below, as the jaunty pair squirm in their seats and dance through the audience together:
Computer scientists suggest new spin on origins of evolvabilityPublic release date: 26-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala zenaida.kotala@ucf.edu 407-823-6120 University of Central Florida
Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase.
In a paper published this week in PLOS ONE, the researchers report that evolvability can increase over generations regardless of whether species are competing for food, habitat or other factors.
Using a simulated model they designed to mimic how organisms evolve, the researchers saw increasing evolvability even without competitive pressure.
"The explanation is that evolvable organisms separate themselves naturally from less evolvable organisms over time simply by becoming increasingly diverse," said Kenneth O. Stanley, an associate professor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. He co-wrote the paper about the study along with lead author Joel Lehman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.
The finding could have implications for the origins of evolvability in many species.
"When new species appear in the future, they are most likely descendants of those that were evolvable in the past," Lehman said. "The result is that evolvable species accumulate over time even without selective pressure."
During the simulations, the team's simulated organisms became more evolvable without any pressure from other organisms out-competing them. The simulations were based on a conceptual algorithm.
"The algorithms used for the simulations are abstractly based on how organisms are evolved, but not on any particular real-life organism," explained Lehman.
The team's hypothesis is unique and is in contrast to most popular theories for why evolvability increases.
"An important implication of this result is that traditional selective and adaptive explanations for phenomena such as increasing evolvability deserve more scrutiny and may turn out unnecessary in some cases," Stanley said.
Stanley is an associate professor at UCF. He has a bachelor's of science in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He has over 70 publications in competitive venues and has secured grants worth more than $1 million. His works in artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation have been cited more than 4,000 times.
Lehman has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in computer science from UCF. He continues his research at the University of Texas at Austin and is teaching an undergraduate course in artificial intelligence.
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50 Years of Achievement: The University of Central Florida, the nation's second-largest university with nearly 60,000 students, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2013. UCF has grown in size, quality, diversity and reputation, and today the university offers more than 200 degree programs at its main campus in Orlando and more than a dozen other locations. Known as America's leading partnership university, UCF is an economic engine attracting and supporting industries vital to the region's success now and into the future. For more information, visit http://today.ucf.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Computer scientists suggest new spin on origins of evolvabilityPublic release date: 26-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala zenaida.kotala@ucf.edu 407-823-6120 University of Central Florida
Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase.
In a paper published this week in PLOS ONE, the researchers report that evolvability can increase over generations regardless of whether species are competing for food, habitat or other factors.
Using a simulated model they designed to mimic how organisms evolve, the researchers saw increasing evolvability even without competitive pressure.
"The explanation is that evolvable organisms separate themselves naturally from less evolvable organisms over time simply by becoming increasingly diverse," said Kenneth O. Stanley, an associate professor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. He co-wrote the paper about the study along with lead author Joel Lehman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.
The finding could have implications for the origins of evolvability in many species.
"When new species appear in the future, they are most likely descendants of those that were evolvable in the past," Lehman said. "The result is that evolvable species accumulate over time even without selective pressure."
During the simulations, the team's simulated organisms became more evolvable without any pressure from other organisms out-competing them. The simulations were based on a conceptual algorithm.
"The algorithms used for the simulations are abstractly based on how organisms are evolved, but not on any particular real-life organism," explained Lehman.
The team's hypothesis is unique and is in contrast to most popular theories for why evolvability increases.
"An important implication of this result is that traditional selective and adaptive explanations for phenomena such as increasing evolvability deserve more scrutiny and may turn out unnecessary in some cases," Stanley said.
Stanley is an associate professor at UCF. He has a bachelor's of science in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He has over 70 publications in competitive venues and has secured grants worth more than $1 million. His works in artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation have been cited more than 4,000 times.
Lehman has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in computer science from UCF. He continues his research at the University of Texas at Austin and is teaching an undergraduate course in artificial intelligence.
###
50 Years of Achievement: The University of Central Florida, the nation's second-largest university with nearly 60,000 students, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2013. UCF has grown in size, quality, diversity and reputation, and today the university offers more than 200 degree programs at its main campus in Orlando and more than a dozen other locations. Known as America's leading partnership university, UCF is an economic engine attracting and supporting industries vital to the region's success now and into the future. For more information, visit http://today.ucf.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
THURSDAY, April 25 (HealthDay News) ? A hormone that could lead to more effective diabetes treatment has been identified by researchers.
The hormone, called betatrophin, causes mice to produce insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells at up to 30 times the normal rate. But it only produces insulin when the body needs it, according to the team at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
The researchers said their findings offer the potential for the natural regulation of insulin and a significant reduction in diabetes-related complications such as blindness and limb amputation.
The study is published in the April 25 online edition of the journal Cell and in its May 9 print issue.
Although the hormone shows promise in lab mice, much more work is needed before it could be considered as a treatment for diabetes in humans, the researchers noted. Results obtained in animal experiments often aren?t attainable in trials with humans.
?If this could be used in people, it could eventually mean that instead of taking insulin injections three times a day, you might take an injection of this hormone once a week or once a month, or in the best case maybe even once a year,? Doug Melton, co-director of the institute and co-chair of Harvard University?s department of stem cell and regenerative biology, said in a university news release.
About 26 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, which causes people to slowly lose beta cells and the ability to produce sufficient amounts of insulin.
?Our idea here is relatively simple,? Melton said. ?We would provide this hormone, the type 2 diabetic will make more of their own insulin-producing cells, and this will slow down, if not stop, the progression of their diabetes. I?ve never seen any treatment that causes such an enormous leap in beta cell replication.?
Along with its potential for treating type 2 diabetes, betatrophin might also have a role in treating type 1 diabetes, Melton said.
Unlike type 2 diabetes, which is associated with being overweight and sedentary, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that occurs most often in children and young adults.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about diabetes.
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Public release date: 26-Apr-2013
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